Book One, Chapter Two: Shadows from the Past
This is bad, Ein thought frantically. This is really bad. The Imperials were corralling him along with the Stormcloaks into a courtyard surrounded on three sides by tall watch towers set to a background of mountain crags. A headsman's block stood in front of the center tower, along with a priestess, a large man in a heavy ring-mail shirt and a black mask holding a large battle axe, and the silver haired imperial in purple, brown, and gold legion officer's armor he saw talking to the Thalmor.
Looking around as much as he could without turning his head, Ein quickly went through his options. I already spoke of my innocence and they ignored me, no way they'll listen to me now. If I try to run I'll end up right beside Lokir. Sneak out? I'd need a distraction, a big one. Can I start a revolt among the Stormcloaks? Ein looked at them and knew it wasn't likely. They all had their heads turned down, the fight clearly kicked out of them now that their leader, the very symbol of their rebellion, was going to die. If I can rally any kind of fight into them, it would have to center around Stormcloak.
"Ulfric Stormcloak" Tullius started what sounded like it was going to turn into a speech, "some here in Helgen call you a hero. But a hero doesn't use a power like the Voice to murder his king and usurp his throne!"
The Voice? That's right, Ulfric can use the Thu'um. So that's why he's gagged. If the Thu'um is half as powerful as the old tales say, he could cause a lot of damage with just a few words. All the Legionnaires know it. If something happened to him, got the gag off, the Imperial's would focus on him.
Taking a few steps to his side while Tullius continued on, Ein spoke in a whisper just loud enough for Ralof to hear. "If I end up getting on the block before you, I'll resist and try to cause a distraction. Use that to get Ulfric's gag off"
"You really believe that will get him out of here? Any of us?" Ralof said, half questioningly and half sarcastically.
"I believe in fighting till the end. Ulfric surrendered hoping for mercy, didn't he? Does this seem like mercy?" Ein was assuming Ulfric surrendered because he had no visible injuries, but he added the subject to appeal to Ralof's hatred for the empire. The older man scoffed lightly, telling him he'd hit the right button. "I don't know about you, but I want to die fighting like a true Son of Skyrim. I'm not a lamb for the slaughter."
Ein heard Ralof let out a breath that might have come off as a growl if it were a little louder. After a moment there was a very slight nod. At that point, a priestess of Arkay was finishing up a sermon. When she was done, Ein wondered who would be first up. He hoped he would go before Ulfric or Ralof, but wanted to watch at least a few prisoners get beheaded first so he could better gauge how the headsman worked so he could better see where all the pieces would be when it came to his-
"You, the nord in the rags! You're first."
Fuck Ein silently screamed. Now he was walking into this blind. No time to calmly do reconnaissance of where the Imperials had their archers, cracks in soldier placements he could possibly run through. Those curtain walls between the towers were tall enough to stop most forces from clearing them en mass, but he was fairly confident he could run up the side enough grab the lip and pull himself over it. Between that and Ralof getting the gag off Ulfric, if the Jarl had more fighting spirit than Ralof had, that just might cause enough confusion to-
"I said, you're up!" The captain barked, breaking him from his reverie. Not wanting them to restrain him into place, he started walking forward, keeping his head down enough so he hoped he looked demure, just not so much that he couldn't still see those immediately around him, memorizing where everyone was.
As he stepped up to the chopping block, he knew all he could do was trust in the plan. A flimsy plan at best he thought as his heart started racing, his breath quickening, and cold sweat starting to fall down the back of his neck. There's no way in the thousand hells of Oblivion this will work.
The captain pushed him down to his knees, then planted what felt like her foot against his back, pushing him down to the block rough enough that he split his chin against the withered hard wood, dry but still dyed with the blood of its previous victims. He turned his head toward the executioner, and while trying to look reasonably scared, an easy task at the moment, he tried sizing the large man up. Large, muscled, heavy; it wouldn't be easy to knock him over like he had originally thought of doing.
Then the headsman hefted the axe, immediately getting to task and moving the instrument of Ein's doom with practiced ease, a fact that extinquished another of Ein's exit strategies. The young nord took a deep breath, and prepared himself. I'm going to have to time this perfectly, I can't be distracted by any-what in Oblivion is that!?
"What in Oblivion is that!?" Tullius copied Ein's reaction as a dark shadow of sharp edges landed with a resounding thud on the tower overlooking the courtyard. The general's exclaimation caused the axeman to hesitate, and the loud landing of the creature startled him enough that he aborted severing Ein's beautiful head from his beautiful body to see what just happened.
