"There it is, ho sweet ho." Serana voices blandly.
"Bigger than I expected" I note idly as I observe the dozens of tall towers, many of them in ruins, looming over a veritable fortress island "And also far more disgusting" I add with a mildly offended sniff.
Quickly catching my aning she asks "How so?"
I cup my chin and narrow my eyes "Think of sohow turning unbridled cruelty and decadence into a color and have it virtually bursting from atop the entire structure." And that was the best way I could put what I was seeing into words, the aura of the place was genuinely disgusting to look upon, the echoes of everyone ever tornted within scraping at the edge of my senses.
Honestly, if not for my strength and experience I'd be scared shitless right about now.
"Oh..." Serana cringes lightly.
But I tap her shoulder and draw her attention before she can go down that particular thought spiral "No point thinking about it now, we are here to stop it after all."
She exhales slowly and nods "Yes. Yes, we are."
"Speaking of, how do you plan to sneak us in?" I ask the important question.
She looks around for a mont before noticing sothing "There is an old enchanted boat here that can only be used by soone from the castle. They don't usually check on it as most either stay in the castle permanently or use magic to leave."
"But there is a detection system, no?" I ask firmly.
She thinks for a mont and nods "Yes, but you assured that that would not be a problem."
"rely making sure" I assure her and summon my new shroud, barely even feeling it as the powerful artifact covers in its nearly imperceptible entirety. With a satisfied smile I point my hand toward the rickety boat "Lead the way, my lady."
The revolting aura beca all that much stronger as we passed the threshold of the mist surrounding the castle, a part of wanted to just turn my perception down to a minimum but that would make far more vulnerable and was definitely not worth doing in the na of re comfort.
Our offensively low class transport floated next to the small dock with nary a sound and upon reaching a certain point simply stopped, moving back toward the mainland shore the mont we stepped off.
My eyes imdiately narrowed as I noticed the dozen or so gargoyle statues hanging off a nearby lookout tower "How charming."
"You can sightsee when we are not in the open" Serana hisses and tugs my arm and quickly leads us to an outcropping of rock to the castle's west, letting out a sigh of relief as we finally find so cover.
I take a thorough peek around our position and point my thumb toward a stone structure connected to the sea "That the supply entrance you ntioned?"
"Yes, it has been out of use for so ti so there shouldn't be that many guards there." "Right. Anything I should avoid?"
"Try avoiding any flashier spells." She decides after a mont "There is no guarantee that they will get us spotted but we best err on the side of caution."
I try not to pout and fail utterly, earning myself an exasperated stare from the vampire lady "Fine" I sigh "No blowing the castle half to bits."
"You can do that once we are ready to leave." She permits with so amusent.
"You couldn't stop even if you tried." I smirk and flick the Ebony Blade into my hand "But first we need to actually get in."
The stone supply dock was watched over by a pair of short walls carved into the side of the cave that housed it, so thrall archers and a pair of very bored vampires stood watch, or at least pretended to as not one of them expected an actual attack in this godsforsaken place.
With a simple application of telekinesis I quickly scaled the southern wall without making a single sound, appearing behind one of the thralls and slitting his throat before he could even panic. Three more fell before I was spotted, a slightly misaligned stab leading into one of the thralls screaming out in pain.
But it was far too late for the vampires' mortal servants as I was already right next to them before they could even draw their bows, my dagger sucking out their lifeforce so quickly a couple of them were partially turned into dust before I could pull the strike back.
One of the vampires attempted to use the death of his servants as a distraction and jump from behind but without even turning around I summoned a group of my shades and had a trio of them block the heavy overhead sword swipe together while another group held him in place for but a brief mont.
More than enough ti for to flick my free hand toward him and summon Blasphemy, killing him in an instant.
Casting my gaze to the other side of the wall I could see that Serana was no less successful, as the entirety of the wall was covered in fine chunks of flesh and she was just about done draining the other vampire to their true death.
Without pausing we enter the lower castle, the nurous undead hounds within ignoring us completely as they saw Serana as one of their masters and were unable to detect at all.
As we stalked through the mostly empty corridors a terrible sll assaulted our senses, the light clanking of bone quickly reminding of what we were about to find.
As we passed another empty corner we were greeted by a large chamber filled to the brim with a veritable mountain still bloody bones, traces of yet undevoured flesh being quickly stripped off said bone by a group of feral vampires, many of them not even bothering with clothes and looking more like humanoid bats than actual people.
