//------------------------------//
// 39: Land of Souls 
// Story: Sonata's Crazy and Wacky Adventure in Skyrim 
// by Sonata Blaze 
//------------------------------//

	Shortly after both Hermaeus Mora and Sheogorath withdrew from their followers, leaving the poor men confused as to how they got to Whiterun to begin with, Sonata packed up her gear and walked down to the main hall of Dragonsreach. Now that she knew that Grul was planning on summoning a Daedric Prince, one capable of destroying the entire world, she and her friends were going to have to act fast if they wanted to save everything. This was no longer about saving her sisters, as she believed in the beginning of her journey, rather it was a race to stop Grul and his horrible master, before they did something that wasn't fixable.

"Sonata, do you have a moment?" Serana asked, beckoning her over to Farengar's quarters, though the mage was absent because he was questioning the men about their experience of containing the powers of a Daedric Prince for the time they had been possessed.

"Sure, what's on your mind?" Sonata replied, knowing that they had to find and stop Harkon before he did something stupid, though she hoped that the vampire had something for her.

"I stopped Dexion from reading the Elder Scrolls," Serana said, beckoning to the two golden scrolls that were in the room, the one she had insisted on carrying and the one that Sonata had put down the moment she heard that she would be listening to two Daedric Princes talk to her earlier, "I finally remembered that my father is after an ancient artifact known as Auriel's Bow, which is a powerful weapon once wielded by the elven god Auri-El. I was there the day my father first heard the ancient prophecy that mentioned the bow and its ability to do something with the sun, though I think my father believes that he can blot out the sun so that vampires won't have to fear it. Without the sun to protect against the vampires my father could raise his army and attack during the day... along with Grul's orcs considering that they happen to be allies at the moment."

"So where's the bow?" Sonata asked, knowing that such a weapon couldn't be allowed to fall into Harkon's hands, as it would only be handed over to Grul and used as fuel for the portal.

"No one knows, save for the third Elder Scroll," Serana said, holding up a hand to stop Sonata from saying anything, "Look, my mother and I stole the two Scrolls that my father had collected, where one was sealed in that stone coffin with me while my mother worked to hide the other one in a place my father would never think to look. The only problem is that I have no idea where my father wouldn't have checked yet, as he's had all the time in the world to search for my mother and her Elder Scroll."

Sonata stared at Serana for a moment, wondering if she was being serious at the moment, because this was something that she had taught Starswirl the Bearded, in thanks for being her first friend... though she was certain that he passed it on to one of his students, likely the one called Celestia if her memory was right. The best place to hide something was literally under the nose of the person that your trying to hide it from, like the last place Adagio thought to look for her picture booklet, the one time Sonata took it anyway, was right under her bed.

"How about inside Castle Volkihar?" Sonata asked, knowing that it had to be the one location that Serana's mother would hide without being found, as she was sure to know all of the old passageways and could easily hide if Harkon ever got too close to her.

"Wait... that almost makes sense!" Serana declared, slapping herself on the forehead for not thinking of that earlier, "There's a courtyard in the castle. I used to help her tend a garden there. All of the ingredients for our potions came from there. She used to say that my father couldn't stand the place. Too... peaceful."

"Then we shall head back to Castle Volkihar and see where your mother is hiding," Sonata said, though as her eyes turned back to the main hall of Dragonsreach she found herself staring at Krovor again.

"You don't trust him either, do you?" Serana asked, while at the same time she made sure that the second Elder Scroll was secure, because it wasn't something they wanted to leave behind.

"No... and I'm convinced that he's behind Lydia's death." Sonata quickly said, though in a lower tone so the orc didn't hear her on accident, "One does not simply turn their back on the power that Grul offers... that, and I can feel the desire for power radiating off of his body, even from over here."

"I may have an idea," Serana said, glaring at Krovor for a moment, whose attention was currently on Jarl Balgruuf's unusual child at the moment, "but we'll have to wait till we reach the castle to put it into effect."

Sonata nodded and the two of them left the room they were in, to which the rest of their group fell in with all of their gear packed and their weapons polished for the coming battles, courtesy of Gol and Mez. With everyone ready they thanked the Jarl for allowing them to stay in Dragonsreach for the time they had spent in their city before making their way outside the building. Once that was done they made their way towards the exterior of the city so they could ride their carts to the small dock in the area of Solitude, where they could ride to the castle and begin their search for Serana's mother.





As Sonata and her friends arrived outside Castle Volkihar, and climbed off the boat they had taken, Sonata silently marveled at the fact that they hadn't been bothered by bandits, dragons seeking revenge for the death of their master, orcs wishing to capture them, or even vampires wanting them dead. It had been a strangely relaxing ride from Whiterun to Solitude, and then from Solitude to the dock they needed to use, but that actually troubled her. Grul was out there, gathering the hidden Daedric Artifacts for his master, though this time he seemed to want to keep his army alive for the coming war.

