The Dragon and the Wolf

by Suleyk

A young woman by the name of Aila finds herself at the headsman's block when a dragon appears, destroying everything in sight. Barely escaping with her life, Aila makes it to Riverwood where she meets an Imperial woman who treats her injuries. With feelings of attachment to her saviour, Aila follows the Imperial when she decides to run from home.

42. 41: A Celebratory Surprise

A Celebratory Surprise

Night had fallen. The Palace was asleep. The vampire was awake (but she wouldn't bother them.) It was the perfect time to go sneaking. Aila and Kathryn were stalking the halls of the Blue Palace looking for something to steal. It needed to be expensive, valuable, but also small enough not to make hiding it away a hassle. Maybe a statue of some sort. Preferably diamond-encrusted. The Jarl wouldn't just leave expensive treasures just lying around, though, so the two of them were looking for the Treasury. They couldn't seem to find it, though. They scoured the place top to bottom, seeing nothing of the sort and eventually came to the conclusion that it was in another building. The only place they hadn't searched was the abandoned wing to the west.

Kathryn had found it the other night and according to her, it had a rather formidable lock on it for what was inside. It made Aila curious, so the two decided to explore for a bit. So far they weren't impressed. Random furniture was scattered all over the place, benches and tables pushed off to the side, rotted and mouldy, with chairs thrown on top of them. The floor was cluttered with, for some reason, dishware. Forks and spoons, plates and bowls, goblets of all shapes and sizes. Not to mention the cobwebs. The whole place was littered with cobwebs from floor to ceiling. Aila couldn't walk two steps without getting tangled into another cluster of webbing.

"This place is absolutely horrid," Aila remarked disdainfully, pulling strings of webbing out of her hair.

"Agreed," Kathryn grunted, nearly tripping over a rogue candlestick. "I'm half tempted to set this place ablaze just to get rid of these godsdamned webs"

Aila hummed in agreement. Although, given the number of webs sticking to them, it might do more harm than good. "Maybe on the way out." She eyed a bookshelf as she passed it, books weathered and ruined, likely illegible. "What are the chances of actually finding anything of value back here?"

"It's possible," Kathryn stated, though she didn't look too convinced herself. "This place looks like it was abandoned years ago, and they didn't exactly take the time to tidy up. Something could have easily been left behind."

"But is it even worth taking the time to look for?" Aila retorted. She shook her head. "What is a place like this even doing in the Blue Palace?"

Kathryn just shrugged. "Who knows?"

They came upon a staircase with two sets of stairs, one leading up and one leading down. Aila eyed the two paths with distaste before turning to Kathryn. "Should we just leave?" she asked hopefully.

Unfortunately for her, Kathryn shook her head. "There had to be something here. They wouldn't just lock off a whole section of the castle for no reason."

Aila would normally agree, but her faith in the intelligence of humans had been wavering recently.

"Come on, it can't hurt to look," Kathryn continued. "I'll go downstairs, you go up. If we can't find anything then we'll leave.

"Fine," Aila grumbled, making her way up the stairs. She reached the top and came upon a set of double doors. She reached out to open it up, glaring at the webs coating it as she did so. On the other side looked to be some sort of bedroom. There was a double bed on the far side of the room, long since fallen in on itself from rot. Another bookshelf was off to the side, again with a few, ruined books, as well as a dresser with half the drawers pulled out. There was a storage chest at the foot of the bed, and Aila decided that if there was anything to be found in this place, it would be in there. She moved to kneel in front of it and threw the lid open, unintentionally kicking up a dust cloud into the air. After what felt like several minutes, her coughing fit finally subsided and she managed to get a good look at what was inside.

She stared at the contents for a long moment, blinking several times in confusion. She rubbed her eyes, thinking that maybe all the events of the day had finally caught up with her and she was starting to hallucinate from the exhaustion she didn't actually feel, but no, the inside remained the same. Then she reached in and pulled out a fresh wheel of cheese.

"... what?" she whispered to herself, and she really had no other words. She had so many questions, first and foremost, how, and secondly, why. She lifted the wheel to her nose and sniffed, and it just smelled of cheese, no mould or anything of the sort. It couldn't have been here long, no more than an hour or so without going bad. Did that mean someone put it here recently? There were no signs that anyone had been in here for years, and even if there was, why would they stuff a wheel of cheese into a chest? Out of curiosity more than anything, she took a small, tentative bite out of it. It was definitely cheese. Rather tasty, too, Kathryn would love it. In fact, she was tempted to take another bite, but she resisted the urge, at least until she had a better idea of where it came from.

A heavy thunk reached her ears, and Aila turned her head toward the sound. It had come from below her. "Kat?" Aila called out, wondering if she had caused the noise. Several moments passed with no answer, and Aila grew slightly worried. She stood and started back the way she came, pausing briefly to decide whether or not to bring the cheese with her, before realizing that was ridiculous and promptly dropped the wheel back into the chest. She headed back down the stairs then down the second flight, looking for Kathryn. She saw footprints in the dust on the floor, so she followed them into a room off to the side. It was another bedroom, it looked like, but smaller, and had several, single beds, instead of one large one. There was a wardrobe laying on the ground, and Aila guessed it had fallen over, which is what caused the noise. "Kat?" she called again, looking for any sign of her. The footsteps led right to the wardrobe, where they simply ceased. "Kathryn!" She called louder this time. There was still no answer. At a loss, she reached down and gripped the underside of the wardrobe, and pulled it up with a grunt, thinking that perhaps there was a trapdoor or something under it, but she saw nothing of the sort and dropped it with a huff.

"Laas." She took another look at her surrounding, hoping her Shout would bring new insight, but no matter where she looked there was no golden glow. "That can't be right," she muttered to herself, her worry beginning to grow into panic. "She couldn't have just disappeared."

Determined to find her, she turned to leave the room and continue looking elsewhere when she was forced to stop at the doorway.

Now she was sure she was hallucinating. She even pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming, but the scene stayed the same. The doorway no longer led back to the staircase. It didn't even seem to lead back the Blue Palace. Instead, it led to…

Well, she wasn't sure where it led to. But wherever it was, it was very bright.

With no idea what else to do, she stepped through the doorway.

Almost immediately, the way behind her vanished. She didn't even have time to worry about where it might have gone, for she was too caught up in her surroundings.

Wherever it is she was, it was outside. It was around high noon, judging from the sun (which confused her greatly since she distinctly remembered it being nighttime. She realized that she was in some sort of courtyard just outside a palace, and not the Blue Palace, either. This one was far grander than the Blue Palace, but also very strange. In fact, it might be more accurate to say that one had taken two entirely different castles, cut them into halves, and stuck each half to one another.

The left half of the Palace was, in a word, ostentatious. There were tall golden towers topped with brightly coloured flags, though the symbol on them, three swords in front of a shield, was one she didn't recognize. Arched pathways linked the towers, pillars, and walls, made with what looked like solid gold. Directly in front of her, however, straight down the middle of the palace, the style suddenly and abruptly changed dramatically.

The right side was the polar opposite of the left. Instead of bright, shiny metal, it was made of some sort of dark stone, and in the place of towers, there were tall, craggy spires. These were also topped with flags, but they were a dull grey instead of bright gold, though the symbol was the same. The walls looked worn and weathered like it hadn't seen maintenance in many years. On its own, the sight was quite foreboding but paired with the other half, it was simply baffling.

The courtyard she was standing in juxtaposed itself similarly. The was a stone path in the middle, leading down to what looked like the palace entrance, but each side was radically different. The left was wonderfully maintained with a beautiful garden, the greenest grass she had ever seen, and an assortment of flowers, mushrooms, and plants of all kinds, many she had never seen before. The other side was more dirt than landscape, and what little grass there was, was dull and sickly-looking. There were logs strewn about the place, rotting and covered in fungus and the few trees there were dead and bare.

Then she noticed she was being approached by two women, one from the left, and one from the right. They, of course, matched their respective surrounding. The left was tall, with golden skin and clad in golden armour. The armour itself was somewhat provocative with a form-fitting breastplate and a golden chain-link mesh extending down to her navel, but her upper chest and lower waist were exposed, as well as her legs, though she did wear boots and shin guards. She wore large shoulder plates and a winged helmet, and her gauntlets were clawed and had a small spike on each knuckle, looking oddly out of place compared to the rest of her armour.

If the woman on Aila's left could be described as provocative, then the woman on her right was seductive. She wasn't quite as tall as the golden woman and had grey skin and black armour. Though, perhaps 'bikini' was a better term. It covered her breasts and her waist in some sort of black, chain-link mini skirt, but very little else.

