The tradehouse door opened at dusk, a dusting of red ash billowing in. A mustachioed imperial in a green cap and surcoat stepped into the doorframe. He looked back outside and called out, "Mario, hurry it up!"
A squat man in a red cap looked up from a thorny shrub at the base of the stairs leading to the tavern. He was not amused by pointless rushing and made his annoyance clear in a sudden burst of wind that sent ash flying into the tavern.
Luigi rolled his eyes and walked in. He greeted the dunmer publican behind the bar.
She scowled. "Typical outlander, making as much of a mess as possible. What do you want?"
Luigi had the mind to walk out, but he knew this was the only tavern in the tiny town of Maar Gan. "Two beds for the night, ma'am."
She charged him forty gold Septims. He knew that was far beyond the regular price but accepted it anyway. He had a taste of the ash storms while stuck on the silt striders and wanted no more of it. The red ash so close to the mountain was especially irritating to his eyes. Vvardenfell was the last place on Nirn he wanted to go, but he refused to let his brother tour this forsaken rock on his lonesome.
Below the bar, he looked around and met the eyes of an older imperial. He wore a Legion-styled steel cuirass. The man's eyes flicked to another chair at the table.
Luigi took the invitation.
As he sat down, the man said, "Haven't seen you around before. What brings you to this blighted hellhole? Duty? Punitive measures?"
Luigi adjusted himself on the chair. "My brother's here, so am I."
"Is he in the Legion?"
"No, he's insane."
"A mage?"
"Yep."
"That's the type found dead on the mountain." The man slid one of several bottles of flin to Luigi.
Luigi nodded, uncapping the bottle. "He wants to research some deadly disease." He took a swig.
"High chance he dies here."
Luigi put the drink down with a thump. "Yep, I know. Keep telling him he's an idiot. Doesn't work."
"Ah, then best of luck out there… Well… Does your brother happen to practice restoration?"
"Yeah, why?"
"I could use a healer while on patrol. If we encounter any of the ash creatures coming from the mountain, he can indulge in his interest."
"Ash creatures?" Luigi repeated.
The man looked at him like an idiot. "Men and mer blighted by Corprus."
"Interesting… What was your name?" Luigi asked.
"Miles Gloriosus. Yours?"
"Luigi Mario, my brother just goes by Mario."
"If I had to guess your home… Bravil?" Miles guessed.
"Do I really sound that poor?"
"Hah! Names can tell quite a bit. In your case, I doubt there's a Septim to it." He wasn't mocking Luigi, but he was a bit too candid for his liking.
"Hah, yeah..."
Miles scrutinized him, deep-set stress lines evoking the severe legionnaires of Cyrodiil. "What's your trade?"
"I was training for the Legion, so I guess I'm a fighter."
"You look like you'd fit right in. What made you reconsider?"
"I'm thinking of joining when we get back. My brother found success at the Bravil Mages Guild. I think it was the timing. They had drunken wizards and a shortage of ingredients. Now, he's here."
"Fascinating. So they sent him? There is hearsay that they send associates here on asinine tasks to get rid of them."
"Nope. He wants to poke at a deadly disease."
"One of those scholar types, eh? Have you lads seen a Telvanni tower in person?"
Luigi scoffed, "Ugh, no." He had heard about the convoluted structures the Telvanni would cultivate.
Miles smirked. "Wizards."
Luigi huffed, "I wouldn't go in those even with potions of levitation."
They continued trash talking the Telvanni until Luigi noticed that Mario still wasn't there. It had to be dark out by now. He looked around. "Shit, I think he wandered off."
Miles chugged the rest of his flin and stood. "Quite a character your brother is, wandering around at night in a blight storm." He checked his gear over.
Hoisting his pack over his shoulders, Luigi took a step before nearly falling over as he halted to look back. "You know the town. Where would a mage go?"
Miles held the bridge of his nose, trying to will the buzz away to no effect. "We can ask around. What's he look like?"
"Short. wears a red hat and a yellow cloak."
Easy enough to identify. Let's go." Miles attached a longsword to his belt and headed for the door, Luigi following into the dusty red night.
