A/N: Welcome to the first project I have planned, a retelling of TES IV: Oblivion. Inspired mostly by my favourite playthrough of the game, we'll be witnessing the struggles of a young Dunmer exile and those that are involved in her fate. Whilst the focus of the story will primarily be the main questline, portions of the various guild questlines (The Mages Guild, The Arena and so on) will be included. I apologise in advance for the lower quality of the first few chapters, its been a long while since I've written anything of this length so i'm a bit rusty. Feedback would be highly appreciated, I hope you enjoy the story.


22nd of Last Seed, Gilane, Hammerfell Province

The end of summer in Hammerfell very rarely meant the end of the raw heat that the province was renowned for. For the denizens of the city of Gilane were enduring a heatwave that many would compare to the lava-blasted realm of Oblivion known as The Deadlands, an argument not many in Gilane would disagree with, indeed the late morning sun pounded down upon the town with the ferocity of a feral Daedroth.

Prince Enman sighed audibly as he traipsed through the marketplace, he wasn't used to the boiling climate of Hammerfell, the heat gave him a terrible rash and the sun scorched the top of his head, his thinning hairline doing nothing. The middle child of Emperor Uriel VII briefly wondered why anybody would even consider visiting the city, much less live there. He silently cursed his brothers Geldall and Ebel for organising the meeting between the three sons of Emperor Uriel VII in such a horrendous place before turning to his two bodyguards, a middle aged Imperial man who walked with the stance of a man who had seen too much war, and a young Breton woman with eyes that fiercely glowed with an amber light, who had been walking closely behind him.

"How far to this blasted meeting?" He inquired, directing his question to the Imperial. The Imperial man stopped and gazed across the marketplace, eyes scanning for notable landmarks. The Breton kept a lookout for any possible assailants with an arm raised, her fingers splayed apart as the air shimmered faintly with the heat emanating from a small ball of fire. Enman eyed the Breton with distaste and turned to address the Imperial again.

"Knight-Captain Larius, I informed your superiors in the Blades that there were to be no magic users assigned to my guard. Sadly it seems that they didn't understand that request and now I'm forced to contend with that." He pointed an accusing finger in the direction of the Breton.

The Breton glared angrily at Enman but restrained herself and lowered her arm, dispelling the fireball as she did. Larius glanced back at the prince before returning to his scan of the marketplace, after a few seconds his eyes settled on his charges destination in the north of the city. Their destination was the old palatial estate that, over three hundred years prior, had been home to one of the old Emperors. Motioning to Enman and the Breton to continue walking, he settled into a brisk pace as the prince hurried to his side, determined to continue his griping.

"Did you not hear me Captain?" The prince's voice shook slightly with the tone of a man who was clearly not happy with being ignored. Larius gave the Prince a barely disguised look of contempt, "I heard you my Lord, and yes I understand your concern. But you need not worry about Knight-Sister Evangeline, she's only an apprentice battlemage, but her specialty is using counter-spells such as Silence and Strength Draining in combat, any one attacks us with sword or spell and they'll find themselves at a major disadvantage."

Enman's expression of disgust grew even more severe until he held the look of a man who had just been vomited on by a drunkard, sniffing loudly he voiced his contempt once more. "Yes well, those certainly are impressive tricks but I fail to understand two things, one: why I need a treacherous, backstabbing daedra worshipper escorting me to a diplomatic meeting and two: why you don't keep the bitch collared. Magic is a blight on this land and I for one do... n...not..." Enman shuddered heavily and coughed. Larius knew full well what had just happened, but gave Enman an inquisitive look.

"Is everything alright my lord?"

"I... yes everything is fine. Let's hurry to the meeting, the blasted sun is roasting me alive."

With that the prince fell silent, Larius allowed him to move ahead and fell back to his position next to Evangeline. He gazed his subordinate with weary eyes. "I trust that Drain Endurance spell wasn't permanent Sister." The Breton gave him an appalled look, "No offence Sir, but are you bloody serious?!" She hissed, "You heard what he said about me! The fucking wretch is acting like I'm Jagar Tharn!" She spat on the floor before continuing, "Tharn! That bastard died before I was even born and yet everybody tells me how Battlemages are backstabbing traitors!" Larius understood the reasons for her anger, so he calmly allowed her to vent.

