Chapter 53: Where Mohamara isn't.


There was silence in the Blue Palace on the first day of Morning Star. A new year had started, the servants were given the day off with a considerable bonus in their wages the night before. Even the workers who repaired the Palace from Alduin's attack were given the day off by the Jarl's order. She'd had to override her steward to do it, too.

Elisif's morning started with prayer-first to the Divines, and then to Meridia. She'd quietly accepted the worship of the Lady of Infinite Energies after Alduin's attack on Solitude-it was the Lady's Knight that had bought them much needed time to save the lives they had. The would-be High Queen kept a shrine to the only truly 'good' Daedra as far as she was concerned in her quarters, under three different locks and keys.

Breakfast, or at least an attempt at breakfast, was had in the kitchens. It had been years since Elisif had made her own food, so she struggled more than a little. But thankfully a nobleman who had come to pay his taxes, unaware of the Jarl's impromptu holiday, showed her how to make a lovely sugary-sweet fondue. It did the Jarl's heart good that more nobles were opting to pay their taxes in foodstuffs to help the war effort, but why the strange man in his orange and purple jacket had opted to do so in thousands of tiny wheels of cheese sealed in orange and purple wax, she couldn't fathom.

They were certainly delicious, even if they made everything taste like social anxiety for an hour afterward.

With her morning meal done, Elisif was going to retire to her chambers. Perhaps she would read one of the books recently imported from High Rock, or just nap with her enchanted cloak to keep her warm and cozy. In the end, neither of those would come to pass as her holiday was interrupted by he who knew no rest of late: General Seneca Tullius.

The General arrived and requested a private audience, not a difficult request given the lack of business on new year's day. He joined the Jarl in her personal quarters, where her private fireplace kept the room as warm as her cloak would keep Elisif herself.

She acted as a hostess should, and poured the Nibanese man a drink-brandy she had purchased from Bruma-before she took her seat. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visitation, General?"

He seemed perplexed by the brandy's special flavor, peaches but drank a mouthful before answering. "Word on the grapevine is you've been trying to get a tunnel from Falkreath to the Rift dug. I'm here to officially ask why, for starters."

"Well, we need to make plans for the eventual return of peacetime to Skyrim. And frankly, less of that unmelting snow fell on the southern side of the Throat of the World. It's the narrowest point for us to dig through, so would make the most sense to start there." The Jarl wrapped herself more comfortably in her cloak, for she had poured no brandy for herself. "And also because I don't want our men in Falkreath becoming lazy in this time between the great battles."

Tullius nodded, as if he saw the logic behind the decision, and drank some more. "Those sound like good, well-rehearsed lines. Perhaps they're even legitimate justifications that you came up with after the fact." From his satchel, the General produced three rolls of parchment. "Except my runners intercepted three different letters between you and Jarl Laila. So would you care to try again?"

Elisif's expression was perfectly blank while she arranged her hands and head into a shocked position. "Why, I haven't the foggiest notion of what you're talking about. Jarl Laila is a Stormcloak supporter and on the clear other side of the province. How could I have gotten those letters to her at all?"

"That would be what I'm here to ask about, more than the contents of the letters themselves." The General leaned back and unrolled one of the parchment scrolls. "Clever use of the printing press, by the way, to avoid any handwriting giving away who dictated your letters. Shame Laila doesn't have access to one." Tulius sipped the brandy once more as he reviewed the letter. "Excellent brandy, by the way. Took some getting used to, but I've warmed up to it." He regarded Elisif with a distant look. "I can respect you trying to flip Laila to the Empire's side enough to talk terms of peace, but I'm afraid you have to stop."

"As the Military Governor of Skyrim, you hold province over the strategic operations of the Empire's troops, and little else," Elisif said back to him. Her teeth itched for more of that orange and purple wax-coated cheese. "Any peace talks between the two sides in this war would be the province of the civilian government."

"Yes… if the other side weren't public Talos worshippers. I'm afraid the First Emissary has made it clear that any peace talks that don't involve handing over one hundred percent of those Talos worshippers would be in breach of the White-Gold Concordat. At best, we could negotiate a ceasefire."

Jarl and General held a staring contest. For two minutes they struggled visually to win the impasse. But Elisif relented at last on the issue. "Why must the Thalmor insist on cocking up everything we attempt to do?"

"I'm pretty sure they consider it a sport, honestly."


On returning to Whiterun, Yagraz decided it hadn't been a good week for her. First, a simple trip to figure out more on killing Alduin turned into having her ass beat like a drum by said Alduin. Then, on the way back to Whiterun more Solstheim cultists tried to attack her. There was no honor in butchering them as their thoughts weren't their own-Yagraz could feel the Thu'um clouding their thoughts. And finally, when she got back home Brenuin was sober.

