Teldryn Sero
Blade for Hire
This is my first story, guys :) I would be really appreciative if you let me know what you think!
He walked through the sparse trees, his light apparel rustling softly. The dancing light of the dying sun lightly lit his ashen face. He had been living in the Grey Quarter for many years now. That was hard on an elf at the best of times, being miserable as it was and full of bitter Dunmer. But to be forced to return after losing his only income, working with that Nord, because the fool wanted the pair of them to tackle what must have been one of the biggest bandit encampments in Skyrim… That made Teldryn even more miserable. But no amount of money was worth that kind of death.
Finally he reached his destination. A peaceful, secluded river catchment. Teldryn found it relaxing. The water was fresh and clear and filled with Abecean Longfin and Cyrodillic Spadetail. All the times he had been here, he had not once encountered a slaughter fish. He looked down into the clear, still water. He saw a grim Dunmer face staring back, crimson eyes with a dying fire for lust of adventure. A fire that was fuelled by being one of the best sell sword mages Tamriel had to offer. But the Grey Quarter would suck the soul out of even the strongest Dunmer faster that soul trap and a Black Soul Gem.
He reached up to trace a slim, ashen finger over the war paint that accentuated his strong Dunmer features. Across the top of one of his deeply arched eyebrows, over his high cheek bone and down to his slightly frowned, dark lips. He let out a soft sigh, slowly closing his intense, crimson eyes. He turned to head back to that deepest plane of Oblivion in Windhelm he called home.
He had not long left his peaceful glade, lost in thought, when a Breton courier appeared at random from behind a tree. Teldryn stopped and gently, elegantly arched an eyebrow in slight surprise. The courier looked at him blankly, "I've got something I'm supposed to deliver. Your hands only. Let's see here… I've got a letter, and a lot of gold. Something about it being your, uuuuhhh... Inheritance! Oh, and, uh, sorry for your loss. Well, looks like that's it. Got to go!" After handing over the letter and a reasonably weighted coin purse, the courier ran off into the trees, nowhere near the direction of a settlement for kilometres. Teldryn dropped and furrowed his brow. He rolled his eyes in a somewhat exasperated manner; he had always thought the couriers were stupid. He stowed the coin purse and letter away in his clothing to look at when he reached home.
After he arrived back in the grey quarter, He stopped off to see Revyn Sadri at Sadri's Used Wares. He purchased some items for his evening meal and headed home. Once he was there he opened his letter. It informed him that someone from the Whiterun hold by the name of Lydia had died. He cared not much for that. What he did care about though was the fact that the deceased had bequeathed unto him a measured sum of 500 gold septims. His crimson eyes opened in shock. The Jarl of Whiterun, the famous Balgruuf the Greater, had deducted a sum of 50 septims from the total, as was the lawful custom, but that still gave Teldryn 450 septims. He smiled to himself for the first time in many moons, and decided now was probably going to be the best chance he'd have of getting out of the Oblivion pit that was the grey quarter and to somewhere more hospitable and with more work.
The following day, 17th Frostfall, Teldryn went back to Sadri's Used Wares to plan what he would need to leave. "Got a sum of gold yesterday, it should be enough to get me out of here" he said to Revyn. "Yeah? You're lucky. Wouldn't consider taking me with you, would you?" came his reply. Teldryn let out a short, dry chuckle, but said no more. The answer was clear. Revyn grunted in response. "Gjalund has a ship headed for Solstheim at sun up if you're interested." He told Teldryn. Teldryn grunted in acknowledgement and thought for a moment. "I was thinking I miss Blacklight… That's a city. A proper city. But I don't think Morrowind is the place to be right now. Maybe Solstheim would quench my hunger for home. No one to carry on incessantly drunk about the Dunmer there either. And plenty of people willing to pay for protection there where they can, the place is apparently crawling with Reavers." Revyn nodded "I've heard that some of them wear the Bonemold armour, like the Redoran Guard." Teldryn replied with a distant "hmm…" he thought for a few minutes, rubbing his chin "Guess I'm off to talk to Gjalund then…" he said to Revyn with finality. Revyn gave nothing more than a grim nod in reply.
Teldryn bought himself a sweet roll, and then he made his way to the Windhelm docks to locate Gjalund Salt-Sage, captain of the Northern Maiden.
He found Gjalund hammering away at something on the mast, though Teldryn wasn't sure what exactly. Gjalund looked up to see Teldryn standing there. Without ceasing his hammering, he said to the ashen-faced Teldryn "Greeting, Dark elf. What do you want?" Teldryn ignored the typical Nord rudeness that Gjalund showed through his crisp tone. All the Dunmer is Windhelm copped it. "Passage to Solstheim" Teldryn replied shortly, getting straight to the point. Gjalund, still hammering away at the mast for no apparent reason, replied "it'll be 250 septims. Boat leaves at the crack of dawn. You be here and you be ready or you stay in the Grey Quarter." Teldryn nodded sharply and turned on his heel to head back to Windhelm.
After packing all off his very few belongings, Teldryn dropped to his mattress and put his hands behind his head, looking up at the rough wooden roofing. He stared at the roof, hoping to any of the nine divines that would listen that Solstheim would be better than living in the Grey Quarter.
