Returning Home 4

      Rose then comes up, "As you said, I know very little of what happened there. But I can see the immense and tragic weight it has put on you. We will be there with you, to help you bear the load, until you can put it down for the last time."

     Darkstar wraps a free arm around Rose and kisses her lightly before pulling her into a tight embrace. Olaf knows this is a moment for the three of them, he must stand on the side and offer his support from a distance. His time will come, this 'time' is just not his 'time'.

     They all settle down for the night. Later, Olaf, fed up with tossing and turning unable to get to sleep, he rises and takes up watching the area outside of camp. He feels the pressure of the power locked down under the fortress. But there is nothing he can do about it if there is no way to get to it. He takes to wandering around the outer edge of the camp, then settling around the area facing the cliffs looking out over the sea.

     Darkstar: "You feel it too?"

     Olaf did not hear her approach, but then neither will he react when she does. It keeps him on the alert and shows him he still has much to learn from her.

     Olaf: "Yes, Mistress. It continues to call to me, for what reason I cannot say for certain. I feel it wants something of me, or for me perhaps. It is hard to tell about these kinds of things."

     Darkstar: "Indeed, it is. There may be a way to find it if you are willing. One that will not disturb the time slip, for it is a more passive magic. Also it is of the Psionic branch, a kind of mind magic that relies not on outside power, but on the caster's personal strength of will."

     Olaf: "That sounds like something I could learn."

     Darkstar: "Indeed you could, your strength of will is more than great enough to place you among the highest levels of those who practice the art. Once you return home, remind me and I will contact the Temple to send someone and begin your instruction. For now, let us go and look over the cliff edge, sometimes there are ancient cave entrances placed there for protection from casual visitors."

     They walk over to the edge, carefully search for a vantage point that will allow them to see the face of the cliffs.

     Olaf: "Over there, to our right, about thirty yards or so is a outcrop that looks like it could hold our weight. From there we could see most of the face."

     Darkstar: "Good, let us go and see what we can see."

     They reach the outcrop after a few minutes walk. Olaf positions himself flat on the outer edge, one hand grasping the edge, his head also over the edge to his front side. Darkstar climbs over him until she can place herself atop him, and they both can see in the same direction. Anyone watching from a distance would assume something amorous might be about to happen. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both are exercising their 'steel-like willpower' to not only quell any emotional desires, but to enhance their night vision while they scan the rock face for any sign of a hidden entrance.

     Darkstar: "Look there about twenty yards in the direction we came from and about twenty yards down."

     Olaf: "I see it, but I see no way to get to it."

     Darkstar: "There were steps carved into the cliff face, but time, storms, and an occasional rock slide have obliterated them. We can place the wagon's rear toward the edge, tie ropes to it and toss them over the edge, one will have to stay here and watch the wagon. Might be a good idea to have two watch the wagon in case we need to be pulled up. Come on, we can get started putting this together."

     Rigmor: "And just what has been going on here!?"

     Darkstar gets up and addresses Rigmor's curiosity."

     Darkstar: "Nothing like what you are thinking. We have found a cave opening in the rock face about twenty yards back that way and twenty yards down the face."

     Rigmor: "How are you planning on getting down to it?"

     Darkstar: "Tie ropes to the rear of the wagon, drop the ropes over the cliff and climb down. At least one needs to stay with the wagon, two preferably since we may have to need being pulled up quickly depending on what we find in there. Olaf is the one being summoned, and whatever is in there is too powerful for either you or Rose to meet up with."

     Rigmor: "You know we will just follow you after you go in, that way we can hear what the two of you were up to."

     Darkstar: "We were just as I said, scouting out the position of a cave mouth in the cliff wall, nothing more, nothing less."

     Rigmor: "I know what I saw."

     Darkstar: "You saw what you wanted to see. Rose what did you see?"

     Rose: "The two of you out on the edge of that outcropping."

     Darkstar: "You were once in the Legion, if two scouts were on assignment to do as I said we were doing. And they were on that outcropping, how would they position themselves to find a cave mouth in the cliff face?"

     Rose: "The larger one would lay face down, where his face would be over the edge and one hand where he could grasp an edge. Then the lighter of the two would either lay next to the larger or on top of him depending on the angle of view from the outcrop. Whichever way gave them both the best viewing angle."

     Darkstar: "Essentially in the same position Olaf and I were in?"

     Rose: "Yes."

     Darkstar looks toward Rigmor: "I could tell you something that would put a stop to this right now."

     Rigmor: "Yeah, what would that be?"

     Darkstar: "The name and relation of she who holds Olaf. But if I told you I would have to bury the memory so deep in your mind you would never remember that you heard it."

     Rigmor: "Why can't you just tell me and be done with it?"

     Darkstar: "Because it involves a great deal falling into exact places at exact times. Any little thing goes wrong and 'it' never happens. And I will not be responsible for that happening! Olaf earned his place with her, just as she chose him to be by her side. And by all the GODS OF EXISTENCE I WILL SEE THAT THEY HAVE THEIR LIFE TOGETHER, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS!?"

     Rigmor sheepishly, "I think so."

     Darkstar: "That will have to do. I should make you go with him inside that cave, serve you right. But I cannot send you in there not knowing what you might have to face. So stay out here and think on what has happened. There is a lot of water under the bridge between us, so I have come to expect these things from you, but Olaf has done nothing to deserve what could have happened if I divulged that information to you. And it is not from the information itself, but from what changes it would cause in your actions from here forward that would bring everything to a screeching halt. And that would have ever increasing damages to the timelines that would upset the work I have so far put into restoring the Balance. The only way to repair that kind of damage is if it would never have happened in the first place."

