It was done. It had taken much out of her over this past month, much blood, energy, and something else she could not quite put her finger on, but the task was completed. If the Mages? Guild found out what she did, she would be expelled. If the Blades found out, she would probably be executed. And if anyone else found, they would most likely shun her.
But what would Cyrus do if he found out?Cynn felt the flesh around her left eye socket throb painfully, and she violently shook her head, killing that thought where it lay.
It?s in the past. He can?t judge you for anything?not now?not anymore?Atop her steed, she approached the path, a nearly forgotten road in the frozen northwestern reaches of Cyrodiil. After the bridge, it would be a constant trek uphill over icy cliffs, unsuitable for horses, even an undead one like Styx. She promptly dismounted, and passed under the archway. She took one last look at her horse.
?Stay,? she ordered firmly when it took the first few steps to follow her. Styx shook its head, the vertebrae in its neck making a distinctive
creak noise. Cynn guessed that if it had nostrils and working vocal chords, it would be snorting in disappointment. But regardless, it complied, and stood still.
Satisfied, Cynn turned back to the road and began walking. She remembered from last time it was a long, strenuous hike, and un-holstered her staff. The snow was falling fast today, which reminded her of how cold it must be.
?Thank Meridia I remembered to buy these fur robes at Bruma,? she said, looking down on the garbs, and set off. It would be a day?s journey going up, and another to go down, and she would not be able to stop for long at any point. So she walked. Up long steep inclines, around winding cliff faces, and across ancient bridges, wet, decaying, and dangling thousands of feet in the air, seemingly ready to fall under the lightest of weights.
Hours passed. The snow did not let up, and the mountain seemed unending. Letting out slow, deep breaths, Cynn stepped off the road to a nearby cliff.
Have I been going in circles? It doesn?t?feel like I?ve gone anywhere! She removed her hood and squinted her eye towards the horizon, hoping to see how high she was at this point. But all she could see was an endless blue mist enveloping the world outside the mountain.
Sighing in frustration, she returned to the road. But after a few steps, a jolt of pain shot up in her foot as it collided with something hard.
?Damn!? Cynn cursed, looking down at her stubbed toe with a winced expression?which suddenly turned to a beaming smile! ?The stairs! I?m almost there!?
She strode upon them, measuring her steps tentatively, making sure not to trip over them, or slip on the ice that coated their jagged surfaces. Soon enough, the stairs, the earth, and the snow melted away to give way to her destination: the shrine of Hermaeus Mora, the Woodland Man, Scryer of the Tides of Fate!
The trio of worshippers were still there. They turned to her with unreadable faces. ?You have returned,? the Khajiit said. ?I trust you have completed Lord Mora?s task?? Cynn nodded, and reached into her robe, but he just shook his head. ?Do not give it to me. Give it to Him. He specifically requested that you carry His will out.?
Cynn gulped, and trudged over to the statue. Enormous, formless, eerie. Framed against the harsh blinding snow, with its crab-like pincers turned to the heavens, Mora struck an ominous figure. She wasn?t sure why, really. Was it His inhuman appearance? The garbled echoes of His voice? The nature of His aspect and sphere (what little was known)?
No, there was something different about Him. The other Princes, I, in my, what is probably foolish, curiosity willingly worked for them, willingly, of my own accord. Did not matter what deed they asked, no matter how mundane or despicable it was, I?always did it, without question. But I did not actively seek Mora out, I didn?t even know He had worshippers here?but he specifically sought me. And being under the close scrutiny of a god was perhaps reason enough to be frightened. But, there was nothing she could do.
When a Prince asks you to do something, you have to do it.And with that final though, Cynn pulled out the object from her robe, a great soul gem, larger than all others she had seen before. And raising her voice, hoping perhaps that Mora would hear, she bellowed:
?Here it is! Ten souls, of every sapient mortal who call themselves citizens of the Empire! Take it!?
The winds picked up, and the mountain trembled! Cynn struggled to maintain her balance, with the earth beneath her shaking, and the air blasting around her like a thousand loosened arrows! The gem took flight from her hands, soared into the misty blue heavens, and was swallowed up into the cascading sheets of snow! And the world all around, as if bourn of the low rumbling of the earth, and the high whining of the numbing winds, the voices of Hermaeus Mora spoke!
