I
It is only natural for those not acquainted with neither the outer spheres nor with the arcane acts of creation to assume that what we call 'reality' is all which exists. It is entirely plausible to infer that, beyond the known planes, there is only dream and void. It is only logical to pronounce any conflicting cogitations pertaining to the presumed and speculated on existence of dimensions and worlds outside the commonly taught and indubitably known as madness. But our bodies and minds, with their unsatisfactory and inferior array of senses and fragile approach at fully grasping the universe and all that lies within can only detect, process and understand, envision and imagine so much.
After all, who is to judge the squeamish and unknowing, oblivious to their own ignorance and incapabilities? Is not the blind man inept to evoke in his mind a picture when iterated upon colours? Does not the deaf man toil in the comprehension of the true meaning of intonation? Likewise, the uninitiated lack the knowledge to see anything beyond their horizon.
I, too, had been like that before my investigations into the Heartland Kidnappings began. So it will surprise me not should you choose to tread the discombobulated path of rejection, damning the very idea of what this second part of my epistle is about to relate. But I implore you to listen, to heed my warnings. Failing to adhere will most certainly spell disaster. If, indeed, disaster is not already on our doorsteps.
So far, the journey had been long, physically tiresome and mentally straining past acceptable levels. All that we have hitherto seen defied common sense and excoriated our beliefs. Moreover, our provisions were depleted save for a less than sufficient amount of water. The many battles that led us up to an event of a very much climactic quality were many. Nephethys and I were still on the hunt for the perpetrator who took all those innocent citizens. But he not only stole their bodies for his perverse amusement. At length it became abundantly clear that this antiquated madman of elven race stole the very essences of all he had laid his callous fingers upon and with them, painted the cyclopean picture of a world wholly alien to ours.
And with such finesse and magical acumen as to make it truly come into existence somewhere within the contorted space of cosmic unrest, frighteningly real as we discovered when he, self proclaimed Lord, Atebid, entered the canvas of his own design. Evidently a gateway into his pestilential soul. To think such things possible shakes and terrifies me. As does the prospect of pursuit into whatever hellspace awaits. I need not describe my emotions further, for I believe you are feeling it right now. In your gut and ghost.
As discouraging as the situation the two of us had been thrust into was, we knew we were not alone as long as we had each other.
The premise of companionship invigorated our spirits to cast light where shadows reign. Though the more radiance we produced, the greater the darkness around us became. And in making that step into the strange realm of the carnal Lord, as critical as it was to our success, our bright rays of knowledge would be smothered by an all-devouring blackness.
To be able to proceed meant to acquire sources of sustenance. As previously mentioned, we ran out of edibles. If we wanted only the slightest chance of survival it was imperative we obtain nutrition of some capacity. In quest of finding it, Nephethys and I scanned the chamber in which she fought our adversaries mere moments ago. Unsurprising the revelation was that these crazed cultists kept no cattle or livestock. From what we've observed it wasn't too far fetched to entertain the idea that their dietary habits were of a more cannibalistic nature.
To our chagrin this also meant there was no item present throughout the entirety of the subterranean structure, from the discontinued sewers all the way to the Ayleid ruins, that could be classified as 'food' in the traditional sense.
The two of us disgusted ourselves when we, for but a moment, mused about dismemberment of the freshly slain men and women to satisfy our hunger when it would later gnaw from the inside. But the Divines were negligent that day. So, in spite of our creeping sickness, we had to resort to an outré of carnivorousness. A grim purpose the gruesome details of which I will refrain from burdening you with. All that I am going to tell is that, in the end, we had again a solid chance at survival, our pouches filled with gloomy contents.
But is the cost of preparedness measured in one's own humanity, as it is measured in the blood of the fallen? Do we have to abandon ourselves? Time will tell if the mind holds fast - or slips.
II
After we've cleaned us and our equipment, rinsing everything with as much water as we could find and bottling up the untainded remains thereof, additionally to procuring ghastly provisions for the oncoming travels, preparations were declared complete.
As we re-entered the chamber through that ancient Ayleid archway, we were once again awestruck by the painting's magnificence and sheer order of magnitude. Yet, we worried profoundly at the purport of the imagery it so unabridgedly showed us. What daemoniac realm we resolved to submit ourselves to against our better judgement.
If that piece of haemal art was a truthful depiction of the mad domain of the bloodthirsty Lord, the worst was yet to transpire. Upsetting was the landscape stroked so finely upon the cloth, disturbing the lifeforms thusly reputed to walk the hostile, burnt earth. Aggravating the leaden clouds that hung heavily above all, their lightning crawling in and out of the starry vault.
In the foreground were visible dry dunes of a torrid land riddled with skeletal remains and crumbling foundation walls. Starved bipeds were roaming the sands under an invisible sun. Off to the left I espied queer structures of black brickwork, inhabited by creatures unknown to Mundus. On the right, a dead forest of charred woods and thorny branches. Hung from the trees were several bodies lining a path into the disconcerting thicket that lead up to a dilapidated fort ruled by an undead of immense power.
