We don't go there.

Hack and Slash. Hack and Slash. Hack and slash all day long.

With Worm Cultists oozing their way through the Skyrim countryside, Seren and I had been asked to assist in dealing with them on account of good reports from our journey in Morrowind and Shadowfens.

As such, we had spent the past several days hacking and slashing our way through them trying to find their leader with minimal success. Whenever we had a solid lead, he'd slip away to our extreme frustration.

For the moment, we are camping out in one of the eastern forests of The Rift, a small fire burning between Seren and I, it's meagre warmth more than satisfying our aching limbs.
"According to local reports, there's another sect of them holed up in an old tomb located roughly around here" Seren said, pointing to a map with her dagger. I shuffled around the fire to be beside her so that I could see.

I know the exact place that she's talking about.
"We aren't going there" I say quietly.
"Why not?" Seren asks in surprise. "It's a solid lead. Better than anything we've had for the past three days."
"And we aren't going there" I say quietly but more firmly. Seren doesn't accept my answer.
"Why?" She asks.
"Because" I say, turning my eyes to the fire. As much as I try to hide it, Seren catches my expression and she knows what I am talking about.
"It's because of her, isn't it?" She asks quietly.
"I don't want to talk about it" I say simply. Seren's rage explodes.

"My gods, you ALWAYS say that! Who is this damn woman you refuse to speak of!" She yells angrily. Several birds fly from the trees in terror. Seren is pointing her finger angrily at me. I remain as stoic as before.
"Why! Why in Oblivion do you always do this! You keep shutting up like a clam at the mention of her! You havent once said it, but I know your comparing me to her in everything I do! You constantly make me feel like I am inferior to her!" Seren yells angrily. Her finger may have lowered, but her face is pure anger mixed with a little hatred.

I shake my head silently. I guess I was going to have to tell Seren eventually.
"You remember how I told you right at the beginning to never say goodbye to me?" I ask, moving to sit against a tall tree.
"I do" Seren says, calming down. "What's the point?"
"I missed my one chance to say goodbye to her" I say quietly.
"Who? This woman I keep getting compared to?" Seren asks, her anger rising slowly.
"That woman you keep asking about. Her name is actually Serenvia" I say slowly.
A wind blows through the camp, quickly extingushing the small fire as if on cue. It seems like the powers of Aetherius itself wants this discussion to cease. Seren immediately recognises the connection between the name and her own.
"Tell me. Tell me everything. And don't lie. Because if you do, I will cut you" She says, sharpening her dagger on a stone. I sigh and shake my head.
"Telling you the whole story is pointless. I'll tell you what happened at that tomb."
"I'm listening" Seren says with an icey tone to her voice.

"The local Thane had been informed by the locals that the place had become haunted by something dangerous. More than the usual spookiness caused by myths and legends. Rather than sending a few members of the town watch, he sent us two. He asked us just to put the fears to rest. Make sure it was locked up nice and tight and to ensure the dead were resting comfortably and not up and about and walking around angrily looking for something alive to kill. Well, we got there and as it turns out, it wasnt locked and the dead were walking around."
"Oh?" Seren asked, now more interested in the tale than her previous anger.
"A necromancer had taken up residence. And a pretty powerful one at that. We had no problem despatching the dead he had risen. The biggest problem was the necromancer himself and his knowledge of the dead. Now that I look back on it, he may have even been related to the worm cult that we are tracking today." I continue, shifting my leg.

"We had a great level of difficulty in defeating him. Well, when I say that, all it took was a blade through the chest to bring him down. The hardest part was defeating the undead faster than he could raise them. Anyway, it wasnt until we were safely back outside that I discovered that my companion had been hit in the leg by an arrow. She had known about it but didn't want to make me worried."

"But you were worried, naturally" Seren said.
"Yes. I took her to the best healers I could find. But none of them could treat the poison that had entered her body through the arrow."
"What?" Seren asked.
"I did everything I could. Searched every tome in Mournhold and consulted with everyone I knew about the lesser known poisons. But as they all said, you can't cure the poison contracted by Jarrin Root. It was a miracle that she had managed to survive for five days."

"She didn't die honourably. She died in bed with her hand on her sword" I said bitterly. Seren had looked away now. In her time with me, Seren had learned what it meant to die honourably. To die in a good battle or to have died doing something right.
"I'm going to bed" I said, moving to the other side of the tree, out of sight of Seren. I still couldnt get over the fact of how they both looked so alike. And I couldnt let Seren see me cry.