Landing, Grabbing

Yuri leapt straight in the air with toes pointed like a trapeze artist over Naslaruum, who thought he was inches away from his revenge. The dragon passed harmlessly under him and Yuri suspended himself to watch him make another pass.

Auriel's Shield started glowing fiercely as the air around it distorted and Yuri grew a sideways grin. But Naslaruum grew wise seeing the same shield that blew his brother apart charge again and turned on the airbrakes. At a football field away he breathed in a breath of Soul Tear.

Yuri teleported behind him immediately, and Naslaruum couldn't tilt his head fast enough to prevent his next move. Instead of a bash, Yuri tilted the shield sideways and swung it horizontally. The wave of vibrations distorted the arc and assisted the shield in tearing right through the dragon's neck. As it was mid-beheading, Yuri activated the shield and blew whatever was above the neck he severed into more chunks. He caught it before the dragon fell into the icy water and put it in Avalon.

Yuri set the shield aside and went into the Shroud of the Hunter for the first time in a while. With his soul-based TK, he approached the wall on the opposite side of the lake and rose along it at great speeds. The wall ended in a cliff within two hundred feet of sheer ice and he rose past it to witness the back end of one of the most ancient temples to Auriel. Yuri was reminded of the wayshrines he didn't do when he saw the final one below him, housing Auriel's Bow.

Yuri didn't want to alert Vyrthur by searching for him with ESP, so he used his eyes instead. Using the Tenth Eye, Yuri found a humanoid form through the walls in the Inner Sanctum. He found more in other rooms, but they were completely still like they were the Falmer sealed in ice. Another form of evidence came in the form of Vyrthur's Karmic lines.

And there, they threaded. Two, to be exact, came from him and whisked away to both Knight-Paladin Gelebor and the bow itself. Vyrthur was moving to the final wayshrine, likely to investigate the noise of his earlier battle.

Yuri slid into the wayshine, put the Bow into his inventory, got out, and waited on top of it. Vyrthur bore a door through the ice wall separating the Wayshrine from the Sanctum and walked out briskly before halting and contorting into a shocked face. He rubbed his eyes to no avail, then trotted to the pedestal where the Bow he held hostage was once floating. He waved his hand back and forth over the empty spot, he blasted the area with ESP and came up with nothing, he ran circles around the Wayshrine before looking out over the edge of the cliff and finding the wholes and cracks that the dragons made and NO dragons.

"Is this a fever dream? Have I finally gone mad?!" He pounded his temple a few times and did not wake up from reality.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING OOOOONNN!!!!" He raised his fists into the air and sparks reached for the skies from them while his eyes turned a brighter orange.

Vyrthur detected a strange change in the winds, as if a stream of air was approaching him but he couldn't discover anything behind it. *CRACK* Vyrthur's chin abruptly made a horrific sound and was pushed down and to his right while his whole head and body followed. The moment he was struck, a figure appeared closely, far too close to him, and was rearing for another swing with his other fist.

Vyrthur crumpled to the ground as darkness took his consciousness just before he saw the second fist land on the bridge of his nose.

Yuri followed up the second swing and railed the bridge of Vyrthur's nose with a straight, pummeling the back of his head into the stone railing of the balcony.

Yuri looked down at Vyrthur with a frown. He was aiming for a sneak attack, not a one-hit knockout. Was his chin really so weak? Did he break his neck? Yuri felt for a pulse, then facepalmed before casting Detect Undead instead and confirming he was still "living".

He formed a chair of ice underneath Vyrthur complete with dense cuffs and moved onto his next project. He tapped Vyrthur's forehead and cast a sleeping curse to make sure he stayed down until he was done.

───※ ·❆· ※───

Arch-Curate Vyrthur slowly grew more and more conscious of the noises of air and the extremely uncomfortable cold he felt on the back of his body and appendages. With a start, he remembered what had made him unconscious and woke up with a heart that palpitated from the adrenaline.

'Wait...'

Three things he was forced to face immediately. He was naked. Whoever knocked him out also stole his Ancient Snow Elf Armor. His HEART was BEATING?!

Vyrthur felt his chest in a panic. His heart was really beating. He felt weak...he felt cold from the ice chair like the one he usually sits in, he felt fearful. He was...he was a fucking mortal.

And finally, for the second time, he realized that the bow was truly gone for good. His plan, the plan he had waited patiently for millennia to realize had gone up in smoke in a blurry set of seconds. Regrets piled up like snow in the Vale, and he knelt without speaking a word.

"Auriel, forgive me..."

