Self-Insert TES fanfic type thing

by LilacStarvix

Summary:

Felt like writing a story about my Skyrim khajiit sona/character being sent back to the beginning of Oblivion instead of the throat of the world.
Several mods are canon to my story, this is kind of just a personal thing I am finding a place to post and let people read if they feel like it

Chapter 1

I woke up cold.
Stone cold worn tiling lay under my back, only the thin sack cloth tunic keeping my fur from bristling aginst the dirty floor.
I sit up.

A prison cell, where in Akatosh's name did Tsun send me to end up in some prison cell.
Please don't tell me he dropped me in someone's house and I got shoved in here for tresspassing while I was out.

"Wake up, kitty kitty." A voice echoed from the other side of the hall, another cell. 
I got up to get a hold of my surroundings.

"That's it. There's a rat in my cell, Khajiit." The voice taunts, I looked out the bars to see a Dunmer man talking at me, "A fat, tasty rat. Does the kitty want it?"
That man wasn't beating the racist Dunmeri sterotype anytime soon, "Is the kitty hungry?"

I give the man a deadpan stare as he continues, "You'd better take whatever you can get in here, Khajiit. They don't feed the new prisoners. Didn't you know that? First they starve you. Then they beat you. Then, if you're lucky, they kill you. That's right. You're going to die in here!"

"Oh by the gods would you be quiet already? If i'm in here, I am only in here for tresspassing." I responded.

"The kitty speaks! Hahahahaha!" The annoyance continued, he prepared to continue, but thankfully a voice interrupted him.

"Baurus! Lock that door behind us!" A woman's voice yelled, I could not see where the voice came from at that moment.

"Yessir!" The man, presumably Baurus, replied as torchlight filled the halls, I could see figures begin to approach.

"My sons...they're dead, aren't they?" An elderly gentleman in regal robes walked along the corridor, accompanied by a group of people in Akaviri style armor. Blades, what were they doing here in such plain sight?

"We don't know that, Sire" A female voice among the group said, "The messenger only said they were attacked."

"No, they're dead." The regal robbed man replied, "I know it."

"My job right now is to get you to saftey." The woman replied, seeming to have ignored the man's ominous statement.

"I know this place...the prison?" The elderly man asked.

"Yes, your Majesty." The woman replied, so this man was some kind of royalty. I realized I was definitely not in Skyrim after that, I would have meet someone as important as he seemed to be if so. Plus the heartland Cyrodiilic accents were pretty strong. 

"Beneath the Legion Compound." The woman continued. So I was in definitely in the Imperial City, hadn't been there since I was eighteen and forming the Explorer's Society guild. I wish Inigo were here, he'd want to finally be here. Lucien too, I'd have loved to meet the guy's parents.

"We're headed for a secret passage only known to the Blades. No one can follow us through here." The woman says. So that meant, this man must be the Emperor. I was pretty sure Titus Mede II was bald, but perhaps that was just rumors I head as a child.
The group approached my cell.

"What's this prisoner doing here?" The woman yells, she seemed confused by my presence. "This cell is supposed to be off-limits."

"Usual mix-up with the watch, I..." A voice I hadn't heard before stammers.

"Never mind, get that gate open." The woman gruffed as the Blade searched for the key. "Stand back, prisoner. We won't hesitate to kill you if you get in our way."

"You! Prisoner! Stand aside! Over by the window." The Blade with the key shouted as the gate opened. I shuffled back a bit towards the wall behind me. "Stay out of the way, and you won't get hurt."

"Alright, alright I get it." I gruffed, raised my arms and spread out my fingers for dramitic effect.

"No sign of pursuit, sir." The voice that I heard earlier, the man the must've been Baurus said.

"Good. Let's go." The female Blade huffed as the group started walking towards the wall that stood to my left. "We're not out of this yet."

"Stay put, prisoner." The other male Blade said to me sternly.

"You...I've seen you..." The elderly man said. He was looking right at me when he did, "Let me see your face... You are the one from my dreams... Then the stars were right, and this is the day. Gods give me strength."
I looked at him, "Your dreams? 'This is the day'? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Assassins attacked my sons, and I'm next. My Blades are leading me out of the city along a secret escape route. By chance, the enterance to that escape route leads right through your cell." The man responded. Something about the story sounded familiar, as if I have heard it somewhere before.

