Chapter I
The House of the Old Woman

It was around eleven at night and raining when I arrived at the city gates of Chorrol. I was summoned to the Arborwatch estate, where my business lay in waiting. There a dying woman need her tale told and I, a traveling scholar, was summoned as her scribe. Her name was Madeleine Draconis and she was the last surviving Draconis family member. As she was married, she took her husband’s name as her own, but her life remind unchanged. My life’s work has been trying to find out the identity and life of the notorious murder known only as Neromorti. His name itself is driven from the Betonic words for Black Death. Neromorti’s life has been shrouded in mystery and myth. Now for the first time in my life I had the chance to hear from the only person, still a live, who meet the infamous Neromorti. With her help, I can finally get a good footing in my research of this dark minded creature.
As I arrived at the house, I was soaked due to the rain pouring down the whole day. I was greeted at the door by one of her servants. He looked young, around eight-teen or so. His hair was sandy blond, and by the look of him, he was a Breton. He opened the door for me, and not saying word handed me over to the senior servant who greeted me with a kind smile. The senior servant was a Nord looking around sixty or so with his hair tied up into a ponytail.
“My name is Malcon, and I’m the butler in charge here, servant to her Lady Maldoni-layfan.” Said the Nord with a smile.
“Her Ladyship is expecting me.” I said as the boy took my cloak and hung it over the fireplace to dry.
“I know, now it is very late and her ladyship needs her sleep sir.” said Malcon. “She very I’ll you know.”
“Yes, I heard that she has what her husband had two years ago, is that correct?” I asked Malcon as he led me up the stairs to one of the rooms.
“Yes, sadly the Mages guild can find no cure for it.” Malcon said, as he lead me up to the end of the hall, “I’ll introduce you to her, then I’ll show you to your room.” I said thank you and he opened the door leading to Madam Layfan’s room.
The room was dark and only a few meting candles lighted up the room. Madam Layfan lied in her bed, arms cross over her chest and breathing very hard. There was a desk with a chair near her bedside, which I assumed was for me. All round the room lay empty veils of potions used to keep back her illness and prolong her life. Green lung was what she had, a terrible illness which causes moss like germs to grow in your lungs, thus killing you over time due to suffocation. However, even though it is fatal to the barer, it can only pass on through the blood and thus is very rare.
“She looks asleep, we should let her get some much needed rest.” Said Malcon in a low whisper.
“Malcon, who is this young gentleman, is he the scribe I asked for?” said the dying woman with a strong and firm voice. It startled me for hear a voice did not seem to fit Madam Layfan’s situation.
“Yes, this is he, Arthem Maxis madam.” Said Malcon. I bowed before her ladyship as I was brought up in the household of a gentleman, and thus showed my respect.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it here earlier my lady, but the rain slowed things up for me.” I said holding my bags, one with my writing equipment and the other with my luggage.
‘Better late then never, come quickly, we should get started right away.” Said Lady Layfan sitting up in her bed. For a dying woman, Lady Layfan seemed to be determined and strong.
“My Lady, I don’t think at this hour you should try to recite your life tale to Mr. Maxis at this hour of night.” Malcon said insisting that I retire to my quarters and begin in the morning.
“Time is of the essence, and I have to little of it.” Madam Layfan said, “Malcon I think Mr. Maxis and I shall have some tea.” Malcon bowed his head and walked out the door. Layfan told me to sit at the desk. Soon Malcon and the younger servant I saw earlier came into the room. Malcon two cups of tea freshly poured and the boy came up with the teapot. We said our thank you’s and Malocn took my suitcase out of the room and brought it to mine, down the hall. The door closed and we began the tale of Madam Layfan.
“So” Madam Layfan said with up most anticipation, “please tell me why you have come Mr. Maxis.” I sat in the wooden chair pulling out some parchment and my quill readying myself for her words. Now, the one must understand, Madam Layfan, knew nothing of my true intentions. What I wrote in the letters, building up to this meeting, only mentioned that I wish to record Lady Layfan’s life down so I may compile it into a book called the “The Lives of the People of Cyrodiil”. When Lady Layfan asked her question I be came startled.
“I have come to record your life down in text.” I said sipping my tea. “I will compile it with other stories from other people, both high and low, old and young. I though I my letter explained this.” Lady Layfan sat in her bed, her eyes looking down into her tea as if she drifted out into some other world. She cam back to me still looking down into the dark abyss of the tea.
“Yes, but why me, an old dying woman.” She said.
“Because you wish to have your story written down.” I said knowing that she had asked us scribes before to do. “You have asked for scribes before, but no one has answered you. Is that correct Madam?” Lady Layfan look put at me, her aged eyes looking into mine trying to find a answered.
“My maiden name, you may know or not, is Draconis.” The room became child as the smooth sound of rain hit the windows of the house. “Many scribes do not dare come to write my story, because of the reputation I have for telling a lie; The lie of which I am most famous for. I know you know of this?”
At this moment, I knew that Lady Layfan knew my intentions. “There is no need to use secrecy, young Maxis. Many have tried to learn if the story I told is the truth and I tell you now that it is. So if you have come to judge me as a untruthful woman and disgrace my family name, I will have none of you.” Her eyes looked deep into mine. I knew that she had figured me out, but intentions, what to do with the information was different. I knew that if I had any chance of success, I would have to tell her.
“I have come to learn not if the story is true, but what happened.” I told her trying to clear the knot in my throat. “How did you escape, Neromorti?” The air turned cold and an eerier silence came between us as if the name itself was tabooed.
“Neromorti.” Lady Layfan said softly. Thunder rolled across the house to the sound of his name.
“My Lady, I have come not to judge you. Ever since I was a little boy, Neromorti has always interested me, I wish to find him and try to understand who he is in truth, to separate the legend from reality. I need your help to do so.” Lady Layfan looked at me in astonishment.
“Why me? There are surly more people in this world more qualified then life to who deal with personalities and the dark mined then me.” Layfan said sipping her tea softly.
“I don’t need assessments from mages and other various experts who never meet the monster in their life.” As I spoke those words, Layfan seemed to understand my intentions and acknowledge my feelings toward the subject. “You are the only living person alive who meet Neromorti. Now tell me your story on how you escaped him.” I sat their quill ready with ink and paper laying in waiting. Lady Layfan, started to laugh. It was very unsettling and then she started to cough. She put down her tea and grabbed her handkerchief. Soon she spit out a chunk of green moss out of her lungs. Along with phlegm and blood, it was a nasty site to behold. She, embarrassingly, hid her handkerchief under her bedcovers and then she helped herself to some tea, and continued as if nothing happened. “I didn’t escape from Neromorti and nor did he try to hurt me. In fact he was my friend and more then such at times.” I looked at her as she spoke in bewilderment. “He was my brother, well adopted brother at that.”
“Brother?’ then he must be over one-hundred years old.” I sated in disbelief.
“Neromorti was a vampire you know.” Said Layfan. “Age has no arm on him.”
“You lived with a vampire? How?” I asked. Lady Layfan Looked at me with a competed smile of reinsurance. She cleared her throat.
“Let me tell you my story, but it might not be in good chronological order of events for the knowledge I know now, did not become clear to me until later on in my store and experience with Neromorti.” Said Layfan with a smile.
“I know, so I’ll take notes and go back a right the story the way you experienced it.” I said reinking my quill.
“Good” she said taking a sip of her tea one more time. “Let me begin.”