Spin-Off (1/12/19)

Where… are you? Obviously some sort of cave but how… M’Iago. that’s right. He… did something to you. You’re head is pounding and your body still feels numb. Paralysis? Most likely some variation of it.





You pick the closest mushroom and then stand up. You hold the mushroom out in front of you, trying to get it’s light to cast a bit farther so you can better see your surroundings. It’s still extremely dark…




Wait… you simply turn on your Night’s Eye instead.



That’s much better. You look around for a moment. It appears that you are at the end of a corridor inside of a cave. There’s a few passages that break off from yours a little ways down.


You don’t see M’Iago anywhere but he’s probably closeby. It wouldn’t be smart to kidnap someone and then leave them, untied in some cave. What’s he even playing at? Is he… a vampire? It didn’t look like he had any fangs. GAH! It hardly matters right now. What does matter is you getting out of this cave quickly and quietly.

You decide that this is something you’ll have to do alone and sooner than later. You gently push on the door and it creaks open. You’ll try to get a grasp on your current location first.



You step outside and take a quick look around. You see the White Gold Tower in the distance behind you and a body of water in front of you. You don’t recognize any other landmarks that would tell you where you are. Even if there was, you doubt you know Cyrodiil enough for them to be any help. Barbas said M’Iago was right outside of the cave, but you don’t see or hear anyone.



You move to a higher elevation to better servey the area.



“I thought you said that M’Iago was right outside?” You whisper to Barbas.



“He should be around here someplace. I Imagine he might be looking for a good way to cross that lake.” He says.



“Well I’m not seeing him anywhere around here.”



Just as you finish speaking you see Ke’tiem down on the beach. He’s clearly looking for something. Without thinking you start rushing towards him.



“Ke’tiem!” You call out.



You instantly catch his attention. You see a wave of relief wash over his face as your eyes lock. He starts to head in your direction.



Before you take more than three steps in his direction you hear the whistle of a released arrow coming from up in the trees. “Katherin! Look out!” Barbas says. Before you can react, a blinding pain shoots out from your lower back. You’re met with a faceful of sand as your feet fail you. When you land a jolt flies up your spine.



You hear Ke’tiem call out your name above the ringing in your ears. You feel Someone land next to you. As you attempt to lift your head they put a foot on your upper back and pin you down.



“M’Iago! Thank the gods!” You hear Ke’tiem say. “W-we need to get her back to the city for medical attention!”



“There’s no need for that.” M’Iago says in a solemn tone.



You look up as best you can. You just barely manage to see the bottom of Ke’tiem’s feet a few meters away. “What…. What do you mean?” He says.



“Ke’tiem!” You cry out. “M’Iago is--” M’Iago cuts you off by shoving your face back into the sand. It burns as it gets in in your eyes and nose.



“She doesn’t need any medical attention.” M’Iago says through gritted teeth.



“What do you mean?” Ke’tiem says, his voice wavering. “She… she needs help.” He takes a step towards you. “Let… let her get up.”



“Stop, Ke’tiem.” You hear him nock an arrow and pull it back. “Just forget about her and leave. Go back to Hammerfell.” M’Iago’s voice is emotionless.



You attempt to struggle against M’Iago again, but you have no strength left. The pain in your back is too debilitating and you can’t feel your feet.



“You mean… you’re with them?” Ke’tiem says.



“I guess you could say that.” M’Iago starts. “Although I’m no vampire. I’ve just got obligations. Try to understand that this is for the greater good.” You feel something pierce the back of your neck and everything turns a bright white.

You are now Ke’tiem. You watch as M’Iago fires an arrow into Katherin’s neck, ending her life. You watch as a glow envelops her body before getting sucked into a soul gem in M’Iago’s hand.



“It’s her or hundreds of people, Ke’tiem.” He says, not even meeting your eyes. “I tried to get away with it without you finding out, but I’m running out of time and patience.” He begins walking away as you fall to your knees.



Katherin is… dead… and M’Iago... your long time fishing buddy and all around good friend, did it. Right in front of you. You strike the ground with your fist.



“DAMMIT!” You shout. Why didn’t you do anything? You… you could have stopped him… or reasoned with him… or…


What can you do? Katherin is gone. You’ve failed her.



You hear someone rushing through the brush to the left of you. “Ke’tiem!? I heard-- oh…” You recognize the voice as Liz. She slows down and walks up next to you.


You are now Liz.



