Lena stood on the shore of the Niben Bay but there was no island in the middle of it, no portal to the Shivering Isles. And yet this was where she came from, she touched a statue somewhere and got teleported to the shore of Niben Bay. Everything looked as it should be, yet something wasn’t right, she felt it with all her being.

She turned around and went to Bravil. She’d go home, then try to figure out what happened.

The guard by the city gate did not greet her, at she thought it was strange, but she shrugged and went in. The guard in the city ignored her as well, as did the people in the street. She entered The Fair Deal meaning to ask Nilawen what was going on.

“Welcome to the Fair Deal, stranger!” Nilawen greeted her with a smile. “You will always get a fair deal here! How can I help?”

Stranger… Nilawen did not recognise her.

“I just would like a newspaper…” Lena stummered.

“Of course!” Nilawen put a copy of the Black Horse Courier on the counter. “They are free! Help yourself!” She beamed at Lena.

Lena took the paper. It had a story about some lady in Leyawiin who was forced to hide in her house for weeks because she had bought an Everscamp staff and was now surrounded by scamps wherever she went… Fortunately for her however, a brave adventurer took over the staff and she could finally leave the house. What she had paid the adventurer wasn’t disclosed, and thus had to be a very hefty sum… Lena grinned at that and searched for the date: Midyear, 4E1. She had gone back in time, but there was no reason why Nilawen should not recognise her… In fact, she looked exactly the way she used to look back then, apart from no longer being a vampire.

Unsure what to make of Nilawen, Lena thanked her and went home. But someone had changed the locks on her door! Her key didn’t fit!

Perplexed, she decided to ask Daenlin at The Archer’s Paradox – he was a neighbour, and would surely know what happened.

Daenlin did not recognise Lena either, and when she asked about the owner of the house next door, he informed her with certain pride that the house belonged to none other but the Champion of Cyrodiil himself, the Hero of Kvatch and Bruma, the Saviour of their world, etcetera, etcetera. But if she was seeking an audience with the Champion, then alas, she was out of luck because he mostly resided in the Imperial City, as was befitting his rank and stature.

“I see…” Lena nodded and smiled. “Thank you kindly.”

Was this a parallel world? She’d heard the theory from one of the lecturers at the Arcane University, but everyone thought it was just a product of his overactive imagination fuelled by brandy. But now it looked like that mage might have been right all along…

She went to the Mages Guild, but also there no one knew her. Kud-Ei offered her to join the guild, said she looked gifted in magic… Lena brought up the topic of the parallel worlds, but no one heard of it there.

“You are a mage already, aren’t you?” Kud-Ei looked at Lena with interest. “Quite skilled as well, I can sense your magicka. We welcome mages from other lands, why don’t you join us for lunch, it is always nice to discuss new ideas! What is your name, if I may ask?”

“I am Lena Wolf,” Lena smiled.

“Welcome, Lena Wolf! So glad to make your aquaintance!” Kud-Ei beamed at her and the other mages joined in. “Where do you hail from, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Cyrodiil,” Lena was about to say, then bit her tongue. “Faranga,” she recalled one of the worlds she had visited. “It is an island far out at sea. We are seafarers and we recently docked in Anvil, and I’ve been visiting your land ever since…”

“Fascinating!”

“Extraordinary!”

“Amazing!”

The reception was warm and friendly, the mages eager to talk to someone new, they discussed the theory of parallel worlds but didn’t think it could be true.

“There are certainly other worlds out there,” was the concessus. “And there may well be portals that connect them, but to think that there’s a world exactly like ours… well… the probability of that is so minute, that can be safely considered nil. No, all those worlds are different, for sure.”

It was a most rational and logical conclusion, except that it wasn’t true…

Lena went to other cities in this Cyrodiil and met with the mages at the guild halls, getting a similar reception everywhere. Nobody believed in parallel worlds, and as such nobody could help her to find a way back either.

On a whim she went to Fort Farragut. She wasn’t expecting Lucien to recognise her either, and she couldn’t go to the Sanctuary because in that world she was not a member. She didn’t know what she expected to find. Did they have the same trouble with the traitor here? Did they solve it in the same way? Had the Sanctuary been Purified and Lucien killed, perhaps? She had to know… She found the trapdoor but it was locked, she would have to go through the fort proper.

When Lena reached Lucien’s quarters, she found him standing there, watching her approach. A scantly clad woman was behind him on the bed. The room was lavishly furnished, it was nothing like the one in Lena’s world.

“Well, you show promise,” Lucien said and smiled, looking her over. “An adventurer, is it? Came to seek treasures in this abandoned fort?”

“I… Yes, that’s right,” Lena nodded. Her heart was aching. “I… did not expect to find you like this… err… did not expect to find anyone here,” she struggled to find the words.

“That’s understandable,” Lucien nodded. “But now that you found me, I’m afraid I cannot allow you to leave. That’d be telling, you see.”

He drew his sword and attacked, but Lena was faster, she vanished and jumped back, and Lucien’s sword found no mark.

“You wish to dance then!” He cried with excitement, casting chameleon and trying to listen for any noise that might betray her position.

“He may have a different lifestyle, but he is still a Master Assassin,” Lena reminded herself. She never had to fight against Lucien before, and although she knew what he was capable of, it was quite a different matter to experience it first hand. “Play to your strengths,” she told herself. “We need a diversion.”

She summoned a clannfear and hit the woman on the bed with a frost spell, all in one movement, then she vanished again and moved. Lucien ignored the woman who was shrieking with pain, and lunged at the spot where Lena had stood, be she was no longer there. Her clannfear was chasing the woman who seemed to be an assassin herself, as she was parrying, and with success…

“Let’s stop this, I don’t want to kill you!” Lucien said loudly and sheathed his sword. “Adventurer! Show yourself! I invite you to join our Order!”

