Embers in the Dark

4E 201 | Mid Hearthfire | Day 9 in Skyrim

Tsukihana prepared to leave before sunrise.

Runil, the old Altmer priest of Arkay, intercepted her outside the Hall of the Dead. He carried regret with the same quiet dignity as his robes.

"There is a cave northeast of town," he said. "I lost a journal there many years ago. It contains the record of a life I would rather not pretend never existed."

"Dangerous?"

"Almost certainly."

"Then why keep it?"

Runil looked toward the graves. "Because forgetting a sin does not undo it."

Tsukihana accepted.

Zaria waited outside Grave Concoctions with a leather pouch of potions. "Healing, stamina, and one resistance mixture. Do not drink the green bottle unless something begins trying to freeze you from the inside."

Tsukihana bowed from the waist.

Zaria blinked. "What is that for?"

"You helped me when you had no reason to. I will repay you tenfold."

"You owe forty-seven septims. Start there."

The cave lay beneath a moss-covered ridge. Three dead bandits surrounded a black stone pillar near the entrance. One had been thrown into the wall hard enough to collapse his chest. Another was twisted around the pillar's base. A note in a dead man's pocket explained that they had hidden from Imperial patrols and ignored the warning not to go deeper.

Tsukihana left the pillar untouched.

The natural cave narrowed into worked stone. Nordic carvings lined the walls. Burial alcoves opened as she passed.

The first draugr rose with rusted steel in one hand.

Her katana answered.

More followed. The dead were strong but predictable, and the cramped passages denied them numbers. Tsukihana cut joints, necks, and tendons, learning how old bone resisted differently from living flesh.

Deeper within the crypt, blue fire burned around a stone throne.

A draugr in ancient robes rose with a staff in hand.

"Another living soul," he said in clear Tamrielic. "How curious."

Tsukihana raised her sword. "You speak."

The corpse laughed. "An impressive observation. I am Halldir, and you stand within my domain."

"Not for long."

His staff struck the ground.

The chamber filled with copies of him.