Chapter 26: Rocks Smashing
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Gullintani
Zahkriisos
It would not be long now, Zahrkriisos thought as he watched an elven ship pull into the port from one of Gullintani's new windows. The ship bore the insectoid crest of the star-wife's enemies, the reaver-folk's enemies, House Redoran.
He knew them loosely, they were a warrior clan for better or worse. Valorous in battle, inept in administration. A heart full of compassion for those injured by a blade or spell, and a stony block for anyone injured through disease or misfortune. The star-wife hated them, the star-wife's reavers hated them. But Zahkriisos and his folk didn't.
They just wanted them gone, post haste, so they could work in peace.
He left the window and returned to the mostly empty library. Tomes would be collected from merchants and adventurers, or bartered for in Apocrypha – all the be stored and cared for in one place. The Black Books of Herma-Mora that had been collected would never be displayed there – they were too dangerous.
However, the library wasn't done yet. Zahkriisos began to sculpt stone and wood into his desired shapes to create the shelving and seating for the room.
Zahkriisos had only been in command for a day, but he used that day well. He had constructed two additional cisterns designed after what had been in Bloodskal. Seawater would rush in and be boiled upon glyphs of everlasting flame. The steam would rise up tubes and fall back down as fresh water to fill the cistern.
He had started the library on his own, and instructed the other mages to work on repairs to the town, and scouting the western side for possible wall construction spots.
In between bursts of construction, while his magicka replenished itself, Zahkriisos reviewed the star-wife's plans for Solstheim, to be passed to the Jarl once he arrived.
In Dukaan's lands there was a place called 'Castle Karstagg', built of ice and fortified by Rieklings – the star-wife wanted to investigate if working with the Rieklings to create a settlement was possible, as the castle stood between two major mining locations. This was a step toward eventually taking an extremely rich gold mine called Frossel at the very edge of the island.
Zahrkriisos decided he would recommend to the star-wife and Jarl that they take Saering's Watch and make it a settlement – an entrance point to Miraak's network of city-tomb tunnels. Miraak's network had been separate – but if linked back to Dukaan's, it would give them the ability to traverse most of the island underground. They could take the mineral resources from the other side, and work outward toward the coast.
Suddenly, the air split apart. Currents of white particles whipped through the library's space as a point in space the size of a hand became a slipstream portal.
A foul smell filled the air as Zahkriisos' kinsmen stepped through the portal. They were fresh from their tombs, filthy and barely dressed.
As he had been when resurrected.
Zahkriisos set aside the notes he'd read and floated into the air. "You are returned to Nirn by the grace of an incarnated star-wife," he proclaimed to the eighteen Atmorans assembled. "Who leads you?"
From among them emerged a woman with the antler-adorned helm of a Scourge. "Tyn, Guardian of Al-Du-In's anger, leads these men." On her back was a bow, aged so badly that the care and craftsmanship it had been shown no longer was visible.
Lightning collected in Zahkriisos' hands. "You serve the World-Eater still? Or does the star-wife's thu'um have the mastery?"
His kinspeople looked at the ground, though Tyn would not avert her eyes from Zahkriisos' mask. She had burns on her flesh, from extreme cold and flame both. There was a rattle in her breath, a common symptom of two Tongues having fought. She eventually averted her eyes too.
"I see." Zahkriisos released the lightning he held, and floated down to the ground. "Come, my kin. Welcome to Solstheim."
First things first, he would get them scrubbed clean of tomb-filth and dressed appropriately. Then he could sort out who would have lordship over them, since they had no priest to lead them.
Dukaan had the most dire need for manpower, as so few of his people remained. But Ahzidal's lands desperately needed tending too… it would be a matter he discussed with Farri once he returned.
Which Zahkriisos had expected to happen, as the portal remained open. Yet, there was nothing remotely cat-shaped on its way through.
A messenger bird came through instead with a small scroll. It perched on Zahkriisos' shoulder and vanished once he had taken the message. Afterward, the portal closed.
'Is there a way to remotely detect dovahkiin? I have suspicions about one's location, but no idea how they were found out in the first place. Open a portal to Bleak Falls Barrow to send the reply. -- Farri'.
Zahkriisos looked up at the tomb-filth covered Atmorans. "You are from Bleak Falls?"
Many nods were his reply. Tyn spoke up again. "We were to protect the map of our lord's tombs, so that Al-Du-In could bend time and revive them."
Ah yes. The dragons had been overthrown by the mortals of the continent not long after Miraak was defeated. Couldn't happen to nicer creatures.
Bleak Falls had been a relatively impressive settlement once upon a time. Not as grand or expansive as Bromjunaar, or as economically supreme as Bloodskal, but densely populated due to the splendorous farmland available in the valley nearby. Modern Skyrim maps showed that the valley had lost most of its arable land to forests.
