I get rudely woken from my sleep in the middle of the night by the familiar voice of a guy who pointlessly tried to hide his name. It sounds like he’s done meditating and wants me to go save someone somewhere. I really would have preferred to get more sleep. A soft lullaby was still trying to lull me back to sleep. (I think my friends assumed I bought or stole a music box or something.) By the time I rouse myself to consciousness, the projection is gone.

“Did anyone catch that message?” I ask, but only Merry is present in Snugpod at the moment and sunlight filters in through the windows.

“The former human warlord turned would-be Prophet wants you to meet him in Vastarie’s tower,” Merry helpfully looks up from his reading long enough to explain. “He says he’s located the Redguard swordsman and wants you to go to Coldharbour to rescue him.”

My blood runs cold and I look at the floor and take a deep breath. “Where are the others?”

“Off in town,” Merry says with a wave of a hand. “Probably extolling our exploits to the rest of the Briars. We have had some hunts that these Bosmer find very impressive.” He pauses. “That Altmer would also find impressive while pretending to be impassive and aloof.”

I chuckle. “I guess I’ll let them know where I’m going.”

Merry puts a bookmark in his book, sets it aside and stands up. “I will go.”

“To Coldharbour?” I ask.

“It is a terrifying prospect, but it is not right that you should have to face it yourself,” Merry says.

“I’m sure Abnur and Lyris are eager to go,” I say.

“Still,” Merry says. “We were discussing it while you slept.”

“Thank you,” I say quietly. “Let’s go, then.”

My companions aren’t hard to locate in the small village, now that I’m used to said small village and less likely to completely miss things like I did when I first got here. That they all agree to go with me to Coldharbour warms my heart and soothes my soul.

“We’re going to Coldharbour now?” Eran asks. “Okay then! I wasn’t expecting it to be so soon but you know what? Fine, not backing out now.”

“There is music playing still,” Merry mumbles. “Neri, why is there still music playing? Did you hide a music box in your trousers?”

“I’ll tell you on the way,” I say brightly.

We head for the nearby wayshrine and explain what happened. Although they’re not the biggest fans of Sheogorath (he probably has a giant Dwemer set somewhere just for pun) they are incredibly not surprised at it and Ilara can’t stop giggling about it even if Merry is groaning in exasperation. Once we reach the wayshrine, I teleport us to the one near Vastarie’s tower and head inside, although I can hear Abnur and Lyris’ bickering from the front door.

We debrief inside and the mages explain what they’ve learned. The location of the Halls of Torment where he’s being held has been pinpointed and they want to send me there. I still haven’t entirely gotten over being hesitant about going back into Coldharbour, but if I can save one more soul, it’s still worth it. At least I don’t have to go there alone.

“Both of you, stop behaving like children,” Vastarie scolds Lyris and Abnur, who are still bickering and look about ready to devolve into fisticuffs again. “If you cannot approach this like adults in order to save your companion, then we will go without you.”

I rub my forehead. “Okay, logically, Sai may not trust us if there’s no one there he recognizes. However, he may think it’s a hallucination if it’s someone he likes. Abnur?”

“Your logic is impeccable, Nerevar,” Abnur says.

Lyris grunts, then says, “Where is that music coming from?”

“What music?” I say innocently.

Poor Lyris. I just can’t help but mess with people sometimes. I dismiss the idea that any random impulses are due to Sheogorath’s influence. I was already mad before I encountered him.

Varen opens a portal and I enter, followed by Vastarie, Abnur, and my own companions. Stepping through the portal to Coldharbour is like leaping naked into ice water. (Don’t ask me about the dumb things I got up to when fighting the Nords.) If I’m not careful, just being here will drain me of every shred of hope and leaving me with nothing but bloodlust and inappropriate humor.

A voice repeatedly echoes through the halls demanding to know the location of the Amulet of Kings. Was it really necessary for the voice to be so loud throughout the entire hall? Manny sure loves the sound of his own voice. Fortunately, ominous music drowns it out a little bit with deep, thrumming bass and a haunting melody.

“I did not realize Mannimarco was interested in chamber music,” Abnur says, looking at me.

“Why are you looking at me?” I wonder.

“Because if something weird is going on, you either know or you caused it,” Merry points out.

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“Okay, yeah, true,” I say. “But if I keep telling people, they’ll think I’m a worshipper of Sheogorath.”

“You mean you’re not?” Merry asks.

“You do keep going to the Shivering Isles for fun,” Eran reminds me.

“I’m helping out the Mages Guild,” I say. “Also for fun.”

Abnur sighs. “Fortunately, stealth was not a primary consideration for this mission.”

“Was that sarcasm?” I ask.

“I would not be an effective politician if I were incapable of making cutting jabs veiled in insincere compliments and assurances. Nerevar, are you able to make this music cease for the interim?”

I try to will the music to be quiet. It only shifts its tone to cheerful and bouncy.

“That was not an improvement,” Abnur says.

“I’m trying, I’m trying. I haven’t had much chance to experiment with it since I got it.”

After a few minutes of trying, while we’re walking and occasionally killing Daedra, I finally manage to turn it off. Why did I ask for this, anyway? I mean, I’m sure it will be completely awesome once I’m used to it and can fully control it, but what possessed me to even think this was a good idea?

We come upon a larger room and we think we’ve found Sai. Another Abnur Tharn, or at least a Daedra there imitating him, is in the room taunting him about how easy it is to use a sword. Good, something to hit that might actually put up a fight. My friends handle the extras while I go straight to engage ‘Abnur’. It’s disappointing, though. For all that the Daedra proclaims to be a superior swordsman to Sai, he’s not a superior fighter to the crazy Chimer who wants nothing more than to hit things right now.

