FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

6: Renewed, Refreshed, Returned, Renewed

Katia had no idea where she was. She clearly wasn't inside Quill-Weave, yet it looked the same as when she believed it was. Everything was weird and dreamlike yet she couldn't wake up from it, yet had some ability to manipulate it like it was, which was somehow weirder.

But not as weird as the fact that by all accounts the khajiit was still growing and had been for what felt like hours, yet besides the familiar feeling of the ground 'moving' against her feet nothing had changed. It was just endless darkness and a fleshy floor which didn't act like flesh. Even her night eye was useless; just green tinting to the same distance in the black.

On the plus side she seemed to have lost The Empress. The vast bitch hardly seemed in a rush to kill her. Katia was originally planning to kill Slut, take her essence as her pursuer had and fight The Empress on equal ground, but the longer she thought about it, the worse Katia felt. That destructive itch was still present and the ability to get stronger by destroying an aspect of herself she hated at first seemed a no-brainer. Now she felt guilty.

It was part of her hard fought (and earned) maturity; she knew who she was and she had to accept who she was. Nurture it, even. Maybe Slut could be made better and rejoin Katia's mind. Maybe rekindling a bond with her old self might make her mind more stable. More complete after a lifetime of possessing a fractured, tortured mind. If nothing else it might stop The Empress from becoming more powerful so it seemed to be the best move.

Katia wondered that maybe Slut, an avatar for her wanton lust that sought the little emotional highs to offset the old constant lows, might give her some sort of boost or perk as well, but given willingly instead of taken. Adventurers were always talking about earning accolades and perks, like completing some task or finding some object that granted a boon to them. Even being married apparently made a person learn quicker if they spent the night with their spouse, as if the comfort of a comfortable bed and comforting partner made the sharper edges of the day stand out in greater contrast or something.

Katia sighed as she slowed to a walk. She was getting ahead of herself. Right now she was simply lost in some sort of otherworldly inner-plane. It would be an interesting experience if she still wasn't just a little freaked out by having a bigger, stronger version of herself in the darkness and out for her... well, not blood, but essence? Even then, Katia realised she was still inside an aspect herself. The aspect named Harlot.

The khajiit felt like a stranger even in this familiar skin. Even worse was how long it had taken her to even get comfortable in any form, let alone her true, giant one. A lifetime of living in a shell of self-loathing, and when she had finally hatched, she outgrew the damn thing so badly she broke the nest, yet here she was again; back to the doubts.

"Self-discovery's never easy."

Katia squeaked in panic as she spun to face the sudden voice. She extended her claws and dropped into a combat-ready stance with her guard raised. She was thankful to see something that wasn't her. An argonian. One that, despite her limited time with him, she recognised due to the impact he left with her.

Eyes-In-Stars.

"Straight into a combat pose! I'm fairly sure once upon a time you would have ran or cowered. Very impressive!" He clapped in honest applause.

Her son (at least in spirit) stood nearby with a warm smile on his red muzzle and a kind glint in his yellow eyes. The same shade as her own. Not as old as he was when she first saw him, but young. Probably Katia's age.

"Eiss? I thought you were gone when you went into Quill." Katia said as her stance relaxed, but her claws remained out from the lingering tension.

Eyes-In-Stars nibbled on his lip. "I was hoping to avoid this awkwardness, since that whole 'being absorbed into Quill' thing was more a flourish to make sure everyone knew what was going on," he said as the smile turned mournful. "I didn't want to corrupt your image of me. Just a child. New and unspoiled. Yours, not some pre-existing thing borrowed. I'm sorry."

Katia's ears flattened back as she tilted her head and relaxed in full. "Why are you sorry? You haven't done anything wrong."

Eyes-In-Stars' smile shifted once more to an embarrassed grimace, and he forced, "well... about that."

Katia extended her claws again. Not as a threat, her nerves were still frayed. "What did you do?" she said with a sigh.

"I say that you technically started it," Eiss said and he scratched the back of his head. "I didn't expect you to drink Quill-Weave's sap."

"Well, excuse me for loving every part of my lover, Eiss. Besides, I first thought it would be a good show that I didn't care what was happening to her. That I still found everything about her attractive and prove it didn't matter what changed, I'd be into anything. I might have lost control in the haze of the first taste, but..."

"Oh, absolutely, Fado, I get that. Goodness knows I've partaken in the same with my many cycles and lives. What I meant was you shouldn't just go drinking hist-sap. It's only imbibed by the_saxhleel_ for a reason."

"Well, sure- wait, what did you call me? Fado? It sounds familiar."

Eyes-In-Stars balked and gave her a funny look. "You're joking, right? It's_ta'agran._ You know, the khajiiti tongue?" The funny look turned even more incredulous. "Please tell me you know your own native tongue."

Katia's shoulders slumped and she stared at the floor, "in my defence, I'm not an Elsweyrran... Elsweyric? Whatever, I'm not a khajiit native, okay? I'm a Hammerfell girl, through and through."

Eyes-In-Stars sighed and approached, then offered a supportive hand on her shoulder, "I suppose so. We don't choose our upbringing but do me a favour; learn about your people and their language, okay? I see so many argonians just settle into a world beyond the marsh that doesn't suit them because that's all of which they feel capable. Or just fall into line with the leaders of our homeland. There is no weakness in knowing it all and making a judgement when properly informed."

Katia smirked at the casual conversation but her expression fast returned to a look resignation. "Sure. I'll add that to the list of things I'm gonna do when I get out of Quill's slit... wait, is that why you're here? Oh no." Katia's eyes went wide. "If you're here does that mean I really am in Quill's womb?"

"Okay, before we get ahead of ourselves, no, you're not an unwelcome guest in the womb. You're suffering a hallucination born from the attempt at joining the Communion of my people as well as my own influence just in case you caused a ruckus where you were; no hist-drunk staggering through towns and cities for you. That said, your mind is causing an unclear picture since it isn't supposed to partake in hist-sap and your own thoughts are filling the blanks wherever it can."

He glanced around the cavernous womb and said, "no doubt you picked this location because despite your empathy to Quill's plight and struggle, you still had a lot of pent up 'frustration', yes? For a woman who's never been in a stable relationship, you're doing a fine job, Fado."

Eyes-In-Stars chuckled. His good spirits and compliments were a huge boost to Katia's mood and she couldn't help but both chuckle with him as she also wrapped an arm around his shoulders. She briefly noted the fact they were both naked but a little trick from dreamwalking was that if you didn't focus, it was really easy to ignore details like that.

"In actuality I don't actually know where you are in the waking world, but it's not near Riften. I pushed you to seek higher ground, so odds are you're somewhere near the Throat of the World and you should be getting help soon. So long as we stay away from the less desirable entities here, we'll be fine. Come, let's keep mobile."

Katia nodded and they wandered the dark together.

Whatever passed for time progressed and there was still no sign of pursuit.

Katia even began to grow bored, and as if he could sense it, Eiss suddenly said, "so when you drank the hist-sap it's given me a pretty good insight into your own mind. I knew you were a woman with a history, but I admit you're a strong one to endure as much as you have. I know it may feel a pointless platitude, but I'm sorry you had to struggle so much and suffer the abuses that the fates have thrown at you.

"That being said, that you're here and still pushing through each barrier, no matter how many times you fall, is truly astounding. Not to mention some of your latest ideas even more interesting! General Katia Managan, eh? A most lofty and courageous goal. I knew you were clever, but to be so driven as well is marvellous! Good for you,Fado."

