31: Mistery

I awoke. I lay with my eyes closed as I waited for sounds to drift to my ears. The sounds that made their way to me had a shimmering quality to them, like the sweet sounds of small bells. Curiously, I heard no sounds of life; just the strange shimmering whisper. I slowly opened my eyes and saw nothing. It wasn’t like looking at pure darkness, quite the opposite. I was staring at a shifting, grayish mass that floated over me. I drew in breath sharply, surprised to see such an oddity. However, as the air moved into my lungs, the shapeless blob above me shifted with it. I blew the air out of my lungs, watching the mass shift away from me with the air current. I reached up with my hand and poked it very carefully. It resisted for a millisecond, but gave way, and my finger plunged into the blob.

It was not unlike mist, but to call it mist would be a serious understatement. I pushed my other finger into it, this time submerging my entire hand in the mass. I pulled my hand back and examined it for any damage, but I was pleased to find that it was fine. I stood up into the mist, and as I began making my way around like a blind man, I found that the entire guild hall was filled with the mist. I began to assume that some experiment must have gone wrong, but the eerie silence made me worry for my fellow mages. I felt my way out into the cool outside, though I was not entirely sure if it was morning or night.

The mist hung heavy in the mountain air. I was not as familiar with the outside as I was with the interior of the mages guild, but I soon placed my hands on the smooth carved surface of some statue or another. I sat down on the ground with my back to the statue and just watched. The dim gray mist was impenetrable, and I found that my magic was useless. I started running through possible scenarios in my mind, but whatever caused this was beyond my comprehension. I sighed and leaned my head back, my eyes looking up the front of the statue.

At the top of the statue I saw something. I could just barely see it, a dark spot in the gray. I was about to call out to it when it started crawling down the statue at an impressive pace. It crawled more like a spider than a man, though it was obviously humanoid in shape. I froze, stuck to the spot at the base of the statue, unable to move or scream, only to stare at the thing. It moved so incredibly fast that it made it to the base of the statue in seconds, suddenly inches from my face and staring at me with huge, blood-red eyes.

“Curious, isn’t it?” The thing pushed away from the statue and landed a few feet away, standing upright in dark blue robes. It dropped its hood and the Dark One smiled at me. I exhaled sharply, letting out all my terror. I stood up and shook his hand.

“You scared the kwama out of me! Although, it is nice to see a friendly face in this horrible mist. I thought for a second that I was the only one left.” I returned his smile, although I wasn’t as happy as it might have revealed.

“Horrible? I think it’s fantastic! This mist is one of my greatest creations!”

“You made this stuff?”

“Oh yes, just recently in fact. And with it I have conquered one of the few questions that have really puzzled me.”

“What question?” I was a little bit surprised that he had been puzzled by anything, he must be one of the most powerful mages in existence.

“You!”

“Me?” My confusion grew as thick as the mist in the air.

“It’s complicated. Come, have a seat.” He gestured to the bench in front of the statue that I had failed to see before. I felt the mist slowly begin to clear up, and magic began to spark back to life in my veins. “Now, where to begin…”

“When I entered the Cheydinhal guild hall that first day you saw me, I cast upon myself the most powerful spell of concealment I could. Obviously I didn’t want to die lying in the middle of the floor, so with the spell I concealed my true identity and put up an image of someone else. However, when you saw me, you did not see that other person. You saw ME. I thought that perhaps I had made some mistake in casting the spell, but no. The error was not mine. Everyone besides you saw the other person lying on the ground. But you… I thought perhaps you had some powerful spell of revealing, but when I talked to you I could tell you were simply a lowly conjurer. So was there some family trait about you that could see through my deception? Or did my spell simply not work on you? After a few experiments, I realized that the latter was true. My particular form of magic simply did not work on you!”

“But you healed me during the Kvatch invasion! I know you did!” I was beginning to realize what he was talking about, but confusion was still thick.

“Yes, I did. But that was with conventional magic. You see, I use a form of magic that is very different from anything you know. I will not go into details, but suffice it to say I am the only one capable of this type of magic. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. After the Battle of Kvatch, I set out to explore how you could be completely immune to my magic. I traveled far and wide, experimenting on everything from Sloads to the Akaviri Tsaesci. Nothing was even resistant to my magic. So I traced your bloodline back. I found distant relatives of yours, and yet everyone in your family is neither immune nor resistant. So, you are truly a mystery.”

I thought for a moment. “But what about this mist? What is its relevance?”

