Hey guys, I have so much school work that I'm going to have to go on a month break so I can get it all done. I will be back in May with an update every week again. See you then.

Read, review, enjoy!

Chapter 5: The New Imperial City

Turns out traveling with your paranoid best friend, your bookworm of a little sister, and her dog wasn't as fun as it sounds. Rune jumped at almost any sound, Elena read a book while they were walking, and Raiden was pretty sure Sable was just waiting for an opportunity to bite him.

They didn't get to Aurnion fast enough.

It was midday on the second day when they arrived at the large city gates. It had been years since Raiden had been to the city. His mother made the occasional visits since she was a member of the Imperial Council. But Raiden always chose to stay with Rune and his mom when she was gone since he was afraid what the other kids would do to Rune while he was gone. But Elena always went with their mom. Of course she started choosing to stay when their mother figured Raiden would be responsible on his own.

So while Raiden and Rune really looked like a bunch of country bumkins by staring in wonder at the large Imperial city, Elena looked bored. "At least this is better than when I come with Mom," Elena muttered.

"What do you mean?" Raiden then asked as he began to realize how much they were sticking out.

Elena threw her hands up and shook her head. "Every single time we would come to the city, she has to go into a history lesson of about the city. 'It's just so amazing how this city has grown ins just a few decades. It was once a field and now it's gown to such a grand city.' And it just goes on from there." Elena had mimicked the way their mother normally talked, especially when it sounded like she was quoting from a book, pretty accurately.

"So do you have an idea about where we should start looking?" Rune pipped up. Now that the wonder was over, Rune seemed to be a bit intimidated by the size of the city. Raiden would have to make sure he didn't lose Rune. The mage was likely to have a panic attack if he got on his own. But then he'd also have to make sure he kept an eye on Elena too. She was likely not pay any attention because she was busy reading.

Raiden had a vague idea of a plan. "Well, Mom's good friends with the commandant. So I figured if we use her name, we might be able to talk him into helping us," Raiden briefly explained.

"Is that really the best plan the two of you could come up with" Elena asked.

"Come on Elena," Raiden moaned. "We're just a bunch of teenagers with no authority. We might as use our mom's position to our benefit."

Elena didn't give an answer and just shrugged. Even Sable gave a yawn next to the girl. If Raiden had to guess, his sister probably had her own plan, but was going to let her brother fail before presenting her better idea.

That just made Raiden more determined to prove to his own younger sister that he knew better. "Come on, let's go find the commandant," Raiden told them. Then he started walking into the city.

"Yeah, I'm sure some random teenagers could get an audience with the commandant," Elena muttered and Raiden tried his best to ignore her as he led them into the city.

"So where do we even find the commandant?" Rune asked.

Even as they were walking, Elena had a book out reading. But she still participated in the conversation. "The commandant would either be in the knight's headquarters or at the palace with the Empress," she answered as she never looked up from her book. Raiden had a feeling that he would have to make sure that she didn't run into anything or anyone.

"Two places where people like us wouldn't be allowed in," Rune muttered in a dishearten tone.

"Like I said, that's when we'll use our mom's name," Raiden pointed out.

"You sure sound proud doing that," his sister said, again acting more interested in her book than actually helping out.

"Come on, we got to use what resources we have," Raiden defended. He never liked using his mom's status to get things. But desperate times, right? It would be like fighting without a sword when you have a sword with you. He was sure that if he said that out loud both Rune and Elena would call him an idiot.

"Well I guess we can check the Knight's Headquarters first," Rune suggested, he sounded like he was afraid the Lowell siblings would get into a fight. "Plus, I'm sure it would be easier to get in there than the palace."

Raiden kept walking and constantly had to tell Elena to put her book down. She finally did, but Raiden was pretty sure that she only did it because she thought he would get lost without her help.

They asked the first knight they saw inside the city for directions to the Knight's Headquarters. The knight seemed hesitant to give that information and eyed them suspiciously. Elena then lied and said they were to make a delivery there. Then they gave the directions.

