43: Sharing the Pain

I hobbled along at an increased pace, but I knew that nothing short of a constant sprint could get me to Leyawiin in such a short time. The damned vampire’s expectations were unreasonable. The sun was already beginning its descent by the time I had received Darkasha’s ultimatum, and now it was getting late. I had stopped only once so far, to pay my respects at a wayshrine to Dibella. I had even unwrapped my aching foot and splashed some of the consecrated waters from the basin onto my wound, hoping to cleanse it with the goddess’s blessing. The Khajiit looked on disapprovingly as I did this, his tail flicking irritably from side to side. I re wrapped my wound with a fresh cloth and we set out again.

I did move more freely after the cleansing waters, though still quite difficultly. Darkasha followed me at a distance, flitting between shadows and shrubs so fast that he was simply a blur. He even climbed up a huge tree and began jumping from branch to branch above me as I plodded along, stuck to the ground. I became increasingly angry at him as he showed off his acrobatic talents. He began gaining distance ahead of me and I hurried to catch up to him. Soon I was so angry that I was shooting short blasts of fire at him as he cackled in the treetops.

“Will,” said the echoing voice of the Dark One, “You’re running.”

And so I was. I had been shooting flames from the tip of the Staff and holding it with both hands while running to keep up with the damned Khajiit. All of a sudden, my rage turned to ecstasy. I was running along, laughing at my lack of disability. Then Darkasha was trotting alongside me, moving at an extremely slow pace for him.

“Slow down,” he said, “You will hurt yourself.” I ignored him. I was running again! It was glorious! Why would I stop when there were no signs of pain or…

Then the pain hit. Excruciating, blinding pain shot up my leg, and I screamed and clutched it, tumbling to the ground. It was worse than before. I focused extreme amounts of healing magic into my leg, but the pain wouldn’t fade away. I could even hear the Dark One screaming in my mind, for my pain had transcended the barrier between us. Darkasha forced a bottle to my mouth, and I gulped down a healing potion gratefully. He then gave me another, and I could feel the pain slowly subside.

A few minutes later, I was sitting up and clutching my leg. Tears dripped off of my face slowly, but I had stopped whimpering. Darkasha was standing over me, not forcing me up or even coming very close to me. The Staff lay next to me glowing bright white and vibrating gently. Nevertheless, every movement of the Staff caused it to clatter against the stones quite loudly, and Darkasha flinched at every noise it made.

I reached out and grabbed the staff, and found that it was incredibly warm to the touch. I probed into the Mind of the Dark One and found that he was experiencing incredible pain, as bad as mine had been. In fact, I realized that it was my pain he was living through. Somehow he had siphoned it off and was taking the brunt of it, while I received only a dull ache. Realizing this, I attempted to retrieve some of the pain from him, so that we could share the terrible burden. The glow in the staff subsided as pain ripped through my leg, and once again I was writhing on the ground. At some point, the pain truly diminished, and the staff returned to its usual ebony hue. I was able to quiet the ache in my leg with the help of magic.

Soon I was back on my feet and walking towards Leyawiin. Darkasha became incredibly silent, like a shadow at my side. His cold stare indicated that he had every intention of still making Leyawiin before the next morning, and I soldiered on despite the ache in my leg. In fact, I was moving at an increased pace compared to what I had been able to do the day before, and the ache was fading.

Neither of us said anything as we made our way along the now dark road. Night had fallen during my painful episode, and Darkasha was strengthened by the absence of sunlight. Still, he was incredibly wary. Finally, I broke the silence between us.

“What is wrong?” I said after working out the lump in my throat that remained from my screams. I could see his nostrils flaring then, moving at a quick pace, reading the air.

“Fire.” He said, and I swear that I could hear the fear in his voice. “We are getting closer to it.”

“A forest fire?” The trees were still green and living, surely they couldn’t catch flame that easily.

“No, it is… something else. I also smell,” he sniffed and cocked his head. “Lava… and blood.” He seemed surprised at the presence of blood, but I trusted his nose. Khajiits are known for their sense of smell, and vampires can smell blood from great distances. I had an idea of what he was talking about, but I was afraid to say it.

Then we rounded a corner and I could see the flames. I could also feel the magic that saturated the area. It was a kind of magic that I was very familiar with: Daedric Conjuration. Then I knew, even before I saw the stone pillars that contained the fiery portal, that a gate to Oblivion was open nearby. I gripped the Staff more tightly, then began walking towards the gate. Darkasha grabbed me and stopped my advance.

“What are you doing?” he asked incredulously. “Have you gone mad?”

“No,” I said, “but what I am about to do may seem as such.”

“What?” he asked, releasing me slightly.

“I’m going to close that Oblivion gate.”