167The silvery hare made of mist and mischief danced through Harry's dreams all night.
When he woke up, he wasn't quite sure if he had just gone to sleep or woken up at first. Then the aching and soreness settled in and he knew it was the morning after, at which point his surreal dreams began to make sense as well.
Luna had volunteered to cast the Patronus charm last night, once they had made it back. He had all but collapsed into his bed after dinner, sleeping soundly through the night.
"Oww... oww..."
Gingerly, he sat up and swung his feet out of bed, wincing at the cold floor as his bare skin touched down. That wasn't all. He felt clammy and dirty, too. With everything that had been going on, he hadn't had a chance to wash in days.
Raising an arm, he took a tentative sniff under his armpit and recoiled. "Ugh..."
Definitely needed to wash himself.
Harry considered using a scourgify on himself for just a second, before dismissed the thought with a disdainful sniff. He wanted to wash himself. Not clean or scrub or scour himself. That meant hot water. And soap. Was there any soap to be had here?
But hot water was a must. Getting out of bed and clothed—the clothes he would scourgify at least, because they stank too—he left the room. As had become usual no one else was awake yet, but the still and snoring forms of orcs and acolytes around the fireplace greeted him outside his room.
How can they sleep after waking up from a hundred-year nap...? Maybe it was just him, but he would feel ill at ease about it.
Maybe they were still simply too tired and lost to think about it through. In that, they were like children; they needed help. It had cost him more than he would have liked, but the Windpeak Inn was the only place in town with a warm place to sleep on such short notice. Thoring had been sympathetic but hadn't budged on the cost below 5 septims per head, putting a considerable dent into their coin pouch.
And so far it didn't seem like it would become any easier today, either.
The town's guard had not taken kindly to the influx of heavily armoured—few still had weapons, as Harry and Luna hadn't bothered to bring them out of the temple—orcs and cowled former cultists into Dawnstar. Erandur had had to go speak to the Jarl himself, Skald the Elder, to allow them to stay.
Harry hadn't heard anything directly, but the townspeople had heard the priest argue that the vanishing of the nightmares plaguing the townsfolk was because of his goddess Mara, conditional upon the helping of the victims they had brought to town. That had seemed to work, seeing as how they had been allowed to stay in town.
He could still pay for another few nights, but if he had to factor in food and clothes...
It wasn't going to work.
Even if he worked his butt off, there was no way he could do it. After a life of having no money and then having all the money he could ever want—stuck in his bank vault, but still there—it was a fairly rough introduction to balancing personal economics. No stable source of income and dozens of mouths to feed; his respect for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley grew with every passing day here, taking care of the rescued amnesiacs.
Worse yet, he had nothing in common with them and no idea how to even help them.
Realizing he was getting worked up again, he almost slammed the door shut behind him as he exited his room. He really needed a bath to calm down. Maybe he would think of something once he was clean. He shook his head, quietly sneaking past the sleeping figures towards the counter to see if anyone had woken up yet.
Of course, there wasn't. Looking up at the rafters, he could see that it was still nearly dark outside. The obvious result of having gone to sleep so early, he supposed rather blithely.
He really wanted a bath. But how?
At the Dursleys and at Hogwarts warm water was just there at the turn of a knob. He vaguely understood that one was produced through technology and electricity and the other through magic, but that didn't really mean he really understood either. Did the muggles put the electricity into the water to warm it up? The telly used to get really hot when left on for long times and it too ran on electricity.
And since when did he think of the muggles as something completely separate from himself, Harry wondered with a frown.
Shaking his head, he instead tried to think about how the showers and baths worked in Hogwarts. Through magic, obviously. Could he simply use the water-making spell to make bathwater, then? He had used it for a quick drink often enough, so it should be safe enough to bathe in, right? But it's going to be way too cold.
Surreptitiously, he checked his surroundings as he drew his wand. Everyone was still asleep, meaning that he wouldn't have to go outside to try.
Cupping his left hand in front of the wand, he whispered the incantation: "Aguamenti," as a minuscule jet of water spurted out to fill his hand.
Harry frowned.
It wasn't warm. It wasn't really cold either. It was just... water.
