I lost track of the minutes and hours passing as we navigated the crypt. We met some opposition, but it was either simple skeletons that blindly shuffled about they rooms or vampires so starved for blood they could scarcely concentrate on defending themselves. Valindor's constant light perspective on the passage kept my fear at bay as we drove deeper into the side of the mountain. After a while, it became like clockwork: dispatch any foes, redress Val's wound, check the alcoves for clues, find the path leading downward, repeat. The mechanical nature of our exploration left us moving silently and efficiently towards whatever these vampires were doing with those soulgems, or so I liked to think.
We crept through rooms filled with empty graves, one in particular half-submerged in knee-deep water. The dead that attempted to rise there crumpled in the currents--their twitching fingers and limbs floated on the surface like dying fish. Val's leg was snared by one emerging hand that he crushed with a brittle snap under the heel of his cudgel.
"All treasures and answers lie at the bottom of places." Derk's advice wound circles inside my head, echoing in a mantra that kept me moving steadily downward. Our path followed a dirty underground stream that expanded from a soft trickle to a deep rumble somewhere to our right. The chambers grew dustier, less inhabited, choked with spider webs that only occasionally held actual spiders.
"I feel like something's waiting for us." Valindor clutched his weapon tightly.
"They probably already know we're here."
Glancing about, I searched for movement in the corners, but found none. In the distance, I heard the faint scuffling of legs as if creatures were avoiding us. As if we'd been marked. The thought made me study Valindor, whose skin was as pale as the surrounding stone. He looked back at me and smiled. I started in horror.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." His grey eyes burned in a seat of clotted red.
"N-nothing. It's nothing," I stammered, "Come on. I hear a waterfall up ahead."
Sure enough, behind a portcullis lay an antechamber where a short fall sent rills of water running under the gate. I found the handle in a nearby cleft in the stone and yanked, dislodging years of algae and rust. My stomach rolled as if filled ice and cramped slightly. With a sigh, I sat on a raised ledge by the water and dug stale cheese and dried meat from my pack--I hadn't realized I was so hungry. Valindor's head swiveled about, watching for danger. At present, there wasn't any.
"Ow!"
The knife I'd been using to divide our rations sliced my finger open. Blood ran out onto the food, and unthinkingly, I sucked on the finger. Awkwardly transferring the items to my other hand, I offered Val his half. "Sorry, I might have bled on it a bit."
He stared at me with an unreadable expression that made me feel unpleasantly, yet wantonly, naked. I shivered uncontrollably as if I were cold, though I wasn't. Breaking eye contact, I stood abruptly, deciding to eat as we walked. "We shouldn't stay here for long. Something might sneak up on us," I said. "Plus, I think we're almost there."
"Almost where?" he murmured distantly.
"Wherever it is I think we're going." I turned a corner and quickly lost sight of him.
Mentally, I counted the rations that we had left, including our supply of water, which I refused to fill in the crypt. We had been in this hole for almost a day, and I could feel sleep pulling at the edges of my mind. I was too afraid to sleep in this place full of the dead, and the Bosmer's progressing illness pushed me onward. Cold ceramic slowly warmed in my palm as I fingered the potion in my pack. I can only hope this works. Please let it work. I don't want another friend to become condemned.
To my immediate right there came a scream of pain, and at last we caught up with the man who had been filling the tunnels with unearthly cries.
"No! I refuse!"
"I do not think you are in a position to refuse anything," said a silky male voice rather mildly.
"Lokil, it's almost time. Brjorl is nearly finished with the braziers," interrupted a another voice, this one female.
"Very good. Let us escort our dear friend, Vigilant Adalvald, to the altar."
"No! I won't go! You will not take me!"
A half-naked bound man struggled to his feet, making as if to run. Lokil, a tall Nord from what I could make out, drew a dagger and snagged the bound man by the arm. His twisted, batlike face pressed into the Vigilant's red beard, and the blade's tip pressed against his captive's neck.
"Do not try me," came the hiss from the vampires mouth.
Adalvald grimaced, his face shattered in despair and I could have sworn he looked up at me. That helpless, yet defiant, gaze rooted me to the spot, freezing my fingers around my bow string. Then, his features shifted into one of righteous victory as he closed his eyes and flung his head to the side. The vampire's dagger sank neatly into his neck and blood flowed profusely from the wound. I clapped my hands over my mouth to cover the cry of horror that threatened to break free.
"No, Joslin. We do not feed yet." The larger Nord's arm easily restrained the hungry Joslin, and the Adalvald's body was tossed unceremoniously to the floor. Two remaining figures surveyed the balcony with its pointed, arched railing of stone and sculptures of strange winged creatures. Their eyes returned to rest on the body, which now lay in a spreading pool of blood.
"Such waste," lamented the Breton, licking her lips anxiously.
"I suppose we must use Brjorl. Fetch him," Lokil drawled.
"Yes, my sire."
As they headed for the stairs leading to an island lit by shafts of pale light, I crept after them, descending from the upper landing where I crouched. My footsteps echoed loudly in the massive cavern.
"What are you doing! They could be back any second!" Valindor hissed, spinning me around to face him.
"It doesn't matter." My face felt tight with restrained emotion. He'd been looking right at me. "I'm going to destroy them one way or another," I spat.
Drawing my sword, I approached Adalvald and turned him over. His expression was one of relief. I thought of the careless approach of the vampires to the Vigilants--as if they were less than pawns. My knuckles turned white as I gripped my sword tightly. They would not survive to see light of day. Yet there was work to be done here first.
I fished around in my pack, searching for something to act as a momento. When my hand closed around something smooth and hard, I withdrew the item, finding a garnet that I collected from one of the shelves littering the crypt. The irony did not escape me as I placed the blood-red jewel at the man's feet. With a grim grin like an Imga, one of the winged sculptures watched, sending chills down my spine. In the flickering torchlight, it appeared to be laughing cruelly at me.
I turned to find Valindor staring at the red pool, already cooling into a dark gel.
"Valindor? Anyone home?" I said, trying, and failing, to sound lighthearted.
"Hm? Yes. I was just thinking," he responded in a far away voice.
"Listen, Val, I think you might be infected with--"
"Who are you to venture so deep into our hollow!" cried Lokil, having returned up the stairs with a dull-eyed and burly Nord, who gazed adoringly at the vampire.
I never gave him time to draw his weapon. Adrenaline surged into my limbs and I threw my sword into the enthralled Nord's chest. He clutched weakly at it and his eyes cleared as he fell.
"Where am I?" he huffed when he hit the ground. I grabbed the hilt of my blade and yanked, trying to free it from the man's body, but found it stuck fast between two ribs.
A heavy whistle swished somewhere near my head, and I ducked. Lokil's swing went wide. Valindor shouted a Bosmeri battlecry, the sound coming out high and thin, as he strung his bow and fired upon Joslin, who was just running up the stairs. A faint splash followed her reverberating footsteps moments later.
With a loud crack, I pried my sword loose and spun in one fluid motion. Gristle and bone met my blade with some resistance, then it flew free. The vampire's head thumped flatly on the stone tiles and rolled several feet where it managed to blink twice before going still. Wiping my blade on his clothes, I nodded to Valindor and together we marched down the steps towards the island ringed by arches.
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