Mont

         (4E-201 18th of Second Seed)

     Venerus had accomplished much for his Master in the past several months. After Galeron's subdual of Cicero, he had sent Venerus on quite a journey. One that saw him kidnapping the rest of the children from Honorhall Orphanage and delivering three of them to craftsmen throughout Skyrim.

     Jorlund Greymane the blacksmith in Whiterun, Nureliion the alchemist in Windhelm, and Hamal the enchanter in Markath were the three chosen craftsmen and all three had been turned into Crying Corpses. Venerus had been tasked with picking just the right times and locations to summon his Master, so that the inductions would go smoothly and be discreet.

     After the craftsmen were inducted into Galeron's growing number of Crying Corpses, they were each left with one of the children and were given their own strict set of orders to ensure they carried out their tasks while avoiding suspicions from their neighbors. The other children were delivered to Cicero for training.

     Venerus had then been sent off towards Winterhold, where he was to confirm Morila's claim that the College of Winterhold had been destroyed, before moving on to his next objective.

-----

           (4E-200 6th of Last Seed)

    Galeron floated smoothly but quickly through Dimcrypt Hollow, clothed in his recently completed battle gear. His red eyes unseen behind the reinforced mask of Morokei and his white hair falling down over his bare shoulders and his pointy ears, with only the tips occasionally poking through. Black leather boots lined with gold colored patterns covered his feet and shins. Matching his boots, he wore black leather bracers with similar designs. His black silken pants were bloused into his boots and secured with a crimson waist wrap. 

     The black of the leather and his pants matched well with his even blacker skin and the golden accents, blue grey mask, crimson waist wrap, and white hair provided a striking contrast. Accompanied by his three floating Orbicals and his Induction Staff magically secured to his back, conferring upon Galeron an air of mystery and power, his floating form moved through the series of caves and partially unearthed ruins. 

     Directly behind him, Venerus was tagging along as both of them followed Galeron's Dremora Squad through the halls of the long neglected crypt.

     After several days of exploratory climbing, Venerus had finally located the exit passage leading out of Dimcrypt Hollow and now they were entering the final stretch, leading towards a massive circular pillared platform.

     While proceeding orderly down a flight of stairs, Galeron's Dremora were alarmed at the sudden eruption of rocky debris that showered them as they walked past a couple of Gargoyle statues. The statues had begun shaking violently before shattering their stoney exterior and releasing the actual Gargoyles within.

     The Dremora went into attack mode and began surrounding the two Gargoyles. A team of eight, along with Venerus, attacked the right Gargoyle and Galeron and the seven remaining Dremora attacked the left one.

     'Holy Christ!' Galeron cursed inwardly, witnessing the Gargoyle take one of his Dremora's heads off with a single swipe. 'I knew these things were tough but isn't this a little bit much? Looks like I'll need to step in.'

     The two Orbicals that were floating beside his hips and slightly behind him were both sent forth at incredible speeds to impact the back of the Gargoyle's head. They didn't seem to make any noticeable marks on the beast but it's head was forced forward slightly.

     Recalling two of his Dremora to his side, Galeron summoned two Ethereal Daedric War Hammers and gave them to the two Dremora. While doing so, he also cast the Centrifuge Spell on his two Orbicals.

     The Centrifuge Spell created a circular orbit that both Orbicals would follow while maintaining equidistant positions on opposite sides of the orbit. Galeron could increase both the speed of their orbit and the width of the obit at his whim.

     Galeron shrunk the radius of the orbit down to one foot, increased the speed to around a hundred MPH, and activated Drain Vitality Spells through each Orbical. He then shoved the Orbicals, which looked like a violently spinning circle of crimson energy, into the Gargoyle's head.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

     The numerous repeated impacts continued as the Gargoyle turned to face Galeron and he brought forth a javelin formed out of Earth Magicka.

     With the Orbicals now impacting the Gargoyles face, it made an attempt to swat the things away but was interrupted by Galeron's javelin impacting his torso and staggering him. Immediately after this impact, the tip of the javelin embedded in his torso was driven in even further by one of Galeron's Dremora wielding an ethereal War Hammer.  A second and then a third hammer strike preempted a series of continuous blows that drove the Gargoyle backwards until the other Dremora tangled its feet, causing it to fall to the floor.

     With the Gargoyle felled, the two war Hammer Dremora continued hammering the javelin until it was staked to the ground, while Galeron maintained his Centrifuge Spell.

     Having not only a stake through its torso pinning it to the ground but also continuously suffering the effects of Galeron's Drain Vitality spells, the Gargoyle's movements began to slow. It was obvious that it was weakening and it wouldn't last much longer.

