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skyrimkinkmeme) wrote2011-10-29 12:36 pm
skyrimkinkmeme) wrote2011-10-29 12:36 pm
Meme Announcements!
ANNOUNCEMENTS: UPDATED 12/16/2017
Happy Holidays, fellow Kinkmemers! I have returned and have no reasonable excuse for my absence except LIFE. I will be working on updating the archives. If anyone sees anything amiss, please let me know.
I am also hoping to find another Mod and an Archivist.
The more dedicated people we have in this Meme the less chance of it dying. I admit that being the sole keeper of the Meme is not great for the fandom. If something were to happen to me, for good, this place would go the way of the Fallout Kink Meme. Let's not let that happen! If anyone would be interested in Modding/Archiving, please drop me a line. Thanks! <3
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.2
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)“Lucia, has your dress shrunk?” Liriel asked, alarmed. Were they not being washed properly?? She'd heard of that happening, but the water had to be fairly hot to do that to clothes.
“Oh! No, Mama, it's just Lydia says I've grown,” Lucia said shyly, pulling her hair in front of her face. “It's fine, I don't mind it like this.”
Liriel's heart went out to the poor thing. Both of them were still so pathetically grateful for anything she gave them, from food to toys to books to clothes. As if they were afraid she'd send them away if they complained.
“Don't be silly, sweetie, you can't walk around in clothes that are too small for you. I shall be sure to get you some more as soon as I can. Sissel, what about you, are you all right for clothes?”
It turned out Sissel's dress no longer fastened properly at the back either. New clothes needed for both then. Liriel had to wonder if this was, well, normal. Sissel said she was seven, Lucia thought she was nine, but that meant nothing to Liriel. Altmer of that age were still in the cradle. This growing so fast, was it normal?? Were human children meant to do that?? She had no idea and didn't know who to ask without sounding like an idiot. Still, her girls looked healthy and happy apart from the frightening growth rate. She wouldn't worry too much just yet. Lydia hadn't seemed to think anything was amiss so Liriel supposed there was nothing too odd in it.
Lydia arrived from downstairs, having heard the noise and guessed Liriel was back.
“Liriel, my Thane, thank Mara you're back. Ri'saad was telling me the most bizarre stories. You ended up in Cidhna Mine? Something to do with the Forsworn?” Lydia hauled her off to one side, as the two girls ran off to get ready for dinner. “My Thane, what in Nirn happened?”
“It's hard to explain,” Liriel admitted. “Yes, I got arrested, but I didn't do it, I was framed. I ended up in Cidhna Mine anyway though, but I got out. It's fine, Lydia, you don't need to worry.”
“Don't I?” Lydia asked, raising an eyebrow. “Liriel, I know you've got... affiliations. But you've also got two little girls who were heartbroken to think you might not be coming home. I'll take care of them, yes, but I'm not their mother. You are. You're the one who rescued them both, the one they adore and look up to, and if you've managed to get yourself mixed up in something you can't handle...”
“I said it's fine!” Liriel snapped. Lydia flinched back then lowered her eyes, contrite.
“Of course it is, I didn't mean to pry,” she said quickly. “But if you're in some sort of trouble...”
“I was,” said Liriel shortly. “But I got out of it. Everyone knows now it wasn't me who killed all those people and I got to escape. End of story, I'm home, can we all get on with our lives now please?”
Lydia looked up at that.
“You escaped?? How? No one escapes Cidhna Mine! It's the most secure prison in the country!”
Liriel allowed herself a little smile at this. She'd have to think of a suitable story to be able to tell people. She wasn't sure Madanach would appreciate her telling everyone he'd helped her get out.
“I had a little help,” was all she felt safe saying about that. “Come on, let's have dinner, I want to see my girls again!”
Lydia backed off and let it go, knowing when not to push her Thane for information. It wasn't always healthy to know too much about what Liriel got up to, and Liriel was just thankful her housecarl knew the value of discretion. An association with the Forsworn was something Liriel did not want getting out if she could help it.
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.3
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)“Mama, there was a man in town today giving out leaflets to travellers, but I asked him nicely and he gave me one too.” Sissel was shoving a piece of paper over to her. “It's about a museum opening in Dawnstar. Mama, can we go?”
A museum? In Dawnstar? Who on earth would open one there, it wasn't the most visited of places. Liriel took the pamphlet and read. Some sort of museum dedicated to the Mythic Dawn. Wasn't that the cult that sparked off the Oblivion Crisis? Why would anyone open a museum about them? And in Dawnstar of all places?
