Cearbhail:

Ok, everyone. This is it. The final chapter for the first arc. I will start back up in maybe a week, but it will take place like two years in the future. This story takes place around the timeline of Maleek's Journey to find Ruby. The second arc will take place during the timeline of the Chronicles of Ruby. Asger will be joining the gang, and they will begin the actual questline of Dragonborn. So...Yay!

Oh...and enjoy. ^^


Dear diary of shadows,

I don't really know what day it is. All I know is that when I woke up, I was in my bed. Not the bed at Mother's underground evil lair, but my bed back home in Tel Mithryn. Not sure I wanted to wake up here either. I wonder. If I never left home, would I be content to still be the daughter of the deceased Brand-Shei, or would I always be thinking of coming here to learn magicka as a proper Telvanni member? I really don't know, but I shouldn't really think about that. I still consider Brand-Shei to be my real father at this point, even if I do have my memories of Neloth back. Brand-Shei was there for me the whole time. He raised me as if I was his daughter, even knowing that I wasn't. I can't hate him for that, even though I want to because he lied to me for 8 years of my life.

At any rate, I don't know what happened after the battle. I'm guessing we won since I'm home in Tel Mithryn. Otherwise, I'd be waking up in a totally different bed with a heart stone implanted. I know, I know… I already checked. My chest has been left untouched. Another thing I noticed…. No one is here to greet me. I woke up with no one standing over my bed to tell me what happened. No one! Sigh… Not even Talvas. Probably too busy sucking face with Gwen. I bet that's exactly what he's doing too.

Veselle.

All things considered, I did not expect to wake up in my bedroom back at Tel Mithryn. I thought I'd wake up in the ashy training field I passed out in. But… as soon as I opened my eyes, I saw that I was lying in my bed. The blanket that used to cover my doorway was replaced with an actual door, and the line drawn for my old roommate's side of the room was gone. He must have gotten his own room after all. Thank the gods…I really didn't like sleeping with him in the same room. He was unbearable.

I pushed myself up, pulled away the covers. My black and gray robes were good as new. I bet I had Kyuu to thank for that. Yup! He thought inside my head. After you passed out, I had just enough to fix your clothes for you. And then Ildari dressed you. Ildari? Yup. She's all clean now. Well…sort of. You'll see. Go on, got out and see for yourself. The fact that he said Ildari dressed me pretty much told me what I wanted to know. Ildari was still alive, and if I was at Tel Mithryn, chances are she was back to normal. Neloth must have been able to save her then. Thank the gods… I don't know what I would have done if I found out Neloth had to kill her. Heck, I'm not sure what he would have done if he had to kill her. Probably erase my memory and send me away again.

I climbed out of bed and looked around my room. My desk had a bunch of books piled on top of them, most of them journals I had to read while I was learning Alchemy. Sitting next to them was the heart stone I used to create my Ash Guardian. Good, so I still had her. I had three staves sitting near my doorway. One was my old staff Neloth gave me, one belonged to a dragon priest that I killed, and the other one…hmm… I don't know whose that was. I walked over to it to inspect it. When I grabbed it, I could feel magicka similar to Kyuu's Heal Beam. It looked like it was enchanted with Restoration. Good. I suck at healing.

I walked out of my room and looked around. Tel Mithryn looked like it always did, except there was another mushroom building sprouting up on the other side of my garden. Must have belonged to Azarien, my previous roommate. So, I started by running over to his room. I knocked on his door loud enough to wake up the dead. There was a pause for two seconds before I heard, "Who is it?" Yup, that was Azarien's voice.

"Veselle." I replied.

"Ah, welcome back to Tel Mithryn." He replied through the door. "I would invite you in, but I'm working on some dangerous Alchemy and I do not wish to place your life in danger. Be a lamb and come back later." He said through the door.

"Um…ok." I said to him. "Nice to have you out of my room." I screamed through the door to him.

"I agree." He paused. "Goodbye."