     Rigmor: "What do you mean?"

     Darkstar: "Instead of merging these two timelines, this one would have to be cut loose and destroyed. I do not want that to happen. Those who live in this timeline do not deserve that fate, have done nothing to deserve it. There is much here worth keeping, merging it back with the parent, thus strengthening and enriching the merged timeline. Rigmor, please, just let it go, for me, will you do that?"

     Rigmor: "I guess so, if that is really what you want."

     Darkstar takes Rigmor into her arms and kisses her, "Thank you, I do love you, even if you can be at times most exasperating. Are we still good?"

     Rigmor, much calmer, with Darkstar's arms around her and the effects of the warm kiss still lingering with in her, "Yes, we are still good. I am sorry about this."

     Darkstar: "Just know that I do not do this just to berate you when I think you have crossed the line, there is always the future effects of our decisions that I have to contend with."

     The wagon is backed up still some feet from the edge. Darkstar and Olaf tie their ropes to the rear axle and drop them over the side. Darkstar looks at Rigmor once more, longingly, before dropping over the side and disappearing from sight. As they look over the edge, Rigmor and Rose are just in time to see Olaf's back as he enters the cave, Darkstar having already entered.

     Rigmor: "I guess all we can do now is wait. Boy did I almost royally screw up. I do not know if I have ever seen her react like that before. Whatever it is between Olaf and his lady, it must be something spectacularly special."

     Rose: "From what little I have seen, but from the stories I have heard, I would have to agree with you. But right now, I wonder what they are about to step into down there. From what I have heard Darkstar say, there are secrets here in this land that reach back to the very beginnings of Nirn."

     Rigmor: "Then I guess we had best tread carefully. It would not do to awaken some of those secrets without knowing what the effect would be."

     Darkstar and Olaf silently move through the cave tunnel, sloping downward and sometimes having to turn sideways to get through.

     Olaf: "I know it has been difficult but thank you."

     Darkstar: "You did not ask to be put into the middle of this. You came because my future self thought you needed to be here to help. I have come to agree and so will do all that I can do to protect your future. I do not know what it is or will be, but the feelings I get tell me it is of supreme importance that it not be disturbed. Which also tells me how important what is going on here is, for her to risk your future by sending you. I cannot stop and peruse the timelines every time something comes up. But I can trust my instincts for they have guided me well so far."

     Olaf: "I risk nothing to tell you that they are your most valued resource. For you know that now and they will continue to serve you when all else fails."

     Darkstar: "That helps me to bear this load, knowing that I have that last line of defense to fall back upon. Be careful here, the rock is slippery."

     When they reach the end, it opens into a fair size chamber. In the center, a small fire pit has been chiseled out of the rock floor. The remains of a bedroll can barely be seen where it has almost completely rotted away. There is a still intact clay amphora, dry, but assumed to hold clean water. Any signs of food or storage is long gone. She sees the signs of soot from the fire pit covering the chamber roof. But no sign of what is causing the power signature they both can feel.

     Darkstar: "Can you feel where the power is now coming from?"

     Olaf: "All around. I would almost say the entire chamber is the source."

     Darkstar: "I was afraid of that."

     Olaf: "What is it?"

     Darkstar: "Whatever is causing the power signature was moved slightly out of temporal sync with this time stream. Whether that is also true of our home time stream is the question. I must consider how to bring it back into sync here, then we will see just what 'it' is."

     Olaf: "If I may make a suggestion?"

     Darkstar: "Go ahead."

     Olaf: "In dealing with temporal matters, I have seen your future self employ what she called, 'Dwemer Tonal Architecture' to solving those kinds of problems."

     Darkstar: "Of course! They used it to enable travel across dimensions, first into the Oblivion Realms, the main ones, then into the smaller ones. They were just beginning to see that it could also be adapted to temporal travel when Kagrenac did whatever it was that brought about their demise. If he tried something like to create a temporal portal without fully understanding how to control it... I see now, he did just that and then created a paradox by something he did that wiped them all out. Probably split the time stream, no, something close but different. Anyway, the Dwemer were isolated out of our time stream at the time he did what he did. Then if the portal he opened, causing a spur to be formed, closed on them..., Akatosh had to cut it loose or the paradox would have consumed our own timestream as well. We would still remember them, still have their artifacts, everything up to the point the spur was created. The rest afterward, just disappeared as if they had never been. Vanished in the space between two heartbeats."

     Olaf gives a heavy sigh, "All that they accomplished, gone into true oblivion, because one among them reached too far."

     Darkstar: "He was mortal, though as intelligent as he was, his intelligence was still mortal. Then he stepped into the realm of the gods, without their intelligence to safely guide his efforts..."

     Olaf: "I understand that much. Mortals cannot comprehend that which is the Gods. And when they try, it always ends...badly."

     Darkstar: "We are going to need Rigmor."

     Olaf looks questioningly at her.

     Darkstar: "To use Tonal Architecture I have to use my voice to sync to the tone of the magical anomaly, Rigmor must use hers to match the tone of this chamber, then I can move mine to match hers. When the tones match, the magical anomaly will sync with this timestream and become visible here. I know how it sounds but it works. I have used it before to find a door that had been shifted a few seconds into the future to hide it."

     Olaf: "Very well, I will go and get her, and I promise not to throw her over the edge of the cliff."

     Darkstar: "She really is a good person inside, she is just very impetuous. She still does not stop and think when she opens her mouth."

