I didn't expect to wake up, or if I did I expected my next sight to be filled with the impossible vista of Molag Bal's accursed realm of Coldharbour. Much to my surprise instead I opened my eyes to a dust and cobweb strewn ceiling, feeling cold and chilly to the very core and very much in pain.

  It was dark and cold, the only light and warmth within the ancient and disused training hall from the tiny campfire a short distance away surrounded by the scatterings of Viconia's and my travelling equipment. My armour was nearby, disassembled and laid out in a rough semblance of order and I could see the small collection of polishing cloths and scouring pads alongside it. I was laying on my sleeping roll and covered in one of the thin blankets we used to keep our steeds dry during the night and other than my undergarments I was entirely naked.

  Viconia had been caring for me, but for how long I was uncertain but judging by the lived in feeling of the training hall it was obvious that it had been some time. For the moment she was nowhere to be seen which also including most of her equipment and armour. For a heart stopping moment I believed that she may have indeed abandoned me but if she had, she had been remiss in taking her own sleeping items and Ultrin's saddle. The fire was well kept, burning with freshly chopped branches that had not yet turned to coals and I could feel its heat on my bare flesh and I struggled to rise.

  I had suffered severe injuries before, but the latest collection was a lot more intense than those preceding them. Even the injuries sustained in the Mythic Dawn Caverns didn't seem to hurt as keenly as those I had suffered at the blades and weapons of the Knights of the Nine. My left arm and hand were almost useless and heavily bandaged from where Sir Amiel's sword had speared it and I was forced to roll over and use my right to prop myself up. Immediately I realised it wasn't the smartest of ideas as the movement twisted and pulled at the significant stitching at my hip, and dropping back into the bedroll I groaned as my injured face and leg also made themselves felt.

  Although healing, the bones in my face were still partially broken and I could feel something shift in my cheek that shouldn't have been able to. As for my right leg, it was almost entirely dead from the calf muscle down if not for the agonising pain shifting its way up through it. I could remember all too easily how Sir Amiel's sword had simply cut deep into my leg just above the protection of my armoured boots, and I found myself feeling lost and feeling hopeless at the sudden future of being a cripple. I had seen several injuries as such within the Legion, and almost without fail it ensured the victim remained an invalid for the rest of his life.

  Before I could summon up the strength and willpower to shift through the pain to rise and check myself over, the soft sounds of footsteps reached my ears and I turned to look at the entrance. Viconia was slowly making her way down the stairs and the short corridor to the training hall where she had made our camp and she looked worse for wear. While not injured as myself in any sort of degree, she was weary and exhausted, her hair hanging freely and appearing somewhat dishevelled as she laid eyes on me and realised I was conscious.

  "So... You're finally awake."

  It wasn't a question but a bitter statement despite the way how it wasn't wholly directed at me. After so many months together I could detect the difference between when she was truly angry or simply annoyed.

  "I am." It felt like I had swallowed most of the dust that was lining the floor of the training hall and I found myself coughing. "How long have we been here?"

  "Three days."

  She moved quickly over to me, giving me and my injuries a quick glance over before carefully helping me rise to a sitting position. The small bundle she had been carrying turned out to be a pair of rabbits with ropes tied around their throats to allow her to carry them. One was still alive and kicking, its beady eyes darting about everywhere as it twitched, while the other was well and truly dead, still smouldering somewhat with singed fur from whatever bolt of magicka she had used to kill it.

  My hand moved to my hip as I sat upright with both legs outstretched and she slapped it away, lifting the bandages and studying the poultice that she had applied to it and the stitched wound. "You should count yourself lucky."

  "I do. I have you"

  Her gaze flickered upwards to mine as I smiled at her and the expression of annoyance was mellowed somewhat. "And don't you forget it. Especially after these past three days. The things that I do for you..."

  "I don't really plan on going out and getting injured Viconia."

  "It doesn't stop you from going out and doing so." Moving down my leg, she tapped my leg and lifted my wounded one gently, using her fingers to feel the injury and looking over the way it was healing.

  "How badly hurt was I?"

  "You should be dead." she said simply and bluntly, having all of the bedside manner of a thrown rock to the face. "You lost a lot of blood, and not just from the few cuts they gave you. You were bleeding internally and for a while there I wasn't sure whether you'd recover, let alone wake at all."

  The injury to my calf was terrible to behold and it cut from the back of my leg almost to the bone itself. Viconia had done her best to keep the wound clean and free of infection but the muscles had been severed entirely.

  "Well. I guess my adventuring days are over." I muttered and she twisted around and scowled at me.

  "Not yet they aren't." carefully, she began unwrapping the bandages and prepare my leg for fresh ones. "It's terrible, but you are healing slowly."

