Sweet Jesus, I am a terrible student. I keep putting off all of my work just to work on this story. You guys suck lol.
Nah, I'm jk! This story is gettin' a pretty decent number of views (for it being my first fic and all), so those of you who are reading it, thank you! :D

"What in Oblivion?!"

Teldryn nearly jumped out of his bedroll. He looked over to see Terah comically crouched in a combat stance with the most bewildered look he had ever seen on her face. She was scurrying around where something red hot was rising from the ash just outside the lodge.

"Ash spawn," he grumbled as he forced himself up. He summoned a flame atronach just before placing his helmet on his head and grabbing his sword.

The ashy beast had fully arisen from the ash, its fiery eyes burning hot and its breathing heavy. Terah stood fast, still crouched in her stance, and observed it with a mixture of fascination and confusion as she took in its appearance. Teldryn ran straight for it, skillfully slashing and stabbing the creature until it was quickly reduced back to nothing but a pile of ash. A frost rune exploded just behind them, causing them to turn and see that two more were headed their direction.

Terah readied for a shout, but quickly caught herself. That'd certainly freak him out. Teldryn had nearly defeated the two ash spawn already, so she finished them off with a single frost storm spell.

He sheathed his sword and turned to face her, "You take far too long to assess the situation."

She just shrugged. "I didn't know what it was," she stated in her defense. She couldn't really come up with a good excuse as to why she hesitated. It was going to be difficult to avoid shouting in front of him.

Suddenly, he burst into throaty laughter. Not having the slightest clue as to what he could be laughing at, Terah just rose a brow at him. "What in the name of Julianos is so funny?"

"You should've seen your face!"

She scoffed, "There is nothing wrong with my face!"

His laughter subsided. "I know there isn't," he said as he walked over towards her, his atronach following closely behind. "You're very fortunate to have such a fine swordsman in your company, you know. I can't imagine how you would've handled that on your own."

She just moved her mouth to one side and shook her head at him. Terah knew she could handle herself in combat fairly well, yet she never felt the need to brag about it or defend herself when people said otherwise. She tended to give people the first impression that she was slow or incompetent, but would always end up proving them otherwise.

I'll just have to prove myself. In time.

Teldryn's atronach did a little backflip, drawing Terah's attention to her. She stared at Terah with fiery eyes, almost daring her to make a move against Teldryn. Terah always found flame atronachs to be so beautiful and graceful in their own way.

"You know," she started, her eyes never leaving the flaming beauty. "I could never really get the hang of conjuration."

Teldryn looked at his conjured guardian, then back at Terah. "I wouldn't expect you to."

The atronach vanished before their eyes, leaving them standing there, staring at nothing. "C'mon," Terah said, looking over at Teldryn. "Let's get to that temple."

They proceded to pack up and gather their belongings in silence before making the final stretch to the temple.

Dragon skeletons? This can't be a good sign.

They had made it to the temple only to find that it was under heavy construction. About a dozen people were monotonously chanting and building around the temple, just like the victims at the Earth Stone.

Terah was beginning to become concerned about her companion. "Teldryn, I swear by the Divines if you even think about -"

"Relax. I'm fine," he said with a dismissive hand. "I don't plan on taking up construction anytime soon."

"Good," she said, looking around the temple. Amidst the chanting, she swore she heard a voice. A sane voice.

"Please! We must leave this place!"

Terah and Teldryn exchanged a glance before rushing towards the sound of the female voice.

"Ysra, can you hear me?! You must leave this place!"

The voice was coming from a female Nord dressed in steel armor that Terah didn't recognize. She was shaking another woman in a poor attempt to pull her out of her trance.

"I don't think there's anything you can do," Terah said softly.

The woman spun around and spotted her. "What brings you here?" she asked, eyeing Teldryn as well.

"We're just here to help," Terah said kindly. "How are you not in the same state as the others?"

She was a bit hostile towards the two of them, but Terah couldn't blame her. Grasping onto the amulet around her neck as if her life depended on it, she hesitantly replied, "There aren't many of us left on the island who have not been taken by this horrible influence. My father protects the few of us who are left, and I fashioned this amulet to guard me." A hint of sorrow was in her eyes as she looked around at her friends. "I'm not sure what this is, but it forces people to forget themselves and work on these horrible creations that corrupt the Stones. The very land itself."

Terah nodded, "I noticed that with the Earth Stone, but there were still quite a few people out and about in Raven Rock when we left. Thankfully."

The woman just looked at her sympathetically before saying, "I doubt they will be there when you return. Whatever this is, it's taken control over most of the people of Solstheim. It has become more powerful than ever."

