Author's Note: I have several chapters that have been written a long time ago and will be posting them over time. The rate I post them is not the rate of creation of the fanfic, sadly. Please don't hesitate to review.

Chapter 2: Voice of Madness

Light pierced her eyelids in a glow of light blue, and she tightened them shut to try and block out the light. It helped none, and she groaned before managing to open her eyes. The world was not blurry, but… spotted. Spotted with globes that distorted her vision. Siena blinked, realizing it was water on her glasses just as she registered the sound of water lapping at shoreline.

But she didn't feel soft sand around her. Only hard rock; smooth, hard rock. Confused, Siena picked herself up onto her elbows, and looked around. She was waist-deep in water, lying on an inclined slab of stone. Crawling forward she dragged herself fully onto dry land, and then turned over to sit down.

Her feet were bare upon the smooth, mossy stone. She'd lost her shoes while fighting to stay surfaced. She'd lost her gloves as well, and every weapon she had owned. All that remained was soaking wet leather pants, a chainmail curiass, and her shades. She shook her head, shaking the large droplets of water off her lenses and out of her hair, before setting her chin on her knees.

What happened? We were just suddenly… tossed in the air like dolls. That sailor had said land… but that makes no sense. Siena groaned. I'm on a strange island and I have lost everything… Even Belmyne is gone. Absently she stared at the water of the Niben, but she could see nothing farther than a half mile. The fog was thinner now; thin enough to allow for sunlight to pierce, but the horizon was still shrouded. As she watched the water, a piece of driftwood floated past.

Wait… that's a body! Siena stood quickly, leaning over the edge of the stone slope to get a closer look. It was indeed a body floating facedown in the water. She could make out five appendages. The fifth looked like an Argonian tail. But Argonians don't drown… do they?

The clash of steel that interrupted her thoughts made Siena nearly jump back into the water as she turned to look towards the top of the cliff that the slope hugged. From that cliff a body fell into the water, splashing before bobbing up to the surface. Siena observed from her position, horrified.

It was one of the sailors from the merchant ship, his chest slashed open and oozing blood into the river waters. She recognized the face of the Nord, but the clothes were… different. They were a dark gray-brown and looked like they had been patched up and sewn together many times. And the shoulders were flared up in a fashion that made a mockery of noble dress.

If there had been any doubt that Siena was confused before, that was all erased now. The confusion on her face was as noticeable as the corpse bobbing in the water not far off. She slowly began to back away, creeping backwards up the slope, until her hand felt the top of the cliff.

Quickly she looked to her left to see the plateau that made up most of the island, and froze. There was simply no other reaction she could muster but paralysis. Trees with a multitude of thin trunks protruded from the rocky surface to burst into leaves of both fall and spring colors. Mushrooms of a coloration and texture she had never encountered blossomed at the base of the boulders of the island in myriad clusters. But what truly caught her attention was the stone statue at the center of the plateau.

It was… well, the oddest work of art she had ever seen. Three faces, one to each of the three sides that she could see. Maybe there was even a face on the back. She could only see half of the left and right faces, but one had a big, toothy grin, while the other was a smug, calm smile. The center was the strangest of all, for it was angry, and the mouth was opened to become a doorway from which sky-blue light radiated. All of the faces were of the same bearded man with a big nose, shallow cheeks, and wrinkled forehead.

And in front of this doorway, statue… thing were two figures; one a guardsman, the other a Khajiit. The guard had his sword sheathed, but the blood on the ground told her more than enough of the story. Siena cringed. But what choice did she have on this island?

Finally mustering the courage to approach, Siena followed the stone pathway that ran a ring around the front of the plateau. To her surprise the guard did not attack her on sight, but approached and even greeted her.

"Morning ma'am. I'd advise you stay back. It isn't safe here." The guard told her, cutting right to the chase.

"Well, can I at least stay with you?" Siena asked, looking at the statue and frowning.

