Cearbhail:
Yup, all done on the same day. Like I said, I wanted to get this done while I still had it going inside my head. I should be finishing this up next chapter. I could go into the whole fighting reavers thing but I don't think we really need to see more of that. They'll just talk about it in the journal entry when they go back to Crescius in Raven Rock. I'm really happy with this chapter. Got some great humor in, almost like the old days with the Chronicles of Lydia. Almost. Still not quite there.
Oh...and enjoy. ^^
Dear diary of shadows,
Today is still the 19th. We took a small break so I'm updating what we've done. Talvas stepped on a trap and poisoned me. Then he drugged me with alcohol and we almost had sex or something. I'd rather forget about it to be honest, but I thought I'd write it down so that I never will. I kissed him and that's when it almost went somewhere. But it didn't. We left to find the end of this place and it led us to a spell tome. I learned Ice Spike. Yay me! And then we fell down into a large cavern filled with a dead body, Crescius's great-grandfather's journal, a giant sword, and a doorway that can only be opened by the sword itself. The sword is a key! Just like in Pink Vs. Purple, one of my favorite shows on the crystal ball. It's about these soldiers fighting in Skyrim. Pink…representing the Legion, and Purple, representing the Stormcloaks. They pretty much make fun of war and fighting and stuff. This one guy has a giant glowing sword that was really a key…kinda like the part of the show that was about memory being the key. It's all weird. Anyway, Talvas is working on the doorway right now. I'm just sitting here because the sword is too heavy for me to even lift, let alone swing.
Veselle.
…
I sat on my blanket while Talvas stood over the doorway, swinging the blade with everything he had. Red energy would fly off the blade, crashing into the doorway and then the section would fold in on itself and disappear, opening up another part to be slashed open. We'd been here for about an hour now and he was still going at it. Every time he swung that thing he needed a second to catch his breath before he could open the next section. The lines were getting pretty complicated now too. They started off as horizontal and then vertical, then diagonal. Now they were swirly and zigzaggy. To be honest, it was stupid to think that someone could create those waves. Apparently Talvas could. He manipulated the energy with his magicka. Go figure, right?
So, I sat here on my little blanket as I waited for Talvas to finish up with his new toy. "Take it, you bitch!" He screamed as he swung the sword again. A flimsy red beam rolled off the blade. It was barely even a blade at this point. He was just stretching to make a committed swing. Meanwhile, I was sitting on a blanket, eating a soggy apple. I couldn't help with the blade; I'm physically weak. That blade weighs 16 pounds, and even swinging that thing is enough to make me fall over backwards trying.
I would have one of my two spirits help, but they haven't called to me yet. They must still be recovering from their wounds. And without them, I'm rather useless. I hated being useless. I couldn't wait until we could get out of here. We found the journal, what more was left to get? That's when I felt the chill on my spine again. That feeling of calling. Whatever has been watching me this whole time was standing behind me…breathing on my neck again.
I quickly stood up and looked behind me. There was nothing standing there of course. This kept happening down here. There was something down here watching us, something calling us. It wanted me to find it. I…I think I needed to have it. The feeling was calling me towards the doorway. Whatever we wanted was behind the door. I could feel it gathering behind the door…some massive force that was calling to us. I felt the tremor down my spine and for a second I was happy Talvas hadn't opened the door yet. Something big was waiting for us and I didn't want to meet it.
"Got it!" Talvas cried out in joy as the door started splitting in half. He fell to his knees. "I'm all tapped out." He cried as he fell flat on his back.
I looked down at him. "Talvas, get up!" I felt that sickening energy overwhelm me and I knew whatever wanted to kill me waited on the other side of it. The doors hissed out as fresh air blew into the large chamber. I was all alone. I looked down at Talvas, who was still catching his breath…perhaps even sleeping. My spirits were still out cold. I was really on my own now. "Talvas, get up!" I screamed to him, but he didn't respond.
The entranceway was dark. I couldn't really see inside it, but I could still feel the energy calling to me; the darkness in the void reaching for me. It wanted me to join it in the void, to embrace nothingness. I brought my staff up and it started burning with intense flame sigils as I stepped up to the open doorway. I dropped my apple, holding onto my staff with both hands as I stepped up to the downed Talvas. He was only a few feet from me. Surely, if I just got to him and propped him up he'd be able to help me fight…whatever it was. I didn't see anything, but I could sure feel it.