"There's no way that peon would have believed us if we told him who our mom is," Elena defended.

Raiden at least agreed that the knight would have at least wanted to ask too many questions and waste their time. But Elena was being a bit over cautions. She must be playing a plot point from some book she read. So he let it slid. A part of him was happy to see her functioning well outside the house.

The Knight's Headquarters was a huge building that was just a little ways from the castle. It was four stories high and had both the Imperial and knight banners on the walls. Two knights stood on guard by the gate that surrounded the building.

As they approached, the two knights stopped them. "This is no place for children, go on," one of them said as he tried to shoo them away.

Raiden could tell that Rune was getting really nervous and Elena had her book out again. So he spoke. "We're here to see the commandant," Raiden told them.

He was sure the knights were rolling their eyes at them. "You kids go play somewhere else," the other one told them sounding very annoyed.

As Raiden was about to say who they were, Elena walked in front of him with a folded up piece of paper. "We're Estellise Lowell's kids and she sent us to deliver this to the commandant."

The knights were a bit startled by that and so was Raiden. He tried to not look as shocked, but he couldn't as he realized that Elena had used their mom's seal on the paper.

"Sorry young lady," one of the knights said with a completely different tone. "But Commandant Aurion isn't in the city. He's away on a mission right now. But I can see that he gets that."

Elena quickly tucked the letter inside her book and put it under her arm. "No thinks, we'll figure something else out," she said in a bored voice before turning around and walking away.

Raiden and Rune followed suit to play along. But as soon as they were out of sight from the knights, Raiden grabbed Elena's arm. "You used mom's seal?"

His sister just looked at him like she couldn't believe he was an idiot and shrugged. "I made this the night we left. I figured it'd come in handy. It'd at least prove we're who we say we are real quick," Elena explained.

He wouldn't admit it, but she did have a point. Their mother was of course well known and most knew she had two kids with Yuri Lowell. But he and his sister would not be recognized. Their mother kept them out of the political world as much as possible. Plus they were dressed like commoners. So most people wouldn't just take their word for it. Of course there were a few people, like the commandant who would recognize them.

"That's really underhanded," Rune commented.

"Well, it's not like we stole someone else's seal," Raiden told him. It was just to show they were who they said they were. No one would get hurt from it. "It's blank, right?" Raiden asked just to be sure.

Again, Elena looked at him like he was an idiot. "Of course it's blank, why would it need to say anything?"

Raiden just rolled his eyes as he looked out into the city. "So what now?" He asked out loud.

"Yeah, our only lead isn't even here in the city," Rune agreed.

Maybe not our only lead, Raiden thought. There were a couple of other people he thought about. But they wouldn't be as easy get to as the commandant even with their mom's seal. Plus he just wasn't really looking forward to seeing thatperson. He was debating if they should try the other person he was thinking of in this city when he suddenly heard a growling noise.

Both he and Rune looked at Elena. "I'm hungry," was all she said and in expressionless voice.

Raiden did start to feel some hunger pain. It was past lunch time. "Alright, let's find somewhere to eat," Raiden said.

/~/~/

Skit: More Noodles?

Raiden: Oh man, all the food smells amazing. Rune what sounds good to you?

Rune: Anything sounds fine at this point.

Elena: I want noodles.

Raiden: Come on Elena, you had noodles before we left on this trip. We're in the big city now, don't you want to try something new and different.

Elenalooking annoyed: I want noodles.

Raidenlooking to Rune: Come on help me out. Something else sounds good, right?

Rune: Honestly some meat and veggies on top of those noodles sounds good to me.

Elena: And an egg.

Rune: Let's go find some. *He and Elena runs off*

Raidenlooking defeat: Seriously...Of all the food that's in this city…

/~/~/

While they could smell the food, it was actually a bit difficult finding the food stalls. Even though Elena had bragged about knowing the city she wouldn't offer any help finding the street even though she was hungry. Raiden knew that she was silent because she actually had no clue how to get there. She may have come to the city several times with their mother, but she probably only went to the castle and spent the most time there.