  "I'm healing... severed tendons?"

  She nodded, dragging over one of the small ceramic containers she had pulled from our saddles that was filled with crushed up alchemical ingredients. Thankfully one of the many things I had taught her during our travels was how to identify useful herbs and plants and how to turn them into healing salves and poultices. "You are. You and I both know that your vampiric nature is capable of significant and accelerated healing, but this is definitely putting the limits of such to the test. If left alone it would have healed your leg as a mass of scar tissue and left it useless for the rest of your life. With my assistance its healing back together, although I'm uncertain how long it will take to get full mobility back."

  "Your assistance?" looking over the injury I noted how the wound on my leg wasn't a simple slice across the back of the calf, but a clear cross that also ran down a good portion of the leg itself.

  "I had to cut you open and use a bit of magicka to seal the muscles back together. You should be thankful that all those years in the service to Lloth has left me with an intimate knowledge of how a body goes together." For a moment she went silent, her eyes blinking several times before she visibly shrugged the thoughts away. "I never thought the ability and knowledge how to flay someone alive would have other uses."

  Rubbing at my face and taking extreme care while probing the broken bones, I found myself realising that I wasn't as badly injured as I was expecting. "I feel surprisingly well... All things considered."

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Finishing up the last of the bandage and tucking it where it wasn't going to fall off or come loose, she fell even more silent and my eyes were drawn to the way that she was suddenly rubbing at her forearms, forearms that were obviously wrapped in bandages.

  "Oh Viconia..." I whispered and she twisted to meet my gaze, glancing down to where I was looking and folding her arms and the bandages out of sight.

  "You were dying." She said simply, hiding the way that she had both wrists bandaged. "Just so you know, it is extremely difficult to force a mostly unconscious vampire to drink blood."

  My expression needed no translation and her expression softened, moving forward and kissing me very lightly before pulling away. "It was my choice Mrannd'ssinss. Be thankful and appreciate what I do for you."

  "I do." I said honestly, trying to work out whether I felt sick, disturbed or dismayed at how she had cut her own wrists to feed me blood to keep me alive. If I hadn't been unconscious I doubt that I would have let her do such a thing.

  Feeling my facial injuries, I remembered all too well how the pommel Sir Amiel's sword had smashed into my face and the way that it broke my cheek. What I was finding strange was the way how it felt like my jaw had also been broken, which was something that I truly didn't remember occurring.

  Viconia seemed to be seeking a distraction almost as much as I was, and the look of embarrassment that she was suddenly wearing was as obvious as it was rare. "For the most part you were unconscious the whole time these past days. Initially, once the wards had diminished and I managed to drag you out of there the vampire decided to take things into its own hands."

  "Did I try to hurt you?"

  My shock and concern was obvious to her and she spared me a grin that was only slightly one of tense amusement. "Not after I rendered you unconscious."

  That explained the broken jaw, and I rubbed at it hesitantly, feeling totally and utterly lost with the situation and at what had happened. The silence dragged on between the two of us as we began looking everywhere but at each other, before Viconia's sigh made itself heard over the quietly burning campfire.

  "We can't keep doing this on our own." She said simply. "How many times these past months have we almost died or found ourselves in situations that we only managed to extricate ourselves from? Once is far too many times for me."

  "At least you haven't been consecutively finding yourself injured all the time."

  "True, but if it wasn't for my skill and your nature then we would have both died several times already. We can't keep doing this, and I especially don't want to find myself in the situation where I have to bathe and assist you in relieving yourself."

  My entire face burned red with embarrassment and she made no sign of how she felt about the past days besides the scowl she habitually wore. "I am serious though. We need help."

  "I'm open to suggestions." I said simply, honestly meaning it even as I forced myself through the pain and wriggled the toes of my injured leg.

  "We should re-establish the Order of the Nine."

  The silence this time was complete and all-encompassing and I looked at her in complete shock.

  Before I could speak she had cut me off in mid breath, rearranging her circlet and going through the process of smoothing her long white-blonde hair. "This place. This Order... had once been founded to recover all of the Relics of your Gods. They remained here even after death and even as skilled as they are, they couldn't do what they did on their own. We need help, especially if we are both going to get through all of this alive and intact."

  She handed me a water skin and I began the slow process of washing the dryness of my mouth and throat away. "Who can we ask though? The Blades are busy protecting Martin and I don't think that we'll be able to get anyone from the Fighters Guild."

  "What's the point of being Knights if we can't call upon our own Order?"

  "Good point." I replied simply, glancing over to our saddlebags and the wealth that they still contained. "I... I don't think that it would take much to repair this place and we have more than enough wealth to take care of that aspect."

