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> No Elves in Sovngarde Book Two, NEIS continued
Elisabeth Hollow
post Feb 1 2018, 06:20 AM
Post #181


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Joined: 15-November 12
From: Texas



So like...the computer I used to use to write this is long gone, but the ending I had in mind for this is just at the tip of my tongue. I think after five years and some growth, I'll finish Kayla's story.


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treydog
post Feb 1 2018, 12:36 PM
Post #182


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Joined: 13-February 05
From: The Smoky Mountains



That is an outstanding idea! Please do!


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The dreams down here aren't broken, nah, they're walkin' with a limp...

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mALX
post Feb 1 2018, 03:32 PM
Post #183


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Joined: 14-March 10
From: Cyrodiil, the Wastelands, and BFE TN




WOO HOO!



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Elisabeth Hollow
post Feb 1 2018, 07:01 PM
Post #184


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Joined: 15-November 12
From: Texas



I heard voices before my eyes ever opened. It was, at first, a murmur, then my hearing sharpened. Then a familiar voice spoke.

“We can’t just leave her.” Erik’s voice was fuzzy still. “She’s been through a lot. We have to do something.”

“There’s no cure,” a voice told him. It was confident and gentle. Firm. “This will end one of two ways. Either you die by her hand, or we kill her. It’s that simple.”

I heard Erik’s heartbeat quicken in my own chest. My throat felt unnaturally dry. He cleared his throat.

“I don’t think it’s that simple.” Erik’s voice was determined. I had always admired that about him, but tonight was different. If he left with me, he would die. Asta got the better of me, but she wouldn’t be expecting me to come to her. Willingly. I could strike from her side. Kill her while she slept. Erik continued speaking.

“It’s just not that simple. Kayla wouldn’t kill me. Not once she gets control of her blood lust.”

The man chuckled. “Then myself, possibly.”

I opened my eyes slightly to gather my surroundings. We were in a cave. Another cave. I was tired of caves. Erik and the man sat around a fire, keeping themselves warm. Now that I got a look at the man, I realized he looked familiar. I had seen him around somewhere. I couldn’t lace where, though. He was kind of handsome, and smelled like magick.

“And what about Mjoll?” The man asked Erik. “We just left her in the city, without even telling her where we were.”

“She likely gathered that we left without her.” Erik ‘s face was obscured, but the shift in his posture told me he was likely feeling guilty. I had met Mjoll once before, in Riften. Strong woman. Her sword was nearly as good as Dawnbreaker. “She can take care of herself.”

The man sighed and shook his head. “You warriors and your romanticized ideas of devotion.”

“I’m not sure what that means, but your tone is not something I like.”

Of course the man was right. Erik was being an idiot. As much as I hated to admit it, I was gone. Vampire hunting was in my very bones, and without that, what was I?

I needed a way to get out of there, and quickly. If-

Another heartbeat entered my hearing. It was erratic, panicked. Erik and Marcurio didn’t seem to notice someone was coming. I sat up.

“Someone’s here.”

The two of them stood as a man stepped in. He looked terrified, exhausted, and on the brink of death. His feet were raw and bloodies through his boots, and he had several gashes on his arms. He shook as he spoke.

“Mistress Asta invites you to Alcassar. She trusts you know where that is?” He looked at me. My heart dropped.

“Yes. I do.”

“Thank gods. I can rest.” He sat down and leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes, and his heartbeat faded away.

“He’s dead…” I looked at Erik, who was looking confused.

“He’s dead?” He walked over and shook the man. “Poor guy. Look at his feet. He must have walked for days without stopping.”

“Asta wouldn’t care. Wait, have we been here for days?”

“Yes.” He turned to me. “How are you feeling?”

I rubbed my face. “She knows where I am. Again. Which means I have to face her and end this, once and for all. Erik...you can’t come with me.”

He knelt beside me. “Then stay away. You’ve done enough. Let’s go far away. Someone else can handle this.” He kissed me.

And so we did. Erik and I left the man in the cave, and traveled to High Rock. A group of vampire hunters known as the Dawnguard took care of Asta, cutting through her ranks and killing her. We found a cure, and had several children. I lived with Erik until he was old and gray and passed away in his sleep, surrounded by our three children and two grandchildren.

