"How do you know that?" Serana asked, wondering what gave Raika the idea that her mother had chosen to hide from her father in one of the most dangerous around.
"The seal on the floor," Raika replied, pointing to the circle and then up at the vessel that sat above them, "I found a similar one in Skuldafn that led me to Sovngarde, only it was guarded by one of the fiercest Dragon Priests in all of Skyrim's history and we had to use a staff to open the portal. Seeing how your mother is an alchemist I would wager some septims that she left a note or journal behind that details how she created the portal and exactly what she had used to open it up. With all the ingredients that have been left behind I am fairly sure that we could open whatever portal that your mother created and find out if she still has the Elder Scroll with her."
Serana sighed and moved towards the vessel, checking out each of the ingredients as she passed them and wondering if her mother was actually hiding in one of the Oblivion Realms. Raika stayed near the circle, making sure that she was correct that it housed a portal to some other realm and hadn't jumped to the conclusion the moment she saw it. Sombra and Cadence, not exactly the best of friends, stood near the door, one on each side, so they could keep watch for any surprise gargoyles or vampires investigating the noise. Shadow lurked near one of the tables, eying some of the bone fragments as he wondered how long it had taken Serana's mother to acquire the entire collection. Trixie approached the bookshelves and ran her finger over the titles, looking for something that would help them figure out exactly how the portal would have been opened.
Not even a minute after she started searching the bookshelves she found a book that didn't belong, a thin red covered journal that had a tag on the front that said it belonged to someone called Valerica.
"How Serana," Trixie said, lifting the journal into the air with her magic and moving it towards Serana, "would this happen to be your mother's journal?"
"Yes, this is," Serana replied, surprised that the Equestrian had found it so fast, "Let's see here...she mentions something about the Soul Cairn and a deal with the Ideal Masters. There's a mention of her building a portal to visit the Soul Cairn, where she can hide for the rest of her days until my father gives up his plans on blocking out the sun or someone kills him. She even lists the ingredients that she used to open the portal; Finely Ground Bone Meal, Soul Gem Shards, Purified Void Salts, and, oh damn it, a sample of her blood."
"You share her blood," Sombra commented, "Surely you could use a bit of your own blood as the final ingredient for opening the portal to this Soul Cairn."
"It will have to work," Serana replied, sighing as she looked around for the other three ingredients, "but we'll still need the other three ingredients to open the portal."
"You mean these?" Shadow asked, holding three ingredients, the same three that Serana had mentioned a few moments ago, in his hands, "I'm sorry, but your mother left them in the open and only a master of alchemy would be able to tell the difference between the normal ingredients and these ones."
Serana carefully took the ingredients from him and approached the vessel, where she dumped them into the container and pulled out her spare dagger. She beckoned for everyone to get behind her, watching as everyone moved up to the platform she was standing on and rested right behind her. Before her nerves got the better of her she cut her palm with the dagger and held her hand over the vessel, letting the blood drip onto the ingredients. For a moment nothing happened, making her wonder if the journal had been a lie created by her mother to throw off anyone trying to follow in her footsteps, but then the room started to shake. The stone circle began to crack and break, pieces lifting into the air and circling around until they created a staircase, leading right into an unnatural purple glow.
"I was right," Raika said, staring down at the portal in wonder, "Now all we have to do is enter the portal and find wherever you mother wandered off to. With any luck this is where she decided to hide and we'll find her without too much trouble."
"Word of warning," Serana commented, recalling something her mother had mentioned about the Soul Cairn, "my mother told me that a portal to the Soul Cairn tries to drain the life force of someone whose not already dead, like me or Shadow here. The rest of you would either need to become vampires like us or let me soul tap you for a moment, where we could recover the portion of your soul that followed us into the Soul Cairn."
"Better idea, I'll attach our souls to my sword and a piece will stay with it until I release them," Sombra said, drawing the blackened blade and holding it before him, "that is, if you trust me to hold onto our souls."
Raika knew that Sombra was trying to help them out without turning all of them into vampires, but she had no idea how the spell he was suggesting would hurt them. She'd rather not become a vampire, so what he was suggesting sounded like the best plan of action for all of them, excluding Serana and Shadow, to take. She also wasn't sure what Cadence was thinking about letting him hang onto a piece of her soul, but Raika was going to go with it and get the quest underway.
"Very well Sombra," Cadence said, beating Raika to the punch, "I'm willing to trust you with a fragment of my soul. I just have one request, be gentle to us."
Sombra nodded and his magic ignited, lightly wrapping around the blade of his sword and around the others, covering them all in a light layer of shadows. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, but then a small fragment of each of them, each colored differently, broke away from their bodies and surged into the blade. Sombra sealed the magic, preventing anything evil from filling the void that was left from the fragments being taken, and locked his sword in its sheath.
