Content Warning: The pregnant woman and her child are very much so in danger and it gets dark. A line is toed, but not crossed. There are also graphic depictions of violence.

A flash of heat.

A jolt of lightning.

A surge of power and pain.

Everything was chaos.

Seconds melted into hours which in turn stretched on into Oblivion. Everything was tangled up, fuzzy and heavy. Screams became white noise. Vile magic ran amuck. Bodies shifted together, desperate, shuddering, with nothing left but the need to survive. Sparse heat kept the chill of Skyrim at bay. Fires crackled, hungry, not near strong enough. Siulon couldn't remember who was tending to them, trusting Urag at least knew. All she knew now was violence. Blood made the ground slick and unholy noises surrounded them. There was no escape from the horrors.

Siulon couldn't see. Her proximity spell was too unstable. Any time she tried for even a moment all she saw were fragments, shards of a mirror reflecting a reality she rejected. So utterly in the dark for the first time in years, Siulon was forced to focus on the sounds and smells around her. The crackle of magic in electrified air. The stench of blood and sweat from days of fighting without proper relief. The taste of a dry mouth slackened only by blood.

It was as if the gates of Oblivion had opened once more. She had prayed to never experience something like that horror ever again. Of course, almost all her prayers had ended up unheard. She long wondered if anyone was even listening. The gods were real, aedra and daedra both, she knew that. But they seemed so uncaring of the mortals who believed in them, who built temples and shrines in their names and committed goods and evils.

Siulon was hunched down with blood spilling from her shoulder. The cold of the stone wall she rested against was warmer than her body. Colette's nimble fingers shook as she wrapped Siulon's wound. Siulon wasn't sure which was worse, that she could hardly feel her arm or that she was half grateful to be spared the pain. The sharp taste of a magicka potion coated her throat as thickly as the blood did. It felt like she might choke at any moment. It would almost be a preferable death than what had been threatened for days on end.

"Keep breathing," Colette's words barely registered. She had such a soft voice, strained from exhaustion. It was almost a comfort. It reminded Siulon of her mother's, centuries as it had been since she'd heard it. "You're going to be okay."

Siulon's head felt heavy, her flames long since died out, and magicka nearly depleted. She coughed and found her voice. She hardly sounded like herself, rasping and slickened. "Who is left?"

Moments passed of Colette tending to her. Siulon half thought she hadn't actually spoken earlier when the breton replied, "We're all still... here, we're all still alive."

Siulon swallowed more of the potion. Her gut twisted and bile rose. She sputtered and coughed until she puked on the stones. Colette patted her back, a small comfort in the agony. Her friend was giving her many. She would have to thank her if they got out of this.

A frayed cloth that dripped blood wiped her mouth. Siulon winced, finding herself only dirtier than before. Softness pressed to her lips next, a warm hand behind it. Relenting, Siulon allowed her friend to clean her up. "How… how badly are we wounded?"

"Nirya might never walk again, her legs are mangled. She's the worst. Everyone else is a mixture of magical exhaustion and moderate to severe wounds. I'm doing the best I can but without the apprentices aiding me… especially without Iona… I'm reaching my limits Siulon. I'm but only one healer," Colette said. The edges of her voice warbled, clinging to something that Siulon couldn't quite figure out.

Bandages pressed firmly against the wound as Colette finished. They held hands, bracing one another. For a moment Siulon couldn't help but reflect on their relationship. When she had first arrived at the College, she like most others, found the restorative arts mage off-putting. The paranoia of being ridiculed was a tightly held cloak that Siulon had struggled to get past. Yet, once she had, there was a wellspring of friendship to be found. That friendship, once achieved, had only grown from there. So many lectures drafted together at midnight hours over the months had brought a sense of partnership to them. Even without her magic, she knew just where Colette would be, as reliable as her husband had been. Their mutual cynicism melded together into witty banter and delightful conversation.

Siulon valued her, the degree of which took her off-guard. She would be utterly lost without Colette. "No one is going to second guess you again," she proclaimed.

A pause at her side. Colette shifted, leaning closer. The scent of lemon clung to her, cleaning agents to help with her magics. "Pardon?"

"Your studies. No one will question you after this. You have more than proven the power of Restoration," Siulon praised.

Colette tisked her tongue. "If only they had listened before such a disaster."

"Don't hold it against them too much, you were equally intolerable," chuckled Siulon.

"Must I really explain myself to you now? With my hands covered in your blood?" Colette snapped.

A smile tugged at chapped lips. "When else would you explain to me? I might die here soon, I would hate to miss one last tirade."

