I have made a few tweaks to Addamasartus, as it was a bit boring. Also, the competition is still up, but (sorry) it has to be similar to the cover. I am a terrible artist, as I'm sure I told you before.
The sights that Vivdena saw first in Seyda Neen was the green swamps that surrounded it. The town was built rather close together, making Vivdena feel claustrophobic. A Bosmer came up to her, looking like he wanted to ask her something.
"Have you seen my ring in there, by any chance?" He asked.
"Ring?" Vivdena responded. He smelt like trouble.
"Engraved. Magical. The Imperials took it off me for greed, most likely."
Vivdena reached into her knapsack and pulled out the ring of interest. The Bosmer was visibly excited, jumping up and down while clapping his hands.
"Yes, that's it!" He yelled.
Vivdena handed it to him, feeling some satisfaction. 'This one has lost his mind.' She thought, using the familiar Khajiitic speech patterns. The Bosmer was thinking of something, since he had his hand rubbing his chin.
"Wait right there for a minute." He said, running away.
Vivdena saw the Wood Elf run towards the two storey building in the middle of the town. About two minutes later, he came back with a pouch of gold.
"I've told my friend Arrile that you get a small discount. He is the trader in the building over there." He said, pointing to the two storey building. "And this is your reward." He placed the pouch into Vivdena's hand.
"My thanks, tree-person." Vivdena said, but clasped her hand over her mouth again. She used Khajiitic slang for Wood Elf.
"No, thank you, flame-dweller." He responded before walking off.
Vivdena stood there in shock, eyes wide and hand still covering her mouth. She slowly pried her hand off and began to walk again, this time towards the building that the Bosmer walked out of before. She tried the door on the ground. It was locked. She decided to risk it and go around the wooden boardwalk to the back. There was another door, the sign beside it saying 'Arrille's Tradehouse.' She entered, feeling the humidity of the swamps leave and replaced by a soft, warmer heat. She saw an Altmer standing behind a counter, in expensive clothing. A wide array of weapons adorned the walls behind him and, most likely, some underneath the counter. Vivdena walked up to the counter.
"Arrille?" She asked.
Arrille looked deeply at her face. He stood back up with realisation.
"Ah, you must be the Dark Elf that gave Faendel his ring back! Now, onto business. What do you need?" Arrille said.
Vivdena looked over at the wide array of weapons. She saw a spear and a broadsword on the walls. She also saw a mannequin in the corner, sporting a chainmail cuirass, one that looks like the Imperial guards have.
"Can this one have that spear and the broadsword?" Vivdena asked.
"Sure." Arrille replied.
He turned around and took the spear off of the racks. He placed it lovingly onto the counter before turning back around for the broadsword. Vivdena waited until he placed the broadsword onto the counter before she asked how much everything was.
"300 gold." Arrille responded.
"Including the cuirass over there?" Vivdena asked, pointing to the chainmail cuirass.
"510 gold." Arrille answered after pausing to calculate the worth.
"Just for the weapons." Vivdena said, placing 300 of her coins onto the counter.
Arrille took them and counted them. Happy with the number, he nodded to Vivdena. "Pleasure doing business with you."
Vivdena took the weapons, placing the broadsword onto her left hip and holding the spear in he right hand. She turned to the door.
"There is one thing that you can do for us."
Vivdena turned back around, looking towards Arrille.
"I can give you the cuirass for free, only if you clear the slaver ring close to Seyda Neen first." Arrille proposed.
"Slaver ring? Aren't they illegal, tall-one?" She asked.
"Not in Morrowind. They have kidnapped my workers for them to become slaves. Go to Addamasartus, just north of the silt strider."
"Your workers? Or slaves themselves?"
"I pay and treat them fairly." Arrille assured, if a little too quick.
Vivdena leant forward threateningly, coming close to the Altmer's face. "If you treat them unfairly, Vivdena will beat the life out of you. If they are your slaves that have been stolen, you will not see the light of day ever again." She threatened. She went back to standing up straight. "But this one will take the job."
"Good. You need to free two Argonians and one Khajiit."
"This one thanks you."
