We Are Our Avatars VI (Closed for Good)
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Ness put her hand to her chin before sighing and shaking her head. "...I... think that's it... There are still a few blanks, but to fill those in... I think I'd need to go back there, even if I'd be a public enemy's ghost..." She seemed to pause for a moment before looking toward Jess. "Thank you, Dr. Broca... Do you have someway we'd be able to keep in touch... in case I remember anything more?"
"Well I still remember the place pretty well. I could see about taking some time to show you the place if you wanted." And to make sure you don't get into too much trouble... Jessica offered to Ness. She reached around in her coat and pulled out a small pouch, which she walked over closer to Ness and handed to her. Before handing Ness the pouch, she pulled out a single copper-colored gemstone from the pouch. "You can use these gems to contact me. Just think about a message you want to send to me and hold the stone in your hand. The magic in it will do the rest."
Ness nodded toward Jess before digitizing the pouch and clutching the gemstone in her fist. "...Please do. I'll contact you when I can. ...I'm gonna get some answers."
She gave Jess a small smile before giving the catgirl a small bow of gratitude. "Well... thank you for helping me out with everything again. If you ever want to come back here, feel free to. I'll put you onto the whitelist for the campus here, so... y'kno... people won't be aiming guns at you."
She gave Jess a small smile before giving the catgirl a small bow of gratitude. "Well... thank you for helping me out with everything again. If you ever want to come back here, feel free to. I'll put you onto the whitelist for the campus here, so... y'kno... people won't be aiming guns at you."
"Don't mention it. I'll do whatever I can to try and help you get your memories back." Especially since it's my fault you don't have them to begin with... "So if there's anything you need, just ask." She bowed back to Ness and chuckled a little. "And thank you. I'd really appreciate not having to worry about that."
Jessica chuckled a little. "This was, well, a lot more pleasant than I was expecting it to be. Thank you. And I'll hold you to that." She playfully pointed at Ness as she conjured up a blue set of glyphs around her head, and eventually a portal opened up behind her. She waved to Ness, then turned around and stepped through the portal. I'll just have to try and be patient...
Ness gave Jess a little wave before watching her teleport out. She sighed before sitting back down and getting back to her work. ...I'll have to wait a bit until I go back there. ...Still, I'm basically going to walk into even worse territory than I'm in now. I'm going to have to keep myself alert...
The fedora girl would work hard into the night on her current project and a few others, though the inspiration was fueled more by anticipation more than anything else.
The fedora girl would work hard into the night on her current project and a few others, though the inspiration was fueled more by anticipation more than anything else.
Both Marcus and Xyleena met outside the borders of Fourside. "Afraid there aren't any reports of Vanessa or Jessica in the hospitals or killing fields. I'm sorry dear." Xyleena's head bobbed, shaking slightly. "It looks like she's gone... Huntress, I hate to imagine what Lyra's going to feel..."
"Regardless, we need to collet the lost forces. remove all traces of our people, reduce the damage we've done. I'll send the call out on the Fang's array. Tomorrow, we leave. After that... Who knows. Maybe the Sinclair can do her original job."
The next day, they waited in the forest as eleven other predators assembled. Together, they teleported up to the Sinclair, which quickly left the planet. As they departed, Marcus hopped onto the communicator. "C and C, please inform the Long Fang that Operation clean up has reached widow status, and we couldn't get the oven to start. authorization code seven, niner, five.
"Roger that Sinclair. Your orders are to continue on with the nomad cruiser mission parameters. Good luck, and may the huntress guide you Sinclair. See you in a year." Marcus nodded, and tapped at the nomad cruiser's controls, causing it to warp out of the universe and into yet another to explore. "A whole new galaxy... Now lets go find something to hunt!" he called out to the ship, plotting the course to the newest planet.
"Regardless, we need to collet the lost forces. remove all traces of our people, reduce the damage we've done. I'll send the call out on the Fang's array. Tomorrow, we leave. After that... Who knows. Maybe the Sinclair can do her original job."
The next day, they waited in the forest as eleven other predators assembled. Together, they teleported up to the Sinclair, which quickly left the planet. As they departed, Marcus hopped onto the communicator. "C and C, please inform the Long Fang that Operation clean up has reached widow status, and we couldn't get the oven to start. authorization code seven, niner, five.
"Roger that Sinclair. Your orders are to continue on with the nomad cruiser mission parameters. Good luck, and may the huntress guide you Sinclair. See you in a year." Marcus nodded, and tapped at the nomad cruiser's controls, causing it to warp out of the universe and into yet another to explore. "A whole new galaxy... Now lets go find something to hunt!" he called out to the ship, plotting the course to the newest planet.
On board the Darting Dagger, Lyra was getting her back tattoo fixed when she got the news. A predator wandered in, a fullblooded one, and bowed to her. "Long Fang, the sinclair reports operations completed. Codes widow and not able to start the oven." The predator looked confused as all hell over the statement, but instead of asking simply left the parlor. Lyra stared after him for a moment, eyes tearing up. Turning to the artist working on her, she pulled up her sleeve and pointed to her clean arm. "I need you to do a memory tattoo. Now." The artist nodded, and began work on her arm, placing the image of the huntress on her arm.
