The Search For Kathea, A Leap Into A Return To Undermountain P2

 The Search For Kathea, A Leap Into A Return To Undermountain P2

     Reaper takes one look at the 'star blade' and shouts to Iriisii, "poison! I will see to the assassin, help the Naiad." They change targets on the run, Reaper lays the blade of his scythe against the assassin's neck, "move and die". The coldness of his voice was only matched by the coldness within his eyes. The assassin does not move.

     Iriisii does a fast scan of the Naiad, whatever poison was used, was powerful and fast, then as she sees what kind of damage it is doing, she swears a 'blue streak'. She pulls the star blade out and begins pouring healing power into the wound. She slows the damage but also knows there is only one thing that will save her. She pulls her own dagger and prepares to do what she has to after a brief but heartfelt prayer to the 'Mother'.

     She places the dagger just barely into the wound to open it to allow Iriisii to work. 

     "Stop! One more move and I will kill you!"

     "If I do not do this she will die horribly, this is the only way to fight the poison within her. I know, having seen this done before, so either kill me if you can or help me save her life."

     "...Ciri, please...she is...not our...enemy."

     "Ciri! Geralt's daughter!"

     "You know Geralt!"

     "Later, now help me save her! Please!"

     Ciri falls to her knees next to the Naiad. 

     "What can I do?"

     "You have a dagger?"

     Ciri pulls it into her hand.

     "When I tell you, use it to open the palm of my hand, cut a strip of flesh while my blood flows within the wound, then place the flesh inside and hold the wound closed while I cast the invocation."

     "Are you sure about this?"

     "No more questions or we will lose her!"

     "By all the Gods, what is it doing to her!"

     "Now Ciri, do it now!"

     Ciri draws the dagger along the length of Iriisii's hand, as blood flows within the wound, the destructive power of the poison is visibly lessening. She then makes a second cut at a shallow angle to the first, taking the strip of flesh, she places it in the wound and holds it closed with both hands.

     Iriisii then prays, "daal laas wa daar kiir"

                                 "sus do dii sus"

                                 "slen do dii slen"

                                 "daal laas wa daar kiir"

     As they watch, a soft pale glow envelopes the Naiad, her color starts to return, her breathing levels out from the hard panting when she was laboring to draw a breath. The wound is now no more than a scar. Another glow forms behind Iriisii as Ciri falls over trying to scramble to her feet. Iriisii stays kneeling but straightens her back, knowing it is one of the 'Mothers' hounds behind her. She makes a gesture in the hand language Letho taught her, to ask Ciri to stay where she was. As she recognizes the meaning of the gestures she obeys.

     The hound lays her hands on Iriisii's shoulders.

     "Blessed art thou this day, 'Daughter of the Mother', the Mother has heard the plea for healing from her Daughter and gladly answers. You seek mercy and compassion where others would only deal pain and death. You who have known pain, torment, and loss within your life, now in your new life seek to heal others of what you yourself have suffered. The Mother's advice to her Daughter is thus, seek the 'Wisdom of the First Ones', below where you now kneel, there you will find soothing answers to your burning questions."

     Iriisii feels the wound on her hand close and heals under the Mother's influence. 

     "Thank you, blessed 'Soul Hound of the Mother'."

     The glow fades as the hound returns to the Mother's side to await the next opportunity.

     "What are you? Who are you?"

     Reaper speaks for Iriisii, "She is Iriisii Dovahkiin, Daughter of the Mother of the Cosmos, Dragon of War, Avowed of dragonkind as the Mother of all Dragons, spoken of in the Hallowed Scrolls of Skelos, First Greater Goddess of the Gods of Eld, Harbinger, and Leader of the Gods of Eld, Battle Mistress of the Celestial Army of the Balance. Many are her accolades, all earned by blood, sweat, tears, pain, loss, remorse, and regret. Mother to the future Empress of Nirn, Mother to the Half-Dragon Aleytys, future mate to Arioch, Lord of the Courts of Chaos, Mother to the White Phoenix, and the Dragon of Spirit. When the Dragon of Spirit joins with the Dragon of War so begins the Jihad of Truth, across the length and breadth of the Realms of Creation, to right the Balance that has been skewed for too long."