“I'll go and see if it's at all interesting,” Liriel promised. “Dawnstar's a long way and very cold. I wouldn't want to take you all the way there only to find out it's really boring.”
Sissel pouted, but Liriel remained firm. She certainly wasn't risking her girls on this one – last time she'd visited Dawnstar she'd got mixed up in destroying a Daedric artefact and saving the town from nightmares. Fun but not something she'd want her children involved with, thank you very much. Still, a museum trip didn't sound too dangerous. Not like the owner was planning to summon Mehrunes Dagon himself, right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Liriel cursed as she dodged arrows and fireballs and hid behind a ward, beating a hasty retreat from Hag Rock Redoubt. Welcome to the Forsworn, Madanach had said. These are your new brothers, Madanach had said. Here, have some fancy armour to look the part, Madanach had said.
Clearly these bastards hadn't got the memo yet. Liriel abandoned all hope of retrieving the damn pommel stone and fled down the hill, letting her Atronach deal with anyone following her. It wasn't fair, it really wasn't. She'd survived the Orc stronghold and actually broken in without needing to kill Ghunzul in the end. She'd broken into Jorgen's cabin in Morthal with no problems whatsoever. Now she was back in the Reach, trying to obtain what she had naively thought would be an easy part of Mehrunes Razor to find, and here she was, up against this. They had a troll, for Sithis' sake! She'd even worn the Armour of the Old Gods Madanach had given her but it hadn't helped. Cutting her losses, she ran to where she'd left her horse. Someone had a lot of explaining to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many hours riding, but she found the place in the end. A craggy outpost in the Druadach Valley, nestling under a cliff – Druadach Redoubt, where Madanach had told her she'd be welcome. She'd better be. She wasn't sure she'd survive another camp of Forsworn attacking her.
There was a small group of them, sitting around outside in the late afternoon sun, a campfire going and a small tent nearby, just inside the wooden stockade, complete with goat's heads on pikes at the actual entrance. Very tasteful.
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.4
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)He hadn't seemed to notice her yet. Too busy watching something. Or maybe just getting reacquainted with the sky after too long inside. He had his right hand raised, clearly focused on something. Liriel approached and then stopped a few feet away, wondering what on earth he was doing. She had her answer when seconds later, a shadow flickered over the ground and Madanach launched a lightning bolt into the sky. Something crashed to the ground, and Madanach punched the air, laughing.
“Still got it!” he announced, sounding extremely cheerful. One of the Forsworn ran off to collect whatever poor creature Madanach had just shot down, presumably a hawk or something.
“Well done, Da!” Kaie called from where she was sitting cross-legged on the ground. “Knew you could do it.”
“I try,” Madanach shrugged. Only three weeks since they'd broken out of prison together, and already he was looking healthier, less haggard. Cleaner, certainly – he looked like he'd bathed only that morning – and he didn't look nearly as pale. Back in Cidhna Mine, he'd had a certain charisma about him. Here in daylight, dressed in Forsworn gear with a sword at his side, he practically resonated power. The pent-up anger and frustration had dissipated – no, found an outlet and transmuted into an aura of calm menace. Liriel swallowed nervously, remembering an afternoon she'd spent at Solitude Docks trying to shoot down hawks for the feathers and failing, and there was Madanach managing it without even breaking a sweat. Madanach of Druadach was a very dangerous man, and now said dangerous man had noticed she was here.
“I wondered when you'd come back,” he said, grinning as his eyes roamed all over her. Did the man have no shame? Of course not, she belatedly began to recall.
“And you're wearing my armour. Even better. It suits you.”
It barely covered her and she'd had to use Stoneflesh before she could feel remotely secure in it. No doubt that was part of the appeal as far as Madanach was concerned.
“Madanach,” she said, trying to keep her voice level. Damned if she was giving him the satisfaction of letting him know just how much he was getting to her. “I thought I should see how you were doing. I know after so long underground adjusting to surface life must be difficult.”
Madanach laughed once, still with that infuriating grin in place and turned to Kaie. “Did you hear that, m'inyeen? The Dragon-Queen was worried about me. She couldn't focus on her slaying of dragons and studies of the arcane and murdering the innocent because she was too busy fearing for my wellbeing. Liriel, I'm touched.”
Ah yes. This was why she'd not come back before. He might have looked gentle and vulnerable while he'd been asleep, but awake he was all snide remarks and arrogantly lording it over everyone. Why she'd ever thought to be concerned was beyond her.
“Yes, well, you're clearly fine, so I shall be on my way. Good luck with your, er, claiming back the Reach.” Liriel turned, preparing to leave. She'd get that pommel stone another way. Maybe Erandur could be persuaded to help...