6 months later, Lyra was visiting a summit for the various predator clans when she was pulled from it, into a white hallway that seemed blank of any and all coverings. sighing, she began walking down the hall, when a door opened, revealing Dancing blade, the original long fang.
She stared at him for a moment, before rushing forward and wrapping him in a hug. "Oh Huntress, dad, I missed you so much! You've got to tell me, what did you do after the great hunt? I lost so much..." Lyra cried in his arms, the hunt passing through her head, with all of her regrets running through her head. Long fang held her, rubbing her back, and making nonsense noises in his throat.
Lyra was eventually all cried out, and Long Fang spoke with her. "The only way I made it through the memories of the hunt was remembering the friends I made. Even the ones I lost. [sub]especially the ones I lost.[/sub] You can either remember the lost ones, and regret not saving them, or remember the ones who lived because of you. That's all I can offer you. I need to leave now. the people on the other side of the door will speak with you." With that, Long fang left, the last time she would ever see him. Lyra sighed, and went into the room. there, a man sat at a desk, with some papers before him. "Hello miss Reed. Tell me about the 6th event, would you?" He examined the tattoo Lyra left prominent, an image of the huntress cradling a child. "Maybe about the tattoo?" Lyra glared at the interviewer. "I wear this mark in memory of the woman I... cared for dying during the second great hunt. The sixth event, as you call it. Until I can kill the man who killed her, that memory mark shall stay upon my arms, to never let me forget my mistakes by not killing him when I had the chance. Fine, you want to know what happened? I'll tell you what happened. It started like this..."
6 months later, Lyra was visiting a summit for the various predator clans when she was pulled from it, into a white hallway that seemed blank of any and all coverings. sighing, she began walking down the hall, when a door opened, revealing Dancing blade, the original long fang.
She stared at him for a moment, before rushing forward and wrapping him in a hug. "Oh Huntress, dad, I missed you so much! You've got to tell me, what did you do after the great hunt? I lost so much..." Lyra cried in his arms, the hunt passing through her head, with all of her regrets running through her head. Long fang held her, rubbing her back, and making nonsense noises in his throat.
Lyra was eventually all cried out, and Long Fang spoke with her. "The only way I made it through the memories of the hunt was remembering the friends I made. Even the ones I lost. [sub]especially the ones I lost.[/sub] You can either remember the lost ones, and regret not saving them, or remember the ones who lived because of you. That's all I can offer you. I need to leave now. the people on the other side of the door will speak with you." With that, Long fang left, the last time she would ever see him. Lyra sighed, and went into the room. there, a man sat at a desk, with some papers before him. "Hello miss Reed. Tell me about the 6th event, would you?" He examined the tattoo Lyra left prominent, an image of the huntress cradling a child. "Maybe about the tattoo?" Lyra glared at the interviewer. "I wear this mark in memory of the woman I... cared for dying during the second great hunt. The sixth event, as you call it. Until I can kill the man who killed her, that memory mark shall stay upon my arms, to never let me forget my mistakes by not killing him when I had the chance. Fine, you want to know what happened? I'll tell you what happened. It started like this..."
After the surprise visit from Jess and Persephone, Ness became a little more invigorated, despite the constant aches and pains her amnesia was causing her. Over the last 9 months, her depression and pains had been leading her to try and commit suicide just to make it stop. Now she at least had a way to try and stop it.
With her former and now unknown lover, the duo went back to Alnilam and traveled around, disguised. Though the travels through the world did help her regain some of her memories, some happy, some of racism, some making her feel small, many continued to elude Ness, including the fact that she and Jess had been lovers at all. Seeing and hearing of Loki?s outer world exploits and Rita?s order just proceeded to create a sense of self-loathing for her shortcomings. After the round of visits, Ness would go back to her usual rounds of keeping her lab in order, making sure her subordinates didn?t blow everything up, and working on the portal device and other things to help advance her world, though she did her best to keep in touch with the people who had bothered to visit her.
In time, the remaining scrambled memories never did come back, they disappeared into the vast crevasses of her mind and soul, never to surface again. The pain formerly ailing her, and in turn her crew, was gone, but she knew deep down, she was still missing.... something. The woman would never be able to put her finger on it now, so she simply moved forward, leaving the regret and what could have been in the dust as she her eyes forward on her goal.
With her former and now unknown lover, the duo went back to Alnilam and traveled around, disguised. Though the travels through the world did help her regain some of her memories, some happy, some of racism, some making her feel small, many continued to elude Ness, including the fact that she and Jess had been lovers at all. Seeing and hearing of Loki?s outer world exploits and Rita?s order just proceeded to create a sense of self-loathing for her shortcomings. After the round of visits, Ness would go back to her usual rounds of keeping her lab in order, making sure her subordinates didn?t blow everything up, and working on the portal device and other things to help advance her world, though she did her best to keep in touch with the people who had bothered to visit her.