"I've locked my sword in its sheath," Sombra commented, staring at the portal, "this way the blade cannot be damaged, as it could cause the pain to surge into each of us and cause something bad to happen."
"Let's get this over with," Raika said, approaching the portal and wondering what the Soul Cairn looked like, "I want that blasted Elder Scroll and the knowledge it holds."
Raika stepped forward and moved into the portal, letting the magic of the portal wash over her, distorting her body until she had to close her eyes from how weird it all felt.
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Raika, thinking that she would have been knocked out like what had happened with the portal to Sovngarde, was surprised to find that she was actually wide awake. Her initial surprise was quickly overruled as she discovered what the Soul Cairn looked like, finding the place completely dead and full of odd husks. There were dozens of fractures in the ground, spewing what she assumed were lost souls that had yet to be collected, and lightning flashed every twenty seconds. She looked down at her feet and noticed the staircase she was standing on, choosing to walk down until she touched the white dusty and completely dead ground.
The entire realm, she decided, was completely dead and made the perfect place for an undead creature to live without being found out.
"So this is the Soul Cairn," Serana commented, walking down to where Raika was standing, "I'm sure that there's a path from here to where my mother is hiding, if she's actually in this realm."
"I'd suggest that we get underway," Cadence said, drawing an arrow and pinning a shadowy creature to the ground, "I think that our spell might have angered these 'Ideal Masters' and their sending their minions after us to consume our souls. I'd rather not die thank you very much."
Sure enough a bunch of shadows gathered together and a bunch of shadowy creatures appeared before them, drawing their weapons and growling at them. Shadow drew his two handed sword and advanced on the assembled army, spinning around and slicing through one of them without wasting a single moment. Raika drew her swords and struck out at the first enemy she came to, turning it to dust in a matter of seconds before she moved onto the next opponent. Trixie and Serana stayed near the stairs, magic flying towards the back of the creatures' army and blasting parts of them into the next week as dust descended on the ground.
Sombra, on the other hand, summoned a bunch of crystal pillars and lifted them into the air, throwing them into parts of the army and crushing several of them instantly. He surged down to where they were standing and clapped his hand against the ground, a long piece of wood and crystal appearing from the ground and allowing him to grab it. A moment passed before a curved crystal head appeared on the staff, giving him his second, and more sinister looking, weapon that he preferred to keep hidden. He spun the scythe around and planted it firmly in the chest of the closest enemy, ripping through it and traveling through the next four as their souls were sucked into the blade.
Cadence pulled an arrow out of her quiver and nocked it in her bow, taking aim on one of the enemies that was lurking on a nearby building and loosing it right into the creature's chest. The creature tumbled off the building and she spotted an opening in the back of the army, where Sombra was literally tearing through his enemies with a strange weapon in his hands. She'd have to talk to him later about the weapon, but for the moment she was more concerned with getting to the Elder Scroll and escaping this nightmare.
"To Sombra everyone," Cadence shouted, loosing another arrow and pinning a skeleton in the head, "before they manage to overrun and destroy us all."
Raika spotted where Sombra was destroying everything around him, seeing the opening that he had created and realizing exactly what Cadence had meant. There were too many enemies for them all to overcome, as every time they felled one enemy two more took their place, which would eventually lead them to being completely surrounded by foes. She broke another enemy down and made her way to where Sombra was standing, ducking under his weapon before running for the opening. She eventually found her way to a set of stairs and set herself there, her swords at the ready in case some of their enemies came her way.
A few moments passed before Trixie and Serana joined her, their magic being thrown back at stray enemies and blasting them back into their dusty forms. Shadow stopped near the base of the stairs and turned around, his sword swinging through the air and cutting down a skeleton where it was standing. Cadence, having wings, had flown through the air and made her way to where her friends were standing, arrows raining down on their foes that got too close to the stairs. As Raika looked back at Sombra the ground began to shake, a crystal pillar rising in the center of the enemy army before a wall of crystals wrapped around the stairs that led to the portal they had entered.
"I've stalled them for now," Sombra said, stepping out of the shadows and appearing near them, "but they will eventually break that crystal pillar down and regain themselves. Once that happens, and I know its going to happen, they'll form up their army again and come after us, so I think we should leave now."
Raika nodded and they followed the pathway at their feet, leading deeper into the Soul Cairn and the grasp of the Ideal Masters, who were furious with them. Raika spotted a few places where lightning hit a floating crystal, hearing some moans of some dead creatures and wondering what was making the noise. Instead of investigating the noise she chose to follow the path, which was slowly leading them to a giant ruined castle that looked like Castle Volkihar.
