Cearbhail:
This chapter is not at all what I planned on having when I started. Was going to... well... I'll just say down at the bottom. Why ruin it?
=^^= Enjoy...
Dear diary of shadows,
Today's the 20th. I know, I know… the day of the tournament. And last anyone knew… it was late 17th, and I was fighting a dragon priest with Seth. Well, stuff happened after that, stuff that kept me from writing in my journal. Well, to start with, the tournament has been cancelled. It would seem that on 18th, two days ago… stuff happened in Raven Rock. Dragons were beginning to poke their noses nearby, more towards the middle of the mountain. And if that wasn't weird enough, some of the tournament members were disappearing. From what Dad heard around town, some of the contestants started whispering some stupid mantra crap with the name Miraak... again… and they wandered out of town. A couple guards went to follow them and report where they went, but the guards never came back. Mom and Dad left to investigate what happened to the contestants, but they haven't returned either. With more than half the contestants for the tournament missing, they couldn't hold the tournament. Well… Councilor Morvayn decided to replace that tournament with a 'show up and fight people' thing. It's smaller, and there are way less of us. And trust me… I'm in perfect condition to fight now.
So, what to say? The past two days, I've been resting in my bed, recovering my magicka and letting my muscles rest. Wasn't really my choice though. I just kind of slept through the past three days, and no one has even tried to wake me up. Mom and Dad are busy doing things, and as far as I can tell, I really needed the rest. When I woke up, I woke up without stiff muscles, so that's nice. I can walk properly again, and my magicka is back to normal. So… there's that. I guess I had Ruby to thank for that. I haven't seen her yet, but then again, I've only been awake for a few minutes. Teldryn left me a note telling me everything I needed to know about what was going on. He wrote in his note that he was in charge of my recovery until Mom returned, so… he healed me. I guess he's a healer too? I don't know how he did it. Ruby could barely heal my wounds past the recovery phase, and I couldn't summon Kyuu without my magicka. I wonder how I got healed so well.
Oh well, now that I'm awake and ready to move, I think I'll go find everyone and see what's going on. If today is really the 20th, then it's time for the tournament. And last I checked… I still have to compete in order to keep Ruby and Mirri from killing each other.
Veselle Tenvanni.
…
So, waking up in Mirri's old room, yet again. Stripped of clothing again and wrapped up in bandages again. Even though I'm bandaged, I can tell that I'm not injured anymore. Even a small scan of my aura, I can feel my muscles not reeling in pain anymore. More than that, I woke up with fire dancing on my fingertips. That means I have my magicka back as well. And it didn't hurt to summon a fireball to my hands either. That's great.
Looking around the room, I can see that Ruby still has a little sleeping bag set up against the other wall. That meant she was still here. Her little backpack lied on top of the sleeping bag, that glowing McGuffins Quartz sitting right next to it. That crystal saved my life. If I hadn't chucked it at the dragon priest's head, I would have died before I could have joined with Seth. And then… we would have never mastered our Compatibility Spell: the Love Gun. And… since I'm sitting in my bed, wrapped up in bandages, I guess we won. I wonder how long we lied in that tomb before someone woke up and ended the fight. An entire cave filled with Dremora and whatnot, and then… what? It just ended? I highly doubted that. I probably missed the after battle.
Still focusing on the sleeping bag, I wondered how long Ruby would end up staying here. It felt great to have another friend that I could do stuff with. I just wish she'd get along with Mirri better. I didn't like seeing the two fight, and… if I'm right, the two are still going to try to kill each other in the ring today. I had to make sure that didn't happen. So… I pushed myself out of bed. My bandages were loose enough that it didn't pinch. Even so… I think it was time I took them off again. So, for the second time in a week or so, I had to take a few minutes to pull the bandages off my body, did a quick check in the mirror to see if there were new scars or whatnot (just the usual scrunched skin from the bandages), and then for the first time in a week or so… put on my training robes. And that took way too long. I missed having simple dresses to throw on.
So, dressing up in my black/gray robes was nice. It felt great that I was ready to begin practicing again. Then again, it felt great to just sit and relax for a couple days with climbing steps as my only real chore or training. I wonder what my training would be next. The last lesson was Compatibility, but perhaps it can change even more. What Seth and I did was combining our blue flames into one giant blue flame, but what if we combined different flames? Was that even possible? Our flames shifted based on our feelings, in this case the loving blue flames. They were only blue because whenever we were together, focusing on each other, we only felt that particular emotion together. So… what if we weren't using flames? What if I was using Ash and he was using Fire? It would be a lot like what Mom and Dad did with the Shock and Ash thing they were doing earlier.
