Ay, only two chapters until the end ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿
It was quite the silence, in fact, too much of the silence. Arnnhul simply dropped on his knees and finally took another breath while Ocarion slowly started to have colour back on again. Yet Frum'aag sounded pretty serious about trying the whole thing once again, even though the sound ship made caused everyone to believe that they were about to sink right there. "But Miss Khajiit, surely you can do it again!"
"Doesn't mean I will." Ada simply replied, picking up the lock she managed to shoot off before starting to pull the anchor back on. After few heavy pushes, it finally succumbed to the force of Khajiit and broke free from where it was stuck, getting to its spot. Once there, she locked it while Brotimus finally managed to get back to his senses. Looking around the place, he did not saw the nicest of the pictures. In fact, the ship was in havoc and as the man of high tastes, he simply couldn't allow that.
"Miss Dra'ada, perhaps it is better if you take the break? It does seem that one of your wounds opened again." He said, walking up to the wheel and pointing at the blood spot at Khajiit jacket.
"Most likely bandages ripped...But I might need to check some things." She stepped back from the wheel, handing the map over to the Imperial before heading toward ladder to lower sector while shoving weak Altmer away. "I believe you will get us there without me around?"
"I will keep a ship in best of shapes, Miss Dra'ada~."
"Just get us there safely." Ada then proceeded to walk downstairs while Frum'aag followed from behind, leaving without any explanation.
"Mister Ocarion? Sir Settnce? Perhaps we shall clean the place up?" Brotimus called for other two men as he set the ship to slowly sail toward their destination.
"Me? Why shall I clean their mess?!" Ocarion exclaimed, walking over to Brotimus. "Mister Brotimus, I understand that you wish to clean the ship, I want clean as well! But shall we not ask the cause of mess to clean this up?"
"You wish to tell this to sadistic Daedra and Ada?"
"I...Let's start with bodies." Ocarion simply gave up, knowing that at least it wasn't as bad as downstairs. Here there were only some broken barrels and dead bodies all over the place while down sector had cannons and heavy creates literally crack some spots in the walls and turn the whole thing into madness.
"Sir Settnce, could you use your astrology knowledge and make sure we go in a right direction?"
"...What? Oh, yes yes, of course." Old arcane walked to the well, opening his lovely book while his hand never stopped twisting his amulet and whispering something to it.
"Poor man, he is so scared that he most likely chant some Breton preys ten times a day," Ocarion spoke softly and quietly, to make sure he wasn't heard by anyone but Brotimus. "But Mister, I wished to talk with you about the matter which concerned me the great deal."
"Of course, what will that be?" His talk interrupted with the few sharp, ripped breaths while dead body fell over the border of the ship.
"I see how you act around that Khajiit and it does concern me, why would you flirt with likes of her?" Altmer leant closer, whispering softly while picking few wooden pieces which fell from the broken barrel. "I heard their fur carry a great deal of diseases and insects."
"Why the concern? Do you have your golden eye on her yourself?"
"What?!" Ocarion exclaimed, maybe bit too loud as it made even Arnnhul jump up at his spot. "Me and her? Proud Altmer and filthy Khajiit?! Ba! I just wished to warn you, Mister Brotimus."
Imperial sighed deeply, pointing at the bunch of other broken things that were laying on the floor while throwing what he had at the ocean. "Worry not, I am simply being friendly; not like I don't have anyone waiting for me back at the Cyrodiil City."
"You do?" Ocarion had almost shocked sound to his voice before giving off a cough, quickly picking up what he had to erase the error he just said. "Well of course! I wouldn't count for less! May I know who they are, though?"
"Oh my, I never thought you were much on gossip."
"Mister Brotimus, please, I am Altmer. We love juicy details."
"Of course." Imperial walked over to another dead body before lifting it up and carrying it over to the border. "Alas, all I can say is that he's counsellor between Valenwood and Cyrodiil. Ah, Bosmers are just too delightful."
"Bosmer?...I-I meant to say, this is, in fact, is delightful!" Ocarion simply decided to keep on throwing the dead bodies over the border and quiet down with his question. After all, he always knew that he would not understand all tastes of man.
"But Miss Khajiit, I am sure we could spin this ship few more times!" Excited Daedra exclaimed as she walked behind the Khajiit, stepping over all the broken boxes and few cannons which fell over after all the madness.
Ada simply pointed at the huge crack in the ship's wall before moving her claw and pointing at the full hole. She then quietly kept on moving before reaching, what looked like, a room. Surprisingly enough few managed to survive the damage. Take the lowest bed, Ada removed her jacket and looked at the bandages which were already crimson from the blood. With the low growl, she unwrapped them before some blood sprayed and landed on the poor sheets of the bed.
"Oh, Miss Khajiit! Why haven't you told me that you are hurt? I could've licked your wounds."
"Lick? I don't recall Daedras having healing spit."
