Cearbhail:

I have finally posted this chapter. It took me a while to sit down to it, but now it's done. And finally, I can close out this arc. No.. not the story, this particular arc of the story. Now, it will have a slight time laspe (like a week or something) and the characters will be doing some different stuff. You'll see, It'll make sense when I do it. Anyway, hope you enjoy the arc closer.

[Nakuma]

Shadow journal entry 8,

Husks: It is a nickname that is given to an emotionless person. It is one of the universal terms known through the races, a lot like the Khajiit 'Purr'. Every race has their own stereotypical nickname for almost every condition; however the more famous ones are spread across the borders. Purr and Husk are just two of these well-known personality types. With Argonians, being called a 'Husk' is more of a mental condition rather than a personality; in fact it's where the term 'Husk' began. The term is most often applied to Argonians who partially survive the Soul Chamber in the Shadowwraith training institutions. The Soul Chamber is an astral realm that intensifies your emotional body, stretching it until it consumes you. Some Argonians survive the process, becoming full-fledged Shadowwraiths with a near-invincible emotional body (which is necessary for our Shadow-based Illusion/Alteration/Destruction magic. When Argonians with bad history or unresolved emotional scars enter the Soul Chamber, they often have to face their long-buried emotional traumas. If the Argonian wishes to survive the onslaught of their own emotional bodies, they often lock themselves away in a mental box where their emotions are no longer able to hurt them. Most Husks never recover, nor are they expected. They are a socially accepted byproduct of a successful Soul Resonance. They are not pitied, nor do they care.

Purrs: It is a nickname that originated in Elsweyr. The origins of the nickname began on a rainy afternoon on a battlefield that housed the remaining forces of a bloody battle between the Khajiits and the Imperials against their Ayleid overlords. The Imperials were resting from the battle, mourning the loss of their comrades. The Khajiits were celebrating the victory with moon sugar. When some of the Imperials noticed the Khajiits laughing and partying, they started questioning the Khajiits as to why they were so happy on such a mournful day. When questioned by the exhausted and shell-shocked Imperials, the Khajiits purred for their answer. The Imperials were lifted up by the energetic Khajiits in their ranks. It gave morale to the overall campaign against the Ayleids. The later known cause for the Khajiits' overwhelming energetic nature was moon sugar overdose. However, the 'purring' is often expressed as an over-enthusiastic happy feeling that comes from Khajiits. Khajiits only purr when they are really excited. When a Khajiit shows its wild, carefree side, they are often called 'Purrs', because of how purring is common with these personality types. It is not a hateful term to the Khajiits, but rather one of endearment. This term, just like Husk, has traveled across borders and is now used for all energetic excited people. With the other races, it's used less as endearment and rather as a minor annoyance. I also find it annoying. Argonians get the crappy nickname that means cold-hearted when used against us, and Khajiits get the energetic light-hearted nickname.

Nakuma, Shadowwraith…

…

I took a deep breath in, stretching my arms out. My body felt so tired, so overused. What did I do? My arms felt like they were on fire, my legs felt like bricks. The muscles surrounding my chest and stomach burned every time I drew breath. My head felt heavy and my brain felt like it was in a fog. Overall, I felt like I needed to sleep for another few days, maybe a week. So, why was I awake then? Heck, when did I fall asleep?

When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying in the massive medical tent. The healers were rushing around in a crazy mess, holding tiny bits of a green rock as they rushed to the next bleeding armor-clad battlemage or shadowscale. Shadowscale? Weren't we currently at war with the shadowscales? I guess a lot had happened since I fell asleep. I looked down at my arm after I felt a pinch when I bent it. There was a needle in my arm. Attached to that needle was a tube running water into my veins. Ok, so I was being rehydrated. I'm alive, so I guess that's one thing.

I looked around. Other than the injured battlemages and the healers running around tending to their many wounds, I was by myself. I sighed as I lied back down. I wonder how long I would sit here. How did I even end up here? Last thing I remembered, I was lying on the ground, covered in my own blood. Fire roared all around me, the hot flames threatening to cook me alive. Ram-ku was out cold. Next thing, I remember Ram-ku getting up, saying something mumbled to me, and then limped away. My memory seemed…too faded after that. I'm not sure what happened.

