Cearbhail:
I hate this site so much. Last night it wouldn't let me manage my stories, which meant that I couldn't upload my new chapter. So, I decided to split the final chapter up into two chapters and post it today. The final chapter was longer than 11 pages, which most of mine are 7. When I split them up, the second part of the chapter, as I felt it was, was rushed. So... I was more than happy to split the two chapters up and make them better. I will work on the second chapter now and finish fixing it. It deserves to be a proper chapter. While I work on that, please enjoy reading this one.
Oh...and enjoy. ^^
The Conjure Ash Guardian Spell
Hello. If you are reading this book, then you have been selected to build your very first Ash construct. My name is Ildari Sarothril, and I am the creator of the Ash Guardian. It is a mobile self-healing, free-thinking atronach created out of the Ash element. If you've ever worked with Bound creatures before, then you know that you need to make a contract with your creatures that you summon. The Ash Guardian is a little different however. It does not belong to Oblivion or Aetherius, therefore there is no contract to be made with said construct. It is also not a summoned creature, but one of your making. The Ash Guardian is more of a necromantic art rather than one of pure summoning. The Ash Guardian also does not return to Oblivion or Aetherius when it is no longer needed either. It is a construct of Tamriel so it does not die within a time limit, so there is no rush in using the Guardian. It is a permanent construct. It can be dismissed, but I will explain that later in the instructions. Let's begin.
The Ash Guardian is a unique spirit. You must have knowledge in Ash because you'll be the one creating it. You need a quiet space, free from any distractions. No attempting this spell with a war around you, or two homicidal women trying to kill you or your boyfriend. You also need a lot of Ash around you. And lastly, you need a heart stone. It must be a heart stone that's been on your person for at least two days and has fed off your body's magicka. And that's it…that's all you need to create your Ash Guardian. Now, let's move onto how to actually create said Guardian. You need to meditate on your heart stone. You must use the energy from your body to create an artificial soul, much like what you do for necromancy. If I planned on you creating an Ash Guardian, you would have learned necromancy early on to get the hang of it. Creating a soul for the Guardian is critical. Without the soul component, the Guardian will attack anything it wants, and will only respond to the Red Mountain's hive mind.
Once you have programed the Guardian's soul you must put the heart stone in the ash you wish to use as your construct's vessel. You must visualize the heart stone's soul reaching out and grabbing the nearby Ash to latch onto. The more Ash you visualize bonding to the heart stone, the stronger your Guardian will become to start with. The heart stone will do the rest. The Ash will start gathering around the heart stone, which will become the heart and brain of the Guardian. Once it forms, you must confirm that you are its master and that you created it. And that's it, that's all you need to do to create your first Ash Guardian. If you ever need to dismiss it, do not worry about having to recreate it. The heart stone will contain the soul for the rest of your natural life. You just need to chuck it in some Ash and the Guardian will pop right back up. In order to dismiss it, all you need to do and will the construct to go to sleep in the heart stone. It will go into 'sleep mode'. Then to do the same to bring it back, you just need to will it to awaken and then toss the stone into some nearby Ash. That's all you need to know about the Ash Guardian. If you have any questions regarding the Ash Guardian, refer to the Help Section of the book called "So I accidentally ordered my Ash Guardian to Kill Me."
Ildari Sarothril.
…
"So… your plan is to go run into the room filled with Talvas, the boy you love, and Gwen, the girl that wants to kill you…and you want to work on memorizing a spell while they try to kill each other around you?" Kyuu asked from my shoulder as I stood by the entrance to the training room. When I was first getting out of my operating table, Gwen and Talvas were fighting in the dining room. But it would seem that they had moved their spat into the larger training arena, the one that Mother tried to kill me in earlier today.
I watched as Talvas held his ground to Gwen. Gwen was launching black fire down at him like a monster straight from Oblivion. Talvas was more defending himself with sheets of Frost than he was attacking her. Of course, he was firing sheets of Frost around the battlefield, but they looked weak. It was like his Frost was melting or something. While I was watching, Talvas launched a few Icicles at Gwen when his protective shell of Frost was torn apart. As soon as he launched his Icicles, he had to dive out of the way because Gwen's black fire was falling down upon him. The Icicles never even made it to Gwen. They melted in the wave of black fire. Gwen's ferocity was only getting stronger, which in turn was making her own attacks stronger. It was easy to see that she was slowly starting to overpower Talvas and that he wasn't going to last much longer. I had to hurry, otherwise I wouldn't have a man to go save.
