Chapter Two: Seyda Neen
Merlac walked along the corridor. There were few wooden doors on the sides but as they all looked alike, he though it would be better to just walk forward. In the end of the corridor there was a staircase leading downwards. As he already was in the ground floor, the stairs would propably lead to a basement or something, so he walked into a room nearby which had no door at all. In the corner of the room was a small table, with some tableware and a half-eaten bread on it. The forks and knives were made of silver, and there were nobody in the room watching.
"Ah what the heck, I was just set free, maybe I should really try to be one day without stealing everything that shines.", said Merlac to himself.
In front of him was another door with a small metallic sign in it. Merlac wiped some dust from the sign and read. "To Seyda Neen", he read. "Well, here goes nothing", he though, opened the door and walked outside to the village.
Merlac closed the door behind him and looked around. He was standing in the middle of a small lively village. Several people walked around, carrying baskets, barrels or fishnets, but not very many of them took a look at him while going past him. On the right side Merlac saw a group of one-stored buildings with small windows and strawceilings, propably people's own houses. The houses on the left were bigger, mostly two floors high, and some distance away behind them was a small wooden lighthouse built on a big rock few meters from the shore.
"Well, if I'm going to stay on island for some time, I think I need to get myself to that Balmora-place." Merlac glanced at the huge insect which was standing behind the nearby building. "But first, I need some septims. The last thing I want to do at this point, is to walk across the this unfamiliar island and become robbed by some local bandits… like I had anything to steal though.", he though by himself.
There was a large sign waving in the in the wind, hanging from the eaves of a two-storey building. The sign said "Arrille's Tradehouse".
"That might be a good place to start, I wonder if they pay me anything for my shirt…", Merlac laughed to himself.
As he took a step towards the tradehouse, Merlac heard something break under his bare foot. He raised his leg and saw a small wooden box he had stepped. Merlac took it into his hand and opened the broken cover. Inside the box was a small silver ring with a small red stone mounted on it.
"Hey, this is what I call a good start, and they can't even blame me for thievery.", Merlac smiled.
Suddenly, a short bosmer with a funny-looking yellow beard ran to him.
"Oh you've found it, haven't you!", the bosmer shouted happily. "You found Fargoth's ring! Oh Fargoth likes you, Fargoth always your friend! May Fargoth have his ring now?", the bosmer said, jumping happily in front of Merlac.
Merlac gave the ring to Fargoth, feeling a bit annoyed. He would have got nice amount of septims if he had sold the ring in Arrille's tradehouse.
The bosmer stopped jumping and put the ring into his finger. "Thank you, outlander. Fargoth always your friend. It is good that outlander didn't try to sell Fargoth's ring or anything, or they would have arrested the outlander. Fargoth told everybody that his ring was stolen, you see? But thanks to you, my faithful friend imperial, Fargoth got his ring back! Here, take these outlander, Fargoth wants to reward his friend!" Bosmer gave a small bag to Merlac, and jumped happily away, screaming happily "Fargoth got his ring back! Fargoth's friend the imperial gave it to him!"
All this had happened in matter of seconds, and Merlac had no choice but to keep staring after this weird bosmer in astonishment. Then he looked at the small bag in his hand and opened it. It was full of coins. Merlac stared at the bag looking even more puzzled. He turned the bag over and poured the coins to his other hand. Total 20 brown coins, all of them with number 8 engraved into them. 160 septims… there had to be a trick. Or was there? Merlac walked up the small stairs to Arrille's tradehouse, opened the door, and walked in feeling exited.
Inside the tradehouse, Merlac ignored the numerous shelves full of all sorts of items from weapons to clothes and from food supplies to hammers. He also ignored the two guards standing on the corners watching the people inside the store. Merlac walked straight to the wooden counter.
"Welcome to Arrille's tradehouse, outlander. How may I help you? I have the finest common supplies in Seyda Neen, well… I'm the only trader here but anyway."
"Hi.", said Merlac and dropped one coin to the counter. "Is this real money?"
Arrille took the coin to his hand and took a careful look at it. He turned it around, scraped it with his fingernail, bit it and gave it back.
"Eight septims.", the trader said, smiling.
