Moonlight's Embrace (A Skyrim Fanfic) (ORIGINAL)

Repelling the Transmundane

A/N: I absolutely despised those rhymes... believe me, I love to write poetry, but THAT was horrible.

WBE: 1,254
WAE: 1,632

((1st of Midyear, 4E 205, 11:56 a.m.))

I shuddered, though the action felt odd. Karliah regained movement.

"Gallus, please!" The gate was open, and the Nightingale was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Gallus?" She saw the blood on the floor, and her gaze followed the crimson stain. "You killed Russet?!" She screeched. Brynjolf kicked the bloody remains aside. I wished I could speak, but my mind was elsewhere. He didn't believe that she wasn't...

"I wouldn't kill Russet," Brynjolf answered.

"Her body is on the ground! And Gallus..."

"But that's not her. This is." He moved aside, revealing the true me. I was still huddling on the ground like a frightened child, weakened by everything that had just transpired. Slowly, I came back to the reality I'd slipped out of.

"But..." Karliah gaped at the dead body and then at me. "That's not possible."

"It was a trick."

"How did you... Gallus..."

"I don't know what this Gallus business is, but the lass is not dead." He knelt beside me, inspecting me with a critical eye. Karliah's face cleared.

"Russet, forgive me, please," she begged. I only shivered, unable to open my mouth. For some reason, after the strange battle, I felt unwilling to speak.

"This is why you don't wander off without one of us," Brynjolf chastised lightly. "What was that thing?" I glanced up, licking my dry lips. 

"I d-don't know," I admitted truthfully." The ruins seemed all the more frightening now, and despite the fact we'd only just entered.

"I saw two of you, lass."

"I saw Gallus," Karliah muttered.

"It copied us, then." Brynjolf looked at Karliah. "I don't know what it was, but it tried to pit us against each other."

"How... how did you know it wasn't me?" My voice quavered, and I hated my obvious weakness as I stood.

"The real lass wouldn't say anything that flowery." He cleared his throat, lifting an eyebrow in halfway amusement.. "You know what the real lass would say?" Brynjolf raised his tone in an attempt to imitate me-- even though it was horrible. "Open this gate, you son of a bitch, or I'll rip off your stones and feed 'em to a dragon!" I unwillingly cracked a smile. His voice may have been off, but the rest was undeniably accurate.

"I can't argue with you." I stood up shakily.

"Now... what did you see?" Karliah turned her head, and I felt heat rise to my cheeks.

"I know that you saw Gallus," I responded evasively, pretending to analyze our options on where to go.

"Who appeared to you?" she repeated. "Tell me, Russet."

"I... I saw an old friend, okay?" I lied, not looking up. "From the Companions. His name was Farkas. He was the one who found me back when I was in trouble, and that's where I got my start--"

"Liars tend to overexplain, Russet. Please tell me the truth." Her violet eyes bored into mine. I bit my lip, glancing around for who I'd really seen. He was packing up the bedrolls, paying no attention to our conversation. With a sigh, I revealed the truth to Karliah.

"I saw him, okay?" I shouldered my way past her. "Now, I'm done with these damn mind tricks. Let's find the Elder Scroll and leave."

"Of course. Let's go. No time to waste. Come on... Brynjolf."