» Tue May 17, 2011 2:18 pm
Chapter 85: The Rite of Resurrection
Divayth Fyr, Lord Kagrenac, and Sage Vardengroet returned with Melisande to Castle Skingrad. She pointed to the private quarters and then scurried down to the secret crypt. She instantly removed the spell from the cell door and opened it to let Barbas out, darting to the back for the Staff of Worms. It was gone.
"Is this what you seek?" Hannibal asked, holding the staff up where she could see it.
"Hannibal, you scared me. I?I need the staff Hannibal. It is the only way to bring Maxical back." Melisande reached her hand out.
"You can't do this Melisande, do you realize what you have done? Mannimarco was here looking for it! He followed it here and is now in Cyrodiil! You must stop this, before it is too late! He has threatened to destroy the Mages Guild! You have no idea the power he possesses! This is necromancy!" Hannibal was trembling, and whiter than the dead Khajiit on the slab behind her.
Melisande reached over and twitched the staff out of his shaking hands and darted out of the cell quickly, locking it behind her. "Stay out of this Hannibal. It has gone too far to stop now."
She gathered up her supplies into her pack and grabbed several bottles of fortified wine on her way out; sealing the vault on Hannibal's continued pleas. Hurrying past the bodyguard outside Janus's suite she called out, "Long walk." She returned the key and Barbas, then hurried to the private quarters to gather blood from Divayth Fyr.
"This will not be enough, we will have to use that which we drew from Janus already." Melisande said when Divayth's blood was barely trickling at the end of the second bottle.
Janus arrived shortly thereafter with the news that Akatosh had granted the petition. He was surprised but pleased to find Divayth Fyr, Lord Kagrenac, and Sage Vardengroet had already arrived.
Janus brought the reviving paste to Divayth Fyr to build his blood back, and platters of fruits and meats for everyone. "When can we begin?" He asked, motioning Melisande to pour wine for the ancients. She glared at him, but obeyed the directive.
"The ceremonial fires can not be started till the O'clock plus one minute on the 30th of Evening Star. You may have everything laid out in advance, and set up the wood but not light it. Melisande, you did say you had obtained a piece of Lorkhan's Heart before it was tainted? It must be untainted to be usable." Lord Kagrenac eyes bored into her as he waited for the answer.
"Yes, it was from before the corruption. You yourself cut the sliver of it for the Dwemer, with the blade you made for your own use, unlike those weapons you left behind to be found by Dagoth-Ur that would poison the heart and destroy its power. Later when you distributed the slivers, you could not understand why you were one short; but it was too late then. That is why Yagrum Bagarn did not get to disappear with the rest. I took his sliver. He had Corprus disease anyway, you should thank me; he would have infected the others. He has been well cared for by Divayth, so all turned out for the best." Melisande looked challengingly back at Lord Kagrenac.
"You should have the grace to blush when you admit theft. You had best start preparations, the time draws near." Lord Kagrenac's tone revealed more than his words; it was clear he knew already, probably since she first admitted she had an untainted piece of the heart.
"Can we start infusing the blood into her yet?" She asked, dismissing the discussion.
Lord Kagrenac gave her a hard look. "No. Nothing can be done till Old Life has begun. Bring me the heart for sanctification before the ceremony."
************ Old Life
"You don't understand the impact this could have, you must stop now! The ramifications of what you are talking about doing won't end with her return to life, can you not see that?" Arch Mage Traven was screaming to an empty crypt; Janus and Melisande had not stayed to listen to him.
Melisande had picked up the two bottles which contained her own blood and hurried out of the crypt. Janus was not far behind carrying the body of Maxical. They sealed the vault shut on his cries and hurried up to the courtyard to begin.
The wind howling through the paraqets seemed an imitation of Traven's pleas. It was whipping through the courtyard causing the flames under the cauldron to flicker wildly.
"Janus! Get some of those crates and put them around or we'll lose the fire!" Melisande had to shout to be heard over the wind.
Janus still carried the tiny figure of Maxical. Melisande pointed to the cauldron where a bronze slab had been angled across. He gently lowered her stiff body onto it and began hurriedly dragging crates, placing them in an arc around one side. It didn't help, the wind seemed to be coming from all directions. He tried to shout to Melisande, but the wind took his words before she could hear them.
Janus hovered over Maxical's body trying to block the wind as he watched Melisande pour the satchel of ingredients the Sage had given her into the bubbling liquid. She began chanting, but the wind was whipping her voice away so Janus could not hear the words. The vapors swirling out of the large kettle enveloped Maxical as if drawn to her.
Melisande pushed the Sky Child into Maxical's chest, snaking the tube down into the large vein. She hooked the first bottle of blood to it, motioning for Janus to hold it.
She yelled to be heard above the wind. "Hold this up, just like I am doing. When it is empty hook the others up the same way."
Sage Vardengroet watched, and when they were all emptied he yelled, "It's not enough, she needs more!"
Melisande bit her lip. "It's been too soon to take more from Divayth. Fyr. You'll have to use mine." The wind almost took her words before they could be heard, but Janus heard them.
"No! Use mine." Janus yelled, giving her a strange look. Why had she said that?
Melisande hesitated, then with an angry look dug the other Sky Child out of her pack and pierced Janus's arm, hooking it directly into the one in Maxical's chest. When the bleeding slowed Melisande switched the Sky Child to Janus's other arm. It was not placed properly, and a trickle of blood was making a snaky trail down his arm and dripping into the vat.
