THE WORLD-EATER'S EYRIE
Dragonborn
What a wasteland this was. Dead trees line the small path through the snow-covered peaks. On the other end was certainly the great temple. Dust and snow blew through the valley, marring Cicero's sight but Eve and the Night Mother could see well.
At least they made it through the dragon flight. Cicero started squealing halfway there from the cold and the wind. The Night Mother just had to keep silent. For the second time, she wondered if it would be best to change him into a vampire. But the way he obsesses and grovels about things…to make him immortal would be insufferable.
She pulls Eve along with the chains on her wrists. She is thankfully, silent. As she should be. Cicero shivers next to her.
"There are dragons here." The Night Mother tells them. "Dragons and ancient spirits. Keep your wits about you."
"Yes, Mother." Cicero says, as expected. He pulls out his blades to be ready.
The Night Mother peers over her shoulder to her other Child. She is dragging her feet along but her eyes are alert. The Blood Flower tugs on the chains, enough for Eve to stumble and get her attention. "If you are attacked, you are to stay behind me. I will deal with them."
Eve nods. The only sign she'll get.
Very well. The Night Mother charges ahead, they shall see what nefarious traps Alduin has set out for them. She anticipates they won't be too hard to weasel their way out of.
"Mother!" Screams Cicero. The Night Mother dodges another firebolt sent her way. She sends the storm to its maker and the mage falls to ash. She then turns her attention to her Children.
The green dragon and a red one were cornering them. The red one was flying above, waiting to rat them out then pick them off while they run. As all flying predators do. The other one was lining them up in the perfect position to burn them alive.
"Children, move." The Night Mother says to them.
Eve ducks out of the way, her chains lash at Cicero who falls when his ankles are swept out from under him. The Night Mother yells, sending Unrelenting Force the dragon's way. He recoils when the sudden force hits him.
He turns his eyes to her, and she smiles. She has him right where she wants him. She sends the storm his way. Purple lighting races down her form and leaps over the chasm between him to engulf the great beast.
He falls, roaring and snarling until his scales fall off. It was a gruesome process sometimes with the dragons. They were larger creatures so their change into ash is much longer. The scales fall, then so does the rest of the dragon.
The red one however, swoops down, taking the Night Mother with him. She screams as it tries to lock its jaws on her. A quick voltage of electricity simmers around him before he too, falls to ash.
They are all panting on the steps to the temple now. Cicero scrambles over, "Mother are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." She stands up tall. Her back was scalded by the beast, but she feels it slowly re-stitching itself back together. "Both of you follow me. We're here."
They continue up the long steps to the entrance of the temple. Inside, the Night Mother sees clearly what is going on. Alduin sent the dragons and spirits to keep them at bay, but he also set up traps in the form of puzzles. Nothing they couldn't get through.
She kills the draugr where they stand. Before they can even send a blow their way. On the room with the first puzzle, she works on disposing of the walking corpses and sends Cicero to find the answer.
"A bird, a snake. This way and that." He turns the stones just so. The Night Mother suppresses a groan. No doubt he will want to look for the treasure in the other door. "Only focus on the left passageway." She commands him.
"Yes, Mother." He does as he is told.
The process is too long so the Night Mother sits on a nearby rock. She would never admit it, but it felt good to rest her legs for the time being. The dragon attacks were wearing her down.
"What's it going to be like at the end?" Eve asks softly from a few feet away. She was still dragging the chains and still weak, but her eyes watched the room the same way the Night Mother does. She is glad she at least taught her Child that.
As for the question, there are many interpretations of what she is alluding to. The end of the temple? Or the end, when the Night Mother rises victoriously?
"I believe Sovngarde is where Alduin is. As the dragon who dragged us here said, Alduin has been quite busy. And tampering with things best left alone." The foolish dragon. She wanted to kill the right hand to Alduin but he flew off as soon as he dropped them. She couldn't even use Dragonrend to bring him back.
As for Sonvgarde, she will have to keep her guard up. There is no telling who or what souls they will meet on the other end. Eve gives a nervous laugh, "That will be fun."
"It will." The Night Mother promises. The chains move and the sound of the bars being unlatched fill the room. The passage was cleared. She rises, bringing the chains with her. But she doesn't have to drag Eve along this time, she follows willingly.
Down the passage they find more of the same. The undead rise in seemingly pairs of two or three. She could never count. She only makes sure they would never rise again.
Cicero throws another dagger and crows when a draugr is taken to the ground. "Did you see that Mother? Cicero is adept at knife throwing now."
His comment only elicits a slanted smile from the Night Mother. She has more pressing concerns at the moment. She flings another ball of electricity down the corridor. Snarls and hisses sound when the nest of frostbite spiders is ruined.
