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HERE FOLLOWS A PART OF THE TALE OF ELLIANA AND DALACARD After docking in Solitude, Elliana made her way to the Reach. It felt good to get away from the intense desert sun of Hegathe and into the chilly climate of the hold she still called home. She had forgotten how much she missed the mountains and the streams. She traveled to the area around Reachwater Rock. She wanted to enjoy the mountain air and it was a good place to find juniper berries. She found a decent place between a cliff and a small gray rock formation to store her things and put a small pouch on her belt to hold the berries or any other interesting ingredients she might find. She took a calm breath and closed her eyes, listening to the waterfall nearby, as the streams of water bounced off the rocks into the pool below. She dusted her hands with powdery soil, then began to climb the cliff base where the juniper branches seemed to grow from the rocks themselves. Unbeknown to the adventurer, from the opposite way the heavy footsteps of a tall man echoes throughout the stark and lonely winds of the Reach. The leather of his quite weirdly fashioned boots (dark, leathered material, going up to the knee but with Akaviri-styled openings to the toes) sometimes lightly and sometimes loudly clashed against the stone ground in that land of old - older than life, but younger than death. What brought him to tread that path was likely the same thing that brought Elliana that way - a rather touristic point of interest, and the annotations of old Masters of Magic that led him to a place in which testing his new discoveries of tomes would be appropriate. If the sound of Elliana's feet and hands touching against the rock was heard by any animal with more keen hearing, even Dalacard and his sharpened senses couldn't. He heard, however, the strong sound of the waterfalls, and the streams of River Karth. Elliana continued up the small cliff face, her pouch and rope swinging from her belt as she climbed. She tested the footholds and handholds in the rock before putting her full weight on them. After a moment, she looked down to the ground below and figured she wasn't much higher than the roof of a small house. It was nothing she hadn't done many times before. She spied a juniper branch with a small nest at it’s base, tangled in scaly leaves. She reached up to check for rock warbler eggs inside and heard a loud screech from behind her. Startled, she felt her foot slip off its foothold. She cried out and quickly grabbed at a piece of rock jutting out from the cliff and steadied herself. Her heart was pounding. She closed her eyes and took a breath as she held herself against the cool stone. She laughed at herself for being so easily 1 startled. There would be more eggs in nests elsewhere. She didn’t have a mind to mess with disgruntled rock warblers today. She made sure she was steady enough to free up one of her hands and leaned away from the cliff to take the rope off her belt. Elliana looked several yards above her and saw a spot where a fault in the cliff had left a section of rock jutting out from the top. Not a bad target to lasso her rope onto as she finished her climb to another small juniper tree at the base of the formation. She tossed the loop of her rope above her and watched as it hit the rock, then fell back down. She steadied herself, then took the rope again and tossed it up. This time it looped itself around the rock formation. She gave it a tug and felt the rope draw tight. She tugged once more. Then, she put both her hands on the rope and held her feet against the cliff as she continued to climb. She heard a snap and watched the juniper fall, then felt a lurch as her rope dragged the rock section from the cliff. The last thing she felt was a sinking feeling in her stomach and the sharp pain of cold stone on her head. As she woke, she heard the sound of the firewood cracking in contact with an orange, well-lit fire. Above her only moon and stars, but then, as she started to regain her senses, the sound of the waterfalls also filled the environment with its thunderous chant. Beside her laying, two things, a golden longsword of an odd shape, connected strangely to the firewood and she quickly deduced there was a fire enchant on it, that was providing the never-ending fire to the wood. Moreover, she found a piece of armour - that by itself may have startled Elliana since the armour was not hers - it was of a red and black colour, a collection of metal plates, one upon the other, and a chest plate of significant size stood near the fireplace, and it eventually reflected the shine of fire into her eyes, and that caused her to redirect her sight somewhere else. Nearby the waterfall knelt a person - she couldn’t tell the gender due to the length of the silver hair. But as the man got up to observe if the dark articles of clothing he had attempted to dry by the fire were already dry, she noticed it was a man. His eyes were maroon but reflected strangely to the colour of fire, eventually burning yellow when conflicted against that light. His eyebrows were of a grey colour as if he had simply aged, but no, there was joviality to his expression despite the colour of his hair or the expression in his face that seemed scarred by the passing of many stars and seasons. His square face was framed by the style of his hair, but he pushed it back and tied his forehead protector to his head. The metal quickly shone in reflection against the firelight, and it must have been then that the man became aware of Elliana's presence. He turned his maroon eyes at her without moving his head - the speed of that seemingly natural movement was such that the yellow light that was said to be produced by the contact of his iris with the light of fire seemed to linger in the air before locking itself where his eyes were. Whatever feeling this glance might have 2 immediately produced, Elliana would soon realize there was nothing to logically fear - she wore yet the same wet clothes with which she had fallen into the water, and her hair, if any drier, was only so because of the time that must have elapsed since the fall and up to the awakening. The man would never have known if she