Midyear, 3E437 – A trap

“This contract is for an ancient vampire,” Lena read a scroll she picked up from a dead drop. “It says to prepare well – this job will be difficult. There will be other vampires around, and I may have to eliminate them too before I can get to the target. This almost sounds too difficult…” She mused. “Does the Speaker trust me that much or is this a trap?”

She would investigate this contract first, the same as any other dead drop, but she didn’t think this ancient vampire was a member of the Brotherhood. Even if the contract had been switched, there was no reason to spare him. “I am to bring proof why I chose to spare the target, or why I thought the contract was fake,” she tried to recall Lucien’s words. “Does it mean I don’t have to kill the target even if it is not a Brother? Hmm… Well, it’s investigate first anyway. Let’s see what I can find.”

The vampire was to be found in one of the Ayleid ruins. Lena had visited many such ruins and knew to expect traps as well as hostile tenants, with traps often being more deadly. Investigating this vampire would mean going through the entire ruin first looking for clues. She took care to be prepared, she waited a day after feeding to allow her senses to sharpen, then she went in.

The ruin was filled with traps and undead, just as Lena expected. The first section yielded no clues, so she went deeper in. The next section had vampire scouts, she tried to talk to them, but they attacked, she won without much trouble. “That’s an unfriendly bunch,” Lena shook her head. “The contract was right – there is no talking to them. These were just scouts, I should be careful of what is to come.”

She took care to search that section thoroughly as well, and in one of the Ayleid casks she found an old letter with mold eating its edges. Much of the writing was smudged and faded with time, but a few words stood out. “…Delacour… …Brotherh… …istant famil…” She froze. Delacour was her mother’s last name, she had been a Dark Brotherhood assassin. Could the ancient vampire residing here be in fact family? “Or it could be a trap,” a voice of reason said in her head. “This could have been fabricated.”

It could have been; but could she really afford to ignore it? What if… what if it was true? What if once the vampire knew who she was… What, exactly? “Receive you with open arms?” The voice of reason in her head was mocking. “May be… you never know,” the voice of hope replied. “Well, don’t drop your guard, regardless!”

Lena stashed away the letter and prepared to continue her exploration.

The next section she tried had more unfriendly vampires and several undead. The fights were difficult enough and she got wounded. She stopped the bleeding but her endurance took a dent. And then, when she started searching the halls for evidence, a new wave of undead arose. “This is a crypt!” Lena realised. “I eliminated the intruders, and now the guardians rise again to eliminate me!”

Wraiths were never easy to fight. Even though vampires were largely immune to cold, repeated curses did have an effect. Lena was growing hungry, it would not take long and she’d be famished, and then she’d start losing health to hunger alone…

By the time Lena managed to defeat the guardian wraiths, she grew completely cold herself, with any benefits of her recent feeding vanished. The casks in the crypt held no new clues. All the fighting had been for naught.

“Well, I mustn’t get discouraged,” she told herself. “I could not have known it until I searched. May be the next hall will have something.”

Retracing her steps to the previous section and trying another door, she entered another hall with vampires and wraiths, and more fighting followed. Again, Lena’s endurance took a dent. The search afterwards yielded another mold-covered letter with just a few legible words: “…Lilian… …dau…hter… …Niben Bay…”.

“Something about my mother and me living near the Niben Bay…” Lena quickly put it together. She stashed away the letter and resolved to search for more.

The ruin was vast. So many doors leading to passages, halls and crypts, some of them having more moldy letters, most just having vampires and wraiths. By the time Lena made it into the depths, she was tired and her hunger started making her weak. Any advantage in strength that she had from being a vampire, was now erased. Only her senses kept serving her well, now as sharp as ever.

“The ancient vampire must be in this section,” Lena realised, inhaling the stale air. “The scent has changed.” Perhaps she should just leave? She was certain that contract wasn’t from Lucien. But how could she leave without finding out who the vampire was? And what about all those letters? She had to know at least whether they were real or fake. She decided to proceed with caution.

