{AN: Made a discord server with the help of my friend, here is the link:
https://discord.gg/ZCX5F5cfKq
Don't worry I will also post the link in the comments session.}
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"Good. Now I will give you two potions, one potion is the one I talked about before that will help your scars fade and heal some of your missing skin. The other one is a nutrient potion.", Helen said while I heard another sound of a chest opening, she probably just used [Deep Storage] to pick the other potion.
Curious I ask; "Nutrient potion?... For all I know, I am not malnourished or something like that..."
Helen sighed a bit; "Yeah not now, and normally that would be unnecessary. But the number of scars you have will really take a lot of nutrients to heal, and I don't want to put you at unnecessary risk. Eating food would normally be good enough, but you would need to literally shove down kilos and kilos of meat down your throat to have the effects of this nutrient potion.", her tone was a bit mixed, but I couldn't exactly detect emotions this time, hmm... maybe nostalgia? reminiscing about someone?
"Yeah, and I probably can't afford that amount of food right now.", I said that while I was nodding in appreciation, she could've easily just went on with it, and let me deal with everything by myself. But I guess she wouldn't want a favored of Mara malnourished. More on the lines of owning a favor than favored, but I guess I appreciate the help and the fact she isn't an asshole. These potions are most certainly extremely expensive, maybe even something money can't buy, so I appreciate the help, and maybe if I am polite enough Mara won't make her favor a pain in the ass in the future.
"Good. Now the nutrient potion first.", she puts a smooth vial on my hand, the vial is relatively big, almost the size of a beer mug, it has a fairly thick neck and it was closed by some kind of paper stopper hybrid. With a simple flick of my fingers, the vial opened and I didn't hesitate and immediately drank it in full.
I felt the cool liquid of the potion pass through my neck, and set on my stomach. Contrary to what I expected it tasted like a more bitter cold coffee. Soon enough I drank it completely, I didn't feel any immediate changes or anything absurd really, I just felt my stomach was full? which is strange because I am pretty sure I can easily drink five beer mugs of water without batting an eye. But I guess a nutrient potion is different after all.
"Now, I know you are probably feeling extremely full, and probably doesn't want to eat or drink anything more. But the next potion isn't as big as this one, albeit its magic is way more potent.", she said that while also handing me the second vial. The scar potion vial was indeed small, roughly the size of a small cup, it felt way smaller when I put it in my big hands. Hmm, I guess it's better to compare its size to my middle finger and forefinger put together. Without hesitation, I also drunk this vial.
The liquid flowed inside of my thought, and quickly set on my stomach. This time the liquid was a little thicker and viscous, something like a milkshake would be. The liquid was strangely refreshing and with a mixed taste, of aloe, ginger, and mint. It was weird, but also strangely pleasant.
Immediately I started feeling my skin somewhat itch, I wanted to badly start to scratch it, but Helen quickly put a stop to it; "No. Do not scratch your skin right now, it will only worsen your scars if you do that. Right now is the perfect time for me to use the [Restoration] spell.".
Getting extremely uncomfortable with the itch on my skin I blurted out; "What spell?", I am quite ashamed of this reaction, I can hold in with untold pains coursing through my body but an itch is getting to me? That is very pathetic, principally considering all those millions and millions of years I have of memories.
"The same spell we used on your friend Altair. Now try to relax and let me work my magic.", she said in a matter-of-fact tone, and knowing disobeying your doctor is very unadvised I tried to stay calm and meditate. This is also a good opportunity to try to meditate, if I can calmly meditate in such infuriating conditions, I can probably meditate anywhere else really. Okay, not anywhere else, the world is crazy, but you get the gist of it.
So while Helen used her [Restoration] spell, and the potions took effect I did my better to meditate. At the start it was painfully difficult, I barely could concentrate, but soon enough as the minutes passed my incessant tryings bore fruit.
It became easier and easier to do it, I could now even safely pass through a bunch of the memories engraved in my head by the [Sharingan], it was a relatively huge mess. I wish I had some means of organizing it, but I am still too far from being able to access my mindscape. But that didn't dissuade me, I simply continued to try to meditate, and close to the end I was relatively proficient at it, and literally, five minutes before the ending I had managed to safely enter a meditative state.
"Impressive. It's quite difficult to enter a meditative state on those conditions.", Helen's voice was clearly filled with quite a surprised tone. Hah, and I bet it's difficult to impress this old crone. At this moment some of the junior priests suddenly felt a strange spike of anger.
"Hah, at the least the itch disappeared right now. Is that normal?".
Helen simply nodded her head in affirmation and said; "Yeah, it's pretty normal. the strongest effect of the potion is right when you drink it, it gets gradually lesser. The other motive I made you drink the nutrients potion first was also for that, you could've probably endured it, but some people can enter a state of shock. The chance is slow, but it is still there. No worries though, with me here, one of the best healers in this damn province, I doubt you can die easily.".
