The relief of a familiar voice rolled through Sofia’s body, and she would have sagged at the knees if not for the vampiric control that was forcing her into a puppet of the creature. There were others approaching from the city but somehow, another pair of figures had emerged from the darkness in a way that took the vampire and the enthralled man unawares. If it had been anyone else, Sofia would have been surprised at their appearance, but Kaius’s armoured figure striding between the rows of gravestones was one of the most welcome sights she had ever seen.

  It was almost as welcoming as the expression of anger that crossed Alva’s face. Alva was less than a metre away which let Sofia hear the hiss, but also see the way that the vampiress was acting like a sabrecat confronted by another of its kind.

  "You… I know what you are. This town is ours so I think it's best for you to just leave..."

  "I don't think so. I'm not going anywhere, neither are they." Normally Kaius's smile was pleasing to see, but this one was full of threat and the promise of violence. "You though? You are going to Coldharbour to find out exactly what your Prince has in store for you."

  Appearing as though conjured, a dagger appeared in Alva's hand and the point of it pressed into the flesh under Sofia's jaw. She may have been holding the dagger in a hand held like a wine connoisseur holding a glass, but there was no mistaking her unnatural strength as she lifted Sofia's head.

  "Really? Are you going to risk this one’s death to stop me?”

  "There's no risk involved."

  The distance between them was over twenty metres, and even with his own vampiric abilities Sofia doubted he could move fast enough to stop Alva from cutting her throat with the dagger. Especially with how it was already pushing the tip deep enough to draw a bead of blood free in a pinch of pain. She couldn’t even wince from the sharp pain as vampiress’s hold on her forced her body into a stillness that matched the nearby gravestones.

  “Try and stop me, and they all die.”

  “I don’t think so.” Kaius's hands lowered themselves by his sides, his hands flexing in his thick leather gloves as his face split into a grin. "WULD!"

  In a heartbeat, Alva went from standing with an expression of smug superiority on her face, to simply vanishing. The dagger against Sofia's throat vanished as well, the point scouring a red line across her throat as the wielder was suddenly, and abruptly ripped from view. A whirling storm of wind practically snatched Alva away in passing, taking with it the oppressive vampiric will holding them in place.

  With the power of the Thu'um infusing the tackle, Alva was hit with a force comparable to that of a projectile flung from a trebuchet. Only her vampiric nature ensured her initial survival; the curse imbuing her with strength and resilience far greater than that of a mortal. However, being hit by a hundred and twenty kilograms of muscle and metal, especially when Kaius dropped his shoulder into the charge ensured that she was left with a sternum turned into fragments, ribs almost turned to powder and lungs shredded from the impact. A pair of gravestones were also shattered into powder as they passed, landing in a heap on top of a grave, the vampiress pinned under her attacker but still fighting despite the injuries.

  Bloody froth bubbled from between her lips and over her lengthened incisors, as Alva tried desperately to drag air into her caved in chest. Such damage would have been fatal to any mortal, and most creatures in Skyrim, but she was still struggling, razored fingernails seeking out his face, punches impacting into his armour and a hand digging into his throat in the attempt to strangle him but to little effect. Almost as though he had all the time in the world, Kaius simply slapped her arms away, pressing her head onto the grave with a hand over her mouth, and casually pushing a dagger into an eye.

  In a rolling wave, all of those trapped by her powers felt the pressure of her will subside, their bodies returning to their control once more. Hroggar too reacted in the wake of his vampiric mistress’s death, a terrible, almost inhuman sound ripping from his throat and immediately moving as though he intended to charge Kaius. Unfortunately, while he may have been the first to react, Lydia was the second. Before he could move, react or realise what was happening Lydia had snatched a fistful of his tunic, and slammed her helmed forehead onto the bridge of his nose as hard as she could.

  "I'm glad to see that time you spent on the mountain is paying off." Whatever typical sarcasm she would normally have was, for the moment, drowned in relief of Kaius's appearance as Sofia touched the dagger scratch across her throat. It was shallow and barely bleeding at all but the sensation of how close it had come to giving her a second smile was threatening to make her hands violently shake. "You took your time showing up."

  “Sorry.” Rising from Alva's immolating corpse, dusting off the powdered tombstones, grave dirt, and vampire dust, Kaius gave Sofia and the others a look that was legitimately apologetic. "I was indisposed."

  Moving over, and ignoring the amazed expressions and the half-heard whispers of 'Dragonborn' from the locals, he strode over to Sofia and Lydia, his eyes glancing over them and checking for injuries. He was quickly joined by a second figure, a man who walked along the paths between the graves and who was dressed in long flowing robes with arcane sigils and runes sewn, stencilled or otherwise marking the entire length.

  "Sofia, Lydia? Meet Falion.” With a simple gesture he motioned between his travelling companions and the robed Redguard mage who he had been with before their encounter with the vampires. “Fallion’s been helping me with investigating the fire rune and tracking down Helgi."

