A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry about the wait. This autumn was really busy for me, as I'm sure it was for others and writing this just fell to the wayside. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed the last chapter. I honestly don't know where Nerente came from but there she was and who knows, maybe we'll see her again. As always, feel free to leave a comment if you liked it, or have questions. I will always try to message back. Thanks!

*Disclaimer*

*As always, I own only my OCs. The main plots and recognizable characters are from the brilliant minds of Bethesda's Elder Scrolls franchise writers.*

*Dialogue for Dremora and Menien lifted from the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.*

Chapter V- This Might as Well Happen

Martin glowered at the porridge in front of him. He was exhausted. The same nightmare had been plaguing him for the last week and waking him long before dawn. No amount of praying to Akatosh had lessened the dreams, and the sight of his brothers and sisters happily breaking their fasts was making something in his gut sour. What I would not give to be rid of these dreams that I might sleep soundly for once. He reached for a pitcher of water, intent on trying to push the dreams far from his mind. Beside Martin sat one of the older members of their congregation, Sister Jin. The elderly Imperial tapped Martin on his arm and gestured to her cup. With a weak smile, Martin filled her glass and then his own before carefully setting the pitcher back down.

"What has you so tired, boy?" Jin groused, shrewd eyes observing him intently.

"You don't miss a thing, do you Sister Jin?" He took a sip of his water. Tepid.

"Hmmph. You're having nightmares again, aren't you?" The wizened Imperial grabbed hold of her spoon, wrinkled bronze hand shaking slightly as she scooped up her porridge. Martin sighed. It was no use to try and hide anything from her.

"Yes, I am. It makes sleep hard to come by and harder still to hold on to." He muttered, staring at his own bowl.

"I would imagine so." Jin agreed. She took another bite of her porridge, washing it down with her own water. This continued for a few minutes before she briefly paused, a thoughtful gleam in her eyes.

"Listen here, boy. Come by my cell this evening and I will give you some essence of poppy. It should give you a few hours of dreamless sleep so you don't fall face first into your own meal."

Martin stared, shocked by her offer. Jin noticed and scowled, raising her brow at his expression. He shook his head quickly, looking back at her with a grateful smile.

"Thank you, sister."

"Bah. Now leave me be before I get a headache." Jin continued to scowl at him, but Martin could see the fond gleam in her eyes as she turned back to her meal.

The rest of Martin's day passed relatively peacefully. A young mother came in to pray for her father who was growing sickly and some children came in to ask for stories about Akatosh and his son, Alduin. As far as days went, it was rather typical. Walking down the stone steps to the personal cells, Martin considered his life. He was about to enter his thirties. As much as he may scoff at Jin stubbornly calling him 'boy' more often than his own name she was almost right. He was still very young compared to her and the rest of his superiors. Gods, Jin must be nearly ninety. Jin had been ancient when Martin had been drug into her infirmary almost a decade ago, half dead from drink and pneumonia. She had nursed him back to health, biting remarks frequent. At first it had driven him near to mad and he was ashamed to admit that thoughts of drowning her out with a bottle of firebrand were frequent those first months. But as time passed, Martin grew to understand that her acerbic remarks masked genuine care and concern. If she had decided that he was a waste of her time, then she would simply have ignored his existence beyond healing him of his afflictions. As it was, Martin privately thought of her like the mother or grandmother that he never had. She saved his life and dragged him feet first out of the hole he had dug himself to die in.

Walking into her cell, Martin was struck with the scent of herbs and incense. He could not say what exactly the room smelled like. So many herbs were kept there that it all blended into a mash of spice and green that left his tongue tingling. Jin stood, watching one of the apprentices practice cutting up herbs. When she noticed him standing awkwardly by the doorway, she motioned for him to come over. As he got closer, Martin could see the annoyance clearly written on her face and the stiff set of the apprentice's shoulders. Amusement bubbled in his gut.

"Took you long enough. Follow me before I change my mind." She glared at him, though there was no heat in it, and began walking to a section of locked cabinets. Jin stopped and turned around, staring at the apprentice who had paused in his cutting to watch what they were doing.

"And you! Did I say to quit cutting?" She barked, eyeing the apprentice.

The young boy looked away, blushing with embarrassment.

"No, Sister Jin." He muttered, refusing to meet the fierce old woman's gaze.

"Then keep at it. After you're done we'll be storing what you've cut and moving on to cleaning wounds." She ignored the distressed groan that the apprentice made and turned back to the locked cabinets, removing a key from her robes and unlocking one of the doors. Martin watched as she fished through the cabinet, searching for the bottle that contained essence of poppy. He was immensely grateful for her act of kindness. Perhaps he would finally have a restful night of sleep.

