
Knower

Joined: 17-March 10
From: Somewhere Outside Plato's Cave.

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Chapter Four: Sacrifice
Seryn said nothing as I cradled Thanryn in my arms. His face had a peaceful look on it, but it gave me no comfort. All I could think about was what I had done as I gently traced the crevices in his face with my fingers. At least an hour passed as I sat there.
“Are you okay?” the Specter asked. His voice had a tone of empathy that was atypical of him. We both knew the answer to the question, though. I would survive, because I was strong. And maybe one day I would forgive myself.
I gently pulled Thanryn into one of the alcoves and whispered, “I’ll be back for you—I promise.” It was difficult to turn away from him. It hurt; it felt as if there was a void inside of me. And I knew it wouldn’t go away. With a sigh, I took my first footsteps towards the reddish-black hallway.
With each pace, I had to look back at him. I had to look back to tell myself that he was really gone. To tell myself that he wouldn’t come back, no matter how much I wanted him to. Seryn looked at me and said, “There’s no use dwelling on the past, Minx.”
I didn’t say anything in response to that. My eyes merely looked to the entrance to the hallway opposite of the one we entered in. When I began to walk towards it at a brisk pace, Seryn followed quietly. He showed no signs of difficulty keeping up; I could only guess that was one of the gifts of being undead.
The reddish-black metal was even more detailed here. The other room had simple half-circles and full circles. This hallway was engraved with elegant swirls and within each swirl was another swirl that gave it an almost maze-like appearance. With each step, the swirls on the wall grew larger and more would pour into them.
“It’s a perfect metaphor for their power-hungry views,” Seryn augured. “As one gives more and more to the Lord of Domination, the more and more they become.” That made perfect sense. One could easily be lead to believe they’re becoming more powerful when all they are is a pawn. I still said nothing, but I did push open the door to the next room which was far different than the one before it.
It was a dome-shaped room and in the center was a colossal statue made of the same reddish-black metal. In one of his hands was a mace and in the other was a pair of huge shackles. The engravings were ornate. His ram-like horns twisted out and his tail was lifted in an offensive manner.
“Who built this?” I looked to Seryn curiously.
“This architecture is ancient. It was likely priests from a time long before either of ours and I have been dead for nearly millennia.”
I said no words as I looked around the room. Around the statue were much smaller statues of large men with the heads of crocodiles. They were not made of metal like the room and the Statue of Molag Bal. Their skin appeared to be made of a grey stone dotted with black specks. “What are these things?” I asked in awe as I stared at one. The statues were almost all identical save for a small variance in height between each of them. They all stood in the same pose—their arms extended as if they were about to rip something apart with their claw-like nails.
“Each one is a Daedroth,” he explained. “The Daedroth are a very dangerous type of Daedra and luckily they are not alive. If they were, I do not think even I could handle all of them.”
I heard a heavy breathing as I examined one and right behind me, I saw one of them move. It’s claws did not reach for me, but it watched me with the beady, crocodilian eyes. “Who are you to intrude upon my father’s shrine?” it asked with a deep voice which was thick with an accent I had never heard before.
I could feel time slow down around me as my heart raced. I felt the thud against my chest with each beat. “I am Minx,” I said with a shaky voice. No matter how hard I tried to muster my confidence, this thing seemed to radiate an aura of fear.
“I am Krokal Bal, the eldest of the children residing here. How much do you value your life, Mortal?”
“Qu-quite a lot,” I stuttered. “I-I’ve grown quite at-attached to it.”
“The priesthood is dead—as they were when we entered this slumber. You are to bring forth a new child to hear the words of Lord Bal.”
My mind couldn’t make sense of the situation at hand. What was I going to do? Bring someone to suffer at the hands of the King of Rape in my place? Or would I just accept my fate. “She will return within a week’s time with a new priest,” Seryn said on my behalf.
“If she does not return with a new priest, I will awaken my siblings and we will find her. And we will wring her pathetic mortal body until there is not a drop of blood left.”
I gulped at the thought of these things doing such an act. And they had the physical strength to; it was quite obvious when one looked upon their muscled bodies that they could easily do it. Would that be my fate if I did not condemn another to serve under Bal’s thumb?