Crack of dawn and Teldryn was on the dock with his meagre belongings ready for the trip to Solstheim. He stood, stony faced next to the Northern Maiden after paying his 250 septims, waiting for Gjalund to say they were ready to take off from the dock. He heard they cry of "all aboard!" and climbed onto the deck ready to cast off.
The trip to Solstheim was a slow one. The constant swaying of the boat, the ever looming sight of Red Mountain in the heart of Morrowind, spewing it's ever flowing ash. As they got closer to Solstheim, Teldryn could almost feel the life gradually die out of the water. The fish and other creatures unable to live in the ash-waste water. He looked about the water, gradually seeing the Dunmer settlement of Raven Rock creep into view.
"We are here, elf!" Gjalund called from the prow. Teldryn grumbled to himself, something about Nords… and hopped up with great stealth for someone who had been sitting still so long. He grabbed his knapsack and waited for the ship to pull into the Raven Rock dock.
As the ship was tied in, a stern-faced Dunmer walked up the dock. The early noon sun lit his dark skinned face with a shadowy light. "Morning, Gjalund. Who is this?" Gjalund looked down at Teldryn. "One of the dark elves from Windhelm. Requested passage. Paid. He's yours now"
The stern faced Dunmer looked over at Teldryn from the dock. "I don't recognize you so I'll assume this is your first visit to Raven Rock. State your intentions."
Teldryn regarded the elf, "looking for work, and a new life"
The Dunmer looked at him flatly "you've picked one of the worst places in Morrowind to do that, but suit yourself. I am Second Councillor Arano. It is my job to make certain that Councillor Morvayn's rule is enforced and to support him. I am sure I will be seeing you around." And with that the Second Councillor, Adril Arano, turned and walked back up the dock, leaving Teldryn and Gjalund on the ship.
Teldryn gathered his belonging bag and headed up the dock. As he stepped off the dock, his boots crunched softly on the ash. He looked up and down the main stretch, which wasn't very long. He turned his slim, handsome, ashen face to look down the road. One of the Redoran Guard walked up to him, in their Bonemold armour. "Welcome to Raven Rock. Stay out of trouble while you're here, and if you see any suspicious activity, report it to Captain Veleth immediately. The Retching Netch is up the road, across from Glover Mallory's forge, there if you're looking for a place to stay." Teldryn nodded his thanks and headed up the road towards the Retching Netch.
He looked about the small Dunmer settlement as he walked, boots crunching the ash softly. He saw many unidentifiable buildings, small fences, Redoran guard, an assortment of Dunmer, and many of the plants known as Scathecraw.
As he entered the Netch, he saw a Dunmer, tall for a Dunmer he was, standing by a seated Orc who was idly holding his tankard.
He saw a slightly vague looking Dunmer pottering about the tables.
He saw a fireplace.
And he saw a set of stairs, which seemed like the obvious path to take, so he took it.
"Welcome to the Retching Netch! Finest Sujamma in all of Morrowind! I'm Geldis Sadri, at your service. How may I help you today?" said a relatively cheery Dunmer, as far as Dunmer go, who was standing behind a counter just after Teldryn had reached the base of the stairs. "I'm Teldryn Sero. Looking for a place to stay. New to Solstheim, arrived not long ago."
"Ah! You've come to the right place. We have rooms, 10 gold a night."
"I'll take one" Teldryn handed Geldis 10 gold septims
"Wonderful. I'll show you too your room"
Geldis took Teldryn to his to his room. Teldryn thanked him and put his stuff down. He spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on his bed before settling in to sleep for the night.
The next morning he awoke, went out and had a small conversation with Geldis, and went to sit upstairs by the fire. The slightly vague Dunmer passed him by a few times before stopping to have a quick chat, "You must be new 'round here. I'm Drovas Relvi. Work for ol' Geldis. Nice to meet you, and you are?"
"Teldryn Sero. New to Solstheim, nice to meet you too" Drovas nodded and went back to his business.
Teldryn learnt with hearing the conversation that the Orc's name was Mogrul, his tall Dunmer companion was slitter. He exchanged a few words with them, though Mogrul was rather brisk and Slitter seemed intent on doing his job, working for Mogrul.
Many days passed like this, uneventful. Filled with talking sparsely to Geldis and Drovas, and listening vaguely to the conversations of Mogrul and Slitter.
Occasionally he would wander outside, though it was just as uneventful out there. Mallory was somewhat of an intrigue, being one of the very few that wasn't Dunmer. He had some very interesting stories, and good products, though Teldryn could not afford any of it. As time went on, and Teldryn got to know Mallory better, they came to an arrangement. Mallory gave Teldryn a good set of Chitin amour, and allowed him to pay it off.
Teldryn made his living by dribbling money in doing odd jobs and jobs in the ebony mine, though being a miner never took his fancy. He didn't feel like spending the rest of his days cracking rocks.
Months crawled by, eventually Teldryn paid off his new, Dunmer armour. He was doing alright, got on ok with most people in the settlement, avoided conversation with Mogrul and spent most of his days in the Retching Netch, hoping someone would be looking for a sell sword. His current living was less miserable that the grey quarter, but he really missed the adventurous life of being a sell sword mage.
Many more months passed the same, until one day, one fateful day a stranger stepped in the door of the Netch. Teldryn looked up, mildly surprised by the new addition. The stranger walked up to him and Teldryn gave them a mild look, though not that the traveller could see through the Chitin mask, "Teldryn Sero, blade for hire. If you have the coin, I'm at your service"