A changeling's visit to Skyrim

Fenora stood there over Mercer Frey’s mutilated corpse as the temple around her rapidly filled with lake water. Karliah and the thieves were collecting themselves and trying to find a way out, the baker’s dozen falmer that survived the fight were scrambling and sloshing around in a panic. Stross was painfully crawling on the soaking ground trying to find where his severed arm went to as he bled heavily from the gashes in his stomach… and all Fenora could focus on was the Skeleton Key in her fingers.

It was almost hypnotizing, that gem-tipped piece of enchanted bronze. It was as though it filled something within her very being, something precious… something she couldn’t part with. It made her feel invincible, and made all the troubles of the world simply vanish and melt away. It wasn’t until Vex’s palm impacted with her face that she snapped out of her stupor and back to painful reality that she was made aware of how dire their situation was.

“I… wh-what’s going on?” she stammered.

“We are TRAPPED in here!” Vex screamed “The door’s collapsed on the other side, brynjolf is bleeding out, and we’re about to drown in this damn place! Do something!”

“Hey guys, great news!” Stross chimed in as the water in the chamber rose up to their waists “I found my missing arm!”

“Oh that’s fan-flipping-tastic ya dumb bug.”

“Hold on a second,” Fenora silenced them “I’ve got this.”

She looked around them and at the water slowly spelling out their doom as it flooded in through the pipes and the massive hole in the roof that led to the lake above. In a stead and cold tone, she spoke in dovah.

“Lom.. kreh ahrk diin. Wahl ven wah lok, ahrk morkon ni un filok.”

(Water... bend and freeze. Build a path to the sky, and hinder not our escape.)

When the words resonated through the chamber, the water froze; not turning to ice however, it simply stopped moving, staying perfectly still save for a few innocent quivers as the last of Fenora’s thu’um rang out. Then a torrent of water spiraled upwards until it reached the shattered dome, a ripple came back down once it reached its destination, turning its slick and fluid surface into a hard and rigid staircase.

“Let’s go.” Fenora said firmly and led them on.

…

Stross could feel something different about his love-interest as their party climbed the unnervingly solid water-stairs. Not only was her aura blazingly more powerful than before, but there was something chilling about it… something terribly wrong.

It was reflected in the way she acted as they made their ascent. Fenora was always one to take care of business first and not let anything get in the way of her goal, Stross knew this and admired her for it. But now their mission was over; Mercer had been brutally killed until he was deader than dead, they got the skeleton key beck, and even managed to snag the eyes of the falmer on the way out.

The only thing standing between them and calling this a resounding success was getting out alive (and quite a few dead minions, but maybe that was just his opinion). Yet Fenora still seemed so angry and distant. She didn’t make sure everyone was alright before leading on, she responded harshly to their concerns, and never even bothered to look back to make sure they hadn’t fallen.

Even now she had moved quite far ahead of her wounded companions, her eyes ever forward.

“What’s going on with you Fen?” Stross wondered aloud, hoping despite his intuition that it was only a passing thing.

Once they reached the surface of the lake from the tunnel of jellified water, and then walked/dragged themselves across a water bridge to dry land, the thieves were finally able to get a breather.

While they tended to their wounds, Stross walked over to where Fenora had left them for, standing perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking a valley full of trees and wildlife as the sun slowly set on the horizon. She stood there unmoving and contemplative, gazing out with her amber eyes as the breeze swept through her hair and soaking wet armor.

“Fen, are you alright?” Stross asked as he walked over to her side.

“Uh huh.” Fenora hummed, not bothering to look his way for more than a split-second.

“Yeah… I think I’ll be okay too, in case you were wondering.” Stross ran a hand over the spots where he was impaled “Changelings are pretty tough when we’re well fed, this should heal in no time. And this thing with my arm… I should be able to fuse it back on and then let it sort itself out once I’ve gotten it lined up the right way.”

Once again, Fenora simply gave a shallow grunt in response.

