Ok, so this is one of three parts to a story called Sable. I was thinking of making Part I and Part III into "Sword Stories" that is stories that goes into the Chronicles, should I get the opportunity, so I won't post them yet as the are missing a few spots where the RS sword details are "supposed" to go inn.
Anyhoo', here is Part II. You don't need to have read Part I to get a bearing on what's going on, Part I is simply the reason for why Part II is happening, and Part III is the resolution to the story.
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Vocha
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Vocha
- Chronicler
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- Joined: June 10th, 2007
- Location: Svelvik, Norway
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Sable, Part II
But Talos had sent me in my despair for answers, so questions had to be asked. And as I entered Pellagius’ prison, the Temple of Kynareth, where he ate his last meal years later, I could not feel any joy of me finding him. For as a maiden of Kynareth led me ever closer to the cell he was held in a feeling of bitterness and greif came over me, it was pity no doubt for poor Pellagius III.
As the door to mad Pellagius’ cell was opened the feeling reached its climax, there he was a former Emperor of Tamriel, wallowing in his own misery. I knew of his madness, and it was said to me that it was absolute, so I cared little for courtesy and asked my first question immediately. As one of the maidens closed and locked the door behind me I walked into the middle of the floor and started speaking.
“I once saw something I can barely describe, it harbored inside a man, something not of Nirn. It changed him my dear Pellagius, and for some reason Talos has spoken, and I am to consult you on the matter. Tell me, have you heard the phrase ‘it hides in the light’? Dear Pellagius heir of Tiber Septim, reach out of your mind and answer my question. I am a priest of Talos, and he has shown me to your doorstep, let it not be that I have come in vain.”
I said with great vigor and determination.
Thoriz Pellagius Septim, he sat in the corner of his cell, the blackness of the four walls enclosed around him embraced him in a dim light from the window. And he tore his eyes from the walls and looked at me. No! Stared at me with great hulking eyes, his eyes were grey, grey and dull. And when he looked at me I felt a shrill to my heart. Then he uttered his first words to me.
“You have seen one of the contrasts, the plight of light?” Pelagius said with a shivering voice, like he was suffering from a ferocious cold, yet the room was warm and he seemed healthy.
I did not answer, and he went on. “It hides in it; it hides in the light, in its contrast. It is one of two you see! It is so clear! I wish I could show you, but it is lost to all eyes but mine. The first you see every day, but only its remnant, if you walk in sunshine you leave it in your path, it is not from your will, it is not a choice. Shadow! We call it.”
He spoke in great enthusiasm.
He continued. “The two contrasts, black and white, but black has two residues. The first is shadow; it comes from light and is only visible in its aftermath. It envies it, and follows it gracefully, waiting for its turn to shine. The second, oh the second! It is something else entire! In the absence of light, there it is, visible to all and none! For it cannot be seen, and that is its beauty; IN THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT, THERE IS PURE DARKNESS! AND THAT IS THE SABLE!”
He said with a voice growing stronger and stronger, like something was fuelling him, until he shouted at the top of his lungs, but there was no one but me to listen to his screams. And his madness saddened me deeply.
I tried to interrupt him when it seemed he had lost breath. “Pellagius, calm down, there is only you, me and Talos here. There is no need to shout, I am listening to…” He interrupted me and continued none the less.
“The sable, I wish you could see it. Even shadow in its most profound form is still just a remnant of itself, matt, pointless. It is like the edge of a sword, only dull and unusable, but the sable; it is liquid, flowing and glistening with purity. It is essence, concentrated into a point… It is just that, the point of the sword. It is the night, and none know it, but even if you cannot see it, it is still there. And even if you cannot touch it, it can certainly touch you! And that is what it means, ‘it hides in the light’, for once the sable has touched you enough times in the night. The shadow, the edge! It is sharpened, and it becomes a part of you!”
He spoke like a scholar, I was beginning to doubt it was just insanity speaking to me, and there was something else. Something not of Pellagius, in his eyes, when I looked deep in them there was something else, other than the crazed Septim looking back. And the deeper I looked, the stronger the shrill in my heart became.
“The man, the one that was changed, I did not mention. His hair, it was once brown and thick, I knew the man well and his hair was once of great pride to him, and his eyes were dark hazel, but last time I saw him. His ghastly gaze was beyond my comprehension and his hair was pitch black and long and thin like a ginko leaf! His outside was changed, how is it possible? A man cannot change his appearance simply by his own will!”
I said as I was turning desperate; I had come such a long way, and I needed answers. I feared that the shift I had seen in Pellagius was not his intention and that he was delving further into his insanity, retreating to his safe burrow. I had to get my answers before he had none left to give.
