A/N: Here's a story I've had in my head for a bit. I figured, since there were so few Elder Scrolls femslash stories, I figured I would write my own. So, here you go.
Disclaimer: I don't the Elder Scrolls, Oblivion.
The Imperial Prison. Considered impenetrable by many and a death sentance to others. Only the most hardened criminals were sent there. Which is why a certain blue haired wood elf was anxiously pacing about in her cell. 'Damn it. Why am I in here? Did the punishment for thieving get worse when I wasen't looking?' The wood elf, who's name was Kira, was caught red handed in Valenwood trying to pick the pocket of one of the most powerful merchants in Tamriel, though she could hardley remember his name.
"Well now, a pretty little wood elf." Kira stopped her pacing and turned to look at the dark elf in the cell across from her, "Your a little far from the forest, huh? Looks like your days of woodland frolicing have come to a tragic end." Kira glared at the dunmer. Oh how she just wanted to beat him until he shut up, "To go from the gladed realm of Valenwood to a rat-infested hole like this... how very sad. These walls must feel like they're closing in on you. Pretty soon, you'll go mad and the gaurds will cut your throat just to stop the ranting. That's right, your going to die in here, wood elf. DIE!" Okay now she wanted to kill him in the most painful way imaginable. "Hey, you hear that? The gaurds are coming. For you! He, he, he."
Sure enough, Kira heard the doors further up the stairs open and voices began floating down the stairs towards them.
"Baurus, lock that door behind us." The first voice sounded distictly feminine and worried.
"Yessir." Came a second voice, presumably this Baurus. This one sounded more masculine then the last one and just as scared and worried as the first voice.
"My sons, they're dead, aren't they?" Came yet a third voice. This one sounded masculine as well, but it had a distinct tone of age and fatigue to it.
"We don't know that sire." Came the female's voice again, "The messenger only said they were attacked."
"No, they're dead, I know it." Replied the older male.
The group was now standing in front of her cell and Kira could see a silent fourth member of the group. The female and two males were wearing what appeared to be darkend brown heavy cuirasses that tapered off at the knee, there legs were protected by the same type of armor that covered there torso as well as their boots, and around there waists hung very nice looking katanas. They were definetly not the normal gaurds.
"My job right now is to get you to saftey." It was the female, and she had just noticed Kira staring dumbly at them, "What's this prisoner doing here? This cell is supposed to be off limits."
The previously silent male, an Imperial, if Kira was correct, spoke up, "Usual mix up with the watch. I..."
"Never mind, get that gate open." the female, Imperial as well, turned her attention to Kira, "Stand back prisoner, we won't hesitate to kill you if you get in our way." Kira stepped back a bit.
The male Imperial now turned to her as well, "You, prisoner! Go stand by that window and we won't hurt you."
Kira walked over to the wall next to the window, thinking that maybe the stupid dark elf may have been right all along and they were here to kill her, as the male Imperial opened the gate and went to stand in front of her.
"Stay here." He comannded.
Suddenly, Kira finally took notice of the older male. He was in elegant robes lined with jewels and had an air of regality about him. When he turned to look at Kira, his eye's suddenly went wide with shock.
"You... I've seen you..." He walked over to the now very confused wood elf, "Let me see your face. You are the one from my dreams. Then the stars were right, and this is the day. Gods give me strength."
"What's going on?" Kira asked. To say she was confused was an understatment.
"Assassins attacked my sons, and I'm next. My Blades," he gestured to his three gaurds, "are leading me out of the city along a secret escape route. By chance, the entrance to that escape route leads through your cell."
"That's all well and good, but who are you?" she asked.
"I am your Emperor, Uriel Septim. By the Grace of the Gods, I serve Tamriel as her ruler. You are a citizen of Tamriel, and you, too, shall serve her in your own way."
'A little concieded isn't he.' Thought Kira, "Why am I in this Jail?" surely she didn't deserve to be in this prison.
"Perhaps the Gods have placed you here so that we may meet. As for what you have done..." He paused to take in a breath, "It does not matter. That is not what you will be remembered for."
