Leaving the leaders of the Dawnguard at their table, Kaius moved to the far side of the hall to his own table. The entire dining hall had enough space and enough tables and chairs to host the entire Order if it so required, but in one of the far corners, in a disused storage room lay a single table all on its own. It was known by several names, most of which were derogatory, and it was purposefully set aside where he, Sofia, Lydia and Serana could sit for their meals without causing too much disruption. After the first week or so of ‘incidents’ involving members of the Dawnguard, they were happy to have a space for themselves, and after Serana arrived she too naturally gravitated to it.
Among other things, Serana had developed the habit of occupying a position on the table with a small collection of books, quietly reading her way through the accumulated histories of the past three Eras. She spent most of her days wandering about the fortress, ‘moping’ as Sofia had described it, but had slowly begun spending more of her time in the dining hall reading. No one had really had much to do with her since her arrival at the fortress, but as the only two vampires with the Dawnguard she and Kaius would frequently spend their free time together. Most days they simply chatted, but it was obvious that she was preferring the comfort of his company, especially as his presence ensured that she was treated well by the hunters.
Sparing her a glance, Kaius took his own seat before shifting the small pile of papers that he had scattered about on its surface. An inkwell and quill had been put to good use over the previous hours as he had been taking copious notes on several of the sheets, but there was a single letter that he had been poring over since it had arrived the previous day. So far it had been the the subject of his attention for several hours, and had been the cause of a dozen sheets of paper becoming host to an ever increasing series of equations and calculations.
Sitting in silence, Serana busy reading, and Kaius busy with the letter, they sat together, taking small measures of comfort in each other’s company. Right up until Sofia appeared and promptly flopped herself around him with a bottle of mead in one hand.
“Heeeyyyy Kaius. Hey Serana.” She giggled at them both, bending over at the waist and peering over Kaius’s shoulder. “Whatcha up to.”
“Reading.” Serana wasn’t alone in being uncertain how to deal or interact with Sofia at the best of times, especially during those times where Sofia had consumed enough alcohol to knock out a giant.
“Going over a letter from Delphine.” Shrugging Sofia’s weight away from his writing arm, Kaius carefully put the quill down next to the ink pot and ensured that the wax stopper was secure.
“Oooooh… Secret Blade stuff, eh?”
“Yes. She and Esbern have had success in tracking down the Dragon Scroll.”
“Really? What sort of success?”
“I’m not sure yet.” He sighed and tried to ignore the way that both of Sofia’s arms were dangling over his shoulders, one hand idly tracing patterns over his steel breastplate while rattling her fingernails over the metal. “I’m still trying to decode the message.”
Sofia’s weight shifted again and she leaned forward to see the scribbling notes that he had made over the other sheets of paper. The calculations looked enough to give her a headache even without understanding them.
“Looks difficult.”
“If it was easy then the Dominion would be able to read any of our messages they might intercept.”
“But didn’t the Dominion kill all the Blades? Doesn’t that mean they know your codes and tricks?”
“Well… yes and no. The Order was destroyed during the war and the survivors disbanded or merged into other Imperial institutions. A lot, like Delphine, went into hiding. The Dominion definitely learned how to read most of the major codes, but there are those they either didn’t, or couldn’t break. This one for example is unbreakable but it takes a lot of preparation on the part of both individuals before any messages can be sent. Both of the individuals in question have to not only mutually decide on a specific number but remember the day that they chose the number. Those two numbers are then utilised for the series of calculations as each letter is a different equation. Only by getting the correct answer can you discover which letter or word on the coded message is the next in the sequence.”
“So how long will it take to translate?”
“I’ve been at it for… five hours now and I have managed to translate ‘E, Successful in finding Dragonrend. Meet at’. ‘E’ obviously means Esbern, and I’m now trying to work out where they want us to meet.”
“Yep. Sounds like a lot of fun Kaius.” Twisting around, Sofia pulled his shoulders back while flopping herself onto his lap, face to face, and between him and his notetaking. “I have a question.”
Her arms were still around him, but hanging loosely and the bottle of mead swished next to his head alarmingly for a moment before she raised it to her lips. “You could say that you have my undivided attention.”
