Eriah was flying on the back of Sarohtaar, one of Miraak's dragon puppets under the thrall of the Bend Will Shout. She had used Miraak's own Shout to bend the dragon to her will. Her heart burned with righteous fury. Storn, shaman of the Skaal and father of Frea, was dead. Eriah tried her best not to fall into Hermaeus Mora's hands but, like with several Daedric Princes, she was more or less forced to give him what he wanted if she wanted to stand a chance of defeating her foe. If there was one thing Eriah hated the idea of, it was being the puppet to anyone. Man, mer, daedra...it didn't matter. At least the only thing the Aedra asked of her was simply follow her destiny and she didn't exactly fault Akatosh for making her Dragonborn. On the contrary, if it hadn't been for Akatosh choosing her, she wasn't likely to have made the friends and allies she did. He had given her a life she was proud of. To be Dragonborn and to use her inherent gifts for the betterment of all was a blessing. Talos had also blessed her with a warrior's heart, able to stand against her enemies while Mara gave her a heart of compassion, always wanting to help those who couldn't help themselves. Eriah believed these three Divines had the most influence on her personality and thus made the Daedric Princes her natural enemies, even though some like Azura weren't considered inherently evil. Right now, the object of her wrath was Hermaeus Mora for forcing her and the Skaal to give him what he wanted so Eriah could learn the remaining words of the Bend Will Shout, the same Shout he taught Miraak long ago which allowed the former Dragon Priest to rebel against his dragon masters.
Miraak himself presented Eriah with another problem. While she was steadfast in her belief that he had to be stopped, the very fact he was Dragonborn like her caused her to feel something she had never felt before. Loneliness. She had her friends, some of which were as good as family, but she was a dragon's soul wrapped in a mortal shell. Same was true for her foe. For all intents and purposes, she and Miraak were two of a kind and she felt drawn to him for that reason. He was the only one who knew what it was like, the only mortal she could identify with on a scale more intimate than she could with anyone else. A part of her despaired at becoming the only Dragonborn, knowing what she knew now. Akatosh had made her the Last Dragonborn of prophecy but Miraak...Miraak was the First. He, too, had been chosen by Akatosh to bring his Firstborn, Alduin, back under control and to remind him of his true purpose as World-Eater. However, somewhere along the line, Miraak chose not to and thus, his destiny was passed on to her. Eriah had come to realize that everything that had been foretold on Alduin's Wall had come true because of him, both directly and indirectly. She didn't know whether to be grateful or resentful. She had good and bad things happen because of her destiny as Dragonborn, most of which she doubted would've been granted to her if she were a mere Nord. "We approach, Dovahkiin. Beware, Miraak is strong. He knew you would come here." Sarohtaar said, bringing her out of her reflection.
Miraak looked up to see Sahrotaar and the Last gunning for him. Relonikiv and Kruziikrel roared in challenge and made to leave their perches. "No, not yet. We should greet our guest first." he said before turning his attention back to his quarry. "Sarohtaar, are you so easily swayed?" he asked as the blue dragon came to land and the woman jumped off his neck. The blue dragon just roared a challenge before taking flight. That left Miraak to face the Last Dragonborn on his own turf. His hidden eyes roamed her body, examining her with a critical eye. Even under her heavy armor, he could tell she was a warrior who knew her way around that warhammer on her back. Her face was hidden behind what could only be a Daedric artifact, one he recognized as the Masque of Clavicus Vile. Miraak had learned enough about the Last to know she wasn't easily dominated. For her to have Clavicus's masque proved that she told the Daedric Prince of Power to shove off. He was loath to admit it but he admired the Last for being strong-willed. It meant she would be a worthy opponent and she had indeed gotten stronger between now and their first meeting. However, he knew that if fate had played out to where she was easily seduced by promises of power, she would've made the ultimate pawn for him. Indeed, it was almost poetic of her to hide her face as he did. It showed that she was willing to be a faceless adversary, that no personal feelings were involved. Yes, thanks to Hermaeus Mora's tendency to run his mouth where the Last Dragonborn was concerned, Miraak was well aware she was struggling with the idea of actually fighting him. They were Dragonborn. Their shared birthright meant they were connected far more intimately than she was choosing to admit. He was the only one of their kind she would ever know in her lifetime and thus he would enjoy making her suffer.
