So this was death. He had thought that it would be more…hellish, honestly. But no. No fire and brimstone for him, it would seem. Perhaps that was a blessing, but he was beginning to think that anything would be preferable to this eternal tedium. There was nothing for him to do here, except to wander aimlessly throughout the shifting and misty landscape, or admire the unnaturally colorful sky. It never seemed to shift from day to night, here.

He had never imagined that the afterlife would be anything like this. It seemed almost like a plane of Oblivion. But he doubted that. He had at least read descriptions of each of the realms of the Daedra, but this matched none of them. Besides, he had yet to encounter a daedroth of any kind, and certainly not a Prince. That suited him just fine. After all, one of their number was responsible for his current predicament.

That was long in the past, though. He had no idea for how long he'd been here, but he had wandered through much of the alien landscape of this place. It had doubtlessly been many, many years. Longer even than he had been bound in the service of that wretched Daedra, or even the Dragons. It made no real difference. He had never accomplished his goals. Never really ruled in his own right. It had nearly always been at the behest of one overlord or another.

And now his reward was to wander this godsforsaken place for the rest of eternity. Perhaps it was not exactly eternal torment and damnation, but it the idea of staying here forever rankled him greatly. He had long since discovered that there was no sleep in this place, no matter how he rested his eyes. These…doldrums seemed specifically designed to drive him insane with the sheer boredom.

He had tried to fester in his loathing, of course. Ranting in his head and cursing the name of the foul creatures who had wronged him…and even the betrayer of his own kin. But soon enough, he tired of such theatrics. Whatever hatred he had of those from his past life had long since burnt out until even the ashes of contempt had been swept away. His time here had done much to make him look at his life with an objective view. All in all, he could see that he had wasted far too much. His time here in this…place….dwarfed his time in Mundus, or even Oblivion.

Curiously enough, from time to time he would see wisps of light fleeting just out of vision, or at the corner of his eye. He could hear whispers and echoes reverberating throughout the halls of broken, empty ruins he stumbled upon. It was clear that he was not alone here. There were too many signs, but this had been going on ever since he first found himself first. He hadn't noticed it at first, when he was busy with his ranting and brooding. But it was equally clear that the residents of this strange land were avoiding him for some reason. Perhaps his reputation preceded him.

As of this moment, he was wandering what appeared to be some sort of …hilly, region. Rolling grass stood motionless in a still world, with no breeze to ruffle the blades. It had been disquieting, at first, but by now he had gotten used to the stillness of this place. It was almost like a painting, frozen forever in a tableau that simply suggested life. He came to a cliff on the hill soon enough, which led down onto a dirt road. He simply continued down it, wandering as he had done for what must have been centuries now…

Until he heard noises. For the first time in many years, he was hearing something aside from the silence of this mysterious prison. He followed down the road in the direction of the noises, until he found himself overlooking a steep cliff down into what looked like rolling plains. He could hear the sounds of people just over the horizon. People. Their voices echoed for miles in the silence of this place.

Ignoring the danger, he jumped and skidded down the cliff. He feared that he was going to flatten himself on the way down, but managed to decelerate enough to roll upon his landing. Normally, he would've stopped now to catch his breath. But now was not the time for such hesitance. This was the first time he had encountered other humans in his time here, and would not lose this chance. Perhaps he might even…escape. Escape from this lonely and tedious jail the Daedra had inflicted him with upon his death. He may have been denied Sovngarde, but perhaps he had a chance to escape from wherever this was.

One of the many things he had noticed about this place was that he had kept his physical form. That was a great boon in his favor. After death, most men had to assume a ghostly mien to continue interacting with the physical plain. Not so with him. Even the spirits in the Soul Cairn maintained only a tenuous connection to the mortal plain.

He, however, was physical entirely. At first he believed that the Daedra only allowed this in order to further taunt him. Allowing him a physical body only to place him in an empty and incorporeal world. Now, though….even his magic remained intact. He no longer enjoyed the aid of the Daedra, of course, but he retained his own intrinsic power. For the first moment in his time here, perhaps it would serve him well.

