Sunset and Miraak returned to Fort Frostmoth, where they found Neloth speaking with Delphine in the middle of the courtyard, though it didn't take long for Sunset to figure out what the wizard was doing. He was beckoning to one of the two spheres that she had created for the fortress, which also told her that he was trying to convince her commander to possibly lend one to him for studying. Delphine, continuing to act as a commander should, appeared to be telling the wizard the same thing, which Sunset assumed was that he'd have to wait until they were finished with Solstheim and were preparing to leave. Even as she thought about the spheres she knew that she wouldn't be handing them over to the wizard, not when there was the possibility that they could be misused.
As the two of them approached Delphine and Neloth, who were deep in their conversation to not notice them coming, Sunset's mind was drawn to the question of which emotion she would be facing in Neloth's Black Book, Violence or Fear. She found it strange that Hermaeus Mora would take the time to separate herself from seven of her negative emotions, though as she thought about it she guessed that it was doing some good for her. She was feeling much better after each emotion had been defeated in whatever test they threw at her, almost as if she was becoming more balanced with herself. She couldn't tell if her magic was actually improving thanks to the Daedric Prince's trials, but it was helping her overcome the grief and guilt she had felt after her defeat... something that she had tried to heal and failed at the time, until this happened.
Now she was more at peace with herself and what she had done in the past, but she also knew that until Pride was defeated she could never truly be at peace.
"Ah, there you are," Neloth commented, turning around in time to see the two of them approach, breaking Sunset out of her thoughts as she and Miraak came to a stop in front of them, "I was beginning to wonder if your emotion had gotten the better of you, but judging by how you walked just now it seems that my earlier thought has been proven wrong; you defeated your fourth emotion and recovered yet another of Hermaeus Mora's Black Books. Well then, now that you have five of the Black Books, and I have the only remaining two of the island, I'd say that its time for the two of us to venture to my tower and make the trade."
"And once that emotion is defeated Sunset would have to clear Nchardak in order to release the final book," Delphine growled, apparently having caught on to the fact that the last Black Book wasn't available to anyone at the moment, before she turned to Sunset for a moment, "Your friends are coming along for the ride, so you can conserve your energy after fighting whatever emotion is resting inside Neloth's Black Book. They have the feeling that whatever emotion is waiting before Pride will require a lot of energy to fight, so they figured that it would be best for them to fight the dwarven ruin for you... only they can't go inside until Neloth opens the door, which he refuses to open until your finished with his own book."
Sunset glared at the wizard for a moment, wondering what he hoped to gain by making them wait until he and her friends had cleared the dwarven ruin before she could access the sixth book, but then she sighed and held up the Black Book she was currently carrying.
"So, where are we making the trade?" Sunset asked, as she really wanted to get underway so she could figure out which emotion she'd have to fight next, "We trading the books here, or are we heading to your tower to make the trade?"
"We'll make the trade at Tel Mithryn, my tower," Neloth replied immediately, though she could tell by the look in his eyes that he was glad that she was so willing to hand over all the Black Books she had on her at the moment, though he knew that the one that had been in Miraak's temple would be off limits until Pride was defeated, "You'll hand over the Black Books that you have already cleared out and then I'll unlock the door that will allow you to access my book... then I guess once your finished with mine we'll have to clear out Nchardak to recover the seventh and final Black Book."
Sunset nodded her understanding of the situation, not really liking that the wizard was forcing her to hand over almost all of the Black Books that she had collected to even touch the one he found, but knew that it was something that she had to do if she wanted to even get close to Pride. She didn't have time to waste on arguing over who got the Black Books and who didn't get them, as she only wanted them so she could defeat the emotion that was resting inside. Neloth could have all seven of them for all she cared, though she wished that he had been more understanding on the fact that the entirety of Nirn was going to be destroyed if she didn't defeat all her emotions before the third day was up.