Seryn nodded and we walked back. “We need to leave,” he muttered to me. “Handle Thanryn and then we return to Tel Kirth.”
After we walked out of the Shrine Room and the hallway connected to it, I dragged Thanryn up the steps back out into the fog. The Mer was quite heavy; he was far heavier than I expected him to be. He must have weighed at least two-hundred pounds with all of his armor and weaponry.
Seryn shook his head and touched Thanryn. It was right then that he felt as light as a feather. In a few moments, the corpse was up the steps and onto the moist dirt outside of Ansurbas. “I’d like to speak to him,” I looked to Seryn. “Privately.”
The Specter disappeared when I finished my sentence. It was just Thanryn and me. I knelt beside him and grabbed his chitin-covered hand. “I’m sorry, Thanryn. I was afraid—I was afraid of what was going to happen and I reacted without thinking.”
For a few moments, I looked down at him and still expected to hear a response. Something along the lines of: “its okay, Minx. You didn’t mean to.” But then reality came crashing down and I realized it wouldn’t come. It wasn’t okay.
“What happened in there,” I continued with tears welling in my eyes. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness, Thanryn. I wish I could just…change it, but I can’t.” As I finished that last word, I felt the familiar heat of a tear running down my face. I wiped it away with the sleeve of my robes and gently kissed his forehead.
With tears running down my face, I reached down and pulled the Rosary from off his neck. Gently, I dragged him into the water and watched him sink. “Good bye,” I tried to say. The words were in my mouth, but they wouldn’t leave. I wanted them to, but they just wouldn’t.
Then the world around me changed again. The strange land around me was transmogrified into the familiar setting of my quarters. Seryn was standing in a corner looking at me as I held the Rosary. Before he could say anything, I put it around my neck and slid the face into my robes.
“Why did you take the Rosary?” the Specter asked inquisitively.
I didn’t say anything, but I just looked at him and he did not continue to probe. It was all I had left of Thanryn and I wouldn’t let him leave completely. I needed something to remember him by, if only for those time when my life would be darkest.
“I don’t want to corrupt an innocent for Molag Bal,” I stated. “It’s not what Thanryn would have wanted.”
“We’re not going to. We leave this place tonight at midnight and we will become nomads.”
“But…I have so much I can learn from Lord Kirth.”
“I am not asking, Pupil. The Daedroth will hunt us down, but if we can stay ahead of their tracks for long enough—we may eventually be able to fight them.”
“You think it’s possible, Seryn?”
“Yes, but we will need to leave soon. I will be residing within the Grimoire when we enter towns and you will go by false names.”
“Is this really going to be our life?”
“Until Krokal and his siblings are dead,” he responded. “We will be without roots.”
I slowly nodded my head. If that was what we had to do to survive, that was what we would do. My hands dug around in my knapsack looking for the skull. When it was within my grasp, I walked towards Lord Kirth’s quarters to see him with a different scamp. This one was slightly taller and was sitting beside Kirth as he looked at me expectantly.
“You have the skull?”
“Yes, Master,” I held it up for his inspection. “It is the Skull of Nelos, as you requested.”
The skull was jerked from my hand by an invisible force and it hovered towards him. The black lips of his curled into a smile. When he grabbed it in his hands, he carefully placed it on his desk. There was a look of pride in his eyes when he set it down.
“Who is Nelos Lethan?” I asked curiously.
His eyes diverted from the skull up to me. “He was once a member of the Tribunal Temple, now leave me to my research. When I need you, you will be called forth again.” I bowed deeply to show respect and turned around. I doubted he would ever know I had left once I was gone, at least until he needed me and that could’ve been any time.
Seryn stood waiting for me when I returned to my quarters. He said nothing, but when I looked at my robes—I did notice the tear from the scamp’s claws and that they had begun to smell of sweat. “Would you allow me to change?” I asked politely. The Specter let out a quick nod before he vanished.