     "I know that...name."

     "Hush, you are still weak."

     "No, the statue, the statue on the shore of the lake. It is her, I remember, I called and you came, you really came as you said you would."

     "You mean that statue that my father had commissioned and sent to be placed. But he would never say where it was placed, that is the statue up on the shore? And it is of this woman? Who are you, then."

     "I am Reaper, Avatar of the Tar-Aiym Krang, Prophet of the Dragon of War, her Protector, Battle Companion, and Shield Brother." 

     "The assassin, I will KILL YOU!" As Ciri lunges for her, dagger in hand. Iriisii grabs Ciri, "No! We need information, we need to know who put out the contract, why was it issued, who paid for it. We will have no answers if you kill her. The poison used is exceedingly rare, I know of only one place where it was used."

     Ciri turns and gives Iriisii a hard look, "where?"

     "Aretuza."

     "You said you knew it was used there, how did you know?"

     "Yennefer of Vengerberg."

     "How do you know her, she has been gone for years, no one knows where she went or if she is even still alive!"

     "I know, she is still alive, married, with a child."

     "But how could she have a child, sorceresses are barren, she told me so herself."

     "Sorceresses are not born barren, they are made barren."

     "By the Gods, did she do it? Did she find the secret she was searching for? Was this the secret?"

     "Aretuza made her barren, and no, she did not find the secret she searched for until I met her. She confided in me about her failure to heal herself, and I offered to help her. The only price was for her to come with me to my homeworld, where I could have her healed. She accepted my offer and my world's last true immortal, Magnus, God of Magic, took her as his apprentice, gave her his staff, and I then made her my Sorceress of the Imperial Empire of Tamriel.

     We had no idea Aretuza lay in a magical toxin trap, such that if any managed to find a way to heal themselves, the trap would spring and kill them, horribly. You saw what the poison was doing. Myself, the High Councillor of the Psijic Order, our healers, all worked to save her life. I called for Divine help before she would die. I was answered by Kthanid of the Gods of Eld, he did as I just did, gave her blood of his blood, flesh of his flesh, only the flesh and blood of a God could slow the poison enough that it could be purged, so that healing could be done.

     She lived, and as well the magical chakras by which magical power flows through the body when magic is called and used. Hers had been choked and deformed, after they were cleared and straightened, allowing her to come into her full power. Now with the flesh and blood of a God merged within her, if she should so wish it, she will be subject as I was to the 'Calling' after passing her 'Test of Apotheosis'. When she does this, she will be accepted as a Goddess of Eld, as am I."

     "Wow, I can hardly believe it. Yen, a goddess!"

     "Much has happened, in the last number of years. Although I have never before met you, I know you. Several are those whose acquaintance we share, Dandelion, Zoltan, Phillipa, Triss, Geralt, Letho."

     "You know Dandelion!?"

     "Yes, he was kind enough to let me stay at his Cabaret, while I was in Novigrad."

     "What about the others, where are they?"

     "Phillipa is with me, I was able to get to her and Ida just before the soldiers of the White Flame found them. Ida is back at the Imperial Palace in Cyrodiil, helping to watch over my children, with Triss. Geralt is with my army, working on training my scouts."

     "What about Letho, I did not know him well, but you mentioned him."

     "He...I...it still hurts, I am sorry."

     "What, is he dead?"

     "It is kind of difficult to explain. We were embroiled in a life or death war with vampiric reptiles called Tsaesci. They had come to invade Tamriel, take it, and use my people as food. He had just found the 'love of his life, Glorianna, last Valkyrie of the Daedric Lord Meridia'. I had made the decision to face the Tsaesci alone, it was 'do or die' and I was not letting any more of mine die.

