Two Moons Path:

Aftermath

WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE TWO MOONS DANCE QUESTLINE FOR ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

2E 582

Kabah-Jo, a black furred, white muzzled Khajiit sorcerer, has held many titles, most recently Moon Hallowed. He was instrumental in selecting the new Mane of the Khajiiti people, and it was easily the most traumatic experience he had ever endured in his life. Even being abducted by Dunmer slavers, and abandoning his family to a lifetime of servitude when the opportunity to escape presented itself, paled in comparison to what he'd been through this last month. At Moonmont, he was forced to choose between twin sisters, the Lunar Champions, who had both become close friends of his. One to become the next Mane, the other to contain the Dark Mane within her body. For all eternity, as Kabah-Jo understood it. With a heavy heart, he chose the fierce warrior Khali to contain the Dark Mane, while the gifted sorceress Shazah would ascend to the position of Mane. At the time, he told himself he chose Khali because he thought that she would be strong enough to keep the Dark Mane suppressed long enough for him and Shazah to find some way to free her, and that Shazah, with her wisdom and intellect, would be a far superior Mane. And while he does still believe the latter rationalization, in the last few days he's come to realize the true overriding motivation was far more selfish.

Of course, he had little time to come to terms with this impossible choice, as when they arrived at Dune, they found it under siege by an army of Daedra, and they needed to break the siege before Shazah could complete her final ritual, and become Mane. After days of intense fighting, during which the voice of the Dark Mane would taunt Kabah-Jo with how he was torturing Khali and bending her to his will, they beat back the Daedra and saved thousands of lives. They were then free to complete the ritual in the Temple of the Two Moons Path.

Once within the temple, they were transported to the Demi-Plane of Jode, where they were shown a dark vision of the Aldmeri Dominion's future should no new Mane arise. Then they were sent to the Den of Lorkhaj to find Khali waiting for them, now fully corrupted by the Dark Mane, indeed, she was the Dark Mane at that point. She and Javad Tharn, the mastermind behind Elsweyr's recent troubles, attacked them. After killing Tharn, they were forced to kill Khali as well to destroy the Dark Mane with finality. After a final, heart-wrenching good-bye with Khali's now purified spirit, they returned to the temple to complete Shazah's ascension to Mane.

That was over a week ago, and Kabah-Jo was still devastated by Khali's death. He went to the Shrine of Jone in Dune's temple district to seek the guidance and comfort of the gods. As he knelt before the altar however, all he felt at that moment was a burning rage at the loss of his good friend. "This was your plan all along, wasn't it?" He whispered menacingly. "WASN'T IT?!" He shouted, tears in his eyes. "That's why you chose twins, so one could be sacrificed while the other ascends! You couldn't kill the Dark Mane, so you had us do your dirty work, by having us-no, by having me murder a vibrant, beautiful woman, with a rich, full life ahead of her!" The tears were streaming down his face now. "You don't care about any of us, do you? To you, we're just pieces in your damned game! I can see it now, Alkosh rolls a ten, his Kabah-Jo's Fire Bolt does fifty points of damage to Mehrunz's Khali! Khali dies! Kabah-Jo wins! Two hundred experience points and five hundred gold!" His rage reached a crescendo, he trembled fiercely, then something snapped. "WELL, HERE'S WHAT I THINK OF YOU, AND YOUR FUCKING GAME!" He dragged his arm across the altar, knocking all the candles, incense, and offerings to the floor. He then climbed up onto the altar, and with a primal scream of rage, began punching the stone tablet of Jone.

He lost all perception of time. He didn't know whether he had been punching the tablet for ten seconds, or ten hours when a pair of small hands pulled him off the altar, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor. All the rage he felt was instantly replaced by a crippling sadness, and he began to sob uncontrollably. One of the small hands gently stroked up and down his right arm, while the other lowered his hood, and scratched behind his ear. This calmed Kabah-Jo down considerably, and soon his loud, choking sobs became quiet, whimpering ones. In the quiet, he became aware that whoever was comforting him was also crying. He sat up, and turned to see who was with him. It was Shazah. Her golden eyes were moist with tears, and her lower lip quivered in sadness. "Mane?" Kabah-Jo whispered.

"Kabah-Jo." Shazah said. "You know Shazah doesn't like you calling her that, any more than you like this one calling you 'Hallowed'. It's still just Shazah to you." She looked down and gasped. "You've broken your hand!"

Kabah-Jo looked down, and saw the mangled mess that used to be his hand. "Huh, so this one has." He said blankly.

Shazah began examining Kabah-Jo's wreck of a hand. "Dark Moons!" She exclaimed. "How are you not screaming in pain right now?"

Kabah-Jo hung his head low, folded his ears forward, and closed his eyes. "This one hasn't been able to feel much of anything since Moonmont." He said quietly with a strained voice.

Shazah let out a soft whimper at that. "Don't worry. Shazah will heal your hand." Kabah-Jo then felt the warmth of a Restoration spell surround his hand and most of his arm. The bones in his hand and fingers moved back to their proper position and knit together, then the lacerations on his knuckles closed up. Within a minute, his hand looked as though it had never been broken at all. "There, all better!" Shazah said, relief evident in her voice.

