Chapter Eight: Memory Trigger
Ula's determination to keep moving forward was nearly snuffed out after she was very nearly sliced into pieces by another trap.
Shockingly, an entire corridor's worth of swinging axes were set into motion this time: if it hadn't been for her catlike reflexes and her abnormal flexibility, she would have been killed in an instant. It was only thanks to one of the walking mummies' clumsiness that she survived: she'd seen it fall over after stepping on a stone that had sunk completely out of sight. After dodging five pendulums of death and blasting the mummy with a bolt of lightning Magicka, Ula leapt out of harm's way and fell against the wall with shaking muscles. Her eyes had gone blank with horror and she seemed to have gone clean into shock.
Several moments passed where nothing happened... but then she sank down to her knees.
I hate tombs! the girl silently wailed, hugging herself and shivering violently with terror-stricken eyes; tears streamed down her cheeks as she trembled. I hate this place! I hate it! I just want to get out of here! Wait... no... not yet, there's something I need to do, I can feel it. Don't think, just walk. Keep walking.
Slowly and shakily rubbing her eyes, the girl shakily stood back up and started making her way down the endless labyrinths. As she walked, however, that pulsing sensation once again overwhelmed her, and the mark on her throat began burning brightly. She felt lighter with each step she took, and soon, she managed to find her way into a ruined burial chamber. The girl instantly turned to the right and headed for the gate that had collapsed on itself.
Just as she was about to yank on the chain that opened it, a loud crash exploded from somewhere behind her.
The girl instantly whirled around with her heart practically throbbing out of her throat from the fright... but then, she had a fit of extreme hysteria, because an enormous mummy with spiked black armor and glowing blue eyes was stepping out of its coffin. The girl twitched and started shaking when she realized that the monstrosity was dragging a great sword behind it.
Lifting her hands with a terrified wheeze-scream, the girl let loose two bolts of magicka.
The walking corpse staggered, then continued walking towards her, sword dragging across the ancient quarry stone.
Pupils contracting, the tiny girl drew her arms back and started hurling bolts of lightning at the creature, hair standing on end and ears sticking straight out: after the first initial stumble, the horrid creature didn't even twitch and merely kept moving. Slow... precise... it was going to kill her. Not because she was any sort of threat, which she probably was with magicka like hers, but because she was the only living thing within seeing distance. Ula's ears pulled back and flattened down against the side of her head when the mummy slowly raised its sword: she could hear its bones creaking beneath the ancient armor, most likely from the strain of holding the weapon.
Then she got an idea, and her heart skipped a beat as hope flooded through her.
With a snarl, the blade came down... but Ula leapt to the side just in the nick of time.
Twisting her body like a cat's and lifting her left arm as she fell, the girl's eyes sharpened on the mummy's joints and she channeled a concussive lightning bolt out of her palm, using her right arm as a stabilizer for a precise shot. The electricity lanced the creature's head and took it clean off, sending it rolling across the ground: the decapitated torso immediately fell over and attempted to continue walking.
Then it slowly began to dissolve with a glittering blue light, turning to ashes before her very eyes.
Shakily getting to her feet, the girl dusted her backside off and tiptoed over to the pile of dust that lay scattered across the stone floor. She blinked several times and patted her chest in an attempt to slow her racing heart down: she felt dazed and detached for some reason, almost as if her fear had gone away or something else had smothered it out of her consciousness.
Muscles shaking, the girl jerked on the chain and stepped back when the gate clanked loudly, groaning as the ancient hidden cogs hauled it upward.
Weakly, the girl stumbled her way through it and made her way across several uneven tunnels. She made it through a cave like space and even forded a small underground river by hopping some useful stones... but then, she found herself heading towards another lighted area and twitched in surprise when she felt something rising up from her subconscious. Panting heavily, the tiny girl made her way towards the giant stone doors ahead of her and eyed them in confusion. Above them was an ancient script that seemed to flash and flicker in front of her eyes.
Ula swayed and her irises glazed over when a sudden rush of images flooded into her mind.
Millions of them.
She saw the same place... the same words... the same doors... but in each memory, she was looking at them through someone else's eyes.
Then she came back to her senses and blinked away the visions behind her eyes.
I've done this before, Ula stated silently, somehow not even questioning her sudden feeling. I've been here before... this isn't normal. Something's wrong.
