Nyx PoV.

Elder Scroll's Easter Egg

The evening was young. Wyll and Karlach were regaling everyone with tales of battle against fiends, monsters, and men. Nyx is craving to get away from the crowd. She pops by her tent to drop off her backpack. She returns to the campfire with her quiver on her back and bow in hand.

Gale sees her, "Off hunting then?"

She nods lifting her bow.

"What is the master hunter's predictions for supper?", he continued.

She smirked at the 'master hunter' part as she was sure there are others more qualified for that title.

"I'm thinking deer. There is a good deal of tracks to suggest that they are plentiful around here."

"Venison. An excellent choice.", Gale commented, "I've just the herbs to go with that."

Karlach asked with a raised eyebrow, "Not taking Clive with you?"

Nyx explained with a shaking head and making hand gestures, "Only when absolutely necessary. Otherwise, he has been officially banned from my hunts. Far too often has he ruined perfectly good shots or scared the animal off with this foul loud mouth."

Chuckles and laughs came from around the campfire. Suddenly Wyll jumped up, his smile falling from his face and his body held tense.

"Hell's fire. She's coming.", he croaked through clenched teeth.

Everybody stiffened and looked at him wide-eyed. Flames spurt from the ground behind Nyx. Trailing a circle from two sides towards her. She lurched out of the way, nocking an arrow while she swerved around levelling it at whatever would appear inside. Wyll scrambled his way over as a half-fiend materialized within the circle. The horned creature turned her gaze onto Nyx.

"Such rude company you keep, Wyll. I'm even more disappointed."

Karlach recognizing her, "Gods dammit, anyone but her."

Nyx lowered her bow as the creature ignored Karlach and addressed Wyll directly.

"Wyll, you've been naughty.", she berated him like a child, "And you know what happens when you're naughty."

Tav intervened, asking who she was and why she's intruding upon the camp uninvited. Nyx backed up to give herself some more space from whatever personal exchange is taking place. The fiend identified herself as 'Mizora' and 'Wyll's infernal patron and font of his power'.

Ugh, devils. Their self-importance has no limits., Nyx wanted to roll her eyes, but kept them firmly locked on the fiend instead.

This 'Mizora' then proceeded to illustrate the extent of her power by belittling and reprimanding Wyll for not killing Karlach. It included 'yanking her misbehaving pet's chain' magically and chocking Wyll on an invisible leash. Wyll defended his choices by arguing that he'd been tricked into going after Karlach when their agreement was that he'll only hunt monsters, who in Karlach's case, she is not. Mizora further berated him by reciting the exact terms of their contract.

'The infernal, the demonic, the heartless and the soulless'; Karlach falling within the 'heartless' category by virtue of the infernal engine that glows visibly within her chest. The same engine that made her Zariel's most effective soldier. Zariel had sent Wyll to retrieve Karlach via Mizora.

Mizora suggested that he could still fulfil his contract by handing Karlach over, to which both Wyll and Tav disagreed severely. Judging by a few other expressions in the group, Nyx included, Karlach wasn't going anywhere with Mizora - not if they could prevent it. However, devils don't take kindly to being refused. Nyx dearly hoped that Wyll would not pay the ultimate price for that tonight.

Instead of killing or maiming Wyll outright, Mizora enclosed him in another magical circle and subjected his soul to the hells. Wyll cried out in pain as his soul passed through every layer of the hells. Such an ordeal leaves its mark on the soul. No one was able to do anything and had to haplessly watch as Wyll's physical form was altered by the ordeal. The torture ended and as he stood, Wyll's skin had taken on a red tint and horns sprouted from his head.

By the Abyss!, Nyx stared. Horrified at what she'd done to him.

Mizora seemed pleased at the result of her handiwork and Wyll demanded to know what she'd done. She sighed and suggested he get used to his new devilish form as its irreversible. She mocked him again, stating that his debt has been collected and that their pact still stands. She promptly saw herself out in another blaze of fire. Wyll retreated to his tent before Tav and Karlach could speak to him. They all took a moment to process what had just transpired.

Tav told the others to give Wyll some space and to continue as usual. He'll come round in his own time. Nyx's respect for Tav and her ability to handle each of these types of situations grew.

I really need to hunt. Clear my head and forget about all this for a while, Nyx set out into the forest.