"And so the First Dragonborn meets the Last Dragonborn at the summit of Apocrypha. No doubt just as Hermaeus Mora intended. He is a fickle master, you know." he said, starting to circle the central pool between them on their battlefield. Eriah started circling in the opposite direction and the tension was heavy. They were dov who were currently sizing up their opponent up. "Indeed. I wouldn't put it past him to have us bookend each other for this battle simply because it's fun. He truly is detestable. Being his puppet must chafe your hide." she agreed, with a shot at his pride. She could almost feel his glare behind his mask but he didn't lash out. "Says the puppet who caused the father of a friend to perish just so she could reach me. Don't preach to me, Dragonborn. I served Mora because I had no other choice. He snatched me from Solstheim long ago when Vahlok the Jailer nearly took my life. But now I will be free of him. My time in Apocrypha is over." Miraak said, coming to a stop. Eriah stopped as well and the clash between their souls was felt. She felt more on fire than she ever had facing an opponent. The only one who compared was Alduin himself, demonstrating even further that she was indeed Dovah in soul. Doubtless, the former Dragon Priest felt the same. "You are here in your full power, and thus subject to my full power. You will die. And with the power of your soul, I will return to Solstheim and be master of my own fate once again. Kruziikrel! Relonikiv! Now!" Miraak ordered his thralls. Using the Whirlwind Sprint Shout, he closed the distance between them.
Eriah had only seconds to pull her Elven Warhammer from her back and catch Miraak's blade on the handle. The two dragons took their fight to Sarohtaar who did a good job fending them off despite being outnumbered. The Last grunted from the effort of staving Miraak off. He had activated the Dragon Aspect Shout which upped his physical strength. "Why are we playing into Mora's hands? This is what he wants." she thought as she gave a mighty shove and jumped backwards to get away from her enemy. Their battle was like a dance, one where Eriah had to make sure her enemy's sword didn't touch her. She found out the hard way that his sword had the ability to turn into a tendril that sapped her of stamina. She held her own very well and managed to grievously wound Miraak. As she made to finish him off, she was sent flying by his Unrelenting Force Shout. He quickly followed it up with the Become Ethereal and Whirlwind Sprint Shouts to vanish beneath a pool of liquid off to the side. "Show yourself!" Eriah demanded, looking around.
He soon burst from the center pool, still ethereal, and his eyes were on the battling dragons. One broke away from his fight with Sarohtaar and landed on a perch nearby. "Kruziikrel, zii los dii du!" Miraak Shouted. Eriah watched with growing horror as Kruziikrel's soul was absorbed from his body, rendering him a mere skeleton. "What sorcery is this?" she wondered. Before she could take a dragon's soul, she had to kill it. Whatever it was Miraak did, he managed to bypass that completely. She barely managed to catch his blade again as he regained his strength and rushed her. "What...are you?" she growled. "You have no idea of the true power a Dragonborn can wield! Felling Alduin was a mighty deed, and I thank you for it. He would have proved troublesome to me." he replied before they broke away from each other. Eriah could tell he was watching her closely before she shook her head. He had a point. She had barely scratched the surface of her full potential and yet, he deigned to thank her for defeated Alduin. At the same time, she felt affronted that he thought so little of the World-Eater. It was like she was the only one between the two of them who actually took the black dragon seriously.
Miraak sent his rival flying with a point-blank Unrelenting Force Shout and she crashed to the ground a few yards away. The Masque of Clavicus Vile went sailing off her head and clanged on the stone floor. "Hermaeus Mora is laughing at us, you know." he said, advancing on her as she rolled over to stand on her hands and knees, her eyes clearly searching for her warhammer which had been torn from her hand by his Shout. "I don't doubt it. Why are we playing into his hands like this?" she asked, finding her weapon to have landed a far distance away from her. "Fate decreed that you had to die so that I could win my freedom." he replied, reaching her side and using a boot to push her to the ground, keeping her pinned underfoot. "This is what he wants, you fool! We're Dragonborn! We shouldn't be fighting each other!" she protested, trying to get out from under him. Miraak let a dark chuckle reverberate through his chest as he leaned down.
Eriah grunted as he took her by the throat. He used the inhuman strength that came from being a Dragon Priest to drag her to her feet before putting her in a choke hold, her back to his chest. "You are strong. Stronger than I believed possible. Yet, you disappoint me, Dragonborn. You say you refuse to play puppet to Hermaeus Mora but the truth is you've been his all along. You played into his hands the moment you set foot in Solstheim with the intention of finding me." he said. His voice gained a wistful tone as he tightened his choke hold a little, causing Eriah to gasp as her air was cut off even further. "They wanted to use me to deal with Alduin - Hakon and the rest. I chose otherwise. I know things the Greybeards will never teach you. You fight valiantly against fate, but I am stronger here. I know you better than you think I do, Dragonborn. You can't hide the fact that you hesitate to fight me because I, too, am Dragonborn. You rail against your dragon soul, the soul that demands I be toppled from power, because you desire for us to coexist. I desire but one thing." he said. "And what's that?" Eriah grunted, trying to pry his arm from her neck.