They silently made their way towards the ruined castle, being careful to not awaken even more of the creatures that called the Soul Cairn home. Raika hushed them at a point or two and hid in one of the ruined structures, letting a patrol of enemies walk by their hiding place and waiting just a few seconds before continuing towards the castle. As they followed the path up the hill Raika spotted a magical barrier, something that told her that they were going to need to perform a service to someone to break through it. When they got to the top of the hill they found someone, an older looking woman, sitting on the other side of the barrier and ignoring everyone.
"Mother?!" Serana said, not believing what her eyes were showing her, "Is that really you?"
"Serana? What are you doing here?" the vampire asked, getting out of her seat and approaching the barrier, "Harkon has deciphered the prophecy hasn't he? He's discovered that, to fulfill the Tyranny of the Sun, you require Auriel's Bow and the blood of a Daughter of Coldharbour hasn't he?"
"No, we beat him to it," Serana said, beckoning back to the assembled group, "In order to find a way to permanently stop him we need the Elder Scroll that you took with you."
"You brought strangers into our conflict?!" the vampire exclaimed, clearly outraged by their presence, "You cannot trust any of them to ignore Harkon's promises of power and immortality."
"Um, hi?" Raika said, waving a hand towards herself and drawing the vampire's attention, "Yeah, I'm Raika Snow-Heart, the legendary Dragonborn. I've already killed Alduin the World-Eater, so killing a Vampire Lord like Harkon won't be too hard. Just give me the Talos damned Elder Scroll and we'll be on our way."
"Oh, I'd love to give it to you," the vampire said, beckoning to the barrier that separated them from her, "but there is a barrier preventing me from leaving this place. If you want to get to the Elder Scroll then I'd suggest killing the Keepers that are keeping it up and watching out for the dragon Durnehviir that keeps watch on them. There are three of them scattered around the Soul Cairn, so I suggest that you better get started."
Sombra approached the barrier and placed his left hand on it, feeling the magic below his hand as he sensed where the three Keepers were resting. He tapped his foot against the floor and let three small crystals rise out of the floor, floating up to where he was standing and stopping when they neared his head. With the locations of the Keepers clear in his mind he channeled them into the crystals, creating three pointers that would point towards one Keeper each. With the spell complete he lowered his hand and grabbed the crystals with his magic, passing one of them to Trixie and the other to Cadence.
"These will help us find those Keepers," Sombra said, holding his before them, "it will point in the direction of one of the Keepers, so we can split up into even groups and get rid of them all. Cadence, your crystal is pointing to the east of this place, so you should be able to find it within a few minutes. Trixie, yours is pointing to the west like mine, but yours is a lot closer to the castle while mine is even further away. Serana, I suggest you pair up with Trixie, Shadow with Cadence, and Raika with me. We kill the Keepers and meet back up here once we're done with ours."
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Cadence walked in the direction that her crystal was pointing in, making sure to keep it angled towards where the Keeper was resting while keeping her eyes peeled for any enemies. Shadow walked next to her, his sword out in the open, but he seemed to stay quiet as he waited for them to get to the Keeper and the fight what they'd have to do.
"So, you knew Princess Luna?" Cadence asked, hoping to learn something about Princess Luna while she was in Tamriel.
"During the time she was known as Nightmare Moon," Shadow replied, recalling his adventures with her with ease while walking, "She was one of the greatest warriors during the Oblivion Crisis, someone who chose to stand by our side and fight the Daedra when they invaded Tamriel. We each had a name you see; Rend was the Hero of Kvatch, I was the Knight of the Nine or the Divine Crusader, but Nightmare Moon was the Queen of Knights. Rend and I were good at fighting, but she fought on a whole level that was far beyond what either of us could hope to do.
At first she didn't trust us and mostly kept quiet about who she was, despite the fact that Rend and I openly shared our past experiences with her. Eventually she opened up, revealing that she was from a completely different world, went by a different name at one point, and had even tried to drown the entire world in an eternal night. During her time in Tamriel I believe that she learned that what she had done was wrong and was making up for her crimes by helping us during our time of need. Once Mehrunes Dagon and Umaril the Unfeathered were defeated Luna told us goodbye and left us to our own devices; Rend eventually dying in battle and going to Sovngarde while I stayed behind to help the Dragonborn with the vampires."
"Wow," Cadence said, not sure how to feel after that as she noticed they were drawing closer to their destination, "Let's find this Keeper creature and get this over with."
