“This is the bridge Helgi and Virkmund would play under in the warmer months. They liked to play with the crabs and try to catch a fish or two barehanded.”

The sun had long set over the horizon and we had followed our local guide all over the town looking for any sign of the child ghost, but we hadn’t gotten a single glimpse of her. The guide, Thonnir, had shown us every nook and cranny he knew of, even giving us some tales about the kids along the way.

“It doesn’t look like she is here either.”

Thonnir sighed. “No, it doesn’t. I don’t know where else to look though. My wife might have known more, children can never seem to hide things from their mothers, but…”

“But she disappeared to join the Stormcloaks.”

“I assume so. One day she just vanished without a trace.” The Nord sighed again. “This damn war, but then Laelette always did have the quicker temper between the two of us. I just hope she manages to come back to me and Virkmund. I don’t want my boy to grow up without a mother.”

None of us really had anything to say to that. Wars attracted many warriors seeking glory and fame, not everyone returned from them.

They also scarred many that never even stepped on a battlefield.

“Next spot?”

Thonnir shook his head. “This was the last spot I knew. We should head back. Maybe that mage found something.”

“Hold on, there is one more spot we should check before going back.” I interrupted.

The three nords present turned to face me.

“If Helgi hasn’t decided to haunt a place that has meaning to her, it’s likely because she is bound to an object instead.”

“An object?”

I nodded to Thonnir. “It’s rarer, but still possible. The more attached the person was to it in life, the larger the chance it has.”

“Most of the girl’s belongings were destroyed in the fire.” Erikur pointed out. “Where would we even begin looking for something that wasn’t in the house that she was attached to?”

I smiled grimly. “By looking for the thing we all leave behind when we depart from this realm.”

“Where is the girl’s body buried?”

-o-

“The two of them were buried just up ahead.” Thonnir said as we made our way back towards the burned ruins of the house. “Hroggar decided that was best. We thought he was going to make a gravesite, that was before he moved in with Alva though.”

“They were given full rites, though?” Erikur asked.

“Yes, Hroggar wasn’t that far gone, gods be praised.”

“Were you friends?”

“Our wives would talk. At least, before Laelette left they did.”

“You mentioned that.” I spoke up. ”That you thought she went to join the Stormcloaks. Was there anything strange about her before that? Any hints she was preparing to leave?”

“What’s it to you, elf?” Ah, there was the racism. Frankly I was surprised it hadn’t shown up earlier.

I was saved from needing to respond by Erikur placing a calming hand on the other man. “She means nothing by it. Thalin is new to Skyrim and very curious. And unfortunately, the war is the most interesting around. Well, at least until the dragons started showing up.”

“Hrm, guess that's the truth of it for outsiders.” Thonnir grumbled. “The strangest thing was she began to spend a lot of time with Alva. Yet just a week before, she despised her. In fact, the night she disappeared, she was supposed to meet Alva. Alva told me later that she never showed up. I never got to tell her goodbye.”

“You don’t think Alva might have lied? Or done something to her?” I asked.

“What?! No! Of course not. Alva would have never done something like that.” The rejection was immediate and heartfelt…and completely unnatural. Thonnir was obviously devastated by his wife leaving but wouldn’t even consider Alva, the woman his wife until recently hated, had anything to do with it? Even as a possibility?

Jordis and I shared a look. That was something to look into later.

As we moved closer to the location of the graves I noticed that something was bothering me. Focusing on that feeling I realized that there were no sounds from any smaller nocturnal creatures around us. In fact, now that I was paying attention, I could hear the faint scraping of metal over earth and rocks.

Someone else was out here.

I motioned everyone to stop and listen. It took a bit, but each of them were able to hear it too.

“Stay here and wait for our signal to come out.” I told Thonnir seriously. “It may just be a graverobber, but just in case it isn’t and we can’t handle whatever is up ahead, you need to run and inform the jarl that she needs the guards to come here.”