Despite her urge to turn back, however, the girl hesitantly stepped forward and threw her weight against one of the doors. She struggled and heaved with all her might, and slowly... the mammoth-sized construct began to move, inch by inch, until it was wide enough for her to move through. After wriggling her way through it, the girl continued through the maze, but she had another good scare when more axe-traps came raining down on one of the corridors.
But then... she came to a set of ancient, rotting, and absolutely revolting wooden doors.
She didn't even need to push them open: one touch and they fell to the ground in pieces... but ahead of them was a hall that seemed to have been untouched by the hand of time. Blinking rapidly in shock, the girl slowly stepped forward and looked around in awe at the carvings that had been engraved onto the stones around her. She stared at them, marveling at how beautiful they were... and slowly, she made her way towards the wall at the end of the ancient walkway.
However, after a moment, something about the carvings caught her eye and she paused.
All of the carvings on each wall looked exactly alike... aside from the beings resting in the center.
Three warriors facing the God... two eagles facing away from the god, the girl pondered, frowning as she stepped forward; after hooking a strand of hair behind her pointy ear, the girl glanced at each carving resting in the very epicenter of the murals and blinked. She had been correct: the beings that had been carved into the center were all winged, and they had all been portrayed as wearing the same garb... but their faces were fundamentally different.
For example: one had closed eyes that tilted upwards, while another had open eyes that slanted downwards.
All of them had different noses and different beards.
The girl cocked her head in perplexity, then glanced towards the wall at the end of the corridor, which had the oddest markings of all.
Slowly making her way forward, the girl examined the engraved stone resting in front of her with a stunned expression.
Amongst the swirling patterns, there were three circular ridges, each with an animal engraved on it: a dragonfly, an owl, and a bear.
Below the rings was an iron metalwork disk with three holes and the imprinted bones of a dragon's claw.
After fingering the metalwork and eying the ridges for several minutes, the girl's finger brushed against the bear pendent... and the entire ridge let out a thunking noise that shook the entire wall. Ula jumped back and watched with a wary expression as the stone began to slide, moving slowly and roughly until another carving had taken its place. The poor girl was immediately baffled.
What is this thing? she wondered, blinking violently in dismay; then Arvel's words came back and she froze. No... it can't be...
Instantly shrugging off the pilfered backpack, the girl grabbed the claw and lifted it up, holding it flush with the center pieces of the wall. Her eyes widened when she realized that the placements for the structure fit perfectly, and against her better judgement, she hesitantly slid the golden claw's talons into the slats.
The door immediately jolted.
For several moments, hidden gears turned within the walls... but then they fell still.
Okay... now would be the time for thinking, Ula muttered silently, sitting down in front of the doors and folding her arms. How am I supposed to get this thing open? It's not a wall, that much is certain... but if it truly is a door, why isn't the key working? Perhaps the clue is a riddle... 'when you have the golden claw, the solution is in the palm of your hands'?
Thinking it over, the girl glanced down at the claw itself... but then her stomach flopped and her eyes bugged out of her skull.
Flipping the key around, she saw that a pattern of animals had been engraved onto the palm of the claw: bear, dragonfly, owl.
Instantly leaping to her feet, the girl stood on her tiptoes and tapped the door like a wildfire, dancing from foot to foot. Once the correct symbols were in place, the girl put the claw back inside and twisted it before pulling back out. However, she immediately jumped away since the reaction was instantaneous: all three circular ridges spun around at a rapid pace, moving in opposite directions before coming to an abnormal halt.
Once all three owls were lined up in a row, the door jolted and let loose an explosion of dust.
Ula's amethyst eyes widened when the door slowly began to lower, revealing an ancient set of stairs leading up to a dimly lit area. Within seconds, a gust of air whipped out of the opening, sending her hair swirling behind her in a cloud of white. In that moment, her heart jolted and her knees buckled, bringing the poor girl down on all fours. She could hear the music... there was music calling her just ahead... powerful music.
It throbbed steadily in the shape of many voices.
Slowly crawling forward, the girl made it to the stairs and hauled herself upright, taking one shaking step at a time until she was walking through an ancient cavern towards a brilliantly lit area. More images flashed in her mind... more memories that weren't really hers. With each step she took, she saw through more eyes, saw the fate of what lay before her. She slowly descended the stairs leading to the ancient wall... the wall in which her dreams were written on. Her eyes glazed over as she slowly approached the glowing word that called to her... the one creating the music... it wanted her.
The word wanted her.
Her eyes all but exploded with two beams of brilliant light that quickly shifted in hue from blue to white.
