Ch.61

[Tirdas, 15th Hearthfire, 4E: 221]

“Bloody Oblivion.” Vartine groaned as he walked with Neethsi and Melwen to the jail, favoring his left leg and rubbing the massive hickey under his collar. “The gods must be laughing at us.”

“You’re the stupid-sexy dragon stud. How was I supposed to know I’d been made into a dragon by Akatosh? That fucking devious ass.” Neethsi snarled as she rubbed her stomach. Thankfully Vartine wasn’t as copiously productive in his semen as her mates or she’d already be swimming with eggs in there. Still, she could feel his seed in her and by the time she calmed down enough to munch on contraceptive, it was most likely too late.

“Especially since we fought you and got some of your blood in him.” Melwen reminded Neethsi and she pinched her snout. There was that too, yes. She wouldn’t be surprised if Bloodraven’s beast form was a dragon somehow, damned devious Divines. Wasn’t it the Daedra who were supposed to interfere with mortals?

“Just so you know, I’ll be gifting my wives with your gift too and then retire to the countryside when we’re old enough that we shouldn’t look so young.” Vartine warned Neethsi and she grumbled with a begrudging nod. What the people do with the gift of her blood wasn’t her problem, so long as they didn’t start a new plague on the people of Nirn.

“That’s fine, just don’t form a dark army or whatever.” Neethsi grumbled as they entered the jail where indignant shouting echoed up from the cells below. “She’s a loud one.” Neethsi muttered and they followed the shouting to the cell where the beautiful and bodacious babe that was once Alduin was impotently rattling the iron door of her cell.

“You! Kinsman! Free me immediately!” The woman who used to be the nordic god of destruction demanded from Neethsi before she blinked at Vartine. “What trickery is this?! Why are you no longer a mere Dovahkiin?! You now smell like a full Dovah!” Ex-Alduin snarled and pounded on the door.

“Allison, cease this foolishness. You’ve already gotten in trouble today.” Vartine declared and Neethsi barely avoided hiss-snickering at the name change.

“Allison is not my name! I am Alduin! Eater of Worlds!” The newly-dubbed Allison declared indignantly and Neethsi couldn’t hold back a chuckle this time.

“Worlds? Since when did you even eat one?” Neethsi challenged and Allison visibly bristled.

“Enough! Allison, you’re coming home with me. My friend has clothes that will fit you and we’ll return to Skyrim.” Vartine declared with no brook for argument.

“I will-wait. This isn’t Skyrim? Since when was Miraak’s domain not part of Skyrim?” Allison demanded in bewilderment, which was a rather impressive whiplash.

“Since the fifth year of the Fourth Era or The Red Year. That was about...216 years ago, when Red Mountain erupted and the other volcanoes of Morrowind joined in, causing the lands there to be inhospitable for over a decade. The High King of the time gave Solstheim to the Dark Elves so that they would have a place to call home. That has not changed with Morrowind returning to a...barely habitable state and as High King I see no reason to contest that.” Vartine answered and Allison grumbled about ‘knife ears’ and ‘defiling sacred ground’.

Wow. Ex-Alduin is surprisingly protective of the lands that she once ruled, isn't she? She was also clearly a racist who hated everyone who wasn’t a dragon. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter who this land belongs to, I’ll devour them all anyway.” Allison huffed. “Now let me out! I can’t continue my conquest from this inescapable cell.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Vartine.” Neethsi grumbled as she produced a key and unlocked the door before handing Alduin a robe that she looked at in confusion.

“Just leave her to me.” Vartine assured her with a sexy, roguish grin.

📜

“This is the laziest I’ve ever seen you, sis.” Runner commented with a bit of awe and confusion from where she was sitting on the bed next to Brennie and playing LAN co-op with her on a second TV. “I mean, you’re hiding in here, playing video games and chilling. You’ve never been this relaxed before.”

“I know and it’s kinda driving me crazy. I need to get the fuck out of this box, but I also kinda don’t want to. It’s one of those meh things. Anyway, you said something about Akatosh being an asshole, what did he do?” Brennie asked as they played Borderlands 3; Runner being Zane the Operator and she played as Moze the Gunner. FL4K the Beastmaster was the real strat, but then the game got easy and boring. Nobody cares about Amara, she’s the worst Siren.