"Oh. Uh, thanks. Look, it'll probably never happen, alright? Just a spur of the moment thing." Katia sighed, "I'm just tired of always thinking I'll screw up. I know I'll screw up, but if I give it a shot, nobody can accuse me of anything but being inept. I'm sure I'll be relegated to stomping on criminals in a couple of weeks."

Eyes-In-Stars gave her a huge grin and said, "nonsense, Fado! You've already achieved so much, and I like how you're thinking outside the box. Being as strong as you are, martial prowess isn't exactly too important, but being able to lead and inspire?" He gave a thumbs up. "That, in and of itself, is inspired. It gives you purpose beyond the gifts given to you and a skill you can use if something makes you shrink back down again so you're covering your back. I know you'll make it and I know I'll be proud by the time I'm old enough to appreciate it."

"There you are!"

Both Katia and Eiss spun about and stared at the large, powerful body of The Empress.

The argonian relaxed and sighed as the giant stepped forward, raised a foot and prepared to stomp on him.

"Oh, fine. I guess we'll cut this short," he said and snapped his fingers.

Katia and The Empress both suddenly clutched their stomachs.

"Eiss. What did-" Katia felt like... no, she was going to throw up if she did anything but keep it down.

"I'm making you purge the rest of the sap to cut this short. You should be in the right place and despite your psyche not being able to really hurt us, I didn't fancy being stomped on. I don't mind a little foot action, but this would have been a tad excessive, plus even considering anything fetishy with someone who's going to be my parent? No thank you.

"You're probably going to wake up with a bit of a hangover but you should be fine. Just be careful to hold still when you come to. From what I can tell, you're pretty damned big. Oh, and these mental aspects? Might I suggest you sit down and have a nice, long talk with your friends? Maybe even a counsellor?"

Katia couldn't respond out of fear of vomiting.

The Empress, however, regained her footing, growled and swung a kick at the argonian, who dodged to the side and bared his teeth.

"Why aren't you throwing up?" he snarled. "The hist demands and you should obey!"

"Foolish lizard." The Empress grinned. Katia swore the evil entity's teeth were even longer and sharper than before. The giant raised a vast fist and poised to swing as she roared, "I cannot be controlled!"

Katia didn't know whether it was surprise or some other factor, but Eiss stood still as The Empress lunged. What she did know was an instinct kicked in. Something that suppressed the overwhelming nausea.

Fury. The sort of power and courage that sent the simplest, daintiest housewife to strike armed men with a skillet when in such a situation. Motherhood, even if not by blood, took hold. Quill-Weave was her spouse and this entity was her child.

Katia threw herself at Eiss and shoved him out of the way just as the fist bounced he off the ground.

Eiss seemed to snap awake as he scrambled to his feet and rushed to Katia's crumpled form. He pulled her to her feet and asked, "are you alright, Fado? Come on, let-"

He seized up and shook, then staggered back. His gaze looked distant yet twisted in panic.

Katia pulled herself together and didn't know who to turn her attention to; her ailing future son or the personification of Katia's worst nightmares but the instinct reamained.

Katia rushed to his side and begged, "Eiss, what is it? Come on, we have to run!"

Eiss pleaded, "I'm sorry, Katia. Stall her! I'll-" In the blink of an eye, he was gone. Not even a wisp remained.

Katia reeled in confusion and turned to flee, but The Empress wrapped her fingers around her neck and lifted her off the ground. She clawed at the hand fruitlessly as she was brought up to the huge grin of her nightmarish foe.

The Empress laughed and licked her lips. "There is no place for your pathetic weakness, Katia. Only my strength. Only my_power! Only _my rule!!"

She clenched her fist and Katia's neck popped and crunched. There was pain for a split second, then nothing as her body turned to vapour.

Harlot was no more and Katia was cast from the form, but remained in The Empress' grip despite being incorporeal. This had happened once before; when Katia quelled The Empress the first time in a dream, the wannabe royal bitch was playing out Katia's rampage in Anvil, her initial transformation into a giantess but unrestrained. Just a violent, bloodthirsty monster.

Katia couldn't possess The Empress like any other entity in her dream. Not only were too different but The Empress was too powerful, and the same happened now; where she could pass through almost any other entity, the hand was as solid as if she were made of flesh. She writhed and squeezed between the huge fingers and popped free.

Defeated once more, Katia didn't even pay The Empress any heed as the monster gasped in the headiest pleasure as her body once more swelled and bulged.

Katia had one last chance. She had to find her final copy.

* * *

The world returned. Vivid grey. A little too bright for the overall murk. Strange yet familiar, somehow. Who was she? Where was she?

Not the real world she realised, but the one from before; overcast skies and shallow water as far as the eye can see. The great river.

She felt gentle hands roam over her chest and side. Tender hands, as if from a lover, but firm and dutiful like a healer but as she sat up and they retreated. She saw him. A name struck out in her mind.

Eyes-In-Stars, who knelt next to her and sighed with a smile.

"Tar-Meena! You had me worried there, sweet-one."

At the mention of her name, she remembered what had just happened; she had been mauled by a frost-troll. Her lungs and likely her heart punctured by its fierce claws. "Am I dead?" she asked.

"Maybe very nearly almost twice over, but no," he chuckled and patted her shoulder. "Moreover, I regret to inform you that you won't awaken quite the same. I was rather hoping to give you a choice in recompense for helping my cherished Quill-Weave and respected Katia; one last ritual of independently controlled hist with some interesting uses, but I've had to strip the choice from you, and for that I'm sorry."

Tar-Meena frowned and tried to feel herself, but nothing seemed out of place. "What have you done to me? What do you mean 'twice over'?"

"Oh, what would be the fun if I just told you?" Eyes-In-Stars chortled. "in terms of nearly dying twice, though; it's never wise to ignore such things as struggling to breathe. Oh well, never mind. It's dealt with, just enjoy. Few get to experience their... hmm," he pondered for a moment, then gave up and repeated, "'experience' without all those aches, pains and sagging or... terminal stuff. Now, I apologise for cutting this short but I have someone else to save."

He shrugged and sighed at comical length. "Who would have thought dying and being reborn would be so much hard work?"

Tar-Meena growled and moved to grab the man and demand to know what was going on, but his arms were longer and gripped her first by the shoulders and pushed her down into the water.

Once more his separate pocket of the river home to Blackmarsh vanished into darkness.

A muffled voice. High and pleading. Dar-Ma? She called Tar-Meena's name.

Tar-Meena felt strange; light, but restrained. She couldn't see, and the sound of creaking wood filled her ears for a moment. Light peaked through cracks in whatever surrounded her, and she started to see the details; she was encased in a coil of wood or dried and brittle vines. They shrivelled and broke away. Green scaled hands pushed through and tore at the dessicated cocoon and Dar-Ma finally reached in and pulled her out from the shell.

Tar-Meena once more winced at the cold air as it hit her lungs. Something felt loose as she coughed and spluttered before, with a violent heave, she threw up a bloodied mass wrapped in little leafy vines the size of an acorn. The sorceress wiped her mouth and she sat up.

"Shit, thanks Dar-" the sorceress stopped. Something was wrong with her voice; it sounded smooth and higher in pitch. "What happened?" Tar-Meena said as she turned to her companion, who stared back with wide, bulging eyes.

"Y-you're..." she stammered.

"What? What is it!?" Tar-Meena said as panic clutched her voice. She reached forward and gasped as she saw her hands.

Dar-Ma's hands clasped by her cheek. "You're so pretty!"

