This chapter ended up taking longer to write than I had originally thought, and may not be that interesting, but in the next chapter, things will start to pick up, as we enter plot territory. Anyway, this story has become far more popular than I could have ever dreamt of, so thanks to all of you who read and like it.
Other than that, I made a slight mistake in the explenation part I posted. Meridia doesn't hate "Dark" creatures, she hates "Undead" creatures.
A New Life
Followed closely by Meridia, who was still holding Halios in her arms, Sheogorath returned to his throne-room and set upon the task to create a new plane of Oblivion, so that he and Meridia had a place to raise Halios together. He began by stretching out the border of his realm like a bubble, towards Meridias domains. Just before the border would close behind the newly created bubble, he froze the borders and created a gate, six feet wide and twelve feet tall, sealing the borders. He then set upon expanding the bubble, making it larger and larger, stopping when it was ten miles in diameter. Nodding to himself, he reinforced the walls of the bubble before he began to fill it with enough matter to form the foundation of the land he was about to create. Slowly, he formed and island, five miles across, and surrounded it with clear water, forming a sea. On the south end of the island, he created a pristine beach, the sand soft as silk and white as snow. To the north, he placed some mountains, which tops was covered with never-ending snow, letting a small stream of pure water slowly flow towards the sea. In the middle, he put plains, on which he built a large house, in which they would live.
Feeling pleased with what he had made, he turned to Meridia and bid her link her realm with the one he had just created. Following his example, Meridia stretched the borders of her realm towards the newly created one, and as soon as the borders met, she created a passageway from her realm to the new one. Stepping in to the new realm from her side, she then created a sun to cast its light on the realm, and she filled the realm with life, bringing forth plant-life and animals to inhabit the realm. Once that was done, she called on some of her servants, to have them live on the island, so that Halios wouldn't be alone as he grew up. As the new inhabitants of the realm settled, she and Sheogorath returned to New Sheoth, to pick up Halios so that they could become a family in their newly created home.
Earth, 3 month after Voldemorts attack on the Potters, Dumbledores office.
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, was not a happy wizard. While Voldemort was dead, the death of James and Lily Potter, and the disappearance of their son, Harry, was a huge loss to the wizarding world. More so, since even after three months, there had been no trace to indicate where young Harry could be. The only saving grace was that he was sure Harry was still alive, but lived somewhere outside Britain and was apparently adopted, since his name had disappeared from the school ledger, only to have another name take its place. It didn't help either that the location he was at kept changing between "The Shivering Isles" and "The Colored Rooms".
Across from Dumbledore sat a man filled with mixed emotions. Sirius Black, close friend of James and Lily Potter, and Harry's godfather, were feeling conflicting emotions. On one hand, he felt satisfied, for just a week prior, he had captured Peter Pettigrew, the one who had betrayed the Potters, and given him to the DMLE (Department of Magical Law Enforcement) to be judged and sent to Azkaban. On the other hand, he felt the grief of having his best friend killed together with his wife, and their child was missing, the child HE was godfather to.
"Are you sure there is no way to trace the one who took Harry, Dumbledore?"
"I've tried everything I can think of, Sirius", Dumbledore answered with a sigh. "And so far, there has been no indication to who took him, though we now know where he is, if only by the name of the place. I've look through the school library and even petitioned the Ministry to search through their banned tomes, but so far, I've found nothing."
"Where is he? The Black library has more books of the darker type than any other library in the country, so tell me the name of the place he is, and I'll search the library as fast as I can for any information I can find."
"Very well, Sirius. The location keeps changing, so he is either in a place called 'The Shivering Isles' or in a place called 'The Colored Rooms'. At least, that's where Hogwarts magic say he is."
As he heard the names, Sirius scowled. It was something about them that sounded familiar, but he could not remember why. After he'd made sure he would remember the names, he rose to his feet and started to leave.
"Oh? Going already, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yeah, I have plans for tonight, so I have to return home and make sure everything is in order."
"Anything about those plans you can tell your old headmaster?"
Sirius looked down sheepishly before rubbing his neck and answering.
"Well, I've been thinking about settling down now that the war is over, and... well..."
"Oho! So Sirius Black, the biggest womaniser to ever leave this school, has decided to settle down?", Dumbledore looked at him with amusement in his eyes. "If you don't mind, could you tell me how you came to that decision?"
"Well, you remember that mission I had that took me to Germany in search for allies in our battle against Voldemort about two years ago?"
Dumbledore nods.
"You see, I met someone while in Freiburg im Breisgau", Sirius continues. "Her name is Estée Weiss, and she comes from a family with magic. Her father name is Bruno Weiss, and he is a Potion Master, specializing in Healing potions, and her mothers name is Iréne Weiss neé Delacroix, and owns a small café... Anyway, Estée had just finished her education at Beauxbatons, and was helping her mother in her café when I met her. We started talking, ended up going out a couple of times, and, well, simply enjoyed each others company. We became very close in a short amount of time, and when it was time for me to return here, we had promised to marry once the war was over. What I didn't know at the time was that I had given her a 'gift', so to speak..."
Dumbledore looked like an owl where he sat behind his desk, eyes wide and staring.
"You don't mean..?"
"She gave birth to our daughter last May, and I had hopped that my daughter and Harry would have been able to grow up together, but unless we can find him... Anyway, they will arrive in London on monday, and we plan to be wed this summer."
"And your daughter? What's her name?", Dumbledore asked, a genuine smile spreading across his face.
"Seren. Seren Black-Weiss."
