Oh, forgot to ask, is skipping alright? I can change it otherwise.
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Ahnasha was not terribly concerned if anyone from the group nearby happened to be looking as she and Fendros kissed. It was not as if they were making themselves the center of attention. "I might get you drunk, but not for that reason." She chuckled. Although, Fendros' next question did give her some pause. She tilted her head with an uncertain look in her eyes.
"Um...how about we put a hold on that discussion for another century or so? At least until I have more than a century to spend with you." She finally answered.
---
The next three years was a time of development for the Champion’s pack, and the war effort in general. Meesei and her pack continued to be the spearhead against the enemy’s efforts, at least in the north. They were frequently undertaking missions across Skyrim and its neighboring provinces. They had their failures, but it was word of their successes that spread with greater strength through the clans. Their reputation grew into something that was larger than life, partially because of the tangible impact of some of their missions onto the war, and partially because of a concentrated effort by Saras’ agents to spread the narrative of her pack being heroes. He felt it was best for morale for the people of the clans to believe that they had powerful allies. For those who did not often interact with the Champion’s pack, even many of those in the Silent City began to believe the mythos surrounding them. A fact that was aided by them frequently being away from the city on their missions. Fortunately for Ahnasha, Fendros, Janius, and Kaleeth, that did not mean they were always away from their children. Obviously, they could not join in missions, but depending on the nature of what they were doing, it was reasonable to allow them to stay in camp with Leaps’ protection, or at one of their outposts in the area.
After so much time dedicated to her magic, Ahnasha almost felt lost without the need to practice and learn more, now that she had attained the knowledge she had been seeking. So, she simply continued to research other aspects of necromancy and conjuration. She was quickly becoming a master of her craft, so there was no sense in not further developing those skills. It provided a good distraction from the frustration of gathering souls for her ritual. As she expected, gathering what she needed was a slow process. Thanks to their missions, it was not too difficult to find people to kill, and even one mammoth during one opportunity they had to hunt, but acquiring black soul gems was a challenge. She was set back months when the circumstances of a mission forced her to transform and lose her satchel, and the gems contained within. After that, limited the number she could carry at once so as to limit the potential for loss, but that also slowed her progress. However, despite the delays, she was growing tantalizingly close to having enough souls to carry out her ritual.
Aside from the missions and her contributions to decision making in the clan, Meesei dedicated quite a lot of effort to her magical research. With Sabine, they continued practicing together, but Meesei stopped considering it training. In fact, Meesei was glad to inform Sabine that she was no longer her apprentice, but a peer. There was certainly a great deal that Sabine could learn from Meesei, but Meesei was insistent that she could learn from Sabine as well by working together in their research. It had been almost ten years since Sabine had first started her training. Ten years worth of training under a powerful mage and experience fighting a war that demanded perfection from those participating in it.
Much of Meesei’s research centered around Mora’s Black Book. In Apocrypha, she was free to pursue any kind of knowledge, from any place or time in Nirn’s history, or even beyond Nirn in some cases. She was quite eager to share with Sabine stories of the libraries of information she uncovered from the ancient Ayleids and Dwemer, or the magic of the Chimer or Psijics. Her greatest challenge, according to Meesei, was simply to decide down what paths she should dedicate her limited time. Should she pursue the shadow magic of the Second Era nightblades, the Thu’um of the Dragons, the mysterious secrets of the Ayleids, or to shape reality itself with the Elder Ways of the Psijics? Such were discussions she had at length with Sabine. Ultimately, Meesei decided to allow Sabine the unique privilege to make use of the Black Book as well, describing her as the only other person in Tamriel she trusted to make responsible use of it. Whether she accepted the offer or not was entirely up to Sabine, and Meesei would not attempt to influence her one way or another. Although, Meesei herself was becoming more comfortable with the book. She did not increase the number of times per week she restricted herself to using it, but she did allow herself to stay in Apocrypha for longer at a time.