Tar-Meena's hands were now a paler red and covered in smooth, unspoiled and uniform scales instead of the gnarled digits to which she was familiar with clutched around her books. Each finger was capped with clean and smooth claws no longer marred with wear and tear. Her hands then roamed her face and horns, each more gentle and unspoiled. Finally, she pulled her winter cloak and robe away at the neck and angled herself to let Dar-Ma's light spell in; no wound, just more perfect scales that were nearer pink and...

"O-oh my," Dar-Ma whispered.

Tar-Meena looked up at Dar-Ma, who was covering her muzzle in embarrassment (yet her eyes still deeply invested), and looked back inside her robe; two large, firm, perfectly pert hist-sacs followed by a taut, toned belly and slim but still feminine hips. No aches or pains and just so much energy she felt like she could run the mountain top to bottom thrice. Maybe more.

"You look younger than me," Dar-Ma said under her breath.

Tar-Meena had to agree; the girl (although she knew she couldn't justify saying that any more) was in her early twenties. At a guess, the once old sorceress was lucky if she was out of her teens at all. She looked at the shattered wooden coil, then back to her companion.

"What the fuck happened?" Tar-Meena said in the prettiest voice she'd ever heard from an argonian, only spoiled by the cuss. It was so alien and even felt different on her throat with how smooth she sounded.

"That sap bead you took from the fireplace? It sprouted little vines and crawled down your throat like a spider. You then gagged a bit and vomited a green vine, which coiled around you and it bloomed like a tree in spring with blossoms and green buds. Then it started to dry out and fade after a few seconds. When it started cracking, I tried to pull you out. Er," Dar-Ma looked over Tar-Meena's body, first in concern but it soon switched to something nearer admiration, then continued, "how do you feel?"

"Good. Amazing, even," Tar-Meena said as she studied her smooth, dainty arms. "I've never felt so full of life."

They both stood and Tar-Meena knew something else was off. It took her a moment as she glanced at her companion before she realised she was even shorter than Dar-Ma than she was before. Dar-Ma was normally head and shoulders taller but now she was eye level with Dar-Ma's impressive bust. It reminded her she was a late bloomer as a child so she was likely no older than eighteen years of age where she crawled up the last two inches by the time she hit twenty.

Tar-Meena realised they had been staring at each other for a good long while, then was glad when she felt the ground shudder and saved the awkward conversation.

"Well, that's a relief that you're okay but we're still in trouble," Dar-Ma said. "Do you feel well enough to make up for lost time? Oh, you haven't forgotten your magic or anything, have you?"

Tar-Meena went to laugh off the doubt but it emerged as a musical giggle. The rejuvenated argonian cut herself off and cleared her throat; she hadn't giggled since as long as she could remember. The sorceress then stood with her shoulders out and confident and said, "Dar-Ma, I keenly remember every spell, every lesson and memory. If anything, I'm sharper than ever."

To punctuate the point, Tar-Meena cast a spell, pointed off to one side, and lifted a boulder as big as she was, spun it, flung it up a good ten feet then let it slam back into the powdery snow with a deep thud. As a flourish she let her fingers crackle with lightning and couldn't help let a smug grin form.

Dar-Ma applauded and said, "looking good, Meenie. We were a good team before, now we're unstoppable."

"No man or mer can compare. Now," Tar-Meena said and playfully swatted Dar-Ma's shoulder, "let's hurry up and get up this mountain. If you're up for it, that is. I forgot to ask, are you alright?"

"Yep. My face is still a bit achy but I'll live."

"Now, that won't do, will it? We need to be in peak condition for this task after that ambush." Tar-Meena pulled up a healing spell and ran a hand over Dar-Ma's muzzle. The power siphoned into the taller girl and returned damaged flesh and bone as if no harm had befallen her.

"Oh," the taller girl uttered and her tail wagged slowly at the attention.

Tar-Meena studied Dar-Ma's face and gently pushed it to one side then the other like a professional healer. "Good, it looks like we got to it before any lasting damage. Just let me know if-"

Dar-Ma's hand covered Tar-Meena's and she said, "w-we should... um," the taller argonian stammered as the pair pulled apart. "Let's make up for lost time! Race you to the top!"

She dashed off, using her longer legs to get distance on the now younger mage, who grinned and cast a spell. Her limbs once more moved faster than they could naturally and charged in pursuit. Within seconds, Tar-Meena was in the lead.

"No fair, cheater!" Dar-Ma shouted and refreshed her light spell, then picked a narrower, 'inner lane' mountainside route filled with large rocky outcrops to let her free-running skills give her some advantage.

The race was afoot.

* * *

"I'm seeing some progress, but it's extremely gradual." The altmer checked through a stack of pages, each a vast landscape of symbols, schematics and notes. "The amulet is working but I wonder if we could transfer power through it to excite the tainted entity. Quicken the process of conversion."

He looked to the side and saw Bragne as she slumbered. The excitement of the news had awakened her, but the process of observing something one can neither see nor hear wasn't the most stimulating event.

The man opened a drawer and produced a few soul gems, cylindrical crystals that contained the stolen life essence of various creatures and pondered if they would do the trick. The bright stones were then joined by a darker one. A large, black soul gem.

He looked at it, then at Bragne as he felt for the ebony dagger stowed in his robe.

"No... it's too soon."

He placed each bright gem against the blood red amulet and watched as each smaller crystal faded and crumbled. The amulet shuddered and glowed brighter with each one, and the man sat down and continued to observe.

* * *

Slut hadn't stopped running. When you're scared out of your mind within a mind, stamina means nothing, so she just ran and all the while tears streamed down her face and soaked the fur on her cheeks.

Well, she did stop running for a short period; she suddenly felt the urge to throw up, but if nothing else she had tremendous pride in her lack of a gag reflex. The nausea still made it hard to keep up the pace. It soon faded and she kept running into the dark.

Until an arm grabbed her and held her still.

"No! No! Stop!!" Slut screamed before a hand covered her mouth.

"Hush,Fado!" Eyes-In-Stars whispered. "You are Katia, right?" He turned her about so they could look each other in the eye.

Slut immediately let her eyelids droop, she pushed out a hip, her tail coiled around her leg and she cupped, then squeezed her tits. "For you, hot stuff? I'll be your mommy."

"Wait, how did..." Eiss shook his head. "Right, shared knowledge. Listen. I need you to open your mind for Katia to come to us."

"Like... how do you open a mind? Oh, I can open my head!"

Slut dropped to her knees and opened her mouth as wide as she could.

Eyes-In-Stars gasped, "as mud as my mother, girl... are you part snake perchance? I could fit my fist-" He bashed himself on the side of the head and shivered at the implications. "No, let's not go down that road. Stand up and listen. You know Katia? You're connected. If you summon your courage and confidence or demonstrate her true self even in part within your own shell, she'll feel you."

"But, like, why would I want that?" Slut whined as she obeyed and stood. Her ears flattened down and she looked deeply confused. "And besides, we felt each other a lot earlier. It didn't do, like, anything!"

Eyes-In-Stars grumbled and pinched his muzzle. "Ah, now I can see why you can open your mouth so wide. There's nothing in there, is there? Where's Katia's intellect!? I've seen her mind; she's very well read! A quick study! Inquisitive (even if to a fault) about how things work. You have nothing of that."

"But I have something that's better! I'm like... cute, and I have a great ass, and firm tits!" Slut posed again, running her claws through her head fur as swayed her hips.

Eiss narrowed his eyes and licked his teeth, then smirked. "Ugly waste of fur."

Slut flinched. "Um... I, like, beg your pardon?"

"Skinny, shapeless. Eyes too big, cheek fur so thick it makes you somehow look fat despite the fact I can see your ribs."

"Okay, I was totally down for sucking you off, but now you can, like, go fuck yourself!" Slut growled.

