Cearbhail:
And I'm back. My birthday was yesterday so ... things happened for the past few days. Long story short, I spent it at my favorite crystal shop, went to Presque Isle and walked around the beach, lied on the nice warm sand. Went to a winery and got some of my favorite wine. Then went to Toko Japanese steak house for some delicious unagi sashimi and habachi steak. All in all... it was a great day. Spent the whole day with my mom.
=^^= Enjoy...
[Mirri]
Book of Shadows entry: 4e207 17th Sun's Dusk
Things have taken a turn for the worse. Late into the game, Thiah finally told us what we were after. If she had told us sooner that we were taking on a Daedric Lord... we could have prepared. But no… she had to stay silent about the whole thing, because that's what she does. She keeps secrets and stuff. Instead, she blinded led us into a trap and now… we're outnumbered. We're on the edge of a war between two Daedric gods…and I'm just a lone battlemage fighting for her life. Master Neloth is busy fighting the mage Septimus… Boethiah is fighting some sort of giant bubbling pile of goo… and Ruby is stuck fighting the Nord. I thought she had it easy, until she stabbed him. He smirked as his skin exploded and next thing I knew… there was a tall black monster thing with long tentacles and acid dripping from his mouth walking out from the Nord's body. If that wasn't enough, there are Seekers floating around, shooting green lightning at us. Ruby's too busy fighting all those things now… and if that's not enough… there are a few other things joining us.
I'm getting too ahead of myself, aren't I? I'll explain what's going on. I'm not Boethiah. I don't hide stuff, I kill it. It seems that Hermeaus Mora is working with other Daedra Lords: Peryite and Namira. At least, that's what it looks like because there are other things popping up. A swarm of skeevers that look diseased are running around, trying to bite me, as well as some zombies fighting their way up from the murky water to fight me. Meanwhile, that Nord guy is rushing to the sarcophagus that contains the one person who can keep some Miraak guy from returning. I guess I have to stop him. Good thing my new ebony armor can protect me from the skeevers trying to bite me.
Mirri Severin.
…
Mission objective: stop anyone from killing Vahlok. Tactical assessment: everyone seems engaged in their own private battles with key enemies. Master Neloth is fighting a mage of equal strength; Boethiah is fighting another Daedra Lord; Ruby is fighting so many things at once that it was putting a strain on her. I entertained the thought of rushing in and helping her, casually throwing her praise aside when she thanks me for rescuing her from her inevitable defeat. It was too bad I couldn't go ahead and help her; I had a mission objective to fulfill. It was the Nord scholar. He was making a mad dash to the sarcophagus. If he did whatever he needed to do to kill Vahlok, all of this would have been for nothing. I had to stop him.
I tried to move my feet but suddenly remembered I was surrounded by skeevers trying to bite through my new enchanted armor. I rolled my eyes as I started drawing in mana from inside me. With a loud kiai, I blasted my energy out through my feet, creating an explosion of blue mana that overwhelmed the skeevers enough that they let me go. As soon as I got some breathing room and I gained mobility, I flashed off the floor. I pushed up into the air as high as I could go. This was enchanted armor, one that was personally designed for me, now that I think of it. Boethiah gave it to me for a reason, and I'm guessing it probably has enough effects on it to make me a badass assassin. Only one way to find out. And that's to fight.
So, one thing I learned about my new armor… I can jump really high. Maybe it increases my agility or something? I'm not really sure, I just know that I intended to jump over the skeevers; I did not intend to jump up to the high ceiling. Once I hit the top of the ceiling, I guess my boots have some sort of anchoring effect, because I just stood on the ceiling, hanging upside down as I looked down at the floor underneath me. And from up here, I got a good look at the layout of the entire tomb. There were a lot of traps laid out on the floor, most of which seemed designed to create walls of fire along the floor. That and…well… no one was triggering those traps yet. And with so many skeevers and zombies crawling around the room, I think this room would do well with some cleansing. But… how to do such a thing? I didn't have any oil to spread across the floor, or anything even remotely flammable.
