Cearbhail:

This is a rewrite. I apologize because as I started writing the follow up to this chapter, I realized that I used an incorrect month and I spent MINUTES trying to figure out what year and month this should have taken place in. I just ended up using Morningstar instead of Eveningstar. A huge difference when you're relying on a set year. Anyway, it's fixed now, hopefully.

=^^= Enjoy...


[4e 205, 28th Eveningstar]

"I would like to thank you for all you've done."

"It's really no problem, sir. She did give us a warning, and it almost cost her life."

"She managed to warn us about the Dominion. She was shot because of us. If I hadn't jumped in to save her when I did… I don't think she would have made it. I'm sorry I ditched you, Maleek."

"It was no problem, Ruby. I was able to beat that… whatever it was on my own. That Shield you raised at the last second though… it was something. Amazing. If I didn't know you… I'd say you were quite skilled at magicka."

"Well… you know. I have my little 'rocks'."

"I'll admit, they're pretty special. So are you."

"I would like to thank you again, for all you've done for my daughter."

Daughter…

I felt my voice groan out, my chest thumping heavily as I started waking up. As I opened my eyes, I could see that I was resting in my old bed, still inside my old bedroom… the one from Riften. I could feel the house swaying lightly on the lake the town was built on top of, at least our section of it anyway.

I tried to sit up, but as I tried to do so, there was a sharp stinging pain in my stomach, one more in my chest too. This felt very familiar for me. I reached up to my bed sheet, pulling them off. My tiny chest and stomach were wrapped up in medical gauze, like I was a survivor of a war or something. I could see giant red-stained lumps of cloth taped down to where my sharp pains were coming from. I also noticed that… I was a lot shorter than I remember too.

Last I remembered… I was in Tel Mithryn. I was choking to death, and then I heard Mirri's voice. And then… well... here I am. I'm in this bed, back home in Riften. I reached for my throat, trying to find the inevitable scarring from where I tried to rip my own throat out. My throat was a little hoarse but as far as any marks or scratches, even dried blood… I didn't find anything. My throat was still pretty smooth. That's weird… almost as weird as waking up in Riften. Was it so bad at Tel Mithryn that we decided to run away from the whole island? It had to be. Our town was basically taken over. I'm sure of it.

I sighed, shaking my head as I tried to push myself out of bed. My freshly wrapped wounds were screaming in pain as I did so, and I felt my head rolling with the effort of staying conscious. I managed to scream out in pain before letting myself fall back onto my pillow.

"Veselle?" I heard someone scream, and he came crashing into my room, throwing himself through the door.

I came to a complete pause as I saw his face. Brand-Shei Tenvanni: my surrogate father. He was standing in my room, looking at me in complete wonder. "You're awake!"

"Awake?" I echoed as he walked into the room. "I should be dead."

He nodded. "You very well might have been if it hadn't been for our healer."

That's when I heard a light knock on my door. Ruby stuck her head in, only… she looked a lot younger, and shorter. "Hi… I'm Ruby."

I nodded. "Yeah… we've met before."

She rolled her eyes. "Only for a second. And I don't remember giving you my name." Her tail was flicking in what I thought was annoyance.

An Argonian followed in behind her. "I may have used your name when I passed by her. I do recall her listening to us as we stormed past her."

I was still astounded by how shorter she looked. She looked like she was a preteen, still wearing a light dress. The Argonian standing beside her was almost just as short, but had slightly thinner arms than I would have guessed for a famous assassin.

I was so lost in thought, trying to reason out why everything was going on like this… why everyone looked so different… why Brand-Shei was still alive that… I almost forgot that I was also younger than I remembered too.

"What day is today?" I managed to croak out of my mouth.

Brand-Shei, or Dad, I guess… he glanced back at Ruby. "Is amnesia a thing?"

Ruby shrugged. "Could be. I'm not a very good healer yet so… I'm guessing it's battle trauma. Asger told me about his time in the Imperial Legion. Sometimes troops wake up with temporary-induced amnesia."

Dad nodded. He glanced back at me. "Veselle, today is 28th Morningstar."

28th Morningstar? "What year?"

That caused a lot of pause. Dad looked back at Ruby before looking back at me. "What year do you think it is?"

I looked around the room. Ruby… Maleek… both were standing in my room. They looked like the day I first saw them. The day I first learned I was a summoner. Someone that had magicka, and a lot of it. Right before I learned from Master Neloth about how to become a better mage… right before I moved to Tel Mithryn just a few months later. I looked down at my chest. The two wounds I took from Dominion archers… that's what it felt like. I remember being shot by them. It couldn't be. What year was that? "4e 205?" I looked around.