As was often the case, Meesei’s pack was undertaking a mission, but what was unusual was how mundane it seemed. They were carrying out a simple delivery, from the Blackreach clan to another clan in High Rock, near the city of Evermore, but what they were carrying was obviously important. It was the personal project that Meesei had been working on for some time, and that she had been notably silent about to most of the others in the clan. She had spoken to Saras about it, but he was certainly good at keeping secrets. They had taken a covered wagon through the Reach into High Rock and had stopped for rest and supplies and one of their outposts at the southern tail of the Wrothgarian Mountains when that outpost received word from a runner that one of their packs, or rather, a sleuth of werebears, were outnumbered and trapped by a group of the enemy. Meesei was initially reluctant to diverge from their current task, but since the runner claimed that their allies had uncovered some potentially important information about the enemy’s operations in the area, she agreed to have her pack help rescue them.
The werebears had used the mountainous terrain to their advantage to keep themselves alive. They had situated themselves inside a cave with an entrance near the top of a steep hill, allowing them to repel every effort the enemy outside made to attack. However, the enemy had their soul-tearing gas, and their supply of the antidote was limited. All that Vile’s followers needed to do was to wait until their gas was effective once more. There was no other way out of the cave, so the werebears’ defensive position would become their tomb without assistance. Outside the cave, there were twenty or so warriors, archers, and mages that had fortified themselves with rough wooden barricades made from nearby trees facing the cave entrance. They wore no uniform, but the distinct glint of silver could be observed among some of their weapons. They were in a small valley between two steep cliffsides, so there were only two viable directions from which to enter and exit the area, though there were some trees and shrubbery that one could use to conceal themselves.
From the east, the bored looking Breton warrior leaning against the side of a carriage heard the footsteps before he saw the threat, thanks to the spell of invisibility that Meesei had cast upon Kaleeth and Lorag. Neither of them were particularly quiet, but the invisibility was enough to allow Kaleeth to strike the first blow. Her mace struck down upon the Breton’s head hard enough to essentially cause his head to explode, before he could even draw his silver sword. The six nearby soldiers reacted more than quickly enough to draw their weapons, but their numbers were not quite the advantage they were expecting. Long gone was the Kaleeth who was clumsy and uncertain, relying on sheer strength to have any success in a melee. Now, she was a collected and disciplined warrior. The bronzed color of her full plate armor stood out against the relatively lightly armored warriors standing against her. For Lorag, he had taken advantage of the resources afforded to the Champion’s pack to forge himself armor and weapons made from orichalcum in a recognizably Orcish style. They were both skilled and well-armed enough to hold a front line, even when outnumbered, as long as they had protection from ranged threats.
Though she was still an archer much of the time, this particular situation called for a different strategy from Ahnasha. Prior to Kaleeth and Lorag’s approach, she had used her own invisibility to sneak around to the far side of the enemy fortification. When Kaleeth and Lorag successfully gathered all of the enemy’s attention, Ahnasha picked out one of the warriors out of everyone else’s current line of sight and drove a dagger through the back of his neck while bringing her hand up to his mouth to muffle his screams. Before he could even fall to the ground, she reanimated his freshly-killed corpse into one of her thralls. Then, she moved on to the next target to do the exact same thing, as she could maintain multiple simultaneous reanimated thralls. The moment someone noticed her, she would command them to attack.
Meesei had not yet revealed herself, but rather was waiting for the perfect time to strike.
"Um...how about we put a hold on that discussion for another century or so? At least until I have more than a century to spend with you." She finally answered.