“Alright, I’ll wait here then.”

I nodded to Erikur and Jordis and the three of us began to creep forward. I was in front with my bow nocked and ready, Jordis was behind me with her Stalhrim sword already drawn, and Erikur, being the loudest one of us, brought up the tail.

There were no lights up ahead. The only thing I could see was a shadowed figure hunched over a mound of dirt and the dark shape of a coffin.

At the sight of someone desecrating a coffin, one of a child no less, I was prepared to kill them immediately. I had the arrowtip lined up on their back within a second and only a warning grip from Jordis stopped me.

“Capture first.” She whispered.

I merely nodded back.

The swordswoman turned and motioned to Erikur to approach from a ways off, leaving Jordis and I concealed.

“And what, by the gods, do you think–” He started, striding out into the open only to be cut off as the figure turned and hissed at him, revealing a female Nord with red eyes glowing in the night.

Vampire.

The hiss turned into a pained snarl as my arrow buried itself into her shoulder despite her attempt to dodge.

A second one tore into her knee half a second later.

The vampire must have been young to have been so easily crippled, but young and wounded did not mean harmless, and the two warriors made sure to treat the vampire with the caution it deserved as they slowly circled closer.

It snapped and cursed at us but in the end, it was completely unable to escape. Soon it was on the ground bleeding from multiple wounds and all but helpless to resist us from capturing it. I had just taken my eyes off the vampire to retrieve some rope when all of the sudden Thonnir burst out of the brush with a crazed look in his eyes.

“Laelette? Laelette! Unhand her you bastards!” He cried and threw himself at Erikur.

The Thane was caught completely by surprise at the unexpected assault from our guide and stumbled back until he tripped over the fallen vampire. In a last desperate move, the female creature lunged towards his neck. Erikur was able to ward her off, but the renewed flailings were a considerable danger.

“Jordis, handle the vampire, I’ve got Thonnir.” I cried as I tackled the interfering nord away from the other scuffle. Thonnir might have been larger than I was, but I was far more experienced and better trained. That didn’t stop the damned man from making it difficult. He was doing everything in his power to throw me off and rush to the creature that used to be his wife.

“Laelette! Please, someone stop them! Murderers!” He howled into the night before I punched him across the jaw.

“Look at her you gods-damned fool!” I barked. “Does that look like your wife!?”

I wrenched his head around so he could see the creature straining against Erikur and Jordis, fangs dripping with bloody saliva and eyes ablaze with hunger.

“Wha– no, that can’t be! She’s a vampire!”

“Yes! Now stop getting in our way or I’ll kill you right now!”

Thankfully for him Thonnir collapsed at the revelation and I wasted no jumping off him and sprinting to aid my companions.

Jordis saw me coming and quickly shifted her weight so I had an open target to kick the vampire in the ribs and finally get it off Erikur. Dazed from the impact, it wasn’t able to resist as Jordis shoved a length of rope between her teeth and gagged her while Erikur and I worked to restrain her limbs. It was rough, brutal, and quick despite feeling like it went on for several minutes but in the end we captured the vampire with minor injuries. Despite the interference of our guide.

“She can’t be a vampire. She just can’t.” Thonnir was muttering to himself. I felt bad for him, truly I did. But it was hard to muster any sympathy when he nearly got one of my companions injured after ignoring my orders.

“What were you thinking?! You could have gotten us all killed!” I spat at the idiot, magic dancing at my fingertips, only to be held back by Erikur.

“Peace, Thalin. Harming him won’t do anything. Let’s hear what he has to say.”

“I…I heard screaming. And I recognized the voice. It was my Laelette, but how…”

“She was turned by another vampire.” Erikur said gravely. “One that must still be close by.”

“Alva saw her last.” Jordis mentioned, bringing up the fact Laelette was going to see the woman before disappearing.

“You think Alva...but that means... Ye gods! You think Alva is a vampire?”

“We can’t ignore the possibility.” Erikur stated.