---

Nyx was crouched behind a fallen tree, eyes intent on a deer nearby. Carefully she drew herself up onto her knees, slowly taking aim with her bow. She lined up a kill shot when suddenly another deer burst from the underbrush behind her. She yelped, flailing backwards into the fallen tree. The deer bleated in response as its momentum threatened to crash itself into her. It jumped at the last minute, hooves barely missing Nyx's face as she ducked her head, arms wrapped around her bow. It cleared the tree stump, and she watched it dash off into the night along with her own deer. Before she could let out an irate breath, she heard something else behind her. She turned to see Astarion burst from the same underbrush, and he halted the second they made eye contact.

They regarded each other for a heartbeat. His body was held tight, his shoulders tensed and pupils dilated.  She realized he had been in pursuit of the fleeing deer. She didn't know what to do, so they just stared at each other. She could see him register her presence and his body relaxed minutely, his pupils contracting. She took a breath to speak, but he was faster.

"You idiot! You scared if off completely!", he said, flinging his hands in the air and melodramatically dropped onto his knees.

She sat upright against the log, affronted at being accused of scaring off his deer when he is the one who scared off hers!

Wait, her gears started turning, Why was he chasing after the deer anyway? He was there when I said I'd get one for dinner.

He looked rather miserable sitting on his knees scowling into the dark. Realization dawned on her as too many clues to his behaviour aligned with Clive's theory.

So he is a vampire.

Something lightly stung her forehead, seems the deer had clipped her, feeling a small cut with her fingers. She healed the cut absent-mindedly. She wiped the small amount of blood from her forehead with the fingers of her right hand and looked at it. Astarion made a strangled noise.

Oh shit, she again remembered his potential disposition and froze.

He was staring at her hand, its fingers glistening with blood. His eyes darted to hers momentarily and she glimpsed the raw hunger in them. Another memory comes to her between heartbeats.

This is not the first time she is face-to-face with one of his kind. Her previous encounter was with a vampire lord who had gone crazy with hunger and bloodlust, due to being sealed away in a tomb for a century. She barely escaped with her life then.

Yet looking upon Astarion now is different somehow. He had the same cardinal hunger in his eyes, but he seemed - restrained, unlike the mad vampire lord. She put two-and-two together. She took a slow breath to speak.

"You're starving, aren't you?", she asked trying to sound casual and keeping still.

He seemed to snap out of his reverie to look her in the eyes proper.

He looked away with a wave of his hand, "I have no idea what you're talking about, darling.", he tried and failed to deflect the question.

Nyx moved quickly and stuck her fingers in her gums. Mostly to get rid of the dangerously triggering stuff, but also to prove the point. He raised himself off his quarters and seemed to want to stop her, but froze the moment she had her fingers in her mouth. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he sagged back onto his legs looking defeated.

She said around her fingers, "You're a vampire". It was more of a statement than a question. She wiped her fingers off on her pants.

He huffed looking up at the forest canopy and drawled, "Yes, I'm a vampire.", then quickly looked at her and added defensively, "But I'm not some sort of monster."

To that Nyx could agree, he's hardly a feral mindless animal and she knew true monsters, including those in her head. Most of the time he behaves himself more like an arrogant jerk than a monster. She considered him for a moment, he was becoming agitated under her gaze.

She offered, "I could bring you something."

"No, I don't need your pity.", he snapped baring his fangs in a hiss.

She gave him a flat look. "It's not about pity. It's about survival.", she replied evenly not falling for the attempt at intimidation. He didn't seem impressed with the answer.

"No. You'll likely bleed the animal out before I could even get to it.", he stated annoyed. Nyx was sure that wasn't the case, but if he insists on letting his ego get in the way. She shifted and slowly stood up, keeping an eye on him. She crossed her arms and considered leaving him to it, but the memory of the mad vampire lord wouldn't leave her.

She recalled that he had been an aristocrat of some sort, found out and sealed away by the local town’s people. Abandoned to a fate worse than death.

It's not right, vampire or not. I won't even do that to a rabid animal.

Besides this is Astarion she's referring to - from her perspective she considers him a person first and foremost, not only a vampire. She won't be able to live with herself if she left now. It would be callous and cruel. She groaned while throwing her head back, arms falling to her sides.

What am I doing?

"What do you need?", she asked him before she could think better of it.

He glowered at her, but she stood her ground. Realizing that she meant what she said, his expression became incredulous.

"I", he started taken aback, "I just need a little blood. Then, I'll be able to fend for myself."

