Akavir and Beyond

     This day has started early for Iriisii, the responsibilities of being Empress bring with it neverending responsibilities. She has been going over the the usual papers needing her seal. Diplomats wanting audiences to discuss political matters, exchanging platitudes and promises that she knows will never come to anything. There was something that crossed her mind recently, actually over breakfast this morning as Lord Blackwell gave her the itinerary for the day. And she wished for something exciting to happen to take her away from all of this. Then she remembered that saying that she herself has used from time to time, 'be careful what you wish for, you might just get it'. And that unnerving feeling of gastric distress that came over her in that moment.

     The memory has been hanging over her like a dark cloud all day, it is dusk and nothing has happened. She thinks to herself, 'just the rest of the night to go now. What is the worst that can happen?' She looks up from her tankard of Tessio's to see Lord Blackwell taking care of his own. The door to the outside opens and a guard walks in, spots Lord Blackwell, walks over as Iriisii starts looking for a fast escape. The guard leans over Lord Blackwell and whispers in his ear. The last bit of Tessio's is spewed across the table as Iriisii makes a dive out of the chair. She makes it to her feet, swaying from side to side as the Tessio's reacts to her sudden movement. She swaps the chair with a different one from the next table nearby, as Tessio speaks to his barmaid and points to the chair.

     She turns to Lord Blackwell who is still coughing into his tankard. Tessio calls out to them.

     Tessio: "Everything all right over there?"

     Iriisii: "Don't worry it wasn't the 'Special Brew'.

     Tessio breathes a sigh of relief and continues wiping the bar surface, even though you can see your own face in it once you got past the glow from the torches reflecting on it. She sits patiently waiting for Lord Blackwell to regain his composure. Once he does, he apologizes for the disturbance.

     Lord Blackwell: "I am very sorry about that your Majesty. I was caught completely by surprise."

     Iriisii: "Now that, is a strange occurance. What is it that caught you like that?"

     Lord Blackwell: "I was informed of a letter that was addressed to you."

     Iriisii: "To me? To cause such a reaction from you it wasn't written by Uncle Sheol was it?"

     Lord Blackwell: "It might as well have been since I cannot read it. The courier that delivered it could not say where it came from or who paid to have it delivered. He only said that the bearer of it was of very large build, almost completely covered by white robes. The courier said it was his voice that was strange, but he could not say how. Once he was given the letter, the bearer spoke a few words and the next thing he remembers is handing it to the guard at the Throne Room door."

     Iriisii: "That does sound strange, but not strange enough to warrant such a reaction."

     Lord Blackwell's voice drops to a whisper: "The courier came from Akavir."

     Iriisii's face goes rigid, she closes her eyes, then lowers her head before holding up two fingers to Tessio.

     Tessio: "Coming right up!"

     After their bottles have been delivered, Iriisii looks as calmly as she can at Lord Blackwell.

     Iriisii: "You cannot save me from my own stupidity, and so you have to let me read it."

     Lord Blackwell: "How is this the fault of your own stupidity?"

     Iriisii: "I wished for something exciting over breakfast, to come and take me away from all of this for a bit. I got that queasy feeling in my stomach, and the feeling of a dark cloud hovering all over me today."

     Lord Blackwell: "Happen very often?"

     Iriisii: "Just a moment."

     She looks around very carefully to see who is still there and does not see Tendril Sethri anywhere.

     Iriisii: "That is strange."

     Lord Blackwell: "What now?"

     Iriisii: "Usually when I get that feeling, Tendril Sethri is somewhere nearby, usually when he has something to say to me."

     Lord Blackwell: "Is that he does not seem to be here now a good thing or a bad thing?"

     Iriisii: "I may know after I see what is in that letter."

     Lord Blackwell hands it over to her. She does not feel anything malevolent about it, although there are strong traces of magic about it.

     Iriisii: "Gods! Why did I not see this before?"

     Lord Blackwell: "What?"

     Iriisii: "Serendipity, deja vu, kismet, take your pick."

     Lord Blackwell: "I do not understand."

     Iriisii: "It was maybe five, six years ago. I was sitting at a table in the Bannered Mare in Whiterun. Sethri walked up, sat down, greeted me, and gave me a letter from Sigunn."

     Lord Blackwell: "Rigmor's mother?"

     Iriisii: "Yes. It was that letter that brought me to Bruma and everything that happened afterward."

     Lord Blackwell leans back in the chair.

     Lord Blackwell: "So that was what started the whole chain of events that brought us here."

     Iriisii nods her head.

     Iriisii gives the letter a little wave, "and where is this going to take me now?"