I reached Talvas and reached down for him. I picked him up by his shoulders and leaned him up against me. I started slapping him on the cheek as he started looking up at me. "What is so important, Vess? I'm really exhausted. Can't I just have a moment?"
I sighed in relief. He was still awake. "Talvas…can't you feel that?"
He looked at me with curiosity. "Like when you could hear the ash talking to you?"
I shook my head. "No…" My voice sounded so broken with fear that I couldn't control it. "There's been this…darkness calling me this whole time." I nudged to the doorway. "It's waiting for us beyond this door."
He sighed as he pushed himself up. "Ok, I get it." He lifted the sword up and carried it with him as he looked at me. "Pack our bag. We're continuing on." He brought up his thermos and started drinking more sujamma. I rushed over to the bag and started packing up our stuff: the blanket, the apples. Once I had it all packed, I ran to catch up to Talvas, who waited for me by the doorway. He wasn't looking at me though. He was just standing there like he didn't know what to do. When I caught up with him, I understood why.
The entire room was nothing but swinging blades, smashing walls, collapsing ceilings, spikes flying out of the floor and walls in some random fashion, a massive lava pit, and a porch leading to a locked door with a cranky old Altmer woman knitting socks in her rocking chair. She had a cane with her. And I can tell she's that really old racist person who hates dark-skins like myself and would try to beat me up for coming up to her porch.
I looked at Talvas. "What the heck is this?"
"Fucked up." He replied. He turned to me. "Veselle, this may be just a hunch but…you're a marital artist."
"Yeah…"
"And there's this thing called drunken boxing…"
"yeah…"
"Do you think if we got you drunk that you'd be able to…ninja your way across this whole thing with some awesome drunken boxing stuff and just you know…pull that lever next to the racist old woman?" He pointed to the lever next to the grandma.
I…I don't even know how on nirn he thought I had been trained in drunken boxing. "So…because I can do some fancy marital arts, you think if I suddenly get drunk I'll turn into martial arts master Frankie Chin?" He's a famous Breton master of being really fast on his feet and drunk. He created drunken style.
Talvas held up his thermos of sujamma. "Worth a try…right?"
I looked at the thermos and then back at him. I scowled as best I could and walked up to the first trap. I timed it just right and got past the three spinning blades. I glanced back at him and cocked my shoulders and gave him a confident smirk. I was going to own this without his trash. "I think I can…" Four spikes came up all around me, scaring me so I jumped back, almost getting sliced by the three spinning blades in the process. They missed me by inches and I lost a small piece of my bangs. I sighed as I walked up to his thermos and grabbed it. I held my nose and started chugging it as fast as I could. If I was going to die down here, I'd better at least not be aware of it happening.
The world started spinning around me as my hands started tingling with a warm pulse. My head felt really…wobbly. And the floor was more like water in an active pool now, moving up and down like it was a tide. I walked up to the first trap and they seemed to dance around me and my body responded. I danced past the blades and up to the spikes. They came up all around me but I didn't really care about them. As they came close, my body treated it like someone was throwing a punch at me. I simply moved out of the way, throwing my arm up to defend myself like I was blocking a kick or something. As spikes came up underneath my feet, I felt them at the very second they came up and I just stepped out of the way. I laughed at the spikes as they tried to touch me. At one point I taunted them by yelling, "Can't tag me!" And then I got across the whole spikes trap without trying.
The collapsing walls, I vomited on them and then I hiccupped flames. They all blew up…the collapsing ceiling too. I walked past the rubble up to the lava floor. I felt a sneeze forming and I tried to rub my nose. It didn't work and then I sneezed. Frost flew out of my nose, strong enough to cool the magma into a nice floor. I strolled across it before it thawed or melted, whatever it would have done. I danced around more swinging and spinning blades. I think I actually grabbed onto one of the spinning blades, put my feet on it, and rode it a few times before jumping off onto a swinging blade. It swung me across towards the old woman and I jumped off, landing near her porch.
