4E 202, Soul Cairn
Gerron Ironbreaker
What met them on the other side of the portal was not merely desolation, but a world on the brink of utter collapse.
The ground beneath Gerron's boots was cracked and ashen, as though the land itself had been leeched dry over countless eras. Dead trees clawed at the sky with splintered branches, their bark petrified into something closer to bone than wood. Jagged stone structures jutted from the earth at unnatural angles, remnants of towers and mausoleums that had never known warmth or life.
Yet it was not merely the desolate landscape that caused the look of collapse, but something else.
The violet expanse of the skit was choked to the brim with storm clouds as dozens of dragons filled the air.
Purple lightning forked violently from the heavens, striking indiscriminately, while burning meteors screamed downwards like falling stars, shattering the ground wherever they landed.
War raged across the plains below.
Clusters of skeletal warriors surged through the fields, their bones darkened almost to obsidian, their eye sockets burning with white flame, unlike the blues Gerron normally saw on draugr and dragon priests.
They fought not as mindless undead, but with grim coordination, shields raised and bows firing in disciplined volleys.
Against them were dragons.
A thunderous crack split the air as a bolt of violet lightning struck a dragon mid-flight. The creature's roar cut short as its body detonated into fragments of scale and flesh, raining ruin across the battlefield.
"Down!" Gerron barked.
He grabbed Serana and pulled her behind the shattered remains of a stone structure just as another dragon whose wings were torn crashed into the earth barely a dozen paces away. The impact shook the ground, sending fractures racing outward.
Before the dragon could even rise, the black skeletons swarmed it.
Spears pierced between scales. Enchanted blades hacked at wings and neck. The dragon roared once more before the sound was drowned beneath the tearing of flesh and bone.
The dozen Automaton Guardians formed a protective circle around them as Serana peered out from cover, her expression tight. "Those are Bonemen," she said. "I've read about them, servants of the Ideal Masters. They're not supposed to fight like this, not on this scale."
Gerron followed her gaze skyward.
A silver-scaled dragon wheeled overhead, exhaling a cone of frost that swept across a formation of Bonemen, freezing them solid before shattering them into glittering shards. More immediately took their place, marching forward without hesitation.
"And that's…" Gerron furrowed his brows as he saw a rather distinct red-scaled dragon. "Odahviing. Which means Alduin is making a move on the Soul Cairn."
The red-scaled dragon was unmistakable, locked in aerial combat with another wyrm whose very existence seemed wrong. Its scales were cracked and peeling, flesh hanging loosely from bone. Blackened wings flapped with labored effort, ichor dripping constantly to the ground below. Clouds of flies circled its body, and yellowed drool streamed from its jaws as it roared.
"Is that an undead dragon?" Serana asked, disbelief clear in her voice.
"Didn't you and Kiera fight one of them back when you took down Potema?" Gerron questioned.
Serana shook her head. "That was a skeletal dragon reanimated through necromancy. This is…something else."
Odahviing slammed into the creature, the force of the collision sending shockwaves through the sky. Their shouts clashed with one another, rippling outwards and tearing chunks of stone from the ruins below.
"That must be one hell of a dragon if it can contend with a Kruziik of all things." Gerron noted.
Then Serana grabbed Gerron's arm.
"Gerron," she said sharply. "Look."
There was no sun in the sky. Instead, a single pale moon hung low and a vast circular void, like a wound in reality itself.
At its center hovered a dragon so immense it dwarfed all others.
Black scales devoured the light around him. Wings stretched wide enough to blot out entire sections of the sky.
"Alduin," Gerron breathed.
The World-Eater opened his maw, and the realm shuddered.
"Ideal Masters!" Alduin's voice thundered, echoing across the Soul Cairn itself. "Today is the day you fall!"
Gerron felt it then, a pull from within.
Souls rose from the ground in torrents, screaming specters ripped from their bindings as Alduin devoured them. Streams of pale essence flowed into his jaws like rivers feeding a sea.
Serana's breath hitched. "He's… swallowing the souls of the Soul Cairn."
Gerron's jaw tightened. If Alduin consumed even a fraction of what was trapped here…
"We have to move," Gerron said firmly. "We'll figure out a way to stop this after we find Valerica. She might know more about the Cairn than we do."
He unclipped Bronze from his belt and released the mechanical owl into the air. Its wings unfolded as it surged upward.
Serana's eyes glowed faintly, suffused with brilliant white as Meridia's sight flared within her. She stared at the devastation above—and then gasped, clutching her head.
Gerron held her shoulder, stabilizing her. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she hissed, rubbing her temples. "But… that was a mistake. Using Meridia's vision here, this place is nothing but undead. The Lady's hatred is… overwhelming."
"We'll deal with that later," Gerron said, activating the interface on his gauntlet.
Bronze's vision flooded his display. The owl zoomed across the desolate expanse, weaving between falling debris and arcs of lightning before fixing on a distant structure.
A massive, gothic castle rising from the wasteland. Within it pulsed a familiar resonance.
"There," Gerron said. "That's her."
Serana swallowed, then nodded. "Let's go."