"You, pink-scaled Argonian. You're a mage, right?" A healer wearing a white face-mask asked as she ran up to me. When I nodded, she started running her hands over my aura. "Can you use Restoration on other people?" I nodded. "Can you be considered a healer in theory?" I nodded again. She did a quick scan of my aura and then started pulling the plugs off my body. She pulled the covers off my body, snapping her fingers. "Well, come on then! We need every healer we can get. More and more battlemages are running in for treatment. We need to fix them up so they can run back out. Our wards wouldn't protect us for long against the Aldmeri Dominion.

"Aldmeri Dominion?" I asked as I sat up. I found myself completely naked as I sat up. I started reaching for the sheets to cover with, but I found the healer throwing a white healer robe at me. "Thanks." I said as I slipped the robe on. I jumped off my cot and started looking around. "Who should I do first?"

She pointed to Nexa, saying, "You focus on her! She's bleeding out and our two strongest mages are fixing a Khajiit. We cannot leave this post until those two fighters are able to be carried out. If that Shadowscale can be on her feet, we could use her help in fighting the Aldmeri Dominion." After she finished with that, the healer turned away as a bleeding battlemage ran up to her. It looked like his arm had been torn up. What was happening out there? When I looked out the flap, I could see battlemages swinging enchanted swords and maces at hordes of zombies. For some battlemages, the hordes climbing out of the mud proved too much. The zombies were grabbing onto the legs of one unlucky battlemage. He cried and slashed with all he had as the horde reached out and clawed at his legs. I watched as fingers dug into his soft unprotected legs, tearing flesh and muscle off. Two seconds later a few other battlemages rushed up and helped the battlemage escape. That wounded battlemage limped up to the tent, rushing past me. Three healers ran up to him, trying to heal his already torn up leg. So…that's what's going on. This was what a real battle healing tent looked like. In a few seconds, the wound looked stable and the battlemage rushed back out the tent, right as two more rushed in.

So, once I fully understood what was going on, I decided that we really needed Nexa fixed up. So, I quickly walked back up to her, seeing her lying on her own cot. I took a deep breath as I cleared my mind. Ok, this was our princess, our true leader. If I screwed this up, our country was as good as dead. So, cracked my neck and looked down at her. I ran my hands across her body, searching for any damage. I found several bruises all around her body, but they didn't concern me. She did have a massive series of cuts running across her torso. They seemed mostly healed. Overall, she seemed just fine. So…what did they need me to do? I was wasting my time with this, but I guess it was just a little push the other healers needed. So, I released a breath as I started pushing Restoration magic into her body. Almost instantly, Nexa was sitting up, gasping for breath. She looked up at me, blinking in surprise. "Nakuma?"

I nodded to her. "Yup. Um…Princess…we need your help outside. The battlemages are being overrun by zombies and Thalmor."

She reached down at her chest, nodding. "Wow…I feel good as new. Good job, Nakuma." She nodded to me, standing up. She grabbed her sword and rushed past me. "I'll handle this."

I found myself letting a quick breath out as the other healers all looked over at me, clapping and nodding in appreciation. "Wow, she's fast." "What do you expect from a Shadowwraith?" "Wow, she took care of that with ease."

The Bosmer Primrose came limping out of the separate room within the massive tent. She looked at me, nodding me to come to her. "I hear you're quite the healer." She said.

Healer? I didn't do anything! I looked around for someone else to take the praise for it. So, I shook my head. "Nonsense, Nexa's wounds were practically healed. She just needed a little boost. Anyone could have done it."

Primrose smiled. "Several have already tried. No one could get her moving." She grabbed my arm, pulling me inside the smaller tent. I could see Oleeme and Davilia sitting on the floor, both of them exhausted and out of magicka. Primrose pointed down to Vatu, who lied in a bed. She fell to her knee, gasping for air. "Please…we're too tired to go on. Help Vatu!" Primrose whispered to me before passing out. I reached out to grab her before she hit the floor. When she was comfortably in my arms, I lowered her to the floor, pushing some of my magicka into her body. I felt her straighten up and relax as she drifted off. Good, she was just tired. She needed to rest.

