Open souls of the heartless

[alikh'r damascus]

"you're going to leave me here to die?" he asked, baring his teeth. "you're a bastard."

 

[Blackdoom59]

MEANWHILE AT THE TWILIGHT SEPULCHER
Phyrior was happy that Mercer was dead. He knew Karliah was also alive , and seeing the Sepulcher looking so alive he immediately thought there were other nightingales inducted.
Upon hearing Freyja's question , Phyrior silently let out a "hmph".He hesitated to tell her at first, but she looked at her again. She seemed to worship Nocturnal the proper way , she seemed worthy.
"I am not a real nightingale, although I posses all of the nightingale agents at the same time. I am The Champion of Nocturnal" Phyrior proudly presented himself.

Now that he and Freyja got acquainted , he decided to skip to the matters at hand.
"As am I Nocturnal's champion , I must carry her reputation and ensure that the other daedric princes respect her.In the past years, Nocturnal lost nearly all of her nightingales. That made her influence diminish in Tamriel while the other daedric princes had priests and groups dedicated to worshiping them.Nocturnal had nothing but some rare pilgrims , I happen to be one of them. At the College of Winterhold I learned my way into the daedric language and I planned of a few ways to make Nocturnal feared and respected again.

I will tell you more if you wish to help, Freyja, but know that the argonian thief is vital to achieving this goal.

 

[Freyja]

A pilgrim of Nocturnal? That was new. Freyja thought that Nocturnal's pilgrims had all but vanished. But a champion of Nocturnal was pretty much impossible. She was almost jealous, but Freyja knew that being a Nightingale was good enough-she communicated with Nocturnal enough already. She was already the champion of Mehrune.

"So it is in Nocturnal's interest that the Argonian survives." Freyja thought for a moment...Freyja will get her money! Nocturnal will understand the slight detour. Freyja smiled as she thought of her new plan. She would take the Argonian to the guards and claim her bounty, then bust him out of jail so that Phyrior could take him for whatever purposes he required.

She looked over at her stash box and walked over to it, rummaging through her collection of scrolls until she could find a teleporting one. She held it up and walked over to Phyrior, "I will help you. But first, I will give the Argonian to the guards. Then we'll get him out and be on our way." She handed the scroll to him-she didn't know how to use the teleporting ones.

 

[Edgeheaded]

"Oh don't worry, I won't leave you I'd rather keep you company until the fair maiden is back."

 

[alikh'r damascus]

alikh'r struggled again, but no luck. he wasnt going anywhere for a while. "please," he uttered. "dont do this."

 

[Freyja]

( Yeah, I'm just waiting for Blackdoom to reply. We'll be back. )

 

[Blackdoom59]

Phyrior was sad to hear such a response. The guards must never see Alihkr in person , the jobs he did required him to be unknown and unseen. Getting arrested will most likely devast one of his plans. Phyrior was held in thoughts as he was handed the scroll. I will succeed with , or without your help , nightingale he thought to himself.

As he opened the scroll he hid one of his palms under it , so that it won't be seen. Phyrior gathered lightning magic in his hand , so that it will strike the Khahiit down without causing major wounds. The lightning always comes out at an instant , so fast that Fryeja won't be able to dodge.

He kept opening that scroll then his freezing lips opened as he speaks:
"I am sorry, nightingale"
His palm quickly waved from behind the scroll , making a strong lightning bolt. In an instant , the Khajiit was struck by the lightning and pushed her into the wall. The walls in the sanctum were durable , the khajiit could have been rendered unconcious. Phyrior's face , with the smile faded away , stood serious once more. The scroll opened and he had teleported right behind the dunmer.

He placed his right hand on the dunmer's shoulder , realising some fire magic. Not a lot , but enough to worm the blood of the dunmer. He said imediately after:

"Release the spell , Freyja commands you."

 

[Edgeheaded]

Falas quickly turned around and stepped back towards the Argonian. "You're not the only one who knows magic, Altmer." Falas summoned a fire rune on one hand. "I may need more proof for such an important request now wouldn't I?" Falas said with a smirk.

