//------------------------------// // 19: Rebirth // Story: Sombra visits Skyrim // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// Celestia sighed as she lifted a small cup of tea up to her mouth, sipping from it and savoring the sweetness that danced around her tongue. They had found Sombra, magically exhausted from his fight with his darker side, and had immediately brought him back to Dragonsreach to let him rest. The guards, the ignorant guards, shouted and demanded that the Jarl imprison Sombra somewhere where his 'foul and unnatural magic' could not bring harm to Skyrim. In order for the Jarl to understand why that was wrong Celestia and Luna were forced to tell him how that had happened when they tried sealing Sombra away the first time. For the second time in the brief time that she had known the Jarl he actually listened to what she was saying and allowed her to watch over Sombra in the balcony area. She was glad he was willing to listen to reason, because trying to seal Sombra away again would have broken her heart even more...and it would have resulted in losing Whiterun to the darkness for some unknown amount of time. After Sombra had been brought to his new quarters, and Celestia's for some time, she made sure to heal the numerous wounds that littered his body. It was all she could do, as she had no means of transferring her magic into him to awaken him, not without the raw power of her magic tearing his body apart. She had to do things the long way, and that meant that she had to wait until Sombra woke up from his magical slumber. Her only concern was that someone, maybe one of the guards, would come to Sombra when he was alone and did something worse than what Discord had done. "What would you have me do sister?" Luna asked, leaning on a nearby wall while she observed her sister, "I know you will not leave Sombra behind until he his ready to travel once again, but what about young Trixie and myself?" And then there was her sister, breaking her peaceful moment as she questioned whether or not she should continue to aid Raika now that Sombra had been rescued from himself. It was a problem that Celestia had considered the moment that she had discovered that Sombra had been victorious. It was also a problem that had plagued her mind ever since she had arrived in Skyrim, determined to find her love and move around everyone that stood in her way. They had given Raika their word that they would help her with the dragon problem, so Celestia saw no true reason to back out of the promise they had made. "I suggest that you and Trixie follow Raika," Celestia finally said, barely looking up at her sister, "Offer her whatever aid you can when she reaches Karthspire and help her figure out what she needs to do next. I shall make my way to High Hrothgar with Sombra the moment he is ready for travel, whenever he awakens from his magical slumber." "As you wish sister," Luna replied, picking up her weapon before turning towards the giant doors, "Before I forget, there's also the matter of our old friend Discord still running around Skyrim that we'll need to clean up. If we haven't collected him by the time we're done then we'll need to locate him and drag him back to Equestria, by force if necessary." Celestia didn't reply, not when she knew that her sister was right about Discord. She had the feeling that the Spirit was near, hiding somewhere in Dragonsreach while he stalked his prey. Sombra, in his rage, had bested the Spirit of Chaos twice, but how that he was in a weakened state Celestia had no doubt that Discord would be coming to settle the score. She intended to be ready for him before he showed up, which is why she kept her sword near her at all times. She took another sip from her cup and stared out at the night sky, grateful that the corrupted palace had been destroyed not so long ago. "Finally Luna, I was starting to wonder if you guys were coming," Raika commented, pulling herself out of her chair when she saw Luna and Trixie approach the table, "What about Celestia? Isn't she coming with us?" "Young Trixie and I are coming along," Luna replied, "My sister has decided to stay here and watch over Sombra until he awakens, which even she doesn't know when that will happen. The three of us are more than enough to deal with whatever is waiting for us at Karthspire, without those two pitiful excuses for a Blade harassing us. I swear, if Rend was still around he'd likely kick their flanks by himself." "Trixie is...I mean, I am more than ready to face whatever stands before us," Trixie said, patting her staff as the two stared at her, "I may not be as skilled as Princess Celestia is, but an Illusionist is always prepared for whatever trials are ahead of her." "Well, I guess I can understand what she's going through," Raika sighed, picking up her sword before facing the two of them, "but I am still grateful that you guys are even sticking around now that you've somehow managed to restore Sombra to who he was before the madness settled into his