Chapter 19: Kel
AN: Welcome back to The Old Kingdom. Beware there's a small info dump in this chapter but I thought it necessary however when my old friend raised some very very important questions to me.
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Serana didn't know what to make of them. The two petite manmer accompanying her. The one called Gwendal had bleached blond hair, green eyes, a plain face, and a thin build with a goofy but friendly personality… Stesha however, long, coffee-colored hair and eyes, a frail physique with buckteeth and braces, and a withdrawn, solitary nature. He was actually kind of cute… objectively speaking of course.
They had made their way to the end of Mzulft and solved the magic puzzle that required them to percolate spells at an array of glass circles, mashing buttons on the top level until everything was aligned correctly. The whole time through Gwendal noisily chatted while Stesha kept to himself, quiet and unobtrusive. – Once it was done, a clicking sound could be heard and the mechanism unlocked, a door revealing itself in the side of the domed chamber. Gwendal grabbed the lexicon, and they headed out.
Serana, Stesha, and Gwendal ambled through the door and got onto the elevator that descended below into Blackreach.
"I'd assume the Elder Scroll would be stored in the oculory, so we just have to look for a tower," Serana said.
"How would you know?" Gwendal asked.
"I've been alive since the Merethic Era." Serana's face drew into a smug smile. "I know a thing or two."
Stesha's dark brown eyes caught on her, and they locked gazes. But eventually the Breton's eyelets fell to the smooth, stone floor. A gold ring encased the lift.
Blackreach was a vast, expansive, dark underground subterrane with glowing blue lights, tall, towering mushrooms that glowed, and giant bubbles floating around when not colliding with the bronze, dwarven buildings. Harmless Falmer prowled about, dragging their clothes over the gold roads that outlined Blackreach. Stesha thought he saw an upright one, but that could just be a trick of the eyes. The ground, cave walls, and ceiling were nearly pitch black with twinkling lights poking through the epidermis. Magenta mushrooms their height stood like baby trees on the sides of the path. Dwarven automatons scoured the surface, spheres rolling by them or spiders scuttling about.
"So, Gwendal, you were talking about this Saint Charlamagne Guice earlier, the Ninth Divine. Tell me more about him. How exactly did he unite Tamriel without bloodshed?" Serana tossed her hair back.
"Oh, that's a bit of a story and a lot of information to dump, but here we go," Gwendal sang, "Charlamagne Guice was born blessed by the divines. Not only was he Dragonborn, but he was also the Chosen One. He had the ability to fly, super strength, attuned hearing, and more. He was already seen as a messiah of sorts in his teen years when news of his great feats started being heard. He united Tamriel through peaceful means and diplomacy, allowing every province to self-govern as an adjunct state with the benefits of his Empire. Even the elves loved him for he was kindhearted to their people, never once killing anyone. He formed the Empire as it was his divine duty but also because he wanted to end war and slavery. Upon his death he was raised into the heavens and made the Ninth Divine by the gods. He was in every sense, the perfect human being. He treated women, men, and children with dignity and was also a good husband unlike Emperors before him."
They passed some elaborate dwarven water fountains, Stesha stopping briefly to take a drink from one. There was a giant orange orb up a flight of steps into an isthmus leading above behind stone fortifications. Regal dwarven runes engraved into the walls.
I wonder what's up there? Serana thought.
Finally, they came upon the Tower of Mzark. A glowing blue river ran alongside it, pouring into a waterfall below near the standing structure of the monument. The inside littered with bedrolls and dwarven knickknacks and old potions. The center stage was similar to the oculory in Mzulft but this time only with buttons. Vast circular glass encased within gold perimeters lined the walls. Gwendal and Serana spent their time trying to figure it out, using the lexicon they found in Mzulft's oculory as a key. There was a giant apparatus up top with large branches holding something secure.
After about five minutes they pressed the right sequence since the equipment unfolded and uncorked the Elder Scroll of Virus. A satisfying pop resounding as the seal unlocked. A crackling sound resonating next.