     I knocked out my Rigmor and gave her to Letho to take back behind our lines. He and Glorianna started out to go back. Glorianna took a sword in the back, and he watched her die. He grabbed my Rigmor once more and made it back behind the lines as Yennefer, at Magnus direction raised shields to protect everyone while I prepared to do what I had to."

     "May I ask what you did?"

     "I called 'Starfire', I literally called down fire from our sun to burn the Tsaesci from the surface of the world. It lasted for only a few seconds, but it was enough. It almost killed me to channel it. Yennefer had made the shields go black to protect everyone from the intensity of the light. Still, it managed to force cracks in the shield.

     Just as I was calling it, Rigmor woke, realized what I was doing, and made a run for it to join me, believing her only choice was to join me in death. Letho felt a crack forming right in front of her. He reached her before it broke through and shielded her with his body. I was told it cooked and seared the flesh from his back, exposing his spine."

     "By all of the Gods, why, why would he do that, not that I would want anyone harmed. That is not the Letho I heard so many stories about."

     "I met him in Beauclaire. He had just walked up to where I had completed a week of meditation before I was going to attempt to read an 'Elder Scroll'. Geralt, Yen, both advised me to send him away, but I looked into his soul and saw something there, I saw what he could be if he had a second chance. But it had to be somewhere else, if he stayed, he would just be hunted and killed. And so I asked if he would take service with me, in return for my protection and returning home with me.

     I can honestly say, he never gave me a reason to regret that decision, quite the opposite. How many other warriors do or have you known that would sacrifice their life out of loyalty? I did not see it myself but enough people did, for me to believe that they saw Meridia claim his body and take him back with her to her Realm. She gave him a new body, him and Glorianna. They are together, and I could not be happier for both of them."

     "What do we do now?"

     "I must go deeper, to find the 'Wisdom of the First Ones'."

     "What were those 'demons' we tracked here doing, anyway?"

     Iriisii points to the lockbox close to the wall.

     "What is that anyway? Why were they interested in it?"

     "It is a Dwemer Lockbox. Locked up with the key lost for the last two thousand years. As to why they were interested in it, they wanted what is inside."

     "What is inside? What is it you are trying to avoid saying?"

     "I do not know if Geralt ever told you, about a very evil entity he had an encounter with. He is perhaps only the second person in history to beat that thing at its own game. Inside that lockbox is a body, and two demon inhabited swords, and the rest of the inner space is packed with 'void metal' ingots, just as the outside of that box is sealed in sheets of void metal. I know because I did it, I used Dragonfire to heat the ingots, then beat them into sheets, placed them on the lockbox, and again used Dragonfire to weld them together, to seal the box and its contents from magic either getting inside or escaping outside."

     "Who is inside there? Who is it that needs that kind of prison?"

     The Naiad whispers, "the 'Man of Glass'. Ciri, she put the 'Man of Glass' in there. Stabbed him with the swords, each sword taking half of his black soul. It was the only way to do it, to trap him. Kill him and he only returns to find you."

     "You are serious, the Man of Glass, himself, is in there. You have got to be the most bitchin' bad ass to have done that."

     "And she did it while still mortal."

     "What?!"

     "She had not ascended, when she trapped him, she was a mortal, not a goddess when she did it. She saw in me the desire I had to walk her path. She talked me into staying, trying to become a Witcher. She gave me the blade that I use."

     "And now, I do not know if it was fate, chance, or just plain dumb luck. But you are going to do what you wanted to do."

     "What!? How?'

     "To save your life, I had to share my flesh and blood with you. You now have my flesh, my blood within you. Sometime in the future, you will ascend, and when the Calling comes for you, I will accept you into the 'Gods of Eld' as the 'first of my line', you will then become my daughter, flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood."

     "But I am a Naiad!"

     "It does not matter in the least. Once you accept the Calling, you shed your mortality and become immortal. That does not mean you have to forget who you were, what you were. Many have done just that and are poorer for that. I do not forget, ever who I was, what I was. That is one reason why I did what I did to save you. I pointed your life in this direction all those years ago, I would not see you die because of it."

     "Thank you for saving my life."

     "You are most welcome, my daughter."

