Ray of Light Options

[Lucidarius]

This was planned as a prologue to my adventures in Oblivion but then it turned rather long so instead of a complete story about a major plot line, I’ve only finished the prologue up until the prison in the Imperial City. The goal was to understand my character’s motive and background for better immersion in the game.

This is my first try at writing fiction so any comments or thoughts are more than welcome. Thank you for your time.

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12 Last Seed 3E419
As all children living on the Bitter Coast Nienna had learned to swim almost simultaneously with learning to walk. One day they had been on the shore, Lila killing the big mud crabs and her daughter Nienna swimming and diving for pearls. The kollops around the coastline of Vvardenfell in the Imperial province of Morrowind seldom held any pearls. They had already been taken by the abundance of poor inhabitants.

Suddenly Lila realized she had not seen her daughter’s head above the surface of the water for quite a while. She resolutely jumped in with all her clothes on. When she didn’t see her immediately, she began to panic and even forgot to cast a water breathing spell so she had to surface to get air. Then she saw Nienna a good distance away and gestured to her to come back. Nienna complied immediately, swimming all the way back under water before joining Lila on the bank. Lila did not know what to do first, berate Nienna for swimming out so far or quenching her curiosity about how she could hold her breath for so long. First she hugged Nienna tightly, grateful that she had not come to harm. Before she could say anything, Nienna excitedly burst out:

“Oh, mama, I found out how to cast the water breathing spell, it’s wonderful, wonderful to do magic.” Nienna jumped up and down to expend some of her pent up energy upon discovering her new ability.

“I was out swimming as usual and then I saw an open kollop with a pearl glinting rather far away. Instead of just swimming as normal, I pictured my fingers closing around the pearl, daydreaming about buying you a new wool skirt for winter like the one we saw at the shop yesterday and a real doll for me with a dress and silk slippers. Then it happened. My lungs didn’t feel like they were under water anymore, but more like inhaling a very cold, clingy kind of fog. And I could swim, and swim, and swim. It wasn’t until my fingers actually touched the pearl that I felt the pressure of the water on my chest so I had to go up for air.” Nienna smiled happily, dancing about throwing sand and twigs up in the air, reveling in the discovery.

Lila was shocked to hear that Nienna had discovered the water breathing spell by herself – and at such a young age too. She was not even four years old. Normally, children in High Rock were tested for their magical capabilities at the age of six. Lila had been an unusual five years old herself when admitted to the Guild of Mages, but had intensely disliked the stuffy and old-fashioned teaching methods. She ran away when she was seven, doing the odd job for different employers while trying to learn as much about magic and different spells as possible. She was afraid that Nienna was too young to understand the powers involved in magic thus resulting in fatal consequences.

“Congratulations, Enna. This is a big day and cause for both celebration and contemplation,” Lila said in a quiet, serious tone. “Magic always consists of both sides: lightness and darkness, the power to heal and to destroy.”

“Yes, mama, but I didn’t do anything bad, I just swam underwater,” Nienna said, confused about her mother’s serious tone.

“I know, darling, it’s hard to explain what it is I mean. When you cast that water breathing spell, your only intent was to get the pearl and buy something nice for the money. This spell belongs to the school of alteration. Alteration means “change” and that is exactly the purpose of the spell, to change the way you perceive the water, the world and everything in it so that you can breathe longer and don’t have to surface to catch air. Until the spell runs out,” Lila gently pulled her daughter down beside her on the bank; this was going to take a while.

“When we change the physical world around us, we might get to a point where we forget that we’ve changed it but reality will always win in the end. No person can hold a spell indefinitely because the person would run out of either magicka or stamina. Just think about how fatal it would be if you were deep down in the ocean when suddenly reality came back and you had no more magicka or stamina left to prolong the spell. You’d die.” Lila had looked intently at Nienna’s face during her lecture to see whether her words had any effect.

“No, but I would not forget the real world, mama. I wouldn’t go down so far that I couldn’t easily come back up again.” Very little effect, it seemed.

Lila sighed, recognizing her own stubbornness and misguided pride in her daughter. She had been just as confident about her magical skills, and it was not until she had met Turamo and he had expanded her knowledge about magic that she had realized the prudence of humility. Altmers are known for their arrogance, and with reason; the only exception from it is magic. They view humility as the most important factor in successful application of magic as a whole. This means in alchemy as well as in the research and understanding of the six schools of magic: alteration, conjuration, destruction, restoration, illusion, and mysticism.

[Lucidarius]

Thank you for the positive comments, everyone. I'm really happy that the characters and the magic descriptions seem to work. I know I have to work on the plot (getting in some more action) but find it challenging. Anyway, this update builds up to some action later on.