"Thuum fin lok..." the albino abruptly whispered, sending a rumble of thunder reverberating around the room. "Soraah..."
Her voice echoed for what felt like hours.
The closer she went to the wall, the brighter her body began to glow: the blue mark on her throat hissed into view and began to wind around her torso, slowly turning white like the luminescence radiating from her eyes. The ghostly wings once again exploded out of her back, and her hair reversed gravity, floating towards the sky and swirling around like a cloud made of silken snow. Then the light from the word engulfed her, dimming her vision.
More images... no... memories... she had seen this before...
A voice resounded within her mind... a human voice, one full of hatred an wrath.
"Believers hearken to me!" it roared in a thick Nordic accent, sounding full of satisfaction and triumph; she had a mental flash of a dragon with scales darker than the night sky being pinned down against the ground by men who were thrusting their blades into its wings. "Twenty score men and seven thousand dragons have been slain this day! Heed my words, Alduin, and speaketh them to all in the next life, that they shall ever be obeyed even under the light of the proud and merciless sun! I shall bring down bitter vengeance upon thee and thou shalt suffer eternal wrath! An endless cycle of merciless death shall befall thee and thou betrayers of Man!"
Ula clutched her forehead and fell to her knees, eyes squeezing shut with pain. The mark on her neck shattered as the sensation in her head intensified, shredding her mind from the inside out. She felt a tugging at her core, a sensation that wanted to rip her out of her body. Drawing in a deep breath, the girl planned on letting loose one of her pathetic wheezes in place of a scream... but instead, a voice that was extremely loud and horribly high-pitched exploded from her mouth.
The sound of it had the walls shaking and everything around her began to tremble, sending stone and dust raining down on everything from above. A roaring gale exploded around her torso, lifting her hair and dress towards the heavens: the girl arched her back, clutching her head as the tugging sensation grew more intense. Her eyes were large, but she didn't dare let out another scream.
Then... she finally slipped.
Ula was dragged out of her body and down through darkness.
I'm dead, she silently mourned, closing her eyes as she fell. I never should have left Riverwood... Svena, Kai, I'm so sorry...
However, then her fall slowed and she slowly opened her eyes, feeling more alive than not.
She was in a strange place, a realm that waited beyond the conscious mind.
The veil of unreality had fallen over her vision... almost as if she'd entered the clutches of deep sleep, and it was now obscuring the landscape of her psyche with a haziness that confounded her sense of what was real. And yet, the distorted feeling of the world around her also made the jumbled mix of images incredibly vivid.
That's when she realized it: she had fallen right into a dream.
To those whose dreams were for the most part unpleasant, this peculiarity was a blessing; a chance to explore a range of scenarios, some mundane, some bizarre, without the limitations and consequences of the real. To others, whose twilight fantasies often came in the form of horrors that left them feeling haunted even after awakening, it was a curse.
Everyone had nightmares, there was no denying that.
However, according to Svena... there were certain people whose nightmares outnumbered and outmatched ordinary dreams in sum and clarity. To them, the scope of the fear and dread and sheer terror inherent to these incredibly lifelike visions was such that they would rather not dream at all, if it would allow them to escape the torment of waking up in a cold sweat nearly every night from some terrifying tableau.
Ula was one such individual: since the day she'd washed up on the shores of Darkwater lake, she'd had nightmares every single night.
And right now, she knew was dreaming: the odd sense of displacement combined with the swirl of jumbled images could only be found in a place beyond the limits of one's physical reality. The mosaic seemed to bend and warp with every passing moment, until a disturbing red haze fell over her vision, as if she were seeing through a shroud of flowing blood vessels. The images coalesced into a lone scene that was startlingly familiar, even though she'd never seen it before. She was standing on top of an enormous mountain, and in front of her were two... dragons.
She gasped, eyes widening as the image rippled.
Yes... in front of her were two dragons: one blacker than the darkest of nights, and another one that shone brighter than the sun.
"Hmm... have my words no meaning to you, brother?" the golden one ground out in a gravelly tone. "The Voice cannot be used in such ways. Man must win his wars without our aid: timeless are the ages in which the Dovah will preside. Man is but a spark to our flame."
"My brother, you are wrong!" the black dragon snarled, tail lashing clean through Ula's body. "The Mortals are slaughtering the Dovah and stealing souls left and right! If we do not fight back, our lives will no longer be ours! Paarthurnax, they will destroy us!"
