Cearbhail:

This is it, everyone. Special guest. It's been requested for a long time now. Time to learn the truth. And... next chapter... well...

=^^= Enjoy...


Book of Shadows Entry: 4e207 27th Sun's Dusk

Scouting report of Raven Rock: The town has devolved into a confusing cluster of zombies. The citizens move around in a haze, speaking the same crappy lines our own villagers back at Tel Mithryn. They are continuing that project that they began not too long ago. So far, it seems they are in too much of a trance to identify me as a threat, and appear passive. Initial reports of masked individuals have been confirmed; spotted in town overseeing unknown structure's construction. Five in total so far, but more continue to pass through the island. So far the individuals are not passing pass the old fort. Townsfolk are peaceful, but masked individuals are an unknown, and I will not jeopardize Tel Mithryn's security in sake of satisfying my curiosity about the identities of the masked individuals.

Scouting report of Fort Frostmoth: Fort is patrolled by walking ash monsters, I believe are referred to as Ash Guardians. Confirmed hostile, and incapable of dying. Perhaps I need to freshen up my knowledge of Ash Guardians and how to beat them, but as far as I can tell, as soon as I bring one down, it gets right back up. And I do not have the magicka available to continue hammering the defensive line. Fort Frostmoth is unnecessary objective anyway. Until situation at Fort Frostmoth becomes more stable, advise to stay as far away from the fort as possible.

Scouting report of Tel Mithryn: Most of town's residents including high ranking mages such as Teldryn, Talvas, and Gwen, are busy building the same kind of structure over a nearby stone. Town residents act in a similar manner of the residents in Raven Rock: passive and comatose to all those around them. Even walking in front of them and punching them in the face yields no reaction other than going down and coughing up blood. On a side note: Gwen was heavily beaten up, all in the attempt of bringing her back. All attempts, with the exclusion of death, went unanswered. She muttered her casual mantra about Miraak and went back to work on the structure surrounding the stone. Reports on survivors: Master Neloth and Mistress Ildari remain unaffected. Mistress Ildari refuses sleep, hinting that some amount of her cognition might already be compromised. She spends her hours in her protection circle meditating, hoping to find out how to beat this Daedric Lord, or Miraak.

As for Master Neloth, he is sending me on scouting missions while he researches new spells and programs new staves for defense. He hopes to find a way to break the influence keeping hold of everyone while Mistress Ildari tries to find a way to defeat the source of the influence. Master Neloth seems to think we need to head back up to the Skaal village to ask the shaman living there. As for Veselle… she hasn't woken up since yesterday. We've taken her to her room and the three of us remaining have set up a protection ward around her room, using the Power of Three Protection Circle. Veselle seems to be peacefully sleeping, but we're unable to wake her. We fear she might be trapped in an alternate dimension. I only hope that is not the case.

Scouting mission of Solstheim in general: More dragons have begun swarming around the island. Some seem violent but in general ignore everyone under whatever spell this is. I was attacked by a dragon, speaking its language at me. I only understood 'Miraak' among all the dragon speech. This, I believe, confirms that Miraak's influence has reached to dragon's souls. The pressure of Miraak's presence has grown in strength as well to everything else going on. That is all on this scouting mission. Returning back to Tel Mithryn.

Mirri Severin, Tel Mithryn Battlemage.

Finishing up my report, I closed my journal. I could not believe I managed to sneak all around Solstheim without drawing any trouble, with the exclusion of the ash monsters I had to encounter to see if I could bring them down. And upon learning that I could not bring them down, I had to fight through my retreat as six or more of them tried to surround me, and tried to kill me with all the surrounding ash. I'm not bad as an assassin, but when it comes to fighting immortal creatures forged out of the stuff that surrounds our island… I think I'd rather retreat. Of course, the only way I could escape the roaming tornados of ash was to run into the sea and dive under the water.

So, by the time I got back to Tel Mithryn, I was still soaked. I was pretty cold, and using my magicka to keep myself warm. Unlike Veselle, I can't use spells like Flames or Ice Shell. I was trained as an assassin, and as such, I studied energy manipulation instead of traditional spell-casting. I should probably start studying more conventional spells. I am a battlemage, after all. And I need to be versatile when it comes to surviving, otherwise, I will find myself in situations where I end up swimming in the sea to escape something I don't know how to kill with my chosen set of skills and spells. I'm going to talk to either Master Teldryn or Master Neloth about it. I need to improve my spell list. True, I've only been in this family for a couple weeks, and I have been studying with Master Teldryn with learning Vocal Spells, more like Vocal Curses, but you know… those only do so much, and they had no effect on the ash creatures.

