Cearbhail:
Ok, so things to know about this chapter. it's all about Ruby and Veselle. Ok, and go. Oh... and surprise guest. I hope you figure it out before I make the reveal later on. I love being transparent, but it's hard when I have to hide things from my characters, even if I can be as obvious as possible and still have them running around in circles to figure it out.
Dear diary of shadows,
Today is the 17th of Sun's Dusk. Yesterday was pretty intense. Um… what to say about it? Well, I learned that climbing stairs is perhaps the toughest thing to do in the world. I mean, I can fight some of the toughest things on this planet and conjure gods… but climbing stairs almost killed me yesterday. But, I managed to climb the stairs with Seth helping me the whole way. We helped each other. I don't care what others say, that's true love. After we finished climbing the stairs, Ruby and Zera were waiting for us. Ruby healed our pain and whatever physical wounds we had with her crystals, and Zera cheered us on for completing our training for the day. Mother treated us to lunch at the cornerclub. It was there that Ruby and Mirri got in a fight. I don't really know why they're fighting, but it's pretty serious. Once we found out that on the 20th that there will be a martial arts tournament, Ruby and Mirri both stated that they were going to settle their fight in the ring. And, because I don't want to see either of them get hurt, and because I kind of want to fight them both just to see how well I stack up to them, I will be joining the tournament as well. The registration is today, so we'll all be going down to enter the tournament.
Well, if nothing else, Mirri is back to normal. Ever since Ruby and she decided to fight each other in the tournament, Mirri's been eating again, and training in her dojo room. Ruby seems happier as well, as if she finally has something fun to do. I'm going to ask her about it when I get the chance. Right now, Ruby is combing her hair out before she braids it. I don't want to disturb her while she's doing that; it looks like a complicated braid. As for me, my muscles still feel pretty tight, but not as bad as yesterday. I can at least train. And I plan on it.
Veselle Tenvanni.
…
I closed my diary of shadows, looking over at Ruby. She was still combing out her long blue hair. I still wondered why she actually dyed her hair. It couldn't be easy keeping it that shade of color. Even though Ruby was deeply concentrating on beginning her braid, she had time to see me looking at her. She smiled through her clenched teeth. "What's up, Veselle?"
I shrugged. "It's just… why dye your hair?"
"First off… it's a mane. Secondly, I dye it because I love the color. I'm trying to find a way to keep it permanently changed. I'm really close to creating a permanent dye. Besides…" She stopped talking long enough to focus on her braid for a couple seconds before looking over at me. "My boyfriend, Maleek… he's an Argonian. I don't know if you've met Argonians before, but they have these beautiful colored feathers on top of their heads. Magenta, blue, green, yellow… many various colors and combinations. And I wanted Maleek to notice me, so I dyed my mane. And it worked. My blue eyes worked well with my blue mane, and giving it lavender tips made it stand out even more. Maleek loves my mane, so I keep it this way. I'm sure he loves me for me now, but I still love what this mane color means for me." She looked over at me. "I could ask you why you like putting your hair up in two pigtails every morning, but I'm guessing it's not for any guy."
I smiled in return, acting just like her when I said, "First off, they're not pigtails; they're twintails. And I put them up because…" Wait… why did I put them up? I found myself shrugging. "Well, I started putting them up because I hated having my shorter hair dancing on my neck, and having a ponytail wasn't any better. Twintails keep my hair off my neck and away from my eyes, so that's why I did it."
"A braid on one side would do the same thing." Ruby replied happily. She continued braiding her mane, clenching her teeth as she concentrated on it. Jeez, so much work for one braid. "I can see that look in your eyes. This is a special braid. My dad showed it to me. It's the same braid my mom used to wear in her mane. Dad says I look so much like her that he knows I took of my looks from her." She looked over at me, smiling as she said it.
Ruby didn't have a mother? Oh, that's right. I read that in the Chronicles Series. She was an orphan adopted by High Queen Lydia. I didn't know she had a dad though. That was never mentioned in the Chronicles. "You have a dad? You mean the High King?"
Ruby shook her head. "Nah. It turned out that M'aiq was my dad the whole time." M'aiq? That monk that traveled with High King Asger? Wow… I did not see that coming.
"Wow. What did it feel like, finding your father?" I swung myself over to the edge of my bed as I listened to her talk.