I looked over at Talvas. He looked like he was struggling to defend himself against Gwen, but just like what I'd expect from him, he wasn't giving up. As soon as he stood back up, as more black fire threatened to consume him, he created another giant Frost Shell to protect himself with. "Kyuu, go cast a Heal Beam on Talvas. Get him back up to fighting strength. Tell him about my plan to restore Gwen's sanity."
Kyuu nodded to me, jumping off my shoulder and bounding over to Talvas. I turned my attention to the small desk near the other end of the room. I could see the book I needed to read so I took off in a dead sprint for the desk. "Just die already!" Gwen screamed as she started pounding on the massive Frost Shell with one of her Daedric swords covered in her black fire. I watched as the Frost Shell exploded into steam and bits of water flying everywhere. Gwen was breathing heavily, but when she leaned down and screamed bloody murder, I think she was only getting started. She charged after Talvas to be welcome with an Icicle missile slamming her in the left arm. It froze her arm in a block of ice, but it quickly shattered when black fire started covering her body. She looked at Talvas and charged for him again. He took a defensive pose and brought up another Frost Shell to protect himself with. Had to hand it to Talvas…he was trying really hard to wear her out.
I looked away from the two fighting teens and ran for the desk. It wasn't too far of a run anymore and I ended up there without causing any attention to myself. That's when the wall next to me exploded. I was tossed off my feet and into the ash, and someone crashed down on top of me. Man, it was heavy, whatever it was. I heard him groan as he pushed himself up. "I've trained and trained, and yet…I still cannot fight her." Neloth said as he rolled himself off me. He then noticed he was lying on top of me and then nodded to me. "Apprentice, it is nice to see you in one piece. I heard from your bound ally that you have a plan for defeating Ildari."
I nodded. "Yes. She put a memory recording spell on me. Just take the information from my head and then do something with it."
He looked at me for a second before nodding. He reached for my head and I felt him grab something. He pulled it out and then I saw him bring it to his own head. His eyes flickered for half a second before he took a deep breath. He looked down at me, nodding. "I see you remember who you really are."
I sighed. We're in the middle of a war…people could die if we didn't get moving…and he was bringing this up now?! "We'll talk about that later. Right now, I have to save Gwen and Talvas." I looked through the hall in the wall to see a floating Ildari covered in magma and lightning. "And it looks like you have quite a fight on your hands."
He looked over at the floating Ildari and shrugged. "We both fight for the ones we love. And this is not the first time I've seen her like this. I'm sure you realize this, but dating an emotional girl is not easy. When they get mad…they tend to fight you." He looked down at me, rubbing a hand in my unkempt hair. "You're just like her in that regard." Oh, please. Just because I tended to hurt Talvas when he tried to do stuff to me doesn't mean that if I started dating him that I'd try to kill him if he pissed me off. Well…maybe. Ok, I would. I totally would.
Neloth pushed himself back onto his feet saying, "It won't be much of a fight anymore. Silver is the trick huh?" He looked down at the heart stone on the silver necklace. He snatched the stone and pulled it from the silver. He handed me back my heart stone, saying, "Get to work on your spell. I'll buy you as much time as possible. And thanks for the silver." He walked through the hole and I heard a series of explosions as Ildari started fighting him again. I watched them for a second as Neloth and Anari worked together to keep Ildari on the defensive. If they kept up this teamwork, I had no doubt that they'd eventually get that silver injected into her heart stone.
I turned my attention to the book. I flipped it open and started reading it. I read through my mother's humorous introductions and straight to the instructions. Quiet space required. "Talvas, get over and fuck my brains out!" Gwen screamed as she slammed black fire into another Frost Shell. I flinched as she screamed and slammed more fire down onto the ground. Ok…I doubt I'm going to find that quiet space. Need plenty of Ash. I looked around the room. It was nothing but ash. Ok, that's a check. And I need a heart stone that's been feeding off me for two days. That's a check too. I read into the creation of the soul through the heart stone. That would be very easy for me. I had to create a soul, which from what Mother showed me through Mannimarco's reconstructed journal hinted to the need for a passion, mentality, and sexual desires. Wow…how did I create those?
