Cearbhail:

Um... wow. Umm... I'm like almost late for leaving for work. I wanted to get this done. Been working on it for what? Two, three days now? Not even sure. Sorry it's taking me so long with these. But, you'll love this chapter. It's everything I wanted it to be and more. So much more. I couldn't stop laughing as I thought all this up today.

=^^= Enjoy...


Dear diary of shadows,

So… it's still the same day, probably around 7:30ish. Seth and I finally made it across the astral bridge thing. I almost fell into that nasty water but was spared that fate when Sanguine popped up out of nowhere to save my life. So, we come into the main chamber to find that like half the Daedra Lords in existence are all here and are all fighting for the same reason… because they all want Vahlok to either die or stay alive. And since Mora is trying his best to get Vahlok killed… I'm guessing I want to keep him alive. Mora is really trying to take this island over so, I should try my best to keep him from doing that.

Anyway, there isn't much to talk about. Ruby's busy trying to heal Mirri, who seemed to get her wounds reopened in some fight. Dad is trying his best to fight a mage that seems to be just as strong as he is. Seth is trying his best to help, but without magicka, the two of us are pretty well outmatched. Uh-oh… someone is walking over to me. That Nord that got his head blown off by Vahlok is standing up and walking over to us, with no head… jeez. I'm seriously creeped out!

Veselle Tenvanni.

"Um… Ruby…" I couldn't take my eyes off of the shambling headless corpse walking towards us. "There's a dead guy with no head walked over towards us?"

All I heard was a scoff. "What? Is it Morndas already?" I looked over at her to see her focusing on an arranged circle of crystals. They were glowing and surrounding Mirri in what looked like focused healing magicka. Ruby looked up from Mirri over to me for a second before looking at the shambling corpse. "Ok… not going to lie, I've never seen anything like that." She tried to smile as she looked over to me. "Um… good luck."

"Good luck?" I looked over at the corpse. "I have no magicka, my muscles are so sore that if I move at a regular speed I usually end up falling down… and you're going to ask me to fight that thing?"

Ruby shrugged. "I'll trade you. You can sit here and heal Mirri and I'll go kill the walking dead. It'll take me a few seconds at most. I mean… come on. It has no head! It can't be…"

"Yeah, no head. It can't feel pain, it shouldn't even be alive!" I screamed at her. Wait… what was I saying? I've taken on plenty of things way stronger than me. And I've always come out on top. I found myself turning around. I tried to clench my fists, but all I got was a soft pain in my forearms when I tried. "Ok, I'll try to kill this thing. Got any advice?"

"Don't aim for the jaw? Or the temple, or the eyes… or the…"

"Ok, I get it." I shook my head. I couldn't believe I was having this conversation with a Thane of Skyrim. If I keep this up, I might actually feel like a hero or something. Might as well just get this over with. If I'm lucky, perhaps I'll unlock a new spirit or something. I looked back at Ruby again, hoping that she'd suddenly develop time to help me fight. "So… have anything I can use to help me fight?"

"Sorry, all my crystals are currently in use. Except for this McGuffins Quartz." She held up a shining rainbow filled clear quartz crystal.

McGuffins Quartz? Never heard of it. "What's it do?"

Ruby shrugged. "I… I… huh… I don't remember." She scratched her head. "But I know it won't help me this minute, but it might help you." She tossed it over to me. I reached out, grabbing the McGuffins Quartz. There was a slight pulsing in my hand which quickly went up my arms, and entering the rest of my body. It was like this vibration joining mine, kinda like the heart stone I had to use a year ago. Then, as if by a miracle, my aura lit up on fire. Magicka! I had magicka again! I felt a thick laugh come from my throat as I started to turn around. With the bottomless energy coming from the McGuffins Quartz, I felt like I could do anything, anything I needed to do without needing a proper explanation as to why. I laughed as I turned to face the headless zombie. "Come get me, you piece of subpar reference!" I stuck my hand out, which was wrapped in my thickest of flames.

With one blast from my hand…

With one blast from my hand…

WITH ONE BLAST FROM MY MIGHTY GODS' FORSAKEN PALM!...