In time, the remaining scrambled memories never did come back, they disappeared into the vast crevasses of her mind and soul, never to surface again. The pain formerly ailing her, and in turn her crew, was gone, but she knew deep down, she was still missing.... something. The woman would never be able to put her finger on it now, so she simply moved forward, leaving the regret and what could have been in the dust as she her eyes forward on her goal.
BTW, I suppose Tanner ended up staying with Lyra and that crowd...Unless they ejected him from the ship or something.FPSfanatic said:
Persephone, Echo, and Holly dropped in on Ness. After lightly chiding Ness about the lack of "natural" elements to her general living and working space, she in turn received a chewing out for bringing the girls to a war zone. Keeping her cool, she apologized for her ignorance. Finding Ness had no memories of her or her girls, Persey was quite saddened, but hardly discouraged. She vowed to restore her relationship with Ness (making note of the things that Ness had expressed distaste for and deciding to try and down play those things about herself...somewhat). She gladly accepted Ness' offer to visit her in her own home, and she simply ask for some notice in advance so she could try and bring Echo over to enjoy the visit as well. She also promised to get Ness another pair of earrings, which she did, and also showered Ness in other small gifts such as jewelry, potted plants, and articles of clothing. In this way, and others, she hoped to gain Miss Vanessa's friendship again.
Tanner suggested to Lyra and her extraterrestrial comrades that they try to pick up his ship and the equipment therein. He decided to stay with them, having no real interest in returning home for his own personal reasons.
After returning to her home dimension when the war was declared to be over, Jessica's research was declared to be a success. Due to the stopping of unexplained inter-dimensional travel going through Alnilam's dimension coinciding with the ending of the war, along with the two accounts of previous Dimensional Anomalies that Jessica obtained from Rex and Lyra, her hypothesis was accepted as the prevailing theory.
Shortly after returning and undergoing a telepathically assisted psychological evaluation, Tophat's long-term memories were discovered to have been lodged in Jessica's head. After they were extracted when it was determined they were giving Jessica headaches, they were placed in a crystal and archived in her home city's museum. After Jessica stated that it was Tophat's dying wish that Erica receive the memories, a copy was made for just that purpose.
Being accepted as the most knowledgeable on the subject of the Dimensional Anomalies, Jessica received and accepted an offer from her home city's university to teach classes on the subject. Also, due to her experience, she was hired on by the government to oversee all other possible expeditions into universes suffering from an Anomalous occurrence. Her position with the government was mostly just a consulting position in between deployments, so teaching was her primary profession.
For a while, Jessica spent what time she had free travelling to Alnilam with Vanessa and doing her best to try and jog some of her memories. Though her reluctance to move things forward resulted in her failing to completely fix Ness' memories regarding their past relationship, she was able to become friends with Ness again, which was good enough for her. She didn't make many more notable friends as time went on, so she went by Ness' dimension to visit her when she could.
Though she worked for the government, she never missed an opportunity to express her disdain over its choice to not assassinate Loki. She developed sleeping problems and issues with managing her anger, always having doubts niggling in the back of her head as to what she should have done back on Alnilam. These were only further exasperated by her trips back to there with Ness, to the point where she nearly blew her cover and committed an act of inter-dimensional war on several occasions.
Shortly after returning and undergoing a telepathically assisted psychological evaluation, Tophat's long-term memories were discovered to have been lodged in Jessica's head. After they were extracted when it was determined they were giving Jessica headaches, they were placed in a crystal and archived in her home city's museum. After Jessica stated that it was Tophat's dying wish that Erica receive the memories, a copy was made for just that purpose.
Being accepted as the most knowledgeable on the subject of the Dimensional Anomalies, Jessica received and accepted an offer from her home city's university to teach classes on the subject. Also, due to her experience, she was hired on by the government to oversee all other possible expeditions into universes suffering from an Anomalous occurrence. Her position with the government was mostly just a consulting position in between deployments, so teaching was her primary profession.
For a while, Jessica spent what time she had free travelling to Alnilam with Vanessa and doing her best to try and jog some of her memories. Though her reluctance to move things forward resulted in her failing to completely fix Ness' memories regarding their past relationship, she was able to become friends with Ness again, which was good enough for her. She didn't make many more notable friends as time went on, so she went by Ness' dimension to visit her when she could.
Though she worked for the government, she never missed an opportunity to express her disdain over its choice to not assassinate Loki. She developed sleeping problems and issues with managing her anger, always having doubts niggling in the back of her head as to what she should have done back on Alnilam. These were only further exasperated by her trips back to there with Ness, to the point where she nearly blew her cover and committed an act of inter-dimensional war on several occasions.
As per Jessica's warning about Loki possibly becoming an inter-dimensional warlord, the Feline people kept a close watch on his every action, always having a Seer scrying on him to keep an eye on his every move. Upon discovering the existence of Orion, they gave him the same treatment, keeping constant watch on his every action. Since Loki and Orion mostly focused on conquering planets in the dimension Alnilam occupied, and thus kept to themselves as far as the Feline were concerned, they did little to try and intervene and interfere with their actions.
