King-Fall

XVI. Apocrypha

"You should be able to say where you want to go and if the notes of House Redoran are to be trusted... which they usually aren't, then the door should react to your voice and you can go through the door."

"Thanks Neloth."

"Remember what I said! Don't. Die."

As I slipped on my head gear and soaking potion belt Serana set an affectionate arm on my shoulder.

"We'll get them out of there, don't you worry."

Don't worry? Impossible, I thought.

I stood inches from the door, uncanny hisses were heard until I murmured:

"Apocrypha."

The colors of the door shifted with a shudder and a hiss before calming into a bile green. I took a deep breath, a final breath somewhat, of Tamrielian air and stepped through the door. The smell of soggy parchment then filled my nostrils and Serana coughed behind me as soon as she came through.

Pages.

Pages, books, and scrolls everywhere.

I vaguely remembered when I first came into Apocrypha. I had just gotten the Bloodskal Blade and was utterly speechless as the book swallowed me. Luckily good steel was just as effective in this world as it is in Tamriel.

Otherwise I'd have died. Later I found out that mortals cannot die when connected to Apocrypha via the Black Books due to some sort of tether to Nirn. Neloth blabbered about it in-comprehensively for thirty minutes.

From this paper island I stood on I could see that the areas I've explored were nothing compared to the magnitude of Apocrypha. I don't know why I didn't see the large mass floating in the distance in the clouds of this hell. To the left, in the skyline, the place where Miraak's body rots away was dwarfed by the floating fortress behind it.

Is that new? Or was I under some spell the last time I was here?

"Soooooo..." Serana thought aloud, "how do we get up there?"

"I have no idea." I stated.

"Perhaps," Neloth chimed, "you could ask one of the locals?"

Serana rolled her eyes. "And how are we-"

"That's actually not a crazy idea."

Serana blinked, confused.

"What?"

"I got an idea but first," I pointed out a flower on an adjacent island, "that should act as a lever and bring up a bridge."

"How are you going to get over there?"

I smirked, "Swim," and then shouted, parts of my being becoming suspended in Oblivion with my words, "Feim-Zii-Gron!"

Once ethereal I psyched myself up and jumped into the green slush under us and began swimming towards the adjacent isle. The swim was uneventful and I weightlessly climbed up the side of the island and then my ability cut out just as I was pulling myself up. My weight hit me suddenly and I almost fell back into the cursed soup of death under me. I glanced back at Serana who watched me with concern and I smirked under my mask.