Lost In Morrowind

by elijof

One minute she was here, living life. The next there was the explosion. And finally there was being woken up by a grey skinned man with pointy ears, only to be told she was a prisoner being released in Seyda Neen. She knows she has a purpose here, and if she doesn't complete it, she'll never get home. And so it's up to her and the Eternal Champion, to find a way back home...

2. Chapter 2 - Joining The Order

Chapter Two-Joining the Order

I didn't understand this world at all...or the people in it. After running into a woman on the road to Balmora who had been robbed by a bandit...and then had decided she was in love with the bandit and had wanted us to find him, we had ended up spending the night in a tavern in a place called Pelagiad. My feet hurt. I wasn't used to walking so far, and I was wishing I had ridden on the Slit Slider, or that my mind had somehow managed to add cars to this world.

"Are woman in this world generally thick, or was it just that one?"

"Just that one." Ben shrugged, paying a few gold coins-a currency called "Drakes"-for two bowls of some kind of soup, and two rooms for the night. I'd been insistent. As alien as this world seemed to me, I was not sharing with "Ben", or pretending to be his wife, whatever this worlds view of women was. Thankfully, it seemed less restrictive than the view of woman the medieval world at home had had.

"Well thank god for that." I muttered quietly, accepting the wooden bowl, and sitting down.

"It was a woman who helped me through Tamriel when I was hunting the pieces of the staff...for ten years. God...that was a long ten years."

"Was the key to your prison cell really left inside the cell?"

He laughed slightly, nodding. "Maybe Ria put it there, maybe not. Or maybe Tharn was just incompetent. I don't know. Whatever it was...they messed up big time. If I wanted to imprison someone, I would not leave the key in the cell so the prisoner can open the door and sneak out."

"Why were you in Prison?"

"I was a threat to Tharn. I was left there to die, apparently." He shrugged. "I just had a strange dream, some woman floating in the sky telling me I needed to escape, and then I woke up...in the Imperial Prison, in Tamriel, without a clue as to what I was doing there. Or what had happened. I...I died on Earth...back home..."

"This isn't Earth?"

"Have you ever heard of a country called "Morrowind"?"

"No...So what planet are we on? This isn't Mars is it?"

Ben smiled slightly. "I can see why you may think that. Morrowind seems alien. The rest of Tamriel isn't so much like this. Cyrodil is more like home than this place. But no...they call this planet Nirn."

"Nirn."I repeated quietly. "And why do you think I'm the one who gets home..."

"Because...have you ever played Skyrim?"

"Skyrim?" I stared at him, surprised. "My brother played it a lot, I played it a bit...please tell me we are not stuck inside a video game."

He didn't answer. I frowned, slightly annoyed.

"We are stuck inside a video game, aren't we?"

"Balmora." Ben declared as we crossed a bridge, approaching a yellow stoned town with flat roofed houses. We past another of those lizards, this was sitting against the wall, a wooden bowl with a few coins in ahead of us. She muttered something in a language I didn't recognise.

"Those Argonians that are free of slavery don't have it easy here in Morrowind. The Dark Elves don't believe they are people. A lot of them are homeless, paupers, beggars..."

"What exactly were the people who made this game thinking when they made the lizards slaves?"

"Argonians. Not Lizards. Argonians." He corrected. "And I doubt Bethesda knows that this place really exists. Or that we can go there."

"Why exactly are you here, anyway?" We entered the town, and stopped, me turning to face him, arms folded, eyes raised. "See, I don't know quite know why I'm here. You said you'd tell me everything, but all you've given me is...some story about how we must find Caius Cosades and how you were some Eternal Champion that saved the world..."

"I'm dying, like you. And I fear my end is coming. You see...you hear voices from the real world, sort of...messages." He looked away. "I know you're dying to, Eli. You will hear the messages. And my messages? They're telling me that my time is running out. You may be my last hope of living, and returning. Because I don't know what happens to us here if we die back home. Otherwise, I'd stay here. Without a doubt."

"You'd stay here?" I was surprised. Why? Why stay in a world that seemed...backwards, with elves that kept lizard people as slaves? Why stay in a world without heating, or cars, or electricity. A world where everything made sense? Instead of staying in this...Morrowind.

