This is the last of the chapters I wrote while the net was down. Updates should come at regular intervals after this.Morrowind belongs to Bethesda. -D
Trebonius worked surprisingly fast, but Ranis had been faster. The Archmage had sent messengers to the other Guild captains that very night to confirm Winterbell's allegations. Whether or not they believed Ranis to be a spy, none of them defended her. Trebonius had arranged for some of the Vivec-based mages to remove her the next morning, Winterbell having wisely retreated to Balmora.
The posse had arrived the next day, and caused much excitement at the Balmora Guildhall, but of Ranis there was no sign. Winterbell frowned uneasily from her seat in the corner as the visiting mages explained the situation and wondered if she had underestimated Ranis again.
"Was she really a spy?" Sharn asked accusingly. Ajira stood beside her, a concerned frown on her face.
"I did what was best for the Guild. I had an opportunity to be rid of her and I took it. She wasn't a Telvanni spy, if that's what you're asking."
"That's!"
"Tell me," Winterbell regarded the Orc coolly, "that you would have done something different."
"Well…" Sharn frowned and looked away.
"But is there actually a spy?" Ajira asked.
"Nope," Winterbell replied cheerfully. "Although there are more ties between the Guild and Telvanni than you might think. In more important matters, who's in charge now?"
Ajira shot a dark look at Galbedir, "Marayan is next in order of superiority."
"Well then," Winterbell stood, "we should congratulate him."
Marayan looked less than happy as he was presented with the official forms for promotion. The visiting mages stood respectfully to the side as everyone else crowded around Marayan's desk. He shot a quick look at Winterbell and then stood back with a shake of his head.
"I decline," he declared, "for family reasons." This caused a swirl of comment to ripple over the crowd. "Estir," his voice carried across the hubbub, "it's yours."
The Almer gasped in surprise and looked about her anxiously, "Me? Really? Well, I…"
Winterbell gave a sharp smile of approval and from the back of the group began to clap her hands. Marayan nodded and joined in, and soon the guildhall rang with applause. Estirdalin was practically glowing,
"Thank you, everyone. This is…I can't believe it." She accepted the quill from Marayan and bent to the forms. "Now back to work, everyone," Estirdalin ordered, mock-sternly. There were various expressions of compliance and the group dispersed. Winterbell headed back to her house, deep in thought.
It wasn't Ranis' disappearance that bothered her. She could believe the Dunmer was paranoid enough to have someone in one of the other guildhalls warn her. Ranis' power was sapped and even if she did harbour a desire for revenge, Winterbell was confident in her power to defeat the mage.
No, what irritated her beyond reason was Gadar's diatribe about Trebonius. Winterbell had always regarded the Archmage with curiosity and a mild contempt, but now her anger was building.
"He's incompetent!" she hissed as she tossed potions into her bag. "He's making us into a laughing stock. If they can't take him seriously they won't take the Guild seriously."
Locked up in their guildhalls, most of the other mages tolerated Trebonius's eccentricities with good humour, but Winterbell was gaining an outsider's view. None of the other mages, with the notable exception of Ranis, appeared to have any kind of ambition to do anything about it. Were they just waiting for the idiot to die of old age? Winterbell ground her teeth and filled her quiver with bundles of iron arrows. Trebonius was going to have to go.
"Get rid of Ranis, solve the mystery of the Dwemmer. If there's any kind of problem Winterbell can sort it out, it's not as if we need to poke our noses out of our books. Humph!" Winterbell swung the bell hammer over her shoulder, "I'll show them. It's about time they lost a bit of their complacency."
Winterbell went to visit her patron.
Master Aryon welcomed her, courteous as always. Winterbell told him of her successful removal of Ranis, although he was far more interested in what she had to report of Gadar.
"So Dratha has a spy near Trebonius, and he owes you one. Well done, Winterbell. I'll see what capital I can get out of this from Dratha. She and Gotheren were once close allies, so getting into her good books is a wise move."
