Into Oblivion

1

I was born a misfit into a family of Kings and Queens.

The Asquerana family dated back to the beginning of it all. My great-great-grandfather stood before the first Emperor who received the Amulet of Kings from the Gods. We were nobles. We were rich, powerful, unstoppable, and yes... we were greedy, haughty and even to go as far as slaves among our own heritage. My father was Nobleman: Jerald Asquerana, High Elf, great merchant, strong in Arcane Arts. My mother was the daughter of the old Countess of Kvatch, High Elf, beautiful maiden who used her looks and brains to win over anything she wanted.

Their life for me consisted of serving as the Princess that I was supposed to be. I would marry back into my own family to carry on the Asquerana name. I would serve this stolen life in solitude and confinement never truly knowing how it feels to be free and able to decide my own destiny. My life was written down in their books. It seemed that I would never truly grasp the fate that I dreamed of at the darkest of nights high in my room surrounded by flamboyant limestone walls that never seemed to belong to me. My life... seemed sold.

At least... that was until the day that the Oblivion gate breeched the soil in front of my wondrous city...

At the break of dawn, the Chapel bells tolled. Not in its systematic way, but in a distress signal. The ringing seemed piercing and continual for a long session of thirty minutes. The town was awoken at a bleeding sun, only to see brimstone and ash fall down upon them like snow. The Kvatch gates were stormed and foreign warriors ran into the city brandishing an assortment of unworldly weapons. Possibly, this was reinforcement... but for what?

A man stepped forward to greet the leader, but was only greeted back by blackened steel running across his jugular and tearing through flesh, muscle, and bone. As the first blood had cascaded down to the soil, the civilians of Kvatch knew that this was no friend to them.

Screams echoed out across the city as buildings were raided one after another. More innocent people were dragged out to the streets and slaughtered like cattle. Kvatch guards did their best to fight back. They held tightly onto their trembling swords and bows as they matched the battlecries of these monsters and prayed to the Nine that all would turn out well. As their several arrows seemed to block out the rising sun, these foreign warriors answered back the call. Smirks ran across their lips as their mages moved forward. Each one summoned a fierce swirling ball of hellfire and catapulted it through the air.

Guards were consumed with fire as did houses and even the Chapel whose top began to crumble like a clump of soil and soon fell down blocking a path out of the city sending a great tremor through the earth. Some escaped through the gates only to greet the second line of monsters.

"N-No, please!" pleaded a bleeding man as a warrior walked up to him casually, "Have mercy upon us! What have we ever done to deserve this suffering?!"

The warrior's distant eerie eyes slowly fell upon the man, his nostrils flared and his dark skin was cased with another's blood as he simply answered in a hoarse and cold voice, "... you lived." His battle axe was thrusted back and brought down upon the crown of the man as if he were a log needed to be chopped.

Within a mansion estate of the richest man in Kvatch, an old Nord butler thrusted a large plank of wood in the lock of the front door. He grunted and heaved a great sigh as he turned around to his Master. "Everything is locked up, milord. Your wife and sons are waiting for you at the basement exit. Now, please hurry! I'm not sure how long we can hold off them Daedra."

Jerald furrowed his brow over his icy blue eyes. A worried expression ran across his face as his memory of such creatures began to blossom like a flower. All those teachings at the university... he merely thought such things were myths or possibly that the creatures were extinct. But all this time... the High Elf bowed his heavy head. Suddenly, his head snapped back up, "Wait... my daughter... where is my daughter?"