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Arc 8 Chapter LXXVIII: Of Diseases Divine And Futures Sublime
🕑 Added 2025-02-07 23:24:11 +0000 UTCI AM RETURNED!
A bit of a slow chap today because my plans got jumbled in my poor smooth brain and I needed a moment to get back in the rhythm of things. Should even out tomorrow (That or I will just drug myself up with energy drinks, either or really)
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(Reyvin's POV)
"-and that very same capability to utterly suffuse a being and change it on a fundamental level as a side product of a seemingly simple disease is what drew my attention to begin with."
Fyr finishes his twenty minute rant by reiterating his initial point and finally focuses back on me "As I am sure you know, my admiration for your ancestor's work is no great secret to those worthy of knowing."
"Right" I drawl out, only having been half-listening to him going into exhausting detail as to why he thought Corprus was the tightest shit in the history of ever, and the constant mental nods of Dagoth Ur of course "And we are just going to brush over the numerous ethical implications of its creation because of it all."
I wave my hand at him flippantly "That totally inspires my belief in your responsibility with the knowledge you are asking of me."
He scoffs and rolls his eyes "Do kindly skip playing the goody-two-shoes card, Dagoth. We both know that most grand discoveries require a certain amount of sacrifice and neither my hands nor yours are clean in this matter."
He grins slightly and leans forward "Or are you telling me your research into the Falmer came with no accidents or reasonable sacrifices whatsoever?"
I pause, narrow my eyes, and point at him "Point, but counterpoint they were literal beasts before I got to them while you are talking about changing actual people."
He gives me a cocky smirk at that "And yet those very same 'people' who are now under your rule are the product of your own cruelty, are they not?"
My eyes narrow as I consider either talking his ear off or just telling him to fuck off before my subconscious reminds me how much effort that would take and I sigh "Trying to convince a four thousand year old geriatric of the error of his ways is not how I would like to spend the next decade so let us return to the topic at hand."
Instead of being offended, Divayth Fyr lets out a short chuckle "Indeed, there are far better things we could be discussing than the deaths and eternal enslavement of thousands." I pointedly make my eye not twitch as he goes on "Like the exact details of how one can make a spell so very pervasive and difficult to counter in the first place?"
"Fancy god magic." I reply with a cheeky grin to match his earlier one.
So cheeky a grin in fact that Fyr pauses for an entire second before delivering me a look so dry it may as well remove all Hist influence from Deshaan in an instant "Oh, really?" He asks with utmost sarcasm.
"Indeed" I smirk and before he can voice his... amazement with my wisdom I go on "But jests aside, I was not fully joking when I said that."
Fyr says nothing but I had by now fully captured his attention, the entirety of the previous conversation merely serving to amuse us both. Something Fyr did for the amusement's sake itself while I used to flee from my job.
Sovereignty sounds cool until everyone and their mother starts bothering you at all times about things so inane you'd think they are fucking with you.
I really need some simulacrum clones or something because this is not how I am spending years of my life, much less decades or centuries.
Having spent the entirety of one nanosecond whining to myself I refocused on the conversation "In truth the Corprus' abilities are not as much a question of skill and power but of... authority."
Fyr narrows his eyes once more "Authority you say? A specific property of the energies of the Heart of Lorkhan allowed it then?"
"Technically correct" I nod easily "The truth of the matter is far more complex and involves... well quite bluntly it involves yourself and the world recognizing said authority so that you can act upon factors usually locked away from mortal hands, either in scope or in their entirety."
He catches on the hidden implication easily enough but his next question is obviously one far more important to him "And what is this factor when it comes to Corprus?"
I shrug "The fact it affects souls, and not just on the surface either."
Fyr is utterly silent for a good ten seconds before flatly asking "What?"
"You are aware of how black soul gems merely capture full mortal souls and do not actually drain them?" I ask.
He scoffs "A fool's apprentice worth more than the dirt they step on knows that. It is a trade for short term power for one side and long term power for the other." His face practically shouting for me to 'Get on with it!'
"How good then that you have proven yourself above such a station" I quip just to annoy him "But yes, even with the support of the 'Ideal Masters' as they liked to call themselves the black soul gems could not contain a true soul, much less drain it. That task fell to the parasites in Oblivion who did it over extremely long periods of time."
"Hmmm" His eyes narrow in concentration "Yes, I can see how something that could surpass the Ideal Masters would be locked behind certain requirements." He looks back up to me "Also, liked to call themselves?"
I grin half sheepishly half eagerly "I may or may not have ended up blowing the Soul Cairn up when I went to fetch Krein and an Elder Scroll."
"So that is why the efficiency of my black soul gems has dropped so massively?" I hear him mutter.
"I am sorry, what?" I raise an eyebrow.