I sighed as I clutched the stone close to me. I folded myself into a seiza position and closed my eyes. I focused onto the stone and willed it to listen to me. I wanted it to take the form of a soul. The heart stone seemed to connect to me, and I felt it reach into me. As soon as we made that link, I was suddenly teleported from my body into the stone. There was this giant ashy area. There was one stone hovering in the middle of the sandy desert. When I walked up to the red stone, an Illusion panel opened up.
Personality: It read. I shrugged and tapped onto the screen. Custom? Borrow all characteristic from you? I shrugged again and went for the Custom. Always make custom stuff. The screen blinked for a few seconds before opened up to a list of questions.
Soul Information Sheet
Name:
Gender:
Master:
Passions:
Dislikes:
Fears:
Passionate 1 – 10
Independent 1 – 10
Aggression Level 1 – 10
Intelligence (Based on your own current level) 1 – 10
Pick 5 Traits. Pick Favorite Color. Favorite Style of Music
I sighed as I started filling in the sheet. Name: Volana. Gender: Girl. Master: Veselle Tenvanni. Passions: Marital arts, studying Ash element, cooking, farming. Dislikes: Ash yams. Fears: Making Veselle upset. Passionate: 8. Independent: 7. Aggression: 6. Intelligence: 10. Let's see… Proper, Proud, Loyal, Bookworm, and Adventurous. Favorite color: Seafoam. Favorite music: Rock and Roll.
As soon as I hit save, the screen vanished and I was teleported out of the room. I opened my eyes to see that I was still sitting in seiza with the heart stone in my hand. It hummed with some acknowledgment of what I created. I took the heart stone in my hand, stood up, and returned to the book. Ok…shove it into the Ash and visualize the heart stone connecting to it? I can do that. I sank down into seiza again and shoved the heart stone into the ash. I visualized the energy flowing off and attaching to the Ash in the ash. I visualized the energy reaching out to all the Ash around me, or as much as I could visualize around me. I took a deep breath and completed the spell. I let go of the heart stone and waited. There was a pulse and then Ash started pulling the heart stone down. There was another pulse and a small wind started blowing around me.
I stood up and jumped away as soon as a face exploded in the Ash. It mouth twitched as two red beady eyes glared at me for a second. The face grunted as it started pulling out a body with it. Ash started pulling off the ground, gathering around the floating head and shoulders. More Ash started spinning around the construct and the two beady eyes looked at me. The construct continued to gather in size and shape until it was a spinning hurricane of rocks and Ash. A floating hand motioned towards me and the head of the Guardian bowed to me. "I am Volana, Master Tenvanni. How may I help you?"
I pointed to Neloth. "Go help Master Neloth slow down Master Ildari. He needs to secure silver to her heart stone. I need to go help Talvas slow down Gwen. Come assist me when you're done with helping Master Neloth."
Volana nodded to me. "Of course." Just like that, she took off like a hurricane. I paused to jump up and down for my successful attempt at creating an Ash Guardian. And I modeled her after me enough that I could have some interests with her. Not like how I try to connect with Anari but end up talking to myself. Now I had a spirit that would be easier to play around with.
I sighed as I looked over at Gwen and Talvas. He was holding his own with a Frost Shell but I could tell he was almost done. I raced over to him, dodging small pockets of black fire that would have rained down on me as I got closer to her. I closed my eyes and visualized the Ash in front of me. I willed it to respond to my instinctual combat. I hoped this worked easier than what I had tried to do earlier. I brought my fist up and threw a punch. The Ash, small little dots of it at least, rose off the ground and smashed into Gwen's face. It hit hard enough to through her off her attack on Talvas. She tumbled onto the ground, and she was staying down for a second or two at least.
I got to her just fast enough to keep her from destroying what was left of Talvas's Shell. I saw him go to a knee, grabbing his chest as if he were having a heart attack. His Shell was melting quickly now, like the Fire hadn't been the reason why it was melting so much. I looked back at Gwen to see her standing up, rubbing her chin. I sneaked a peek at Talvas. "Talvas! What's wrong with your Frost magicka? It looks weak."