They moved fast.
Keeping low, they traversed shattered causeways and broken ruins, avoiding open fields where Bonemen and dragons clashed. At one point, a patrol of Mistmen drifted too close, though the Guardians proved their worth by killing most of them before the Mistmen could blink.
The air grew colder the farther they went. Above them, Alduin's shadow passed again, and the pull on Gerron's false soul-aura intensified, but held.
Step by step, they pressed deeper into the Soul Cairn.
…
4E 202, Soul Cairn
Serana Volkihar
They followed the mechanical owl deeper into the Soul Cairn as Bronze flew up above, high enough to be over most of the stone buildings but low enough to not interfere with the many dragons still prowling through the sky.
It certainly wasn't easy.
Meteors and purple lightning continued to fall from the sky at a constant pace. Each one sending tremors through the ground they walked on.
Serana kept one eye on the heavens at all times, keenly aware of any a stray Thu'um or lightning strike that would land on their location.
More than once, their path was blocked by a group of boneman and wrathmen, the types of undead that are native to the Soul Cairn. She remembered reading about them, the strange unique undead who served the beings simply known as the Ideal Masters.
And each time, the Automaton Guardians proved their worth.
Their newly upgraded features meant that the undead were no threat to their strength. Massive arms aided with powerful pistons meant every punch held the weight of a giant. Their arcane cores boosted their capabilities, allowing them to move faster than the regular man.
The fact that they were constructs meant they were utterly untouched by the unnatural pull Alduin exerted on the trapped souls of the realm. Serana noticed, with no small amount of unease, that she herself felt none of that pull either.
Perhaps it was due to being both a Daughter of Coldharbour and the Chosen of Meridia. Perhaps it wasn't. Whatever the case was, her immunity to this should prove pivotal in the conflicts to come.
The Soul Cairn itself was disorienting beyond reason.
Dark sands stretched endlessly in every direction. Black stone structures erupted from the ground without pattern—spires, broken towers, mausoleums, and strange altar-like formations with depictions and drawings that she did not recognize.
She knew enough to recognize their purpose. A shrine meant for reverence. But to worship which god, Serana had no idea.
Floating above the landscape were massive, crystalline formations. Purple crystals, immense and jagged, unmistakably similar to soul gems on a much much bigger scale.
Serana stepped toward one instinctively, and Gerron's hand clamped firmly around her shoulder.
Gerron held her by the shoulder, holding her back the moment they wanted to pass underneath one of those crystals.
"Wait."
She froze as she felt the tension in his grip. When she turned, his eyes had taken on that distant, analytical sheen again, as though he were no longer merely seeing the world, but dismantling it piece by piece in his mind.
Serana had asked about it once, and Gerron had answered simply. It was something he called the Artificier's Insight, a unique vision given to him by the Forge Eternal.
Serana had a similar ability, though certainly less powerful. One of the things she gained as the new Champion of Meridia was the ability to gaze at the natural energies of the world. Though as she had seen earlier, using it in a realm that was filled to the brink with necromantic energies was detrimental as it nearly blinded her.
"The crystals," Gerron said after a moment. "They're siphons. They'll drain the vitality of any living being that gets too close. We should circle around."
Serana frowned. "But neither of you or I should register as living beings."
"Yeah." Gerron answered, releasing her and gesturing for them to circle wide, "but I'm already bending the rules just by being here. I don't feel like poking the laws of Oblivion harder than necessary."
She exhaled softly. "Fair enough."
They altered their course, skirting the crystals at a safe distance. Even from afar, Serana could hear the almost imperceptible hum that each crystal gave out.
It was then that she saw it.
A castle rose in the distance, wrought entirely of the same black stone that plagued the Cairn. Its silhouette was jagged and imposing, its towers piercing the roiling sky like accusing fingers.
Surrounding it was a dome of shimmering violet energy, thick yet semi-transparent, sealing the structure away from the rest of the realm.
Gerron glanced down at his gauntlet as Bronze's vision locked onto the structure.
"That's it," he said. "The resonance matches. She's inside."
Serana's chest tightened painfully.
Mother.
How long had it been since she last heard Valerica's voice? Felt her presence without the cold barrier of centuries between them? The memories rose unbidden. Her mother's careful words, her distant affection, the impossible choice she had been forced to make.
Valerica had not been perfect. But she had never been cruel.
Harkon had forced her hand. Forced them all.
As they drew closer, Serana's gaze fixed on the barrier. "What's with that barrier?" she asked quietly, "Is it supposed to keep someone in or keep people out?"
Gerron was silent for a second as he gazed at the barrier before answering. "The former. Looks like part of the reason she stayed here for centuries was because she couldn't leave."
So she was being kept here against her will. Something inside Serana loosened at that. It meant that Valerica didn't abandon her like Serana always thought she did.
They approached the barrier, and there, standing just beyond it, was a familiar silhouette.
"Mother?" Serana's voice broke before she could stop herself. She ran forward, heedless of everything else. "Mother!"
The woman turned sharply, crimson eyes widening.