"Beware. Hermaeus Mora will betray you as he has me. Submit to me, Dragonborn. Give me your soul so that I may escape from here and I will make your demise as painful as possible." he replied. "You're a madman if you think I will submit to you!" Eriah snarled. She drove her elbow into Miraak's ribs, catching him off guard and forcing him to relinquish his hold. "FUS RO DAH!" she then Shouted, sending the First flying backwards. She could sense his vitality drop but like before, he used the Become Ethereal Shout to become untouchable. "You will regret your defiance! Relonikiv, zii los dii du!" the First then Shouted. The second dragon broke off from his fight with Sarohtaar and landed. His soul was torn from his body and Miraak regained his full power. Eriah dashed over to her warhammer and swung at her enemy as he charged her. Her anger and hatred were burning in her eyes. "That's right, Dragonborn! Show me your rage! Show me the power of Alduin's slayer!" her enemy goaded. Sarohtaar even joined in the fight, still under Eriah's thrall. "I always knew you are weak-minded, Sarohtaar. Join the Last Dragonborn in her destruction." Miraak growled before letting loose an Unrelenting Force Shout. It made the dragon stagger enough to force a landing which the First took advantage of. "Sarohtaar, zii los dii du!" he Shouted.
Sarohtaar's demise caused Eriah to snap out of her red haze and she watched as the blue Dovah had his soul ripped out of him. Miraak turned to face her. "Do you ever wonder if it hurts, having your soul ripped out like that?" he asked, approaching her at a leisurely pace. "You're a monster." she growled. "And yet, I sense your inner most thoughts. Regardless of what you think of me, you still don't desire my destruction because it would leave you as the only Dragonborn. Such sentiment is beneath you. It makes you weak. Akatosh must've been desperate to choose you as the Dragonborn that would bring about the end of Alduin." he replied. Eriah rushed him, swinging her warhammer so hard, it caught him in the mask and sent him spiraling away where he hit the ground hard. "You're right! Against my own sanity and in spite of all the pain you caused to Solstheim, I don't want to kill you. Before I learned you existed, I was content with being the only Dragonborn in Tamriel. I used my talents and abilities to help others because I was often the only one who could do anything about anything. I thought only one could exist at a time. But then your damn cultists appear in my city, calling me a false Dragonborn, and I come to Solstheim seeking answers. Then you reveal yourself to be Dragonborn and throw my entire being into chaos. I don't want to kill you, Miraak, but with Akatosh as my witness, I will do whatever it takes to save the island and the whole of Tamriel. The time of the Dragon Priests is over." she said.
Her foe had gotten to his feet as she spoke and she could tell he was on his last legs. With his dragons dead, he had no other souls to absorb except hers and she would go down fighting. "Your sentiment will be the death of you, Dragonborn. You will regret ever crossing my path." he said. Before he could make a move to attack, tendrils suddenly appeared behind him and pulled him under the surface of the strange pool that surrounded the battlefield. Eriah was high alert, wondering if this was some trick. However, she looked up in the sky and say that Hermaeus Mora himself was manifesting. Miraak was drawn up from the central pool, floating as if in the grips of something. "Did you think to escape me, Miraak? You can hide nothing from me here. No matter. I have found a new Dragonborn to serve me." the Daedric Prince thundered. He impaled Miraak through the chest as he voiced his displeasure. The action caused Eriah to subconsciously grasp at her armored chest, as if her enemy's pain was her own. "May she be rewarded for her service as I am." Miraak spat. Mora rewarded him for his defiance by incinerating the man.
Eriah could only watch in abject horror as her enemy and fellow Dragonborn was reduced to a skeleton much in the way that the dragons she slew did. She unwillingly absorbed his soul, screaming in pain. Mora let the skeletal remains of Miraak fall and turned his attention to her as she fell to her knees, hugging herself as Miraak's soul joined with the countless souls of dragons within her. Even in death, he desired to cause her as much pain as he could. He didn't go quietly, that much was certain. "Miraak harbored fantasies of rebellion against me. Learn from his example. Serve me faithfully, and you will continue to be richly rewarded." the Prince drawled as she got shakily to her feet and approached the remains of her foe. "I told you...to shove off, Hermaeus Mora. I'm not your puppet. You killed the only one I could truly identify with. His death was necessary but by right, his life was mine to take." she growled, falling before the remains and picking up Miraak's mask. "You should be thanking me, Dragonborn. Take comfort that you managed to save Solstheim because if you had perished here, he would've killed everyone you ever loved." came the condescending reply. Eriah snapped a look of fury up at the floating eyeball in the sky. "The only comfort I feel is knowing that I house his soul within me. He's beyond your reach now." she said.
