My Little Prequel: Friendship is Oblivious

by GroaningGreyAgony

Chapter 9

This story contains spoilers for the game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and the webcomic Prequel.

The exit to the sewers, and safety, was near at hand, and the assassins seemed to be more desperate than ever, flinging themselves at the Empress with suicidal disregard for their own bodies. The Blades seemed heartened, though neither of them were unprofessional enough to let their guard down, and Katia found herself caught up in their mood, carrying her torch proudly as the Empress strode quietly among them like a tall white ghost.

As they entered the next chamber, Glenbay held up a warding hoof, and went by himself to inspect the gate to the passage that lead to the sewer exit. He returned with a grim glint in his eye. "The gate's barred from the other side. Trapped."

"What about that side passage there?" said Haurus.

"Worth a try. Let's go."

They moved through a short hallway into a small room, with shallow niches in the walls and a small alcove in the far corner, but no further exit.

Katia's heart started to hammer in her chest. Haurus and Glenbay exchanged a grim look.

"What's your call?" said Haurus

Glenbay suddenly perked his ears back. "They're behind us! Wait here, Ma'am!"

Haurus swiftly took hold of Katia's shoulder and pulled her small spare frame around to face him. His eyes pierced her with fierce intent. "Stay here, prisoner, and guard the Empress with your life!"

Glenbay and Haurus ran back through the short hallway, shouting "For the Empress!" as if it were their dying day. The sounds of deadly combat filled the next room.

Katia saw in her mind's eye the face of her nightmare, the Empress of the darkness, of the rending fangs and bladed claws, her torturer and tormenter—and Celestia of the sun, the life giver and bringer of hope. Between them, Katia's panic, her courage, her will to live, swirled in desperate opposition.

She stood frozen for a moment, then something moved within her and spread throughout her body. She stood taller and her eyes were dead pools of black in the flickering torchlight. She had accepted Haurus's words and all that they meant. She strode to the mouth of the hallway, ready to hear the dying yells of Haurus and Glenbay, ready to face the agents of darkness as they swarmed to extinguish all light. Ready to give her life.

The heroic effect was slightly spoiled as Katia felt a surge of magicka enter her back. She jumped and yelped. Celestia had given her another recharge.

Katia turned and met Celestia's eyes. They were deep as the sky, and sad, and full of love, and what might have been and what could be. Celestia spoke with a strange mixture of doom and hope.

"Katia, I can go no further. It is up to you to stand against the darkness. You must take the Amulet of Queens, and bring it to my child. Jirauffe knows where to look. My sister cannot... be trusted with it."

"Celestia... I know I'm not of much use, but I will die to save you if I can. You're the only one... who's ever been this kind to me." Katia kept her voice under control with effort.

"I know not what the stars hold for your future, Katia, but it is not your fate to die here today. Do as I say."

Katia started to reply... but she saw a panel opening in the wall behind the Empress. An assassin emerged from a secret passage, bearing a gleaming sword.

Katia snarled and lunged between him and Celestia, readying a flare as the assassin drove the point of his blade at Katia's neck... Everything blurred around her, and her bones shivered as her whole body struck against the rough stones.

Stunned, she thought first that the assassin had struck her and knocked her down, but she was in fact pressed upright, with her back against the wall, and thus she saw the end. Unable to move, she watched as the assassin's deadly razor descended, smashed through the Empress's golden horn, and as she reeled, struck back up from the downstroke to plunge into her chest with a sickening slice. Celestia swiftly crumpled to the floor.

Katia felt the pain in her heart as if the knife had struck her instead. Celestia had used telekinesis to push Katia out of harm's way. And if the Empress hadn't wasted energy and attention on saving Katia's life, she might have been able to defend herself.

If Katia hadn't tried—

If Katia hadn't been here today—

If Katia hadn't even been born, Celestia might still be okay.

Katia's self-loathing surged into a torrent. One way or another, she always hurt the ones she tried to help. Useless, incompetent Khageet! Stupid worthless animal! A yowl of despair and guilt and rage built inside her as the assassin bent over Celestia's body...