With this, Teldryn sighed. She gave him a look, knowing what was wrong. She was equally concerned about the citizens of Raven Rock, regardless of the fact that most of them hadn't taken much of a liking to her. "This," he started, "is much worse than I thought."

Terah placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know how unsettling this is," she started softly. She had trouble trying to figure out what she wanted to say to him. "But if this is true, then I am really going to need you to stay in your right mind. We have to stay strong."

He just nodded.

Terah brought her hand back down to her side before turning to the Nord woman. "I am Terah, by the way. And this is Teldryn," she said, gesturing toward the chitin-clad man next to her.

"I am Frea of the Skaal," she said, a little more relaxed. "My father, Storn, says Miraak has returned to Solstheim. But that is impossible."

"It's true," Terah confirmed. "This 'Miraak' tried to have me killed, and I strongly believe that he is the one behind all of this."

Hearing this, Frea gained a little more confidence, "Then you and I both have reason to see what lies beneath." She gazed upon her friends. "If I cannot save my people, I will make sure to avenge them."

"We don't know what we may find inside," Teldryn warned. "I suggest we proceed with caution."

"I'm right with you," Terah replied. "Let's go."

They were interrupted by a sudden flurry of shock magic aimed in their direction. Terah saw two masked mages ascend from the temple, and immediately recognized who they were. The trio drew their weapons and quickly took care of the mages before they could even make it ten feet from the temple.

Terah walked over to one of the cultists they had just killed, analyzing the body.

"Friends of yours?" Teldryn asked.

"They," she started, "Look just like the bastards that tried to kill me in Windhelm."

Frea looked over at the dead cultist, "We will probably run into more of them within. Keep your guard up."

As they made their way down into the temple, Frea spoke of the ways of the Skaal, of how they serve the All-Maker and live as one with nature. Terah admired the peaceful ways of the Skaal, and felt remorse knowing she would never be able to live such a life herself.

She thought of how Frea mentioned that her father knew about Miraak, so she figured she'd try to get some information about him. "What do you know about Miraak?"

"Well, I know that his story is about as old as Solstheim itself. He served the dragons as a priest in their order before their fall from power," Frea explained. "But he went against them. He chose his own path, and his actions cost him dearly. The stories say he sought to claim Solstheim for himself, and the dragons destroyed him for it."

Terah mulled over the information. She still had no idea as to why exactly he wanted her dead, but at least she found a common denominator: Dragons. But no matter how hard she thought about it, she still didn't have a clue. She was terrible with things like this.

"I still don't get it," Teldryn piped. "Why would an ancient dragon priest rebel, who has supposedly been dead for hundreds of years, want some little Nord woman dead?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I didn't mean it that way," he defended while putting his arms up in front of him. "But seriously. What did you do to earn such a bounty on your head?"

"I've done nothing, thank you very much," she said, giving him a nudge. This made her think about the things she actually had done. Is it because I defeated Alduin? Is Miraak upset about that or what? She tried to shake the thoughts out of her head, but her mind was racing.

The trio made their way further into the temple and made a left at the end of a narrow hallway. Three more cultists awaited them in the room that followed, but they proved to be no threat. Terah had been leading the way, so she charged towards the closest one and decapitated him with one swing of her sword. She immediately spun around and shot a well-aimed ice spike at the cultist on the other side of the room, piercing him in his abdomen and almost instantly killing him. The last one was about to strike her with a dagger, but before he could execute his attack, she elbowed him hard in the face, causing him to fall on his back. Taking advantage of his vulnerability, she downwardly impaled him straight through his heart. It all happened so fast, and left both Frea and Teldryn behind her speechless.

"Well, wasn't that quite the show," Teldryn said to her, obviously pleased. "I knew you could fight well, but I haven't seen anything like that from you."

Terah couldn't hide the satisfied smile that crept on her face. "I'll leave some for you next time," she teased.

All he could do was shake his head at her. He had taken a liking to this little Nord.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Frea asked beside him, astounded by her performance.

She just shrugged. "Training."

"I'm glad to finally be travelling with someone who's competent," said Teldryn.

Terah flashed him a smile. "You too, friend."

As they descended further into the temple, they only ran into a few more cultists. They stumbled upon trap after trap, searched for numerous hidden switches, and eventually came across a seemingly endless flow of Draugr, which kept them very busy. Terah and Teldryn would light them up in a sea of flames, while Frea would attack with her sword. The three of them made a pretty damn good team.