The fact that they had reached this location, without being attacked at all, made Sonata worry that they were walking into a trap, though whether that trap was Harkon's or Grul's she had no idea.

"It was too easy for us to get here," Kree commented, to which everyone around her, even Serana, nodded their heads in agreement, though at the same time they all drew their weapons, "Be careful... I smell something fishy."

"There's an undercroft on the northern side of the island," Serana stated, leading the way for the group this time, while everyone else followed and watched for any enemies that might attack them, "one that the previous owners used to bring supplies into the castle. An old escape tunnel from the castle exits there... that's our way into the castle without raising the alarm and bringing my father's forces down on our heads."

Serana lead them to the left of the massive bridge and the group walked around the island, though after a minute or two they came to the inlet that she had just told them about. Not a few moments later they found four skeletons walking around, all of them armored to the teeth in steel weapons and armor, but Serana challenged them and launched several ice spikes at their enemies. Sonata, on the other had, stood back as both Saerza and Kael summoned their magic and approached the closest skeleton, to which their fireballs tore their enemy to pieces and scattering the bones. Sonata and the rest of her friends got to work on taking out the remaining enemies that were in their way, though at the same time they quickly made their way to the tunnel that had been mentioned earlier.

Once the group was inside the undercroft, and the door was closed behind them, they were assaulted by a group of death hounds, where Gol and Mez charged forward and used their large two handed weapons to put down the death hounds before they could harm anyone else.

The moment that the death hounds were down for the count the group continued on through the undercroft, having to pause to take out a feral vampire who had been living there for who knew how long, before they found a lever that they needed to pull, which activated the bridge in front of them. The next part had two paths for them to choose from, but Serana pointed to the left passage and said that they were supposed to head to the left, mentioning that the traps had been put in place to dissuade thieves from continuing any further. They then found another chamber filled with death hounds, each of them looking like they wanted to slaughter anyone that annoyed them, but Krovor charged into the room and slaughtered one of them without wasting a second, before spinning around and killing the other two with his sword, as if they were nothing to him but obstacles that needed to be removed.

As Krovor moved around the area, searching for more enemies to eliminate, Sonata glanced at his sword and wondered if he had used it to kill Lydia, before sighing and continuing forward.

A few seconds later they found a massive spider guarding the lever that Serana said they needed to pull, but while she was fast to enter the room she wasn't the only one to attack the spider, as Saerza and Kael added their spells to her volley. The poor spider was blown into the side of the wall, apparently killed long before it had even struck the wall, allowing the group to pull the lever and progress even further. They then returned to the bridge and continued up the stairs, eventually opening a wooden door and coming to a courtyard area that had a golden dial resting in the center of the area.

As Serana began to talk about the area they were in, explaining how she and her mother had tended to a garden before they were forced to flee, Sonata walked around the area and studied the moondial, noting that some of the plates were missing. She moved up to one of the upper areas and looked over the courtyard, though she found one of the missing plates as she came up to the top of the stairs, noting that it hadn't been in the best hiding spot. She then cast her eyes over the courtyard and almost immediately spotted another one of the missing plates resting in the water, to which she called down to her friends and beckoned to it. Lorthan, being the closest one to the plate, walked over to the water and collected it, though he smiled as he walked back to the dial and attempted to put it in its place. Sonata cast her eyes over the area once more and noticed something in the garden itself, though before she could say anything Serana seemed to notice it as well, as she picked up the final missing plate.

Sonata, Lorthan, and Serana carefully placed the missing plates into their respective holes, to which the mooddial began to turn around for a few seconds, though it eventually came to a stop and the area around it lowered into the ground, revealing a hidden staircase.

The group followed the previously hidden path into the deepest reaches of the castle, but as they followed the pathway they came across dozens of skeletons and a few gargoyles. It was clear that Valerica, having anticipated that someone might figure out her secret and investigate, had prepared the area with a small army of the undead. Sonata was amazed by the amount of power that Serana's mother had, which she had to attribute to her skill as a necromancer, though one of the unfortunate side effects they noticed was that the undead didn't recognize Serana. That immediately told Sonata that Valerica clearly hadn't been expecting her own daughter to uncover her secret passageway, which meant that they had to fight their way through the entire army of the dead.

