A New Sun Rises - Maxical's Adventures, The Truth Behind The Oblivion Crisis Options

[mALX]

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A New Sun Rises

This story covers the daily events in the two years leading up to the Oblivion Crisis. It begins following the life of a semi-typical Khajiit girl who inadvertently finds herself the pawn of a powerful necromancer just as factions and forces begin moving into position.

When motivations are revealed it drives out the secrets of forgotten pasts, and another Khajiit girl whose life was an intertwined mirror of her own till both were altered irrevocably by the same necromancer in whose power they both found themselves.

The diverse paths their lives took merge once again in an explosive revelation that leaves one wondering how much of her skills and personality were ever her own; the other in a desperate struggle to keep control of her life, keep from being used against the Emperor as the crisis that will change Cyrodiil and the rule of Tamriel forever begins.

Maxical

Prologue

Sun's Dusk ( 3rd Era, year 432 )
Ma�Thjizzrini Qa
15 years after her parent's deaths

Fate is an invincible enemy in a battle you�ll never leave unscathed. It stalks you as prey and strikes regardless of shields or armor. The gods and other realms can find entertainment in manipulating your path on a whim; or ancient vampires dabble with your life, alter your mind without you even knowing it. Sometimes you don�t find out till it is too late.

I�d like to blame the gods for where I found myself, but the truth is that somewhere between the void and the Dreamsleeve lies fate; a place where time and space meet; where even the blackness of the void doesn�t reach, and the gods make wagers on the outcome of lives caught in the �tween.

Wedged into that fold are damned souls, souls that have been marked for paths they can�t change, to destinies they can�t escape. Ancient vampire's eyes see them as beacons, follow them as scents, control their minds without their ever knowing.

They are targets for revenge of an enemy they don't even know exists, pawns in a game they didn't even know was being played; whose contestants their worst nightmares couldn�t envision.


That�s where I found myself fifteen years after the game started. That was the day I found out that everything I�d ever known about myself had always been�her. Amiela.

Amiela was a 137 years old demon of a vampire that thrived on destruction and usurped whatever she could from others. She died a century before I was born, but the wars being fought over her didn�t end with her death. Her soul was marked�and inside me.

For me, fate was my parents bringing me through the heavy forested area of the Gold Road just outside Skingrad at the same time the second worst necromancer of our time was in a battle for the soul of Amiela. And there I was, a convenient hiding spot.

That was the day my parents died. All I ever knew of them was where they died and what killed them. I was twenty years old before I even learned my mother's name. I was twenty years old before I remembered Nisaba. Nissy.

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Nisaba

Nissy�s beginning didn�t just match mine, it was mine; though neither of us knew it before we�d both turned twenty years old. That was the year our paths crossed again and we learned the only scraps of our histories anyone was ever able to recover. That's when we learned our destinies were intertwined long before our lives began.

Nissy and I were born within a month of each other in the year 412, both born in the 'no-man's' land of wild mountain passes between Vvardenfell and Cyrodiil. Our parents were traveling together and we were born en route, but our histories began long before that.

From early childhood our parents were owned by Hlormaren, a Dunmer Stronghold on the Bitter Coast of Vvardenfell. Before that they were housed in the same children's slave pen on the mainland. Maybe our histories began long before that, but that was the furthest back any information went that we were able to find.

Nissy�s mother died giving birth to her. Her father dropped her off at the Imperial Legion Orphanage for the un-adoptable when she was two. Three years later a Legionnaire dropped me off there when my parents were killed in a minotaur attack.

Fate once again found Nissy and me four years later in the middle of the night, right there in our room at that orphanage. We were both nine years old when our destinies were wrenched into the hands of the worst necromancer Tamriel has known since the King of Worms. Both of us have been in his power in one way or another since. Dagoth-Malan.

That was eleven years ago, eleven years that Nissy waited for me to keep a promise to save her...eleven years that all my memories of her were stolen by Dagoth-Malan so I couldn�t keep that vow. Until fate brought us together again when we both turned twenty.

Nissy and me, we were both in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fate.

