//------------------------------//
// Vampire: Auriel's Bow 
// Story: Skyrim: The Faces of Death 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

"So this is the Temple of Auri-El, or the Inner Sanctum to be exact," Wind remarked, where they stepped forward and took a few moments to walk on a rather elegant stone bridge that was definitely of Snow Elven make, one that had withstood the passage of time and was still able to be used, though she sensed that if someone stuck it with magic in the right way it would collapse in no time.

"And there's a statue to him, using the older signs of his power," Serana commented, as she and the others walked up a set of stairs before reaching the courtyard of the structure that was their current destination, where a brass statue of an elven figure, who had a metallic sun attached to his body, greeted them as they entered the area, even though she found two sets of stairs leading up to a door behind it, "and, unless I'm seeing things, that seems to be where the door we need the ewer for is located."

Za'kera said nothing as they headed up the stairs and reached the area in question, finding an elegant locked door in front of them, one that had a sun emblem acting like a lock, with a sun symbol carved into the floor in front of it, where it had a set of three channels that water could flow through and was connected to a basin that happened to be on the other side of the platform. As Wind produced the ewer, however, Amaryllis found a crystal of some kind resting in the ceiling that was right above the symbol in the floor, which was likely enchanted to make sure no one tried to cheat the system, though as she thought about that everyone watched as Wind poured the contents of the ewer into the basin, where all of the water drained out into the channels. A few seconds later they watched as the water rushed down to where the symbol rested, as all of them expected after seeing all of this happen, and it gathered right in the center of the sun, though once it was full it glowed with a green light that seemed to come from the crystal and the lock started to spin before their eyes, only to come to a stop after some time with a click. In that moment Za'kera glanced at everyone else and made sure they were ready, as the moment she was sure they were prepared she opened the door and found that it brought them to a chamber that was fairly large, with a number of frozen Falmer scattered all over it, meaning Vyrthur must have frozen all of them at one time, before locking the final wayshrine and preventing Gelebor from accessing it to end his madness.

"Vyrthur must have done this, frozen them to keep himself safe," Wind remarked, speaking at the same time that Serana was thinking of saying something about the scene that was in front of them, though as she said that all of them found that a few of the frozen Falmer were carrying objects, as in swords, staves, scrolls, potions, and anything else that might have been in each of their hands when this happened, "I wouldn't touch them or try to take their items... they'll likely break free if something disturbs their icy prisons."

"Agreed, and if Vyrthur did this than we'll need all the power we can muster to beat him," Za'kera said, showing them that she understood what was being said, even though she glanced at one of the frozen Falmer for a moment as they walked by it, no doubt fearing that it might break free without them touching it, but nothing happened as she did that and the rest of the group was able to walk by them as well.

Amaryllis said nothing as they made their way to some cell like doors, as they had slots that one could look through, and found that it was easy to open them, with no resistance despite the fact that each of them should have been rusted by this point in time, meaning Vyrthur must have walked through his place while he was waiting for someone to arrive, mostly to pass the time and not stay on the balcony Gelebor had seen him on. The only thing that they saw were a number of rather old skeletons that were resting all over the place, thanks to the Falmer who attacked this place in the past, so everyone was able to keep their energy up without having to right anything, which they were thankful for after fighting the enemies of the Vale. Eventually, however, they tracked down a crack in the wall that seemed to be a tunnel, eventually bringing the lot of them to an area that seemed to be the end of the Inner Sanctum, where they found a passage to an area that had to be their final destination, an ice filled area that seemed to have a throne inside it, where the Arch-Curate likely rested as he spoke to those who came to talk with him. This meant they had tracked down Vyrthur at long last, where the Snow Elf had a nice suit of armor on that seemed more like a representation of his status, so nothing that could protect him, though as all of them dropped down into the area that was at the end of the tunnel, and gathered themselves for what was to come, Vyrthur shifted his head and glanced at where they were standing.

"He knows we're here." Amaryllis stated, as she could tell that he was staring at all of them, even though there was a good distance between them and where he was sitting, though Za'kera nodded her head for a moment as she noticed that was well, where she drew her weapons and kept them at the ready, because it seemed like they were going to have a fight on their hands to get the bow.

In that moment everyone drew their weapons and walked into the chamber in question, where they quickly discovered a few more frozen Falmer and frozen Chaurus scattered around this place, and sure enough everyone found Vyrthur sitting on the throne with a smirk on his face, though his eyes had a similar sense of power that reminded Amaryllis of vampires and made her wonder what was going on.

"Did you really come here expecting to claim Auriel's Bow?" the Snow Elf, Vyrthur, inquired, his tone confirming that he had a bit of smugness right now, no doubt expecting someone to have come to this place at some point in time and now they were here, where he glanced at them and focused on one of them, Serana based on what Amaryllis was seeing, "You've done exactly as I predicted and brought your fetching companion to me."