Unbidden, images of his nightmare flashed across his eyes. A sky as red as blood, children screaming in terror as a too loud, dark voice laughed, the noise echoing across the weeping land. Martin. It mocked him, the sound of his name rolling off the unknown beings' tongue making him shudder like a mouse. An impossibly large, clawed hand reached for him. Martin.

"Martin! For Talos' sake, snap out of it."

Martin jumped as he felt Jin's hand on his arm. The woman was staring at him, a mask of annoyance on her face. But as Martin became more aware of his surroundings he noticed the tightness around her eyes that betrayed the worry she felt. In her other hand was an amber glass bottle with a neat label glued to the side. The essence of poppy. He let himself be led to a nearby chair and watched numbly as Jin measured out a dosage into a small vial and corked it.

"I wanted you to take this after your meal this evening, but I think it might be better if you take it now and rest on one of the spare cots until dinner. I'll have something sent down from the kitchens." Jin's tone brokered no arguments and he barely had the energy to nod. Martin was exhausted, the reminder of his nightmare draining all of his energy and leaving him feeling heavy. He took the proffered vial and uncorked it, barely pausing to down the liquid before following Jin to a curtained off corner that he knew held cots. He sank into the cot that he had used for so many months in the beginning of his time at the chapel and barely registered the way the light dimmed as his eyes closed.

"Martin. Martin you need to wake up!" A familiar voice slowly grew louder as Martin felt himself being shaken harshly.

"Martin, of all the times to sleep in this is not it. You need to get up!" His eyes began to open, the effort feeling like he was lifting the heaviest of stones. Martin opened his eyes, then blinked, looking around in shock. The room was dark save for a small flame flickering in the palm of an unusually frantic Sister Jin. The older woman looked haggard, but relieved as she saw him taking in their surroundings.

"Good, you're finally awake. Something has happened. The city is being overrun by daedra. We need your help in securing the chapel and protecting refugees." Her voice was tight but strong, eyes piercing in the darkness. Martin was shocked, feeling the dread of his dream resurfacing in his gut and trying to grab at his heart. Daedra in the city? How. His head was still spinning as he stood up, accepting Jin's arm to steady himself. Together, the two made their way up the stairs and out of the cells, to where the main floor of the chapel was. The room was packed with people and the scent of fear was sour on the tongue.

"I must join Oleta, there will be people that need healing. Find Garth." Jin spoke quickly, already moving to a different corner of the room. Martin wove through the crowd to where Father Garth was commanding a gaggle of guards and priests. The burly, normally jovial Redguard's eyes lit when he saw Martin. With a wave of his hand, he gestured for the Imperial to come closer.

"Martin! I'm glad to see that you're alright. We need you to help guard the doorway while the guards try to get as many refugees in as possible." The man's eyes hardened as he gazed past them, at something only he could see.

"Garth, what has happened? Jin mentioned daedra?" Martin questioned, looking at a group of children cowering with one of the apprentices praying over them. A guard answered, face grim.

"A gate to Oblivion opened in the city. Hundreds of daedra poured out. We've been overwhelmed. There are still refugees out there that need help."

"We need you to use your knowledge of battle spells to guard the doors to the chapel while some of the guards rescue citizens nearby," Garth explained. Martin nodded, feeling a stone drop in his stomach as he began to draw on his magicka. He followed the guards to the doors, praying to Akatosh to bring them help.

"And Martin?" He turned back, looking at the holy man. "Use extreme prejudice."

Passing through an Oblivion Gate was…strange. It felt like every part of her body was burning slightly, a warmth just great enough to pass from comfortable to not. If that was something that the daedra experienced every time that they passed between the planes then no wonder they were in such poor moods. Lumi looked down at her clothes and groaned. They were singed and reeked of sulfur, she noted, sniffing them carefully. What a wonderful little pocket of Oblivion. She fought the urge to groan once more. What I wouldn't give to be somewhere peaceful with access to a warm bath. Maybe after all of this she would be able to do that.

Looking around her, Lumi noted that the sky was a deep reddish purple similar to that of a bruise, with clouds of orange, red and black hanging in foreboding clumps. The ground was cracked, with strange tan grass growing around dead trees. Jagged rocks closer to the color of dried blood pierced the ground at random and rivers of lava glowed in the distance. The air felt hot and heavy with ash, drying out her throat and leaving her with the urge to cough. In front of her was the body of a Kvatch guard. His armor was torn in several places and whatever had been done to his face left it nearly unrecognizable. She shuddered, looking away from the sight. Movement caught Lumi's attention and she watched as Daedra ran around in the distance. Looming up over everything were three, great towers. The grotesque structures were made of a dark, rusted metal cut in jagged columns with protruding arches towards the top, almost like the mandibles of a spider. The buildings cast bloody shadows upon the ground. It looked like there was a moat of lava surrounding the towers as well as a large iron gate that blocked the way to the tallest of the towers, with real dremora manning the entryway into the building. That was probably where she needed to go. I'm going to have so many nightmares of this. She thought unhappily.

