Purple Haze Ch. 02 - Ulrise

"We went to look at starts, the night is lovely. But then some dodgy-looking guys tried to hit on her, so I scared them off and escorted her home. I am afraid she will only return tomorrow."

It was hard to understand if Svar bought her bullshit, but she did not care. Upon examination, the drinking hall turned out to be not completely empty. In the furthest corner, two very familiar feminine figures were drinking light apple wine.

"Here she comes, our hero, the nemesis of card shapers!" Hildi already had some wine in her, but this did not stop her from pouring one more glass for everyone. Ulrise was open to drinking herself to oblivion, and with a "Bottoms Up!" they became more than just tipsy.

"I hope all these enthusiastic guys did not wear you out?"

Hildi groaned and wiggled her butt on the bench, "I became sore after the first ten or so. There is lube in my reserves, but it was not enough, nowhere near enough! I sucked off the last dozen of guys, and now my jaw is aching too!"

"Hmm, I had a great time, not sore in the slightest. Maybe it is somehow connected to the curse? Like I can take as much seed as possible and convert it into magic?" Lana seeped her wine slowly, pondering the benefits of her condition.

"Ohhh, the more I see, the more I think this 'curse' is not a curse at all but a blessing!" upset Hildi poured another glass and downed it in one go. "I seriously consider going to this cave and snorting the purple dust!"

"Magic is not something to be taken lightly," Ulrise retorted and immediately cringed. One would expect these words from a white-bearded archmage, trying to put some knowledge into negligent student's heads. "For all we know both I and Lana might explode into a cloud of pink dust the next moment."

"Easy to say when you are a badass assassin killing and intimidating people left and right." Was it wine or envy speaking, Hildi could not just let this topic go. "You have no idea how many times I wished to have a magic power to just zzzap away all the assholes around."

"Sometimes I wish I never had it." Something in the icy cold voice of Ulrise made both her friends dead silent.

"Not always did I have these snowy locks, I was born with black hair just like yours. My father was a farmer, like a lot of other fathers. We had a farmstead not so far away from Riften.

"One cold night, a bunch of bandits found our farm. They thought it was a stroke of luck - lots of food and lovely women to have fun with.

"My father and older brothers tried to fight and were killed in front of me. I, my mom, and the older sister were taken into a barn, probably to be raped. At ten years old, I did not understand what is going on. I just closed my eye and wanted it to stop. All of it to stop.

"And it did. When I opened my eyes, no bandits were around. No barn, no farm. No family. Only the blue oblivion fire, dancing around me, but not burning, bleaching me of color instead. This was the first time I manifested magic, and I killed my mom and sister with it. Nothing remained but ash."

In dead silence, she finished her cup of booze and continued, "I understand it is stupid to wish I never did that. I would be dead in that barn if I had nothing to protect myself with. Magic is a weapon, and it must be wielded with caution." She hoped that now her point would sound more convincing.

Lana stood, circled the table, and sat next to Ulrise. Without words, the redhead pulled her into a hug. Not a passionate, lovemaking kind of embrace, but something comforting. The blond leaned in, allowing herself to be wrapped in soft, consoling arms.

"I am sorry, I had no idea." Hildi tried to apologize but was shushed by Ulrise.

"It is okay, of course you did not. I have not shed a single tear in decades, since I mourned my family. Only when I met you, it felt like I found a sister... or two." She smiled without trying to hide her wet eyes, reaching with a hand out towards the brunette. Hildi accept it and was pulled into the hug.

They sat like this for some time. Long time, no one wanted to measure it. A male voice broke the spell, "I am terribly sorry, but it is past midnight. I am going to put out all lights and go to sleep."

"Svar, you are an ass!" Lana exclaimed.

"He is right, we should go to sleep. This day made us all tired, in different ways." Without letting their hand go, Ulrise led the drunken party upstairs. In total silence, they disrobed and nestled comfortably on the bed. Was it the tiredness or alcohol, but in ten minutes everyone was peacefully snoring.

