Her dark braid flew through the air as she dodged and ducked away from the arrows that flew through the air around her. The brigade of five still ran behind her, Imperial soldiers that had spotted her at a town three leagues back, they had been chasing her for quite some time and the Witch grew tired. She ran off the dirt road and pushed herself against a tree, given time she could turn herself partially invisible against the bark. She cursed herself, realizing that she hadn't given herself enough time. She calmed her breathing and drew her daggers, she wasn't afraid of killing these men but she had hoped it wouldn't come to this. She stepped out from behind the tree she had been using as shelter and the men stopped in their tracks only ten meters away. "Come quietly, before we're forced to kill you"
The Witch laughed at that, knowing they couldn't harm her if they tried. She shouted the three words of power that would help her most in this situation.
"Su Grah Dun" As she spoke the words her daggers hummed with the power of wind and grew light in her hands. The soldiers shook with fear as they took hold of their spears, pointing them towards the Witch’s heart. The first of the soldier’s on the Witch’s left came for her first thrusting his spear out towards her. It was sloppy, he realized this quickly as the Witch’s dagger cut open his forearm, spilling blood over the spear. He recoiled in pain and tried to step away from the Witch but she was too fast for him, she stepped behind the soldier and grabbed him around the throat. As she did this, the other four soldiers had been getting into a strategic formation surrounding the Witch. She opened up the man’s neck with a quick swipe and threw the dagger at the soldier behind her who was about to lunge at her for a killing blow. He hit the floor before his spear had time to move. The Witch drew the sword of the soldier she had been holding and held it up to the three remaining soldiers.
The soldiers stood shocked, unsure of how to proceed against such a formidable foe. The soldier in front of the Witch threw his spear, aimed at her heart, and drew his bow from his back. He fired three quick shots as the Witch recovered from her quick dodge of the spear. She dodged two arrows and cut the last in half with the soldier’s sword. With unnatural speed she darted left then right and lunged at the soldier to her right. He swung his spear, aiming for her chest but only succeeded in cutting the last inch of the Witch’s braid, before he had a dagger imbedded in the bottom of his jaw. Within the final moments of his life he saw the last of his comrades still holding a spear gutted and disarmed in seconds. The last remaining soldier, the archer had run some distance away and was firing arrows with little luck. The Witch ducked and dodged, gracefully avoiding all arrows coming for her. She threw her newly acquired spear at the man but it came short, only barely, the spear embedded itself in the man’s thigh and he fell to the ground screaming. The Witch walked back towards the group of four dead soldiers and quickly found the dagger she had thrown, dislodging it from a soldier’s chest. She rifled through their belongings, taking only what she could carry with ease, all the while the soldier continued screaming as he bled out on the floor. The Witch walked gracefully to the last living soldier and looked down at him, his screaming stopped as she sliced his throat open in one quick, fluid motion. She knelt down to search this soldier for anything of use when she felt her skull crack at the impact of something unknown, the Witch tried to turn to find out what she had been hit with when darkness clouded her vision and she fell to the floor.
When the Witch awoke, she found that her hands had been bound behind her back and her possessions had been taken from her. She lay barely naked in what looked like a cell, bare apart from the pile of loose straw she lay on and a bucket in the corner. The door was iron, with a small slit in the top that the Witch assumed was for her jailer to observe. The Witch stood up from her spot in the corner and inspected the door, based on the indents on her side of the door, she assumed there were two large locks on the outer side. Had it been anyone else in that cell they’d have been trapped with no hopes of escape, but the Witch had hope still, as she knew dozens of the ancient Words of Power of the Dragon Tongue. She could have burnt through the door with the breath of a Dragon, or simply blasted it off its hinges, but chose to hide the extent of her abilities from her captors. She was one of only seven mortals able to access the ancient power of the Dragons, the four Graybeards, secluded on their mountain at the Throat of the World, pacifists who never used the gift of Thu’um for anything. Ulfric Stormcloak, a rebellion leader had learnt from them at a young age before beginning the Civil War currently being waged in Skyrim. The last of the seven was the reason she had come to this desolate winter wasteland, the newly found Dragonborn. The Witch knew only that the Dragonborn was able to absorb the souls of Dragons and learn their Words of Power with ease. The Witch knew that the current Dragonborn was living somewhere in Skyrim and knew that she needed to find him, but to find him she had to get out of this damned cell.
The Witch had been waiting patiently for three hours before her captors made any communication to her. She heard the guards footsteps before anything else, they sounded very heavy and slow coming towards her cell, as he approached the Witch saw how towered so high he had to crouch to look through the peep-hole in the door of her cell.
“Time to eat, maggot” The guard pushed a small scrap of bread, barely enough to sustain a normal person for an hour, through the peep-hole, letting it fall to the floor. The Witch knew she could live off the power of her own magic and wouldn’t need any sustenance for several weeks but being shown such disrespect infuriated her beyond compare. She bit her tongue and adopted a friendly tone
“Thank you sir, I thought I would starve. Could you possibly tell me where I am, or who my captors are?” The guard grunted, though the Witch suspected that might have been a laugh coming from him.
