//------------------------------//
// Vampire: The Soul Cairn 
// Story: Skyrim: The Faces of Death 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Amaryllis, Wind, and Lydia remained on the ledge above the portal to the Soul Cairn for a while, mostly since two of them had been told not to enter the portal and Lydia was following her Thane's orders, standing guard over the entrance to make sure nothing came out and attacked them, even though they were sure that they would be able to rest and see what might happen next. Truth be told Amaryllis wasn't too happy with Lynthia right now, as Molag's daughter seemed to think that staying here was the right move, that they might be twisted into monsters if they went into the Soul Cairn, and she hated the idea of leaving Za'kera, the hope of both Skyrim and this world, with two vampires, as while she trusted Serana, given her desire to bring her father down, it was Lynthia she didn't trust. There was no telling what the Lord of Domination wanted with them, since she wasn't buying the whole 'deal with Harkon' statement, and after seeing what happened to Sharva, who had returned to the Moondial to keep an eye out for any vampires who might come investigating the area, she didn't like the idea of Molag sneakily branding the Dragonborn as his slave, using his daughter to get what he wanted. If that happened there was no telling what he could do, in fact he might try to take over the world once more by using her soul for his foul purposes, even though the vision in the Elder Scroll showed her otherwise, but it didn't stop her from worrying about what Molag wanted from Za'kera.

In the end, however, she noticed that there was nothing over the portal to stop them from entering it, save for the price of trying to enter the Soul Cairn, to which she glanced around Valerica's study and found a single black soul gem, one that did have a soul trapped inside it based on the glow that was inside it, to which she grabbed it before walking back to the area she had been standing in earlier.

"Amaryllis, stop." Wind said, as she had been watching her friend as she walked around the room, staring at the portal as she wondered what was happening to Za'kera, and she knew what was coming before it even revealed itself, while Lydia just stared at the portal some more, where she found that Amaryllis stopped for a few seconds, "You heard what Lynthia said, we're not supposed to go through that portal."

"Least the damage done to our souls twist us into monsters... yeah, I heard her." Amaryllis replied, where she tossed the soul gem into the air a few times and caught it as she spoke, because while she understood Wind's desire not to do this, in the off chance Lynthia was right, she wasn't about to leave her friend traveling with two vampires, "That's why I'm going to use this Black Soul Gem on the portal... if a soul is needed for payment, then I can pay the price another way, leaving me to enter the Soul Cairn without any trouble."

Wind raised an eyebrow for a moment as Amaryllis tossed the crystal into the portal, where it seemed to float above the shimmering magic for some time as the energies siphoned whatever power was inside the soul gem, though in the next moment, before she could do anything, she watched as Amaryllis jumped into the air and disappeared in seconds, passing through the portal with ease, causing her to sigh as she waited with Lydia. A few seconds later Amaryllis found herself on a stone platform that seemed to be part of a shattered staircase that went down to the ground, where she found that the ground seemed to be a faded gray color, all the trees were dead, there were odd gray stones scattered here and there, a number of structures littered the area, and she found that the sky was mostly a dense fog, with a circle in the center of it all that seemed to radiate energy. This place was dark, twisted, and full of no hope, as this was a depressing place and she suspected that all of the souls that were trapped here felt that way, in fact she had a feeling that Za'kera might not be too happy with this place, while Serana and Lynthia might not care in the slightest, or at least Lynthia wouldn't since she didn't seem to care about anything other than her father's dark mission. Another thing she noted was that there happened to be a number of dark purple crystals floating over certain structures, which seemed to be connected to whatever being ruled over this plane of existence, though Amaryllis found that nothing seemed to react to her presence and that caused her to walk down the staircase, carefully walking down the shattered stones as she glanced around for Za'kera.

