When Stars Turn Black

Dear Kousei,

I was afraid of penning down the contents of this letter for you to read. However, I understand that you would not appreciate being left out of something vital... even if the bottom line is this: I have delayed recruiting Sorine Jurard. I hope you'll forgive me for not going according to the plan. I know that our ordeal in Volkihar Castle had affected you (yes, it had also affected me), and thus you would do what you can to prevent the Vampire plague from spreading. But something else tugged at my soul after I left Fort Dawnguard. Please at least read my words before you try to behead me for being sidetracked.

I intended to reach Sorine Jurard as quickly as I could, but when I checked my inventory, I saw that my Frost Resist potions had run low. So had my ingredients to brew said potions. With the Vampires at our heels wielding their Frost-based spells, it would be unwise to go without Frost resistance. I was able to replenish my Thistle branches without any trouble, but I could not find enough Purple Mountain Flowers or Snowberries for the purpose -- at least on the more accessible parts of Skyrim. Rather than attempt to reach Sorine Jurard with a weakness the Vampires could exploit, I resolved to first visit Skyrim's northern reaches and obtain the Snowberries I needed.

And Snowberries weren't the only ones I found.

It was already well into the night when Lydia, Meeko, and I came across a scene of a tragedy. I don't know if you would have called perishing in an avalanche as tragic as losing your humanity to a Vampire. For one, I was already quite hardened by those facets of everyday life in Skyrim. Or so I thought. I mean, with war, Dragons, Vampires, and natural calamities that could swoop down anytime and anywhere without warning, death was as common as Snowberries in Winterhold and Windhelm.

Was he wearing this for a particular someone, I wondered.

Lydia and I attempted to revive the refugees, but it didn't take much to see that they were already beyond help. And while I was examining one of the dead men, I saw that he was wearing an Amulet of Mara. If you are not familiar with their purpose (aside from fortifying Restoration, that is), let me explain. I found out from the priest of Mara in Riften that inhabitants of Skyrim would declare their eligibility for marriage by wearing the Amulet of Mara. The priest had also mentioned that such seemingly superficial show is in fact an attempt to find happiness where darkness seems to shroud everything else.

Uh-oh, did Sanguine tell you about me?

You can laugh at me for what I did next. Instead of looting the dead refugees' belongings as I usually do, I had my Housecarl help me dig a decent grave for them. We then stood vigil over them for the rest of the night. I do not know what drove me to do it. I mean, they were only refugees, even if one of them did have an Amulet of Mara with him. But I knew we had to move on. Even then, I seemed to have temporarily lost my bearings and simply wandered where my feet wanted me to go. That was when I discovered the Shrine of Azura, and the lone priestess who maintained it, Aranea Ienith.

Before "what" happens? Can't Azura make it a little bit clearer?

In the cryptic manner seers usually have, Aranea did not waste time in telling me that it was fate, not curiosity, that led me to the Shrine. Furthermore, she claimed that she had seen a vision of me ascending the steps before I was born... because Azura had chosen me as her Champion. You know I'm not one to simply eat up such flattering statements, especially considering that Azura is of the likes of Sanguine, who you can say had also dubbed me as his "Champion" in a different sense. Nonetheless, I found myself unable to refuse when Aranea (speaking for Azura) abruptly tasked me to go to a fort "threatened by water, but not yet touched by it" and seek out an Elven mage who could turn the brightest star black. Thankfully, I did not have to decipher the first part of the riddle. The priestess helpfully told me that it most likely pointed to a location in Winterhold. Good, I was on my way there.

On a side note, I did stay to chat with Aranea for a little bit even after she gave me the mission. When I asked her why she was all alone in serving Azura, she said that her fellows had abandoned her because they feared to face the visions of the Deadric Prince (Princess, you mean?). Then she interspersed another prophecy in her words, about tragedy, war, and death, before "it" happens. But time was running short, so I just put the prophecy at the back of my mind and left for Winterhold.

He certainly looks shady.

As for the mage himself, asking around in Winterhold led me to The Frozen Hearth and face-to-face with Nelacar. He wasn't too keen to give up his secrets so easily, and my patience was running shorter than usual. However, some coin was enough to make him talk, and the results were pretty interesting, if not downright disturbing. Aranea Ienith didn't exactly tell me about what to expect from the mage except that he was an Enchanter. I thought that Nelacar was a follower of Azura, or that he at least knew Aranea Ienith, but apparently, I had my assumptions wrong on both counts.

Now I see what Azura has to do with this.

Turns out Nelacar was once the protege of a Sorcerer named Malyn Varen, who specialized in the research of Soul Gems. That would have been fine, if not for the fact that his methods were... questionable. You see, a desperate man dying of illness and a man obsessed with immortality are deadly when fused into the same person, and Malyn Varen was precisely just that. He began to focus his experiments on the Daedric artifact Azura's Star, which functions as an unbreakable Soul Gem. Like normal Soul Gems, it does not accept souls of sentient beings, and Malyn Varen sought to twist its properties so it could accept his soul and thus ensure his immortality. But Azura, like all Daedric Princes, was not to be easily trifled with, and she cursed him with increasing madness the more he furthered on his efforts.

I am now on my way to Ilinalta's Deep, a location mentioned by Nelacar. He said that Malyn Varen retreated there to continue his nefarious research, and he most likely took Azura's Star with him. Nelacar warned me not to take the Star back to Azura, claiming that she was evil and the cause of Malyn's madness. I said nothing, but secretly I was thinking that Malyn Varen was the cause of his own madness, if he wasn't already mad to begin with. Besides, Nelacar wasn't as clean as he thought himself to be, and the thought of giving the Star (should I be able to retrieve it) to him fills me with foreboding. You realize that I cannot just let Malyn Varen carry on with what he is doing, Kousei. Tampering with the laws of nature to achieve immortality makes him as bad as the Vampires. I hate to think of what will happen if he chose to ally himself with Lord Harkon. If I succeed in taking Malyn Varen down, at least that will be one less thing for us to worry about. Please stay safe, Kousei. My thoughts go to you and your well-being, as always.

Yours truly,
Kiya