mind. I'm sure that we'll see the two of them sometime before we get to the end of this crazy quest of ours." As the three of them moved down the stairs and headed towards the giant doors that served as the entrance to Dragonsreach Celestia emerged from the balcony. She moved towards the overlook, only to lean on one of the support beams as she watched them reach the door and leave without the guards bothering them. She was glad, as she had no idea what the guards would think of her, her sister, and young Trixie now that they knew how powerful just one of them was. Nor did she have an idea of how the guards, or the Jarls for that matter, would react if they knew that she and Luna could control the sun and the moon. From where she was standing she got a good look at where the guards were standing, what they were doing, who they talked to, and where they were going if they moved. She knew that if Discord wanted another chance at fighting Sombra, or putting him down while he was weakened as the case was, he'd likely dress up as a guard. It was the perfect disguise that would allow him to bypass the other guards without raising any alarms and do whatever he came to do, if he was here anyway. While she stared down at the guards she noticed one of them limping as he made his way towards the staircase that would bring him up to where Celestia was. From what she knew of the Holds she knew that the Jarls did not hire or keep guards around that were seriously injured from battle, so some flags immediately sprung up. She gripped the handle of her sword and walked to the staircase, quietly waiting for the guard to appear so she could see what he was planning on doing. When the guard finally reached the top of the stairs he quickly made his way towards the doors that lead to the balcony and immediately passed through them. Celestia, not waiting to see what the guard could be doing, pulled out her sword and opened the doors with her magic, finding the guard not even halfway across the chamber and looking back at her. "I should have known you'd be around here somewhere," the guard coughed, pressing a hand to his chest as if he was in pain, "I should have known you'd be near him without leaving him vulnerable to being assaulted by someone." "Discord," Celestia replied, catching the Spirit off guard for a brief moment, "I see your wound hasn't healed all the way. Must be hard to heal such a terrible wound, seeing how it went all the way through your chest and out the back." "Oh go to Tartarus Celestia," Discord groaned, the disguise withering away until his nordic form remained, "I'll have you know that your husband, the stallion that your trying to protect with every fiber of your being, is one of the most dangerous threats to Equestria. He needs to be destroyed before he can do harm to everyone else." "Its because you made him that way," Celestia fired back, her sword at the ready as her magic gathered around it, "It was you who decided to track me and my sister down. It was you who decided to attack us on my wedding day. It was you who decided to strike me down and bring out Sombra's hatred. You deserved to be beaten by Sombra, but in your mind you could not stand losing to a mortal, so the moment that he came to Skyrim you choose to follow him. And look what happened to you; you unlocked his darker memories, unleashed a nightmare upon the realm, and then got your flank handed to you when you tried fighting him. Accept your defeat with grace for once and stay away from Sombra." Discord coughed and blood came out of his mouth, which he quickly wiped away with one of his arms before he stared at Celestia. She could tell that he was in pain, that he had chosen to wait till Sombra was weakened and fight him on fair ground instead of healing and fighting at full power. What the Spirit failed to realize was that Sombra's magic would likely tear Discord apart, casting him adrift in the night sky until his essence returned to his stone prison in Equestria. "You know that I cannot walk away from him," Discord told her, a warn out blade appearing out of thin air before he grabbed it, "I shall make this as quick as possible, before you have a chance to interfere with me." Before either Discord or Celestia could move a few purple crystals grew out of the floor, trapping Discord in a crystal prison and preventing him from doing anything. Celestia cast a look at where Sombra was laying and found that he was barely awake, one of his arms reaching out for the floor as his hand was actually pressed against the stone. He had heard them talking and had given her whatever aid he could provide, but she wasn't expecting him to encase Discord in a crystal prison. "Learn...to take...a hint," Sombra moaned, lifting his hand off the floor before rolling onto his back, "That...should last...a few days." "You shouldn't exert yourself like that," Celestia said, sheathing her blade before laying near him, "but I'm glad that managed to get to him before he could get to you." "Where's Luna?" Sombra