I'm sorry it has taken such a long time to post a new update on any of my stories, but I have a full-time job, and the USB stick I had all that which I had written suddenly stopped working, so I lost all that I had previously written. Anyway, I will attempt to update all my stories (Child of Light and Madness, Hollow Magic and A Ninja Summoned) before the end of May.

I have also found a picture of Sheogorath that fits how I envision him perfectly. It's a drawing of Sheogorath by Erika-Xero on Deviantart. You can either try to find it there, or do a Google image search and type 'sheogorath erika-xero', and it should be the first image in the results.

And now, on with the story.

Return of the Jed – I mean Gods

If you had asked Lorelei Barthomeloi, the Queen of Clock Tower, how she thought her day would go a few hours ago, she would have answered 'the same'. Sitting at her desk and doing paperwork, working on the day-to-day happenings of Clock Tower and punishing those who broke the rules. Instead, the Bound Fields reported that two non-human entities had entered the Museum, and one of them were making its way towards the entrance to Clock Tower.

To make matters worse, that damned troll of a Wizard Marshall, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, Fourth Dead Apostle Ancestor and all-round pain-in-the-ass, had arrived and said that HE would be taking care of it. Lorelei was of mixed feelings of that. On one hand, Zelretch was one of the strongest entities in the world, and a master of the Second True Magic, Kaleidoscope, and could thus take care of anything that might threaten Clock Tower. On the other hand, Clock Tower was her responsibility, and she disliked it greatly when she were unable to do her duty.

Sighing, she leaned back and thought back on the meeting that had ended about an hour ago.


Flashback

It had now been almost thirty minutes since Zelretch had left to deal with the entity that had entered Clock Tower, and Lorelei had started to worry. She was just about to leave, when the door to her office opened and Zelretch entered with a man following behind. The man was dressed in strange clothes, with one side coloured in purple with golden brocade, in a style fit for a nobleman, while the other was black with silver brocade. He was tall, a good bit over six feet, with silver hair and beard and golden eyes. He was holding a staff with what looks like an eye on it.

Turning to Zelretch, she noticed that, for the first time in all the years she had known him, he wasn't smiling.

"So?" she asked. "What was it the Bound Fields reported on?"

"It was our guest here," Zelretch answered.

"I see… And, why did they do that?"

"It was, and I quote 'because it would be interesting to see what happened'." Zelretch said, casting a glance at the visitor.

"… That's it? Really?" Lorelei gave a sigh. "Only a madman would bring the attention of the Mage Association down on them for no good reason."

"Jolly good guess!"

The exclamation from the strangely dressed man made Lorelei shift her gaze from Zelretch to the man.

"What?"

"A jolly good guess, but, you were only half right." The man said with a grin on his face. "I'm not a mad man, I'm a mad GOD! THE Mad God!"

The man's face became stern and his eyes seemed to glow as he straightened himself and met Lorelei's gaze.

"I am Sheogorath, the Mad God, Lord of Madness and Chaos, ruler of Mania and Dementia! Charmed."

Lorelei felt the cold sweat on her brows and her mouth had gone completely dry. A God… they were supposed to have died out almost 2000 years ago, when the Age of Gods ended and the Age of Man began. Yet, here in front of her stood a being that claimed to be a God, and by the Root, she believed him. Her instincts screamed at her that the being in front of her was far beyond anything she had heard of before, and the behaviour of Zelretch confirmed it for her.

Zelretch, a being so strong that he once held up the moon by himself, was afraid of the being that called himself Sheogorath.

Swallowing, she addressed Sheogorath.

"S-So, you are the God of Madness?"

"Oh, yes! It's a family title. I pass it down from me, to myself, every few thousand years."

"I-I see… And if I may ask; why are you here?"

"We-ell, I though it nice to introduce myself, and now I've done it, so it's time for me to leave. Ta!"

A vortex of purple energies formed around him, and a second or so later the energies disappeared and Sheogorath was gone.

Leaning back in her chair, Lorelei wiped her brows with a shaking hand.

"Zelretch, do you know anything about the being that was just here?"

"A bit, but not much." He answered, and sat down in front of the desk. "As you know, my mastery over the Second True Magic gives me the ability to connect with alternates of myself all over the multiverse, and to travel to different realities in said multiverse. Maybe a century after my victory over Crimson Moon Brunestud, one of my alternates decided to see if it was possible to travel outside the known multiverse. He succeeded. The feat weakened him greatly, and his attempt to keep the connection open to the rest of us became the cause of his death, as he drained his life in order to keep the connection open."

Lorelei sat and quietly listened to the ancient vampire's tale.

"What he learned, for the short time he was there, was that he was on a world called Nirn, on a continent called Tamriel in the 503rd year of the Second Era. The lands of Tamriel was filled with magic, and two moons shone in the sky at night. The religion of the majority of the inhabitants of Tamriel was centred round eight creator gods called the Eight Divines, or Aedra. There was a ninth, but he was slain for some reason or another, and it's said that the moons were created from his body. The Aedra represent different aspects of the world, such as Time, Nature, Love, Justice and Wisdom. On the other side were the 16 Daedra. The Daedra were mostly seen as 'evil gods', though many of them were more neutral, and one were even seen as good.

