Temples and Statues

{A/N: I started writing a certain chapter ahead of time and I was not prepared for the 'inspiration' that took hold. Now I'm depressed, but there's a chapter in the future that I believe I will be proud of thanks to it. Forgive me if this chapter suffered from it.}

{A/N: Hey bros, ignore the note above. I masturbated 3 times in as many hours to push the sad away and I feel fucking fantastic now! Let's go!}

"You said this crypt would have puzzles in it, but the path in the tiles was clearly marked!" Tonilia shouted behind her back to Yuri and Alera.

"I didn't say they would be difficult!" Yuri pointed out.

"We could've also flown over them," Alera mentioned dryly.

"Levitation is illegal in the Empire, though!" Tonilia joked.

"Levitation might not have been discovered back then, and it certainly wasn't banned," Yuri said. "Though I'm not sure of the timetable."

The gang had already made it through the Forsworn-infested Reach and into a mineshaft that led to the Temple with more Forsworn in it. Alera learned firsthand from the couple that when approached by a Briarheart, one must act like McDonald's and go for the heart. She still had no idea who McDonald was. Tonilia was only slightly more informed, she was told that it was his world's version of a Daedric Prince of Obesity who indoctrinates children with toys of their favorite heroes.

They had passed a stand with three rotating pillars and chose the symbol for 'Dragonborn', which was two dragons forming something of a heart shape and had an arrow pointing toward the bottom of it for some reason, and arrived at even more Dragonborn symbols. A literal path of plates with them on the floor led past more plates that were definitely trapped. Whoever made these had an unhealthy obsession with Dragonborn.

They crossed a bridge of more Akaviri stonework and climbed up through dirt tunnels and stone stairs to find a staircase that abruptly led down into the area where the Dragonborn would have to give to the Reman blood drive to enter.

"Who the fuck is the bald guy?" Tonilia's voice echoed in here as she pointed toward's Emperor Reman II's fat bald head being used as a door to remind the Dragonborn of who daddy was.

"His name is Remus. I mean Reman, Reman the Second," Yuri educated with his hand stroking his beardless chin. He approached a chest before the blood drive disk and found a big fat NOTHING inside of it. The automatically resetting puzzles were not hard enough to ward off thieves, it seemed.

Yuri slammed it closed and kicked it to the wall to his left, making it shatter into splinters and metal rivets.

"Alright, Dragonborn," Yuri pulled out a knife and licked it while spreading his eyes open much too wide. "Time to give bloooooood!"

"GIVE BLOOD! GIVE BLOOD! GIVE BLOOD!" Tonilia chanted while raising her fists.

Alera smirked and walked forward to snatch the knife from Yuri's hands before making her way to the Blood seal, kneeling on it, and cutting her palm to sprinkle. Yuri smirked and wondered out loud: "This seal opens for Dragonborn blood, but Dragonborns just have dragon blood so would this work if I took a donation from Partysnax?"

Alera raised an eyebrow and got up, "I guess we'll never know!" and shrugged playfully.

"We can always try again later," Tonilia offered to abate Yuri's experimental side even though he was mostly joking.

The blood seal shone with white light before spinning a few times for dramatic effect and Reman's head swung backward and up to let the people in. A curved hallway inclined slightly to yet another doorway.

Tonilia and Yuri let Alera walk in for the honors and she did so without any further ado, Tonilia followed right behind and jumped to slap Reman's big ass forehead. "Thanks, Remey!" She said, and Yuri followed behind to also slap the forehead, reminding himself of his middle school days of slapping doorways.

Alera opened a door with yet another fucking Dragonborn sign overlaid on the symbol of the blood seal before finding another hallway. Incredible. The stairs finally reached a climax and they bore witness to a room that looked like someone took painstaking efforts to artfully carve history into every single piece of stone in the room. Support pillars, walls, doorways, more walls, doors, everything except the ceiling was touched by Akaviri flavored craftsmanship. The only thing wrong with it was the uniform dark gray stone color that dominated the room save for the white light coming from the hole in the ceiling.

"Why the hell did they ignore this cave-looking ceiling? This is the most Anti-Renaissance thing I've ever seen." Yuri complained. Alera looked at Tonilia for confirmation and she just told her to ignore him.

{Hey, bros, I need help. You know those bowls that have coal or ashes or some kind of salt in them that are always burning on top of a short stand or pillar and decoratively stand guard at every doorway or hallway that means anything in Skyrim? I don't know what the fuck those are called and looking up different types of fireplaces will only get you to the Reddit page of backyard enthusiasts. HELP!!!"}

They strode up a set of stairs to see the whole of the room and Yuri instinctively looked right, finding Alduin's Wall itself. Something about actually seeing these things in real life always gave him goosebumps, the good kind. The wall's carving and impressions looked much more exaggerated and the light dug itself into every crevice to cast all the right shadows. As Yuri was much more well-read on the world he now lived in than before, he recognized more than before in the wall.

'Alduin's Wall depicts several key events through the history of Tamriel, such as the Dragon War, Jagar Tharn's rule and the Staff of Chaos, the activation of the Numidium and the Warp in the West, the fall of the Tribunal and the eruption of the Red Mountain, the Oblivion Crisis, the Skyrim Civil War and the return of Alduin, the World-Eater. It's truly a full prophecy.'