I turned to look at Oleeme. He glazed his white glowing eyes over to me. He nodded a welcome, saying, "Fellow Shadowwraith Nakuma, I regret to inform you I am at 3% performance. I require a few minutes of rest before I can be combat ready." He leaned back on his arms, taking a deep breath. "It is up to you, Nakuma. He is 89% fixed. The rest should be easy."

I nodded to him and turned to Vatu. I could already see that his body looked more or less stitched together. When I reached out and grabbed his aura, I felt a conflict brewing in his soul. Several energies were flying inside his body, all fighting to control him. That wasn't the issue right now, though. He wasn't ready to be moved. All the muscles were barely clinging together. Primrose and the others must have rushed to stitch everything together as fast as they could. They got some of it basically correct, so I didn't need to do much on one spot.

Images of the bodies I had read about in Mannimarco's journal flashed in my head. My heart started racing as I plunged my astral hands into Vatu's body. Imagine, I could study him. I could isolate this destruction-bringing gene. Heck, if I wanted to dominate him, turn him into my slave, all I had to do was reach into his head and crush his spiritual brain. If I reached into his spiritual heart, I could make him love me. I could do anything I wanted to him. His friends were all busy or out cold. I could even force him to become a blood-rager and send him out to finish off the zombies. I could get him to support Nexa by sending him to kill every Thalmor in the world. He could single-handedly bulrush into Argonia's capital and take it back for us. With him in front, the mess would be inevitable and many more would die, but at least we'd have our home back.

I had to push the idea out of my head with a physical shake of my head. No, I couldn't do something like that. My hands twitched with the effort and my breathing grew even more desperate. Craving started setting in and I wanted nothing more than to turn Vatu into my weapon…or something else. I wondered what it would be like, having a Khajiit for a boy toy. Nexa seems to care for him, there had to be a good reason. I could easily make him crave me, to want to satisfy me. My hands were already inside him. I could do anything I wanted to him to make him mine. I've read so many chapters that I know the procedure by heart. Heck, I had to mentally recreate every single experiment for the sake of the journal strapped inside my back pouch.

I felt myself pulling back as my anxiety started peaking: anxiety that I may actually attempt this, and that I was actually considering it. A war started up in my head, all projecting just what it was that I was doing. I was getting ready to take a living being and dominate him for my own purposes. But it would be for the best of Argonia. This was one of the last blood-ragers. He has proven to be indestructible in battle. I could turn his red glaze to all the Aldmeri Dominion bases and just watch him tear it up. I could then reanimate all the Thalmor corpses and use them against their own allies. It would be a quick solution to such a small problem.

As I started reaching into his heart to dominate him, I felt another part of me screaming at me. What are you doing? You're not a monster! Her voice was feint, but I could hear it. But…my hand continued to grab onto his heart, forcing corrupted necromancy magic into it. I was so close to making him mine! He would do whatever I wanted, kill whoever I wanted, please me in any way I wished. I would rule Argonia with an invincible boy toy. If Nexa limped back in here, I could dominate her too. Imagine all I could do. So many tired people still ripe for the taming.

Stop this! This isn't me! The voice screamed. My hand started pulling away. No! I screamed heavily to the intruding voice. I wouldn't let her interrupt my process! I started pushing my hand back into Vatu's heart. Once I grabbed hold, I pushed with all my might. I forced my magicka into him. It was a struggle, but I could feel my magicka travel through his body. I felt the wave of Restoration magic surged through is muscles, repairing all the damage that was left. He was basically fully healed. He still needed to rest, though. Vatu took a deep breath and snapped his eyes open. He looked over at me, smiling thinly.

"Nakuma?" He asked as he started sitting up. I had to push his body back down.

"Vatu, rest. You've just undergone a humongous healing session. I just finished healing your body. If you can walk, please stand up. We need to start evacuating as soon as we can." I looked away from him and over to Primrose. "I'll give Primrose some of my energy so she can get up on her feet. Think you can get Davilia back up on hers?"