 

[Freyja]

Freyja saw it coming. She looked desperately at Phyrior as he warmed up his lightening. She stayed silent the whole time, though, and let him push her into the wall. He really must have believed her plan would devastate his. When she hit the wall, memories rushed at her. She could see her trade caravan being lurched to this side as it was attacked. She could remember the taste of her own blood as she bit down on her lip harder than anyone could imagine. Or was she doing that now? Either way, Freyja tasted and smelled blood. She looked down at her weakened body and gasped.

When she had hit the wall, a single sharp stone had penetrated her leg, impaling it. Freyja became sick looking at he blood, but she couldn't look away. Freyja always succeeds. Nocturnal wills it so. She knew what she had to do. Freyja closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and yanked her leg up as far as she could. The pain was blinding, and Freyja cried out. She quickly enveloped both her hands in healing magic and worked on her leg. Soon, strength returned to her. And she had to get out of the Twilight Sepulcher.

She shakily stood up, and started walking toward the Shrine where she kept her belongings. There had to be something that would do...There! She spotted a letter. She opened it, and read it in her head.

Dearest Freyja,
Since you helped us in our scheme to blackmail the Jarl,
we will give you this spell in hopes that it will be useful.
-R

Freyja smiled, Freyja knew that helping would be useful eventually. She looked at the book that was right under it and read the title. "Summon a Ghost Steed, eh?" She smiled. Ghost steeds were incredibly fast and rare. And this conjuration spell would be something she could do. She quickly read through the passages, and closed the book when she was finished. "Time to go catch a champion."

Freyja stepped outside of the Twilight Sepulcher and willed all of her magical abilities into her two hands, willing them to summon a ghostly steed that would take her where she needed to be fast. A purple and black aura emanated from her hands, which had started to shake, as a horse made completely of Soul Gem fragments appeared in front of her. Freyja stepped back for a moment, marveling at its shiny coat, the soul gems reflecting light in a purplish tint. The creature's eyes were made of black soul gems, which slightly glowed.

Freyja mounted her steed, "a criminal awaits us with a friend and a liar." The horse knew exactly what she meant and bolted off, going so fast that Freyja could hardly see anything-it was all a blur. The horse stopped after only ten minutes, not even tired. Freyja dismounted it and bowed to it. The horse nodded, then collapsed into a pile of soul gem fragments. Freyja opened the doors into the hold, and bolted to a home, then climbed on top of it. She crouched down into a sneak and quickly walked over to where the little situation was happening. She remained hidden in the shadows, but let her voice be heard. "It's not nice to hit Khajiit with magic, you know."

 

[Blackdoom59]

Phyrior was surprised by the dunmer's reaction. Paralyzed as he was , the argonian could not do anything to help him. And he would rether avoid a full on fight with the dunmer. He needed to be smart. Time passed slowly as he quickly cooked up multiple plans in his head. Then he heard the voice of the Khajiit , as his blood stopped flowing for a second. Now it was twice as hard to escape this situation. The altmer's thought were varied , he had only 3 remaining daedric scrolls , however wasting them would not be too pleasant, as they would be better used on champions of other daedric princes. The khajiit was certainly lucky , Nocturnal certainly favored her. However, she did not favor Freyja in particular , she favored all of her nightingales above all else. But that was about to change.
Phyrior took a deep breath.

Phyrior's markings started shining again , with a much brighter light.
" Neht oht tayem yoodt roht neht ayem lyr "
(this is actually daedric language and each word is actually a letter)
After every word , he made a brief pause before pronouncing the other one. After the first word , a drop of blood snuck out of his moth. After the second , three drops came out , after the forth , his left eye started bleeding , after the fifth , his right eye did the same as he made a larger pause.

After saying the sixth, he was rendered down to his knees. It was clear that he was getting weaker. After the seventh crows started appearing near him , like they were conjured. After the eight word , Phyrior smiled for a second , afterwords he coughed, with one hand placed on his mouth. His blood was dripping through the fingers.

