Blurring Reality

By Commentaholic

A/N: I'm sorry for any readers who are fans of my Inheritance Cycle story. It's been way too long since my last update. I've kinda been in a slump, and I thought that writing another story might get me out of it. I felt like returning to my origins. That's right, folks. It's Oblivion.

Prologue: An Odd Sight.

The figure in the cell across from mine contorted before my very eyes, shifting from Orc, to Breton, even a Dark Elf like myself! It finally passed over the hideous cat-like Khajiit before ceasing its shape-shifting and stopping on the scaled form of an Argonian. Although its back was its cell door, I could tell that it was a standard Argonian. I'd seen dozens of the pond-squatters come and go during their brief stays in the Imperial City Prison. There was only one problem. Only one thing different from the others.

No one had been in that cell a minute ago.

The notorious Dark Elf known as Valen Dreth watched from his cell as the Argonian's skin went from a dark red to a shimmering white, a color that was unheard of on an Argonian except in the myths of Black Marsh. Many an eccentric nomad had claimed to have seen a silver Argonian, a sign of doom for all of Tamriel, but the sightings had been dismissed as the rantings of attention-seeking lizards.

Valen watched as the spikes retracted into the Argonian's elongated skull to be replaced by a single fin which extended from the center of the Argonian's scaly scalp, arcing backwards into an elegant curve of scaly rigidity.

The Argonian male, for that was its gender, suddenly looked around, looked into the corner of its cell, and sank into a crouch, disappearing from sight.

Valen cursed, where had it gone? He had it in his sight a moment before, and all of a sudden, the cell was empty. He heard the rustling of chains from behind the other cell's corner, but ignored it, instead standing at the door to his cell wondering where the other prisoner had gone.

"Must've been the rats. Nasty things, always scurrying about…"

The Argonian ducked behind the corner. Yes! I managed to get into sneak mode before he saw me! Now to get some quick sneak leveling in…

He began to crouch-walk into the stone wall, well out of sight of that annoying Dark Elf.

Valen had settled back onto his cot due to the lack of excitement. He still had a while before that pig of a guard came to check on the prisoners. He had almost nodded off when he heard a short series of drumbeats. Then another… and another. It continued periodically, the time between them increasing slightly as they continued. Eventually a minute or two went by between beats. Then they stopped coming. Valen waited one…two…..ten minute went by without a single thump of the non-existent drum. He heard a commotion upstairs, and a door creak open.

Suddenly the Argonian appeared at the door to the cell. It was silvery-white scaled, as Dreth had seen earlier, but with two sickle-shaped blue marks on its face, one per cheek. The marks arced along the cheek line, curving up toward where a normal sort of being would have ears. Instead of ears, the stupid Argonian pondscum had tympanic membranes, or a little bit of skin covering a hole in its head, where sounds could reach its thick skull. The Argonian's irridescent green eyes gleamed, despite the dim light in the dungeon. Another strange non-standard Argonian feature.

Dreth grasped the bars and pulled his face in between two of the iron barriers to his freedom, baring his yellowing teeth in a cruel smile.

"Hey, Lizard! It must break your heart, huh? Being so close to the water, knowing you'll never get to swim agai-"

"Oh, shut it, Dreth, all I want is some peace and quiet until I get out of here." came a voice from the other cell. The Argonian also neared the iron bars to his cell. The voice, surprisingly, lacked the usual hiss and rough tone that most Argonians had; a remnant of their lizard evolutionary heritage. This one sounded almost….Imperial.

"You think you're getting out? You'll never get to swim again. You hear me, lizard? You're going to die in here! You're going to DIE!" Valen countered, letting out a maniacal laugh.

An iron door creaked open up the stone steps of the dungeon. Valen turned his ear towards the hallway, heard voices coming down the stairs. He looked back at the Argonian, smiling evilly. "You hear that? The guards are coming…for you!"

"Yeah, fat chance," the Argonian said, easing into the small stool in his cell, putting his hands at rest on the table there.

Voices came from the stairs, "Baurus, lock that door behind us."

