Chapter 64: The Skaal
"Do you have a village or safe place we can go to?" Subaru asked.
"Preferably one close by?" Siegmeyer added.
"There is my village," Frea said. "We can find refuge there for now."
Subaru nodded. It was better than nothing. "Lead the way."
Frea nodded and led them out of the ruins and to her village.
The village itself looked similar to some villages in Gusteko, in Emilia's opinion. Snow-covered cabins, fire pits in every square, and a general district from the local villagers.
"Москва, Москва…" Subaru muttered under his breath.
"Huh?" Emilia looked at her friend in confusion.
"Moscow, Moscow…"
Everyone gave the Japanese man a funny look, as Frea just ignored him. "Follow me."
Frea led them to the center of the village, where three villagers were concentrating their magic to create a miniature tornado that was extending to the borders of the town.
"Well, you definitely won't find that anywhere in the former Soviet Union."
As everyone gave Subaru yet another funny look, one of the villagers who was focusing their magic looked up at them. His voice was clearly strained due to the constant concentration. "Frea, my daughter, have you found a way to free our people yet?"
Frea shook her head as she kneeled down beside her father. "No, Father, but I have brought allies to aid us in our time of need."
"…I think she means us," Erik whispered to the former Great Sage.
"No duh," he said, smacking Eri's head, before walking ahead. "Hello, I'm Subaru Natsuki."
"My name's Emilia."
"I am Solaire of Astora."
"Aela… of the Companions."
"Erik of Rorikstead."
"And I'm Siegmeyer, of Catarina."
"I am Storn, Chief of the Skaal. You wish to aid us to free our people from this corrupted stone?" The chief, now identified as Storn, greeted everyone as he released his magic to rest, to which another villager took his place.
"Among a few other things, yeah," Subaru said.
Storn nodded. "I see. Then, we will gladly accept your aid in this most trying time."
Storn and Frea brought the group into their home while the chief rested.
"…Could you tell us what happened?" Emilia asked.
"It started mere months ago, when the All-Maker Stones were corrupted by an unknown power. At first, the effects were minimal, with merely an urge to build infecting the people of Solstheim," the bearded old man covered in furs said. "However, it kept growing until their minds were consumed as well, only to be let go to rest their bodies before claiming them again."
"An urge?" Subaru raised an eyebrow at that.
"Something that seeps its way into the minds of the people, slowly taking control of them to construct the structures around the All-Maker Stones," the old man said.
"Mind control," Siegmeyer concluded.
"Indeed," the village chief said. "We do not know how to free our people or the Dunmer of its influence, and I fear if we do not find a way, all of Solstheim will be lost…"
"We'll figure something out," Subaru said.
Storn smiled at seeing their willingness to help. "In the meantime, feel free to stay for as long as you need."
Emilia bowed in gratitude. "Thank you for your hospitality."
Frea then helped Storn to his bed to allow him to rest, and Subaru turned towards his comrades, saying, "Well, as soon as the voodoo's been lifted, I get the feeling these guys might have a potential tourist destination on their hands."
Everyone explored the village, wanting to get a good layout of the place.
"It's... homely," Siegmeyer said.
Aela grumbled, "I really can't say that."
Emilia, meanwhile, wasn't really paying attention. " Hmm…"
Solaire noticed this, and asked, "Something on your mind?"
"Did you notice Frea's axe?"
Solaire raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"
"It was made of ice," the silver-haired half-elf said.
"Like, sculpted out of the stuff?" Erik asked.
"I don't know... but I can't help but get a weird feeling about it…"
"Same here, Emilia-tan. Same here," Subaru said, as they walked around the village, noticing that almost everyone had weapons made of ice. "Hm. Must be magic."
"But ice isn't a very hard material, barring Emilia-san's…" Solaire said.
"Who says it isn't like Emilia's?" the Japanese man asked his group. "Or maybe they found different ways to circumvent its brittleness. Magic is pretty versatile."
Emilia was silent, not sure what to think. But I've never met someone who can use ice like me...
Subaru shook his head and refocused on the task at hand. "Anyways, we shouldn't worry about that. We should focus on helping the people here feel like they aren't in a Gingerbread Death Camp, which means… the zombies."
