My Older Siblings Cannot be the Dragonborn (Skyrim SI)

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Seven - Dawnstar - 3rd of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Umbra

My rooms were practically kept with a sort of fanatic fervor that made me uncomfortable. The random bit or piece of dust and cobweb that had been in the cold corridors or halls we traversed wasn't simply absent, but utterly removed from existence. This room didn't have a speck of dust, or a single thread of webbing. There was an ample bed, large enough to fit three, or even four people, and shelves filled with various concoctions and potions. There were mannequins strapped with the most varied of clothes and armors. There were weapons kept within glass displays, and as I passed my eyes towards each of them, one caught my attention.

"Isn't that the scabbard of Mehrunes' razor?" I asked, turning my attention towards Babette, who had meanwhile closed the door with a click. Inwardly, I felt the need to summon a whistle. I had no idea why, but I just felt it would be wise if I did have a whistle while in a closed space containing a bed with Babette nearby.

"Taken from the cold corpse of a fool among fools," Babette replied. "His house burned. His remains left to the wolves to feast upon." She smiled candidly, "I do not tolerate any memories of that painful past, my Nibblekins." She whispered as she drew near, "Do you want to break in the bed?" she asked next with a sultry smile.

"No," I replied quite flatly. "I want to know what the plan is and when it will happen."

"The marriage's a week before the end of Frostfall, day more day less depending on how busy the bride-to-be wishes to get with her preparations," Babette replied with a long drawl. "It is ironic that she entertains her lover even now," the vampire chuckled. "A political marriage with a hint of foolishness, the kind of marriage no one will blame us for crashing. An arrow to the chest during her speech, we already have the maps drawn to get inside the temple's catacombs and make our way up." As she neared a table, she gestured to a set of thick scrolls, upon which were drawings of the Temple of the Divines' interior. "I have extensively scouted the place, and this balcony that overlooks the courtyard..."

"Yes, it's the perfect spot," I acquiesced with a nod, "Or there are always the ramparts further up," I continued without even looking. "There's a loose gargoyle that can be pushed down on the bride, she could be poisoned or sent into a Frenzy with magic..." I turned thoughtful, "But we aren't planning a simple assassination," I said. "We are planning our return."

Babette blinked. "My Nibblekins, is this going to be like that time you blew up Leyawiin's watch barracks?"

"I did that?" I replied.

"It sent the message about facing the Dark Brotherhood all right," Babette said. "The fires spread for a whole day."

"How did I do that?" I asked next, and Babette shrugged.

"You ordered three dozens of barrels of oil and gifted them to the barracks as a rich merchant. The poor guys didn't even know what to do with it, so they stored them everywhere. You stole an armor with a full-body helmet and trudged your way right inside, set it all on fire and then left through the window," Babette had a wistful look on her face. "You had such a passion and a drive for murder and unforeseen property damage that it warmed my heart," she sighed. "You asked me for an alchemy compound that would spread the flames faster. It was quite nice."

"No Rose of Sithis?" I asked, furrowing my brows.

Babette blinked. "Oh, you remembered Philidda's murder?" she smiled and neared her hand to my chest, tracing lazy circles, "We're getting there then my love! A few more memories, and you might even remember that passionate night in which we consumed our love for the first time!"

"I doubt that happened," I said, and as I said that, I could feel the air tense in the room. In front of me wasn't Babette, but some sort of rapidly angering apex predator.

Babette's eyes narrowed in an angry glare as she stared at me as if I were a fine piece of steak. "Fine, so maybe it didn't happen," she hissed out in the end. "But we can change that now. So why shouldn't we? There is nothing I wouldn't do for you. Everything you see around you is my work, my effort, and I gift it to you without asking for anything in return but your love. And yet you don't even bother praising me, or giving me the answer I seek."

"Babette," I said calmly, "We have better things to do, like planning a murder and convincing an Emperor to side with us."

Babette emitted a sort of animal-like growl, "There is truly no limit to cruelty when it comes to you, is there?"

I inclined my head to the side, "I am Sithis' herald," I spoke crisply. "There is no place for Love in the Void, if not that of the Mother for its Children."

Babette laughed coldly, shaking her head. "I cannot believe it," she made a small twirl, both arms wide as she gazed upwards. "Is this always the answer I'm going to get?" she pointed a finger in my direction. "You cannot forget. You haven't forgotten. You can't possibly have forgotten if that is the answer you give me right now!" she bared her teeth angrily. "I waited for you for hundreds of years!" she slammed her hand right against her chest, her fingers clenching tightly the spot above her heart. "I worked in the shadows, and witnessed the fall of the Brotherhood without saying a word! I knew how it would end because you told me, because you trusted in me, but...you only ever trusted in me as a colleague, but not as a lover, did you? My words to you, they meant nothing to your ears!"

I swallowed once, and then aptly shrugged. "I cannot speak for my past self."

"Don't give me that crap," Babette hissed, her other fist clenched. "You can't speak for him, but you are him. Take a guess, what would he say? What lies would he spout? Where did I fail that such cruel and wicked torments were reserved for the likes of me?" her eyes turned red, whether out of anger, or out of blood replacing tears as her eyes watered, I had no idea. "Speak! You are a Speaker, so you should speak, shouldn't you!?"

"You did a good job, Babette," I said hesitantly, my left hand resting on the display case behind me, "But that is all."

Her growling grew to a strong roar, and then it suddenly died out, replaced by a choke-like sound. She swallowed, and threw herself out of the door that she had closed beforehand by literally crashing through it, shattering it apart and running away down the corridor. I turned my back on the shattered door, and took a long look at the blades in the collection.

They were all reverently kept in order, and some of them I even recognized. There was Chorrol's Honorblade, a few Akaviri blades, a couple of mean-looking daggers made of Ebony with golden engravings, and a few neat-looking bows whose names eluded me.

The daggers were clearly Blades of Woe, and multiple ones at that. Chorrol's Honorblade was bizarre in the ensemble, but perhaps there was an explanation behind it.

As I neared a table with two chairs placed one next to the other, I realized there were a few books on the typical arguments of the Dark Brotherhood, as well as a few old leather-bound ones that had seen centuries of use, and yet were still functional.

"To my lovely bride of the dark, may your fangs stay sharp forever," I muttered as I read the words inked on the first page as an autograph. "Uh, Umbra...past-me," I grumbled. "You could have left me with instructions to follow about what to do with Babette here. I mean, I'm not going to do anything without permission," I sighed as I opened the drawers, remaining surprised at the amount of clean paper and ink bottles that filled them. Perhaps Babette had prepared the desk for me to write on?

It was kind of thoughtfully nice for her.

Still, at the same time, I couldn't act on such kindness, because it was directed at the wrong person. If only my memories returned, all of them, then perhaps I'd do things differently. As it was, wasn't I merely a thief stealing the place of my past-self? I shook my head and headed to open the chest by the bed's feet. Quite calmly, I pulled out what could only be described as makeshift cat-ears, but I was pretty sure they where Khajiiti ears ripped and embalmed. I gingerly put them back shuddering in disgust, ignoring the rest of the stuff within and closing the chest with a sordid click.

"Speaker...your door is broken," a cloaked figure spoke from behind me, an acolyte hesitantly looking into the room with a curious expression.

"Indeed it is," I replied nonchalantly, turning to stand up. "Have it repaired."

"Yes, Speaker," the acolyte spoke crisply, bowing and leaving with barely a sound. I turned my eyes to the bed's sides, where twin bed drawers stood. I opened the first, and quite indignantly ignored the potions that held on pictures of bulls and...depravity, and moved to the other, where a set of jingling keys finally welcomed me.

Honestly, what use is a weapon if you leave it in a display case?

It took me a few more minutes, but I did manage to get myself one of the Blades of Woe and the Chorrol Honorblade. Hopefully these pieces of ancient history wouldn't melt like the rest at the sight of dragon flame, and if they did, then I'd need to get more.

Funnily enough, I wouldn't have minded a full set of Ebony Armor, but there wasn't any to go around. The Honorblade would have to do. My armor had taken a brutal hit, and as I found myself staring at the somber-looking black robes of a Speaker of the Dark Brotherhood, I couldn't help but avert my gaze. Yes, yes I could and should wear them, but until that moment the Divines had guided my every act. Was it right to wear this, and not one of the simpler looking armors?

Honestly, by this point I was wondering which of the two sides was right, and which was wrong, and what was the correct path that didn't end with me dying horribly, if there was even death on the table and not eternal torture. Was Sithis really throwing me back here every single time I died? Was it the blessing of the Divines that did it? Or did the Divines perhaps wish for me to be here, to take on the robes and clad myself in them?

In the end, I opted for a compromise.

The black cowl of the Dark Brotherhood covered my face as I wore the robes as a mantle of sorts to cover the broken armor beneath it. Nobody was going to bother my fashion statement, I was the Speaker after all, wasn't I?

"Speaker...we must talk," the eerie voice of the Night Mother reached my ears, and as it did, I began to walk towards the main hall.

Hopefully the Night Mother would know more of what was going on.

Now, how to ask her without giving up my game was another matter entirely.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Dawnstar - 3rd of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Umbra

The Night Mother's mummified corpse stood with its arms folded within the stone sarcophagus, and five children' skeletons stood at her feet. There was fresh blood upon the children's bones, and while I saw no sight of Berry, I decided to take a page out of my Larping experiences and knelt with my head low.

"Sweet mother," I spoke in a hushed whisper, "I have come as ordered."

"My sweet child," the Night Mother crooned, and I felt fingers, phantom-like limbs, stretch out across my face, pass through my hair like a sickening oil-like tar and then move away, back from where they came from. "I missed your voice," she continued. "Sithis is proud. The blood you have spilled in his name pools into the Void, and he calls for you to take upon your shoulders greater deeds still." She grew briefly silent, and I understood she was asking if I was willing. This was quite honestly a rhetoric question. If the chief-in-everything-but-name asks you if you're ready, your answer is either yes or you gather your things and go home, and in the Dark Brotherhood, gathering your things usually meant death.

"I serve the Dark Brotherhood, sweet mother," I answered her unasked question. "How may I serve the will of Sithis?"

"The Listener listens, but listening is not enough. She must be sanctified in the name of the old rites. She must hear the sweet symphony of silence. She must witness the true color of the night. She must pledge loyalty to the Void and become a true Sister. And she must do so alone, Speaker," the Night Mother spoke, and I took a small breath.

"Perhaps I might need a refresher course, Sweet Mother. My memories are mostly gone of my past deeds. I wish to serve the Brotherhood to my utmost, and in retracing the steps...I might remember."

"No," the Night Mother spoke, her voice like a whip which lashes out against a cute little puppy making it yelp. It was a mixture of pain and agony, with sweet sorrow interlaced upon it. "You remember enough, Speaker. You will not coddle the Listener. Your desire to coddle is a weakness that does not aid the Dark Brotherhood, but weakens it. Your task which I now will assign you is another, greater still."

I had no doubts in my mind that it was going to either be an assassination, or some form of recruitment to be done. Well, I could also expect the random mission from the main affair, but...

"Purify the Falkreath sanctuary of all its inhabitants," the Night Mother spoke harshly, and with her voice came no doubt. "Their desires have failed to follow the will of Sithis. Take your Silencer, which is now despicably crying inside a coffin of a deceased Brother and purge all those that still live within it. Let none escape, or survive."