"If your guards would be so kind as to not murder me the second I leave this spot, I would very much like to come with." I respond, "I do not even remember getting in this cell, I just woke up in here."

"Perhaps the Gods have placed you in here so that we may meet." The regal man responds, "As for how you got here, if you truly do not remember how you arrived... may have been an act by the Gods too. But, it does not matter. That is not what you will be remembered for."

"Who are you anyways? You seem somewhat familiar." I asked, I lowered my arms from my silly exadgeration, and adopted a more relaxed stance.

"I am your Emperor, Uriel Septim." He said. Uriel. Septim. By the Nine, I was either in some kind of weird dream, or I had been sent back a hundred and seventy six years before I was even born. "By the grace of the Gods, I serve Tamriel as her ruler."

"Emperor Uriel Septim the seventh, the man who was betrayed by Jagar Tharn in the year three hundred and eighty nine of the third era." I stammered, not meaning to interupt him. The last dragonborn to sit on the Ruby Throne. The only person like me that didn't want to suck out my soul to take over an ash covered island, and the rest of Nirn aswell, but it's funnier to simplify Miirak's grand plot to just taking over Solstheim.

"Yes, you seem to be well knowledged on history... and about as surprised to see me as I was to see you." Uriel responded.

"Well I do not think you'll beleive me, but I am from the two hundred and first year of the fourth era." I replied, "It is quite a shock to see someone who I've only known through history books walk right up and speak to me."

"That is quite the preposterious claim, but with what I have seen in my all years." Uriel stated, "I believe you entirely, I feel a strange connection to you...unrelated to my dreams."

"I didn't expect you to actually believe me just like that." I stammered. "But that does make my next claim more believable."

"Sire, please." The female Blade said, she sounded exhausted. "We must keep moving."
Uriel nods and began to follow the woman down into the passageway.
Baurus, the only blade whose name I actually knew approached me.

"Looks like this is your lucky day." He said, "Just stay out of our way."

He paused for a moment, as if he was in thought.
"You may aswell make yourself useful." Baurus said as he handed me a torch, "Here, carry this torch and stick close."

I lifted the unlit torch to my mouth and whispered "Yol..."
A whisp of flame flared onto the wrapped cloth and set it alight as I began to follow the Blades and Uriel into the passsage.

Chapter 2

The Mythic Dawn had attacked, as expected.
The Blades woman had perished in the scuffle.
I picked up her katana, I would've taken her armor too as to not walk around in literal rags while fending off assassins from a Daedric cult, but the looks her comrades gave me when I picked up her blade for some self defense told me I was on pretty thin ice with that.

Baurus looked away from me and to toward Uriel, "Are you alright, Sire? We're clear for now."

"Captain Renault?" Uriel asked somberly, he could already tell.

"She's dead." Baurus responds, a shame that I only got to learn her name after she perished, "I'm sorry, Sire, but we have to keep moving."

"How could they be waiting for us here?" The other Blade said in surprise and frustration.

"Don't know, but it's too late to go back now." Baurus responded.

"They won't be the first to underestimate the Blades. I'll take point. Let's move." The Blade who's name I did not know stated, his demeanor in that moment reminded me of Delphine.

"You stay here, prisoner. Don't try to follow us." Baurus ordered, an order I was obviously going to disobey. I wasn't going to abandon the only other dragonborn I've met, aside from Hermaeus Mora's ex-boyfriend Miraak. Uriel seemed to think so too as he faced me to say one more thing before we spilt ways.

"Here you must find your own path." He states, "But we will cross paths before the end, I am sure of it."

His words were oddly comforting to me in that moment.
I bowed my head slightly into a gentle nod before the group left me and locked the door behind them.

Not long after that, the wall to my right crumbled and revealed a passage.
A pair of rats tried to attack me, a quick few swings of Renault's katana made sure they didn't as I wandered into the cavern.

.

.

Goblins were fascinating creatures, on the threshold of becoming a 'people' but that level of sapience dangling just out of their reach.
I do sometimes wonder if they were perhaps cursed by some Daedric prince to be this way, so maddeningly close to being like the other races of Tamriel, but not quite there.
Perhaps it was Sheogorath's bidding.
Seemed like his kind of thing when he gave me the Wabbajack.
That was truly a strange moment, going into the psyche of a dead man, and the way Sheogorath looked at me with the strangest sense of yearning.
It still lingers in my mind today, or well two hundred years before.
The more I think about it, the more it drives me mad.
I suppose that makes sense, he is the Prince of Madness after all.