The hesitation was obvious and she went to open her mouth to speak, stopped, took another mouthful of the mead and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand.
“Why haven’t we slept together?”
“Uh… what do you mean?” Whatever Kaius was expecting, this question wasn’t one of them and he obviously froze.
“Slept together, Kaius. As in, bumped uglies. Horizontally danced. Rolled in the hay. Done ye’old rough-and-tumble. You know… Fucked.”
“You’re drunk.”
“And you’re sexy.” The high pitched, childish giggle was loud enough to draw the attention of some nearby hunters, but Sofia paid them no heed. “You know how much I needed to drink just to say that out loud? I don’t really know myself but it was a lot.”
“It... It hasn’t occurred to me.”
“Bull… Shit…” The bottle rapped against his chest as she leant back in his lap. “I’ve seen the way you look at me. Hells, I’ve seen the way you look at Lydia and plenty of other women before. I’ve even seen you stealing glances at this one.”
Serana’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates as Sofia leaned back and widely gestured in her direction with a swing of an arm. For those few seconds before she regained control over her emotions, neither Kaius or Sofia were sure whether Serana was shocked, embarrassed or alarmed.
“So what is it, eh? I know there is nothing wrong with you or it.” There was no doubt how Sofia was pointing at his groin with the bottle despite the way she was swaying. “We’ve been together for a year and a half now, and I’ve seen enough to know that all those burns and scars of yours haven’t affected what matters.”
“Sofia, you need to…”
“What? Stop?” As slowly and as carefully as she could with how drunk she was, Sofia had begun grinding herself on his lap. “Just answer the question. Why haven’t we fucked each other’s brains out? I have never met a man in my entire life who didn’t want me from the moment that he laid eyes on me, and yet here you are, all stoic and calm and able to face dragons and vampires and daedra without batting an eye. Yet, you’re still reacting to little old me…”
Without warning Kaius’ hands reached up and gripped Sofia by the waist, stopping her movements and the way she was grinding on him. A cold chill passed through her as she found herself unable to move and she knew that if she wasn’t wearing her chainmail that his fingers would have left bruises.
“Don’t. It’s not that I don’t want to… It’s just…”
“Just what Kaius?”
The silence that fell was obvious and for the first time since they had met he actually appeared nervous. Something within Sofia’s mind clicked even through the alcoholic haze.
“There’s someone else.”
“Yes... No. In a way...” Very, very carefully he released his grip on his hips and lifted her arms from his shoulders. “What am I Sofia?”
“Fucking hot.” The words practically purred their way from between Sofia’s lips.
“No. What am I, really?”
“A vampire.”
“Yes. And what does that mean?”
“Don’t ask big questions like that.” Scrunching her face with effort she looked into his eyes and shrugged, spilling some of the mead on herself before taking another mouthful. “They hurt my brain.”
“It means that I am immortal.” The word immortal cut through the drunken parts of her brain and left her wincing. “Unless I am killed by a dragon, someone like Isran, a daedra, or until the ending of the world, I will live forever. Everyone else I have and will ever know, will wither and die and pass into my memories.”
“So you’re saying that you can’t relax, unwind and fuck me, because one day I’ll be dead, and you won’t?” The bottle shook itself under his chin and he brushed the hand away. “We all die, Kaius, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t relax from time to time. If anything, you need to do it more!”
“You sound like Viconia.”
“Who’s Viconia?”
“My wife.”
Painful, awkward silence fell and she sat still, looking into his eyes even as he looked everywhere but into her own.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.”
“Well, I should’ve expected that you were married, being immortal and all. Where is she?”
“A long way away.”
“Then what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”
The grip that materialised on her hand holding the bottle of mead as she tried to put it to Kaius’ lips was stronger than skyforge steel and she whimpered at the sudden and unexpected pressure. It only lasted for a second before it was gone and she sat up straight again, seeing the darkened expression on his face.
“I just went too far didn’t I?”
Her own expression was different and must have shown the building horror of realisation that she had upset him but she was relieved when he laughed slightly.
“A little but it’s okay.”
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“I’ve just made a complete idiot of myself.”
“Nice to see that you don’t change.”