Raiden decided not to call Elena out on that and just followed his nose despite how tempting it was. But all their stomachs were only growling louder.

"M-maybe we should just ask for directions," Rune asked.

"Why, Elena knows where we are, right?" Raiden said as he looked back at his sister. Being hungry made it easier to snap at his sister. And he really wanted to point it out to her that she didn't know everything.

She rolled his eyes at him. "If you think we're lost, go ahead. It's fine that you doubt me," she said.

His sister knew just what to say and do that frustrated Raiden to no end. He never thought she would have been worse when she was outside the house. He had thought she would have been more reserved or even shy being out and having to deal with a bunch of strangers. But honestly she was thriving. So she didn't hold back in any of her remarks. Any other time Raiden would have been happy to see this. But it wasn't helping their situation.

"Then lead on, dear sister," Raiden told her and motioned for her to go on.

Elena just shrugged. "Fine. I'll lead you poor boys. And I could easily be swept away by some creep."

"Yeah, yeah," Raiden muttered. He wouldn't fall for that. In fact, he would feel pity for anyone who tried to attack his sister.

As they were busy walking, Sable suddenly started barking down an alleyway. Whatever it was, it was really upsetting the canine. "What's wrong Sable?" Elena asked.

"Come on, we might get in trouble if we can't keep her under control," Raiden warned his sister. He knew in a city like the capital that dogs couldn't just run around. There was no telling what the knights might do to a dog that wasn't on a leash.

"Elena, isn't there something you can do to do to quiet her down?" Rune asked.

"Something's wrong," Elena stated simply with some annoyance in her voice them.

Suddenly the dog took off down the alley and disappeared around the corner. "Sable," Elena shouted after her and proceeded to chase after the dog.

"Elena," Raiden yelled after her. He quietly swore as he ran after her. He could hear Rune calling after him. Raiden was pretty sure Rune was running after them too, but he didn't look back in case he lost track of his little sister.

Thankfully he didn't have to go far before he found his sister and her dog standing at the base of some stairs. Sable wasn't barking anymore, but she was giving out a low growl. What had stopped the two of them was seeing a woman face down in the stone street at the bottom of the stairs.

Raiden was a bit startled by the sight, but not as much as Rune. The young mage gave a small startled cry before falling backwards. "S-she's not dead, is she?" Rune stuttered.

They were answered by the hearing a stomach growling from the woman.

"I…don't think so," Raiden said a little unsure. He slowly walked toward the woman and moved to gently tapped on her shoulder. "Um, ma'am? Are you okay?" Raiden asked hesitantly.

But almost as soon as he touched her, she practically jumped up so she was sitting on her knees looking confused. Rune was really startled and Raiden even fell backwards. The woman looked back behind her at the stairs and then she hung her head in defeat. "I lived," she muttered.

Why does she sound disappointed in that? Raiden wondered.

But the woman did look strange. She was in a dark skirt that reached to her knees, a white blouse and wore a long black coat. She also had long brown hair but it didn't look like she had combed it this morning. But what worried Raiden more was all the bandages the woman wore. She was almost like a mummy. Her knees, arms, neck and even one of her eyes had bandages over them. She even had a bandage over her cheek. Her fingers were partially the only thing that wasn't covered.

"M-ma'am," Rune muttered, no doubt just as freaked about either or both the woman's appearance and what she said, "are you okay?"

"Yeah," she answered, but she still sounded disappointed. It was then followed by her stomach growling.

Raiden stood up. "Are you…maybe hungry?" He asked hesitantly.

She moaned. "I haven't eaten since yesterday. I came into the city and immediately got lost from my companion and got pickpocketed so I couldn't even pay for a room or a meal. Then I started to wondering around looking, then I tripped down these stairs."