Kabah-Jo stared in surprise at Shazah as he flexed his now restored hand. 'Why is she being so kind to me?' He thought. 'Surely, she must hate me, she must blame me for what happened to Khali!' He suddenly found he couldn't look Shazah in the eyes anymore as he became overwhelmed with guilt over what he had done. He began to weep again as he looked away from her. "Kabah-Jo is sorry! He is so, so sorry! Could you ever forgive this one?"

She placed a hand on his back which made him weep even harder. "Forgive you?" She said, her voice full of concern. "Kabah-Jo, what are you-?" She let out a small gasp. "So, this is about Khali! You still blame yourself!" She embraced him tightly and rested her head on his shoulder. "Oh, Kabah-Jo, it wasn't your fault! Shazah has told you this!"

"How can you say that?" Kabah-Jo said. "This one picked Khali to contain the Dark Mane, this one thought her strength would protect her, this one struck the final blow, this one-!" He buried his face in his hands. "Kabah-Jo murdered her! She was his friend, and he murdered her! The moment this one chose her!"

Shazah tightened her hug. "And if you chose Shazah, you would be feeling this way for her! It was an impossible choice!"

Kabah-Jo let out a long, shuddering breath. He had no choice, he had to tell her. It was the only way she'd understand. "Kabah-Jo didn't tell you why he chose you to become Mane. While it's true, this one believes you'll make a far superior leader than Khali, and at the time, he did believe Khali would be strong enough to resist the Dark Mane's corruption long enough for us to find some way to save her, that isn't the main reason he chose you. To Kabah-Jo, it wasn't an impossible choice, there was only one choice."

Shazah released Kabah-Jo from her embrace, but still held him by his shoulders. "What are you saying?"

Kabah-Jo took a deep breath, and looked Shazah in the eyes. "Kabah-Jo chose Khali, because this one couldn't bear to condemn you to such a fate. Because this one couldn't bear the idea of you being twisted and corrupted by that monster until you were just a shell of your former self, a meat puppet under his control, like Akhuz-Ri and eventually Khali. Because this one-." He stopped himself, and decided to show her the sincerity of his next statement by switching to the first person, normally reserved for family and lovers. "Because I love you! Khali is dead, her last days filled with endless torment and suffering, because of my selfishness! That is why I blame myself! That is why I lashed out at the gods!" He looked to the ground, and shut his eyes tight to hold back the tears. "And that is why you should hate me forever."

There was a long silence as they sat there on the floor together. Kabah-Jo felt strangely liberated by his confession, even though he was certain he had just lost not only his love, but a treasured friend. At least now, the guilt he'd been feeling would be alleviated somewhat. He expected her to yell, he expected her to hit him, to banish him from Dune and maybe even Elsweyr so she wouldn't have to see him again. Never in a thousand years would he have expected what she did next. She removed her headdress, then took his head in her hands, turned it to face her, and slowly licked him from the tip of his nose to his forehead in a Khajiit kiss, sending a spark of electricity down his spine to the tip of his tail. She then pressed her forehead to his. "Shaz-I could never hate you! I love you as well! I have loved you for quite some time. And Khali wouldn't want you to mourn her death, and focus on the bad times. She'd want you to celebrate her life, and remember the good times." She laughed and looked into his eyes. "Like that time in Rawl'Kha, you two got drunk at that tavern, she started belting out old drinking songs, and you danced on the table while trying and failing to play that lute you stole from that bard. While I and the other patrons cheered you on."

Kabah-Jo laughed at the memory, and wiped away his tears. "Yes! That was the most fun I'd had in a very long time!"

Shazah gently squeezed his shoulder. "And she definitely wouldn't want you to blame yourself, if anyone's to blame, it's Javad Tharn. You didn't murder Khali, you freed her! She said it herself in the Den of Lorkhaj, she's at peace now, she's with mother and father, and one day, we'll be with her again." She smiled. "And on that day, we'll all dance on table tops and sing old drinking songs together!"

Kabah-Jo smiled. "Hopefully, she won't take it the wrong way if we try to put off that reunion for as long as possible!" They both laughed at that, then sat together in silence for a few moments. "So, you love me?"

Shazah nodded and smiled warmly. "Very much. And you love me?"

"Very much." Kabah-Jo said. "So, where do we go from here?"

Shazah thought for a moment. "Do you know what you're getting yourself into? It won't be easy for you. I know how uncomfortable you are from all the attention you get just from being the Moon Hallowed. One day becoming the Mane's Consort will make you a household name almost overnight!"

"I can handle that." Kabah-Jo said. "Do you know what you're getting yourself into? I'm an Eye of the Queen, and I've made it my life's mission to rescue my family from slavery. At all costs. The odds… don't favor my survival."

Shazah hugged Kabah-Jo tight. "If you stand by my side, and help me lead Elsweyr to a new, and glorious future with the Aldmeri Dominion, I'll gladly stand by your side, in our life's mission to save our family from slavery. At all costs."

Kabah-Jo hugged her back, and gave her a Khajiit kiss on the cheek. "There is nowhere I'd rather be." He whispered in her ear.

They left the shrine, and embarked on the next chapter of their lives.

The End. For now.