-Stonefalls-
"You have to wake up."
A simple plea from a Khajiit in a cloak and hood. And then the cat lowers the hood reveling dark gray fur and unusual markings and such weary eyes. With a soft sigh, Shade-Whiskers leans against the cave wall, the only light the river of magma in the distance. The cave had been buried by Ash Mountain's eruption. Shade would have never known to come here, if not for the whispers of faded moons letting her know one of her butterflies still was...savable. Shade looks up at Talshaza. The Dunmer is locked in stone, not alive but not dead. In between, sleeping beyond this world the Khajiit lays a careful paw on the stone. "The whispers said it was past time for you to wake. That you should have woken already," Shade whispers and then leans back against the cave wall. "He searched for you for so long. His rage at not finding you...but at last he surrendered, at last he gave up." Shade pauses. As if her words would cause stone to crack and the Dunmer to wake once more. But not a single crack appears and she continues to talk, "I was trapped too for sooo long. Left alone in the dark...even Shadow got bored of taunting me eventually. She thought I had given up, so she left me all alone in the dark. Alone knowing my race was slipping away day by day, knowing all hope was dying. Only whispers from what used to be our moons kept me going." Again she falls silent. Knowing that there is much to do, but she has no hope of doing it alone. "Please wake up. I know you do not want to, but I need you. The world needs you. You are our hope. Our last hope made manifest."
-Beyond-
~You know this is not real~
A faint whisper, a faint specter one that Talshaza ignores. It is from the nightmare and so she turns and walks toward her house, the gentle sound of farm life all around her.
~You have to wake up.~
A small frown from the Dunmer woman. Why was this voice intruding now? Only peace and unending unmoving time had enveloped her for...she was not sure for how long. A moment? A lifetime? This world was a dream...warm and full of things thought lost and she never had felt the need to wake from the dream until one moment the compulsion to wake had broken through the peaceful realm, had almost pulled her back into the nightmare. But the power within her and the desire to stay here had broken the compulsion and the dream continued. Peace here… home and family. And so she pushes the voice away and walks into her house.
At the table sits her brother and Leaps-With-Wolves, a meal spread out before them. A smile crosses Talshaza's face as she sits down. Her brother's serious but warm eyes, Leaps brave and strong gaze. It was perfect here. Her brother, her best friend, her home restored to what it was, time unending and unpassing and nothing could destroy any of it. She could stay here forever, wants to. Wants to stay so very much. All that exists outside this peaceful dream is an unending nightmare of loss and pain.
A shiver across the dreaming and Leaps expression changes as she looks at Talshaza. "I… Talshaza," Leaps starts and then pauses before continuing. "You know I am lost." the Argonian says.
Startled the Dunmer woman leaps up. "You are not!" Talshaza says. "You are here with me and my brother. We can be safe here. Brother, tell her…,"
But Alvenniu is gone. Leaps rises and moves toward the Dunmer and her claw lightly touches her cheek."Talshaza," Leaps says softly.
A tear falls down Talshaza's cheek followed by another. "Please. Let me stay here. You are here Leaps. Alvenniu is here." Another tear. "Out there...neither of you is out there. Everyone I know, love, is gone out there!" Talshaza says.
"I know, but if you stay here, hope is forever lost, I may be gone, Alvenniu may be gone, but what of others that still live? Do they deserve to have no hope?" Leaps tells her.
Talshaza looks helplessly at her friend. "What hope is there left?" the Dunmer whispers.
"You will never know if you stay here," the Argonian tells her. "Talshaza, you exist between life and death...and closer to death each day you linger here. If you do not wake one day you will die and hope will be gone. The last breath you take is the last light the world may have."
The Dunmer woman looks so lost. "I am just a simple Dunmer from a small simple house," Talshaza whispers.
A small sad smile from Leaps. "The greatest heroes started the same. Pulled from a normal life into the threads of destiny."
"It is not fair," Talshaza says. "I did not ask for this. To lose EVERYTHING in this."
"I know," Leaps responds. "You have to decide. Be true to who you are, who you were becoming before it all fell to ruin, or fade away and be nothing but a faded dream, a lost hope."