  "Exactly. How many Knights pledged themselves to seeking out the Relics during that service in Anvil all those weeks ago? How many more have done so since? We won't be short on manpower or ability if we can convince them of the value in doing so. We have retrieved two relics already, and I have been given leads for some of the others to the East and the South."

  "Leads? From who?"

  "Amiel and the others of course. Who the vith else do you think I would have spoken to while you were sleeping?"

  "You didn't fight them did you?"

  There was shake of a head and she sat down heavily next to me. "No. I think they considered it before I threatened to bury them in the rubble of the Priory if they tried to. Amiel says that my concern for you has proven my purity if such an unbecoming display of weakness is considered as such."

  "It's not weakness Viconia." I said, groaning and putting my healthy arm around her in a comforting squeeze. "I certainly don't consider all that you have done for me as a weakness."

  "Well, we are both even at least when it comes to saving the other from dying." She might have been trying to remain stoic but there was no doubting the way that her whole body shivered slightly as it relaxed into me. All the stress of the previous days had taken a toll on her in similar ways to my injuries. "It matters not. We have leads for all of the Relics barring the Greaves and the Sword, and three of which are in or near Counties Bravil and Leyawiin."

  "The Mace, the Shield and..."

  "The Boots. The Boots are apparently near a shrine to your Nature God to the North East of Glenvar. The Shield is Western Blackmarsh and thanks to Henrik we have an extremely good idea in its location, better than anyone else in Tamriel I'd wager."

  Movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention and I snorted with amusement. "Our dinner is escaping."

  Viconia twisted around and caught sight of the live rabbit trying its best to hop away while we were distracted. Its efforts were significantly hindered by the length of the snare that was still wrapped around her throat and if Viconia's curse was any more forceful it would have dropped dead on the spot.

  "Those pair of lotha shu'n have been the only things I have successfully caught since we arrived." Rising to her feet and strode over to it with a hand suddenly crackling with lightning and the ultimate fate of the other, slightly charred rabbit was clearly defined. "I'm sick of eating hardtack and our other rations."

  "Try not to kill it please." I said simply, again feeling embarrassed as she looked between me and the tiny animal trying to hide in amongst the accumulated dirt and dust in the ancient priory.

  "Why?" she asked simply, before glancing between it, me and her wrists as her magicka faded. "Oh."

  Quickly she plucked it from the ground by grabbing the end of the length of the rope snare and carried it over to me. "Enjoy your meal."

  The disgust at what I was about to do was obvious as I grabbed the tiny furred creature from her and I tried to ignore the fact that part of me was longing for it. "I seriously doubt it."

  Within a few seconds it was over, the sheer agonising pain of my face restructuring and forcing my broken cheekbone to realign and reknit drowning out the way that the rabbit suddenly began kicking wildly before becoming as still as the grave. I handed the limp body over to Viconia who had already begun preparing to gut and skin them both while trying not to make it obvious that she was watching me intently with a sickening degree of curiosity.

  "We'll have to stay here for a few more days before I will be confident in you being able to travel. You're going to have trouble walking for weeks even with your vampirism."

  "I know it." I replied, wiping my mouth on the back of my hand and catching myself in mid motion of going to lick blood off it. There was no denying the way that the tiny amount of animal blood went some way towards slaking my thirst or the mere act of shifting slightly into my vampiric form had healed my face somewhat. "It's going to be a long journey ahead of us."

  "Longer than normal at least. Southern Cyrodiil may as well be our home at this rate."

  Somehow she had pre-empted my request and handed me more water, this time in one of the travelling cups that we carried as creature comforts. "The boots are closer?"

  She was watching me even more intently now and I gave her a light smile as I finished off the water. "Indeed. Once you are fit for travel we will journey to the Shrine and see how our luck goes this time. Its apparently one of the more publicly known Relics so it should provide us with a degree of fame if we retrieve it. It will be beneficial to recruit others to our cause."

  The strange tingling in my mouth made itself present and I found myself looking into the cup she had handed me with realisation dawning. Within seconds my body was beginning to feel like I was floating and I was quickly loosing strength in my extremities.

  "Motherwort and Lady's Smock?"

  There was no way for me to mistake the predatory gleam in her eyes as she moved closer and helped me ease my back into the bedrolls again. My entire body felt as heavy as lead but also seemed as light as the clouds themselves as I began to struggle to stay away. "You taught me well Mrannd'ssinss. Now, go to sleep and get some rest so you don't make a mess of all my hard work."

  "You're such a bitch... I murmured, feeling her lips lightly press into mine and her fingers caress my face as once again I found myself falling into a sleep to rival the dead.