Putting away his wand with a frown, he hesitated with the handful of water he still had. Could he just throw it away? He wasn't really thirsty and his hand was just as dusty and sweaty as the rest of him was — not really something he wanted to drink out of.
"Hello, Harry."
He jumped, surprised by the sudden voice behind him, managing to splash himself with the water in the process. Blinking, still reeling a little from his surprise face wash, he didn't react until Luna peeked curiously at him.
"Morning, Luna," he managed to say as water dripped down his face, a few droplets threatening to tickle his nose as he inhaled slowly. "Sleep well?"
"Oh, yes. It didn't rain in my room, you see."
He wasn't sure if she was making a joke, and it was just too early in his opinion for that, so he only nodded. "Right, that's good. Let's eat breakfast and see if Erandur is ready to go."
And even as he said that he felt bad at snapping at her the way he had. But she only nodded, appearing wholly unaffected, which only served to remind him of the money again, and about helping everyone, and about how dirty and itchy he felt and...
Sighing and shaking his head, he followed her to a table in the corner where they could eat their previously bought rations.
"We will not be able to advance much further like this," Erandur spoke up, his voice acquiring a slight reverb from the bubble-head charm. "The barrier has cut off all ways ahead."
Harry was inclined to agree.
They had been at it for another few hours and had managed to find another seven sleepers, of whom only two had been orcs, as apparently the war party had not been able to penetrate into the temple's deepest reaches before the miasma had been called forth. But now they were having difficulties getting deeper and he was starting to think they should just go back up, tear the steel bars and jump down to the bottom to get to the staff.
Getting back up might be a challenge, especially if they found more sleepers, but with magic, it shouldn't be impossible.
He was just about to suggest it when the priest continued.
"But there might be a way to take it down." Erandur inhaled, looking over his shoulder, back towards the stairs. "I will need to confirm first if it will work, and the recipe itself. We should find it in the library."
"A potion?" Luna asked.
Erandur nodded a touch hesitantly. "Perhaps."
Harry shrugged. "Alright, lead the way."
It had become more and more apparent that the elf knew the temple quite intimately, but until now he had been quite tight-lipped regarding the source of his familiarity. While an annoyance, it wasn't really a problem. Yet.
Or so Harry hoped, eyeing the priest's back as they walked back up.
The library hadn't changed since they had cleared it; two floors with dozens of bookshelves lining the walls and littering the lower floor. Most had been overturned, with burned and rotted books sprawled all over the floor. Hermione would have been horrified had she been there to see the utter bibiliocide that had taken place here.
"We're looking for a book of alchemical recipes called the Dreamstride," Erandur said as they stopped. "The tome bears the likeness of Vaermina on the cover."
Harry grunted, not inclined to believe the book to have survived. Even so, he did not argue and began to look around, using a lighting charm on his wand for aid. Luna, on the other hand, seemed to quite enjoy perusing the various books and tomes, not minding their state of decay and destruction much as she poked around.
In the end, it was she who found the tome in question, skipping over to Erandur with an incredibly thick book in her hand. "Here you go."
"Oh...! Let me take a look," the priest uttered, accepting the book with trepidation. It only took him a few seconds to find the relevant section, his dark red eyes crinkling as he looked up. "Mara be praised; there is a way past the barrier to the inner sanctum."
Neither Hogwarts' student said a word as they waited for him to continue.
"It involves a recipe for a liquid known as Vaermina's Torpor. A potion as you suspected."
Luna beamed at the confirmation.
"It grants the person who drinks it the ability the priests of Vaermina called the Dreamstride."
"Shocking," Harry muttered quietly, glancing at the book.
But neither of the other two noticed, too enamoured with the potion by now. "Using dreams to travel distances in the real world."
"Oh, amazing," Luna gushed.
"Yes, quite amazing. Alchemy and the blessings of a divine distilled down into a... digestible liquid."
Frowning, Harry asked: "So these daedrics are divine?"
"What? No." Startled, the priest looked up. "Or... perhaps. It is complicated." Again, Erandur looked at them as if trying to weigh how much to say; how much he needed to explain, given how little they obviously knew. "The word daedra comes from old merish, meaning not our ancestors, denoting... timeless beings in the realms of Oblivion. They are neither mortals, nor are they Aedra, the divine ancestors from whom we descend."
