The Tomb.

"All of you who fought at my side last night, step forward. Now."

Davina of Valeria had been standing before the camp a handful of her men had made was filled with her Battalion. Not a single man had died. There, they all stood up before her. Wrafe was there, standing at her side and merely observing. He couldn't imagine her commanding tone was all too pleasant for them to hear.

"Captain?" One of them asked.

"Shut up." She firmly ordered.

This was time for discipline. Time for righting the way these men have wronged her with abandonment.

"All of you. You who stand before me.." She stepped forward.

"You are worthless. Cowardly. A waste of time." She coldly stated, raising her voice to them.

She was dressed in new armor. The same dark tunic underneath with the leather and boots. Just more poor quality steel of a chest plate that left more of her stomach open. Along with a shoulder guard that pointed up with a few small spikes of its steel while the other simply warped around the shoulder. Her gauntlets and greaves pointed as sharp knee and elbow guards. It was lighter than her former armor, just not as good. Well, in the sense that hers was better before it was busted up.

"You have shown me you're not fit to be called soldiers. Nonetheless, men. If I, one person, and a simple Nobleman from Savencrone can rid the town of a wolf," She pointed to Wrafe, who was amused.

"Then what the hell do I even need you all for? Nothing." She hissed.

"So, tell me, children. Will you accept your punishment with honor and let me part your head from your shoulders? Or, will you take a cowards way out and stay in Brytwood?" She asked.

It was more a proposition. Either die by the rules of the Empire or stay in Brytwood. Live here, since it was so secluded. None of them moved. But, she knew their answer. It disgusted her.

"You will be hated here. Nothing but mockery and disdain. But, it will be living. As opposed to death and rotting in Helheim." She said, calming herself down as she crossed her arms.

She kept the tattered imperial cape on her back shredded at the ends.

"Leave your armor. You've no right to wear it. Now get out of my sight." She stated, cruelly. Rightfully cruel, Davina was. She turned away, stepping back to the man to whom she considered her partner.

"On the slightly dim side, you'll get all the praise." Wrafe remarked.

They were heading for their horse's. Which, the two had soon climbed onto. She patted Beatrix's side of her neck.

"I'd rather not be praised by the Emperor. His family and mine tend to mesh horribly." She stated, gently whipping the reins to get the horse moving. It began a light gallop. Wrafe and his horse doing the same right alongside Davina.

"Oh? You'd have to be either a famous criminal or noble family in order to say that." He said, his interest greatly piqued by her saying that.

"Something like that." She nearly scowled.

The Captain and Nobleman had begun their journey back to Brytwood. She didn't care for what her men did at that point. There were only a handful that weren't there. The ones that stayed at camp, the handful, they were allowed to accompany her. Soon, there were horsemen following them both. They began a light trollope through the forest and it's pathways to head right back into the town. As the Witch would allow, of course.

Then, the Imperials arrived right back into the settlement. Immediately, they saw Aloysius standing in the middle of the road with Ksenia of Loraant at his side, arms crossed with a rather content look about her face.

"By the devil's wish, a challenge he so wanted to be had." A man sang, slowly plucking the tunes from a guitar.

He slowly frolicked around the small crowd of drinking men.

"It was a battle, the Empire's greatest swordsman who wasn't all that glad." He sang in a rather chipper way.

"So, the wolf cried, "Oh, I'm the devil! Evilest thing to be aborn'." His voice began to raise.

"And, so the Captain shouted, 'Then let me see your horns'!" Some began clapping and laughing as they tried to sing along. The bard began yelling the last words to it to declare the glory of the song.

The men at the tavern were distracting to say the least. Yet, even with the rather poor quality of song the peasant bard and his friends were singing to had earned Davina's attention, making her raise a brow in wonder. Wrafe had chuckled and even decided to point it out more openly.

"I suppose your reputation is growing. Even if it is through one measly town." He commented.

Davina's lip curled up a bit at the corner. She turned her gaze away back to the Witch and Aloysius, soon to meet with them by being just a bit away. She pulled on the reins.

"Are you all ready? This is a one way trip." Ksenia said, resting a hand on her hip as she looked amongst them all.

"Yes." Davina nodded.