“I am an expert in everything, but I’m exceptional at making a complete arse of myself.” She slapped his shoulder playfully and stood up, before straddling the bench instead of his lap. Seeing the far away expression on his face she leaned forward very slightly. “What’s she like?”
“Tough and the sort of person that when you first meet her comes across as the most dangerous and vicious woman you’ll ever know. Underneath it all she is actually the most caring, loving person I have ever known but mind you, if you make her angry it'll be the last thing you do. Earn her respect and… love and she will break the world for you. She doesn’t smile much, but when she does…” For a moment a deep longing crossed over Kaius’s face and he sighed. “The whole world lights up and grows a little bit brighter.”
“When was the last time you saw her?” Asked Serana, her voice barely above a whisper and both Kaius and Sofia looked up to see Serana sitting there quietly, keeping her own emotions carefully hidden.
“Three years and eight months.” He scratched at his jaw in slight embarrassment at the precise number and how easily it had come to mind. “At this rate it will be just as long, if not longer before I get to see her again.”
Somehow sensing the unhappy territory they had entered through her drunkenness, Sofia struggled to beat her brain into thinking clearly.
“Do you have children?”
“We had children. They… they died. During the Great War.”
The silence that fell this time was all encompassing, and Sofia was left with an expression that perfectly highlighted the way that she was internally vocalising the word ‘fuck’ as loud as she could.
“I’m sorry.” Even through her drunkenness, Sofia could feel a million questions churning about through her mind, being overwhelmed by her rising embarrassment and sympathy for the man who she had travelled alongside for a year and a half.
“Don’t worry about it.”
In her attempt to stand up as carefully as she could despite her drunkenness, Sofia managed to somehow extricate herself while only slightly jostling the table. Leaving herself rubbing at a knee that had rattled the table's contents, she gave Kaius her best smile while trying to hide the pain she was feeling. Both the physical and the mental.
“I’m… going to go… Before I put my foot any further down my throat, or fuck things up any more than I already have.”
“You haven’t fucked up Sofia.” For the briefest of moments Kaius’s arms wrapped around Sofia’s waist and she felt the unnatural strength in them as he gave her a comforting embrace. “Don’t stress yourself out too much.”
“Me? Stress out? Surely you have me mixed up with that huskarl of yours.” Despite the lightness of her tone, Sofia couldn’t help but feel shattered inside. What made it worse was the way that she knew that Kaius understood exactly how she was feeling and what she was thinking. “I think I’m going to go find more mead, someone more attractive than you, and then jump the Oblivion out of their bones.”
“Like that young woodsman?” The twinkle in Kaius’ eye was unmistakable despite the memories that he was struggling to suppress.
“Agmaer? Nah. I reckon I’d break the poor bastard.”
Nodding to Kaius and Serana, Sofia quickly finished off the last of her mead, burped and promptly staggered off in a very wobbly line towards the nearest door.
“That was awkward.” Kaius muttered to himself and looked over to Serana who was trying her best not to look anywhere in his direction. “Are you okay?”
“I’m…” She sighed. “That was interesting.”
“It’s not normally like this.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
Hearing the strange inflection in her tone, and the way that Serana’s eyes travelled across the handful of books she had on the table, Kaius tilted his head towards her.
“Four thousand years is a long time. The world changes a lot.”
“Changes?” A laugh was not something that he expected. “I really wouldn’t know any changes even if I saw them. This is the most I have ever been out of the castle, out of my… home. I’m not used to seeing people interact and talk and…”
She gestured to Kaius and in the direction that Sofia had disappeared and Kaius sighed. Even for someone like himself, Sofia had taken a bit to get used to.
“Coming from a family of vampiric nobility, I would expect you had a very… conservative upbringing.”
“That’s one way to put it. I believe the term ‘shut-in’ is also appropriate. Even before my mother took me to Dimhollow the only things I knew about the world was from what I heard in court. Or what I read about. All my life I have only ever heard stories about the world, I’ve never actually seen it.” Her bitterness was almost palatable on the tongue, almost as much as the strange longing coming from within the ancient vampiress. “The world might have changed entirely, or remained the same, and I wouldn’t know the difference.”
