#yes nephthys is a cries when he's angry type. me too buddy

[clavicuss-vile]

25 Days of TES Cheer #22 and #23 - Drink & Freezing!

@korvanjund !!! combined these prompts bc i missed them. again. JSHDSHDJ

TLDR: Nephthys is struggling to communicate with Azura, particularly with nordic runes. Ronthil helps :)

(also hey that gif has my tarot deck in it! i love the wild unknown sm)

Nephthys kneeled in a dusty corner of Castle Volkihar, a pendulum held in a shaky hand, and a bundle of amethyst runes in the other. With every unsuccessful casting, leading scattered and nonsensical messages, he began to tremble more violently. It was freezing. He could barely feel his fingers.

"Azurah, what do I do?" He said through gritted teeth, throwing the runes once more. His preferred divination method was with cards; but he'd refused to bring them into a house of heretics such as this. Harkon's foul energy would taint them in seconds, he'd reasoned. So now he was stuck with a simple pendulum, and a handful of runes.

He looked down, trying to piece together some kind of message. Isa. Fehu. Uruz. Nonsense.

The young dunmer threw a hand over his mouth and begged himself not to cry. He tried to ask are you still here? with the pendulum, but his body was trembling with every attempt to hold back a frustrated sob, making it impossible to get a reading. Azura was silent. Pulling his eyes shut as hard as possible, willing away the tears that began to streak down his pale blue cheeks, he curled himself into a ball and tucked into the cold stone wall. His knuckles turned white with the force of attempting to hold back the sound of his whimpers.

"Hey... Are you okay?"

His eyes shot up, expecting to need to run from one of the elder vampires. Ronthil held his hands out in front of him. "Easy, it's only me. What's wrong? Can I help?" The vampire soothed, moving slowly to sit cross-legged in front of the new Volkihar. Nephthys removed his hand from his mouth and ushered at the runes in front of him, still unable to properly speak without sobbing. Ronthil frowned. "You're having trouble with runes? I thought divination was your strong suit?"

Nephthys shook his head, long grey hair whipping around messily.

"Not runes. I can't-" He took in a shaky breath, and tried to continue. "I can't get them to work. Cards, pendulums, they all talk. I can't get these stupid runes to talk. They're mocking me!" He sobbed, burying his head into his arms.

"Now, I doubt that's true. Let me take a look." Ronthil smiled, prying the younger's arms away from his face. "Try casting them, let me see how you're doing it."

Nephthys collected his small bundle of runes in his right hand, held them tightly, and spoke, before throwing them gently onto the freezing stone ground of the castle.

"Azurah, are you still here?" Was the question he asked. Isa. Kaunan. Ihwaz. Nonsense.

"Hmm... You're treating them like a pendulum." The bosmer said, collecting the runes and handing them back to the young dunmer. He brought out a small leather bag from his pocket, pulling out a handful of runes of his own. Bone, of some kind. "Try these. They're elk bone, might resonate better than amethyst. Also," He placed them in Nephthys' left hand. "Use your left. Feran taught me this, right sends out energy, left brings it in."

"Mhhm?" Nephthys hummed, wiping his eyes and clutching the bone runes tightly.

"And let them breath," Ronthil laughed kindly. "You're suffocating them. One last thing, avoid yes and no questions. They have trouble with those. Go on, try again." He smiled, sitting back and placing his hands over his boots like a gleeful child.

Nephthys held the runes lighter and tried to calm the stress coming in waves from his body.

"Azurah, what is my next task?" He said. Am I making you proud? He added in his head. He closed his eyes, held his breath, and cast the runes. Raido. Mannaz. Sowulo.

"Aren't you seeking out Azura's Star tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Then it seems you have our Lady's approval!"

Nephthys tried not to show how much that statement impacted him. He gave a small smile to the runes in front of him, running through their meanings in his head. Riding, man, sun. He knew rune reading was far more nuanced than that, but he thanked Azurah for sparing him the complexity. He looked back up at Ronthil, who was smiling at him with pride. "Why don't you hold onto those runes? I'll get some more next time i'm sent out for errands."

"Are... are you sure?"

"Of course, I live to serve." He smiled, holding out his hand. "Come on, let's go get you a drink. It's freezing."