** The Beginning **



Where Memories Begin And End

Legion Office, Imperial City
3rd Era, year 417 (memories of events that occurred when Maxical was five years old)

The earliest memory of my lifetime begins and ends in the Legion headquarters in the Imperial City. I�ve never been able to remember a single moment of my life before finding myself in that office.

It was a coming awake. A dark void of nothingness, and then in a blink my eyes were open and there I stood in that office with no idea where I was or how I got there.

An odd putrid odor I couldn't name seemed to be clinging inside my nostrils and roiling my stomach, even the pungent stench of sweat emanating from the large man behind the desk was a welcome relief in comparison.

There was an odd feeling of having forgotten something important that niggled irritatingly, a barb that probed against my mind to remember, but there was nothing to answer its incessant prodding. Nothing. It was like a journey through a maze with only dead ends at every turn. I didn't know where I had come from, where I belonged, or who I belonged to.

At first I barely understood what they were saying; strange sounding words spoken so harshly and rapidly that it was impossible to grasp even one to decipher. They couldn�t understand me at all when I spoke.

Somewhere deep inside me in a place as unconnected to me as the lost memories of my life before that office there was the oddest sensation; a stirring, as if that part of me was just now waking. Suddenly their words were striking a chord of recognition It almost felt as if I could speak their tongue, but when my mouth opened the words still came out in the only language I knew.

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The large sweaty man behind the desk pointed at me. "What is that?"

"Don't know, only that it's the get of some beasts killed by a minotaur up on the big curve of the Gold Road in County Skingrad. Couldn't tell what they were either. The mother was a bloody mess; but the male...fur black as coal soot, and the same flattened face as that one's." He indicated my face, then added, "Too big for a cat, never seen anything like him. Both bore slave tattoos so they can't be from Cyrodiil. No travel papers or identification on either body."

The large sweating man's chair groaned loudly as he leaned over and gave me an intrusive and extended eyeing. "That ain't no Khajiit, not with that white coloring. That face gives me the creeps, you said the male looked the same? This one must be an albino then. No telling what you'll find in those other Provinces, all barbarians." He spat a large wad of brown cud into the urn beside him.

"The male had been looted; they even took his clothes, naked as a jaybird he was. Found this in the brush near the female's body." He held out a blood spattered travel pack. "When I moved her body this silver dagger was underneath her, and this gold locket fell off her neck. Chain was broken, likely in the attack."

The rotund man tossed him a cloth to wrap the items in, then pointed at me. "How old do you think it is?"

"Too small to be very old. Can't be much more than a couple years. It walks well enough, though. And mark it as female, it squatted to relieve itself on the way here."

"Two year old female." The large man wrote something down.

"And a bad tempered one at that. She scratched me up good trying to get her on the horse." That was met with raucous laughter from the men gathered.

"It's that red hair!" Someone called.

The mocking laughter and insulting treatment I understood without the help of that strange place within me that seemed to know this language. I didn't know anything about myself or how I got here, I was confused and up till that moment terrified. But at that moment I learned that I had a temper. I could feel it building inside me like a fire about to go out of control.

In my rage I nearly missed that their odd contortions and rudimentary gestures to communicate were attempts to get my name. My name. That would be important to find out who I was.

�Ma'Thjizzrini Qa.� A girls voice squealed from behind me. I turned to see a Khajiit girl in the doorway staring at me wide eyed.

"Ma'Thjizzrini Qa!" She started running toward me, but one of the armored men grabbed her and pushed her back out the door.

As soon as she said it I knew that was my name, it struck a familiar chord immediately. I repeated it, imitating their miming gestures by pointing to my chest. �Ma'Thjizzrini Qa.�

"Name, Maxical." The rotund man wrote something down, then stamped his seal on the document.

*******

They said I was found beside my parents, was there when they were killed. I didn't remember any of it. It felt like they talked abstractly about strangers. The greatest shock for me that day and so many days since was that I didn't even know my mother's name; wasn't able to bring an image of her to my mind, or even a glimpse of a moment with her or the sound of her voice. It was like she disappeared into the void, taking every remembrance of her.

That day in the Legion office though, that I will never forget. The smell of pipe smoke and tobacco, male sweat and steel; those odors bring back the memory of that day as if it was still alive within me, still happening to me.

