Finally got the time to do this! BTW, I will soon be updating the Dragon Rose Chibi story. If you haven't checked it out, take a look.
Ruby swung her scythe around her body and then up and into a frost troll's chest. The creature grunted once before going limp and falling forward, pulling the weapon down with it and out of Ruby's hands. She grunted in annoyance and tried to pull her weapon free, only to have to abandon it as another troll came at her swinging its claws. Dawnbreaker was pulled from her side and she sliced away at the beast's arm as it came at her, catching the limb on fire. It only lasted a moment, but it was enough of a distraction that she was able to jump to the side and then bury her sword into its ribs. As the troll sputtered its death throes, Ruby tried, and failed, to pull the artifact out of its body.
"Oh, come on!" she griped as she had to jump away from another troll attacking her. Before it could do anything more than roar at the Dragonborn's face, Yang came up behind the frost troll and swung down, cleaving into it and splitting apart its shoulder and chest. She yanked the axe back out as its enchantment set the dying beast on fire.
"Come on, sis! I'm not having that problem!" Yang taunted as she turned towards two oncoming trolls.
"They keep healing over my weapons even though they're dead! It's dumb!" As Ruby complained and tried to yank Cresent Rose free, Yang made a horizontal swing, hitting one troll directly in the gut. She then pulled the axe out and hit the other's leg, slicing it off. With one troll mortally wounded and another downed, she finished off the maimed one with an executioner's chop then turned towards the other and punched its face with a left hook, slinging its head around with a sickening crack and sending it to the ground where it lay still afterwards.
Yang smirked and looked back to the two housecarls, who had been watching the two girls closely. "How many does that make?"
"Nine for you, four for Ruby," Lydia recounted. As Yang pumped her fists in victory and whooped, Ruby grumbled as she yanked Dawnbreaker loose and cleaned off the blood in the snow.
"Stupid healing factor..." Ruby continued to clean the blade. Hearing a pair of heavy footsteps, Ruby stopped herself and looked up to see Valdimar's snow-covered beard.
"If I might make a suggestion," Valdimar started, "stabbing isn't very effective for trolls. You did good at hitting vital points, but most people won't hit the heart every time, and losing your weapon is a disaster in most cases. Slashing is better, but it'll take a thousand slashes to down most trolls. Thane Yang had a distinct advantage with her axe. Splitting the troll apart makes it nearly impossible for them to heal, at the very least not quickly. That's why she could more easily pull her axe free."
"So axes are best against trolls?" Ruby asked with a small hum.
"Essentially. Blunt weapons are fairly good, too, but like with slashing you have to keep hitting the trolls until you smash something important."
"Thanks, Valdimar. That could actually be helpful in the future." As Ruby sheathed her sword, she looked around the ancient ruins and began to walk around, the snow crunching under her feet as she went. "This place is pretty old. How long has it been here?"
"Since the First Era, when Shalidor constructed it to test Archmage hopefuls," the older man explained. "I'd…suggest not going through the actual maze itself. I've only heard stories and whispers but...they aren't pretty." A tense silence hung in the air as they directed their gaze towards the large stone doors. They all knew that inside laid a massive ruin, filled to the brim with untold secrets, but at the same time felt something distinctly...wrong coming from its depths.
"Yeah... Let's not do that," Ruby said with a nod in agreement. With an unspoken command, she sheathed her blade and began to move. They all began to walk through the ruins, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. As the group walked on, Ruby felt something in the air. It was different from the earlier feeling. Less of a cold foreboding and more of a warm beckoning. Pausing, she looked over to one of the small barrows then began walking towards it. Seeing what she was doing, the rest of the group paused.
"Uh, Ruby?" Yang called out to her.
"Hold on a second. There's…something here." Ruby walked into the small barrow and gasped at what she saw before her. It appeared to be an ancient shrine, with a stone carving of a dragon's skull in the center, some humanoid carvings on either side of it, and two more stone dragon skulls on the ends. It must have been important, given how it was in the center of the ruin, yet the shrine was damaged and decayed, the dragon skull stone lopsided, and several of the humanoid busts outright missing. In front of the ruined shrine was a decayed and frozen corpse, likely one that had been there for years. In its ribs was a green dagger, which Ruby took out and looked over before she noticed an old leather sack off to the side and a wooden mask atop it. She picked up the mask and looked it over as the other three all walked in.
"Well, someone had a bad time in here," Yang commented as she looked around the body and sniffed at the scene. Valdimar was looking over the ancient shrine while Lydia went to her Thane's side. Ruby felt the mask in her hands thrumming with an energy both familiar and alien. She turned it in her hands, seeing that there were no clear holes for eyes. Feeling the weight of the mask in her hands and letting thoughts run wildly, something in the back of her mind told her to place the mask on her face. She lifted the mask and placed it on, and immediately the darkness it created disappeared and was replaced with the area in front of her, only the moment she let go, the scenery shifted completely. Ruby gasped and jumped back as her companions and the decay of the shrine disappeared, replaced instead by a pristine version of the shrine. Eight busts stood proudly, four on either side of the dragon skull stone center. Ruby walked over to them and touched them, feeling the stone on her fingers as real as anything.
She idly noted that the mask was still on her face and reached up to touch it before slowly taking it off. The bright and pristine shrine was then replaced by its decayed self, and Ruby heard shuffling behind her.
"Ruby! Oh my god!" Ruby turned just in time to be wrapped into a hug by Yang and have the air squeezed out of her.
"My Thane, you just completely disappeared!" Lydia shouted. "What happened?"
As Yang loosened up her embrace, Ruby pushed herself out of her arms and gasped in a breath. "Don't worry, guys. It was just this mask. I thought I was just seeing something, but…you're saying I disappeared?"
"You just vanished!" Yang explained as she backed up, still holding Ruby's shoulders, as though afraid she would disappear again at any moment. "Lydia started waving around, but you weren't there and invisible and none of us heard or saw anything."
"So, the mask must have transported me to…somewhere. Here, try it," Ruby offered while placing the mask on her sister's face.
"Ruby, wha-" Yang began to object before she seemed to fade into nothing.
"Whoa, that's actually pretty creepy from the other side," Ruby commented. A second later, Yang reappeared, the wooden mask in her hands.
"What the hell?!"
"See? It's weird, but kinda cool. I don't know what it's for though." Ruby looked back at the decayed shrine and hummed. "Maybe something to do with the busts. From the look of them, they can fit a mask about the same size as that one." Ruby gently took the mask from her sister's hands and went over to the shrine. She placed the mask on one bust and nodded. "Yep, definitely."
"So where the heck are we supposed to find a bunch of other masks like that one?" Yang asked as she looked over the old construct.
"Probably scattered to the four winds, I'd imagine," Valdimar put in. "If I'm not mistaken, that's the sort of design used for the masks of the Dragon Priests. So, either the masks are still in the tombs with their ancient masters, or some tomb raider has managed to find one or two."
"More tomb diving. Yay," Ruby groaned. "You know, just once I'd like for the ancient source of power to be up on a hill in a cheery forest."
"What, you wanna find them?" Yang asked, silently agreeing with her sister's grievance.