"Excellent.", said Merlac. "Sorry for the strange question, but I'm new in here and…"
"No need to apologise, sir. As soon as you stepped through my doorway, I say you are not from around here. That means you are an outlander. Many outlanders come to Morrowind through Seyda Neen, as the Census and Excise office is here. That's about everything that is here, though. Almost every day somebody comes and asks something about the money or the local habits. This tradehouse is the best place for gossips, as there is no 'watering hole', or a bar, like the rich people would say, in here."
"All right, what can you sell me for eight septims, my friend?", said Merlac, trying this local habit of calling everybody friends.
"Hmm.", the trader though. "I could wash your shirt for eight septims and that's about it. Even though Seyda Neen is a small village, this ain't very cheap you know."
"Ok then, how about… one hundred and sixty septims?"
The trader looked a bit suprised, but his smile returned to his face rapidly.
"Ah sir, I didn't guess… because of your clothing. 160 septims is not much either, but I could give you… umm… new shirt, common, but clean, pants, cheap shoes and…"
"I also need a ride to Balmora, do you know how much the silt strider wants to take me there?"
"Ah, the caravaner is a good friend of mine, Darvame Hleran I mean. Tell him that you bought some things from my tradehouse and that you are an outlander, like he wouldn't see it anyway, and I believe he will take you there for free this time. A good way to make customers, eh?", smiled Arrille.
"Thank you a lot. So, a ride to Balmora, pants, shirt and…"
"a free piece of advice, if you want.", continued Arrille. "154 septims total."
Merlac gave all his money to the trader and smiled.
"Keep the change. Six septims ain't enough to even wash my shirt, so let's say it is the payment for good service and that piece of advice."
Arrille grinned. "Whatever you wish, sir. And then that piece of advice. If you go to Balmora, you may wish to visit a trader there too. Ra'Virr, a khajiit, is the trader in Balmora. Tell him that I sent you, and he might give you some discount. Some people even say you could buy daedric weapons from him."
"Dae…what?"
"Daedric weapons", replied Arrille.
As Merlac continued looking puzzled, the trader continued.
"The Daedra are the most feared monsters who live here on Morrowind. Most of them are just creatures, unable to use and make weapons, of course, but deep inside the most dangerous caverns, there are dremoras, humanoids wearing unbeatable daedric armour and fighting with unbelievably sharp daedric swords and axes. If you are a extremely skilled warrior with excellent armour and powerful enchanted weapon, - as no normal weapon can kill daedra or undead creatures – and if you are very lucky, you might get yourself a daedric sword or even a piece of extremely light daedric armour. Every trader and smith here in Morrowind would gladly pay thousands of septims for a undamaged piece of daedra weaponry. But if I were you, I wouldn't sell it."
"Why? Isn't thousands of septims a hell of a lot money, right?"
"It is more than even employees of the ministry justice earn in a year, but daedric items may be more valuable for you if you keep them."
"And why is that", asked Merlac, starting to feel excited.
"Because Daedric weapons are the finest weapons known in Tamriel. Their sharpness is without match and they are almost as light as chitin.", said the trader with his eyes glowing with enthusiasm.
"And the dea…daedric armour? Are they good too?", asked Merlac.
"You bet they are! They are lighter than any other armour of that size. Daedric armour is undestroyable with normal weapons, like swords, axes or arrows, so you need either very strong spell from the field of pure destruction, or a powerful enchanted sword and enough magical skills to use it at full power to break daedric cuirass, for example."
"Sounds… durable. Are the daedric items really worth all that?"
"Absolutely!", screamed the trader. "Even the holy ordinators, the guards of the tribunal temple in Vivec, don't have weapons or armour that powerful,"
"Ok, I try to keep this in my mind in case I ran into some… dremora.", said Merlac and winked.
"You do that, my friend, and if you do find any daedric items, please come and show them to me too, I have never seen them anywhere else than just drawings."
"Sure, but look, I got to get going now. Thanks for the clothes and advice, I hope your business keeps running smoothly in the future, my friend."
"This is Seyda Neen, not much chances of that happening, but thank you anyway, outlander!."
The trader smiled widely as Merlac walked to the doorway, look back one more time, waved his hand at Arrille and stepped out. His life had just started working better than during last 20 years of his miserable life. He was now able to have a fresh start, and he was going to do it. Now he just had to find this Caius Cosades –guy, maybe he could answer to his numerous questions, and maybe, just maybe, he might find out eventually if there were any purpose in his life. There just might be, but it will take some time for Merlac to realise it…