Ex Cinis Cineris: Out of the Ashes.
The ebony carriages had stopped at the foot of the mountains. The group had had to hike the rest of the way up.
Needless to say, the mages had a harder time than the battlemages and mundane mercenaries. Nevertheless, with potion and Restorative magic they gamely made their way up.
Sundercliff was inaccessible, there was no doubt about that, but contacts in Morrowind and Cyrodiil reported that the Telvanni had managed to bring a veritable army to it, and had probably hired even more soldiers from within Cyrodiil.
Yes, the black-clothed Bretons had done their homework, alright. High Rock is a long way from the Cyrodiil-Morrowind border, and mages do not travel a third across Tamriel for no good reason.
When they reached the main entrance, the group leader, a young brown-haired and doe-eyed Breton man, had pushed his way past the sweaty men (in great distaste) that made up the front of their little procession and placed his hand over the huge lock.
With a blast of white light the lock was broken, and with a wave of black-gloved hands the heavy wooden doors swung open.
'Miranda!' the young man yelled to the back. A girl, no older than seventeen, made her way to the front to stand next to him. She took a few steps inside the structure.
Her eyes glowed violet and magenta, and it was a few moments before she spoke.
'I count over thirty Dunmer in the front, then about a hundred in the second area, with a sprinkling of Khajiit and Argonians -probably laborers-. It gets hazy further back. There's probably walls between the groups. We have to be prepared for a complicated floorplan...'
'Anything in the immediate area?' the boy asked. 'Less than ten.' Miranda answered.
By now, the other mages that made up the core of the group had come to the front. 'Think you can handle ten Dunmer, Seth?' the young man teased. The Illusionist looked at him and smiled. 'Better than any Alterationist can, Julian...'
Miranda smirked. Julian looked amused. 'Yes, not much for offense, are we?' he offered. 'That's why we brought the twins, after all.'
Phoebe and Damian, the 'Frostfire twins' as they were known in the group, smiled at their peers. 'What do you think? Shall you two go first with some escorts?'
Damian shook his head. 'We can handle ten just fine on our own. Other people usually get in the way.' The boy said this without arrogance. It was a simple and well-known truth that the Frostfire twins often used spells with large radii.
Julian stepped aside to let the black haired boy and girl pass.
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The Dunmer soldiers were hopelessly outmatched. Between the battlemages and Frostfire twins the Bretons had far more firepower than any Telvanni's mercenary army.
Phoebe launched a single fireball at the ledge where the archers were firing from, the force of the explosion knocking off any Dunmer not already killed by the initial heat. You could tell where Damian had cast his frost spells because the tents in the immediate area were covered with frost.
Miranda, Julian and Seth hung back from the battle. Not because they did not have considerable skill in Destruction (they did.), but because they wanted to save their magicka for the when their skills were necessary.
Besides, why bother casting Destruction spells alongside the twins? You'll just look bad.
It was not long before little remained of the little village the soldiers had built.
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'Where is the bezoar?' Seth patiently asked. The Dunmer man reached into his pocket and pulled it out. Julian checked to make sure his gloves were on before pocketing the slightly slimy thing.
Seth released the Dunmer from his Command spell. The man blinked and looked around confusedly.
Damian killed him with a single frost bolt.
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The vampires were an absolute delight to fight with. Julian joyously blasted them with Burden spells and gleefully watched as the battlemages finished them off with fireballs.
Even Miranda was having fun, slamming them around with Telekinesis before snapping their necks with the same spell.
Seth and the twins watched amusedly.
Far behind, back in the underground village and outer chambers the mercs and battlemages were cleaning up, taking everything of value.
It seemed that this mission was to be profitable as well as amusing.
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'I see him.' Miranda said breathlessly. 'There's something else in the room-something strange.' She could not quite make out what the second life force was. Nordic, but...
The others smiled to themselves. The vampires were a nice change from the average enemy. But the Telvanni- he would be the most fun to fight.
Seth had obligingly cast Invisibility over all of them. The look on the Dunmer's face would be priceless...
The Telvanni mage was pacing. Was this a trap? What would happen if he tried to move the grating? It was there! The one thing he needed to take over all of Tamriel! The ultimate weapon!
A swirl of purple light caught his attention. Two strangers-children.
'Who in Oblivion are you?' he shouted angrily. What were these children doing here?!
With a smile, Phoebe lobbed a fireball at him. The disk of purple light the Telvanni conjured defected the fireball.
Before he could react, Damian cast a frost spell. From somewhere came a bolt of green light. From another direction, an orb of white-
The Telvanni found himself attacked from all directions. Who had cast what?
As they had cast their spells their Invisibility had broken, and all of them except Miranda were in view.
With a flurry of spell work the Telvanni had countered all the spells in time. He was worried though. The spells these people were using- Invisibility, Dispel, Paralyze, Burden... These were not apprentice level spells. Who are these people?
The mage steadied himself. Time to fight back.
With a swirl of crimson smoke a Dremora appeared, wielding a very sharp-looking claymore. It charged towards the young man with brown eyes and hair.
Meanwhile, the Telvanni found himself beset by a flurry of green orbs of light. Seth was churning out Paralysis spells, and the Dunmer struggled to counter them all.
A build up of magicka behind him gave him a few seconds warning. He threw himself to the side as a fireball, with a frost bolt trailing behind, flew past him.
The two spells were heading straight towards the blonde boy when a girl suddenly appeared from a haze of green light and created a film of purple light between Seth and the spells. They were absorbed harmlessly.
The Telvanni was furious. What, a fifth now?!
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As the Dremora lifted its claymore up, it suddenly slipped out of his hands and dropped onto the ground below. Its weight had inexplicably increased ten-fold.
Almost immediately the daedra's armour was hit by a bolt of white light and increased so much in weight that the Dremora was pulled down with it.
Sadistically, Julian cast another Burden spell, causing the armour to crush down upon the Dremora, straining his ribcage-
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The Telvanni shot a frost bolt at the girl. She Reflected it, and he found himself having to Absorb his own spell.
He absorbed several other attempts by the children t either roast or freeze him, when he suddenly became aware that the blonde one had vanished.
In a moment of absolute clarity, he felt a weight on his shoulder. From Seth's hand flowed a powerful Paralyze spell, and the Invisibility veil broke.
The Telvanni knew he was done for.
As the Dremora was banished after having his ribcage burst, the Telvanni felt an overwhelming cold envelop his body.
In a second he was totally numb. In another moment he was dead.
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Faythung was a disappointment. Miranda had tried to light the grating with Telekinesis, and just she was about to break it he had stirred.
Julian had cast a powerful Burden spell, and Phoebe had set him alight. The body quite mysteriously burned away almost instantly.
With that over, Miranda had finished the job with the grating. The metal bars had snapped under the force of her spell.
Reverently, she had brought it out with another Telekinesis spell. Julian placed it into a specially crafted pouch. The Razor was one weapon you didn't want to get accidentally nicked by.
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On the way out the battlemages had shown the group the Morag Tong agent they had found. Julian sighed. Seems one of their contacts in Morrowind had leaked. They would have to be dealt with.
The mages had let him go, with the suggestion that he should tell his superiors to keep out of the High Rock Mage's League business; post-Oblivion-Crisis Tamriel was a dangerous place, and the Tong would do well to stick to Morrowind politics, which we've heard has gotten quite interesting...
Though not before they had made him hand over his enchanted items and change into mundane clothes.
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As they emerged, the mages enjoyed the fresh air.
Mehrunes Razor, Morag Tong equipment and an armory full of iron armour and weapons to sell at the Imperial City?
Jackpot!