     Seeing this, Galeron turned his attention to his second team of Dremora, which was quickly dwindling in numbers. Venerus was having trouble keeping out of the Gargoyle's range and had almost met the fate of his fallen Dremora.

     Quickly flying the crimson ring of energy from the grounded Gargoyle to the one harassing Venerus, his Crying Corpse was finally able to put some distance between himself and the Gargoyle.

     Venerus resummoned his previously defeated Frost Atronach, while Galeron summoned another Earth Javelin. Venerus, however, quickly realized that his efforts weren't needed. Galeron's Javelin and Dremora combo served to finish off the second Gargoyle as easily as the first.

     'These Gargoyles are far stronger than I imagined they'd be and their strength and resilience only serves to reinforce my hypothesis that, when facing a Dragon, simple numerical superiority will not be enough. I really hope I can figure out an effective strategy to combat those damned things before Alduin shows up.' Galeron silently worried.

     Putting these unnecessary concerns out of his mind, Galeron scooped his Gargoyle corpse loot into a portal and then ushered his remaining crew forward onto the large circular platform.

-----

     Serana slowly opened her eyes as she realized that her prison of countless years was finally being opened. She attempted to look around blearily but quickly found her throat wrapped in a man's forceful grip and a thick green magicka was being constantly injected into her body, completely paralyzing her.

     She had no idea what was going on and tried desperately to recall the events that had led her here for clarification. Try as she might, the only thing she could remember was her mother leading her to this place and then shoving her into this coffin-like container before sealing her away.

     Her head now filled with confusion and anxiety, Serana watched the white haired dark skinned man in a mask force her back against the coffin's interior, as the Elder Scroll that had been on her back floated away towards and past her captor. 

     She felt her body sinking into the floor, as if she were standing in quicksand instead of cement. The floor around her legs then rehardened and everything up to her knees were locked in place. She then sensed her arms being forced behind her and experiencing the same quicksand type sensation. Once the quicksand sensation disappeared, her arms were effectively locked in place by the stone coffin that had become a different sort of prison.

     Her head, being completely paralyzed, was stuck in a forward looking position allowing her to witness the dark skinned man and his actions. He stood with his right hand gripping her throat and then stretched out his left hand, which was holding six corundum stakes, in the opposite direction.

     The masked man released the stakes and they simply floated there in midair, before beginning to move in separate directions. The stakes continued separating from one another until she could only see two in front of her. The two stakes she could still see then floated downwards until they sank into the floor the way that her legs had. They stopped sinking once a third of their length was buried in the stone floor and almost immediately began emitting a green gaseous magicka that hovered just above the ground and continued to spread out, completely filling in the area cordoned off by the stakes.

     Once the masked man confirmed that the paralysis magicka was working as intended, he floated away…

     'What the shit? He's floating?! Shore's bones, I can't remember the last time I saw a levitating mage! Come to think of it, have I ever seen one or did I simply hear about them? No, I distinctly remember, when learning magic as a child, there was an elderly Imperial mage who taught Mysticism. 

     'He had, in an attempt to demonstrate the utility of Mysticism, levitated himself across a full twenty meters of level ground, before landing fully exhausted at the other end. That single demonstration left a deep impression on myself and the other students about the kind of mediocre rewards brought by sacrifice within the field of Mysticism.

     'I was never told explicitly why interest and practice of Mysticism was in decline but I remember quite clearly being told that the Master Mystics of old were some of the most terrifying opponents a person could face.

     'I don't think it could be any clearer that this man is a Mystic and one that's far more accomplished than the old geezer I remember. He's been floating this entire time and even controlled those stakes, moved my body through solid stone, and, now that I inspect him properly, he's levitating three head sized spheres behind him that never break their triangular formation. All that definitely adds up to someone I can't afford to underestimate.

     'Wait, what is he doing now?!'

     Serana watched helplessly as the masked man drew towards her with several red glass containers with cork stoppers floating around him. He waved his hand toward her once and a pale gold energy tinged occasionally with pale blue energy left his hand and settled over her body.

     He then waved his hands a second time and her blood began flowing freely out of seemingly no hole in her body. One second she was a perfectly normal paralyzed and imprisoned person and the next her blood was outside her body and flowing into one of the floating containers.

     This continued until the containers were all filled and she was feeling like she might pass out at any moment.

     Once the containers were filled, the masked man floated them gently onto the ground outside of the ring of Paralysis magicka and brought out a small wooden barrel with a bloody spigot.

     She knew what this was and she could not only smell it but, given her weakened state, her vampire blood was desperately crying out for it. She watched gleefully, greedily, hungrily as the spigot was brought closer, her mouth was forced open, and the masked man's magic helped her swallow the entirety of the crimson river unleashed from that spigot.

