Cearbhail: Finally, we're done with the past fill-ins. Yes, this is the last chapter for all past expositions. I have tied every bit of information that I originally wanted to get out of my head so that I wouldn't forget my original string of facts. Yes, I have this massive web of things that happen in my head and I sometimes forget that a string leads somewhere so...I have to write it down. Oh, and if some of you read the Chronicles of Lydia (let's face it, you do), then this chapter will have an even nicer surprise that will rock your heads, maybe.

[Huir]

The Imperial City was more of a challenge to navigate than I thought. Most of the sewer entrances were covered in too much rubble to enter. All the buildings were destroyed. Bodies littered the ground. They smelled weeks old. I was amazed that the crows hadn't gotten to them yet, but there were so many that I guess there were just too many to eat. Weapons were everywhere. Bows, discarded arrows, bloodied swords, random staffs. Every time we came across potions or staffs, we passed them out to anyone that was capable of using it. Merete did her Battlemage thing and told us what the potions and staffs were created for. She has two new Lava Storm staffs hanging off her back. She thinks that her new staffs will help her melt any Aedra we run up against.

The civilians that we were transporting were picking up any bows and swords that they thought they could use. Everyone had their own bow and at least one dagger by now. Most of the daggers were enchanted by Merete and handed to the younger children. They needed to protect themselves as best they could. The daggers they were handed were enchanted with the strongest Warding spell Merete could muster as well as a Soul Separation spell that would make them invisible to any Aedra present. I was glad. We were finally finding ways to keep the young ones safe.

So, anyway. The town looked like it was hit by an A-bomb. Just like Bruma, just like Bravil. The Imperial City was now an Ayleid ruin by appearances. That does raise an interesting question. Is what happened to the Ayleids, the Dwarves, the Aldmer, the Chimer….did they all meet the same fate to the Aedra before? Are we just the next cycle to be referred to when the New-mer start talking about our sophisticated round porcelain bowl filled with water that was used to bless the gods? Our how we used ancient techniques long lost to build out buildings and weapons? I did not want to think about it. But this was our reality. If we did not fix this soon, we were going to become an endangered planet.

"Look, there's a sewer entrance." Merete called from beside me. She pointed out toward the center of the street that we were walking down. I had to squint my eyes, but I could see it. It was a manhole and it wasn't covered by something. That was probably our best way down to the sewers.

I glided across the street as stealthily as I could. Merete pounded her heavy-armored feet behind me, her chainmail clinching every step she took. Behind her were the group of civilians and town guards from Bruma and Cloud Ruler Temple. They were doing their own thing: somewhere between cowering behind fallen rubble and scowling at the sky, almost welcoming an Aedra invasion. I had no choice but to smile at their mixed faces. Hopefully, I would see hope shine in their eyes when we linked back up with the battlemages.

I paused by the manhole and inspected it. The cover was almost blown off of it and it was I clear drop straight down. The ladder must have been blown apart because I couldn't see anything to hold onto until about halfway down. So, I turned to Merete and smiled. "How about I go down and see about finding the others? You wait up here and watch the civilians."

Merete gave me a look of confusion. "Can you levitate?"

"Well, no."

"Can you defend yourself against countless enemies with a snap of a finger?"

"Yeah, if there's an arrow attached to it.." I started laughing.

Merete crossed her arms and gave me the strongest glare I'd ever seen. "Can you even get back up if you go down there?"

I pulled out my bow and an arrow. I pulled an arrow back, and without looking, tied a knot of my 50 foot long rope in the loop built into the arrow, and fired it off at a building nearby. I watched as my arrow soared through the sky, landing in between two cement blocks. I tugged on my rope to make sure the arrow was lodged and then smiled at Merete. "I think I'll be just fine, milady."

She rolled her eyes and walked over to one of the civilians. He was wearing a green cloak with a very nice-looking hood. She yanked it off his body. When he protested, she asked, "Are you about to go sewer diving?" When he shook his head, she passed it to me and said, "Here you go, 'Glass Arrow'." She said with a condescending tone.

I took the cloak from her with a wide smile. I know she was only worried for me and possibly a little sore about me taking her spot as the leader in this scenario. When I slipped the cloak on and put the hood up, I somehow felt…badass, and somewhat appropriate. People with bows should wear green cloaks with badass hoods. It's only natural. Especially with my glass-tipped arrows that look bright green.

With my new cloak on, I readied myself to rappel down the sewer. I gave one final wink to Merete before pushing off.

"So, where's the exit anyway?" I heard from a squeaky high-pitched crackly voice.

It was enough to make me pause before descending down the sewer. I looked up at Merete to see that she hadn't heard anything. It must have been my elven ears.

