252 Rise in the East 2 : The Shadow Realm

A/n: The Extra that was promised!

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Nefertiti was not that pleased being told around but she found this thing interesting, to say the least. Jon entrusted the Haven Cube to her and told her what to do.

She was sitting comfortably on Jon's shoulder during the trip on these strange new ships which her human was super excited about. She kept yawning until Jon told her to start taking action.

To sneak her to the island, Jon conjured a number of Flame Atronach Hawks then put her on one of them. Reluctantly, she flew with the other Atronachs all the way up and started going in circles around the ship as an announcement for the arrival of the Dare Dragon Fleet. While people were focusing on the [Iron Maiden], Jon directed the Flame Atronach Hawk Nefertiti was to the east as fast as he could.

Once Nefertiti saw the island she is supposed to land on, she simply jumped off the Flame Atronach Hawk to the sea.

It was a great height that even the nine lives of a cat would find it challenging to overcome but to Nefertiti, it was nothing to even worry about. As soon as she found a good landed spot, she made the Shadow Magic expand out of her to form a parachute Jon taught her to made. Even though she doesn't like to move around a lot, she rather enjoys this parachute idea very much.

Where she landed was not far from the island but it was all as planned. No cat can be seen sneaking on the water surface from the island no matter what… it was simply bizarre to think of yet it was happening right now. Nefertiti expanded her shadow on the water and ran on it as if it was a solid surface.

During the run, Nefertiti noticed some fishes swimming under the water surface and her pace slowed down a bit, she looked down and raised her paw but another idea came to her mind and she released more Shadow Magic and directed it at a fish. The Shadow swallowed the fish in one go and Nefertiti seemed satisfied with the result.

"Yummy!" She hummed to herself before aiming at another fish but suddenly…

*Boom*

A Fireball landed on the island and woke Nefertiti up from her greed.

"Yes, Hooman! Sowwy!"

And she ran once again towards the island.

As she arrived at a small icy cave under the island, Nefertiti started to notice several life force signals not too far away from here and she realized that she arrived.

{Hooman, you meanie! I am in.}

{Oh! Girl, is everything okay?} Jon replied at the Telepathic call from Nefertiti, lately, Jon was studying Telepathy and could connect himself to Nefertiti easily.

{I arrived, some humans are looking around the cave and no shiny things here.}

{Well, to find shiny things, you need to head deeper in the island. Make sure that you stay hidden and take anything of value.}

{Like fish?}

{... Of human value.}

{Mhm! Can I take fish?}

{Sigh! Just don't eat too much or you will get lazy.}

{Okay. I am going.}

{Best of luck, your meowjesty.}

Jon and Nefertiti hanged up and went to their own own things. As Jon was commanding the Ships to take down the Argonian Pirates, Nefertiti was the main player who would go and investigate why the other forces are targeting Japhet's Folly as well as horde all their treasures in the collar she was wearing which is actually the Haven Cube.

As she was told, she needed to avoid attention and that can only be done by sneaking like any normal cat or walking in the shadow like how she is used to. As a lazy cat, Nefertiti decided to go into the shadow.

She just looked at her own shadow and then sank into it. She doesn't even know how she can do that, it became part of her very nature as she started to become more intelligent after all she has been with Jon.

As she opened her eye once again, she found herself in a completely different place where up was down and down was up. It was all inverted, she could tell that it was like walking normally but there was that feeling that up was down no matter what she thinks about it.

The space looked exactly like outside the shadow, only the colors were grey and white, the shadows of the outside were the best way to walk in and the areas of light were harmful places she must avoid. As long as she is in this Shadow Realm, she needs to follow its rules; walk in shadow, don't walk in the light. Jon explained this phenomenon as Nefertiti logging into a different version of reality that maybe a Daedric Realm heavily influenced by the real world, the shadow is the energy of the realm is stable and the light is where the energy is being consumed by the real world. Thinking of it that way would mean that the two world exists in one another and in a state of exchanging energies through Lights and Shadows. Nefertiti, of course, didn't care what does that mean.

She walked in the shadow realm that mirrored the cave she was in and noticed some shades moving up ahead, these were some Mudcrabs that nested under the island. The living things are reflected in the Shadow World as walking auras. They were not vulnerable at all and no entity in the Shadow World can touch them whatsoever but they were completely unaware of what is happening to their reflections in the Shadow World.

As an entity of both worlds, Nefertiti can possess one of those auras and cling into it, this wouldn't cause any effect rather than protect her from all the hostile entities that may appear in the Shadow World, one of the reasons why Nefertiti liked to stay in Jon's shadow especially when he starts Meditating.

Anyway, these auras in front of her were Mudcrabs, she didn't really about any of them and kept passing them through the large cave network under the island. It was then when she found an access point to the fort.