Gods… why can't I use my fierfekla magicka? I looked down at my hand, still surrounded in flames. And the flames suddenly snuffed out with that magicka version of a raspberry. Dammit. I looked at the McGuffins Quartz to see that it was no longer glowing. I looked back at Ruby, shrugging. "Hey, this crystal isn't working."

"Huh…" She looked over at me. She shrugged. "Sorry, it does that sometimes. You know… when the plot demands it and stuff." So… the plot demanded that I don't have the ability to use magicka? That sucks, that sucks so badly.

I tossed the quartz aside, bringing up my fists. If anything, my muscles didn't feel so sore now. Maybe it healed me? Who knows? I'll take what I can get. So, I wasted no time at all and charged right for the zombie. The shambling corpse stuck out its hands to meet me but I actually knew how to fight. As soon as I came close enough, I jumped into the air, using my sprint as my leverage. I slammed both my feet into the corpse's chest and pushed as hard as I could. My legs screamed out in pain, my chest too, but I pushed for it.

I managed to launch the zombie back a few feet before crashing hard onto my back. My entire body shot up in pain, and all the breath I had collected blasted out of my lungs. I was suddenly paralyzed. Great… pain. I hate pain. I really hate pain. And I hate it when I can't stop being in pain. And I could already tell that I was not going to be standing up anytime soon. That was a pretty hard hit onto my back. And normally, I'd just roll up and keep on fighting. Not when you're recovering from a nearly death experience where you almost burned alive and only survived because you had an awesome healer fix you up. You tend to stay down when that injury rears its ugly head up. And I just hit rock bottom, almost literally this time.

So, I'm squirming on the floor, writhing in pain, when that zombie thingy slowly dragged its legs over to me, stopping to lightly kick me as it bent down to grab me. I tried to fight off the zombie's hand but I found most of my strength gone. My breath hadn't caught up with me yet, so I couldn't just hold my breath and force some sort of magicka explosion. Normally, I'd just light myself on fire and let my emotions of fear and anger do the job for me. I'm too tired to feel scared enough to produce magicka out of nothing. I just want to go to bed. So, when I was hauled off my back and up into the air by the zombie's one arm… I was pretty well done in. I think I knew it too. I was dead. I was so dead.

If that's the case; if I'm going to die. I might as well go out kicking and screaming. And I know just the spot to kick. It always works with boys. I tried to kick my foot out and tested its reach. On the first try I hit the zombie's thigh just shy of my zone. And it caught the zombie's attention too. He didn't want to be kicked there, and he knew I was aiming for it now. He started to throw me away, but fear caught up with me. I kicked with both of my feet. I basically rapid kicked him in the crotch, maybe six or seven times total. And it worked. The zombie dropped me. And I ended up on the ground again. But I didn't hit as hard this time. I managed to roll myself up onto my feet, the world spinning around me, but I had something in me now. I looked over to the zombie scrambling around. He was trying his best to stay up. I could do this! I just needed something.

"Veselle!" Boethiah called from the other side of the battlefield. A giant spear appeared in her hands. "Take this!" She threw it over to me, and out of nowhere I managed to catch the thing. It was clearly a naginata. Huh… I think I would have guessed a naginata would make a perfect weapon for me. It was a blood red naginata with an obsidian blade. It was so light and balanced. Trust all Daedric weapons to be balanced and deadly. So, I used the naginata butt to push myself back onto my feet. When I was standing, I let myself catch my breath before I spun the naginata around like it was a bo staff. It felt like it was made for me. Perfectly crafted to who I was as a fighter. Ha! This beats any McGuffins Quartz any day.

I screamed a kiai, which almost made me go into a coughing fit, and charged right for the zombie. I knew the proper distance for using a long distance pole weapon like a spear. So, when I got close enough, I spun myself into a slash. I caught the zombie right in the legs, slashing them both off in one slash. I didn't feel tired at all from doing it and I threw myself into another spin. I caught the zombie right in the chest, cutting off both arms in the process. The corpse fell to pieces. And I thought that would have been the end of it. I was wrong. Oil was leaking from the zombie. Huh… weird black oozy stuff. I can only think of one being that would use an empty corpse to fulfill to accomplish his ends. Hermeaus Mora.

The body exploded into a thick oily mess. It formed into a massive thing about the size of a giant. "The fuck?" Ruby called from behind me.