At first, she thought they were an Altmer and Dunmer respectively, but as they neared she realized that wasn't the case. The golden woman was golden, not the pale goldish-green of most Altmer, and instead of the Dunmer's dark, ashy grey, the other woman was a light, smooth grey, and her eyes were a dull grey instead of the usual crimson.

Wary of their approach and altogether bewildered with this entire situation, Aila moved to rest her hand on the hilt of her sword, only to find it was missing, and when she looked down she let out a strangled gasp as she realized, not only was her sword gone, but she was no longer even wearing her guild armour. Instead, she was wearing a dress, the same dress, in fact, that she had worn to the dinner the Jarl had invited her to. Only she had absolutely no clue how it happened, much less without her noticing.

When she looked back up, the two women had reached her, the grey one standing with a hand on her hip in a seductive pose, while the other crossed her arms and looked down at her with a slight sneer. Aila glared back on reflex.

"So," the golden woman began in a haughty voice that reminded Aila far too much the Altmer from the clothing shop. "Finally deigned to show up, did you? Took you long enough."

Aila raised her brow, both at her tone and words, but she stayed silent, mostly because she hadn't the slightest idea how to respond.

The grey woman snorted disdainfully, turning to address her shining companion. "Insulting our honoured guests now, Zudeh? How shameful."

Honoured guest? Aila thought curiously.

The golden woman sniffed derisively. "The little mortal should be honoured to even be a guest. I don't understand how our Lord saw fit to summon her."

The grey woman growled menacingly. "Our Lord's matters are above you. You're words tread the line of blasphemy."

The golden woman snarled back. "How dare you question my loyalty! There is no one more devoted to our Lord than me! I can hardly say the same for you, filthy Mazken," she spat out.

The other woman opened her mouth for an angry retort, but Aila, by now wholly tired of being ignored, spoke up before she could. "How about the two of you stop bickering like spoiled children and tell me just what in Oblivion is going on?!" There was too much information headed her way without any context. Where was she? Who was this Lord, and why did he summon her, and how, for that matter?

The two turned to look at her in unison, the grey one looking slightly impressed, though why she didn't know, but the golden one scowled down at her. "Mind your tongue, you worthless mortal! You should be groveling at your feet for a chance to even speak to an Aureal. You are here by our Lord's eternal grace, and you shall show the proper respect."

Unfortunately for her, Aila rarely cared to show respect even when it was well deserved, and her words had done nothing but anger her. Her eyes sharpened as she glared down the golden woman (an Aureal, whatever that was.) She saw her stiffen and reach down to grasp the sword at her hip in response.

"If it's respect you want, then perhaps I'll give it after I tear off your arms and beat you half to death with them." she intoned, forgetting for a moment that she lacked a weapon of her own.

The Aureal snarled at her. "You dare…" said, pulling her sword free of its sheath and taking a step toward her.

Aila tensed and prepared to dodge the first swing, but before either could make another move they were interrupted by a bored-sounding voice.

"That will be quite enough, I should think."

The Aureal froze in place, paling considerably, and Aila turned to see who had spoken.

He wasn't what she expected, not because he was anything strange, but rather because he was astonishingly normal that he contrasted viciously with the rest of this odd place. He was a simple, middle-aged, balding man, wearing a black butler suit. So entirely unremarkable, Aila would never have thought twice about him in any other setting.

"Haskill," the Aureal said, her voice quiet and nervous, none of the arrogance and contempt from before. It was strange since this new arrival didn't seem very intimidating. Though, she supposed looks could be deceiving. Aila was proof enough of that.

"Drawing a weapon on our Lord's guest, Pelaurig Zudeh? This certainly won't be looked on favourably on your monthly report."

"I… I was simply attempting to teach our guest some manners," she attempted to explain, but this Haskill simply raised a brow, evidently unimpressed.

The grey woman smirked at her distress, and Aila had to admit, it was rather satisfying to watch, even if she had no idea what was going on.

"I fail to see why you would smirk so victoriously, Autkendo Jansa," Haskill said to the grey woman, causing said smirk to drop as she looked at him apprehensively "for our Lord gave very specific instructions on how to treat our guest that you too failed to adhere."

Her eyes widened as if suddenly remembering said instructions and looked at Aila uneasily. The Aureal did something similar, though she looked far more along the lines of terrified.

Haskill turned back to the golden woman. "You, however, have made a far more grievous error. Perhaps a demotion is in order? You've held the rank of Pelaurig for over three centuries now, after all, it's past time another take the reins, so to speak.

"No!" the Aureal exclaimed, obviously horrified by the prospect. "No, please! I'm sorry, it won't happen again, I swear!"

"It is not me you must apologize to," Haskill said simply.

Aila blinked as the golden woman turned to her, gritting her teeth harshly. She sheathed her weapon slowly, as if controlling herself then, to Aila's surprise, knelt in front of her.

"I apologize for my rudeness, my Lady," she said slowly and deliberately. "Please forgive this one's impudence."

Aila stared down at her with slightly wide eyes, wondering how she went from issuing threats to being bowed to in a moment. She looked up at the man called Haskill, who stared boredly back at her. She turned back to the golden woman kneeling in front of her, for some reason growing annoyed at the sight. She wanted to take some sort of satisfaction in the show of submission, but instead, she simply felt irritated at not having actually done anything to earn it. "Whatever," she said, wanting her to just stand up already. "Just don't do it again."

"Thank you, my Lady," she said, looking as if she would rather be eating dirt, but still sounding incredibly relieved. "You are most gracious."

"Riiight," Aila drawled out. She elected to ignore her further and turned to the one called Haskill, hoping he would shed some light on, well, anything. "I don't suppose you'd tell me what's going on?" she asked, idly wondering if she would have to threaten him bodily harm as well.

"Was there something in particular you wished to know?" he asked in response.

Aila blinked at the direct question, not entirely expecting it given that this entire place thus far seemed to exist solely to confuse her. "Where exactly am I?" she asked first.

He raised his eyebrow questioningly, though she wasn't sure what was so confusing by the question. "I thought you would know," he said, and Aila nearly screamed in frustration and demand why in the hell she would know when he mercifully continued. "You are in the Shivering Isles, the Mad Realm. You've been summoned by our Lord to attend the festivities."

The Shivering Isles. The name sounded so dreadfully familiar, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. And who names a place the Mad Realm? "Festivities? And who is this Lord of yours?"

He stared at her for a long moment, seemingly contemplating something. It irritated Aila, but she indulged him for now and waited for him to speak.

"I think perhaps," he said eventually, his voice as monotonous as ever, "that it would be best for you to see for yourself. If you'll follow me to the Palace. Our Lord is waiting for you, as well as your companion."

"Kathryn is here? Take me to her," she demanded.

He bowed slightly, which puzzled Aila, but that was becoming normal. "Of course, my Lady. You two," he said to the two other women. "Come as well. I'm sure our Lord would like to have words with you." The two of them paled in fear, further increasing Aila's curiosity of this Lord, but her desire to confirm Kathryn was alright held back any further questions for now.

He turned then and began walking across the courtyard and to the Palace. Aila followed a step behind him with the two women following behind her. It didn't take long to reach the massive double-doored entrance. They towered above her, looking like they were built for giants rather than humans and it was, of course, split in its design. The left door was shiny gold, while the right was dark and battered.

Haskill pushed open the double doors and Aila couldn't help but let out a small gasp at what she saw inside. The room was absolutely huge. The ceiling seemed to stretch farther and farther into the sky, and while she could see the top, Aila just couldn't determine how high up it was. It needed to be large though, for at the far end of the room stood a massive tree. Like everything else in this place, it was split in half, one side bright and blooming, colourful leaves decorating every branch, while the other side looked dead and brittle, gnarled branches spreading out ominously.

Following Haskil into the Palace, she was shocked to see it was packed with people. Men and women of all shapes, sizes, and status, apparently. She saw the most elegant gowns and suits and others draped in tattered rags and everything in between, and neither seemed to care to conform to one gender, either. Some men donned voluptuous dresses and some women in gallant suits, while others in simple tunic and trousers, or perhaps even a mix of the two, as if everyone had simply chosen each and every article at random, without a care whether or not they matched or even fit properly.

The people intermingled amongst themselves, drinking and eating from numerous tables that had been set out, laughing and dancing to music that Aila could hear, but she couldn't seem to find the source to. There was a clear divide between them, though, as they were split into two groups, separated down the middle, each side keeping to their own.

Haskil led her right down this gap between the two groups to the base to the great tree, where she could see an elaborate throne, and, standing just next to it, was Kathryn, garbed similarly in a dress.