Ruby shrugged. "Well, I guess it was weird, you know? This man you've known for a while ends up being your father. Can you imagine how it felt to know someone you kind of detested and then found out later that he was your father?" I didn't have to think very hard about that. All I had to do was think of my dad… and I suddenly understood how she must have felt. Ruby smiled as she scanned my face. "Oh… so you do know what it's like. Tell me your story, and I'll tell you mine." She said as she finished up her braid.
I shrugged as I reached for my diary of shadows. "Well… when I was five or something, my mother died from a failed experiment. Except…. She didn't really die, she just turned evil. She tried to take me from my father when I started showing signs of turning into a mage. Father did not know that she was actually alive, and so when she attacked his house to steal me away, he protected me and my sister. He managed to drive her away, but not before stating that she would always hunt me. So… Dad took me to Riften and had Karliah and Mjoll take care of me."
"Oh! That's where I've seen you before!" She pointed at me like she finally knew who I was. "I saw you the day Maleek and I killed Mehrunes Dagon infested Maven Black-Briar."
I nodded. "Yeah, that was me. Well, Dad convinced a Dunmer guy to watch over me. To keep me safe, Dad suppressed my magicka and erased my memory. That day when Mehrunes Maven attacked Riften… that man who pretended to be my dad died… and I was on my own. Now… my real dad and this fake dad were always talking to each other. So, I always knew Neloth, even if I didn't know he was my real father. When he found out my surrogate father was dead, he told me to come to his tower, and he would teach me magicka. Well, I came here and he started teaching me magicka. And then Mom found me and kidnapped me under threats of killing everyone I loved… like Seth and Zera."
Ruby nodded. "Typical. But… I've seen her in this house. She seems like a great person."
I nodded. "She is, and even then… she was too. She was being corrupted by a heart stone, which was driving her crazy. And she was fighting it while using me to find a cure. She needed someone alive to test the heart stones on so that she could find a way to get rid of the corrupting effects of the heart stone. While I was doing this, she helped unblock all my memories that had been erased from me. I remembered everything that had happened to me, and how Neloth was really my father the whole time. And when I was able to fix Mom and we all reunited as a big happy family… there was still some tension between Dad and me. We were pretty… um… distant for a couple months until you know… he made the first move. We kind of went out on a father daughter thing and… well… we're ok now."
Ruby burst out laughing, rolling onto her back and kicking her legs in the air as she laughed uncontrollably. "Oh man… that's just like what happened with me." She was quick to sit up, smiling as she said, "Well, my story begins when I was three, right? I guess I had talked my parents into taking me to the sugar cane fields to get some moon sugar for a birthday cake. Well, we ran into a few bandits and they killed my mom." Ruby shrugged and shook her head. She was silent for a few seconds before she looked back up at me. "And then they almost killed my Dad, M'aiq. They took me, stuffed me in a cage, and then took me to a slave camp, where I spent the next 10 or 11 years doing all sorts of stuff rated higher than "M" that I shouldn't talk about."
Stuff rated higher than "M"? What kind of stuff was that? "Like?"
Ruby smiled, laughing as she kicked her feet out. "Oh my gods… someone who will actually listen. Well, like… this one day, in slave camp, this guy name Kim, he was this really perverted guy. Now, I was 8 or something but that didn't matter to him. You see, he had this thing for lemon wedges, dogs, and flutes. So, he decided that he would…"
"Excuse me!" Mirri said as she barged into our room. Her face was burning red as she looked at us. "I do not approve of this! There are children playing just one room over, and I don't think Zera should be exposed to this topic." Oh boy… she really does not know what I say around Zera then, does she? "Stop talking about it!"
Ruby's ears drooped. "Oh, fine." She looked over at me, winking. "I'll tell you later." She whispered to me.
Mirri glared at Ruby for a few seconds, and Ruby only smiled as she returned the glare. "I won't lose." Ruby growled to her.
"You will." Mirri stated as she turned around and stormed out of the room.
Ruby dropped her glare and looked over at me. "Ok, so… shall we finish the story?" When I nodded, Ruby looked towards the doorway. "Well, without scarring Zera and Mirri for life, I spent those ten years doing stuff I shouldn't talk about. I met this awesome friend named Ashana. And we escaped together. And you know what happened after that, I'm guessing."
I nodded. "I read the Chronicles Series. You got separated from her and you ended up being adopted by High Queen Lydia."
