A/N: So, I found this old NaNoWriMo story hanging around in the Cloud, and I decided to upload a few chapters and see what everyone thinks! If you like it and let me know, I'll post the rest and finish it!

Disclaimer: I just own Dione and Elune.

I huffed as I pushed myself away from the cold uneven floor, aware of how hard it was on my bones to do so. The metal footsteps of the guard retreated into the distance, and in an instant, I was on my feet, grabbing the metal bars. They were just as cold as the floor, but had an unpleasant coating of grime on them.

The iron back of the Imperial Watchman disappeared as he climbed the stairs. I slipped my hand into my shirt and removed the Skeleton Key from where I had hidden it, a slow grin forming on my face.

"Pale skin, snotty expression. You must be a Breton." The harsh black voice shot at me from across the way. There, hidden among the backdrop of bleary gray walls was a Dunmer. His red, snake-like eyes narrowed and he snorted. "The masters of magicka, right? Hmph. You're nothing but a stuck-up harlot with cheap parlor tricks." He waved his hand around to indicate his cell. "Go ahead, try your magicka in here. Let's see you make those bars disappear." Ridiculous Dark Elf, didn't he know there was no spell for disintegrating matter? It was one of Galeron's established concepts of magic.

The Dunmer interrupted my thoughts again. "No? What's the matter? Not so powerful now, are you Breton? You're not leaving this prison 'til they throw your body in the lake." He donned an expression of nonchalance, looking at his dirt crusted nails. "Oh, that's right. You're going to die in here, Breton! You're going to die."

My hands gripped the bars, once again feeling the sickly decay. How many things had touched these bars, what kind of things? Slowly, I removed them. "You don't even know the extent of my 'parlour tricks.' You see...I have a lockpick that can never break." I smiled, holding up the Skeleton Key, secure between my forefinger and my thumb.

"Ha!" He groused. "Cheap talk! I don't see how a weakling like you could possess such an artifact. How old are you anyway? Still drink your mother's milk?" At my clenched jaw, he laughed, eyes glinting terribly. "And what is with that ostentatious Alteration spell? Put a little gold in your hair to get some attention? Gave yourself a different eye? You Bretons are all the same."

I held my head up a little higher, looking down my nose at him. "I received this key from a Daedra Lord, and for your information, I was born looking like this."

The Dunmer cackled. "Oh, so you were born a freak show? That is so much better."

I clenched my fists, and the Skeleton Key dug into my skin. What could I say to this ash-faced fetcher to get him to shut up? He was still laughing, and I whirled around in frustration, back against the gelatinous bars.

There, sitting at the rotten table with a polite manner was a Bosmer woman. She sipped something from a pewter cup—water, presumably- and glanced up at me. "Hello." Her smile was simple and measured. Though she wore the same shirt and tatty pants as I, she looked a lot more out of place in them. "Don't listen to him. He stops talking in a few hours if you ignore him."

A few hours? In the name of Sheogorath, how was she still sane? I crossed my arms. "I plan to get out of here."

She glanced at my hand. "Yes, with your lockpick." Her narrow eyes flicked up at me, calm. "If you're caught, it will only increase your sentence." Oh, great, a model citizen.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Yes, but I'd much rather be sleeping in my own bed."

She blinked, and took another sip from her cup. This time, I did roll my eyes, turning around and inserting my pick into the lock. I could feel some tumblers move as I wiggled the metal pick.

A snort. "What are you doing? A slaughterfish could lockpick better than that!"

A growl tickled my throat, and I felt my cheeks blush. Maybe I was really very bad at picking a lock...but at least the Key wouldn't break.

The Key slipped again and the Dunmer huffed with amusement. "What in the name of the Tribunal are you even doing?"

I yanked the pick out and narrowed my eyes. "You know what, Ashborn? I-"

A loud thud echoed through the halls. The Dunmer was silent for once, glancing up the stairs as I was. There was silence. Maybe it was nothing? Then came the measured steps of guards, and the sound of clinking armor.

The Dark Elf grinned. "The guards are coming, for you! Hahahahahahahaha!" He cackled, grasping his stomach with sick mirth. He stepped back into the shadows of his cell, and the last thing I saw of him was his two red eyes.

The guards were visible now, having descended the steep stairs. The one in the lead stepped towards my cell, eyes hard and frigid. She growled and threw a hand up. "Who put prisoners in this cell?"

The guard behind her stammered. "Uhh...usual mix up with the watch?" He seemed to implore her to accept his excuse.

She simply rolled her eyes and then glared at me. "Step back, Prisoner."

I put my hands up, moving backwards. "Okay, okay." I muttered. "I have a name, you know..." I looked over my shoulder to make sure I wouldn't trip on anything.