asked. "She went with Raika and Trixie to figure out how to deal with the dragons," Celestia replied, pressing a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from rushing up, "Your in no position to go anywhere yet my love and I cannot risk your health and well being by traveling halfway across the province. Just rest up a day or two and we'll see if your condition has improved or not." "Very well...my dear," Sombra said, laying back down on his makeshift bed, "Goodnight then..." Celestia smiled as Sombra drifted off to sleep, somewhat glad that he had taken the weakened Discord down all on his own, despite the fact that he had barely been awake when it happened. She knew that Discord wouldn't be troubling them again for some time, as whatever curses or prisons Sombra threw around usually stayed as long as he said they would. At least now she knew exactly where the Spirit of Chaos was now, so she could depart him before something dangerous came to interfere with Whiterun. --------------------- "So Luna, how did you leave Tamriel after the Oblivion Crisis?" Raika, bored out of her mind thanks to having to endure another boring carriage ride to reach her destination, had decided to ask Luna more about her previous visit to Tamriel. She couldn't very well ask Celestia about any previous visit she might have had, mostly because Celestia wasn't with the group at the moment and the fact that Raika had no idea when the last time she was in Tamriel was. Trixie, on the other hand, she could have asked how she was enjoying her visit to Tamriel, but the look on the young mage's face told Raika that she was enjoying bits and pieces of her journey. As for Sombra, Raika had the feeling that he had started to like his journey, but then that all went downhill the moment that Discord showed his ugly mug. That meant that Raika had to asked Luna, as she was the only one who could have truly answered the question at the moment. "I cast a spell," Luna replied, finally answering after having to think on her answer for a few moments, "It may sound simple to you; just gather the magic, maybe say a few magical words or an incantation to tell the magic where I'm going, and then disappear without leaving a trace behind. If it were that simple I would have returned to Equestria after being sent to the moon almost immediately, but I had to think on where the magic would eventually take me. When I thought I understood where I was going I gathered my magic and left the moon, only to appear somewhere in Cyrodiil, which I later discovered was the Imperial City. But I digress. You did not ask how I entered Tamriel, but rather how I left your plane. As I said, I thought about where I wanted to go, in this case back to Equestria, gathered the magic all around me, and then cast the spell that would send me home. Now for the spell to work it had to be cast by someone who could handle and control massive amounts of magic, such as myself, Celestia, or even Discord. I'm sure that my sister and I can easily combine our magic to create a small gateway for all of us to leave without something else interfering with us." "And you haven't left because Celestia wants to heal Sombra?" Raika asked, just to make sure she got all the reasons for them staying right yet again. "Ugh, you are only half right," Luna replied, tired of answering the same question repeatedly, "We also came to Skyrim to aid the Dragonborn, that's you, and aid him or her in their quest to stop the dragons. Now, let us conserve our energy for the task ahead, I'm sure that we'll need all we can get." Raika wanted to ask another question, but she noticed that Luna had basically closed her eyes and that told her that the Equestrian was going to ignore her until they reached their destination. She thought about asking Trixie her question, but then realized that she likely wouldn't know the answer and held her tongue before the question could leave her mouth. The carriage driver seemed to hum a tune while they got closer to their destination, clearly not caring that they had been discussing other worlds. Raika sighed and closed her eyes, content that either the driver or Trixie would wake them up the moment they got to Karthspire. --------------------- As the night came upon Skyrim Celestia had somehow found herself sitting at the table in front of the Jarl's throne, sharing a light meal with his many advisers. As far as she could tell there was Farengar, his Court Wizard, Irileth, his loyal and ever present Housecarl, Proventus, his steward, Commander Caius, the Captain of the Guard, and his brother Hrongar, who seemed to serve as a sort of voice of reason. All they, and in turn the Jarl, talked about during the evening meal was the constant war between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks and how it was tearing Skyrim apart at the seams. She had drowned out most of the noise that the conversation had brought to the room, but all that shattered the moment that Hrongar decided to ask her a question. "Say