They catch the attention of a Redoran guard, easily identified by the yellowing bone armor he more, asking for the whereabouts of a short imperial in a red cap. The guard tells them he saw someone of that description heading for the outpost, and they were on their way.
The outpost seemed dead, the only person out in the common area was a dunmer woman.
Miles hailed her. "Nuleno! Have you seen a short Imperial fellow in a red hat like his?" He stuck his thumb at Luigi.
"Yes, I saw such a person at Ravila's memorial. He placed an offering and left."
"Memorial?" Luigi asked.
"One of our Oathmen tried to cure the nearby egg mine of blight… You can see how that turned out." She gestured towards the arrangement of bonemold weapons and armor by the stairs.
Luigi and Miles shared a look; Miles' inquiring, Luigi's confirming.
"Where's the mine?" Luigi asked.
"It's Hairat-Vassamisi. Miles, you know where it is."
Luigi checked his supplies before wearing a chainmail shirt under his surcoat and slinging a frost-enchanted steel war hammer over his back.
"Can I leave my pack with you?" Luigi asked Nuleno. He would have left it in his room at the trade house if he hadn't been so caught up with his new acquaintance.
She narrowed her eyes at him as she smiled. "Certainly, if I can keep your belongings after your death"
At Luigi's apprehension, Miles piped in, "She's House Redoran, your belongings aren't going anywhere."
Luigi was not enthused but left his things with her and exited the outpost with Miles. They traveled up the northwestern path, looking up and listening for the calls of cliff racers on the night wind. Luigi almost tripped over something in the path. He jumped back at the sight of it in the light of the lantern.
The nude body of a dunmer with a dark cavity in place of its face. It was missing its legs, chunks of which were scattered around the path. A large chunk of its head was missing, the brain removed. Its abdomen was cut into with some blood and other fluids soaking into the parched volcanic soil.
The abdomen caved in as Miles lightly kicked it. "Is your brother an alchemist?"
"Y-yes, but he wouldn't murder for ingredients!"
"This is one of the creatures I was talking about," Miles said as he moved it around with his boot. He noticed bleeding in the facial cavity. On bringing the lantern close to it, he saw a small incision at the back. "The tentacle was cut."
"Tentacle?!"
"They start out as dunmer and lose their faces, starting with the eyes. The tentacles grow from the hole left behind."
"You mentioned men and mer. C-could we end up turning into them?"
"I've only seen dunmer turn into these. Though there are other creatures that were once men… If you can help it, don't let anything around here touch you."
"I-I'll consider that."
They continued up the path, encountering several dead cliff racers along the way, their leathery bodies crushed and plumes missing.
On the side path leading to the mine, Luigi looked back the way they came, though he couldn't see far. "We only walked a short distance! How is this town still here with all this?!" They didn't have to kill any of the cliff racers, but the sheer number of them littering the path boggled the mind. They seemed more common closer to the mountain.
"It's a holy site," Miles said.
"Ah, well..."
They opened the door and a red mist thick with blight rushed out. Luigi took a swig of a disease resistance potion. He offered another bottle to Miles, who accepted.
Inside, they delved deep into the mines, passing by seemingly healthy kwama workers. Luigi was initially freaked out by the giant insects but kept a level head. It was past the second door where they were assaulted by kwama warriors and foragers, the red mist of the caverns making it difficult to discern where they came from.
Luigi had a close run-in with the beak of a warrior, halting it with the shaft of his hammer. He covered for Miles, who was slower in his age.
Suddenly, a greenish light hit the ground where they stood. The flash from it overtook the red. They caught their breath as the kwama stopped attacking. The light didn't stay long, but a warm glow approached from the red mist. A short man in a red cap and yellow cloak!
"Mario! By Mara, you could have waited until tomorrow!" Luigi said.
Mario brushed it off. He expected Luigi to be sleeping by now.
After surveying the mine, the kwama seemed free of any signs of blight. The only blight left was in the air, and the mine's occupants were at least temporarily immune. With that, they left the mine door open and returned to the outpost.