"Not even old Festus? He would love to follow the old ways," I spoke, only to actually bite my tongue, "Though perhaps his reward will come upon death to him?"

The Night Mother chuckled, a soft, eerily tarry chuckle that would have been better fit on a shark rather than on a mummified corpse. "Your silver tongue is the most powerful of your tools, Speaker."

"If I may ask," I said quite gingerly, "oh Unholy Matron, Sweet Mother of mine," I swallowed, "May all means be used to deal with the sanctuary?"

"No," the Night Mother replied, "Only through your Silencer and your blades of Woe must they meet their ends. They shall explain their guilt to Sithis, and receive eternal damnation, or reward, as it may be. No explosive oils, Speaker. The sanctuary must still be of use to the Brotherhood."

I chuckled nervously. "Sweet Mother...spies might have breached the secret password already."

"That is part of the reason for the purification of the sanctuary. Spare no one, lest their rot and treachery infiltrate the new Black Hand," the Sweet Mother hissed. "Once that is done, know that the passphrase shall change, for that is the will of Sithis. Bathe it in the blood of five children, and draw with it a pentagram upon which you shall call my name. Do so, and a new passphrase shall be created."

Right. Sure. Well, the orphanage would see my visit where I'd gather from five different children five vials of their blood without killing any of them. All right. That was the easy part. Now came the difficult one, I reckoned.

"If the Listener were to come to me for advice, would I be allowed to give it?" I asked.

"Only advice, Speaker," the Night Mother spoke. "I will not forgive you if you do anything more, no matter the sweet songs of love you may sing to quell my anger. Reminiscing of my love for Sithis is truly an underhanded way to ease my wrath."

Inwardly, I had no doubt that Past-Umbra needed to be hanged by his entrails. The image of a version of myself singing something cheesy like 'I will always love you' to a corpse-like dead was already making my spine tingle.

"But now go, Speaker. I longed to hear your sweet voice, and now that it has warmed my ears and my heart you have your duties to uphold. Tarry no longer in my presence, though your reluctance to part from my weary old bones is endearing in a child who wishes not to leave his mother's chest, you have tasks to fulfill," old-Umbra, I swear to the Nine Divines that whatever you said to this old lady better not be something I must regret in your stead.

"Yes, my sweet mother," I said, "Your will is my command. Hail Sithis."

With that said, I stood up and turned, sharply rushing at a fast pace towards the crypts where I hoped I'd be able to find Babette by following the sound of her sobbing and not the bloody remains of acolytes having gone to investigate the eerie sounds. I saw no signs of Berry, but we had probably missed each other by only a hair's breadth, and I reckoned she'd come look for counsel from the likes of me before departing for whatever mission she had to do.

It was as I was pondering on which of the many tunnels lead towards the catacombs that a ghostly figure appeared out from a nearby wall, beaming a smile and cackling gently. Somehow, the cackling was kind of familiar.

"Ah! Speaker Umbra!" the man extended his arms. "Such a long time has passed!"

I stared at the ghost. I stared and then blinked. "Lucien?"

"Indeed!" Lucien Lachance laughed as he gestured at himself, "Even in death I still serve, just as you told me while I exhaled my last breath!" he grinned as he drew nearer still, "To think I would be so blindsided...my folly is paid, and now I serve our Lord in the Void, but enough!" he smirked, "You have your duties, and I have mine. This new Listener, where is she?"

I shrugged, "No clue," I said. "I am looking for my Silencer. Have you heard her cry somewhere nearby?"

"Again?" Lucien sighed, even though as a ghost he really shouldn't have been able to sigh. "Is it some form of vindictive pleasure of yours to make other members of the Brotherhood cry? They are all servants of Sithis, and yet a few of your words has them act like simpering, spoiled babes." The ghost grumbled. "Go through that corridor. I heard the cries from within a coffin, but thought it an unusual mean of torture of our prisoners." He then stalked off, as silently as he had appeared.

"Ah, so it's not an isolated case," I muttered, "Must be something in my voice," I coughed gently, grating my throat a bit. "Whatever it is...Sheogorath, uh? Solitude. Well, I'll go there afterwards."

The plan was simple. I'd find Babette, order her to move us to the Falkreath's sanctuary, wait for night to fall and then proceed to kill everyone in their sleep.

And by proceed to kill, I meant I'd order Babette to do it while I closed my eyes, stuffed my ears, and did my utter best to ignore any of it while it happened and after it happened.

My plan hinged on forcing Babette to fall back on her beliefs in the Dark Brotherhood rather than some silly notion of love.

What could possibly go wrong after all?

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Nine - Dawnstar - 3rd of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Umbra

Only a single coffin amidst rows of others had the unnatural propriety of sobbing, and as I stopped just outside it, I crossed my arms and placed my back against the wall. "Are you done disturbing the rest of a dead Brother's corpse?" the sniffling came to an abrupt halt, only to be replaced by silence. "We have work to do."

"Fine," Babette said blithely, emerging from the coffin with a fluid motion as if it had been practiced countless times. Then again, she was a vampire and leaving the confines of a coffin was second nature to her. Her cheeks were red with dribbles of blood, and as her bloodshot eyes stared at me, I couldn't help but admire the anger that seethed through them. It would have probably killed a lesser man, or scared away someone who didn't have Sithis' protection to keep them alive. "What is my task, Speaker?"

"Our task," I said with a clipped voice, "Is the purification of the Falkreath's sanctuary."

Babette's eyes did not widen. She did not curl her lips up in distaste, or say anything else. She merely gave a curt nod. "When you are ready to begin, Speaker, so am I."

"You have silver for the Werewolf?" I quipped, receiving another nod in reply short and to the point. "Then we wait for the night to fall. You can bring us inside the sanctuary, can you not?"

"I can," Babette said. She pulled her cowl up, "I will go outside. When night falls, I will alert you." She began to walk away without making the slightest of sounds, and as I watched her retreating back, I sighed and shook my head gently. She was a grown-up woman. She could take care of herself. I had a Dragonborn to advise, or at the very least tell what to do next. I retraced my steps back to my office, where I was pretty sure I'd find Berry in wait.

Two acolytes were actually muttering about how to repair the door, and one of the two was busy using fire magic to melt the remains of the hinges out of the holes in the stone. Neither were experts at it. "If building a door gives you troubles," I spoke from behind them, "Just nail a banner of the Black Hand atop the entrance to cover it." The two turned sharply, an Argonian and a Khajiit, and they stiffened and nodded, hastily beating a retreat the likes of which I had never seen before.

I wasn't that scary, was I?

Inside my rooms, I watched as Berry stood frozen still in a corner of the room, her hands in a drawer doing the most ancient and revered act of all adventurers.

"Caught red-handed I'd guess," I said with a short chuckle.

"It's not stealing if I don't take anything," Berry replied, "I'm just...looking around."

I nodded, "Sure you are, sure you are," I sighed. "So...excuse the draft," I gestured at the open entrance. "Is there anything you wished to ask me, oh great Listener Berry?"

Berry nodded. "Is..." she swallowed, "Is there a way out of this?" she whispered.

"Uh?" I raised an eyebrow. "You mean...out of the Brotherhood? Well, there is always Death I guess." I shrugged. "Why? Something the matter?"

"It's just..." Berry passed a hand through her hair, clenching and twisting it lightly around her shoulder. "I have this contract to fulfill. The death of an innocent binds me with an oath of blood, so...I don't want to do it."

"Well, what's the difference with killing an innocent and killing a guard standing watch for the horses outside?" I pointed out, "I'd reckon you wouldn't have such compunctions."

Berry shook her head quickly. "That was different. He could have been a bandit, a brigand, a necromancer, or just about anything. This time, I'm pretty sure it's an innocent. Look," she swallowed. "It's just...I can't do it."

"Then don't," I replied. "After my current task is completed, I will probably receive the order to hunt you down and kill you," I pointed out. "But that's fine, I guess. I'll just have to refuse the Night Mother and escape the Brotherhood, they'll then send someone else." I continued. "Perhaps Babette unless I deal with her during my current mission." I stared at Berry's eyes and her shaken expression. "Whatever you wish to do, do it. You're a child. It's the duty of us adults to shoulder your decisions, reckless as they may be, and deal with them. You are free to choose."

"How can you say that with a straight face?" Berry asked. "Doesn't Babette love you? You'd just kill her because of what I decide to do?"

I shrugged. "Kill is a big word. Deal with her is more of...find a way to make her inoffensive. Listen, until Alduin's defeated...nothing else matters. And you're the only one who can defeat him. Things like morals, ethics, right or wrong...they're meaningless if you can't drive a sword through Alduin's heart and kill him. If there's no world left to live on, then there's no point in wondering who is right or wrong at the end of the day."

"I can't believe you'd say something like this," Berry said in disbelief. "Are you the same guy who screamed and barfed and pissed his pants off when we first met? Was that all a ruse?"

"My silver tongue and my actor's skills are second to none," I replied with a small chuckle, "But no, that was pretty much true. Amnesia, remember? Also...it doesn't matter where you put me, I will thrive or survive. Throw me among the companions, and I'll be your best drinking buddy. Throw me inside the College of Winterhold, and I'll be the most studious of students. Throw me in the guild of Thieves, and I'll steal and act all thug-like. That's the point. To survive is to live, and to live one must don masks that enable him to do so." I patted my chest. "The world is filled with liars and actors, Berry. Nothing is true, no one is true, everyone reacts to those near them. Would you spout hate-filled words among the blessed and the pious? No. You'd feel their judgment, and refuse. Or maybe you would, strong-willed as you are, and face the consequences. But I'm not strong. No, to be honest I'm pretty weak, so I refuse to break, and instead I bend."

"That just makes you a coward in the end," Berry said. "You faced a dragon head-on, how hard can it be to say no to that mummified corpse?"

"I knew you'd come," I pointed out. "There was nothing to be afraid of. The Night Mother...if she's the intermediary between myself and Sithis, and the reason I do not die, then it's different. I might just die abruptly the moment I refuse her, or I might no longer be immortal. I do not remember why, or how, but...in the end, all that I can do is play by the rules of the game and hope that one of the Divines will send me a sign on what to do next."

"Then I'm telling you we're leaving," Berry said angrily. "You'll follow me if I order you to do that, won't you?"

I nodded awkwardly. "I would, but the consequences..."

"To Oblivion with the consequences. You said I'm the Listener, and everyone must obey my orders or break the tenets. So I, Listener Berry, order you to follow me until I say I've had enough of you," she harrumphed. "You wanted a sign from the Divines? Then I'm the Dragonborn, and my word is like that of Akatosh, isn't it? So, we're going." She walked closed to me and grabbed my hand roughly, starting to pull. "Let's leave this place without anyone none the wiser."

"Babette is waiting for the night to fall outside the main exit of this place," I quipped. "And we'll need supplies. There should be a secret exit behind the glass wall of the main hall. We can leave through that and the tunnels behind it."

Berry glanced back at me, "So...you'll follow me?"

