Kvaasik - The Soul Siphon

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
11 - The Astral Escapade

The interior of the Star was much what one would expect the inside of a gem would look like. The ground beneath me was crystalline and had a teal tinge to it, as did the sky around me (if it could be described as a ‘sky’). I looked down at myself, and realized that my appearance was that of my original Sload body, although I still had the numbing sensation from being an incorporeal being.

“Yes, it is about time I was fed another soul.” I saw another form in front of me, a dark elf in a robes with black warpaint tattooing his face. His appearance seemed to flicker slightly, as if his soul was starting to disintegrate. This must be Malyn Varen. “Wait…you are not one of my necromancers; I would remember a Sload in my ranks. No matter. You will sustain me, whether you are willing to or not.” The apparition disappeared, replaced by a group of Daedra in armor. This will be tougher than I thought.

I used a banishment spell to send one of the soldiers back to Oblivion, then let loose a splash of dark energy to singe the Daedra where it hit them. I plowed through the remaining Daedra with a combination of soul magic and banishment spells, spiraling down a crystalline path running through the middle of the Star until I came upon Malyn Varen.

“I should have expected no less from a Sload; you are a powerful people. Powerful, but not powerful enough.” Malyn’s hands were alight in a violet conflagration, flames growing larger and larger. He pointed his hand towards me, and the fire started to crawl in my direction. I felt my energy leaving me, as if the fire burned my very essence. Malyn was getting stronger at my expense; his presence in this vessel was intensifying as mine dwindled. He drank my vitality like a thirsty senche-tiger from a spring. A thought struck me: a spring. Were the spring to be poisoned, the senche would surely die. I focused all of my energy in poisoning my own soul with dark magic, and I immediately saw a shock of surprise resonate through Malyn and his spell. The flames died lower and lower, he himself shrinking.

“Sload…what have you done…” His form dissolved, the arcane inferno snuffed out like a candleflame as a result. I sat in the crystalline interior of the Star, every creature within vanquished. Malyn Varen has found peace, in nonexistence if in nothing else.

But I knew that all was not well. The spell I had used to ‘poison’ my soul had not only weakened Malyn, but weakened me as well, to the point that I no longer had the strength to leave. In exchange for my own survival, I sacrificed my ability to escape, as Malyn had sacrificed a corporeal form for immortality.

I would have to wait until another adventurer happened by and attempted to cleanse the gem from the inside-out. I will leave Azura’s Star, one way or the other. But there is no telling how long I will be here before that happens.