What Amaryllis discovered was that they were able to get back to Fort Dawnguard before nightfall, meaning they were able to slip into the canyon once more and found that some displaced citizens had moved in, either to join up with Isran's group or to use them for protection, where they walked into the fort and found Isran talking to one of his followers, with Sorine and Gunmar standing nearby.
"Well, you sure work fast." Isran commented, staring at them for a moment as he realized that they had recovered the Moth Priest that had come to Skyrim, where Dexion rubbed the back of his head for a moment, almost as if he wasn't used to so many people caring about someone like him, to which Isran readied himself, "So, um, I guess this means we'll get to hear what is written on the Elder Scroll."
"Oh, most certainly! Let's find out what secrets the scroll can tell." Dexion said, showing that he was excited to do his part in saving Skyrim from the enemies that the Dawnguard was sworn to bring to justice, where the man held out a hand for a few seconds and Serana, who stalled for a moment, handed over the Elder Scroll that she carried, leading to him holding it out as he pulled it open for all to see, "Now, if everyone will please be quiet, I must concentrate. I see a vision before me... an image of a great bow. I know this weapon! It is Auriel's Bow! Now a voice whispers, saying 'Among the night's children, a dread lord will rise'. In an age of strife, when dragons return to the realm of men, darkness will mingle with light and the night and day will be as one. The voice fades and the words begin to shimmer and distort... but wait, there is more here. The secret of the bow's power is written elsewhere... I think there is more to the prophecy, recorded in other scrolls. Yes, I see them now... one contains the ancient secrets of the dragons, and the other speaks of the potency of ancient blood. My vision darkens, and I see no more... to know the complete prophecy... we must have the other two scrolls."
Amaryllis and the others remained silent for a moment as Isran took Dexion and escorted him to one of the chairs, where he returned Serana's Elder Scroll to her before accepting the gesture, leading to her closing the Scroll and returned it to it's previous state as she sighed, to which she watched as Serana handed it over to Za'kera, who accepted it and held onto it for a few moments.
"So, even with a Moth Priest, we need my mother's Scroll..." Serana commented, as if she had been hoping to avoid such a thing in the first place, even though she had told them that she had no idea where her mother had gone after sealing her inside that monolith all those years ago, before she sighed as she considered something, "I only waited before mentioning this because I didn't want to give the Dawnguard any other ideas, about me or my parents, but I've been thinking about all of the things she told me and I might have an idea on where she might have gone... but I'm in the dark about where the third Scroll might be."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Amaryllis replied, where she channeled her magic for a moment and summoned her chest, to which she opened it and carefully pulled out the Elder Scroll associated with the dragons, something that made Serana stop for a moment when she saw it, though once she had a chance to see it, and understand that they had two of them, she stored it back inside the chest before accepting the second from Za'kera, storing it inside the chest as well before she cancelled the spell, "we already found the dragon Elder Scroll. So, how are we going to go about finding your mother and her Elder Scroll?"
"The last time I saw my mother, she said that she'd go somewhere safe... somewhere that my father would never search." Serana replied, shaking off the shock of discovering that they had the second Elder Scroll in their possession and hadn't said anything about it before now, though she did understand that they wanted to keep it a secret and said nothing, just in case Isran or the others were listening, "Other than that, she wouldn't tell me anything about where she planned on going or what her plans were... but the way she said it, 'someplace he would never search', was rather cryptic, yet she was calling attention to it."
"This might be a shot in the dark, but it sounds like she's talking about the castle," Wind remarked, causing Amaryllis to let out a chuckle, as she expected Wind to either think about the statement for some time and speak her mind or instantly figure it out without wasting time, where it seemed like the latter was true this time around, before she glanced at them and found that some were coming to terms with her statement, "think about it, Harkon's had all this time to search every corner of Skyrim... frankly, we're lucky he failed to find your monolith for so long... but there's likely somewhere inside the castle that he wouldn't step foot in, where your mother might have hidden either herself or a clue that might reveal where she's gone, in case you came looking for her."