The two students blinked quietly.
Erandur shook his head. "It does not matter, much. Most men prefer not to think about the daedra overmuch, fearing them for good reason. It is... different for mer. Dunmer in particular."
"Oh."
Harry wasn't sure what to make of that. It somehow sounded like the kind of demon worship that Vernon had sometimes raved about; satanism, Lucifer, and the devil.
Shaking his head, the priest's gaze returned to the book as he looked back and forth through a set of pages intently. "Getting back on topic... I've sadly yet to see the Dreamstride work. And as a sworn priest of Mara—one of the Aedra—the liquid will not work for me..."
Immediately warning bells rang in Harry's head. "Absolutely not."
"Oh, I would like very much to try it," Luna said, just as quickly.
"Luna...!" He reeled at her, brows furrowed behind his glasses.
"It's just a potion, Harry."
He shook his head. "Potions are dangerous, Luna." If he had learned something from five years of Potions with Snape—and more importantly, Neville—it was that potions were in fact very dangerous. "Even if it does what it's supposed to and we can brew it right, who knows what will happen! Without Madam Pomfrey..."
"Frida could help us, I'm sure," Luna interjected.
Harry blinked, his earlier vehemence deflating as he paused to consider it. By the sidelines, Erandur was quietly hiding behind his book. Harry shook his head, then. "No."
If something happened to Luna, he wouldn't know what to do. It was too far away to town and there was no way that Frida would know about a potion like that. It would be much safer to tear a way down to the staff from the upper levels. They could then—
"If it was you drinking the potion, you wouldn't hesitate for a minute," Luna said with a frown bordering on a pout.
He froze.
"W-what?"
She shook her head, the dissatisfied expression vanishing. "It's nothing, Harry. If you don't want to, then I won't drink the potion."
Harry blinked, at a loss for words.
"There..." Erandur spoke, hesitating for a moment before continuing as he glanced at the both of them. "There should be a potion in the laboratory, still, so we will not need to brew it ourselves. And none of the ingredients listed are dangerous on their own, see here..."
He turned the book over to show the list of ingredients, writing in a small, flowing script across the yellowing pages of the massive tome. Frowning, Harry looked at the recipe even though he knew he would not recognize any of the ingredients.
"Even if none of the ingredients are dangerous by themselves, that doesn't mean the potion itself is safe," he said as he dug his heels in, starting to get annoyed that they were both arguing against him now.
The priest blinked and then frowned, curious.
"I do not claim to be a great master of alchemy... But I do possess a skill at least equal to that of Frida, Dawnstar's alchemist." Erandur closed the book, standing straight now. "And to brew a poison or potion with harmful effects, I know that it requires at least two of the ingredients to possess the same harmful effect. I am certain that this potion will not be dangerous."
Harry licked his lips, confused. Despite his Exceeding Expectations in his Potions O.W.L.s, he had never heard anything like that before. He thought back to his and Luna's visit to Frida's shop, and how he hadn't recognized many of the complicated devices and implements in her shop.
What did he know about alchemy? Wasn't that something Dumbledore had been famous for, while had been working with Flamel? Something about dragon's blood? They had never used any dragon's blood in potions and he had never heard of any potion that used it as an ingredient...
"Well..."
Hesitating, he looked at Luna and it struck him at that moment that she did really want to try the potion. It sounded like the wondrous and whimsical thing she would tell you about, so it was little wonder that her whimsy was to drink it and experience it for herself. The ball of worry in his gut tightened but at the same time, he thought that he deserved to give her this after how badly he had been screwing things up until now.
Harry sighed, slumping in defeat. "Alright, then. If you think it's safe and it's the only way down, and you want to try it, Luna..." Grimacing, he forced the next words out. "Then, okay."
Luna's bright smile in response to words almost managed to ease away his worries. But not quite.
Harry tapped his feet nervously, staring at the barrier as he kept his wand in his hand.
Finding a phial of Vaermina's Torpor had been unexpectedly easy since they had gone through the laboratory already when scouring for survivors the day before. Harry had thought that perhaps there was a danger of the potion having gone bad, but the numerous ingredients and other potions strewn about, completely fine and fresh, had quashed that complaint before he had even thought to voice it out loud.