Ein rolled off the block and looked at the creature, trying to make sense of what he was looking at. Scurrying on his back as best he could, he found his gaze locked on the entity, he couldn't bring himself to call it a creature, his mind working fervently to try and understand what was in front of him. Those black spikes seemed to continue to move, not side to side, but back and forth, as if playing with his sense of depth the same way a cat liked to play with it's prey.
Then, within that deep sea of black he saw two pools of crimson. For a moment, each one seemed to encompass a space greater than Ein could comprehend, like two infinite spaces within a finite void in front of him. The world around him seemed to lose a little color, a little clearity, and the form solidified slightly, just enough for him to realize what he was looking at: a giant dragon, nearly half again as big as the tower it was perched on,
Or was it about the same size? His eyes were playing tricks on him, it was like he was seeing the dragon with one eye, and everything else with the other, they didn't seem to be quite in the same place, the same reality. That was impossible...as impossible as a dragon appearing out of nowhere.
Ein tried to roll over and run, but he couldn't control his body, he couldn't physically bring himself to break his gaze on the creature. The dragon pulled it's head back a bit, like a viper ready to lunge, and it barked out a roar. Or was it a word? He couldn't tell, but the world around him shifted with the deafening noise. The blue and white morning sky transformed within a few heartbeats into a maelstrom of clouds of black and...purple and blue? What-
A flaming ball of rock fell from that tempest, breaking down one of the towers, the shock of the sight allowed Ein to break the gaze he held with the dragon. Rolling onto his bound hands, as soon as he got to his feet a meteor hit the ground not five feet away from him, the explosion, flying dirt and pieces of rock knocked him off his feet and onto his back, his ears ringing and his world spinning.
He didn't know how long he laid there, seconds, a few minutes, but before he became fully aware, he felt himself being lifted by his arm and his feet dragged along the ground. His instincts were shouting at him to run, and in his delirium he tried. In his clumbsiness he twisted his ankle. Despite the pain, he continued trying until the muted noise subdued considerably and he was dropped on the floor. It was a stone brick and mortar floor he realized after a second, not the dirt he was just on.
Rolling onto his back, he saw Ralof walking away from him, breathing hard from exertion, with his hands no longer bound he was conversing with Ulfric Stormcloak, similarly unbound and ungaged as well. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but he realized he was surrounded by Stormcloaks. That was bad, his instincts told him, Stormcloaks and Imperials were dangerous, he had to get away.
Walking gingerly on his injured ankle, Ein used the tower walls to steady himself as he made his way up the stairs, his mind not yet together enough for him to realize he couldn't go anywhere if he went up. Just as he reached the second floor, the wall in front of him exploded inward, and the same disorienting mass of black stuck it's head in. After half a second, the head solidified in Ein vision again to the outline of a dragon's head while everything else seemed to unfocus.
The dragon then breathed fire, a monsterously loud torrent of flame that almost covered the screams of the Stormcloaks it was directed at. Then the head disappeared back out of the tower, causing the building to shake. A few moments later, as most of the flames started to die down Ein tipped his way farther up the stairs, back against the wall, heart racing painfully in his chest, his face becoming more slick with sweat by the second. He had been in plenty of fights, but this was so far out of his league he had no idea what to do. Just run his body seemed to scream at him.
Poking his head out the hole in the tower, he saw a two story building with half it's roof gone, only a narrow alley between it and the tower separating them. Ein turned his head back to the stairs and knew the Stormcloaks would come to investigate. He had to get away from them.
Taking a few steps back, making sure he stepped on his injured ankle right, he made a running jump from the tower into the building. Despite dispersing the impact into a roll, the landing on his foot was hard enough for him to yelp. At this point, however, his battle high was strong enough that he could still move through the pain, if barely. He half limped, half crawled to the stair port, the stairs now collapsed, and rolled his body off edge while hanging onto the lip, his legs dangling so he only fell less than a meter onto his feet. From there, he was able to limp his way out of the building, a part of his mind registering it as an inn most likely.
The landscape outside was almost foreign to him. Half the buildings were collapsed or on fire, legionnaires either dead on the ground in bloody puddles, on fire, in pieces, or firing arrows into the sky. The ground was littered with craters ranging from half a foot deep to a yard deep and five feet wide.
Amid the chaos, Ein saw the large nord legionnaire that processed him carrying a screaming boy, no more than eight years old probably, away from a man on the ground with a broken leg. The large man lunged with surprising alacrity around a building as the man they left was engulfed in dragonfire.
