Kvaasik - The Astral Escapade

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
12 - His Master's Student

To Malyn Varen, his time in the Star must have felt like a few weeks, being fed a soul feast every night like a king is served his meals. But he had spent enough time from his body for whatever was left of his corpse to completely decompose until all that was left was his skeleton. To me, I have been in the Star for about an hour, but who knows how long it has been since I entered Azura’s Star? Days? Weeks? It is impossible to know, so long as I am confined here. I could feel my tether to my body depleting by the second, and I have no way to escape.

Then I had a revelation. Malyn’s cult has no idea that he had died, which means that, sooner or later, they will attempt to feed him a fresh soul. If Malyn used the souls to sustain his bond to this vessel, perhaps I could use them to do the opposite. Theoretically, if I harness the power of a subject’s life energy to form a modified soul trap spell, I could directly possess the nearest empty vessel and escape this dreadful place, so long as I act with haste.

It was not long before they sacrificed a fellow cultist, as landwalkers are so willing to kill each other for foolish notions of honor or loyalty. He appeared where I had first entered the Star: at the top of the crystalline pathway. He was young, and shocked to see me rather than his master Malyn. All I had to do was kill the necromancer, like how Malyn tried to kill me, and his life energy should be transferred into my being. Quickly, I struck the surprised cultist with a ball of pure magicka, and his form immediately dissipated. His life energy roared through me like a wildfire, but I did not have the time to bask in this power; I concocted a potent soul trap spell to separate myself from the Star and enter into the nearest vessel, the body of the sacrifice. Light swallowed my eyesight whole, and when it seceded, the mossy ceiling of Ilinalta’s Deep stared down at me.

I have escaped.

There were other necromancers around me, paralyzed in a state of astonishment and fear. I looked down at my hands, the hands of a Nord. This body was powerful, with a strong mind and equally strong muscles. Magicka blazed through my veins; I was eager to test this Nord’s capabilities.

A splash of fire, a hiss of lightning, the bitter chill of frost; every other cultist, and even the skeletons they reanimated, lay charred or frozen on the stone floor. This Nord is mighty, but not as powerful as my Sload form. This body, however, will serve as a worthy vessel on my journey towards Solitude. Theoretically, I could survive longer possessing this Nord than I could others, due to the soul that belonged to it being recycled into my escapade. I may need to ‘feed’ again on my journey, however, just as Malyn required souls to renew his bond to the Star, I will need souls to renew my bond to this body. Nevertheless, I should make haste, before night takes the sky, and especially before the link to my own body is eclipsed by Rajhin.