A/N: Hope you like this. Please tell me if you find any errors or any way that I could improve the story later. Review.

Disclaimer: I don't own Skyrim.

Brodith wasn't a fighter, not of the warrior variety anyway. He was a thief, someone that tried to sneak past their enemies or kill them before they even knew he was there. It was really the only way he could fight, since he was too slight in build to go toe to toe with many foes and easily win.

That strategy had served the bosmer well ever since he escaped his execution at Helgen two weeks ago. He'd gotten a lot more skilled with his bow and sneaking around, mostly due to practical experience. Fighting bandits and sneaking up on mages that could burn him to a crisp or turn him into an ice sculpture was a trial by fire, but those trials had given him the incentive not to be caught.

No matter how much he'd grown, the elf wasn't anywhere near to fight a dragon. He'd seen how much power just one of them could wield – the dragon destroying a small town in the span of less than an hour was a shocking realization of just how weak men and mer were compared to it. If that was the norm, than he was going to leave the dragon slaying to the Empire and run away whenever he saw one.

Jarl Balgruuf had proved to be a good leader in his attempts to stay out of the Civil War sweeping Skyrim, and Brodith hoped that he would prove just as good at fighting the dragons if they were truly returning. He hadn't seen one since Helgen, which might have meant that it was just a random incident. For now, he was ignoring the problem. It wasn't his fight.

But the dragon made him realize how weak he was. Skyrim was a land of many dangers, and he needed to improve if he wanted to survive in his new adventuring career. And by now he had improved enough to fight a vampire – admittedly, it was with help from a guard in Whiterun – and actually did most of the damage to the monster with his sword and dagger than his bow. He was pleased with the result – one dead vampire and decent armor to sell, plus some expensive vampire dust – and the guard had directed him to an area east of Riften where some group called the Dawnguard was forming.

Since he needed to continue improving, and fighting vampires would be good experience, Brodith had journeyed to it. At the very least this "Dawnguard" could probably give him some pointers.

He'd been a little unnerved with some of the people there – a few were nearly fanatical in their devotion to slaying vampires – but overall didn't mind them. After waiting for Isran and that Vigilant of Stendarr to finish talking, Brodith had been given orders to journey to Dimhollow Crypt. The bosmer had left after just a few days at Fort Dawnguard, where he had learned how to use his crossbow. It was a surprisingly enjoyable weapon to use, and he had been ensured that it would be effective against any vampires he came across.

Once he was sure that he could use it well, he journeyed to the crypt. Aside from a few bandits trying to hold him up – they had been quickly dispatched by his blades, since they were too close for his crossbow – and a single vampire hunting, it was a quiet journey. After ten days of travelling, he had gotten to the crypt.

After cautiously entering and keeping an eye out for any vampires, he had encountered two of them near the entrance. Brodith carefully dispatched them with the crossbow and continued on his way, pausing only to take their dust. He could take the rest of their things on a return journey, but for now he didn't want to spend too much time in one place. Sooner or later the vampires would realize that their fellows were gone, and he didn't want to fight more than one vampire in a fair fight. Even with the advantage of stealth, they were hard to kill.

Brodith had moved swiftly throughout the crypt, keeping to the corners and shadows. Staying in the shadows wouldn't help much against the vampires or anything that lived down here, but it would help to keep him safe from their thralls. He was only forced to reveal himself once, when a particularly perceptive vampire had heard him and started throwing clouds of swirling ice at him. The bosmer had been forced out of his comfort zone, and met the vampire head on.

After a fierce fight that he very nearly lost, Brodith had finally managed to finish the vampire off with his Skyforge steel sword – he had gotten lucky and stolen it from the Companions, so he didn't hang around Jorrvaskr with it – and rested for awhile while the healing potions and cure disease potions given to him by the Dawnguard did their work. It was pure luck that he'd won that fight, as the vampire was superior to him with a blade. The crossbow bolt he'd managed to lodge in her chest slowed the vampire down enough for him to kill her.

He made sure to be careful after that, although he had been dragged into one last fight with that vampire, Lokil, that had killed that Vigilant. Personally, he didn't begrudge the vampire for the Vigilant's death – they seemed a little bit too judgmental to be good followers of Stendarr –but he was in his way. Besides, this one seemed a little more bloodthirsty than the other vampires he'd listened to.

So he had leveled the crossbow at the vampire's back, since he was at a long enough distance to not alert them with the sound of the crossbow, and fired. Frustratingly, his lesser experience with the crossbow made his aim slightly off. The bolt went off course and landed in the thrall's back instead, instantly dropping the man. It was a very lucky shot for it to have killed the thrall in a single shot, but he was slightly annoyed that he'd missed his true target.

While he was glad the shot wasn't a complete waste, it now meant that he had to fight two powerful vampires. Lokil and his assistant had been alerted, and they judged his location from the angle the thrall had been struck at. They hid behind thick cover – he'd begun to really hate the stone pillars in these ancient ruins – and only left their cover for a few seconds to throw spells in his general direction.

The spells kept him pinned down, just as he had them pinned down. He was in a relatively safe position, but he didn't want them getting a decent shot at them. If he was lucky, they would run out of magicka pretty fast. He didn't want to waste any of his limited supply of crossbow bolts, so he couldn't risk wasting a shot.

If he could just force them out of hiding, than he would be able to take at least one out of the battle. At the very least he would probably be able to cripple one. There was no way he could fight two vampires at once, especially not when one was a mage. He didn't have any enchanted equipment that would give him an edge against spells, and he didn't have enough money to buy the necessary potions.

Brodith finally got a lucky break. They seemed to have run out of magicka, because both sprinted out of their cover and across the bridge at a speed greater than any mortal could achieve. He took a moment to admire their sheer power before preparing to take them down.

Unfortunately for them, he thought as he carefully leveled his bow at the rapidly advancing vampires, they weren't moving fast enough to not be shot. Perhaps a human of similar skill would miss the shot, lacking the dexterity and keen eyes of their mer counterparts, but he wouldn't.