It has stayed fresh in my mind all these years; but not because I wanted to remember it. It was that haunting memory that was just out of grasp beyond it, the sheer number of times I�d come to that stopping point in my memory and tried to force beyond it to find something, anything of who I was; of my life before that Legion office. Of my mother.

That day, those men staring at me as if I were an insect as they tried to determine what I was, what I was saying...what to do with me. All through it my mind burned with trying to figure out who I was and how I got there. I'll never forget that day.

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This post has been edited by mALX: May 4 2019, 07:13 PM

[mALX]

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@ Zalphon - Thank you Zalphon! It is great to have you reading Maxical again!
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@ Winter Wolf - Thank you so much Wolf - I was going to drop this chapter, but Hauty made a special request for it so it stayed, lol.
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@ Hauteecole Rider - Thank you very much Hauty! And I posted the pics of Jarol, lol. I almost left this chapter out, I'm glad I didn't now. It was one of my favorites of the earlier chapters too!
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@ Foxy - Thank you very much Foxy! And you are right, I added some to it, lol. I am cutting out a lot of what I bring here, but the Foxy episodes will all stay intact!
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@ Acadian - Thank you so much Acadian! You are greatly appreciated!
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@ Remko - Yeah! Thank you very much Remko! I appreciate you - especially for bringing "The Contract" over - that means a lot to me, and when I begged, bugged, and slobbered for you to do it, I really didn't think you would! I am glad it is not holed away here like it was at the BGSF, others really should see it!
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@ Destri Melarg - Thank you so much Destri! I wanted to limit it to 2000 words, but could have come up with plenty more. That chapter was inspired by my older son. I was called daily by the school - no exaggeration.

Friday-Faced = A dismal countenance; melancholy-looking; dejected.


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Yeah! Foxy!!! See what happens when I don't have your expertise? You are a needed addition to this forum! I planned all kinds of errors in my fights just to draw you in to comment! Yeah !!!!!!! Thank you Foxy! You ROCK !!



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The Arcane

Chapter 6: School Years


S’Jirra tugged at Alix’s arm, leaning in close to whisper in his ear. Khajiit are incapable of whispering quietly, I clearly overheard S'Jirra’s 'imaginary friend'. Were they buying me one? What was it?

Leaving the orphanage felt like a purging, it was freeing as if I’d been there as a prisoner. Leaving it this way; to a family and love, that felt like a miracle I hadn’t even dared pray for.

Alix was pointing out the sights as we walked, but I barely saw them. My mind dwelled heavily on those names they'd asked me about, Nissy and Nisaba. They were a barb stabbing something in me, as if I should know them but didn't. It brought a sick feeling in my stomach for some reason.

They couldn't have been orphans at the compound, I'd know them...wouldn't I? I strained to remember any of my friends from the orphanage but couldn't think of a single name, not even an image of a face. We'd just left there not half an hour ago, why couldn't I remember them?

My room I remembered in explicit detail; where each bed was situated, even the patterns of the quilted covers on each of the beds. Everything but the girls that had filled those other beds.

There were clear glimpses of the guards stationed there, I remembered their names well. Everything except those I would have cared about most, my friends. Their memories were erased as cleanly as my mother's, or my life before that Legion office.

My friends had become faceless and nameless, their voices muted indistinguishable echoes of sound. It was like chapters in a book whose pages blew free from their binding once the moments were passed.

Once settled in my room, all thoughts of the orphanage and who I might have known there were long from my mind. I'd never have believed my life could be this happy...perfect. The next five years flew by in a blink.







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I thought the matter of going to the Arcane would have been dropped after I went to live with Alix and S’Jirra. It wasn't. Not long after my twelfth birthday they started making preparations for me to go. I cried and pleaded, but it did no good. I promised everything I could think of, including good behavior which I am sure they knew was a promise I couldn‘t keep.

My first letters home were spent begging for Alix to come get me and bring me home. I finally realized they wouldn’t give in, and tried to make the best of it. It turned out that I actually loved school and made some very close friends there.

Whether the Arcane loved me was another story. Alix and Fathis got daily mailings from the Arcane about my behavior, but truthfully I only got into major trouble a few times.


