Vile Deals

Elsewhere :

Charlotte rides the single horse cart up the frozen road while occasionally looking over her shoulder to make sure her mother, Maria, was still present in the back.

Her decision to leave the group wasn't an easy one, but she'd made it nonetheless, choosing her mother's wellbeing over her own comfort and safety. She'd researched enough to know who the voice in her head belonged to, so she knew exactly what she was heading into.

The voice had been leading her ever since she'd left Winterhold College, and now she'd finally arrived to her destination. It didn't look like much if she were honest, the cave which sat East of Helgen looking as if it'd been abandoned by both people and animals for centuries.

"Yes, now skip along inside and clear it of its current residents. Don't worry, they might bite, but I'm sure a girl of your skills won't have any trouble at all!" the voice whispers into her ear, prompting her to tie her horse to a nearby tree and escort her mother into the cave called Haemar's Shame.

She holds her mother's hand in her left and grips her staff tightly in her right, spells already prepared for whatever threat lay within. A quiet chant leaves her lips and a breeze blows through the cave, allowing her to catch a few sounds coming from further inside.

"M-Master, Lord Vile still has not answered your call... What if he-"

"Silence! I won't have my actions criticized by a weak, pathetic thrall! Hold your tongue before I tear it out!" a man hisses in response.

Vampires then... With the clue Vile gave her, it only made sense... Unfortunately, her Frost spells were very ineffective against undead creatures such as Vampires or Draugr. Their Frost resistance makes them almost completely immune to them.

She could crush them under a block of ice of course, or blow them apart with high projectile shards, but that would be inefficient at best, and allow them a chance to retaliate.

Charlotte wasn't a one-trick however, she still had her Wind magic. Her original ice magic was based on her proclivity towards wind and water elemental energies. Thus, she could still be considered a master when it came to using separate elements.

Continuing further inside, she spots a lone thrall standing guards at the entrance to a larger section of the cave. More were probably behind them, so she had to be sneaky about this to get the jump on them.

Another chant later and Charlotte gently blows some air from her mouth towards the thrall, "Thrall, come this way! And stay your tongue or else!" the previous vampire's voice exclaims into the thralls ear, the sound completely isolated to just him.

"Y-..." the thrall almost instinctively answers but cuts himself off in time before beginning to walk towards Charlotte.

Tapping her staff onto the ground once the thrall was out of sight from his compatriots, his head rolls onto the ground after a blade of air severs it.

"!!" Maria looks down in shock at the headless thrall, but Charlotte quickly calms her by wrapping some fabric around her eyes to act as a blindfold.

The next room was dealt with just as easily, Charlotte using soundless wind blades to dismember them before they could do anything. Five thralls and one freshly turned vampire, dead.

"Hmm hmm! Well done! All that's left is that bloody loud-mouth in my chamber!" Clavicus Vile's voice sounds out in her ear.

She nods, sneaking over to the entrance to the chamber with Maria in hand, quickly spotting the vampire that was praying to a large shrine of Clavicus Vile, the statue depicting an imp-like man holding up a horned mask.

"Please release me from this curse that I was forced to take, Lord Vile! I will do anything! Pledge my soul to you for all eternity!... Just free me from Molag Bal's grasp!" the master vampire prays, almost begging as he knelt prostrate before the statue.

"You wish to be freed? To give yourself to me for eternity?" a loud voice asks from the statue.

"Yes!" the vampire exclaims, looking shocked that he'd finally received a response.

"And you will do anything I ask in exchange!?"

"Y-yes!"

Clavicus Vile chuckles, "Then, I accept." he states but continues via whispering in Charlotte's ear, "Now, finish him! Sever his head as you'd done with his servants!"

Charlotte nods, uncaring for the plight of the vampire. A whispered chant later and the vampire's head drops to the floor... And begins to float in the ear, eyes still wide and aware as a dull glow encapsulates it.

"W-what isss thisssss!?" the vampire hisses in agonizing pain as the pressure on his skull builds.

*CRACK!*

The skull is crushed inwards as the vampire screams despite lacking any lungs.

*CRACK!*

Again, it shrinks. The vampire's skin slowly turns an ash black as the process continues.

*CRACK!*

Again. The vampire's eyes becoming squashed and condensed, filling with blood as they begin to resemble eye-shaped rubies.

*CRACK!*

One final time, the head now looking like a small ornate black face that one would wear on a necklace, with a gaping fanged mouth and horrified ruby eyes. The vampire's spine snakes itself from its corpse and goes through a similar process, eventually becoming the string of the necklace.

"Hahahahaha! What a marvellous thing you've become! Quite the fashion statement, Arkmis! Hmm, I shall name you. The Chain of Arkmis!"

"T-this... Is... Not... What... We... Agreed... On..." the Vampire, Arkmis' voice struggles out from the newly created artifact.

Clavicus Vile laughs, "No, this is exactly what we agreed upon! Your soul is mine, instead of my brute of a brother, Molag Bal's. We just never agreed in what state you would continue in!... Now, be silent, I have other deals to make." he says, the vampire going silent as Charlotte feels the Daedric Prince's focus lock on her.