Private The Spirits and Thy Lords [IC]

[Isara12]

Serenes almost broke into tears when she hear Chzarr's voice. He sounded cold and afraid. She wanted, no, she needed to do something. Then she heard the window opening, the dunmer speaking...

She needed to do something.

Without a second thought. she grabbed Chzarr's arms and started pulling him towards the voice.

"your definantly coming with me, whether your Chzarr or not!"

16th SUN'S DUSK


Back then, Serenes reflexes weren't as good, and she wasn't able to stop Chzarr from squishing the smoke grenade.

WHOMP

As the smoke grenade explodes. The khajiit girl, Yu-re'fan, hisses and covers her eyes and waves the smoke away, accidentally hitting the other argonian boy, Ran-kei. Serenes falls back and causes a chain reaction sending barrels everywhere.

Serenes was in the way of one rather large barrel that threatened to squash her. When something picked her up by the collar and lifted her into the air. A black and red boot stopped the barrel, and a gloved hand picked up Chzarr as well. The smoke cleared, revealing a argonian clad in dark brotherhood armor.


"hi Dad.." Serenes whimpered

(Due to the surprising amount of like for the flashbacks, I will probably do more of Serenes past) )

 

[Morganatic]

The arm … uh, the arm comes off in Serenes' hand. She's left holding a forearm - cold, withered, bone-like - while the corpse flops to the ground, moaning incoherently, its pattern severed and disrupted by the trauma. Its flesh begins to rot into dust at an accelerated rate, and is carried away on the breeze. The bony severed hand remains, though, and she drops it in shock and surprise.

'Y-you fetcher! You - you just ruined everything! Come on! Get out of doors, get out of the light!'

It's a woman, a young Dark Elf by the sound of her voice; she draws close, her chitin mail clicking slightly as she walks. She leaves the shop front she was hiding in - to audible gasps and expressions of horror by her compatriots - and draws up close to Serenes. She doesn't touch her though, doesn't lay hands on her or drag her away - just stands next to her, wringing her hands and flicking minute spells of degeneration and concealment at the rapidly decaying corpse the pair are standing next to.

'What in the name of the House of Troubles are you doing here, Bosmer? You're going to be a light lunch for the next lizard that spots you. Can't believe you've made it this -'

She's been circling round Serenes as she talks, and stops with a start as she sees the young elf's eyes.

'What. You mean you're blind? I … I don't even know any more. Come on. We'll get you to safety, at least for a while. Dres Sadene, at your service. It's good to a friendly Mer-ish face - and not you lot, I'm completely sick of you lads' ugly mugs!'

Sadene's led Serenes into one of the shops, and this last remark is directed at a handful of Dunmer warriors concealed in the building. This last remark breaks the tension, and they burst into laughter, but it's somewhat nervous and hollow.

'So. A little bit safer now. Can you tell us what's going on here - why you're here?'

~ ~ ~

Rajee-za gives the two children a look, his expression unreadable. It's been that way ever since she's known him - long ago, he poisoned his own facial muscles with a strong paralysis venom, to make himself a better liar, and Serenes has long given up trying to read his face. He cocks his head, looking quaintly at Chzarr and his stepdaughter, and then drops them both bodily into the dust. He quirks his mouth into a conscious, forced smile.

'Do that again and I'll kill you. Come. It's not good to be out.'

With that, he wheels around, and idly stalks off back home, and the two children know better than to dawdle. Yu-re'fan is nowhere to be seen - her kind know how to disappear even when watched, and, when she heard the approach of the Shadowscale, her instincts kicked in and she scarpered.

Rajee-Za's home is, strangely, in the Man-and-Mer district of Lilmoth, close to the port. As a result, the house is not one of the strange root-bole constructs of the rest of the Argonians, but a conventional mud and thatch dwelling, well-furnished for one of his station, and with an excellent view of the comings-and-goings at the harbour. He shoves Chzarr and Serenes inside, then slams the door with an idle flick of his claw. Looking around - a quick routine sweep for intruders or lurking Morag Tong assassins - he picks his way over to the cupboard, unslinging a long-thin package almost as long as he is. He rests it on the bottom shelf, then, looking over his shoulder at Chzarr, thinks better of it, and places it reverently on the top shelf, out of reach of even the most determined of climbers. He doesn't even turn when he speaks to them.

'Well?'

 

[Isara12]

The moment Chzarr's forearm comes off, she drops. She looks a little stunned, but she has worked as an assassin (she was raised for it) and she had seen more horrid deaths.When Dres realized she was blind, she tried to say something, but was taken into the house.

