FVN Chapter 299: Chapter XXV: Dawnstar Finale
Chapter 299: Chapter XXV: Dawnstar Finale
Chapter 299: Chapter XXV: Dawnstar Finale
A/n: A mighty cheer for Seba for their impressive tribute on the forbidden site!
[Fury of Dagoth - Awakened: Your power over the concept of blasphemy grows, its direction drawn toward the denial of greater being you consider evil, false, or wrong. You may now invoke your powers at will and now hold the potential to permanently harm such beings.]
I do not know how long I stood there, staring at where the staff once stood, but by the time I came back to my senses, the bonfire that was my soul slowly retreated into the mere flicker of a candle and my fellow temple raiders were slowly awakening.
The old priest barely stopped himself from falling over as he helped the twins up, he slowly turned to me and croaked "What happened?"
"The staff is gone, permanently." I add quickly.
He gives me a long, searching look "How?"
I shrug "You aren't the only one with secrets, priest. Simply accept that Dawnstar will be cursed with nightmares no longer and leave it at that."
Both him and Bor gave me suspicious looks at this but after some thought they realized they had nothing else to say and we started to slowly ascend the stairwell, leaving the temple behind us.
I stop the old priest from falling over with some light telekinesis and feel a momentary metaphysical glare aimed straight at the two of us. It disappears almost immediately as I feel Mephala's glee as she uses the distraction to do as much damage to our foe as possible, no doubt ruining a whole bunch of Vaermina's influences as she did so.
It was rather difficult to describe the metaphysical sight of two Daedra going at, my vocabulary lacked the exact words to give justice to the glaringly unnatural storm of chaos happening in a realm already known for its lack of common sense.
Still, I did not have the opportunity to observe for too long as the conflict ended as swiftly as it could, Mephala wasn't one to draw attention from the others after all.
Once she understood that I had a rather eager backer, Vaermina accepted her loss and fucked off back into the Quagmire, an oath of not bothering either of us for at least a century the price for the end of Mephala's attack.
Satisfied with the outcome, I grabbed the haggard priest and started gently dragging him back up the way we came, he did not seem to mind as he was barely conscious after all that happened, and whatever Vaermina had shown him when she knocked him out seemed to wear him out far more than it did the twins.
The twins snapped out of their own stupor as I passed them by and swiftly fell in behind me "You two doing alright?" I ask lightly as we ascend the stairs "That last push was pretty dangerous no matter how little managed to get through."
Both fail to hold back a sudden shudder at the mention, with Brienne being the one to answer "No college lesson would have ever prepared me for that, for a moment I felt as if the world itself would bow to me if only I woke up and stopped anyone from destroying the staff."
"Disgusting is what it was!" Bor half shouts and half growls "It felt as if I would forget who I even was for a moment, and all that with a mere touch of the mind!."
"Not all that dissimilar from my own first time." I inform them with a lazy shrug "Except the thing trying to mindfuck me back then just wanted me to become a filthy cannibal instead of whatever it is that Vaerminan cultists do."
"Ugh." Brienne winces with disgust.
"They either wish to escape reality or use terror to take control over others." Erandur decides to answer my unasked question after he manages to gather himself somewhat "Most of them just want to forget their woes and accept the... Daedra's influence as the price, but there are always some who join the cults for the power it provides."
Bor shakes his head and curses "Honorless fools."
"Oh don't get your robes in a twist." I roll my eyes "People join non-Daedric organizations for power all the damned time, at least the Daedra are somewhat honest with what they offer... even if they usually twist it against you by the end of it."
"But it doesn't cost them their damned souls!" He retorts, evidently irritated by the fact people can be so stupid.
'Fucker would have failed after five seconds if we didn't shield his weak ass.' Scorch grouses internally. Neither of us actually liked Bor, but his sister was nice enough so we tolerated his occasional pigheadedness.
"Which is why only the thoroughly paranoid should ever deal with Daedra." I smile at him with false cheer "Only through downright unhealthy levels of caution can you avoid the amount of fuckery they keep throwing about." I tilt my head as if suddenly remembering something "Or you just become so powerful you can shatter a good chunk of their worldly influence, that also works!"
The twins' looks turned to ones of fear for a brief moment before the both of them wisely decided not to ask any further questions. Even if they were in Solitude when it happened, they weren't completely aware of just how far my little scuffle with Meridia and now this one went, their world-view could only take so much punishment after all.
My excitement slowly died out as I went over his inane thoughts, only to return full force once
I flipped the final page and found it to contain a small list instead. Three places housing three
pieces of Mehrunes' Razor, the blade which could supposedly kill anything with a single
strike.
'Odd that all of them are in the hands of different Orsimer camps.' I muse idly before shrugging and ripping out the final page and tossing the rest to the dusty floor 'Whatever, it should make a fun little quest for Davos while I go and irritate the Greybeards.'
And so, as if I didn't just callously toss the last memories of a man to rot in the open air, I left for the central part of the city, the terminal idiot already long since forgotten.
The supposed 'feast' at the Flame-Heart's place was the opposite of the usual joviality one
might expect from the rowdy Nords, the vast majority of the clan were silent Stormcloak supporters and my presence was viewed like something akin to an unforgivable insult.
It was just too bad they could not back up their shitty opinions with anything even vaguely resembling sufficient force, and thus they were forced to deal with my sickly sweet politeness for the entire night.
The younger kids naturally didn't give a single shit about the mounting tensions and kept
asking me blissfully ignorant questions, which I then shamelessly used to dig into the whole clan as deeply as I could.
By the time Belor announced his 'abdication' to his son, the whole three dozen clansmen looked like their souls had been sucked out of them, so much so that they merely nodded at the sudden change in leadership and accepted it for what it was, namely punishment for their silent betrayal and effective puppeting of their family for many years to come.
I did get to meet the twins' mother, a terribly sweet woman who was no doubt the source of Brienne's usual sunny disposition. She was bedridden for ages with no one from the clan being able to heal her even with their supposedly vaunted skills at the art.
The twins' looks as I healed her with a simple spell and potion combo were worthy of forever
being burned into my mind, even if their father glared at me for pissing on his pride once
again.
Honestly, if it wouldn't have cost the poor woman whatever little happiness she would have
been managed to attain after being healed, I would have probably snapped his head off his
shoulders for that alone.
Imagine being such a cuck you do not allow your wife to get healing, just so you can keep your clan's 'pride'... Who even does that?
'Someone cursed with small pp, obviously.' Scorch proposed without hesitation. 'Wouldn't surprise me.' I held back a snort as I looked at the reddening man and left their
longhouse not long after.
That night I slept like a log, neither natural nor unnatural nightmares plaguing my respite.
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