It was something I would have to think about for later. I was no longer the novice I was when I first came here. Little less than two years and I've become something else entirely. Facing a dragon priest without the capability to move or summon magicka? Man… I hate to say it, but I wonder if I could actually face Ruby in a straight up fight. Huh… I hope the tournament is still on. I might not be as strong as Mirri in a straight up martial arts match, but when it comes to luck… no one beats me.
Opening the door to my room, I could already see someone I haven't seen yet. A tiny yellow Altmer, one that came up to my shin or something like that. She had one set of wings, like the ones on butterflies, bright orange like open flames; her hair just as bright orange and floating in the air. She was floating near my doorway, smiling at me. "Good morning." She said to me.
I nodded to the little… Altmer fairy thing. "Umm… hi?"
"Can Kyuu come out to play?" She asked innocently. Almost… too innocently. I should know. I know how I sounded around Talvas, and sometimes around Seth.
"Umm…" It's ok, Veselle. She's a friend. A very good friend. That's reassuring. I shrugged as I opened a portal to Kyuu. I launched it open and Kyuu came flying out, landing on the ground. The strange firefly floated down to join him.
"Hi, Tatianna!" Kyuu smiled as he bounded around her. "It's been a while."
"Well, we do live in two separate planes of Aetherius." She shrugged. "Still, it's nice to see you again. Shall we go and practice some moves?"
"You bet!" He grinned as the two of them raced off. Jeez… everyone's getting some but me. I really needed to work harder on that.
So, after seeing those two race off the way they did, I decided to go visit Seth. He was only one room over. So, I walked over to his room, pushing the door open without really thinking. And… well… I did not plan on this, I really didn't. Before anyone gets excited, he wasn't changing or anything like that. He was… well… playing a game with Zera. A simple board game. And they weren't alone. Ruby and Mirri were here too. As well as the goddess Boethiah. "Umm.. hi?" Well, aren't I articulate today?
Everyone looked up at me. "Morning, Vess." Seth nodded to me. Everyone pretty much had the same reaction. No one really stood up to greet me or anything. They just sat there and played their board game.
"So…" I looked around the sitting people. "What's going on? Why is everyone in here like this?"
"Waiting for you to wake up." Boethiah responded like she was bored with the idea. She looked up at me. "I am very upset. The tournament set up in my honor… the god of… well… whatever I am, and it gets cancelled on account of no one showing up but eight or so people."
"Still enough for us to fight." Mirri responded.
"And we could still have our own tournament." Ruby looked over at Mirri. "You know… if you really want to fight me."
Mirri shrugged. "I want to do this more." She picked up her dice and started shaking them around. "Ok… I roll… a 16 on my attack, a 7 on my evasion, and a …. 19 on luck."
Boethiah coughed into her hand, clearing her throat as she started warming up her announcing voice. "And with that, you ran forward to fight the ogre, slashing with your enchanted rusty mace… and just like any artifact supplied by the piece of shit Molag Bal… the rusty mace explodes on contact, sending his immortal soul into Oblivion to live a thousand years of being tickled by our sister: Mephala. You however, thanks to the many blessings of your true savior Boethiah" She gestured to herself, "gain a new better weapon, a naginata with unimaginable power. With one slash you slay the ogre, but not before being tossed aside by a counter-kick. He stumbles and falls over a cliff."
"Ruins and Dwarves?" I looked around at everyone. "You're really playing this game?"
Boethiah nodded. "I demanded blood of some sort, even if it's in game form. Besides…" She shrugged. "I really like this game."
"I'm enjoying it too." Ruby looked over to me. "I hardly ever get to play it back home."
Mirri scoffed. "What? The princess can't get enough friends together to play a simple game?"
Ruby, instead of growling, like I thought she would have… chuckled. "Ha! Something like that. What about you? Too busy plotting the destruction of an entire town to play something like this?"
"The contrary." Mirri said as she picked up her dice. "Father taught me many things, like this game, in order to prepare me for on the spot corrections in faulty plans and more importantly…" She rolled a 1 with her dice, "unlucky incidents."