A soft swat to the back of her head made Siulon chortle. There was no malice in the gesture. "You're not so tolerable yourself, you know?" Chided Colette.

"Ah, that must be why we're such good friends. No one else can stand us."

Cooling magic flowed over Siulon, returning her strength. A relieved sigh escaped her as warmth returned to her body. "That almost sounded sincere," Colette said slowly. "You know, I bet the most important lesson we all could have stood to learn is not to let the Thalmor in. Ever."

Siulon scoffed, "I wanted that bastard gone the moment I arrived. Savos was strongarmed into it by the power behind Ancano, but I still wish he had said no. Things would've been different at least."

Humming, Colette fiddled with something, the sound of shifting all that Siulon could hear. "Perhaps… We wouldn't have lost three friends then," she whispered as if the thought had escaped her rather than come intentionally. The breton stiffened, tense at her side.

Siulon swallowed dryly. No matter how light they tried to make it, the weight of their situation was inescapable. She could hear fighting, curses, and magic mixing with the hiss of aberrations. Someone was losing a part of themselves and here Siulon sat and joked. Even if she required healing, the realization made a pit form in her stomach. Grimacing, Siulon wobbled to her feet. "Pull back the injured and take care of Nirya. Everyone who can still fight must. We cannot let the anomalies overwhelm us."

"What are you doing? You're in no condition to fight anymore! We've been at this for days! We don't even know if the apprentices are coming back! You never should have sent them, they're too inexperienced and young!" A hand pulled on her uninjured arm, trying to force her down. Siulon yanked it away. "Siulon! Are you even listening?"

Her heart ached at the tone of her friend. She hated to be the source of it, but she couldn't let her focus slip. "No, I am not," she said in a raspy voice. "Do you have any trust in me as your Arch-Mage?"

"Yes, but you've lost a lot of blood and your husband," she said as cautiously as possible, "I fear you're not thinking straight. You were just joking moments ago, and now you're dead serious."

Siulon drank another potion. Only a small part of herself felt alive. "If we allow that barrier to expand any further, we will have no way of knowing if it will stop. Ancano is casting magic just as we are, and when he runs out of magicka we will stand together and overwhelm him as one."

"But… we don't know if he will grow weary, not with the Eye empowering him."

Siulon brushed her half-shaved hair back, sweat and blood matting it. She inhaled sharply, death and magic so thick she nearly puked again. The scent of lemon calmed her and grounded her. Siulon faced the barrier only a few feet away. It reverberated a low noise, barely loud enough to be heard over the chaos but it was always there, growing hungrier the longer it existed. "He is not the only one drawing power from it. Do as I commanded Colette. I will keep this barrier from growing an inch more."

"Please Siulon, think of your child. This could kill you." Thin but confident fingers interlaced with her own. The dunmer gave pause, allowing the affection. Colette was warm but her hand trembled. She squeezed as tightly as she could manage, and Siulon returned the gesture. There was a blooming of peace in her chest. It was nice to know her friend needed her as much as she did.

All she could taste was blood. Her heart was heavy. Her limbs ached. She wanted to rest but knew she could afford to no longer. "If I run, my child and I will surely perish. As will all of you. If I stay here, however… then I may yet save us all. We cannot lose faith in the apprentices, they will return victorious. We are lost if they do not. Are you with me?"

A long moment passed between them, filled with the cries of others. For a moment Siulon doubted her. Then a hand placed itself on Siulon's shoulder. "I am with you, Siulon."

Smiling, Siulon squeezed their still-clasped hands. "Thank you."

"Arch-Mage!" A hopeful voice split the air. "They're back! The apprentices- they made it!"

Siulon did not move, hands extended to the magical barrier in front of her. Sweat profusely dripped down her furrowed brow, blood trickling out of her nose. A meaty hand pressed a handkerchief to her and wiped her clean. Urag gro-Shub poured another magicka potion down her throat, followed by water, having loyally guarded her for several days now. "I think I see them," he said in a raw voice.

A strained noise came from Siulon, eyes shut tight. She could hear the shuffling of excited feet, the stirrings of hope, and the shriek of magical anomalies still flying around. They were like vultures, swirling around the College and diving down to attack them at every chance they could. Truly she felt like a corpse they awaited to feast upon. The feet came closer, bodies slammed into one another with meaty slaps of hugs. She could pick out their voices now; Onmund, J'Zargo, Brelyna, Fabien, and Iona had all made it back.

Her hands lowered, magic ceasing around herself, and began to collapse. Urag steadied her before she could fall, and she barely had the energy to utter thanks. Suddenly arms were around her, smelling of pine and snow. Messy hair brushed her cheek as a face buried itself in her shoulder. Her mind was so frazzled she didn't recognize who it was until they spoke. "Master," Iona whispered, "I'm so happy you're still alive."

