Epilogue
The blade had been put through the now unmoving Black Knight's chest with a strength and rage only a powerful warrior could possess. Vonkur, beaten and with a wounded shoulder, was scowling in pain and anger. His hand was still closed around the black, gleaming sword's handle, and his opponent was completely frozen. The Dragonborn had won.
Time seemed to stand still with the Knight as patches of rust suddenly appeared on its armor, growing at a rapid pace and turning the armor's color into a dark brown. Dents began to appear and the unknown entity's tall stance slowly turned into a slouched and weakened one, as if its body was imploding.
Cracks could be heard and small, brown-colored pieces fell from the crumbling armor to the ground. The already emotionless helmet turned even more empty as the Knight's life faded, its seemingly nonexistent eyes disappearing from nonexistent sight.
The Black Knight turned into small particles of rusted black metal, each particle no bigger than a grain of sand or dust. The once impressive, powerful aura around it had vanished with its life. And now its armor, the only thing left between the Knight and complete annihilation, was mere seconds away from its transmutation into nothingness.
And then, all that was left of it was a pile of brown, extremely small pieces of metal on the ground.
Vonkur looked at the sword, and saw that it, too, was gone.
He closed his eyes and sighed in relief.
When he opened them, he looked directly to the group.
"We'll have to tell the Jarl that the Knight is dead."
The following days involved something Vonkur hadn't experienced in a long time: rest. True rest. Thanks to his magic, it didn't take long for him to recover from the physical injuries he had; it were the deeper cuts, the ones he couldn't reach, that tore him and so many other people apart.
The knowledge of the existence of such powerful creatures had caused many people to put less trust into the guards and armies, and several scholars had desperately been trying to do research on the Black Knight or anything related. Its origin, its very existence had not been explained yet, and the pile of rust that once was the evil entity didn't help much either. Obviously, if there were any answers, they'd be in the books or dungeons.
The worst scars by far were the losses of so many innocents. The people of Dawnstar and Winterhold were no more, and so many soldiers had lost their lives in the attempts to save Whiterun from suffering the same fate. The only consolation was that they'd be moving on to the afterlife, whether that be Sovngarde or something else.
The only truly positive thing was that the Civil War had eased a bit: several meetings had been held between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks, with both sides agreeing to help out with rebuilding the damaged parts of Skyrim to the best of their ability. Elenwen also attended to said meetings, but the only thing the Thalmor seemed to be concerned about was the possible return of the Knight or the rise of a similar threat.
Deep within their diplomatic talk, the Imperials, Stormcloaks and Thalmor hid something that only few people noticed: the armies of Skyrim had started to show more respect to one another, and the bitter enmity between Ulfric and Tullius had become slightly less potent. They would no longer throw insults to one another over the conference table like they did in High Hrothgar when the Dragonborn arranged a meeting between them during the Alduin matter.
The Thalmor seemed to be afraid of Vonkur: in spite of the Knight's abilities, it was Vonkur and his group that were responsible for its defeat. If they had the power to do even that, what was going to stop them from destroying Skyrim? Or the Aldmeri Dominion?
Vonkur himself had chuckled at that when Hadvar informed him of the Thalmor's concern. "Destroy Skyrim? I'll pass. Destroying the Dominion? Maybe," he had humorously remarked.
He realized, however, that the Dominion's fear would put him and his companions in danger: if the Thalmor really were scared of them, the danger of abduction or assassination attempts would increase tenfold. Killing or taking Vonkur himself would prove to be a challenge for them; he had been targeted by several assassins, all of which had paid with their lives.
It were the College students that were in the greatest danger. All other College members were dead, so they had little protection to enjoy at the moment. They also had no place to hide, until Vonkur allowed them to move into his home in Raven Rock, which they did after attending to the dead College members' funerals. Vonkur himself made sure to inform Lleril Morvayn to prevent any possible misunderstandings.
That only left the Dragonborn and his housecarl, who were currently exploring another Nordic tomb in search of artifacts, fights against the undead and maybe, just maybe, some weird magical anomalies that would set them on another thing to do.
If their fears for the Dominion's plans were correct, the two heroes would have to watch their backs in the future.
End of the story. Hope the epilogue wasn't too disappointing.
~F