"I did say I was sworn to carry your burdens, and you are the Listener. Whatever you say goes, boss, I'm just here to make sure you don't do anything too reckless or stupid, but hey, leaving the Dark Brotherhood? Fine by me...it's going to be tough, though," I sighed, quite loudly too. "Goodbye comfy bed I never even got to sleep on," I waved dramatically at the bed, "Or fancy armor I never got to wear."

Berry clenched my hand a bit tighter, and then pulled me out of my rooms.

Well, as the Latins would say...

...Berry Vult!

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Thirty-Nine Point Five - Wilderness - 3rd of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Babette

Her heart did not beat. She stood there, watching the hateful tyrant that was the sun slowly die over the horizon. She had fed recently, so except for a minor tingle and some bad burning feeling, she could tolerate the death of the glowing orb up in the sky. Her backside was pressed against soft snow, the cold not bothering her at all. Tiny droplets of blood had stopped falling against the snow, and as she took in the sight of the back of her hands, dirty with the remains of blood that had poured out of her eyes, she couldn't help but scoff at herself.

Truly, there was no one crueler than the Speaker of Sithis. His words, his smile, everything about him was both cruel, twisted and unfair.

Once we meet again, Babette, I will never part ways with you ever again.

He had promised it. He had sworn it upon the altar of Sithis, upon the blood and the gore of countless corpses during the last days of the Oblivion Crisis. He who had lead the Necromancers' Cults after the fall of Mannimarco. He who had grasped the Grey Fox's cowl as proof of his defeat, and shown a corpse crucified to the center of the city's square. He who had cared not one bit about honor and tore apart the Blackwood company at its seams. He had done so many things, cruelly enacted so many others...

And yet there he was following like a lost lamb that child barely old enough to drink.

Dragonborn, future Listener or not, it didn't matter one bit to her. She wouldn't rip her throat out, but only because she was loyal to the Unholy Matron.

Cold winds blew as icy pinpricks nailed across her skin. She could feel it within her immortally damned soul that something was wrong, but she couldn't understand.

The sun died over the horizon as she stepped back inside, only to come face to face with a banner of the Dark Brotherhood covering the entrance to her Nibble-no, to her Speaker's rooms. She moved it past, and witnessed the lack of a Speaker. He wasn't in his rooms? Perhaps then he'd be in the main hall, recounting tales of gore and blood, or speaking about the true might of Sithis to wayward acolytes.

Lucien Lachance found her as she was puzzled after two hours spent looking through every nook and cranny of the Dark Brotherhood's base.

"Ah, Babette," Lucien said, "If you are looking for Speaker Umbra, the new Listener took him with her on her quest."

Babette's eyes widened briefly, and then narrowed. "She did?"

"Yes," Lucien nodded. "The Unholy Matron isn't pleased, but neither is she particularly displeased. It is the right of a Listener to command whoever they wish to do whatever they want," Lucien spoke, and there was some form of sordid smirk on his face that Babette didn't like. "She is young, and perhaps...hormonal too?" he added not-so-innocently at all. "The first kill in cold blood always gives a rush, does it not?"

Babette huffed. "That's no longer my concern," she snapped. "What is my concern is that I wasn't told. We have a task for the Unholy Matron to fulfill. The Listener shouldn't have commanded the Speaker in such a way. She is just a selfish child in the end."

"I do wonder about that," Lucien said, smiling in his usual unnerving way. "The Dark Mother is quite uncaring on whether or not the task if fulfilled in a day or in a week, just as long as it fulfilled. However she gave quite clear instructions to the Speaker not to aid in the act, but only to counsel. If he were to coddle her while doing the task..." Lucien shrugged, "But our Speaker would never do that. I do not peculiarly remember his will to aid anyone else but themselves."

"But if the Listener ordered him to help..."

"He'd break a tenet of the Dark Brotherhood, and in so doing, bring down the wrath of Sithis upon him. Perhaps a new form of mortality?" Lucien remarked quite candidly. "He might come to serve the Brotherhood in death. My brothers and sisters are all eager to meet with him and welcome him in our ghastly order," Lucien chuckled darkly. "Faced with conflicting orders, he might just claim his life."

"He would never do that," Babette spoke back harshly.

"He would not, but has he not lost his memories?" Lucien remarked. "I have ears, my dear Babette, and I know that the Speaker of old would never do such things as betray us, but this new one? Words are only words...but actions, well...if he acts, then he will break the tenets."

Babette's teeth grit against one another. "Also," Lucien said, "the Listener was quite bold in dragging him out while holding his hand. Ah...the look of a maiden in love."

Babette snorted, wrath leaving her frame, "There is no way that is true, Lucien. He does not have such tendencies as to go with a child. Trying to rile me up is bound to fail, as always." She shrugged, already preparing to leave the rooms of the Speaker in which she had returned after seeking him out everywhere else.

"Did you see the Listener holding hands with the Speaker?" one acolyte spoke to another as they both chose that particular moment to walk down the corridor beyond the banner. "I would have died of embarrassment, but perhaps the new Listener needed a babysitter?"

"Hush," the second one hissed. "You don't want the ancient one to hear. She'll rip your throat out, or worse, send you on a mission without chances of success."

Babette's face cooled down into a carefully neutral expression, and then it finally clicked inside her skull.

"Ah..." she said with a small smile, "I see how it is," she grinned gently. "Amnesia? Forgotten about me? All lies. All filthy lies. My Nibblekins would never lie to me. No, it's the young one. Devious little bitch..." she growled. "Truly worthy of being a Listener that wench."

"Until she binds her soul to us with the death of an innocent," Lucien added with a small, candid smile, "She isn't technically a member. Just like she technically is one. Ah technicalities...so difficult to understand even in the best of ways. Depends on how one squints one's eyes actually...the Unholy Mother does not care one way or the other, after all."

Babette was no longer in the room.

Lucien peaked outside the banner, his ghastly head leaving it only to come face to face with two unconscious acolytes, both having been flung aside with strength by a furious vampire on the prowl.

His duty done in the name of the Unholy Matron, Lucien Lachance slipped back into the walls and returned to his ghastly brethren in the crypts.

When people act like children, then they can be manipulated as if they were children.

Umbra wouldn't be pleased of his own words being thrown back at him, but he should have known better than go against his ways while he still lived. This was merely...schadenfreude, Umbra had once called it. To laugh at another's misery.

Thus, Lucien Lachance felt schadenfreude.

Nothing filled his unholy heart more than it.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Forty - Wilderness - 6th of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Umbra

Berry had a weakness. That weakness, surprisingly, consisted of being seasick. She lurched over the side of the boat, and I simply stared at her without as much as batting an eyelid. I turned my gaze to the fisherman who had been more than happy to bring us by boat to Winterhold in exchange for a meager sum of fifty septims. Truth be told one couldn't really reach Winterhold, but a beach covered in snow near it would suffice. The travel was going to take its time, though for one thing we actually didn't have to worry about food.

Berry could light her hands on fire, and nothing like charred fish to keep one hearty and happy, right?

Well, not really.

As I said before, Berry was busy being seasick while I did my best to keep myself warm in the thick robes I wore to cover my body. I was wondering how much longer it would be, but one couldn't rush things, and when night fell it was better to anchor the boat and spend the night in wait rather than risk one's life. Sometimes, Berry had to use her fire magic to melt some bits and pieces of ice floating in our path, and other times I had the duty to shoo off the Horkers by throwing fish at them.

A few were even cute enough to make strange honk-honk sounds like seals, and flap their flappers together upon nearby ice blocks. It was a wonderful spectacle of nature, the likes of which I had never seen before. But I was an Italian, and I was on a boat, so I was fine. My feet easily held myself up even when the weather took a slight turn for the worse, and when the waves grew, I managed to stick to the floor of the boat while getting soaked with salt water without escape.

On the seas, if you got wet and soaked you had but one choice. You had to soldier through it and sip a potion of Frost Resistance, or have a willing mage to warm up your hands by summoning forth the crackling flames through the Magicka. Seriously though, the seas were cold.

"We're going to be there by tomorrow," the fisherman spoke to me after days out at sea, since Berry was indisposed. "Pilgrim's Trench got the best salmon roe in all of Skyrim. Those fancy prats at the Blue Palace eat them by the score," he snorted as he turned his eyes towards Berry. "Your friend's really not enjoying this trip, is she?"

"That would be an understatement," I replied as I watched Berry crawl into the form of a tiny ball, her back against the ship as she closed her eyes while groaning, "But she'll get better once we land." I winced as I heard Berry groan again. "May the Divines watch over us."

The fisherman shrugged. "She sleeps by your side, not mine," he replied dutifully.

The night was cold. The night was cold, and while the winds were kept somewhat at bay by a thick tarp pulled over the boat, it still didn't change the fact that I had to sleep with Berry on one side and the lulling of the Horkers' night lullabies on the other. Tiber Septim, you could have coincidentally brought forth a nice big boat meant for comfortable trips as our mean of travel, something like the Katariah would have been nice...if the name of the Emperor's boat was the Katariah to begin with, of course.

Oh Nine Divines look over my body as I rest for the night to come.

The boat gingerly rocked a bit as something hit the lower part of the hull, making the hair on the back of my neck rise. It couldn't be Babette already. I had taken great pain in hiring a boatman, and I doubted she'd be able to sniff me out in the middle of the sea surrounded by the smell of fish. The fisherman in question was sleeping at the bottom of the boat, having emptied a whole bottle of wine to keep him warm for the trip while we had to take sips out of our canteen and eat our dried jerky.

I could have stayed with the Dark Brotherhood, enjoyed a nice, warm bed, the cold, but sexy corpse of a Vampire, but no, I hadn't. I had standards and morals. I had such lofty moral compunctions that here I was, freezing my ass off in the middle of the Sea of Ghosts.

"Koor," Berry whispered, the hushed word reverberating across the ship as a sudden heat seemed to emanate from her lips, making her flush from the sharp rise in temperature as I twitched, cold trails of haze rising up in the air as Berry had just used the Thu'um to warm the boat up with a Summer-like weather of sorts. "Better?" she whispered next.

"I wasn't complaining about the cold," I mumbled.

"You were shaking," Berry pointed out in a whisper of her own. "I need to look after your crybaby-weak-to-cold Imperial self, or I'll have your family to fear. Your real one, not that...Brotherhood."

"I would hazard a guess that a guild of master assassins would be far more dangerous than a group of orphans," I whispered back with a dry chuckle, receiving a huff in reply.

A few minutes of comfortable silence went by, in which I had already begun to doze off once more only to feel a hand gingerly shake me on the shoulder. "Hey," Berry whispered as she turned on her side. "Do you know of a place where stone curves over water?"

"Uh?" I blinked. "A place that...what?"

"Where stone curves over water," Berry replied quite firmly. "It's...well, it's where Paarthurnax wanted me to go."

"He did?" I replied. "He was supposed to tell you to seek out an Elder Scroll...well, that and I was hoping train you too," I grimaced. "A place where stone curves over water? In what way? A circle over a lake?" I closed my eyes and yawned. "We can think about it tomorrow morning, Berry."

Berry removed her hand from my shoulder, and then scuttled closer. "I don't understand why the Gods would be against the destruction of the world," she said in a whisper, "If it's been promised by a prophecy of theirs, shouldn't they just accept it?"

I scoffed as I yawned a bit wider. "Nobody wants to die and be gone forever, Berry," I sighed. "Even Gods die, and that's something they can't stand. Now can we leave philosophy talks to tomorrow morning?"