“Give me a better fight than that!” I yell at the air.

“Neri, you’re bleeding,” Merry points out helpfully.

I was paying too much attention to hitting to remember to dodge, apparently. Gelur hits me with some healing magic. I realize my friends are here, and relax a little, and thank them. Everything is okay if my friends are here.

“You alright, Neri?” Gelur asks. “Best I can do is patch up your flesh and blood. Can’t patch up what’s inside your head.”

“Yeah,” I say, taking a deep breath and looking around the room. Several bookcases stand around the room, and I go over to the closest one to skim the titles.

“Are you seriously stopping to read books here?” Abnur asks.

“No, no,” I say. “I have enough room in my pack for all of them.” I shove all the books off the shelf into my pack. “Let’s go.”

In the next area, there’s another Daedra imitating Lyris trying to seduce Sai. What’s worse, she’s protected by some sort of shield and we have to go hit some other stuff before we can hit her.

“Should we just let him kill everything and just keep him healed and be moral support?” Eran asks quietly.

“He does seem to be in a bit of a state,” Merry replies.

“I’m on it,” Gelur says. “I’ll say one thing, he’s been good practice. I’d thought I was good at restoration magic before I had to constantly heal a guy with no sense of self-preservation.”

Battle passes in a blur of pain and blood and dying Daedra. Or really, temporarily inconveniencing Daedra since they’re immortal. Molag Bal could have easily made these attempts at rescuing people impossible. I know why he doesn’t. He’s just testing us. Or testing me. He doesn’t give two fucks about Mannimarco’s schemes. The weight of Coldharbour sits heavily on my shoulders and I can’t wait to be out of here, before…

Ilara is playing a lute. I hadn’t noticed the music had come back, but it immediately shifts to accompany her tune perfectly. An uplifting song that causes the dark thoughts plaguing my mind and soul to shatter and fall away.

“Are we quite done here, or do we require lyrics for this?” Abnur comments dryly. “Divines help me if you fools turn this excursion into a musical.”

“Let’s keep moving,” I say. “Molag Bal will give up Sai once he thinks we’ve earned it.”

“That is not a reassuring observation,” Abnur says. “But you may be right.”

Finally, we come upon where Sai is actually being held and defeat a Daedra who calls herself the Duchess of Agony or the Lady of Torment or something ridiculous like that because everything in Coldharbour has to have ridiculous names like that.

“Are you real?” Sai asks once he’s been untied. “Who are you people? I only recognize Tharn. Is this another vision sent to torment me?”

“I am not being overly impolite toward you,” Abnur says flatly. “Either I am real, or they are desperate for a new angle.”

“And you’ve brought these strangers to free me?” Sai asks. “I feared to think that honor was a relic of the past.”

“Well, I’m a relic of the past,” I say. “The name’s Nerevar. I was trapped in Coldharbour for a few thousand years, up until your friends got me out. Nice to meet you.”

Of everything I know about this man, I don’t think he’s the sort that I can’t trust with my name. I mean, fuck, I did just tell Prince Naemon and he jumped into a bizarre Ayleid contraption and rapidly gained a lot of weight.

“I’d love to introduce us all and get you up to speed, but can we get out of here first?” Eran asks. “This place gives me the creeps.”

“Agreed!” Sai agrees agreeably.

Vastarie (who has been fairly quiet, or at least I had been too preoccupied with Daedra slaughter and mental crisis) opens a portal back to her tower, and we quickly file out before anything else annoying can show up.

Gelur makes sure everyone is healed up, especially the Redguard we’d gone to hell to rescue. Lyris is ecstatic to see him, if still a little miffed that she wasn’t allowed to go along if she couldn’t hold her temper long enough to complete a mission without decking Abnur again. How did this group ever function as an adventuring party, anyway? Aside from Manny’s sudden but inevitable betrayal, it seems like nobody could get along with Abnur aside from Varen. I don’t know Sai well enough to judge, but from what I’ve seen of Lyris, she’s… young and Nordy, which turns out to be a problem with setting aside her own feelings for the sake of a mission. She’ll be a fine warrior someday, but with the brief lifespans of humans, her body might start failing her from age before she gets the emotional maturity.

I’m a fine one to speak of emotional maturity. I’m plenty mature, just not especially… stable these days. And I don’t know what to do about it.

“Thank you, all of you,” Sai says. “I am well, healer, at least in body. Just tired, and your spells won’t fix that. No need to waste any further magicka on me.” He then begins to tell us where he hid the Amulet of Kings, but I hold up a hand to stop him.

“No. Not yet. Don’t tell us where the Amulet of Kings is. Not until you can be absolutely certain that we’re not just another of Molag Bal’s tricks.”

“I am quite certain that such a trick would not say not to tell you where it is,” Sai says. “Nor would the God of Brutality have devised an illusion of such an unusual band to rescue me. But I will take your advice and rest, then.”

“How about lunch?” I say.

“It’s prolly closer to dinner,” Gelur says.

“I could do with a solid meal,” Sai says.

We make our introductions around food and unwind. Coldharbour always needs a good bit of unwinding from. Sai is eager to hear of our exploits, so we spend the remainder of the evening telling him everything, or at least everything that can be summarized in an evening. At this point, I’m honestly looking forward to poking around Greenshade and dealing with racist bandits again. At least racist bandits stay dead when you kill them. I’d hate to have to kill Estre over and over like I would with Daedra. Once was enough for her.