Confrontation

     In Aetherius, storm clouds of energy, rage, anger, and emotional pain rage over the area where Talos and Alessia reside. Alessia has finally begun to put the pieces together of what happened to her and Talos' daughter, Iriisii, when she disappeared from Roscrea on her eighteenth birthday. The degree of manipulation in this was maddening, to find it all hidden inside of a Dragonbreak, and it was not just one timeline, but three, at least that is all that she has been able to pierce the veil of and see into what happened in each and how they have been merged.

     And the audacity of Akatosh, telling her that he would look into it when she went to him to ask his help. His hands are all over this along with others, some she barely knows anything about, others she has no idea who they are or what they represent. The others of the 'Nine' feel what is building and look to Akatosh to see how he is going to handle this, some wondering if he truly can handle this, without tearing Aetherius apart.

     Alessia: "TALOS! Can you see what this all says?! Add it to what he said to us when we asked him about what happened to our child!! He was all over it, involved to his eyes in it from the beginning!! He just thought I was mad when I cursed Nirn about what he allowed to happen to my minotaur children. Now he is going to really learn about how mad I can be!!"

     Talos: "Al-Esh, my love, I understand what you feel, she is my daughter as well!"

     Alessia: "But you gave up and came back here while I stayed and searched for her!!"

     Talos: "That does not mean I did not continue to look, I just did it from here. There is a great deal more to this. You have only scratched the surface of what happened, and the overwhelming question in all of this is 'why'. Once that question is answered, then..."

     Alessia: "Then what? How much of this have you known about and said nothing?"

     Talos: "Honestly, just enough to know that I am out of my depth in it. It goes beyond Akatosh, to others far more powerful and ones you do not wish to cross. We are not immortal any longer, we must be careful who we anger by interfering."

     Alessia: "WHO WE ANGER!! I am one who has been angered! This was done to our child, Talos, ours! At the least I, you, and most of all, she, deserves answers! She has done all that was asked of her to do and more! His 'Golden Plan' is now set to begin, but 'she' will not be coming 'home' to us?! HE LIED TO US! HE lied when he asked us to let him make her his Dovahkiin and send her to Nirn to sort out Alduin, then begin the path to his 'Golden Plan'. She was to come home to us once it was done! And now...now I just do not know what is to happen to her, where is she going, why does it have to be her, why can she not come home to us where she belongs?"

     Talos: "All good and important questions, ones I have no answers to. I agree with you that he lied to us. It says to me that he feared our reaction, that we would have said 'no' to his plans. But what I do not understand and is very important is when did it 'turn', when did her path veer from what we were told to what it is now. This did not start until after you gave birth to her. I think its true beginning was when she disappeared. The aspects of it moved forward and backward in the time streams. That it was this that caused the Dragonbreak, this is where it began and the other timelines were drawn into it then."

     Alessia: "Do you think that to fix the Dragonbreak, he had to go back before the true beginning. To merge them properly he would need a common nexus point. Yes! When we conceived her would be that nexus point, all else deviated from there. And here, this line was specifically created from that point, it is the one that is now 'primary', see how it loops from when she disappeared back to this beginning in the other two. But what does it mean, why is it needed and what purpose is it to serve." 

     Talos: "Also 'who' set it in motion. He had no reason to do this, someone else had an overriding reason and saw a way to use our daughter to accomplish something important enough to them to go to all this trouble. And Akatosh for whatever reason went along with it. Allowing the Dragonbreak then trying to merge the timelines to mend the break, but failed, yet somehow this combined path is now the one to go forward. Come, it is time he answers our questions with the truth."

     Iriisii is looking into the timelines, looking for something that seems to be calling to her. It is now that something buried in the timelines catches her attention. As she looks at the same event in all three timelines she asks herself what caused her to see this, what possessed her to look at that particular event, what was she looking for? And then her question is answered as she sees it and it almost literally floors her. There is a way to resolve it differently than she has experienced it before. A way that will not cause a paradox to occur. And then she sees what it was that drew her to look. She recalls a question she asked Kasia about the vision they shared while at the Euphoria Palace. She remembers now what Kasia said but her mind had buried the answer, even as it explains the reactions she has experienced ever since when she thinks about what happened to Kasia. How could she have forgotten it? Even more so why did she deliberately bury it deep? The realization starts tremors in her, tremors that she fights hard to tamp down on. 'No! Not now, this is not the time to delve into this. I will look at it later, later when I know more of the details of why it came to me now.' Alessia feels her anxiety, the tenseness that is crawling all over her. She also sees her daughter trying hard to set it aside for now and decides not to ask about it until a time when things are calmer. 