Sunset, Miraak, and her friends then spent the next half hour walking across the ash covered land, following Neloth as he led them to a rather large mushroom looking tower. Sunset had never seen something like it before and asked about it, but all the wizard would tell her was that he had taken a bit of a larger tower and had grown in on Solstheim, resulting in what she was seeing before her. When they arrived at the tower another dark elf ran up to them, though it didn't take long for Sunset to determine that this had to be the apprentice that Miraak had mentioned some time ago.
Once they were all inside the main tower, and had ridden a well of energy to get to the top, Neloth had his apprentice clear a nearby table and soon everything that had been on it was in one of the surrounding boxes.
"There, that should be enough room for four Black Books," Neloth said, offering no thanks to his apprentice for what he had done, which Sunset was somewhat annoyed with, "Now then, place the four books on the table and I shall unlock the door for you."
Sunset nodded and turned to her friends, three of which happened to be carrying the books she had found between Miraak's temple and Kolbjorn Barrow. She had left them in Fort Frostmoth, so that they wouldn't get in the way, and her friends had offered to carry them to the tower, so she really couldn't say no to their aid. Now that they had reached their destination she briefly nodded her head to them and watched as the three Black Books were placed on the table, to which she reached into her pack and pulled out the one from Kolbjorn. Miraak held the book from his temple, though he often told her that it had been locked by Hermaeus Mora to prevent her from cheating, so she moved towards the table and placed her book with the others.
Neloth grinned the moment the four books were on the table, to which he turned towards the door that separated Sunset from his Black Book and opened it up, before stepping out of the way and beckoning for her to approach the book. Sunset nodded for a second before approaching the book, where she again wondered which of her emotions would be waiting for her inside the tome. She then sighed and pressed her hand against the cover, closing her eyes and allowing the magic to take over so she could find her emotion quickly.
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When Sunset opened her eyes she found herself into yet another section of Apocryhpa, though floating nearby was the same Seeker that she had encountered many times before, or at least she assumed that it was the same one. There was no way to tell if this one was different from the others, preventing her from figuring out if she was being aided by only one Seeker or an entire group of the creatures. The Seeker beckoned to her and started down the path that would take them to where Sunset's emotion would be waiting for her arrival, which she knew had to be at the end considering that was where the others had been.
As she followed after the Seeker, who almost never looked back at her, Sunset wondered if she could possibly get the creature to speak, as she had no idea if they could thanks to Miraak deciding not to share that piece of information with her.
"Out of curiosity, do you guys speak at all?" Sunset tried, as she was growing tired of simply following the Seekers around and staring at the scenery of the Plane of Oblivion.
Rarely, a voice said into her head, causing her to look around for a moment before locking onto the Seeker that she was following, Lord Hermaeus Mora was right, you do catch on quick.
"I'm surprised that you actually answered me," Sunset admitted, as she had no idea if her idea of simply asking out work or not, "I was expecting you to remain silent until we reached my emotion."
With the exclusion of Lord Hermaeus Mora, we have only had Miraak to talk to for the last two thousand years, the Seeker reminded her, to which Sunset nodded her head for a moment, One forgets what's like to speak with someone that actually wants to have a conversation, instead of being ordered around by the same individual. We learned to simply follow whatever orders Miraak had for us, otherwise our Lord would have done something to us that would make us regret not following the former Priest's orders.
"So what exactly are you?" Sunset asked, before shaking her head as she thought of something better to ask, "I mean, I know that your a Seeker, but are there other ranks that you can achieve?"
Of course, the Seeker replied, though it made a noise that Sunset was unable to determine whether it was laughter or something else, There are three ranks; a normal Seeker, a Seeker Aspirant, and a High Seeker. There are few High Seekers in Apocrypha, though I am one of them. I am the eldest High Seeker in Apocrypha, former Second in Command of this Plane of Oblivion, though I am now third as Miraak has taken the role of second.
"Does that upset you at all?" Sunset inquired, wondering if it was possible for the creature to care about such things, or if she was being ridiculous with her assumptions.
No, it does not upset me, the High Seeker answered, not even taking a moment to think before giving her the answer, and even if it did I would have been struck down the moment I complained. Miraak is Lord Hermaeus Mora's chosen Second in Command now, and I will follow whatever order my Lord has for me, regardless of who ends up giving them out.