A sharp twang greeted his ears as one of his last two bolts left the crossbow, landing with a sickening crunch in the assistant's leg. She screamed, and even Brodith had to wince. It sounded like the bolt had broken bone. He reloaded as fast as he could, and when the vampire began to angle towards him, he released his last shot.

Lokil snarled at him, his orange eyes burning in hatred as he twisted out of the bolt's way. Brodith threw his crossbow a few feet away and grabbed the two blades that he had set down on a rock for easy access.

Just a few seconds after he'd grabbed the blades, the vampire was upon him. Even Brodith's good reflexes were too slow, as the vampire raked his face with sharp nails. He hissed in agony, but was thankful that the vampire hadn't gotten him in the forehead. Blood dripping down into his eyes would make his chances of victory even more nonexistent.

In response for the gouges in his face, the bosmer gave a fast swipe with his sword. The attack was easily batted away with the flat of the vampire's own blade, and Lokil began his offensive.

The vampire pounded away at his admittedly weak defenses with his elven made sword, and the bosmer could barely keep up. Wielding two blades at once didn't make for a very good defense, although it didn't usually matter since Brodith tended to never need a defense. Right now though, he wished he had used a shield for this fight instead.

Although he was clearly the inferior in this battle, Brodith hadn't taken any major damage. A few cuts had resulted from the vampire's attacks, but he hadn't been stabbed. Yet.

Brodith finally found an opening when the vampire stumbled over a loose rock. Seeing it as the best chance he would get, the bosmer danced around Lokil's attempted swipe and circled behind him. Although the vampire was already beginning to turn, he managed to lean downwards and let his momentum carry his dagger to its destination.

Lokil screamed in agony as he felt the steel cut through his hamstring. Brodith thanked whatever god was helping him right now and began to take his advantage over the collapsed vampire.

It was a testament to the vampire's skill that he wasn't overwhelmed. Even as he leaned back against the cold stone walls of the cavern, nearly immobile, the vampire batted away most of Brodith's attacks with an enraged glint in his eyes. The vampire found his own opening and grabbed Brodith's right leg, gouging deep wounds into it with his sharp claws.

Brodith nearly screamed at the pain, but managed to choke it down. Before Lokil could try to take advantage of the situation he fell upon the vampire, plunging his steel dagger into Lokil's pale chest. The dagger easily tore through his thin armor, and blood began to color the dark fabric.

Lokil didn't scream, but looked at the bosmer with orange eyes before grinning madly. The bosmer raised his sword far too slowly, eyes widening in horror as the vampire leaned forward and plunged his needle sharp fangs into Brodith's leg, easily bypassing the thin leather armor.

A second later the sword came down and decapitated the vampire, sending a spray of blood onto Brodith. He ignored it and collapsed the moment the vampire disintegrated into dust. He withdrew his dagger from the pile and cut out the area of his leather armor the vampire had bitten.

When the area was clear he examined the wound. It was extremely neat, and he could barely see the two small pinpricks of blood. There was no pain when he moved his leg, and Brodith was confident that he would be fine the moment he drank a cure disease potion.

Brodith found his bag in the rocks where he had stashed it and returned his swords to their sheaths. He found the crossbow and carefully inspected it, ensuring there was no real damage. Aside from a few scratches the weapon was fine, something that made him sigh in relief. While he was somewhat competent with his blades, he was much better with his bow and crossbow.

Now that he had gathered all of his equipment, Brodith dug around in his bag for his potions. He found several healing potions and laid them out next to him, and then searched his bag for a cure disease potion.

He searched it for nearly a minute, growing more and more concerned as he couldn't find one. By the time he gave up he was in full blown panic. If he couldn't get the vampire's disease that he was almost certain to have cured, he would become one of them. He wasn't willing to trade the ability to walk freely in the day just for a bit of extra power.

But as he examined his options, he realized with a growing sense of horror that he might not be able to get to safety in time. Fort Dawnguard was at least ten days away on foot, and no horse or carriage would get him there in time. The closest cities were Morthal and Solitude, and even they were more than three days away.

It was strange. Just three days and his life might be changed forever. His only hope was to find a cure disease potion somewhere around here – not likely, since vampires were completely immune to other diseases – or from a traveler on the road. A Vigilant would be more than happy to do the honors, but they had all massed at Fort Dawnguard after their Hall was destroyed. As far as he knew none were still wandering throughout Skyrim.

Brodith finally acknowledged that there was a good chance he would become a vampire. He couldn't return to the Dawnguard if he was turned, but he could at least figure out what the vampires had been looking for before he disrupted their operations.

He carefully gathered his things before moving. The bosmer winced in pain from the bite as he stood up. Potions had more trouble healing magical and cursed wounds, so he would be feeling a bit of soreness and pain there for a few hours at the very least. He suddenly remembered that the assistant hadn't been finished off, but she strangely seemed to have died from the bolt. Brodith scooped up her ashes before moving on.

Unfortunately, it was a bit more painful than he was anticipating. He found himself limping as he crossed the bridge, and he had to move carefully to avoid slipping on the slightly wet stone. When he had reached the other side, he carefully looked around. There were no more vampires, although the thrall's corpse was in the large circular area.

Brodith dragged the corpse outside the circle, panting and wincing in pain as he did so. The thrall was heavy, and he, like most bosmer, wasn't very strong. It was only through removing the man's armor that he was able to move him at all.

When the man had been dragged out – he didn't really know why he'd done it in the first place, the corpse's presence just felt wrong for some reason – he turned back to the circle. There was some sort of ornate button on a pedestal, and Brodith warily approached it. He knew that ominously placed things at the bottom of crypts tended to end badly for him, but he had to try it. If he had to suffer a bit of pain to unveil the secret hidden here he would accept it.

So when he arrived at the pedestal, he wasted no time in waiting. Hesitance would just make his apprehension grow worse. Brodith laid his palm over the button and pushed.

