Blackfeather Woods | complicit |

Your friends will all turn on you,

said Boethiah, somewhere near her left ear. And to her right—

No one you love will remain with you,

whispered Nocturnal, an even darker shadow in the crushing blackness.

Maegi heard the gentle sound of water up ahead; she followed the sound desperately, mouth dry, paws aching, bones weary. But the women continued their gentle murmurs within her ears, and as she listened closer, she knew them to be all-too familiar, the voices of Flicker and of Nyx. Traitors.

Before she could argue their words, a looming shape appeared before her, blocking her path. Mehrunes—no, Damien, yes?! She caught the glint of his ivory eyes, his ivory, mocking smile.

It's quite a nice set-up you have here. . . Hope that it holds out our next visit.

Get out. . . GET OUT! Maegi implored, her whisper growing to a shriek on repeat. She broke into an ungainly trot, toward the man, who dissipated all around her into nothing. Nothing. And Flicker and Nyx were gone, too; she was nowhere, with no one, with. . .

Oh! Light. Of a sort.

The barest trickle of it, illuminating a pond up ahead. The tunnel widened into a cavern; a small underground stream fed fresh water, water, water—

Maegi fell to her knees, thirsty enough to ignore the agony in her injured leg as it folded beneath her. She drank, and drank, and drank some more, until her thirst was half-slaked (she would never be truly satisfied again, she knew it) and her stomach was full. Muzzle dripping, she collapsed onto her side, ribs rising and falling with her labored breaths. A pale sylph in the Void.

You are not innocent.

Leave me alone, Maegi moaned, despondent at hearing more daedra coming for her. A trio of feminine shapes. . .Azura, Meridia, Vaermina. So graceful, so deadly. Formless and yet so utterly corporeal, they sang in harmony, daedric words slurring together. So beautiful. . .

You killed me, whispered Meridia, in the voice of Lainie. The smell of salt—

You let me die, moaned Azura, sounding for all the world like that young mother. Blood—

You kept me within this hellish place, growled Vaermina, and it was the Redhawk girl, like fire in the darkness, bearing down upon her. Here for her revenge.

I didn't, Maegi blubbered, cowering, struggling to rise to her paws. I didn't. . .Mou did. It was an accident—

Complicit! Vaermina-esque screamed, and the whispers came:

Complicit!

Complicit!

As the flames leaped, so too did her belly. Her eyes closed as she began to retch, heaving up all the water in her belly. It splattered on the stone, reeking of bile; she was empty, so empty. . .

So cold. . .

Cold, and alone, and afraid. But, alas, complicit.

Was all of this merely punishment for her crimes?

Had the worst of her decisions finally caught her up all at once?

set Oct. 3