The mission to protect Prince Enman had been a rather stressful one, not in the least due to the strain of both Enman's inflexible anti-Battlemage beliefs and Evangeline's temper being renowned for its short fuse. Whilst waiting for her to finish, he returned to his watch of his surroundings. Almost immediately however, he noticed that something was very, very wrong. As quick as a flash, the Imperial's three decades of Blades training kicked in, one hand going straight for his Akaviri Katana.

"Knight-Sister! Keep silent and listen!" He barked with such little warning that Evangeline flinched backwards and Enman stumbled in his attempt to hastily spin around to see what had happened. Regaining her composure, Evangeline glanced around at where they were, they were roughly a block away from the estate in a narrow street that served as an entrance to the main highway running alongside the estate. Their plan had been was to meet two members of the Gilane guard on this road to have them accompany them to the meeting as extra security. However, not only were there no other living beings in the area, not only was the street ahead was blocked by two upturned carts, but it was almost completely silent save for the faint noises of combat a block away from the Blades, noises which seemed to be coming from the direction of the estate.

Evangeline looked back at her superior for orders, Larius quickly checked for possible ambush points and positioned himself in front of Enman. He glanced back at his apprentice, trusting her reaction time was quick today. "Detect Life Spell, 200 feet! I want to know what the hell is going on!" He yelled to his companion. With a nod of acknowledgement, Evangeline raised her right arm above her head, summoning a flash of purple energy which illuminated the life force of those around her. The battlemage focused upon the estate and regarded the scene before her; there was indeed a battle occurring at the estate, one group which appeared to be the Gilane Guardsmen and the Blades battling another force.

"There's a battle going on at the estate." She announced, "Blades and Gilane guards fighting against... I don't know who, assassins most likely." Prince Enman turned an even paler shade of grey and his legs began to tremble, Larius' brow furrowed and he glanced at the estate, "How are they holding up?" Evangeline watched as the Guardsmen and Blades defended against attacks from all sides, "Not well, they're outnumbered three to one and the assassins keep coming." Turning back to her superior, Evangeline continued, "Sir, we need to get up there before they... Look out!"

Larius heard the soft whistle of a short sword cutting through the air behind him and instantly understood. He whirled around, bringing up his katana to block the attack as Eva sent a weak fireball at the assailant, the burning orb knocking them off balance and allowing Larius to deflect the incoming attack before shoving the assassin to the floor.

Before the assassin could recover, Larius thrust his katana straight through their windpipe, Enman retched loudly and turned away. As the assassin struggled to wheeze through the wound in their neck, the Blades took a proper look at the attacker. A She-Mer most likely, the actual race couldn't be determined as the armour she wore included a face mask and hood which concealed her head completely.

Larius could not place the make of the armour, it certainly wasn't Tamrielic, Daedric perhaps? If so then it had been heavily modified from the cuirasses he had seen on the rare occasions that he was witness skilled conjurers summoning bound sets for protection. The She-Mer gave a tremendous shudder, trying in vain to sit up before expiring with a final harsh wheeze. The armour disintegrated in a cloud of red smoke. Smiling grimly as his speculation was confirmed, Larius saw the olive toned skin, a Bosmer then. Remembering the situation in the estate, he turned to Evangeline. "What's the situation in the estate?" he called to her.

Turning to look at the estate, Evangeline quickly analysed the scene, "The fightings stopped for the moment, a few of the guards are okay but there's a lot of injured, hang on... They're sending someone our way!"

The Knight-Captain looked back at the estate and saw a city guard hurrying towards them, it would be a minute at least before he reached them. Evangeline felt a change in the area of her Detect Life spell behind her, catching the captains attention as she cursed loudly. Turning around they were greeted with the sight of five more assassins sprinting straight for them, Daedric weapons in hand.