Raiden tried to give the woman a sympathetic smile. But he was still getting over her sounding disappointed that she was alive. "Sounds like you've run into some bad luck," he said.

The woman then gripped her hair. "And on top of that I failed to die. I thought for sure the fall would snap my neck. Instead my head just hurts."

"Wait, you were trying to kill yourself?" Rune just blurted out.

"Well that wasn't the intention at the beginning," she admitted without shame. "I honestly did trip. Then as I was falling I realized that falling to my death would be preferable than starving to death."

Raiden and Rune were rendered speechless after what they heard. This woman wanted to die? Only Elena had words. Raiden thought maybe she had read some books about talking someone out of suicide. But that wasn't what came out of Elena's mouth. "A fall like that would have only broken a bone at most."

"Maybe if I angled myself differently so landed in a way that my neck would snap," the woman speculated like she was working out the math behind it.

"You'd definitely need to have a running start to create more force for the impact," Elena offered.

"Elena," Raiden said as he quickly covered her mouth once the woman was actually considering that. Raiden looked at the woman and offered, "You said you didn't want to starve. We have enough gald for another bowl of noodles if you want to join us."

The woman practically jumped to her feet and Raiden saw that he was taller than the woman. "Truly? Oh thank you young man, I shall not forget this kindness." She even grabbed his hands enthusiastically. "My name is Oanez by the way."

/~/~/

They soon found a noodle stand and Raiden had ordered four large bowls of noodles with tons of veggies and meat on them. The woman Oanez thanked them once more before eating. She didn't look much different from a hungry animal.

"So I'm guessing you're not from here, Ms. Oanez," Rune said to have some table talk. He was probably trying to forget about their death talk just a few minutes ago.

She slurped noodles into her mouth and said, "Just Oanez. Ms. makes me sound old. And you're right, I'm not from here, I'm just visiting." She stuffed her mouth full of more noodles before pointing her utensil at them. "I can see you're not from here either," she said with her mouth full. "Are you just passing through?"

"Yeah, we're from Arie Hallow," Raiden answered.

"Arie Hallow," Oanez commented as she thought. "That's the town next to some ruins, right?"

"The Dwemer Ruins," Rune answered. "But they aren't explored much anymore."

Oanez had paused before taking another bite. "Do you three know why they are called that?" She asked.

Raiden certainly hadn't a clue. He thought Elena would have an answer. But she was just silently eating. He briefly wondered if she really didn't know or if she was done socializing for today.

When none of them answered, Oanez went on. "There are some stories that a race of people used to live underground. People took to calling them the Dwemer. For hundreds of years, people above ground had no idea that there were whole cities underground. But then the surface people started digging for ruins and blastia." Oanez picked up a piece of meat from her bowl and held it up like she was about to eat it. Instead she continued to tell the story. "Being unaware that there were cities living beneath them, the surface people indirectly caused the collapse of these cities and pretty much buried many Dwemer people alive." She then dropped the piece of meat back into the bowl for emphasis.

Before any of them could comment. Oanez smiled and said, "But that is just a tall tale. There hasn't been any evidence supporting that. I guess some twisted people just like to look at something and let their minds go dark or something." Then she went back to eating.

The story turned Raiden's stomach a bit that he wasn't eager to begin eating again. "But the ruins did look like it was once a city," he told her.

She shrugged. "It easily could have just been swallowed up by the earth over hundreds of years. Things don't stay the same for that long."

"Are you some kind of architect or something?" Rune then asked. He too seemed to have lost his appetite too.

Oanez laughed a bit. "Oh no, I just like interesting stories. I guess you can say it's my hobby. As interesting as places like those might be, I have no intention of going underground. I actually have a dreadful fear of being buried alive."

"I've never come across a story like that in any book before," Elena said. It was the first thing she had said since they started eating.

"Not every tale is written down," Oanez said. "There are so many oral stories or even stories that are told through pictures. Not to mention you hear all kinds of fun stories from drunk people."