"Get away from my porch before I call the police!" She waved her cane at me. I grabbed onto the railing and started climbing up the staircase. She was still yelling at me, calling me nasty words that were offensive to Dunmer, and throwing her slippers at me. "Get off my porch, girl, or I'll whip your butt." She tried to say but her fake teeth popped out.
I pointed to the lever and said, "Can I…can I…hick…. Do you have any noodles?" I asked as I reached for my stomach, it grumbled in reply. "I'm so hungry for noodles." Why was I thinking of noodles? I came here for a reason…which was… I reached in for her face. "You're so wrinkly…and yellow. You're really old, you know that?" It was a legitimate question. She was old, and she might not know that.
She scowled at me. "Get off my porch." She swung her cane at me and for a second my lightning martial arts came through. My knees gave out and the cane passed over my head. I felt my stomach turning and I hurled on the old woman's face. She looked horrified and she looked up at me like I had just told her the world was ending. As I stood up, I needed something to brace against as I pulled myself up. My hand found the lever and as I pulled myself up, I pulled it down. And just like that, the old woman dissolved, with the rest of the illusion of the front porch. The lava cooled down, all the blades disappeared…the walls and ceilings were still blown up from where I destroyed them.
Talvas ran up to me, waving. "Good work, Veselle!" He said as he ran up. "We should keep that as our back-up plan for now on. You were so cool!"
I felt really happy that he complimented me, so I smiled at him. "I love you so much." I said as he caught up to me. I threw my arms around his neck. "You're so nice to me, and always watching out for me. I love you, dude." I had no idea what I was saying right then but I reached up and kissed him on the cheek. "You're my best friend in the whole world. I love you so much."
Talvas didn't reply but pulled me with him. "Ok, Veselle. Let's get this over with and get you some fresh air. We both need a break after this." The room was still spinning for me and I felt sick to my stomach, but I could see a massive pool in a huge room supported by many pillars and a massive wall with a dragon's head at the end of the room. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I could feel something calling for me but I couldn't tell what or where it was.
I pulled on Talvas's tunic and gestured to the massive pool. "Look…a pool. Let's take a bath together like we did earlier. This time without a wall."
He chuckled lightly and patted me on the head. "You're cute when you're drunk, but no."
I kicked him in the balls and he collapsed underneath me. I started dragging him to the pool. "We're taking a bath." I mumbled as I dragged him behind me. I don't know why I was so adamant about taking a bath with him or why he wouldn't join me, but it seemed like it would be nice to have company while I cleaned my body from all the vomit that splashed on me when I vomited on the old woman. And I bet he was sweaty from swinging that massive blade around all day.
As we got near the bath, I saw someone else had a similar idea. This really, really old person wearing this mask that looked weird to me was lying belly up in the middle of the pool. As we got close, he stood up and turned to greet us with a hug. "Hi, hobo guy. Can we join you in the bath?" I waved to him.
Talvas stood up and looked at the guy stretching out his staff to greet us. So, the guy was a mage? That was pretty cool. Maybe he was a Telvanni Lord? Right as the guy started greeting us with a wave of shock magicka from his staff, Talvas crashed into me, tackling me to the ground. He pressed down on top of me and I pulled on him. "Are you sure you want to do this in front of him?" I said as I started reaching for his pants.
"What?" He cried before he pushed himself off me. He sighed as he stood up. "Veselle…this is not the time to joke like that." He pointed to the hobo mage with the mask. "This is a dragon priest. An ancient spellcaster that fought in the dragon wars. He's trying to kill us!"
That's when I snapped into fighter mode. I jumped right onto my feet. "He's a peeping tom! He wanted to watch me bathe!"
Talvas sighed. "Yes, he's a peeping tom and he wants to see you naked."
Flames erupted all over my body. "Veselle smash!" I cried as I pulled up my staff. I felt the flames roll off me but they seemed…woozy? They scattered all around the room but not actually hitting the floating hobo ghost person. The floor underneath me wobbled and I lost my footing. I fell to the left and a blinding white flash flew right past my head. Talvas roared as he jumped over the banister into the water. I watched as he brought that sword straight down, the red energy growing so bright that I thought it was ruin our bathing pool. The hobo ghost person stuck out his hand and caught the red beam as it fell on him. The beam split in two, barely scratching the thing. Talvas fell into the water and I stood up to follow him. I started pulling off my robes to join him in the bath. "Wait for me, Talvas." I whined. And then I looked at the ghost peeping hobo and put my robes back down. I stuck out my tongue, saying, "I'm not taking off my clothes while you're still living!"