"It's because I'm not cold-hearted right now." He responded. "I love Gwen…and she's alive. I can't be cold when I fight her. It's just not possible. My Frost is melting because I can't hold onto my coldness." He glanced at me. "You wouldn't understand; you only use fire-based magicka."
Of course that was the reason. Figures. He had no problems using Frost when he was trying to make out with me in the caverns fighting Draugr. And now that Gwen was in the picture, he was suddenly becoming a new person? Any illusions of Ash disappeared as flames started growing around my feet. I was getting angry at Talvas. All this time, and he still ignores me.
Talvas glanced at me. "If this continues, I might have to switch to Fire again, just like you. I hate using Fire since it's not as strong as Frost, but it looks like I'll have no choice!" He roared as he stood up. Blue flames blasted from his body, thick and strong flames that I had never seen before. "Take a good look, Gwen. These are the blue flames of love! This is the strongest flame your body can produce!" Blue flames of love? That almost made me laugh. That was the corniest joke ever made. But, if I thought about it, he was probably being literal. The color of our flames changed behind the core emotion being used. My orange flames were flames of passion, according to Ildari.
Gwen laughed as she looked at me and then at Talvas. "Both of your flames cannot compare to my own." She screamed as black flames flowed off her like a volcanic eruption. "Flames of love, flames of passion! They both pale to the emotion of betrayal, of vengeance." She aimed her flames at me. "You both betrayed me, and I want revenge for the hatred you've shown me." She waved her hand at me and I felt a heavy searing pain wash over me as the black flames consumed me. I acted quickly as I covered myself in a shell of my own fire. More of the black fire rained down on me until I felt a blue flame wash over me as well. The blue flame canceled out the black flame, and I was on my back, looking up at the ceiling. I let myself catch my breath before I sat back up. And when I did, I found out that most of my robes had burned away.
I shrugged, rolled my eyes, and brushed off the burnt overtunic. My sleeves were gone too. My hakama was still in pretty good shape, and my under layer was still pretty good too. I quickly wrapped a Fire protection spell over the rest of my clothes before I ended up without them again. I looked over at Gwen and Talvas to see them trading fires with each other. They would attack with continuous blasts of fire while also pelting each other with exploding Fireballs too. I took a deep breath as I stretched my hands out. Sure, I could have just poured my anger into my attack and sent it to Gwen, but that wouldn't solve anything. She was stronger than me, and I knew that. No… I had to focus on what I wanted my flames to achieve. Just like when I trained. I focused on building balls of fire on my arms. The tiny orbs flickered to life, gathering in intensity as I let them grow stronger as I poured more fire into them.
"Talvas! Get out of the way!" I screamed as I let the tiny balls of fire fly. Talvas looked at me and I swear to Mehrunes Maven that he intentionally jumped in the way. He attacked my orbs of fire with his own blue flames. And the explosion it created threw me off my feet into the ash. I could tell it threw him off his feet too. We both hit the ground pretty hard. I tried to sit up but as soon as I started standing up, Gwen was in my face.
She jumped on top of me and started punching me in the face. "You stay out of this!" She screamed to me, slapping me as hard as she could with the backside of her Daedric sword. "This is between me and Talvas." She stood up and kicked me once before smiling. "We'll play after I chat to Talvas. Bye, Vessy." She poked me with her sword and then ran over to Talvas.
"Partner!" Kyuu called as he ran over to me. He ran up to me, jumping onto my chest as he took a deep breath. His ears flicked up but he started coughing. He looked down at me. "Veselle…I don't have much magicka left. If you want, I can heal you…but if I do that…I won't have enough left to heal Gwen."
I watched as Gwen walked over to Talvas. She started screaming words at him as she started lighting him on fire. Talvas screamed bloody murder while Gwen went right for his chest with her Daedric sword. I had to sit there and watch as Gwen stabbed Talvas…and there was nothing I could do about it. Talvas looked at Gwen for a second, and then looked over at me. He managed to smile before saying, "Save her…" His eyes closed and his head fell into the ash.
I pushed Kyuu off me as I stood up. "Save it for her." I grumbled to Kyuu. I wanted to say, 'Use the last bit of your magicka to save Talvas.', but he'd never forgive me for it. I cupped my hands around my mouth. "Hey, Gwen!" I screamed to her, drawing her attention away from Talvas. "You done talking to your boy toy yet?"