“So… vengeance tastes pretty good huh? I just wish I could have helped more.” Stross rubbed the back of his neck “And maybe save all those falmer. You know, they’re really not so bad when-“

“Stross!” Fenora snapped at him “Shut up so I can think damn you!”

Stross flinched and backed off. “Okay... sorry I asked.” He said, trying to put his severed arm on the right way.

Fenora averted her eyes and let out a sigh. “I’m sorry.” She said, genuine feeling buried somewhere underneath frustration “Mercer is dead now, but we still don’t know what he did with that stupid horn. I'm trying to think but I've got this damned headache now that's splitting my skull open.”

“Do you think there was anyone else who knew what he did with it?” Stross asked, hoping some new leads might lighten Fenora’s mood.

“There may be one who still knows.” Came a voice behind them.

They turned around to see Karliah had appeared behind them out of nowhere again.

“Nocturnal.”

It was obvious that they needed to return to Riften as quickly as possible; from there they could contact Nocturnal and reach the Twilight Sepulcher. Fenora was ready to just grab Karliah and bolt, but Stross refused to leave his remaining minions, and insisted that they wait for the thieves to catch up as well. Walking over to them, they found the thieves in a heated argument over several large carts, throwing accusations at one another while the falmer cowered behind several large trees.

“You mean the whole time we were fighting for our lives, you were back there dragging out chunks of rock!?” Vex yelled furiously at Delvin, who had reappeared after his absence in the ruins and during the fight with Mercer.

“Well… yeah. But I wouldn’t ‘ave been any help in a fight anyway. And someone’s got to pick the guild up after all that coin Mercer took.” Delvin nervously gave his excuses.

“What are you idiots fighting about now?” Fenora asked- er… demanded as she stomped over.

“Delvin here ditched us for some shiny rocks.” Vex jabbed her thumb at Delvin and the carts behind him.

Looking closer, Stross realized that the carts contained the night-sky looking rocks from the ceiling they first saw in the falmer territory. It had been broken and pulled down in huge chunks that were now piled high onto the carts, and then covered up with tarps to keep them from falling off.

“I was gonna plaster them onto the ceiling of the Flaggon cistern. Won’t that look something incredible?” Delvin asked.

“The only thing incredible here is your stupidity.” Vex commented.

“Enough. You can come back for those later, right now we’re heading home.” Fenora told them.

The thieves were about to go back to where they left their horses in the hopes that they hadn’t gotten bored and wandered off, but Fenora had no patience for that.

She focused hard on Riften and nothing else, calling on her newfound mastery of the voice once again.

“Vos dii zul kren zeim ginun, bo ireid kriist us. Drun zey til!”

(Let my voice break through space, move aside all standing before. Bring me there!)

Her thu’um echoed once before vanishing into nothing. Then the air rippled before them, and the ripples grew until space tore in front of them, opening a rift through space with the city of Riften visible on the other side.

Fenora stepped though without delay and beckoned for the rest of them to follow.

Stross was the first to follow through, noting how the scenery instantly and seamlessly changed from one area to the next. “Whoa.” He whispered breathlessly and looked all around him, while Vex came through as well, dragging a still unconscious Brynjolf.

“Trippin’ right?” Maul asked as he and the others walked through.

“I might be havin’ a relapse of something right now, skooma, maybe sleeping tree sap.” Dirge agreed.

“This is incredible.” Delvin said and poked at the edges of the portal that were not even the width of a fingernail.

Suddenly the portal flickered and shook, clearly becoming unstable.

“Oh snap! Hurry my minions, to me!” Stoss called, to which the falmer quickly scampered over, pushing and shoving through the portal to sit at the feet of their master.

Not two seconds later, the portal flickered again before shimmering out of existence, and Stross began a quick count of the falmer. “… seven eight, nine and ten… Larry, Moe, and Curly. Okay they’re all here.”

