TTW
Revelations
The young man rose from his bed in the monks' sleeping quarters deep within the heart of the White Gold Tower of the Imperial Palace. He lazily slid his feet into his black clogs resting by his bedside and, in his undergarments, strode to the trunk at the foot of his bed. He shuffled through the wooden trunk, fished out a garment and slipped the well-worn grey robe over himself. After tying the rope, a rope in the same dull color as his robe, around his waist, he was dressed for the day.
He stretched his muscles, extending his arms and hands high above him, reaching towards the peak of the pillar of the White Gold Tower. He closed his deep, brown eyes, silently wishing for a break in the monotony he had endured for the past eleven years since his arrival to the Imperial Library. Before, he spent ten years in the monastery preparing for his life work with the Ancestor Moth Priests.
He did not expect to be an errand monk.
Another mundane day, the monk thought to himself.
He took his time getting to the Imperial Library, stopping at the banquet table in the small dining hall and munched on the bounty of grapes and sweet pastries. He had a reputation for his lack of punctuality. No sense of breaking that reputation today, or ever.
He entered the great Imperial Library. One-of-a-kind books were neatly stuffed into numerous shelves lining the perimeter of the White Gold Tower. Tables overflowed with scrolls and various parchments. The library was a tomb, according to the monk. A place to go to whither away until madness or blindness consumed the lives of those who worked there.
Or died from old age like what my fate holds, thought the monk as he walked through the massive library. To never really contribute to the great cause other than fetch parchments, quills, ink and sacred scrolls for the Moth Priests.
He was appointed by the Emperor to aid the Ancestor Moth Priests in whatever they needed in decoding the Elder Scrolls. As a graduate and top of his class in the Arcane University and also highly prized scholar in Kvatch, the Emperor said he possessed "great promise" and would be a "valuable asset" working in the Imperial Library for the Moth Priests.
Humpf, valuable asset indeed, he thought, strolling up to the Moth Priest he usually worked for.
The Priest was hunched over the writing desk, numerous pieces of parchment lay before him as he continued to scribe in the ancient, coded language of the Elder Scrolls. Only the Moth Priests possessed the gift of decoding the ancient text and translating it into common tongue.
The Priest was an old man who spent a majority of his long life deciphering Elder Scrolls, discovering events of what had come to pass and events not yet had passed, prophecies that will forever change the world. His fingers were withered and permanently ink-stained from the endless parchments he scribed over the years.
The Priest felt the presence of the monk standing to his side and placed his quill into the ink well.
"Ah, on time as usual," the Priest said, his husky voice laced with sarcasm. Even though his sight was receding, his sense of humor was still in tact.
"Yes, my Lord," the monk responded, bowing before the Moth Priest. "How may I be of service?"
The Priest gazed up at the monk, the whites of his eyes threatening to engulf the remaining blue irises the Priest once had. His vision had nearly abandoned him, caused by the knowledge obtained within the Scrolls.
"Fetch me a new Scroll, if you will," he said, pointing a gnarled finger towards the locked case in the center of the library. "I am not reading any information from this one."
The monk suppressed a deep sigh. It was considered a great offense to show any unsatisfactory gestures towards the wise Moth Priests, no matter how menial or minute the gesture might be.
"Right away, my Lord," the monk bowed again. The Priest removed a key from around his neck and handed it to the monk as well as the Elder Scroll he was reading. He accepted the key and Scroll and trudged to the center of the library to unlock the heavily magicked display case protecting the Scrolls.
The library felt dark despite the many magelights littered throughout the room. Natural light had been barricaded from the Library for fear of the suns rays would damage the tomes, ancient, fragile texts and the Elder Scrolls. The monk sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his grey sleeve. Even though the Library was kept emaculately clean, the monk still felt the air was heavily saturated in dust, triggering his allergies. The other monks always joked, saying his allergies were all in his head, claiming a bout of hypochondria wouldn't get him reassigned elsewhere and out of the Imperial Library.
The monk inserted the key into the fortified lock and twisted it clockwise. The lock clicked softly, the magicka guarding the case dispersing and the glass top swung open. Six Elder Scrolls lay within the case.