"Well, sure." The guard shrugged. "But I'd stay back from that door if I were you. Nothing that's gone in has come out right." He remarked, nodding his head towards the glowing gate. Siena looked back at him.

"What happened? Someone's gone in there?" She almost squeaked it out, fearing the worst.

"Yeah. There was a shipwreck reported around here yesterday and we were sent to investigate. We'd found this place. A few of the sailors we found here or floating in the water. They kept saying that the others had gone into that there gate."

Yesterday? So she'd been out for almost twenty-four hours, and others had gone inside the gate. Belmyne might have gone in there!

"Please sir, tell me!" Siena nearly jumped at the guard, grabbing his shoulders and pleading with him. "What happened to them? Have any of them come out yet?"

The guard shrugged her off, stepping back and snapping at her while pointing at the Khajiit. "Look for yourself! Their brains are addled! Got no sense! For all I know, perfectly normal people went in there. This is what came out." Siena stared at the Khajiit, trying to remember who she was. She had to be one of the sailors or maybe one of the Trade company employees.

"You can't see me. You can't see me. Neither can He. No one can see me." The Khajiit began muttering incessantly when she was mentioned. Siena slowly walked up to her, reaching out a hand in an attempt to comfort her.

"What happened in there?" She asked softly, as if addressing a child. The Khajiit reared back, moving away from Siena and blocking her with one outstretched hand.

"No. Go away. I'm not here." She barked, and Siena took a step back, raising one eyebrow.

"What do you mean you're not here? You're right there."

"You can't see me. You can't see me. Neither can He. No one can see me. I'm not here." The Khajiit continued to mutter, cowering away from Siena. She was about to continue but thought better of it, sighed in exasperation, and turned back to the guard. She put one palm to her forehead, hoping to rub all of this away as a bad dream or a migraine induced hallucination. But she already knew it was a futile effort.

The others went in there… Dredhwin, Belmyne, Felas… Why wouldn't they? It'd be like scouting out the area ahead. But if they ended up like her…

I have to find out what's going on! I have to find them! Maybe I can help them! She looked up again at the guard, looking more determined than before. But one could tell her closed fists were shaking with anxiety.

"I'm going in."

"Ha!" The guard laughed, pointing at her. "It's your funeral. I'm just here to warn people, not keep them out." He held his hands out at his sides, shrugging. "I'll just stay here to clean up the mess when you come out. Go ahead in."

Siena glared at the guard, then at the gate. The man's manners were certainly lacking, even by an adventurer's standards. "I feel as comforted by that knowledge as I did when I arrived." She remarked coolly at the man, only to get a smile and a tip of his helmet in return.

"Always a pleasure, ma'am."

Siena pouted at the man, looking back at the gate and choosing to ignore him if he said another word. She stepped up the small stairwell towards the glowing portal, only to have a Dunmeri figure materialize in front of her, and she quickly caught him as he fell towards the ground.

It was Belmyne! And yet… just like that Nord sailor he was wearing patchwork gray clothes, rather than his usual robes. The robes she had last seen him with. She cradled him in her lap, embracing the crouched man.

"Oh Belmyne! I was so worried. Something's terrible wrong with this-"

"I won't go back." The Dark Elf battlemage muttered at the ground. He began to shake his head wildly. "I won't go back!" He threw Siena off him as he screamed. She lay on the stone steps, mouth agape in horror and ruby eyes wide. "You can't make me go back!" Belmyne curled himself into the fetal position again, cradling his head in his hands and sobbing. He continued like this for a minute or more.

Siena closed her mouth, gulped, and crawled towards him. "Bel? Bel, it's alright. You don't have to-" She whispered, only to be cut off by the raving Dunmer.

"I'll kill you all!" He screeched, hand grasping at an iron dagger he got from Gods-knew-where and ripping it from his belt. Siena recoiled, her hand retracting like a turtle into a shell. Belmyne turned towards her, and she got the first good look at his face.

