Here's chapter six coming at y'all. Thank you Trest for your co-writing skills and NaanContributor for your uncanny ability to catch editing mistakes that slip through the cracks between us. And thank all of you for being here and reading this.
"Get up!" Yang's head throbbed as the angry voice shouted her awake. "Get up, you drunken blasphemer!"
"Nooooooooo," she whined, nursing a headache. "Five more minutes…"
"I've tolerated you sleeping in my temple long enough!"
Blinking her eyes open, Yang groaned as she sat up. A woman in priest robes was standing in front of her, an expression of anger marring what was otherwise a beautiful face. The Huntress smacked her lips as she sat up, but paused when she realized she was feeling cold stone beneath her…everywhere.
A single glance down gave her all the answers she needed, followed by a shrill scream. Horrified, Yang wrapped her arms around her bare chest and shut her legs. "What… What happened to my clothes?! Where am I?!"
"Oh, so you're going the 'I don't remember anything' route? Next, you're going to tell me you don't remember coming in and blathering about marriage, goats, or birds and cats. And you'll say you don't remember getting outraged and getting your white-haired friend to help you freeze the water basin solid while you brought in trash and threw it all over the temple before unclothing yourself while she proceeded to…fondle Lady Dibella's statue. Which means you don't recall your Khajiit friend dancing around and then climbing up the walls before falling asleep on the table?"
Yang looked and saw Weiss passed out in front of said statue, her bolero and stockings gone, but otherwise still fully dressed. A glance to the other side had her see Blake wearing a white dress, which strangely looked like a wedding dress, laying on a stone table like a napping cat.
"I… Look, I'm sorry, but I don't remember how I got here. I didn't even know Whiterun had a Temple of Dibella."
"Whiterun? The Temple of Dibella's in Markarth!"
"That's…not where we were…" Yang tried to make sense of what she was just told, but her brain couldn't fit the pieces together.
"Then either you were drunker than even I thought, or you found someone who could teleport you here."
"So…were there some other people with us?" Yang glanced around the room, worried as she noticed a distinct lack of Ruby's presence, or for that matter Lydia. The priestess, however, did not appear to be sympathetic.
"Gee, I'd love to help you put together your revelry-induced memories, but I'm going to be too busy cleaning up the mess you all made to help."
Yang sheepishly grinned and laughed while looking around, realizing that there was a lot of broken wood and…things scattered about the room.
"I guess…I could clean up for you?"
"That would be a good start, and the first good thing you did since you came in here."
Yang quickly scooted away from the woman, who remained in place with her arms crossed before leaving them for her personal chambers, and picked up her discarded clothes. Her yellow shirt was easiest to find, but her pants had taken a minute. Luckily, her boots were right next to the entryway. The moment she was fully dressed and had all of her things on her, she went over and woke up Blake, who seemed more akin to a zombie –or perhaps draugr would be the appropriate word here– when she started walking after her, and then Weiss, who gave off an annoyed noise somewhere between a groan and a baby crying.
"I don't wanna," the heiress cried.
"Come on, Weiss. We gotta get up and clean up." Normally, Yang would be amused at this, but now, with a temple trashed and Ruby apparently missing, Yang couldn't find it in her to find any amusement in this situation.
"Make the maids do it."
"There aren't any maids."
One blue eye opened, the inner part of it yellowing. Her other opened as well, in the opposite state. She blinked a few times, and her eyes returned to their regular icy blue.
"Where are we?"
"Markarth, apparently."
"MARKARTH!" Weiss screamed as she shot up, only to immediately clutch her head and groan in agony. "H-how?!" she whimpered.
"Lady mentioned teleporting as a possibility. Know anything about that?" Yang shrugged, just as confused as Weiss was as to how they crossed half of Skyrim in a single night.
"Supposed to be rare, and really hard." She groaned again and pulled her cloak up over her head. "Master Conjuration and Alteration."
"Both? Heh, guess you'd need a double master." She looked around and winced. "Okay, so the place is a mess. Kinda feel bad about it and everything."
"Fine," the heiress groaned. "But first…do either of you have some…" Her eyes shifted uncomfortably. "I'm…thirsty."
"Right. Let's…go find an alley or something. Blake, hold down the fort for us?"
"Sure," the faunus sleepily moaned as she reached down and lifted up a piece of scrap wood. "Just…gonna start cleaning."
After a quick drink from Yang's wrist, leading to Weiss feeling a bit more rejuvenated, the three began to clean up the trashed temple. After nearly an hour of dumping out trash, sweeping up dirt, and putting things back in their place, the temple was finally back into decency. The priestess came out from the inner chambers and looked around, seemingly impressed.
"Well, it's a lot better now," she admitted.
"So, mind helping us figure some things out?" Yang asked as she set a broom aside. "Like, where a young girl with dark red hair and a tough looking Nord woman might be?" At this, the priestess brought her hand to her chin as she remembered the events of the previous night before shaking her head.
"Sorry, but no one else came in but you three last night," she explained. "You were all so deep in your cups, I could barely understand you. All I got was something about a goat in Rorickstead."
"A goat?"
"Rorickstead?" Weiss took out her map and began looking it over. "That's at the edge of Whiterun Hold, halfway between here and Whiterun city. How in the name of the Bro- uh, Divines did we get there and here?"
"Maybe that Sam guy from last night is a master wizard?" Yang suggested. She pulled out her scroll and switched it on. "Maybe I got something that'll clue us in."
"A master wizard? Well, it would explain why he was so easily able to give up a magic staff like that," Weiss replied before joining her teammates in watching the small screen.
"And now," they heard a drunkenly slurred version of Weiss from Yang's scroll announce, "I, Weiss Schnee, Heiresh to the Schnee Dust Co- Cor- The SDC! Shall prove that I am a better barb than Michael!"
"It's Mikhail!"
"W'ever! Hit it, Blake!"
"Apparently Blake can play the lute," Yang observed as the faunus of the past started strumming out some quick notes and chords.
"Weiss, you get down from there this instant!" The angry, shrill voice of Ruby sounded off in the video from somewhere in the crowd. Yang sighed in slight relief, as this this meant Ruby had not joined in on their…revelry, only to gulp in anticipation of how Ruby would react once they caught up to her.
"What is that? Some sort of magical time viewer?" the priestess asked in interest.
"Sort of," Weiss answered uncertainly. "I'd appreciate…if my teammate wouldn't…display anything em-"
"The merry folk of Skyrim, so sturdy and so stout!