"You know what, that makes sense! Especially since my mother used to tend to a garden in the courtyard," Serana said, as she was taken aback by Wind's suggestion, maybe thinking that someone would have offered some stupid ideas before it came to this, but at the very least this meant that they didn't have to waste time on foolish ideas, where she considered a few things for a moment, "in fact, all of the ingredients for our potions came from it... I'm sure that my father has set up a few plans to ensure we have the items in question... but she used to say that he hated it there, as it was too peaceful for his liking. Now, I'm not sure that we'll run into her while we're there, but it's better than scouring the rest of Skyrim in an effort to track her down and convince her that a new path has opened up... and there just so happens to be an inlet that, if memory serves, has an escape route into the castle, one my father doesn't know about."
"Then that's what we'll do: we'll find the inlet, head into the castle, and find your mother." Za'kera spoke up, because she had been silent for some time, thinking about the prophecy on the second Elder Scroll and how they could get around it, given what they had done to get around her own destiny, something she could blame on Amaryllis if she wanted to, and she could see that the others were interested in what she had to say, "hopefully we find her and her Elder Scroll without wasting too much time... there's no telling what Harkon might do while we're doing this."
Amaryllis agreed with that idea, that they had to act quickly and make sure to deprive Harkon of his prize, though with the three Elder Scrolls there was no telling what her friend might learn, or even if they needed to track down Auriel's Bow, as the easiest way to end this would be to use some of her power to take Harkon out, but for now she was going to keep the idea to herself and wait until Za'kera decided what to do.
When early morning arrived Amaryllis, Wind, Za'kera, and the others departed from Fort Dawnguard and returned to the carriage, finding that no enemies were around the area to bother them and allowed them to get moving without delay, as there was no telling what might be waiting for them when they reached the outside of Harkon's castle, especially since he had to have some scouts. Anything Serana had to share with them, about her father's habits and what defenses he might have put in place, likely didn't matter since Harkon might have changed things at some point in time, but it did allow them to form an idea of what to expect, especially since his advisors might have taken over that aspect to appease him, given his status as a Lord among vampires. Such a thing caused Lynthia to chuckle, as a Lord was nothing to the Princess of the entire species, where Amaryllis took a moment to finger Mehrunes' Razor for a few seconds, debating what might happen if she stabbed the Demiprince with another Prince's artifact, but decided to just ignore the ancient vampire as she focused on finding Serana's mother, Valerica, and the third Elder Scroll. She could tell that the others were getting annoyed with the ancient vampire, no doubt growing tired of her arrogance, though no one said anything to her comment as they took some time to think about everything that might be between them and their main goal, hopefully without alerting Harkon to what they were attempting to do.
It took some time for them to get back to the fort that was near the boat, which would take them to the castle, though the moment they landed on the shore of Harkon's home Amaryllis moved without wasting time, as a sentry happened to be in the top of the nearby tower and she landed behind him, allowing her to cut down the bandit that had been turned into a thrall by one of Harkon's followers. With that done she dropped down into the area that the others were in as Serana took the lead for the time being, where she headed to the left of the bridge and continued following the coastline, leaving the others to follow after her without leaving any evidence that they had been here, as it was unlikely that Harkon's followers would come out and check on the thrall. True to what she had said Za'kera found an inlet that was far below where the castle rested, hence why it was an escape route that was totally out of the way, though it appeared that the boats that had been left here by the previous residents, if Harkon wasn't the first owner of this castle, had been rotted out, though it took them a few seconds to find a number of skeletons wandering around the area. Serana glanced at them for a moment and told the group that this had to be her mother's handiwork, permanently awakening the ancient guards of the castle in an effort to make sure whoever tried to follow her would fall in due time, but since they were enemies the group lashed out at them as Amaryllis found a door leading inside the castle.
Sure enough the skeletons weren't much of a threat to a band of heroes, given the skills that they possessed, though Wind did refrain from using her lightning spells, since they didn't want to alert their enemies as to what was going on, where all of them slashed their way through the undead before reaching the door, allowing them to carefully head inside the castle and found that they were in what appeared to be the lowest section.
