"Kriella! Come quick!" shouted a voice.

The Dreadmaster turned away from Joel and saw Skudge running down the
stairs towards her. She sighed. Ever since the battle with the Morphoid,
the little Scamp had decided that he would not stay hidden. He had taken
the credit for killing the thing, and now felt that he could do anything.
Nobody currently in the Porcupine recognised him as a Daedra – the regular
set of adventurers were apparently out saving the world somewhere – and so
it had not been too difficult to persuade people that Skudge was as mortal
as they were. She didn't know what they thought he was, but as long as they
did not know the truth, ignorance was probably bliss.

"What is it?" she asked when his little legs had carried him over to her.

"Rathine! Something wrong with Rathine!" the Scamp replied. Kriella made
her goodbyes to Joel and followed Skudge back up to her room. She had only
gone down for a few minutes to apologise to Joel for emptying the room
again, and already there was trouble. Daedra! You couldn't leave them alone
for a few minutes. At least they had refrained from killing each other.

When she entered her room she saw that Skudge was right. There was clearly
something wrong with Rathine. The Dremora was sitting on his bed, simply
staring at the wall before him. Kriella approached him and noticed that his
breathing was shallow and his eyes did not follow her movements. She raised
his arm and let it fall again – no resistance. She had no idea what was
wrong with him. And therein lay the main problem. It was probably something
inherent to Daedra that afflicted him, and she could not simply go out and
find a Daedra Doctor.

Just as she was considering what to do about this dilemma, the Dremora
suddenly shuddered and turned around to look at her. "Hello," he said
simply.

Kriella opened her mouth to answer but Skudge beat her to it. "What happen?
What happen?" he shouted.

Rathine ignored the Scamp and answered Kriella's unasked question. "I was
merely in a trance," he replied. "My Prince, Imago Storm desired to speak
with me and so I entered the trance so that he could do."

"What did he tell you?" Kriella asked.

"There is good news and bad news."

"Give me the bad news."

"We have a new problem. Tonight, Vex intends to Soul Bond with Nyxalinth."

"And this is bad?"

"This is very bad. If he goes through with this, killing him will also
result in Nyx's death." It was a sign of his worry that he did not use
Nyx's full name.

"So what is the good news?"

"We have a solution."

"And that is?"

"This." Rathine held out his fist and then opened his hand. In it lay a
deep green soul gem. It slowly pulsed with a soft green glow.

"A Soul Gem?"

"Hours of fun for all the family. The possibilities are limitless."

"For example?"

"There are two main possibilities in our current dilemma. We can either
Trap Vex, or we can Trap Nyx, thus protecting her whilst we kill Vex."

"And which do you recommend?"

"Personally, I would quite like to kill Vex."

"Trap Nyx then?"

"Yes. It would be a simple matter to release her. This Gem is made so that
the soul is released when it is broken – not destroyed."

"Making it easy to release Vex too?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"So which do we do?"

"I leave that decision, my dear, to you."