Further back I saw a temple of extraneous design, towering over its small island it was situated upon. At its peak were constructed horns akin to those of the minotaur chiseled from solid rock. Framed by them a gigantic crystal emitting a dark radiance.
Further in the back still were apocalyptic landscapes upon which sat a conglomeration of smaller, crooked buildings and less discernible lifeforms, caves and mounds, dried lakes and rivers, all these framing a terrible city with its thick walls, high towers and the peaked roofs of its palace of the vessel. It in itself the temple to the Carnarium.
Far in the background, at last, were visible the jagged mountain ridges, their serrated edges cutting into the umbral skies. And the tenebrous heavens bled where they were cut, a red stream winding its way down the tyrannizing rock formations.
Such was the glimpse we beheld of this unnatural location, this dimension of oppressive corruption.
"What do you suppose will greet us on the other side? When we step through?" Nephethys asked, nervously awaiting my reply. "I don't know", said I, " This canvas is all I see of that world. Should no clever deceit be involved in Atebid's disappearance, I conclude this vista be our destination". We looked at each other. Our firm glances fixed upon the eyes, darting back and forth from one to the other and back again.
"Are you in fright?", she asked then. "Yes", I aspirated. Truly, I was in turmoil. I had no intention of lying to my companion. "Me too.".
She stared down at her defiled legs with watery eyes, a tear making its way down her cheek. "I'd rather die before I let myself be tortured further. Even so, the fear still resides within my bosom. I need you for this, Thorus. If you don't go, I-"
I cut her off as her lips began to vibrate, her throat clogging up beneath a runny nose. The bodily modifications she had been subjected to broke her spirit to such an extent as to appear helpless at times. And this was one such moment. She had become stronger than ever before, albeit at a terrible price none could be prepared to pay.
I went on to hold her face in my opened palms as a gesture of consolation before I whispered: "Speak no more. Worry not. We will punish him and get our vengeance together. I will gladly brace the unknown with you. I vow to never abandon your company, to never let you stand alone against this evil."
Slowly, the tips of our noses touched. I fell into her passionate embrace, feeling the slight moisture coating her skin. And as our lips connected, so did my heart shine in a comforting lustre from within my chest. The frequency of its beats increasing for as long as that intimate moment wore on.
Time elapsed. And with it, we put some distance between us to gaze longingly into our respective likenesses. Her wet orbs watched mine when the familiar expression of resolute strength and anger gained purchase. "Let us move then", she announced grimly, turning her head towards the portal mounted on the wall.
Only then was it how I noticed the rigidity with which my hands were ensnared betwixt her fingers. At length she let loose, the two of us now facing the prophetic image, fabric besmeared with substances not to be named or described. At last and in terrible anticipation did we step up to it. We felt the air move on its own pervaded with primordial malignancy. In the same manner did Nephethys and I also conceive of the boundless agitation that coursed through our veins, traversing with riveting speed the bloodstream to infest our hearts. It was time. Time for the leap of faith.
III
Who could have possibly predicted that the mere propinquity to the source of such unconsecrated witchcraft would result in a biologically measurable shock?
It was more than only horror that befell us. As soon as we had touched the foreboding canvas, both she and I got pulled into a maddening stream of cosmic chaos. We could not resist the preternatural force which exercised its rule upon us. This portal was not like any door one might casually step through. Rather, it was more akin to a maelstrom one finds high at sea, swallowing ships and regurgitating only torn pieces. And in this instance, I was the ship.
As my Dunmer companion and I fell through this vortex of galactic disquietude, it felt as if we traversed the endless, brooding gulfs of space itself. I espied behind me Nirn as it got warped and contorted out of proportion until it faded entirely, getting lost among the stars. Soon enough, I observed myself being twisted impossibly, comparable to a piece of parchment, crumpled-up in a person's fist. Hitherto unknown powers threatened to rip apart the very fabric of my being, whereas at the same time these very powers attempted to compress my flesh in a perpetual struggle of unsaintly indifference.
The vistas of what unspeakable things lay beyond the veil of mortal understanding and experience gradually melted my mind. My soul tried to flee, to break free of its earthly shackles for the agony my consciousness had to endure evaded reason.
In the pulsating flux of otherworldly grandeur I managed to grab Nephethys' hand when, finally, the two of us got expectorated into a dank, cavernous place. I tried to open my eyes but my body and mind had been figuratively crushed past their limits. And like that, I fell into a faint.
When I came to, every single part of my body ached considerably. So much so as to impede my movement, scarcely allowing me to sit in an upright position. After many groans I opened my eyelids to survey our new surroundings.
I sat with the back to a wall inside some black lair which was composed of what I assumed to be basalt or another dark mineral. The stone itself was ice cold to the touch when I lifted myself up from the ground, though the circumambient, singularly dry, air was scorching, choking me somewhat when I first inhaled it.
The chamber itself appeared to be quite small and was, aside from a grey staircase lined with two partly broken pillars, largely empty. Said pillars were cuboid in appearance, perpendicularly stretching to a height of about two meters, with pyramidal tops. Their fronts were embellished with glowing, red glyphs, absolutely alien albeit very similar to those engraved into the bones of Nephethys' legs and those of the Shaped. The looming archway led only further into darkness as I let my gaze wander upwards the slightly compromised indentations in the earth.
