I, Eternity
Madhouse
"Well, well!" The figure said, smiling. "I hadn't thought to see you again. Looks like that nutty Daedra came through for us." He laughed, a low, grating sound that felt like a whetstone rubbing against the bones of LN's inner ear. "Aren't we just good enough to eat! Look at that nice set of armor, you must have got that after you knew me."
"Who are you?" LN said. The man was a small human, of no the Breton race, both his eyes were bloodshot and beaten-looking.
"Ah, Sheogorath laid out some rules for our game. He told us that you don't remember much about your life. So, what we'll do is remind you of what you did."
"Why do I not like that much?" LN asked himself.
The small man answered anyway. "Because you've done some nasty things, my dear amnesiac night crawler. So what Sheggy thinks is that if you were to see some of them then you'd be so overcome with remorse you'll be His completely, never to leave."
They entered a large anteroom, it seemed to be a feast hall of some type. There was a massive table with several long-rotten dishes drawing flies on it. At the center was a tall, fat man who had been crucified, then cut open. His intestines hung out and the maggots were crawling through them. After a moment, his eyes opened and LN saw with horror that it was a vampire. Despite his figure, his face was gaunt and grey.
It was so long ago, after the war. LN had been a vampire without a guide, still too young to either comprehend or control his power. He had been taken in by that one, Grigori, who was the first blood child of Lamae.
Many great adventures they shared, all the hunting grounds of ancient Cyrod had been theirs for the taking, many of their kind similarly young and teacher-less as he was.
For the first time in years, he'd had a father. Grigori taught him how to stalk prey. How to deal with his rage at what had happened. For two years the man had taught him, until the great split.
It had been LN's idea.
"You!" Grigori hissed. "Betrayer!"
"No." LN said. "You were the traitor."
"I?" Grigori shouted. "You dare accuse me of treason? I was the law among vampires! It was I who declared the hunting grounds! I who held the True Blood!"
"You who let countless of us starve for no reason better than that they swore loyalty to each other."
"As if they deserved anything! If they had bowed to my rule, vampire kind would be united now!"
"United without any free will." LN said. "I split from you and your selfishness when I saw you for what you were. I couldn't live with myself if I had stayed and pretended to myself that you were right. A man's loyalties should not determine whether he is to live or die."
At this, Grigori sputtered and what little blood was not crusting the floor and table under him rushed to his face. LN walked past him as he began to shout obscenities. It had been painful to remember that, but he felt lighter. He had confronted his decision to be honest with himself, and had stuck by it, and now more than he had even before he lost his memory he knew he was right.
LN's companion laughed. "Well done my friend! But he was the first of the group. The rest may not be so docile."
They opened the big door into what seemed like an inner courtyard. However, instead of flowers or trees, it was filled with exotic mushrooms. In the center, sitting on a bench, was a Dunmer. He seemed young, and was chewing thoughtfully on a mushroom as he brushed up his Mohawk. His chapped skin revealed him as full Ashland Dark Elf.
"Ah, hello" He said. "I believe we met long ago."
LN remembered it.
Morrowind. Its air was hot and dry. Light breezes blew small clouds of dust down the valley. LN walked in the clear moonlight to his rendezvous. Before he reached it, he had been distracted by a commotion off to the side. It was in a cave, he heard the squeals of a hungry creature, very small. He entered, and found, to his astonishment, a baby dragon. It squealed among the pieces of it's eggshell, next to the rotting body of it's mother. One glance showed LN that it had starved to death.
He had a little food in his pack, not for himself but for the upcoming journey. He knew that he couldn't let the creature starve here. He gave it some hound meat, and it chirped affectionately. He began to leave the cave, and it followed him. He reached his rendezvous with it sleeping in his arms.
"What's that?" The Dunmer, Relas, asked. "By the gods, is that a Dragon?!"
"Yes." LN said. "I found it next to its dead mother. I couldn't just let it die."
"Of course, it ate more food than we could give it." Relas said. "So we picked the mushrooms to avoid starving ourselves. You're a vampire, you don't get addicted to things like we do. So I got hooked, you didn't."
"And I was supposed to just leave it to die in the wastes?" LN said. "Yes, it was my fault that you started the mushrooms, but I also tried to help you stop. It was your choice to continue."
"I wouldn't have had to if it wasn't for you."
"You are blaming me for saving the life of a living thing, then trying to help you after my mistake showed itself. It's a fools errand."
Relas cocked his head. "I suppose you're right. The irony is, if my mind hadn't been expanded by shrooms, I wouldn't be open enough to forgive you."
"My my my!" LN's companion interjected. "Two for two! It seems you're sure of yourself. Well, I doubt that will last much longer."
"Stuff yourself." LN said as he opened the door to the kitchens.
