Chapter Thirty - Ivarstead - 1st of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Umbra
The waterfalls were crimson like the color of blood within the large room that had apparently been decorated to resemble a mockery of Halloween, if with far more candles than pumpkins, and with black and white papers hanging in the air tied by black thread rather than festive colors. The Draugr's tombs had been thrown into the depths, raising the water level. Wobbling rotten corpses stood still near the columns, holding on to wooden trails with strange-looking treats that didn't look right to my eyes, and were in the process of rotting.
"We're getting a few Necromancers to come over and set the magical pyrotechnics," Babette spoke excitedly as she made a wide-arm gesture at the stage that would have housed the Dungeon-Boss fight, and instead now seemed home. Drums and flutes had been dropped unceremoniously in a corner of the makeshift stage, as wooden planks had yet to be mounted over the top of the water, perhaps to act as an extension of the stage.
Her other arm was instead linked with mine, holding me tightly to prevent my escape. "I took care of setting up some illusion magic, so when the music starts here it will be carried on to the rest of the tomb. We must go over practicing the songs, but that can wait. You need to tell me what's the reason for the silly clothes you're wearing. And why aren't you smelling of my perfume? I brewed it expressively to make sure the undead would ignore you."
"I got hit in the back of the head while crossing the border at Darkwater Crossing," I said, "Got captured by the Imperial Army since they were waiting in ambush for Ulfric Stormcloak, and then...well, I did lose my memory. There are just...flashes of remembrance, here and there, but not everything's returned. How did we meet anyway?" I asked next, only for the woman to near her ear to my wrist, humming thoughtfully all the while.
"It was the most romantic night of my unlife," Babette said. "There I was, all hot from the warmth of freshly sucked blood in an alleyway when you came walking towards me without care." She smiled warmly, "My darling, your sharp smile caught my heart," she seemed to quote, "I have fallen in love with your beauty, and ask for naught more but for a chance to be your knight. Ah...such bold words, if you had not also said you were a member of the Brotherhood, I would have probably killed you painlessly and brought you back as a corpse to do my bidding. But, alas, wouldn't want the wrath of Sithis on my head," she continued with a cheeky smirk, chuckling all the while. "Oh, your heart is speeding up! Are the memories returning? Is your blood bubbling with the warmth of those nights?"
Actually, my heart was beating fast out of fear, but yes Babette, let's go with your interpretation. Babette grabbed hold of my fingers and neared them to her cheek, shuddering with glee. "Your hand are as cold as death itself, but the callouses are new," she hummed throatily, "We can work with that. Might add realism to the big bad mercenary dropping unannounced into the rooms of the poor, virgin maiden," as she said that, I held back the subsonic whine which was my usual cry for help.
"Before doing that, or anything similar to that," I said quickly, "Would you please fill me in on anything else we did? Because I'm really missing some important pieces like...what am I supposed to sing?"
Babette's eyes widened as she brought both hands to her mouth, "Nibblekins! Don't tell me you forgot your songs! You set everything up for the Tales and Tallows festivity here in Ivarstead! You can't have forgotten about it! You're supposed to sing your best hits! Things that go bump in the night? Leave the Divines Behind? I will be Emperor?" her lips trembled, "You remember our song right? You are my moonshine is our song."
I blinked. "But I'm a horrible singer."
"Lies!" Babette hissed out. "You have the most beautiful of voices, a gift from Lord Sheogorath himself! Capable of waking the dead, of sending shudders down the spines of corpses and eliciting the thrumming hearts of ghosts to beat once more! When you sing, why...even the dead at peace rise up to listen!"
So that explained why nobody wanted me to sing. "Let's say that's true...I don't remember the songs, but Tales and Tallows is in two days anyway, so...you could give me a copy of those songs, and then I might study them on my way up the seven thousand steps."
Babette arched an eyebrow, "Is this the Dragonborn business you were speaking of? Ah, I see," she huffed, "You don't remember our love, but when it comes to your duty to Sithis you are second to none. I guess this would be the quintessence of you, the favorite of the Dark Matron, her beloved firstborn among others."
Umbra, the fuck did you do. Umbra, seriously, the fuck did you do.