"That's what felines do." Frum'aag said as she suddenly lowered herself on the bed as well, sitting the bit too close to Ada. Or perhaps bed just was small. "Lick each other~."
"I am not a-...Shut it." Dra'ada replied as she slowly took out few of the leaves with the needle from her pockets. Applying the leaf with some green dust on it, she hissed quite loudly while her teeth tightly locked against each other.
"I was thinking." Frum'aag kept on talking, curiously observing the operation while taking off her bloody coat. Interestingly enough, her hair was of dark purple colour. "Why you like dancing? You first mortal who does love that. Other either scared of it or too sadistic to dance."
"I don't dance...?" Ada really couldn't pay less attention to Frum'aag and tried to reply in most short and simple answers she could. Though this question was strange for her.
"But we did, just tonight!"
"Oh, you refer to it as dancing." She sighed and tried sitting straight, feeling how pain still rushed through her body like giant sting but at least the blood stopped pushed out. "If I need to kill them I might as well enjoy it."
She suddenly moved closer to Ada, pressing her shoulder against Khajiit's fur. This fur was nice, warm, prevented from feeling Daedra's colder skin. "Don't lie, I saw your expression. This wasn't dance which made you excited back there. It was partner~."
"You will ruin the bandage." She replied with a stoic face but inside she became suspicious. Frum'aag was too close for comfort, that much was obvious, but Ada did not saw a reason for such closeness.
But it became clearer when Frum'aag's fingers rushed along Ada back's fur, going upward. "I can make the pain disappear better than any mortal medicine~."
"You saw what I did with Redguard Keeper with bare hands." Dra'ada wanted to turn her face to stare Daedra down before she felt other's hand pressing against her cheek. All borders were officially crossed. "What makes you think I won't do same if you won't stop?" The low growl at the end, barely loud enough to be heard, made sure that message had the violent tone to it.
"Nothing! And that's what make it so much fun~."
Sun slowly began rising above the horizon line, indicating that morning was about to change the night. Which was quite lucky for them as our party was but few more miles away from their destination. "Ah, we are but twenty minutes away from the ship, Sir Pevia."
"Thank I perhaps shall go get Ada here. Thank you for making sure we were going in right direction, Sir Settnce." Imperial said in his usual, gentle tone before walking to lower section. Making his way through all the mess which was on the ground he finally approached, as it seemed, rooms of the ship. Or what was left of the rooms on this ship. Knocking against the wall near the entrance he slowly leant in to call for the Khajiit before seeing something that made him pull back away quickly. Staying in pure awe for few moments, Brotimus rubbed his eyes and looked around to make sure that he was still on the same ship. Coughing into his hand, he began walking back away while rubbing the back of his neck. "Well...We do have twenty more minutes."
Fifteen minutes after Dra'ada walked from downstairs, clipping the jacket onto her body while Daedra followed from the behind, yet her attention was quickly taken over by approaching island. Since the island was close to Hammerfell she did not expect it to be so...So green. It looked more like the tropical island than anything. "That's because of Thalmor," Ocarion spoke softly, looking over the island as well. "At least they say so. That they brought wildlife and turned the island into tropical hell to increase the natural security of it."
"Mister Pointy Ears, who's Thalmor?"
Meanwhile, Ada made way to the wheel of the ship and begun moving the ship closely to the shore of the beach. But once she heard Brotimus trying to say something, she pushed wheel quite violently which caused it to roughly hit against the sand, shaking the titan. "Not. A. Word." She only said before walking to a border and pulling one of the ladders, dropping it down. "Now let's get going, I don't want rush into too much Thalmor."
Ada noticed how island felt wrong. Even though you could see tropical trees and grass covering every bit of island, creating deadly forest ahead of the group, the air itself felt wrong. It was hot yet it was dry. Ada knew that Thalmor weren't nicest of folks but since they were elves, she hoped they wouldn't torture environment of the land so much. Pulling down her hood, she slowly looked around the beach before starting to make her way toward the jungle forest.
"Do you even know where you going?" Ocarion shouted while catching up with the Khajiit together with the rest of the group.
"Map had mark right in the centre."
"So what? It could've been just way to mark island, not the exact spot."
"Then they would've circled it." But before Ocarion could've said even a single word, Dra'ada pulled arrow and rushed it toward the Altmer. Slamming it into the tree next to him, she stared him down before pulling it slowly back, having a big spider giving last breaths at the end of the arrow. "I was on Redguard pirate ship, I know how they mark maps."
Even though Thalmor tried their best, they could not adopt the island to the full jungle environment. Surely, there were few snakes here and some bugs there; of course, never forget about delightful death flowers of deathness. Alas, it looked more like a poor parody on jungle rather than jungle. Due to all the issues, any wild animal would've to fail to reproduce while plants simply died from dehydration. And Ada wasn't the fan of all this. Being born in greenest depths of Elsweyr, having her childhood among exotic beasts and juicy plants, the whole picture of half dead bugs and rotten plants brought almost disgust to her. "I am killing every Thalmor bastard in there." She said in the tone which would not take no for an answer. But no one really wanted to debate her on this statement.
