Well, I don't think I'm a very good writer, but here goes...

A World of Her Own

An Oblivion Fanfiction


Prologue

I knew why I was in there, but I didn’t know whether I’d ever get out…

She couldn’t truly tell how long she had been there. The days had melted into weeks, and the weeks into months. How long had it been? A month? Two? Five? A hundred? She could no longer tell. She may have been in there for years, to her knowledge. All she knew was that she had been in there for far too long by her own standards.

She was alone in that cell, except, perhaps, for the few remaining bones of the last prisoner who had been kept there. They lay in the corner of her cell, and she refused to go near them. She tried not to look at them while she lived there--they seemed to remind her hauntingly of what her future probably held. She tried not to think about that, either. She would sit on the chair in her cell, or at the table. She would walk around as much of her cell as she could(always avoiding that one corner). She would sleep on her cot and eat her meager meals and drink her putrid water. She would listen to what the guards said…or didn’t say. They never told her anything important--like how long she was to be in there or when they would kill her, if that’s what they planned to do. All the while, she struggled vainly to not think about her future, a future that seemed very bleak form her position.

She was young--only about twenty years old. She had pale skin and rather delicate features that contrasted slightly with her cold, clear eyes, which had grown somewhat dark during the time she had spent in the Imperial Prison. Her long black hair was tangled and hung lank and dirty around her shoulders. Her smooth, pale hands were scratched and raw from her constantly trying to remove the shackles from her wrists, or from clawing at the bars that stood at her window. She knew it was a futile effort, but she would have done anything to escape that foul, dirty prison.

The Dunmer across from her cell had picked her out as a Breton right away. He, too, had become a nuisance, in his own way. She had hated the silence in the beginning, and his voice had, in a way, brought her a certain measure of comfort at first. He reminded her that she was not alone, that she hadn’t died yet, and that there was another world out there, beyond her little cell. His insults were meaningless to her--she had already suffered enough of those from some of the crueler guards. However, she hadn’t been prepared for his icy words that one day.

“You’re going to die in here, Breton.” He had hissed at her, one evening(or had it been morning…? She could never tell anymore…). It was the first words he had said to her in some time--as if he had gotten bored with trying to get a rise out of her. She herself had expected that she would die in there--that is why she refused to look at the bones that lay in the corner, or did her best to not think about what was going to happen to her. She knew it, in the back of her mind. However, when he had voiced it aloud to her, it was as if something in her mind had snapped in place…or perhaps broken loose. The walls seemed smaller, like they were closing in on her. She seemed to have fallen into some sort of dark pit that wouldn’t allow her to escape. When he had uttered those words, they had suddenly and drastically become a reality, and it made her want to scream inside.

The Dunmer knew he had hit the mark when he had said that, and now repeated those words often. “You’re going to die in here, Breton. You’re going to die!” Some may have gotten used to it--learned to ignore him, or accept it. However, no matter how many times he hissed those words at her, she never became accustom to them. Each time, she felt the fear, and the madness, tear at her insides. Each time, she felt the walls draw closer, and the darkness grow thicker. Each time, she felt afraid.

As she lay there on her bed, her stomach aching with hunger, her mind flitted back to the events that had brought her there, to that place…that hell. She remembered them all too well…though, like the bones in the corner, she did her best not to think of those events, or acknowledge them. To her, they were linked too closely to her family…and how it fell into chaos.

Still, when she lay in bed, while drifting off to sleep, she would picture his face--a Imperialist, broad and strong, and handsome, like his son’s had been. Dark hair, and dark eyes. They had shared the same nose and mouth, the son and father had.

When she had fought off those wolves in the forest, she had been temporarily grateful that a passing guard had stopped while out on his travels to lend a hand. It hadn’t been too much trouble--just a couple of scrawny pack-mates, looking to make a meal out of her. However, when she had turned to him, to look at him, brushing her hair out of her eyes, she knew right away who it was. She recognized him instantly--and he, her. Though years, many years, had passed since that terrible day, he had probably never forgotten her, no matter how much she had changed.

Her. Fai L. Kumara. The girl who had murdered his son.

She had been so shocked to see him that she was taken aback, as was he. He looked so very much like that young man had that she knew him right away. It took only a moment for her to regain her senses and attempt to flee, but that had been a moment too late.

If another guard had not arrived, she suspected he would have killed her. She felt his steely blade strike her legs, his large, rough hands wrap around her throat. Everything, for a moment in time, seemed to stop--to fade away into darkness. For a moment, she felt and saw nothing at all, except the inky black.