At least, that was what I wanted to happen. I wanted happiness with Erik so badly, but I couldn’t have it. Instead, I pushed him away.

“No.”

“I’m coming with you, Kayla. You can’t stop me.”

“Technically, she can,” the man said. We had forgotten about him completely for a moment. “She could break your legs, enthrall you, run out of here quicker than either of us could stop her…” He nodded at me. “Marcurio.”

I gulped. “Pleasure.”

“The way I see it,” Marcurio folded his hands on his lap, almost primly. “There is an army of child vampires, and no one knows how to take care of it. Their leader is clever. So we must be clever as well.”

--------

Alcassar was a few days hike, but unlike that man Asta sent, we rested. We traveled at night and slept as best as we could during the day. Luckily, we were waylaid by bandits and I got to feed enough to last me for a while. Marcurio asked endless questions about vampirism, how I felt, how it affected me, how blood tasted, weaknesses. I answered as much as I could. Somehow he still had more questions.

Erik was never more than a few feet away from me, except when he relieved himself. It was almost as if he was afraid I would bolt ahead without him, but Marcurio’s plan made sense. It wouldn’t help me if I got captured and kept as her pet. I felt like Asta would absolutely lock me away somewhere just to have me.

We approached the ruins that looked too decrepit to even bother with. The towers were exposed to the elements, and the main building was caved in. My doing. Outside were sentries that peeked at us through the spaces in the walls. A horn sounded as we walked in.

A dunmer girl with an eye patch stopped us.“Come in peacefully, or I will have you killed.”

“Wow, you’re starting out strong.” I scratched my ear. “We’re here peacefully. I don’t even have a sword.”

With my signal, Marcurio broke a bottle at the dunmer’s feet.We backed away as it began eating away at her feet and legs. She screamed in pain.

“Kill them!”

Marcurio threw his heavy robe off to reveal an entire arsenal of potions. Most were recognized as magicka and healing potions, as well as stamina, but there were many more unrecognizable ones. We had spent days brewing them carefully. He held his arms out as spells flew towards him, bouncing off his ward.

“Get inside, I’ll hold them off!” They closed in on him as we ran inside. I turned back in time to see his ward push out and explode, knocking back those who circled around him. Erik closed the door behind me.

I conjured a sword and crept down with Erik, who had hs out already. The stairs were rubbed smooth with tie and feet walking down them, but not enough to slip down. We heard Asta barking orders.

“Get up there and find my sister. Bring her back alive, kill the others. Especially that damned mage. I want his head brought to me on a platter so I can eat his eyes!”

We hid behind a bookcase while twenty young girls ran past us and into the courtyard. Marcurio had no issues with killing children, as cries of pain were heard as well as explosions. When the last of them were outside, we made our way into the main hall. Cages lined the circular room. On the opposite side of us was a hall that continued leading down into the fort.

Inside the cages were the bodies of adults and young girls alike. They were all obviously dead. Had I been able to cry, tears would have come to my eyes. But I couldn’t, so they didn’t I pressed on.

I heard movement further down, and directed Erik’s attention there. We continued on, the ruins seemingly empty. It wasn’t until we got to the bottom floor did we find Asta, with a contingency of girls around her. Next to her, next to her bed, was a cage with the figure of a girl huddled in a corner. I fumed.

“Asta!” I started forward, and the girls all readied spells. Without turning around, she shook her head.

“I wouldn’t.”

I stopped, my sword in front of me.

“Send them away. This is our fight.”

There was a low rumble, shaking a few stones loose from the ceiling. She sighed.

“I have a few mages of my own, you know. Sure, they look like children, but they have that boost vampirism gives them with magick.” She turned around, her blue eyes regarding me carefully.

“So what was your plan? Burst in here, defeat me, ride into the sunrise with your lover? Or maybe you came expecting to die.” She cocked her head a little as the door shut behind us, several more guards behind us. She smiled a little.