     Standing before Akatosh, Alessia and Talos are in no way letting him 'off the hook' for what they see as a clear abrogation of his responsibility toward them. He listens to everything they have uncovered and even respects how close to the truth they have come. But there are still some factors they cannot see, factors that while they do not change what was done, they do shed light on why, and how high those involved are above them.

     Akatosh: "I understand how you feel, and before you blow up, there is more that you do not see. The 'key' pieces that explain all your most important questions. But I have just one of my own right now. Do you not think it would be appropriate for your daughter, who is at the center of all of this, to be here to listen to and witness all that is said and brought out?"

     That question brings both Talos and Alessia to a fast halt. They then look to each other, thinking about that, not that they do not want her to hear all this. They are not even afraid of what she might think of it all. But what might it cause her to do once she knows all of it? And why is he willing to bring her into this now? In the end, they tell him, yes, she should be here to listen and witness.

     Akatosh then summons Iriisii from Nirn and when she appears before them all, he goes over what has already been said between them. She in a moment of serendipity, looks to her Celestial parents, walks over to them, and draws them into her embrace.

     Iriisii: "I am sorry that my life has been such a trial for you both."

     Alessia: "No, daughter, you and your life has been a joy and a pleasure to us. We just feel the need for answers to the questions that we have been chasing all these years since you vanished from Roscrea."

     Iriisii: "I understand. I cannot say that I completely understand everything, or that I know everything involved, even now. But I do know enough to feel that what was done, was even if not right, it was needful. Needful on a scale that eclipses everything else. Father Akatosh did not know what was going to happen, when he anointed me and made me your Dovahkiir. He was blindsided by what was presented to him, but what he was shown of the outside situation convinced him that it had to be done, for the sake of everyone and everything in the totality of Existence itself.

     What I have learned, or to be more concise, all that I have learned that I am capable of understanding, shows me that there is far more out there than any of us could imagine. And those who first set it all into motion, do care what happens to it, to it and all who live within its bounds, even Mundas and Nirn. For we are a part of it all just as much as the rest is. And what goes on out there, can affect us as well if it is strong enough."

     Talos: "What are you trying to say, that you were taken and groomed to go out there and do what?"

     Iriisii: "Simply put? To save Existence from ultimate destruction. Existence which includes Nirn and Mundus."

     Talos stops and considers his daughter's words.

     Talos: "I see the sense in what you say."

     Alessia: "What do you see in her words? What do they say to you, what questions do they answer?"

     Talos: "We have lived within the bounds around Nirn for so long that we have forgotten that there is anything else beyond us. There must be something going on that those out there felt needed to be dealt with. And for whatever reason, our daughter was the only one who could do what was needed. But how to obtain her services when she had not completed what we needed her for on Nirn."

     Alessia: "You mean there are two of her now?"

     Talos: "No, they looped her back to gain time. Time to allow her to deal with what was needed here, then to be able to go out and deal with what was needed out there, without having to be retrained, equipped, in other words, she would leave here, ready to do what was needed out there. Having the training, equipment, power, and knowledge to know what needs to be done and where to start."

     Akatosh nods his head to Talos, "Indeed, that was the biggest hindrance. How to get her ready in time to make a difference. Of what use or good is all that we did to bring Nirn to where it is now, if it is all washed away in the fires of destruction before we can even say it is done."

     Alessia: "Wait!! You are saying that something is going on out there that threatens to destroy us all and Iriisii is the only one who can stop it?"

     Iriisii: "Yes, mother, that is exactly what is going on. It has to be me, because all others before have failed, and there is no more time if I do not stop this. Those who created Existence, cannot come back and fix it, because their presence would hasten the destruction. Just as was learned after the God Wars, when Akatosh made his compact with you and sealed it with the Amulet of Kings. It is for the same reasons that since that time when Nirn needed a hero, a Dovahkiin was sent instead of one of the 'Nine' correcting it personally. I am the Dovahkiin to correct Nirn's problems and get it ready for what comes next. And now I am given the same task to do the same for Existence."