Regardless, I had made my way through the rat and goblin infested tunnels and found some armor that's likely going to set me back hundreds of Septims in cure disease potions, but it is better than prisoner rags.
I saw the stonework of the Imperial City Sewer system again as a torchlight began to brighten the room.

"I think that was all of them." Baurus's voice filled the room, "Let me take a look around."

"Have you seen the prisoner?" Uriel asked.

"Do you think she followed us?" Baurus asked with concern, "How could she?"

"I know she did." Uriel responded as I made my way to the ledge, I hoped down.

"Damnit, it's that prisoner again!" The blade without a name I know shouted, drawing his blade. "Kill her, she might be working with the assassins." 

"No." Uriel stated "She is not one of them. She can help us. She must help us."

"As you wish, Sire." The blade stated.

I slowly walked over to Uriel, hoping that would be the last of the Blades shooing me away.
Ironic considering how desperate Delphine and Esbern were to keep me on their side.
When the told me to slay Paarthurnax, I stopped talking to them after that.

"They cannot understand why I trust you." Uriel said, which broke my train of thought, "They've not seen what I've seen. How can I explain? Listen, you know the Nine? How They guide our fates with an invisible hand?"

"Kind of?" I replied.

"I've served the Nine all my days, and I chart my course by the cycles of the heavens. The skies are marked with numberless sparks, each a fire, and every one a sign. I know these stars well, and I wonder... which sign marked your birth?" Uriel inquired.

"I was born under the sign of The Lady, on the fourteenth of Sun's Dawn in the one hundred and seventy-sixth year of the fourth era." I state, "I was born and raised in Kvatch, but have spent most of my adult life in the city of Solitude in Skyrim." The mention of Kvatch seemed to elicit a reaction from Uriel, losing a fraction of his composure for a fraction of a second.

"The signs I read show the end of my path." Uriel grimly proclaimed, "My death, a necessary end, will come when it will come."

"What of my fate, then?" I asked, I wasn't going ignore the Uriel's prophetic statements like the Blades, they tend to ignore a dragonborn when they express what they want.

"Your stars are not mine." Uriel said, "Today the Lady shall fortify you in your quest for glory." He paused for a moment before continuing, "My dreams grant me no opinions of success. Their compass ventures not beyond the doors of death. But in your face, I behold the sun's companion. The dawn of Akatosh's bright glory may banish the coming darkness. With such hope, and with the promise of your aid, my heart must be satisfied."

"I wish your end wasn't coming so soon, there is much I would've like to talk to you about." I stated, not that I wouldn't try to bend the hands of fate or anything, but Uriel seemed dead set on his fate being death. I wasn't going to argue since I knew that, at least from when I came from, Uriel did die down here.

"I appreciate your words of kindness, but I go to my grave. A tongue shriller than all the music calls me. You shall follow me yet for a while, then we must part." Uriel responded as we all began to walk down further into the underground passage.

.

.

I must have slain about five of those Mythic Dawn lunatics by the time Glenroy, the Blade who's name I did not know until I asked him partway through our travels before he stated "Hold up. I don't like this. Let me take a look."
The man walked towards the door and peered around for a moment.

"Looks clear." He stated, "Come on. We're almost through to the sewers."

Slowly we all walked down the hall, Glenroy and Baurus looked around with suspicion, blades drawn as we approached the exit.
Glenroy went to open the gate.

It wouldn't budge. "Damnit!" Glenroy shouted, "The gate is barred from the other side! A trap!"
In anticipation, my hand now rested on the hilt of the katana strapped to the flakey leather belts of the rusted iron cuirass I wore. 

"What about that side passage back there?" Baurus suggested.

"Worth a try." Glenroy responded, "Let's go!"

We all walked into that passage.
But it was no passage at all, merely a dead ended room.
I heard footsteps that were not any of ours.
The Blades seemed to notice it too.

"They followed us!" I yell, as I unsheathed the katana and tossed aside the torch.

"Stay and protect the Emperor." Glenroy yelled before he charged out into the hall again, Baurus followed him.

.

"I can go no further." Uriel states, "You alone must stand against the Prince of Destruction and his mortal servants. He must not have the Amulet of Kings!" He reached around his neck and unclipped the amulet.