"It's a Lurker!" Dad called from across the room. "Veselle, back up! I'll kill it for you." He was about to help me but a wad of lightning crashed into him. He raised a Shield just in time but he had to turn his attention off me before he was overwhelmed by his advisory. "Sorry, Veselle. I can't assist."

"I can!" Seth screamed as he ran up to me. More like shambled over to me. I saw the Lurker turn his attention to Seth. He saw Seth as weak, prey, something it could quickly kill. The Lurker was probably right. As soon as the Lurker turned to attack Seth, I jumped in to intercept. Being made out of Mora's oozy oily stuff, I should have expected that the thing could grow its arms out longer or something like that. Its right arm turned into a whip or something like that and it slashed at Seth. I was still trying to sprint over to meet the attack. As I got close enough, I used the naginata to push myself into the air, basically pole-vaulting into the sky. I spun the naginata around me as a rotating shield until I crashed into the whippy limb. I slashed right through it.

The Lurker cried out in pain, stumbling back. Daedric runes appeared on the naginata, burning brightly. I could see a dull fire on the naginata's tip. I could see the same dull fire on the Lurker's severed whip-arm. It was preventing the Lurker from regenerating, I could tell. Man, I am just awesome! Even when I'm dead tired, can't use magicka, and can barely stand on my own two legs. Speaking of which… that was a pretty hardcore move I just did. And… there go my legs.

I ended up crashing onto my knees, out of breath, out of energy, out of everything really. I just wanted nothing more than to sit here and die. With the Lurker just recovering from his earlier assault, growing as he glared at with his purple glowing eyes… yeah, I pretty much figured that I should just stretch out on the ground, paint a target on my body somewhere near my heart, and take a nap. At least I'd go out peacefully.

The Lurker growled as he whipped his other arm at me. "Vess!" Someone grabbed me from behind, lifting up and tossing me aside like a rag doll. A giant Shield of Frost surrounded us right as the Lurker came down slashing. I was too drowsy to open my eyes by now, but I was happily curling up in Seth's arms.

"Thank you, Seth." I yawned into his arms as I leaned back against his broad chest. … Broad chest? Seth doesn't have a broad chest… or muscles. Wait… Seth also can't use Frost magicka! My eyes snapped open to see myself wrapped up in Talvas's arms. Frost surrounded us.

"Talvas?" My voice broke. "What? How? When? … Huh?"

Talvas smirked as he patted me on the arm. "Just sit down and relax. You've done enough."

"Damn straight she has!" Mom said as she walked into the room. Gwen and Azarien were right behind her. Mom walked strong in her stance, even if one of her legs was a little corpse-ish. "She's gone and done too much on her physical therapy today. I'll be lucky if she will even be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning."

I let my body relax. I was so safe now. I looked up at Talvas, smiling at him. "Thanks for saving me, Talvas."

Talvas didn't exactly roll his eyes but he did rush himself to stand up. "Well, time to go kill things." He pulled out his thermos filled with his sujamma. He was probably already halfway drunk. He looked over to the Lurker, holding up his thermos as he took a deep drink. When he pulled his thermos away, he pointed over at the Lurker, smirking. "You dare touch my friend? I'm going to kill you before you ever knew what happened." The Lurker looked confused, but that didn't stop it from slashing with thousands of whips sprouting from all around his body. Talvas's hand glowed with Frost magicka and when he launched it forward, every inch on the Lurker was covered in Frost.

Talvas turned around, screaming, "Gwen, now!"

"I'll destroy you!" Gwen screamed as black flames exploded out of her body. The flames gathered around her body, forming into a massive ball of black energy. She launched the ball of flames like it was a wrecking ball right at the Lurker. And I watched as the Lurker exploded into flames and ice. The Lurker screeched in pain as it rained down on us all.

Mom nodded appreciatively. "Well, we showed up just in time." She winked over at Dad. "Thanks for the message. Would have hated to miss this." She looked from Dad over to Hermeaus Mora. "So… Mora is the reason we're all suffering on this island."

"ENOUGH!" Hermeaus Mora screamed. The entire room shook. That feeling of that dark energy pushing on me intensified. There was a pulse of energy and everyone went flying. Even the Daedra Lords were blasted off their feet. Mom and Dad tried their best to keep themselves up on their feet, but they ended up flat on their backs too. I was pressed flat against the floor too. I was so tired, I doubted that I would need incentive to stay down. "YOU LOT HAVE GOTTEN IN MY WAY LONG ENOUGH." That pressure continued to push down on us.

