#miraak a few months later: so i can quite confidently say that the answer to that one is a resounding yes

[illumiera]

how does Miraak describe being skeletonized? 👀 Does he laugh about it now/even remember it, or was it horribly traumatizing? Does it upset Elentari?

OH, GOOD QUESTION, THANK YOU‼️ 👀

Miraak remembers everything.

he remembers dying in Elentari's arms and asking her to tell him about Sovngarde (because she would be his afterlife instead, and perhaps they'd meet in her dreams, he thought), and then learning her name with his last breath. he remembers the bright pain of his soul coming loose, and the strangeness of it settling inside her, like he was a second heart right beside her own. he remembers her travelling through time itself to find him, and how she'd kissed him to give back his soul, and how having a soul returned (or returning a soul!) hurts as much as having it ripped away.

(in his own words: “I remember how you carried my soul within you as safely as if it were your own, Elentari, Kundruniiki, vokriidi,” he continues to her profile, wondering what he would see in her eyes if he were to reach out, and with the gentlest touch of his claw-tipped fingers at the curve of her jaw, turn her to face him, “and how I knew no fear, so long as your feet were carving a path of stars for mine to follow. How you crossed entire rivers of time and cheated the Prince of Fate to salvage such an undeserving spirit as mine, knowing that he will surely hunt us to the ends of Nirn in return.”)

he won't laugh about it, but he's not exactly traumatised, either—he's just living with the quiet certainty that he survived, despite everything, and now he's here with a scar to show for it, just like Elentari herself. they have matching scars right over their hearts now, after all, from when they died and came back nonetheless!

and meanwhile, Elentari... very much doesn't like to speak of it yet. she struggles to even say the words "you died" or "you were dead" to him, because in her eyes, the fact that she brought him back doesn't erase the fact that she had to watch yet another person die as she tried to save them. maybe that will all change in time, though... 🤲

[kevins-writing-den]

An Old Dragonborn’s Second Chance

Alright, after months of procrastinating and not knowing how to continue some things, I finally got this stupid chapter done to a point where I can post it.

I had the idea of doing this from my @illumancer when we talk about our skyrim oc’s and Miraak (and I’m pretty much using her interpretation of him in this story, ‘cause is good)

So anyway, sit back and enjoy whatever it is I managed to eke out somehow

Chapter 1: Awakening

Dark green, a colour Miraak is very familiar with. The very same shade of green he regularly saw within the confines of Apocrypha for all those years. He found himself to be surrounded by that horrendous colour, but noticed that he couldn't move his limbs. He looks to either side of him to see his arms constricted by Hermaeus Mora's tentacles, as well as his feet upon looking down. He starts to panic, struggling in vain to release himself of their hold, but to no avail.

Suddenly, an eye appears before him, and then another, and another one still until he's almost surrounded by these familiar eyes; those of Hermaeus Mora himself. He then hears the Daedric Prince's words echo within the twisted void he's in, saying something he remembers hearing before coming to this place.

“Did you think you could escape me, Miraak?! You can hide nothing from me here!”

Those words; those words again. The same words he already heard before his final moments. And despite hearing those words again, they still stir his emotions just as much; this feeling of fear, despair, anger, every possible negative emotion he could be feeling in this kind of situation is swirling throughout his entire being.

He's scared. Scared and alone, but yet he still struggles, clinging to some ounce of hope of freedom.

“I....” Miraak struggles to speak, trying still to resist the tentacles upon his extremities “I will...forge...”

He pants, still trying to get his words out

“...My own, destiny!” he yells, tears forming on his eyes. But he refuses to break eye contact with the giant eye before him. Mora speaks again.

“No matter” he starts, alarming Miraak

“I have found a new Dragonborn to serve me”

Before Miraak has a chance to say anything else, a tentacle darts towards him ready to end him then and there. Just as it's about to pierce him, everything goes dark.

Startled, Miraak darts up in the bed he's in, panting and in a cold sweat. He takes a few seconds to calm down, and looks down at his hands. He then feels around himself; first his face, then his arms. He then feels a sharp piercing pain in his abdomen, inhaling sharply. He then looks down to see bloodstained bandages on his torso, mostly where he was run through by Mora's tentacle. He then realizes that the last place he was in before now was Apocrypha, and now he's in a bed, and starts to look around at his surroundings. It was a small bedroom, but a cozy one at that. The walls were adorned with two unlit wall sconces, signifying that it may be night time. Beside the right of his bed was a small wooden locker, and to the left was a large bookshelf. He looked around some more, his eyes now used to the darkness and sees that despite the small room, there's a good number of furnature in the room, table, chairs, wall plaques, display cases, shelves, all well made by the looks of it.