"When the day is done, when it's time for fun
"We'll drink and sing and Shout
"You weak-livered milk-drinkers
"Go let your throats run dry!
"Cuz there's just one drink that we will sink
"Until the day we die
"Drinking mead in the halls of Whiterun!
"The maidens and the men!
"We drink our brew until we spew
"And then we fill our mugs again
"You can keep your filthy skooma
"It makes our bellies bleed
"'Cause when we raise our flagon to another dead dragon
"There is just one drink we need
"Nord mead!"
"Oh my god, did you improv this?" Yang asked through giggles.
"How much did we have to drink last night?" Blake rubbed her face at the thought of what occurred in that empty space of time in her memories. Weiss remained in a state of silent horror, which only amplified once the crowd started singing along.
"Nord mead!
"Chug another mead
"And another mug of mead
"Chug another mug of mead
"'Til you fall down!
"Chug another mead
"And another mug of mead
"Chug another mug of mead
"Warrior!"
Yang cracked out into bellows of laughter, the priestess joining her soon after. Weiss turned a little red from embarrassment, but Blake patted her on the shoulder.
"It's okay. If anything, it's kinda impressive."
"And it's hilarious," Yang cried out as she wiped away a tear. "Phew! Okay, well, that was the only video I had. Everything else from last night is selfies, which are...not appropriate for present company, but Ruby was only in the ones at Whiterun."
"So, she's probably back at Whiterun?" Weiss sighed. "We need to find Sam and get back then."
"So, should we head for Rorickstead?" Blake asked as she looked at the map.
"It will take us at least three days to walk there!" Weiss objected. "But, then again, we don't have much choice. Let's just try to figure it out as we go."
"All right." Yang turned to go, but paused in her step. "Um, sorry again about last night and all, miss priestess."
"Senna."
"Senna, do you…think you could give us instructions on how to…leave Markarth?"
"Wow, that place is a maze compared to Whiterun or Solitude."
"The architecture was inspiring though. And it's much more dragon-proof than Whiterun."
"That tends to happen when everything's made out of stone," Blake pointed out. "Who makes beds out of stone?"
"Dwemer, apparently."
A young man came up to them, leading a horse by the reigns. "Here you go, ladies. Just a moment and I'll have the other three brought out to you."
The girls stared in incomprehension for a moment as Yang held the reins to the yellow horse.
"The hell…?"
As he brought out a black one with white speckles, Weiss waved him down.
"Excuse me, but did you…see us come in last night?"
"Yes, actually. Don't worry. I've had sleep since then. A little. You all looked like you'd just come from a party. Bragged about beating down some bandits and 'liberating' their horses." He stroked the side of the animal as Blake took the reins. "Think I prefer them in your hands than some lawbreakers. Blondie's a little rambunctious around the mares, but that's a stallion for you."
"Did, um… Did we come in with anyone else?"
"No ma'am. Just you three, talking about a wedding or some such. My congratulations to the lucky couple, by the way."
A moment later and he had a pale horse with strikingly blue eyes and then a grey and black one out for them. Apparently, the last one they had used as a pack horse for a number of 'liberated' items, including some armor with the feeling of enchantment around them, and a large garden scythe. The armor was all missing, but the scythe was still there and now gleaming slightly.
"Of course, you'd enchant a scythe while you were drunk," Yang stated as she held the farming tool. "What do you think it does?"
"I'm not sure. Probably just has a freezing effect, considering that was the only offensive enchantment I know...or knew, anyways."
Yang gave it a half-hearted swing, and then noticed a rune near the handle. She thumbed it, and then shouted as she was slung backwards by a sudden bout of force. She coughed a little before chuckling. "Found it!"
"Was that… Did I enchant that thing with my Semblance!?"
"Apparently. Looks like your glyph. Cool. Maybe I should figure out enchanting?"
Weiss took the scythe as she helped Yang to her feet and looked it over. "Okay, so maybe in my drunken haze I thought I was making a suitable present for Ruby."
"Might belong to someone in Rorickstead? Maybe we should return it?"
Weiss eyed it a little longer and then set it back on Grey's saddlebags. "We'll see. First, let's get there. If I'm right, then having horses will significantly increase the amount of ground we can cover. I think…maybe half a day, if we push them."
Blake looked hesitantly at her horse as Weiss hopped upon Pale with nary a step out of place or a nervous flinch. Yang was a little more uncertain mounting Blondie, but ending up sitting in the saddle with just a bit of a wobble.
"Blake, you okay?" her partner asked. "Something up with Speckles?"
"No, I just…don't know how to ride a horse."
"Me either. I'm just totally guessing at this. Then again, I do have a motorcycle back home. Ever rode a bike? Weiss, any tips?"
"I took several horseback riding courses while growing up, but I don't think I could help out much. I'm…not the best teacher."
"Huh. I guess just try to sit steady. You made it here, after all."
"Let me give you a hand," the stableboy said, holding his hands together and low, ready to give Blake a boost. She accepted, and was soon up on Speckles's back, tilting one way and then the other before leaning forward and clinging onto the saddle horn.
"Thanks," she squeaked out.
"Gotta lead rope or something we can use?"
As the horses quickly trotted forward, Weiss looked through her own scroll, wishing that they had some kind of signal to work with, and seeing pictures from the night before. Some were embarrassing, but most just seemed to be them posing for one reason or another. Like Yang had pointed out though, Ruby was only present for the ones in Whiterun. It was likely the young girl didn't ever take a sip of anything alcoholic the whole night, and looking at her face she was not amused by her team's antics, mostly. A few showed her with a genuine smile, though more often she was worried or just…displeased. The vampire groaned, and then picked up a tantalizing scent. It was also familiar, and had her look to her side.
"Stop," she told her teammates. Blake began slowing, but Yang didn't heed her. "Hey, hold on!" The blonde ignored her, and so Weiss sped up Pale and swerved in front of Blondie, halting the other horse with a whinny.
"Weiss!"
"Get off the horse, Yang. You're injured."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not! Now get off so that I can heal you!"
The two met eyes for a moment, and then Yang swung off of Blondie. The moment she was on the ground on her own legs, they buckled beneath her and she fell.
"Yang!" Blake cried out and jumped off of her own horse, only to trip up as well.