The rest are promptly stomped on when she sees them. Another door is ahead. The Night Mother pauses to take a small breath. She wipes some condensation from her brow. Who knew one would still sweat when their body temperature was so cold a mortal would be considered dead?
"You, okay?" her Child asks delicately.
The Night Mother turns to glance over her shoulder. Her cold golden eyes latch with her Child's. She is showing no signs of malice nor despair. She seems to be merely concerned.
"Yes." She responds. Eve goes back to watching her feet. There is no way this girl has had a change of heart in the past few days. The Night Mother would bet her whole new Castle on that promise. Something is going on.
She yanks at the chains again, dragging her Child along. A quick snap of her fingers brings Cicero bounding over to her.
"Yes, Mother? Another puzzle?" He squeals too loudly.
She merely grabs the back of his neck roughly. "Let your sister be. Be quiet. I need a word with you in the other room."
Her other Child doesn't seem to take notice when her chains go slack. She just kneels against the wall, laying so that her face is plastered to the side. No self-awareness. The Night Mother supposes Eve had little to begin with, but now without blood for days she is nearly gone to the world.
"Mother what is it?" Cicero pants when she drags him into the next room. A quick survey shows no enemies are about yet.
"Is she planning something? She is acting too…calm for someone in her position."
Cicero is holding back laughter. She can see it. Her blood begins to boil. "No Mother! Cicero would surely know. Shall he go…ask politely? AHAHA."
More unnecessary torture? At this time when they are so close to Sovngarde? The Night Mother doesn't suppose that would be the wisest use of time. But paranoia can be a ruler's best asset.
"Make it quick. I'm going to make sure nothing is hiding in this room." The Night Mother says instantly.
She sees the flicker of surprise in his gaze. As much as she would hate to admit it, she sees that Cicero has grown a certain fondness for the girl. He truly sees her as his sister. She can't have this. "Make it harsh, make it count and get answers. I'm not asking you again." The Night Mother snaps before stepping away and into the fray of the enemies in the room.
Cicero just watches her form disappear. He sinks against the cave wall and, after a quick, silent prayer to Sithis, he moves quietly to get whatever answers he can from the Listener.
When her reign has firmly established itself, and the Dark Brotherhood is across each and every Hold, her first order of business will be to make sure every undead in these dungeons is cleansed from this earth.
She snarls when one sinks his dull teeth into her shoulder. A quick flick of her wrist has him writhing on the ground with lighting streaks racing along his body. They weren't hard to kill in any sense, they were just wearing her down. That is the point, she muses, they are also tied to Alduin as those other dragons outside were.
Another deathlord is upon her. She catches her breath while prowling the room. If she can find his weakness, and they all had them, she could end this quickly.
The draugr shouts, sending the pots and various burial tools rattling through the cavern. The Night Mother just plants her feet and keeps a strong stance on the earth. "Very well, we play that game. Fus Ro Dah!" She yells into the air.
The cavern goes rattling again with the force of her shout. So does the draugr. She makes sure to tear his throat out while he's down on the ground. He can't shout anymore without one. She lets a sly little smirk play on her face with that thought. How silly they all were, although they had little in the way of cognitive abilities. Such a shame. Otherwise, they would make great followers.
The Night Mother is back to musing over what life would be like if she had the chance to study necromancy. Then, Cicero drags the Listener in.
"She didn't know anything." He chokes out. He drops the chains to fall to his hands and knees.
"You need more conditioning or else you would be useless." She spits as she approaches him. This is probably the fifth time on this journey that he has been out of breath. Only when he looks up does she see the red rimming his eyes.
"Really? You are crying over her?" She laughs.
"No, Mother. I am not. I am crying because she doesn't understand. I thought she would by now." He stands to stumble and hide in the folds of her dress.
The Blood Flower is left to peer down at her untamable Child. She is breathing, shallowly. Her skin has sunken in and become the fairest white after so little blood. Dark, nearly black circles sit under her eyes. And now ugly scars criss-cross over her body. Cicero's knives were sharpened as much as they could be before the journey, and it looks like they had done well with another target.
Her fingers curl around Eve's full black hair to pull her head up. "Wake up." She shakes the girl's head around.
"No." She groans, her eyes slit open to stare at her Mother.
"I said, wake up!" She throws her head to the ground and promptly kicks the barely living corpse. "What are you planning?" She asks in a controlled voice. The girl says nothing to this outburst.
Cicero tugs on her dress. "She knows nothing or else she would have told Cicero! We must go before the dragon gets here."
It used to take more time to redirect her rage when it was set on someone. Especially after so long being left locked up in a coffin. It was better to get the anger out all at once, controlled and forceful. But right now, would be an inopportune time. Cicero was right, the dragons are still about.
"You are planning something, Eve. I know it. And make no mistake, when I find out what that is, there will be consequences."