He started shooting more lightning at me and I lost my balance on the floor. As I swayed, lightning danced all around me, and I felt the sparks tingling on my skin. Some of it zapped across my head and it was an instant sobering effect. The world stopped spinning, and I stopped thinking like a drunken baby. Talvas was climbing out of the pool, and there was a floating ghost thingy looking right at me with a glowing staff. That feeling that energy watching over me was growing again and it was swirling around this dragon priest thingy. I felt scared to my core as I felt it powering up. It launched its lightning at me and I stuck my hands out, summoning a protective ward in front of me. The ward took the brunt of the hit but the lightning was so strong that it broke through my ward like it was nothing. The force of the explosion threw me off my feet. I flew backwards landing on my back. In that split second I hit the ground, a wave of lightning washed over top of me, hitting the wall behind me. I could see the scorch mark and the part of the wall that had broken apart from the impact. If I got hit by that…I wouldn't be able to talk about it later. I'd be dead.
Talvas leapt out of the water, his entire body covered in frost magicka. It was flying around him like a protective shell. "Veselle! Use your Flame Cloak!"
"My what?" I called from the flat of my back.
"Summon your flames around you as a protective aura. It will help you block some of the shock magicka."
I took a deep breath and let my fear build my flames around my body. Fire started pouring out of me and I willed it to cyclone around me like a rotating shield. And it slowly started building. And once I felt the spell pop into place, I knew it would hold. I stood up and readied my staff. I visualized several firebolts and I didn't hold anything back. "Talvas, you better run! I'm not holding back!" And I let them fly to the floating monster.
"Shit…" Talvas cried as he dove under water right as the firebolts all collided with the monster. There was a series of serious explosions that almost threw me off my feet as water evaporated into steam. A thick cloud of steam rolled over me and I thought my eyes were going to burn off. I thought for certain that I killed the thing, but I knew better than assume of anything. And through the steam I could see something floating in the middle of the room. There was a glow and I felt a spike in energy. I jumped to the side right as a bolt of lightning rolled past me. It grazed across my flame aura and died off as it did so. So…this would protect me after all. That was good news. I brought my staff up and focused my flames on it. The staff started glowing with red flame sigils and I let it roar towards the monster. I didn't know where Talvas was, but he could take care of himself by now.
My flame cyclone rolled right off my staff through the thick mist and over to the shadowy monster. The flames rounded into a ball at the monster, like he was catching my attack. My flames started dying down and I didn't have anything left. My staff died down and my aura started falling as well. I was actually running out of magicka energy. My ball of flames was dying down, torn apart by the dragon priest. I couldn't really see what was going on through the mist, but I could see my ball of flames being torn apart by some shadowy figure, and it looked like a floating ghost. Then more lightning launched at me. I ducked to the side; more launching at me where I was standing. I jumped back doing a backflip. Lightning rolled all across my spread limbs, barely missing me. Then something hit me square in the back and my entire body just went cold. My arms gave out and I hit the floor pretty hard. My body spasmed a few times and I pretty much went brain dead.
I struggled to sit up but it was like when Master blasted me with lightning earlier. My body was in shock. I managed to grip the floor in front of me and I started pulling myself towards my staff. The dragon priest was moving somewhere in the mist where he could see me better. Lightning flashed off its staff, hitting everything around me. The floor around me shattered as the lightning broke it loose. Bits and pieces of the floor flew around me and I grabbed my head as I tried to hug the ground as much as I could. I curled up in a ball as lightning blasted every bit of the floor around me. I screamed as more lightning crashed into my hand. I felt that bitter sting roll all around inside me. My vision blurred and I almost passed out.
