Myrna
The night's frigid air had no effect on Myrna's thanks to her vampiric blood. The violent push back of force by the winds, merely served to annoy her as she walked into the hard winded flurry. Myrna was already in disagreement with the deal. Opposite of the Nine Divine, otherwise known as the Aedra, were the Daedra. While there were only Nine Divine, there were sixteen Daedric princes. Hermaeus Mora, Myrna's new master, known as the Daedric Prince of fate, knowledge, and memory. Many chased his forbidden knowledge but lost their very souls to the realm that he controlled, known as Apocrypha. The twisted library had everything one could ever wish to learn, but forbidden knowledge came with a grand price. Myrna had no lust for such enlightenment, she only wanted answers to find her friend. But when you align yourself with the Daedra, they become a part of your world.
The wrap around Myrna's back was beginning to get bothersome, having to lug it around all this time, when the imperials took it from her she feared they'd keep the treasure. Inside the wrap was an offering that Hermaeus Mora requested of her. She didn't care for his reasoning nor his intentions, she needed information. Aside from this, she was also ordered to help a man named Septimus Signis, a brilliant but mad scholar that used to be aligned with the College of Winterhold where he researched the Elder Scrolls. After reading one of these very scrolls he was driven completely insane. Using a lexicon found in Alftand, an ancient Dwarven City, he sought out to reveal the secrets of a colossal lockbox hidden away in an outpost due north of Winterhold, the coldest city in Skyrim and home of the same college he left. The Outpost was a claustrophobic grotto hidden underneath tons of glaciers. Had Myrna not been directed by the Daedric Prince, she would never have found Septimus. Before being captured by the Stormcloaks, she was sent to retrieve multiple sources of blood from the different races inhabiting Skyrim, it would have been a perfect haul, retrieving blood in a war zone. Had it she not been captured by General Tullius' men, she'd have had her samples and hoped to be out of Hermaeous Mora's grasp.
Septimus was inside the Grotto muttering while rubbing the Lockbox against his face. He didn't stop when Myrna entered the room, instead he became more excited seeing her return.
"Your blood." Myrna said as she handed the vials to Septimus.
"Ah ya! Yes, yes exactly what I need." Septimus took the vials and stared intently at them comparing the amounts in each. "You didn't... drink any of it I assume?" Septimus started chuckling at his own joke. Though he stopped from Myrna's disinterested demeanor.
"If you honestly think I'm helping you out of the kindness of my heart, you're mistaken." Myrna said. "Let's get this over with already."
Septimus cleared his throat nervously. "Of course. Just a slight joke to build a relationship. Now then." He examined the vials to the moonlight shining into the frozen grotto. "Ah.. yes... I can almost... hear them... I feel their life energy! I will prepare the mixture immediately!"
"This experiment of yours had better work. if you wasted my time, I'll kill you."
"Yes yes, of course. Precious time to a vampire, a strange concept indeed." Septimus began rummaging through the various contraptions he brought into the grotto. As Myrna hoped he wouldn't, he began giving a monologue to himself. "The box contains the heart. The essence of a God. I have devoted my life to the Elder Scrolls, but their knowledge is a passing awareness when compared to the encompassing mind of divinity. The Dwemer were the last to touch it. It was thought to have been destroyed by the Nerevarine but our lord Hermaeus Mora told me otherwise. I thought there were no secrets left to know. Until I first spoke to him. He asks a price - to work his will. A few murders, some dissent spread, a plague or two. For the secrets I can endure. he brought me here. To the box. But he wouldn't reveal how to open it. Maddening. But now, now I-we-will finally reveal the secrets of the Dwemer locked away from time, the Elder Scrolls, the mysteries." Septimus rummaged faster giving slight chuckles here and there. "The sealing structure interlocks in the tiniest fractals. Dwemer blood can loose the hooks, but none alive remained to bear it. A panoply of their brethren gathered to form a facsimile. A trick. Something they didn't anticipate, no, not even them! The blood of Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer, Falmer, and Orsimer. The elves still living provide the key." Septimus picked up a small golden device filled with gears and metallic vials of its own, he dubbed the contraption 'The Essence Extractor' before continuing his ramblings as he poured the vials of blood inside. "Bear you hence this extractor! It will drink the fresh blood of elves."