Emilia: Right. What do we do?
Subaru tapped his chin in deep thought. "Well, since they aren't living corpses, we can't just cut off their heads and be done with it. We gotta figure out how to free them from being thralls of whoever's in charge."
"And to do that... we need to go back inside the temple…" Emilia surmised.
"Yeah, I don't like the sound of that…" Aela said.
"Yeah, well, we don't really have a choice," Subaru argued.
"Mm." Siegmeyer nodded in agreement. "Let's get going, then."
After grabbing Frea from her home, the team made their way back to the temple, to which the door was still open. "Oh, boy. Here we go spelunking…"
Looks like Subaru was back to his usual nonsense.
"Be careful," Frea warned them. "Who knows what dangers lurk in this place…"
Aela nodded. "You're the guide; lead on."
Frea nodded her head and led them inside the temple, looking very similar to the Nordic Ruins back on Gusteko, something which Erik noticed. "Well, this takes me back…"
The Chosen Undead nodded. "Yep…"
Frea gave them a questioning look. "Pardon?"
"We explored a lot of ruins back on the mainland…" That was all Emilia said on the matter.
"Yeah, it was, what? Five of us at most? And the biggest problem we had to deal with was avoiding the Imperials… How simple…" Subaru gave a sigh at the simple times mere months ago.
Emilia sighed in sad nostalgia. "Yeah…"
"Sorry, for… dragging you all into my complicated world. You especially, Emilia."
Emilia sighed. "Subaru, it's fine. Really."
"No. Back then, if I had been smarter, faster, stronger… maybe you'd be living happily in the Elior Forest with your parents, instead of having to deal with… saving the world," Subaru said, in his typical self-loathing manner.
"Subaru... even if that was true, then no one would be able to stop Alduin." Emilia tried to comfort Subaru, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect.
"Maybe. Or maybe he'd never show up in this era if I didn't strike that bargain."
"I don't believe your bargain had any correlation to his banishment and return," Solaire said, also attempting to offer solace.
"Maybe. Still, the mere possibility that it could have keeps me up at night."
"Well, we can't change the past, only learn from it," Aela said.
Subaru looked ahead with a grim expression. "Yeah…"
The team remained silent, uncomfortable at Subaru's words, before they soon came across an open chamber with cells hanging from the ceiling... and skeletons inside. With several pointy objects of varying degrees inserted into said skeletons.
"…Frea?" the nasty-eyed man called out.
"They are not my people. These ones have been here for too long... did "Miraak" do this?" Frea asked, almost horrified by the horrors that must've been inflicted here.
"Possibly, but we don't know yet," Soalire said.
"Well... I wouldn't feel too bad for them." Subaru points at their clothing, revealing a set of purple robes, with a hood adorned by a familiar red eye logo.
Aela's eyes widened. "Witch Cultists…"
"Well, guess this Miraak guy ain't a fan of Pandora's Cult." Even other cults didn't like Witch Cultists, Subaru guessed. A nice little bit of trivia that might help him later.
Frea did a double-take upon hearing that. "Pandora?"
"Another witch. She's the one in control of the Witch Cult. Not Satella." Subaru summarized.
"…What?"
"It's a long story."
"Well, you better tell me it later." Subaru sighed as he would have to yet again explain the truth.
"Will do, now let's move."
The group went deeper into the tunnel, and things started looking... weird. There were strange draconic carvings, like statues, and they swore they heard... ethereal growling.
"We should be on our guard…" Emilia whispered.
Agreed…" Frea said. "These carvings... they aren't natural...
"My money's on golems," Subaru said, as he looked at the others. "You guys?"
"Golems sound about right," the elven Dragonborn said.
"I'd say their eyes spew magical death," Aela said.
"Acidic torture." Solaire guessed.
Siegmeyer added, "Either gas or pitfalls."
Erik said, "I'm gonna go with Solaire's thing…"
Frea, meanwhile, was mildly horrified. "You people are starting to concern me…"
They soon reached deep into the temple, and found a dead end... with a Word Wall.