Stepping into the protection circle surrounding Tel Mithryn's border, I felt a lot better. Still cold, still soaking wet, but better. Looking up at the massive cloud of drifting from Red Mountain towards us was unsettling. The clouds were so thick that I think it was going to blot out the sun completely. So much for a bright day today. It was probably going to look like night for the rest of the day, and with how big the cloud was… it would be hours before the sun would come back. Oh well, I need to give this report to Master Neloth.

I could see Mistress Ildari in the training circle, meditating. While the outside influence wasn't really hurting Master Neloth, her, or me, she found that meditating inside the circle where nothing could touch her helped improve her Clairvoyance spell. She was trying to find a way to end the nightmare beginning on this island. With Veselle stuck in her bed, moaning in pain… we couldn't do anything else. We even put up a new protection circle, the strongest we could cast as a Pact of Three thing… and the influence was still trying to reach her. Heck… even in the town, where nothing could really touch us, I could feel the influence of the Daedric Lord pushing down on me. The only problem was… for some reason I was unaffected.

Looking down at my custom ebony armor given to me by Boethiah, I think this armor might be the only thing actually keeping me safe. Maybe her armor is helping to block whatever Daedric influence that might be trying to get to me. So… if I put this armor on Veselle, she would be just fine. But then… would I be? I'm not more powerful than Gwen or Talvas, or even Veselle. And they've had training in Illusion and Alteration. I was brainwashed into killing for my father. I would probably be the easiest to command through an influential spell. I should just hold onto the armor for now.

As I entered the town, Mistress Ildari opened her eyes for a second to look at me. "Dear… you're soaking wet."

I nodded. "Things have devolved at the fort. There are these… giant cyclones of ash…"

She nodded. "Ash Guardians. So… they're back."

"Who's summoning them?" I asked myself aloud. There were so many of them, I couldn't begin to figure it out.

"I've been meditating on what we've learned so far… and I think I have a sound theory. I read your report on what happened with Veselle and Neloth, and from what Neloth mentioned to me about the existence of the Corprus virus and how Peryite, Namira, and Molag Bal worked together for form it. As soon as I learned of that, I began to look at my own body." She pulled out her arm, looking at it. I could see the withered arm, looking nearly zombiefied. "The same virus taking me when I was infected by the heart stone… is the same strain of virus that made up the Corprus virus. If those three were working with Hermeaus Mora to take over the world, then… it would stand to reason that whatever Hermeaus Mora wants out of using his old puppet Miraak… is what is also causing the creation of the Ash Spawn. The heart stones, they're just transformed Sigil Stones from Oblivion, I'm sure of it now. And my body… is mutated with Corprus. One that I found a cure for."

That sounded awful. There was so much going on here, so much I could not fight against. "What are we going to do then?"

Mistress Ildari shook her head. "Pray to our gods. That's all we really can do at this point. Deliver your report to Neloth. I will stay here and try to meditate on how to defeat these Daedric gods."

When she closed her eyes, I knew that the conversation was over. I rushed past her towards the tower. I didn't know what was going on anymore; I haven't since I moved here. First… I was in a fight… my father tried to kill me, I ended up with Master Teldryn as a battlemage for Tel Mithryn, and the… there was a tournament, which is when Boethiah showed up and forced us to help her find some dragon priest. We found him, was ambushed by several Daedric Lords, unleashed even more Daedric Lords… and at the end of the day… the only thing I knew was… I don't know enough spells. And that just like always… Daedric Lords can't die! So… how can we beat something that can't die?

I stopped running as I ended up near Veselle's little hut. I decided I'd go stop by really quick before heading up to see Master Neloth. As I pushed open her door, I could already see Master Neloth standing over her bed. He had a new staff in his hands, aimed down at her. It was glowing with magicka. "Sir?" I asked as I walked into the room. "Master? Are you alright?"

He turned to look at me. He looked dazed, confused. "Battlemage? You returned so quickly. I didn't expect you back for another five hours."

