Quest 26: Epilogue
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A Few Weeks Later…
Gold ribbons hung on the cornices of the king size, four-poster bed and light glowed from the windowsill. A blue aurora outside. Dibella woke up next to her husband.
Tsun kissed Dibella on the lips and rubbed her womb.
Dibella breathed deeply. "Crisantha Fledge. That's what we'll name her."
"Crisantha? Like Chrysanthemum? The Flower?" Tsun asked as he ran his hands over the woven patterns of the bedsheet. Dibella nodded. "I like it," he proclaimed. "Now, come on. The banquet won't last forever."
"Alright, alright." Dibella smiled, standing up and holding his hand. She got her kids and they proceeded.
The family of four entered into the dining hall. Gold ornaments tinkering around a white, long table with ribbons and banners strung up. Arkay and his wife, Josea were seated next to Kynareth and Julianos, the newlyweds. Saadia was there. Stendarr too with his wife. Akatosh and Mara in the center on their thrones, holding golden goblets. They all got seated. Akatosh beamed at Dibella, bowing his head.
After the feast, when Tsun and her kids had taken themselves away, Dibella approached Akatosh. Akatosh kissed Mara goodbye and turned towards Dibella. "The day is upon us, it seems. The last check-in on him."
Dibella grabbed his wrist and they teleported away.
They set foot in a fiery realm with ruddy grounds and ash pools formed of sulphur. A lake of fire inside a freezing block of ice sat in the center. Akatosh put his hand against it and summoned something…
A charred figure, bald and burned all over but freezing crawled over to them.
Lorkhan.
"How goes it, brother?" Auriel asked Lorkhan.
"Please, I beg of you," Talos coughed. "I have burned without reprieve in this pit. Release me and I will repent."
Dibella combed a finger through her long curls. "Should've done that while you had the chance."
"Then why art thou here? If not to free thine of thine guilt." Talos pounded his reddened arms against the glass weakly. "Please just kill me. I can no longer bear my guilt and shame. My actions haunt me every passing second when I am not being scorched to my bones."
"Your forgiveness is not mine to grant." Akatosh sighed and put his hand against the ice. "You were once my brother, and I loved you like a brother. But you never listened to me, and you forced my hand, and how many countless have suffered in the space between because of it? Because of your vanity and recklessness."
"Tell me, brother," Akatosh continued, "why did you do it? Why did you deceive us, why did you lead the ehlnofey astray, why did you take my wife from me? Was it because Sithis bore you as so? Or of your own volition."
"No, it wasn't because of Sithis. He wanted me to destroy Aetherius." Lorkhan gasped in pain as tears began to drizzle down his face. "I know now where I erred. It was because I wanted to be seen! I wanted to be remembered. I wanted all the land, the women, the wealth, the praise, and the respect. I wanted to be a hero, and that accursed black dragon only spur me on in my delusions when he attacked my people and in my quest for revenge, I created a monster, one who imprisoned me in this hell of my own making."
"I see." Akatosh glanced downward on Talos' scarred legs. "But you should have learned, the greatest among you isn't the king who comes riding in on a tall horse, amassing weapons, and wealth. The greatest among you is the one who serves. That is why Anu is Anu. The material intentions with which you made the world and pursued it, are the furthest thing from Him. For Anu, the All-Maker, places no such importance on the things of the world."
"I… understand." Talos slid down to his knees, his burned forehead touching the ice.
"Goodbye, Lorkhan."
"Goodbye, Auriel."
Then Dibella and Akatosh were in cold, snowy mists, walking on the water of the Sea of Ghosts in northern Skyrim. The alliances of man and mer had driven out all the monsters from Skyrim. Men and mer had forged an unbreakable bond. Altmer and Nord even, now saw one another as kin. The men taught the elves to view mortal life as a test of character, and the elves taught the men to set their hearts on the things of the spirit. As the years passed, they began to rebuild, their society becoming a democratic republic.
Dibella saw small round huts on the shoreline. Nord villagers carrying firewood as skylight from the clouds above broke through.
Dibella crouched down and looked at the yellow chrysanthemum that had sprouted from the ground. A yellow chrysanthemum next to a belladonna lily that had floated across the ocean to meet it. The two soulmates embraced, and their petals tied together, becoming one flesh.
"The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment," Akatosh said as they returned to Aetherius.
Dibella awoke in a field of flowers and wheatgrass. It was warm and she saw rivers flowing of milk and honey. Anu's Love was present everywhere. Then she saw her family, and her friends, and everyone she cared for. Tsun, Saadia, Akatosh, her children. Hundreds of people appearing in the promised land. Troves of multicolored flowers covered the hillsides in glorious splendor.
Saadia embraced her as did Akatosh and Mara. Eleph and Irdi. Mara, Ancano, everyone.
"It is good," said Anu. "You have done well, Wisdom, my daughter," She spoke to Dibella directly.
Alduin and Paarthurnax soared happily through the sky as elves and men walked hand in hand over the fields of wheat. A castle forged from marble sat across a beautiful turquoise lake.
Saadia tugged Dibella's sleeve. "Come on! Let's go explore! We'll be back, by then everyone will be acquainted for the celebrations."
Akatosh smiled and nodded at her. "I'll settle this crowd down, go, but be back for the festival. Irdi and Deneris have promised to tell us stories. And I'll make some tea!"
Mara paled.
Dibella turned and ran off, laughing down the fields with Saadia. After a ways they slowed into a walk as the warmness seeped into them pleasurably.
"What's that?" Saadia squinted at something far off.
On top of a small hillside in the distance, under waterfalls made from crystal foundations. Dibella's heart lurched when she saw two flowers embracing…
The grass near it stirring as something swayed beneath the inlet of holy water.
A white belladonna lily and a yellow chrysanthemum.
"I think I'll give you some time." Saadia smiled and walked off.
Dibella sat down near the two flowers, twiddling, and tickling them with her fingers. She thought back on her life, on everything that had happened, and sighed a deep sigh. "With so much uncertainty in life, we have to have faith in ourselves and strive for the best."
"This isn't the end for me," she decided, "we all have a purpose."
Let's begin anew.
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The End.