So Luna had drunk the potion in one go and had promptly disappeared as if she had cast on his invisibility cloak, which bothered Harry considerably. Only Erandur's calm and impressed reaction had kept him from freaking out and they had moved down to where the barrier still blocked their path. Fretting still, Harry couldn't help but look at the pulsating light pooling out from the depths to his left. Below, the thrumming power of the staff beckoned them and he couldn't help but make a face.
Clucking his tongue, he wondered again where Luna had vanished just as she reappeared in front of them, the barrier that had been blocking their path vanishing in the same instant.
"Hello Harry," she said with a wide-eyed smile, wearing the same expression of exhilaration he recognized from himself whenever he'd come back from a wild broom-ride.
"Luna! You're okay...!"
She nodded and looked down at her hand, holding a large crystal of some sort.
"It—It worked! Mara be praised!" Erandur exclaimed astonished. "You vanished after drinking the torpor... I had not—" Only Harry's stare made the elf calm down, as he realized that the earlier calm had only been to disguise uncertainty and worry. Erandur cleared his throat. "Yes, well... How was it?"
"It was quite wonderful and frightful. I dreamt I was Casimir, you see."
The priest blanched, blinking and leaning back as if he had been struck. "O-oh..."
"Casimir?" Harry repeated, looking at Erandur. He had been suspecting something, but that settled it.
Noticing their stares, Erandur coughed and tried to look as if he hadn't noticed. "We should keep going. With the soul gem gone and the barrier removed, the Miasma will begin to weaken even faster. Those inside still asleep will soon begin to awaken on their own."
Luna nodded serenely and Harry shrugged, still eyeing the priest suspiciously.
The continued down, now spiralling directing around the central pit as they brought up more and more sleepers, repeating the procedure with all of them. Like yesterday, there were very few problems after the initial confused anger and fight drained out of the people. They seemed lost and more than a little scared, huddling together in the upper floors, always receiving them with wide-eyed curiosity as they brought another survivor back up.
They had made it to the lowest level already.
When bringing up the last sleepers, Harry had been able to see the staff just ahead, surrounded by the spherical, pulsating barrier that sealed within its terrible, dark power.
And he hadn't been the only one; Erandur had been growing increasingly nervous as they had gone on. By the end, he had been looking around every nook, cranny, and corner for any more sleepers, his dread over the final stretch obvious to Harry. So somehow, despite the numerous times, they had already descended down these stairs the past two days, this time it felt different. There was a tension in the air, an expectation of something.
The stairs ended and the last door before them. Ahead Harry could see the altar and the stairway up to the staff on the pedestal. Somehow there were still lit candles lining up the stairs, giving enough light for the hanging moss and spider web to be visible.
"So... What happens now?" he asked, turning to the elf.
"Oh, ah." Erandur blinked, coughing before he continued, the tension draining out of him. "Now we simply perform the ritual granted to me by Mara. With that, the nightmares should come to an end."
"That's it?" Harry asked.
Erandur nodded, smiling slightly. "That is it."
"Alright, let's do it."
Even so, Harry kept his wand at the ready as they moved forward. The roiling darkness pulled at his nerves and he couldn't help but look at the dancing shadows in every corner of the room as if something was about the jump out and attack them at any moment.
So when the sound of a sword being drawn came from ahead, he wasn't surprised.
"Wait..." Erandur whispered tensely. His eyes widened as two figures emerged from ahead, clad in purple robes. "Veren, Thorek... You're alive!"
"No thanks to you, Casimir," came the deep, venomous reply. It was another elf, his skin the same ash-like pallour as Erandur's, with a set of burning red eyes that glowed with a deep hatred.
Harry glanced at Erandur's back, noting how the elf shook for a moment before standing up straighter. "...I no longer use that name. I am Erandur, a priest of Mara."
Hadn't Luna called him that earlier, too? So that's how it was.
"You're a traitor. You left us to die and then ran before the Miasma took you."
Erandur took a step back as if he had been slapped. "No. I... I was scared. I wasn't ready to sleep."
"Enough." The other, who had been silent until now, standing with a sword drawn spat. "They're here to destroy the Skull, so they must die. No matter who they might have once been."
