Chapter LXI: Frustrating Confrontation And Sky Haven Temple

(Minthara's POV continued)

Our steps echo throughout the ancient halls, the shallow staircase curving sharply to the side and making it impossible to see more than a few meters in front of us. I could feel Lydia growing apprehensive at the claustrophobic space but thankfully the world did not force me to deal with that as we soon reached an engraved stone doorway without incident.

Delphine went to open it but Esbern held her back "Hold on just a moment, I believe a bit more... caution is preferable after our earlier blunder."

His fellow Blade just huffs in annoyance and waves for him to get on with it.

No feeling of danger is forthcoming though and my instincts are proven right as Esbern sighs in relief "We are in luck!" He turns to us with a smile "The only magic I can sense is the concealment spell."

"Done wasting our time then, Esbern?" Delphine narrows her eyes.

And the jovial atmosphere around the old man disappears in an instant "Wasting our time are we?" He repeats gravely "Are you truly so quick to forget your duties, Delphine?"

"Our duty is to kill the dragons and protect the world." She retorts curtly "Not waste our time on every small engraving you want to document."

"No." Esbern states simply.

Delphine almost recoils in surprise before calming herself and glaring "No?"

"No." The old man nods as if it was the most obvious thing in the world "Our duty is to the Septim dynasty, not whatever foolish glory hungry quest you seem to have decided to undertake and volunteer me for it while you were at it." He adds that last bit with a huff.

Before she can retort Esbern turns to me "Apologies for this foolish delay, my lady." He gives his colleague a sideways glance "It would seem some of us yet refuse to grow up."

 "Oh don't mind me." I grin a cruel grin "Please do continue with the pointless drama, we have all day after all." 

Marco snorts.

Even Delphine, the fucking idiot, winces at this and looks down.

"Besides." I add with a chuckle "I can't wait to see your reactions when you meet Krein."

Esbern stills as I pass him by on my way to the doors "And who might this... Krein be?"

"Oh you know, just Reyvin's sworn dragon." I outright giggle as I push the doors open, completely uncaring for the wave of dust that attempts to escape the great chamber waiting beyond.

"HIS WHAT?!" Delphine yells.

I turn to her with a raised eyebrow, my face showing amusement that did not reach my eyes "Did you mishear me, Blade?"

I do have to stop myself from bursting into laughter as I see Lydia mouth 'That man has a dragon?'

Seeing that no one was about to say anything more I turn around and go to enter the main chamber but the low mutter of "No..." Stops me as I once again look back "I refuse to accept it." Delphine mutters and Esbern palms his face.

"I am sorry?" I mutter harshly.

"Every dragon is just a war hungry beast waiting to slaughter everyone it gets its hands on." The Breton Blade says "Whether Dagoth things he controls it or not it matters little, all of the beasts must be put down."

The air suddenly turns very chilly "Are you presuming to give me orders, Blade?" I mutter but my volume matters little as the very walls begin to shake, sending even more dust flying, much to my frustration.

I do not give her the opportunity to speak as I go on "You want me to kill a valuable ally, someone who is by divine decree my spiritual sibling and a valuable teacher at that, for what? Your pitiable little vainglory? Your desire to leech off of my abilities so that you can earn a bit of value in your life of exile?" Each question makes her wince harder than the one that came before "Well Blade? Explain yourself!"

She composes herself and grits her teeth "Leaving beasts that won't ever die when we have the chance to kill them is a foolish decision."

"Foolish is it?" I narrow my eyes, and being done with this idiocy snap my fingers.

Delphine does not get to even twitch before the pommel of a dagger smashes into the back of her head and she is out cold, Junia standing over her with a gleeful expression while Marco cautiously positions himself to cast a spell at Elsbern just in case.

"Stupid bitch forgets that I am one of these 'beasts' in human skin." I almost growl out and my eyes snap to the old man's, who was thankfully not stupid enough to escalate and even looked disappointed "You will deal with this or I will. Am I understood?"

He bows immediately "By your command, Lady Septim." And grabs his fellow Blade like a sack of potatoes.

Marco whistles with relieved levity "Well, that escalated quickly~"

Lydia sheathes her sword and sighs, giving Esbern a pitying look "Is she... well?" The question was not about her health.

He too lets out a tired breath as he hefts his fellow "Delphine has had a particularly hard life since she joined the Blades at a very young age. It was not long before the Empire was embroiled in war with the Dominion and we were forced to abandon our purpose." He turns to me with an almost pleading look "She just wishes to do something with her life that she doesn't feel is another task bereft of meaning."

"How is committing wholesale slaughter upon every dragon out there more important than her duty of protecting the future of the Empire she is sworn to?" I ask blankly. I pause and chuckle, the joke coming to me unbidden "Don't tell me she thinks me 'unworthy' or something equally asinine because I am half Altmer?"