As the people around her asked her questions, she replied with another question

"what happened to him?"

~~~

As Rajee drops them on the ground, Serenes knows there busted. Ran-kei ran off with Yu, so now it was just her, Chzarr and a probably angry stepfather. She quickly hopped up on her feet and ran after Rajee, Chzarr tagging along.


When they were ushered in to their house, Serenes and Chzar standed side by side, waiting for the Shadowscale to say something. When he spoke, Serenes response was quick

"He did it"

Usually when on of them blamed the other. a fight followed shortly

 

[Morganatic]

Dres Sadene ponders the question for a time, wondering how much to give up.

'We were using the lizard as bait. They took over this town, killed the inhabitants, tried to use it as a staging post to run raids on Solstheim and the Bitter Coast. They didn't think they'd need a guard, though; I guess we disabused them of that fact.'

She shrugs.

'We killed them. I - I, well, know a little necromancy, kept that one in the square alive, undead, whatever. He's plugged into the Hist-consciousness - just barely - and the sensation of a wounded, dying Argonian ought to be more than enough to lure local patrols in to investigate, who then get jumped, added to the trees outside.'

As she's speaking, the other soldiers begin to murmur approvingly. One of them pipes up, his voice slurring a little with the Sujamma he's been swigging at ever since she got here.

'Terror tactics - we harry them, break their resolve. It's barbaric, but they're animals, and animals who've gone killed one in every two Dunmer over the last two hundred years, and mean to get the rest of us soon. Besides, they're meddling with some damn heathenish theology and tech, you heard - you seen what they done to -'

Serenes can practically hear Sadene's head snap round at the speaker. The temperature in the room drops several degrees - literally, as the Dres necromancer unconsciously begins channelling frost magic - and there's an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds. She perks up again, though, and, with a forced, patient voice - the sort one might use to talk to an obstinate child - carries on.

'Seriously, though, you dodged the question. You're blind. You're an elf, in Argonian-occupied territory - not the best place to be right now. You're armed, probably dangerous, if you've got this far, but you won't be able to last long once you get into more densely populated area. What are you doing? Are you spying on behalf of the Argonians? A turncoat? I doubt it, but if you are, we'll find out, I assure you,'

~ ~ ~

Rajee-za's shoulders slump, and he looks almost disappointedly at Serenes.

'Pity. I was out. It would have been easy to lift the smoke-seed while I was out. All anyone needed to do was walk in - I don't have that many traps set up around the house - find it, take it. You just needed courage, curiosity, daring, to take it. That's all. And my daughter clearly doesn't have that. I'm obviously a worse parent than I thought. Come along now, Chzarr,'

He turns, pawing clumsily through the drawers of his cupboard, before finally withdrawing a finger-sized peace of sweet, sticky Pyandonean jellied coral. He gives it to the Argonian child with a smile; Chzarr reacts with a mixture of wariness and delight.

'Come on now, it's not poisoned, it's from my own personal stock. Good for the brain, gives you energy, makes the world seem less Padomaic for a while. You earned it - what kind of scum do you think I am who wouldn't give you what I owed you?'

He becomes heated, and his eyes flash as his voice rises - but he arrests it, calms down, and Chzarr, a little confused, decides to take his candy and run, devouring it as he disappears through the rattling door.

'Damn it. Vajeetel. I've taught you better than that, haven't I? I've been such a good father, and you can't even pay me back by listening to my lessons? If anyone's going to steal the tools of my trade, I expect it to be MY daughter, who I trained, and I've vouched for for the Brotherhood.'

He's cool, calm, collected now, but his eyes still glitter with a deep-seated rage and scorn.

'But you can make it up to me. You know your lessons. You can do them, which makes your failure to do so all the worse. What's his favourite toy? What's the one thing he can't sleep at night without, whose loss will break him? You're not a thief, you're not going to be, but clearly it's thief's arts we're going to have to work on with you. Find what Chzarr likes most, what he can't do without. Steal it, without him knowing. Bring it to me. You're not getting food until you're done - oh, you can steal it, alright, but, miserable failure for a thief that you are, you'll get caught eventually. Why not try to follow your orders? You'll have to do so once you're a professional, working with me and the others, you know ...'

 

[Isara12]

When the drunken Dunmer began to speak, Serenes to swing her bow like a warhammer in his face. Luckily, a little intimidation from Dres saved him form a face full of dragon bone. Once Dres speaks again. Sh listens, and once she finishes speaking, she spills the beans. Rajee adopting her, her training an assassin, her fathers kidnapping, her search for him, her arrival to morrowind, her journey thus far, and her relationship with Chzarr.

~~~

Serenes didn't even look at her father as she was scolded. She was given orders, and she was going to follow them. Without saying a word, she walked out the door, then stopped in her tracks.

"I am no thief.." she muttered, then suddenly looked over her shoulder at Rajee, her face full of determination.

"I am an assassin. I always get my job done, quickly an professionally" with that she ran off to Chzarr's house.

Soon enough, Serenes was circling Chzarr's home. Seeing a weak spot in the wall. Serenes took a ebony dagger (that she had snatched at the last minute). And began cutting a hole in the wall.

As she cut, she wished she had that daedric dagger Rajee always kept out of reach. He calls it "Vajar" even though it looks normal. Soon enough. There was a hole in the wall, big enough only for her to fit through. As she crawled through, she hear raised voices. Was chzarr's mother, Li-je-tal, scolding him again? (she always disproved of Serenes). Creeping down the hallway, she came upon Chzarr's bedroom. It was empty. It took a bit of searching but she found it, a stuffed wolf (it was honestly adorable looking).

She slipped out of the hole in the wall (placing the cut out piece back into it spot), and headed for home, on the way she decided to take a dark alley as a shortcut. As she is walking through., Serenes feels like she is being followed. Suddenly she hears it, the unsheathing of a blade. She dives forward, dodging the swing of a blade. She turns around to find a very ugly argonian with a magnificent crest. She had seen his face on a wanted poster: Makes-his-kill, a child murderer, and he appears to have been ingesting sleeping tree sap recently. As the argonian swings wildly at him, she dodges the attacks with good reflexes.