     Akatosh: "You are ready for whatever may come now. We, the Nine, pledge all our help that we can give to you. Those among the Daedra that favor you have also made this pledge. As much as it pains us to admit to what we did before to bring you to this point, you have proven us correct to do it. It has brought you to where you can withstand the trials ahead, the ones known and the ones unknown. All who hold power in Mundus now stand with you. Would that you were not needed for this path, still would we extend our hands to you and yours, to ascend and be a part of us. To you and yours, we would have asked that you represent those of Mundus who we, the 'Nine', have not extended our watchful eyes upon. Later, you can correct that when you see fit."

     Iriisii nods her head, "I understand."

     Alessia: "When this greater task is done, can you then come back to us?"

     Iriisii: "I am sorry Mother, but no. Truly I wish it were possible, but this task is but the first footsteps on the path ahead of me."

     Alessia: "But why? I do not understand!"

     Iriisii: "As the previous Kalpas have been destroyed so that new ones can be born. So one day, far, far from now, Existence itself will die, and so there must be one who will bring about its rebirth."

     Alessia: "You are to be that one? But how can you know this?"

     Iriisii: "They who created Existence, who sang the 'Charm of Making' and ignited the spark that became all that we are and all that is outside. To protect it all, they left and stepped beyond, but they still watch, for they love and care for us all. They sent me a vision of what will happen when the 'end time' comes, and my role in it. For I am not only your child, the child of Alessia and Talos, but I am their child as well. One that somehow and for whatever unknown reason became lost when they left us. That 'child' sleeps in me, to be awakened at some point, perhaps soon. And that child will become a part of me and I of it. Together we will walk the Path ahead, and one day, a span of time almost inconceivable, we will step outside to take up our seat at the Table of Creation. But know that when the next Existence comes, I will gift my name, the one you and father gave to me, to the first girl child born in the new Existence. And she will carry on the Legacy that I will leave for her. For my path will take me into the Great Beyond. I am truly sorry. I did not ask for any of this, but it has been laid upon me. For if not me, then who. If not now, then when. I cannot stand by and see all Existence fall into destruction and not do what I can to stop it. You and father taught me that by your examples and your teaching. By making this sacrifice, I honor you both."

     Talos stands a bit taller and straighter as her words strike true within him. He steps up and grasps her forearm as she grasps his in the way of warriors who respect each other. Alessia wraps her arms around Iriisii's neck, pulls her close and whispers in her ear, "You are in truth my child. And I will forever love and remember you. Iriisii whispers in return, "Who knows what may be possible in the future, keep 'hope' and 'faith' in your heart and nothing will be impossible for you." She looks at Akatosh, "I am ready to return for I have yet this Dragonbreak to mend." Akatosh forms a portal for her and before she enters, "You do all of Aetherius proud by the Path you have chosen to walk. Even the Dragons are hard at work creating a Word Wall to honor you. Some want to put it at Mountainview, some at Roscrea, some at the Throat of the World, even Skuldafn and Sovngarde have been mentioned. I have said nothing about a choice myself, but I thought you might have one I could pass along." "They are all fine choices with much of my story embedded in them. But honestly, if I had to choose, then I would choose Kyne's Garden, near the Temple for the Fallen, near Leyawiin. If that is where they decide to put it, I believe 'She Who Watches All' would see a pair of her 'children' planted there. I could listen to them speak and sing to each other all day, while sitting in the grass among Kyne's nameless white flowers." "Yes, I can see that. Its message is profound for all, even Dragons, for some fought with you there. Yes, for there you cast the  highest spells possible to us, one to win the war, the second to heal the land. I agree with you, it would indeed be fitting. I will pass along the suggestion and see what becomes of it." "Thank you Father, I know it has been trying for you, but I know of no one else who could have done even half as well as you have.. No matter where my path takes me, I will always remember how you cared for me and watched over me." She then stands on tiptoes and places a gentle kiss on one cheek, then walks into the portal.