"Do not break the Oath of the Skies, Alduin," the golden dragon hissed, turning his spiteful crimson eyes on the smaller one. "We are all under the oath: those who break it are exiled. You cannot fight Man because I declare that it is so. I am the eldest. Obey me."
"You would bind me to such a fate?!" Alduin growled, making Ula wince with a shiver. "What will be said of us in years to come if we do not aid our brethren—that we hid atop the Sky Rim like cowards while our kin were slaughtered? If there will be a fight, let us face it and not shy away! We are dragons! Even a god would flee from us! Yet here we are, crouching on a mountain like frightened rabbits!"
"ENOUGH!" Paarthurnax roared, sending the albino to her knees with her hands over her head. "YOU WILL OBEY ME, BROTHER!"
"I shall not! Blood will meet blood!" the black dragon hissed back, yellow eyes unblinking as he stared into his elder brother's narrowed crimson gaze. "Our wyrds—our fates—bind us, but try me not. I will fight to protect our kind."
"Into foolishness you fly," Paarthurnax warned in a dangerous tone, baring his fangs with a growl. "Should you leave... never return."
"If that is your wish, I bid you my final farewell," Alduni hissed, instantly swinging his long neck and leaping off the edge of the cliff. "Goodbye, brother."
Soon he was gone... and Ula was being pulled away, up into a veil of blinding light.
Her eyes closed and she took a deep breath as she was bathed in warmth.
Then she found herself staring at a moss-covered stone, body aching all over and muscles completely sore.
"Are you awake?" a familiar voice asked, making her heart skip a few beats; slowly turning her head, Ula was startled to see Faendal sitting beside her with a worried expression on his face. His expression softened into relief when she coughed and rubbed her aching throat, shuddering all over. "You gave me quite a scare... when I awoke, I thought I was dead, but then I realized I was still breathing and all of my faculties were in order. Then I noticed that you were missing and followed the trail you left behind."
Ula opened her mouth and tried to speak after remembering the scream that had come out of her mouth, but nothing escaped aside from a rather pathetic-sounding wheeze. Her ears instantly drooped, but after a moment she straightened like a wooden board. Slowly sitting up, the girl slid the backpack off her shoulders and yanked it open.
Faendal's eyes widened and he gasped when she pulled the golden claw out.
"You... you've got it!" he exclaimed, instantly taking it from her hands with enormous eyes. "How on earth did you... oh..."
Ula was just about to explain what had happened when the lid on a nearby sarcophagus exploded into the air, making both of them jump in alarm: the Bosmer's mouth fell open in horror and he practically squealed when a frightening mummified behemoth of a corpse dragged itself out of its tomb and hefted an enormous double edged axe.
"W-what in the name of Akatosh is that?!" Faendal stammered, instantly drawing his sword and dragging Ula to her feet. "A... a walking corpse?! This isn't possible! There's no Necromancer around here, so how is it moving?!"
Ula merely lifted her hands and shot two lightning bolts out of them: they struck the giant in the head, but instead of taking it down, it only staggered the beast and spun it off balance. Ula tried to conjure more of her power, but she felt so weak that she couldn't do it.
Then the two of them noticed the other two zombies approaching from the far entrance.
"On three, we're going to split up and attack them individually," Faendal suddenly whispered, making her glance up in horror. "One... two... THREE! RUN, GIRL! RUN!"
Ula instantly took off, but the giant corpse pursued her, heavy boots thudding and bones creaking.
The girl forced herself to go even faster, but the mummy rapidly gained ground despite her efforts; with the enemy almost upon her, Ula charged her hands with power, spun to a stop, took aim, and released two weak lightning bolts. The zombie didn't falter, and Ula's eyes widened when the corpse crashed into her before she could release more Magicka: they fell to the ground in a confused tangle, but the girl somehow managed to kick herself free.
She frantically crawled to her feet and darted back towards Faendal, who was trading fierce blows with his undead opponents.
However, her eyes widened when one of the Draugr's swords came down, for Faendal screamed and fell backwards with blood gushing down his arm. When the zombie raised its ax for the death blow, that same blue light erupted from Ula's eyes and she charged the undead assailant headfirst. The monster paused, then faced her before swinging its ax. The tiny albino ducked under the two-handed blow and clawed the mummy's side with her sharp nails, leaving deep furrows and ripping out enormous chunks of flesh. The zombie slashed again, but missed by a mere inch as Ula dove to the side and scrambled towards the entrance.