“I really wanted this to work out. You and I, running the most terrifying army in Skyrim. We would make our way to Cyrodiil. Take over the Imperial City. Rule with iron fists. But you’re just as disappointing as Eeva.”

“Eeva is dead.”

“Only technically.” she pointed to the cage. “Her mind is gone, but her body is still moving. As long as you feed her once every few days, she sometimes has lucid moments.”

Red tinged my eyesight. “She’s alive, and she’s caged?!”

“Undead, but yes. When I turned her, she went insane. Couldn’t handle it. She stayed at our house for years, until I came and picked her up.”

Eeva muttered something, and Asta looked genuinely sympathetic.

“Poor creature.”

“Asta, please stop this. This is madness. You can’t take over Skyrim with an army of little girls.”

“And why not? Movarth was going to do it. He trained me to take over in case something happened to him. And I’m doing what he wishes.”

“You don’t have to, Asta. He’s gone. You don’t have to obey his orders.”

“You don’t know what I’ve been through!” She snapped. “What I’ve endured, just to get this far.”

“Asta...he was a predator. He preyed on us. We were children.”

“You escaped. You don’t know. You have no idea what happened in the dark. When we were alone. When I was alone. You were off learning to kill me.”

“I was scared too! Do you know what they did? They branded me, Asta. Sacrificed me to a daedric prince and dedicated my life without me giving consent. I was a child too!”

“So you understand!” Her expression was pleading, and she stepped towards me. “They took us and made us monsters, Nisse. They stripped us of our childhood, and now, we have power! We can change things!

“Not like this. I can’t.”

Asta’s face went dark. “So that’s it then. I can’t change your mind?”

“I can’t change yours?”

She conjured a fireball and tossed it up and down, as if handling a regular ball.

“I suppose not. I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too.”

I deflected the fireball with my sword, and it bounced and hit the bed. Eeva screamed as it caught fire, but no one paid attention to her as all hell broke look.

Erik swung, dodged, and sliced through the girls as quickly as he could, but some were quick. Asta lunged at me and swiped with her claws. I dodged, stepping to the side as gracefully as I could. Asta snarled, her fangs out, eyes red.

“This won’t end the way you want it to,” she snarled. “This won’t end the way you-”

I lit a fireball and shoved it in her face. She crumpled to the floor, then looked up. Half of her face was gone, melted into ash and gore. She let out a feral snarl and leapt on me. Flurries of blows pounded my face as she beat me. My sword was out of reach, and she was much, much stronger than she looked.

She pulled out a dagger and behind me, Erik went down. The girls leapt on him in a frenzy.

“No!” I screamed. The scent of his blood filled my nose, and my eyes tinged crimson. Asta held the dagger to my throat.

“You could have joined me. We could have made them all pay.”

There was an explosion outside the door. It toppled over with a heavy thud, and Marcurio stood there, clothes damp with sweat.

“Am I late?” He threw a firebolt at Asta, who was knocked backwards. I conjured another sword and placed my boot on her neck, and the sword tip on her heart. She suddenly looked afraid.

“Nisse,” Her one good eye looked as if she could cry. “Please.”

“I’m sorry, Asta.”

I stepped away as Asta turned to ash and Marcurio turned the rest of the girls to ash. Maybe it was just me, but she seemed relieved at the last moment. I dropped my sword and turned to Erik. He was lying in a curled up position, bite marks all over him. I knelt beside him as Marcurio administered the cure disease potion and healing potion.

“Are you alright?”

He simply closed his eyes and smiled weakly.

----

I don’t know whether or not they ever found Mjoll. Or if Erik even woke up. When I left, Marcurio was making a potion with his back turned to me. He would find me gone, with a simple message.

“Don’t look for me.”

As for myself, the rest of my existence will be spent tracking down all of Asta’s spies and soldiers. Alone. With Eeva and Asta gone, there was nothing keeping me. Erik will eventually marry a nice farm girl and settle down. If I was careful, we would never meet again.


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mALX
post Feb 5 2018, 04:12 PM
Post #185


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Joined: 14-March 10
From: Cyrodiil, the Wastelands, and BFE TN




Holy Cow, she killed Asta? Awesome to have you back writing again!






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