     Olaf turns and heads outside, grabs one of the ropes and climbs up. Once he gets to his feet.

     Rigmor: "Where is Darkstar, has anything happened to her?"

     Olaf: "She is fine, we need your assistance down there."

     Rigmor: "What ever could you need me for?"

     Olaf: "Dwemer Tonal Architecture."

     Rigmor: "So she needs me to use my voice?"

     Olaf: "Yes, she needs to sync to a magical anomaly then match to your tone to bring the anomaly into this timestream."

     Olaf turns and walks back to the ropes, grabs one and begins his descent. Rigmor follows him down to the ledge, then into and through the passages to the chamber where Darkstar waits for them.

     Rigmor: "All right, tell me what is going on here."

     Darkstar: "The magical anomaly is hidden by time displacement. We need to match the tones of the chamber and the anomaly to break the displacement and eliminate the temporal distortion. The anomaly should then become visible and a part of the chamber. I will sing the chamber tone, you need to match it, then I will change my tone to the anomaly and move it to match yours. After that, we will just see what happens."

     Rigmor: "Meaning you have no idea just what the anomaly is?"

     Darkstar: "Yes, it is a strong part of what caused the time split here. Its power signature reacted to when the 'Mute' came and left here using the Ring of Khajiit, added to the power of the blood curse. And the time split came into being. That is a very simplified version of what happened, that specific moment in time was a near crux moment, not as powerful as some of the others but powerful enough."

     Rigmor: "Ok, let us get started. Sing the first tone for me."

     Darkstar calms herself and pushes everything else out of her mind as she lets the 'tone' fill every part of it. Once she has it she lets her voice go with it, feeling the tone match but having to adjust the volume to bring it into sync. Once has it, Rigmor can feel it as her bones resonate with the tone. This make it easier for her to duplicate the tome and hold it while Darkstar releases hers and listens for the anomaly's tone. She adjusts her own voice at a low level not to interfere with Rigmor until she has the anomaly's tone firmly in her mind. Then she slowly brings her tone up, feeling the anomaly's tone move in conjunction with hers. Why this works, she has no idea, she just knows that it does. Once the tones match, she can feel the resonances echo inside the chamber.

     There are places in the walls that were inlaid with different shapes of metals. These inlaid shapes begin resonating to the harmonics of the tone she and Rigmor are now singing. Now these shapes begin to glow, and one by one a shaft of light shoots from one, then another that impacts the first. She notes that the light shafts do not extend beyond where they meet, but as yet another and another add themselves to the first two, the shafts begin to curl around each other. It is then she knows what is happening, a portal is being created. Inside the portal she can see something. It looks like some form of open box, no more ornate than a box. It becomes clearer to her. She has no idea what kind of hands crafted it for it appears to flow into directions that escape what her eyes can follow. But it is open to the side she can see and there is something inside. She gestures to Olaf to reach in and bring it out.

     He gingerly walks up to it and carefully grabs hold of the sides where he feels he can get a firm hold on it. Once begins to move it, it takes more strength that he first thought to get it to move, as he gets it closer it takes less and less, until it almost floats out into the chamber. Once it is clear, Darkstar gestures for Rigmor to release her 'tone', as she does so and Darkstar is the sole person holding it now she feels something move inside wherever the portal leads to. She thinks it is trying to ride the 'tone' out into their reality. She tries to stop her voice but it is now locked into place and she no longer has control. She tries to gesture to Rigmor that there is trouble but Rigmor does not understand. Olaf reads her reactions and figure out the problem.

     Olaf: "Rigmor, Darkstar cannot release the 'tone', something has her voice locked onto it."

     Rigmor: "What can I do?"

     Olaf: "You need to sing another 'tone', one that can set up a discord with this one and break it so that Darkstar can release herself from it."

     Rigmor: "What tone would I use?"

     Olaf: "Try some scales, see if one of the notes reacts, then center in on that one."

     Rigmor: "Ok, here goes."

     Rigmor goes through some scales but nothing seems to affect the 'tone'. Olaf tells her to shift octaves downward and see what that does. As she does so they can begin to hear an effect, a wavering disturbance but not strong enough. He then decides to try what he can do.

     Olaf: "Hold that tone, I will try and find a lower one to harmonize with yours that might be enough to disrupt it."

     He then listens carefully to Rigmor's tone and hums from as close as he could get to hers, and goes down from there until he feels he has one. He then gives voice to that tone and adjusts the pitch until he feels the harmony is there. It is then that the harmony can disrupt the single tone, the dissonance is clear and Rigmor has to cover her ears to keep it from causing her to lose her tone. Just as something else can be seen in the portal, what Olaf cannot make sense of, but his instincts say it is bad news if it makes it out. Just then Darkstar is able to make use of the dissonance and breaks the control over her voice. She utters a single word in what Olaf knows is her Dragonsoul's voice. The 'word' rips through the air to the portal that twists and deforms severely until it closes with a loud 'snap'. He then manages to catch Darkstar as she collapses, gently lowering her to the floor. Holding her up as she purges the last of the effects from herself, she then uses his arms to leverage herself to her feet. Rose who had arrived in time to see the last few minutes rushes over to Darkstar to check her for any internal injuries.

     Rose: "Olaf, keep supporting her while I check for any internal injuries."

     Rose goes through her 'battlefield' procedures to check for unseen problems in a patient. Once she finds nothing she tells him to let her try and stand on her own but if she starts to collapse again to grab her. He nods his head and repositions his arms to let her use them for support. Once she is sure she is not going to fall, she looks to what Olaf pulled out of the portal and her mouth hangs open in mid comment. As the others look to it they are speechless at what it invokes in them.

