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Octavius' emerald green eyes glared at the portal in front of him. It was clear it was Daedric in origin. He could practically feel it. He thought that he, Alice, and Martin had put an end to this. An end to the Daedric portals appearing on Nirn when they stopped the Oblivion Crisis. Martin had even sacrificed his life to make that happen! So why was this here? If another Daedric Prince was trying to plan an invasion...
"I think it's Sheogorath" Alice said, examining the gate as well, this caused Octavius to snap out of his thoughts and look over at woman beside him.
"Definitely Sheogorath" Octavius answered her before glaring at the gate again. He had to be the Daedric Prince behind this. The three large stone faces morphed together that surrounded portal, was dead give away, but the real question was, what did he want?
"Here comes another one!" The nearby guard called out. Octavius had noticed that the guard was here when he and Alice had arrived, but had yet the chance to talk to him. He could only assume the guard had been stationed here to try and figure out what was going on.
"Another what?" Octavius asked him, eyes narrowed.
Then before anyone could say or do anything further, a dark elf walked out of the portal. He fell to his knees and holding his head in his hands. "It's not right! Madness! Why?! Why?! Everything is wrong! It can't be done! Stay away from me! I won't go back. YOU CANT MAKE ME GO BACK! I'LL KILL YOU ALL! YOU'RE ALL GOING DIE!" Without warning, he drew a dagger and charged at the three of them.
"Stay back! This one's violent!" The guard said, jumping in front of both Octavius and Alice and swinging his sword at the dark elf. The two began to fight each other, only for the dark elf to stop what he was doing when he was hit by a calming spell. Octavius didn't even need to look beside him to know that was Alice's doing. Octavius frowned. Everything had happened so fast he barely got the chance to even react.
The guard then turned to him and Alice. "I'd stay back from that door if I was you. Nothing that's gone in has come out right" He warned them.
Octavius narrowed his eyes again. "Tell us about this door"
"I don't know where it came from and I don't want to. Those who have gone in have come back out... wrong. I'm just here to warn folks to stay away" The guard answered.
Octavius knew exactly where it had come from, and what they had just witnessed proved he and Alice's theory that it was all Sheogorath's doing.
"Perfectly normal people go in and this is how they come out" The guard continued.
"I'm going to put an end to this" Octavius didn't even hesitate, he stepped towards the portal.
"Well good luck with that. If you go in there and come back out like the rest. I'll be here to clean up the mess" The guard said.
Octavius shot him a glare before taking another step forward, though he didn't get much further before Alice raced up to him and grabbed his hand.
"I'm coming too!" Alice insisted.
Octavius looked over at her. He was hesitant, but only because he didn't want anything to happen to her. At the same time though, he knew Alice could handle herself, and if they were able to take on several Oblivion gates together and survive. Surely the two of them could survive this too. "Alright, but we stick together" Octavius said giving in.
Alice giggled. "Always!" She said happily.
This caused a bit of a smile to tug at the corners of Octavius lips, and he knelt down to place a kiss on her forehead. Alice responded with an adorable squeak and he chuckled. The two of them were just about to enter the portal only for them both to pause when they heard the same voice in their minds.
"Unworthy! Unworthy! Unworthy! Useless mortal meat! Walking bag of dung!" The voice said angrily.
Alice jumped in surprise the voice startling her, while Octavius scowled.
"A nice effort though. A shame, but these things happen" The voice said nonchalantly now as if what had just happened was no big deal.
Alice blinked in confusion, while Octavius glared at the portal again.
"Bring me a champion, rend the flesh of my foes! A mortal champion! To weed through the entrails of my enemies" The voice continued.
For a moment there was silence and Octavius and Alice both looked at each other.
"You heard that too right?" Octavius asked her.
"Yup" Alice answered with a nod.
"Really! Do come in!" the voice told the two of them invitingly.
Octavius scowled again. "I don't like this. I don't like any of this, but someone needs to put a stop to it" he said before entering the portal with Alice.
Once they got inside it was... certainly not what he had expected. It was a small stone room with a stone door on the other end, in the middle of the room there was a stone table with a metronome and a book on it, in front of it a stone chair, a man was sitting on the other end of the table and he looked extremely unimpressed.
"You can have the seat. I'll stand" Octavius told Alice.
"Can't I just sit in your lap?" Alice asked with a giggle.
"If you really want to" Octavius answered her with a chuckle.