A wave of relief crashed over her, body relaxing in the embrace and she allowed herself to rest her head against Iona. For a few moments, she forgot all but her apprentice whom she clung tightly. There were rips in Iona's robes, soaked with sweat and snow alike. She brushed her hands over the nord, trying to gauge how injured she was. The way calloused hands held her in place stopped her, an easy confidence to Iona. She smiled. "I knew you five would make it… Especially with you leading them. You have the Staff of Magnus?"

"Aye. What do we do now?"

"Use it. Give it to Fabien, his wild magic should be focused for once with it."

"We figured that out almost immediately, and managed to fight through the anomalies thanks to him. Are you… alright?" Iona pulled back, gripping her shoulders.

Another hand tilted her head up, spindly almost like her husband's. The ache in her chest worsened. "You should rest now," Fabien said in a surprisingly serious voice. She'd expected boasting and false heroism at retrieving their salvation from the young half-mer. "You can barely stand."

"This battle isn't over yet."

"Why are you so stubborn? We can handle it from here, just sit down." His voice tilted, worried at the edges. "We can't lose two Arch-Mages in a few days!" He pulled his fingers away and her head fell. "You cannot fight like this."

"That is what everyone keeps telling me," she groused.

"Because we're right," cut in Urag.

She pulled away from Iona and waved Urag off, leaning against the stone wall instead. Their cold bit through her heavy robes. "I will catch my breath, nothing more." Grumbles of discontentment came from the gathered mages, but none spoke against her. "Good. Fabien, get that barrier down please so we can kill Ancano."

"Gladly."

The sounds of powerful magic rising was like a blessing from Azura to Siulon. The air grew excited, thin, and salty. She inhaled sharply, skin tingling as more magic gathered around the staff. Feet shuffled rapidly as Urag and Iona guided her further away from the barrier in case something went wrong. Fabien let out a long growl as if it'd been dredged up from the bottom of his soul. She could taste his fury. The same rage burned in her soul, twisting with a cry for vengeance.

Cautiously, Siulon reactivated her proximity spell. She'd gone days without using it to save magicka and keep herself focused on her task, but now she needed to know what was transpiring. Fabien stood only a few feet away from the doors to the Hall of the Elements, the Staff of Magnus pointed at it, and a burning sun was in her magical vision. She wasn't sure how she had managed to stretch it back this far, yards taking what felt like years as she shaped the barrier to her will. Yet she had done it.

For a split second, Siulon could see a flash of color, hot white blue at the tip of the staff and swirling around Fabien's eyes. His scream vibrated the stone bricks of the College, incoherent fury demanding Ancano pay for his crimes.

Then he cast the spell.

Everything was white, hot, and painful. The barrier dissolved with a shriek of sorts, pulling itself back into the Hall of the Elements in the blink of an eye. The shrieks of the anomalies were drowned out by the crack of thunder that shook Tamriel. Siulon clutched Urag for support, barely able to avoid falling. Her head felt like it was exploding just as the doors themselves did, disintegrating from the sheer force of the attack. Absolute silence followed. No one dared to speak. Even the aberrations had ceased their shrieking. The air crackled as the lightning dissipated, leaving behind the taste of ozone.

An itch grew at the back of her neck, slow and annoying at first as her head pounded but in a flash, it spread across her whole body. It was like magical fire, washing over her with power and anger. A gasp escaped her, fingers clutching her stalwart companion like a lifeline, and her knees nearly gave out beneath her. Urag drew her closer, his heavy breaths upon her brow and sturdy hands holding her. "Siulon?" He inquired in a ragged voice. "What's going on?"

The web of shattered images stitched itself back together. The bodies of her fellows filled out around her in sharp detail, the wounds they bore weeping with pain. Some had suffered greatly, legs ruined like Nirya, while others lacked fingers or bits of themselves. Collette was certainly doing her best to heal them. Her friend was a soft fire, dulled from exhaustion. It wasn't just Savos, Mirabelle, and Faralda taken from them; it was pieces of themselves as well. They would never be the same.

She would make him pay for every piece. Her heart swirled, energy flowing over her body as if she'd just been cured of every ailment. Siulon clenched her teeth as an unhinged chuckle escaped her, gripping Urag tight. "I can feel the Eye," she informed her concerned friend. "Can anyone else?"

"I can," Fabien said.

"Me as well," Iona confirmed. More and more of the College spoke up until all had admitted they could feel the empowering effects of the relic. "Arch-Mage, does this mean we've got a chance?"