“That was certainly convenient. Now then, Fenora will come with me so we can return the skeleton key to the Twilight Sepulcher, the rest of you should go back to the Flaggon and properly tend to your wounds.” Karliah told them and began walking towards the mountains away from the city.

The thieves had no complaints, save for Delvin still planning on going back for his rocks, and they limped their way into the city.

Stross meanwhile thought it would be as good a time as any to fix his arm. He positioned it over the bleeding stump and prepared for the inevitable pain that would come as the bones fused back together.

“Gah!” *Snap**Crunch* “Ooh, yeah that hurts like crazy.” Stross mouthed as he tried to get the muscles to line up right and then solder his shell back together in the right places.

*Snap**Crackle**POP!*

“Gah-hah-ah, Okay… there we go. That looks right-ish... sort of.” Stross said and inspected his freshly fixed and slightly melted arm. “Hey Fenora, does this look right to you?”

After a few second without a response, Stross just decided to move on. “Okay then, be like that.” he muttered.

However, he couldn’t bring himself to take more than a few steps without receiving some kind of acknowledgement that he still existed. When we looked back over his shoulder, he saw Fenora still standing in the same spot. So he walked back over to her, and noticed she was barely moving at all; her breathing was shallow and she swayed uneasily back and forth.

“Fenora… are you alright?” Stross asked gently as he circled around.

To his dismay, he saw her eyes were glazed over, and a drop of blood was running from her nose into her mouth.

“Fenora! Your nose is bleeding.” He grabbed hold of her shoulders in hopes that she would respond.

Her eyes lazily drifted downwards until they focused on him. Fenora opened her mouth and sucked in a breath of air, and Stross leant closer to hear what she needed. But instead of words, all that came out of her mouth was blood. She coughed and a mouthful spattered onto Stross’s face. She heaved once more and a buckets’ worth of the sticky red gunk covered the ground at her feet before she fell forward into Stross’s arms.

“FENORA!” Stross screamed in panic as he quickly put up a healing spell to try and stabilize her “Hold on, okay? Just hold on. Minions, go get the guards to help!”

Blood seeped out of Fenora’s eyes, ears, and nose as she lay there as unresponsive as a corpse. Her breathing looked pained, and her heart was beating out of her chest. Stross remained by her side and kept pouring his healing waves into her, but with the amount of blood she was coughing up she must have taken some brutal internal injuries.

Stross thought back to when she could have taken that kind of damage. Was it during the fight with Mercer? Had he hit her with something to put her in this condition? Maybe that had something to do with why she was acting so cold and angry. Stross clenched his fangs. Mercer hadn’t died slow enough in his opinion.

A few moments later the falmer returned, dragging a few rift guards by their ankles kicking and screaming for mercy.

“Finally! Good work guys.” Stross dismiss the falmer “Guardsmen, I need a bed and a lot of healing potions, stat! Karliah, help me move her.”

One of the Riften guards scowled underneath him helmet once the falmer released him. “I didn’t sign up for this shi-“

“You. Are. A. Guard! This is exactly the kind of stuff you signed up for!”

With a bit of much needed “Help” from what Riften called guards, they had managed to get Fenora into a room at the Bee and Barb. The falmer also got their own rooms to stay in until their master had business elsewhere, much to the annoyance of the Argonian owner Keerava.

With the aid of some healing potions and a few potions of regeneration, along with his own healing magic, Stross was finally able to stop Fenora’s excessive internal bleeding. But things were still up in the air on whether she’d recover, or how long it would take.

Stross was currently kneeling next to her bed. He put his one hand on Fenora’s chest as she lay there, always afraid her heart would stop beating again. She moaned in pain every few seconds and her breath was still jumpy, but Stross considered it an improvement over what she was like just an hour ago. Still, it pained him to see her in this condition.

“I realize this is a bad time for you, but we must return the key to Nocturnal.” Karliah told him, having already waited as long as she dared to, now that the Skeleton Key was now in their possession.

