Chapter 3 – Morahame
Hearing a knock on his bedroom door, Seminus walked over to the door and opened it. Before him stood Assurrani, clutching a pile of papers in his arms.
"You can give me that writ now" Assurrani said, striding into the room.
"I hear there was murder in Cheydinhal" Seminus said. "Well done for escaping without being seen. It seems you do have what it takes, so the writ is yours"
"So now what?" Assurrani asked.
"I hate to send you away so quickly again, but this next task is extremely important"
Seminus unrolled a scroll on his desk, revealing a map of Cyrodiil, then drew a cross on it with a quill.
"This is the location of the Ayleid ruin of Morahame. An Imperial and an Argonian are making their way to it and they must be stopped. If they're carrying a book when you find them, bring that back to me as well. The Argonian doesn't matter as much, but the Imperial must be killed"
"Who is he?"
"Camri Everlight. He's an enemy of the Empire and he's currently our biggest threat"
"It will be done" Assurrani said. "I will ride out at once"
"Wait, Falas. I have something for you" Seminus said. From his desk, he picked up the ebony sword; the one Assurrani had delivered to him as part of his cover. Seminus presented the sword to Assurrani.
"Thanks for your help"
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Morahame, outside
"It's too dangerous for us both to go in" Camri said. "You go and find the book. I'll stand guard"
"No, we must stay together" Areen said. "Wherever we are, we stand more chance of survival together than apart"
"What do you think we'll be up against in there?" Camri asked.
"It's an ancient ruin. Probably skeletons"
"Alright. Do you have a weapon with you?"
Areen walked over to a tree and snapped a large branch from it, snapping the smaller branches and twigs from it to create a staff.
"I do now" Areen said.
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The pair walked slowly through the corridors of Morahame, following steep staircases downwards into the depths of the ruin.
"Wait!" Areen whispered loudly, holding his hand up. Camri stopped, and could hear a faint sound, a creaking coming from deep in the ruin.
"Skeletons" Camri said, drawing his sword.
Areen continued down the staircase, Camri following close behind him, until he reached their base. The creaking was becoming louder now.
"They're in this room" Areen whispered.
"Ready?" Camri whispered back, nodding towards the room. Areen gave him the thumbs-up and gripped his staff with both hands.
The pair ran out into the small room and three skeletons ran at them, all armed with swords and shields. Camri ran to engage one straight away, swinging his sword downwards with all his might. The skeleton blocked the blow with its shield, but the force snapped the skeleton's arm clean off. The skeleton began slashing wildly with its sword, but Camri managed to block all the swordstrokes. As the skeleton recoiled from a particularly powerful stroke being blocked, Camri kicked the skeleton in its ribgate, literally smashing it to pieces.
Areen, meanwhile, used his staff to block and deflect swordstrokes from one of the other skeletons, skilfully moving the staff back as it blocked swordstrokes to reduce the impact force. Considering his staff was nothing more than a branch, it was proving an effective weapon. Areen gripped one end of the staff with both hands and swung it as hard as he could. The skeleton tried to block Areen's attack but it wasn't strong enough. The staff ploughed through the skeleton, breaking off its shield arm and smashing its ribcage to pieces. The skeleton fell to the ground, now nothing more than a lifeless pile of bones.
Just as he delivered the killing blow, Areen had heard something behind him. High up above him, the stone door of the ruin had ground open. Someone else was in here.
"Camri!" Areen shouted. "We've got company!"
"Deal with this last skeleton then find that book!" Camri called back. He delivered a powerful swordstroke to the skeleton he was fighting, knocking it back as his sword collided with the skeleton's shield, then he turned and ran back up the corridor they had come from.
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Falas Assurrani, gripping his newly-acquired ebony sword, crouch-ran through the corridors of Morahame. He could hear the sound of battle below, guessing it to be his targets fighting the residents of Morahame. Good. They would be weak from battle. An easy fight.
However, he could hear something else. The sound of boots on stone, coming towards him. Falas extinguished his magical light and placed an amulet around his neck, granting him the gift of night-eye. He could see torchlight coming up a corridor which joined onto the passageway he was in. Assurrani crept towards the junction and waited.
A figure raced out of the corridor, but no sooner had he left it when Assurrani crash-tackled him to the ground and pinned him down, holding his sword to the figure's chest.
"Camri Everlight, I believe?" Assurrani snarled.
"You're not an agent of the Empire" Camri said calmly. "I was expecting someone else"
"The book" Assurrani said. "Where is it?"
Camri paused for a second. "I take that back. You are working for the Empire!"
Camri thrust his knees up, knocking Assurrani and distracting him for a split-second, which he used to wrench one arm free and punch Assurrani hard in the side of the head. Assurrani was knocked to the ground as Camri leapt to his feet and retrieved his sword from where it had been knocked from his hands by Assurrani's attack. But no sooner had he turned to face the Dunmer when he too had regained his footing. Both stood facing each other, brandishing their swords, daring each other to make the first move.
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Outside, two more reached the ruin. They stopped for breath by the open doorway.
"We're too late!" Ariel cried.
"We're never too late" Horunn said, drawing his sword. "Follow me and watch out for trouble"
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Assurrani lunged forwards, thrusting his sword towards Camri. Camri leapt to the side just in time to avoid being impaled on Assurrani's blade – he felt the blade tear his fur coat that he was wearing. Camri used the opportunity to swing his blade horizontally at Assurrani's throat, but Assurrani withdrew and blocked the attack with his own sword, then kicked Camri in the stomach, knocking him to the ground.
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"Around the corner!" Ariel whispered. Horunn stopped in his tracks.
