//------------------------------//
// 38: Madness 
// Story: Sonata's Crazy and Wacky Adventure in Skyrim 
// by Sonata Blaze 
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	Sonata had known that some of the guards had been watching her when Cicero had come to Lydia's funeral, armed with knowledge that would shape her war with Lord Grul. She knew that some of them would listen in on their conversation, all thanks to the artifacts that the jester had been carrying with him, but had chosen to ignore them at the time. Several of the guards had heard that the daedra would be allowed to visit Skyrim if their masters gained permission from Akatosh, though they were still frightened anyway. According to what she had heard, about the first Oblivion Crisis that happened at the end of the previous age, one Daedric Prince had nearly brought about the destruction of the mortal world. She could easily guess why everyone, besides her anyway, seemed terrified of the thought of another potential Oblivion Crisis rearing its ugly head in the near future.

Despite everything she knew at the time she still decided to speak with Cicero and the Knight of Order, though now she was inside Dragonsreach, sitting at one of the tables that the Jarl had brought in so she and her companions could participate in the discussions. That was because shortly after the Knight of Order had disappeared, and left them to chew on the news he had delivered, both General Tullius and Jarl Ulfric came into the city and demanded to speak with her. As such the Imperials, based in the left half of Skyrim, sat at the table to Sonata's left while the Stormcloaks, controlling the right half of Skyrim, sat at the table to her right. Some of her friends sat with her, while some sat around the room in the spare tables that Jarl Balgruuf had, though the more important figures of Whiterun sat with Sonata.

That also, unfortunately, included a man that was apparently the current avatar of Sheogorath, the Prince of Madness, as he had this crazed look in his eyes that forced the guards to back away from him and Cicero, apparently cursed with some sort of Order thanks to the symbols on his arm, even backed away from the man.

"Cheese for everybody!" the man proclaimed, waving a staff in the air as pieces of cheese, either individual slices or whole wheels, appeared in front of everyone in Dragonsreach, though at the same time he sat beside Sonata, "Ah, you must be the Siren Queen the other Princes have been talking about. Don't look so surprised, we've known about you since you arrived in Skyrim... or was it that we recently discovered you? Bah, who cares? Time was always irrelevant to me anyways."

At this point Sonata wasn't about to even try to figure out how the Daedric Princes had known of her original powers and her true title, because it was just going to give her a headache. She knew that it didn't matter in the long run, not when everyone seemed to know her secret at this point... save for the Blade known as Delphine, who seemed completely unaware of the truth.

"Your likely wondering why I took over this mans body, but I won't bore you with the details," the avatar continued, levitating a piece of cheese into the air and taking a bite out of it, "Jyggalag might be the most boring, and the most hated, of the Daedric Princes, but he's given you an army to fight your enemy's army... or something like that. I can never pay attention to anything he says. He says that there should be a reason behind doing something, but why should I need a reason to visit the Siren Queen?"

"Look, I'm not familiar with the resident Daedric Princes that rule the seemingly infinite realms of Oblivion," Sonata eventually said, shaking her head as she looked at the avatar, because she only knew a few of them by the names that Cicero had told her earlier, "Which one are you again?"

"Me? Why I am none other than The Madgod Sheogorath, Daedric Prince of Madness!" the avatar proclaimed, while a vast majority of the people in the room nodded their heads, "Normally I would skip rope with your entrails for not knowing who I am, but we haven't the time for that. It is unfortunate, because I really wanted to see how you'd function without your entrails. We never have time for what poor old Sheo wants anymore..."

"When we are done saving Nirn, then you might have some fun," another powerful voice, this one possessing an echo, said, to which Sonata watched as another person, this one being a nord who appeared to have a mass of shadows surrounding him, though there were some floating eyes following him, "I dislike possessing my followers and assuming direct control to use an avatar, but its a part of Akatosh's conditions for speaking with you. I am Hermaeus Mora, Daedric Prince of Knowledge and Fate. Among the Daedric Princes I am the one who knows the most about your enemy's leader."

"You mean Grul?" Sonata asked, because at the moment she knew that she had the most experience dealing with the orc, but knew nothing about him or how he had come to power.

"No... I mean his master," Hermaeus said, though his tone changed to a humorous one for a moment, as if he thought that Sonata was being serious in her question, "I speak of a Daedric Prince that is as strong as Jyggalag... one who had been dormant since he went to sleep so many eons ago, allowing Magnus and the others to create Nirn and the other worlds. I speak of a Prince that waged endless wars against the other Princes and myself, tearing apart whole planes of Oblivion when his powers clashed with another's. I speak of a Prince that recently awoke from his long slumber and discovered this world... and he intends on collecting it for his own purposes."

