Once outside the tower, Hasir sat on a bit of rubble and thought on something that was bugging him.
"Ceralyne, why did Mola Bal signle you out? What does he have to gain with turning you into a hybrid?"
Ceralyne turned to him; a queioning look on her otherwise beautiful face.
"I'm not sure. I think he wanted to get to you." She shrugged, "If imprisoning me did it, than happy accident, I guess." She drew her longsword, "We'd best be on our feet from here on out, lest Molag Bal's creeps find and imprison us again. Where do you suppose the rest of the quad of fate are?"
Hasir looked at her, eyebrow raised.
"Where did you hear that? I didn't tell you." He said, shaking his head.
Ceralyne whacked him on the head with the broadside of her sword making Hasir yelp in pain.
"Erm... you don't think I know that, Hist for brains?" She said with a wry smile. "When these burly goons, daedroth brought me in, Xivilai or Winged Twilights... couldn't tell, they'd pulled the wool over my eyes... well, a hood to be more precise, or was it a mask...?"
Hasir groaned audibly at this urgin the high elf to orbit the sun instead of staring at it directly.
"Hircine's claws, reel the fish in istead of leaving it flailing. Move on, forget the details for howling out loud."
Ceralyne shook her head to clear her sky of bothersome clouds.
"Right, sorry. As I was saying, when these goons dragged me like a hound freshly skinned, I overhead two of them talking about how they caged two of the gods of fate here. From the sound of it, I would say they are either in the throne room or in the crypt down below."
Hasir nodded curtly but had a question brewing in his mind that he may've already new the answer to.
"...and what of the Doomstrider? Did you hear where he was being held?"
The altmer thought on this a bit, chewing her thought like a ravenous dog.
"I don't think the Doomstrider can be caught. I mean think about it, how can you capture that which is uncapturable? He is the darkness we are doomed to see if we don't bring light. I believe he and Hermaeus Mora are uncapturable. If you could capture being that control your fate, why even try? I mean, Ithelia was easy... perhaps even the spider queen but... i dunno, Hermaeuas and the doomstrider are... different, somehow, I just can't put my finger on it."
Hasir shrugged and gestured over the castle wall to the crypt, hiding in the shadow of the dead tree.
"I think anything's possible. I don't think Mephala would be in the throne room, it's way too easy. If I were Molag Bal, I would want my prisoners kept in a place that anyone who'd what to recuse them would have to fight to access. So given that logic, that would be my guess."
Inigo and Ceralyne had to trust Hasir on this one as they had no idea themselves. They exited back the way they had come to find themselves back in the spooky graveyard. They navigated it, opened the cemetery gate before the crpyt door, opened the door and entered.
Inigo shivered as looked down the narrow stairs leading down into the crypt.
"My friend, I am not sure about this." He said, thinking of the draugr encounters he suffered through. "My fleas are thinking about jumping ship, er... fur, and mating with lightning bugs."
Hasir wrapped his arm around his furry friend, reasssuring him.
"Inigo, I won't let anything happen to you, I promise." He said, wrapping his tail around his friend's legs. "When, if, our ship hits an iceberg, I will steer it safely amidst the dangers.
Inigo felt the slimy reassurance of the Tamrielic snake and, after a few seconds of mustering himself, he and the Argonian descended the narrow sstairway into the main room of the crypt. Sensing the furry feline's confidence growing, Hasir retracted his tail and turned to Inigo.
"Do you know where Mephala is being held?" He asked.
Hasir shrugged and gestured to a darkened area of the crypt with stairs leading seemingly in the pits of Oblivion.
"Dunno... I think she is down those steps somewhere."
Inigo nodded and followed Hasir as he descended even further into the crypt's underbelly, a freshly conjured miniature sun floating inches in front of them, throughing nightmarish shadows upon the crypt walls. The argonian, elf and khajiit ventured further, stopping dead at the bottom as they beheld a sight that made Inigo's fleas look like scamps who saw ice.
Inigo turned to Hasir and the elf; a concerned look on his face.
"My friend, I see a figure down there." He said, gestured further down the dimly lit corridor. "I wonder if that is the person we're seeking." He wondered, rubbing his chin in thought. "No matter, looks like she has company... AHHHH!"
Hasir wondered what made his friend startle as easily as a scrib seeing fire. He looked from the ghostly white khajiit to where the cat's gaze fell. There flanking the apparently unconscious pillar of fate flanked by two apparently freshly converted wolfbat hyrids.
Hasir, light held alot, ran down the stairs and pressed the miniature sun to one of the creature's chest. No matter how shrilling its shrieks were, he dared not remove it. A few second later, the creature's fur turned black as a freshly made fire on a clear midnight and crumpled at the Argonian's feet.
He turned to Inigo who was kneeling next to Mephala's unconscious form trying his best to conjure up a healing spell and put a scaly hand on his shoulder.
"Inigo, keep trying, you can do it!" He gestured across the room at an oncoming werebat, "I've got this one." He stated confidently.
He conujred the 'candlelight' spell and repeated the same action he did with the first werebat. In a similar fashion, the corpse, unable to take the pulsing light, crumpled to dust. Hasir walked back to the unconscious figure as he saw Ceralyne combined her spell with Inigo's, supercharging it so it glowed brighter than his alone ever could.
Hasir held up his hand to silence the spellcasters.
"Hold it, she's coming around." He said with a sign of relief.
They moved the dark elf over to a stone chair and Hasir handed her his tankard. She took a drink and handed it back to him. His tain swaying to and fro upon the ground, showing his appreciation of her being alive.
Mephala surveyed the macabre surrounding and eyed the with equal parts concern and fear.
"Thank the divines you found me, I was worried those undead dog would finish me off... or worse."
Inigo lean close to her inquisitively.
"At least you didn't end up as a brown deposit."
Hasir slapped Inigo on the back of the head and hissed.
"Charming, Hssss! She meant not ending up like those creatures, idiot!"
Inigo rubbed the back of his neck in shameful embarrasment.
"I know what she meant. Save that energy for the elf when you two go 'hunting' will you? Ow."
Fully rejuvenated, Mephala rose and performed a gesture in the air making a purple edged portal appear.
"I wish I could stay, but, I've got to get back to the Doomstrider and the others. Ass your no doubt aware, the pillars of fate, or 'quad' as you call it, are not designed to assist mortal in any way. Farewell."
Hasir saw, as the portal dismished, a bit of farmland that was supposedly near the Elsweyr-Cyrodiil border. The Argonian edged near it for a closer inspection before it vanished, but was steered aside by Ceralyne at the last moment.
"What did you do that for!?" He askeed. "Ceralyne, my cousin Hadar lives in that vicinity. If any he can help ascertain our next step."
Ceralyne eyed him with narrowed eyes full of longing.
"I know. She said "It's just... I've been so lonely ever since I was trapped in the metal alligator. A woman has needs too, you know." She said, tracing Hasir's face with her finger. "Perhaps, we can... go somewhere private... perhaps with a bed? You know, for the two of us?" Hasir glanced over at Inigo, who looked apprehensive, "Forget about him." She said, running her fingers down the Argonian's spine. "He could've disappeared through that portal, but he didn't. I'm sure there are mice he can chase around here." She eyed Hasir hungrily. "I was thinking... how do you feel about sex and a funeral, hmm?"
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