The Beginning

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WARNINGS: Heavy cursing, gore and violence, crude humor, some use of substances, and sexual themes

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Disclaimer: This may be a bit redundant (you know, because the term "fanfiction" already implies it), but I don't own anything related to Elder Scrolls and Oblivion; all ownership goes to Bethesda.

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Part 1: Dissociation

As he sat wide awake on the hard stone slab which was meant to serve as a bed, all Corvin Aretagreus could think about was how much the cries of the hundreds of little horny cicadas threatened to give him a headache. He barely registered the fact that the man living in the cell parallel to his had just been killed an hour or so ago for no apparent reason.

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It happened just as he was finally starting to fall asleep, a task made all the more difficult by the agonizing pain he felt in his entire body thanks to the beatings he had received earlier that day. Corvin was awakened by faint whispers echoing throughout the room. Out of mere curiosity, he took a glance through the gateway and was surprised to see the dark silhouette of a person standing in front of Valen Dreth's cell. He could hear the old crone saying something, but couldn't make out the words. The shadow remained eerily silent as Dreth kept speaking. Instead, its sole response was to point its wrist at the Dunmer and shoot a bolt at his neck.

The shadow took a few moments to contemplate its handiwork as Dreth gurgled and died on the floor. But when it turned to leave, it caught sight of Corvin peeking from his cell. The young man had been rendered speechless and motionless in fear; for an instant, he completely believed that he'd be next... but all the Shadow did was grin wickedly at him –its white fangs practically glowing in the darkness– and then it crept out of sight as quietly as a ghost.

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Perhaps he should have found it disturbing that the only thing he felt was joy at the prospect of never having to hear that irritating voice again. From the moment when Corvin was rudely tossed inside this dungeon, that hateful mer never stopped throwing taunt after taunt at him. From insults towards each of his female relatives' sexual integrity to nasty remarks about his scarred face. Corvin couldn't remember the last time he ever wanted to hurt someone as much as he wanted to hurt Valen Dreth. For a while he even entertained the (ridiculous) idea that maybe he had somehow been the one to summon the shadow to kill that bastard for him. But he eventually dismissed it as boloney.

He groaned and cradled his head as it began to throb. Great, now he's given himself a head ache thinking about all this shit. Or maybe it's those Gods' damned cicadas; why in Oblivion must they sing so loud this late at night?

In the end, he resigned himself to his misery and lay down in the stupid stone slab which some asshole once thought could function as a bed. He held no illusions that he'd ever be able to catch any sleep that night; but it was not like he had anything better to do in this Godsforsaken hovel.

As he was rushed towards the prison district by his three remaining bodyguards, all that came to Uriel Septim's mind was how uncomfortable the harsh gravel path felt through the sole of his slippers. He barely registered the fact that his family had just been murdered less than an hour ago without him being able to do anything about it.

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He was having trouble sleeping, even though he felt as tired as would be expected from a man his age this late at night. So he decided to ask a servant for some tea and headed for his private study to review the star charts he'd acquired from the Orrery last morning.

Nightmares had been plaguing the old emperor for the last few weeks; visions filled with death and destruction. As they grew more and more recurrent, Uriel realized that the nightmares were actually visions warning him of something terrible coming his way. His fears were confirmed when only two days ago the constellation of the Serpent appeared over the night sky, swallowing the Warrior. Since then he became desperate to find a way to avert this catastrophe, whatever it was… but neither his dreams nor the stars would tell him how to do this.

As he stood over the old parchments, he was startled when frantic banging suddenly came from the entrance. Then Captain Renault all but kicked the door in and announced in a terrified voice that a group of assassins had somehow broken into the castle, and had already killed his daughter-in-law and his two grandchildren. She also told him that both his eldest and youngest sons had been attacked in the Arena and the University respectively, and that it looked like his middle son had also been assailed on his way to Anvil. It was still unknown whether if they had survived or not; but something deep inside Uriel's gut told him that that was not possible.

A group of no less than eight Blades escorted him through the palace corridors, which had now turned into a battlefield with his royal guard and the red clad assassins fighting viciously for their lives –and his, he realized. By the time the emperor and his escort made it out of the palace, five of his Blades had been either killed or left behind to hinder their pursuers.

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When they finally reached the prison district, and none of the assassins remained on sight, he discovered that he felt nothing but a strange tinge of resignation. A part of him insisted that this feeling was wrong and unnatural. How could he be this way during a life-or-death situation? Or after hearing that his whole family had been brutally murdered? He should be feeling fear, devastation, or perhaps anger; certainly not this numbness.

But he was too tired to acknowledge this notion. So he decided to simply accept the fate that the Gods had given him. He only quietly prayed to them for the strength to face what he knew would be coming next.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Some of you may remember (the key word being 'may') that I tried to post another novelization before this one titled "Hymns of Oblivion". Please, forget about that one, it was a huge piece of crud, I tell you. The problem is that I got stumped trying to make it into a huge tale with lots of overly complicated back story details told before the actual events of the game started. In the end I didn't know how the heck to go about it; kept changing, discarding, and adding ideas until I was left with a huge heap of muck that couldn't make a half descent story even if I wanted it to.

In the end I was pretty much ready to give up the project all together, until an idea struck me like a huge ass boulder falling over Willy Coyote's head after one of his attempts to catch that damned roadrunner backfires on him: "Bitch, just friggin keep it simple". So that's pretty much what I'm gonna do for now on. Who knows, maybe, if I finish this, I'll be able to come back and add some of the more solid ideas I had that couldn't make it to this version.

I only have to ask you to not expect regular or fast updates here (my muse happens to be a very lethargic, fat lady who prefers to watch cat videos on YouTube rather than work). And don't take anything I say as a promise to finish this. The way my life has been going lately, my motivation has been decreasing dramatically, and I'm only left with a small handful which I'll eventually need to use for other things; so, in the end, I don't know if I'll be left with enough to finish this baby... Plus, you know there's always a chance I'll get hit by a bus or something. I have no control over that kind of shit, unfortunately.

… AAAANYWAYS, let's move on to the explanations about the story.

The main character is a young Imperial male with the left side of his face full of scars caused by an animal's bites. And those are all the important details about his physical appearance that you'll ever need to know. Feel free to use your imagination for everything else. The only guild he's ever been affiliated with is the Thieves' Guild, and he won't be directly involved with the others –but he'll nonetheless still be dragged into all of their messes in the future, I assure you.

In Uriel's family's case, I decided to give him two grandchildren from Geldall, his eldest son. No particular reason for mentioning this, other than to add to the tragic element. Honestly, I might have not mentioned them at all, and it wouldn't have made a difference. But I still did because YOLO or something like that –plus, if I decide to come back and build more on the background story, this way it won't feel like they came out of the blue, I guess.

And finally, about the Shadow: I'm pretty sure that you all know what he is. And if you don't then you haven't played the friggin game, and should not be reading this in the first place 'cuz you ain't gonna understand squat of what's going on. In any case, his appearance was random, but he's gonna play a small part on Corvin's escape –and an even bigger part much further into the story (probably). Just try not to question it too much, it's not like the Brotherhood had been forewarned that the entire royal family was scheduled to get murdered that night (and just imagine how outraged they'd be because they weren't invited xD).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. And leave your opinion or whatever (not that I mind if you don't, I'm friggin used to silence). And see you next chapter!