“I thought… Didn’t M’Iago kill Itaish? He… That’s who was after Katherin right? How did she…?” You ask.



“It was M’Iago.” Ke’tiem says. His voice is cold. “He killed her and took her soul and now he’s going to hand it over to Clavicus.”



So that’s what’s going on… he -- or some group that both him and Itaish are a part of -- made a deal with Clavicus. But what would he get out of it? Itaish was a vampire… M’Iago isn’t a vampire… You just don’t know.



“M’Iago used a soul gem right?” You ask Ke’tiem. He simply nods. “This is good. I remember reading about a mage who was able to revive somebody who’s soul was trapped in a soul gem. If we can get it back then… maybe I could track down some more information on that and be able to reproduce his process...” You say.



“C-could you really?”



“I mean… there’s a chance. That’s what matters, right?” Something isn’t sitting right with you about this whole situation. Nothing good can happen if a Daedric Prince is involved. Even if you can’t revive Katherin, you at least don’t want M’Iago to accomplish whatever his goal may be.



Ke’tiem gets up and turns towards you.



“Then we don’t have anything to wait for. I’ll get a head start on catching up to M’Iago while you go round up what help you got from the Arcane University. We’ll show him what for.”



“Oh, Uhhh well… I kinda wasn’t even allowed in so…” You awkwardly laugh. “L-let’s… go.”



He is silent for a moment.



“I don’t need their help anyway.” He rushes off in the direction of the bridge you crossed to get into the Imperial City. Leaving you to try and keep up.

Ke’tiem suddenly stops walking, causing you to almost run into him. He turns to look back at you.



“Liz… I don’t know if I can trust you. You’re a mage and… well you’re an argonian. We’ve been constantly attacked by argonians ever since we crossed the border into cyrodiil.” He says.



You’re slightly taken aback by this. “Ok… wow. First off, that’s racist. I just want to help you and stop whatever it is that Clavicus hopes to achieve. I’m not working against you here.”



Ke’tiem is silent.



You cross your arms. “Well, I don’t care if you trust me or not. I’m going to stop M’Iago either way. And I know where he’s going.” With that you continue walking. You expect Ke’tiem will follow you. Even if he doesn’t want to admit it, he won’t be able to find Clavicus’ shrine in time without you. You really wish he’d just give it a rest. You’ve done nothing but help him since you met him.



Eventually you hear his footsteps a few feet behind you. You sigh to yourself. You do feel bad about what happened. You didn’t know Katherin for very long but she seemed nice enough. You also feel bad about lying to Ke’tiem… With Katherin’s physical body being that damaged, there’s no way you could bring her back. Even with powerful magic.



You push those thoughts to the back of your head. Before you deal with any of that you need to get that soul gem. You speed up your pace. It shouldn’t take that long to reach Clavicus’ shrine. But… what are you going to do once you get there? M’Iago should be expecting you so taking him by surprise would be difficult.



“So what’s the plan here?” You say.



“Kill M’Iago.” He simply says.



“Well, I know that. But how? Are we going to charge him?”



“Whatever it takes.”


“That’s…” Clearly he isn’t in the right mindset to come up with a plan. You’ll just have to try and go along with whatever he ends up doing because you doubt he’d follow any plan you came up with. This… is going to be interesting.

The shrine is in the forest. Not a dense forest, but you could still probably sneak up on it. You decide to approach it from the side instead of the main path.



You walk in silence for a good amount of time. You’re close to the shrine now and you’ve seen no sign of M’Iago yet, but you’re certain he’s already at the shrine. You still don’t really know what you’re going to do once you get there.



You take a deep breath. You almost wish you didn’t involve yourself in any of this. But now is not the time to be thinking about that. You’ll get Katherin’s soul back and then… you don’t know. Maybe Ke’tiem will be more at ease just having her soul in his possession.



You slow down a bit as you begin to hear talking in the distance. It’s too far away for you to make out what’s being said, but it sounds like M’Iago. Ke’tiem also seems to hear it but instead of slowing down he begins to move faster and soon passes you.



“Wait.” You say. He ignores you and keeps going. You let out an exasperated sigh and follow after him.



As the shrine’s clearing comes into view, you can begin to make out what he’s saying.



“No, I didn’t need his help.” You hear M’Iago say. You wonder who he’s talking to.



“Yes. It’s right here. In this soul gem.” Upon hearing that Ke’tiem charges into the clearing and shouts M’Iago’s name. Well, there goes your chance of getting the drop on him. You enter the clearing a few seconds after Ke’tiem.