"Take the Amulet." He said as he clutched the amulet gently in his palm. "Give it to Jauffre. He alone knows where to find my last son."
He was talking about Martin, he lived in Kvatch before the Oblivion Crisis.

"Find him," Uriel continued, " and close shut the jaws of Oblivion."

"The Amulet of Kings..." My voice trailed off, "...it's the end, isn't it?"

"For me? This is where my journey ends. For you though, it is merely the beginning of a long and dangerous road." Uriel replied, "Now give me your hand."

I offered out my left hand, Uriel placed the amulet in my palm.
It felt warm in my palm, not in the way metal is warm after holding it or wearing it, it was like the warmth of the sun.
In that moment I realized this was my last chance, my last opportunity to show Uriel what I really am.
I sheathed my katana, grasped both ends of the Amulet's chains and wrapped them around my neck, clasping the two ends together.
It felt like the warmth of those that came before me burned inside my very soul, not unlike but not the same as the sensation of absorbing a dragon's soul, the vague memories and faint knowledge were there, but not mine to keep.

The wall behind Uriel fizzled out, it was an illusion.
Before Uriel could even begin to react to my actions, the blade of a Mythic Dawn cultist plunged through his back.

"URIEL!" I shouted when his body fell to the floor, dead. 

I unsheathed my katana, there was no point in staying silent anymore.
The Thu'um welled up in my throat, the words echoed in my mind and spirit, their form and definition shaped into form as my mouth opened, the words rolling off my tongue.

"MUL QAH DIIV! " 

Whisps of orange and and blue energy formed translucent armor across my body, the magics imbued my body with the strength and power to match my dragon soul.

"WULD! " 

My body flew forward, I swung the katana as the winds carried me.
The Mythic Dawn assassin's right arm and head were sliced off, not quite cleanly as Renault's katana wasn't the highest quality blade on Nirn.
But it sufficed to deliver swift retribution to Uriel's murderer.
The dragon's aspect faded from my body as I sheathed the katana and tucked the Amulet of Kings beneath my armor.
If more of them showed up and one escaped, it'd severely jeopardize my ability to find Martin without them trying to me.

.

Baurus ran into the room.

"No... Talos save us..." He muttered, it was strange hearing someone outside of Ulfric's Nord ultra-nationalist insurgents refer to Talos in such a manner. "We've failed. I've failed..."

Baurus walked over to Uriel's body, "The Blades are sworn to protect the Emperor, and now he and all his heirs are dead." He said somberly, "The Amulet, where's the Amulet of Kings? It wasn't on the Emperor's body."

"The Emperor gave it to me." I stated bluntly.

"Strange. He saw something in you. Trusted you." Baurus remarked. "They say it's the Dragon Blood, that flows through the veins of every Septim. They see more than lesser men."

"Yeah.." I muttered, "He wanted me to find his hidden son, the heir to the throne."

"A hidden heir? Nothing I've ever heard about." Baurus responded. "But if anyone would know anything like that it'd be Jauffre, the Grandmaster of my Order."

"I already know where he is," I stated. "I will be heading to Kvatch immediately, if the Mythic Dawn knew of this secret passage, who knows what other Blades secrets they might've obtained."

"Kvatch? Is that where he is?" Baurus inquired.

"Yes, I will not mention his name or status here." I said.

"When you do find him, take him to Jauffre." Baurus requested, "He lives quietly as a monk at Weynon Priory, near the city of Chorrol."

"That was my plan, Uriel mentioned him by name." I replied.

"Oh but first you need to get out of here. Through that door must be the entrance to the sewers, past the locked gate. That's where we were heading." Baurus explained, "It's a secret way out of the Imperial City. Or it was supposed to be secret. Here. You'll need this key for the last door into the sewers." He handed me an old rusted key.

"I'll be off then." I said, "I'll leave your captain's sword with you, apologies for any damages to it." I placed down Reanault's katana and clip on one of the rusted swords I found with the armor. 

"Thanks. I'll see that it is given a place of honor in the halls of the Blades." Baurus said as he picked up the blade, "I'll stay here to guard the Emperor's body, and make sure no one follows you. You'd better get moving. May Talos guide you."

I nodded to him as I walked out of the room and to the sewers.
I am glad he didn't seem to notice, or at least had no desire to question my usage of the Thu'um.
I closed the gate behind me and wandered, aiming finally to put the longest hour of my life put behind me.