The next room smelled rank. It was covered in a whitish-grey slime that was congealing to a solid in several places. A moving mass of the grey-white jelly opened it's eyes and spoke.
"You twat." It said. "You dare to come here and defile my ultimate presence with your filthy dedication to the Wrong?"
LN clenched his fists. This memory was so powerful, and so angering, that he nearly lost control amid the laughter of his companion.
He sheathed the bloodsoaked sword. The undead had all fallen, and with a wave of his hand, he made a wave of fire burst from him, ensuring they would all stay down.
The local Ra Gada, fresh from Yokuda, had attempted to pay him to do this, but after seeing the devastation this being had wrought, he was doing this for pleasure alone. The sight of that Ra Gada woman, ravaged, beaten, and brutally killed, had been what did it.
He climbed the stairs, then levitated up the tower as it seemed to change from stone to the organic filth emitted by the foul Sload body. In Morrowind, their drippings were collected and used as soap, but LN would rather just not bathe, or to use some of the abrasive, pungent plants of his native Cyrod. As he reached the top, the creature belched fire at him. He erected a barrier, then retaliated with lightning, which was reflected and hit the wall.
"You dare to soil the presence of the epitome of all beings? Before I crush you like the insignificant speck you and all the others are, I demand you indulge my curiosity. Why have you come here, Inferior Being? As the Ultimate Pinnacle of All Living Things, I demand it."
"You are the ultimate pile of arrogant, disgusting goo. I came here because of the destruction you've unleashed upon the innocent." LN responded.
"Those Inferior Beings were of no use to me. As such, their loss is insignificant."
"You sicken me, you piece of filth."
"You dare to call me filth? You dare to insinuate life has meaning beyond it's utility to me?" The Sload gurgled.
"You dare to say that a living thing is to be judged based on how well it can serve you? In that case, I am the most useless thing in the Aurbis, because I'm about to undo you!"
LN dashed forward, and the Sload shot more flames out of it's grubby "hands." LN shot ice so cold, reflecting the coldness of his own hatred for such arrogance, he literally stopped the flames dead in the air. He grabbed at the quivering mass of flesh, and absorbed it's magicka with a powerful spell.
"NO!" He screamed as his power drained away. "This is impossible! I am the holder of all Truth! How could one so dedicated to being wrong do this to me?!"
"I'm not gonna kill you, I'll do something even worse!" LN said, "I'll take your power, and you can learn what it's like to be an average person. Now get off your pedestal you fat piece of Guar shit!
"You defied what is obviously true: That all that I say and think is unquestionably and undeniably right, that my knowledge is self-evident and requires no proof." The Sload gurgled in his hideous, self-righteous way.
"After being drained of your material power, you still know absolutely nothing. The very nature of the mind is that it seeks truth, and that that truth is only what matters to the one who seeks it. To a peasant farmer, the truth is that if he grows enough food, he will live. To me, the truth is that life has meaning, no matter how useless it may be to me. And as much as I'd like to, it's that very philosophy that's keeping me from killing you." LN said, then hawked and spat a dark mass of phlegm at the Sload.
He exited the kitchen as the Sload declared his own irrefutable Rightness in all things, still having learned nothing. He shook with anger. The encounter, though gratifying, had worn on him. He had wanted so desperately to attack the creature. But still, in the coldness of his rage he felt a glimmer of warmth. He had not sunk to the level of that foul thing.
"Ah ha ha he ha hoo ha!" The companion mock-laughed. "Well, you seem to have come through that nicely." He said. "However, the game's just begun. I know Sheogorath said midnight, but Time is what He wants it to be here. And I think you've earned a hint at how the game is played. It will only end if Sheogorath deems you ready, not a second before. But it seems we've come to milady's boudoir." He laughed.
LN entered the room, it was decorated in a dark, gothic style. The candles glowed black, and on the bed sat a woman in black leather armor. LN found this memory bitter.
"No more." LN said. "Not after this."
"I did it for you!" She cried, reaching out to him with bloody hands. "Now the world can be your hunting grounds! No government or oppressive laws to hold you back!"
"That's not how I operate!" LN shouted. "I kill when I must, and I hate myself for it. What you've done will turn the world into a sea of blood!"
"Please, I love you!" She said. "Killing the Potentate was how I'd make us a world of our own…" She said, tears down her cheeks now.
"Get out of my sight." LN grunted, turning away from her. He, too, was sad. In his stone-cold heart, he did feel a little affection for the woman, the Night Mother. He couldn't live with the thought of her after this. She had taken the world he had done so much manipulation to create and destroyed it with a single dagger-stroke.
"You left me." She said.
"You were a murderess." LN said, gently. "I couldn't bear the sight of you, not because of what you'd done though."
"What?" She said, her big eyes still as vivacious as he remembered them. "Then why?"