Long moments pass and then Talshaza wraps her arms around Leaps and feels her friend's arms around her in turn. The Dunmer's tears fall on the Argonian's scales. "Leaps," she whispers. "If I could have saved you…," her eyes shut face contorted with pain and loss as the dream starts to unravel all around her, as her friend vanishes and the nightmare slowly returns.
It starts with the smallest of cracks and then it spreads. Shade leaps up as the shell containing Talshaza shatters and the Dunmer's eyes flicker open before she falls forward and Shade catches her. "You wake. At last, you wake," Shade whispers.
The soft voice that should be unfamiliar but somehow is not. A flicker of memory, a pendent found, a gilding presence until the world fell apart. Somehow Talshaza knows this is the one who was guiding them...until things went so very wrong. Until all turned to nightmare and shadows. The only thing to cling to now as the reality returns the Dunmer wraps her arms around the Khajiit as if hanging on for her life. "I...did not want to wake," she whispers.
Shade feels wet tears on her fur and she holds the shaking Dunmer for long moments until the shaking at last stops. "I know," Shade responds. "I too was trapped in a place beyond here, beyond time. The world outside…," she trails off.
Talshaza releases Shade and sits back looking at the Khajiit. Trapped...so that is why the guiding presence vanished. Yet another thing that had been lost. "Why wake then?" Talshaza whispers. "I...I know I cannot stay asleep but what hope is there? How can I do anything now?"
The loss and despair in the Dunmer's voice and Shade meets her gaze. "I… have an idea. But we need many many things first. Nearly impossible things." she pauses before continuing. "We need to find out who did this."
A confused look across the Dunmer's face. "We know the ones who broke the world already."
"Three guides," Shade answers. "To guide the dark, the light, and those who would guide the lost back. I was your guide...but I failed. The one who guides the dark is my shadow, my darkest thoughts never to see the light of day...taken from me. I did not know until she trapped me." A soft growl. "This was not meant to be! Someone upset the game, did the impossible, and sliced through rules, through fate, through EVERYTHING. Someone or something beyond all of this. We need to find out who they are."
Understanding crosses through the Dunmer's eyes. Why they never stood a chance. Why she and Leaps could never find Rel'ihala and Tervven, why all of this happened and her hands clenched into fists? "Find whoever this is and kill them," Talshaza hisses.
The cave starts to heat up and Shade places a paw on the Dunmer's arm. "I need to ask you to trust me. You do not know me, not really, but I ask for trust all the same. It is more important we find out who they are and how they upset the balance than it is to try and kill them," Shade tells her.
Talshaza stares into the Khajiit's eyes. Lose and pain, despair mirror her own. But also determination, hope, as frail as that is. And in that moment she understands Shade needs her. This is not something one can do alone. "I...trust you," she responds and stands followed by Shade.
Once outside Talshaza squints at the sunlight. It has been...so long since she had been awake. Since she felt the sun upon her skin, set eyes on the waking world. Slowly she turns around taking in everything around her. The landscape is almost unrecognizable and Stone Mountain in the distance one side is utterly gone, though the Volcano seems quiet now. A long silent pause as she takes it all in. The destroyed landscape, but also the life that has taken hold. This did not happen a day ago, nor a month ago, and a cold realization sets in and she turns to Shade. "How long?" Talshaza whispers.
A long pause from the Khajiit. "It took me so long to find a way out of my prison. It was beyond time…," Shade says.
The pause in Shade's voice, she has not been free long, but longer than Talshaza. And the Dunmer can hear it in her words, she knows how long it has been. "How long?" Talshaza asks once more.
Shade turns to look at the volcano. The day shines brightly, but the world is not how it was. The sun just masks the truth that night will bring. "...Five years," Shade at last answers.
The Dunmer pales and turns back to the volcano. It seems forever ago, and yet just yesterday that she was with Leaps. Just yesterday there was still hope of finding their friends. But five years...they had been lost for five years. She had been lost in the dream...for five long years. The words Shade spoke...the world had descended further into the dark. Further away from the world she knew, once. "You ask me to trust you," Talshaza says. "But how can we make any of this…." she trails off. There is no better, how can there be?
Shade moves closer to her. "A chance," Shade responds. "The smallest of chances. But we need much. To find who did this will put us in the greatest of dangers. We need allies."