"I should've thought about this," the heiress muttered as she dismounted and walked over to Yang with yellow magic forming in her hands. "Neither of you are used to horseback at all. Of course you'd get saddlesore at the least." She began pouring the healing magic into Yang's bleeding thighs, the girl wincing and beginning to tear up. "I'm sorry. Does it hurt too-"
"I screwed up," Yang whimpered. "I screwed up, big time." She wiped an arm across her face, but a few tears still came. "I got us all into this. Now Ruby's alone, probably scared out of her mind. We just…left her there, and all because…" She sniffed as tears poured more freely from her eyes.
"Yang," Weiss spoke softly. "It's not your fault. We all went into that dumb contest willingly."
"Because of me. Because I just had to get drunk and use the whole cultural excuse for it."
"Oh come on. Like you didn't have your fair share of experiences to tell you this sort of thing shouldn't happen."
Yang shook her head. "Two."
Even Blake looked surprised at that. Weiss blinked. "What?"
"Back on Remnant, I got drunk twice in my life. And two or three buzzes at a friend's house. Only blacked out the second time. Went home and got my ears chewed off by dad and Ruby."
"Hold on," Weiss ordered as she stopped using the healing spell, Yang's wounds now closed. "You mean to tell me, that the two times here on Tamriel make up half of all the times you've gotten drunk?"
"I just…" She sniffed again and wiped away her tears. "We're stuck here."
"We're… We're not stuck-"
"It's bullshit, Weiss!" she shouted, surprising the other two. "We don't even know how we got here! And these people know there are other worlds out there. They've been invaded by them. Ruby keeps saying we'll find a way, but… I just don't want to break her heart. There's no Dust, no one has Aura, no Grimm. This place would have something if there was any connection to Remnant at all. We're never getting home.
"And then…back in Riverwood… You killed a man." Weiss looked on in horror at what her teammate was saying. "But so did I."
"Yang," Blake begged. "It's okay."
"Killed three, actually. Shot two of them down, didn't even notice. How about that?" Her face looked dead to the world. "Their boss was armored up, and tough. Didn't stop me from wailing on him, or…" She looked to her hand and clenched it into a fist. "I punched his head off. I hit him so hard that I decapitated him."
"Yang, it's not your fault," Weiss argued. "These things happen."
"Punching peoples' heads off is a thing that happens?"
"No, I meant-"
"I know what you meant Weiss, but…all of this happening. I'm trying to stay strong, but it gets hard. So I think, 'a drink will relax me', but then I drink another, and another, thinking each time, 'this'll be the one. I'll feel better after this one'. I know going in that it won't really help, but I keep hoping that I'll be wrong." She fell onto her back and looked up at the passing clouds. "That's why…this is my fault."
"Shut up," the heiress muttered.
Yang blinked in astonishment as she looked over. "Wha-"
"Don't act like you're the one carrying the whole burden on your own!" Weiss cried out as her own face became tear stained. "We've all thought it. Maybe we'll never get back. Maybe we'll never see Remnant again, but we accept it and move on. And you think the way you killed someone was bad? At least his death was painless. At least you felt immediate regret. I can still hear Arvel's screaming sometimes! I remember exactly how it felt, draining him until he went completely still, until there was nothing more to drink! I still remember how good it felt!" Her eyes were turned fully yellow as she ranted. "And I remember…how horrified you all looked when you saw me."
Yang said nothing as the heiress sat back and held herself. She struggled to sit up and looked across to her partner, who seemed unsure of what to do. They both looked as Weiss continued crying to herself, as though the rest of the world wasn't there. With only the faintest thought towards 'what would Ruby do?', the blonde Huntress wrapped Weiss into a sudden hug.
"It's okay," she whispered. "I'm sorry. We were never scared of you. We were scared of what happened to you."
"I- I'm an actual monster. I could accidentally kill any of you, at any time. With nothing but a bite."
"But you won't." She pulled back from the hug and wiped a tear from Weiss's face. "I know you won't."
Blake crawled over and pulled herself into a three-way hug with the others. "We're all a mess."
"I guess so," Yang admitted. "Well, I can promise you guys this much. No more than three in an hour, from now on."
"That would be great, yeah," Weiss chuckled.
"Yeah, need to take your own advice into consideration," Blake suggested.
"Oh, what would that be?"
"Slow down."
Things were quiet for a moment, and then Yang burst out into laughter, Blake adding her own giggles a second afterwards.
They were more careful on the rest of the ride to Rorrickstead, making it there about mid-afternoon. As the girls tied their horses and began looking around, a man walked up to them angrily, a hoe in one hand held as menacingly as a gardening hoe could be.
"You three have a lot of nerve showing your faces in this town again! What do you have to say for yourself?"
Yang looked nervously back at the other two, who shrugged.
"Uh, sorry?"
"Sorry's not good enough! Sorry certainly won't bring me Gleda back from Grok. Sorry isn't going to help her while she's out there, fearing for her life, because of you selling her to Grok!"
The three were stunned at this.
"Oh…my god! We're so- Okay, this sounds pretty bad! We-"
"You're damned right it's bad. I'll never breed another prize-winning goat like her again."
And now they were stunned in a totally different manner.
"Oh!" Blake realized. "Weiss, how could you?"
"What? Me?"
"I mean, out of all of us, you're the one most likely to have sold something, like say, some poor guy's goat."
"Look, uh, okay. So, we don't really remember most of last night," Yang tried explaining. "So, do you remember us being with a guy with a staff?"
"You mentioned something like that…when you were running off with my goat!"
"Again, can't be sorry enough. Okay, so, we'll go get her back for you. Just point us in the right direction, and we'll talk to Grok about selling her back, then you can remind us about what we forgot, okay?"
"How did you sell a goat to a giant!?" Yang screamed as she ran with the goat in her arms. This one was even bigger than the one that was just outside of Whiterun, and from the way he chased them, he was also fast.
"I don't know! I don't even speak giant!"
The giant bellowed something at them while swinging its club, missing Blake and instead hitting a clone she left in her place.
"Quick! Duck into that ravine!"
The girls hopped down into the dip in the earth, and suddenly heard a guttural yell as the giant went overhead, apparently tripping up. The sound of something impacting earth accompanied several shakes of the ground before they came up and looked down the hill from the ravine, seeing the massive man now stuck amongst a few stacks of felled logs, his arms and legs sticking out at awkward angles and a slow trickle of blood spreading from him.
"Oh god! Hold on, we're coming!"
Yang was the first down the hill and began pulling a log off of the giant while Weiss began preparing her healing spell. Blake looked in and winced before waving them away.
"Guys," she announced. "He's…gone."
