"My thane, I believe the entrance to the ruined tomb is over here," Lydia said.

Keolah caught another butterfly and said, "Alright, just a moment. Dear me, there's a lot of butterflies here!"

"I'll keep an eye out in case there are more of those bandits we killed when we arrived."

Several butterflies and a few deathbells later, Keolah was finally read to descend into the ruins of Ustengrav. At least, she assumed it was Ustengrav, and Lydia assured her that it was probably the right place. They'd only gotten a little lost trudging through the swamp to get here, but the small camp of bandits outside the entrance made it pretty clear there was at least something here.

"A lot of dead bandits," Keolah murmured, stepping over corpses and casting a light spell on the way in. She spotted movement further down in the cave and shot off some fire bolts. "And a couple live ones."

"Do you typically open fire before determining whether or not someone is hostile, my thane?" Lydia asked.

"Would you like to give them a chance to shoot at us first?" Keolah said, walking over to where their corpses lay. "Besides, they're wearing black robes. That means they're mages. Bad mages."

"You couldn't tell that from over there," Lydia pointed out.

"All things considered, I'm generally going to assume people I run into who aren't in a town or just strolling down the road, are hostile," Keolah said. "Because the vast majority of the time, they seem to be."

"As you say, my thane."

Keolah peered about the cavern. There was a small camp where some of the bandits had set up, but after collecting their valuables, she didn't see any other way out of the cave. "Huh, I expected there to be more to this place."

"There's a tunnel leading off to the side here, my thane."

"Oh, right," Keolah said, and went over to the passageway Lydia indicated. "What do you want to bet there will be draugr down here?"

"I would imagine that's likely, my thane."

Unsurprisingly, there were indeed a number of draugr infesting the tomb. They fought their way down through the ruins, Keolah incinerinating many of them and Lydia shooting the remainder with her bow.

Keolah stepped on a pressure plate, and jets of fire burst from the floor beneath her feet. "Gah!" she cried, tumbling out of the way and trying to bat the fire out, then remembering she could cast ice spells and cast one on herself. "Oh great, now I'm just half frozen." She cast a fire spell to warm herself up, and almost set herself on fire again.

"Are you alright, my thane?" Lydia asked.

"Now I know why you guys get so annoyed when I accidentally hit you with my spells," Keolah muttered, casting a healing spell on herself. "That smarts."

"I would assume so, given how that many of the creatures you hit with your spells die immediately," Lydia said.

A bit further on, they came to a large cavern, possibly the same one but Keolah was already thoroughly lost. The place was crisscrossed by walkways arching through the air, making her very nervous.

"Best be careful here," Keolah said. "It's a long way down." She crept out down the walkway, practically clinging to the stone as she went in paranoia. "Say, that looks like a Word Wall over there!"

"How can you tell?" Lydia said dubiously. "Can you even see that far?"

"Um... it's the right general shape? Let's try to get over there for a closer look!"

After combusting a few skeletons on the way down, Keolah scrambled from ledge to ledge, suddenly no longer afraid of heights. After searching around the lower level, she came upon the semi-circular stone, and it was indeed a Word Wall. One runed word glowed in blue and wormed itself into her mind and soul.

"Huh," Keolah said. "This word means 'Fade', apparently. I have no idea what that's even supposed to do, though."

"Perhaps it makes you invisible?" Lydia suggested.

"Dunno," Keolah shrugged. She hopped into the pool by the Word Wall and strode over toward the waterfall.

"What are you doing, my thane?"

"Checking behind the waterfall," Keolah replied. "There's always goodies behind the waterfall."

"I don't think-"

"Aha!" Keolah called, emerging soaked on the other side of the wall of water. "There's a chest back here!"

Keolah collected up the treasure, passed back through the waterfall and handed it off to Lydia, then tried to dry herself off with a fire spell, to marginal success.

"I haven't seen any sign of what the Greybeards sent me to look for, though," Keolah said. "I wonder if this is even the right place."

"I have no idea, my thane," Lydia said.