And so, the witch did her work. With the wave of her hand and the chanting of a simple spell complicated to most, Ksenia summoned the pathway. The ground rumbled slightly and emerged roots that rose high in the air they then intertwined to form a frame. Where a spark of blue and gray suddenly ignited and began to slowly drape down from the top where an emerald was rooted in the dead center of the top, gleaming with sorcerer's energy.

Davina was lucky enough to behold such magic. She hadn't experienced it in quite some time. Even before Wrafe.

"How far will this take us?" The Captain asked.

"To a point where your horse's must stay. They won't survive the mountains. And… You're welcome." Ksenia answered, being rather sassy with the last remark in her response to the Captain of the far smaller battalion.

"Mhm." Davina merely made a sound.

She dismounted from her horse, soon to pay Beatrix as Wrafe was to do the same. The Witch and the guild leader, Aloysius, they would not be joining them. Imperial business of this level of discretion simply wouldn't allow it. Unless Davina wished to be hanged or burned at the stake. Then, with a last glance of the town, the Valerian and Savencroner began to walk through the portal. Her handful of men followed behind on foot. They soon all disappeared within the portal, being transported through sorcery at a location far into the Mountains. Aloysius and Ksenia remained, her shutting the portal with a simple clench of her fist.

"You normally don't help people so easily. You alone could've killed that beast. Tell me, why didn't you?" Aloysius asked, turning his eyes to the dark haired Witch.

Ksenia merely grinned, shrugging her shoulders a bit. She turned away, walking off to go to her home.

"Who am I to deny someone their fate?" Is all she replied.

Cryptically. Aloysius found no relevance or meaning for the answer to his question.

It was a mere moment later.

Davina, Wrafe and the men had all been met with an all too familiar blizzard feeling. The cold of the snow of the mountain, the feeling of pure isolation as the environment was nothing but white and gray from all of the stones in the Mountain that were sharply edged out of the land from the natural time the world gave it. Then, there were the black structures barely visible to them. They were ancient, some in rather perfect and untouched condition while others were broken down to no capability to be repaired. She already felt her cheeks be stung by the dangerous chill. She turned her head, squinting her eyes to gaze back down at the land they were once occupying. She could see the black trail of smoke from the camp near Brytwood. But, no Brytwood itself. The Witch's illusion magic, no doubt. She released a shuddering breath, shaking a bit as she had turned to eye her men, along with the sorcerer.

"Come on." She said, waving to them slightly to be followed.

Davina began to walk through the thick sheet of snow blanketing across the ground of the pathway leading to the old structures.

Wrafe and the soldiers followed close behind. They were just as afflicted as her.

"For fucks sake, man! Can't you use that fire magic trick or what have you?" A soldier cried out, shivering something awful.

Wrafe just kept walking, doing so as if he wasn't all too affected by the cold, strangely enough.

"If I did, you'd all be wanting to be huddling around me like a flock of crows pecking for food. So, no." He stated.

He simply kept up his pace with Davina, to whom was powering through the snow. Her coal-black hair was dotted with white quite a bit.

"Should we set up a little camp perhaps? Your men seem to be pouting already." He remarked.

Davina huffed.

"If I can do this, they can as well. Besides… It'll be much more refreshing once they get to leave and indulge in a warm fire after being scared shitless from a haunted tomb. Then we can tell some scary stories." As she spoke, one could hear the stuttering in her voice, for the more than obvious reason.

She tried to distract herself while she got to freeze for a petty mission.

"Awe, Captain. My sense of humor is rubbing off on you." Wrafe commented, speaking perfectly normally.

He even wore a smile across his arrogant looking face.

"Shut up." Davina said, continuing to move up the path that began to elevate upwards.

"By your command." Wrafe remarked, quietly to himself.

He then raised his hand up, walking along her side directly next to her as he mumbled a little chant before he had a flame spark within his palm, holding it between them as they walked. She glanced down at it, feeling an unnaturally spreading warmth from the flame within his palm. It damaged him by no means.

"The men will envy." She said, glancing at him.

"Indeed." Is all he replied with, seemingly uncaring towards the fact.

It was then that the individuals traversing up the mountain had then found themselves to an opening. Of course, after many trials through the harsh blizzard, keeping yourself going seemed downright impossible at times. Nonetheless, they made it to a doorway with the door of sorts busted down outwards. It laid in the snow, nearly completely covered.

The others fell close behind the two, Wrafe immediately putting out the flame.

"Alright." Davina announced her voice.

"Weapons out." She ordered.