That quickly disappeared as she was brought back to earth, gasping for air and grabbing her wounded legs. The other guardsman had pulled him off of her, and was shouting at him. She would have tried to flee then, but her leg was badly damaged from the Imperialist’s sword. She could do very little as they spoke to each other, looked at her, and decided what to do.

It didn’t take long until she was where she was now. Locked in a cell, in the very bowels of the Imperial City.

Strangely enough, she did not hate the man that had put her there, that had tried to kill her. No, quite the opposite--she could never have hated him. He and her, they shared something in common. They had both lost their families, or at least he had lost a member of his, and knew the pain that it caused. She felt close to that man, or as close as she could feel to anyone, as she herself was quite a solitary creature. It didn’t have to make sense to an outsider. She was not one who could be made sense of. She was her own person, her heart and mind a catacomb of intense thoughts and feelings, though she seemed not so on the outside. In her own way, she felt…connected to him, that man. She knew not his name, or where he was, or what he was like. She knew nothing about him at all…except for the fact that they were tied, bound, by similar pain.

Pain that had been brought on to her, and that she, in return, had caused him.

She never thought about the details anymore. She had lived a happy early childhood, with her parents and baby brother and the animals they had on their farm. She had been content at one point, as a sweet, gentle, and naïve child, nothing like the young woman she was now. It wasn’t until she was about seven that things changed. She lost first her father, and then her mother. She had loved her parents both very much. However, as much as she loved them, she had loved her little brother that much more. She made it her duty to watch over him, and protect him. Others might have laughed, but she had turned into more of a mother figure towards him. She worried about him, cared for him, wanted him to grow strong, and be happier than anyone else in the world. She wanted him to have the very best, and did as much as she could for him. And then…

…and then it all ended, before she could stop it.

What could have happened that would have changed her so much? That would have caused her to murder another human being? Life is what happened. Reality is what happened. Death is what happened.

The death of her little brother, the one person she would have given the world for. And that death ached inside of her, even now, as she sat alone in that dungeon, trying not to think about it. It ached like an old wound that never healed.

She had not killed the man for revenge. No, it was not he that had taken her beloved brother’s life. That crime lay not with him, but with another. Why, then, had she killed him? Perhaps it had been out of desperation, the desperation of a fourteen-year-old girl who wanted nothing more than to protect the only person she had left. And that desperation drover her to kill, before she even realized what she had been doing.

So there she sat, in that stinking prison cell, an outcast, labeled a murderer by others. And there she would die, like an animal in a cage. She knew it, as much as the Dunmer knew it. It was accepting it that was the hard part.

Her name was Fai. Fai L. Kumara. Had she known what awaited her when she was out of there, perhaps she would have foolishly chosen to stay in the prison instead.

For, unbeknownst to her, she was about to become a big part of history.

Wow, that was very interesting. I love the back story you are giving your character, certainly something I would never think of. You did use the "she though, she did" thing alot, but that doesnt bother me much personally. But overall its very good I think. A little more emotional than Im used to, and I like the change. Keep it up, Ill look forward to more.

Very nice to see a new writer start up. Psycology is always fun, and the Dunmer did that to her... heh heh heh...

...O...M...G... That was really good! My only problem was that you used to many "she did such-and-such". Other that that keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to more from this story. Jonjosa for you.

Thank you all very much!

And sorry about the "she did..." stuff--I'm so much more used to writing in first person I guess...still, I'll have the next part up soon. Sorry!!!

Nonsense...not a good writer, this is good stuff....please dont feel like you're not good, instead you should just think on your story, and let it flow.

That way you'll feel comfortable, and the rest of us will read it with joy as well.

Quite a good opening. The "relationship" between Fai and her "rescuer" is a nice twist. I believe you have a good approach to a successful Oblivion fanfic- focus. The game story is so wide open and diverse that it is easy to get lost.

Chapter One: Prison Break


Things had begun to take a very odd turn…and whether good or ill would come of it, I did not yet know…

Days passed as they usually did--colorless and dark, with little or no meaning to them. They seemed to pass both slowly and in an instant, blending in with the other days that had gone by. Fai Kumara seemed to be watching her life drift by, both slowly and quickly, unable to hold onto it as it flowed through her fingertips, like water in cupped hands. As the days went on, she felt more and more anger develop. At what, it was impossible to tell…though it was as if something was growing inside of her, desperate to burst out, like a large scaly monster. If Fai had thought about it more deeply, she would have suspected she were going mad. It was not unusual for people to, after a time, loose their sense in that place. She was more of a free-spirited person, and disliked being in one place for too long. To her, being caged as such was agonizing, and she slowly, in the back of her mind, began to wish for the death she knew would come.

