Almalexia

The Visitor

It had been months since the door had opened. It had been longer still since he was the one to pass through it; He with the glass or the ebony, or the faces over his own. It was he with sword or axe or club, or with illusions, destruction and mysticism. It was he who had walked upon the many floors of the palace hall numerous times following his conception, and less and less since his business was done.

But his business was never done. Once it had been. Twice it had been again. A third time too. But in that specific instance, wherein he had passed through the door after months of absence, it was one of the occasions upon which he had not concluded his business.

Who was he to Vivec, master of the palace and God to the Dunmer of Morrowind? To Sotha Sil he was a Captain, and to Almalexia once a husband. But to Vivec he was... A variable. This man wore no command about him because none followed in his steps or followed his every word without first requiring persuasion and trickery. To Vivec he was no Captain. He had never held Vivec's hand it matrimony, but marriage is more than an agreement; Even so, this man did not provide for Vivec and neither did he much care for him. Or didn't he? It was a hard thing to gage, the thoughts of he who passed through the door after months of absence. The only thing left that he could have been to Vivec was a friend. The devil Dagoth Ur had called he who passed through the door an old friend, but Dagoth Ur had been maddened by his years in exile. Too long had passed for friendship to remain between he and Vivec.

That is to say if he truly was who he was told to be. The Nerevarine was his given title, and thus Nerevar was his name, or so it had been. In this life, time and place his name was whatever he had assigned his name to be because, though he wore no command, he did wear authority. It was the type of authority that made him flexible; capable of climbing not only physical and mental barriers, but also social hierarchies within the growing Dunmer and Imperial societies on Vvardenfell. Although this man navigated his spaces with ease, he fought long and hard to ascend through them before and after receiving his title; Nerevarine. For that reason, presuming that he was Nerevar incarnate, a god-king in the body of a new man, he was in equal part the man he had been prior to that realisation.

There remained only two things that this person could have been to Vivec. Firstly, he could have been a victim. It is said that liars become entangled in webs that even they themselves cannot unravel. But each time Vivec had seen he who passed through the door after many months of absence, Vivec felt his mind untangle to a point of near tunnel vision. Vivec's estranged mortal identity, Vehk, had claimed his divinity at the cost of, and against the wishes of, Nerevar. Alas, the possibility that this man could not be the Nerevarine, and merely a silhouette who fit the arbitrary requirements of a heretical prophecy, provided Vivec a branching path of thought to venture down when in the presence of this man, as to not become exposed to is old self. 

That left only one option as to what this man could be to Vivec: A visitor. The only catch being that he was not like any other.

The Visitor presented himself to Vivec as he always had; with haste and purpose. This is how the Visitor conducted his business with others too, the only flaw with which was that he forgot that Vivec did not observe him with the same eyes as others might. Vivec made an acknowledgement about the Visitor that he had changed since his last sighting. Last they met, the Visitor had exited the palace carrying the Dwarven gauntlet Wraithguard, and the corresponding tools Keening and Sunder so that he could do battle with Dagoth Ur and destroy the Heart that had birthed not only the devil's divinity, but that of Vivec's and his associates. Created by the master craftsman, Kagrenac, these items represented some of the most powerful mortal relics in all of Tamriel. But now, upon their next meeting, the Visitor had returned with something else instead. It was something that had persuaded him to lay down the Dwarven tools in favour of their power; the twin blades of the name True Flame and Hope's Fire. These were mighty weapons wielded in battle in times long-passed by Nerevar and Almalexia respectively. And with this acknowledgement of a shared history came Vivec's tunnel vision, as the Visitor opened his mouth.