Introduction:
"The night is dark and full of terrors; but the light chases them away."
"Mother?" Came a weak squeak from the bed, an older Altmer woman who sat by the opened window looked in the direction the Child's bed, there laid a young small child, too small for a child her age, and of her race. The child had many features of the Altmer race, but there was something else there in her small dainty doll like face. 'Could my daughter have Nord or Imperial heritage, which might course through her blood; may that explain her stature?' The Altmer Noblewoman pondered. A thought that crossed her mind multiple times over the years.
The Child was pale, slightly golden skin, dark raven locks braided and tied beautifully on top of her head, a few of her curls fell around her full heart shaped face. Her abnormally wide pale green eyes now bloodshot-framed with long thick black eyelashes still damp with the earlier tears of finding out that she was not a true member of the Nemia clan, under her eyes were puffy and red with tear stained cheeks.
She was only nine years old, not much smaller than a human child and much smaller than a regular Altmer child-but despite her age and her size she was much more intelligent than a human child, and even the other Altmer children. She was such a joy to the house, always making the servants and the immediate family smile and laugh, she never failed to amaze them with her beautiful nature, her charming smile, her laughter and wonderful sense of humour.
'A precious gem.' Lilina always thought she was the living embodiment of purity. Unfortunately now she was filled with sorrow and despair, all thanks to the Noblewoman's brother-in-law, Ganman, her husband's elder brother, shouting and raving that his younger brother was once again refusing in his brother's importing/exporting business offer.
In a fit of rage Ganman ranted on about Solomon's family holding him back, he gave up the rest of the family and the family's business to take care of his brood, became a simple Thane for the district's Jarl, moving away from the entire clan after making an ultimatum between the family or the runt that his wife found in the woods.
The child he spoke of was in the room, sitting on her mother's lap, reading a book quietly until she looked up shocked at her uncle's outburst as he pointed at her with spite and annoyance, making it clear he was displeased that his brother chose her over the rest of their family, broke them up, to this child. Lilina knew for a fact he was just using the child as an excuse; blame her for the Clan's rocky relationship; the brothers' rivalry with each other, the only way to truly hurt his brother was to hurt the apple of his eye, his daughter.
With that Lilina picked up the shocked child in her arms and ran her to the child's bedroom, trying to console the sobbing child with her sweet humming and lullaby's.
The Noblewoman leaned forward, reaching her hand out to stroke her child's face, even if she had not birthed the child she had found her as a new-born abandoned in the forest of her home district, Cloudrest forests just wrapped in a purple and rich red woven blanket with golden embroidery; By the divines her prayers were answered- praying for a baby girl after her two boys were born, Gantar and Ganllon. She had brought her home, and she was welcomed to their home and family almost immediately.
"What is it my Pixie Elf?" calling her by her nick name always seemed to calm the child. The woman angled her head, she had immense beauty, Lilina was envied by the other Altmer women. Her angular face and slim figure brought jealously to the female community; the girl always heard the servants and the groups of the other Noble Women in the Jarl's court revered her mother's beauty, her feminine charms and elegance.
Lilina, Gantar and Ganllon had a lightened golden skin tone, and all had pitch black hair, that is how the adopted child passed for one of Lilina's and Solomon's brood; however Gantar was only slightly more tanned than his mother and brother, he had his mother's green eyes whilst Ganllon was the exact shade of golden skin as his mother and had their father's amber eyes. The young child's mind had wondered into this thought for a moment, comparing herself to her adopted family's features, unaware that her mother was growing worried, "Sweet heart." Lilina's soft voice called; bringing the child out of her train of thought.
"What is it Alutia? Talk to your mama, darling." Alutia squirmed a little under her thin blankets, feeling slightly warm in the summer's night, even though there was a cool breeze drifted in through the opened window. "Mother, is it true?" the child whimpered tears brimming again. Lilina hesitated a moment, but nodded slowly; "Yes my love, it is." Alutia whimpered more as tiny tears rolled down her scrunched up face, eyes shut tight as the tears flowed quickly by the hurt. Lilina quickly embraced her child, "No matter what Ganman says, no matter what he tries to do, be strong, be brave, you are mine and your father's daughter, you are your brother's sister!" Lilina hissed through clenched teeth, loathing the son of a bitch, Gunman.
Alutia stopped whimpering, stopped her crying when she heard her mother's heartbeat, peeking up to her mother's face and saw her mother silently crying. Leaning forward Lilina kissed her child's head repeatedly humming and rocking back and forward soothing the tiny child in her arms. Alutia began to drift off slowly until she was beginning to fall into a deep slumber.