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Dear Alix and S’Jirra -

You may be getting a letter from Raminus Polus, but there is no proof I was involved.

Raminus Polus is upset by something that occurred. It seems someone entered the upstairs Mage Apprentice quarters and dipped their hands in warm water while they slept. Raminus is just mad because he was sleeping in there and suffered some embarrassment.

He doesn’t feel comfortable sleeping anymore, and has been spotted pacing in the public areas at night. He sleeps in the mornings while we are in class.


Love, M

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Dear Alix and S’Jirra -

If you get a letter from Irlav Jarol, please do not worry that I will be expelled no matter what he says. We all have boot blacking, I’m not the only one that had a tin of it, and any one of us could have used ours up. Alix, it does eventually wear out of skin, does it not? Everything is fine here other than that.



Love, M

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Dear Alix and S’Jirra -

If you get a letter from Raminus Polus, he is just being spiteful. Not everyone can get the hang of conjuration their first semester. No one was hurt badly.

Speaking of hurt though, several of my classmates have had to be healed. My professor says I can cast destruction spells with the pros but my aim is so bad that I should apply to fight with the enemies for my allies protection.

I was forced to drop out of Archery class, please don’t tell Forester, it may bring up some bad memories.

Love, M

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Dear Alix and S’Jirra -

First off, I am not writing because I have gotten into trouble. Other than the watermelon incident in which no one could prove was me because - well never mind. Irlav Jarol just always blames everything that happens on me.

For your own peace of mind, it may be best if you just tear up any letters from the school that aren’t from me.

Love, M.


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Dear Alix and S’Jirra -

You may be receiving a letter from Arch Mage Traven and possibly the Imperial Legion, but you can ignore them now. I was in trouble, but Fathis Aren fixed everything. He paid off the guard with a large check and made a huge donation to the Arcane University.

We were just borrowing the horse, not stealing it. The horse wasn’t hurt, and the guard said he will press no charges since Fathis paid him so well.

I had to clean up the manure in Arch Mage Traven’s bedroom, so I‘ve already been punished. Oh, and Fathis replaced the Arch Mage's blanket with one much nicer, since the horse chewed up the old one.

Fathis was not mad at all, he did that thing with his lips that you do Alix, when you don’t want someone to know you are smiling. Alix, it was just an experiment, not a prank, I promise.

Arch Mage Traven said he has begun praying to Akatosh for me to graduate. He said I have high spirits. He never stays mad long if everyone would just stop bringing things to his attention.


Love, M

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Dear Alix and S’Jirra -

You may be receiving a letter from Arch Mage Traven and Irlav Jarol. I already wrote Fathis and asked him to pay for the windows in the Arch Mage’s tower. I was not aiming at the windows so was able to honestly tell him that it was an accident.

Irlav Jarol has at least a dozen robes just like that one. How he thinks I can get his robe down from there, I don’t know. I offered to blast it down with a spell and Arch Mage Traven turned as white as me and forbade me do it.

My best friend Delphine Jend asked me to come visit her in Bravil after I graduate. She said she would help me get on with the Mages Guild there. I’d be close to Fathis, but I really don’t want to work there. I found out there is an Arena here where people get paid to fight with swords! That‘s what I want to do.

Delphine has a velvet dress that is almost as nice as Fathis’s clothing. I hope I can have a dress like that some day. (HINT, HINT, Alix?)

Arch Mage Traven said I have wicked imps in my eyes, but he was not terribly mad when he said it.


Love, M

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Dear Alix and S’Jirra -

I may be expelled. You may be receiving a letter from Arch Mage Traven. He is very upset with me. I wrote Fathis and asked him if he could pay for the damages to the grounds. It really was an accident, and that‘s the truth this time. Fathis said he will pay for them to lay a nice lawn and garden there. I may have talked them out of expelling me since I only lack five or so semesters from graduation.

Arch Mage Traven is going over my grades to see if I can graduate earlier than the six years. He said he had brown hair when I came and now it is all gray, but that’s not true, his hair is the same color it was when I came.

I really didn’t mean to do it.

Love, M

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Dear Alix and S’Jirra -

Good news! I am graduating early!