He leaned in close. “It is a spell of mine that draws away both sound and magic. It proves that not only are you easily terrified, you are also not totally immune to my magic. It proves that you are not as interesting as I had thought.”

30: Blood-soaked Fog

Jauffre wasn’t surprised that I was departing from Bruma. In fact, he had a pack of provisions awaiting me upon my arrival at Cloud Ruler. He said he could see it in my face that I wasn’t really much of a mountain man. I bid him and Martin farewell, and as I rode off through the thick gates I felt satisfied that the Blades trusted me. It reinforced my spirits, and I set my sights on Cheydinhal.

I decided that the main road would take too long, and set off on a shortcut of my own creation. Along the way, I passed by a massive rune stone. The glowing-blue etchings on the surface were of particular interest to conjurers, and as such my memory was sparked. I interpreted the stone to be a Hestra stone, and as I broke down the magical barrier around it I could feel conjuration magic coalescing around my hands and forearms. I broke through and felt the warm crack of the spell on my arms. I looked down and saw that my hands had been covered in gauntlets of daedric design. I felt (or rather, did not feel) the weightlessness of the gauntlets, and swished my hands about in the air. I turned away from the stone, knowing that it had nothing further to offer me at the time, and rode off towards Cheydinhal once more.

My shortcut brought me back up into the Jerall Mountains, and a heavy fog descended upon me as I ascended the mountain. I could barely see five feet in front of me, and as such I nearly ran into the rotting wooden door of some cave. I decided that the cave would make as good a refuge as any, and dismounted to enter. I tied my horse up to the door, knowing that if it got into any trouble it could probably just rip the door off its hinges.

I opened the door and stepped in, where I was immediately hit by the stink of goblins. I was eager to try out the gauntlets that floated around my hands, but I could tell that the spell was weakening. I crept through the cave and found myself looking at a cavern that was crawling with goblins. I readied one of my more explosive spells and waited for an opening in the crowd of goblins. I wanted to hit the center of the group, so as to spread out the damage and hopefully cause confusion as to which direction the attack came from. My plan worked, and the spell not only killed a fourth of them, but left half of the remaining ones hurt and confused. The other half came after me though, and I did not hesitate to burn and freeze them. I didn’t have much time before they overtook me, so I concentrated on my Breton heritage and activated the shield that I had learned as a child. It shimmered into effect and I continued my barrage of the goblins. I had cut down most of them, but a fourth of the original group managed to survive my assault and come face to face with me. Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I drew my axe, which I noticed had been turned into a daedric mace! The Hestra rune stone had conjured up not only gauntlets, but also a mace of deadly efficiency! I laughed and smashed into the goblins bringing the mace around again and again with extreme speed. The weightlessness of the weapon brought a huge advantage to me, and because it was combined with my ancestral shield I did not receive even a scratch from the blunt goblin weapons. I slouched down and laughed at my victory! The bodies of at least two dozen goblins littered the floor, yet I collapsed upon them and just laughed and laughed. The gauntlets and mace disappeared, yet I continued to laugh. The battle lasted probably two minutes, yet I laughed for at least ten. When I stopped laughing, I started becoming worried. I frowned at the carnage I had created and shuffled back outside.

My horse was still there, and the door was still attached, so I assumed nothing bad had happened to my friend while I had been in the cave. The fog was still heavy in the air, and I had to feel my way through with the limited magical sense I had. I found a way to position myself on the map I had by using distinctive magical areas as reference. It wasn’t particularly accurate, but it was the best I could do. I proceeded in this way for some time, and I also used the slope of the mountains to tell me which way I shouldn’t go. Around dusk I sensed a huge, nearby increase in magical activity, and I decided to check it out.

It turned out to be the shrine of a Daedric prince. I nearly jumped when I saw it, but then realized I was looking at a statue of Azura. I breathed out a sigh of relief. Not only was Azura one of the few “good” Daedra, but I also knew exactly where the shrine was in relation to Cheydinal! All I had to do was find out which way was approximately south and I would find my way to Cheydinhal. I approached the shrine carefully, as I knew that dusk was a time of worship for the followers of Azura. They seemed to be performing some ritual, which explained the increase in magical activity. When they had finished, I asked one of them which way south was, and received a warm smile and a set of detailed, but simple, directions to Cheydinhal.

I followed them to the letter and soon came upon the city gates. I smiled, and put my horse in the stables outside the city. The fog was still quite dense, but I found my way to the guild hall and into a warm bed. I fell asleep almost instantly, my weary eyes shutting thankfully.