As he had for the weeks since Kaius had first climbed to the peak from the Greybeard’s monastery of High Hrothgar, Paarthurnax listened as Kaius spoke. The dragon was truly ancient, incredibly learned, and while his knowledge of current events was limited to snatches of information gleaned from the Greybeards, there was no one better to speak of history with. Paarthurnax afterall, had lived through all of history, and had been a pivotal part of several major events in the ancient past. He was still very much information starved though, his self-imposed exile on the highest mountain in all of Tamriel meant that he had a hunger for knowledge and stories which Kaius, thankfully, had an abundance of.

  “You succeeded in your infiltration, but what did you learn?”

  “Unfortunately, not as much as we had hoped.” Kaius was leaning against ‘his’ chosen rock, looking at the way Paarthurnax remained wrapped around one that was very obviously his favourite. “As much as the Dominion is attempting to use the situation to their advantage, they had just as much of an idea of how and why dragons are returning as the rest of us. Which was next to nothing. I did however find information that I definitely didn’t expect.”

  “Useful information?”

  “You could say that.” Feeling the chill, thin air on his face, Kaius stared into the sky for a moment, crushing aside his pain and memory of his daughter’s death with an all too practiced ease. The pain was still there and it would remain, but somehow talking about it to a dragon of all things, was soothing in its own way. “The Blades were not as extinct as Delphine and I originally thought. A lot more appeared to have survived the Great War and gone underground, and in one specific case, literally. The Dominion were aware that anywhere up to a dozen or more Blades still live within Skyrim alone, although their locations and current identities are unknown. There was one that they were closing in on that offered us opportunities to learn more about what exactly was happening.”

  “How could a single joor have the information that the Dominion didn’t?”

  “Esbern isn’t just any ‘joor.’ He was the last Archivist of the Blades. At least, the last known surviving one. The Concordat War took so much from Tamriel that people will never truly understand. So much has been lost, and knowledge was the biggest casualty in all the fighting. White-Gold and the Imperial City was sacked by the Dominion, and even the Elder Scrolls scattered themselves across the world just when the Imperial Library started being looted. The Blades, at Cloud Ruler Temple, had possibly the second greatest source of history and writings in all of Tamriel, but it too was lost to a Dominion raid in the later years of the war. Thousands of years of history, consumed by fire and lost in a tide of blood.” Pausing, Kaius chewed the inside of his cheek and scowled. “Many of the archivists died in the defence of Cloud Ruler, but Esbern somehow survived, fled to Skyrim with the Legions and never left. He had been hiding in Riften’s undercity for decades, and was the last who knew a tiny fraction of what the Blades had maintained.”

  “To mindoraan… understand the world you must study it. The loss of knowledge is, saddening. Maar dez saraan. Terrible fate awaits those who lose their understanding.”

  “The world has lost a lot in the past centuries and I have been there to witness most of it in person. Tamriel is not what it used to be. It’s… lesser somehow, despite having more in it.”

  The rumble of acknowledgement and agreement from the enormous dov vibrated through the stones they sat upon and Kaius grimaced. It had been a truly busy year since defeating Mirmulnir at Whiterun’s watchtower, and the past months since his infiltration into the Embassy had somehow been even more intense. From Solitude to the Rift, with Sofia, Lydia and Delphine in tow, they had dodged and evaded parties of Thalmor justiciars and agents, found the elderly Blade archivist before the Dominion did, and somehow managed to flee across to the western hold of The Reach on the other side of Skyrim. If he wasn’t used to travelling as far or as often, Kaius would have felt a whole lot more sore and exhausted than he already was. It was yet another reason why he was glad for this surprise respite, resting and meditating with a dragon on the top of the world, and contemplating the thu’um.

  “The Blades knew of an ancient prophecy, recorded millennia ago by their predecessors the Akaviri Dragonguard, and Esbern thankfully knew where to find their records. The Dominion had destroyed the Blades and almost all their knowledge with them, but some things it seemed were able to survive the ages. Sky Haven Temple. A long lost, forgotten and sealed Akaviri fortress in the mountains of the Reach. It took some… effort to get to, but it did have some answers.”

  “The prophecy of the Dovahkiin.” Rumbled the ancient dragon and Kaius nodded.

  “And the return of the World-Eater. Just when the world didn’t have enough issues and threats, the literal apocalypse returns as well.”

  “Yes. Alduin... Zeymah. My elder brother. Gifted, grasping and troublesome, as is so often the case with firstborn." A ripple coursed through the snow as Paarthurnax laid his head and jaw onto the stones beneath him. “We dovah do not truly understand the concept of family. At least, not the way joor do. We are all brothers and our father is Bormahu… Akatosh. We are individuals, and yet are not. We live and breathe, but we are… Gein voth tiid… one with time. Dinok… Death and mortality are… unfathomable, but we taste regret, and understand loss and sorrow well enough.”

  “If dragons are unable to be killed, then that makes defeating Alduin impossible, does it not?”