They came around and saw what she meant. The giant's neck was twisted all the way around and pinned by a log. He likely had died as soon as he hit the pile.
"We…" Yang began.
"It's his fault!" Weiss decried. "He got worked up over a goat, and tried to kill us! If he hadn't have chased us, or tried to talk it out, this wouldn't have happened. Let's just…go give this goat back to that farmer and move on."
"Oh Gleda!" the Redguard said as he pet the goat like one would a beloved dog. "And not a scratch on her!" He looked towards the others and sighed. "I still can't figure out why you stole her. You left a note, but half of it was gibberish scribbles and the other half had mead spilled on it."
"Never picking up another bottle," Blake mumbled.
"Only thing I could make out was something about 'repaying Ysolda', and even that was chicken scratch. Honestly, you wouldn't have had to worry about that if you hadn't left your coin purses back at the inn. But from what I hear, you found them right before leaving again."
"How did we even have time for… Teleporting, right." Weiss grumbled to herself about learning how to teleport as soon as she could.
"Sorry again about the whole thing," Yang told him. "You take care. You too, Gleda."
The goat bleated at them.
On the road again, the girls paused for a moment's rest and to let the horses drink from a stream. As Yang and Blake finished cleaning a fresh deer carcass, intending to sell the hide and eat the venison, Weiss stood alone and looked out across the horizon, as if focusing on something in the distance. Seeing this, the other two walked up beside her. As the two girls approached, she turned to them with a hint of fear in her eyes. "We need to go south."
"What? What's going on?" Yang asked, confused as to what had spooked Weiss so much.
"Look," Weiss declared, pointing towards the east. Yang and Blake had to squint, but they too saw what Weiss was worked up over, as a large amassing of dark storm clouds were forming over Whiterun hold. "There are storm clouds rolling in from the northeast. By the time we make it halfway to Whiterun, the whole of the plains and tundra will be soaked thoroughly." She took out their map and pointed along the road. "If we go south, it would take longer than a normal straight shot, but trying to go straight in this weather will slow us even more, assuming you and Blake don't catch your death in the freezing rain."
"You're scared of a little rain?" Yang replied, slightly angry at Weiss for the suggestion, only to shrink back with Weiss glared at her with bright yellow eyes.
"I'm scared of what comes with it! As in hail, lightning, dangerously high winds, exposure, you name it! This isn't some game where we can just ride along in a storm with no issue. We are not equipped to handle storms right now. We don't even have a suitable tent!" Weiss yelled out in frustration.
"Okay, okay! I see your point. No riding in the storm, got it," Yang placated the angry vampire, raising her hands upward.
"What if the storm goes south?" Blake asked, genuinely curious and attempting to get the conversation back on track.
"It'll hit the mountains here," she pointed at Bleak Falls and the Brittleshin mountains, "and would either slow down or be completely halted. It could only come down between Bleak Falls and the Hrothgar range, but it's already going past that area from what I saw."
"So, we have to go south?" Yang groaned in annoyance. "How much longer will it take us?"
"We'll have to camp soon, but I imagine we can get to Whiterun by the day after tomorrow." As Weiss declared their ETA, Blake squinted as she looked at the map in greater detail, her eyes widening as she realized what was along their path.
"Could we make a slight detour?" Blake requested. "Should be around…here." She tapped a space in-between and to the east of Helgen and Riverwood. "Orphan Rock. I need to get something for the priestess of Kynareth from there. A dagger of some kind called Nettlebane."
"I guess." Weiss shrugged, seeing no issue, given how close the location Blake mentioned was to their path. "Shouldn't take too long, right?"
"We'd just have to fight something called a…hagraven."
"I want to get back as fast as possible," Yang muttered. "But…we can make it work out."
Agreeing to their course of action, the girls saddled back up and continued to ride south. Eventually, they reached a four-way intersection of roads, and with only a sideways glance eastward, they continued south down to Falkreath Hold. They went a little further, stopping just before dusk near a hut where some hunters lodged. After getting permission, they were able to tie up their horses in front of a feeding trough, and went to a fitful sleep. They took off the next morning as soon as the sun peeked over the horizon. As they rode eastward, the sounds of thunder reached their ears and caught their attention. Looking through the peaks of the mountains, they could see the thick clouds slowly drifting over the lands north of them, flashes of lightning seen in the distance.
"Wow, you weren't kidding about that storm," Yang said as she watched it for a moment, seeing what Weiss was so worked up over.
"That is why you listen to me," Weiss declared as she let Blake pass her to take the lead. After all, Orphan Rock was her detour.
For several hours, their trip was mostly uneventful. They saw Helgen a ways off, but none of them were quite willing to revisit the burned city just yet. A little ways after, they headed off-road towards where Orphan Rock was supposedly at. They could see a few tents though the trees, but what really made the place obvious was the deer, goat, and skeever heads impaled on wooden spikes marking out a perimeter.
"Got a real homey feeling," Yang deadpanned. The horses tied up, they slowly began their approach.
"So, how should we approach this?" Weiss directed at the faunus.
"You're asking me?" Blake raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"You were the one asked to find this thing."
"Well, I'm not really sure. She said that it was held by hagravens, and that they're apparently witches who transformed their bodies with human sacrifice. I kinda…took it with a pinch of salt."
"So, is that actually possible or- Hit the deck!"
Yang shoved the other two aside as she jumped away from a careening fireball. The missile exploded behind them, hitting them with a bit of debris, some of it flaming. Weiss screamed as a piece of burning detritus impaled her leg, and went hobbling for cover as another fireball exploded behind her, tossing her through the air and into some kind of hole.
"Weiss!"
Weiss blinked her eyes open dizzily. Her left thigh hurt like crazy, and she smelled blood. Looking down revealed to her that the pain and blood shared a source, namely the spike of wood that had pierced her leg. Gritting her teeth, she braced herself against the ground and yanked her body up with a groan of pain. She left out a huff as she sat down and began healing the wound. While pain had been generally deadened ever since her change, she still felt it, and some things just didn't feel any less painful. Fire felt worse, in fact.
The moment the hole in her leg was closed she began standing, but paused at a horrible sight. A small whimper escaped her throat as she threw a hand over her mouth. Tears began collecting themselves at the corners of her eyes and she shut them closed. A quick gasp of air entered and left her lungs, followed by a quicker one. Her breaths turned into hyperventilating, as her other hand clenched Myrtenaster's hilt tighter and tighter, her already pale hand whitening from the pressure. Her exhales became ragged, then morphed into growls. Her eyes reopened, bright yellow and filled with rage. Her other hand ripped away from her mouth and magicka began gathering in her palm as a feral scream left her lips.
