Chains of the Past I

We enter the cave, passing over several dead animals bodies for the cave to slowly transition from rough cave walls into what seemed to be decrepit ruins when me and Inigo hear a voices up ahead.

"Are you sure that was wise, Lokil? He still might have told us something. We haven't gotten anywhere ourselves..." One of the vampires say as me and Inigo sneaks forward to get a better look at the two vampires as the stench of their undeath fills my nose as my gut churns and I push down the urge to rip them to shreds as I control my desire to transform into my werewolf form.

"He knew nothing... He served his purpose by leading us to this place. Now it is up to us to bring Harkon his prize. And we will not return without it. Vingalmo and Orthjolf will have to make way for me after this!" Lokil says victoriously as we sneak past a gargoyle and I take a flame scroll off a pedestal.

"Yes, of course, Lokil... Just do not forget who it was that brought you news of the Vigilants' discovery." The other vampire reminds Lokil, who seems to be the boss of the two, finally noticing two other dead bodies around a Vigilant of Stendar who seems to have died fighting the blood suckers.

"I don't forget my friends... Or my enemies..." Lokil says ominously, as me and Inigo slip down the crumbling staircase as another figure comes into focus, one of the vampires' thralls walks between the pillars in the raised structure in the center of this cavern.

I motion to Inigo to draw his bow as I do the same, passing through the shadows of the bridge connecting our side of the cavern to the raised platform.

Slinking through the shadows between the pillars, we draw back our bows before loosing our arrows into the two vampires. Leaving the thrawl who weilded it's great axe in a fury trying to find what killed its master.

I easily sneak behind him and strike the back of his neck with my sword, quickly ending his life as Inigo emerges from the shadows.

"So, what do we do now my friend?" Inigo asks as he looks around the cavern taking in the peculiar architecture.

"Well.. Now... I do something very... Very... Painful." I say as I approach the central pillar as I set my hand down on it, preparing for the spike about to shoot our of it.

"What do you- MY FRIEND?! ARE YOU OKAY?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!" Inigo shouts as the spike tears through my hand and I fall to my knees in pain as I feel the blood draining from my body similiar to how I felt when I was donating plasma back in college.

As I feel Inigo wrench my hand free from the structure, I cast [Heal] on myself and finally notice the etheral purple flames emerging from the small pedastol, following along the tracks in the floor connecting to several braziers.

However, instead of purely, purple as the flame should have been, instead it has an amber hue on its edges that flicker with it as if its trying to merge with it or consume it.

"Don't worry, Inigo. I'm fine, let's get these braziers lined up." I assure him as I start to move the braziers around their tracks.

"If you are certain you are fine, my friend." Inigo says with concern.

{Yeah, that seems like it fuckin hurt, Greenie.} Mr. Dragonfly says.

"Yeah, I'll be good. Now push that over there." I instruct Inigo as the last of the braziers are lined up and the phantom flames return to the pedastol making a mechanism lower the floor which exposes a larger stone monolith beneath it.

"Wow, this place is quite impressive my friend, what treasure do you think is in there?" Inigo asks with anticipation.

I place my hands on the stone monolith, opening it up to reveal a beautiful young women with snow white skin, raven black hair, and ruby red eyes, stumbling from inside the monolith with an Elder Scroll on her back, landing in my arms as I steady her.

"My friend... Is that?" Inigo asks hesitantly as the young woman slowly returns to her senses in my arms.

"Ugh... My head is killing me... Where is... Who are you? Why are you here-!?" Serana's eyes widen in shock as she pushes herself out of my grasp as she eyes me with suspicion.

"What is one of Hircine's mutts doing here?!" Serana says accusitorialy, drawing her hands up preparing a spell of blue fire in her free hands, making Inigo instinctually draw his bow in my defense.

"I do not think I like her tone, my friend... You are only a hound in bed after all." Inigo quips, making me roll my eyes.

"Alright! Why don't we all just... Take a breath... Okay?" I say, holding up my hands and trying to calm the two down, which finally gets the two to take a step back, lowering their weapons off of one another another.

"You still haven't answered my question." Serena says, impatently tapping her foot against the ground, attempting to mask her eyes darting around the room for a quick exit.

"I was getting there, first off, why don't we introduce ourselves? I'm Silvantus, and I'm here because of my curiosity. That's Inigo, one of my best friends, here because of loyalty, and Mr. Dragonfly, our mascot, he's here because he's in a jar on Inigo's belt. And you are?" I ask her as if I didn't already know her story.

{Who the fuck you calling a mascot?} Mr. Dragonfly says indignantly making Inigo snicker.

"Well... My name is Serana, and the reason I'm here is... Complicated, and I'd prefer to leave it at that... Hmmm... I don't know if I can trust you, yet. But..." Serana says hesitantly, before pausing just shy of asking for our help to get home to Castle Volkihar.

"Let me guess, you'd like our help?" I say with a slight smirk, making Serana glare at me before sighing in defeat.

"Huff... Yes... Unfortunately, I am unsure of how long I've been in this hole, which definately looks worse for wear." Serana says, finally taking a moment to look around and noticing the decripit nature of her prision.

(Author's Note: Hey, sorry for the delay, was catching up on yardwork. Hope you enjoy!)