And after a week of waiting here is chapter 11! This one loosely follows the quest it is named after due to events in the last chapter. Direct dialogue is used in several places although I had to tweak it a bit for it to make sense. Luckily we'll be moving on with the story after this chapter, so keep your eyes on your email. Hope you like it and please review!
A gruff voice woke me up. "Hey, you lousy slacker, wake up!"
"Huh?" I said wonderfully. I opened my eyes to see an Orc woman in steel armor, shin boots, Imperial gauntlets, a steel shield and an Orcish mace and matching bow and arrows strapped to her hip and back respectively. She had her hands on her waist and a looked that made me think that she wanted to kill me and since I noticed that all my stuff had been taken and my robes were now replaced with a roughspun tunic and footwraps, I figured that it was best not to start a fight with her. I stood up, ignoring the huge headache I had at the moment and looked around and saw that I was underground. Perfect. The woman just kept staring at me.
"Where are we?" I asked, knowing that I probably wouldn't like the answer.
"All right, prisoner. Eyes front. You're in Cidhna Mine, now."-See, I knew that I wouldn't like the answer- "And we expect you to earn your keep. There's no resting your hide in a cell in this prison. Here, you work. You'll mine ore until you start throwing up silver bars. You got it?"
"Yes, mam." I said, knowing that it would probably be best to get on this woman's good side. That is, if she has a good side.
"Good." She said and then turned to the barred door behind her."All right. Open her up." Then to me in a much rougher voice that meant business. "Now, you. Get down there." Knowing that even though I still had my magic, I figured that the odds weren't in my favor so I quickly headed through the cell door. It slammed behind me and I knew that someone must be controlling a lever somewhere. I turned around, remembering that this mine was actually a prison, asking, "Hey! What I'd do?" My answer was a chuckle from the Orc. She walked out through the other door and I was left there alone.
I turned and walked out to see a large room with a fire in the middle. The only people in the room were a huge Orc standing beside a cell door and an old Breton was sitting beside the fire. I went down the stairs and the man greeted me rather bluntly. "Hey, what are you in for, new blood?" He asked that as if it was a joke, but considering I was fifteen, most people would normally too.
"I don't know. I got caught up in a fight in the streets and they knocked me out."
"So you're the one they brought in from that. Heard that you were charged for assisting a murder." He chuckled at some joke.
"I was trying to attack the assassin. She hurt my wolf. One of the guards got in the way and they didn't accept my yield." I said, though this wasn't entirely true. The guards had blocked the way out of the city and the only way they'd move was if the assassin was no longer a threat. But perhaps it had been best to tell the truth because the story I told him just sent the man into a rolling laughter. I scowled at him and sat down. When he was finally done, he said, "Well, that must have been some wolf for you to kill half the guard in revenge to get a shot at an assassin." He laughed again. "Better not let the others hear that. Some will think that as a challenge."
I signed. "So when do I get out?"
"Whenever you've served your sentence. But here you have to dig up the Nord's silver. If you don't, you'll have to deal with the guards when they come in. They'll beat some sense into, no doubt about that."
"Then I guess I'd better get digging." I got up and headed down a tunnel as a strange loneliness formed around me. Suddenly I realized that Shade was not with me. Of course! She wouldn't have been sent in with me. I hope the guards didn't kill her. Knowing them they sure tried. Maybe she got away… I sighed inwardly. She wouldn't leave me here to rot. She would fight her way through the whole city guard to free me. The thought sent shivers down my spine. Shade was an excellent killer, but a city guard was too much even for her. But then again, if half the guards were killed just by my hand, then Shade wouldn't have too much trouble. Still, anything could happen. Hopefully if a rescue mission was on her mind, she would try and sneak in. She was smarter than that. Right? Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I quickly found a pickaxe and an ore vein and started swinging away at it, having no idea what I was doing.
"Never mined before?" asked a Breton man. He was probably middle-aged and had long, dark hair and a beard and well-tanned skin. "Watch what I do." I did and soon was slowly getting silver out of the rock. But my arms quickly tired (I seriously have no upper body strength). The man laughed. "Not exactly made for brute force, huh? After a few years in here, you'll buff up." The thought of spending years in this dang place made my stomach flip over. No doubt my sentence was long; I supposedly helped out an assassin last time I checked.
"So, what are you in for?" he asked.
"Apparently, assisting a murder. Guards should really learn how to get out of the way of an Ice Spike. You?"
The man chuckled. "I'm a Forsworn. One of our raids went bad, and I got captured. Would've been fine dying for the Reach with my kinsmen, but the Silver-Bloods want their ore mined, so they threw me in here." He looked over at me. "Name's Duach. What's yours?"
"Not tellin'." I said flatly.