had instinctively and secretly pulled a dagger from her untouched satchels to protect herself, but any suspicions that were a man not to be trusted vanished slowly, and then entirely when a smile formed on his face, white teeth bringing apparent light to that open darkness and relaxation to that silent tension. “You are awake, at last”, said the Breton she had found. “Restoration always challenged me in terms of ability, but I could not risk waiting for help. You bled profusely.” Elliana remembered the feeling of falling before she had blacked out. She felt her damp clothing and began putting the pieces together in her mind. She brought her hand up to feel her forehead and noticed no remnant of the boulder that had hit her. She sat up. “Thank you”, she said, still a bit confused. If this stranger hadn't found her, she may not still be here. She looked back at the golden sword, which reminded her of something that she couldn't place at the moment. Her mind was scattered. “How did you find me?” She hadn't noticed anyone around at the time. The Breton approached and slowly knelt before the woman. He wore on his upper body an item of clothing that was used yet below the dark attire he used under his plate armour. His rather pale skin was revealed more thoroughly in that manner, as he had to enter the water to rescue the woman. “I had come for a walk here”, said the Breton, simply. “Sadly, the noise that is produced by the waterfalls would not allow me to have heard you as you fell, even if you shouted for help. You might have bled more than the usual for your blood to be so abundant as to produce the scent it did. Following your track, I could only find you far from here, being carried by the river. I brought you back and tended to your wounds. I may be able to attest you are healed now”, said he, and slowly reached his hands for her forehead. He touched the woman's skin and only then she felt a bitter pressure and an acute pain. He had stitched the area in which the boulder might have tore the skin apart for more approachable ease in using Restoration Magic. Even though he was never a practitioner of such School, the stitched area seemed not to bleed upon touch. She winced a bit at the pressure on her forehead. So there was the wound. She was glad she hadn't been awake to feel most of it, or the stitches for that matter. Elliana could take pain, but it still didn't make it fun. As the foggy feeling began to wear off, she listened to the words he said to her. She was definitely lucky. Lucky that she had fallen in the water, lucky that she hadn't drowned, lucky that he had found her by... 3 “I'm sorry, did you say the... scent of my blood?” She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. She must have taken a worse hit than she thought. She couldn't have heard him correctly. She moved to stand and felt dizzy suddenly. No. Not standing just yet. The ground was good for now. “Blood has a particular smell”, said the Breton. Not quite the world's greatest liar, but simply in an effort to omit information he might have over-given with his guard down. “...it's easy for you to smell it when you have been around it for a large part of your life. I am a combatant, somewhat. Although that was not my original profession, as it is of no man's.” Once more a smile continued to grace his face. He was now knelt before her, with both hands over his leg, and he, perhaps in an attempt to humor the woman, used a purple magic to bring a canteen of water from the position of a rock nearby all the way to his hand, telekinetic magic. “Here”, said the silver-haired man, “you must drink water.” She nodded. It made sense. She might be able to identify a fallen animal by the smell of its blood alone... if she had been up close. It didn't matter though, he was right she needed to drink something. She smiled as the canteen floated over. So, a practitioner of multiple schools of magic, she thought to herself. She took the canteen and took a long drink, handing it back to him when she was finished. She realized she didn't know his name, nor had she told him hers. “I'm Elliana,” she said, extending her hand. “and, it appears as though I am in your debt.” She smiled. He bowed his head in thankfulness for the canteen of water - it was made of green wood, easy to maneuver through carving. He took it to his lips and sipped lightly. When he finished, he looked at the woman - he had heard that name once, and read it in a letter sent to one of his apprentices. “I am Dalacard”, said he, and returned the canteen to where it was. “And this is technically my jurisdiction to guard. You are natural to the Reach? I have heard of an Elliana before.” “I am", she said. “Well, I was born here.” Then she realized the name he gave. Why was it familiar? Her eyes went immediately to the den sword. The Blades. She remembered Aurelia and Mariber mining gold outside the city and the mention of Dalacard by Ebon. “Master Dalacard Rethwode of the Blades?” She was surprised. It made sense to her. Sky Haven Temple wouldn't be too far from here, she thought. 4 “Well, that is me”, he said with a humbleness colouring the tone of his voice, as he lightly pointed towards his own chest. He seemed to shrug and a slight smile seemed to form on the corner of his mouth. ''And funnily, after some studying in the field of anthroponymy, I have come to known that the name actually means ‘the king of the settlement over the mountain’”, said the Breton, with a grin. “But I digress”, he continued, getting up eventually. He extended his hand for Elliana to hold and get up from the position in which she was laying, half sat now. He had a large hand, and blue veins seemed to be visible in its upper part. “I have come to see a particular phenomenon today, and it's not quite depressing to have company for it.” Elliana looked up at him. He had a particular manner that left her at ease. He didn't seem overly ceremonial or serious. She didn't know what she had expected from a master of the Blades, but the reality was comforting. She took his hand and pulled herself up. She felt a rush in her head, which subsided after a few seconds. “What phenomenon would that be?”, she asked at last. She looked at him curiously. “Due to my medical