"Alright, so how do we go about giving you some of mine without me turning into a vampire spawn come the morrow?"

He looked at her in disbelief, then barked a laugh.

"Too precious! No, my dear. I'm the spawn here.", he placed a hand on his chest and continued.

"There's no chance of you turning into one.", he seemed to be less annoyed and more amused. He suggested, "Why don't you lie down and make yourself comfortable? I'll do the rest.", gesturing with both palms up in a sweeping motion to the grass before him.

"Ha!", her turn to laugh.

She waved her hand and shook her head, "Not happening. That's far too compromising. I'm already taking a big risk here.", she explained.

He glared at her again. Before he could formulate a retort, she started to roll up her left sleeve. She walked over to him and sat cross-legged next to him. They were facing opposite directions. She turned to her left and offered the now bare wrist to him, sleeve rolled up to the elbow. He stared at her in disbelief again.

"No laying down. No necks. We do this my way.", she said, squarely looking him in the eye, and he gingerly took her arm. He wrapped slender fingers around the back of her hand and arm. He breathed in her scent, pupils dilating again and as he brought her arm up to his mouth. She braced herself and scrunched her face as he sunk his fangs into her without any hesitation.

The sensation is similar to being stabbed with tiny knives, Nyx supposed, Once you get over the initial shock of someone biting into you... it's surprisingly bearable.

He turned her arm upwards into his mouth more, wrapping his lips around half her wrist and started sucking. The angle of it was a tad uncomfortable as her elbow was complaining about being bent in the wrong way.

What am I doing?, she thought to herself again as she watched him feed.

He had a slight frown in his expression, like he's concentrating almost. A few heartbeats passed and she decided that it was enough.

"Astarion.", she said in the same firm tone she uses with Clive.

He didn't respond, he seemed all to enthralled in the process. She shook his shoulder.

''Astarion!" she tried once more, and he simply grasped her harder.

He seemed to be gaining strength at an alarming rate in comparison to a few moments ago. He had her in a vice grip. She could feel anxiety creeping up her spine and her breathing becoming rapid as he didn't let go.

She was starting to feel lightheaded. Her magic began to raise its hackles and she gripped her hunting knife at her back with her right hand. But for some reason she decided to try once more to get through to him without participating in the bloodletting. Potentially making things worse.

If he doesn't respond, knife and magic it is.

She readied herself, removing her hand from her knife.

She leaned forwards, bringing her bare right hand up to his head. She flicked his ear with her thumb and middle finger.

He startled out of his blood spell, eyes wide, and she snatched her arm away. He followed the motion and watched through a haze as she quickly healed the wound like she did before. She promptly wiped the blood from her skin using her right hand and rubbed it off on the grass. Only then did he look up at her, she had been gauging his reaction the entire time. He blinked, cleared his throat, and stood blinking some more.

"That was, amazing.", he said onto her.

She remained seated and looked up at him. She gestured to her own face.

"You got a little something there.", pointing with her fingers to the side of her mouth.

He licked the side of his mouth, tasting her blood again. Nyx watched as he eagerly swiped the remainder into his mouth. Sucking with delight at his fingertips.

Wow, that is... unsettling, she thought.

He tilted his head to one side, "Did you, flick my ear?", he half-heartedly accused her again.

"You were getting carried away.", she was trying not to let her voice betray her anxiety.

"I, uh. Sorry about that, darling.", he replied in a casual way as though they were taking about the weather.

"It was either that or my knife.", she admitted as a warning.

He looked down at her in shock, recovered quickly, then grinned one of his wicked grins. "Not a skittish little faun after all.", his usual lull returning.

"Come closer and I'll show you.", she shot back at him harried, without thinking it through properly. She must have lost all the blood to her brain it seems.

What am I doing?!

He seemed to actually consider that for a moment. Her anxiety not liking it one bit.

"As delightful as you are, my dear. I'd rather not have a knife in my ear, if it's all the same to you.", he purred sardonically.

She kept her mouth shut, lest it make stupid comebacks again.

"Now, darling, if you'd excuse me. I'm going to look for something more, filling.", he stated with a predatory grin.

She nodded and motioned with her hand to the forest, adding to it her usual greeting, "Good hunting then."

His pupils dilated for a brief moment again as he looked down at her.

She wanted to smack herself. Stupid mouth. Stop that!

He turned to leave, pausing for a moment, and said over his shoulder, "This is a gift you know. I won't forget it."

