The Search For Kathea, A Leap Into A Teaching Moment 2

 The Search For Kintyra, A Leap Into A Teaching Moment 2

     Their purchases have been delivered to the palace. Kintyra sees a couple of ones already wrapped and sealed, curious, she asks, "who are these for?"

     "Someone who I think will need them in the near future."

     "Why not give them now?"

     "Because now is not the right time."

     "When will it be the right time?"

     "I will know."

     "Who are they for, then?"

     "If I tell you, will you let this go?"

     "Yes, mother."

     "Yennefer."

     "You want to cheer her up with these then?"

     "Yes, it is my hope they will help."

     "I understand, you have to get her son back first."

     "Yes, then she will be going back with me."

     "Why is she not staying, will her son go with her?"

     "The pain she feels from Quintus' murder is too much for her. She is constantly barraged with memories of the loss she has suffered. So she asked if she could go back with me, and I said, yes. As for her son, I will make arrangements to foster him with High Queen Elisef in Solitude, unless Yennefer wants to bring him with us."

     "How is going away to help her?"

     "It will be easier for me to keep her busy, and her mind occupied such that she will have no time to dwell on her loss. Also, there is a life lesson involved."

     "A life lesson?"

     "She loved Quintus with all of her heart. And the only true way to recover from that kind of loss is to find another to love just as much."

     "You have someone in mind, don't you?"

     "I think you have been listening at too many spyholes. But, yes, I do. I do not usually do this kind of thing. But I brought her over here and thus feel responsible for her and her happiness. There is also a..., not a prophecy as such, just something I was told some time ago that matches with this situation and what I could do to help it along."

     "You are not going to tell me what you were told, are you?"

     "No, and it will do you no good to listen at spyholes, no one else knows what I was told. I have spoken of it to no one."

     "Then tell me why is this happening to you, why did they go after Quintus and his son?"

     Iriisii wonders for just a moment, this is a very grownup question for her to be asking. But she has had her Dragonsoul enabled, and that could have a bearing on her maturity. If it is the Dovah soul prompting her to ask, it might be a good idea to tell her.

     "All right, sit and I will tell you what happened. This goes far back in my past, a past I have deliberately not said anything to you about. But if it could involve you in any way, you need to know." And so Iriisii starts with the 'Night of Fire and Steel' as she calls it, and bluntly tells her everything that happened to her involving the 'Sinister Seven'.

     Before she is done, she sees the signs of tears forming in Kintyra's eyes, as earlier she saw the fires of rage, reckoning that her Dovah was the one behind that. When she is finally done, her voice almost a whisper, Kintyra rises from her chair, walks over to Iriisii, wraps her arms around her neck, and whispers, "I am sorry, for what I made you remember", in her ear.

     "It is all right, you needed to know why these things happened and why they might involve you. I hope that we can finish this before it does reach you, but there is no way to know what his plans are. But I will share this secret with you so that when it happens, you are not surprised."

     And she explains what she knows of what her sister Aleytys is going to do after Kintyra is sitting on the throne.

     "Mama, you must be kidding me, Aleytys is so..."

     "I know, but I have it on the best authority that it will happen just as I told you. So when it does, be ready to do your part, and do not worry, it will all work out, I promise."

     "Do you know anything about, you know?

     "Who you might fall in love with?"

     "Well, do you?"

     "To be honest, I have never looked to see. Finding out about Aleytys was unexpected and I really did not intend to look into that for any of you. I want you to find out on your own, make your own decision. But I do know this, you will have children, and they too will be Dragonborn. There will be others of the Dragonblood that have survived, hidden, not knowing their history. Akatosh will bring them to you, and you must see to their training. This is most important, do not send them to High Hrothgar, train them yourself."

     "But why, if the Greybeards trained you, why could they not train these others that will come?"

     "Because you will need them to go out into the world and enforce your laws once you begin the 'Golden Age'. They may have to fight and kill, dragons, as well as bandits, rogues, and whatever else stands against them. This will go against what the Greybeards would teach them, not that what they teach is bad, because it is not. But because it would interfere with what the Gods want for them to do."