"I go my own way." She had no love for the Nine. Theives were one of their hated enemies, right below murderers.
"So do we all. But what path can be avoided whose end is fixed by the almighty Gods?"
As the two were talking, the female Blade had moved over to the wall to the right of Kira and pushed in a brick. Suddenly, the wall began to open and the woman turned to the Emperor.
"Please sire, we must keep moving. Better not close this one. There's no way to open it from the other side."
Kira stood and watched them leave through the new hole in the wall, all the while thinking that there was no way this day could get any weirder. After a few minutes of standing there, pondering her new situation, she went throught the hole, following the tunnel until she came across an open area with a locked gate blocking her path. Looking around for another way out, she noticed the body of the female Blade that was accompanying the Emperor near a few red-cloaked corpses.
'They must have been the assassins.' Thought Kira as she looked through the corpses. As she was looking through the dead Blades corpse for weapons, she issued a silent prayer for her. Not normally the religious type, at least with the Nine, she felt that the Blade deserved a prayer for her sacrifice. Taking a short sword and a katana from the woman, she finally noticed a hole in the wall near the locked gate. 'Might as well see where this leads.'
She stumbled through the hole and was imedently hit with the smell of a rotting corpse. 'Oh. Oh gods, where is that horrible smell coming from?' Kira thought as she put her hand to her nose, trying to block out the smell. She searched the area and found a bow and some arrows along with some armor next to a skeletal corpse, which she quickly chucked as it smelled too much of death. Attaching the quiver of arrows to her back and slinging the bow over her shoulder, she looked for a way out. She found a wooden door across the room and a rotting goblin corpse nearby, the sourse of the smell. After finding the door locked, she noticed a key hanging around the dead goblins neck. Forcing herself not to puke, she grabbed the key and quickly opened the door.
As soon as she shut the door, she was attacked by a giant rat. Pushing it off her, she unsheathed the katana she had taken from the dead Blade and sliced right through the rat, cutting it in half. "Damnit." She cursed at her own stupidity. The rat had put a nice sized hole in her shirt across her stomach and a light cut that was bleeding a bit. Luckly, she knew a basic healing spell and quickly patched up her wound, but her shirt was ruined. Discarding the ruined shirt she was left with her brown bra as the only thing sheilding her now naked upper torso, she continued along when she was again hit with the smell of a rotting corpse. Thinking it to be another dead goblin, she pressed on only to see a zombie standing and moaning over a dead rat.
'Crap.' She cursed, 'how am I going to get passed this thing.' She suddenly remembered her basic Flare spell that she learned while breifly in the Valenwood military. Aiming her right hand at the zombie, she quickly mumered the incantation. Almost immediently, her hand lit up and a small fireball shot out of her hand and lit up the zombie like a torch. It ran around for a bit until it colapsed in a heap near the dead rat and stank up the tunnel even more with the smell of burned rotting corpse. 'Ah. Ah! I didn't think it could smell any worse.' She thought as she placed her arm around her nose and pressed on.
Eventually, Kira came across a goblin camp. Using her archery skills she learned in the Valenwood military, she quickly dispatched of the goblins. Also, to add to her luck, she came across a flax tunic, a brownish green shirt to replace the shirt she had tossed earlier. Pressing on, she came to another hole and heard the voices of the two male Blades.
"We should find a definsive spot and protect the Emperor until help arrives." It was the male Imperial. Kira could only imagine what they had to go through to get here.
"Help? What makes you think help will get here before more of those basterds?" It was the Redgaurd, Baurus, this time. "We need to get the Emperor out of here."
Before the other Blade could respond, Kira heard the distinct sound of a conjration spell and heard Baurus yell 'look out' before she heard the sounds of struggle. Kira crept closer in the hopes of getting a better view, but by the time she reached the edge of the wall she was on, the battle was over.
"I think that was all of them. I'm going to take a look around." She heard Baurus say. Deciding that this was the perfect time to introduce herself to the Blades, she leapt down off the ledge... Only to be greeted by the intense glare of the Imperial Blade.