Alice grinned and nodded, and he took a seat on the chair before she happily plopped herself in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him.
"I didn't expect there would be two of you at once. That's certainly new" The man across from them said in a monotone voice, his tone sarcastic.
"And you are?" Octavius said, glaring at him.
"I am Haskill. Chamberlain to the Lord Sheogorath" He answered him.
"And this is the Shivering Isles I presume?" Octavius said.
"You know where you are. Impressive" Haskill answered sarcastically.
Octavius glared a him again. "Perhaps you'd care to tell me why your Lord has opened a gate to his realm?"
"Because he wills it to be so. It poses no danger to Mundus. No compact has been violated" Haskill answered.
"I don't believe you" Octavius said.
"Believe what you will, but is a doorway, an invitation, perhaps you will accept it for what is is" Haskill responded.
"Um Haskill sir?" Alice piped up.
"Just Haskill is fine. No need for formalities" Haskill told her.
"Well um, Sheogorath told us to come in, what does that mean? I'm curious" Alice asked him.
"I can't stay that I know for sure. It would be foolish to try and fathom the mad god's intent, but my Lord seeks a mortal to act as his champion. His will is his own. His reality follow suit. You are here because you chose to enter. You were not summoned" Haskill said.
Alice blinked. "I'm confused"
"You could have chosen not to walk in could you not have?" Haskill questioned.
"We came in here to stop whatever it is you're up to" Octavius said still glaring at him. "What of the others outside"
"They entered this realm and were ill prepared. Their minds our now the property of my Lord" Haskill answered.
Octavius' glare was quick to turn icy. What he just heard infuriated him and just made him spite the Daedric Princes all the more.
Alice noticed this and turned around to hug him. She gently rested her head on his shoulder, she could feel him shaking with anger.
"You're despicable. You and your Lord both" Octavius hissed at Haskill.
"Thank you for your confidence. Now do you have anymore questions or are you just going to keep sitting there and throw insults at me?" Haskill replied sarcastically.
Alice looked up at Octavius in concern and then looked over at Haskill and shook her head. "No. No more questions" She said.
"Very well. Do you wish to enter? There are other things I must attend to" Haskill said.
"We do" Alice answered him.
"Fine. I'm sure my Lord will be most pleased. Assuming you ever manage to see him. You'll want to pass through the gates of Madness. Oh, and mind the Gatekeeper. He dislikes strangers to the realm. Enjoy your stay" Haskill said before getting up and walking over to the door.
It wasn't long after he disappeared into thin air, did the stone room that Octavius and Alice were left in, exploded into thousands of purple butterflies, revealing a strange but beautiful landscape. This elicited an excited squeal from Alice. "Octavius look! Look at all the butterflies! They're so beautiful!" She cried out in excitement, eyes shimmering as she watched them all begin to fly off. She then giggled as one landed on her shoulder. It stayed with her for a moment before flying off as well.
Just like that, all of the anger Octavius was feeling faded away, and a smile spread across his lips. How could he be angry after he had witnessing something that adorable. She always had a way of calming him, of taking all the pain and anger away, and she didn't even have to try. He loved her with every fiber of his being. "You're too precious" Octavius said with a chuckle placing a kiss on on her forehead again.
Alice blushed. "Thank you Tavey" she said softly.
"You're welcome my Little Butterfly" He said, responding with the pet name he called her. This caused Alice to grin widely and he chuckled. He knew that would make her happy and he thought it rather appropriate for the situation. Octavius couldn't help but wonder though. The butterflies. Had Sheogorath done that on purpose or was it just one of the realm's regular occurrences? He couldn't tell. Alice had always loved butterflies, she had loved them since she was small and Octavius wasn't sure if he knew that or if that was a coincidence. Either way he couldn't help but be cautious. Not when it came to her safety. He didn't trust Sheogorath, he wasn't too fond of he Daedra Princes as it was, but after the Oblivion crisis and everything that had happened. He loathed them. He'd already lost family to one Daedric Prince. He refused to lose the love of his life to another.
"We need to be careful" Octavius told her. "Anything could be a trick"
Alice smiled at him. "Together we can take on anything!" she said happily.
Octavius smiled back. "You're right" He then lifted her up and got to his feet. Alice giggled and wrapped her arms around him as he carried her to the nearby town. Neither of them realizing just what the future held in store for them both.