Madanach's hand clamped down on her arm, and as she turned round, icy glare in place to challenge him, she saw, for the briefest of seconds, genuine fear in his eyes. Only for a second, but it was there.
“Don't... you don't have to go,” he said, sounding a little awkward. “I mean, you've come all the way out here, it's going to be dark soon, why don't you stay and have dinner with us? We've got beds to spare, it's no bother.”
“Let go of me,” said Liriel calmly, and to her surprise, he actually did. That was unexpected. She'd thought he'd tighten his grip just to annoy her. She'd not expected him to actually honour her wishes.
“You didn't come here just to see how we were doing, did you?” he asked quietly. “You had a reason.”
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.5
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)“I had some questions,” she admitted. Madanach inclined his head, looking thoughtful.
“Can't guarantee I'll be able to help, but you're welcome to ask. Take a seat by the fire, we'll eat and talk out here. Kaie, can you tell Odvan to send some food out for us, also send some of the good jenever and some Reach-tonic. Don't worry about sticking around yourself, Liriel's a friend and I don't think there's a lot that she and I can't deal with.”
Kaie got up, brushing grass off her legs, and bowed slightly, grin on her face.
“Don't worry, Da, I'll make sure you've got your privacy,” she laughed, beckoning for the others to leave. Two Forsworn moved to take up lookout positions a few feet away, near enough to intervene if violence broke out, far enough away to not be able to hear their conversation, while everyone else followed Kaie into the nearby cave. Leaving her alone with the King in Rags, who was now sitting down next to the fire, stirring the logs with a stick and hitting it with a Flames spell to persuade it to flare up a bit.
“Not so warm with the others gone,” said Madanach casually. “And it gets dark quickly out here – the sun's gone behind the mountains before you know it. I'm still not used to it you know, the light changing all the time like this.”
Liriel settled herself next to him. She'd wondered how he was managing. Apparently not quite as well as he'd initially made out.
“This is why you're sitting out here and not inside, isn't it? You missed the sky.”
Madanach nodded, watching the setting sun. “Not even so much missed – after a while I forgot what it was like. It just seemed like a distant dream I once had. Now I can walk in the sunlight again and it's... well, it's a little unbelievable. I keep wondering why it's so bright and why the magelight's lasted for so long, and then I remember that's the sun. Hard to believe, I know. I'm trying to spend as much time as I can out here when it's not raining, try and get used to it again, but it's a little nervewracking without company. All that sky, all that openness – it feels like the gods just peeled the roof off the world and are staring down at me.”
Liriel looked up at the sky, the first stars just starting to appear. Now that he'd said that, she was starting to feel a little anxious herself. Altmer cosmology taught that the sky was the location of Aetherius – mortals could no longer see it as it truly was, but it was there and her Aedra ancestors lived there still, watching over their children. She knew they loved her, but she wasn't at all certain they necessarily approved. Feeling a little nervous, she edged a bit closer to Madanach. He glanced up at her, mouth quirking up in a faint half-smile but didn't say anything.
“So, you had questions,” he said. “I'm limited in what I can tell you, you understand. I've got a war to fight, I can't give away all our secrets, not even to you. But ask your questions, I'll tell you what I can.”
Of course she had, lots of questions, very important questions about how the Forsworn were organised and why she could walk in here and be greeted as not just a friend but be given a private audience with the King in Rags himself without any preamble whatsoever, and yet a friendly approach to Hag Rock had resulted in fireballs. So it was that the first question out of her mouth was:
“What's with the goat's heads everywhere? I mean, they're not exactly pretty, are they now?”
She knew it was a stupid question as soon as she opened her mouth, and the pained look on Madanach's face confirmed it.
“Are you a city girl, by any chance?” he said wearily. Liriel was forced to admit that that was the case – born and raised in Alinor and not really getting out of the city much, certainly not doing anything so crass as manual labour. It wasn't until she'd decided she was bored of the stultifyingly dreary life of an upper-class Altmer lady and wanted to broaden her horizons by going to study magic abroad that she'd got to see how ordinary people actually lived. It still took some getting used to.
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.6
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)“Well no, that's what we've got farmers for,” said Liriel, belatedly beginning to realise that perhaps Forsworn society wasn't anything like as stratified as Altmer society.
“Well, Queen of Dragons, allow me to enlighten you,” Madanach told her. “Out in the Reach, we Forsworn have not had a servant class to do all the hard jobs for us, and trade's not really an option either. We grow our own food or we hunt it. We don't have a lot of space for livestock – cows are expensive, they're slow and they're noticeable. Nords see cows wandering around the countryside, they're going to get suspicious. Or they're going to get greedy and start taking them for themselves. But there's wild goats all over these mountains, and no one notices those.”