  Relief was fighting a somewhat losing battle against the waves of adrenaline that were battering against her, and Sofia sagged over, holding her knees, and trying her very best not to vomit all over the closest grave.

  "Sofia? Are you okay?"

  "Yeah.” Waving Kaius off while she continued sucking in deep breaths, she looked at him from the corner of her eye. “If you ignore the way that I nearly got my face bitten off, and then my throat cut by a pair of vampires, I’m just peachy. Just what in all the hells is going on here?"

  “There’s a coven of vampires operating in Morthal. Or at least nearby. I’m not entirely sure what they are ultimately doing but I can guess. They’re either trying to take over the Hold or secure a source of food for themselves.”

  The mutterings from those present at Kaius’s words were unmistakable, especially between the guards who were looking between themselves with increasing unease.

  “How can you tell?”

  “Vampires who work together are typically part of a larger group. Like a coven, a clan or the like.” Kaius’s words were cold as he looked between the two burned, blackened skeletons and the men and women surrounding him. “If they have started making thralls then they are well established and there will be others.”

  “Thralls…” One of the guards muttered, looking over to where Hroggar was lolling drunkenly on his knees next to Lydia with his face covered in blood. He was practically unconscious, and the only reason why he was still upright was Lydia’s firm, unyielding grip on the front of his tunic. “Hroggar is a thrall?”

  “Yes. And there will be others too.” With a couple of gestures between the guards and Hroggar, Kaius’s voice became even more deadly serious. “Any who were thralled by Alva will be acting violently or strangely at this moment. You need to spread the word to the rest of the guard, and track them down before they do any damage.”

  One of the guards, the more senior of the group nodded to one of the others who turned and quickly began making his way back towards the town, where the sound of bells could still be heard.

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  “What do we do with them?”

  “Not much I’m afraid.” This time it was the robed mage, Fallion who spoke up. “Anyone who has been enthralled for more than a few days is irreversibly changed. Once the enthralling vampire dies, they will either fall into a stupor or become enraged. The only ‘cures’ as such, are ones of mercy.”

  “The Jarl will need to be informed of what has happened.” The remaining guards and the millworkers were looking between themselves with obvious unease, even as two of the guards moved over, and relieved Lydia of her semi-conscious burden.

  “We will present ourselves to the Jarl, but we still have business here tonight.”

  “We do?”

  “We do.” Kaius replied, looking at Sofia as he answered her question. “We found Helgi.”

  As the guards dragged Hroggar off, and the millworkers awkwardly returned in the direction of their workplace, Kaius, Sofia, Lydia and Fallion the mage moved deeper into the graveyard, picking their way through the rows of grave markers, tombstones and burial mounds covered in their funeral goods. The entire area was quiet, if not of the distant echoes of bells tolling from Morthal, but a true silence fell as they arrived at Helgi’s grave.

  Roused from his evening rest, the local gravedigger was there, leaning against his shovel and looking thoroughly bored at the group as they appeared. His lantern illuminated the lined expression of someone who had spent the majority of his life dealing with those who were dead, and decades of experience working and living in Morthal’s cemetery. It was this experience that allowed him to stand there without the slightest hint of unease at the tiny figure sitting cross legged next to a recently unearthed grave, as insubstantial as the mist around them. Afterall, Helgi wasn’t the first or only restless spirit he had encountered during his decades of experience.

  "Hello Kaius." Smiling with all the innocence of the youth that had been stolen from her, Helgi turned and looked at them as they approached, her hair trailing in an ethereal breeze as she looked into her own grave.

  "Hello Helgi."

  "Did you dig her up!?" So shocked was Lydia that she failed to address Kaius as Thane, instead stopping in midstep at the sight of the ghost and the tiny, child sized coffin unearthed in the bottom of the pit.

  "Laelette found me first." Helgi shook her head and looked over the group, and to the source of footsteps on the rough soil as they were joined by another. His face red with grief and tears, hands singed from the fiery demise of his wife, Thonnir’s expression was one of rising hatred. Hatred so powerful that the burns on his palms were forgotten as he gripped his lumber axe tight. “She was trying to take me with her.”

  “Why?”

  “Laelette always wanted a daughter.” Thonnir’s voice was flat, and emotionless despite the undercurrents of anger that rippled through him. “We tried for years but we were never blessed by the gods after our son was born.”

  “Becoming a vampire changes your… perceptions.” Like Thonnir, Kaius’s voice was flat and neutral. “Laelette was being used as a pawn to assist Alva with enthralling useful members of Morthal. Hroggar was made a thrall to help throw anyone off the trail. Anyone investigating his actions or Alva’s, would be too focussed on the scandal and adultery to look much further into how they were influencing others. Burning down Hroggar’s house just added to the scandal.”