"Sir… I've been gone all day." I handed him my book of shadows, which contained the written report inside it. "I think you need to rest. You seem out of sorts."

He took the book from me, reading from it. "I need not rest. What I do need is answers. And for my daughter to get back up on her feet." He read the whole page before handing the book back to me. "Masked individuals? The whole town of Raven Rock… even Fort Frostmoth. This is not good. The days are getting shorter, the influence is growing stronger, and nothing I try to do to my students, or the structure they are building is not helping at all. We need to find a way to get rid of this plague at the source. What do we know about Miraak?"

I shrugged. "He was the first Dragonborn. That's what Boethiah said. And he serves Hermeaus Mora, who taught him how to do all this manipulation stuff."

Master Neloth nodded. "And that would mean… what?" He paced around the room, his staff glowing even brighter, keeping it aimed down at Veselle. "We're running around in the dark here! We need something, anything!"

"Master?" He glanced at me. I pointed to the tip of the staff. "What's the staff programmed with?"

"Staff? What staff?" He looked down to see the staff aimed right at Veselle. "I… I don't remember enchanting this staff. We should exit the room, very carefully."

I was the first one out of the room, and Master Neloth followed right behind. As soon as we exited the room, the staff only started glowing brighter. "I am not controlling this staff." He reported to me.

That didn't make any sense though. "If you're not controlling it… who is?"

"We are." I could barely hear from my left. When I turned to see who it was, I saw a few figures standing by our borderline, right where our protection circle border for the town lied. "You are harboring an enemy of Miraak. We have come to finish her."

At a closer look, I could tell that they were the same masked individuals that I saw in Raven Rock. "Master… those are the masked individuals."

The look in his eyes would kill lesser beings. "Let's go say 'good afternoon', shall we?" He turned so quickly that his lower robes did a little snap near the feet. I kept up behind him, keeping my eyes for any other intruders that might be trying to outflank us. "What is it you want?" Master Neloth asked loudly as we got closer to the border. I looked over my shoulder to see Mistress Ildari watching us carefully from the triple protection circle.

The masked person in the middle of the group of six bowed to us. "Telvanni Lord Neloth Maryon, we ask of you to humbly lower this protection circle, or invite us in. We promise no harm unto you or you companions. We only seek… the girl." He pointed over to Veselle's hut. "Veselle Tenvanni. Her father misses her."

"I am her father." Master Neloth stated.

The masked person pulled his mask off. "I'm not so sure of that." When the mask came off… I was stunned… speechless… awe inspired… confused… and felt really left out of the loop with this one. He looked like an ordinary Dunmer.

Apparently, Master Neloth recognized him. "Brand-Shei Tenvanni?" He looked the man over and over. "This can't be… You died. Veselle saw you die." What? Who's Brand-Shei? How did Veselle know him? Did he live here? I'm so confused now.

"Aye… I did." Brand-Shei confirmed. "When Mehrunes Dagon invaded Riften two years ago… he crushed my cell, and me in it. And as I lay there, buried under rubble, barely able to breathe, what should happen to me? I heard a whisper… 'If you wish to betray death… just say 'yes'. And I said 'yes'. Best decision of my life. I was teleported out of the room and into Apocrypha. Lord Hermeaus Mora had saved me… and gave me one order. He would bless me with magicka that even you don't know… and I had to do was one little thing."

Master Neloth started to sneer. "You betrayed me."

"You used me. I think it's fair."

There was an uncomfortable silence for the next few seconds. During that time, I felt so cold. When I looked down, I could see darkness rolling in to cover us. When I looked up, that giant cloud of ash was finally rolling in over top of us, blotting out the sun from our position. I did not like this… I did not like this one bit. "So…" Master Neloth growled out. "What is your one order?"

"It's a voice command… Negate." The staff in Neloth's hands exploded into light. I was thrown off my feet by the explosion of energy. And when I hit the ground, there were people already jumping on top of me. What? How did they get in? I glanced for the border, but I didn't see it anymore. When I looked around, all the bordering was gone… even the one in Veselle's room. "Now…" Brand-Shei said as he walked past us. Master Neloth was barely able to stand up, rubbing his eyes madly as he tried to do so. "I will go get my daughter. I did raise her, after all. Just be a good host and don't try to stop me. Otherwise, my men will kill your companions."

