//------------------------------//
// 16: The Star of Azura 
// Story: Sunset's Adventure in Skyrim 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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"Excuse me?" Sunset asked, trying to hide the fact that she had allied herself with Morokei and Krosis, while wondering how the woman could have possibly found about about it, "I have no idea what your talking about."

"Oh don't play dumb with me," the woman growled, though Sunset detected that she was somehow making her madder, "I know that, when you emerged from Labyrinthian with the Staff of Magnus, you were accompanied by not one, but two Dragon Priests... Morokei and Krosis to be exact. At first I wondered why neither of them were trying to kill you and recover the Staff, but then I realized that you had to have allied yourself with them. Why in Oblivion would the Dragonborn, the only person who could permanently kill any dragon in the world, choose to side with them and further along the destruction of the world?"

"Fine... you win," Sunset sighed, taking a moment to summon her personal chest and place the Staff inside it, to show the woman that she meant no harm, "Yes, I allied myself with the Dragon Priests, but not for the reason you've stated. There is a demon named Tirek running around Skyrim, absorbing the magic of whoever aids him or gets in his way and destroying whatever he desires. I suspect that you already know that I attended the College of Winterhold? Well, Tirek arrived after I dealt with an elf that wanted to gain the power to unmake the world and then he sunk the entirety of the city with one swing of his hand."

"What are you talking about?" the woman asked, knowing what she was talking about and not understanding where she was going with it, though Sunset could tell that her anger had cooled for the moment.

"Tirek is a demon from Tartarus," Sunset said, staring down at the map on the table for a moment, "He was supposed to be locked up in Tartarus, but then he escaped and started feeding on the magic of my home world, until he was defeated by Princess Twilight Sparkle and sent back to his prison. At least that was what I had heard, until I appeared in this world and found him locked up in a prison, though he escaped and is now the bane of my existence. He's the one who shattered the ground around the College and sunk it into the ocean, along with the rest of Winterhold I might add, with only a third of his power.

Now let me tell you exactly what Tirek is planning at this moment; he seeks a way to gain his full terrible power so he can return to my home world, where he's likely going to conquer it. The bad thing about that is that Nirn will likely be consumed in his quest, which means that he'll kill everything and everyone that gets in his way. My fear is that Tirek is searching for the Daedric Artifacts, so he can consume their power and acquire the ability to shatter this world under his hooves."

Sunset stared at the woman for a moment, wondering if she was going to believe her or if she was going to call her insane for thinking up such a story. Then she saw it, a look of terror appearing on the woman's face for a moment, but then disappeared a moment later.

"The Thalmor... of course," the woman suddenly said, looking up at Sunset as if she had figured something out, "First they find a way to bring back the dragons and send one to Helgen, to free Ulfric so the war is back on and continuing to weaken Skyrim as a whole. Then they preform a ritual that allowed them to summon this Tirek, shattering the College of Winterhold so the mages are scattered and cannot fight back against them. Think about it, they want us weak so we cannot defend ourselves... but now the dragons are attacking everything and everyone, as if they have been let off their leash.

Look, I've been tracking the dragons and I have discovered that they are coming back to life, not returning from someplace else after being gone for so long. And I have determined that Kynesgrove is the next place where a dragon is going to rise, but I'm going to need reinforcements for when the beast shows up. I'll be expecting you there... Priest."

"Oh for the love of Celestia," Sunset said, annoyance filling her voice for a moment, before she pulled her staff back out of the chest and banished it, "Look, I'm in the middle of collecting Azura's Star, so maybe when I'm done I'll visit you at Kynesgrove and meet this dragon for myself. Oh, and by the way, if you are going to continue to address me as if I was a full member of the Dragon Cult you might as well call me 'Priestess', or the Archmage works too."

