><>< This story is no longer Alice canon, but I am leaving it up because I wrote it and might as well have people read it. ><><
Chapter 1 – Through the
Fringe of Madness
Alice Kingsley had always
been considered a bit odd. She had quite a magnificent imagination
and would often voice her more interesting thoughts, not noticing or
caring that others thought her strange for it. On occasion, her
imagination seemed to take on a life of its own, and on those
occasions Alice would often be found holding a conversation with
herself, or scribbling poetry at lightening speed onto any scrap of
paper she could find.
One rainy day as Alice was taking a quiet stroll outside Bravil, she just so happened to look out into Niben Bay. And it just so happened that when she looked, Alice saw a glowing blue light shining through the fog over the water. Seeing as she was already drenched from the rain, she decided to investigate. She waded out into the murky water and began to swim towards the light.
As she drew nearer to the
light source, she discovered that it was in fact coming from an
island in the center of the bay. The light looked to be a doorway
centered in the open mouth of a giant statue. Well, that definitely
needed to be investigated further, so she made her way onto the
island and wrung out her dress and hair as best she could. Closer to
the doorway stood a Bravil guard and a petite Khajiit woman. On
closer inspection, Alice suspected that the woman was more than a bit
mad, and so approached the guard.
As she opened her mouth to speak, a Dunmer man burst through the glowing doorway and began shouting curses and threats. This one was obviously more than a bit mad, and drew a dagger and attacked the guard. He met his end quickly and the frazzled guard turned to Alice and told her bluntly that if she chose to go through the door, she would end up the same as the others here. Alice thought for a moment and decided that as she was half mad already, she didn't mind the risk.
As she opened her mouth to speak, a Dunmer man burst through the glowing doorway and began shouting curses and threats. This one was obviously more than a bit mad, and drew a dagger and attacked the guard. He met his end quickly and the frazzled guard turned to Alice and told her bluntly that if she chose to go through the door, she would end up the same as the others here. Alice thought for a moment and decided that as she was half mad already, she didn't mind the risk.
She stepped into the shining portal and found herself in a small room looking into the eyes of a very taciturn gentleman, who quickly told her to sit down. He introduced himself as Haskill, the chamberlain to the Prince of Madness: Sheogorath. This certainly peaked Alice's interest, and after a few more words, Haskill told her to make her way through the Gates of Madness. He left through the door on the far wall. As Alice stood up to do the same, the walls suddenly melted away into hundreds of butterflies, which was alarming but extremely beautiful at the same time. Alice decided that she liked the Shivering Isles already.
Alice made her way down a winding path that seemed to lead towards the village she had seen from the top of the hill. The plant life here was like nothing she had ever seen so it took her quite a while to reach the village, as she had to stop to stoop down to see every mushroom, and there were a lot of mushrooms.
She reached the village just before dusk. She determined that the settlement was called Passwall from listening to the villagers talk. Two of them ran up towards the Gates of Madness, so Alice followed behind them. That's when she saw what stood between her and the rest of the Isles: the Gatekeeper.
At that moment the Gatekeeper was battling what appeared to be a party of adventurers, and it was definitely winning. In a few moments all that remained of the group was the captain, and once alone, he quickly ran back towards the door to Cyrodiil. Alice knew she needed to plan carefully if she was to defeat the enormous creature guarding the Gates.
She made her way back to the village and headed to the inn for information. The innkeeper directed her upstairs to a very unpleasant woman named Relmyna. After enduring several insults and general unpleasantness from Remyna, Alice decided to snoop around her room once she left, a lucky decision as she found a letter Relmyna had penned to Sheogorath detailing exactly how she would defeat the Gatekeeper: Relmyna's tears were toxic to it. Fortunately, Relmyna was on her way up to see the Gatekeeper at that very moment, and if the letter was to be believed, she would be crying.
Alice managed to sneak up behind the Dunmer woman and watch from the shadows. She was in luck as Relmyna dropped a tear soaked tissue on the ground before she walked away, still crying. Alice crept over, picked it up, and squeezed as many tears as she could onto her sword. Still sneaking, she struck from the shadows. The Gatekeeper let out an ungodly wail as the tear-coated blade pierced its flesh. The battle was over surprisingly quickly and Alice retrieved the keys to the Gates of Madness from its corpse. Walking over to the Dementia entrance, she pressed the key into the lock and finally left the Fringe behind.
Butterfly Explosion
So Many Mushrooms
Outside the Wastrel's Purse
The Gatekeeper is Slain