"Lucy got into some fights with Braith," he said to her when she set Volendrung above the doorway. "Braith had it coming, but Lucy had a blade and wasn't afraid of using it. Now, none of the other kids will play with her, so she sits in her room all day."

The Orc ran her gauntlet palm over her face, then started for the girl's room. "Alright, I'll talk to her." Brenuin being sober meant he'd hadn't the time to get drunk-that could have been from talking to parents, to the guards, or to Lucia about the situation. Or it could be that he literally drank out every bit of alcohol in the house. Both were very real possibilities.

When she got to Lucy's room, she instinctively wanted to go in and start addressing the problem. But she stopped herself and gently knocked on the door first. The room was Lucy's, it was her space, and Yagraz had to respect that to be a good mother.

"Lucy? You wanna talk?"

Yagraz waited for a minute for an answer, any answer, because she was the adult. That's what adults did, they showed patience. And her patience was rewarded, for after that paltry sixty seconds of waiting, the door to Lucy's room was unlocked and the door pushed open from within.

Lucy wasn't red-faced from crying, she hadn't destroyed all the furniture and pillows in the room. She just walked around with her blanket over her head like a cloak and returned to bed when Yagraz entered the room. The Imperial girl didn't turn away when Yagraz crouched down by the side of the bed to be on her eye level, which surprised Yagraz. She expected Lucy to blame her for teaching the girl to use a blade.

"What's got you down, sweet-pea?"

Lucy looked like she was trying to put together a puzzle, which Yagraz took to mean she was putting together words. Lucy was like that, carefully articulate. Or perhaps she didn't have the words for what she was feeling and had to improvise.

"It didn't go how it was supposed to," she said at last and looked down. "I didn't do it right."

"What was supposed to happen?"

The Imperial girl wrapped the blanket tighter around herself and looked down. Yagraz gently lifted her head up to meet the Orc's eyes and asked again. "It was supposed to… they were supposed to like me," Lucy said, earnest like it was the way things obviously went. "Braith was being a bitch, and tried to pick on me, so I drew my dagger and let her know I'd cut her up. They were supposed to think I was brave!"

"Did Braith have a weapon?" From the lack of reply Yagraz got from Lucia, the Companion guessed 'no'. "Then what you did wasn't brave. You had the weapon, you knew how to use it, you had the power and Braith didn't."

"But-!" Lucy struggled once again to find the words, and Yagraz let her. "Braith picks on everyone! She's a bitch! And if I had the power, she was a stupid bitch for trying to pick a fight."

Yagraz nodded. "Yes, she was. But you had the weapon, you had the power. The reason the other children don't want to play with you is that they see that even if Braith doesn't. You were willing to cut up someone who didn't have a weapon, and that includes them." Yagraz held Lucia's gaze to make sure the Imperial girl understood, then continued her 'parent talk'. "For picking a fight with someone who didn't have a weapon, you're not allowed to carry your dagger with you for two months. Okay?"

Lucia didn't like that, the blade had been a present, and her Uncle Mohamara had promised to enchant it for her. But she nodded.

"Okay. Now, I'm not going to be in town very long, but I'm going to go ask your Shield-Auntie Uthgerd if she can teach you how to fistfight so this doesn't happen again." The Orc and Imperial girl hugged it out afterward. Each had come out of the interaction happy, Lucia because she got to learn how to fistfight, and Yagraz because she had proven to herself that she was a better mother than Meridia-so when she punched the Lady of Infinite Energies in the face, she could do so as the superior mother.


Meridia had to fight the instinctual urge to hold her grandson in higher regard than her granddaughter after the family meal had concluded. Jode, the charming and chatty girl, did not fawn over Meridia nor let Meridia fawn over her. Not even Azura could compel the girl to stay in one place for too long. Nocturnal had figured out how to use one of the tassels from her robes to keep the kitten occupied.

Jone, on the other hand, strongly resembled his father as an infant. Though chubbier, significantly, and not spiritually scarred from attempted cannibalism. He was far more sedentary and accepting of being the object of attention for his grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-aunts. The babbling baby particularly enjoyed crawling around in Azura's enormous cape of hair. While her mother and her sister entertained the grandbabies, Meridia's mind wandered. Being able to disconnect from one avatar to create thirty-three thousand more to do her myriad duties had that sort of perk.

But she found herself drifting on the issues of the family that Azura had made certain were un-invited to the event: Sheogorath, Kyne, and her seven hundred forty-five thousand nine hundred forty-six daughters, as well as Kyne's son. With Kindness rolling about inside her, she could see the flaws in her strategies regarding them all, and how many mistakes she had made over the eons.

