Chapter 10 – Verdict
Martin stared at his notes, but couldn't concentrate; the words he read merely went in one ear and out the other. He steadily became more frustrated until he abruptly stood up and left the main hall, his bodyguard following like an obedient shadow.
What can I do? Martin wondered wearily. I don't think I can trust Renae again, but I don't believe we can win against the Prince of Destruction without her aid. He looked up at the cloud-covered sky. Are you enjoying this? he screamed at the Gods. Do you take pleasure from these things? Why me? Why Renae?
Martin wished he was the farmer's son he had been raised to believe, the simple priest who shouldn't second guess the Nine. But no, he had to be the illegitimate heir to a throne he didn't want; he had to be the light shining in the shadows of uncertainty and fear. And what help does the Nine send me? Three Dunmer who hate the Empire! Martin leaned against the cold stone wall. All this would be easier if I could place my faith in Akatosh, but I can't. Not now. He let a whole city be razed before Renae could find me! There was once a time when I could tell others to trust in the divine plan of the Gods, but I cannot accept that advice myself.
Martin had locked himself in a stalemate. He knew they couldn't win without Renae, Aryn and Ethyra, however the fact that at least one of them killed innocents without pity or remorse seemed to large to simply overlook. Martin wouldn't be surprised if either Aryn or Ethyra was an assassin too. In fact, he realized, Renae, being an Ashlander, probably wouldn't have met or became friends with Aryn if he wasn't an assassin. He sighed. None of his options were pleasing.
But after ten seconds of contemplating other options with an out-of control imagination, he knew he couldn't sentence her to death, even if she was an ancestor and Daedra worshiping assassin. It felt. . . rather unnerving that all this time, Renae could have killed him if if she wished.
But worse was knowing that every ounce of respect Martin had for Renae had slid off the scales and into a murky pond, where it was unlikely said respect would ever see the light of day again. Sure, he respected and feared her skills and profession, but all the admiration and friendly feeling he held had drowned with his respect.
Martin shook his head. He had no choice: Renae and her sidekicks must fend off Oblivion. Surely their practice of murdering would be of some assistance? But I cannot conceive of how they could decide to assassinate people in the first place!
However. . . one part of Martin's mind spoke up, Renae said her tribe gets massacred by her own race. Perhaps Renae and Ethyra joined the Morag tong to put any influence they gained into stopping the attacks. Besides, they're Dark elves - their customs are different from yours. The Tong is even legal! Their politics and stability rely on it.
The priestly habit of thinking about things from the perspective of others had made its spectacular comeback. Old habits died hard. But it did provide Martin with the tolerance to put up with three assassins under his shook his head sadly. But I don't think I'll ever be able to trust them properly again. It doesn't matter if they've kept their knives sheathed so far, I won't let any harm come to anyone here.
Abruptly, the tiredness that had gnawed away at him for the last few hours made itself fully known, and he felt utterly exhausted. I'll tell Renae in the morning, he thought as he shuffled inside and to his quarters.
~.~.~
Baurus rode up the steps of Cloud Ruler Temple, thinking of what a pleasant morning it was. The sky was an unobstructed sheet of blue; the sun was nearly warming the landscape and made the snow glitter like it was made of tens of thousands of diamonds. An eagle lazily soared through the sky, and seemed to screech in joy at the opportunity to stretch it's wings.
He dismounted from his rented bay horse and led the mare to the stables, smiling and greeting every comrade he passed. Baurus was a well-liked Blade. When he entered the stable, he saw three other horses. One looked like the incarnate of storm clouds, while the other two were a more generic chestnut and white. Baurus untacked and brushed his horse then led her into a stall with fresh food and water.
When he walked out of the stables, two things happened nearly simultaneously. Baurus saw Renae standing in front of the door to the west wing, a look nothing short of suspicion etched onto her face. And fifty kilograms of Imperial and amour narrowly avoided slamming into him.