"Kathryn!" she exclaimed, brushing past Haskill and drawing incredulous looks from those closest to her. She had nearly reached the throne when Kathryn noticed her, her eyes widening in surprise and delight.

"Aila!"

She nearly tackled the wolf girl into a hug in her relief to see her okay, when a few steps from her she was startled to a halt when a loud, excessively cheerful voice exclaimed,

"ME!"

Aila's head snapped to look at the throne, noticing for the first time that someone was actually sitting in it, and she couldn't help but let out a strangled gasp.

The woman was frighteningly beautiful. Her skin was pale, but not too pale, and impossibly smooth, not a single blemish to be found, red lips stretched into a mad grin. Her hair was snow white and long, flowing down past her shoulders to just past her hips. She wore a sort of eccentric suit, the left half was a deep purple while the right was a vibrant orange. She rested casually in her seat, her back resting comfortably against her throne, legs splayed out in front of her uncaringly. Her arm was propped up on the side of the throne, her head resting gently on her knuckles, while the other arm was stretched out in front of her holding on to a wooden cane.

The most striking thing about her, however, were her eyes. They were startling yellow and slitted in a way that reminded her of a cat's. They bored into her relentlessly, and Aila couldn't shake the feeling that she was being dissected, every fiber of her existence being torn away one by one, observed dispassionately and discarded until there was nothing left but her soul laid bare. Aila shivered at the feeling of vulnerability. She hated it. She didn't know why this person (and she used that term loosely, for she was altogether certain she was not human) made her feel this way, but she hadn't felt so helpless in a long time, and she reacted violently on instinct.

"Who are you?" she demanded harshly, wishing she had a dagger on her so she could stab this stranger's eyes out. She noticed Kathryn wincing slightly at her tone, but she paid it no mind.

And then the stranger raised a curious brow, and suddenly the feeling was gone. Aila breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, isn't that the loaded question?" she said, and Aila blinked confusedly because it really wasn't. "Who am I, you ask? Well, last I checked I was me, but I'll admit I can't be all too certain of that. Why, not too long ago, I was someone else entirely, but then again I suppose you could say that even when I was someone else I was still me."

Aila opened her mouth to speak, though she had no idea what she was going to say, however it didn't matter for the strange woman soldiered on.

"But then that begs the question, doesn't it? If I was still me when I was someone else, would that make me someone else now that I'm me?" she finished.

Aila's mouth hung open for a moment before she closed it. Her mind raced furiously as she tried to think of an adequate response while simultaneously trying to figure out how this apparently raving mad woman could make her feel so vulnerable with just a look. In the end, she simply turned to Kathryn and desperately asked, "What is going on?"

Kathryn gave her a strained smile in return. "You have no idea how many times I've asked myself that since I got here."

"Since you... Kathryn, what happened? I turn around and you disappear, then suddenly I'm here, wherever this is, and-" she was going to say more but Kathryn cut her off.

"Wait, what? How long passed between then and when you arrived here?"

Aila stared at her confusedly. "Just a few minutes." Actually, that didn't make much sense either. Why wasn't Kathryn freaking out as well? In fact, what was she doing standing next to this woman's throne?

Kathryn's eyes widened. "That's it? Aila, I've been here for days!"

"Days? How? Why? What have you been doing all this time?"

Kathryn shrugged a bit helplessly. "Not a lot, really. Putting up decorations, mostly," she said, gesturing to the various colourful streamers and banners strewn across the place. "It's not just the throne room, the most of the castle has been decked out in party decorations."

Aila glanced around to look at said decor before turning back to Kathryn, possibly even more confused than before. "What?"

She must have realized how ridiculous that sounded, for she gave Aila a slightly apologetic look and opened her mouth to reply, but she was interrupted by the white-haired woman.

"Amazing," she said simply, unaffected by Aila's glare at the interruption. "Truly astounding. I'm being ignored. I haven't been ignored in… You know, I don't remember. Haskill!" she called suddenly, and Aila realized that the balding man was standing next to the throne on the opposite side of Kathryn. She couldn't remember when he got there. "When was the last time I was ignored?"

"I believe it was when you approached that noble's son," Haskill answered dutifully. "His death caused the subsequent slave revolt if I recall."

"Well, that was hardly my fault, was it? How was I supposed to know he was blind and deaf? You'd think they'd make exceptions for people like me. Oh, but did you see the mother's face when she saw his body? Priceless!"

"Indeed, my Lord."

The white-haired woman chuckled to herself for a moment, apparently savouring the memory before returning to the present. "Now then, where was I? Oh yes, ignoring. Incredible." Her face darkened suddenly, and her voice lowered dangerously. "And absolutely unacceptable."

At her words, Kathryn seemed to panic slightly and quickly spoke up. "But it's fine, isn't it? I mean, it's not like you don't get enough attention already, and besides, without Aila, you would even be having this whole," she gestured vaguely to the room. "Party going on, right?"

The stranger visibly brightened back up. "Of course! How silly of me! And to think, I was mere moments away from ripping out your spine and using it as a xylophone."

Aila's eyes widened slightly at the… creative threat, but Kathryn actually growled protectively.

The white-haired stranger rolled her cat-like eyes. "Oh quiet, you old hag. I doubt a little de-spineing would have slowed her down any."

Kathryn, who didn't even seem to realize she was growling, cut herself off with a grimace. "Why do you keep calling me that? I'm not old."

"Denial doesn't suit you, my dear. Why, in dog years you're practically old enough to be my grandmother." She paused for a moment and seemed to think on something before barking a laugh. "Ha! Haskill, did you hear that? Grandmother! In dog years!"

"Yes, my Lord, it was truly amusing. The irony is positively staggering," Haskill replied, sounding utterly bored.

Kathryn let out an irritated sigh. "You're insufferable."

The woman gave a wicked grin. "Such a charmer," she said, sounding completely sincere. She turned to Aila then, and added, "I can see why you fell for her."

"Err… yeah. Me too." Aila responded somewhat awkwardly. She wasn't used to people knowing about her and Kathryn's relationship, and it caught her off guard. "How did you know we were together?" She glanced at Kathryn, silently asking if she told her, but she shook her head.

The white-haired woman gave her an odd look. "What a silly question. You're the Dragon and the Wolf. One to Ruin and to Raze, One to Hold the Other's Gaze." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "A bit misleading that, don't you think? After all, you about as much a dragon as I am mad. It's certainly true, but there's much more to it than that, isn't there?"

Aila didn't answer. She felt as if she had just been parted with a great knowledge, wrapped up in the words of a madwoman, but she just couldn't decipher the meaning. She looked to Kathryn and saw her staring at the stranger with a curious, contemplative expression that likely mirrored her own. "Who-" she began, but quickly cut herself off, remembering what happened the last time she asked that question. "What, are you?" she asked instead.

The question seemed to take her by surprise. "Oh, that's right! We haven't actually met before, have we? I keep forgetting that. No wonder you're acting so oddly. Kathryn my dear, why don't you do the introductions?"

Kathryn rolled her eyes and mumbled something to herself that Aila didn't quite catch, but complied regardless. "Aila, this is…" she started, gesturing toward the white-haired woman, but trailed off after a moment, trying to determine how best to phrase it. "She's… well, I mean…"

The woman scowled impatiently. "Out with it already. We only have an eternity, you know."

Kathryn gave a long-suffering sigh, evidently having become used to the woman's ramblings by now. "Aila, this is Sheogorath."

Aila blinked at her. She stared at Kathryn, then at the stranger, then back to Kathryn. "Sheogorath," she repeated.

Kathryn nodded.

"As in-"

"The Daedric Prince of Madness, yes."

Aila looked back to the woman, who merely grinned back at her. "Oh." That explained a great deal, didn't it?

The woman (Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness) seemed rather put out at her lackluster response. "That's it? Here you stand, before the throne of the Mad God herself, and all you have to say is 'oh?'"

"Err, sorry?" Really, what was one supposed to say when suddenly faced with a god? (The Mad God, Sheogorath.)

She huffed irritably. "Honestly. At least granny here had the decency to wolf out and kill several of my guards before I calmed her down."

Aila's eyes widened in surprise and she turned to look at Kathryn, who had a slight grimace on her face. "You did that?"

"I was suddenly and inexplicably transported to a strange place, filled with strange people, and you were nowhere to be found. I freaked out." She then tossed a glare toward Sheogorath. "And that's a hell of a way to say you used that dumb staff of yours to freeze me in place and knock me unconscious."

