Beautiful Insanity (A Skyrim/Oblivion Fanfiction) ((ORIGINAL))

Russet

RUSSETPOV

"You didn't have to kill him!" I screeched at Karliah, throwing an iron tankard at her. She easily deflected it, staring at me sadly. "Now my daughter is gone!!" Apparently, I'd tried her patience, because her face took on an angry glare.

"Do not forget you asked me to end what shouldn't be," she hissed icily.

"But not to kill him. Daedric Prince or no, he--"

"Broke the Daedric Laws twice. Once, many eons ago before he became the Madgod Sheogorath. He became very... enamored with an unloved mortal. He has the same pull with Regina, it would seem."

"Regina knew we loved her!" I stopped short, biting my tongue. Didn't she?

"Are you sure?" Karliah asked skeptically. My head shot up as I heard a door slammed. There, I saw my husband, who'd clearly been to the tavern. Something in me snapped.

"Brynjolf, I hate what happened just as much as you, but I don't get drunk every day!" My outburst seemed to shock him.

"Russet, you should calm down," Karliah suggested. I ignored her, curling my fingers into fists.

"Like Oblivion I will," I growled furiously, shooting a glare at my drunken husband. "Brynjolf, the last thing we need is for your intoxication to ruin this family!"

"Sounds like we already ruined it," he slurred. "Regina hates us, and'll prob'ly kill us if she ever sees us again."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about, Bryn! We need to find her-- and you need to sober up."

"If I don't?" he challenged, his brain half-working. I stared him dead in the eyes.

"Then I'm leaving you." Karliah let out an audible gasp, and the blood drained from Bryn's face. He closed his eyes.

"I'm s-so sorry, lass..." Brynjolf slumped to the floor, a hand on his temple. I waved a hand over him, reducing the effects. The Daedric Prince glanced at me.

"I cannot do anything to help your cause, Russet." The ravens cawed as if to echo her dark words. "He knew the price."

"But we too had to pay it," I growled, staring at my friend. Her blue skin shone eerily. "You, of all people, should understand what it's like to have a loved one torn away. Twice, for that matter." Nocturnal fixed me with an icy glare.

"Do not presume to know me," she hissed, tendrils of smoke curling around her feet.

"I do not presume, Karliah. I do know you. And so help me gods, if you don't assist me, I will find the old Nocturnal and bring her back to you."

"What makes you think you'll find her?" Karliah challenged, and I stared her dead in the eyes. The unnerving glare made her uneasy, and she took a step back. The birds ruffled their feathers.

"I'm already trying to find one dead Daedric Prince. You cannot think that I wouldn't bring back another."

"What exactly do you plan to do?" my eldest daughter queried, sitting down at the dining room table.

"I need to find a way into the Shivering Isles to speak with Regina," I replied. The Daedric Prince glanced at me with alarm clear in her face.

"You can't. She's gone insane-- she'll kill you!"

"It would be a fitting punishment," I laughed darkly, looking over at my husband. He didn't comment. "Nocturnal, you have to go research. Go to your Daedric-Lord-party, whatever it is. Get information." The blue-skinned Daedra nodded and vanished in a cloud of shadows. "Either way, we have to find a way to talk to Regina."

"We?"

"You're coming with," I replied to my daughter. "I won't leave you alone with the chance that your sister's going to appear and... give in to her homicidal side."

"I get the feeling that at least one of us isn't coming home," she remarked dryly. "This isn't my mistake, Ma. It's yours. You have to fix it."

"A--"

"I'm still going to help." She fixed me with a steely glare. "What else can I do? Wait around for my little sister to descend into deeper insanity and depression? Unlike you... I understand her."

"How?" Bryn challenged, finally speaking up. "Your lover's far from dead."

"That's true," she agreed, but her blue eyes glinted with ire. "Regina's my sister. Do you realize how she felt all these years?" I found myself unable to respond to her challenge. "Unloved and hated."

"How is that?" Brynjolf chuckled darkly, no humor involved in the tone. "We gave her attention. Love. Encouragement."

"But everyone else made it worthless," Karliah replied hotly, clenching her fists. "And I helped them," she muttered mournfully, looking to the side and rubbing her forearm. "If you want to be technical-- I started it."

"What?"

"I put the ideas into her head," she remarked regretfully. "I told her that she was unloved. It was just a joke, I was so young. But she took it as if it was true. And in time... it became so in her head." I leaned back, realizing that everything my daughter had said couldn't have been anything but exact.

"We have only one option," she continued. "Ma... we can't go find Regina." I began to protest, but she held up a hand. "We need to find her Daedric Prince."

"He's dead."

"Ah, that's where you're wrong-- and right, it would seem-- but still wrong." Kari shook her finger. "I may not be some genius like my sister was, but I know that nothing truly fades from existence. It is simply misplaced. You can shatter a plate, and you no longer have it, but it still exists, albeit in a different form. Nothing can vanish from all planes.

"Our goal is to find where he was misplaced and bring him back. We won't get through to Regina by talking, that'll only get us killed."

"I see where you're coming from," Brynjolf said slowly. "But how exactly do you plan on figuring out where to go?" Karliah looked up somberly.

"By dying."