"Well…" Ruby started. "This mask was enchanted to transport people to…someplace. Imagine what some of the others might do when worn. Or what the shrine does when all of them are put on it. I mean, putting the Horn back gave me a connection to Jurgen's soul for a minute there."
"Okay, I can kinda follow that logic."
"Besides, we need something to do once we've saved the world from everything. Nothing like an adventure to discover missing artifacts for four friends to go on."
"Hehe, never lose that spirit, child," Valdimar complimented.
After the group filed out, Ruby looked at the mask in her hands then put it on again. Everyone went still, but nothing seemed to happen. Ruby just looked at her arms and then around at her surroundings before shrugging.
"Guess it only works in the shrine," Ruby said clearly, as though there wasn't a piece of wood covering her face. "Hey, Lydia, remember the failed helmets?"
"You mean the ones that either keep slipping to the back or spinning around my head?" Lydia dryly replied with a raised eyebrow. That was when they learned Ruby was far better at making weapons than armor.
"Yeah, those. Try this on." Ruby passed the mask over to her housecarl, who wore it after a moment's hesitation. She looked around and hummed thoughtfully.
"It's almost like it's not even there."
"And it stays on, somehow. Probably magic." Ruby hummed to herself, deep in thought, then nodded. "Anyways, I'll ask Weiss about looking into making a helm with some sort of enchantment making it invisible from the inside or something. Until then, you can keep that until we need it for the shrine and stuff. It's better than nothing, and it might actually help on the psychology side of battle whenever we fight people."
"Wow, that's pretty devious, sis," Yang commented.
"Oh, is it? Well, you don't have to wear it if you-"
"No, it's fine, my Thane. Better to scare off some thief than have to spill his blood." Lydia nodded. She knew Ruby would appreciate that answer, which was proved when Ruby's eyes lit up.
"Oh. Well, I guess it works out then."
"If you don't mind though, I think I'll set this aside for now," Lydia said as she took off the mask then placed it onto her belt. "Putting it on is easier than taking the shield from my back, after all."
"Guess that's true. So, where to after here?"
"Well, it's a while from the nearest village. Might have to sleep under the stars," Valdimar explained as he took his horse's reigns. "Not the worst sight to sleep under, by any means."
"Oh, hey, there's this pretty cool place with this forge. Maybe we could make a stop on the way," Yang suggested.
"Wait, what kind of forge?"
Hearing the thundering of a set of hooves, a young man stood outside at the ready as a woman rode her black and brown patched horse up to the stable, where she jumped out of the saddle, handing him a denar quickly.
"Blake Belladonna," she said, before running up into the town. He walked over to the mare and immediately felt his teeth beginning to grind at what he was seeing.
"That cold-hearted bitch!" he seethed. "Look at you! It looks like she's run you all the way from Windhelm! Gods, another few moments and…" Shaking his head, he lifted a hand and placed it on the horse's neck, letting healing magic flow from him and into the exhausted beast of burden. "Don't worry, girl. I'll give your owner a stern talking to, customer or not."
Blake rushed through the small town, dodging around pedestrians and then running up past Faralda before the Altmer could say anything. As she passed the gates, she let herself slow down and took a few deep breaths. A few students were walking by, looking at her with curiosity before she waved them down.
"Has there been any Thalmor agents stopping by?" she asked.
"Um… No?" a young woman around her age answered. "Unless you mean Ancano, but he's assigned here, so he-"
"Thank you, that's all I needed to know." Blake went off to the side, heading into the Hall of Countenance, hoping to run into Weiss or Riane first.
"Rude," one of the students muttered.
"Quite a beauty, though."
"Down Talia. You can go chasing women when we don't have a pressing project."
Shaking her head, Blake entered the tower and began looking around. However, on the first floor, both Inigo and M'rissi were sitting, Inigo reading out loud as M'rissi paid attention. They both looked up and saw her, M'rissi perking up instantly.
"You're back!" she declared happily, gracefully leaping out of her seat and running up to Blake. "Now she will know who she is, at last!"
Blake sucked in a breath through her teeth. She had been hoping to face this part of everything last, after informing the others about what she had found and getting advice on the situation.
"Okay, look, I got some good news and some bad news."
"Give her the bad news first! No, the good! Bad! Good!" M'rissi went quiet as she thought to herself for a moment in her indecision. "Definitely she wants to hear the good news first."
Blake sighed. "Well, I got the password, bu-"
"Hurrew!" the Khajiit woman cheered before leaping at Blake and wrapping her neck into a hug. "She gets to know her past and who she is! Thank you so much! She will go tell everyone the good news!" As she started to speed off, Blake reached out to her.
"M'rissi, wait! The bad news!"
"No no no no no! Not now! Don't ruin her good mood with your bad news! Tell her after she has remembered everything." M'rissi sped off up the stairs before Blake could speak again. She looked over to where Inigo had been sitting, only to see he was gone. She heard the door close behind her and went over to it and looked out the window, seeing him running and laughing as he headed into the Hall of Elements.
"I- This- This isn't how I wanted it to go." Blake began rubbing her eyes and forehead. "Damn it! This is already getting screwed up!"
As her teeth were clenched in frustration, she headed over to the stairs and began heading up, stopping halfway when she ran into Riane and an older woman in robes denoting her as a master and teacher.
"Ah, there you are. I almost didn't catch your friend's words, she was so excited." Riane smiled before her eyes widened slightly. "Oh, Madame Collette, this is Blake, Weiss' friend."
"Oh, yes. You're the one who brought that Khajiit girl here for her memory treatment and whatnot," the teacher said as she nodded. "I looked over it as well, and Riane got it right in one. Aldmeri Sarcophagus. Hard to craft, but not hard to remove, so long as you have the right passphrase."
"So, did you get it?" Riane pointedly looked at the nervous Faunus, oblivious to the pit forming in her stomach.
"Um, just a minute. I'll need to…" Feeling a bead of sweat forming, Blake reached back and touched the sheath holding the Ebony Blade. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "Give me a minute to get it out of my notes."
"All right then. We'll be up on the rooftop. Less interference that way. And if I'm not mistaken, I think M'rissi's running around making sure the whole college knows what's happening."
As the two Restoration mages turned and headed back up, Blake gulped and leaned back against the wall.
'What do I do? What do I do? Have to think about this…'
"It would appear you have two choices before you." Blake groaned, recognizing Mephala's voice immediately.
'No, no. I don't need this right now.'
"And yet you called on my assistance to lie and deceive only moments ago."
Blake took in a deep breath, making sure she was keeping herself firmly rooted in who she was as she closed her eyes.
'It was a moment of weakness. It won't happen again.'
"It's so easy to see through the lies you tell when I haven't guided them."
'I…' Unable to think of a real response, Blake shook her head. 'Can't you help here? Do something crazy? Make me lie about getting the password?'
"I cannot make you do anything, my dear Champion," Mephala's voice gently told her. "I have never forced your hand. I fed you feelings and emotions, and gave you insights. I have influenced you, tricked you, and sometimes simply convinced you. Not once have I ever made you do anything. I will never make you do anything. The choice, in the end, will always be up to you. And here, I will not force you to make a choice any more than I ever have. Here, your options are to betray your friend and wipe the horrible memories away, to never haunt her again, or to betray her and let her once more see all the awful things Isael put her through, all at once."