     Rigmor whispers, "By all of the Gods! What...it is so beautiful...it is almost painful to look at it."

     Darkstar: "Slowly...back away, ease your way back from it."

     Rigmor: "It is not dangerous is it?"

     Darkstar: "Not how you mean the word, but it is 'different' from anything here. So different that it can cause harmful reactions in us. We try to make sense of it, but we cannot, our minds twist and turn trying to comprehend it and we cannot do so. We need to cover it before doing anything else with it."

     Rose: "What was it doing in that other place?"

     Darkstar: "If I had to guess, that is not its original shape. Whatever was in that other place changed it to fit its sense of how it should have looked. This is beyond anything I can understand. But there is something inside, some kind of relic, artifact, or something. I would say for now to leave it alone until we can find a way to separate them, safely."

     Rose: "How do we get it out of here? Would it be safe to use magic?

     Darkstar: "No, I do not want to attempt it, not here anyway. The rest of you use the ropes to ascend, I will tie one around this thing and we can use it to bring it up. Once it it up tie a blanket around it and secure it in the wagon, then we can move on. I would say we are done here."

     Later, after deciding not to stay the night at the fortress they moved on for what daylight remained. Once camp has been made, everyone feels a bit better to sleep by the campfire rather than in the wagon with 'what ever that thing is'.

     Rigmor: "What will we find at Mountainview?"

     Iriisii is silent for some seconds before answering.

     Iriisii: "On the surface, a mass grave, maybe a few remaining burnt remains of a home, the village fire pit. I think that will likely be all that you can see and know what it was. What is calling me is your next question. I buried all the remains of the villagers that I could find in the mass grave. Then I buried the two swords my grandfather taught me to forge and I used to take revenge on those who massacred everyone. I gave the swords the task of defending their last resting place, until I could return and lay them all to rest. You must see it is different for us as Aasimar than for other humans. That Divine spark in us does not pass on, it waits until the time comes for it to enter another of us. Now that I am the last, I must take possession of all of the sparks lying buried there. What that is going to do to me, I cannot say. This has never happened before, always before it was just one or two at most. No one expected this to happen."

     Rigmor: "It will not 'kill' you will it?"

     Iriisii: "Not the way you are thinking of it. But it could push me over the edge and into the 'Calling' before I am ready for it. If that happens, well, we will just have to see what I can do with it. I am going to get some sleep, I would suggest the rest of you do the same. It will be several more days on the road before we get there."

     She tosses and turns, unable to get to sleep, she finally sits up and crosses her arms around her knees bent before her.

     Letho comments, "You cannot sleep either I see."

     She turns and look at him, then stands up, "Come on, time we faced this problem."

     She walks to the wagon, and climbs up and over the side. Looking at the object wrapped in a blanket. She feels Letho climb up and stand beside her.

    Olaf: "Shall I do the honors?"

     Iriisii: "Go ahead, but do it carefully, do not touch the object itself with your bare skin. I will see what it does when it is exposed."

     Olaf carefully unties the rope around the object, then unwraps the blanket from it. As he sees it now, he cannot help but give a whistle running down the scale. Iriisii stares at it, with both wonder and insane fear showing in her eyes. The object itself had no discernable features while inside the cavern beneath the fortress. Now exposed to the night sky is a different thing entirely. Rose peeks over the edge of the wagon and whispers her comment.

     Rose: "It is full of stars!"

     Then she looks up into the night sky, "I do not understand, how can this be?"

     Iriisii looks to Rose, "What do you see?"

     Rose: "It is like all of the stars in the heavens are crammed into that thing. It is like I could reach out and touch it and my hand would actually touch the stars. But I do not recognize any of the constellations."

     Iriisii awed, "It is showing us what is beyond Mundus. But those are not stars..."

     Rose: "What are they then?"

     Iriisii: "Those are all of the Realms of Existence. If you could step outside and look from a great enough distance away, it would look like that."

     Rose: "It is so beautiful."

     Olaf: "What is this that it can show us what we are seeing?"

     Iriisii: "Something beyond our understanding as yet. Both for what we are seeing and what does it mean that it is showing this to us?"

     Iriisii hears a gentle whisper in her mind, 'You know why you are seeing this, but you are not able to face what it is telling you, not yet, anyway soon though that will change and you will understand.'

     Iriisii: 'Who are you? This object here or something, someone else?'

     Whisper: 'This is a teaching tool. Very, very seldom used. Only a few since Existence was born have had need of it. They could not continue their path. It was too much for them and they fell to the wayside. We have higher hopes for you. You have found help where you need it most, and so together, you and those helping you will succeed where the others failed.'

     Iriisii: 'Why did they fail? Why did you need them for that you would watch them?'

     Whisper: 'That will be made known to you when you are far enough along this path. You have enough to deal with for a while without adding more that you cannot deal with to weigh upon you. When you are strong enough to take the burden, then it will be made known to you. This was not to have happened until that time, but Celestial events have moved to show you a glimpse of what can be. Deal with what you can and will, what you cannot can wait just a bit longer.'

     Iriisii: 'Can you tell me who you are?'

     Whisper: 'Child of Us All, Child of Others As Well, your blood holds the 'Blood' of several others coming together in you. Whether it was their intention to do this, we know not. But we can tell you this for what it is worth, your blood encompasses all from the beginning to the end, of both time and space. You are unique, others share a part of what you hold, but only a part, only you hold it all. They come to you through the Paths of the Ancestral Past. Things done in the dim mists have traveled and found their home in you. It is up to you, what you do with it all, as in the words the one you know as Arngeir spoke to you. You and he as well, had no way to know his words held meaning for more than your dragon heritage. Others have and will give you 'words of wisdom'. Take those that resonate with you and make then a part of you, then you will become who it is hoped you will be.'