A familiar sight of the Riften square distorted in purple mist greeted her. "Great, this shit again. I almost forgot about these dreams."

"It worked!" A familiar voice rang in her head. Ulrise turned around and there she was, the redhead beauty. This time Lana's face was recognizable, all the features present, and the rest of the body was a sight to behold. Her freckles turned fiery red, dotting her face and breasts. In contrast with these marks, the skin became marble-white, translucent even. The sight of dark red veins in her majestic boobs looked extremely hot though, Ulrise never thought it would look this sexy. A mane of ginger hair run past her shoulders, even longer than in the material world. But the most prominent feature was her eyes, two purple lanterns emitting a soul-piercing glow.

"Woah! Do I look different too?" She lifted one hand, making the thick haze swirl. The skin was as pale as Lana's; with black arteries visible underneath it. Her gaze traveled lower to find the same plain chest, the only difference being the color of her nipples, now almost black. Unable to stop she looked lower and confirmed that her new appendage traveled to this dimension too.

"Is my hair just as white?"

"Yep, it looks very stylish."

"By the way, have you noticed that we are not opening our mouths? I spoke like this with the Mistress, when she hired me."

Lana opened her full ruby-red lips and answered, "You are right!" The echo carried the sound around, making the words jump between shadowy spires of silent, flower-ridden buildings.

"This sounds weird, let's continue speaking in thoughts," the conversation continued in the blond's head, and she did not mind. Spoken words here felt... unnatural, out of place. They do not belong here, in the realm of endlessly dancing mist.

"Ulrise, I managed to cast a spell and bring us here! I am not sure how exactly I did it though..."

"Okay, some explanation is due."

"When you showed me today how to reach with the magic sense into myself and see how much magic I currently have... I did it later, after all these men, you know, fucked me. I was bursting with power! When we went to sleep, I wished to see this place again, it is so beautiful and serene here... So here we are! I do not recognize this square though..."

"This is Riften, the trade square. After I lost my home, I lived in this city with a gang of homeless kids." Ulrise was not sure what to think of this. On one hand, she was glad that Lana is so enthusiastic about learning and managed to control her talent. On the other hand, after the first time in this fucked up realm she got her dick, so being here might be dangerous.

Lana was free of such concern and roamed around the square, looking at windows and touching flowers. Just like before, all buildings were completely deserted, and the flowers collapsed into dust from the lightest touch, joining the mesmerizing tempest of purple around them.

"This is so beautiful! Look, Ulrise, there is a passage in the fog here."

Upon some examination all but one exit from the square were drowned in the thick purple fog. In the real world the alleyway that Lana found went past the tavern to the stables and then out of the city. Here, it was the only passable way, with purple fumes clinging to the buildings on the left and right.

"I can feel... something here. As if it pulls me." Ulrise nodded to her companion - her magic sense also tugged her in this direction. She had an idea of what it might mean, but there was only one way to prove it. Even before conveying her plan, she felt Lana's hand on her own. The redhead pulled her forward, whispering soothingly to her mind, "This is just like the last time when I saw Mistress, I can find the way."

Guided like a blind, the blond followed her. They exited the square, walking in a seemingly endless corridor of purple haze flowing in streams. There was no end to it in sight, only walls stretching to infinity.

"The last time I really wanted to reach the end... And I did. Ulrise, can you help me?"

"Yes." She closed her eyes, conjuring the image of Mistress when they met. She conjured all her frustration, all desire to know the fucking answers, and what the fuck this woman dragged Ulrise in! They walked forward, though directions were meaningless in this dimension. The will to find the woman - this is what matters.

A sudden whiff of fresh air if her face made Ulrise open her eyes wide. They were in a cave, surrounded by luminescent vegetation. She turned around but found no entrance or portal that transported them.