On entry, Nuleno waved to them. "So you return. How was the mine? Any success?"
"The mine is cured," Miles said.
She looked at Mario, who was watching the flickering candles of the memorial. "You did it?"
Mario gave no response. Instead, Miles spoke up with a smile, "He didn't need much help… There were minimal casualties. Once the mine airs, I imagine the miners can resume work."
She smiled. "I'll be sure to get the word out. Tashpi could assist us in keeping the blight at bay."
"Now." Luigi turned Mario around to face the bloody bundle that he had set on the work table. "What is this?"
Mario took out his alchemy kit and hastily unwrapped the bundle. While he got to work, the others nursed drinks.
The sun was about to breach the horizon. Luigi regretted buying those beds.
"Do you two have anything for staying awake?" Miles asked. The man looked drained.
"Probably." Luigi twisted in his chair towards Mario. "You got anything?"
Mario removed a gore-splattered glove and tossed a thin-necked bottle to him. He gestured to himself, then held up two fingers and made a swirling motion.
Luigi squinted at the writing on the label. Moonshein. Well, if his brother tried it, it was probably fine. He popped it open to a pleasantly sweet smell. The liquid inside was syrupy.
The other two looked on curiously as he grabbed a clay cup. He let it pour for two seconds. It poured a clear, thin stream, but turned an iridescent white as he filled the cup the rest of the way with shein. He stirred it and took a sip. It wasn't bad. The bitterness of the cheap drink was gone. He could feel an unnatural energy course through him.
"How is it?" Miles asked.
"Good. Want one?" Luigi offered. At Miles' nod, he mixed one up for him. "You?" he offered Nuleno.
She narrowed her eyes at their cups and sipped her drink. "No, I'm fine."
Miles appreciated the drink before commenting on it, "Compliments to the jolly brewer! You've made a horrible drink bearable."
Mario looked up from the sliced-up tentacle he'd harvested earlier and nodded with a smile.
They idled until Mario finished cleaning up his mess and left for the tradehouse. The owner wasn't awake, but Miles had a key.
Mario had gone to sleep while Luigi and Miles remained wide awake. Hours passed and they still felt perfectly energetic. Perhaps too energetic. Other people had begun milling about, each sound making them flinch.
"By the Nine, that potion may be too effective," Miles said.
Luigi's leg was bouncing restlessly. "I think he's resistant. Maybe I should have poured half as long… Food might lessen it." He got up.
"Good call. Care to grab me the yam bread?" Miles placed some gold on the table.
Luigi headed up to the freshly cleaned bar.
The publican looked up at him from her book. "Spit it out, outlander."
"Hey!" He looked around to be sure he wasn't in anyone's way. "I didn't blow dust in here. That was my brother."
Her expression didn't change. "I'm not chiding you for it now, am I? What do you want?"
Luigi stuttered before ordering yam bread with scrib jelly and two bowls of kwama egg saltrice porridge. The ashy-grey look of the bread reminded him of mold while the red-orange seepage of the kwama egg made him miss chicken eggs. He returned to the table and gave the remainder of Miles' gold back.
After bearing the plain gruel for a little longer, Luigi went to wake Mario, who joined them. He poured a few drops of something dark from a square vial into his bowl of porridge and began shoveling the food into his mouth. Luigi shook his head at the behavior.
Two nearby orcs took notice; one a man, the other a woman.
"An imperial with gusto!" said the orc woman.
"Look at him go. Makes the slop look bearable, doesn't he?"
Luigi snuck a few drops from the vial into his food before stirring it and savoring the added flavor. An orc took notice and leaned over to snatch the vial. Luigi was too late to grab it back.
The orc sniffed it. "Smells like hoofed meat!" He handed it over to the other orc, who nodded in agreement. "Where did you find it?"
"Homemade," Luigi said.
"From meat?"
"I don't know, try asking him." He nodded to Mario, who paused his slurping as the orcs turned to him. He shook his head at them.