'I… I can't. I don't want to betray her.'
"What we want is seldom what we receive. And yet, what she wants is something that may very well destroy her. Will you give her what she wants, and wipe your hands of any wrongdoing? Or will you spare her the pain, and deny her greatest wish?"
Blake felt hot tears pour out of her eyes a moment as she winced, hard. Steadying herself, she wiped her face and took a deep breath. Once she felt stable, she began heading up to the tower's rooftop. Back outside, she saw that Weiss and her three classmates were coming from the direction of the Hall of Elements with Inigo behind them. There were a few other students idling about, but some had begun to watch the procession with interest.
"So, the thing to remember about Mnemonic magic is that it is a combination of Illusion and Restoration," Collette began as she broke out into lecture. "You can't have it with just one. Essentially, you have to use Restoration to create or hide memories, altering the mind for different purposes, but the way this altering works is through Illusion magic being used as a guide. Now, unlocking the Sarcophagus isn't difficult at all. In fact, I dare say Onmund could do it, but I think I'll leave it to Riane for now."
"Ah, there you are," the Restoration prodigy stated as she saw Blake. "You have the passphrase?"
"Yeah," Blake muttered, trying to hide her grief. "It's…'mercy'." Riane looked confused but shrugged. The lie took, and the pit in Blake's stomach grew ever deeper, and she could feel the satisfied hum of the Ebony Blade.
"Not a very Aldmeri sentiment. Would make it harder to guess, though. Still, only one word? All right."
Riane walked over to where M'rissi was waiting, practically bouncing in place as she waited. Blake felt her stomach twisting into knots and her heart threatening to come out of her throat. Riane began summoning yellow and green magic that became tinted by red around its edges before it seemed to fuse into a mauve color.
"Mercy!" she said before unleashing the magic directly onto M'rissi. For a moment, everyone stayed still, watching with anticipation. When nothing seemed to happen, Blake began to walk forward.
"M'rissi, are you okay? Can you hear me?"
"Of course she can hear you? Don't you see her beautiful fluffy ears?" The Khajiit girl made a confused expression as she rubbed her head. "But…she does not remember still?" Everyone looked at the Khajiit girl in confusion, then back at Blake. They were hoping for answers, but were only greeted by Blake's silence. After an agonizing moment, she began to softly speak.
"I… M'rissi, I'm so sorry."
"What? What is it? Wh-" Suddenly, her eyes went wide as she stared at Blake in disbelief. "You…told her the wrong word." Doubt slowly morphed into anger. "You…! The word was wrong and now her memories are gone forever! How… How could you do this to her?!" she screamed as tears began to pour from her eyes. "She believed in you! She trusted you! And you… You betrayed her!"
Everyone watched in silence at the unfolding drama as M'rissi struggled not to bring out her claws and rake them across Blake's face. Blake, for her part, tried to hold back her own tears.
"Please, M'rissi, I didn't want to hurt you! I only wanted to help! If you-"
"She doesn't need your help! She doesn't want your help! And she doesn't want anything to do with you anymore!" M'rissi practically ripped the steel sword and scabbard sheathed at her side and threw it at Blake before she began storming off. "She will make her own decisions, and she has decided she never wants to see you again! Take back your things and leave her alone you t-traitor!"
"M'rissi…" Blake muttered sadly as she watched her go. The rooftop grew heavy with silence as they watched the girl storm out, only to be broken by a deep and guttural voice in a low tone.
"What have you done?" Inigo asked quietly.
"I've…destroyed someone's entire life," Riane muttered as she looked at her hands in shock.
There was a deep growl, and everyone could see Inigo baring his teeth. "After everything we've done together! After everything you and her have been through! You…just stabbed her in the back!"
Blake's ears pressed down against her head as she started to shrink away from the crowd. Some of them were angry, others were confused. J'zargo had to stand in front of Inigo to try and calm him down as the other Khajiit began approaching Blake, anger evident in every aspect of his being. Just as the cacophony was about to drive Blake into running away from it all, a voice ended the noise.
"QUIET!" Weiss demanded, her voice carrying over the whole college. As the students and teacher went silent, she looked over at her teammate and took in a deep breath. Blake could see the disappointment in her eyes, yet a hint of understanding.
"Blake Belladonna, I've know you for close to a year now, and one thing I know about you is that you would never willingly do someone harm. You most certainly didn't allow something like this to happen without good reason." She crossed her arms and sighed. "So I'm asking, on behalf of everyone; why?"
Blake hung her head a moment before reaching up and brushing back her hair. "I found out…why Isael blocked her memories." She reached back into her bag and pulled out the casebook. "She…did things so horrible to her…" Blake began to choke up, and so walked forward and handed the book to Weiss, who took it and opened it up. She was greeted by a drawing of an unknown to her Khajiit female with two children held close.
"Who…is that?"
"The oldest one there is…M'rissi."
"But that's a Suthay?" Undeterred, Weiss began reading rapidly over the lines, occasionally reading important parts aloud for the ones unable to look over her shoulders. Her voice, once firm, grew more and more disjointed with every turn of the page. Hot tears pooled on her eyes, bile threatening to come forth, but she forced herself onward. Onmund, already dizzied by the great confusion earlier, was forced to sit down by the tumultuous churning in his guts. Brelyna was forced away by pure shock several times. J'zargo looked enraged, but Inigo had to stop himself from feral growling several times. The other student's faces were all ashen white or paled in abject horror at what they were hearing.
"'The test subject's joints crackled while breaking out'," Weiss murmured, feeling her own throat constrict. The sketch depicting what had been happening was horrifying and made her cringe at the thought of what kind of pain M'rissi had endured. As she continued on, she nearly dropped the book at a particular description. Just when she thought it couldn't have been much worse, Isael's writings proved her wrong "'The thing M'rissi had been about to embrace contained, well, a significant… portion of that… male Khajiit whelp…" She put the book away and shut it. "I can't do it. I can't read any more of this." The only sounds now on the roof were Onmund's heaving and Inigo's snarls, now unable to control himself. He was no longer angry at Blake, for his anger had been redirected.
"Those are the memories that were locked away," Blake explained. "She was so traumatized from it that she became catatonic. Isael only locked them away so that she could…have more fun."
"This is…" Riane muttered in incredulity. "How could anyone…?"
"When the ghost described her as a daedra in elven skin, he was being too kind!" Inigo spat out. "If we ever run into her…"
Everyone went stiff as a scream was heard below. The whole group looked down into the courtyard to see three Thalmor justicars and two in Thalmor robes. Blake recognized one as the wizard who had the elder Khajiit woman imprisoned. The other however, was far more recent in her mind.
"It's her!" she shouted before drawing out Gambol Shroud.
"Blake, wait!" Weiss called out, but she was already leaping as hard as her Aura let her. As she came down at Isael with her sword ready to carve into the elf's hide, the pale Altmer turned and reached out her hand, hitting Blake at precisely the right moment with a repulsion spell that sent her skidding off to the side.
"Well, that was quite a surprise," Isael admitted, more amused than anything. "First you somehow escaped my trap, and now you're jumping at me from rooftops."
"Ma'am, others are coming," the wizard woman warned as she watched Weiss make a set of glyphs that the others could run down.