She could hear her mother's final words before going into the comfort of oblivion, "The night is dark and full of terrors; but the light chases them away….Goodnight my darling, sleep well…"
It all happened so fast. First there was darkness, she could feel the gentle breeze of the summer season, serene and harmony washed over her even in the darkness of her mind as she slept but then came the nightmares;
For a better way of explaining it; it was like an outer body experience, Alutia was standing by her bed watching her form sleep, watching the peace on her face, watching her chest rise and fall with every breath she took. She saw herself turn her head towards her, her brow furrowed and her eyes tightening like she was absorbed in confusion whilst her "spirit" felt nothing, numb, emotionless as she watched herself. The dying fire suddenly raged to life by itself snapping her to its attention, in the corner of her eye she saw her face shocked and fearful.
The fire was calling her. Drawing her in, welcoming her at the back of her mind, she treaded lightly towards the fire; coming so close, instead of feeling the scorching heat of the flames she felt nothing, just the tingling feeling on her "skin" as she reached for the fire, then actually placing her entire hand into the flames. Looking back towards her to see her face contort with confusion "Strange." She whispered to herself, her corporal form mouthed the words.
'Come.' She heard an eerily voice through the flames, snapping her head towards the fire to watch it part to a crack in the back of the hearth, a light shone through, stepping through the fire to the light she was blinded as the light shone bright, raising her hand to her face to shield her eyes from the lights direction, the light died quickly, lowing her hand eventually to see a stone wall in front of her with scripture scrawled on the surface she was not familiar with.
"Come, child." She heard the voice again, she was certain it was a man speaking to her, its voice masculine, low growls and the air started to fill like it was trembling at this voice. Alutia no longer felt numb, she felt confusion and tinged with fear. Her eyes focused on one particular scripture on the wall, the more she focused the more she could have sworn the scripture glowed…. drawn to this scripture she reached her hand forward, in the back of her mind she heard chanting, creeping up and growing louder and louder until she touched the scripture, something in her very core, the centre of her body snapped, began to heat up and burn.
Falling to her knees coughing, her throat sore, dry and scratchy, rubbing her arms thoroughly, trying to ease the prickling of her skin, rocking back and forward, trying to will the burning sensation in the pit of her stomach away.
"It's an unwelcome feeling, but that will pass within a few moments, trust me." Abruptly looking up to see a pair of dainty feet clad in dark metal armoured boots, her eyes traveling up from the spiked heeled boots to long shapely legs to a willowy form of a woman all clad in the dark shiny metal cuirass that fit the body perfectly, her face was obstructed by a helmet Alutia had never seen before.
Shaped like a mystical creature she had read in one of the court's wizard books one time, it was made with the same metal but with boned teeth under its moulding face like it was snarling and several bone horns pointing from the top of its head, two of which either side of the head curled forward and under its chin. The helmet completely concealed the woman's head and the Helmet's "chin" covered the base of her throat. A strange material similar to the texture of leather-black as night contrasted with the –or what looks like-red veins pulsing just under the helmet's "chin" following down under the woman's cuirass, Alutia notices that every opening of her armour was covered with this material.
Whoever the woman was, she was right, the feeling did pass, sitting up slowly, eyes swaying back from the helmet and the sword that adorned the woman's hips, watching the woman's hand resting on the bone handle, almost like she was caressing it with her thumb. "Don't worry; I'm not here to hurt you, Child." Alutia nodded, "Who are you?" she asked her throat still sore, so the words were hoarse. "I am a friend. No need for my name, young one, I no longer have a name to speak of." Alutia could sense a smile to the words; the woman's voice was pleasant, kind and soft, Alutia could hear her honesty. She nodded that she understood, she was not willing to push the subject of the woman. "I am Alutia Nemia, pleased to meet you." Raising her hand for a handshake, the woman nodded and took the young child's hand. "Likewise. young one." As soon the two greeted each other formally the air began to tremble again, began to thicken and the smell of rot and musk infiltrated Alutia's senses, causing to become dizzy and weak.
The woman immediately leant forward and quickly pushed the child against the wall, "Stay there, and do not move!" The woman snapped at her, pointing at her with her left hand, her right hand drawing her strange blade from its sheath on her lift hip, time seemed to slow down, everything was becoming blurred.
The last thing she saw was the woman charging towards a gigantic monster with large black wings swooping and circling around them drawing closer and closer, growling and snarling, the world went black….
Awakening from her slumber she hears the argument down the hall in the drawing room between her parents, her elder brothers and her uncle; their loud voices echoing off the walls traveling to her room, anger and hatred built up in her stomach.
Then she felt a curious heat build-up from her centre traveling upwards, getting warmer and warmer up to her throat, she had begun to feel nauseous, faint and the thought of being sick truck her mind…. the next thing Alutia knew she had opened her bedroom door, opening her mouth to call for her mother or someone only for a single world that left her mouth "Yol."
