Leaving Weebam-Na and Bejeen to wander the village talking to the locals and making arrangements, the rest of us unloaded and retrieved everything of value from the boats and stowed them in the hut allocated to us. in a village such as this, anything of value was everything that wasn’t the boats themselves, right down to the mooring ropes and the paddles. Briefly I even considered seeing if the seats nailed into the hull were worth attempting to be retrieved but thought against it only because of the time it would take to remove them.

  The communal hut itself was large and accommodating, surprisingly so for a village of this size. Even the floor to our surprise was actually stone, and while lacking in mortar was clean, solid and so well built that any of us would have struggled to slip a dagger between the cracks. It was unusual to an extreme, especially how the rest of the village didn’t appear to have been the sort of place for such skillfully made masonry but we were not begrudging a place to sleep that was dry and not moving about underneath us.

  There was more than enough space within its baked-mud walls and marsh wood roof for two, possibly three dozen individuals to live comfortably and we all put the fire pit in the centre to good use almost before we had finished moving inside. Our water stocks had run out quickly and while this had been something we had expected it took considerable time to prepare fresh supplies. Weebam-Na and Bejeen were able to drink directly from the rivers but for the rest of us with perhaps the exception of Mazoga who appeared to have a stomach made of iron, we had to boil every drop no matter whether it was for drinking or bathing. Every meal that we prepared, every time we took a drink, it was from carefully prepared sources that took much longer to prepare than it took to consume.

  Our equipment too required much more maintenance than it had previously, and our days whenever we hadn’t been in our boats had been repairing and cleaning everything we owned. Mud and muck accumulated on every surface, clinging with a grim tenacity and threatening rust and decay on almost everything we owned. Only Alexi’s mithril chainmail, Falid’s ebony armour and Viconia’s and my swords seemed immune to the creeping filth and rust which meant the rest of us were kept busy throughout our waking hours. In a strange turnabout, the only person who didn’t need to spend much time repairing and cleaning was Detane as the poor quality of his equipment meant that further rust and grime did little to further affect his possessions. His sword and scabbard however were lovingly maintained and kept to a razored edge that matched Sunchild’s.

  “At least this place is cosy.” Alexi said with an ever present cheer that seemed utterly indefatigable. He could be buried up to his neck in a latrine and would still smile and comment about at least his face wasn’t covered.

  “It could be an upper class tavern in the Imperial City compared to another night in the boats. I think my spine is bent in three separate places.”

  Smiling while rubbing his polishing cloth over the surface of his armour, he briefly looked up at me before turning his attention back to the demi-plate armour carefully laid out in front of him. As typical for his level of skill, whenever he wasn’t mounted on his horse he wore a significantly cut down plate armour that didn’t hinder his agility or speed and only really protected the vitals. Much like Viconia, he was a duellist and relied on his reflexes and not being hit in the first place rather than armour.

  “I would have thought that a man such as yourself was used to sleeping rough? How many times has Viconia kicked you out of bed of a night?”

  “Only the times that he has failed to live up to expectations.” Viconia added with a grin that was simultaneously blood chilling and amused.

  “So… Every night then?”

  We all laughed and he barely looked up to catch the wadded up ball of cloth that I threw at his head. “If only your abilities within the bedroom were as gifted as your skills with a blade.” The tone and words in Viconia’s voice was nine tenths challenge and one tenth teasing and Alexi sighed, leaning back with an expression of fake sorrow on his face.

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  “Both are satisfying in their own ways. Although if I was to be as skilful with a blade as I am in bed then I’d have to get a bigger sword.” using his polishing cloth, he pointed in the direction of the far wall where the enormous shadow of Falid sat as still as the mud walls themselves. “I’d have to start wielding that hunk of raw iron that Falid has over there…”

  Falid sat quietly, legs crossed and hands resting on his knees with his armour and enormous greatsword resting neatly beside him. It truly was a monster of a weapon and while not much larger than other greatswords I had seen, its craftsmanship was immaculate. Without my vampiric strength it would have been far too cumbersome to use, the hilt alone was as long as Sunchild and it even came with a pair of wicked hooks set thirty centimetres above the crossguard that Falid could use to catch other blades and twist them out of their owner’s hands.

  With his eyes closed, the only motions that separated him from being a colossus of a statue was the steady rise and fall of his chest as he meditated. “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” He rumbled without opening his eyes for a moment.

  Even sitting the sheer size of the Black Knight was humbling and it was almost incomprehensible that such a big man could move as smoothly or gracefully as he did. What was even more unusual was his ability to sit as still as a stone for hours on end, doing nothing more than controlling his breathing, meditating and praying.

  “There are many women throughout Cyrodiil who value my… Swordwork.” Alexi said specifically to Viconia.

  “All flash and no staying power. Those painted damsels who are so easily swayed by gracefulness and a smile never know what it is like to have a true man under their power. Say what you like about Kaius however, but there is no denying a legionary’s stamina.”

  My expression must have been obvious despite my attempts to hide it and while Alexi was obviously enjoying my sudden embarrassment, Viconia’s amusement was hidden to all but myself. Her eyes though did move about the room to our other companions; Detane meticulously running a whetstone along the edge of his rapier to keep it sharp and well-oiled and Mazoga who was sitting closest to the fire pit with her boots off and plucking the fat bodied leeches from a leg. The golden eyes came to rest on Falid and there was a look that I knew all too well came across her face even if it was in jest.

  “Sometimes I miss the customs of the Underdark, like the breaking in of new pleasure slaves. The largest and strongest were the hardest to break, but they were the most rewarding...”

  Falid briefly cracked an eye in Viconia’s direction, before shutting it again and continuing on with his mediation and showing no sign of her words. Alexi however suddenly looked a little uneasy if still highly amused. “You know… You terrify me sometimes Viconia.”

  “How do you think I feel?” I replied. “In these past months I have fought vampires, werewolves, daedra and have jumped headfirst into Oblivion on two separate occasions and she scares me more than all those combined.”

  “Behind every great man, is a woman that scares the shit out of him.”

  White teeth flashed in her face and there was immense amusement in her expression and the three of us were left laughing much to Detane’s annoyance. In a partially concealed attempt to change the topic Alexi ended up grimacing and gesturing to Mazoga where she sat close to the fire removing the leeches and other parasites that had attached themselves to her.

  “You know there is an easier way to get rid of them, right?”

  We had all suffered attacks by the blood thirsty creatures as well as the varied collection of fish and insects that all seemed intent on feeding upon our flesh. Like the others I was also covered with dozens of mosquito bites wherever my flesh hadn’t been covered by my clothes although I had an increasing fear from the fact that I hadn’t needed to deal with leeches. No one else had noticed yet but I had not had to remove one at all, as the black worm like creatures had a habit of dying within minutes of latching onto me. Whether it was my vampirism or daedric blood I was uncertain but so far no one had seemed to notice such a discrepancy.

  “Eh. This is quicker.” She looked up at Alexi, down to her enormous green leg where the last surviving pair of leeches sat hungrily feeding away and shrugged. Pinching one of the leeches, she simply tugged it off her leg and ignored whatever pain she must have felt as well as the blood streaming down her leg from where it and the others had been feeding. The crushed remains were tossed into the fire, and she continued on with her hunt without even a flicker of emotion or pause.