Cicero shivers. Eve lays and doesn't even flutter an eyelash to the threat.
"Pick her up. We must go now." The Night Mother commands.
The jester obliges and soon they are racing up the path to the next cavern. She can feel they are close. The portal to Sovngarde is minutes away. But something else calls.
She throws her hand back, hitting a draugr straight in the face with her spark power. He goes down jolting before falling to ash. Cicero stomps through it, panting and shivering from the encroaching cold.
The Night Mother holds a hand up to slow him down. Thankfully, he doesn't utter a word for once. He just waits. She peers around the great stone to find ten draugr milling about. They won't be hard to kill. But the deathlords have proven to be more of a nuisance than she would have wanted.
Yet, across the way, she sees a blue light fixed on the Word wall. She smiles. If she can just get over there…
"Cicero, you stay with your sister and if anyone comes your way you kill them, understand?"
"Yes, Mother." He pulls Eve to the side, so they are now crouching in the darkest part of the room.
The Night Mother sends her call. "Fus Ro Dah!" Unrelenting Force goes flying quick from her lips across the room and sending everyone to the ground. She must be quick. She races across the room and throws down sparks wherever she can to subdue as many draugr as possible. When she reaches the Word wall she pauses.
The power comes racing to her, it takes far too long in her opinion, to gain the power but here it is. Something cleaves into her shoulder blades. She clenches her teeth at the ongoing assault but lets the power settle before striking at her enemy.
Storm call. So, this is the power Alduin had hiding beneath these ruins. She will make good use of it.
She sends out the call, quick as any other shout but she is not anticipating the onslaught. A storm, as great and powerful as she has seen in her past, comes floating above her head. It has little room in such a small cavern. The destruction is the same as any other storm on the plains. Lighting thunders from the clouds. She hears the inhuman screams of the undead and her Children. Eve is awake and Cicero is trying his best to shield her from the power.
The Night Mother watches as lighting rains down upon every enemy in the room, it's almost too much. Too many lighting strikes. Too much power in one room. One would be scared to traverse the center of the storm, but she lost that fear long ago.
She glides over the now decaying and disintegrating bodies. Lighting races all around her, she only brushes it with her palms. Instead of attacking her the lighting caresses her. A power fit for a queen.
On the other edge of the storm wall, she finds Cicero gasping and panting and Eve sitting motionless, as if her stillness will keep the storm at bay. The Night Mother supposes the storm won't end soon, so she holds out her hands. "Come with me, Children, I will carry you to the other side."
Cicero grabs her hand instantly. Eve doesn't move. "Eve." She says.
She looks up to her with such fear in her eyes. The Night Mother remembers that fear. She always felt it around the lighting. "It won't hurt you this time."
"Yeah right. And I just sprouted wings." She speaks in the softest of voices either out of fear or weakness.
"You have no choice."
She laughs harshly, "Did I ever?"
"You are going with me to Sovngarde. Think of who you might see there." The Night Mother decides to dangle that carrot in front of her face.
Eve watches her with a fresh expression, of wonder and trepidation. But her eyes are lighting up.
"Take my hand and follow me."
"Hurry, Listener!" Cicero squeals as a peal of lighting and thunder rattle the stones.
The cave might very well fall on them. The Night Mother prepares herself to snatch Eve up in her short arms and race them out to the aboveground sanctuary. But for once in her long life, she is taken by surprise. Her Child takes her outstretched hand without another word.
Draugr fall at their feet in droves. Cicero was helping her and killing them as swiftly as possible. Blood is now pooling at their feet, or whatever comes from a rotten corpse. Her eyes flick over to watch Eve nearly salivating over it. She snatches the chains and tugs again. "Keep moving."
Up ahead a pillar is beginning to glow. The Night Mother knows this is the portal to Sovngarde, but who will be its defender?
Before she can call her Children to her again, he arrives. A dragon priest. Nahkriin. An easy kill. The priests are very strong and deadly with their magic, but their weaknesses were always in those moments between the spells.
Fire blazes around him then he throws it their way. The Night Mother ducks and sends the storm call. If one were not watching carefully, then this plan would be the most foolproof. The storm is strong. It can decimate whatever is in its path and leave little in its wake. But there were other creatures to contend with.
A dragon swoops down behind her, digging his claws into the Night Mother's back and wrenching her to the side. She falls in a bloodied mess. Her trapezius muscles are in tatters, so her shoulders have little movement. She waits a quick moment for it to begin restitching itself. Then she throws all her power at the dragon.
Before it can incinerate Eve, he's blasted into the wall across from them and near the pillar. The dragon is falling to pieces now so the Night Mother turns her attention to Nahkriin. He is festering with great power. She watches it swirl around him in a dizzying haze before he throws it right at her.