---
The next three years was a time of development for the Champion’s pack, and the war effort in general. Meesei and her pack continued to be the spearhead against the enemy’s efforts, at least in the north. They were frequently undertaking missions across Skyrim and its neighboring provinces. They had their failures, but it was word of their successes that spread with greater strength through the clans. Their reputation grew into something that was larger than life, partially because of the tangible impact of some of their missions onto the war, and partially because of a concentrated effort by Saras’ agents to spread the narrative of her pack being heroes. He felt it was best for morale for the people of the clans to believe that they had powerful allies. For those who did not often interact with the Champion’s pack, even many of those in the Silent City began to believe the mythos surrounding them. A fact that was aided by them frequently being away from the city on their missions. Fortunately for Ahnasha, Fendros, Janius, and Kaleeth, that did not mean they were always away from their children. Obviously, they could not join in missions, but depending on the nature of what they were doing, it was reasonable to allow them to stay in camp with Leaps’ protection, or at one of their outposts in the area.
After so much time dedicated to her magic, Ahnasha almost felt lost without the need to practice and learn more, now that she had attained the knowledge she had been seeking. So, she simply continued to research other aspects of necromancy and conjuration. She was quickly becoming a master of her craft, so there was no sense in not further developing those skills. It provided a good distraction from the frustration of gathering souls for her ritual. As she expected, gathering what she needed was a slow process. Thanks to their missions, it was not too difficult to find people to kill, and even one mammoth during one opportunity they had to hunt, but acquiring black soul gems was a challenge. She was set back months when the circumstances of a mission forced her to transform and lose her satchel, and the gems contained within. After that, limited the number she could carry at once so as to limit the potential for loss, but that also slowed her progress. However, despite the delays, she was growing tantalizingly close to having enough souls to carry out her ritual.
Aside from the missions and her contributions to decision making in the clan, Meesei dedicated quite a lot of effort to her magical research. With Sabine, they continued practicing together, but Meesei stopped considering it training. In fact, Meesei was glad to inform Sabine that she was no longer her apprentice, but a peer. There was certainly a great deal that Sabine could learn from Meesei, but Meesei was insistent that she could learn from Sabine as well by working together in their research. It had been almost ten years since Sabine had first started her training. Ten years worth of training under a powerful mage and experience fighting a war that demanded perfection from those participating in it.
Much of Meesei’s research centered around Mora’s Black Book. In Apocrypha, she was free to pursue any kind of knowledge, from any place or time in Nirn’s history, or even beyond Nirn in some cases. She was quite eager to share with Sabine stories of the libraries of information she uncovered from the ancient Ayleids and Dwemer, or the magic of the Chimer or Psijics. Her greatest challenge, according to Meesei, was simply to decide down what paths she should dedicate her limited time. Should she pursue the shadow magic of the Second Era nightblades, the Thu’um of the Dragons, the mysterious secrets of the Ayleids, or to shape reality itself with the Elder Ways of the Psijics? Such were discussions she had at length with Sabine. Ultimately, Meesei decided to allow Sabine the unique privilege to make use of the Black Book as well, describing her as the only other person in Tamriel she trusted to make responsible use of it. Whether she accepted the offer or not was entirely up to Sabine, and Meesei would not attempt to influence her one way or another. Although, Meesei herself was becoming more comfortable with the book. She did not increase the number of times per week she restricted herself to using it, but she did allow herself to stay in Apocrypha for longer at a time.
As was often the case, Meesei’s pack was undertaking a mission, but what was unusual was how mundane it seemed. They were carrying out a simple delivery, from the Blackreach clan to another clan in High Rock, near the city of Evermore, but what they were carrying was obviously important. It was the personal project that Meesei had been working on for some time, and that she had been notably silent about to most of the others in the clan. She had spoken to Saras about it, but he was certainly good at keeping secrets. They had taken a covered wagon through the Reach into High Rock and had stopped for rest and supplies and one of their outposts at the southern tail of the Wrothgarian Mountains when that outpost received word from a runner that one of their packs, or rather, a sleuth of werebears, were outnumbered and trapped by a group of the enemy. Meesei was initially reluctant to diverge from their current task, but since the runner claimed that their allies had uncovered some potentially important information about the enemy’s operations in the area, she agreed to have her pack help rescue them.
