We ran far and fast, that vampire was very strong. The power irradiating from him was enough to make the air around us become heavy, and once he started to freeze the water beneath his feet to walk across the river, releasing a small bit of magika in the process, I felt suffocated, and was almost brought to my knees. I do not know what Capran intended by telling us to leave and having the new girl stay by his side against such a fearsome opponent. If Brennan was by his side I would understand him telling us to go, but I expect her to be more of a hindrance for Lucius in the coming fight.
We ran for the horses as fast as we could, getting to them right before hearing a loud explosion and an enormous flash of light that destroyed part of the Goldenglow estate manor. Maven will get mad at this, but ever since Capran and Ralthos participated in the guild’s affairs, helped them regain their footing in the other holds and exposed their previous leader they have not been dependent of the Black-Briar family. And seeing as Capran never connected any of his business affairs with Maven she wont be able to exert her fury upon anyone important to us.
At noon we were already far from the estate, but Sophia was worried sick. Ralthos had not slept in a three days and Ricard was pretty beaten up from his time with the thalmor officials. Deestan and I were fine, and Julia was already up and about. She is one of the toughest assassins in the brotherhood; an overcharge of magika does not leave a simple wound to treat, she is not the first person I have seen with this kind of ability, and the others all ended up dead, showing their innards completely burned up in the autopsy.
Sophia was begging Julia to return, I felt sorry for her, poor thing was worried sick. I began to feel concerned as well, honestly I never saw anyone with such a powerful spiritual pressure. Granted, maybe Lucius or Brennan could match his spiritual pressure, but they are assassins first and because of this they have learned how to keep their aura hidden from anyone that could possibly detect them through ethereal means, even unconsciously. Because of this it is impossible for us, or anyone really, to be able to determine how powerful the Listener, or the Speaker, really are.
We thought about going back for a while, eventually I offered myself to return, and my lover insisted to accompany me to find out what happened to her adoptive father. While the rest of our group holed up in a cave to rest and treat their wounds we rode back to Goldenglow.
The ride was fairly quick, but when we arrived there was no one there. As we began to look for clues, anything that would help us locate our master. The place was pretty torn up, even more then when we left. The tracks on the ground were fairly standard; none of them gave us any clue about Lucius’s whereabouts, which comforted us, Capran would never leave any tracks if he left the place on his own, and his body was nowhere to be found, so we could be fairly certain that he was alive.
Now that our worries had been put to rest we began to search the place for clues regarding our assailants. Naturally our first choices were the fallen Orc and his thalmor associate, seeing as the Khajiit’s body had been completely incinerated by the Listener’s black flames. We found many documents in their pockets; we found letters, contracts and identifications. Regular papers commonly carried by blade runner bounty hunters, but there was also something else, a letter that seemed to reveal connections to thalmor officials, and pledging allegiance to the Dominion.
We kept those, I’m sure Lucius left in a hurry to avoid being caught up in any investigations so he probably did not come across this information. Seeing as we had no leads to his whereabouts we decided to go back to the camp. By nightfall we were already going through a beautiful orchard of maple trees with falling red and orange leaves that paved a way into the dark and horrible cave we decided to make camp inside.
-So – Julia began to question us at our arrival – what have you found? Is he dead? – She said with a certain air of authority in her voice, but ultimately breaking down a little bit in that last word.
-No, it is all fine, he was not there when we arrived but from the tracks in the place we were able to tell he had already left when the fight was done – said Sophia
-How about the vampire, did you find his corpse? –
-No, but from the spiritual pressure he must have either fled or reached a stalemate in the fight. Either way, my father is alive and we should thank Sithis for allowing him to serve him a while longer –
-Sure child, but believe me when I say this, Capran may be a man to lead a “spiritual” life, but the only things that will save your life in the field are only your skills, your brothers and your sisters. Lucius never prayed to thank his own life, so you should not – Julia said with a small amount of contempt in her voice, but also a certain concern towards not letting her depend too much on prayer to solve her worldly problems.