"Damnit! It's that prisoner again. Kill her, she might be working with the assassins." The Imperial said as he approached Kira, sword drawn.
"No. She is not one of them." She heard the Emperor say, "She can help us. She must help us."
"As you wish sire." The Imperial said as he sheathed his sword, looking a little annoyed.
The Emperor walked over to Kira, much to the annoyance of his gaurds, before speaking. "They cannot understand why I trust you. They've not seen what I've seen." He sighed, "How can I explain?" He seemed to pause, looking for the right words, "Listen. You know of the Nine? How they guide our fates with an invisable hand?"
"Look, I'm not really on good terms with the gods..."
The Emperor continued, ignoring Kira's comment, "I've served the Nine all my days, and I chart my course by the cycles of the heavens." He raised his arms in an attempt to be mystical. Instead, only earning a light chuckle from Kira, "The skies are marked with numberless sparks, each one a sign. I know these stars well, and I wonder... which sign marked your birth?"
"What, seriously?" The Emperor nodded, "I was... Iwas born under the sign of... of the... lover." Kira said in a whisper. Suddenly, she heard Baurus burst out laughing.
"The Lover? Really?"
"Yes really!" If there was one thing she hated, it was people making fun of her for being born under the sign of the Lover, "I bet I get more women than you because of it!" The shocked look on Baurus's face at her revelation was satisfation enough for her.
"The signs I read show the end of my path. My death, a nesessary end, will come when it will come." The Emperor said, drawing Kira's attention back to him.
"What about me? What does the Lover say?" Kira asked. Personally, she thought all of this was horse crap, but she was curious none the less to what the old man had to say.
"Your stars are not mine. Today, the Lover shall sweeten your journey as you confront your fate."
'Wow. What an evasive answer.' Kira thought, "Can you see my fate?" She asked.
"My dreams grant me no opinions of of success. Their compass ventures not beyond the doors of death. But in your face I behold the sun's compainion. The dawn of Akatosh's bright glory may banish the coming darkness. With such hope, and with the promise of your aid, my heart must be satisfied."
'Okay... a little criptic.' Kira thought. Then something the Emperor had said seemed to dawn on her, "Hey, aren't you afraid to die?"
"No trophies of my triumph's precede me. But I have lived well, and my ghost shall rest easy. Men are but flesh and blood. They know their doom, but not their hour. In this, I am blessed to see the hour of my death... to face my apportioned fate, then fall."
'Wow.' "So, um. Where are we going?" Kira asked.
"I go to my grave. A tounge shriller than all the music calls me." The Emperor replied, "You shall follow us yet for a while, then we must part." The Emperor gives you a hopeful look before heading back near the door further up. Before Kira can go and join him, Baurus approaches her, looking a little annoyed that the Emperor had allowed her to join them.
"You may as well make yourself useful since your joining us. Here," He hands Kira a torch, "carry this torch and stick close."
Kira follows behind the three of them, helping to fend off any assassins that attacked them until they came to a sudden stop. She then heard the Imperial, Glenroy she had learned, curse.
"Damnit! The gate is barred from the other side! It's a trap!"
"Wait. What about that side passage back there?" Baurus said.
"Worth a try. Let's go." Kira silently followed them until they entered a closed off room with the only exit being the one they had just entered.
"It's a dead end." She heard Baurus say, "What's your call sir."
"I don't know." Glenroy said fearfully, "I don't see any good options here." Suddenly, they heard a noise behind them. "There behind us! Wait here sire." He said to the Emperor before heading off to investigate.
"Wait here with the Emperor, gaurd him with your life." Baurus said to Kira before charging after Glenroy.
Kira could hear heavy fighting going on in the other room and it wasn't long before she heard the death cry of the Imperial Blade. Not long after, the Emperor turns to Kira.