As she discovered a few scattered piles of black ghostly energy, sort of like the blue ash that was left when a reanimated body was slain, meaning it would point her in the direction of her friend and her companions, though as she did that she felt a surge of pain rock her body as she gripped her chest, which told her that the soul inside the Black Soul Gem hadn't been enough for the exchange, or maybe her soul was more valuable than she thought. It sure felt like the Soul Carin was trying to tear her soul from her body, to obtain payment for what she had done, even though Serana had said that a soul was needed and she gave one up, but it just told her that they didn't know everything about this place and the mysterious beings who ruled over it. Her weakened body made traveling through this place that much harder, all while she could feel the icy sting of the Soul Cairn stabbing at her as it continued to try and take her soul from her, though in addition to all of that she felt a new heat coming from somewhere, where she found that it was radiating from both of her daggers, why she had no idea and right now she didn't care since the heat countered the cold sting. She had no idea what might have lead to the weapons heating up, but right now she wasn't about to argue or question what was going on, not when it cut off the foul coldness that was trying to steal her soul and forced her soul back into her body, along with something else to make sure she wouldn't be bothered again.

Of course, as she resumed walking down the path in front of her, Amaryllis felt somewhat different, making her wonder what Dagon had done to her, since she assumed that he had stepped in and laid claim to her soul before the beings that ruled this place took it, even though it also could have been Sithis, since she was a member of the Dark Brotherhood and had joined them before reforging Dagon's artifact, but she wasn't about to question this as she sought out Za'kera and her vampiric companions.

While she moved through the Soul Cairn, however, Amaryllis also found a number of transparent purple figures, where a fair number of them were humanoid, like Reguards, Nords, and Altmer for example, and she even spotted a few animals off in the distance, meaning the souls that were contained in soul gems were sent here when they were used, either for the enchantments on weapons and armor or to recharge the enchantments in question. Part of her was saddened to see all of the souls that were in the opening part of the Soul Cairn, or at least one of the sections of this plane, since it looked like it was a massive realm and likely stretched on for a long time based on what she had seen earlier, so there was no way for her to tell how many souls were trapped in this foul place. Of course, as she noticed that, she also found that many of them didn't notice her as she tried to sneak through the area that was in front of her, showing her that her skills and the armor she wore made it so nothing could see her right now, despite the fact that there was a difference in color between the ground around her and her own armor, but, once again, she wasn't going to complain. Other than that it didn't look like there were any enemies for her to worry about, as the ones who had shown up so far seemed to have been taken out by Za'kera and the others, but Amaryllis kept her eyes open in case there were foes that her friend had missed, since there was no telling what sort of dangers existed in this dark realm.

Not a few moments later she found exactly what she was looking for, Za'kera was standing on a dark stone platform that was raised slightly above the ground, which had some steps leading up to where she decided to stop, where Serana and Lynthia were standing near her, who were staring up at a dark castle that was up the road in front of them, though not a few moments later the trio turned around and spotted her.

"You fool! I told you not to come here!" Lynthia remarked, where Amaryllis had a feeling that her opinion of her had gone down quite a lot by refusing to stay on the other side of the portal to this place, not that she really cared since the child of Molag Bal only thought of her as a tool for her own goals, instead of as an ally to take down those who wronged or even annoyed her father.

"Yeah, and I decided not to leave Za'kera alone with you two... don't worry, Wind, Lydia, and Sharva are still guarding the way to the tower," Amaryllis stated, though she glanced at Serana and nodded her head for a moment, as she trusted her more than Molag's daughter, who understood the gesture and seemed to smile a little, before she focused on the ancient vampire that was glaring at her like she had placed the world in jeopardy, "also, calm down, I used a black soul gem to pay part of the admission so I could get in here, not to mention that it seems that Dagon and Sithis have enforced their wills on my soul, to keep it from being ripped out of my body."

"Of course the Lord of Destruction would step in to save his champion... he's probably plotting against my father, given the rivalry that exists between them," Lynthia said, where she raised a hand to her face and pinched the bridge of her nose for a few seconds, showing that she was totally annoyed with her and her actions, before she gathered a bit of magic around her, stopping Amaryllis from moving as Za'kera and Serana turned on her, "and, based on the energy of your soul, it would seem that we were right to be worried... it seems that he's added a fragment of a Titan's soul to your own, to make sure no one else can claim your soul... save for Sithis, but that's another matter entirely. Dagon probably thinks your too weak at the moment, in comparison to the staggering power of the Dragonborn and the apprentice of Hermaeus Mora's daughter, so he added a fraction of a Daedric Titan's soul to your own... basically, they're my father's attempt to imitate a dragon, not to mention that a few of the other Princes have a few Titans of their own, like how Dagon has his Ash Titans... I even have a brother whose a Titan, Ozozzachar to be exact."