Dad nodded. "Yup. Good… you had me worried." He gently rested his hand on my shoulder. "You've been sleeping for three days now."

Three days? The battle of Riften was on 25th Morningstar. So, that would mean… was I in the past then? Was this a dream? I looked down, pinching my own arm. I felt something very real and painful blast through me, and I knew from my experiences with hallucinations that it meant nothing. This could all be a dream after all. Honestly, I don't know why I even bothered with pinching myself. It seemed rather pointless.

I sighed, closing my eyes and trying to force myself awake. Nothing happened. I couldn't just… wake myself up? I've always been able to in the past whenever my nightmares became too realistic. And yet, I couldn't do it this time.

I snapped my eyes open, looking at everyone. They were all still here. This was weird. I'm not used to having dreams like this. But, there was one thing on my mind… one thing I needed to get off my chest. I looked up at Brand-Shei, my long dead surrogate father. He died in the battle, his cell crushed by Mehrunes Maven. He died in the battle to save Riften. And yet… here he was, standing in my room.

"Dad?" I started to ask him, but before I could really ask him what I wanted to know, he was already holding up his hand to stop me.

"I know… you're wondering how I'm out of prison." I guess that was one way of asking that, sure. "When that hulking monster stomped through our town, she stepped on the prison cells. She managed to break down my cell, and she also broke through the floodgates before ever hitting my cell. My cell was literally filling up with lake water, and I was beginning to drown. And then, my ceiling as well as my cell door were suddenly broken open by the force of the monster's foot. The water acted as a pushing agent, shoving me out of my tiny cell as the foot came crashing down. I was thrown out of my cell just in time to avoid being crushed to death by the monster. I managed to swim up, catch my breath, and escape the flooding prison.

"And because the entire prison is still filled with water from the lake, the prison has been shut down until they can rebuild the walls and drain the water out of the prison. Until then, I have a personal guard standing outside my house at each exit, keeping me under house arrest." Dad sat down on my bed, sighing as he looked me in the eye. "I'm sorry I had to leave you all alone… and I'm sorry that I will be leaving again soon. But, for now… at least we're back together."

I found myself nodding as he gently began to wrap me into a loose hug. "I love you, dad…" I whispered as tears began to fall from my eyes. He felt so real… and yet, I knew he couldn't be. There was no way this was real. And I really knew the truth… I was bewitched to think he was my father… and that he was really just a guardian for me while my real father, Neloth, searched for the witch that tried to kidnap me, who was really my mother the whole time.

And so… with him sitting on my bed, hugging me, I knew that this couldn't be real… but I really didn't care. I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him as tightly as I could. I had to ease up once I noticed that my wounded spots were starting to hurt more. As soon as I eased up, Dad eased up too, looking at my bloodied wraps. "We should let you get back to resting. You shouldn't be up in this condition."

Ruby walked up to me, pulling out what looked like one of her healing crystals. She closed her eyes tightly, straining to feel something. "Um… I'm really not good at this but… I think I can stop the bleeding again." She opened her eyes, looking right down at me. "Just lie still and I'll begin fixing you. It might take a few hours."

I slowly let myself fall back into my bed. Dad stood up and walked out of the room, saying, "I'll go make you some waffles. You've got to be starving."

I did feel pretty hungry, but I didn't think I was up for chewing anything. "Um… can I have some juice instead?"

Ruby shook her head. "You have a hole in your stomach. No eating anything except healing herbs, and potions. Although… I hate those stupid potions." She looked back at the Argonian. "Maleek, you have healing herbs, right?" Oh… he was Maleek, Ruby's boyfriend! That made more sense. I thought it was him, but I never met him so I wouldn't know for certain. He was a green-scaled Argonian with orange eyes and orange-colored skin showing around his neck area. Short orange/yellow-tipped feathers sprouted from his head as well as a few small horns bridging near his skull and nose.

He shook his head. "Not on me, but I know what they look like. I'll go fetch some."