A moment later his world erupted in pain. He nearly collapsed from the sheer agony of a spike tearing through his hand, forcing muscle, bone and tendon out of the way, but managed to hold himself up with his other hand. Blood sprayed his face, but he paid no attention to it. When he finally opened his eyes he realized that a mystical wall of violet fire had erupted from the circle around him. Brodith ignored it in favor of his hand's unending agony.

After what seemed like an eternity the pain lessened enough for him to function, and he carefully removed his hand from the spike. Brodith examined the wound as his good hand frantically searched his bag for another healing potion. He got lucky and found his single ultimate healing potion, something he had paid an incredible amount of septims for. After seeing some of the traps in the dungeons and caverns he cleared, he realized that it would be good to have something extra powerful ready to help.

He watched in awe as the powerful potion did its work knitting the flesh back together and somehow restoring what had been lost from the spike, and finally sighed in relief when the pain was gone and his hand was nearly as good as new. In the time it would have taken for his normal potions to heal a shallow gash the potion had restored an entire hole.

Now that he was healed, he cautiously approached the wall of flame. He couldn't feel heat emanating from it, but one never knew what tricks magic could pull. A hand gingerly stretched towards the flame until his index finger was only a centimeter away. Brodith carefully touched the flame, half-expecting it to burn away his finger.

When it didn't, he put his entire hand through. Now satisfied that it wouldn't incinerate him, he stepped through. Without the flames distorting his vision, he could now see that there were stone braziers throughout the room.

The bosmer approached one and tried to find some sort of switch. He found that just the slightest bit of pressure caused it to slide backwards. When the pedestal burst into flame, he realized that he would probably need to push the others around until they lit up.

As he moved off to complete this task, the bosmer silently reflected on just how much he hated these puzzles. They seemed to be in every dungeon, and they all seemed to work perfectly despite being inert for a few thousand years. It really was rather irritating.

XXX

Fortunately, the puzzle took very little time to complete. The braziers were easily moved, and there weren't many ways to confuse him. All that he had to do was push them until they burst into purple flame.

He barely had a moment to relax before the ground in the center of the circle separated, revealing a swirling nexus of pink, purple, and black energy. As the monolith rose from the ground, revealing more and more of its shape, he stepped away and pulled the crossbow off of his back and raised it. If something else came out of the energy, he was going to be prepared.

Brodith hesitantly lowered his crossbow as the energy was covered by the familiar stone of the circle. He stepped up to the monolith and touched it, trying to see if another reaction would occur.

Surprisingly, when he touched the monolith the part facing him crumbled. Brodith's eyes widened in surprise as a woman with some sort of artifact on her back was revealed. She fell, and the bosmer barely managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

The woman seemed to recover her balance quickly, and pulled herself up. Now that she was standing, Brodith could look at her properly. She was beautiful, although the glowing orange eyes that marked her as a vampire distracted him from it. The clothes she wore were similar to those of the vampires he had slain on the way through the crypt, so she was probably connected to them in some way. He had no idea what the artifact on her back was, it was far too ornate and looked too valuable for him to have knowledge of.

Her sudden question redirected his attention.

"Where is…" she started in confusion, "who sent you here?"

Brodith raised an eyebrow. "Were you expecting someone?"

"I was expecting someone…like me, at least."

The bosmer gave a humorless smile. "A vampire?" he replied. "I'll be one of you soon enough. One of your fellows bit me a few minutes ago."

She frowned, but didn't say anything.

"Why were you locked away?" Brodith continued, hoping to glean more information. From her stiff movements it had to have been awhile, and being imprisoned wasn't something one did willingly.

The vampire looked uncomfortable with his question. Not that he could really blame her, they were complete strangers after all.

"That's complicated," she responded, "and I'm not totally sure if I can trust you. But if you want to know the whole story, help me get back to my family's home."

Brodith shrugged, but nodded to her request. He wouldn't mind knowing the whole story, true, but if she had a home, then it meat that he might have a place to stay once he…changed.

"Alright," the bosmer replied, "where do you need to go?"

She seemed to brighten slightly at this. "My family used to live on an island to the west of Solitude. I would guess they still do."

The bosmer's brow furrowed. An island to the west of Solitude would have to be in the Sea of Ghosts, somewhere that was quite dangerous to live in. He supposed that was the point, since it would keep away most adventurers. The cold wouldn't affect vampires very badly, so all in all the location made some sort of sense.

"By the way," the vampire continued, "my name's Serana. Good to meet you."

"Likewise. My name is Brodith. By the way," he added, looking around the large cavern, "do you have any idea how to get out of here? The path back is long, and I think it was blocked off."

Serana crossed her arms with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Your guess is as good as mine." She admitted, "This place looks pretty different from when I was locked away."

His eyebrows rose in surprise. How long had she been trapped in that monolith? When he voiced his thoughts, it appeared that she didn't know either.

"Good question. I…I can't really tell. I feel like it was a long time. Who is Skyrim's High King?"

Brodith frowned. He supposed it would be Jarl Elisif, since he didn't think that the Stormcloaks could actually defeat the Empire, but one never knew. Besides, from what he'd heard the politics of Skyrim were muddled. It was anyone's game now.

"That's actually a matter for debate." He said.

"Oh, wonderful." Serana said, rolling her eyes, "A war of succession. Good to know the world didn't get boring while I was gone."

The bosmer smirked at that.

"Who are the contenders?" The vampire questioned.

"The Empire supports Jarl Elisif of Solitude, but there are many in Skyrim loyal to Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak of Windhelm." He frowned at the last part of his explanation, but he grew more confused than annoyed as Serana frowned.

"Empire?" She said in bewilderment, "What…what Empire."

"The Empire…from Cyrodiil."

"Cyrodiil is the seat of an empire?" The vampire asked in bewilderment. "I must have been gone longer than I thought. Definitely longer than we planned," she muttered.