endeavours today, I have not been able to set up camp upon the top of this rock as I had originally planned”, said he, carefully letting go of her delicate hands to put one of his hands to his own waist and the other to scratch the back of his neck as he smiled ungracefully. “No matter, for nature always has beauty in its own fashion, and the unplanned things never cease to amaze - or, at least, surprise.” He looked up. They were quite literally at the bottom of the waterfall, and above them, the stars seemed to be agitated, and the Moons were close together. If Elliana would take her eyes from the stunning view and turn them to the Breton's face, she would notice that he was staring so very austerely at the sky that it was as if a certain content of much importance laid there. At last, the Grandmaster turned his maroon eyes to her, once again extending his arm. “There is a fast way upwards. Shall we?” Elliana looked up to the sky as he did. It was completely clear and she could see the vapor of her breath against the black sky. For the first time she realized she was cold. It was like her senses were returning to her slowly. She picked up her belongings and put her heavy cloak over her shoulders. The cave bear fur was warm against her neck. She watched him extend his arm to her and she looked up at the cliff above. Up again. She thought. She hesitated, but took his arm anyway. “Why not?”, she shrugged. This time there would be no dangers to her well-being or safety. As soon as she touched his arm, she watched as the Grandmaster's irises changed colours to a bright purplish tonality, and then, if she had reclaimed any senses, it was time to lose 5 them again. Perhaps when he did it first, Dalacard felt as odd, but Elliana suddenly lost her ground and felt like falling all over again - only to be safeguarded by the arm to which she was holding onto, and then, after less than a second, her feet hit the rock once more, steadily. And suddenly, just like that, they were standing at the top of Reachwater Rock, just beside a tree which leaves seemed to be falling from numerously, and above a very small symbol of that same purplish tonality. She felt as Dalacard let go of her and as the leaves of the tree started to float around as if dancing in the air the clouds seemed to gather darker. By the time she'd turn to look, the Grandmaster had walked some steps towards the edge of the mountain, and there he stood, observing the sky. “It is a very special night, Elliana. Have you ever been to Elsweyr?” Startled at first, Elliana instinctively grabbed onto his shoulder with her free hand, but let go when she realized what was happening. She hadn't experienced magic of this kind before. She was in awe as they touched down on the hard ground. She reached out to touch one of the leaves, that hovered and swirled in the air, as Dalacard moved away from her. She followed, walking up behind him. “I haven't been to Elsweyr”, she said. The fact that she had led a closed and sheltered life had become more and more apparent to her these past few years. She didn't fault her parents for wanting to protect her, but she wished she had more life experience. “Have you?”, she asked, looking up at the silver stars in the immense vault of the sky. It seemed from up here to go on forever, unobstructed by the boulders and trees of the Reach. She thought for a moment about how everyone she knew and had met might be looking up at the same stars she now saw. The experience was humbling. “I have, in fact”, said Dalacard Rethwode. Silently, flashes of memory crossed his mind in rapid sequences - blood, rain, barricades, invasion. He certainly had not been in Elsweyr for tourism. Yet, he had come to know their culture, and negotiate with Anequina for a period of time. If only Elliana could read the Grandmaster's mind, she would be able to realize how bitter those memories were, a fact that went easily unnoticed considering the kind smile the Grandmaster had carved on his face. He turned in a slow manner, and the smile that had earlier put Elianna at ease returned to his face. “The Moons are in a quite rare position, can you see?”, he started saying, pointing at Masser and Secunda, that seemed to be approaching closer and closer now, “It is the day of the Dead Moon. Today the Moons align, and, as the khajiit would theorize, a third moon seems to appear: the Den of Lorkhaj”, he says, and goes silent for a moment. “Of course,” he interjects, swiftly breaking the silence with a joyful voice, “it's a cultural explanation. In fact, what happens is that the Moons overlap one another, and the Sun shines over both. It's an eclipse, simply. But in Elsweyr, this is a herald of the birth of a new Mane. Where Jode and Jone govern the fate of true 6 Khajiit, the Dark Moon governs the fate of the dro-m'Athra, the souls of fallen Khajiit who are condemned on death to serve the Heart of Lorkhaj ‘until their tails are straight’. Curious, isn't it?” He turns to Elliana and a satisfied and kind smile is across his complexion. It is as if the Grandmaster was truly passionate about the culture of a foreign culture so far from the matters with which he was usually preoccupied. Elliana listened intently. Much of her cultural knowledge came from civilizations that had vanished long ago, leaving behind only their few material remains. She found his explanation of the eclipse according to the Khajiit incredibly interesting. “Cultural explanations are just as real as scientific ones”, she said, sharing his smile. “They both share the same basis, which is observations of the cycles that occur on our world such as the changing of the seasons or life, death and rebirth. Our very lives depend on an understanding of these concepts. They guide us. Whatever names or stories we give them doesn't matter in the grand scene of things”, she paused, adding: “Not to mention that they are fascinating.” “You understand it in quite a curious way, Elliana”, the Grandmaster said, turning his eye to the Moons. “In this world, many different names are often given to the same thing. War is often named peace, and hate is often named love. Of course, that's part of the duality represented in our cosmology.” He laughed slightly. Not even so far