The monk grazed his fingers delicately across the silver tips of the scrolls. To be in the presence such sacred Scrolls would be considered a blessing by the Nine since only the Moth Priests and the monks selected to aid the Priests would ever lay their eyes upon the relics.
The monk carefully placed the Scroll into the case and randomly grabbed a new Elder Scroll by the silver tip and lifted it out of its case. He blinked once and when he opened his eyes, two more Elder Scrolls lay within the case. The Scrolls were mysterious like that. They showed up and disappeared whenever the Divines pleased. Elder Scrolls weren't numbered or arranged in a particular order. They just were. There could be an infinite number of them or just a handful of them. But they always changed, altering the future of Nirn, the messages would not come to pass until a Moth Priest correctly deciphered the secrets embedded within the Scrolls. What a Moth Priest revealed one day could be completely different another day.
The Scrolls were always changing.
The monk, acting as if the sudden appearance of two more Scrolls were normal, closed the lid and locked the case. The magicka barrier returned, securing the Elder Scrolls in its protective case, and the monk returned to the waiting Priest.
"My Lord," the monk said, bowing before the Priest, holding the Scroll in his extended hands.
The Priest took the Scroll from hands and bowed his head slightly. "Thank you, my boy." He pointed to the other side of the room where the clean parchments and other supplies were kept. "If you would please, fetch me three pieces of parchment."
"As you wish." The monk left to retrieve the parchment.
The Priest delicately removed the simple cord securing the Scroll and unraveled it, revealing the various black etchings and markings embedded into the parchment. Instantly he began to look over the symbols, trying to make sense of the underlying meaning, the secret the Divines wished - or didn't wish - to expose to the world at that particular time.
"The parchments you requested," spoke the monk, setting the three pieces of paper onto the desk within the Priest's reach.
The monk's eyes grazed over the Scroll before the Priest as he stepped away.
A symbol grabbed his eyes and began to move, swirl and shift from the randomized etchings of constellations from the Divine's heavens into letters.
World-Eater.
The words were clear, bold. Legible.
The monk gasped, his eyes widened and he leaned forward, wanting to make sure his eyes were not deceiving him.
Yes. The words World-Eater were clearly there as if they were written in common tongue.
"My Lord," he gasped, pointing at the symbol on the Elder Scroll. "Do you see that?"
The Priest leaned closer towards the sacred Scroll. He narrowed his eyes, searching, seeking, trying to see what the monk could see. He flicked his wrist and called over a magelight, the light allowing him to see the Scroll more clearly.
"What does it say?" the Priest asked after a few minutes.
"World-Eater," he breathed, pointing at the symbol.
More symbols began to swirl, revealing more words.
"My Lord! More words!"
"My boy," the old Priest placed his knotted, aged hand on the monk's shoulder, and smiled broadly, his eyes sparkling in the gleam of the magelight. "The Divines have chosen you to read the Scroll.
The monk immediately was ordained a Moth Priest, charged with deciphering the Elder Scroll.
For years on end, the Priest poured over that particular Elder Scroll, writing down the words and messages embedded into the symbols that he, and only he, could read. However they symbols kept changing, morphing into different words, meanings, prophecies.
Over time, his deep, brown eyes began to fade, blending into the whites of his eyes. His fingers became dry and ink-stained from the endless writing on the miles of parchment he used to unlock the Scroll's hidden meaning. Wrinkles formed, his vision faded, his mind completely focused on his calling as that particular Elder Scroll's Moth Priest.
"My Lord, the new inkwell you requested."
The Moth Priest looked up from the parchment he was currently writing on. His once brown eyes were now completely devoid of color. His pupils merely staring out onto space.
He sat in a small, secluded room away from the main library in the Imperial Tower. One single magelight hovering overhead provided the only illumination in the dark den. He preferred the isolation. It comforted him, soothed him.
"Set it down there," he said, pointing a bony, aged finger towards the top of the desk. The monk did as he was told before being shooed away by the old man to aid another Priest.
