An illustrated Skyrim story beyond the fall of the Dark Brotherhood~
After a surreal event, Cicero is inexplicably thrown back into a clear state of mind and his memories from his life prior to his madness return. We begin to learn who he really is...
Ruby twitched lightly as she began to come to. She opened her eyes slowly; a strange chemical smell lingered in her nose. Once her vision focused again she felt an overwhelming wave of nostalgia flow through her as she realized she was sitting on the floor of a familiar Dwemer ruin. The ceilings were high and covered with bronze pipes and fixtures. Several rows of metal shelves lined the walls, each with various tools and pieces of ore and scrap. The sound of highly pressured steam hissing came and went in alternating intervals.
"She stirs! She stirs!" a familiar voice hummed nearby, "I will be right with you, my dear. Don't move. Not that you could. I've been working as fast as I can. Had a few setbacks. Working with ancient equipment after all, but it should be running now..."
Ruby twisted to look for the owner of the voice but stopped when she heard the clanking of chains. She glanced down at her foot. She was chained to the floor with a familiar-looking ankle brace. She quickly climbed to her feet and pulled against it even though she knew it would never give.
"Relax, relax!" Sebastian's voice echoed from around the corner, "Just make yourself at home- OH! Wait. You are home. Welcome back to B'thar-zel."
"Cicero!" Ruby cried out as she tugged at the chain, "Please! Cicero!"
"Oh, him. That Imperial you faun over. Bleh," Sebastian came around the corner pulling along another chain behind him, "Forget about that clown. Let me introduce you to someone more your type."
Ruby looked up to see him leading a strange creature. With a bronze collar around its neck, its wrists were also bound preventing it from lashing out. Though it was elven in shape, it was frail and bony with long gangly limbs. It appeared to have no eyes and its nose and lips were omitted like that of a corpse. Ruby began to scream at the sight of it.
"Wow, hey now, calm down. He's not gonna getcha," Sebastian latched the chain from the creature's neck to the fixture on the wall, "He has extra sensitive ears, being blind and all. Do you recognize him?"
The creature twisted around and lunged toward Ruby, making a loud hissing sound. Sebastian retrieved a piece of scrap metal from a nearby table and smacked the beast in the side of the head with it.
"Oh, Phillip. That's no way to greet a lady," he muttered, "You two play nice. I have a couple more calibrations to set. I wasn't completely ready for this yet but I had to take the opportunity as it came, right? Right."
Ruby trembled as Sebastian turned to leave the room again. She looked back at the creature covered in bruises and scrapes, some appeared to be fresh. To her surprise, she began to feel a powerful sorrow radiating from it. This wasn't a creature. It was a mer nothing like she'd ever seen before. It made a subtle chattering noise as it tilted its head trying to listen.
"Airu...?" she whispered in her native tongue. The creature paused in its fidgeting and turned to face her. What felt like generations of pain and despair flowed from its crippled aura. It was filled with rage and confusion that made Ruby feel ill. Tears began to stream down her cheeks. This poor tortured creature felt so familiar somehow. Was this the Dwemer's doing? Was this one of her people? Surely it was some sort of experiment gone terribly wrong... Where was her family? Were they still down here? Were they ok? Big brother might still be alive-
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