It didn't matter to me that Nysteris had refused my last advance; I was more content now than I had ever been since I could remember. My whole body sang.
I owned the heart and desire of a beautiful snow elf dragonborn, and soon I would be going to Dragonsreach with her to make history. I had never been more in my element. Life was once again a wondrous journey to be grasped with both hands.
And I couldn't believe my luck that she was going to fetch me dinner. Surely there had to be a catch. Was she going to poison me?
I roused from my idle musings when I suddenly realised that I was alone in her house.
I had been waiting patiently for an opportunity like this one. Not because I wanted to be free of her - oh, how far from the truth - but because I wanted to learn about her. About her habits, her literature, her interests, her tastes. And about her race in particular.
It was difficult to get Nysteris to talk openly about it at the best of times. Doing so seemed to upset her.
Despite our newfound affection for eachother, she remained as tight-lipped as always. If seducing her had made any difference to that situation, I had yet to see its effects.
I got up from the bed and quietly descended the wooden stairs, looking around me as though I were committing a robbery.
A small room was positioned under the stairs; It was the only part of the house I had not yet seen - and the only one I hadn't ravaged Nysteris in. Yet.
I made a mental note of that fact as I quietly walked into it, my eyes searching the walls and corners in the dim light.
An alchemy laboratory sat in the corner, covered with a thin layer of dust. A small shelf of ingredients rested just above it; Elve's ear, tundra cotton, hawk feathers, frost salts. None of that was particularly interesting to me. It was the bookshelf against the wall that caught my attention.
I quickly ran my fingers over the closely packed spines of the books. Some of them were spell tomes; others were softer literature. The complete set of The Real Barenziah was there. This surprised me; I had thought her fairly ignorant of Dunmer history before, even though I now realised that she had given me no cause to think such a thing.
The row of books on the next shelf down were more interesting still; a brassy gold colour and so old that they barely held themselves together.
I pulled one of them out and opened it, my curiosity exciting me; I was somewhat deflated to find that all of the text inside was written in a strange type of rune I had never seen before, and in a language which I had no hope of comprehending. I frowned, replacing it on the shelf; I took another of the old books from the shelf and flipped through it, disappointed to see the same obscure lines and shapes.
I stopped flicking through the pages as an illustration caught my eye; I took the book out of the dark little room and into the light as I studied it. Two elven men, one with white hair and the other black, holding gleaming spears and wearing intricate armour. They were riding on the backs of two strange dragons, which bore beaks and no teeth.
Below them, a more familiar looking dragon flew with its mouth open, pointed toward the elves.
The riders were slightly strange in appearance; they were depicted with long ears which were sharply pointed, even for a mer. Their eyes were sloped upward and their eyebrows thin. It was then that I recognised their race: Snow elves. They must be.
I heard the door open as Nysteris returned. The smell of food wafted through the air as she yelled out.
'Wake up, Sero,' She called. 'I've brought... Oh.' She saw me standing in the corner, still holding the open book in my hands.
I felt embarrassed for a split second; I shrugged it off as I gave her a beaming smile. 'Hello, Sera. Back already?'
Her hood was still on her face; I saw her slump a little as she walked over to the table next to me and put a large earthenware pot onto it along with two loaves of fresh bread. 'What are you doing, Telrdyn?' She almost sighed.
It was a better reaction than what I had expected. I smiled triumphantly. 'Just reading.'
'You can't read that. It's in Falmer.'
'Ah, is that what it is?' I walked over to her, book in hand. 'No wonder I couldn't make it out.' I smelled the air in an exaggerated fashion, squinting my eyes.
'Oh Azura, what is that smell? It's delicious.' I smiled at her again, trying to charm my way out of trouble.
'Potage le Magnifique.'
'I'm sorry, what?'
'Nevermind.' She pulled off her hood, tossing it onto the table. 'Are you going to have some?' I could tell that she wasn't impressed with me, but once again I'd decided to push my luck.
'Tell me about this picture,' I said quietly, pointing to it as I sat down next to her. 'It's very interesting.'
She sighed, breaking off a chunk of bread and removing the lid from the warm pot, dipping inside of it. 'They're The Heralds. It's a long story.' She put the bread into her mouth and began to chew.
'Oooh. I love long stories,' I said with a cheeky grin on my face. I grabbed the other loaf and tore off a chunk. 'Come on, let's hear it.'
'It's boring.'
'Nonsense.' I dipped the bread into the pot. I smiled before stuffing it into my mouth. 'Come now. Humour me. I've been aching to learn more about Snow Elves.'
She looked at me sideways, her mouth full. 'Really?' She raised an eyebrow. 'You're serious.'
'Of course I am. Why wouldn't I want to learn more about you? and them? I'm the only mer in Skyrim lucky enough to own one.'
She glared at me for a moment, a look of indignation on her face; It quickly softened into a smile as I beamed at her.
