Chapter Twenty-three: The Old Resentment

NOTE: Some parts of this chapter have intentionally been altered from the original plot. This is because of the conversion from a game into a writing. Sorry.

Achen was looking happy, as they walked towards the harbour of Sadrith Mora, but Merlac had been quiet for most of the journey. They had arrived to the city by boat late last night and stayed over night in a local cornerclub.

"Err...Merlac?", Achen started carefully.

"Yeah?"

"You're still sorry about that sword of yours?"

Merlac stopped but did not answer immediately.

"Yeah, I am. It wasn't just a rare sword, it was a unique item, which had once been in the hand of a god."

"Vivec's not a god, not a real one.", Achen remembered Merlac.

"Well...ok, but still."

"But hey, you have that new ebony broadsword now, that's worth something."

Merlac looked at the decorated hilt of the sword in his belt. It was indeed something, worth a small fortune and thanks to it's shorter blade it was more agile than a daedric longsword. Perhaps this was good, Merlac had always needed an all-around-good sword.

"This place has memories for me.", Achen said suddenly, changing subject.

Merlac looked at him with a curious expression on his face.

"Well, look at that tower over there, that Telvanni plant-like tower on that small island over there."

Merlac looked where Achen was pointing at the coast, and saw something familiar.

"It's Tel Fyr, a rather powerful Telvanni wizard lives there. And you know what's funny?"

"Yeah?"

"I actually saw it explode once! I was standing somewhere around here, one night few months ago, when an entire wall in the middle part of the tower just exploded away and some lightnings lighted the island for a short time."

At this point, Merlac could not help laughing.

"You don't believe me? Really, I saw it happen! Probably a failed spell or something... it sure looked great though."

"Umm... Achen, you know, it was me actually", Merlac said while still trying to catch his breath from laughing.

Now it was Achen's turn to look totally surprised.

"Yeah, it was me, please don't ask, it's a long story involving and old 'friend' of mine, the corpus disease and Azura", Merlac grinned.

"The corpus dis...err...Merlac what the hell happened there?", Achen yelled and ran after Merlac, who had already continued walking towards the harbour again.

---

Few minutes later, Merlac and Achen arrived to the harbour street, but they were not going to the harbour itself. Sadrith Mora was the home city of Telvanni wizards, and just opposite the docks was a large Telvanni tower, even bigger than the one on Tel Fyr. That was the place where the Telvanni councillors were currently in, and that was the place where Merlac and Achen had to go next.

"Umm... Achen, just to warn you, this might not be an easy one."

"Of course it wont, or do you have a particular reason why it should be difficult?"

"Yeah...actually I do. You see, I and the Telvanni have a common history, not a very friendly history that is."

"Oh... something I should know about? Does it have something to do with the exploding tower?"

"Well nothing particular, just... some time after arriving to Balmora, I had a little 'incident' with some Telvanni wizards in Balmora's South Wall Cornerclub."

"An incident? That does not sound good...anything else?"

"Yeah, one of those Telvannis there was actually Divayth Fyr himself, the owner of that exploded tower, and I bet you can guess how happy he was after first getting humiliated in Balmora and only some time later I woke him up in the middle of the night and it all ended up in a large, smoking hole in the side of that tower..."

"Err... oh crap, and now you are going there to get their vote to be their war leader?! Just great...wonderful...excellent...", Achen cursed as they walked towards the tower's doors.

As they walked closer, the large, metallic doors opened by themselves, magically, and they walked in. They arrived to a small, round hall with no doors except the ones behind them. Suddenly, a young Telvanni woman appeared in front of them from thin air.

"The council of high wizards is expecting you, please follow me.", the woman said and levitated through a large hole in the middle of the roof.

"I'm getting used to this 'you've been expected'-thing", Achen grinned and took a small potion of levitation from his pocket. He drank the bottle empty and levitated after the woman and Merlac.

After levitating few storeys upwards, they arrived to another pair of large, steel doors. The doors opened magically and the woman pointed them to go in. Merlac and Achen walked inside and the doors closed behind them. They found themselves in a large, round hall, like the one few storeys below, but this had higher roof and the decoration was differend. They were standing in the middle of the hall and around them next to the walls were seven large, wooden chairs and a Telvanni wizard in each of them.

"Oh crap", Merlac whispered.

"What is it?", Achen whispered back.

Merlac had recognised most of the wizard council. Left of them sat Divayth Fyr himself and two other wizards Merlac had met in the South Wall Corner club long time ago, and on their right side were sitting the Telvanni recruiter, Ahuma of Grandorl and two older wizards Merlac had not seen before.. In front of Merlac, sitting on the largest chair, was the grandmaster of House Telvanni.

Slowly, the old grandmaster stood up with the help of his wooden staff, and spoke.

"The word has spread, young conjurer. We know why you are here. We also know about the decisions of the two other great houses. With the Hlaalu and Redoran Great Houses behind you, you hope us to follow you as well. Is this true, young conjurer?", the grandmaster said.

"It is. I have come to seek an audience with the council of the Great House Telvanni. I wish to be declared the Hortator of your house, protector of all people in Morrowind.", Merlac answered firmly.

"You have indeed proven your abilities in speechcraft by uniting the two other houses, we thought this would be impossible. However, I still do not understand, why do you think the house Telvanni needs a war leader?"

"Grandmaster, the blight is spreading and Dagoth Ur is gathering his troops inside Red Mountain. I will unite the Great Houses of Morrowind and defeat him!", Merlac said with loud and clear voice.

