Warning: Mild violence related to the Elder Scrolls Franchise. Terms from the game can be found on UESP website.
Disclaimer: Bethesda Softworks owns The Elder Scrolls franchise, and I created Osulf Valien for the purpose of this fanfic.
"Witchhunter, use our Captain's katana," Baurus shouted promptly to me while he maneuvered to get rid of those profane sorcerers. Great, better than the shortsword I grabbed from one of the Mythic Dawn agents that assassinated Captain Renault because I struggled with this cheap weapon.
"Yes, Captain Baurus, as you request…" I replied him with a bit of sarcasm as I grabbed the late Captain Renault's Akaviri katana, and I joined the Blades on their fight for the Emperor.
"For the Emperor!" We shouted soundly while we kept him safe from danger.
Some blood from one of the assassins splashed out on his robe, "Sorry, Emperor!" Glenroy apologized. The Emperor nodded slightly with a worried expression. No for his safety but for this red amulet. I noticed he guarded it often. What is special about it?
"I think it's all for now, let's keep moving to the Imperial Subterrane!" Glenroy commanded when he was not even appointed officially as the successor of the late Captain Renault.
"Yes, and No," Baurus imposed with skeptical eyes on me.
"Ugh?" I kind of wish to have saved Captain Renault.
"We listen, Sir!" The dog of the Blades is so lame, isn't he?
Baurus walked away with the Emperor and Glenroy; however, he asked me with an expression of disapproval to stay behind, and I cursed at them when he locked it.
"Hey, Imperial dogs! What happened with the pardon of my crimes? I knew that you were up something." I was upset with them after helping them to clear the room.
"You're a lone wolf, aren't you?" Baurus asked me after Emperor and Glenroy left.
"So what?" I replied frustrated.
"Prove your innate survival skills and meet us on the other side in the Imperial Subterrane," Baurus left with a slight smile without anything else better to say.
"Dammit, it's being such a drag to get out of here with those Imperial dogs and the senile Emperor," I was frustrated about them, punching a pair of times a section of the wall, but sudden it crumbles, and two rats took me by surprise.
"Rats!" I stroked them out with former Captain Renault's katana against the other side of the room where those rodents got a silent sleep, "sleep tight."
I walked to examine the broken wall where the rats came from, "I think this is a passage that leads to somewhere. Based on the weak section of the wall that hided this passage, it seems to me that nobody cared to maintain hidden this secret passage. Mmmm." I proceeded through the broken wall with caution; I casted a Flare to explore, but again other rats came to me, and I roasted them in seconds ready to serve for who finds them. What a waste of rats, too bad they are not my preferred dish.
I encountered in the abandoned room a skeleton on the corner with gems shinning on the cavities where once there were a pair of eyes. I pickpocketed some iron arrows and the matching bow from the deceased fella. Next to the bones was a chest, what a good grief I still have some lockpicks.
"I guess the day is no too bad, will sell those when I am out to afford some nice dinner and a place to stay because I need clear my thoughts before I head to the rough country. Man, I cannot wait to savor a grilled Lord Minotaur while having a glass of well-aged wine."
"Poor fella, he was taken by surprise when he…" I saw a dead Goblin Shaman next a locked door. "Wait a minute… The skeleton and the Goblin Shaman…"
I lost my voice with an open jaw when I realized Mythic Dawn agents got rid of them. No sure but that's a possibility. Where would they come from? I know that only people with the keys that lead to the Imperial Subterrane are those Ruby Ranks. I pickpocketed a key from the Goblin Shaman to unlock the door that lead to a lost cavern. I summoned a Clannfear to finish off a zombie that appeared on the corridor while I stabbed another pair of annoying rodents. I opened a door that led me to the lost caverns after cleared the rooms and chests in the Imperial Substructure.
"I won't own those gorgeous gems and precious stones, rather, I will trade them for a place where sleep and eat," I met a bunch of goblins when I closed the chest, "For the Emperor!" I felt excited to beat more than one Goblin because I always thrived for challenges. My summon punched its claws through their chests, turning their bodies into ashes in seconds.
"What's on the other side of those logs?" I stepped softly towards a pile of logs while I hid in the shadows to study the situation. "Oh, I see, there are other goblins."