The two masked members holding me down were pretty strong. I couldn't just throw them off. And they had two wands aimed right at my head. "Master? What should we do?"

Master was still trying to get up to his feet. "I'm blind. Status report!"

"I'm held down… can't move. Wands aimed at my head. And I'm still soaking wet!" Wearing this armor while being this wet… it sucks. Almost beats having two wands aimed at my head.

"Where is my wife?" Neloth asked.

I glanced over my shoulder to see her still meditating, even without the circles covering her. "Still meditating."

"No…" She called. "Fighting the influence. Can't stop… have to focus. It's too powerful now. I can't deviate from where I'm sitting. I'll lose my concentration… as well as my mind. And then you'll be likely fighting me as well as Brand-Shei and his puppets."

One of my captors looked at the other. "Did she just call us puppets?"

The other one scoffed. "I'm no one's puppet!"

"For the glory of Miraak!" One of the other masked people said.

"For the glory!" My two captors screamed in unison of the others. One looked at the other. "That does not prove we're puppets though."

"He will rise again!"

"He will rise!"

"We shall ride the dragons to everlasting freedom!"

"Everlasting freedom!"

"We shall let the little girl go!" I screamed.

"Let her go!" My two captors said, letting my arms for a second. That was all I needed.

"Oh…" One of my captors said. "We screwed up, didn't we?"

"Yup!" I said as I rammed my palms into their faces, pushing out as much mana as possible. My subtle blue flames punched through their masks. The two captors fell to the ground, probably dead. I used that time to roll myself backwards, planting my feet down, and rolling right on up to a fighting stance. Just me and four others. "Don't worry, Master. I can take them."

"Good. I cannot see. This Illusion spell was well done. I cannot access my mind's eye either. I'm completely blind. Anything I might send out might hurt someone else. I need to find a way to cancel this spell."

"And I cannot move." Mistress Ildari repeated. "Best of luck for you, Veselle."

I stared down my four opponents. They were all dressed in the same robes, all wearing the same mask. I didn't know anything about them other than… they served Miraak. "So…" I stated as I slid back into my defensive stance, the Stoneflower Shuffle. I imagined roots shooting out of my feet, so that I could absorb more energy to create my own personal shield. I had to play this safe for right now. Until I knew more about what I was fighting. "You're all Miraak's puppets then?"

"We are his worshipers." One of them answered. "All hail Miraak." He screamed.

"Hail!" They pounded on their chests.

"Well, let's get this over with." I mumbled as I prepared myself for Stoneflower Shuffle. I wish I had a weapon with me, but at the moment, I didn't have any. So, I had to do this on my own. Luckily, I didn't have to wait for long. The worshipers were already sprinting straight for me. As they raced across the ashen land, there was something… off about all this. Where there used to be four… there were now 16. That's… more than we started with.

I began feeding energy from my palms as I waved them around in. The energy in my palm stretched out, forming a shield around me. Now… this shield only works if I continuously feed more energy into it, which means… I have to flash my palms around my front, flash as in move really quickly. And so… that's what I did. I flashed a shield around me. I sacrifice mobility in my legs for mobility in my palms, while absorbing mana through my roots and using that mana to form my shield. This is my ultimate defense… while not my only one. As the worshipers started attacking me with magicka… I think I chose the correct defense. As magicka rained down on top of me, my shield caught all of the attacks. I watched as sixteen plumes of fire, all dark red and black, rained down all around me. And my shield caught all of it.

Of course, only four of those attacks were real. But even so… with how strong these plumes of fire were… I was beginning to feel the heat. You know… there was something I was trying to adapt into this technique. The whole concept of Stoneflower Shuffle was to bunker down and protect myself… and I'm throwing energy out to form a protective shield… except… at the same time… my hands are waving around madly as I try to protect myself. This same energy, being directed from my hands, could just as easily be turned into an attack, or an even stronger shield. I just… had to harden my energy into a tighter beam… and then… I can either create a webbing of some kind to catch attacks, webbing that would last longer than a dissolving flame, or turn into a tiny beam of pure destruction. One of the two. And since I was stuck underneath these plumes of fire… now would be the time.