The clannfear vanished with a pop returning to Oblivion, and the woman appoached Lucien, wrapping her arms around him from behind.

“Let her go and come to bed,” she said in a languid voice. “We don’t want any new members… or are you growing tired of me?”

“Not now, Rosa,” he unwrapped her embrace. “She is better than you, I can tell…”

He kept listening intently, following Lena through the fort as she was making her way back to the entrance. Then he jumped and caught her in an embrace, dispelling her cloak.

“You are something else,” he said, smiling. “Join me.”

“I am flattered, Mr. Lachance,” Lena said, freeing her hands and wrapping them around his neck, her face close to his. She felt his breathing and inhaled his scent… “But in this world I must decline,” she said in his ear, Baronoff’s Bloody Icicle flying off her fingers. Lucien collapsed, paralyzed, and she made her escape. His scent wasn’t the same.

…

This Cyrodiil was definitely not the same as Lena’s. The longer she stayed there, the more differences she discovered, and it wasn’t surprising. People made different choices, leading to new events and more choices to make. It was a lonely place because everyone Lena had known, was now someone else…

She focused on finding a way out instead. She came in through a portal in an ancient ruin, so it was only logical to assume that another ancient ruin had a similar portal leading her back to the Shivering Isles. The oldest ruins were Ayleid, and she made it a point to search each of them thoroughly, and indeed somewhere in the depths she found a round pedestal that looked like a step, oddly out of place… She felt magic around it but it didn’t respond to touch. She took a Welkynd stone from a nearby stand and crumbled it over the step. There was a flash of light and a pop and she stood in a different ruin, complete with undead, now turning towards her… “Where am I, I wonder?” She thought, but there was no time to ponder that question if she wanted to stay alive…

…

Eventually Lena found a way out of the ruin and stood on a hill in Colovian Highlands. The sea was visible in the distance, and she decided to go to Anvil.

It was another parallel world. She had to start from scratch.

…

Years passed. Lena had seen so many parallel worlds, so many versions of Cyrodiil just after the Oblivion Crisis – it was always year 4E1. “Breaking the Amulet of Kings was the stupidest thing Martin could do!” She would think again and again, arriving in yet another world. It was one of those cataclysmic events that aligned and linked the time lines making it possible to jump from one world to another, but also removing any means of distinguishing between them at that point in time. In other words, there was no way to tell where Lena was going. She could only hope that chance would somehow take her home…

In every world she went to the Niben Bay near Bravil to see if the island with the door to the Shivering Isles was there, and in every world it was not. Why was that? Surely, the Daedric Realms must be the same everywhere? But she did not dare summon any of the Princes, Sanguine least of all, for fear of finding them changed, too… She did not know how deep the crack in time went, and had a feeling that just chasing after it would only make it deeper. No, she would find a way home through Mundus alone, no matter how long it would take.

Then one day she came to the Niben Bay and saw an island in the middle of the water. Her heart gave a jolt. She did not know what year it was, although it had to be year 4E1, and if this was indeed her world, then there had to be another version of her there somewhere, and that was perhaps the most scary prospect of all. If this was her world, she was home… but she was in the wrong time.

“I should go to the Shivering Isles,” she decided. “Before someone sees me. I am still a vampire in this world, assuming this is the one…” It was getting too complicated, and she quickly cast a spell and walked over the water to the island.

“Stay back!” The guard at the portal warned her. “This is a dangerous portal! Perfectly normal people go in, crazy people come out!”

“That’s alright, I know where it leads,” Lena smiled and entered.

She found herself in a room that looked like a dusty office of some city archive. There was a table in the middle with a metronome measuring out time, a man in a peculiar suit sat behind it, scribbling something on a scoll. The walls were covered in shelves with more scrolls and tomes than the eye could see…

“Come in and sit down,” the man said without looking up. He jerked his quill towards the chair opposite his on the other side of the table. “So…” He finished writing and looked up.

“Hello, Haskill,” Lena smiled, sitting down. “Been here long?” She took in the room and the shelves once again.

“My Lord, am I glad to finally see you!” Haskill’s face melted in a huge smile, and Lena reflected that the man must have been handsome once… when he still had more hair and more vigour… or just more spark, perhaps. “It’s been ages!” He rolled his eyes. “The time lines got fused…”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Lena nodded. “The Amulet of Kings.”

“Quite,” Haskill nodded. “But now that you are back in the Realm, I shall reset the timer…” He touched the metronome, stopping the hand, then pushed it in the opposite direction. “If you would follow me, your subjects are eager to see you…”

He stood up, gesturing Lena to stand next to him, and when she approached, he took her hand and cast a spell…

…

Lena and Haskill arrived in the throne room of the palace in New Sheoth. Haskill let go of Lena’s hand and gave her a curtly bow, the guards straightened their backs, she looked at them and saw that they knew who she was… they recognised her… she let out a sigh of relief…

“What year is it?” She turned to Haskill and he wasn’t in the least surprised at her question.

“Here in the Realm, the same as when you left,” he checked something in his notes. “A few days later, no more,” he smiled. “You will find everyone as you left them. As for Mundus… should you venture there again… it will be as you will it… provided it is later than the last time you visited there, because, you know, we don’t want yet another Dragon Break.”

“No, we don’t,” Lena said firmly. “Thank you, Haskill. Keep up the good work.”

She went to her quarters and found Dylan at his post outside the door. She called him inside, and the other guard glared. Lena smiled – everything was as she left it, finally she was home.