However, one day that changed. One day, as she sat alone in her cell, her life took a very different route, a route she never would have thought or suspected it could.

It was the day Fai met Emperor Uriel Septim.

The guards unexpectedly paid a visit to her cell one day, ordering her up against the wall by the window. She heard some of them talking about how no prisoners should have been there--that the cell was supposed to be “off-limits”, and that a mix-up at the Watch had occurred…or something like that. Fai was hardly listening to what they were saying. Her attention was focused on the Emperor as he was led into her cell.

She had never thought much about the Emperor as a child--her family’s farm was in a secluded part of Cyrodiil where the influence of bigger cities didn’t reach them. They had heard of him, of course--someone simply called “The Emperor” who her parents would speak of from time to time. They never held any anger in their voices when they referred to him, but neither did they talk about him in a loving matter. He was simply the Emperor, someone who was important in the land, and who commanded the respect of the Imperial Guard. That was all. Her parents seemed more concerned with the potato harvests than they did with what the Emperor did or how it would affect the land. “We don’t know him, and we’ve never met or seen him,” Fai’s mother had once said, “but we trust and follow him, much like we do the Gods.”

That is how Fai then pictured the Emperor--something akin to a God. Or, at least, that was how she saw him when she was a child. When she grew older, she grew to hate the Gods and the fate that they had given her. If her family’s death was “all part of the God’s plan”, as she had once been told, then she wanted nothing to do with them, or their “fate”. She wanted to be in control of her own life--her own destiny. She had vowed that she would never be a puppet for the God’s show. And if she hated the Gods, then she must have hated the Emperor as well.

However, the Emperor Uriel Septim was…different than Fai had pictured him to be. He was old, very old, and looked tired and weary. He wore royal robes of white and red and purple, and a beautiful crimson amulet hung around his neck. However, for a moment, when he stepped into the light of her cell, she saw neither a God nor an Emperor standing before her. She saw a man, a very dejected-looking man, who in a way seemed slightly weak. She had no disrespect for him in any sense, but it was as though he carried a heavy burden on his heart, a burden so great that he would soon break from under it’s weight. His eyes…he looked so very sad. It almost made her feel sorry for him.

Suddenly, when the Emperor looked up, and his eyes caught hers, he stopped where he was as a look of recognition crossed over his features.

“You…” he said quietly, like a revelation. “I’ve seen you.”

Uriel stepped towards her, his Guards watching warily as the captain, Renault, pressed a stone on the wall of the cell, revealing a hidden passage behind the imprisoning rocks and bars. The Emperor’s attention, however, seemed to have been focused only on the skinny, dirty prisoner standing before him.

“Let me see your face,” he said, reaching out and lifting her chin with his hand. “You are the one from my dreams.”

Fai was confused, as any sane person would have been in such a situation. She herself had never seen or met the Emperor before in her life, and yet he claimed to have known her…from a dream, was it? Her, a convicted murderer?

He could see the confusion in her face, and perhaps a bit of fear. When he spoke to her, his voice was soft and gentle, though his words were filled with danger and mystery. He told her of assassins--his three sons were attacked and killed, and he was to be their next victim. His Blades were leading him out of the city along a secret route…one that happened to lead through her cell. He also spoke of the Gods--he seemed to see the workings of Fate mixed in with all that was happening, and he saw that she was somehow involved.

“You are a citizen of Tamriel, and you too shall serve her, in your own way.”

Fai’s shock was beginning to wear off, little by little. Under mention of the Gods, her eyes cooled and her expression clouded. She did not believe in Fate, or the Gods, and had no faith in them. She would not be a part of their “plan”, no matter what Uriel seemed to think.

“I go my own way,” she said to him coolly.

Uriel chuckled, probably sensing her resentment towards the Gods and their ways. “So do we all,” he said patiently, “but what path can be avoided whose end is fixed by the almighty Gods?”

In the time to come, Fai would remember those words, and brood on them deeply. But now, at that moment, she could only scoff at them.

And then, just as quickly as they had arrived, they left. The Blades led the Emperor away from the cell and down the dark, hidden path that had been discovered behind the wall. To her surprise, the Guards did not seem to care if she followed or not. Their minds were filled only with the thoughts of getting their Lord out of harm’s way, not bothering to worry if the prisoner stayed put in her cell or followed them.

So she followed. She knew not where the path would lead, or what would happen, but to her, anywhere was better than that prison. She could handle whatever came next, as long as it got her out of that cell.

Or so she thought.

Ah, great work. I really enjoyed reading on how the time spent in the imperial prison is taking its toll on Fai. Well have to see how she fares from here on. Great update, loved it!