However, Loki's retrieval of the Tesseract and attempting to give it to the Chitauri was something that caught their interest. Sensing a great deal of power from the Tesseract through the scrying of Loki, they acted quickly. Shortly after Loki had honored his end of the deal and given the Tesseract to the lord of the Chitauri, the Feline sent in a commando and stole it for themselves. They were completely unaware that their actions, fueled simply by desire, had resulted in many dimensions being spared from tyranny.
After some time spent studying the Tesseract, the Feline devised a method to harness its power and utilize it as a powerful energy source. They built the Tesseract into the heart of their city, using it to fuel every last bit of its need for power and providing a greater surplus that allowed them to expand and utilize their resources elsewhere.
However, Loki's retrieval of the Tesseract and attempting to give it to the Chitauri was something that caught their interest. Sensing a great deal of power from the Tesseract through the scrying of Loki, they acted quickly. Shortly after Loki had honored his end of the deal and given the Tesseract to the lord of the Chitauri, the Feline sent in a commando and stole it for themselves. They were completely unaware that their actions, fueled simply by desire, had resulted in many dimensions being spared from tyranny.
After some time spent studying the Tesseract, the Feline devised a method to harness its power and utilize it as a powerful energy source. They built the Tesseract into the heart of their city, using it to fuel every last bit of its need for power and providing a greater surplus that allowed them to expand and utilize their resources elsewhere.
The women Jessica rescued from the brothel in Fourside were taken in as refugees by the Feline people. They were given food and shelter for a while to deal with their obvious malnutrition, as well as medical and psychological attention for those who needed it. Once they were deemed to be healthy, they were given employment opportunities and put up in temporary lodgings until they could afford their own places to stay. For those that actually tried, they'd be able to get back on their feet and be completely independent pretty quickly.
For a two months, Erica stayed with Valentine in Skyrim, where they fully catched up, with Erica showing Valentine all the things that had changed around the land in the three centuries Valentine was gone. Starting out with Erica's home and the city of Solitude, with Erica showing the various garden's she had worked on, including of the Blue Palace. She spoke of this particuclar garden with great pride, considdering it one of of her greatest accomplishments. When Erica showed all there was to see in Solitude, the duo returned the town and later, college of Winterhold. Erica initially had trouble being around the college, finding its hall lifeless without AEanna, but got over this within two days. During her visiting the college again, one of the senior members approached Erica and offered her the position of Arch Mage, as Erica had been on the college longer then anyone else had been. Erica politely refused this, however. Even as she possesed considderable magical ability, she knew she lacked the leadership and orginisational skills that would be needed, a her degrading memory meant she was even less of a fit candidate.
Eventually, when Erica had showed Valentine everything that had changed around the college, and introduced Valentine to what students Erica herself was acquainted with, then returned to Solitude. It was during this time that Jessica came to Erica's door to deliver Tophat's remains to her. Erica was devestated by the news, and for a time, even considdered seeking out a way to die with dignity. Having out-lived everyone she considdered family, with the added problem of her degrading memory, she started to believe she had have lived for long enough. Eventually, Erica was dissuaded from acting on this these thoughts by Valentine, who proved to be a pillar of support, wherther Valentine realised it or not.
After returning to Winterhold for a second to, informing the few people that knew Tophat in life, arrengements for its funeral were made. Having made a note to do so, written on her hand, Erica informed Jessica that the funeral would be next day. As no graves could be dug in the soil of Winterhold due to the near permanent freezing temperatures, and neither the town nor the college had anything in the way of crypts, Tophat's remains were cremated on a funeral pyre in the courtyard of the college. Once the farewell speeches were given and the ceremonies were over with, Erica brought back the urn containing Tophat's ashes to her home, placing it on the mantelpiece next to the urn containing AEanna's ashes.
Later that day, Jessica followed up on the promise she made to offer helping Erica with her degrading memory. After Erica accompanied Jessica to her dimension and underwent tests to ascertain what lay at the root of the memory problems, Jessica determined that the problem was that Erica's brain contained more information then the human brain was meant to contain. Unfortunately, as nothing magical was the cause, there was nothing Jessica herself could do for Erica. She offered to refer Erica to a Telepath, who would remove memories to make room for new ones, but Erica declined this offer, saying having memories removed would be no better then forgetting them. Jessica appolagised that she couldn't be of more help, but Erica said that Jessica had in fact been quite helpful. Erica explained that she feared that her memory would continue to degrade to a point where she wouldn't even be able to look after herself, and that the diagnosis put these fears to rest. Erica thanked Jessica before returning to Tamriel. The two would stay in touch, and sometimes visit one another. Because of this, Erica never truly forgot about Jessica, even if she would need a quick reminder who Jessica was when she spoke to Erica or came to her door.
As things returned to the normal day to day affairs, Erica was reminded of why she came to Anilam, as she was still lacking in inspiration for new designs for her work. While she would have returned to Anilam, if only to visit the girl she knew as Sasha, Erica couldn't remember an thing about any of the places she'd been to, making creating a portal there imposible. As a alternative, and to honour AEanna, Erica suggested vissiting the Summerset Isles. Valentine voicing no objections, they set out to do just that.