Amaryllis found that it was an ancient sewer system, or it had been during the time before Harkon turned himself into a Vampire Lord and both his wife and daughter followed his lead, as now parts of the area seemed to be full of bones, likely from all of the people that Harkon's followers had kidnapped for feeding on them and devouring them when they ran out of blood, at least according to Lynthia. One thing that Serana was surprised to find was that there were a number of death hounds wandering around the area, no doubt either left by her mother or someone else had moved in, where Amaryllis took a moment to feel some of the emotions that were in the air and felt some hatred coming from an area that was just a few seconds away from the doorway. Sure enough it belonged to a more feral looking vampire, who had been feeding on all of the scraps that had been dropped down into this place, though she nodded to Za'kera, who slashed at one of the five death hounds, pulling the others away while opening the way for her to slip into the area that the feral vampire was in so she could assassinate her without wasting time. What she discovered was that a lever was resting near where the vampire had been living, as there was a slightly broken coffin against one of the walls, and when she flipped it she also lowered a small wooden bridge for them to use, though as they regrouped near it Serana informed them that the next lever was on the path to left, as the right was purely a distraction that was designed to kill intruders.
The path in question brought them to another dumping area that was likely added by Harkon, where Sharva rushed into it and sliced the death hods inside the first chamber to pieces, allowing Amaryllis and Za'kera to follow the rest of the path as Wind and the others kept an eye open for potential enemies that might bother them, where it brought them to a stone tunnel that ended with a large spider. As such she lashed out with her daggers to slice into the spider's legs, leaving a new opening for Za'kera to kill it, though with that done they found the lever that Serana had informed them about and flipped it, something that was followed by the bridge lowering so they could move forward, putting a smile on Za'kera's face since it meant they were on the right track. A few seconds later she and Amaryllis regrouped with the rest of the group and they followed the path that was in front of them, discovering a stone tunnel that seemed to be leading up into part of the castle or, hopefully, the courtyard that Serana had told them about earlier, where it brought them to a door that definitely lead out into their destination. As it turned out the courtyard was massive and totally ruined, given that several structures did look like they were collapsing due to age, especially an area that Serana claimed was the path back to the dining hall, one that had been shattered at some point in the past, where she suspected that her father was behind it's destruction, due to his rage over their plan to steal his Elder Scrolls.
"Oh no... What happened to this place? Everything's been torn down... the whole place looks... well, dead. It's like we're the first to set foot here in centuries." Serana commented, where Amaryllis could tell that she felt sad about the fact that what she and her mother had worked on for some time had been totally destroyed, before walking forward as she focused on the large brass device that was in the middle of the area, one that looked like a sundial of some kind, "Something's wrong with the moondial here. Some of the crests are missing and the dial is askew... honestly, I had no idea that the crests could even be removed. Maybe my mother's trying to tell us something?"
Amaryllis glanced around the area as Wind and the others spread out, where the former Changeling princess found one of the missing crests resting in a pool of water, another hidden inside the garden itself and resting behind some dead herbs, and the last one was on the balcony above the second, though upon recovering them she slipped them into the slots that were around the moondial, causing the device to move and the area around it shifted, revealing a staircase that lead down to a new door. Based on Serana's following words this was a secret tunnel that not even she knew about, one her mother had created without telling anyone about, though that didn't stop them from readying their weapons as they headed down the stairs and passed through the door that was on the other side of it, leading into another part of the castle, where they pulled a chain and revealed a secret door. The chamber they walked into looked like it hadn't been used for years as well, so if Valerica was hiding in the castle she wasn't doing anything to suggest that someone was living here, and it brought all of them to another chamber that was a large dining hall, filled with skeletons who rose when they stepped into the area in question, causing them to lash out at the undead once more. Sure enough it didn't take them long to cut down all of the skeletons that were around them and find a tunnel leading deeper into the tower, one that had a gargoyle guarding it, one that Sharva cut into before it could hit Za'kera and the others, allowing them to open a door and continue on their way as they kept an eye out for Serana's mother.