Siulon bared her teeth and wiped her brow. "Oh, we have more than a chance. Fabien, keep a hold of the Staff and join me. Iona, I want you to join Colette on healing. Anyone who can stand is to keep him from escaping and heal the wounded. I do not want to risk anyone else getting caught in the crossfire," Siulon ordered, straightening up from Urag. For the first time in days, she could breathe without pain.

"Crossfire? What are you talking about?" Came Colette's pained voice. The College shifted around Siulon as they took to her orders, Fabien standing beside her now. "What are you planning?"

"We need the Staff of Magnus to weaken the Eye. So long as it is there to be drawn upon, Ancano is dangerous. Fabien, disrupt it, weaken it, or outright destroy the damn thing," she instructed, "I will unleash everything I have on that disgusting worm, and I do not want to focus on shielding more than one person. Fabien is the only one with enough natural magicka for an extended fight."

"It's true," the half-bosmer confirmed. "This curse of mine will, at last, be of some use. The other apprentices tried it to be sure, but I am certainly the best at wielding it. Not to mention I can channel my magic in a straight line for once."

Siulon inhaled sharply, testing her magic slowly. She extended her proximity spell until she could detect Ancano himself, frantic movements and pulsating magic enough to give him away. Fire began to burn, flickering from her skin in warning until it surged into an inferno. She laughed again, heart racing with every flame. The others stepped away from her as the snow melted, hissing steam mixing with the air. "Ancano dies today."

The air inside the Hall of the Elements was as twisted as the man dwelling within. It tasted of raw energy and hatred, poisoning the lungs with a single inhalation. Fabien grumbled curses upon entry, but Siulon had simply scowled. She could see nothing clearly this close, shattered images floating within her mind's eye. In the center, the Eye of Magnus fluctuated like a tear in Nirn, the only spot that remained consistent in her mind. With a bit of reluctance she ended the proximity spell, it was too confusing to be worth the mana.

"Ancano!" She shouted, voice booming with magic as she fueled her fires all the more. "The end is here!"

"Ah- of course that's what you'd say! You are right for once Siulon, the end is here!" He replied, manic and echoing all around her. A shift in the air followed, rippling across her skin. A chill ran down her spine. Every inch of her being was frozen, only for a rush of lightning to crackle through her. Siulon swayed on her feet.

"The eye is… it's bleeding magic Arch-Mage!" Fabien gasped.

"I can feel it," she replied before speaking louder, "Whatever you planned, you will not succeed! I am going to make you suffer every wound you have inflicted upon us!"

Magical crackles punctuated the foul air, twisting as Ancano did something. "All this time while you fought outside I have done nothing but grow stronger! I have the power to unmake the world right at my fingertips and you think I'll submit to you? Some revenge-fueled blind widow? You are nothing Siulon, as you always have been. How weak are you that you even had to ask the aid of a pathetic half-blooded bastard?"

"Say that again I dare you!" Fabien snapped, a growl in the back of his throat.

"Pathetic half-blooded bastard," Ancano sneered gleefully.

The apprentice stepped forward, magic swirling up his body at an alarming rate. Siulon placed her hand on his shoulder. "Stop." Fabien hesitated. "He wants to get inside your head. Do not allow him. Focus on the Eye, that is your mission. Am I understood?"

"But-"

She squeezed his shoulder. "Nothing he says has any meaning, they are empty and worthless."

After some more hesitance, Fabien gave in. "Alright. Just make him pay."

Siulon nodded. "Oh, he will. Now go, and stay out of the center if you can."

Fabien darted off, footsteps echoing on the stone in a manner she focused on. She had to remember what they sounded like alone among the magical din. Once she was certain she knew the sound, Siulon shed her cloaks. The soft noise of them impacting the stone was negligible at best, despite the weight that was now gone. Siulon herself, however, felt better, more limber and agile. At least, as agile as the pregnant mer could get.

"Is that supposed to intimidate me?" Ancano sneered. It sounded as if he were standing in one place, magic arching outwards towards the Eye. "Witness the power I now control!"

"Fabien!" Siulon shouted and then darted into the fray. His response came in the form of an unholy shout and a crackle of pure magic that illuminated the hall to Siulon for a moment. Even without her proximity spell, she could sense such things. Centuries of magical training had honed her body into a conduit of the arcane. The world was flashes of heat and color, painted in the chaotic hand of a child.

A squiggling line of cowardly yellow flickered beside the singularity of the Eye. "There you are, you bastard!" She screamed, fire coming from her hands in a concentrated burst, smashing into Ancano.

