Simon took Serana into the Pure Land. He flew rapidly through the sky, leaving the flowing clouds unable to keep up. After a moment, a conical air mass exploded behind him as he broke the sound barrier, and the whistling wind in his ears fell silent.
In that very instant, as he broke the sound barrier, the immense pressure acting on his flight field made his spirit feel heavy, causing a brief blackout. In that empty, drowsy darkness, he saw a clear, bright light where a brilliant golden dragon was roaring incessantly—it was Jonas.
Simon suddenly understood that he had missed a crucial fragment of time.
He had to go back; at the very least, he couldn't let time continue to slip away.
Time is the domain of the Dragon God. The relationship between the two is like the Daedra Princes and their realms of Oblivion: Time is the essence, and the Dragon God is the divine mantle.
Aka's level is in the second layer, the Et'Ada region, indras net, while Simon can currently only reach the third layer, the Will region.
Once time is missed, it's missed. If he went to Saarthal now, Simon would only find it empty; let alone Jonas, he wouldn't even be able to obtain the eye of magnus. He needed to perform a Dragon Break to return to that time period.
He understood this, yet he was unwilling to accept it. He went to Saarthal, and indeed, everything was gone.
This place was originally a high mountain covered in thick ice, but now it had become a secluded valley stream. The vast Saarthal crypt had vanished into thin air, with nothing remaining.
Simon went to the College of Winterhold. Only a few students and the librarian remained. When he asked where the others had gone, they said those people had never existed.
There was no A-Ran, no Jonas, no Tolfdir, and so on.
Everyone in Winterhold said they had never seen Jonas, that boy. Even Dilo said he had never seen him.
Simon went to find Jonas's mother. The woman was on duty in the Blue Palace. She said she had never given birth to a son, only a daughter who had died young.
Great.
All of them were trapped in some fragment of the past!
Simon wandered aimlessly through the streets of Solitude. Suddenly, he saw a massive windmill.
Serana had once said she wanted to see the windmills of Solitude.
So Simon pulled her out of the Pure Land. She was very happy and praised it greatly.
"This is exactly what I've always wanted to see, although... it's a bit smaller than I imagined. Oh, what's wrong?"
Simon showed no extra emotion. "Nothing's wrong."
"You're not happy," Serana sighed. "The blood on your face hasn't even been wiped clean. How could a person as mindful of etiquette as you forget this? You have something on your mind."
The woman took out a soft silk handkerchief—this was matter modified by Tonal Architecture, originally linen—dampened it with a bit of vodka, and wiped Simon's face. "Blood is easier to clean with alcohol," she said softly, breathing out. Her breath was neither foul nor fragrant, but it felt much more intimate than the brooding floral scent of a Vampire from before. Because she was now a mortal, she would not use the venom in her fangs to daze a victim.
The alcohol evaporated quickly. With every word Serana spoke and every breath she took, the slight breeze brushed against Simon's cheek, causing the alcohol to evaporate rapidly and carry away his heat.
"Serana, do you know Jonas?"
"Of course, your adopted son. What happened to him?"
Simon let out a long breath. "You remember him. He's trapped in the past."
"Then you should find a way to save him."
"Yes, yes, I'm working on it."
As they were talking, a filthy old Elf approached. "Please, help us! The Master's fire of life is dimming. Without Him, our lives are black and white, utterly meaningless!"
Serana looked back and was instantly stunned. "You are... a Wood Elf? No, the eyes are Dark Elf, and this skin looks like a High Elf? Wait, I'm confused. Who exactly are you?"
This was a very rare old Elf. As a long-lived race, people rarely saw elderly Elves. The one appearing before Simon and Serana was clearly a beggar. Having been cast out, he seemed to have no hope left for living. His gaze was sorrowful, and his face twitched unnaturally. "I am Dervenin. Please, help poor Dervenin! The Master has been gone for too long!"
Simon asked, "Who is your Master?"
"Him? You cannot know. I cannot say. Oh!" Dervenin fell into a deep delirium. In an instant, his cheek twitched even more violently, saliva trickled from the corner of his mouth, and the felt hat on his head shook as if something were hidden inside. That deformed appearance made Serana instinctively take a step back.
Simon reassured him, "Take it slow. Tell me, where can I find Him?"
"Last time..." the old Elf trembled, "I saw Him meeting guests in the Blue Palace. Not the Jarl! How could a commoner like the Jarl be worthy of seeing the Great Master? It was in the Pelagius Wing. Hey, you take this." Dervenin pulled an old, scorched-yellow hip bone from a pocket at his waist. "Only with this can you see the Master. Hurry, please! The Master's empire is falling into chaos!" The man finished his incoherent speech and suddenly bolted, fleeing into the distance.
Serana said, "Don't mind that madman!"
Simon replied, "No, on the contrary, I exactly need to meet this madman's mad Master."
"You know who the Master he spoke of is?"
"Of course. It's the famous Mad God, Sheogorath!"
Sheogorath, one of the most powerful among all Daedric Princes, perhaps even the strongest, has toyed with many Daedric Princes, including Hircine and Malacath. Ancient Elven chronicles believe his birth was closely related to Lorkhan being stripped of his divinity. It is said that when Lorkhan's heart was pinned beneath Red Mountain and his body became the twin moons, his spirit burst forth with sparks of imagination containing the thoughts of creation upon the removal of his heart—this was the mad Sheogorath.
This god has long been trapped in a cycle of order and madness. His other divine mantle is Jyggalag, symbolizing unchanging, eternal order (manifested by transforming everything into homogeneous solid grey crystals). At the end of every era, Jyggalag leads the Legions of Order in the Greymarch to freeze everything. After the march ends and he occupies his realm of Oblivion, the Shivering Isles, he turns back into madness, spreading chaos once more in the form of Sheogorath, and so the cycle continues.
The one who broke this cycle for Him was the protagonist of the elder scrolls IV, the Champion of Cyrodiil and close friend of the last emperor, Martin Septim. He helped Sheogorath defeat Jyggalag and became the new Mad God.
"I want to know the whereabouts of something, and Sheogorath might have relevant clues," Simon said.
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