"So bothersome!" Isael complained as she lifted a hand and summoned up a dome around them. Blake pulled herself up and charged forward, making it inside just in time. As the others began hitting the shield with magic and blades, Blake took a fighting stance as she squared up against Isael. "Such a shame. I'd have liked to use you as one of my toys, but you're just too troublesome. Too much trouble to let you keep breathing anyways. You even went and destroyed all of those wonderfully horrible memories I spent so much time making."
"The only horrible memory is standing right in front of me. And I'm about to end it." Blake's voice dripped with venom, but Isael only laughed.
"Feisty little thing," Isael said as she charged up a lightning bolt and threw it at Blake, only for it to pass through a clone and for the real thing to charge at her from slightly to the left. As both of Blake's swords began swinging for her neck, Isael's other hand rose up, a lightning bolt readied in it. The Thalmor released the spell, hitting Blake right in her center. The bolt sent Blake up and back, filling her with the pain of being zapped by electricity as it ate away at her Aura. She screamed in agony, then felt the protection of her Aura fade as she hit the side of the dome, the lightning still coursing through her. Blake's body spasmed and twitched as she experienced the worst pain she had ever felt in her life, then she collapsed to the ground, unable to move. As the world began to fade to black, the Faunus could see M'rissi looking at her, struggling against the justicar holding her arms behind her back.
"Blake!" a feminine voice yelled out, and then everything went black.
PAIN! Excruciating pain was all she felt. Slowly, it began to fade and numb, until all she could feel of it was hot needles in her gut. That too began to disappear, and then she could finally focus on something else.
Blake opened her eyes, wincing at first, and then slowly pulling her eyelids apart. The Restoration Master was next to her, alternating between different spells in her hands, each one hovering over Blake and flowing into her. Several were able to help relieve the suffering she was going through, and for that, she was grateful.
"Ma'am, she seems to be waking up," she heard Riane say from the other side.
"She's been awake a minute now. Might not be able to speak much though." Collette replied before looking back down on Blake, a faint and reassuring smile on her face. "How are you, dear?"
"…hurts," Blake managed to get out, her throat feeling dry beyond belief. Riane seemed to recognize that and pulled a potion from one of the shelves and uncorked it.
"Here. This should quench you a bit and help with the pain." She cradled up Blake's head and slowly gave her the potion, sip by sip. The Faunus felt helpless, and the thought of being like that nearly made her break into tears. However, quick testing showed that she retained control of her limbs, they were all simply weak and sore. She then noticed Onmund nearby, looking over a table with an alchemic setup, bags under his eyes and two potions in his hands. Blake recognized the color and smell. They were magicka potions, and Weiss had told her before that the Nord was the best among their group in alchemy. She had a sinking suspicion that he had been making them for quite some time, without rest or sleep, at that.
"I got a couple more," he groaned out as he came over and handed them both to Collette, who stopped casting for a minute to drink the two concoctions. She grimaced and shook her head, but then went right back to casting. After a few more moments, she stopped.
"That'll be it for now," Collette revealed, her hands twitching from constant use. "She's stable enough that there's no worries about losing her. See if you can find Weiss and let her know her friend is up. Poor girl could use some good news."
"Yes, ma'am," Onmund smiled and nodded, turning towards Blake, still smiling.
"What happened?" Blake finally got out as she sat up. The blanket covering her fell from her neck and halfway down her chest, causing Onmund to yelp before he sped out of the room. Blake wondered what that was about before she felt a draft of cold air hit her skin, letting her know that the blanket and bandages around her abdomen were the only cloth on her. She looked down to confirm that he hadn't quite seen anything, but had come dangerously close.
"You got hit bad, that's what happened," Collette grimly replied.
"That lightning spell that woman used was unlike anything I'd ever seen," Riane began. "I've never seen so much destructive power concentrated so."
"I have, unfortunately." Collette shook her head and sighed. "I'd say it was about five seconds worth of a Lightning Storm all focused right on your guts. Now luckily for you, we've been able to fix almost everything in the days you've been out."
"Days?" Blake's eyes went wide in shock and horror.
"Yes, days. As it turns out, nearly dying isn't something you generally walk away from." Collette tried to inject some humor into the situation, but no one laughed, making her slightly blush in embarrassment. "As I was saying, everything's fixed up enough to function properly. You can eat, drink, and someday have children, though expect complications if you don't get a checkup now and again. Everything has passed, so there should be nothing residual stuck anywhere. Again, we'll need regular checkups to be sure."
A knock came at the door and Riane went over and let Weiss in. The heiress looked at her teammate and made a small smile as she walked over.
"I'm glad you're okay," she said as she gently hugged Blake from the side. The Faunus leaned into the sign of affection for a moment and then the two separated. "Listen, I let them know about Aura, so…"
"So?" Blake replied, surprised at Weiss' decision. "I thought we agreed to not let anyone know about it?"
"Blake, you nearly died, with your defensive Aura up." Weiss bit back tears and pressed on, while Blake's eyes widened further. "That woman ripped through it like wet cardboard and nearly fried you. I… I thought you were actually dead when we got to you."
"What about…" Blake's voice hitched as she contemplated her brush with death. "Did they get away?" Weiss went silent. It was deafening.
"Weiss. Tell me," she demanded, her fist clenched. After a moment, Weiss spoke up.
"They teleported out right after. We tried to get through, but we were only starting to crack the shield when they left." Weiss' voice was soft, and hot tears began to pool in Blake's eyes. "Inigo went chasing after them, figuring they were at the other side of Winterhold, but we realized it would be suicidal to go up against them as this point, so Brelyna turned him into a turtle for a while. Heh, finally got something good out of that experiment…"
Blake groaned and clenched her teeth. "It's all my fault."
"Blake, no, we-" Blake silenced her by slamming her fist into the mattress. The act made the sore limb hurt slightly, but Blake fought through it.
"Weiss, if I had just…taken a second to think it through, or put my foot down and made everyone listen, this wouldn't have happened. M'rissi wouldn't have run off, then we could have seen Isael coming. People would have still gotten hurt, but we could have outmaneuvered her cronies and killed her then and there. Instead, I- I let myself fall into the trap of thinking there was nothing I could do." Blake covered her face with her hands. "I ran from the problem instead of facing it, like always."
Blake felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Collette looking down at her.
"Listen here, child, what you did wasn't running away. If anything, you ran headlong into the problem. Now, that can be trouble on its own, but you didn't pick the coward's way out. Knowing what we know now, you were willing to sacrifice everything you had with her to spare that girl the pain. True, you should have taken a minute to think it out more, or just had a talk with someone about it, but you're going to make mistakes in this world. You're going to mess up again and again. The important thing is what you do about your mistakes. Do you just leave things a mess and go on like always, or are you going to try and make things right and strive to do better?"
For a long moment, things were quiet in the room as Collette's words were absorbed. The silence ended though, as Blake let out a little giggle.
"Did you seriously just quote Journey of the Heroes at me?"
"Whatever gets the point across," Collette said flippantly while waving a hand. "I've personally found Johannes to be a great inspiration. That book is why I got into Restoration in the first place."
