The Dust Settles

As Mirmulnir and Imperius arrived at the chasm, Krilkahjot and Nahagliiv were waiting for him, peering into the hole. Imperius thought that Krilkahjot was exaggerating when he said that Alduin made a hole going a mile down. But after seeing it for himself, he was beginning to believe that it was a mile down, possibly even further.

"It appears to go very deep Thuri, only way down is on one of us," Krilkahjot said.

Imperius peered down the chasm himself, nodded, and turned to the two dragons. He didn't want any surprises as he deals with the black drake. He decided that the two dragons would be more useful up above ground. Imperius could deal with Alduin. No need to bring any unnecessary help when they could be more useful somewhere else.

"You two guard the entrance, make sure no one interferes, Mirmulnir and I will venture forth and trap the black wyrm," he said

They nodded and flew a short distance away and set themselves down on two large hills, keeping vigilant for any unwanted guests. They were a little disappointed that they weren't going to take part in taking down Alduin, but they were loyal to those that proved their strength, and they would follow Imperius's command. Imperius turned towards Mirmulnir.

"Are you ready? We will be in for the fight of our lives very soon."

Mirmulnir nodded. He was more than ready to face down his former master. In fact, he relished the encounter to come. Alduin treated his kin like pawns, disposable pieces of equipment to be used as he pleased. Well now, it was payback time. Imperius climbed atop the dragon, and together they descended into the chasm. They landed on the cavern floor and moved throughout the cavern, searching for their quarry, who at the time is observing them from the shadows.

"Well, if it isn't the mortal who calls himself a dovah, coming here under the impression that you will be able to defeat me. You don't even know our tongue, do you? Such arrogance. Unsurprising, coming from a pathetic mortal. You overestimate your abilities, and you will soon learn the consequences of your folly," Alduin's voice echoed, seemingly coming from every direction

Imperius and Mirmulnir whipped their heads around, trying to locate the origin of the voice, but finding nothing. Imperius was getting a bad feeling about this, he knew that the dragon will attack them. The question was, where? As they wandered the cavern, Alduin mirrored their movements from the shadows, waiting for the moment to strike. That moment came when Mirmulnir turned his head to look in the opposite direction, Imperius following his gaze. Alduin leaped from the shadows with a roar, tackling Mirmulnir and throwing Imperius from his back. The two dragons bit, clawed, and blew fire and ice at each other, their struggle crushing stalactites and shattering cavern walls. Imperius finally joined the fight as Alduin tossed Mirmulnir into a cave wall on the opposite end of the cavern.

"Yol.. Toor Shul!" he shouted, flames covering the black dragon's form.

The black wyrm snapped his jaws at the imperial, Imperius jumping out of the way and shouting, a spirit warrior of Sovnguard joining the titanic battle. Imperius hacked and slashed at the dragon, leaving cuts and gashes on his body. Alduin snapped his head forth and closed his jaws on the warrior from Sovnguard, ending his short time on the mortal plane. The two battled for what seemed like hours, the light of the sun slowly disappearing was the only indication that any time had passed, filling the cavern with darkness. Soon, Mirmulnir rejoined the fray. He and Imperius worked in tandem, one distracting while the other attacked, slowly wearing down the great drake.

"So, my loyal lieutenant who served me so loyally for all those years has suddenly betrayed me? Typical for a lesser drake like yourself Mirmulnir. You were always lesser than me. You will never be my equal," Alduin taunted.

Mirmulnir roared with rage and tail swiped Alduin, quickly pouncing onto the black drake. Mirmulnir blew fire and raked his claws savagely on Alduin, relishing the blood pouring from the wounds. Alduin roared in outrage and bit Mirmulnir by the shoulder and tossed him into the depths of the cavern. Alduin quickly turned his attention back to Imperius.