  “Dinok los ni viik. Death, and defeat are not one and the same. There are many paths to victory.” The horned and scaled head, like the beginnings of an avalanche turned towards Kaius in interest. "Do you know why I live here, at the peak of the Monahven... what you name Throat of the World?"

  "Dragons and mountains have always been synonymous with each other. I guess you could have been the beginning of such legends and stories."

  "Legends and stories are merely facts wrapped in fabrication. This is the most sacred mountain in Skyrim. Zok revak strunmah. The Great Mountain of the World. Here the ancient Tongues; the first mortal masters of the thu’um, brought Alduin to battle, seeking to… defeat him."

  "With Dragonrend." Kaius murmured quietly, but not so quietly that the enormous creature couldn't hear him.

  "Yes, and no. Viik nuz ni kron. Defeating a dragon is not the same as defeating anything else. Our natures are not the same as the joor, the deyra, or the diil. We are not mortal. We are not deadra. We are not undead. But, we share similarities with them all. I have spent many years contemplating what I am, seeking mindoraan of what it is to be dovah, and seven thousand years later, I am no closer to answers than I began. Vahzen los motmahus. Truth is ever elusive. I know this however; Alduin was the first of our kind to be born, but to describe the kiin… birth of a dragon is not… correct. For as we cannot die, we were never born. We are part of Akatosh, but separate. Fragments of time, sundered from the creation of reality.”

  “I once saw Akatosh in person during the Oblivion Crisis, when he was summoned to fight Mehrunes Dagon.” For a moment Kaius’s shiver had nothing to do with the thin, chilly air on top of the peak. “To think that all dragons are fragments of… Him is terrifying. ”

  “Indeed.” There was curiosity in Paarthurnax’s eyes as he watched at Kaius. “I felt his qalos… presence and tasted his thu’um even here, when he entered mundus. My Bormah was not always as such though.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “How to explain such things. Hmm…” Kaius felt the depths of the vibrations in the core of his being, his stomach dropping from the bass note from the dragon as Paarthurnax thought for a moment. “At the dawn of the world, during the lahvraan… the Convention… It was Akatosh who began creation by fashioning time. I do not understand how such a thing came to be. Creating Uth… Order from Tahrovin… Chaos… but I know that my father had… faas… fears of failure.”

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  “How in Oblivion, does a Divine have fear?”

  “How and why do Joor have culture, wisdom, justice, and inventions? How do the Joor have Lein… a world to exist within? Aan zahrahmiik wah zorox. Sacrifice led to creation. Death, to create life. Those you know as Divines gave themselves to mundus. They are mundus. They are the air that surrounds you, the stones under your feet, the breath of inspiration, and even life itself. The Divines are part of mortals more than you will ever realise. Akatosh though… Akatosh had fears. He had doubts that such a thing like mundus could succeed, and so Alduin was born.”

  “Destruction… leads to creation.” Kaius was fascinated but there was something truly unnerving about discussing the literal creation of reality with a being that had not only been present at the event but was a fragment of it. “The turning of the wheel and the continuation of the kalpa. I have heard of these things before.”

  “Indeed. Some would say that all things must end, so that the next can come to pass. Perhaps this world is simply the Egg of the next kalpa? Lein vokiin. There are many things I do not understand about my father, but I know that he did not believe in Lorkhan’s great plan and did not trust mortals. At least. Not at the beginning.” Another ultrasonic chuckle vibrated the snow around Paarthurnax into fine powder and left the stones of the mountain trembling. “But, you joor seem to have a habit of endearing yourselves to immortals.”

  “So Alduin was created as a means of protecting reality? By destroying it? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Nii Lein. Not mundus, but wahlaan... creation. The kalpa. If something threatened Lorkhan’s great plan, if it appeared that the kalpa would be devoured by tahrovin… and fall into the nothingness of the void, Alduin would devour it to be born anew. A new mundus. A chance to succeed and not repeat whatever events led to the failure of the Great Project.”

  “A Dragonbreak. Alduin is a literal, living dragonbreak?” True horror paled Kaius’s features at the thought of such a thing. “Are we threatened with such a failure now? Is that what Alduin seeks to accomplish now that he has returned?”

  “Niid. Alduin could not do such a thing alone, but that no longer matters. Folaas Miiraad. My brother strayed from his path long ago. He… changed… just like our father, but where our bormah learned to love mortals, Alduin enslaved and dominated. He seeks to return to the old ways once more.”

  “And it now falls to me to stop him. To defeat him. Again.”

  “Alduin was not defeated the first time.” Again, there was another chuckle from Paarthurnax at Kaius’s words. “If he was, you would not be here with me, studying… Learning… Seeking to defeat him. The Tongues used the Dragonrend Thu'um to cripple Alduin, but this was not enough. Ok mulaag unslaad. It was the Kelle... An Elder Scroll. They used one to... cast him adrift on the currents of Time."