"My god, you're a total geek." Blake laughed again, this time with Weiss joining her and Collette even giving a chuckle of her own. She remembered that quote. It was during the Siege of Cheydinhal, with Johannes - Jaune, she now knew - going on his own to lend his assistance. He ended up going into the Deadlands to save the Count's son, who'd gotten all of his men killed in a foolhardy attempt to close the Gate. That subsequent berating was a sight to behold, with Jaune reducing the noble to literal tears, only to then bring him back up. She didn't know Jaune all that well, but it definitely seemed like him, given time to mature. When they finally stopped laughing, Weiss nodded and sighed.
"Well, what do you think we can do now?" Weiss asked.
"There's only one thing we can do. Save M'rissi," Blake declared, deadly serious.
"As much as I agree with that sentiment," Riane said, "how are you going to do that?"
"I had help before, when I got stuck in a magical trap. Do you have my bag?" Riane turned and pulled the bag out from a corner and passed it over to Weiss, who offered it to Blake. Taking it, Blake began rifling through it. "I was teleported out of the trap after being stuck in it for who knows how long. I reappeared next to a table with a note on it. All I know is that it's from someone named Ulquarrion, and that he's a Thalmor looking to topple Isael." She found the note and handed it over to Weiss, who read over it and hummed.
"There's some sort of magical… Oh, this is an enchanted scroll! Well, I guess enchanted note is more apt." The vampire closed her eyes and seemed to focus on the piece of paper. "Teleportation scroll. But I can't say to where, exactly."
"Looks like someone wants to meet you," Riane stated.
"Could have said that it was enchanted somewhere on the note," Blake mumbled.
"Whatever the case, we have something to go on," Weiss began as she observed the scroll a little more. "I think… It's meant for one person, but I can probably get it to transport three. I know at least one person raring to get back at Isael for what she's done, aside from you."
"I don't think I could keep Inigo away from this if I wanted to." Blake shook her head. "He looked ready to attack me when he thought I'd hurt her."
"Those two are close. He probably thinks of her as family at this point."
"To be honest, so do I." Blake's eyes were hard as steel. They promised nothing but pain to the woman responsible for this.
"Right then. We have a plan. The moment you're ready to walk, we'll head up to the labs and refine that plan, as well as get some gear. Looking at what we're up against, we've been working on things to help us."
"First, let's see about changing those bandages of yours," Collette suggested as she started undoing them from behind Blake. They unwrapped the strips of cloth from her body and Weiss winced at the sight underneath. Blake lookeddown, and saw that on her belly, between her navel and chest, was a starburst lightning scar, almost like a twisted snowflake had been branded onto her skin. As Collette cleaned away the dried blood, Blake let the image be seared into her mind as she realized just how close she really had come to dying.
"Here you go. Hours of painstaking labor and a lifetime of practice." Brelyna handed the four rings over to Blake, who began fitting them onto her fingers. Each one had a feeling that seemed to connect to her very being, and each one of them had a slight glow to them.
"And take this," Onmund said, offering an old, ivory amulet. "It's the Saarthal Amulet. Phinis looked it over and it turns out it has a twenty percent chance Spell Absorption. That basically means one out of every five spells used against you will just fizzle out on contact and get absorbed into your magicka. You…need it more than me right now."
"Thanks, both of you," she expressed while accepting the amulet.
"You may not need them, but J'zargo has made some easy to use scrolls," the Khajiit mage said as he handed over a few of them to Inigo. "It is not this one's specialty, but he branched out and made a scroll of Ironflesh, a scroll of courage, as well as a scroll of Lightning Cloak." Inigo looked the parchments over for a moment, a little unsure. "No worries. They are voice-activated, something Weiss and J'zargo have been looking into. Open them, read the words, and they will use themselves. Even the most magically inept can use them. We've tested them. Harder to make, easier to use."
"Thank you, my friend. I will put them to good use." Inigo nodded to his fellow Khajiit.
"Okay, got it ready," Weiss declared as she walked away from the table she was working at. "Blake, since you're the one he wants to meet, you should be at the center, just in case this doesn't work. And, if it doesn't, you can always use your scroll to contact us. Inigo, you and I will be holding these Soul Gems." At that, she passed over a filled Greater Soul Gem to the blue Khajiit. "Blake, I need you to reach out both your Aura and magicka to them, but don't try to push into them. That will make them explode."
"What?"
"Not like a bomb explode. More like an old vase with a firecracker in it."
"How do you-?"
"Ruby."
"Ah."
"Indeed. Now, is there anything anyone needs to do before we go?"
"I am as ready as I can be," Inigo stated. "Armor, enchanted baubles, and my sword and bow are all here."
"I'm ready," Blake affirmed.
"All right then. Inigo, just follow my lead." Weiss held up her Soul Gem and grabbed one of Blake's shoulders while touching her arm with the gem. Inigo did the same on her opposite side, and Blake took the note and focused on the magicka infused into it. The spell burned up the parchment and released itself upon Blake, then hit the Soul Gems and expanded across the other two. Everything went bright, then dark, and then the scenery changed into another room. The three looked at the stone masonry around them, as though trying to glean their location from the walls, with Blake focusing on the familiar malachite disk under them once she noticed it. They all froze in place as a door opened. An Altmer in Thalmor robes walked in and looked at the three.
"Well, it's about time. I was starting to wonder if you'd ever show up for our little meeting. Still, I wasn't expecting you to bring friends. Suppose I can't blame you." The Thalmor shrugged.
"Wait, you… You were the one looking for M'r- that Khajiit girl in Riverwood."
"Yes, I was. By now though, you've probably realized I wasn't doing that to hand your little friend over to Isael. Also, I did try to delay her to buy you some time to get her and get away."
"I was barely there for half an hour before she showed up."
"And she would have been long gone had I not insisted that she take care of some of her duties before leaving. You really underestimated how the Thalmor travel." He shook his head in slight disappointment.
"So you're Ulquarrion, right?" Weiss asked. "Why exactly did you help Blake?"
"For a plethora of reasons. Most of which are better explained with the help of my associate." As though on cue, the door opened and a man fully decked in ebony plate armor walked in. He was tall, but no other features could be seen past his armor and the dark leather and mail connecting each piece. "Commander, you're just in time. Our help has arrived, at last," Ulquarrion said with a hint of sarcastic flair as he indicated the three.
"We were expecting just Belladonna," the ebony clad man began in a slightly distorted voice as he walked over to a table, "but I won't complain if we have two of the Dragonslayers and one of their companions. If anything, this helps to ensure our success."
"How do you know me?" Blake asked cautiously.
"Between the exploits of you and your friends, and your work with the Penitus Oculatus, it's hard for my people to not know about you." He leaned against the table and looked dead at her. "You've done good work in the past. All I'm asking is that you help us to help you. You'll get to save your friend, and we'll put down a threat to all of our well-beings before it has a chance to fully manifest."
"You're both looking to kill Isael," Weiss noted.
"Not that I am complaining," Inigo began, "in fact, I am jubilant inside to receive help for this goal, but why do you two want her dead?"
