AN: To a reviewer that informed me that female dovah apparently exist, thank you for the information. But I believe that that is a bit of information I am going to say isn't the truth in the timeline where this dragonborn comes from. In this timeline, since Akatosh sees himself as male, all naturally born dovah are male. The only reason this dragonborn is female is their birth sex and upbringing being from humans (Nords specifically). As a dovah though she will express some male tendencies, like a desire to physically confront things.
Disclaimer: I don't own destiny (which belongs to bungie) or The Elder Scrolls (which belongs to Bethesda). Nor do I own the design for the dragonoid form (that belongs to High-Rez, from their game Smite) I only own those that are my Original Characters.
Chapter 2:
"… What?"
"Oh, you are older than the golden age. My bad, I suppose that would sound rather fantastical to someone like you huh? Well a quick rundown is in order than." The little fragment paused, seeming to gather his thoughts. "first off, sometime after you died humanity met a being that many consider a god. This god started humanity into a golden age in which many technological miracles were created, including the god themselves going around the system and terraforming – er, making planets livable – in order to allow humanity to expand out from Earth. Oh right, the god is called the Traveler just so you know. The power of Traveler is called Light. Well the Traveler has an ancient enemy that followed it here after sometime called the Darkness. When it arrived Humanity's golden age collapsed. At the end of it all, the Traveler sacrificed itself to push the darkness back and give humanity a chance to recover and rebuild. As well as the Traveler created the Ghosts, like me, to find those who could wield the Traveler's light in defense of Humanity against the races that followed the Darkness looking to pillage and take over our system. And that is the gist of it, understand?"
She had to take a moment to process the information given to her, but she mostly understood. "I follow you, I think, but there are somethings that I don't understand. Planets? System? What do you mean by those?" Was the little fragment saying this Traveler killed the Divines?
The little fragment had one eye with no eyelids to speak of, but those shapes surrounding its core certainly did a good job of allowing it to show shock. "Exactly how old of a soul did I get assigned to? Uh, well… the planets are big orbs located beyond the sky, and the system is the term for all the planets located around the sun. Do you at least understand that the world is round? A sphere?
"Ah, yes I understand that. Thank you. The planets… did they seem to do anything strange when the Traveler, changed them?" The divines existed as planes visible in the sky as bright stars, or as spheres if you have the right equipment to observe them. If the Traveler could change them so heavily in such a short time as to make them habitable for the races of Mundus. The scale of power is frightening, especially since I can't imagine the divines not defending themselves. There is also the fact that my soul cannot feel Father's presence like I used to be able to always feel.
"Anything strange? Other than humanity not being able to understand exactly how the Traveler was changing the planets, I don't believe that Humanity observed anything that would be considered strange under the changes happening."
'No, no, no no no no no no… maybe something I don't understand is happening. Maybe I wasn't awakened because the divines wanted this to happen.' "Can you show me any artwork depicting the system and planets?"
"I can do you one better, I got something called a photo. In which we captured light to show a scene, much better and more accurate than painted artwork. I am going to have a blast showing you the changes since your time.
What appeared in front of her was an image suspended in the air, as if the lightrays themselves had decided to show her an image. It wasn't illusion magic, she couldn't feel any usage of magic. It was like the projections of the most advanced Dwemer machines, except it had no need of a surface to hold it. Nor was it locked in place, moving about in circular motions. What it depicted however, surprised her all the more. Ten visible orbs, one of which looked like Magnus made spherical. Each of them labeled with what she assumed to be their names. Each of them detailed in their depiction. She recognized the third sphere from Magnus as seemingly a depiction of Mundus, yet it spun around Magnus as if the opening to Aetherius was the center of the mortal plane. None of the spheres looked like the orbic forms of the divines she knew, not even close. Mundus was labeled differently, but she reasoned that that was bound to happen when their was nothing guiding the naming of such. The depiction of Mundus as being one of the smaller spheres was perplexing. It was large enough to encompass the land, seas, and sky, how could it possibly be so small? She would need time to think, to mull it over.
Instead she focused on the information given to her. Nothing was familiar, so it would be best to form new bases and understandings. Then try and see why things are no longer familiar. How she wished she had the scientific mind of J'zargo right now. It would be so much easier to piece all of this together, find out why such was the case. But no, she had always been the explorer, the adventurer. The one to go into unexplored recesses and find interesting things. The one to go out and use her strength to deal with threats before they ever reached those she cared for. Like the multitude of children she had adopted and raised over the centuries. She could never protect them directly, but could go out and make sure the area where they are staying is secured. Make sure no slow-burning threats from the deep could ever come to fruition. Part of why she had so thoroughly explored the reaches of the Dwemer empire, for what else could it be when their reach had spanned so far?
The spheres were collectively named planets, like the scholars of Mundus were debating the divine's orbic forms be called. Each planet circled around the Magnus look-alike, named Sol and/or The Sun. Starting from Sol, the planets were named Mercury, Venus, Mundus was named Earth and or Terra, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and then Pluto. Each one looked different, each one had its own charms. Mercury seemed to have a metallic glint to it. Venus was a deep green, like colors of a jungle and/or swamps I was familiar with. Earth was as varied as she remembered Mundus to be, a plentiful collection of greens, browns, and blues. Mars was a red tinted brown, like the desert home of the redguards. There was a collection of rocks just past it named The Reef that looked quite desolate. Jupiter, well the yellows didn't exactly inspire hope towards being livable. In fact nothing past that did. Pluto maybe, but being so far from everything else didn't exactly mean it would be good for commerce.
