-1Then Legend of Ajira

By Madame Ergoth

Chapter 22: The Rites

Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to my friend Jacob. Thank you for being so patient with me and reading it. I'm so glad to be your friend. You'll be the one getting me published, I just know it!

Ajira turned around, looking back at what was under the rug. She slowly walked over and lifted the heavy rug. The brown moldy shag rug was dusty and dirty, and cockroaches scampered out from under it when she lifted it up. Ajira wrinkled her nose. It smelled horrible, like mold and dung. Under the rug the floor was rotten, probably a result of termites. But what else she saw was astonishing.

A brilliant golden tower shield, engraved magnificently with Azura's symbol, the Daedric letter "a", and encrusted heavily with gemstones. She tried it on for size. What was this made of? Ajira wondered in awe as she slung the shield over her shoulder. It was virtually weightless. How could something so light be effective? It was as light as a feather, yet looked very strong. Only one way to test it...

"Hey. Lini!" Ajira called across the room, startling her into full awareness. She sat up abruptly, blinking her eyes. "Get your stars!"

"What?" she moaned groggily, yawning. "What the heck are you talking about?"

"Your throwing stars!" Ajira pointed. "Get them!"

"Why?"

Becoming annoyed, Ajira snapped, "Just do it, okay?"

Lini reluctantly did what she was told, mumbling indistinguishable comments under her breath as she made her way across the room and leaned over behind the sofa to pick up her ebony throwing stars. "Ok, I got 'em." she groaned. "Happy now?"

"Sure. Throw one at me."

Lini blinked her eyes twice, shook her head. She was shocked. Is she mad! "What! I'm not throwing these at you!"

"I'm serious! Throw one at me!" She made an obscure gesture with her hand.

"You're crazy! I'm not hurting you!" yelled Lini. She hugged the case of stars protectively.

"I never said you were. Come on…I just want to test this thing out!" Ajira nodded at her shield. Ajira sighed. "Don't be mad at me."

"I'm not wasting my precious stars just so you can test your little shield. Ask Kark when he gets back." Lini rudely stomped back to the other side of the room, sulking.

"Come on, Lini. You're not going to hurt me, honest. You know I wouldn't tell you to attack me if I knew I was going to be hurt from it."

She sighed. "Well...unless you were on some serious skooma. I'm sorry I was rude to you." Lini started to laugh.

"Exactly," giggled Ajira. "So are we still friends?"

"Of course we are! What would make you think otherwise?"

Ajira looked at Lini, an apologetic look in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I just thought..."

"...and that's your problem, right there! Take this from a friend. You think too much. Just kind of...I don't know, go with the flow or something. Put yourself on autopilot and don't be afraid to have fun once in a while. I know you're older than me, but you're not grown up yet. You're still a kid as much as I am. So lighten up and stop being so serious!"

Wow...that little girl is a fountain of wisdom. I should listen to her more often. She does make me feel better. I know what she says is true. I am a little too conservative. But why, why does she have to be right?

Lini came over and gave Ajira a hug. Smiling, she added, "Well, if I'm going to try and kill you with these I might as well see what I'm up against. Can I see your shield?"

"Sure," Ajira held it out for Lini to see. She took it from her, eyes wide open.

Lini gaped and ran her fingers over the cool smooth surface. "Wait a minute..." Suddenly, Lini was stuttering, pointing with a shaking hand at her shield. "That's..."

A long moment of silence followed. She stared at Ajira with eyes full of horror, as if she had just realized what she had done. Right then and there, she threw herself down on the floor, kneeling, chanting. Her eyes were squinted shut, though Ajira thought she saw sparkling tears line her lashes. "Great Azura...Goddess, forgive me." She seemed to be praying.

Ajira was shocked by the spectacle. Lini was a servant of Azura? She was very young to be in her service. Yet here she was praising her name and apologizing ardently for insulting a Servant. Ajira was not, in fact, an official Servant of Azura, but Lini did not need to know that. All she needed to see was the shield to know that Azura had been here.

As she slowly got up, a hint of a smile showing on her face, she turned and stared open-mouthed at Ajira. Understanding had dawned upon her. "I apologize...for insulting Azura, and insulting you. Azura has spoken to me in prayer, and if she says that you are for now my master, then it is so. In the name of Azura, I am now in your service." She bowed to her.

With a awkward smile, Ajira reluctantly bowed back. It was only proper, but it felt terribly strange. This little girl was bowing to me? I'm not superior! I don't need a servant!

"So..." started Lini, edging closer to her. "You going to tell me how you got that or not?"

"Long story," said Ajira tiredly. "Tell you later. Now just throw one at me!"

"You'll tell me what happened?"

"Everything."

Lini picked up a throwing star, getting a good grip on it. She stared down it straight at Ajira's shield. She gritted her teeth, took a deep breath, brought her arm back, and slung the star across the room.

