Fire And Fangs

Chapter 49

If there was one thing that Morgan hated about the Soul Cairn, it was the way that skeletons seemingly rose out of the ground at every single stone structure to attack. She relayed this to Serana, who simply laughed at her statement before blasting one of those skeletons with a powerful blast of frost, the bones becoming brittle and shearing into small pieces.

"You hate them too," Morgan teased after seeing this display. Serana stuck her tongue out.

They had already defeated two of the Keepers. They were not an easy challenge either. Ten feet tall and wearing what looked like dragonbone armour, they were also as fast as an Ice Wraith and hit like a giant. But when they came across the two vampires, they had met their match. The first one had been pelted by Ice Spikes by Serana while Morgan fired as many fireballs as her magicka would allow. The combined attacks slowed the Keeper down, the ice draining its stamina, while the fire slowly metered out damage.

The Keeper had fallen to the ground and just as Morgan had made to sift through its remains, its had disintegrated into a puddle of black ichor like a ghost would do on being defeated. She never got that armour but the remains did have a few filled black soul gems. They had pocketed them before moving on to the next Keeper.

Serana had deduced that they would be in the towers, as they offered the best protection and also it seemed logical that the Ideal Masters would place them in an area where they wouldn't be disturbed yet could still be asked to fight for them should they require it. Morgan smiled at her logic and was amused to see Serana glow when Morgan praised her of this.

The second Keeper was a tougher fight however. Like the first, it wore Dragonbone armour, but this one was armed with a staff that fired out Blizzard-class spells. It was impossible to attack this entity at range because it could simply stand off and fire that staff until the charge was depleted...and Morgan thought that they carried the soul gems for constant recharging of the weapon. So they had resorted to close combat.

Serana had ducked and weaved in a blurring whirlwind of speed, her razor sharp daggers slashing at the weak spots between the armour plates as the Keeper tried in vain to hit her with the staff. Morgan had used her dragonbone sword, heavy strikes dealing massive damage on the Keeper itself and not allowing it any room to fight back intelligently. The Keeper had fallen quickly after a brutal onslaught and the two vampires came away with a few more black soul gems.

Now they were approaching the final Keeper. The tower had four vertical sides and no stairs or mechanisms to get up there. Morgan turned to Serana and raised an eyebrow.

"Unless I have to Shout this tower down to get the Keeper, we cannot get up there."

Serana chuckled.

"Oh my darling, it's the Soul Cairn remember? They have magical means to move," she said, pointing to a small circular basin nearby.

"What...the hell is that?"

"It will take us to the top of the tower. Its safe...I think."

"You think?" Morgan mimicked playfully.

"You can go first and we can find out can't we?" Serana retorted.

Morgan smiled and picked up Serana in her arms, feeling her legs wrap around her waist in a pincer grip.

"Or maybe we can go together."

Serana grinned.

"That might work," she agreed as Morgan stepped onto the glowing basin...

"Never again am I setting foot on one of those things," Morgan complained as she staggered against a wall.

It had felt as though every piece of her body had been ripped apart, swirled around and then put back together again in a few seconds. She had never felt anything like that before, although it did remind her of a tale that her mother liked to tell her. A tale about magic that could transport you from any point to another, as long as you knew where you were going and if you had the magicka to do it.