"Wait a minute... is he talking about me?" Serana asked, because that was weird when she thought about it, even though it was possible that he could have been talking about Lynthia as well, given that she was presenting herself more than most of the vampires they had seen in the past, though at the same time she readied her own weapon, since they wanted the bow he was guarding.

"Which, I'm sorry to say, means the usefulness of you and your companions is at an end!" Vyrthur stated, where he took a moment to snap his fingers and suddenly the frozen enemies started to break out of their prisons, taking a second to look at the area before seeing Amaryllis and her companions, drawing their frozen weapons as he continued to sit on his stone throne with the smug look on his face.

In that moment Amaryllis switched to her daggers as she and the others swung their weapons at their enemies, slicing into the frozen Falmer while Wind and Serana focused on blasting each of them with magic, though what she found to be very interesting was that each one shattered into a thousand pieces after a hit or two, meaning they were brittle after so long after being trapped in a frozen prison. Vyrthur seemed to think that this was amusing in some manner, as if he could crush all of them with a wave of his hand and the magic he had access to, all while the last of the frozen Falmer smashed out of their prisons and attacked them, including the enemies that had been trapped back in the start of the sanctum, though it didn't do anything to Za'kera and the others as they smashed through their enemies. After that Vyrthur seemed to use his power to smash part of the ceiling while calling forth several Frost Atronachs to do battle with them, where Amaryllis took one out by stabbing it, the melee fighters smashed two more to pieces, and their mages blasted the others with Fireballs and Lightning Bolts, showing the Snow Elf that they were ready for anything and anything he could throw at them. Once all of their enemies were taken care of, and everyone regrouped in the middle of the chamber, their foe frowned before he gathered his power, where the icicles were torn from their places and shifted so each one would point at them, where they found that Wind stepped forward and channeled her power into a magical barrier around them, which was timed nicely as Vyrthur let loose his magic and smashed this section of the Inner Sanctum to pieces.

With the back blown out, revealing a good balcony with a locked wayshrine at the base, Vyrthur departed and retreated to the furthest part of his section of the ruined building, limping after burning through a good portion of his power, though as Za'kera and Serana stood on either side of him, with the others around them while Amaryllis and Wind stayed in the air for a time, he seemed to realize how screwed he was.

"Enough, Vyrthur." Serana stated, where she and the others stared at the weakened Snow Elf, who wasn't as strong as any of them had assumed he would be when they heard that he was the Arch-Curate, meaning it was a position acquired due to knowledge or something, since magical strength didn't seem to be part of claiming this position, given that Wind wasn't even tired yet, but she had special training from Ma'jera no doubt, "You've lost... not that you had a chance to begin with, not with the group we have. It's time we ended this and claim Auriel's Bow!"

"How dare you! I was the Arch-Curate of Auri-El, girl." Vyrthur replied, showing them that he was enraged by the fact that Serana didn't see him as a threat, which Amaryllis understood since she had seen several Demiprinces so far and knew all of them were far stronger than her and the majority of the people she knew, including herself and her parents, "I had the ears of a god!"

"Yes, until the 'Betrayed' corrupted you... please spare us the story, we've already heard it." Lynthia commented, showing them that she really didn't care about Vyrthur, and when Amaryllis thought about it she was sure that Molag's daughter could deal with the Arch-Curate on his own, she was only limiting herself to not discourage Za'kera from her path or from her destiny, while her body language also showed that she didn't care about him.

"Gelebor and his kind are easily manipulated fools... just as all of you are." Vyrthur stated, something that caused Lynthia to just stop for a moment, as it was unwise for someone to call the child of a Daedric Prince a fool, before he focused on the one person that he was interested in, ignoring everyone else for the time being, "Look into my eyes, Serana... surely y can tell your foolish companions what I am."

"You... you're a vampire!?" Serana said, sounding surprised by this information, even though she easily detected Lynthia after waking up, despite the fact that Amaryllis figured it out by looking into her eyes, but this confirmed the sensation that both she and Wind had felt earlier, when they stared at Vyrthur, before she considered what this meant, "But Auriel should have protected you..."

"The moment I was infected by one of my own Initiates, Auri-El turned his back on me." Vyrthur replied, either referring to those who swarmed into this place and killed almost all of the Snow Elves that had called this place home, or some time before such a thing happened, though right now it didn't matter since it was ancient history, "I swore I'd have my revenge, no matter what the cost."

"You want to take revenge... on a god?" Wind asked, because that sounded insane, as they had seen what the children of the Daedric Princes and Divines were capable of in the past, especially Sheogorath's daughter and they had barely seen a fraction of her power, not to mention Hermaeus Mora's daughter, so trying to take revenge on a god seemed like one of the most daft ideas she had heard so far.