The next part of the path had more skeletons standing in their way, some being archers and others being warriors, with a few being mages based on what they were seeing, though what Amaryllis discovered was that there weren't a lot of things to look at, as everything that had been inside the tower before this point in time had been ruined, thanks to age, so their focus was on smashing the skeletons and gargoyles that were in their way. Serana didn't seem to mind the fact that they were breaking her mother's defenses, though she seemed to think that they would have been designed to recognize her, just in the off chance that she came looking for her mother, but such a thing didn't stop her from attacking their enemies with the others, even if Lynthia stayed out of battle once more. Amaryllis continued to hold her train of thought about the Demiprince that was following them right now, as Ma'jera was far more helpful than Lynthia was and Durum was, well, just insane and it all depended on her mood, while Lynthia happened to be more of a hindrance to their group, given that she picked when to aid them and when to watch them. Sure, her mental skills were useful, since they broke through the guard and spells of those that opposed her, but that was the only thing that she had going for her, as Lynthia seemed to be more of an Illusionist and not much of a fighter, though she continued to keep her opinions from the others since she didn't want to be on the receiving end of another Prince's anger.
In the end the path brought them to a chamber with three gargoyles that burst out of their prisons and attacked them, not that it mattered since they were able to bring them down, and Amaryllis found a lever that revealed another hidden path, this one bringing them to a study of some kind that was at the top of the tower, which had a stone circle of some kind right in the middle of the floor.
"Just look at the place... this has to be it! I knew she was deep into necromancy, since she taught me everything I know, but I had no idea she had a setup like this." Serana said, referring to all of the alchemy ingredients that were scattered all over the room that they had made their way to, as there were plenty based on what they were seeing, though her eyes focused on what was in front of them, her mother's odd device, "I'm not sure what this is, but I'm sure that if we can find her notes we can figure out where to go from here."
As Amaryllis expected Lynthia just stood off to the side as she watched them spread out and look for information, though it took Wind all of five seconds to find a journal wedged between two books on the bookshelf to the right of the door they had walked through, a journal that described Valerica's decision to open a portal to what was called the 'Soul Cairn' and a recipe she used to open said portal. As it turned out they needed to find some finely ground bone meal, a bit of purified void salts, and a number of soul gem shards, because there were no measurements for such a thing since Valerica wanted to make sure no one could accurately replicate her recipe, and there was another thing she did to make it harder for those following her to actually follow her. Valerica used some of her own blood in the recipe, meaning without it they couldn't do anything to open the portal, and even if she was here they wouldn't be attempting such a thing, where Amaryllis came up with a new idea, that Serana might be able to use her own blood, since some of it was her mother's, causing them to stare at her for a few seconds. With that done they spread out and tracked down the items that were written in Valerica's small journal, which had been scattered around this room, in special containers that were slightly larger than what they were normally stored in, though once that was done they made their way to the uppermost part of the room and found a long device that had a bowl for them to put the items in.
Once that was done Serana sighed for a moment as everyone gathered behind her, where she bit into her palm for a few seconds and dropped a few drops of her blood into the bowl, something that caused a chain reaction that tore the rather odd stone circle apart, revealing a portal to another dimension that was filled with dark purple energy, though they found that the fragments of stone formed a set of stairs for them to use... only it zapped the strength of Za'kera when she tried to walk down it, causing her to back off.
"Okay, that's a problem." Za'kera remarked, because when she thought about it the Soul Cairn sounded like a realm that belonged to the dead and that vampires, for example, would be at home in such a place, meaning the only ones among their number that could head into the Soul Cairn were Serana and Lynthia, causing her to glance over to Serana, who was thinking about something, "Serana, what's on your mind?"
"She's considering asking if you would like to become a vampire, or have your soul partly tapped," Lynthia replied, which caused Serana to frown for a moment, as she had been thinking about it and didn't like the Demiprince speaking before she had finished coming to terms with what had to be said, where the more ancient vampire stood like she was speaking to a servant or something, "basically, the Soul Cairn wants payment, hence why you felt pain... my father told me about it before I came looking for the lot of you... he also said that you two need to stay here, as damaging the soul of one of your kind might have some serious consequences."
Amaryllis and Wind glanced at each other for a few seconds, wondering why Molag Bal would insist on his daughter telling them not to enter the Soul Cairn or have something happen to their souls, like they would become monsters if their souls were damaged in some manner, or maybe they could become a threat to him and the other Princes, where Za'kera took a moment to think about it before allowing Serana to soul tap her, though with that done she and the two vampires headed down into the Soul Cairn as Amaryllis and the others remained behind, to rest and wait for their return.