Before the woman could respond to her Sunset walked up the steps behind her and returned to the main floor of the inn, where her companions were waiting for her. Once she emerged from the room she beckoned to her friends and walked towards the door, hearing the moving of the benches and the chairs as her friends followed after her. As they walked outside another guard nodded to them, to which Sunset returned before they walked towards the entrance that she and Bjorn had entered the village through a lifetime ago. Though as they made their way out of the village Sunset turned around for a moment to look back at the inn, finding that the women had already changed into a suit of leather armor and was on her way to Knyesgrove.

Sunset let a small smile appear on her face as they walked down the path that would lead them to the Guardian Stones; she would let the women do what she wanted while she focused on gathering the Daedric Artifacts.

"So, what did Delphine want?" Bjorn asked, causing Sunset to look at him for a moment, "What? I spoke to the bartender, Orgnar, and asked what his business partner's name was, to which he replied that she was called Delphine."

"Oh, I see," Sunset replied, grateful that she had the woman's name, considering she had never offered it the entire time they were speaking, "Well, she wants me to journey to Kynesgrove with her so she can see where my loyalties lie, as she was quite upset that I've sided with the Dragon Cult. She's willing to blame the Thalmor for everything that's happened to Skyrim, when it is painfully clear that Tirek has been pulling the strings the entire time. I think she wants me to kill the dragon that is supposed to be at Kynesgrove, but I told her that I needed to continue my quest to recover the Daedric Artifacts.

Maybe, just maybe, when I feel that we have collected enough of the artifacts we'll head to Kynesgrove and see what she's doing, and maybe say hello to the dragon while we're there."

Sunset had the feeling that if she killed any dragons in the near future that Morokei and Krosis would find out, thus making her their enemy once more, but she needed their knowledge in both the Dragon Shouts, if they knew any, and the magic that they wielded. Plus she needed to secure the remaining fifteen artifacts, while making sure that Tirek didn't catch on to her hunting them down, so she could seal them someplace safe. She knew that if he discovered her work that he would emerge from his hiding place and come after her, to force her to hand over the artifacts that she had already recovered.

"Strange lady," Cicero commented while they walked down the road, "From what Cicero can tell the lady must be hiding some secrets from us... but I could always follow her and find them out for you Magic."

"No, I'd rather not give her more to complain about," Sunset replied, recalling Delphine's anger at her with ease, "She's already convinced that I'm trying to aid the dragons in destroying Nirn, but after our conversation she believes that all of this is the fault of the Thalmor. In reality this is all Tirek's fault and he won't stop until he gains his full power, while I aim to stop from happening..."

"YOU THERE!" a voice called out at them, causing Sunset to look up at the Guardian Stones and find two people, both wearing brown robes and a strange mask that covered their faces, "Are you the one that the people call Dragonborn?"

"That is correct," Sunset replied, already not liking where this was going, "Is there a problem with that?"

"Your lies fall on deaf ears, Deceiver," the person shouted, to which Sunset had to wonder what she had done to deserve this, "The True Dragonborn comes... you are but his shadow. When Lord Miraak appears all shall bear witness. None shall stand to oppose him!"

Before Sunset could react the two cultists, for that was what she had to assume they were, summoned their magic into the left hands, causing lightning to surround them. Bjorn, not wanting them to get any closer than they already were, pulled his bowstring back and loosed the arrow at the cultist on the right, knocking her onto her back within seconds. Sunset summoned her own magic into her left hand and threw a fireball at the remaining cultist, who moved to the right as the spell struck his left shoulder and exploded. Before the smoke had a chance at disappearing the cultist came at them, fully prepared to strike them down, but Lydia would have none of that at all. She charged at the cultist and swung her battleaxe at him, cutting into his chest before she ripped it out and took his head clean off, letting his body hit the ground while the head rolled away.

"Seriously, didn't I have enough to worry about already?" Sunset asked, while Bjorn sifted through the belongings of the dead cultists, "Tirek is trying to amass his full power and, instead of helping me put a stop to it, nearly everyone else in this world would rather see me dead or is trying to kill me. Right now I could care less about this 'Miraak', but he sounds like a powerful person to have the ability to command people to travel from who knows where and search for me."