The room suddenly started getting colder and colder. The mist covering the room started turning into drops of water that were freezing the suspended air. I felt magical power I had never felt before. It felt like a frozen tundra. "You shouldn't have made her scream." I heard Talvas say from near the wall with the dragon. He was standing there, whipping up a massive snow storm around him. I don't know how long he had been charging it up, but it looked ready. I could see the glow of frost magicka in his eyes; his entire body covered in a light layer of ice and snowflakes. The monster turned to face him. "You shouldn't remind me of her!" Talvas screamed and threw his hands forward.
I felt a wave of pure cold overwhelm me. All the drops of frozen water started morphing into icicles. They all started aiming at the monster. With a wave of his hands the icicles all launched at once at the monster. I watched as the thing was pelted with icicles large enough to impale a mammoth. The thing had so much ice through it that nothing could have lived through it. The creature didn't seem so impressed through. Lightning surged through its body and all the ice instantly evaporated.
The monster warmed up lightning in its staff and launched it at Talvas. He stuck his own hand up and formed a shield spell. The lightning crashed against it but the shield didn't break. Talvas actually tipped the shield to the side and the lightning just rebounded off into a wall. He held the shield on his forearm like an actual shield. Why hadn't I thought of that? I guess I wasn't just that type of fighter. Not yet at least. Talvas had experience, more than I did at least. The red sword in Talvas's hands started glowing with bright red energy and he started swinging away as much as he could. Red waves of energy roared through the room, brighter than any I had seen before.
The monster started floating around the lines of energy, almost like he was teleporting. He did that until he got up to Talvas and grabbed him by the throat. He brought the staff up to him and released a whole load into his gut. Talvas cried out in murder as he was launched from the dragon wall. He flew across the entire room, crashing near me and rolling into the scorched wall behind me. He wasn't moving at all. I think he was dead. I looked back at the monster to see that Talvas's thermos was sitting in front of me. It must have rolled out of his pack when he crashed into the ground. I thought of my drunken style and I reached for it. It could be my only chance. I hope there was still enough sujamma left. I caught the lid and pulled it to my mouth. I flipped myself on my back and thumbed the lid off. I didn't have time to aim the cup over me. I just let the sujamma fall over my face and hoped some of it entered my mouth. I wasn't expected a non-ending river of sujamma to wash over me. I got more than enough to numb my whole body. Whatever was inside me earlier started acting up and this current batch was only helping me along. I lost all sense of pain and all sense of my body.
I rolled from my back onto my feet, doing some sort of break dance on the way up. I looked at the thermos of sujamma. It was still full. Leave it to Talvas to think of something like this. This lightning might be able to block my drunken mind, so I would just have to hold onto this. I took another sip and felt the warmth of it wash over me. My brain cells were going to give me hell over this later. I closed the lid and looked back at the floating ghost thingy. It was staring at me through its mask. "You…you meanie. You hurt my friend. I'm going to…where's my bath water?" I looked down at the evaporated pool. "You…you took my bath water away. I…I really wanted to take a bath, and YOU RUINED IT." I screamed as flames started rolling off my body.
White flashes started flying towards me. They blinded me so I stepped away. I felt the white flashes of lightning fly all around me, but I was able to feel them coming. My loose legs started dancing me over to the thing while lightning flashed all around me. I found myself dancing through entire streaks and waves of lightning as I came up to the monster. I didn't have much magicka left, but I had my wits. Ok…I'm drunk; I have no wits. But I had my fists and my staff. When I got within striking range of my staff, I jumped to the side as the monster rolled a giant stream of lightning in front of me. I rolled right under it like I had practiced with Mjoll. I had these moves drilled into me so much that my muscles had them all memories and my relaxed mind had no time to hesitate and consider other methods of fighting. My mind thought and my muscles obeyed. This was drunken boxing; I understood it.
I came up right underneath the arm holding the staff and I brought my staff right down on top of it. I hammered the arm so hard that the arm snapped and the staff fell from his hands. I seemed to grab onto the staff and I raised it to the monster's face. The staff glowed white and it launched right into the thing's face. It cried out in horror as the lightning consumed the thing's head. When the smoke cleared, it was reaching out for my chest. I instinctually brought my own staffs down in a defensive block. I jumped up, kicking the thing in the head.