Escaping the dungeons weren't going to be as easy as I thought...

Fai followed down the passage, stepping lightly over the fallen rocks and shattered stones. She stayed in the shadows as best she could, and tried to keep her distance from the Blades and the Emperor. She did not know if the Blades would try and stop her if she got too close, and preferred to keep out of reach of them and their swords. Still, part of her couldn’t help but think about the Emperor, and what he had told her. He was different than what she had imagined him to be in every aspect. He did not seem like what you would have pictured an Emperor to be--stuck-up, snobby, overbearing and oppressive in attitude. After all, who wouldn’t have been, when they were the ruler of a nation? However, Uriel Septim seemed…calm, peaceful, and gentle. There was a part of him that seemed to inspire respect, though not command it unwillingly. Fai was as wary and cautious of him as she was of his guards, yet she didn’t feel resentment towards him, not like she thought she would have.

As they continued, Fai suddenly heard shouts and cries of alarm. She pressed herself against the cold stone wall and watched as a battle broke out between Uriel’s Blades and a small group of mysterious assailants. They wore dark, aggressive-looking armor and held jagged weapons and shields. One of the attackers caught Captain Renault from behind and cut her down before she could even react. The remaining guards fought bravely and skillfully, and as quickly as the attack had started, it was over. The echoing quiet that filled the chamber in the battle’s aftermath seemed deafening and ominous.

As the Blades and the Emperor pressed on, Fai stepped over Renault’s body and examined the attackers. So these were the assassins that were attempting to wipe out the Septim bloodline. Surprisingly, their armor and weapons had vanished as soon as they had been killed. Now they were dressed in simple blood-red robes, hoods covering their faces. As she looked down at them, she wondered who in all the hells were they? Why would they try and kill the Emperor and his sons? What was their purpose? What were they planning?

Fai had heard of a guild called The Dark Brotherhood in her younger days--a mysterious group of assassins that seemed to revere death and murder. Rumors of them were whispered across the countryside from time to time, though none could confirm that the rumors were any more than rumors. Some seemed to doubt their existence, while others spoke of them with terror. Could these people, these assassins, be part of the Brotherhood? Was that who they were?

For some reason, Fai doubted it.

Fai turned to Captain Renault’s body. She didn’t feel any concern for the woman’s death--her attention was focused on the sword clutched in the captain’s dead hand. Fai knew how to use a sword, or how to fire an arrow, with some level of skill. Even before her brother had died, she had learned how to fight in order to take care of him. She picked up the sword and grasped it in her hand. The hilt was smooth and cold, and the steely blade shone even in the dim of the chamber. It felt good to have a weapon in her hand once again--she hadn’t had one since the guards had taken her possessions shortly after she was arrested. The weight of the sword in her hand felt reassuring and raised her confidence slightly.

Fai pressed on, but was surprised to see that at the end of the chamber was a door, one that must have led further into the tunnels…and it was locked fast. The Blades must have passed through it, and locked it behind them in order to stop her from following.

Fai stood there for a moment, and then gave a cry of frustration as she pulled vainly on the door. She had been given a chance at freedom, and though it had been a slim one at best, it had been a chance. She had escaped that cell for a moment…now to only have no where left to go. What would she do? She would not turn back. There was no way she could return to her imprisonment, not when she had so nearly been free of it.

She slammed her fist against the door, though to little effect. She pulled the door with all her might, but it wouldn’t budge. She tugged and kicked and did anything and everything that came to her mind that might have helped her get past the door, but it was no use. Sighing in anger and infuriation, Fai pressed her forehead against the wall for a moment and began to think of what her next move should be. However, it was then that she heard a noise--a high-pitched squeaking that seemed to be coming from her right, accompanied by a shuffling and scratching sound.

Fai would have investigated the source of the noise, but before she could move, it became apparent. The stone wall to her right suddenly collapsed, revealing several giant rats clamoring over the shattered rocks in a destructive frenzy. Fai stepped back in alarm and disgust as the rats charged at her, one of them lunging for her arm, it’s yellow teeth gnashing together hungrily. Luckily, Fai was able to cut the rat down, as well as its companions, with relative ease.

She looked at the collapsed wall. It seemed to lead to some kind of underground tunnel--a hidden pathway or series of passages, having been blocked off long ago. Where it led didn’t matter. It obviously would get her out of that chamber, and that was all Fai cared about. So, she entered.