So… I focused on my left hand. I started imagining the energy within my arm constricting on its journey to my palm. The unruly flames within me condensing, becoming harder… stronger. I found it harder than I thought it would be… and all I got for all my concentration was a lacking on my left side where my shield should be. As the defense started to wane, I felt the heat on my left side starting to build, as well as the two real worshipers trying their best to hammer me. So… I decided now wasn't the time to experiment. Now was the time to… switch to my other form: Ash Storm. I released my roots, pushing as much of that energy into my feet as possible. I used that energy to blast me up into the sky, flashing up fast enough to escape the plumes of fire crashing in on my position.

So, I jumped about 30 feet into the air, where I could see all 16 worshipers at once. So, I brought as much energy to my palm as possible. They hadn't seen me yet, and were still blasting my last position with their red and black fire. I took aim with my palm and focused on creating 16 small balls of mana in my palms. It took me a second of focusing and now… the hard part. I willed the balls of mana to line up with the center of my palms, one behind the other. I had to do this pretty quickly. I took aim at my first two and fired. I flashed my two palms, taking more aim and firing again. And I did this again and again until I fired all 16 orbs. By then, I was already freefalling back to the ground. And by then, my first pair had crashed into the head of two worshipers. As soon as the orbs hit, the two worshipers vanished into a thick muck, much like the goons Hermeaus Mora sent after us.

I watched as just as quickly, the next pair and pair after that got hit. No one thought to move during this whole half a second. I guess they were stunned, but at least… before I even hit the ground, there were only four left. My 'attack' wasn't meant to hurt anyone, just reveal to me who the real fighters were. And now that I knew who they were… I wouldn't be able to forget. My 'attack' also left some amount of my own mana inside them. I can track it back to them if they try that stunt again.

As soon as I touched the ground, I went right into my custom fighting stance: Gold Kanet Blossoms. The worshipers already knew I was here, so I went right in, palms blazing. I flashed up to the guy right in front of me. I planted my foot down, and drove my palm right into his stomach, blasting his insides with as much mana as I had. It exploded outside his back as a thick blue cloud of mana. The worshiper groaned out as he fell forward, grabbing his stomach. "Miraak… forgive me." He stumbled onto the ground, slowly dying. My mana destroys his aura… which means… if I use it correctly, I can destroy parts of his soul. I may not kill him, but I can incapacitate him long enough to kill him.

I flashed past him up to the next two victims, who foolishly stood next to each other. I came up to the one at the end of the line first. I snapped out a leg, round-housing him in the face with a foot full of mana. As I kicked him, I snapped myself around, launching both palms at the person's head behind me. I sundered his mental aura while snapping the neck of the one in front of me. One was an ash yam… the other crow food. When I touched the ash, landing in a crouch… there was only one left.

"Run." I said to him. I put as much power in it as possible. And he did. He fell for my Suggestion spell. He turned and ran for his life. I raised my palm, shifting my energy stance to Ash Storm. I warmed up a massive ball of mana and traced it to his head. I let the ball launch and watched is it hit him, destroying his mental aura as well. There… all four were incapable of fighting now.

So that means… I turned around. Standing in front of Veselle's room, looking at me… was Brand-Shei. I brought my palm up to him, letting my mana leak out freely as a burning flame. "Drop her!" I Suggested.

"I'm no mere puppet, girl." Brand-Shei replied. "I do not fall victim to the Suggestion of others, however practiced they may be at it. While we're on the subject… Hermeaus Mora wants me to collect this girl, bring her to him alive… Miraak wants her dead. I serve Hermeaus Mora, but take orders from Miraak. So… I'm in bit of a conundrum here. Should I kill my daughter… or give her to my Lord? Surely, that would be an even crueler fate. Can you imagine the things he would do to her? He was very hurt and humiliated by her when she poked his favorite eye out. He might want to… pay her back for that. Maybe remove a limb or two, perhaps kill her himself. But… she is still my daughter. Should I kill her here, while she sleeps? It would be so merciful."

"You dare touch one hair on my daughter, and it will be the last thing you do, Brand-Shei." Master Neloth said, still rubbing his eyes, but glaring in the general direction of Veselle. He pulled out one of his charged wands, pointing it at Brand-Shei.

Brand-Shei was quick when he jerked Veselle in front of him, making her his shield. "Be careful, both of you. One wrong move and… well… perhaps I won't have to kill my own daughter." He looked down at her. "Just look at her, all grown up. I missed her, you know. Couldn't wait to see her, but then to hear that I had to deliver her… I was so happy. Happy to know that my Lord was interested in her. The Lord of Fate and Knowledge, what couldn't be better?"