Vivdena walked out of the tradehouse. She went to the north, over a small bridge and up the hill to the east towards the silt strider. Most of the way up, she spotted a small track that lead off to into the swamp. She took it, having her low-quality footwraps called shoes sink into the mud. She eventually came to a worn out door in the rocks. A sign on the front read "Addamasartus. Enter at risk of death or slavery."
'This must be the place.' Vivdena thought.
She pushed the door open, hearing the rusty hinges creak loudly. She entered the cave, seeing stalactites almost touching the ground. A fire was raging in the small opening, revealing a Dark Elf, garbed only in clothes similar to herself. Vivdena stood up, revealing herself.
"Look, can we just-" She began to ask.
"Die, n'wah!" The other Dunmer yelled, pulling out a dagger from her hip and running towards Vivdena.
Vivdena lowered her spear down, holding it a little bit too tentatively. The hostile Dark Elf expertly knocked the blade aside, making the spear fall to the ground, and pushed in. Vivdena sidestepped, making the knife miss its intended target. She drew her broadsword and pointed it at the Dunmer. The scuffle came to a standstill, blades pointing tips towards the other.
The other Dunmer began to breathe through gritted teeth. "You s'wit!"
Both Dunmer stepped forwards. However, the tip of Vivdena's broadsword ripped through the fabric of her coarse clothing and a part of the skin, drawing blood. The cut wasn't deep. The other Dunmer stumbled back slightly,
"You will never know our secrets." She grumbled. "For House Dres!"
The Dunmer suddenly leapt forwards and impaled herself onto Vivdena's broadsword. The tip was coming out her back, blood flowed down to the hilt and out of her mouth. Vivdena, in a state of shock, let go of the sword. The Dunmer collapsed forwards, bleeding profusely. One last gasp of air meant that the Dunmer fully died. Vivdena slowly moved away from the corpse and the growing pool of blood.
'Vivdena has killed. This one never wanted this.' Vivdena thought, her despair growing slightly.
"Vivdena is not a killer. Vivdena is not a killer." The Dark Elf began to chant, holding her head in her hands.
Her hand touched the wood of the spear, which she frantically pushed away. Tears threatened to seep out of the corner of her eyes. Soon, Vivdena was in full blown tears, praying to the moons, Azurah, Alkosh and S'rendarr. She never actually heard the door to the cave open once more, or the footsteps that were coming towards her.
"Hey. Hey, are you alright?" A familiar voice asked.
Vivdena removed her hands from her eyes and looked into the scarred face of Jiub. Without knowing what her body was doing, Vivdena wrapped her arms around Jiub's neck and cried into his shoulder. Jiub pushed her away after a few seconds.
"Vivdena, tell me what happened." Jiub ordered.
"This one... has killed another." Vivdena responded, crying once again. "The Mor-jo'khaj will come after Vivdena for sure."
"Did this Dunmer say which House she was a part of?"
"That dark-skin said for a House Dres."
Jiub stopped and contemplated, looking at the corpse and the still growing pool of blood. He seemed to reach a conclusion. "House Dres are the ones responsible for slavery. You killing a retainer has slowed down the slave trade."
"So, Vivdena has done Morrowind a favour?" Vivdena asked.
Jiub nodded. He stood up straight, walked over to the Dres retainer, flipped the corpse over and pulled the broadsword out, now stained heavily with blood. He wiped it clean on the retainer and handed it back to Vivdena, who took a hold of it tentatively. Jiub walked back over to the corpse and produced a key on a ring, all while Vivdena stood back up and grabbed ahold of her spear once again.
Jiub picked up the dagger that the Dres retainer held and tested its effectiveness, where it held up quite nicely. Together, the two went over to the makeshift wooden door and tried to open it, finding that it was locked. Jiub produced the key and inserted it into the lock and twisted it, Vivdena clearly hearing the click of the bolt. Jiub pushed the door open and about to step through when Vivdena stopped him, feeling that something was out of the ordinary.
Vivdena dragged two fingers, side by side, in one vertical line down the middle of her face, the Khajiitic sign for silence. Jiub looked at her questioningly. Vivdena remembered how the rest of Tamriel signalled silence, and placed one finger on her lips. Jiub nodded. Vivdena motioned her hand to their right, which Jiub expertly peeked around. He saw another Dunmer at the far end of the cavern, but the robe he wore suggested that he was a mage.