“They're your prime herd animals,” Liriel guessed. “Clever. But that still doesn't explain why the heads...”
“Herd animal is a bit of a disservice to them,” Madanach said. “They're extremely bright. We don't keep huge flocks of them, but it's rare a Forsworn hideout doesn't have a few wandering about the place. They're intelligent, they're loyal, they eat virtually anything, they give us milk, they make fantastic watch animals, and when they die, we can use the pelt and the meat. Except by the time a goat dies, it's usually become quite beloved by the camp. It kept watch in life, so we honour it in death by ensuring its head can keep watching over us. That's why, Liriel.”
“That... makes an awful lot of sense,” said Liriel thoughtfully. “You've got some here?”
“One,” said Madanach. “Lives inside, keeps watch for intruders, gives good milk. We called her Betsi.”
Liriel couldn't help but giggle. “Betsi the goat! That's so cute!”
“She's not cute, she's a fearless watchgoat of the Forsworn!” Madanach protested, but his heart clearly wasn't in it because a second later they were both laughing.
“All right,” he admitted. “Maybe we're a little fond of her.”
Liriel dried her eyes, smiling. Maybe he wasn't all bad after all. She couldn't call him a decent human being because he blatantly wasn't, but he did at least have feelings.
At that point, Odvan, a Forsworn Liriel remembered from Cidhna Mine, arrived with a tray containing two plates of stuffed roast pheasant and assorted vegetables, and two different bottles, along with glasses.
“Dinner, jenever and Reach tonic, as requested,” Odvan announced, lowering the tray, slipped a bear pelt off his arm and spreading it out on the ground for them both.
“Is it the good jenever?” Madanach asked hopefully. Odvan, far from being obsequious, just looked at his king rather patronisingly.
“It's the only jenever, boss,” Odvan replied. “Unless you wanted some Skooma adding.”
Madanach visibly shuddered at the mere idea. “No. Sithis, no. I had enough of the stuff in Cidhna to last me a lifetime. Just leave me a bottle of this stuff, I'll be quite happy.”
“Thought you'd say that, boss,” Odvan said cheerfully. “You have a good evening now. You too, Liriel.”
Liriel wished him likewise, before turning to her dinner. She'd just reached for a fork when Madanach stopped her.
“Not yet. There's formalities.”
Oh good. Formalities. Liriel hated formalities. Especially the tedious and lengthy kind that went on while food was in front of her, getting cold and she was hungry, dammit! Fortunately, Madanach had never been much of one for that sort of thing either. He just opened one of the bottles and poured its contents into the glasses, measuring out a finger's worth each, then sealing the bottle and topping the glasses up with what was in this one. Both were colourless liquids that might be water but Liriel suspected otherwise. Madanach indicated for her to take a glass.
“What is it?” she asked, sniffing the contents. Definitely alcoholic.
“Jenever. Made from fermented juniper berries and potatoes then distilled,” Madanach told her. “Traditional beverage of the Reachmen since time immemorial so of course the first thing the Nords banned after they overthrew us. Apparently drinking it is bad for our moral fibre and makes us lazy workers.”
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.7
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)“How old are you anyway?” Liriel asked. She knew humans rarely lived more than eighty years at most, but Bretons tended to live longer than the other human races and it wasn't uncommon for them to make it to a hundred. As far as guessing any given age and relating it to a life-cycle stage though, well, that wasn't Liriel's strong point.
“Fifty-nine,” Madanach said, and Liriel felt the glass shaking in her hands. Fifty-nine?? That was no age at all, Altmer only came of age at fifty. But Bretons could see out a century, Altmer could see out a millennium, so if she multiplied it by ten, that made him 590 years old in Altmer years, approximately. Middle-aged, over half his life gone, but by no means dead yet. Still capable, still strong. Still a force to be reckoned with.
Madanach was now indicating the other bottle.
“Now, in here we have the second vital ingredient for a good jenever drink. This is Reach-tonic, and it's made of fresh juniper berry juice, purified river water, all mixed together and brought to boil with the bark of a juniper tree and some blue mountain flowers steeped in it, then the whole thing's filtered. Said to cure all sorts of ailments, which is partly why I drink it, but partly because I just like the taste. To really set it off, we'd need a slice of citron fruit from Cyrodiil, but we don't have any. But we can still make one final finishing touch. I'd do yours for you, but I'm presuming the Archmage of Winterhold can cast her own frost magic.” He held up his glass, raised fingers above it and delicately drew a ring of ice around the sides of the glass, just above the surface of the liquid. Liriel could have squealed in delight. She used to do this all the time in Alinor, she'd never found anywhere outside the Summerset Isles where this was ever common practice. Most humans weren't magically skilled enough to ever think of chilling their drinks.