I looked away from the traps to the scrambling Nord rushing over to the sarcophagus. He needed to be stopped before anything else. I didn't have any weapons nor any spell training like what Veselle has, but I do have my mana arts as well as my martial arts. I could feel that wound in my chest griping at me again, and I didn't know what I had left in me to give to this fight, but I knew for certain that I had more than enough to kill one bothersome Nord. Ok then, I know what I must do. I aimed myself at the Nord and bent my knees. I screamed a kiai before pushing myself off the roof. My boots seemed to know to release themselves from the ceiling top and next thing I knew I was flying down to the Nord like a ballista. I could barely track myself as I flew right down at him. And before I knew it, I was sitting in a crouch, dust and bits of rocks falling down around me.
A quick look around told me that I had created a crater where I landed. The Nord was right behind me, cowering in the way that you'd expect from a villain that ordered others to fight for him instead of the other way around. When I stood up, he seemed to squeak enough that I could tell he didn't know what to say. He did manage to crab walk back a bit as he tried to get away from me.
I turned to face him. I didn't feel like wasting time with words or anything. I'm not perfect, but I learned a lot from watching my dad work. The only way the heroes ever walk away is if the bad guy monologues. The same goes with good guys chatting up the bad guys. He'll only get away if I give him a second to think. I don't want that. So, I charged at him with the intention of crushing him. I was stopped by something inhuman. Seriously… it was inhuman. A skeleton hand reached out of nowhere, wrapping around my arm. When I snapped my arm around, there was a large snake woman with what looked like bonemold armor covering her body. Her serpentine body had many insect legs sprouting out along the side, each harboring nasty looking talons. Her face was feminine, though it looked weathered: her eyes large and buggy, her hair falling out in clumps and what hair she did have was too curly to have a distinct shape to it.
She didn't say anything to me. She did try to stab me with her ten long knife talons. And that's when things got interesting. When the talons got close to me, they suddenly stopped like some invisible force was halting them. The serpentine woman's face became even uglier as she tried to fight the invisible force, almost screaming in rage as she pushed down on me. When she realized that she couldn't get any closer to me, for whatever reason I don't know, she turned to look at the Nord. "Don't just sit there, boy! Only a Nord can unlock the cage! Get to it!"
Only a Nord can unlock the cage? That was a stupid rule. Who designed it? It didn't matter either way. The mission just became that much simpler. Kill the Nord and no one can unlock the cage today. And if Boethiah was as serious as she made herself out to be, she'd probably find a way to keep other Nords from wandering into the burial chamber like this. So, knowing that the serpentine woman couldn't get near me, I decided to ignore her and instead focus my efforts on the Nord. I snapped my arm around the bony arm holding onto me. I managed to knock her hand away long enough for me to charge for the Nord again. I was thrown back by a large centipede tail. It hit me hard enough that I was tossed off my feet and back into the fray with all the skeevers and whatnot. I landed pretty hard on my back and before I knew it, I had skeevers swarming all over me, trying to bite me. I tried my best to cover my face with my armored hands so that they couldn't get to my eyes or anything important. I felt the skeevers rustling in my hair and I felt hot breath on one of my ears. I could hear the clicking teeth of the skeever as he tried to snap at my ear, but I twitched away just in time to avoid having an ear-piercing.
There was a loud scream and I felt a wave of energy overwhelm the skeevers. I looked through my armored fingers to see Ruby standing over top of me, swatting away at the skeevers with her bare claws. She hissed as the skeever all pounced on her. She swatted madly as she knocked them around the room, slashing them to pieces as she did so. As more and more tried to overwhelm her, I could see her beginning to lose her edge. I had to help her. So, I stopped playing hopeless and picked myself up. I jumped right at her, throwing a palm thrust at a few skeevers jumping right at her. I may not like her, I may think she's a bitch, but right now we're comrades. And she's employed to House Telvanni, of which I am a battlemage. I am honored to serve this House and anyone working for it.
My burning palm managed to slam into a few of the skeevers. They squealed in pain as everything that made them up was burned to a crisp. My mana burns everything: inside and out… all at once. So, once I covered some of the skeevers rushing Ruby, I ran up beside her, nodding to her before putting my back to hers. "Thanks for earlier."
She purred a response to me. "Let's just call it even." She didn't look back at me, but I could hear her voice directed to me. "Did I hear that right? The Nord is the key?"