"Good. Thanks for everything. Anything more I should know before going?", I asked anxious to see my reflection or something of the sort. Thankfully I had better control of my emotions right now, so I think it didn't show on my face, but Helen definitely understood it.
"Hmm. I want you to wait for a bit, there are stills some things I want to talk about with you before your exit. And I also want to make sure your body won't have any adverse effects, I am pretty sure it won't be an, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious.", She tried making that excuse at the end but I am pretty sure she just wants to talk with me about something, I could almost hear it there, bugging her voice.
Sitting on the bed in a more comfortable manner, I move my head towards Helen; "Yeah, sure.".
"Well... The first thing I want to talk about is about your healing...", seeing my growing concerned face she immediately added; "No, not the one I did right now. The one who healed you of all the wounds that caused your scars.", I feel a little bit relieved about that. I don't know much about how I was exactly healed and sent to another world, the only clue was that message in my head 'Why don't you try living for yourself a bit... Friend.'. I still have no clue about it, maybe Helen discovered something? She did indeed scan my whole body, so there isn't any surprise there.
Helen took a deep breath and said; "I will be sincere and direct with you Jin. Whoever healed you is Divine. No questions there, but someone of divine origin could've easily healed you completely, including eyes and scars... If he didn't do that...", she trailed off almost as if afraid of her own conclusion. I quickly caught on to what she is talking about.
My mind started connecting the dots, my scars, seeing Alt Jin just as I arrived, the message in my head, whoever sent me here tried to "... teach me a lesson. Whoever healed was trying to teach me a lesson about consequences, about anger, and about choice. As you said, he could've probably healed me completely, but my shitty self wouldn't learn anything with that...".
I could help but feel slightly off, like a burden has just been life from my shoulders, almost ghostly some information went to the forefront of my mind; "To feel is to live, to live is to progress, to fight, to lose, to learn... to love. But feelings are also dangerous, they can be both a great source of motivation and inspiration, but also your worst nightmare and the fuel of your ruin. Killing your feelings is the same as killing yourself, you ought not to get rid of them, but learn to control and channel them to your purposes and goals. A weak mind accompanied by absolute power is certainly a recipe for disaster, and that was exactly what I was... A weak-minded fool with too much power.", I paused as if to lament some of my mistakes and some of my previous choices. I felt Helen wanted to say something but she seems too stupefied by my words.
"I could've done everything differently, smarter. Instead of letting me sink into my river of fury and rampaging all over the place, I could've planned, used my smarts and knowledge I am sure I have... But my weak mind wasn't good enough... A weak mind indeed... so that is why you left me blind, blind to the wonders of the world and its beauty, all for me to feel the consequences of my actions, to see the need to also strengthen my mind... the funny thing is... I probably wouldn't have understood it if I didn't have so many memories right now. Hah, the world is indeed something crazy.", the last part was said with exasperation and a funny tone of voice...
"But I may complain like a spoiled child about this situation, my greed as a human always want more no matter what, but I am still grateful. Grateful to wherever that healed me, and let me have another chance...", another pause I couldn't help but think about that phrase.
"Why don't you try living for yourself a bit... Friend. That isn't as simple as I first thought it was, maybe living for myself more isn't just for a self-centered thing, but for me to grow more by myself... Or maybe I am just an idiot, and I am simply reading to mutch into it.", The last par quickly broke the inspirational air that was forming around me.
Halen getting out of her stupor finally said; "He, now I know why Mara wanted a favor from you so badly. That air... the way you talk... It's pretty similar to the Hero of Kvatch.", she said, nostalgia clearly filling her voice. It's almost as if she knows him?
Curious and wanting to change the subject a bit I ask; "Did you know him? The Hero of Kvatch I mean.".
"Contrary to what those Shitty Thalmor would want you to know. The Hero of Kvatch very much existed, sadly none could remember his name, nor appearance. Few in this time and age can say to have met him, mostly because Lord Akatosh has no been kind to them. Time awaits no one, because time simply is.", I feel that she was somewhat preparing herself to talk about it, and was that a bit of admiration I felt in her voice?
"I did indeed knew the Hero of Kvatch personally. I was young and naive, barely 16 summers old, Oblivion Crisis had just started the Dremora invasion a simple rumor floating to the winds. At the time I was a simple apprentice atone of the temples of Mara in Cyrodiil, at the time I was struggling a lot to even use the most basic [Restoration] spells, different from what anyone here would lead you to believe my talent with magic was absolute trash.", a pause, Helen seems to take a breath as if to fish those memories of so long ago.