Celestia," Hrongar called across the room, calling attention to their conversation without a care in the world, "What would you say about enlisting your powers, or those of your beautiful sister and...insane husband, to help safeguard Skyrim and destroy the rebellion before it reaches our gates?" Celestia sighed, knowing that the moment she had feared since her arrival had come at long last. She knew the moment that she, her sister, or even Sombra revealed their power the citizens of Skyrim would want to misuse their power for their own goals. "Look, this isn't our fight," Celestia calmly replied, hoping that she could keep them all from erupting into chaos, "we just came..." "Yes yes, we know," Hrongar interrupted her, pounding a fist on the table he sat behind, "You came to find your beloved, and incredibly insane, husband before offering your aid to the Dragonborn, who happens to be a Thane of Whiterun. The same Thane that has sworn allegiance to Ulfric Stormcloak and will likely rob all of us blind like her brothers and sisters would do in her position. You claim that this 'isn't your fight', but you have allied yourselves with the enemy that will ravage our fair city one day." "Hrongar, calm yourself," Proventus said, "Celestia and her sister are just visitors to our fair world, and we shouldn't try to enforce our plights on them when we can do this ourselves. We are perfectly capable of finishing this war by ourselves without dragging them into this mess." "Oh quite you milkdrinker," Hrongar growled, causing Proventus to flinch before turning his gaze back to Celestia, "Look, all I want is for you to lend us your strength and destroy Windhelm. Cut the head of the rebellion off for us and maybe we'll get some peace. Then you go on your merry way and do whatever the Dragonborn wants before you finally leave Skyrim." "No," Celestia simply replied, crossing her arms before leaning back in her chair and keeping her eyes down so no one else could see what she was doing. Hrongar, now enraged, shouted something about Skyrim belonging to the nords, as most of the nords did all the time anyway, drew his weapon, and decided to leap right into the middle of the room. Before the guards could raise their weapons to block him he rolled through the fireplace and jumped onto the table that Celestia was sitting at. Once he landed his free hand shot out and grabbed the neck of Celestia's armor, bringing her closer to him as his sword was poised to strike her. "You WILL destroy Windhelm and kill Ulfric Stormcloak," Hrongar continued, clearly confident that he had her where he wanted her. "You should watch where you step," Celestia replied, revealing that a thin black crystal spike was mere inches away from his side, "otherwise you'd be in for a nasty surprise." At first Hrongar thought that the war criminal had awoken and had decided that he was the first person that he would claim before burning down Whiterun. Then, upon lifting Celestia's head up a bit, he discovered that she had the same eerie magic rolling off of her eyes, though not as intense as the criminal's had been. "Sombra's much more skilled than I am when it comes to using Dark Magic," Celestia admitted, shrugging off Hrongar's hand as the magical mist and spike vanished, "but I will not say it again. None of us will involve ourselves in this civil war of yours, not even if the Dragonborn came to us and asked us to do so." "My Lord," one of the guards shouted, coming from the staircase, "the war criminal is gone." "Oh for the love of...," Celestia moaned, tired of hearing her husband being called a criminal, "for the last time, Sombra is not a war criminal. So please, stop calling him that." "Where did he go?" Balgruuf asked, clearly concerned that his people could be in danger rather then the fact that Sombra was missing. "I don't know my Lord," the guard replied, "All I found in the chamber was a crystal prison of sorts with a guard trapped inside and a note containing the word Karthspire." "I suggest you leave the prison alone," Celestia commented, drawing herself up before moving towards the staircase, "as it contains the Spirit of Chaos known as Discord. If you mess with the prison you'll release him back into Skyrim and I'll have to hunt him down again, which I don't have time for right now. Before I am interrupted further I'm going to depart and see if I can't find Sombra at Karthspire." Before any of the guards had a chance to stop her Celestia quickly made her way to the balcony and approached the stone wall that she had stood by several times in the last few days. Sombra was definitely gone, that much she could tell by just walking in, but she was still glad to see Discord trapped once more. Not a few seconds after she got to the balcony did she spot an arrow flying past her head, telling her that the guards were after her for some reason. Before they managed to put an arrow into her she leapt off the edge of the balcony, caught the wind, and began her journey towards the west. As she departed