Cearbhail: This chapter took me a while. I knew what I wanted to do with it, but I wasn't sure how to do it. But, it's done now. Next chapter will be the deciding factor and probably the end of the past exposistion. I'm not sure..

Enjoy.

[Huir]

"Iver, what's going on out there?" I yelled as loud as I could.

Trying to look through my small window was harder than usual. I was relying more on my elven ears than anything else right now to tell me what was going on outside. And what was going on outside was chaos…that was all I could call it: chaos. The air was crying with elemental energy, an energy that I could taste in my mouth. I may not be an Altmer, but I can still recognize the taste of Restoration magic on my tongue.

The screams of people ripped through my eardrums from all sides of my walls. I could not place the location of every screaming person since it all sounded like it was coming from my window, but I could tell it was almost everyone. And finally, my fine nose which has spent years upon the sea, could smell the tang of death, the smell of iron and blood.

Looking up at the bars, I could not see any faces or people running past, but I could see the occasional orange-robed creature flying up in the skyline. I was too short to reach the bars, even if I jumped and these bars were magicka-jammed. I could not cast any magic within this cell.

I turned my head away from the small window and scanned the hallway for any guards. "Iver!" I called out. All I got in return were the glaring eyes of the other prisoners.

"Hey, Wood Elf. Shut up for once." The Redguard Alik'r called from the cell across from me. He rolled his eyes and settled back down on his pillow. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

"Don't you hear that outside?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, but I also know that I can't leave unless someone blows up my cell. So, until something happens that affects me…I'd rather get some shuteye…because I can't do anything anyway."

I had to admit it, but he was partially right. We were trapped in our cells with nothing else to do but wait for our deaths or possible escapes. And there wouldn't be any possible escapes if everyone was dead. Our only option was: wait for a surrounding wall to blow up and then run away, or…die of starvation inside our cells. That was only if a guard didn't happen across with keys and an escape plan.

"Mages! Collect the women and children. Take them down the underground pathway. Get them to the safety of the underground bunkers." A loud voice boomed through my small window. I could tell it was magically enhanced. It sounded like the commander for the battlemages, Hans.

I paced around my cell for the next few minutes, glancing up at the walls. I could hear the Blades and battlemages going at it with the flying angels of death. I didn't know much about Aedra or how they operated, but with how I hear how they end lives…I expected this to battle to end a lot sooner. There were still plenty of people outside screaming orders, children crying, other people screaming in pain. My elven ears are strong enough that I could pick up the dying lot whispering lost names while they choked on their last bit of air. I'd seen it happen while out at sea, while the Battle of Bruma took many a lives.

It happened to my old friend, Faragus. We were dragged into the Battle of Bruma and while he gladly decided to tackle the new Emperor of Cyrodiil and his army, I only fired if I needed to. I stayed away from most of the fighting, relying on my Restoration magic to create a viable shield against magic and arrows that whizzed my way. Anyway, Faragus was sliced by Jauffre. It wasn't bad, just bad enough that he turned around, clutched his side, and limped/crawled back to me for healing.

When he arrived back, I moved my shield in front of him while I started healing him with my other hand. In order to do this, I had to drop my bow. So…we both were weaponless, and the enemy doesn't care about two kneeling opponents. "Mercy breeds dead allies." It's an old Imperial saying. They learned the hard way what happens when you let your enemy recover. They allowed the elves to escape under the promise of not returning. Well, just two days later all the slaves were punished and tortured for months on end when the elves they let escape came back with another round of soldiers.

So, in light of that knowledge, while I bent over and fed him healing magic to fix that wound of his, a volley of arrows slammed into us. My shield had been weakened since I had to focus on healing. The arrows tore right through it. One of the arrows slammed into my shoulder, another landing perfectly in my leg. Three arrows scored on my buddy: two just barely nicked him; the third was stuck in his lungs. It was a perfect landing by my accord.

We both lied there, almost motionless. I had lost any ability to fight. That arrow in my shoulder had something laced on it, some paralyzing agent. I think Faragus had one too. I could only look up at the sky, but my ears still worked. I could hear Faragus panting heavily, sniffling. His pants turned to light groans, his breath becoming softer. I could even hear his heart slow, his breath…almost dead quiet. Then…when I thought he was gone, I heard some sounds. Names. I didn't know the names, but he was calling out to someone. That's when I looked over to him. I wanted to see what he was looking at.