They were unaware of my presence, so I chose to take advantage of my surrounding. They cried in desperation as the logs rolled over them when I pushed those instead of attacking them directly; I use my magicka sparingly, and well I just used a lot when faced early a bunch of goblins. I heard another goblin in the start of the next room so stealthy made my way to attack him by surprise with the shortsword I kept too for stealthy attacks.
"Here seems a good spot for long-range attacks," I used my bow and arrow to dispatch the remaining goblins without get the ringleader's attention, a goblin witch. He was unaware that a witchhunter will get rid of his minions. I noticed on the center of the room that a goblin getting prepared his dinner on a bonfire, but his luck was to change now.
"I am sorry mate, but you will be dinner for the rats that you captured. The best dinner is better served cold!" I aimed with the bow on the padlock to unlock the cage with the tail side of the arrow. The head of the arrow reached the goblin's back when the detainees pushed the gate, the arrow pierced through the flesh, and the rats ran over him like happy children for their sweetroll.
"Who is the next?" The next one announced himself when got closer to the unlucky chef covered by his dinner.
"No, no, no! Bad dinner, please don't do that. YOU'RE OUR DINNER! DINNER, DINNER, DINNER! The goblin grieved with hysteria, kicking out the rats out from his fellow chef, and burned them with a torch.
"Hey mate!" The goblin quitted on hurting his dinner to search for me, "didn't your parents told you don't play with your dinner?" His response was a cry of despair when my arrow met his heart, and one of the survived rats started to eat him.
I sneaked around until I faced the door that led to Imperial Subterrane where I identified the ringleader, a Goblin Witch that held prideful his staff.
"I gonna show him who is the witch here!" I casted a Clannfear running towards the goblin to distract him while I moved quickly in clockwise to attack the wannabe witch when he lowered the guard.
"Where are you pieces of rotten flesh?" The ringleader believed his minions were napping somewhere in the caverns. "We got a loose lizard!" The clannfear slammed with the bony crest on his head against the goblin witch that tried to cast a shock spell on my summon with his staff.
"Don't forget the witchhunter, wannabe witch!" I shouted at the last goblin as I aimed my arrow on him precisely, while he fell on the floor and his staff slipped away from his hands but disappeared along my clannfear that held it with his bleak.
"No, my staff!"
"Please, help yourself with my arrow!" He crunched on the floor covering his head with his skinny arms, but I surprised him with my Shock spell that I applied on the arrow to augment my attack. My Shock arrow landed on the goblin to meet his end. I picked his Goblin Shaman staff to sell it later for better clothes and armor.
"Never underestimate a witchhunter." I walked away while he cried in an electrizing agony.
"Now, let's reunite with the Emperor and the Blades," I went through the door that led to the Imperial Subterrane.
I crunched to move in the cave-like tunnel until I arrived at a hole in the wall, and I heard them arriving too in our meeting spot. When I arrived at the end of the tunnel, I was looking them from a higher level than them, but I noticed a Mythic Dawn assassin on a ledge opposite to me.
"Watch out!" I warned them when the profane sorcerer jumped off from the ledge to stab Clenyroy.
"Immobilize arrow!" I aimed a paralyzing arrow to give them enough time to attack as I jumped off too from my place and joined them to fight for the emperor.
"Did you miss me?" I joked to Clenroy while I finished off the dude from early.
"On your dreams!" He did cut off another Mythic Dawn assassin's arm and kicked him out against the wall.
"Let's make our way to the Sancturn, we're are close to the Imperial Sewers," Baurus commanded as I smelled the waters that ran under the Imperial City. The water from the sewers are the preferred place of the mudcrabs. After the rats, they were the worst annoyance that got on the way of everyone. On our way to the Sancturn, the Emperor Uriel Septim VII talked with me.
"They cannot understand why I trust you. They've not seen what I've seen. How can I explain? Listen. You know the Nine? How They guide our fates with an invisible hand?"
"Those are grand spiritual forces that guide those in need, but I am my own man." I replied him as I put my bow in my back to walk comfortably.