“It is not by his will that he is changed, the sable lives in him now, each time it touches you it becomes more of a part of you. And little by little it changes with you and you with it. Trust me; his hair is the least of his concerns, HAHAHA!”
Pellagius said with an almost bored tone of voice, strangely unlike what I first encountered when I asked my first question. It was like he was almost another person, and when he started laughing at the end! It was a laugh like no other persons laugh I have ever heard, and it was so deep, not like Pellagius normal voice, which was light and flowing as can be expected of a young man, yet murky from his many years of confinement and little conversation with other men.
To be truthful, sitting in that dank room, with the only exit locked from the other side by the saints of Kynareth responsible for the temple I began to think strange thoughts. Perhaps in my old age fear was too easily getting the best of me, or maybe I was simply being paranoid, but Pellagius did not help the matter as for the last few minutes he had kept his face hidden in the shaded corner of the rooms left side, underneath the window.
The middle of the room was quite bright, illuminated almost, at least if you stared towards the ceiling, as it was a quite tall under the roof, but the window was very small and lighted only a patch of the rooms floor, and its walls made of grey stone reflected little light. And since it was dark outside and Secunda and Masser was the only brightness abroad, the room’s four corners were almost utterly concealed; only Pellagius’ white thin legs were completely visible, sticking out of his dirty torn undergarments. I could make out his shoulders as I sat clutching myself up against the locked door, his hands seemed to grasp his face or chest, and he made a series of strange noises. Like when a person eats with his mouth open, only much more subtle, like he was chewing on something.
“Pellagius, what are you doing?” I said softly.
“Pellagius, can you hear me? What did you mean his hair is the least of his concerns?” I inquired while I pushed myself up against the door until I was standing almost upright.
The awkward noises stopped for a moment, and I could see he moved, but I was standing to close to the light now, I could only make out his toes on the filthy floor. And as he moved a gust of wind caused much of the dust to gather in the air, I could see it clearly in the light from the window. He spoke.
“I’m eating, have you no manners? Interrupting me in my feast!?” He said with a grisly voice, like his mouth was filled with something moist, and it was sharp like he was screaming, but couldn’t make his voice any louder for some reason.
Before I could answer he spoke again.
“His hair is his last concern I assure you, tell me have you consorted much with this man?”
He said followed with a small gasp for air, like he had just swallowed whatever was in his mouth. His voice was much clearer, yet still retained its bored attitude.
“He was a close friend of mine, he IS a close friend of mine and a devout servant, no a saint of Talos!” I said. Not lingering on the subject, Pellagius was beginning to frighten me, I considered calling for one of the maidens outside the door, but I decided to linger a little longer. Talos guided me to Pellagius, I thought I should stay as long as Pellagius was still talking, even if he made little sense.
“Then perhaps you too, should worry about your hair, had you been blessed by having any that is. Foul disease hair loss, don’t you agree? Or is it just that you are so cursed with age that you cannot muster the strength to comb you hair any longer, so you decided to rid yourself of it!? How much strength of character it must take, being a priest of Talos, tell me are you married? What with all those maidens in the church, or do you live in a priory? Even better, secluded, one can find all sorts of joyous occasions in a secluded place. Don’t you find that screams are much better unheard? Except for you that is, the one causing them? No?”
His voice had become exited, speaking in a low sharp tone with an almost mocking attitude. I could not believe his words, accusing a priest of Talos of such impurity of such wretchedness. I was sure now; I was not speaking to Pellagius, not anymore.
“Why are your words filled with such vile accusations, such filthiness? Pellagius, whomever I am speaking to! Tell me, why have I been lead here? Why to you, and what are you? Pellagius, of the blessed bloodline what have you become?”
I was almost in tears, call it fear or pity, it was neither and both. I was almost crying out to him, highly improper for a priest, but I could not hold it in. He was crawling out of the shadows now, seemingly on his stomach, trying to get up as he crept closer and closer, like a leaf changing color in the fall I could make out more of his features, but the light and the dust concealed him just as much as the darkness did.
“What’s the matter Randar? Have you never seen a Septim crawl before?” He said as he gave out crude moans and almost slithered closer.
“How do you know my name? I have not introduced myself.” I said as he started moving again.
He did not answer my last question.
He was getting up now, he was no more than six feet from me, and as he straightened his back I could see the back of his head clearly, his hair was black as the heaviest rainclouds and covered in dust.
“My name is irrelevant, I am not Pellagius, yet he is part of me still. Your friend is lost, forget him.”
