Ysmir opened his eyes as the lights faded away. He looked around himself, seeing nothing but snow. Judging from what he could see, he was somewhere in Eastmarch.
"GODS F CKING DAMN IT!"
Summoning a couple Flame Atronachs to warm himself for a bit, Ysmir began the trek towards Windhelm. He couldn't use his map too often, since there was always wolves and bandits around this area, and he didn't feel like killing them just to get home. He'd take a carriage.
Ysmir remembered how Windhelm was when he first arrived. Segregation and hatred everywhere. When Jarl Free-Winter had taken High Idiot Ulfric's place, things had begun improving. Things definitely taken a turn for the better when Ysmir had gathered everyone in town just to point out how stupid the racist Nords were, and how segregation was simply harming their economy. People like Rolff Stone-Fist certainly did not enjoy that day.
Ysmir decided to stop reminiscing and simply focus on getting to the stables. But as he was approaching...
"Damn Dark Elves, can't they get anything right?!"
Great. Racist Guards. He thought they would all shut up about this at this point. The economy improving should have gotten it into their skulls how wrong they were. But there would always be the idiots who wouldn't learn. He dismissed the Atronachs, knowing they would only cause trouble.
"You would think High King Ulfric would have ordered their exile or mass execution at this point."
Time to knock some sense into th- Wait a minute.
ULFRIC?!
"Are you nuts?! Stormblood was the one who ordered the Dunmer and Argonians be assimilated into the rest of the city. Only a madman would have gone against him. And King Stormcloak is no madman."
"Aye, you're right, my friend. Guess I'm just complaining to wind at this point."
Ysmir hid behind the outer wall of the bridge. Ulfric Stormcloak was alive, and High King?! And who was Stormblood? Sounded like he did the job of knocking sense into the Eastmarch population instead of him. What was going on?!
Casting True Vanish(a form of Invisibility that avoids the Detect Life spell), as well as Bygone Foot(a Master form of Muffle), Ysmir prepared to sneak past the guards, only to freeze at what he saw.
"Get back to your Oblivion-damned posts NOW!"
"YES LORD STORMBLOOD!"
He saw himself, Serana and Lydia standing there. The only problem was, Serana was still a vampire.
And he was a Sosnaak as well. The red eyes and pale skin gave it away instantly.
Suddenly, everything clicked. The Golden Lights, Sheogorath, and that book.
He had been sent through a Dragon Bridge. He was in a Parallel Branch of time.
"It's Morndas. Time for the weekly sun-block."
He looked towards where the other him -Stormblood- stood. He saw Serana give him Auriel's Bow, except...
By Talos, he felt sick just looking at it. The Aura it gave off even from here was enough to make him shiver in disgust.
It was... corrupted for lack of a better word. He had seen the Bloodcursed Arrows the Volkihar Clan had prepared. It looked as if they had done it to the Bow itself.
It was black like the Void of Sithis. Red ooze pulsed around it in patterns like veins, looking as though blood had curdled like milk, but slimy.
He watched as Stormblood notched an ordinary Moonstone Arrow into the bow, seeing as the bow turned the arrow into a Bloodcursed arrow by itself. Stormblood pointed it towards the cloud-filled sky.
The other Lydia spoke up. "I've always wondered, my Lord, how can you tell where the sun is when it's almost always cloudy here?"
He saw Stormblood give a smile, sharp canines prominent. "Years of practice, my dear housecarl."
And he shot it. The arrow gained speed faster and faster, heading towards the Hole to Aetherius. It exploded on the threshold of this otherwise unreachable gateway, creating a large shaded form as it interacted with raw creation.
Ysmir could only watch in horror as day became night. He realized then and there that this was truly not his world. He would have to find out how to get home. And something told him that the answers lied in following Stormblood. He would have to get answers before killing the undead bastard, unfortunately. Corrupting an Aedric artifact like that, just what was wrong with his mind?!
One question nagged at him, though. Just what happened in this Branch that would cause him to end up like that!