It took a few moments for them to reach the portal that would take them back to Tamriel, though before they reached it Za'kera found a chest in one of the structures that happened to have her soul fragment inside it, allowing her to regain her full power before they stepped through Valerica's portal, finding that Wind and Lydia were right where they left them, just as Amaryllis said.
"Oh, good, one of you was smart enough to stay here." Lynthia remarked, taking a moment to stare at Wind, who simply stared back at her, to which she turned her head and walked out of the area in question, allowing Za'kera, Serana, Valerica, and Amaryllis to walk up the shattered staircase, her tone revealing that she was still annoyed with Amaryllis for heading into the Soul Cairn.
"Amaryllis, I told you it was a bad idea to try something like that." Wind said, where she found that Amaryllis was different than what she remembered, which confirmed what Lynthia had told them before the two vampires went into the portal with Za'kera, though it did look like her friend had been altered to look more like a dragon, or at least based on what she was seeing right now.
"Besides the payment this form will cost me, I'm inclined to disagree with you." Amaryllis replied, as while she knew that Dagon was going to require something of her at some point, given that he was a Daedric Prince and they did nothing for free, the form she had been given was rather good and Sithis' additions to it meant she was likely one of the sneakiest beings in Tamriel right now, especially considering the fact that she forced Durnehviir to land, "So, are we heading back to Fort Dawnguard, to tell Dexion about the Scrolls, or are we heading elsewhere?"
"We're heading back to our base, to see how the army is forming," Za'kera answered, though she had a feeling that they all knew what she was thinking right now, because now that they had pulled Valerica out of the Soul Cairn, even though part of her wanted to stay behind since a Daughter of Coldharbour was needed to fulfill Harkon's twisted prophecy and both she and Serana were known by that title, Harkon would come after her once he realized what was going on, "we might be able to find Valerica a place in our forces, and inform her about the upcoming war with the Aldmeri Dominion, but while we do that I think it would be best if you head back to Fort Dawnguard and given Dexion the heads up. Once he knows that we have all three Elder Scrolls, and that we're on the way back to see what the rest of the prophecy might entail, he should be able to get everything set up for our arrival... if not, he might have some information for us to go on."
Amaryllis nodded her head and headed through the nearby door, as it lead to a balcony and she found that the rays of the sun were out now, where she found that it was morning, making her wonder how much time they had spent in the Soul Cairn even though it felt like an hour or two, though since it was a plane of Oblivion, thanks to Valerica's explanation, that meant that time flowed differently inside it. Once she was outside she opened her wings, taking in their new appearance once more, before she took off and noticed that Za'kera, not to mention the others, had been watching her for a couple of seconds as she did that, though the interesting thing about this was that Wind was following her, no doubt worried about her after what happened when she headed into the Soul Cairn. As soon as they were both in the air they started the trek back to Fort Dawnguard, leaving Za'kera and the others to make their way through the hidden part of Harkon's castle, all without him noticing what was going on, to which they focused on what was going on right now, just to see if either of the forces were doing anything in response to them building an army. The only reason Amaryllis was thinking about that was due to the fact that they had no idea what Tullius and Ulfric were planning, as with a third force in place, one that had the dragons on their side, either they could turn against them or maybe they would come to speak with them in peace, just to be sure they don't turn Skyrim into a wasteland.
As it turned out nothing special happened as they flew through the air, as Wind seemed to be focused on making sure she was just fine and that her body wasn't suffering from the transformation it had endured, and neither force seemed to be marching on their fort, so Amaryllis was able to reach Fort Dawnguard and shifted into her Khajiit disguise after landing in the area near the entrance, with Wind remaining in her true form, allowing them to enter the building and found Dexion standing in the area they had found Isran in earlier.
"Dexion, we found and recovered the third Elder Scroll." Amaryllis stated, though what was interesting was that Isran and the rest of his forces seemed to either be outside training or doing something else inside the fort itself, doing whatever each of them wanted, since she knew that Gunmar was tending to some trolls and Sorine was supposed to be tinkering with some Dwarven materials, meaning no one would overhear this conversation.