I nodded, which seemed weird since we weren't looking at each other. "Don't know how we'll get to him. He's already at the sarcophagus." Not to mention, that giant centipede woman was slithering around in front of the sarcophagus… glaring at us. I looked down at the rows and rows of skeevers all making a circle around Ruby and me… like they were a hive mind. "What's up with the skeevers?"
Ruby took a few seconds to sniff. "They smell weird… diseased almost. And they smell Daedric."
"Well done." The skeevers seemed to hiss. "We are Peryite: the Lord of Pestilence." Their collective voice rained over us, all in barely audible hisses. Ok… so that was making sense now. They were a Daedric god. And since Boethiah was busy fighting the giant blob made up of eyeballs and tentacles, I can only assume she was fighting another Daedric god. Even looking at the giant centipede woman… I could see the Daedric energy surrounding her. Ok, so these must be the gods that are working with Hermeaus Mora to free Vahlok. We had to stop them, but how?
"I have an idea, but it's crazy." Ruby said to me. "It just popped into my head… or… more like my spirit Dia suggested it to me. Just… trust me on this. I need you to buy me a few minutes." Buy her a few minutes? What did that mean?
I looked over my shoulder at Ruby. She was glancing at me with pleading eyes. "Ok… sure." Jeez… what was she planning to do?
Ruby sighed as she reached up at her crystalline necklace. It had a lot of various crystals on them that I didn't know much about. She reached for the necklace as the air around her started to glow a faint white.
I watched as Ruby's eyes snapped shut and as an invisible wind seemed to blow straight up as she started slipping into a trance. It was like the very light coming from the necklace was wrapping around her in a column of energy. "Xa'fu tuzzaww'vi Azurah-wixi, Nisha-chif'ti xa'fu woza'fo khaa'eduf hinn'rakeziwio." Her voice was like a whisper. I had no idea what she was even saying, but it had to be in her native language.
"She calls her! She must be stopped." The voices of the skeevers all called out to me as they rushed at us like a giant wave. I brought up my fists, but I didn't get the chance to fight anyone. There was a blinding light and all the skeevers were suddenly thrown back by an invisible force. The skeevers seemed scared as they started shuffling back. "No… she was successful."
I was about to charge the line of skeevers, but a light hand clasped around my shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "You've fought enough for today, child of light." A beautiful blue Dunmer with sparkling skin and long purple hair said to me as she stepped forward. Her eyes were as clear as diamonds, and just as sharp. Her dress seemed as dark as night, but sparkled like every star in the universe was captured within her. She stepped forward to the skeevers with the grace of the very cosmos. This had to be Azura… the goddess of the dawn and dusk. She looked back at me with her crystalline eyes, silently acknowledging me. "You should rest now. I will handle the pest myself."
I looked over to the giant centipede woman. The Nord behind her was beginning to mess around with the sarcophagus. I needed to stop him, not rest. As I started to push forward, I felt my chest explode in pain. My vision started to blur and I fell to my feet. I could feel warm blood beginning to flow down my stomach. Oh no… I broke my stitches open. I should have stopped when Azura asked me too. She must have known.
I started to collapse onto my knees, my vision darkening and my breath laboring. "Dear Nisha, look after your friend. She needs your healing right now." Azura said as a giant naginata appeared in her arms. "I will buy you some time."
Ruby was breathless but she ended up nodding and jumping right over top of me. She grabbed me by my shoulders and gently started laying me down on the floor. "Ok… I will need to get this armor off."
I was about to call her a pervert but I couldn't get much breath to my lungs. I could feel blood starting to flow in and it was causing me to cough up blood, pretty violently too. I'll give Ruby a lot of credit though. I was literally coughing blood up onto her face and she didn't even flinch. It was like she was used to be covered in blood or something. She didn't stop as she started untying my armor plates, trying her best to expose my chest to find the wound. She managed to get my chest plate off before seeing the layer of Daedric chainmail underneath. I could feel the wound getting worse, my limbs getting colder by the minute. The sharp pain of the stab wound growing even worse, or maybe it was always there and I just ignored it.