Just as Yang got closer to check on Weiss, she heard a scream, and the heiress leapt out of the hole in the ground in a blur of white. Weiss landed and released a sustained bolt of lightning into a nearby witch, electrocuting the woman thoroughly. As the first witch screamed and writhed, Weiss formed a Solid Glyph that blocked off several retaliatory strikes, then dashed on her Repulsion Glyphs towards another, skewering her with her rapier. Before the woman could even acknowledge her mortal wound, Weiss grabbed her by the hair, yanked her head back, and bit down onto her throat messily.
"W- Weiss!" Yang objected. The vampire ignored her and slung the woman off of her blade as she ripped out her throat, then summoned a veritable wall of ice spikes, which were sent hurtling towards a group of witches, some of which were impaled by the projectiles while others either ducked for cover or summoned wards.
"Vampire!" one of them shouted in warning. "Namira's blood! It's a vampire!"
"Weiss! What the hell are you-!" Yang shouted out towards Weiss, who continued her rampage against the coven.
"Yang…" the brawler stopped speaking as she heard a quieter voice come from behind. She turned to see Blake looking down into the pit Weiss had fallen in, her skin having gone pale. Yang trudged over to see what had caught her gaze, and gasped at the sight.
At the bottom of the hole were three bodies. From what they could see, each of them had their chests carved open, with a hollow left where a heart would have been. They were in different states of rot, but none of the bodies could have even been a week old.
And they were all children, likely none of them older than ten.
Yang heard her fists clenching before she felt them, her teeth grinding against each other so hard that they might have shattered. The heat around her rose up as her muscles tensed. When she finally dared to move, it was to turn, and immediately jump towards the nearest witch with every ounce of killing intent she could muster.
With a cry of rage, she knocked down one of the women, and then stamped down on her abdomen, feeling organs disintegrate and vertebrae crunch underfoot. Before, she might have felt guilt, but now all she could feel was murderous rage. Another tried to run, only for Yang to catch her by the hair, lift her overhead, and then slam her back against her knee, snapping her spine. The woman pitifully tried to pull herself away as she cried out in pain, but Yang took her chin and head in hand before snapping it to the side. The target of her rage now extinguished, she dropped the woman and looked for others.
Blake had dashed after several who had run from the other two's rampage. Throats were cut with surgical precision, and some witches were hamstrung before a thunderous noise popped off and something lodged itself into their hearts. One thought she could get away by casting invisibility on herself, but it only gave her an extra twenty seconds before a leg kicked out and slammed her into a tree. A sword ran her through and pinned her as she cried out in pain, clutching at the weapon and trying to pull it away.
"Ple... Please..." The faunus looked into the begging witch's eyes with intensity and silently used her cleaver to slice off her head. The faunus began gasping, before yanking out her sword and lumbering away from the corpse. There was a sickening knot in her stomach, but she couldn't tell whether it was from the sight of those slaughtered children, or the slaughter she and her friends were now reaping upon the coven.
Yang and Weiss chased a single witch over a log bridge, where she stumbled up at a tent that an ugly creature stood before, a black dagger in one of its clawed hands that was jabbed into the chest of a green creature that looked like a humanoid being made of wood, likely a spriggan. The abomination looked at the witch with disdain, and then at them with hatred.
"Damn'ed interlopers," it growled out with a fleck of spittle. "Could you wenches not hold off two fetchers?!"
"Mother Zira! One of them is a vampire! And there's a third lurking in the wood like a shadow!" The last remaining witch begged, only to be slapped across the face, marring her visage with deep claw marks. As she fell down with a shout, Zira, the hagraven, spat off to the side in disdain.
"Feh! Worthless sacks of meat! Should have brought more of my sisters!"
The witch whimpered as she stood back up, but was ready to stand by the hagraven's side regardless.
"You…" Yang ground out. "You're the one…who killed them!"
"Gah, saw the grave?" Zira smirked in pride, causing Yang and Weiss to growl. "Doesn't matter. You little harlots have no idea what can be done with something as insignificant as a heart! Just a few is all that's needed for a powerful ascension!"
"I've heard enough!" Weiss shouted. "I'm going to rip your heart out, you monster!"
"Monster, says the Spawn of Molag? Crah, I'll show you what a real monster is!"
The hagraven pulled back her arm as a fireball coalesced within her hand. As she threw it forward, Yang stepped in front of Weiss and let it hit her directly. The force of it knocked her back, but the fire did little but scorch at some of her clothing. The last human witch began forming a lightning spell, but before she could ready herself to throw it a sickle at the end of a ribbon sunk into her back. She grunted in sudden pain, and shouted as she was yanked back and Blake pulled herself up, leaving only Zira to fend against the Huntresses. Zira tried to set the faunus aflame, but only hit an illusory clone as the real Blake landed and swiped at her, cutting into her left arm. Yang ran forward and caught the right one by the wrist and pulled the arm straight. The hagraven tried to claw at her with her injured arm, but received an elbow to the face, dazing the creature. Yang threw up a knee and slammed it into Zira's elbow, snapping the arm back and earning a shriek from the abomination. Weiss charged forward and grasped the hideous face before sending jolts of electricity through it. As she pushed against the hagraven, they knocked the dead sacrifice off of the brazier it was set upon, and so the vampire slammed the hagraven's face into the hot coals.
They backed away for a moment as the hagraven kicked about, flipping the brazier and hot coals onto herself in her struggles. Feathers caught on fire and flesh sizzled as the beast tried to roll away. When it managed to pull itself to its hands and knees, a gun barrel was pressed to its head, and Blake pulled the trigger, ending its life instantly.
The three girls stood still for a long moment, each one breathing deeply as the adrenaline that had flooded them slowly faded away. Yang began hacking, and turned towards a cliff to send whatever came up off its side. Blake just sighed and went to check on her, while Weiss remained unmoving and silent.
Not another word was muttered in Orphan Rock. They took the spriggan and buried it with the three children. The witches and hagravens were left for the crows, the most being done for any of them an extra stab to ensure their deaths. They didn't speak again until they had nearly reached Riverwood.
"I hate witches," Blake muttered under her breath.
"We say nothing about the children," Yang reiterated as they walked up to Whiterun's gates at the dead of night. "If you have to, just tell her that we saw they had done human sacrifices. That's bad enough as it is."
