Jarl Idgrod the Elder sat back in her throne, reading the journal that Nora had delivered to her.

 

“This is grave news indeed,” said the Jarl, closing the journal and looking at the woman who had become her champion. “Movarth Piquine is an evil that my predecessors thought they had taken care of for good. If he has returned we are all in grave danger.”

 

“We need to deal with him, now, my Jarl,” said the steward.

 

But not you, thought Nora, looking at the well-dressed steward. No, he was the kind of man who sent others to fight his battles.

 

“I promised you a reward, and you have earned it. However. I have greater need of you. Steward,” she said, turning her attention to the man. “Call out the militia.” She turned back to Nora. “I will have some people gathered who can fight. Not all are warriors, but all can swing a weapon.”

 

Nora felt her heart drop. All can swing a weapon, she thought, staring at the Jarl. Some poor fools who would most likely die if they went up against a master vampire. “What about the guards?”

 

“They must stay here and protect the city, lest we be invaded by vampires while you are away. Now, I need you to lead my people. Will you do this?”

 

What else can I do, thought Nora, nodding her head. If she didn't then the innocent town folk would go to their deaths, some maybe turned to vampires. “I will go. And then I need to continue on my own quest.”

 

“Good enough. And know that we will be eternally grateful to you.”

 

Nora didn't care about the gratitude, though it would be nice to have a friendly town to assist her while she was in the area. She nodded toward the Jarl, then went outside to wait. It was almost an hour before enough had gathered for her to call it a force. There were thirty or so townspeople, most without armor, all with at least one weapon. There were warhammers and battle axes, but mostly swords. Some appeared skilled in the handling of their weapons, others seem ill at ease with a blade in hand. Almost half of them were women. Nora realized that Nord women fought, some very well, including three of her followers. She had her doubts about Nord town folk women though. The men might get through with pure strength, while women with no skill were just casualties waiting to happen.

 

“We're ready to go,” yelled Thonnir, the husband of the vampire the party had killed earlier. “Let's go kill the vampire.”

 

“We will scout ahead,” said Nora, who knew the general direction of the lair. She mounted the horse that Lydia had brought from the stables, joining her companions. She thought it best to have the horses to give them the height advantage, and the option of retreating, if they ran into vampires in the swamp.

 

It was twenty miles to the lair, almost two hours through the swamp, navigating along the tracks of high ground. The lair was noticeable from a slight distance, skulls on stakes out front, bloody bones scattered around. Nora guessed the vampires had the same housekeepers as the bandits, and neither had the sense to clean up so that their cave habitations were hidden.

 

“The townspeople won't be here for an hour or so,” said Sofia, looking askance at the cave entrance. “Are we going to wait?”

 

“I...”

 

“Vampires,” shouted Annekke, her bow twanging.

 

Nora turned to see three red eyed creatures in armor, along with two more people that had to be thralls, coming at them. Eldawyn dropped a fireball on an archer and a vampire who was calling up magic. The vampire went up like a torch, while the thrall rolled on the ground screaming. Nora met one of the vampires with her shield, slicing down on its shoulder and cutting deep. The vampire backhanded her shield with the arm hanging from the injured shoulder and drove her back. The woman was happy that the monster had chosen to hit her with the injured member lest she be launched back and into the air. She stepped forward with speed, her sword going through the neck of the vampire and cutting head from shoulders.

 

The last vampire was burned down by Sofia, the woman staring at it with terrified eyes as she pumped fire into it. And then the fight was over. All of her people had made it through and the enemy was down.

 

“We are not going to wait for the townspeople,” she announced, looking over her people. “They wouldn't stand a chance, and I'm not about to lead sacrificial lambs to their deaths.”

 

Four of her companions nodded, but Sofia looked like she wasn't sure. “Anyone who doesn't want to come can stay out here and talk with the townspeople,” said Nora, looking straight at Sofia.

 

“I'm coming,” said the obviously terrified women, bowing up. “Just promise me that you will make sure I'm truly dead if they take me.”

 

“Promise,” said Nora, nodding. “That goes for everyone. Anyone does not make it and we make sure they're not coming back, So let's go.”

 

As usual she and Annekke led. The others were quiet enough, even Lydia in her ebony armor, though she made more noise than the others. The hunter of the Commonwealth and the ranger were truly silent, though, moving like shadows down the poorly lit tunnel. They came to a well-lit room, a man sitting at a table to their front. Nora nodded at Annekke, who took the shot and killed the thrall.