Allies….friends… Talshaza does her best to push the memories away. Of those she had lost, yesterday and so long ago at the same time. "I...met Rufus in Blackwood. Leaps met Theodyn in Stormhaven. I… they cannot still be there, after this long. But they would fight this, would they not?"
"Let us see if there is any trace of them," Shade says and turns to open a portal. It flickers briefly before stabilizing and the two enter.
-Stormhaven-
Shade stands by the bedroom door one arm wrapped around the other claws digging into the fur as if by sheer force of will she could stop herself from trembling...but she cannot stop, any more than she can unsee the skeleton that lay in the ruins of the bedroom. So small...never a chance to be. Slowly Shade reaches out and closes the door and moves past the entrance hall into the living room. "Talshaza…," Shade whispers as she looks around. Broken furniture covered in dust, old bloodstains on the walls and floor, a broken sword discarded. And the Dunmer woman kneeling by another skeleton in rusted shattered armor.
The Dunmer glances at her a lost look in her eyes. "Theodyn," Talshaza quietly says. "I did not find Rufico's remains. Did you?" Silence meets her question and the Dunmer rises to stare into Shade's eyes and the truth within and she pales. Leaps had told her that the two had adopted a little girl. "No…," Talshaza says and turns her head away hands clenching in anger. "What one of these monsters DID THIS?" she hisses.
Shade moves to the remains and kneels down her claws gently touching the armor and then moving to the neck bones, scratched and damaged. "He was bit deep enough to hit bone," Shade says as her fingers move over the indentations. When next she speaks there is a tremor of fear in her words. "Vampire."
The runes on the Dunmer's arms start to glow. "Xahrshi DID this then?" she says.
Shade frowns lost in thought. She had not been free for long but she gleaned information here and there. Being so very careful, Shadow would know she was free eventually, but she wanted as long as possible until she became hunted by her shadow. The Bane of Werewolfs, he was selective in his prey. But yes he could have done this, taking out the heroes of the last war would be a strategic maneuver. And yet something did not feel right. The bite marks were too small for the male Khajiit and… Shade rises and looked around at the chaos around her. This was not a strategic strike. This was rage and carnage unleashed. Another frown and she moves to the wall where claw-marks are etched into the wood and she runs her claws over them. Different than hers. Not Khajiit. "These are Argonian," Shade says. "He must have sent one of his minions to take care of this."
"I care not what they are, they will burn for this," Talshaza hisses, and Shade turns to her. The Dunmer was on the cusp of losing control, the fire burning bright in her eyes, rage and pain ready to be unleashed. Shade starts to talk but the Dunmer interrupts, "Do not tell me to just trust you again! How could any idea change all of this? They are dead! My friends are dead, my brother. Countless others."
Shade meets the furious Dunmer's gaze, not a single word is spoken for long moments. They are beyond words, for they are meaningless in the face of this kind of darkness. Something in Shade's eyes reaches the Dunmer and she at last calms, the glow fading from the runes. "I...want to go home," Talshaza at last speaks. "But the last time I did…"
Shade turns and carves runes into the air as a portal slowly flickers open. "I enchanted my robes and the ones I gave you," Shade responds. "As long as we keep our heads down and as long as you do not use your powers we will not draw attention. We will go to Vvardenfell."
The Dunmer looks at the portal and reaches for it with a small frown. It is unstable not because of Shade but because of something else. "Everything...is wrong," she whispers and then crosses through the portal followed by Shade.
-Vvardenfell-
On top of a hillside cliff overlooking what used to be home. Despite the enchantments on the cloak, Talshaza dares not set foot any closer. Or perhaps there are other reasons...home. But she had lost everything that made this place home. Her parents during the Mad Necromancers war. And then her brother during this one. Though to call it a war...they never had a true chance to wage such a thing against the ones who did this. As her eyes look around it is so very different than it once was. Her inferno had taken anything and now nature was taking it back. There were near no traces of home, anymore. Just regrown plant life and a fine coating of ash from Red Mountain. A slight quake shakes the land briefly. "It was not this active...before," Talshaza says. The Moon's destruction had caused several large disasters, and she feels sure the only reason the Red Mountain did not fully erupt was Lord Vivec. "Is Vivec City still...missing?" she asks.
