AUTHORS NOTE: This story strays a bit off of the path of the main Oblivion quest, my character finds her own ways of solving the Oblivion Crisis and yadda yadda, anyways. I hope you like it.
Part One Summary:
After six months of being gone, the citizens of the Shivering Isles trick their Lord into returning to end a dispute between two rival blacksmiths. After being educated by her Chamberlain on the Oblivion gates in Cyrodiil, with the help of her chamberlain and the aid of another Deadric Prince, Karja follows a path that the Emperor did not set before her.
The Madgod's two Halves
Pt. One - God in Training
Chapter One: Lady Karja
"I'm almost out of lockpicks" Karja whispered as she heard her lockpick snap as a tumbler came down upon it like a death sentence.
"Perhaps those bandits had some on them" said Keen, her summoned Dark Seducer guard.
"Maybe" Karja said looking over her shoulder at two bandits her and Keen had wasted and left to be rat food. "Could you check them please?"
"Yes, my Lord" Keen walked over as Karja attempted the bolt on the large wooden door with another pick, it snapped in half just as quickly as the other one had.
"How much time would you say you have left?" she asked as Keen searched the pockets and bags of the two dead cave-dwellers.
"Three hours" Keen replied. She rose from the bodies and handed Karja what she had found. A silver dagger, three lockpicks, and a healing potion.
"Thank god" Karja whispered reaching for the potion. "I'm all out of potions and ingredients" she popped the stopper off of the bottle and chugged the potion down.
"Your wounds aren't bad, you should have saved it for later" Keen suggested, she took one of the lockpicks and decided give it her own attempt. Karja sat down against the greenish rock of the cavern crossing her legs.
"Are you hurt at all?" she asked. Keen shook her head.
"Well…just in case" Karja conjured a bright blue orb of light into her hand and pressed it into Keen's shoulder, her body sparkled a bit before returning to it's normal image.
"Thank you my Lord" Keen said as she worked with the lock.
"You really don't have to call me your Lord…I'm really not, I'm sure Sheogorath will return to the Isles and reclaim the throne, aren't I just a stand-in for right now?"
"No, Karja, Sheogorath…" she let out a grunt and made a tricky maneuver with the lockpick and the lock clicked open. She turned the Karja. "is gone, he and Jyggalag were the same person, when you killed Jyggalag you killed him"
"…but saved the isles" Karja repeated sadly, she and Keen had had this conversation before many times. Karja stood up and opened the door, peering in carefully to make sure there wasn't anyone or anything in there.
"I can't see" she whispered. Keen knelt down and rummaged through Karja's bag on the floor. "There are two Night-eyes and one life detect" she told the Dunmer standing above her.
"That's all the potions I have left?" Karja whispered.
"Correct" Keen replied handing her the potions. "But I'm sure if there were something in there they would have heard us." Karja took a sip and squinted as she felt her eyes tingle, she started to make out shapes and forms within the room, which was not at all big. There was a rough rock wall and a raised carved platform in the center where a green glass coffin lay. She could almost make out the form inside. She took a sip of life detector potion.
"There it is" she whispered, talking another sip. She drew her fang from the sheath at her side; the gem in the handle was red, the sword had different effects depending on whether the sun was out or not.
"It's morning" Karja noted stepping into the room, the night eye was in full effect and she could see things just as clearly as if it were daytime, but with a rather green tint to them. She walked cautiously toward the coffin, Keen walking closely behind her brandishing her war axe. Before nearing the coffin, Karja took a good look around the room to make sure nothing was hiding anywhere, she'd often run into hidden traps and secret hiding places before in caverns. The potion wasn't showing anything alive nor undead in the cave. She sheathed the fang and hurried over to the coffin.
"Help me" she whispered slipping her fingers under the glass cover of the coffin, Keen lifted at the other end and together they slowly lowered the lid to the rocky ground, Karja looked inside at the glass skeleton, legend said the elf which the skeleton belonged to had been struck by lightning, and his skeleton turned to glass, he was put in a glass coffin and hidden away in this backwater cave. She hesitated then reached down toward the skull, detached it from the rest of the body and tucked it under her arm.
"Let's go" she whispered walking toward the door, Keen followed her quietly and together they exited the room.
"Hmmmm" S'krivva hummed examining the glass skull. As if Karja had simply made one and given her a fake. "That was quick"
"There were only two bandits inside the caverns…I thought there would be more of a guard…then again, the door was locked tightly, maybe they'd never even been able to get in there themselves."
"Did Keen open the door for you?" S'krivva guessed, pawing gently at the top of the skull.
"No, Keen's been in the Isles, I can't summon her again until midnight tonight"
"Harla?" the Khajiit woman interrogated.
"She can't pick locks very well…and Drem…well, he's not very intelligent" she laughed. S'krivva smiled looking at the glass skull and set it down on the counter before her. She arose from her stool and walked over to a drawer in the sitting room. Karja followed her.
"Well, whether or not you had outside help doesn't matter Karja, you got the skull so here's your reward" She handed her a small leather sack of 300 septims.