When the attacker grabs on to her shirt. Her assassin instincts kick in. Her blade is out, and she cuts off his hand, and when he bends over in pain

Her blade enters his skull

 

[Morganatic]

Sadene clearly appreciates Serenes restraining herself from braining her sergeant, and settles down to listen to the young woman's account. Her air is comforting, reassuring, but has a well-practiced 'I'm listening to you and filing every word you say and hesitation you make' air to it. It's an interrogation, but a friendly one, especially as the interrogated party seems to be so willing to volunteer information. After she's done, she sits for a minute, contemplating the situation silently.

Well then. That's quite the story. You know what? I do believe you though, if only because the Argonians wouldn't be stupid enough to send a lone blind girl with no idea what's going on to spy on our position. You wouldn't make a particularly competent espionage agent, anyway, if you don't mind me saying - it's the whole eyes thing.

There are a few problems occasioned by your presence here, though. We've done our best to contain the conflict in Morrowind and Black Marsh, to stop the others from getting involved, but magical means and border patrols clearly only go so far, and it won't be long before we start getting the rest of Tamriel coming over the border, seeing what's going on. I - I think you ought to see what we're trying to contain. What we're trying to stop from spreading. If you're still going to try to head to Lilmoth, well, even if my superiors allow you to travel, you may not want to. Come.'

She leads Serenes down into the cellar of the house. There's a powerful stale odour down here, a little like the smell from Chzarr's corpse, but less powerful, as if there's less to actually decay down here. On the table lies a body, necromantically embalmed and preserved, but still comparatively fresh.

If Serenes doesn't draw her hand away, Sadene will direct her hand onto the corpse's chest, which has been neatly, surgically opened up. She might have expected to feel raw, putrefying meat beneath her fingertips, or maybe dried, leathery flesh - but what she feels beneath her fingers is metal. Smooth, cool metal where ribs should be, fine wires instead of thoraic muscles, their surface slick with blood. Beneath his skin - which seems completely normal, completely intact - this creature seems more machine than Argonian.

'We've got no idea what this is. What they've done to themselves, what they've done to themselves, what's going on here. Some people have said it looks Dwemer-based; I suspect that our command knows more than they're letting on, but we're in the dark. You've been travelling for a while in occupied territory - you've lived in Black Marsh. Have you seen anything like this before? We've kept the lizards as slaves for centuries, but we don't know a great deal about them except how they fight, and how they want to kill every single one of us. What does it mean?'