Esbern tenses and pointedly looks at the wall.

Marco bursts into laughter "Are you kidding me?" He cackles "That kind of thing from a fucking Breton of all races?"

The old man, looking all manner of uncomfortable goes to respond but Marco cuts him off once again "Oh, let me guess." The Altmer Bard grins "Is it because she thinks our Terrifying Dragon Overlady was actually a Thalmor plot all along?"

Esbern somehow manages to look even more flustered "She has... voiced concerns." After a long stare from me he adds "Very foolish concerns at that."

"Hear that Marco?" I grin "I am actually a Thalmor ploy, they totally had my father make me and abandon us so that Akatosh could adopt me and then I could take over the Empire and give it to them on a silver platter!"

He cackles "Oh, I can already see their whole plan! The lonely and hated half-high elf ascends the throne after a long and bloody civil war only to have her long-lost father approach her and embrace her in return for a small donation of the entirety of Tamriel!"

Even if the jape stings a little bit I still laugh "Exactly! We have seen through their centuries long ploy, truly we are as great a group of geniuses as Delphine herself!"

Dragged in by our air of amusement Lydia also snorts and adds a quiet "We could never hope to reach such a height."

Esbern, visibly red-faced by now, clears his throat "I do believe your point has been made, could we perhaps move on with our task now?" His attempt to protect his colleague's dignity was rather amusing but I cared little about it at this moment.

"Be happy." I mutter, all my levity suddenly disappearing "That I have chosen to joke about this, her insolence has my blood boiling enough to snap her head from her shoulders."

"And the walls are shaking again." Marco sighs.

"I see..." Esbern mutters "I agree that my fellow Blade has overstepped greatly, but allowing her indiscretions to delay us any further would be rather foolish, no?" He asks with a glint in his eye.

"Real subtle old man." I give him a half-lidded stare but let out an exhale a moment later "But you are correct" I turn back to the great chamber and enter it "Come on then, I wouldn't want Delphine's idiocy to ruin our discovery." I totally wasn't eager to get my hands on the loot, no one will believe you.

And what a discovery it was, a high ceiling carved into the caves that once stood in its place, multiple different hallways converging from each and every direction and another ascending staircase leading to what I could almost smell was some kind of grove.

But what drew my attention the most was the massive mural carved into the wall next to the grand stone table at the room's center, the prominent draconic imagery upon it easily identifying it as the reason of our arrival here.

"Magnificent." Esbern breathes out with an almost manic glint in his eyes as he too comes upon the sigh. He practically tosses Delphine's unconscious body at the stone table and immediately focuses on the gigantic carving "Just as I have guessed." He nods to himself "Early second era Akaviri relief."

"Can you read it?" I ask immediately.

He blinks in surprise as he turns to me, almost as if he had forgotten we were here "Oh." He takes a moment and shakes his head "It should not be a problem, I need only take some time to explore the meanings of every image."

I too take a deeper look at the carving but all I get is a simple picture, saying as much I earn an amused chuckle from the old man as he explains "Old Akaviri writing was not what you might call a secular 'alphabet' it was mostly used for poetry and for marking other similar forms of art" He tilts his head "That and of course" He points his arm to the relief "Religious texts and prophesy."

"Still doesn't look like a language to me." I deadpan.

"It stopped being used for a reason." He chuckles "But I assure you that the images and their positioning present certain meanings, veiled in metaphor as they are. I need only explore them for a short while and we will have our answers."

"Very well." I nod and look to the rest "Junia, guard Delphine. Lydia and Marco go and explore the halls, I will go and see the grove."

"Grove?" Marco raises an eyebrow.

I merely point to the upper staircase and he nods.

As the upper gates of the ancient temple crack open I take in a deep breath of fresh air, immediately relaxing the tension I had built up while inside. A part of me was terrified we would find something foreboding on that wall that evaded even Reyvin's sight, some kind of idiotic sacrifice one might usually find in tales of adventure and heroics.

I knew deep down that such thoughts were foolish and that any obstacle could be overcome with enough wit and power but parts of me still worried.

It was exactly due to these discomforts that I yelped in fear as the empty Amulet of Kings started to vibrate, its movements almost dragging me to the edge of the small grove and under a pavilion overlooking the Reach.

Things were made clear as I came upon a pristine shrine to Akatosh, magnificent in both its artistry and the sheer familiar power it radiated. My knees buckled and I was almost forced onto my knees, only my innate stubbornness allowing me to remain standing as a sudden force slammed into me from directions I could not even name.

Just as suddenly I felt a massive pair of eyes stare down at me, judging, evaluating and calculating, the stare lasted for but a moment but that one instant lasted for what felt like days.

Not impossible considering just who was currently looking at me with a mix of parental affection and instinctual disdain.