"Please and thank you." Ruby sang to him, watching him back out of the room. Once we were alone, she turned her attention back to me. "Now, I'm going to let those bandages sit for another hour before I change them. And yes… I do have to change them. No amount of screaming or punching me will change that. I will be seeing you without you wraps on. I'm already pretty familiar with Dunmer bodies… and you remind me a lot of this girl I used to know… pretty intimately. And no… I'm not a pervert, and I'm an ex-slave that used to do a lot of dirty things, so seeing you without clothes on won't bother me one bit, or surprise me. And to be honest… who do you think even got those bandages on you in the first place? My boyfriend? Uhhhhh…. No. He wouldn't even open his eyes the whole time I was rubbing healing ointment all over your body. I spent hours, HOURS, washing your blood off my fur, and it wasn't all wound blood either, just so you know! So, don't go judging me because of the fact that I've you see you without clothes on, and felt most of you up while healing your holes!"

I sat there, face flushed, as Ruby screamed out her entire confession to me in what felt like a loud annoying high-pitched growl of a voice. I couldn't believe we were having this conversation within earshot of my dad just in the next room. Seeing her standing there, tail flicking madly. Just seeing her stand there breathing heavily, tail flicking made me think of the her that I knew in my time. She acted a lot differently. "Wow, you're weird." I managed to say. What else could I say? 'Um… I know you so… I don't care?' Or 'Jeez you're different one year from now.' Or even, 'Wow, your hair is purple and not blue… I didn't think it could be that color.'

But, this was a dream. Might as well have some fun with it. "So, how's M'aiq?"

Ruby paused in her raving. "Huh? Um… you know him?"

Think of something. "I read the Chronicles…"

"The what?" Oh yeah… they don't exist yet. Oh well, make something up.

"Yeah, the Chronicles of… Gnarnia…" I pronounced the G, pretty much saying Guh-narnia.

Ruby crossed her arms. "Ok, you have my attention. So, what do these Chronicles have to do with M'aiq?"

"He read them to me…" I hope that sounds normal. Please be normal.

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Ok. I believe you." She rubbed her chin in thought. "Last I saw M'aiq… he… um…" She closed her eyes in thought. "I was at a party, Asger's birthday party. He was dressed as a clown or something, making balloon animals. Or trying to anyway. His claws kept popping them all. And then I was fighting a dragon… and then I came here. And now I'm talking to you…" She started petting her braided purple mane. "And… um…" She shrugged. "What was the question again?"

"How's M'aiq?" I repeated my question, looking up at her. I tried to lean forward but it was useless. The pain in my chest was keeping me pretty much pinned to my bed now. Gods… this was some real pain right here. I hated it.

Ruby scratched her chin. "Um… I think he's fine. I'm not really sure."

"You ever talk to him?"

She shook her head. "No reason to."

"Really?" I pried. I think this was before she ever knew that M'aiq was really her father. I just couldn't keep it to myself if that were the case. Seeing her react would be too priceless.

She shrugged. "Really. He's just some Khajiit Daddy Asger hangs around. Always trying to be around me too." She leaned forward to whisper to me. "I think he wants to mount me."

All the images that sprung in my head were wrong in the worst way. I felt my eye tick as Ruby told me of all her encounters with him so far.

"When I first met him, he tried to hug me! I barely even knew the guy and he says this stupid Khajiit word, 'Niship' or something. He tries to hug me, and I kicked him in the balls! I thought if I crushed them, he wouldn't try to use them! And then he rolls around on the ground, asking why I'd kick him like that, and then I said there is no way I'd let him mount me like I'm his personal plaything. That shut him up. And I went along telling him in all the various ways I would not let him near me. You should have seen the look on his face. He was so crushed! Totally a perv in the making."

"He's your dad." I said.

Ruby paused… her tail flicking madly. "Niship… Nisha…" Her mouth widened in horror. "Oh… oh… shab! Shabla shab, fierfekla shabla di'kut!" She hit her own head. "How? How didn't I figure that out? He called me his daughter like… six times when he was grabbing his balls! And… I sat on his face… and I farted! Oh gods… Oh fucking Khajiit gods!" She screamed in her hands for a good few minutes before pausing. She looked up at me. "How did you know that?" She squinted as she walked up to me. She practically jumped into my bed, sitting right above my wounded areas. "Either you spill… or I will start poking you in the most uncomfortable way…" She bent down to see me eye-to-eye. "And I'm going to let you guess which uncomfortable way I mean." She winked. That was not what I wanted to be hinted of.

So… this was what Ruby was like back then. "Um… he told me."

She glared at me, pressing herself harder on my stomach. "You're telling me… my real dad came in here, told you a story… and then said something like 'Oh, by the way, I have a daughter. Her name is Ruby.'" She glared at me.

