(Apologies for long delay)

I rolled to the right as a fireball crashed into the ground, a meter away from where I now lay. Things had - suffice to say - escalated rather quickly. In the wake of the Empires order, and control, chaos now reigned. Soldiers ran amok, both Imperials and Stormcloaks alike. Buildings already burned and voices were undisciplined amongst the rabble of the collective shouting. Struggling to my feet, I pushed myself to sprint into a stone tower directly in front of me. This was rather difficult due to my hands still being tied together, but I persevered.

I bolted inside just as the door slammed behind me.

"Wooden, huh, that'll hold for long." I commented dryly, receiving dirty looks from all round. I shared the company of Jarl Ulfric, Ralof, a Stormcloak and two corpses.

I knelt to the stone floor, intent to examine the surrounding area for any sharp objects to loose my bonds, tuning out of the ongoing conversation.

I was cursing my luck at bitter findings when I felt a hand grasp my shoulder,

"Up through the tower! Let's go!" Ralof shouted.

I nodded, standing and sweeping my gaze round one last time.

We had just reached the middle floor when the wall exploded, and the Black dragon spewed flames onto an unfortunate Stormcloak still within range before flying away to wreak more havoc. Staring absently at the charred body, I watched as the flames slowly snuffed out and left his clothes laying loose and free from where the fire had burned the seams.

It was this that snapped me out of my reverie.

Fire! How could I be so stupid! There were wall sconces still lit in the tower. Recklessly, I swung my arms up above the flames as they lapped the ropes at my wrist. They caught immediately and snapped, leaving me free to use my hands at last.

Turning my eyes to the path ahead, I spotted the blocked stairs, gingerly approaching the edge of the hole in the wall. It was a steep drop to the ground, but we were just higher than the charred second floor of a house. The walls missing, but the floor seemingly intact. Left with nowhere to go, I stepped back, then leapt forward, flailing through the air, before landing hard and rolling over my right shoulder to spread the shock through my body.

Crouching into a sneaking position, I stole under the roof as I felt the reverberation of wings on the air again. The dragon swooped low right above me and let out a ferocious roar. I winced slightly, rubbing my ears and crept along to the stairs.

Instead, found a hole in the beams. No stairs.

"Great." I muttered to myself before stepping off of the edge.

After a short fall, I padded softly along the floor, to the missing door and peered out. The guard who had been reading the list before was attempting to coax a young boy into shelter. Thudding, the Dragon landed right behind them and unleashed a bright jet of flames, narrowly missing as they both dove behind a structure. Giving up, the Dragon took off to deal more damage elsewhere.

After assuring the boy was safe, the guard then took off ahead.

What the hell, I don't know where I'm going anyway I might as well follow.

He noticed my presence right away, and nodded in acknowledgment. Turning down an alleyway beside a house, he cried out

"Keep close to the wall!"

Not a moment too soon as the Dragon landed above us and began spewing fire at nearby soldiers, oblivious to our presence.

Listening intently, just before the flames started I thought I could make out faint words..words that were not words at all.

"Yol..too...shur?" I muttered questioningly.

Was it possible the dragon was capable of speech?

As if fleeing from my questioning, the Dragon took off, and the guard released a long held breath.

"Quickly, this way."

Journeying up some stairs, we passed the burning remains of a few house, the dragon sped by right above us, and the wind from its beating wings caught me right the stomach and spent me soaring backwards into a wall. Landing roughly, face first, I pushed myself up and ran after the guard, through the house and out into a clearing filled with other guards. All battle ready, and all intent on killing the dragon. Somehow not the place for me at the current moment. Ever since awaking in the carriage, I'd felt weaker. Slower. Clumsier. I had to get out of here and recuperate.

"Where's the nearest exit?" I muttered aggrivatedly under my breath.

"This way prisoner." He replied, slightly wide eyed, before taking a sharp left and then again. In the close distance ahead, I noticed the castle keep, quickly looming over us and guessed at our destination.

"Secret passage inside?"

"Yes."

It was not that hard to tell neither of us liked the other.

Ralof then chose this moment to reappear, much to my relief.

"Ralof you damned traitor!" Came the guards shout,

"Hadvar! We're escaping! You're not stopping us this time!"

"Fine damn you! I hope Sovngarde takes you all! Come on prisoner!"

He looked back expectantly.

"Apologies, but I detest Imperial Soldiers." I grinned before rushing to follow after Ralof, who had started opening the closest keep door.

"Let's get the hell out of here." I sighed, adding my strength and shifting the door, before stealing inside. Under stone, away from fire. I almost never had the chance to laugh as the Dragon bore down on high ground soldiers, with no where to run, and tore them limb from limb.

Once inside, I realized how things would turn out. Outside, everyone was united with the common enemy of the dragon. Any fighting would result in sitting ducks. In here though? No dragon. And the dead stormcloaks on the stone floor in here indicated that the Imperials were letting no one leave here alive that shouldn't have.

