» Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:47 am
Chapter 88: The Repercussions
The black cloud that had covered Cyrodiil broke up, turning to wisps of vapor that disappeared with the light breeze that buffeted them. When dawn broke that morning it heralded in a perfect sky. Many said they had never seen such a shade of blue in Cyrodiil.
As the cloud dissipated so did the crowd chanting around the castle. They were seen heading northeast out of Skingrad in what appeared to be a unified pilgrimage. The latest Black Horse Courier that arrived at the castle mentioned that the large pilgrimage was spotted in the foothills of the Jerall Mountains just north of Cheydinhal.
***
Mankar Camoran was surprised at the sudden influx of agents that arrived talking excitedly about a sign from Dagon. Several of them had copies of the Black Horse Courier Special Edition that had been handed to them on their trek. The paper detailed the phenomenon of the huge cloud blocking out the sun for a full day.
Perusing the flyer, he found himself confused as to why Lord Dagon chose to make his sign at Skingrad of all places. It was not exactly as it should be, but there was no doubting it was a sign. Was it possible he had misinterpreted the texts?
Mankar sent his daughter Ruma to the Imperial City to give the signal to Ocato that preparations should begin for their plan to go into action. That delicate matter could only be handled by himself or Ruma; and he needed to be here to gather his flock together and send them out for the battle that was about to begin.
***
Maxical's heavy lids hooded her dark eyes as she stared at Clavicus Vile. She spouted a long line of completely unintelligible gibberish at a rapid pace, interspersed sporadically with a short laugh; but the last words could be clearly distinguished, "bigger'n a' Orc. Am I on kooma?"
Clavicus smiled. He closed his eyes and Shivani appeared next to him. "She's a talkative little thing. Thinks she's on Skooma. Get the lad."
Shivani disappeared again.
"Poof!" Maxical lifted both her hands and then was trying to point at the place Shivani had stood but her hand wobbled in circles. She was talking a mile a minute but no words could be discerned in the jumble that came out.
"Is she alive?" Janus said as he walked into the room.
Maxical stopped pvssyring. "Anus?" Her face crumpled, as if crying. No tears fell, but her breathing got ragged.
Clavicus filled her lungs as Janus ran to the bed.
"Don't cry Maxical. I'm here."
Maxical's unintelligible pvssyr changed to a keening interspersed with gibberish in a scared tone, but she reached out for Janus's hand and clung to it.
"What's she saying? I can't understand her." The fear that her mind had been harmed in that long seizure gripped Janus.
"You may need to do a better job with that cleansing you did earlier lad. It sounds like she is remembering something. Make sure you cover the past week as well as the other, and go back a bit further." Clavicus expression showed his concern.
"I didn't do this past week, only that day." Janus admitted.
"Do it all. Start with right now and go back to well earlier that day than the incident occurred. Don't miss a thing. She is remembering something. Do it quickly." Clavicus was breathing for Maxical again.
"Your cowl, Janus!" Shivani gasped.
***
I was trying to open my eyes but the lids felt too heavy. Voices came and went around me, whispering. Voices I didn't recognize, but somehow seemed familiar. Everything felt strange, even my own body felt alien, complex. I don't know why, but suddenly it felt like I couldn't remember how to move my hands or legs.
There had been a nightmare, I think. It was gone now, and I couldn't drum up enough of the remnants to piece them together and review, figure out what it all meant. Bits and pieces of shattered thoughts and visions wafted in an endless trail that stretched out in the form of dreams playing past eyes that could no longer see their meaning.
Vile places of retched lost souls, loneliness and sadness; gleaming walls of blackened glasslike stone, dark and bitter cold. Sometimes the feeling someone was there, close.
The fragments of visions, sounds. The Gods opened up the skies, and all of Tamriel lay beneath me. Echoing around me was the sound of chanting, and a vision of Cyrodiil covered in fire, molten lava and armies of Daedra - and I stood in the midst of it with a sword in my hand. Revelations coming as a flash, gone before I could grasp their meanings. I learned that space and time are illusions of our realm; in the void all exist simultaneously.
There were rushing winds, and the noise of a thousand banshees screaming at once and then suddenly I lay here, in a bed that still carried my scent from my incarceration. A new battle began then, a war within me, as if I fought against myself. I felt the weight of two giants standing on my chest, pushing out the air, and I could not take more in. Then suddenly the windows fell open and the sound of a wolf howling echoed in my ear, and there he stood beside my bed. His heart beat as if playing only to my ears, the sound of it called to me, "My sister, my sister."
