Nathan tensed up with Escher and Serana. Each acting fast. Escher and Nathan dashed toward the vampire that rushed toward them with a wild hiss. While Serana raised a hand and resurrected the dead Death Hounds. Their glowing bodies and vicious snarls flooding the undercroft as they ran with Escher and Nathan to reach the feral vampire. The feral vampire never had a chance. The Death Hounds sprinted ahead just enough to slam into the Feral Vampire, knocking her to ground. While she tried to get free of them, Escher decapitated her bald elven head from her body and Nathan impaled his sword into her chest. For a few seconds, everyone stood in the silence awkwardly, before Escher started to laugh. Nathan couldn't help joining him as he removed his sword from her corpse. It felt like over kill. Serana ended her spell for the hounds, chuckling out to them. "Well... I think we'll be more than enough for anything in here." Nathan nodded, kneeling to look her over. He didn't recognize her, and she wasn't dressed in nice clothing like those in the castle. She was dressed in dirty rags and looked underfed. Was she feeding on Skeevers to survive?

Escher nudged her body, stating out to Serana curiously. "Friend of your mothers?" Serana huffed, replying firmly. "Not likely. My mother didn't have friends. She kept to herself and trusted no one. Except me... but I am her daughter and we... went through things together emotionally." Nathan removed a piece of bloodstained paper from the Feral Vampire's pocket. Unfolding it, Nathan read it aloud for them. "Not good enough to live in their stupid keep, am I?! Stupid sods don't realize that I've moved into the undercroft. With a little time, I'll show them. I've started taking control of their Death Hounds. Little by little, they'll see. I'll show them! I'll get my revenge! We'll see who is laughing in the end! I'm not lesser... I'm GREATER!" Escher snorted, snarkily stating out. "She's more dead." Serana smirked, but composure herself to say calmly. "Another enemy of my father. Same. I wonder if she kept notes on how she managed to turn the Death Hounds... I'd love to know she did it. That task is in no way an easy one..." Crumpling up the note and tossing it away, Nathan got to his feet as he told them lightly. "Let's carry on before Harkon tries calling us back." Serana stiffened, then nodded in agreement.

Escher turned to point to an exit that was blocked off by a wall of wood, but before he could say anything, Serana dashed by them. Heading up the set of stairs to a small balcony, she flipped a lever there, causing the wooden wall to fall and reveal that it was a wooden bridge. Jumping down gracefully to join them, she told them proudly. "This is one of those weird double-barred security measures that my father put in when he got more paranoid about invaders trying to sneak in like he had. Became a waste of time when he just demolished the entrance this leads to." Following her across the bridge, Escher asked dryly. "If the entrance is demolished, how are we going to get through?" She shushed him, asking nervously. "Hey? Do you hear that?" Everyone stopped to listen. Nathan's keen ears picking up the sounds of soft growling and weird scrapping. Out of the two paths ahead, she went left and gestured to the hanging spikes. Escher and her easily slipped between them. As Nathan made his way through them, he saw they had tiny bells hooked to them and the sharp iron points had been laced with something that was dripping with a light green ooze. Someone was maintaining this place and he doubted it had been the Feral Vampire.

Making their way down the tunnel, Escher suddenly stated aloud with peaked interest. "Oh... Well, I always wondered where those went..." Up ahead, Serana choked out. "I... I have nothing to say about this." Moving out into the next room, Nathan's jaw dropped. The room was piled high with human bones. Some fresh and some old. Scattered around the room were a few Death Hounds that were chewing away on the bones. They growled upon seeing them, but merely huddled protectively over the bones they were chewing on aggressively. Escher shook his head, mumbling out to himself. "Harkon never said what happened to the cattle that died for our dinner. I just assumed... I didn't expect this..." Nathan stood a bit frozen as he took it all in. He didn't know he felt about this either. Being a vampire was complicated... but he didn't know if he preferred the victims to be buried or fed to animals like this. Everything had to eat, right? This did feel a bit excessive though. The hounds clearly couldn't eat the bones as fast as Harkon's coven was feeding. Serana stepped carefully around the bones and blood-soaked floor toward a set of stairs with Escher close behind.