M’Iago is standing in front of Clavicus’ statue on the far side of the clearing.



“Ke’tiem and Liz. I can’t say I didn’t expect you.” He says, turning to face you. “But, you know, there’s nothing more for you to do. Katherin is dead.” He emphasizes this by holding up the soul gem. “So you might as well let me get on with why I killed her in the first place.”



“No.” Ke’tiem growls. “Give her back.”



“That’s… sweet, but she’s dead. Nothing you or I could do to get her back. Besides… She’ll be helping out countless others.”



“And how’s she doing that?” You ask, starting to channel your magicka in preparation to cast a fireball.



“You see, Clavicus has made a deal with a large coven of vampires. One that I happen to be a spy for. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no vampire myself. Spying would be a lot harder if I was. I help them get outside information. Anyway, Clavicus wants Katherin’s soul and in exchange he’ll cure the entire coven of their vampirism. So it’s her life, one life, to end the suffering of hundreds if not thousands.”



You’ve never heard of a cure for vampirism on a large scale. But… you suppose it wouldn’t be impossible. He is a daedra after all.



“W...What?” Ke’tiem stutters. “But you killed Itaish! He was… wouldn’t he have been part of that coven?”



M’Iago’s expression hardens. “Well… yes he was. But…he wasn’t going to kill just Katherin.” He glances over at you. “He was after all three of you. So I put a stop to him and finished the job the way it was supposed to be done. With minimum loss of life.”



“Ah, so he’s a man of the people after all. How fortunate!” You hear a someone say from the side. You and Ke’tiem both look to find the source of the voice in equal confusion.



You see someone standing up on the statue’s pedestal.



“This really is a complicated situation, isn’t it?” He says. “The best friend kills the love interest-- but doesn’t want to hurt anyone else. How fun.”



“Who are you? Have you been spying on us?” Ke’tiem yells. “This has nothing to do with you!”



“Oh, but it does, my dear bipedal-talking-cat friend. You see, I am Clavicus Vile. This has, quite literally, everything to do with me.” He says matter-of-factly. “Now if you’d please hand over that gem you’ve got. I’ve got lots to do. Very busy.”



M’Iago takes a step towards him.



“Wait!” Ke’tiem cries. “Stop…”



M’Iago hesitates for a second. “I’m sorry Ke’tiem. I really am. But you can see the importance of this sacrifice… right?”



“I…” Ke’tiem’s voice is shaking.



“Don’t give her to him.” You say before Ke’tiem can finish. “Who knows what he needs her soul for. I doubt it’s anything good”



“Not true! Lies! I simply need her to help me settle a dispute I have with a certain somebody.” Clavicus says.



“I doubt that.” You reply. “You wouldn’t offer such a high reward if it wasn’t more important than a simple dispute.”



“Well it is.” He jumps down from the pedestal and walks up to M’Iago. “It’s just over something important. That’s why I’ve tried to speed up this process as much as possible, but you guys apparently don’t care for my time! Why do you think I told Katherin to go to the Imperial City? Because my shrine is right here! Then barbas, that insufferable mutt, had to go telling her how she shouldn’t go there.” He lets out a long sigh. “But as I’ve said I’m very busy and it’s all worked out anyway, even if it’s a few days later than I hoped..” He holds out his hand out to M’Iago. “I’ll take that now.”



M’Iago looks at you and Ke’tiem once more. You briefly consider casting that fireball in an attempt to get M’Iago to drop the soul gem, but with a daedra present you know you shouldn’t start a fight.



M’Iago hands Clavicus the soul gem.



“It’s about time!” Says Clavicus. “Don’t worry, I’ll hold good on my end. I’ll make sure they know who is responsible for their cure. As for you two,” He turns towards you and Ke’tiem. “I’ll see you later. Probably not though, unless you end up having something that interests me.” He snaps and you get blinded by a flash of white.



When you finally blink the spots from your eyes Clavicus and M’Iago are gone from the clearing. You assume M’Iago used the cover of the flash to escape.



“Well…” Ke’tiem starts. “I guess… that’s that.” He sounds completely defeated. “She’s gone.”



You try to find something reassuring to say but come up empty. You simply put a hand on his shoulder.



He hits your hand off and starts walking away.



“Where are you going?” You ask him.



“Back to Hammerfell.” He says. “There’s nothing left for me here.”