It was wrong of Meridia to assume that the love she had for Kyne would wane with the passing of kalpas-Meridia's love endured longer than the foundations of the earth, time would have no effect. But she had been certain of its fleeting nature at the time. Because she had conflated mortal love with the love of the et'Ada; she had made the mistake that so many mortals paid for with their lives, she had assumed the gods were fundamentally like mortals.

This then begot a question that she hadn't asked herself… ever, really. Did she truly love Sheogorath? Or did she love the way he reminded her of Lorkhan? Had she kept Kyne away because she wanted Kyne to be able to grieve in peace, or because Kyne's presence in her life would shatter her illusion?

Her twin sister sensed the melancholy and passed Jode over to Talos to entertain while the Night and Day spoke to each other alone. Darkness and Light went into the facsimile of the women's restroom for Sanguine's realm, for it represented a place where the Lord of Revelry wouldn't dare be caught.

"Your certainty is wavering, sister," Nocturnal told Meridia while she leaned on the polished marble counters, and looked in the mirror. "Gaining that new sphere's made you a lot less rigid than you normally are."

"What I lose in certainty, I gain in insight," the rainbow-dressed Daedra responded, while she imagined a cigarette to smoke creatia. "And insight begets questions, that cause loss of certainty, and so on and so forth."

"Then perhaps you ought to stop questioning yourself?" Nocturnal admired her beauty in the mirror and watched her sister's colors dim ever so slightly from the gnawing doubt. "Don't question yourself, what you feel, how you feel it."

Meridia dragged on her creatia-cigarette and breathed out a cloud of honeysuckle flower petals. "Were it so easy, sister."

"It can be so easy, sister." Nocturnal reached up and pinched the reflection of her sister's cigarette, and doused it thus. "The cure for doubt is knowledge. So either seek out Mora or confront that which gives you doubt." The Night rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Honestly, this is so unlike you-you'd probably be better off getting rid of that Kindness sphere."

"That would be what's best for me, not what's best for my family."

"What's best for you is what's best for your family. That's how Sheogorath does it! And your daughters love him! ...Like him! ...Tolerate him!" Nocturnal degraded her assessment of Sheogorath's paternal relationship with her nieces in light of Meridia's flat expression. "...Don't actively try to murder him!"

"Not in a way I can prove, anyway." Meridia crossed her arms and considered the situation. "I suppose you're right-I need to confront the problems."

"Great, good, now stop brooding. So the grandkids don't enjoy crawling on you the way they do with me and Azura, big deal." Nocturnal flicked her wrist dismissively and started out of the lady's room. "Not all of us can be good with kids, you know."

It didn't surprise her that Nocturnal totally missed the source of Meridia's distress. Or perhaps, Nocturnal was being flippant. It didn't matter, not to Meridia at that precise moment. Instead, she decided now was the perfect time to do what she should have done Eras ago.

She reached into her purse, and began to dial on her micro-slate, then held it up to her ear. "...Yes, I'll accept the charges. Please connect me to Syraniaheim." There were several long minutes where the Daedra of Life stood and listened to the call ring. Certainty, as Vivec once said, is the sibling of fear-and Meridia was afraid for one long moment that she would get no answer.

But the fear was proven false, as the ringing cut off abruptly, and a familiar voice spoke over the line. "Hey, Brightshine. Long time no see."

"Hello, Kyne. Do you have a moment to talk?"


Marcurio found out, from experience, that it was harder to hide from a dragon than 'go underground' would have one believe. Especially when that dragon was super-charged with a transformative artifact. Alduin chased Marcurio off-and-on for days, chasing after the smell of Mohamara's magic on him. But while the World Eater was powerful, he had lost massively in the realms of speed and maneuverability. Once he got to terrain that Alduin couldn't just burn to the ground, it became easy to lose the World Eater on sharp turns and sudden drops.

It wasn't difficult to try and figure out where Alduin wanted him to go-eastward, where there was nothing but trees and open space for an overlarge dragon to hunt in. But Marcurio remembered the words that had gotten him through his teenage years, from his maternal grandmother: A leash could be pulled from either end." So Marcurio used Alduin's momentum and arrogance to lead him in a direction close enough to where he wanted, but far enough for Marcurio to control things better: the Eastmarch/Whiterun border. In the months since the Helgen Incident, a mighty lake had formed from the White River being blocked by the avalanche.

Waterbreathing would be a pitifully easy spell to pull off if he hadn't already gotten a bauble enchanted with the effect from Mohamara, so the Imperial dove into the near-freezing water and swam down to the lakebed while Alduin caught up. Marcurio hid near the base of the avalanche's snow, where the unmelting snow and ice from the Throat of the World's summit formed the core of an impromptu dam.