Upon reaching the isles, Erica was captivated by the mesmirizing sights of the exotic flora and the towering monoliths of its cities, which seemingly were made of glass that caught the sunlight, thus colouring the streets below. Even with the high temperatures and the often less-then hospitable behaviour of the people, Erica enjoyed her time in the Isles immensely, it giving her the inspiration she needed. Unfortunately for her, her memory was letting her down more, as she would forget about what she expeirienced soon after she expeirienced it, the memories of it lasting a few days at best, remembering only that she had seen something, but not what. Her old methods of writing things down in her notebook was becoming increasingly unreliable also, as Erica more often then not forgot to write in it.
While she now knew turning into a senile shell of her old self was unlikely, Erica still feared the posibility of eventually forgetting her friends. Because of this, Erica began tenaciously looking for a means to combat her memory loss. Supported by Valentine, they spend two years travelling all over Tamriel looking for this. In between travels to destinations where they would search for earthly means of combatting the memory loss, Erica read through books looking for a magical means to do so, making sure to write down anything that appeared helpful imediately after reading it. The books she read ranged from every day spell books, pubications of studies, to ones detailing more macabre matters. In the end, all lead to nothing. Things, at the very most, were only vain hopes. In time, the search lead Erica and Valentine to the Imperial capital of Cyrodiil, but, as time passed with no solution in sight, Erica grew increasingly desperate, eventually bringing her to a thing she never particularly believed in--The divine. Entering the temple to the Nine Divines, Erica kneeled before an altar behind which was a circular window of cerulean stained glass. In the center of this circle was a copper triangle, the symbol of Julianos, the God of Wisdom and Knowledge. Erica kneeled before the altar without actually doing much for some time, finding the thought of prayer to be strange. Eventually putting herself over the feelings, Erica closed her eyes and silently prayed, asking Julianos that he might bestow a blessing upon her so that the memory degrading would stop. Once her prayers were said, Erica rose to her feet, looking up towards the stainglass window, not knowing her prayers were heard and answered. Not knowing any better, Erica left the temple and hoped for the best. Two more months would pass as Erica and Valentine spend time sightseeing in Cyrodiil. During this time, Erica was sad to find her degrading memory hadn't stopped, or even slowed down at all. One night, in the room of the inn Erica and Valentine were staying at, Erica looked out the window towards the northen mountains. With all other options depleted, Erica contemplated carefully wherther or not to use a last resort--consorting with Deadra. While information on Deadra was hard to come by, and information on summoning them even more so, Erica had learned of them during her time in the college, and knew what Deadric Prince to call upon, and how, where and when. She also knew that is was highly dangerous, not only because if she weren't careful, dealings with Deadra could cost her her soul, but also because making pacts with Deadra was outlawed, and punishable with death. Considdering her options, Erica decided to go through with it. She told Valentine of her plans, who, while less then happy with Erica's decided course of action, would support her through it none the less.
Erica waited for the correct day, the Fith of First Seed, before she and Valentine set out towards Jerall Mountains. It was a long and difficult trek. The further up the mountains the duo went, the more vegitation deminished, and the hostility of the peaks increased. Six hours had passed when Erica and Valentine finally reached their destination--the shrine of Hermaeus Mora, the Deadric Prince of Forbidden Knowledge and Memory. The shrine was a stone statue of a shapeless mass of of tentacles, sitting on a pedastal of darker stone. The already eerie sight was made more unsettling by the crimson light of the setting sun and the chill of late evening. Erica took a moment to compose herself, anxious to see if the summoning would work, as Hermaeus Mora only ever appeared before those it deemed worthy. After taking a deep breath, Erica kneeled infront of the statue and preformed the ritual necessary for the summoning. Once the ritual was complete, Erica kept looking down at the ground for a moment, almost too nervous to look up. Once she did, what she saw amazed her. Before her was a floating void of darkness and from this void, numerous black tentacles with a dark green sheen writhed, accompanied by a multitude of yellow eyeballs that increased and decreased in number at random. What remained a constant was a single large eyeball at the center of the void. Unlike the other eyes that were yellow, having a recognisable pupil, and lacking eyelids, this central eye was icy-blue in colour, had eyelids of the same colour the tentacles had, and had an octopus-like horizontal pupil. Erica shivered at the grotesque sight, not helped by the unnerving feeling that it was looking straight into her mind.
"A timeless mortal stands before my shrine... Different then those that normally do. You, seek not to obtain knowledge, but to preserve it." While understandable, Hermaeus Mora spoke with a voice unlike any natural being, with a tone that could be described as lazy, yet convoluted, its voice having an eerie echo, and an undeniable sense of power that send chills up Erica's spine.
"Yes..." Erica began, rising to her feet, willing herself to look at the creature before her, her image reflected back to her in each of what yellow eyeballs that appeared, oddly, each showing subtle differences in the reflection. She explained why she had come to Mora's shrine, doing so in a brief summary, not wishing to give it any more information then was neccesary, even if, in the back of her mind, she knew it knew regardless.