"If we continue up this pathway, you'll find the only sewer we found unburied. We broke the ladder so no one else to climb down." I heard an older male call from below me. It was an echo escaping the sewer, I could tell. I couldn't place where it was coming from, but I had a good feeling I knew where the voices were heading. I might as well let the people down in the sewer know about us.

I pulled myself back up, turning myself around to scream into the hole. "Hey, you down there! Are you the Imperial Resistance by any chance?"

I heard complete silence for the first few seconds. But then I heard someone yelling, "Yeah, that's us. Who is asking?"

"Battlemage Commander Hans the Hardy ordered us to link up with you! We're the survivors of Cloud Ruler Temple!" I yelled back.

Merete, the whole time, stood there with her arms crossed and a weird smile building on her lips. She finally shook her head, saying, "Only you would scream your location to possible enemies."

I nodded back at her. "I think the separation of all humanoids has ended. In a time of universal extinction, we're all allies." Well, you think we'd be at least.

It was a true notion. I was sure that somewhere there were bandits that would try to kill us even if there was an Aedra invasion happening all around us. People just hate regardless of the situation. They might even blame us while they were at it instead of accepting our offer to help. But, I was sure that we would never run into a situation like that.

When I saw the head of an old Dunmer looking up at me, I waved nicely to him. "Hiya, my name's Huir."

The Dunmer did not look amused. "Just toss down the rope. We have civilians of our own to evacuate and I'd like to get this ladder reattached before nightfall."

I tossed my rope down to him. I watched as he tied the end of the ladder to the rope and nodded to me. "Now, pull it up until it's level with the rest of the ladder. I will have a battlemage reattach the ladder by using their Fire magicka to mold it back into place."

I had to admit, it was a pretty simple plan. So, I pulled on the rope until it was high enough to reattach it. When it was back in place to where a younger female Dunmer was fixing it, I was left standing there, holding onto a rope with nothing else to do but wait until it was finished being glued back together. Might as well get a chat in.

"So, Merete? What are you going to do when this war is over?" I asked to her.

She looked put on the spot. So confused. When she couldn't think of anything, she shrugged. "You first?"

I nodded. No sense in not telling her. "I plan on moving to Skyrim with my wife."

"Your wife?" Merete asked softly. She finally nodded. "Makes sense. Why Skyrim?"

"I hear that Skyrim doesn't have pigs. I want to introduce pig meat to Skyrim's population, so I plan on moving my farm to Skyrim. I hear that Windhelm is a lovely town. Not to mention, Skyrim's hardly been touched by Aedra. There are still plenty of people there." I replied to her.

Merete nodded. "Well, I guess I'll be moving to Skyrim as well. Our old family farm was destroyed when the College of Winterhold blew up, but from what I hear, we still have family in Whiterun. My father planned on moving to Whiterun with my mom and recreating our old farm. Now that I know I'll at least have one friend up in Skyrim, I am thinking it's time to move back home. Imagine, our two families could become friends."

I chuckled at that. "I can imagine it now. Your great-granddaughter will become the High Queen of Skyrim and my grandson will become her personal chef and he'll just make life hell for her by feeding her pig-related stuff."

Merete arched an eyebrow. "What? How on nirn did you think up something like that? That's just stupid. That would never happen."

I nodded to her. "Yeah, you're probably right. That does sound nice, though. Our families becoming friends. I'm sure my daughter would like having a friend like you around."

"You have a daughter?" She asked. "I never would have guessed."

"Yeah, she's a cute little healer. Name's Primrose." I called back to her. "I don't really know what happened to her, though. Last I heard, she was at the Arcane University studying Restoration. I was hoping to find her once we got here."

The Dunmer reattaching the ladder looked up at me with a bright smile. "You're looking for Primrose? Does she have green hair?"

I shrugged. "I haven't seen her in years. Her hair was more blond with green flakes back then. Why? Do you know a Primrose with green hair?"

The Dunmer nodded. "She's one of my best friends. I'll make sure you see her when we come up."

I found myself smiling. I hadn't seen my daughter since she was a tiny little thing. I only got to hear about her from my jail cells. I sure hope she remembered me.

…

[Nakuma]

I was standing by a table that had a body lying on top of it. The body was carved into, split open, revealing all the internal organs. The body was still alive, however. I could hear the screams of the Argonian crying out in pain as I looked inside his body, studying the magic that flowed through his being, the magic that circulated into his heart. It was the magic that allowed him to live. It was his soul. I wanted to know every little secret about that soul: how it worked, why it worked, and how I could keep it working forever. The answer was right in front of me, all I had to do was eat that heart and find out what it tasted like.

