Chapter 5 – Assurrani's Sword
The Office of Imperial Commerce, The Imperial City
Commander Villars placed a map down in front of his two agents. Eldred was gone – he had set off on his fact-finding mission, spying on General Seminus.
"I apologise for summoning you at such short notice, gentlemen" Villars said to the two men stood before him. They were his two most trusted agents – Emin Redoras and Aharria Uvaren, two Dunmer who had been recruited from the Morag Tong. As a faction who were, to an extent, sanctioned by the Empire, the Morrowind guild of assassins proved an ideal organisation to recruit Imperial agents from. Redoras and Uvaren were both skilled at the art of killing whilst being remained unseen.
"This may be slightly different to what you're used to" Villars said. "I want the target alive, not dead. And I'm not entirely sure where he is. And you have very little time to find him before he disappears completely.
"All we know is that he's a Dunmer who wears black leather armour and a black hood, and carries an ebony sword. If you can't get him, get the sword"
"Where is he, then?" Redoras asked.
"We saw him leave the city at noon, heading for Chorrol. I don't know what his business there was"
At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Villars placed a hand on the handle of his sword.
"Who's there?"
"It's Eldred!"
"Come in!"
Eldred stepped through the door and closed it behind him.
"If he's up to something his security is watertight" Eldred said. "He went out of his room for an hour. I searched it thoroughly, I couldn't find anything. But something was noticeably absent. The ebony sword he supposedly took delivery of. The barmaid even saw the Dunmer come into the hotel a few days ago with the sword, and directed him to Seminus' room"
Villars turned to Redoras and Uvaren. "You should get going if you want to have any hope of catching him"
"Yes, Commander" Uvaren said as the pair walked quickly out of the room.
"The Dunmer has the sword" Villars said to Eldred when they had gone. "I'm sure of it. Think about it, it makes sense"
"Seminus wants someone to help him conduct shady operations behind the Empire's back" Eldred said. "The sword was some form of advanced payment. Any idea who he is?"
"I got the paperwork he filled in at border control when he entered Cyrodiil" Villars said. "His name is Assurrani, Falas Assurrani. He says he's a freelance smith, spent most of his life with a nomadic tribe in the Ashlands but returned to civilisation to make ebony weapons"
"That seems pretty watertight too" Eldred said. "It seems that this sword is the only thing that stops it all from adding up. Commander, with respect, are you sure there's something going on here? Maybe he just wants to learn swordsmanship and can afford a quality blade to do it with?"
"If you can explain why Seminus has moved a hundred men from the Third Battalion down to Leyawiin I'll let this go" Villars said. Eldred stood in silence for a few seconds.
"What can we do now?" he asked.
"We wait" Villars replied. "And hope that my men can get Assurrani's sword"
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Camri and Areen dropped down through a trapdoor into the caves underneath Hackdirt. There were oil-burning lamps glowing at intervals down the passageway, remains of fires, barrels and sacks filled with food and other signs of civilisation littering the cavern floor. Evidently the residents of Hackdirt spent a lot of time in the caverns.
The two crept along the passageway, Camri using nothing but his sense of direction to guide them towards the church.
"Soldiers!" Areen whispered. Further down the passageway, at an intersection, two soldiers crossed their path. Camri drew his bow and waited for them to return.
"Have you noticed how we've only seen soldiers so far?" Camri whispered. "Where are the residents of the village?"
"We'll worry about that later" Areen replied. One of the soldiers walked back out of the side-passage. As soon as he did so, Camri nocked an arrow and fired it down the passageway, striking the guard in the neck and puncturing his jugular vein. The soldier tried to shout for help before falling to the ground, dead. The other soldier soon appeared from the side passage, but by then Camri had loaded another arrow and took the soldier down.
The pair began to run quickly down the passageway. Ladders led up to trapdoors all around them. They passed the intersection and reached the end of the passageway, where another ladder led up to a wide trapdoor.
"I think this is it" Camri whispered.
"How are you going to signal Ariel and Horunn?" Areen asked, stopping Camri before he threw the trapdoor open.
"I'll find a way of breaking one of the windows"
Camri threw open the trapdoor then leapt up into the church, Areen following him. They emerged at the back of the church, behind an altar. Had they been more discreet in their entry, they might have been able to get in undetected, but the loud bang of the trapdoor hitting the stone floor of the church alerted the soldiers to their presence.
The pair both ran out of cover of the altar, one from each side, to engage the group of soldiers garrisoned in the church. There were at least twenty in there, maybe more.
A soldier charged towards Camri wielding an axe, holding it high above his head as he bellowed out a primal scream. Camri threw up his sword, blocking the axe-stroke, then kicked the soldier in the groin through his tattered leather armour. As the soldier reeled back, Camri thrust his sword upward through the soldier's chest. Without losing a second, he grabbed the soldier's axe and hurled it across the church into one of the large stained-glass windows, shattering it with an enormous smash!, sending shards of glass flying across the church.
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"They're in!" Ariel cried. "Come on!"
Ariel and Horunn raced over to the church door, Ariel carrying two shortswords in her hands. Using telekinesis she manoeuvred them so they were hovering in front of the large wooden door, facing into the church. Horunn turned the iron handle and threw the doors open, diving to cover as soon as he did so. Two soldiers raced out of the church but were soon met by the sight of two shortswords flying towards them and thudding into their skulls, killing them instantly. As another soldier began to run out of the door towards Ariel, Horunn leapt out of cover and sank his sword into the man's abdomen.
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A few miles north, Falas Assurrani ran through the Great Forest as fast as he could, constantly checking his compass bearing. The slightest change of direction could make him miss the church altogether, which would mean that the Imperial and the Breton could have been in and out before he'd even got there.
