Lily
I had to blink to get my eyes to stop seeing glimpses of a script I didn’t want to acknowledge. A script that had been minorly inconvenienced by the death of its protagonist but the dream was still a dream and ran off a script that barely made sense, was fraying at the seams and kept losing track of the parts of reality I was in thanks to my lack of a Fate or Blank or maybe both.
Red King Syndrome and maybe even my mystic eyes kept peeling apart this world to show me what was behind it and I wanted no part in it.
If I believed that I could achieve CHIM, I’d just…acknowledge the damn script some more. Issue was, the longer I stayed in this ‘reality’ the more I could see how the script was connected to everything except myself and Missy. If any of those guys acknowledged the script, they’d almost certainly either use that connection to elevate themselves to the position of a script writer or get removed for no longer acting out their role well enough.
If it were just that, I might still try to elevate myself into that position. The issue with that was that doing so ran the risk of collapsing the dream that was this world and I was unsure if Missy and I could survive such a collapse. Besides, I had no idea how to achieve CHIM without that connection. With what I could see, figuring it out for the natives was easy. Figuring it out for someone who was already outside the script and almost certainly couldn’t even be perceived by the Godhead was a different matter entirely.
As it stood, all I could really do with my ability to see more of this world than most of its residents was figure out some things. Such as how, even now, Mirmulnir had been all but guaranteed to attack the moment the Dragonstone had been removed from the draugr’s corpse. The timing had been the only variable but it was never going to be more than a day or two.
Really, with things being as they were, I was pretty sure I didn’t need Elder Scrolls for anything in this world. I’d take a look at them, of course, and probably infuse them with my Foreigner perk so they’d work in other worlds but there was very little chance of them being able to do anything for me that being able to look at the framework of this reality couldn’t.
Of course, the less important something was, the less it was restricted by the script. Mirmulnir had been fated to be the first dragon slain by the Last Dragonborn. Him being bound to the script wasn’t particularly surprising.
Finally bothering to use my eyes’ ability to see distant places, a tiny bit of mana let me watch as Mirmulnir melted stone with his flames and toyed with the mortals who desperately tried to stop him. It was an amusing show to watch while pretending to pay attention as Balgruuf was first briefed by the guard, then gave orders and then proceeded to request our help.
“We’ll help. We will, however, make our way there now.” I informed the jarl before grabbing Missy’s wrist and warping away to the watchtower.
By the time we re-entered reality, I had already stopped restraining my flower field. “Hello there, dragon.” I greeted Mirmulnir in Dovahzul.
“A mortal who speaks our tongue? How rare in this day and age. In acknowledgement of your efforts, you may tell me why you have come here.” Mirmulnir replied, seeming positively surprised and even halting his attack on the remains of the guards.
“We came here to battle you.” I told him, smiling.
The dragon, arrogant as he was now, laughed. “Very well. You may fight me, mortals. Know that Mirmulnir was the one to end you.”
In all fairness, without a dragonborn around to eat his soul, he would’ve been fine. Mirmulnir, a dragon who had never faced death, didn’t have to fear it without a dovahkiin around to make his death permanent and Alduin in need of loyal forces to reestablish the control they’d once held over these lands.
Thinking about the sweet despair he’d likely feel upon realizing what Missy and I were made me so incredibly hungry but I had promised Missy his soul so it would be hers. I’d just have to use my eyes and the way the dream unravelled before me to find another dragon before news spread too far.
“I thank you for the opportunity.” I told him to keep up the act for no reason beyond the fact that it amused me. A moment later, I was next to his head, my zanpakuto carving through his right eye far too easily.
“Yol Toor Shul!” Mirmulnir yelled and yet no flame burst forth to drown out his words and, as his wings flapped, it only took me another burst of Shunpo to end up on top of one of them.
“I have a new sorcery to test on you.” I eagerly told the dragon, dropping the act entirely now. “Stars of Ruin.” Master Lusat had seen the end of a great cluster of stars when peering into the primeval current. The sorcery inspired by that sight generated twelve dark shooting stars, each originating from a single point and none of which would last long and yet they all held devastating power.
