Chapter 15: Fragments of the Past pt3
Alduin listened silently to Lorkhan's story, and only at the end did the Lost God notice the Great Dragon's shoulders shaking as he tightly clasped his mouth with his hand and tears glistened in his eyes.
"I understand, Alduin, even for a heart as black as yours, it's hard to accept the news of everything you knew and cherished disappearing" Lorkhan said, encouragingly patting the dragon on the shoulder.
"Bwa-ha-ha-ha!" Alduin couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"Alduin?"
"A-ha-ha... Father... he pounded his chest, claiming he could fulfill my role... A-ha-ha... Akatosh, smash! Akatosh, rule wisely! Hah, RTFM NOOBS!? If you weren't born as the avatar of the power of destruction with the task of destroying the world, you'll never achieve anything like it!" Alduin laughed, surprising Lorkhan.
"Lorkhan, you said you buried all the Gods and Daedric Princes?"
"Yes."
"Can you show me their graves?"
"Of course, they're in the backyard of the Hall of Valor. Follow me."
Lorkhan led Alduin through the Hall of Valor, which, despite its solemn decoration, looked gloomy. There was no crowd of drunken Nords singing and clashing weapons. When Lorkhan opened another door, Alduin's gaze fell on an impressive glade filled with monuments. Upon closer inspection, he saw that all the monuments represented the idols that mortals used to worship the Daedric Princes and the Nine Divines. Anger flared in Alduin's eyes as he caught sight of the statue of Akatosh that Lorkhan couldn't hide from him.
"I'll be in the Hall of Valor."
"Alright. I just need to...vent."
"Just without the shouts, okay?"
"No promises."
As Alduin walked along the statues towards his father's, he noticed a small mound of earth by each statue, where an artifact always lay that accompanied its owner in all the legends of Old Tamriel. There was Azura's statue, with her Star in her hands, and nearby was the statue of Clavicus Vile, with a coal-black sword stuck in the ground next to it.
Alduin did not examine them closely, walking confidently towards the statue that resembled both a human and a dragon. Coming to a stop in front of Akatosh's statue, with a stone tablet inscribed with dragon writings lying at its feet, Alduin looked directly into the statue's eyes.
"Long time no see, Father" he said, not waiting for a reply.
"You chose the best punishment for me, I must admit. Banish me behind the veil of Oblivion, destroy the world, ruin everything, manage to die in the process, and then reincarnate me into mortal insignificance. The plan was perfect. Take away my dream, escape explanations, and throw me into an unknown world powerless. If I were my old self, I would have left not a stone standing of what Nirn had turned into. But I am not the same as before, and Tamriel has turned into the dung of a scamp, so disgusting that it is even unpleasant to destroy it. People have become so pathetic that only a few can climb a mountain of average height! In the past, these mortal creatures' larvae, called children, used to do it! And modern magic is a joke. Mortals have to use runic circles to cast spells. Even the Nords would laugh at this. Tell me, Father, is this the world you dreamed of when you exiled me?"
There was no answer again.
"You are a god, you should have known that you cannot interfere with matters outside your sphere of influence. And look what you have done by exiling me and deciding that the Et'Ada can handle my job better than me. There is a saying among the current mortals: Make a fool pray to a god, and he will break his forehead and the floor. In conclusion, you messed up, Father. And yes, paradoxical as it may sound, my current father, the father of the body in which I was reincarnated, is much better than you, even despite his shift towards a specific genre of literature. And anyway..."
The stone listened silently to Alduin's confession, which lasted for several hours during which he promised to resurrect dragons and conquer the world, to exterminate all mortals, to throw the mortal world into chaos by sowing it with the new masks of dragon priests, or simply to throw all of Tamriel's artifacts into the mortal world and enjoy the spectacle. At the end of his speech, Alduin began to switch to Dragon language, occasionally breaking into Thu'um.
"Anyway, Akatosh, even that mortal idiot who is the biological brother of my body is a much better brother than the nothingness that responded to the name Paarthurnax. I seem to have stayed too long. Farewell, Father. I will not dirty my hands by correcting your mistake and destroying the world, but I will not let it exist peacefully" as Alduin spoke, his gaze fell on the stone tablet at Akatosh's feet, where he read an ancient verse that had poisoned his life after returning from his first exile.
Dragonborn, Dragonborn, by his honor is sworn,
To keep evil forever at bay!
And the fiercest foes rout when they hear triumph's shout,
Dragonborn, for your blessing we pray!
And the Scrolls have foretold, of black wings in the cold,
That when brothers wage war come unfurled!
Alduin, Bane of Kings, ancient shadow unbound,
With a hunger to swallow the world!
As Alduin smiled, he remembered the Dragonborn with fire in their eyes who had charged at him during their battle on the Throat of the World.
"Now, that was a warrior" he thought, "strong, brave, and undeterred by any challenge. I even mistook her for a man because of it, until I caught her by a waterfall."
He strained to recall her face and outfit, finally remembering the short blonde hair, green eyes, black armor, and golden bow that had taken the lives of many dragons.
She also carried a wild-looking sword made of black steel that shone blood-red.
He recalled the fierce determination in her eyes as she pulled the string of her bow and aimed it at him, after he had allowed her to strike the first blow while laughing at her.
It was then that he realized he could not even recall her name, which he had never bothered to learn before, but now he had no mortal worth comparing to her.
"It's probably because of her minus one size of pride on top and perfectly flat bottom" Alduin heard the voice of Lorkhan beside him.
"By the way, how did she survive? I had bitten her pretty badly during our last battle."
"Well, that's easy. Your...daddy defended her."
"Lorkhan, please, don't talk to me about the size of a woman's body. I have enough of that at home. Stop! Damn! We'll talk later, especially about the resurrection of that fool. It's time for me to go."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone