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

[mALX]

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Chapter 11: Bad Things Come In Threes



Owyn was right, eventually bigger news hit the paper and everyone quit talking about that interview. The first was that Claudius Arcadia's daughter was brutally murdered in the act of a rape right there in the Imperial City. She was a little younger than me. It was horrible to think of what she had to endure the last minutes of her life, and frightening to know someone was out harming girls like that.

Then Agronak's mother died. He came into our Bloodworks broken and made the announcement to the room. He looked over at me as he spoke, his expression helpless and clearly he was needing his friend instead of the roomful.

"This morning at a little after three my mother lost her fight with..." Agronak began, but was unable to finish.

We all gathered around him to give him words of comfort. She had been very ill for a long time, long before I met him. I had gone with him to visit her several times and knew her time was near. Even though this was the expected conclusion it was none the less devastating to Agronak.

Andronicus gave up her chair and we all helped Agronak to it. Owyn made him take a small sip of brandy, even though Agronak does not drink alcohol.

"Is there anything I can do to help you?" I asked him quietly. I really didn't know what to do.

"Yes, I really need your help if you can Maxical. I need to make arrangements for her funeral and the disbursement of her personal items. I guess I'll need to make a statement to the press. I really need your help to get through this, I don't even know where to begin." He was shattered.

I didn't know either. I looked over at Andronicus and she nodded. She knew what to do. Surprisingly, or maybe not, Andronicus was used to handling these things. Agronak gave her carte blanche with his bank account and she was a model of efficiency ordering the funeral arrangements and gathering the press. She wrote out a list of tasks that I could do for her to get everything done quickly. She spoke to the press on behalf of Agronak and fielded the questions the press threw at him afterward. He had to do very little speaking.

The funeral was arranged in record time and the Courier was given the details so they could print them on the Special Edition with the announcement of her passing. They were given a pass to sit up front with the fighters and family as quite a crowd was expected. Andronicus knows how to milk PR from any situation for her fighters.


Ocato himself could not have a bigger funeral than Andronicus set up for Agronak's mother. It rained, but that did not keep what seemed like all Tamriel from attending. People were squeezed together tightly all across the lawns and the streets were clogged. People hung out of the windows of nearby buildings and climbed up in the trees to see. Crowds spilled out into the other districts so the guards tied the city gates open for them. The Gray Prince was obviously the draw, for while she lay sick none of these had bothered to make her acquaintance.

Owyn looked surprisingly handsome in a very ornate armor I had never seen before. Haki the Bold was dressed to the nines and with a very somber expression. He and Owyn acted like a harsh word had never been spoken between them, clasping each other in grief. That is for the PR image, we strive to look like a close knit family.

Andronicus was wearing a new dress and she had me fix her hair and do her makeup for her. The fighters from both Bloodworks came in spotlessly clean battle raiment, all the metalwork polished to a high sheen and brand new skirting.

Hassiri, Urjabhi and Ra'jiradh from the Black Horse Courier all came dressed in suits and sat up front with the fighters. High Chancellor Ocato had been sent a special invitation to stand with the fighters, he is an Arena buff, surprisingly. He showed up in a fancy red uniform on a gorgeous black horse and gave a speech. I didn't see him because Andronicus had me fetch her some water from one of the houses. I caught her later dabbing it under her eyes to imitate tears. She is a master of staging for any event.

Agronak was resplendent in his Grand Champion raiment, but was very emotionally wrought by it all. He clung to my hand through the entire proceeding and wept openly. It was heartbreaking.




***

Agronak was very depressed, but driven. "I need to go through my mother's personal items and find her important papers. I will be selling a lot of her things, but ... I can't face digging through her things by myself. Would you mind helping me with this?" He knew I would, the asking was just a formality.

Agronak had bought his mother a tiny house on the waterfront so she would be close to him. It was just a short walk from the Arena. He started off picking up a few items and putting them in the crate, but after a while I noticed he was sitting on the bed with a faraway and lost look on his face.

"Do you want to wait and do this another time?" I asked, gently touching his hand.

"No, It's not that. She was my last tie. I don't even know who my father was, only that he was a Lord. I have no one now ... to claim my body when I die. I'll be damned if I'll be put in the pit like trash."

Agronak never cursed, so it said a lot for how strongly he felt about this. I understand the feeling of having lost all ties, and about the pit. I wouldn't want to be put in there either.

The pit is under a grate in the center of the Arena. Fighters without families to claim their body are stripped and rolled into the pit immediately after their fight, right in front of the crowds. When the Arena closes for the night they light the pit on fire and incinerate the bodies. It is the worst smell in the world when they light it, but I have seen people sitting in the stands watching. I always wonder if it is family or friends that couldn't afford the cost of a funeral.