"So he's got three kids, counting Molag Grunda?" Serana inquired, though that was great for them, as it meant more allies for when it came time to declare war on the Aldmeri Dominion and put an end to their goals, where Lynthia nodded her head for a moment, showing them that she was correct, before she sighed and considered the other piece of information they had been told just now, "Okay... so what's going to happen to her, now that she has a fragment of a Daedric Titan's soul attached to hers?"

"I'm going to transform in some manner, that's what's going to happen." Amaryllis stated, because this seemed to be one of the themes with her and the Princes she came into contact with, given what happened with Sheogorath earlier, despite the fact that his daughter removed the curse from her, though it opened her up to receiving another one that was going to activate at a bad time no doubt, where she shuddered for a moment, "I'm sure it's going to happen soon, so we had best get going and find Valerica... I'll hide when the transformation finally starts up... hopefully it's better than the last one that I was forced to suffer."

Lynthia frowned for a moment, no doubt wondering what she was going to do with Amaryllis, before releasing her, where she regained herself before officially joining the group, causing Za'kera to head up the path that was in front of the small platform they had been standing on, where it didn't take them long to head up the dirt path so they could reach the front of the castle, something that allowed them to find an older lady, a Nord like Serana, standing on the other side of a faint shimmer barrier. Valerica, as they expected, was totally surprised by the sudden arrival of her daughter, which was who she chose to focus on for the time being as she ignored Lynthia, Za'kera, and Amaryllis, where she figured that she must have failed to stop Harkon from discovering the prophecy they had been working to put an end to, before Serana told her that she had allies and it caused her mother to pale as she realized who was here. Lynthia, of course, continued to speak of how her father was interested in this event and wanted her to interact with the Dragonborn, while dealing with Harkon in some manner, she didn't go into detail about the specifics of her mission, though it didn't give them anything else to go on and Valerica turned towards the others for a time. Za'kera informed the vampire that she wasn't a vampire hunter, just in case she thought that, nor was she a vampire, she was the Dragonborn and she was fulfilling her own prophecy, which just so happened to coincide with dealing with Alduin, Harkon, and someone called Miraak, the first of which being on her side, the second was her current target, and she would deal with the third in due time.

Amaryllis, on the other hand, didn't go into much detail about who or what she was, rather she told Valerica that she was Za'kera's Shadow Guard, a term she just came up with and that it was someone who watched from the shadows, to keep someone important safe from harm, though as she explained her meaning she could feel a few shudders run through her body, meaning the transformation was getting closer.

Following that Serana went into a conversation with her mother, where she revealed her true feelings on the matter, that she blindly followed her mother, without being offered a chance to try and resolve things so they didn't escalate to this point, and that her new friends had done far more for her in the brief time she had known them than anything her mother had done before sealing her inside that monolith. Valerica was outraged by her comment, declaring that Serana seemed to care more about her fanatic father and less about her, especially after everything she had done to make sure they stopped Harkon from fulfilling the prophecy and plunging the world into eternal darkness, where the order of the day would have done everything to eradicate vampires, at least until Molag Bal decided to make more. Serana sighed after that and told her mother that she was conflicted over all of this, since this was her father they were talking about and, despite what they had seen, she still cared for him, even if he didn't share her feelings on the matter, meaning that while she was willing to end her father it was going to hurt far more than anyone could possibly imagine. Amaryllis could feel the sadness coming from Serana as she walked about that, especially since it was her father they were talking about, and she mentioned that her deepest desire was for them to be a family, to put the prophecy behind them and return to what they had been like in the time before they found one of the Elder Scrolls, even though she knew that none of them deserved such a thing, and it pained her to admit it.

In the end, however, Serana agreed that they had to stop her father from finding Auriel's Bow and doing whatever he had planned with it, so to do that they were here to claim the final Elder Scroll that was part of the trio Dexion had told them to find, the first being the one relating to dragons, the second being the one she had been buried with, and the third was the one that her mother had hidden in this realm.