"Good. Khajiit can't suck dick worth a shit anyway."

Angry tears took over the panicked ones and her hands balled into little fists, "I can suck the best fucking dick! I'm, like, a LEGENDARY dick-sucker! Fuck you! I'm so good I could have saved the world from Mehrunes Dagon with how good I am at, like, oral!"

Eiss suddenly turned his head and peered into the dark and smirked, "I bet you're real proud of that handjob, though."

"Like you wouldn't belie-"

Slut was launched to the ground as something paradoxically intangible slammed into her. She clutched her head for a moment before she sat up and smacked her padded palm against her temple, opened her crossed eyes and gasped as they settled and focused.

"Fado? Are you with us again?" Eiss asked.

"Yeah, it's me. Shit, that was weird. What did you do? I was roaming, lost for what felt like ages." Katia said as she took full control and stood. "Suddenly I felt this spark in the distance and sure enough, here we are... wait, why do I feel angry at you?"

"As strange as your other aspects are, they are still parts of you; any lingering thoughts you or they have when you join are bound to be just that; lingering. I had to get- what was it, Slut? Horrible, the way you think of yourself sometimes, Katia." Eiss shook his head despite the smile. "Anyway, yes, I challenged and fired up her pride, something I know you have a vested and realistic amount of these days. It brought you closer together so you were naturally attracted to it. The same as your first aspect-"

Katia raised a hand. "This is fascinating, Eiss, but we _really_need to focus on that cunt, The Empress. We need a plan, because I don't stand a chance against her."

"Fair point," Eyes-In-Stars sighed and both took to scratching their chins. "It's actually a good thing she failed to harm me in retrospect. While I would be fine, without my influence I dread to think what would have happened when you're still afflicted with hist sap; it might have shattered your mind completely. It's one thing for me to leave and re-visit, but to completely eject me would be quite traumatic.

"Anyway, from what I've learned of your history with this aspect, couldn't you deal with her the same way as before? Possess her and defeat her from within? I seem to recall when you first vanquished her, you possessed a mental aspect and let her eat you so your spirit couldn't just be pushed out."

"I have one shot at this whereas last time I had a whole slew of entities to possess. Either she's somehow dumb enough for it to work again, which I doubt, or she just crushes me which seems to be her new preferred method. Now, unless you want me to try and possess _you_after I'm turned into a bloody smear, we need a sneakier way."

"I doubt you could possess me. I'm only here because you drank sap formed from Quill thanks to my-" Eiss stopped and went wide eyed. "Quill," he repeated.

"What about her?"

Eyes-In-Stars paced about and his hands danced from his chin in thought, the back of his head in doubt and clasped together in dark designs. "We might just have a chance. You recall how Quill was converted rather than eaten when you first cursed yourself? There's a lurking connection there. Perhaps we can abuse it."

"Sure, but when I dreamed of that day again later, The Empress wasted no time trying to kill her. Besides, what are you thinking about? What_about_ Quill? Abuse what?"

"I wondered if we could disguise ourselves, perhaps take advantage of her vanity? Buy time?"

Katia grabbed and shook Eiss by the shoulders. "Stop talking in riddles, damn it! What do we do!?"

The argonian placed his arms over Katia's, as if to cover as much of the yellow fur as possible with his purple and red scales. "You know the feeling of argonian scale well. You have indulged in a person of the root, inside and out. Imagine, Katia, how it would feel to possess such a body."

Katia grumbled but closed her eyes. She pondered about his words for a moment, but Slut's lingering anger was still within her, so she peeked one eye open and asked, "why can't you just talk sense?"

"There's nothing as strong for convincing the mind than blind faith. You are an intelligent woman, Fado, but you're so used to things going wrong and thus expect failure. You then reasonably logic to try and find a way out but right now, logic might sabotage you. You'll seek the answer in the meaning and sabotage yourself... as has happened many times before, no?

"The voices you once frequently sought advice from sometimes went ignored as something you convinced yourself were right, and sometimes those voices came from strange places and pointed you towards stranger outcomes. Right now, I need you to just follow one idea; picture the argonian form."

Katia was at the end of her imagined, metaphorical dreamworld rope, so she closed her eyes once more. She pictured the pretty pattern of scales that her lover and so many other argonians had.

"Yes. The firm protection of scales, yet still pliable. Feel the claws. Thicker than a khajiit's own, sturdier but less keen. Your tail is slim and emotive, yet picture a broader limb. Stronger. Strong enough to swim by the shape and muscle alone."

Katia dug deeper. While Katia had joined Quill in dreams before, Katia had never possessed Quill directly. It was hard to find a common ground despite her intimate familiarity. She only knew one other in this way. An argonian form she had not only possessed, but still held the part inside herself.

Dar-Ma.

When Katia and Quill were separated early on in their careers as part of the legion, Quill had a dream about her break up with Dar-Ma. Katia happened to be dreamwalking and was simply exploring new grounds when she sensed Quill-Weave's slumber. Like now, Katia wasn't a 'physical' presence in the dreams of other entities, fragments formed to populate these dreams, so Katia possessed Dar-Ma to talk to Quill and even shifted the argonian's body into her own khajiit form.

If Katia was being completely honest, it was Quill-Weave's interpretation of Dar-Ma from their time as partners and not actually Dar-Ma. That said, the argonians had a strong enough rapport that, even now, Katia and Dar-Ma shared similarities. Anything from the honest assurance Quill looked great despite her pregnancy like when Katia was bathing earlier, to a simple joy of giving and receiving compliments and even quirks in the bedroom; Quill was an expert at using her tail to pleasure her partners, something Katia and Dar-Ma both greatly enjoyed. They had a strange but potent connection.

And now Katia knew Quill-Weave just as intimately, if not more so, than Dar-Ma. She knew what an argonian felt, smelled and tasted like. Just as she had transformed from Dar-Ma's body into Katia's own, Eyes-In-Stars was proposing the opposite.

The green scales with little reddish hints like a blushing maiden. The thicker tail. Dar-Ma was taller than Katia was. Bustier too.

Katia shivered and gasped as her eyes snapped open.

"Greetings, marsh-sister," Eiss chuckled as he stepped away.

Katia looked down at herself; a tall, shapely and athletic argonian maiden. A good pair of sacs (although Katia noted not as good as Quill's) stood pert and smooth on her chest.

"Don't focus too much. It's not likely perfect, but you look the part, 'Dar-Ma'." Eiss nodded with approval then tilted his head to and fro as if to limber up. "My turn."

He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing.

Katia had seen Eyes-In-Stars transform from his original blue and purple colouration to his current, Quill-Weave tinged one. A little cheat to show how Eyes-In-Stars would look at an equivalent age when he was reborn. Now, however, the change resumed and pushed beyond.

The argonian's height dwindled and his scales lost any hint of purple and embraced the red. His belly took on a deep, alluring green even as he, too, developed a pair of hist sacs. His horns shifted and a membrane of skin grew over them, which connected the horns to the sides of his... or her, head.

Katia looked in wonder as Eiss no longer stood before her. Now Quill-Weave. At least, a fair interpretation; this one was a bit less muscular, her snout was a bit shorter and her tail was a bit too thick. She gave it a passing grade.

Katia returned the favour. "Greetings, fellow argonian!"

Eiss bowed, then turned serious.

Katia tilted her head, briefly amused by the lack of airflow on her once fuzzy cheeks, and felt the floor shake.

"Alright. Just in time. Follow my lead," the Quill-Weave facsimile said.

No sooner than he finished, The Empress came into view.