She clenched her teeth to ensure no other sarcastic quips escaped again. She watched as he sauntered off.

She sat in the dark for a few more heartbeats until the forest sounds replaced her pounding heart in her ears.

Abyss take me! What the hells was I thinking?, she breathed slowly to ease the last of her anxiety. He could have very easily killed her, and she's not convinced her knife would have saved her that time.

But he didn't. He did stop, albeit reluctantly.

Nyx reminded herself that he is a vampire after all, and it would be in his nature to be slow of hearing while feeding, especially when starving. She blew out a breath, looking around, subconsciously rubbing her left wrist. She blinked away some of her own haze and tried to get her own blood starved brain to work again. She'll head back to camp and figure out a way to get rid of the aftereffects of being bled out.

Willingly. By a vampire no less.

Her own hunt will have to wait.

On her return to camp, she dug through her old natural medicine notebooks. She had succeeded in finding a potion to assist with the aftereffects of the bloodletting. It was a potion created long ago by the head of her nomadic group. She is sure it was not exactly intended for the use Nyx had in mind, but it cleared her head and made her feel less faint. It was good enough to allow her to complete her deer hunt and keep her title as 'master hunter'. She was a bit lightheaded after dinner though, and retired to her tent early to sleep the rest of it off.

---

Sleep was most welcome. Unfortunately, Nyx was on a hunt of a different kind later during her slumber. A hunt that needed to take place sooner rather than later.

"This will go a lot easier if you'd stop squirming!", Nyx said into the gloom.

The tadpole's presence responded by fleeing to another corner of her mind. She huffed, this was getting tedious, besides she is well acquainted with her own mental landscape it can't hide from her. It didn't take long for her to find it again.

It had fled into one of her memories; one of the many places she had travelled. A forest near her home village. She thought it rather rude and invasive for it to have so much free reign in her mental kingdom. Not to mention the holes it created in her mental and magical defences. Its presence hovered over a nearby stream and as Nyx approached it, it shifted its form.

Nyx scowled as she looked upon the almost ten-year old's face again.

"The audacity! How dare you use Nyala's face against me!", she spat at it.

"It's the only way to get you to stop!", it countered with anger in a fisted stance not belonging to the Nyala she remembered. "I don't want to be locked away! Leave me alone!", the little girl demanded.

"You are not Nyala and I'm not arguing with a parasite!", Nyx gritted through her teeth.

"Let me go! Or else I'll, I'll", Nyx could feel it going through her mind to find something it could use. Her mind hummed with the psionic activity of the tadpole as it tore into her memories. Her memories of Nyala were closest to the surface, and it ripped them up from their roots.

The little girl breathed out and a self-satisfied smile split her face.

"Or else I'll eat all the good memories of Nyala and leave you with those that torment you the most."

Fury started to brim inside of Nyx. She will not be manipulated in this way!

She gritted through her teeth in a snarl, "There is nothing you can do that'll make me submit. Not to the likes of you. Not to the likes of her."

The ghost of whispered voices drifted up from Nyx's memories: I will find you again, I always do.

The riverside scene faded away and became replaced by a sentient stalking darkness. The little girl's smile vanished as she heard the whispered voices. She looked around, disturbed by them and the darkness they brought. Nyx released the tension in her body.

"Good. You seem to understand that there are other monsters here, besides you and me. Demons that have awakened because of you. Creatures who wish to harm me. Just. Like. You.", she stated without emotion and pointed at the girl who looked at her distressed.

"But I'm not like them! Not like their mistress. I'm not like her!", the little girl pleaded, growing more frantic with every statement.

"Yet you take what does not belong to you, and use my nature against me!", Nyx countered, and the little girl's eyes started to tear up, clenching her fists to her chest. Nyx reached for the same techniques and memories she uses to seal away the black tendrils.

Nyx finished, "You are exactly like them", and she wrapped the sobbing girl in layers of her magic to seal it away.

Tears welled up in Nyx’s own eyes at hearing Nyala's scared voice crying with fear. As the sounds echoed through her mind, she had to keep reminding herself that it wasn't Nyala.

After sealing the tadpole's presence away, Nyx fell to her knees. But she could still hear the little girl's whimpers. Too close and too loud. The seal doesn't seem to work as well on the tadpole's influence.

"Hopefully, it'll be enough.", she whispered to herself in a broken voice looking up at the receding darkness.

Enough to keep the black tendrils and their mistress at bay. Enough for my mind to remain my own.