"I know we're not really sheltering her, but…it feels a bit like it," Weiss complained.
"I know she's a big girl, but I'm afraid of what she'd do if she found out." Yang had a sad smile on her face. "She'd probably make it her personal mission to find every witch coven in the land and defeat them all, and… Well, we have other things to worry about. But…if we ever hear about one having a bounty or being a problem for a settlement…"
"I won't hesitate," Blake answered with every bit of seriousness. Weiss nodded as well.
Up in the Bannered Mare, the first thing they did was ask about Ruby. Hulda had to think for a moment, but then she snapped her fingers in memory.
"Right! Earlier today! She went out with that housecarl of hers. I'm not sure why, but they seemed to have a destination in mind."
"So, we just missed her?" Yang asked, deflated.
"I'm sure she'll be back soon. Ah, but Ysolda's been asking for you three. In fact, there she is." The girls looked over to see the woman in question walking down the stairs.
"Ah, there you are," she said as she stepped off. "Look, I hate to ask you all so soon, but you still owe me."
"Whoa, wait, back up," Yang called out. "For what do we owe?"
"For your friend's wedding ring, of course." She pointed out Blake as she said this, making the faunus suddenly feel like falling down and going unconscious was a good idea.
"Excuse me?" Weiss asked. Of all the craziness that they had gone through that night, she didn't think a wedding was even on the table of possibilities.
Then again, it suddenly made sense why Blake was in a white dress that day and they were at a temple for a love goddess.
"Don't you remember? She kept talking about a girl she met in Witchmist Grove. And something about starting up a population of… Was it baby deer? Something like that. Is everything all right? Did the engagement fall through?"
"Possibly," Yang groaned out nervously as she tried to think of a way to spin it.
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Tell you what; we'll call it even if you can return the ring. Not tonight though. I only came down for a bedtime drink. I've got a lot of sleep to catch up on."
"Yeah, we do too," Yang told the Nord as she walked to one of the back rooms. She looked over at Blake, who Weiss was already staring at. Blake looked ready to fall down at any moment, but compromised and instead sat down at the bar and ordered a glass of water.
"Let me guess," Hulda teased, pouring a glass. "Drunken proposal?"
"Sure looks that way…" Blake trailed off as she looked deep into her cup.
"Don't worry dear. Happens all the time. Either she'll accept that you both moved a little too fast, or you'll have to hide a while. In the second's case, it probably wasn't meant to be."
"Thanks, I'll…keep that in mind."
"We should probably go to bed now," Yang offered, the events of this drunken escapade catching up to her again.
"Your room from yesterday is still there. Just drop some coins for tonight and you'll be fine."
Weiss immediately pulled out some diems and handed them to her as the three of them retired for the evening. As they headed upstairs, Yang paused to look over her shoulder, smiling at Blake.
"So, were you seriously planning to start up a population of fawns?" she teased, purposefully emphasizing the "ns".
"Never again," Blake swore, stomping past Yang and plopping down onto her bed, ignoring the giggling of her partner.
"Again, half way across the country!" Weiss fumed as she looked at Witchmist Grove on the map. "There's no way this happened without teleportation!"
"I'm more worried about this mission Ruby's on," Yang said as she flipped the paper onto the table. "So, apparently Ruby's first mission for the Companions was one put in by Sam, and he says we'll meet up with them if we 'keep tracing our steps'."
"He couldn't be watching us, could he?" Blake asked, now a little worried.
"Now that is a good question. I checked by Farengar, but scrying spells are not only complex, but usually very easily detected. Even if he was watching us, he could only do it for a little while at a time, and only in a still location. We've been on the move, so there's no way he could have been watching us unless he set up a lot of scrying points, which would have been next to impossible."
"Geez, is there anything magic can't do?" Yang wondered aloud.
"It can't really bring back the dead. Not on its own, anyways. It would take a lot of different effects to completely restore a fully dead soul back to life. Most supposed instances of it are legends as well."
"So, no cheating death? Good to know. How about this fiancé thing then?"
"I'm kinda nervous about the whole thing," Blake admitted. "I can't imagine under what circumstances, even if I was drunk off my ass, would I just propose to someone." Her bow tilted forward, indicating her ears drooping. "I'm not even into girls," she muttered.
"Well, all the more reason to go clear it up. Come on, we're not doing anything sitting here talking about it." The other two followed Yang's lead towards the door. "Bye Hulda, we're off to break a heart. Let Ruby know we're looking for her if she comes back first."
"All right, girls. Try to let her down softly, you hear."
"Try doesn't mean succeed, but we'll give it a go."
"Uh, guys…" Yang muttered as they closed in on the house, which was surrounded by familiar pikes with the heads of animals stuck upon them. "Is this the right place?"
Weiss looked back at the map, tracing her finger along with it and gulping. "I- I think so."
Movement came from within, and then a hagraven exited, smaller than Mother Zira had been, but the same sort of creature all the same. It smiled and walked over to them.
"My love, you're back!" she said as she started towards Blake, who had completely frozen. "I got worried that your friends had gotten you lost, but now that you're back we can-"
Yang and Weiss jumped as a gunshot rang out. One of the hagraven's eyes imploded while her brain matter and bits of skull scattered behind her, staining the wall of the house. Blake silently hopped off of Speckles and approached the corpse slowly, nudging a leg with her foot before bending over and grabbing its wrist. She practically ripped the golden ring from its finger and then slowly trudged back to her horse and hopped on.
"Blake?" Yang murmured in worry.
"Three children died for one of their ascensions, whatever the hell that is. Three innocent children, just so they could become monsters. I don't care who she was, she was just a monster to be put down." Blake turned her horse around and started heading the way they came from. In silent agreement, Weiss quickly brought Pale about so that she could get in the lead and guide them, with Yang and Blondie taking up the rear.
The girls were practically catatonic when they returned the ring back to Ysolda, but another clue had come up from what she said.
Morvunskar. They had planned for the ceremony to be at Morvunskar. Knowing that Ruby would likely be there, they headed straight for it, not caring about how close it was getting to dusk or how far it was from them.
When they reached the fortress in the snowy mountainous area, they left their horses a ways away and approached. Some man in robes kept warning them about coming too close.
Weiss responded with a lightning bolt that sent him off the wall.