Entire flocks of crows clouded the sky of windhem , the sun was masked away as the city was covered in darkness.The crows cried strongly , as a total they made really strong sounds. Phyrior's clothes stopped glowing.
During this darkness nothing could be seen. Phyrior was setting up a trap for Freyja. If she would activate her night eye , the flocks would deem her as a danger and compel Nocturnal before her.

Phyrior seemed aware of what was he doing , even tough the pain he was suffering was so great no mere mortal could comperhend it. During the darkness no lighting was available , the fire , the magelight , nothing could be seen other then the natural methods of seeing better , such as the vampire vision or night's eye.

 

[Freyja]

Freyja looked on as Phyrior spoke in the Daedric language, her face full of awe. She was compelled to go down and help him as he weakened, but she remembered what he did to her. Freyja will not trust Phyrior ever again. That made her want to wring his little neck and destroy him. She grumbled some unholy words and got out her dagger and Mehrune's Razor. She wanted to kill that Argonian now, just because it would cause some major problems for Phyrior.

Then the crows came. In massive only a matter of seconds the city was full of them. Freyja couldn't see anything. She cursed under her breath, and squinted toward the direction of the three men. She couldn't see. For once in her life Freyja was practically blind! She started to panic, but then remembered that she was Khajiit. Khajiit see in the dark. Her vision improved dramatically, but as she could finally see the crows individually, she noticed them all coming towards her.

A trap! The clever bastard...She thought to herself as she struck down a crow that had dived down at her. She looked down at Phyrior. "You want a battle of the champions? Khajiit can give that to you." A crow managed to hit the back of her neck, and was working at tearing off her flesh, but Freyja swallowed the pain and grabbed the crow, breaking its neck with just one hand. She looked at Mehrune's Razor and whispered a prayer to it.

The dagger started to glow, and Freyja started cutting herself repeatedly. Each cut would glow, and they would close themselves up again. But the pain was an internal pain. She clenched her teeth together, bearing the pain, knowing it would be worth it. After about ten cuts, the ground started to glow red, and hands came out of it. Dremora were making their way through the earth, yelling battle cries as they came out, swinging their swords at the crows. The Dremora numbered up to eleven. That was a good number. The Dremora managed to keep the crows away from her, and Freyja crouched down, concealing herself in shadows. A couple crows came to find her, but she killed them quickly and silently.

Freyja got closer and closer to her target, and was soon right behind the Argonian. She grabbed him, and deciding to show off her strength as an assassin, placed her arm around his neck. She could break it in an instant if she wanted to.

"Send your crows away, Altmer." Her right hand glowed, and a lower Dremora appeared, simply to fight off the crows that were smart enough to find her. She had the Argonian in a death grip, and she was trying so hard to not kill him. That would destroy her influence.

 

[Edgeheaded]

Falas was amazed by the quick learning of Freyja. "No need." Falas quickly sent fire runes all over the crows killing some and making some flee. "That was wrong of you to do Altmer, you must face the consequences now."

 

[Blackdoom59]

Phyrior watched how Freyja summoned Merhune's dremora , he was surprised the little nightingale worshiped anything other then Nocturnal. The crows began to flee , clearing the skies and making light once more. One last crow moved to Phyrior's shoulder. He was extremely weakened after his demonstration , but the khajiit was even more weakened. Unfortunately the dunmer was also guarding her. It wasn't a fair confrontation. He analyzed the dunmer , and seen that for some reason he is loyal to Freyja.

Phyrior had no choice , he had to call for nocturnal so that she can see Freyja worships another daedric lord. That could cause the loss of a nightingale , which was of no benefit to Phyrior or Nocturnal. With so many dremora near him , he could cast a mayhem and make them attack eachother ,the dunmer, and Freyja.

He must have made sure the argonian escapes. Unfortunately, Phyrior had one last card in his sleeve - The nightingale agents.

