Vivec for once was quiet, the canals were devoid of boats and the paved streets silent and deserted.
The massive city was a tomb.
It was a city of war, fires burned a few miles from it, bathing the surrounding wilderness in an eerie orange light.
Vivec himself was almost the same as his city , quiet, almost dead.
The Imperial forces had stopped just short of the city but ordinator ambushes had slowed their progress , most of the Imperials had converted raided farmhouses into barricks and were content to stay there for now, at least until Nuemeron arrived as he was away on some private buisness.
Vivec knew time was running short, he had barely one thousand soldiers, only one hundred ordinators, the rest guards and members of the fighters and mages guild.
The Morag Tong upon learning of the Dark Brotherhood's involvement as the Imperial forces assassin's immediatly offered their services to Vivec which he gladly accepted.
The assassin's guild was proving particularly efficient at taking out key members of the imperial army and making it look like an 'accident' but no matter how many were killed they still were replaced almost immediatly.
Vivec pondered all this as he floated in the temple of Vivec in slient meditation.
He racked his brains on a way out of this battle but he found no solution.
'You, come here' Vivec ordered a nearby ordinator 'tell high ordinator Ralor I want to speak with him.
The ordinator gave a nervous uncharacteristic bow and hurried out the temple doors.
Vivec silently dropped to the floor and summoned a glass of red wine.
He began to sip it patiently as he waited modestly for the the captain of the ordinators to arrive.
The doors were pushed gently open and dim gray light from outside pooled into the temple interior.
A figure walked humbly into the temple, he wore the armour of an ordinator but it was purple in colour and a glass mace hung at his side.
The figure fell to its knees and removed its helmet, white hair cut in the milatary shoulder-length style spilled out over the mans dark blue skin.
'Ralor, my Dunmer friend these formalites are long past us' laughed Vivec, but the laugh sounded shrill and eerie in the empty temple and he quickly stopped.
'Sorry sir, force of habit' murmured Ralor a smile on his lips, he had served Vivec all of his life and now just leaving middle age and begining to enter old age he had changed little in Vivec's eyes since he had become an ordinator when he was just barely an adult. He had saved Vivec's life on a number of occassions and they had a bond and a mutual trust for one another.
'Ralor I fear were fighting a losing battle with no hope of winning' Vivec said suddenly 'Our ambushes are barely slowing the Imperials down and our resources are dwindling fast, we have no chance of winning right now'.
'My lord' Ralor interrupted 'think about what you are saying, this is your city, if we abandon it the very center of culture of Vardenfell will be extinguished. We should only give ground at the last moment possible'.
'I suppose you're right' murmured Vivec softly 'We will hold the city for now, but if they attack in force and break our defences we will have to evacuate the city'.
'Where will we go my lord?' asked Ralor.
'Wherever we can Ralor'whispered Vivec, his inner torment reflected clearly in his eyes 'the Ashlands maybe, we will have to hide in tombs and old forrtresses there like vampires and other foul creatures. Still the Imperial's haven't attacked in a large scale yet so it might not come to that'.
'So I'll keep the ambushes up lord'? asked Ralor.
'You know me to well Ralor' Vivec turned away ' yes keep the ambushes up, kill as many as possible'. Anything else to report?'
'Well the Morag Tong are working well alongside the Theives guild, who supply the assassins with information on the Numeron's army' stated Ralor matter-of-factly.
'Good, but i want you to reinforce the the blockades and our defences' said Vivec 'you may leave now'.
With a nod Ralor returned his helmet to his head and walked out the temple doors, he had to prepare for battle.
'You all know your tasks Brothers and Sisters' hissed Spike where they crouched outside the the blockades of Vivec 'The stupid ordinators will never know what hits them if we are fast enough. Now prepare yourselves, we move out at midnight.'
The five other figures crouched around him moved slowly off to their gear and began preparing.
A Silencer with the Dark Brotherhood, Spike's Sanctuary was in high regard of Sithis, mostly due to his skills he thought modestly.
