After Keith and Jacob reached Markarth, they ran back to the Temple of Dibella, where the priestess Senna stood in the way of the door "Have you got the Scale?" Jacob nodded "Are we too late?"
Senna looked downwards "He's very weak, he can hardly breathe and the rash seems to be killing him... I would say he has only ten minutes left.... it's too late to make the tea now"
Keith and Jacob stepped towards the door, but Senna looked serious "The Scale please"
"Are you out of your mind, we're going to save him using this scale, tea or no tea." Jacob declared calmly
"No, i am completely in my mind and I will have that scale!" Senna tackled Jacob over the edge, but he threw the scale to Keith, and hit the hard stone floor below.
Keith caught the scale in his mouth and rushed to storm through the doors.
Senna, being stubborn and determined, ran to the stairs to the temple entrance but Jacob caught her by her tail. She had lost her peaceful priestess charm by now. She turned and attacked Jacob, who successfully dodged everything she threw at him.
But out of nowhere a stray hoof came out of nowhere and hit Jacob square on the head, knocking him into a wall.
"Thanks Jared" Senna said happily "Could you please take care of this?"
Jared, a large, brown stallion with golden hair and green eyes, smiled down at the recovering Jacob "With Pleasure.... Hehehehehe~"
T... Take care of me..." Jacob smiled with a slightly evil expression "Those who stand in my way... will be the one taken care of..." as he straightened himself up, he spread out his stance and kept his head low "Go ahead keep me from Storm... It'll only work so long as you have breath and life to stop me with... And hey, remember when i said that i would save him? It's for sure..."
Suddenly Jacob's eyes started to glow a shiny blue, and he shouted with a voice that shattered glass "FUS RO DAAAAAH!" and pushed both Jared and Senna a long ways, into a city guard.
Before anyone could notice him Jacob snuck away, he could hear Senna shouting "This is not over!" and also the guards yelling, possibly arresting them "Fingers... er... Hooves, crossed" he chuckled as he ran to the Temple of Dibella.
Meanwhile Keith was in the Temple already...
Keith almost tripped on the way to Storm, running down the stairs. He very quickly rushed to Storm, lying on the floor. He quickly thought back to what the Greymane said... and thought aloud "Hmm... Only in the light of a Dragon's Armor, and the Warmth of Friendship, can Scale Fever be purged completely... ten hours"
Keith hoped to Sovngarde and back that the old pony was right, as he placed the scale on Storm Chaser, and, he softly cuddled with Storm and closed his eyes.
The priestesses nearby had been preparing herbs to help the sick pegasus, and had just now noticed the other pony sleeping next to him.
Soon after Jacob came into the room and rushed to Storm and saw Keith cuddling him "Uhh..." He was not sure what happened and was confused, until he realized Paarthurnax's riddle, meant to place the scale on storm and show their friendship through a very basic way.
Admiring either the brilliance or the heart of Keith, Jacob did the same, walking over to the other side of Storm and cuddled him, until eventually both were asleep.
The Scale began to glow brighter and brighter, until it was blinding for anyone who was looking at it or had open eyes, causing the priestesses to drop what they were doing and cover their eyes.
A large orb of energy rose from the scale itself and stopped at the ceiling. Then in a single moment it sped down and hit Storm's back, sending a shockwave as powerful as a one word unrelenting force shout, and absorbed into his back.
Slowly but surely the rash faded away, in minutes, it was as if he was never sick at all.
Storm woke up to see his friends curled up to him, sleeping away, he was too tired at the moment to care so he reached around and cuddled both his friends as he too went to sleep.
Meanwhile, In the Markarth Jail...
"Well that couldn't have gone any better... what was so important with that kid anyways?" Jared called across the room to Senna's cell, she kept silent, she was not like the normal innocent priestess he knew and loved, she was different somehow... as if something had corrupted her mind.
He looked around his cell, he saw a small grate in the floor, where a skeleton laid in dust.
A Guard came between their cells and read off a piece of parchment
"Dear prisoners Jared and Senna
It may come to your attention that you may have done something wrong to get here.
But fear not for there is a very simple solution!
Join the Imperial army and you can be released immediately, and even earn gold while earning your freedom!
Sincerely
General Tullius"
He put the parchment away and sighed silently "It's your choice, shout for me if you decide to take the offer, be better than three years of gruel" and the guard walked away to his desk in the hallway.
Jared checked the stability of the grate, it was shaky, unstable even, but he couldn't brake it without a loud ruckus.
Jared went to his cell door "Senna! Senna! Are you going to take the Imperial's offer? you could get out now! Do you even care?"
Senna just sat there on the straw-covered floor, and she was fiddling with the straw... but wait.
Moments later very loud noises started to come from her hoof as it appeared to carve the stone below, the Guard rushed over to her cell door "Ey! Stop that!" He said with a now obvious irish accent.
Jared looked sad for a moment but then got determined, he hated the imperial legion for a very real reason, and would rather die than join them, so he ran to the grate and smacked it as hard as he could, the grate's weak copper bent under the massive amount of power behind the pony's hoof.
Jared smacked it two more times and the grate broke with a loud noise that could only resemble iron ripping apart.
the Guard yelled at Jared this time "Oi, Stop There!" and Jared replied "Sorry!" as he dove down the grate-less hole into the dungeons below.
Within a couple of moments, Senna had carved herself a hole and squeezed through it, leaving Gary the Guard all by himself, who sighed "Awww... I was getting the cards out" he said, disappointed.
He sighed "Crap... The Captain's going to kill me!" he said worryingly, while rubbing his head.