89 Embittered Destroyer

{I was going to add the Black Book, but my word count got too high. Next Chapter will include Thread Weaver}

{It appears that the first five people who catch my release are gonna have to yell "WHERE?!" at me every time in the comments of those {Picture Here}'s, because I can't remember to post the relevant pictures for the life of me. God bless my dumbass}

Tonilia, who was sitting right in a chair in Tel Mithryn's greatest Mushroom beside Alera as the two of them were hentai'd in their eldritch study dives, gently fluttered her eyes open as the tentacles from The Hidden Twilight receded back from whence they came. She looked to her left and gave a gentle smile to the girl who would officially join their burgeoning family soon enough as she was wrapped in green tentacles. Groggily she panned her gaze to the table to find another black book had already made its way to the table.

'Yuri works so hard, I know he enjoys running all over the place but I can't wait for him to slow down so I can reward him. Hm?'

Tonilia just noticed her legs were warm, so she looked down and found a curled-up ball of black fur. The fluffy beast was relatively small, but incredibly long as its butt was on Toni's lap and its forearms and head were cutely stretched to Ally's lap even when curled as it lay its light-sucking black fur across the both of them lazily. A graceful and bushy tail leaned over the side of Toni's thigh and swished back and forth to swat at the air in erratic rhythms. One ear on its fluffy head flicked at times while the other pointed perfectly straight up and motionless.

{Picture Here}

'Oh boy, Yuri better come back or I'll fall in love all over again. Actually, where the hell did this cat come from?!'

The tentacles on Ally coming from Epistolary Acumen on the table receded back into itself and Toni waited for Ally to wake up to the same predicament.

"Oh, Yuri brought another one? Sorry for taking so long, you can dive into this one and I'll go stretch my-" When Ally went to get up from the table, she noticed some resistance after her legs grew less numb. Ally gave a perplexed eyebrow and looked at her lap invader before following it back to Toni's lap and panning her confusion to Toni.

"Who...is this?"

Toni giggled and started dragging her fingertips lightly from the cat's head and down its spine, causing its ears to go haywire and its tail to join in the fun even as it slept and purred happily. Ally also wanted to sink her hands into the deep mane of this black cat, so she started to lightly rub its belly and elicit moaning purrs from it.

The cat rolled over and exposed its belly as it opened its eyes.

"Brrrrow? Brrrp. Frrrrrrr"

A shameless cat basked in the ladies' scritches and attention as they cooed at his friendly behavior.

'Golden eyes and black fur, and a bit too well endowed for such a small creature...don't tell me...' Toni was the first to sniff out a pattern.

"Let's keep him, Toni! I'm sure Yuri would be fine with it! It looks just like him too!"

"Why don't we ask Yuri first... right baby?" Toni cheekily addressed the cat in her lap to test her theory.

"Tch, you said something too soon. This is the most comfortable I've ever been in my life!" The cat groaned while speaking human words and flashing his golden and feline eyes.

"YURI?!" Ally grew bug-eyed but refused to stop petting him.

"As for your question, I sure hope you'll keep me, hahaha. By the way, how did you find out? I thought it was perfect?"

"On paper, sure, but I know you when I see you..." Toni's eyes grew a bit unfocused when she thought of this power's potential and started playing out Beast vs. Girl fantasies in her head.

"I didn't know you could transform!"

"Making myself this small took a lot of effort, and I'm not very well coordinated but my body was surprisingly willing to change how I wanted along with the Forbidden Art. I can't make myself bigger freely yet, though."

"Forbidden Art, you mean it came from that Black Book?" Toni pointed to the new addition to Neloth's table.

"Precisely," Yuri bobbed his cat head and his ears lowered and pointed back up regally.

Ally glanced at the Black Book with incredible temptation, wanting to cuddle like a cat puddle with Yuri and Toni with all of her heart. Or perhaps just give herself ears and a tail whenever she wanted. Wait, she was the Dragonborn. Should she give herself Dragon wings and a spiny tail?

Yuri got up and shook himself off in a fuzzy black blur on the ground.

"Aww, come back here!" Toni squeezed her hands in his direction.

"No can do, I've got more knowledge to procure. I'm gonna suck this island dry, and my next spot is of incredible importance even without the Black Book."

"Can we come?!"

"Uhh... I trust in your abilities, but not this time. If you want to stretch your legs I can give you guys other books to go and nab?"

"Why, where are you going?" Ally grew curious, and totally wasn't a thrill junkie.

"A place that houses a sealed avenger with a name history feared. Or at least Elves did. I think this guy would be even more dangerous than Miraak if he was in his prime, so I don't trust myself to protect more than just me."