"This can be done. Yet, no knowledge, wherther it is acquiring, or preserving it, comes freely. The cost of knowledge, is knowledge in equal measure. In return for what you seek, I would have you collect the souls of mortals of worth, be they of man, Mer, or something else entirely, this is of no consequence to me."
Erica was silent as the price she would need to pay was revealed to her. She had expected to give up something of her own, not become a reaper of souls. She had always abhored the harvesting of souls, going as far as to outright refusing to learn the art of enchanting during her time in the college, the reason for this being that she knew knew full well what it's like to have a soul removed from the body and linger in an object, having gone through this herself. To now be asked to subject others to this fate, suffice it to say Erica was less then accepting. "I... I cannot accept such terms." she answered, yet with an appearant lack of resolve.
"Decline now, and I will retract my offer, never to extend it to you again. Considder it carefully, but swiftly. The time to make a decision runs short." Looking at the sky, Erica found Mora was correct. Evening had nearly past into night, at which point the day of summoning Mora would be over. Preasured into making a decision, Erica was about to accept when a thought struck her. She asked Mora if there were any speciffic souls she would need to harvest, or if it was for her to choose. She would decline if she had to not only harvest souls, but do so from innocent people, this being a price far too steep for her to pay. Fortunately for Erica, Hermaeus Mora, like all Deadra, didn't share mortal's concept of right and wrong, pure and corrupt. It answered it didn't care wherther the souls in question came from a priest or bandit, begger or noble. The knowledge contained within the soul was all it cared about, all else being irrelevant. Erica sighed and closed her eyes. "Very well... I accept..."
"Go then. Go forth and collect necesarry payment." As Mora spoke these words, a tear-shaped crystal, as black as the night appeared from the void. It hovered infront of Erica until she grabbed hold of it. The gem was unnaturally cold to the touch. As she grabbed the gem, the knowledge of the spell necessary to trap souls within the gem was imprinted into her mind by Mora itself, bypassing the unreliable shortterm memory, and storing it safely in her longterm memory. "The moment the gem is filled, return here, and your wish, I shall bestow onto you..." With that said, the central eyeball closed, and receeded back into the void along with the tentacles and other eyeballs, after which the void disappeared. Still holding the black soul gem in her hand, Erica stood where she was, feeling conflicted. She was pleased by how relatively easy a way to mend her memory was presented to her, yet at the same time displeased by what she needed to do. Storing the soul gem in her satchel, Erica walked over to where Valentine had been standing and together making the trek back down the mountain. As the two walked, Erica explained her feelings on what she had done. Valentine respoded by saying she trusted Erica's judgement, and that if the prospect of harvesting souls bothered her so much, there was nothing forcing her to go through with it.
The next day, after saying their goodbyes, Erica and Valentine parted ways. Valentine returned to the Castle of the Holy Order in her own world to resume working for Necro, who was less-then pleased she had spend such a long time away, but was stopped from giving Valentine a hard time about it by Undine. Erica took a ship back to Skyrim, knowing there wasn't a shortage of bandits. As she waited for the ship to arive, Erica retrieved the necklace in which the memories of Tophat had been stored, having carried it on her person ever since Jessica gave it to her. She had looked through the memories stored within, but not nearly everything, given there were centuries worth of it. After looking through the memories of the people Tophat had traveled with over the course of its life, most of the faces either having been forgotten by or, being unknown to Erica, she sighed sadly as she learned of its last feelings before losing its emotional center, discovering it had regret not spending more time with Erica. Then, Erica something that shocked her, making her almost lose hold of the necklace. There was a message, it being clearly meant to be heard; "Save my soul". Erica didn't know how to restore Tophat to life, but she knew it wouldn't have left the message if it weren't posible, and she was hellbent to find a way.
Eventually, when Erica had showed Valentine everything that had changed around the college, and introduced Valentine to what students Erica herself was acquainted with, then returned to Solitude. It was during this time that Jessica came to Erica's door to deliver Tophat's remains to her. Erica was devestated by the news, and for a time, even considdered seeking out a way to die with dignity. Having out-lived everyone she considdered family, with the added problem of her degrading memory, she started to believe she had have lived for long enough. Eventually, Erica was dissuaded from acting on this these thoughts by Valentine, who proved to be a pillar of support, wherther Valentine realised it or not.
After returning to Winterhold for a second to, informing the few people that knew Tophat in life, arrengements for its funeral were made. Having made a note to do so, written on her hand, Erica informed Jessica that the funeral would be next day. As no graves could be dug in the soil of Winterhold due to the near permanent freezing temperatures, and neither the town nor the college had anything in the way of crypts, Tophat's remains were cremated on a funeral pyre in the courtyard of the college. Once the farewell speeches were given and the ceremonies were over with, Erica brought back the urn containing Tophat's ashes to her home, placing it on the mantelpiece next to the urn containing AEanna's ashes.
