Cearbhail:

I know it's been a while, but I was finishing up Chronicles of Lydia and trying to work on New Assassins Den. So, this would be the start of the second arc. The first arc for me was Fiirnar working his way to taking over Black Marsh and finishing up the battle in Cheydinhal. Now a new arc will begin. I won't disclose what will happen so early in the arc, but I'm sure you'll figure it out. Anyway, enjoy. A bunch of new characters' stories will begin now and more than just that, this is becoming a world-wide event. It may grow to be a lot to remember so try your best. I know I will.

[Councilor Fiirnar]

The current turn of events was intriguing to say the least. In the past 24 hours I have killed all the War Council members, taken complete control over Black Marsh, Elsweyr, and now Cyrodiil. If that wasn't enough of a full day, I took complete control over Black Marsh's assassins, making them my personal killing squad. Their first order was to kill Nexa, the former princess of Black Marsh and all her allies. I also blew up all the virtual maps I leant to the allied forces. I watched as several bases filled with battlemage officers were consumed in instant fire. I could see their auras flicker out as simultaneously they were killed. The ones that survived the explosion were taken out by my Aldmeri agents surrounding the forts. I watched as all the battlemage battlements burned to the ground. All of Cyrodiil was taken by my forces.

I stepped away from my map. Of course, there were a few loose ends that I would begin singeing in place. Nexa and her friends managed to escape the Shadowmasters and even my second-in-command Nrillia. Some battlemages managed to escape the purge of their bases, but they were scattered and weak. They wouldn't survive the next 48 hours. I would see to that. There was also the remaining Mages Guild clustered at some hidden base that even my map couldn't find. And the Aedra. They were scattering to the corners of the planet. It was like they knew that I was beginning to act on my plan. I needed to wipe them out. Apart from all that were the remaining Imperial Legion, Fighters Guild, and the Resistance. Not to mention that Nexa's friends managed to warn all the Akaviri about my takeover. If they rallied against me…it would be a hard fight. I had to silence all this right now.

Looking down at the map, flicking through the images of the post-battlefield, I could see all the dead bodies; Aedra, man, mer, and Daedric. Near the remains of a medical tent where Nrillia found Nexa I could see all her dead bodies stacked up and burnt to a crisp. I hate to admit it, but for a few hours the signal of this battlefield flickered away and I lost contact with the remaining forces. Something about the bubble shield over Lilmoth interfered with my personal signal for a few hours. In that timeframe, I called out to Nrillia to wrap up and kill Nexa for me. She had only just informed me of her failure. The Champion of Cyrodiil, whoever that is, interfered with her hunt and disrupted her necromancy magic. She lost her ability to regenerate and by the time she could get new bodies to the sight, her target had already left. She had her team try to find Nexa but her team's been unable to find the remnants. I am in the same boat. I was scanning the whole map but I was unable to find Nexa or her friends. It was like they didn't exist. But…how could they pull that off? Maybe they were killed by the Aedra. But even still, I should be able to find her decomposing body parts on my map. This was a problem. And I hate problems.

I pushed away from the map, scowling. I would have to deal with that later. First things first. These dead bodies littering the war room. If the Argonians saw them on the ground, I would be in trouble before I could ditch this place. So…I had a contingency plan. Calling up Nrillia on my communicator device was but one button push away. When I pushed the button, I heard a light hum for a few seconds before the virtual map morphed into Nrillia's body. The charred mangled body of Nrillia filled my screen. Her decomposed corpse looked up at me. Tubes were stuck in almost every body part she had and her body was incapable of moving. She was once a beautiful woman but during the Daedra invasion, she got trapped in an Oblivion gate. When she released the seal, a volcano blew up with her still inside the gate. When we found her flying out of the exploding gate, she was already crying in pain and half of her body had been burnt to the raw nerves. We stuck her in the River of Magicka to sustain her life. It has done miracles to keep her alive, but she may never leave it or else she will die. The tubes are feeding in food, water, and Restoration magic to attempt to heal her wounds. It was slow progress but she is getting better. Soon enough, she might be able to breathe on her own.