There were a few guards who seemed to be wary of anyone entering through the secret escape route they were securing but Nefertiti found no problem passing through them, she could even attack them but she didn't like troublesome stuff. As she passed through a stairway, she found herself in a large force.

Many people were coming and going in a hurry transporting arrows and spears to outside the fort.

"Hmmm! Hooman said I should look for a quiet and guarded place."

Nefertiti started looking around the fort again and again with a little to no result. She focused her search in the twin towers of the fort but she still found nothing. As she was about to feel frustrated, some movement attracted her attention. She exited the fort quickly through an arrow slit and observed what was going on east of the island.

There seemed to be a large stony cliff but the residents of the island made some wooden stairs to access a small platform hidden behind the island, there were two longboats packed with children and women. A man who seemed to be a bigshot was saying farewell to a woman and a child while instructing them to escape to the mainland right away and hide in Windhelm. Nefertiti kept staring at the children on the boat and her eyes reflected a hint of uneasiness, she went out of the shadow and then meowed softly.

Beside her, a big shadow formed and an unstable figure made of shadow appeared. This thing was a Shadow Atronach.

"Watch over them." Nefertiti said while her gaze was fixed on the children, the Shadow Atronach soon reshaped itself into a bird and flew in the sky through the mists.

Shadow Atronach were the natives of the Shadow Realm Nefertiti can access, more to that, she can tame them pretty easily.

Nefertiti then kept watching the men as they destroyed the wooden platform to erase the traces of their families they just sent outside the island. She then kept following them until she found what she was looking for. It seemed that the pirates hid their treasures and food supplies in some cave outside the fort that was hidden carefully. From then onwards, there was no point to be polite anymore, she returned to the Shadow Realm and passed all the traps and defenses on the cave until she found the supply stockpile.

{Hooman, found food.}

{... seriously?}

{Enemy's Food.}

{Oh, you mean their supplies… good, good. I want you to store most of them in the Cold Space inside the Cube, take the meat and all the fish you want… but don't eat it now.}

{Mhm! Silly Hooman, I know.}

{Did you find the treasure vault?}

{Yes, after the food.}

{Hurry up, I am about to fight to finish on your own and come right away.}

Jon hanged up again and Nefertiti got to work, she started stealing all the important supplies like fish and meat first, she was to leave some vegetables and meat for the pirate as Jon said, his plan was to not put the pirates in a starving state where they all go to make a last stand but to limit their choices and stimulate their criminal personalities to stab each other in the back.

After she was done, she headed deeper into the vault and started looking for the shiny stuff Jon wanted so bad. It was soon when she found a large door that blocked her way with two guards on it. She bypassed them by going through the shadow realm as the door wasn't magically enchanted and there was no barrier in the room behind it.

Just as she entered she looked left and right and understood that this is what she is after. Chests of gold and silver coins like the one Jon keeps in his vault, there was also some books and weapons that looked rather expensive. According to Jon, she is to look at the items and make sure of their worth first. She was smart and knew the things she should take so she started with all the shelves the contained stuff with magical energy, as a mage sentry cat, this was a very easy task. Next, she started to look for the valuable gems that Alina and Jullanar like, green emeralds, shiny diamonds and blue sapphires were what Alina and Jullanar taught her to pick. After all that careful looting she started to take the gold coins, she was supposed to take two-thirds of the coins located in the vault to not raise suspicions and so she did.

She was satisfied with what she gathered and went into the Shadow Realm and was about to leave, but a soon as she entered the shadow, she discovered a shadow being taking residence in a part of the, this being was very unstable and seemed a bit of a headache to deal with, Nefertiti didn't think it would harm her but these shadowy entities do not just stick somewhere unless there is something.

She went out of the shadow and looked at the place where the shadow haunts from the other side. There was a single not very interesting chest she ignored at first but she was wary of now. She transformed in her Human Form then made a large axe made of Shadow Magic then broke the lock on the chest.

In there, there was a strange object that resembled a soccer ball sized egg and it looked quite special. She could tell there was Magicka around the egg but it was sealed by a layer of sealing chains to protect it. Other than that, there was a trace of Lifeforce in the egg.

"A baby?"

Nefertiti came to the conclusion that there was a baby bird trapped in the egg by magic and the shadow being was trying to take energy from it but was prevented by the seal.

Nefertiti felt angry at that being that was trying to harm a defenseless baby, she looked into her own shadow and sank in it to the shadow realm once again.

As soon as she fixed her eyes on the shadow entity, she called for a some Shadow Atronachs to appear around her. They took the shapes of different animals and birds as they gathered around Nefertiti.

Nefertiti pointed at the shadow entity.

"Get that bastard for me."