The sadness vanished as quickly as it had appeared and she crushed it inside with an iron will. For several moments Kaius sat there quietly, watching as Serana’s attention went back to the book she was reading before reaching for the quill and inkpot. His own thoughts returned to the Underdark and everything he had done in the past two centuries and he could sympathise. So much had changed. So much had remained the same. So much was still yet to come.
“Living through these past two hundred years.” Kaius said simply, too softly even for a vampire to hear as he removed the stopper from the inkpot. “I know exactly how that feels.”
Slowly pacing his way along the ramparts, Lynoit moved carefully, a gloved hand holding a lantern steady at waist height as he and another member of the Order conducted their patrol. The fortress’s ramparts were tall and proud, built into the side of an enormously steep cliff face of Dayspring Canyon and several stories in height and afforded him with considerable views of the surrounding area, but a fortress was only as good as its garrison. In many ways though, Fort Dawnguard had been the perfect place for such an Order to be established and called home, especially how it was practically unassailable outside of a dedicated siege, but the past months had proven that it certainly had its own weaknesses. Lynoit had been one of several who had found themselves with a thick black streak of charcoal marking their throat after Kaius successfully scaled the walls and infiltrated the fortress. They had all learned through bitter experience that a determined individual could get through the defences, but there were a lot of countermeasures in place.
Roving patrols. Random shift timings and numbers of guards. Constantly changing patrol patterns, ensuring that each pair or trio of guards were within sight of others at all times. Normally, against any other adversary the guards would have locked themselves behind murder holes and arrow slits, trusting on the solid protection of the hatches leading into the fortress interior to keep them safe, but that was one of the first assumptions Kaius had proven false. Layers of defences were needed, and that meant guards outside during the night.
At least with winter releasing its grip on the region, the nights were no longer deeply unpleasant. The Rift especially was one of the nicer regions of Skyrim, and clear nights were common with the pale faces of Masser and Secunda illuminating the land in a stark contrast between pitch-black shadows and ghostly grey shapes. Owls hooted off in the distance, wolves could be heard beyond the canyon, and the strange clicking of bats could be heard on occasion as they flitted about in their hunt for insects.
It was calm, peaceful, and almost serene enough that he and the other members of the Dawnguard could relax, but the darkness was deceptive. The night was the home of the creatures their order existed to hunt, and they themselves were little more than prey.
Highly armed and increasingly well trained prey possibly, but still prey. Lynoit had been with the order for a few months now, from the early days of recruits and hunters dying on a weekly basis and he had seen the changes that had come about with the arrival of Kaius and his companions. Training to fight vampires was one thing, but training to fight vampires against an actual vampire was a different story entirely. They had learned more in the past weeks than what they would have if they had somehow managed to survive years against the creatures.
Pace by pace, step by step, pausing at random and looking out over the enormous fortress walls and the handful of other bobbing lanterns held by the other guards, even in the darkest nights, fog, storms and snow they would be able to see one another. The night was calm and peaceful, but it had been a night just as quiet as this when Kaius had appeared out of the darkness and marked his throat with charcoal. The vampiric instructor had folded out of the shadows as though he had been birthed from them, but had also provided useful advice that Lynoit had taken to heart. Vampires were creatures of darkness and of the night. They could conceal and hide, becoming invisible to the naked eye, but they could never hide their true natures. Mortals could sense them without seeing or hearing them, feeling their unnatural presence in their very souls.
It was this sensation that put a momentary pause in his step and that of his companion, as a crawling, prickly sensation of spiders made its way up his spine and they reacted without thought or hesitation. The lantern opened wider, his sword flashed with a grunt of pain and the soft thud of metal into flesh, and it was over before either of them realised what had happened.
Bleeding from an arm that had almost been severed from Lynoit’s blow, the vampire hissed in pain but before Lynoit could finish throwing his pot of powdered silver he found his limbs locked tight, a pressure bearing down into his mind unlike anything he had ever experienced. There had been times when Kaius had burned his vampiric will into the Dawnguard to expose them to the mind-altering powers of his kind, but this was beyond anything he had done. Lynoit’s limbs locked into place like they were suddenly made of unyielding metal, suddenly finding himself unable to blink, yet alone move to defend himself from the other shadows coalescing into existence before him.
“You’re useless Modhna. Harkon obviously keeps you around as the court jester.”