Ruby nodded. "Right. So, you also know about that day we were helping the Lamia, the day I was taken by a pirate ship. The day Maleek saved my life?" I nodded. I remembered that part. "That guy, Ranjier, he was the one that killed my mother and my father. He was the slaver that raised me to be what I was. He got away before Maleek could kill him, and he found me in Solitude. This was a couple months after Asger was crowned High King. Well, he kidnapped me and tried to put me back into slavery. It only worked because he used the threat of killing my friends against me… just like your mom did with you." She shook her head. "Using people against us… so dishonorable."
Wow. Ruby was more like me than I thought. "That… so what happened to you?"
She shrugged. "I had a rough couple days, not going to lie. Kim was back, and everyone took their turns breaking in my body. I was eventually freed by Ysolda, who was coming by to buy a slave. When she saw me, she knew she had to free me. So, she bought me. She took me to Rimmen to get me passage to Skyrim. Ranjier tracked us down, and almost killed Ysolda and her husband Ralof. Ranjier didn't get me though. Pantu saved me. And I saved a local boy named Ksaan… who ended up being my brother. Ralof and Ysolda got on a ship and took me to Skyrim. Maleek found me in Solitude and told me about his long journey to find me. We made out for like a day before he told me that Ksaan was my brother. And I had found out from Ksaan that his dad was M'aiq so… I put two and two together. When M'aiq came by to see if I was ok… I played with him. I knew he was my dad, but he didn't know that I knew. So… I forced him to take me on a 'cultural excursion' which was nothing more to me than a father daughter date, under the pretenses that I wanted to know more about Khajiits. My real reason was to make M'aiq admit that he was my father while torturing him as much as possible."
Ruby laughed as she stood up from the bed, checking out her complicated braid in the mirror. "So, what happened?"
She looked over at me once she knew her braid was perfect. "M'aiq broke me first. I let it slip that I knew he was my dad, but we had a great time regardless. Since it was out in the open, I was able to actually connect with him. He told me about mom, and all the stuff we did as a family, how he met her… all that stuff, you know? And it felt good. It was like this missing part of me was finally filled, some mystery revealed. And as I started learning more and more about her, I realized just how much like her I really am. Every time I do this braid, it's like I'm with her, like she's still watching over me. That's why I braid my mane." She paused as she looked over at me. She finally smiled and crossed her arms. "Well… we're just very chatty with each other, aren't we? If I didn't know any better, I would think we've been friends for a long time."
I shrugged. "I don't mind talking. I like meeting new people."
She nodded. "Me too. Haven't met a lot of people that I actually hate."
That made me wonder why she hated Mirri so much. "So… why do you hate Mirri then?"
Ruby's smile dropped and her tail flicked. "Who says I do?" She spoke so lightly that I was sure that no one but me could hear her right now. Before I could say anything, Ruby reached for her katana and slipped it over her shoulder. "Look, Veselle. I want you to know something. I don't hate Mirri, but I do have my reasons for pushing her. When I see her, I see my old friend Ashana. Ashana gave up too, but I didn't let her lie down and die. I pushed her to keep going… and I lost her. I never saw her again. Maybe I pushed her too hard, or maybe she just got tired of being around me. Either way, I can't stand seeing people giving up on their lives. And that's what I see in Mirri. I see a broken person who's giving up. And you're just like me… keeping her going, or trying to anyway. And it's going to kill you if you see her just disappear one day. I won't have that. And Mirri's a fighter, I can tell. If getting her to fight me is the only way to bring her back, then dammit, I will be her enemy if only for a week. And it's working. Mirri is eating again… training… pushing herself so that she can kick my butt. I'll probably let her too if we make it to finals. But… if you were to fight her instead, you can bet I'd love to watch that match. She won't fully make a recovery fighting me… but if her friend fought for her… that just might do it."
I was speechless until Ruby patted me on the shoulder. I found myself nodding. "Umm… thanks."
She returned another smile as she headed for the door of the bedroom. "We don't want to be late for the signup."
Ruby raced on ahead of me, gracefully jumping up the staircase that almost killed me yesterday. I paused to look at the staircase. Could I even walk up this staircase? My muscles felt worlds better, but I was still very sore. I took a deep breath as I started walking towards the staircase, only stopping once I heard Mirri scream out. The sound was coming from the training dojo. I turned my attention away from the staircase and walked over to the dojo. Mirri was inside, slamming her palms into one of the training dummies. Her hands were glowing with light blue magicka that looked loosely like flames magicka. Mirri screamed a kiai before flashing at the dummy. I watched as her palms slammed down on the training doll so quickly that I could barely track them. Mirri flowed around the doll, slamming her elbow on the back of the head. She spun herself around and delivered a roundhouse kick that actually broke the head off the dummy. The head flew clear from the dummy and landed near me, rolling until I could see its face. It was carved to look just like Ruby. That made me feel sick inside.
