Casket's Revenge

Chapter 11: Evergloam

Another day, another bruised rip, that fight with Malacath was a lot more than I expected. He hit me more than a dozen times and I'm pretty sure messed up my broken rib, gods it hurts like Hell. Tabia has been trying to help me, she's a good nurse, she's given me a few health potions to help my wounds. They taste like shit but I have no choice, she's also given me a few massages for the pain and it helps a lot. I don't know what to say at this point, but I think I really do and truly love her. "Thank you Tabia, your hands are very soft" I say enjoying the never ending love and attention she gives me. "I'm just doing my job as your girlfriend" she says smiling and blushing while rubbing me down with a lotion she made. "Girlfriend?" I say confused, "Well, yeah. That's what we are isn't it?" her voice sounds a little nervous. I honestly was just teasing her, so I responded, "Of course, what else would we be" I say as I lean back and kiss her, the taste of her lips is sweet, reminds me of the first time I tried Black-Briar mead. "I mean, we've killed together, slept together, showered together, kissed" I say teasing her further. "Oh shut up you" she smiles and kisses me back and blushes as she continues to rub my broken rib. I turn to face her and I look into her eyes, they're beautiful, almost as bright as the stars, I don't know what to do, so I just look at her. She wraps her arms around me and drags me down into the bed and continues to kiss me, and I forget about my pain. "What is this my love" I say smiling at her "You have me here in our bed, arms wrapped around me and we're all alone. Is there something you want to tell me?" I say looking into her eyes as she blushes hard. "I don't know, what do you want to do with me, Mr. Casket" she says smiling and running her hands across my chest. Before I can say another words, I hear the slight creak of the door to our room. I stand to attention and keep Tabia behind me, I scan the perimeter of the room and listen for any sudden movements. As I watch, I see a plank on the floor press down and I see my dagger move slightly.

I immediately grab hold of the invisible figure as well as my blade and hold them against the wall. The invisibility spell is dropped and I see the culprit, a hooded dark elf, a thief. "Trying to steal from the leader of the thieves guild? Not a very smart move" I warn him. "Thieves guild, bah. You're nothing but a bunch of fools, following your own rules. I follow Lady Nocturnal's rules, and I'm just trying to make a living. Heard your blade was a powerful one" he says struggling to get free to no avail. "So you wanted to steal it and sell it for coin, nice thought. But you should know, wherever this knife is" I say before throwing it out of the window, seconds later it returns to my hand. "It always comes back to me" I say smiling at him "now, get the Hell out of my room." I sheathe my blade and throw him out of the building and into a pool of water below along with a large sack of coin, enough to keep someone wealthy for 20 years. I look to Tabia and she's a little upset that our moment was ruined. Now I have another target, the one I swore allegiance to when I became a nightingale. She's also the one who cursed the Guild, and caused my friends to fall into a deep hole with no way of escape. Maybe I won't feel that bad about this, I think to myself before preparing to go to the realm of Evergloam. Tabia is a little annoyed as she sighs sadly "Just when I was getting to spend time with my boyfriend, I was enjoying that" she says smiling and blushing at me. "You're teasing me now?" I ask returning the smile, "Of course not, why would I need to do something so, devious" she says walking past me and brushing her tail across my chin. I want to take her so badly, but I try to keep my composure as we have work to do, Nocturnal is the next Daedra that needs to fall.

As we prepare to enter the Evergloam, Karliah and Brynjolf stop and ask to speak with me. Karliah seems to think this is a bad move, she believes taking Nocturnal down would mean the end of us, and the end of the Guild itself. Brynjolf agrees with her as we don't know what could happen, "I'm not telling you to not do this my friend, I'm just asking that you think about this before going through with it" he says with a concerned tone in his voice. "Need I remind you both that Nocturnal is the reason the Guild fell into darkness to begin with" I snap at them. "She let you all believe that you were just running into bad luck and we're losing your touch, she let your old Guild Master die at the hands of a traitor, he tried to kill all three of us and destroy the guild." I bark at the two of them. "And she took your nightingale title away after Mercer stole the skeleton key, something she could have prevented in the first place" I look at Karliah waiting for retaliation. My words are met with silence as they both realize the truth. "You're right, forgive us, fellow nightingale, we shouldn't have questioned your leadership so erratically" Karliah says apologizing. Brynjolf remains silent, he and I have worked together for a long time, men understand each other's silence quite well, so he says nothing. "It is alright" I say to her, "but we have a job to do, so let's go." With that, we enter the realm of Evergloam, it is dark here, shadows looming at every corner. There is life here, like nothing most have ever seen, it's beautiful here, but I have a feeling that it won't be for long. Before it hits me, I manage to catch an arrow aimed for my head and from the shadows, dozens of nightingales appear in their ghostly forms and attack.