With a sigh, Lumi crouched down and grabbed some of the red dirt. It was strangely oily and clung to her nails. She rubbed it into her armor and skin, trying to dull the gleam of her chainmail. Hopefully the red dirt would help her to blend in just a little more. Not like a human stands out in Oblivion at all. She snarked silently. Working through the realm stealthily sounded much better than fighting her way through every single daedra. Thoroughly coated in the red dirt, Lumi made her way to the closest of the two smaller towers. It was nerve-racking trying to avoid the imps and clannfear that often appeared from the tall grass unexpectedly. A hot wind swept through the area, driving the tall grass to rustle loudly.

Ok. Check this tower for any survivors and ways to open that big gate. If there isn't one there, then check the other tower. Lumi made her way to a large rock near the first tower. Hopefully she wouldn't be there too long. Hopefully. She shook her head. Why couldn't anyone in the future have written about how people actually closed these gates? That would save me so much time. Lumi sighed and studied the entryway. Two dremora manned the bridge and she figured more were inside the structure. She could take one down for sure but the other would notice as soon as she did… Movement in the grass caught the Nord's eye and she turned to watch as an imp made its way to the two dremora. It stumbled as they growled something unintelligible. Lumi noticed the imp shooting glares at the larger daedra as it walked a little further off.

Nodding to herself, Lumi pocketed a few rocks and began crawling through the grass, careful to avoid creating too much movement among the brittle stalks. Every once in a while, she would stop and peer up to see where the dremora and imp were. Slowly, the woman made her way around to a spot near the back of the dremora closest to the skulking imp. Lifting up one of her stones, Lumi took a deep breath and drew back, flinging it to hit the imp. Said imp shrieked in outrage as the sharp stone cut deeply into its shoulder. In a single move, it turned and locked eyes with the confused dremora, glaring at the taller daedra with pure hatred. The imp snarled and launched itself across the clearing onto the still shocked dremora. Lumi watched as the small humanoid daedra proceeded to latch its teeth into the neck of the dremora, refusing to let go of its death grip. The hulking red and black warrior let out a choked cry that drew the attention of its partner, who ran over wielding a blazing daedric war axe. The second dremora buried its axe deep in the back of the imp. With a mighty heave, the imp was torn from the wheezing dremora, but not without taking a chunk of the other daedra's throat with it. Within moments, both daedra were dead, leaving only a shocked and angry dremora to deal with. Lumi carefully took out her bow and picked one of her arrows, silently lining up her shot. With a quiet thump, the arrow hit its mark, buried to the fletching in the eye of the last dremora. It fell wordlessly onto the body of its companion, leaving the entry to the tower unguarded.

Lumi quickly crossed the clearing and passed into the tower. The door closed with a resounding clap, making her flinch. She lowered herself into a crouch and looked around. The room was narrow, with no noticeable ceiling. When she looked up, Lumi could just barely see the outline of a stairwell. The light was a bloody red that made her eyes ache. In the center of the circular room was a small pit of spikes. They gleamed dully with rust and what looked like dried blood. An archway was to the left of the room, leading somewhere unknown. With nowhere else to go, Lumi made her way slowly to the looming archway. Every step left the Nord on edge. She glanced around, eyes darting across the room as her ears strained to pick up any movement. As she stepped through the archway, Lumi silently felt a little hope at the sight of a dark stairwell, curving around the wall. She didn't like the thought of facing an opponent who had the high ground, particularly on stairs, but it was a clear path that she could take. Maybe this will lead me to a key or something.

The stairs seemed to go on forever before Lumi heard anything. If she were back in Tamriel, she could write off the strange skittering as a rat or skeever. However… The Nord stood still, listening to the noise get louder as whatever was making it came closer. She readied her swords, drawing them from their sheaths and gripping them tightly. From around the corner came a rather large imp. It stared at her in shock, not moving for a moment before jumping up and down. Her longer blade was already in its gullet by the time it let loose a high shriek. Lumi winced as the sound echoed shrilly through the tower and, high above her, the dreadful familiar shout of a dremora answered. The imp lay forgotten as Lumi began moving up the stairs, determination fueling her even as her legs burned. She felt the stone and metal underneath her feet shudder as the dremora's heavy steps came closer. They would meet on the stairs. Lumi's lungs began to burn as she felt the ground beneath her shaking even more. With one last step, Lumi planted her feet into the ground, readying her blades once again. Moments later, the dremora came into view.

It was massive. Looming over her, even without the additional height of the stairs, the creature was easily over seven feet tall. Its skin was a fierce mix of black and bright red, matching the terrifying armor it wore perfectly. The armor itself was spiked and reeked of blood and rust. It looked like just a single brush against it would rip someone open to the bone. The dremora glared at her, eyes dark with hatred. It lifted its greatsword, before bellowing in a cold and clear voice.