"A new Listener would do the Brotherhood good. All sanctuaries abandoned as they are, we do await the order to regroup. Astrid is a good leader, but she should better control her arrogance and pride. There is only one Dark Matron, and it is not her. Only one Mother, and she is not ours, nor will she ever be." She smiled, showing her pointy teeth. "But I am glad you still remember most of me," she encircled my shoulders with her arms, a smile firmly planted on her face, "Perhaps there are other things we could do to...jog your memories?" as she seductively whispered that, I quite calmly stared at her.
"I seem to recall you being different," I pointed out, making her huff. "Well?"
"Well nothing," Babette said. "Vampires don't age, but if you cure someone of Vampirism, let them age, and then transform them again then there's no rule against that, is there?" she twiddled with her hair, "I can no longer play the innocent child game, but it was quite the interesting thing that you knew the cure. My feelings matured together with my body, so...come on now, my Nibbling, let us forget about the boring details and get to my bed. I have silk sheets," she smiled. "Won't you step into my parlor, you brutish mercenary?"
I quite calmly removed her arms from my shoulders and shook my head. "Apologies, but before doing any of that, I have duties to uphold." I closed my fist in front of my heart, "And these duties, they force me to go and act swiftly. Just give me the songs I have to memorize and I'll be back in less than two days to rehearse. The Dragonborn, that girl you left outside, she does have to climb the seven thousand steps and if she's gone and told the innkeeper about you, then..."
"Oh, it's not a problem," Babette rolled her eyes. "I'll just strangle him with his intestines, nail his face to the wall, leave a bloody print behind with the words We Know and nobody is going to bother looking into it any further."
"I would rather not let it get to it," I said. "So, quickly. Teleport me out of here. I'll say I slayed the vampire catching her off-guard with a fork in the eye or something." I took out the wooden fork from my pocket, and then belatedly stared at Babette's twitching lips. "It's foolproof."
"No, Nibbling, it's fool-thought," Babette giggled like a schoolgirl in love, "But it is somewhat surprising how these thoughts of yours do translate to working in reality." She bit down on her hand with her fangs, drawing blood which she used to cover half of the fork in it. "There you go." She then roughly kissed me, her tongue doing things I did not even know where possible before she left with short of breath. She grinned, "I don't need to come back up for air," she said suggestively, wriggling her eyebrows. "Come back here before leaving and..." she bit her lower lip, crossing her arms behind her back and making a cute-looking gesture of a girl in love, "Please give me lots of loving, mistah U, 'cause I've been a bad, bad girl."
I palmed my face as I watched Babette's right hand soon tinge with the colors of mauve and smoke-like haze, her left hand soon joining the right as she began to gesture in order to form what could only be described as a portal.
An arrow sailed in the air and landed straight for her throat, making her blink and discharge the magic before it could be completed. I turned just in time to look at Berry's determined look from the far end of the room, bow tense and arrow nocked. It was the last thing I saw before the discharge of magic sent me elsewhere, with quite the thrumming explosion to accompany it.
That elsewhere turned out to be the water in the corner of the room, in which I landed roughly and began to quickly sink since there was no silly float-approved armor in this world, and everything I wore, backpack included, weighed me down quite a bit.
"You foolish bitch!" Babette's snarl was refreshing, which was accompanied by her jumping in the water with a leap that was inhuman, grabbing hold of my spluttering self and throwing me back on dry ground where I heaved and spat out the iron-tasting red water.
"Wait!" I snapped, extending a hand towards Berry, "Time out! A moment!"
Babette came to a halt by my side, the arrow still sticking out of her neck like it was nothing. I gestured at it, and she scoffed as she removed it as if it meant nothing to her. The wound sealed quickly, making me blink.
"Vraseth," Babette said as if that explained it all. "It is my clan," she smirked and stood back up, stretching lightly. "I am annoyed she actually caught me by surprise. Lucien would have chided me for being distracted if he had been summoned," she shook her head, and turned to stare at Berry with an affronted expression. "Listen here, child. Dragonborn or not, if you bother me I'll whip you until your raw flesh is exposed, and then pour salt on your muscles before dropping you in the middle of the ocean to swim your way back to shore, where the sand will dig into your flesh together with the salt," she smiled fondly. "So, if you do not wish that, stow your weapon and let us talk. You are not yet Listener, and you might never become one if I do something about it right here and now."