I received no answer, and with that, I felt the conversation had done its course. "Umbra," Berry murmured, "Good night."

"Yeah," I scoffed, "Good night to you too."

A couple of seconds later, Berry's voice cut through my sleep. "What's an Elder Scroll?"

Berry, seriously, I am not a Non Player Character you can disturb at three in the morning by clicking a button and pulling him up from his bed no matter what. I'm not going to answer you. I'm going to sleep. I'm going to...I felt a small push against my cheek. Inwardly I sighed. Berry was fifteen years old circa, perhaps a year more, a year less, and she had that mixture of childishness still within her frame that made her decide to poke my cheek a couple of times just to check if I was actually asleep or not before relenting, and letting me rest.

Seriously, since when had I become a babysitter? Well, technically since the moment I decided it was to be this way.

I really should get a better stipend from you Nine Divines than the meager Septims I got at the beginning.

My eyes snapped open to the sound of the tar being removed, and the fisherman having decided that enough sleep was enough. Berry was pinning my right arm under her weight, cutting off all forms of blood circulation due to her not-inconsiderable weight. The act of getting up to a seated position did wake her up, if with a groan.

The morning sun welcomed us only two hours later, and the coastline drew near to the spot where we'd be left four hours later still. It was thus under the sun's rays that refused to warm up this piece of forgotten ice upon which my boots had to trudge.

The roles now reversed, Berry was the one with a spring in her step, while I belatedly gasped for air as we ended up having to climb cold, frosty snow iced over due to the night. It creaked, cracked, and broke under my weight. While Berry's footprints remained even on the surface, mine went right and left, trying to find a grip as I kept climbing upwards.

"I hate snow," I snapped angrily as I tumbled face down against the milky surface.

"Shouldn't have come to Skyrim then," Berry quipped over me, clearly grinning at the prospect of one-upping my superior-in-everything-else self. "You know the longer you take, the more nights we have to spend out in the cold right?"

"Leave me here. The wolves will drag my carcass up," I groaned as I pushed myself back up, "It's the eye of the tiger," I began to chant while moving my arms up and down, breaking into a small jog, "That is shining in the night. Nanana..."

The ice didn't break as much as ripple as I felt the ground shake beneath my feet. Berry's eyes widened as she turned to look up, and as my gaze followed hers, I saw thick and large chunks of ice and snow break off the summit of the mountain.

Divines, I take it back! I won't ask for a raise any more, but an avalanche is too much for the sin of singing a couple of tunes!

Berry was surprisingly quick in taking a deep breath as the avalanche drew near, before blasting through it with the strength of her voice, sending snow to rocket up in the air. As my feet were now resting on solid ground, the ice and snow pulverized by the power of her Thu'um, I couldn't help but narrow my eyes.

"Couldn't you have used your Thu'um to burn us a path? Were you enjoying watching me stumble in the snow like an idiot as revenge for the boat trip?"

Berry, in answer, simply smiled. "Maybe..." she sang out with mirth in her voice.

"Very well then," I drawled out with the most neutral of tones. "Then, I shall now endeavor to sing a song...and do my best to sing it as badly as I can."

Berry's eyes widened abruptly, "Wait, are you telling me you were trying to be on-key before?" she hastily raised both hands in surrender, "Please don't! I give up! We could use your singing to conquer the elves, but don't turn it against your fellow man!"

"Fine," I said. "This time, and this time alone, I will forgive you."

I proceeded to slam down the back of her neck a snowball. Nord or not, ice down the neck was still the surefire way to get someone to scream shrilly.

I then rushed off through the path carved in the snow faster than I had ever run before.

"You can't touch this! Dum-da-da-dum-de!"

"Stop. Singing!" Berry's yell reverberated behind me, but it was all for naught.

A true artist can never be censored.

Rise up, and oppose the Berry-Censorship Bureau!

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Forty-One - Winterhold - 8th of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Umbra

Give man a warm cup of something in the middle of a storm of ice and snow, and he will love you forever. The Frozen Hearth's inn keeper was an okay man, but the smell in the place was absolutely disgusting. My nose twitching in disgust must have been caught by the inn keeper, who quite calmly shrugged and offered to both Berry and I a cup of warm broth to drink without making us pay for it. Outside, the blizzard howled with the strength of a thousand hurricanes.

We had reached Winterhold seconds before the storm reached its maximum power, and now we stood within the inn trying our best to unfreeze ourselves without cracking our skin due to the ice. Never before had I loved my robes that clung to me like a cloak. At the same time, they got so soaked I had no choice but to remove them and leave them to dry.

"What brings you two to this remote place?" Dagur asked, "The college?"

"Yes and no," I acquiesced. "Just..."

"Please come home," a female voice spoke a couple of tables behind us, and as I turned to watch a Nord with short reddish hair and wearing a loose and drink-stained tunic, I realized just whom it was and what it was all about. The woman that was near him had long shoulder-length blond-reddish hair, and was wearing a simple leather dress. I had to wonder if there was something in the Nord's bloodstreams that made them immune to the biting cold around this piece of land, or if I was the one with water in my veins. Did Nords have fire rushing through them or something?

"Can't," the man replied with a small slurring in his voice. "Still got two rounds to go."

"That's Ranmir and Birna, brother and sister," the inn keeper muttered as he realized my attention had been caught by the scene. "Poor man lost the love of his life, and has been drinking himself into a stupor since then," he shrugged. "Don't let it bother you. He keeps to himself."

I blinked. "Ranmir...uh..." I mumbled, before taking a small breath. "Very well. The Divines' wishes are my command."

"Umbra?" Berry asked as I spun on myself and resolutely marched towards the man.

"Oi! Your loved one's name is Isabelle, isn't it?" I snapped curtly, catching him by surprise as he turned to look at me with wide eyes. "Left with a certain Vex too, isn't that right?"

His mouth hung open like a half-dead fish, before he suddenly stood hastily up from the chair. "Y-You saw her!?" he exclaimed, both of his hands grabbing hold of my arms, "Where is she? Is she well? Does she wish to return?"

"Hob's fall cave," I said in a soft whisper, staring straight into his eyes with a grimace settling on my face. "She tried to steal from the Necromancers' within. They did not take well to it."

"They...Necromancers? But..." Ranmir's words came out garbled, "That's nonsense! How do you even know it's her?"

"We came from there," I said, inclining my head towards Berry, "Made a stop near their cave a couple of days back. Not really charming fellows, but they had better things to do than turn away paying customers," I spoke as a hand of mine slowly rested on the hilt of one of my daggers of Woe, but the motion went unseen by the half-drunk man. "They told the story of how this woman came alone trying to steal from them, and they gave her their own brand of justice. Said she died screaming the name of her beloved Ranmir. They left her corpse in display inside the cave. If you don't believe me, then just go have a look." I shook my head. "You won't like the sight."

"Ranmir," his sister whispered from behind him, "I'm so sorry..."

"No," Ranmir shook his head, "No I can't believe this. Isabelle...she can't be...she can't be..." he began to hiccup, his fingers tightening around my shoulders as he lowered his head, tears falling freely from his cheeks as he took a deep shuddering breath a few seconds later, removing his hands from my shoulders and wiping his tears away. "You'd have no reason to lie to me," he whispered in the end. "Thank you for telling me," he turned towards his sister next, the next words croaked out with effort. "Let's go home, Birna."

Birna nodded, and gingerly grabbed hold of one of his arms, dragging him out gently, a worried look on her face.

I returned to my seat, taking a quick glance at Berry's shocked expression.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," I muttered, before raising my eyes towards the inn keeper. "Something strong to drink, and something warm to eat."

"On the house," the inn keeper replied with a nod.

"I'll have mead," Berry said quickly before Dagur left to get our orders. He returned with thick, spicy wine for me and a mug of mead for Berry. The stew that had been cooked in the broth he had offered at our arrival was the main dish of the day, and I had no intentions of leaving even a single scrap of it behind. Bread was offered, and taken, and as I drove chunks into the stew to soften them, I ate quickly, so famished I was.

Berry didn't have my speed, but she did eat quickly herself.

"Where are we going now?" she asked as soon as we were finished.

"The college. We should find Septimus Signus, but North-West of Winterhold can mean anything, and the college's librarian should know something more," I glanced outside the window, at the howling snowstorm. "Perhaps we can wait until the storm dies down," I quipped.

"You sure it's wise?" Berry replied, "Winterhold is infamous for its week-long snowstorms."

I groaned and gurgled out a few choice curses, before dreadfully standing up and paying a highly discounted price for the meal, before getting a room for the night for the both of us and finally stepping outside into the cold blizzard in search of the damn stone bridge that would lead us inside the College, and through the rickety, half-destroyed stone bridge that I was sure would plummet me to my doom.

Repairs, College of Winterhold, have you ever heard of the word repairs?

Winterhold itself was surprisingly one city quite similar to the game itself, mainly due to an actual reason for a lack of people outside, the small amount of buildings, and yet there also was some form of thick increase in the Dunmer population rummaging around, or using magic to shield themselves from the blizzard. Most of them went by uncaring of the cold or the frost, magic trapping their body heat to themselves apparently.

Once more, I cursed the lack of magic. I would have had unlimited power at my fingertips if only I could use Magicka. I could have sundered the storm, brought forth glorious orbital death, crafted comets to strike down my foes, lightning shock waves, acidic sprays, magic missiles...oh, the things I would have done with magic!

We finally found the bridge's main entrance, the symbol of the College of Winterhold etched on the small round gatehouse. Sitting at a table and covered in a thick cloak of sorts was a pissed-off figure that without a doubt had better things to do than stand guard, but which apparently had no choice but to do it. She was an Altmer, and Berry unnaturally tensed by my side as the gatekeeper revealed her golden eyes, her pointy ears and her golden-hued skin.

"Stop," she spoke, "Outsiders aren't permitted inside," she shuddered slightly. "If you wish to join the college, you must give proof of your magical ability."

I raised an eyebrow in her direction. "She's the one joining, and I'm her adjutant," I pointed at Berry. "She's also the Dragonborn, so I guess the Thu'um could work well enough?"

"It would," the Altmer spoke, an intrigued appearance settling on her face, "and very well, if she is capable of shouting, then she may join, and you may follow her around."

I turned towards Berry, and pointed at the floor where the circular symbol of the College stood. "Berry, if you'd please."

Berry huffed, "Obeying the Altmer makes me sick inside," she whispered in a low hiss, low enough that under the howling of the winds, only I managed to pick it up since Faralda didn't seem to change her expression one inch. The Fus Ro Dah of Berry made the gatehouse shake, the snow piled upon its roof falling down by the sides as the Altmer clutched her ears with a wince.

"It's a shout all right," Faralda said. "Welcome to the College, Dragonborn...or do you have a name?"

"I do have one," Berry said, "But I'm not going to tell you. We aren't staying around for long. Let's go Umbra, let's speak to the librarian and get out of here fast."

"You sure you can find your way around?" Faralda asked, nonplussed at Berry's curtness. "The road ahead is treachery without guidance."

"You'd know something about treachery, wouldn't—" as Berry began to speak, I hastily put a hand to cover her mouth and grinned awkwardly.