“Then take it.” Stross said, holding out the tightly bound cloth that held the key.

“I would, but…”

“But?”

“But I fear after Mercer’s betrayal that Nocturnal might reject me should I return to her, even to give back the key.” Karliah said, averting her eyes “I am ashamed to admit this foolish fear, but I dare not take a chance, not when I am so close to restoring mine and Gallus’s honor, along with redeeming the Guild in Nocturnal’s eyes.”

Stross let out a sigh. “Okay. Just give me a few more minutes, I’ll meet you outside.”

Karliah nodded and left them.

When the muffled footsteps beyond to closed door finally vanished, Stross turned back to Fenora, lying asleep in fits of pain. He carefully slid his arm under her neck while holding one of her hands in his other, bending over to hold her close to him while releasing a bit of his changeling magic to alter her state of mind. Not anything bad, just something to give her more feel-good feelings in order to combat the pain a bit.

Fenora’s breathing relaxed a bit along with the rest of her body with the soothing aura doing its work, and Stross managed to smile at this. He took a few more moments to focus a healing spell that he hoped would linger a while and keep her from getting any worse in his absence. With a final kiss on her forehead, he then left as silently as he could.

He motioned for two of the falmer to guard her room until he returned, and ordered them to not let anyone else in. Having done all he could, Stross left the city, clutching the Skeleton Key tightly in his hand.

“How much farther is this place?” Stross whined as he and Karliah walked through the woods for what seemed like an hour.

“We’re almost there.” Karliah assured him “We must take steps in order to prepare for our meeting with Nocturnal. The first of these steps is in Nightingale Hall, the place where new initiates into the Nightingales are brought to first don their armor and strike their pact with Nocturnal.”

“No wonder it’s so far out here, gotta keep a place like that secret.” Stross thought aloud.

“Indeed, for it to remain hidden from those unworthy is of utmost importance, for our sake and for Nocturnal’s.” Karliah validated “Ah here it is. It is a good thing we made this giant monolith to mark the location of the entrance.”

Stross looked up and saw the giant rock slab in question, literally marked with the words [Nightingale Hall], with a crude etching below that read “But don’t tell anyone”.

Karliah then proceeded through the very obvious and visible entrance, beckoning for him to follow.

Stross felt his eye twitch, but followed anyway.

The structure of Nightingale Hall had been carved into the mountainside, and so was made completely of stone. The air was musty, and Stross could hear the sounds of a river rushing deeper within the cave. As the two of them walked, Karliah lit a few old braziers to light their way.

“So, is this where we’ll give Nocturnal the key?” Stross asked.

“No, this is where I contact Nocturnal, and beg forgiveness before we head to the Twilight Sepulcher. But before that, I need you to look the part of a Nightingale.” Karliah motioned to a set of stone blocks inscribed with Nocturnal’s emblem, under tattered banners bearing the same mark.

Stross walked up to one of the blocks that came up to about chest height for him. He looked it over questioningly and brushed a thick layer of dust of the top.

“Nocturnal, mistress of dark, cloak me in your shadows.” He heard Karliah whisper behind him.

“Nocturnal…” he began and felt a tingle in his hands as he placed them upon the stone “mistress of dark, cloak me in your shadows.”

The tingling spread up through his arms. A shadow crept up over his shoulders and down his legs, finally consuming his head and obscuring his vision for a sparse moment before everything returned to normal.

Stross felt around himself to find he was now clothed from head to claws in a pitch-black garb that resembled shifting shadows. He also noted how light it was, and how it made nearly no noise when he moved; no ruffling of cloth, no flapping of material from the cape, not even a patter from his footsteps.

“Oh this is so cool! I feel like I’m batmare!”

“Hmm, you are a bit short for a stormtroo- I mean Nightingale, but it will work.” Karliah commented, now wearing the same armor as well.

“Now then, follow me.”