"Because it was my fault." LN said. "If it wasn't for what I was, you would never have learned the arts of stealth. You would never have become what you became, but for me."
She just looked at him, stunned.
"I'm sorry." He said. "I was weak."
She stood up. She walked over and hugged him, sobbing onto his armor. "No, if it wasn't you, it would have been someone else." She said. "Even before I met you, the guildsmen my father knew said I was a natural."
Suddenly, she was bathed in blue light. LN wasn't sure what was happening.
"This is the closure I needed," She said. "I'm no longer obsessed with the events of that night. I no longer have need to be here."
With that, she disappeared from the Isles forever.
LN left the room and his companion smiled, using a mocking voice to imitate the things she'd said to him.
"Shut up." LN said as he entered the final room.
It was the huge hall couldn't quite remember. The mounted Dragon head, though, he could.
"Well, it's time for your final test." His companion said. "The living being you hate more than anything else. Will you put me out of my misery, like the animal I am?"
"I remember you now." LN snarled.
This wizard had become problematic. His power was mind-bogglingly great, to the point where he had created a mountain to build his fortress on, then made it explode with all manner of plants for his alchemy, and erected an all-but-impenetrable barrier around it. There was only one thing LN could do, and he did it.
He called the Dragon whose life he had saved.
It flew around the barrier, then struck at critical points with it's fire. Its green and blue scales blended with much of the foliage on the artificial mountain, so LN could only occasionally see it. But finally, the barrier seemed to turn to a solid mass and shatter. As soon as it did, LN ran in, charging through hallway after hallway, slaughtering summoned Daedra servants until he came to the courtyard. The Dragon was keeping the wizard busy. Launching flames at him.
"Surrender." LN said. The Dragon let up his flames. "There are two of us, and one of you. If you come with us, you need not be harmed."
The wizard laughed. "It seems you underestimate the power of magic!" He said. "For example…"
He snapped his fingers and three rings of light appeared around the Dragon, then bored into it's head. The Dragon gripped it's skull and wailed.
"Ha ha ha! Now, you can spend some quality time together. I think you'll find my spell is quite unbreakable. Good morrow!"
With that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The Dragon raised it's head toward LN, and snarled. It's eyes, far from their noble gold, were a sick shade of brownish-red.
"No." LN whispered.
The Dragon roared and charged at him. LN jumped over him and onto his back. He shot a probe into the Dragon's mind. It shot back, useless. The Dragon's mind was totally covered with magic.
It slammed into the wall, knocking LN off. LN landed on his feet, sliding, then ran at the dragon. He tried a shallow cut on it's leg, to see if a jolt of pain could bring his friend back. It shrieked, and blew fire at him. He put up a barrier, and deflected it. He shot a blast of concussive force from his hands, hoping to stun it. He failed, and it ran at him again. This time, it head butted him hard into the opposite wall. He rushed at it, and kicked it in the snout.
"I know you're in there." he said, landing. "Please, here my voice and come back."
"Please." It said in LN's mind. "The spell truly is unbreakable. I cannot stand a life in servitude. Destroy me, and free my soul."
LN put away his sword as the dragon blew smoke. "I will not kill you. You can break this."
The dragon charged again. LN was so conflicted. In his heart, he knew that he could do nothing. Before the Dragon reached him, he jumped to the side, drew his sword…
"You made me behead him" LN said.
"Yes. With his last thought, he shot back at me." the wizard said. "I lost all of my power defending myself from the psychic onslaught. Now I kneel before you, powerless and defenseless, and I allow you to kill me. To take all your ideals about sanctity of life and bury them, only for a moment, as you did long ago, and kill me."
LN raised his sword, and brought it down. It landed with a dull thunk next to the wizard.
"You already have to live here, a weakling and a nobody." LN said. "I won't kill you."
"HA HA HA HA HA!" Echoed the laugh. Sheogorath appeared behind LN.
"My dear nut job, you did it." He said.
'What?"
"That's it. You've won. Now, let's have a walk-n'-talk for a moment."
Sheogorath whisked them to the courtyard of his Palace in New Sheoth.
"Let's review your score. Zero body count, and you helped the hot one out with her obsession. A pretty good rap sheet." Sheogorath said.
"I think you said I could go back if I succeeded?"
"Yes, but you need to be told one last thing about why I moved the Isles to where you'd land in them."
"Why?"
"Because you need to have no regrets. Soon enough, you'll be in hot water very frequently. Many situations will test you to your limits. You were on the cusp of remembering the Second Era, so I brought you here, to face the memories head-on. If you succeeded, you could do as you were needed until you got the next batch. If you failed, you wouldn't have been much help to anyone anyway."
"Ah." LN said.
"Well, one interdimentional portal coming up. This might tickle."
Sheogorath spun his cane, and LN fell through a wormhole in the ground, appearing back in his corporeal form in Malendil's basement.