"See why I don't know? - Hey!" Luigi flailed as the orc woman grabbed the spoon out of his hand and swiped a spoonful of his porridge, then handed the spoon off to her fellow to do the same, to Luigi's disgust.
Both orcs suddenly hit the table, jolting the three. Their hands lifted to reveal gold. On seeing what the other had done, they growled at each other.
"I'll pay double for it!"
"Triple!"
"W-wait! Hold on! We have more!" Luigi said.
Mario hobbled off, returning with a few more vials filled with the dark liquid. He put two forward as his offer.
The orcs stared at the extra vials, then the money they'd offered.
Luigi and Miles watched the gold on the table multiply as Mario produced potion samples that tempted the orcs. In the end, they picked several combat potions. They even considered buying the dispelling agent used to speed up their testing of various concoctions.
"That solves the mystery of how he afforded the journey," Miles remarked. He eyed the dispelling agent. "Lad, you didn't tell me he had anti-magic on him."
"That stuff'll either do nothing or completely stop the potion and we crash. No in-between," Luigi said. Miles' enthusiasm waned.
Meanwhile, the orcs finalized their deals and bid farewell as Mario pocketed piles of gold.
"Did you charm them?" Miles muttered.
Mario shook his head. His porridge bubbled and let off steam as he resumed eating.
"We're not lowlifes," Luigi said.
"Yes, yes, but orcs are too proud for potions, especially those two. It's a little strange, don't you think?"
It sounded ridiculous to Luigi. "I don't know what you're talking about! orcs use potions! Everyone uses them… Maybe they were testing for poison?"
"Too cautious for an orc…"
The two quarreled over why the orcs bought the potions while Mario polished off his porridge. He had his own conclusion from prior experience: orcs like samples.
After breakfast, Luigi went to buy supplies. The day was clear enough to see the Ghostfence from the tavern. Mario left the walls of the town. He walked along the east path, beneath the silt strider station he and his brother had arrived at on the previous night. He looked back, watching dunmer workers offload packages from the massive insect.
That was when he heard a crashing noise in the hut he was passing. He paused his walk and listened.
Something shattered.
Testing the door, he found that it was unlocked. How fortunate! He drew a dagger and pushed on the door with telekinesis, careful to be quiet.
The sounds coming from inside the hut stopped.
A malformed, scaly hand suddenly scratched at the exterior of the door. Mario blew the door open and pointed his dagger at the scamp in a threat. It took one look at the steel dagger and his unsteady stance before laughing and charging him. The door slammed shut, a dull thud following it.
"Come back, fat mortal! You'll make a fine meal!" the scamp shouted, its sharp voice barely muffled by the door.
A purple glow traveled down Mario's arm, his cloak fluttering. As he abruptly opened the door once more, he aimed the dagger at the scamp, a purple bolt leaving the end of the weapon. As the spell hit, the creature cursed him out before fading from Nirn. A key clattered on the floor.
Mario crept through the wrecked hut and found no bodies. Sure of no immediate threat, he examined the key and tried matching it to a few chests in the hut. With no luck on those, he tried opening the door in the lower level but found that it was locked. He could try the key on it but wasn't sure if something was hiding there. After a few frustrating attempts to get the key in the keyhole from afar, he managed to unlock it and braced himself before willing it open… to a naked, sleeping breton? This looked like something to do with Sheogorath or Sanguine.
The young breton woke with a start and stared up at Mario, who cocked his head at him. "I- is the scamp gone?"
Mario nodded.
The nude breton rushed to partially shut the door, leaning so Mario could only see his upper body. "He tricked me! Pretended he was under my control, then did…" He leaned out of the closet and motioned at the carnage caused by the scamp. "... This!" He looked at Mario, in disbelief at the situation.
Not a Daedric Prince's intervention? Mario wondered how this man got stripped naked and locked in the closet. He pointed at the closet and cocked his head.
The breton turned red and looked anywhere else. "That was part of his trick..."
What business does this idiot have, summoning a scamp? Mario pointed at the breton and gestured to the mess, cocking his head again.
"Why am I here?" he tried.
Mario shook his head and pointed at him, then imitated the creeping motions of a scamp; clawed hands and hunched back.