"Simply put, Isael presents a grave threat to the already shaky stability that we have," Ulquarrion explained as he walked and stood beside the table. "You may not know this, but the Aldmeri Dominion does not want the Great War to begin again, at least not yet. We more intellectual Altmer realize that our nation needs time to regrow as well. And the civil war may be strife-filled for Skyrim, but, to be honest, it's not taking that many resources from the Empire as a whole. Isael's plans, however, are basically to torch everything west of Whiterun, thinking that will weaken the Empire, when, in truth, it will turn the Empire right against us, and anything remaining of Skyrim afterwards will be on their side by default."
"All of that is unacceptable to both of us," the Commander continued. "Isael is unstable at best, and you've seen how bad her deprivations can be. Knowing how cruel she can be to a single being she's invested in, how callous do you think she'd be to the faceless masses? However, that instability has proven useful in getting through her defenses. Elenwen is already considering having her reassigned or…liquidated as it were. If she were to die in a retaliatory assassination from some unknown faction or such, any investigation into the matter would only be done as a matter of policy."
"And you want us to kill her for you?" Blake guessed.
"You won't be alone. We can't realistically expect you to break in and subdue the entire guard station, her personal guards and servants, and Isael herself. My men are in place to assault the Embassy, giving you an opening. Ulquarrion's loyal agents will ensure you can get through smoothly. After that, it's just a handful of Isael's men, and the woman herself."
"It won't be easy, but for the woman who killed the majority of the Dark Brotherhood's upper ranks, it should be doable," Ulquarrion noted as he reached into a pocket. "However, Isael's magic is very strong. You'll need assistance is you're to survive another encounter with her."
"I've geared up with magical resistance charms."
"Oh, that will certainly keep you from going down in a single strike, but you need something a little more specific." He took out a jeweled amulet and handed it over to her. "We don't want you getting stuck again."
Blake took the amulet and looked it over. It was a small, but intricate piece, and she couldn't tell what exactly the enchantment on it was, meaning it was likely as specific as Ulquarrion said it was.
"So, when can we be expected to make this assault?" Blake asked.
"We're not far. It can be done tonight, if you're ready." Blake and the others went silent and looked at each other. After a moment, she looked back towards Ulquarrion.
"Before we do, I want to know something."
"Ask away," said the Altmer.
"Why work with the Oculatus? Why work with the Empire? Don't the Thalmor have their own internal investigators?" Ulquarrion went silent and looked down. His fist was clenched, and he looked back up to her.
"Let's just say that this entire situation has revealed many truths about the people I served, and I no longer trust them to do what needs to be done."
"Care to share more details? Before I help you assault the Embassy, I've got to know I can trust you." The Altmer sighed.
"You are very difficult, you know that?"
"I've been told that. It's a gift."
"Heh, I bet." He laughed before stopping. "What she did to that girl was...it was monstrous, vile, and evil. We do have internal investigators in the Dominion, and when I first discovered what Isael was doing, I went to them. Told them exactly what she had done, demanded that she be sent back to Alinor for reeducation. They refused."
"What? Why? I thought the Thalmor hated Isael?"
"Elenwen does, and she tried to have her shipped out, but the Dominion overrode her, saying that she was too valuable an asset to remove from Skyrim. Of course, this was before she started getting even worse, but even then, despite my protests, they did nothing."
"That explains why you're trying to kill her," Weiss chimed in, "but not why you decided to turn traitor." Ulquarrion grit his teeth in anger, but not at Weiss.
"Because when I investigated deeper, I found out the real reason why they didn't stop her all those years ago. They were supporting it." Blake, Weiss, and Inigo's eyes widened in shock.
"What? Why?" Inigo demanded to know.
"They were hoping to use her research to develop a network of spies. Blend them in within the circles of the Dominion's enemies, including the Empire. Some even hoped to use the research to remove "impurities" among the lesser races, make them more Altmeri. Being a top agent of the Dominion, I'm privy to many secrets, but others were kept from me. Even still, as I investigated deeper, I found more and more projects akin to Isael's, each more horrific than the last. Finally, a few months ago, I had enough, and reached out for outside help. The Oculatus answered, and I've been working with them ever since."
Blake and the others went silent, their eyes wide in shock, disgust, and horror. They knew the Dominion was bad, but this...
"I trust that satisfied any doubts?" The Oculatus agent asked, and they numbly nodded. "Then are you three ready?"
Blake looked at Weiss and Inigo one last time, then back at the agent.
"I am." The other two agreed with her almost instantly.
The Faunus looked at her wrist where she had tied the Saarthal Amulet like a bracelet, then touched her scar. She winced, it was still tender, but she paid it no heed before reaching up to the amulet Ulquarrion had gifted her.
Masser was nearly a sliver in the sky while Secunda was nowhere to be seen. Blake, Weiss, and Inigo followed the Commander in grim silence as dozens of soldiers in ebony or black leather silently marched forwards. Their numbers surprised the three, and their professionalism apparently reminded Inigo of his parents clueing Blake into just what these people were. The Embassy came into view, and the black-clad soldiers began their assault. Arrows flew through the air and hit Thalmor justicars, taking several down. Many of the guards began rushing towards the tree line, but most were unable to see their foes due to how well they blended into the darkness. At least eight Altmer were cut down without even knowing that their enemies were right in front of them, from what Blake saw transpiring. As more Thalmor rushed forward, screaming for reinforcements and magical assistance, one Altmer turned and made sure the gate remained open.
"Go," the Commander ordered them. Immediately the three rushed forward, hidden under cloaks that matched the snow covered ground. They paused at the doorway where a young Altmer stood, perhaps around Brelyna's age. She looked the three over then turned and unlocked the door before leaving to the side. Blake went forward and headed inside, Weiss and Inigo right on her tail. Immediately, two justicars came in from an adjoining room, decked in malachite armor rather than the rank and file's moonstone.
"These two are mine!" Inigo declared as he pulled out his ebony sword in one hand and M'rissi's steel sword in the other. He charged forward to meet the two in combat right as Blake heard something behind her. She turned in time to see a lightning bolt, but when it hit her she felt only a tingle as the spell seemed to dissipate into a bluish mist and then flow into her. The woman who had captured the elder Khajiit was there, gritting her teeth at her failed attack.
"I've got her!" Weiss shouted as she raised Myrtenaster and aimed. Ice streamed out and nearly hit the wizard, who barely leaped aside and prepared a dual casted lightning spell. It fired forward and crashed into Weiss' ward, strengthened by her glyph. "Just go figure out where M'rissi is!"
"Isael will have your heads," the wizard calmly stated as she summoned magic into both her hands. Blake nodded to her teammate and ran up a nearby set of stairs. As the others clashed below, the Altmer that had become the subject of her ire walked out of an adjoining room, then scoffed at the sight of Blake.
"Such amusing unexpectedness!" Blake growled as she readied herself to attack. "I mean, imagine my surprise when the insect I crushed beneath my heel not only managed to walk again, but came to confront me."
"Oh, just Shut UP!" Blake screamed as she pulled Gambol Shroud from her back. "I'm tired of hearing your gods damned voice, you bitch! Just die!"
Blake roared and jumped at Isael, who just smirked as she pulled out a red and black jagged dagger and readied a spell.
Weiss danced around a shower of electricity and then jabbed forward, stabbing maybe an inch into her foe's chest as she backed away. Inigo suddenly stabbed clean through one of the justicars with M'rissi's sword, shattering parts of his armor and pinning him to a column. The other slashed at him, but was blocked by Inigo's ebony sword before he clawed at his face. The Altmer screamed and backed away, clutching his wounded cheek.