away from the classroom, he was, at that point, able to behave differently than a mentor. He considered all that explaining utterly unnecessary for the moment, and remembered that some things went better appreciated for whatever the viewer sees them as. When he turned to the Bosmer and her smooth, straight brown hair, she seemed to be fascinated, also looking at the Moons. He decided not to interrupt her admiration and simply approached, moving his hands back and forward, eventually creating a magical field around them, through which they could directly glance at the Dark Moon without direct damage to their eyes. He seemed to adjust with his hands how strong the field apparently was, and as a very thin circle of purple aura surrounded the two observers, Dalacard Rethwode sat down, and, under the beautiful chant of the waterfalls and the sight of the Moons approaching, he waited patiently for the eclipse to finally happen. Elliana listened to Dalacard’s words. “I suppose I do”, she said. She hadn’t ever really considered the way she thought about things before. It was very normal to her. She spent more time considering the ways that others thought about things. With that, she briefly pondered Dalacard’s approach to duality and concluded that duality existed to her as opposite sides of the same coin. Not as a comparison of two different ones. 7 She would save that discussion for a different time though. She simply stood and watched the two Moons move closer to each other, slowly overlapping. Her gaze shifted momentarily to the sphere of magic as it surrounded them. Another phenomenon she found fascinating. She glanced at Dalacard out of the corner of her eye and watched his movements as the sphere completely engulfed them. Then, she looked back at the moons that had now overlapped, and the shadow that slowly began to project onto them. “So, what did you think of Elsweyr and the Khajiit?”, she asked finally. She wondered how different they were in their homelands, away from the confines and prejudice of the men and mer of the rest of Tamriel. He was ready to answer when suddenly he was stopped. As she glanced to him, waiting for an answer, she saw as his silver hair (so contrasting to the dark artefacts of clothing he was using) slowly turned, and his jaw dropped just a little bit and a complexion of surprise gave place to a smile. The Moons slowly started to overlap each other. Masser was behind, and Secunda went ahead, and growing in size, seemed to fully fill the entire space previously occupied by Masser. Then, Masser's crimson colour seemed to disappear, and Secunda's grey aspect started to darken exponentially, until... yes, that was the moment. The Moons had finally overlapped, and an alabaster colour seemed to shine behind it. To try and describe such a sight with words would hardly do it justice. The expression on Dalacard's face was one of certain joy and satisfaction - as if he, so veteran an habitant of this world, had just received a treat from an estranged father or had just reconciled with those Gods that had for such a long time put him through so much work with so little reward. He thought of finally answering Elliana's question then, when he turned and observed how mesmerized she seemed to be. Her wide Bosmeri irides seemed to contain an entire universe within them, blending colours and reflecting slightly the sigh ahead of them. Her characteristic elven face seemed poetic under the light of an eclipse, for the Bosmers were so much more connected to nature than Dalacard as a Breton could ever understand. Then he quietly smiled and turned back to the Moons, observing them. Elliana watched the shadow of Magnus as it engulfed Secunda and Masser. Her ears perked up. The leaves stopped rustling in the trees and the water seemed to fall silent. She heard no insects or other animals stirring in the grasses or on the rocks. The environment around her seemed to go quiet and still. It was as though the whole of Nirn paused in observance of this celestial event. She was unsure if it was the magic, or if one plane could, in actuality respond to the others. She would add that to the growing list of things she hadn't yet pondered, but would like to do so. Elliana realized in this instant that she often spent every hour of every day living either in the distant past or the immediate future. There was a remarkable sense 8 of peace in simply experiencing the present, especially this moment, which she knew was significant in so many ways. She shifted her glance from the joining of the moons, to the stars around it. They seemed brighter, larger even. As if the multitude of gateways to Aetherius were slightly expanding. She placed her palms on the ground behind her and reclined slightly for a better view. She felt Dalacard’s gaze on her and turned to look, but his attention had shifted once more to the sky above them. Elliana closed her eyes briefly, shutting off most of her senses. She took in a slow breath, then let it escape, opening her eyes again to the sky. His sharp, somewhat hoarse voice, brought Elliana's attention one more time to his face, framed by his silver hair. He had an apprehensive expression to his maroon eyes as he finally spoke, breaking the long silence they so solemnly shared under the magnificent view of the phenomenon of nature. “In response to your question”, started the Grandmaster, and he had a solemn voice, that of one who conveys a serious message: “I have learned of their religious and monarchical relationship to their Mane. As much as the Divines tend for us, and the Hist tends to the Argonians, Masser and Secunda, these embodied symbols of Lorkhaj, are said to tend for the folk of Elsweyr. No more than one khajiit born under this Dead Moon becomes the Mane, and even then, he will be said to be the reincarnation of previous ones. It heralds that there is a cloud of darkness ahead - it's giving the khajiit people someone to protect them. This has not left my head for the past five years. We all feel a storm is coming, and strange happenings have been witnessed. But who are we supposed to protect? And... from what?”