He blinks and focuses back on me "Don't even start."
I just snort.
"As interesting as that little revelation was" He goes on, visibly holding questions back "I doubt you have an entire day to regale me of your adventures."
"Indeed I do not" I nod "There is less than an hour before the next council meeting."
"Very well" He grumbles "This authority you mentioned, what is it truly? Because if you plan on telling me I have wasted entire centuries on trying to replicate Corprus just to have it all locked behind some mystical arbitration, I am going to break something."
"All you will be breaking is your own ego" I scoff and let loose a bit of my aura, immediately shutting him up though not actually scaring him interestingly enough "As to actually answer your question you are both correct and not. You have not been 'locked out arbitrarily' as you put it, you have merely been missing a certain quality from within your magic itself."
"That sounds threateningly close to semantics" He drawls but then frowns "Authority, qualities, factors..." He looks me dead in the eyes "You speak as if you already can do all these things..."
"Come on then, Fyr. You are a clever geriatric, you can figure it out." I falsely cheer him on.
He looks like he wants to flip me off but his curiosity is overwhelming at this point, so much so that he does nothing but mumble for a good minute until utterly stilling a moment later "It does not require Magicka at all, does it?"
I tilt my head before shaking it slightly "Magicka does serve to make things infinitely more efficient but no."
"Divinity, I had never taken Dagoth Ur's meaning to be so very literate!" He finally states in realization. Oh I knew he was more than aware of what divinity was but the mechanics had forever been obscured from him.
From him and everyone else not deemed 'worthy' of perceiving them of course.
Dear Hermaeus did have an actual purpose in the world, as offensive as I found the idea to be.
"Indeed" I grin "Or Aedric Magicka if you want to be pedantic about it."
He lets out a very long breath as the realization sinks in... before bursting out into amusement filled laughter loud enough to have Akulakhan peek into the room.
Fyr calms down only after a full minute of chuckles before once staring me in the eyes "You never planned on letting me have it, did you?"
"Come now, Fyr. You must actually be more to do more and you have been slacking for centuries." I smirk and lean my elbows in the table while crossing my hands in front of my face "And before you start pestering me for further information, how do you plan on paying me for telling you something no other mortal mage would be willing to share?"
He frowns... and then grins.
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I left the room followed by Akulakhan who now carried a large magical box that sealed its contents so thoroughly I'd need a full hour to see what was within, and a couple tomes' worth of information on creating artificial life such as clones and the like.
Because of course while Fyr failed at playing god in fucking with others' souls he most certainly did not fail in fucking with their forms. And my current companion was living proof of how the world treated such discrepancies after a certain point.
"My master" Akulakhan rumbled after we walked a good distance, his hands shaking the box they held slightly as if to see if there was anything wrong with it "What are your plans with this thing?"
"Sentient weapons are a rarity but not a terribly unique concept in their own right." I say after a moment's thought "No, dear Umbra has given me a rather interesting idea for a project whenever I have the time for it."
"And what is this project?" The surprisingly curious automaton asks "Do you plan on giving it to one of your meatbags so they can become less useless?"
I pretend like I am going to leave the answer a mystery for a good while, before ever so slowly looking up to my massive guardian "What do you think of getting a sibling?"
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(General POV)
An hour or so after the scholarly meeting, the young sovereign of the dark elves found himself doing something far less entertaining than magical elaborations, and far more necessary.
The great hall of the resplendent palace of Mournhold was oddly silent as its nine current inhabitants failed to occupy even a percentile fraction of its massive space, their hushed voices barely reaching the closest pillars before dissipating utterly.
Indeed, the hall that could house thousands held only nine, five Great Lords and their Hortator, his two closest helpers in his right hand and grandfather, and his silent-as-the-grave bodyguard who seemed to blankly stare into the distance with his two glowing purple eyes.
"Thank you for that report, Alandro. Keep up the good work and if you need additional forces do not be afraid to ask, the veterans are already getting jittery and I might as well have them keeping order instead of ruining it." The Hortator spoke in a lazy drawl.
The Lord of the Indoril, tasked with the unenviable duty of keeping order in Deshaan, nodded with confidence "Of course, Hortator. I will not allow pride to endanger any of your subjects."
The nearby Archmagister scoffed but impressively managed to hold himself back from a snide comment.
"And I do believe that concludes today's minutiae." Varan Sarano spoke with assured discipline even as he gave his liege lord a curious glance.
"Quite" Baladas Demnevanni nodded "We've wasted enough time with things that could have easily been thrown to our subordinates, so can you finally tell us what you called us here for?"
"Oh do cease your constant whinging Baladas" Sindrel Sadras rolls her eyes.
"Indeed, Baladas" The Hortator drawls, much to the chagrin of the more serious members of his council "You do not have to act your age all the time."