Zahkriisos called forth a messenger bird of his own, and wrote his reply on the back of Farri's message.
'The Thu'um resonates within the world, and dovahkiin are creatures innately tied to the Thu'um. It is possible to feel the vibrations they cause by existing with your thu'um, even from afar. It is how the dragons found Miraak, it is how dragons found each other. The words to speak are Hon Dovah On. -Zahkriisos.'
His messenger bird was a Felsaad tern, and flew from his shoulder the moment he opened a portal.
With luck, his answer would find the star-wife well.
--
Proudspire Manor
Chamberlain Mellem
Jarl Vasha had assigned her an important task while he was out of the manor to speak with his brothel managers. She was to make use of the Orb of Vaermina to remotely view Farri and document his activities.
The Jarl hadn't shared the contents of Lord Sanguine's report. Extremely out of character, for she was his most trusted servant. If she wasn't, after all the work she'd done, she'd have left his service and returned to Aetherius.
She sat in the Jarl's office, seated in the library corner, with the cloudy Orb of Vaermina alight to be pondered. It revealed distant events, only to her.
Farri navigated a Nord barrow like he knew the paths instinctively. She didn't see him pause for Clairvoyance even once. Traps and trolls were both dealt with in literal seconds. Draugr were subject to a spell of unknown providence which returned them to life.
Mellem noted that down, and kept a count of the number of draugr revivified in that way.
He used the Blue Rose in conjunction with another Daedric Prince's artifact, the sword Dawnbreaker, to make short work of the draugr. Holy flame would burn them, and explode them to spark fear into their allies.
Once burning and afraid, Farri would use his resurrection thu'um on them. Then he left them alone to continue through the barrow.
Mellem thought he would be stymied by the presence of a puzzle door, which normally required the paired dragon claw to open. But he bade the door open with a single-word spell from the thu'um: "Bex."
At the innermost sanctum of the barrow, there was the master of the draugr. A female archer armed with the thu'um herself. The Jarl's son and undead monster had a short battle of two concussive waves – which Farri's won.
Yet, once the draugr was returned to life – she resumed the battle.
Mellem couldn't make out their words – they spoke the ancient Nord tongue, but after Farri had blasted her with a frosty wind, a fiery deluge, and a second shockwave the former draugr yielded.
She made note of his abilities, and how he gathered the other former draugr to the same location. Once together, he spoke to them in that odd tongue, then worked a spell to create a portal.
That she underlined in her notes for the Jarl. Portal magic was known, but lost during the Third Era. The loss coupled with the Levitation Act cripplied magical transport. But Farri had found the spells to create them.
The Jarl would want to know. It would be invaluable for smuggling purposes.
Afterward, the Jarl's son left the barrow and crossed the White River. Outside, he stopped to use Clairvoyance multiple times – and seemed to grow more agitated as he did.
She noted his confusion once he reached the Guardian Stones and used Clairvoyance multiple times in rapid succession. From what she knew of Farri's records, he was born under the Lover sign, so the Guardian Stones would have no effect on him.
Mellem's eyebrow threatened to lift itself off her forehead as she watched Farri go further southwest past the Guardian Stones, through a rocky patch of stone that eventually led him back to the Illanata Highway. The same highway he'd been on when he'd approached the Guardian Stones.
All in all, he cost himself an hour of travel time just by the attempt to go in a straight line to his destination. As males often did.
But then he came upon something Mellem genuinely didn't expect. A Talos shrine south of the road, among the mountains which separated the Illanata Highway from Falkreath Valley.
Mellem flipped to a new page in her notes, eager to document the nature of Farri's faith. His Talos faith had ended one of the Jarl's most profitable business relationships to avoid hypocrisy, she would ensure Vasha knew all the details.
Farri stood in front of a statue of the man-god, with a natural stone shelf between them littered with offerings and a prayer totem. One of the offerings was a familiar gold and emerald eye.
Mellem noted, as she moved the Orb's perspective around, that Farri seemed to have a somber expression as he looked at the statue. And that the statue had a faint blue glow about it, like the Orb wanted to highlight it.
"I'm guessing," Farri spoke to the stone likeness of a god, "that Sangiin brought me here so I could lay out my issues with you?" He picked up his false eye from the altar. "Did I offer this to you so you could tell me about J'Zargo?"
J'Zargo? Mellem underlined that in her notes.
Farri looked up at the statue again. "...You know it's me, can't you come down and talk?" When Farri got no reply – he scowled. "Of course. Why would you talk? You never wanted to have a serious discussion – because I would tell you if you were wrong."
Mellem noted that Farri had some capital I issues to work through.