"Justiciar Eleria, we need to retreat!"
"We can't let them get to Lady Isael," Eleria objected as she summoned a wall of lightning between her and Weiss and began throwing fireballs. The vampire dodged around them and jumped over the last. She pointed a hand forward and began hitting the wall of lightning with her own sparks. As the wall collapsed, Inigo came in and slashed downwards, breaking apart some of the justicar's armor. Weiss let loose a stream of flames and closed the distance with her opponent. Her slash was blocked by an ebony dagger, but Weiss reached forward and grasped Eleria's face before sending electricity directly into her. As the wizard screamed in pain, Inigo kicked his foe away and into her. Weiss spun out of the way of the collision as the two fell upon each other, then stabbed Myrtenaster into the floor before sending a trail of ice that hit the two Altmer and began quickly freezing them, causing ice to form on them and their gold skin to turn blue. As the two struggled, Weiss raised up her hands and charged them with lightning before combining the two and then firing it out at her foes. Both screamed in agony as part of the ice began evaporating or popping apart. Suddenly the justicar's head exploded from one side and the justiciar's body began twitching silently. Weiss ended the spell and looked at the steaming results of the two's deaths.
"Oh… Oh god!" she gagged before setting the corpses on fire.
"That was…brutal," Inigo gasped out as he caught his breath. "Good job. Let's do something similar to Isael."
"Give me a second to catch my breath. I put a lot into that one."
"All right. I'll catch up with Blake. You catch up with us."
"Sounds good." Weiss poured more flames into the fire she'd made, thankful for the stone floors and walls.
Blake dodged around a fireball that seemed to destroy everything behind her then dashed forward and sliced across Isael's guard. It had become apparent to the Faunus that while the psychopath was an unbelievably powerful mage, she was only fairly decent at melee. Already she had landed several wounds on her that would have been mortal had it not been for her magic armor and ward spells. Still, Blake could tell that she was pushing the woman, and the idea made her elated.
"How does it fell being on the receiving end?!" she yelled before slicing across Isael's left arm with the cleaver-sheath. The Altmer shouted and grimaced before reaching out a hand. Blake was ready to dodge a fireball or lightning bolt, but didn't expect ice to come out and hit her left weapon and suddenly coat it. She was forced to drop it before her own hand was iced over, and Isael laughed.
"By Auriel you are a feisty little- Argh!" The woman stumbled to the side as what she had thought was Blake disappeared and the real one buried a dagger into her side. Blake twisted and ripped the Blade of Woe out of Isael's hip and then leaped back to dodge her retaliatory flames. She dodged out of the way of a more massive lightning bolt and smirked as Isael stumbled and grasped her side. She charged forward, a roar in her throat as her sword was aimed at the Altmer, but Isael just raised a hand and unleashed a spell that locked onto Blake and held her in place.
"I don't know who you think you are attacking me in such a manner, but I'm going to teach you a valuable lesson in respecting your betters." The pale elf giggled as yellow magic flowed around her hand near the deep wound. "As brutishly strong as you are though, my magic far outdoes anything you might have up your sleeve."
Blake's elation was suddenly gone as she struggled uselessly against the magic binding her in place. She began to feel panicked, until she felt the amulet Ulquarrion lent her going cold. Slowly, she began to feel control of her limbs coming back, but made no indication that such was happening. From the corner of her eye, she saw Inigo come up and then silently pull out his bow and notch an ebony arrow.
"Ah, but you did make tonight exciting. Almost as exciting as that time I helped scour the Imperial Library. Why, it feels like it was only yesterday that I was torturing that young librarian to find all the information on those little upstarts and destroying it." Blake's eyes widened at that, recalling what history said about those who had destroyed all the information pertaining to the Five Heroes. She growled. "The time after that wasn't so fun, but this time, when I'm tormenting you slowly in front of your beloved little feline friend, watching her hope diminish more and more until she has none left, that will be-"
Inigo's arrow flew straight at the Altmer's face, but she seemed to have heard it in time and raised her hand to summon a ward, but the arrow pierced through it and through her hand. Isael was stunned for a moment and dropped her dagger to clutch her wrist as Blake felt the last of her spell holding her fade away. The Blake in front of Isael disappeared, catching her attention as the real Blake fell upon her from above with a red tinted daikatana. She tried to raise her hand to stop her, but Blake only sliced through her forearm and then down into her shoulder and through her chest, stopping right before cutting though the last rib.
"I…told you," Blake seethed, "to just shut up and die." She pulled the Ebony Blade free and Isael looked at her mortal wound not in anger or pain, but odd confusion. She reached towards it, and then fell backwards. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, even as she seemed to try and heal the wound before she finally expired. Only then did Blake allow herself to breathe. It was over.
"And Ulquarrion's betrayal of his mad leader is complete."
Blake flicked the daedric sword out of reflex, and then sheathed it to her back. Inigo ran up to her side and looked at the corpse with disdain.
"Too quick for the likes of her." He spat on the body and placed the bow at his back. Blake searched her and found a key and several denars in her pockets. Not caring about robbing her, of all beings, she took everything of worth, even picking up her dagger from the ground.
"Now, M'rissi…" Blake focused on a Clairvoyance spell and followed it to where it led. She had to use the key to unlock one door and then walked through a hallway until she and Inigo came upon a room that the spell turned in to. Blake quickly put up her hand to stop the Khajiit. "Wait a second!" Blake rushed in to where M'rissi was chained to the wall, bereft of clothing and completely silent. She went to check her pulse, but instead felt a leather collar around her neck. M'rissi looked up at her through disheveled hair, almost as though she couldn't believe what was in front of her.
"M'rissi," Blake choked out as she brushed back her hair. "It's okay, I'm here." When the Khajiit girl offered no words, Blake felt as though her heart was being slowly squeezed. "M'rissi? Please, say something." For a moment Blake's stomach churned at the thoughts of what Isael could have done to her in the past few days, then she reached for the collar and quickly took it off. M'rissi coughed a moment, as though choked.
"Aah…hah… Blake…she hoped so much!" The girl's cheeks were stained with dirt and grime, trails of tears streaking down.
"It's okay, M'rissi. Everything's going to be okay now. Here, hold on." She took the key from her pocket and began unlocking the shackles at her wrists.
"You really came! You came to save her even after the awful things she said to you!" She rubbed her wrists after they were freed and stood to her feet unsteadily.
"M'ri, are you okay?" Inigo asked from out in the hallway.
"YES! Inigo, you are here! Wait, you are here?! Inigo, do not come in!" M'rissi covered herself before going over to where her clothes had been tossed aside and began putting them on. "She is not decent!"
"I…will wait."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Blake asked. "Did she do anything to you?"
"She…is fine," M'rissi insisted as she pulled on her shirt. "She was very scared though. That…vile woman. She doesn't remember her name or what she did, but she knows it was bad and she hurt her." She looked at Blake after pulling on her pants with some sorrow. "Her past is gone from her, but she remembers enough now to know that she doesn't want to remember. That's what…you were protecting her from. She is sorry. She did not understand before, but she does now."
Her ears suddenly shot up. "Oh no! That wicked elfess! We have to get away from her!"