she caught several of the guards cursing her out and she knew they'd be looking to throw her in jail for absolutely no reason at all. --------------------- Raika stretched as she, Luna, and Trixie were dropped off near the entrance to the Forsworn village that laid around the mountain that she needed to get into. The carriage driver, fearing that the Forsworn would get him if he stayed around too long, almost immediately departed the moment they were off the wagon. Not even a minute after the driver left did Delphine and an older man, who Raika assumed was Esbern, approach them with their weapons drawn. "Ah, Dragonborn, so good of you to join us," Delphine coldly welcomed, clearly annoyed that Raika continued to brush off her commands, "I took the liberty to scout the area and I can tell you that there are about twenty Forsworn soldiers between where we are standing and the entrance to Sky Haven Temple. There's no way to sneak past them, so we're going to have to launch a full scale assault on their forces to get through. Before we being, where is Celestia?" "Back in Whiterun with Sombra," Raika immediately replied, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow, "I'll say this once; once we're done with this temple I am heading to High Hrothgar to return the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller to the Greybeards. There will be no discussion, no debates, and no arguments coming for you. We're going to simply attack the Forsworn, drive them out of the area if possible, and then see how to defeat the dragons. That's it." "You ignorant son of a...," Delphine started, but then seemed to think better of it, "I did not spend the last day scouting out the enemy for you to come in and ruin everything. What I wouldn't give if you were more like Tiber Septim." "Do the Blades not serve the Dragonborn?" Raika asked, raising an eyebrow as Delphine fumed, "You claim that you serve the Dragonborn, which I am in case you haven't noticed, and every time I tell you something you either give me a rude comment or try to do things your own way. No, you do not serve the Dragonborn, rather you serve your own ideals and hope that I'll fall in line with you." Delphine opened her mouth to reply, but before she could get any words out the ground beneath their feet violently shook, reminding Raika of when Sombra had summoned the giant crystal palace. Clouds began to fill the skies as thunder boomed all around them, but what caught Raika's eye was that the lightning that followed wasn't the usual yellow color. Rather the lightning was black, just like the time when Sombra's magic had kicked in and blasted that one bandit hard in the chest. Then she spotted an opening in the clouds as Celestia, in all her glowing glory, swooped into the middle of the Forsworn camp and impaled someone. "Their here!" Luna exclaimed, turning to Trixie as she spotted the same look on her face, "Come Trixie, let's have some fun before Tia and Sombra steal all the fun for themselves." Raika smiled and followed her two companions into the fight, loosing an arrow at the first Forsworn that came her way without a moments hesitation. Celestia nodded her way before hitting her own foe hard in the chest, causing him to back up before she delivered a painful blow to his spine. Luna, on the other hand, went to town on the Forsworn that came her way, her sword hacking, slashing, and parrying as if she was still the Nightmare. Trixie, finding herself surrounded by seven Forsworn, smiled as her magic kicked in, conjuring at least seven copies of herself that did battle with her enemies. Sombra was the one that, despite being injured during his fight with his dark side, moved with the most grace and agility of all the Equestrians. Lightning flashed from the sky and collided with whoever he chose to target, either charring them to their bones or tossing them into the rocky walls around them. Enemies that got close to him received the edge of his sword, either being cut into without a hint of joy on his face or even a little bit of compassion for those he put down. One unfortunate enemy got too close to him, but before he could harm Sombra a crystal spike grew out of the ground and he was impaled on it. Delphine, who had seen all of them fight before this point, raised her eyebrows as she watched the five of them lay waste to the entire Forsworn force that had been waiting for them. She could tell that Esbern was equally surprised by how well the group had fought, because the moment all the Forsworn were dead he dropped his sword in shock. There was hope for the whole of Skyrim, and that meant all of Tamriel as well, if the Equestrians stayed to help the Dragonborn out. She and Esbern approached the group for the second time, watching each of them sheath their weapons until her eyes landed on Sombra. "What's up?" Sombra asked, grinning as the sky began to clear. "We'll talk about this later," Raika replied, heading up the mountain with the others in tow, "Let's just get this over with."