Raiden felt safe to say that he would probably never met another person quite like Oanez again. And he really hoped that was the case. He wasn't sure what he would do if there were more people like her. It was so hard to believe that she was an adult. She looked to be about the same age was Paul.

Suddenly they heard some raise voices and then Oanez smiled again. "Thanks again for the food. I totally owe you one," she said as she picked up her bowl and even scooted her chair back a bit. But she didn't get up to leave or nothing.

It wasn't long before a young man suddenly ran into the table and even fell on top of it. Everyone, but Oanez's, food bowl broke and either landed on the guy or the ground. The guy, maybe someone close to Raiden's age, seem dazed for a moment. It was clear that he hadn't realize what he had run into.

He quickly grabbed the bag next to him and quickly scrambled to his feet and ran. It wasn't long after that they heard the shouting got louder and they could make it out. "Thief," they shouted.

Raiden saw the ones shouting looked like merchants. Raiden quickly got up and ran after the thief. He didn't have any personal issue with this individual. But it didn't sit right with him to see someone doing wrong and not do anything. He hadn't been raised to do nothing.

He was sure Rune and Elena were yelling at him. However he was busy chasing the guy. He would be able to catch up soon since it looked like the he may have twisted his ankle when he fell. Yet, the thief tried to use the street to his advantage. He pushed people and then he passed a stall and pulled box of fruit behind him.

It hadn't derailed Raiden as he just jumped over and only squashed a few pieces of fruit. But he did bump into a few people as he kept running after the thief.

Finally Raiden leapt and was able to tackle the culprit to the ground. They landed on a box of fruit that went everywhere. "Get off me," the boy shouted as he struggled to get out from beneath him.

"Come on," Raiden said as he tried to restrain him. "Just give back whatever you stole."

The boy was still fighting to escape. Of course now that he had caught the guy, he wondered what he should now. He didn't have a way to keep him from running off again. He needed to probably get a knight.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long before he could hear some coming this way. "Move," he could hear one shout. Three knights came into view. One of them looked like a normal knight, but the other two were pretty strange. Both were old with one of them was a tall skinny man with a weird mustache and the other one was very short.

"I say, what is going on here?" The taller one asked.

"Those two boys just started fighting right in front of my stall," a vender told the knights.

"I was only trying to catch him because he stole something," Raiden defended.

"That's right," someone else shouted. An older man ran up to them out of breath. "That boy was just going after a thief that took my lockbox."

"I say," the taller one said. He looked to the normal knight. "You take the thief and sort out what happened. We'll want to talk with the boy."

"Yes sir," the knight said before getting the thief. He helped Raiden hold him down so he could be put into shackles, then the knight got him to his feet. The knight, the thief, and a shop owner walked away to get it all sort out.

Raiden would have preferred just to return to Rune and Elena. But it would look really bad to run away from the knights. He had been taught to do what the knights asked. At least the ones that were actually doing their job, his dad would always add when he thought Mom wouldn't hear.

"I say, not that we don't appreciate your sense of justice, but the Empire has stick laws against vigilantism."

"O-oh," Raiden said as he scratched the back of his head. "But it's not like I was fighting the guy," Raiden tried to reason. It wasn't that he had been expecting a pat on the back. But he wasn't expecting to be scolded for helping out.

"Your little chase caused quite the commotion," the other knight went on to explain. "Look at this stall, that has caused the owner a lot of issues."

Raiden was speechless at that. While the fruit stall was still standing, some of his produce was destroyed. That would be a lot of gald lost to him.

"We'll just leave you with a slap on the wrist this time," the shorter one said. "Next time you leave this up to the knights. Report the wrong doings instead of taking the law into your own heads."

Raiden let out a sigh. It wouldn't do to go ahead and get in trouble this early in his journey. Especially in the capital where his mother can easily get word from. "Okay, sorry about that," Raiden said as he fought the urge to not roll his eyes. He did feel terrible for the damage he caused. But he was able to catch the thief much faster than the knights could have.

