The Nightingale
By Arias Seth
Chapter One: The Return
It has been six months since I came to Solstheim to battle Miraak, the previous Dragonborn. This whole time I had spent since defeating Miraak, had been spent helping the inhabitants of Solstheim make their island safe. The campaign against the Ashspawn had been the hardest, though it was the quickest, while the campaign against the Reavers had been long and drawn out. Now, however, the Dunmer and the Skaal and a sufficient defense force that I could return home to my wife and kids.
"Dragonborn, we are ready to depart when you are." The captain of the boat said. I looked at him and nodded my head.
"Let us go captain." I said, "We have families waiting and friends to drink with." I added, pulling my reptilian lips back in a playful snarl.
The captain nodded, smiling and ordered his men to get the longboat moving. I walked up to the bow of the boat and looked in the direction of Skyrim and home.
"I'm coming home Serana." I said as the boat left port.
"It appears that someone from the Legion is out to greet us, sir." The captain said pointing. I looked out to where he was pointing and gave a small laugh as I recognized the figure that was standing there.
"Ho Hadvar. What news?!" I called out.
Hadvar waited until the ship had come up beside him, when he climbed in and clasped my arm.
"It's mighty good to see you lad." He said cheerily, though I did detect a sense of sadness in his tone.
"What is it Hadvar?" I asked of him.
"The Thalmor, they have burned down your house and captured your wife, though your steward was able to save your children." He told me in a sorrowful tone. "She managed to get them to Fort Dawnguard." He finished.
"WHAT!" I yelled. "I will kill every Thalmor for what they have done." I continued.
"Aye lad," He said, "but first we must deal with the Thalmor that are waiting for you at the docks." He added.
"Of course, Captain, ready your men. We have a fight coming." I said as Windhelm came into sight.
As we neared the docks the elves that were waiting for us began to ready themselves as they saw the armed sailors on the boat. There was around twenty Thalmor and eight soldiers from the Legion, the latter were awaiting Hadvar's orders.
"Ho, agents of the Aldmeri Dominion, what brings you to the arse cold weather of the North?" I called out.
Many of the elves seemed to take offense at that while their leader just smiled and said, "Why we have come for you, Dhar'Sii." He said while his soldiers pulled their weapons out.
"I thought as much." I said, unsheathing my sword.
"You would fight us, Dragonborn?" the Thalmor leader asked in a hiss as he drew his blade, "We are thirty and you are seven." He added.
"I count only twenty of you worm." Hadvar said as he, and the soldiers on the dock unsheathed their blades and turned to face the elves.
"Very well, let us end this." The elf leader said, moments before I leapt onto the docks.
The fight that followed was a brief but bloody fight. I had killed three elves in a matter of seconds. The first I killed by cutting my blade through his upper torso. The second one had her face smashed to a pulp by taking my shield to it. The third one I had kicked into a nearby wall with bone-breaking force. All of this had happened within the same moment that I had jumped on to the docks. After that I was facing off against their leader.
He used a summoned blade and he was able to hold me off for around a minute. At the end of that minute he swung a sidestroke at me that changed in midstroke and caught me across the thigh. Then he cast a blast of fire at me which I laughed off.
I then brought my head down upon his and knocked him out. I looked around and saw that the rest of the elves had been killed and that four of the soldiers and three of the sailors, and Hadvar, were still standing.
"That was a short fight. Don't you think so Legate?" Hadvar said fiercely with a maniacal smile spreading across his face.
"Aye friend," I agreed, "Twas a fierce fight as well, now I must acquire some information from this arsehole here." I said as I nudged the Thalmor leader with my foot. He opened his eyes to see me crouching over him.
"Good your awake." I said. Then I grabbed him and brought him over to a box were two soldiers secured his arms and legs.
"Now you will tell me exactly where they are keeping my wife." I growled into his face.
"I will not tell you anything, Argonian." He spat. I wiped the spittle off of my face then I gripped his hand and crushed it to a pulp inside of my own.
"Don't make me repeat myself, elf." I snarled. He was whimpering with pain at the injury I had dealt him.
"Okay, Okay they are keeping her at Northwatch Keep, but you won't be able to rescue her as the keep being guarded by a whole company of our warriors." He said through clenched teeth.
"I have already fought my through that keep before in order to rescue someone, what difference will a whole company make to me?" I asked calmly as I decapitated the elf.
"Hadvar, head to Fort Hraggstad and mobilize as many soldiers as you can and await my arrival. We are going to siege this keep." I ordered as I made my way across the frozen river towards the stables.
"Yes sir, Legate, For the Empire." He said saluting as he headed into Windhelm.
A day later I was just coming up a rise when I caught sight of the ruins of Heljarchen Hall, my home. It made me sad just seeing the burned down husk of building that was left standing. I dismounted Shadowmere and walked around the ruins and noticed the bodies of dead Thalmor and Stormcloaks.
"What were the Stormcloaks doing defending my home?" I asked aloud.
"They had come to help me and they were led by a man named Ralof." A feminine voice said. I pulled my sword out and turned towards the voice and saw my steward and friend, Aeola the Huntress standing there watching me.
"Don't worry about your belongings as I had saved what I could from the fire, including Wuuthraad." She told me, as I started to look around the ruins.
"Ok can you tell me what happened to Ralof?" I asked her.
"The Thalmor took him to Northwatch Keep, I had tracked them down as they had your wife as well." She told me.
"Damn… well thank you Aeola, now we must part ways, so I need you to go and check up on my children alright." I told her as I mounted Shadowmere.