"I can't explain. Maybe one day you'll understand why I'd chose this world over home. I'd rather be alive and on Earth though, than on Nirn and dead." Ben said quietly. "How I know you're from home...I know that you're the hero of this...video game..."

"You are joking me. So not only am I trapped in a video game, I'm also the godamned hero. Do I have to kill Dragons?"

"There isn't any dragons in Morrowind!"

"Then what then? Am I fighting a...flying jellyfish or something?"

"I don't know because I didn't manage to finish it!" Ben snapped back in frustration. "I know where we can find Caius though. Have you got that note they gave you?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "So where is? The sooner this is over with, the better. I want to go home, Ben. Even if you don't."

"And I'm on your side. I can help you get home." He promised. "I'll show you where Caius is. And I'm warning you...don't judge by appearance."

The overwhelming smell of something sweet and sickly filled the house of an old, topless man who stared grumpily at us as we entered his small, one roomed house. I saw a silvery power scattered over a table by a small bed, and what looked like a...some sort of smoking pipe? He'd tried to hide it. It was pushed under his bed, and hidden by a book.

"Eli has something for you."

"I don't know what you could possibly want. I'm just an old man with a skooma problem."

"We both know that isn't true." Ben folded his arms and glanced at me, indicating for me to give the package to Caius. He frowned, and took it, breaking the seal of the scrolls and opening it.

"So...it says here you're Eli, a Breton."

"I'm not a..." I gritted my teeth, deciding I'd already spent enough time arguing with the man back at customs over me not being a "Breton", and doubted that Caius had heard of "Britain" or "Oxford". So instead, I answered "Yes. My name is Eli."

"Good." He folded the scroll up, laying it on the table. "It says here you're to join the blades."

"The what?!"

"Blades. The Emperors spies. We're an order, a secret one. You have released from the Imperial Prison to join the Order of the Blades, and serve in Morrowind." He walked over to a chest, opening it, and pulling out some coins. "I need a few days to prepare for things...and you...you don't look...what expierence do you have fighting?"

"Fighting? None!"

"I can teach her." Ben shrugged. "I'm the Eternal Champion, Caius. I can show her how to use a sword."

"Do it." Caius nodded. "She's no use to me if she's going to be killed within the first five seconds of a mission."

"Kill...hey, I didn't sign up to join the blades!"

"And unless you want to end up back in the Imperial Prison, I suggest you do as the Emperor tells you." Caius handed me the coins, looking at me, sternly. "Can you do that, Eli? Can you follow my orders?"

I sighed, hating this, hating this world, before slowly nodding. "Fine. I'll let Ben teach me how to use a sword."

"Good. As I said, I need a few days to prepare things. That's 200 Drakes there. It'll be enough to get you shelter and food for the day. And perhaps work on your cover. Join one of the guilds here in Balmora. Or join the Imperial Cult at Moonlith Fort. Come back to me when you're ready. And I want to see you armed and ready to fight. Because by Oblivion, Eli, you may well need to be able to."

I gulped. I wasn't liking this at all.

"Can you do that?"

"Yes." I answered through gritted teeth. "Yes. I can do that. But I don't like it."

"You don't have to. You're a blade now. You obey. Now get out of my sight...and you. Eternal Champion. It's good to see you."

"You too, Spymaster."

We left the house, a grey skinned Dark Elf starring at us with narrowed red eyes as we did so, muttering something under his breathe. Ben sighed.

"Did I forget to mention? The Dunmer don't like foreigners in Morrowind. And we're foreigners. They call us "Outlanders""

"Oh brilliant." I muttered.

"It's not so bad here in Balmora. Balmora is a house Hlaalu town...They're friendly with the Imperials. There's a Nord on the council. Hlaalu towns are generally more tolerant of outlanders than the others."

"Let me guess. If I don't join these "Blades" I don't ever get to go home."

"And most likely? You will eventually die over there. We have a shot at getting home, and this is it. I suggest you take it."

"How do you know him, anyway? Friend of yours?"

"He knows of me. Most of Tamriel do. I'm famous, remember? I saved the world." He laughed slowly. "And I know who he is because I played this game. He's a Spymaster of the Order of the blades. Only thing is...I couldn't complete the game. I always died on the first mission he gave me."

"Oh well that's just wonderful."