Nathan started to move but stopped when he noticed a skeleton chained to a wall on the second floor. The bones were fresh, and a few large Death Hounds were stripping meat from it. The disturbing part was that the skeleton had fangs and the shredded clothes that remained on the body were familiar to him. Wasn't that the female Harkon had slit the throat off? The revelation made him shiver. A loud clang came from above him, seconds before a set of meaty pieces of flesh and stripped bones clattered over him! The Death Hounds rushed with aggression to snatch up the strips of drained meat, forcing Nathan to dash away before they took a bite out of him. Grabbing the railing of the stairs, Nathan watched the hounds fight and tug the strips to pieces as they rushed to wolf it down. Escher put a hand on his shoulder, asking nervously. "Are you alright?" Nathan nodded, telling him a bit shaken up. "Physically, yes. Mentally... no." Serana cleared her throat, telling them curtly. "Guys, this way. If I recall, there is a lever up here that will bring down another bridge where we came in." Escher blinked, looking at her as asked suspiciously. "Did you spend a lot of time down here?"

Serana looked a little reluctant to answer but regaled to them. "I like to explore. My parents almost never let me off the island. So, yeah. I poked around down here a lot." Tugging on her hair a bit, she admitted with a little shrug. "It was a little... quieter... back then. Guess a little vampire girl was enough to scare off the rats." Escher walked past her without a word, but Nathan took up the conversation by saying sympathetically. "That sounds pretty lonely." Serana exhaled heavily, leaning against a wall as she answered sadly. "It was. But I eventually got used to it." Escher vanished from sight as he went farther up the stairs and down another tunnel. Leaving Nathan to asked Serana curiously. "I've been meaning to ask you. Were you and your mother close?" Her eyes glistened and her smile returned when she told him happily. "Yes. My mother and I spent quite a lot of time together. She was very fond of her alchemical garden in the castle courtyard. She taught me quite a bit about cultivating quality reagents. We got along like the best of friends. I would never hesitate to share anything with her. But that was before my father discovered the prophecy and become obsessed with it..."

From some place farther up, Escher yelped out. "SHIT!" Nathan tensed, calling up. "ESCHER?!" Nathan waited, listening to the clashing of a sword and the rustling of something big. Escher's response came quick and rather calm, when he yelled back a bit strained. "I'm good! Just... taking... care of... FUCK OFF, you eight-legged freak!" Relaxing, Nathan casually continued with Serana. "Why would that change your relationship with your mother?" Serana's eyes looked up the steps, clearly listening to Escher's fight as she answered without missing a beat. "It was sudden. It was almost like one day we were a normal family, and then the next... I didn't know who they were. I'd try to visit my mother in the garden, and she'd quickly shoo me away. She'd say she was much too busy." Nathan thinking out loud, he openly said. "That does make it sound like she was up to something there... Makes sense. She had something there that she didn't want you to see... The scroll, maybe? Maybe she buried it there?" Serana's attention returned to him, before she said with a little shrug. "Your guess is as good as mine. She was defiantly up to something in that garden. My hope is that we'll find a clue that will tell us what it was. I have to admit... I can't wait to see the courtyard again. So many fond memories."

Metal screeched from above, prompting their conversation to stop. Then stepping out from around the corner, Escher coughed and pointed casually as he informed them. "The bridge is down. You're welcome." Nathan tried to suppress a laugh. Escher was covered in thick spider webs and his lush blonde hair was ruffled from its long braid. That wasn't counting the splatter of blue blood on his pale skin and white shirt. Serana pointed at him like she was going to tell him what was on him, but he raised a hand in warning but calmly stated without looking at them. "Yes. I'm aware. I don't want to think about it." Serana curled her lips over her teeth, straining to hold back a giggle as she pulled a piece of web from his hair. Heading back out through the room with piles of bones, they slipped out the bridge that now had a third route for them to take. Making their way up the steps, Serana's excitement grew as she told them. "The courtyard is just through this door! Wait until you see it. It is the most-" Opening the little wooden door, her smile died. Nathan's heart went out to her, but he opened the door wider to step through. Even before he went up the short steps to the courtyard, he could see what hurt her.