I think at that point everyone started to pass out. I only say that because I would hear Talvas and Ruby both snoring. I felt drowsy too, but not more than usual. So, I watched as Hermeaus Mora looked around at us with his hundreds of little eyes. He glanced at me. "You seem to be the only one still awake, little girl." His tentacles glided over to me and I knew that this was going to end badly for me. Again.

"Sir, she has no energy; no ability to move her body. She is incapable of stopping us now." My old spirit Anari said beside Hermeaus Mora. A dozen more just like her surrounded the god.

Hermeaus Mora looked over at Anari with all his eyes. "Do you suddenly see the fates of all? Do you suddenly know how this story ends?"

"If I had the power you held, I would know that could not change that is written in stone." Anari explained cautiously.

If Hermeaus Mora could scoff with his oily mouth, he just did. "Do not think you can lecture me on the proper etiquette of misusing the fates of others to benefit my own ends." More growled out. He looked down at me, his oily tentacles wrapping around my arms. He lifted me into the air, pulling me towards him. When I was a few feet away, he stopped and began wrapping more tentacles around my body. "Are you ready to meet your fate, little girl?"

"Are you?" Seth screamed from the ground.

It took both Hermeaus and me by surprise. I was surprised when that naginata from earlier appeared a few inches away from my head. Hermeaus was surprised when that same naginata slammed right into his huge middle eye. Mora screeched in a way that made him sound more like a servant than anything else.

Hermeaus' tentacles released me and I fell straight to the ground. All those floating Seekers turned their attention at me, blasting me with their green lightning. And as I fell, I knew that I was as good as dead. But… I didn't land on stone or anything like that. I landed on something else. I fell on top of a pile of sleeping skeevers. Or dead skeevers. Hard to tell actually. When the lightning fell down around me, I used the same skeevers as a shield. I buried myself underneath them and witnessed the exciting show of skeever muscles twitching uncontrollably all around me. As Hermeaus Mora ripped the naginata from his middle eye, he let if fall to the ground, where it landed in one of the skeevers.

"See to it that the Priest dies!" Hermeaus Mora hissed to his seekers as he started to vanish into a portal he summoned. He was still nursing his bleeding eye as he left. "And kill those two children while you're at it." With that, Hermeaus Mora was gone. I could still feel that pressure pushing down on top of me, trying to keep me pinned to the floor and out cold. I'm guessing everyone was not going to be getting back up for a while. Why not? Why were Seth and I the only ones not affected?

The lightning continued to crash down on top of my nest of unconscious skeevers. I couldn't keep hiding down here like this. I had to do something. As it turned out, I didn't. There was a loud explosion near the ceiling. I thought it was Dad or Gwen or someone strong. But it was that dragon priest. He was blasting the Seekers with his staff. Ooh… a new staff. I would probably end up owning that by the end of the day. Which was in a few hours. Gods, I'm tired.

With the dragon priest firing down on the Seekers, the endless assault of lightning crashing down on my skeever bed was lessening. When the Seekers turned their attention away from me, I tried my best to roll out of the skeever nest. I grabbed my new naginata weapon and sprinted as fast as I could over to Seth. Some Seekers were turning their attention back to me. Lightning crashed down all around me, but I didn't feel anything actually hit me. Seth was on his knees, convulsing from whatever lightning hit him. When I crashed down on top of him, I felt his arms wrap around me. We pushed each other up and we ran away from the Seekers. More lightning crashed down on top of us, and if that wasn't enough, there were fireballs crashing around us too. The dragon priest was targeting us now too. Jeez… just everyone leave us ALONE!

One wad of lightning hit Seth and me pretty hard. Stars danced in my eyes and my legs finally gave out. Seth crumpled underneath my own weak legs. We both fell right to the ground. Lightning, lightning, and more lightning from every Seeker in the universe I'm betting, crashed down on top of us. Everything hurt. Gods, it hurt. My nerves were already pretty raw from being boiled alive from alchemist fire. I didn't need lightning coursing through my nerves too.

