45: Sigillum Sanguis

The entrance to the second minor tower opened directly into another bridge lock chamber. The massive gears were guarded only by an emaciated looking scamp, and they were soon turning and clanking after I had dispatched the creature and pulled the giant lever. I hoped to avoid the majority of this tower’s denizens by returning to the first tower’s now empty corridors, but as I stepped out onto the bridge connecting the two secondary towers, I realized that it was retracting faster than I could hope to outrun. I did confirm that the bridges leading to the Sigil Keep were extending and I could now make my way towards the stone.

I returned to the interior of the tower. Darkasha was sitting against the rough hewn stone of the wall, and sipping one of my heat relief potions. I helped him to his feet and he shook himself.

“The heat has been getting to me, I am sorry for my… sluggishness.” He said as he wiped some sweat from his brow. He pulled a wicked looking sword from the depths of his robe and swished it in the air. “I will attempt to be more useful.”

“That’s excellent news,” I said and blew out a sigh of relief. “And it couldn’t have come at a better time.” I then explained what I thought we were about to face, and he took it in with a silent gaze. “Do not worry about the heat; you will become more and more used to it.” I then turned and proceeded down towards the heart of the tower, where the bridge to the Sigil Keep connected. I was cautious, and used a spell of detect life to keep me from being surprised.

Darkasha’s aid made the trip towards the bridge incredibly easy compared to the battles I had fought before. He was slowed by the heat, but his speed was still unmatchable, and scamps and Dremora withered before the onslaught of his wicked blade. I contributed by keeping him from being surrounded and picking off foes from a distance. We carved a bloody swath towards the bridge, easily dispatching the churls and scamps. We were just about to open the door to the bridge, when a massive voice boomed out:

“YOU WILL FALL BEFORE THE MIGHT OF DAGON!” I turned and saw a massive blue-skinned creature hulking towards me, carrying two monstrous claymores in each hand and moving at an astonishing rate. Behind him a whole group of Dremora in full battle armor charged, screaming for blood. Darkasha flicked his tail once; sizing up this new enemy, then ran for the door to the bridge. I was closer to the door, and ran as fast as I could (my injury forgotten for the time being) out and along the thin bridge. I made it about a fourth of the way before Darkasha overtook me, and I knew then that nothing stood between me and the blue Daedra. I hurriedly summoned a scamp to slow the beast, but knew it would be cut through instantaneously by the razor sharp edges of the two claymores. My mind raced, and I knew that the Dark One was panicking as well.

All at once it hit me. I would use the creatures own momentum against it. I pulled a potion from my waist and broke it on the bridge in front of me, then pointed the staff towards the small puddle that coated the bridge and shot a blast of frost at it. I repeated this within a half meter or two and hoped the frost would hold. I had been running while I did this, and did not look back until I reached the other side of the bridge, where Darkasha was striking at the face of an unfortunate Dremora. I saw the crazed Daedra hit the first patch of ice and stumble, but the second patch of ice was what threw it off balance. It screamed as it tried to compensate, but then it tumbled and fell off the side of the bridge. It plummeted towards the lake of lava, its soul returning to the void. The group of Dremora still advanced along the bridge, but at a vastly reduced pace. I looked around near the entrance to the Sigil Keep and found a small, glowing lever, which I pulled hurriedly. The bridge groaned and began to retract, but it seemed far too slow. The Dremora screamed and began to run for me, but the gap between us increased too fast for them. One churl attempted to jump the widening gap. His screams echoed as he fell to his death.

I turned and entered the keep, where Darkasha had successfully cleared the level we were on. I congratulated him and we moved upward. The pillar of flame was rising towards the top of the tower, and I knew we were close to the Sigil Stone that supported this Oblivion gate. The journey was quiet, and there were few threats. It seemed that we had penetrated the only layer of defense the Daedra had set up. Finally, we reached the Sigil Stone Chamber. I carefully made my way up to the fleshy platform that supported the Sigil Stone’s iron chains. A large Dremora patrolled near the fiery sphere, lugging a massive battle ax and grimacing. I motioned to Darkasha, who looked at the guardian and smirked. Slowly, Darkasha faded out of sight, and I barely heard his footsteps moving up the meat-like slope. It sank slightly due to his weight, but otherwise there was no indication of his movement. A few seconds later, the Daedra was lying on the ground, twitching as his fluids drained out of the huge gash in his throat. Darkasha reappeared and flicked his sword to get some of the gore off of it. I approached the floating, trembling chains that held the Sigil Stone in place, Darkasha watched me with curiosity. I prepared myself mentally, then reached into the flames and grasped the pulsating stone. I gripped the smooth, warm surface and pulled with all my strength. The pillar of fire that had previously supported the stone burst into the air as the stone came free. Darkasha screamed as the air filled with fire, but it was more out of habit than pain. The flames did not actually affect us, as we were already being drawn back into Tamriel. Flames melted the inside of the tower and turned the air white. I felt the familiar tugging as I was pulled back into reality.