“O-oh… ok.” You say. “Do you want me to…”



“No.”

“Then is this… goodbye?”



He looks back at you. “Yeah. Bye.”



You stand alone in the clearing for a few minutes reflecting on what just happened. This has been an eventful past few days to say the least. It’s a shame that things didn’t work out… but you guess in a way they did? Maybe you should have cast that fireball… At least those vampires are going to be cured. Granted an innocent life was lost in the process… but…



You shake your head to clear it. You don’t know what sort of morals are in play here. You refocus your thoughts on what you should do right now. You were going to head to the Chorrol mages guild before all of this. You’ve still got some magic to master so you’ll head there.



You sigh and start walking towards the road.

That sounds pretty good to you right now. You enter the city gate and make a beeline to the inn, keeping your head down the whole time in hopes no one tries to talk to you.



You enter the inn and approach the counter.



“Give me twelve Nord ales.” You say as you slam gold onto the counter.



“I’m pretty sure that would kill you,” The barkeep says. “Start with these.” He gives you four bottles. “You can have more if you don’t pass out after those.”



You take the bottles and find a seat, muttering to yourself how he shouldn’t assume your alcohol tolerance.



After one and a half bottles you’re complaining about what happened to the imaginary person in the seat across from you.



“And so that… this guy, M’Iago, decided that it… he thought it would be funny if he just killed her and sold her soul to some Daedric Prince! Then! And then! He… M’Iago just leaves without a ‘how do you do’ or a ‘see ya later’!” You take a swig of your ale. “The draj.”



“Hey khajiit! Did you say what I think you said?” You hear someone say. You look in the direction of their voice. You see someone sitting at the table next to you.



“AND I MEANT IT!” You shout back at her.



She gets up and comes over to your table.



“So this Daedric Prince...” She says as she sits down across from you.



“Oh. The Prince? Well it was… like… wait.” You squint, trying to focus on her face. “Who are you?”

“O-oh! Right, sorry! I guess it was rude to not introduce myself. I'm Talia. Or just Lia for short… And you are?”



“Ke’tiem.” You say simply.



“Well nice to meet you!” She smiles. “So… I overheard you mentioning a Daedric Prince?”



“Yeah I did… I think they're DUMB! Especially Clab… no Claviguss.”



“You mean Clavicus Vile?”



“Yeah! That guy.”



“Hm. I'm guessing you made a deal with him and he twisted it on you and now you're here complaining about it?”



“No, someone else made a deal with him! And it just so happened to be to kill someone I liked! A lot. And give him her soul.”



“Oh, I'm sorry that happened. That's… horrible.” Her voice has genuine sympathy. “But their soul? Why would he need that?”



“I dunno. He made it sound important.”



“Where did this happen? Near here?”



“No, no. It was in Cyrodiil… Right near the Capital.”



Her expression hardens and she looks off in thought.



“So you actually got to see Clavicus directly?” She asks.



“Yeah. It… he was short and had a bedsheet on him. Oh, and horns.” You say.



“That sounds about right… aside from the bedsheet. You sure it wasn’t just some loose robes?”



“What’s the difference?”



She shrugs. “Intended use.”



“So-”


“What book is that?”



“Hm?” She looks down at the book. “Oh, it’s Liminal Bridges.” She picks it up to show you the cover.



“Haven't heard of it.”



“Yeah, it’s not super popular outside of colleges. Probably because it’s a little advanced. But I think I get what the author is saying. I think it would be really interesting to actually attempt to open one.” She laughs to herself. “If I somehow got all of the materials necessary that is. They definitely aren’t simple that’s for sure. Dangerous too. Messing with Oblivion isn’t ever safe though is it? I still do think it would be interesting to see what a gate looks like. I doubt I’d ever have the guts to go inside of it because I think the risk of retromission would still be pretty high even if a sigil stone was used as the hyperagonal media. But to get an engraved one you’d have to commerce directly with one of the Daedric Lords and none of them would engrave it without a good reason to. Why would they want some insignificant mortal in their domain anyway? Unless they’d gain something from it. But then I’d need to put together a group of scholars who’d actually participate in this activity. And they’d likely want to be compensated with something other than just furthering the knowledge of these sorts of things. I likely wouldn’t have anything to give them once it’s all over because I’d spend all of my gold on actually doing it.”



You stare at her blankly as she keeps talking. You understand basically nothing she is saying. You think there was something about talking with a Daedric Prince and engraving some stone at one point.