The apparent leader raised a threatening mace above his head, screaming "Death to the Septims!" at the top of his lungs. Larius gripped his katana with both hands and charged forward, determined to catch them off guard. Eva quickly cast shield spells upon him as one of the assassins launched a lightning bolt at him, barely noticing that the Prince was stood behind her looking positively terrified.

"Stop that mage!" Larius yelled back at her, taking the bolt squarely in the chest as the shield spell absorbed it. He brought the razor-sharp katana down across the chest of one of the assassins, slicing through both ribcage and heart, killing him instantly. Two of the assassins rushed in to keep Larius away from their mage whilst the mace wielding leader charged past, still heading straight for Enman.

Evangeline quickly cast a hasty shield spell upon the Prince before focussing her magicka into a magnificent spear of a frost-bolt. Praying that the approaching guard was close enough to distract the leader, she launched the bolt at one of Larius' attackers. The frost-bolt hurtled through the air, barrelling into the head of its target and thoroughly eviscerating it. Losing none of its velocity, the frost-bolt caught the assassins' mage squarely in the chest, killing him instantly and sending him flying backwards. Not taking a moment to pause, Larius used his other foe's momentary distraction to drive his sword straight into their heart. The mace wielder reach Evangeline but instead of attacking her directly, he jabbed his free hand into her neck, stunning her whilst he swung wildly at Enman.

As quickly as Enman tried to move out of the assassin's reach, he was not fast enough and the mace connected with his hip, smashing into the bone with a sickeningly loud crunch. Screaming in pain, Enman toppled over as the mace-man darted forward for the killing blow. Before he could reach however, the messenger guard clambered over the carts and tackled the assassin. As the two men landed, Evangeline recovered enough to cast a Silence spell on the assassin, preventing him from using magic and allowing the guard to pin the man down. Larius ran over to check Enman and found him barely concious, the shield spell barely managed to save his life.

The assassin cackled madly beneath the guard. "You think this is over?" He taunted between fits of insane laughter, "There are more of us, there are always more! The Emperor and his heirs will die and our Lord will be triumphant!" The assassin forced the guard off of himself and scrambled back. Before the Blades could react, he withdrew a hidden dagger. "Paradise awaits me!" He screamed, sawing away at his throat until he finally toppled over dead.

Evangeline stared at the assassin's corpse, still too dazed to properly listen in on the conversation that the guard and Larius were holding. Her captain staring down at her made her properly aware of her surroundings and she looked up, "Yes Sir?" she inquired. Larius gave her a long look of concern before swallowing hard.

"Listen to me." He began, "There'll be another assault on the way, you heard that madman. The other princes are targets too, even the Emperor is." Helping her to her feet, he continued. "Get to Chorrol and find Grandmaster Jauffre, tell him about the attack and the plot against the Emperor and he'll know what to do."

Evangeline knew what Larius was about to do, she nearly told him to go instead as at least he'd be a better asset to the Empire but she knew he wouldn't accept that for an answer. Fighting back her fears, she recomposed herself, "As you command Sir. But what about-" Larius cut her off, "That's an order for immediate action Knight-Sister! It's a two day ride to Taneth, once you get there use the Mages Guild portals to get to Rihad, hopefully the border to Cyrodiil is open and you'll get to Chorrol in five days. Get there without any delays, the Empire depends on it. Got it?" Evangeline nodded reluctantly. "Good, we're defending Enman here, should give you time to get out of the city, now go!"

Without another word, Evangeline turned and belted for the city gates, already she could see more life forces approaching and she sped up to evade them. Despite the danger, she escaped Gilane without incident. The same could sadly not be said of Knight-Captain Larius but she already knew that much. The Knight-Sister's journey to Taneth was fraught with peril, as at least one group of the assassins had followed her. Fortunately a Mages Guild party encountered her and defeated her pursuers. One of the party was even helpful enough to take her directly to Rihad with a Recall spell. Evangeline held a lot of gratitude to the Guild for that gesture, but she would have to repay it at a later date.

Resolving herself for the arduous three day ride ahead, she promised herself that she would succeed. She would deliver the warning and save her Emperor. As she made her way towards the border to Cyrodiil, Evangeline had no idea that the message she carried would change the fate of not just the Emperor, but all of Tamriel.