The werebears had used the mountainous terrain to their advantage to keep themselves alive. They had situated themselves inside a cave with an entrance near the top of a steep hill, allowing them to repel every effort the enemy outside made to attack. However, the enemy had their soul-tearing gas, and their supply of the antidote was limited. All that Vile’s followers needed to do was to wait until their gas was effective once more. There was no other way out of the cave, so the werebears’ defensive position would become their tomb without assistance. Outside the cave, there were twenty or so warriors, archers, and mages that had fortified themselves with rough wooden barricades made from nearby trees facing the cave entrance. They wore no uniform, but the distinct glint of silver could be observed among some of their weapons. They were in a small valley between two steep cliffsides, so there were only two viable directions from which to enter and exit the area, though there were some trees and shrubbery that one could use to conceal themselves.
From the east, the bored looking Breton warrior leaning against the side of a carriage heard the footsteps before he saw the threat, thanks to the spell of invisibility that Meesei had cast upon Kaleeth and Lorag. Neither of them were particularly quiet, but the invisibility was enough to allow Kaleeth to strike the first blow. Her mace struck down upon the Breton’s head hard enough to essentially cause his head to explode, before he could even draw his silver sword. The six nearby soldiers reacted more than quickly enough to draw their weapons, but their numbers were not quite the advantage they were expecting. Long gone was the Kaleeth who was clumsy and uncertain, relying on sheer strength to have any success in a melee. Now, she was a collected and disciplined warrior. The bronzed color of her full plate armor stood out against the relatively lightly armored warriors standing against her. For Lorag, he had taken advantage of the resources afforded to the Champion’s pack to forge himself armor and weapons made from orichalcum in a recognizably Orcish style. They were both skilled and well-armed enough to hold a front line, even when outnumbered, as long as they had protection from ranged threats.
Though she was still an archer much of the time, this particular situation called for a different strategy from Ahnasha. Prior to Kaleeth and Lorag’s approach, she had used her own invisibility to sneak around to the far side of the enemy fortification. When Kaleeth and Lorag successfully gathered all of the enemy’s attention, Ahnasha picked out one of the warriors out of everyone else’s current line of sight and drove a dagger through the back of his neck while bringing her hand up to his mouth to muffle his screams. Before he could even fall to the ground, she reanimated his freshly-killed corpse into one of her thralls. Then, she moved on to the next target to do the exact same thing, as she could maintain multiple simultaneous reanimated thralls. The moment someone noticed her, she would command them to attack.
Meesei had not yet revealed herself, but rather was waiting for the perfect time to strike.
I'm currently writing the timeskip, so I can post it whenever you feel the scene should end.
Ahnasha returned both a kiss and a smile to Fendros. "Thank you. I'm of course glad for your help, but I'm also glad that I won't have to worry about you. And I'll make sure you don't have to worry about me."
Predictably, the look Ahnasha gave Fendros after his following question was quite a curious one. Nevertheless, she could give him an actual answer. "Hmm, yes and no. My fertility will be really, significantly reduced, but it's not a bad thing. Obviously, Khajiit and other short lived races are much, much more fertile than Elves. We have all our children in decades, instead of centuries. When I extend my life, I slow down everything about my, uh, development. So, I suppose I'll be about as fertile as an Elf."
Ahnasha poked her finger into Fendros' chest and grinned. "Now, are you sure you don't have any intentions with that question?"
Predictably, the look Ahnasha gave Fendros after his following question was quite a curious one. Nevertheless, she could give him an actual answer. "Hmm, yes and no. My fertility will be really, significantly reduced, but it's not a bad thing. Obviously, Khajiit and other short lived races are much, much more fertile than Elves. We have all our children in decades, instead of centuries. When I extend my life, I slow down everything about my, uh, development. So, I suppose I'll be about as fertile as an Elf."
Ahnasha poked her finger into Fendros' chest and grinned. "Now, are you sure you don't have any intentions with that question?"