     "I think I understand. I will think on it some more."

     Suddenly there is a commotion outside in the hallway and the door bursts open. Even before Iriisii can draw her blade or ready a shout, she hears the Rotmulag of 'Slow Time' come rolling from Kintyra's lips, Kintyra's Thu'um resonating with her own. Then she notices that she is not slowed, and draws her blade, seeing that the guards are still outside the room, she kills the ones who entered, assuming they are enemies.

     The few left outside the room are dealt with quickly and the guards rush inside as Kintyra'a shout fades. They see the bodies on the floor and Iriisii's bloody blade. They look to Kintyra, who stands unharmed, and only then do they sheathe their weapons. The shift captain explains, "we were in the middle of a surprise inspection when these..scum.. attacked. They did not expect there to be more of us, but they still attacked. They grabbed a few of their number and tossed them to the door, while the others kept us busy. We tried to take a few alive, but they fought like demons and would not surrender or allow us to subdue them. The one we managed to disarm, killed himself. We think he consumed some kind of poison."

     "Let me see, point him out. We need to make sure, there are other things that could be used that would simulate death then he would arise when you least expect."

     The shift captain points out the one he was talking about.

     Iriisii goes to him and turns him onto his back, looking into him with her inner senses to see what it was that he did consume and if he was indeed dead. She finds that he is indeed dead, she sniffs his mouth and detects the odor of jarrin root. She rises and looks back to the shift captain as she hears Lord Blackwell running down the hall. 

     "He is dead, ate a piece of jarrin root, there is no coming back from that. Send someone to inform the cleaning staff to clean up the blood, and find some strong bodies to take this offal down to the dungeons. I will want to look them over myself before we burn the bodies. Make sure they are put in a place where they can be locked up secure, take no chances with them."

     "Yes, your Majesty", and he begins barking orders to his men. As Lord Blackwell comes up, seeing the tableau before him and hearing the shift captain's orders, he nods his agreement.

     "Well done, your Majesty."

     "Your guards did their job well, the shift captain was in the middle of a surprise inspection when the attack came. The only reason any made it inside was that their own threw them against the door, while the guards were fighting them. I took care of the ones inside and when I came out, it was all over."

     "Any taken alive?"

     "Your guards tried, but the attackers would not allow it. One who was disarmed ate jarrin root and died immediately. I checked his body to make sure that was the only thing he ate."

     Lord Blackwell looks questioningly.

     "There are some things I have come across that would make a man appear dead, only to revive later and be even more dangerous, but I saw no signs of that, 'thank the Nine'."

     Kintyra walks out looking at the bloody mess outside, saying nothing, but doing her utmost to hold herself together. Iriisii looks at her and draws her into a warm hug.

     "You did well just then, but tell me, how did you know how to use the 'Slow Time' shout so it did not affect me as well."

     "There was a voice in my mind that told me how to do it."

     Iriisii nods her head, "if ever you hear it again, do what it tells you to do, do not hesitate, no matter what. Ok?"

     Kintyra nods her head. Iriisii looks back toward Blackwell, "she needs her own personal bodyguards now, at least six, two at a time, eight-hour shifts, one man and one woman. They go with her everywhere, no exceptions. I will make arrangements for some special guards to stay in the area where she is, but your choices will be the ones with her. The others will be there to assist if needed and if whoever comes is more than anyone else can deal with. Oh, and they will look like Khajiit. They will not be, but to someone who is not very knowledgeable about Khajiit, they will not be able to tell the difference.

     If it comes to it, they will willingly give their lives to defend Kintyra, but I would match them against anyone on Nirn, and a great many other worlds as well. They are called Kinja, and the two that I will send have been bonded to me, life and soul."

     Blackwell nods his head, "I will get on it immediately."

     "Thank you."

     Iriisii has Kintyra follow her at least until the quarter's area is cleaned up. It is not long before a couple of guards show up and place themselves close by the pair. Iriisii nods her head to them acknowledging their presence. They take a walk into the Imperial Gardens which was one of the first things that Iriisii had made when she accepted the throne.