{This was his actual death dialogue in-game}

Yuri, already shrouded once more, nodded to himself and flew off into the west he had come from. There was nothing left for him here, he had checked himself. Unless he fancied a fight with Kaarstag, of course. Then again, he had half a mind to come back later and steal this whole land for Avalon, so preserving him, in that case, would be better.

───※ ·❆· ※───

"Are you Captain Gjalund?"

Tonilia had initiated a conversation with a depressed schmuck rocking with the waves that tossed his ship in the docks of Windhelm. Ally was right beside her, antsy to get a move on.

"What do you want?" The Nord asked drably.

"Passage to Solsteim. Name your price."

"None. I will not go back there, not after the last time. You best find another ship."

Tonilia raised an eyebrow before grabbing him by the collar and lifting him with one arm, pressing him on the mast of the Northern Maiden.

"GUH, Hey, wha-what are you doing to me?!" Sailors on other ships and Argonian dock workers were drawn to the commotion, while some of the more familiar with Gjalund geared to help him soon.

"Name. Your. Price."

"Toni, I think a softer approach would do, no?" Ally chimed in while taking to her back and deterring an interruption anyway.

"Your Companions were attacked by the scumbags in masks who came from Solsteim, we have no time to waste if we want to strike back."

"Scumbags in masks from Solsteim..." Gjalund muttered to himself before averting his eyes from Toni. Unfortunately, she caught that.

"Hey," She grabbed his face and brought it back to face her, "What do you know about them?"

By now the crowd watching had started to circle the dock by the Northern Maiden and raised whatever tool they had to work with on their shoulders to back Gjalund up.

Gjalund sighed and spilled the beans, "I brought them here. For free, no less." He regaled them with the story of how he allowed a huge group to board the ship, but doesn't remember any details of the entire trip and woke up in Windhelm absolutely penniless.

"Sounds like you owe us then. How about I name your price? 350 Septims and you'll never need to do it again."

"...500..."

"Deal."

Toni set him down, the crowd dispersed with a bit of shame since they were hoping for some action, and they set off less than an hour later.

───※ ·❆· ※───

"Stay safe...this place isn't what it used to be. Gettin' weirder and weirder around here..." Gjalund looked at the Raven Rock docks with a bit of hesitation as they were pulling in.

Toni and Ally took in the sights. Red and brown mixed into the landscape of bricks and harsh looking plants, houses with stubby towers blocked the view of the main commune while a wall right beside the dock stretched into the harbor and donned unfamiliar flags of yellow and red. Above the clearing of houses, pin-straight rock formations made a wall and beyond it the land remained inhospitable. Ash-gray trees and even more sand interrupted only by rocks and perhaps a nasty creature.

{Picture Here}

"Even the Soul Cairn was livelier than this," Toni murmured to herself.

"And who are these outlanders you have brought once more to me, Jalund?" A haughty and British-sounding Dunmer projected his voice as the Maiden docked.

"Eer...let them answer that themselves-"

"Know anybody named Miraak, Mister?" Ally walked up on the dock and asked him point-blank, making Adril back up from her impropriety.

"No... I'm not sure that I do.... In any case, stay out of trouble while you are here or you shall be subject to punitive measures of House Redoran." Adril turned around to walk away while giving one final warning. "This isn't Skyrim anymore, outlanders, this is Morrowind. Keep your nose clean."

"What a stuffy cotton-man." Toni addressed his puffy aristocratic linens and poise loudly in the dock, while Redoran guards stifled a chortle before regaining themselves.

"Do you know who Miraak is?" Ally asked the guard clad in a bug-like suit made from the Chitin of ash-hoppers and the leather of Netch. The guards looked like they had gutted a highly evolved caterpillar and climbed inside of it.

"I uh... I think it has something to do with the Earth Stone. Over there," He pointed his anten- *cough* hand in the direction of the tip of the crescent bay they had come into. A tall rock jutted out of the earth and people swarmed around it while building arches and scaffolding around the obelisk.

"A good a start as any, thanks for the help!" Ally chimed in and Toni tossed him a Septim.

Their job lasted less than twenty seconds, and the dust they kicked up almost got them arrested not even a minute after landing. They arrived at the Earth Stone and started hearing strange chanting from the workers. They didn't look healthy either, their eyes looked baggy and darker than even their natural tone while open wounds in their hands and feet remained unattended and their clothes grew dusty and in disarray. Toni felt a slight tug on her mind but quickly banished it, while Ally didn't feel anything.

"You are quite the specimen, young lady!" A dandy Dunmer man in red and yellow mage robes...catcalled?...Toni from his courtside seat to the Earth Stone before approaching them.

"Excuse me?" Toni was ready to floor her first douche in a long time before he continued.