I pulled the sash off and took the layers of clothing off. As they fell, I felt the chill of this place once-again. It was something I had forgotten about with everything that had transpired. My mind quickly moved to the fact that I needed some clothes and I looked in the dresser. It was definitely bigger on the inside than on the outside and it was lined with all manners of clothing.
Robes, jackets, shirts, skirts, pants, boots and shoes of all colors were within. My fingers rustled through the clothes and I pulled out a pair of leather boots, some loose-fitting, linen pants and a long-sleeved shirt made of the same material. Over the shirt, I pulled on a hooded cloak. All of the clothes shared the same color: Midnight Black.
When I finished dressing myself, I called Seryn back. “I am sorry, Seryn,” I mumbled. “I needed something that would be a bit less obvious about the fact that I am Magi.”
“Concealing your arcane prowess is wise,” he responded. “Mages are typically looked upon with more suspicion than common-folk.”
“How long do you think we’ll be able to stay ahead of Krokal?”
“You know I don’t know the answer to that, Minx. I just know that we need to stay ahead of them and staying here isn’t going to let us do that.” My head bobbed in acknowledgement of what he had said. What were we going to do?
I sat on my bed and waited for the time to pass. No words were spoken between Seryn and me as my mind was left to wander. While I sat there thinking about Thanryn, my fingers slowly found their way around the bi-colored symbol of Vivec on the Rosary. For some reason it made me feel safe.
Eventually the silence was broken by Seryn’s hoarse voice. “Nightfall will be coming soon,” he stated. “Where do you wish to go, Minx?”
“Vvardenfell is my home, Seryn. I don’t know if I want to leave it, but I also don’t know if it’s safe here anymore.”
“We’ll need to operate under secrecy. And we can’t stay in the same place for more than a few days lest the Daedra employ agents to hunt us down.”
“Let’s go,” I said as I looked in my knapsack. I couldn’t pack anything to eat or drink, because there was nothing here to pack. I think Tel Kirth simply provided for my needs, but that was going to change. All I had was the Grimoire in my knapsack and the clothes on my back.
I looked around the room one last time and let out a sigh that was dwelling deep within my chest. It had only been a short time, but I had grown accustomed to my stay here. There was a warm bed waiting at the end of the day and I never suffered from being hungry. It was going to be hard to return to my old, but it was what I had to do.
I pushed open the door and began to walk down the stairs. Seryn followed close behind and eventually we reached the door to this tower. It was the portal from this luxurious life as Lord Kirth’s apprentice to one as a nomadic wizard scrounging to survive. “Is this really right, Tamarion?” I looked back at him.
He just nodded and motioned for me to push the door open. Obediently, I gave it a gentle shove and saw out into the land around Tel Kirth for the first time. We were on the mainland at least, because I didn’t see several isles around us.
I looked up to the sky and let out a gentle sigh; it was a happy sigh. For the first time since I met Lord Kirth, I had the opportunity to look up at the stars. I couldn’t name any of the constellations, but it was nice to think about things bigger than myself. To just stare up and wonder what it’s like.
“Minx, we need to keep moving,” Seryn stated. “We only have a few hours of time before you’ll need rest.” The serious tone of his voice jerked me back to reality. I looked over to him and he was still walking forward at a rather brisk pace.
I hurried to his side and began walking at the same pace as him. “Do you ever look up the stars?” I asked. “I mean, when you were alive.”
The Specter looked over to me and casually bobbed his head. “When I was young, I knew all the constellations and their effects on the mortal form,” he responded. “The way the stars are aligned during one’s birth can have effects on them, but typically they’re very mild.”
My head bobbed. Was it even possible for the stars to have effects on us? And did this mean that I had been in some way changed by the stars? I looked over to Seryn, but I did not say anything. If anything it was just sort of odd to think about how different I might be if I was born on a different night.
Eventually we came upon a worn, dirt road and I looked to Seryn. He said nothing and only stared forward. Something was pressing on his mind and I dared not interrupt him. With our first steps onto the road, I could only think about the long journey in front of us.
This post has been edited by Zalphon: Aug 22 2012, 11:09 AM
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"You have the same twenty-four hours as me; don't be mad just because you don't use yours like I do." -Tupac Shakur
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