Chapter 698: The Greedy Man
A/n: Help me reach my Goal on P4treon & Join Discord! ➡️ ⬅️
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So far, Alina was keeping an eye on anything abnormal regarding the visitors to the temple. Those late visitors from the Skaal, however, were the oddest bunch which led her to ask them many questions regarding the circ.u.mstances that drove them to Winterhold.
First of all, those two siblings were the survivors of an aid-seeking delegation that couldn"t leave Solstheim due to abnormal reasons. The second thing Alina asked about was this abnormal situation which was quite a shock to her.
Solstheim is under attack by something mysterious and evil. Many people from the Skaal village, the settlement of Raven Rock, and the Dare Dragon Company outpost started to disappear every night and weren"t seen until the hunters of the Skaal scouted the stones of the All-Maker.
The missing people started to be regularly spotted around the All-Maker stones at random times of the day. They would come, go, appear, disappear, and reappear again with every ash storm in the ashlandic part of Solstheim.
These phenomena worried Alina but not for just any reason, she was told by Jon that once those signs appear in Solstheim, another threat shall rise from there.
A Dragon threat, a Vampire threat, and now a Threat from Solstheim. Aside from the usual threats the Dares deal with daily, Jon made it quite clear that only he will have the final say in those three matters.
Like any good wife, Alina would worry about the workload that weighs her husband"s shoulders. If she can at least cushion the impact of those situations for him, she would happily do it.
"Should I send the Storm-Fists to deal with it?" Alina thought to herself about sending out her personal shield-thanes from clan Storm-Fist, that was subdued during the Battle of Winterhold and swore allegiance to her.
That particular clan was on the frontline against the Dragon Cult for months now. They have done a lot of good and whatever it was out there in Solstheim, their Warriors, Heralds, and Voice Masters can hold their ground for as much time as Jon would need.
"About Thane Jon Dare, will we meet him any time soon?" Asked Alfhild of the Skaal.
Alina looked at the girl who was around 5 to 6 years younger than her and smiled.
"My husband has left Winterhold this morning and headed down south for an important errand. I don"t mean to make little of your trouble, children of the All-Maker, but give it four days until he gets back. Once Jon returns, he will see your situation through."
Her answer wasn"t at all what the siblings wanted to hear. With every pa.s.sing minute, the danger grows tighter around their clan. It took them a week to come to the mainland and they need another week to get back.
Alina noticed the dejection on the faces of the siblings and knew that her obligation as a woman of status is to a.s.sure the weak and protect them. To uphold that, she decided to go with the plan she suggested.
"The Dare Fleet shall move by the morning. I will summon my shield-thanes and send them to Solstheim. They shall be there in two days."
Such as the ability of the Dares, the siblings were overjoyed to hear that. Still, Alina had one thing left on her mind.
"Earlier as you came, you met a woman who was here with me." Alina mentioned that even with Nurina and watched the expressions of the siblings shift from the happiness they just felt to the memory of something worrisome.
"It"s… nothing…" Alfhild seemed trying to dodge the question but as Alina looked at her brother Fengrim, he seemed to have had something at the tip of his tongue before taking it back while looking at his sister.
"I understand you have been brought up in a secluded place but…" Alina said with her brain working rapidly to make the siblings talk, "… you may run into more people like the lady you just met… I just want to know if I can help you with that thing, whatever it is until Jon returns."
Her words were chosen carefully and clearly with a mature smile and a rea.s.suring sensation in her voice. She played the stick and the carrot in a single sentence by bringing up fear and offering protection from it, this made the two siblings look at each other and slowly decide to talk.
"It is just… the All-Maker keeps the Skaal safe from… from the Greedy Man." Fengrim said.
"The Greedy Man?" Alina frowned because it was a word she had heard once but was not totally familiar with.
"The Adversary sends the Greedy Man to test the children of the All-Maker and… to lead them astray." Alfhild said, "The Shamans say that the Greedy Man comes in many shapes and forms, sometimes a man, sometimes a woman, always bringing tribulations and hard times to the Skaal."