The entire fortress was alerted to them a moment later. Yang's fist came around as a mage got too close and slammed him to the ground. A woman tried firing an ice spike at her, but Blake easily closed the distance and rammed her gut with a knee backed by her Aura enhanced momentum. As the woman coughed and retched, a Dunmer came screaming with a mace in one hand and flame spell in the other. Weiss's ward easily blocked the flames, and her rapier swiped the mace from his hands. An almost elegant pirouette sent him on his back, followed by Yang's heel stomping on his chest hard enough to knock the wind from him.
The one Yang had floored a moment earlier stood back up and reached towards her with hands covered in lightning. The blonde turned on her heel and brought her fist down on his head again, only this time his skull met the ground with a wet crack. The other two looked on in horror at how easily their fellow had been slain, and the three Huntresses kept moving forward. The woman started crawling away, hoping that they didn't come back to finish her, and the Dunmer man made plans to do the same once he could breathe straight again.
"I can't believe I'm the one stuck at the forge. Again!" A mage currently working a forge inside Morvunskar complained, continuing to strike a hot piece of metal.
"Quit your whining. You-"
The two mages' conversation was interrupted by Yang busting down the door to the indoor forge. Both looked at her incredulously before they dropped whatever they were doing and readied spells. Before the man could even start gathering magicka for a summon, he was slammed up against the wall while his companion was lifted and thrown through the table she was sitting at. He pulled a dagger from his belt, but Yang slapped it out of his hand and into the hot coals. She grabbed him by his hair and held him over the furnace, forcing his face closer to the red hot coals with contemptuous ease. She halted and then lifted him back up, the smell of ammonia and a growing wet spot in his robes telling of his fear.
"Get the hell out of here," she growled.
The two needed not be told twice, and scrambled to escape the blonde.
Further in, there were more experienced mages who were ready for them, or so they thought. A volley of Destruction spells came at the girls when they entered, but all were halted by the appearance of a solid glyph. Shocked at what seemed to be a unique ward, they had little chance to brace themselves for the oncoming attack. Blake seemed to swoop in from nowhere, her foot catching an Altmer's neck and slinging him across the room before her blades swiped the dagger out of a dark haired man's hand, and then were reversed to knock him away with their blunt sides. Weiss slung a woman into a pillar, where she cried out before falling to the ground in a daze. Yang punched one man so hard he slammed into another, breaking the second one's arm. As they started to get back on their feet, the woman started running for the door. The Altmer sneered and readied a lightning spell to hit her, only for Yang to catch his arm and bend it back, snapping the shoulder out of place. The others saw this display of strength and erred on the side of caution, running after their female compatriot.
"Damn you to the deepest pits of Oblivion!" the high elf cursed as he held his arm with a golden glow. He didn't seem intent on running.
"You've got one more-"
He yelled as he stabbed at her with a golden-bronze dagger, which bounced off of her Aura with a slight spark and audible chink. She sighed and gripped him by his arms, seeing the fear in his eyes.
"That was strike three!" Knowing that two of them had turned back to see what would happen, Yang reared back a fist and swung as hard as she dared herself to. There was a meaty crunch as her fist met the elf's face, and then his body was flung all the way across the expansive room, smashing into the far wall with a bloody splat, his face completely pulverized by the punch. The two screamed, one far less masculine than the other, and then the Huntresses heard their feet carrying them further and further away.
Yang shook her hand and wiped her knuckles off on an old cloth as they continued on, pausing at the sight of a large, misty, glowing orb at the top of a set of stairs with a setup like a cheap throne.
"What…in the world…" Yang wondered.
"This looks like…a portal of some sort," Weiss observed.
"A portal to where?" Blake asked as she sheathed Gambol Shroud.
"Going by the three-dimensional shape, it's a portal to another world."
Yang looked at her with wide eyes. "Does that mean…? Could it…?"
"I…doubt it leads to Remnant," Weiss admitted with some disappointment in her voice. "More likely, it leads to a plane of Oblivion, as those worlds seem to be adjacent to Nirn. But, thanks to some kind of seal made at the end of the Oblivion Crisis, we can at least assume this portal is…safe. Relatively speaking."
"Okay…so… Do we go in?"
The girls looked at each other, none of them seeming to want to suggest that they or someone else take the first step. Finally, Blake stepped forward.
"I'll look in first," she said. She seemed to hold her breath as she took a step forward and leaned her upper body into it. After a moment, she came back out, a little wide-eyed, but physically unharmed. "It…looks like some kind of grove. I saw a bridge, a lantern, trees, and a small waterfall."
"So safe?" Yang asked.
"Yeah, pretty safe."
"All right then," the blonde announced with a clap. "Let's dive in!"
The three stepped through the portal and looked around themselves, seeing that they were in a place like Blake described. Lanterns lined along a path, part of which was a stone bridge over a stream, from which a short waterfall poured just past the bridge. A light mist hung in the air, but it seemed more inviting than invasive.
"Is this…how Sam traveled us around?" Weiss wondered aloud. "Could he have actually found some sort of shortcut through dimensional hopping?"
"That sounds more sci-fi than fantasy, but I guess it could work."
"We're not in some sort of B-class movie, Yang," the heiress reprimanded. "This is reality. As it turns out, reality is stranger than fiction."
"Should we…go?" Blake asked as she pointed at the path before them.
"Well, we do need to find Sam. He said he'd be wherever we retraced our steps to." Weiss took the lead as Yang pulled out her scroll and flipped through some of the pictures.
"Huh, I think we actually were here. The environment looks…about right."
After crossing over a couple of bridges and following the path to the right, the girls came upon a table with lanterns set all about and people seated around, eating from a feast on the table's top. Some were drinking deeply as well, bringing a mote of apprehension to the girls. One reveler was an Orc that looked familiar to Yang, and the cause became clear when she found a picture of her holding him bridal style, only he was shirtless in the picture. She grinned as a sliver of memory came to her, and recalled that at some point she declared that she'd go beat every Orc Chieftain in Skyrim to him, which just seemed to make him adore her all the more.
She couldn't quite figure out if the make-out was real or imagined though, as there was no picture proof.
"Yang Xiao Long!" a voice shrilly called up from the side. The girls turned and felt both relief and trepidation at seeing their leader unharmed, though wearing a party hat.
"Ruby!" Yang cried out, but paused in her reach for a hug, when a finger collided with her nose and pressed in.
"You've been gone for days! Days! I don't even know how many, because I was underground for at least a full day! Do you know what I fought!? Falmer! Do any of you know what Falmer are?! They're like evil, blind versions of Gobble! Oh, Gobble wasn't nearly as evil as these things! At least he had a good side for a while in the second movie! Falmer? Pure evil! And then they have pets! Do you know what their pets are?! Chaurus! And chaurus are giant, unholy hybrids of centipedes, ants, earwigs, and nightmares! They make their armor out of their shells!"