Drawing her sword from her hip, they all did the same. Apart from the redheaded Nobleman. Her eyes raised to the entrance before them. A manner of runes and symbols that have long since been abandoned by the modern people. She turned her head to Wrafe. All it took was a mere look before he had raised his hand to simply snap his fingers, ignoring dozens of torches with fire that lit up a very lengthy corridor. Already, there were signs of people being here once. There were tools, pickaxes and carts filled with stone and coal all knocked over all over the rails leading the way forward. They all stepped through. The small group of warriors had walked down the dim corridor, their footsteps breaking the long dead silence of the tomb that they had entered. Now, the journey was nearly over. For the Captain of Winter's Ark had only required one thing: The Malin book of the family line. It would state the truth, no doubt. Which is exactly why it had to be destroyed clearly. After the Emperor saw it for himself, of course. As they walked, they came to a change in scenery. The treacherous corridor ended to finally wind up to be a room. One that parted into a few other rooms that were well decorated with age and eroding in its ancient decor of the nords. In the room they entered, the floor was cracked. Even caved in to where there was nothing but a pit of darkness down below. This was to the left, while the right held tombs of all sorts spread across the walls with skeletons of long since deceased warriors resting in what seemed to be a disturbed state. Davina was the first to step forward. She was then given light by the sorcerer at her side lighting up every single torch in the large and quite spacious structure they were in.

To the right, with the tombs, a somewhat crumbling stairway made of shattered stone had led up to a spiraling path around this tall cylinder of a structure high in the air. You could see there was a frame circling around the edge in a consistent pattern with a faint dim glow emerging from it.

"Did your beloved Emperor tell you where his scandal was specifically?" The Valerian asked, turning her eyes to the sorcerer who was looking up at the small tower high up in the ceiling of the tomb. It was somehow well lit up with a white light from a seemingly endless hole that you could see no origin to. Plus, there was an impossible chance it was the sun from how much mountain was on top of them at the moment.

"I'm afraid he is as vague as he is capricious." Wrafe answered.

She released a deep sigh, soon to raise her blade up and rest it on her shoulder.

"Sooner we find it, sooner we don't have to smell this miasma any longer." Davina said, gesturing for her men to start searching.

They did, as did Wrafe to whom had parted ways with the Captain. She cautiously headed up the poor quality stairs while her partner simply examined another area of the truly enormous tomb. Davina plucked up a lit torch from a corroded hold for it, scrolling her eyes all around the environment that even now, she couldn't see all too well. She came to the top of the next section of the place, now being presented with beds of stone and simple cloth over them that were made specifically for people. Of course. As tradition had it, the corpses were always wrapped up in a well preserved material.

They tended to have their memorial have items of true meaning. Some had weapons. Swords, axes, lances, the whole variation. Some often were buried in their armor if they died at battle. For hundreds of years, this mountain was used to bury the bravest of warriors. Now, for hundreds more, it has long since been abandoned.

"Haddius." She muttered.

The name of a warrior engraved in the language of the day was written below the bed. The smell of death was everywhere, the sight of it? The same.

"You found something, Captain?" One of the men asked.

"No. Keep looking." She moved on.

Her head turned as her eyes landed on a stand in the center part she was walking up to. There, an old and worn book was there. She quickly walked up to it. There were dozens of books scattered across the place, none were seen or noticed due to the darkness and the dust and dirt covering most of them. Spell books, that is. She approached the stand carved of a rotting wood where the book lay. She gently brushed the palm of her gloved hand across it, scraping the dust off. There was but a simple initial on it. M.

"Wrafe!" She called out.

She grabbed his attention from afar, as well as the soldiers. She put her sword against the wall. She could hear his boots lightly clacking against the floor to have his approach grow less distant. It was then, Davina had opened said book. She held the torch close. Not too terribly close. It was a long list of names. Names, sex, and house. She could hear someone coming up the stairs, it being him from Savencrone. However…

Everyone was involved in hearing a rather disturbing sound emit from the darkness. It made them all pause. Davina's eyes quickly moved from the page, dotting her eyes all around the tomb. It was a howl, a low, eerily inhuman noise that came from a no specific source of origin. She quickly shut the book, taking the leather grip of her sword.

"What the fuck was that?" One of the men asked, panicked by it.

"Keep your heads on." Davina demanded.