"What does the wall say, babe?" Toni asked him.

"It's depicting history. The Civil War and the Oblivion Crisis are in the background, while the linear events of the Dragon War, Alduin's defeat, Alduin's revival, and the Dragonborn's victory are in the foreground. The coolest thing about all this is that when this was made, the majority of the wall was depicting the future, not the past."

"So..." Alera began. "How am I supposed to defeat Alduin?"

"This section here tells of a shout that brought Alduin down to earth, also named Alduin's Bane. I already know that shout, and will teach it to you later."

"Then why did we come here?" "Historical Value!" "Loot!" The Warrior, the Mage, and the Thief said in that order.

They did find a generous sum of gold, since the Septims hadn't invented Septims yet, among more weaponry than they would ever need. Yuri promised to enchant the cool-looking armor and weapons to fit their standard and maybe share them among the Companions. Maybe they would be better off as the new local dragon slayers anyway. Seriously, there were enough arms in here to take care of a majority of them and invoke a new era in armor fashion in Whiterun and beyond.

They left having successfully taken all the metal from the stone temple and went about their merry way before they discussed where to go next while killing as many dragons as possible.

Then Yuri had an idea he wanted to experiment.

"The Black Star, maybe I can use that."

"What's the Black Star?"

"It's a Daedric Artifact belonging to one of only two decent Daedra, it captures souls. If I can amp it up, maybe I can perfectly capture Alduin's soul after we kill him so we can either feed it to you or make some cool stuff out of him!"

"What would happen to me if I eat Alduin's soul?" Alera asked warily.

"You would probably become partially or fully immortal. Like Alduin himself." He honestly informed while noticing her hesitation. "There's no need to make that decision anytime soon, that's what the Black Star will be for. We'll store him for later."

"Good, good. Wait, how do you know I won't be able to take his soul after death like all other dragons?" Alera asked.

"Intuition," Yuri responded while Tonilia smirked at him from behind Alera. Alera squinted at him but let it pass.

"Alright, let's go to Winterhold and then to the Shrine of Azura from there."

"Is that how you get a Daedric Artifact? You'll just ask them from a shrine?"

"Hush, child. I, your mentor, will show you the way."

───※ ·❆· ※───

Yuri had opened a portal to the entrance of Winterhold near where he landed on Nirn first, before letting his party through and turning right back around. Running through the snow for a few hours towards a statue atop a short mountain in the distance eventually led to the Shrine of Azura. Stairs led to a statue of a woman in flowing garments holding a sun and a moon. The Goddess of Dusk and Dawn.

They climbed the stairs and reached a platform with an altar below the statue, where a woman in sparse worshipper's robes already stood in praise in this frigid weather. Praise be her endurance, she's not even a Nord.

"Azura has seen your coming, Traveler." The female worshipper said in a deepish voice and turned around to reveal Aranea Ienith, who had a name that sounded like a spider-shaped mid-boss would own it. "It was not curiosity, but fate, that led you here."

"Oh? And how many poor saps have you said that to?" Yuri asked.

"How many poor saps do you think come up here in this weather to worship?" She remarked.

"Fair enough."

"Azura has given me the gift of foresight, child! I have seen you coming up those steps long before you were even born. You have been chosen to be her champion! It will all unfold as Azura has planned!" She resumed.

'If you truly had foresight you would know that I cannot be seen with foresight and chosen someone else, or at least know that Azura ain't getting her fuckin' star back. Imma turn it black, hehehe' Yuri thought evilly. Alera was wondering if Yuri also had foresight, however, which would explain how he knew that Azura's Star would be available. Wait, he called it the Black Star?

"Very well. What does Azura want?" Yuri asked with mock interest.

She then went on about a fortress endangered by water yet untouched by it, and an elf who can turn the brightest star as black as night, and more to direct Yuri to Winterhold and Nelecar.

"Alright, let's go." And Yuri opened a portal back to Winterhold and entered the Frozen Hearth once more with his band in tow. 'I could just skip ahead to Malyn Varen, but that wouldn't be any fun and Alera would get suspicious.'

He ignored the looks he was getting from a certain barmaid he forgot the name of and went to a table that held an Altmer in purple mage robes before sitting down beside him while the other pair sat in the chairs across from them.

"Hey buddy," He nudged him in the ribs. "Know where I can find a mage who's real interested in a star?"

Nelecar's annoyed frown changed to a wary investigation. "Who sent you?! Was it the College? The Jarl?! We agreed there would be no more questions!" He shot questions rapid-fire and looked in all directions for an escape route.

"Myself, buddy." And he swung an arm around Nelecar's shoulder. "Hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions." He said while an almost unnoticeable force slowly tightened around Nelecar's neck. Yuri had chosen the (intimidate) option.

"Alright, alright, I'll talk!"

And so he did. Malyn Varen was a Master Mage I was working under who was attempting to specialize in soul magic, but he was dying. He used Azura's Star to attempt to store his own soul inside of it and grant him pseudo immortality, but he needed to circumvent its own rule first. Azura's Star couldn't use black souls, or the souls of a mortal Man or Mer. Only white souls belonging to lesser creatures. Experiments involving the artifact of a Daedra obviously drove him fucking bonkers and he started seeing visions and killing students and shit before he fled to the location Yuri was headed for next: Ilinalta's Deep.