"Ruby, calm down," Yang said as she tried to hold on to her little sister's shoulders, only for Ruby to jump into her arms and hug her tightly.
"I was so scared," she started to cry. "But I was even more scared because I didn't know if you were all okay! Please, don't ever do that again!"
Yang felt her heart sink before she wrapped her own arms around Ruby. "I promise. I'll slow down from now on."
Ruby sniffed and then pulled away before rubbing her eyes. Their teammates came up and the other two gave the younger girl a hug.
A chorus of "aww's" reached their ears and the girls recalled that they had a bit of an audience watching them. They separated with a bit of blush on their cheeks, and Yang laughed heartily.
"Oh man, we had a trip getting back!" Yang boasted, though she winced a little at some of the clearer memories. "I'll spare you the details. Just know that Weiss sold someone else's goat and fondled a goddess's statue."
"What the- Me?! You're the one who trashed the place and fell asleep naked in a holy place!"
"Hey! To be fair, it was the temple of the goddess of beauty. If anything, I was paying homage to her with that last bit. Besides, you helped with the trashing."
"Jeez, guys…" Ruby moaned before looking over at her dark-haired teammate. "What about you?"
"I got engaged to a monster. It's dead now."
"Um…good?"
"That it's dead, yes."
"I can't believe you'd all be so irresponsible," a grown voice said. The girls looked over to see Lydia, also wearing a party hat. "Getting a little deep in your cups is one thing, but traipsing around the whole province to wreck it while drunk is another."
Yang tried her best to keep her chuckles contained, but she couldn't help it and began slapping her leg as she guffawed.
"What?"
"That hat…! It doesn't suit you!" she laughed a little more before it finally cooled down.
"I wouldn't have worn it, but it's not a good idea to get on any god's bad side."
"Uh, do wha?"
Suddenly the three girls felt something plop on their heads as another familiar face popped up.
"Heya girls!"
"Sam!" the three yelled at once.
"Boy, I have to hand it to you! That was the most fun I've had in…centuries! The last time I had that much fun was a drinking contest with the Nerevarine about two hundred years ago. Man, could that guy hold it or what! Nocturnal seemed to hate him, though. Or really liked him, you could never tell."
"Wait, centuries?" Weiss asked. "But…you're not an elf. Are you?"
"Hm, oh no, I'm no elf. Gimme a sec." Purple energy swirled around the man, causing the girls to take a step back. In Sam's place stood a tall, dark skinned creature with red markings and horns upon his head. Spiked armor covered his body, with red running through it like pulses of energy or blood. He laughed jovially at their shocked expressions, though Ruby seemed to be irked rather than surprised.
"Guys, Sam's actually Sanguine. He's like…the god of parties or something."
"Prince is the more…accepted term," Lydia explained. "Though, for all intents and purposes, he is a god. And…the god of revelry, debauchery, gluttony, lust, and greed."
"Thaaaaaaaat's me!" the apparent god cheered. "Oh boy did we have a good bit of all of that! I'm pretty sure we made 'Bella blush with that last act. Course, I wasn't physically there. Can't really enter a Divine's temple all willy-nilly, you see.
"Oh, and I just remembered! Miss Xiao Long, you 'beat' me in that drinking game, twenty-five bottles to my twenty-four! Of course, you were sloshed as could be once that was said and done. Still, deal's a deal. That's three hundred septims –hm, let's put it in denars for simplicity's sake." A bag of coins appeared out of thin air and landed in Blake's hands. "And of course, my staff." The staff appeared as well and Yang caught it.
"Uh…how do I use it?" Yang asked gently, not wanting to offend the guy who was apparently a god.
"Oh, give that here," Weiss demanded as she snatched up the rose shaped implement. Magic focused in the blossom, and then was launched a few feet away, where an orb expanded and disappeared, revealing a creature that looked frighteningly like Sanguine, only smaller.
"Ah, hello my lord!" the daedra said towards the Prince. "So, the Sanguine Rose is in the hands of a mortal once again?"
"Again?"
"Eh, I like to give it out once in a while. It'll summon up whatever daedra you need to the occasion. Fighting, setting up a party, cleaning up your house, messing up your house." He blinked with the last suggestion. "Oh, speaking of which, need to get those guys back." Four more spheres appeared, this time summoning up the four horses the girls had been using. Before they could object, Sanguine waved his arm to them. "All right, you guys can turn back now." Again the purple energy surrounded them, transforming them all into humanoids. One was like the daedra summoned by the staff, two were violet-skinned, a male and female, and the last looked like a normal human but with six horns on his head.
"That…was the most degrading thing I've ever done," the armored one complained.
"Next time think before you place a bet," the female violet one reprimanded.
"Hey, Yang, right?" the male violet one asked. "Got to say, that had to have been the hardest anyone's rode me in centuries." Yang blinked as the innuendo finally registered in her mind, causing her to pale and hold herself tightly.
"Did he just…" Weiss began, slightly horrified.
"Can I go back to eating now!?" the horned man yelled.
"Hey, that's what the food's for," Sanguine told him.
"Yes!" he cheered way too happily.
Sanguine smiled at the girls. "Didn't think you really got a set of horses that never seemed to go tired or get hungry, did you? Well, that second part's debatable for the Glutton there. But yeah, figured you all might need a little help getting around, so I set you up with some daedra looking for entertainment, or in that dremora's case, in need of punishment."
"We've been riding around on demon horses this whole time?" Blake asked in a higher pitch than normal.
"Hey, whatever works, right?" He laughed at her expression and waved his arm.
"Sheesh, well, I guess we, uh… Wait, how'd you get here Ruby?"
"We were invited."
"Well now, I think it's about time to send you all off," Sanguine said as he started collecting purple energy into his hands. "I know you all promised to lay off after some…consequences, but don't quit cold turkey now! After all, life's bland without a little fun now and again. And you all have a lot of potential! Have fun with the staff!" He released the spell at them, and then they felt themselves fall out of one world and into another.
The girls all looked around themselves in confusion. Rather than Morvunskar or some cave, they were inside of a warm, familiar room. They looked out the door and saw that they were back at the Bannered Mare, in the room they usually rented.
"Guys," Yang began.
"Yeah?"
"Let's go to bed."