Karliah led the way into a cavern with a large circular platform surrounded by water. Moss grew into the etched emblem on the stone, and a faint light came from somewhere below the water’s surface, shimmering to the surface and casting an eerie glow on the mist. She walked slowly to the edge of the platform and took one step further. Stross though she would fall into the water below, but instead, some invisible path caught her foot and a stone column rose from the depths to meet her at the end. She then turned back to face the center, and dropped to her knees in prayer to recite Nocturnal’s oath.

“In brightest day, in blackest night

Let our actions evade all sight

May all shiny things we wish to pluck

Fall into our fingers, with Nocturnal’s luck.”

“I call upon you Lady Nocturnal, I call to you so I may right my failure.” Karliah spoke in a soft whisper, yet it resonated throughout the entire chamber “Please… hear my voice.”

A few seconds passed in silence, and then a dark sphere materialized on the central pillar. It swirled and pulsed with an unworldly power that seemed to draw all the light away.

“Ah, Karliah. I was wondering when I would hear from you again.” A woman’s distorted voice spoke from within the sphere of dark “It has been so very long. Twenty-five years and you never even bothered to call and say hi.”

“My lady, you must understand, I-“ Karliah began but was swiftly cut off.

“Understand? Oh I understand just fine girl-friend! You thought that just because you were busy hunting down that cheating Mercer boy, that it was okay to leave me high and dry. Some friend you are!” Nocturnal huffed.

“Nocturnal please, I simply-“

“I mean do you know what it’s like being stuck here in Evergloam with nothing to do?! Honestly, just watching you mortals run around is no fun! I used to be able to interact with my little thieves, affect their fortunes and fates, but now all I can do is sit here and watch! And there’s no-one to talk to, and my Nightingale spirits are bugging out, no-one accepts my friend requests, and I’m sooooo boooored, and-“

“But I’ve got the Skeleton Key back!” Karliah yelled, interrupting Nocturnal’s complaining “Mercer is dead, and we’ve come to return it to you.”

“Oh…” the sphere was silent and still for a second “Well why didn’t you just say so? Get over here gurl, and gimme a hug.”

Suddenly the sphere collapsed, and in its place a portal opened abruptly, and a pair of shadowy hands grabbed the two of them and pulled them through.

“Bestest friends again!” Nocturnal sing-songed while Stross flailed and screamed like a filly.

When the swirling vortex around them dispersed and the shadowy hands released them, Stross and Karliah found themselves inside another dark and gloomy cave, though this one was much larger, and its floor much harder. Or at least that’s what it felt like when they landed face first on it.

“Oh geez, I wish she’d given us some warning before doing that crazy stuff.” Stross said as he came back down from hyperventilating.

“She did seem quite happy to see us.” Karliah admitted “Unexpected really, perhaps this will go better than I thought it would. And it seems as though she’s brought us to the Twilight Sepulcher, let us not delay any further.”

And so the two of them quickly made for the large entrance archway, but as they were approaching, a new obstacle materialized in front of them.

“WAHHH! Ghost!” Stross screamed at the transparent blue figure before them.

Wasting no time, Stross threw a fireball at the phantom, only for it to pass straight through the ghost’s head, which reformed from a ghostly mist in less than a second.

“Oh noes! Ghosty not go toasty!” the changeling panicked and hid behind Karliah “Protect me shield!”

“Uhh… who goes there?” the specter asked, not making even the slightest aggressive motion, opting to simply stand there and be a Nightingale ghost “I sense you are of our order, yet I am weakened, and cannot see you clearly; everything seems to be in a haze for me. Could you come a bit closer?”

“Wait… I recognize that voice, distorted as it is.” Karliah said and stepped forward towards the ghostly Nightingale slowly fading in and out “G-Gallus? Is that you?”

“Gallus?” The spirit perked up a bit “That is a name I haven’t heard in a long time, I’d nearly forgotten it myself. How is it you know me?”

“Gallus my love, it’s me, Karliah. I’ve finally come back.” Karliah said as she held onto Gallus’s corporeal form for whatever it would support “I am so sorry for all of this, had I not been so blind, you may have survived.”

