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.

*******



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.

*******

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.

*******

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

[Elisabeth Hollow]

He's only ever emailed me through her account.

[treydog]

Because this story is once again about to slide off the front page... and I do not wish to see that happen. Silly, I suppose. But seeing mALX's name here whenever I check in just makes me feel better.

We do not forget.

[Acadian]

Thank you trey. I was about to give mALX a 'bump' again. If Maxical's story reaches the bottom of page one again, I'll take the liberty of settling it in with the rest of mALX's work in her sub forum where all her writing can rest safely in one spot until she returns.

No, we do not forget.

[McBadgere]

Forget who?... ...

Sorry...She'd have appreciated that one... ...

Anyways, I've said much about this elsewhere...

*Inclines head*...Miss ya buddy... ...

[Arcry]

I don't know how to even begin this. I'm not a regular. But I always come back. You brought me here, mALX, from the Beth forums to this wonderful community. You're character, her story, that wonderful little Khajiit I followed you both here. And it's to here that I return to look into her story and that of others. But. Lately in my visits I've noticed a disturbing lack of you. And, regretfully, I've discovered why. And it's brought me to tears. Anger, regret, this last half an hour has been a whirlwind of emotion. You are missed by so many, so very many. And it is my deepest hope that you do return one day bringing in that sweet and kindly aura about your posts and lightening the hearts of your friends. But until that day comes I will remember the fifth of November, 12:34. I hope where ever you are, mALX, you're alright, happy, safe, and sound.


I'm sorry.

[Darkness Eternal]

I don't understand. You have discovered why mALX hasn't returned? Please dear friend, shed some light.

[King Coin]

Before she left she was having mini-strokes which is a big indicator that a large and very dangerous stroke could be coming.

[Arcry]

Darkness Eternal-
Not exactly, what I'd meant was that from looking through the forum I had found that her absence has been as long as eight months with the last talk of her being quite ill . So to clarify, I do not know what has kept mALX so long from her friends, only that she is missing. And that is a terrible, terrible thing.

[Acadian]

mALX, I noted that our kit quietly slid onto page two of the fanfic forum! We just can't have that. . . bump.

[Winter Wolf]

Please accept my apology for bumping this one to the top. I, like the wonderful Treydog and Acadian feel so much better when our favourite little kitty is sitting on page one.

Sorry mALX for not being around in such a long time and I am devastated to hear that you have been through some very difficult times over the last few years. My love to you and your family.

[Darkness Eternal]

Felt the urge and need to bump this topic. I do miss Maxical's chananigans and Malan's plots. Still waiting . . . hoping

[mALX]

*

Losing the ability to write Maxical's story was one of the greatest losses (for me) caused by that stroke, at least for me it was. Whether my writing was good or not, I just enjoyed this story so much; Maxical brought me a ton of joy and laughter writing for her.

Because of that, I have stayed away from this thread since my return a year ago September - did not see all these wonderful posts or know that anyone was keeping my story bumped to the front page till now.

Your (all) kind words here, and the fact that you all have kept Maxical on page one - you can't imagine how much this means to me. I'm not ashamed to say it brought tears reading through your all's thoughts while I was ill, and how kind you were to want to keep Maxical in your thoughts too.

You all are the best of friends, and I thank you so very much for your kind words and thoughts


*

This post has been edited by mALX: Sep 1 2015, 12:06 AM

[Zalphon]

While I have never had the time to go through the entirety of this epic, I would like to provide my thoughts on it.

This was a story that was not written for commercial gain (and I mention that not due to it being fan-fic, but due to the emptiness of such work). This was a work that clearly had love within its pages and devotion within its words. So I'd like to say this, mALX. Thanks for being a great writer.

I'm not on these forums too much anymore (due to real life being a wee bit of a hindrance on my time), but whenever I should come, I'll be sure to give a bump if it's getting far from the front (which I doubt, due to everyone else's devotion).

But thank you again, mALX. For the story you told and the friendship you've provided me over the years. Thank you.

[mirocu]

Losing the ability to write Maxical's story was one of the greatest losses (for me) caused by that stroke, at least for me it was. Whether my writing was good or not, I just enjoyed this story so much; Maxical brought me a ton of joy and laughter writing for her.

I haven´t read much about Maxical but I do feel that she is much needed on the forums. Her absence can´t be tolerated and I very much believe it´s only good for your rehab to write as much as you possibly can and want, mALX.


We need both the squirrel and the feline

[Zalphon]

Stopped for a stroll down memory lane, decided to bump.

[Acadian]

*bump*

I realize, mALX, that due to the lingering residual effects of your stroke you may never get to resume this. Yet, the misadventures of dear Maxical are such a large part of this forum’s wonderful fan fiction history. . . . Forgive me, but I have a bit of trouble seeing it drift onto page two; more so in your case because I realize there may not be more story to follow.

Regardless, I thank you for the rich and sprawling tale that remains in the many pages of this thread. Maxical’s story has always been an inspiration to me and, I’m sure, to others here.

[mALX]

*bump*

I realize, mALX, that due to the lingering residual effects of your stroke you may never get to resume this. Yet, the misadventures of dear Maxical are such a large part of this forum’s wonderful fan fiction history. . . . Forgive me, but I have a bit of trouble seeing it drift onto page two; more so in your case because I realize there may not be more story to follow.

Regardless, I thank you for the rich and sprawling tale that remains in the many pages of this thread. Maxical’s story has always been an inspiration to me and, I’m sure, to others here.

*mALX wipes tear away*

Thanks, Acadian!

[Darkness Eternal]

I have to agree with Acadian. This tale was among the best here. A fun, enjoyable ride laced with humor, action and drama and we are going to miss seeing Maxical's adventures. I'll have to go back and revisit this story. This must be kept alive and going.

[ghastley]

Obligatory bump back where this belongs.

[Renee]

Yes, I agree with the bumpers. I did begin Maxical's story awhile back and one of these days would like to continue. Wish I'd been able to catch it all (along with other stories of the late 2000s / early 2010s) as it was being written. I remember I got as far as her graduation from the Mages Guild, though. But I also seem to remember you told me there are a couple versions of Maxical's story.