>>5278217>>5278211>>5278205>>5278198>>5278184>>5278091>>5278103You start with the most obvious question, the reason the you called upon The Lord of Endings to begin with: to inquire after the ending of the female at the desk.
>Why the Serpent Priestess here killed herself?“Because her task for her mistress was done,” Death answers. “She was no longer needed… Never would be again. Her task here was one she could not live with having completed, and so she chose not to do so.”
“I do not understand,” you admit. “Does it have to do with the scrawling on the desk?”
“Yes,” Death answers. “But careful now, dragonling. You are asking more questions than you intend. Remember the price. There are only so many favours you can even do for me, to earn the answers. Death wants for little.”
You nod slowly. It is frustrating… But the opportunity you are being given is a rare one. Most mortals never get a chance to meet their gods in life, not even among the Master Race—not even among the Serpent Priesthood! You must make the most of it.
>Request freedom for Great OneDeath stares at you, into you.
“Is it your humanity which drives your bloodline to this uncharacteristic altruism?” the Harvester of Life asks. “Your mother was motivated by legacy and loyalty… But what motivates you, to give of yourself to free another, to whom you have no relation?”
“He will be alone,” you say quietly. “It is thanks to him that I never felt that loneliness… But now, what will he have without me? How can I leave him without a kindred spirit?”
“Easily, and without a second thought,” Death says, “if you were more like your father.”
You say nothing. The implication stings, though the Dark God seems more curious than condemning in his assessment.
Eventually, Death speaks again.
“You do not think through what you ask,” he says. “Or perhaps, who you ask it of. What sort of freedom, do you suppose, can Death bring, but the freedom of the grave?”
Your heart skips a beat. No! You didn’t mean—!
“Calm yourself,” Death says. “I am no lesser darkness, no demon or djinn. Your ‘brother’ will live… And, I suppose, it could even be arranged for him to leave the confines of the caves, but that ‘imprisonment’ is also comfort and safety. The surface world is not all sunshine and plunder, little dragon. Death dwells in light as in darkness, and where life if replete… So too am I well-fed by the constancy of its antithesis.”
In other words: if you use Death’s divine authority to force the issue with the Chaplain, the Dragonborn will be at risk of death at the hands of surface threats.