Raising her glass, Liriel carefully cast her own frost magic, first the ice rim, and then a personal touch, a jolt of ice magic into the drink itself, causing ice crystals to form in it. Madanach nodded, impressed, and raised his glass.
“I knew you'd fit in around here,” he purred, pleased. “And now we toast. To my good health and yours, my lady Dragon-Queen. Slanta!”
Liriel didn't recognise the word but she knew a toast when she heard one. “Slanta!” she called back, tapping her glass against his and taking a sip.
Sithis, but it hit the spot nicely. Strong, but not too strong, and sweet like juniper.
“I could stand to drink more of these,” Liriel gasped. Madanach was leaning back, eyes closed and clearly in a state of bliss.
“Come back any time and I will happily mix you one,” said Madanach. He waved vaguely in the direction of the food tray. “You can start eating now. Let me know if you need it warming up any.”
The food, as it turned out, was still warm, mainly due to a small fire rune on the tray and that was another thing Liriel hadn't seen since leaving home, runes used for anything outside battle magic. She could have cried. Who would have thought that she'd come all the way to Skyrim and the first real reminders of home would have come from dinner with the king of a tribe of savages by Altmer standards?
She revised her opinions of the Forsworn. Clearly they weren't as uncivilised as everyone thought. And the food turned out to be delicious. Seemed Reachman cooking wasn't dissimilar to that of their High Rock cousins.
“If you keeping making me meals like this, you know I'm going to have to keep coming back,” she told him.
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.8
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)Finally she was done and lay back on the grass, pushing the plate away from her, sipping her jenever again. Madanach had also finished and was watching her, curious.
“You said you had questions,” he said. “And all you've asked me so far is why there's goat's heads on pikes around our camps. Surely that wasn't it?”
By this point, Liriel was full of pheasant and feeling quite at ease with the world on account of all the jenever, but she did just about recall what spurred her to come north in the first place.
“Why is it,” she began, “that I can turn up here and get plied with roast pheasant and fine liqueurs and a private audience with the King in Rags, but I go to any other Forsworn camp and they try to kill me? I even wore the armour and everything! Can't you send them a memo or something, tell them I'm a friend of yours? I mean, I am a friend of yours, right?”
Madanach sipped his jenever, expression unreadable, eyes hooded in the firelight, clearly contemplating how to respond to that.
“Of course you're a friend of mine, you'd never have been allowed to get this close to me if I didn't trust you,” he finally said. “But you're asking a very dangerous question there, my Liriel. I could answer it, but it involves giving an awful lot of our secrets away. Information for information, Liriel.”
Well, wasn't that just typical. Still, nothing came for free, she supposed. All the same, unless he was after some arcane magical knowledge from the College of Winterhold, she couldn't think what sort of knowledge she'd have that would be of any use to him. She didn't think a Forsworn would want to learn the Thu'um, unless of course he wanted a psychological weapon against the Nords.
“What did you want to know?” she asked. Madanach pursed his lips, eyes narrowed, clearly thinking how to frame his question, before leaning forward, edging closer so his eyes were inches from her own.
“I want to know why the Sacrament stopped working,” he growled.
Of all the questions she'd thought he'd ask, she didn't think it would have been that one.
“I'm sorry?” she managed to breathe.
“You heard me,” Madanach said, glaring. “Why did the Sacrament stop working? When my daughter died, when my wife decided to spend her time ascending to Matriarchy rather than rescuing me, when I wanted out of that daedra's bargain I made with Thonar and called on the Night Mother to help me, why did she not answer me? I'd get nightshade smuggled in, I had a shiv for that very purpose, I had candles stockpiled, every time a prisoner died, I'd have the body brought in to do the Sacrament. It never worked. Not once. I had silver ore to hand over to pay an assassin with, but no one ever arrived. They say no one escapes Cidhna Mine, but we had ways of getting information and supplies in and out, Kaie was visiting me every week once she was old enough, I had an agent in the guards. No one from your damn Dark Brotherhood, your priesthood of Sithis, no child of your Unholy Matriarch ever turned up. No one until you waltzed in demanding to be let out and blaming me, and not knowing a damn thing about any Sacrament with me. You want to know why I put up with you, why I helped you? Because I'd heard rumours the Altmer Dragonborn was a child of the Night Mother and wondered if perhaps, just perhaps, you were the answer to my prayers. Then Kaie brings your gear and what do we find but Shrouded Robes and Armour which you were getting dressed in straight away. Don't deny you're Dark Brotherhood, Liriel. I just want to know why the Dread Father turned his back on me when I needed him most.”