That interrogative tone is back. Friendly, but urgent. It seems like there may be more to Dres Sadene's mission than just disruption of supply lines. Her tongue seems to have loosened once she's out of the presence of the others.

~~~

Serenes is in; Serenes is out. Mud-brick walls and supporting beams part effortlessly before the cutting edge of her knife, and she manages to infiltrate the house with ease. There are a couple of close calls - one of Chzarr's young siblings passes the open door of her brother's room, but doesn't look round to spot him, and the crumbling piece of dislodged mud brick doesn't fit back into place quite as well as it had before, but she manages to escape with the felt barkfiend intact.

Makes-his-kill - well, the less said about him the better. A religious fanatic, a killer, he'd been making the rounds of the Lilmoth streets, nailing long rants about a 'Witch of Wire and String' to the doors of temples and government offices, and indiscriminately attacking and maiming children - cutting them open, as if searching for something hidden inside their bodies. He'd never encountered someone so capable - and so willing - to fight back, though, and his clumsy movements are no match for the quick darting steps of the young Bosmer woman. She dodges his blow, stuns him, then plunges her blade into his brain. It's one of her first live kills, at least her first in a kill-or-be-killed combat situation, and, covered in blood and gore as she is, she can't think, can't react in anything approaching a conscious way. She flees.

As she runs back to her house, another dark shape looms in front of her, detaching itself from the murder-filled darkness with a swift and silent step. Her mind, awash with terror and adrenaline, works with lightning speed - Argonian - armed - black-clad - and her dagger is already in her hand, arcing towards his throat.

But it never makes it. The other's blade appears in its path without travelling through the intervening space - one moment, it's not there, the next moment, it's digging into her own blade, carving a deep notch into it. A long, thin, daedric kris, its blue-black edge gleams with the light of the setting sun. Vajar! With a tiny flick of its Dremoran edge - razor-sharp and harder than adamant - she's disarmed, and the weakened blade goes flying from her hand to shatter on the paving stones.

Rajee steps from the shadow of the alleyway, already sheathing his blade with a quick, neat gesture. In his other hand, he tosses aside an empty glass bottle, letting it shatter on the rubbish-strewn pavement. It's nearly empty, but a distinctive smell wafts up from it - sleeping tree sap? Strange - Serenes is pretty sure that Rajee was abstinent from drugs, and, judging by his reaction time, he doesn't seem to have been slowed by it all - if he was even the one who took it ...

'So. You killed someone. Argonian. Forgot to clean the blood off your blade though. Bad form. But forgivable. Did you have to gut Chzarr, or 'je-tal? Or -'

He cocks his head, and his voice quirks. He sounds almost hopeful.

' - did you have to kill someone else?'

 

[Isara12]

'well..." Serenes began. "judging by the feel, its ebony." she put her hand where its heart should be. She feels the shape of a heart, but it feels metallic.. She slightly tightened the grip, and with a little squirt there was a green liquid on the wall. Suddenly, a sizzling noise was heard, and the dark elves watched in bewilderment as the wall started to be eaten away by the green liquid.

"what going going on?" what did I do?" she asked confused, she had never smelled that liquid before, and the constant sizzling noise sounded like burning flesh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"...no...." Serenes looked down in shame. Rajee was prorbably testing her on this as well. she was probably supposed to make a kill, but once again she failed.

"I go the toy, that's all" she handed it to Rajee. She felt disappointing of herself. She expected to hear a sigh of dissapproval form Rajee

 

[Morganatic]

It's cold. That's the first thing Serenes feels. Shockingly, soul-numbingly, cold. Her fingers lose the ability to feel anything almost instantly, and and it takes a little while to adjust to it, and for feeling to be restored. Once she can feel again, and her fingers no longer feel like they're about to drop off, she begins to explore.

There's wire, plating, oil, to be sure, but as she runs her hands through the unbeast's guts, though, she begins to feel something more than just metal .There are odd, cylindrical chambers in the thing's chest, flanged cylinders with a slick glossy surface that feels almost like ebony. Two of them, either side of its chest … lungs? Possibly. Between them, she finds what can only be a heart - a segmented, fist-sized mechanism that yields slightly beneath her touch, emitting an audible clicking. She squeezes harder, testing its articulated surface for resistance and give.

It gives. A jet of pressurised liquid spreads out of its top, spattering against the wall. It narrowly misses Sadene's face - the Dunmer leaps back in shock and horrow - and promptly begins to dissolve its way through the stone of the wall. It hisses, bubbling like a kettle of water over a cookfire, and, seconds after she exclaims her distress, the wave of vapour hits her, and she wrinkles her nostrils. It's not the chemical, corrosive smell she'd been expecting, but smells more like spirits of alcohol - slightly sweet, with hints of anise, and extremely volatile.

Sadene - flitting madly between outrage at Serenes' carelessness, terror at what's been unleashed, and exultation at the new discovery - darts between the hissing splatter on the wall and her Bosmer companion, unsure of whether to slap her on the face or the back. She begins to babble.

'What the … by Vivec's golden balls, what did you just - this is incredible - unbelievable! How on Nirn did you make it do that you just - you just - we've never - seen anything - like - that - be - fore …'

She begins by babbling, but her words slow, slur, run together. Her movements do much the same - she never exactly stops, but the young necromancer has somehow lost her vitality, her grace, her coordination. Stepping back to look at the wall - now eroded down to the packed earth behind it, and looking somewhat unstable - she stumbles, trips over the corner of the slab on which the Argonian was lying. She doesn't catch herself - can't - but crumples to the ground with a soft thump, splitting her lip in the process, and lies there - unmoving.

Serenes steps forward, wanting to offer help - but something's afflicting her, too. Her feet trace out unfamiliar patterns on the floor, unlimbered from any sense of balance and support, and she's fast losing the ability to map out her surroundings by sound alone. She staggers forward a couple of steps, trips over Sadene, and falls to the cool stone floor. As she blacks out, all she can hear is the malevolent hissing and gurgling of the heart's blood.

~~~

She wakes in a city. It's dark, around twilight. The buildings are sketched out in charcoal, the merest suggestions of forms against the blue-black sky. The moon - or what she takes to be the moon, although it's bigger and brighter than she's ever seen - traces out a seemingly random path through the sky, reversing direction, stopping, travelling in esoteric orbits over the rooftops. The city is deserted. It's silent.

Serenes pulls herself to her feet, dusts herself off, checks that she's still got everything on her. Her dagger is in her bootsheath, her bow is on her back. Damn it, she can barely see anything like this, if only she'd thought to bring a torch. Wait. What? 'See'? 'Torch'? Huh. That's odd.

As her eyes become adjusted to the gloom, she notices a few odd details about her surroundings. She's in an alley, full of overturned barrels and packing materials - a few of them rocking gently, as if they've just been overturned. There's a body at her feet - no, not a body - a woman, with the grey skin and knife-like ears of a Dunmer, matching her earlier mental image of Dres Sadene. She's hurt - pretty banged-up from her fall - but not seriously, and seems to be peacefully asleep right now. On the wall, someone's nailed up a piece of paper with some writing on, and Serenes strains her eyes to read what it says.

KNOW THE TRUE CREATIONS OF THE WITCH!

​

By Makes-His-Kill​

​

Scripts (the sets of Ehlnofex incantations that contain the genesic Earth Bones) being called Objects might be confusing to some people. Scripts are added to objects in Nirn, they describe their behaviour and functionality. They are the 'soul' of a static mesh made out of sacred triangles and covered with a few textures which make it look real. Papyrus scripts are what makes it real. What makes it a true, 'full' object.​

​

Since they add functionality to base objects they are appended to and employ object oriented paradigms like inheritance, abstraction and encapsulation (through the use of properties which, among other things, serve as a getter/setter mechanism), they can be considered as objects, as long as you keep the former in mind. They are the strings behind the puppets, together they make a sufficient whole. An object.​

