CHAPTER 133: NO TELLING

Eezra entering the bar area caught my attention immediately. She was well dressed and looked like a merchant. It was a good disguise honestly, but not needed. She walked over and blinked with surprise. "What magic are you using? It felt like my eyes passed over you."

I nodded and smirked, "I had an encounter with a mage using a similar spell so I tried it out myself. I feel mine is far more advance since I am creating the effect by overlaying many spells into one. While he was achieving the effect through one spell."

Eezra blinked? Actually I don’t know what it was. She sat down and nodded, "Magical efficiently. One spell is more mana efficient, however multiple spells create a better effect. This is how ritual magic works. Are you done showing off?"

I rolled my eyes, "I have the skills why shouldn’t show off? Not to mention when am I going to get the chance to use Alter Humidity? Like seriously? When would I use it other than a time like this?"

She paused, "How are you even using it here?"

I shrugged, "Utilizing water particles in the air to conjure my raw mana into the shape and form I want. While using various Illusion spells to create the veil of obscuration. I actually won’t explain any further than that due to it being... clever."

Truth was I had also used a little Thu’um power. Throw voice was surprisingly useful, it was better to call it something like throw sound. In time I could likely throw other Thu’um around. I set my pen down and looked up Eezra again.

"Okay, let’s start. I suspect like many in the past theorized. The person who put the hit on the emperor is the emperor himself. Of course other assassin are obviously after his life. However from what I can put together, the emperor is basically setting the White-Gold Concordat as the reason why he was assassinated. The only thing I lack to truly put this together is the direct opinion from his heir."

Eezra nodded, "I think I remember theories about that."

I nodded, "I’m going to go on a bit of a side track here, but I want you to stick with me."

She nodded, "Go ahead."

"So the following games proceed like this, Game 6 is about a war reignited. Ultimately the empire wins and the Aldmeri Dominion can end up into three outcomes based on the players choices, quests completed, and people killed. The first is they fracture, the second they become a subject of the empire, and third both of the other outcomes occur. The third is the canonical end to the war, we know this thanks to elder scrolls 7."

Eezra was following along, "This is when the first real full Immersion VR set ups came out."

I nodded, "That gave them more wiggle room with exploration. You could experience things with true touch, feel, even taste. They gave us complete ability to adventure across the empire acting as a champion of a selected god, basically making our own legend with a little help from patron."

Eezra nodded again, "The ending to this game..." I gestured a bit, "It ended with us essentially cross the sea. Akavir, was the setting of the next game and you can pick up lore bits about the empire creating new expeditions all that. The 8th game in the series, it let us cross almost, the entire world. The problem here was simple, what do you do from there?"

Eezra paused slowly nodding, "You give more freedom, you immerse people even more."

I nodded, "Games 1-5 are basically history lessons. However we were placed into the timeline of game 5. Why is that?"

Eezra connected the dots, "So we can completely change the outcome of future events and exploration."

I gave a slight nod, "However, there is one final thing that dictates how things unfold."

She preformed a gesture similar to an question eyebrow so I gave a smile. "It is more many small things, but they all exist at a temporal unknown. The first is a man named Thaddeus Cosma, a true time traveler. The second, is Alduin who is also a time traveler, and despite being killed by the Dragonborn his soul isn’t absorbed. Finally third, in the 7th game we meet Sorca Freed, a Ayleid who was thrown out of time. This one is the best source of how fucked the timeline gets."

I waved a hand, "In his own words, The world is being torn apart at the seams of time. I can see the planes of reality slowly meld. The end of days is not yet done! I fear my next leap forward will send me in to the war of heavens and I will be torn asunder for the sins I have committed."

She blinked, "Oh..."

I liked smart people, they got the point I was making quickly. It was also why I could never trust them fully. "The death of Alduin is the lead up from the Dragon Break. A time based crisis, and we are placed at the near end of that sequence. From what I can tell even if we don’t help the dragonborn he will succeed in killing, but not truly stopping Alduin."

Eezra nodded, "The final exploration would be the timeline itself, not just the multiple dimensions. We are all from outside the world, and yet..."