Ajira saw the star flying toward her and tried not to flinch. It was a little scary seeing that star come flying toward her, even if she was protected by a shield. She was going to need a lot of practice before she ever went into battle. There was still so much to learn, and time was running out. The star struck the shield hard with a loud metallic clang! that reverberated through the whole room. The impact sent vibrations through her arm to her whole body. She watched, mouth hanging wide open, as it shattered and fell to the floor.

Lini was speechless. She stumbled over, trying helplessly to pick up the broken fragments. It was no use. The shield had completely demolished her top-of-the-line throwing star. How could something so weightless be so effective?

Ajira took her shield off and looked at it, sure that there would be a huge scratch where the star had struck. Her mouth continued to hang open as she inspected her shield with wide eyes. It was still flawless! All across the luminous surface, not one dent, not one single blemish appeared. It was strong enough not only to withstand such an attack, to completely destroy an ebony throwing star! Truly this shield was made by Azura.

All this special attention she was getting was a bit overwhelming. She had an angel, an entire Ashlander tribe, and Azura herself behind her now. Not to mention Lini and her parents (if they even were still alive). She wondered for the first time in a while why she had been brought to a parallel universe just to buy a weapon. Was it really that simple? Surely she could've done the same thing in Morrowind; there was no need to travel to another world. And the Prophecy, couldn't the "rites" have been done at any old house in Morrowind? She wondered feverishly what made this "House of Azhbar" so special. Sure, he was a celebrated mage, but did that really make all the difference? Did the Rites have to be performed here? Ajira sensed there was more than met the eye here in "Taryngoth". Kark hadn't brought them here for no reason. There was something he wasn't telling them...

"I'm baaaaack!" yelled Kark, walking down the hall behind them. His arms were full of paper bags. He had a sort of silly grin on his face. He stumbled over the upturned rug, the bags flying from his hands and scattering all over the floor. There was the sound of breaking glass, a clang of metal, and the sloshing sound of liquid as the contents spilled.

Kark laughed nervously. "Eh...my bad." He bent down to pick up the packages. "Ah, dammit," he muttered under his breath. "The goblets are broken." He sighed. "No matter." He glanced around anxiously and waved one of his paws over the broken goblets quickly. The broken shards of glass suddenly came to life and started reassembling themselves. Pieces of glass whizzed through the air above him, so fast they were hard to follow. With one reverberant ding! the goblets were reassembled and settled themselves quietly on the floor.

"Kajira and Meeni, right?" he asked, pointing at the two girls.

"What are you talking about?" said Ajira softly, looking at him with a funny gaze. How could he forget our names?

"That's your names, aren't they?"

"My name is Ajira," she said indignantly. She pointed a finger at Lini. "And she's Lini, of course. How could you forget our names, Kark?"

Kark...right. "Oh...you know, just my trip was exhausting and I, uh, my mind got a little scrambled, that's all. Just playing, you know." He struck out at her and missed. Ajira and Lini nearly screamed. They were huddled together trembling, knowing that one deadly swipe from his paws would mean certain death. "Stop asking stupid questions!"

Wasn't Kark the one who despised violence? Why was he doing this? It's like he's a whole different person since he went back there...

"Sorry," whispered Ajira, shocked. She'd never known Kark to speak like that. What had him so wound up?

Lini shuffled her feet, staring at the floor. "When are we going to do the Rites?" she mumbled cautiously.

The Rites, the Rites...oh yeah. "Yes, of course. Uh, here," he pointed at a long rectangular table sitting against the wall of the main room. The table (even though it was just a table, after all), had a menacing aura about it. Ajira felt like some kind of sinister ritual had been performed on the creaky black table many years ago.

Kark walked over to the table, an unreadable grin on his face. He placed three goblets on the table in a V-shaped formation and put a jug of some foul-smelling liquid a little to the left of them. He drew a ceremonial knife as if out of nowhere and placed it carefully inside the "V" of goblets. Digging through his bags some more, he produced seven tea lights in the colors of purple and black. As he placed them in a horseshoe shape around the whole set-up, his fingertips began to glow with black flame, a flame unlike any Ajira or Lini had ever seen before. Fire, and especially magical fire, could be many colors but it could definitely not be black. It crackled and sizzled at his fingertips, sending shock waves through Ajira's Khajiit senses. He lit the candles with them, unfazed at his black flames. They flickered and danced on the candlewicks, but gave off no light. This was not normal.

He suddenly seemed to snap out of it, a guilty expression plastered all over his face. "Excuse me, ladies," he said suavely, causing them to giggle. "I have to go get something right quick before we begin. You can wait a little longer, right?" He didn't wait for them to answer. "Of course you can, you can wait as long as you need to. Be right back!" Without a word, he raced down the hall.

Kark smiled evilly, rubbing the Mark on his arm. Wait till Dakosh hears about this...