?I am pleased that you have done what I have asked! Take the tome of forbidden knowledge, the Oghma Infinium! Read it, learn about yourself!?
The world stopped shaking, the mountain stood still, and the howling winds died down. And in a faint whisper, a voice beguiled ?And find the answers you have sought!?
?What was that?? Cynn exclaimed, looking all around. Her eye fell on the Khajiit worshipper, who was looking quite pleased with her.
?A gift from Lord Mora!? he beamed ?A great boon! Do what He says, such a sacred gift must not be wasted!?
Cynn looked down. Someway, somehow, at some time, a book lay in her hands.
I don?t recall this being here. How did?? She blinked and shook her head.
Daedra never make sense. But perhaps he is right. Just what does lie in this book? WHAT AM I?Cynn did not remember ever opening the tome. She did not remember walking off that slope. She did not remember what had transpired between seeing the Oghma Infinium in her hands, and right now. But here she was, flying in a realm that looked vaguely like the sky at night, or what lie beyond the sky at night, or perhaps an interpretation of the sky at night. She flew through it, naked as the day she was born, with specks of light and clouds of mist of every conceivable color blaring and zooming all around her, mixing, streaking, stretching?
WARNING: NUDITYWHAT IS MY PATH?The skies wrapped around her and unfurled themselves once more! She felt her body halt, hovering in space. But the lights spun around her, not as one globe, but like a million wheels of fire, pouring, feeding, devouring, vanishing, growing, fading, expanding?
WARNING: MORE NUDITYWHAT DO I SEEK?She saw a man, who she may or may not have known, running through a blizzard, with only a faint red moon to light his way as the night itself chased after him hungry for his blood. She saw Cyrus, with shadows clinging to his gray skin as he walked through walls of fire with a trail of shapeless rendered corpses behind him. She saw Mehrunes Dagon towering victoriously over the ruins of the Imperial City. She saw a red-haired warlock in flame-tinted robes she never met, presiding over a mountain of sewn muscle, indescribable formless atrocities standing before him in ordered formation. And Cynn saw light, searing painful light, much like that which had sped by her, bursting from her chest as if it were a cocoon. It shined and sparkled, and numerous strands all spun around as spokes of a wheel?
WARNING: EVEN MORE NUDITY?And Cynn awoke. Not in a starry sky, not in a bed, not in prison cell, but that lonely snow-covered mountain. She was still naked, though she did not feel the cold. Nor did she feel the numbness that normally follows. She felt?fine, as if she was dining in the Tiber Septim hotel, warm, safe, carefree.
WARNING: NUD-Oh, you get the point.Something?s off. She looked at her arm. It was there, completely mobile, but its color had changed. What was once a fleshy pale was now white, white as the snow that surrounded her.
That?s?certainly odd. But not quite it. Cynn looked over and saw the worshippers staring at her, looking impressed. The Khajiit in particular seemed to be in the middle of an uproarious prayer to his lord. Strangely, despite her nakedness, Cynn found she did not seem concerned, embarrassed, or shamed.
?What?happened?? she breathed lowly, unable to find her voice, or catch her breath.
?You have accessed forbidden knowledge,? the Khajiit replied. ?Knowledge not of this plane of existence. A piece of Lord Mora Himself. No one who reads into the Oghma Infinium ever comes out the same person.?
Cynn flexed her fingers, individually, balling her hands into fists, before bending her arm.
No, that?s not it??Some are driven mad by the knowledge they have engulfed??
She shut her eyelids tightly, for a few seconds, then opened them again.
That?s?something new. Is that what I?m????Some acquire new lines of thought they never knew they had possessed before, and new way to perceive their world??
Perceive? She turned her vision, without assistance from her neck, to her right.
Seems normal enough???Some not only change the way they see the world, change how it sees them??
She looked to her left. It extended further out than it ever did from her memory. Since?
Ten years ago. Yes, that?s it. That?s what I?m feeling. That explains it all???And some are even able to recover what they lost, perfected, through sheer willpower!?
"Even if I forcibly replace everything I've lost, they won't go back to normal."
-Guts, episode 287
The Threads of Causality have been tied! This topic is branded for sacrifice!