As he got closer to the bluff which served as the horizon, he considered his options. From the sound of things, the people were in a fight of some sort. A battle, perhaps with one of the creatures that habitually avoided him. That should mean that the residents of this world at least believed them to be less powerful than himself. That was certainly good. Their enemy sounded like some sort of shrill beast, while they were clearly human as they barked orders to their allies. He also heard the sounds of what could only be magic. Bolts of lightning, and perhaps fire. A few small explosions. Rays of light emanated past the horizon and into the sky.

So, probably some cabal of wizards tore open a portal through Aetherius or wherever to get here. Perhaps they wished to bind some of the beasts here for research, or to serve as soldiers for them. He could work with that. As he finally reached the apex of the bluff he found himself both confused and astounded by the sight before him.

There were people alright, and their opponents certainly weren't human. Down in a pit of sorts below the bluff, surrounded by hills all around, there was a battleground. Four people were engaging what looked like… eyeball monsters. There were few other words to describe them. They were floating eyes, but different from the beholders. They had no limbs at all, and the eye was surrounded not by flesh, but what looked like earthy armor of sorts. It reminded him of the skin of the ash spawn that populated Solstheim. There were also several hulking, purple things. They seemed to be made of layers of leathery purple muscle, with spikes of bone protruding beneath them. They wielded simple equipment and blades made of similar material to themselves. Their weapons reminded him of the sword he wielded when in service to the Daedra.

He could see why the wizards would desire the creatures to power their armies. They were obviously created with combat in mind. Even the floating eyes had powerful magic. He could practically feel it oozing off of them. The mountains of purple muscle served a much more obvious purpose. They probably served a similar purpose to frost atronachs, but without a weakness to fire. Perhaps he himself could bind a few of them to his will, later.

Even more odd were the men and women who fought the strange creatures. There were four in total, and they bore raiment like none he had ever seen before. Two of them wore silvery, stainless armor. They had shining red visors of what looked like stained glass to shield their eyes, but otherwise completely encased themselves in their armor. They threw beams of light at the creatures from their palms. Even more strange, he sense no magic from them or their attacks. Even stranger were the other two, who wore white coats and similar red visors, but no helms. They seemed more wizard like than the other two, who were possibly an escort of battlemages. They pointing strange instruments at the creatures, but otherwise seemed to be avoiding the battle. He decided to do the same, as a few purple corpses already dotted the battlefield. They seemed to have this under control, so he would wait until they needed rescue, or some other opportunity presented itself to ingratiate him to the weird wizards.

"Subject Beta is yielding fascinating data." Said one of the wizards calmly to his compatriot beside him. The other nodded. "Indeed. I can't wait to get back to the lab to dissect them. I can see a promotion in my future out of this little venture". He could practically hear the wizards grin, even if he couldn't make out his features from here. The other two battlemages were just finishing off the last of the hulking purple monsters.

The wizard who had mentioned 'Subject Beta' now manipulated his instrument in some way, and their observer shivered as a portal opened. A portal. Escape to the mortal world. He may not have recognized these strange wizards, but no matter. They were clearly physical beings like himself, and that was good enough for him. Finally, he could make it back to the mortal plane. Never before did he appreciate Mundus as he did now.

"Pack up the subjects for dissection. I want to get back to base and report this. I can't wait to see the look on Mulhearny's face when we tell him we've opened a portal to the Shadow Shard!"

Well, at least now he knew where he was, thanks to the wizard's lose tongue. He had never heard of this 'Shadow Shard' before now, but it sounded almost like a plane of Oblivion such as Coldharbour or Apocrypha. He waited for a moment as the wizards loaded up their research materials and corpses, waiting for the perfect oppurtunity. He crept up on them as they turned their backs to him, and the two battlemages headed past the horizon of the portal and the other two were about to enter it's precipice. By now he was almost on them, and was breaking out in a cold sweat as he bided his time.

Soon...just a little longer...and I'll be back. Back in Mundus. Back on Nirn. Back in Tamriel...

Just as the last wizard entered the portal, it began to visibly shrink. The moment was now. Instead of breaking out in a run, he stood up, and took in a breath of air that filled his lungs to capacity.

"WULD...NAH-KEST!"

He shouted, and the world blurred around him. He felt the heat of the air rage as he zoomed into the portal at the speed of a whirlwind. He jumped in, and a flash of light enveloped his being. The portal winked closed behind him, and only the quiet emptiness of the Shadow Shard remained.