There was a shuffle and a thud, and suddenly, the Wood Elf was standing, stock still and pale. I glanced at the floor in alarm. She had risen so quickly, her chair had toppled over. I followed her gaze to see an elderly man, dressed in rich robes, with...the Emperor's Amulet around his neck.

Oh Gods, was this the pardoning day?

"M-My lord." The Elf sputtered. Her eyes were wide, and her pale cheeks were beginning to glow pink. She really was a model citizen, wasn't she?

"Stay put, prisoners." Said a male guard, calmly. The other one, the one who had barked at me, was feeling all of the bricks on the right wall.

That was when the Emperor came towards us. "You two..." He uttered, voice like torn silk. "You are the ones from my dreams."

His...his dreams? I looked over at the elf incredulously. What could we possibly have in common? Feeling the silence stretch like a sharp lute string, I had to cut into it somehow. "Um...Okay?"

The Emperor smiled. "The Nine have placed you here. I go to my death, and you two must carry my burden."

What in Aetherius was this? Were these armed soldiers escorting him to the Pelagius Ward or something?

The wall suddenly shook, and a large opening grew out of what had previously been stone. "Sire, we must keep moving."

The Emperor smiled again, and nodded, following the woman down into the dark secret passage.

Was this even happening, or was Sheogorath just playing a ridiculous trick on me?

"Looks like this is your lucky day, you two. Just don't interfere with us." With that, the last guard descended into the hole.

They were gone so quick that only the gaping hole in the wall spoke to the fact that the Emperor had just been in our cell.

I blinked, the shrugged. If this was a game of the Madgod, I might as well play it. "Fine by me. Won't have to flee all the guards this way."

The Elf stepped forward, eyes wide. "But if we're caught escaping, we'll only make things worse for ourselves."

She was only trying to be reasonable, but I still rolled my eyes. "Did you hear the Emperor and that Guard? We're basically pardoned. Now do you want to eat prison food and chat up that Ashborn for the next week or do you want out?"

She paused, and then looked up into the meager ray of light that the cell window offered. She sighed. "After you."

I stepped into the inky black with a magelight in my open palm. She followed, but I could barely hear her footsteps. She would make a good thief. "What were you in for, eh?" I asked over my shoulder.

When she replied, it was with uncertainty. "It was a mix up, I'm sure. The Guards seized me and said they'd been looking for me. When they threw me in prison, I asked the Guard to take a message to his Superior. They must have just been confused...it's hard for humans to tell Elves apart sometimes."

I inwardly snorted. How could one remain so tolerant of the legal system when the legal system had accidentally thrown them in a cold jail for no apparent reason.

"And you?" Her voice was tentative, and far away. I turned to make sure she was still close, only to find her a few feet behind me, her long face and pointed ears illuminated by magelight.

I shifted my weight from one leg to another. "I'm...just a bad thief." Considering my response, and finding in accurate enough, I turned around and continued walking.

"I see." Her voice held enough moral judgment to make me shake my head slightly. We walked on in silence for a while after that.

We came to an open space with much more light. It was littered with red robed bodies, and the body of the woman soldier. I crouched by one of the robed men and fished through his pockets.

The elf let out a gasp. "You're taking their things?"

I turned around and gave her a dumbfounded look. "Um...yeah?" I gestured to their unmoving bodies. "Do they need them?"

She still didn't look convinced. "It seems wrong to take things when you can't even ask them."

I rolled my eyes, turning to the dead man. "Excuse me, dead sir, may I take the items you are physically unable to use anymore?" I grabbed his arm and waved it around in the air as I imitated his voice.

"'Why of course you can! I have no need of them any lon-"

The hand clamped itself around my wrist and the man let out a low guttural cry, bloody face rising up to scream at me.

"SHEOGORATH'S BLOOD!" I screeched, fire blazing out of my fingertips. The man screamed again, robes catching on fire and turning him into lumps of black waste.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I jumped, scrambling upwards.

"Calm down!" It was the Wood Elf. Her hands were held out between her and me, as if to calm me, or to protect herself. It was the loudest she had spoken so far.

Shakily, I brushed my hair out of my face. "Okay, okay, you win you win you win. No taking things from 'dead' bodies."

She laughed, although it was only half hearted.

"What should I call you?" I suddenly blurted. Maybe it was the near death experience, but it was strange to me that we didn't even know each other's names.

She glanced up at me, and then held out a hand. "Dione Felerys."

I shook hands with her. "Elune Gervail."

"Rats. Rats. Oh, and more Rats." I frowned as I stepped over the blood soaked fur of the skeever Dione had just killed. Her arrow was buried deep into it's skull. She was quite handy with a bow, and seemed to have no qualms killing animals.