Imperius jumped atop the dragon's head as he lunged to crush him in his maw, and sliced off a horn adorning the drake's head. Enraged, Alduin shook his head, sending Imperius flying into a cavern wall. The dragon reared its head back, and spewed forth a hell storm of fire, the flames licking the edges of his shield and slightly burning his shield arm. He had underestimated Alduin. This dragon wasn't like the one he knew before. This one was much more ferocious, more savage, more deadly. He even doubted defeating the drake for a few moments before they were quashed underneath a wall of confidence and pride. He was the dragonborn, he could defeat anything. Especially a dragon. So he kept his shield firmly in front of himself, even as his armed burned and his skin turned to an hot red color. Finally the flames stopped, and a steady thumping of footsteps filled the cavern as Alduin charged at the dovahkiin. Imperius braced for the charge, but Mirmulnir, appearing from the dark depths of the cave, rammed into the black dragon, sending them tumbling into the darkness with the dragonborn hot on their trail. The two dragons attacked each other with ferocity, biting and slashing at each other, the savagry intimidated Imperius, but he pressed on, sneaking in lightning fast strikes where he could, aiding his ally. Suddenly, the two dragons stopped fighting, the drakes staring at each other with hatred and loathing. A brief pause in the battle that the three needed.

All three were panting heavily, sweat dripped from Imperius's face as the heavy breathing of the two dragons filled the cavern.

"You two are worthy opponents, maybe even a match for me, but now you must die. My humiliation at your hands must be reconciled," he said with a snarl.

Imperius shook his head and said, "No, that will not be the case today. You have brought destruction and ruin to many of the races of Taazokaan, so I must imprison you to prevent even more suffering. Besides, I don't want you to interrupt my glorious plans."

Alduin chuckled lightly. "And pray tell what 'glorious' plans are you going enact after you imprison me in this cavern, or try to imprison me. No mere mortal can ensnare the great Alduin."

Imperius began chanting in the tongue of the dovah, celestial chains slowly appearing around Alduin and binding the dragons wings, head, and legs to the cavern floor. Alduin began to snarl with rage, thrashing around with the hopes of breaking free, but it was for naught. His outrage grew with each passing second that he was trapped within the chains. This mortal, this damned mortal dared to imprison him within the earth. He was a lesser being, a mere mortal. He couldn't trap a divine being such as himself. But the chains spoke otherwise.

"HOW DARE YOU IMPRISON ME JOOR! I AM ALDUIN, THE WORLD EATER! IT IS MY DESTINEY TO DESTROY ALL LIFE!" he shouted.

Imperius ended the chanting and looked at the black dragon and spoke, but his voice was not his own. His eyes glazed over and his breathing slowed to a crawl. Mirmulnir was unnerved by this, and even more so by what followed. The voice that came out of his master's mouth was one he would never forget. It was deep, echoing in the cavern around him, reverberating throughout his body, shaking his bones and chilling his blood. It was an ancient voice, one that vastly outclassed himself in power, and yet it was familiar somehow, like he knew the sound, the tone personally, but he couldn't place it at first. Then, he remembered, and stared at Imperius with unabashed awe.

"Alduin my child. You were tasked with keeping the world in balance, destroying evil and ridding the mortals of their twisted nature. In your arrogance that came with your power, you crowned yourself a god, and proclaimed your purpose is to destroy the world, straying from the path of justice and following evil. I am sorry my son, but this must be done in order to bring peace," the voice of Akatosh said.

Alduin was shocked into silence, his anger and rage gone, replaced by melancholy and regret. He couldn't remember the last time his father had spoken to him personally. Eons maybe? Now here, at his greatest humiliation by a mere mortal, his father spoke to him. Not in praise or happiness, but with scolding words that irked him and wounded him. His persona as the world eater broke for a mere moment, and the protector of mortals shone through, his eyes full of shame and sadness, before the world eater's vengefull mask took over once more, a snarl of disgust and hatred replacing regret and shame.

"In time, you may redeem yourself. But for now, you must reside here and pay for your crimes," the voice of Akatosh said before fading, the divine's presence leaving Imperius, his eyes returning to their normal state. He watched the dragon with a miniscule amount of pity. But he pushed that feeling to the side and focused on the next part of his plan.

Imperius climbed onto Mirmulnir's neck, and they flew out of the chasm now turned prison for the world eater. When they emerged, they were greeted by Krilkahjot and Nahagliiv, who asked if they had imprisoned the great dragon. Imperius nodded, and the four of them flew back to Bleak Falls Barrow to plan their next move, unaware of the figure watching their exit, his skin glowing with a demonic green, and curled horns adorning his head.

"Well this is interesting, time to relay this to my master, he will be most interested with this," the figure said before moving away and leaving through a small, green portal.

Bleak Falls Barrow

4E, 201, 21st of Last Seed

"We cannot conquer Taazokaan with only the three of us, we will need more dov to complete this quest," said Mirmulnir.