Nrillia's empty eyes glared at me. I didn't need to say anything. I knew she could see me; I knew she could hear me. "Nrillia, are you magic capable again?"

A device connected by a wire into Nrillia's throat and brain started whirring. "MY CONNECTION IS RECONNECTED TO NIRN." The translation device translating her mental voice screeched to me. "ORDER ME, COUNCILOR. I AM READY TO SERVE."

I nodded to her. "I am sure you see these dead bodies littering the floor. They were the previous rulers of the War Council. I need you to reanimate them and control their bodies. I want you to put a little piece of your soulic magic into each one and control them as if they were still very much alive. Think you can do that?"

"I AM THE LIVING REPRESENTATION OF NIRN. WITH HER ENERGY I CAN DO ANYTHING. WITH THEIR BODIES REANIMATED I CAN RECONNECT WITH THEIR MEMORIES. I WILL BE ABLE TO DISPLAY THEIR PERSONALITIES AND EVEN MAKE THEM PASS FOR ALIVE IN ALL FUNCTIONS. WITH YOUR PERMISSION I WILL RESURRECT THEM."

I nodded to her. "That is exactly what I need. I need them alive. Will you be able to sustain them for a long time?"

"ONCE I FUSE MY SOULIC ENERGY WITH THEM, A LITTLE PIECE OF ME WILL BECOME THEM. I NEED NOT CONTINUE MAINTAINING LINK WITH THEM SINCE THE OTHER ME'S WILL FUNCTION INSIDE THE BODIES. NECROMANCY IS ABOVE NORMAL MAGIC. LIKE CONJURATION IT TAKES ENERGY TO ACTIVATE THE BODIES, THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT CONJURATION SUMMONED CREATURES DISAPATE AFTER SUMMONING. THAT IS BECAUSE OF MUNDUS'S LAW ABOUT DAEDRA INTERFERENCE. THE DAEDRA ACTUALLY LOSE LIFE ENERGY THE LONGER THEY LIVE IN MUNDUS. RECREATED CORPSES WITH ARTIFICIAL SOULS DO NOT DEPLETE LIFE FORCE WITH TIME, ONLY WITH ATTACK. DO NOT LET MY BODIES FIGHT MUCH AND THEY WON'T DIE. LIKE ALL BODIES, THEY WILL REPLINISH THEIR ENERGY IN TIME, BUT LOSING TOO MUCH IN ONE BODY MAY BREAK THE LINK AND THAT BODY WILL DIE AGAIN."

Nrillia was one of the most seasoned necromancers in Summerset Isles. Even in her crippled state, she was still powerful enough to summon bodies all across Tamriel. Of course, it was because she was constantly being bathed in a hot spring filled with magicka from the River of Magicka. Being in the pool of the magic of the world gave her a connection with the world. She had unlimited energy to use and access to any vortex in the planet. That was why she could be everywhere. She had thousands of bodies that she collected and transferred a piece of her consciousness too. I've tried to make more soldiers like her, but no Altmer or Bosmer…heck, no man or mer on Nirn could survive dipping into the River of Magicka without having their aura ripped from their body and their body unmade. Nrillia was able to survive because her body was mangled. Nirn saw it as a welcomed tribute for the access to unlimited energy. And Nirn was sympathetic. She was slowly regenerating Nrillia's body, while giving her a way to remain alive. Nrillia's condition might not last for much longer. And when Nirn was done fixing Nrillia's body, her usefulness would come to an end for me. She'd still be too damaged to do much and Nirn would begin unmaking her body if I kept her in the River of Magicka. At that time, she was going to join the dead bodies.

I watched as all the bodies littering the war room started moving. The previous queen was the first to twitch. Her head started moving around, the bones in her neck snapping with the effort. Next her arms started moving around. Finally, the Queen took a deep breath and her eyes snapped open. One by one, the other bodies in the room started twitching, their eyes snapping open as soon as they took a deep breath. The bodies slowly started scrambling to their feet, falling down several times before the bodies managed to find a way to balance themselves. The Queen looked over at me and she placed her hand on her chin just like how she used to when she addressed me. "Hmm…the Queen sure had plans. Searching." The Queen paused. "She wanted to unify the world so that there would be no more wars." She looked up at me. "She expected you to help her bring an end to all the fighting."