I nodded. What else did Ruby share with me? "He also said that he had a son named Ksaan." I hope she believes it.

Ruby's tail flicked. Her eyes unfocused as she stared off at nothing. "I do remember an older Khajiit in a house with me. I forget what he looks like. Ksaan…" She hissed. "Huh… that does sound somewhat familiar." She started to push off my stomach. "Ok, let's say I believe you. What else did M'aiq tell you?"

I shook my head. "Nothing! Really! It was just a reflective thing when he said how much I reminded him of you!" I sure hope she believed that.

Ruby shrugged. "Ok, I'll take that with a grain of salt." She turned her attention to my chest, pushing down on the medical gauze. "It seems these bandages aren't holding very well." She looked up at me. "I hope Maleek returns soon with those healing herbs, otherwise we might have to deal with an infection. And the last thing you want is to have Maleek drinking Hist sap and then spitting it into your infection." Ruby looked up at the ceiling, petting her braid again. "Although… I enjoyed it when he did it for me." Oh gods… that sounded wrong.

I struggled to sit up, but the pain in my chest kept me locked in my bed. Ruby took her cue to get off me. "So, I bet you're wondering why you have holes in you in the first place."

Was I? I mean… I remember being shot with bows, but I also recall summoning a massive Aedric god thing to kill the Dominion soldiers for me. And then it healed me using its own energy to do so. So… if those wounds were healed, where did these come from? "Sure."

"Dominion archers shot at you when you tried to warn us of their arrival. You saved our lives, Veselle. I was able to fight them off with the help of Mjoll and Karliah. They're both concerned for you too. They'll be back once they get done with their quest."

"Quest? What quest?" I don't remember them ever going on a quest.

"To find the wooden mask." Ruby shrugged. "I guess they heard from an old friend, thought about doing something about it, and then left. I told them you were stable and so… they thought they had to leave otherwise never know what happened to their friend." She looked back at me. "But, when the fight was over, we found you sitting against your door, two arrows stuck in you. One in the chest, one in the stomach. I'm the only healer… kind of… so I started treating your wounds. Every bleeding hole."

So… everyone found me with arrows stuck in me. "You killed the Dominion? I didn't summon some giant dragon to kill them and then heal me?"

Ruby's ears folded back. "Oh… oh I see what's going on. When you woke up, you were confused. Did you… by any chance… remember a different set of events?"

I nodded. "Yeah… I summoned an Aedric Vermeister, a giant spiritual feathery dragon thing. He healed me, pulling out my arrows, and then wasted the Dominion. My father died in the battle! You never spoke to me! And then for the next year or so, I was in Solstheim with Lord Neloth, my real father, learning magicka! And then I met you! You were older, had blue mane fur, talked about M'aiq, your brother, and healed my crippled body! And now there's some Daedra trying to take over the island, and I'm stuck here… in this bed, two years in the past!"

Ruby stopped me. "None of that is real." She said to me quietly. "I mean… you think it is, but… there's a thing called battle trauma. You were dying, Veselle. I saved you. And in your quickly dying mind, you created a different outcome, a different life. Some sort of confusing alternate world that for whatever reason, had this… Neloth, whoever that is, as your father. And now… you're awake. Your shocked mind is trying to process all of it, and because of it… you're fighting to believe your fabricated past with that of our chaotic… very chaotic world."

I wanted to call her out on how I knew about her past, but that might only tell her that the story I told her was a lie… and if I think I know this Ruby was well as I think I do, it will end with punishment for lying to her. Just like Gwen. "Um… I guess that might be true."

Ruby touched my shoulder reassuringly. "It will take some time to process it, Veselle, but you'll see. After a few weeks, you'll be back to normal and this made up world will have felt like a bad dream."

I nodded. I didn't know what to think, but I guess I had to wait until I either woke up or until something else happened. I could be in a coma… and this might be what being in a coma would be like. I'm not entirely sure. Or… like Ruby said, I could have dreamt up everything past me getting shot with those arrows. I don't know! I'm so confused!

There was one way I could find out. I could ask Brand-Shei if I was really his daughter. If he knew that I remembered my past, then… he might just tell me the truth. Or, I could get it from the source itself. "Ruby, hand me the crystal ball."

She looked puzzled but she left the room, coming back a second later with a crystal ball in her hand. "This one?"

I nodded. "Call up Neloth."

She shook her head. "Um… no." She placed the crystal ball down. "I know what you're doing. You're regressing."

"We'll know the truth if you let me call him."

She crossed her arms. "And what would be my motivation in all this?"