Later that day, Jessica followed up on the promise she made to offer helping Erica with her degrading memory. After Erica accompanied Jessica to her dimension and underwent tests to ascertain what lay at the root of the memory problems, Jessica determined that the problem was that Erica's brain contained more information then the human brain was meant to contain. Unfortunately, as nothing magical was the cause, there was nothing Jessica herself could do for Erica. She offered to refer Erica to a Telepath, who would remove memories to make room for new ones, but Erica declined this offer, saying having memories removed would be no better then forgetting them. Jessica appolagised that she couldn't be of more help, but Erica said that Jessica had in fact been quite helpful. Erica explained that she feared that her memory would continue to degrade to a point where she wouldn't even be able to look after herself, and that the diagnosis put these fears to rest. Erica thanked Jessica before returning to Tamriel. The two would stay in touch, and sometimes visit one another. Because of this, Erica never truly forgot about Jessica, even if she would need a quick reminder who Jessica was when she spoke to Erica or came to her door.
As things returned to the normal day to day affairs, Erica was reminded of why she came to Anilam, as she was still lacking in inspiration for new designs for her work. While she would have returned to Anilam, if only to visit the girl she knew as Sasha, Erica couldn't remember an thing about any of the places she'd been to, making creating a portal there imposible. As a alternative, and to honour AEanna, Erica suggested vissiting the Summerset Isles. Valentine voicing no objections, they set out to do just that.
Upon reaching the isles, Erica was captivated by the mesmirizing sights of the exotic flora and the towering monoliths of its cities, which seemingly were made of glass that caught the sunlight, thus colouring the streets below. Even with the high temperatures and the often less-then hospitable behaviour of the people, Erica enjoyed her time in the Isles immensely, it giving her the inspiration she needed. Unfortunately for her, her memory was letting her down more, as she would forget about what she expeirienced soon after she expeirienced it, the memories of it lasting a few days at best, remembering only that she had seen something, but not what. Her old methods of writing things down in her notebook was becoming increasingly unreliable also, as Erica more often then not forgot to write in it.
While she now knew turning into a senile shell of her old self was unlikely, Erica still feared the posibility of eventually forgetting her friends. Because of this, Erica began tenaciously looking for a means to combat her memory loss. Supported by Valentine, they spend two years travelling all over Tamriel looking for this. In between travels to destinations where they would search for earthly means of combatting the memory loss, Erica read through books looking for a magical means to do so, making sure to write down anything that appeared helpful imediately after reading it. The books she read ranged from every day spell books, pubications of studies, to ones detailing more macabre matters. In the end, all lead to nothing. Things, at the very most, were only vain hopes. In time, the search lead Erica and Valentine to the Imperial capital of Cyrodiil, but, as time passed with no solution in sight, Erica grew increasingly desperate, eventually bringing her to a thing she never particularly believed in--The divine. Entering the temple to the Nine Divines, Erica kneeled before an altar behind which was a circular window of cerulean stained glass. In the center of this circle was a copper triangle, the symbol of Julianos, the God of Wisdom and Knowledge. Erica kneeled before the altar without actually doing much for some time, finding the thought of prayer to be strange. Eventually putting herself over the feelings, Erica closed her eyes and silently prayed, asking Julianos that he might bestow a blessing upon her so that the memory degrading would stop. Once her prayers were said, Erica rose to her feet, looking up towards the stainglass window, not knowing her prayers were heard and answered. Not knowing any better, Erica left the temple and hoped for the best. Two more months would pass as Erica and Valentine spend time sightseeing in Cyrodiil. During this time, Erica was sad to find her degrading memory hadn't stopped, or even slowed down at all. One night, in the room of the inn Erica and Valentine were staying at, Erica looked out the window towards the northen mountains. With all other options depleted, Erica contemplated carefully wherther or not to use a last resort--consorting with Deadra. While information on Deadra was hard to come by, and information on summoning them even more so, Erica had learned of them during her time in the college, and knew what Deadric Prince to call upon, and how, where and when. She also knew that is was highly dangerous, not only because if she weren't careful, dealings with Deadra could cost her her soul, but also because making pacts with Deadra was outlawed, and punishable with death. Considdering her options, Erica decided to go through with it. She told Valentine of her plans, who, while less then happy with Erica's decided course of action, would support her through it none the less.
Erica waited for the correct day, the Fith of First Seed, before she and Valentine set out towards Jerall Mountains. It was a long and difficult trek. The further up the mountains the duo went, the more vegitation deminished, and the hostility of the peaks increased. Six hours had passed when Erica and Valentine finally reached their destination--the shrine of Hermaeus Mora, the Deadric Prince of Forbidden Knowledge and Memory. The shrine was a stone statue of a shapeless mass of of tentacles, sitting on a pedastal of darker stone. The already eerie sight was made more unsettling by the crimson light of the setting sun and the chill of late evening. Erica took a moment to compose herself, anxious to see if the summoning would work, as Hermaeus Mora only ever appeared before those it deemed worthy. After taking a deep breath, Erica kneeled infront of the statue and preformed the ritual necessary for the summoning. Once the ritual was complete, Erica kept looking down at the ground for a moment, almost too nervous to look up. Once she did, what she saw amazed her. Before her was a floating void of darkness and from this void, numerous black tentacles with a dark green sheen writhed, accompanied by a multitude of yellow eyeballs that increased and decreased in number at random. What remained a constant was a single large eyeball at the center of the void. Unlike the other eyes that were yellow, having a recognisable pupil, and lacking eyelids, this central eye was icy-blue in colour, had eyelids of the same colour the tentacles had, and had an octopus-like horizontal pupil. Erica shivered at the grotesque sight, not helped by the unnerving feeling that it was looking straight into her mind.