I shrugged. "And I will. Once the Dominion rules all of Tamriel…there will be no more wars." I looked around the room. "These leaders all had their own agendas. And now not only do you know what their agendas were, but you know all about their government structure and all secret plans I did not know about." I looked at the Akaviri representatives. "Let's start with the Akaviri."

Nrillia's bodies started twitching. "My apologies, milord. I'm trying to reanimate the cells of the bodies to defeat the rigor mortis that has set in. It will take a few hours." The Queen called down at me. "As for the Akaviri, it's odd…I am unable to read the memories of the snake. The Ka'Po'Tun is different as well. While I am able to read his mind, it's in an unfamiliar language. All his memories are in his natural language. I will need to study the language to begin understanding how to translate it. That will take me a few days."

I nodded to Nrillia. "Well, we tried at least. Either way, your mission will be to live as these councilors and help me run the War Council. This marsh will only continue taking my orders if they believe the Warlord or the Queen is giving them. When all of Black Marsh sees that the Queen is still alive and supporting me and my takeover of this nation, then that annoying princess will have nothing to use against me when she rallies for war." I nodded as I looked around at the other reanimated councilors. I'm glad I had this plan. I didn't know what I would have done if I had to use my own Illusion magic to make it seem that they were still alive. Illusion magic's weakness is awareness. A few of the shadowmasters were aware that my voice was being altered, because they had training in Illusion. This wasn't Illusion, which could be disproven; this was necromancy, which at the level that Nrillia uses it, cannot be disproven.

The Queen nodded to me, smiling. "Of course, Councilor Fiirnar. As ruler of Black Marsh, I will be more than glad to lead my Argonians to a new golden age. Shall we begin discussing military operations?"

The Warlord turned to look at me. He nodded. "I agree. The traitorous Nexa is still alive and she has attempted to take over my forces by claiming that I had died. I believe it has to do with her crush on the Khajiit blood-rager. She will do anything to keep him alive…even disobeying her own father to do so." The Warlord turned to face me. "Councilor Fiirnar, deploy your Thalmor to find my daughter and bring her head back to me on a pike."

I arched an eyebrow and turned to face Nrillia on my virtual screen. "Is that you or your copies talking?"

The motionless body of Nrillia continued to glare at me. "MY COPIES INVADE THE MIND OF THOSE THEY COMMANDED. THEY BECOME THE COPIES IN ALL RESPECTS, BUT THEIR AGENDA IS LINKED TO YOURS. IF YOU ORDER THEM, THEY WILL COMPLY; OTHERWISE THEY WILL ACT LIKE THEMSELVES."

I nodded to her. "Thanks, Nrillia. I want you to continue your search for the surviving battlemages; both Nexa and the ones that escaped our ambush."

"YES, COUNCILOR." She waited until I dropped the image. I brought the map back up, glancing at the new warlord and the Queen. Royal Argonian guards that had been watching the doorway when I killed everyone stood compliantly at the doorway like they had before I killed them 12 hours ago. I didn't even smell the corpse smell anymore. It was like nothing ever happened. I glanced at Ri'Saddo, who previously had a hole in his head where I shot him. The hole was already gone and replaced by new fur that was growing in. It was amazing how Nrillia's magic worked. It was too bad she was eventually going to become useless to me. I just need an easy and quick way to kill her. I didn't need her army turning against the Dominion or myself.

I brought the worldwide map back up. I looked at the newly updated version where the Dominion forces were colored yellow, Black Marsh was colored green, Imperial forces Blue, Khajiits orange, Akaviri brown, and Aedra white. I was looking for any blue that I could. I looked across the world, finding small pockets of Imperial forces gathering around the Velothi Mountains near the Dunmeth Pass. Ah, so they were preparing to retreat into Morrowind to escape my army. It is true that Morrowind is not yet part of the Dominion and my forces marching into Morrowind will be seen as an act of war to all three houses of Morrowind. I would have to send an envoy to Morrowind and request to capture my enemies. Or perhaps, seek an alliance with Morrowind. Either way, I had to get these battlemages. I pulled open my communicator, calling Nrillia.

