For the four days that we travelled south there was a strange pull, a desire that we could not shake no matter how hard we tried. From our discussions both Viconia and I had been granted the same sight of our destination on the south eastern portion of lake Rumare; a shrine under construction on the banks of the enormous lake. This was a region that was rarely travelled, sparsely populated and almost entirely wilderness. The Red Ring Road may have cut a jagged path through the region but with the Panther River further south and the hundreds of kilometres of swamps and rainforests spilling over from Blackmarsh it was almost entirely untouched.

  Moving off the highway as it snaked its way south east to the Blackmarsh-Morrowind borders made for slower travel. Within the first few hundred meters we were forced to dismount and lead Ultrin and Trygve on foot as the forests changed with every kilometre, becoming thicker, denser and shifting away from pines and hardwoods to more tropical and exotic varieties.

  It was noon on the fourth day's travel by the time we managed to clear the vegetation and find ourselves gazing upon Lake Rumare. From our positions on the far bank we could only barely see the towering spire of White-Gold Tower dozens of kilometres away, and to the south west there was a smoky pall hanging on the horizon that announced Bravil's presence. On this side of the Lake there was nothing, or towns or villages and not even the usual assortment of docks and jetties for the fishing boats and barges that clustered the shoreline further to the north. It was peaceful, serene and the only clear sights of civilisation was the handful of white sails of caravels and other trade ships moving to and from the Imperial City.

  As a thin strip of sand between the water's edge and the encroaching vegetation, there seemed like there was little room as Viconia joined me with the enormous bulk of Ultrin close behind. Even without the two enormous warhorses there was not much space in the tiny bay that we had found ourselves in.

  "The Surface world always seems to be filled with such wonder and beauty," She said simply, looking about the sight before us. The calmness of the bay and the feeling of the warm breeze on our faces were strangely relaxing but Viconia was still as taut as a wire. "I cannot help but look around myself for the hidden spider's web amongst the greenery."

  There was no doubting the coldness of her tone and I put my arm around her and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "The Underdark is far from here."

  "Not far enough." Viconia shuddered before pulling away and tying Ultrin's reins to his saddle. "But now that we are here, we best start looking for this shrine."

  I nodded, following her to where our steeds trotted into the water to drink their fill. It was a beautiful day but as we moved closer to the water and down the sandy slope to the small beach, I felt a cold chill pass through my body as my subconscious picked up what my conscious mind had not.

  Realisation crept into my mind and I stopped in place, feeling the sand grip tight to the soles of my boots. "This isn't right."

  Vicona had realised the same thing as I had, keeping one eye on our horses while looking about at the sight before us. "Vith... There's no trace of any shrine. There's almost no trace of anything being here."

  "There has to be something though. We both saw what Pelinal showed us."

  "You can see for yourself Mrannd'ssinss," Viconia said with a wave of her hands. "There is nothing here."

  I closed my eyes and controlled my breathing. The overwhelming feeling of failure and that we had wasted almost a week on a useless journey was like acid in my stomach, even consuming the nagging instinct that we were in the right place. It was all I could do to relax, and my gloves creaked as I formed fists.

  The sights that Pelinal had revealed to us flowed through my mind like water, and even as I stood there with our enormous warhorses trotting closer to the water to drink I knew that I was standing close to where I had in the vision. In my mind's eye I could see the dozens of builders and miners scurrying about with their tasks as they raised a marble statue of Pelinal outside the Shrine's entrance. Smoke lingered on the horizon of my vision, far across the Niben where the triumphant army of men looted and pillaged the Ayleid capital. It was clear and precise and even despite the thousands of years between us I could feel the tension and excitement as I looked down the slope to where the laden barge moored close to the makeshift jetty.

  "Oh vith uns'aa..." I swore under my breath, pinching the bridge of my nose with forefinger and thumb with the realisation.

  While I had murmured the expletives in Drow it was still loud enough for Viconia to hear me, even over the sounds of Ultrin and Trygve splashing into the water. "What?"

  "We are in the right place, and the shrine is here."

  "Really? Where?"

  Ignoring the sarcasm in her voice, I gestured to the water. "Right in front of us."

  "I think the accursed sun has gone to your head..." She trailed off, blinking and scowling forcefully as she too realised what I had. Over the course of thousands of years, Lake Rumare and the Niben had risen considerably and had effectively submerged the entirety of the shrine under several metres of water. "Have I mentioned that I am not overly fond of your Gods?"

  "I'm not overly impressed with them either." I replied simply, unclasping and shrugging off my cloak before working on the various leather straps and buckles that fastened my armour to my body. "They seem to have a twisted sense of humour."

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "And they don't have the decency to inflict their tortures face to face."

  Her face was impassive as she watched me pull the various pieces of my armour off and left them in a neat pile on the grassy edge of the tiny beach. Even the daedroth scaled chainmail was shrugged over my head and laid out in the grass along with nearly every other piece of heavy clothing I usually wore.

  "Well, it was about time you had another bath." Viconia laughed but there was little humour in it. She too had begun stripping her armour off despite her obvious distaste.

  "I hate water. Its filled of disease and fish fuck in it." Another thought entered my mind as I buckled Sunchild down my back. "Speaking of fish, keep your eyes open for slaughterfish."