"Babette," I said pointedly, slowly standing back up. "Enough with the threats."
"As you wish, my little Nibbling," Babette replied.
Some things still didn't make sense, but perhaps I just had to ask the right questions.
Starting with the most obvious of them all.
"Babette," I said, "When did we meet, exactly?"
"During the Oblivion Crisis," Babette replied without batting an eyelid. "You...don't remember?"
"Amnesia," I snarled out so fast and angrily that it actually made Babette wince at my tone. "I have amnesia! I don't remember any of it! How the hell was I around the Oblivion Crisis!? Babette! I'm human, ain't I!?"
"Yeah...but..." Babette swallowed, "You don't stay dead, my Nibbling. You remember at least that much, yes? You get punctured, blown, burned, stabbed, sliced, but...you always get better. That's what you told me," she looked at me with the look of a puppy having been kicked.
"It doesn't make sense," I replied, "If I don't die, then what about my siblings? They said they grew me up."
"I don't know what you're talking about, darling," Babette replied. "We haven't seen each other in hundreds of years, not after you dealt with the Oblivion crisis..."
"All right," I raised both hands in the air, staring at the ceiling. "Let us assume I reincarnated at the end of my duty," I quipped making air-quotes. "How did you know I'd be here?"
Babette crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked sideways, "Because you told me where I'd find you next. So I've been patiently waiting, serving the Dark Mother and Sithis, in eager wait of your return. And here you are now, just like you said, but instead of being happy that we met again after so long, you speak of duty and seem infatuated with that child over there who still has her mother's milk on her lips," her lips thinned in displeasure. "I have been nothing but faithful and loyal both to the Dark Brotherhood and to you, but I expect something more than just this sort of lukewarm and awkward meeting in which you demand and demand and give nothing back. You can't play with my heart like this, my Nibbling, and you know—"
"Rest now..." I began to sing hesitantly, "My vampireee...rest now...your hardship is oooveerrr...sleep...dream up...and let the cloak of night cling to your bones."
"Singing...won't..." Babette stammered, yawning loudly, "Unfair..." she pitifully said last before her body slumped down, easily falling into my arms as I exhaled loudly in relief.
"You sang her to sleep," Berry whispered in awe as she tiptoed nearer, even as I instead pulled Babette up in a bridal carry of sorts and dropped her on the stage, huffing from the effort.
"It's a long story, but I'm starting to see the light and the end of the tunnel," I replied thinly. "But let's not tarry around here longer than we have to. Let's agree to tell the innkeeper we dealt with the haunting and get our rewards before rushing out of the village as fast as we can."
"When she wakes up, won't she swear revenge?" Berry asked, gesturing at Babette's prone form.
"I'm sure she won't," I replied, not really believing my words, "But she's not going to kill us."
"I was more worried about the village," Berry said curtly, to which I emitted a loud sigh of disbelief and then palmed my face. "We can't leave her here like this...it's also unfair. She's your lover isn't she? Is this any way to treat her and her feelings?"
"That's not...look, I don't remember any of it," I hissed back. "It would be unfair to do anything, because I don't remember any of it! To me...I don't know, because what I say and what I do...they aren't always also what I think!"
"Perhaps that's the problem," Berry said with a dry smile, "You Imperials are always shifty bastards. If you were more of a Nord, more honest and upfront, you wouldn't need to doubt the actions of your past-self."
I gave her a sour look, and then turned down to look at the sleeping vampire. She wouldn't burn in the light of the day. She would be weaker outside during the day and...uhm...
"We're bringing her with us," I said in the end. "That way, when she wakes up, hopefully during the day, we'll be out and about. Let's also torch the place so the other vampires and necromancers that are meant to gather here will catch the news and not bother the city during Tales and Tallows."
"Now that's a solution I can get behind," Berry said gingerly, before proceeding to outright chop off the head of one of the immobile zombies that were holding on to the tray of rotten food. The others didn't as much as twitch in reply.
Quite calmly, I began to look for Babette's room in the tomb.
I had an inkling that I'd find far more rope in there than what was strictly needed.
And of course, I was right. Oh Divines how right I was.