"Apologies!" I said as I began to drag Berry past the gatehouse, "I'm trying to temper her political views but it's a work in progress!" and as hastily as I said that, I also managed to slip on the icy corridor and fall backwards, only to hear the telltale sound of something clattering to the ground behind me as a pair of arms held me up with a bit of an effort.

"Sorry, sorry," I said as I turned to gaze at the person I hadn't seen, "Just dragging the wayward child through..." my next words died in my mouth.

"Umbra!" Hirume chirped happily, her arms engulfing me in a tight hug as she rubbed her cheek all over my forehead, "You've come to visit me!" she cooed as I simply let go of Berry, the Dragonborn standing hastily back up with an embarrassed expression on her face. "I'm so happy! Oh, Berry's here too! So, where are Ralvas and Sharrum?" she asked next, looking past Berry as I suddenly realized one very terrifying thought.

No, well, I realized two very terrifying thoughts.

The first was that I had left Ralvas and Sharrum behind.

The second was that Hirume was supposed to be at the embassy in Solitude, not here in Winterhold.

And the third one —even though I had thought two thoughts, there clearly was a third one— was that if she was here as a liaison with the Thalmor, then there was no Ancano.

Oh, well, things were going better than I expected, weren't they?

"You've got to meet my future husband too," Hirume next words made my soul go cold. "Ancano will be so happy to meet you!"

Ah, I see how it is Nine Divines.

You allowed me to enter the Dark Brotherhood to recover a few choice weapons because you wished to give me an opportunity, an opportunity to kill a bastard.

And who was I to go against the will of the Gods?

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Forty-Two - Winterhold - 8th of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Umbra

Hirume had words. She had quite vivid, quite candid words about what Ralvas had done, and what punishment she would mete out to him. At the same time she was worried, and angry, and prone to bouts of muttering. I stared with quite the vivid and interested expression as she made her way back towards the College, grabbing hold of my hand as if I were a child when it came to crossing pieces of it that had probably last seen repairs when Tiber Septim ruled the world.

"Shouldn't they put some form of railing?" I cried out as I managed to hop past a peculiarly vicious part of the College, turning to catch a hold of Berry's outstretched arm and pull her past.

"I can manage by myself!" Berry snapped hotly even as she had actually cleared the jump herself.

"Better safe than sorry and dead after falling to our deaths!" I snapped back in turn, glaring at the snowstorm around us. "Why can't you just make it stop with the Thu'um!?"

"How!?" Berry snarled, and I couldn't help but laugh bitterly up in the air.

"Just use the same Shout you used for Paarthurnax!" I yelled through the howling winds, even as Hirume pulled me along. Berry stared at me for a brief instant, as if unsure, and then stared up at the sky.

"I like this weather," she said in the end, which made me actually wish I could wring her neck out, but she was the Dragonborn, and...somehow, the image of Berry wearing Elsa's blue shimmering dress while singing the cold never bothered me anyway made its way into the back of my head.

When the rickety bridge of death and doom was finally left behind us, the courtyard of the college welcomed us together with the statue of a mage with its arms wide open. The shimmering fires that lit the halls burst into light balls, only to flicker and die as we went past them. The Hall of the Elements burned with energy as we stepped inside, and as the feeling made my skin tingle my pace increased as I came face to face with the giant, floating, Eye of Magnus in all of its magnificence. The Eye itself was a beauty to behold, a deadly beauty the likes of which I couldn't help but be transfixed with.

"That's the artifact that was recovered from Saarthal," Hirume spoke with an amused voice. "I knew it would catch your interest, Umbra. Isn't it pretty? All shiny and blue," she giggled. I barely nodded to her, my eyes drawn to the lines that seemed to pulse with a power of its own. Symbols written in a foreign language had been scrawled across it, and while the tongue was foreign, and beyond my abilities, the hair at the back of my neck rose all the same.

It was power.

It was—there were so many theories behind it that all failed to explain the most obvious truth about such a thing.

It was powerful, thus it needed to be properly handled, and having a Thalmor ponce zap it was not the correct way to go at it. Ancano was a fool, an arrogant fop, and I should probably slice his neck just to keep the Eye away from him.

"There was this cute amulet I found in the ruins," Hirume continued speaking nonchalantly, "I picked it up and guess what I found?"

"A secret door that lead to the Eye," I replied without much thought, my mouth going before my mind as I merely tried to reel back from the revelation that somehow, even without the interference of the Dragonborn, the plots were progressing. Course, the Eye might be an exception since it was hidden by a simple secret door and a few Draugr that would prove no match to an experienced group of mages, but for the rest...what about the Companions? Would they end up killed by the Silver Hand without help from Berry? The Dark Brotherhood was on its own, but the Thieves' Guild? Would bad stuff happen all the same, even without Berry's intervention? Would the Skeleton Key get recovered?

"Uh? Well, yes Umbra but...it's just speculation that this is—"

"The Eye of Magnus," I spoke calmly, staring at it. "It's a conduit to unfathomable power, isn't it? I can feel it from here," I turned to look at Hirume, who was awkwardly averting her gaze from mine. She seemed to be suddenly wary, her eyes half-closed as if expecting some form of outburst. I blinked. "What is it?"

"Ah, right, you're...still amnesiac," Hirume said with a small sigh of relief. "In times like these...you would normally start screaming about how stupid it was of me to act without thinking." She smiled weakly. "I forgot you're not...you."

I shrugged, "I'm not going to yell at you," I jabbed my thumb in the direction of the eye. "I'll yell at whoever touches it improperly."

Hirume laughed gingerly. "It's in the hands of my sweetie-roll, so they're the best hands there are. He'll tell you himself, you just wait and see," she furrowed her brows and looked around the hall. "He was supposed to be here."

In the Hall, a few wizards were throwing spells at straw mannequins that seemed to shine with an unnatural green glow, but there wasn't much in the way of a lesson. My eyes however hadn't bothered with the rest of the hall because they had literally glued themselves to that of Magnus, which levitated with ease and a thrumming, dull sound right in front of me. It was beauty. It was a beauty beyond all others, a sense of fulfillment and power the likes of which I had never felt, nor seen before.

A hand shook me out of my reverie, Berry gazing up at me with a puzzled expression. "Is everything all right?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied, glancing back at the eye. "For the moment it is," I clenched my fists, "But only just. This isn't good, but we can't waste too much time on this," I took a deep breath. "We—"

"Aren't going anywhere," Hirume said with a giggle as her arms snaked around my neck to hold me still, her chin dropping down on the top of my head. Man if she wasn't tall. "Sharrum and Ralvas were supposed to be looking after you both, and they aren't here. You have to tell me what happened still, Umbra," she pouted. "And I can't believe you'd just ignore me like this! Don't you want to play with my shiny hair?"

"Hirume," I replied while coughing, "Shouldn't you let me go? It's embarrassing! There are people watching!" I hissed out as I realized a few students were actually gawking at the sight of the Thalmor lady hugging the Imperial in a black cloak from the back who was also wildly flailing his arms in an effort to free himself from the madwoman's grip.

"I need to recharge my big sister Soul Gem charge!" Hirume whined before I managed to disentangle myself. Much to my shame, Hirume actually extended her arms in a sort of give me, give me, motion while whining ever so slightly. Her arms ended up grasping around Berry, much to the Nord girl's widening eyes and shock, "You'll do!" Hirume chirped next, "How have you been Berry-Berry? Did Umbra here do something bad while I wasn't looking? Did he join a cult? End up kidnapped by necromancers? Made serenades to ghosts?"

Berry's face actually blanched as she did her best impression of not knowing anything. Hirume, cheerful, absent-minded Hirume, actually understood Berry's silence and turned her head sharply towards me. "Umbra!" she shrieked out, "What did I tell you about following vampires offering you sweet rolls!?"

I emitted a half-strangled scream as I raised both hands in the air. "I don't know!"

Hirume's eyes widened. "Oh no, oh, right!" she gasped as she let go of Berry, "I need to explain it back to you! All the things you mustn't do, like sing in a graveyard, or sing at night, or go with the funny-smelling men wearing black, or the pale women and men with sharp fangs! Silly me, I know I can be a bit of an absent-minded big sister, but you really, really, can't follow strangers no matter who they claim to be or what they want out of you!" she grabbed my hands and pulled me away from the Eye, my eyes sending a secret and silent plead for aid from Berry, who merely watched me go by with an awkward look.

Traitor.

Berry, you are truly a traitor.

"And when a pretty lady looks at you and says Oh, how sweet you look, I'd gobble you up! She's definitely a vampire," Hirume spoke as she kept dragging me away from the Hall of Elements, and up one of the long spiraling staircases that lead higher, perhaps to the rooms the apprentices shared, or perhaps to wherever it was that she and Ancano slept. "Or if someone's praising your singing and wants to offer you some Septims, but left his purse at home and wants you to follow him, the answer is no, Umbra. Do you understand me? Bad things happen to pretty little kids when they follow foul-smelling old men back to their homes."

I bristled. "I am not that stupid."

Hirume stared at me, having stopped her dreadful pulling long enough to actually stare deeply into my eyes. "You...actually did it, Umbra. If it hadn't been for Mansel making a ruckus and catching his attention, who knows what the old man would have done to you."

"I...I must have had a reason?" I hazarded weakly.

Hirume didn't say anything as she let go of my hands once the target of her pulling became obvious. There were a few chairs on the upper floor, and some tables on which neat stacks of books rested. This was the library, or at least, an antechamber to the library proper that yet had more than enough shelves and tables to make it look like we had arrived. A few students milled about, or perhaps actual teachers barring the obvious ones of the game. The tall Altmer took a seat by one side of a small table, and as I took the other, Berry sat down quietly behind me, the traitor that she was.

"Listen, Umbra," Hirume awkwardly shifted on her seat. "I know it must be daunting to have people you don't remember tell you they're your family, and that you can rely on them," she began in a hushed whisper, "But you need to understand that it's because we care about you. I know I might feel like a stick in the mud, but I'm really worried about you. You don't have to think you're being a bother, or a weight," she continued with a small smile. "I would really be a poor big sister if I didn't know there's something bothering you. I've known you the best after all," she giggled. "But first, you need to tell me everything that happened. How am I supposed to help you if you don't tell me what's wrong?"

Nothing's wrong, Hirume.


I just need to ask the Augur of Dunlain how one fucking turns off the frigging Eye of Magnus.

I'm sure the Augur will know the answer, and if he doesn't, then I'll do what I do best.

I'll improvise.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Forty-Three - Winterhold - 8th of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Umbra

The College of Winterhold had no main dining hall. It had various tables in various rooms, but no main dining room. People didn't dine together. Perhaps they felt it was meaningless to communicate with one another outside of the library, or perhaps they simply didn't care about socializing, but bread was the main ingredient for the main courses of the college, which generally involved smoked fish and some garlic-like sauce.

This was the hell of kitchens and chefs. Tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages and vegetables were in general a prized possession, and needless to say the random barrels and bags left at the corners of the walls had perhaps been excessively warded to ensure nobody would steal from them, but even I had to rethink the idea of experimenting with Fire Runes near inflammable materials like flour. And yet, it was apparently the best place to eat in peace, on the stairs that could lead one outside into the freezing cold depths of Winterhold's walls.