     Iriisii: "And what is it hoped for me to be?"

     Whisper receding in space, "You will know at each stage, and when the Prophets deem the time is right they will tell you the answer to your question."

     Iriisii: "Oblivion damn these questions without answers!"

     Olaf chuckles and Iriisii looks at him.

     Olaf: "I have heard you say those words many times, especially after a Scroll of Prophecy lands into your hands. You do the best that you can, then forge ahead and damn the consequences."

     Iriisii then thinks on what he has said and lets a chuckle go herself.

     Iriisii: "Thank you for that, I needed it."

     Olaf: "Anytime."

     Iriisii wraps the 'thing' back into its blanket, "Ok, try and get some sleep, it is still hours before daybreak. Rose?"

     Rose: "Yes?"

     Iriisii: "Share my blanket, hold me close while we sleep?"

     Rose: "I thought you would never ask!"

     Iriisii: "It is sometimes difficult for me to know if you are in the mood for closeness."

     Rose walks up and kisses Iriisii, "With you, anytime is a good time. Come on, that blanket is calling our names. It says it is lonely."

     The sun is up before anyone stirs, but they quickly get things stowed and on their way.  It takes just shy of a week to reach the old Lair. Darkstar hears Rigmor, "Where is it?! All I see is the stone wall at the back of this ravine!"

     Darkstar: "Did you honestly expect a group of mercenary assassins to put up a sign and advertise their presence?" "Well it would have nice", as Rigmor realizes the absurdity of what she said. "I mean..." "I know what you meant, but you have had no experience with how a group like that takes their personal security." Darkstar strives to keep her voice in a teaching tone, "There is a natural hole in the ravine wall close to the end. For the love of the gods, do not put your hand in it or you will likely have to leave it in there."

     Rigmor: "Is it a trap then?"

     Darkstar: "Partly, the latch to open the wall is at the back of the hole. There is a particular pattern the latch in there has to be turned. Do it the wrong way..."

     Rigmor: "Sorry I asked."

     Darkstar: "Do not be, otherwise how will you learn when it is safe to poke around in something like that and when it is not. Also, the trap includes a rockfall on top of the ravine, anyone close to whoever sticks their hand in but stands back to avoid any trap in the hole will be crushed by the rockfall."

     Rose: "They really took their security seriously, but considering what they did I can understand. The dumb ones get found out and pay for their stupidity, the serious ones sit back and let the dumb ones take the 'fall', leaving less competition."

     Darkstar: "Precisely. It is why they survived for so long. What took them down in the end was their own hubris. They came to believe the exaggerations told of them, and so made the bad decision to follow me to Skyrim."

     Rigmor: "What if they had stayed here instead?"

     Darkstar: "Honestly? I do not know, but whatever would have happened it would not have been good. Stay here while I open the 'door'."

     With that Darkstar moves forward, straight down the center before sidestepping after she had gone ten feet. She then looks at the ravine wall, finds a area of rock a little darker shade that the surrounding rock and presses on it. What ever she felt, satisfied her because she comes back to the center and moves on. Next she moves at an oblique angle to the opposite wall. This time she kneels and carefully blows away the sandy dust to reveal a square block with one edge slightly higher than the others. She stands and steps on the block until a 'snick' echoes up and down the ravine. As Olaf, Rigmor, and Rose wait, she presses a second time ten seconds later and a second, deeper toned 'snick' can be heard.

     Rigmor: "Damn, that is being devious. Anyone else would go on after the first time and get caught." As she starts to move and adjust her position, "Stop!", Olaf moves to the side of her and blows away sandy dust from where she was going to step, to reveal a second tilted block. Having revealed it he stands and says, "Back away from it, carefully. It will not go off if you step on it but it is not meant to." "What will it do, then?" Rose asks.

     Olaf: "It is a tripper, not a trap. Activate it and nothing happens, out here, anyway." Rigmor poses her question. "Then where...?"  Olaf replies, "Inside the chamber behind the door, this would activate one or more traps inside catching the unwary thinking they had gone past the danger." Rose comments, "You have seen something like this before haven't you?" "You might say that, but that is all I will say about it." And with that Olaf goes silent as he deals with an old memory from before his new life.

     Rigmor begins to press him on what happened, when Rose gestures to her not to say anything and let it go. Rigmor shrugs her shoulders and goes back to watching Darkstar make her way to the 'hole' in the wall. A few minutes later Darkstar places her hand in the hole, grasps the latch at the back, then turns it to the right, counting the clicks the latch makes as she turns it. She counts off six, then pulls on the latch until it stops, then she turns the opposite direction for a count of three, then pushes the latch back in before turning it yet again in the same direction for a count of four, then pushes the latch until it stops. She then listens and hears the groaning of old gears and pulleys as the door begins to pull up. She sees the darkness at the base begin to grow. Once she can slip inside she bends over and ducks under the door, walks over to the hidden latch that disarms all the outside traps. Once she has it pulled and locked, she steps back outside into the clean sunlight and dry but sweet air. She motions for the rest of them to approach. They quickly get in the wagon and drive the horses on down the ravine and into the opening to the lair. Once inside Rose notes that Darkstar is still outside, she walks softly out to stand next to her, being silent but letting her know she is not alone.