"Solstheim actually," Bjorn commented, holding up a note that explained everything, "Apparently Miraak wanted you removed immediately, so you didn't interfere with his return to Nirn... not that he had any way of knowing that you don't care about him."

"Ugh... I'll think about heading there and having a talk with him, later on I mean," Sunset sighed, shaking her head as they continued their journey to Ilinalta's Deep, where Azura's Star was supposed to be waiting, "Right now I've got enough to worry about, what with collecting every Deadric Artifact and trying to stop Tirek."

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As it turned out Ilinalta's Deep was a ruined fortress that was sinking into the lake that it was named after, though Sunset could tell that Tirek was definitely not behind this one, as his magic was nowhere near the location. They walked around the shoreline, looking for a way into the fortress, before they discovered a trapdoor that had a wooden bridge near it, allowing them the access they wanted. The moment they entered the ruined fortress they discovered that someone was definitely living here, as there was what remained of a fisherman hung up as a warning to anyone who wandered inside in search of treasure.

They, however, were not here in search of treasure, though Cicero commented how nice it would be to find some pieces, and they pressed on passed the skeleton. They entered a small passageway on the left and immediately found a necromancer sitting at a table, though not a moment later a walking skeleton appeared next to him. Sunset's hand snapped open as she sent lighting through the air, colliding with the necromancer's back and the skeleton's chest at the same time, blasting the mage into the wall while shattering the skeleton into pieces.

The next area they came to happened to be flooded in one section, but as they passed the door they heard a voice shout at them before several spikes of ice came their way. They quickly ducked behind whatever cover they could find, giving them the opportunity to count how many enemies they had in front of them, to which Sunset counted at least five necromancers and three skeletons. At least there had been three skeletons, as when she looked at them again there seemed to be twice as many skeletons and their numbers appeared to be increasing even more.

"Use the Dawnbreaker," Fiona said, causing Sunset to look at her vampire friend as if she had lost her mind, "Look, we're going to be outnumbered with as fast as those necromancers are summoning the dead to fight for them, so use the one weapon specifically designed to combat the undead. I'll stay back and fling whatever magic I can at those foolish enough to show their faces, so don't worry to much about hurting me with that weapon."

Sunset sighed and pulled herself up to her full height on the stone pillar she was hiding behind, switching the Staff of Magnus into her left hand as she gripped the Dawnbreaker's handle with her right. She paused for a moment, to make sure that Fiona was okay with the weapon being drawn while she was around, before she gently pulled the sword from her belt, igniting the fire inside its sphere once more. She nodded to Fiona, who pulled back into the passageway for a moment, before emerging from her hiding spot, spinning the artifact around her, where she easily pierced one of the skeleton's chests with it. The fiery explosion that rocked the area after the skeleton died, however, was enough to tell Sunset that the weapon was definitely powerful, not to mention it made many of the necromancers think twice about who they were fighting.

Once the group realized that the necromancers that they were fighting were actually the novices, powerful ones Sunset mentally added seeing how they each could summon more than one creature at a time, they moved in behind them. Each time the necromancers reached another room, where more of their allies were waiting, they would get the courage to fight once more and summon back their army of the dead. Sunset would then march forward and proceed to smash them into the ground, allowing the Dawnbreaker to shatter their skeletons before they retreated once more.

At one point Sunset noticed that the necromancers were beginning to just summon their army and then retreat without waiting to see what the outcome was, almost as if they were truly giving up. As they followed after the necromancers she had another devastating thought, that maybe Tirek was actually in the ruined fortress and they were his servants, who were ready to surrender their power to him. Or maybe another one of the demon's lackeys was in the area, searching for Azura's Star, as Malkoran the Defiler had done in the name of his new dark master.