"It did nothing!" Fabien shouted.

"Strike the Eye again! Do not stop!"

With a quick bit of incantations, Siulon summoned a pair of dremora. The dunmer-like creatures of Oblivion gave bellows of rage and shouted incomprehensible words as they charged Ancano. Their blades exploded with magic as they slammed into Ancano, stumbling the pair back. White magic fizzled in her mind, swirling around the voids of Oblivion.

"Wait- the Eye! I think I'm doing something!" Shouted Fabien as it surged with more magic, illuminating her mind. So much magic was almost overwhelming. Siulon shifted her weight to keep from slipping on cold cobblestone. "It's opening! There's-" His words were cut off by shrieks of rage, the same shrieks that had haunted the last few days of Siulon's life. "Anomalies!"

One tore along Siulon's shoulder, burning from the fires but determined to strike her down. Blood tainted the air and she screamed as her fires began to burn hotter on instinct. The anomaly was purged away and she panted hard as she healed herself. Another came at her, brushing along the edges of her flames. She was faintly aware of it, a shark waiting for a chance to strike.

"How many?"

"Ten! Fucking bastards!" Fabien cursed, his magic shooting off.

"Take cover!" She ordered, and then everything began to burn. The air turned to fire, heat rippling through and purging the taint Ancano had created. Her fingers moved rapidly as she cast the spell, gathering it around herself and tilting her head back. The dremora did not heed her warning and instead kept Ancano from fleeing, slicing, and punching at the shielded altmer. With a roar, she brought her hands together, lifted towards the sky, and then exploded. Like the fury of a volcano, everything became an inferno. Seething, unfathomable, pure rage tore through the Hall of the Elements, destroying everything it could.

The anomalies fell with cries muffled by the inferno. The dremora imploded back to Oblivion with shouts. Ancano finally produced a noise of pain but was not slain. Fabien was unharmed and immediately began to cast with the Staff of Magnus upon the Eye. Siulon, though drained from the firestorm spell, immediately surged toward Ancano. She grabbed his neck and produced more fire, attempting to strangle him. He made a choking noise and then cast a spell. Siulon found herself across the Hall, head pounding from impact with the stone pillars.

"Disgusting dunmer, of course, all you know is fire and Oblivion," sneered Ancano, a pained hint to his voice. Siulon snickered as she stood up, feet wavering beneath her. She supported herself against the pillar for a moment, and then wiped blood away from her skull. "Got anything else?" He mocked.

"You do not even know half of what I am capable of," she cackled. Fire consolidated into arrows, hovering above Siulon's extended finger. She drew a circle and runes in the air, a small noise of realization coming from Ancano. With her other hand, Siulon summoned forth a display of lights, manipulating them into the faces of the three who had been lost. She didn't know what they looked like to those who could see.

Instead, she knew them for the grooves of their faces and the touch of their skin. The fragrance of the soap they washed with. She knew the withering of their fingers. The thinness of a mage's hands from precise work and leafing through tomes. Siulon had memorized the way they spoke. Faralda was clipped, brisk, but there was a sincerity to her that Siulon had appreciated. She was honesty and steadfastness. Mirabelle dripped politeness and curiosity held at bay as if always yearning for more but patient enough to see it arrive. The wizard was intellect and nurturing, guiding new generations of mages just as Siulon dreamed of.

Then there was Savos. He was the softness of fallen snow on sharp rocks, hiding a potential danger beneath a beautiful visage. She knew him for his many flaws, but his strengths just as well. Savos was a string, sharp when taut but pleasant when not. He was hypocrisy and regret, exhaustion, and contentment, all of the mountains and valleys of their relationship burned into existence. Drawing upon him made her heart clench, forcing herself to remember the taste of his lips and how they felt against her own. They had been apart for centuries. Not even a year together was enough to satisfy her longing.

Nothing would ever satisfy her now.

The images Siulon projected were abstract, as incomprehensible as a lost language, but their meaning was clear. The pain she felt was stitched into every inch of them. "Let them be burned into your memory so your soul does not forget!" She screamed. With a thunderous boom, the arrows shot forward, aimed at his heart.

Ancano cast a ward up, blocking two of them only for Siulon to finely manipulate them around to strike from his flank. He cursed and blocked another, but one slipped through and pierced him. Blood spilled across the Hall of the Elements once more. Ancano screamed, magic flowing over him in a manner that did not bode well. She could see the flashes of magic like lightning in her mind.

"He's healing!" Fabien shouted, "What bullshit! That should have killed him!"

"He is drawing power just as we are," she said tersely, trying to formulate the best way to overwhelm him. "Enough damage and we will break through. Do not allow him to control the Eye!"