The Argonian began to chuckle, which caused Dreth to stare at him strangely.

"And what are you laughing at?"

"Well, it's my lucky day, you see." The Argonian's form blurred a little, and the shackles binding his wrists disappeared, clattering to the floor halfway across the cell.

The voices continued, "My sons, they're dead, aren't they?" This voice was old, and definitely sounded as though its owner was weary, haunted by some unspeakable dread.

"We don't know that, sire;" the first voice, female, said reassuringly, "The messenger only said they were attacked."

"No… They are dead, I know it."

The female soldier with strange armor peered around the corner. After checking that the dungeon was clear, she beckoned to the people behind her. Two more soldiers came around, one guarding the stairs, the other stepping in front of the Argonian's cell. Then an old man came down among them. He was dressed in an elaborate purple robe, trimmed with red and white, a silver shortsword buckled at his waist.

The woman spoke again, "Well, my job is to get you to safety," she said, stopping before the pondscum's cell. She looked shocked to see it occupied. "What's this prisoner doing in here? This cell is supposed to be off-limits!" The guards next to her stuttered out some lame excuse about there being some mix-up with The Watch, but the women just waved away his hasty reply, "Never mind, just get this gate open. Stand back…" But seeing the prisoner already away from the door, she unlocked it and strode inside. "Stay where you are, we won't hesitate to kill you if you get in our way."

The guard with the excuse walked up to the Argonian and said, "Stay put prisoner." The prisoner smiled a fang-filled grin, and just leaned back against the wall, tipping his stool so he could recline more easily. The female guard walked over to the stone wall near the Argonian's bed and started feeling around on the stones. The old man, who had followed them into the cell, looked at the prisoner, eyes wide.

"You." he began, "I've seen you… Let me see your face…"

The old man perused the silvery-scaled face, taking particular interest in the sickle-shaped markings on the stupid lizard's face. Dreth, though usually hateful and disinterested by nature, could not stop himself from watching the proceedings. The old man finally saw something he recognized, and staggered back a little, clutching at his head.

"You are the one from my dreams… Then the stars were right, and this is the day… Gods give me strength."

The Argonian looked amused, and looked as if something was hovering in front of his face. He mumbled, "I'd never say that …" Then he spoke up after a sigh, "What's going on?"

"Assassins-" the old man began, before he was interrupted by the Argonian.

"Yeah, yeah, they attacked your sons, and you know that you're next."

The soldier keeping an eye on the Argonian hissed, drawing his strange sword, "Show more respect to the Emperor, foul Argonian, or your words will be your last."

Dreth gasped, the Emperor? What was he doing down here? Well, besides the "fleeing from assassins" thing.

"Relax, Glenroy, no need to get hostile."

The sword in the soldier's hand flickered up to the Argonian's throat, "I won't ask how you know my name, but if you talk so flippantly with the Emperor again, I will have your head."

The Argonian raised his hands placatingly. A hand appeared on top of the flat of the sword.

"At ease, Glenroy, he means us no harm." He turned to the prisoner, "These are my Blades, as you must already know, who are taking me to safety along a hidden escape route. By chance, this hidden path leads through your cell."

"Yeah…by chance, let's go with that."

The prisoner again looked at what only he could see hovering in mid-air. "Fine…. Why am I in jail?"

"Perhaps the gods have placed you here so that we may meet. As for what you have done, it does not matter. That is not what you will be remembered for. Since you already seem to know who I am, we'll skip the introductions. You are a citizen of Tamriel, and you will serve her in your own way."

Another gaze into space later, the Argonian spoke. "I go my own way."

"So do we all, but what path can be avoided what has been fixed by the almighty gods?"

There was a rumble of stone rubbing against stone, and a brick was receding into the wall of the cell from where the female soldier had pressed it, "Excuse me, sire, but we must keep moving," she said. A portion of the wall slid out of sight, revealing a tunnel-like passageway down into the earth. The female guard lit a torch and led the way into the cavernous tunnel. "We'd best not close this one. There's no way to open it from the other side."