"Fine. Easier when they drag your body out of here." Another man walked by and stared at us. He kept going down the way I'd come.
"Other prisoners don't like it when we talk to one another, so keep your voice down." He said quietly.
"Last time I checked, you were talking to me." I whispered back.
He just chuckled. "I was just trying to help you survive. You'd be dead in a few days if you don't know how to mine." We continued on like that for a few hours. After a while I looked further down and found a vein at the end of the tunnel. Nobody was around so I figured that meant some peace. I was wrong.
"Hey, you. New blood." Said a deep voice with a particular accent that I was sure I recognized. I was proven right when I turned around with an annoyed look on my face that quickly turned to surprise as I had to look up and up. In front of me was the huge Orc. He was much bigger up close. In fact, I think he was bigger than anybody I've ever met, including any Altmer and that is saying something. All he wore was ragged trousers and iron gauntlets (how'd he get those) with a pickaxe at his side and had white war paint all over his face. And he was staring at me with obvious distaste.
"Yeah?" I asked; my voice sounding like a mouse compared to his.
"Madanach wants to see you. I suggest you get moving." His voice held no room for argument.
"Who's Madanach?" The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Luckily the huge Orc didn't try and kill me. "He's the King in Rags. The leader of the Forsworn. And like I said before, you'd better get moving." Since there was obviously no chance of asking more questions, I followed the Orc back into the room with the fire. He led me to the cell door that I had noticed before, but had not had the heart to be interested in. He unlocked the door and pushed me through. Looking back, he growled and leaned against the side of the door. I turned and walked further into the cell, noting one door that led off to the side and I thought I saw stone that you'd see in Dwemer ruins. I continued down until I came into a room.
Madanach sat at a desk writing and I instantly became irritated. Not only did he have a desk, but a chest, bed, and even some rabbit and pheasant hanging from wooden beams. And I bet he didn't get that because he dug up the most silver. The Reachmen in question looked over his shoulder at me and gave a crooked smile.
"Well, if it isn't the little elf that slew the town guard. Come, come. Over to where I can see you better." I did as he ask and now saw that he had white hair and eyes so pale they nearly looked like he didn't have any pupils at all. The leader of the Forsworn looked like an old man to me. The Forsworn might want to think about choosing a new leader. This one isn't going to last much longer, if I have anything to say about it.
"Well, well. Look at you. The Nords have turned you into an animal. A wild beast caged up and left to go mad. So, my fellow beast, you have me at your disposal. So, what do you want? Answers about the Forsworn? A chance to kill me? C'mon, I know you must want something? Everyone does." Madanach looked me up and down as he talked. He sounded like an old man. A grumpy old man.
"I'm no beast," was all I could think of to say.
All Madanach did was laugh. "No, maybe not now, but soon, soon. The Nords sure caged you up like one, though."
"Well, unlike you, I'm going to get out of here." I knew that was probably the stupidest thing to say. I had thought of escape plans, but no good ones had popped up. And right on cue, the King in Rags threw back his head and howled with laughter. When he was done, he said, "Really. And just how do you plan on doing that, may I ask?"
I squirmed. "I don't know. But you can be sure that I'll figure a way out." I started to leave when he called, "You know, you can try my way."
This caught me off guard. But then again, the leader of a rebellion against the Nords wouldn't really like being trapped in one of their prisons. I turned to see that he had turned around in his chair to face me. His face showed that he knew that he had my attention. And I recognized that he thought he could use me. And I knew I wouldn't let him.
"There's a man named Braig inside these mines. Besides me, he's been here the longest. Tell him I sent you. Ask him why he's here. I want you to know how widespread the injustice of Markarth is." His voice sounded confident, like he knew he had me. Something then told me that I wouldn't want to know what this Braig had to say.
"How about you tell me and I don't kill you." I knew my threat sounded weak, but I wasn't going to do what he asked.
"Really," he said, getting up. "I find that unlikely." His voice had gone cold.
"I may not look it, but I can be a very capable mage with what little I know." I said and for once my voice gained an ounce of strength.
"Then let's test that!" He cried before charging up a spell. He released it and was suddenly surrounded in a cloak of frost magic. Dang it! He's a better mage than me. What was I thinking? You weren't. I readied my fire magic and quickly leapt aside as a powerful frost spell came flying hurling through the air towards me. Probably learn what that was later, if I survived this. I sent a dualcasted Firebolt with such force that it staggered him. He's older, slower, weaker. Use that to your advantage my mind thought. My battle senses that I had formed over time kicked in; I watched my opponent for any and all weaknesses. All the while I dodged and ducked his spells. The bad thing about frost magic is that it's the slowest of the three types, easy to dodge if you have the speed. And knowledge.