As she thought about another person giving themselves up to Tirek she had the urge to just pull the Staff of Magnus on the necromancers and obliterate them all, but she didn't give in and pressed on.

Eventually they came before a chamber that looked like it was nearly full of water, but before they entered Sunset pulled them back and waited, wondering if this was a trap they might have walked into.

"We haven't killed any of them yet," Cicero complained, twisting his dagger around while looking at the passageway, "well, except for the one at the beginning, but he was barely any sport at all. And how we have at least twenty of them and we're not running in and stabbing them in the eye... what fun is there to be had if we cannot kill them?"

"Somethings not right though," Sunset countered, gripping Dawnbreaker's handle, "They lead us to this location, which means that either Malyn Varen is still alive and he'll fight us, or they have a new leader and this is a trap designed to make us lower our guard so he or she can easily defeat us."

"I seriously hate necromancers," Fiona said, resting her head on the wall behind her for a moment, "all they ever do is try and trap people against their will. I beat that Malyn is dead, so whoever is waiting in there must either be a newly selected leader from their own ranks, or our enemy sent his own minion in, who quickly became the leader of this place."

"Well, I'm going to straighten this mess out," Sunset replied, getting onto her feet while making sure that her friends stayed behind, "I'll be right back, so just stay put for the moment."

She entered the passage alone and stepped out into the chamber they had almost walked into, finding that all the necromancers that had been running from them were now lifeless bodies floating in the water. She immediately suspected that Tirek was responsible, but the moment she looked upon the figure standing before her she knew that it wasn't the demon. The person was a khajiit, but where the rest of the race seemed to be shy about magic this one seemed ready to use it against whoever was in her way, at least that was Sunset's thought as she looked at her enemy.

"Ah, so you did come after all," the khajiit said, turning to face Sunset, giving her the perfect view of a strange circular medallion around her neck, "My Master was right to tell me that I couldn't trust these necromancers to do the job I assigned them... though he did give me a way to siphon their magic into my body, making me much stronger than you, Archmage Sunset Shimmer."

"And what did Tirek promise you?" Sunset asked, sighing as she allowed her magic to gather in the Staff of Magnus, "An army that would follow your every command? Make you the Jarl of whatever Hold you desired? Give you the power to unmake the whole of Nirn itself?"

"Ankya wants power," the khajiit replied, frost dancing around her hands, "power to rule over the simple nords that call Skyrim home. Power to take the heads of Ulfric Stormcloak, General Tullius, and Ambassador Elenwen. Power to end this infernal conflict and start a new one against the rotting corpse that is this Empire."

"Oh, so your a warmonger than," Sunset commented, finally getting what the khajiit was trying to tell her, "well, I'd love to leave you alone, but I cannot do that. You came here with the purpose to acquiring Azura's Star, for the demon known as Tirek, and I'm going to need that artifact, so it is kept safe from harm."

Ankya, as the khajiit called herself, growled in anger and threw her magic at Sunset, who rolled out of the way as a wave of frost hit the wall, returning fire with her own magic after she sheathed the Dawnbreaker on her belt. She watched as the fireball neared her target, only to somehow curve around and collide with the medallion, where it disappeared into thin air. She realized that it was sort of like when she fought the draugr Deathlord of Saarthal, only it was immune to her abilities and didn't suck them up like this. As she realized that she might not be able to actually use her magic against this enemy she sighed and tapped her staff against the floor, green lightning dancing around her, to which the khajiit stared at her for a moment in wonder.

That was all Sunset needed, as she spun around and shot lightning from the staff, allowing the green lightning to arc through the air and collide with the medallion, shattering the metal and blasting the mage into the wall.

"You know, I expected much more from someone chosen by Tirek," Sunset said, spinning the Dawnbreaker out from her belt as she approached the khajiit's body, "I'd love to redeem you, I really would, but everyone that Tirek corrupts are too far gone to listen to reason, so I'll put an end to your suffering."