"I ran into a Dunmer when searching for you in StoneFalls," Shade answers. "The Living Gods...there is no trace of them or the cities they called home." A small frown on the Khajiit's face. "...I do not know if we can even get to Clockwork when we need to. We must but…," she trails off.
A cold shiver passes through Talshaza. Did the Living Gods retreat or did something make them do so? Yet another mystery, yet less to help this world and she turns to the Khajiit. The longing in her voice was the same as hers. "Your home," she says realization in her voice.
"Yes," Shade responds. "But it is more than that. We need it. It has to be still there...but we do not need it YET. Worry about it later." Shade turns to look at the setting sun. It is not truly safe during the day, no place is anymore, but the night is far far worse and so the two turn their back on what was the Dunmer's home to seek shelter from the horrors of the night.
-Ashlander Camp-
The Dark moon hovers overhead casting an uneasy pale over the camp. Talshaza and Shade sit by one of the large fires in the camp protected by magic, palisades, fierce Ashlanders, and others. A haven in the dark for the lost and weary. "What do you know of the last five years," Talshaza quietly asks.
Shade's whiskers twitch. "Not as much as I would like," Shade admits, "The four scourges rule much of Tamriel. Feared, hatred, even worshiped by some. They hold power that is said to rival gods and princes...somehow they have amassed impossible power. So much more than they had when they shattered the moons and broke the world."
The Dunmer woman pales at this. "All my power before was not enough to stop Ri'Zakar," she responds. "Now are you saying that there is no chance at all?"
Shade shakes her head. "Back before they broke the moons, if things had gone as they should have, the four of you would have been enough, together. If all of you had the chance to BE what you were meant to become...together. But now… I do not see how they can be defeated head-on. And even if they could it would not restore all that has been lost." Shade says and a haunted look crosses her face. "Clockwork is my home, but I was born in Elsweyr. I am Khajiit. My Race is falling into extinction and my birth home is…," she trails off.
"What did you find out?" Talshaza asks and at the long pause that greets her her blood runs cold. "Shade."
Shade looks down. "He searched for you, Talshaza. And when he could not find you, when he at last gave you up for dead…," she pauses. "I have not seen it for myself. Spoke to a Khajiit refugee who had. There...is only a crater where Rimmen once stood."
Briefly, the runes flare up under the hood "If only I had been strong enough before," she says anger reverberating in every word.
"There is no possible way to win," Shade says. "Only an impossible way remains."
Talshaza looks at Shade. So much the Khajiit had not told her. And yet she trusted her but before she can respond two passing Dunmer say something that has her standing up startled and she stares at the two as they move away. "He said Tervven's name," she breathes and then glances at Shade. "He cannot mean the same one. The Argonian said he was lost." And yet, she finds herself following the two and Shade stands up and follows.
The two Dunmer stand around a smaller fire talking quietly. "Sanctuary from this pit. Sadrith Mora is civilized and clean. Not Ashlanders and outlanders at every breath," the first says.
The second folds his arms. "And the cost? It is said he demands a heavy toll. Gold, unusual artifacts, even servitude. Dunmers, reduced to THAT?"
The first scoffs. "No Telvanni would enslave a Dunmer. Every other fetching race. But not us."
The second glowers slightly. "Do you not pay any attention? The "Lord" of the Telvanni is not even one of them. Just swooped in and took over. Overturned all the traditions of rising in the ranks! They even say he's formally of House Dres, and you know what happened to them. Some say he's responsible for that as well." The two continue to argue moving away further into the camp.
Talshaza turns to Shade. "How? How can it be possible? Could Tervven be un-lost like me?"
Unsettled Shade returns her gaze. "When the sun rises we will find out," Shade says, and at the Dunmer's impatient look, she turns to look up at the nightmarish sky. "Magic works strangely now, and barely at all at night. Everything is broken and jagged." The words that are not spoken still echo. Everything is wrong.
-Sadrith Mora-
Talshaza had only been to this part of Vvardenfell once. And now it has changed utterly. Once an open place of Telvanni schemes and mushroom towers, now an eerie green barrier surrounds Sadrith Mora and the only way in is through a guarded gate. The two women stop nearby. "He knows you if this is the same Tervven," Shade cautions. "Let me do the talking. Keep your hood and mask up. Even if it is him...he may not be the same Tervven you knew."