Vatu groggily nodded, rubbing his head. "I feel weird. Why do I feel weird?"

I turned to look at him. "I…I almost dominated you. At the last second, I threw Restoration magicka instead of necro magicka into your heart." I grabbed onto his arms, giving him a light squeeze. "Vatu…I had to recreate Mannimarco's journal. And when you recreate a journal such as that…it taints you. I have this…other me living inside me trying to get me to do things I don't want to. It almost made me make you into my sex slave. You have to keep an eye on me. If I do anything suspicious, you may need to kill me. You know…to keep everyone else safe."

He nodded. "Yeah, I understand." He turned to help Davilia up, pushing me away. "For the good of us all, I'll restore Dav and Rose. You just stand there and keep your healing hands out of their bodies."

I nodded back to him. "Ok, … thanks, Vatu." I almost lost it. I looked at my hands, clenching them. What was I going to do? I don't know how long I was going to be able to work under these conditions. Shabla journal. I wish I never had to recreate it. I looked from him over to Oleeme, who glared at me with his white eyes. Oh crap! I forgot he was still awake. "Um…hi Oleeme."

He nodded to me. "Do not worry, fellow Shadowwraith. I will extinguish you if you present a threat to our comrades." He started standing up, picking up Primrose. "You have my word."

…

[Erandur]

"Status report!" I shouted over the roar of zombies tearing at me. With my two enchanted katanas, I slashed through their bodies. Two crimson blades roared beyond my reach, cutting through more zombies climbing out of the ground. I didn't see any more climbing out. Maybe this necromancer was finally running out of magicka. I started turning my attention to the many Aldmeri soldiers fighting my comrades. They needed my attention.

"Everyone seems to be doing fine, sir!" I heard Crassi cry from the other side of the tent. "The healers are fixing us up as soon as we go down. That malachite clump has enough range that our magicka's working too. You should see Travis. He's tearing the zombies up.

I nodded. "That's good, but the Thalmor are being smart. They're staying out of our range. We can't use our magicka outside our limited bubble." I turned to face the elves. They were smiling as they waited all around out tent. They had wards up that were protecting them. They also had brought up a giant bubble wall that we couldn't burst through. We were trapped.

Tryana walked up to me, stretching out her only good arm with her mechanical one. "That Councilor Nrillia isn't getting up anymore. I think I finally killed her."

I shook my head, looking at the giant piles of bodies that all looked like the same Altmer. "No, I doubt she'd just show up after you kept killing her pets. She probably ran out of bodies. There are no more zombies either. Time to take on the Dominion. Think you can drop the shield?"

She nodded as she started walking past me. "Just watch, goldilocks." So, I walked up to the giant wall with her. My fellow battlemages were all taking this time to get their breath back. All the zombies were dead. I didn't see any battlemage casualties. Good for us. Very good for us.

Tryana cracked her knuckles and her neck as she walked up to the wall. "You have two seconds to teleport away before I kill you all." She said, waving us all to join her. "Everyone station around the edge of the wall. We're going to make this as quick as possible." She turned back to face the Altmer in front of her. He was busy concentrating on keeping the wall up. "You're first, you know. Unless you leave now."

"Orders, ma'am." The Thalmor replied. Within him completing his statement, Tryana's mechanical fist reappeared in his face. His head exploded on contact. The wall exploded all around us. I was so stunned that I hesitated almost. My two katanas sang as they ripped through three Thalmor in front of me. Before I knew what was going on, all the Thalmor were on the ground. That's when Nexa charged out of the tent and up to me. She looked around, nodding.

"What'd I miss?" She exclaimed as she lowered her sword.

"This fight is over." I called back to her.

"Not yet, it's not!" A hundred voices all called from the burial mound of Nrillias. The mound exploded into a cloud of magicka. The wave of new magicka threw me off my feet. I landed several feet away on my back. When I looked up, all of the Nrillias were already on their feet, spraying lightning over at me and my fellow battlemages. I rolled off my back, evading a giant wave of lightning, well most of it. Several other bolts all caught me. The magicka surged through me, frying my hair, my teeth, my nerves. I spasmed out of control as my body was rocked by the lightning. I had just enough sense in me to throw my hand forward and will my own magicka to force hers out. Her lightning flew out of my fingers and back to some of her doubles. They threw up their own wards, protecting themselves. Oh great, so much for the quantity theory of easily toppled foes. This was going to be some hard work.