Suddenly, a vicious wind blew into all of them, it being so strong that it blew out their torches and caused their hair to whip back.

"What the hell!" Another exclaimed.

"Calm down." Wrafe urged.

She felt where this wind came from. The direction of it, coming from one of the many other routes throughout the maze of a tomb. The hallway that the redheaded man nearly went down.

"Wrafe, come here." Davina said, dropping her torch as she picked up the book.

He did so, quickly going to her side. He was handed the book. As he took it, she was quick to move and pass him to the top of the stairs, slowly moving down. All of the men were holding their weapons and shields. They were allegedly ready for what was to come. There was nothing but silence. The Captain hoped that that noise was nothing but a simple fluke of chance. An inconvenience of hearing wind gust throughout the system. At the same time, she knew not to be foolish enough to believe that quite yet. As the silence took over in the terrifying manner, they all stood completely still in acute anticipation.

"Davina!" The voice of Wrafe yelling so suddenly made her jerk a little.

Her eyes quickly darted to him before she heard a horrifying sound behind her. A growl and 'shing' from metal. The Captain's eyes widened as her breath was taken from her. She was quick to just react and duck down. She felt her hair get tugged roughly. She hit her knees into the stairs, quickly getting up to swing her sword in defense and point it at whatever it was behind her. Little jingling and clicking was heard as a large portion of her braided fell to the ground. The metal and wooden beads in it, scattering and falling down the steps. She had looked through the darkness, seeing a great terror of a sight before her that stepped down onto the stairs. Its eyes void of all emotion or humanity, its skin paled and rotted with its very bones popping and creaking with age and impossible use of its muscles as the worn armor scraped against the floor from its feet. Its deformed and gnarled claws for fingers wrapped around the handle of a dull rusted sword. Its mouth, only showing yellow and black teeth as its jaws suddenly unhinged and released this demonic shriek from its decayed breath. Before Wrafe could even act or really get close to save the Captain, she was lunged at by the dead warrior she could barely see. She raised her steel covered forearms in defense, feeling a shocking pain throb through her left arm as a sword clashed into it instead of her own blade. She was then met with the awful smell of death running into her as its weight collided with her own with no thought of consequence or real thought of its own. Except to kill. Their bodies moved backwards, right to the edge of the stairway. There wasn't any stopping this, there was only the fact that they would fall.

Davina grabbed a hold of the armor chest plate of the dead man, rather violently thrashing him off her right before their boots left the edge. Then, they fell. The Valerian and the draugr had harshly hit the ground with a loud yelp coming from her. The wind was knocked out of her with how she landed. The armor didn't lighten the impact whatsoever. Her eyes shut tightly for a moment as she bared her teeth in seething pain from the fall. She heard the low growl of the demonic being next to her as it recovered a lot more easily. She immediately opened her eyes, seeing its silhouette move upwards. She had to force herself to get up. Which, she did. Davina rather loudly grunted as she finally took in a deep breath, releasing a little cry as she scrambled to go after her sword. Once she couldn't find it, she went after the undead. Her hair was noticeably a lot more in her face. Just a little bit below her chin now. The back, just hitting her shoulders as she was quick to put the draugr in a hold. She grabbed its arms from under them, pulling it back and stepping on its ankle to try and keep it to its knees. One of the men was extremely quick to run up to the Captain. In seeing this, she was greatly eager to simply let this dead thing be granted its second death. Then, a thud was heard. Not from a footstep or movement of someone in the room. But, an action from an unknown source. The man running bravely to his superior officer had stopped suddenly with a groan. He fell to his knees, his weapons clattering against the ground as he had an arrow directly in his back. Without another moment, he fell forward. Davina's eyes widened a bit in absolute shock as she had only seen the dark hallway give off these multiple shadows taking color. Barely.

Davina quickly kneed the draugr in the back, causing it to faceplant forward while she knelt down and plucked up the ancient sword and simply plunged the blade right through the back of the neck of the downed draugr, giving it so much force that it stabbed into the floor and stayed upright. It groaned in reaction to it.

"Captain!" The Savencroner yelled, earning her fixated gaze.