“No, please don’t cry. It was my folly as well.” Gallus tried to wipe the tears away from Karliah’s face, only for his hand to become mist upon contact. Regardless, he continued. “I am just glad that you were not another victim of Mercer’s vile schemes.”

“That traitor is dead now my love, the key is ours once again, and we may finally return it.”

Karliah broke away from Gallus’s spectral embrace and started to make her way into the Sepulcher, but Gallus quickly floated in front to stop her. “Wait Karliah, I must warn you of the dangers ahead! It’s the others… when Mercer took the Skeleton Key it severed the connection with Evergloam, and the other Nightingale spirits that guard this place have… changed.”

“Changed?”

“Indeed, they’ve lost their minds. It’s as though they can no longer see or hear, only feel life that they will seek to extinguish. They will attack any who enter.” Gallus explained “I was lucky enough to die after the key was stolen, manifesting without a tie to Noctural’s realm to be severed. Still, I feel my presence waning even now.”

“Then we must hurry.” Karliah said, more determined than ever “Stross, bring that key and stay right behind me. We’re going in quiet.”

“Do you even know what quiet means!?” Karliah yelled at Stross as the three of them ran for their lives away from at least five blood-thirsty ghosts.

“I thought it couldn’t see me! I couldn’t see it!” Stross defended as he ducked under a volley of arrows and into another corridor.

“That’s because you were facing into a wall, friend. They could still see you plain as day.” Gallus explained as he casually floated behind them.

After dodging a few swinging axe traps and slamming a few doors closed behind them, Stross, Karliah and Gallus finally lost their pursuers. They now found themselves in a room shrouded in pitch blackness, save for several orbs of light that shone like small suns upon the stone stairs and walkways.

“It’s so dark in here, what is this place?” Stross asked and stepped forward a bit.

“This is the beginning of the Pilgrims’ Path, a set of trials created by the priests of Nocturnal to test the worthiness of any who would dare to gaze upon her.” Gallus explained “I always found it rather silly, but they still exist. This is the first trial; above all they stand, vigilance everlasting. Beholden to the murk yet contentious of the glow.”

“You always loved your riddles didn’t you Gallus?” Karliah smirked “It means stay in the shadows and don’t let the light touch you, like any good thief knows well.”

“Oh, but it’s so pretty and bright.” Stross droned, hovering off the ground a bit with his eyes firmly locked on the glowing orb nearest him “I just want to fly straight into it like a fly to a bug zapper and- Wait! NO! Must… resist… basic… instinct. I will survive! I will- okay maybe just one lick.”

Karliah and Gallus just stood there dumbfounded while Stross caught on fire and started screaming about natural selection betraying him.

“The second trial, we’re nearly there.” Karliah said once they’d entered the next room after much screaming and burning from one third of their party.

Before them stood a statue of Nocturnal, brightly lit on all sides by braziers with white flames. A decomposing body lay at the feet of said statue next to a plaque that read [Offer what She desires most, but reject the material. For her greatest want is that which cannot be seen, felt or carried]. Around the base of the statue were various objects and trinkets ranging from coins of gold, bottles of wine, soul gems and even splatters of blood that had long since dried.

“Fools,” Karliah muttered “They tried giving her coin, but she does not help us gain wealth because she desires it. Nor does she desire flesh, blood or death. Nocturnal’s greatest want would not be anything so crass or material.”

“Then what does she want?” Stross asked after rubbing yet another bottle of aloe vera on his scales.

Karliah smirked and Gallus watched with pride as she walked to a well hidden pull-chain next to one of the torches. With a firm tug and a rattling of metal, the braziers extinguished, plunging the room into pitch blackness.

“Darkness.” Karliah spoke as a door opened behind the statue.

“Are you sure it isn’t entertainment she wants?” Stross scratched his head before following the other Nightingales into the dark.