Brodith wondered just how long she was locked in that monolith. There had been numerous empires based out of Cyrodiil since the First Era. If she had been locked away since the First Era…well, he couldn't imagine it. Not even elves lived that long, so the very concept of living that many years was alien to him, let alone spending it trapped in a crypt.

That alerted him to something else. How did she even speak the same tongue as he did? Even if she had spoken the same language, it should have been far less developed than the modern tongue. Deciding that it was less important than escaping this place, however, he ignored it. He could ask later.

For now, his attention returned to Serana. She had seemingly gotten over the fact that she had been trapped for several thousand years and began to speak again.

"Please, let's hurry." She requested, "I need to get home so I can figure out what happened."

"Alright," the bosmer nodded. "I don't like this place anyways."

He moved towards the bridge that would hopefully lead them to a way out. Serana followed closely behind, looking around the cave curiously. Her movements were slow and slightly stiff, so he had to slow down a bit.

"Does the air feel…heavy down here?" She questioned. "I'm a little woozy, but it might just be from waking up."

"Yes," he replied, "it's stale. This place has been undisturbed for a few thousand years, after all."

She didn't say anything and continued to follow him. Brodith was moving slowly, both to accommodate the vampire and to watch for any traps. He didn't expect any more vampires, since this area didn't seem to have been touched, but was still wary of the draugr or giant spiders that might inhabit these areas.

There was a set of stairs with a large, vicious looking statue at the top, and although he couldn't see a door from where he was standing he decided to examine the area closer. As he moved closer, transitioning from the cold stone floor to dirt and rubble, the statue seemed to explode. Dust temporarily obscured his vision, but he raised his crossbow.

"Look out!" Serana cried, "Gargoyles!"

"Why didn't you tell me about them?" Brodith shouted over the fierce cry of the monster. The dust had mostly settled, and he could easily see the hulking gargoyle stalking over to them. A moment later the gargoyle shrieked in pain as a crossbow bolt thudded into its hard chest.

The bosmer was stunned at how fast the gargoyle closed the distance between them, but managed to fire off another bolt that landed in its neck. Although the monster was stunned for a moment, it didn't seem to be badly injured by the bolt that was awkwardly swinging with its movements. He dropped the crossbow and kicked it away as he withdrew his blades, hoping that steel would do a better job of harming the stone creature.

Before he'd managed to full unsheathe his blades, the gargoyle had mostly recovered. Brodith wondered what Serana was doing, but a few bright flashes of light and another shriek from a gargoyle made him realize that two of the monstrosities were attacking them.

The gargoyle's bestial features grew nearer, and the bosmer realized with a dawning sense of horror that it was using its tattered wings to somehow glide over to him. He raised his sword in preparation and hoped that the monster would go down easier than he was expecting. His body was exhausted from the constant series of battle, and he'd been feeling weaker than usual ever since the vampire had bitten him.

A sharp clang of metal meeting stone greeted his ears as the gargoyle leapt at him, ignoring the waiting steel. His Skyforge sword did its job admirably, proving its effectiveness as it slid into the gargoyle with only a slight feel of resistance.

His satisfaction waned, however, as the gargoyle continued its attempts to attack him. Brodith raised his dagger and slammed it into its neck, giving a tired smile as the monster shrieked one last time before falling limp to the ground.

Now that his own opponent had been defeated, he rushed over to aid Serana. She didn't seem to be having difficulty, although the monster didn't seem to be very affected by her spells. The vampire met his eyes as he flanked the stone creature, and as he stabbed it in the back she turned away for a moment to bring Brodith's opponent back as her thrall.

When Brodith saw the newly arrived ally, he backed off and went to find his crossbow. He watched with great interest as the two monsters met with piercing shrieks and the grating of stone claws meeting stone flesh.

By the time he'd retrieved his crossbow, the fight had been finished. Serana'a opponent had already been weakened by the time Brodith intervened, and by the time Serana's thrall had attacked it was crippled. Brodith curiously watched as the vampire cut the connection to her thrall, leaving it to collapse as the necromantic energies sustaining it left it.

Brodith walked up to the gargoyles' fallen corpses and searched through the gashes and torn areas that they had suffered. He was pleasantly surprised when he found ebony ore and several emeralds. Once he had safely stored them in his bag he stood up and continued searching for an exit. There wasn't one around the gargoyles' location, but Serana finally found another way.

After she had called him over, they carefully went up the tightly packed earth slope. Brodith had warned her of the irritating number of traps that he tended to come across in his travels. They got lucky, although when they reached a part of the crypt that was in the style of the Ancient Nords the bosmer became even more wary. It was dark, although he could see the form of lifeless braziers.

When the duo reached a long set of stairs, Brodith abruptly stopped. Serana barely managed to avoid running into him, and looked at him questioningly.

"This is the perfect area for draugr to be," he explained, waving his arm at the crumbling stairs, "they are almost always in a position to ambush, and I can't think of a better place for one. So keep your spells ready."

She nodded in understanding, and Brodith felt a wave of cold come from her hands. He looked down and saw a small, swirling cloud of ice nestled in her hand. Brodith noticed that it looked to be stronger than the ice spikes she had thrown at the gargoyles.

Confident that they were prepared, he raised his crossbow and cautiously went up the stairs. It was darker in here than the cave, and he silently wished that he had better night vision. Serana would warn him if there were draugr wandering about, however, so he wasn't completely blind. Brodith made his way up the stairs to the light at the top of them, presumably from some enchanted brazier or torches.

When they safely reached the top, Brodith scanned the area. There were several sarcophagi that presumably held draugr, but their fronts hadn't been forced off yet, so perhaps the ancient undead wouldn't attack them. His eyes saw a lever that was surrounded by several lit candles, as well as a large doorway.

"Serana," he said, motioning to the large passageway, "go over there and see if there's some sort of gate or something. That lever has to be for something."

"Alright." The vampire shrugged.

He watched her walk off before moving to stand by the lever. When she shouted back to him an affirmative about the gate, he prepared his crossbow and raised it at one of the sarcophagi.