The plants in the courtyard were dead. Slowly walking out into the cozy but gloomy courtyard, Serana trudged out with him. Pain filled her voice when she looked around and said completely crushed. "Oh no... Everything's been torn down... the whole place looks... well, dead. It's as if we're the first people to set foot here for centuries." Nathan looked around at all the smashed flowerpots and uprooted plants. The place was overgrown with weeds and rumble from broken bits of the castle balconies were tossed about the place. The little ponds had murky brown water and every tree was a dried out and twisted version of itself. In the center of the courtyard was a large Elven looking sundial made from Elven golden metal. Escher nudged pieces of broken pots with his foot, uttering out grimly. "Something tells me that Harkon was here... and he was in a mood." Serana headed over to the largest outdoor balcony, gesturing to it as she informed them. "That doorway up there used to lead into the castle's great hall. It's all bricked up now... but the brick is new... Seems he destroyed not just the entrance but the courtyard... then sealed it up."

Turning around to sit on the stone steps, she hugged herself and added distantly as she looked upon the shambled courtyard. "I used to walk through here after evening meals. It was so beautiful... once." Tears of blood brimmed her eyes, when she added in a bit more distressed. "This was my mother's garden... It was... Do you know how beautiful something can be when it has been tended to by a master for hundreds of years? She would have hated to... to see it like this." Walking up to her, Nathan put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He hated to see girls cry. She tried to hide under the hood of her dark cloak, but his keen ears still heard her. Her hand eventually reached up to hold his hand, squeezing it as she tried to compose herself. He could imagine how this hurt her if she had such good memories here. Had she hoped to see her mom tending to it? Was she still hoping her mother was alive? He had always felt his mom had been taken so soon. It was hard to think of having centuries of memories and then wake up one day to find things like this. No answers. No explanations and very little hope. Staying by her side, he tried to give her the time she needed to process this. He wanted to cheer her up, but he felt false hope wasn't the way.

Escher explored the courtyard a bit, before circling around the sundial. Looking it over curiously, he told them a bit confused. "Ha. It's a moondial. Clever... but useless. Looks like Harkon broke it all the same though. There are three moon phases missing on this ring." Serana pushed her hood back to look, then stiffened as she said to herself. "Wait a minute..." Bolting up to her feet, she rushed over to the moondial and walked around it. Kneeling to touch a disk where a piece of the moon cycle was missing, she told them perplexed. "Something is wrong with the moondial. I don't remember the moondial sitting like this. It's askew." Escher shrugged, retorting casually. "Harkon could have hit it in his frustration." Serana licked her lips, shaking her head as she told them seriously. "Maybe. But then how do you explain these crests? These were removed... They weren't pried off. My father would have smashed them or bent them. He never would have-" Escher snapped his fingers, finished off for her in his own excitement. "Had the patience! You're right!" Serana smiled at Escher, hope returning to her voice when she said with elation. "Exactly. I think my mother did this on purpose. I think she's trying to tell me something. I didn't know the crests could be removed... but she pointed them out all the time when we would polish them."

Straightening up, she told Nathan with a small smile. "She would tell me that this used to be a sundial that the previous owners had, but my mother hired an Elven artisan to make some improvements. Look. You can see the plates that show the phases of the moon. Masser, the largest moon of Nirn, and Secunda. The smallest moon." Nathan made his way over to the moondial, watching Escher dash around as he searched around for something. Looking up at the night sky above them, Nathan looked back to the dial and asked her perplexed. "How does a moondial work? The moon casts no shadow. There is no way to tell the time of night..." Serana gave him a childlike giggle, admitting honestly. "That's the thing... I don't know. I always wondered why she didn't just have the whole thing ripped out. But she loved it. It was her garden's beautiful center piece. I guess, she just liked having her own piece of unique art." Nathan moved around the circle, asking her hopefully. "Can you tell what crests are missing? My astrology is... rusty." Serana chuckled, saying teasingly. "Not much of a star gazer, huh? Well... From the looks. It is missing the Full Moon, the Half Moon, and the Crescent Moon."

Escher dashed out in front of Nathan, handing off two shiny opal colored crests that were heavy. Winking to him, Escher told him excitedly. "There is the full moon and the crescent moon. Put those in and I'll keep looking for the third." Nathan handed one off to Serana, watching how she put into place and then showed him where to place his. Deciding to help Escher look, Nathan strolled around slowly, looking for anything shiny. He almost missed it, but the little shimmer in the murky pond caught his attention. Informing the others of his find, he took the crest over and carefully set it into place. The moment he did, the large dial began to move. Slowly circling around to line up with a dark full moon crest. Locking into place, the interior of the dial began to change into a set of stone steps spiraling down into the ground deep below. Serana trotted up to the steps, grinning out. "Very clever, mother. I'm beginning to understand why you spent so much time out here." To Be Continued...