"Can anyone possibly deal with you anymore, Yuri?" Toni grew a sideways grin that held an earnest inquiry for her love's safety.

"I don't want to find out the hard way. But Azhidal isn't some blank villain who kills for fun, he hates Elves for what they did to his family and probably the party who sealed him. I'll know how to deal with him when I meet him, hopefully, he retains some semblance of sanity. I'd hate to kill such a historical figure who never did anything wrong."

But behind Yuri's stalwart assurance to them, Ally and Toni could easily see a passion boiling out of him. A passion that drove him to throw himself at every part of this world and experience all it had to offer, exploring what he wanted and communicating with all types of people, to handle all types of situations. They grinned and shared a glance with each other, because they loved him for his passions. Toni, who knew more of Yuri's past, couldn't exactly understand but could certainly empathize with Yuri finally getting to interact with a world he only ever witnessed behind a veil. She was the only one for now who knew he was merely reacting to his heart being freed and set alight with incredible power. His thirst is natural, but he wasn't that reckless.

"What the hell have you brought into my Tower?!"

Neloth walked in to a knee-high and four-foot-long beast with a fluffy and magnificent mane shedding hair all over his floor! The beast turned around and meowed at him while contracting a pair of predatory golden eyes at him.

'This feeling...oddly familiar.'

"Anyway."

'It talks?!'

"If you want to stretch your legs, feel free to go to Raven Rock Mine at that port town you reached first. Delve deep enough and you should run into a suitable challenge, and a Black Book. After that, come back here and polish the books off if I don't find you first."

"Have you gotten yourself into some inexplicable experimental failure, Fellow Mage? Even if you seem to know every location for the Black Books, I told you reading them was dangerous you know!" Neloth had recognized Yuri's voice and made his own assumptions.

Yuri turned around and his body morphed into a much larger version of itself, bound in tight muscles and an ever-growing mane that coated his body for about an inch and around his neck and head much thicker. His growl grew deep and menacing as it trembled across the room with its low vibration. In seconds, Neloth was half a head shorter than the black lion that breathed hot air into his face. Toni grew a slight blush while Ally had stars in her eyes.

"With magic, I make no accidents."

"Well, it appears you have complete control of it, but please don't leave any animal markings in my Tower," Neloth was unfazed.

Yuri's lion snout grinned with glistening white and sharp canines protruding, and turned it to the wall beside him in the mushroom.

"Yok Daas" The lion breathed and the 'plant opened' a circular hole in the side of it for him. Yuri's strong and straight feline back sprouted black feathered wings and he took a great pounce out of the mushroom and his powerful wings took him in the direction of Kolbjorn Barrow, of Azhidal's Descent.

Tel Mithryn lay on the most southwestern point of the island of Solsteim overlooking the Sea of Ghosts. Yuri moved East and only slightly inland past the monotonous ash lands whose hills rose and fell like waves dotted by inedible plants. Yuri was fascinated with the way life decided to prevail as much as it could, and pitied the land struck with disaster due to Vivec's and Sheogorath's eccentricities.

But Yuri hesitated to just steal land from its planet to plant in Avalon. Who would be happy with being uprooted from everything familiar? Even if he, a past American who could never afford to leave his country, would be disconcerted with the knowledge that America had been taken and implanted in a different world.

But he digressed when a slightly dipped plot in a perfect stone circle revealed itself below. A Dunmer with a shovel was digging tiredly away at the site, but at his pace it looked like he was playing in a sand pit instead of getting any work done.

Ralis Sedarys, a local 'procurement' artist/graverobber, had been hired to try to dig up this identified tomb of possibly great historical significance and was not expecting such a huge amount of manual labor. He was also not expecting a huge *Thud* to kick up sand and ash behind him, burying a huge part of his meager progress up to his ankles.

"HEY, YOU BASTA-... *gulp*"

The Dunmer excavator met the eyes of the fiercest and most majestic predator he had ever seen. This had to be Daedric, gorgeous giant cats with wings don't come around this island! This thing looked too well fed and clean! And powerful! And lacking a natural exoskeleton!

"The heat...yes...the heat must be getting to me." Ralis wiped the sweat from his brow roughly, but the scene didn't change.

"This land is not privy to mortal investigation. Stay any longer and you become my next meal."

Ralis quickly fled with his life, even leaving behind a pickaxe by the tent that glowed with a blue sheen of enchantment.

"A Nordic ancient pickaxe with an affinity for frost. How did this guy get his hands on such a piece?"

Yuri switched back to his human form as his wings and fur receded and he stood erect like a Homo Sapien... or a pe-

Yuri clothed himself in white and flowing garments with a black sash and detailing, stuffed the pick in his inventory, and moved to the edge of the pit. He turned on his Obfuscation Intent to the limit as he felt his being blend into nature around him, adding to his title's effect, and felt inside the crypt with ESP.