"What brings you here, Umbra?" Hirume asked as Berry had meanwhile hightailed it away from a sandwich made of smoked fish, garlic sauce, a nice frozen lettuce slice and what looked like minced meat over it. The fact Ancano was nowhere to be seen didn't seem to bother Hirume at all. He could have gone anywhere, or done anything, but apparently she didn't seem to bother. Perhaps she had even forgotten that Ancano was supposed to be there to begin with. She gave a bite of her sandwich and then grimaced, before swallowing and giving it another bite, powering through it with determination blazing in her eyes. It was the kind of endearing effort one might find in a hamster stuffing his cheeks with seeds, and yet she worked through it without emitting a single note of disgust. "Never waste food," she said quite firmly, smiling in my direction as I simply stared at my own sandwich.

I looked back at Hirume, who seemed to be gesturing at my own as if expecting me to eat it. I nervously chuckled, and then took a bite.

For a brief instant, I felt as if countless words were about to emerge from my lips, but they did not. Instead, I simply took another bite, and then yet one more. Quite calmly, I ate the entire thing with the firm belief that a lesser man would have died with each bite. Perhaps that was why it had no taste to my tongue. "Hirume," I said, only for her to pout. "Big sister," I tried once more, the pout now joined by a glare that held the same level of threat of a kitten, "Best sister," I said in the end, conceding and receiving a happy grin and a clap of the hands from the Altmer woman, "Have you tried feeding this to Ancano?" It would spare me the troubles of killing him myself, perhaps.

"My sweetie-roll doesn't want me to cook," Hirume spoke, "He says I might ruin my fingers." Yes, of course, Ancano would go with that lie, wouldn't he? "He's such a sweet honey bun," Hirume giggled. "He was so surprised to see me here! He didn't want me to brave the cold of Winterhold to be with him, and preferred me safe near Solitude, but I'm his future wife, so—" ah, the bastard didn't even tie the knot properly? Italian blood rising. Italian hatred rising. Bear witness to my acts, my ancestors, for this shameful display shall end on this day! Come to me, great spirits of the ancient Italy! Come to me mothers, and grandmothers, and fathers and grandfathers! Come, for the ancient tradition of murdering a man who troubles a woman and does not do the honorable thing must be upheld!

To me, my Sicilian roots! To me, my Calabria's ancestry! To me, my Catholic-non-existing schooling! We must purge the world of such a man! Cleanse him! Burn him! To the stake! To the pyre! Let us stone him to death with burning coals!

"Where are the others?" I asked. "You came here alone?"

Hirume shook her head. "Tsavi and Mansel accompanied me but didn't stick around. They headed further south towards RIften," and as she said that, I couldn't help but imagine Tsavi, the Khajiiti, as the future Nightingale or a member of the thief guild. Then, I realized that I was speaking about a Khajiiti who wouldn't probably hurt a fly and would be stuck facing off Mercer Frey, and in that moment my blood ran cold. Of course, they might have gone for honest work, but I sincerely doubted the Divines would see things my way.

At the same time, I couldn't leave Berry alone, not when it came to the Elder Scroll to recover.

And cherry on top, I had a Thalmor missing in action to brutally murder.

Why couldn't people just stay still and do absolutely nothing? Why did they have to move around, do their own things, and end up in dangerous situations? At least...wait a minute.

My memories weren't that foggy, but if I wasn't wrong there was a barrow where Frey met up with the nightingale and the Dragonborn. If memory served me right, while he did wield the Skeleton Key nothing prevented anyone else from murdering him. One just had to time it right. Or perhaps, one just had to believe in the Gods for them to time it right.

"Dragnor joined the Imperial Army, while Ocheeva found work at the Eastern Company's docks," Hirume continued speaking, not realizing I was busy thinking about other things. "Big sister Willow..." Hirume winced, "I have no idea where she went after seeing me off at the Thalmor embassy. I hope she's doing fine," she twiddled her fingers together. "She'll probably be coming right for you, Umbra. Since you're suffering from amnesia she'll probably try to help you but don't let her trick you!" Hirume's cheeks filled with air. "I am your Best Sister! My hair is shiny silver and you always liked playing with it. Also, I'm kinder than Willow. You always said Willow was a big bad bully and a meanie, and that I was the best!" her face fell flat, "You always slipped away when I was supposed to look after you though," she mumbled sadly.

I'm really sorry about Past-Me, Hirume, but perhaps it's because you're too easy to bullshit?

Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Hey!" she exclaimed, "You haven't told me why you're here!"

"I want to speak to the Augur of Dunlain," I said quite calmly. "It's found below the College of Winterhold, in the Midden. Rumors is it can answer any question you ask it."

Hirume's eyes widened. "Any question?" she whispered. "Like...if it's going to be a baby boy or a baby girl?" as she touched her stomach with one hand, she smiled brightly. "That way I can already start knitting the clothes of the right color!" she crooned, "Aw! I want to come!"

"Hirume, Best Sister Hirume," I continued at her sour gaze, "It's a dangerous place. Spiders, skeletons, rats! What if a rat bites you? Wouldn't want you to get sick or worse," I nodded as I stood up from the stairs. "Tell you what!" I continued, "We wait tomorrow and then we go, all right? So I get to meet your future husband in person if he comes back by then, and he can escort you like a knight in shining armor!"

Hirume's eyes glazed over as she began to drool from a corner of her lips. The act itself made me shudder in pure disgust, but as I slowly began to slink away, it was pretty clear that Hirume was lost in her daydreaming of sorts, and I wasn't going to look a gifted horse in the mouth.

I nearly barreled into Berry who was instead walking back up the stairs, an apple half eaten in her hands. I stared at the apple, and she wrinkled her nose before gagging for air. "Oh Gods," Berry gasped, taking a few steps back and then stumbling on her next step, falling down even as I grabbed hold of her by the arm to keep her up. This in turn unbalanced me, and made me fall down with a sick thud. We ended up as a mess of sprawled limbs one floor below, my head ringing as Berry was instead atop me.

"You're heavy," I grunted out through gritted teeth.

"My apple!" Berry exclaimed in turn with an utterly sad voice, her apple apparently splattered beneath me, before clutching her mouth and nose with both hands, "Gods your breath! Umbra, did you eat a corpse or something?"

"I ate the sandwich you refused," I replied angrily, even as Berry lifted herself off me and extended a hand to help me up. "That said," Berry pulled me up before pinching her nose, "Do you truly think it's bad?"

"I think you could kill a whole city if you just breathed in their direction," Berry snapped back curtly. "It's a spell of mass destruction." She sighed as she extended a parchment towards me. "I got us a map with the spot where Septimus' outpost is. It's a bit rough, but if we can get there by foot if the temperature drops enough."

"How long would that take?" I asked nonchalantly, and Berry merely shrugged. "Then, Berry, we go down for a while. There's a nifty place we have to explore. The Augur of Dunlain...quite the prophetic entity, I'm told."

"Oh? Is he better than you?" Berry replied with a twitch of her lips in amusement.

I feigned being offended, a hand clutching my chest. "Better than me?" I gasped, "Most certainly not. He's more cryptic than me, at least. Still, let's get to it while we still can...that is, while Hirume is distracted," I hummed as my eyes lit with sparks of interest.

Berry nodded, and began to follow me as we kept going downstairs to enter the College's courtyard. "By the way, I never got to ask," I said nonchalantly, "Who did the Night Mother want you to kill?"

"Nobody important," Berry replied.

"Then you'd have no problems telling me," I replied, only for her to shake her head in answer.

"Ah," I said, "So it is someone important."

"Does it matter? I'm not doing it," Berry said curtly, huffing even as the cold blizzard welcomed us in the courtyard, nearly freezing my face off my skull. I hastily rushed towards the side, trying to avoid as much wind as possible as I made for the trapdoor that would lead one down below the College and into the Midden.

"I'm just curious. Whoever it is, it's not going to change my opinion of you," I said as I pulled the trapdoor open, a sewer-like smell wafting its way up from the pitch-black depths below. In this fantastic world, the Midden wasn't just a storehouse, a place of a gory accident involving students and a Dremora, and a place of undead creatures.

Of course it also had to be a sewer-system.

Nothing better than trudging through shit to digest a light snack!

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Forty-Four - Winterhold - 8th of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Umbra

The ground beneath my feet was squishy, and disgusting. The miasma was thick, and as my own breath felt like an air freshener when compared to the stale, cold and humid air, it was pretty clear that this world needed gas mask and better sewer hygiene. On the other hand, adventurers always went sewer hunting as their first missions. If there was a group of level ones, then the sewers were the first place to send them into to fight off plague-carrying rats and whatnot. As long as there weren't any Otyughs down here, then I would be safe.

There was a small tremor as torches flickered to light across the sewers made of bricks and ice.

I took a small breath as I unsheathed the Chorrol Honorblade and gave it a hesitant swing, the weight kind of different and yet at the same time familiar. I grabbed hold of my shield in the process, keeping it close by. "Careful," I said. "We're expected."

The sewer fell into a pool of ice and a slippery slope by the side seemed to lead further down. Blood smatterings were old, and yet the ice had preserved them against the pristine azure-blue of the walls. The sound of taut bones crackling under the strain of ice reached my ears, soon followed by cracks spreading across the bottom of the slope. Skeletal white hands emerged clutching on to old swords and pickaxes as tattered scraps of cowls hung on loosely to the frames of other skeletal beings that were rustling in from the entrance at the bottom.

"This is foolishness! We have the high ground!" I yelled as the skeletons began to trudge upwards upon their shaky limbs.

A dart of ice shot forth from a cowl-wearing skeleton, which impacted against my shield and outright dented it as I stared in disbelief at the skeletal mage below. Icy haze formed around the fingers of the dead mage, and as he apparently had four other fellows to count on, all with the same haze around their fingertips, I swallowed and groaned. "Berry!"

"Arrows don't work on skeletons!" Berry snapped back.

"Aim for their skulls!" I said hastily as I began to rush down, shield held high by my side as my blade joyfully swung down with tremendous strength against the first skeleton, whose cracking movements were slow and actually kind-of easy to avoid. Nothing at all like a Draugr, and yet the blade easily sliced through the spine as if it were butter, sending the creature to explode not literally, but kind-of, as whatever magic kept the form together broke apart. An old sword rapped without purpose against my shield, merely a swing made by bones with no skill at all. I surprised myself with how easily it was to push it back, before thrusting the hilt of the sword straight into the creature's teeth. The skull snapped off, my sword swinging down to parry a thrust from yet another skeleton.

I moved backwards slowly, and yet my speed was easily twice that of the advancing skeletons.

"They're not that hard to beat!" I yelled, kind of excited.

"Speak for yourself!" Berry howled back as I glanced in her direction and balked. The cowl-wearing skeletons were outright levitating thrusting their hands forth as ice javelins left the tip of their bony fingers. The controlled use of Yor was what kept Berry alive even as she rolled away from the mages, tiny tongues of fire leaving her fingers trying to hit them, only for the undead wizards to deftly avoid them.

I swung my blade to intercept a falling pickaxe, and as I hastily pulled it aside I slammed the side of my shield against the rib-cage of the skeleton. "Road's clear!" I yelled, "Get in the tunnel!" I pointed at the spot where the undead had come in from, and as Berry hastily complied by outright sliding down on the slope, the undead skeletons' fingers changed abruptly from icy haze to crackling lightning.