"I can go no further. You alone must stand against the Prince of Destruction and his mortal servents. He must not have the Amulet of Kings!" He unhooks his amulet and hands it to Kira, who quickly pockets it, "Take the Amulet. Give it to Jauffre. He alone knows where to find the heir. Find her, and close shut the jaws of Oblivion."
At that moment, the wall behind him slides open and an armored man jumps out and attacks the Emperor. Kira responds and quickly impales her sword into the man's exposed neck, killing him. Looking to see if the Emperor was alright, she see's that she was too late. He was dead. At that moment, Baurus returns and spots the corpse of the Emperor.
"No... Talos save us..." He turns to look at Kira, "We've failed... I've failed. The Blades are sworn to protect the Emperor, and now he and all his heirs are dead." He looks down at the body and sees that the Emperor isn't wearing his amulet. "The Amulet. Where's the Amulet of Kings? It wasn't on his body."
"The Emperor gave it to me just before he died." Kira said, somberly.
"Strange. He saw something in you. Trusted you. They say it's the dragon blood that flows through the veins of every Septim. They see more than lesser men. The Amulet of Kings is a sacred symbol of the Empire. Most people think of the Red Dragon Crown, but thats just jewelry. The Amulet has power. Only a true heir of the blood can wear it, they say. He must have given it to you for a reason. Did he say why?"
"He said to take it to Jauffre." Kira said. Still in disbelief at the Emperor's death.
"Jauffre? He said that? Why?" Now it was Baurus's turn to be in disbelief.
"He said there is another heir." She said in a whisper.
"Huh. Nothing I ever heard about. But Jauffre would be the one to know. He's the Grandmaster of my Order. Although you may not think so to meet him. He lives quietly as a monk at Weynon Priory, near the city of Chorrol."
"How would I get there? I'm not exactly familer with Cyrodil." Kira said.
Baurus reached into his armor and pulled out a map, handing it to Kira. "Take it, I don't need it. I know the land by heart already." Kira took the map and put it into the pocket opposite the one she had put the Amulet in. "First you need to get out of here. Through that door must be the enterance to the sewers, past the locked gate. That's where we were heading." He explained as he looked throgh his pack for something. "It's a secret way out of the Imperial City, or it was supposed to be a secret. Here," he handed Kira a key he pulled out of his pack, "you'll need this key for the last door to the into the sewers."
"The sewers?" Kira said, a little disgusted that she would have to wade through them to get out.
"Yes the sewers." Baurus said with some annoyence. "There are rats and goblins down there... but from what I've seen of you, I'm guessing your an experianced Pilgim. Am I right?"
Kira smirked a little. She was sure her answer would shock him. "Nope. I'm a thief."
She was somewhat right. A bit of suprise was seen on Baurus's face, but it quickly dissapeared. "I wasn't far off. In any case, rats and goblins won't give you any trouble."
"After the sewers, then what?" Kira asked. She wasn't keen on getting lost in this damned country.
"You must get the Amulet to Jauffre. Take no chances, but proceed to Weynon Priory immediantely. Got it?"
"Got it." She said.
"Good. The Emperor's trust was well-placed." He said with a smile.
"What about you? What will you do?" Kira asked with concern.
"I'll stay here and gaurd the Emperor's body and make sure no one follows you. You'd better get moving. May Talos guide you." He was about to let Kira leave when he noticed the Katana she was using. "By the way, thanks for recovering Captain Renault's sword." He said, taking the katana from Kira. "I'll see that it's given a place of honor in the halls of the Blades."
With that, Kira bid farewell to Baurus and headed for the sewers. After wading through a few rats and goblins, she stood before the exit to the Imperial Isles. Seeing a fairly clear puddle near the exit, the twenty-five year old decided to fix herself up before heading out.
Pulling out a small band from her pocket, she pulled her light blue hair back into a ponytail and straightend her hair out a bit. She also took the time to clean off the blood that had managed to get on her face when she killed the assassin. She also took notice of what she considered her best asset when it came to flirting with the laidies, her bright green eyes.
'Looking good.' She thought as she gave her reflection a wink and headed through the grate to the isles.