"Hi Baurus!" Jena said, a little embarrassed that she had forgotten her dignity for a moment and had nearly hugged him. Baurus grinned despite himself. Jena was even younger than him and was almost always lighthearted and mischievous. Until she got into battle, that was.
"How has it been up here, Jena?" he asked, stealing one more glance over at the west wing. Renae had vanished.
"Oh, you should have been here," Jena replied, then lowered her voice some. "Before that Dark Elf went to help you, she and the Grandmaster had the most entertaining fight. It was brilliant."
Recalling how easily she had argued with him in the sewers, Baurus said, "Why am I not surprised?"
They walked back to the entrance to the main hall, where Jena stayed to finish her shift, but Baurus went inside. He looked around, seeing one table nearly completely hidden by books, but the heir he was anxious to meet wasn't there. So instead Baurus headed for the kitchen. The cooks would surely be able to have something ready for him by the time he had finished his report to the Grandmaster on what had happened in the Imperial City and in his little extra excursion.
~.~.~
Renae paced the west wing dormitory. Every Blade at Cloud Ruler was awake or sleeping in the other dormitory, so the room provided surprising privacy. Aryn's brow was creased as he thought. Ethyra was half listening, half keeping an eye on Foyada as the little creature explored the wooden room to distract herself from her discomfort. She hated being inside solid buildings or cities for a long periods of time.
"He should have been back here before us. So why did he only arrive now?" Renae wondered. She had simply written it off that they had both been busy or he had been given another assignment to complete. And this is the price of my lazy assumption, she thought. Assumptions are worse than relying on luck.
"Perhaps he had other errands to complete, or he was sent to get something," Aryn suggested.
"It is a possibility, however caution is telling me not to believe that," Ethyra replied, pulling her scrib out of one of the sleeping mats and onto her lap.
Ever-logical, Aryn calmly pronounced, "So the questions are: what was he doing and does it concern us?"
"Knowing how cruel the Daedra and the Aedra are, I would say this will be bad," Renae growled. "Baurus had no reason to dawdle back, unless he got another assignment via courier or for personal reasons. I know next to nothing about his personal life, but I doubt he's in a relationship. Baurus is married to his job."
"Well, we'll find out soon enough," Aryn stated.
"Yeah, that's so comforting," Renae said darkly.
Aryn frowned at her. What had Renae so tense. "Sera, what is preying on your mind?"
"Oh, only my life and if I'll live to see Morrowind again," she replied. "If Martin rejects our help, and I can't stop Dagon, Webspinner will send assassins to torture me to death."
"Cheerful," Ethyra said, her brows knitted with worry. "What can we do to force his hand?"
"Not a thing," Aryn finished bleakly.
Silence settled over the Dunmer, even Foyada was quiet. Then Ethyra's eyes lit up with inspiration. "We may not be able to decide our fate, but come with me, Rae." Ethyra stood up, carefully placing her pet on the ground, and motioned for her cousin to follow her. Confused but not unwilling, Renae fell in step behind her cousin. Aryn also looked confused, but stayed where he was, and absently patted Foyada when the little creature waddled past him.
~.~.~
Renae and Ethyra sat on the roof of the stables, enjoying the fresh air.
"I must admit," Renae murmured, tucking a stray lock of hair behind an elegantly pointed ear, "I'm still somewhat surprised that you were the only one willing to come with me when I left the Ashlands."
"Ah, but among Urshilaku, any tribe member is close family. How silly of you to forget, sister," Ethyra teased. "Besides, I always wanted to get a good look at a silt strider, something which most likely wouldn't have happened if I stayed." She reached back to undo her tight plaited hair. The clumsy fingers of the wind tried to plait her light brown hair again, but only succeeded in providing a more decent challenge for her hairbrush.
Renae's lips turned up, nearly a smile. "This is probably the happiest I've seen you since you've arrived in Cyrodiil, especially compared to the last few days." Renae frowned slightly in thought, something tugging at her memory. "Oh, except for when you threw that book at me. . ." Ethyra smirked in wicked satisfaction. "Are you ever going to apologize for that, by any chance?"