"Anyway," the councillor continued, "I have more urgent business. One of our remote towers is under siege by the Hlaalu thugs. Milyn doesn't seem to think it's terribly important, I gather he is unhurt in the upper tower, but we have to teach those Hlaalu a lesson. I'll draw you a rough map. It's a Velothi dome, and you should have no trouble finding it."
Winterbell folded the parchment carefully and put it away. Aryon regarded her shrewdly,
"Something on your mind?"
"The Mage's Guild." Winterbell didn't elaborate; in fact she was quite uncertain about her feelings for the organisation at that time. Never had its flaws stood out so clearly. She wished rather ruefully that she could talk to Baladas about it.
"Ah yes, the Guild. At some point we are going to have to prove to the rest of the House that your loyalty lies with us and not them. At the moment that is the most common complaint against you."
"So I should resign?"
"I don't think that would help at this stage, although you are free to. No, we need something more tangible."
"Trebonius' head? It would make an interesting thimble."
Aryon let out a bark of laughter, "That would certainly be a bold statement. I do have one suggestion, although I don't like it much. Let's just say it doesn't exactly play on your strengths."
"Let's hear it."
"You have no doubt heard of the Mage's Guild Monopoly?"
"Yes, Baladas told me about it."
"It's not our favourite piece of legislation, let me tell you that much. For the first time in centuries we may have a chance to overturn it. After much negotiating we've secured all the Hlaalu votes on the Grand Council that we can. To overturn the treaty now we need no less than three Redoran councillors to agree to vote in our favour. Now you see why it's not really your area of expertise."
Winterbell thought back on what Baladas had said about the monopoly, and about Ranis's treatment of the Argonian in the cornerclub. Earlier memories of scraping for a living in Cyrodil also surfaced, like dark and dangerous fish.
"All right, I'll do my best," she nodded determinedly.
"Are you sure? I don't mean to insult you, but you seem quite…happy in the Guild."
"I think in this case I have to be cruel to be kind," Winterbell smiled toothily, "A little competition is healthy, don't you think?"
Winterbell took a boat to Tel Banora and then headed north to look for the besieged Telvanni tower. The attackers were presumably being supplied from Molag Mar, but Winterbell didn't have the patience to try and disrupt them from that end. Instead she waded in with her magic and her bell hammer.
Milyn Faram's undead and demonic guards proved more of a challenge than the unprepared Hlaalu but eventually Winterbell found the mage in the upper tower and collapsed into a chair.
"Telvanni Spellwright Winterbell at your service," she introduced herself to the surprised mage, who was having lunch.
"That was quick; I only mentioned the siege to Aryon last week. I suppose I'll have to kill the girl now."
"Girl?"
"Well, when I was attacked I decided to be diplomatic. So I kidnapped the sister of the Hlaalu leader, to bargain for my house back. It didn't seem to work though," Faram added, rather dolefully.
Winterbell sighed, "Diplomacy huh?"
"You're having problems too?"
"I have to convince a bunch of Redoran councillors to break the Guild Monopoly."
"Well, at least they should talk to you, rather than attacking you on sight. Just use some bug musk."
"Bug…?"
"They call it Telvanni bug musk for a reason you know."
Winterbell recalled home and spent some time glaring at a fancy green bottle. Winterbell had collected quite a bit of bug musk and for reasons she couldn't articulate had never gotten around to selling it. She took out the stopper and cautiously sniffed.
"Well I don't see what the fuss is about," she muttered to herself. The contents of the bottle smelt faintly of shalk resin. "Just what kind of bugs are in this anyway?" Rather reluctantly, Winterbell shook out the slightly viscous liquid onto her hands.
People smiled, normally taciturn guards nodded politely, and Winterbell strode through them all with a face like a thundercloud. She knew that if she didn't keep up her anger it would dissolve into embarrassment and she would go straight home for a bath. Winterbell liked to see respect, or even fear in other people's eyes, but certainly not alchemically enhanced friendliness.
Still, she did derive amusement from watching Sharn smile kindly at her then try and work out why. Ajira and Estirdalin seemed unaffected by the musk, presumably because they were already as friendly as they were going to get. Winterbell avoided Marayan, although she wasn't sure why.