"Thank you very much" Karja responded gratefully. "I'll be at the Lonely Suitor if you have anymore assignments"
Karja locked the door to her room at the Lodge and turned toward a mirror leaning against the wall, her horse riding pants and a baggy cloth tunic were all she had on, she looked over at the dresser, which had her madgod regalia sitting on top of it, various things were spread about her room, four quivers filled with arrows were laid out on the floor at the foot of her bed, three bows, two of which had snapped strings leaned against the walls, her fang, golden longsword, various other blades and a worn staff were leaning against the wall. The fang had various nicks and scratches on it and the longsword's blade seemed to be bent at slight angle, not to mention her two unusable bows. It was time for a trip to the smith, everything else she could repair herself, it was the magic weapons she hadn't mastered yet.
She sighed walking over to the small dresser and pulled the long purple and golden dress off, and held it out before her, she walked to the mirror on the other side of the room and held it close to her body, to see what she might look like in it, her bright red hair stood out among the outfit, then again her hair stood out among anything. She sighed and laid it down on the bed. She walked to the window and peered out at the lake where the door to the isles still glowed in the distance, she had demanded a room with a view of the lake. She was quite overdo for a visit, Haskill had recommended that she return there once every two months, it had been six. She hadn't gone back since she'd killed Jyggalag. She sighed and collapsed on the weak mattress. She closed her eyes, exhausted. Her thoughts were revolving around the Isles, and someone important she'd left there. On top of that the Amulet of Kings still sat in her large traveling sack on the floor, she'd yet to visit Weynon Priory. She'd gone as far as Chorrol before she'd had a terrifying dream; she had forgotten most of it except a fraction of a message that was given to her during the dream: If you return the Amulet of Kings it will fall…
Something was trying to tell her not to return the amulet? She had no idea what the dream had meant, but she hadn't gone near Chorrol or Weynon Priory since then, which was about a year ago. It had been a whole three years since the emperor died, meaning before she even had the dream she'd been putting it off for at least two years. Besides the siege at Kvatch, Cyrodiil seemed to be doing fine.
Karja had been 13 when she stole a whole 3000 gold off a guard who had been sleeping on duty. Her parents were both dead so she was an orphan, she needed a way to get by. She'd spent two years in jail before she escaped with the emperor and he had given her the Amulet of Kings. By then she was old enough to join certain factions, the fighter's guild was her first stop, and there she got training in combat and rewards of gold and weapons for each successful mission. Possessing the amulet seemed to give her extreme good luck, so she was afraid of letting it go. But her guilt got to her more than the luck did and eventually she headed off for Chorrol to return it, on the way she'd had that horrifying dream. Soon afterwards, the door to the Shivering Isles opened. She couldn't contain her curiosity and braved whatever was beyond the great mass of pure light. She'd spent two years there, saved an entire realm and became a Deadric Princess. It'd been half a year since she'd left the Isles, she'd joined another faction, the Dark Brotherhood, and was occasionally taking on jobs for her old Thieves Guild steward, S'krivva, who had become somewhat of a mother figure to her. She was occasionally called upon due to an overwhelming amount of requests and a dwindling amount of thieves.
2
Karja held all her broken weapons in her arms and held them out to the smith in Bravil, who let out a stressful sigh.
"I hope you weren't planning on going anywhere soon" the smith told her. "This will take awhile"
"No, I can stay in town…how much do you estimate that will be?" the smith took the weapons from her and laid them out on a nearby table, he examined them carefully.
"Well…I'd say about three hundred septims for each sword, and about 150 for each bow…so lets see that's…900 septims"
"Including recharging?" she asked.
"One thousand and fifty including recharging"
"Dammit" she swore. "That was my horse money"
"Thought you had a horse?" he asked leaning against the table.
"I do but, she hasn't been doing well…she was old to begin with that's why she was so cheap, but she's been in a lot of battles, I was going to give her to the mages guild in Skingrad, that way the stables wouldn't kill her and maybe they'd be able to work a little magic on the poor old thing…"
"And you need to get your weapons repaired" the smith told her. "You'll be fine without a horse for a little bit, but I worry about you going out and doing – whatever it is you need these beasts for" he gestured toward the swords and bows. Karja nodded, and thought for a moment.
"Alright, fix them up" she told him. "I guess I can stick with my current horse for now"
The townspeople did not take kindly to the tall and monstrous Drem, the Flesh Atronach, and the dark and mysterious Keen, who talked to no one besides Karja made them hardly more comfortable, so Karja only summoned them outside of city gates. Currently, Karja walked toward the Bravil city gates, with two large leather sacks in her arms, the Golden Saint Harla next to her carrying a couple of sacks herself. Her bright appearance and better attitude was more welcoming to the town.
"I can't take Lotus on many more trips" she confided to the stoic saint walking along side her. The smith had just finished with the repairs, so she was now going to take a trip to Cheydinhal
"You could always walk" Harla suggested in her echoing voice.