"Thorek..." Erandur sounded pained now.
Harry licked his lips, glancing nervously at Luna. Which was when the fight began.
"Die, traitor!" someone shouted as the first blast of lighting arc forward, blindingly bright in the darkness.
"Protego!" Harry shouted, closing his eyes on reflex, not even knowing who the spell was aimed at. The next second was a mad scramble for the wall as everyone was shouting and the blasting spellfire made seeing or hearing anything next to impossible.
Grunting as his shoulder hit the left-hand wall, Harry opened his eyes and crouched down. Erandur had taken the brunt of the spells, he realized, but was still standing and conscious, blasting great gouts and lances of fire back with equal vigour.
He realized at the same moment that he had managed to walk straight into a huge patch of spider's web lining the corner, but he ignored that. Raising his wand he took aim at the other elf.
"Stupefy!"
The bright red spell struck the cultist like a bludger from the side. But it failed to put him down, as the purple-robed elf shook his head and turned to look Harry's way. An arm extended out, sending a stream of crackling lightning, but Harry was already moving out of the way.
A second later a much stronger bolt of lightning struck out from the elf's other hand, almost deafening Harry with its thunderous crack against the stone wall, setting the spider's web alight and charring the dark green moss.
"Protego!"
Harry saw as much as he heard Luna's spell, the bright white shield causing the arcing bolt of electricity to ricochet and veer off and into the wall on the opposite side of the room, the brilliant bubble dimming with every passing second under the crackling onslaught.
Erandur split his hands in two, sending long whips of flame to lick at the two cultists, giving Harry and Luna both a moment's reprieve. But a second later the sword-wielding human was charging at him and forcing him to stop casting lest he lose his head.
"Stupefy!" Harry cried out again, casting the red bolt at the purple-clad elf once more. But this time he had been ready, a shield spell of his own erupting into place an instant before the bolt reached him, stopping and rebounding the stunning charm straight back at Harry.
Eyes wide, he jumped to the side again to dodge his own spell. But just as it missed him, the spell in the elf's other hand was loosed: a long stream of the thin lightning, crackling and painfully locking up Harry's muscles as he stumbled on the floor.
Continuous and agonizing, it left him seized on the floor. Nowhere near as potent as the Crucio curse, it was still a long moment of white torture. The instant it ended, Harry rolled as best he could out and away as a second more potent lightning bolt licked the floor with a deafening crack.
Wand at the ready, Harry's eyes blazed as he managed to get back up on a knee. Screaming, he cast the point of the wand at the elf and unleashed his newfound fury. "INCENDIO!"
The thick stream of flame consumed the width of the doorway and for just a second Harry had time to see the sheer surprise on the dark elf's face before he jumped behind the corner for cover.
Luna cried out, the pained sound cutting through the haze of Harry's fury.
He turned, just in time to see Erandur on the floor and Luna falling down against the wall as the sword-wielding human's electricity spell arced out from his left palm at her, the continuous and thin streams harrowing her.
His mind went blank as he let go of the flames and slammed his wand at the human, shouting out: "Reducto!"
The man turned and flinched, raising his golden-bright sword in the way of the spell on pure accident. It shattered with an explosion that scratched up his face and hand, forcing him to let go of the weak lightning spell but little else.
Again, Harry pointed his wand and screamed: "Reducto!"
Another shield, but this time he was already on his feet and moving out of the way before it was reflected back at him. He needed something stronger; something that put down his enemy before either Luna or Erandur were hurt again.
The words he had read in passing sprung to mind immediately, the dry parchment's texture and smell popping out unbidden at the same time, like the book was right in front of him and he was reading it right now. The words, right there.
—-—For Enemies.
He raised the wand, like the hilt of the sword he had just shattered as the words came out as a hateful cry to accompany the swing.
"Sectumsempra!"
The man's shield sprung into existence again but this time it was different. The sound of shattering glass and crushed stone as the shield broke with minimal resistance. A staggering step back, followed by a wet gurgle as the cultist fell over in the darkness like a puppet with its strings cut.
Satisfied that the man was harmless now, Harry grinned and turned left to face the remaining elf. Erandur was back up, sending long gouts of flame at the other and Harry joined with his own stream of Incendio, seeing that the shields could not reflect the flames properly for whatever reason.