Sophia felt a bit insulted, I knew she had her doubts, between Capran’s unwavering faith and Julia’s lack of belief, she felt disturbed. Even if she did see Lucius as a father and a leader, Julia was a figure of importance herself, and even a role model for the young Amazon. She was about to say something, but then I stepped in and stopped that fruitless conversation.
-Well this discussion right now is a bit pointless Speaker, don’t you think? We should get to sleep now, we have a long road ahead of us tomorrow and right now we need to sleep – I said as I yanked Sophia away from Julia before the discussion ensued.
We spent some time by the fire, talking to the others, Ricard was telling one his stories again, and we were all laughing in a matter of minutes.
-You see, women, they are like fine wine. Every one has a special flavor. The Imperials and the Bretons are sophisticated, much like a princess these women will always try to look her best, and to make an impression to you they will always try to fulfill your heart’s deepest desires. Bosmer are pretty little creatures, filled with spirit, enthusiasm and a curiosity to match. These ones will certainly have more energy than you, and at the end you will tire before her, but I’m not saying that is a bad thing if you know what I mean, he-he-he. Altmer are interesting, because of their pride and upstart attitude they are usually more difficult to woo, and even when you do get them into bed they will keep the attitude. This is rather interesting though, as they are very dominant, and will always want to fulfill their own desires before indulging yours, I’ll say though, if you do get to completely satisfy one they will definitely make it up to you. My favorites of the bunch are definitely the Nords though, they are wild, and will always be willing to do anything with you, and I mean anything… - said Ricard
-Well what about the other women? No love for the lizards, Orcs, Dark elves and kitty cats? – Asked Ralthos
-Honestly, and no offence to you guys, but as a rule I don’t get involved with anything that has a tail, Orcs have a rather disturbing under bite, and those blood red eyes of the Dunmer disturb me after starring into them for too much time – He answered
-Ha-ha, none taken, I’ll be sure to stare into your soul more often than friend – the Dunmer said while bursting into laughter again.
Eventually Sophia and me took our leave and set up a bedroll for both of us. We made a bit of small talk before deciding to go to sleep. When we did get tired I slipped into her strong and warm embrace, slowly falling to sleep.
In the next mourning I woke a bit suffocated, I would not rather sleep in any other way, but Sophia did have the habit of holding me like a child would a teddy bear. I felt comforted, and remained like this, in this peace, this quiet, until she woke up and softened her iron grip. We got up and had a warm bit of venison stew before heading out. The ride was quiet; we did not talk much, as we were still crossing stormcloak. Passing through the ruins of Helgen we took the mountain pass into Falkreath Hold, and straight to our sanctuary. This was not the only sanctuary in Skyrim, but even though Lucius took the time to repair and maintain at least one sanctuary in every hold, he found a certain peace in this place, and every night I could hear him whisper names, over and over again while praying to the night mother’s iron coffin.
As we approached the sanctuary I could feel something was wrong, we dismounted our horses and approached, sitting down in the ground were two people. Brennan, calm and meditating, sat while chewing a small stem of a plant; he stared at the other one right across to him. The other one was a Bosmer; he had a hood and cloak on him, made from a wolf pelt. His whole outfit was very tribal, filled with claws, skins, pelts and bones. At his side he had two axes, fine quicksilver weapons of Nordic quality. He was a vampire; this could not be a coincidence.
The silence was deafening, both of the men stared into each other’s souls, with a mix of admiration and murderous intent. This felt like ages until both stood up at the same time and I fell to my knees, suffocated by the two spiritual pressures released right in front of me in such an abrupt manner.
-I don’t know this elf, but he came here with hostile intent, stay back, I will not let him hurt you – he said while unsheathing both his scimitars.
The other man said nothing; he just unsheathed his axes and charged at Brennan. The weapons clashed, and both of the figures ahead of me became blurs, in a whirlwind of pure chaos…
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