"Yes milord." She replied in a servile tone as I turned and galloped off towards Solitude.
"Hmm, that's quite a few soldiers down there." I whispered to Hadvar.
"I count sixty out on guard, though there's no telling how many are on the inside." Hadvar said from beside me. We were laying on a rocky outcropping that overlooked Northwatch Keep. The Thalmor soldiers had a complete view of the surrounding area except for the swamp that was between it and the mountains to the south. That swamp was the only approach that we had available to us.
Hadvar and I had only been able to scrounge up forty-four soldiers to assault the keep with. General Tulius had told me that when he finished up at the embassy he would send as many soldiers as he could, though I hoped to have the keep under my control before then. As I looked over the keep, a plan came to me, it wasn't much of a plan but it was the best I had. I turned to Hadvar and laid out my plan to him.
The plan was that Hadvar would take around fifteen or twenty of the soldiers and use bows and arrows to provide cover for the rest of us as we would rush the gates and bash them open. After that, it would be a matter of luck as to who would win the fight, seeing as how I wasn't the best of strategists.
"It isn't much, but it will do lad." Hadvar said, once I had outlaid the plan to him. I nodded as I agreed with him on that assessment.
"Let's go back, we need to get started." I said. We crawled our way back to the swamp where our soldiers were waiting for us. Once we got there I nodded to Hadvar and told him to take his group and get into position. He selected all of the archers and jogged off with them to find a position to set up at.
I motioned to the rest of the soldiers and moved off in the direction of the keep. As we walked, a light fog settled down around the keep. This was good as it meant that the elves would not be able to see us, though it also meant that we wouldn't be able to see them as well.
The keep was getting closer and soon it practically loomed over us. This was the best opportunity that we were going to get, so it was time to start the assault.
I looked over at one of my soldiers that was holding a torch and nodded at him. He nodded and pitched the torch as high as he possibly could, which was actually pretty high, to give the signal to Hadvar and the archers.
I didn't wait to see if they started firing; instead I signaled to my men and charged the gate.
The combined weight of twenty five fully grown soldiers smashing against it caused the gate to give in slightly. We moved back a bit and smashed into it again as we did not have a battering ram. While this was happening the elves tried firing down upon us, though we had raised our shields up and interlocked them to protect ourselves from their arrows. On the fourth hit the gates slammed open and we charged into the keep's courtyard.
We were met in earnest by the elves that were waiting for us on the other side. By the time that I was ready for my shout, three of my men had been slain, though seven elves were also slain.
"Mid Vur Shaan!" I yelled and suddenly all of my soldiers were moving faster amongst the elves, due to the Battle Fury shout. I backed away from the fight and gathered my strength for another, stronger shout.
Four elves rushed me as I was preparing for my shout, and four elves fell to the ground, dead, with arrows sprouting from their chests. I turned around and saw Hadvar and his soldiers coming through the gate to aid us. He saluted and charged into battle. I turned back to the fight as I felt that I had the strength that I required for the shout.
"Mal Qah Diiv!" I yelled and my body was surrounded in strange aura that solidified into something that was reminiscent of a dragon's form.
With my newly enhanced strength I roared and charged into battle. I swung my sword in a downward arc that cut and elf from neck to navel, then, I deflected an elf's axe strike with my shield and eviscerated him with my blade. Another elf swung his blade at me while running and I stepped around his swing and planted my foot in his now exposed arse and sent him flying into a sharpened barricade.
A loud shriek caused me to look in its direction. I nearly dropped my blade at what I saw. An elf stood with my wife at the top of the keep and held his blade to her neck.
"Stop your attack if you wish to see your wife live." The elf called out.
I stared at him and saw a thin line of red appear on Serana's neck. I knew that I had to do something if I wanted her to live. But, I was kept from my thoughts as an elf swung at my head. One of my soldiers stopped the elf's blade and I growled with rage at the fact that I had almost been killed, so I slammed my shield into the elf's gut and then beheaded him.
"Wrong answer." The Thalmor at the top of the keep yelled, as he sliced Serana's neck open and pushed her off the top of the keep.
I was speechless; I didn't know that the elf had had it in him to do such a thing. I couldn't even scream as Serana's lifeless body hit the ground and at that instant my world fell apart around me, literally. The scenery, the soldiers, my wife's body, all of it disappeared and was replaced with dark, foreboding, and strangely familiar scenery and objects.
"Welcome my pawn." A thick and raspy voice said. That was when it hit me; I was in Hermaeus Mora's realm. I growled in discomfort at the chain of events and turned towards the voice.
"What do you want, demon." I snarled at the Wretched Abyss that was Hermaeus Mora.
"Why to tell you that your time on this world is at an end and that it is time for you to head to a new one, of course." It replied in what was supposed to be a cheerful tone I guessed.
"What do you mean?" I asked, a sense of foreboding falling upon me.
"Exactly what I said Dhar'Sii, I am going to be sending you to a new world, one that you will not be able to return from." It said still in its cheerful tone.
"I won't let you." I growled and settled into a ready stance.
"Tsk, Tsk, Dhar'Sii, I thought you would know better by now, you cannot hurt a Daedric Prince." It said as one of its tentacles wrapped around me and started squeezing. I started to lose the ability to breathe and I felt several of the bones in my body break. Just before darkness overwhelmed me I felt myself being moved and then falling hard onto a grassy surface. And right before I stopped seeing, a strange, equine-looking creature was standing over me and it appeared to be dumbstruck by my appearance.
It seemed to say something to me but I never caught what it said as everything went black.