"Those are really big." I said idly. The gates of Markarth we're massive. At least 20ft tall.
"Yeah they are. Lydia, have you ever been to Markarth before?" Aerana asked as we stood in awe.
"Once, my thane. When I was a little girl. Uncle Balgruuf was here on a delegation. It was before the forsworn took the city. In fact, we missed the war party by just a day on our way back. They held the city until the empire could take it back. I remember hearing news of my news of what the forsworn did to their captives." Her eyes glazed with nostalgia, but her fists clinched with anger. "I had made a friend. I don't remember her name. But, children connect so easily. Just a few hours and I felt we could have been friends forever. She was flayed, and displayed outside the city. I wouldn't even have known, if not for pressing my father to go back and visit her. Damn savages. I would kill them all if only I was able." She grit her teeth in anger, then seemed to remember where she was. She blushed somewhat cutely in her embracement. "Oh. I'm so sorry. That was rude of me. My deepest apologies my thane." She bowed to Aerana in penance.
Aerana and I looked at each other, then down to the prostrating Lydia. "Err. No, it's fine. Really Lydia. It's good to learn more about you. I just wish it wasn't something so sad." She said pulling Lydia to her feet. "These forsworn must be a truly awful people if they would do something so terrible to someone so young."
I took that as an opportunity to butt in a little. "I'm glad you feel that way. It'll help." I pushed the door open and entered the city.
The sound of people going about their lives and water running assaulted our ears. While my companions were taking it all in, I prepared to make my move.
"Don't freak out." I said casually. I stalked up behind Weylin. I silently cast Stoneflesh and bound dagger. He had just enough time to pull out his iron dagger and begin his declaration that the reach for the Forsworn, before I grabbed him but the neck from behind.
I pulled him away from his target and dove my blade up under the back of his ribcage. Through his liver and lungs. "The Forsworn will never reclaim reach. Your king will rot him his cell until his dying day." I whispered into his ear as he convulsed.
He spit up blood as the light left his eyes. He tried saying something, but his body gave out first. I let him drop, and dismissed my magic.
I was immediately surrounded by guards and held at sword point. I raised my hands in surrender and smiled disarmingly.
The woman, Margret I think, looked on in horror as she realized what had happened. "My gods, he would have killed me." She said in disbelief. People around us started muttering about Forsworn. I guess even if Weylin didn't say it, the writing was on the wall. "Please. Guards, this man saved my life. He was only stopping the threat. There's no need to harm him." She's asked. The guards gradually lowered their blades.
"Thank you." I said to her. I nodded to the guards as they walked away.
"No. Thank you. If not for you being here, I don't even want to think about it." This had clearly shaken her.
"You should get somewhere safe. There could be other assassin's." I urged. Just because she was left alone in the game didn't mean the Rag king would leave her alone here.
"Yes. In fact, I may leave the city. I'm only hear to visit." She said as she scanned the surrounding. I would call her paranoid, but it's not really paranoia if they're really out to get you. "Once again. Thank you!" Then she rushed off.
It felt good to be a hero. Solving all my problems with murder. Saving pretty women. The whole shabang.
Then I saw my beautiful party members. They were the opposite of pleased. Well, Aerana was pissed. Lydia looked…almost ok with the whole thing. Huh. Guess she really did hate the Reachmen. Good to know.
"Sheo! What the hell?! We are literally two steps into a completely new city, and your already stabbing people! Was this a vision thing! Or are just stupid lucky?! I thought we agreed on no more shortcuts!"
I put up my hands again as a sign of surrender. "I know. I know. Sorry. And this wasn't a short cut. That was supposed to happen. Normally you would have done that, but it would have been too late. That woman would have died. I just got to him before he got to her. Look, I'll tell you what. Go ask that guard over there if he knows anything about what this would be assassin was saying. I'm pretty sure he said something about Forsworn in his death rattles. Follow up on it. Go do Dragonborn shit. While you do that, I'm gonna go deal with some non-dragonborn shit. Let's meet up here in the evening, yeah? Then we can grab some dinner at the inn. Alright?" I pushed for her to talk to the guards, because it would drag her into the conspiracy. She narrowed her eyes at me.