I shrugged. "Cats are curious."

Her tail flicked. "Curiosity kills the cat. If you call him and he somehow validates your claims… you won't recover from your mental injuries! And if he rejects them, your mind might shatter! We need to let you rest." She glared at me for a few seconds before sighing. "Ok, I'll make you a deal. Two days!" She held up two fingers. "You rest and heal for two days! And then I'll let you call Neloth. Ok? Just let yourself rest for two days, and you'll have your answers. That way, your mind will settle, your wounds will bind. And you'll get normal sleep… hopefully."

I nodded. "Ok. Thanks, Ruby."

"Until then, I'm staying here." She said as she gestured to her sleeping bag lying on the ground.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course you are." Just like when I got injured after fighting Mirri's father. "So, sleepover?"

She beamed at the suggestion. "Really? I have a friend? A friend that is not my future sister or my boyfriend?" She jumped up and down. "An actual normal friend! Yay!"

I'm guessing Ruby doesn't have any friends then. Not normal ones at least.

"I can't wait to shove my fingers in you!" She screamed. Um… maybe I don't want to be Ruby's friend. "Um… I meant your wounds. To heal them. So we can do things together."

I don't even want to ask what kind of things she wanted to do with me. I just wanted to close my eyes and go back to sleep. I'm sure that whenever I wake up, I can have this little chat with Ruby and we'll laugh about how stupid she was being represented in my coma nap. I'm sure we'll have a nice laugh about this.

"Um… sure, Ruby."

She jumped on her feet, clapping madly. "I can't wait. We can go shopping, talk about boys…"

Oh… ok. Normal friend stuff.

"You can show me some Dunmer stuff, like family recipes, Dunmer clothing. I raided your closet by the way." She held up one of my dresses Dad bought for me. "I really like this. Where can I buy one?"

I shrugged. "Um… Blacklight. That's where Dad gets all his stuff. He used to sell Dunmeri stuff." Before he was framed by someone for stealing.

Ruby nodded. "When you're able to walk, do you want to go visit Blacklight? I've never been there." Neither had I, honestly. But Dad went every two weeks or so to pick up more supplies. Sometimes he sent either Karliah or Mjoll to do it for him.

I nodded to her question. "Sure. Once I'm feeling up to it. Um… are you sure you want to be here? Aren't you on some important quest currently?" I read the Chronicles. I knew that her mother was fighting for her life, and that she had a wedding to get ready for just a few days from now.

Ruby shook her head. "It doesn't really matter. I wrote a letter to Lydia, telling her why I'm here. I'll be teleported back for the wedding and then I'll come right back here. Until then, I'm healing you. Besides, I don't have a home." She waved her hand around the room. "And this room… this is what I want someday." She reached down to the floor, lifting up a giant teddy bear I called The Lioness. "I mean… look at this! It's so fluffy!" She squeezed the bear to her, screaming, "I finally see the appeal of this! It's not as weird as I thought it was! I have to apologize to Ysolda sometime."

Ruby stayed like that for a few minutes, hugging The Lioness to death until Maleek walked back into the room, another Argonian following behind him. It was Zaliika, one of my best friends here in town. She waved to me. "Hi, Veselle. Nice to see you're awake."

I waved back. It kind of hurt to do it. "Hey, Zaliika."

Maleek held up a bunch of herbs. "Have all the cannabis we'll need." He looked back at Zaliika. "She's going to brew us a wonderful healing poultice… as well as a nice smoke that will help relax her while we stich her wounds."

Ruby nodded. "Oh… cannabis." She rolled her eyes. "I've just gotten over my moon sugar addiction… and now we have cannabis."

Maleek nodded, holding up another herb. "We have some catnip too."

Ruby groaned. "No! A thousand times, no! I don't… I…" She hesitated as Maleek walked over to her, holding the herb under her nose. "I…" She tried to brush her head against it, but Maleek chuckled as he lowered the herb to the ground. Ruby practically fell to the ground with it, rubbing her face on it. "Ugh… I hate myself right now…" She moaned as she rolled herself in the catnip.

Maleek laughed as he glanced down at her. "She's so cute." He looked over to me. "And now… we're going to get you as baked as possible." Great… just what I want.


Cearbhail:

So, we're going to see a few more chapters involving this other Veselle. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but it's mostly based on another character's scenario in my Bond Summoners series. I'm hoping to get back into writing that soon, but... we'll see. I love writing, but fanfiction is what I enjoy the most.