The Archmagister's fingers twitch but he once more demonstrates impressive self control as no birds are flipped.
"But yes, as amusing as fucking with Demnevanni here is" The Hortator goes on, ignoring the Archmagister's finally failed control "I do have a reason for calling you all here in such small numbers. Namely I have called you all here to discuss the future of Morrowind and that of the Empire."
The reactions of those gathered were mixed, though mostly consisting of silent acceptance of their suspicions being confirmed after a long period, and well contained anger in the case of one Aneris Dres.
She had grown rather discontent with her house's perceived loss of influence and only the fact that all the other houses were outright loyalists at this point and that her own had been bought by vast swathes of land being returned to them stopped her from speaking out immediately.
She did still receive a raised eyebrow from her sovereign and knew her thoughts were obvious for all to see.
"I see all of you are already wise to my way of thinking" The Hortator nodded "But let us discuss it anyway. You are all aware of how and why I came to Morrowind in the first place, no?"
"Indeed" Varan Sarano spoke up slowly "You came seeking allies for the Empire and their upcoming conflict with our distant cousins from Summerset, did you not?"
"Correct" Reyin nodded "My plan was never to claim the throne but to unite this land and save it from evils unleashed by those now centuries dead, now that I have done so my plans must continue to restoring the world itself."
"Except you took one good look at what was going on and decided to upend it all." A voice not of the lords spoke and they all turned to a rather amused Savos "You should have expected that to begin with."
"Part of me did" Reyvin shrugs as if to say 'what can you do?' "But the fact of the matter remains that even as your sovereign I still have allegiances within both the White Gold Tower itself and even Skyrim to a lesser extent."
"And so what?" Demnevanni frowns "Do we just run back to the Empire even after they repeatedly abandoned us to save themselves for no true gain?" He pauses "Well, besides getting the chance to push the haughty Altmers' heads in of course."
The Hortator snorts "I personally find the idea of showing the Altmer just how 'high' they are in truth to be worth a bit of my political power."
There is some grumbling around the table, most of it vindictively agreeable.
A distinctly female chuckle drew their gazes away from the mage "I for one would love closer ties with the Empire. Trade across borders no matter how unofficial gets irritating after a while."
"As much as it grates on my pride, Lady Sadras does speak sense" Archmaster Sarano added "Seeking closer ties may prove more advantageous than seeking independence at this time, even if we could reasonably win such a conflict without a blade being raised."
"Right" Demnevanni grumbled, but did not actually voice any disagreement.
The room descended into weighing of pros versus cons, as anyone with any kind of reasonable interest calculated the future advantages of their house in either situation.
The Redoran were mostly supportive of remaining within the Empire due to it being both the honorable choice as Titus Mede did periodically send aid, and their Hortator was effectively an Imperial loyalist, self interested as he was.
The Sadras were fully on board with the idea, being only truly interested in increasing their trade empire and a fresh but rapidly growing industrial domain under the leadership of a certain artillerist leader who had grown very interested in machines over the period of the Deshaan campaign.
The Dres as a house were very close to the Sadras in their ambitions, so even as their leader hid her frustration their support was all but assured.
The Telvanni in truth and as always, did not give a shit.
And last but most certainly not least, the Indoril...
Once asked, their Grand Ascendant simply said "As proven leader in both matters divine and secular, the Hortator's word is final in all things." And refused to elaborate.
Reyvin was personally quite amused by the response, so much so that when he spoke next it was with a smirk that was not just slightly more assured than before "We are in agreement then? We are to meet with the Empire of Tamriel and fully discuss our place within this union, for good or ill."
"As much as your influence outstripping any and all opposition can be called agreement." Demnevanni scoffed, even as he nodded.
"All of you with frowns on your faces seem to be forgetting one very important fact in all this." Reyvin spoke with a small smirk, drawing immediate looks of curiosity "The Emperor is a friend and I have saved his empire thrice over, the High King of Skyrim might as well be my sworn brother in the traditions of the Nords, and the recently announced Crown Princess is... well let us just say that we are rather keen on cooperation as two beings of immense power and leave it at that for now."
Savos openly snorted at this, drawing either curious or knowing looks from the rest of those present.
"The point is, my dear subjects and friends." The sacred sovereign smirked "That once in the past we may have had to depend on the generosity of my friends, asking them to send food and materials to us in exchange for our support."
He leaned forward, his grin turning somewhat dark "But now it is us who hold the upper hand in nearly all things, and that is a fact I am more than willing to use to our advantage." He chuckles "Know that while our 'freedom' may be sold, it most certainly will not be coming cheap."
Comments
Hakkira
Thank you kindly for the chapter 😁
StarlightGhoul
Welcome back!!!! Thanks for the chapter!