Jiub retracted his head to back behind the cover of the door, and just in time as the Dunmer looked towards the door. The mage began to walk towards the door, seeing as it was odd that it was open. And he did hear the sounds of combat before.
Vivdena could hear the footsteps of the Dunmer mage. She waved Jiub back and they took cover at opposite ends of the doorway. They could now hear the heavy breathing of the mage. He grumbled something and closed the door and walked off.
"What do we do?" Jiub whispered.
"This one saw a way to the left. We go that way." Vivdena whispered back.
Jiub nodded. He produced the key yet again and inserted it into the lock. He twisted it slowly, hoping to not make a sound. The deadbolt opened almost silently and the two snuck through to the left, not forgetting to close the door and locking it again.
They silently snuck up the almost vertical stairs and came to a locked door. It didn't hold a room, it was more like a pen. And it was empty. Jiub produced the key again and tried to insert it into the lock, but it didn't fit. He put it away, fazed about what to do now. He had an idea. A stupid one, but an idea nonetheless.
He jumped up, grabbing ahold of the rough wood used to create the pen and clambered over the fence. He landed onto the other side and motioned for Vivdena to do the same. She threw her spear over horizontally, which Jiub caught, and followed suit. Jiub gave Vivdena the spear back and the two took cover behind the stalagmites and waited.
"Move it, slaves! Hurry!" They heard a female Dunmer yell.
They heard murmured responses, even Vivdena had a hard time picking up what they were saying. They heard footsteps coming up the stairs, all at different speeds. The deadbolt of the gate unlocked and the door opened. Another female Dunmer walked through, a quiver of arrows and a bow slung across her back. Two Argonians and one Khajiit walked through, all having blank looks upon their faces. They all came to rest at different spots in the pen. The door closed and was locked again. But the Dunmer looked through a gap in the wood.
"Now, what do you slaves deserve?" She asked harshly.
"To be worked without concern of our safety." They all replied, their voices monotonous.
"Good." She said, turning to walk away.
However, something caught her eyes. She looked back, seeing two human foot shaped depressions in the rough dirt of Addamasartus. She scrambled to open the door, feeling panic. If the slaves were to be free, their profits will be lost. The door opened and the marksman pulled her bow out and nocked an arrow into the string. She slowly advanced further into the pen, not forgetting to kick the Khajiit slave on the way past.
She came up to the stalagmite on her right, where another female Dunmer met her view. Both were startled, but the marksman felt a hand wrap around her mouth and a blade slide across her throat. The marksman collapsed, feeling her lifeblood flow out of her.
Jiub was standing over the new corpse. The slaves, seeing nothing, just sat there and stared into space. Vivdena rushed up and checked the corpse for anything to free the slaves. She found nothing, but she took the chain gauntlets that she wore and the bow and arrows.
They heard rhythmic footfalls coming their way. "Hey, boss! Are you done?!"
Jiub mouthed 'the mage' to Vivdena. The female Dunmer laid the spear down and nocked an arrow into the drawstring. She pulled it back, feeling the fletching on her right cheek.
"Boss?" They heard again. This time, it was more quiet. "Shit." The mage cursed, now running.
The mage came to the door, seeing the leader dead with her throat slit and another female Dark Elf having an arrow trained on him. He knew who this was, the sentry out the front told him who she was. The outlander.
"N'wah!" He yelled.
He waved his hands out in front, magic coursing out of his palms and creating a sigil of flames in mid-air. The fireball spell was just sent when the arrow was released. Time seemed to slow down for both of them. The arrow and the spell both missed each other just barely. The arrow caught alight. The arrow, now unimpeded, hit the mage in the head, sending him falling backwards. The fireball spell continued to hit Vivdena, who threw the bow away, lest it became burnt. The fireball exploded on impact, flames licking at flesh and fabric alike. Luckily, the flames only destroyed the outer layer of clothes and Vivdena's skin wasn't burnt either. Jiub, being embarrassed to look, quickly began to stare at the wall. Vivdena, knowing the small predicament that she was in, crawled over to the mage and took his robe,which didn't have any blood on it yet. It was here that she also took another set of keys, one that was different from the ones that they already had and what the leader had.