"Where are you hiding all that Magicka? No wonder you are unaffected by whatever the rest of them are," He gestured to the zombie-like crowd. "You seem fine as well, very interesting," He redirected his gaze to Ally. "So what are you doing here, exactly?" Neloth wondered if these strong ladies were the origin of this strange activity.

"Looking for a man called Miraak. Ever heard of him?"

"Why would you look for a dead man?"

"Dead?"

"For thousands of years, yes. Oh, my apologies, perhaps you are tourists. Miraak has a temple near the center of the island, if I were you... I'd look there."

"Ah...sure. We were looking for that place anyway. Hey Ally, let's grab a bite first. I don't fancy marching through this desert on an empty stomach."

Above the harbor of Raven Rock, a shrouded Yuri observed the girls depart the stone after getting their information.

'I thought they would be at Miraak's Temple by now... I'm too fast. Too furious.'

Yuri descended to the Earth Stone and realized how easy it would be to interrupt his plans from the getgo while enriching his new Realm. He unshrouded himself and surprised the shit out of Neloth.

"Why, another specimen has arrived! I have a Levitation pad in my tower as well, though I am not too keen on flying myself."

Yuri looked at one of his favorite snappy characters in the game with a glint of fondness before returning to his work. Putting the comatose mind-slaves into some real sleep was the first step, and transporting them out of the area was the second.

"What do you think you are doing? I want to know what happens when they finish!"

"The apparent lack of free will these workers are experiencing hasn't clued you into the nature of its completion?" Yuri shot back while not stopping.

"Could just be zealotry, I want to know what it does!" Neloth lied unconvincingly.

Yuri started to ignore him and focus on the task at hand. The 'zealots' were now cleared away, so Yuri leveled his hands like he was about to dig up the ground and raised them slightly. The ground around the Earth Stone formed a round fissure spanning the circumference of the platform and the pond surrounding the stone, and a violent shaking preceded the greatest feat in Telekinesis Neloth had ever seen.

"Carry on, forget I said anything!"

When the Earth Stone area had been halfway dug and was ready to be lifted off the ground, the pond around the Obelisk thrashed around and a slimy creature sprung from it. Standing at nine feet with tentacles sprouting from its arms and ribs, the Lurker appeared like an Alien from the movie Alien. A hollow sounding and gurgled roar was thrown from it as it flailed about, trying to step closer to airborne Yuri with its powerful legs.

It swung a tentacle that extended twenty feet to Yuri and he dodged deftly without issue. Letting the project wait he pulled out a bow of Legendary notoriety for a test.

Being paired with the shield, Auriel's bow was no slouch in the elegant department either. With the same marbled hue and milky effervescent whiteness, the bow shone without being activated. Its pattern wrapped around Yuri's pale hand brilliantly and clashed with his black attire to the extreme. Yuri held it in a horizontal grip and drew from his knowledge of the Sun Scroll along with the feeling of the bow itself to create a Sunhallowed Arrow himself.

'An imitation, yet I can feel the real deal of Fire and Light magic fusion reminiscent in this act. Perhaps it was never about fusion all along... at least not between Light or Shadow.'

Yuri didn't want to damage the stone, so he teleported right beside the Lurker and shot it in the side, propelling it through the crafted archways and shattering them as the arrow embedded itself in the monster. The Lurker burned and squealed like a Nazgul before the released arrow reached critical mass and exploded like a bright yellow firework over the harbor. The Lurker disintegrated into green mist, so Yuri continued.

The entire town had gathered at the docks or at the other end of the commune to watch the commotion. A man was lifting the monument that had stood there for generations from its place! A man had killed some kind of monster while doing so! Some of the more lucid residents believed the stone to be the source of a few troubles, while the other Dunmer were typical of Dunmer and didn't actually hold anything sacred, especially the All-Maker stone. {That's Racist, Redd!}

The Earth Stone platform and a dome of dirt foundation underneath it had been thoroughly uprooted, so Yuri waved his hand and it vanished. That was when he finally took note of the Raven Rock audience due to their shouting and loud speculation.

'While the girls grab Waking Dreams, I'll get The Hidden Twilight'

"Neloth!"

"Hmm?! How do you know my name, stranger?! Actually, it's not strange to know my name as famous among mages such as us, that was a foolish question! What is your name?!"

'Great, he didn't lose his flavor!'

"Mine is Yuri Nightingale, Grandmaster of the College of Winterhold and fellow Mage!"

"Mine is Neloth of House Telvanni, Master Wizard-Lord and Enchanter!" He would not be outdone.

"How about a cup of tea, I would love to discuss a few things with you at Tel Mithryn!"

"I would be delighted to compare notes, Fellow Mage! Then follow me, Yuri Nightingale!"