I landed gracefully, more or less. Darkasha on the other hand was writhing about, trying to get over the effects of the flames and the return to Tamriel. I stopped his writhing and helped him to his feet. Dawn was just beginning to break on the horizon, and I looked around for some place to get my vampiric companion out of the rays of the sun. Not far off through the trees I could barely make out the silhouette of a building. I helped Darkasha to his feet and we walked towards what would hopefully become our resting place for the night.

44: Return to Oblivion

I hobbled towards the burning gateway and summoned a scamp to deal with a stunted, feeble looking scamp who was quite easily dispatched by my minion. Darkasha still stood a long way away from the portal. I stepped over the scorched body of the scamp runt and stood before the gate. Fiery tendrils licked at me from the edge of the portal, but they did not burn. I reached out and touched the thin film that separated me from the plane of Oblivion, and once again felt the unusual chill that had run through me when I had stepped through the portal at Kvatch. My touch caused slight ripples in the filmy surface, and they continued to bounce around even after I had withdrawn my finger.

I turned and yelled at Darkasha, “Come! These flames do not burn! You needn’t worry, vampire!” I motioned with my hand, signaling him to come closer. “COME!”

He stepped cautiously towards me, and then was standing at my side in a flash. The portal’s tendrils licked at him, but I knew he wasn’t being burned. He stared at the surface of the portal, mesmerized by its twisting facets.

“Now this may be a bit of a shock…” I said, and pushed him with all my strength. He started and tried to push me away, but in doing so he lost his balance and fell through the portal. I sighed and stepped through after him. I felt the chill pass through my body, followed by the inferno of Oblivion.

Darkasha was standing slightly in front of me, his usually graceful body slumped and still. He was staring at the sight before us. I found myself staring as well. Three huge towers rose from the rubble strewn wastes, and corpses hung from the sides of the spires. Fire shot from the middle tower in intermittent bursts, leading me to believe that was where the Sigil Stone was. I clambered on top of some nearby rubble in order to get a better view of my surroundings, but all I could see was the entrances to the two nearest towers. I hopped down and tapped Darkasha on the shoulder. He started and jumped back from me.

“Careful,” I said, “it is unwise to not watch where you are stepping here. We need to find a way into that tower,” I pointed to the center tower. “In there is a thing called a Sigil Stone. If we can remove that we can close this gate. There’s going to be a lot standing in our way though. Come on.” I started moving towards the base of the closest towers.

“It’s so hot.” Darkasha stared into space. “I can’t handle this. My skin is… burning!” He scratched his arms vigorously. I searched through my pack momentarily. I pulled up a large flask of potion that had “HEAT RELIEF” written on it in my own writing. I wasn’t particularly adept at potion making, but I was proud of this. I had made it back in Cheydinhal to be a slow acting relief from heat. I handed it to him and told him to drink it. He chugged it and flinched, but was visibly relieved. I pulled a second and third vial from my satchel, drank one and handed the other to Darkasha for later. He placed it somewhere in his robe and we started towards the tower.

The nearest spire had the words “The Sorrow Keep” written in Daedric runes across its gigantic stone doors. I pressed my hand against the ashen door and it ground open slowly. A blast of spiteful energy exploded beside my head, and I raised the staff to retaliate. The hideous face of a Dremora churl jumped out at me, screaming vile obscenities and swinging a huge mace. A blast of frost from my staff threw him off balance, and I finished him off with a strike from my staff.

“Something is wrong.” I said, kicking the churl’s body away from the door. “This is too easy.” I cast a spell to detect life, hoping to cut through the blackness within the tower. There was no pillar of flame erupting from the center pool of lava like the last tower I had been in in Kvatch’s portal. I stepped back outside and looked toward the central tower. It lay on the other side of a river of lava. However, a pair of extend able bridges jutted out from the two nearby towers and would connect to the central tower. I just needed to find a way to extend them. I pulled Darkasha into the tower and we ascended through the dark, echoing halls.

We fought our way past many scamps and churls, but each died quickly and without much fight. Darkasha never even helped me, and I bashed my way up to the top level with him in tow. The chamber at the top of the spire was similar to the one I had encountered before, but the sigil stone and pillar of fire were gone. Also, a number of huge gears dominated one side of the upper level of the chamber. I left Darkasha to guard a door that led to a bridge connecting the two subordinate towers. There was a crank next to the massive gears that, after I had dispatched the feeble guards, sent the gears spinning. I heard the grinding of stone and hurried to meet Darkasha. Hopefully the bridge to the Sigil Keep would be extended now.

