Chapter XL: A Moonlit Conversation

"Ugh." Minthara grunts in disgust as she bites down "That is still as vile as I remember."

Happily crunching the disgusting roast horker I shrug "I quite enjoy it personally."

We were sat in the vast gardens of the Blue Palace, the place was empty and quiet with the only real sound being the buzzing of insects blessedly kept away by the light wind barrier I had around me at all times. The garden was lit up by a number of iron lanterns commissioned about a year ago on my recommendation, perfectly lighting up the familiar pavilion below the mage's tower.

She turns her head to me slowly and raises an eyebrow "You have some of the best cooks in the province and you choose to eat this?" She waves the 'meal' with amusement clear in her eyes "Oh, who am I kidding? This fits you perfectly."

"Already so familiar with my wiles?" I chuckle and take another bite, still chewing like a barbarian I go on "I'd have thought I was harder to see through than that."

"I am used to it at this point." She smirks "Honestly you are far weirder when you are serious."

"My prestigious image, ruined!" I gasp and we share a chuckle, I shake my head "Still, are you telling me that after all those years in the slums you aren't used to shitty food? I'd think you'd have grown to appreciate it by now."

She deadpans at that "So I should keep eating slum food because I am from the slums?"

"Oh I would never dare question the tastes of someone of your... prestigious pedigree." I cackle "Maybe you were the prissy noble instead of me all along?"

She huffs and turns back to look at the gardens "Ass."

"And yet here you are, spending your time listening to the ramblings of an ass." I retort with some humor but also a question.

She crosses her arms and looks opposite of me "It's not like that."

"Oh so you weren't feeling masochistic?" I ask, earning a grumble "What is it then?"

It is only after some thirty seconds that she speaks "You are the only one who doesn't care about what I am." She sounds melancholic before adding with a light smile "My little sister notwithstanding everyone treats me like some... thing."

"I'd have thought that would earn them a quick meeting with your fist." I quip.

"Not in a bad way." She shakes her head, though obviously amused, and a bit tempted, by my comment "Ever since my reveal as the 'Dragonborn of legend' the Nords look to me with awe and everyone else treats me with caution." Her voice lowers as she goes on "It isn't like I don't like it, a part of me relishes the feeling of others wishing to prostrate themselves!" She winces guiltily as she says it out loud "But... at this point even Marco seems to walk on eggshells around me, he tries to hide it behind his humor but I learned to see the signs."

"So what?" I snort "You invited me to this little sitdown of ours because I don't give a shit about you being a literal demigod and prophesized savior of Mundus?"

She turns to face me again with a light smile on her face, she nods firmly "Exactly."

I let out an amused huff "Well, I can't argue with that."

"It is odd." She speaks up after a moment.

Seeing her waiting for my prompt I ask "What is?"

"Being so similar to everyone yet so different at the same time..." She mumbles "You are the only other person I know that is in at least somewhat of a similar situation."

"Oh please." I roll my eyes "I may have the tiniest shred of stolen divinity coursing through my blood but compared to the literal sun that is your own power I am but a flickering candle."

Instead of getting caught up in my retort she laughs "Was that a compliment from the ever sarcastic Lord Dagoth himself?"

"A mere observation, I assure you." I raise a finger and huff 'indignantly' "I will have you know I am most gracious with my compliments when I feel like it."

"Of course, of course" She nods 'seriously' "I wouldn't dare to presume."

Rolling my eyes I decide to shift the topic "I do wonder however, how does it feel to have three fathers?"

She blinks "What?"

"Oh, you know." I grin "Your actual father, good ole' Akatosh, and now Titus."

She stares at me for a moment before looking ahead with despair in her eyes, slowly covering her face and muttering "What even is my life at this point?"

I just laugh.

And I don't stop for a full minute.

She punches my arm "Stop that you damned bastard, I am having a crisis here!"

I don't.

She glares at me for a while before my own mood infects her and she lets out a light chuckle herself "Bastard."

"Oi!" I stop laughing and suddenly turn 'serious' "I will have you know my parents were happily married!"

She lets out another chuckle "Fine, I apologize."

"They were a pair of fucking weirdoes though." I add "A Dagoth who escaped his father's ambitions and an Aren who escaped her own father's obsession."

"What were they like?" She asks rather quickly.

I hum and cup my chin "My father was an Imperial Legate, and probably a Blade as well."

She goggles.

"Yeah" I chuckle "He was a spiteful cunt."

"For some reason I find myself unsurprised." She gives me a pointed look.

"Who is giving out compliments now?" I wink and she huffs "Back to the point though, he was a dutiful man and a bit playful when he had the time. My mother on the other hand... oh she was definitely the one wearing the pants in that relationship, no matter Vyren's strength, when she got her hands on the pan he would quickly learn that she didn't need her family's magic to kick his shit in."

"Honestly, I expected something a bit..." Minthara trails off.

"What?" I smirk "You think I got this mad on my own?"

She deadpans "Yes."

"Well I am sorry to disappoint." My grin doesn't falter "Even in death they are still a pair of little shits, why I even talked to them today and nothing has changed."

Minthara's eye twitches "I keep forgetting about that."