The Mad God chuckled lightly to herself. "Well, it worked, didn't it? Or would you have preferred I used more… drastic measures?"

"Speaking of," Aila interjected, turning back to the God (just sitting there. In front of her. An actual God.) "I don't suppose you'd mind explaining why exactly you kidnapped us?"

"Oh, pish posh. Kidnap is such a strong word. I prefer 'unknowingly relocated.'"

Aila resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Fine, then. Why did you 'unknowingly relocate' us?"

The Madgod's grin seemed to split her face, it was so wide. "Why, to celebrate, of course!"

There was a beat of silence as Aila tried to process that, recalling that Haskill said something about festivities. "Er… celebrate what?"

The Daedra Lord stared at her as if she was crazy, which Aila found rather ironic. "Celebrate what? Celebrate what?! Today, of course! What else would we celebrate? Today is an anniversary, a very special one! Today we celebrate the beginning of an end and the end of another! Or possibly the other way around. It's hard to say. But that's what makes it exciting! And not just any end, either! Or beginning. Today, little heart, we celebrate the beginning of your end!"

Aila vainly tried to follow her words, but she simply didn't understand a word of what she said, especially the rather ominous sounding finish. She desperately looked at Kathryn for any sort of answer, she had been here longer, after all, perhaps she could glean something Aila couldn't.

"I'm not certain," Kathryn said hesitantly. "But I think we're meant to be celebrating your birthday."

Aila's mouth opened to respond before she realized she had absolutely no idea what to say to that and simply stayed like that for several moments.

Sheogorath barked a laugh. "Ha! I love that look! That's, what's the word… Gobsmacked! Yes, that's perfect! Ahaha!"

Realizing that she probably looked ridiculous, Aila promptly shut her jaw. She took a deep breath to recenter herself. "The Daedric Prince of Madness kidnapped us to celebrate a birthday I didn't even know I had. That's-" She cut herself off when she realized what she was about to say. That's insane.

Said Prince seemed to hear it anyway. "Isn't it?" she said smugly. "But enough of all this blithering and blathering!" she exclaimed suddenly. "This is a party! Get out there and mingle! Eat! Drink! Dance! Stab some folks! Whatever you want! But first!" She stood abruptly from her throne and slammed her cane twice down on the ground. The sound wasn't loud, but it somehow penetrated all the sounds surrounding them and reverberated throughout the room. The entire hall went silent, and every person in the room collectively turned toward the throne with a look of expectant awe on their faces. It was sort of impressive, the command and respect the Mad God held. It made Aila wonder if she wanted something like that for herself.

Nah, she thought after a moment. Too much responsibility.

"Welcome, welcome!" Sheogorath announced, her voice carrying across the hall. "Such a pleasure to see all my loyal friends in one place. And not-so-loyal. I see you hiding back there Tymothy! Don't think I don't know what you did! I'll deal with you later. First, I have an announcement to make! It seems our guest of honour had finally arrived!"

Thunderous applause suddenly erupted along with a canopy of cheers and whistles. Aila didn't really understand why. None of them knew her. Perhaps they were just excited to continue partying.

After a few moments of the noise, Sheogorath silenced them with a wave. "Alright, alright, enough of that you louts. Here she is here, the wispy thing next to me. Isn't she just adorable? Do try and make her feel welcome. But not too welcome. I know just seeing her makes you want to pat her head and pinch her cheeks, just make sure you don't mind losing a hand afterwards. She's like me in that regard."

Kathryn chortled even as Aila's eye twitched and she had to remind herself that stabbing a Daedric Prince was probably a bad idea. Especially since she still didn't have a weapon.

"Right then, that's about it. Don't let me keep you further. Back to your dilly-dallying and lollygagging and such." She unceremoniously turned back to address Aila. "There. Ready, willing, and waiting. Go have fun. In the meantime…" Her voice darkened dangerously, and Aila tensed on reflex, but the Mad God wasn't looking at her. She followed her gaze and realized she was glaring menacingly at the golden and grey-skinned woman standing behind them, both of which Aila had forgotten about.

"I have a few things to sort out," she finished. Then she brightened right back up and said cheerfully, "Oh, and do try and find me later. I have a rather exciting event planned, and I do so look forward to watching it with you. Nothing says party like a good bloodbath!"

"Wait, you can't just leave!" Aila said, rather pointedly ignoring the bloodbath comment. "What are we supposed to-"

"You'll figure it out!" Sheogorath interrupted happily. "You always do, after all. Now, I really do have to be going. Punishments to hand out, transgressors to torture, all that fun stuff. Ta-ta!" with a flourish, she spun swiftly on her heel then and left, silently commanding the two other women to follow.

Aila watched them disappear for a moment before tilting her head back to stare at the impossibly high ceiling, her face one of resignation. "What is wrong with my life?" she asked herself silently.

Kathryn was quick to wrap her arms around Aila's shoulders. "If it helps," she said, "I'm glad you're finally here. I've missed you."

"That's still hard to wrap my head around. I don't know how you're not more freaked out. Hell, I feel like I should be more freaked out."

Kathryn smiled slightly as she hugged Aila a little closer to her chest. "Trust me, I freaked out. There was lots of screaming, arguing, and death threats on both our parts before I calmed down after she assured me I'd see you again before long."

Aila growled. "I'll kill her if she so much as touches you."

Kathryn laughed lightly. "While I'm fairly certain that's impossible, I'm sure you'd find a way to make it happen." She shook her head. "But, to be honest, it's not all that difficult to get along with her. She kind of reminds me of you, actually."

Aila tilted her head back to look up at her, curious and somewhat baffled at how she could be compared to that madwoman. "Really?"

She nodded. "She's like a collection of all your most unpredictable traits, cranked up to eleven and balled up into one person. I'd figured you two'd get along like a house on fire. Or try to kill one another. Or both."

Aila grimaced at the reminder. "I did come uncomfortably close to stabbing her once or twice. I probably would have, too, if I actually had anything to stab her with."

Kathryn barked a laugh. "I knew it. I imagine she did too, why else would she take away your weapons?"

Aila couldn't help but roll her eyes at the thought. "It's not like they would actually hurt her. I mean, probably. Who knows how daedra work?" There was a moment of pause as Aila thought over the exceedingly odd encounter with the Daedric Prince. "Still… Sheogorath. Not what I expected, though I can't really say what I did expect."

She felt Kathryn nod. "Me neither. I wish I knew why she's so interested in you. I've tried asking, but everything she says is warped in that mad logic that only makes sense to her, if not straight nonsense. Maybe you'll have better luck."

Aila hummed in thought, pondering this whole predicament. "The most pressing question I have is, how do we leave? I mean, she doesn't plan on just keeping us here, does she?"

"I've asked that as well, and while I could be wrong, I don't think she'll let us go until the party's over, at the very least. After that, I can't really say."

Aila huffed in frustration. "Great. And if she's as unpredictable as you say, whatever the answer is could change by the time this whole thing is over."

Kathryn hummed in agreement and lent down place a kiss on her forehead. "Well, nothing we can do about that. We'll find our way out, one way or another. Until then though," she paused briefly to survey the crowds in front of them, with most having already gone back to drinking and dancing, some of the closest staring at them curiously or expectantly. "What should we do?"

"You're asking me?" Aila replied. "I don't exactly have a lot of experience getting kidnapped by Daedric Princes."

Kathryn rolled her eyes. "Like that'd stop you. Should we go track down Sheogorath?"

Aila thought for a moment. She wanted to say yes, but… "How likely do you think it is she'll kill us for not actually partying?"

Kathryn opened her mouth to respond, then quickly shut it. She blinked in thought for a moment, before saying, "I have no idea."

Aila sighed in irritation. "That's what I thought. It's probably best to be on the safe side and just… party." She looked back up at Kathryn. "Want to get a drink?"

Kathryn gave her a small smile. "As long as there's no alcohol in it."

Aila looked out among the sea of stumbling, bumbling people. "Somehow I doubt we'll find any like that."

At least, that's what she thought. Surprisingly enough, it turned out there was a table of drinks labeled 'alcohol free' consisting of water, milk, and an assortment of other drinks Aila had never heard of (what kind of a drink was 'lemonade?'), and while that alone didn't exactly guarantee a lack of alcohol, they grabbed some anyway. Because of her lycanthropy, Kathryn's metabolism was way too high to get drunk until several drinks in, so a few would be fine regardless (that was also how she could eat as much cheese as she did without gaining weight) and Aila was just too curious was a drink made of lemons would taste like (it was surprisingly good.)