I can do the next skip tomorrow, if you think the conversation has run its course. I just felt it was a pertinent one to have to give a sense of progress for Ahnasha, rather than have a whole bunch of progress summarized later. It's about time for me to go to bed now.
"Well I do want to grant myself an extended lifespan while I am as young as possible." Ahnasha answered, though she paused to give a moment of thought to how to explain why that was the case. "This magic can both stall aging and reverse its effects, yes, but not without limitation. If I am too old when I start the process, then I won't be able to make myself as comparatively young, if that makes sense. Technically, life extension does not have an upper limit as far as how long one can extend the bounds of their life, but it does start effecting you eventually. My body will still start showing signs of age after enough centuries have passed. Keep myself alive long enough, and insanity might take hold. Of course, if I can start this process soon, then that won't happen until after your natural lifespan ends. And after you pass on, well, there will be no reason for me to continue extending my life."
Ahnasha slowly pulled her arms around Fendros. "Basically, you don't have to worry about that. We just need to get the souls I need. If it makes sense to try to capture a grand soul, I'll do it, but that shouldn't stop me from getting the easier black souls. Just promise me you're not going to put yourself in danger over all of this, alright? No secret Falmer hunts in the middle of the night."
Ahnasha slowly pulled her arms around Fendros. "Basically, you don't have to worry about that. We just need to get the souls I need. If it makes sense to try to capture a grand soul, I'll do it, but that shouldn't stop me from getting the easier black souls. Just promise me you're not going to put yourself in danger over all of this, alright? No secret Falmer hunts in the middle of the night."
Ever skeptical, Ahnasha narrowed her eyes as she swam closer to Fendros. "And if that warlord is indoors? In one of the smaller caves or Dwemer buildings, like they usually are? Ever since the Falmer became too nervous to raid us, they've been very closed into their homes. Even before that, the warlords were not usually out in the open. They're smarter than the rest of their kind."
Reaching out her hand, Ahnasha placed it on Fendros' shoulder. "If we happen to have an opportunity to collect a grand soul, then of course I will help trap it right there and then. It would be stupid not to. It's not as if I have a problem with using white souls. What I have a problem with is putting you or me in so much unnecessary danger without any good reason. We need to hunt down Vile's agents and kill them as a part of this war, but we don't need to go hunting powerful Falmer or other monsters. That's the difference. A risk we don't have to take, compared to a risk we have no choice but to take. I understand that you're not entirely comfortable with necromancy, but can't you see how much good it will do for us?"
Reaching out her hand, Ahnasha placed it on Fendros' shoulder. "If we happen to have an opportunity to collect a grand soul, then of course I will help trap it right there and then. It would be stupid not to. It's not as if I have a problem with using white souls. What I have a problem with is putting you or me in so much unnecessary danger without any good reason. We need to hunt down Vile's agents and kill them as a part of this war, but we don't need to go hunting powerful Falmer or other monsters. That's the difference. A risk we don't have to take, compared to a risk we have no choice but to take. I understand that you're not entirely comfortable with necromancy, but can't you see how much good it will do for us?"
Ahnasha was far from confident in Fendros' plan, partially because of some legitimate hurdles they would need to overcome, and partially because she knew his proposed methods would take much longer. "Fendros, it isn't that easy. Sure, if I could easily fill a grand soul gem, I would do it in a heartbeat. But...well I know you don't know that much about enchanting, but a grand soul gem is a very valuable thing. Losing one of those would be like, I don't know. losing a suit of plate armor. It's a major resource and not something that someone just forgets about. Sure, we get plenty of soul gems down here, but I just don't think the enchanters are going to be okay with losing track of their most valuable assets." She argued. Although, she was not actually completely confident that Fendros wasn't correct. They did have more grand soul gems than they could fill.