"You're never willing to admit when you're wrong! Kyne was begging you to apologize – and you couldn't do it. When you and I…." Farri looked away. "When we had our disagreement, I just wanted an apology. I could fix what you broke – no problem, but you broke something that was mine, and I wanted an apology!" He looked up at Talos again and pointed dramatically. "And instead, you killed me! Where's my apology for that, huh?!"
Talos, as a statue, had no reply.
Farri's scowl deepened. He took the Blue Rose from behind his good ear, and Mellem's alarm bells began to ring.
"I can make you stop ignoring me, you know. I can. I'm choosing not to, because I'm better than you!" He shook the Rose at Talos. "I don't treat people I love the way you treated me! …Or maybe I do." He held the Wabbajack in the same hand as his false eye.
"Since I started using this more often… I found myself acting a lot like you. Treating people like things." Farri turned his back to the statue, and continued to vent. "I've turned people into things, just like you used to."
Mellem's alarm bells rang louder as she watched the statue begin to move. Blue dust floated from it when it moved – a telltale sign of Blue Rose animation. But Farri hadn't used the Rose on it, that she'd seen.
But Farri's eye had been there. He'd been there previously.
Farri didn't seem to hear the statue move, perhaps it produced no sound as Talos stepped off the dragon's neck with his sword raised high.
"I… I want so badly to go back to what we had. But we can't get that back. You killed me, and I don't think any relationship can survive -- " Farri turned just in time to see the animated Talos statue start to bring his sword down. "...That."
The Talos statue exploited Farri's surprise and got one devastating hit in with his blunt stone sword.
Mellem continued to make notes – for it was all she could do.
She watched Farri run with one arm limp and a visible dent in his clavicle. Evident of alteration magic for protection, but even so a severe injury. The Wabbajack and his false eye had to be discarded while he reached around for the Blue Rose.
Talos gave him no quarter, and chased the Dagi Khajiit with the same gait and speed of a Giant his size.
Farri managed to make a sharp turn that Talos couldn't follow – which caused the statue to tumble and skid down the mountainside. However, Talos' sword was a one-hander, his free hand managed to catch Farri by the tail as he slid.
The Orb struggled to follow them, it had to find an angle that would let Mellem see the battle while it changed rapidly.
By the time it settled on one, Talos had gotten his feet under him and hauled Farri into the air by his tail. For only a couple seconds, however, as Farri let loose a torrent of flame with the thu'um.
Fire against stone seemed foolish, even to the statue as Talos opted to let the flames wash over him. A bad decision, in hindsight.
As Farri's flames poured over Talos, the stream narrowed. And narrowed. The flames compacted upon themselves, and shifted from orange to blue. Then – all at once – fire became light.
A stream of radiant light burned a hole through the center of Talos, and into the rockface behind the statue. When Farri swung his head around, the stream cut like a fiery blade – through Talos' arm, the mountain behind it, and across the valley to the mountains on the far side.
An avalanche began in the distance from the seconds-long swing of burning light.
It would have been a stellar victory, if Farri hadn't fallen with Talos' severed arm, and been unable to move when the half-melted statue fell on top of him.
Mellem was confident Farri had accidentally killed himself, but continued to watch anyway.
--
The Void
The bastard had killed me. Again. Though this time, only technically.
In the void, I lingered. Lingering impressions of who I had been and what I once had flitted about.
A friend who taught me how to laugh. A confident ally who believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. A lover from a toxic relationship.
Sheogorath. Meridia. Talos.
I had bartered replicas of memories for the power to turn back time. To make time undo itself. To recapture the past. For those stuck in past mistakes, like the draugr, it had been a great boon. A second chance.
When I tried to recapture the past for myself, it ended badly. Sheogorath wasn't part of my story anymore. Meridia only saw me as a dim echo of who I'd been. Talos would never apologize. Why had I failed?
When he who was the will to chase and to be chased reached for my heart, I devoured his hand. When he who was the will to lust and to be lusted after tried to deceive me, I convinced him to offer a gift. Why did these succeed?
What had I done wrong?
In the Void, a blue flower came into being. It bloomed, and there was a Khajiit soaked in blood with his ears like devils horns, a self-satisfied smile, and gleaming glasses that hid his eyes seated upon the petals.
"You're too hung up on how things used to be. When you're living your life now, you're at your strongest. Leave the past where it falls."
In a moment, the Khajiit was replaced with Niyya, soaked in blood and with a sad expression. "You hide yourself in work. You hide yourself in who you were. You refuse to grow up, and be happy."
In a moment, Niyya was replaced with a Khajiit I didn't know. He was small, taller than me by about fifteen centimeters. A Dagi-raht. There was not a drop of blood on him. I noted that he had distinct facial hair – a droopy mustache.