"Got it!" Another crackle of magic as Fabien renewed his efforts shook the Hall. "Hurry up and die Ancano!"

The altmer coughed raggedly, and the sound of blood splattering onto the stone floor followed. He's not entirely healed, noted Siulon. She took up arms once more and drew the lines of fire. "I won't fall for that twice!" He screamed, reinforcing a ward around the entirety of himself. Instead, Siulon concentrated on a singular arrow, filling it with the might of all the others. She kept fueling it, feeling the fire grow and grow until it burned like the sun. Siulon poured more into it, drawing upon the Eye, herself; everything there was.

There was a flicker in her belly, crying out and desperate.

She stopped short of everything.

"It can't be…" Fabien uttered. She imagined the slack-jaw horror Ancano might be feeling, before shooting it directly at him. Ancano shouted and cast his magic, reinforcing his ward to take the blow.

BOOM!

They were sent staggering as the smoke cleared, Siulon falling to her knees and barely catching herself before she smashed into the stone floor. Ringing ached in her ears, something sticky dripping down her brow and onto one of her hands. A fire burned in her lungs, each breath agony. Hands were on her, urging her up. Something wiped her brow and then pressed a potion to her lips that she downed without thought. The ringing stopped.

"He's still standing but you definitely hurt him," Fabien growled in her ear. "You can't hold back Siulon, not if we're going to kill him."

"If I give too much then I risk my child," she replied raggedly. A hand pressed to her belly. "I have already pushed more than I ever should."

"And if he doesn't die, you and your child are dead, along with everyone else," retorted Fabien. "You came in for a reason, despite everyone's pleas. You have to do it. You knew you'd do it so don't hesitate now. The risk is a better outcome than the alternative."

Siulon spat out blood, her chest void. She barely held onto herself through that. Her soul had slipped away slightly with that attack, just as she'd lectured the College on in that very chamber. A part of herself hated that he was right. It was so slight, that loss, but she could feel it deeply. In place of her child, she had given of herself in a manner one could not recover from. She grimaced, tasting blood, feeling empty. She would do it again without hesitation to protect her child.

"Get back on the Eye, and when he looks vulnerable, tell me," she ordered. Fabien stepped away and raised the Staff of Magnus. This close her hair stood on end as he cast from it, making the Eye fluctuate once more.

Images smashed into her skull, fleeting visions of her surroundings. Ancano was bleeding from his chest, but slowly healing. His white hair was unruly and his yellow eyes burned like infernos. Fabien was moderately wounded and ignored his own bleeding. The glass windows were shattered, revealing the last of daylight that burned across the sky. She hadn't seen such colors in centuries. Then it twisted, another broken image pounding into her skull one after another. She couldn't block them out, no matter how hard she tried.

Siulon took a ragged step forward, her feet uncertain after such a powerful spell. "Still kicking?" She hissed out. "What happened to the power to unmake the world? A little worthless dunmer doing this much damage to a big bad altmer like yourself?" She had crossed halfway, images of his scowl interrupting the darkness. "Pathetic."

Ancano reached towards the Eye. She ran as quick as she could, fire building around her hands, only for him to grab her instead. A confused gasp slipped from her lips, a glimpse of his bloodied smirk filling her mind. "It's right here."

He touched the Eye.

Everything swirled around Siulon like a dream, stitching one thought into another over and over again until they formed something coherent. She was floating in an ethereal plane, skin glowing as if sunlight bounced off her from every angle. Siulon looked down at her hands, awed to see them as if her sight was once her own. Yet she knew this could not be the truth, the actual reality in which she existed. She was somewhere not quite, yet exactly, as it should be. They were somewhere outside of Nirn.

"You damned dunmer," came Ancano's hissing voice. Siulon looked around herself but did not see him. All around her was nothing but an endless expanse of white. "I will not allow you to get in my way any longer."

"Are you going to make good on your threat, or am I to dwell in this void for eternity?" Her own voice hissed through the air, thin and metallic as if forced through a dwemer pipe. It felt projected from her rather than spoken, further disorientating her.

"Once you're out of the way the College will crumple beneath my boot," Ancano replied. Siulon's ears twitched as she tried to locate him. If anything, having her sight back was only causing her more alarm than aid. She spread her hands and tried to get her balance back, but it was like grasping water, fruitless and frustrating. Casting her magic did nothing but bombard her mind with pain and she screamed as her legs gave out. Siulon fell, spinning over and over through an endless void until finally, she impacted with more nothingness. The taste of blood made her groan, and Siulon shakily rose to her feet.