"Don't hold your breath." Ethyra smirked, but then her expression fell flat. "But there's something else I need to apologize for. . ." Renae waited patiently, knowing from her own grapples with pride how hard it was to overcome the egotistical part of oneself. "I'm sorry for being a little hard when you spoke of how you told Martin. I should have remembered this is a priest we're talking about - they have some strong intuition."
"I don't mind you getting ticked off, as long as you'll defend my back from the unmourned House," Renae replied, secretly glad that her cousin had gotten over it.
They fell into a comfortable silence, both happy to be on good terms with each other.
Ethyra's thoughts lingered on the annoying heir. She remembered that she wanted to ask her cousin something concerning him. "Why did you say to that heir 'I have a present for you'?"
"He had always been polite and reasonable, and I repaid it as any Ashlander would."
"Then may the outlanders come to respect our customs," Ethyra said sagely, mocking Shara from their tribe.
Renae snorted and lightly clipped Ethyra's shoulder. "Yeah, as if. By the way, you can't imitate Shara's voice at all. Her voice is gentle and lower pitch than that. Say, how is everyone?"
Ethyra smiled at her cousin. "I never thought you would ask." And she jumped into an enthusiastic recital of everything of interest in the Urshilaku camp. One of the things Ethyra had always liked about Renae was that she was an avid listener and always showed some reaction to whatever was said.
The night had claimed the sky before Ethyra was finished, and they both retreated from the rooftops inescapable coldness. Renae had taken two steps towards the mess hall before Jauffre swooped in front of her and said, "You should speak to Martin, I believe he has made progress with the Mysterium Xarxes." With the obligatory glare - which Renae only too happily returned - he turned on his heel and walked stiffly away. Renae and Ethyra shared an identical look of wanting to inflict pan on the Breton. "That's immediately, Dark Elf," he growled when he was in the doorway, knowing they hadn't moved.
"N'wah!" Ethyra and Renae spat quietly in unison. They shared a smirk, too, before Renae's face hardened. But Ethyra caught the split-second of worry on her face.
"May Veloth guide your steps and our ancestors protect your soul, sister," Ethyra murmured in Dunmeri.
"Blessings of Moon-and-Star, sister," Renae murmured, then turned and resolutely walked towards the decider of her fate in the main hall.
She announced her arrival to Martin by actually letting her boots make a noise as they made contact with the timber flooring. Baurus, standing five feet away and acting as Martin's bodyguard, wondered why her face was set in stone as she approached the heir's mini-library. We still know so little about her, he fretted. She was acting subtly different, and it did little to ward off Baurus' overprotective paranoia. She covers her tracks too well. I could only find gossip and why she was imprisoned when I searched around.
Martin too looked up, and one part of him hoped she had spent all this time worrying about his decision. He quickly reprimanded and silenced that part of him, however, and said, "Baurus, could you please excuse Renae and I?" Despite his sudden misgivings, Baurus obediently moved back a few yards. "Thank you."
Renae bit her tongue against making the first sound, her heart beginning to beat a bit faster. An Ashlander showed neither fear apprehension, which would've been obvious in her voice.
His insight telling him she wasn't going to say anything, Martin decided to begin. "I have come to my verdict, Renae, on whether you, Aryn and Ethyra should stay here." Again, she was silent, merely staring at him with her blood-red eyes. "You can stay."
Relief so sudden and so strong hit her full on, as if someone had thrown a dremora at her, but her only outward reaction was to blink and smile. Then, as her next thought hit her, she had to grapple with the pride gagging her. "My humblest thanks, muthsera." She doubted he even heard her, as she spoke so quietly.
"I am, however, concerned about the safety of everyone in Cloud Ruler Temple. I know you dislike most of the people here, but you nor your companions must not lay one hand on them."
Renae's eyes held a seal of promise as she said, "As long there isn't a writ with their name on it, my knife stays firmly in its sheath."