The Jaws of Oblivion

Prologue - Fate Awaits

Blood. Luminous, scarlet drips of human blood. It was on his hands and he was guilty. Yet at the same time, he was innocent.

Nothing seemed clear. He had been walking on a floor made of bones, with evil spirits and ghosts surrounding his form. He tried to fight back but his dark calloused hands hit air.

A life of farmwork had given him his athletic frame. But despite his muscles, he had only used them to farm. Not kill.

His life had been simple, care-free, and boring. All that changed the night of the murder. He always carried a sword on him, just in case, but he had never trained with it. Ironically, it ended up being his downfall.

Gnisis had been quiet and peaceful. He had been out walking in the streets, on his way home when an Imperial Guard was attacked by an assassin. The assassin had punctured the guard's juggular vein, killing him instantly. The dark man had pulled out his own sword, but only slashed a little bit of the assassin's uncovered arm.

The killer escaped into the night after that, leaving the dark skinned man next to a body with blood on his sword. Now he was face-down on the ground being cuffed. The image of the assassin flashed before him, more scary and demonic than he remembered. Then a longsword was plunged into his guts and everything went black.

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His eyelids fluttered open, a cold sweat coating his body.

Hardly any light shown into the cell save for the sun through the iron-barred window high on the wall.

Aldric rolled onto his side, and slowly got to his feet. He wasn't the strong Redguard he'd once been; his body had deteriorated over the course of his sentence.

Great, he thought glumly, they execute me today. For something I didn't do.

He dredded this day; he had counted down the days, lost track, then remembered and resumed.

Aldric kneeled up against the wall nearest to his bedroll and prayed. The Nine had been, and still was, an essential part of his life. He prayed for a miracle.

"Give me strength," he whispered. "May Talos guide me."