"You're nothing but pests that must be exterminated!" Another booming curse of rage and disorientation came, and Siulon covered her ears and screamed. She felt lost, adrift even, in this endless void. Siulon was marooned. "I will cut your heads off and watch your corpses writhe like the beasts you are!"

Siulon gritted her teeth and spat out blood. She pressed a hand to her swollen belly, listening for a sign her child still lived. It was fleeting, but she was sure of it. "Come and face me then," she growled into the expanse. "End this already!" Movement flashed in the corner of her vision and Siulon snapped around, fists ready to strike but there was nothing. Her heart was racing, sweat dripping down her brow and the master wizard felt a rage so hot she'd catch aflame any moment. Again, a flash of movement, and she whirled around to be met by the void.

From her rear, a voice came, but she was too late when a dagger sunk into her shoulder. Red blotted her vision and Siulon bellowed as she staggered away. She hissed back and turned in time to avoid another stab, Ancano finally revealed. He looked as harried as she felt. He held a dagger that glowed red, his intentions clear, and wore a twisted grin. Siulon held her wounded shoulder, blood descending her back and staining the void. Licking tongues of blazing lines of magic spread across the left of her body in shifting patterns.

"You struck with the same bravery as always," she sneered. She'd lost feeling in her left arm already, dead weight now that proved a pressing threat. If she couldn't use magic then she couldn't heal, which meant she was racing against time now.

Ancano tightened his grip on the blade and came forward. The blade missed Siulon by inches as she staggered back. She kept moving, staying just out of range and frustrating the feral altmer. Each attack was narrowly missed, more than once he'd caught the fur of her robes rather than her. Her vision was confusing, dizzying even, and Siulon misstepped more than once. It was only luck she hadn't been wounded again. Siulon didn't believe in luck. He swung at her face, and Siulon didn't properly discern the distance. The scream she produced was unholy, blood bursting from her eye as she was blinded all over again. This time there was no fire, no nerve-numbing pain as she was bathed in a magical inferno. Instead, it was a sharp twisted pain that cut her in half in a split second. All that was left behind was pain, blood, and a pulsating milky eyeball.

"You don't even remember how sight works," he mocked, pointing his dagger at the collapsed dunmer's eye. "Your people are so weak, so pathetic, you can't even function when magic blesses you with your imperfections healed. I can see it in how you move, sloppy, undignified, like a newborn cow." He bent down, dagger an inch from her remaining eye. She stared at it, tears brimming in shaking crimson. Her working hand held her wounded eye, her injured one cast to the wayside. She tried to make words but her mouth could only produce the desperate noises of a mer wounded so. Ancano cackled with the same depravity. He ripped the blade still stuck in her shoulder out, another cry shattering the void around them again.

Ancano grinned, and casually aimed it at her belly. Somehow her eye widened more. "Perhaps I'll carve out your calf first, cow. Make you watch all that you have left be ripped away before I cast you into eternal darkness. How does that sound?" The blade inched closer.

The void exploded into an inferno.

White became a rapturous, unceasing, vengeful flame. Everywhere Ancano looked, now several feet away and on his back, was the fire. It boiled the metallic air, suffocating and furious. At the center was a shape, vaguely mer in design, but hunched more like a beast with a dead limb. They swayed, a growl of magic surrounding them and the inferno grew hotter and wilder. Tongues lashed at his feet, the ends of his robes catching aflame only for him to desperately put them out. The living flame shuffled towards him.

"No!" Ancano shrieked, scrabbling backward. "No, I can't lose now! I'm so close! I control the Eye!"

"You take an eye from me," the flame growled, "I take one from you."

"No!"

The shape raised its working arm and pointed at him, a light just visible where a right eye should have been. The eye he had carved out. He stared into it, fixated in place. Tongues of flame spun around themselves, twisting into a coil that grew tighter and tighter. They shone like the vengeance of a god, taking shape into a lance. With a deafening crack of noise, the lance raced towards him. He jerked away, but he was not safe. His golden skin bubbled and burned, boiling away and leaving charred flesh behind. White hair turned to ash as his robes were reduced to the same. One hateful eye boiled away, and nothing was left behind.

His scream was absorbed by the roaring flames, agony met with fury.

Ancano tried to cast a healing spell, only for his mind to explode with pain just as Siulon's had. "How do you have your magic?" He bellowed, slamming a fist into the blood-slackened ground. "I am far greater than you ever will be! It should be I vanquishing you!"

A second shape came from the first, taller and regal. Ancano's blood ran cold. "You dare trespass into My realm, abuse My Eye, and now question Me?"