Faragus's eyes had become soulless. They weren't directed at anyone in particular. He glared up at the sky, mumbling the name of his wife and his daughter. In that final second, I saw him shed a tear and he stopped breathing. He had died. It was at that time that the battle ended. All the gates blew up and out of some separate portal comes the most annoying Imperial I've ever seen: the Hero of Cyrodiil. Back then we just called him the Mythic Dawn Impersonator. Broke into our house and killed our family. Bloody bastard.

Those were the sounds I was hearing now, the sounds of lost souls crying out for their loved ones. They wanted to be held, or see them just one more time before they left this world. Or maybe they were escorting them, I don't know. I've never had the pleasure of going on such a ride. I'm a farmer, turned sailor, turned somewhat into a vigilante that went around killing slavers, turned vigilante that wanted to unite the world…that ended up being a Daedric cult bent on destroying our world (go figure, right?).

When I realized that pacing around my cage wasn't as productive as I thought it would have been, I sat down on my bed. The sounds were starting to become less and less. It was then that I heard heavy footsteps raining down the hallway. Every prisoner stood up and ambled up to their cell doors, looking for the person running to us. Me? I just sat on my bed, glancing at the door.

"Listen prisoners. Hans the Hardy and Jauffre of the Blades is extending an offer. You can either join the fight outside and gain amnesty for your crimes, or you can join the evacuation in chains. Your choice." Iver called out.

I smiled and stood up. After living in this cell, thinking about the consequences that brought me here in the first place, I knew my answer already. I was a fighter. I never really lived the quiet life and in fact, preferred war to running. I only had one bad mistake and that was the Mythic Dawn. This was my redemption, I knew it. "Sign me up, Iver. Hand me a bow and I'll show you why they call me 'Glass Arrow'."

…

The battlefield was just as bad as I thought it would be. Bodies of almost everything imaginable littered the ground. Blood of all colors melted together in some sort of sickly brown, covering the stone in a small pool. Blades and battlemages ran around frantically trying to fight an enemy that soared above them. There were still plenty of civilians trying to escape. I guess a few minutes wasn't enough to get everyone away.

Oh yeah…It's only been three minutes since the bells chimed. I'm just easily bored and time seems to stretch out for me. Being in a cage will do that to you.

I glanced down at the bow in my hands. Beautifully crafted longbow, my personal weapon. They kept it in storage…not like they were ever going to let me leave anyway. Iver had told me that these creatures were weakened by fire and oil. In a sense, they were victims to burning oil. I remembered old lore about how angels can't touch burning holy oil; I guess this oil becomes holy when added with magical fire. Makes sense in a weird round-about way.

The arrows they gave me were state of the art: hollow-tipped slender glass arrows. They were hollow-tipped because inside the glass was a small shot of oil. The glass tip was enchanted to conduct into a fire blast upon impact with Aedra. I don't know how the mages did it, but with a couple dead bodies to experiment on…it's amazing the things you can find out about your supernatural baddie. Well, these arrows made a nice clean 'boom' upon impact with the Aedra. I couldn't wait to test that out. And…I had 200 arrows. Today's my lucky day.

Iver stood in front of me, glancing back at everyone that joined us from the prison. All six of us. He nodded to us and said, "Welcome to the fight that will set you free…I guess." He shrugged and nodded to Hans. He was the giant guy with golden armor and a flowing cape. Tallest man I've ever seen…and he had a trimmed beard. Very magical, that guy.

Iver walked us all up to Hans and nodded. "Sir, these are the prisoners that have agreed to fight alongside us."

Hans nodded. He looked at me and said, "You! Listen to my orders. You're a sniper, I hear. Cover my wife while she leads the last of the civilians into the building. Following that…"

The ground behind Hans exploded into a giant wave of dirt. Hans snapped around and threw up a massive shield as the ground exploded all around us. I glanced up as a wave of Aedra raced past us. The wave of angels flew up to the temple and then scattered. Then…I saw the temple explode in several spots. I guess they had bombed it with their special Aedra magic that I heard about. Some form of impact/implode/explode Restoration magic ball.

Everyone froze as we looked at the temple. It creaked but then…it just collapsed. It fell. The temple actually crumbled down to nothing but collapsed walls. And when it fell, Han's hope of escape fell as well. I could see it in his eyes. He glanced over at me and I could see the defeat in his eyes. "Take as many of those flying bastards as you can out of the sky."

I nodded. "Yes, sir."