We fight a hard and longing battle with these warriors, they're quick and cunning, but our army holds strong. A few of them recognize us as guild members, and me Bryn and Karliah as nightingales. We fight them off and drive our way deeper into the realm as they try to defend Nocturnal's palace. We push our way closer and closer to the palace and Nocturnal reveals herself to us, and booooy is she not happy. "How dare you try and invade my realm" she says in an irritated tone of voice. "You will all parish for this, destroy them" she commands a monstrous murder of crows to attack us, as well as hordes of spectral nightingales. The birds are the most annoying, they are quick and nimble but easy to hit when they're swarming you. Broadmaw, Tabia, Brynjolf and the others handle themselves fairly well, Karliah and I find ourselves backed up together watching each other's backs. As we're fighting off the army a Nightingale tries to strike me and is intercepted by Karliah who blocks it with her bow wrapped around my neck to protect me. We look at the nightingale and notice immediately the familiar face, it's none other than the old Guild Master, former nightingale and Karliah's lover, Gallus. "Gallus" she says almost scared to see him, I manage to push him back away from us and watch his movements. "Karliah, what are you doing?" he asks confused "Attacking the Evergloam is a foolish move, we are supposed to serve Nocturnal, not rebel against her." His voice sounds of disappointment and sadness, he loved Karliah and feels she's betrayed him. "Gallus, old friend, leave her out of this" I ask him "Karliah had nothing to do with this, she is just following my orders" I inform him. "Why fellow nightingale, why do you seek to destroy Nocturnal and this realm, have you learned nothing from being apart of our order?" He questions my leadership and my motives, he must know the truth.

"Gallus my friend, please hear me out. I do not wish to destroy Nocturnal or this realm, but I have need of her. I am trying to find my family, and bring them back, once I am done I plan to return everything to the way it was." I try my best to make him see reason, but he refuses and proceeds to fight me, I do not wish to kill an old friend but he's leaving me little choice but to fight him. Mid fight I stop for a moment trying to find a way to stop him, after dodging multiple close calls, I come up with an idea. Azura told me that the Star had more power than I knew, so I started to think, if it can trap someone's soul inside of it. Before I could think anymore, I struck Gallus in the chest with the star and knocked the breathe out of him. Gallus struggled to breathe and take a look at his body, he was in his mortal body again, he was alive, and not a ghost. He looked at me confused and I said nothing and offered him my hand, he took it and understood and decided to stand with us fighting. Nocturnal was not happy about this and decided to face us herself, I stood there grinning waiting for her to make a move. "So the great Daedric Prince, Lady Nocturnal, finally decides to grace us with her presence and joins the battle. This is a very special day" I say taunting at her. "Do not taunt me you foolish little insect, you are but a speck compared to the power of a go-". "Blah blah blah, all I hear is bullshit bullshit, fight me bitch" I say after cutting her off to be a complete ass, and before I know it, she sends more crows at me. I laugh at her attempts to use magic against me and return the favor with my own. "YOL...TOOR SHAL" breathing fire from my mouth, the crows turn to ash and I set her cloak on fire. She struggles to put it out and with that opening, I run her through with my blade causing her blood to hit the ground.

She stumbles back before falling to the ground seeing me standing over her, she reaches her hand out and tries to grab me but I grip her wrist instead. "Not this time your highness, I won this fight. I will return you to your realm when my quest is complete. But for now" I cut myself off and absorb her into the Star along with the other Daedra. 8 down, 9 to go I think to myself before turning to see the fighting had stopped. The spectral nightingales began to disappear and we all stayed standing, victory was ours. Karliah, without hesitation, embraced Gallus and took him by surprise, kissing and hugging him, as well as crying in his arms. I stood there and smiled, I had reunited old lovers again, Gallus was murdered and taken from the one he loved, something neither of them deserved. Tabia stood with me and smiled at me, I wrapped her in a hug and gave the order for us all to return home. When we arrived back at camp, our army rested, ate and drank while singing through the night. Gallus and Karliah took all the time they wanted to catch up and be together, I was happy for them. Tabia awaited me in bed, as we had a long day, and plenty to come ahead. I climbed into bed and positioned myself over top of her and laid a kiss on her sweet lips. Looking into her eyes I couldn't help but smile, until finally I spoke, we were interrupted earlier so I thought I'd pick up where we left off. "So, where were we" I said before kissing her slowly as we began to make sweet passionate and long lasting love.