"Nice," Gwendal said, grabbing ahold of the scroll and handing it to Serana who secured it over her back.
"Let's get out of here." Serana ushered them over onto the lift and they took the elevator up. The eerie sounds of the Dwarven ruin exhaling as Skyrim's air breathed into them.
She pulled the lever and exited Tower Mzark and was kissed by the vista that showcased itself. Hills and the tundra of Drekaholl hold elongated over the scenery, blooming flowers expanding through the area. – There was a Nord beggar, big and bald in rags eating some sort of meal near a campsite. His head snapped to the group, and he ran at them.
Serana and Gwendal jerked back but the beggar jolted straight into Stesha.
"There you are Jade, at last I've found you!" He said, sounding like a madman. He coughed all over Stesha, green puffs of smoke exiting his lungs.
"Hroct?!" Stesha exclaimed, trying to push the Nord off him.
There was a tent and some stone chairs loitering around the area, a spit with a pot over it. The mountains of Skyrim circling the hold. Snow covering them and storms assaulting their peaks as flying whales swam through the sky. The sky was cloudy and the clouds themselves mirrored the blanket of snow blanketing Skyrim.
'Hroct' began choking and rolled over in the snow, wildly shaking his head until the light of life left his yellow eye. Stesha crumbled to his feet slowly afterwards, clutching his throat.
"Stesha, what's wrong?!" Yelled Serana, clenching her fists as Gwendal yanked her back.
Stesha quaffed and sneezed. "I think Hroct had the virus, and he passed it on to me." He dizzied and collapsed onto the ground, shoving aside the pot pit and a nearby chest.
Serana and Gwendal reeled back instinctively.
"Stesha, you know this virus can kill you in less than a day." Serana's heart pounded against her chest. "Gwendal, what do we do?"
"No, no, no." Panic marred Gwendal's features.
"Cuz it's life, it's death, it's the struggle. The hell else we supposed to fight for," Stesha taunted as he picked himself up and sat down on a stone dwarven bench, using both hands to seat himself like an old person would. He crunched over, staring at the ground, and grabbed his head with his hands. "Gwendal, check again. Parse it all, we gotta be sure," his voice carried worry on the wind.
"Stesha, you're gonna die! Think of something!" Gwendal panicked.
"Ok, ok. Jj-just shut the fuck up. I-I need to think." Stesha continued to glare at the snowy floor.
Serana offered some words in consolation, "gonna be all right, Stesha. We'll think of some—."
"I said give me one fuckin minute," Stesha's words came out crisp, cold, and calm.
She felt as if a knife had been plunged in her heart.
"Serana, think of something! You're a genius for fuck's sake!" Gwendal cried, tears pouring out of his eyes.
Think of what?!
Stesha perked up then. "Wait, what if we find a dragon heart. It'll give me a few more months to live and inoculate me so I can't spread the virus to anyone."
"Where are we supposed to find—," Gwendal was saying before he was cut off.
A giant grey shadow swooped over them, flapping its wings, and soaring over Whiterun towards the Western Watchtower. Six limbed with four limbs being its arms and legs and two sticking out the back as its wings. Stesha sprinted off after the massive Dragon and Serana and Gwendal chased him, marshalling through the snow. Several deer galivanted past them as they chased the figure of the Dragon. When they neared the Western Watchtower, Serana saw a catapult set up there and a group of soldiers, all adorning Wolf Armor.
"Hadvar, now!" Shouted a red-haired woman.
The one deemed Hadvar cranked back the catapult and a giant spear soared through the air, stabbing the dragon in the wing, grounding it. The massive monstrosity crashed into the path, contorting its wings. Dust and torn wheat flying everywhere in its wake.
"Who dare attack Mirmulnir!" The Dragon spoke as the soldiers fired arrows into it.