Sunset remained silent as the High Seeker escorted her through the Black Book, wondering if it had been a good idea to speak with the Seeker to begin with, but knew that it was impossible to go back. She had gotten the answer to her question, something that she hadn't been expecting when she asked the original question, so she was fine with the silence now. It gave her time to think about which emotion was waiting for her and what powers they might have in their arsenal, considering that the other emotions had a variety of powers. She had been caught off guard by the power that Hatred had been able to command, as she had been when the other three had revealed their own cards, so she wanted to be ready for anything.
When they finally arrived at the end of the Black Book, after taking maybe twenty minutes to reach it, Sunset found another version of herself standing before the book, a bronze colored version she noted. The only difference between Sunset and her emotion, a major one she mentally added, was that her emotion was wearing a suit of steel armor and carried a longsword in her right hand. She didn't need to be told which emotion this was, because she had never worn such a suit of armor in all of her time in Skyrim, but she approached the next emotion and slowly drew her ebony sword.
"Finally, I was beginning to get bored," the emotion said, moving her empty left hand to her for a moment, "I am Violence... and you shall provide me with the entertainment that I have been waiting for."
Sunset barely had time to raise her sword as Violence flashed in front of her, copying one of her most used abilities in an instant, before swinging her longsword at her, to which Sunset leapt backwards so the weapon would miss her. As she finished drawing her ebony sword Violence appeared before her again, though this time she had the opportunity to raise her sword into a defensive position, but when the longsword hit her weapon she noticed a crack develop on the blade. Then Violence twisted around and planted her foot in Sunset's chest, knocking her backwards for a moment before swinging her weapon once more, though this time it was aimed specifically at her sword, snapping the ebony weapon into two pieces.
When her weapon fragments fell to the ground, and Sunset backed away from her emotion, she noticed that Violence had a strange grin on her face, as if she was enjoying herself.
"Ah, that was definitely a good start... despite the fact that your weapon broke," Violence told her, staring at her with her wolfish grin on her face, "Now then, summon a new weapon and let us resume this fight..."
Sunset stared at Violence for a moment, knowing that she didn't have another blade to use at the moment and glanced at the handle of her weapon, which happened to be between her and her emotion. Magic swirled around her hand for a moment as she considered simply striking her emotion down, but knew that even if she did hit Violence with magic her emotion was going to show her true power. She sighed for a moment and snatched her sword's handle, allowing it to slide into her right hand as she debated what to do with what remained of her weapon. Sure, the blade had been snapped in half, but with what remained of the blade she could still use it, provided that Violence didn't attack and shatter the rest of it.
Violence, seeing Sunset grab a weapon, continued to grin widely as she dashed forward, bringing her weapon down on the blade that Sunset held and snapped the already strained weapon further. Sunset leapt backwards once more, but this time when Violence flashed up to her she teleported to the other side of the room, where she moved behind one of the pillars. Not a moment later Violence's blade erupted through the stonework, though as Sunset threw herself into the area in front of the pillar she turned and watched as her emotion cut the structure in half.
"Come on, fight back," Violence told her, holding her unsettling grin as she approached Sunset, "Your weapons are feeble and weak... summon something stronger and fight me!"
Sunset knew a fair number of weapon conjuring spells, some she had gleamed from the College of Winterhold and some from Equus when she raided Princess Celestia's library in search of information on the mysterious crystal mirror, but she had no idea which would be best for this type of fight. Before she could determine which spell to use, and which weapon to summon, she spotted what appeared to be a daedric sword resting near her, though she had to wonder where it came from. As she picked herself up she knew that she had underestimated how much power her emotion would pack into a single attack, something that she was going to have to watch out for when they crossed their weapons again.
As she stood back up she readied herself for when Violence struck again, though the emotion was merely standing in the same place she had been when she shattered the rest of Sunset's sword, grinning as if she was enjoying herself.