I met Darkasha and opened the door to the outside of the tower. The bridge in front of me was extending towards the other subordinate tower, but a glance at the main spire told me the bridges were not yet extended. The door leading in to the other lesser tower opened and a Dremora stepped out. I immediately summoned a scamp to deal with it, but was surprised to see my summoned creature incinerated before it could even reach the Dremora. I hurled a fireball at the heavily armored thing, but it just shrugged it off. Clearly, this wasn’t like the churls I had fought in the Sorrow Keep.

The Dremora screamed and ran towards me along the narrow bridge. I realized I wouldn’t be able to match it in hand-to-hand or even magical combat for very long, so I readied a dangerous plan that would send either the daedra or myself plummeting several hundred feet into a pool of lava.

As the obscene creature charged, I pulled the Staff back as if I was going to hit the dremora in the face, but then hooked the end of the staff around the thing’s leg and yanked it towards the edge of the bridge. It screamed and plummeted to the lake of lava. I yelled in triumph, and then turned to enter the other tower. Something told me that this “Anguish Keep” would be more difficult to cleanse than the other. I pushed Darkasha in front of me and opened the stone door.

“Let’s go,” I said. “Just two more to go.”

43: Sharing the Pain

I hobbled along at an increased pace, but I knew that nothing short of a constant sprint could get me to Leyawiin in such a short time. The damned vampire’s expectations were unreasonable. The sun was already beginning its descent by the time I had received Darkasha’s ultimatum, and now it was getting late. I had stopped only once so far, to pay my respects at a wayshrine to Dibella. I had even unwrapped my aching foot and splashed some of the consecrated waters from the basin onto my wound, hoping to cleanse it with the goddess’s blessing. The Khajiit looked on disapprovingly as I did this, his tail flicking irritably from side to side. I re wrapped my wound with a fresh cloth and we set out again.

I did move more freely after the cleansing waters, though still quite difficultly. Darkasha followed me at a distance, flitting between shadows and shrubs so fast that he was simply a blur. He even climbed up a huge tree and began jumping from branch to branch above me as I plodded along, stuck to the ground. I became increasingly angry at him as he showed off his acrobatic talents. He began gaining distance ahead of me and I hurried to catch up to him. Soon I was so angry that I was shooting short blasts of fire at him as he cackled in the treetops.

“Will,” said the echoing voice of the Dark One, “You’re running.”

And so I was. I had been shooting flames from the tip of the Staff and holding it with both hands while running to keep up with the damned Khajiit. All of a sudden, my rage turned to ecstasy. I was running along, laughing at my lack of disability. Then Darkasha was trotting alongside me, moving at an extremely slow pace for him.

“Slow down,” he said, “You will hurt yourself.” I ignored him. I was running again! It was glorious! Why would I stop when there were no signs of pain or…

Then the pain hit. Excruciating, blinding pain shot up my leg, and I screamed and clutched it, tumbling to the ground. It was worse than before. I focused extreme amounts of healing magic into my leg, but the pain wouldn’t fade away. I could even hear the Dark One screaming in my mind, for my pain had transcended the barrier between us. Darkasha forced a bottle to my mouth, and I gulped down a healing potion gratefully. He then gave me another, and I could feel the pain slowly subside.

A few minutes later, I was sitting up and clutching my leg. Tears dripped off of my face slowly, but I had stopped whimpering. Darkasha was standing over me, not forcing me up or even coming very close to me. The Staff lay next to me glowing bright white and vibrating gently. Nevertheless, every movement of the Staff caused it to clatter against the stones quite loudly, and Darkasha flinched at every noise it made.

I reached out and grabbed the staff, and found that it was incredibly warm to the touch. I probed into the Mind of the Dark One and found that he was experiencing incredible pain, as bad as mine had been. In fact, I realized that it was my pain he was living through. Somehow he had siphoned it off and was taking the brunt of it, while I received only a dull ache. Realizing this, I attempted to retrieve some of the pain from him, so that we could share the terrible burden. The glow in the staff subsided as pain ripped through my leg, and once again I was writhing on the ground. At some point, the pain truly diminished, and the staff returned to its usual ebony hue. I was able to quiet the ache in my leg with the help of magic.

Soon I was back on my feet and walking towards Leyawiin. Darkasha became incredibly silent, like a shadow at my side. His cold stare indicated that he had every intention of still making Leyawiin before the next morning, and I soldiered on despite the ache in my leg. In fact, I was moving at an increased pace compared to what I had been able to do the day before, and the ache was fading.

Neither of us said anything as we made our way along the now dark road. Night had fallen during my painful episode, and Darkasha was strengthened by the absence of sunlight. Still, he was incredibly wary. Finally, I broke the silence between us.

“What is wrong?” I said after working out the lump in my throat that remained from my screams. I could see his nostrils flaring then, moving at a quick pace, reading the air.

“Fire.” He said, and I swear that I could hear the fear in his voice. “We are getting closer to it.”