​

Sadene turns over at her feet shifting slightly to avoid a couple of odd-looking halves of some empty glass capsule, yawns and snuffles in her sleep, before settling again. The whole situation is decidedly odd.

~~~

Rajee takes the toy from her, examining it carefully. His expressionless eyes rove over its surface, over marks of care, love, affection, over the slightly ragged edge of one ear where Chzarr used to gnaw at it. For all the care of his scrutiny, though, he doesn't seem to take in what he's looking at at all - he regards it without comprehension, staring at it without seeing a thing. His hand shudders - a curiously uncontrolled movement for the Shadowscale assassin - and he drops the wolf into the overflowing gutter. It floats away, just another piece of refuse making its way out to the Akaviri sea.

Rajee's already forgotten that there even was a wolf, though, and honestly can't remember why he even sent Serenes out in the first place. He turns back to her with a martial snap, suddenly all lethal poise and bearing. With thoughts of murder and assassination, he's back on familiar ground.

'You're a better killer than a liar. I can taste the blood, it's all over your blade. I realise that mer have pretty dull senses, but come on, Vajeetel. Remember who you're talking to. Who. Did. You. Kill?

 

[Isara12]

(short post unfortunantly!)

by. the. nine.

Serenes is shocked to sees one of the postings form makes his kill. she is also amazed how she can see again

And just as she thinks that. bam. back into the darkness of the sightless.

It was nice while it lasted, and at least I could read the posting

Returning to the disturbing writing on the wall.it didn't take long for her to realize what it was talking about.

"Sadene. I think we have found out whats going on with the argonians" she said, with a hint of terror in her voice.

~~~~

"OK! OK! OK!" Serenes yelped. she looked a little guilty. She took a deep breath and spilled the beans.

"As i was leaving the house, i felt like i was being followed. Instinctively, I lashed by dagger, and ended up killing Chzarr's pet"

To a merciless killer like Rajee, this was nothing. But Serenes was still a child. she had feelings. Well, right now she did

 

[Morganatic]

Sadene reacts not at all to Serenes' words, only snuggling deeper into the folds of her ceremonial cloak, still sleeping, still blissfully unaware of the change that's gone on around her. She lacks the hyperactive metabolism of a wood-elf; the poison's taking longer to work its way out of her system. Serenes has to slowly escalate her wakeup campaign, moving from gentle words to loud ones, from throat-clearings to gentle taps on the shoulder, all the way to violently shaking the slumbering Dark Elf. Eventually, she turns over groggily, opens her eyes, and frowns.

' - never seen anything like that, before … wait - where are we? What happened?'

She pulls herself to her feet, looking around at the deserted alley. She turns, fiery eyes wild and red.

'What happened? What did you do? You know what? Don't even answer that. I only just met you in the back-end of nowhere, and really don't know why I trust you at all.'

The priestess goes striding off towards the opening of the alley, towards the comparatively brightly moonlit street - and stops dead, the moment the light touches her. She stares up into the sky, her head zipping back and forth, tracking something unseen - and very slowly, backs into the alley, unconsciously murmuring prayers to herself.

'Malacath, Mehrunes Dagon, Molag Bal, Sheogorath - Four Corners of the Dunmer Peoples, protect me, Four Corners of the Dunmer peoples, protect me, please protect me …'

When she gets back to Serenes, her voice is quiet, cowed, scared. Something out there in the city streets has deeply disturbed the veteran necromancer, taken all the fight out of her, scared her half to death.

'The moon. Not Masser, not Secunda. A great silver-blue moon, skittering about up there. It looked at me, Serenes - the damn moon stared me right in the eye. You say you've got an idea of what's going on? Tell me. Please. Please!'

Serenes's vision is inconstant. She's superposed between what her body knows to be true - and her self image of blindness and seeing by sound alone - and the input of her eyes, which work as well as they did when she was a young child in what she's fairly sure are the streets she's standing in now (at least, that she's hallucinating she's standing in now). Two contradictory states of seeing wage war for supremacy, flickering on and off, but between the two, she gradually gets a better sense of her surroundings. They're not quite as she remembers them. They aren't as detailed, with walls and beams sketched in in swathes of solid colour. There are strange scrawlings everywhere, written in an unfamiliar language; incomprehensible though they may be, they seem to draw her onwards, out of the alley. Following their near-illegible message may or may not be a good idea.

~~~

Rajee nods, giving very little away about his opinion of this operation.

'We've both been wandering about all over Lilmoth tonight, Vajeetel. You really could do with some sleep, I imagine. There's something I need to show you. Follow.'

He stalks off into the night, not looking over his shoulder. When he tells her to follow, he certainly doesn't intend for her to walk by her side. As he walks, he talks, using some stage-actor's trick to project his whispery voice over his shoulder.

'You've come far since I first adopted you, little one. You'll never be a Shadowscale, but the Dark Brotherhoods of Tamriel might take you. Might. You've mastered the art of breaking and entering, and seem fine enough in the art of killing, but I don't really think you've got the attitude yet. The attitude, or the worldview. There are some people I'd like you to talk to. They might help change that.'

They've come into a district of Old Lilmoth that Serenes has seldom visited before - a quiet, Hist-snared residential and temple neighbourhood that she - the outlander orphan of the doc districts - has never had cause to visit before. Rajee leads her up the stairs of one grand, but unassuming dwelling, and the pair are greeted deferentially by a figure in a hooded black cloak that twinkles with embroidered celestial phenomena. The small group enters a kind of antechamber, where the black-clad figure sits down in the only chair. It looks at Serenes, then quirks its head at Rajee - this is the one? - and the Argonian nods back.

'So, child.'

Its voice is androgynous, unemotional, unaccented - lacking any identifying feature or quirk to separate it from pure language and meaning.

'Operative Aleph-Aleph-Oh-Eight - Rajee-za - has recommended you to us. We are skeptical. You are untested. Of uncertain provenance.

What do you know of the Dark Brotherhood? What do you know of Black Marsh, in which it was born? Were you to become a hand of the Brotherhood, how would you serve it?'

 

[Isara12]

Serenes is shocked when Sadene backs up and starts sounding like she has gone mad. Her vision was turning on and off. Her picture of the world was rough and sketchy. She then decided to step out into the alleyway. She looked around. Her strobe vision was still confusing things, but the place seemed like a port town with the moon shining down on the waters of the moor.

Speaking of moon, she looked up at the moon and saw a disturbing and picture perfect fac eon the moon. one eye smaller than the other and looping around like a deranged psycho. Its teeth bared in a terrifying grin. Then she swore she heard it speak

"Writings on the world"