The Redguard soldier who had been guarding the stairs spoke up in a warm voice, half joking, "It looks like your lucky day, prisoner. Just stay out of our way." The soldiers secured the cell door then proceeded down the tunnel.

The Argonian turned to look at Dreth through the cell door. "I'll be seeing you later, Dreth. You can count on it." His scaly hide disappeared through the tunnel and into the darkness, chuckling darkly, the laughter echoing through the dungeon.

Valen Dreth cursed. Why couldn't it have been his cell?

Glenroy, the Blade bringing up the rear of the formation, heard the prisoner's scaly feet padding along behind them after the Argonian's short exchange with the other prisoner. To tell the truth, the words had seemed foreboding. Almost like a threat. His pondering was brought short as he heard Captain Renault shout out, "Close up left, protect the Emperor!" before crying out in pain. The Argonian blurred past him in a flash of scales, catching Renault's blade before it hit the ground, thrusting it forward to impale the assassin who had slain the Blade Captain. He whipped it around, slitting the throat of the next robed murderer, who had just come around the corner.

Glenroy gaped. In mere moments, this Argonian had killed two assassins, one of which who had been the one to best Renault! He watched the Argonian raise the katana up to his eyes and sigh with relief.

"How can you be so relieved? They just killed the Captain!" Baurus said, bristling with anger. Glenroy was startled at Baurus's reaction. Normally the Redguard was calm and collected, normally the humor of the group. Many a boring patrol had been made survivable by the Redguard's jokes.

"Relief? Oh, it's not about Renault. I'm just glad I managed to grab the sword before it fell. You have no idea how hard it is to find once it rolls into a corner. Sure, I'm sad that Renault is dead, but let's face it. Anyone who dies from a single hit, especially when wearing your oh-so-special Blade armor, obviously isn't as important as you think."

"Why you…" Baurus said, advancing on the prisoner. Glenroy held out a hand to stop his fellow Blade.

"Baurus, stop. There will be time to mourn for the Captain, but first we must make sure the Emperor gets out safely." Baurus took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and nodded. They proceeded through the door leading to the rest of the Imperial Subterrane. Glenroy heard a yell from the prisoner, a slam of a door, and a click of the lock. Baurus stood at the door, pulling the key from the lock. Glenroy could hear fists pounding on the opposite side of the now-locked entryway.

"And what was that for? We could have used his help!"

"We don't need his kind of help, Glenroy. Let's get a move on, the Emperor isn't safe yet."

From the other side of the door, they could hear muffled squeaks.

Food, food, I smell food. The large rats squeaked, rustling up to get through the hole in the wall first. They smelled people, and let's face it. In the sewers, there wasn't much food to be had.

The wall crumbled before their insistent pushings, falling open to reveal a pile of red-robed bodies, one armored corpse, and a live scaled person banging on a door, sword in its hand.

The sword did not worry the rats, however, they just charged in as they usually did. Hearing the squeaks, the Argonian whirled around, catching the first rat on the side with his blade, flipping it end over end into the corner. The second rat, he caught in mid air, slashing across its neck, severing its head from its disgusting little body.

The Argonian flicked the blood from the katana. These rats were always so annoying… and persistent. He looked over at Renault. A little extra help wouldn't hurt…

Renault's eyes shot open, revealing completely black eyeballs with no trace of white remaining. Her body gasped for air as she slid down the stairs she had been lying dead upon. "Wha—What happened?"

"You, my dear Renault, are dead. But I hate traveling alone, so I decided to do you a favor." came a voice from behind. She twisted around, trying to get to her feet, reaching for her katana. "Looking for this?" The Argonian stood there, twirling her katana in his hands almost lazily.

"Give that back!" Renault growled, reaching out her hand.

"Wow, so ungrateful. If you want it back so much, sure. Have it." The katana spun from the Argonian's silver hand, arcing through the air to stab through Renault's stomach. "Whoops," the Argonian said as Renault's vision went dark again.