"By the Maker…" Valerica breathed. "Serana? It can't be—"
"It's me!" Serana pressed closer to the barrier, hands splayed against the shimmering surface. "I found you. We found you."
"What are you doing here? Your father is—" She shook her head as she spoke in an urgent tone. No, never mind that! Serana, you have to leave! This place is not safe! However you came here, go back! Now!"
"It's fine," Serana said, shaking her head, tears threatening at the corners of her eyes. "Father is dead. He won't bother us again. Gerron helped me end it."
"Harkon is dead?" Valerica's gaze shifted, studying Gerron with sharp, assessing eyes, and then the ring of Automaton Guardians.
"This man," Valerica said slowly, "helped you kill a near pure-blooded vampire?"
"He did," Serana said firmly.
"I'm really sorry to cut this conversation short, but we really don't have much time." Gerron interjected, already drawing the Spellbreaker Sword. "We need you out of here. Now."
He approached the barrier as Valerica warned. "I don't know what you're planning, young man. But this barrier was constructed by servants of the Ideal Masters called the Keepers. They are beings of great power capable in creating—"
She fell silent the moment Gerron stabbed the sword straight through the barrier. The violet dome rippled violently as he tore open a wound on the barrier, the dome shattering like glass as it dissipated into nothingness.
Valerica blinked once. "I… withdraw my objections."
"You'll have time for reunions later," Gerron stated. "Right now, we have to stop Alduin from devouring the souls of the Cairn.
Valerica's expression hardened. "So it truly is him. I suspected as much when I first saw him, but seeing the World Eater in the flesh is another matter entirely."
Serana wasted no time. "Mother, you know this realm better than either of us. Do you have any ideas of how we can stop him?"
"Some." Valerica paused, eyes distant. "Right now, Durnehviir is still under the service of the Ideal Masters and fighting against the dragons, which will buy us some time."
"Did you say Durnehviir?" Gerron asked, eyes widening. "As in the Kruziik of the Soul, Durnehviir?"
Valerica nodded. "Yes. You know of him?"
Serana and Gerron shared a grimace as she stated, "That raises the possibility that Alduin's real goal is to gain another Kruziik ally. Which again, is bad news."
"The purple lightning that is continuously striking Alduin means that the Ideal Masters are still fighting, though I'm not sure how long that would last since they barely wounded the black beast." Valerica explained. "To stop him, there are two paths we can take."
"What are they?" Gerron said.
"Do you see those?" She pointed to the numerous luminescent cracks in the grounds across the cairns. A tendril of raw power extended from those cracks to the center of the black void in the sky where Alduin was. "Those are Soul Fissures, the source of the many souls currently trapped within the Cairn. Sealing those fissures should theoritically slow down Alduin's feast."
"Should be easy enough to do." Serana said, turning to those cracks. "What about the second?"
"There is a being here, a creature of immense power." Valerica said carefully. "Durnehviir called it the Reaper, he revealed to me the existence of such a being in one of our many conversations. The process of summoning him requires a process that has been lost through time, but if we succeed, it may turn the tide—if only briefly."
While that information would be detrimental to others, it was simple to the bearer of the Forge Eternal.
"Shouldn't be a problem for me." Gerron's eyes gleamed. "I'll figure out a way to summon this Reaper and aim him at the big guy. Hopefully, he'll kill off a few dragons in the process."
"I'll handle the fissures." Serana said immediately.
Valerica hesitated. "Daughter—"
"I know," Serana said gently. "But you once made impossible choices to save the world. This is mine.. Besides–"
She looked back at Gerron, those blue eyes gazing back at her with complete and utter trust. "I have my own people to protect now."
Valerica's eyes widened before they closed with a resigned sigh. Pride and fear warring in her expression. "I see. Very well then, let me help you."
Serana looked at Gerron. "Take the Guardians with you. With me and my mother together, we should be safe enough with the power of two pure-blooded vampires."
Gerron nodded. "Got it. Good luck to both of you."
Serana watched as Gerron turned around and ran to the location that Valerica had pointed out, the Reaper's supposed lair. The man ran at inhuman speeds, the Guardians following him a few paces back.
Serana turned toward the glowing fractures in the land, power already stirring within her veins as she and her mother moved together to seal the Soul Fissures.
…
AN: Sorry for how late this chapter came out. I've been feeling really sick the past week and couldn't get out of bed without a sharp headache. That, and my throat is so sore that I could barely speak to anyone.
Anyways, this chapter was real fun to make. The Soul Cairn is such an interesting location within the larger world of the Elder Scrolls series.
I remember playing through the Dawnguard quest for the first time and having my mind blown at all the lore explored within it.
Alduin is called the World Eater for a reason, and that's because he actually eats worlds. Lore Alduin was such a beast and I was hoping to portray that a bit
Now, it's a race against time. Gerron and Serana have successfully rescued Valerica, only to stumble in the Black Dragon's insane plot in saving an enslaved kin.
More chapters are available on my Pat_reon. Chapter 106 should be available by the time this chapter is posted. Just look up my name, TeemVizzle, and you'll find me.
Cheers!