  “It is truly unfortunate then, and extremely infuriating that no one knows Dragonrend, especially how Elder Scrolls are especially difficult to find since the Great War. ”

  “As you are learning, Dovahkiin, there is a difference between knowing and understanding the rotmulaag. The Words of Power are not the same to all those who speak, know, and feel them. I know the words of Dragonrend, but I do not understand them. I cannot… understand them the way that the Tongues did. Joor. Zhar. Frul. Mortal. Finite. Temporary. The words were born of the dovah, but mortal understanding can turn them into a weapon against the dov. Our hadrimme, our minds cannot even... comprehend different meanings. Dragonrend forces a dragon to experience the concept of Mortality. A truly vonmindoraan... incomprehensible idea to the sons of Akatosh.”

  “Yet the tongues sent him forward in time? Even with such a shout? Was it not effective against Alduin?”

  “I do not know for certain, but I know it weakened him. It sapped him of his power and rendered him vulnerable. We dov, as children of Akatosh are specially... attuned to the flow of Time. Perhaps also uniquely vulnerable. I also know that the scroll that they used spoke of a prophecy of a one destined to face my brother. Your prophecy.” The enormous head twitched and his wings fluttered and Kaius knew this was equivalent to a shrug. "The dov have words for such things that the joor do not. We dovah are fragments of time, and the kelle, the Elder Scrolls are fragments of reality. If you were to find that scroll, then perhaps it might reveal to you the meaning of Dragonrend. Perhaps if you bring it here, to the site of Alduin’s first defeat it might even allow you a passage through time itself to gain that understanding from those who created it. Perhaps, through study and mindoraan… understanding of the thu’um may you recreate or rediscover Dragonrend. There are paths ahead of you, Dovahkiin, that you must choose which to follow. But, each path will require understanding of the thu’um no matter which you choose.”

  “It still doesn’t leave me much confidence that the Tongues of old couldn’t finish the job, and had to resort to breaking time itself just to send Alduin into the future.”

  “Nid. It was not their intent. Some, in the centuries since, have hoped Alduin would be gone forever. Forever lost. Meyye. I knew better. Tiid bo Amativ. Time flows ever onward. One day he would surface, which is also why I have lived here. For thousands of mortal years I have waited. I knew where he would emerge, but not when. I knew that the time would come where a new tongue would arise. A dovahkiin, fated to face my brother, and finish what they had begun.”

  "You keep mentioning ‘them.’ I’m assuming you are still talking about the Tongues?"

  "Geh. I am. Wuth fadonne... my friends... Hakon, Gormlaith, Felldir." Paarthurnax's pupils were slitted and thin, truly reptilian in appearance and Kaius felt the rumbling sigh that billowed out of the dragon’s chest like a winter storm. "They were the first… The first mortals that I taught the Thu'um, and the very first of the Nordic Tongues. They were mighty in their day, leaders of the rebellion against Alduin, but to attempt to defeat him? Sahrot hunne. The Nords have had many heroes since, but none greater."

  "You miss them."

  "I do, and I have for a very long time. There is no afterlife for the dov, and death... true death is an impossibility. Our... physical bodies may wither and can be slain, but our Rii, our essence lives on. There is no afterlife waiting for us. No new world or endless halls to allow us to exist until the end of the dream. We are restricted. Contained. Horvutah… Trapped. Whether we soar through the skies, or lay dormant in the ground as bones; we exist." The expression of understanding must have been readable on Kaius’s face as Paarthurnax nodded. "You understand that I will never see my friends again, and what fate awaits us dov. When we die against another of our kind, whether they be dovah or dovahkiin, we become them. Our souls merge together as one, like we had once been as part of Akatosh. You have consumed three of our brothers in your time, and you know this intimately."

  "In a way I suppose it is satisfying to know what fate awaits you when you die.” For a moment Kaius could feel the strange squirming sensation within the depths of his being. He couldn't describe or hope to understand the sensation, but he somehow knew he could feel the dragons merged with his soul. “A long time ago I knew that when I died my spirit would find its way to Aetherius, but I am no longer certain. Will I be trapped forever within Coldharbour to be a plaything for Molag Bal because of my vampirism? Or will Mehrunes Dagon claim me for consuming the essence of one of his pawns? Perhaps, what you say will be true in my case and I lose to one of our kind, and I become one with another dragon, perhaps Alduin himself if he ends up consuming the world..."

  There was no way that Paarthurnax could mistake the way that Kaius's gloved fists bunched together on his knees as he continued to sit in the snow. There had been days where neither of them had moved from their position from sunrise to sunset meditating, but the nervous energy that flowed through him was powerful.

  "You have lost friends as well as your Fron. Your kin.” Paarthurnax continued after some time, seeing the far distant gaze upon Kaius’s face as he stared across Skyrim from the peak of the mountain. “Do any weigh upon your soul more than others?"

  Kaius' nodded, his face grim and remembering all too easily another source of pain that had nothing to do with his physical scars.