Amongst the Evil were things like Rape, Domination, Deceit and Nightmares. The neutral claimed things like Hidden Knowledge, Order, the Night and, of course, Madness. Only one of the Daedra could be said to be truly good, and that was Meridia, the Lady of Light and Infinite Energies."

Zelretch takes a sip from a cup of tea.

"Amongst the Daedra, four are said to be the strongest. Molag Bal, the Lord of Domination and Strife, Mehrunes Dagon, the Lord of Destruction and Change, Jyggalag, the Lord of Order, and…"

Here Zelretch takes a pause and looks Lorelei straight in the eyes.

"…Sheogorath, the Mad God, Lord of Madness and Chaos."

Leaning back and closing his eyes, Zelretch continued. "It wasn't long after that that my alternate perished, and none of us are willing to attempt the same thing again, mainly because there are no guaranties that we would return to the same world."

Thinking for a moment, Lorelei asks him; "So, what can we do?"

"There isn't much we can do." Zelretch says while shaking his head. "Sheogorath is beyond me in power, and thus beyond most things on Earth. A TYPE could possibly defeat him, but not kill him, but since only TYPE Venus and TYPE Mercury still exist on Earth, and since Venus was weakened and Mercury is still asleep, such a thing is a pipe dream at best."

"So what shall we do?"

"The only thing we can do," he says, looking at Lorelei with grave eyes. "You must contact Atlas and the Wandering Sea and warn them about Sheogorath. I will contact the Church and the other Dead Apostle Ancestors. Sheogorath must not be antagonized, got it?"

Leaving Lorelei's office, Zelretch could only think; 'Thank Akasha it was Sheogorath that found his way here, and not one of the other Daedras. At least he doesn't wish to conquer other realms, like Molag Bal and Mehrunes Dagon does.

Using the Kaleidoscope, Zelretch left Clock Tower and went on his way to warn those who needed to know

Flashback end.


Two hours after Halios and Co. meeting with Nicholas Flamel, Halios Realm

Stepping out of the portal, Halios was greeted by Meridia and Sheogorath.

"Welcome back, Halios, I take it everything went well?"

"Yes Mother, Father. As thanks for returning the Stone to him, the Alchemist has agreed to grant me, Seren, Neville and Hermione a boon each, to be granted at any time. It could be anything within his power, knowledge, an apprenticeship, financial aid, anything."

"That's good, Halios." Meridia said. "While you met with him, Sheo went and got in contact with another community of magic users."

"Really? What are they like?"

"Oh, they are so very boring!" Sheogorath exclaimed. "Always so serious, always experimenting, trying to improve their chosen field of magic, yet never attempting anything new… They reminds me of the Dwemer back on Nirn, before they all died after experimenting with the Heart of Lorkhan. They even call themselves Mages! Bah! As if anyone of them would have had the skill to rise above the rank of apprentice at the College of Winterhold!"

Both Halios and Meridia watched as Sheogorath went on a rant the quickly moved away from the topic. Shaking her head, Meridia turned to Halios and asked; "What are your plans now?"

"I am going to do some training, have a bath, eat something, and then go and visit Nymphadora Tonks."

"Oh? And may I ask why?"

"Well, in the remote chance we fail to break the marriage contract, if we were to become friends we would at least be able to stand each other."

"Yes, that would probably be for the best. Off you go, then."

After watching Halios leave in order to train, Meridia turned to Sheogorath, who was currently in an animated discussion with a nearby tree about how hard cheese was better than soft cheese. She could only sigh and shake her head at his antics.


4 hours later, outside the Tonks residence

Halios was glad that that trip was over. After using the portal rings to get to the Leaky Cauldron, he had taken the Knight Bus in order to get to Tonks home. And that had not been nice. But now he was at his destination, and would never have to use the Knight Bus to get there again.

Taking a deep breath in order to settle his stomach, Halios went up to the door and rang the bell. A few moments later, it was opened by a dark haired woman with aristocratic features, who looked to be in her early thirties.

"Yes?" the woman said.

"Greetings. My name is Halios Meridian Sheoth, and I wonder if Nymphadora is in?"

"Unfortunately, my daughter is out at the moment, shall I take a message for her?"

"That won't be necessary. I just wanted to get to know her better, on the off-chance we can't break the contract that binds us."

A glint of understanding appears in the woman's eyes.

"Ah, so you are the one who gifted my daughter with that beautiful statue she has in her room. It's nice to meet you. My name is Andromeda, would you like to come inside for a bit?"

"If it isn't too much trouble…"

"Of course not! Come in, please."

Andromeda opened the door fully and indicated to Halios to enter.

Over the next couple of hours, Andromeda entertained Halios with stories of things Nymphadora had done while she was a child, much to the younger woman's chagrin once she returned home.


There, now this chapter is over. Next time, the end of summer and shopping for the second year.

Next story to be updated is; Hollow Magic.

I hope to be finished with that chapter before the 10th of May.

Thank you all once again for your patience. Enjoy.

- Baleygr