“Where.....am I?” he asks himself out loud

Judging by the quality, and sheer amount, of the stuff in this room, he surmises that he must be in the house of someone quite wealthy, but who?

Suddenly he hears a knock at the door, followed by it opening. Despite his situation, he braces himself. The light from outside the door reveals who enters, a tall figure with sheer confidence in her step, her blue skin bathing in the outside light, a dunmer, with a tray in hand. And those violet eyes of her that are only accentuated by her long white hair, which was currently tied in a high ponytail. Miraak knew exactly who this was; it was one of the women that went against him in the Daedric Prince's plain. The dragonborn, otherwise known as Lilith Taldril. But instead of the armour he remembers her wearing, she's currently wearing a pair of basic trousers, and the undershirt of a belted tunic without the leather vest; clothing items that men would usually wear.

Lilith, in turn, eyed Miraak to see how he was currently holding up. His shaggy hair a disheveled mess, the sweat beading down his face, neck, and chest, the scars that adorn his face along with his scruffy facial hair. But what unnerved her most, were his eyes. The sclera of them black, as if the whites of his eyes were burned by oblivion itself, with the green colour to his eyes that she wasn't sure was even his natural eye colour.

But never the less, she kept her cool demeanor in check, if only to give him some peace of mind.

“Well now, seems like my suspicions were correct” she said, a smug grin plastered on her face. She places the tray, that Miraak now sees has food on it, upon the table.

“Suspicions?”

“Well I thought I heard something from your room from downstairs, and I figured it was either you waking up, or demons manifesting in here. 50/50 shot, really” She said, shrugging at her own attempts at humour. Miraak simply just glared at her, clearly bemused by said attempts

Miraak looks around again as Lilith starts to light the sconces

“Where am I?” he asked

“My house” Lilith quickly replied

“Your...house?” Miraak was completely bewildered, she owns such a place? Someone as uncivilized as her? With such nice furnishings? And if he heard her right, she said she was “downstairs”, as in this house has a second floor, such luxury!

“And I,” she stepped down from a chair she was standing on to light a sconce “elected to oversee your recovery after we got you out of Apocrypha......well, after I got you out of Apocrypha” she explained.

“I also got in contact with a healer I know who would help in healing you” she continued, now sitting on the side of Miraak's bed.

“So you better be thankful” she playfully says, winking and pointing at Miraak. He just glares at her again. He sighs

“That's all well and good-” but he's interrupted by Lilith placing a finger on his mouth

“Nuh-uh, food first, talk later” she says, getting up.

“I'll bring in a change of clothes too before you eat, we had to get those robes off of you so you've got nothing under there” she explains. Miraak slightly lifts the covers and looks down. Sure enough; she's right. Lilith looks back towards him before leaving.

“So just wait there before you get up to eat...unless you want to get up and show me the full package, up to you” she flashes a grin at him and leaves. Miraak remains unamused.

He looks down once again at the bandages adorning his torso. So many thoughts swim through his mind; how did she get him out of Apocrypha? Why did she get him out of there? Was it pure chance? Destiny? The will of Akatosh? He just can't wrap his head around it all.

“Why were my plans alone not enough?”

“Does her will far surpass my own?” he thought to himself.

While he's glad to be out of that realm, he's none too happy of it being done at the hands of the dragonborn he tried to kill. But right as he thought that, Lilith reappears in the doorway, with clothes under her arm.

“Here you are, one change of clothes.” She says, placing them on the bed

“They're pretty much the same as what I'm wearing, so I hope you don't mind us matching for the time being” she said half jokingly

“I'm sure I can handle that burden in the meantime” Miraak deadpanned, slightly surprising Lilith. But she just shrugs and huffs in amusement, leaving the room

“Dragonborn....” Lilith turned to Miraak, wondering what he could want. He looks towards her as if wanting to say something, but then looks away

“Nevermind....it's nothing” he says.

Lilith smiles, thinking she knows what he wanted to say, but doesn't say anything about it

“Be sure to eat up, 'cause there's plenty there” she says before finally leaving, closing the door.

Miraak looks to the food, and then down and looks at his hands and bandages. He's not entirely sure how he's going to adapt to all this, but he'll be damned if he won't try, especially when there's answers that he wants