"But of course, the n'wah couldn't possibly understand the glory of Dunmeri traditions!" I offer a flamboyant bow while still seated. Before she can answer however, I speak again "What of your own parents?"

"Oh I wouldn't know really." She pretends to hesitate "Apparently I have more than most."

"If you can tell me how Akatosh is at raising children I am all ears." I cackle.

Grumbling at my retort she looks away "I never met my father really, the only thing I even know of him was that he was an Altmer my mother met after the great war... My mother though" She pauses "I would rather not speak of her right now."

I raise an eyebrow at that but quickly nod "Fair enough." No point in dredging up old memories if they were going to ruin the mood.

"You know..." She begins after a brief pause "For all of the time we had spent together it was always some kind of training, or planning, or working toward some kind of goal... I never really even thought to ask about you... well, besides your family that is."

"What about me?" I quirk an eyebrow, still chewing on my fourth slab of horker.

"What do you actually want to do?" She asks a bit more animatedly "When all this is done, when the world isn't under threat of destruction, when there is no war looming ahead and we are all still alive... What is it that you wish to do?"

"Been thinking about this yourself, have you?" I ask in turn and she nods. "It has been a while since someone asked me that." I frown slightly in reminiscence, I hesitate to answer but quickly find myself quite at ease and so I point to the skies and speak "What do you see there?"

She tilts her head slightly and looks up "The sky and the stars?"

"That is the rather obvious answer, yes." I nod "But what else can you think of?"

She frowns in concentration "The paths to Aetherius? Oblivion itself? Manifestations of gods?" She shrugs "I could list a whole bunch of things attributed to the skies to you but I don't think that is what you are really asking me here."

"Quite true." I nod, making her raise her head in pride "Want to know what I see?"

She seems a tad confused but still waves for me to go on "Of course."

"Infinity." I say with a serene smile.

"Infinity?" She raises a confused, if curious, eyebrow.

"What do you think lies beyond the stars?" I ask "Beyond Oblivion and beyond Aetherius?"

She ponders the question for a moment before shrugging "I don't know, it could be nothing."

"Or..." I add leadingly "It could be everything."

"Everything?" She hums "What, like a whole another world or something?"

"An infinity of them." I grin.

"So, what?" Her brow scrunches into the tiniest of frowns "You want to find out what is out there?"

"Exactly!" My grin is filled with teeth, an rather terrifying image out of context "I want to see new and unimaginable places, meet new people, learn of their cultures and beliefs, and then kill them!"

She seems almost sad for a brief moment laughing it off "Of course you would add that last bit."

I shrug "What can I say? My life has made me a warrior more than it has a schemer."

"Uh huh." She deadpans "Says the Chosen of Mephala."

Before the ever thirsty spider lady can appear to troll her I block the connection. I tilt my head and shrug with a light smile "No one said I couldn't be both."

"True, true." She allows magnanimously.

Once more we descend into a calm silence, only interrupted by my constant chewing.

After a full minute of this, Minthara's eye starts to twitch "Have you not had enough already?"

"I shall never have enough!" I proclaim defiantly, before quickly depositing the food in my storage "But yeah I can stop now."

She gives me a flat stare at this, obviously realizing I was doing it just to annoy her "I will not give you the satisfaction of a reaction."

"This is already a reaction though." I smirk triumphantly "Which means that I have won!"

She grumbles, but fails to hide the slightest smile on her face.

"Say, Minthara?" I speak up after a moment.

"Yes?" She seems almost startled, having drifted off a bit.

"Would you mind if I tried something?" I ask.

She just shrugs, not hesitating for a moment "Sure."

Nodding I focus my divinity into my hand and poke her forehead with two of my fingers, immediately causing her to relax and melt into the bench letting out a sound that was quite akin to a relaxed purr.

The two gigantic golden eyes I felt staring at my back from everywhere was definitely not a feeling I would soon forget though.

As I pulled my hand back Minthara blinked in surprise "What was that?"

"An experiment." I explain "I theorized I could block off a bit of your draconic side if I dampened your divinity a bit and it seems like it worked."

"It definitely did." she looks at my hand curiously "Like a weight was lifted off my shoulders." She then quickly adds "It is back now though."

"Well duh." I deadpan "I can dampen such effects, not utterly cut them off."

She nods in understanding "Makes sense... Still, could you do that again? That was very relaxing."

I shrug and summon forth my divine power, this time poking her in the shoulder because I didn't want to stiffen my hand like an idiot, a full three minutes later I felt my power flickering as it retreated back into me.

Minthara was out like a log.

Shaking my head I grabbed her and teleported us back to my tower, quickly summoning a pair of servants and having them carry her to her room.

I was not blind to what was going on, she had been crushing on me ever since we fist met and I started to give her the power she craved, and it wasn't like she was trying to hide it either.

Thinking about it briefly, I found that I wasn't wholly opposed to the idea, she was quite beautiful and sharp when she wished to be and her seeming resistance to my ability to sense emotions was a definite plus as well, even though the whole proposition came with the massive headache that was her future position...

No matter, it wasn't a decision I would be making anytime soon and I knew damn well she would come out of this whole ordeal quite changed. I wasn't even sure how I felt about it yet.

As always, I had time and thus I would procrastinate.

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!pu yap os detcelloc eb tsum sehtit ehT

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