Through the fairly thin membrane of his wings, they pierced without issue and Mirmulnir collapsed from the skies before his ascent could even be completed.
“You may as well take over now, Missy. Without the Thu’um and his wings, you should be more than capable of defeating him.” I told her after using Shunpo to return to her side, the dragon still well within the range of my flower field.
Mirmulnir proved something I’d hoped for. He, at the very least, was not the kind of monster I couldn’t defeat with ease. Oh, he’d resisted my spell to some degree but I’d targetted weakspots and, even if I hadn’t, I’d just have used reishi platforms or my own wings to join him in the air.
And a dragon who couldn’t even breathe fire was just a really strong and large flying lizard.
‘That’s the downside of relying on reality manipulation for everything, I suppose.’ I mused to myself while Missy began to charge at the dragon.
I saw some similarity between her and the dragons in that regard. My twin, too, wanted to specialize so much without wondering what’d happen if she encountered something immune to spatial manipulation or was somewhere where using it wasn’t possible for one reason or another.
Meanwhile, the list of immunities something had to have in order to counter me in such a manner was growing longer every day.
I was drawn out of my thoughts by Missy activating her semblance on Mirmulnir’s neck. Unlike Alduin, who had managed to save himself, Mirmulnir didn’t know of her ability to just turn space into a blender and didn’t have access to the Thu’um, either.
His head dropped to the floor and his soul began to flow towards both myself and Missy until I forced mine to stop pulling on it.
I was actually quite curious as to how much my twin would get out of this. Depending on the amount of memories she got out of it, she’d gain Mirmulnir’s understanding of some words, after all.
Approaching her, I waited for her to exit whatever trance she’d entered, continuing to ignore the sole remaining guard, the other ones having been killed by Mirmulnir before we’d arrived. My eyes did show me that Irileth was on the way with her reinforcements but it’d still take them time.
I was drawn away from my observations by Missy moving again, though.
“You done with going through the dragon’s memories?” I asked, fairly sure that that’s what had kept Missy so distracted.
My twin nodded. “Should we go and tell the jarl about it now?” She asked, sounding unsure.
I shrugged in response. “We should probably wait for Irileth and her troops. The jarl has no reason to trust us when we say the dragon’s been dealt with but he should trust her.” As I spoke I sat down on the dragon’s skull, its flesh having dissolved as its soul had been torn from it. A difference in nature between the dragons of this world and those of the Lands Between because the latter’s corpses had remained intact after losing their souls.
As we waited, I took out a deck of cards and we played a couple rounds of blackjack while I pondered which dragon to go after. Not all would be as weak physically as Mirmulnir, I was sure. Well, in this world, Mirmulnir would still have been able to do well against most mortals but Missy and I were not mortal in the first place and devouring dragons from the Lands Between had only further enhanced us.
Either way, I felt like I had to at least consider my approach on this. There was one option that I felt would grant the biggest payoff while there was another which I believed would be the safer option and, of course, I could look all over Skyrim in search of further dragons if I so pleased.
“DOVAHKIIN!” The shout disrupted both my thoughts and our game for a bit but I told Missy not to worry about it for now and so we resumed our game so I could continue to decide where to get my soul’s next meal.
However, by the time Irileth and the guards she’d taken with her arrived to see us playing a card game on a dragon’s bones, I was still somewhat undecided. Oh, I had my preference but the question was whether or not I really wanted to risk taking that option.
‘I can always run away if it seems too risky.’ Between Shunpo and my world travel, I felt more confident than ever in my ability to do exactly that, so nodding to myself, I allowed myself to turn towards the new arrivals. “We’ve already dealt with the dragon.” I told them.
Irileth, to her credit, took this much better than the guard who had seen the fight. “Very well. Seeing how you made it here much faster than us, could you report that to the jarl? I’m sure he’d appreciate knowing that the city is safe for the time being.”
“We can take you with us if you want.” Missy offered, probably not thinking much of it.
Irileth, however, sighed and shook her head. “I need to stay behind to organize things and get this guy,” She pointed at the guard who seemed to still have been in shock, “to tell me what exactly happened here.”