No need of mentioning a giant with the horns of a goat, or the ghost of a Khajiit, or ancient men come to life from my textbooks at the Arcane; any may dream these things. Easier these than the rest before them. But how fractal and fragile the next; a vampire with the voice and mannerisms, the scent of Janus. He even healed me the way Janus does. Every curve of his hand fit to mine the way Janus's does. Do the Gods mock me in my illness?
All these splashes of visions played through my mind only to disappear too quickly for me to grasp their significance. Then somehow these fragments began fading slowly; fading into Oblivion maybe, for I am waking now, and can remember naught but my pain. Was it shards of memory? Omens? Or maybe just a nightmare?I don't know.
My chest hurts terribly, as if it has been crushed. I lay a long time trying to remember getting an injury to my chest, but couldn't?was my shoulder injured too? Yes?but where, in the Arena? I remember a big Nord?no, no. That was a long time ago. Why could I not remember where I injured my chest; or my shoulder, for that matter? I think I was going to Anvil?I don't remember if I ever arrived though. My head was starting to hurt from thinking. And my eyes hurt as well. They felt like gravel from a desert had been ground into them, sore and dry.
By concentrating really hard I would manage to force my eyelids to raise a slit, but every time I did it was to the same dream. I wondered if I would ever wake from it. There was a giant, and a ghost, and two men older than time itself sometimes were in it. And Janus was there too, most of the time. I thought I saw a vampire once, and it spoke in Janus's voice.
I tried to talk, but no one seemed to understand my words?not even me. Even to my own ears it sounded like gibberish, strange. At first that made it feel like a nightmare. I couldn't make my body move right, or talk to anyone. Other than that, everyone was smiling at me, it wasn't?scary. Just weird, disjointed fragments of strangers and strange things.
I just wanted to wake up. I was tired of it, no way to move or communicate with those around me. What use is a room full of people if you cannot join them in conversation? I wanted to be understood, to move at will. My mind seemed to work, so was I paralyzed? I couldn't stand the thought of that.
Just having that word slip into my mind for that split second was devastating. I wanted to prove to myself I wasn't and tried to move my legs but couldn't. I tried to talk and everyone just stared at me smiling like they always did, but no one understood what I was trying to say.
I tried to cry but couldn't do that either. Nothing was working right. Something was happening to my breathing then. It felt like someone really heavy sat on my chest and wouldn't get up. The blackness started coming then, but I fought it. A vampire was leaning over me?healing me like Janus used to.
***
I must have drifted off, I woke up to the sound of a female Khajiit talking. It wasn't S'Jirra, definitely not S'Krivva. The voice was cultured, educated. She was speaking to someone and then I felt someone moving me around, touching my bottom. Rufio? No, I killed him, it couldn't be. I reached down and grabbed the hand.
"Touch me and die!" I said, then added a few curses I had learned from Janus. I spoke only in Khajiit.
"She is still babbling." A familiar voice said. Janus!
A booming voice spoke then. "No lad, she is speaking in Khajiit. Where did she learn those words?"
"Janus!" I turned my head toward the sound of his voice and tried to open my eyes. It felt like they were stuck shut, the lids weighed so heavily that I could barely lift them a crack. It was enough, I saw the cowled head leaning over me. "Janus!" I tried to raise my hand up to him and he took it in his and moved in close enough that I could smell him, that wonderful familiar scent, and coming from him and not that vampire from my dreams.
"Janus, I?I don't feel so good." It wasn't what I started to say. A million words had come rushing, wanting to be said all at once, and that is the only one that made it out.
"I know. You've been very ill." Janus spoke so closely to me that I could smell his breath, feel the familiar lightheadedness I always got when he was close.
"Will you?comfort me?" The sounds in the room began to fade as my eyelids drooped back closed. Before I slipped back into the darkness of the sleep that was overtaking me, I felt Janus's arms wrap around me, it was comforting to lay my head on his chest and hear his heart thumping, smell his scent.
***
I woke from an unfamiliar touch on my hand. It must have been part of my dream. A giant stood next to me holding my hand. He had the horns of a goat on his head, and his eyes slanted oddly, but he looked nice ?wait, was a ghost Khajiit hugging him? No, surely it must be one that had some chameleon on.
The Khajiit looked at me like?she was oddly familiar, and I tried to figure out who she was supposed to be representing in my dream, it had to be someone I knew.
She barely reached his waist. Still, she had her arms wrapped about him.
I laughed, letting my eyes close again. "I'm dreaming of a ghost touching a giant's butt!" I whispered as I drifted back off to the sound of laughter.
***
******* Maxical Finally Alive Again:
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/151/l_b384582624b14cfeb9e9f965246ea2ae.jpg
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