Kree, being the most experienced person who knew how to use a bow, fell to the back of the group and started to pull arrows out and let them loose when whenever she had a target, smashing skeletons into pieces or pushing gargoyles backwards. Gol and Mez gripped their heavy weapons and smashed whoever came near them, moving from one enemy to another, while sometimes exchanging enemies for the other to deal with. Lorthan swung his sword around and cut into any enemies that happened to be coming at him, though that wasn't counting the fact that Krovor stood by his side and helped him survive the number of enemies attacking him. Sonata, Kael, and Serana used their magic to either heal their allies if a wound appeared, though they mostly used their magic for blasting an enemy to pieces in the end.

They eventually came to a chamber with three more active gargoyles, which burst out of their stone casings and attacked them, but it didn't take the group very long to finish them off. It appeared that they had reached a dead end and that Serana was going to give up, but then Sonata, in a moment of inspiration that rivaled some of her earlier choices in life, pulled a candlestick and revealed another hidden pathway, which allowed them to climb even higher until they came to a large chamber. Sonata looked around and noticed all of the alchemy ingredients, telling her that Valerica was also an accomplished alchemist before she was forced to flee, though that was before her eyes were drawn to the circular patter in the floor. Serana commented on the fact that she had never seen this chamber before, telling everyone that this had to be the place that Valerica had come to hide the Elder Scroll, but there was no sign of the artifact anywhere.

The group split up and started searching for any clues that might tell them were Valerica went, during which Serana merely stood in front of the middle of the room and stared at the pattern... though her thoughts were interrupted when Sonata returned with what appeared to be her mother's journal. Serana immediately started reading what her mother had written down, discovering that they needed three very special ingredients and her mother's blood to activate the portal her mother had used. It was then that Krovor mentioned that Serana, being Valerica's daughter, shared her blood, which meant that she might be able to activate the portal as well.

Sonata glared at the orc as she walked around the room, carefully gathering the ingredients that Serana had mentioned, before gently placing them inside a container on the second story of the room. The others quickly gathered in the area behind her, as they didn't want to be on the lower section of the room, before Serana approached the container and added a few drops of her blood to the mixture. That was followed by the entire room shaking for a few seconds, to which the group watched as the stone circle in the floor began to crack and break, pieces lifting into the air and circling around until they created a staircase. The new staircase lead right into a portal that had an unnatural purple glow... one that Sonata suspected that lead to another plane of existence, similar to the one she and Kael had used to reach Sovngarde.

Serana, on the other hand, exclaimed that she couldn't believe that her mother created a portal to the 'Soul Cairn', naming the realm that Sonata knew that they were going to have to enter to find Valerica and her scroll. She also learned that the Soul Cairn was a land of the dead, which meant that vampires wouldn't suffer from entering the portal and that she would either have to soul trap herself or become a vampire as well.

"Neither of those options are going to work on me," Sonata quickly replied, tapping the shattered necklace she was wearing, "I'm the Siren Queen. I've had many necromancers try to take my soul when I was engaged in fighting their forces, back before Celestia and Luna rose to power, and they've never been able to latch onto my soul. My body also rejects being a vampire for some odd reason, one that I've never been able to figure out, so my only option is to walk in and see what happens to me."

"Allow me to join you inside the Soul Cairn," Krovor said, placing his hand above his heart for a moment, "you two are sure to encounter heavy enemy resistance, so it would be wise to have some muscle along."

Serana glanced over at Sonata for a moment, as it was her call to bring along the one person neither of them trusted, but in the end Sonata nodded. Her thoughts were that the dead that called the Soul Cairn home might not take too kindly to one of Grul's minions entering their home, as she was sure that the warlock would love to siphon the power of the realm of Oblivion to further his own goals. If the dead sensed where his allegiances truly were then she could indirectly get rid of him, and then blame it on him not listening to orders and being overwhelmed by enemies before she and Serana could help him. Serana quickly explained that she was going to partly soul trap him, as it would allow him safe passage and that they could find the rest of his soul once they had done what they came to do, before the three of them walked through the portal.

Sonata expected there to be some pain involved with passing through a gateway that led to the realm of the dead, but for some reason she was able to pass through without any harm coming to her.





When Sonata stepped through the other side of the portal and appeared at the top of some stairs she immediately looked around her and took in the terrible plane all around them. The ground, seemingly dull and gray, was clearly lifeless and stretched outwards in every direction, though the dead state seemed to give way for some unusual cracks in the ground and dead looking weeds. The trees that rested around the stairs were clearly dead, as they were completely withered away and were nothing more than shadows of the tress that she had seen across Skyrim. The sky itself, on the other hand, was a completely different shade of blue, if not completely violet purple she told herself, and there was this churning hole in the middle of the sky, which she assumed had to be this realm's sun.

Sonata even heard the sounds of souls lightly screaming in the background every now and then, telling her that this horrible realm was definitely not made for the living... all while making her wonder if this was what Tartarus looked like.

"Everything about this place is wrong," Serana said, looking around for herself, while echoing Sonata's thoughts, "Let's hurry up and find my mother... I'd rather not be here longer than necessary."