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.9
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)“I can't – I can't tell you, Madanach. I wish I could!” she sighed. “But I can't just go spilling Dark Brotherhood secrets like this. Not to an outsider! You understand that, right?”
Madanach laughed bitterly, turning away and lying on his back, staring at the stars.
“Old gods preserve us,” he said quietly. “You truly know nothing, do you?”
“Because you won't tell me!” Liriel cried, getting a little sick of this. “What is this big secret you keep expecting me to know? I'm just a raw recruit, Madanach. I've been one of them for months, if that. And you're not one at all, although I'm willing to believe you're more than capable of cold-blooded murder.”
“I am that,” Madanach murmured. “All right, Liriel. I will tell you what you should already know, and if that's to your liking, then I'm hoping you'll answer my question.”
Liriel sipped her jenever and agreed. Finally, a few answers. She watched as Madanach lay back, watching the aurora blaze.
“The first thing you have to know to truly understand us, how we think, how we see the world, in fact, probably the only thing, is to know who we worship. Know our gods. Few ever even think to ask.”
“You worship the old gods,” said Liriel, wondering what this had to do with anything. “The ones that came before the Eight Divines. And Talos, if you count him. Which I don't.”
“Should hope not,” Madanach growled. “He's the reason we lost our kingdom, him and that Empire of his. I don't even respect Tiber Septim as a man, worshipping him as a god is madness. You know we worship the old gods but do you know who the old gods are?”
No, was the short answer to that one. She'd read a lot, but never seen anything on the Forsworn gods. Even Madmen of the Reach was silent on who they were.
“The Daedra?” she hazarded a guess. Faint smile on Madanach's face, which probably meant the answer was no.
“Before even the Daedra,” said Madanach quietly. “Life and death themselves, existence and non-existence. The power from which all things come, and the power by which all things end, shaping the world into being, deciding what comes to pass and what does not. Everything came from them and they're still working today, still dancing and that dance is what makes the world turn. That dance gave us the Aedra, and it gave us the Daedra too, although they're only lesser aspects of the two greater powers. I'll tell you their names, but you already know them, or you should at least. Anu, Lord of All That Is. And the other, the Lord of All That Is Not? You serve him, Liriel.”
Liriel lifted her head, her yellow eyes staring into Madanach's grey ones. She'd heard him swear by Sithis earlier, but had assumed he'd just been reading up on the Brotherhood and was trying to make her feel at home. It had never even occurred to her his interest in the Brotherhood was more than professional, that his rage and fury at Sithis never answering his call wasn't just despair at not getting Thonar killed but an actual religious crisis.
“The Forsworn worship Sithis??” she whispered, wondering how, why she never knew this, why no one, not even Cicero who should know these things, had never told her this before. Madanach just inclined his head.
“Both of them, Anu and Sithis together. You cannot have one without the other. Everything about us comes from that. We do not fear death because we would not be alive without it, and one day we too will die so that the world can keep turning. We don't need a dream of Sovngarde to make us brave enough to fight. We fight and risk our lives because we know the Dread Father will claim us when he's ready and we can't change that. No one knows the mind of the Dread Father. No one but you.”
He'd rolled over, staring into her eyes again as if she was the answer to the mysteries of life, the universe and everything.
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.10
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)“Not you personally, girl, I'm prepared to believe you're not exactly a high-ranked member of the Brotherhood. But while the Hags invoked Sithis, sacrificed themselves to him for their power, they could never clearly know his mind, never be one with him. But they told of one who one day would ascend beyond even what they'd achieved, a Matriarch who would make the ultimate sacrifice of not just her soul but her very life and know the will of Sithis first hand.”
Liriel could barely breathe. Everything Astrid and Cicero had told her came rushing back, that there'd been an assassin once who'd become the lover of Sithis, mother of his five children and killed them to win his favour, becoming the Night Mother.
“The Night Mother,” she whispered. “She – she killed her children for him and he made her his wife.”
“I know,” Madanach whispered back. “Life and death in an eternal cycle – she brought them into being then she took them out of existence. The ultimate move in the dance, and it gave her power beyond anyone's wildest dreams. I'm a father, Liriel, and I've seen my children die, the Nords killed my daughter Eithne right in front of me. I could never... I could never have killed them myself.”
