Control (Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Fanfiction)

Control

The female Dragonborn returned to awareness with her head throbbing and her body aching. She noticed she was laying on her back as 'her' room came into focus. Raising her hands, the woman saw the familiar glint of two bands of metal around each of her wrists. These manacles had some sort of stamina and magicka draining enchantments and she could not figure out any way to take them off. The woman had tried pulling them off, breaking them, lubricating her wrists with her own blood and even grease or fat from one of her meals to try and slip out of them. Every attempt had been unsuccessful and most often left her arms in pain.

When the Dragonborn first came to be here, she learned quickly that she could not Shout, or even speak at all. Another enchantment was likely the cause but she could not sense it on her metal bonds. Her wrists would bleed from her attempts at escaping the manacles but they were always healed the next time she found herself in this room. The warrior had lost count of how many times that had happened.

The woman slowly raised herself from the bed. She grimaced in pain when her movements caused a sharp pain in her skull. She closed her eyes and breathed a few times, collecting herself before throwing her legs over the side of the bed. The Dragonborn paused as she noticed her clothes, robes the color of dull gold, were torn and covered in dried blood. It looked like she had been in a fight, one that she did not remember. Magic had been used to heal the any wounds the warrior had sustained, as she could not feel any pain.

The Dragonborn stood on shaky feet and scanned her prison. The bed was in one corner of the room with a nightstand nearby. A table and chair were on the other side. A small bookshelf was full of old tomes, most already read in her boredom. There was two doors in this place, one beside the foot of the bed, which led to a bathing area, and the other high on the ceiling. It was a trapdoor and the only way to reach it would be to use a ladder, lift or whatever mechanism the Dragonborn's captors used to get her down here or come down themselves. Piling every piece of furniture up in this room was not enough to get to it. She had tried that once.

Food was usually left on the table and looking there, the Dragonborn found a platter full of it. A change of clothes and a towel were left outside the bathing chamber. The Dragonborn never saw the cultists who placed these things in the room or cleaned it for the next time she returned. She knew barely anything of this place and she hated that. It was terrifying to not be aware of what one's own body was doing most of the day. Especially if Miraak was the one who was controlling it during that time.

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Absorbing Miraak's soul in Apocrypha had been the biggest mistake the Dragonborn could have made. She tried not to blame herself though, as she hadn't known what would happen. Even so, the woman couldn't help but feel she was entirely responsible for her current predicament.

The Dragonborn hadn't noticed anything strange a few months after she had defeated Miraak. None of the Dragon souls she had taken ever did anything to her. The warrior knew they were inside her but could not interact with them in any way. How could she have known the First Dragonborn's soul would be so different?

Six months after Miraak's defeat, things began to change. The Dragonborn began to suffer from severe headaches. She would lose awareness at times and end up in places she had no memory of going to. During these instances, the woman would slowly lose consciousness and could almost feel some kind of presence before her eyes closed and she woke up somewhere else.

The healer the woman got herself examined by told her that she must have just fallen asleep from exhaustion and sleepwalked. The stress of being the Dragonborn must be getting to her, he said, as he could find nothing else wrong. Believing him she took a few weeks off to rest and it worked. Another three months passed with just one or two minor recurrences of, what she had assumed to be, the sleepwalking.