Chapter 608: The Ritual

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"Quite the mess we've made." Jullanar smiled faintly as she stood near Alina, "I see you prepared more than just Thane Bryling."

"Sometimes I have to apply more pressure to get what I want. They were after my Dragonborn from the start but they never expected I would hand him out pretty easily." Alina replied while standing proud of herself.

"So we're going down that plan, eh? You'll surely bring the big guns." Jull asked with a cheesy face rubbing her hands together.

"If you can't let an annoying person see reason, overwhelm them with what keeps them in place." Alina said, "The Empire is an old bear, dying but still a bear. It knows its way around its turf and has all the weapons it needs to survive. To play with the Empire in its current state, find what they can't do and make them admit they are unable to compete in that area."

"But they'll try." Vittoria interrupted Alina at this moment.

"They can try. They may succeed even. They will accomplish nothing anyway." Alina replied without turning to Vittoria.

In this scene, the three women were standing in a corner at the Temple of the Divines watching a ritual being conducted by the High Priest on the Lord's Mail in order to purify it from the Curse.

Seeing the Priests chant to the Eight, Alina smirked with a mocking smile in disdain of those who abandoned the names of their forefathers and turned to the Imperial Cult for worship. It is a sin to forget the names of Old to those Imperial Divines.

While the Gods are one and the same in every land no matter what appearances they take or names they assume, the worship in this world is ancestral worship. If not the names passed on by the forefathers, one is calling a name that is distant and foreign. Even the Elves know that and call their Ancestors the Aedra in respect of the Old Ways.

"Hey, Alina… when will Jon come and take me?" Vittoria interrupted Alina's chain of thoughts and switched the subject.

Alina turned to her with unamused eyes and Jullanar followed forth.

"Why would he come for you, bitch?" Jullanar asked but Alina muffled her mouth with her hands yet Jullanar flipped two birds in Vittoria's face.

"You two know what I am going through, right?" Vittoria lashed out in a low tone, "The only reason I am here in the temple is to book it for the wedding and I can't postpone it further. My mother keeps nagging me to be over with it, Maven Black-Briar doesn't stop sending Asgeir Snow-Shod with so-called wedding gifts and all this nonsense! I swear I am going to escape in a boat to Winterhold if I have to wait one more month."

"Alright, you can beat her up?" Alina let go of Jullanar who immediately smiled with two daggers immediately coming from her sleeves.

"I'm sorry." But Vittoria apologized right away.

"You're not fun." Jullanar had to look at Alina first before deciding not to rework Vittoria's face.

Meanwhile, Alina kept watching the ritual with utter patience until the High Priest came to a halt. He seemed confused but rather willing to redo the process.

"High Priest, this has been your third attempt so far. If we weren't in this together, I would expect you're trying to chase us away with boredom." Alina called.

"If you mere cultists can't show no respect for the Divines in their Temple, you better leave then. Once the armor is purified, we will let you know." The High Priest replied with disdain.

"Heh! In the end, you're nothing but incompetent fools and lazy drunkards." Alina couldn't help but cuss in the end.

Present in this scene was Jarl Elisif, Vittoria Vici, and a bunch of Nord and Imperial diplomats. They all witnessed Alina insulting the High Priest of Skyrim even so cheerfully without hesitation.

The air could only turn colder from this point onward as she seemed to be holding an equal disdain towards the Imperial Cult as much as they hold against the Cult of Kyne.

"I want you out of my temple!" Rorlund the High Priest pointed towards the door and spoke with an infuriated tone.

No matter what, he can no longer tolerate this intruding into his temple.

"I am afraid I won't comply." Alina replied, shrugging her shoulders.

"Then the guards shall drag you out." Rorlund couldn't tolerate Alina's attitude any longer and walked past her.

"But you already know they won't be of help." Alina smiled, "I am here to purify the armor and they know that. Your attempt to undermine the competition is utterly useless so let me do my job properly so I can get home before dinner."

While it was harrowing to speak to a high priest this way, the situation was really ironic.

There is no current religious regime that supports the Temple of the Divines. Back in the day, the Emperor of the Tamriel was the acting Head of the Imperial Cult, namely this was the case only to the Dragonborn Emperors of the Septim, Reman, and Alessian Dynasties.

Currently, the Mede Dynasty is not that of the Dragon blood and the situation meant that there is no acting supreme leader to the Imperial Cult anymore. Combine that with the fact that a peace treaty with the Aldmeri Dominion removed one of the nine divine pillars of the Imperial Cult, this comes as an utter approval of the current regime that the Empire is no longer a state based on religion and thus the Priesthoods of all the official Divines have lost their political immunity.