"Yeah... let's get moving," Sonata replied, already wanting to leave this place and never come back, but she let out a sigh and followed the path that was at the bottom of the stairs.

They followed the pathway until they came to what appeared to be a massive black wall that was blocking their way, but that thought was quickly thrown away as they noticed an opening they could walk through. They qucikly passed between the opening in black wall before rejoining the path, though when they did Serana spotted a sinister looking castle in the distance. Sonata noted that Serana acted as if her gut was telling her something, as she immediately started walking right towards the castle, to which she and Krovor followed her before any of them got lost. As they drew closer and closer to the castle Sonata could have sworn that she felt the power of a barrier, a powerful one she quickly added, that had to rest somewhere in the castle, no doubt keeping someone from leaving.

Once the trio reached the stairs and climbed up them they immediately noticed that they weren't alone, as there was another women, this one much older looking than Serana, standing behind the barrier that Sonata had felt.

"Mother!" Serana exclaimed, running up to her mother before stopping short of the barrier, to which Sonata and Krovor stopped behind her and kept their eyes peeled for dangerous creatures.

"Serana?! What are you doing here?" Valerica demanded, before taking a moment to collect her thoughts and letting out a sigh, "Its Harkon isn't it? He's found a way to decipher the prophecy, hasn't he?"

"Actually, he hasn't." Serana replied, just a little annoyed that her mother was more concerned about the prophecy, especially when she knew that there was something more dangerous out there than her father trying to blot out the sun, "All he's trying to do at the moment is bring about the end of the world... which my friends are trying to stop."

"You brought strangers into our conflict?!" Valerica said, though the anger in her voice was not lost to Sonata, especially when Valerica turned to face them, "So how has it come to pass that the two of you are in the company of my daughter? It pains me to think either of you would travel with Serana under the guise of her protector in an effort to hunt me down."

"Look, we didn't come to hurt you," Sonata replied, annoyed by how this entire venture was going, but knew that she needed to explain something before they moved on, "in fact we were hoping that you'd be willing to give us the Elder Scroll you've hidden so we can stop Harkon from handing it over to Grul."

"Wait... you mean that arrogant warlock who thinks that he owns the Soul Cairn?" Valerica said, causing both Serana and Sonata to raise an eyebrow, while Krovor coughed for a moment.

"Yeah, that's who we mean," Sonata replied, as Grul was the only orc warlock that she had encountered, "How do you know about him if you've been trapped in here for so long?"

"His portal, not yet attuned to the realm of his master, is unstable at best at the moment," Valceria explained, folding her arms for a moment while she told them what she knew, "He's briefly entering the portal and writing down what he discovers about the realms that he visits, though he has come to the Soul Cairn at least five times in the last two weeks. He's been trying to steal as many souls as he can to further power his gateway, so he can attune it to the plane of Oblivion that his master controls and watches from. The Ideal Masters, the rulers of this realm, have already ordered his death whenever he or his minions enters this realm, as the taint of his master lingers in everyone that willingly serves him.

As such the guardians of this realm, a dragon by the name of Durnehviir and a set of special guards known as the Keepers, are tasked with killing anyone that is willingly following that warlock, if they should be so foolish to step foot in the Soul Cairn... and it seems that one such person has been following you the entire time."

Krovor, upon hearing that statement, turned around and spotted three large menacing creatures that appeared to be wearing armor crafted from the bones of several dragons, while noticing that all three of them had their weapons drawn. He charged passed the three of them, intending on leaving the realm so he could return to his true master, though before he could get very far a large sinister dragon landed in front of him, causing him to stop where he was. Sonata watched as the three Keepers boxed Krovor in with the dragon, who seemed to be eyeing the orc with what appeared to be a look of hunger in his eyes... which was followed by the dragon opening his mouth and scooping Krovor up in one swift motion.

Sonata and Serana looked away for a moment as Durnehviir used his teeth to chew Krovor to pieces and shollowed him, though they heard a rumbling sound that indicated that the dragon was pleased.

"Well then, let's see about getting you that Elder Scroll," Valerica said, to which Serana and Sonata noticed that the barrier had faded, as if it had been there to prevent Krovor from going any further.

Sonata had no idea who the Ideal Masters were, but so far they seemed to be on the side that wanted to keep Nirn intact... so she said nothing as she and Serana followed Valerica to the Elder Scroll, while Durnehviir took to the skies to see if more of Grul's soldiers had entered the realm they were in. She had the suspicion that the dragon would love to leave the realm and eat more of Grul's minions, which made her smile for a moment as she thought about the image that sprung to mind. It seemed that luck was finally on her side once more... and she hoped that it continued like that for the next few days.