"Serana... I'm sorry, I didn't know how much this would effect you... I didn't see how my actions would hurt you," Valerica said, eventually speaking after her daughter's speech about them being a family and the pain that she felt, something that she could see and even feel a bit of what Serana felt, as it was one of the things that she had imagined during her time in this cursed realm, before she sighed as she focused on her daughter and her companions, "Very well, if you want the Elder Scroll, you can have it... and my aid, since it seems we'll be doing things differently than I originally intended... but, sadly, I cannot give all of you the Scroll, because this barrier prevents me from leaving and others from entering. Now, there are three Keepers who have been charged with keeping this barrier powered, so if you can take them down this should drop and I can give you the last of the Elder Scrolls... also, a word of warning, there's a dragon called Durnehviir roaming this realm, and the Ideal Masters have charged him with overseeing the Keepers."

"Got it: we take on the Keepers, he'll come attack us," Za'kera replied, where she had remained silent while the two family members had been talking to each other, mostly to give them space before cutting into the conversation, though Valerica nodded her head to confirm that she was correct in her assumption of what to do next, to which she simply shifted her stance, like she was getting ready to leave, "We'll be back when all of them have been taken care of."

As they walked away from Valerica's prison, since that was what it was, Amaryllis felt a more powerful shudder wash over her body as they neared an area with a ruined Word Wall in it, meaning the transformation was upon her as she fell to the back of the pack, causing Za'kera and the others to pause as they glanced back at her, where she removed her right glove for a moment and watched as ebony scales appeared on her hand. A few seconds after that her fingers twitched as they sharpened, becoming more like a dragon's claws, and she found that the gloves of her attire reformed to match her new hands, reminding her of the magic that was on them, before her hooves cracked and became three claws that looked like a dragon's legs and claws, and they also had new scales on them. She could feel her body cracking and shifting, no doubt becoming somewhat tougher to match the new fragment of her altered soul, even though she was sure that more than a fragment had been attached to her, and scales were no doubt forming all over her body, giving her one more defense for when she got into a fight. Sure enough her tail shuddered before gaining mass as it shifted into a more draconic tail, one scaled to her body while looking like it was ready for battle, given the battleaxe shaped ridges at the very end, before she felt a new line of curved spikes growing along her spine, more like what a dragon had, and ended in line with her horn, or at least her main horn since two more sprouted out in front of her ears, pointed towards the front of her face, as if they were made for war.

Truth be told she was expecting her face to push out into a twisted dragon's muzzle, to match what her body was currently experiencing, but, at the same time, she guessed that this was as much as the Daedric Titan's soul was going to affect her body, though she paused as one last shudder went through her wings, because they became more muscular and leathery, twisting into ebony dragon wings with red sections between the fingers, the red matching the scales that happened to be on the underside of her new tail.

"Well, this is certainly... better... than my last transformation." Amaryllis commented, where she took a few seconds just to make sure that the change was over, that her body wasn't changing more now that she was talking, though once she was positive everything was done she slipped the glove back over her clawed hand before gripping her daggers, finding that her grip was still the same.

"Are you sure that you're fine?" Za'kera asked, because she had no idea how strong or damaging the soul fragment had been, since this was the first time she had heard of a Daedric Titan and considering that one was Molag Bal's son it meant that they were incredibly powerful, so this happening to her friend meant that her own combat power had gone up, even if she preferred to remain in the darkness, where she assumed that Sithis' part in this was darkening the scales to make sure Amaryllis remained safe in some manner.

"Yes, despite being the plaything of a Daedric Prince and the Dread Father," Amaryllis replied, though she bounced from one foot to another, finding it odd to have feet this time around, and discovered that they felt natural to her, as if she had been born with them and hadn't been granted them during a change to her very being, she knew that Dagon would likely ask a price for this, something she was going to have to pay, before she glanced out at the Soul Cairn, "come on, we should get going before Durnehviir finds us."