"You heathens will know, khh... Vaermina's vengeance for this! Traitor!"
Harry ignored the shout, his flames intensifying as he stepped up and approached the last enemy. He didn't let up until he heard the sound of the shield breaking and saw Erandur's flames ceasing. Lowering his wand, he blinked as he saw the priest of Mara clutching his hands and cupping two balls of fire in his hands.
Erandur cast his hands forward, the two bolts of fire shooting forward and crashing into the panting elf in purple and slamming him into the back wall. Harry almost shouted out, realizing that this was a matter of death now. But not done yet, Erandur had drawn a cudgel from his waist and was rushing the other elf. And with a powerful swing, it connected with the bent over form.
The last remaining cultist of Vaermina dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Harry turned back to check on Luna. She, too, was back on her feet. Or rather, knees as she had crouched down next to the man Harry had put down just moment's before. Her wand was out and for a moment he thought that there was still fight left in the man until he spotted the pooling patch of darkness around his torso.
Harry froze, realizing he could smell the blood.
Luna was trying to cast the spell she had used on him at the start of the year, but the Episkey wasn't doing anything to staunch the flow of blood. A few last rasping breaths and then the lying man stilled, glassy eyes staring at the ceiling.
Harry blinked, not understanding what had happened.
His eyes bored at the ugly rend in the middle of the man's chest, right where the Sectumsempra had been aimed. I... did this? He realized, his mind like molasses.
"He's dead..." Luna said quietly as she stood up, solemn. There was blood, staining her left sleeve and the knees of her trousers. Flinching, Harry looked away, still unable to think. He looked at Erandur, who was checking on the other elf and realized that he too had been killed.
Shaking his head, he tried not to think about it.
"Are you hurt? How do you feel?"
That stream of lightning had been painful, but compared to the Crucio it wasn't so bad. There was still some tingling in his fingers, but the bone-deep exhaustion and pain he had experienced before just wasn't there.
Luna nodded, making a quiet sound before she spoke. "I'm alright, Harry." She walked up to him, eyes peering in the darkness, the purple and red light of the barrier up ahead reflecting from them. Her eyes felt piercing and he had to look away.
"We should check up on Erandur..." he said weakly and turned away, hearing Luna's soft murmur of agreement behind.
The elf priest was standing there, panting and staring down at the motionless and burned body propped against the wall. There were patches of black, where the bolts of electricity had charred his pale robes, but he appeared mostly unharmed.
Harry sniffed at the smell, starting to feel a little nauseous. But ignoring that, he spoke out. "Erandur."
"What...?" The elf recoiled and blinked, surprised and shocked. "I... Yes. I am fine. Thank you for your concern." Licking his lips, his eyes were drawn back to the still body. "This was... difficult for me." He swallowed audibly and shook his head, lowering his gaze to the floor before him. "I was once a part of Vaermina's acolytes... Casimir, was my name once upon a time. I had friends here, and... and I ran away. Too afraid to go into eternal sleep with them."
He looked up, meeting their eyes.
"I had sealed away the entrance... Had thought to hide away my past—my shame. Knowing that everyone here would die. But then you two came and Mara granted me a vision. I thought that perhaps I could... Correct my wrongs, somehow, by destroying the Skull and freeing Dawnstar from these nightmares.
"And then... And then you began saving them. My old friends... I felt so ashamed, and so relieved, and so afraid. That I hadn't thought of doing so myself, that I had missed them so, that my past might be revealed and... And... I didn't know what to do..." Erandur was shaking his head now, still avoiding their eyes.
Harry waited, glancing at Luna. She didn't seem surprised, looking at the priest with a small smile, like she was glad that he was coming forth with this now. She had called him Casimir earlier; had she seen his past when she drank that potion and known about all of this?
"I... I had hoped that Veren and Thorek would have forgotten who they had been as well, so that perhaps... I could begin anew with them."
Erandur shook his head, looking at the still form of the dead elf on the ground and then back to the man whose life Harry had taken, who had bled out on the cold stone floor behind them.
"Is this my punishment, then?"
Not knowing what to say and feeling very awkward, Harry hanged back. But Luna strode forward and past him, placing a hand on the elf's elbow.