I paused as our conversation concluded. Azarien was in interesting kid. He was OCD and some sort of heavily intelligent person, so intelligent that he had no social skills at all and didn't know that he had no social skills. He was my roommate for a week or two, and those days made me want to bash my head into a wall, as much to his own sort of amusement.

When I realized that I was done talking to Azarien, I ran from his door over to Talvas's. I paused by the door to catch my breath. I made sure my twintails were perfect and that my robes were nice before I pulled the door open. Normally, I knock on his door to give him time to wake up. But, right now, I want to scream into his ear to see that look in his face. And I saw Talvas alright. He was standing there…and so was Gwen. And they were kissing. They were wrapped up in each other's hands, making out in front of me. Figures. I knew this would happen, but I did it anyway. Still… it was better than seeing a sulking Talvas sitting in the frozen lair. That Talvas would have pushed me away and would never do anything with me anyway. I stood there for a few seconds before I realized that they hadn't noticed me. I sighed as I knocked on the door, making the two of them break apart immediately.

"Vessy!" Gwen screamed as she charged at me. I readied myself for a fight, but Gwen wrapped me up in a hug and squeezed me too quick for me to react. "It's so nice to see you're awake!" Her voice sounded very light and bubbly. It was like looking at the infected Gwen, which made no sense to me. She dragged me outside where she could spin me around a few times before setting me down. "Thanks to you…I'm still alive." Her smile vanished. "Still…alive." She almost growled to me, her face and voice changing. She looked more like the psychotic Gwen that tried to kill me all the time. What the hell? What did the Heal Beam do? She didn't look any different to me!

I looked from her over to Talvas. "Is she going to kill me?"

He shook his head. "It's a battle, but she's in a better mindset."

She dropped me on the ground and ran back up to Talvas, wrapping him up and kissing him. "And as long as I have you…I'll always feel great." She glared at me for a second before kissing Talvas, slamming the door behind her.

My heart hurt, I'll admit it. And Gwen knew it hurt. She still didn't like me. She acted like she did, but she dragged me outside so that she could dump me on the ground and go back to making out with Talvas in privacy. And she knew I liked him too. That would only make her hate me more. Great…I have an enemy here. I sighed as I walked away from Talvas's room over to the main tower. The main tower looked like it always did. I opened the round door and stepped into the levitator. I took a deep breath as I slowly rode up to the top.

I had time to think while I rode up. What would I find? Chances are I would find Neloth standing by his table looking over his notes. I looked down at my hands. They looked cold. When I summoned my magicka, mist started to form. Frost, huh? I guess seeing Talvas kissing Gwen like that would put me in this state of emotion. I definitely felt colder. I wonder if I would continuously switch to Frost because of them. I wonder if this is why Talvas was always using Frost. That empty feeling of seeing one someone you love with someone else, or in his case…dead. I couldn't hate him for it, but I could hate Gwen. Hating Gwen was easy. By the time I reached the top of the tower, I was ready to go lie down and take a nap.

"Sister!" I heard Brelyna cry out before I even touched my feet down on the landing pad. I didn't have any time at all to prepare as Brelyna suddenly ran up to me, wrapping me up in her arms. "I hear you finally have your memories back!" She squeezed me hard enough to knock me out. "I missed you so much! And not being able to tell you was killing me inside."

I hugged her back. "Aww…I could use a hug right now."

Her face lit up and she dragged me over to one of the benches. "What's up, little sis?" She squeezed the life out of me. It felt nice for once. And now that I knew that Brelyna was my sister, it made it easier for me to relate stuff to her. I looked up at her concerned eyes. I knew I could tell her and not worry about being laughed at.

"I just saw Talvas kissing Gwen." I didn't intend to hear my voice crack or see tears rolling down my eyes, but I couldn't stop it.

Brelyna hugged me close. "Aww…" She started rocking me, saying, "It will be ok." She must have known what it meant to me. It felt nice to be able to have someone know.