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20 Sun’s Dusk 3E421
“Sera Silven?” the Imperial man stood up in front of the hut as Lila and Nienna returned home from a long day of work. He was a skinny man clad in exquisite clothes with a cloak of the finest silks interwoven with gold and silver threads in an artful pattern. At his side hung an elaborate scabbard with a gilded sword hilt visible. His left eye was shut closed by a deep scar. Some feet away a tall, brawny Orc grabbed his heavy two-bladed axe and sauntered around in a half-circle to stand behind Lila and Nienna.

Winter had deepened the colours of the leaves and during the day, the sun seemed to shine from a higher place than in summer. In Morrowind winter never yielded snow, instead the Bitter Coast took on a golden-brownish cape for the duration of winter until spring came, putting back the green leaves on the trees and making the flowers bud. The two moons, Masser and Secunda, were visible as always but more so with the coming of evening.

The Imperial’s slave, a female Argonian, had set up a camp fire several hours ago, made supper, packed it away, and was now cooking some trama root tea. Slavery was only allowed in Morrowind, and it was surprising to see an Imperial had adopted this particular custom of the Dunmer. A custom Lila loathed. Every person is a subject in his or her own right, not an object to be owned.

Lila looked calmly at the Imperial and nodded in response to the question, but Nienna sensed that her mother was extremely cautious.

“My name is Kretilian Vanomerus, and I have heard about your supreme mastery of all the magic schools, but your skills in conjuration are said to be unparalleled.” He blew an elegant kiss on the back of her hand, just grazing it.

“Ser Vanomerus, thank you for your flattering words. Unfortunately, they have no base in reality,” Lila quickly withdrew her hand. “Allow me to ask, why do you seek me out, a common sorceress of no particular merit?”

“Muthsera, you grossly underestimate yourself as I heard about you back in Cyrodiil. I understand that you don’t embellish your words, let me speak plainly then,” Vanomerus took out a heavy pouch filled with gold and a pair of diamonds. “In exchange for 1000 gold septims and two diamonds I want you to summon the Daedra lord Mehrunes Dagon. Convince him to slay Locutius Mengivius, living under the false name of Sellus Gravius.”

Nienna was shocked and grew terribly afraid while she listened to the skinny man’s words. He wanted her mother to kill someone; this was terrible, terrible.

“I thank you most humbly for the generous offer, ser Vanomerus, but I wouldn’t presume to be able to do a deed like that, though the money would have been nice to have. Both you and I would waste our time if we talked more about the requested task,” Lila nodded coolly to Vanomerus and bid him and his two companions goodbye. Then she took the last four steps to the door of the hut and was about to open the door and walk through when Vanomerus’ voice stopped her.

“I have waited twenty long years for this revenge, and I will not tolerate to wait longer,” Vanomerus said, shedding the honey from his voice and revealing the venom beneath.

The Orc had Nienna in a tight grip, holding his big hand in front of her mouth so she could not make a sound.

“If you do as I order, you’ll receive the money as promised and your daughter unharmed but if not, you’ll both die a slow and painful death, your daughter first and when she’s dead tomorrow, it’ll be your turn.”

“I don’t know the appropriate words and rituals to summon him. This is ancient knowledge which only very powerful witches and sorcerers know.” Lila stared hard at both Vanomerus and his Orc mercenary while trembling with suppressed fear for Nienna’s life and rage at herself for falling into the trap.

“Look in this book.” Vanomerus motioned for the slave to bring a tattered, small book to Lila.

This was an ancient book. Turamo had told her tales of those but never laid eyes on one, now she, Lila, was looking through the pages. She found the section about Mehrunes Dagon and slowly deciphered the text from the Daedric letters.

“Have you brought a living part of this man you want Mehrunes Dagon to murder?”

“Yes, I have two fingernails, five strands of hair, and the outermost joint of his left little toe,” Vanomerus handed her a small chest that preserved the human bits inside.

Silently, she’d cast a teleportation spell on Nienna immediately after asking her question, but instead of Nienna being teleported to the Guild of Mages in Balmora, she just glowed for a few seconds. Instead, a tree standing nearby vanished.

“I anticipated you’d try something like that so I put a spell on your daughter. Everything you cast at her is deflected into the trees behind you,” Vanomerus smugly said.

“You’re despicable. To use a helpless, innocent child as a means to reach your evil goal is loathsome,” Lila shouted, shivering from the fear of losing her daughter and from the impotent hatred against this man.