"I say, very good," the taller one said.

"By the way, what's your name? It's for our report," the shorter one asked as he started writing things down on a small notepad.

"Raiden Lowell," he answered.

"Raiden Lowell," the shorter one repeated as he wrote that down. But then his pencil stopped and he looked up at Raiden with wide eyes. "Lowell?" He repeated again.

"I say, as in Yuri Lowell?" The taller one asked in an almost shaky voice. It was like he didn't like saying the name.

"Y-yeah," Raiden said hesitantly. "That was my dad."

The two knights just looked at him for a moment before turning around to talk with one another. Raiden couldn't really make out a lot of what they were saying in their hushed, exaggerated tone. Raiden wondered if he could just leave. He could see Rune and Elena in the crowd that had started watching. He figured he could just leave at this point. He wasn't in trouble and as his mother would probably say, a slap on the wrist wouldn't do any good for him.

Just as he started walking toward his friend and sister, he felt someone grab his shoulder. He was forced to turn around. Before he even had a chance to realize what was going on, something snap around his wrists. When he looked at down, he saw that there were shackles on his wrists. He looked at his hands baffled as the two knights started talking.

"I say, I knew you were trouble," the taller one said. "Being a Lowell, there is probably no telling what else you've done while you were in the city."

"What?" Raiden said in disbelief. "I haven't done anything else. You can ask-" Raiden tried to say as he motioned to Rune and Elena so they could verify it. However they were now nowhere to be seen. They were gone. Did they leave him to be arrested?

"We are taking you into custody to verify what other crimes you committed," the shorter one said as the taller one grabbed Raiden's collar to drag him away, since the shorter one couldn't reach but he did grab his shackles to make sure he didn't try to escape.

Raiden was speechless as he was being dragged away by the knights. Why in the world was this happening to him?

/~/~/

Oanez had watched the whole commotion until the kid was out of sight and kept eating. He seems like a good kid, she thought to herself as she downed the broth from the noodles. The thief didn't seem dangerous, so Raiden should be fine. But she honestly wasn't expecting him to just jump in like that. It wasn't like the thief stole anything from him.

But she really struggled to understand why Raiden would get involved like in was instinct. He hadn't even thought about it. He reminded her a lot of someone she knew.

"There you are," Oanez heard a familiar voice scream out her as she felt someone hit her in the back of the head. Oanez almost dropped the bowl, but she did curl up from the pain. "I have been looking all over this accursed city looking for you and here you are eating."

Oanez slowly straightened up and gave the woman a reassuring smile. The woman was slightly taller than Oanez with red hair in a fancy bun and was wearing purple robes. "Oh Yin, what a coincidence. You should try the noodle bowls, they're really good."

"Don't Yin me," the woman shouted at Oanez. Her brow was frowned so much, she was liable to get wrinkles earlier. And she was younger than Oanez. "You just had to take in the sights, didn't you? Then you got lost. Did you forget we're here for a reason? I was starting to really hope I'd find you dead in the ditch at this point."

Oanez got up to give the noddle cart man his bowl back. He was too busy worrying about the destroyed table to really notice her. "Of course I haven't forgotten why we're here," Oanez told her companion. "But it actually wasn't a lost. During my time being lost, I did find out we may want to avoid going to the castle for a little bit. Someone else is trying to force an audience with the Empress."

Yin went from scolding to serious. "Should we retreat?" She asked. "Even if all works out, wouldn't us appearing be a little suspicious to them?"

"No. Appearing to them while they're on high alert might be best for us," Oanez speculated.

"Very well, I'll have your back on whatever you decide," Yin reassured.

The two women didn't much care for the other's company. But there was a small line of respect they had. Oanez knew Yin was nearly undefeated in combat. And Yin knew not to question any of Oanez's plans or strategies.

"Good," Oanez said. Then she went on to add, "Also you should know I don't intend of die in a ditch. That doesn't even make my top ten list of ways to die."

That earned another hit on the head from Yin.