24th of Last Seed, 4E 201
I was heading towards Windhelm, marking landmarks on my map as I went. The last place I visited for more than a few minutes was Meridia’s shrine near Solitude. I didn’t have much of a choice going there either, it was either that or lug around a melon-sized diamond and hear the daedra lord’s voice in my head every night of my life.
She wanted a task done, naturally. It was a simple job, clear out her temple of undead and the necromancer who made them. Considering how much I hate undead, if Meridia had just asked instead of hoisting me hundreds of feet in the air and demanded it, I would’ve done it anyway.
It was night when I completed her task. Afterwards, I summoned Nyx and continued on my journey with Dawnbreaker strapped to my back. Without realizing it until I saw the gates, I arrived in Helgen. I dismounted and walked into the ruins of the village. The wood in some places were still bright and warm, like charcoal.
It’s strange how some things can survive such an attack. I looked through the inn, and unbelievably found several bottles of mead mixed with juniper berries. I guess Vilod was still making it. I’d give some to Ralof if I knew where he was.
Finally I arrived the one place I realized I was avoiding, the chopping block. I touched the dark, dried blood still on the wood. A corpse charred beyond recognition, possibly the executioner’s, laid behind me. I’ve come close to death more times than I care to count, in more ways than I want to think about.
But that was the first time I was completely helpless, forced to stare at the axe about to descend. The appearance of the dragon added insult to injury.
I didn’t have the nerve to stay long, so I summoned Nyx and continued onward. Occasionally I’d capture an image with the “Enyalie Palantir,” the Dwemer image capturing device. I believe its name translates to “Memory Crystal,” probably because of the large decagon-shaped crystal the size of an arrowhead set into the center of the thing.
Sometimes I wish I didn’t have this damn device, even if it is useful. I sure as hell wish the Legion healers hadn’t implanted the damn remote for it into my damn head after I stole it from the Thalmor. It hurt like hell, and it took two weeks to master the Illusion spells that allowed it to work. Sometimes it still hurts before a storm.
This morning the bloody thing wouldn’t capture any more images. I had to make camp this afternoon and open it with the Dwemer tools I’ve collected over the years. I was surprised to discover that a torchbug had somehow gotten inside. Hell if I know how, the device is only two inches thick. I removed the bug, cleaned out the dust, then reassembled it.
It worked again, but then the remote flashed its light in my eye over a dozen times. It should only flash as many times as I have images stored inside, and I only should have had six images. I took out some paper and began transferring the images to paper. I still don’t know how the Memory Crystal does that, Alteration I think.
First the six images I captured were transferred to paper, but there were more, and they looked damn strange.
They seem to be ragged fragments of a single image, like puzzle pieces. There were ten of them of different sizes and shapes. I’ve never seen anything like them.
They maybe look like someone tried to capture an image of a document, but they developed extremely badly. I certainly didn’t take them. I wonder how long they were there? I’ll have to see if I can reassemble these pieces.
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