The Argonian smacked his palm onto his face as he recited the spell to resurrect the Blade Captain again. It was a good thing that his magicka was boosted…

Renault gasped for air as she returned from death once more. She gripped the katana, which had been removed from her stomach, looking around for the Argonian. A voice came from above.

"You aren't going to attack me this time, are you? The third time, you tried to kill me with that shortsword you had concealed. You're rather sneaky for someone in an honor-bound league of guards."

The Argonian was sitting on a ledge high on the wall next to a bust of some long-forgotten warrior. His scaly feet dangled off the edge as he looked down at her with what looked like amusement.

"I won't try to kill you."

"Promise? Seriously, I've been betrayed too many times to actually trust anyone at their word. How about you swear on your sword. You Blades do that sometimes, right?"

"I swear on my sword, as well as the Renault Family's honor."

"Alright, good enough for me." The Argonian hopped down off the ledge, almost gliding down to the ground next to Renault.

"How did you…?"

"Oh, that. Levitation spell I picked up in Morrowind. It's handier than you might realize. Now, if you would please follow me." He gestured over to a hole in the wall. Renault followed the silvery Argonian through the gap, stepping over the rat corpses that littered the floor. He stepped over to a fallen skeleton, searching through a bag that was strapped to the skeleton's hip. "Oh good, at last I have something to wear besides these rags." He slipped on the leather armor over his tattered prison garments with relief. "Now I actually am wearing something decent." He hefted an akaviri katana disturbingly similar to Renault's own. In fact…

"Hey, that's my sword!" Rentault exclaimed, "That's my initials engraved into the guard!"

"Oh, right. That. Did I forget to mention that every time I revived you, I grabbed a duplicate of your sword?" He opened his pack to reveal 5 identical Akaviri katana hilts. Renault backed away from the Argonian. "Oh, relax, Renault, I'm not likely to kill you for items. It's a real pain to have to revive you numerous times."

"And that's another thing. How do you know my name? I've never met you before in my life! And who are you, anyway?"

"You may call me Brightscales. The reason is obvious, I imagine. Now, can we get a move on?" He grabbed a bow from the ground beside the skeleton, gestured over the locked chest next to it, opened it and grabbing the quiver of arrows inside.

"How'd you do that? That chest was locked, and that was no magic I've ever seen."

"Oh… Just call it Tildemancy. It's a new magic I developed a few years ago. Nobody else has it but me, and I intend to keep it that way. If it were to get into the wrong hands, it could be disastrous for the world as we know it."

Brightscales took a moment to let loose an arrow into a random bucket that dangled over a forgotten well across the room. He strode over after a small ting came from nowhere, grabbing the arrow and proceeding on to the door opposite the way they had come in. He paused, "You know? I have always wondered why they have a well down here…"

He waved his hand at the next door, which clicked open, and strode through. There was a flash of fire from the next room, prompting Renault to come charging in, only to find 3 rat corpses, along with one of a zombie smoldering on the ground in front of Brightscales. The Argonian himself was downing a small magicka potion the size of his thumb. Not enough to actually restore any decent amount, but enough to compensate for a small drain if you were too lazy to wait for it to recharge.

He walked confidently across the room to a chest which opened before him, without even a touch from his hand. He pulled the iron breastplate and greaves from it, putting them away in his pack, which didn't even so much as bulge an inch from all the stuff that was inside of it. His legs suddenly locked in place. He couldn't move his legs at all. He sighed, "Ah crap, one second." He reached into the bag, pulling out some of the assassins' robes and throwing them upon the ground. His legs suddenly flinched and he could move them again. After he replaced the pack onto his shoulder, he asked, "Shall we continue?"

They proceeded through the underground tunnels, finding more rats and zombies along the way, most of which were dealt with by Brightscales's quick action. Renault began to feel like more of an accessory than an actual help. Brightscales was simply breezing through these enemies, sometimes not even looking where he was shooting, except when he managed a near-impossible shot. It was a moment like this that they now found themselves in. The Argonian and Renault were standing over the body of a rat, which had an arrow piercing its eye, passing through its skull, and the arrowhead was jutting out of the eye on the opposite side.