      "The swords that you used, to be strong enough that the 'Man of Glass' could not defeat the effect, how did you find them?"

     "There were legends concerning them, known to the 'Blade Dancers' that took me in and trained me in my youth. Yes, there is a story behind it all, but I am not willing to tell it now."

     "Why? What about all of this are you hiding?"

     "Although I too do not know the story, I know this much. It involved terrible personal loss, pain, suffering, tragedy few ever survive, much less in any way recover from. If she ever wishes to tell you that story, it will be at her discretion. Please accept her desire not to relive those events at this time, for a goddess of her power level, memories can be much stronger than you can imagine."

     "Goddess?"

     "She is now a 'Greater Goddess of Eld', the first of the 'Gods to Eld' to attain such a status. The 'Mother of the Cosmos' has declared her to be her 'Daughter', her future successor."

     "Who is this 'Mother of the Cosmos?"

     "Perhaps the best-kept secret among the entirety of all Pantheons. She stands at the pinnacle, there is no one higher than she. She was the first to accept the 'Mantle of the Mother' and so became the 'Mother of the Cosmos'."

     "Maybe it would be best if I delay my further questions until we reach a safer place. It is obvious to me now, there is a great deal I have no knowledge of."

     "Definitely more than you know, and I suspect you know more than most, being of the blood of 'Lara Dorren'."

     "What do you know of that!?"

     "I know what you have the power to do, but your control of it is still not complete. I can show you ways that will help you in that regard, also warn you of areas where it would be best for you not to attempt to use them for transport. That using it in the wrong places could land you where it can be quite daunting and some could make you wish for the 'gift of forgetfulness'. There are places I have been, things I had to do, that I will remember always, much to my eternal regret."

     "Indeed, my lady. She has been to places where even Gods fear to tread, lived, and returned to tell the tale. And even those tales are the stuff of eternal nightmares."

     "Who?"

     "This is 'Nodens', 'God of Eld', 'Lord of the Great Abyss', and my friend. The last time I was here, I had call to ask for aid from any who would answer. He and three others answered my call and saved me from a life of eternal subjugation to an insane god."

     "It was my pleasure, my lady, his messenger transgressed the pact and so paid the price of his folly."

     "Who are these 'Gods' that..."

     "That would take too long to answer here. Nodens, the 'Mother' sent her 'Hound' to tell me I need to seek deeper, to find the 'Wisdom of the First Ones'."

     "Then I will accompany you, your 'Hand of Blood' are standing guard over the Naiad village, they are safer than they have ever been."

     "Thank you, my friend."

     "Your 'Hand of Blood'?"

     "They are my personal bodyguards, two thousand in number. The best warriors and fighters of a desert world ruled by sand wyrms, with 'Shai-Ta'an', my 'spirit brother' standing at their head. But enough, we need to be on our way, there is much of this 'Keep of the First Ones' I have never delved into."

     With a last look at Gaunter O'Dimm's final resting place, if everything goes well. They start toward the opening opposite where they entered.

      "What about all of the vampires we saw earlier?"

     "Do not worry about them, as long as Iriisii is with us, they will not bother us."

     "Pray tell, why is that? Every other one I have encountered has attacked at once."

     "Her Vyrkolos is Dettlaff van der Eretein, they will not risk his ire by attacking his mate. As well her own 'Beast' is formidable in her own right."

     "You have a 'vampire' as a mate?!"

     With a sigh, "one of four, he is the only male. One is an Aasimar, as am I, another is a Ranger of Gondor of Middle Nirn, and there is Rigmor, my first love, High Queen of Cyrodiil, and mother to our first child, Kintyra, who will take the throne of Empress when she comes of age."

     "Then you are still Empress then, and going about doing all of this?"

     "Someone had to, and the fate of Creation trumps all, even being an Empress. For what good is it to rule an Empire, just to watch it slide into destruction along with all the other Realms."

     "I see, please forgive me."