“Nor me,” Liriel said softly, Sissel and Lucia's faces before her eyes and even though she'd not birthed them, she could never bring herself to hurt them. Even taking splinters out of fingers and bathing scraped knees was an ordeal. To do what the Night Mother had? She could never do it. “So are you telling me that to the Forsworn, the Night Mother's like a goddess?”
“A Matriarch,” Madanach confirmed. “The Matriarch of Matriarchs, one who even the Hags must bend the knee to. When she became the Night Mother, back in the Second Era, the Hags knew and they trembled. All things must die and they foresaw the Night Mother and her children could bring them down. Then that book, A Kiss, Sweet Mother, began circulating and people tried the ritual. And the Brotherhood answered. Some of them even came to us for training, hailing us in Sithis' name, and we welcomed them in. It's a sacred calling to be one of them, Liriel. They were strong and they were deadly and they were even more so once they'd trained with us. To serve Sithis, enacting his will in the world, removing those who have outlived their usefulness... damn, Liriel, if the Forsworn hadn't needed me here, I would have joined them. As it is I made the pilgrimage to Bravil once as a young man. I wanted to pray to Sithis to give me the strength to bring down the Nords. There was a time when I even thought he'd answered. When I took Markarth and they first called me Reach-King.”
The fire had burned low, the guards on duty had changed shifts, the sun was long gone and Secunda was now rising while Masser loomed overhead, but Liriel didn't even care. Everything she thought she knew had been turned upside down.
“Then what?” she whispered. “What happened?”
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.11
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)“Madanach,” Liriel whispered. “Sithis help me, I'm so sorry.” She closed the gap between them, wrapping her arms around him and holding him. She heard him exhale sharply, then felt his hands on her skin, sliding around her back as he pulled her closer, clinging on to her like a drowning man clings to the one that rescues him. Liriel just held him, silently screaming to Sithis why, why the Brotherhood had fallen apart, why it was just one Sanctuary and that never likely to care about a group of rebels with no coin to pay them. Astrid didn't care about the Night Mother and would never bother with the Forsworn. Of all of them, Cicero was the only one who might actually understand – but he'd never leave the Night Mother. It was just her, the Listener of the Night Mother, with a Sanctuary that would never listen to her in turn.
“Don't give me your apologies,” he growled, voice muffled where he was leaning against her shoulder. “Just tell me why.”
She owed him that, at least. From the sounds of it, he was a more devoted son of Sithis than anyone in Falkreath.
“I don't know why,” Liriel said quietly. “But I can tell you what happened, as far as I know it.” So she told him what Cicero and Astrid had told her, that there'd been trouble in Cyrodiil after the war and the other Sanctuaries had been closed or fallen apart, and then the Night Mother's Crypt had been attacked. Madanach listened, growing pale to hear how the Night Mother's body had been rescued and brought back to Cheydinhal, the last Cyrodiil Sanctuary standing, but that the Listener, the only one who could hear the Night Mother's words and pass on the contracts, was dead and the Night Mother never chose a new one.
“Wait a second,” Madanach interrupted. “Are you saying that the Night Mother's physical remains are her conduit to you all, and she only talks to one of you? This Listener?”
Liriel nodded. “Yes. That's how the Sacrament works, the Night Mother hears it and tells the Listener and they send someone out to meet the client. But there wasn't a Listener any more and the Night Mother never talked to anyone. So the Sacrament never worked and Cheydinhal Sanctuary fell apart. The Sanctuary in Falkreath is the last one, and it still works but it doesn't rely on the Night Mother. Astrid, that's our leader, has got contacts and regular customers all over the place and she takes work off them. But if you performed the Sacrament in secret in Cidhna Mine, Astrid would never have known to come find you.”
Slowly, she felt Madanach let her go, sitting upright and grimacing as he did so, staring into the dying fire.
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.12
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 09:51 pm (UTC)(link)Liriel wondered if she ought to tell him. She didn't know if it would do any good. It wasn't like she had any real power. Listener of the Night Mother, but she had one Sanctuary at her disposal and they didn't recognise her as leader.
“No one else must ever know this, Liriel,” Madanach was saying, sounding utterly despairing. “They can never know that the Black Hand of Sithis will never open for us again. You have no idea, Liriel, no idea what the Ascension of the Night Mother meant for us. It was the promise that we could commune with Sithis himself, channel his power, influence him and use his gifts to bring down all in our way. That's why we trained Brotherhood assassins, that's why we sent many of our own to join their ranks. They were Sithis Incarnate, true-born killers. To know that's not true any more, that Sithis has abandoned them... Liriel, if this got out, it would be the end of us. If Sithis abandoned the Brotherhood, what's to stop him doing the same to us? Maybe he already has. All things must die. Maybe we're not meant to win.”