“No! You're wrong. You must be wrong. Laelette may have met her fate out in the marsh. I refuse to believe Alva had anything to do with this. There is no way you can prove it to the Jarl." Thonnir objected, once again seemingly unable to suspect the woman. There was definitely some sort of mental effect going on.

“We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?” I said, ignoring that for now. “I’ll do a quick search for the spirit then we can get this one back to the jarl. She can decide what happens to her.”

I left my companions with the prisoner and our guide because I absolutely did not trust him. The last thing we needed was the vampire escaping out of some misplaced sense of duty.

I approached the site where Laelette had been digging. Sure enough it was Helgi’s.

“You found me!” the child spirit said cheerfully when I got close enough. “Laelette was trying to find me too, but I’m glad you found me first.

“Laelette was told to burn mommy and me, but she didn’t want to.

“Laelette thought she could take me and keep me, but she can’t. I’m all burned up.

“I’m tired. I’m going to sleep for a while now.”

“Okay, little one.” I said softly, making sure to keep the black rage I felt out of my voice. “Sleep. We’ll make sure the one behind this pays for what they’ve done.”

I didn’t get a reply.

-o-

We made sure to impress upon Thonnir how important it was that no one learned what happened at the gravesite. Thankfully, he had calmed down some and was able to understand how important it was that the master vampire behind what happened to his wife didn’t learn they had been discovered. So we were able to make it back to the Jarl’s mansion with no one the wiser and Laelette was safely stored in the prisons under the court mage’s watch.

Of course since this all occurred in the middle of the night, we all retired for a few hours of rest until the Jarl and the rest of her court was awake and ready to discuss next steps.

“And this is confirmed? Laelette is a vampire?” Idgrod asked when we were able to meet.

“It is. I’ve checked it myself.” Falion replied to his Jarl. “Though it might not be too late for her. The condition might be reversible. I request you permit me to attempt to cure her.”

I shook my head at that. Sure, vampirism could be cured if acted on quickly enough, but Laelette had gone far beyond that point. Her soul was marked by Molag Bal. There was no hope for her, but I doubted they wanted to admit that.

The old Jarl thought it over for a while before eventually nodding.

“Very well, you may try. But if you fail it will fall to you to end her mortal suffering.”

Falion nodded. “I understand.”

“And now for you, Thane Erikur.” Idgrod turned to us. “You have done what I asked of you and discovered the culprit behind the fire. For that I will be glad to reward you along with my thanks.”

“Jarl Idgrod, with respect this task isn’t done.” Erikur protested. “We suspect there is another vampire in the city. We cannot simply stop now.”

Idgrod held up a hand. “You have done as I asked, and you are correct this is not over. I heard what you explained to my steward about Alva being a potential vampire. I have sent a few of my guards to bring her here. If this is the truth, we will find out when they return.

Dragging a vampire through town in the middle of the day? I felt bad for the guards. That was going to end in bloodshed.

Sure enough, barely an hour after we were informed the guards were going to confront Alva, an injured man stumbled through the door even as another guard was trying to bandage the several deep scratches on his arms.

“It was true, my jarl. Alva was a vampire. We investigated the house and found her in a coffin in the basement. Both Hroggar and her resisted and were killed in the confrontation. We found this among the belongings.” The guard handed over a small leather bound book. A journal or diary by my guess.

“I see.” Idgrod said as she flipped through the pages. “This is very disturbing. A coven of vampires hiding in the marsh.” She turned to our group. “As I said, you have completed what I asked of you, but knowing what we are about to face, will you still aid us?”

“Of course we will.” Erikur declared with zero hesitation alongside Jordis’s nod. I wasn’t expecting anything less of my companions.

“Then we will gather a group to eradicate this nest. Take what time you can and rest. I will send a messenger when they are ready to depart.”

Diving into another den of vampires. At this point it was starting to become a habit. Then again there were definitely less rewarding habits out there than seeing that scum removed from Mundus.