The thought occurred to go and dance, but there were far too many strangers around for either of them to be comfortable letting loose like that. They mostly wandered around the hall, mingling with others. Or rather Kathryn was. Aila didn't actually care, but she followed her lover around as she interacted with the party-goers, asking them what it was like living under the Mad God's rule, and such (the answer was either wonderful or horrible, or both or neither. Sometimes all at once). Most also seemed to look up at Kathryn in awe, apparently because they found it miraculous that she was able to interact with Sheogorath somewhat casually without getting smote in the process. Some tried to speak with Aila as well, but she typically just glared at them until the left, something Kathryn found amusing for some reason.

At any rate, it didn't take long for Aila to grow bored and decide to explore the rest of the castle. She picked the nearest door and walked through it, Kathryn following behind her. The other side turned out to be a simple corridor and, when Kathryn told her the layout of the Palace was exceedingly confusing, decided to use the old maze trick, and turn left and only left at every opportunity.

She was fairly certain Sheogorath was deliberately messing with her when the next six doorways and passages were on her right. Even more so when she finally reached a door on her left, only to find nothing but a broom closet. She slammed the door shut in annoyance and marched on, resolutely ignoring the wall to her right entirely out of spite. There were a few other people roaming the halls, mostly more of those golden-skinned women, who Aila was beginning to think were some kind of guard, which Kathryn confirmed.

"The Aureal guard Mania, the Calm Obsession," Kathryn told her, "while their opposites and rivals, the Mazken, guard Dementia, the Wild Paranoia."

The two never tread on the other's territory, unless they were intending on battle, which apparently happened quite frequently. Aila didn't understand why Sheogorath was so keen on letting her own army kill each other off, but Kathryn told her that they don't actually die, and would eventually be reborn in their own respective wellsprings. It's why Sheogorath didn't care much when Kathryn killed those guards. That, and she probably found it amusing.

Eventually, she did encounter more doors to her left, but nothing on the other side was very interesting. She found a couple of oddly decorated bedrooms, though who they were for, Neither Aila nor Kathryn knew. They came upon a kitchen with a chef barking orders to the room, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there was no one else there with him. They also stumbled into some sort of barracks, if the several Aureal in the room glaring at them was any indication. Aila glared back at them reflexively before Kathryn had to pull her away to keep a fight from breaking out.

At some point, the style of the building changed from bright and cheery to dark and foreboding, and the Aureal guards were replaced by Mazken. Aila considered it an improvement, since, while by no means cheerful, they at least had the decency to greet them with a nod instead of just sneering at them, unlike the Aureals.

Finally, just as Aila was ready to give up and turn around, the corridor they were currently exploring came to an abrupt end with a single doorway being the only way forward. Fervently hoping something interesting was on the other side, Aila quickly pushed it open to find… the throne room.

Well, no, it wasn't the same throne room as the party was currently being held, though at first glance it certainly looked to same. For one thing, there were no people, so there was no party (thankfully), and the room itself was decorated a bit differently. It wasn't quite at ostentatious, the ceiling didn't reach into infinity, there was no equally massive tree towering over everything. The room felt… darker than the other one, which made a certain amount of sense, since they were fairly sure they were in the demented side of the Palace. Aila also got the sense this particular room had been abandoned for a while. The paint was fading and chipping away, and everything was coated in dust.

"What is this place?" Aila asked as she approached the throne, made of gnarled, blacked branches of wood twisted into the shape of a chair.

"I don't know," Kathryn replied. "I've not been here before."

"I hardly think Sheogorath needs two throne rooms," Aila said, running her hand along the arm of the throne. It certainly didn't look comfortable. As if to test the theory, she turned and lowered herself into the chair.

Definitely uncomfortable.

"Or is she just that snobby?" Aila finished.

"I'll have you know this throne room isn't for me," Sheogorath said.

Kathryn barked in surprise and spun on her heel to see the Mad God standing just behind her, casually leaning her weight against her cane. "Son of a- don't do that!"

Sheogorath blinked at her. "I do a great many things. You'll have to be more specific."

Kathryn glared ferociously at her. "You know what!"

"Don't what?" the Maddening woman asked. "Blink? Speak? Not crush your trachea?"

Kathryn groaned in annoyance even as Aila's eyes narrowed at the implied threat.

Kathryn seemed unaffected by it though and reached up to massaged her temples. "Nevermind. Forget it."

Well, if Kathryn didn't mind… Aila supposed it was okay. For now.

"Who's it for then?" Aila asked, calling the two's attention. "The throne room? Who else would it be for, if not you?"

"Well, no one," Sheogorath responded. "At least not anymore. Not unless you want it. I never did find a replacement for Syl and Thadon." She looked between the two of them scrutinizing them for… something. "You two though… You'd do marvelously."

"Er…" Aila started, Knowing neither who Syl or Thadon was, nor what exactly was even being offered. "No thanks."

Sheogorath looked strangely disappointed. "Shame. You two would cause such wonderful chaos together."

Aila wasn't sure how to respond to that oddly flattering comment. Thankfully the Mad God continued before she could, though the dangerous narrowing of her eyes was worrying.

"I'm curious, however, on just how you managed to find your way here in the first place. I believe I directed you two to party."

Only Sheogorath could give such a ridiculous order and still sound threatening. Unfortunately, Aila didn't respond well to commands, much less threats, no matter who they were from, so she just glared back. "I hate parties," she said simply.

Sheogorath scoffed at her. "You should have thought of that before you decided to go and bring yourself into this world, then."

Dammit, how was she supposed to respond to that?

"Just ignore her, Aila," Kathryn advised. "It's what I do."

The Mad God snorted. "You can try. I think we already went over how that goes down."

Aila sighed a tad frustratedly and attempted to address their most pressing matter. "What do you want with us, Sheogorath? Really?"

The white-haired woman grinned at her. "Fairly little, at least compared to the others. Honestly, I understand why they covet you so badly, but it astounds me that they try so hard to possess you. Luckily I know better."

As she processed her words, Aila began to feel a cold pit of dread building up in her gut. She wasn't sure, but it sounded like… "Others?" she asked hesitantly, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

Sheogorath nodded casually. "The other Daedric Princes. You really are quite the prize. Dear Nocturnal is the closest to actually obtaining you, the others are quite jealous. Hircine would be the next closest, simply because he holds sway over you, dear Kathryn, though I do believe old Hermaeus Mora had a plot or two to lure you into his grasp, though I don't know what they are. And I have to say, you're playing my dear sister's field quite excellently. She certainly won't be happy when you break her chains, whenever you decide to do so, that is."

Both Aila and Kathryn paled considerably at the knowledge that not one, but every Daedric Prince was apparently out to get her. Aila knew she had a tendency to casually disregard any sort of danger, but she was far from stupid. There was no way she could fight a Daedric Prince, much less all of them. "W-why?" she managed to get out. "What would Daedra Lords, Gods, want with me?

Sheogorath's grin turned a tad condescending. "Now, now, Aila. Don't be modest."

Aila didn't even have it in her get angry at her tone of voice, such was the shock. "I'm not! I don't… understand! Why…? How… ?"

Sheogorath's grin faded then, confusion flitting across her face. "You really don't know?"

"No!" Aila almost yelled.

The Mad God turned contemplative. "Huh. I thought it would be fairly obvious." She shook her head and her expression cleared, being replaced by a smile. Not a grin, or a smirk, but an actual, heartfelt smile, one full warmth. "I'll explain it to you then." She moved toward Aila, her cane clacking against the floor as she approached. She stopped in front of her and reached out, and Aila flinched instinctively, even as her fingers gently brushed themselves against her cheek. No one but Kathryn had touched her so softly before, and she couldn't help but notice it wasn't entirely unpleasant. The fingers moved to take her chin and gently brought her head up to meet Sheogorath's slitted eyes.

"You, my dear girl," she said softly, almost lovingly. "Are an aberration."

Of all the possible reasons given, that was perhaps the most unexpected. "W-what?"

Sheogorath continued to smile softly at her, her thumb moving to gently stroke her bottom lip. Aila shivered, the sensuality of it reminding her of Kathryn. She wanted to pull away, but found she couldn't move, not from any sort of magic or restraint, but from her own subdued terror and need to know what she would say next.

"You were never meant to live this long." the Mad God told her. "Did you think it was a coincidence the dragons return the very day you set foot into Skyrim? You were meant to die that day in Helgen, your soul devoured by the great dragon Alduin, your heart reclaimed by his father Akatosh." Her smile widened. "Yet you survived. And with every passing moment, you grow ever stronger. It won't be long before you surpass the World-Eater himself." She leaned in close, too close, and for a very brief moment, Aila thought she was going to kiss her. "Why wouldn't we want you?" she whispered.