As he spoke he raised his head more and more, his shoulders were no longer grasping for his neck and he started to look relaxed, I could barely make out his forehead and his ears. And…
But Talos had sent me in my despair for answers, so questions had to be asked. And as I entered Pellagius’ prison, the Temple of Kynareth, where he ate his last meal years later, I could not feel any joy of me finding him. For as a maiden of Kynareth led me ever closer to the cell he was held in a feeling of bitterness and greif came over me, it was pity no doubt for poor Pellagius III.
As the door to mad Pellagius’ cell was opened the feeling reached its climax, there he was a former Emperor of Tamriel, wallowing in his own misery. I knew of his madness, and it was said to me that it was absolute, so I cared little for courtesy and asked my first question immediately. As one of the maidens closed and locked the door behind me I walked into the middle of the floor and started speaking.
“I once saw something I can barely describe, it harbored inside a man, something not of Nirn. It changed him my dear Pellagius, and for some reason Talos has spoken, and I am to consult you on the matter. Tell me, have you heard the phrase ‘it hides in the light’? Dear Pellagius heir of Tiber Septim, reach out of your mind and answer my question. I am a priest of Talos, and he has shown me to your doorstep, let it not be that I have come in vain.”
I said with great vigor and determination.
Thoriz Pellagius Septim, he sat in the corner of his cell, the blackness of the four walls enclosed around him embraced him in a dim light from the window. And he tore his eyes from the walls and looked at me. No! Stared at me with great hulking eyes, his eyes were grey, grey and dull. And when he looked at me I felt a shrill to my heart. Then he uttered his first words to me.
“You have seen one of the contrasts, the plight of light?” Pelagius said with a shivering voice, like he was suffering from a ferocious cold, yet the room was warm and he seemed healthy.
I did not answer, and he went on. “It hides in it; it hides in the light, in its contrast. It is one of two you see! It is so clear! I wish I could show you, but it is lost to all eyes but mine. The first you see every day, but only its remnant, if you walk in sunshine you leave it in your path, it is not from your will, it is not a choice. Shadow! We call it.”
He spoke in great enthusiasm.
He continued. “The two contrasts, black and white, but black has two residues. The first is shadow; it comes from light and is only visible in its aftermath. It envies it, and follows it gracefully, waiting for its turn to shine. The second, oh the second! It is something else entire! In the absence of light, there it is, visible to all and none! For it cannot be seen, and that is its beauty; IN THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT, THERE IS PURE DARKNESS! AND THAT IS THE SABLE!”
He said with a voice growing stronger and stronger, like something was fuelling him, until he shouted at the top of his lungs, but there was no one but me to listen to his screams. And his madness saddened me deeply.
I tried to interrupt him when it seemed he had lost breath. “Pellagius, calm down, there is only you, me and Talos here. There is no need to shout, I am listening to…” He interrupted me and continued none the less.
“The sable, I wish you could see it. Even shadow in its most profound form is still just a remnant of itself, matt, pointless. It is like the edge of a sword, only dull and unusable, but the sable; it is liquid, flowing and glistening with purity. It is essence, concentrated into a point… It is just that, the point of the sword. It is the night, and none know it, but even if you cannot see it, it is still there. And even if you cannot touch it, it can certainly touch you! And that is what it means, ‘it hides in the light’, for once the sable has touched you enough times in the night. The shadow, the edge! It is sharpened, and it becomes a part of you!”
He spoke like a scholar, I was beginning to doubt it was just insanity speaking to me, and there was something else. Something not of Pellagius, in his eyes, when I looked deep in them there was something else, other than the crazed Septim looking back. And the deeper I looked, the stronger the shrill in my heart became.
“The man, the one that was changed, I did not mention. His hair, it was once brown and thick, I knew the man well and his hair was once of great pride to him, and his eyes were dark hazel, but last time I saw him. His ghastly gaze was beyond my comprehension and his hair was pitch black and long and thin like a ginko leaf! His outside was changed, how is it possible? A man cannot change his appearance simply by his own will!”
I said as I was turning desperate; I had come such a long way, and I needed answers. I feared that the shift I had seen in Pellagius was not his intention and that he was delving further into his insanity, retreating to his safe burrow. I had to get my answers before he had none left to give.
“It is not by his will that he is changed, the sable lives in him now, each time it touches you it becomes more of a part of you. And little by little it changes with you and you with it. Trust me; his hair is the least of his concerns, HAHAHA!”
Pellagius said with an almost bored tone of voice, strangely unlike what I first encountered when I asked my first question. It was like he was almost another person, and when he started laughing at the end! It was a laugh like no other persons laugh I have ever heard, and it was so deep, not like Pellagius normal voice, which was light and flowing as can be expected of a young man, yet murky from his many years of confinement and little conversation with other men.