Ein noticed another man hiding behind the building as well, whom the legionnaire walked over to, handing the now gently sobbing child over. "Get him out of here, Gunnar" He ordered.
"Gods guide you, Hadvar" the man prayed before turning and running into a narrow alley and away from sight.
At that point, the legionnaire, Hadvar apparently, noticed Ein poking his head out from the door he was hiding behind. "Still alive prisoner?" He pulled out his sword, and Ein charged up lightning magic in both his bound hands, fearing the man would come after him. "Stay close to me if you want to stay that way"
After a moment, Ein released the magic he bound in his hands and came out of cover, deciding he'd give him the slip like he did the Stormcloaks, but only when an opportune moment came. Making his way over to him as fast as he could, he eyed Ein's limp. "Will you be okay?"
"I'm a damned Companion, I'll deal." Ein stated, bluntly.
Unoffended, or not bothering to be offended, Hadvar nodded toward an alleyway bordered on one side by a curtain wall, "Keep your head down" he ordered while putting a hand on Ein's shoulder to push him down. Ein shrugged the hand off but kept his head down regardless as he struggled to keep up with Hadvar's pace as they raced through seemingly a labyrinth of alleyways, stopping occasionally to let the dragon fly by overhead.
"Where are we going?" Ein asked after a minute.
"The keep" Hadvar answered. A half minute later, the man stopped and gave Ein a 'halt' sign while looking out from the alley they'd made their way to. After a few seconds he turned to Ein and said, "The keep's out there, but we'll be very exposed. How's your limp?"
"Mostly gone."
"Good. The less we're out in the open, the better" he turned and held up three fingers, then two, then one, and then the two nords ran out into the open. The keep was a large, two story building with two small towers and a large tower cresting it. As they cleared a short wall, another figure ran out into the field, bearing two axes, Stormcloak blue colors, and a scowl.
"Ralof!" Hadvar spat, coming to a stop a short, but equidistance from the keep's entrace as the blonde nord. "You damn traitor, out of our way!"
"We're escaping Hadvar, and there's nothing you can do to stop us!" Ralof spat back in a mockingly calm voice.
Ein was about to say something bitingly sarcastic, but stopped when he wondered how it was that Ralof knew Hadvar's name. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the flying void of darkness that was the dragon continue to circle around Helgen. He turned his attention away from the two squabbeling warriors and looked at the dragon right as it turned and started to glide toward the three of them. "Uh, guys" Ein called out.
"Fine, I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovngarde!" Hadvar cursed.
"Guys" Ein called, louder.
"At least you won't be joining us you faithless-"
With a curse, Ein ran at the two, kicking Hadvar toward the entrance to the keep before clumbsily pushing Ralof in the same direction. "Incoming!" Ein shouted just before the dragon roared, now audibly very close. The two older nords immediately got the message and ran toward the keep without fuss.
Only a few heartbeats later, the dragon roared and they heard a torrent of flame coming toward them. The three men leapt the last few feet into the keep, Ein falling on top of the two older Nords. They then heard the cracking of mortar and stone, and without pause they scrambled forward just as the entryway collapsed, closing the way they entered.
Several moments passed as the three nords took in their near death encounter, looking at the collapsed entrance. "Hadvar" Ein eventually spoke up, "is there a way out of Helgen from the keep?"
It took the large nord a few seconds to answer, "should be. As the underkeep was being excavated, we dug into a cave that lead a little ways down the mountainside. Last I heard they hadn't yet finished blocking it up."
"Then that's where we're going" Ein announced at he got to his feet. "As long as the two of you can agree to not kill each other until we get out of here."
Hadvar and Ralof, both still sitting on the floor, looked at each other. The two men sized each other up, but also seemed to have an unspoken conversation, a silent struggle for dominance. Eventually, they broke their gaze with Hadvar sighing, "I'll see if I can find the way out of here before the dragon brings this tower down around our heads."
Ralof also got up and pulled a knife out of his boot. "Here, let me see if I can get those bindings off."
Ein held up his hands and the older blonde started sawing through the rope. "You know each other, don't you?" Ein asked after a moment.
Ralof's sawing ceased for a moment, then resumed. "Yes" he answered plainly, "we grew up in the same village."
"And picked different sides in this conflict" Ein finished. Just like the Battle-Born and Graymanes he thought solumnly, though he kept his face neutral. When Ralof finally got the ropes cut, the young nord rubbed his wrists where the rope had chafed.