Arch Mage Traven said he needed a long vacation after I graduate. I invited him to the Faregyl, but he declined. He said he'd rather visit the planes of Oblivion to get some peace. His eyes twinkled when he said it, he was just joking.

My best friend Delphine will be getting an award for one of her spells, the Arcane is very excited about it. It is called “Enemies Explode.” She is giving me a copy as a graduation present. Delphine said not to worry about me blowing up anything like I did here, she thinks it's fixed now. I can’t wait for you to meet her. I sent Fathis his invitation already, I hope he'll come.

We have another holiday coming up in two weeks, they're supposed to fix the damages I caused while the students are away. Will Alix be coming to escort me?

Love, M


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******* Arch Mage Traven


“Fathis, I believe you encourage that child in her mischief by laughing each time.” Arch Mage Traven said in his sternest voice.

“Oh Traven, she is unspoiled. Would you have me read her a lecture? I won’t you know.”

“I would use the term spoiled rather. She is turning this campus upside down.” Traven’s voice reflected his exasperation.

“Irlav Jarol brings it on himself. She is a child with high spirits, that is all. That energy will naturally find a more suitable outlet as she matures. This campus could use some life thrown into it. A morgue has more life in it than Jarol has. The man is positively Fredas-faced. He needs to be retired, or not be in a position to incite the young children.” Fathis signed his name with a flourish on another large donation to the Arcane University.

As he handed it over Fathis added, “Traven, did you never think of hanging your professor’s robes from the towers?”

While Arch Mage Traven was reaching his hand for the donation, his mind was going back in time to a particular professor whose robes had hung from a certain spire “I never tried to blast them up there using a spell, nor broke windows in the process.”

Fathis leaned over and shook Arch Mage Traven’s hand. “For a second there, I saw a flash of wicked imps in your eyes Traven. Let the child grow as she will. The world will smother that life out of her soon enough and I can stand the Septims for any inconvenience.”

Arch Mage Traven shook his head, leaning back in his chair as he watched Fathis exit. His mind traveled once again to that professor. Fathis did have a point, Irlav put him strongly in mind of the man.









******* Maxical


If it hadn't been for Fathis I'd have been pushed out of the Arcane within the first month. Fathis's influence carried a lot of weight, but more often than not his open banque account was what kept me out of trouble; though I didn't learn that till years later.

Very early on I'd started turning to Fathis immediately when problems arose, and only told Alix and S'Jirra about the trouble after Fathis had fixed everything. I thought if they never learned of trouble till it was over, they would never regret having adopted me.

Through the past six years Fathis always came immediately when a messenger was sent, and never once berated me for getting into trouble. Just like he did that first day of meeting him at the orphanage, he'd step in like a shield that no ill will could penetrate. No matter how bad the situation, as soon as Fathis got there he quickly made all right again; as if it never was...usually better than it was before. I felt protected in a way I'd never known.

Fathis had a large rectangular leather-bound book he would pull out from the folds of a thick velvet satchel that hung at his waist. As a child I thought it held powerful magic, because every time he brought it out people's expressions changed from angry rage to smiles and fawning. I learned later it was Fathis's cheque book.

After realizing Fathis was expending gold to right those situations, I always turned to him first because I knew Alix and S'Jirra could never afford to pay the damages. I grew to trust and rely on Fathis for everything.

Fathis visited regularly, bringing me to Castle Bravil and the Palace on Public Days and staying frequently at the Faregyl when I was on vacations, but it was in our letters that a very close friendship developed between us.

There was a turning point in the last two years where the communication between us just seemed to open up in those letters. I told Fathis things I've never discussed with anyone, not even Alix and S'Jirra.

It was Fathis's letters back to me that made me feel closest to him. In them I could almost hear his voice saying the words, and they revealed aspects of him few knew. Certainly no women had seen these other sides of Fathis; although plenty of women saw a side of him I never have, being his ward.

That is the truth. Fathis's reputation with women was the cause of a lot of gossipy tongues wagging over him having a young girl as his ward; but the truth was that for all his womanizing with every other female on Nirn, he treated his guardianship of me as a sacred trust.


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This post has been edited by mALX: Aug 3 2013, 11:42 AM