"Ah, you are referring to the old Nerevarine prophecy. You are not only wishing to become the Hortator of all three houses, you also attempt to unite the old Ashlander tribes and declare yourself the incarnate of general Indoril Nerevar himself. Interesting..."

"Do you doubt the prophecy?", Merlac asked defiantly.

The grandmaster gave a tired laugh.

"I do not either believe in or doubt the prophecy, nor do I care about the Tribunal Temple's opinion about it. Personally, I just don't think you are the one mentioned in the prophecy, outlander."

Merlac was just about to argue, as he heard Achen cough behind him. As Merlac turned around, he saw Achen hanging few feet above the floor and holding his throat with his hands.

"Let him go!", Merlac yelled to the wizard council.

"How are you going to stop us?", Divayth Fyr said and rose up. Merlac saw he was pointing at Achen with his fingers.

Merlac wrapped his sleeves and pointed the grandmaster with his palm, showing him the ring of incarnate in his finger.

"I AM the Nerevar reborn, incarnate, bearer of Moon-and-Star, and I WILL unite the three Great Houses and four Ashlander tribes of Morrowind under one banner, defeat the false gods and protect the people of Morrowind!"

The four wizards Merlac already knew, stood up and wrapped their sleeves with their palms sparkling. The grandmaster sat down again and the two older wizards were still sitting and observing the situation. Merlac glanced at Achen, his face had already started to turn blue.

"I never should have given you the antidote, no matter how rare the daedric item!", Divayth Fyr yelled and pointed Merlac with his hand.

This situation was getting worse, but Merlac did not care. If this was the way the Telvanni wanted it, they would get it. Merlac grabbed a large soul gem from his robe's pocket and pressed it against his chest. The gem broke apart and the soul flew out of it, magically enchanting Merlac's robe. He had saved this soul of a winged twilight for something else, but if he didn't use every trick he had, he would lose this battle.

Divayth waved his hand and the already motionless body of Achen flew against the wall and fell to the floor. Merlac didn't hesitate and stroke immediately. He pointed at Divayth with his palm and fired a bright stunning spell. Divayth turned his attention away from Achen and conjured a counterspell, but Merlac saw he had almost surprised the Telvanni wizard.

The three other wizards started firing enormous fireballs towards Merlac, but his enchanted robe absorbed them almost completely and Merlac himself deflected the rest with magical shields. Divayth waved his both hands in wide angle, and summoned an enormous, black Kagouti in front of him. Merlac did not hesitate and fired a spell into a large chandelier above them, which fell down crushing the animal.

Merlac felt the power of his robe had started to wear out, so he decided to end the fight quickly. He fired three fireballs into the wall behind the two wizards on his right side, forcing them to take cover. While still evading flying pieces of stone, the both wizards received well-aimed stunning spells from Merlac's palm and they both collapsed motionless to the floor.

Two more spells hit Merlac's chest and he felt the robe did not absorb them completely anymore. Next direct hit would kill Merlac. Merlac turned towards Divayth again, and saw his hand sparkle again. Just before Divayth shot the fireball, a small dagger flew past Merlac's ear and struck through the wizard's palm. Divayth yelled in pain.

Merlac turned around to see who had thrown the dagger, and saw Achen barely standing with another dagger in his hand. Achen threw it at Divayth as well, but the sharp dagger exploded into pieces just before hitting the wizard's face.

"That is enough.", the grandmaster said and Merlac saw he was standing again, pointing at the remainings of the dagger with his staff.

Divayth used the opportunity and shot one more fireball at Merlac. The grandmaster waved his staff again and the fireball vaporised and Divayth was knocked down from his feet.

"I said enough!", the grandmaster yelled.

The other wizards sat down into their seats again, but only Divayth remained standing defiantly.

"Very well, Young wizard Merlac.", the grandmaster said slowly. "It seems my own wizards tried to bring humiliation to our house again, and you proved to be a capable wizard, capable beyond Mage's guild standards at least, so there might be something true about that prophecy..."

"So what is your decision?", asked Merlac, feeling surprised about the sudden change of attitudes.

"We shall vote. Every councillor has one vote, including myself. Divayth, please give us your vote first.", the grandmaster said and looked at him.

"I vote no!", the angry wizard said.

"I vote...yes.", the wizard on the other side of Merlac said.

"I vote no.", said the wizard next to him.

"I also say no", said the wizard next to Divayth.

The Telvanni grandmaster looked at the two old wizards, who had been quiet all this time. They both nodded.

"I say yes myself, so that makes the result three against and four for."

The grandmaster took a small bell from his robe's pocket tinkled it. The magical doors opened and a Telvanni woman appeared at the doorway.

"Could you please bring me the Robe of Hortator, it seems we are going to need it after all."

The woman bowed and walked away.

" Congratulations, young imperial. It seems all three Great Houses now follow your lead.", the grandmaster said slowly and Merlac almost though he saw a short smile inside the old man's beard.

---

Merlac was thinking at what he had done, as he and Achen walked outside the tower again. To be chosen as a Hortator of a Great House was an incredible achievement already, but uniting the three rival Houses under one leader, was too much to even dream of.

"So, that was it then.", said Achen who was still holding his sore throat.

"Yeah... sorry about getting caught in the crossfire, mate."

"Naah, I enjoyed throwing that dagger, made me feel useful in the middle of all those wizards", Achen grinned.

"I guess the Ashlander tribes are next then. Shall we go?"

They both gave a laugh and headed towards the Sadrith Mora's docks. It had indeed been a great step for Merlac, but the trials of the prophecy were not yet over...