"I have assignments I need to get done quickly, walking will take too long" Karja reminded her guard. They reached the city gate and the guard pulled open the door for her, she thanked him and walked through, her eyes set on the stables down the road.
"You have plenty of gold in the Isles" Harla reminded her as they traveled down the dirt road. "An unlimited amount"
"I know" Karja responded, her voice hesitant, as if going back to the isles was a last resort.
"And Haskill is getting angry"
"Is he?"
"He believes you've abandoned us" Harla informed.
"That isn't true!" Karja exclaimed. "How could I abandon the Isles? I just want to spend some time here for awhile"
"Making a visit wouldn't hurt, and besides, I thought there was someone –"
"Please, Harla, I'll go back to the Isles when I'm ready"
"You don't want to face him" Harla accused. Karja hitched her bag up onto her shoulder.
"You're being out of line" She told the golden figure as they reached the stables.
"You only say that when I bring up a topic your afraid of" Harla said. Karja ignored her, and approached an Altmer sitting on the porch of the main stable house.
"Ah" the woman said standing up. "I got your message, Lotus is saddled to your specifications, I trust you plan on making a trip?"
"Yes" Karja replied as Harla left her side to open the corral and pack up the saddle bags with Karja's belongings.
"To where?" the woman asked, Altmer had no qualms about sticking their noses into other peoples business.
"Cheydinhal" she answered walking into the corral to help Harla transfer everything onto the horses saddle bags.
"What sends you all the way to Cheydinhal?" the woman asked following her.
"Trade" lied Karja. "There's a particular item I'm looking for, Bravil doesn't have it, and neither does the Market District"
"What would that be?" poked the Altmer.
"You ask too many questions, Altmer" Karja informed the nosy elf. She sheathed two swords into the saddle and hopped on. Harla finished packing the rest of the items.
"Will that be all, my Lord?" Karja nodded and Harla faded from view.
"Have a good trip" the Altmer said, her arms crossed tightly, offended by Karja's remark.
Lotus whinnied as a troll lumbered onto the path before them, it charged at them and Karja pulled a bow from her back and knocked an arrow, she aimed carefully and let the arrow fly, it caught the troll right in the forehead and the beast jerked backward and lay dead on the trail, Lotus and Karja rode on by as if nothing had happened. The moon was high above their heads illuminating the landscape around them, Cheydinhal drew nearer, they'd been traveling all day and Karja had expected to make it there by at least midnight.
Karja stopped Lotus for awhile so the horse could rest and she could search the area for potion ingredients, picking them herself saved the trouble of buying them and having to haggle with tricky store proprietors, since she was young, many of them thought they could outsmart a couple extra septims off of her, they were poorly mistaken. Her mentors, especially S'krivva, had taught her more than just expert thievery and combat but good mercantilism as well. Not only could she make excellent potions but she could sell them for exactly what they were worth, and right now she needed the extra money, she only had about 2000 gold left, about three thousand shy of the amount she'd need to by the horse she had her eyes set upon, not to mention inn and food expenses.
Once her bag was full she tied it to her belt and hopped back onto Lotus, and headed for Cheydinhal.
After stabling the horse she took one of the saddle bags off and slung it over her shoulder and headed toward for the city gate. The guard was sleeping on duty so she muscled the door open herself. She walked down the nearly citizen-less path to the Inn, where she pulled open the door and stepped in, closing it quietly behind her.
"Karja, I haven't seen you here in awhile" the proprietor yawned getting up from his chair. Karja fumbled around in her back and pulled out twenty gold.
"Just a room for the night" she told him.
"You know where to go" he yawned accepting the money and sitting back down. Karja nodded and walked up the stairs toward the vacant rooms at the Inn. She pushed open the unlocked door and closed it gently behind her. She set the giant saddle bag onto the bed and opened it up, she pulled out a set of black, leather armor with a dark read hood, she removed her blue laced shirt and pulled on the top of the shrouded armor, as soon as she put it on she could feel it's enchantment effect her body. Once she had the whole suit on she pounded her feet into the boots and laced them up. She then rummaged through her bag a little more and pulled out a small ebony ring and slipped it on her finger, to her own eyes she remained partially visible, but to everyone else she was almost completely unnoticeable unless she made sudden movements. She checked to make sure everything was in place and then re-shouldered her bow and sheathed the fang, the gigantic gem in the middle of the hilt was glowing blue now. Karja walked to the window and opened it, she poked her head out and searched the area before hopping out and landing nimbly on the ground. She stood and swept the area once more with her eyes before walking around the corner of the lodge and making her way down the street. She arrived at an old abandoned house. She took another paranoid look around the area before slipping into the back yard and pulling a key out of a side pocket on her armor. She walked over to a tattered looking old way and peered inside, it appeared as though the last person in had left it unlocked so she pocketed her key and lifted the grate, she held it up with one hand and lowered herself into the well, making sure her feet properly found the right steps, she slowly lowered the grate and began descending the ladder.
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Picture of Karja battling an imp on my DeviantART, link in my profile