. He closed his eyes after moving them away, slowly, as if silently thanking the world for this spectacular view, and then opened them again looking down, to the ever-moving branches of the trees below, dancing to the sound of the breeze. Away, he saw the illuminated Sky Haven Temple - they were high enough to see the majority of the landscape of the Reach - and he imagined the innocence of a group of students marvelled for such a view, entirely unaware of the dark implications Dalacard had just mentioned to Elliana. Again, of course, he felt overexplaining, attempting to deconstruct something beautiful to see its contents, and to understand its existence. No such thing was needed, at least not for an adventurous soul as Elliana's seemed to be. She noticed his eyes. The color she had assumed was a reflection of the firelight, seemed not to be after all. She had seen eyes like his before, but couldn't remember where. She however gave his explanation her full attention. She assumed he had many more stories of travels around Tamriel. She would very much like to hear them if she ever got the chance. She furrowed her brow as his tale took a darker turn, not in fear but in curiosity. “What storm?”, she asked, using his own metaphor. 9 She herself had witnessed no signs of impending danger, but of course she hadn't been looking for any either. It was a Blade's job to be aware of danger and threats to those they vowed to protect, was it not? She looked back up as the Magnus's shadow continued on its path and began to move from the surface of Secunda. The light from the joined moons slowly intensified and began to light up the sky once more. What could he say? The Grandmaster was no less human, no less susceptible to a certain feeling of paranoia and fear than the next man. There was a storm forming, of course, but the sky was currently very clear - there were some clouds invited to watch the spectacle of the eclipse. Regardless, quite suddenly, as if the last touch of the architects of an elaborate play, the final soliloquy of the protagonist, comes a calm rain. The raindrops fell delicately against the magical barrier Dalacard had created around them, and the Breton was forced to look up and acknowledge them, smiling comfortably because of his creation - it seemed to have helped in more than one way, at least. And as the stars seemed to give place to a large number of clouds (those, the red curtains closing as the stars bowed their heads before the applause), the Grandmaster chose not to answer that specific question. It was better left to wander in the air forever. “Have you ever considered how appalled we become in face of things that are rare?”, he says, after watching Masser and Secunda gloriously return to their original positions. “I felt I would be disappointed when the Dark Moon was gone, but I am seeing an entirely new beauty to the Moons in their original form.” Elliana saw the clouds roll in. She was drawn, as much as Dalacard was, to the sight of the rain drops as they fell against the sphere around them. “I hadn't even expected to see it”, she said. “But I'm glad I did. Looking at something in a different way can help you appreciate it more, I guess”. She smiled and laid back in the grass with her hands cradling her head. She closed her eyes and continued to listen to the rain. After a time, she opened her eyes. She had been meaning to ask him but had gotten caught in viewing the eclipse. “How are Aurelia and Mariber?", she inquired. Elliana turned to face Dalacard, hoping that the news of them would be good. Dalacard was rather surprised as he saw the Bosmeri adventurer lean back against the grass. He realized he stood barefoot, and that she (that he did not mention because of a certain lack of convenience) had lost one of her leather boots in the process of being carried away in the river. It was rather odd to see that person so tranquil, after having seen her face coloured with blood and dirt. He had spent a share of time knelt beside her unconscious body, attempting to clean the blood that had dried, and dry the blood that still poured out of her forehead. She seemed rather defenceless then, no different than many men Dalacard had seen be healed and saved 10 during battles; now she seemed so alive - more than most unscathed men in the world, and so fierce. He also chose to lay upon the grass, looking up towards the sky, as he was much interested in seeing the raindrops fall against the purplish sphere in which they were. He did not turn his face to her to answer, and, in a slow narrative, began to explain how much the protagonists of the story Elliana wanted to hear had changed since their last meeting. “Mariber has achieved some repute throughout Skyrim, differently than he had in the past. He was once a mercenary, as you might have noticed from his harsh appearance, and had a place in the court of a tyrant in the past. He was seen by the commoners as a butcher for the former King. Now, he enters the City of Markarth regarded as a hero! That change is amusing to me, but I cannot begin to imagine what it must feel like to him. As for Aurelia”, said the Grandmaster, and paused slightly. He cocked his head to the side before speaking again, with a kind smile. “Although I have been worried about certain possibilities, I think she is going to be more available for visitations in the near future. As far as I know, she is in Solstheim currently, but I should have known she doesn't belong in the field. I have been considering preparing her to be the official alchemist of the Order. I think it would humour her, at least!” He proceeded to cradle the back of his head with only one of his hands - although his clothing was entirely black, down to his heel, his forearm was covered by leather protection of red colour - and placed the other hand upon his own chest, and it went up and down as he would breathe. “And, yes”, said he, turning to look at Elliana. “Our kind is not used to looking at things in a different way. But this experience has reminded me of a secret I learned a long time ago and had nearly forgotten. There's a whole world out there waiting for you. Great cities, and art, and music… genuine beauty. Next time you stumble upon it, don't take it for granted.” Elliana never would have suspected Mariber to be a butcher. He had after all come to her intent on