     While they are there admiring the flowers, flowering shrubs, trees, stone walkways, and small streams delivering water to the gardens. Water is brought up from the lake, by dwemer pumps and poured into stone sluices directing the water into several small streams. Yennefer comes striding toward them.

     "You are both all right?"

     "Yes, I have had security tightened around the palace grounds. I have had Blackwell assign personal bodyguards to Kintyra and I will send my two Kinja Acolytes to be backup watchers."

     "Are they up to such a task?"

     "Not when they first joined with me, now, they are two of the most feared warriors of my personal guard. They have undergone and excelled at 'Shadow Warrior' training. Even Letho is impressed by what they can do now."

     "Who did you ever find that could train in that specialized field?"

     "That is a tale in itself. But in short, I met the 'god' of the 'Gray Paths' that touched Dettlaff's ancestors, recreating them as higher vampires. He put me in touch with a monkish order called the 'Masters of Shadow'. I spoke to the...I think 'Abbot' is the best translation of his title. Once he understood what I wanted, he seemed impressed that I had come to them to ask their assistance with training my acolytes.

     They have been in their temple, training, ever since then, of course, there was some temporal dilation that went on."

     "So they have had years of training instead of just months?"

     "Yes, the 'Abbot' brought them to me not long ago and declared them ready for whatever I needed. Letho volunteered to put them through some tests, and I watched. Some of the things I saw them do, I thought I was the only one who knew how to do some of them."

     "Like what?"

     "They can truly 'shadow walk', bend the least shadows around themselves, and vanish from sight, reappearing anywhere there is even a slight shadow, a few feet away or a few leagues. I think that with more experience they can increase the distance they can go while in that state. But what is most important about that skill is that walls, doors, and gates, do not obstruct them in any way. Where the smallest threads of shadow can reach, so they can travel those threads to where they wish to go."

     "So you are saying you can do this as well?"

     "Yes, since the 'Dark Paths' have accepted me and I have called upon the 'Shadowlords'. I can walk and use shadows in whatever way I can imagine, even to forge weapons and armor from them. But have you heard anything more in the last day or so?"

     "I have been delving into the library, specifically the restricted section."

     "Find anything interesting?"

     "Yes, I found a switch that when I turned it, a bookcase swung out. As I entered, some forever lights lit up, and all the walls inside were covered with scroll nooks, filled with scrolls. Dust was thick, and I had to exercise great restraint to keep from sneezing in there. Anyway, the scrolls are incredibly ancient, some I believe date back to what you call the First Era. A lot, I could not understand, due to the language they were written in, but some I could translate from the Tamrielic dialect it was in. Some told me a strange story concerning what may be related to the research installation you are looking for.

    Some others, I am not sure what they were about, the concepts they spoke of are beyond me, you may make better sense of those than I can."

    "Let us deal with those that might shed light on that research station. Come with me to the library and show me those scrolls."

    As they walk through the library, the shelves upon shelves of books and scrolls seem to go on forever, then there is the nondescript door leading into the 'restricted section'. As Iriisii peruses the titles on the shelves here, she realizes why they are restricted. Volumes such as a complete set of the Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes, and a copy of the Mysterium Xarxes itself. The only thing missing is the Oghma Infinium, which is in Iriisii's possession and hidden away. Other volumes equally damning are recognized, making her wonder what was in that hidden room. Perhaps some more of the 'Black Books'? She fervently hoped that was not the case.

     Yennefer goes not straight back but to an aisle one off of the right wall as they entered. She grasps an ornate piece of molding shaped like a face, mounted along the seam of two bookcases, and turns it to the left. Iriisii hears some gears moving inside the wall and down at the end of the aisle the hidden door swings open, the interior lights coming on.

     They enter inside and look around, indeed there are shelves of dust-laden books, but even more, cubbyholes containing scrolls. Some so ancient, she fears damaging them if she even attempted to blow off some of the dust. So she instead uses some magic to displace the dust out of the way and strengthen the bonding of the scroll materials. Then she starts looking at them to determine just what Yennefer has found.