Luckily for her, the torture ended when they finally reached the centre of the island. How did they know it was the centre? Well, there was a huge temple which calmly rested among rocks and sand. The structure and pure look of it perfectly suggested that this was Redguard temple, but one of the old times.
Slowly walking to a massive hole in the wall of the temple, Ada slowly took her bow and looked over the others. "We will need someone watching this entrance for when we will go back."
"I suggest that I shall stay, I and Master Settnce will guard it for you!" Ocarion exclaimed his eagerness bit too loudly, to which he earned threatening hiss of the Khajiit.
Brotimus had very bad feeling about this. He already suspected Ocarion in being part of something shady but now he refused to go inside the temple which had Thalmor in it. It certainly did not calm the Imperial down but he couldn't just start the argument here. What he could do though was to follow Dra'ada inside and make sure that they will receive this dagger. Honestly, even he was already interested in what way this whole gamble of saving Daggerfall will end.
"Miss Ad...Dra'ada." Brotimus said quietly while leaning closer to her, wanting to make sure Ocarion would not notice too much. With life which he was living, such secrecy was only a natural skill he adopted. Yet, for some bizarre reason, Frum'aag leant in as well but he wasn't feeling like arguing with curious Daedra. The best outcome he would've to get is the pain. His pain. "I suggest you allow me to guide you inside as well. After all.."
"You and Frum'aag are going in. Arcane and Lemon stay outside." It didn't take Ada much convincing as she really did not care who was following her inside; all she could think at the moment was the act of her arrows rushing right through Thalmor bastards' skulls. And with this being settled down, the group of three slowly made their way inside.
It took the extra skill of stealth to be quiet as the whole place already was a wreck, only holding up by some of the vines which wrapped around collapsing stones in last desperate attempt to hold them together. Making their way past dark yet wide halls, they walked into a first room with some manner of the light. It, by all logical means, looked like studying room. Light of few light whisps was illuminating the room full of tables and books which seemed endless, only ending up with some bizarre chest in the end of the room. Pointing for Brotimus to stay behind some of the fallen rocks and watch the entrance of the room, she called over Frum'aag and told her to follow herself inside. Ada wasn't sure that this was what they were looking for, but the combination of a bizarre chest and her own ego did make the conclusion that it was. You know how Ada is, don't you.
Slowly sneaking behind all the research tables Ada made her way toward few Atlmer who were standing around said chest and taking some notes as it looked like. Long black and yellow robes quickly told her that those were Thalmor indeed. Signing to Frum'aag, Ada pointed at the left Altmer which was closer to them. Once the Daedra was close enough, Ada released arrow which swift through the air like the snake which aimed to kill; and which did kill. As it ripped through the hood of a robe and then skull of individual, Frum'aag jumped from the nearby table and bushed other with her favourite toy. Once both bodies dropped to the ground, Khajiit got up and begun looking through all the papers in hopes of a clue.
Mostly there were a lot of notes dedicated toward Redguards history during First Era and lot of notes about Daedra in general; speculations of it being Meridia relic or Aedra relic. Ada also noticed a lot of tools but they looked like ones for breaking things, not exactly picking the lock up. And judging by the state of the chest, it was shut tight still.
But as Ada gave checking glare to a chest, she noticed that Frum'aag was...Doing nothing. she simply stood there and watched Ada in return. "...Why aren't you looking for information?"
"What information?"
"A-About the chest?" Khajiit slowly turned around and crossed her arms, having the truly shocked expression which amused the Daedra. "Are you playing stupid or this thing really keeping you from seeing?"
"Oh, the chest?" Frum'aag spoke through her soft laugh before turning around and walking up to it. She simply waved her hands left and right before cutting palm of her own hand and letting dark blood splash onto the chest's lock. To the full surprise of the Khajiit, it actually snapped open. "Those are chests of Mister Jyggalag. They are meant to be open with his Daedra blood and us, Seducers together with Saints, count in as well."
Shaking her head Ada simply decided that it would be better to leave any questions for later. Walking over to the chest, she slowly looked inside before finding a dagger's scabbard. Grabbing it, Khajiit examined it from all the sides before looking over at Frum'aag. "Well, you definitely have a lot of books to read on our way back, Miss Khajiit." She only said, showing that she did not really know how the dagger would work.
Still, the dagger holder itself looked like it was pictured on the paper they had so Ada decided to take it and finally make her way back to the ship. But once Khajiit turned around to make her way back to the ship, sudden feeling of weight dropped on her from nowhere. Raising her eyes up, Ada saw the blurry figure in Thalmor robe before dropping down on the floor as her mind slowly shut down, going to the sweet nirvana.