"It just doesn't make sense..." Titus grumbled as he paced back and forth and then back and forth again. Marcus sat on a stone chair in the main room of Understone Keep, listening attentively to Titus as he went on his diatribe. Serana seemed to switch off every now and again, sometimes focusing on the inanimate automatons around the room, or just generally drifting off into thought. "Nobody just vanishes like this," he continued. "Well not unless you have some strange magic, voo-doo shamans or something like that."

"Titus, please," Marcus said, "enough of this pointless ranting. We have something we're meant to be doing."

"One minute," Titus exclaimed, "I'm thinking." He paused for a few more seconds. "Nope, nothing. All we have are these knives." Titus took one of them off his belt, and began inspecting it closely. It was made from ebony, no doubt about that. The entire blade seemed to flow in a curve shape from hilt to tip. There was a line of engravings running along the blade's sharp edge, but each symbol was so miniscule not even a master librarian could decipher it.

"Who knows?" Serana straightened her back and perked up. "These 'people' might strike again. Maybe leaving behind more evidence."

Titus sighend, "We can't just let every Jarl be abducted for more evidence. This needs solving now."

Marcus stood up from his stone stool. "Excuse me, I have other things to attend to now. I guess I've got to run Markarth in the Jarl's absense." Marcus hastily turned around and strode down the stone stairs, down the corridor, and out of the grand dwarven doors at the entrance to the keep.

"I have a strange little feeling about him," Serana remarked. "There's just something... about him."

"What are you on about?" Titus went and sat on the stone bench, sitting side-by-side with Serana. "He's only trying to help."

"I know," Serana replied, "but there's something wierd going on here. Sort of like when I first met you."

"I... understand the feeling... sort of." Titus stood up, and began precisely lining up the knife in his hand straight in front of his face, with his arm fully extended. He flung the knife at a wooden plate, piercing it perfectly. "There has to be a place, somewhere, where we can find out where these weapons came from."

"Castle Volkihar."

Titus turned around, shocked by his wife's suggestion. He approached her slowly, and kneeled down in front of her. She was frowning, not in anger of disappointment, but in sorrow. Bitter memories had just resurfaced in Serana's mind, and Titus had sensed it instantly. "I'll go alone if going back will be too painful for you."

"No, no," Serana said gloomily. "It's just the first time I'll have been there as a human in, gods I've lost count. I sent past memories to the back of my mind when I've been with you, enjoying myself for the first time in millennia." She took in a deep breath. "I know I can do it."

"Okay then," Titus answered. He slowly pulled her into a deep kiss. They broke apart. "We'll go together."

The crunch of bone echoed through the castle undercroft as Titus's boot crushed the skeletal remains underneath them. Serana moved much more elegantly, barely making a noise as she glided down the corridors of the castle. Their last journey through this part of the castle, back when they were searching for Serana's mother, was a lot different. Enemies waited for them at every turn, vampires, skeletons, death hounds and gargoyles were ready to put and end to their quest. But now, there was nothing. The silence was arguably more terrifying than the swarms of undead. However, the Dragonborn and former Daughter of Coldharbour had faced worse. Sometimes, silence was a respite from the constant travelling and killing.

They eventually reached the door leading to Valerica's laboratory. It was tightly locked, as if it was barricaded by a herd of mammoths.

"I'll let you knock," Titus said. "She is your mother after all."

"Yeah," Serana joked, "but she's also your mother in-l-"

"WHO'S THERE!?" Serana was cut off by her mother's hiss.

"Mother?" Serana called. "It's me, well, us."

The sound of footsteps grew as Valerica approached the door. She unbolted the door, which in itself seemed to take at least a minute. Titus was reminded of the time he met Esbern in the Ratway, but instead of a paranoid old man on the other side of the door, it was a vampire.

The door opened, and Valerica stood there, her orange eyes splitting the darkness.

"Serana, how good it is to see you," Valerica greeted. Mother and daughter shared a loving hug, leaving Titus feeling slightly awkward. Deep down, it brought happiness to Titus's heart that Serana had managed to reconcile with her mother; it meant she had more family other than just him, and seeing her happy was all he wanted.

Titus was given a welcome after, albeit just a lot shorter.

"I wasn't expecting you," Valerica informed, "hell I wasn't expecting anyone. I never expect anyone." Valerica let Titus and Serana enter. She had deactivated the portal to the soul cairn, leaving the room much duller. Apart from that, not much seemed changed, maybe the odd ingredient in another place. "What is it you want?"

"We were wondering whether you could identify this," Serana said. Titus pulled out one of the knives and handed it to Valerica. She examined it meticulously, seemingly noting its every feature.

"Wait, I know... " Valerica trailed off, and rushed to a bookshelf. She searched for a book, and once she found it, she yanked it out. Its cover was made of leather, with engravings covering it. The book itself was huge; hundreds of pages contained some sort of information.

Valerica speedily thumbed through the pages, adamant on finding the right page.

She stopped. She had found it. She lifted the dagger up, and gave it one final inspection. "Well," she explained, "it seems you have yourself a Daedric cult."

Two figures stood atop a rock overlooking the town of Morthal. The night shrouded them, making them invisible to the preying eyes of the guards. Both of them were hooded. One wore a long leather cloak covering his entire body, the other in light leather armour, adorned with pouches and vials.

"You know what to do," said the figure in the cloak.

"Yes champion," replied the other figure. "For our lord's glory."

Personal Comments:

Well, we have daedra now. Fun. I've got a couple of things to say. The first is about Vendetta. If you haven't read it yet, please go read and review it. Dat thing need some damn views/reviews. The second thing is about the other non-TES story *you can ignore this next bit if you've no interest in Warhammer 40k, but I'd LIKE you to read it. I've changed the plot again. I've got a definite name: 'Elves and Angels'. The plot revolves around two main characters: Captain Francesi Castigon of the Blood Angels (he makes an almighty return from my first fic that I deleted to focus on this: Knights of Baal) and Farseer Karien of Craftworld Varz-Tein (homebrew craftworld) as they both arrive on the same planet but for different reasons. However, they must forge an uneasy alliance as an alien menace descends upon the planet and dark forces try to destroy it from within.

Well now both story things are out of the way, some of you may have noticed the change in the fic's front cover. It was kindly done by Skycrawlers123, so big, huge, massive MAHUSSIVE thanks to her for doing that. Staying on the topic of shout-outs, I'm going to start doing a shout out every 3-5 chapters for people who have faved of followed this story. The author I'll be shouting out will always have a high-quality of writing, and hopefully you, the fez army, will go and read their stories and make them even more popular.

My first shout-out goes to an author who never disappoints, always posts great chapters and is generally a fezeriffic person. And that author is: MissFabulous123. Seriously, if you haven't already, go and read her work. *Puts on top-hat and monocle* It's bloody brilliant.

So, please review and I'll see ya soon ;)