"Oh well, let's keep looking, maybe we missed something," Keolah said.

As she turned to find a way out of the cavern, a film of red crossed her vision for a moment, and a strange hunger overcame her.

"Huh, maybe I forgot to eat dinner," Keolah muttered, frowning.

"You do that frequently, my thane," Lydia said.

"Let's stop for a moment and have a bite before moving on," Keolah said. "It doesn't look like there's anything trying to kill us immediately here."

They sat down and pulled out some bread and cheese to eat, and Keolah swallowed it dutifully. It was dry, and she was thirsty, but this didn't seem to be quite what she was starting to crave. When she got back to Whiterun, she should swipe some more of the Companions' sweetrolls, she thought.

After finishing up their meal, they wandered around the area searching for anything they might have missed, and crossed another stone bridge into a chamber with three small pillars jutting out of the floor, with three gates blocking the passage leading onward. When Keolah got close to one of them, it lit up in red, and one of the three gates clattered open.

"Hmm, what's this now?" Keolah wondered, stepping forward to examine the pillars more closely. As she approached each one, they glowed red as well, and the one behind her stopped glowing. "Hmm, say, Lydia, could you stand by this one here?"

"Yes, my thane," Lydia said, and took a position next to the stone.

When Keolah moved away from that pillar, it stopped glowing even though Lydia was right next to it. Grumbling, Keolah walked back over to it and poked at it as it lit up again. "Why isn't it working for you?"

"I do not know, my thane," Lydia said. "Perhaps it's because I'm not Dragonborn?"

"Why in Talos' name would the ancient Nords have made a gate only a Dragonborn could open?" Keolah said, rolling her eyes and sighing. "Alright, maybe if I start here and run really fast, I'll be able to get through the gates before they close!"

Keolah tried that a couple times, but even sprinting as fast as she could manage, she slammed her face into the first gate shutting on her just as she got to it. There wasn't any way she was going to manage it like this.

"Okay, this isn't working," Keolah muttered, rubbing her nose and walking back to where Lydia was waiting.

"Do you have any spells to move faster or something, my thane?" Lydia asked.

"No..." Keolah said, musing. "Wait, I know a Shout to move faster!" She aimed in the general direction of the gate, and shouted, "WULD!" She barrelled forward, and ran into one of the pillars, doubling over it painfully. "Umph..."

Lydia took a seat by the stone she was at and watched as Keolah tried and failed at that a few more times. Finally, after getting stuck between the gates several times, she managed to get through, and the gates remained open.

"Okay, Lydia, you can come through now it looks like," Keolah called. "Bah, who designed this thing, anyway? Stupid dead Nords and their stupid puzzles."

Lydia caught up with her, and they continued on. "I've got a bad feeling about this," Lydia commented.

"Oh, don't say things like that," Keolah said. "Something bad always happens if someone says they have a bad feeling."

"I would assume the likelihood of something bad happening to be the cause, rather than the effect, my thane."

"I- Don't argue logic with me!" Keolah replied with a smirk.

Flames suddenly burst forth from the floor beneath their feet.

"And don't say you told me so, either," Keolah said, rushing ahead to get past the traps and hardly pausing to roast a few spiders. "And how did these spiders even get in here? And what do they eat? Where did these corpses come from?"

She let her ranting taper off into a low grumble and burnt through the webs blocking the corridor leading further on. The passage opened into a chamber with a stone walkway leading between two pools of water. A rumbling sound echoed for a moment, and the water rippled and splashed, and what looked at first glance like enormous claws rose out of the water.

"Ahhh!" Keolah cried. "Crab monster!" She shot a firebolt at the giant claws.

"My thane," Lydia said gently. "It's just stone."

"Stone crab monster!" Keolah exclaimed, firing off more spells at the seemingly impervious construction.

"They... aren't attacking us, my thane," Lydia said.

Keolah blinked for a moment and stared at the hapless bit of architecture she'd been assaulting, and said, "Oh."

