46: The Journey

I awoke from my rather stiff bed quite early, the sun had not yet risen above the horizon, though the sky had taken a golden hue. I stretched my aching limbs and massaged the muscles of my leg. They hadn’t given me any trouble the night before, but now they were beginning to ache, and my foot throbbed with a painful beat. I drew my robes up around me and bit into an apple before descending to the first floor of the inn.

I took another bite of the apple and nodded to the inn keeper, who seemed to be trying to tidy the place up a bit in case any new travelers stopped in. It was a quiet place, no doubt the nearby Oblivion gate had been hard on their business. Indeed, when I told the innkeeper the preceding night that we had closed the gate, he simply embraced me and told me the rooms were free whenever we wanted them. Unwilling to help with his menial task, I stepped outside into the warm morning.

We had not yet reached the sweltering swamplands near Bravil and Leyawiin, but the forests here were in stark contrast to the woods near Cheydinhal. I walked slowly through the nearby woods, stretching my legs and gathering ingredients for potions. The usefulness of such ingredients had proved itself the previous night, with the heat relief potions I had chanced to make many days ago. I was beginning to remember many of the effects of various and sundry ingredients, and began putting together recipes in my head for useful potions.

I returned to the inn to see if my comrade had awoken yet. He was sitting on the bed in his room sipping out of a large flask I had not seen him with before. He looked up from the floor and glared at me with horrible red slits for eyes. When he greeted me I saw that his fangs were even more pronounced than before. I must have looked shocked because he grinned and sloshed the flask around.

“Human blood,” he said menacingly, “I have to keep some with me for emergency feedings.” He took another swig of the flask and bared his fangs at me, which I noticed had begun to shrink back to their original size. “I can conceal my vampirism so long as I feed, and sunlight has little effect on me as well.” Another swig went down his throat and I noticed his eyes cloud over and then become a natural looking green, though they still had a red tint around the edges of his pupils. He corked the flask and stowed it somewhere in his robes. “That will be enough for now. Now we must depart.” I nodded and he pushed past me towards the exit of the inn. I made to thank the innkeeper and he instead thanked me once again for closing the oblivion gate. He said that he would always keep a room open for me whenever I needed it. I thanked him and followed after Darkasha.

He was already a good ways down the road and traveling at a fast clip, so I walked as fast as I could after him, though my foot protested. I knew I could jog slowly now if I didn’t think about my severed toes, or at least when I was otherwise distracted by fear or anger. Nevertheless, I walked. I called out to Darkasha and he slowed slightly, though not enough to make much difference. Wherever we were going, he did not want to be late. I cast a healing spell on my leg to combat the dull ache in my leg, and pushed on. The Staff crackled with animosity towards Darkasha, and I wondered if perhaps the Dark One was jealous of the vampire’s mobility. I couldn’t blame him, to be honest. I would certainly rather be mobile than crippled, though I would not want to pay the terrible price that was vampirism.

We reached Bravil in fairly good time, but I was exhausted and already a day had passed since Darkasha said we should be in Leyawiin in two days. I honestly doubted we could make it, but Darkasha was determined. I suggested we rent out a small boat and follow the current downstream to Leyawiin, but he adamantly declined and we set off again after a very short rest. It seemed like I had barely sat down before he insisted we begin moving again.

Darkasha walked slower as dawn approached. He withdrew the same flask I had seen him with earlier from within his robes and began to drink, though he downed it in one gulp and became visibly worried. He shook the last few drops of blood onto his tongue and corked the flask with shaking hands. Having read about vampires, I knew that he only had a few hours left before he would become susceptible to sunlight. Vampires (according to the book) have to feed every 24 hours, though they must feed even sooner if the blood is not fresh, as Darkasha no doubt knew. He stuffed the flask back into the folds of his robe and turned to me.

“I must feed soon, or else I will become… enraged.” His eyes darted back and forth with panic, “I… I will return… No, no…. I shall meet you in Leyawiin. Ensure that you are there before sunset, or I shall become very… cross.” With that he turned and darted off into the wilderness.

“He had better hurry,” the Dark One said, rather smugly, “There isn’t any civilization for quite a ways. Even at his speed he will be pushing his luck.” I sighed and began to walk again.

“I just hope he doesn’t rip apart a whole town looking for blood,” I said, shaking my head and trying to return to the pace I was at before the vampire left. “In his state I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s like a skooma addict looking for a fix.”

“What meaningless errand are we going to be doing for the Blades, anyway?” the Dark One groaned, “Surely the vampire has connections with them, though I cannot imagine it.” The Staff pulsed along with his thoughts. I thought about the powerful Khajiit as a Blade trainer, and it clicked.

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” I thought to him, “Though I’m sure you’re right. Darkasha, as odd as it seems, is a Blade.”