"I've never heard of a draugr being able to do that." Lydia exclaimed, her axe still in hand and ready, especially as Kaius cautiously stepped forward to the woman.
"I think we've established that she's not a draugr."
"Then, what is she?"
There was almost no sign that the woman was aware of her surroundings, lolling and twitching about as Kaius kneeled next to her body, brushing the luxurious black hair out of her face and studying her intently. If it wasn’t for the fact that she had only minutes before, been nothing more than a desiccated and ancient husk of a corpse, the only thing that would’ve been unusual was that she was entirely naked. Cupping her face in a hand and seeing the piercing blue-green eyes focus in on his face, Kaius ignored her, using his thumb to push her lips apart to reveal a pair of lengthened, pointed fangs in the place of her canine teeth.
“She’s a vampire.”
“Well, that makes things easier. Lydia, would you like the honours?”
For a moment, Lydia’s annoyance at Sofia’s mocking tone, and the way the smaller woman clicked her fingers and gestured to the vampiress, overpowered the huskarl’s desire to step forward and slay the creature. While they had journeyed together for almost two months, there certainly wasn’t any true friendship between them. Although, this just made Sofia enjoy baiting the humourless woman all the more.
“No.” From his position looking at the nude vampire, Kaius shook his head and gestured for Sofia and Lydia to stay where they were. “At least, not yet.”
“Not yet? Why?”
"I have never seen or heard of any magicka like this before, so it might be useful to find out more before we kill her." Rising to his feet, he raised an eyebrow in Sofia's direction and inclined his head to the sarcophagus. "At least we know what the other vampires were looking for, but I'm now really interested in the why."
Coughing for a moment at his feet, the vampiress paused, and with a groan, pushed herself up into a kneeling position, looking around at the trio as they stood there, hands on weapons and watching her every move.
“Vem... vem ?r du?” For a moment she coughed, struggling to force the words out of her chest and throat almost out of sheer willpower. “Var ?r jag?”
Raising an eyebrow, Kaius turned slightly, looking between Sofia and Lydia and gesturing to the still kneeling vampiress.
“Well? Any ideas?”
"I... I don't know.” Sofia couldn’t help but shrug “It's Nordic… I think?"
"It is not the tongue of Whiterun Hold" Axe still in hand, Lydia was practically hidden under her armour but her unease was obvious. "And I don’t think it's from any of the old Holds either. If I had to guess I would say that it was a dialect of the north western holds. Maybe Haafingar, or even the Reach, but I’ve never heard it before."
The look of interest on the restored woman’s face was unmistakable, as were the glows that infused themselves into her eyes at the mention of Solitude’s hold, but the sudden barrage of words were not. After the failed attempts to communicate she groaned, this time from annoyance rather than residual pain and went to rise, only for Kaius to put his gloved hand on her shoulder, in a gentle, but firm warning.
Staring each other down, with glowing pools of fire in her eyes, the Vampiress almost growled, but clearly thought better of it. Especially how she was entirely nude, and practically surrounded by a trio of heavily armoured, armed and blood soaked killers.
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“"Wo uth hi?" The words were in a different language to the first, but the looks of confusion and lack of understanding of the trio’s expressions was enough to make her scowl in annoyance. “Quis es?”
“Ah. Nomen mihi est Kaius. Intellegisne verba mea?
“Sic.” This time it was the vampiress who frowned in confusion, staring Kaius in the eye as they spoke Ancient Cyrodiilic. “Lingua meridianarum. Intellego te.”
“Lingua Coloviae loqui potesne?”
“Yes…” While she had been confused before, it only increased while the vampiress stared at Kaius but repeatedly glancing between the two women keeping a safe distance from her. “I can speak Colovian. Mostly. A bit of Nibenese also. Just who are you people?”
Her pronunciation was thick and rough, guttural in ways that made Lydia’s Nordic accent appear almost perfect, but it was understandable at least.
"Some adventurers running a little errand." Sarcasm was practically dripping off his every word, and Kaius’s aggression was not lost to the being at his feet. “Were you expecting someone different?”