'Alright then.' She wiped her hand on her side as she shifted in her seat. 'I'll start from the beginning.'
I grabbed the bottle of sujamma from the table and focused on her intently as she began to talk.
'The snow elves have lived in Skyrim since long before the Nords. Our civilisation was already great when the first of them migrated here; The Atmorans.'
I frowned at her as I concentrated; I still couldn't believe she was being so amiable about it. I took a drink.
'We shared our homeland with the dragons. It had always been that way. Monahven and The Vale were born on the same ground. The Nords claim the legend of the Dragonborn as their own, but it only became a part of their lore after they came here; It has been a part of ours since time immemorial.'
'We coexisted with the dragons, but it was never a good relationship. A dragon then was the same as a dragon now. But we were worshippers of Auri-El; Akatosh. Their maker.
'Auri-El was pleased by our reverence and, at a time long before anybody could remember, gifted upon us our protection from his children: The twin dragons Voslaarum and Naslaarum, and two souls to rein them in: The Heralds. What the Nords now call Dragonborn; We never knew that name.
'Voslaarum and Naslaarum were unique creatures, unlike any other dragons to soar the skies of Tamriel. They looked different from their Dovah brothers; They were bird-like, toothless, smaller. But they were fearsome beyond belief; The only souls who could soothe and control them were The Heralds.
The Heralds were two Dragonborn souls who were always brought into the mortal world in pairs. Sometimes twins like their Dovah mounts, sometimes two people born to different families of different genders, but always at the same time. They always bore resemblance to eachother, and represented the two aspects needed to defeat the Dovah in battle: Reverence to Auri-El, and the spirit of war.
'When The Heralds died - Usually one quickly following the other - their souls were released to Auri-El to await rebirth into their next bodies. It could take anywhere from months to years for this to happen. While the Heralds were with Auri-El, waiting to be reborn, the twin dragons became vicious and savage; The people anxiously waited for the return of the Sun and Moon. The rebirth of The Heralds onto this plane was revealed by the sudden pacification of Voslaarum and Naslaarum, at their shrine in the great lake.
'The Heralds defended their kin from the dragons which attacked the vale, riding their terrible mounts up into the skies to bring them down, and consuming their souls upon their defeat. They also heralded the arrival of the Snow Prince on the battle field, their terrible wings and piercing screams striking fear into the hearts of their enemies as their great wings blotted out the sun.
They were heroes to the Falmer, but strangely, they were not as revered to the Falmer people as the twin dragons themselves were. The Heralds were considered to be soldiers and weapons, not unlike a special heavy weapons unit.
'When Faire and I were born, the last heralds had departed their mortal bodies over 40 years earlier. Voslaarum and Naslaarum had been feral for all of that time.
When we arrived on this earth, screaming and wet, the elders said the revered dragons became still. They began to accept offerings for the first time since their last riders had departed them.'
'You and Faire were Heralds?'
'Our parents refused to accept it. I'm still not sure why; My mother continually attempted to stall attempts to intitiate us. She groomed Faire into her own likeness; She became soft, fragile, detached.'
'My father, I think, feared for our lives. We were still only little girls. While he was accepting of what we were, he wouldn't allow us to begin our path until he had decided we were ready. That time never came while he was alive. He knew that if one of us fell, the other would soon follow; It was unbearable to him. He loved us too much.'
She paused for a moment; The look on her face wasn't one of anguish, but of deep thought.
'The war with the Atmorans was almost at an end. Faire and I were too young to take up our mantles. Arch curate Vyrthur had become strangely stricken, withdrawing into solitude within the chantry; Afflicted with what I now know was vampirism.'
I frowned. 'How did that happen? Auri-El didn't prevent it?'
'The people said that Auri-El had abandoned us.'
She looked into the fire, her mind miles away. I dare not interrupt her; What she was telling me was incredible.
'I may be dragonborn, but my destiny was ultimately only to protect my people, the Snow Elves... That destiny was wrenched from me when our civilisation collapsed.'
'How did you find yourself here?' I almost whispered.
'I don't know why I'm here. My people are gone... I know of a couple of secret colonies, but together they now number less than three hundred. My twin has gone, and my balance has gone with her. Voslaarum and Naslaarum are dead. I've been artificially preserved by vampirism for centuries, which has been the only thing which has kept me alive... in a manner of speaking...'
She sighed loudly.
'Whatever my destiny was, it no longer matters. It was an age ago. It's irrelevant now. I'm cut adrift, like so much kelp in the ocean; I have no purpose.'
'Then why defeat Alduin?'
'Because I'm the only one who can.'
I frowned. 'There must be more to it. Don't you want to preserve this world?'
'I care not for the fate of this world; I am only trying to do what I was born to do.'
I struggled to find words; I stared into her eyes pleadingly, trying to find a shred of altruism in her. 'You're a Herald,' I said, almost begging her to change her mind. 'You were destined to be a saviour.'
'It's all history now.'