Mirri saw me standing near the entrance. She paused for a second before bowing to me. "Veselle. Do you need something from me?"
I was still looking down at the lifeless eyes of the Ruby head. I shook the image of seeing her dead from my head as I looked up at Mirri. "Um… the registration for the tournament is today. Ruby and I are going to sign up. Do you want to join us?"
Mirri's eyes sharpened. "Ruby and you have grown quite close, haven't you?"
I shrugged. "Well…um…"
Mirri walked over to me, shouldering me as she walked out of the room. "If I have to fight you to get to her… I will not hold back."
I actually smiled as I turned to look her in the eye. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get."
Mirri actually smiled a bit before heading for the staircase. "See you at the registration desk." She was just as quick as Ruby was going up. My body ached at the thought of even taking one step up that staircase. Jeez… how am I possibly going to beat them? Mirri was a trained assassin, and Ruby was a trained Blade. Both were experienced warriors, but I'm just trained in martial arts. Could I even keep up with them? Oh gods… how was I even going to fight? I could barely move my body. But… I couldn't just sit out and watch them kill each other. And if Ruby let herself lose, Mirri might opt for killing her. I couldn't have that!
"Vess." Seth said as he walked out of his room. I turned and waved to him as he walked out to meet me. He wasn't limping as bad as he was yesterday, so that was good news for us.
I took a deep breath, feeling my chest and back twinge in pain as I did so. "Hey, Seth. Sleep well?"
"Well, I did have these horrible dreams about these two girls talking about their past to each other." He tried to hold a laugh as he walked up. "Zera was very interested in the story about the lemon wedge… I had to cover her ears."
I shrugged. "Well, Mirri stopped Ruby from telling me about it." I nodded to Seth towards the staircase. "Think we can get up it today?"
He looked at the staircase, wincing as he looked at it. "Well, I thought I could do it yesterday, but you really can't tell until you're already walking up it." He kissed me before walking over to the staircase. "I'll find out for us." He planted his first foot down and with a grunt, pushed himself up a stair. He seemed to hold his breath as he started walking up the staircase, faster than he did yesterday. When he reached the top, he turned to look down at me. He gave me a thumbs-up, saying, "It's not too hard today."
I tried my best to run over to the staircase, but my legs were still pretty stiff. I was quick to lose my breath before I even got to the staircase. Now, Ruby and Mirri both ran up this thing like they floating. I had to do the same thing. So, I braced myself as I pushed off the first step, pushing myself past three steps in the process. My foot caught on the second step and before I knew it, I was face-planting on the fifth step, almost smashing my nose in the process.
"Vess!" Seth cried as he struggled to run down the staircase. He managed to trip like I had and he rolled down the stairs until he crashed down on top of me. That pushed whatever air I had left in me out. Seth was trying his best to roll off me, but it wasn't as easy as either of us had thought. And I couldn't breathe while he was on top of me like this.
"Brother?" Zera called out as she walked out of the room. I managed to look at her as she looked at us. She looked confused for a second before she finally nodded and headed back to her room. "Ok, I'll leave you two alone."
"Zera! It's not like that!" Seth cried as he tried to push himself off me. He finally rolled off me and fell straight to the ground. He hit pretty hard, crying out in pain. "Ow…" He stayed like that for a few seconds before looking up at me. "Sorry 'bout that."
I pushed myself off the stairs, pushing myself back to my feet. My head spun as I did so. "My fault. I should have taken my time." But I just want to be as fast as Ruby and Mirri. I guess I couldn't push myself too fast. I will get there; I just have to be patient.
Seth pushed himself up as well. "You're fine, Vess." He rushed as he joined me on the staircase. We linked arms as we took a deep breath and helped pushed each other up the staircase again. It was a lot easier this time. I could actually focus on keeping Seth close to me as we pushed our way up the staircase. By the time we made it up the staircase, I was out of breath. That didn't matter to me though. I made it up. It was a lot easier today than it was yesterday. And I had Seth with me. He made every second of this bearable.
As soon as we made it up, I looked at him. We stared at each other for a second before we kissed. That lasted for a few seconds before I remembered the registration. I pulled my lips away from his, saying, "Seth! We have to sign up for the tournament."
"We?" He asked. "Vess… I can't fight like you can. I'm just going to watch."