An image comes to Talshaza's mind of her fellow Dunmer. Surly, arms folded as he glowers at the world and his lot in life. But there was always a small spark of something more. More than he could become, BE. Would have with them...if things had not gone so very wrong. She wants to see THAT in him still. Even after the world fell, even after five years. But everything is shattered and broken, how can even a trace of what she knew be? And so she covers her face and follows Shade to the gate.
"Halt and state your purpose," One of the Guards instructs.
Shade stops. "This one has heard that the Dunmer inside buys pretty strange things. S'kara is good at finding things and could use gold." Shade says.
The guard smirks a bit. "Finding? Or stealing? You are lucky it makes no difference, cat. But Lord Tervven does not buy common junk. He's very particular. You should try elsewhere."
Shade reaches into her cloak and pulls out a small strange device. "S'kara knows what is junk and what is not. This is something that is not junk," she says.
The guard looks closely and then turns and gestures. A few moments later a studious Dunmer male appears in common clothes, slave bands on his wrists and he moves to Shade and looks over the device. "The Lord will want to see this, I think." The Dunmer says.
"Take them in then, Andvis, The guard says.
"Follow me, and keep close," Andvis tells them and takes off through the Mora.
Shade and Talshaza follow and once clear of the guards Shade speaks, "You are Dunmer. But…,"
Andvis looks back at Shade briefly. "I'm from a small house with no means in this world of ours. Nothing of worth, no talent of worth, save for my smarts. This," he gestures at his wrists. "Gets me a safe place to stay. Allows me to send money home. If servitude is what it takes to keep that, then that is my lot in life." he continues heading toward the highest and grandest of the mushroom towers.
Shade glances at Talshaza. A Dunmer keeping slaves was not unheard of, though the Pact had outlawed it, though the Telvanni never did follow that mandate. But keeping fellow Dunmer as indentured servants? A soft hiss from Shade and the two continue.
Andvis leads them to the entrance of the largest mushroom tower. As Shade and Talshaza look up it is much like the Telvanni towers of old, but it also is different. Shades of vivid green mix into the natural colors, tendrils writhe around the upper stalk. "You may enter. Lord Tervven will be down shortly until he is wait in the main room and do not touch anything. There is protection upon all inside," Andvis says.
The door opens for the two women and as soon as they cross the threshold it closes. "What…," Shade whispers as her eyes look around. The room is very large and filled with so many strange things. Books that float upon their pedestals, ancient artifacts, Daedric treasures, and vats with creatures known and unknown in them, held in suspended life. Shade frowns slightly as she moves to one of the bigger ones. Inside is a naked Argonian female with vivid orange scales and as Shade watches the scales change design and color over and over. A faint memory of eyes staring at her as she talked to Stratos long ago. This could not be… she starts to reach toward the vault and then stops, remembering Andvis words.
Talshaza is also looking around for anything that reminds her of the Dunmer she knew, but none of this strange and eerie collection is the Tervven she knew. Could the Lord of this tower truly be the same Tervven?
A Breton in simple clothing and slave bands appears from a nearby room and makes her way over to Shade. "Lord Tervven will be with you shortly," she says and then turns as a slight hum reverberates through the tower as a levitation elevator activates and both Shade and Talshaza turn their eyes toward it.
A Dunmer floats down, one clad in functional and stylish mage robes of blue and black, black hair tied back in a stylish short Mohawk and as his feet touch the ground he approaches Shade, noticing her interest in his collection. "She is not for sale," he tells her and then with a smirk adds, "Not as if a cat such as you could afford her even if she was."
Talshaza watches from a distance trying to see the slightly scruffy Tervven in this elegant, Dunmer mage. It is there but her mind pushes it away...at least until he speaks. The same arrogant tone but gone is the anger that so often tainted his speech. Part of her wants to throw off the hood, to go to him. A familiar part of her past, before the nightmare. But something stops her. This room, everything is so strange. And so she stays quiet.
"This one does not have much gold," Shade says. "So S'kara will keep her paws to herself. You will trade this one gold for my shiny?"
Tervven's eyebrow arches. "Depends if it is worth my time. I am very busy, and I do not like those who waste my time. But my slave showed me you had something very unusual. So show me, make it worth my while cat."