She slid the blade into the khajiit's heart, ending whatever remained of her life before her body broke into a pile of dust, some of which ended up in the water around her. She then sheathed the Dawnbreaker once more and retraced her steps, returning to her friends and beckoning them to follow her once more. They walked up the stairs that the khajiit had been guarding and eventually reached the top of the tower area, where they found a bunch of skeletons laying around the room, with one sitting in a chair. Resting in front of the chair, however, was what appeared to be some sort of metallic star, which Sunset assumed was the artifact that they were after.

"We had better get this back to Azura," Sunset said, picking the Star up and turning to her companions, "She might actually be pleased to have this ordeal be over at last."

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They returned to Azura's Shrine near the end of the day, where they met the elf that had told them to head into Winterhold and ask around the first time. Just being there reminded Sunset of the damage Tirek had caused, as the College and the surrounding city had been utterly destroyed, and of her silent vow to stop him. As she walked up the steps to the alter the elf beckoned her forward, asking her to place the Star on the alter so that she may commune with her chosen Prince. Sunset was eager to get this over with, so she handed it over, but not a few moments later the elf stood aside and beckoned her forward, telling her to do the same so Azura could speak with her.

That was when she learned that Malyn's soul was still inside the Star, which prevented it from being used how it was designed to work in the beginning. Azura kind of asked for her aid, but Sunset was more than willing to go in and smash the foolish mage that had dared to challenge the Daedric Lord. Then she appeared in what appeared to be some sort of crystalline plane of existence, where she found a mage, wearing black robes she noted, waiting near where she appeared.

"Ah, my disciples have sent me a fresh soul." Mayln said, a grin appearing on his face for a moment, "Good. I was getting... hungry. Wait. There's something different about you."

Sunset didn't bother replying to the mage as lightning coursed around her body, to which she started firing spell after spell as the mage realized that she was there to erase him. She missed several times, which she was completely fine with, and she noted that there were several dremora that decided to get in her way. It was quite the fight, as she could hound the mage down until he called on someone to help him, which Sunset would then have to fight before she was overwhelmed. It wasn't until they reached the center of the plane that the mage realized that the game was over, as his knees started shaking as the truth dawned on him.

"Immortality is mine!" Mayln shouted, using his magic to strike the area around him, "None may challenge me; not you, not the College of Winterhold, and not the Daedric Lords...."

That was when the Dawnbreaker pierced his chest, as Sunset had thrown the blade at him and was expecting to miss, though she was sure that someone must have aided her in the task. As Mayln's body fell to the crystalline floor Azura spoke, telling her not to worry as she would remove her before the Star claimed her soul, but Sunset was not done. She ran forward and gripped the handle of Dawnbreaker, pulling it free from Mayln's body before she reappeared before the statue, with the now purified Star resting on the alter. Once the deed was done, and the mage responsible for all of this was dead, Azura thanked her for her service and allowed Sunset to take the artifact with her, which Sunset knew she would stash in her chest at some point.

"A moment champion," the dark elf, Aranea they had learned, said to her, "I had one last vision as you fought in the Star. It goes something like 'When the hero fights the Demon of Oblivion the sky shall be torn asunder and, in her hour of need, an alicorn with a flaming mane shall descend upon Nirn, to end the fight with the Demon itself.' I will accompany you to your new stronghold and aid you in any way I am able to."

Sunset was thrilled to have the second Daedric Artifact and a new ally that she could leave at Fellglow Keep, but there was something about that prophecy that disturbed her. It mentioned her fighting Tirek, that much she knew off the bat, but the problem she had was that Aranea was saying that the world might be ending regardless of what she did. Not only that, but the prophecy basically said that the person that was going to defeat Tirek was an alicorn, not a unicorn, which she happened to be.

Why, she asked herself, was Princess Celestia prophesied to be coming to Nirn to combat Tirek, when she was already in the process of dealing with that problem herself?