Katia fell from the wall as Celestia's spell faded. She spun rapidly on her forehooves and kicked with all her rage and hatred at the assassin, knocking him away from Celestia. He recovered, skidding with hooves striking sparks on the stone floor, and lunged at her with his wicked blade, which pierced her shoulder and ran under her skin.

Katia felt the shock of the wound, but she had suffered worse, much much worse, in her dreams of the Nightmare Queen, and so she merely jumped back and sent a flare at him. It marked him—she saw his scorched fur and the flicker of flames in his mane—but still he came on.

Katia screamed for help, but even as she did so, she heard the shouts and clashing weapons outside the hallway. The Blades were still occupied, and she was on her own. Though hampered by the smallness of the chamber, she leaped back again and again, brushing the stone walls with her flank, avoiding the dead-end alcove, and keeping her distance from the assassin's dancing sword as she launched flare after flare at him. His fur smoked and his flesh blackened, but still he advanced like a relentless nightmare. And still, Katia had known worse.

She felt her magicka running low—she would soon have none left for a healing spell for Celestia. At the assassin's next lunge, she leaped to the side and dodged behind him, using the brief respite to pull forth the shaman's staff. She reared onto her hind legs, wielding the foul object with both hooves, and barely managed to swing it up in time to fend off his plunging blade with a smack to its side. Cornered, she swung the skull end at her foe and felt crackling bolts of power surge along it and into his body, making him dance with branching surges of electricity.

Over and over she blasted him until he staggered and fell to his knees. She dropped the staff, planted her forehooves on the floor, and bucked directly at his face. She felt the sharp crack and the sudden lack of resistance as his magic armor dissolved and his body flew into the corner, his face a red concavity.

Katia rushed to Celestia's side, preparing a healing spell. She tried to release it into Celestia's chest wound, but it surged into Katia's own body and healed her shoulder wound instead. She hadn't yet learned how to cast the healing spell on others! Worthless, incompetent...! She started to dig into her bag for a healing potion.

"Katia..." croaked the Empress, "...save it. My time has come. Take the Amulet..."

Shaking with horror, Katia reached to Celestia's withers, felt between her wings, and found the clasp. It parted like the snapping of a silver thread, and the Amulet of Queens fell to the floor with a terrifying thud. Katia quickly placed it in her saddlebag, then knelt to support Celestia's head and stroke her flowing mane. Bright fire-tinged blood, shot through with streaks of raw magicka, ran from the broken horn and flowed across the floor from the great wound in Celestia's chest. Too much, too much blood...

"Celestia... please... don't die..." Katia's voice shook in a near-scream. "I won't know what to do..."

"Get the Amulet to Jirauffe... Find my child... Close shut the jaws of Oblivion..."

The Empress's sight dimmed. She mastered her failing flesh with a soul-straining effort and looked into Katia's brimming eyes for the last time.

"Your destiny is unknown to me... perhaps even to the Nine. You must... make..."

The golden sun went forever dark.

When Haurus re-entered the chamber, blade at the ready, he saw the limp form of his Empress, mane gray and wings awry, and Katia cradling the sightless royal head and sundered horn and crying all the tears in the world, as she had never wept before for anything or anyone else in the relentless misery of her entire life.

***

Haurus's world was cut from under him. The Empress Celestia was dead. He had failed, the Blades had failed—

He pushed his grief aside with a warrior's discipline. There was no time for it now. Glenbay and Roanault had both fallen with honor in the service of the Empress; it was left to Haurus to try to rescue something from the ashes of failure. He would mourn later if he did not die first—and however long it lasted, he would do penance for the rest of his life.

His gaze fell on Katia. Her face was tear-streaked and her chest was stained with Celestia's blood. Outwardly, she seemed as awkward and frail as ever, but there was a fire lit deep inside her now. Haurus did not know that both a dream and a nightmare had died that day for Katia, and she had now lost every purpose she ever had in life, save one.

She looked up at Haurus through streaming eyes, and in a glance they understood each other. They were both shamed by failure and pierced by guilt, but their hearts were resolved to persevere, and to avenge. The death of the Empress had entwined their fates more firmly than any oath or earthly bond.