Then he punched Ralof in the face without warning. "What the hell did you do that for!?" The older man demanded.
"That's for not saying a word in our defense when we were pleading our innocence!" Ein answered angrily. "Lokir BEGGED you to tell the Imperial's we weren't with you, and I nearly did as well."
Ralof rubbed his broad jaw where the strike connected. "It would have made no difference to them."
"You don't know that!" Ein stated, then saw Hadvar moving toward them. "And now we'll probably never know for sure."
"We have a problem," Hadvar stated without preempt, "that gate is locked, and the other way is blocked by a porticullis that won't open from our side." Ralof moved away from Ein to check for himself, his gaze on Hadvar a little longer than was necessary. The Legionnaire continued talking to Ein, "it might take some time, but I think we can break the lock on the gate."
"Very well" Ein anwered calmly before punching Hadvar in the same manner and same amount of warning as he had Ralof. "And that was for not standing up to your captain when it was clear we were innocent!"
"It doesn't work that...nevermind" Hadvar began to counter but gave up. "I don't want to argue, just don't sucker punch me again!" He warned.
"As long as you let me go when we get out of here, I'll consider us square" Ein answered, crossing his arms, challenging Hadvar to see if he'll really let him go.
"You saved my life," Hadvar said after a moment, "I'll consider that payment enough to earn your freedom."
Ein nodded, then turned to ask Ralof how the gate looked to him when the older blonde dove to the side of the porticullis, pulling out his axes. "Imperials! Take cover" he quietly called out, then held one of his axes out to Ein.
"Screw you" Ein sneared at him, "I'm NOT fighting my way out of here if I can help it."
"Get that gate open!" An all too familiar voice ordered.
"Give me that axe" Ein said with a sudden calmness that gave Ralof a chill. The older man gave him the waraxe and pulled a spare from his belt.
Hadvar chose then to reveal himself to the Imperials while Ralof and Ein stayed out of sight. "Captain."
"Soldier, are you alone?" She damanded.
"I...no captain, I'm not."
The porticullis dropped, and Ein put his hand on Ralof's shoulder, pulling him away from the entry so there would be more distance between them and the Imperials. The captain who ordered his execution stepped through, saying, "who do you have with you? Soldiers, civilians?" She then caught sight of Ralof and Ein, the latter gave his axe a light twirl to get a sense of the weight and grip. "Prisoners" she sneered, then looked back at Hadvar, "why have you not executed them, soldier?"
"Captain, with all due respect," Hadvar answered meekly, worry evident in his voice, "this isn't the time, we need to focus on getting to-" his reasoning was cut off as she held up a hand.
"You will be charged with dereliction of duty, and with any luck, treason. You," she pointed toward one of the two legionnaires accompanying her, "arrest him. You, help me finish them off"
Before she finished the last syllable Ein sprinted forward and leapt toward the lackey, kicking him in the ribs to rebound almost on top of the Redguard captain. As the two fell to the ground, Ein tried to swing the axe into her face, but she moved it at the last moment, the blade sending sparks and flecks of masonry flying into their faces.
The captain managed to pull her sword free in a move that would have disemboweled the nord had he not sprung forward onto his hands to complete a somersault onto his feet. By the time he turned around, the captain was already on her knees. She's pretty quick in that heavy armor he thought.
She pointed the sword at him in a fencer stance so he couldn't advance on her without being poked. His axe was in his right hand with his left side facing her. He was poised for a powerful swing, but she could make an attack much faster in this position. So instead of changing his position, he backhanded the sword out of his way, getting a shallow cut on his fist but surprising the captain as he surged forward, his left hand using it's proximity to grab her sword bearing wrist while swinging his axe.
The redguard countered by stepping in too close to him for his swing to connect and the two wrestled for a moment before Ein managed to get the better leverage and bullrushed the two of them at the nearby table. It worked out better than he had anticipated when she tripped over the chair and Ein was able to pin her sword bearing hand on the table. He then followed up by slamming his axe into the table, severing the redguard's arm at the elbow.
While the woman screamed in pain, Ein found he'd lodged the axe a little too well into the wood and gave up trying to pull it out. Instead he grabbed the captain's armor and put his hands around her throat. With her windpipe collapsed, instinct and shock overtook her training as she started clawing at Ein's face with her remaining hand. After she managed to scratch his eye, he released her due to the pain, then grabbed the plume of her helmet, kicked her leg so she was on her knees, and bashed her face against the handle of the axe stuck in the table.