Unbeknownst to him, half a mile behind him were two Imperial agents hunting him down.
Assurrani soon reached Hackdirt. He could hear the sound of battle coming from inside the church. It meant that they were here already, and had encountered some form of resistance. Ducking down into the undergrowth, he drew his sword and began creeping towards the church. There was a small back door leading into it – perhaps he could get the drop off them.
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"Assurrani's here!" Ariel cried suddenly. In front of her, Horunn parried with a soldier before Areen raced up to them and swung his staff into the soldier's head, snapping his neck clean in two.
"What did you say?" Horunn said, running towards her.
"He's outside! He's coming in through that back door!"
Areen saw the door Ariel was talking about. Camri was standing right next to it.
"Camri!" Areen yelled, racing towards him. Soldiers took swings at him with their weapons but he skilfully ducked and rolled to avoid them. Just as he reached Camri, fighting off two soldiers, the wooden door behind him flew open and Falas Assurrani ran into the church. Areen brandished his staff like a battering ram, using his momentum to drive it into Assurrani and push him back out the door before he had chance to attack Camri. Areen slammed the door shut whilst Assurrani got to his feet outside.
"Go! Now!" Areen shouted to Camri. Camri swung his sword horizontally, hewing the head clean off one of the soldiers, then punched the other hard in the face, knocking him unconscious.
"Get out the way of that door!" Ariel shouted at them from across the hall. They both dived back behind the altar as a wooden pew soared across the church and stopped inches before the side door, barricading it shut.
"What do we do?" Camri asked, getting up. By now, Horunn and Ariel had dealt with the rest of the soldiers.
"We need to hold him back somehow" Areen said. "I'll see if I can sneak up on him and paralyse him"
"He's moving…" Ariel said, glancing around. "There's someone else out there!"
"What? Who?" Horunn said, turning to her.
"Two agents… They've got him! They've paralysed him and they're dragging him away!"
"We have to stop them!" Camri shouted, racing towards the door that led back out to the village.
"No!" Ariel cried, grabbing his arm as he ran past her and stopping him. "We need to find the reason we were supposed to come here!"
"But what if they kill him?" Camri retorted. "You said he can't be killed"
"They just want information" Ariel said. "At first, anyway. If he doesn't give them what they want then they will kill him. But they're not going to kill him straight away"
"I suppose their tracks won't be hard to follow" Camri said. "In any case, we'd better find whatever is here quickly"
"Camri!" Areen called. On the altar, he had found a thick book which he was reading through.
"What is it?" Camri said as he ran over to Areen, Ariel following him.
"It's written in Daedric, but there are a few characters of the Tamrielic alphabet in there. They spell something out"
"What?"
"They spell 'Lost Meridia'"
"That's maddeningly unhelpful… Anything else"
"Look at the last page" Ariel said. "There's something there"
Ariel took the book from Areen and turned to the last page. To the untrained eye it just looked like another page filled with Daedric script.
"Look at this" Ariel said, pointing to one of the characters. "This isn't a letter in the Daedric alphabet, it's a map"
"A map of what?" Camri asked, looking at the symbol Ariel was pointing at. He recognised the outline of the symbol. It was the same shape as the outline of his hometown, Skingrad. In the middle of a circle that represented the castle was a cross.
"Looks like we've got our next destination, then" Camri said. "Skingrad is only a few miles south of here"
"There's something else though" Ariel said. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need to go and rescue Assurrani"
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On the banks of Lake Rumare, Redoras and Uvaren, dragging a bound and gagged Assurrani, met up with Eldred.
"Did you get his weapon?" Eldred asked them. Redoras produced an ebony sword from his belt.
"Good work, gentlemen. Take him to Fanacasecul and don't let anyone see you"
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"I knew it!" Villars exclaimed, examining the sword. A.K.S., General Seminus' initials, were engraved on the sword.
"So this is the sword that Assurrani brought into Cyrodiil and supposedly delivered to Seminus"
"Where did you find him?" Villars asked. "Now we know that he's working for Seminus, we need to find what he's up to"
"He was outside the church in Hackdirt. Redoras said they could hear some sort of battle going on inside the church but they focused on getting Assurrani back here. They've taken him to Fanacasecul, like you wanted"
"Excellent" Villars said. "I've got another little task for you. I saw General Seminus again today, going up to his room in the Tiber Septim Hotel. I don't think he knows anyone saw him. He was carrying a bundle of papers with him"
"And?"
"Well, was there a bundle of papers in his room when you searched it?"
"No"
"So they're obviously something important, if he's keeping them with him at all times. I need those papers, or at least to know what they are"
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In Hackdirt, the group were preparing to go their separate ways. They had to find whatever the map in the book from the church was leading them to, and they had to rescue Assurrani.
"Rescuing Assurrani is a sideline" Areen said. "Finding what this map is leading us to in Skingrad is much more important. Camri, you should go to Skingrad"
"Areen, Horunn, think you're up to finding our man?" Camri asked. "I'll need Ariel with me"
"Why me?" Ariel asked.
"Because we're the two who are supposed to be saving the world" Camri replied. "You can solve this little puzzle and I'll deal with anyone who gets in our way"
"Are you sure you can even get into Skingrad?" Areen asked. "From what you've told me they really don't like you there"
"I've spent long enough spending time at the Count's pleasure to know that there's more than one way into Castle Skingrad" Camri replied. "OK, we will meet at Veyond Cave in two days' time"
"Wait, Camri" Horunn said. "What do we do with Assurrani when we find him?"
"Just let him go, but make sure he doesn't see your faces"
"Very well" Horunn said. "Look after Ariel"
"Only if you look after Areen"