"That's interesting," Jenassa said a book up to her face. Arminius kept on reading his.
"What is it?"
"There was a Dark Elf who was an Empress at one point," she said. Arminius then put his book down.
"You mean Katariah?" He asked. "She's actually my favorite of all the Emperors in the third Empire. The people loved her more than the nobility did." After that, Jenassa stayed silent. Arminius had set his book to the side and looked one way. He saw a book that was titled, The 'Madmen' of the Reach.
He remembered reading that book once; it was by Arrianus Arius when he set out to study the Reachmen. It revealed their true intentions and why they did what they did. He remembered back to the day when he was imprisoned in Cidhna mine, and how he had heard each other's stories and why they are Forsworn.
Even when on the verge of becoming the Emperor, knowing King Madanach and fighting dragons, Arminius was still very much afraid of the Forsworn. He knew at some point, there was something he needed to do with them.
Erik just walked back into the training rooms from another fight, where Mjoll was waiting for him on a bench.
"Had enough?" She asked.
"For now," Erik replied. "But right now, I need some gold." Mjoll followed him and rested up against the door frame, arms crossed as she watched him to talk to the Redguard; Jonro was his name.
"By the eight, you're turning out to be better than I thought," He took out a coin purse. "Here, to pay off this week." Erik had a sluggish smile when he jiggled around the coin sack, and turned around. He headed back in Mjoll's direction until the giant brute orc, Lashn, stepped in his way.
There was an awkward silence, the Orc looking down at Erik with a glare while Erik looked back at him with a blank expression, completely unfazed by the intimidation.
"Can I help you?" He asked. The Orc lifted his hand and poked at his chest with a meaty finger.
"Don't think you're better than me because you're winning some cutesy little matches," The Orc growled. Erik shrugged.
"I never said I was better than you," He raised a brow. "In fact I didn't say anything at all…"
"SHUT UP," The Orc yelled. "You'll be crying home to daddy when I beat you in next week's match." When Lashn mentioned his dad, Erik put his hands on his waist.
"Well gods forbid I go back THERE again," He said. The Orc growled and looked like he was about to pummel Erik, but Jonro stepped in.
"Take it easy, Lashn," he said. "You'll get your chance at him next week." Lashn grunted and went back to beating up the dummy. Jonro turned back to Erik and sighed. "I hope you're as good next week as you are good now, I need that damn Orc out of my life, he's a pain in the ass."
"I'll make sure of it," Erik said then walking away toward Mjoll.
"You know, Arminius expects us to be with him at the next Elder Council session," She said, getting up from the door frame and walking with him.
"Oh really? When is that?"
"Next week."
"Next Week!?" Erik bursted. "You mean when I fight Lashn!?"
"You best make it quick."
1 week later
Tullius was kind enough to lend Balgruuf an escort unit under Legate Adventus Caesennius. After their week of travel on horseback, they found themselves at the gates of the Imperial City where they were let in. Upon making their remarks about how glorious the city looked in person, Balgruuf went on with Irileth to the Elder Council chambers.
They were let in when they notified the Imperial guard of who they were, along with consent of Legate Caesennius.
The High Chancellor, Garrett Malvolan, was in the chambers alone when the guards came up to him along with the Nordic King and his Dunmer housecarl.
"High Chancellor," The guard greeted, saluting. Malvolan gave him his attention. "Presenting High King Balgruuf the Greater of Skyrim."
"High King Balgruuf," Malvolan said. He extended his arm, Balgruuf taking it in a shake. "It's good to have you here."
"I'm honored to be here, High Chancellor," Balgruuf replied, and then his face turned grim. "But I'm afraid I have some bitter news."
"Go on, what is it?"
"The emissary unit that you sent me never made it, a couple of Falkreath guards had to finish the delivery," he said. Malvolan's old eyes widened. "The one Legionnaire that made it to Falkreath had an Elven arrow stuck in his back."
"Could it be bandits?"
"I don't know, but I want to be able to find out why."
"We can find out later, but for now we need to call a session now that you're here."
