The wind howls
Solitude was the first city Kari had ever been too. At first she didn't like it, but she soon adapted to the life. Eddy lived in one of the houses near the city square, positioned closer to the gate so he could get to the dock faster.
Solitude itself was a large and proud city. It was known as the 'Imperial Capital' of Skyrim by quite a few of the locals. It was situated high on the cliffs overlooking the sea of ghosts, with a rather large and awe-inspiring arch separating the main city from the Blue Palace. The architecture of the towering walls and imposing buildings were like nothing else Kari had ever seen with grey stone and even greyer cement.
It was all dreadfully dull in some ways, but amazing in others for someone who had never seen it before.
Kari's mother had found herself work with one of the merchants, making trinkets and clothing for a decent enough wage to keep Kari and herself fed and able to pay rent for the man who dragged them out of that hell-hole. It was the least they could do. And Kari herself attended school, nothing fancy, but enough to teach her how to read and write and so on. The kids there were... Pleasant, if teasing sometimes about her dark skin, deep crimson eyes and bright red hair.
It was bliss for someone who had only known life as a living hell up until now. Kari would sometimes smirk when she heard the kids complaining about holes in their clothes or that their mothers didn't buy them an interesting piece of gemstone. Several years passed without any major incidents, up until the day a band of adventurers came into town. Kari was at school while one of the adventurers, already drunk from his recent victories, entered the store where Kari's mother worked. He purchased something, then accused the woman that what he had bought was not what she had said it was. Kari's mother rose and demanded the drunken man leave. The was a hiss of metal on a scabbard and the next thing the Dunmeri woman knew, she had a sword in her gut, a through and through wound that even a peasant could see was fatal. The man's eye widened and he ran from the store, the owner of the shop screaming for the guards. Kari's mother died slowly and in great pain, though she didn't let any sense of such pass her features, her little girl had been brought out of school to be with her mother in her final moments. The teenage girl had cried, her fists in her mother's cloak when the elven woman smiled at Kari, blood leaking from her mouth. She spoke, but no words came out, then she was gone. All of Solitude heard the screams and sobs of the elven girl, begging for her mother to come back, pleading for her to return.
The sadness didn't take long for Kari to be overcome with blind anger. The girl stormed to the prison cells, bolts of uncontrollable arcane lightning sparked from her finger tips. She didn't even know that she was able to conjure such power. None of the guards tried to stop her, valuing their lives far more than stopping a little girl with a grudge. The adventurer had been stripped to rags and was sitting peacefully in his cell, not entirely bothered with what he had done. Not like it was anyone important. The door to his cell was suddenly blown off its hinges, clattering loudly against the wall. He didn't stop laughing when he saw it was Kari until he was a smoking cadaver on the ground, rent apart by Kari's fury. The girl fell to her knees, her rage turning back into sorrow. The guard who was on duty watched in terror, and was shocked when the little girl fell to her knees outside the cell and began crying. The guard walked over to her and attempted to comfort the small girl, who did nothing to stop him once he was close enough. She hugged into the stranger, tears flowing from her eyes. By the time reinforcements arrived, the guard had calmed her and he told one of the guards to get spell binding bracers so that the mage didn't kill them.
Kari sat in the prison cell, only a teenager. She hugged her legs tightly up to her chest, her eyes sore from crying. Uncle Eddy had been down to see her earlier where he reluctantly told her he couldn't get her out. He was only a ship captain after all. He left with the promise he would make sure her things would be saved until she got out of prison, leaving a kiss on her forehead and saying sorry for what happened to her mother. Kari looked up at the window of her cell and saw one of the moons looking back at her. The bands around her wrists clamped around her arms tightly again and she felt the mana being drained from her body. She sniffed and got off the straw bed in her cell, falling to her knees and clasping her hands together, speaking a prayer to the Daedra for her departed mother and for her own protection.
Mephala was not alone around the Table for once. Boethia was there as was Nocturnal. Several of the stars in the dome over the map also twinkled as they watched, but none of the major Nine stars.
"Sister, you cannot expect us to aid you in this. Dagon is still enraged about his failed invasion and is threatening to attack our lands". The voice seemed to come from no where, but Mephala knew that it was Nocturnal speaking. She was always a coward, preferring the shadows to conflict. Boethia snorted, the avatar showing a warrior woman.
"Dagon is weak Sister, even your lesser Daedra can stand against his. Mephala, I can aid you in this. I have a champion in the...", the Daedra leant over to read the map of Nirn, "Summerset Isles who can save her. But I won't do it for free".
Mephala slowly nodded, one of her eight arms extended across the table to the warrior woman that she considered one of her closest allies at the moment. The warrior woman took the spindly hand in a firm handshake.
"I can reforge the artefacts. Or rather bestow the means to you to do so. I want this one saved. You will decide how and so. In less than two hundred years I foresee the barriers to have caved. She will play a crucial role. Ensure she survives. Or I am afraid I cannot share her soul". Mephala always spoke cryptically, mostly because she knew it annoyed the more brutish Daedric Princes, but because it best encompassed her personality. Nocturnal rolled her eyes before going back to her seat and returning to her own realm, her avatar becoming stationary. Boethia chuckled and returned to her realm, her avatar following the same rules as Nocturnal's. Mephala looked back to the map and focussed it on the cell where her newest plaything was. She briefly heard her voice drift through her mind and heard the usual things from a prayer to her. It made her smirk. Mephala glanced up again to the stars, seeing many of the lesser Aedra had left, being replaced with a blazing constellation of a pair of scales. Evidently the little mortal was praying under Julianos' moon. How convenient.