Katia went to step back, only for Eiss to place a gentle and comforting hand on her shoulder as they looked at this creature before them.

She wasn't a copy of Katia any more. While mostly khajiiti in form, she had red fur that was laced with glowing lines of a paler shade, nearer to Katia's yellow. She had huge sabre-teeth, protruding fangs and a pair of tusk-like partners from the lower jaw crossed one another. Her claws stood out as if at full flex, yet a little tense from her hands revealed they were far longer than any khajiit claw Katia had ever seen. Her head had a few bumps and two vestigial horns.

The Empress' figure was an exaggerated, bloated form; huge swells of muscle stretched the skin throughout her body which made her look masculine, except for the equally ridiculous tits, hips and thighs. The huge swellsm complete with dark purple nipples, dwarfed even Quill's prior to Katia draining them. So vast they covered most of The Empress' torso.

She didn't want to admit it, but Katia realised it at that moment. As did Eiss, as they shared a look. The colours, the demonic features, tinted as they were with a feline brush.

The Empress was, at least in part, Mehrunes Dagon.

The Daedric Prince of Destruction.

* * *

"There is nothing up here for you, child of the marsh," the gnarled nord spat. His worn, grey robes covered his thin frame and his wrinkled, jowly face had only a narrow wispy beard that trailed over his chest and blended with the threadbare fabric. "While I concur the earthquakes were a concern, they have all but ceased. I shall not be coerced by some fallacious tale of giant khajiits and world ending happenstance. Now leave!"

He slammed the large stone doors shut with impressive force for a man of his slim build. The argonian stepped back from the snow-clad facade of the ancient structure that blocked the entire route up the mountain. It may be a strange, cultish place of worship and a temple but the construction was closer to a fortress. Anything above and below was encased in an impenetrable layer of fog and cloud, which was both intimidating and almost dreamlike.

"You're a fool, you old snowskin!" Tar-Meena yelled and stomped on the snow in a juvenile fit of anger. "Open up or I'll break your stupid door and force my way through!!"

The young sorceress reached for the doorway but they swung open again and the nord once more stepped out, eyes as intense as the sun.

He was on a higher step, but his northerner blood gave him an even more impressive and intimidating ability to loom over them.

"You shall do no such thing, girl! This is a sacred place and we shall not be intimidated. If you pass the threshold then my brothers of The Voice shall defend ourselves against whatever insipid magic you can muster! Now, unless you can give me some compelling evidence that your flight of fancy is true, you shall leave immediately!"

Tar-Meena peered up the mountain, still wreathed in cloud and fog, then to one side at a small nook where green scaled hands gripped a bow and arrow; insurance in case things turned nasty.

Not ready to give in or call for help, Tar-Meena pleaded, "The only way I can prove it is if we could see the peak of the mountain. I have it on good authority that my friend was going to seek the highest point in the land, and the Throat of the World fits the bill. I don't want to be in your temple, old man," she winced as her body once more influenced her usually mature mind but carried on, "I just need to pass through and reach the top so we can both help our friend and then leave you in peace."

The old nord grumbled and sucked in a long breath, then tilted his head skyward.

"_ Lok Var Koor _!"

The words rippled on the air and Tar-Meena stumbled back from the force as she covered her ears. A wave of sound and power that punched through not only the fog, but the clouds all around dissipated.

The ocean of white faded and left the brilliant stars to shimmer and shine against the darkness above, even while the east showed the hint of blue of the coming day. She could see the pinpoints of light in the far distance of villages and cities amidst the darkness. The two moons, Masser and Secunda, floated as if observing the world, each a crescent that hung low on the horizon.

Most damning was that they could not see anything above them but more mountain, a snowcapped peak and brilliant star and nebula filled skies; no khajiit.

"Leave." The robed man once more entered the building and slammed the doors.

Tar-Meena's shoulders sank and she backed away for a few steps, then turned and walked back down the path before she reached a boulder, stepped behind it and waited, out of view of the doors.

Within seconds, Dar-Ma emerged from the narrow gap between the mountainside and the rock as she slung her bow over her shoulder and shrugged. "So now what?"

"I don't get it. So maybe I didn't trust Eyes-In-Stars," Tar-Meena said as she palmed her chin and frowned, "but I don't know why he would lie to us about someone who should be instrumental in whatever plan he put into place. Even in a purely pragmatic standpoint, leaving Katia to grow unchecked could threaten Quill-Weave's life and his own rebirth. Something doesn't add up."

Dar-Ma blinked as she tried to keep up. "So, what you mean is we're out of luck with no leads."

"In theory we could have used the peak to spot her; if she hasn't been casting spells, Katia is likely so large that she should be readily visible with the skies this clear. That narrows down that she isn't to the west or immediate north..." Tar-Meena stepped over to the northern edge of the path, peered eastward and tried to ignore the fathomless drop down the mountain. "Unless she double backed, she shouldn't be to the east, so she must be somewhere south. Let's get moving. If she isn't there, then she's left Skyrim altogether."

"No time like the present." Dar-Ma said and begun the return trip.

Tar-Meena marched beside her back down the mountain and let her eyes trace over their path they left on the way up; all that enthusiasm and vigour felt far, far away now as the uncertainty set in. The sorceress felt healthier than she'd likely ever been since the first time through, but it meant nothing if they couldn't place, reach and help Katia.

She couldn't deny the old nord was right about one thing; they had felt Katia's footsteps for a long distance, yet they suddenly stopped at some time between reaching Ivarstead and the ambush with the troll. She had to be nearby or, by some miracle, shrank herself (or convinced another to do so).

So lost in thought as she was, Tar-Meena didn't even realise they had rounded a good part of the mountain. An entity so vast it failed to make her react despite the bright yellow colours.

A colossal hand. So truly enormous one finger was hundreds... no, a thousand feet thick at the base.

Tar-Meena's automatic mental calculus was interrupted when she was tugged back harshly as Dar-Ma pulled her back and beneath her for protection. The hand struck the mountain with a dainty tap, like a house-cat when it first presented with a toy to test how it would react. The feather touch smashed a large section of rockface down and sent chunks in all directions.

The fragments, mere specks of dust for the hand, were vicious projectiles scattered across the mountain path and Dar-Ma yelped in pain.

"Dar! Are you alright!?" Tar-Meena gasped as she pulled herself from her companion, who clutched her side. The sorceress grimaced as she felt warm blood smear on her hand and a rock embedded in the ground. She turned over and got to her knees and saw Dar-Ma was nursing a messy, but thankfully minor wound.

Tar-Meena placed her hands near it, gently coaxed Dar-Ma's away, and cast a healing spell.

"Is this going to become a regular thing, Meenie?" Dar-Ma sighed with relief as the flesh and scales knitted back together. She felt at her wound again, only to catch Tar-Meena's hand by accident.

Tar-Meena first tried to pull her hand away, but she let it linger for a moment. A soft laugh forced its way out before she said, "seems like it, doesn't it? M-maybe it won't be such a bad... um."

A moment. Then another. Their eyes met. The old mind in the fresh, unspoiled body lost a little more rust and shone with a little more lustre. Her heart shivered and shook as the old bitterness was cast off. Old rusted armour to protect the fragility within, now exposed and ready to take a risk once more. Most tellingly, the hormones pumped through her blood and her mind swam in the bliss of what Dar-Ma could do to her with that well toned body.

"A-anyway!" Tar-Meena looked at the fractured mountainside and stood, but never let Dar-Ma's hand go as she helped the taller woman to her feet. "Come on, let's not get distracted."

They ran together, forced to release each other's hands, and reached the southern slope. A night of impossibilities and firsts already, they still stopped and gasped.