Sand covered a majority of the paths near the beginning of the crypt, while Draugr that should have long succumbed to fossilization were out and about at the bidding of their master, who was trying to use them to open a path past the sand sealed door and attract sacrifices for his return most likely. Telepathic instruction seemed to be the most the sealed Dragon Priest could manage, because he felt no ESP with his own.

His senses wandered past cavernous spaces housing a word wall or corridors trapped with poisonous bolts and misleading levers designed to delay any intruders. Down tunnels nearly collapsed and spiral staircases of nearly rotted wood, past caged doors and plates that breathed fire on whoever stepped on them his senses dived. Finally, he reached a rather conspicuous round room covered in runes and glyphs, centered by a runic dais surrounded by small hills that looked like a coiling snake. Small tunnels housed his greatest undead defenders and pillars acted as focal points for his imminent return.

Inside this room warped a man that appeared too pure for its environment, and he knelt before the runic dais before placing his hands on it.

'I see. I could get the Black Book and leave, buuut...'

The runes carved in the weathered stone lit aglow in a pure blue light, and a voice broke out in surprise.

"Who goes there?! Show yourself!" Not raspy, nor ancient, but refined with a middle-aged charm, a voice that refused to be cowed by time or circumstance grew startled nonetheless. He could feel his chains being altered, but not the source. Was someone here to free him? How did they get in?

No answer came to him, and Azhidal's mental probing offered no result. The runes, once carved in stone for millennia, twisted and collided in an orderly fashion, making way for new ones to add further meaning to their intention.

"You intend to bind me further?! See if I will allow it!"

The runes outside Yuri's point of interest, the dais, lit with red along the pillars and walls. Draugr were prompted from their caves and charged recklessly to swing at every inch of air they could. They were dismantled before doing so, burned in a golden pyre originating from the thin air directly above him.

Azhidal was trying to spread his will into the seal, but could not do so inside of it. The walls he did manage to take control of over the years could not find a target to initiate their cursed suppression or drain the mana and life from. He tried to use them to create wards over his own seal, which he never thought he would have to do, but his ward was snapped quickly, followed by the entire layout of the runes he had taken as if they were sealed away once more at the beginning of his sentence. He felt his connection, telepathically and magically, to any part of the seal or the crypt, become sealed tightly once again. The intruder had won.

Yuri saw a red line be born between the man buried in the stone beneath him and lead to his own chest. A Fate of Jailer and Prisoner. This could work.

Yuri grasped onto the string that had developed between them, weaving a contract into its singular thread before sending it to the recipient.

Azhidal felt a tug somewhere in the very core of his being, and grew alarmed beyond reason.

'Contract magic?! You think I will willingly accept this?!' Azhidal spoke through the connection Yuri had made through the contract.

'I just sealed you for another eternity without breaking a sweat. Accept the conditions or I leave right now. Did you even read them?'

This was the first time the intruder had spoken. He seemed...incredibly young. Or perhaps that was an illusion. He truly had no information on his newest dilemma, but knew that his way out was barred even further and before him was still an uncertainty. A chance was nice, if a man as skilled as him was on the outside of it, breaking him out should be a cinch.

An illusory document had taken shape in his mind after scanning his soul, depicting what the dilemma expected of him.

'No killing innocents? Are dirty elves considered innocents?'

'Civilians are, yes.'

'No hurting the interests of the Contract Maker, by which will be understood instinctually upon agreement, or the Contract Maker himself. This is rather vague! What if you consider anything I try to take for myself as your interests?!'

'My interests are my interests, namely you cannot touch Tel Mithryn or the College of Winterhold, or anyone or organization who I consider aligns with me.'

'Make an annotation about purely elvish interests, those can't be protected!'

'Tel Mithryn is a satellite of House Telvanni, a Dunmer political house. You can't have that one.'

'...Fine, Dunmer had nothing to do with Saarthal. I will hand over everything of value in this Barrow or on my person. Is that what you were after all along?! Wait, that's the last condition?' Azhidal scanned the page repeatedly, only finding some fancy swirling border script and no more conditions or hidden stipulations.

'Earnestly?'

'Seriously. If I remember your history correctly, you were nothing but a nerd whose revenge against Elven-kind was more calculated and tame than Pellinal Whitestrake. I only have interest in your legacy, not your life.'

'Who is Pellinal Whitestrake? And what is a nerd?'

'A Mad Shezzarine Cyborg from the future, and a nerd is a nerd. Anyway, sign it!'

'On one condition.'

'What?'

'You tell me all you know about that seal magic you performed!'

'You fucking nerd.'