She braces and holds onto the cobblestone with fraying fingernails when the blast of electricity curls around her. She barks out a laugh, "Try better." She then absorbs that very power and throws it back to him. He screams with the onslaught, and she uses all the seconds wisely.
She scrapes herself up from the snow scattered on the cobblestone and races to his side. His black eyes shine with the light of one so powerful before she plunges one of Cicero's knives into his chest.
An inhuman scream sounds with his death. The world is taken into the wind. It is always so dramatic when a dragon priest meets their end.
The only thing to fall from him is the mask, his staff, and the knife. She chooses the key to the portal while also retrieving Cicero's knife. Come to think of it, she turns it around to watch the drying blood caked on it. He should have kept this.
A soft cry comes from the other side of the clearing. She looks up in time to see Eve tugging at the dead dragon's jaws. The soul should have released itself by now.
Portal all but forgotten, the Night Mother glides to the edge of the wall where the dragon is half incinerated, and halfway intact. The head is still there, it's unfocused gaze seeming to glare out at her. But in it's jaws sits her other Child. "Mother," He whispers.
She nearly recoils as she takes in his form. The dragon had almost snapped him in two with his powerful bite. He is now stuck and only his feet and head, along with one arm are sticking out. Blood is falling from it's teeth.
"I tried to help him." Eve pants, "I'm too weak." She curls her nails into the dragon's flesh, testing the durability of the skin.
The Night Mother gives her a once over. It would be so like her to say something so off-putting before lapping up Cicero's blood and taking off as a Vampire Lord. "Go to the portal." She commands.
"I, but don't you need help?" Her pretty brow furrows.
"No. Go." She watches her Child's confusion. She wonders why they are letting her walk without a captor no doubt. Little does she know the Night Mother has a strong foot on the very end of her long chain.
They rattle and clink together as she makes her ascent to the portal. The Night Mother claps the dragon's jaw and pulls…
It opens easily now that he's dead. Cicero cries out in agonizing pain. The Night Mother suppresses a wince when she sees the damage done. His abdomen is badly wounded. His back as well. He won't make it long. Even with a healing spell he won't be as he once was.
"Cicero. I am sorry." She says solemnly. His bright eyes find hers, "A healing spell? A potion? Cicero can then come into the portal."
"No. There is no use." She checks her nails for damage before staring out to the vast snow-covered land. It is unusually cold for the summer mountains.
"Mother?" He whispers again.
She could end him there. Give him a quick death and be done with it. But she wants to see how strong he truly is. "I must go with Eve. You…will be alright."
"Mother? Where are you going? Are you leaving me?" He whispers in shock. Sweat drips over his brow, down to his eyes. They are filled with shock.
"I can't have anyone weak on my side, Cicero. Prove your worth and stop mumbling like an idiot." She snaps at him. All that frustration from the times he would not listen are coming to a boil. He was almost more obsessed with the perks and the luxuries of a life with her than he actually was with her.
"Be good and persevere." She walks away but not without dropping a solitary healing potion mere feet from him.
"Mother! Cicero can barely move. Cicero is bleeding so badly! You won't leave your Child so easily!" He cries.
But she has. Many of her so-called Children are dead at the bottom of the Castle or hung out on spits to show what wrongdoers are subjected to. It is not her fault he made a poor decision and is nearly dead because of it.
He continues to scream as she climbs the steps. Eve is watching her wide-eyed. "What happened?"
"He is fine. Just distressed." She holds the staff out and magic thrums around the portal. Blue and yellow light, just as striking as the northern lights above, rises from the ground.
"He's okay right?" She asks again and looks over the Night Mother's shoulder to watch the jester crawl with one hand to the nearby potion.
"He will live, or he will die. It depends on how strong he is. He is not our concern right now." The Night Mother watches the portal continue to open.
Eve seems shaken. "He saved me from that dragon, you know." She whispers as if she wasn't sure she wanted her Mother to hear.
Her golden gaze pins her Child, "Then you are, no doubt, more important to the cause. Come." She holds out her hand.
Eve takes in a deep breath before folding her palm with the Night Mother's. The last thought the Blood Flower has, as they pass through the portal, is of Cicero's supposed sacrifice. He either believes Eve is going to double cross them, either through more Princes in Sovngarde or some trick. If that is the case, then Eve will need to be present. It's the only way the Night Mother will be able to end it. Or he was merely acting out of the fondness he feels for his sister. Showing he is as foolish as he has proven to be for so long.
Cicero's Journal Entry
I write this with a shaking hand. I can't remember the date or the time…all I know is Mother abandoned me! How could it be so? There must be a reason. A purpose for me. I'm not to be in Sovngarde and how Cicero wanted to hear those tales and walk those halls! All to know the Void is better.
Ah, but it is not so. Cicero hopes the healing potion will work quickly, then he can follow along and show Mother how strong he truly is.