     "You were not to know, or you would have already known the answer before asking your question. And no, I had no idea this is where my road would take me. The 'Mother' wisely saw to it that I did not find out until I fully knew the cost of running from it. Once I knew that there were no doubts about staying firm. What is it, Nodens?"

     "I do not know, I see signs of something ahead, what I have no idea."

     "Everyone hold, let me look ahead and see what I can. There is a large chamber ahead, with a pit in the center, an altar of some kind just to the side of it. Approach very slow and careful, until we know more."

     They do as Iriisii instructs, examining everything around the chamber to try and ascertain just what was this used for and who used it.

     "Reaper, carefully brush the dust from the engraved symbols on the edge of the pit. Do not brush any debris into the pit. We must be as silent as we can."

     "What about our voices?"

     "See those places where the stone blocks protrude from the walls. They act to break up any sound that reaches that far, they are placed exactly where they need to be most effective. I want to know who did this, and how long ago was the last sacrifice. Also if possible to know where the portal within the pit leads to."

     "A portal? How?"

     "The symbols are arcane spell symbols, beyond anything anyone here would even understand much less empower and use. If I am right, the altar was once an altar of worship, corrupted into an altar of sacrifice. The blood and lifeforce of the victims were absorbed into the altar which would then be directed to the portal within the pit. The bodies would them be thrown into the pit, to be sent to wherever the other end is, to feed whatever lives there."

     "But what could it be?" 

     "Honestly, better you do not know. There are things out there, that only portals like this one can reach, to look upon those things would be to lose your mind. And that would be a mercy compared to what would happen next."

     Ciri's body visibly shudders, as she turns away to collect herself, "we have company."

     Iriisii turns to look and sees the Elder Katakan, alone, watching them intently.

     "No one threatens him, he offers us no harm."

     "He is a Katakan!"

     "Yes, an Elder Katakan, more intelligent than most of the others here. He wishes to know our intentions, and that we not do anything to awaken what sleeps."

     "How can you?"

     "Know this? Because I am speaking to him as I am speaking to you. Trying to find out what he knows of what happened here in the past. I have told him it is my intent to destroy this, but that I cannot do this at this moment without knowing what happened, where this leads to, why it was done. He has confirmed for me that his kind were the ones being hunted to feed it. And he wanted to be certain we did not intend to awaken it and begin again."

     "But why is he even listening to you, they have never cared before."

     "Because he knows I do care, he and his are of the 'Dark' but not 'Evil', even some among 'Evil' are not beyond redemption. I call both 'Light' and 'Dark' my allies, because as he knows if Creation falls so to do they, and they too wish to live."

     "Then they should leave!"

     "And how do you propose they should do that, they are not magic users to open portals and return to the worlds where the 'Conjunction of Spheres' ripped them from and scattered them across unknowable worlds. They have had to try and survive wherever they found themselves. After all, they do not have humans in the worlds they call home. They feed on other lesser animals, native to those worlds, which do not exist anywhere else.

     Would you expect them to starve themselves to death? You know the lengths a starving man or woman will go to in order to eat and live. It is no different with them. People here consider them a problem to be eradicated, but the best solution for all would be to find a way to return them to their proper homes."

     "My lady speaks with wisdom, wisdom learned the hard way, through experience. You have a great deal of experience as well, but not yet have you looked at it to find the wisdom within."

     "..you are the one..mated with Vyrkolos,..he still lives..grows as you grow..he too grows in wisdom. He will..one day..rule us all..of his..kind as you..will rule...yours. When that...day comes..all will be..equal..so says..Skelos."

     Iriisii's face lights with interest, "he has prophecied for your kind?"

     "Yes...I have...scroll...to give you...he said...give to she...who treats..us as equals."

     The Elder Katakan holds out an ornate scroll case, the color of smoke, with glittering points of gold. She takes the scroll and she feels it is genuine, as her hands touch the handles, the scroll case begins to glow with a deep violet/blue color.

     The Elder Katakan sees the glow emanating from the scroll case, bows to Iriisii, and says, "all praise...to son and daughter...of Mother..call on us...to fight for you...as you will."