Hissing in pain and threat to the other vampire standing a little behind her, the wounded female backed away, trying to stem the blood and the burning of Lynoit’s silver-plated sword that had left her limb hanging limp and useless. She, like the other vampire, had struck from behind but to Lynoit’s horror they weren’t alone. Muffled scuffles could be heard as the other guards were quickly dispatched by their assailants and even frozen, Lynoit could see that they had all been taken care of in one fell swoop. A dozen hunters, downed in a single moment, and their training apparently being for naught. It was, however, quite telling that the only reason why they had failed so utterly was the sheer number of the creatures that had assaulted them.
“The cattle seem to have horns.” Slithering out of the shadows fully, the burning, glowing eyes of the unwounded vampire bore into Lynoit’s, and he could feel the unnatural power radiating from the creature as it approached him. Terror, horror and disgust was flowing through his limbs and mind, and yet it wasn’t enough to break the vampiric control over him, nor in any way stop the others from sharing a similar fate. “And they resist.”
“They are still cattle, Rargal. They need to be punished for hurting me.”
“Enough. Your ineptitude is what got you hurt. Quiet your tongue or I’ll rip it from your skull.”
Again, the wounded vampire hissed but backed down, cowed by the presence of the other as it stepped even closer to Lynoit. The vampire was monstrously powerful, his flesh tight and corrupted, pale and with the appearance of ancient leather wrapped around twisted, corrupted bones. Barely any trace of humanity was left in the creature and Lynoit tried to fend off the vampire’s burning gaze that had trapped him within his own body, realising with absolute horror that this being was a true vampire ancient, hundreds of years old and unfathomably powerful.
“They trained you well, hunter, but it matters little. We have come for information, tell us what we want to know and we’ll let you live.”
A lie. Lynoit didn’t need his previous months training and the teachings of the Dawnguard’s veterans to tell the vampire was lying through its fangs and he tried to grit his teeth, spit in its face, or remain silent, but its hold over him was too strong.
“We are seeking a very specific vampire. One of our own kind. A female. Daughter to our lord. Dark hair, speaks with an accent. Was carrying an Elder Scroll. Have you or your fellow hunters encountered her?”
The information was there, and doing everything he could and drawing upon every lesson and experience from the previous months Lynoit tried, and failed to hold back the pressure in his skull. This vampire was absurdly powerful, its will honed over centuries and it controlled him like a puppet and forced the words out of his chest.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
This was obviously unexpected to the creature, and the rest within earshot as another pair of vampires fell out of the shadows in shock.
“Where is she now? Does she have the Scroll with her?”
“Lower levels… Prison… ngh… Scroll… The Scroll is… locked… away.”
Only the fact the vampire’s expression had hardened, and it was showing signs of struggling to control him kept Lynoit from collapsing and giving into its will. Even for such a creature, it was having to work hard to maintain its control over him, which gave the tiniest sliver of hope to the hunter.
“Modhna. Go tell the others. Bring the thralls and the hounds.”
“Why me?”
“Because you are a pathetic parasite in our master’s court, who got cut by the cattle. Go before I lose more than just my patience."
Folding into the shadows with an expression of rage at the older member of its kind, Modhna vanished, a muted hiss sliding out between her lips before vanishing from sight. Over a dozen vampires now occupied the battlements, feeding upon, and stripping the armour off the hapless guards who had fallen victim to their numbers and powers. Lynoit was one of the few who remained standing, locked in place by the ancient vampiric Thrallmaster, Rargal, staring into its burning eyes and knowing all too well what was coming.
“Well then. A pity that some of you will be unsuitable for thralls. Perhaps there will be some within this place that can restock our larders.”
Faster than the feverish, panicking beats of Lynoit heart, the vampire’s gnarled, leathery hands lashed out and before he realised what had happened Lynoit died, his head twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees with the sound of someone loudly popping their knuckles. All over the roof several of the other hunters met similar fates at the claws, fangs and talons of their foes, their bodies being drained of blood, left unconscious on the stonework or stripped by the creatures that quickly began dressing themselves in scavenged brigandine and leather. One by one, the dozen creatures moved with a newfound purpose, opening the rooftop hatches and flitting inside the fortress in a tide of darkness.