"Emilia, think you can read this?" Subaru asked.
"I'll try…"
"The rest of us, we'll keep an eye out. Don't want those golems sneaking up on us."
Emilia walked up to the glowing word, which read as "Mul". Mul... Strength...
"…That's it?" Siegmeyer asked.
"It's not from any shout I know…"
"Ehh, we can try out later," Subaru said.
Suddenly, the sarcophagus opened up, revealing... more Draugr. While Frea was shocked, Soalire clicked his tongue in disappointment. "Well, guess we were all wrong."
Subaru nodded. "Welp, you guys know the drill."
"Yeah, yeah, hack and slash," Aela said, pulling out her sword.
Emilia then formed two ice swords and rushed in to stab them against the wall. The others also rushed in, as Frea watched, clearly realizing that they didn't need her. Instead, she was eyeing Emilia, specifically her weapons, studying them.
"Whoo!" Subaru whooped. "That burned off some carbs!"
"We should keep moving," Emilia said.
"Yeah, good call," Erik said. They moved even deeper into the temple, until they reached some kind of eldritch room... with a Black Book on a pedestal in the center.
"Yeeeaaaaah… no." That was all Aela said.
Frea gulped. "This book... it feels... unnatural…"
"As in… evil…?" Solaire asked.
"I believe so…"
"…Dibs," Suabru said, as he quickly rushed over to the book.
"Subaru, wait!" Both Emilia and Subaru put their hands on the book, which… caused tentacles to erupt and pierce into their bodies. Suddenly, Subaru and Emilia found themselves in another place entirely. A world with a green sky and land that seemed to be made out of... books?
"Okaaay… that's new," Subaru deadpanned.
"Where... are we?" Emilia asked.
"If I had to guess, either a mirror dimension or a well-crafted hallucination." Subaru guessed, but he started to recognize this place. Wasn't this Apo-
THWACK!
Suddenly, both Subaru and Emilia felt something strike their backs, and they're bodies froze up, having been subjected to a Paralysis spell. "Aw, what the hell?!"
They heard footsteps walking up behind them, with the source of said footsteps walking around them. They saw a man in ancient looking Mage robes that covered his whole body, and a strange, eldritch mask that covered his head, preventing them from seeing his expressions.
"Subaru, any ideas?" Emilia asked.
"Nope," Subaru said.
"I don't know whether I should be pleased or disappointed at that statement."
Emilia glared at the masked man. "Who... are you?"
The masked man focused his attention on the half-elf. "I am Miraak, the First Dragonborn."
Emilia gave a slight smirk. "Well, looks like you got traded in for a newer model."
Underneath his mask, Miraak smirked as he eyed the two of them. "Oh, we'll see about that."
Author's Note: Uh-oh, guess who's back again?
(And so, we are finally introduced to Miraak: Nirn's First Dragonborn. Now, I don't know if I've said this before, but I'll say it here just in case. Miraak's backstory is almost non-existent prior to him actually becoming the Dragonborn. So, we're expanding on his backstory here and making him a more deep character that isn't just "I'm gonna take over the world because I can!". So, we hope you all enjoy what we have planned for him.)
5queso: Yeah… it's the Dragonborn DLC, alright. I don't know jack about the plot, that's Infinite's playhouse. But I do hope you like how we play it out. Until next time!
Kifhjoofff: Low-level cultists have got nothing on this team.
Just fan (Guest): Uhh… sure? To be honest, we were kinda planning to have it go three-way, but given how little flirting the two of them have actually done, we might have dropped that romantic subplot. (Yeah, we might just have it not work out.)
Anyways, back to the regular old shilling…
I'm pretty sure as you all know now, I have also made a Twitter account to post my art, so if anyone is interested in checking it out, /ErnaloreProf is the link.
If you want more content, visit my Discord, the link is /3PFYSt8Dqz. You can chat with others, post memes, fanfic recommendations and prompts, role play, fan art, and we even have a writer's corner now! I'll also drop by with announcements and chat with you all every now and then! Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my username is Ernalore#8663! Just please make sure to follow the rules
Thanks for reading, and once again, see you next time!
- Ernalore & Infinite the Celestian