While walking down yet another corridor, Terah unexpectedly stopped dead in her tracks, causing Teldryn to walk right into her.

"What's wrong?" Frea asked with concern.

She could hear it, the barbaric chanting. A Word wall. Son of a -

Spinning her around, Teldryn snapped her out of her thought. He had both hands on her shoulders, looking her square in the face. "Don't tell me we've lost you to whatever's controlling the island," he said, almost sounding irritated.

"No, I'm fine," she said lamely. "Sorry."

Frea just shrugged it off and made her way to the next room. Teldryn stood fast, his arms folded across his chest. Terah couldn't see his eyes, but she knew he was glaring at her from behind his goggles. She chose to ignore him and followed Frea.

The chanting was loud now, and the wall was in her sight. It called to her, drew her in, and it was so difficult to resist. She tried to focus on something else. Anything. She awkwardly began to search around the room, digging through chests and urns for anything valuable.

"You mind telling us what has you acting so. . . strange?" Teldryn asked from behind her. There was no fooling him.

She sighed, rubbing her temples. "Nothing. There's just something I have to do."

So, she approached the wall. Light illuminated from one of the Words and found its way to her, the chanting in her ears now almost deafening. Knowledge pulsated through her body and into her very core, filling her mind with a single word: Mul. Terah focused on the power from the dragon souls within her and channeled it into this new Word in an attempt to fully understand it as the Dov would.

Mul simply meant "strength," but this Word felt different compared to others. She experienced a similar feeling with the Dragonrend Shout. Dragonrend felt so mortal compared to the other Shouts, but this Word was quite the opposite. It felt far more closer to Dovah than any Word she had ever learned.

"What the - ?"

Teldryn's bewilderment was interrupted by loud rumbling as the entire room began to violently shake. "Brace yourselves!" Frea shouted above the noise. Seeing the walls lined with ancient caskets, Terah already had an idea of what was to come. Draugr.

One by one, the lids of the caskets slammed onto the ground. The draugr within them stepped out, growling at the three mortals. Terah surrounded them with a large wall of fire while Frea and Teldryn prepared to fight. "Come on!" she yelled with ferocity, daring the draugr to enter the fiery circle. Surely enough, they were so foolish as to charge in after them. The three of them stood their ground and covered each others backs as they hacked and slashed the draugr back to death. The fact that all of them caught fire made it much easier to take them down.

"How many more restless dead must we run into?" Teldryn asked in an irritated tone, looking around at the lifeless bodies sprawled across the room. The two women were far too exhausted to reply.

"Look," Terah said as she hustled over to an open casket. "Theres a door here. And I bet," she started as she crouched down at the dead body nearest to her. "That this guy here has the key." Surely enough, after a short search, she triumphantly rose a hand into the air, showing them a large key.

The doorway led them into a dark, erie part of the temple. It was unnervingly silent and the atmosphere chilled them to the bone. They progressed deeper and deeper into the seemingly bottomless temple, Frea leading the way. As they tread down a narrow and dark tunnel, Terah began to wonder how far underground this damned place actually ran.

As if he read her mind Teldryn voiced, "Are we ever going to find the bottom of this wretched place?"

Frea answered the question for both of them. "I think we just found it."

The tunnel led to a small, circular room with an orange glow. The light radiated from above a pedestal in the center of the room, which revealed intricate patterns on the stone floor. Mesmerized by the sight, Terah slowly walked up towards the pedestal to find a large, black book upon it.

Peering over her shoulder, Teldryn warned, "There are dark magics at work here."

"Something's off about that book," Frea added. "It seems. . . here. But not."

"I know what you mean," Terah said as she took the risk of picking it up. It felt deathly cold, and an inexplainable evil radiated from it. She slowly opened the cover, finding the title of the book. "Waking Dreams," she announced.

Frea gasped beside her, "What are you doing? That book drips with evil."

"I think it is unwise to read the book," Teldryn agreed. "It can't be good for you."

"What else am I supposed to do?" Terah asked. "Believe me, I don't like it either, but we didn't come all this way for nothing. I have a feeling I'll find answers within."

She turned the page and allowed her eyes to run over the words. Her vision began to blur and her ears started to painfully throb. The last thing she could remember seeing was a large tentacle sprouting from the book, wrapping around her neck and pulling her into the pages before her vision went completely black.

Terah had become completely ethereal, blankly reading the pages of the book and completely unaware of Frea and Teldryn's presence. Unsettled, Frea tried yelling at her, tried shaking her, but she had become intangible.

"Yes," Teldryn sighed. "Definitely not good for you."