The halls were empty, it seemed the vampire liked solitude. Yet he was there somewhere, and Lena followed the scent. She was as quiet as she could make it but she had no illusions that the vampire could smell her as well.

“Well well, the Wolf child is here,” she heard a hoarse voice but couldn’t see anyone – the vampire was cloaked. “Has your Brotherhood served you well? Is your loving family really worth it? How do you like fighting a wraith every time you sleep?”

“I don’t like it, it is exhausting,” Lena said, trying to pinpoint the vampire’s location. “Who are you?”

“Haven’t you found the letters?” The vampire chuckled, his voice kept moving around the hall. “I knew your mother… knew of her, anyway… we are indeed family, distant, but family still… What did you expect?”

A direct question like that made Lena stop in her tracks. What did she expect, indeed?

“I hoped for guidance on how to be a vampire,” she said, still looking around.

Sudden pain pierced her body, she felt weak and dropped to her knees; the room started spinning, she was about to black out… but she didn’t, the dizziness passing after a while. She got up, still shaking.

“This was your first lesson,” the vampire’s voice spoke again. “I cannot drink your undead blood but I can absorb your life force anyway. A mortal would have now been infected with vampirism… isn’t it how you got it yourself? It is a common enough spell, that…”

“I don’t use it,” Lena said defiantly. “I know it spreads the disease.”

“A world improver, eh?” The vampire laughed with derision. “The Hero of Kvatch and Bruma! Oh yes, I read the papers… And what did you gain from your connection to the Blades? From your audience with late Uriel Septim? Respect, riches perhaps?” He laughed again. “But no, you are shunned by both mortals and vampires alike! Vampires cannot be heroes, girl! You have to choose a side!”

Another flash of pain pierced her body, her blood seemed to boil, her skin was ablaze… Then the pain subsided, but weakness remained.

“Fire, we cannot stand it,” the vampire’s voice spoke. “I hate the singed fingertips this spell leaves in its wake, but I wager the effect is worth it. Is it not so, my pupil?” He shrieked, and Lena startled – the voice was very close. Then she smelled him, a stale scent of old paper laced with nirnroot and nightshade… She lunged at the scent, swinging her cutlass wildly until she felt it slice flesh, she lunged again, and dark drops appeared on the floor – the vampire was bleeding. “Insolent child!!” He cried and burning wounds slashed Lena’s thighs, her iron breastplate still keeping her chest protected. “Attacking me!! I shall kill you where you stand!!!”

Another powerful attack cut into Lena’s neck above the breastplate, another fireball burned her through… “This is the end, he will kill me,” she thought, her mind detaching from her body. “This was a trap all along…”

“Escape!!” A voice of reason shouted in her head. “You are a vampire still, you are not dead, so run!! And hope he won’t follow!”

She ran. With the last of her strength she cast on her invisibility cloak and ran for the door. The cloak would be dispelled on the other side, her only hope was that the vampire would not follow…

She ran through the halls jumping over traps, but she was in panic and she missed here and there. The wounds left by the traps caused additional bleeding, she was growing weaker and weaker, it would not take long and she’d collapse…

When she finally made it to the first hall and saw the door leading out, she stopped. The vampire wasn’t chasing her, she was alone. She was badly wounded, she was famished too, she should at least bandage her wounds. She sat on a sarcophagus and went about it.

“She’s been there for a day now,” she suddenly heard a voice near the entrance. “She must be dead. We can go and loot the place.”

“The place had already been looted,” another voice objected. “When we put those letters. We’re just here to collect the reward.”

“What reward?” The first voice sounded dubious.

“A reward for a job well done,” the second voice chuckled. Lena realised that the two men were headed deeper into the ruin, so she quickly collected her things and followed them.

“Mind the traps in this section,” one man said to the other. “They’ll likely kill you quicker than any vampire.”

“How much further?” The other man sounded uncertain.

“It’s behind the crypt,” Lena heard rustling paper, they must have been looking at a map. “Let’s hope she cleared it for us, or else we’ll have to run past the wraiths.”