The tunnels were dark and far from safe. Rats, Goblins, and other creatures had made the territory their home, and weren’t pleased with Fai’s presence. While she may have received a few cuts and scratches here and there, the beasts posed little threat otherwise and she tested herself against them willingly and as often as she could. Her skills hadn’t grown rusty, and it felt good to be able to fight again, to stretch her legs and let loose some pent-up stress. The tunnels wouldn’t have seemed too frightening at all with just the rats and the goblins.

However, there had also been something…else down there. It had come at her from around a corner, staggering drunkenly and moaning in a low voice. At first, Fai thought it may had been a man, perhaps one of the Emperor’s men, having been injured in another attack and was attempting to flee…but it was not. It couldn’t have been human--not anymore, at least. It looked as though it had been dead for some time, it’s skin rotting off of its bones while its lightless eyes stared at her unblinkingly. It moved towards her with its arms hanging limply at its sides, its mouth open to let a low cry pass through its decayed lips. Had Fai been thinking straight, she would have lifted her sword to attack it.

Problem was, she wasn‘t thinking straight.

When you encounter a man that should obviously have died long ago, the first thing your mind registers is the incredible smell of putrefied matter. The next thing is the horrid sight when it draws close enough for you to see its entrails falling out of its sides. You might wonder in a vague, disgusted panic what the hell it is, or was. Then, your finally realize that its far too close, and obviously going to attempt to attack. Even for Fai, who had been used to fighting monsters and animals, seeing a zombie for the first time had stunned her into a stupid state of vulnerable uselessness.

When she finally had gotten her mind back into gear, the creature had lunged at her. She stumbled backwards, cursing in terror as she felt Renault’s sword slip from her hand and clatter to the ground. The monster was on her in an instant, clawing at her skin and trying to bite her as she beat it back with her fists. Struggling to keep its face away with her one hand, Fai groped the ground blindly for her sword with the other. When she found it, she immediately swung it up at the zombie’s exposed neck.

Throwing it off of her, Fai clambered to her feet and ran as fast as she could in a semi-blind state of total horror. Even after she had put a good amount of distance between herself and the monster, it took a long time for her racing heart and queasy stomach to settle. She swore that, form now on, she would tread more carefully through the dark caves.


How far she had traveled and how long she had been down in those dark, dusty chambers was not known to her. Once again, time and space seemed to have run together like wet paint, much like it had done during her time in the cell. All she knew was she was tired, and beginning to wonder if she’d ever get out of that stinking hell.

Finally, after what seemed like ages of following dirt paths and grimy tunnels, she found herself once again on solid stone. The passages seemed to have taken her deeper into the dungeons that the Emperor and his men were traveling by. It wasn’t too long before she heard the sounds of battle and caught sight of them. She seemed to be on an elevated dungeon floor, and watched them from above as they fought in a lower chamber against more of the assassins.

Once again, the Blades were successful in defeating their attackers, but they seemed to have suffered since Fai had last saw them. They were covered in blood and sweat and dust, and had more than a few bad wounds on their bodies. The Emperor was more or less uninjured, though he appeared even wearier than before. Dirt and cobwebs stuck to his magnificent robes while sweat beaded his brow. Uriel Septim was getting too old for battle of any kind, that much was apparent.

Fai crouched low and crept a bit closer to the edge of the floor she stood on, watching them. The emperor sat down to rest for a moment while the other Blades looked around for any more assassins lurking about. When a Blade passed below her, she pressed herself to the side of the wall further to try and remain out of sight. Fai had a feeling they wouldn’t be very welcoming towards her.

“Have you seen the prisoner?” Uriel suddenly asked his nearest guard in his soft, weary voice.

“Do you think she followed us? How could she?” The guard asked.

Fai smiled slightly at the irony of his words. However, the emperor shook his head slowly, voicing his assurance of her having trailed them. Why he said this, and why he seemed to find her such an object of interest to him, Fai did not know. She somehow suspected he knew she was there, nearby, watching them even now and recalling his words from before. They still held little meaning to her, so she immediately brushed them off.

Fai didn’t realize how old and crumpled the stone floor beneath her was. Had she been paying attention, she wouldn’t have been situated so very close to the edge, watching as the guards tried to convince the emperor to keep moving. However, she wasn’t paying attention, and before she was aware, the floor crumpled beneath her.

With a cry of dismay, Fai fell to the lower chamber beneath her, where Uriel and the Blades were. They were just as startled as she was by her sudden unexpected entrance, which was rather painful on her part. Groaning slightly, she sat up, her back against a stone pillar, pain racing through her backside. However, her head snapped up when one of the guards drew their swords and advanced on her.

“Damn it, it’s that prisoner again! Kill her, she might be working with the assassins!”

Very good Shishi! Nice story with a good flow, catching and interesting...it´s on my list now!