"I was expecting someone from my br?d; my family.” In the shadows her eyes were glowing brightly, a golden-red glow of burning coals, staring at Kaius without any traces of fear or uncertainty. “I don't recognise you. Are you one of my F?der’s little acolytes?"
"A group called the Dawnguard sent us here." Sofia replied, trying not to shiver as the burning gaze of the vampiress turned to look upon her almost for the first time. The intensity of that stare reminded her all too much of the terrible darkness lurking within Kaius, and the other vampires they had fought in the previous months. She still had nightmares about Laelette pinning her to the ground and staring with thirsting eyes as she snapped and salivated for blood, but there was something different with this one. It was almost as though the glow was brighter. Stronger. More intense. Especially compared to the likes of Morthal’s coven.
"That is not a name I know. And it does not sound like a name a group of vampyr would choose."
"Vampires?" Eyes narrowing within the spectacle helm’s eye slits, Lydia slowly turned, facing Kaius front on with a creak of metal. Despite being a single word, it rumbled forth from her chest as a growl more dangerous than any sabrecat or vampire.
"You think I cannot tell my own kind?” The burning gaze turned to the heavily armoured huskarl while a hand gestured to Kaius. “I smelled him almost before my ?gon were open."
There could be no doubt to her words or their meaning, and Lydia's gaze hardened even further in a way that left the air charged with tension. Nobody had a chance to move, Sofia had even started to say something and move as a distraction, but without hesitation Lydia took three powerful steps forward, smashing Kaius off his feet with a single, powerful punch.
"You... You fucking bastard!" She roared, her fist still clenched tightly around the haft of her axe despite the way she had hit him. She continued with another collection of words that left her mouth were directed with all the full force of a hurled stone from a trebuchet but were pure Nordic.
"Lydia... I..."
"Don't you, 'Lydia' me!" Her own eyes were burning with a terrible anger that somehow made the vampiress's own seem inconsequential. "I knew there was something about you. I knew it from the damned beginning. Shor’s Bones! You've been keeping this from me the whole damn time!"
Attempting to open his mouth in reply, Lydia instead spat another stream of Nordic curses that seemed to convey their meaning, intent, and anatomically horrendous nature with sheer tone alone. Her shield crashed to the floor at his feet, rattling and rolling to a stop, but she was already gone, stomping up the stairs, and swearing every step of the way.
"Sofia?" Taking a moment to roll his jaw from the hit that was already making his face swell, Kaius winced as there was a metallic crack, followed immediately by the crash of something made of stone turning into rubble. "Can... Can you go make sure she is alright?"
Normally decisions like this would be easy for Sofia, especially if she had been drinking as she would simply go with whatever the first thought popped into her head. Instead she hesitated, looking between Kaius and the vampiress who had scrabbled out of the way of Lydia’s march, and up into the shadows in the direction the huskarl had gone. Stay with a pair of vampires, or go and calm down an extremely pissed off Nordic shield-maiden. Neither were prospects that boded well for her health, but another sound of shattering stone echoed through the cavern, and she decided that following the sounds of destruction was probably a safer option. So, she nodded once to Kaius, spared a moment to glare at the vampiress, before turning and following in Lydia’s footsteps.
The Dragonblood King) Aldmeris/High Elf is Greek.
"Vem... vem ?r du?" - Who are you?
"Var ?r jag?" - Where am I?
"Wo uth hi?" - Who are you (Dovahzul... hehehe)
"Quis es?" - Who are you?
“Ah. Nomen mihi est Kaius. Intellegisne verba mea?" - Ah, my name is Kaius. Can you understand my words?
“Sic. Lingua meridianarum. Intellego te.” - Yes. The language of the Southlands. I understand you.
“Lingua Coloviae loqui potesne?” - Can you speak the language of Colovia?
I have found that writing other languages into novelisations and stories is a bit tricky. There is a fine line between including them to flesh out the theme, and making it too damned hard for the reader to follow what's going on. This is one of my attempts at finding the balance, so I would love to know what everyone thinks! (Especially as I prep future chapters and the third series where dovahzul and Aldmeris start playing bigger parts...)