"I-It can't be! Siulon, what trickery is this!" He shouted back, but the eye he knew he'd removed stared at him, hollow and obscene. It hadn't blinked. "I have claimed the Eye, it is mine now! Mine!"

The fire twisted around Ancano, drawing closer and closer. He couldn't rise to his feet, his entire right side of charred flesh was partially melted to the voidless ground. As Ancano realized this his breathing grew more frantic. The shapes drew closer as well, despite his pleas and curses. The regal one kept a hand on the injured one, almost as if guiding them. They stopped a foot away from the charred mer, so painfully bright he squinted with his remaining eye. Already his skin began to burn, sparse oxygen left to breathe and he sucked in shallow breaths. The regal one lowered to his eye level. They were nigh incomprehensible, oranges and reds shifting as violently as the rest of the inferno that comprised their body. A trio of brilliant white eyes opened, and their head tilted to one side. "Do you know who I am, sinner?"

"A manifestation? A Daedra? An Aedra?"

"Two out of three, well done. I am Magnus." Ancano screamed. "Ah- so you realize your folly now, do you? You who would deign himself above Me, spreading violence and chaos in his wake?" Magnus held fast to the shape that could only be Siulon. She pointed at him, silent accusation near as powerful as the Aedra, the Old God and God of Magic, beside her. Magnus patted her back. "He shall feel your vengeance, my child. He shall have his punishment enacted precisely as he deserves."

"Wait- please no! I could be of use to you, my Lord! I have many allies, many who would turn to worship you should I speak to them! Please! I will redeem myself for you!" Ancano tried.

Magnus laughed. "Start with his tongue, for all the lies he spread, for the cruelty he wielded, and the poison it has whispered into so many hearts and minds."

"Wait!"

Siulon, her body nothing but fire, grasped his tongue and tore it free. Perhaps his one blessing was that the fires cauterized the wound immediately. Siulon dropped the blackened flesh and it fell into ash. An incoherent scream racked through Ancano and he curled inwards, trying to protect what little he had left.

Magnus chortled. "It never fails to impress just how much a worm will wriggle, even when in the jaws of death." He squatted, flames shifting to a softer tone as if trying to instill less fear. Meanwhile, Siulon burned brighter, hotter, overflowing with singular intent. She was the sun itself made manifest. She was fury incarnate.

"Siulon," Magnus said slowly, with no humor in his voice. The fires ebbed. The tortured man had a moment of reprieve, wriggling like the disgusting beast he was. "I know what is in your heart. I know the justice this monster deserves. I can give you the means of enacting it."

One eye stared at the god. Puffs of steam came from her cheek, tears evaporating instantaneously. Her heart was sorrow and fury, lashing out at the source, devouring all she could. Fire fluctuated as a single word hissed from the mer. She pointed at Ancano with her good arm. "S…u…ff…e…err…"

Magnus gently lowered her arm. He held her by the shoulders, ignoring the crying high elf. He felt indecision in her, emotions running rampant. "I know. What I want to know is if you want to carry this weight. You can leave him with Me, knowing he will be punished equal to his many sins. You need not do it yourself. It will be terrible. Or… if you truly desire, I will empower you and he will suffer at your hands. You will sear the righteous vengeance you so desire into his very soul."

Fire swirled around Siulon's strange body, her limbs weak and aching. Everything hurt, lungs nothing but agony. She could not feel her own body as one ought, instead as if she haunted it. A terrible, horrifying absence filled her chest, infintesimal in size, yet impossible to ignore in a realm of pure magic. Siulon had felt it when it first slipped away, after her powerful attack in the Hall of the Elements. Reminded of what she had given to defeat the Thalmor agent, that on top of the loved ones both murdered and injured, she had given a fragment of her soul away to spare her child, Siulon made her decision.

"Me," she growled.

Three eyes stared at her, looked through her, devoured all there was to see within the dunmer. Magnus smiled and shimmered. "As you wish," he said, reuniting with the mage he had taken an interest in. Siulon whimpered as soothing heat overwhelmed her, wreathing her in the sheer might of Magnus. It was intoxicating, such raw power, such pure possibility. There was only one thing she wanted to do with it.

AN: When I first started writing this story (gosh years ago) this chapter was what was the hardest for me. The hill to overcome. It also went through MANY drafts, and I am so happy and relieved to finally say that it is done. This is not, however, the last chapter, to be clear. It just might also be a bit because the ultimate form of the ending was not there in the original draft. Overall this story is a lot... happier than I originally intended. Guess that's what happens when you work on something for literal years. Thanks for your patience, and I hope to hear your thoughts.