Her vision was slowly coming back into focus. Fatigued by the dreadful experience, she tried to set her mind straight and make sense of whatever in Oblivion just happened. A male voice could be heard not too far away, but the voice almost didn't sound real. It didn't sound completely human.

Just as her vision fully cleared, she barely caught the figure of a person before being struck in the gut with a spell. She let out an "ooph!" before dropping to her hands and knees, unable to move.

"Who are you to dare set foot here?" said the inhuman voice. Willing herself to look up, she spotted a masked man. He took two slow, deliberate steps toward her. "Ahhh," he started, eyeing her. "You are dragonborn. I can feel it. And yet. . ."

Another pause. Odd creatures with slimy brown skin hovered around him, their faces disturbingly resembling the man's mask. The sky (or whatever it was) was tinted a yellowish green and numerous loose papers spiraled around in the air. A peculiar looking dragon had landed just behind the man, but it made no move to attack.

"So you have slain Alduin," he almost sounded impressed.

"Well done. I could have slain him myself when I walked the earth. But I chose a different path." He said as he gestured to his surroundings before turning his attention back to her. "You have no idea of the true power a dragonborn can wield."

He Shouted. "Mul Qah Diin!" White-gold light formed over his body, creating protective armor that reminded her of the dragon armor she had forged for herself. It was the full shout of the Word she had just learned.

Panic was slowly rising in her chest. Any form of speech evaded her, for she was still stuck on her hands and knees and was partially in shock. She struggled to wrap her mind around what was happening, but now she knew the truth. Miraak is dragonborn. Now it all makes sense.

"This realm is beyond you. You have no power here. And it is only a matter of time before Solstheim is also mine." He began to pace back and forth in front of her. "I already control the minds of its people. Soon, they will finish building my temple, and I can return home."

The other dragonborn made an about face and called over his shoulder to his assistants. "She can await my arrival with the rest of Tamriel."

The wretched creatures made unearthly sounds as they moved to either side of Terah. They relentlessly struck her over and over with sickening bursts of dark magic, causing her to cry out in pain with each strike. Move! Get up, dammit!

No matter how hard she tried to fight, she could not move from her position. The pain was becoming unbearable as bile rose through her throat and found its way out of her mouth. Her vision was beginning to fade again, but before she let the darkness take her, she could've sworn she saw Miraak mount the dragon and ride it off into the venomous sky.

Terah's body was tangible once more, and she was back in the temple with the book in her hands. The moment she returned, she collapsed onto the floor. The pain, whatever those nasty creatures did to her, returned with her.

Frea gasped, and she and Teldryn were instantly at her side. Terah seized uncontrollably, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and fright. Teldryn gave it his all with a healing spell, but his restoration skills were rather weak. A black liquid oozed out of her mouth, nose, eyes, ears, and gods know where else. Her screams were muffled by the liquid pouring out of her mouth, and she desperately clutched onto her companions.

For the first time in a very long time, Terah was scared out of her mind.

"I- I can't heal others very well," he stammered, his hands shakily hovering over her body. Terah lurched upward and turned her body over to face the ground. She horridly puked up a two-foot tentacle, gasping for air when it escaped from her throat. All Frea could do was stare, horrified.

Teldryn was about to lose it. He grabbed Frea by the collar, yelling in her face, "Do something!"

"I don't know!" she panicked, putting her hands out in front of her. "We'll take her to my father. He can help!"

The black ooze was no longer leaking from her body. Now, it was blood. Terah was growing pale with blood loss, and her screaming reduced to silent cries and gasps for air.

He growled, "We don't have the time, N'wah! She's not going to make it!"

"It's all we can do!" she exclaimed as she rose to her feet. "Come! There looks to be a way out here."

Teldryn scooped Terah up into his arms and they ran as fast as they could, weaving their way out of the damned temple. He looked down at the little Nord in his arms, and he knew that this moment would probably haunt his dreams forever. She almost looked like an innocent little girl, shivering and clutching onto the chitin plates on his chest. The unrelenting fear and dispair in her bloody blue eyes was unlike anything he had ever seen in his entire lifetime.

"Come on, Terah," he whispered. "We can make it. We're gonna make it."

He lost track of how many times he repeated that to himself as they ran all the way to Skaal Village without stopping.

My, that was longgg. I know I repeated a lot of in-game dialogue, but I really didn't feel comfortable changing it. My apologies if I bored anyone to death.

I really wanted to make the black book much more gruesome ;) Obviously she's not going to die, or else that'd make a pretty lame story lol.