Dr. Leroy sipped on his coffee as he went over the procedures for the dimensional portal's transportation of the field team. A lot of science went into just the opening and closing of these things. Dr. Leroy led an entire team of dedicated technicians for the Portal Project. It wasn't prestigious at all, as Crey was keeping the whole thing hush hush. His movements were restricted to Crey property for the duration of the project, and he had been required to sign a binding contract with Crey.

But he wasn't stupid. This was a big career move for him. If he impressed the countess with his work here, he knew that he could go far in the project. Right now he was just sipping on coffee as he oversaw what looked like the first successful run of the new model. If everything worked out here, he could start the routine testing phase of the project and present his findings to Countess Crey next month. Dr. Abigail, his assistant, was working the tuning panel in the control room and Dennis monitored the power grid. Abigail was older than him, but didn't have nearly the aptitude he had for such advanced physics. Dennis was a just one of the many technicians that Crey had on staff for this project, but he was in charge of the mechanical aspects of the Portal. There were a dozen or so other scientists and technicians in the control room with him, overlooking the Portal in a balcony-like construct. Crey also had about three dozen security personnel on site, including six or seven here in the main Portal Bay.

Kowalski and Grimm came through the portal in a flash of light and immediately moved to remove their helmets. Grimm wiped his face from the sweat he'd built up just as Alaster and Bailey made it back. Dr. Leroy asked Dennis and Abigail for a status report.

"Looks all clear sir!" Abigail said with a smile. She had contributed a lot to this project, so she was elated with it's sucess. That was fine, as long as she didn't try to take any of his credit. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

"Uh, sir, you might want to take a look at this..." Dennis mumbled out loud. Sighing, Dr. Leroy made his way over to the monitoring station. If something went wrong, he wanted to be the first to know about it. After all, he would need to find a scapegoat soon if things went too badly. Still, he couldn't imagine what went wrong at this stage. The scientists and their materials were sucessfully transported from the Shadow Shard and back, even bringing a few trophies with them.

"What could have possibly happened?" He asked irritably.

Dennis just looked back at him with a strange look and a raised eyebrow. "Something's still coming in, behind them."

And just like that, Dr. Leroy felt the blood drain from his face. Something had followed them back from the Shadow Shard. Oh god.

"Abigail, call securtiy." He managed to gulp out.

"Yes sir."

Beneath the control balcony, The field team turned around suprisedly, as they saw a sight that made them break out in a cold sweat. The portal remained open, and a light flashed just before it powered down and winked out of existence. The lights on the sides of the portal turned from blue to red, and the overhead floodlights shut down with an audible hum as power drained from the Portal Bay. Grimm frowned. That only happened in states of emergency shutdown. He put a hand to his ear.

"Control, what the hell's goin' on?" He asked nervously. He tried to keep his cool, but Crey never did something like this unless there was a reall problem.

'Be-Khhkk-Advise-Chkk-Inter-Ckhkk-ence-Kckk-Followed you from the Shadow Shard..."

That last bit was enough to set him on edge, and he repowered his suit. He was about to put his helmet back on, but he caught glimpse of something standing in the center of the Portal Bay.

It was a man. He was wearing blue robes with some kind of armor on the arms, and some kind of weird squid helmet.

"You! Freeze!" He and Kowalski readied their palm blasters. "Hands in the air!"

"Eh heh heh...Ahhaha ha ha! Ha ha ha hah ha!" There was a chill in the air, and utter silence as they heard that laugh...

Oh dear god no... he thought. Not one of them

"Finally..." He said, after his fit of laughter subsided. He slowly raised his masked head, and found himself chuckling his way between words. "Finally, I have returned. Mora was a fool to think he could imprison me forever...he was a fool, for all of his 'forbidden knowlegde'. And now I'm free. Free to move, free to fight, free to kill...Free to seek my revenge. Listen to me!" he suddenly yelled, making the field team jump as they looked on in horrified silence and fascination. "Know this, fools, I have returned. I shall regain my power, I shall regain my strength. And nothing...nothing will stop me from retribution. I will have my revenge. Despair ye mighty Daedra, and behold! Miraak has returned!" and all Grimm knew was fire, as he could feel his face melt off and his bones turn to ash as a fountain of immolation jetted out of Miraak's hands.