Happy flash fiction February 2023! I had a lot of fun with these little prompts last year and so I'm participating in the Storytelling Collective's challenge again this year. Starting off strong with a brief but hopefully entertaining exchange between two of our favorite undead assassins :) Includes aw man I'm old, running into trees, sarcastic Babette, and the age old question- what happens when you wake up as a werewolf???
Enjoy!
Prompt: Return of Spirit
“What’s it like, being you?” Babette asks, as a fellow technically undead assassin during a bit of downtime in the sanctuary. Where Isabelle, and Issy, so both of Isabelles really, went I don’t know, and everyone else is off on a job so the vampire and I are left to ourselves. “Being a spectre is…odd.” That’s the easiest way to describe the state. “At the same time one is both very very dead, and yet “alive” in some way. Of course I don’t breathe, or eat, or sleep, or do any of those other standard bodily functions associated with living, but I am conscious, can somehow still talk, and am able to manipulate the world around me through movement.” The ability to teleport is an added bonus but I am capable of doing all basic human things too, I can pick things up, touch things, walk, and obviously fight. The child vampire makes a noise somewhere between minor intrigue and boredom, I think she just likes to pick my brain as we are roughly the same age. There is only a fifteen year age difference compared to the not quite two hundred year difference between myself and the rest of the Falkreath sanctuary. “So what happened when you died?” That’s a question I could turn right around and ask her, aside from being turned somewhere around the time of the Oblivion Crisis I don’t know much of her history, professional or personal. “I became very cold, everything faded to black, I “woke up” in the void, and then I don’t know exactly what happened but somehow I learned how to manifest as this form and then spent three weeks in the forests of Cyrodiil trying to learn how to control teleportation and the ability to walk through things and generally “live” again.” During that time I ran into a lot of trees…I’m very glad I can’t feel pain anymore, that would have hurt. Not my brightest moment, but it did pay off in the end, I learned how to control the newfound powers to make them be a very useful tool before tracking Issy down. That was an interesting moment, the return of a spirit seemed to be just the thing needed in order to lift her own metaphorical spirits and drag her out of what had become a deep depression, not surprisingly given the circumstances. Babette makes a comment regarding my time teaching myself how to function again and then wanders off before I get the chance to ask her about her own experiences. I suppose I’ll just have to wait and find a time later. Now if only I could find Astrid's husband, I have some questions for him about his time in the circle, he may not be dead but waking up after being turned into a werewolf must be its own kind of weird…and Farkas doesn’t seem to fond of telling me whenever I run into him…
A fifteen-year age difference between our protagonist and the Child Vampire.
ReplyDeleteSetting: still Falkreath sanctuary.
Imagine running into trees without pain [or the interoception/RECEPTION of pain].
[and pain is hardly ever outside the knowing/feeling of it even if it does often mismatch and misfire].
And that moment with the new-found powers.
Babette - she makes the story worth reading.
Hope Astrid's husband is found. And what would our protagonist like to know about his time in the Circle?
Yes - waking up as a werewolf really is its own form of weird.
No - Farkas would NOT be too fond as he and our protagonist-narrator run into one another.
Adelaide
[who was slightly confused that Lucien was narrating this story - some of the narrative sounded like Anna - or is this common knowledge/common universe?]
We don’t know exactly where Babette was turned into a vampire, only that it occurred during the oblivion crisis, and that it resulted in her essentially being tapped in the body of a ten year old. She uses it to her advantage though when it comes to contracts.
DeleteIt would certainly be an experience, now imagining running through trees, that’s something different altogether
Sure you did die a gruesome death but hey- you can teleport now?
Babette is perhaps my favorite NPC from the Falkreath sanctuary, perhaps along with Nazir (who may show up eventually) she’s a very intriguing character.
Ah yes, Arbjorn, he’s most likely just out hunting. The biggest piece of information regarding him, and his time in the companions and specifically the circle (and thus connection to Farkas) is he got kicked out. The companions are a group of warriors, it takes quite a lot to be outright banned from their ranks.
Per your confusion, that’s understandable. The best way to answer it is it’s common knowledge to some, not all. The circle keeps their lycanthropy secret from the rest of the companions and everyone else except for a select few (for example, Tilma the maid who practically raised the twins and had some hand in raising Aela, or Eorlund Greymane the blacksmith who makes the weapons and armor for the companions) Lucien being well…Lucien, and well connected through a variety of means just happens to know the secret. The fact that the circle all have metallic silver eyes due to their specific strain of lycanthropy additionally can give it away to those also well versed in the supernatural, such as our glowy undead assassin.