"That is good to hear," Dexion replied, though as he turned to face them, however, both she and Wind noticed that he had a blindfold over his eyes, a black cloth that hadn't been there when everyone left to track down Valerica, following Serana to find her mother and the Scroll she had kept hidden, before he touched it for a moment, "Sadly, I'm afraid that I can no longer aid you or the Dragonborn in your quest."
"Are you... blind?" Wind inquired, where she thought about what her master knew and had to wonder if she might know a way to get around this sudden twist that was being thrown at them, given that Ma'jera might be one of the oldest kids of the Daedric Princes, not counting Lynthia, but that was something she wasn't about to discuss with her mentor or the rest of her kind, hence why she focused on Dexion's blindfold.
"I'm afraid so." Dexion said, where they found that he was disappointed in himself, no doubt because he was interested in reading the Elder Scroll that Serana had kept safe for all these years and might have skipped whatever ceremony or ritual he and his order used whenever they wanted to read the Elder Scrolls, before he sighed for a moment as he focused on where they were standing, following the sound of their voices to find them, "It's purely my fault, you see, for in my haste to read the first Scroll, I neglected the careful preparation required to accomplish such a thing. I thought I'd be able to allay the after effects, but I was wrong... and now I'm paying for it... we'll have to let this run it's course, even though there's a chance I'll never recover."
"I'm sorry to hear that, I truly am." Amaryllis stated, though this was something they could do without, as they needed to know whatever information was contained on the Elder Scrolls, in regards to Serana's prophecy, before she considered a fact about the area that they had found the first artifact in, as the one Paarthurnax sent them to find had been contained in a Dwarven device of some kind, "I don't suppose there's another way to read the Elder Scrolls? I'm fairly sure it'll take too long to find another Dwarven machine that's capable of doing that."
"There is the Ritual of the Ancestor Moth," Dexion explained, something that caused Amaryllis to raise an eyebrow as Wind took out her note taking materials, showing him that she was ready to make notes about this ritual, even if he couldn't see her due to the consequences of his actions, before he resumed speaking to them, "Scattered across Tamriel are secluded locations known only as Ancestor Glades, and there's one in Skyrim, located in the Pine Forest. This ritual involves carefully removing the bark from a Canticle Tree and using that to attract a number of Ancestor Moths to you, which will provide the sight needed to read the Elder Scroll... in keeping with tradition, there should be a draw knife inside the Glade, which will allow you to collect some of the bark. Also, based on my vision, the Scroll connected to blood is the one you want to read first, then the sun Scroll, and then finish with the dragon Scroll... that should give you the information you and your companions seek, to locate Auriel's Bow."
With that information in hand, and Wind thanked Dexion for his assistance, Amaryllis found one of the crossbows that the Dawnguard used and figured she might as well take one, with some bolts of course, since there was a chance that one of their comrades might want to use it or maybe a trainer for their army could take it and teach how to use it to their army, boosting their power for when it came time to leave Skyrim. After tucking that into her pack, and making sure that a set of bolts had been acquired as well, she and Wind departed from the fort and headed for the cave entrance, as this time she wanted to make sure none of Harkon's followers were thinking of bothering the Dawnguard, and sure enough they found a small group of vampires hanging out near the entrance to Dayspring Canyon. In that moment Amaryllis quickly let go of her disguise and drew her blades, where Wind watched as she hopped on one clawed foot and then the other for a couple of seconds, before discovering that her friend disappeared rather suddenly and appeared in the middle of the vampires, stabbing one of them in the side while removing the head of another, leaving Wind standing there with a look of surprise on her face. She found that Amaryllis was faster, stronger, and far more agile than she had been before heading into the Soul Cairn, and if her tale was right it sounded like Dagon and Sithis wanted her to be ready for whatever the future held in store for her, no doubt wanting to change the fate of this world or something, which she suspected had to be the price of this transformation, before she sighed and froze one vampire in a block of ice as it tried to run.