As I reached into the Argonian's body and grasped his heart, I could feel it pumping wildly as the Argonian cried out in murder. If it wasn't for the massive amounts of magicka that I poured into him to keep him from passing out from pain, I wouldn't have a heart filled with so much duress. It made my work so much easier to comprehend. A heart taking on as much emotional energy as possible. This was the most energy the heart could survive handling at one go.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the heart. The energy that gathered inside was not the whole soul, it was merely a fragment of it. The heart was exactly as one would think it would be: the moral center. I could now see the soul for what it was, a collection of energies combined into one. The heart was but only a piece of the soul. There were two smaller strings of soulic energy reaching out. One traveled to the groin, the other to the head. I had a feeling I knew what the other parts of the soul pertained. I could do without knowing about the groin for now, but the brain…I had to know.

I picked up my saw and slowly made my way up to the Argonian's head. He glared wide-eyed at me, his expression filled with so much fear and pain that it almost made me feel sick. Why was I doing this? I continued to ponder that while I placed my saw down on the crown of his head and started pushing and pulling the saw. I felt the warm blood splash me in the face, I could hear the horrendous screams of the Argonian, I could see him thrashing as hard as he could, trying to escape what appeared to be nothing more than torture. And I was doing this to him. Why?

I looked down at the face of the Argonian to see that it was my brother. I screamed in horror as I jumped back. I instantly opened my eyes and found myself falling backwards out of my chair. I hit the floor pretty hard, hitting my head. Stars danced in front of my eyes and I continued to lie on the ground, still kinda in my seat. Was…Was that a dream? What the shab was that? I never had dreams like that in the past.

I continued to lie there and just glance up at the ceiling. It was a lovely soft blue with silver stars painted into it. The stars glowed brightly and then dully, like you'd see in a normal sky, if you saw stars in the middle of the day at least. It really helped me put things into perspective. Ok, I had a dream. No, I was not killing anyone, or experimenting on them. So…why did I have that dream anyway?

I rolled off of the chair and pushed it back up. We had the entire journal almost translated now. It turned out that Mannimarco had completed the machine toward the end of the journal. I was just getting to the machine itself, the concept behind it. The dream that I had was from way earlier, almost halfway through the whole journal. I sure hoped that dreams like that would stop coming. I needed my sleep.

I sat down in my chair again and looked at the journal. It showed the diagrams for what the machine looked like and has plenty of highlights about the specifics on the parts. I quickly pulled out a quill and started sketching the designs into my replacement notebook. It seemed pretty standard.

"You're messing up my design. That connector is not bassanium, it's neutranium." I heard a light voice call from behind me. I almost jumped out of my chair as I spun my head around.

Standing near the doorway was a face I'd never thought I'd see. It was an Altmer with dark black robes with the image of a green skull imprinted on it. It was Mannimarco.

I reached for my wand and raised it to him. "What do you want!" I screamed at him. "Tell me, or I'll blast you!"

He smirked at me, raising his hands ever so gently. "Easy, child. I can't hurt you…well, not physically anyway. But like I said, 'you're screwing up my design'. If you want to get it right, then draw it right." He let his hands drop and he walked up to my table. He glanced down at the two journals and pointed at both his and mine. "See this spot right here…you drew the wrong thing."

I looked down at my picture, seeing that I had drawn something incorrect. "So…am I still dreaming or am I just going crazy?"

He smirked up at me. "Can you ever be sure that you're never dreaming, or that you're ever awake? Or that you've always been sane? What is insanity, who defines it, what qualifies it?" He waved his finger at me, beckoning me forward. "I'll tell you who defines it…weak people." He walked through me, making me feel chilled to the bone. "You are experiencing a soul absorption. A shadow journal was created by me so that I could live forever, share my knowledge with the next person to read it, want to know it. You have gone even further, you have tried to recreate it. You and I…" He smiled at me. "are now linked together. Your mind is now my home. I do admit, I always wondered what it would feel like to be a lizard."

I paused and reached out to touch Mannimarco. It was a combination of fear and astonishment that made me do this. My hand passed right through him. "So, I'm guessing that only I can see you?"

He laughed quietly at that. "Since I'm in your head? Yes. Oh, and your brother as well. But I doubt you both can see me at the same time…well, the same me at least."

"Are you the real Mannimarco? Or are you just a recording?" I found myself asking again.

He outright laughed at that. "Oh the joy of being able to chat after being locked in that book for centuries." He threw himself up onto the table, sitting down and glaring at me. "You asked me if I was the 'real' Mannimarco? I assume you mean if I'm the me that died in the uprising and the fall of the Mages Guild. Hmm…yes and no. That Mannimarco was me, but was a different me. He existed in the physical reality, I'm his mental recollection. But, that still makes me Mannimarco. A soul, as you just witnessed, is the combination of our minds, our hearts, and our sexual desires. All three function within us, making us who we are. When Mannimarco wrote his shadow journal, all his thoughts, emotions…desires, were filled in with his words. I am his soul, in every aspect of the word. So…I am Mannimarco."