Haurus broke the silence. "Pris—Katia. Where is the Amulet of Queens? If the assassins got it—"

"It's here. I have it."

"Then hand it over. Now."

"No." Her voice carried a fatal note. She laid the Empress's head down gently, and stood to face him. "She told me to take it."

Haurus stared at her with a murderous frown, and earlier that day Katia would have flinched in terror and yielded. But her grief, and the discipline she imposed on herself via her self-contempt, had led her to a place beyond emotion or fear, and she stared back at Haurus with unshaken defiance. At length, his eyes softened slightly.

"All right. She trusted you... and I trust her. But you may not understand what this means. Things like Celestia's crown are just jewelry—the Amulet is the real power. For the safety of the realm, it must be worn by Celestia or one of her blood. The Amulet should go immediately to her sister, the Princess Luna..."

Katia shivered. "Celestia said not to trust her. She told me to deliver it to someone named Jirauffe..."

"Really? Jirauffe is the grandmaster of our order, of the Blades. It's not the worst choice, but did she say what for?"

"I'm... supposed to find her child, or something?"

"Jirauffe is male, and... wait, you mean Celestia? Celestia's child?" Haurus's jaw sagged with amazement. "She doesn't have any children! She never had time to have any, either! She's been in the public eye since... Are you sure that's what she said?"

"I'm sure. Can you help me?"

"Yes... I can't believe that I'm about to send an escaped prisoner off into the countryside with the Amulet of Queens, but yes. That secret passage must lead to the sewer entrance, if my nose is any judge. You'll need to get out of the sewer first, but there's mostly rats and maybe some Dogs in it—nothing you can't handle. Jirauffe resides in Wainon Priory, near the city of Chorral." Haurus pulled a pen and a weathered but sturdy piece of parchment from his saddlebag. "Here, take this map—I'll mark the location."

Cold fear brushed Katia's heart. "You... You act like you're not coming with me..."

Haurus placed a dot on the map, then shifted the pen to the corner of his mouth to speak. "I'm not. I need to stay here and guard her body, and give Glenbay and Roanault their last respects, and try to keep you from being followed by the assassins. But if you're what she thought you were, you'll make it."

He gave Katia the map and a key to the sewer entrance, then stood back to gaze at her in disbelief. "Damn, you're young, girl. How old are you?"

"I'm nineteen..." Katia trembled. "I feel ten years younger right now, though."

"Well, take heart. I overheard Celestia showing you a few tricks. Very few people can claim to have been one of her students. You must be a talented Mage, am I right?"

Katia closed her eyes and saw the scene again, as pinned to the wall, unable to act, she watched the assassin's blade shear through Celestia's horn and strike her down.

"I'm a Loser," she said.

Comments

[Fernin]

This is as far as I got in Oblivion so now I have no idea what to expect. But I'm really enjoying it so far.

[nemryn]

Baurus swiftly took hold of Katia's shoulder

Whoops!

[Llisandur]

Great story. I'm really sad to see Celestia die, but it can't be helped to follow this storyline. I can't wait to read more.

1400202
Man, that's as far as you got? I had mods to skip all this so I could get to the good stuff. :P

[GroaningGreyAgony]

I didn't expect it to take this long to get through the starting dungeon, but here we are! And since neither the time available in my life, nor the patience of my readers, permit the construction of a complete game walkthrough, I'll be compressing things quite a bit from now on.

1400202
Thank you!
As to what to expect, Oblivion is a pretty freeform game. The main quest (in which you save the world from imminent destruction) can be postponed indefinitely while you noodle around the landscape picking flowers. To keep things interesting, I will likely be taking great liberties with the various questlines, either knocking big chunks out of them, ignoring them completely, or taking them out of order.

1401430
Are you suggesting that ponies don't have shoulders?
Seriously, typo corrected. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

1401444
Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it.
For anyone who may want to start the game as Katia does in Prequel, this mod lets you start as a pauper on the docks at Anvil (among other options). Kvatch will still be ruined unless you use a mod to correct that, but since I haven't tried it myself, I can offer no further advice there. (Kvatch Rebuilt might work, but as its name says, it's meant to show Kvatch being rebuilt over time, and not to present it as it was originally.)