Za'kera stared at her for a few more seconds, just to make sure nothing was wrong with her, before nodding as the four of them resumed walking, allowing them to focus on tracking down the three Keepers that were scattered around this area of the Soul Cairn, as she had a feeling that one was in the direction that they were heading in and that the other two were in an area they hadn't been to yet. Sure enough, as Amaryllis discovered, her friend brought them to an area that was like a keep of some kind, the twisted Soul Cairn variety that was easy to invade, and there was a shadowy figure dressed up in what had to be armor forged from dragon bones, though in that moment Amaryllis decided to try something as Za'kera and their vampire companions drew the attention of the dark skeletons and wraiths that were nearby. What she did was sneak her way over to where the Keeper was standing, who carried a mace and shield made out of dragon bits as well, but it didn't seem to notice her advance at all, as if she were a ghost or a wraith now, allowing her to sneak up on the Keeper and deliver a powerful slash with both of her daggers, killing it in seconds and crippling this part of the barrier, freeing the souls that had been powering it. As the Keeper turned into a dark pool of energy, and her companions dealt with the rest of the undead, Amaryllis realized that Dagon gave her a somewhat stronger form while Sithis blessed her stealth abilities, far more than what she had in the past, meaning she might need these skills later on, though once she was done thinking about that she collected the dragon gear before regrouping with the others.

After that they retraced their steps and returned to Valerica's prison for a moment, though they didn't stop as they walked right by her castle and spotted a floating tower off in the distance, where Za'kera was sure that another Keeper was hold up on, though in response to that Amaryllis opened her wings and took off, as she wanted to make sure their target was in the area in question. Sure enough she found one Keeper on top of the tower that they had spotted, watching over the host of souls that powered part of the barrier, before searching the rest of this section of the Soul Cairn and found another one not too far from the second, meaning they could deal with both of the remaining Keepers and return to Valerica, hopefully before Durnehviir showed up and attacked them. With that done she backtracked to Za'kera's area and informed them of what she had discovered, especially with all of the minions both Keepers happened to have near them, so they launched an attack on the tower Keeper and found that his guards were surrounding a teleport pad, though it was a distraction so Amaryllis could deal with their target, which Za'kera was putting in her hands. What she discovered a few moments later was that the Keeper had a bone made of dragon bones and it's arrows were made from those materials as well, causing her to dodge several arrows while she was in the air, mostly to test out her new skills again, before she flew forward and swung her daggers again, ending another Keeper as she claimed the new gear for later.

With the tower taken care of they regrouped and headed for where the third Keeper, carrying a battleaxe made of bone, only to discover that it was rather easy for them to take out, as Serana and Lynthia weakened it with a barrage of icicles to the chest, leaving it open to Za'kera's attack, allowing her to cut it down before Amaryllis claimed all of it's gear, though as soon as that was done they turned around and headed back to Valerica's prison.

"You work fast, Dragonborn," Valerica commented, speaking once they walked up the steps to her prison, where the four of them found that the barrier had been dismissed not that long ago, though oddly enough there was no sign of a dragon, where Amaryllis knew that she hadn't been lying about him, not after what she felt previously, before she beckoned for all of them to follow her as she headed for a door that was behind her, "Come, let us collect the Elder Scroll, before we come face to face with Durnehviir himself."

It didn't take them long to walk through the door and enter a courtyard, one that seemed to be where Valerica made her home once she entered this place, though as they walked into the area in question they heard a familiar roar, as Amaryllis and Za'kera were the most experienced in the roars of dragons, which was followed by a sickly green scaled dragon, who had to be Durnehviir, flew into the area and attacked them. As it turned out Durnehviir had two special Shouts that were totally different from the ones that all of the other dragons had used against them, as the first involved summoning some of the more powerful undead they had faced in the Soul Cairn, meaning he was more like a necromancer, and the second was designed to weaken the soul of whoever he shouted at, as he loosed a burst of purple energy at whoever his target happened to be. The group focused on taking out the skeletal minions first, since there were more of them and it looked like the dragon wouldn't land until all of them were taken out, giving him time to study their layout before attacking with his second Shout, an interesting strategy when Amaryllis thought about it, though she flared her wings and took to the air during his third pass over the courtyard. Her plan was simple, she was going to attack the undead dragon directly, cut off his concentration and force him to focus on her, that way Za'kera and the others could deal with the skeletons that had been called to fight them, forcing Durnehviir to land and focus on those who were fighting down below them, where she swung her daggers and lashed out at the dragon, who roared as he accepted her challenge.