“He’s adopting people as Dragonborn out of the blue, knocked up Hermais, is using Eris as an incubator for new dragon-argonian hybrids and I got word that he just reincarnated Alduin as an anthro dragon woman and dropped her right into the lap of her most hated enemy.” Runner summarized all of the tomfuckery Akatosh has been getting up to and Brennie rolled her eyes. Typical higher deity bullshit. Why is he the leader of the Divines again?

“Yet proving our reasons why we don’t trust Gods.” Brenni huffed as the game ended a fight.

“Ahem?” Runner pointedly cleared her throat and glared warningly at Brennie.

“Don’t start, I don’t care. Fuck off.” Brennie retorted as she flipped her sister off.

“Brennie, it’s that kind of behavior that’s promoting our people and Wiatr’s people to start fighting amongst each other. It’s already too late to salvage it. Soon enough we won’t be able to control them and it’ll become total anarchy as all our work crumbles to ruins.” Runner lamented sadly and pinched her snout. “I’ve been talking to them. If it does come to that, they’re done. They’re dropping ruling those ingrates and retiring to a paradise they’ll give us the keys to.”

“You can run off and hide then.” Brennie snipped, finding out that their wives are turning tail and running away from their responsibility was disgustingly disgraceful.

“Bryan.” Runner growled darkly and her left eye turned into a black orb with a glowing rune before she winced and it sparked. “Grr...Bryan. They’ve been facing regular assassination attempts for the past two decades now. They’ve tried everything they can to keep their Empire running, they even had the citizens vote for other government types or giving them permission to leave the Empire entirely. Nothing has changed and it’s beyond their control. If they can’t stop it, then they have every right to step down and finally let them try to do better.”

Brennie paused the game and sighed. “Okay, fair enough, but Runner, we are not going to fall apart. Some infighting here and there because of some ridiculous pettiness isn-.” Brennie paused when Runner held out a dataslate.

“Give that a read, then think about it.” Runner dropped her controller and moped as she vanished from the box.

📜

“So, sis. You kinda didn’t give an explanation about what Thia told you that made you fly to Rarity to let her know we were heading to Skyrim.” Shade said as we trekked through the cold swamps of Morthal. It was nothing like in the game. Morthal was actually a sprawling small city on stilts where the ground wasn’t solid or it went over the murky waters. It even had a palisade.

“One of my pups is a Key Pinion to one of the four main Dark Anchors, Thia told me about this one in Skyrim.” I said to my sister and she hissed in a fury that I didn’t feel. I was quite pissed, but my excitement at potentially rescuing one of my unborn babies was overriding my rage.

“Then what? We’re gonna charge in there, muskets blasting, against an army of daedra?” Shade hissed and I paused with a boot landing in the muck of the cold swamp and I winced, inwardly cursing that I should’ve instead told Brennie or Twilight or Neethsi about this. Or even High King Bloodraven considering the Dark Anchor is beneath Solitude.

The reason we didn’t head there from Solitude was because the city was still not allowing travelers from the Wayshrine through without express permission from High King Bloodraven. Damn superstitious magic-fearing Nords. At least the other cities in Skyrim besides Windhelm were willing to allow Wayshrine travel without much of a fuss other than waving a passport.

“We’re halfway to Solitude by now. We’d be better off swimming through the Karth River to the port and climbing the hill up to the city. We can tell the High King about this and maybe get some support.” I reasoned and Shade sighed as she rubbed her face.

“Sis...okay. Fine. Question: why aren’t we flying? We both have an innate ability to use Levitation magic and other Mysticism spells. Why are we slogging through this cold mockery of a swamp?” Shade demanded with irritation and I sheepishly flew away from her. “You didn’t even consider it! Get back here so I can pummel you!” Ah~! Scary angry little sister~!

📜

Brennie was staring at the ceiling, a feeling of utter failure weighing down her body and soul. Runner had given her a comprehensive list of reports of incidents, sorry, attempts to kill her family just over the past month. The footnote that it was just the past month horrified her.