"Nice shot, eh?" Brightscales joked before moving on.

They soon came upon a hole in the stone wall. Brightscales halted, "Renault, do you have any sneak training?"

"What?"

"Can you sneak up on people?"

"No, it never came up in combat training."

Brightscales cursed. "Ok, just stick behind me and do what I do. My skill level should be high enough to get them before they spot you."

"What are you talking about?" Renault asked, but the Argonian had already moved on. He snuck through tunnels that were now of natural formation. Dripping stalactites loomed from the roof, dripping down to form their floor twins, stalagmites.

They passed three sets of hanging skulls which dangled before a door to the next area. A shiver went down Renault's spine, but Brightscales only poked the nearest skull and said, "Cool!"

A twang hummed through the air as Brightscales's bowstring released an arrow towards a target Renault could not see. Another ping rang through the air, which was followed by the sound of a falling body. Brightscales straightened up and began looting the lair of the goblin he had just killed. He drew the arrow out of the goblin's skull with a wet squelch and wiped it on the goblin's belongings that were not of value. It was a strange thing to watch Brightscales at work, because he never used the lockpicks he picked up. He merely used his strange Tildemancy to unlock all of the doors and chests he came across. And the way he treated bodies… Sometimes he would just stop and shoot an arrow into a corpse to "see how cool it looked with an arrow in that spot". And he often dragged goblin bodies around to be in the bonfires, claiming that "body arrangement is a lost art."

They came upon a large cavern, in which Brightscales managed to make three impossible shots with his bow. He shot two goblins, a warrior and a berserker, from around corners and from at least 60 yards away, and through their heads no less. Then he topped it with a seventy-five yard shot against the goblin witch. The goblin shaman staff fell from the witch's grip as her body tumbled over into her cauldron, boiling her alive if she had not died from the arrow through her chest. He finished off the last goblin, which was inside the pit in the center of the cavern, with an arrow to the back of the head as he walked past. He strode up the ramp at the other end of the room, Renault following. He arrived at another door and strode through it as it opened in front of him. He cocked his head as he heard voices coming from the hall below the hole in the wall he was standing in. The Emperor and his guards were passing by. It wouldn't do to have Renault meet back up with them after "dying". He had to make arrangements….

"Listen, Renault. I'll have to get you out of here by… unorthodox means. I suggest meeting me in my home down near Gnoll Mountain. I'll send you to the doorstep. My assistant will ready some quarters for you if you tell him I sent you. Wait for me there until I figure out what to do with you.

Renault wondered what he could mean by that. "How am I supposed-"

She disappeared in a swirl of light. Brightscales turned around and continued on to his meeting with the Emperor.

"-to get there?" Renault finished as her feet hit cold cobblestones. She looked around frantically. Where was she? She saw a series of stone steps leading up to a bizarre tower that sat atop a mountain, ascending into the low clouds that circled Gnoll Mountain. Snow swirled around her as she shivered due to the swift climate change. Her armor wasn't suited for cold weather, and she knew she should get inside.

She went up the steps to the massive door. She hesitantly raised a gauntleted hand, paused a moment, then knocked nervously on the massive metal door. It clanged loudly, which resonated into the chamber within with the percussive force of a gong.

The door cracked open and a massive gold-tinted eye with a silvery blue circle appeared in the small gap. Yes? Whatever it is you're selling, we're not interested, came a voice that rumbled in her head.

A/N: Well, this was really an interesting write. It certainly got my creative juices going, particularly because Valen Dreth's a fun guy to work with. Can any of my readers guess what's going to happen next and who this golden-eyed wonder is? Although this will be harder to find, though, and might not get as many readers because it's a crossover.

At least it's a decent length story. I felt as though I deserved my truly loyal readers some sort of gift for Christmas, after having left them hanging for so long, them having to wait for my Inheritance Cycle story.

Any thoughts?

-=Commentaholic=-