Chapter 6: Mother of Monstrosities
Siena opened the door to the Wastrel's Purse as the sun began to dip in the sky. As her feet touched the floor she became distinctly aware once more that she was barefoot. The Inn floor was damp and mossy, like it had not been cleaned for some time and felt chilling on the soles of her feet. She shuddered as she saw the innkeeper; a bosmeri female hunched over behind the counter, arms dangling. She wore a tan robe with a soft blue vest over her chest. Siena adjusted her glasses on her face and worriedly approached, tapping the counter and hoping in the back of her mind that this woman was not who she thought it was.
As the elf groggily raised her head to look at Siena, the dunmer's heart dropped. It was Dredhwen, with bags under her eyes. She looked so exhausted; it almost made Siena feel energized. "Dredhwen… what happened to you?" Siena asked and the woman shrugged back.
"I… don't know." Dredhwen replied slowly, yawning. Her voice and tone were so sluggish it almost put Siena to sleep listening to her talk. "I got here to find the inn empty, and the town too… Sheldon was the only one living here, so I took over the Inn. Sheldon says he's mayor." She yawned again, and the sudden urge to do the same washed over Siena, but she fought it back. "Don't believe him. The people who used to live here left plenty of things behind though. Do you need anything?"
Siena frowned, watching Dredhwen slowly droop as she awaited Siena's answer. She prodded the elf awake once she had decided.
"I have no money, but I need food, some shoes-" She wiggled her toes on the damp floor and cringed. "-and a bow and arrows."
Dredhwen seemed to be considering the situation, until Siena realized the woman was stooping lower with each passing moment, and prodded her again with an angry finger. The woman jumped awake and spoke slowly again, as if in a dream. "Wha? Huh? Oh, yes… Well, money isn't really an issue here in Passwall; I mean, all my inventory I got for free. No one should be barefoot, or without a home and food. You may have the first room upstairs, and some food from the table. And some old boots. There should be a pair in the chest upstairs. Anything else?" She asked.
"A bow and arrows?" Siena reminded the Bosmer. Dredhwen frowned, the action making her face look more tired than usual.
"I have a bow, and arrows too… but those are mine and I do not wish to give them away. I'm sorry." Siena grit her teeth at this. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Siena replied quickly this time, not wanting Dredhwen to start dozing off again. "Yes, actually. Jayred Ice-Veins, where is he?"
Dredhwen looked at Siena through narrowed, tired eyes before she answered. "He's a little south of the town, before the ruins. Why would you want to find him?" She inquired.
"I need to kill the Gatekeeper and get through the Gates of Madness." Siena answered, moving away from the counter to the small table in the room, and picking up a piece of surprisingly fresh bread. She already knew what she wanted from Dredhwen, so she wasn't going to sit by the counter and withhold herself from eating any longer.
"The Gates of Madness." Dredhwen repeated, looking at the countertop airily. "I feel like I need to be on the other side. I'm just not sure how to get in."
"I'd imagine killing the Gatekeeper would work." Siena replied with a shrug, biting her bread and chewing on it. She was consciously trying NOT to think about the Gatekeeper. Not with food in the area, not with a chance to eat and sleep so close.
"But the Gatekeeper kills anyone who comes near… anyone except Relmyna Verenim. She's staying upstairs right now." Siena perked up at this, blinking at the elf behind the counter. She forced herself to swallow her bread before speaking.
"What did you say?" But Dredhwen was already bowed over and asleep again. Siena frowned, looking at the bread, and then at the stairs to the rooms. Up there was a woman whom the Gatekeeper did not attack. And a bed, and boots. Siena wolfed down the bread before rising.
The first room was the one Dredhwen had given her, so Siena entered it first. Like the rest of the inn it was musty and moldy, with a dank bed and stained furniture. There was a chest there, and when she cracked it open a cloud of dust came out to greet her, forcing her into a coughing fit. She waved the air clear before reopening it and shifting through the stuff inside. There were clothes and something that might have been a leather glove. When she finally found the shoes, she cringed. They were decrepit examples of footwear, damp and putrid, with threads missing in places. She tossed them back in, deciding to risk stepping in Goblin-fish-man shit rather than put her feet in that.
And Relmyna was in the next room, according to Dredhwen. A woman whom the Gatekeeper would not kill. But why would the Gatekeeper spare her? Siena's curiosity took over as she moved into the small hallway and approached the second door, knocking on it. No one answered, so Siena grabbed the rusted handle and slowly cracked the door open. There was a desk, with a bottle of wine, a cup, a bowl, a scroll and…
A hand scythe, spots of blood, and a skull. Siena gulped, shaking as she looked at the empty sockets of the skull's eyes. Could one of her past friends be staring back now? She shook the thought from her mind and opened the door further. What she saw made her recoil and grab at her chest with one hand in an attempt to steady her heart. There was a bloodied shovel leaning on the wall, and a mutilated corpse in the corner, blood pooling on the floor. She didn't even want to look behind the door to see what horrors awaited behind it on the fourth wall. Instead she looked at the scroll on the table.