 

Another room beyond that, piled up with dead bodies and body parts, the smell horrible. Nora gagged quietly, then crept forward, letting Annekke cover her. There was a pit in the center of the room, a well-dressed thrall down among the bodies pulling off jewelry and checking them for coin. Nora landed on soft feet behind him and thrust her sword into the back of his neck and up into his brain. The body fell without a sound, and Nora smiled to herself at her silent kill.

 

Another corridor, and then a ramp that led up to an elevated walk. The sound of voices ahead, and Nora thought they were about to encounter the vampires. An Argonian woman came walking down the path, warhammer slung across her back. Annekke took her out with an arrow that pierced the side of her head, laying her low in an instant.

 

“I know you are there,” said a vampire dressed in the robes of a noble mage, getting up from his seat. “I have need of someone like you. As a vampire assassin.”

 

Nora sent an arrow his way and he simply stepped aside, laughing. The other vampires, she thought three of them, and a handful of thralls, were also on their feet and pulling weapons. “Take them out,” yelled Nora, sending an arrow into a thrall, dropping her bow and leaping from the platform to the floor while drawing her blade. One of the vampires rushed at her, and with perfect timing she got her blade thrust straight out so it impaled itself through the sword. Its heart pierced, the vampire collapsed with a groan and fell, coming apart as it hit the floor. In seconds it was a pile of ash.

 

All of the thralls were down, and two of the vampires, when the vampire lord performed the next act of his repertoire, and two of the dead thralls rose back to their feet, shambling forward.

 

Not good, thought Nora. If the bastard could keep raising his people from death would they ever be able to take out all of his servants? The master and the remaining vampire in the chamber cast spells, and two more thralls rose.

 

“Kill the vampires and the thralls will fall,” yelled Eldawyn, raising a hand to throw a fireball. And stopping in her tracks as the master turned his eyes on her.

 

Shit. He can hypnotize people. Nora ran forward at speed, hoping to hit him before he knew what was happening. And stopped in her tracks as he turned those bewitching eyes her way.

 

“Interesting. You have power, though I sense no magic boosting you. Something natural. You will make a formidable vampire, combining our abilities with your own.”

 

Nora broke the hypnotic spell with a thought. She had asked the psychologists of the Institute, when she became the director, to condition her against any kind of hypnotic or drug induced compulsion. The vampire's hypnosis was different, but her mind was the same, and she was free.

 

“How?” gasped the Morvath, starting to call up a spell.

 

The vampire was faster than her, but Nora had a way to move even faster. A way the vampire knew nothing about.

 

“Wuld,” she shouted, moving in a blur and into Morvath, knocking him back. She threw a fire spell into him, setting his robes aflame. But he didn't go up in a torch like the others, and Nora moved in, hitting him with blow after blow. Such was his vitality that no one hit did much damage, but as long as she swung with speed she was keeping him too off balance to do much more than back up.

 

The vampire was on his last leg, barely able to get his bleeding arm up. With a war cry Nora spun around, her blade slicing through neck and taking the head of the master. The vampire folded up, his body smoking, then turning to ash before he hit the ground.

 

Nora turned to take in the room, panting as her overheated body started pouring sweat through every pore. The room was empty save for her people, and all of them were accounted for.

 

“Look out,” yelled Annekke, pulling an arrow back that seemed to be pointed at Nora, then releasing. The arrow zipped by and something grunted. Nora turned in that direction to see another vampire, the arrow through the heart, starting its fall into death. This one hadn't been very old, since a well decomposed body was at the end of the fall.

 

They found one more vampire and a couple of more thralls in the cavern complex, killing them with overwhelming numbers. She attended to the master vampire, gathering the majority of the ash into an urn to take to the priest of Arkay. They looted the cavern, finding lots of gold and gems and some artifact armor and weapons. Nora equipped herself with an ebony blade that glowed with power, while letting Annekke have an ancient bow that had been heavily enchanted.

 

On the way out of the cavern they ran into the ghost of Helgi, standing at the top of the ramp to the entrance.

 

“I'm so tired,” said the child. “So tired. I think I'm going to sleep now.” And with that the spirit faded, finally at peace and released to her afterlife.

 

Nora felt her eyes tearing up again. She was sad that the child had died before her time, but happy that she was no longer trapped in the twilight world between life and death. Another task accomplished. It had taken her off her quest for the Greybeards, but she had done good, and that was what was truly important.