"Mirri's character decides it's a good idea to jump off the cliff to chase after the falling ogre, just to make sure it's really dead. Just like our immortal hero, Gannondalf the Gray, she falls into the depths, sword and staff in hand, to make sure the ogre with the cleaved off head is really… really… really dead." Boethiah said as she glared at Mirri. "You're supposed to be my champion. Stop being stupid."
Mirri shrugged. "You glorify death and murder. I thought you'd enjoy this kind of mindless action."
Everyone laughed as Boethiah scoffed, looking away and crossing her arms. Did they not know that she could kill us all with a single breath? Or even winking her eyes? I heard the stories of Boethiah's Proving. I know what she's capable of. As I looked at Ruby and Mirri, seeing them laugh while looking at each other… what did I miss? Last I checked, they were at each other's throats. And… they were voluntarily playing a game together instead of fighting in some tournament.
"What is going on?" I almost screamed to everyone. Everyone stopped looking to look up at me. They looked curious. "I mean…" I looked at Ruby and Mirri. "You two don't want to fight anymore?" I looked at Boethiah. "And… you're still here?" I looked over at Seth. "And you're up before me? And, you weren't waiting for me or anything?" And then I looked at Zera. "And… I met Tatianna today. She's hooking up with Kyuu. Are you ok with that?"
Everyone just looked at me. Mirri was the first one to answer me. "I'm over it." She looked at Ruby. "She's annoying, but not worth the effort."
"Same." Ruby declared, looking away from Mirri, but I could see her smiling like she was having fun with it.
Boethiah answered me next. "Well…" She shrugged. "I'm a Daedra Prince. So… I can do what I want!" She stuck her tongue out at me in such an… immature fashion. Jeez, what kinds of people were these Daedra anyway? I thought they were dark and evil and stuff, but from my experience, they're either drunkard party goers like Sanguine, whatever Boethiah is, and that perverted tentacle monster guy who's trying his best to manipulate everyone into doing his service… oh… yeah… Mora is definitely the evil Daedra I think of when I think of evil Daedra.
Seth just shrugged. "I just woke up this morning." He moved his arm around, looking at it. "Feel good as new too." He looked up at me. "You feeling up to speed as well?"
I nodded. "Yeah… and I'm ready to resume training." I looked around the crowd. "So, my question remains… why are you all just sitting here playing a game?"
Boethiah sighed. "Kid, I'm going to level with you." She looked from me to Ruby. "You explain it."
"Me? Why?"
She glared at Ruby. "Because you've lived through it. What was the one thing you did when you finished your epic quest?"
Ruby had to think about it. She shrugged. "Well, I just sat around the Bards College and didn't do anything. I just vegged for a couple months and relaxed."
Boethiah nodded. "And… what do you think would happen if you didn't?"
Ruby shook her head. "Man, those months off were exactly what I needed. All that stress of trying not to die every day, fighting every second, and escaping ridiculous dragons trying to kill me… it gave me nightmares for a while. And if I hadn't taken those months off, I don't know if I would have ever learned to relax."
"Exactly." Boethiah looked up at me. "And, there you have it. You just, just, barely escaped being killed by a Dragon Priest. You survived because of your quick thinking. And… I have a feeling that things are only going to get worse. You need your rest now… before you won't get the chance."
Ruby sighed. "Oh, man… I really do not want to be part of some epic quest. I just wanted to come down, check out a giant rock, and then go home."
Mirri scoffed. "You're soft."
"I'm cute and fluffy." Ruby corrected. She looked from Mirri over to me. She finally let out a small sigh as she leaned against the bed behind her. "Besides, I have responsibilities back home. I have a busy family and… well… I belong with them." She smiled as she looked up at me. "I think you can handle whatever's going on. From what I've seen… I'm not the protagonist for this questline." With that, she started to stand up. She walked right up to me, patting me on the shoulder. "You can play as my character. I have to pack. My ship is leaving in an hour."
"Wait… you're leaving?" I followed Ruby out as she walked right past me.
Ruby led me back to the room we both slept in the past few days. When I walked into the room, she closed the door behind me and pulled out a small crystal. There was a light hum and I think… I think she just soundproofed the room. When Ruby was done with her crystal thing, she nodded. "Yes, I am. Already bought my ticket. I was just waiting to see if you would wake up today."
So… she was really leaving? I felt… I felt pretty torn up about that. I finally got to meet my hero and… I didn't really get much time to hang out and learn about her. We've talked, but more than that, I didn't get to fight her, train with her, or anything. "But…" I couldn't find my voice again. This was it?