The ruined fortress they found themselves near housed a small group of skeletons, each of them armed with their ancient weapons and looking around for someone to use them on. Near the back of the group, standing as still as a statue, was something dressed up in ancient bone armor and armed with a giant battleaxe. Cadence pulled an arrow out of her quiver and quietly nocked it on her bow, beckoning for Shadow to get close to the group while she provided support. Shadow got close to the skeletons and one of them immediately dropped dead, pinning in the chest with an arrow and alerting the others. He leapt in front of the remaining three skeletons and swung his sword as wide as he could, cutting through all three of them and turning them into dust.
The Keeper, now awakened by the fighting, lifted its battleaxe above its head and brought it down, nearly missing Shadow as he rolled out of the way. Two arrows zipped through the air and easily passed by him, one hitting the Keeper right in his upper left leg while the second one pierced the armor it was wearing. The Keeper staggered for a moment before pulling itself back to its full height, but Shadow was ready as his ancient sword pierced its heart and went all the way through. For a moment he thought that it was in vain and that the Keeper was going to get him, but then the Keeper melted into a pool of black water and released him.
"Did...did we get it?" Cadence asked, coming to a halt behind Shadow.
"Yes," Shadow replied, letting a smile fill his face, "I do believe we did."
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Trixie followed her crystal and kept the Staff of Magnus at the ready, waiting for an enemy to come out of hiding so she could blast it into next week. Serana walked next to her, looking around at the Soul Cairn as if it was some great discovery that she needed to take down every detail about so she could write about it when they got back to Tamriel. Trixie wanted to find the Keeper, destroy whatever minions that were following it around, and then erase the Keeper before it got wind of them.
"So, about Sombra," Serana said, kicking a rock down the hill as they walked, "I've seen how he conducts himself in battle, so I've been wondering how he fought in the long distant past that I've heard about."
"I wouldn't know the truth at this point," Trixie replied, keeping what truth she had discovered to herself, "According to the original story Sombra was a tyrant that came to the Crystal Empire and enslaved everypony, turning them into miners and forcing them to work in his crystal mines. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna traveled to the empire and did battle with Sombra, but in the final moment of his defeat he took the entire empire with him. After a thousand years they both came back, but then he was defeated by Twilight Sparkle, her friends, Princess Cadence and her husband Shining Armor, and the baby dragon Spike.
Obviously the truth behind the entire fight was a cover for what really happened; that Sombra was a kind and fair ruler that was corrupted by Discord, the Spirit of Chaos. That those that had loved him were forced to fight against him and seal him in a prison that would last until the empire came back to Equestria. If you want to get the whole story behind what happened to Sombra you'd either have to ask him or wait until either of the Princesses came back."
Trixie would have said more about the subject to Serana, but then she spotted a group of black skeletons gathering together around some sort of platform. She grinned and primed the Staff of Magnus, a bolt of green lightning surging into the ground and blasting one of the skeletons into a pile of dust. Serana, noticing the enemy now, readied her magic and threw a fireball at a skeleton that was close to them, charring it beyond belief before another pile appeared on the ground. Trixie shook her head at Serana and held her hand before her, summoning her magic as a large fireball formed in front of her, courtesy of Nahkriin's mask. Once the fireball was ready she threw it right into the center of their enemies, blowing them all to smithereens and scattering their bones with ease.
"That's how we use magic now!" Trixie laughed, grinning at Serana as they approached the platform.
"Oh whatever," Serana replied, stepping onto the platform and appearing on a floating ruin, "Okay, that felt funky."
"You should try the portal between Tamriel and Equestria," Trixie commented, appearing behind her, "seriously, that felt so strange the first time I used it."
An arrow hit the floor near them, causing the two of them to look up at the bone armored warrior that had its bow drawn to their exact location. Trixie and Serana grinned at each other and threw their magic forward, fire and ice mixing in mid air before plowing righ tinto the armor and breaking it into pieces. The Keeper tumbled backwards, giving Trixie the moment to draw the Magistrate and plant it firmly in its chest, feeling the magic keeping it alive in check before reducing to a watery mess.
"And our Keeper is dead," Trixie grinned, sheathing her sword before staring at the ruined castle, "I wonder how the others are doing..."
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Raika followed after Sombra, wondering why he had chosen to give them the Keeper that was the furthest from the ruined castle they had found Serana's mother at. Her swords were still in her hands, waiting for something to near them so she could slay whatever creatures the Soul Cairn could throw at them. Sombra still carried the strange curved weapon, something that almost looked like it had been created in a Daedric realm and was summoned by his command.
"What is that strange weapon?" Raika finally asked, crossing over a broken yard as her curiosity got the better of her.