"Is she awake yet?" I heard Neloth say as he walked into the room. I was surprised to see him wearing an apron around his Telvanni robes. He looked at me for a second before clearing his throat. "Welcome home, Veselle." He spread his arms as a gesture. "I know we didn't have time to talk about…well, you know. Is there anything you wish to discuss? Perhaps any questions?"

I looked at him for a second before shaking my head. "I'd rather not go into this conversation just yet. Is Mom here?"

"In here!" I heard her scream out. "Just making some canis root tea."

Neloth smiled. "She does make the best." He nodded to me before turning around. "You might want to talk to Draseth and Zeratah. They're both very anxious to see you. And very angry too."

He turned around to leave. "Dad!" I almost choked on the word but it came out. He paused to look back at me. "Um…thanks. You know…for all the stuff you've done for me."

He grunted but nodded and walked away. "I may be your father, but I am still your master, and I expect you to refer to me as 'Master' if you don't mind." I guess that was his way of telling me that our relationship hadn't changed. And that was for the best, I think. I don't know how I suddenly would have acted around him if we had to change the nature of our relationship. But hey… I have a mother now, and a father. And a sister. I'm lucky. Pretty darn lucky.

I let Brelyna hug me for a few minutes. It was nice to have a sister. And to imagine, I thought of her as a sister before finding she was mine. After a few minutes of talking to Brelyna I decided to go see Seth and Zera. I bet they weren't too happy when I left them. I had to explain to them why I left. I waved goodbye to her as I went down the levitator. I thought about all the stuff I learned in the past few months. And I had been able to bring my mother back to life, as well as a few other people. Not too bad. And since I've been here, this place had grown into a nice small little town. I'd learned about so many different kinds of magicka. And my journey as a Telvanni mage had only just begun. Just imagine what I'll learn next. I just hope life here started to feel more normal. And I hope normal was peaceful added with some days of adventure.

I contemplated that while I drifted down the levitator. What would life be like for me now? I lived in a town dedicated to the reconstruction of the House Telvanni. I don't know much about my culture, Dunmer, at all, but I knew that the Houses were the ruling classes of Morrowind, our home. So… since we were all that remained of House Telvanni, that would mean that our town was now Telvanni headquarters. We were the next generation of Telvanni Lords: Brelyna, Talvas, Azarien, Gwen, Seth, Zera, and myself. I knew that we lived long lives if we wanted to, so…even a hundred years from now, I hoped that we were all still friends. Even so… could I be content to live here for that long? How long before Neloth believes we need to expand back to Morrowind, back to our native country? I really don't know. I guess I should be happy to be here while we are. I have a lot to learn before I'm ever considered a full mage.

I exited the levitator and went back outside. Standing near the doorway was Teldryn. He leaned against the tower like he had been waiting for me, but trying to make it look casual. Teldryn was always like that. He was like my older brother with the way he constantly took care of me. He even paralyzed himself so that I could go confront Mother about her calling me her daughter. I don't know if he cared enough about me to let it happen, or if he just didn't care about me. Either way, it was time I found out. "Hey." I nodded my head to him. He looked at me through his mirrored goggles and nodded back. "Thanks for letting me leave."

He pulled out his pad and quill. He started scribbling away and then showed it to me. I saw the fire in your eyes. There was no stopping you without hurting the others.

I smirked. "Well, thanks anyway. It gave me everything I wanted. I learned about my mother…my father…myself." I nodded to him.

He pulled his pad back and started scribbling some more. I'm glad you got what you wished for. It read when he showed it to me. He pulled it back and wrote some more. I was hesitant to let you leave, but something felt right about letting you go. Glad to see my instincts were right.

So, he had cared enough to at least think before letting me leave. I nodded to him, smiling as I waved. "See you later." He mock-saluted me as he nodded towards the farm. I knew what he was saying. He wanted me to go talk to the Vedes family. So, I nodded back to him and headed over to the Vedes farm. I looked around at the growing town. Soon enough, this will be a little town. We have plenty of houses already set up, and I'm sure with Gwen here there will be another house sprouting up soon enough. I paused by Talvas's little house when I heard a bunch of banging and Gwen crying out in joy. I rolled my eyes. I really didn't need to witness that.