Fire blasted forth from her gaping mouth, eyes wide in shocked that the fire didn't burn her, throwing her hands to the base of her throat and snapping her mouth shut tight. The fire quickly engulfed the hall; the entire house became ablaze, in matter of seconds, running back into her bedroom slamming the door shut. Then the screams came from the servants and family members, feet running through the house, then the crashing of the wooden beams.
Loud footsteps made way to her bedroom; Alutia hurled herself up onto her bed; hands over her head as the bedroom door burst open Gantar, her elder brother, hurried her into his strong arms.
Glimpsing over his shoulder she noticed Ganman was behind Gantar, chanting and using his Magicka to create from his fingers a large blizzard of ice to combat the fire, managing to tame it for a time. "Hurry, let's get out of here, Gantar!" Ganman screamed over his shoulder, both men ran down the hall with Alutia in Gantar's arms-stopping from time to time to keep the blaze at bay until they finally managed to escape to the courtyard.
They ran further away from the house, both out of breath, Alutia curled into a ball, clutching onto her brother's shirt sobbing into it, shocked and confused by the sudden event, slowly becoming overwhelmed by tiredness and the dry sore feeling in her throat, she turned around to look for her parents for comfort, as she looked around she noticed something more disturbing, and thought of something frightening.
"Solomon?" called Ganman, looking around when he noticed that there were only three standing in his brother's field surrounding his manor house. Gantar too scanned the field, "Mother? Father? Ganllon!?" becoming hysteric the two men turned around to the Nemia manor to watch it burn and toppled down onto itself…the realisation hit all three of them, they were the only ones that survived the fire.
Gantar's legs felt weak under him, feeling completely and utterly numb physically but emotionally he was a wreak, devastated at the loss of his parents and younger brother, taking a few steps towards the fire he suddenly felt a hand on his right shoulder, slowly turning his head towards the hand his eyes meet his uncle's own devastated and angered filled eyes that brimmed with tears, Ganman slowly shook his head. Gantar's legs finally gave way and he fell onto his knees, tightening his arms around his sister subconsciously-squeezing her to him. Looking down Gantar met the eyes of his sister, the tiny bundle that looked so small, so frail, and so vulnerable in his arms.
A silent oath was made that night to his sister. He swore on their parent's souls that she would be protected, loved and cared for; even if it ultimately killed him. Alutia and Gantar kept their eyes locked; hesitantly Alutia broke the gaze to look at her homestead. Guilt and bile boiled and with a moment she hurled herself out of her brother's arms, crouching forward feeling her brother's hand on her back she gagged trying to reframe the motion but failed, spewing up her innards. Her sight blurred through her tears, her hair stuck to her face with the bile and tears. She groaned, glancing up to the house she mumbled "It's my fault…."
Frowning, their brows creased with worry the two Altmer men leaned forward to hear the young girl repeat herself, hearing her chanting this sentence over and over again to herself- her voice barely a whisper, they leaned back, shocked and surprised by her action.
Ganman began sweating, twitching, disbelief that a child could do something like this, he fidgeted, hands twitching, shaking his head, he began pacing, his legs began to wobble, "No, no, no" he chanted, "She's too young to show that kind of power, she's only a child." Gantar glanced over his wide shoulders and nodded his agreement with his uncle, reassuring him that he thought the same, it was shock and grief he put it down to, the idea of a child to do such a thing is absurd. Turning his attention back to his sister he whispered her name, leaned forward more so his large body was over her Tiny form and spoke into her ear; the hand still on her back and the other on her elbow "It isn't your fault, Sister, please sister, why is this your fault?" tears flowed freely down his cheeks, gritting his teeth as he spoke, 'Stay strong.' He chided himself.
Hiccupping back the sobs she looked up to the now burnt down house, "I," she began, looking into her brother's green eyes, "I brea—" she couldn't finish her sentence as fatigue took over, her vision became impaired, fighting the urge to close her eyes but in the end darkness welcomed her in its chilling embrace.
_~/*o*/~_
Hey Guys! It's been a couple of years -If my memory is correct- that I've last logged on here and posted a fanfiction! Let alone written one! So after a couple of years I'm taking some time-from what spare time I can allow to pick up my writing again and finish what I Left off! So please, if I've made any mistakes on this chapter, grammar and spelling-please let me know, so I may get better as the chapters go on. :)
I've been playing skyrim for a while now and to be so honest I love it, the graphics and such always get me. So I kinda put pen to paper and wrote some notes on my character, who is she? Why does she do what she does? Background story of her and so on.
There are some references of "Game of Thrones" in this chapter, so I do plan to make some references and inspirations from other games and TV series.
So readers, please leave a review, give me your thoughts and please feel free to give me some (friendly) criticism.