Before Lena could go to Skyrim, there was one unfinished business she had to follow up on: Seridur. She had to choose between Roland and Seridur – which one would she believe? She chose to believe Roland.

Having asked around following Roland’s tip, she discovered that Seridur was known to take regular trips to the Memorial Cave, always carrying food and other supplies. Lena went to investigate.

The cave housed a small group of vampires whom Seridur was obviously supporting. Lena tried talking to him, but he attacked, and the other vampires joined in. There was no other way but to slay them.

There was however something strange about this group: the cave was set up for Necromancy, with several dread zombies and wraiths roaming in it. The only way these undead would have been ignoring the vampires was if the vampires had raised them. Were they then necromancers as well? Stranger things had happened.

Lena found a dead captive in a cell. Vampires would normally keep him alive. It all seemed that they were more interested in raising the dead than in maintaining their own existence. Could a vampire ascend to lichdom? Could an undead become undead?

Lena checked the corpses, collecting vampire dust. Almost all Elves. They did say that the Elves in the Imperial City looked out for each other. She checked Seridur. No vampire dust. His eyes hadn’t been red either. Was he perhaps an ex-vampire like herself? That would explain many things. And if he wasn’t drinking blood anymore, he would not have been able to sense her past vampirism either. Lena recalled that incident with Thadon’s chalice – her fangs had returned and she bit Dylan’s neck and drank his blood. No, she wasn’t a vampire any longer, but that blood had woken up her senses again. Not so with Seridur.

So what did really happen in that back alley in the Imperial City? Roland’s girlfriend came to stay with him, but after a time started taking solitary walks in the evenings. Roland suspected an affair, followed her and caught her in Seridur’s embrace. Roland claimed that Seridur was biting her neck, but what if it was a kiss, not a bite? Seridur turned on Roland, pushing away the girl, she slipped and fell, cracking her skull on the stones.

Both men were now blaming each other for her death, Roland out of jealousy, Seridur to protect his vampire friends. The Order of Virtuous Blood was a sham of course, but did Seridur really have to die? Lena never got a chance to find out what those vampires were like, but admittedly it didn’t look good. So be it, her hand had been forced.

14 Second Seed

It was well past midnight when Lena came out of the Memorial Cave. The whole affair left a rather unpleasant taste in her mouth – she felt like she was being used. She rode straight to Roland’s cabin to tell him of the outcome, and she didn’t care if she had to wake him for it. At least she was certain that he wasn’t a vampire.

Roland didn’t mind being woken up in the middle of the night. He thanked Lena and asked her to see him in Seridur’s house – he intended to carry on with The Order of Virtuous Blood.

“Well” – Lena thought on the way back. “They are not exactly competent. For all their talk of great knowledge, they didn’t suspect Seridur – or me, for that matter! And they should have. What a waste of space.”

She turned her thoughts towards her upcoming trip to Skyrim – Lucien would be meeting her in Bruma, then they would take the Pale Pass North.