     A voice from the door calls out, "there you are! Well at least you are with the Empress, so I know its business."

     Valerica walks up, grabs a chair, and sits. Tessio wipes his brow with the polishing rag in his hand. The barmaid had just finished cleaning the chair.

     Valerica: "This meeting looks serious, what could be so Nirn shaking?"

     Iriisii: 'I am about to find out."

     Iriisii breaks the seal, unfolds the letter and begins reading it. At first it is incomprehensible to her, then first Shivista helps, then Darkstar. With each reading a portion, they together are able to make sense of it.

     Iriisii: "Someone went to a lot of trouble to make certain the contents of this letter could not be read except for a handful of people in all of Nirn."

     Lord Blackwell: "What did they do to it?"

     Iriisii: "Nothing that you could duplicate, sorry. First it was written as the Tsaesci write, but they did not use the Tsaesci language, just their multifold style. The language is Ashen, but the syntax is something I have never seen before. And the letters, the letters are Dovahzul. It came from one of the beast races of Akavir."

     Lord Blackwell: "Which one do you think?"

     Iriisii: "I can rule out the Tsaesci, and the Ka-Po-Tun, based on the content. I also do not think the Tang Mo had anything to do with it, except maybe they delivered it to the courier. and that leaves..."

     Lord Blackwell: "Who does that..."

     Valerica: "Shhh, Martin, let her do this. It must be done carefully not to attract the wrong attention."

     Lord Blackwell: "What do you know about it or believe you know?"

     Valerica: "Just by process of elimination, there is one probability left. Potentially the most dangerous probability, one that must be carefully considered as to how to approach."

     Iriisii: "Indeed Lady Valerica, Lord Blackwell, have you ever heard of the 'Snow Demons' of Akavir?"

     Lord Blackwell: "I cannot say that I ever have."

     Iriisii: "Tamriel has had contact but it was first in 1E 2703, Reman I defeated them then and sent them back. In 2E 572 they took Windhelm and moved on into Morrowind. It took the combined armies of the Nords, the Dunmer, the Tribunal. Not until the Hist sent the Argonians to get involved did they finally repel that invasion. I was doing a task in Windhelm for the Vigilants. Looking into something going on under the city. While I was there, I ran across an ancient temple. No one had been inside since the mid second era. It was in there I found this story. The details are too close to the historical records for it to not be factual. What concerns me most is that we kept wondering why the Tsaesci wanted so badly to invade Tamriel. We assumed it was mainly for a ready food supply. But now I think that was incidental to the real reason."

     Lord Blackwell: "Which is?"

     Iriisii: "They were being forced out, not by the Ka-Po-Tun, or the Tang-Mo, separately or together. All three, the Ka-Po-Tun, the Tang-Mo, and the Tsaesci were keeping the Snow Demons of Kamal in check. But it took all three, now the balance is upset and the Kamali are once more gathering. During the cold winters in Akavir the Kamali are trapped within the ice floes where they go into a kind of sleep until the ice thaws. Now the ice has thawed."

     Valerica: "And they are gathering, but this time, with the Tsaesci demolished, the others cannot keep them in check."

     Iriisii: "Precisely. But there does appear to be a ray of hope. A Kamali, I do not know what the equivalent word is, mage, sorceror, something along those lines, appears to disagree with where the leaders want to take them. He found out about what I did to the Tsaesci and thinks I could be the one to deal with this situation."

     Lord Blackwell: "But what can you do? What can any of us do? If it took three armies and the Dunmer gods to stop them before?"

     Iriisii: "I know, but the key is to hit them before they leave, or rather to change their path to Atmora."

     Lord Blackwell: "Why Atmora?"

     Valerica: "That is brilliant! Martin! Atmora is now a constant ice hell. It does not thaw out there at all, at any time of the year. If they can be marooned there the ice and cold will freeze them again and this time it will become their perpetual prison."

     Iriisii: "The key is they came here looking for something, a person, an artifact, all we know is that it was called the 'Ordained Receptacle'. Some think that was what the Tsaesci came here for originally, to find this 'receptacle', and see if it could be used against the Kemali. Besides, in the past, they did not have me, the Last Dragonborn. And I am more than the Dragonborn of the past. And I can call upon many more than they could then. I have access to 'Chaos Weapons' from the Fifth Era, even now I am close to creating my own personal weapon using what I have learned from studying those weapons. I can call upon the Psijic Order, and others I have not said anything about. I will use them if I must, but I prefer not to. Besides, am I not 'WAR', first of the Four Horsemen, if the Kamali want war, I will give them WAR."