“Calm down, woman, don’t use all your energy being mad at me, you have to preserve it to do my bidding,” Vanomerus cautioned her. He knew what a tremendous effort it would take her to summon a Daedra prince and even more to make the prince do as he wanted. He gestured for the slave to give Lila a cup of tea, and she accepted the cup because she knew he was right.

She had never tried summoning a creature that was stronger than a Daedroth. Only certain witches and sorcerers had the right to summon a Daedra, according to the agreement by Sotha Sil and the Daedra princes. She would likely be sentenced to death if she did it.

Lila thought she had met him, when and where was that? Then it dawned on her. He was the Knight Errant of the Imperial Legion going through their papers when Turamo and she first arrived in Morrowind. He had seemed like an upright guy who was a stickler for proper conduct, fiercely loyal to the emperor, Uriel Septim VII. In fact, he did not give the impression that he would take bribes or do illegal dealings on the side. Maybe that was why this loathsome Kretilian Vanomerus wanted him punished. No, their disagreement would have to be worse than just a bribe turned down, considering the powerful grudge Vanomerus held for him.

“Why do you wish this man in the hands of Mehrunes Dagon?”

“That is of no consequence to you, witch, just summon the Daedra and convince him to fulfill my wish.”

“If I knew the reason it might make it easier to convince the prince to do it,” Lila reasoned with Vanomerus, trying to buy herself time to think of a way to get Nienna and maybe herself out of this situation alive. “Mehrunes Dagon’s sphere is destruction, change, revolution, energy, and ambition. So what is your reason?”

Vanomerus stood for a moment, contemplating her words, his face contorted in lines of hatred.

“Locutius Mengivius thinks he is a knight in shining armour, a savior and above everyone else in morals. He is nothing but a blithering idiot and self-righteous do-gooder with looks to swoon over by naïve women. Bah! He stole my wi… never mind, he stole something from me twenty years ago, and he didn’t have the right to do so. The first fifteen years were used to track him down in all the provinces of Tamriel, but that took a long time, especially since he changed his name. Originally, his name was Locutius Mengivius, but a professional insider must have done his new papers, because I gave the Imperial Legion a tip and they checked his credentials but did not oust him or put him in jail. Lucky honoured user.”

While Vanomerus spat out his wounded pride, Lila thought about her options. They led to death and disaster wherever she looked. She was not even sure that she would be able to summon a Daedra prince, much less control him. This was the precise reason for not letting Nienna dabble in the school of conjuration before she was at least thirteen years old, and then in cantrips only. Now here she stood herself 35 years old with a promise of pain and torture to her daughter and herself if she denied, and pain and torture to another fellow human or maybe even more people if she couldn’t control the Daedra and he roamed free of her magical constraints.

Vanomerus uncorked an expensive bottle of flin and took several big gulps of it before he continued his spiteful recounting. “The last five years I’ve tried every means possible to bring him down. I even went up against him face to face, and that’s why I have these souvenirs to show,” Vanomerus indicated with a glance to the little chest with the human parts in and the deep scar across his face.

I will give him what he asks for though not in the manner he intended it, Lila decided while looking at Vanomerus.

“But then I started reading up on the Daedra and their different spheres, and when I got to Mehrunes Dagon and his sphere of destruction he seemed to be the perfect god to send for Locutius Mengivius. My revenge would not be satisfying enough if Sheogorath made him mad, if Malacath ostrasized him or if Molag Bal dominated him. I want him dead, dead without the slightest hope of resurrection. Then I will be satisfied. Oh, to feel calm again. I haven’t felt calm since the day the chea… cheating honoured user first came to my house,” Vanomerus faltered a little talking about his wife.

“Then I’ve used the last six months trying to find some witch or sorcerer that could fulfill my wish. The first one let me down, but this time I’ve taken my precautions.”

“Now do it. 20th of Sun’s Dusk is the summoning date for Mehrunes Dagon so if you do it today, the date will increase the chance of success greatly,” Vanomerus impatiently said.

Vanomerus left her no choice by holding her daughter hostage. She took a deep breath, looked him straight in the eye and consented.

“Then be still because I need to concentrate on the task ahead.” Lila went inside the house to get a sharp knife. When she came back outside, she went to a little clearing with no bushes or trees, put the book down, cut herself in one hand and drew an ancient pattern on the ground with her own blood. It was a pentagram and on its five pointed tips, she placed one or two of the human items from the little chest.

She picked up the book, positioned herself about six feet away from the centre of the pentagram and started to chant the incantion in Daedric.

Vanomerus stared with excitement at Lila doing the rite; he seemed oblivious to anything else.