As the moment passed a dozen intentions and meanings made themselves known in my mind, most of them telling me to keep strong and follow my current path, approving of my growing confidence and decisiveness and slightly reprimanding for my overreliance on another's guidance.

I glared at the pair of eyes even if my own eyes could not actually find them "Says the one dragging me around for my whole life."

And it was then as I spoke that something unexpected happened. The entirety of the grove shook and I felt myself stumble backwards, still keeping on my feet though, as a sound I never expected to hear in this kind of situation assaulted me from everywhere and nowhere.

A divine fucking snort.

I just looked at the source with growing incredulity.

Naturally He decided to fuck with me even more by making me feel something pat my head, my instinctual relaxation at the act making me growl in annoyance earning me another amused huff from my supposed divine parent.

Almost as if a timer had run out, odd considering the Divine in question, the eyes stared to fade away, transferring one final message to me as I finally allowed my knees to hit the ground.

Why exactly does he want me to rip Alduin's heart out?

I am so fucking confused right now.

-----

"Hey Minthara, look what I found!" Marco waves a sheathed Akaviri blade in his hand just as I close the doorway leading back to the grove behind me.

"Anything special about it?" I ask as I descend and join the rest of the group, all of them having completed their tasks and Delphine still blessedly unconscious.

I generously pretended not to smell the obvious sleeping draught, Junia had earned a bit of leeway unlike those her kind had replaced.

"A magnificent blade." Esbern cuts in "Its enchantments are carved in an archaic version of the earliest Akaviri runic script I managed to find in the old archives of Sky Ruler Temple when I was but an initiate, it is a blade enchanted specifically for slaying dragons, bearing the name of Dragonbane."

"A Dragonbane for a lady Dragonbane, no?" Marco grins.

I roll my eyes and pick it up, unsheathing it and looking at the still pristinely glinting steel "Another eastern blade... I hate their style but you can't deny their craftsmanship."

"Just give it to Reyvin for a while." Marco shrugs "Not like he can't replicate any bloody thing he sees."

Esbern pales slightly "Does this replication entail... deconstruction?"

"He is a Mater Enchanter so I highly doubt it." I tell him, much to his relief, and speaking of reliefs... "What did you find out from the wall?"

"Ah! Of course." The old man nods and approaches the carving "As we have already guessed, this is indeed Alduin's Wall, representing his rise, his downfall, his return, and his prophesized fate."

"His first appearance was marked by the arrival of the Nords and the genocide of the Falmer, mere decades having passed since the snow elves' extermination and the dragons' emergence. The Dragon Cults tyrannical rule stretched for many centuries after that but discontent started to brew after the dragons began committing greater and greater acts of depravity in their boredom."

He moves on to the next section "It was then that Kyne saw fit to bless the Nords with the voice, and chose a champion of great power and knowledge in its ways to teach it to them, granting the heroes of old a chance to fight back... A chance they grasped wholeheartedly."

He points at the center of the relief "Alduin was then banished through time, whether through ploy or desperation the God of Destruction was sent forth through its currents to land upon an uncertain future." He points to the next one "Upon his arrival did the scrolls foretell the coming of a Dragonborn, the last Dragonborn if I am reading correctly."

"No pressure then." I deadpan.

He gives me a slightly pitying look at that before returning to the central relief "Now what drew most of my attention is the manner in which the ancient Nords fought back, namely through the use of a specific shout, created for the sole purpose of slaying Alduin himself."

"Dragonrend." I nod.

Esbern scratches his beard "It could very well be... but do you not think the effects of it have been somewhat... underwhelming so far?"

I blink but then frown "It is true that the whole shout seems to only weaken the dragons depending on the situation..." I cup my chin "Reyvin is sure it is dragonrend though... Could he be wrong?"

"Or" Marco raises a hand "You could just be using it wrong."

My lips thin as I give him a wry look but before he can defend himself Esbern lets out a gasp of surprise and returns to the relief once again, scribbling something down and making us wait even longer.

A few minutes later he is finally finished and nods to himself "Yes, it all makes sense now." He turns around seeming both grim and elated, he points at one specific part of the image, namely the eyes of the figure shouting at Alduin "See here, I thought this expression signified determination but the slight tilt in the eyes tells us another story."

"Come now old man, don't keep us in suspense!" Marco waves for him to hurry up with both hands.

He huffs "As I was saying." His eyes narrow at the young elf "The eyes present another emotion, namely an immense hatred for one's enemy."

"So she just needs to hate the dragons real bad?" Marco deadpans.

I sigh after a moment's consideration "I don't hate the dragons... It is more that I pity the vast majority of them for being idiots."

"You need not hate all of them, my lady." Esbern speaks up with that damn glint in his eye "Maybe you need but focus your hatred into only one of them."

Now there is a thought.

---------

I am the stone man

my stones are amazing

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or I will leave your house ablazin~

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