  “Laelette was told to burn mamma and me, but she didn't want to.” The tiny voice was tinged with sadness as she looked down into the opened grave. “She wanted to play with me forever and ever."

  “Several weeks ago, Alva purchased a scroll from me.” Fallion’s words were cold as he and the others watched as Kaius sat down in the disturbed dirt next to the spectre of the young girl. “She has always bought scrolls and alchemical ingredients from me over the past years so when she bought a fire rune scroll I didn’t think anything of it. Laelette must’ve used it to set the rune, and when Erisena went to stoke the fire that night she triggered it"

  "Laelette was there waiting.” There was a tiny nod from Helgi and she turned back to look down into her grave. “She kissed me on the neck, and I got so cold that the fire didn't even hurt. She thought she could take me and keep me, but she can't. I'm all burned up."

  Not a single one of them could bring themselves to speak and despite herself, Sofia was feeling her eyes become watery. Lydia was as still as a mountain and still hidden behind her helmet and aventail but the creaking of leather as she formed fists was more telling than anything else. Grief, sadness and rage building in equal measures, leaving eyes prickling with tears, and Thonnir gritting his teeth as he ran his fingers over the head of his axe, staining them with the ashes of his wife.

  "There are more."

  "I know." Even Kaius wasn’t immune to the feelings as he sat next to the dead girl, his throat tight and voice hollow.

  "Will you stop them?"

  "I will."

  "Thank you.” For a moment Helgi paused, tilting her head as though listening to something that only she could hear. “Mamma feels better knowing you are here to help everyone. She says that your children are proud of you."

  There was no mistaking the sudden surge of emotion that choked Kaius and his fingers dug deep into the ground by his sides. Sofia especially felt uneasy not only at the ghost's words but the way that the tiny hand, wreathed in blue-grey ghostlight moved and came to rest on top of Kaius's.

  "I'm tired." There was a tiny pat-pat of a spectral hand on top of his thick leather gloves and Helgi turned to smile at them all. "I'm going to sleep for a while now."

  "That's okay." Somehow with a supreme effort of will Kaius, managed to keep his voice from wavering as looked at the ghost. "We're going to take care of everything."

  Like the smoke rising off a campfire, the wraith of the young girl faded, dissipating and the faint glow first flickered and softly vanished like the last rays of light before the sun slipped below the horizon.

  "Can... Can someone help me with this?" Kaius whispered, his words fading softly into the night with the spirit of the young girl.

  "I'll help." Without thinking, Sofia responded and she saw his nodded thanks as he carefully stepped down into the torn open hole that was once Helgi’s grave. It was no cleanly dug pit but a wound in the dirt and soil, the deep clawmarks and scooped earth scattered about from where Laelette had used her vampiric strength to uncover the child-sized coffin. What was worse, was the way the lid was ajar, claw marks dug into the wood as easily as they had the soil, and Sofia tried her best to not see the tiny, flame shrivelled figure contained within. Carefully, the two of them managed to place the lid back on, and wriggle the coffin back into a flat position where it belonged once more, tears streaking down cheeks, and expressions growing dark and cold as the night.

  The remaining hours of the night were a blur of half seen images and indeterminable sounds that their minds struggled to hold onto. They had spent several hours refurbishing the grave, using their hands and boots to assist the gravedigger in returning the soil on top of the coffin and the pitiful remains it contained. Both Alva's and Laelette's remains were buried as well, placed into unmarked graves in the centre of intersecting paths in the heart of the graveyard, after Falion ensured that there was no corruption remaining in them.

  Thonnir had vanished shortly after, grieving for a second time for a wife that he had already considered lost. A wife that had been turned to darkness and that was now dead by his hand. The grief would break and pass with time, but for those hours of darkness that he assisted them, he had remained utterly silent, eyes red and wet with tears until there were no more left.

  At some point during the night, Jarl Ravencrone appeared, surrounded by her Huskarls and clad in thick furs to ward off the evening’s chill. Word had travelled quickly through Morthal despite the late hours, aided in the fact that several incidents of violence or strange activity had been quelled by the guards at seemingly random places. One of the Hold’s Thanes had violently attacked his family at random until the guard intervened, and several of the fyrdmen and militia had also acted in similar ways as their enthrallment was triggered by the death of their vampiric mistresses. It would be some time before Morthal would feel safe, but the revelations of Alva and Laelette’s true natures would take months, if not more, before the people of the Hold would rest easy in their homes during the nights.

  One by one, Jarl Ravencrone listened to the stories, explanations and details, standing before the freshly restored grave of a young girl with an expression of calculated anger on her ancient features. There was no surprise though, the elderly Jarl appearing as though the knowledge was something she already was aware of and was merely confirming what she knew. It didn’t change the outcome though, or that the threat to her Hold and Morthal was not yet ended and no one was surprised when she stated that the rest of the vampires would need to be dealt with.