     This might have been built as a part of the original city, and then as more added on, it came to be forgotten. As her fingers trace some of the letterings on the scroll cases, they react to her touch, softly glowing in colors that almost seem to speak to her mind. Could some of these have been written by the Aedra and then forgotten they were here. Even more, were some written by those Gods now long ago forgotten? Yennefer calls her attention to some whose scroll cases were made of Dwemer metal.

     She takes one, opens it, removes the scroll, and carefully unfurls it on a nearby reading table. It takes a moment or two to accustom herself to translate and read the archaic Dwemer dialect it is written in. About a third of the way down there is mention of a remote research station that was commanded to be built in the most remote place they could find and still meet their power needs. The reason for having it so remote was the danger of the experiments that would be going on. If anything were to go awry, they wanted no chance that anything could escape onto the mainland. For this purpose, a highly advanced security system would also be installed that could monitor and seal off the installation in case of a breach.

     Iriisii wondered if this station was operational when Kagrenac conducted his experiment that caused all of the Dwemer to vanish at once. And if so what action did the security system take? Could there still be remnants of those experiments still there, and was this what Azura was alluding to when she said 'some things were better left undisturbed? She could she some sense to that after what she had seen in High Rock, and that was not even Dwemer's machinations.

     "Find anything?"

     "This mentions an installation that was ordered to be built in the most remote place they could find because of the dangerous nature of the experiments that would be undertaken. They wanted to be as certain as possible nothing would escape to the mainland."

     "That sounds like it could be what we are looking for."

     "Look for any more scroll cases that are similar, they should be in chronological order, these are the symbols representing dates that would change."

     They quickly find several more scrolls and Iriisii places them in order by the start and end dates. The story Iriisii puts together from the scrolls is fascinating, and equally horrifying, remembering what happened to Salaquine when she appeared in a different installation.

     "They were trying to mimic the Direnni and find locations to begin trade with in order to be competitive. It seems they did indeed find several possibilities along with just as many locations they tried to lock away. Then they found one that really grabbed their interest. Their first attempt at communication was with a matriarchal society of witches, the males seemed to fill most of the other positions needed, mainly warriors, builders, etc. But the witches seemed to be able to command great power through the use of certain crystals that each witch possessed and somehow attuned to themselves.

     The crystals acted as amplifiers, to allow them to harness and use more power than they could otherwise use. But it seems that during their last attempt to stop a large marauding army from a hostile neighbor, they literally reformed an entire mountain range between them. They miscalculated the cost involved and quite a number of the older witches died as a result. But it had the desired effect in demolishing the invading army and adding to the natural defenses between them.

     Later they were faced with another threat that came from a totally different direction and form. This one is from an island nation some distance off their southern coast. They named it Gorm. It had been a peaceful place for a long number of years until something happened the same night the mountains were moved. The island came to be shrouded in a fog. And raiding parties started to come and land on their shores. From the captives, they managed to hold onto they found out the island was now in the control of a group called the Kolder.

     They seemed to have a different method of controlling the native islanders that looks like a band of thin metal with small pads around the band that appear to be somehow molded to the islanders' skulls. They tried removing them to study, but each time they tried the islander died. Their weapons are equally strange, consisting of a long metal staff with a carved gem on one end. It is said in the hands of one of the Kolder, it can shoot lightning, but no one else can get it to work.

     The Dwemer were able to trade some things with the witches and found out about the other areas adjoining the land they entered called Estcarp. They tried looking into these other areas and backed off quickly. It seems that a mage war had been fought at some time in the past and the remnants were still active, some stationary, others able to move about, but all very deadly. There is something about the trading mission being recalled but no reason is given. I wonder if something else went wrong and they pulled all of their people back to either defend the station or tack it back from whatever had gotten loose inside."

     "Sounds like we may have our hands full getting in and out without disturbing anything."

     "If it has not already been disturbed."

     "You are right, there is that to consider."

     Suddenly there is a commotion out in the restricted section, voices can be heard saying, "I saw someone or maybe two come this way. I know I saw someone!"

