Slowly the images faded away, and the overwhelming tension and nausea vanished with them. Darkness crept back into my mind once more, strangely soothing compared to the kaleidoscope of sights that had assailed me earlier and I found myself staring into the void.

  "You have come to a decision?" Pelinal asked, his voice rolling out of the darkness like a closing tomb deep within the earth.

  "Like there is any decision that can be made." My reply was bitter, the words like acid as they crawled across my tongue. "Even with all this talk of being able to choose my own future there is only the choice of whether I have one or not."

  In a voice that was just as much vampire as it was human I growled at the invisible, unseen champion of the Gods. "I will hunt for your relics."

  "Very well." There was a moment of pause, and slowly I found myself being able to see once again, the darkness spreading into a flowing white light that grew from nothing. Slowly, like a morning fog that was slowly burned away by the rising sun, sights once more began to fill my vision.

  "I know little that can help you." Clouds of unstructured thought and memory condensed before my very eyes as Pelinal whispered. "All that has passed since my death is like a mist... A mist that my mind cannot take hold of."

  I felt Pelinal's sigh waft through me like a northern breeze, chilling me to the core as my eyes focused upon the sights of millennia ago. "My friends built a shrine upon the site of my death, where the Elves tormented me in a final act of revenge. Perhaps it is there still, and perhaps there you may find clues to that which you must seek."

  Gazing onto the sight before me I suddenly found myself far to the south of snow and mountains, looking across the dozens of kilometres of open water to the towering spear of White Gold Tower. A warm breeze flew over the water where the Upper Niben met Lake Rumare, plucking at the layers of wolf fur and daedroth scale but I barely noticed it. The warmth was soothing and calming, even as I lowered my gaze down the slope to the flurry of activity around the structure below me.

  The slope around the water's edge was bustling with activity, as dozens of men and women worked hard to erect a mighty shrine in the honour of the Divine Crusader. I watched them as they worked hard, unloading massive marble blocks off a ship moored close to a small jetty, wheeling carts and wheelbarrows from the depths of the shrine where obvious excavations were being made into the earth beneath my feet. It was a work of love, and despite its smaller nature compared to the enormity of the Imperial city but its workmanship was going to be unmatched.

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  "Here, where my own path ended," Pelinal murmured, his voice fading slowly despite the strength within it. "your new path will begin. Seek this place out and take up the fight against the Accursed Umaril."

  The vision faded to white once more, and a chill seeped back into my bones as the whiteness was replaced with the sight of the snow covered shrine of Talos. Icy air forced its way into my lungs, bringing me completely back into consciousness once more.

  "Fare thee well brave knights." Pelinal's voice echoed throughout the glade, growing fainter with every syllable. "May the Gods bless your passage and grant you strength during these dark times."

  My limbs became my own again, and warm blood seemed to begin flowing once more as the ice and snow that had settled on me robbed my limbs of strength. I coughed, shaking myself from the strange feeling of light-headedness that had seeped into me to the core.

  "Mrannd'ssinss?" Viconia murmured as she too pulled herself out of a similar trance.

  There was a feeling deep within me, a strange and overwhelming pull towards the south. It resounded deep within my bones, almost like an addiction like the vicious desire for blood. "What did he show you?"

  "Aphyon." Came the reply. There was a tremble in her voice that was only barely restrained by her iron will. "Death... No matter what he showed me, it all resulted in your death. I saw you die thousands of times. Whether it was by the sword, under Lloth's talons, a dragon's maw or a god's grasp you died. I have come to depend upon you, and it tears at me being so reliant upon someone other than myself."

  Unbidden and instinctively I reached out, grasped her tight and pulled her into my armoured embrace. There was no shuddering of breath or wetness to her eyes but her emotions were raw and close to the surface. "I know." Her forehead thudded into my chest and I could feel the shudder that flowed through us both.

  In her own familiar way that I had come to know intimately, she crushed all her emotions deep inside once more and what had been a semi-loving embrace had only lasted for a few heartbeats before she pulled away. Within moments she had turned back to her old aloof self once more, concealing her pain and worry and fears deep within where it continued to eat away slowly.

  "So... I suppose we're heading south?" She said, looking over the shrine.

  To the north I could see and faintly hear the clamouring of the cathedral bells, knowing that Bruma was close, and Cloud Ruler was only a few hours ride away. The location of Pelinal's shrine was several days away at least, but both of us could feel the subconscious calling of its hidden location.

  "We head south." I agreed.

  "Then I shall be at your side." Viconia said softly, moving closer to me until I could smell her perfumed flesh over the smell of fresh snow and the furs we wore. "But don't think I'm doing this for your yeunn Aedra or some long dead wael. I'm going to do this for you."

  I crushed her in an embrace once more, feeling her heat pressing against me. "I know. It's not like we have a choice in this at least."

  "Find the unfindable, or watch the world be turned into a funeral pyre." She shivered as she pulled away and brushed snow from her arms, her gaze turning and looking to the south. "Either way, we will be warm at least."