ALMSIVI Reborn [Elder Scrolls Fanfiction]

Chapter One: Whispers of the Past

Ever since my seeing of the Tower, I saw life differently. When I touched something, I knew where it had been, how long it had existed, and who else had touched it.
When I set my eyes upon someone, I knew where they had travelled, whom they loved, whom they hated. I knew everything about them.
Sometimes, this was a gift. Sometimes, not so much.

One humid Morndas, when I had just come back from a hunting trip, I felt an Aetherial Presence.
It was like nothing I had ever felt before. Instantly curious, I probed into it. Mysteriously and without reason, I was repelled. Before I was ripped out of the spirit, I had been able to acquire a small sample of its essence. The essence was easy to probe. It resonated a dark power, similar to that of a Daedra. But there was something in the essence that intrigued me: the lingering of Light within the fundamental strands of Darkness. This could only mean that the Presence, at some point in time, had been turned. Judging from the Daedra-like power resonating from the essence, I could deduct that it had been a Daedra who had turned the presence from the Light. By probing the essence I also saw that the presence was at the present moment, but it was not. Something big, something important, had happened in this very place. Further questions invaded my mind; could others sense the presence? Where did the presence come from, why hadn't I felt it before, and why now? These questions ran amok in my head while I thought. Then, suddenly, the presence took shape. Startled, I was pulled from my thoughts violently. After recovering from my initial shock, I approached the presence cautiously, addressing it. "Who are you?" I asked. It did not respond, nor show the slightest hint that it even knew I was there. It raised its hands towards the heavens, shielding its face. It then kneeled, and from its mouth movements I could figure out that it was begging for mercy. The presence then swirled away in a column of darkness, seemingly dissolving.
This happened over and over again, before I finally understood.

This figure that I saw before me was merely an echo—an echo of the past.