The Moth Priest wrote a few more words on the parchment and placed the quill in the inkwell. He leaned back in his chair, cracking the stiff bones in his spine. He lifted his arms up over his head and stretched his muscles, extending his hands upward towards the top of the pillar of the White Gold Tower.
Finally, it was completed.
Everyday for the past seventy-two years, he had done nothing but decipher the Elder Scroll.
And now he was done. The day of Ultimate Reading had finally come to pass.
He blew on the drying ink on the last piece of parchment and placed it on the large stack of decoded papers.
A man dressed in the same subdued, grey robes approached the Priest. "How is the translation coming?" asked the Elder Ancestor Moth Priest quietly, knowing what this particular day meant to the man sitting before him.
"It is finished, Elder Priest," said the Moth Priest.
It was bittersweet to be finished. Sweet because of the honor it was to be the only individual chosen to translate that particular Elder Scroll. Bitter because of the prophecy that was encoded. Prophecies were not generally pleasant. They spoke of doom, misfortune, and death unless mankind altered the events for told in the Scroll. Yet, no Elder Scroll had been wrong or its prophecy avoided.
The events always happened, already written in history.
"And what does the Elder Scroll foretell?"
"This," he handed the Elder Priest the last piece of parchment he wrote from the stack of papers.
The Elder Moth Priest accepted the paper carefully in his hands, furrowing his brows at the Priest. "Why can't you read it to me yourself?"
"I would," he responded, turning towards the Elder Priest, his eyes now completely empty of color other than white. "But I am blind, Elder Priest. This time, forever."
He waved his hand, extinguishing his magelight, forever enveloping him in darkness.
When war amongst brethren plague the ancient lands,
Breathing life into the World-Eater and his children.
A soul of the past will shape the future,
Aiding in the rise of the Last Dragonborn,
Thus uniting the gods in a single soul
To stand before one of their own.
She heard a loud thud, followed by rattling and what sounded like rocks and rubble tumbling down to the earth. Then silence. The thud returned a few seconds later and then another thud and another.
What on Nirn was that?
She rose to her feet with ease and grace. Surprising since she had never used her slender legs before. Not that she could recall.
Although utter darkness engulfed her, she could see faint outlines of minute shades of color mixed with light. The voices on the other side were muffled slightly, yet she could understand their words.
They were there for her.
The thudding continued for several hours. The air reeked like magicka. Thick and tangy with a slight metallic taste. The telltale signs of mages at work.
She knew they weren't there to hurt her. She felt their intentions: pure and true. They needed her, however, she couldn't remember why.
Trust in them.
The three words echoed in her mind, comforting her and quelling her uncertainty.
Faint flickers of light began to pour from the small gaps chipping away along the stone wall, the rocks beginning to crumble before her, revealing a gaping hole and freeing her from her isolated prison. As the dust settled, four young, mysterious men dressed in grey, hooded robes stood before her, standing out against the blackened night sky behind them. She shielded her eyes from the flames dancing brilliantly from torches two of the men held.
Fire. She couldn't remember the last time she saw the sacred element, yet she was instantly drawn to it like it was tied to her soul.
Diinlokah, one of the men Voiced to her mind in a language familiar to her, his voice full of confidence and power. We come to free you.
I know, she Voiced back, speaking to him with her mind. Who are you?
We are disciples of the Greybeards. He motioned her to step out from the cave she spent eras in secluded slumber. Come. It is time for your training.
She obeyed willingly, careening over large boulders and rocks littering the ground of the cave opening and out into the vast world beyond.
Training?
The hooded man smiled slightly and bowed his head. Yes, it is time for you awaken and fulfill your destiny.
-TTW-
So I began this story almost two years ago under the pen name Lady Luna83. I got so caught up with life and didn't have a lot of time dedicated to writing the original The Thu'um Within fanfic. I tried to write whenever I could on my iPhone but wouldn't post any of the chapters. Rather than abandon the story, I decided to break the story up into two separate stories. The Thu'um Within will continue to follow the main storyline of TESV: Skyrim, but it will have my own twist on things so it will be more interesting. I'm happy to be back and will continue working on this fanfic. Thank you for reading and for your support.
-The Raven66 (formerly Lady Luna83)