- 9th of Heartfire, 4E 202 -
It took me two days but I finally reunited with Septimus in his cave of madness. He was pleased I had returned with the rune inscribed, but he was still losing his mind over the fact he couldn't figure out how to open the giant dwemer lockbox in the cave. I didn't have the heart to tell him he might never open it.
As I was preparing to leave there was a large magical disturbance and the exit from the cave was engulfed in some sort of cyclone of strange blue magika. I spent the next hour trying to find an alternate way out of the cave, as I had no intention of walking into that vortex of light. But there was no other way out. I was trapped.
So I approached the exit with caution, my mace and shield at the ready. But I was not sucked into the magic as I expected, and nothing sprung forth to attack me. Instead, the voice of a daedric prince confronted me. It was Hermaeus Mora, the same prince that Septimus himself had given his mind and soul to.
The prince spoke to me for some time, and eventually inquired of me to serve. But Septimus was right there before me, practically mindless .. numb to reality. With fear in my heart, I declined the prince's offer to serve. The prince was not pleased with this, and assured me that I would change my mind eventually. The tone was ominous, and I left the cave with a sense of unease.
When I arrived back in Winterhold later that evening there was a fight in progress on the street. I stayed out of it, unsure of what was going on and not looking for any more trouble. After a bit it was over and an elf lay dead in the street. It turns out he was a worshipper of Boethiah ...