The two of them clashed with each other in the air, her daggers striking Durnehviir's claws as she avoided several of his attacks, where once more she found herself liking this new form, far more than the curse form, since it gave her the power to stand toe to toe with a dragon, and she hacked through the webbing of his wings without delay, causing him to land for a time and opened the way for Za'kera and the others to attack him, where she watched as her friend drove both of her blades into his skull and his body broke apart into purple energy.

"Come, let us collect the Scroll," Valerica said, though she seemed surprised by the fact that Durnehviir could be beaten in battle like this, meaning she must have read about him at some point and made Amaryllis wonder if she knew more about all of the other dragons that once called Skyrim home, before she found an alcove where a long box rested, plus a rather small alchemy station and some dwindling supplies, and sure enough the Elder Scroll was inside the container, which she collected before turning back towards them, "Now, let us get out of here, before that dragon comes back... I say that due to the volumes that were written about him, that he couldn't be slain like an ordinary dragon... in fact, we likely severed his connection to his physical body, so we had best get out of here before he manages to reform his body and attack us once again, which should take some time since this is the first time he's been beaten."

Amaryllis understood her reasoning, since Durnehviir had never lost he didn't have the experience in reforming his body, so it should take him days, maybe even months to years, though as they walked back through the main door, and quickly returned to the front of Valerica's prison, they found a surge of energy on a ruined section that was facing them, a perch of sorts so he could stare at them, causing them to grip their weapons once more.

"Stay your weapons." Durnehviir stated, something that caused them to pause for a moment, since they weren't expecting him to say anything to them, especially since he had been tasked with taking down Valerica by those who ruled over this cursed realm, though Za'kera glanced at the others for a moment and they lowered their hands as she stepped forward, as she had a feeling he was addressing her, "I would speak with you, Qahnaarin."

"And I will reply, to have a conversation." Za'kera replied, once more showing Amaryllis that she was more understanding than most of the people in Skyrim, especially since she embraced the idea of an alternate meaning to her prophecy and, after some time thinking about all of it, had come to terms with what she was supposed to do, "Also, don't mind Valerica, she originally thought you were dead, before figuring out that you might reform... though I have to ask, why did you call me 'Qahnaarin'?"

"I am cursed, not dead... doomed to exist in this form for eternity, trapped between laas and dinok, trapped between life and death." Durnehviir explained, revealing that he must have been here for a long time, nearly as long as Valerica based on what they knew about the barrier that had been covering this castle, and that he must have bonded with this place, a fate worse than death since it looked like he had come here while he was still alive, "As for your question, my claws have rended the flesh of countless foes, but I have never once been felled on the field of battle... therefore, I honor-name you 'Qahnaarin', or Vanquisher in your tongue... and I have a favor to ask."

"Let me guess, you want to see the skies of Skyrim once more?" Amaryllis asked, as based on what she was feeling it did seem like he was forced into unintended service to the Ideal Masters, who must have tricked him without telling him that Valerica was an immortal vampire, though as she said that she stood behind Za'kera, mostly to make sure no more foes came up to attack them while they were speaking.

"Indeed. I will place my name within you, Qahnaarin, and grant you the right to call my name from Tamriel." Durnehviir answered, showing them that Amaryllis was right, though his focus was on Za'kera once more, who was focused on the fact that she could now call a dragon to her aid, whenever she wanted to, boosting the sheer power of their army when she thought about his other Shout, "It may seem trivial in your mind, but to me it would mean a great deal... however, I do not expect an answer, Qahnaarin... simply speak my name to the heavens, when you feel the time is right, and I will come if I am able."

Amaryllis had to admit that Durnehviir was an interesting dragon, who acted like an ancient warrior and used an ancient code of honor, though as Za'kera nodded her head they wished the undead dragon well before making their way back to the portal that would take them to Valerica's lab, as it was time to return to Fort Dawnguard and see what needed to be done now that they had all three Elder Scrolls.