"Kill the Dunmer, you say?" Horunn asked, turning to look at Ariel.
"No" Ariel said. "For some reason he needs to live. We need to prevent him from killing the Argonian or the Imperial"
Ariel raced around the corner and held her hands out. She could see the Dunmer with his back to her, about to plunge his sword into the Imperial's chest. Drawing her hands back, she saw the Dunmer suddenly get lifted off his feet as he began to fly back towards Ariel.
"Duck!" Ariel shouted. She threw her hands forward, sending the Dunmer soaring down the corridor and landing in a crumpled heap, tumbling down a staircase. At the same moment, the Argonian appeared from a side passage, clutching a book in one hand and a wooden staff in the other.
"Let's get out of here" Camri said to Areen. "I don't like what this is turning into"
Ariel overheard them. "We mean you no harm!" she called to them. "I came here to save you!"
With that, her and Horunn began running back where they came from, out of the tomb, Camri and Areen following a short distance behind them, as Assurrani slowly got to his feet.
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Horunn and Ariel burst out of the ruin into broad daylight. As Camri and Areen followed them, Ariel turned round and brought an enormous fallen stone pillar crashing down around the doorway.
"It will take him hours to escape from that" Ariel said.
"Alright, who are you and how did you know we were here?" Camri asked, walking up to her.
"My name is Ariel Lasaille" Ariel said "And this is Horunn, my guardian. We are both part of a huge event. I saw a vision that you were in trouble, so we came to save you"
"Camri Everlight" Camri said. "And my friend is Areen. We are agents of the nation of Argonia. We need to talk – we should make camp somewhere"
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An hour later, Camri and Ariel sat at a campfire, with Areen and Horunn on guard at the edges of the small camp.
"So, you seem to be a master of telekinesis" Camri said to Ariel.
"I am a mystic" Ariel replied. "And I have to gift of being able to predict the future, to an extent. Everyone wants to harness my gift. I am constantly being pursued, and it's Horunn's task to keep me safe"
"A very noble man indeed" Camri said, looking at the Nord. "You said we are both part of a big event?"
"Yes" Ariel said. "I have pieced this together from several dreams. It's to do with the war in the south. You have to stop it, by finding out what the Marsh Spirit is and using it to stop the Empire from invading Black Marsh and Elsweyr. And I have to help you"
"What about the Dunmer? I'm pretty sure he's working for the Empire"
"He is" Ariel said. "He appeared in my visions too. And I don't think you're going to like what I'm about to say"
"Try me"
"He needs to be alive. I don't know why, but he can't die. But he will constantly be trying to find the Marsh Spirit, and he will constantly be trying to kill us"
"That's why you sent him flying out of harm's way instead of setting Horunn on him" Camri said. "It all makes sense now"
"What is that book Areen had?"
"We were sent to retrieve it by Sudana, an Argonian wise woman"
"We should get it back to her" Ariel said. "I think we're in this together now, Camri"
"Well, how I see it there's two things we need to do" Camri said. "First, take this book back to Sudana. That's our first step towards finding the Marsh Spirit and stopping the war. Secondly, we need to throw the Dunmer off our trail"
"Assurrani" Ariel said. "His name is Falas Assurrani, and he's a Morag Tong agent"
"And does he know that he can't die?"
"No. And we should aim to keep it that way"
"Assurrani" Areen said, walking over to them whilst constantly looking around for threats. "That's an Ashlander name. They're very traditionalist Dunmer, the ashlanders. They hate the Argonians and the Khajiit and I'm sure he'd happily see Black Marsh and Elsweyr fall to the Empire"
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Assurrani walked into Seminus' bedroom, a grave look on his face.
"What happened?" Seminus asked.
"I nearly had him" Assurrani said. "The Imperial. I was on top of him, ready to slit his throat, then someone else turned up. She was a Breton, quite young, about eighteen I'd say. She cast some spell, hurled me down the corridor. They all escaped then somehow triggered a rockslide that trapped me in the tomb for hours"
"Anything else to report?"
"The Argonian had that book you wanted me to get. There was a Nord too, a warrior, with the Breton"
"Don't worry about failing, Assurrani" Seminus said. "I forgive you, because had you been killed, or if you'd got to the Imperial earlier, we wouldn't know about this Breton"
"You think she's a threat?"
"If she's a powerful enough mage to throw a person down a corridor, then she's a threat" Seminus said. "And she must have known the others were in that tomb. So she's working with them"
Seminus got up and began pacing around his bedroom.
"Assurrani, there's a reason I hired you and not an Imperial agent" he said. "Your nation has a deep dislike towards the beast races, am I correct?"
Assurrani nodded.
"I think you deserve to know what this is about. The Emperor has passed a secret order to me and a few other generals to launch a military campaign to invade Black Marsh and Elsweyr and reclaim them, or at least parts of them, for the Empire. But the lizards have somehow found out about our plan"
"You say it's a secret order? Then you can't have the whole Imperial Legion assemble in southern Cyrodiil without arousing suspicion"
"Exactly. Which is why I hired you to help me. Somewhere in Cyrodiil is something called The Marsh Spirit. It's a weapon of some sort. If we have it, we will win the war. That's all I know. You're going to help me find it and kill anyone who gets in the way"
"What about the Imperial? Is he working for the Argonians?"
"Yes. He's an outlaw, hates the Empire with a passion. That Argonian he was with broke him out of jail, and now he's working for them"
"So, we – I – need to find the Marsh Spirit. Where do I start?"
"We need to track down the Imperial and the Breton. They seem to be on a trail already. Follow them, spy on them, then as soon as you find out the whereabouts of the Marsh Spirit, kill them"