     Darkstar: "I did not know it would be so hard to return. All I wanted to do was to turn back and leave this place to be forgotten. It matters not to me if there are ghosts who may still walk these corridors, my memories are far worse than anything the ghosts could do to me."

     Rose: "I know, I still come across someplace or someone who reminds me of a place or person, then the memories come back haunting me. Sometimes they are so bad I just want to drown them in whatever I can find to get drunk on. I generally do not care if it is a hundred septim a bottle of cognac or a bottle of Legion Rotgut aged for years in some back room. I just want the sweet forgetfulness that comes over me when I get to the bottom.  I think they call it being 'human'. I call it being burdened with a conscience when the memories of those battles come back, and then the consequences of them make themselves known. Hearing a soldier scream as I saw an arm or leg off to save their life. Knowing in those screams they are crying out to let themselves just die and be done with life rather than going home a cripple. Doing this once, then again, then again until I look to the side and see the pile of limbs. And what was worse was seeing the expressions on the faces of the ones I still had to work on. That was why when I got thrown out of the Legion, I did not fight it. I just left without a word and never looked back. At least when you were done, they were not suffering any longer. I have to live and remember every time I see one of them begging on a street corner."

     Darkstar: "All of the 'death', the screams, the suffering we have both seen and inflicted, sometimes it is hard to know who are the real monsters. But then I realize it is not us, because we can still feel remorse, grief, and sorrow for what we have had to do. That is what separates us from the monsters, we can still 'feel', while they do not. And while we can still 'feel' there is hope for us. The night before our wedding to Rigmor, we went to the cathedral to pray, and seek guidance, answers to pressing questions that just kept swimming back and forth in our mind. As we sat down and began to form what we wanted to say, an unfamiliar priest walked up to us, had us sit with him while he heard us speak our mind. He was quite understanding of our concerns, the main one was Rigmor surviving Kintyra's birth. He assured us that Akatosh had spoken to the other Divines and arranged for the 'curse' to be set aside for her. He also told us that because we were so ready to assume the burdens for others on top of our own, that when ours became unbearable, if we would but ask of them, they would share our burdens for a while until we could bear them again."

     Rose: "I remember Rigmor speaking about you telling her about that. Did you ever find out who the priest was?"

     Darkstar: "He was our father, Talos, and that is also why we have so adamantly denied the Thalmor whenever they tried to deny he was one of the Divines. When you see the truth with your own eyes, no one's words to the contrary will ever convince you that what you saw was not real. I am now ready to deal with this place and my memories of it. Thank you for coming out and being with me, it means a great deal to the both of us."

     Rose takes Darkstar's hand and together they go back into the old monster's den to put an end to the memories they have had to suffer for so long.

     One room at a time, they enter and feel the intensity of the psychic history written in each. A history of pain, of anger, and of rage, of fear, of terror, and of death. Indeed the remains of 'Death' was the most difficult to understand for mixed in with the memories of those who died was something even the greatest scholars and philosophers of Nirn and even Aetherius had never though possible. The thoughts, memories, and feelings of 'Death' himself as he claimed and comforted the souls of those who died here. Darkstar and Iriisii both began to feel that 'why' they had been drawn here was perhaps the most important reason of the several things that seemed to tug them here and there on this continent. For the memories of the things that happened, that was etched into the very grains of the stone walls had grown. Grown to be so many, so powerful, and so tragic, that they had come together to give a kind of both obscene and at the same time cathartic birth. A shiver of fear began to creep up everyone's spine as they went deeper and deeper into the lair. Until they stepped out into a large area. Darkstar recognized this place immediately, even she remembered from another point of view, from the dark bloodstained sands that covered the floor.

     Darkstar voice shook with remembered pain, of the many varied emotions here, and the many different encounters that all had a single end. Two stepped out, and one walked away. Sometimes the only witness was the 'Mother', Roseaidth, and sometimes the all of the arena seats were covered in the acolytes drawn for all corners of this continent. Only a few came willingly, searching for something, the rest were bought and paid for. Their parents not able to feed them all, care for them, and so they believed Roseaidth's sweet lies of how she would care for them, train them, love them. They accepted her gold as it would help the care for the ones still at home, at least until it ran out and 'she' returned once more looking for more.

     Darkstar: "This...is...the...'Pit'." The depth of venom that with which she spit out that last word, caused all to turn and look at her, for they had never before heard her speak in such a manner. Olaf most of all understood the place where she was. Even as Rigmor and Rose wanted to wrap arms around her, Olaf quietly said, "Leave her be. This battle she must fight alone. Here there is room for only one to survive, to stand in victory over the bodies of those who fell at her hands. Can you two not feel it rising from the depths of her soul? This is why she had to come here, to fight one last time."

     Rigmor: "How do you know this?! You have not known her as long as I have. Gone through so much at her side!"

     Olaf:: "And because you know so little of me and what I have done, what was done to me in my past. This is what drove me to accept her offer to me when I entered her service. She looked into me, at all I had suffered, and how it echoed in her own life. She showed me how it was possible to beat it, to rise above it, and reclaim my soul's path from its dark talons. Because she showed  me how she did it, here in this place, at this very moment in time." While Olaf had been speaking Darkstar/Iriisii had slipped over the stone ledge and was walking out to the center of the 'Pit'. "She showed me helping her fight against the 'darkness' that has been growing in here for many years, that 'darkness' that called out to her and challenged her to fight, one last time. Either it wins and claims her future path, or she does and lays it to rest forevermore. The 'rule' here is 'two may enter but one will leave', but 'it' is many joined as one, and so she is allowed one to stand with her. This is 'my' task, to help put 'her' darkness' down and in doing so put my own down as well. As there will be two fighting, there must be two witnesses, that is your task." He then turns and leaps over the stone ledge, and calmly walks to stand with his 'Mistress' against the dark soul that had its unholy birth here, on the sands of the 'Pit'. Rigmor starts to leap after them but Rose grabs her and will not let her go.