The Adversary is an aspect of chaos to the Skaal, worshipers of the All-Maker, the aspect of Infinity and Order.
The way the people of Tamriel understand Anu the Everything (the universal version of the All-Maker) is greatly different from the philosophy of the Skaal. To the Skaal, the All-Maker as his name suggests is one single deity that is supreme to all other supernatural spirits like the Aedra and Daedra. While their philosophy is not as clear as one would hope, this can be the only monotheistic religion on Nirn.
[A/n: strap in for a Philosophical Theology a.n.a.lysis with Uncle Don.]
It can be said that their version of Anu, the All-Maker, is far greater than Anu itself since it probably encompa.s.ses Padomay as well. After all, Anu the Stasis isn"t an "All-Maker" without Padomay the Change.
As the Skaal unite the two primordial forces into one, the image that is created from their ideas becomes easier for the mind to comprehend. After all, both Anu and Padomay are Infinite Ent.i.ties and by default, you can"t have two Infinite Ent.i.ties at the same time. If two of them exist, we"d need to put a barrier between them and if infinity is subject to such a barrier, it can"t be called an Infinity since it would have a limit that we have just perceived.
An Infinite Ent.i.ty has no limits whatsoever. This means that it can never be defined by the limited imagination of man, can"t be perceived by the narrow thinking of man, and can"t be understood by the common sense of man.
This is a realm far greater than simple understanding.
To start off, an infinity must exist before anything and remain after everything thus it can"t be measured with time since time itself is a construct made from the Infinity.
That Infinity must contain not only Time but also s.p.a.ce. This means that everything in existence and all of the Universe exists within the Infinity as both Time and s.p.a.ce exist in Four Dimensions.
But if we stopped at the Four Dimensions and put the Infinity within it, this Infinity would be limited, and thus to be an actual Infinity, it must break beyond the Fourth Dimension into the Fifth and the Sixth and the Eleventh and beyond any of the Dimensional count or concepts. After all, Dimensions are just limitations that help define the Perceivable Reality.
So to be an aspect of such Infinity, that must be more than just a supreme existence on the scales of the Temporal and Existential realities. Infinity encompa.s.ses everything that includes knowledge, senses, and power. In other words, the All-Maker should be Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnipotent. In fact, Infinity should be Omni-everything.
Whether the Skaal people have this level of depth in their own doctrine or not, Alina was aware of these arguments thanks to the top fan of the All-Maker outside the Skaal clan, Jon himself.
Jon has always shown indifference towards the polytheistic ways while at the same time, he was honoring those ways as Traditions rather than worship. While Jon only cared about Cats in regards to supreme beings, he had a lot of philosophies that he would always toss around regarding the fanatical practices which may cause disharmony and discord between people. Thankfully, he keeps them to himself and his arcane studies.
While being a Child of Kyne, Alina always held a great deal of reverence towards Kyne and all her aspects but Jon"s words always had such sense to them in regards to everything Deity-related. He once said that if there is one true G.o.d who is being worshiped on Nirn, it would be the All-Maker.
Those words are the reason why Alina took the situation between the Skaal siblings and Nurina very seriously and asked many questions about their understanding of the Adversary and the Greedy Man.
The Adversary has always been the soul of tribulation which tries to lead the Skaal astray from their ways and takes delight in their suffering. As a devil figure, the Adversary would either manifest as or sponsor an ent.i.ty known as the Greedy Man.
Alina could easily figure out what happened at that moment. The Skaal are worshippers of the balance between Anu and Padomay and their total power. To them, a being that breaks that balance like Nurina, who is the High Priestess of Sithis, is a great threat herself.
"Would all the Skaal realize that there is a Greedy Man if they were to ever come across one?" Alina asked out of curiosity.
"I… we… it is our first time sensing that." Fengrim said.
Alina nodded in understanding. If that was actually the case, the Skaal would teach their younglings to be wary around every outsider since no one knows if a Greedy Man would ever appear. However, it may be rare for the Skaal to come across a Greedy Man this way.
