The Tale of Cara, the Tenth Divine

Chapter 8

 Chapter 8

After the first night of intimacy between Cara and Serana the vampire never left her side. She always walked closely to Cara as they traversed the Skyrim landscape, leading the others to take it as a show of ownership. Cara paid it no mind, and enjoyed having her close by as she kept gold and adventure coming in for the rest of her entourage. While Lydia still had doubts as to Serana's trustworthiness and Atlana kept a watchful eye on her, the worst reaction to the vampire was that of Isran, the leader of the Dawnguard. Cara had to near threaten him in order to prevent him from harming her love, and he only relented under the idea of physical harm and the fact that Cara's group was the main force behind the Dawnguard's relevance in Skyrim. He was glad later to have put aside his anger about the subject when Cara led an attack on Castle Volkihar and Harkon himself, destroying the vampire lord and freeing Serana from the fear of his dark influence.

In the chapel of the ancient castle, Cara stood staring down at the pile of ash that had once been Serana's father. She looked over as Serana knelt next to the remains, running her fingers through it and making Cara wonder if she regretted her decision to turn against him.

"You alright?" Cara asked, hearing Atlana shift on her feet in case she would be needed to defend their leader against the vampire.

"I... think so. I didn't realize how difficult this would be... to see him gone like this," Serana replied as she trailed her fingers through the ash.

"I'm sorry. He left us little choice, Serana."

"I know. I'm not angry. I suppose I'm just thinking now about the good times... as few they were and as long ago as they had been. I know we had to do this. He would have turned the world into a nightmare. I know he said he was doing it for our kind... but he wouldn't have stopped there."

"I believe you."

"Maybe now mother can return from the Soul Cairn at least. It'd be nice to have at least one family member in existence here in Skyrim."

"Yeah..."

"You have no idea what that's like, do you?" Serana asked as she looked over.

"No. This isn't about me. We just killed your father. Take some time," Cara said as she put away her blade and stepped away toward the entrance to the chapel, Atlana watching her. Serana turned to watch her go and then nodded to herself as Atlana spoke.

"I didn't think you'd have it in you, to go against him. I'm glad I was wrong," the half giant declared.

"I had to, Atlana. I'm glad none of us got hurt doing this."

"Me too," the nine-foot-tall woman stated as she turned to walk away.

With Harkon and his threat out of the way, the Dawnguard's duties were reduced to a manageable state without Cara's constant support being needed. With what Cara considered to be a more immediate threat to Skyrim and a more personal matter with Harkon being Serana's father being out of the way, she refocused her attention to the pressing matter of Alduin. Cara had circumvented Skyrim many times by now, gathering strength as she sought out words of power and soul essence from dragons to power herself. She decided the time had arrived to deal with Alduin once and for all, and for that she went to the Sleeping Giant's Inn in Riverwood, having a note from a mysterious stranger for months that told her to rent an attic room there. She had reason to believe that even all this time later that the offer was still valid and arrived at the inn late one evening with her entourage. Cara was confused when she was told there was no attic room, but less than an hour later it was all explained to her by a former Emperor's Blade named Delphine.