assisting Aurelia achieve her golden sword. He had been a man of few words, yes but what he had said to her seemed gracious and genuine. Whatever his past was, she was happy that he was now doing well. As for him being branded a hero, she suspected he might take it quietly. When Dalacard spoke of Aurelia, however, Elliana wondered if his words were anything to be concerned about. She wondered what possibilities he might be referring to, but was glad that she seemed at least to be doing well. She smiled at the possibility of her being a great alchemist. It was a subject that she to had in interest in. Maybe when they saw each other again, they could talk about it. Elliana heard the grass rustle as Dalacard shifted his head to look at her, so she turned her head as well. His soul seemed far older than his face would have anyone believe. He was wise, as she had always assumed a leader of the Blades should be. 11 Although, his appeared to be the kind of wisdom that came from experience rather than books, scrolls and conversations. He was right though, she thought to herself. New encounters shouldn’t be taken for granted. This evening for her would not be anything easily forgotten. She felt almost childlike again thinking about new possibilities the world might hold. She remembered her desires as a child to visit the Maromer of Pyandonea or to rediscover Yokuda. She found a new desire to do those things and yet, she hadn’t even visited the whole of Tamriel. “Where else have you been, Master Dalacard?”, she asked. Any questions directed at him with Master as a prefix to his name made him feel inside Sky Haven Temple. He was, at that point, so disconnected from his reality, as he frequently used to be in his lone wanderings or when he chose to appreciate something else than his duty to the Order, that he caught himself surprised at the mention that he was still a Blade Master. He had glimpsed into different realities than his own before, and that was a similar feeling. And Dalacard said: “I have had a hard life and long; and the leagues that lie between here and Hammerfell are a small part in the count of my journeys. I have crossed many mountains and many rivers, and trodden many plains, even into the far countries of Argonia and to Lyg, where the stars are strange. But my home, such as I have, is in the North. Our days have darkened, and we have dwindled, but ever the Order of the Blades has stood its vigil. Lonely men are we, Blades, hunters – but hunters ever of the servants of darkness; for they are found in many places, not in darkness only.” As he spoke, he saw that his words were adding in weight to the tone of his voice and that the atmosphere had grown heavy with the sound of those righteous words. He then relaxedly sighed, and when confronted with the choice of whether to continue to stare into her large green irides or to turn back his glance towards the Moons, he chose to remain as he was. He silently regretted the subject of enemies and the duty of his Order, in a place that he had gone to in the attempt to escape it momentarily. “But there are places, such as this, that are pure.” Elliana had always looked upon Sky Haven as the birthplace of legends. It had been to her a spot where those few that were brave and strong enough undertook the responsibility of defending Tamriel. Her father had always made it sound so at least. She saw now that even Dalacard, the leader of the Order was not merely a warrior. His identity traversed the realms of a warrior and a man. He had his own mind, his own hopes and wishes separate from those his duty bound him to. Elliana was familiar with that feeling herself now that her own identity was not only divided between her personal desires and her duty to Hegathe, but that the place she called home often shifted from the Reach to the Alik’r desert and back. 12 Now, she found herself wanting to know more about Dalacard, the man. Indeed, she was interested in how his duties and adventures had shaped him, but he was more than that and she was curious about who he was before the Blades even. Despite her curiosity she set those questions aside in her mind. She didn’t want to ask anything too personal after having known someone for such a short time. She chose instead to continue asking about his travels. “I have never heard of Lyg before.” She said. “Where is it?”, the thought of a place on Nirn that she didn’t know of was intriguing. How could Dalacard begin to explain it? It happened in a time of his life he got close to experience more power than a mortal body could hold, and, at that time, he was more connected to Magnus than ever before. After the Dragon Break, many of his aptitude to magicka either weakened or vanished. Several Schools of Magic he had learned simply vanished from his memory, giving place to other, banaler thoughts and memories. He remembered that he lived long years in what would be shorter spans of time in Nirn. Of course, he would have to explain to Elliana that Lyg wasn't exactly belonging to the same plane of existence in which they were and that it was called the Adjacent Place, a parallel version of Tamriel which can only be reached by sliding sideways in some unusual manner, only being entered through its "non-cardinal" directions. The realm was said to have been created during a strange occurrence in which Nirn was folded up, with Tamriel leaving a klecksographic imprint of itself in some unknown location, that being Lyg. Everything vaguely associated with Tamriel would be, in turn, related to Lyg in some way. “I cannot begin to explain where it is since I arrived there through powers beyond my own understanding”, explained the Grandmaster, and as he realized that for the third time he was starting to get sombre when explaining, he decided to take a more joyful tone to it, and an even humorous one: “All I can say is that it is a parallel existence, and thus, of course, there was another Dalacard Rethwode there! To my everyday regret, I chose not to approach or meet him, due to the consequences that might have fallen upon me. No doubt there was another Elliana, and who knows what our other selves would have told us? Clearly, they weren't quite as civilized as ourselves, neither they looked like us. The inhabitants of Lyg aren't quite man, mer or beast - they are named Grabbers, and that's enough to imagine how despicably ugly they are.” He laughed heartily, and his thorax filled itself with air, and the palm that rested upon it moved to his silver hair, and then paired with his other hand to cradle his head. As he once again turned to Elliana, he saw a marvelled, but sleepy complexion. Not to his surprise at all - she had just suffered a major concussion and had lost a worrisome quantity of blood. Plus, not that they could count, but they had been there for at least two hours since the eclipse. 