Fire, ice, and battle taunts whizzed through the air as we battled. I dodged his spells while he absorbed mine with a ward (I always thought that those things were costly and I don't run into other mages often), but our pools of magicka slowly dwindled, mine leaving me sooner than Madanach's though I always managed to avoid getting killed before it refilled. Soon it ended with me holding a charged Firebolt and Madanach wielding a ward to deflect. I didn't have enough magicka to cast another one so this was my last shot, but the good thing is I could hold the Firebolt as long as I concentrated on it but Madanach had to use his reserves to keep up the ward. The King in Rags knew my plan and let the spell go. I released my own spell right after that but before it hit him he hurled a huge frost spell (I think it was called Ice Storm) straight at me. I jumped up to avoid it and ended up hitting my head on the ceiling. I landed hard on my butt, my head spinning.
When my vision cleared, I saw that the Madanach was now just a burnt up body. I got to my feet in time to hear a voice cry out in alarm and turned to see that the Orc had come to check out the commotion (you didn't think the sound of magic and yelling wasn't suspicious until now). He unsheathed the pickaxe at his side and charged yelling "For Madanach!" I ducked, sending fire up into his face. He screamed and backed away, but with my unrelenting flames it was soon over. The other prisoners soon came to investigate and upon seeing me beside the burned bodies of the Orc and Madanach, they attacked. After the last of the inmates had been reduced to ash, I took a quick glance around the room and found a piece of paper on the desk (good thing the King didn't have it on him or else it wouldn't have survived). Once reading its contents, I went to the cell I had seen earlier. Using the key from the desk, the door clicked open easily. I walked into the now-revealed tunnel and my hopeful escape.
"My eyes inside Cidhna Mine tell me Madanach is dead. You've done a great service to the Silver-Blood family. I've had the Jarl officially pardon, and taken care of a few other loose ends." said Thonar Silver-Blood. After fighting my way through frostbite spiders (those things disgust and creep me out) and Dwarven Guardians (bloody metal contraptions. Why did the dwarves have to invent those things), I found myself facing none other than the person who put me in the dang jail in the first place. So naturally I summon fire to burn him when he tells me that I've done him a service. Well, that's one for the record books. But things still didn't add up.
"You and your thugs had me arrested in the first place." I growled, glaring at the man who just made me plain hate Nords.
"And you've proven that was the best move I could have made. Don't give that look. You're free to go. Here, how about a little token for your efforts? My family's ring and all the things the guards confiscated from you when you were jailed." As he came toward me he eyed my hands, which I lowered. But that didn't mean that I couldn't bring it back just as quick. He handed me a sack which contained my things and pulled off a ring from his finger. After taking both the ring and the sack, I noticed that he wasn't alone. From out of the shadows came the one creature I couldn't wait to see again.
"Shade!" I cried as she ran up to me and I wrapped my arms around her, despite her wanting to lick my face off.
"I sent guards to find your wolf and bring her to me after I heard you had killed Madanach. I knew you'd want her back." He turned to leave.
"Wait just one moment. Exactly why was I thrown in jail in the first place? And how did I do you a service by killing Madanach? Why didn't you just execute him from the start?" I had so many questions and I was going to make sure I got them. Even if I have to put a dagger to his throat.
Thonar signed. No getting out of this one buddy. "When their uprising was crushed, I had Madanach brought to me. He was a wild animal, but a useful one. I offered him a stay from execution if he used his influence to deal with any annoyances that came up. Competitors, agents, and idiots" He turned back to me. "So I've let him run his little Forsworn rebellion from inside Cidhna Mine. But then he got out of control. He killed my wife and nearly killed me. Then you come along and start being nosy. When you were attacked at the inn, I thought that Madanach had sent the assassin. I never ordered it and so I wanted to know why. I thought you had learned something. And when you got caught up in the fight in the market, I saw the perfect reason to send you to Cidhna Mine and get you out of the way. But I didn't think you'd kill the King in Rags and his all his warriors. With Madanach out of the way, it will be easier to clean up the messes without him starting new ones."
All this was a shock to me. He was conspiring with the Forsworn! But all I could say was, "I never knew anything about this. And the attack at the inn is actually a personal issue." Thonar nodded at this.
"Good, because I'd prefer not to be involved in that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to figure out how we're going to fill our recently emptied mine." What that inferred, I did not want to know. I ran past him, deciding to head out of the city gates as soon as possible, and ignored the look he gave Shade as she growled at him. I didn't bother with supplies; it was midnight and I didn't want to stay until the shops opened. I came to a stop at the river right before the front gates and I promptly tossed the ring Thonar gave me as far as I could into it. I didn't want anything that came from this city. If I ever go back to Markarth, I thought, it will be too soon.