There was Katia. She stood and shivered violently with her hands over her face and her tail swung against the Jarall mountains behind her. They dragged across the snow-capped peaks and shattered thousands of tons of stone down into the lands below.

It took a moment to re-engage the logical part of Tar-Meena's mind, but she realised that the perspective was playing tricks. The entire valley that she, Seed-Neeus and Dar-Ma had taken to get ahead of Katia, who looped around the north of the mountain, was all but filled with Katia's feet.

Both argonians held their breath as, with the lightest of gasps, Katia fell to her knees. The ground around her knees, high and rocky hills as Tar-Meena recalled, were flattened as two huge shockwaves emerged from the impact and cracks filled the valley and knocked Tar-Meena and Dar-Ma to the floor even from this distance. Thankfully, Katia now grew still with exception of her shivering and they slowly climbed to their feet.

"K-Katia... she... " Tar-Meena shook her head and nearly fell over as her legs trembled. Dar-Ma caught her and supported her and they exchanged a far more sobering look. "She's got to be twenty miles tall at least..." she forced out.

"That's expected, right? She just keeps growing and doesn't stop, so this is nomal... right!?"

"Not this fast. I don't even think the infamous crones of that valley's spells would even factor in if they were casting at her out of some false hope of injuring her; I've seen lesser spells touch her when she gets especially large and they just fizzle, as if it can't penetrate the fur, let alone the epidermis."

"Epi-what?" Dar-Ma asked.

"Sorry, the skin. But that's irrelevant. We need to get down-"

Katia moaned loudly as if in pain and writhed. Just that simple utterance loosed booming ripple on the air and both argonians clapped their hands over their ears as the vocal blast sent the snow under their feet up against the mountainside like one would blow dust off an ancient book. A lesser quake shook the area and in a stuttering, unnatural clench, her body swelled up another whole mile in a split second. Even more of a worry was that Katia's eyes briefly snapped open and peered through her fingers.

Her eyes were red. Not bloodshot, but completely red.

"We need to get to her now." Tar-Meena yelled as the ground finally grew still. "We need to get the magicka out of her to stop whatever's doing that to her."

"Okay, back down the mountain it is! Let's go!" Dar-Ma went to run, but Tar-Meena tugged her wrist. "What!?"

"As fast as we need to be, we also need to get to her body and somehow not get crushed by even the slightest of motions, so we can't just run up to her from the ground. The way she's moving and twitching even the slightest tremble or growth spurt would crush us, let alone the state of the ground down there. The way she's moving is like she's in the middle of a nightmare! I... wait. Nightmare..." Tar-Meena's eyes narrowed.

Dar-Ma watched the little sorceress pull her ledger out again and flicked through the pages.

"Do we really have time for reading? I know the world seems to stop when you open one of them things but-"

"Yes! Yeah, that'll work... probably!" Tar-Meena squealed.

She briskly charged farther back down the path and, as they reached an high overhang that blocked their view from Katia, Tar-Meena cast a spell and reached out. The brittle and dried 'cocoon' of her rebirth flew at them, but fell short in a clumsy tumble near the sorceress. She then turned to her companion as she caught up and said, "Dar-Ma?"

The scout blinked and tilted her head. "Y-yes, Meanie?"

Tar-Meena swirled her hands around and the cocoon shattered into a pile of kindling, then she threw a bolt of flame at the splinters and smirked as the dry material caught. Finally she beckoned Dar-ma with one hand and then used her other (as well as telekinesis) to scrape off snow to form a dry spot near the makeshift bonfire and sat down beside the warm flames.

"Keep an eye out. I'm going to have a nap."

* * *

"We cannot tell if you're just desperate or pitiful!" The Empress laughed into the back of her hand and the little motion caused a huge ripple through her prodigious bust.

"Fucking really? The royal 'we'?" Katia hissed, still in the guise of Dar-Ma. Hissing felt natural even if it sounded different emerging from the lizard muzzle.

Eiss ignored her and took a single step forward, then shouted, "oh mighty Empress! We stand in awe!"

He curtsied, which looked natural in Quill-Weave's form, and gave a swift gesture for Katia to follow, although a lack of experience (and history of freaking out) in the presence of royalty meant her version was...

Well, an attempt was made. That was as kind as she could be to herself. She almost fell over, but didn't so that had to count for something.

The Empress stared and her smile flinched, a barely held back sneer. "You're fooling nobody, Eyes-In-Stars. I know what _she_knows," The Empress said as she pointed at her disguised form, "your ploy means nothing."

"Oh," Eiss said, stood and shrugged nonchalantly as both their forms reverted. "Well that was a waste of time and effort. You might as well just eat us then."

"The fuck?" Katia stared at Eiss for a second but remembered that was how she defeated The Empress before.

Katia dreamt of a time not long after recovering from the initial curse. A dream which replicated the initial rampage in Anvil, only Katia was an ethereal observer while The Empress was in control of Katia's body. The Empress went on a far more violent rampage, Katia discovered she could possess entities within it but this evil tyrant could repel any attempt on entering The Empress.

Katia had to fight dirty; namely force herself into a position where she couldn't just be pushed back.

She got inside The Empress. She possessed a person in the dream and wilfully let herself get eaten, then just like how she was ejected from Harlot when that aspect died, Katia slew her host and diffused into The Empress. With her resumed control, yet with The Empress fighting to take back over, Katia plunged herself into the ocean and drowned the pair of them.

Once thought dead, it at least suppressed The Empress then. Katia stepped forward.

"Yeah, eat me! Make me your bitch!"

"Oh, please, just how gullible do you believe I am?" The Empress sneered and leaned forward. "No, my insignificant and so-called 'Primary' self; I shan't make that mistake again. I will simply slay you, that pathetic excuse for a 'child', and take over. Then I'll find and make an example out of Quill-Weave just to make sure that whelp of yours is gone for good and when... if I decide to have an heir, I shall pick only the most deserving khajiit."

Katia wished she could muster some rage at the implication of her doing anything to Quill, but she was just too afraid.

Eiss' tail snared around Katia's and he started making little tugs; an old, silent language made between enslaved beast-folk in Vvardenfel, the home of the dunmer.

'Out of ideas still have to stall for time,' his tail communicated.

'How?'

"Indeed, how?" The Empress scolded and examined her massive claws. "What part of 'I know what she knows' do you pathetic fools not understand?"

"It's hopeless," Katia sighed, "anything we plan up will be ruined the second I think of it. In fact I'm surprised she hasn't just smooshed us."

Eiss stared at Katia for a moment, then eyed the colossus, who grimaced for the briefest moment before forcing a grin. He then smirked and said, "you can't do it, can you? The question is why?"

"Well, it's not because of me," Katia stated. "She's already made it damn clear that crushing me is the goal."

"It must be because this is a hist-sap hallucination! Like I said; without me coercing the sap, and with the sudden influx of information from the Collective, it might harm her as much as it would you! So then, I hold all the cards! Once the sap runs out, you'll be able to awaken freely!" Eyes-In-Stars chuckled as The Empress' scowl evolved to an open snarl.

"Well," he said and wrapped an arm around Katia's shoulders, "I guess we'll just relax here until the sap wears off then-"

Eiss gasped and his form began to fade.

"Wait, what? Oh fu-"

Then he was gone.

Katia was stunned and her jaw dropped, but was shaken into action with a thunderous footfall as The Empress charged with a violent roar.

Alone again, Katia fled once more.