The Sage produced a tiny vial and poured it into Maxical's gaping mouth, chanting words in another language that could barely be heard above the howl of the storm. He lay some odd looking leaves in her mouth and signaled to Melisande.
The section of Janus's old cape that held Maxical's blood stain on it had been thrown into the vat, but when Melisande touched the silver dagger to Maxical's heart and then held it into the cauldron the piece of cloak rose to the surface of the bubbling concoction. The blood stain pulled off of it and moved across the roiling liquid to the tip of the dagger, clinging to it.
Very carefully Melisande lifted the blade over Maxical's mouth and dripped the concoction and blood onto the leaves in her mouth. Maxical's face slowly relaxed into a more peaceful repose.
"We're ready for the Priest!" She screamed to Janus. "Hurry!" She pulled the Sky Child from Janus's arm, laying it on one of the crates. Janus picked it up, pocketing it so it wouldn't get blown down and broken in the storm. He ran inside the castle door where Lord Kagrenac was donning his robes for the ritual.
"She's ready." Janus said, then gaped at the sight of Lord Kagrenac in his High Priest robes. Divayth Fyr had also changed out of his Daedric armor into a mages robe that was nearly as fine as that of Sage Vardengroet. Janus quickly ran and donned the rich purple robes of ceremony he held as Count Skingrad. He clipped the white fur collar in the front and let the folds of velvet billow off his shoulders like a cape.
"You look magnificent, my boy." Divayth said, clapping him on the back.
"No time!" Lord Kagrenac grunted, stepping out the door into the howling wind. Janus followed the spry figure of Divayth Fyr out.
Sage Vardengroet was leaning over Maxical's mouth chanting, shaking some liquid over her head every few words. He moved all down her body with the little vial, chanting and shaking it over her.
Melisande was spooning the liquids from the vat under the slab so the vapors would rise and swirl around her. She slipped on one of the bottles that had held the blood, dropping the spoon down into the vat. Cursing, she grabbed up the bottle from the ground and tried unsuccessfully to retrieve her spoon using the bottle as a trawl. Giving up, she dropped the bottle down into the vat.
Lord Kagrenac nodded to Divayth Fyr, and he stepped forward, sprinkling something over Maxical and then poured something into the vat. The bubbling concoction turned a deep blue and the vapors thickened, clinging around Maxical.
Janus felt helpless while the three worked over Maxical, wondering if he should be casting healing spells over her or something.
Lord Kagrenac raised his staff up and began an incantation in his own language. His voice boomed around them in spite of the wind. An echoing of distant thunder answered his words, seeming to come from all directions. As he continued the rumble of thunder sounded closer with each chant until the ground began to shake from it.
Janus looked up to see black clouds rapidly descending on the castle from all directions, and as it neared the thunder and lightning increased, the shaking of the ground became violent till Janus feared Maxical would fall from the slab.
Everywhere he looked the sky was filled with a rolling blackness that blanketed everything, blocking out the moons and even the lights from the fires at the top of the paraqets blanked out as the cloud approached.
********************************
As the thick blackness converged on Cyrodiil, it left its inky trail of fear in its path. Guards on duty began shouting, wanting to get under cover. The few citizens out at that hour of the night thought the end of the world had come, and were fleeing for shelter.
The massive cloud encircled Cyrodiil and began converging rapidly across the lands toward the city of Skingrad. Most of the citizens had hidden in terror; but the rumbling thunder and crashes of lightning that illuminated the sky to a blood red within the cloud did not have the same effect on some.
In Leyawiin, a small Bosmer stepped out of the Fighter's Guild and looked up into the sky. With an excited yell he ran, trying to keep up with the movement of the clouds. As he left the gates to the city, he leapt on a horse he spotted in the stable and kicked it into a full gallop, trying to keep up with the movement of the cloud.
As he galloped past Bravil he was met by an Altmer girl and an older Nord, still wearing his smithy apron. They also grabbed any horse they could, riding at breakneck speed to keep up with the ever-rolling black cloud.
By the time they met with the main path into Skingrad the roads were alive with people following the blackness as it moved across the land. "It's a sign!" they called to one another.
Else God Hater heard the rumbling approaching and felt the ground shaking. She stepped outside the West Weald Inn in time to see the rolling clouds converge from all directions onto Skingrad Castle. The lightning increased as it neared the castle, lighting the entire sky with a bloody red hue painted with the ever changing pattern of the thick black mist that rolled and billowed below it. The streets looked darker than they ever had, the fires that usually lit them and the castle were smothered by the storm as it approached. The ground rocked and shook below her feet.
Hearing shouts, she saw people running toward the castle, excitedly calling to each other, or maybe to the cloud. A smile spread across her face, and she felt her legs stretching into a run as she joined the followers greeting that cloud.
"Lord Dagon, you have finally come to take back what is rightfully yours! Dawn's Beauty it will be once again, this is the sign we have been waiting for!" Else shouted and then as she caught up to the others she was able to hear what they shouted and joined in the chant.
"As Mournhold fell, so will Cyrodiil; as Mournhold fell, so will Cyrodiil!"
*
Thank you so much Foxy, You ROCK !!
muddles me thoughts.. 