Carefully he slipped hidden blades up his sleves and pulled his black hood up, hiding his vivid red hair.
No need to wear a mask, he thought, being a Dunmer his dark skin provided the best camouflage against the black night.
He pulled on his quiver of arrows and slung his bow over his back.
Muttering a prayer to Sithis he rose and beckoned the others to come close. They were all of the Brotherhood, fellow brothers and sisters of the night, almost as fanactical as Spike in service to their dark lord.
'From now on just hand code' whispered Spike to his audience.Placing his fingers to his lips, he mimicked a birdcall, the signal.
Immediatly the others exploded into silent action, two levitated over the blockades and the other three climbed up with monkey like agility.
Spike smiled as he gentle snicks, daggers being used.
The perimeter guards here were no problem now.
'Its clear' He-who-hides, an Argonian signaled down from the wall with his hand.
Spike jumped straight up and caught the wall about halfway up.
He climbed the rest of the way with startling agility and vaulted onto the makeshift battlment.
Looking down he saw the others already dispatching the guards below, discreetly of course.
Silent as kite Spike jumped down off the wall landed catlike on his feet.
Trusting in the others to clear the way for him and cause a distraction he sprinted into the darkness, his target already in his sight.
Ralor strode through the silent yet populated streets, trying to improve moral in the men by showing his presence.
He walked to the north blockcade and glanced around, confused.
This is always the most well guarded area but yet there was no one in sight.
All of a sudden an arrow skipped off the paved stone in front of him and he jumped back in alarm. Drawing his mace he jumped behind a crate as more arrows began to rain down on him.
'Help, were under attack over by the north blockade!' Ralor screamed as an arrow landed right next to his head by the crate.
A blow from behind unexpectadly knocked him off balance and he was thrown over the crate .
He expected to die right there but the archers seemed preoccupied, the soldiers had reacted fast.
Rolling to his feet Ralor turned to face his advesary and was shocked to find it a small Bosmer female.
Her long blond hair was tied in a bun and black leather armour clung to her body.
Her beauty stole his breath for a second and then he actually lost his breath as she lashed out her foot and her heel caught him squarely in the chest.
He staggered backwards but quickly regained his composure in time to bring his mace up as the Wood elf stabbed a dagger at this throat.
His block put here off balance and he quickly stepped forward and swung his mace at her dagger arm lightining fast.
The mace connected with her wrist with a sickening sound and her dagger fell from her fingers.
She was by no means finished, she flipped backwards a few metres to catch her breath.
Outside sounds invaded Ralor for this momentary battle break and he heard fighting on the walls above him.
He focused again and all sound was blotted as the Bosmer ran at him, dodging his first attack she kicked him in the head, then rammed her good elbow into his stomach with a thud.
She rained blows on him for a minute or two, although his armour protected him from most of the damage it still hurt alot. Roaring in anger he grabbed her wrists together and head butted her three times, bloody flesh exploding outwards and covered his upper body in gore.
Her lifeless body slumped to the floor and Ralor moved away.
Alarmingly she began to rise again , Sithis held onto you for eternity and she staggered towards him with the exaggerated movement of a zombie.
Ralor swung his mace at her head and she dropped to the floor, just another corpse.
The sounds of fighting around him had died now and a ordinator quickly rushed over to Ralor to give a report.
'My lord, there were four of them on the walls but they managed to hold us off for a few minutes before we overwhelmed them 'gasped the guard 'who are they, they're not your average assassins?'
'The Dark Brotherhood' Ralor said in a hollow voice 'I wonder who their target was though'?
'Well its all clear now we managed to overwhelm them with only one loss but they killed about three dozen before the alarm was raised' reported the guard. ' we had to pull some guards away from the temple though to help us with guard duty tonight'
'The temple... By Azura!'shouted Ralor, already running towards the holy place.
People in the streets stared as he ran like a lunatic towards the temple his mace trailing blood behind him.
When the reached the temple doors he saw no guards, an ominous sign.