Finally, it was too much for Aila, and she turned her head to the side, breaking her touch and avoiding the woman's burning gaze. "What about you, then?" Aila asked quietly. "You said you don't desire me like the others."

"Oh, I most certainly do," Sheogorath responded, and Aila risked a glance up to see her examining her perfect fingernails as if the exchange had never happened. "Perhaps more so. But I know something they don't."

"Which is?" Aila dared to ask.

"I know who you are," she said absentmindedly as if her words weren't causing everything Aila thought she knew about herself to come crashing down. "And what you'll become."

Aila swallowed, her mouth becoming dry as she thought of her next question. "And who am I?"

Sheogorath's eyes bored into her as Aila anxious awaited her answer. But then her mad grin returned, and Aila knew she wasn't going to get one.

"That would be telling my dear," she said, waving away the question. "After all, it's important for you to find out for yourself. Self-discovery, and all that. But I'll give you a hint. A clue. Point you in the right direction, as it were." She leaned forward slightly as if imparting some great secret. "We here aren't the only ones celebrating today."

Aila blinked up at her, somewhat startled by the sudden change in tone as well as her words. "There are others celebrating my birthday?"

The Mad God nodded her head. "Indeed, although I'll admit you won't find many in Skyrim. Nor do they realize, in fact, just what it is they're celebrating or the true significance of it."

That… didn't make any damn sense, but before she had a chance to question her further the Prince straightened her back and grinned wickedly at them. "Now then, I do believe I mentioned a little event I had planned. Let's head there now, shall we?"

Before either of them could even assent, the Mad God slammed her cane onto the ground twice and suddenly the world around her began to twist and blur, and Aila felt the dizzying sensation of spinning in circles until it abruptly came to a halt, and she and Kathryn found themselves in another place entirely.

Gripping the arms of the chair to steady herself (not the same one she was sitting in before, she noticed absently,) she attempted to survey her new surroundings while simultaneously trying not to get sick.

It was a… stadium? Yes, they were in some sort of stadium that was remarkably similar to the Arena back in the Imperial city. They were in some sort of booth overlooking the whole thing, with an excellent view of the fighting area, somewhat secluded from the rest of the spectators. Some sort of V.I.P area, if she had to guess. Sheogorath was just next to her, in her own elaborate throne with a slight frown on her face while Kathryn was standing just off to the side in front of them, her hand gripping the railing looking vaguely sick.

"Hmm, looks like they started without us," Sheogorath stated somewhat disapprovingly. "Oh, well."

Aila looked down toward the fighting pit to see that there was indeed some action going on. Specifically, one terrified, half-naked elf running for his life as he was chased by several… somethings. It took her a moment to identify them as some sort of dogs, mainly because it looked like they had been flayed alive then promptly stitched back together.

"Little Tymothy can run," Aila heard Sheogorath muttering amusedly to herself. "I wonder how long he'll last."

Not long at all, as it turned out. Apparently, he had decided running would get him nowhere and attempted to fight back. Only, his weapon of choice was a fairly large stone picked up off the ground, and his aim was terrible. He missed completely and the pause was more than enough for the hounds to catch him, and moments later his screams filled the air as they tore rabidly into his flesh, sending blood and viscera everywhere.

Sheogorath cackled madly at the sight, and Aila just watched with a sort of morbid passivity. Frankly, her mind was still reeling with the shock of earlier revelations to care much one way or the other.

Kathryn, though, she wasn't even paying attention. Instead, she was staring at the two of them looking slightly annoyed. "Why don't I get a chair?" she complained.

Sheogorath grinned wickedly at her. "You could always sit in my lap," she suggested innocently.

The both of them stared at her in an incredulous silence for a moment at the Daedric Lord's flirting (the very thought made Aila wince at the sheer weirdness of it, though honestly, she didn't even know why she was surprised. Especially after she had very nearly kissed her.)

Eventually, Kathryn managed to shake herself from her stupor. "I'm not going to sit in your lap," she told her slowly.

The Mad God pouted (pouted! How does she go from terrifying to ludicrous in mere moments?) "Fine then. Stick with your dreadfully dull lives of monogamy. Don't mind little old me, all alone in the world, destined to outlive every fair maiden who wanders my way…"

Kathryn snorted at that. "That excludes us, then."

"You at least, granny. Consider yourself lucky age hasn't marred your beauty any. Though I could always rectify that," Sheogorath offered happily.

"And deprive yourself of my dashing good looks? I think not."

Aila, meanwhile, was watching the bewildering and slightly amusing exchange (she was starting to see what Kathryn meant, the scene was oddly reminiscent of their own banter,) silently, but she needed to think about what she just learned and she couldn't do that while they were bickering like an old married couple. So with a cry of "For the love of-" she stood from her seat and grabbed Kathryn, marched her to the chair and sat her down before proceeding to sit in her lap. "There. Everyone's seated," she declared, determining that to be the crux of the argument (somehow.)

The Mad God humphed dramatically. "Ruin my fun. It's not even the right lap."

Kathryn, being the incredibly mature woman that she was, stuck her tongue out at Daedric Prince.

She gave a mad grin in response. "Careful where you wag that thing, my dear. I might just be inclined to bite it off."

Kathryn just rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the ring, thankfully drawing Sheogorath's along with it.

"Oh, this'll be fun!" the Madwoman exclaimed as two familiar looking figures emerged. Aila vaguely recognized them as the Aureal and Mazken who had cornered her when she first arrived in this strange world. The two were standing side by side, confident, but obviously nervous, when they weren't glaring at each other, that is. Whoever was operating this place apparently hadn't bothered to clear out what was left of the previous match, and the undead hounds had quickly set their sights on the two. Luckily for them, they still had their weapons and (what she generously called) armour, and they made short work of them.

Not moments after the last hound had its head sliced off, a gate on the far side of the arena fell open and something large came lumbering out. It was some sort of zombie, but signs of human construction were obvious. It was twice the height of the taller Aureal, with stitches all along its body, keeping the patches of mismatched, rotting skin together with bits of metal sown in at seemingly random places, like the joints, and on its head. Its right arm wasn't an arm at all and instead was a large cleaver-like weapon.

Its two opponents wasted only a heated glance at each other before readying their shields as the beast charged at them.

Aila was distracted from the fight by Kathryn tightening her arms around her and giving her a gentle kiss to the temple. "Are you alright?" she asked quietly.

"No, I'm not alright!" Aila hissed quietly back, immediately wincing at her harsh tone. It wasn't Kathryn's fault she was upset, there was no need to take it out on her.

Luckily the wonderful girl took no offense and just ran warm fingers through her hair soothingly.

"It's just…" Aila began hesitantly, searching for the right words to convey her inner turmoil. "I'm so confused," she admitted. "I feel like I don't know who I am anymore."

Kathryn blinked her pretty silver eyes confusedly at her. "Just from her words?" she asked.

"Yes. No, she… I..." she stopped her stammered words and tried to collect her thoughts. "You remember what we talked about yesterday," she stated more than asked. It was a rather heavy conversation, after all, she knew Kathryn recalled. "I'm not entirely human. Karsten told me that I'm a dragon given mortal form, but it seems like Sheogorath thinks I'm somehow more than that. I don't even know what that means, but it's apparently enough to garner the attention of the fucking daedra. I need to know what she knows."

A roar of laughter and jeers erupted from around them and distracted them from the conversation. Aila looked back at the battle to see the fleshy construct throw the Mazken across the field and into the wall before turning to swing its cleaver-arm at the Aureal. The gold-skinned woman just barely ducked in time to avoid the blade and charged forward to bury her sword into the thing's leg, but it had no reaction other than an unintelligible gurgle. The Mazken was slowly staggering to her feet, and Aila noticed her right arm was almost entirely missing, bleeding heavily. Her sword was in her off-hand, shield apparently discarded. Meanwhile, Sheogorath cackled madly at all the blood and gore being spilt.

"Why?" Kathryn asked softly, bringing her attention back to the two of them.

"What?"

"Why do you need to know so badly?" She repeated. "I mean, it'd certainly be nice to know, but it's not strictly necessary, is it? The daedra'll still be after you, you'd still be eating dragon souls, you'd still be you. Nothing would change. Why is it so important for you to know?"