"A timeless mortal stands before my shrine... Different then those that normally do. You, seek not to obtain knowledge, but to preserve it." While understandable, Hermaeus Mora spoke with a voice unlike any natural being, with a tone that could be described as lazy, yet convoluted, its voice having an eerie echo, and an undeniable sense of power that send chills up Erica's spine.
"Yes..." Erica began, rising to her feet, willing herself to look at the creature before her, her image reflected back to her in each of what yellow eyeballs that appeared, oddly, each showing subtle differences in the reflection. She explained why she had come to Mora's shrine, doing so in a brief summary, not wishing to give it any more information then was neccesary, even if, in the back of her mind, she knew it knew regardless.
"This can be done. Yet, no knowledge, wherther it is acquiring, or preserving it, comes freely. The cost of knowledge, is knowledge in equal measure. In return for what you seek, I would have you collect the souls of mortals of worth, be they of man, Mer, or something else entirely, this is of no consequence to me."
Erica was silent as the price she would need to pay was revealed to her. She had expected to give up something of her own, not become a reaper of souls. She had always abhored the harvesting of souls, going as far as to outright refusing to learn the art of enchanting during her time in the college, the reason for this being that she knew knew full well what it's like to have a soul removed from the body and linger in an object, having gone through this herself. To now be asked to subject others to this fate, suffice it to say Erica was less then accepting. "I... I cannot accept such terms." she answered, yet with an appearant lack of resolve.
"Decline now, and I will retract my offer, never to extend it to you again. Considder it carefully, but swiftly. The time to make a decision runs short." Looking at the sky, Erica found Mora was correct. Evening had nearly past into night, at which point the day of summoning Mora would be over. Preasured into making a decision, Erica was about to accept when a thought struck her. She asked Mora if there were any speciffic souls she would need to harvest, or if it was for her to choose. She would decline if she had to not only harvest souls, but do so from innocent people, this being a price far too steep for her to pay. Fortunately for Erica, Hermaeus Mora, like all Deadra, didn't share mortal's concept of right and wrong, pure and corrupt. It answered it didn't care wherther the souls in question came from a priest or bandit, begger or noble. The knowledge contained within the soul was all it cared about, all else being irrelevant. Erica sighed and closed her eyes. "Very well... I accept..."
"Go then. Go forth and collect necesarry payment." As Mora spoke these words, a tear-shaped crystal, as black as the night appeared from the void. It hovered infront of Erica until she grabbed hold of it. The gem was unnaturally cold to the touch. As she grabbed the gem, the knowledge of the spell necessary to trap souls within the gem was imprinted into her mind by Mora itself, bypassing the unreliable shortterm memory, and storing it safely in her longterm memory. "The moment the gem is filled, return here, and your wish, I shall bestow onto you..." With that said, the central eyeball closed, and receeded back into the void along with the tentacles and other eyeballs, after which the void disappeared. Still holding the black soul gem in her hand, Erica stood where she was, feeling conflicted. She was pleased by how relatively easy a way to mend her memory was presented to her, yet at the same time displeased by what she needed to do. Storing the soul gem in her satchel, Erica walked over to where Valentine had been standing and together making the trek back down the mountain. As the two walked, Erica explained her feelings on what she had done. Valentine respoded by saying she trusted Erica's judgement, and that if the prospect of harvesting souls bothered her so much, there was nothing forcing her to go through with it.
The next day, after saying their goodbyes, Erica and Valentine parted ways. Valentine returned to the Castle of the Holy Order in her own world to resume working for Necro, who was less-then pleased she had spend such a long time away, but was stopped from giving Valentine a hard time about it by Undine. Erica took a ship back to Skyrim, knowing there wasn't a shortage of bandits. As she waited for the ship to arive, Erica retrieved the necklace in which the memories of Tophat had been stored, having carried it on her person ever since Jessica gave it to her. She had looked through the memories stored within, but not nearly everything, given there were centuries worth of it. After looking through the memories of the people Tophat had traveled with over the course of its life, most of the faces either having been forgotten by or, being unknown to Erica, she sighed sadly as she learned of its last feelings before losing its emotional center, discovering it had regret not spending more time with Erica. Then, Erica something that shocked her, making her almost lose hold of the necklace. There was a message, it being clearly meant to be heard; "Save my soul". Erica didn't know how to restore Tophat to life, but she knew it wouldn't have left the message if it weren't posible, and she was hellbent to find a way.