I shared a disgusted look with Serana before channeling all my burgeoning fury into an illusion spell and directing it toward the ferals, which turned out to be overkill as it took only the slightest nudge for the mindless beasts to fall upon each other over their competition for
food.
Only one survived the ensuing slaughter, and I rid the world of its filth with a silent blade of wind, severing the vile creature in twain.
We remained silent as we ascended further, only speaking when Serana instructed on how best to avoid certain traps and which paths to follow. I took great pleasure in ending whichever creature had the audacity to stand in our path after what I had seen, though I still made sure not a sound was made.
After close to an hour of trudging through Harkon's rotten halls I finally felt the sll of fresh air and as Serana pulled yet another hidden chain and the thin stone wall before us lowered to reveal a beautiful if sowhat overgrown garden, the sll of the no doubt highly poisonous flowers removing the stench of flesh and rot almost entirely.
I took a deep, liberating breath, absent mindedly noting that my anti-poison ring was activated when I did so, and then, with a serene smile, started cursing all possible generations of Harkon's family.
A good minute of the vilest insults on both Nirn and Earth later a very amused Serana asked "Are you quite finished?"
"Yes, thank you." I nod and smile serenely like I didn't just offend her entire family line. A mont later the smile was replaced with a deep frown "I knew the place was going to suck
but not to this extent."
She looks away, hiding a slight wince "It never got this bad before..."
I give her a deadpan look "Any level of it is just as bad, don't try and defend it."
"I wasn't going to." She huffs, mildly annoyed.
"Well excuuuse princess." I let so of my disgust leak into my voice "I just didn't expect that even a monster such as Harkon would just make a charnel house under his own ho. You'd think a noble would have so standards but no, let us just behave like complete and utter beasts, because fuck principles!" I scoff "So much for the proud Volkihar."
She palms her face and sighs "I do not disagree, but are you quite done venting yet? We do
have a job to do."
Catching myself, I exhale and allow my frustration to leave "Yeah, fine. I sense so kind of chanism under the sundial looking thing in the center there so we should start from that." I point at the stone construct jutting out from the middle of the garden.
"The moon dial." Serana mutters and starts looking it over "My mother made it a project of
hers to make sothing that would show ti at night just to see if she could. It ended up being far more complex than we ever expected but when the garden was still clear and the moonlight fell just right it made for a beautiful sight."
"I can picture it" I offer genuinely "Then again an immortal without a hobby is a dull thing."
"Very" Serana smiles wryly "Most vampires usually end up as stagnant caricatures but not my mother. She always found sothing new to do and still kept up with her earlier projects... Just imagine a garden tended to for centuries by a true master." Her smile turns wistful at the
mory.
I allow her to reminisce for a brief mont before pointing at the dial "So parts appear to be missing, you think it was on purpose?"
"It would not surprise ." She sends a quick glance toward the ruined southern entrance "Considering how well she knew my father she must have expected him to bar any mory of her... I don't think even she expected him to do it quite so literally."
"Fucking thousands of years old and still throwing tantrums" I snort and wave her on "Co on, those missing pieces won't find themselves."
We take our ti searching for the missing pieces, mostly as a way to take a break as we knew
that no one was going to go behind Harkon's back and actually check on the garden, and as the sun is slowly replaced by the moons we slot the circular tablets into their intended spots and watch with interest as the dial retracts into a circular stairwell leading into yet another
passage.
"I swear to Azura, your mother must have gotten off on the idea of secret passages." I deadpan, and ignoring Serana's indignant glare step into the darkness once again. Thankfully the air within is not tainted with a thousand dead so I do not feel rushed in my exploration, slowly examining the dusted halls and looting them for all they were worth.
I did have to promise Serana that I'd give her most of the value though, simply stealing it in front of her was not going to fly no matter the excuse.
We had to slow down sowhat as she was forced to manually deactivate each and every gargoyle we passed due to all of them being personalized and carrying her mother's mark. Why did we not simply destroy them? One might ask themselves.
Simple really, why destroy what you can repurpose?
After a slow descent we began to climb upwards, my sight quickly informing that we were
ascending one of the less damaged towers to the castle's north. The halls beca smaller the higher up we got but far more opulent, with traces of multiple forms of workshops, anything from alchemy to ritualism to carpentry, it could be found up here.
And then we stepped into her actual study and I almost started looting the place then and
there, only stopped by Serana's knowing look and threatening smile.
Damn you private property!
To all of you wise enough to pay the troll toll
the next installnt is here.
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