"Get back in here," he shouted, breaking the eerie silence of the tomb, "I need you to get this lever for me."

The vampire walked back in from the passage, rolling her orange eyes.

"Couldn't you get it? It's just a lever."

"Considering that it's probably rusted, no. Besides, you're probably stronger than I am." Brodith admitted.

Serana smiled in amusement and grabbed the lever's handle before using her hidden strength to force it over. The sound of the iron gate grinding as it raised was overshadowed by the crash as the front of the sarcophagi were forced off by their inhabitants.

Brodith released the bolt the moment he could see the pale, preserved form of the draugr stepping out of its tomb. It groaned as the bolt struck it squarely in the neck, dropping it in a single shot. The bosmer wasted no time in lining up another shot at one of the approaching draugr. Serena had already unleashed a blast of ice at one of the remaining three draugr, and it was clearly dead.

The vampire easily took down two of the draugr as Brodith's crossbow fired, launching a steel bolt into the last draugr's neck. His eyes widened as it brushed the attack off as though it were nothing, ruthlessly wrenching the bolt out of its neck. He barely had time to draw his sword as the draugr reared its head back.

The undead warrior shouted at him in some language that he couldn't fully understand but felt that he should.

"FUS RO DAH!"

A wave of pale blue energy erupted from the toothless mouth of the draugr, and smashed into him. The pure force of the energy threw him back, sending him flying off of the ground and down the stairs. His crossbow was ripped from his hands, and he couldn't tell where it had gone. He felt nothing but icy panic and confusion as he felt himself thrown away, which quickly dissolved into pain as he impacted the hard stone.

He heard a sickening crack as his head impacted the stone floor, protected only by a thin layer of leather. Through the pain he thought that he heard someone screaming his name, but he couldn't think of who it was through the lance of pain that stabbed through the back of his head and his arm.

Brodith tried to get up, but found that the pain stopped him. The world was blurry as he opened his eyes, and he could see flashes of whitish blue energy from the corner of his eye. He found himself wanting to go to sleep, and tried to surrender to the blackness that was crowding around the edges of his vision.

Just before the blackness overwhelmed his vision he found himself enshrouded in a soft golden glow that covered his entire body, mending it and making pain from injuries he hadn't even realized he had lessen. As his vision cleared and his thoughts became clearer, he felt strong hands pull him into a sitting position and leaning him against the wall.

The bosmer drowsily opened his eyes, only to see the concerned face of Serana staring back at him. She seemed to be asking him something, but it took a moment for his mind to comprehend her question.

"Do you have healing potions? I'm not a good enough healer to repair all of the damage."

Her voice was rather calm, although he could hear the worried undertone in it. It took him a moment, but he managed to respond rather clearly.

"In my bag, should be next to the lever. Small pink and red ones," he gasped, "stay away from anything blue or green."

Serana nodded and she ran off, leaving the bosmer to wake himself up. Now that the powerful healing spell she had used on him was working, his thoughts were becoming even more ordered and comprehensive. Brodith tried to raise his left arm, only to feel a searing pain spike through it. He hissed in agony and carefully lowered it. When he looked at it he could see that it was at an unnatural angle, and he awkwardly put it in a position that minimized the pain.

Aside from the broken bone, he seemed to be relatively unscathed. The healing spell had presumably healed any scrapes or smaller injuries, although he wasn't sure if it had healed the back of his head. There were occasional stabs of pain coming from it, but it wasn't nearly as bad as when he had first felt it.

Serana came back quickly, carrying several potions that he identified as his strongest potions. When she knelt in front of him, he tried to grab one. Brodith was rather annoyed when the vampire batted his hand away, although he paused when she gave him a disapproving frown.

"I can't heal any of your major injuries yet, and I have to make sure your arm will heal correctly."

Brodith winced. "This is going to hurt isn't it?"

The vampire nodded before grabbed his broken arm with unnatural speed. He barely had time to react before she forced it back into the proper position. His howl of pain could probably be heard from outside the crypt, but he managed to force it down after a few moments.

"Thanks." The bosmer said through gritted teeth. Serana didn't pay attention to him, just giving him a distracted nod while she pulled his leather helmet off. She examined the back of his head for a moment before picking up the potions.

"Alright," she said as she handed him one of the stronger potions, "I don't think that you're hurt too bad. Your skull isn't broken, anyways. You should be fine."

Brodith eagerly drank the powerful potion, and waited a minute for it to heal the rest of the damage. The pain receded quickly, and his broken arm was as good as new, if not a bit stiffer than normal. Serana helped him stand up, and he winced as he felt some of the lingering soreness.

"Thanks for that." The bosmer said once he was standing.

"It wasn't a problem." Serana smiled. "I guess we're even now. You got me out of here and I saved your life."

"Yeah," the bosmer said while looking around, "do you know what happened to my crossbow and sword? I've still got my dagger."

The vampire frowned and shook her head. "Sorry, but I didn't see them. I was too focused on killing that draugr."

"Fair enough," Brodith shrugged, "besides, they shouldn't be too hard to find. Steel stands out. I'll search for the crossbow. Hopefully you can find the sword."

They split off then; with Brodith slowly going back up the stairs to see if he had accidently dropped the crossbow and Serana searching the lower area for his sword. Brodith hoped that the weapons would be found in decent condition, or at least found. Any dents or damage to them could be fixed later, but he would prefer to find his weapons perfectly intact.

He had learned to love that crossbow the last few days, and the Skyforge sword had served him well, despite his appalling lack of skill with it compared to the foes he faced. There loss would be a terrible blow to him, as neither had been easily obtainable. The Dawnguard wouldn't give him another if he succumbed to vampirism, although he supposed he could kill one and take theirs if they attacked him. Brodith doubted the Companions would even let him join – he wasn't good in fair fights, and they would probably see him as too frail to succeed in their organization. Stealing another would be difficult, and he didn't want to gain their enmity should he be caught.

