All Fall Down
By: SurreptitiousFox245
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age or The Elder Scrolls. All rights go towards BioWare, Bethesda Games, Zenimax, and Michael Kirkbride (because, let's face it, most of the ES lore I'm using is based off of Kirkbride's work, so I'm going to give credit where credit is due).
Quick Author's Note: Some of you might recognize this from an Elder Scrolls/Lord of the Rings crossover by the same name. I had the prologue up, but when I was writing the first chapter, I realized that this fit much better as an ES/Dragon Age crossover. I changed it around accordingly, removing any LotR aspects and replacing them with Dragon Age. The lore meshed a bit better. Sorry if that's inconvenient, but I frankly don't care. Don't like it, don't read. Simplicity at its finest. Otherwise, ENJOY.
Prologue
"So look in my eyes, what will you leave behind once you've gone? (so precious)
You got what you came for now I think it's time to move on (when will you say)
But these ghosts come alive like water and wine
Walk through these streets singing songs and carrying signs,
To them these streets belong"
~Rise Against "To Them These Streets Belong"
~Nirn - 4E 202~
You couldn't think of much else aside from your failure as you watched the sky fall. Of all the places for them to have chosen to force you to watch the chaos, the Throat of the World had been eerily appropriate. You could see the cracks of light emerging from the sun like a spider web, darting along in a familiar pattern following where the constellations would have been had it been dark. Midday was a symbol, and it was a good one. It was a reminder, a slap in the face-the god of magic, their god, being held in much higher regard than the god of mortals, undoing His mistake and cleansing a sour taste from Existence. And it served to remind that you'd failed. Nirn was going to die, if a world ever could, no new one ready to be birthed in its place, and it was as much you fault as it was theirs.
A few spindly hands held your arms and shoulders in iron grips that shoved you to your bruised knees a long time ago. Golden sneers not unlike your own cast amused, if aghast looks at the torn and filthy mismatched set of leather armor you wore, their robes in comparison immaculate despite the hard battle they'd just borne witness to. You'd long since stopped the disparaged staring at the large, draconic bones that were even now half-buried in the snow. Mourning the loss would do you no good at this point. He was already long dead, just you were mournfully late in finding out.
Falling was actually not an apt description of what the sky was doing-dissolving actually fit the scenario better, though even it was a bit far from the mark. You couldn't tell if the light that was left behind was comforting or more of a void. It engulfed everything, creeping down to the tip of the mountain and causing stone to roar across stone as matter by its very nature resisted being torn apart in such a manner. You wanted to fight, wanted to scream, but all you could do was shy away from the light as it grew ever nearer until it engulfed you, too.
You were fading, you realized with an absentminded sense of awe that felt detached, when you shouldn't have been fading in the first place. It gave you some hope, then that maybe, just maybe, they had been wrong.
Final Words: Not much to say here. I know it's in second person and that's relatively odd, but I've recently found myself liking writing in 2nd person as a style preference. It's considered a trickier POV to master, and I just like how it seems to flow easier for me. So 2nd person is here to stay. Anyway, hope you liked it!
R&R!
~SurreptitousFox