Stesha sent bolts of lightning into the Dragon's face, blinding its eyes, blood oozing through its eyelets. Gwendal cast fireballs at the grey-scaled beast and Serana summoned a bound sword and began hacking away on its scales. – The dov swooped its tail, swiping up several guardsmen and tossing them into the battlements before it breathed fire on the surrounding plains, melting the ice. Hadvar began to shift, contort, hairs or was it fur exploding across his body. The werewolf began slashing its paws into the dragon, gouging out its eyes. The Dragon roared in pain, elongating its spine to the heavens.
The enraged and blinded dovah blew gaseous flames everywhere. Everyone sprinted, hiding behind the watchtower and its ruined walkway, stones crumbling in places as the Whiterun banner was razed to a black tarp. The schists of the watchtower blackened to a midnight hue. Stesha crunched his hands, violently electrocuting the dragon as Gwendal hailed ice spikes in its direction. The spears of ice impregnated themselves into the dov's abdomen. Serana dialed her fingers, zapping shock spells at the dragon as well, dodging and doing a roll under its tail and swiping left with her bound sword.
The red-haired woman and two black haired men behind her thrust a giant spear into the Dragon's heart and it collapsed into the ground. The dovah slumped over and finally died, breathing its last breath.
Everyone was silent as if waiting for something to happen, for something to reveal itself…
Nothing happened, no grand finale. The Dragon laid dead; its flesh still fully intact. An anticlimactic end to such a fierce battle.
Serana chewed on her machinations, dunno, for some reason I thought something would happen when the dragon died. But nothing did. It's just dead and its flesh is still there.
Stesha took a knife and cut out the heart from the hole in the dragon's neck, wading through its flesh. He plucked it out and began chewing on it as Serana watched from afar, the blood splattering over his face. Hadvar and his companions rushed up to Gwendal and her.
"Gwendal, what are you doing here?!" Hadvar exclaimed. "And why is Stesha eating the Dragon's heart?"
The western watchtower was a large, grey monument made of aged stone bricks. Tall, wiry yellow aspen trees dotting the snow-covered tundra full of lichen plants and lingonberry. The grass beneath the snow were wheatfields, yellow and crisp. Reindeer-bunnies hopping around.
"Hadvar, what are you doing here?" Gwendal's eyebrows shot into his blond curls. "Nice to see you again by the way, Aela."
Aela nodded. "These are my Shield-Brothers, Farkas and Vilkas." She gestured to the blackheads behind her in silver armor. "We were dragon hunting and set up this trap for one. What brings you here?"
"Stesha caught the virus, and we needed an inoculation so it wouldn't spread to anyone. We saw this dragon flying this way and chased it here." Gwendal sat down on the snow. "That's why he's eating its heart."
Stesha finished eating the organ and swallowed with a visible shudder.
"Stesha, just wait over there as the heart does its thing. We'll test in on an animal first," Serana called. "Dragon hearts will make it so he can't spread the virus to anyone and immunize him, so he'll live longer."
Hadvar's jaw dropped. "Stesha, you caught the virus?"
Stesha nodded and burped, sitting down onto the stone ledge.
Hadvar was a handsome, muscled Nord boy with short, messy brown hair and a beard with golden eyes. Serana shook his hand and Aela's, as well as her companions. "I'm Serana. I… was helping Stesha and Gwendal with finding this Elder Scroll."
"You should take that to the Jarl," Aela suggested as she caught a rabbit, setting it down near Stesha.
The hare hopped over Stesha, licking his face. After a few seconds it jumped away, unharmed, and unfazed.
"The inoculation worked." Stesha fell back and passed out, his arms falling across his chest.
Serana rushed to his side and lifted him up into her arms, carrying him towards the others. Gwendal and Hadvar stared at her with gleams in their eyes and Aela smiled at the sight. Small, hollow diamonds began to rain down on them from the skies, pattering the snow.
"Farkas, Vilkas, you both head back and let Kodlak know what happened. I'm going to accompany my friends here to Jarl Balgruuf." Aela sheathed her bow before grabbing a few arrows implanted in the Dragon's grey hide and resetting them inside her quiver.