"Why did I summon the scamp?"
Mario nodded.
"You see, I wanted to prove myself a sorcerer to my master, so I summoned the scamp… I give up, I'm never summoning another Daedra." He looked down in shame.
Mario thought it was shortsighted to give up over one bad experience, but he wasn't much of an advice giver. He left the hut and breton behind, continuing towards the Ghostfence.
A camp in the distance caught his curiosity. The dunmer there looked at him with suspicion but didn't approach.
Never mind the camp! He could see the Ghostfence just fine from where he stood rather than near those fellows.
The glowing blue barrier he'd heard about from travelers and refugees. Great cords hung between the monolithic towers that encircled the mountain, the barrier extending from them to the ground. A glowing haze hung over the contraption.
One could fly over it, he heard. Quite the oversight.
"Mario!"
He turned and spotted Luigi running after him in full armor.
Luigi paused when he caught up, out of breath. "You… you can't just go out here alone! Let's go back."
Mario dismissed the concern and Luigi with a flippant wave of his hand.
"These lands are unfamiliar, don't you think a guide would be helpful?" Luigi said.
Mario looked at the steep foothills towering over them… Meaningless with levitation.
"A storm could start up at any time," Luigi warned.
He had a point. The ash storms dropped visibility considerably. He conceded, following him back to Maar Gan.
After arranging with Miles, the brothers joined him on his afternoon patrol. They headed northwest along foyada Bani-Dad, a lava-carved ravine that reached from the mountain all the way to the northwestern coast. The skies were still clear.
Luigi's eyes snapped to anything that moved, even shrubs bristling in the wind. Burned trees lining the path made him glance back to the mountain, fearful of lava flows. He spotted a cliff racer approaching fast from behind and alerted the other two. Miles readied his blade.
As the animal neared, it was sent plummeting into a slope and smearing down the foyada wall. Luigi looked at Mario, who had a hand outstretched and was sneering at it.
"Cliff racers cause you trouble?" Miles asked.
Mario hopped along on one foot as he pulled up a leg of his trousers to show a large patch of reddish skin on his leg. Recently healed.
"Quite a bite! If it's any consolation, I met a dunmer traveling by silt strider the other day. Said he planned to drive the pests from the island."
Mario perked up at that.
"Do you believe him?" Luigi asked.
"I'm not sure he'll be able to, but the pile of racers on his strider was a promising sign of commitment. Perhaps we'll meet."
They continued along Bani-Dad, encountering no trouble until a Velothi tower came into view, its golden dome shining in the pinking evening.
Miles stopped them. "This tower's contested territory. So long as we don't get involved, we should be able to pass through."
Luigi shielded his eyes from the sun as he tried to get a better look. "Who's fighting over it?"
"Redoran and Telvanni…" He noticed Luigi's hand resting on his war hammer. "You shouldn't get involved."
"Shouldn't we help them?" Luigi asked. Mario also gave Miles a questioning look.
"I would, but the Telvanni aren't to be taken lightly. So long as we keep our heads down, they shouldn't find any reason to bother us."
As they neared the tower, a skirmish came into view, magic being slung from the tower windows. Dunmer in bonemold armor were fighting through waves of summoned daedra to break down a nearby door in the ravine wall.
They came close enough to hear the back-and-forth between the house members.
A Redoran warrior narrowly dodged a lightning bolt. "You couldn't hit a netch!"
The dunmer who had thrown the lightning cupped his mouth and shouted, "Keep talking, s'wit!" He threw an icicle that sent the dodging Redoran flying with shards of ice punching through his armor when he didn't expect it to explode.
Mario chugged a potion and immediately took off towards the injured warrior.
"Wait!" Luigi shouted.
Another icicle was headed Mario's way but was deflected back, almost hitting the caster.
Luigi hesitated while Miles shook his head.
Mario shielded the injured warrior from attack and got to removing the shards, a warm glow healed the wounds. Within a minute, the Redoran had gone from incapacitated and bleeding out to getting back on his feet. He nodded to Mario for a moment before returning to help his fellows.