"It's okay M'rissi, she's dead. Inigo and I killed her to save you."
"You…did?" A smile stretched itself across M'rissi's face. "Then…she is finally free and safe. Ah, Inigo, it is safe now!"
The blue Khajiit came in and sighed in relief at the sight of M'rissi safe and sound. He walked forward and M'rissi went up and hugged him. Blake smiled at the sight, but then the girl turned and hugged her as well. After separating from them she sniffed and wiped her eyes.
"Thank you both, so much. Her past…is gone, but all she knows from it is pain and sorrow and suffering. She can be who she chooses to be instead of what her pain made her. And she thinks she prefers it this way."
"Whatever you want, that is what I want for you," Inigo agreed. "If today is the first day of the rest of your life, then I'll be there to help you all along the way."
"Same. Whatever you want to be, I'll support you."
"Thank you. Both of you. Now, we should steal all of the dead evil elf woman's things so that if she makes a ghost it will be poor." As M'rissi grabbed a bag and began throwing potions, jewels, an assortment of items into it, Blake could only shake her head and smile at the act of spite, laughing when Inigo happily joined in. Having no qualms about doing the deed, Blake picked up a bottle from a shelf and read the label to see that it was Summerset Black wine. Deciding that might make a good gift or celebratory drink, she stashed it away and a few more bottles with it. Her eyes were then caught by a book that she picked up and leafed through, recognizing Isael's handwriting. While part of her wanted to burn it, she immediately became interested in what was written. Rather than colored by psychotic ramblings, it was purely scientific, describing a summoning spell and altering it. Then, on the last page, Isael described how she had finally managed to bond the spell to M'rissi's 'aura', different than the Aura she knew. This appeared to be referring to her actual soul.
"Is everything all right?" Blake heard Weiss ask as she came into the room.
"Yeah, we're just looting the place. Can you take a look at this really quick?"
"What is it?" the heiress asked as she passed her the book. Weiss hummed as she read through it then began waving her fingers around as she mouthed some of the text. A spell formed in her hand and was then released, and suddenly M'rissi appeared in front of her as if teleported.
"Wha!" the Kahjiit girl cried out as she reached for something no longer in front of her. "What just happened?"
"I…summoned you," Weiss tried to explain as she wrapped her head around the concept. "This Isael was some sort of mad genius to be able to figure this out!"
Blake took the book back and tried to envision exactly what it was saying. She felt the spell forming, then turned and cast it, summoning M'rissi directly in front of her.
"This is a very strange feeling," M'rissi complained.
"Oh my god! I didn't even think it was possible to summon something from Nirn to Nirn! It might be less summoning and second-hand teleportation, but even then that's hugely remarkable! And it did it with very little magicka expended!"
"That is really amazing!" Inigo agreed. "I wish I could be summoned. At least now if we lose track of M'rissi we can easily find her again."
Suddenly, M'rissi gasped. "Oh no! She forgot about the other one!"
"What? What other one?" Blake asked.
"Quickly, down in the dungeon!" M'rissi ran out and down the hallway. The others quickly followed her and headed down a stairway leading to a dungeon. In one of the cells, Blake saw a familiar being chained up to the wall. Quickly, Blake unlocked the door and rushed in to help the elder Khajiit up to her feet and unlock the shackles binding her.
"Hey, you okay?"
"This one thanks you," the woman groaned as Blake helped her out of the cell and onto a nearby bench. "S'ahara had no way of knowing that help would come, but she dared to hope." She looked over to M'rissi and smiled. "Oh, kitten, she is glad to see you well."
"M'rissi is happy to see you okay too. Don't worry. Her friends have come to get us out of here."
"I'm so sorry," Blake apologized. "If I had known you were here…"
"You had no way to know. You are no fortune teller. This one is still alive and well, and soon we can be out of here." Ears popped up as footsteps were heard coming in. Blake and the others turned to see the Commander coming down the stairs and stopping at the bottom.
"Good job. I knew you'd get it done," he congratulated them. "After a little clean and cover, Ulquarrion's going to take over Isael's position as the Head Justiciar in Skyrim as our agent, and Isael's death is going to be played out as an assassination that occurred during a Stormcloak raid." He nodded at that. "The peace treaty with the Thalmor won't last forever, but we did good here today."
"I could care less about the politics," Blake admitted. "I was just here to save my friend."
"Ha, you're more devoted to your friends than some Imperials are to their wives." Blake smiled at that and nodded.
"And you, are you part of the Penitus Oculatus?" she asked.
"We're part of an Oculatus. The Penitus look for threats within. We take care of the threats from without, whenever a more delicate touch is needed. I'd appreciate you keeping our existence unmentioned, however."
"My lips are sealed."
"Appreciated. Your little group's importance has been taken into account. We may work together again in the future. Hopefully, stakes will be less personal then."
"Hopefully."
"Anyways, we're ready to leave when you are. Gather whatever you need and quickly."
Blake nodded and turned back to help her friends.
Weiss shuffled through notes, sketches, and pages in a notebook as she searched for anything useful in all of the scattered data Isael had kept around.
"Everything good?" Blake asked her teammate.
"Remember how I said she was a mad genius? Well, it's still true, but she was somehow horribly disorganized. I have been able to figure out a few things, though. It seems Isael wasn't informed of M'rissi's parentage until very recently. As in, there was an unopened letter that had just arrived earlier in the week mentioning it. Ra'sadir is apparently under the impression that all three of his children are still alive and well in Alinor, under Thalmor care. They're already deathly afraid of having to inform him about the younger two's deaths, and they didn't want Isael causing yet another huge problem by breaking or killing his last living child. Perhaps his last living relative."
"Damn," Blake muttered.
"The little girl would have been twelve by now. And her brother would have been eight. And now they're…gone, because some woman was bored and wanted entertainment." Weiss sighed and leafed through a few pages. "M'rissi herself is twenty-two, which is admittedly surprising. Thirtieth of Hearthfire, so she'll be twenty-three is just three days."
"Just a few days, huh? We'll have to plan something for her." Blake looked over to where S'ahara and M'rissi were talking and then sat at the mouth of the tent. "The Commander mentioned some Khajiit recently coming from Elsweyr. He said they didn't look like a caravan, and they traced them back to Mirrsha lands."
"You think they're looking for M'rissi?"
"I don't know what else it could be."
"Are you going to let her go?"
"Not my choice. I'm letting M'rissi decide what she wants to do. If she wants to go, then she can go."
Weiss set the notes back into a sack and crawled up to sit next to Blake. "Is everything all right, Blake?"
"Yeah." The Faunus nodded. "It's just that after everything, we beat the person hounding her. It's incredible. I can barely believe it."
"I think I know what you mean." Weiss sighed and laid back. "At least one thing's been done. I still need to link up with Ruby and look into this Magna-Ge situation. Then there's the thing at Mzulft. Well, at least I got a shortcut."
"I'll say," Blake laughed, before her ears went up and she looked back at her teammate. "I just…remembered something."
"What's that?"
"Didn't Delphine mention something about needing information from the Thalmor Embassy?"
For a long minute the two were silent, the only noises being the wind and the crackling of the fire. Finally, Weiss took in a huge breath.
"Damn it!"