I glanced up at Ruby's eyes one last time as she glared down at me. I could see her sharp blue eyes glaring at me, slowly turning red. Red eyes? Why did her eyes look red? As my delusion started to set in, I couldn't see Ruby anymore. But I did see my father… and his red glowing eyes. Ruby's eyes reminded me of my father, of the way he glared at me when he called me worthless, thrusting his katana into my chest. I may not have thought my father was a good person at that time. I may have believed that he was a bad guy and that his plot for revenge was unjustified. But that moment when he tried to kill me… that moment when he ran a sword through my chest… I felt more than just my heart break. I felt my soul break. I never thought for one second that my father was capable of killing me. Emotionally, anyway. I thought I was his little girl, not just a tool for some assassination plot.
But… here he was… clear as day. That intense hatred in his eyes as he stole one last look at me. The way he glared his final insult to me as I slipped off his katana and into the bloody water underneath me. If being stabbed wasn't enough, I had water filling my lungs through the multiple holes in me. I didn't even try to hold my breath. I don't think I was capable of doing anything at the time. I still felt the water overcome me. I felt my father glaring at me as I sank to the bottom of the pool, looking up at him through the shifty water. I tried to breathe but couldn't. It felt like I was drowning in my own blood. I tried to cry but I wasn't capable of it. I wanted to scream, but my words were drowned out. My entire life had led to this moment, where I lied at the bottom of the pool, looking up at my father as he watched me die.
That changed a few seconds later, right as the world started to darken around me. I could no longer see my father; I no longer cared for the water in my lungs, the lifelessness in my limbs. My body would not respond to me, and I knew I was dying, but I couldn't do anything to stop that. That was when I knew I was dead. I didn't give up, I just didn't have the power to change anything, and that felt even worse than giving up. I fought to stay alive, to prove to my father that my life would not end on his whim. I couldn't stop it though. He purposefully didn't teach me magicka. I did not know Restoration, or Alteration. I could not breathe water or heal my wounds. He wanted me to die this whole time. Like the tool I was.
"Hang on!" I could vaguely hear Ruby's scratchy voice in the back of my mind. My vision started to lighten up as something jumped into the pool with me. It was Veselle's pet healer: Kyuute. He had jumped into the pool to save my life. That meant Veselle sent him to heal me. He didn't say anything to me; he just landed on my chest, planting his feet around my wound. His ears perked up, his bright blue eyes turning even brighter as a giant pulsing white column of light started to surround us. I could feel that holy magicka flow through me, helping me reverse time on the wound. I still couldn't breathe underwater, but that would have to wait for later. My vision was starting to come back. I could see the tiny white fox looking into my eyes, smiling at me with his wide blue eyes. "You will be just fine." The fox said with Ruby's voice. What? Kyuute did not sound like Ruby; he sounded a lot softer and filled with heavenly joy.
I couldn't give up yet. Veselle was fighting my father and probably losing. She needed my help. I tried to swim up to escape the pool filling with my blood. My body still wouldn't respond to my commands though. The last thing I saw before I decided to let go of my last breath as Kyuute looking down at me with his huge eyes. He seemed to be telling me it was ok to let go… that everything would be just fine in the end. So, I let go of my held breath. And water flowed into my lungs…
…
[Veselle Tenvanni]
Something wasn't right. I was in the process of sliding Seth's tunic up off his chest before I heard some screeching. The lit torches keeping the sacrificing room covered in light suddenly snuffed themselves. And that changed the entire atmosphere. It was no longer romantic… no longer something I could use to get closer to Seth. And trust me; I was pretty close to getting closer to him. I had my hand on his belt when he suddenly grabbed my shoulders and pulled me away from him.
"What was that?" He asked as he looked around the now darkened room.
I groaned as I released his belt, looking up at the dark ceiling and silently resenting the god of hearth for taking away the only chance I've had at getting Seth on top of me. I shook my head as I tried to cool myself down. "No idea. Want to ignore it and continue what we were doing?"
Seth obviously didn't hear me because he was back in patrol mode. "Hey, Vess. Wasn't there a bridge just a minute ago?"
"I wouldn't know. I didn't get to touch it." I mumbled as I walked over to stand beside him. And I saw what he was seeing. Or not seeing. That long astral bridge that everyone ran across was suddenly gone. That… that unsettled me. I could feel Hermeaus Mora's presence growing stronger, pushing his will down upon me. It was like he was mocking me. And I had a sudden urge to go find everyone. Make sure they were safe. "Um… Seth. We need to go find the others."
