Kvaasik - Varen's Folly

1 - The Rise of Thras
2 - The Cold Front
3 - Change in Wardrobe
4 - The Unsinkable City
5 - An Unlikely Patron
6 - The Purring Liar
7 - The Dismantling Dilemma
8 - The Shade in Sunlight
9 - Varen's Folly
10 - The Soul Siphon

Possession is a much better disguise than the Tars Mogrif is capable of. I can read a host’s thoughts, every single memory that they recall is now mine. I now know more about Skyrim’s culture than my entire experience on Tamriel thus far; if I were to perform this again a few more times, I could have enough information to conquer Skyrim in a week. But first, I need to navigate around the mind of this necromancer—Malkoran—to find a way to trap Rajhin.

He studied in the College of Winterhold, long ago. He followed his mentor, Malyn Varen, from the College when Malyn was exiled from the college for the sacrifice of students. Malyn collected some followers, Malkoran included, and fled to an old Imperial outpost with an artifact called Azura’s Star. I had heard of Azura, Daedric Prince of twilight, but had never heard of her star. Malyn Varen thought that he could use the star to immortalize himself by trapping his own soul within. He had succeeded, as well, but required more souls to sustain his consciousness. When Malkoran was next to be sacrificed, he ran to Meridia’s Shrine because he knew that the others would never dare step foot here, even if they could find him.

Azura’s Star must be what I seek. I could see the abandoned outpost in Malkoran’s head, next to a large body of water. Ilinalta’s Deep, the fortress was called; if I were to find the Star anywhere, it would be there.

I could feel the link to this body fading. When I leave Malkoran, I assume he will be knocked unconscious, but nothing is stopping him from rebinding me to a corpse and keeping me here when he wakes up. I looked at the undead shades around me who were, at this point, mine to command, and I had an idea. I ordered the nearby thralls to restrain me, and they mindlessly obeyed, grabbing hold of my wrists firmly. While Malkoran would still be able to call off the thralls, it would buy me time to escape. I swiftly let go of this body, the undead still holding Malkoran upright, and floated over stairs and around corridors as easily as fog striding over water.

Malkoran was surely awake by now, but even with his power he could not draw me back to the temple from such a far distance. I could move very quickly without a body, though I felt incomplete without one. Although the mobility of my Sload body was nothing impressive, I still missed it greatly; I had not appreciated the power and general feeling of wholeness that comes with being a Sload until I no longer had those luxuries. Soon, I will have all that back.

I found the keep, just as I had seen it in Malkoran’s mind: a fortress, half-sunken in murky water, moss crawling up the cobbled walls like they were reaching for something. Malyn Varen’s ritual room was in the top of the tallest watchtower, although now it was almost entirely overtaken by Lake Ilinalta. I drifted through the walls, into a round, surprisingly-spacious room. Malyn had obviously established a cult around himself, as his skeleton sat in a throne surrounded by other corpses, presumably left over from the ‘soul feasts’ that sustained Malyn’s form.

In Malyn’s skeletal lap sat an eight-armed star, magicka practically bleeding from the gem into the surrounding room. This was presumably Azura’s Star, though it has seen better days. The arms of the Star were cracked or snapped off completely, evidence of Malyn’s ignorance when it comes to soul magic. It is of no use to me in its current state, especially with Malyn still inside. I will have to separate Malyn from the gem, but from the looks of the body he left behind, my only option will be to destroy his soul from inside the gem itself. I stared at the star; if I could possess the body of a Breton, there was no doubt that I could enter and leave a soul gem. I focused on the artifact, every facet, every carat, and I found myself being pulled in, like another soul was dragging me towards it.