Because lightning was the fastest magic, wasn't it?

Berry passed me by as a bolt of lightning struck my shield, arched across my arm and made me scream as all of my muscles began to tremble and spasm at the same time. I crumbled down like a bag of potatoes, gurgling and groaning the unfairness of magic in this hellish world. A second bolt of lightning struck my back as I convulsed, my body starting to roll down the slope as Berry watched me arrive near her with a sort of contrite expression.

"Help?" I croaked out.

"You can't die," Berry replied as if that explained everything, before grabbing hold of me by the scruff of the neck and lifting me up just as javelins of ice impacted against my chest.

"Gah!" I screamed out as I watched the ice break holes into my already ruined armor, blood soaking it as I closed my eyes sharply, gurgling for air. Was this what it felt when a lung collapsed? No, seriously, Berry, you can't use me as a meat shield! I mean, I understand I'm sworn to carry your burdens, but—"Oi!" a sizzling bolt of lightning burst through the air, bounced off the floor and then struck my sword, arching across the metal and hitting Berry, who was forced to let go of me and yelp in pain, her hands slightly burnt.

"I'm not feeling well," I gurgled as I stumbled to get to my feet, the ice javelins protruding from my skin having melted, my skin a light blue hue from hypothermia. I groaned as I clutched the painful wounds, wincing and staring at the cowl-wearing undead who seemed content in clacking their skulls as they stared at us. "I hate mages."

An arrow left Berry's bow, and as it stuck into the eye socket of one of the five floating undead, the skull merely snapped backwards, but didn't separate from the spine. "I tried," Berry said as she hastily turned her back on the enemies, "Now let's run," and with that said, she began to dash away from the skeletons and down the long corridor, my own brain telling me that perhaps it would be a great idea to follow her, but my body deciding that if I feigned being dead long enough, the pain would stop. Cold bit at my fingers and feet as I felt icy mist, snow and ice encase my lower body, the undead mages somehow deciding that I'd make a fine addition to their collection of frozen icicles.

My lower half had already been encased in ice by the time Berry returned, wildly swinging a sword which stuck into the back of one of the undead mages, stopping halfway through the spine and staying stuck in there, much to Berry's effort to remove it.

"You're full of crap," she snapped, before her throat became fire, and her words turned into an infernal entity. Heat blossomed from her lips, the ice began to melt, and the world rewrote itself amidst the crackling fires and heatwaves. The fire breath of a mighty dragon burst from her lips, and as it blossomed through the undead, it struck me in turn as the flames burned my cold skin, making it crack amidst a pain unlike any others.

My body slumped down, smoking slightly as multiple tiny wounds from the split skin began to close slowly one after the other, my breath a pained gurgle as my own lungs had been cooked by Berry's Thu'um.

"You didn't know..." I wheezed out, "That wouldn't...kill me..."

"I guessed it wouldn't," Berry replied as she hastily helped me back up, the charred remains of the five undead mages now merely ashes. "And I was right."

I coughed out coal dust, or perhaps was it the shedding of my blackened lungs? As I stared at the dark grimy liquid that I spewed out —my own blood having boiled perhaps? I could not help but shake my head in disbelief, one of my arms slinging around Berry's shoulders for support. "Not pleasant," I managed to grunt out. "Not pleasant...at all."

Broken stairs of stone welcomed us after a bent in the corridor of ice, and as we descended further into the depths of the College's Midden, I couldn't help but wonder why they had to make things so damn bigger than in the game. I wouldn't have minded some realistic designing, but I could have gone without having to trek for ten minutes through cold, harsh ice and slippery stairs just to reach a frigging bridge of ice that we had to cross to get to the other side.

Also, the Ice Atronachs didn't look happy to see us either.

"Such a cold welcome," I said.

"Umbra," Berry said dryly from slightly behind me, "You are not allowed to make this kind of joke. Ever."

I sidestepped to allow Berry full vision of the duo of Atronachs that were rumbling as they stood to full attention beyond the bridge, their icy forms massive and towering. They looked like long-bearded bulky humanoids, but the beard was made of ice, the eyes tin pinpricks of cold frost, and their arms didn't end in misshapen extremities, but in three-clawed limbs. Their rib-cage was open in the middle, showing a pulsing nova of frost that dropped the temperature around them considerably.

A snowstorm billowed into existence, the temperature dipping even further beneath the acceptable range. Berry's Thu'um resonated with strength, and the flames burst through the snow melting and yet detonating it at the same time, the ground trembling beneath our feet. The ice bridge collapsed into sharp shards of glass-like quality, cutting off our path. The Frost Atronach's chests melted slightly, before they slowly reformed, the ice re-encasing them as they extended their limbs forward, icicles exploding violently out of their fingers.

I dropped down on the icy ground together with Berry, her hand clutching my wrist as she pointed at the bottom of the chasm. "There's a cave over there!" she mouthed.

"It's a dead end," I shot back. "We need to go past the bridge!" an icicle slammed home an inch away from my face, making me freeze on the spot from sheer fear. The thing wasn't like a needle you could toughen up to. The thing was a spear of ice, a frigging spear of ice, and if it went through my head...I didn't think it would be pleasant, not at all.

"Just trust me!" Berry said curtly, before bodily dragging me down the slope of ice. My weight was greater than hers, thus as I reached terminal velocity before her, she clutched on and stared at the bottom of the chasm with a look of pure determination. "Fask!" her guttural Thu'um resounded as the ice morphed into some form of replica of ice, but with the consistency of marshmallows, bouncing us off the bottom of the canyon of ice and straight into the cave with a rolling start.

I had snow in unmentionable places.

It was as awkward, discomforting and disgusting as it sounded.

Behind us, the rumbling grew louder as the Frost Atronachs both jumped down into the chasm, their limbs grating against the walls to dull their fall. When they landed, the ground cracked dangerously beneath their feet. Taking a deep breath, I felt the heat of Berry's Thu'um, the blast this time concentrated due to the chasm's walls. The first of the Atronachs melted like a wax candle in an oven, but the second instead blindly rushed forward, claws coming down in an upward swing.

My body lunged forth, my shield impacting against the ice as I slipped on the ground and was pushed back with startling ease.

"Fus!" Berry's singular world echoed through my head, rather than in the world around us, and my feet found solid ground to stick to as my muscles somewhat tightened, and then what had before been an impassable strength became now a perceived weight, something that could be moved, pushed, and thrown back.

Berry, did you just use the Fus to give me strength?

"Stendarr's blessing upon my shield!" I snarled with a vicious howl as my shield arm began to push the Atronach back, "Talos' strength for my sword-arm!" I swung my sword back, "Kynareth's blessing for my roar!" with a thundering crack, Chorrol's Honorblade slammed through the ice encasing the Atronach's chest, setting cracks in motion throughout its massive frame. A sharp whistling like that of a teapot began to shrilly leave the Atronach's frame, and as the cracks spread, the Daedra made of ice widened its tiny, beady, ice-like eyes.

It exploded.

It exploded noisily, shards of ice slamming home through my armor and into my flesh, slicing it like shredded cheese.

Still, I lived.

"I'm starting to think you're abusing my ability to not die to your own benefits," I grunted out as Berry neared.

"Well," Berry began awkwardly, "You swore to carry my burdens, didn't you?"

"Yes, but I don't want to become the punching bag of the universe while at it," I grumbled, shaking shards of ice out of my wounds which began to bleed copiously, the blood clotting after a couple of seconds. "I'll end up looking like some kind of war-scarred veteran if this keeps up."

"Rough-looking and battle-scarred is a look all the Nord women dig," Berry quipped.

"Yeah, right," I chuckled. "Rather, let's get to climbing back up," I exhaled loudly. "Hopefully we're done with this and the Augur won't be too far."

Berry huffed as she looked at me. "Does it look like I've got a climbing gear with me?" I stared at her. She looked back. "I left it in my rooms back at the college, it was heavy to carry around," she said.

"You fail at being an adventurer, Berry," I said quite flatly, much to the girl's surprise and widening eyes. "Always be prepared. It's like the number one rule of adventuring. If you don't have on your person fifteen meters of rope, a crowbar, a small grappling hook and a set of climber gear then you've basically failed at preparing. Zero out of ten, would not adventure with."

"I don't see you having climbing gear," Berry snapped back curtly, arms crossed.

I nodded most wisely, "That's because I don't need it," I swiftly sheathed the Chorrol's Honorblade only to pull out the twin daggers of Woe. "I have daggers!" I said quite cheerfully. "And now look at me go," with the most valiant of expressions, I slammed one of the daggers into the ice, and as it easily slipped inside the widening crack, I began to climb the ice surface while keeping a hold on the dagger's handles.

"That shouldn't be possible!" Berry yelled from below me. "You're going to break them!"

"Magic doesn't need to justify shit to physics!" I snapped back as I abruptly pulled the daggers free and fell back down by Berry's side, having barely climbed a couple of feet. "But since you don't have climbing gear we'll have to go back, get the gear, and then return here," I sighed despondently. "Seriously, Berry...making us backtrack, think about the time wasted."

Berry stuck her tongue out in my direction, and in answer I simply exhaled, quite a lot, towards her.

Her face turned green as she turned swiftly on her heels and rushed away.

My laughter echoed through the tunnel as I ran behind her, twirling the daggers in my hands as if they were the most familiar tools I had ever wielded. Magic suffused their being, but I had no idea what it was about. I only knew that if I wanted to slice someone's neck, then the daggers would show me the way.

Hastily, I sheathed them both.

Had I known what waited for us once we returned to Berry's rooms, I would have left Berry alone and climbed the damn ice wall by myself.

Hirume didn't look pleased to see us return, but the one thing that apparently made her angrier was that Ancano yet hadn't returned.

"What if he's forgotten to tell me he's been transferred? Again?" Hirume wailed, her eyes red from tears and sobs. "Why does everyone I love end up running away from me, Umbra? I'm not too clingy, am I? I didn't even—didn't even give him my handmade sweater with our faces sewn on it!"

The sweaters in question were...horrible. I would have loved nothing more than to nod while walking away, but Hirume was clutching on to my arm with a grip the likes of which I had never felt before. I could easily fight against skeletons, and get thrown around by Ice Atronachs, but when it came to the grip of the Altmer, I failed. There was steel in those biceps, I was sure of it! And it was terrifying that I couldn't as much as move an inch away.

"Berry," I hissed as I watched her grab the climbing gear and turn to leave with an innocent look on her face. "Where are you going?"

"Your sister clearly needs you to console her," she replied. "I'm going on ahead. Meet me there later, see ya!" and as quickly as she said the last part, she rushed off leaving me behind to face the treacherous, overemotional and extremely cry-filled Altmer Thalmor that was also an older sister of Umbra.

Tu quoque, mi Berry!

Tu quoque!

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Forty-Five - Winterhold - 9th of Hearthfire 4E 201 - Umbra

The Augur of Dunlain was a massive blue flame that stood proudly in the middle of a flaming pit of blue fire. A shining light floated at the center of the fire, and as it gazed and pondered, it briefly pulsed and reasserted itself. The door to him had been literally blown open by magic, perhaps a sign that Ancano had persevered even when the Augur had done its best to hold him back.