I continued to look at him for a few seconds before I turned back to his journal. "I don't know if I should be terrified or excited at having you around. But, I can't do anything about it until I'm at least done transcribing this journal anyway."

"I have shown myself because I know why you need my journal. Our minds are linked. I know everything you've ever done, your fears with my magic, your fears with me. I feel that you are worthy of recreating my legacy. I was not able to finish my research. But…I feel that you can. You can bring me back to life." He called from behind me.

"An enemy to most of everything-kind? Hell no." I responded as I continued sketching. I was almost done with this design. As far as I could see, I was on the last ten pages. I would be done by tonight if I could get focus on this.

"In time, you'll start to like having me around." I heard his voice whisper lightly at my neck. I felt my spines shiver with disgust as he somehow vanished. Good, now I could get back to work. You messed up that black soul gem. It has 35 specks on the design, not 34. Oh great, now I'm hearing voices inside my head that aren't mine.

…

[Nexa]

"Blades Master Jauffre, I can see that your scouts have found the Tsaesci." My father said as he glared up at the floating world.

I was getting tired of standing here all day and watching it. My training was finally back up to where I was before. My body was almost fully recovered and my spirits were high. I was still required to train with Shadowmasters Julanza and Yuvenni in the mornings and the early afternoons. The rest of my day was here in this room where I spent most of my time entertaining the war leaders when they wanted a break. And now that I was getting back in shape, I was finding myself being hit on by some of the shadowblades. I was somewhat of a hot item, regardless of my possible rebellious actions that were called 'treason'. I was shocked to find out that a lot of Argonians outside of the Shadowscale circle actually respected me because I went against my orders. Even some of the shadowblades were proud of me because I didn't just do as ordered. I had them convinced that I only did as ordered, however. I can't be sure who might be trying to trap me into confessing my actions the night I led my friends away from here. Maybe someday I can tell the truth, but that day is not today.

The Blades leader, Jauffre, nodded to my father, leaning forward. "Yes, my scouts have just reported that to me a few minutes ago."

I watched as my father paced around in circles around the map. I was just used to seeing all the leaders of the world gathered around this map. The Altmer named Fiirnar who worked for the biggest organization of elven warriors/spellcasters: the Aldmeri Dominion. Then there was Ri'Saddo, the first Khajiit to ever walk these halls and see Lilmoth. He was the Mane's personal assistant so he was as close to the Mane as we could get to having around here. Following that we had our newest guests: Sosia Ernard and Jauffre…something I'm sure. There were some other creatures also on my father's leader list, but they were out and about, doing their own thing. I don't know exactly who or what they were.

"And your mages, Sosia? How are they fairing?" My father asked her.

"According to my latest reports, they are scattered but the majority of them have returned to their forts and are preparing numerous enchanted weapons, armor, clothing, jewelry. They are doing all they can to prepare for the worst. My battlemages are responding to the threat of the Aedra nicely. We have six new troops all out and doing what they can under Battle Commander Han's orders." The Arch-Mage replied.

"Where is this Hans? Has he left already?" Father asked.

Arch-Mage nodded. "Yes. He couldn't stand being here. I think the death of his wife hit him harder than I would have guessed. He escorted my daughter to Fort Grief, our strongest best warded fort that we have at the moment. He's running all the operations via crystal balls to all of our teams. He responds to all data and information I give him, as well as relay orders I have. He'll be fine at Fort Grief."

My father looked over at Ri'Saddo, giving him what looked like an attempt at a smile. "Ri'Saddo. You know of the ruin we are looking for, right?"

Ri'Saddo shrugged. "Khajiit have many ruins. This ruin you told Ri'Saddo of…it does not surprise Ri'Saddo that one may exist. Its location, Khajiit have no knowledge of, however. Ri'Saddo will organize scouting parties of Khajiit to go out and look for ruin. Khajiit will try to be fast as can be, so that this war can be over before it's too late."

My father nodded. "Well, that's the best we can hope for." He looked over at me and nodded. "Nexa, you have three days before our escort arrives. You can have those three days to yourself. Report to me on Sundas evening for your mission. I'll fill you in on the specific information at that time."

I nodded to my father. "Yes, thank you, Warlord. I shall go prepare my travel bag." I couldn't wait to see if Vatu was still alive.

Cearbhail: Well, next time I write a chapter, it will be back in the present. Now I have to do some research so I remember what the shab is even going on in the present.