"Perhaps a life as a normal mage?" Master Neloth suggested.

Brand-Shei smirked. "Oh… but why be normal when you can be something grander? Like when you offered to turn me from a normal merchant into a Telvanni Lord… with promises of making me one of the strongest mages this world has ever seen… all at the price of watching Veselle while you ran and hide like a baby. And you held up your end of the bargain. I became one of the strongest mages in the whole world… at the cost of watching Veselle. Oh… and my life. Anyway, I would love to stay and chat, but Veselle and I have catching up to do. I was just biding time until my portal was ready." A giant portal opened up behind him. "Toodles."

However… I don't think he expected an old friend to come walking out. And I didn't know it was a friend either. I just knew… as soon as he stepped back, he was blasted with green lightning. He groaned out, letting go of Veselle. Whoever was behind him, grabbed him and hulled him into the portal with her. I heard her scream, "Find the Dragonborn in Winterhold!" That was all we heard before the portal snapped shut, leaving us alone with Veselle lying on the ground.

"Winterhold, huh?" Master Neloth asked as he rubbed his eyes. "The spell is finally beginning to wear off. I can see gray instead of white now."

I sighed. "Master… that's all there is out here. Gray."

"Get Veselle back to her room. Once I'm able, I will be there. I need to set up our new protection circle."

"Shouldn't I help with that?"

"Help Veselle first!" Master Neloth bellowed to me, making me snap into action.

I bolted right to action, running up to Veselle. She was still groaning in her sleep, shifting as she tried to fight whatever it was that was trying to hurt her. What was going on inside her head? Who was Brand-Shei? He called her his daughter, and it seemed like he had a falling out with Master Neloth. There was so much going on that I did not understand. I couldn't understand. I just had to do whatever I could do to protect her. I lifted her off the ground and dragged her the best I could back to her room, which wasn't even all that far away. I sluggishly tossed her into her bed, covering her with her comforter, making sure her pillow was properly fluffed before leaving. When I got outside, I could see Master Neloth standing in a newly prepared Triple Protection Circle with his wife. They were holding hands. Their energies met as one and… there was a blinding light. A large circle expanded through the town, making an even stronger protection circle border than the last one.

As soon as it finished, Mistress Ildari went back to meditating while Master Neloth ran over to me. "How is she?" He asked as he bolted past me and into the room.

"She seems fidgety but… back to what counts as normal, sir." He raced right past me and up to Veselle. As soon as he did, she coughed, and some blood splashed out of her mouth. Blood? How? Why? Was she getting worse.

Master Neloth turned to a bucket of water he set up earlier. Since she was running fevers, he was trying his best to fight whatever might be going on inside her. He wrung a cloth in the water before cleaning up the blood on her face and neck. "Just hang in there, Veselle." He paused as he replaced the water on the rag before setting it on her forehead. "I will find this Miraak… and put an end to this war of his." He turned to look at me. "You will stay here with Ildari and protect Veselle. I will travel to Winterhold and discuss the matter with the Dragonborn. Hopefully, he will come back with me to unravel this mystery. One way or another… I will end this war. This is personal now."

I nodded. "Roger. I'll guard the tower while you're away."

"You won't have to do much. Ildari and I upgraded the circle. What happened here… won't happen again. Unless our enemy knows some secrets I don't… that circle is perfect." He turned and headed for the door. "Good luck, Apprentice Mirri. I will see you soon, I hope."

"How are you going to get to Winterhold?"

"By ship, Mirri. In Raven Rock." Raven Rock? But…

"It's filled with those worshipers."

"And I will wipe them out… and peacefully quell the civilians. Meanwhile, you get some slave cuffs on the worshipers you spared here. Toss them in my observation cages in the tower. I'll deal with them when we get back."

I nodded. "Yes, sir."

"And… do get some new clothes on… you look dreadful." I looked down, seeing that I was covered head-to-toe in wet ash. And… I didn't even notice.

"Immediately." Oh yeah, that's definitely the first thing I'm going to do.


Cearbhail:

Next chapter... Asger returns to Solstheim. And Mirri pretty much becomes the main POV until Veselle wakes up. Yup.