Upon awakening for next morning, Kaisa felt a small pounding in her head. She soon chalked it up to too much dust from the castle the day before. As she slowly rose from the bed the pounding seemed to intensify.
After a Full breakfast of bread and gruel, the headache seemed to diminish. Checking her armor before she left, she grabbed a little bit more food from the house. Packing the horse once again she petted him nicely and fed him a couple of carrots.
"There you go. I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate you. We have to ride east today. Come on then."
With that, she mounted the horse and the two of them rode eastward. A few long hours later, Kaisa and her horse strode gently into Wayrest. A storm had encroached up on the small town. Lightning furiously struck the ground all around her. Deep dark gray clouds hovered upon the town as a curse would.
"I truly hope Nulfaga is paying attention to what she's doing today."
The thoughts of the queen trying to banish Kaisa away by the sea haunted her memory. The thrashing of the boat, the waters caving in on the hull, all of this was still fresh in her mind. She had done what she could, but she was no sailor. The last thing she remembered before being ejected by a crushing wave was the captain stating, "Don't forget your mission."
Raising her shield above her head to block some of the rain from her eyes, Kaisa quickly found the stables. She paid the horseman to hold her horse for her while she was working with the Princess. Giving the horse a good pat on the neck, Kaisa thought of a new name for him. For the life of her, no name would suit him. She decided that this was something that she would have to work with in her mind.
Before she departed the stables, the horseman gave her directions to the castle doors. She thanked him, dropped a few Septims in his pocket, and lifted the shield above her eyes so that she could see to walk.
The doors on Castle Wayrest were nowhere near ambiguous. Their seemingly normal appearance put Kaisa off for only a moment. Outside of the castle she did not see any types of guardians, gargoyles, or other decorations that would make this appear to be a castle.
Kaisa pushed the heavy door open in front of her. Inside there were two guards standing in front of the door to the throne room. A large fountain gave light to the foyer. But as an odd appearance to the rest of the castle, a strange child stood to the left playing with a wooden sword. Kaisa thought nothing of the child as he appeared to be one of the children of the court. And as a child of the court, he would not have been allowed inside the throne room.
The guards did not even stop or look at Kaisa as she entered the throne room. It was as if she had been expected, and the guards had been told not to stop her. Upon entering the throne room, Kaisa saw several noble women and men standing around gossiping amongst themselves. A small band of bards were playing their music on the floor of the throne room. Kaisa looked up at the ginormous staircase in front of her, atop where the queen and king both set along with Princess Morgiah standing reading a book. As Kaisa approached the stairs and carried them carefully, she noticed also that the Princess had a cat.
Holding herself back, Kaisa did everything in her power not to sneeze. She was allergic to domesticated cats and to come across them was very rare in anywhere of Tamriel. Short of the Khajiit, Kaisa never had the chance to work with the smaller, more house like cat species.
The Khajiit had never bothered her. Their human like form kept their hair at a very short form. Dander off of the Khajiit was more likely to be less than that of the domesticated housecat, and therefore had never bothered her. Just as much, it was just as rare for her to come across one of these cat people as well.
Kaisa approached Princess Morgiah, and before she could kneel or anything, the Princess began to speak.
"You're trying to track down that letter of the emperor's, yes?"
"Yes, My Lady. I have received your letter as well."
"There are very few scandals of the Bay that I am totally ignorant of. I could give you some information, but, but nothing is without approach and a price that which I know of. I need a champion that does not fear the fire of oblivion. Are you interested?"
"Yes, My Lady. The Emperor has asked that I pursue every avenue of inquiry."
"Mara, that is a relief to me! Do not ask any questions. get this letter to a certain level Sorcerer at the necromancer's crypt: Scourge Barrow in the Dragontail Mountains. Avoid the rift. If you see it, you have gone too far. They will not be expecting you, and they will not be waiting for any introductions. The necromancers feel that death is a reward for the living, not a punishment. Once you have delivered the letter, they would feel no need to guarantee your safety."
Kaisa's eyebrow cocked. The Mer princess was very sincere and abruptly honest.
"I need this letter delivered to the King of Worms and response in my hand within one month at the utmost latest. The risks are very high. Please do not fail."
"Of course, my lady."
As Kaisa left the princess's presence, thoughts raced through her mind. "King of Worms? Really? Worms, King of... I guess this wasn't on my docket for this mission for a reason."
Kaisa approached the bottom of the stairs and realized the child was still out in the foyer.
"Why is this random child out here? Is there not a nursemaid here to attend to him?" She quickly approached the child. "You, small child, what are you..."
A deep demonic growl erupted from the child. The pupils of his eyes turned solid black rimmed with deep blood red. He opened his mouth teeth snarling at Kaisa.
"What um, I um... I need to go."
And with that Kaisa took off out the door running faster than she ever had from any other child.
Before she knew it, Kaisa stood in front of the door of the inn. It was at that moment that she realized she had ran all the way from the castle to the inn to get away from the child. Panting and trying to catch her breath as she hadn't even realized that it was still raining.
Going inside, the innkeeper began laughing as he saw her.
"I beg your pardon, Sir?"
"You met the child, didn't you?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but yes, yes I did. What is his deal anyway?"
"No one seems to know where he came from, but no one seems to care either. We do know that he's probably the best protection that castle even has. But you didn't hear that from me. Can I get you something?"