Madanach was staring into the fire, shoulders hunched, and for the first time since she'd known him, Liriel could sense something dying inside, the spark that had lit a rebellion and taken the Reach the first time, the spark that had kept him alive in Cidhna Mine all this time, finally going out. It was breaking Liriel's heart. She'd take the insults and the taunting and the calling her Queen of Dragons like it meant something, if it just meant he kept his spark. If he lost that... she knew without doubt he'd likely not see his sixtieth birthday.
“He hasn't abandoned us,” Liriel heard herself saying. “It's not hopeless. Madanach, the Night Mother's Keeper survived somehow – he was the one tasked with taking care of the remains. He kept them safe, kept them pristine and he brought them to Skyrim this year. He got to the Sanctuary just after I joined, we've got the Night Mother there now. The conduit's still open, Madanach. She spoke to me. She said I was her Listener now. Except... except Astrid won't hear of it and insists I should obey her instead, and the rest of the Sanctuary, everyone except the Keeper, all back her. So I don't think I'm going to be much good to you or anyone, but-” She didn't have the chance to finish the sentence. Madanach had turned to face her as she'd talked, eyes getting wider by the second.
“You. Are Listener.”
Liriel nodded, biting her lip and wondering if she should have kept quiet.
“The Voice of the Night Mother. The Chosen of Sithis. You. Liriel, the great and powerful Queen of Dragons.”
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.13
(Anonymous) 2013-04-06 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)“Er, boss?” and that was Duach who had given her Skooma after she'd pretended to be an addict. “Are you alright over there?”
“Yes!” Madanach laughed. “Yes, I'm fine, I'm more than fine! Sithis answered our prayers, boys!”
A pause. “That's lovely, boss, but we didn't pray for you to go mad.”
Madanach shot a glare in his direction. “Were I not in such a good mood, you'd be on the receiving end of a lightning bolt up your backside, Duach.”
Duach laughed good-naturedly and called to his fellow guard. “Yeah, he's alright, Mhairi. Back to normal.” Mhairi laughed in turn and the two of them resumed looking out over the valley. Madanach rolled his eyes and winced as he pulled himself to his feet, extending a hand to Liriel. She took it, allowing herself to be hauled upright.
“Madanach, don't expect miracles, the Sanctuary all follow Astrid, not me!” she said weakly. “It's just me and Cicero the Keeper who still follow the Night Mother, and Cicero's insane.”
Madanach didn't even seem to care. “So, you're the rightful leader of a once great force of murdering bastards, but you can't do your job properly because of some controlling bitch who won't release her grip on power, is that right?”
That pretty much summed it up, yes. Madanach nodded, looking sympathetic.
“Yes, believe it or not, I know exactly how that feels. Come on, let's get inside. We've got a lot to talk about. You may not realise it, but this changes everything.”
Liriel really couldn't see how anything had changed at all, but Madanach seemed fairly determined. She might as well see where this was going.
“What do we need to talk about?” she asked, and then it occurred to her he'd never answered her question.
“You told me what I wanted to know,” said Madanach, grinning back at her as he led her into Druadach Redoubt. “Time I told you what you were after and then how to go about rectifying matters. Listen well, Listener. Time you learnt how the Forsworn actually function.”
Liriel followed inside eagerly. It looked like she was finally going to get some answers, and if she was really lucky, the pommel stone of Mehrunes' Razor might just fall into her hands. Not to mention that she might just have acquired a more powerful supporter against Astrid than a half-mad jester...
~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Hope you all liked it - this one was mostly setup but it's setup for some great possibilities.
M'inyeen is from the Irish for my daughter and Slanta is based on traditional Irish toast slainte. Jenever is gin by any other name.
Next chapter is Forsworn internal politics and the beginning of a reborn Brotherhood/Forsworn Auld Alliance...
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.13
(Anonymous) 2013-04-07 04:26 am (UTC)(link)Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.13
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 01:19 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.13
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.13
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)At least the Forsworn have goats to ride!
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.13
(Anonymous) 2013-04-08 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)The other Dothraki tradition going straight in there is a relative lack of privacy in a Forsworn camp and rather permissive attitudes towards sex, but that can all come later...
Re: Nightshade and Juniper 2.13
(Anonymous) 2013-04-09 12:24 am (UTC)(link)