"Your hiding something. Why separate. What do you know that I don't." she hissed.
My smile stretched from ear to ear. "A lot. But you said no short cuts. Didn't you?" She kinda asked for this shit show.
I could see her pride; her need to be being right, and the part of her that wanted answers warring with each other on her face. It was quite funny if I was being honest.
She growled at me, and impossibly, I smiled even more.
"Fine. I'll show you. I don't need you, or your future sight. Mark my words Sheo! I'll show you exactly why I'm the Dragonborn." I shuttered slightly at how she used that last word. I could tell she had laced it with her Thu'um. I doubt she noticed, but even at normal speech level, I felt it vibrate through me.
My response was to lightly oat her head with affection and amusement in my eyes. "I have no doubt you will." My tone was teasing, but I meant it. Every word. She didn't need me. Pretty soon, as fast as we were growing powerful, she would be bending Alduin over her knee and giving the over grown edgelord a firm spanking.
She huffed, dragging Lydia away to talk with the guards. Lydia yelped, not being prepared for the physical strength Aerana would use, or for her center of mass to be shifted so quickly.
I smiled. This was a good life. Adventure, fights, intrigue, and friends.
But that warm feeling left me as I ascended up the path. I tried to act as if I would walk past the vigilant of Stendarr. I was running through plans in my head, but I was no master strategist. I couldn't trick Bal. I knew that much. But I had to make it clear I only wanted his mace.
Vigilant Tyranas, not to be mistaken with Darth Tyranas, grabbed me by the shoulder.
"You there. Know anything about this house? See anyone going in or coming out?"
I shook my head to say no.
"Just as I thought. Seems no one in this city has. Damn. It's like everyone in this city has amnesia."
I did my best to look interested. "Sorry. Who are you again?"
He sighed, running his hand down his face before he took a calming breath. "I'm with the Vigil of Stendarr. We believe this house might have been used for Daedra worship. Evil rites and so forth."
I nodded. "Ah, I see. Well that can't be good. A Ward to keep people away perhaps?" I guessed at random trying to lead into a certain idea.
He nodded, eyeing me with more interest than before. "Perhaps. Are you a mage of some kind?"
I let fire flow in my hand for a second before crushing it with my fist. "Something of one, yes. Do you need any help?" I offered.
"I was actually just about to head on inside. Be good to have someone watch my back. Follow me, and keep your eyes open. Daedra are powerful creatures and tricksters. Never know what you'll find."
We entered and I could hear the latch lock behind us.
Tyranus looked around the room, preforming a cursory inspection.
"Fresh food. No wood rot on the furniture. Someone's been here. Recently. But the people I asked say no one enters or leaves…."
A large *Thud* was heard down stairs. It scared Tyranus enough to make him jump.
" Wait. Did you hear that? I think it came this way." Another thud. "That's it! Something's inside the house. Come on, we're getting to the bottom of this."
He looked around frantically. "Come out! We know you're here! There's another door." He pointed to said door. I was nearly going along with all this. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I figured I could try impressing Bal first, and move on from there.
Tyranus tried to open the door only for it not to budge. Then he tried slamming his weight into it. Then a chair. When the chair broken he turned to me annoyed."See if you can get it open." He said hurriedly.
"Very well. Let's try this." I said while creating a blow torch on my finger. "Don't look directly at the sparks" I warned. Not really sure why, but it was habit.
I burned through the bolt, and the door swung open forcefully. I hadn't tried opening it yet. Spooky.
Tyranus took a few steps in the room before the everything went ape shit. Objects flew every which way. Some things appeared to be flowing in reverse. It reminded me of a few horror movie scenes.
Tyranus fell on his ass. His eyes filled with horror and panic. "Stendarr's Mercy! This isn't an ordinary Daedra. We have to get help." He said.