She walked up to the altar at the far end of the chamber and found, rather than any treasure, there was a note sitting waiting for her. Scowling, she snatched it up and read it.

"Someone... wants me to meet them in the attic room at the inn in Riverwood," Keolah said, then crumbled the note. "And how did they even get in here?"

"The horn isn't here, then?" Lydia asked.

"The horn isn't here!" Keolah said. "Bah! Oh well, at least I learned a new word."

A door behind the altar opened into a room which contained enough treasure to appease her for the moment, as well as another passage. It lead out through a door and to a blank wall with a lever beside it. Upon pulling the lever, the wall slid open, revealing the way to a room that looked familiar from earlier in the tomb.

"Hmm..." Keolah said. "Say... maybe that's how our horn-thief got in there. They came in through the back door!"

"But they'd have needed to pull the lever on the other side to get in," Lydia said.

"I don't know how they did it, but they certainly didn't get past that stupid puzzle," Keolah said.

"I see your point," Lydia said.

They made their way out of the tomb and into the open, clear air again. It was well past dark, and Lydia was yawning, although Keolah wasn't really tired herself.

"We should probably rest, my thane," Lydia said. "Make camp here, or try to make it back to Morthal?"

"I'm not tired," Keolah said.

"Really?" Lydia said. "We were up awfully late last night and didn't get much sleep."

Keolah shrugged. "I could keep going for hours yet. You can take a nap here if you want and I'll keep watch and roast anything that bothers us."

"As you say, my thane." Lydia went over and brushed off one of the bandits' bedrolls and lay down to rest for a while.

After an hour's rest, they continued on back south. It was a lovely night for target practice on deer, and one tree that Keolah thought was a deer. It was nearly dawn by the time they arrived back in Morthal and headed into the inn.

"Are you feeling alright?" asked the innkeeper. "You don't look so good."

"I'm fine," Keolah said, waving off her concern. "You're up awfully late."

"I just woke up," the innkeeper said. "Were you looking for a room or breakfast?"

"A room is fine," Keolah said. "We have lots of venison."

"And rabbit, and goat..." Lydia added. "And some vegetables you picked from some farmer's field..."

Keolah paid for the room and headed in, yawning and flopping down on the bed. Now her weariness was finally catching up to her, and her strength rapidly diminishing. She felt like she could just sleep the entire day away, and drifted off before she knew it.

It was late afternoon when she woke, and after eating an obligatory dinner, she and Lydia set out for Whiterun. She mostly let Lydia point the way and managed not to get too lost, although they took a few wrong turns and almost ran afoul of giants.

"Was that a flying mammoth?" Keolah wondered, staring at the air where she thought she'd seen it.

"A flying mammoth?" Lydia asked dubiously.

"Yeah," Keolah said. "Did you see that too, or am I just hallucinating?"

"There was no flying mammoth."

"Okay, I'm just hallucinating then. Good to know."

As they came within sight of Whiterun, the sun setting behind them, Keolah shuddered involuntarily for a moment as a haze of blood filled her vision for a moment. She realized that she hadn't been feeling so well today, but it was better now. Come to think, she hadn't been feeling all that well in general ever since leaving the vampire cave, but she'd been trying to ignore it. But there was only so far even she could remain oblivious.

"Lydia," Keolah began, licking her lips absently. "What would you do if I were to become a vampire? Hypothetically speaking."

"My thane?" Lydia said. "You weren't infected back at Morthal were you?"

"No, of course not," Keolah said quickly.

Lydia scowled. "We should hurry back to town. We might still be able to cure you."

"I said I'm fine," Keolah insisted, then bit her lip after a moment. "Sorry for yelling at you."

"It is no trouble, my thane," Lydia replied. "I am simply concerned for your wellbeing."

"Well," Keolah said shaking her head and ignoring the issue. "Why don't we stop in at Whiterun and drop off some stuff, and then continue on to Riverwood? It's still early, after all."

Fortunately it was early enough that the shops were still open so that they could sell much of the loot Lydia had hauled out of the tomb.