“What?” You ask her once she finally stops.



“Yeah, nothing. It’s just a bunch of magic gobbly-gack.” She clears her throat. “So that’s pretty much what I do.”



“Ke’tiem! I finally caught up to you.” You hear a familiar voice say from behind you. You turn around and see Liz. “I have something really important to tell you.”



“You followed me?” You say.



“Um… Well, yeah. But...” She comes closer. “Barbas talked with me.” She says quietly. “It might still be possible to ruin Clavicus’ plan and save Katherin.”



You stand up. “What?! How?”



“Barbas told me that Clavicus wants to switch the soul currently trapped inside of a sword with Katherin’s. In order to do this he’d have to release both of the souls for at least a short while. He plans to cause a distraction once this happens and help Katherin get away from Clavicus. All we’d have to do is find some way to open a gateway into his plane of Oblivion from this side and we’d have a chance of getting her back. Now, I don’t know if any of that has happened yet because Barbas hasn’t returned but he should shortly.”



“How the hell are we supposed to open a gate to his plane of Oblivion?” You ask.



“I’m pretty sure that there is a way. I’ve heard of people doing it before, but haven’t read anything directly about how. I was thinking that--”



“Umm excuse me? That’s what I was just talking about.” Talia says.



Liz suddenly notices her. “Oh, are you a friend of Ke’tiem’s?”



“Uh not really? We just met. I heard him mention a Daedric Prince and was just curious.” Talia explains. “It’s sounding like you two are in quite the interesting situation. So… you still want to try and save this friend of yours from Clavicus? And you even have Barbas’ help?”



“Yeah, that’s the simple way of putting it.” Liz says. “Now, you said you were just talking about opening a gate to Oblivion right?”



Talia nods. “I did. I’ve been doing a little bit, well a lotta bit, of reading about it recently.”



“Ok, that… this could be good. Would you be willing to help us? We could probably pull together some way to pay you for the trouble.”



You turn to Talia. “If you really could help us save Katherin… I’d forever be in your debt.”



Talia takes a step back. “I mean… it’s not simple.”



“I know it’s not. But… that’s why we’d need help.” Liz says. “I don’t know exactly what Clavicus’ end goal with doing this is, but I doubt it’s good. If you’re not doing it for us, do it so a Daedric Prince can’t accomplish his, likely malicious, goal.”



“I.... can try. But no promises!” Talia says. “And I expect you’ll be doing most of the leg work for tracking down all the stuff necessary.”



You exhale a breath you didn’t realize you were holding.


“Do you want to discuss the details over some food? I happen to have some pudding in my bag.” Talia says. You are in no position to decline pudding so you accept her offer and the three of you sit down.

You know you don’t have that kind of time to spare. There’s no way Katherin could stay safe for, well, even just one week. You don’t even know what you need to do whatever Liz and Talia are planning. You decide to ask Talia.



“Well, first things first, we need to get a sigil stone.” Talia says. You assume that’s the fancy stone she mentioned earlier. “It’s the most important part of creating a Liminal Bridge.”



“Ok. So where do we get one? Is there some magic shop where they’re sold?” You ask.



Talia chuckles to herself. “Boy, I wish. But no, the morpoliths that they’re made out of are only found in Oblivion. So we’ll have to get a dremora on our side. An unbound one to boot.”



“You’ve lost me.” You say.



“...”



She looks over at Liz.



“What do you think?”



“An unbound dremora would certainly be able to get us one. It wouldn’t be easy to get him to listen to us though…. Maybe we could ask Barbas to get us one instead? He’s already working with us, or at least appears to be, so I don’t think it would be out of the question.”



“True. You said that he’d tell us if he was successful in helping Katherin get away from Clavicus right? You could ask him then.”



Liz nods. “That’s what I was thinking.”



Talia thinks for a moment, eating a spoonful of pudding. “Assuming he can get us one, we’d still need Clavicus to engrave it. Really that’s what’s making this so difficult. It’s sounding extremely unlikely that he’d ever willingly do that as he’d know why we’d need it.”



“Could we trick him somehow?” You ask.



“I doubt it. The engraving process sounds like it’s pretty deliberate.”



“Let’s just cross that bridge when we get to it.” Liz says. “First we should see if Barbas is even going to help us.”



“I guess so.” Talia says. “So, the other stuff we’re going to need is--”



You stand up. “As much as I enjoy all this magic talk, I think I’m going to go get us some rooms at the inn.” You say.