"I always had been unhappy with my lack of magical talent, I was constantly down and self-deprecating of myself, people used to call me Sadelen or Helen the Useless. But one day when I went out to collect some herbs for the temple, I was attacked. It was a giant Werelion that easily weighed more than half a ton, the spawn of Hircine was equal part ferocious and terrifying, and albeit I knew how to swing my dagger and use some [Flames] spell those were utterly useless on the beast. I had simply accepted my face, content in having the sweet release of my death, the ending of my self-deprecating torment in this continent.", her breath hitched a bit, and I clearly noticed some admiration slipping on her voice.
"Then he came, hurling arrows and blades alike. He moves as fast as the wind, and struck fiercer than the beast before him. His steel armor glistering in the morning sunlight, he looked absolutely dashing. Or that was just the hear of a maiden who just had her first crush talking, but I digress. He valiantly fought and killed the rampaging Werebeast, and the first thing he did was ask if I was okay.", I stayed silent letting the old woman continue her history.
"Unfortunately he also had been wounded, quite badly I might add, the spawn of Hircine is most certainly not eared for nothing. I brought him towards the temple to get healed, unfortunately, my skill in healing was piss poor at that time, so the only thing I could do was curse my inability and feel even worse with myself.", if I could see right now I would've noticed Helen expression growing soft, but her voice was more clue than enough.
"The Hero fo course noticed my distress, and asked; 'What is wrong?. At that time I was under so much pressure that I simply collapsed and told him how I feel, how lost, how downcast I was. He didn't give me any pep talk bit by bit of my problems, he said one thing that stuck with me to this day. Do you know what he said to me?", I shook my head in negation signalizing for Helen to continue.
"Keep moving forward. Everyone fails. And as most as they want to show you they are all perfect and have perfect lives, that is a lie. We all are bad at plenty of things. Some people are just better at hiding it... Move forward, never step back, to do so is to age, to age like that is to die, and to die in such a way will bring happiness to no one.".
Slightly shaken she continues "That shook me to the core, and I never forgot his words. Afterward, I asked for help and he was successfully healed, the last thing I saw of him was his glittering broad back running towards the horizon, in the nearby future I would hear of his deeds in stopping the Oblivion Crisis and I would always smile, remembering that fateful encounter. After such a thing I become a true maniac, I studied until my head felt like exploding, I used magic until I was drier than the Alik'r Desert, and even if my results were minimal and completely eclipsed by my peers I continued moving forwards, never stepping back. Soon enough I started to slowly surpass everyone, to slowly grown. And when the Head Priest of Mara in Cyrodiil felt treated by my growing powers he transferred me to Hammerfell as some form of twisted sick vengeance. Sadly for him, I took this as an opportunity instead of a punishment, and today the temple on here on sentinel is one of the biggest in the entire world.".
Curious I ask; "Not that I am complaining or anything, but why tell me all of this?".
Without an ounce of shame, she says; "Meh, I was bored, we had to wait, and I love to tell tales to the young ones... And you also remind me of him... You strangely have a similar buff body type, he was strangely enough, also a [Ripple] user and a Cultivator... And the strange of all, he also didn't have a once of [Magika] in him.", I didn't show surprise on my face, if someone who analyzed my body so deeply didn't know something basic like that I would be worried.
Humming as if to recall some memories she said; "This strange birth defect of being born without [Magika]... I studied it intensively my life, it is extremely rare, with only one or two being born like that every ten years. You would be hard-pressed to find one of those in your entire life, but I ended up being able to meet with two.", her tone was filled with amusement and exasperation towards the strangeness of life.
With a bit of curiosity I decided to ask; "Does it have a cure?", my tone was slightly hopeful, I already have a solution to that using my ritual to change species, but if there is an easy cure I don't mind simply getting it right now.
"No, there is none that I know of.", she paused for a moment as if to weigh her options of telling me something, she decided to do it; "But I know for certain that the Hero of Kvatch was able to use magic in his later years. I don't know what really happened, but some people reported him having pointed years and shining eyes. And being someone who has seen him before whatever happened, I am pretty sure he didn't have those previously. The problem is... I can't remember his face, nor his name. Somehow I just woke up one day and it was gone from my memory. So while I may not have a cure, you may be able to find it one day. Unfortunately, I've long since passed the time of pursuing my crush like a clueless puppy.", her voice tried to convey some hope for me in the end, but I barely heard it, my mind filled with possibilities.
There is a fucking cure for this? Wait... Maybe the species-changing ritual is the cure. She said the hero had acquired pointed ears and shining eyes. Maybe some kind of Elf I don't know? It's possible. Wait... Maybe Alt Jin came in contact with this information and from that he was able to get the idea of creating the species-changing ritual, its possible, and even if his book didn't have any mention of this, he lost a lot of his memory so that is plausible. I will indeed research about the Hero of Kvatch as soon as possible.
"Thank you, Helen. I appreciate the information.", gratitude filled my voice.
"No problems young one. As I said, I like telling tales, so are one of the privileges of the old.", her voice now was simply nostalgic, just reminiscing about the past must've filled her with those memories.