She appeared on my map, her motionless face staring at me with empty eyes. "YES, COUNCILOR?"

"Nrillia. There are some battlemages converging on the Dunmeth Pass in the Velothi Mountains. You know, the only survivable path from Cyrodiil to Morrowind. Please make certain our little friends never make it to Morrowind. I would so hate to involve the Dunmer with our war."

"IT WILL BE DONE, COUNCILOR." She replied.

…

[Jurard]

"Captain!" Iver called out to me as he came running up to me.

I watched as the little Wood Elf as he scrambled up the rocks to come to me, his chainmail clinking with every step he took as he ran up the dangerous steep hills. "Yes, Iver?" I called back down to him. "Take it easy, we're in no hurry. We're still waiting to hear from teams C and D."

"That's why I'm running, ma'am." Iver called out. "I have this note from a carrier hawk." He paused and opened it up. "Captain Jurard, this is Team C from Fort Avirria. We were hit hard by Aldmeri forces and were forced deeper into the Velothi Mountains and further away from Dunmeth Pass. Team D stayed back to hold off the attacking forces. None have reported back yet and it's been two hours since this letter was consigned. Thalmor forces seemed different. They were commanded by a necromancer by the name Nrillia. She knew where we were and what we planned to do. I fear she's coming to finish us off. Do not wait for us; it would take us days to catch up now. Get into Morrowind and seek help from House Telvanni and Redoran. We'll hold off as long as we can and meet up soon. Signed, Lieutenant Thalfin."

I nodded to Iver. "Ok, then. We'll do as she suggests. Going back to assist her would only detriment our orders and serve to only offend her ability to keep her troops alive." I turned to face the rest of my battlemages…all six of us. "Ok, everyone. We're moving on. Team C and D are officially MIA and we're going to continue heading to Morrowind. Ready yourselves, the Dominion seems to be one step ahead of us."

The battlemages under my orders were almost out of steam. We had been running for hours now, dodging Aedra and Thalmor to get here. We started with just above 20 battlemages, but once our magic was turned off, we were basically sitting ducks to magic blasting Thalmor. I don't know how they shut off our magic, or how they could use their own but we had to deal with that later. I already had a Dunmer searching through his scrolls to see about how we could have lost it. He was sitting in the middle of us, searching a book while we waited for our comrades. Too bad that would have to wait until later now.

Sitting where we were now, we could reach Morrowind if we continued climbing this mountain. Sure we were near the Dunmeth Path, but that was an easy ambush waiting for us. Up here in the mountains, we had just an equal chance to survive even without magic. Once we cleared the top of the mountain, we would officially be in Morrowind. From there it would be an easy climb down. Sure, I expected Redoran guards to intercept us and take us to their holding cells to interrogate us. The Dunmeth Pass went all the way from Cyrodiil up to Skyrim and to Morrowind. There were several places that the pass emptied out into, but we were heading up to Blacklight. From what I know about it, it's an important House Redoran town. I was hoping we would be able to talk the Great Houses to help us in our fight with the Aldmeri Dominion. I was under orders of BI Hans to do this. He found a way to reach us with a spell. He did say something about malachite bracelets. They cancel out the massive Silence spell hovering around our planet. So…if we found some malachite bracelets, we'd get our magic back. If it worked for him, it would work for us.

"Hey, Ven. Does your book say anything about malachite?" I called back to the Dunmer as we started climbing up the mountain. "Careful, everyone. Don't slip, it's a long way back down." That was true. We were resting on an edge on a very slender path. We were almost up at the top of this mountain range now. Once we got over this top, we would basically be going back down the smaller mountain tops down to the bottom. What was the difficult part was if we ran into impassible ledges. With our magic it would be easy to get up and down, but we had to do this by hand and sword since we couldn't use our magic.