Shade takes out the device again and holds it out to the Dunmer and his eyes light up as he takes it and studies it intently before looking at Shade shrewdly. "Do you know what this is?"
"S'kara thought Dwemer, but it is not like the shinies this one has found in such ruins. Not sure what it does, but it is a RARE shiny." Shade responds.
A small smile on the Dunmer's face. "At least you know true treasure when you find it," Tervven responds and then names a price. "I trust this will be enough for your trouble."
It is a decent sum, more than one would give for a Dwemer relic, but less than something from a city only fabled to exist. It is clear that Dunmer knows what it is, but Shade keeps playing dumb. The gold matters not, she just is pretending it does. "So much gold. Yes, this pleases this one," Shade responds. Tervven gestures to the Breton who scurries off and returns with a pouch of gold which Shade quickly runs claws through before tucking it in her robes. "If S'kara and her servant find anything else like this, we bring them to you," she says and then moves to Talshaza as Tervven turns his back and examines the clockwork device. "Are you ready to go?" Shade asks her, her eyes asking a very different question. Leave now, or approach Tervven.
Talshaza stares at Tervven's back. It IS him. One piece of the past she thought dead, lost. Here before her. How can she go without talking to him? Seeing if what she saw long ago is still in those eyes of his. Slowly she starts to move toward him but before she can take more than two steps a strange mutant bear pops into existence followed by its master, Lyssavi. Startled she pauses and Shade grabs her arm and pulls her to the door. "Go now," Shade hisses. And in shock the Dunmer woman lets herself be led away.
At a safe distance from Sadrith Mora the two stop. Talshaza slowly walks to a rock and slides to the ground leaning against it as if the world is falling apart, again. "The Argonian said he was lost. I thought perhaps he was wrong. But if he is with THEM…," Talshaza trails off and closes his eyes. "If he is then he lost...but how can he be? Why?"
The pain from the Dunmer woman is almost too much for Shade to bear and she moves to the Dunmer resting a paw on the Dunmer's shaking shoulder. "You cannot let him see you, not until we know for sure," Shade says. "He knows you. But he does not know me. I will find out what is going on. If he is lost, or if there is another reason for all of this." Shade turns and before Talshaza can stop her she is gone.
Once more she is let into the tower. A story of how another of her "servants" had found her something. Told to stay on the first floor until Lord Tervven's guest left. But this time Shade is not here to look and wait. This time she means to do more and so once the servant leaves she takes out a small clockwork beetle. "Keep me safe," Shade whispers as it activates. It should disrupt any magical traps and safeguards. Let her wander where she was not meant to wander. Should. With that thought in mind, she cloaks herself and moves upward. Slowly and silently until she finds another room, and those she seeks in it. With quiet paw steps, she hides in the shadows and watches.
Lyssavi is moving around the room. It is smaller than downstairs, but also filled with strange things. Things that hum with magic, power, and Daedric energies. The Rabies Scourge at last stops by a small display with an odd little glowing orb. "This is new," the Nord says.
Tervven smirks. "A orb from Azura's realm. The Breton Mage did not want to part with it, even with the allure of gold," the Dunmer says and moves to it. "I pried it out of his dead fingers after my summoned tentacles rent him to pieces."
The Nord smiles at that as he turns to the Dunmer. "Curiosity is my driving force. Want to know how things work? How to make new things. But...power…," Lyssavi says with a tilt of his head. "Also has an allure. My horde of rabid beasts makes me stronger, and being so strong….nothing can stop my curiosity now." A small happy smile. "Any who try gets fed to my horde. Or if they are interesting enough, vivisected."
A hungry look passes through Tervven's eyes. "To think all I wanted once was to defy my pathetic father and to lift my curse. Now…," he holds up a hand and an eerie green glow appears. "The power of Apocrypha...well a drop of it. Enough to rip the curse from me, enough to get me all I have ever desired," he says.
"And yet you still want more," Lyssavi answers. "Just as my curiosity will never be satiated, your thirst for knowledge and power will not either."
The Dunmer shrugs at this. "Makes life interesting," he responds.
"Knew you'd be our friend if you survived" Lyssavi responds "Should go. Things to do, creatures to make, and…," he gestures. "Right. Should warn you she'll show up soon."
Tervven crosses his arms an odd look in his eyes. "As long as she does not bite me, I think I am agreeable to that today," the Dunmer says.