~~~
Did her father just ignore the emotional breakdown she just had? Following her father without a word. She listened to her father. He was right. She had killed 4 people. and she didn't sleep the nights after those killings.

She stopped for a moment before the dwellling. It looked kinda like a temple, yet it seemed someone could live there. She caught up to Rajee. And quickly noticed the black clad figures. She presumed they were of the dark brotherhood. As the asexual being in the chair, Serenes suddenly looked alert an dattentive

 

[Morganatic]

The moon looks down on the city, cruel, inquisitive, searching. It roves in quick, darting arcs across the sky, arresting its movement with plumes of bluish fire that burn away the darkness of the night, scouring the city for something, for signs of life. And then it stops. With a quick flare of light, it's spun around, dropped a couple of miles closer to the city - and then it's there, hovering in the sky above her.

Whatever it is, it's not the moon, at least not the moon that she knows. Its surface is metallic, a dull, scorched silvery-grey, and every inch of its surface is covered in spidery glowing script the colour of torch-flame. The plates of its surface shift, constantly reconfiguring themselves and realigning in complex patterns and shapes. But certain elements remain constant. Two spiralling vortices of metal plates and searing light approximate eyes, and, beneath them, the sphere's mass is bisected dark meridian that sneers malevolently down at the two mer, jagged sheets of metal jutting out like teeth.

It's a face, and it's looking down at her. It hangs there, almost entirely still, with only minute adjustments in its position to track her as she moves out. Words form in her mind - 'writings on the world' - but it doesn't seem to have given any indication of having spoken, or even made a noise. The night is silent, save for Sadene's muffled whimpering, but the words ring in her ears nonetheless - an echo without a sound to make them.

'Writings on the world? What does that mean, Serenes? Where are -?'

Sadene breaks off, looking around with a startled expression. She's clearly heard something - not up there, but down here, in the streets of this shadow city. And then Serenes can hear it too. Snatches of murmured conversation drift down the street from a crossroads perhaps two hundred metres away. It's hard to break eye contact with the terrifying apparition hanging over the city, but she eventually manages to drag her gaze away, and look down the street. She catches sight of a pair of hooded figures scurrying away down a side-road, seemingly deep in conversation. They're shrouded in the same silver-blue eldritch fire as the strange moon-thing - but that's all Serenes can see of them before they disappear around a corner.

~~~

The strange priest-figure gestures for Serenes to sit at its feet - a kindly, if didactic gesture that's rendered somewhat hollow by the strange, emotionless delivery.

'Come. Serenes, Vajeetel, however you style yourself. Come, and learn, if learning is what you seek.

Knowing your father, he will have told you that you will not be eligible to rise high in the ranks of the Black Marsh Brotherhood. You are an outlander, and Lilmoth is one of the few regions where elves may travel unmolested. We trust your kind here, but nowhere else - the conquest of Morrowind has everyone on edge. But we - and I speak on behalf of the Mother of the Long Night herself - could use an agent, a bosmer, someone who could carry out our work unsuspected in lands beyond Black Marsh, and who can act without reference to any middlemen of the Black Hand. So, I ask again, Serenes. Are you willing to give your all to the Brotherhood? To carry out any mission, believe and spread any lie, confront any foe, in its service? You're born to it, and you know how the other nations of Tamriel have cruelly oppressed us - do you want to further that oppression, or do you want to help us fight back?

Rajee is standing there in the corner, his face slightly slack. It's a wonder that he'd notice anything happening in his vicinity, let alone emotional stress in a daughter he only seems to appreciate for her fighting talent. His eyes are unfocused somehow, as if he's been 'turned off' for the duration of the conversation.

 

[Isara12]

"I don't know Sadene....I don't know" Serenes herself is starting to show fear. Her vision was fluctuating. She had no idea where she was, and the moon (or what SHOULD be the moon) was grinning at her saying cryptic nonsense.

Then she heard the noise. before even Sadene heard it, but she was unable to pull herself away from the frightening moon. When she turned her head, she saw two hooded figures, conversing like there was nothing wrong. Her reflexes felt really slow, and when she felt like she could move, they had turned the corner.

Well, what else are they to do? Sit there and have a string contest with a scary lunar object? Serenes grabbed on to Sadenes hand and dragged her along towards the robed two.

