Sheogorath walked to the top of the stairs and panted in exhaustion as he stood next to the mysterious man. "You okay?" the man asked in Akaviri. "Give me a minute. *SMACKS LIPS* Yeah, I'm fine. You don't happen to be some Rider fan working here?" Sheogorath asked the man in Akaviri as she struggles to catch his breath. "You bet I am! The name's Shinonome Kouki. I'm friends with all the Syffim Riders!" the man introduced himself with a wide smile as he pointed to Sheogorath. "Yeah, I'm new in town and I want to know about them. Could you help me?" Sheogorath asked.
Later inside a library isle with Sheogorath and Kouki sitting at a table with files, Sheogorath examines a photograph of Kouki smiling as he put his arm over Syffim Rider Jikansen's shoulder. He appears to be younger and dressed in a white uniform. "What do you know about this…" "Syffim Rider Jikansen's the name. He travels through time to stop these guys called Wishmen from messing up the timeline." "Yeah… do you know anything about his belt? I swear I've seen it before." Sheogorath said as he examined the photo. "It looks like oil lamps made by the Redguards. Legend says that spirits called djinn lived in them." Kouki explained. "Yeah, I know about the djinn. They made wishes and are servants of Clavicus Vile, Daedric Prince of Wishes." Sheogorath said as he read a book with an illustration of some kind of spirit made of smoke.
"Are you also a scholar?" Kouki asked. "Kinda. I'm just curious about these heroes. Anyways, do you know anything about the one with phone on his belt?" Sheogorath asked. Kouki handed Sheogorath a file with a "T" in yellow, just like on Teiz's belt. "Teiz was a Rider who fought enhanced lycanthropes called Weres with technology stolen from Enrich Incorporated. It was eventually discovered that Enrich was run by lycanthropes who served Hircine, Prince of the Hunt. It was also rumoured that Teiz himself was also a lycanthrope; a werewolf." Kouki explained as Sheogorath flipped through the contents of the file including: pictures of Teiz, newspaper clippings, and a blurry image of a grey werewolf. "Do you know who I am?" Sheogorath asked.
"You're Sheogorath, Daedric Prince of Madness, and Riffs's dad!" Kouki replied with the same look on enthusiasm on his face. "Let me guess, the girls told you everything?" Sheogorath said as he shut the file. "Oh yeah! They're my friends after all!" Kouki said. "Have you heard of the White-Gold Tower? Sheogorath asked Kouki as he leaned towards him from the desk. "It's a monument and the palace of the Emperor of Tamriel!" Kouki answered.
"It also holds the Avatar of Akatosh; a statue that protects Nirn from the forces of Oblivion. As you can see, it's not doing a very good job since I'm sitting right here. Ever since the last turn of the century the statue's getting weaker, yet very few Daedra have appeared on Tamriel on their own. I think that the statue redirects invading Daedra to Akavir and the moons. For example; it looks like the Wishmen are some kind of djinn sent by Clavicus Vile." Sheogorath explained. "What about the monsters you sent?" Kouki asked. "When I sent away the Neuwrongs I forgot entirely about the statue maintaining the barrier, but they still went through. Never thought they ended up here." Sheogorath explained. "If you're a Daedric Prince, why are you touring Shin Akavir?" Kouki asked. "I got curious. I never thought to find out something about my past here. Anyway, you got anything about the Trooper guys?" Sheogorath asked.
Kouki goes to the shelf behind him and browses through it. "It's rare to find out anything about most of their teams because some of them were helped by the Dragonguard, so they tend to cover up some things. They do fight some forces from other Daedric Princes. One example are the Karatroopers; unknown martial arts fighters who fought Osore Syffim; Fear Warriors. As the name suggests, they were followers of Vaermina. The forces that fought the current Troopers weren't the first to be backed by Vaermina. Some of the Daedric Princes have tried more than once to invade, but were thwarted by Riders, Troopers, and other heroes in Akavir." Kouki explained as he showed Sheogorath a photo of three Troopers wearing red, blue, and yellow full-body karategis and catlike helmets. "Does Tamriel have heroes like them?" Kouki asked. "It sounds a bit unbelievable, but there are cities on the two moons. On Masser, there is a city called New Moon City where a lot of vigilantes live. There's a rumour about a vigilante team called the Last Shellbacks. In the second Akaviri Invasion there were these Argonian pikemen called shellbacks because of their shields that looked like… actually I think they were made of turtle shells. Anyways, the shellback rank was disbanded a couple thousand years ago but I guess some decided to take the name and fight bad guys." Sheogorath explained. "I've heard of Argonians before; lizard people from the boggy land of Argonia. I read that some were taken as slaves by the Tsaesci long ago, but were treated better due to… well you can guess why. Those slaves didn't have descendants here in Shin Akavir because they needed some kind of tree that the Tsaesci didn't bring. I'd like to meet some, and maybe make friends with them." Kouki said as he twirled a pencil.
"What time is it now? Does someone sit in a control room somewhere and control how the sky looks?" Sheogorath wondered as he looked at a digital watch that materialized onto his left wrist. "Sort of. We have mages that control the weather in Shin Akavir and yes, a control room that maintains the appearance of the Sky Dome. It should be seven at night now." Kouki explained. "I think I should be going, seeya." Sheogorath said as he walked away.
To be continued…