With the device filled with blood, he lifted it to his chest and plunged the machine inside him grunting and laughing as the liquids poured into his body. Myrna cringed at the sight of him possibly sealing his own fate. The extractor fell to the ground leaving a small crack. A waterfall of blood poured out from Septimus. He stumbled over to the oversized lockbox and threw himself into it. The locking mechanism around the door began shifting and twirling its gears backwards. It collapsed into itself creating a tunnel that stretch into the depths of the glacier. Septimus sprinted inside tripping and rolling down to the center of the box. Myrna cautiously followed inside until the two happened upon a book that looked stitched together by various skins. The book sat on a pedestal, awaiting for the two to unveil its secrets. Septimus picked it up and opened it.
"What is this? It's just a book?" Septimus said as he roughly flipped through.
Myrna watched a green entity circle around Septimus and he began levitating. He laughed with glee spinning and rocking about as he attempted to read each page of the book.
"I can see." Septimus began. "The world beyond burns in my mind... it's... it's... marvelous!"
Septimus's laughing fit shifted into groans of pain, then cries of anguish as his body started to contort. Lightning crackled through his veins and his skin began boiling blue before he disintegrated into a pile of purple ashes that fluttered to the ground. A muffled noise sounded off as something in the distance entered the grotto behind Myrna, she felt it hover near her. When she paid it no mind it engulfed the lockbox in a black haze that blanketed the room in darkness, lighting only the book atop the pile of ashes in front of her.
"Good, you've found the Oghma Infinium!" The void's voice called from every direction around Myrna.
A dark green mass of tentacles protruded from every edge of the haze, the slimey noises they made as they slid across each other disgusted Myrna, but she knew she would not be allowed to leave until it was done talking to her. When you make a deal with a Daedric Prince you sign over yourself to them, and Myrna knew of this practice all too well for reasons she'd never share with anybody.
"I've done as you asked." Myrna said shifting her eyes around the room for a focus point in the tentacle covered cage. "Now fulfill your end of the bargain."
"Come, my champion." Hermeaus Mora said multiplying his voice with each word echoing off one another. "There's no need to rush knowledge."
"I am not your Champion, Daedra."
"Who do you think brought Septimus here?" Hermaeus Mora's Tentacles caressed Myrna's chin and slowly wrapped around her body, slithering into her coat as he continued his echoed whispers into her ears. "Who do you think protected you on your journey to open the box and loose my knowledge onto the world?"
"You have no control over what I do."
"Your free will is an illusion. Whether you acknowledge me or not will be your own business. But I will be in your mind forever." Another set of tentacles lifted the book from the ashes of Septimus and hovered it in front of Myrna's face. "Now you have the Oghma Infinium. It contains the knowledge of ages as revealed to Xarxes, my loyal servant. For hundreds of years it has been shut away from the world. Septimus was a useful tool for unleashing it. Now it is in your hands."
The Prince gently flipped through the pages forcing Myrna to stare at it. She tried to look away, anywhere else would have worked, but she was overwhelmed with anxiety, enchanted by Hermaeus Mora. Her eyes scanned through every random page, every symbol and letter, most of which she couldn't make out. Mora continued flipping through it, after a while Mynra felt as though the symbols were whispering to her and some of them even began to feel familiar as though she was beginning to understand them. Mora shut the book and slipped it into Myrna's satchel, snapping her out of the trance. The tentacles that glided across her skin tightened their grip.
"Astonishing isn't it? Such knowledge. A rush of power that formulates into your mind. You'll require these skills in your future. But be careful how long you place your mind inside the Oghma Infinium. Knowledge is a cruel mistress to any who seek to abuse it."
Myrna shook her head in an attempt to regain her mind. "I've done what you asked now tell me what I want to know. Or do you have something else for me to do?"
"I do have one small task left. Head to Windhelm and take a ferry to Solstheim, from there I will contact you once more. I shall give you the information that you seek, as promised."
"Fine then, but if you try anymore tricks our game is over."
"Of course it will be." He gave a low chuckle. "Farewell."
The Daedric Princes' Tentacles slowly slithered out from underneath her clothes, and the black haze faded away. The slime that Mora left on her bare skin stuck to her garments. She was disgusted with herself and of the Prince's powerful influence on her. She used to tell herself that she'd never make a deal with a Daedra again, but for the sake of finding her friend, she endured all of his actions and followed his every word no matter the command. Myrna had enough of the atmosphere around her and began heading out of the grotto. A powerful urge to read the book once more crept into her mind. She nearly took it out of her satchel but was able to snap herself out of the allure. She set out into the icy glaciers again and prepared to head off to Windhelm to reluctantly meet her master in Solstheim.