Chapter 3

By the time I got out of that damned sewer I had broken two of the rusted swords I brought with me, the third one is the only one that held itself together well enough to be maintained.
Which was good as I didn't feel right just running from the goblins down there after the first two swords broke, leaving the injured goblins to die of tetanus, rockjoint or whatever other diseases festered down there didn't feel right.
Breathing fresh air again was something I missed, not the crisp northwestern mountain air of Solitude that I was used too, but the familiar smells of the heartlands filled my nostrils.
It brought me back to my university days, frantically searching shelves for books and sleepless nights, to only realize that I was someone who wasn't fit for being cooped up in a stuffy library.
Realizing what I wanted to do was explore, delve into ruins, find artifacts of times long past.
That was when I moved back home, saved up for a year before traveling to Skyrim, finding like-minded individuals, forming a guild, collaborating with the neighboring museum.
If I ever get back to my hometime, I am going straight back to Kvatch to see my family.

I untucked the Amulet of Kings for a moment to get another look at it, an ancient symbol of Imperial Royalty and the physical representation of Akatosh's pact with Alessia, a thing that was shattered decades before my birth, resting around my neck.
It was my duty to get it in the hands of Martin, and my duty to get Martin in the hands of the Blades.
I wished I studied a bit more on the coronation ceremonies of pre fourth era Emperors before all this happened, I might've figured out how to light the Dragonfires myself.
I could've gone and looked it up right then and there, but I knew what was happening to Kvatch the moment Uriel died, the first city to be affected by the Oblivion Crisis would be under siege at that very moment.
I had no time to waste.

.

.

"Hand over your coins and valuables or I will gut you like a fish." A highwayman demanded as he ran up to me.

"Do I look like I have any fucking valuables?" I huffed and gestured at the rusted metal armor and sword on my belt, I thought I was finally free of brainless bandits the moment I went south of Weye and felt that surely the bandits of third era Cyrodiil weren't as stupid as fourth era Skyrim's.

"I asked for coin, you will give me coin or you will die." The highwayman replied. "It makes no difference to me if I have to loot it off your corpse."

"I don't have time for this." I gruffed as I walked past the highwayman. "Try anything and you will be the one whose blood is decorating the pavement, not mine."

"You filthy bitch of a cat! You dare ignore me!" The highwayman yelled and drew his sword. "I will cut you open and watch you bleed!"

I turned around to face him, a chill formed in my maw.

"FO KRAH DIIN! "

Frigid winds coated the highwayman, the cold rapidly seeped his body heat, and killed him in mere seconds.
I took the highwayman's sword, an average quality weapon, a steel shortsword.
Although something third era in design like this, with this little damage, would be something I'd have taken back to Solitude to display on a rack somewhere.
But alas, here it is a mere common blade, it made me wonder what mundane weapons I saw across Skyrim would be worth centuries ahead from my time.

.

.

I made it to Skingrad, I traded some junk I found for some Septims.
Got some steel gantlets and a cuirass after some negotiations.
I also got some heavily discounted steel boots due to the sabatons being heavily damaged.
Which was good for me since I can't actually wear sabatons, since I have a digitigrade foot structure.
My mother told me it was because of my furstock, Tojay-Raht if I remember correctly, she was a Cathay and my younger brother was a Cathay-Raht.
Suffice to say that always made armor slightly cheaper, but footwear way more expensive.
Either having to import from Elsweyr, which wasn't cheap given realtions between the Aldmeri Dominion and the Cyrodiilic Empire, or having to commission a tailor for custom boots.

I have to get back to Elsweyr someday, it was nice not having people stare at me funny for just walking around when I visited Riverhold as a kid, although I did get stares after I started speaking, my Western Cyrodiilic accent and speech patterns made me stick out like a sore thumb.
My second trip down to the Tenmar Forest to retrieve a staff from a local resistance group was also nice, in a different way.
But alas, I had to get back on the road again.

.

.

I could smell the scent of burnt flesh.
I could see the sky crackling with red.
I could feel the sorrow and anxiety in the air.
I could hear the echoed screams of the dead.
I could taste the acrid smoke of hellfire.

I was home.
Home, before it was built.
At the ruins and ashes that came before.

Chapter 4

As I climbed the all to familiar path, the sight of a small encampment came into my view.
These must've been the refugees from the invasion.
An Altmer man ran up too me, or well, I was in his path of running.