* * *

Tar-Meena pulled herself to the Great River this time. She was actually dreamwalking, although that was like calling a walk down to the local tavern a grand adventure; the space outside of this now familiar route was a terrifying void and Tar-Meena couldn't help but respect Katia more for braving it. It was such a strange feeling since the argonian didn't have a shape here in the world beyond.

Katia had described her nightmares, as she had suffered from an early age, as appearing as herself in a dreamlike world. Sometimes she was her current age, other times as a child but she always was some aspect of herself. That changed when the curse was inflicted on her. Now she had control but moved as a ghost. Whether this was an intended effect from whatever daedric prince caused this or not didn't matter; it had granted Katia tremendous insight, which Tar-Meena now gratefully put to use after many evenings discussing the topic.

Tar-Meena emerged from the waters, and was surprised when she took her physical form here. She figured being in the afterlife of her people, she had no choice but to take her normal form.

She glanced about and it became quickly obvious that she was alone.

"Eyes-In-Stars?"

Nothing but the gentle flow of the vast river as it ceaselessly travelled to the collective, the vast trees in the distance and the shallows that hid an islet beneath her feet. This waterlogged part of shallows made more sense now that Tar-Meena had to conceptualise about it; it still let the water flow, so it didn't stand out against the natural order, yet it lacked the potency to disrupt the souls that occupied the river.

Instead, the saxhleel people (which resembled shadowy fish in the water) drifted back to the hist trees of home and carefully skirted around where Tar-Meena now stood. A true space to hide in the world beyond, unnoticeable to all but those who knew of it and it still allowed the deceased to return home uninhibited. She admired the craft; this was hist shaman trickery at its most intricate.

The sorceress looked into the water, at her own reflection. It wasn't detailed enough for her to tell if she was young or old here, but she wasn't interested as she dipped her hands in and felt the ground beneath the shallows. It felt hard, like rock, with no obvious signs of where she either emerged from or fell into whenever she shifted between the real world and this space in what she theorised was a secluded place in the argonian afterlife.

"Okay, Tar-Meena. You've got this far, so let's put those decades of reading and studying to work; if Katia can delve in between worlds, so can you. She's may be a prodigy, but you have a wealth of experience, you've read her notes, and you're young and..." she trailed off before she laughed. "Reckless! Wild! Powerful! Un-fucking-stoppable!"

Tar-Meena sat, crossed her legs and closed her eyes. She had seen Katia do this many times; reaching out and just feeling the area. Familiarity was crucial so she tried to use what she knew and remembered from her previous visits here.

Seeking somewhere new was difficult, risky and liable to end with Tar-Meena getting lost and perishing in the waking world but it was either this or being crushed under Katia's evergrowing form. So right here, right now, Tar-Meena had to try. She was young again. She no longer felt restrained by her twilight years to no longer seek improvement. She would succeed, she would learn this power from Katia in full, and she would become greater.

The sorceress reached, felt around her. She knew this place was tied to Eyes-In-Stars, if she could just feel any power, it should lead to him.

There. Like a crack in the bedrock of the riverbed. A seeping of his strength. He wasn't here, but connected yet away. She reached for the strand.

Tar-Meena felt him and pulled like a fisherman hooking his catch, but rather than the need to reel him in, he seemed to return of his own volition. Then Tar-Meena heard a bubbling and the sound of breeched water. A voice.

"What the fuck, Tar-Meena!? What have you done!?"

She stood and faced the distraught Eyes-In-Stars and demanded, "listen to me! You're in Katia's nightmare, right? Tell me what's going on in there!"

Eiss stuttered. His hands waved and wiggled about, as if trying to weave a complex tapestry out of the situation with his fingers. He suddenly dashed at Tar-Meena and wrapped his hands around her head.

KatiaEmpressMehrunesDagonNegativeAspectsAbsorptionLinkedMindsAboutToBeOvercastEyesInStarsOnlyThingStoppingHer

Tar-Meena screamed as she was released. The words clustered and clogged her brain before they dissolved and became 'digestible'. Katia, The return of The Empress, who was a pre-existing entity of Katia's mind now tainted by Mehrunes Dagon, who had absorbed other negative aspects and a whole litany of psychoses Tar-Meena knew were present but usually controlled by her gigantic student. Now Katia was under threat of being overtaken by this Empress and the threat of hist-shock was the only thing stopping The Empress.

Eiss forced Tar-Meena back to their semi-reality as he barked, "unless you have a genius solution to the problem, I need you to leave so I can get back and save her!"

"I need a sec-"

He grabbed her, shook her about and roared, "WE DON'T HAVE SECONDS!! Leave the river!!"

"River...? Wait! I have an idea! A dream always ends the same wa-"

His hands once more wrapped around her head. Again he entered her mind, but she knew what to expect. Instead of his dominance, she wrestled a balance between them; a two way link.

"Explain," he asked.

"She's in a hallucination that's turned into a nightmare, a dream, and so it should react like a dream," she replied.

Faster.

Doesn't matter who says what.

Communion.

Bonded.

"Yes, so?"

"Katia's explored dreams of the past before. This dream will now be the past. Even if this Empress is a new aspect and can change who exits the dream."

"Abundantly clear. The Empress is going to take her over. How do we stop it?"

"Katia can restart the dream. Remind her of the leaf in the river. Use knowledge of what has happened to her advantage."

"Agreed. Might be able to find solution."

"Maybe not alone; Empress is powerful. Need to convince negative aspects for help. Defeat her."

"We can't. Not as she is now."

"Seek different solution. Might be something Katia can discover. Finished?"

"No. Theory: about why The Empress has taken on aspects of Mehrunes Dagon."

"Yes. When she defeated him. Just before that, while drunk, she-"

"She swallowed some of his seed."

"Daedric seed? Her mana development? She has absorbed the life essence of the daedric lord of destruction and power! A link."

"We concur. It has always attached itself to The Empress; power desires power."

"Only The Empress desires power. Katia does not. Empress always there, just subdued."

"It's why Katia dreamed of her. Why The Empress tried to control her before."

"Irrelevant, if interesting."

They broke contact. They each shook their head as their matched minds still shook free of each other.

Eyes-In-Stars, already used to this blitz of information, recovered first and said, "this may be the best opportunity Katia has but I won't be able to help her. First, she'll have to purge the sap but she must keep dreaming. Even with the remaining sap, The Empress' growing control means it will be a struggle for me to get back in there. After the purge, that will be it. Katia will be alone."

Despite the gloom, Tar-Meena nodded. "All you'll need to do is remind her and she'll take care of the rest. Katia's strong and she's resourceful. She'll manage, I'm certain of it."

"It is in her hands," they both said as one.

With a sombre nod, they both fell back into the water and drifted below the surface.

* * *

The Empress had lost her patience; Katia was now sprinting on all fours and dipped side to side as the massive, four armed and demonic khajiit stomped after her. She was lucky that stamina didn't exist in the mind, just mental fortitude, but things continued to get dicier by the moment.

Experience was likely the only thing The Empress lacked, but that was fading as each stomp grew nearer. Katia was extremely glad that her foe's huge tits and enormous limbs were just as obtrusive and sluggish as expected. The only hope Katia held out for was that Eyes-In-Stars was going to return.

Katia... -iver...

"What?" Katia looked side to side but saw nothing. A quick glance behind her revealed her pursuer also 'heard' the voice, or was aware that Katia had at least.

"No," The Empress snarled and swung another kick towards Katia, who dodged to the side but it left her in a poor position as she scrambled to recover her four limbed sprint.

The Empress grinned and flung her whole body at the scrambling khajiit. It didn't matter how clumsy it was; Katia simply wasn't fast enough as she was buried under the massive swell of a tit as big as a house.