Before stepping foot in that Arena every single time you fight you have to sign legal forms and releases. The Battlemaster and one neutral party have to witness your signature on the papers. Andronicus acts as witness for Owyn's fighters and he does the same for her's.

The first is the 'Designated Claim' form, who will claim your body in the event you die. If you have family coming for you your body is taken to a holding area and stripped of the Arena equipment.

Then you have to sign the 'Incineration at the Discretion of the Arena' form. If your designated claimer does not show in what the Arena deems a reasonable period they have the right to dispose of you in the pit before you stink up the place.

If you don't have a person as a designated claim, you have to sign a waiver for the waiting period so they can just dump you in the pit right away.

At the end of each day the Battlemaster has to send a report to the Chancellor with the list of everyone that was incinerated along with their signed waivers or agreements.

The fear of being disposed of in that pit was foremost on Agronak's mind. He was desperate to find something in his mother's personal papers that would give a clue to any family.

"Agronak, there is no one in Tamriel that can beat you, I doubt you need to worry. But I overheard Owyn telling that Gladiator about something called a 'Power of Attorney' where you can designate a person as a pseudo relative, someone who would act on your behalf as a relative would. You can be released from it later if you find a relative or marry. I am sure Andronicus would do it for you, or if you wanted me to I would do it for you."

"Would you? You have no idea what a relief that would be on my mind. I'll talk to Andronicus about it right away. That Gladiator ... are you talking about Gils? The Dunmer?"

I nodded.

"Is he bothering you? You tell me if he is. He's been getting on my nerves sniffing around you like a dog with a steak dinner. I put a flea in his ear the other day about it."

"He doesn't bother me Agronak. It is just a conquest thing with him. Don't upset your friendship with him over this." I couldn't stand it if I was the cause of a rift between the two friends.

"As long as you are on that mat behind Andronicus I don't care; but if she ever moves you out from behind her, I wouldn't like the idea of you continuing to stay in the Bloodworks."

"I don't have much choice about that. Anyway, I doubt she will move me."

We filled two crates with clothing and bedding and Agronak handed me her jewelry box to carry. He found the deed to the house and brought it as we made our first trip to the Market District.

Jensine's bought the crated items, then Agronak had me wait outside the Red Diamond Jewelers while he took the deed to the Office of Imperial Commerce.

I saw Hassiri from the Black Horse Courier heading up the street toward me and was getting nervous that he would spot me. It was a huge relief when Agronak came around the corner and we were able to duck into the Red Diamond Jewelry together so he could sell the jewelry items.

Just before we stepped back out of the shop Agronak caught my arm and turned me around, slipping a rolled parchment into my hand.

"I want you to have my mother's house. It isn't much, just a shack; but it's somewhere you can go if Andronicus moves you. If that happens, I want you out of that Bloodworks. You know I will end up killing someone if one of those clowns touches you. Consider it your duty to take it so I don't go to prison."

"Agronak, I can't take that, it is yours!"

"No it's not, I had the deed put in your name. Maxical, you know me. I'll never live outside the Bloodworks, it's my home and always has been. You've been thinking about getting out of the Arena lately anyway."

"Agronak, this is too much! I can't take it!"

"It'd mean a lot to me to see you there, to know you had a place of your own. I have something else too, as long as you're already griping. I bought this ring for my mother with my winnings when I made Grand Champion. I couldn't bring myself to sell it. My mother asked me to pick something nice out of her jewelry when she was gone and give it to you, and I chose this. I want you to put a health enchantment on it to help you heal out there in the Arena. That is your main weakness."

"Agronak, what a dear you are, but I can't take that! Any old brass ring will do for the Arena, that is way too nice to fight in." We had stepped through the doorway as we were speaking, then stood outside the door.

"Let me know when your done griping so I can put it on your finger." He gave his lopsided grin. "You are the only one that ever came and visited with Mom. That meant a lot to her and me both. This is from both of us."

"How sweet you are Agronak." There is no arguing with an Orc that has his mind made up. I stuck my hand out and he slid it on, it was a beautiful ring.

"Thank you Agronak." I hugged him and then took his hand as we turned to leave.

"I see I should be wishing you happy. You didn't have to die of old age, did you?"

My head jerked around. Fathis was standing in the midway gawking at us, his face purple with rage.

"Fathis!" I let go of Agronak's hand.

Suddenly Hassiri was in my face, his pad in hand. "Let me be the first to officially congratulate you two. Would you mind giving a..."

"Fathis, please! Please, it's not what you think! Fathis!"

Fathis stormed away. Hassiri's eyes were lit with intrigue.

I looked up at Agronak. "I've got to go after him." I said, then left Agronak to talk to the press while I ran after Fathis.



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This post has been edited by mALX: Jul 28 2016, 09:01 PM