"The nightmare isn't past yet, Erandur."
Harry cringed, not sure if it was the time or place to remind Erandur about the staff, but by the looks of it, it helped the priest to overcome some of his black mood.
"Yes... Yes, you're right. Forgive me. I shouldn't have forgotten," the elf said and looked up, his eyes looking at the steel-barred windows to the higher floors. "Come, let us finish this, so we may finally return to Dawnstar."
Nodding, Luna stepped back and allowed the priest to begin walking up to the dais in the middle of the temple. The stairs leading up to the barrier were almost high enough that you could have reached for the floor above, given how high the staff had been placed.
The barrier rippled and shivered as he came to a halt.
"This will take some time," Erandur said. "But it must be done."
And then he began to speak in a quiet voice, his hands extended and grasping at the spherical barrier.
Harry looked on, feeling a little bit awkward with being unable to help. Glancing at Luna, he wondered how she had known what to say. Which was when the voice spoke into his mind, whispering out of nowhere and everywhere at once.
"He's deceiving you. When the ritual's complete, the Skull will be free and then Erandur will turn on you...!"
"Huh?!" He looked left and right, alarmed at the sudden female voice yet unable to see who was talking.
"Quickly! Kill him now. Kill him and claim the Skull for your own!"
Harry blinked and frowned. That... did not seem particularly likely, given how distraught the elf had been moments before. Still, even if most of Harry's suspicions about the elf had been put to rest with the revelations of his past, there was still just a hint of it left...
"Vaermina commands you!"
"Oh, okay. Never mind then." Harry shook his head and looked at Luna. "Did you hear that?"
She nodded, silvery-blue eyes somehow dancing almost merrily. "What a curious lady."
He chuffed, amused and agreeing.
Another minute passed until finally, there was a flash of light and the barrier vanished, staff included. Erandur let out a sigh of relief, standing up straight as he turned around to walk back down to join Harry and Luna.
"It is done. The staff has been destroyed."
The elf looked haggard and drawn, but satisfied all the same as he walked the last few steps down. He walked with a new air about himself, standing just a touch taller and greater than before.
"What now?" Harry asked. "Was that it...?"
He hoped it was — everything that had happened now was confusing, he felt tired and hurt. The realization that he had killed someone in the heat of a fight weighed on him now, as did the realization that he had done so on accident. Using a spell he hadn't properly understood. Hermione was right about the book...
"Now..." Erandur spoke, drawing strength from the word. "Now we return to Dawnstar. And I care for those whom I had failed before. Last night, I shirked from my duty, as both a priest of Mara and someone who once knew those people we saved the Vaermina's grasp...
"That was shameful of me and I apologize that it took your intervention for me to realize it. You should not have been forced to bear that burden alone."
Harry blinked, thoroughly taken aback. Was he talking about the money? Almost reassuring the elf that it was alright, Harry bit his tongue as he realized that it wasn't just fine; it had been Luna's money. Not his. Turning to look at her, he noticed she was smiling quietly.
Their eyes met as she noticed his looking and he thought he saw a twinkle of satisfaction there. But she said nothing, content in her quiet and satisfied in her silence.
"I wish I could pay you back somehow for all that you have done... But, as it is, we will be struggling to find a place for everyone to sleep tonight." The priest shook his head. "But, if either of you ever need my help, I will be honoured to assist you any way I can. Call upon me whenever you have need and I shall be there."
Feeling slightly overwhelmed and slightly thankful for the darkness hiding his expression, Harry only nodded.
"Would it be alright if we took the gold coins lying around here, then?" Luna asked suddenly. "I'm sure everyone won't mind paying for themselves."
Erandur and Harry both blinked and turned to look at her.
"Ah... Yes? Yes, of course. That would help immensely. I will, of course, repay you for your gold last night, too, with whatever you can find" Erandur answered, his expression brightening immediately.
"So. it's a treasure hunt in the dark." Harry shrugged, already liking the idea even if he wanted nothing more than to leave this dark and damp pit behind already.
A mischievous glint sparkled in Luna's eye. She raised her wand and enunciated clearly: "Aurum Revelio."