The handsome dunmer she once knew was replaced by a warped, horrific visage of the Belmyne she had loved. His eyes were wild, almost drunken or drugged. His lips were curled back in an animalistic snarl as he spat with each word.

"Stay back! This one's violent!" The guard snapped at Siena, but she didn't need to be told twice as the perversion of Belmyne leaped at her.

"You're all going to die!" He spat, the iron dagger lashing out at Siena. A Bravil guardsman shield blocked it as the guard rushed in front of her, silver longsword bared and already stained with blood. The guard spun to his right, exposing his back only briefly to Belmyne.

The lunatic tried to take advantage of the opening, but by the time the dagger was dislodged from the shield it was too late. The silver blade severed skin and muscle at Belmyne's waist, sending blood onto the ground and Siena. The guard ripped the blade violently from the body, before sheathing it. Without hesitation he picked up the corpse and carried to the edge of the cliff.

"Belmyne!" Siena managed a broken, sobbing cry as she reached out for the body, just before the guard dropped it into the river. Her hand retreated back to her chest as she cuddled herself against the wall.

His blood… Belmyne's blood. It was all over her, sticky and warm. He'd been changed by whatever lay beyond that gate. She had lost him long before the guard had killed him. "Belmyne." She whispered softly, closing her eyes.

"Unworthy, unworthy, unworthy! Useless mortal meat. Walking bag of dung!" Someone exclaimed. It took a moment for Siena to register that voice; it sounded familiar. A somewhat high-pitched voice with an inexplicable accent, drawling at some words and screeching at others. She began to uncurl herself, looking slowly around. Her watery eyes locked with the guard's.

"Did you hear that?" She gave no response. "Did you?" Siena shook her head gently, still looking near tears. The guard rolled his eyes. "Voices from nowhere, madmen… Where does it end? How did I end up with this posting?" He moaned.

"A nice effort though." The voice remarked almost politely. Siena began to look around again, uncurling her legs from her chest. "Shame he's dead." There was an echoing sigh. In fact, the voice seemed to echo itself, just a millisecond after it spoke. "These things happen."

Siena knew what he was talking about, and narrowed her eyes. The voice was obviously male, and whoever spoke was rude and cold. Her lover had just died, and the voice just shrugs it off as nothing? She began to look around for the source of the voice, her eyes glancing over Belmyne's dagger. With a face of stone she reached for it, wrapping her hand around the hilt of the blade.

"Voices from nowhere again… I don't get paid enough." The guard remarked, and to Siena it was almost as equally cold and heartless as the voice's remark. But she had already vowed to herself to ignore him.

"Bbbbring me a Ccchampion! Rrrend the flesh of my foes! A mortal champion, to wade through the entrails, of my enemies!" As the voice roared out its demands, Siena looked up at the three faces. She couldn't help but think that was the origin of the voice. Her grip on the dagger tightened.

"Really, do come in." The voice spoke up again, changing from the previous rage to a calm, courteous tone. "It's lovely in the Isles right now. Perfect time for a visit." Uncontrollably, one of Siena's eyebrows rose questioningly. Something was definitely wrong about this voice, this gate, this place. She turned to look over her shoulder at the guard, who was standing there anxiously. Inhaling, she turned back to the gate.

Whoever you are… you killed Belmyne. You killed his mind! I am going to stop you from doing the same to the others, and make you pay! She thought, before stepping into the light. Even with shades on, the light was blinding, engulfing her. And then, it was gone, replaced by darkness. She could see only a faint dot of light, candlelight. Her shaded glasses made it harder to see in the dark room.

"Let's be civil, shall we?" A voice pierced the darkness, making her turn her head towards the candlelight. This voice was not the same as the other. This one sounded Bretonic, snobbish and noble. And bored.

"Please, sheathe your blade and have a seat." Something dark moved, motioning towards the candle. What could she do, except walk towards it?