"Just like the last time! It is Blackreach, right?" Two stark-naked beauties stood in the middle of a fungi forest clearing, covered in knee-high glowing mushrooms.

"Looks mighty like it, although I never visited it in person. Hey, we still speak in thoughts, don't we?" Ulrise was perplexed that they carried this ability from the fiendish purple world into what seemed like a reality.

"I guess, but we are still dreaming. We should try this when we are awake." They walked forward, startling a luminescent animal that looked like a deer. Not that they had much time to study it as the deer vanished between thick trunks of shimmering fungi.

"Definitely Blackreach, these animals do not live on the surface. Any ruins around?"

Ulrise had to climb a soft and springy "tree" to spot a road, and soon they were on their way. In silence they walked the path, not sure what they would do upon reaching its end.

If not for the road, the worn-down ruins on the side of it could easily be missed. Barely noticeable piles of rocks were entwined with climbing wines and almost consumed by nature. But it was visited recently, it was hard to overlook a big hole between two decayed columns that looked like the ground was ripped with an explosion here.

"There is a descending stairway here! And there is light there!"

"Brace yourself, Lana. I have a hunch who we are going to find there."

"Last time she did not notice me until I touched her."

"Okay, but if she notices us - let me do the talking." Lana nodded in agreement and both women started the descent. Stepping down the stairs, Ulrise noticed that the light was not flickering, as expected from a torch. Instead, their way was dimly illuminated by a steady, magical glow. This mystery was resolved as they made the last turn a found the end of the stairway.

A big underground cavern was lit by a bright sphere of light hanging just under the ceiling. Barring for size, the intensity of lighting was unrecognizable from the real Sun. In the center of the massive space, right under the 'sun', a wide circle of columns stood. Sheltered from elements, they depicted scenes from dunmer epos with exquisite detail, but the most interesting thing was in the center.

A large pedestaled chest was ripped open, its lid lying on the marble floor spanning between the columns. Surrounded by smoldering wrecks of peculiar-looking automata sat a human figure. In front of it, a bunch of stone tables were positioned on the floor in an orderly fashion, and the person was crawling around them as if trying to figure out the correct order of reading.

"Shhh. I will sneak and try to read whatever is on the tablets. Meanwhile, look around for anything interesting." Lana nodded silently, acknowledging the blond's plan.

As Ulrise stepped closer she was absolutely not surprised to see the fair hair and dark caramel skin of the Mistress. The same thin reflective tattoo threads run on almost every inch of her skin, shimmering in the light. The woman was murmuring something as she picked up a formidable-looking stone tablet without any visible effort and placed it in the leftmost position.

Trying to always keep her several feet between them, Ulrise closed the distance. To the assassin's immense disappointment, the inscribed words were in an unknown language. The Mistress seemed totally oblivious to her presence at least, now looking contemplatively at the text.

Apprehensively looking at the dark-skinned woman, Lana approached from behind and whispered, "I checked the whole circle of columns, there is a lot more of these destroyed things." She waived at the molten wreck of a humanoid automata nearby. "So, what is on these tablets?"

"No idea, I do not know this language." The Mistress still seemed completely consumed by her machinations so Ulrise gradually relaxed and stopped whispering like a conspirator. "I do not recognize these things, they look very peculiar. More of clockwork mechanisms than soul-gem fueled dwemer constructs."

Lana squinted at the figure and pointed with her finger, "Do you see this dagger on her belt? This is the scary one that she swung at me." One look at the weapon told Ulrise it was a daedric artifact. So the Mistress is reckless enough to dabble with these powers too?

The redguard woman suddenly stopped middling with tablets. She reached for a backpack lying on the ground near a column, produced several scrolls, and started reading something rhythmical in an unknown language. When she finished, one of the columns descended into the ground, sliding down slowly. An illusion of a dark elf appeared in its place; a floating figure, with left and right halves of him seemingly being of different colors.