Unfortunately she had underestimated how connected the ghost was to her, as well as underestimated its capabilities. "Are you alright? I know it is probably a lot to take in, but your vitals were spiking. You looked like you were about to start hyperventilating."
"I… will be fine, thank you for asking though little fragment."
"Little fragment? I had heard of Risen calling their ghosts lights, but never fragments. Any particular reason?"
"First, before I answer that, how long to you expect to stay by my side? Are you just going to go off to find others to bring back?"
"I suppose that is a reasonable question, but no I am to stay by your side. We are two sides of a coin, never to separate. I am your support, your guide, your confidante, the one who will be by your side until the day we die our final death. I imagine it might be hard to trust me right now, but I hope to earn that trust as we go about our lives."
Swallowing audibly, she did her best to get her nerves under control. In order to get maximum value out of a partner or companion, they needed to know exactly what they were working with. This had always held true before so why should she try to deny it now? She would just have to hope that the little fragment would be accepting, and not go screaming the information to everyone they come across. She would already be going against her Father's orders by telling him (and yes he certainly sounded and acted like a him, even if he technically had nothing that marked him as such). She was lost, and just a bit scared. She wanted somebody that could understand her reactions, understood her. If she was to partner for eternity with the little fragment, she didn't want to forever be hiding from and lying to him.
"If we are to forever be together, there are things I wish to inform you about. I call you little fragment because that is what I sense you to be. A fragment of something larger, something greater. If I had to guess, likely this Traveler you speak of. For starters-
"So… let me sum this up. You are an ancient god from a land long lost to time? A god who has been asleep since time began in this cycle? So because everything seems to have gone against the plans of your fellow gods you plan to use my awakening of you to understand what has happened?"
The explanation had taken long enough that we had decided to start walking. No particular destination, for now we were simply heading southwest. The mountain range to her right, and what she had learned to be a sea on her left. They had no way to cross the sea, and she didn't feel like scaling mountains right now. She asked the fragment to choose either northeast or southwest, and he had excitedly chosen southwest. So maybe they did have a destination of some sort. The forest itself was beautiful, but there seemed to be a surprising lack of animals present. Even insects and other small life were almost nowhere to be seen. Everything seemed, desecrated almost. Like the plants had had enough time to recover, but most of the creatures of the environment had suddenly gone extinct. Leaving lots of open areas that new species would have to fill.
She hadn't been just walking during their exchange, the little fragment had taken some time to explain the abilities she had received. At least the ones he knew of. So she had been spending time testing those powers out, getting used to them. The light provided her plenty of useful things even on just the basic level. No need to eat, sleep, or breath. Her muscles couldn't get tired and (kinda because) the light would heal injuries and deal with things like poison or disease. The little fragment could even use the light to resurrect her, far faster than her state of being an eternal would allow her to come back. She had received the set of abilities that came with double jumps. She had been told that once she got used to using her light she would even be capable of adding a third consecutive jump. The shear amount of mobility that alone gave to her human form, well it certainly made her excited. That plus a 'blink', otherwise classified as a short range teleport, were all the abilities she could access that the little fragment knew about. There would likely be plenty more to discover in the future though!
"Almost right, I am not truly a god in its most intrinsic meaning. I am still mortal, as I can actually die. If Father or a new brother kill me, then I will also permanently die. As my soul combines with their soul. Course they have to actually want to absorb my soul, they could also choose to simply let my soul be."
"Interesting, do you know how long it has been since you last conducted your duty?"
"Not a clue, part of what I want to learn. But, what exactly is this new duty that the Traveler is asking me to complete? That it went so far as to bring me back from the grave for? You mentioned fighting the darkness. What does that mean?"
As she used her double jump to scale a boulder in their path, the little fragment floating after her, he started to give a more in-depth explanation.
"Well, the most basic premise is the protection of humanity against the forces leveled against them. A long term goal would be finding a way to deal with the darkness should it ever return. And two of the planets in the system were overtaken by what has been named the Vex during the collapse. So not really a whole lot to do just yet. Probably should search for and gather up survivors, that seems like a good course of action. It is what the other Risen have started to do. Whatever you plan to do, I shall follow you."
"Best to get ourselves established, have a base of operations before anything else. Humans naturally form settlements, you know the locations of any?"
"The nearest one is well, directly to our west. Over those mountains. Hope you don't mind climbing."
"And about how far away is this settlement? Just over those mountains or…?"
"About four hundred kilometers. We have a ways to walk."
She groaned, they certainly did have quite a ways to go. "Well, before we start. We should probably place names to faces. I am named Akira Ysmir, I suppose the only title that still matters is 'Time's End'. You got a name little fragment?"
"No, we ghosts don't tend to receive names until we acquire a Risen."
"You have awoken and follow the being in charge of the ending of time. How does Herald sound to you?"
"A simple name that thematically makes sense. I quite like it Akira. Now, lets get moving. Sad to say there likely won't be any places to find transport on the way." The little fragment seemed to contemplate the name for but a second before lighting up in satisfaction. And then proceeding to pout upon reaching that last bit of news. Certainly was interesting watching the now named Herald express itself. Akira had never watched a machine express emotion before, yet somehow it's reactions were clear as day in what they convey.