The Blades: War Is Inevitable
Faraldar sat at one of the tables across from Erandur.
Erandur was a Dunmer priest of Mara. He investigated the nightmares plaguing Dawnstar during the Civil War. He was once known as Casimir, a Priest of the Daedric Prince, Vaermina. Erandur had told him Years ago, the temple was raided by an orc war party seeking revenge... they were being plagued by nightmares just like the people of Dawnstar. Knowing they could never defeat the orcs, the priests of Vaermina released what they call "The Miasma," putting everyone to sleep. The Miasma was created by the priests of Vaermina for their rituals. It's a gas that places the affected in a deep sleep. Because the rituals would last for months or even years, the Miasma was designed to slow down the aging process.
He also told him that Vaermina resides in a strange realm known as Quagmire... a nightmarish land where reality shifts upon itself in seemingly impossible ways. From her citadel at the center, she reaches forth to collect our memories, leaving nothing in return apart from visions of horror and despair.
Faraldar had been fascinated by Erandur's tales and decided to do more research into Vaermina during his spare time.
In his research, he had found out about a man from Cyrodiil who had been plagued by Vaermina. His name was Arkved. He had stolen the Orb of Vaermina, apparently finding a way into the dreams of Vaermina's followers and bringing the orb into the real world. So in retaliation, Vaermina would have Arkved spend the rest of his days in a living nightmare.
"Faraldar, your turn to patrol the halls." Ralis Sedarys said as he entered the small guard room where Erandur and Faraldar sat.
They currently resided in a place known as the Abandoned Prison, a secondary outpost for the Blades. This unnamed Imperial prison was abandoned long ago as a strong storm surged the White River. The guards were ordered to execute the remaining prisoners or just leave them to drown as the prison flooded. The prisoners had devised a plan though to escape through a secret passageway to the river. There they would wait out the flood before fleeing. The exact events are unknown, but the number of skeletal remains found in locked cells suggests that the prisoners were left to drown. Those that attempted to escape through the passageway weren't any luckier as the exit was already entirely underwater and opening it only caused the river to flood in more. The Blades had decided to set up a secondary outpost due to the rising numbers in the Blades. Recruitment had gone up since the defeat of Alduin and the end of the Civil War.
"Alright Ralis." Faraldar said as he went on patrol.
Ralis had gone to Solstheim from Mournhold in search of the relics of Ahzidal, but found the Kolbjorn Barrow buried in ash. After an incident with a Dragon Priest named Ahzidal, he relocated to Skyrim where he decided to join up with the Blades to repent for being the one to awaken the Dragon Priest.
Faraldar roamed the halls looking into the cells that once housed the prisoners of the Empire. He wondered what many of them had done to be imprisoned here.
Bandits, necromancers, Stormcloaks, political rivals, any one of those could have been imprisoned here. Or none. Maybe some other enemies of the Imperial Legion had been imprisoned here, Faraldar thought as he passed by Denascus.
Denascus was a Redguard from Hammerfell, who had joined the Blades after being saved by Erandur and Delphine from a dragon attack shortly after Alduin's defeat.
"Afternoon Denascus." Faraldar said as he passed by him.
"Falmer are out there." Denascus said, staring off.
"What?" Faraldar quickly asked, wondering what he meant.
One of the Blade recruits ran in from outside. He had an arrow sticking through the front of his chestplate. Luckily for him, the chestplate had stopped it from going through.
"Falmer!" the recruit shouted as he ran past Faraldar.
Faraldar ran in the direction the recruit had come from.
He exited the outpost and stood upon the ledge just outside.
A large horde of Falmer stood across from the outpost just on the other side of the waterfall.
"The Blades believe themselves safe from this war. Well they are wrong. War is Inevitable. None can escape it. Especially not the Blades." A voice said from within the horde.
"Show yourself!" Erandur shouted as he stepped out in front of Faraldar.
From within the Falmer horde, a Thalmor stepped out in front, revealing himself to the Blades.