     Rose: "Rigmor! No!"

     Rigmor: "Let me go! You are going too far in stopping me!"

     Rose: "Curse me all you want! If you go down there you bring it all crashing down! Everything she stands for now, will stand for in the future will be done and over with before it even gets a chance. So you want that on your soul?! He has never lied to us since he came back, and I believe him now! She saw this when she chose him, and showed it to him to sway his decision to join her. He has never wavered a moment since then."

     Rigmor: "How do you know that?!"

     Rose: "Do you think she would send him back here to such a crucial moment if he had?! Knowing what was at stake?"

     Rigmor stops struggling, "No, no she would not. If she did not trust him with her future fate, she would never have sent him. But they only have a single blade between them!"

     Rose: "No, look!"

     They watch as Darkstar/Iriisii begins 'singing'. They know she is singing some form of words but they do not understand them. What they do know is that she is forming some kind of energy in between her hands. It is hard to pin down even its color, much less anything else about it. Soon enough they can see that she is forming a blade from it.

     Rose: "Did you know she could 'Sword Sing'?"

     Rigmor: "What?"

     Rose: "Sword Sing. Like some Redguard can do, but I know they have to train for years to be able to do that."

     Rigmor: "What is it that she is doing? I think I may have read about it, but I do not remember much about it."

     Rose: "Redguard Sword Singers, the only ones I have ever heard of who could sing a sword into existence by singing the power to create it from their own souls. Those swords are considered to be the most deadly that can be created, but they do not last. It bears a cost to the singer to keep it in our reality. ...Oh, by all the Gods! Look there," as Rose points to a roiling shadow mass on the opposite side of the 'Pit' from Darkstar/Iriisii and Olaf.

The shadows are continuously changing shape, each change brings a new face to the surface, some are older, but many are children of all ages. She notices one thing the have in common, their portrayal of anger and rage. Maniacal anger and rage that has grown and festered like a plague. Now Rose at least realizes why Darkstar/Iriisii stand out there. If this thing gets loose, it is over for Nirn. It will posses anybody and everybody, turning them one against the other until there is no one left alive. And then it will look to move on to other places.

     Darkstar/Iriisii having finished fashioning her Soulblade, speaks instructions to Olaf, who nods his head in understanding and moves to place himself at her back, Mahfaeraak gleaming in his hands.

     Rose: "Look Rigmor, whatever happens, whatever you see or feel, we have to stay out of it. I mean it. Everything could go tits up if we get in the middle of it."

     Rigmor: "Mind telling me why you would leave them to fight whatever that thing out there is if we could help them?"

     Rose: "Look neither one of us is a stranger to fighting. But fighting things like that is a whole different thing that what we are used to fighting. They know what they are doing. Iriisii trained for years with the 'Blade Dancers' and they pulled out all the stops with her. Teaching her everything they could cram into her because they had no idea what she would need and what she would not. She in turn has trained Olaf to the razor's edge. He knows what she expects of him, how she fights, how to cover her. They can fight like a single fighter with four arms, attacking and defending at the same time. If we get in the middle, they have to watch for us and cover the mistakes we will make. No, we need to keep our heads down and not make any noise to attract its attention to us. If she calls us to join that is different, but that is the only way we should get involved."

     Rigmor: "You know I am beginning to hate it as much when you are right as I do when she is."

     Rose: "That is just fine with me. I am a big girl now and I can take it."

     The mass of shadows, try as it might, cannot assume a human form to fight with these two readying to meet them in the 'pit'.  Instead it stays with its cloud form, growing hands, arms, claws and talons, then it starts to grow tentacles of a kind thought to exist only in the nightmares of madmen. For the denizens of the cloud recognize one of the two as one who was once of them, lived here, trained here, killed here. And if the cloud has anything to say of it, will die here, and become one with it. In the space between heartbeats, it surrounds them and the battle begins.

     It looks at the throne at the top of the 'pit'. Where is the 'Mother'? Her 'seat' is empty, as it has been since she left, years ago. The silence has been deafening, there has been no new souls to be added. Did this one have something to do with it? She must have, for none who went out in search of her, to bring her back into the fold have returned. Its anger, its rage rises beyond any previous level, for this one must not escape again. Now that it has returned, it shall join with 'us' and stay with us in the darkness as the 'Mother' wrote in that letter she carried with her as she left us that day. She gave us a final gift of all those young souls, but it is not the same as having her with us, sharing her dreams. If we must wait here for eternity for the 'Mother' to return then let her 'child' stay with us to await the 'Mother's' return.

     The attacks grow in number an speed, Darkstar and Olaf are pressed on the defensive, but they have trained together for this situation. And so they put that training to work, parrying, riposting, waiting for opportunities to do damage, to slide in a strike, each taking one while the other defends them. Any other pair but them would have fallen by now, but they keep going on. The rage of the shadows prevents them from being truly effective, and so they become predictable. Slowly shades are shaved off of the core. Apart from the power source, they return to the sleep the core awoke them from and absorbed them. When the 'core' is now alone its fighting has become more frenzied and erratic. Darkstar is able to setup a move that will enable her to 'pin' it to these sands, lock it down at least until some foolish adventurer releases it once more.

