Still-Born Shout [#wattys2017]

Chapter Nineteen

There was a velvety lushness that surrounded her. Sif felt herself floating through an infinite warmth, her limbs glowing with a golden light.

She felt much lighter than she had, before... Was she dead? Had Mora succeeded in finally ripping the soul from Sif's body?

"Dragonborn..."

No, he couldn't have succeeded... The Oblivion that Sif had heard so much about, read so much about in her lifetime, it couldn't have been this warm, this gentle...

"Dragonborn, wake up..."

She hadn't any idea.

All that she could discern was that she hadn't experienced a feeling of such elated lightness in all her life... That is, until she had stood next to Ulfric at the head of the table in Castle Dour as he praised her success...

"Dragonborn..."

...Until she had met Farkas.

Farkas.

Her eyes shot open.

There was an intense brightness that overwhelmed Sif's vision at first, blasting blended hues of purple and blue into her senses, wrapping her in a sense of overwhelming contentment. As she made sense of the swirling colors, she looked down to see her fingers splayed on the stones beneath her. She could feel life pulsing through her body as she pushed her hands down and slowly staggered to her feet.

As she stood, slowly, she scanned the horizon of the foreign realm she had landed in when she threw her body into the light. Mountain peaks stretched for what looked like thousands of miles beyond what she could see, reflecting every color imaginable from the unending heavens above. The steps stretched downward from where she stood were very old and well-traveled. She could see the statues that lined the legendary path, their eyes focused upon her. Not much more of the beautiful landscape beneath her could be seen beyond the unnatural mist that blanketed it.

Sif slowly descended the steps, her eyes wide, her head unusually light. Just as she had felt the majestic chanting of a thousand old warriors in her mind when she had first discovered her aptitude for the Thu'um in Bleak Falls Barrow, she felt it becoming stronger with every step she took into the foreign place.

She had a sudden realization. Gripping the sides of her head with caution and closing her eyes, she searched the deepest caverns of her mind for him. Mora had plagued her for so long...

Sif couldn't find him.

She searched, she squeezed her eyes shut until she felt they would burst, her fingernails dug into the cuts on her temples that had long since scabbed over, but no matter what, Mora was nowhere to be found.

Her arms dropped to her sides, listless, as she opened her eyes and dropped to her knees. Her haunting yellow orbs, somehow suddenly so filled with life, drifted to the swirling skies overhead, wet with salty tears that dribbled down her cheeks and dropped into the dirt.

There was a noticeable ache growing in her throat that she didn't quite understand. She felt it growing into an obstruction until she swallowed and forced it back down, causing more tears to spring forth from her eyes. A powerful feeling overcame her and forced her downward to brace herself with the heels of her hands and empty her tears to the stones below. She felt herself gasping for air, letting out a strangled sob as she forced her eyes to stay open.

Mora was gone. Hermaeus Mora, thank the Divines, had finally left her mind at peace. It made her feel as if she were going to float away.

"Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin, naal ok zin los vahriin..."