He tossed the sword of hers to her, Davina luckily catching it by the handle as they were being charged at from the dark hallway. There were so many now. Dead beings screaming their decayed woes as they sluggishly ran at the very small battalion. Suddenly, the room was lit up. Wrafe used that same fire whip move from his knowledge of spells and cracked it right through the air. It swung around the top of the room, raising rather high as her vision was finally restored to a more advantageous state. She was quick to step forward at the Dead beings running at her. Wrafe, rather dramatically, had summoned these blades made of pure energy as the room was lit up by the ring of fire holding up top high at the ceiling. He spun around and clashed swords with two dead beings that went after him while the soldiers valiantly fought at his side. Davina was met with a blade being thrust directly into her. She quickly swung hers upside down and clapped it right into the old blade of the draugr's while she directed hers over the back of her head and moved her body back as she slashed the dead being across the chest, only having two more coming for her.

She quickly acted. This time, she quickly stepped forward, grasping both hands around the grip of her sword as she had brought it back and slammed it into one of their blades to knock it aside and then use one swift movement to decapitate it. Then, efficiently avoiding a dagger being impaled into her side just by an inch. She was able to turn and shove her sword through the back of the undead. Then, a simple action overwhelmed her. Out of nowhere another appeared to charge towards her with a massive warhammer that it was bringing coming to slam into the ground with a yell straight from a banshees vocal cords. She literally jumped back with all the agility she could muster after basically running right into the undead warrior. She got to watch as the warhammer plowed right into the ground and shattered the stone from the force it was given. Then, there was an immense, utterly unforgettable pain that suddenly shot into her back, right into the side. She clutched her side, feeling the rotted hand and decaying bone holding the dagger. Her eyes trailed down as she had then cried out in pain as the dagger was twisted. She reflexively turned and elbowed the draugr right in the jaw, doing so to where it fell to the side, no doubt going to recover. For a moment, a single moment, she forgot herself in that pain. She forgot what was before her. And, the moment the undead with the warhammer came back into her thoughts. She spun around, rather recklessly swinging her sword. But, her sword just barely grazed the weapon as it was being swung.

Davina saw as her mistake would lead to her possible fatality. The warhammer was being swung right across the air and directly into her chest plate. The undead did so, so incredibly hard in an impossible manner to where the Valerian's body simply had no balance anymore and fell backwards, sliding, rolling and skidding against the floor. She felt her legs hover over nothing before dropping. She reacted by clutching the ground as much as she could, her sword sliding right off the edge she was on and eventually scraping off the stone to fall into the pit of darkness below. She gasped. Or at least tried to. Her whole body was shaking now. Her bared teeth clenched together as her eyes widened, her vision strained by the blow as she was sliding still, now her arms only keeping her up. She couldn't breathe at all. In fact, her chest felt like it was growing heavier. There was a piercing throbbing pain running at different spots in her chest. She opened her mouth to call out to her partner. She just couldn't speak. She closed her mouth, simply trying to see through the dim battle. It was there that the Captain in peril saw him. Standing in the center of the room, holding the book of Malin. Her brows furrowed a bit the harder it grew to hang on. She saw his piercing yellow eyes that seemingly gleamed with nothing but… Amusement. He stepped forward, the few knights of hers remaining fending off the draugr as he was practically avoided by them. Even as he was in direct sight, they had no care to attack him. His face was written with content, a smile barely engaging the lines on his cheeks.

The sounds of the environment around her began to dull out. The sound of her men dying, the stress of watching them all get stabbed or brutally bashed to death. It was all so heavy to see. Traumatic, even. Her eyes then scrolled up to him, reflecting those vibrant eyes of fire. His footsteps, the clicking of his fine shoes, that's all she heard. She watched him approach her. Soon to stop right before her. Then, she dropped with the edge crumbling. However, Davina was suspended right into the air. She panted, finally breathing as she coughed. Her head was down as she stared into the pit for a moment. She then slowly raised her head up, looking up at Wrafe with a rather hurt look. Was this betrayal? It seemed to be of the worst kind. He was staring down at her, content with the events before him. His lips parted a bit before he spoke,

"Thank you for your service, Davina. You've served the Empire well. Now, goodbye." He said, coldly.

Her eyes widened a bit as she could taste the blood filling her throat, causing the need to cough again. But, before that, Wrafe loosened his grasp onto her wrist. As if teasing her demise. Then, despite how terrified she looked…

He let go.

The Valerian fell, complete silence taking over her hearing as her sight was soon swarmed in darkness of betrayal and the cold, harsh embrace of what death was to some. She fell, with her story of life ending there. Into an abyss of nothing.