Harry's blinked, recognizing the revealing charm but not what it was looking for. But as Luna turned to look at the dead elf, his eyes realized what she had spotted. A pouch tied at the waist, bulging with what looked suspiciously like gold coins.
"Oh..."
His elation warred with the morbid realization that he needed to touch a dead body, confusing him once more.
"A spell to douse for gold? How curious." Erandur had noticed what they were looking at. Then, he spoke more solemnly. "Why don't you two head on up... I will... I will say my last goodbyes to them and bring up the gold with me."
Harry nodded, not trusting his voice to come out alright. Peeking at Luna, he nodded towards the stairs and she followed without saying another word. He would be thinking about those two dead bodies more than enough in the future without staying any longer down here.
Pockets and pouches overflowing with gold, they made their way back above ground.
It had been kind of overwhelming and Harry had stopped counting after the first hundred, more than ensuring that they would recoup their "losses" from the previous night. Even though he didn't think of it in those terms, specifically, but rather in the terms of paying back Luna.
Erandur had returned after a while and they had all decided to head back to Dawnstar, their new amnesiac companions included, as the priest had been worried about those they had left behind from yesterday. While Dawnstar was by no means a dangerous or treacherous town compared to some places the elf had mentioned—Riften, Solitude, Markarth, Windhelm...—it was still not out of the question for something to have happened during their day-long absence, and he was anxious to return.
"By Mara... This is more than I could have hoped for!" Erandur finally exclaimed as they showed him the gold.
"So you'll be fine with this?" Harry asked.
"Yes, yes, of course." The priest nodded excitedly before shaking his head. "Though, I'm not blind to the woes of others. You two deserve much of this reward."
"No, that's not right." Harry immediately had to object. This was the money of those who had lived in the temple; they could just take it when they needed it so badly now.
But Erandur's kind smile foreclosed any further objections.
"No. Take half of it, at least. Without you, none of them would have had this chance. You two saved their lives and helped me return to a more just path. You two deserve, and I suspect, need this. Besides..." The elf looked grim again. "The money was not all justly gained. There is no need to concern yourselves with us to that extent, as I suspect this is a just penance for the things some of us had done. Please, take it."
Harry hesitated and glanced at Luna for support, but she only wore her usual serene expression and aside from the small satisfied smile that graced her lips as she looked at the clouds in the distance, he gleaned nothing of her feelings on the matter.
But looking at Luna he was suddenly reminded of something.
Eyes wide, he turned to Erandur. "Okay! Half, okay? I, uh, I need to go ahead! I'll see you back at the inn!"
The priest blinked and almost slipped on the snow as Harry tossed him five bulging pouches of gold—a rough half by his estimate—before he pulled out his wand. Closing his eyes, he visualized the town in the distance; the docks and the ships, with the men working tirelessly and the soft murmur of lapping waves.
And then he spun in place, apparating with a loud pop.
Appearing at the docks, he spun and almost slipped on the snow as the turned around, scanning for that one ship. Blinking, he hesitated as his brows furrowed in confusion.
The ship wasn't there. Looking left and right, he saw several other ships, some familiar and some new.
Harry swallowed, realizing that he was too late. The captain who had bought Luna's dress was already gone.
Funny thing, in the last chapter, I only realized that I shouldn't have Erandur pitch in with the money for a place to stay for the amnesiacs, at the last minute when I was editing it in the ffnet docs. Because his character arc is from "coward who ran away" to "someone who is willing to confront his past and mistakes". So extending that weakness a little further and having Harry and Luna pay up changes the dynamic of the quest, since at the end Erandur decides to take responsibility for them. This way, they go from just "the hired muscle" to actual arbiters of positive change, helping Erandur become the person he wishes to be.
And as much as Harry and Luna improve Skyrim, so too does Skyrim push back and change Harry. Luna, not so much. Not yet anyhow.
Or well, so I figured. This was a short story arc so it might not come across as that impressive, but I thought it was decent enough. Felt like I should share it because of how many people were unhappy about Harry paying for their stay in the last chapter; don't worry, I hesitated over the choice as well.
Also, Veren is actually a dunmer too, not an altmer like I remembered. But can't be arsed to fix the mentions of his skin, since I used it to differentiate him during the action with it so much. Thanks Umaru the Unfeathered for pointing it out.