Upon hearing about what happened to the emissary unit, the Penitus Ocalatus jumped in to investigate. Commander Cassius Maro had come to Falkreath to speak with the surviving Tribune. He lay on the bed, wrapping around his shoulder and arm. He adjusted himself, wincing at the pain in his shoulder, and looked up to Maro.
"Tribune Tacito?" Maro greeted. "I'm Commander Cassius Maro of the Penitus Ocalatus; I'm here to ask you some questions about your incident in Falkreath."
"Okay," Tacito nodded, his voice weak. Maro pulled up a chair and sat next to his bed.
"You showed up to Falkreath with an arrow in your back, and two Legionnaires have been reported MIA; care to tell me what happened?" Maro asked.
"Well," Tacito started. "We were ordered by Councilor Motierre to send a message to the High King for him to go to Cyrodiil. We were part way in Falkreath's Evergreen forest when we were ambushed. I saw the Auxiliary next to me get an arrow through his neck, and my other Auxiliary tried to buy me some time to escape…I don't think he made it."
"Did you see who attacked you? Stormcloaks maybe?" Maro went on.
"No, I doubt it; I fought Stormcloaks when I was a Praefect in the Civil War, they wouldn't dare use anything Elven. Besides, most of them left for Solstheim."
"I see," Maro said, rubbing his chin. "Where exactly did you get ambushed?" Tacito sighed, shaking his head.
"I don't know…it was on the main road going into Falkreath from the Pale Pass," Tacito said.
"We'll send a search party to look for the bodies," Maro said, getting up from his chair. "Thanks for your time."
Commander Maro found himself on the very same road that the wounded Tribune Tacito was talking about. Only several hours into searching and they already found the decomposing bodies. He approached the scene on his horse, where it was blocked off by several agents and their colorful ovular shields. He dismounted and walked through them, getting nods and salutes from the ones guarding it. His son, Gaius, along with a couple of other agents were watching over the bodies that were in a ditch.
"Gaius, what do we have here?" Maro asked. Gaius turned to answer him.
"Father, we found the two Auxiliaries here in the ditch," he said. "Looks like they have been here for a week." Maro took a whiff of the awful stench and waved his hand in front of his face. He coughed it off and went down into the ditch to take a better look at them.
"An Elven arrow through this one's neck," he said, then looking to the other one. He observed closely past the decomposition and made out an opening in his chest. "And a sword stab wound right through the chest here." He pointed to it, making out the hole to Gaius. "A very well placed stab, honestly."
"Father, do you think that Bandits may have done this?" Gaius asked. Maro shook his head.
"No, how many times do we see Bandits brave enough to go against well trained Legionnaires, they usually only go after the defenseless," Maro said, getting back up out of the ditch. "Of course they could be changing their tactics to just randomly deciding to kill Legionnaires." Maro pointed to all the equipment that was still on them, along with their swords, shields, knap sacks and other necessities. "See, even when dead all the stuff that they carried with them is still here; it's not like bandits to just leave things on their victims."
"So who do you think could've done this?"
"Really well trained killers, that much I can say," Maro replied, looking off into the air.
"The Dark Brotherhood?" Gaius insisted.
"It's a possibility," Maro said. "First the Dark Brotherhood is able to kill Titus Mede, and the next Imperials that died are Legionnaires carrying a message to the High King of Skyrim asking him to vouch for the new Candidate. But even if it is the Dark Brotherhood, it would only prove that it isn't the same assassin twice, which would be even harder to track. The arrows used to kill the sailors aboard the Emperor's flag ship were ebony, not Elven." Maro again looked back down to the Auxiliary that had the arrow stuck in his neck. "Plus, the Ebony arrows recovered on the ship were coated in poison, and looking here it doesn't seem to have poisonous elements on the arrow at all." He looked back up to his son. "There was also poison on the arrow with Vittoria Vicci murder; so it's pretty standard for Assassins to coat their arrows in advance."
I have some special things planned with Jenassa and the Penitus Ocalatus when Arminius goes through some reforms (when and if he becomes Emperor of course.)
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