She ignored my complaints, materializing beside me with her bow facing down, another arrow knocked. "Do you think we are getting close to the exit?"

I shrugged. "I hope so. I think the worst of it was that Goblin Den."

She nodded, lips pursed. Her shoulder was probably still aching from where I had tried to heal her. We pressed through the dark, my arm aching from the effort of holding up the magelight continuously.

We had scavenged some useful potions and weapons in the caves. Dione had found her rusty old bow and a quiver of arrows, while I had found an iron shortsword. When my magicka ran out, all I really knew what to do with it was hit people.

We crawled through a winding tunnel and then...salvation! "Look!" I cried, pointing, but she had already seen the hole in the wall. She smiled gratefully and we jumped down into the Imperial Sewers. Goodbye caves, hello paved ground.

She threw back an arm. "Wait." She cocked her head to the side.

At first I didn't hear anything, but then I could make out the voices too. "The Emperor's guards." She nodded, and we crept forward. Sure enough, down below the guards were walking into the chamber.

"We should join up with them."

I grabbed her arm before she could move forward. "Are you kidding? They told us to stay away from them!"

"Shhh, what's that?" Asked a guard.

"More assassins!" An arrow whizzed past my face and I screamed.

"No, no! Dammit we're the prisoners!" I yelped.

The arrows stopped. After a moment of distant whispering, a guard yelled, "Come down here!"

Looking at Dione with an expression that read 'I told you so', I jumped down onto the lower level. She was just a second behind me.

A man stepped forward, face pulled into a scowl. "It's the prisoners. We should kill them, sire, they may be working with the assassins." He unsheathed a long, blood-stained sword. It was slightly curved and thin, like I'd never seen before.

I held up my hands. "Whoa, excuse me?"

"No." Ordered the Emperor. "They are not aligned with them." He turned to address us. "You two, step forward. I would prefer not to have to shout."

Dione stepped forward without hesitation, towards the old man. I frowned. Why in the world did the Emperor—if he really was the Emperor, and not some decoy—want to talk with us? I followed Dione, foot stubbing itself on a broken off bit of pillar. I stumbled, and someone caught me. It was the other Blade.

"Careful." He said quietly. I nodded. Careful? Down here? After everything that had happened today, he was telling me to care to not trip on rocks? I suppressed a smile and carefully picked my way over to the Emperor.

The old man looked at me with intense eyes. "I wonder, what sign were you born under?"

What sign? I had been born in frostfall, under the sign of the... "Serpent."

He looked to Dione. "Lover." She supplied with a small duck of her head.

The Emperor laughed. "A Lover and a Serpent. Yes, you two certainly are the ones who will see the dawn of the sun's companion. You will banish the darkness together."

Banish darkness? I looked to Dione, who—thankfully—had as much confusion on her face as me.

"We should get going." Groused the first Blade, the man who had wanted to kill us. He brushed past me roughly, and I stumbled out of his way. The Emperor followed him into another passage, and Dione stepped in behind him.

I brushed off my shoulder and glared at his back. "'Kill them, they could be working with the assassins.'" I mocked in a high voice.

A chuckle sounded behind me. Oh! The other man. My cheeks warmed and I turned to him, feeling an urge to place my hand on the back of my neck.

"Don't blame Glenroy, he's just...taking the deaths of the Emperor's sons hard. He was supposed to protect them."

I blinked. "His sons are dead?"

The Blade gestured for us to keep moving as we talked. I fell in step slightly behind him, and he turned his face back toward me as he went on. "That's why we're getting the Emperor out of here. Assassins killed all of his sons and are trying to kill him. The escape route just happened to pass through the cell you and your friend were in."

Well, it seemed it was our lucky day. "Are you in the Legion?"

He shook his head. "Gods, no. We're the personal protectors of the Emperor, the Blades."

That explained the armor, which really did look different from the Legion's. "I see."

In front of us, the narrow passage flew open into a cavernous space. It was lit up by the stringy green light coming from the small windows at the top of the room. They seemed to mock us, letting us know just how close and yet unobtainable freedom was.

"I don't like the look of this." Glenroy stepped forward and surveyed the area, looking around into all corners before he held up a hand to gesture that we could join him. We went down the stairs onto the lower level.

Baurus let out a breath beside me, and he was looking at the gate to our right. "We just might make it."

Glenroy stepped up to the gate and then gasped. "The gate, it's barred from the other side." Everyone suddenly froze, and it took me a moment to process what that meant. Dione took her bow from her back and knocked an arrow. I heard the dull squeak of tightening leather as Baurus gripped the hilt of his sword with force. "It's a trap!"

There was a clatter and a thud back from the way we came. Was that sound made by people? Suddenly, Baurus grabbed my arm and we were running into the other side passage.