To be truthful, sitting in that dank room, with the only exit locked from the other side by the saints of Kynareth responsible for the temple I began to think strange thoughts. Perhaps in my old age fear was too easily getting the best of me, or maybe I was simply being paranoid, but Pellagius did not help the matter as for the last few minutes he had kept his face hidden in the shaded corner of the rooms left side, underneath the window.
The middle of the room was quite bright, illuminated almost, at least if you stared towards the ceiling, as it was a quite tall under the roof, but the window was very small and lighted only a patch of the rooms floor, and its walls made of grey stone reflected little light. And since it was dark outside and Secunda and Masser was the only brightness abroad, the room’s four corners were almost utterly concealed; only Pellagius’ white thin legs were completely visible, sticking out of his dirty torn undergarments. I could make out his shoulders as I sat clutching myself up against the locked door, his hands seemed to grasp his face or chest, and he made a series of strange noises. Like when a person eats with his mouth open, only much more subtle, like he was chewing on something.
“Pellagius, what are you doing?” I said softly.
“Pellagius, can you hear me? What did you mean his hair is the least of his concerns?” I inquired while I pushed myself up against the door until I was standing almost upright.
The awkward noises stopped for a moment, and I could see he moved, but I was standing to close to the light now, I could only make out his toes on the filthy floor. And as he moved a gust of wind caused much of the dust to gather in the air, I could see it clearly in the light from the window. He spoke.
“I’m eating, have you no manners? Interrupting me in my feast!?” He said with a grisly voice, like his mouth was filled with something moist, and it was sharp like he was screaming, but couldn’t make his voice any louder for some reason.
Before I could answer he spoke again.
“His hair is his last concern I assure you, tell me have you consorted much with this man?”
He said followed with a small gasp for air, like he had just swallowed whatever was in his mouth. His voice was much clearer, yet still retained its bored attitude.
“He was a close friend of mine, he IS a close friend of mine and a devout servant, no a saint of Talos!” I said. Not lingering on the subject, Pellagius was beginning to frighten me, I considered calling for one of the maidens outside the door, but I decided to linger a little longer. Talos guided me to Pellagius, I thought I should stay as long as Pellagius was still talking, even if he made little sense.
“Then perhaps you too, should worry about your hair, had you been blessed by having any that is. Foul disease hair loss, don’t you agree? Or is it just that you are so cursed with age that you cannot muster the strength to comb you hair any longer, so you decided to rid yourself of it!? How much strength of character it must take, being a priest of Talos, tell me are you married? What with all those maidens in the church, or do you live in a priory? Even better, secluded, one can find all sorts of joyous occasions in a secluded place. Don’t you find that screams are much better unheard? Except for you that is, the one causing them? No?”
His voice had become exited, speaking in a low sharp tone with an almost mocking attitude. I could not believe his words, accusing a priest of Talos of such impurity of such wretchedness. I was sure now; I was not speaking to Pellagius, not anymore.
“Why are your words filled with such vile accusations, such filthiness? Pellagius, whomever I am speaking to! Tell me, why have I been lead here? Why to you, and what are you? Pellagius, of the blessed bloodline what have you become?”
I was almost in tears, call it fear or pity, it was neither and both. I was almost crying out to him, highly improper for a priest, but I could not hold it in. He was crawling out of the shadows now, seemingly on his stomach, trying to get up as he crept closer and closer, like a leaf changing color in the fall I could make out more of his features, but the light and the dust concealed him just as much as the darkness did.
“What’s the matter Randar? Have you never seen a Septim crawl before?” He said as he gave out crude moans and almost slithered closer.
“How do you know my name? I have not introduced myself.” I said as he started moving again.
He did not answer my last question.
He was getting up now, he was no more than six feet from me, and as he straightened his back I could see the back of his head clearly, his hair was black as the heaviest rainclouds and covered in dust.
“My name is irrelevant, I am not Pellagius, yet he is part of me still. Your friend is lost, forget him.”
As he spoke he raised his head more and more, his shoulders were no longer grasping for his neck and he started to look relaxed, I could barely make out his forehead and his ears. And…
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MicroHunter
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I like these stories very much! Are you still working on them?
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Waalx
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this is Vocha stuff in this thread. and he's off in the military for a year.
but the Chronicles of Steel are still in progress, in a secret part of the forum. The combined stories could now be compared to a small novel.
it will come out later-on though, when I resume work on RealSwords and finish the races that are not out yet.
but the Chronicles of Steel are still in progress, in a secret part of the forum. The combined stories could now be compared to a small novel.
it will come out later-on though, when I resume work on RealSwords and finish the races that are not out yet.