Serana set off, carrying Stesha in her arms alongside Gwendal, Hadvar, and Aela. Stesha breathed lightly in her arms, his small face nuzzling against her bosom. For some reason Serana felt protective of him. She curled him closer to her as they marched along the stone inlaid path, passing into the massive grey battle towers posted outside of Whiterun.
They all had to take a virus test and wear face masks before they were allowed to enter the city. The streets of the platinum-colored settlement were empty, everyone inside due to the lockdown. The only reason they got a pass was the Elder Scroll on her back, serving as proof they were on mission for the Jarl. The winds sung an eerie tone as the progressed. No one was outside and it looked like a ghost town. – Eventually, they arrived in the Jarl's palace, Dragonsreach. Fine rugs laid over wood floors with pillars holding up the giant vaulted ceiling, chandeliers hanging from the top, candles ensconced within.
"Over here." Gwendal gestured to the side room.
The buff, bearded Jarl, whose black hair was tied back in a ponytail was discussing with his blue-garbed court wizard in hushed whispers as the five approached. There was another man in the room too, an old Imperial with a shaved head and thick, long beard. It was a moth priest judging by his grey robes. They all wore face masks and so did Serana and her crew save Stesha.
"I'm telling you, my Jarl, no such scroll exists!" The moth-priest intoned. "It was never accounted for in the Imperial Library. The Vomindok Virus is part of no prophecies."
"What do you call that then, my dear Dexion!" Jarl Balgruuf pointed out triumphantly. He jostled over to the group. "Took you long enough but you're finally here! Almost thought you were dead." His eyes fell onto Stesha then "Ehh, what's with sleeping beauty? No nightmares hopefully."
"We slew the Dragon outside the walls, and we have the scroll." Aela's features slid into a slight smile.
"Excellent. I'll be sure to reward you all with plenty of guice. Please make an inquiry at the local bank when it opens again, and it will be deposited there as a signature of credit." Balgruuf took the Elder Scroll from Serana and handed it to the moth priest. "This is Dexion Evicus, he's a moth priest from Cyrodiil. He'll be deciphering the Elder Scroll for us."
The enchanting room was spacious with enchanting and alchemy tables to boot. A dresser on the side, littered with oddities and a map of Skyrim opposite it. Aela posed back as Gwendal tapped his feet. Stesha still snoozing within Serana's strong, motherly hold.
"Sir, there's a bit of an issue." Dexion's features concerted. "This scroll is a fake. Where did you say you found it again?"
"Mzulft," answered Gwendal.
"Yes, it seems this was the Dwarves' attempt to make an Elder Scroll, but they never got past the outer shell. Like I said, this vomindok virus is apart of no prophecy. Where and why did your research make you believe there was anything pertinent to a virus elder scroll in Mzulft, my Jarl?" Dexion's beard hairs greyed under the candlelight.
Jarl Balgruuf the Greater looked completely stunned. "Last year, a stranger approached me and told me there was an Elder Scroll regarding a virus in Mzulft. Then when I heard of the reports of the beginning of a sickness and nightmares in Dawnstar, I put two and two together and sent this lot to search for said scroll. But I guess that weirdo was just lying to me all along." Theoden stared at the ground, lost in thought.
"Who was this individual?" Serana's brow curved like a crow's beak.
The Jarl paused. "He came to me after I'd spent a night drinking in the tavern. Told me in one year's time a group of adventurers would stumble my way and that I should send them to Mzulft to recover an Elder Scroll about a virus. So, I ordered Farengar to begin researching his claims and sure enough, there were reports of something in Tower Mzark unlocked by a lexicon in Mzulft. Their oculories being connected."
"What was his name, my Jarl?" Serana questioned.
"He wore a raven shaped mask and said his name was Seracles."
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AN: It never hurts to leave a small review with your thoughts. I spend a lot of time writing this story for free so a little comment in return can be very helpful. Thank you!