     Despite her situation, if she could've smiled she would have. She was sated and could feel her strength returning and her Vampire blood being replenished. She thought perhaps this whole ordeal was about to come to a close, whenever the masked man brought forth even more containers and began draining her again.

     Though she was incapable of protesting, she was growing quite perturbed by this roughian handling her in this manner, as she watched this process repeated twice more. At which point, the masked man did something she hadn't witnessed in countless years. He gathered up all of the containers around him and conjured a glowing pure white wall of magicka and stepped through it, disappearing entirely. 'He can create portals!'

     A little over a half an hour later, he returned with a few disabled Gargoyles, a chalice carved with Gargoyle reliefs and made of Daedric Metal, a few samples of ectoplasm, and a few containers of her blood.

     She watched as he sat down, completely ignored her presence, and began meditating and attempting to summon what could only be described as Gargoyle familiars. 

     After several hours of failures the mystic seemed to have landed on a version that pleased him. With an appropriate specimen at his disposal, he then began forcing them to drink different concoctions of hers and his own blood from the Chalice.

     Most of these seemingly ridiculous tests resulted in the Gargoyle familiar turning into a puddle of blood colored ectoplasm and then being stored away by the masked Mystic.

     However, after several more hours of these trials, she bore captivated witness to the final and successful test.

     The masked Mystic took a sampling of ectoplasm and added it to the Chalice. He then poured in equal portions of his own blood and Serana's. With the summoning of another Gargoyle familiar, he placed his free hand over the chalice and poured his power into it for only a few seconds. He then forced the familiar to ingest the concoction and, after doing so, the once pale blue summon was painted a translucent light red. 

     The mystical mage then pointed his staff at the altered familiar and a torrent of black smokey magicka poured forth from it and into the familiar. The familiar quickly took on the deathly black color of the necromantic energies that assaulted it, with the exception of its eyes. Its eyes turned a bright glowing crimson and it seemed unusually aware, for a Gargoyle.

     Serana continued spectating this spectacle, as the now blackened Gargoyle familiar walked towards a Gargoyle corpse that the mage was holding upright with his magic. The Gargoyle continued forward until it was occupying the same space as the Gargoyle and, with another flick of the mages wrist, the familiar gold and blue energy left his hands, covered the Gargoyles, and any and all distinctions between the two vanished!

     The two had become one! A fact that was clearly established, when the mage began ordering the Gargoyle around and it followed each order to the letter!

     'Shore's blood, what did I just witness?! Did he really just turn a magical construct into some kind of psuedo-undead that's fully bound to him? I didn't even think such a thing was possible? Damn, this situation just keeps getting worse! What in Oblivion does he plan on doing with me now?!' Serana agonized, watching the masked mage, whose feet hadn't touched the ground once this entire time, turn his attention back to her after Inducting all of the Gargoyles he'd collected.

     "Ah, Serana! A real live Daughter of Coldharbour! A pleasure to meet you! My name is Galeron! I have to apologize for leaving you there like that but I'm a man with many obligations and very little time to fulfill them. Thus, I'd like to keep our exchange as brief as possible.

     "Meaning, I don't need to hear your story or explanations nor are you permitted to ask how I know what I know. Despite your current state of befuddlement, I'd like you to try your best and consider the facts of this situation and give me a single, simple, one word answer to my question.

     "Before I ask my question, however, there is some necessary information that must be covered to ensure you have a full and proper understanding of your predicament.

     "First, I no longer require your existence. Thus, neither your freedom nor your life are my concern. I do, obviously, understand the value of the action of freeing you from this prison, even if you yourself refuse to acknowledge it. If I'm to release you from here, then I expect to be properly compensated. No less than twenty years of absolute unquestioning loyalty to yours truly, during which time you will comply with anything and everything that I ask of you. And yes, anything means exactly what it's always meant, ANYTHING!

     "Secondly, a necessary threat! Lest you think to agree initially but then attempt to escape or betray me later on. I know where Castle Volkihar lies, I know your mother's whereabouts, how to enter her hiding place, I know about your father's mad plans, I know that his plans require the Bow of Auriel, I know the location of the bow, and I know a great many ways that the bow could be used to bring ruin to Castle Volkihar. And to top it all off…" Galeron gestured towards her and before she knew it a beam of pure golden sunlight poured down from above her and began burning away her flesh.

     Galeron snapped his fingers and the brilliant beam of sunlight disappeared. He then gestured a second time and a beach ball sized sun appeared in between the two, about twelve feet off the ground. With another snap, the blazing beach ball sun vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

     "You see, I have not only my own abilities but a fair few little secrets that I could teach to those who wish your kind extinguished. It may not be the light of Meridia or Akatosh but it is still highly potent against all forms of undead, regardless. 

