Ellayania has a small smile on her face. Flying is rather enjoyable. She ought to keep a bird or two like Tisvet does.

Fighting is also quite fun. She'd... forgotten, over the years. Recent events are stirring old memories.

Well, maybe they can find some targets.

There's dragons circling around the platform, but they let the two past.

Glint lands them with a flourish and a swirl of rainbow light, calling out, "Miraak! Come out, come out, wherever you are! We'd like some tea and crumpets, and maybe a bit of murder~!"

A man in a mask of bone walks out of the shadows. "You two are pests. I will have fun killing you."

The key to a believable illusion is verisimilitude. Fortunately, she has entirely perfect recall. And speaking of old memories, she'd like to introduce this man to one of the more unpleasant parts of her past. She catches his eye through the mask.

And a lush jungle worms its way up through the stone platform, while dark thunderheads roll in overhead.

Externally, he freezes, limbs stiff.

Internally, he spins, burning his surroundings - or trying to, at least.

The jungle is much too damp to burn; the few flames that do catch sputter feebly.

"Well well well! What do we have here?" says a woman's voice, sourceless. "A little trespasser and amateur arsonist? You'll have to do much better than that to harm me, I'm afraid."

He snarls and roars, sending frost rolling out from him in waves.

The plants nearest to him freeze, but the greenery is so dense, the effect doesn't spread far.

"Not bad! But not quite good, either. Here, let me show you how it's done."

The sky splits as thunder cracks, bolt after bolt of lightning raining down upon him, lighting up each and every nerve in his body with agonizing pain, working systematically from his left side to his right.

"There. Now it's your turn again."

He narrows his eyes, tries to summon one of his dragons - can't -

He rushes forward. He needs to escape this wood -

A mocking laughter echoes behind him. The vines lash and roots rise unpredictably to trip, but he manages to run-

-until a perhaps-familiar dense knot of vegetation blocks his path. "Well well well!" says a sourceless woman's voice. "What have we here? A trespasser? Shall we play a game, little man?"

"You will not drive me mad, Sheogorath - " he snarls, roaring flame -

"How rude. That is not my name, you know." And thunder bellows as the sky cracks upon him again.

And he fights -

And runs -

And fights -

And screams, first in anger -

The pattern is always the same. The greeting, the game or the test or the imagined slight, the lightning, and the laughter. Always the mocking laughter, so smug and superior.

And he grows angrier and angrier and angrier, frothing mad with it -

He rails - curses them - 

And he starts acting out, behaving randomly, trying to break the pattern -

Nothing works. It always twists back around.

It is difficult to track time. It could be hours, years, days.

And

he

goes

mad

"I am unsure how long he will remain unresponsive," Ellayania says to Glint, regarding the man's slack-jawed body. "Hisame indicated that victims' response to this technique varies."

She's staring a bit starry eyed at Ellayania. "Oh, he'll be quite wonderfully insane when he wakes, I suspect. That was lovely work."

"Why, thank you."

Oh no she's cute.

"I wonder if Hermaeus would let me steal him..." Glint muses. "It'd be a shame to let such wonderful work go to waste..."

A tentacle spears Miraak's unresponsive body, before wrapping around him and pulling him towards the edge. "No. Now go away."

"Hermaeus, you're no fun!" Glint whines, sticking her tongue out in the tentacle's general direction.

"He will be yours in spirit in any case."

"Hah! Guess I'll let you have this one, Hermaeus," she says. "May your words ever drive mortals to madness!"

The tentacles grumble.

"And I think that's our cue to stop imposing on our host," Glint says, cheerily, before shifting them back to her Realm.

"I think we can call that one a success."

"Yeah!" She spins, laughing. "I'll have to check in with Meridia a bit later, see how she's doing in her Molag Bal grudge match. But, hey, everything's coming together, now. Thank you for the help!"