Morrowind: Fall of the Tribunal
This story continues from where the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (by Merlac) ended. You can find the original story from this same category.
Chapter One: Memories
Soft sound of jingling fondled Merlac's ears. Though he didn't open his eyes, he could still smell the variety of smells coming from the exotic flowers and plants. Knowing he didn't have anything important to do that morning, Merlac just kept laying on the soft bed. With his eyes still closed, Merlac reached his hand to the other side of the bed, trying to find something. It was not there.
Merlac finally opened his eyes and looked around. The bed-sheets next to him looked like there had been somebody sleeping there, but he was alone in the room. Merlac snorted happily and stood up. He walked to the window and opened it. Merlac had to cover his eyes, as the bright rays of morning sun filled the room.
Merlac looked out of the window. The room was in the second floor of a rather large manor, standing alone on the top of a hill. On the bottom of the valley below him, Merlac was able to see the Bitter coast and the small fishing village called Hla Oad. He had bought a piece of land from the Odai plateau few miles south from Balmora, and built a Hlaalu-styled manor there, his home.
Merlac grabbed a shirt from the floor and walked downstairs. He heard noises of cooking from the kitchen, but something made him stop in the middle of the corridor. Merlac turned around and stared at a wooden door few meters away from him. Slowly, he walked to the door, opened it and stepped inside the room.
The room was like a small museum. On each wall of the room, there was a large vitrine full of items. However, Merlac didn't look at the vitrines, but walked to the middle of the room, where was a small, wooden stand with a purple pillow on it. On the pillow was laying three extremely powerful items; the golden gauntlet called the Wraithguard, magically enchanted hammer with the word 'Sunder' engraved into it, and the crystal sword of Keening.
Merlac touched the gauntlet with his hand and felt the slight sparkling and warmth emitted from the item. Seven years, Merlac remembered. Seven long years ago Lord Vivec himself had handed Merlac this ancient artefact. Not many days after that, Merlac and his companions had found the Sunder and Keening from dwemer ruins surrounding the Red Mountain, and finally used them to destroy the mad ash vampire, Dagoth Ur.
Merlac memorised the moment when he and his loyal friend Achen, were standing on a cliff deep under Red Mountain, watching as the giant robot Dagoth Ur had been building, collapsed into the lake of lava. He memorised the moment when the group had finally reached the open air again, and seen hundreds of Great House warriors cheering around them. It had been the greatest moment of Merlac's life.
But the path that had led Merlac there, hadn't been an easy one. Nightmares, suffering, pain… he had seen countless people die in the battle of Red Mountain. Had all that been worth the sacrifices? Merlac remembered the bright sunlight filling his bedroom, and the smell of flowers when he woke up, and knew it had been worth it. Merlac looked one more time at the golden gauntlet, and then walked to a glass vitrine.
Behind the glass were two pieces of a broken daedric longsword. Merlac knew that any daedric item would be worth a small fortune, even if broken, but this certain sword had also sentimental value to Merlac. His superior in the secret organisation of Blades, Caius, had given him the sword long ago. Caius had acquired it from the museum of rare artefacts in Mournhold, and it had belong to Lord Vivec himself before the time the Tribunal had got the powers of Gods.
Merlac walked to the next vitrine. It was full of rings and other jewellery, and Merlac had trouble remembering where he had got the all from. There were only two rings, however, that Merlac did not keep behind glass. The other was an extremely beautiful, small, golden ring of Moon-and-Star, the ring of Nerevarine reborn. When looking at the ring in his hand, Merlac was almost able to hear the quiet Ashlander music in his ears, like when finding the ring from the Cavern of the Incarnate.
"And I hope you haven't forgotten the other ring you are wearing?", a female voice spoke behind him and Merlac was almost scared to death.
Merlac turned around and saw something more beautiful than anything in that room; Mehra Milo.
"Aww, Milo, how could I ever forget our wedding ring as long as I live with you?", Merlac grinned and gave a quick, but soft kiss to his wife.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that", the girl giggled.
"And why is that?"
"You have been visiting this room several times this week, you just come here and stare at these…items."
"Come on, Milo, you know how important they are for me?"
"Of course I do, but sometimes I think you miss the 'good old days'…"
"What if I do?", Merlac said and gave a laugh.
"Well… I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there really aren't much to do for an Incarnation of a dead general, not anymore."
"So are you saying that I'm…useless?"
Milo giggled again and hugged Merlac.
"Actually, there is one thing you could do…"
"Just name it, and I will do it for you!", Merlac rejoiced.
"You could… get the mail…"
Merlac pushed the girl away and gave a laugh.
"Yeah, right, should have guessed…", Merlac muttered and left the room. Milo shook his head, smiled, glanced one more time at the vitrine and walked after Merlac.