"Come on! Run while there's still time! The Guard still holds the road, but it's only a matter of time before they're overwhelmed!" He shouted at me.

"No." I responded, "I am here to find a man name Martin, have you seen him?"

"I knew a priest named Martin once. I'm sure he's dead, just like the rest of them. They're all dead, don't you understand?" He shouted, clearly and understandably in panic.
He mentioned Martin, a priest.
I was pretty sure historical records said he was also a priest, but most articles covered his life after arriving at Cloud Ruler Temple.

"I'm sure he isn't." I said, "I know he isn't."

The Altmer looks at me like I'm insane before he continued his mad dash to get away from Kvatch, which is understandable, but was still pretty rude of him to do that.
I continued jogging up the hill.

When I got to the top, I saw a group of guards, the familiar chainmail cuirasses and Kvatch's wolf head symbol painted on their shields brought some comfort to me.
The large stone ring resembling the Daedric symbol 'Oht' with the firey orange portal in it however, did not bring me comfort.

One of the guardsmen approached me, "Stand back, civilian! This is no place for you. Get back to the encampment at once!" He ordered.

"I understand your concern, sir." I responded, "I saw the smoke and the sky and want to help, I just want to know what happened first." I knew what happened here, I just needed to not sound like I have a suspicious amounts of foresight.

"We lost the damned city, that's what happened! It was too much, too fast. We were overwhelmed. Couldn't even get everyone out. There are still people trapped in there. Some made it into the Chapel, but others were just run down in the streets. The Count and his men are still holed up in the castle. And now we can't even get back into the city to help them, with that damned Oblivion Gate blocking the way." He explained, with obvious frustration in his tone.

"The chapel? That means he might still be in there." I muttered, "I came here to initially look for a man named Martin."

"Martin? You mean the priest? Last I saw him, he was leading a group towards the Chapel of Akatosh. If he's lucky, he's trapped in there with the rest of them, at least safe for the moment. If he's not..." He said.

"Well that means there's no time to lose." I replied, "I'm gonna go in there and see if I can break the thing, or slay every single daedra on the other side of that infernal gate."

"I don't know if you're  crazy or overconfident, but if that's what you want to try." The man said, "Good luck."

.

I began to run past the spiked wooden blockades, I drew my sword and slashed at any scamps that got in my way as I charged the gate.
Even without all my handmade enchanted gear, their attempts to injure me were poor, their fireballs felt more like being just a tad bit too close to a campfire than being hit in the face with fire.
But perhaps I've been blasted with enough fire breath and frost breath to just take hits better.
Maybe I was just built different, I am dragonborn afterall.

I pass through the orange fiery film.
Going from Nirn to the depths of Mehrune's Dagon's Deadlands in an instant.
For being the place that the term hellscape originally described, it wasn't as hot as I expected.
Especially with the oceans of lava surrounding the place.

But this place was no match for me, not even in my top ten most irritating I've been.
Half the list goes to Apocrypha, because by the Nine Hermaeus Mora is one of the most annoying entities I've ever met, know-it-all tentacle fucker.
If there's one thing being to more than one plane of Oblivion has shown me, it's that Daedric Princes love islands put in the middle of a flat ocean of 'stuff that kills you.'
Perhaps I should take on Sheogorath's invitation of going for a strawberry torte, Divine's know that he'd be the only one that'd probably actually expect me to be showing up for it two hundred years before he met me.

Dremora, scamps and atronachs laid dead along the battlefield.
I felt no remorse for them, they had invaded Kvatch and decimated it's population.
They'd come back again anyways, Daedra don't every really die.

I climbed the tower, It's organic-like stonework was kind of pretty when I didn't have Dremora up my ass trying to slam me into it with a mace.
I eventually made it to the sigil keep.
I could see the sigil stone, pulsing in a firey pillar atop the membrane-like ramps up the rib-like stairs.
Mehrunes Dagon must love organs made of stones or something.

I ascended the last two floors of the tower, slaying the Dremora that stood in my way, whirlwind sprinting at the mages that attempted to place some distance between us.
I pelted a flame atronach with shock spells, I wasn't as good with magic as I wanted to be, but it still went down in a mere few bolts.
I collected it's flame salts and went up the membrane ramp.

Infront of me was the sigil stone, with no time to waste I grabbed it.
The flame pillar became unstable, fire flared wildly throughout the sigil keep's floors.
Light filled my eyes as the blaze became blindingly bright, the tower began to fall apart before.