~~~

When the hooded one beckoned, Serenes approached and sat cross legged before him/her/it. As he began to speak like he was telling a story form the old times, Serenes just listened, absorbing every word, every statement, everything. When the question finally came, Serenes spoke.

"I would be honored to serve the night mother and Sithis" she bowed her respectivly

 

[Morganatic]

Sadene's comforted just to have someone else to talk to. At this point, accurate answers would have driven her into a terror-induced catatonia.

Thinking that safety in numbers may be a good idea, she concentrates, raising mudras of conjuration and binding, enjoining the fell sentiences of Oblivion to rally to her aid, to grant her strength, courage, and, most of all, backup. Nothing happens. Light stained the colour of crushed blackberries fills her hands, and there's a momentary hiss as she tries to open a liminal gate - but nothing happens, no horde of Aureals or Atronachs to stand beside her. Clearly wherever the two are, it's not somewhere coterminous with the realms of Oblivion at all, and is cut off from the intervention of the Daedric Princes. Sheepishly, nervously, she readies the ceremonial knife at her belt, and falls in behind the archer, nervously peering into darkened alleys and doorways the whole way, expecting some malevolent moon-thing to leap out at her.

The two follow the other pair at a discreet distance, doing their best not to look at the moon-thing which, yes, is still watching them, minutely adjusting its position to track them down narrow passages and obstructed thoroughfares. In this empty city, full of deserted streets and ghostly plazas, it's hard to keep unseen, and even harder to keep out of earshot - the echoing of Serenes' boots on the marble make her shudder, and she thinks she must have been spotted, but apparently the other pair remain unaware of her presence. It does mean, however, that she can make out some of what they're talking about, even with her hearing reduced to more normal levels.

'… you've come far … seem fine enough in the art of killing … might help change that.'

They discretely tail the two figures to grand, but unassuming dwelling, where they stop. The taller of the two figures - who has rather a lot more of the blue fire around him - climbs the stairs, knocks, and is ushered in - along with his shorter companion - by an unseen figure. Serenes and Sadene are standing some hundred metres out, and staring at a closed door. The hairs on the back of Serenes' neck prick up - she has the oddest feeling she's been here before …

~ ~ ~

'So you say - but, sister, so say they all. What if I told you that everything you had been told about the Mother - well, was not a lie, but was such a small part of the whole, the glorious truth? Would you still pledge your allegiance to her? Would you answer Sacraments of ever colour in her name? Would you become one with her divine being?'

Just a hint of emotion - of pride, or zealotry - has crept into the priest's voice. They reach into the voluminous folds of their robe, and withdraw something - an apple. Or a model of an apple - made from carefully worked metal, lined with blue-silver script too small to see. They gesture lazily with their other hand, and the apple falls apart, cut in two, revealing perfect, juicy flesh within. They offer half to Serenes,

'Take. Eat. The apple contains a lethal poision, but it is a poison of belief only. If you wish to join us - to share in our work - it will not harm you. If not - then, well, you'd best not eat it. But I think you want to.'

 

[Isara12]

As he listens to the voices, she almost wants to run up to the man speakinhjg. His voice sounds so familiar, that slight bit of malice, with some pride to mix with all of it. As they proceed, the place becomes more and more familiar. Certain plants, odd looking crack sin the walls. but when they follow the figure to the building..