“Alright then.” I’d have greatly preferred taking Irileth with us but the Greybeards’ call should get rid of any doubts they might have left. If not, well, Missy could use the Thu’um now, I was fairly sure.
If that didn’t work either, I presumed that Missy could just manifest Mirmulnir’s head just like she could with Smarag’s. Staring at that should shut them up and finally let us get started on setting things up to make it easier to deal with the dragons.
Missy
Apparently these nords really enjoyed getting drunk. After the jarl declared Lily and I ‘thanes’ – some honorary title, apparently – and assigned us a housecarl, he also just decided to hold a feast to celebrate our victory against Mirmulnir.
And, while Lily discussed some stuff with the jarl’s steward that I didn’t want to deal with, I was surrounded by a bunch of people who’d come to the palace after hearing that I’d been the one to kill the dragon.
Most of them wanted to hear about my fight, some of them wanted to brawl with me after hearing that I’d used magic to kill Mirmulnir because they apparently didn’t like that and then they were weirdly accepting of it when I kicked their butts without using magic. Some even flirted with me but most weren’t very good at it.
Even more of them also wanted me to drink with them and, in my defence, I resisted the temptation for a while because I really didn’t like the smell of that ale they brought. “Come on, lass!” A woman wearing really revealing armour made out of leather and fur slapped me on the back. Aela, she’d called herself and she was apparently some strong warrior from this city. “You’re old enough to give mead a try at least.”
Looking around, I noticed that Lily was gone – probably out to hunt a dragon of her own – and decided that, if she got to make poor decisions, surely I could just take a sip of mead. “Alright.” I nodded, taking the offered mug and taking a sip.
It was a kind of weird taste but mostly sweet and a bit floral with a strange warmth to it. I didn’t really know what to think about it yet so I figured another sip was in order. I kind of liked it more the more I drank.
“And?” Aela asked, a knowing grin on her lips.
I nodded sagely. “It’s good.” I said and, from there on out, people became even more open about their invitations to drink with them. There were, apparently, even drinking games!
I hoped Lily was having fun because I sure was!
Lily
An advantage to Missy having been the one to kill Mirmulnir was that I could slip away without people noticing. It was a bit weird to leave my twin alone with so many strangers but, frankly, she could break the bones of all the people there except for maybe the werewolves in her sleep. She had nothing to worry about from any of them and I doubted that she’d stay for all that long, anyways.
Besides, I could always check in on her with my mystic eyes if I ended up being worried.
So, smiling as I began to understand the meaning of Haas, Health, I manifested Greyoll’s head, reared it back and roared.
In response to my challenge, two blurs shot out from below the frozen lake where this word wall had been located.
Naaslaarum and Voslaarum, two dragons who lived in the last known sanctuary of the snow elves for some reason. They also looked somewhat different from the other dragons. Sleeker, a bit aquatic looking, even. They lacked horns and instead had parts of skin that resembled fins at the sides of their heads and even their wings seemed somewhat thinner.
They, being outside my flower field at the moment, also confirmed a suspicion I held by shouting an icy breath into existence and said cold not ceasing to exist once it crossed the boundary of my field.
‘The shout creates the frostbreath and gives it momentum. Everything past that is just the natural result of flame being carried in a specific direction.’ I concluded, smiling while utilizing Shunpo to both dodge the attack and appear between the two dragons to buy some time by making them first look for me and then have to figure out that the Thu’um’s not working in my field’s range.
If I’d had the time for my complete incantation, I’d have used Kurohitsugi on one of them but the dragon’s noses and/or ears were good, their heads turning towards me moments after I came to a stop in the air between them.
Really, a two-on-one was much more entertaining than bullying Mirmulnir.
Allowing that amusement to dominate my mind for only a moment, I soon pushed it aside in favour of focusing on calling upon Greyoll’s head once again. Her roar, when infused with enough mana, could outright destabilize things a bit so, while the shockwave accompanying it wasn’t all that useful, that effect could give me an advantage.