"I've served the Nine all my days, and I chart my course by the cycles of the heavens. The skies are marked with numberless sparks, each a fire, and everyone a sign. I know these stars well, and I wonder... which sign marked your birth?" I think he already asked me early on, but I still replied him with firmness, "I was born under the constellation of the Mage."
"The signs I read show the end of my path. My death, a necessary end, will come when it will come." Uriel held his safeguarded amulet keeping direct eye contact with me.
"So, what does all this fuss has to do with me?" I wanted to know more about my involvement with him.
"Your stars are no mine, Mage," the Emperor said.
"You seem to be able to see future stuff, so please tell me Emperor if you can see my fate."
"My dreams grant me no opinions of success. Their compass ventures not beyond the doors of death. But in your face, I behold the sun's companion. The dawn of Akatosh's bright glory may banish the coming darkness. With such hope, and with the promise of your aid, my heart must be satisfied."
I asked him where we are going when we get out from the sewers, and he said, "I go to my grave. A tongue shriller than all the music calls me. You shall follow me yet for a while, then we must part."
"My guards are strong and true, but even the might of the Blades cannot stand against the Power that rises to destroy us. The Prince of Destruction awakes, born anew in blood and fire. These cutthroats are but his mortal pawns." We entered to the Sancturn where other two Mythic Dawn agents engaged in combat with Glenroy and Blades.
"Stay with the Emperor!" Baurus ordered me.
"Take my Amulet. Give it to Jauffre. I have a secret son, and Jauffre alone knows where to find him." Uriel entrusted me his treasured amulet that he safeguarded all time, "Find the last of my blood, and close shut the marble jaws of Oblivion.
"Why is this item so important?" I placed the red amulet it on my pocket.
"The Amulet of Kings. It is the Empire's sacred emblem of rulership. It must pass to the last of the Dragon's Blood. Keep it safe from the pawns of the Destroyer."
"I got it. I will give it back to your friend when get a chance to meet him," but it won't be anytime soon.
"Then go. Take with you my blessings and the hope of the empire."
When the Emperor bided me farewell, a hidden Mythic Dawn agent emerged from a panel where he was behind a wall and stabbed promptly to the Emperor on his back before the assassin turned his eyes on me. Baurus came to my aid to get rid of the last of them while telling me that Glenroy fallen on the fight, and I casted a Flare to kill off the fella.
"Enough with the Mythic Dawn Agents, I am out."
"I see the Emperor did hand you over the Amulet of Kings to take to Jaufrey. He must had seen you something on you," Baurus gave me a key after he examined the Emperor's body. "This key opens the door over there, go and proceed to the Sewers."
"Are you afraid of mudcrabs?" I hoped so.
"No, I am going stay behind to guard the Emperor's body, making sure no assassins follow you,"
"Thank you, until we meet again." I nodded, but he extended his open hand to me, "Osulf, would you please handle me the late Captain's sword?"
"There you go," I preferred shortswords and daggers over that blade and we bided farewell.
I went through the secret passage and opened a grate to the sewers. Nothing interesting to find here more than weaker rats and goblins in comparison to that of the Natural Caverns. I casted my clannfear to take care of the rodents while I slashed a few goblins. When all those annoyances were down, I looted some goods to trade later with sellers.
"This way must lead outside."
I found a grate with strong daylight beaming through it, I opened it to encounter a long tunnel where I ran to exit, my heart was pounding from the excitement to step in the wilderness. A breathtaking view of the local area and the world beyond treated my eyes when I left the sewers from the Imperial City, and one of the Ayleid ruins radiated its bright architecture on the other side of the isle.
"Nightmare!" I called my dark horse out that had been roaming freely around the City Isle since the Ruby Ranks got me. She galloped with vigor like the day she learned to run wild by herself on the woods.
"Good girl, papa is back," I petted her forehead, stroking her short mane while she licked me to refresh me from my past fights.
"We're free to do anything we want," I mounted her to get on the road.
"We're going to meet an old friend in Anvil city to get some intel, " my horse started to walk on direction to Roxery Inn located on the Red Ring Road, "but first I need to find a place where sell some goods, get dinner and stay for the night."
As we left City Isle, I contemplated the woodland region of Great Forest on the north that formed a C-shape. I shouted once again to the Imperial City to bid farewell until we meet again.
"For the Emperor!"
~Fin~