“Go to Oblivion, Witch!” The guard let out a loud, deep laugh as he walked away from the cell, his steps echoing to the cell for some time before disappearing completely. The Witch waited, she figured her captors would have to make contact soon enough. An unknown amount of time passed and the Witch grew agitated, sick of pacing her cell waiting for someone who didn’t seem to be coming. She walked to the cell door, she had thought before about holding back her power before but now she didn’t care, she decided to kill everyone who stood in her way to get out of this damned cell. She pushed one palm up against the door and spoke the words of power that would easily blast the door off its hinges.
With all her power, she shouted “Fus Ro Dah” The moment she had spoken the first word of power her head pained her deeply, she felt as though someone were crushing it. She fell to the ground in pain, and she suddenly felt weak and tired. She opened her eyes to see that her cell was now illuminated with the faint glow of symbols on the walls.
The Witch hadn’t noticed them before but now looking at them she understood what was happening.
“HOW!? No mortal can suppress the Power of the Ancients! Impossible! Tell me how!” She beat on the door of her cell, the sound echoing in her head and making her wince with every sound, but she ignored the pain. She wanted answers. Her beating stopped when she heard a light chuckle coming from the outside of the door.
“No mortal magic can suppress your power, but this is no mortal magic Selena” This shocked the Witch, they knew her name and the power she wielded. Had this man been waiting for her to use her power this entire time before showing himself? She was made uncomfortable by the fact that this person knew more about her than she knew about him. Selena stood up, looking through the peep-hole, trying to see the man, but he stood just out of view in the shadows. Selena could see a faint outline of the man, he had the build of a fighter or a warrior.
“How have you done this? How do you know my name?” Selena struggle to remain standing but had to know who her captors were.
“Oh Selena, you already know, only one thing could give me the knowledge I needed to capture you” The Witch looked around the room, the sigils still glowing. She recognized these symbols, they were an ancient, forgotten language. In all her years, Selena had never seen anyone use this language.
Except for “The Daedra. Which Daedric Prince was foolish enough to help you?” The Daedra are demons who live in the plane of Oblivion, the Daedric Princes were the most powerful and the most evil among them, living in their own planes of existence, and each had enough power to destroy the world twice over. The only thing keeping them in check were the Aedra, the immensely more powerful Gods who watched over all and controlled everything that happened in their universe. The Daedric Princes loved to interfere with mortal affairs usually for a large price, most Daedra were known to help someone with a plan that would then backfire on them drastically, most times causing misery and death.
When the man didn’t answer, Selena wondered which of the Daedric Princes would help a mortal capture her. She had run into many of the Daedric Princes in her time, many of them offering her a deal of some sort, but to their surprise she turned them down and found her own power. Selena looked at the sigils and thought, it would take an immeasurable amount of power to suppress the Power of the Ancients. Selena could only think of four Daedra with enough power to create the sigils surrounding her. Hermaeus Mora the formless Prince of knowledge and memory. Without a doubt, he would easily be able to create these sigils, but Selena knew he wouldn’t give up his knowledge without some sort of payment and Selena guessed that the man couldn’t offer Hermaeus anything he didn’t already know. Molag Bal, Prince of domination and spiritual enslavement could have also made this trap but Selena knew Molag’s price would be a large amount of souls and would need to make it known this was his doing. Sheogorath, Prince of madness and disorder could have made this trap but wouldn’t have helped a mortal in such a serious matter, he was more likely to rip out this man’s intestines and skip rope with them. Selena knew Sheogorath well and had encountered The Mad God many times in the past and they had surprisingly become allies more than once, and Selena knew Sheogorath wouldn’t help with her capture after she had saved his Realm of Madness from the Aedra Jyggalag, Prince of logic and order. Selena smiled to herself. That had been a fun time.
That left one last Daedra with enough power to capture Selena. Mehrunes Dagon, Prince of destruction, energy and mortal ambition. Mehrunes would gladly help a mortal capture a Tongue, and could do it with ease.
“Mehrunes Dagon. So what have you offered up in exchange for my capture?” The man spoke in a friendly tone, making Selena grow worried.
“I didn’t need to offer up a single thing, I knew he would be glad to capture you. I mentioned your name and he was practically begged for me to be the vessel of his vengeance. Something about you disrupting his plans in the past” Selena knew he was talking about the Oblivion Crisis over 200 years ago. With the help of an old friend and an Aedra, Selena had ruined Mehrunes attempt at entering this plane and destroying the world. After sending him back to his own plane of Oblivion, Mehrunes had vowed to find a way to make her life miserable. Selena grew sick of talking to this man and needed to know what it was that he wanted so badly he had gone to Mehrunes Dagon
“So what is it you want from me then?”
It was then that the man stepped forward to reveal himself, Selena took a step back in shock and almost fell, not realizing how exhausted she felt from one attempted Shout. She pushed herself up against the door and stared in disbelief. The man had stepped forward to reveal pale skin, covered in black veins, his lips curled into a dark crimson smile, the man looked at her, his left eye had a dark red iris and his right a dark blue, barely visible against the black surrounding them. Most shocking was that Selena knew this man. The man who stood in front of her had the build and appearance of Ulfric Stormcloak, but the evil that she could see inside of him made her tremble with fear.
“You are going to teach me the Power of the Ancients, or I am going to steal it from you” Selena now knew why the Prince had helped Ulfric, and why Ulfric looked so disfigured and evil. Ulfric was going to help Mehrunes back into this world, and in exchange had given his power to Ulfric.
The Immortal Witch TOC
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