I was outside again.
At the gate, it was now inactive.
I did it.

"That's for burning down my city!" I yelled, before kicking the stone ring of the gate.
It was a bad idea as I stubbed my toes.
But it still felt good to kick the stupid thing.

The man who spoke to me earlier came up to me, he looked extremely relieved, "You closed the Gate? I knew you could do it!" He shouted, "This is our chance to launch a counterattack! I need you to come with us. You've got far more combat experience than these men. Are you able to join us now? I can wait, but not for long. We've got to move quickly, before they have a chance to barricade the city gate."

"I am, my blade thirsts for more Daedric blood." I stated, "I have yet to get your name."

"Savlian Matius, acting captain of the Kvatch guard." He responded, "Or what's left of it anyways, and as for names, may I get yours?"

"Lila Fellstar, adventurer, historian and craftswoman" I replied, "Now, let's take back this city."

Savlian nodded, "For Kvatch!" he shouted as he drew his sword and charged the city's gate, his men began to run toward the gate too.
I followed Savlian into Kvatch.

.

Steel meet flesh on the scuffle at the entrance to Kvatch, the road to the chapel swarmed with lesser Daedra.
I spent most of the time aiding the soldiers than seeking out my own opponents.
I wasn't going to let them die.
Not after we came so far.

It was merely a couple minutes later that the Daedra were slain.

Savlian Matius approached me, "Ha ha! We wiped the bastards out! It's safe to pull those people out of the chapel. Let's get in there and make sure they're all right." He shouted with the upmost pride, joy that despite everything that happened, hope for Kvatch began to seep through, "Come on. This is only the beginning of the battle for Kvatch. We can discuss the next phase once the civilians are safe."

I nodded as we all walked up and entered the chapel.

Savlian began to speak to the other guards trapped inside, they were the only ones left.
I frantically began to look around before I saw a man with long brown hair, a similar color to my own.
He wore grey robes, as I walked in his direction, his face did resemble the depictions of Martin's face in historical sketches taken from Cloud Ruler Temple before it's destruction during the Great War.
Something also just, felt different to me about him, much in the same way Uriel felt.
Vaguely even reminded me of how Miraak, and other dragons felt.
I mean, Miraak did immediately figure out the fact that I was dragonborn nearly instantly, perhaps I just sensed it in the man just as Miraak sensed it in me.

"Excuse me, you're Martin, right?" I asked the man.

"Yes." He replied, a slight somberness in his tone, "I am Martin, why do you ask?"

"I uhh, need you to come with me, the gate is closed and no Daedra block the way out of the city." I said to him, "It might sound crazy, but you're the last heir of the Septim dynasty, the last surviving child of Uriel Septim the seventh."

"Emperor Uriel Septim? You think the emperor is my father?" Martin replied, dumbfounded, "No, you must have the wrong man. I am a priest of Akatosh. My father was a farmer."

"Why do you think out of all cities to attack first, they would attack Kvatch?" I responded, "It's fortified position and sandwiched between Anvil and Skingrad, if the gates can open wherever they chose, there's no other strategic benefits aside from wanting to get to someone in particular."

"An entire city destroyed to get at me?" Martin questioned, "Why? ... Because I'm the emperor's son?"

"Yes!" I replied, "He told me that you were in danger before the Mythic Dawn took his life."

"You spoke to the Emperor before he died?" He asked, "And he told you to find me?"

"That he did, as insane as it sounds" I responded.

"I don't know." He uttered, "It's strange... I think you might actually be telling the truth. What does this mean? What do you want from me?" 

"I want you to come with me to Wenyon Priory, Uriel told me of a Blades agent named Jauffre that lives there." I answered. "He'll want to speak to you in person I'm sure of it."

"You destroyed the Oblivion Gate, they say. You gave them hope. You helped them drive the daedra back." Martin stated, he nodded his head slightly before continuing and answered my request. "Yes. I'll come with you to Weynon Priory and hear what Jauffre has to say. Lead on."

 

Chapter 5

We were about a little ways east of Skingrad before I decided to talk to Martin a bit more, break the silence and maybe ease his mind.

"I know you already believe me about you being Uriel's son, but want me to show you some even more damning proof?" I said, unclipping the Amulet of Kings and took it out from beneath my armor.

"Is that...? The Amulet of Kings?" Martin asked, "You had it with you this whole time?"