"You should not be here, mortal. Your blood is forfeit, your flesh is mine!"

With a chilling grin, the dremora charged. Lumi met its sword midair, using both of her own to block its path. Her arms shook with the force of the blow, shockwaves shuddering through her. He was strong. Words danced on the tip of her tongue, aching to be let loose. With a single shout, she could rend the daedra limb from limb. In an instant, she could mark him for death and he would die painfully. Lumi raised her swords to block another blow. She could end this now. Jauffre's disapproving frown flashed in her mind as her legs shook. No. She couldn't use her thu'um against the daedra. They weren't worth it. This was a fight that she would win on her own. She didn't have to use the voice of a dragon to beat this fool. She would use the cunning of one.

As the dremora once again slashed his greatsword at her, instead of meeting his blow with one of her own, Lumi swiftly sidestepped. The daedra tripped as momentum carried him forward. For a split second, the two were on the same level. Lumi let out a dangerous grin, and to the dremora, it appeared that her teeth were far sharper and pointier than a human's should be. In that second, Lumi took her shortsword and stabbed it into the dremora's neck. She watched as its eyes widened in surprise before clouding over. The dremora toppled, its armor making a terrible scraping noise as it hit the rocky ground. As soon as it fell still, Lumi began sifting through the armor, searching for anything that might help her.

Aha. She felt a moment of satisfaction as she fished a small key from an interior pocket of the daedric armor. Hopefully it would unlock the path to the tall tower. Knees aching in protest, she stood and began to march up the rest of the stairs. At the top was a narrow metal platform that lead to a door. Across from the exit was a ledge that stood just beneath a large metal cage. In it, a battered man sat in torn armor. One of Savlian's missing men. It was obvious that the man was not going to make it. He was covered in wounds and blood dripped from his mouth. As soon as the man caught sight of her he stood as much as he could and shouted in a hoarse voice.

"Over here! Quickly!"

She jogged over to the man, looking around the cage for a lock or mechanism that she could open it with. The man shook his head as he noticed her searching gaze.

"Quickly, quickly! There's no time!" He was stopped by a cough that racked his frame.

"You must get to the top of the largest tower. The Sigil Keep, they call it. That's what keeps the Oblivion Gate open!" He coughed again, and she could see a small glob of blood appear on his tattered wolf tunic.

"Find the Sigil Stone. Remove it, and the Gate will close! Hurry! The Keeper has the key—you must get the key!" He appeared frantic, grabbing the bars of the cage. She fished the key that she had retrieved from the dremora out and showed it to him.

"What is your name? And is this the key that you speak of? I got it off of the dremora."

"My name is Menien Goneld. I was one of the guards of Kvatch that was tasked with trying to close the gate. You have the key. Take it and get to the Sigil Keep. Find the Sigil Stone! It is the only way to close the gate. Don't worry about me. There isn't any time. Now get moving!" He explained, urging her onward. Lumi nodded, feeling sorrow for the man who would not be able to return home. She turned to the door and, using the key, opened it.

The door led to a platform that connected the tower to the Sigil Keep. At the end of the platform was another Dremora. She grabbed her bow and quickly shot the daedra, not stopping to watch it fall off the platform. As she entered the Sigil Keep, she immediately began sneaking once more. The levels passed in a blur of sneaking and stealth kills. Lumi stopped to heal herself a couple times when sneaking became impossible and she found herself injured. After what felt like ages, she found herself at the top of the keep, facing two extremely angry dremora. The two charged her and she groaned, twirling her sword to cut through the first, slicing its wrist and rendering one of the sword arms useless. It bellowed in pain, reflexively hitting her with its non-injured arm. She gasped as its clawed hand cut into her cheek. Pain lanced, white-hot, across her face and neck as she finished off the dremora, barely raising her sword in time to stop an attack from the second daedra. It kicked her, sending the Nord flying backward to slam against one of the metal panels of the wall. The air was knocked out of her lungs and black spots danced in her eyes as the other dremora approached. Weakly, she shot a lightning spell, relief flooding her as the dremora fell to its knees from the shock. Gathering what energy she had, Lumi rose to her feet shakily. I have to end this. Now.

As the dremora stumbled back to its feet, Lumi shot more lightning at it, forcing it a few more steps back and toward the edge. Every time it tried to rise again, she pushed it back even further, until finally, it stumbled over the edge and to its death. Shaking, Lumi turned to face the glowing pillar of flames that took up the center of the room. In front of it, suspended in air, was the Sigil Stone. As quickly as she could, Lumi approached and grabbed the stone. She watched as the light from the flame grew brighter and brighter without the stone to stabilize it. Lumi felt relief as the light consumed everything and she closed her eyes, welcoming the uncomfortable feeling of traveling through portal. I'm coming Martin. Just hold on for a little longer.