I was directly behind him now, and I placed a hand on his shoulder forcefully. I had already cast my buff spells.
"What are you doing! We have to-" but I cut him off
"shhh" I said. And his eyes widened when he saw the bound dagger.
"Y-you! You're the-guh" He couldn't speak any more as I slit his throat. Then, just for the show of it, I began slowly heating his shoulder. His eyes screamed in agony. I felt sick at all of this but he was destined to die anyway. I was glad Aerana and Lydia couldn't see me now. I let him drop to the floor, his face frozen in a voiceless scream.
I was a monster for doing this. But, I had already accepted that. In a way, this wasn't much different than bandits. He chose this life, and he would have done the same to me had he know of my extra dimensional origins. That and much worse, I knew for a fact.
Yes. Yes! Feeble creature. Come down. Down below. Your reward waits for you.
The voice of Molag Bal me echoed all around me. Like it was in the very walls themselves. I shook the blood from my hand, and made my way down.
Yes. Further down. Into the bowels. Almost there.
I came before the alter, but didn't step on it.
Come closer. Take your prize.
"In all of the history of obvious traps, this is the most obvious trap in history." I said with false bravado.
Hmmm. So you are a cut above the rest of the trash. But that still leaves you as trash. You seem to know me. Speak mortal! Tell me what you see upon my shrine!
I looked, and sure enough, there it was. And man, the game did not do justice to how bad it looked. Ever seen one of those knife or axe restoration videos on YouTube? It looked like one of those. Pre-restoration. It was a mass of rusted, crumbling iron. It had porous holes all throughout it, and several of the flanges it was know for were either missing of bent beyond conventional repair.
"I need that. The mace. And I'll find and torture Logrolf the willful to get it. Does that sound like an acceptable deal, Prince Molag Bal?" I made it a point to be polite, but not subservient. He was the god of Domination. If I gave him an inch, he would take a mile.
Silence reined for a few minutes. Long enough for sweat to start pooling along the rim of my robes.
You know much for a mortal. He finally said. I almost sighed in relief, but stopped myself. I couldn't give any sign of weakness now.
Yet you are foolish to believe you are safe from my reach so long as you are not entrapped in my shrine.
I had no time to react as the wall behind me shifted and turned to bars. The cave melted away I to a dome of blood and I was left to stare in horror as from beyond that dome, I could see the silhouette of Molag Bal.
His eyes burned with inter st an malice. His face sported his signature horns and mandibles. Then I felt the ground shift under me and I was lurched upwards. To the dismay of my fleeting sanity, I saw that the done of blood that I stood in, that contained the shrine, it was held in the massive hand of the shadow Bal.
Fool. I need not lure you into this cage. You walked in willingly. My dominion was the house itself, not that pitiful excuse for a shrine. You will suffer for your insolence.
I raised my arms up in a fearful effort not to be crushed. Instead, Bal's shade only brought me closer to his eyes.
They glowed with the fires of hell, illuminating my bloody dome.
Hmmm. I see. An interloper.
I perked up from my cowering. Daring to unsquint my eyes a fraction. Wait, was my quasi-Daedra status protecting me once again.
I do so hate your kind. Fine! Feeble thing, while your soul is beyond my reach, you may prove yet useful. You made an offer. I will accept this offer. Bring me Boethia's preist, and I will reward you with my mace. Fail to do so, and I will find other ways to cause you suffering.
Then the world snapped back into what it was. I fell of my ass, and with absolutely no shame began sobbing. I fucking lived through that. Holy shit I lived!
Since when the Fuck could he do that? The whole goddamn house? What the hell? I had to get out of here. Just as soon as I stopped sobbing. And I should probably change underwear. I had pissed in these ones.
I bet Aerana wasn't having this much trouble.
Aerana:
So, to recap. The guards had shut me down about the forsworn. Hard. Mum's the word I guess. I was annoyed I might have screwed this up so fast. But I was then approached by man. He subtly gave me a note telling me to meet him at the shrine of Talos.