"Are you not enjoying yourself?" Violence asked her, causing Sunset to raise an eyebrow at her emotion, who ran her hand over her sword as if it was her closest friend in the world, "Come, listen to you instincts and you'll hear them screaming in joy... they'll be cheering for more as we clash with each other, until one of us lies dead on the ground. Come on now, if you don't raise your sword and fight me then you'll never be able to face Pride... despite the fact that Fear is waiting for you as well."
Sunset hated how some of her emotions made sense when they spoke to her, as she knew that if she didn't fight this emotion, and actually bested it in battle, then she would never move on to either Fear or Pride. Violence was powerful in terms of strength, she had the ability to copy and use the flash ability that Sunset had developed, and hadn't been damaged in any way since the fight had started. She knew that she was going to have to resort to tricking her emotion at some point in the fight, but right now she had no idea how she was going to inflict any damage on her enemy.
It was at a moment like this that Sunset mentally wished that Hermaeus Mora had chosen some other emotion to use, but knew that wishing for a change would not make it happen and that she was stuck with Violence.
"Would it be fair if I let you hurt me?" Violence asked, causing Sunset to look at her once more, wondering why she was so serious about the whole thing when she had that wicked smile on her face, "It would make it more interesting if the two of us were on even ground, though one cannot fault you for being so weak and feeble when your facing your violent nature. Pride will be annoyed that you were beaten early, but that's what she gets for overestimating your abilities in bat..."
Sunset decided that she had enough of the talking and decided to take action at last, to which she flashed right up to Violence and swung her new sword down at the emotion, who had enough time to parry the attack. Magic swirled around Sunset's blade, but instead of discharging it immediately she used it as a backer to her attack, increasing the power of her blows until she decided it was time to loose an energy wave. Violence grinned for a moment and started to push back, but when she did so Sunset leapt backwards and avoided the attack that was coming after it, though she landed not far away from her emotion.
Violence immediately rushed after her, giving Sunset the chance to flee somewhere else as she decided what she needed to do so she could best this emotion. Magic seemed to be effective against her, as she hadn't been expecting Sunset to use her own magical energy to empower her new sword, but it seemed to do the trick. She had the key to defeating her enemy, but she needed to plan a way that she could use it to her advantage and best Violence before the emotion wrecked the rest of the Black Book. She then remembered a duplication spell that several advanced unicorns used when they battled, giving the real one time to retreat and plan for what was to come.
Sunset grinned as she turned back and cast a light spell at Violence, one that was designed to give off a large flash when it went off, and covered her eyes the moment it went off. Once the spell had died down Sunset then proceeded to cast her illusion spell, allowing four copies of herself to appear around her, each of them looking exactly like she did, before she moved behind one of the pillars and waited.
Violence rubbed her eyes with her open hand for a moment before she was able to see again, though when she did she found that Sunset had summoned mirror images of herself. It was an attempt to stall for time while she thought up a plan that could defeat her, but she grinned and pointed her sword at one of the illusions, before she flashed towards it and cut it right in half. The other three of them stared at her for a moment before they realized that they were under attack, to which they drew their weapons and charged at the emotion. Violence brought her sword up and parried one of the attacks, before swinging her blade and taking the head of one of the illusions, to which she followed it up with parrying another attack and driving the blades of her enemies into their chests.
Once the illusions were dealt with Violence took a look around the immediate area, searching for any signs that would point to where Sunset was hiding so she could continue the fight. That was seconds before an energy wave struck her in the chest and knocked her out of the sky, forcing her to crash land next to the Black Book she had been standing next to while she waited for Sunset to appear. She turned back to the area that waited in front of the book and found that Sunset was standing there, only this time she seemed prepared to finish the fight they had started. At least Violence assumed she was ready, because there was a steady flow of magic constantly wrapping itself around the sword that Sunset carried.
"Well, look who worked up the nerve to fight me out in the open," Violence said, her grin returning to her face as she faced Sunset, "and here I was thinking that I'd have to cut everything to pieces just to find you. Now that you've finally come out of your hiding spot its time that we finished this fight... unless your here to surrender to me and all..."