"I did, I was instructed to deliver it to Jauffre first, but Kvatch was in immediate danger so I had no choice but to take it with me when coming to get you." I replied and rubbed the Chim-el Adabal with my right thumb while I looked at the Amulet, "Want to try it on?

"Are you serious? Right here and now?" Martin asked, in a shocked tone.

"Yeah I am! Even if it's for like a moment or two, it'll be definitive proof!" I said enthusiastically and handed Martin the Amulet.

"I guess it would help put my remaining, anxieties, about your claims to rest." Martin said, putting the Amulet around his neck.

"See?" I pointed at the amulet, Martin's reaction was priceless as he just, stared at it around his neck.

"I didn't doubt you earlier." Martin said, "But this, feels like the truest proof I could've ever been given, thank you."

"Don't mention it, it is supposed to be around your neck anyways." I replied. "How does it feel?"

"It feels strange wearing it, almost like I can feel the memories and emotions of those that came before me." Martin stated, "It's too vague to pick up anything, but it's like a soft background hum, like all the Emperors and Empresses before me are with me, in a way."

"Imprints of their dragon souls in Akatosh's enchantments I'd say." I said, "Like that's just a theory off the top of my head."

Martin takes off the Amulet of Kings, "It was good proof, but I feel that it is much safer in your hands for now." He said as he handed the Amulet back to me.

"I've met two Septims in my life, you're both such humble and kind men." I stated as I tucked the Amulet in my armor again, without putting it on again. "I mean technically I met three, but he was like a ghost in his own mind."

"A ghost in his own mind?" Martin asked with some intrigue, "That doesn't really make any sense."

"Yeah, I know." I replied, "It was Pelagius Septim the third. Sheogorath kind of just warped me there after I tried helping some poor beggar find his 'master', if I had known who it was I wouldn't have done it. I got a staff out of it though, I locked it away though."

"I know how it feels to have a Daedric prince mess with your life, I once wielded the Sanguine Rose." Martin replied, it was a shock to me as no historical records ever told of such a thing, "It was a dark time in my life."

"You were a follower of Sanguine?" I shouted, "I wouldn't have guessed that, how'd you get out of a cult like that?"

"I..." Martin began, "...got a woman pregnant during one of the 'rituals', one of Sanguine's drunken...'parties'. After we both learned she was pregnant, we realized that such a place of sin was no place for a child we both planned our escape."

"You got someone pregnant?" I Inquired out of surprise.

"Yes, an Ohmes woman if I recall. Her name was Sanita." Martin continued, that name he mentioned was familiar to me, "I helped sneak her back across the border to Elsweyr, then I became a priest of Akatosh."

"I thought Khajiit weren't capable of reproducing with other races?" I inquired, I was still trying to recall where I've heard, no, seen that name before.

"I didn't think so either, maybe it was because she was Ohmes, maybe it was the Divines way of getting me on the right path, or perhaps it was Sanguine's dark influence."  

A realization came to my mind in that moment,
"I have one thing I need to tell you about myself, that you may not believe as I truly have no proof right now other than my word." I said, "I'm not from this time, I won't be born for another one hundred and seventy six years."

"I'll be honest, my first instinct was to call you crazy," Martin said, "But with all that you've told me and shown me already I believe you."

"Originally I wasn't going to tell you but, that name, Sanita." I said, my mind put the pieces and memories together as I recalled from where I once saw it, "That was the name of one of my ancestors, settled in Kvatch to honor an 'old friend', her daughter marrying the son of a Khajiiti architect that helped with Kvatch's reconstruction."

"You're seriously not trying to say what I think you are." Martin said with a look that couldn't decide if I was actually crazy and going to far, but something in him was saying otherwise.

"Hey you're just as shocked about this is as I am, I would've brushed it off as a coincidence if it wasn't for this..." I said as I took back out the Amulet of Kings and secured it around my neck, "...in my era, Alduin, the firstborn of Akatosh returned to Skyrim for being banished into the flow of time and began resurrecting the armies of dragons once under his command. I discovered I was dragonborn myself after I absorbed a dragon's soul, I got to this era after slaying Alduin in the Nordic afterlife of Sovengarde, awakening in the Imperial City prison rather than anywhere in Skyrim."

"You really are something aren't you?" Martin said while he shook his head.

"I guess I am, but then again." I replied, "Such insane happenings are pretty typical for members of the Septim dynasty."