I rolled up on my feet, charging at her. I don't know exactly what I would have to do to kill her again, but I would try. I jumped in the air, bringing up a ball of Shield as a wave of Frost magicka rained down on me. As I entered some of their personal space, I sang with my katanas. Two heads rolled off their shoulders. My enchanted crimson blades continued to roar past, cutting deep into the remaining Nrillias in front of me. I sang more with my katanas, throwing more blades into the battle. The Nrillias were falling down left and right now.

I turned away as a summoned sword slashed at me. Several Nrillias all stared me down as they flashed up to me like shadows. I jumped back, deflecting a couple slashes aimed at me. I stuck my hand out, blasting out with some Fire magicka. I got one of them in their eyes, blinding them. "Oh no…I can't see." She said but then smiled wickedly as she continued to slash at me without an issue. "Take my eyes, my head, my arms…I will still kill you." She screeched in pure malice and enthusiasm. What the hell was wrong with this woman?

I sang with my blade as quickly as I could, cutting more of them down to the smallest of pieces I could manage. I turned to see that everyone had handled it as well. I found myself releasing a breath I had built up. Good. That's when I heard the ground shifting. The ground started exploding all around me. Mud was collecting around the fallen body parts. Everyone cleared the way as the mud started pulling together into a large mass. "Everyone take it down before it finishes!" I screamed, blasting several fireballs at it. Everyone started firing stuff too. We peppered that thing with everything we had.

We had caused the mud to explode, throwing body parts everywhere. That's didn't help though. The mud had been used to reassemble several Nrillias. The naked Altmer walked out of the muddy mountain summoning weapons to fight us with. "You will never win!" The ten or so Nrillias scream. "With my strength spread across a hundred me, I couldn't face you. With just ten, I will manage. With one, I will win." Nine other bodies all fell to pieces, leaving only one now. She walked up to us, drawing two massive Daedric claymores.

Tryana flashed as she ran up to Nrillia. The two of them started going back and forth with magical explosions ripping through the air. They had disappeared into a mess of magicka and mud. I couldn't even see where they were or what they were doing. All I felt was someone push me down from behind. "Get down!" Tryana screamed as she tackled me. I heard some tearing and Tryana cried out in pain. As I turned my head, Tryana was underneath two tips of the claymores. Nrillia stood above me, pushing the blades deeper into Tryana's back. "Now…I dominate you."

And just like that, my body froze. I couldn't move. Our only fighter capable of killing her was down or dead. She waved to me and my body started standing up on its own. Her eyes started glowing and my body started seizing up on me. "You will die." She said. I couldn't respond. "But fear not. I will enjoy our moment together. Once I have finished digging out your organs, I will kill you."

"You first." I heard someone scream from over the hill. I couldn't turn my head to see who it was, but I didn't need to. I saw Nrillia's head explode as a Fireball collided with it. Her control over me disappeared and I fell to my knees. I snapped my head over to see a skinny Imperial wearing something that resembled Blades armor, only it made of leather. He nodded to me, saying, "Well, I guess I arrived just in time." Oh thank the gods he showed up when he did…whoever he was.

Cearbhail: So, that ends this arc. I know, it's not the best ending for this section, but it sovles the battle going on. I'd rather not waste a few chapters explaining the rest of the escape. The Aldmeri Dominion has been defeated for now and everyone is healed. Other than Tryana, everyone is up on their feet and ready to go. They all run off and they start the next phase of their operation to stop not only the Thalmor, but the Aedra. Oh, and as far as Elsweyr story, they're settling into their new living situation during this period so their own story will begin when the next chapter does. In fact, a lot of new stories will start up. One of them involving an actual Aedra. Yeah, they're getting characters and personalities now. Won't that be exciting?