"Aha!" The Mistress exclaimed. "It makes sense there was a piece of poetry for the Warrior-Poet. I guess I should read them in the right order, recreate the story of Tribunal."

Some chanting later all columns one by one turned into illusory depictions of different characters. Ulrise recognized Azura, the goddess that the Dunmer people worshipped, and she presumed that the "Warrior-Poet" must be Vivec. She had no idea about others, like the strange figure in a round mask with three spurting protrusions on top of it.

One by one the illusions appeared, staring silently at the darkness of Blackreach. The last figure in the center of the circle appeared to be a statuesque dark elf in long robes, half of his face hidden by an intricate mask. Ulrise pointed to her companion, "This is him, Sotha Sil!"

Unlike the other, this figure was neither silent nor immobile. The apparition stepped forward and addressed the one who awoke it in a soft voice:

"You found the scroll and were reckless enough to use it, but you are not my creator."

"Your creator is dead, has been dead for centuries."

The facial expressions of a ghost did not change for the smallest bit, "Then the secret must remain hidden to the end of time, it is way too dangerous."

With a puzzled look, Mistress started circling around the transparent figure:

"Can I prove myself worthy of it? We are in great danger, this is our only chance!"

"My creator foresaw that some might come after it. He gave me the power to see through the words of mortals. Your petty lies will not get you anywhere."

"Well, it was worth a try. It is underneath these stones, isn't it?"

The ghost did not bother replying to the question:

"You are bearing the mark of the Destruction Lord. Tell your master to mind his realm and honor the Pact!"

"Unlike you, I have no master. And my choice of weapon is not your concern. This conversation is fruitless. Begone, spirit!"

"My creator foresaw that one day lackeys of Daedra Lords might come here. You will not leave this circle!"

With a puff, the ghost disappeared, and a rumbling sound from underground shook the cave. Hundreds of cracks appeared on the marble floor, multiplying by seconds.

"WULD NAH KEST" The sound of the dragon's shout made the girls tremble. The Mistress became a blur and reappeared several feet closer to the edge of the marble ring. At exactly this moment the floor exploded into a blindingly bright portal. Without a sound, the tattooed redguard fell down into it, as if consumed by a deep pond.

Stunned Ulrise watched as the marble floor appeared again, the parts of stone merging together, covering the portal. Lana eeked and covered her mouth with a hand, staring wide-eyed as the place reconstructed itself.

"Is she dead? What happened?" The redhead now looked at the narrow patch of the ground separating them from the marble floor. "What would have happened if we were nearby?"

"I am glad we will never know. This thing... looked like a portal to Oblivion. The transfer between planes is not fatal by itself, but I have no idea where she went. All planes of Oblivion have nasty inhabitants, but it might really wary. The realms of the Destruction Lord Dagon or Molag Bal, the Slaver, are the worst. Not like the other ones are tropical islands either."

"Soooo, she is gone for now." Lana sighed with relief. "Not going to lie, I had nightmares of her approaching me with this horrible dagger. Good riddance!"

Stroking her chin in contemplation, Ulrise echoed, "Good riddance indeed." This changed their situation. A lot.

"Hey look, her stuff is left with us!" Lana walked to a backpack and a travel cloak bundled up near one of the columns. Blond's hopes soared high after noticing several scrunched-up scrolls sticking out of the knapsack.

"Okay, I think the fortune's face turns to us after all." She reached for the papers... And woke up in Hildi's room. With a loud gasp, she sat upright, just to see Lana jumping up in the same manner on another side of the bed.

They locked their eyes on each other, and looking straight at her friend's purple irises, Ulrise whispered, "I have a new plan."

Congrats to everyone who reached the end of this chapter. I am terribly sorry for the long wait, the war in Europe seriously impacted me, obviously not in a good way. I have the plot for the next installment already lined up, and I hope it will not take just as long to make it happen. Cheers, and be safe.