 

“We're ready to go in,” called out Thonnir, backed up by the other townspeople, when Nora and the party came out of the cavern. It was obvious that they had been waiting for her to come out as they worked up the courage to face the vampires.

 

“No need. Morvath and his minions are dead, and will trouble you no more.”

 

A look of relief appeared on every face. They had been given a reprieve and would not die this day. Nora wondered at the peer pressure that had driven them to the lair, not wanting to appear as cowards to their neighbors. Now they could go back to their lives and not worry about undead waiting to claim them in the night.

 

“I knew you could do it,” said Jarl Idgrod when Nora came before her. “The dragon blood flows strongly through you veins.”

 

She knew, thought Nora in slight shock. Of course she knew. She knows everything.

 

“You promised an additional reward.”

 

“Of course,” said the woman with a sly look on her face. “I have a position for a new Thane in my hold. It's mostly an honorary position, but it has some perks you might find of use. And it allows you to purchase land in my hold.”

 

Nora wasn't sure she wanted a house in Hjaalmarch, but having a seer on her side might be a good thing.

 

“I would be honored, my Jarl,” she said, bowing. “And may I ask what will happen to Hroggar?”

 

“We have him in the jail for now,” said Idgrod. “He has seemed to come out of the compulsion the vampire Alva had him under. But we will be watching him before we release him back to the community. People who have done awful things under compulsion often try to end their lives, and that must not be allowed with this poor man.”

 

Nora thought again that, no matter how crazy this woman seemed, she had a certain wisdom about her. About everything except her own family.

 

“I have also assigned you a Housecarl for your service. You may use him as you wish. Take him with you, leave him here, it is up to you.”

 

Nora met her new follower at the entrance to the hall. Valdimar was one of the Ugliest Nords she had ever laid eyes on. A big hulking warrior with a warhammer on his back, the man's face was covered in warpaint, or were they tattoos. Whichever they were they didn't look attractive at all. And he seemed to be the kind of man that was all power and no grace, not ideal for dungeon delving.

 

“We could use him to watch the horses,” said Eldawyn, making a face that indicated that she found the big Nord less than desirable herself.

 

Yes, we could, thought Nora, looking over the man again, who just stood there as if he didn't care if these strange women were discussing his fate. They had been talking about leaving a watch on the horses while they went into ruins. There was always the chance they would come out and find themselves afoot, the mounts dead on the ground or run off. Nora had thought that it might be useful to leave two of her team outside on watch, but that would take a third of her combat power from her. This guy might be the solution to that.

 

“So, Valdimar what do you think about traveling with six women?”

 

The way the man smiled when she mentioned that the rest of her party were women told her a lot of what she needed.

 

“I will lay down the law with you right now,” she said, looking straight into his eyes. “If any of my girls want to get with you, that is up to them. But you will not force yourself on any of them. Harass them and you will be back in Morthal with a report of your behavior to the Jarl. Force yourself on them and I will have your balls. And you better believe that big as you are, I will take you.”

 

She could see the fear in the man's eyes, and was sure he knew she would do as she said. Well good.

 

“I will cause you no problems, my Lady,” he said, bowing his head.

 

“Then we understand each other.”

 

They spent the night in the inn, and Nora awoke to the sounds of one of the girls crying out in rapture. And Valdimar missing from the common room where they had left him. She followed the noise to Sofia's room, and satisfied herself that her companion was a willing participant. That was fine. She was repulsed by the man, but if any of her girls found him acceptable, that was up to them. As long as they monitored their cycles and took a potion if they were at risk of pregnancy.

 

Sofia had a smile on her face the next morning, and Nora let her curiosity get the better of her.

 

“How was he?”

 

“Not the best I have ever had,” said the smiling woman. “But definitely not the worst. What he lacked in technique he made up for in size. Not large enough to hurt, but definitely of a size to make himself felt. And now that I think of it, his technique was actually pretty good.”

 

Nora thought about that. She might have to try him out in the future herself, making sure that he didn't lie with her just because she was his Thane. That would be little more than rape, something she would not countenance. He still didn't attract her, but she had lain with men she thought ugly in the past, and when the lights were out only the pleasure mattered after all.

 

After a quick breakfast they loaded the pack animals, put saddle bags on the horses, and were on their way, taking a path north through the marsh to Ustengrav. The marsh was actually quite beautiful, full of trees and flowers, and of course, mud crabs. The damned things were too damned aggressive, and they constantly found themselves killing them. They had a delicious meat, but it was difficult to harvest, and they didn't have the time for that.