Time Decays

There was a loud crack, the sort that would usually herald the coming of a large storm. Then there were sounds of splintering, like a tree being sawn down by angry lumberjack. Huntrek watched through his mask as the purple crystal began to cobweb. He hated the smell of this old place, the once familiar smell of blossoms replaced by the smell of dust and wild animal deification. His once proud manor house had fallen into disuse and decrepitness: the once glossy dark woods now eaten by insects and rotting, the fine carpets and tapestries had been pilfered by scavengers a long time ago with this that had been left now falling apart to the wind, glass had shattered and any semblance that anyone still lived here was long gone. The Altmer watched as the crystal slowly shattered, a century and a half older. He had hardly changed, except his hair had a few grey streaks and the black spots in his eyes had gone. His clothing remained his black robes, the gold no longer as brilliant as it once was. This was his last mission for the Daedra. He was tired of their scheming. Without warning, the crystal imploded inwards, forming as a suit of armour around the figure inside before shattering out across the room. The mage raised a hand, the shimmering ward there deflecting any shards of crystal that may have had a vendetta against him for disturbing their original shape. A dark elven girl, more a woman, lay on the ground in the centre of a weathered stone circle. Huntrek sighed and reached down to pick her up, a few of the sofas he had seen were still in one piece.

Kari's head howled like a familiar nautical gale. Her eyes refused to open while her brain slowly rolled through the process of recovering. All arms? She twitched her limbs. All of them felt like they were there, though they felt longer than her brain remembered. Her lungs brought in a great breath of air, seeming unused to the action and struggling with a weight on her chest that definitely was different to last time. Panic began to set in and her eyes flew open. Before they could start to register what she was seeing, her body unleashed a scream of finally being free from its prison. She was then silent, looking at her legs while her mind argued with her body about what in Oblivion it just did.

"You're awake then. Good". A familiar voice drifted through the dust heavy air. It carried command, calmness and wisdom. Kari remembered most of it, though it sounded aged. She looked up from her legs, which seemed to poke out of her trousers, and into the gloom towards where she heard the voice. Two golden eyes seemed to be hovering in front of her, a voice came from somewhere below them.

"I'm afraid I can't stay long Karinia. I have places I need to be. We'll meet again soon I imagine. There are clean clothes upstairs and I've taken the liberty of writing you a journal to get you up to date. Take care Kari. Lock up when you go". The eyes gave her a kind look and she felt a hand rest on her shoulder, squeezing it gently before the man eyes disappeared into the dark, followed by a flash of purple light.

Karinia. The name rang a bell. That was her name right? Right. Light trickled in through moth eaten curtains, illuminating rings of light in the ground. Her body dragged her upstairs through familiar territory, though her mind kept arguing, asking where it was going. She found herself in a much better preserved room, a dark crystal illuminating the room. There was a small travel chest on the bed, with a set of clean clothes beside it. Bigger than what Kari s wearing. She noted that there was a tall mirror set on the wall beside her, which she almost jumped away from when she didn't recognise the person in the mirror. It was Kari, but... Taller. Her clothes hugged her body tightly, not built for the young woman that was in the mirror, more for a middle aged teenager. Her legs and arms had extended, much more slender and toned with muscle Kari didn't know she had. Her once ashen skin had darkened into a shade of black tar, giving her the appearance of a clothed shadow. Her red hair was matted from being unwashed and flowed down practically to her waist. She moved over to the washroom where a basin of clean water was waiting for her. She shed her tight clothing, suddenly able to breathe properly, and washed the grime off her body. She finished quickly, finding a dagger on the counter near her, using it to cut her hair down to a more sensible size, or rather, hack at her hair until it felt comfortable on her head.

She eventually clothed, finding a leather book underneath the clothing. It was a short tome, written in elven shorthand that described what had happened in the past few hundred years since Kari had been frozen. That had shocked her, but a message from Huntrek written in a different coloured ink reassured her that most things were fine almost exactly when she was shocked by various events. The journal ended with a short note of Huntrek explaining why Kari now was different.

"... You'll probably have noticed that you're taller now Karinia. Basically you have aged. Despite being suspended it time, I am afraid it does not completely stop the ageing process. For every quarter century or so, you would've aged a year if my calculations are correct. It shouldn't have aged you too much, but you are probably a young adult now. No longer a teenager. I'm sorry I did not stay longer, you are probably very confused. Take the chest and yourself back to Skyrim, you will find your way there. The stone ring in my office should still be useable. Take care of yourself Karinia. -Huntrek Redmane."

The Altmer's signature was certainly exotic. Kari smiled a little at the end of the journal, putting it into the travel chest. She picked it up and carried it with her to the ring she had glanced a couple of times in Huntrek's study. She pulled up the hood of the travelling cloak she was wearing and took a look around the now decrepit house. She felt something roll in her stomach, butterflies for leaving this place. The runes on her back, those infernal things, suddenly inflamed on her back, causing her to yelp. The ring suddenly flashed and Kari felt the air change from warm and dusty to cold and crisp. She found herself lying in cold snow, gasping for air and her eyes shut tight from pain. The stone ring she was lying on let out a pitiful noise and crumbled into dust before being blown away on an unseen breeze. Kari continued to breath heavily, letting her eyes open to see stars twinkle back at her. There was a large crimson globe in the sky aswell, to which Kari instinctively let out a prayer to with her few gasps between breaths.

Mephala's avatar cracked and arcane dust flittered off it. Her eight eyes opened slowly and her arms unwound from their web shape. She quickly got her bearings, but travelling from her realm to here was uncomfortable. The Daedric prince had had no reason to be here for a while, but one of her well planned threads was about to be joined with another and she wanted to oversee it personally. A beam of light shone down from the dome above from a blazing pair of scales, directly on a stone carving of the dark elven girl, now a woman, with shards of black obsidian and ebony in it. The Dome above twinkled softly in a greeting to the newly arrived Prince, to which the Daedra nodded. She leant forward and watched the map intently. Though she knew the result of the upcoming meeting, she was intrigued to see how it would play out before its resolution.