On the fourth bash there was a loud crack and a wet squelch sound. Ein let go of the helmet and saw the redguard was now hanging from the axe handle that was now imbedded in her skull. He turned and saw Ralof pull both his axes from the chest of the captain's lackey, a cut on his arm just below where the chainmail ended and a gash on his cheek, but otherwise looking unharmed. The older man caught sight of the captain's fate and looked slightly mortified.
"Not a pleasant way to meet their end" he said.
Ein turned and looked at the remaining lackey who was holding Hadvar's hands behind his back, though he was sure the older nord could break the hold if he tried. The legionnaire, smaller than Hadvar by a fair deal, looked right scared, and pulled out a dagger and held it to Hadvar's throat. "Come any closer and your friend dies!"
Ein sighed, putting his hands on his hips. "Arkay's prick, man, he's not a traitor and he's not our friend. We simply agreed not to kill each other until we get out of here; an offer we-" he said with emphasis while looking pointedly at Ralof, "are willing to extend to you."
Ralof got the hint, and with an annoyed expression put his axes away.
The legionnaire holding Hadvar seemed to hesitate, then the whole building shook, dust and motes of dirt falling from the ceiling a moment before they could hear the dragon roaring, still very loud despite being in a stone keep. A moment later the man released Hadvar, sheathed his dagger and stepped back, hands up in a sign of non-aggression.
Hadvar turned around and regarded the man. "Do you have the key to the gate here?" he asked while Ein set about taking the swords and sheaths from the two dead Imperials.
The man hesitated. "Ah...no, no I uh, I don't. The...the captain does..." he stammered, not quite bringing himself to look at the macabre scene that was his former commanding officer. After clipping each sheathed sword to the sides of his hips, thanks to a belt the dead lackey donated, Ein started sifting through the hanging corpse's pouches before finding a keyring. Up close, he could see the body was twitching lightly every few seconds.
"It's okay. I'm Hadvar, that's Ralof, he's Einherjar-"
"Just call me Ein" the younger nord stated.
"-Ein, what's your name, son?"
The legionnaire pulled off his leather cap to reveal a mop of short, desheveled black hair, and a pale, round face that painted him as a breton. His cheeks were red but also scared, probably from the pox as a child, and his light blue eyes were closer together than most. Like most town posted soldiers, he was clean shaven. "Cuchulainn" he answered, nervously.
Ein had to stop himself from snorting due to the funny name. "That's not a normal Breton name" he commented instead.
"Well, I'm actually a native of the Reach, Markarth actually" he replied nervously, almost sounding ashamed.
"Right, right" Ein mumbled as he took the keyring to the locked gate, "Reachmen have those funny names."
As the younger nord set to work finding the right key for the gate, Cuchulainn stepped next to Hadvar and said quietly, "sir, is this right? They just killed the captain and Hafnir"
"I know" Hadvar replied.
"And we're just going to let them walk?"
"The captain thought there was reason to execute Einherjar; I don't. Ralof however...I'm not sure I can take him. Besides, I have to get to Solitude and report what happened here. That's my main priority, and I can't do that if I'm fighting him"
Cuchulainn seemed unsure of what to say to that. "But sir...the captain, Hafnir, they were each one of us. This doesn't seem right"
"Son" Hadvar said, cutting off anything else the breton might say, "Justice rarely has a place in war, results are all that matter. Or did you forget not even an hour ago we were about to execute a dozen men and a Jarl without even a trial?"
The young man, a boy really, stayed quiet at that. As Einherjar got the door open, Hadvar thought about Ralof, the man he once considered his sworn brother. Justice, right and wrong, friends and family, war takes these things away, one way or another.
End of Chapter Two
Author's Note: big thanks to Wo1Fang1011 for reminding me to get off my lazy ass. Anyway, Cuchulainn was a character I created purely out of convenience for the situation, as it made more sense that the bitch would send one of her lackeys to detain Hadvar rather than kill him, and there had to be a reason Hadvar doesn't stop Ein from killing her in a necessarily demeaning way because, hey, that bitch had to die. I find I prefer going into the keep with Ralof just so I can kill her.
But I digress, Cuchulainn, spontaneous character, not sure if he'll show up at all after everyone parts ways in Riverwood, if you think I should develop the character more, mention it in the reviews. Also, I might be mistaken, but it seems like Reachmen have Gaelic names, so I gave him the only Gaelic name I could think of. If I'm mistaken, feel free to PM me so I don't repeat it.
UPDATE: And the votes are in, Cuchulainn stays.