He wasn't joining with me? I thought he was going to join with me. "But… I thought." I stopped myself from finishing my thought. What did I think? Did I think that Seth was going to push himself into a tournament to keep Ruby from fighting Mirri? Or did I expect him to be as enthused about a fighting tournament as I was? Seth was a gentle person, and while he did like sparring with me, he just didn't care too much about fighting.
Seth looked at me for a few seconds. "This means a lot to you, doesn't it?"
I shrugged. "I don't like the idea of Ruby fighting Mirri."
He finally nodded. "Ok, I getcha. I'll help any way I can."
We kissed again briefly before rushing out to the town. The registration desk for the tournament was already set up near the center of town. There were plenty of guards standing around, signing their names. There were a couple people I have never seen before standing around. Teldryn was also signing his name in. What? He's going to be joining the tournament? That would be awesome to see him fight. But, there was this one tallish Dunmer woman that stood out among everyone. She didn't have red eyes like the rest of us; she had purple eyes like Karliah. She had what looked like Telvanni robes on, but at the chest level, she only had one half of the robes. It looked like the gi turned into one giant sleeve that flowed down her left arm, exposing her whole right side. Her chest was wrapped with training wraps so I guess it wasn't like she was exposing herself or anything. She had really lean arms, strong looking shoulders, and spiky hair pulled back in a ponytail that was sticking out everywhere. Over her shoulder was one giant sword, so long that it looked as long as her body.
When I saw her, she looked over at me with really sharp eyes. She was chewing on a toothpick, but that didn't stop her from looking at me. "Well… aren't you a little spitfire?" She asked as she twirled the toothpick around her mouth. "You signing up for the tournament too?"
I nodded as I walked past her. "Yeah. It sounds like fun." Councilor Morvayn was sitting behind the registration desk, making sure everyone signed in their names correctly.
The woman smirked as she eyed me. "It will be. I'll see to it." She turned around, cutting in front of me. "Think I'll join after all." She said to Councilor Morvayn.
Councilor Morvayn looked from her over to me. He knew that she had just cut in front of me, but he just put up a smile before saying, "Very well, ma'am. May I ask your name?"
She scoffed. "Just call me Thiah. T. H. I. A. H." She turned to look at me. "I look forward to seeing you in the finals."
Councilor Morvayn looked up at her and then over to me. "Now, hold on. Don't go making predictions you can't hold up to. We have some of the toughest warriors in Tamriel here with us today. You are someone we've never seen at the tournament before, so don't go saying stuff that might get you in trouble."
She looked at Councilor Morvayn for a second before chuckling. "I want to fight them all… at the same time… in the preliminaries. Got it?" Her eyes glowed for a second and it took a few seconds before Councilor Morvayn finally nodded.
He shrugged as he placed her name on a special sheet. "So, you want to join the battle royale then? Only our most experienced warriors join that prelim."
She nodded. "Yeah, I want that. I might need the warmup." When he finally signed her name in for the battle royale, she turned to look at me. She seemed to be scanning me for something. She finally smirked and nodded to me. "I look forward to seeing you in the finals, Veselle." She said my name as finality and turned around. I watched her as she walked away.
Seth looked at me as he joined me. "Vess? Is that a friend of yours?"
I shrugged. "Um… not that I know of. Maybe she knows Mjoll or Karliah?" I looked over at him. He shrugged as well. Well, thinking of it wasn't going to do anything more than make my head hurt. I turned to look at Councilor Morvayn. "I'd like to sign up for the tournament."
He looked at me and then over to Thiah. "Think that's a good idea?" He shuddered at seeing her, sighing. "She does not look like your normal contestant and… well… I think she might be here for blood. Just something about her that makes me think that she's dangerous."
I nodded. "Mirri and Ruby are going to kill each other if I don't join. Seth and I are going to stop them."
Councilor Morvayn nodded. "Oh, those two. Yeah, they were fighting each other to sign up first. Your mother put them both in timeout." He pointed over to the farm. When I looked, I could see both Ruby and Mirri sitting in the fetal position while Mom berated them. Wow… both Mirri and Ruby might be badasses, but they paled in comparison to my mom. She had them both quivering in fear of her ever since yesterday. If I can handle my mom's training, perhaps I stood a chance after all.
I looked at Seth, smiling. "We might be able to pull this off after all."
Seth smiled in return. "You know, Vess. You just might be right." I better be. I didn't want to lose my friends over it.
Cearbhail:
Anyone want to take a shot at figuring out who my surprise guest is yet? I would love for someone to actually know what I have planned before I reveal it.
