**Alright guys, thanks for sticking with me through the summer break, now the kids are buckling down, getting back to school and I'm getting back into the swing of things with writing. Hope everyone had a great summer, and welcome back to Tamriel. This one's a bit short, but I've worked up a lot of ideas to fit in over the next few chapters. Hope you all enjoy.
It was almost dusk as Ralof and Anska walked into the Winking Skeever and made their way to a table near the back of the tavern where Loki was sitting, his focus locked on the voice of the beautiful young lady singing on the other side of the room.
"I should have known I'd find you captivated by the local beauty." Ralof teased.
"SSHHH! I had to tip her well to finally get to hear her sing this in person. Don't ruin it." Loki replied.
"...for the darkness has passed, and the legend yet grows. You'll know, you'll know, the Dragonborn's come." Lisette sang in the background, her voice like that of an angel in a heavenly choir.
Ralof rolled his eyes when he realized which song Loki had requested. They took their seats at the table as Lisette finished the song, and then Loki turned his attention to his two companions.
"Did you find the information you were looking for? I'd be surprised if anyone was open to conversation immediately after the execution of one of the locals. Tends to put a damper on people's moods." Anska asked as she signaled the innkeeper for a round of mead. She had agreed to join them after they had so graciously helped her find her scroll in High Gate Ruins and was now on her way to becoming a member of Loki's Blades.
"Yes, I did actually. Luckily for me the court mage is not one to be affected by death. She was most helpful in my quest for information. Not only did she have a copy of a very old book from the days of Spellcrafting, but she also taught me a new spell that will greatly aid in our travels. I did, of course, have to promise to allow her to browse the library at Sky Haven Temple after I finish dealing with Alduin."
"Oh? What kind of spell can help our travels?" Ralof asked doubtfully.
"Really Ralof? After everything I've shown you, you still doubt magic? Fine, I'll demonstrate."
Loki lowered his hand below the table and cast what appeared to be a small black hole, then he reached inside, pulled out a handful of septims, and laid them on the table. With another wave of his hand, the hole was gone.
"It's like a doorway into my own little pocket of Oblivion. I can store things in it, and retrieve them later, just like a chest. I can even open the door large enough to walk in like a closet, but I dare not do that here. So you see, my doubtful friend, now we can store all our gear and loot in there as we travel and not be burdened by the weight."
"By the Nine, that's amazing." Anska said, truly impressed.
"Well, alright, I guess that CAN be helpful." Ralof begrudgingly admitted.
After a few more drinks and a bit of discussion Loki tipped Lisette again for the beautiful music and then headed up to his room.
"Get some rest, friends, tomorrow we have a date with a daedra."
The following morning Loki stood before the Statue of Meridia with the beacon in his hands, hesitating.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Anska asked.
"I, uh, I'm not scared of heights, but I'm also not looking forward to being lifted into low orbit."
Ralof looked puzzled. "The things you say, I will never understand…"
Ralof was cut off in mid sentence as Loki placed the beacon into the pedestal and was whisked up into the air by a blinding flash of light.
Several minutes passed and Loki was nowhere to be seen. A light shone overhead so bright Ralof and Anska could not even stand to look up. And then, in another flash, he was back.
Loki stumbled over to the edge of the shrine dizzily, dropped to a knee, and puked.
"Are you alright?" Anska rushed to his side, Ralof right behind her.
Wiping his mouth, Loki choked out, "Damned celestial beings just don't understand, you can't just snatch a human miles into the air, spin'em round, and then drop'em. Motion sickness is a thing, Damnit!" Then, pulling his water skin from his pouch, he washed his mouth out and spit the water over the side of the shrine platform.
After getting his head to stop spinning and his stomach back down where it was supposed to be, Loki lead the two Nords inside Kilkreath Temple, explained what they were up against, and pulled his Lightning Rod staff out of the Oblivion storage room.
As they made their way through unnatural black fog in the temple, activating the pedestals and following the light, Anska and Ralof stayed back and covered the rear as Loki blasted the corrupt ghosts with lightning. The one time a shade got too close, Ralof learned the hard way that his dai-katana was useless against ghosts. Loki remedied the problem when they found an enchanting table along the way and put an enchantment of lightning on Ralof's sword that could probably electrocute a daedric prince.
The trio made quick work of the shades from that point on, having no major problems except Loki getting burned on the arm once for getting too close to Meridia's light beam. They finally made their way to the bottom of the catacombs and faced Malkoran. Loki thought it all to easy blasting the shades and then blowing away Malkoran's ward with a blast of lightning. Dealing the deathblow, the lightning bolt threw Malkoran's body completely across the room, landing near the pile of corpses he had desecrated to create his corrupt shades. Loki dropped his staff back into its storage place with the Oblivion door spell and then walked up to the pedestal where Meridia's light was shining on Dawnbreaker. It was so bright and shiny that, looking at it, Loki lost focus on everything else in the room, until…
His vision went black as Loki was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall. Cold, boney hands around his throat slid him up the wall to the ceiling high over Ralof and Anska's heads. As his eyes readjusted to the dark he saw the most evil looking shade he had seen in the entire temple choking the life out of him.
Malkoran had managed to turn himself into a shade in death and was now after revenge on this boy who dared challenge his power. All his work capturing the poor souls of the legion soldiers that littered the temple had merely been practice for using the power of Meridia's artifact to cheat death himself, and now he was going to kill this young man and thrall his soul into servitude high over his friend's helpless heads.
Unable to focus to retrieve a weapon from his Oblivion locker, Loki spotted his only glimmer of hope, literally. Dawnbreaker was shining so bright on the pedestal Loki could see it through Malkoran's dark shade. He reached his hand forward and, with all the power he could put into a spell, pulled Dawnbreaker from the pedestal straight to his hand. It never reached him, though. As the blade flew towards Loki's outstretched hand, it impaled Malkoran's shade in the back. Malkoran screamed in agony as a blast of light erupted from Dawnbreaker and consumed him in flames.
Loki fell to the floor as Malkoran vanished into flame and disappeared. After a few moments, he could breath normally again, his enchantments helping him recover quickly.
"Bloody hell, I forgot about that part, damn necromancers!" Loki cursed as he got back to his feet.
"I thought you knew everything that was going to happen in advance." Ralof looked at Loki questioningly.
"Just because I've seen it all in the scrolls doesn't mean it's right at the top of my recollection. Mortal memory, remember! Alright, you guys might as well make your way back to the top of the shrine, I'll meet you there."
"And just where do you think you're going without us? Huh?" Anska looked like there was no way she was letting the Dragonborn out of her sight again until they were out of that cursed ruin of a temple.
Loki just looked at them, smiled, picked up Dawnbreaker, and disappeared into another blinding flash of light.