It was all part of a gamble-Alduin wouldn't deign to swim after him, he'd try to boil away the entire lake. And then Marcurio could escape in the massive steam cloud. But instead, when Alduin reared back to breathe fire into existence something happened. Rather than fire, he exhaled the very concept of heat, that burned a perfect cylinder through the water to the dam just a few feet above where Marcurio hid. The thu'um burned through the snow, and then met the unmelting snow of the summit. The blessing of Kyne within the eternal snow took in the might of Alduin's thu'um and reflected it back at him once he stopped.

From underwater, all Marcurio could see of the event was a tunnel of boiling water pass over him, then a second one erupt from the dam out to Alduin. Then the black dragon's outline was visible as fire danced around him, and a distant explosion, followed a moment later by the colossal form of Alduin World Eater striking the surface of the water. But an opportunity was an opportunity, so he waited to see if Alduin was out cold or playing it up.

The Eye of Mohamara shone like a red glowstone on Alduin's brow while he sank into White Lake. Marcurio sped towards the fallen World Eater and aimed to do what the legendary thieves of old had done: Steal the artifact of power from the villain's brow. Alduin was well and truly unconscious, the force of his own power reflected onto him proved too much. So when Marcurio shoved a dagger in between the Eye and Alduin's scales, there was no resistance. Parting the Eye from the dragon, however, offered a great deal of resistance. While Marcurio struggled to pry the Eye off Alduin's brow, the World Eater twitched. Every slight movement filled Marcurio with intense dread, for Alduin could recover at any moment.

"Yer not doing that right, lad."

Marcurio jumped in the water and swallowed a mouthful of water in surprise as he realized he wasn't alone. There, opposite him on the other side of Alduin's enormous skull, was the Mad God. He lounged upon the World Eater like the dragon was some incredibly comfortable couch. Perhaps, to Sheogorath, Alduin was indeed. Marcurio didn't pay Sheogorath's sudden arrival much heed-he'd learned not to do that when the Mad God had first shown up to negotiate the marriage.

"You're tryin' to steal the Eye, and that's all well and good." The Nord-appearing Daedra polished his nails upon his dual-colored jacket. "I started off the same way, and with luck, you'll teach me grandkids the family business better'n me boy can. Butt!"

Sheogorath pointed at a passing fragment of compressed ice that strongly resembled a buttock and pelvis combo before he spoke again.

"Alduin stole it from you. Sonny Moe gave that Eye to you. It's yours. Just think about what that means."

Marcurio considered, then looked down at the Eye. The garnet-red gem and gold feathers stood out in stark relief against Alduin's acid-splashed black scales. Doubt gathered into one question, which Marcurio spoke into an air-bubble and pushed it toward Sheogorath: "Why would you give me a straight answer like that?"

"Now, the logical thing to assume would be that because I told it to you it isn't a straight answer. Soon enough I'll be yer daddy-in-law, though depending on how you and Sonny Moe hit it off that will make calling meself that awkward. But when I am, I can pull those kinds of tautology gags-those are me fifteenth favorite type of gag. Or is it a hypocrisy gag? Certainly not a hippo crisis gag, or a taught algae gag. Only Sotha Sil does those ones properly." As if he had forgotten Marcurio was there, the Mad God did a double-take upon seeing him again. "Well? Alduin ain't going to be napping all day! He and Vaermina don't quite like each other, you see? Oh! You want me to answer your question before you'll do what you really ought to be doing." Sheogorath waved his index finger at Marcurio, like a parent chastising their child. "Normally that sort of behavior would get ya turned into seven notes of music, but that would make me boy cry. And... frankly, my wife might straight up leave me if I keep making our son cry all the time. Something about a buttes? So unlike her to mix singular and plural like that."

Marcurio could understand more and more of Mohamara's misgivings about the match early on in their relationship the more he interacted with Sheogorath. It was like playing near a snake that he knew could kill him at any time.

"Anyway! It's all dreadfully straightforward this time, I'm afraid. Simple curiosity." Sheogorath's voice went low, with that edge of malice that was uniquely his. "I want to see what that Eye will do to you if it's done this to Alduin."

The Eye was his, it belonged to Marcurio Tullius, he thought to himself. It was gifted to him by its creator, Mohamara Ahramani. And he wanted it back. Pastel pink lightning arched along Alduin's body into the eye, and the acid-splashed scales around the gem began to ooze away. After a moment, it was free enough for Marcurio to get his fingers underneath it and try to pry it off.

Naturally, the moment he finally got the Eye free, Alduin woke up.


To make it, 100%, unambiguously clear. Yes, Kyne, Merid Nunda, and Lorkhan were in a polyamorous relationship before the Mundus thing.