Except, I had expected them to use the Thu’um but, instead, Naaslaarum’s jaw snapped shut around me after trying to release a shout, having combined the movements, and then the dragon pulled me underwater with it, moving at speeds I could respect despite my mastery of Shunpo.
The bite itself didn’t harm me. My aura protected me from the dragon’s fangs but it couldn’t do so forever and I still needed to breathe – something the dragon presumably didn’t based off of how the damn thing had been staying beneath the lake and was dragging me to its deepest point.
My zanpakuto appeared in my hand and stabbed straight into Naaslaarum’s eye and yet he still continued to carry me further downwards. ‘Die! Die! Die!’ I thought, casting those gravity sorcery beams I’d learnt from Astel through my zanpakuto while it was still stabbed into Naaslaarum’s eye.
Despite that, the dragon endured.
Infuriated, I instead began to channel my mana for another spell entirely. Gathering more mana for a single spell than ever before and compressing it, I soon released Comet Azur within Naaslaarum’s head and the explosion was gory and made all that much more satisfying by the dragon soul I devoured moments later.
I watched Naaslaarum and Voslaarum arrive in this valley. Saw them observing the pilgrimages of the snow elves in the honour of Auri-El, Akatosh’s elven name, and eventually decide to settle down here to observe more while also leaving behind their understanding of the word Haas.
I saw a whole lot more, too. I witnessed the way these two were fascinated not by the skies but the seas, how they spent countless years meditating underwater and how they only cared about the skies in regards to how a storm combined some of the traits of the seas and the skies in their minds.
Looking up after combing through those memories, I was happy to not find lightning striking the lake. Naaslaarum and Voslaarum hadn’t known too many shouts but they had known how to call storms. It had been one of their more lethal strategies and they themselves had mastered the Drain Vitality shout in order to just recover by devouring the vitality of others.
I now also knew that Naaslaarum had wanted to drag me down after noticing that he couldn’t use said shout on me precisely so that Voslaarum, being far away from me, would be able to summon the storm. The dragon had been shocked but he’d also been cunning enough to realize what he had to do in order to deal with me.
Except, my flower field apparently extended into the sky from wherever I was.
Of course, that didn’t protect me completely at the moment. Not when the lake was larger than my flower field and could channel the lightning and I still desperately needed air.
Voslaarum must have figured out the same thing at some point because, all of a sudden, I both felt and saw lightning coursing through the entire lake with immense force. My aura protected me from the first couple of strikes, having just been enhanced by the consumption of Naaslaarum’s soul, but, eventually it shattered.
By the time I managed to reach the surface of the lake, my clothes were in tatters, my flesh covered in lichtenberg figures and I felt little except for agony and fury while coughing out water as quickly as I could manage. I wanted nothing more than to carve open the dragon that had done this to me.
My twitching hands, however, struggled to even hold my blade still. Opening a can of soda would be a challenge and I’d have to stick close to Voslaarum with Shunpo while doing so.
“Hm, for once, I wouldn’t even call this arrogance on your part. The dragon did quite well and you didn’t know how to kill it quickly.” Time seemed to slow down as I heard the same voice that had once told me to dodge. “Perhaps it is a bit early but I suppose you have been nourishing me with your soul quite a lot. If you can hear my name, you may make use of my Shikai.”
Part of me wanted to laugh despite the pain and the anger, the rest of me acknowledged that a new ability I’d have to figure out how to use while being unable to keep my hands steady probably wouldn’t let me win on its own.
“Now, repeat after me,” My zanpakuto spirit instructed and, trusting the spirit born from my own soul, I did as I had been told to, my perception of time righting itself as I did so, “Han’eiseyo, Tenkuu Niwa!” It was an interesting name for something that originated from me because I truly couldn’t see where it had come from.
But my musings were cut short by the katana in my hand changing, spiritual metal being replaced by something that looked like a piece of the night sky shaped into a blade. I still struggled to hold it straight but, taking a can of soda out of my inventory, I quickly cast an incredibly small Glintstone Pebble to open a hole in its side and then held the opening near my mouth so I could quickly drink it all. The idea had come to me as a spur of the moment thing and lacked a certain flair I’d have preferred but I was on my last legs as it was and had no confidence in my ability to continuously use Shunpo in this state.