So he searched. He ignored the pain that the potions hadn't fully banished as he crawled on the ground in a desperate attempt to find his crossbow. Brodith quickly realized that it wasn't in this area and went back down the stairs. Serana had lit several of the braziers – presumably with magic – so he wasn't completely blind in his search.

The bosmer didn't search at the area he had been hurled into, instead searching the floor directly below the location he had been at before being knocked back. There wasn't much rubble, although there was a large mound of tightly packed dirt and rock. Brodith deemed it too close to the wall for the crossbow to have landed there, and searched by the stone pillar instead.

He couldn't see anything, as the darkness hadn't been driven away at that location. Another brazier was nearby, and so, not wanting to distract the vampire from her own search, he raised his hand. Silently praying for this to work, he focused on forming his magicka into a stream of flame that would ignite the brazier and allow him to search.

Instead of a crackling burst of flame like he had envisioned, a short, weak burst of bright sparks burst out of his outstretched hand. Although an incredibly pathetic feat of magic – a child could probably have done it more effectively – it worked. The brazier ignited, banishing the darkness from the area.

His eyes swept over the area near the pillar, and immediately lit up when they saw his crossbow. Brodith quickly rushed over to pick it up and painstakingly inspected it for damage. Somehow the crossbow had remained unscathed from the impact, and seemed to be perfectly functional.

Now that he had his favored weapon, he went over to see if Serana needed any assistance. As he turned around to walk over to her location, he saw a pair of glowing orange eyes staring back at him. Brodith jumped backwards and tried to ready his crossbow before he realized that it was just a laughing Serana.

"Don't worry," she said in between laughs, "I found your sword. You might need some repairs done, but it's functional."

"That wasn't funny!" Brodith hissed, silently trying to get his heart to slow down. "I nearly shot you with the crossbow."

She just laughed again before handing him his sword. He sent a glare before inspecting the blade. The pleasant surprise of the sword's condition – the worst was a miniscule dent at the very tip of the blade, something that even he could probably fix if given access to a forge – overrode his annoyance at the vampire's trick.

"Come on," he said once he was sure the sword was fine, "I want to get out of here. And," he sighed, "Could you please try to not scare me out of my wits again?"

"Of course," a smiling Serana said. "And I agree, let's get out of here. I've spent a long time in here, and I want to breathe again."

With that they set off. As they moved past the fallen, frozen remnants of the draugr that had nearly killed Brodith, he suddenly had a question.

"Serana, do you know what it was that that draugr hit me with? I've never seen anything like it in all of my expeditions into Nordic ruins."

"Oh, that?" The vampire responded, "That was the Voice, a form of magic that was common before I was sent here. I guess that it isn't so popular any more if you don't know about it."

Brodith frowned but kept walking. "I've heard rumors that Ulfric Stormcloak killed the late High King with the Voice, but I've never seen it myself. The Greybeards are said to be masters of it, although I don't really know much about them."

"They're still around?" Serana curiously asked from behind him. "The Greybeards had existed for a few centuries when I was still mortal. But you're right; they're masters of the Voice. I don't know how to use it, but I know it takes a long time to learn."

The bosmer shrugged. "I suppose I won't bother learning it then. I'm terrible at magic to begin with, so learning the Voice would take the rest of my life."

Serana laughed. "I saw you trying to light that brazier, so I definitely believe you. You should probably just stick with that crossbow of yours."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know that it was pathetic, so don't rub it in. I've accepted that shortcoming of mine."

They drew silent as they moved up a set of worn steps and moved into a large room. Brodith thought that it looked like some sort of amphitheater like the ones in the Imperial City, or possibly some sort of hall. He noticed that it had what looked like a bonfire down in the center, which meant that something was down there with them.

"Something's not right here." Serana whispered from behind him. "Be careful. I think we might be in for some trouble."

Brodith raised his crossbow and scanned the lit areas for enemies. He thought he could see the outline of a helmet rising above a chair and began to stealthily move closer. Serana waited behind. When he was closer, he lined up the shot with the helmet and released the bolt.

His bolt buried itself into the back of the helmet, and the bosmer grinned as he heard the familiar clatter of bones striking the ground. He crept back to Serana.

"Do you see anymore? The smoke is keeping me from seeing very well."

"There are three in the thrones over there," she said, pointing each of them out, "and I think I hear another one walking around. I could probably defeat the ones in the thrones with a good spell or two. I'm a bit out of practice, but it shouldn't be difficult."

"I'll get any stragglers."

Now that the plan was made, Brodith moved into position. He had his dagger ready to be put into use at a moment's notice, although he would probably be able to put down any skeletons or draugr with a well place bolt. But if he messed up badly, he would rather be prepared for a skeleton charging at him with a sword larger than he was.

He couldn't find the skeleton, but he knew it wasn't going to flank him or Serana. To avoid such an attempt, he had positioned his back towards a wall that had a good view of the entire area and that would allow him to keep Serana safe.

When the vampire pushed her hands outward towards the three thrones, unleashing a storm of ice and frozen air at the temporarily inert skeletons. As the magical storm went over the fire, his sharp eyes picked out three armored forms suddenly rising from their thrones, grasping for their weapons mere moments before the swirling ice impacted.

Even the eyes of a bosmer couldn't pick out what happened, but he did manage to see a skeleton raising a bow. He quickly aimed his crossbow and fired. The skeleton was practically destroyed as the magic holding its ancient bones together vanished, sending its individual parts scattering across the area.

He turned back to Serana and saw her dispatch another skeleton with a spike of ice. An armored skeleton was rushing towards her, and he carefully shot it, taking care to keep the shot away from the vampire. The bolt landed with a heavy thud on the skeleton's armor, and he became aware of the icy swirls of energy that served as its eyes locking onto him.

The skeleton raised its massive battleaxe, a monstrous weapon that looked to be enchanted with an ice power, and charged at Serana. Brodith shouted out a warning to the vampire before firing another bolt. It seemed to have just as little effect as the last one.