  Stopping in mid motion as she took off her boots, Viconia gazed at me intently. "What do they look like?"

  "A stomach, with a tail on one end and teeth on the other."

  She directed another glance at the water but copied me in adjusting Dragonbane's scabbard and belt to hang down her spine. While I knew that armour would have resulted in us drowning, I wasn't liking the thought of coming face to face with one of the most voracious denizens that lived in Tamriel's waterways without it.

  Rolling my arms and loosening them up I took several deep breaths in preparation for the swim. "Here's hoping it's not entirely flooded."

  "Here's hoping that some bandit doesn't come and steal our equipment."

  I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Any bandit that is smart or lucky enough to get past two tonnes of trained warhorse is welcome to our stuff."

  Whistling to our steeds before diving into the water I was left as ease at the sight of the pair of saddled destriers moving over to graze near our discarded armour. Neither of them would wander too far in our absence and I doubted that anyone was anywhere nearby anyway. The tiny bay was far away from the main roads or any form of settlement.

  The water was chilly but bearable, the snow-melt from the northern counties and the somewhat cool days ensuring that even at the mouth of the Niben winter was making itself felt. Swimming was one of the many skills that I did not have confidence with, but my vampiric nature at least allowed me to ignore my unease. I was far more comfortable in hills and mountains than the water as the water had always represented several painful and horrifying ways to die and something that needed to be tolerated.

  It was a sensation that was not helped with how quickly and abruptly the ground fell away as I swam from the beach. The bottom dropped away almost a metre vertically with every metre that we moved from the shore and within a few strokes I felt uncomfortably exposed.

  Viconia entered the water with all the grace of a being born to it, diving under and resurfacing with her hair plastered to her neck and face. The only metal other than her swords that remained on her person was her circlet and it proved its worth in keeping her hair out of her eyes.

  "I'll dive down first and see what I can find." Brushing my hair from my face with one hand while treading water with the other, I couldn't help but think of the way that my clothes were sticking to my body. It was even more difficult not to think of how Viconia's clothes would be sticking to her curves as she bobbed effortlessly only a couple of meters away. She nodded briefly, and I took several deep breaths of air before plunging myself under the water's surface.

  The bright blue sky fell away into a world of blurs and echoing burbles of sound. Light sparkled through the rippling surface, playing across the bottom of the lake nearly ten metres below and I found myself admiring the strange still beauty of the underwater world.

  Strangely thankful for my curse in a new way, my vampiric eyes turned the crystallised view of the underwater realm into something hollow and two-dimensional but allowed me to see much clearer than I would have found possible as a mortal. Large rocks and boulders poked through the silt of the ages, and everywhere I looked I could see how over three thousand years of time had left the river and lake levels to rise until it had turned the Shrine to the Divine Crusader nothing more than an underwater tomb.

  But it was there, and my eyes looked over the enormous marble blocks where they were almost hidden under three millennia of mud, picking out the larger pieces of the shrine and even glimpsing a darker recess in the marble where the entrance beckoned. Kicking my legs, I pushed down and dived a few metres until my ears began thundering with the pressure, but my vampiric eyesight allowed me to see what others might not have. There was a cave within the depths, a blocky, rectangular hole that I somehow knew curved upwards and deep into the shoreline. I wasn't able to stay submerged for too long, but with the last of my breath rapidly being used and the burning sluggishness filling my body I twisted in the water and rapidly pushed myself towards the surface.

  Viconia saw me appear several dozens metres away from where she remaining treading water, and as I regained my breath she made her way over to me. "Well?"

  "It's worth a shot." Feeling the strain in my muscles that were not used to such exertion, my mouth slipped before the surface for a moment and left me spitting "The shrine is mostly flooded, but there is air down there. It's a bit of a swim though."

  "I'm sure I have experienced worse." Viconia muttered, choosing to ignore my unspoken warning and suggestion. "I'm a better swimmer than you anyway."

  I raised an eyebrow questioningly and shrugged as best I could while I treaded water. We swum in place for several minutes, breathing heavy to fill our bodies with air and with a mutual nod between us we filled our lungs with one last massive breath, plunging our heads underwater and kicking out for the bottom. My world was once again turned into a sparkling crystalline existence and the roaring of the pressure soon filled my ears as I reached the gaping entrance to the shrine ahead of Viconia. Keeping one eye on her at all times, I could physically feel my arteries and heart pounding with the exertion, my limbs becoming leaden as they began to tire.

  The vertical dive was somehow the easiest part as the weight of our swords pulled us down, but once we reached the yawning abyss of the shrine's entrance we had to angle ourselves through the silt and various plants growing from the bottom. It was easily three or four times deeper than I was tall to the bottom, and almost twice that distance horizontally into the ground. There was air in the depths, but my vampiric eyesight struggled to reveal exactly how far away it was and I was beginning to panic.

  So was Viconia, and her motions began to become more jerky and hurried. With trembling arms, she pulled on the sides of the tunnel to propel herself forward, appearing as a shadow with burning red eyes as she used her own abilities to see in the darkness. Between the pressure, the darkness and the distance we had to travel I suddenly realised that we had made a considerable mistake as my lungs ached to drag in a breath despite the fact there was no air to be had. Something within me clicked and I realised that we weren't going to be able to make it to the end and the taunting vison of safety. There was no way we were going to reach it.