Where did they go wrong? Didn’t their citizens understand? Weren’t they thankful? They’ve been so prosperous after the Restoration, when their homeworld was recovered from a stasis lock and they returned to it to rebuild. They spread across the stars, finding new fights to satisfy their bloodlust and settling new homes.

Fuck, that was before the Restoration! When Wiatr and the rest of her ilk not only welcomed Brennie’s people with open arms in their time of need, but helped them retain their cultural identity even if they failed to prevent cultural appropriation on both sides, that's how society works. Now this shit. Her wife’s people she could get, so many conflicts of interest, but her people, who have been a content and zealously loyal society for so long devolving so rapidly?

“...Fuck it. Runner is right and we need to do something about it.” Brennie stated as she got up from the bed and climbed out of the box. “Hunter, gather our own in my office, now!” She demanded, walking through the halls with such a purposeful strut that anyone who saw her got out of the way.

When she got to her office, Runner, Hunter and the mixed unit of guards were waiting, along with Hermais, Eris and Dongoruas. “I know they’re not ours, but they consider themselves to be.” Runner said with a gesture to the sisters, who were in their matching secretary outfits that they wore when they were conducting serious business.

“No, that’s good. I need one of them to call up Wiatr and them right now.” This surprised everyone in the room. What was Brennie planning? “They need to resign from their governing positions, gather families and friends and head to Paradise. Now.”

“N-no...no~!” Hermais wailed and put her face in her hands. “We’ve tried! We’ve tried so hard! Nothing we do will…?” Hermais sobbed with a look at Eris, who bitterly shook her head. “Why?! Why didn’t you tell us?! Why let us try in vain?!”

“Because then things would’ve been worse even faster! This is the best timeline…” Eris admitted forlornly and Dongoruas hugged her distraught feathery sister, whose plans within enigmas and schemes were for naught. “I’ve already called them. They’ll be here in a moment.”

“Brennie, what are you doing?” Runner asked in concern, running away wasn’t like her sister.

“What? I’m doing what’s best for the family. I’m not stopping any of you from going, you have the right to walk away from this mess.” Brennie told them but Runner knew she wasn’t coming along.

“You’re not coming with us, are you?” Runner asked sadly, while also admitting that she was certainly going to be joining the rest of the family in Paradise.

“No, I’m not. I want to fix this, I need to fix this. It’s my fault for being a hypocrite, again. My distrust and hatred towards Gods probably festered this stupid bullshit, because it cuts both ways. I know our Night Sentinels and some others will stand by us, while we wage war against the traitors. The rest that don’t want to fight you need to bring along, they can keep all of our civilizations alive and coexist with each other perfectly. They will be our best hope for the Rebirth.” Brennie stated with such certainty that it reassured Runner that there will be a future. A better one.

“Always the defiant one, huh?” Runner chuckled with her sister giving a snort.

“Hm, somehow you’ve changed the course of Fate, yet again. Your Luck may be tested to its limits, but you will find a way to make it right. You always seem to have a knack at doing that.” Hunter foretold what might lie ahead.

“That said, you can’t do that as you are.” Eris patted her stomach. “Give me them, I’ll carry them until they are ready, then take them to our new home. You have a battle to fight here while we prepare our final retreat. Don’t worry. Someday, in the distant future, we’ll return when our people need us most and remind them why they put us in power in the first place.”

“What?!” Twilight demanded when she burst into the office. “No! Give them to me!” Twilight begged and then flushed brightly when she realized what she just did. “Uh...I’m betting you all knew I was eavesdropping and you totally set me up for this…”

“Twi, I’m sorry, I should’ve called you in as well.” Brennie apologized to her lover.

“Hey, it’s okay, this is...or was a personal issue. Now it involves me. Remember what I said before? Well...even if it’s not to where I expected, I’m still following your family at least, if not you. I’d like to follow you, but I’m not a warrior…” Twilight wilted before she reset her shoulders and wings with a determined expression. “Besides, I’m sure I’ll enjoy the rest of the family.”

“Hm, it would seem those two Argoian sisters have found trouble…” Hunter ominously stated.

📜

“What do you mean the High King is in Raven Rock?!” I wailed in dismay. I was there just yesterday~! Then again, that point’s moot, because I would’ve had Neethsi on hand and she’s the Deus Ex Machina Mary Sue to take into such a situation.