Violence never finished that sentence, as Sunset pulled her arm back and swung her blade with as much force as she could muster, releasing a massive wave of energy that soared right into her emotion. Violence raised her hands and caught the wave before it could touch her body, but after the first few seconds she began to realize that she wasn't strong enough to counter the energy. The mass pushed on her arms, driving her backwards as she struggled to keep herself in the game, but then when she thought she had bested Sunset's attack the energy surged through her hands and struck her in the chest, resulting in an explosion that rocked the entire area.
Sunset held her ground as the smoke from her attack cleared, though as it did so she found that the copy of the Black Book was undamaged, though the surrounding floor had been completely destroyed. Pretty much the entire structure that had been surrounding the book was gone, save for the pedestal, so Sunset knew that she might have overdid the amount of power she had put into the blade. Violence finally appeared from the smoke, though Sunset was somewhat surprised to find that emotion was missing half of her right arm, which she supposed was due to the emotion trying to catch the energy, and that there was a large gash on her chest, as the energy had cut her armor into pieces.
Violence flashed to where Sunset was standing, but the moment she arrived she tipped just a tiny bit and fell to the ground, where she stayed as Sunset stood over her.
"That was... fun," Violence coughed, looking up at Sunset one last time before she returned to where she belonged, "When you finally get to Pride, and I'm thinking that you will, do me a favor and don't hold back as you beat her into submission."
Sunset barely nodded her head as she knelt beside her emotion and placed her hand on Violence's head, allowing the emotion to break up into bits of magic and return to where she belonged. Once that was done she braced herself for a moment, as her body was finally catching up with how much energy she had poured into that attack, though she knew that she'd have to sit out of raiding the dwarven ruin until she got her energy back. She sighed and turned towards the Black Book, where she walked over to it and placed her hand on its cover, allowing it to take her back to Neloth's tower.
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When Sunset returned to Tel Mithryn she found that her friends were still patiently waiting for her, though by the looks of it Neloth had been trying to get them to do something for him. Miraak, on the other hand, was standing beside the door that Neloth had opened for Sunset, as if he had been waiting to see if she would return with good news. A few seconds passed before everyone noticed that she had returned from Apocrypha, to which Bjorn smiled at her as she stepped out of the room the book had been kept inside. She had no idea how long she had been inside the fifth Black Book, but she hoped that she still had enough time to fight Fear before the day was over.
"How are you feeling?" Bjorn asked, as he was deeply concerned for her having to go inside each of the seven Black Books and defeat the emotion that waited for her.
"I'm exhausted," Sunset admitted, as she knew that she had spent too much energy in her last fight, something that would take some time to recover from, "but the end result was worth it..."
"And so the fifth emotion has fallen," Miraak commented, immediately catching on to what she was saying, despite the fact that Sunset was going to say the same thing anyway, "only one of them remains before the way to Pride is open. However, you do need to rest if you are to have any hope of defeating Fear, who I'm sure will take a lot of time and careful planning to defeat."
"Well then, to Nchardak," Neloth snapped out, causing everyone to turn to him as he made his way to the beam that would take him to the entrance of his tower, "We've got one more Black Book to acquire, and another emotion to defeat, before you can finish playing Hermaeus Mora's little game and get back to the fate of the world... no pressure."
Sunset didn't know whether she liked the fact that Neloth was so willing to aid them, as long as he got the Black Books, or that she hated the fact that he had no respect for her or her friends and allies. It reminded her of who she used to be when she was studying under Princess Celestia, something that she was only now dealing with thanks to a Daedric Prince. She sighed for a moment before nodding to her friends, where she got back onto her feet and followed after the Master Wizard, knowing that she'd have time to rest when they reached their destination. She'd let her friends conquer whatever Nchardak threw their way, knowing that they would do whatever it took to make sure that she had the book she came for.
She also had the uneasy feeling that Tirek was out there destroying something, but she knew that she needed to complete the tests that Hermaeus Mora was throwing at her before she could fight the demon of equal footing.