"You look nice today Winterbell, is that a new robe?" Masaline asked brightly.
"Uhh…new-ish," Winterbell replied.
"It really suits you."
"Yes, thank you, do you think there's any chance-"
"Morning Ajira, morning Masaline, morning…uh…" Marayan strode cheerfully into the room, only to trail off when he saw Winterbell.
"…of a spell to Ald'ruhn?" Winterbell finished, rather tensely.
"I think Marayan wants to talk to you," Masaline giggled.
Winterbell shot a flinty glance behind her. In fact Marayan didn't seem capable of saying much at all, he just stood there with a rather glassy expression. Winterbell pinched the bridge of her nose in embarrassment.
Seizing his upper arm Winterbell frogmarched the stunned mage into the next room and hissed at him angrily,
"Snap out of it, for Vivec's sake!"
To her surprise, he did. His gaze sharpened and he smiled sheepishly, "I'm sorry. I really should act my age, shouldn't I?"
"It's not your fault," Winterbell muttered.
"Were you disappointed?"
Winterbell glanced up at him quickly, "About what?"
"Refusing the position as guildhall captain."
"Not at all, I think you made a very sensible decision. You won't want to be bothered by Guild politics with your family the way it is now."
He nodded, "With Estir as guildhall captain I shouldn't have any problems securing some time off to talk to my brothers."
"Anyway, I have business in Ald'ruhn, so if you'll excuse me-" Winterbell turned to go.
"Wait." Marayan placed his hand on the wall, effectively blocking Winterbell's path.
"I thought you'd snapped out of it," Winterbell said coldly.
"Winterbell," Marayan looked down at her intently, he was close enough for Winterbell to see his pulse jumping in his neck. "I'm not very good at this sort of thing, but I just want you to know that since you arrived things have been…better. I don't really know what all this means but I think I-"
"Shut up," Winterbell glared at the floor with enough anger to burn a hole in it. "Just shut up." She ducked under his arm and backed away, "You have no idea what you're talking about. You'll just make a fool of yourself."
Wintebell turned and pushed her way to the front of the queue for the Guild Guide.
Winterbell forced herself to calm down by sheer effort of will and she strode under the Skar with the composure befitting her station. The councillors were not particularly warm, but the musk-induced amiability was enough to win Winterbell her votes.
Winterbell took a room in the Rat in the Pot, for by the end of the day she felt that she could never visit Balmora again. She ordered a bath and scrubbed until it hurt.
To Winterbell's infinite relief, the next day she was getting the usual suspicious glares from the Redoran guards, and was being generally ignored by everyone else. The musk had finally worn off. She took the Guild Guide to Wolverine Hall, and stopped to tell Skink of the outcome of her spy hunt. He had, of course, heard of Ranis's disgrace but was interested in hearing the details.
Winterbell skipped lunch and continued on to Tel Vos. Aryon was extremely pleased by Winterbell's efforts and promoted her to Wizard.
"You're practically a councillor now; you'd better start giving some thought to getting a Mouth of your own. Well, not immediately. Once you're councillor I want you to push straight on to Gotheren. Oh, and see about getting yourself a stronghold, you can't rise without one."
"A mushroom tower of my own?" Winterbell grinned gleefully; the thought hadn't occurred to her.
"I think I have some mail for you as well…" Aryon started going through his desk while Winterbell ate kwana cuttle on biscuits and daydreamed about her tower.
"Here it is," Aryon tossed her an envelope, "it's from Baladas."
Winterbell practically choked on a biscuit and tore open the envelope. In Baladas's neat handwriting was a brief note:
Winterbell, the last week has been painful for me, but I believe the time has come to clear the air. I understand that what happened was not the result of any malice on your part. I hope that we will remain friends and that you will grace my house with your presence in the near future.
Zergonipal is well; I believe the warmer weather agrees with him.
-Baladas Demnivanni, Master and Councillor of the Great House Telvanni
Aryon glanced over with feigned disinterest, "Is everything all right?"
Winterbell smiled, "I think so."