We did so, and he turned us to speak with the woman attacked before she left town. After that, I had to track down a mysterious person going by the name 'N'.
I stole a few journals after that. Finally, I returned to the man, only to find him dead. Lydia and I had just enough time to notice a guard coming out from behind the pillar before we were both hit with what felt like a dart.
After that I blacked out.
When I awoke, I was here. Lydia was here too. We were stripped of gear, and told to work. They had one of those anti magic enchantments on our binds, so that was out of the question. Ugh. I was able to get a shiv off one of the prisoners. Haha! Their skills for the win!
Wait, no. Stealing is bad. Bad Aerana. This isn't swiping the keys to sneak out if the house. I was in prison now. On false charges I might add. I hadnt figured out how I would escape yet, so in the meantime, I was forced to work. I was glad I had the shiv. Some of the other prisoners were looking at Lydia and I in ways that made my skin crawl. We might have to sleep in shifts tonight…Gods damnit. Should have just listened to Sheo. Fuck.
I took my gruel and sat down next to two …interesting men.
The first was huge and bald. He was sporting a mustache and goatee. His companion was dwarfed by him, Or, might have been an actual dwarf. He was short, and angry looking. Yet despite that, his hair almost made up for it. It was half as tall as he was. I listened to them bicker as I ate next to Lydia.
"Hey Vegeta." The bald one said amused.
"What is it." The short one snapped.
"We're in prison, Vegeta." I almost snorted at that. No. Really?
"I see that nappa." The newly dubbed Vegeta said annoyed.
"Hey." Nappa said in a stage whisper.
"What." Vegeta groaned.
"Don't drop the soap."
I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing. It was just after the stress of it all, I couldn't help it.
They noticed me then. I quickly composed myself. Now wasn't the time to start a fight.
"Hi." The big one said.
"Um, hi." I said back.
"Hi. I'm nappa. And this is Vegeta. And he is a prison bitch." I could see the veins in Vegeta's head bulge.
I had no idea how to respond to that.
"Shut the hell up nappa!" Vegeta growled.
"Kay." Nappa said.
I was reasonably sure that's not how prison bitches spoke. But I could be wrong. Being a convict was new to me after all.
"So…why are you guys here?" I asked trying to be friendly.
Vegeta scoffed. "We're here because my partner is an idiot."
Ah. I could relate to that. Ugh. I guess I should sleep.
"My thane. Rest. I will take first watch." Lydia offered. I nodded grateful. But a few minutes later I had another problem. Ricks weren't comfortable. They hurt to lay on.
I shifted and shifted, tossed and turned. It wouldn't be so bad, if only I could rest my head on something at least.
Then I got an idea, but it was kinda embarrassing.
"Hey. Um, Lydia?"
She perked up from her position sitting against the wall. "Yes may thane?"
Aerana bit her lip. She was uncomfortable asking this, but then, she was uncomfortable in general. Might as well go for it.
"Can I, I mean. Um. Shit. CanIlayonyourlap?" she said quickly.
Lydia paused, blinked, and slowly deciphered what I had said. Then she got it, and she blushed a bit. My face was scarlet. I didn't want to take advantage! I was about to just tell her to forget it. But then she spoke.
"Of course my thane. And, when it is your watch, would you grant me the same as well?" her tone was subdued. As if she was a child asking their mother for a toy or treat. I nodded.
"Of course. Absolutely." I said it was only fair!
She made a beaconing motion, and I complied. She sat lotus, ready to spring up at the first sign of danger. I laid my head on her outer thigh. I felt the warmth and softness of her skin even through the rough cloths we were wearing. Her legs had firm muscle in them, and I could hear her pulse beneath her skin. I fell into a deep sleep, killed by that soft pulse. When I awoke, I allowed her to do the same. Tomorrow, I decided, I would find a way out. Someone must have some idea. I need only speak with them.
Do you all prefer the longer chapters that take a while, or the shorter chapters that I can pump out bi-weekly?