Apotheosis II

Epilogue

The voice that is my eternal desire whispered to me.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  “Open your eyes, my love.”

I did, and screamed.

I was in the undercroft of the Priory of the Nine, laid out
in state, a ring of candles all around me. 
Alive.  class=GramE>In the Priory.  And,
oh, outraged.  I rose from the stone
shrieking and tore the Helm from my head.

It is said that Thedret, who became head of the Knights, was
the one who found me.  That is true.

There was awful clatter on the steps, and Thedret clamored
into view, and stared at me.  It is
seldom possible to say that a Redguard has turned pale, but he did.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  He opened and closed his mouth twice before
sound would come out.  “By
the Nine.  Lord Crusader.”

I checked myself from throwing the Helm at his head, but my
voice came out in a roar.  “style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>You were told to take my body to the w:st="on">Temple of the One.”style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  How odd the sound of my voice was, wide
and fierce in this hollow air.

“But…” he gaped and stammered some more, dumbfounded.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  “We only meant to hold vigil before we –
there hasn’t been time to…you’re alive!” 
Finally he began to build the explanation in his head.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  “It is a miracle!”

I strode with quiet fury to the stand where I had told them
to keep the armor when I was gone, and hung the Helm in its proper place, then
began to remove the Cuirass.  style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>“You were told to take my body to the w:st="on">Temple of the One.”

I could taste his fear, behind me.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Alive and mad, he was thinking.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Mad like Pelinal.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  This was not inappropriate, and not worthy of
my further notice as I shed the remainder of the armor and turned, now in only
the sackclothes that went underneath armor, not unlike the sackclothes with
which I had been sent into the world.

He tried to approach. 
“Tintaviel – ”

I rounded on him again, tried one last time to make it clear
to him, in small, mortal words that would not destroy him.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  “The
sun is waiting, and you delay me here.”

It is said that I shone with a golden light and that my eyes
were green fire.  I would not know.

His eyes glistened, but he nodded, then
ran up the steps ahead of me, gathering the Knights, proclaiming the
miracle.  Blessed by Auri-El they class=GramE>were, that they did not block my path as I walked out and
away from the Priory in the direction of the w:st="on">Imperial City.

They took it for a pilgrimage, as in a sense it was, and
followed.  They said the pretty words of
faith to each other that they did not understand, and to those we passed, and
some of those joined our train.  They
wondered, and tried not to complain, that we did not stop to eat, to rest, or
to sleep. 

The Imperial City was singing and alive with light for me; I
could see the protective veil over Mundus emanating from White Gold Tower, and
over the Temple District there was a shimmer in all colors, drawing me
forward.  I could hear the voices and the
thoughts of the swarm building behind and around me, names and titles that had
lost their meaning.  I walked
faster.  My focus was no longer on them
but on the real City beneath and beyond their grasp.

The Temple
of the One was crowned with flowers that bloom in no world known to man, and
its door stood open, and the rich warmth of the only
voice that matters poured over me from within it as soon as we approached the
circle in which it stood.

“Tavi.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Even at the last, you make me wait.”

Cries and wonder. 
They could hear him.  What they
saw step out of the dragon, I cannot say: 
to me the statue was becoming only a vague shape in darkness.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  My eyes were on the man in simple priest’s
robes whose blue eyes were bright with joyful impatience, who
came as far as the door and then waited at the top of the steps with his hand
offered because he had learned enough dignity not to run.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  I ran to him instead.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> 

He touched my cheek first, and we stopped to feel it.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  It was real, it was true.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  He beamed as if it was too good to believe as
I raised my hand to meet his.  He grabbed
me to him never to be parted again, and his lips burned against minestyle='color:red'>.  He kissed me
and the last sight of Mundus dissolved into nothing.

It is said that Tintaviel walked out of the Priory of the
Nine alive and went to the Temple,
and there was carried by the light of Akatosh into the heavens.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  Do not believe.style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  She was illusion, the shadow cast by the last
eager steps of the bride to the altar.