Aila looked down at her lap, suddenly feeling very small a way she hadn't in a long time. She supposed Kathryn was right, knowing wouldn't change a thing, and it's not like she cared for labels before, but…

"I've always been nothing," Aila said timidly, looking back up to gaze in silver eyes. "Before I met you. Less than that even. Even my name is just something I made up to make myself feel better when I noticed that everyone had one but me. I came from nothing, lived with nothing, then suddenly I was yours and none of that mattered anymore because you were my everything." She paused, taking a deep breath to calm her turbulent emotions, sparing a glance at Sheogorath, who was unnervingly focused on the battle in front of them in a way that almost suggested she was being strangely accommodating of their private conversation (not that there was any doubt she knew exactly what they were saying.)

"But it's different now," she continued. "I'm not nothing anymore. I'm strong. I have a presence, people see me instead of through me. I'm someone, instead of just another figure dotting the background." She sighed frustratedly. "But I still don't know what that someone is. I'm not nothing anymore, but I don't know what I am."

Kathryn quietly contemplated her words, still softly stroking her hair. "Who's Karsten?" she eventually asked.

Aila blinked at the seemingly out-of-nowhere question, confused for a solid two seconds before her eyes widened in realization and she smacked herself in the forehead. "I completely forgot to tell you! You remember when I got sick and lost consciousness a few days ago?" she said, and when she received a nod in confirmation continued, "Well, while I was passed out, I met that Masked Man in my dreams again. I don't really remember much of what happened for some reason, but I vaguely remember him telling me his name was Karsten. I think."

Kathryn stared at her with a worryingly blank expression. "You forgot to tell me that you finally have a name to put to the stranger who's been stalking you and sending dragon's your way." It wasn't a question.

Aila shrugged sheepishly. "It didn't seem important at the time."

Kathryn gave an exasperated sigh, but before she could say anything more, they were interrupted rather suddenly by Sheogorath.

"What's with all the murmuring and mumbling over there? It's rather rude, you know, ignoring the festivities your host so graciously provided."

"Captor, you mean," Aila snarked back, slightly irked at the intrusion. "After all, you did kidnap, sorry, unknowingly relocate us."

The Mad god simply grinned back at her, entirely unbothered by the statement. "Semantics," she said simply, waving the accusation away. "Though, I was quite sure you'd enjoy this little spectacle I set up. Monsters and gladiators, food and drink, blood and gore. It's just your thing."

Aila sniffed a little disdainfully, looking down in the arena just in time to see the walking fleshbag grab the Aureal with its rotting hand and pick her up. The golden woman squirmed frantically to try and escape, her arms pinned by the thing's fingers. Her rescue came, somewhat surprisingly, from the Mazken, who rushed forward and plunged her sword into the creature's wrist, causing it to gurgle incoherently and relax its grip, allowing the Aureal to escape. Apparently, the bitter rivals could work together, if the need was dire enough.

"Not really," she said. "The food's great and all, but I don't see much point in watching other people fight. I'd much rather be doing the fighting myself."

Quite abruptly, the Daedra Lord's grin grew impossibly wider, seeming to split her face in two. It was a rather eerie sight. "Reeaaaallllyyyy?" she said, drawing the word out longer than necessary, her slitted eyes full of mischief.

Aila realized her mistake a second too late, for Sheogorath's cane was already pounding against the floor, and the world blurred disorientingly around her only to come to a sudden halt as she found herself somewhere else entirely.

Specifically, right in front of the flesh construct.

"Whoa!" she cried in surprise, stumbling backward to avoid the bladed arm the large monster was now flailing at her. The creature was way bigger up close! She tripped over her dress more than once trying to get away, and she soon simply tore the damn thing down the side to give her legs more room to move. Luckily for her, the Mazken (intentionally or not,) managed to distract the undead creation long enough to properly get her bearings.

She looked up to the top box to long enough see Kathryn standing from her seat and shouting inaudibly at a grinning Sheogorath before she was grabbed by the shoulder and forcibly spun around. Reacting instinctively, Aila threw a punch at whoever had grabbed her only to have her wrist caught by a gold-skinned hand.

"What do you think you're doing, mortal!?" the Aureal demanded.

Aila scoffed and attempted to free her hand, but the woman's grip surprisingly strong. "Blame Sheogorath. She's the one who threw me down here."

"Tch. Whatever. Just stay out of our way! We don't need some fleshbag tripping over herself to keep alive."

Eyes narrowing, Aila twisted her hand around to grab hold of the Aureal's wrist and pulled her closer, throwing her off balance, then took the opportunity to raise her knee and slam it into the woman's exposed abdomen. As she lurched over with a surprised grunt of pain, Aila grabbed the woman's head with her free hand and shoved her face onto the ground with as much force as she could muster. Hopefully, she broke a nose.

"How about you stay out of my way instead," she testily replied. "And maybe I won't accidentally kill you." Before she could begin to recover, she stomped on the woman's wrist to loosen her grip on her weapon (she was surprised she managed to keep ahold of it,) and picked it up for herself. "I'll be needing this," she told her.

The Aureal groaned in reply.

Snorting lightly, Aila turned her attention back to the monster who appeared to be soundly kicking the Mazken's arse. She ran forward, hoping to take advantage of its distracted state, but the thing either had more situational awareness than it seemed, or she was just that unlucky, for as soon as she stepped close enough it turned away from the bloodied woman and swung its massive cleaver-like arm down in her direction.

Jumping to the side with a small yelp, Aila gripped her new golden sword with both hands and swung with all her might at the monster's elbow in a vain attempt to dismember its arm, but the resulting cut barely penetrated the thing's surprisingly tough skin. She only managed to grunt in frustration before the flesh construct's fist suddenly shot toward her and crashed into her torso, knocking the breath out of her and sending her flying backward.

Landing harshly on the rocky ground, Aila rolled herself onto her back, groaning slightly in pain, but before she could even begin to stand, the monster was suddenly towering over her, sword-arm raised in order to cut her in two. Her eyes widened and she sucked in a sharp breath, preparing to Shout herself to safety when Kathryn appeared from nowhere, arm outstretched with a storm of razor-sharp ice particles billowing violently from her hand and gushing toward the flesh construct's head.

The monster gargled loudly, taking a step back and clawing at its bleeding face in apparent pain, only to have the Mazken rush toward it with a battle cry and attempt to take it down. Satisfied that it was properly distracted, Aila let out a small sigh of relief and accepted Kahthryn's outstretched hand and pulled herself up, grunting lightly at the pain in her chest as she did so.

"How bad is it?" Kathryn asked her worriedly. "That looked painful."

"I'm fine," Aila said automatically. Her chest was actually throbbing painfully, but they could worry about that later. "It just took me by surprise. That thing is far more agile than it has any right to be," she commented with annoyance.

Kathryn raised a brow at her but thankfully put aside her concern for now and turned back to the flesh creature, sword in one hand, a flurry of ice in the other. "Any ridiculously dangerous and reckless plans to take this thing down?"

Her eye twitched at the obvious jab, but otherwise, she just shrugged her shoulders."Aim for the head? Its skin is too tough, but heads tend to be a vulnerable area. Usually." She blinked, a realization coming to her. "Probably why there's metal sewn onto its head. Dammit, I wish had my bow."

Kathryn snorted lightly. "Not like you could even use it. You wasted all your arrows taking potshots at mudcrabs, remember?"

"You did the same thing!" Aila retorted indignantly.

"Ah, but the difference, love," Kathryn said with a wolfish grin, bringing up her hand to show the thousands of ice particles as they coalesced into one large shard. "Is that I can't run out of ammo." With a flick of her wrist, the shard was sent hurling toward the flesh construct's head where it lodged itself firmly in its cheek.

The thing made a loud groan as it reached up to grab the icicle and roughly pull it out with a sickening noise. Aila thought it looked vaguely surprised, then, as the side of its jaw fell off its hinges, only held on by the undamaged side. Unfortunately, the monster was so littered with cuts and gashes and stitching and bruising that there was no way to tell if Kathryn had done any meaningful damage.

"At least now there's a softer way to the brain?" Aila offered tentatively.

Kathryn frowned petulantly. "That wasn't nearly as cool as I wanted it to be."

Aila barked out a laugh and grabbed her by the dress, pulling her somewhat roughly down to her height and smashed her lips against hers in a quick but fiery kiss. "Don't worry," she said to a pleasantly startled Kathryn. "You'll get your moment. For now, though, just keep it distracted while I hack away at it. It has to come down eventually."

Trusting Kathryn to follow her instructions, Aila promptly charged the monster once again. Just before she crossed into the monster's range, as she took a deep breath in preparation to Shout, she realized she could feel it. It was like when she let loose that roar the other day, but not quite as intense. Some sort of… energy welled up inside her chest, spreading throughout her torso, and when she yelled out, "Su!" that energy seemed to flash through her body, seeping into every fiber of her being, empowering her.