Serana wasted no time in turning to the skeleton and leaping out of its way. The skeleton lumbered towards her as she recovered, and raised its axe. He quickly reloaded his crossbow and fired again, this time hitting it in the side of its ancient armor.

It did even less than the others in terms of damage, but it managed to knock the skeleton off balance for a moment. Serana scrambled away a safe distance before it managed to recover, and by the time its creaking bones began to move it towards her she was more than ready for it.

Orbs of flickering flame erupted in her hands, and she thrust them towards the armored skeleton. Twin blasts of flame erupted from her palms, impacting the powerful skeleton with a mighty explosion.

The resulting burst of light hurt his eyes and forced him to look away for a moment. When his sharp gaze returned to the battle, he realized that it was over. Serana's spells had instantly destroyed the skeleton, overwhelming the magic that kept it moving and nearly melting through its armor.

There didn't seem to be anymore of the undead creatures, so Brodith moved back towards Serana. The vampire was looking at the enchanted battleaxe of their foe with interest, although she ended up leaving it.

Now that he was closer, Brodith could see the black scorch marks that stood out against the dull grey floor. Now that he could see what she could truly do, he was glad that he wasn't her enemy. Some of the skeleton's bones were melted together, and nearly all of them that weren't covered by armor were completely blackened.

"That was impressive." He remarked. "But I've never heard of a vampire using fire spells before, let alone one that powerful."

"They're…useful, in many circumstances." She answered lightly. "But I'm glad that I knew them, not many of my other spells would have done much damage to it."

Brodith nodded, but went over to check out the relatively unscathed battleaxe that glowed an icy blue. It clearly hadn't been damaged much. He picked it up, and found that it was still cold despite the inferno it had been exposed to.

Now that he could see it better, he found that it had a rather dull edge. It made sense, considering how old it had to be, so he supposed that most of its power came from the enchantment.

As much as he would have liked to bring it with him – ancient weapons like that one could fetch a good price, especially if they were enchanted – it was far too heavy for him to carry easily. Besides, it was almost as large as he was. Carrying it out of the crypt would be a hassle, let alone getting it somewhere he could sell it. Serana needed to return home as soon as possible, and he didn't want to make a stop in Solitude. He could very well have become a vampire by the time they got anywhere near the capital of Skyrim, and he would prefer to not be tempted by the vast supply of blood.

Serana had moved over to the thrones, presumably seeing if they had anything interesting on them. She probably just wanted a passable weapon, since experience had taught him that mages tended to run out of magicka fast in a fight.

He began to walk over to her, although he ended up stopping when he saw what was truly in the center of the amphitheater. Instead of some sort of bonfire as he'd first suspected, it was actually a grate of some sort, spewing out smoke from an unseen source. It was interesting, but not enough to distract him for long.

What did distract him, however, was the sound of male voices chanting. He had his dagger out in a flash and moved towards the source of the ominous chanting. It was some sort of wall, covered in strange etchings. He noticed that they had been neatly gouged into the stone, although he couldn't imagine what kind of being would have the strength to do it.

As he neared the curved wall, his vision began to darken and one of the strange symbols began to glow. He moved towards it, almost in a daze, and heard the chanting grow more powerful. A thin stream of energy seemed to latch onto him from it, and he could hear the chant rise to a climax.

His head felt as though it would split open as the energy suddenly strengthened. It pounded inside of him, burning raw information into his mind with a whirlwind of information and images.

Brodith gritted his teeth and dropped his dagger, giving up the weapon in favor of clutching his head. With one final burst of power, the images stopped. The pain abruptly cut off, and his mind was clearer than ever.

He suddenly became aware of something other than pain, and realized that he had fallen to the ground sometime during the experience. As he reached to pick up his dagger, something seemed to appear inside of his mind, resonating within his very being.

The symbol that had been glowing appeared in his vision, covering his entire line of sight with its burning aura. He suddenly understood the symbol and its meaning with every fiber of his being. It meant stamina, and although he didn't know what it could be used for it continued to burn its meaning into his mind.

When it finally withdrew from his mind, Brodith stood up on shaky legs. He sheathed the dagger he had been holding and laid a hand on his head, trying to calm the slight headache that had returned.

"What happened?" Serana asked worriedly from behind him.

"I…I don't know. One of those symbols glowed and connected to me somehow. Now I know what it means, I have a headache, and I'm very confused." Brodith turned his eyes to her. "Do you know what this is?"

Serana examined the wall closer for a moment, carefully running her hand over the glowing symbols, and answered. "I don't know what it is, but I think it has something to do with the ancient dragons. The Nords used to worship them, and this is one of their old ruins, so I suppose it makes sense. I'm sorry, but I don't really know. This is all just guesswork."

Brodith shrugged her apology off. "I don't think it really matters. Even if I know the word now, I still can't do anything with it. So, all in all, it doesn't affect me at all."

He looked around the massive room for a moment, taking only a few seconds to find the exit. Brodith clumsily started moving towards it, with the vampire following closely behind. As they pushed past a large door, the bosmer tried to start up a conversation.

"So, did you find anything interesting on those undead?"

"No," the vampire frowned, "just those Nordic swords and a few gold coins. I didn't bother picking them up."

Brodith didn't answer, as he could finally see a crevasse that would lead them out of the crypt. He walked up to the chain and pulled it, forcing the heavy gate to lift upwards. Serana practically rushed out of the crypt, desperate to see the world again.

He was slightly more restrained, although he was glad to be out of the dank and dark crypt. The bosmer walked out of the icy crevasse relatively easily, despite the fatigue that had built up throughout his excursion.

When he had finally left the crypt behind him for the cold, empty wastes of Skyrim, he saw that Serana was simply standing on the snowy slope, staring at the world.

"Ah, it's so good to breathe again!" She sighed. "Even in this weather, it's better than the cave."

Personally, Brodith had to disagree with that. Maybe it was because she was a vampire, and therefore practically immune to the cold, but it was much more unpleasant out here. At least the cave hadn't been freezing and snowing. His teeth were already chattering from the extreme cold, and he could tell that he wouldn't last long in this weather. In the span of just a few hours, the light snow had turned into what looked as though it were transforming into the blizzard.