The farm was right next door to Talvas's mushroom. They had a nice ranch building on itself as well as a full garden. Their house was on the other side of the garden. And my house was next to Talvas's. So… we had two gardens next to each other: mine and the Vedes family. Their house was near Azarien's. It's amazing how parallel our town was, but the Vedes house was the biggest of the little mushroom houses. They had to comfortably fit four people, two children and two parents. Their house was three times the size mine was, and it was two floors high. Their garden was pretty big too. They had collected some plants from their previous garden to here, and then they took some plants from my garden as well to add. From there they had some cows and chickens that they used as a source of milk and eggs.

Walking up to the garden, I could see Mr. Vedes tending to the cabbage patch. "Hi!" I yelled to him. It made him jump, which is easily my strongest power in this town. I always made everyone jump, but I used that power responsibly. Only on Talvas first thing in the morning.

Mr. Vedes snapped his head back at me. "Veselle? You're finally awake."

I nodded. "Yeah…how long was I out for?"

He shrugged. "Three days."

I nodded. "Ah." That was a lot longer than I had intended on. So…Gwen and Talvas had been making out for three days and having sex? That was enough to make me gag. "That's heavily disappointing." I replied to myself, but it made Mr. Vedes nod like I had said it to him.

"I know Zeratah and Draseth will be glad to see you're finally awake." He replied.

"Hey, Vess!" I heard Seth scream to me. I snapped my head away to see him standing in the middle of our little road, coming back from the bath house we had built some time ago. Blue flames were pouring off his body. "What the heck were ya thinking?" He yelled at me.

I can't believe the first thing I noticed was the blue flames. Talvas had mentioned blue flames before, but I forgot what he said about them. But…that didn't matter right now. Seth looked pissed. I bet those were pissed off flames. I had to cool him off. "Oh…hi, Seth. I was just coming to see you."

His flames only grew stronger. "Did you even think about what us when you decided to leave with that monster? Did you ever consider how we felt about you?" His blue flames only grew stronger as he stood there in the middle of the road. Is this how I looked when I went all hyper emotional on everyone? No wonder why everyone was scared of me. I saw tears flowing down his face as he looked at me. "And now…you just come back, acting all cool and stuff. You think I'm ok with that?"

Mr. Vedes chuckled to himself and ducked inside the house. "You two play nice now."

I took a deep breath as I brought my fists up. Seth was getting emotional, and he had the ability to conjure flames. He was probably like me and was unable to control them. His training robes looked like they were enchanted with fire protection, and I don't think I was walking out of here without a fight. "I see you're finally a mage. Learn how to use your emotions to create fire?" I said as I started wrapping fire protection around my own clothes. I did not want him to accidentally burn my clothes off. If he saw me without clothes…I don't think there was a world strong enough to survive the flames conjured through that embarrassment.

He nodded. "Yeah, the day you left. These blue flames started blasting out of me. Now I'm going to share them with you. How I truly feel." The flames started twirling around his body, becoming a cyclone of blue. His eyes looked angry as hell, and I knew that no matter what I said at this point… we were going to fight. My dream of having some friends here was growing pretty desolate at this point. I'm sure that in time Seth and I will go back to being friends, and maybe he just wanted a sparring match with me. Maybe his training unlocked some sort of competitive side, where he wants to challenge the stronger kid on the block. Yeah, I bet that's what this is… he wants to test his fighting ability to an older, more experienced fighter.

"Bring it on!" I screamed to him and brought up my own flames. "Tell me how you really feel." I screamed to him and charged for him. If he wanted a fight, I'd fight him. I'd fight him all day long. I'd show him just how much stronger I am. And if he really did beat me…great. I had a strong friend that I could go on adventures with, and not have to worry about watching his back. Heck, I'd even teach him martial arts so that we could spar with our fists and feet too.