"Wait... you can't be serious..." Sheogorath said, though the trembling of his avatar indicating that this Daedric Prince wasn't someone that he liked or even wanted to mess with.

"I speak of Bal'droth," Hermaeus continued, as if he hadn't heard Sheogorath speak at all, "Daedric Prince of End Times. He was also once known as the Lord of Demise, the Malefic Destroyer, Master of the Tainted Fire, and even the World-Ender."

"Well if you need me I'll be back in the Shivering Isles, skipping rope with the entrails of some poor adventurer," Sheogorath nervously said, before apparently withdrawing his power from his avatar, as the man collapsed on the ground and stopped moving.

"So that's why Grul wants to use your artifacts to weaken the barrier between Nirn and Oblivion," Kree commented, turning her gaze towards the avatar of the Prince of Knowledge, "Not only will it empower him, to some degree, but it will give him the ability to call forth a creature that even the known Princes fear."

"Jyggalag does not fear Bal'droth," Hermaeus replied, again finding something funny in what had been said, "but even so they are evenly matched. A battle between the Prince of Order and the Prince of End Times will spell the death of either this world or a plane of Oblivion. But if Jyggalag had the help of an equally powerful Prince... well, the two could easily push Bal'droth back into his plane and seal him there, provided Akatosh was willing to help."

Sonata stopped listening at that point, because based on what was being said they needed to find, and convince, a being that was strong as Jyggalag to aid them in stopping Grul's master from entering this world and burning it to the ground. She remembered the vision she had back before she went into Ustengrav, where the world had been burning before her eyes and her sisters had told her what needed to be done. At the time she had wondered if that was the future that she couldn't beat, but now she was positive that it had been a vision of what could happen if they failed. She didn't like the sounds of this Bal'droth at all, but her first priority was to find Harkon and beat him so she could restore her power to seventy-five percent... and then she would need to have words with a certain Miraak.

As she sat at the table she couldn't help but wonder what Grul was even up to right now, because without any scouts reporting in it seemed like he was waiting... and that wasn't a good thing in the long run.





Grul smiled as he walked out of his tent and sealed the fire behind him, the same fire that was currently keeping the two Sirens trapped in their prisons, though in his left hand he carried a special ring he had taken from the hands of Namira's chosen champion. He was amused that the coven of cannibals thought that they could overcome the squad of orcs that had ransacked the place and slaughtered them where they stood. It was also amusing that it was so easy to capture one of the fragments he needed to tear open the portal that his master would use to enter this world at long last. He cast a look at an approaching group of orcs, one led by one of his remaining Lieutenants, the ever loyal Aggronak, and his smile widened a bit when he realized what his most trusted Lieutenant was carrying.

Aggronak has apparently been successful in his mission to claim the second fragment of power that had been hiding in the city of Markarth, which pleased Grul to no end.

"Lord Grul, my squad and I were successful in our mission," Aggronak said, kneeling before his master, which his followers copied instantly, before holding out his hands and presenting the item he had acquired, "I present to you the Mace of Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of Domination."

"You continue to please me Aggronak," Grul replied, knowing that his most trusted Lieutenant enjoyed his praise, while at the same time collecting the mace in question, "this makes two artifacts you have been able to acquire in a single day. Tell me, what about the other fourteen fragments of power?"

"I have scouts searching for them as we speak," Aggronak answered, though at the same time he lifted his head to look into his master's eyes, "though I have received word from the scouts in Falkreath... they have uncovered the whereabouts of the artifacts belonging to Hircine and Clavicus Vile."

"Good," Grul said, stretching the word out for a moment, to indicate how pleased he was, "Take an hour's break and then depart for Falkreath... I expect to have both of their artifacts by the end of the week."

"It will be as you command," Aggronak replied, bowing his head towards his master in respect, before he and his underlings stood at their full height and departed from where Grul was standing.

Grul let the smile remain on his face as he walked over to the massive portal that his workers had finished constructing, allowing his magic to manipulate the material as he carefully placed the two artifacts inside the holding areas he had designed for them, backing away when the job was done.

Soon my master will purge this world from the face of existence, Grul thought, an evil chuckle escaping him as he returned to his hut, and not even the great Siren Queen can stop us.