Jiub, now knowing that Vivdena was good, turned back around. He saw the key that Vivdena now held and motioned his head to the slaves. Vivdena got the message and walked over to the male Argonian. She inserted the key into the lock that was on the gauntlet he wore, which fit perfectly, and twisted it. The gauntlet opened up at the top and fell to the floor. Reality seemed to come back to the Argonian, where he shook his head and looked at Vivdena rather than through her.
"I thank you." He said, the reptilian voice different than those in Elsweyr.
"Vivdena had to help." She replied.
"Please, save the others." He pleaded.
Vivdena nodded and unlocked the other two gauntlets, allowing reality to reset into the others.
'How can Azurah khi this to Her children. Vivdena will make them pay.' Vivdena thought when she was unlocking the Khajiit's gauntlet.
"Banalz, you are safe."
Vivdena turned back around, seeing the female Argonian sitting down feebly, crying, while the male Argonian was squatting next to her.
"No, Okaw. We are never safe. I fear that we may get-" Banalz said, not finishing her sentence due to crying once again.
Okaw shook his head. "No. You are safe. I am safe. We can live in Seyda Neen once again and work for Arrile like we used to. And I am sure he would like to keep us safe for his sake." Okaw reassured.
"Baadargo agrees with scale-man. Scale-woman and all will be safe." The Khajiit piped in.
Banalz calmed down enough to stop crying and stood up, with the help of Okaw. "Thank you, egg-brother. Thank you, furball." She said, warranting a laugh from Baadargo in the process.
"We couldn't of gotten out without the help of these two Dunmer." Okaw said, motioning to Jiub and Vivdena.
The five walked down the stairs, but not after Vivdena grabbed the bow and spear off of the ground. They walked back towards the opening of the cave. They saw a contingent of Imperial guards, Arrille and some Nords. Vivdena recognised one of the Imperials as Captain Sellus Gravius.
"Guards, seize Jiub!" He ordered, where two guards took the dagger off of Jiub and grabbed ahold of his biceps to restrain him.
"My apologies, Vivdena. He escaped the boat to see where you would go." Sellus apologised.
"Vivdena accepts your apology, Captain." Vivdena replied, placing a hand on her heart and bowing.
Sellus nodded and walked out of the cave, taking Jiub with him. Arrille walked up to Vivdena.
"I thank you once again for saving my workers. Here is the cuirass you wanted," A Nord handed her the cuirass, "and here is something extra for the slave traders." Arrille said, placing a pouch of gold into her hand.
"This one did what had to be done." Vivdena replied.
Arrille caught a glimpse of the cloth around Vivdena's wrist. He knew that pattern, from the city of Vivec, which all of the Temple guards had on their breastplates and capes, if they were high enough. Three circles, each at a point on a triangle, with a shield placed in the centre, touching each side of the triangle.
House Indoril. The devoted protectors of the Tribunal.
He kept it silent though. He turned around and began to walk out of Addamasartus, the Nords and the three ex-slaves following.
Vivdena walked back down to the corpse of the suicidal retainer. While the centre of the shirt she is wearing is ruined, no one had to see it. Vivdena, after apologising to the corpse, took the shirt off and placed it on her, after taking the robe off and throwing it away. She then placed the chain cuirass over the top, feeling the weight of it. Feeling that she has time to spare, Vivdena searched the bottom of the cave for anything of value. She saw the commodity Moon Sugar, which was illegal in most provinces. But Vivdena didn't get it. Moon Sugar isn't just for Skooma. It makes a great seasoning as well when placed in water unrefined.
She saw a hilt coming out of a crate. She opened it, seeing a steel claymore shining brilliantly at her. She took the broadsword she had and threw it away, taking the Claymore with her. With her small exploration done, Vivdena walked back through Addamasartus and back out into the stale air of Seyda Neen.
Translations;
Khi: do
Mor-jo'khaj: Dark spirits of the desert