She looked over at me, her smile vanishing. "I told you to leave us alone, Vessy!" She pulled her sword out of Talvas's chest, which drew a small groan from him. I looked down at him. His arms were still slowly moving. He was still alive! I just had to keep Gwen away from him while he started using Restoration on himself. Gwen snapped her head back down at Talvas, then looking up at me. "You love him, don't you?" She looked at me.
Love him? Of course I loved him. He was the closest thing I had to a friend since I came to this island. He had pretty much done everything with me, and when he was drunk he turned into a romantic, if not too much into one. He was perhaps my best friend, not to mention my first kiss. And no matter how I felt about him, no matter what I did past this point… he would love Gwen, the psychotic bitch that loved blood and guts, not to mention killing herself, more than the boy that was chasing after her. And I've been here the whole time! I've been there for him, but from what I can see, Gwen will never be! Unless I somehow win this fight and get her head healed.
"Yeah, I do love him." I said to her. "Unlike you."
She laughed. "I do love him. I love him to death." She mused as she walked up to me. The two of us stood just inches away from each other while we stared each other down. "And I love you too, Vessy." She leaned in, grabbing me by my back, and pulled me in. Next thing I knew, she was trying to kiss me. I pushed her off fast enough to get her away. That was when I felt a small pinch in my stomach and looked down. Her sword was just touching me. If I hadn't pushed her away…she would have killed me! I'm so sick of her trying to kill me!
I kicked Gwen away from me, and she fell to the ground. "What is wrong with you?!" I screamed to her as she started scrambling to her feet. Black flames started pouring off her body as she turned to attack me. I shoved my hand out, blasting her with pure fire that was starting to turn black. She hit the ground, screaming in blissful pain as she roasted on the ground. "I've tried to be nice to you!" I screamed to her. "Tried to help you, and you just keep trying to kill me! I'm so sick of it! I've had enough!" When I stuck out my hand to attack her again, something different happened. Frost blasted out of my hand, slamming into Gwen hard enough to freeze her to the ground.
I felt a sudden chill over my body, like I had somehow changed. Goosebumps traveled down my arms and I stood there. I looked down at Gwen while she struggled to melt the ice covering her body. Her flames couldn't begin to melt the ice I covered her with. I was done feeling sorry for her, done caring about her pity party. She had too many opportunities to get help and she rejected all of them. When I looked down at her, I could feel that ice covering my heart. So… this was Frost. A cold indifference. This is what Talvas lived with every day. Is this how he felt even when he was around me? I refused to believe that this is how he felt. I must have sparked some amount of feeling inside him. I had to admit… this was hard for me to hold onto. Sure, I hated Gwen, but I doubt that I could keep her out of my heart like this. She needed help, and no matter how much I hated her right now, I wouldn't betray my friend. And just like that, the ice covering her body started to melt.
"Kyuu!" I screamed to him. "Heal her, do it now!" I had to hurry before the ice covering her melted away.
"On it!" He screamed and jumped onto Gwen's frozen body. His ears perked up and a white beam flowed out of his body. I stood there as I watched. Gwen continued to struggle, and at one point she screamed that the light was killing her. But as the healing went on, her screams of torture started to die off and she started drifting off to sleep. Once it was done, Kyuu looked up at me. "There, that should take care of a lot of it. But…I'm out of magicka now so I couldn't finish."
I looked over at Talvas. "What about Talvas?"
He shrugged. "I can't do anything like this." He looked up at me. "Unless you let me borrow some of your energy."
I nodded. "Do it."
I felt something inside me open up and I felt my body draining quickly. Kyuu took a deep breath he stood up. "Sorry, Veselle, but you're almost on empty too. I will do what I can." He bounded away from me over to Talvas. I felt more energy pull from me and I fell to my knees. My body started getting heavier and heavier. My eyes started to close as I felt more energy drain from me. "Just hold on, partner!" Kyuu cried back to me as he began healing Talvas. I looked at them as my vision started to blur. The last thing I remember seeing was Talvas moving his hand before my vision blacked out.
Cearbhail:
One chapter left to go. Wow...can you believe it? An entire arc just ready to come to a close. I know there are going to be some comments being made about what happens... so... ok then.