Mora chuckled as if he found her amusing. "You are correct, for now. When you die, I will gladly take your soul and his as is my right." he said. "You better take that up with Akatosh, monster. From what I learned, the dragon god of time has first call on the Dragonborn's soul because he created us. If he's every bit the good god we know him as, he will not allow you to have my soul. I will be going home to Sovngarde and I will make sure to take Miraak with me." Eriah snapped back, holding the mask to her chest. "Is this love I sense, Dragonborn? To harbor feelings for your enemy is both amusing and unusual. Even I am mildly disturbed." the Prince said. "Don't misunderstand my words, you bastard. Miraak was the enemy of Tamriel purely on the basis of being a Dragon Priest but he's still of the dov, just as I am. Chalk it up to my soul's disinclination to share as my reason for being rather territorial in regards to his soul." she growled, appalled he suggested such a thing. Hermaeus Mora just laughed as if he found her convictions to be the punchline of a joke. "You just keep telling yourself that. Perhaps your soul is beyond my reach on account of Akatosh molding the soul of a dragon into the form of a mortal. Miraak could have very well been forsaken by the god of time because he turned his back on the destiny of the Dragonborn. So even if I don't get your soul, ownership of his is up for debate at best." he said.
The central pool started to ripple as a structure with a pedestal appeared. On the pedestal was a Black Book. "This is your exit. Read the book and it will return you to Solstheim. I thank you for ending Miraak's fantasies of defying me. I will call on you again." the Daedric Prince said before his manifestation faded from sight. Eriah remained kneeling at the side of the First's remains. Quietly, she found herself gathering Miraak's robes and weapons, placing them in her satchel. She picked up his mask and got to her feet. She retrieved the Masque of Clavicus Vile and placed it on her own head. Only then did she approach the Black Book and open it. She found herself back in Solstheim. The Skaal were awaiting her arrival and she appeared, Frea immediately came up to her. "Is it done? Is Miraak dead? Was my father's sacrifice necessary?" she asked. "He is dead and Storn's soul may rest in peace. I could not have defeated Miraak without his help." Eriah said, her voice almost deadpan. She held up the mask as proof. "Thank the All-Maker!" a few villagers said. Frea could tell her friend wasn't so joyous. "Did something happen in Herma-Mora's realm?" she asked, drawing Eriah away from the crowd. "This victory rings hollow to me. Miraak was a fiend and he needed to be stopped but deep down, I feel..." she paused.
She placed the mask in her bag before pulling her Daedric helmet off. "I feel as if I just committed fratricide. He was one of my own kind, a child of Akatosh. Hermaeus Mora...he wanted us to fight each other. He set us both up. That's not even the half of it. The threat to Solstheim was lifted when Miraak perished but the truth is, he's right here." she said, placing a hand on her chest. "His soul is within me now because it's a dragon's soul and one of my abilities is to absorb such souls. I will carry it for the rest of my days. For me...he'll always be there." she said. Frea felt compassion for her new friend well up in her heart and she wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Is it wrong to feel as though I just lost someone important even if the man was the enemy of all Tamriel?" Eriah asked, her head down. "I know you feel sorrow and while I don't see any sense in it, be it far from me to shame you for it. What matters is that you saved my people." she assured her. Eriah took a deep breath and replaced her helmet on her head. "My work here is done. I leave for Raven Rock and will journey home to Skyrim. I'm sorry I can't stay for the celebration and remembrance of your father's life. Solstheim now feels like a place whose sole purpose is to suck the joy out of me." she said. "I understand. You suffered much pain at Herma-Mora's hands. I can only hope we will meet again in the future. But if we do not, may the All-Maker guide you." Frea said. She and Eriah parted ways as the Last Dragonborn started the trek to Raven Rock. Her bag, carrying her spoils of war, hung heavily. She didn't tell Frea she had brought back more than just Miraak's mask. She intended to enshrine him in her home. He was a worthy opponent and he was Dragonborn. She felt she owed him some sort of respect, regardless of all else. Little did she realize that he would soon haunt her in ways beyond any other life she took.