"You meanie…trying to touch me." I said as I covered my chest. "You pervert!" I tried to kick him in the balls like I did Talvas earlier, but he didn't even lave legs. It snapped its bony arm out and grabbed my personal staff. "Oh…you wanted my staff. Well…I want that mask." I dropped the staff and reached up for his mask. "I'll trade you. My staff for your mask." And I pulled it off his head. "Let's see who's under that mask. Brynjolf, is that you?" There was nothing but a draugr's head underneath the mask. His head looked so ashen and old that I couldn't believe this thing was even alive. "Ooh…you're an ugly one. I've kissed worse." I said as I leaned up to him. "Talvas." I pointed back to him. I leaned in and kissed the thing on the cheek. "You definitely feel cold and old."
There was a loud moan and the monster's face started falling apart like it was made from ash. The whole body followed suit and the whole thing fell apart in my arms. I looked at the mask. Hmm…maybe this was the worse of its magical powers? Or did my kiss kill it? I didn't know. But I suddenly felt like I needed to rinse my mouth out with more sujamma. So, I took another hit and swished it around my mouth a few times before spitting it out onto the ashes of the dead monster. "There…one for my homie." I pounded my chest a couple times before turning to look at Talvas. "Hey, honey-bunny. I have a mask…and a new staff. And my old staff…and…are you listening to me?" I whined to him as I walked over to him. "Wakie wakie, I want eggs and bacy."
By the time I got up to him, I felt like sitting down for a few minutes. "Ok…I'm tired." I looked for our backpack and started pulling out the blanket. I dragged it over to Talvas and lied down on top of him. He was still breathing, so I was glad he was still alive. "Good nighty night." I said as I kissed him on the cheek. "Hmm…think I preferred the monster." That was the last thought before I passed out.
…
"Veselle…" I felt a shake on my shoulder. I felt that headache again and my eyes throbbed. "Get up. That thing might still be here."
I knocked his hand away. "No, I killed it." I gestured to his thermos in my hands. "Drank more stuff to do it. Need water; go get me some."
He nodded. I heard him walking around. Next thing I know, he's prodding me in the shoulder. "You smell like sujamma. Did you pour it all over yourself or something?"
"Or something." I replied as I sat up and took the thermos handed to me. My head rolled with the room and I felt that splitting thing again. "Last time I do that…ever." I screwed off the lid and downed the whole thing. It felt good to have real liquids inside me. I stuck out my hand and waited until Talvas helped pull me up. I found my two staffs with the mask I collected from the thing. "I have a new staff now. It shoots powerful lightning from it.
He nodded. "I know…I was on the receiving side of it." He reached down for his robes and I could see the giant hole in his robes. I could see his perfect abs. They were lightly charred from the hit, but I could see the marks fading away. He must have been using Restoration magic.
I sighed a relief. That thing that I managed to kill must have been the source of that dark magic I felt. And just as I let my guard down, I felt a very powerful brush against my neck, like someone had just licked me back there. I turned around and found my eyes drifting to the doorway leading to some staircase. The…whatever it was was calling me. I nodded to Talvas. "I feel that…energy again. It's here. Right…" I pointed to the doorway. "in there."
He took the sparky staff and handed me mine. He got in front and started carefully walking up to the exit. I followed behind him with the backpack. Once I got to see around the edge, I could see the source of all those bad feelings. It was a book sitting on a pedestal. It seemed to be radiating with black magicka; something so foul that I didn't even want to touch it. Talvas seemed to have no regard for its power though. "Is this what you were talking about?" He walked right up to it and picked it up.
He started reaching for the cover and I screamed, "Talvas, don't!" He snapped it shut again, and I ran up to him. "Just throw it in the bag. We'll take it back to Master and have him check it out." Talvas tossed it inside the bag and zipped it shut.
He looked over at me. "I can feel air, Veselle…coming from this stairwell leading up. I think we're close to an exit."
"Oh thank the gods!" I cried and ran into his arms. "Let's just get out of here!"
Cearbhail:
I like this whole drunken boxing Veselle stuff. Might use it more. Not sure. we'll find out. And someone brought up something about a mask. I legitimately freaked out about the mask. i was like 'what mask'? I never knew anything about a mask! And then I thought about the dragon priest. Oh yeah...they all wear masks. Not a big matter for me, I guess. I never really cared about them, but it made an interesting way for Veselle to kill it. yay!