"Auri-El himself may have been beyond my reach, but his influence on our world wasn't." Vyrthur stated, where he took a moment to glance at the closed wayshrine, showing them that the bow had to be trapped inside the structure and that his magic was likely keeping it in this position so Gelebor couldn't come to deal with him, before focusing on them again, with a look of hate in his eyes, "All I needed was the blood of a vampire and his own weapon, Auriel's Bow."

"The blood of a vampire... Auriel's Bow... it was you? You created the Tyranny of the Sun prophecy?" Serana asked, as that happened to be the name of the prophecy her father had discovered, according to her mother anyway, though it also let the others know just how insane Vyrthur was, not that they were surprised at this point in time, and she seemed ready to lash out at him the moment they were done talking.

"A prophecy that lacked a single, final ingredient... the blood of a pure vampire." Vyrthur replied, where he seemed to be very proud of what he had accomplished, even though he hadn't gained anything yet, and he even stood straight before walking up to where Serana stood, confirming his words, "The blood of a Daughter of Coldharbour, to be exact... which is coursing through your veins."

"You were waiting... all this time for someone with my blood to come along." Serana said, finally putting together the rest of the puzzle for herself, since Valerica had given them some good information on this prophecy, or her understanding of it, where she gripped Vyrthur's neck and lifted him into the air, showing them that she was annoyed with him, not that the others were surprised, "Well, too bad for you... I intend on keeping it. Let's see if your blood has any power to it!"

As she threw Vyrthur backwards something seemed to catch him and he appeared to explode in a flash of light, as if they were being blessed by Auri-El in some manner, though as Vyrthur regained himself the group didn't give him a chance to even take a breath as each one struck him in some way, either with blades, a mace head, a battleaxe digging into his side, or spells hitting his chest, before he collapsed dead on the balcony... leading to the wayshrine opening behind them, which confirmed the fact that he was dead.

"It would seem that the deed has been done." a voice said, where everyone regrouped in front of the wayshrine and found that Gelebor had crossed over to this section of the massive Chantry, though, as Amaryllis expected, he was saddened by the death of his brother, even though Vyrthur didn't share that feeling when she and the others thought about it, before he focused on them again, "I knew that you were successful when the portal of the final wayshrine appeared in the one I opened for you... it also means that the Betrayed no longer have control over my brother."

"About that. Vyrthur wasn't being controlled by the Betrayed... rather, he controlled them, as he had been turned into a vampire by an initiate," Za'kera replied, as she figured that Gelebor deserved the truth, even though it would pain him to learn that his brother wanted to take revenge on one of the Snow Elven gods, that he betrayed his own faith and was far too willing to do untold damage to their world if he had been successful.

"A vampire? I see, that would explain much of what I saw." Gelebor commented, once more reminding them that he had spent so long studying his brother's movements and what the Betrayed were doing at the same time, though he let a faint smile grace his face, meaning he must have considered something else when he heard those words, "Deep inside, it brings me joy that the Betrayed weren't to blame for what happened here, for it means that there's still hope that they might one day shed their hatred and learn to believe in Auri-El once again. It's been a long time since I felt that way and it's been long overdue... you have my thanks, all of you, for this deed. And now, the prize for your efforts: Auriel's Bow."

In that moment the air above the basin of the final wayshrine shuddered before an elegant bow, far more elegant than the ancient Falmer one that Amaryllis was carrying right now, appeared for them to see, one that looked like it had been made out of silver or something, as she could tell that it was totally godlike and far beyond what a mortal could make, and due to it being the personal weapon of Auri-El himself it had to be deadly to the undead.

"Auriel's Bow, it's... well, to be honest, it's not as shiny as I expected it to be," Serana remarked, though at this point in time Amaryllis was sure that the vampires didn't care about certain things and liked to insult whatever they wanted, sort of like how Lynthia insulted everyone around her while Serana seemed to focus on doing the same for artifacts and things that didn't fit her point of view.

"Still, we have the tools to stop Harkon's prophecy," Za'kera said, where she held a hand out and the bow floated down to where she was standing, allowing her to grasp it and marvel at the craftsmanship that went into making this weapon, as it was a piece of art and she knew that it was far beyond what anyone else could make, a weapon she handed over to the one person she trusted with their artifacts, giving Amaryllis a chance to store it with the three Elder Scrolls, where she took a moment to turn towards the portal back to Skyrim, "Come, let us return to the fort and see if we can talk some sense into our arrogant vampire lord... if not, well, we'll take him out and move onto Miraak."

Amaryllis smiled for a moment as they stepped through the portal and returned to Darkfall Cave, leaving Gelebor to put up his wards or whatever it was he was going to do now that he had control over the Inner Sanctum and the rest of the Chantry, meaning they could turn their attention to putting an end to Harkon's plans and then focus their attention on the last threat before starting the war that would reshape this world by the time it was finally over.