The temperature in the room was pleasant, and the humidity high. My bones thus ached, even if it wasn't an unpleasant sensation feeling warm for the first time in days.

"There is no solace in knowing what is to come," the Augur spoke, "No help, only disappointment."

"He's quite the cheerful ball of light, Umbra," Berry commented. "You sure it knows what we're looking for?"

"He should," I replied. "How do we turn the Eye of Magnus off? I mean completely, and not in the sense of controlling it with the staff."

The heat in the room heightened briefly, water dripping down from the half-frozen stones that surrounded the Augur as pale blue flames washed over both Berry and I, doing us both no harm. "You already have what it takes. Trust in the Divines, for the path they have set for you has been cast in bronze, etched in ebony and accompanied by the drums of the beating hearts. A tossed coin has no use for knowledge, safety, meaning or shelter. It may not choose the number of spins, nor the face it will land upon. It can merely enjoy or detest the toss, and the fall."

"You're the better prophet," Berry quipped, "At least you make sense."

"I guess he's saying we just have to mill around and wait for Ancano to actually poke the damn eye before we can get around to shutting it down," I pointed back. "Though it's a relief. I can just close my eyes and let the Divines guide my path."

"Even if the end of that path is death?" the Augur remarked, his body shimmering with light. "There is foolishness in trusting your life to a greater design that you may never come to grasp in your lifetime, nothing more than a train set upon rails. If the end of the track leads to your downfall, are you still willing to power through it?"

I shrugged, taking a small breath. It wasn't like I could make a choice in the end, could I? I had been thrust in a horrible situation, and was making the best of it as I went along. "If it's what I've been called to do, if it's the reason I'm here...then I'll do it. Otherwise, what else am I supposed to do? Fight against fate? Destiny? Those who try only end up badly burned."

"It is common to seek self-justification where there is none," the Augur replied. "History repeats itself like a vicious cycle. All are predestined. All are free to throw themselves off the wheel. All are free. The Thief guards the Tower, the Tower is the Wheel. The Snake threads upon the wheel with vicious spite. I failed, and in my failure learned more than if I had succeeded. When the time comes, perhaps your failure might herald greater things than your success." The pale blue light slowly dimmed, before regaining its strength.

"Not in the mood for CHIM stuff," I said while shrugging. Half the stuff went over my head, and the other half had implications I didn't wish to expand upon. "And I never understood it either," I chuckled, "By the way, do you know who's Berry's assassination victim?"

Berry remained silent for a few seconds before my words caught on to her vividly interested expression, "Umbra!" she exclaimed angrily, "You don't have to answer that Augur! Rather, tell me one of Umbra's most embarrassing secrets! Or the one thing he's afraid of!"

I blinked, and then widened my eyes, "Berry! Don't you dare!" I turned swiftly to the Augur, "Don't tell her anything! You were a man before, come on! The brotherhood of bros' code—"

The Augur blazed like a miniature sun, the blue flames suddenly gaining mass as we were both expelled out of the doors that somehow rebuilt themselves to lock us both out. I stared as the door melted itself into a solid piece of slag, blocking further entrance. I groaned, "I had other questions! Open the damn door!"

"This is your fault," Berry huffed, crossing her arms like a petulant child as she looked away from me, "You should have kept your nose out of my business to begin with!"

I exhaled, passing a hand through my hair. "We went through Frost Atronachs and undead to get here!" I yelled at the door, "The least you could do is give us some fortune cookies!" I slammed a foot against the door, sharply closed due its new nature as a part of the wall. It also had the hardness of the wall to begin with, so I did not do a very smart thing, as my sore foot reminded me a few seconds later. It really wasn't a smart thing at all.

"What do we do now?" Berry asked, "He wasn't much of a help, was he?"

I nodded at that. "He basically said we had everything we needed. If only you hadn't interrupted my string of questions like a wailing banshee, I might have found out more."

"Are you out of your mind?" Berry snapped back. "What's the point of knowing the name of someone I won't even kill?"

"I'm just bothered. It's like you are actually considering it," I pointed out. "After all, if you truly had no intentions of killing the man or woman you are meant to kill, you'd have no trouble telling me his or hers name."

"I'm not considering it," Berry said. "I'm really not." I raised an eyebrow. "It's just better if you don't know. Isn't your immortality tied to Sithis anyway? Helping me would make you lose it, wouldn't it?"

I shrugged. "We actually ran away from the Dark Brotherhood, Berry. Once enough times passes, I'll be branded a traitor. The Night Mother probably knows of our betrayal already, and I doubt she's the forgiving type. No, my immortality isn't tied to Sithis, it's never been. My past self probably lied to Babette and to the Dark Brotherhood to get them off his case, or to manipulate them," I turned thoughtful, "But that's all there is to it. I have no idea why I'm immortal, or why it must be such a horrible, pain-filled form of immortality, but just because I decide to help you won't suddenly make me lose my fascinating charms and my indestructible body."

Berry stared at me, and then sighed. "You're a real piece of dwarven work aren't you?" at my beaming smile, she relented. "I'm supposed to kill the son of Jarl Balgruuf the Greater, Nelkir."

I raised an eyebrow at that, "Why?"

"It's not like the Night Mother told me," Berry grumbled. "Just that he needs to die so that the oath might be completed." She shook her head. "No matter how snotty a Jarl's son can be, I'm not going to kill a child just because a corpse told me to."

I rubbed the underside of my chin. "To bind with blood an oath and to use Nelkir of all people...it's not a coincidence," I quipped. "It's unfortunate, but depending on circumstances we might need to return to Whiterun on the double," I eyed her, "Not to kill the kid, but to recover the sword. Though that depends on whether the kid managed or not to get the key off the wizard." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Still, if you had told me this earlier, maybe we could have headed to Whiterun first to get the damn sword."

"What sword?" Berry asked.

"The Ebony Blade of Mephala," I said as I began to walk away from the Augur's door and towards the corridor that would lead us past the crevice, and back on the trodden path of the Midden. "Bathed in the blood of those that are deceived, it strengthens the owner. It is a blade of deceit and lies, a blade that whispers and corrupts. If left unchecked...it might lead to bad things happening."

"Bad things like?"

"Patricide," I said smoothly.

"Yeah, that would be really bad," Berry said. "Whiterun's the linchpin of Skyrim. Right now the civil war is pretty much stalling, but if anything happens to Whiterun then there will be blood, and everyone will want a piece of it."

"It does honestly depend on you," I quipped, much to her surprise. "The recovery of the Jagged Crown heralds the beginning of the end, for with it both sides are emboldened into action."

Berry snorted, "Right, because of course everyone would wait for me before getting on with their brutalities and field-burning. I can just see it, both armies waiting and picking flowers until I come out from Talos knows what kind of tomb filled with Draugr with an old crown. And after I graciously hand it over to someone, they just start killing each others. Not before though, no, of course they need to wait for me." She fiddled her fingers. "I prefer your method of telling the future. This Augur of Dunlain turned out to be a load of hot air."

"Preach it, Berry," I said with a chuckle, my steps coming to a halt by the ice crevice. I fastened my rope around the climber's nail, and began to descend. Getting down wasn't the difficult part. Climbing up was, but even that was nothing compared to the seven thousand steps. Though I had yet to master the intricacies of ninety-degree walking, I could manage to climb up a rope without risking my neck, not that it would break if I fell.

It would just hurt really, really badly for a while and then I'd have to get to climb the rope once more.

We left the Midden for the courtyard, where as if on point a powerful blizzard welcomed us. It hadn't stopped once, and yet there was still water in the bay rather than a singular block of ice. Since we had to go pretty far away from shore, it was obvious we'd need to wait more than just a couple of days.

"Umbra!" I was tackled. I was engulfed in a warm hug. A cold cheek rubbed furiously against the side of my head. I wasn't even mad. I was merely resigned to my fate. Hirume was clingy. She was clingy, and she was worse than a squirrel on a caffeine and sugar overdose, spiced up with cocaine and other hyperactive-enabling drugs. I didn't know if it was normal, or if she was bored because Ancano wasn't there, but as we were guests of the College, Berry opted for taking some of the classes, and instead I had to suffer through Hirume's incessant talks of colorful events of Umbra's past.

I couldn't believe that past-me had done the things he had done, because no matter how much I could be myself, I'd never be so stupid as to lose myself inside ancient Ayleid ruins in search of mystical ancient powers. I wasn't that stupid, was I?

I couldn't be that stupid.

"And then there was that one time you played with fire together with Ralvas, and then they had to rebuild half the city," Hirume pouted. "I think you did it on purpose because Willow always brought us there for our family trips and there were a lot of insects, and you always were fussy with insects." She huffed a strand of her silver hair away from her eyes, her hands moving to fill a cup with some form of warm herbal tea.

Where she had gotten the tea was anyone's guess, and how she managed to keep the teapot heated was probably easily chalked up to magic, but the fact that it was a sort of green tea that tasted like strawberry tart gone rancid made me wish she hadn't forced a cup of it in my hands.

"Now this is very important Umbra," Hirume said as she took a deep breath. "I am your best sister, and this will never change, even when the child will be born. I know you don't want to be a bother," she hastily added before I could as much as open my mouth to say something, "But never forget that we're family. Just because I have started a new one doesn't mean I'll forget about my old one. I've not exchanged families...I've just enlarged our own," she smiled warmly. "And I can't wait for you to meet Ancano! I'm sure you'll both get along really well! You're both driven to results, steadfast in your dreams, and...and I'm sure you'll approve of him. You have to, or Willow will try to kill him if you don't stop her. She can be so protective! Even more than me," here Hirume pouted. "She never approved of what...of what I decided to become, but it was for the best," here she made a more lukewarm smile.

"You don't like being a Thalmor?" I whispered, only for Hirume's smile to tighten slightly.

"I do, of course I do," Hirume replied, shaking her head. "But enough about this. I don't want to talk about work! Tell me! What happened after you split from Ralvas and Sharrum? You can't have just climbed the stairs to the throat of the world like that! What about supplies? What if you lost your limbs to frostbite? Did you speak with the Greybeards? Were they old? Did you bring back souvenirs?" her eyes glinted. "Hairpins?"

Inwardly, I gurgled.

If I had to waste one whole week socializing with the woman known as Hirume, I was sure I'd go mad.

Ancano, come back as fast as possible from wherever the hell you've gone so that we can finally put this show on the road and reach the conclusion of the College of Winterhold arc. I want to move on. I want to meet Septimus, get his damn key or whatever it is we need to access the Dwemer's massive cavern, and then I want to leave that place behind as we teach Berry her Mortality-Rendering Thu'um.

Then we can kill Alduin and be done with the world-threatening troubles.

Things like the Nords, the Thalmor, everything else is meaningless. I'll set up a nice shop in Solitude and just enjoy my retirement there.

Though I should have known the Divines had other plans for the likes of me.


A week later, the ice was frozen enough to allow us to walk.

A week later, and Ancano had yet to return.

A week had passed, and Hirume wasn't merely worried.

She was fully geared to pursue the man.

Clairvoyance was, to the resourceful mage, all that was needed to become the most perfect stalker there ever could be.

...

Babette couldn't be far.

Truly, she couldn't be far either.