He charged back. I started throwing fireballs at him, which he was able to bat away with his own blue flames. He launched a wave of blue fire at me. I was able to reach out and push it away with my orange fire, which was making this a fun game. But we never stopped running towards each other. As we started closing the distance, I thought we'd have to switch to martial arts. Would he be ok with going fist-to-fist with me? I thought he was testing his magicka. Was he so uncomfortable with his training that he felt like he needed to resort to hand-to-hand methods to win? He got close enough that I had to throw a punch at him. He grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him. Grappling? Is that how he planned to win? I had no idea what was going on until his lips met mine. My fire died off immediately in the pure shock of it, his followed a second longer. What? When did this become a thing?

He held me there for a few seconds before letting my lips go. Then he just stood there, inches away from me. "I missed you." He said.

I honestly didn't know what to say. But my mouth had a good idea. "Why did you kiss me?" My voice was cracking again, and it was high-pitched too. Was I blushing?

Seth smiled. "I lo…Just welcoming you home." He stammered as he tried to say to me. Did he almost say 'love'? And then he covered it up by saying that he was welcoming me home?

And that was all it took for me to punch him in the shoulder. "You jerk." I pushed him away. "Don't play with my emotions right now." I started thinking of Talvas and how he was ramming Gwen into the wall right now. It made me mad just thinking of it.

He stepped back, rubbing his shoulder. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

I shook my head. "No, I'm sorry. It's just...it caught me off guard." I looked back at him. I don't know if that kiss meant anything to him, or if it meant anything to me, but it did make me think of the time we fought in the chicken coop. He kissed me before we went in there, and I felt unsure of myself then too. I almost didn't follow him inside the coop because I didn't know if it would lead somewhere. But this had happened after my romantic adventure with Talvas, so nothing Seth did at the time would have surprised me. "How's Zera?" I attempted to change the subject as my face started blushing over. I tried to look Seth in the eyes, but I kept getting that sparkling stare back at me, and it made me feel dizzy and light-headed.

He nodded. "She misses you too, but not as much as I did." Oh great, my face is burning again. I tried to keep my emotions from translating into exploding flames. I got used to controlling them in the underground bunker that was Mother's old house.

"Ah-huh." I replied. Wait…blue flames? Talvas said those were the flames of love. I looked back at Seth. "Wait, wait, wait. You said those blue flames arrived after I left." He nodded, like he didn't really understand. "Seth…" I walked up to him, grabbing him by the collar, and pulled him closer to me. I saw him flinch as I pulled him closer to me. His hands started shaking like he didn't know what to do with them. I won't lie, I didn't feel too cool right now either. But I had to know. I had to know where we stood. "Are you in love with me?"

He paused for a few seconds before shaking his head. "No…I don't think I am." He looked down, avoiding my eyes like I did with him just seconds before. "Vess…you're scaring me."

I sighed as I released his collar. I knew what I saw, and I knew what those flames were. And he kissed me! It couldn't be coincidence. I shook my head as I looked at him. Who was I kidding? He was 12; I'm 13. If I was able to tell that I'm in love with Talvas, who's to say that he couldn't have feelings for me too? I decided to take a chance. Seth seemed like a good person, and I needed someone right now. We got along great, and I clearly wasn't going to get anywhere with Talvas anytime soon. He was happy with Gwen, and he should be. He acted like an adult, heck he was one by now. Seth was my age, and he was like me. We had fun together, and I bet that would translate into having a nice relationship too. I grabbed Seth by his collar again and pulled him right up to my face. "I will do this on one condition." I said him.

"What?" He looked scared again, and I knew why. Whenever Talvas did this stuff to me during our time underground, I was pretty scared of what it could mean too. Why was I doing this? I didn't really know, but I knew that I wanted to give this a try. I liked Seth, and maybe I liked him more. I really didn't know. I leaned in and after a second so did Seth. Our lips met again and this time it lasted longer. It felt nice, and my heart stopped for a few seconds while they did. It felt warm, like my body was lighting on fire again. When I opened my eyes, I saw that the two of us were covered in blue flames. Blue flames? I was creating blue flames? Was this real then? Just as quickly as the blue flames appeared, they melted down into orange flames again.