“A forest fire?” The trees were still green and living, surely they couldn’t catch flame that easily.

“No, it is… something else. I also smell,” he sniffed and cocked his head. “Lava… and blood.” He seemed surprised at the presence of blood, but I trusted his nose. Khajiits are known for their sense of smell, and vampires can smell blood from great distances. I had an idea of what he was talking about, but I was afraid to say it.

Then we rounded a corner and I could see the flames. I could also feel the magic that saturated the area. It was a kind of magic that I was very familiar with: Daedric Conjuration. Then I knew, even before I saw the stone pillars that contained the fiery portal, that a gate to Oblivion was open nearby. I gripped the Staff more tightly, then began walking towards the gate. Darkasha grabbed me and stopped my advance.

“What are you doing?” he asked incredulously. “Have you gone mad?”

“No,” I said, “but what I am about to do may seem as such.”

“What?” he asked, releasing me slightly.

“I’m going to close that Oblivion gate.”

42: The Single Step

I was dripping with rage as I returned to the Arena district the following morning. I felt I was prepared for what Darkasha would throw at me, especially during daylight. After all, I had spent the night reading up on vampires and how to ward them off. I had been disappointed that there wasn’t a singular thing that could hold them at bay, such as a holy symbol or an amulet. There was some useful knowledge contained in the dusty old book I had purchased in The First Edition, and it made for an interesting read, but nothing I read would stop a vampire in its tracks.

I had been so interested in the book, in fact, that I do not know where I spent the night, or how much it had cost. I was fairly certain I had rented a room somewhere, but the rest was a blur. I remember most of what I read, however. Vampires were weak both to fire and sunlight, though how weak they were depended on when they had last had a “meal” of blood. They were generally more skilled in the arts of a thief, sticking to shadows and the night, though they could also be exceptionally fast and strong. After what I had seen in the Arena, I was sure Darkasha was the latter.

I had the thought of a fireball spell at the front of my mind as I approached the pillar where I was to meet Darkasha. I expected to see him cowering in the shadows in a heavy robe somewhere nearby, but instead he was standing in the middle of the plaza, the hood of his dark robe hung loosely around his shoulders. His fur was pale, and the sun reflected off his face quite brightly. I pondered whether the fur shaded his skin from the sun, or if he was simply very resistant to the effects of the sun. I shuddered to think who had been bitten last night.

“Oh good!” Darkasha said with a smirk, “I am pleased to see you, for so many who come to me are… frightened off before their first lesson.”

“I can’t imagine why.” I said with a grimace. “Perhaps it’s the teeth, or maybe your… draining demeanor.”

“Now, now Syras. No need to be so icy.” The Khajiit’s grin grew even wider, and became slightly evil looking. “Now come, we have quite a way to walk.” He turned and began walking towards the coliseum. “I just need to get a few things first.” He said over his shoulder.

“I will wait out here in the sunlight.” I said, “I just love sunlight so much.”

The sun had crawled over the wall, slowly climbing towards the top of its arc. I basked momentarily in the glory of the light. It was warm and comforting, and after a week in cold mountainous regions it was fantastic. I rolled the sleeves of my robe up a ways to let some of the light hit my skin. I realized then how pale it was. I had been in that prison for far too long and I sighed as my skin soaked up the light.

The Khajiit returned carrying a satchel quite similar to mine. “Food,” He said and shook the bag lightly; “we will be out for a while.”

“I thought surely you would have eaten last night.” I said, somewhat viciously.

“True,” he said, then flashed his fangs at me, “I… fed this morning. It was a fabulous feast.” He turned and walked towards the city gates. I followed reluctantly, disturbed by his choice of the word “fed.”

We walked out of the city, though my style of walking was significantly more labored than his flowing waltz. We began walking down the road to Bravil and Leyawiin, according to the road sign we passed. Eventually I had to stop and rest my legs, for they were cramping up and slowing down.

“Wait!” I called to him, for he was several paces ahead of me. “I must rest.” I sat down on a rock and sent waves of healing magic through my legs. The wound that was cauterized back in Cheydinhal still burned and shot pain up my leg, and my other leg was not used to this much action.

“Very well,” Darkasha said, “We shall rest for a short while, but we must keep moving. It is the only way to regain use of your leg, and we must make better time than this.”

“Where are we going?” I asked as I stretched my legs slowly. “Bravil?”

“No, Leyawiin. And we must keep going from there.” He casually picked some dirt from his fur and flicked it away.

“Leyawiin?” I asked incredulously, “That’s easily a two day walk!” My legs ached even thinking about the journey.

“And we must get there before tomorrow morning.”

“What? There’s no way we can make that kind of time. Maybe if we hired some horses, but otherwise it’s impossible!”

“Well, I would suggest you start walking anyway, or else.” He said menacingly.

“Or else what?”

“Or else I will feast upon every drop of your blood.”