Once they were sure that the area was clear of enemies, as in no more vampires were coming to kill them, Amaryllis and Wind opened their wings and took off once more, where this time around they headed for their fort and kept an eye on any and all troop movements that might be occurring in Skyrim, just to be absolutely sure nothing was going on in Skyrim right now... and, sure enough, no armies were moving, meaning the Legion and the Stormcloaks were waiting, for what the pair had no idea, but it allowed them to reach their fort with ease.
"You've changed again... not fair, your Father's toy to play with." a voice said, where they found Durum standing near Kya, the latter looking like she was pleased with her efforts in slaying the Thalmor who had been wandering around Skyrim for some time, though the former was proving why she was the daughter of Sheogorath, as it looked like her personality had changed since the last time they spoke with her.
"To be fair, my soul technically belongs to Sithis, as he is the first being I pledged myself to, and failing that Dagon would be next in line since I got his artifact after joining the Brotherhood," Amaryllis replied, though as she spoke she glanced at both the Wabbajack and the Moomer Wand, two powerful artifacts that currently belonged to the mad Demiprince, as she had no idea what would happen to her if she was hit with either of them, not after her body had been altered by another Prince, something she wanted to avoid at all costs, "so, has anything changed in the time we've been gone?"
What they discovered was that Durum had found a group of Thalmor trying to break into the fort, to see what they were up to and report back to whoever was in charge of their operations, giving her a good chance to use her wand on them, a fact that meant there were more like Delphine now, but she did send them to her personal realm, the Bakery, given that leaving them here would have annoyed Za'kera. At the same time Kya had killed all sorts of Thalmor while she was walking the roads of Skyrim, as she had been told to do, and had recovered several packs from them, detailing their plans to find and destroy the Throat of the World, meaning they were after the Stone that Paarthurnax had confirmed the existence of, but if they were planning on bringing down the mountain it meant the Dominion was serious. They were trying to bring an end to the entire world, crushing all of the Stones before trying to get into the first Tower, or at least that seemed to be the plan when one of them asked Ma'jera about this developing situation, but with Kya wreaking havoc on the Thalmor they didn't have to worry about such a thing happening. The other thing Amaryllis and Wind figured out was that Kya was one of Sheogorath's twisted followers, as she seemed like someone who had been messed with by the Mad God, even if she didn't know and might have thought that he had been someone else at the time, hence the name 'Roina' when Amaryllis thought about it, though other than those two things there wasn't much else for them to learn, other than the fact that the army was growing and that once Harkon was done with it should be even larger.
Fortunately they didn't have to wait very long for Za'kera and the others to arrive, as they were only an hour behind, due to Lynthia wanting them to get here faster, to the point where she actually flew back to Harkon's tower, burst into the Soul Cairn, found a skeletal horse, and apparently did something else with her father to make two that were now pulling the carriage along, with Za'kera looking like she was getting tired of the Demiprince in question. Once they were together once more Amaryllis informed them that Dexion was blind and that to figure out what the Scrolls said, about the prophecy that Harkon had discovered, they needed to head to the Ancestor Glade and perform a ritual to be able to read all three Scrolls without any side effects striking whoever did it. She also told Za'kera that she had a feeling she knew where the location was, as she had flown in and out of the Pine Forest during her time with the Dark Brotherhood, given that many now knew that they had been operating in Falkreath before Maro sniffed them out, hence the move to another location in the more official channels, so no one knew about the attack, where her friend paused before nodding her head. It was still strange when Amaryllis thought about it, she and Za'kera were total strangers, in fact they only knew a certain amount about the other, and yet she trusted her more than almost anyone in her growing army, saw the potential inside her to be a hero for the people of this world, and listened to her counsel whenever she wanted to do something, leading Amaryllis to want to prove that she was worthy of her trust.