“Run past the wraiths?! Are you sure?!” The fear in the man’s voice was unmistakable.

“He’s sweating already,” Lena realised, as the scent hit her nostrils.

“It will be worth it, you’ll see,” the first man sounded reassuring. “You’ll never earn that much coin with a single job!”

He pushed the door to the crypt and let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew! No wraiths,” he said with glee. “Mat did say she’d be thorough. Come on! It’s in the next hall.”

Lena stopped following. The next hall was the one with the ancient vampire. Should she warn these two idiots that they were the payment, in fact? And who was Mat? This was a lead too good to miss… but how to proceed?

She didn’t have time to think about it, one of the men was already pushing the door to the hall. Lena didn’t follow.

Instead, she stood waiting. The walls of the Ayleid ruin were thick, the doors closed tightly, and no sound escaped from the other hall, but of course she knew what was going on. The vampire would feed. One man would be dead already, the other might still be alive, subdued, left for later. The vampire’s senses would dull immediately after feeding… It was now or never.

She pushed the door and entered the hall.

She didn’t know what she hoped to find, but this was the one hall she hadn’t searched. The vampire wasn’t cloaked, he was still feeding on one of the men. “He’s keeping both of them alive,” she realised. “They are to be cattle… well well.” Keeping an eye on the vampire, she stayed in the shadows at a distance. She found an alcove crammed with books and scrolls, a small laboratory was next, an enchanting station, other magical tools… “This explains the smell of old tomes, nirnroot and nightshade about him,” she realised. “He is a mage. Oh look – this letter looks new.” She stashed it away without reading, there was no time. The vampire finished feeding, it was time to leave.

“I know you are back, I do not go blind when I feed,” he said loudly. “Impertinence! But I suppose it runs in the family,” he chuckled. “The letters are fake but they could have been real, it matters not. Should I kill you now, I wonder?” He stood in the entrance to the alcove cutting off Lena’s retreat. He was an Altmer.

“Greywyn had joined your Brotherhood but he now lies dead. I walked my own path, and gained immortality. This is how to be a vampire, girl.” He looked at her and chuckled. “Someone from your Brotherhood sought me out, I was supposed to kill you in exchange for those two,” he jerked his head towards the men slumped in the corner. “But you surprised me, Wolf child. I let you live this time, for family’s sake.” He stepped aside. “Go now and never come back, for I like my solitude.”

He didn’t need to ask her twice. Lena ran towards the exit. She threw another glance around the hall – the vampire was still standing near the alcove, a tall man in a richly embroidered robe, looking at her with interest. She noticed a bed in another corner, another alcove with books, a grate with embers… An Altmer in an Ayleid hall, he looked at home.

“Goodbye, Great Uncle,” Lena said with a little bow and left the hall.

…

The sun was too bright and Lena quickly shut the outer door of the Ayleid ruin returning to the entrance hall. She’d have to wait for the night. She survived so far, she had to conserve her strength and make it to Lucien’s fort. She felt this report could not wait, she’d have to sleep and feed later.

It took her most of the night to reach Fort Farragut. She was hoping to feed along the way, but the bandit resisted, there was a fight and she killed him before she could feed. His corpse was still warm but his heart wasn’t beating. “And neither does mine,” she told herself. “I must feed.” She bit his neck but without the heartbeat, his blood wouldn’t flow. She started massaging his heart, just enough for her to feed, yet the taste of his blood had changed. She drank some, then turned away with disgust. Namira would remind her of that night later.

She entered Lucien’s fort just before dawn. She hadn’t fed enough, she would have to remain there until the next nightfall, she hoped he wouldn’t mind. Lucien wasn’t there, she put the letters and scrolls on the table, quickly adding a note that she needed to talk and could not leave until dark, then she curled up in a ball and fell asleep in the corner, ready to face the Wrath of Sithis. What’s another wraith? She’d faced so many… Was it worth it? She had no time to think, the battle went on and on.