When we pulled our lips away, I said, "The one condition is that we don't try to kill each other with blue fire."

He smirked but nodded. "Um…ok. But… what exactly are blue flames? Why was it so important to you?"

I released his collar. "Blue flames are the strongest fire our bodies can produce…and Fire magicka is dependent on our emotions. Love is the strongest emotion…and it only develops when you're feeling love." I shook my head. "And you were directing your emotions at me when you had them. I just knew it meant that your feelings for me were as strong as they could be. And after I kissed you…I noticed they were covering me too." I reached down and took his hand. "Seth. I don't know exactly how I feel for you, but I'd like to get to understand my feelings better. Would you mind if we dated for a while so we can understand this better?"

He stood there for a second before I heard Mr. Vedes screamed from his bedroom window, "Boy! Just say yes already!"

Seth looked up at his dad and then back down to me, rolling his eyes. "Sorry 'bout that. He can be so embarrassing some days." He looked me in the eye for a few seconds. "I don't really understand how I feel about you either, but I do want to find out. So, yeah. I'll be more than glad to be your boyfriend."

Boyfriend. That felt weird for me to hear that word. I'd never had one before, but I guess I was reaching that age where stuff like this was going to happen. And Seth was the first I was going to have. Maybe the last. I don't know. We live in a small town, but who knows what will happen later on. Not to mention, I still feel like there is something watching us. Some invisible force building around us. Solstheim seemed more alive these days, and that Black Book I found was a slow indicator of that. I don't think my life will be getting to normal just yet. But perhaps for a couple days, I can enjoy this.

I pulled Seth with me as I dragged him over to the training circle. "Ok, if we're going to date, then you're learning how to fight!"

"Fight? Why?" He asked as I dragged him with me.

"Because I want someone I can spar with, and it's my favorite thing to do. Not to mention, if Master puts me on a quest to go fight someone nasty, I'd rather have you with me than Talvas. It would be good training for you, and we'd have a lot of fun along the way." Not to mention, I won't end up cheating on you by accident. "So, if you're going to be watching my back, I'd rather you know what you're doing. So, starting today, I'm going to train you myself."

"Vessy!" I heard Zera scream as she ran out of the bath house. She charged right for us, crashing into me, wrapping her arms around my stomach as she cried into my robes. "I missed you so much!"

I hugged her back, screaming, "I missed you too!" And we stood like that for a few minutes. When we finished our hug, I looked down at her. She was wearing her training robes. They were the dark red ones that I really hated. "I was about to train with Seth. Do you want to train with us?"

Her face lit up. "Yeah!" She said as she took a step back. She spread her hands out and I watched as Fire magicka started to run across her arms like tiny flickers. "I'm getting pretty good now. See?" I nodded. Great. I could work with that.

I looked at Seth and then back to Zera. "Ok, you guys. Get into the circle and we'll begin." I looked around for a second before I smiled. I don't know what's going to happen next, but I better get them ready for it. I don't know how long until something new comes by to ruin this for us. I better step up my own training too. I don't want some other Telvanni Lord kidnapping me. Of course, I'm sure that Neloth and Mother were more than capable of handling them, even if I might not be able to. Still, it won't hurt for me to get stronger. Maybe I'll be as strong as that Khajiit I saw in Riften. I wonder if I'd ever meet her again. I'd like to fight her sometime, now that I'm stronger.


Cearbhail:

Not sure how many butthurt people there are over the shipping of Seth and Veselle. I had to lie when people asked me if they were going to end up as a couple. I wanted it to be a surprise. I mean, she MIGHT date Talvas in the future, but I'm still not entirely sold on them being a couple. I kind of like him being with Gwen. And I kind of like Veselle with Draseth. We'll see. My fingers usually change my mind for me anyway. I never considered Ruby and Maleek as a proper couple either. so...anyway. Have a good Christmas, Winter Solstice (which was last night), or any of the other major and minor holidays you may or may not celebrate.