At this point, the rise of other religions based on aspects of the Divines can't and won't be outlawed unless a political dilemma was involved. A dilemma that the Empire will do its best to keep away from affecting its relations with the people again. With this missing link between Man and Divine, what the Imperial Sect was left with was nothing but a cut-off faith.

But that isn't the case for the Cult of Kyne and many other cults especially the Daedric ones who still have their live links with the Divine beings.

The words of the Divine shouldn't be taken literally but up until now, all the Imperial Cult was living on are distant interpretations from the Elder Scrolls which they no longer possess.

In other words, this faith is nothing but a lingering shadow of its former glory and Alina is making the most of it by stepping into the most sacred Temple of the Imperial Cult on Skyrim.

As the Empire no longer cares about faith and uses it as a political tool just as it was stated by General Tullius, a tool can be replaced by another. Yet to Alina, faith is never a tool, it is a goal.

Jon provided her with the best opportunity to embarrass the Imperial Cult and a mere High Priest won't stand in her way.

"Your ritual has taken long enough." Alina stated.

"Then leave." Rorlund replied, blocking Alina's way with all he could.

She only smiled and turned to Jarl Elisif.

"Five minutes, that's all I need." She said,

"You are not stepping a foot on my altar!" Rorlund roared but Elisif immediately stood up.

On her side, she wanted the support of the Dares and she was desperate for it.

"High Priest, it has been a couple of hours already and we are entitled to our court duties as well as witnessing the purification of this Divine Artifact of Kynareth. Whether it is Kynareth or Kyne of Old, we Nords don't and can't tell the difference so please, you shouldn't be stubborn. Time is of the essence." Elisif spoke her words quickly.

"Jarl Elisif! This is blasphemy!" The High Priest kept insisting.

"It is not." Alina spoke back, "We pray to the same Gods in the end. Whether you call them by old or new names, you have to choose the most efficient way."

She then turned to Elisif and the Solitude Diplomats.

"Five Minutes." She said.

"Please." Elisif replied to allow Alina ahead.

It is now clear that the Priests shall step down as Alina walks in.

She looked left, she looked right, she counted eight Divines each with his shrine with one of the eight missing.

The Missing Divine.

It is ironic how there is one always missing yet she sees him every day.

She watched the armor standing on the altar in the middle of the shrines where the priests tried to invoke the power of the Divines. It was simply no brainer for her to invoke power without a proper prince.

For eras, the Dragon Blood was the price to maintain the link to the Divines, an exchange that is no longer possible.

"The bag." Alina simply called and from the corner approached Jullanar handing Alina a big leather bag.

Alina simply opened it and stood in front of the Shrine of Akatosh.

"Lo, there do I see a Dragon, maker of worlds, sustainer of worlds, eater of worlds…" She prayed as she took a large heavy bone from the bag and put it in front of the shrine.

She then moved to the next shrine.

"Lo, there do I see a Snake, binding my kin in their crypts…" She prayed and carried an actual living snake out of the bag, placing it above Arkay's shrine.

"Lo, there do I see an Owl, teaching our clever folk the runes…" She prayed and placed a feather above the shrine Julianos.

"Lo, there do I see a Whale carrying our kinfolk to Sovngarde…" She prayed and placed a whale's bone on Stenderr's shrine.

"Lo, there do I see a Moth guiding the way beyond heaven…" She prayed and placed a living moth on Dibella's shrine.

"Lo, there do I see a She-Wolf sheltering her cubs from danger…" She prayed and placed a wolf's fang on Mara's shrine.

"Lo, there do I see a Hawk… mother… with a wing that brews thunder…" She prayed and placed a Hawk's feather on Kynareth's shrine.

The only shrines left untouched by her so far were the shrine of Zenithar who is not entirely Nordic and the empty shrine of Talos. Also, the symbolic Deities she hasn't prayed to yet are the Fox and the Bear who are considered to be the Dead Gods Tsun and Shor.

There is, however, one nail she had to strike at the side of the Imperials as she finally approached the empty shrine of Talos. Seeing her walk in that direction made the crowd gathered in the Temple feel very tense.

"Lo, there do I hear Ysmir… Shor son of Shor… Dragon of the North… Lo, does he call to me..." She prayed and simply placed nothing on that shrine.

She threw the leather bag to the side and walked to the armor placed on the altar and put her hands on it. She felt the pain running through her body from the effect of the curse she just erected and kept praying and calling the Symbolic Deities as she closed her eyes and then…

"By the Nine!" Someone swore in the middle of the crowd.

… She opened her eyes, red and glowing in a serpentine shape. The once peaceful temple fell to the dreadful glare of Alina Dare.

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