13 “There is a happy ending, though”, smiled the Grandmaster. “It is said that Lyg has a quite rare commodity, and I had the privilege of seeing it first hand. Can you guess what that is?” Elliana had never heard of such a place in her life. She knew, of course, that there were other planes of existence, but they belonged to beings far more powerful than herself and even Dalacard. His tale was an interesting one. She pondered the thought of another version of herself, but not herself at all. Would it have been a being that possessed opposite qualities and characteristics? She had a hard time grasping a concept that was so removed from this world. Elliana also wondered what might have happened if he had met his Grabber in that realm. Would everything they knew at this point be altered in some way? His laughter brought her thoughts back to the present moment and she smiled. She genuinely enjoyed hearing his stories. he had a way of capturing attention. It was in the way he described things. Colorful might be a term she would add to the list of qualities that the Grandmaster possessed. “I'm not sure I could guess in a million years”, she said, anticipating the answer to be just that, something that might only be understood by someone who had witnessed it. It didn't take away from her desire to know the answer though. She turned her body and tucked her arm under her head, brushing back a lock of chestnut hair. She felt her mind growing a bit foggy once more, but she was determined to pay attention to the rest of what he had to say. “It's precisely what I originally went there to find”, said the Grandmaster, and he smiled as he reminisced on such a positive memory. A memory that was close to godly, should an adjective be needed. He also turned his body, using his forearm - covered by red protection of leather - to support the weight of his body against the grass. Thus, with the hand of the other arm, he seemed to caress the wind slowly, and like a dream fading, the purple sphere around them disappeared slowly. The rain had stopped, and only the clean (somewhat cold) air of the Reach gently kissed Elliana's and Dalacard's hair, both of approximately the same length. As if to humour her, and no longer being a spellsword, but perhaps something more to the likes of a magician, he started to play with fickle and mercurial glows within the palm of his right hand - purple, green, red. He smiled as he did it, and then long threads of magic seemed to emerge from the tip of his index finger - they had an appearance of being twisted together in a long moving rope of ethereal green. Suddenly, that very magical thread seemed to return, bringing a leaf to Dalacard's hand. He seemed to be able to control the reach and stability of his telekinetic magic better than most adept mages Elliana could have known throughout her travels. But even still, the magician was not done with his trick - a trick that was 14 no doubt impressing himself. There was no concentration or seriousness to the magical craft being performed there. The green magic was blown by the air and it disappeared, and the leaf seemed to dance around them for a while before being almost ordered by the Breton to fall exactly between Dalacard and Elliana. For a final magical trick, Dalacard simply positioned his index finger against the grass, and it seemed to give birth to a magical complexity: a few unintelligible letters were sparked into the grass, and every letter seemed to move between its green pathways until they finally found their place in the leaf. There, in the centre of the leaf, a word was written. What letters those were, Elliana could not know, unless she was specifically a linguist of sorts, and even then, hardly. What they said, Dalacard did not reveal, but they seemed to etch themselves into the leaf - a collection of bright purple letters glowing in such a micro piece of a tree. It glowed as proper magic, but the leaf did not seem any heavier or affected in any way. “Hope, can you believe?”, said he, finally breaking the amusing silence. The spectacle was over, and its meaning about to be revealed. “Within the deepest bowels of Lyg, the Children of Magnus installed a most scarce asset. Hope itself. If you ask me what did it look like, I could never tell you, for my eyes did not comprehend it entirely. But, when my mortal heart was so full of doubt and without the strength to carry on the will of Magnus, I was shown what to fight for. It's possible that regardless of how long it has been, or how perilous my journey back was, that sight was engraved in my every action and thought. I was struck by a contagious blessing, and thus I spread it.” As the purple orb gave way, Elliana felt the cool breeze on her skin. She could smell the damp earth, a scent that she had always loved after the rains had cleared away. She watched Dalacard’s hands as the magic came forth from them and twisted around them. Colorful tentrils of power that seemed at this moment to be toy-like. She shared his smile. Her face lit up at the sight of the leaf. She had, indeed never seen magic, which the wielder could shape in such a way. She had the inclination now that he did it for her amusement and she laughed joyfully as a child would from an unexpected surprise. Then the letters appeared on the ground and she tilted her head in an attempt to grasp what they might spell out. She watched them move to the leaf and glow as they settled there. Elliana looked up upon hearing the word ‘hope’. She listened to the conclusion of the story and thought about it. How remarkable that he had journeyed to a place so far removed from Nirn, where