He turned to everyone. "Everyone, do what you do best…kill things. And by things, I mean the Aedra. I'll be covering the evacuation that's heading down the mountain. Your job is to cover me. Do this and you'll earn your amnesty. Fail and run…I will kill you."

I turned my attention of my bow and my arrows. I reached up and pulled an arrow out so fast that I had already fired it before I figured out what I was aiming at. I saw an Aedra's head rock back and it fell from the sky. When it hit the ground, its head exploded into a bright fire. Then the rest of the body lit up as well, burning away to ashes in only seconds.

My elven ears picked up more flapping robes in the sky. I pulled out six arrows, and one-by-one, fired at the sky using mostly my ears for tracking and my eyes for spotting. Six more bodies hit the ground, six more flaming angels exploded into pixie dust. The hair on the back of my neck rose and I felt that something was going to happen. I've learned in plenty of instances where my neck hair has saved my life. I did not doubt it now. I jumped forward, rolling along the ground. The ground exploded into dust all around me. I could feel it vibrating in my spiritual bones. I was glad I was versed in the use of Restoration magic, because I could feel it crashing all around me.

I rolled back onto my feet and snapped myself around. I could see eight of those Aedra flying above me. Time seemed to freeze. My hand snatched up I don't know how many arrows. And I fired them just as fast as I had snatched them up. All I remember is crashing on my back and seeing a dozen or so Aedra hitting the ground. Some of them had more than one arrow in them. The ground exploded into magical fire.

I allowed myself to stand up and wipe my mouth off. One of those Restoration orbs had impacted my gut and I had spit up a bit. I'll admit that much. I rubbed my sore stomach and imagined just how bad that arrow had felt to Faragus. If this orb was like getting slammed by a giant impacting rock…what was it like to have something go through your body? Gods, I hoped I wouldn't find out more than once. Sure, having something land in my shoulder and leg might not be pleasant, but having something destroy a lung or a stomach…I bet that feels hellova lot worse.

I heard Hans screaming and I snapped my head around. Hans was running towards a woman who was missing a head. I heard Hans cry out her name and then glared up at the sky. I saw his body surround in a shield of fire. He spread his hands out and all that fire flew off into the sky. The sky lit up in a glorious explosion of fire. Several waves of Aedra burned on impact, others swarmed around the fire, preparing to strike at Hans, I'm sure.

The fire burned away slowly, as did Han's cry. That's when I saw a woman with a very bulgy belly came waddling up to Hans. "Hans, we need to get out of here. We're slowly losing this war."

Hans nodded, waving me forward. I ran as fast as I could to see what he wanted. When I approached, he grabbed me by the shoulder and said, "This is the last order I'm going to give you." He gestured to the civilians. "Take these civilians to the Imperial City. There inside the city you will find the remains of the Imperial Army and the Fighters Guild…as well as the Fourth Battlemage Troop. Find Erandur and tell them that you have been reassigned to them under my orders. Got it?"

I nodded. "Gladly, sir. I'll lead these civilians to the Imperial City and link up with both the Imperial Army and your battlemages."

Hans turned around and gestured to the pregnant woman. "Sosia, you should join him."

She nodded. "Good luck, Hans."

That's when I saw one of the mages run up. "Wait, Hans! I wish to join you."

Hans looked over to Sosia. "Do you mind?"

She shrugged. "He's a big boy. I'm sure he can handle it."

Hans nodded and looked over to the Breton man. "Ok, Adam. Help me distract these Aedra forces with a massive fire blast."

That's when the woman cried out in pain. She grabbed her stomach and screamed, "Oh gods…not now!"

"What?" Hans screamed.

Jauffre walked up, dodging exploding ground dirt. "She's in labor. Quick, we need to get her in the stables and surround it with warding magic."

Hans looked over to me. "You, archer…take the civilians and run. We can't leave until this baby is out of her. The rest of the Blades, mages, and prisoners will join you. Just go, we'll catch up."

I nodded. "Yes, sir." I turned around and gestured to the civilians. "Form up around me. Blades in front, battlemages in the back. Follow me, I know this old tunnel nearby that leads to Bruma." Yup, I remember the tunnel we used to spy on Cloud Ruler Temple. It led to the Battle of Bruma. Another place I ended up. Fate, I guess.

Cearbhail: Yeah, Huir was one of the spies that located Cloud Ruler Temple. He's a quickshot, isn't he? You'd think that if he wanted to kill the Emperor, he could have done it. Anyway, look forward to the next chapter. Should be interesting. I bet you'll never figure out how it ends.