The Lurker roared as it stomped towards Yamurn, it's dead eyes glaring with an unnatural hate. Yamurn hammered his staff onto the ground and unleashed a mighty roaring blizzard around him, the ground shaking and the acidic waters nearby freezing over as the frozen onslaught decimated the battlefield, the Lurker howled in agony as the blizzard blew it off its feet and whipped at its scaled hide. Taking his opportunity, Yamurn began to charge up another spell, the lighting forming between his fingers contained the determination to win, to conquer, to decimate. With a yell, Yamurn let the lightning bolt arc from his hands to the Lurker, it screeched as it stumbled to its feet, the lightning crackling on its skin and the blizzard harshly whipping at it was almost too much, it fell to its knees for a moment, before reaching forward, trying to drag itself to the Orsimer. He scowled and set his teeth, his magical energies had expired from that blizzard spell and lightning attack, he took a few steps back, fumbling with his satchel as the Lurker hauled itself towards him, it's razor sharp teeth glinting in the frost of the blizzard, Yamurn growled, panic filling his veins as he searched his pack for a potion.
As the blizzard began to die down, the Lurker became less and less restrained, finally, it got to its feet and began to charge, Yamurn finally pulled a blue glass bottle from his satchel, uncorking it swiftly and put it to its lips, gulping down the odd tasting mixture, he felt replenished. Yamurn turned his head and saw the Lurker barrelling straight towards him, he didn't have time to cast another spell, he had to do something, he had to do something! He had to- WHOMP.
The Lurker hit Yamurn at full pelt, sending him flying down the corridor from the arena, hitting the ground and sliding at an alarming rate towards a book case. He hit it with a dull thud, the book case creaking as it began to fall backards, the mountain of books hit the water with a splash, then a hissing as the books were devoured by the acidic liquid. Yamurn grunted and frowned, thinking of the knowledge he may have just destroyed and whether or not Mora would be angered. The Lurker gave another roar from down the corridor and began to charge again, Yamurn tried to leap to his feet, but he found that one of his legs was badly injured and bleeding, he couldn't move it
"By Malacath, will the misfortune ever end?" he mumbled as he reached for his staff, charging another attack with his hand, as the Lurker hammered down the corridor towards him, the ground thumping with every step it made, finally he let loose a lightning attack, stronger than his last, it hit the Lurker straight in the forehead, it screamed and tripped, smacking its head against the hard stone floor, the creatures blood splattered the bookshelves as the sound of cracking bones was heard, making Yamurn cringe. The Orsimer breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a little, reaching for his pack he pulled out another bottle, this one was colored red, he uncorked it and put it to his lips, sipping it. Strangely, he didn't feel any different, looking at the liquid in the bottle, he realized it was the wrong potion
"I mixed the bottles up, damn..." he grunted, putting the cork back in the battle and returning it to his bag. After a little bit more fumbling through papers and quills in his satchel, he pulled out another red bottle, uncorked it and took a gulp, a soothing feeling ran throughout Yamurn's body as the healing potion tended to his leg wound, he took some a cloth and leather strips from his bag, putting the cloth over his wound and tying them into place. He summoned his magical energies then, casting a weak healing spell upon his wound, it would heal in time. Using his staff to hoist himself up, he stood, the Orsimer began to limp down the corridor,the gate had opened in the arena, he could see from here and beyond it he could see another glowing black-covered book. Yamurn smiled confidently as he approached the book, putting his hands onto the pages and allowing himself to meld into the words themselves, with a flash of green light he was elsewhere.
He looked around, he was far above most of the library of Apocrypha, in a structure that resembled a tower of books, he stepped forward, a gate opening and leading him to a ledge, beyond the ledge was a drop that was at least fifty meters down, Yamurn looked down from the dizzying height, unfazed. He then began to notice a gathering darkness a few meters in front of him, eyes began to pop out of the darkness, followed by a mass of tentacles, he gripped his staff, ready. The mass of tentacles was joined by many more shifting eyes and finally a large eye emerged from the shadowy depths, blinking at him with its oddly coloured iris, then he realised
"H-Hermaeus Mora?" Yamurn said, composing himself for the Daedric Lord who stared upon him. The eye seemed amused
"Indeed... It is I, Hermaeus Mora. It seems that you have stumbled upon my realm, little mortal..." he said, trailing off as though the entire situation bored him, or he was thinking of something a million miles away. "I know what you seek and I can grant it, however..." the Daedra paused for a moment, then continued "all knowledge - especially forbidden knowledge - has its price.." he finished, again trailing off.
"What is it that you ask, Lord Mora?" Yamurn asked, he was willing to do much for the knowledge of the Universe, it's creation, it's secrets, it's workings. Mora blinked and said in his slow, yawning voice
"The last one to bring me knowledge I did not yet own was rewarded greatly... If you can bring me something that is unknown to me, then you shall have your reward" Yamurn was taken aback
"Surely, Lord, you know everything?" he said, then added "And who was the last to bring you knowledge you did not possess, if I may ask?" Mora stared with his all-seeing eye seemed to pierce into the Orsimers soul
"I do not know all, naive... little... mortal" he said "I am... a... hoarder of knowledge and there are few things not in my library... but those things would gladly be added, if I had access to the mortal plane as you do" he stopped, giving a malevolent little chuckle "And yes, you may ask such a thing. The last one to bring me unknown knowledge was greatly rewarded, in some ways he became too powerful for the mortal plane, he resides here with me now" Yamurn nodded and said
"What is it that you seek, my Lord?" Hermaeus tilted his eye to one side, as if in thought
"I seek, little mortal, the secrets of human emotion... Something that has always alluded me..." he said, Yamurn stared at Mora with slight confusion
"My Lord, why do you need such knowledge?" he inquired, the Daedric Prince responded with something reminiscent of a growl
"Knowledge, no matter how trivial, no matter how useless must be collected... All mortals wish to know more and seek knowledge... Some more than others, like you, mage... I am like them, the only difference is..." he stopped for a moment "I am the only being to have made... significant progress..." Mora finished. Yamurn nodded
"I-It shall be done, Lord Hermaeus" he said. The Daedra said nothing, but there was a satisfied aura about him, he began to dissipate in the air, vanishing until only his eye was left, with a final exaggerated blink, Mora was gone.
Yamurn felt a pit in his stomach, he didn't know where to go. Human emotion was something that was barely understood by mortals, if even Hermaeus Mora didn't know it's secrets then how would could he ever hope to gain the knowledge that was seeking. Suddenly an idea clicked in his head, if anyone on Nirn knew of how to understand emotion, it was the Priestess's of Dibella. Yamurn opened the book before him, with a massive flash of green light he vanished.
When Yamurn appeared back in his cabin on Nirn, he felt a great wave of relief to be away from the stress-inducing realm that was Apocrypha, he sat down in his favorite chair and took out a pipe from his satchel, filling it and lighting it, then put it to his lips, the feeling drawing the stress and tension from his body, he sighed contently as he smoked away in his little hut. He was not worried about getting the knowledge as soon as possible, finding it shouldn't take too long, a few days at most, Mora was eternal, a century was a blink of his giant eye, he could wait a few more days, surely.
A thought crossed Yamurn's mind, who was the one who had last brought unknown knowledge to Hermaeus Mora? If he was so powerful, why hadn't Yamurn heard about him or read about him? Who could it be? He grunted, taking his mind of the subject, it was making him think more than he was willing to whilst he was relaxing, he decided that the next day he would begin his journey to Markarth.
Comments