     "Well, I do not see anyone here now!"

     "Keep looking, they must be here somewhere."

     "We need to meet them out there, I do not want them in here to ask questions about why we are looking at these scrolls. Let me handle this, just follow my lead. After all, I am Empress and they are about to find out the hard way I go where I will when I wish, and if they get in my way to Oblivion with them."

     Yennefer grins, and bows with a sweep of her arms, "after you, your Majesty."

     They walk out and down a few aisles before turning toward two men at the other end of the room, one dressed in robes that indicate he may be the head Librarian, the second probably a helper of some kind. As Iriisii and Yennefer approach, Iriisii lets loose with an "Shhhh! You could be heard all the way to the palace, this is a library, so please be quiet."

     "This is who I saw!"

     "Might I ask why you are here in the 'restricted section' without official permission?"

     "No, you may not ask."

     Sputtering, "Well, I never!"

     "In fact, it would be best if you just turned and walked back out and forget you ever saw me."

     "Of all of the most audacious things."

     "I am a woman, not a thing. And if you would ever direct your eyes somewhere other than my breasts, maybe we could settle this like adults."

     "The only settling to be done here is the both of you leave here and never return."

     Iriisii looks to Yennefer who shrugs her shoulders. Iriisii looks to the 'helper', "why don't you ask a guard to fetch the Lord Chancellor, we will let him settle this."

     "Capital idea, he will sort this in short order! Wait and see!"

     "Oh, I am not going anywhere. I want to see the look on your face when he gets here."

     "Uummph, go ask the guard, Tollison."

     "Yes, sir, at once."

     They wait patiently until they hear the Lord Chancellor walking toward them, Tollison informing him of all that happened before he left.

     "Now what is this situation you have dragged me here to settle, Librarian?"

     The Librarian draws a smirk on his face as he directs Blackwell's attention toward Iriisii and Yennefer. Blackwell's face however draws up into an unhappy flat line as he turns back to the Librarian.

     "Librarian, why have you interrupted the investigations of the Empress and the Imperial Sorceress?"

     "Impossible! The Emperor is Ariel Sethius, not whoever this female imposter is!"

     "I can take it then, Librarian, that you do not get out much or even read the news sheets."

     "Why, what is going on here?!"

     "Ariel Sethius was killed in the Imperial throne room some twelve years ago. I should know, I was the one who took his head when he attacked me and Rigmor Ragnarsdottir as we arrived for peace talks. The Lord Chancellor witnessed it as well. You really need to stay more current with the events of the Empire. It will save you a great deal of embarrassment in situations like this."

     "How could this have ever happened!"

     "Tollison, would you escort the Librarian to his quarters, I think he is in need of a rest."

     "At once, Your Majesty. Librarian, please let me take you to your quarters. I will prepare you some tea."

     "Yes, thank you, Tollison." Tollison gently takes the Librarian's arm and leads him out of the 'restricted ' room and onward toward the quarter's wing.

     Once they are out of earshot, Blackwell erupts into laughter. "You are laughing, Valerica must be an exceedingly good influence on you on getting to let loose like this?"

     Once he has control once more, "indeed, she has taught me many things about enjoying life. But the main thing was how to balance pleasure and duty, making life something to appreciate and enjoy, and much less of a chore to endure. May I enquire what brought you here?"

     "Follow us."

     And the three move to the back of the room and into the hidden storeroom. As he looks at the sheer number of books and scrolls hidden in here, he exclaims, "all of these were hidden here?"

     "Yes, and honestly, they need to stay here. There is very dangerous knowledge stored in these books and scrolls."

     "I understand. Should I?"

     "There is no need, neither one of them saw the hidden room and both will forget this happened after they have slept. I will place a 'ward of forgetting' over this doorway to protect it from being disturbed again. But these scrolls here that we have arranged tell a very strange story that I believe has a bearing on our destination."

     "Tell me what you have found."

     Iriisii tells him what the scrolls say, and how she sees them tieing into their story.

     "How do you want to proceed?"