"Serana," he said, "you might be able to survive in this weather, but I can't. We need to get moving and find shelter."

Realization washed over her face and she nodded. "Sorry, I forgot that you weren't a vampire."

"Give it a few days." He smiled. "Then I'll be able to keep up."

They stopped talking when the icy winds began to pick up even more, and even Serana looked as though it were starting to affect her. Their trek down the slope would have been easy had it not been in such terrible conditions. Now they were forced to go slow and make sure that they were in safe spots, as the fierce wind and slowly growing buildup of snow disrupted their journey.

When they finally reached the bottom, even Serana was having trouble with the cold. Brodith, on the other hand, felt as though he were completely frozen. It was only good planning that he wasn't half-dead by now from the water freezing on him.

The snow would have gotten his leather armor wet had he not spent a few hundred septims to have Farengar enchant it. The enchantment was well worth it, as it kept things that would make the armor practically ruined – such as water – from affecting it.

When the storm began to pick up even more, Brodith led Serana behind a rock so that he could talk to her while mostly protected from the storm. It didn't do that much, but any relief from the wind at all was worth taking.

"There's a fort around here somewhere!" He shouted over the howling wind, "I heard the Empire took it a week or two ago, so they should give us shelter."

"I can find it." Serana shouted back. Her eyes glowed for a moment with a light red aura before returning to their normal state. "Follow me."

Somehow, the vampire knew exactly where to go. The steadily strengthening storm didn't faze her, and she cut a straight line through the icy plain. Their only obstacles were a few dying shrubs that were easily moved around.

As the cold grew stronger, he focused entirely on Serana. He could barely feel his extremities, and he was sure that he was paler than a vampire by now. Brodith could tell that he wasn't thinking very well, and he sometimes stumbled before recovering.

Brodith eventually lost track of time, although he continued to focus as best he could on two things: Serana and the fort. The fort had to be close, but he wasn't sure if they had been walking for five minutes or an hour.

Eventually, he could make out some blurry, grey shape in front of them. He thought that Serana was saying something, but couldn't make out the words or who she was talking to. When he felt several pairs of hands grab him, he dully reached for his dagger. A warm hand caught his wrist and gently forced it down before the other hands began to drag him somewhere.

He wasn't sure what was happening, but he felt foreign warmth engulf his body, nearly searing him with the heat. His extremities were itching and had a slight burning sensation in them, something that irritated him to no end. Brodith felt himself being lain down upon a pleasantly soft surface that was much better than the small pad he normally slept on in the wilderness. As he was practically baked with heat, the bosmer became aware of some sort of horrible thirst rapidly growing inside of him. It couldn't force him to get up, but it tormented him as his tired mind healed.

After awhile of regaining his body heat and slowly returning to his normal mindset, he began to become aware of the world around him. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he didn't really care. Brodith was just glad that he hadn't died from the cold.

Bosmer weren't particularly adapted to temperature extremes, and the only races that dealt with the cold worse than they did were the khajiit and argonians. Altmer at least had spells to help them out, as did most other mer. Of course, most bosmer survived in the freezing land of Skyrim better than he due to spells as well. Had he not been so terrible at magic he would probably get into much less trouble in the wilderness.

Now that he was mostly better, he sat up. He could now see that he was on what looked to be a plain bed and was covered with a heavy fur that had the familiar orange glow of a heat enchantment. The room he was in had several rough looking barrels and crates inside of it, as well as several swords that were hanging on a weapon rack.

The room was made out of dull grey stone that he immediately recognized as the material of the modern forts around Skyrim. He turned his head only to see Serana leaning back in a chair, seemingly asleep.

Brodith pulled the thick fur down, allowing him to have slightly better mobility. The air helped to cool off his body, and slightly lessened the itching and burning in his fingers. Now he just needed to know how long he'd been frozen, as well as how long they would have to wait out the storm. Even if they were better prepared, just a few miles had nearly killed them so he wasn't optimistic of their chances in what was sure to be a blizzard by now.

"Serana." He said; wincing as the vibrations seemed to make his thirst worse. The vampire awoke with an annoyed expression on her face, although it quickly morphed into relief. She handed him a small jug of water, as well as a loaf of slightly stale bread. It didn't matter to him, as he ravenously tore into the bread and drank the water while Serana began to speak.

"Thank the gods," she exclaimed, "we all thought you were going to die! It's a miracle that you survived that long in the storm to begin with."

"So am I," he admitted. "But I did. So how long was I out?"

"Half a day."

"Really?" He asked. "It felt like an eternity."

Serana shrugged. "The storm is about to end. The soldiers here said that storms like that are common in this area of Skyrim, although that one was a bit stronger than most. We can leave when you're ready."

Brodith nodded. Then he realized that the intense thirst hadn't vanished. Curious, he decided to question Serana about it. Perhaps it was a part of the transformation.

"By the way," he asked, "do you know why I'm so thirsty? That water didn't help at all."

"It's part of the…process." She admitted. "The thirst should vanish at dawn, but will return tomorrow night."

The bosmer glanced towards the door at the opposite side of the room for a moment, ensuring that it was closed. He turned his gaze back to Serana. "Did you ask if they had anything that could cure diseases?"

She shook her head. "They said they didn't get those kinds of potions, and even if they did we couldn't pay them enough to buy them. Only other members of the Legion get access to them, and anyone who sells them would be punished."

"Damn. That means my luck is probably out." Brodith said forlornly. "I suppose it won't be too bad, though."

"It's not as bad as you think."

Brodith shrugged, accepting her answer. He would see if it was true soon enough.

"We should get out of here. Do you have something to protect yourself from the sun?"

"Yes. I took a hood out of a pile of vampire dust. It will keep the worst of the sun's effects away."

The bosmer nodded in understanding. "We should probably come up with a plan. Get me the map from my bag; we have a lot to do."