Ruby smirked as she turned to her bag. "You think this is the last time we'll see each other? Ha! Please, I know an essential character when I see one. We'll meet again, I'm sure of it. Besides, I did what I needed to do. I helped you guys learn about what's going on here. And while I realize the gravity of what happened three days ago, I know that your family will be able to handle it. I'll pass on the news to High King Asger and he'll start making preparations to do something if he's needed here. Highly unlikely though. Your dad seems pretty headstrong. I'm sure whatever pops up, he and your mom can handle it. Not to mention you and your friends. You have a great little group converging; you even have two Daedric Lords watching over you. Normal people can't. Heck… I didn't even know Azurah was looking out for me until just three days ago. Between her and Sheogorath, I'm starting to think the Daedra Lords know what they're doing, and who they're choosing. Now… Boethiah seems to like you, and so does Sanguine. Why? I don't know, but they know what to look for. So… I'm rooting for you too. Even so, I shouldn't stay here. I'm needed back home. My dad's coming down to visit soon. Not sure when, and he says it's urgent so…" She shrugged. "I really can't stay."
She wrapped me up in a hug, and I found myself hugging back. It felt great to have another friend, especially someone that knows more or less what I'm going through with all this crap. "Well… see you?"
"Yup." She confirmed. When our hug ended, she turned back to packing her bag. She took the bed and started shoving it into her little infinity bag. I've never seen one in action but… it sure was weird to see an entire mat just disappear into the small bag. And when she was done, she took the McGuffins Quartz, looked over it for a few seconds, shrugged, and popped it into the bag as well. "I doubt you'd know what to do with it." She explained as she turned to leave. "Next time I see you, I might have to fight you. You know that, right?"
"What? Why?" That did not sound like something I wanted to experience.
Ruby smiled. "Just to see how much you've grown. And how much I have as well. And don't forget to just… relax. Go back into that room, play my old character, and enjoy your friends. Mirri seems better now, but… she still needs a good friend, and some time to relax. A good day of gaming will do just that. So… bye." With that, she raced up the stairs, leaving me alone in the hallway. And… wow, I felt pretty crappy now. So, instead of just standing here in the hallway like an idiot, I turned around and walked back to Seth's room.
Opening the door, I could see that everyone was waiting for me. I took a few seconds to look at everyone. No one was in their training robes, except for Boethiah. I suddenly felt stupid for dressing up in my robes if I was just going to sit here and play this game with everyone. A dress would have been so much simpler in the long run. Even Mirri was wearing an old shirt and some loose pajama pants. And she's all about her formal training attire. At least Boethiah was wearing her normal red Telvanni combat robes. Boethiah waved to me to sit down where Ruby was. "Veselle, it's your character's turn."
I sighed as I sat down next to Mirri. "Ok, so… what's going on?" I looked over the small board game where small Illusionary characters stood around the board. There were many variations, but my eyes seemed to focus on a small block of silver with a screaming Argonian inside it. I felt sorry for whoever got stuck with that character.
"You've been turned to stone for six turns now. You need to roll for your saving throw." Boethiah explained, pointing to the Argonian frozen in silver. Figures. "If you don't get your character unlocked by the end of this turn, you'll be frozen in carbonite forever." Well… thank you Ruby for getting me stuck in this situation.
So… is this why Ruby decided to leave me with her character? She couldn't bear to kill it herself? I sighed as I picked up the dice. "What do I need to roll to free her?"
"Your character's a boy. An Argonian Assassin." Gee… I wonder what his name was… "And since you're an Argonian Assassin, something capable to resisting diseases, poisons, and that has a very high will save… you need to roll a two or better to break out of the stone prison."
I picked up the dice and began rolling them. "And Ruby's been rolling 1's this whole time?"
Boethiah shrugged. "She seems to have a lot of bad luck…" She started chuckling at that. I wonder why?
I sighed as I rolled my dice. It landed on a 20. "Well. I guess that works."
Boethiah smirked. "I expected nothing less of you and your natural good luck." She clapped her hands. "And now… let the real game begin." She began laughing maniacally. "The streets will rain with the blood I will shed tonight."
Cearbhail:
Was going to do the tournament anyway and show Veselle kicking ass, but... then I realized, she needs a break once in a while. Especially since... well... everything's about to change. You should know why.