everything was seemingly warped and disfigured to find such beautiful meaning. Afterall, hope was the thing that kept every being on Nirn going. Hope for survival, for happiness, for any multitude of desires or ends that anyone could want for themselves or those they cared for. It was comforting to know 15 that, even in the darkest of places, hope existed. She looked into his eyes and smiled once again. “If that is the message you spread, you do everyone a great service. Everyone could use more hope”, she said. “Some would beg to differ”, interjected the Grandmaster, with a smile that was less joyful now, and sparkled with a share of sorrow over some silent reminiscing. He remained looking down, with a smile lingering on the corner of his mouth. Finally, his maroon eyes went quickly upwards and locked themselves to Elliana's green irides, and their smiles perdured for a long moment. As soon as the Bosmer blinked, and her eyes delayed to come back to the original position, the Grandmaster realized she was horribly tired. He proceeded to once again surround them underneath an orb of purple magic, this time enhancing its intensity to the point in which it cast a large shadow upon the Bosmer. Upon the realization that they were in absolute darkness, Dalacard suddenly conjured a sphere that shone in light around them. As it was being created upon the palm of Dalacard, first it illuminated his face, and then their faces, and it ended up illuminating the entire orb as it grew in intensity. “Try and rest, Elliana”, said he, solemnly uttering her name. “You've had a long day”. Saying so, as if he was cutting the air, he opened a quadrangular space from within the orb that served as a door for him to, crouching, leave the space that he was sharing with Elliana. She might have seen the wind blow his long silver hair as the last wolf howled that night, and she might have seen him disappear in a purple whirlwind of magic suddenly, and then, in the same fashion, return to where they previously were. Many of these things she might have seen, should she have not fallen asleep too early. However, in the middle of the night, under the now so phenomenally placed Moons, when Dalacard Rethwode had assembled all their belongings and brought them up the mountain - then, when he used the tendrils of green magicka to carefully place the leaf into Elliana's travelling gear, as a carefully given gift, when he turned his maroon eyes (that, upon reflection of that bright green magic seemed to be of a glowing golden), he saw that she was looking. And so, as he was, laying against a lone tree of fuchsia-coloured leaves, he stood. And his waist-length hair was pushed back, held by his dark forehead protector, and against his right knee laid his resting forearm, and the other leg remained crossed, his feet now covered by his long, black leather boots. The golden and green irides of theirs clashed at that moment, but the darkness within the orb made to both an eternal question out of whom had shifted their gaze first. Elliana had seen his somber smile and had thought again of how much he must have had experienced up to this point in his life. Wonderous things, adventures, and 16 times of joy, but also those of sadness and regret. Everyone felt these feelings, she knew, but at this moment they seemed to weigh heavily on Dalacard's mind. She wanted to say something reassuring, to end the conversation on the note of hope that he had previously mentioned. Unfortunately, her eyes grew heavier and she found herself unable to find the words in her mind. Sleep was falling fast upon her and she could do little to fight it now. She turned over and let sleep take hold, but awoke some time later to the light of a green glow. She didn't know how much time had lapsed since she had fallen asleep, but she smiled as she saw her belongings had been brought up and that he appeared to be placing something in them. She watched as he lay down next to the tree, the contrast of his silver hair and dark clothing made the fuchsia leaves more noticeable even in the dim light. It was a peaceful scene and made her smile once more. She felt her eyes closing again. As the Bosmer saw Dalacard resting himself she didn't fight sleep this time. She brought her arm up and lay her head on it, feeling safe in the orb of magic. Again, she drifted off to sleep. She must have opened her eyes when the sunshine graced her face with a greeting of a new day, only when Dalacard was already far enough for the orb to have disappeared due to the weakening of the link between the caster and what was cast. He had raised from sleep very early, and upon seeing her sleeping figure, he stood before it for a moment and then collected his objects, departing from the place. All he left was rope with a loose, properly made knot, in the hopes she wouldn't fall this time. Elliana awoke in the grass, her clothing now dry, but feeling stiff. She slowly stood and felt the grass under one of her feet. She looked down and noticed that one of her boots was missing, something she had failed to realize the night before. She didn't know if it had been her head or the magic that had been so abundant, but it had all felt very dream-like. She braided her hair to the side and let it fall over her shoulder. Then she knelt down to pick up her pack noticing something inside. She reached in and pulled out the leaf with "hope" etched upon it. She smiled and felt her eyes tear up slightly. It was a meeting she would never forget. She held the leaf in her palm and put her saddlebag over her shoulder. She gathered up the rope and her armor and made a bundle of her belongings. She tied them all up and lowered them off the cliff with the rope. Then, she fastened one end to a large tree branch she was certain was secure and repelled down the side of the cliff herself. At the bottom, she walked along the river's edge looking around for her lost boot, which unfortunately was very close in color to the soil around her. She spied it, a few yards down river and dashed off to pick it up. She cleaned it off in the icy water then put it back on, feeling a chill as she did so. She adjusted her cloak and picked up her belongings once more and set off for the city of Markarth. 17