The feeling of my flesh restoring itself to perfect condition was an immense relief after the agony of being electrocuted underwater, though it didn’t do anything to restore my aura and, without that, my reiatsu control was decreased a bit. A quick change of clothes via my inventory made me look good as new, though.
“You don’t know my abilities yet and teaching them to you mid-combat would be difficult. What’s important right now is that my Shikai’s blade is a great deal sharper than my sealed form’s.” Tenkuu Niwa informed me. “Everything else, I can teach you later.”
I nodded in acknowledgement. I was about to ask what said abilities even were when I noticed Voslaarum trying to fly away so as to be able to use the Thu’um again, forcing me to rush after him.
Curious though I was, I was unwilling to let that thing even put up a fight anymore. Voslaarum had stopped being entertaining about one broken aura ago.
Part of me was genuinely tempted to unleash Scarlet Rot on the beast in recompense but my rational mind thought better of it. Unleashing that on Nirn would get me in trouble with its gods, of that I was certain.
So I settled for using Shunpo to get onto its back and then utilizing the Thu’um myself for the first time. “GAAN LAH HAAS!” I shouted, my voice echoing with words whose meaning I only truly understood due to having consumed Naaslaarum. It pulled on my soul to command reality in such a way but that was fine. Even with my aura broken, my soul was strong enough to handle this and, better yet, it was being nourished by Voslaarum’s the moment the shout reached it.
I wanted to let it die slowly to one of its favourite shouts. Instead, I moved towards its head as it tried to shake me off and stabbed it before casting Stars of Ruin with quite a lot of power put into the spell. It wasn’t as explosive a death as Naaslaarum’s and, in fact, Voslaarum still had enough energy left to try and bite me but I simply cut my sword free from its head by pulling it to the side and that was the end of the second dragon of the Forgotten Vale.
Releasing my Shikai with a promise to talk to my blade’s spirit later, I sighed and used Shunpo to get to where Voslaarum’s corpse had crash-landed so I could devour his soul and then rest a bit while sorting through his memories.
However, while resting, I grew curious enough to check in on Missy and found myself blinking at what I saw through my mystic eyes, unsure what exactly I was looking at.
Missy holding a mug in her hand while clearly drunk and standing on a table, seeming to proudly be telling the less drunk nords around her some kind of story was really not what I’d expected to see.
‘On the one hand, blackmail. On the other hand, mom and dad will either kill me for leaving her alone with people I knew to probably be drunkards to some extent and/or blame each other for it.’ I mused, already feeling infinitely more tired.
It wasn’t really a problem. Frankly, I knew of several people our age who’d already tried out alcohol and, ultimately, I didn’t care as long as Missy had fun and I’d ask Amelia to check to make sure that there wouldn’t be long-term consequences. Honestly, I’d considered trying out alcohol, I just thought it sounded like a terrible idea.
It just also meant I had to get there before Missy either did something really stupid while drunk or passed out because I wasn’t leaving my twin alone with a bunch of half-drunk nords.
“I’ll keep an eye on her for a minute and then I’ll get up.” I decided, still tired from the fight I’d just finished.
So it is kind of cool that Dovahzul is a thing. I’m also just not writing in a language other than english because people would have to look that up unless they felt like becoming fluent in a fantasy language. Shouts still get to be in Dovahzul but conversations don’t get to be. If I went that far, I’d suddenly also feel obligated to do stuff like write in japanese for conversations in Bleach at some point and, sure, that’d be great practice for my classes but I feel like it’s a terrible idea otherwise
Also, Mirmulnir really would’ve been a much greater threat if he’d seen Missy just distorting the space his neck occupied coming. Or if he’d had access to the Thu’um. Alas, he’d had neither. Mind you, if Lily hadn’t then immediately removed his ability to fly, he could’ve still been dangerous. Which is precisely why she shot a bunch of holes through his wings
Anyways, hope you enjoyed and let me know if you have any feedback