Curiosity gleams in the Nord's eyes. "Curious how that works," Lyssavi says a hint of a question in his voice.
Tervven snorts. "Find out for yourself, Lyssavi," he says and then smirks. "I have many many slaves. I am sure you could convince one of them to satisfy your curiosity."
A small pout from the Nord. "I think I would prefer to watch…," and then at the Dunmer's glare, he shrugs. "Very well. No watching."
The two move away and Shade slowly rises and heads back downstairs. She must return to Talshaza...but she knows this will further break the Dunmer's heart. How much can one lose, before all hope is lost in their heart? She needs the Dunmer woman. All her hopes, all the world's hopes...without the power Talshaza holds, her plan has no chance of ever succeeding. Such are her thoughts as she leaves the tower into the twilight she never notices the eyes upon her.
From the shadows a faint glow of crimson eyes, the glimmer of fangs, and the faintest of hisses. "I can see you little cat. Did you steal from my pet?" Soft twisted laughter. "I can SEE you. And that means I can HUNT you, little thief." Another laugh and then a flutter of many wings and the shadows fall silent once more.
Talshaza sits by the fire staring into its depths Shade's words echoing in her head. The Tervven she had known, was gone. Lost to power and darkness. "There is no hope for him?" Talshaza whispers.
Shade pauses before answering. Thinking back on all she had seen and heard. Slaves cowed, artifacts uncounting, some gotten through treacherous means. The Argonian that reminded her so much of one she only glimpsed for a moment, trapped as if she was nothing more than a curiosity. And...the largest inescapable truth. He was allied with the Scourges. Shade closes her eyes thinking of his icy tone, the easy way he spoke of murder. The lust for power in his eyes. "He is not the Tervven you knew," Shade says at last opening her eyes. "He...is not the hero he should have become. The Argonian who saved you was right. He is lost."
The Dunmer swallows. Another blow, another crack upon countless others. She must not let herself shatter, must be strong, somehow. "I…," she starts then pauses as the night sounds around them suddenly still.
Shade stands and turns toward the night and the sound of wings and something else...crimson eyes in the dark and a voice so twisted it raises the fur on the back of her neck. "I thought you a thief, little cat. Foolish little thief to steal from my pet. But no...you are here empty-handed…" The voice trails off and the eyes turn toward Talshaza, the Dunmer still fully hooded and masked. A lingering pause and then a demented hiss. "Little cat...you are here with a familiar scent. One I had all but forgotten," A hiss, and then when the voice speaks again there are hints of rage in it. "The screams deafened...the ice shattered. Blood boiled only to freeze only to boil again. Over and over until all was such jagged agony...and then the ice covered everything. No more pain, no more warmth, just crimson blood, and icy cold depths."
Talshaza slowly rises the blood draining from her face. The voice so alien, yet hauntingly familiar as well. The voice laughs and the crimson eyes move closer and Talshaza takes a step back eyes widening in horror. "It...it cannot BE," Talshaza whispers.
"What is wrong, little Dunmer? Do you not recognize your old friend?" The voice hisses and then they fully step into the light of the fire. Scales of dusky red-gray blending with crimson and black veins wind their way through the red and crimson eyes that glow softly. Argonian, Vampire.
"Leaps-With-Wolves," Talshaza whispers.
An angry hiss at the name, "No little Talz. Leaps-With-Wolves died in screaming agony, wolf and girl alike. Torn asunder, cast into the icy depths. I am Leaps-With-Bats now." Leaps says with a fanged smile a hint of madness in her crimson eyes. "You abandoned Leaps, dear friend. How she screamed for you. Her only friend in this world of nightmares. You never came...and now...I am going to play with you. I am going to show you what true agony and darkness feel like." Her eyes start to glow more as a demented fanged grin comes over her face.
Shade reaches into her cloak and pulls out a device similar to that which she gave Tervven. With a quick press of a button, it starts to tick and the Khajiit throws it into the air a burst of light as bright as the sun flashes. Leap's cries out and leaps away from it and Shade grabs the paralyzed Talshaza and rips an unstable portal in dragging her through it. The last thing the Dunmer sees before it closes is Leap's eyes, so full of darkness that not a hint of light or the Leaps she knew is found in the depths of them.