"Hmm…malachite. It's a green crystal that creates a shield of protection from all negative forces. It's said to have the ability to negate magical effects. So…if I were to wager, it would cancel out the effect of the silence spell." Ven replied to me. "However, there is another aspect. It prevents scrying too. I remember our maps we received from the Dominion. They could see everything in the world. They could be listening to us right now. That's probably how they keep finding us. They're tracking our every move, listening to our every word."

…

[Fiirnar]

I nodded my head at the Dunmer. He had no idea just how right he was. According to the map, Nrillia and her forces were closing in all around them. Any second now.

…

[Jurard]

I nodded to Ven. "Yeah, I bet they are too. And…if I was a crazy paranoid Altmer with an ironic history of temptation and violence…everyone, duck!" I called out. I unsheathed my sword and dove for cover right as a fireball flew past my head, crashing into a rock above me. Several other fireballs shot up past us, slamming into the rocks above. I looked down the mountain to see several black-clad elves standing at the base of the mountain. Thalmor. They found us again. "Iver, Yuki! You know plan Avalanche, right? Commence."

Yuki, another Dunmer, smiled as she dipped into her back pouch. She pulled out a vial of alchemist fire. Did you know that the Velothi Mountains were covered in years and years of constant snow? And…we were standing on an edge of a mountain. We were lucky we were near the top of the mountain. Those fireballs didn't do much to hurt the mountain. Our alchemist fire would. Yuki popped the top of the explosive and tossed it down to a slanted pile of snow. Just one blast would be all it would need to start our avalanche. After she tossed it, I nodded to everyone. "Ok, move! Get to the top, go!"

I didn't wait for them. I charged up as quickly as I could, digging my foot in the knee deep snow. Really deep snow did have its advantages. Dig your body into it and you won't slide to your death. I was using that snow and charging as fast as I could to the top. I looked back to see everyone right behind me. I felt/heard the alchemist fire explode. The snow right underneath my feet started pulling as the snow underneath us collapsed. Fuck! I was worried that all the snow would come down. Iver cried out as his small Bosmer body was pulled down with the snow. I looked back at him as he disappeared under the snow.

He looked up at me, stretching out his hand. "Help!" He called out before he disappeared for good. Yuki was the first one to turn to help him. Something caught underneath her and she disappeared as she tripped into the falling snow.

"Yuki, Iver!" I called out to them. I dug my own feet into the snow. I didn't want to join them. Everyone else dug their feet in, not getting pulled down with the rest of the snow. I watched as the snow continued to flow down the mountain, collecting into a deeper and more dangerous mass. I waited for a few seconds before I saw the snow in front of me shift. Yuki's head popped out. She coughed as she spat snow out of her face. As she started standing up, I could see that she was carrying Iver. She yanked him up, nodding to me.

"Ma'am. I saved Iver. Permission to kiss him?" She asked me, her face blushing over.

"I don't care if you kiss your boyfriend." I responded.

Iver smiled up at Yuki. "Thanks, babe." He replied, wrapping her up in his arms and beginning to make out with her.

I released a breath that I didn't know I had built up. We had reached the top of the mountain now. Looking down, I could see an easy way down. We'd be in Morrowind before the end of the day. More than that, I could see Blacklight from here.

Cearbhail:

And so begins the second arc. So, we've seen the true face of Nrillia. She's one wicked character and has only begun her reign of terror among the story. Fiirnar is showing more of who he really is. and more than anything else, Jurard is back! She survived her fort exploding when the map blew up like in all the other forts. She was out prying her new recruit Yuki off of Iver after he saved her from an Aedra bombing. Yuki was from one of the Advanced Training ceremonies that started after the Aedra started invading. She was part of Group 1, the first of three groups to begin their training. She was top of her class and specialized in Conjuration, being a Dunmer and all that. Her minor was Enchanting and Alchemy. But anyway, once she met Iver...after he saved her, she instantly fell in love with his saving her all the time. That's all for now, I guess.