Off to my right stood Nephethys, as always recovering much quicker than I, eyeing me closely and profoundly. After making sure of my well-being, she helped me up to my feet. I struggled to keep my posture due to the exhaustion from the portal we had just traversed. Notwithstanding my obvious fragility, my ash skinned friend embraced me tightly, the pain thus caused fortunately overshadowed by the elation I felt in that instant. I hugged her back, smiling as much my expostulating muscles would permit me to.
"Thorus! You're awake and well, thank Sithis!" she enunciated with glee.
Our abatement from the raging tempest that was the contingency around us was only momentary however. In the distance we heard a raucous hissing underlined with an oppressive droning sound that reverberated off the walls, filling the place with a deplorable atmosphere.
The two of us, in our enfeebled state, albeit Nephethys considerably more rejuvenated, mustered the courage to sneakily approach the winding set of stairs. I turned to look behind me and saw, then, no egress by which we could travel back home. We were trapped there, wherever 'there' lay.
At a snail's pace we climbed the steep stone steps of the spiralling ascent when we were again interrupted by a noise. We halted to listen with fastidiousness as we picked up on what we suspected were naked feet traipsing around just above us.
Nephethys drew her dagger, more out of habit than intentionally, for she was adept at defending herself with her weaponized tibiae. I, in turn, silently removed my gladius from its scabbard. Armed and prepared for combat, we proceeded, the tension among us almost audible.
Seconds later we reached the upper portion of the cave, a thin, red mist gently encircling our legs, accompanying our movement when we stepped out of the shadows and into the main area of the underground dwelling. Nephethys and I held our respective breaths as the source of the aforementioned noises came into view.
Some fifteen meters in the distance there stood a nude, humanoid figure of curiously genderless appearance, its back facing us. The thing sported a deathly pallor in conjunction with an extraordinary famishedness. All of its bones were clearly traceable under the meek, corpse like skin, its joints sharply protruding out from the poor thing's silhouette. Most, if not all, of its veins plainly perceptible among its dermal coating that contained the under nurtured meat.
It gurgled for a while before aimlessly stumbling forward a few steps. The mode of locomotion not dissimilar to ours, much weaker though, a testament to its ravenous state.
We prepared our strike with avid meticulosity to preserve the element of surprise when suddenly, it turned its head. With loathsome aversion did I behold its likeness. A faceless head, completely unlike the crimson cultists we've met before in that it was not coated with skin. Stunningly, its entire facial portion was absent. The flesh that usually constitutes it nowhere to be seen! Instead, only a gaping hole with a small mound indicating the presence of the throat. We've quickly taken to calling them The Blind, for they could not see. As such, they posed no immediate danger to our health on first encounter, contrary to most other abominations that had heretofore crossed paths with us.
Watching the sad, slightly hunched creature move into arbitrarily chosen directions almost made me feel sorry for it. There was this air of innocence about the way its muscles quaintly shivered, in the very way it moved to and fro. I am going as far as to speculate that it was afraid of something, even.
I took a step forward. And in doing so, the miscreant registered my presence in an instant. It turned to face me, inhaling with curiosity. Before I could take any further action it spewed forth a bloody, nebulous mist from within its caved-in head to cloud my vision. Then it hurried off into an opening in the anthracite wall to the right. Nephethys and I, puzzled, gave chase.
The hot, acrid ambiance contributed greatly to our building fatigue as we tried to follow the peculiar biped, unsure if it was even of human or elven heritage. In entering the aperture whence it fled, the two of us swiftly located the direction its echoes emanated from. Not losing its track, we took a left inside the dark tunnel, the strange vapours that hovered over the freezing floor being thrown into utter disarray as we moved.
Soon, the cramped walls and ceiling of the narrow passage would disembogue into an elongated vault of the same material. At the far end of it, we espied what we presumed was the cave's exit judging from a large opening embedded into its farthest wall permitting a pale, sand-coloured ray of light to illuminate the area. And in its luminosity we could not only observe the object of our pursuit. Its shadowy outline mingled with several others of its kind. An assortment of starved, tremulous beings of similar stature and demeanor presented itself to us. All of them roused by the one we had affrighted mere moments ago. They turned and rushed to the cavern's entrance in order to get away from something they couldn't detect.
In bafflement we followed. Both of us nearing the hole the creatures just entered, bathing in the weirdly cold incandescence of a sun we were unable to see. Nephethys shot me a glance of uncertainty. What lay behind the obscuring splendour? What lands would await our advent into its bowels?
I looked back into the humming hollows one last time before I went into the outside, lifting the curtains of mystery. My friend followed suit and together, we beheld what world that twisted Lord had crafted.
In awe, I could only hardly believe what picturesqueness was laid out before my eyes. For I recognized every last detail of the gruesome panorama that quizzaciously loomed on the horizon. I now came to realize that this wasn't a dream, far from it. It was the painting. The mad fancy of Lord Atebid incarnate.
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