"Ok, I'm cross now." Anari announced. All the lightning ended. But I still heard lightning all around us though. When my vision started to come back, I looked up to see Anari fighting the other Seekers, those that still remained. She was washing them with magicka I didn't know she even had. "Oh, Kyuu." Anari said. "I summon thee." A portal ripped open right in front of her.

And out came my rolling ball of fur, Kyuu. "I'm finally here!" Kyuu screamed as he turned himself into a rolling ball of fire. And he went bowling for Seekers. Crashed right into the massive horde. Blew them up too. They're filled with gas, after all. They explode when exposed to holy fire. And Kyuu is filled with holy fire. So, the last thing I saw was the entire roof exploding into fire and gas.

I tried to cover my head as Seeker wrappings lit on fire rained down around us. Anari looked at me for a second, waving before vanishing into her own portal. She defended me. She actually defended me. And… I know it's going to suck for her when she gets back to Hermeaus Mora's realm. He knows a lot of things, like her betraying him. He won't like that. I almost felt sorry for her.

Kyuu started falling down towards us. "Vessy!" He screamed. "I can't stay." He announced. "You still have no energy to support my summoning. And my summoner is gone… so…" And just like that, he was vanishing into thin air. Huh… that was weird.

That just let me and Seth with…

I looked over to the coffin. Just standing there was the dragon priest. Flames circled around his body. His staff was glowing brightly though. And he looked ready for action. I really did not want to have any sort of fight right now. Especially against a dragon priest.

"Hey… can we just… not fight?" I screamed to the dragon priest. "No offense. I'm totally freaked out, you're very scary, and I'm very humbled by the very fact that you've not destroyed me yet. And I would like to stay that way, and I'm sure you would too. Not… not that I'm threatening you or anything. It's just that… I have a pretty good track record of killing dragon priests. I'm 1 for 1 so far. And I really hated that fight. And it ruined my favorite training robes. And as you can see, I'm wearing a really nice dress. And I'd like to keep it that way too."

"Silence, girl." The dragon priest screamed to me.

"And I'm totally in love with this boy… wait…" I couldn't help but notice he just spoke words. "You can speak Common?"

The dragon priest leaned on his staff. "You surprised? I was human at one point in my life."

I found myself shrugging. "Well… it's just… you know… you're a corpse."

"Are you sure you don't want to die?" He growled out.

"Nope, totally cool with staying alive, thanks." I shook my head. I looked down at Seth. He was barely hanging on. He was on the verge of passing out. "Hang in there, Seth." I whispered to him. I looked up at the dragon priest. "So, you're Vahlok, right?" He nodded. "So, I heard from my friend that you're like the only thing keeping Miraak from coming back to life."

"It is foretold that the day I am defeated Miraak's Will will crash down on the world, enslaving all the dragons and forcing a new darker age upon the world." Vahlok said. "I am the only mage strong enough to keep him at bay, the only mage capable of stopping him." He began to float over to me. "Unless, someone were to beat me in a contest of magicka and skill. And perhaps, the only one that can beat me is the same one that can resist the magicka of a Daedra Lord." Oh no… I did not like where this was going. "And Miraak will continue to grow in power until even I cannot stop him, or anyone else for that matter. Perhaps it is time for me to rest, and let a new guardian to take my place."

"We're going to fight, aren't we?" I asked as the dragon priest stopped halfway across the room.

The fireball racing towards me answered my question. I grabbed onto Seth's arms and tried to pull him away with me. His legs weren't working anymore though. And when I tried to pull him, I found myself unable to stand as well. The fireball crashed down on top of us. I had just enough time to wrap my arms around Seth and hug him close to me. When I heard the explosion, I half expected to feel myself burning to death. I did not. So, I opened my eyes and looked around. Blue flames were surrounding me and Seth.

Seth smiled as he looked up at me. "Vess." His droopy eyes were getting ready to close.

These blue flames were strong, I could tell. It was the only source of magicka for me right now. The only source of magicka for Seth right now. "Seth." I groaned as I reached down to lift him up to his feet. "Come on! I need your help right now."

The dragon priest roared at us. I felt myself get lifted from my knees and tossed into the air. I hit the floor pretty hard again, and this time I landed away from Seth. I guess he was tossed to the other side of the room. "And now what will you do? Without your friend?" Vahlok asked as he floated up to me. He ended up right over me.