Krilkahjot nodded, while Nahagliiv objected. He knew of the great battles fought between dov over territory. They were more often than naught very brutal, and it usually resulted in the death of either dragon in the fight. To have many dragons in one place, it would be utter chaos.

"We cannot have more dov gathered in one place, we are barely tolerating each other now. What do you think will happen when we have six, or twelve in one confined space. A fight will break out and can turn deadly if we have too many, and may cause irrepairable damage to our cause. We will need mortals to help garrison the territory we conquer, we can't just rely on the sheer power of the dov to make this happen. We need to rule with willing subjects, not through fear as Alduin did, and having mortal soldiers would make that happen," he said.

"You think that the mortals won't turn on us if they feel confident enough? If there are more of us, they would be less inclined to turn on us, since they know of our power and potential for utter destruction. If there are few of us, they will feel emboldened enough to turn traitor and try to rid themselves of us, as they did last time. I also doubt the ability of the mortals to successfully conquer the entirety of Taazokaan as efficiently as we did," Mirmulnir retorted.

As the two argued, with Krilkahjot acting as mediator, Imperius was listening to the conversation. He already had planned for this. While dragons were awesome forces of nature, they tend to be more of a nuisance than actual help if more than a few are gathered in one place. However, he would need more than three dragons in order for this whole thing to work. He would also need to acquire a legion from the imperials if his plans were to succeed in a timely manner. But they didn't know this. He only told them that he needed more forces and they assumed that he meant dragons. However, he would play this out like he had just thought of this. He didn't want to arouse suspicion by having a pre planned solution. Even if his fears and paranoia were unfounded he wanted to be sure. So he waited and waited for the right time, and intervened.

"I may have a solution to our problem, but I wanted to hear your input before I made any decision," he said.

The dragons looked at him in surprise. Alduin made plans and strategies without the council of other dragons, he thought them of a lesser intelligence than himself. So they were astounded when they heard his statement, but nodded nonetheless. Imperius smiled, and quickly laid out his plan, the three of them were to go to the lairs of the recently raised dragons, and convince them to join the cause or to stay neutral, while Imperius was to join the legion of the weak empire, and raise an army loyal to him and their cause, adding forces of either side to their numbers.

They agreed and the three flew in separate directions to cover more ground and gather more dragons faster. Imperius watched them leave, seeing their scales glint in the summer sun. He would soon head to the imperial capital in Skyrim to kick start this whole thing, but there was something he needed to do first. He headed towards the front of the nordic ruin and found that the justicar was awake. When he appeared in her line of sight her face morphed into one of rage and she started to shout at him, yelling obscenities for capturing her and leaving her here tied up.

He tuned out her shouting and undid the leather rope tying her to the column and lead her inside, dodging kicks aimed his way. He didn't want to leave her out there alone, subject to the elements and wild predators. That wouldn't due. Instead, he had a task suited for her. Something to keep her busy while he was away. He tied her to a nearby column and closed the door as he left for Riverwood, still ignoring her shouts of indignation and threats of bodily harm. He purchased vast amounts of food and water skins. Imperius made a quick stop by the blacksmith to purchase a simple steel sword. The task he would assign her would require the use of a weapon. He made his way back to the barrow and dropped the bags of food and water skins near the column she was tied to. He placed the sword close to her.

"I have a task you need to perform, and I think you'll like this one," he said to her.

"Like I said earlier scum, I'll never help you!" she shouted, struggling to free herself by straining against her bonds.

"I don't think you'll have much choice on this one, if you want to survive that is. You are to clear this barrow of Drauger in preparation for my forces. This blade is how you will do so. I've given you enough food to last long enough to accomplish the task ahead of you and await my return. I suggest you start early before the drauger begin to rouse from their slumber, otherwise you'll be facing down an entire horde, and I would like for you to be alive when I get back, despite you being an elf," he said.

He unsheathed his sword and cut her bonds, quickly heading for the door as she picked herself up. He increased his pace when he saw that she noticed the sword laying near the column. He started to laugh as he ran from her, just beyond the reach of her sword. He rapidly opened and closed the entrance to the barrow, barricading it with large boulders to keep her in. Imperius chuckled at her shouts of rage and threats of death and descended down from the barrow towards the town of Riverwood. Then he began his trek towards Solitude, hoping nothing else would hinder his quest.