"Oh, this?" Sombra commented, shrugging and causing the weapon to move a bit, "Its called a scythe; it was created by my darker side before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna could put us both down. I've been able to use it for a long time, but I prefer to use my sword whenever I can and only summon this when I cannot use my main weapon. I'm sure you noticed that whatever it slays loses its soul, as it is dragged down into the depths of the crystal until I see fit to release it or use it to restore my energy."
Before he said any more Sombra touched the ground with his hand and a pillar of crystal sprung up before him, though Raika could hear an arrow hit the crystal a moment later. He beckoned for her to move to the right and flank their enemies, but when she saw what they were fighting she noticed the bone armored Keeper resting near the back and almost froze. As Sombra moved forward with his scythe Raika regained herself and followed suit, her weapons passing through her foes as she made her way to the Keeper. The Keeper raised a two handed greatsword that was made out of bones and swung it at her, but Raika rolled behind it and drove her blades into its chest area. The Keeper staggered forward for a bit before trying to shake her off of its back, but she held fast and stayed there until she forced it into the ground.
She stayed attached to its back for a moment, but then it turned into a pool of black water and she pulled herself up. They had done what they had set out to do and only needed to return to the ruined castle. Sombra approached her and, without wasting a second, grabbed her hand and swallowed them in the shadows, forcing them to travel yet again. It was short lived as they appeared on the steps of the ruined castle, where he released her hand and walked back up the stairs. Raika had expected that they'd be alone with Serana's mother, but when she reached the top of the stairs she spotted the rest of her group waiting for them.
"Ah, the Keepers have been destroyed," Valerica said, sounding as if she really didn't care that much, "Now then, follow me into the courtyard and I'll give you the Elder Scroll you are bent on obtaining."
Raika had to hold herself back whenever Valerica spoke, because every time she talked Raika just waited to plant her sword firmly in her body and take her out of the world. It wasn't because she was a vampire, it was because she was just so annoying and she didn't seem to care about anything other than herself and her plans.
They followed Valerica into the courtyard and found an open area that could easily be accessed from the air, but the sky was the furthest thing from their minds. Perched on the other side of the courtyard was a dragon, one that was staring at them as they walked right into the opened area and roared the moment they stopped moving. Skeletons began to rise out of the ground, just like what had happened at the beginning of this trip, but Raika picked up her swords as she waited for them to make the first move. The dragon, Durnehviir she suspected, got off his perch and flew in their direction, but instead of passing them he was immediately impaled by one of Sombra's crystal spires.
"Up we go," Sombra said, taking her and dropping her on the dragon's back.
Raika recalled what they had done on other dragons before and planted both of her swords firmly in the dragon's skull, going for the kill almost right off the bat. Durnehviir roared in pain, but kept thrashing around and caused Raika to continue to slice into his back as many times as she could before he finally stopped. She suspected that he was going to do something else, but eventually the body went still and she climbed onto the pillar before sliding down to the floor. She expected his soul to come out of his body and plow into her, but his body just burned until there was nothing left but a giant crystal with some scorch marks.
"I don't believe it," Valerica said, awe in her voice, "you killed Durnehviir!"
"Less talk, more Elder Scroll," Raika impatiently said, realizing that she had only broken his connection to the Soul Cairn for a moment and would return in a matter of moments.
"Fine, fine," Valerica sighed, heading to an area filled with ingredients, "I'll be right back."
Raika stared at the sky for a moment, listening for the sounds of a dragon's roar or the beat of some wings, signs that would tell her that Durnehviir had returned. For a couple of moments nothing happened, so she turned her gaze back to Valerica and found the vampire behind her, holding an Elder Scroll in her hands.
"Here, take the thing and get lost," Valerica said, tossing the Scroll at Raika and forcing her to grab it, "Oh, and if you get Auriel's Bow and Harkon kills you, I don't want you to come here and haunt me for the rest of your miserable lives. Now begone before I change my mind and take all three Elder Scrolls from your cold lifeless bodies."
Sombra wrapped himself and his friends in shadows, choosing to take them right to the staircase they had entered through and they still found the army of creatures waiting. Only this time the creatures were fighting a remade Durnehviir, who roared in greeting and burned parts of the army to pieces.
"Go Qahnaarin," Durnehviir shouted, swinging his tail and crushing several foes in an instant, "I will forever guard the portal to your world from those that would misuse it."
Raika had no idea how long the dragon would be able to hold the army back, after being destroyed just a few minutes ago no less, but she nodded and ran up the stairs. As she entered the portal she was glad to be leaving the nightmare that was the Soul Cairn behind and she closed her eyes as her body was twisted yet again. Only this time she really blacked out.