He glanced at me. Oh… so he heard that but not me wanting to have sex with him? Guys…
Seth nodded. "I think you're right. But… how?"
I looked around the dark room. I shrugged, saying, "Oh well, we tried." I grabbed his hand. "Now, can we please…"
"Wait…" He seemed entranced as ignored my plea. He looked at the activation switch that obviously turned on the astral bridge, and I knew that any chance I had at getting closer to him today was now thrown away. He started for the switch, pulling me since I was holding onto his hand. I groaned as I followed behind him, stomping my feet in defeat as I kept up behind him. Another mood killed by inconvenient enemies. If I could kill Hermeaus Mora, I would.
I watched from behind Seth as he looked at the activation button. "Maybe if I press this." He looked back at me for a second before looking back at the switch. "Ok, I'm going to press it." And he pressed it. There was a second of silence before one of the astral bridge things appeared. It was followed by a second one, then a third one. Once a fourth one appeared, the first one disappeared. And that trend continued, taking odd turns as it did so, like it was trying to be confusing or something.
I sighed as I looked over at Seth. "This is a conditional quest thing, isn't it?" I sighed as I started rubbing my eyes. I really hated these things. If we wanted to continue, we'd have to put up with these stupid bridges, making sure to stay on them as they snaked around the upper level or something. And of course the bridge would become even more winding, even more confusing, even quicker and harder to stay on. I know these things pretty well by now. Looking down, I could already see the penalty if I didn't manage to stay on the bridge. The nasty bloody water that lied underneath of all the heroes that attempted in the past and died by some horrific fate. I'm guessing there are skeletons waiting for me in the water. And I'd have to fight them if I wanted to escape and repeat the process again.
Looking down at my mother's old blue dress that I had to wear until I could properly dress myself… I really did not want to end up in that bloody water. Looking back at the astral bridge reaching the end of the wide chasm, I saw the bridge flicker before dying off. I looked back at Seth. "Is there any way I can get you to cross the bridge instead of me?"
He shrugged, pushing the button. "We'll take turns." He gestured for me to move, and I cursed as the first bridge piece popped up.
I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before whispering, "You owe me one." Then I turned around and fumbled my weak body onto the first two bridge pieces, almost accidentally stepping too far and falling down into the murky bloody water. After stumbling to my possible death, it was like a short walk across the slowly appearing bridge pieces. I'd step onto the next one that would pop up and stand there as I waited for the next one. I refused to look behind me. I'd rather just imagine that all the other pieces of the bridge were still lining the way back and not disappearing behind me. I feared that if I turned around and saw that I was stranded on these three tiles while suspended 50 feet above a bloody pool filled with the skeletons of everyone that died before me that I would freak myself out and fall off the bridge.
I kept my eyes on the pieces popping up in front of me, walking onto them as they popped up. I glanced over to the other side of the chasm, knowing that I kept getting closer. "You're almost there, Vess!" Seth screamed over to me from gods know how far away.
I refused to look back at him, but I did wave over my head. "Concentrating! Don't bother me!" I really did not want to fall into that water. It looked disgusting. The final bridge piece popped up and I could easily just hop the space to the walkway if my body wasn't as shot as it was. As it was, I waited for that final piece to pop up before rushing over to the walkway. As soon as I did so, the bridge behind me disappeared. I thought that for a second it would just remain gone this time. Then, as if on cue, the entire straight bridge returned and held solid. I looked back at Seth. He was waiting to see if the bridge would disappear or something. When it didn't, he nodded to me and tried his best to run across the bridge. As soon as he made it across, he threw his arms out and rushed into me, wrapping me in a thick hug. He almost bowled me over.
"Ah, Vess. You were wonderful out there." He said as he rocked us back and forth. It was kind of out of character for him, but heck, I didn't care. I would have started undoing his belt if I wasn't sure things weren't going too well for our friends. Looking ahead, I could see more opportunities for more confusing bridges to be built. I sighed as I looked down at the murky black water. Oh joy… We had to hurry. Chances are… I might have to fight after all.
Cearbhail:
So...
I don't know what to say about this chapter. Anyway, see you next time.