"I'm lucky the enchanters have enough taboos with necromancy that they don't keep close track of the black soul gems we obtain, especially considering they trap grand souls as well..." She continued, immediately regretting her words. A black soul gem could technically be used in all the same capacity as a white soul gem. The difficulty in obtaining gems was not her primary concern with pursuing white souls instead of black souls. In an attempt to recover, she continued her argument quickly. "Look, the gems aren't even the biggest problem. How would we ever have both the manpower and opportunity to capture the soul of one of these beings? Most of them are rare, and even if you do find them, that is a very dangerous fight. Mammoths are always found with giants, usually multiple of them. Minotaurs don't even live in Skyrim, and the Falmer warlords in this cavern are always protected by a village worth of weaker Falmer. And I wouldn't even begin to know how to find a wraith or a xivilai. People are just much more common, much easier targets."
"I'm lucky the enchanters have enough taboos with necromancy that they don't keep close track of the black soul gems we obtain, especially considering they trap grand souls as well..." She continued, immediately regretting her words. A black soul gem could technically be used in all the same capacity as a white soul gem. The difficulty in obtaining gems was not her primary concern with pursuing white souls instead of black souls. In an attempt to recover, she continued her argument quickly. "Look, the gems aren't even the biggest problem. How would we ever have both the manpower and opportunity to capture the soul of one of these beings? Most of them are rare, and even if you do find them, that is a very dangerous fight. Mammoths are always found with giants, usually multiple of them. Minotaurs don't even live in Skyrim, and the Falmer warlords in this cavern are always protected by a village worth of weaker Falmer. And I wouldn't even begin to know how to find a wraith or a xivilai. People are just much more common, much easier targets."
Ahnasha shook her head and spoke a bit dismissively to Fendros' fears. "I think you're too worried. Have I ever done anything that would make you think I would murder someone like that? And it's not like we only kill one person at a time. We trap all the souls in one bandit camp, and I'll be prepared for over a decade, once I just need to maintain. The biggest obstacle is getting everything started."
Fendros' question about the white souls almost made Ahnasha regret mentioning it. Now that he knew an alternative existed, she could guess that he was going to try to convince her to pursue it, regardless of how impractical it would be. "Powerful things. Large, strong, and dangerous creatures or Daedra. It can be hard to know, but things like mammoths, strong minotaurs, xivilai, and other beings can have a soul to match the strength of a black soul. Provided we could find, soul trap, and kill any of those things, there is also the fact that a Dwarven centurion requires a grand soul to work. Our hunters have been tasked with obtaining them in the past. If we do manage to fill a grand white soul gem, you just know that it is going to go making one of those machines instead of what I need it for."
Fendros' question about the white souls almost made Ahnasha regret mentioning it. Now that he knew an alternative existed, she could guess that he was going to try to convince her to pursue it, regardless of how impractical it would be. "Powerful things. Large, strong, and dangerous creatures or Daedra. It can be hard to know, but things like mammoths, strong minotaurs, xivilai, and other beings can have a soul to match the strength of a black soul. Provided we could find, soul trap, and kill any of those things, there is also the fact that a Dwarven centurion requires a grand soul to work. Our hunters have been tasked with obtaining them in the past. If we do manage to fill a grand white soul gem, you just know that it is going to go making one of those machines instead of what I need it for."
Ahnasha crossed her arms defensively, though quickly realized that she probably should be getting undressed if she wanted to sell the illusion that she actually wanted to swim. "It's not murder if they attack me. Besides, if we do survive this war, we kill people all the time. It's just a part of our lifestyle. The world will never run out of bandits, highwaymen, or other scum, and it won't be hard to find them if we ever go back to living in the wilds."
Once undressed, Ahnasha turned and took a few steps into the water. It was certainly cool, but not unbearable. "And, well, white souls can...technically work. It just takes a lot more of them, unless they are grand white souls, but those are even harder to come by than black souls."
Once undressed, Ahnasha turned and took a few steps into the water. It was certainly cool, but not unbearable. "And, well, white souls can...technically work. It just takes a lot more of them, unless they are grand white souls, but those are even harder to come by than black souls."
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