I tapped my head, "I have memories I suppressed from my life in Atmora, MY LIFE, not someone else’s. We won’t be the first to arrive, we aren’t the special case, we were the experiment. I got to say it is fascinating to be a cog in such a fucked up experiment. I mean a whole universe basically is being distorted by our actions."

Eezra frowned, "So how does this all relate?"

I smiled and tapped my head again. "People! The choices of change!" She didn’t get the final conclusion, I didn’t blame her it was a little insane. I shook my head back and forth, "Okay, so I just told you sequence of two conclusions right? The exploration of the player character, and the advancement of the timeline."

She nodded along, So I continued, "The dragonborn, will succeed in killing Alduin. No matter what, he succeeds, it is just a guarantee. Even if we tried to stop him, it is a prophecy. The future games don’t really follow a prophecy. You still start as a nameless prisoner. Game 6 your a nameless war prisoner saved by the empire. Game 7 you are a prisoner of your patron god until you make a deal with them. Game 8 you are a prisoner released from prison due to a mistaken identity."

Eezra eyes widened at what I saying. "There no longer is a main character, at least no one like the Dragonborn. Are you saying I shouldn’t kill the emperor though?"

I shook my head, "Wrapping all the way back, to the idea that the assassination on the emperor is a conspiracy. When i was talking with Maro he didn’t care of Vittoria Vici died. Telling that the east empire trading company trades with the Aldermi Dominion. This would break those trade deals if she dies in the lead up to the conspiracy against the emperor."

Eezra nodded, "Maro gets angry the dark brotherhood kills his son though. They hadn’t planned for something like that."

I nodded, "Maro even had his son’s schedule on him when I went to go talk to him."

Eezra paused in some thought, "On the Katariah, dead bodies were already aboard. Meaning they were likely still planning the conspiracy and the Emperor was even waiting for you. Only to ask you to kill the man who made the contract." She sighed, "Literally tying up a loose end."

I nodded, "General Tullius doesn’t receive his orders from the emperor. I have an on going quest with someone named Canary. The quest isn’t complete and the woman disappeared. In truth, I suspect she is working for the next emperor."

Eezra closed her eyes and crossed her arms. "I need to kill the real emperor, before he gets back on his ship or has he never left?"

I smiled, "A pawn in a greater game! Isn’t this fun? Like a murder mystery, but you are trying to cause the murder."

She frowned, "And the stakes are that we could several doom ourselves in the long run."

I nodded, "thinking about it, some of my past choices are major mistakes. Not that I really care though, they are still minor in the grand scheme. It does mean I got a frozen quest though."

Eezra nodded once more, "Killing Vittoria Vici will stir the whole city up."

I shrugged, "Her wedding is in two days. She will need to be killed. The good news is you already know where the emperor is."

She sighed, "On his ship."

I smiled, "You are going to need to kill, Vittoria Vici, Aquillius Aeresius, and Titus Mede all in the same day? No it would be hour, you would need to do it all in the same hour."

She frowned, "Wow, thanks. You basically just told me not only is my main quest harder than I thought it was, but that I need to completely disregard a bunch of other plans we were making."

I laughed, "Oh no, those plans are still happening. They will shift a little though, after all, Solitude is my base of operations. After you kill the three individuals I will announce that I have failed in my information collection and didn’t notice an assassin in my city. In which I will hunt down the dark brotherhood personally. Maro will cover up the death of the Emperor no doubt and when I come back."

She paused, "Oh, Woah! You... That’s devious, you plan to fucking replace the Penitus Oculatus."

I laughed, "Ah, replace? No, nothing so ambitious. Now slander, worm and ultimately steal from them. Well, that is far more within range of what I can and should do. I look forward to dealing with you in the future Eezra."

She paused and blinked. I got up and started to walk away. Eezra stopped me however, "A-Are you planning something?"

I paused and turned around, "I’ll be openly visiting the temple of Meridia within the next day or so. I have business there I need to attend to. I have yet to receive a certain reward, I wish to go get it."

She frowned, she knew exactly what I meant. I smiled, this is why smart people were useful. Eezra has finally realized how deep my own conspiracy has gone. Though mine was a little less governmental and war based. I wouldn’t be able to do this with normal npcs. Having other players really helped setting things up.

----Sorry this one took a while, I’ve been getting a bunch of long hours and had really no time to sit down. and relax.----