A few strands of her shining hair fell to the ground, severed by the weapon's deadly blade.
She concentrated on leading the mummies away from Faendal and slipped into a narrow passageway between two walls: when she realized it was a dead end, the girl slid to a stop and tried to back out, but the walking corpses had already blocked the entrance. They advanced, cursing her in their unintelligible gravelly voices: Ula's amethyst eyes flashed from side to side, searching for a way out, but there was no way for her to escape.
As she faced her enemy, images flashed into her mind: a blade being buried in her chest... being decapitated... having her skull cleaved by the axe... memories of other people who'd died in this same spot. At the thought of their fate, a burning, fiery power gathered from every part of her body. It was more than a desire for justice; it was her entire being rebelling against the fact of death—that she would cease to exist. The power grew stronger with extreme rapidity, until she felt ready to explode from the contained force. She stood tall and straight, back arching gracefully as the terror left her: she raised her hand smoothly.
The walking dead lifted their weapons when Ula spread and angled her fingers, precisely aligning them with her targets. The energy inside her burned at an unbearable level: she had to release it or she felt it would destroy her. Three words suddenly leapt, unbidden, to her lips... and the mark on her throat exploded into view, burning white hot and searing her skin with agony. Visions of places and people flashed into her mind as her eyesight dimmed and power flooded her veins.
It completely engulfed her body and caused something to change.
Ula breathed in, amethyst eyes going blank as the knowledge spread within her soul; she instinctively began filling up her lungs and tilted her head back slightly, looking blankly at the corpses in front of her. The swirling light soon began illuminating her body.
"FUS," Ula screeched, channeling the lightning through her fingertips at the same time, "ROH DAH!"
The moment the last syllable left her soft lips, a thunderous concussion ripped through the air and a blinding white light radiated from the mark on her throat. It raced around her body in a spiraling manner and disappeared into her sleeves: within a nanosecond, the lightning lanced through the air amongst a wall of brilliant white light... and when it hit the three Draugr, the air resounded with an explosion that created a silver shockwave of raw power.
The force of it both blasted them off their feet and killed them instantly.
Ula stood panting in the empty corridor for a full minute before she looked at her glowing hands and touched her throat: the markings on her skin were glowing like white hot metal, yet even as she watched, the marks faded back to normal and she could no longer speak. The burning pain in her throat faded, and she clenched her fists in triumph... but suddenly, a wave of exhaustion washed over her: she felt strangely weak and feeble, almost as if she hadn't eaten for days.
Her knees buckled, and she collapsed against a wall before sliding to the ground.
Once a modicum of strength had returned to her, Ula struggled to her feet and weakly made her way out of the nook she'd run into.
She noticed, without particularly caring, that her hands were shaking violently and her movements were jerky. She felt detached, as if everything she saw was happening to someone else. Ula returned to where Faendal had fallen and noticed that the elf was still lying motionless on the ground, which had her feeling worried.
When she hobbled over to his side, she realized that there was a long, blood-soaked cut on the Bosmer's right arm: the wound was bleeding profusely, but it was neither deep nor wide. Still, Ula knew it had to be either healed or bound before Faendal lost too much blood... and since she was so weak she could barely walk, using Magicka was probably out of the question. She ran a hand through her long hair, then tried to lift the man up; however, the wood elf's weight proved to be way too much for her to handle and she dropped him heavily back to the ground. Ula was shocked by her own weakness.
She looked up when the elven male groaned and shifted: Faendal blinked blearily, putting a hand to his head before he glanced at Ula.
"Did we beat them?" he inquired, blinking when Ula weakly nodded her head. "How are you not even hurt?"
Ula merely shrugged and continued dressing his wound with glazed eyes.
"Ow..." Faendal muttered, gingerly touching his arm. "Do you know where my sword…. ah, never mind."
After she was finished tending to him, the girl's eyes rolled and she weakly fell forward, slumping against his chest. He seemed startled, but when he realized that she was falling asleep, he sighed in dismay.
"We may as well rest here for the night," the wood elf muttered, glancing at the sarcophagus with unhappy eyes. "That would be the best place, if I'm not mistaken: I shudder at the thought, but I think it would prove safe enough and comfortable enough."
Ula didn't care, as long as she could set her head down and close her eyes for a bit.
She hobbled after him when he slid inside the stone coffin, then practically flipped inside it.
After that, well... to put it simply, Faendal had a better opportunity of waking the dead than Ula at that moment.