     "It may take quite a bit of planning and resources but, between my own abilities, the power of the bow, the Vigilants of Stendar, Meridia's faithful, Akatosh's faithful, Dibella's faithful, and a newly reformed Dawnguard I suspect that the complete and wholesale destruction of the Volkihar line would be a foregone conclusion, should you decide to make me your enemy instead of your ally.

     "So, when I tell you that I don't want to hear your side of anything and that I simply want to instill within you a clear and firm comprehension of your circumstances, what I'm offering you, and what I'm capable of should you betray me, I mean for you to think very clearly and carefully about your answer.

     "Now, will you serve me in whatever means I see fit for the next twenty years? Answer yes and I'll release you right now. Answer no and I'll close up your coffin, toss your coffin inside of another coffin I've prepared, teleport this platform to my realm, dig a hole at the bottom of this body of water below us, let you sink to the bottom of that hole, cover the hole over, flood this cavern with even more water, and then collapse all of the tunnels and hallways on my out.

     "What will it be, yes or no? Any words other than yes will be taken as a no and failing to answer within the time limit will also be taken as a no. You now have thirty seconds to collect your thoughts and give an answer." Galeron finished and then waved his hands as a protective barrier appeared around her, inhibiting the effects of the green energy. He waved his hands again and a small hourglass appeared from nowhere and all the sand at the top began slowly flowing to the bottom.

     'Well, shit! This isn't exactly the grand rescue that I was hoping for but it's a damn sight better than the terrifying possibilities that were running through my mind earlier. Even though I really don't want to be this guy's slave or whatever, for some reason I feel like I'm getting off easy with this proposition. 

     'Whatever the case, I've already determined him to be someone that shouldn't be trifled with and I have no doubt he could deliver on his threats. I have no idea how he could possibly know all those things but, if he does, it only makes him that much more dangerous. Not to mention, twenty years of relative freedom, especially for a vampire, is much more appealing than being buried in this coffin for quite possibly the rest of time.

     'That's it! No more hesitation! No more doubts! There's only one way forward for me!'

     Serana had been letting her head hang while considering his words. She slowly lifted her gaze to meet the emeralds embedded in the stranger's mask. "Yes."

     "Ah, lovely! I thought you might come around to my way of thinking. Now, for the first 'test of faith' so to speak. Let's see how you respond to freedom." Galeron said, as all of the stakes stopped emitting green magicka, he pulled all of them from the ground simultaneously, and they flew in a neat bundle towards Venerus's outstretched arms.

     All of the green magicka disappeared and Serana's body was slowly lifted up and away from the coffin. Once she was freed from her binds, she collapsed onto the floor and just sat there, trying to get a proper feel for her body.

     "Take a few minutes to compose yourself. I'll be back shortly." Galeron told her, while conjuring a portal and sending Venerus and his Gargoyles through before stepping through himself.

     Seeing this and knowing that he was testing her, she decided that she needed to try and earn his trust. While twenty years wasn't long compared to her entire lifetime, it also wasn't a short period of time. She got the distinct impression that the more he trusted her and the more amiable and compliant she was then the easier her life would be while accompanying him.

     Having made her mind up to lean into this new role and play her part to a 't,' she spent a couple of minutes composing herself and then stood up and stared directly into the portal, waiting for her new master to return.

-----

     Galeron wasn't entirely surprised by Serana's decision. After all, he'd taken appropriate measures to ensure her alternatives were the most undesirable options. After seeing her collapse into a sitting position he opened another portal to Fort Doomguard, leaving Serana to herself for a good ten minutes.

     Unbeknownst to her, he had already collapsed all of the entrances to that place and there was nowhere that she could run in ten minutes that he wouldn't easily be able to find her and toss her back into her prison. So he simply let her sit there and think about what she had yet to do.

     Ten minutes later, he stepped through the portal and appeared again before Serana, who surprisingly was standing there stock still staring at the portal.

     As soon as Galeron had fully exited the portal, Serana dropped to one knee with her head bowed and addressed Galeron.

     "Lord Galeron, you have rescued me from a most terrible and uncertain fate and for this I'm truly grateful. In recompense for saving me, you've requested that I serve as your trusted and faithful servant for twenty full years. This is the least that I can do in order to repay your magnanimity and so I swear myself to you as you've requested. For the next twenty years, my life belongs to you. Use me as you see fit."

     Although it was hidden behind his mask, a wicked grin was slowly conquering the rest of Galeron's face.

     'Is that so…? Well, we shall see, sweet Serana. We shall see.'