"I'll take a room for the night please, and some wine."
"Sure thing, it's yours for the day. Would you like that wine here or delivered to your room?"
"Just give me the bottle. I'll take care of the rest."
The innkeeper handed her a fresh bottle of wine. "I'll show you to your room. Right this way."
Kaisa Follow the innkeeper up to her room. As he left, she closed the door behind him and began to strip off her armor. She grabbed the cork of the bottle with her teeth yanked it out and spit it across the room. Tipping the bottle to her lips she let the dry red fluid drip down her chin as she drank, gulp for gulp. After a few good gulps, she set the bottle down and sat down on the bed. Pulling some bread meat and cheese from her pack she made herself a quick sandwich. Gobbling it down, she ran over the princess's words inside of her head. Currently, the words were jumbled with the mix of demonic child roars. Kaisa decided that it was time for a bath, and then equally time for bed.
The next morning found Kaisa hanging halfway out of her rented bed. Her black raven hair was knotted in front of her face, her eyes droopy against the newborn sunlight of the day. Squinting, she blinked at the light, cursing it to leave her at peace.
Rolling over, she pushed herself to get off of the bed. Instantly, the room began to spin. She held onto the bed as if it were the carriage ride from hell, lurching at the last moment to throw up in the bed pan.
"Oh, oh my divines. That is not good."
She picked up the bottle she had purchased the night before. Empty.
"Oh, sweet Akatosh. What on Tamriel was I doing last night?"
A sudden knock on her door brought Kaisa back to reality.
"Who is it?" she grunted.
The door opened slightly, and standing outside was a rather stoutly looking woman. "My lady, your horse is waiting for you."
"Thank you," Kaisa groaned.
"Is everything alright?" asked the woman.
"Fine, ugh, just fine. I hate mornings."
The gentle woman smiled knowingly. "I remember those days. Ah, those times were not my best you know? I was such a lovely thing then. I had my pick of the men in this town and..." The woman's voice carried on with idle banter. She let herself into Kaisa's room, picking up the bed linens off of the floor.
As she picked up the bed pan, she had a waft of acid come across her nose. "Oh, that's not pleasant at all! I'll just dump this for ya dearie."
Kaisa mustered a smile to the woman. "Don't yell at her. She is not to blame for your idiocrasy last night," she thought to herself.
"Excuse me, madam? Can you tell me which way is Scourge Barrow?"
The woman turned to her; her face mildly dismayed. "Off to see the dirt king, are ya? Well, let me just show ya! You have a map, yea?"
Kaisa nodded and pulled her map from her pack. As the old woman showed her the approximate area of the barrow, Kaisa listened as well as she could. The throbbing in head seemed to be getting worse the higher the sun became outside and through the drab windows.
Once the woman was finished, she turned to Kaisa and place a hand on her shoulder. "Do you think you should be travelin' in such a condition, dearie? You look like you could sleep a few eras away before you were ready to mount that steed out there."
"I'll be fine, I just need some water."
"Well, water I've got. Five septims gives you three skins, enough for such a journey!"
Kaisa handed over the septims, asking no questions. The woman smiled and bounced out of the room. Kaisa turned and slowly put her armor back on.
She had barely pulled on her cuirass when the woman came bouncing right back through the door, "Here ya go. Now don't swig it! It'll just make it worse! Which wine did my husband give you anyway?" She moved over to the empty bottle. "Oh, yea, see that'll do it right there. Really should put a warnin' label on this, you know? This wine, best stuff in the house it is, but the mornin' is a real kicker, in't it?" She laughed hard, making Kaisa squint her eyes from the sudden increase in volume.
Pulling on her greaves, Kaisa stood slowly. "Thank you, my lady. I may be staying again soon, but I will remember not to order the wine next time."
Kaisa finished collecting her things and headed out the door. The sunrise to the east was a glorious, but currently painful, sight to be seen. Kaisa would remember to capture the beauty inside of her mind later. Right now, she needed to head to the barrow.
The map had her heading south. A few uneventful hours passed as she grew nearer to the barrow. Taking her lead with caution, she patted her horse. "Sky. Yes, that's what I will call you. Sky. You are as brilliant as the sky, and as quick as the wind in the clouds. Stay here, Sky. I shant be a moment."
The barrow was almost exactly as Kaisa had pictured it in her mind. It looked like a crypt, as the Princess had mentioned. It was almost unimpressive compared to some of the castles she had visited.
Entering the crypt was no different. Stone casings covered those who had been buried within. Looking around the first room of the crypt, Kaisa found that only one casing had no banner above it. Through her mental deduction, she presumed this would be the entryway to where she needed to go.
Placing the mark again at the door of the crypt, she cautiously approached the unmarked stone. She knelt and felt the stone flooring around the casing. Suddenly, she felt a burst of air come between two of the flooring stones. She followed the air path, and found it led to a button on the casing itself. Pressing the button, the floor shifted under her feet, and Kaisa jerked backwards.
The casing slowly moved from her view and tucked back into the wall. A lever stood in place where the casing had been. Kaisa readied herself, pulled the lever, and felt the floor shift under her feet again, lowering her into the cavernous crypt.
"More tunnels? Really? I think these will be my lot in life!"
A few creatures met her arrival, but nothing she hadn't already met before. Getting through them was simple, and before she knew it, she was in the throne room of the King of Worms.