"Now you know who I am. Does that make you any less worried? Does it make you feel less threatened? Because if that's the case, well then you're DEAD wrong. Hahaha! The irony. I said you're dead wrong and you will soon be dead. The Blades will once again be wiped out by the Thalmor! Or don't you remember? How your order tried to challenge us. How you so quickly failed. How dumped the heads of 100 Blades agents who had been operating within our great Aldmeri Dominion on the floor in front of the Emperor. Once more, the Thalmor shall toss the heads of the fallen Blades, but this time in front of our new masters. Kill them!" the Thalmor then shouted to the Falmer.
A volley of arrows was shot into the air and came down around the Blades.
"Retreat! Back inside!" Erandur shouted as an arrow nearly struck him.
The few Blades who had gone out to see what the situation was, retreated back within the outpost.
"Seal the doors! We have the advantage. The only way in is if you are able to cross the water. A large horde will be unable to do that. The water currents will slow them down and eliminate a good number of them for us." Erandur said to the others.
Faraldar ran to the top of the outpost to check back on the situation outside.
"You believe yourselves safe, but you will all die! You're inside an Imperial prison. I am a Thalmor. So you don't think I would know about the secret entrance hidden underneath the bridge along the river just east of the main entrance. The Falmer are already inside. You won't survive!" The Thalmor shouted to Faraldar.
Hearing the Thalmor's revelation, Faraldar quickly ran back inside.
He looked around and already saw signs of battle.
A number of arrows were stuck in the southern most walls inside the small guard room.
There was a trail of blood leading into one of the cells where the bodies of two slain Blades lay.
Faraldar continued through the outpost finding the bodies of Falmer and Blades inside cells and along the floors.
He could hear sounds of battle coming from the western section of the outpost and ran to see if he could help.
Erandur, Denascus, Ralis, and three other Blades were fighting off a number of Falmer.
Faraldar ran over and cut down one of the Falmer as he joined the other Blades in turning back the Falmer.
"Where have you been? The Falmer found a way through the secret entrance in the river." Ralis said.
"I know. The Thalmor told me. I went to the roof to check on the situation and he shouted his knowledge of the secret entrance to me." Faraldar answered.
"Alright, here is the plan. We must get to Sky Haven Temple and regroup with Delphine, Esbern, and the others. There we can plan some sort of offensive. The rest of Skyrim probably already knows about the Falmer, so we need to join up with them once we regroup with the others. Let's move out!" Erandur ordered as the Blades began to make their way to the exit.
"The Blades will fall once again to the might of the Thalmor and their armies!" Faraldar could hear coming from the main prison area.
A fireball hit one of the recruits, sending him crashing into a wall behind them.
Faraldar was about to run to assist him, but he could hear Erandur shouting "Leave him." So Faraldar just kept running.
The Thalmor and a few Falmer ran into the Blades' path and drew their weapons.
"Faraldar, get out of here. Warn the others. Just keep running and don't look back!" Erandur shouted as they charged at the Thalmor and Falmer.
Faraldar ran past the fighting and began to run towards the exit.
He could hear the sound of swords clanging against each other and sword hitting flesh and the screams of the wounded or dying.
The exit was close now and Faraldar could hear the sound of the water as he crawled down into the secret passageway and ran towards the river exit.
He came out through the river exit and saw the Falmer sticking pikes into the ground across from the Abandoned Prison.
He knew what they were going to do with them, but he did not want to think about it.
He snuck down the hill, away from the Falmer and just began to run as fast as he could, hoping to get away from it all and just reach Sky Haven Temple.
"The Blade thinks he will find help at Sky Haven Temple. What he doesn't know is that we already control the Blade safe haven. He IS the last of the Blades." The Thalmor said as he stood atop the Abandoned Prison and watched the Blade running away.
He turned to one of the Falmer.
"Hunt him down!"
The Blades have been attacked by the Falmer. Faraldar begins to make his way to Sky Haven Temple, but is the Thalmor telling the truth? Is Faraldar the last of the Blades? Were the others inside the Abandoned Prison able to survive or were they killed? Leave your comments on this chapter below.
Events are now shaping and soon everything will come together. The mysterious figure will be revealed and the final battle for Skyrim will be underway! Thanks for continuing to read Skyrim: The Falmer War and hope you enjoy what will follow in the coming chapters.