Luigi shouted at Mario, "Let's get out of here!"
Mario ignored it and began banishing the daedra one by one. Luigi sighed and ran to aid the Redoran warriors, Miles, realizing he was now involved, joined as well.
A breton Telvanni leaned out a window, lightning crackling in her hands. "Keep your fat nose out of matters that don't concern you!" She fell from the tower as thunder clapped through the valley.
The Telvanni refocused their efforts on summoning more daedra to keep their numbers up, but summoning was incredibly taxing compared to banishing.
Luigi caved the skulls of several daedra in defense of the warriors trying to bash the door in. A pale, blue-winged humanoid took shape as it blitzed toward him. It sent him to the ground and he stopped its talons with the shaft of his hammer. As it tried to pry the hammer from him, he kicked it off and got to his feet. It tumbled into the air before swooping down at him, talons first.
Digging his boots into the ash, he swung with all his might, intent on meeting its attack. He heard a crunch. The elegant winged twilight fell to the ground, bird-like legs broken, cracked-off parts disintegrating as its body shattered into glittering dust.
With the extra support, the warriors managed to overwhelm the seal on the door and bust it down. Those who could fight charged in while the injured stayed in the cover of the doorway. The bodies of aa few warriors littered the earth outside.
Mario was tending to the wounded when his companions regrouped with him.
"We've done enough! Let's go," Miles said.
Mario nodded towards the passageway.
Luigi sighed, done with his brother's antics. "No! We aren't going in there!"
As soon as he sealed the injury he was working on, Mario darted in alongside the warriors, much to Luigi's chagrin.
Luigi and Miles entered cautiously. The Telvanni had seemingly been dealt with by the time they got into the tower, but the Redoran warriors were still looking.
A warrior addressed them, "Outlanders, we're grateful for your assistance."
Miles raised an eyebrow at Mario, who was digging through a chest. "We didn-"
Luigi interrupted him, "We're happy to help!"
The Redoran suddenly shouted an order to his fellows, "We've only killed n'wah. Keep searching!"
They swept the tower, turning everything over until Luigi noticed that Mario was nowhere to be seen. He looked around the tower and noticed a hatch on the ground floor that hadn't been there before. After exhausting all other options, dread began to fill him.
He nudged the hatch open slightly and dropped it as electricity surged through him.
A Redoran immediately alerted everyone else. They grouped up before throwing the hatch open and backing off as lightning crashed into the ceiling. Miles and the Redoran warriors charged in.
Luigi struggled through spasms in vain. It was too painful to even think.
He heard the struggle beneath the hatch cease and panicked shouting as he blacked out.
Luigi woke up slowly and painfully. Light filtered through the material of the tent that he was apparently in. His muscles ached.
His brother was in the hatch.
He bolted upright, immediately regretting it. Taking it slow, he rolled over and carefully got up. There were other occupants resting, some of whom were glaring at him. Mario wasn't there. He gave hasty apologies before hobbling out.
The Redoran warriors were eating around a fire. Neither Mario nor Miles were anywhere to be seen.
One of them took notice. "Crispy fried outlander! You're already up?"
Luigi nodded slowly. "Have you seen my friends?"
"Your healer friend disappeared and that old legionnaire is dead asleep in his tent over there. Did the healer happen to have any scrolls of intervention on him?"
Luigi froze. Was he worried over nothing? But Mario was too stubborn to use scrolls even when he should, so this was odd. "Yeah! But he doesn't use them."
"He could have thought the Telvanni wizard cast an intervention," the Redoran pointed out.
Mario would take such a gamble to chase the wizard. Luigi almost sank to the ground in relief. His brother was likely on his way back from Ald'rhun.
The Redoran laughed at his sudden relief, "Or he could have been vaporized. Who knows!"
Luigi was fairly sure that Mario had ended up in the city. "We'll see," he said.
Oh, wait. His brother was easily sidetracked.
The Redoran cackled as Luigi rushed back to Maar Gan. What a rotten time this outlander was having.
Author's Note
Thanks for reading!