Alina wanted to learn more and for the remaining four days, she would have those two siblings as her guests in order to satisfy her curiosity until Jon returns from Riften.
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*The Rift, South to the City of Riften*
Not too far from the Shadow Stone, two figures traveled on the moonlit trail to a nearby grove until they reached a small body of water. There, the two of them seemed to be giggling and laughing before tossing one another in the water until they lay down with their drenched clothes on the ground.
Slowly they turned to one another and started kissing. They didn"t even give it too much thought before one of them was lying down and the other was on top doing all sorts of amorous moves. The two didn"t even bother to m.u.f.fle their voices with magic and kept acting like beasts in the wild as they exchanged kisses and words of desire.
The temperature of their bodies kept rising but despite all of that, they were still far from finishing their edging foreplay. They were yet to do the real deal.
Slowly they calmed down and looked at one another, those two, who were with each other for six years and a lifetime yet to come, were beyond happiness at the moment.
Today was the day of promise, Jon promised Jullanar to take her as his second official wife.
"Will you marry me?" Jon asked, offering no Amulet of Mara unlike the traditional norm but rather a ring made of Amber and forged in the Shivering Isles.
Was there a need for a reply? Jullanar simply slid her torso down against his and once his man parts met her lady parts, they slid together in perfect motion to produce a new brand of madness.
The smile on Jullanar"s lips grew wider as she lowered herself to his chest and surrendered to ecstasy. She looked at the ring he still held in his right and offered her hand. Slowly and gently, he slid the ring around her finger.
Their hands and fingers intermingled and the energy they had exploded in a fanatical ritual of motions and body heat that caused the nature around them to suffer. They both felt so fulfilled and weren"t planning on stopping any time soon.
As they flipped around and she was on her back, he touched her torso and lowered his hand slowly to start teasing her c.l.i.toris as he gently rammed his p.e.n.i.s against her womb. They smiled, laughed, and kissed before continuing for a few more rounds of wild s.e.x.
At one of their breaks that happened to be their last, the voice of a gasp was heard as a woman emerged from the push.
"Uh! Wh- What have you done?"
This voice attracted Jullanar as she turned around with her eyes wide open, one violet and one amber. Her chest was bare but it was drenched in b.l.o.o.d.y red.
This red came from her mouth and extended all the way to her chest and torso and even covered Jon, who was lying down.
In this moonlit sanguine s.e.x scene, the white teeth of Jullanar shone brightly as she seemed to be struggling to turn around to the one who called her. It was nothing less than that of a vampiress crouching over her prey.
The madness in her eyes was enough to send shivers into whoever met them and just as she knew she was seen, a dagger appeared in her hand and was almost thrown at whoever spoke to her.
But just as it was about to be launched, Jon reached out and stopped Jullanar"s arm from swinging. Meanwhile, Karliah was stiff in her boots as Jullanar was staring at her like a beast. A couple of seconds later, that stare was no more and Jullanar got away from Jon to dive straight into the water bond.
"What… What was that?" Karliah asked.
"s.e.x." Jon replied as he pushed his upper body up, "An intercourse adults perform for s.e.xual climax and preservation of species."
"I"m not… f.u.c.k!" Karliah held her head as she looked away from Jon, "And what"s with the blood?"
"What bloo… Oh! Raspberries… we like to do food play." Jon replied before standing up and walking b.u.t.t naked into the bond to wash up with Jullanar.
"Fine. Finish up and meet me at the mountain road." Karliah shook her head and turned away from Jon before taking her leave.
Meanwhile, Jon and Jullanar looked at each other slyly while washing.
"You sensed her didn"t you?" Jullanar asked.
"And so did you, psycho." Jon laughed, "You still wanted to kill her though."
"If she was smart enough to watch from a distance and not interrupt… I am still considering killing her." Jullanar said quite casually before pointing ah her own head, ,"The voices don"t really like her much."
"She is of value." Jon said and walked out after washing, "Get yourself ready. Tonight, we become Nightingales."
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A/n: Help me reach my Goal on P4treon & Join Discord! ➡️ ⬅️