"Why wouldn't anyone in Morthal buy this stuff?" Keolah wondered. "Instead we had to haul a pile of miscellaneous weapons and crap all the way back here!"

"You mean I had to haul it, my thane," Lydia said with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah," Keolah said.

"And why the troll skull?" Lydia wondered.

"I thought it would look nice in my house," Keolah said.

Lydia worked up her face as she peered at the ugly thing, and said evenly, "As you say, my thane."

After a quick dinner in Breezehome, they headed out from Whiterun, heading south for Riverwood, catching luna moths and torchbugs all the way.

"Come to think," Keolah commented as they walked into Riverwood, peering at the Sleeping Giant Inn. "This inn doesn't even have an attic."

"So it would appear," Lydia said.

They headed inside, and Keolah approached the middle-aged woman who ran the inn and said, "Hey. Mysterious lady who was looking for information on dragons a while back. I'd like to rent your non-existent attic room."

Delphine sighed and rolled her eyes, and said, "Not so loud, would you?"

"If you wanted secrecy, you could be a little less bloody cryptic," Keolah replied.

"Wouldn't that be less secretive, my thane?" Lydia said.

"Whatever," Keolah said.

"So I guess you're supposed the Dragonborn, then," Delphine said, rubbing her forehead. "Fine then. Come on, we need to talk." Delphine led them to a side room, and then down into a secret room hidden below the inn. "The Greybeards sent you to find the horn, did they? Well, here it is, this is what you're looking for, I believe." She handed Keolah the horn.

"Oh, right, thanks," Keolah said, passing it off to Lydia to carry.

"At least now I can be sure that the Greybeards think you're Dragonborn, if nothing else," Delphine says. "And that you might not just be a Thalmor plant. Although I'd think a Thalmor plant might be a little less... inept."

"Hey, I'm very ept!" Keolah protested. "Mostly at destroying things, though..." She scowled. "But seriously, Thalmor? You know, just because I'm an Altmer doesn't mean I'm with the Thalmor, or even care to offer them the least amount of affection, respect, or loyalty."

"I'm still not convinced that you're Dragonborn, though," Delphine said, folding her arms across her chest.

"FUS!" Keolah shouted, sending a quill, parchment, and books flying.

"That proves nothing," Delphine said. "Can you kill a dragon and absorb its soul?"

"Well, yeah," Keolah said. "At least I assume that's what I'm doing. I don't really have anything to compare it to, though, but I have no reason to think otherwise."

"Then I want you to come kill a dragon with me at an old burial mound near Kynesgrove," Delphine said.

"With you?" Keolah said, raising an eyebrow. "What are you going to do, hit it with a broom?"

Delphine snorted. "I'll have you know I was a skilled warrior in my youth, and I haven't forgotten a thing."

"I'll take your word on that," Keolah said. "But why there? Wherever that is."

"I have reason to believe that the dragons are coming back to life," Delphine said.

"You mean they're like, undead dragons or something?" Keolah said, making a face and groaning. "Ugh, like draugr aren't bad enough. Doesn't anything ever stay dead around here?"

"If you kill them, you'll absorb their souls and prevent them from coming back to life," Delphine said.

"Oh, good," Keolah said. "I'd hate to think I'd have to run around killing the same dozen dragons over and over, like hitting a dog over the muzzle with a scroll whenever it pees on the floor."

"I... That..." Delphine said, then shook her head and put her face in her hands. "Just meet me at Kynesgrove and we can deal with this."

"Sure thing," Keolah said. "Where's Kynesgrove?" She slid her map across the table, and Delphine marked the location.

"Perhaps it would be better to travel together," Lydia suggested.

Delphine turned and scowled at her for that suggestion. "I'm sure you can find the way."

"You don't know my thane very well," Lydia replied. "If you want her to get to the place in time to stop this dragon, you're going to need to make sure she doesn't get lost or wander off at some distraction or another."

"Hey, I'm right here, you know," Keolah said. "Um, not that I can really argue with that assessment."

Delphine sighed. "Fine, we'll set out in the morning, then."