“Exactly as I said, madam. However, High Queen Elisif holds court in his absence, she has his authority in all things besides war.” I groaned in defeat. “...It’s War, isn’t it?”

“Yes! Molag Bal has opened one of the Main Four Dark Anchors in the caverns and catacombs beneath Solitude!” I declared, perhaps a little too loudly, because the court erupted in shock up the stairs and I winced, my sister sighed with a pat on my back. “Sorry for shouting that…”

“Don’t apologize, you just revealed that the soldiers responsible for checking the catacombs monthly haven’t been doing their Oblivion-damned jobs. We’ll have men on it immediately, just wait to be called up.” The guard gently insisted and we sat down on the waiting benches. Oo~ these benches had really nice cushions. Ever since I lost my mom bod, my butt has been less forgiving on firmer surfaces. Unless it’s hands, dicks, tails-my brain~! Stop being in the gutter!

“So sis, mind if we swap roles whenever we get back to training?” Shade asked and I looked at her in confusion. “You know, you learn magic and I focus on martial arts? I kinda envy your bod.” Shade palmed my right bicep, which almost didn’t have any give due to the combination of the rock-hard muscle underneath and my Bark Scale condition. I’m just thankful I have enough suppleness to go with my smoothness.

“Ah, yeah sure.” I said, wiggling in my seat. “Warning though, losing the excess fat in the ass makes it harder to be comfortable.” I warned my sister and she pinched her ass, getting a good amount of skin in her fingers that made her pout. “Hey, it’s super sexy so it’s forgivable.”

“Yeah, but I want to be more fit and athletic like you, sis. Well, besides the tits, but with our unique condition there that will never be an issue.” Shade smirked and I smirked back.

“Please stop doing that thing with your eyes, it’s unsettling.” Another nearby guard requested and we looked at him in confusion. “I know that’s how you argonians show emotion, but to most folk here; it’s uncannily alien.”

“Well, how rude. We were just giving each other our equivalent of a smirk. Would you prefer it if we did this?” Shade and I parted our lips all along our jaws, revealing our rows of conical teeth good for rending flesh with the back being molars great for grinding plant fibers.

“Gah! No! Go back to doing the eye-thing! Sorry I protested!” The man backed away and I shared a hiss-snicker with my sister at his reaction to a properly toothy smile.

“Goodness, what bravery.” Another guard laughed at his fellow’s xenophobia. “They’re just pretty ladies, they won’t bite unless you ask.” He joked and I couldn’t help but devolve into proper laughter with Shade.

“That’s enough lads. You two, please come up to the throne room so that High Queen Elisif can hear your claims directly rather than through reasonably panicked shouting.” A guard without his helmet’s visor down called to us from the top of the stairs and we ascended to stand before the pretty matured woman and her court.

“You claim that one of Molag Bal’s Dark Anchors is beneath my city, where did you obtain this information?” Elisif half-demanded with a polite request. She’s gotten the double-speak down.

“In Lilmoth, one of Molag’s followers fled to us in a change of heart and divulged to me where my-ah, um…” I choked up, realizing it was too late to back out so I swallowed my fear. “Before I continue, I must give context. I was pregnant a few months ago. In my last trimester, I was abducted, tortured, transformed by dark forces. They took my unborn babies from my womb.”

“Such acts are in line with Molag Bal. I can verify that her claims are certainly in the realm of possibility.” The blue-robed woman to Elisif’s left declared and the aghast expressions of the court turned to disgust and fury.

“Yes, well, it turns out that...my babies are being used as Pinions, specifically, the four Key Pinions keeping Coldharbour close enough to Mundus even with the Towers in place again. The ex-cultist fled to Lilmoth because her sister, a friend of mine, divulged her guilt to her, which passed to me. I came here in the hope of saving my child and closing the Dark Anchor.” I announced and the court began talking amongst themselves while Elisif stared at me.

We waited until Elisif held up a hand. “You believe your child is alive?” I nodded. “You think you can rescue them?”

“I must try.” I choked a bit on the last bit and Elisif nodded before noise came from downstairs.

Next Chapter: Ch.62 Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 50 Minutes