Bursting into Vivecs Chamber he was shocked at what he saw.
A dozen ordinators lay dead on the floor and several more were fighting a single dark clad, unarmed figure.
Vivec watched the scene with horror as the assassin dodged all their attacks easily and his hands proved more deadly than the ebony maces the ordinators were wielding.
Every blow he landed was precise and in a weak spot.
He kicked one guard in the neck and crushed his windpipe.
Another guard fell when first his arm then leg and finally jaw were broken with three punches.
The last two guards battled on but the assassin moved so fast the guard stabbed the other guard.
Blood sprayed the guards face and he was blinded but he saw no more as his heart was ripped out by a bare hand.
The figure turned on Vivec and drew a small dagger from his belt, it looked harmless but he threw it with deadly accuracy and struck Vivec in the forehead.
Vivec swayed for a second and then collapsed to the floor.
Full of rage Ralor charged the assassin, who turned calmly around, ducked the captains first swing and then punched him straight in the chest
Ralor flew backwards and landed against the wall with a thud.
The assassin calmly jogged out the temple door as Ralor tried to regain his footing.
Hoisting himself up Ralor swayed for a second as red spots appeared before hs eyes and a sunburst of pain shot through his head.
Shaking the cobwebs clear he picked up his fallen mace and chased the assassin into the dark night.
Spike was exuburent as he ghosted through the streets of Vivec, his mission was completed and now all he had to do was return to make the report to his employer.
Sticking to the shadows Spike darted past hordes of guards still making the way to the temple, not knowing their lord had already fallen.
Still Spike was careful and it took him nearly an hour to reach the foreign quarter which was mostly deserted.
Spotting his escape boat below him he prepared to vault into the canal when searing pain burst from his shoulder.
Spinning around he saw that Ralor had finally caught up with him, under the protection of a handful of guards, all of whom had crossbows trained on the assassin.
'Too bad for you I've already been sucessful so my death will be meaningless' sneered Spike at the high ordinator'Vivec lies dying and your out here chasing shadows'.
A few of the guards nervously fired off their crossbows but Spike skipped around the bolts almost like a child.
'Your wondering how one little assassin took on so many back there in the temple' teased Spike 'let me give you a first hand demonstration'.
Quickly he raised his hand and a lightining bolt shot out from it and into the midst of the men.
The explosion threw them back and killed several.
Spike had all the time he needed though and he quickly jumped the wall and into the canals below.
The guards ran quickly to the edge and began firing into the murky canal waters but it was too late, the assassin was just another shadow in the night.
'Sir they are attacking at the north blockade and have almost broke through to the foreign quarter!'shouted a guard at Ralor.
'Assassins?'
'No Sir, normal footsoldiers, the bulk of the army.'
'Its just one thing after another today'sighed Ralor ' Okay I want you to gather up all of the ordinators you can and get to the blockade as fast as possible.'
'Yes sir I'll go right now.'
'And be careful please''Will do Sir.'
The guard ran into the darkness and Ralor turned away to the other guards, only a dozen or so in total but they were high ranking and well trained.
'Okay you know the drill' said Ralor 'Our duty is to defend this city and we shall fufill that duty. I want half of the you to gather your companies and get straight to the walls. The rest spread out with one company in each quarter, they will launch small scale attacks from the water and air if my informant in the theives guild is reliable. Lets get to work.'
The guards dispersed immediatly, they were well trained thought Ralor as he watched them leave.
Sighing he headed towards the north of the city ready to meet battle.
(I'm really happy with this chapter and i only ressurected this old story coz i have some new ideas so please rate and review eg: tell me which characters you like so far and how you would like the story to progress, I'm still introducing characters so i would have liked more action in this chapter , the assassination bit was only supposed to be the start of the chapter but i kinda fleshed it out a bit so that you could get to know Ralor and i know you probably are all confused about some things but I will answer these in time. So anyway enough rambling on, I better get back to the next chapter and hopefully you enjoyed this one as much as I enjoyed writing it!.)