When everyone was ready to leave, which didn't take too long since they were leaving just a few minutes after the carriage was able to reach the fort, they departed without delay and Amaryllis flew ahead, where she made sure that nothing was on the path they were using to reach the cave in question, though, as they expected, Valerica stayed behind in the fort to aid everyone else in building up their army for the war ahead of them. Finding the Ancestor Glade proved to be somewhat hard for her, even though she had been moving in and out of this place when her Family lived near the main city, but even with that thought in mind it wasn't too hard for her to track down where her target was located and, more importantly, the path leading up to it. Once she found it, as it had a faint magical aura that she was now suddenly able to sense, once more a gift from her patrons no doubt, Amaryllis backtracked to where Za'kera and the others were located, allowing her to land nearby before giving them the directions they needed, even though they would have to leave the carriage behind at some point and walk up a path, where Za'kera nodded and made sure everyone was ready for a bit of a walk. The moment they reached the bottom end of the path Lydia stopped the carriage, allowing them to head up the dirt road as Amaryllis lead the way to where the cave entrance rested, where she brought them to an opening that had a few fallen trees, a number of stones, and some snow, causing Serana to note that she was going to have words with Dexion if this ended up being a waste of their time.
After crossing over a fallen log, however, Amaryllis and Wind knew that it hadn't been a waste of time, as it brought them to a tunnel that lead to a massive cavern that was well lit and was full of nature, and at the bottom rested an elegant tree with a circular shrine resting nearby, which held a knife of some kind in it, causing them to smile as they walked down the path leading right to it.
"It seems Dexion was right... which means you'll need that knife to take some bark off that tree," Wind remarked, taking a moment to gesture to what was in front of them, though she made sure that Za'kera understood that she was the one who would be doing all of this, before she recalled what the Moth Priest had told them earlier, about the order they had to read the Elder Scrolls in, "after that we need to use the Blood Scroll, the Sun Scroll, and then the Dragon Scroll."
Za'kera nodded and stepped up to the shrine, where she extracted the draw knife and carefully removed some bark from the Canticle Tree, something she held onto while returning the knife before walking out to gather the moths that Dexion had told them were important to this ritual, though as she did that, and the ancestor moths flocked to her side, Wind took the time to make sure the Elder Scrolls were ready. Serana, of course, carried the Sun Scroll that she had carried before being sealed in the monolith, Lynthia held the Blood Scroll, and Amaryllis had the Dragon Scroll at the ready, as once they had enough moths for the ritual they were sure that the next step would reveal itself to them, how one could read all of the Scrolls and not suffer from such a thing. A few moments later Za'kera, who was surrounded by moths, returned to the area they were standing in as a beam of light shined down on them, to which she readied herself as she accepted the first Elder Scroll and opened it in the space she was staring at, where it looked like a crack in reality or something had formed from her doing that. In that instant she seemed to be in a trace as she handed the first Scroll back to Serana and took the second one, opening it and adding it's power to the crack, something that seemed to form part of Skyrim, or maybe not since they weren't standing in the light, so it just looked like reality was breaking, and sure enough she added the power of the third Scroll to what she was doing.
A few seconds later she was down on the ground, breathing hard after witnessing the power of the Elder Scrolls, and as all of them rushed to her aid it looked like she was fine, her eyes were unchanged and she could see them, though the instant was ruined as vampires surged into the cavern from the upper level, to which Wind took up her position and waved a hand at them, unleashing a wave of frost magic that froze all of her enemies where they stood. With her targets taken care of, a fact she was sure of after a few moments, Za'kera informed them that she knew where to find Auriel's Bow was located and that they had better depart now, because if vampires were showing up now it meant that more were on their way to claim the Elder Scrolls, to which they departed for Darkfall Cave so they could put an end to Harkon's plans and unite all of Skyrim for the upcoming war with the Aldmeri Dominion.