the pieces of the puzzle all come together

"Sadene. I need you to do something. go a kilometer down the road to the left and turn right down an alley. there should be a dead argonian there with a red frill. Once you find it, wait out here."

~~~

Serenes knows what she must do. She takes a slice of the apple an eats it. The moment she swallows it, the whole world starts to spin. it feels like something is throwing her all over the place. Suddenly she seeing strange hallucinations. A grinning moon. Dwemer cogs clicking together. Ravens blanketing a sunny sky. All so surreal and a little amazing.

In reality though, its a different and horrifying event. Serenes body is spazzing over the floor. limbs twisting every which way. Blood leaking form her mouth as she makes silent screams, her yes roll to the back of her head..

Sale-tul, another among the viewers, occasionally glances at Rajee. At first, he looks calm and cool. but Sale can tell. He's resisting the urge to just save his daughter. After all, he did raise the bosmer.

 

[Morganatic]

Sadene is reluctant to go off on her own - in such a place, she's not sure that she'll even continue to exist without the firm anchor of another soul to keep her fixed. Her reticence doesn't last too long, though, and she sees something in Serenes eyes that makes her deeply, deeply eager to get away from whatever's about to happen here.

~ ~ ~

For some esoteric reason, a part of Serenes travels with the Dunmer woman. Maybe the walls between psyches are weaker in this strange place of souls; maybe the fact that this shadow Lilmoth is built from her memories means that there's something of her in every brick of the city; maybe it's just for mythpoeic reasons of plot and narrative. Whatever the explanation is, Serenes can feel her companion's thoughts faintly echoing in the corner of her mind, and, with a small effort of will, can bestir a seed of her own consciousness to see what the Dunmer priest is seeing.

Sadene pads down the road, nervously looking left and right, just begging to find something out of place, something wrong, something that will mean she has to turn back. But there's nothing. It's all there, just as Serenes had described - and so, nervously clutching a spark of lightning in one hand and a dagger in the other, she proceeds to where she's told she'd find the body.

What was a body, at least.

The skeleton is clearly Argonian. Its impressive frill is shattered and broken, marred by a mighty dagger-blow all the way through it, breaking through the skull. Reddish scales cling to it here and there, suggesting that it might once have been the body she was looking for. But now - well. Every bit of flesh has been stripped from the bone, and the arms and legs of the body have been stretched out to spread-eagle the skeleton, almost like the Vitruvian Mer. The resemblance is further cemented by the circle of still-wet blood that surrounds and perfectly circumscribes what's left of the body. Around the edge of the ring, luminescent trails of blowing blue powder snake, caught petrified in the act of finding a weakness in the gory barrier. Sadene knows a summoning/warding circle when she sees one, and seems deeply, deeply unnerved by what this signifies.

~ ~ ~

Serenes follows, listens that the door. Mortals, ordinary beings couldn't here through its heavy wooden panelling - but Serenes' hearing is sharper than that of any ordinary mortal, and seems more acute yet in this strange realm.

'So you say … what if I told you that everything … such a small part … would you … divine being …'

There's something small - a quiet murmur of assent - and then a moment's silence. And then - a berserk thumping, a wild thrashing commotion from inside the room. She knows why, of course - she can remember the apple, the way the priest split it into halves, the way that its juice beaded lusciously on its surface, and knows that eating the fruit would have put her into near-fatal epileptic shock.'

But this is wrong. Everything she's done so far, she's remembered. The streets of Lilmoth, the alley with Chzarr, this house, this conversation - all of it happened, she's sure, in her own life, in her own memory. But Serenes never joined the Dark Brotherhood. She trained as an assassin, but when it came to giving her life up to Sithis - the Serenes she knew, the Serenes she is, never gave her life over to Sithis, never took a bite of the apple, was too afraid of the malevolent and vile rites being performed in that grand old house. She left this place in shame, her adoptive father alternatively furious at her decision, and beaming with joy at the self-willed person his daughter had become. This place, in short, has just become something else - something other than her memories.

'Hold! Is someone there?'

There's a voice from inside. Steps from within. The door begins to creak open - agonisingly slowly …

~ ~ ~

Serenes shudders on the floor, wracked in visions of a distant future. Ages of Nirn slip like falling leaves, and her mind communes with an unfathomable alien consciousness. It regards her like a great Eye, scrutinising her bare soul.

WHO

ARE

YOU

WHO

YOUR

BROKEN

FUTURE

COMES

NOW

TO

YOU

~ ~ ~

Sale-tul is a respected member of the Brotherhood's inner circle. He's seen this ritual take place a couple of times - mostly Argonians, very few so young, but it's not like this is anything new. Although - Vajeetel did seem to be taking it a bit worse than the others. Hmm. Would have to take preventative steps. She begins fumbling in her purse.

'Rajee, dearest?'

'What?' He breaks out of his reverie, turning to look at the Argonian standing next to him.

'Don't even think about it.'

Sale-tul's handbow is pressed against the older Argonian's temple. Rajee is an excellent assassin, one of the finest shots in the Lilmoth Brotherhood - but he's nowhere near as fast or quick on the draw as Sale-tul. His eyes dart from side to side, looking for support from his fellow Brothers, but the few that seem to have registered what's going on in the corner only shake their heads in amusement, or return his icy stare by slightly edging out their weapons. Sale-tul continues to smile at him, her finger poised on the boltcaster's trigger.

 

[Isara12]

the moment someone calls to the door, Serenes leaps back. But when she looks up, she sees the door open. At the door stands the mysterious being, Sale-tul, Rajee-za.. and her younger self. They all seemed a little surprised. Sale and the hooded one because someone has interrupted, Rajee because she was holding Vajar, and Vajeetal for just looking at an elder self (older by not much though) Serenes smiled and got up.

"What is the meaning of this!?" spat Sale as she aimed her handbow at Serenes.

Knowing now full well that this was a drug induced illusion (>.>), Serens decided to have a little bit of fun.

"I, am Vajeetal's memories"

~~~

Serenes was seeing what may havfe been sheogroath combined with hermaus Mora. The hallucinations were vivid and bizarre. Suddenly, the place tuned white. She looked up to see a orb of light blaring down on her so hard , it blinded her, and just like that. There was darkness

Meanwhile in reality, the spectators watched as her body continued to jerk. Suddenly, it let out a shriek, gave one last large twitch, and slumped over.

Serenes ended in a coma for 4 weeks

 

[The_Madgod]

(Sorry for delay, stopped getting alerts. Also, Sun&Moon appears inactive. Think we should kill him off? Also, Nightingale Khajiit )

Soon enough, the skirmish ended, the dust settled. Argonians layed dead around the battlesite. None of the travellers had befallen that fate, but they looked close to it, Lugag included. He grasped his arm, the pain beginning to spread throughout the rest of his body. The tendrils moved slower than the pain, however, which the rational bit of Lugag assumed was good. Most of him, however, was busy swearing profusely and curling up into a fetal position.

Eventually, Lugag realized what he had to do. There was no way for him to stop the infection without great loss, in his eyes. It is obviously much too powerful for any of his restoration spells, and he had no easy access to potions. To him, it was easy to see what he must do. Amputation.

Many of us may have tried to find an easier solution, but you must remember how much pain Lugag was in. With one quick drop of his blade, the deed was done. He screamed aloud, then managed to grumble out an insult towards Chahnin before falling into unconsiousness.