Just as her hand hovered over the paper, a voice made her jump into the air and land on the musty bed with a yelp. "Well, what have we here?" The voice came from a middle-aged Dunmer woman in a puffy, gold-embroidered black dress with flared sleeves and a low cut v-neck. The dress was beautiful, though she had never seen anything of its kind back home. She stared at the woman as she sat up in the bed, dazed.
"Another hopeful whose blessing has not fully taken root?" The woman -who had to be Relmyna- asked, stepping into the room and putting one hand towards the table as she regarded Siena with cold red eyes. "No… I don't think so. You're an adventurer?" When Siena didn't answer, the Dunmer sneered. "How disgusting. Why don't you come back the way you came?"
Siena stared at the woman as she picked up the scroll and calmly slipped it into the pocket of her dress, looking at Siena again with distaste. "Well… um… I can't." Siena replied, pulling her legs under her; away from the woman. "Are you… Relmyna Verenim?"
"Yes, I am. What do you want?" She snapped back, obviously agitated by her new intruder. Siena recoiled again, feeling a threatening air from the woman. Her hand subconsciously went to the dagger at her hip.
"I want to know about the Gates of Madness and the Gatekeeper." She said defiantly, as if testing the woman's threat. Her hand came closer to the dagger as Relmyna gave her a look that sent shivers down her spine. It was a look of morbid interest.
"The Gates of Madness? One leads to Mania, and one to Dementia. Two shades of madness." Relmyna explained, telling Siena what she already knew by now. "You're not getting in because you're not Blessed by Sheogorath. You can try to get the keys; my Lord had them sewn into my child's body." She sounded almost proud of this statement, which only made Siena more uncomfortable about what the statement meant.
"I wonder if you're a fast bleeder, or a slow bleeder." Relmyna added as if in afterthought. Her face had taken on a dreamy glaze, making Siena wonder just what the woman was thinking about. Siena shuffled backwards on the bed into the wall.
"You're child?" Siena repeated, her voice shaky. Could this woman be serious?
"Yes. The Gatekeeper is my child; the consummation of Sheogorath's wisdom in the womb of my genius. It was a painful and bloody birth, but well worth it. His brothers were less... successful." She fell silent for a moment, folding her arms beneath her breasts. "He won't bother those blessed by Lord Sheogorath. You, however, will die trying to get the keys from my child." Relmyna pointed out, and Siena felt challenge in her voice.
Siena shuddered as she thought of this woman giving birth the natural way to a thing like the Gatekeeper. No, it had to be necromancy that birthed it, nothing else would make sense. Necromancy; that foul art that perverts the bodies of holy ancestors and turns them against their successors, their family. That atrocity was her child. It explained why it would not kill her, alright, but did little to help Siena kill it.
"I have to kill it." Siena muttered, forcing herself to stare back at Relmyna defiantly. Killing it was the only way to save her friends… if there were any left to be saved.
"Try him if you like." Relmyna remarked coolly, as if she had no worries in the world. "Believe me, after you die, I can put your flesh and bones to very good use."
This was the last straw; this woman disgusted Siena to the core, and she was through with speaking to such a devil. She came off the bed and drew her dagger in one smooth motion, her stance firm and threatening. She narrowed her eyes beneath her shaded lenses as she took another step forward, and Relmyna raised an eyebrow skeptically.
"I will find a way." Siena snarled, her anger rising. "I will not become one of your unholy children!"
"I am bored with you." Relmyna's response was so insanely off kilter with the emotions in the air that Siena found her anger near boiling as a result. That hideous perversion of virtue was bored with her? "Why don't you go talk to Nanette? She likes talking. I'll need to cure her of that habit soon enough." Siena was caught off guard at the mention of Nanette, her face becoming blank wonder.
"Nanette?" Could Nanette possibly be-?
"There's one sure way to stop a tongue from flapping; cut it out. Shall I demonstrate?" Relmyna asked, moving with ominous slowness towards her table, and the hand scythe resting on it. Siena tightened her grip on the iron dagger and got the message quickly. This woman was clearly out of her mind, and violent. If she was Redoran she likely would have stayed to defend her honor from the insults of the necromancer, but Hlaalu lacked that reputation for reckless fighting in the name of a reputation. They defended their honor another way.
Siena hastily made her way out of the inn, ignoring the soft earth beneath her feet and the hunger in her belly as she moved through the small town of Passwall. The dagger was still caught in her grip, her hand unwilling to release the weapon, which had become a source of control for her during the encounter.
There was no way Siena could have gleaned any more useful information from the woman. There was also no chance in Oblivion that she would be sleeping in that inn. With Relmyna a wall away from her performing her profane magicks and wanting to use Siena's body for her experiments, and the Gatekeeper's horrific image still burning in her mind, she would not be able to get to sleep from the nervous fear that would grip her. She had to find somewhere else to sleep. Coming up to a small wrecked dock, Siena flopped down and looked at her reflection in the small pool of water beneath her. Where could she possibly sleep?
Well… there was Jayred. She already had a reason to visit him, so maybe she could sleep at his place? Unless… unless he was as out of his mind as the others. But what choice do I have, really? I can't very well sleep out here, and I am NOT sleeping with Relmyna in the same building. Reluctantly rising to her feet, Siena headed south of the town, and quickly made out a small building on stilts in the distance.