     Time keeps flowing as does the battle, until the moment comes and Darkstar slips under the core shadow, putting it between herself and Olaf. In the spilt second while it cannot decide who to attack, she strikes. Using blows that compress the air into a weapon, the air strikes force it off balance and it falls to the sand. Darkstar then pulls a dagger from the hiding place in her armor where she has kept it for all these many years. She then raises it and drives it down into the shadow, crying out, "By the blade I earned my name with, here on these sands where my opponents blood was spilled. As the 'Mother' by her own hand tossed it between us, as we fought to claim the position of the 'Seventh'. I return her blade, given to me as the victor, to the sands where I earned it." And she drove it into the 'core' shadow and down into the sands.

     The blade reached out and grabbed the 'core' shadow, holding it in place. The shadow was unable to touch the blade, to dislodge it from the sands, but the blade empowered by the 'Mother' was able to hold the shade at the point where it was plunged deep into the sands of the 'Pit'. Darkstar steps back from the shadow writhing around the dagger but unable to free itself and raises her head to the empty seats and the empty 'Throne of the Mother', then shouts, "It is done! Let the name of 'Darkstar' fade from human memory as I now choose a different path and a different name. I began my life as a fractured fragment of the mind of Iriisii Starborn, and now she has shown me a path where I can become whole and no longer just a fragment. This is my choice, and I choose it, Gods of Mundus and of those beyond bear witness to the birth of 'Dragonstar'!"

     A wind blows from the empty nowhere deeper in the lair. It rushes around Darkstar and raises her up into the air. Then a blaze of light shines down from a point in the roof. Where this light is coming from no one there knows but it envelopes Darkstar and warms her, driving the icy wind from her. From this light, something or someone gives voice, a voice that sounds right there with them and at the same time somewhere out in the indescribable depths of space, time, and other dimensions.

     Voice: "We hear you 'child'. Long have we watched you, your 'birth' caught our interest as it rippled through the undercurrents of the 'Psychic Rivers'." The 'voice' keeps shifting in tones, registers, genders, as if many were trying to speak as one and something kept splintering it, "Your growth has been truly wonderful to watch. And your desire to leave it all behind you and forge a new life is admirable in its intent. But we must ask you this, are you willing to separate yourself from the one who gave you life in order to achieve what you desire?"

     Darkstar: "What do you mean?"

     Voice: "Leave the one called Iriisii Starborn, take from us and create your new form. Seek your new life wherever it takes you, wander roads no one has trodden in ages, search among cities of light and splendor unimaginable for the one you would call 'home'."

     Darkstar stops and thinks on the words this 'voice' has given her. She remembers when Shivista essentially did just what is being asked of her to do. Wait! Where did that thought come from? Where are we truly in the timeline, is this not before Shivista left with...who did she leave with? Confusion erupts over the details of her own life. What is this? No! That has not happened yet, will not happen for quite some time. But where is she? She should be here with me and Iriisii! What happened in those timelines? Did she somehow get separated from us?

     A faint whisper, "Shhh, that has not yet happened, but thank you for being concerned about me."

     Darkstar: "Shiv, is that you? Where have you been? More to the point, why have I just now realized you have been gone?"

     Shivista: "We can talk about that later, but you have a decision to make. You made your proclamation and you were heard. Heard and now answered. I know we spoke some about this happening sometime along the way but I had no idea it would come now or in this way."

     Darkstar: "What do you mean?"

     Shivista: "The ones who answered you.

     Darkstar: "Yes, what about them?"

     Shivista: "They are not like the gods we know and interact with. They are something else entirely."

     Darkstar: "Wait, the 'teaching tool', they created it didn't they? It was through our finding it, handling it, that brought us to their attention, wasn't it?"

     Shivista: "I am almost afraid to answer that, but yes, you are right."

     Darkstar: "But what is their interest in this?"

     Shivista: "You cannot see it yet, can you? They live in the moments between one second and another, one heartbeat and another. They have been drawn here because of the 'Dragonbreak', but..."

     Darkstar: "But what? Tell me, spit it out!"

     Shivista: "Just a rumor or was it a story I once heard before I...before I came to be here with you and Iriisii. It has to be this 'Dragonbreak', it is screwing around with our perceptions of everything, past, present, future, possibilities. It is all becoming a tangled mess with us at the center of it. Iriisii has to straighten it out, somehow. I just hope she has a plan."

     Darkstar: "She does, but we needed to come here and settle business first. But why have you been so quiet, I could not feel or hear you anywhere?"

     Shivista: "Sorry about that, but it was needed. There are some who still hunt me, even as disembodied as I am. I could not draw them to you, so I hid myself in the 'hollows' of her mind. The only place where I could hide myself so thoroughly that unless someone knew where to find me..."

     Darkstar: "And so if they could read our minds, they would find no trace of you."

     Shivista: "Exactly, but they have moved on for now. So I can come back out."

     Rigmor jumps down to the sand as Darkstar turns to watch her approach. As she gets close, "I heard some of the things Iriisii said happened here, but without seeing this place there is no way to imagine it. And then that..." as she looks directly to the shadow pinned to the sands with the dagger Darkstar won her position among the 'Seven' with, "Now I understand the last line in the letter. I wonder if she ever knew what she was building, It is just so horrible to contemplate this was going on along with everything else. I also now know why you wish to change your name and your life. I agree with you in this. I think you have grown beyond the need for that name now. So I wanted to say to you, 'Welcome to the human race.'"