Katia felt her bones crack and shatter and only knowledge that this wasn't real let her keep her focus. Not that it mattered as The Empress' laugh caused the huge fatty mass to wobble and grind Katia into the ground.

"Too late. I win!"

Katia felt the huge hand of The Empress squeeze between the floor and her breast and her thick fingers coiled around and plucked the smaller woman free.

...leaf in... river. Purging...

Katia vomited as the hand closed around and began to squeeze and she felt a weight on her mind fade; the sap had left her. But the words... a leaf in the river? Like a dream? Constantly throwing a leaf upstream to watch it tumble towards the inevitable end.

A dream...

A dream! What is a hallucination if not a forced dream? But it was late when she started and no doubt the night was pushing on. Without the sap, natural sleep now held sway, complete with all of its rules.

Katia remembered how it all started.

It was dark for a time. Warm, comforting. She couldn't breathe well, but she could make do.

Then someone kicked her in the back of the head and she snapped awake.

"Rise and shine, Harlot," said Slut.

"Ow. Fuck you, Slut." Harlot said and stood.

The two yellow khajiit's stared each other down, until a third one, Whore, arrived and stood between them and pressed a hand on each of their tits with a less than subtle grope.

"Harlot, Slut, c'mon, grow up."

"Growing was what got us in this shit to start with!" Slut complained.

"Not my fucking fault!" Harlot responded.

"Doesn't matter. What matters is it's time for work. By my estimates," Whore cleared her throat, plunged her hand into her cunt and took out a scroll as wide as her head and as long as her arm.

Harlot suddenly yelped and stumbled as Slut and Whore stopped and watched. The afflicted triplet writhed, grunted and then sighed before she turned to the others.

"Whore, Slut, listen to me. I'm Katia and we don't have long, but please, I need your help..."

* * *

"Meenie?"

"Hmm?"

"Meenie. Wake up."

Tar-Meena winced as white light shone through her eyelids. The air was cold, but there was a lurking warmth near them that held it at bay. She became aware of arms huddled around her. Gentle arms. Affectionate.

The sorceress slowly sat up and the arms peeled away, although as she planted her hands down to support herself, one gripped onto a firm, supple surface that flexed and resisted her touch; a well toned thigh.

Dar-Ma giggled and Tar-Meena lifted her hand again, and finally squinted at the pale green argonian beside her.

"Morning, sleepy-head," said Dar-Ma. "I don't know what you did, but look. It worked."

Tar-Meena realised she must have slept for a couple of hours; the slow encroach of dawn was now a bright, sunny morning. The sun beamed through brilliant blue skies and reflected off the white powdered snow. As her eyes continued to adjust, she stood in amazement at how easy it was to move; in almost any winter morning before this, it would have taken Tar-Meena a good half an hour to light the bed warmer pan she kept in her bedchambers, let it heat through and use it to loosen her stiff bones and muscles.

That she was on her feet in moments took her by surprise. Not as badly as what she saw as her vision cleared.

Katia had shifted from her pained kneeling into a calm, cross legged, almost meditative position with her fingers interlocked in her lap, although it was at odds to the signs of amber-tinted bile on her chest and lips. Her furrowed brow twitched and she still looked troubled but, most important of all, she didn't seem to be growing any more. Tiny flickers of magic pulsed between her fingers and the sorceress realised Katia was trying to purge her magic, even despite still being locked inside herself, but it wasn't much; likely just barely holding her peak at bay.

While she wasn't growing now, Tar-Meena had to guess the khajiit was in excess of fifty miles tall; clearly it had taken longer than the sorceress had hoped for Katia to recover control of her dream. The ground around her was warped and crushed, with fissures and faults that spread across the entire valley that wasn't covered by the vast expanse of the khajiit's body.

If she was still shaking and convulsing, odds were the country would have been irrevocably damaged. Possibly bad enough to ruin the lukewarm relationship the empire had with the nords already as an overt demonstration of might.

Politics aside, the mere fact that Katia was as taller than the tallest mountain on the continent while she sat... Tar-Meena couldn't help but feel her jaw go slack.

"It's so strange; she looks so near, but she's still so damn far away. But I guess we can just get to her and start shrinking, right?" Dar-Ma asked.

"I don't think she's winning yet. But it's bought us some time."

As if on cue, Katia gasped softly. The tiny utterance was still deafening. With a shiver, she swelled a tiny amount as she winced as her paltry expulsion of mana paused for a brief moment, and she gritted her teeth as she resumed. Even that tiny amount, at this scale, caused the damage to deepen as the fractures to the valley deepened and grew longer.

"... and not much at that. We need to get there immediately. We may have given her the tools to fight back, but she's still battling absurd odds inside herself."

"Wait, 'we'? I didn't do- never mind, what do we do?"

Tar-Meena scanned the area; the burnt out embers of the fire, snow as far as the eye could see, boulders, trees and not much else. Unless she could build a bridge of legendary length, they weren't getting there by foot or by air.

They could use a legendary moment right now. Something absurd. Risky. Foolhardy.

Tar-Meena grinned. Things she once dismissed as outright moronic now sounded like a fun experiment. The joys of youthful idiocy merged with her old mind. Truly, only an idiot would attempt it... without her mastery of the arcane and a willingness to take a big damn risk.

With an equally stupid grin, Tar-Meena cast her telekinesis spell and focused on a tree. "Did I ever tell you about this far off legend I'd heard about? Zenkilda or something. Anyway, this bosmer adventurer boy who could lift metal objects with a form of telekinesis that only worked on metal. He could also create ice, pause time for a single object and create explosions from light from a dwemer tool. Apparently his clothes and shield are still around here somewhere, but I'm going off tangent. "

Tar-Meena raised her arms and the tree pulled loose from the ground.

"The problem he had with the telekinesis was he couldn't touch the thing he was manipulating, much the same as when I use telekinesis to pull things to me, it ends the spell. What he could do was stand on an object that was being lifted by a second object he was controlling with this force."

She lifted a rock with a point from the ground and began to whittle the log by making one side flat and smooth, then she flipped it upside-down.

"You're losing me, Meenie. You've got a mad gleam in your eye and your breathing's wild. I don't know if I like or or I'm terrified."

With a flourish, Tar-Meena flipped the rock and spun it at high speed like an augur into then along the log. The high speed met a gradual, meticulous pace until it left a long, hollow and smooth space; it looked like a crude canoe. She then slammed the rock into the mountainside and a cascade of rock clattered down to the path. Tar-Meena studied each, lifted a flat sheet and placed it near the vessel. Finally, she planted the flat underside of the canoe on the stone and turned to Dar-Ma.

"We're gonna ride this thing to her," Tar-Meena snickered with a huge grin.

"Are you crazy!?" Dar-Ma gasped.

"Darms." Tar-Meena sighed and clapped her hands around Dar-Ma's shoulders. "In the last twelve hours I drank a giant saxhleel's tit sap, communicated to said giant's unborn child, been mauled to death by a frost troll, been revived by that unborn child thanks to ancient, barely understood saxhleel powers and been turned into a teenager. All while pursuing an ever-growing, dream hopping cat woman who's literally the biggest single thing likely in existence who's fighting a corrupted evil twin inside her own head." Tar-Meena was shaking from anxiety, panic... possibly excitement. Maybe arousal.

"I'm not crazy, the world is crazy! I'm just balancing shit out! We're owed success!"

Dar-Ma just blinked. All she could muster was, "did you just call me Darms?"

"Plant your well toned ass in that canoe, because we're gonna save Skyrim... no, the world! In a flying motherfucking boat!"

* * *