I tried to smirk. "You wouldn't happen to have a pair of balls I could kick, would you?" I tried to laugh it off but I was so done. My naginata was a few yards away, Seth was somewhere else not near me, and I was completely unable to stand up.

Vahlok seemed to enjoy my joke. "You are an interesting girl, pigtails." He said as he aimed his staff at my head. "It is a shame you have lost this match."

My eyes drifted from Vahlok to something humming near my ear. When I looked over, I could see that it was the McGuffins Quartz. Wasn't that the crystal that Ruby said did exactly what you needed it to do when it needed to be done? So… that could be the one thing that could save my life right now. Unimaginable possibilities sitting right next to my ear. It was right within reach too. So, I reached out and snatched it, gave it a good squeeze to activate its mysterious powers. And…

Huh…

Why isn't the damn thing working?

"Any last words?" Vahlok asked as a fireball began to warm up.

I squeezed the crystal tight in my hand. "Choke on this!" And I chucked that crystal right at Vahlok. Clonked him right in the head.

And that seemed to work. He floated backwards, screaming, "My one and only poorly defined weakness!"

I used that time to scramble myself onto my feet. And I ran for it. I ran right for Seth. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die in the arms of my boyfriend. I heard Vahlok scream a curse at me. Fireballs crashed behind me. "Dammit! That McGuffins Quartz ruined my ability to aim! So convenient!"

I rolled to my knees, crashing right into Seth. He was already out cold. So, I did what I did best. I started slapping him in the face. "Hey, hey! Seth! Wake up!" I slapped the crap out of his face.

Seth started to come around. His unfocused eyes looked towards me. "Vess? What is it?"

I directed his head to Vahlok. "That's what's up." I took his hands. "We need to do something, or we're going to die!" I started to pull him up onto his feet.

He groaned as we started to stand up. "But what can we do?"

I didn't really know. No magicka, our bodies were as good as ruined. And my naginata… I forgot it when I dashed over here. I didn't have anything left in me. I can't move from my spot. I'm giving all I can just to stand here with Seth. If only we had some edge… something.

I looked around for something we could use. Dad and Mom were out cold. Dad had a staff, but it was the same thing as my naginata. Too far away, and not enough strength to get to it. But… it did give me an answer. Mom and Dad… they just taught us Compatibility not too long ago. I hadn't really tried it yet with Seth. We've done small pockets of it, but we never really honestly tried to do anything with it.

I looked back at Seth. "Seth… I need you to say it."

"Say what?"

"Seth… I need to hear it. I need an emotional boost. So… say it. Come on, I dare you."

"Umm…" He looked around. "Is this really the time?"

I shrugged. "Look. We can do this one of two ways. You can either say what I need to hear, or I can reach down and undo your pants for you." There, now he had to say it.

Seth nodded in defeat. "Vess, you know I don't need a reason to say it. I love you. You know I love you."

"And I love you too." And I leaned in to kiss him. And he kissed back. And it felt so nice. I felt new life coming in to join me. When I opened my eyes, I could see that there was a large blue fire surrounding both of us. "We need to use our Compatibility to beat this priest."

Seth nodded. "I'm ready when you are."

We took a tango stance, aiming our linked hands above our heads and the other set facing towards the confused Vahlok. Seth and I both linked our breathing together, focusing on each other, trying to feel what the other was doing. Our fires combined, growing stronger and stronger. It started to flow around us like a cyclone of blue energy. With a loud kiai from both me and Seth, our flames started to roll up into a single ball. As the ball collected more and more magicka, it condensed until it was a glowing mini nova. Seth and I continued to scream our wills at Vahlok. This was it. Time to end this.

"What should we name this move?" I asked Seth.

He smirked. "The Love Gun."

"I totally love that." I almost laughed at the thought of that name. "On three."

"One…" I started.

"Two…" Seth responded.

"THREE!" We screamed. "LOVE GUN!" And our little mini nova took off like a bat out of Oblivion. It slammed right into Vahlok. And that's all I remember. I couldn't stand it anymore. My vision blacked out. At least I could still feel Seth next to me.


Cearbhail:

The McGuffins Quartz... now in all possible solution chapters.