He looked at Freyja in the eyes , then he turned his gaze upon his crow.
"You are not worthy of beeing a nightingale , Freyja... ohtsehtweb Mehrune Dagon"
The crow flew towords Freyja in a second , and when the crow reached her , the crow dissapeared. A picture of Nocturnal appeard in Freyja's mind, who said "I am dissapointed of you , nightingale" . The cowl from Freyja's head faded away , as her nightingales powers were useful no more.

Phyrior quickly used the nightingale strife power on the dunmer, who stunned him for a few seconds , taking about half of his life pool as Phyrior's wounds were cured. As the dunmer was stunned , phyrior raised his hands and cast Mayham , a master leveled illusion spell which compelled all the dremora to fight eachother , the dunmer , and the khajit.

Phyrior rised from his knees, calmly walking towards the argonian , while the khajiit and the dunmer were both assaulted by dremora. The city however , didn't stood by as all of this happened, you could see a large group of guards comming the gates of the hold. It would take time for them to reach , however there were many of them.

 

[Edgeheaded]

Falas kept using expert level spells until he had no more magicka, the Dremora continued assaulting him until he could fight him no more, Falas fell to his knees and then down on the floor, he summoned a ward and started crawling backwards trying to stay alive.

Falas was now hiding behind a rock looking at the high elf helping the Argonian up "I can't let this happen!" He quickly reached out for a scroll he had, he mumbled a few words and his hands started glowing white. Falas had summoned a blizzard surrounding everybody in that place.

"Give us back the Argonian!" Falas screamed over the loud sound of the blizzard.

 

[Blackdoom59]

Phyrior helped the argonian up while drinking a potion of resist frost , and giving the argonian another one. He grabbed the argonian while using the shadowcloak of Nocturnal agent , who affected both of them.
"You lost , dunmer!" Phyrior whispered while he was sneaking his way out of the city.

The guards were closing in on the chaotic mess. Some started firing arrows while some charged at the dremora covered by the blizzard.

 

[Edgeheaded]

"I'll find you! You hear that? I'll find you!!" Falas screamed into the void, at least he was safe as the blizzard killed all the Dremora.

 

[Blackdoom59]

The altmer and the argonian made in safe north of windhelm ,where they entered a underwater outpost. The argonian could already breathe underwater , while the altmer did have to take a potion. Once arrived at the outpost , Phyrior started healing Alihk'r , up until he was no longer paralyzed , but after wasting so much magicka and after using the daedric language , the altmer felt tohis knees once more coughing up blood.

As life was slowly draining out of him , he was crawling to a healing potion on one of the shelves in the outpost.
(awaiting the OP to continue)

 

[Freyja]

( AHHHH Omigosh I can't believe I missed all that! So sorry, was out. My post will be a little short....I only have five minutes.... )

Nocturnal was displeased. In Freyja. Freyja who abided Nocturnal's decisions all the time. Except once. And she paid the price. She fell to her knees, stunned by the empty feeling where her cowl used to be. Now everyone could see what she was thinking. And it hurt her terribly. The Dremora attacked her, but Freyja didn't care. Her mind was broken. With all her might, she prayed. Out loud.

"Nocturnal, patron of thieves. You must understand that Khajiit loves you more than any other. She has the dagger of Mehrune, but she uses it in the name of Nocturnal. Karliah has many chances to start again-why not Freyja?" Wounds afflicted her, both mentally and physically, but soon the effects of the mayhem spell wore off, and Freyja's battered body collapsed. She looked up into the day, only to realize that it was night. Nocturnal has come!

"One more interference with my champion and you will pay the price. With your life." Freyja weakly nodded. She tried to cast a healing spell on herself, but she didn't have any energy after the horse conjuration. Her hand fell, and Freyja passed out, her Nightingale cowl appearing out of thin air and falling into her hands.

 

[Blackdoom59]

(save her before the guards came , faalas )

 

[Edgeheaded]

Falas picks Freyja up and staggers through the snow, walking away to the gate and then exiting Windhelm. "I am very sorry my lady, I tried but those Dremora were too powerful, perhaps a drink in the inn of a nearby town would help.." He said as he continued walking towards Kynesgrove.