"When was the last time you had fun? When was the last time you laughed?" The stranger waggled his eyebrows. "You've chased vengeance, that's good. But outside of vengeance, you've been working constantly."
The stranger was replaced with Vasha, soaked in blood the way Niyya and Sangiin had been.
"Skyrim, Solstheim… there is art to pursue, there is adventure. But you don't seek it out. Life is the sweetness of fruit, and the joy of battle."
The vision faded, and was replaced with images of my ring, false eye, and Talos amulet.
The ring and eye were both necessary because I gave out regeneration medicine to others who needed it more. Or seemed to need it more. The Talos amulet was necessary because I used the thu'um so much – and so I could remember better times.
Sangiin probably lied about the magic he put on them, just like he lied about the items to repair his Rose in Skyrim the game, huh?
For a brief moment, all I could see in the Void was Sangiin's toothy grin.
Asshole.
--
Kolbjorn Barrow
Ahzidal
With unseen hands, Ahzidal lifted the lid on the healing sarcophagus. Though afraid, the Spriggan inside was alive, and green once more.
Behind his mask, the priest grinned. "You are free to go," he told the Spriggan in her people's language. "Tell others that they can be healed if they come here." Ahzidal left out the odds of being exploded.
His Scourges and Deathlords watched as the Spriggan hastily stepped out of the sarcophagus and fled down the halls, toward the scent of fresh air. Ahzidal had ordered the doors to be left open, to leave a trail for the Spriggans and animals his followers brought him to follow out.
Last thing he needed was for a bristleback to get stuck somewhere.
The heart stone core which rotated within a stone hoop at the head of the coffin lost its light momentarily, then began to glow once more. Their power was transfinite, but not limitless. The secondary heart stones I had attached to the sides and lid of the coffin had reduced the main core's burden significantly, so it no longer took hours to be ready for another subject.
Ahzidal had created a circuit pattern that would let the device take power from lesser cores if the main core was depleted, and imparted a detection effect for it to determine the needed power for recuperation.
That had been the reason for explosions, he suspected. The sarcophagus had no way to know how much power was needed, and overloaded the patient. With his advances, all made in a day, he suspected that fewer explosions would result.
That boon was as good as his!
Ahzidal was about to signal for his Scourges to bring in the next test subject when a portal opened in his lab. His Scourges and Deathlords drew weapons, ready to fight an invader – while Ahzidal gathered fire in his hands.
From the portal came the smell of rain. Then, Farri Gold-Tooth.
His arm and leg on one side were useless, broken and twisted. His tail was kinked in three places. His robes and the flesh under them had burns, like he'd been thrown in a fire. Farri forced himself along using the Madgod's staff as a cane, with great care to balance on his one useful foot.
"The gods are good, star-wife," Ahzidal announced and dismissed the fires in his hands. "I have completed the task you put to me, and it is ready to receive you." His smile was wide, beneath his mask. With a dismissive gesture, he bade his Scourges take the intended subject away.
Farri nodded and continued to hobble toward Ahzidal, until the fiery priest grew tired and lifted him with unseen hands. "Could… you send a messenger bird for me?"
Ahzidal passed the Madgod's staff, Merid-Nunda's sword, and a Daedric blue rose to his Scourges to be stored with respect. "I could. Whom would you bid me contact, and what message would you ask me to send?"
The star-wife jostled his broken arm. With obvious pain, he had his good hand pull a gold ring off the bad. "J'Zargo, in Elsweyr. I suspect he's a dovahkiin. I would ask him to come to Skyrim, to Winterhold, to learn magic. Tell him… this ring was made by Winterhold. He can determine if it's of good enough quality to bring him here."
Ahzidal bid the ring float while he removed the burned robes from the Khajiit. "As you wish." Another dovahkiin? That would likely wake Miraak from his loops and scripts.
How wonderful. Perhaps they could wake Vahlok from his sleep as well, get the gang back together.
"This part will hurt," he told the star-wife perhaps a second before he forcibly straightened the cat's arm, leg, tail, and back with his magic. Snaps, crackles, pops, and screams filled the air. "There. All ready."
Farri was out of breath from the straightening as Ahzidal laid him to rest in Dukaan's casket.
"You'll be happy to know, we got the explosion chance down to one-in-five. The odds are in your favor." With that, Ahzidal slid the lid into place, and locked it tight.
The heart stones went to work, while the casket glowed cherry red.
Ahzidal smiled even wider when he failed to hear any muffled 'pop' noises.
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Hon Dovah On – Detect Dragon, literally Find Dragon Soul.
There's some clunkiness here – because, again, I lost my notes on the fic and had to reconstruct what I was going to do here. I think this fits with the general theme of 'don't cling to the past' that I've been going for, yeah?