"Dammit, a dead end." Glenroy's eyes were glinting, and he looked back into the clearing. He drew his sword and stepped out of our sight. "For the Emperor!" His faraway voice shouted.

Baurus, who had still been holding my arm, pushed me closer to the Emperor. "You two, guard the Emperor with your life!" With one last desperate glance at his lord and charge, he left the room to join the fight.

The sounds of battle were distant, but they were growing closer and closer.

"Elune..." I turned to look at Dione, who's eyes were wide. She looked to the Emperor, and I followed her gaze.

His eyes were closed, and his face was lifted towards the ceiling.

"My time has come." His rich deep voice filled our little alcove. "A tongue shriller than all the music calls me." His eyes opened, and he looked down at me. The blue irises shimmered with emotion. Lifting his hands to his neck, he removed the Amulet of Kings. He grabbed my hands and pressed the glowing red jewel into them.

What was he even doing? I was holding the Amulet of Kings?! "Take the Amulet of Kings. Find Jauffre, find my last son." He turned from me, eyes heavy, and faced Dione. He took her hands in his. "Find him, and close shut the jaws of Oblivion."

Suddenly, everything happened at once. The Emperor grabbed Dione by the shoulders and shoved her over towards me. I caught her, but just as I looked up again, my vision was stained with red.

An assassin jumped forward, and Emperor Uriel tore like a curtain under his mace.

Dione screamed and shot a wayward arrow. It missed, and the man advanced. "I don't know who you pretty ladies are, but you picked a bad day to take up the mantle of the Septims."

His mace rose in the air and I let out of my hand a Disintegrate spell. He stumbled, looking at his empty hand in confusion. It was just enough time for Dione to shoot an arrow through his neck. He fell, and gurgled for a few moments until he was finally silent.

"Sire...sire." Gasped Dione as she fell on her knees. With great care, her slender hand cupped a bloodstained cheek. "Oh no..."

Baurus flew in, feet skidding on the rough stone. He took one look at the Emperor and leaned back against the wall, hand covering his eyes. A dull groan issued from his chest. "We've failed...I've failed..." He stumbled forward and onto his knees, much like Dione. With a heavy hand, he laid his palm over the dead man's heart. "The Amulet...The Amulet of Kings, it's gone!"

I remembered to speak. "No, no, it's not." I held it out awkwardly into the air. "He gave it to me."

Baurus stood and moved towards me, hand out as if he was going to grab the Amulet. He thought better of it, apparently, as the hand withdrew and his gaze focused on me. "He saw something in you two, both of you." Dione looked up to Baurus from where she knelt on the ground. "They say it's the Dragonblood that runs through every Septim's veins."

I looked down at the Amulet, and it seemed to stare at me. Why had he given me this? "Jauffre, he wants us to take this to a man named Jauffre."

Baurus sighed and rubbed his forehead with a hand. "He's the Grandmaster of our Order, though you wouldn't know it by looking at him. He lives quietly as a monk at Weynon Priory."

I nodded. "Weynon. Where is that?" Was I crazy? Was I actually agreeing to this?

"Outside of Chorrol."

Dione stood, and she was no longer shaky or dismayed. She simply stood tall and strong. "He also mentioned another son."

Baurus turned to her, incredulous. "Another heir?" He seemed to think for a moment before shrugging his shoulders, as if deciding that today was too strange to start questioning everything now. "Nothing I ever heard about. But if anyone would know, it would be Jauffre."

"So we're going then, together?" She was looking straight at me, determined and imploring. So was Baurus; they were both awaiting my answer.

"Well..." I hadn't asked for any of this. I had my own agenda up top. Or...did I? All I did was steal to live, and even then all I had was that hovel on the Waterfront. Life was normal, boring, and mundane. Did I want to trek miles to Chorrol holding a priceless artifact? No. Did I want to return to the normal, everyday life of routine? Not exactly. I sighed. "Fine. Yes, I'll go, at least to Weynon Priory."

Baurus seemed to relax. "Good, good. Look, I'll give you the key to the Sewers. There are rats and goblins down there, but nothing I think you two can't handle." He paused his rummaging through his pockets and narrowed his eyes. He pointed at Dione. "I'm guessing...you're a monk." He turned to me. "And you're in the Mage class, right?"

Dione shrugged. "You're close enough."

Not exactly, but not too far off. "Same here." I echoed.

He chuckled a little. "Thought so. Here's the key." He handed it to Dione. "You two better get moving. I'll stay here to guard the Emperor's body. I hope his trust was well placed."

Dione nodded to him, but I wasn't so sure. We climbed through the newly-opened hole in the wall, and headed towards the sewers.