The monster swung it's cleaver-arm at her, it seemed so much slower than before, but she knew she was simply faster. She ducked under it and drove the point of her sword into its leg as deeply as it would go. She yanked it out just as quickly, just in time to jump away as it tried to grab her, slicing at its knuckles in the process. Several ice spikes flew past her at that moment, two in its chest and one in each of its arms. It gargled in pain, staggering backward, and Aila grinned, taking the opportunity to leap up onto its still-lowered hand to give her the extra height needed to stab it through the head, only to have her eyes widen when her sword bounced off the roof of its mouth with a metallic clang and a shower of sparks. Then the monster spun its hand around and wrapped its fat fingers around her leg in a painful grip.

Oh, shi-

The air buffeted violently around her as it spun her around and threw her across the arena. Before she could even attempt to save herself she crashed into something with far less force than she was expecting, sending both her and whatever she hit tumbling across the ground, collecting a multitude of cuts and bruises along the way. When she finally came to a stop she let out a painful groan and realized that something strangely soft and warm was wrapped around her. She looked up and saw that she was on top of Kathryn, her arms wrapped protectively around her. She must have caught her before Aila could hit something hard.

"Oh, I love you," Aila told her fervently as she pushed herself up and off of her, grunting at the spreading ache in her body.

"You damn well better, I'm not doing that again," Kathryn brusquely replied, causing Aila to snort. "What the hell happened? That should have worked."

"The damn thing has metal sown into its mouth as well, the whole brain is encased," Aila answered, glaring at the creature as it lumbered toward them.

"Then how are we supposed to kill it?!" Kathyrn formed another icicle and tossed it at the monster to slow its progress. "I'm running out of magicka, here!"

"Hell if I know! What can we do? Swords are practically useless, so are your icicles. Try a fireball?"

Grunting in acknowledgment, the ice in Kathryn's hands abruptly sparked into a blazing fire. She held them together for a moment, the fire concentrating into a tiny inferno then thrust them forward, launching the fireball directly into the creature's face.

It halted with a groan as the fireball exploded, singing the flesh around its head, then shook its head twice and kept moving.

"Oh, come on!" Aila cried. "It's made of rotting flesh, shouldn't it burn?!"

"Obviously not," Kathryn answered dryly.

The two of them started backing away as it approached, trying to keep their distance. It annoyed Aila, she wanted to kill the damn thing, but close combat had proven… ill-advised. "Please tell me you have some secret spell you've been working on hidden up your sleeve. I'm out of ideas."

"No, I don't. I spent most of my free time learning the invisibility spell. I didn't bother working on any Destruction magic. I thought it'd more useful. Sincerely regretting that now."

"So it's really just beat it 'till it dies then?" Aila said, shaking her sword in frustration.

"I don't know why you're complaining. That's your go-to strategy." Kathryn replied, the fire in her hands fizzing out back to frost. The icicles seemed to do more damage.

"Yeah, but this is the first time it hasn't worked!"

Kathryn shot her an exasperated look. "You're ridiculous. Besides, there's nothing else for it. It's not like my-" she cut herself suddenly.

Aila glanced at her to see her staring down at one of her hands. "What?"

"You said its brain is encased in metal?" she asked.

"Seems like it, yeah. Why, you have a plan?"

"Maybe. If I can-"

This time she was cut off by the flesh construct. It let out a furious roar and abandoned its slow pace, charging at them suddenly, swinging its sword-arm wildly.

They jumped away from each other to avoid it, putting some distance from each other so it couldn't hit them both. "Just tell me what to do!" Aila shouted.

"Keep it still!" Kathryn shouted back.

"How?! It's huge!"

"Figure it out! I only need a moment!"

Aila grumbled under her breath but tried to think up a plan anyway. "Damn it," she mumbled to herself when she couldn't think of anything. She charged at it anyway. So what if it was bigger than her, stronger than her, and more durable than her, she'll be damned if she couldn't at least bring it to its knees. That should give Kathryn her moment.

It saw her coming and focused on her, luckily. She half-expected it to swing at her again, but instead, it seemed it decided to try a different tactic and raised its large foot, apparently attempting to squash her as she approached. She grinned, seeing the perfect opportunity. It was also, as Kathyrn would put it, stupidly dangerous, but that was practically a given at this point.

She ran ahead, not bothering to change direction until the very last moment when the monster started to slam its foot down where she jumped to the side and swung her sword around to cut into its foot. It barely bit into its flesh and the force threatened to tear the sword from her hands but she tightened her grip to a painful degree and pushed with every ounce of her strength, letting out a cry as the sword pushed deeper and deeper until it tore straight through, cutting a deep gash right in the middle of its foot, spraying thick blood into air and onto her skin.

The creature let out a deep wail of agony, wobbling on one leg for a moment before it slowly toppled backward, falling onto its back. Aila jumped away from it, panting from exertion, and it was a good thing she did, for it was already starting to get back up. It pressed the tip of its cleaver into the ground to push itself into a sitting position, and Aila could have sworn it was glaring at her.

Before it could go any further, however, a loud crackling sound filled the air and Aila suddenly became aware of Kathryn behind the monster. She was running toward it, a sword in one hand, and the other was glowing blue as a miniature lightning storm swarmed around it. She jumped as she reached the monster's back, stabbing her sword into its shoulder and using it as a handle to pull herself up to its head, where she slammed her palm against the metal sown into its skull with a shout.

The crackling ceased abruptly, and the monster stopped moving. The smell of burnt flesh began to fill the air and smoke rose from its head before it slowly tipped back down to the ground with a thud, Kathryn just managing to jump away from it before it crushed her.

Aila stared for a moment, amazed, then grinned so widely it threatened to split her cheeks. "That was amazing!"

Kathryn came around from the other side of the corpse, panting from exhaustion but sporting a matching grin. "I think I'm starting to get why you like fighting so much."

Aila ran up to her, fully intended on tackling her into a hug and kissing the life out of her, but before she could reach her, Kathryn held out her hand and Aila smacked her forehead into her palm. "Ack!"

"Absolutely not. You're covered in that thing's blood. You smell horrid."

Aila pouted at her and opened her mouth to respond, but whatever she was going to say was drowned out by a sudden roar of cheers and applause. She blinked in mild surprise, looking up at the stands of people witnessing their performance. To be honest, she completely forgot about them. She sniffed dismissively, it wasn't like she cared what they thought of them (Kathryn didn't really seem to know what to do under all that attention,) but she turned to look up at Sheogorath to see her, surprise, surprise, grinning. Madly. Even all the way down here, she could see that. She stared at her for a moment, wondering if she was going to bring them back up, but she only stared back intensely. Their little impromptu staring contest was interrupted by the sound of metal rattling against metal, and Aila turned to see yet another gate opening up.

"Don't tell me there's more," Kathryn whined.

But there were. Not giant flesh monsters, thankfully, but something just as horrifying. Or, more specifically, three somethings.

Aila had no idea what they were. They were thin, bony creatures with ragged, leathery skin pulled tight against their bodies. Long, spindly limbs with far too many joints ending in sharp-looking claws and a long, spiked tail. Their heads were mere a pair of eyes with a large, gaping maw, looking ready to consume anything in its path.

Aila's grin returned full-force. Kathryn saw it and let out a resigned sigh, and went to retrieve her sword, still stuck in the flesh construct. "Where'd you get that, anyway?" Aila asked. They had no weapons when they entered the arena.

Kathyrn didn't look up, just waved her hand vaguely to the side before returning to pulling it out from under the creature. "Grabbed it off the Mazken's corpse."

Aila looked and saw said corpse slumped against the wall of the arena, looking far paler than she remembered her being. Blood loss, probably, she was missing an arm. Aila didn't even notice she had died. The sight reminded her of the Aureal, and she quickly scanned the area for her, still keeping an eye on the new creatures that were slowly prowling towards them. She saw her at the far end of the arena, kneeling on the ground, her mouth open, staring at them in what looked like disbelief. Aila snorted and refocused on the newcomers. At least she was keeping out of the way.

She glanced back at Kathryn to see her still struggling to get the sword out from under the flesh construct. She didn't blame her, the thing was heavy. But the monsters in front of them looked ready to charge at them, so Aila made a split-second decision and beat them to it, dashing forward to gain time for Kathyrn. She was going to need that sword unless she was planning on shifting.

They seemed to take it as a cue to do the same and charged at her. As she sucked in a breath to Shout at them, she couldn't help the stray thought that crossed her mind.

You know, all things considered, as far as birthdays go this has by far been the best one I've ever had.