In a realm yet unnamed, in the home of Halios
It had been some time now since they had moved in to their new home, and surprisingly, everything was going well. Both Sheogorath and Meridia could control what happened in their own realms from where they now lived, without it being harder than normal. So when everything was set up, they decided to call a meeting with the other Daedric Princes, in order to introduce Halios to them. After they sent out the invitations, they began prepare for the arrival of the other Daedric Princes.
"I can't wait to see their reactions when we present Halios to them!", Sheogorath said, rubbing his hands together. Meridia just smiled at his antics, as she reached down to pick up Halios from the cot he was resting in.
"Then it's fortunate the last of our brethren just arrived, Sheo", she said. "Now, shall we go and shock them?"
Sheogorath laughed and offered his arm to her, and then led her towards the meeting-room. As they reach the room the other Daedric Princes are in, Sheogorath turns to Meridia.
"Now, I'll be going in first to greet the, and when they ask why we wanted this meeting, I'll call you in and you present Halios to them. And then we watch how they react."
With those words, he went in to the room in which the other Daedric Princes now sat. As he entered the room, 13 pairs of eyes (plus whatever the things Hermaeus Mora uses to see with are) fixed on him as he came to stand at the short end of the table they sat around.
"So, Sheogorath, why have you called for this meeting?", asked Azura, the Lady of Twilight. "Only three times before have we all met like this, so unless you've tried to invade Nirn while the rest of us weren't looking, I can see no reason for this meeting."
"Ah, yes, we called you here because we have an announcement to make.", answered Sheogorath.
"We?", said a confused Molag Bal.
Sheogorath smiled before he turned towards the door.
"Meridia, if you could come in here, please?"
The sitting Daedric Princes turned towards the door as Meridia entered, holding Halios in her arms. Their eyes followed her as she walked up and stopped next to Sheogorath.
"Fellow Daedras, we would like to introduce you to our child, Halios Meridian Sheoth.", she said as she held forth the child. Then they stopped and watched as their colleagues stopped working. Sanguine was rolling on the floor, choking on the wine he had been drinking when they had announced Halios. Mehrunes Dagon had somehow impaled two of his hand on his own horns when he tried to grab his head in shock. Hermaeus Mora had frozen so perfectly, he looked like some type of octopus frozen in black ice. Hircine looked more like a deer caught in the headlights than the predator he was (not a sexual one, mind you). Azura and Nocturnal both sat for a moment with their mouths open in shock, before squealing and rushing to Meridia, where they crowded her and Halios while bombarding her with questions.
Once the rest of the Daedric Princes had recovered, Sheogorath and Meridia laid out a few rules. First, this realm (which would become Halios domain once he got older) was a neutral zone, no scheming or acts of aggression were allowed. Second, they could come and visit whenever they liked, but under no circumstances were they to bring anything that could cause damage, either to the realm or its inhabitants. And lastly, if any of them wished, they could become an aunt or an uncle to Halios and help raise him. Azura and Nocturnal immediately jumped on the opportunity to remain close to Halios (even if they aren't humans, few females can resist a small child). And, strangely enough, so did Hircine and Hermaeus Mora.
Once everyone had agreed to those rules, the others left the realm and Sheogorath and Meridia could begin raising Halios.
5 years later
Years had passed since Halios had been introduced to his fellow Daedra, and he was finally beginning to waken the powers he had, and the aspect he would represent. It would go slowly, and take at least another 20 years before he reached full maturity and gained full control of his essence. At the moment, he only had some minor healing skills and a somewhat extensive knowledge of illusions, but within a year or two, he would be able to change his shape at will, so that he could find out which side he would prefer. But for the moment, he was stuck in the middle, as neither man nor woman.
The day he began exhibit the signs of awakening to his powers, his parents took him to a room in the house he'd never seen before. In it was a statue of a woman with long, flowing hair, dressed in a loose dress that left her arms bare. Her face was androgynous, but with a hint more femininity than masculinity. She held her arms out, as if to welcome someone, and her face was adorned with sad but loving smile. As they stood in front of the statue, Sheogorath told him the story behind the statue and who the woman was. When he had finished the story, Halios decided that this statue was going to be his sign, that it should be the centre of his shrines, in order to honour the woman who had given him life.
Black family library, October 31st 1986
It had taken him almost five years to search through his ancestral library, but the hardest part was still to come. There was only ten tomes left to search through, but each of those were warded, and would require months of preparations for him to be able to read them safely. Sirius Black had almost given up on finding his godson, but he struggled on, if only so that he could find out where he was.
He sighed and picked up one of the books at random. It didn't have a title, as far as he could see, only a symbol that looked like an upside-down 'U' with one side slightly longer than the other and a dot in the middle. Putting away the other books in a safe place, he took the book and went into one of the ritual chambers he'd built, so that he could release the wards around the book without risking his wife and daughters lives.
It took him three days to remove the wards, and another two to counter the curse on the book long enough to allow him to read it. The book contained information about ancient deities, called Daedric Princes, and their domains, which where located in something called Oblivion. Many of the deities were clearly evil, representing things like rape, betrayal, murder and destruction. A few were more neutral, representing things like the night and day cycle, knowledge or hunting. Only one was clearly good, since she represented life and held a deep hatred for everything that made a mockery of life, especially that which is undead.
It was then he came across a phrase he recognized. The Colored Rooms. According to the book, that was the name of the deity Meridias realm. He quickly began skimming through the pages of the book, until he found the other place his godson supposedly were. He soon found out that the Shivering Isles were the realm of the Daedric Prince of Madness, Sheogorath.
Sinking back into the chair he sat in, Sirius simply sat for a moment, staring at nothing. Well, at least he now knew were his godson was, but how had he ended up in the hands of two gods?
Shaking his head, he rose to his feet. He needed to speak with Dumbledore.