Ralof rushed forward and checked the bodies for signs of life.

Sighing, he shut their eyes.

"We'll meet again in Sovngarde brother."

I silenced him with a gesture,

"I can hear people coming." I whispered, "Grab a weapon. These guys won't be using them any more."

Hastily, I grabbed an axe and crept up beside a gate I hadn't paid attention to before. It was drawn anyway, with no opening mechanism on this side.

Creeping a gaze round I saw it was indeed Imperials. Well. They'll see what happens when they arrest the greatest assassin in Hammerfall and attempt to execute him.

Grinning ghoulishly and gripping my axe tight, I turned away from the gate, axe extended with the blade facing opposite from the wall.

"C'mon soldier! Get this damn gate open so I can open the next one!"

The creaking of the gate was audible, then running footsteps, I swung my body around swiftly and powerfully, making the axe connect with the lead Imperial's neck and cutting her head clean off. Blood sprayed over the wall, and her helmet's plume stopped the head from rolling. She was a captain, and her foot soldier was right behind her. Ralof was straight in there however. Darting in, as quick as a snake, and drove his sword into the man's heart.

Withdrawing the blade, Ralof let the man fall straight to the ground like a log.

I looked distastefully at the axe and discarded it, picking up the Imperial Captain's sword - along with the key that she had been holding.

"Never knew what hit them." I said distantly, before moving to the next door.

Just as I finished unlocking it, I got an idea.

"Ralof, wait here." I spoke quickly as I strode to the controlled gate the Imperials had entered by.

"I'm gonna see if I can find anything useful. It's bound to be their armory down this way."

He nodded recognition and stood with his weapon drawn, guard ready as I strode down the passageway.

Not much worthy of note was to be found in the armory, a few strewn helmets and swords. A mixed units tactic book but that was pretty much it. Grabbing a few loose pieces of gold, I returned to Ralof.

The Dragon sounded a lot closer than before, and every time it roared, dust fell from the ceiling along with pieces of stone. It was breaking in. Slowly but surely.

"Let's descend shall we?" I asked, with calm politeness.

"Yeah. Sure." Ralof replied. We rushed through the gate, and turned left, taking the stairs of the downward spiral two at a time. Reaching the next floor, we drew weapons once again and crept into the adjoining corridor. Four Imperial soldiers were ahead of us. Getting ready to charge into battle, we stopped at the roar of the Dragon, and the hall roof collapsed on top of the Imperials. Bad luck eh?

"You know.. If I hadn't seen the Dragon killing people that weren't Imperial Soldiers..I'd say he was trying to help us, wouldn't you Ralof?"

I chuckled to myself then opened the next door to our left.

Off guard, we neglected to take into account the two soldiers in the center of the room, raiding barrels. Unfortunately, the same was not true in reverse.

Leaping to their feet, they rushed upon us and I barely rolled out of the way in time, slashing at an opponents leg as I passed. I succeeded in severing the muscle and it gave way underneath him. Rising behind him, I thrust the sword through his spinal cord and out through his stomach.

Ralof just finished dealing with the other as I wiped my sword. I looked up and was surprised to see him holding a bow and quiver of arrows.

He shrugged before answering, "It's a storeroom."

Inspired by this, I quickly looked around and found various healing potions stashed around the room.

"Think this is what they were looking for?"

"Probably."

We crept out of the room, learning from our ambush, and stayed silent down the next set of stairs. Metal on metal soon reached our ears,

"Other survivors..."Ralof breathed.

"Not for long if we don't help!" I snarled, abandoning my sneak attempts and running towards the fight.

Diving from the last step, I tackled a mage who had been blasting electric bolts everywhere. My blade pierced him as we collided, and when he tried to shock me, I put the sword hilt into the spells path. He was soon still.

With combined efforts, the other guard was dead and three - including Ralof - strong Stormcloaks stood in front of me.

"I think he stopped his own heart." I grunted, climbing to my feet.

Something was wrong. I used to be able to do that fifty times a day without wearying.

"Hey, can you open that cage? There's stuff inside that could be useful."

Shaking myself slightly, I silently accepted the lock picks.

My hands were shaky, when usually I could crack this open in two seconds with my eyes shut. Something was wrong. Finally, it clicked and swung open, and I examined the items. Loose coins, a potion and a book.

"What's that?" Ralof asked"

I read the title.

"Sparks spell book. The spell that the mage was using. You know, this one." I extended my fingers and attempted to cast. It was one of the first spells I had ever learned, yet...nothing happened.

"That's odd. Maybe I need to refresh my memory."

I opened the first page of the book and it disintegrated, shocks traveling up my arm before dissipating.

It was like someone had filled a blank page in my head, by instinct I tried again and electric sparks shot from my fingers at the wall.

"I thought.. Spell books could be learned from countless times? Why was it destroyed" Ralof asked delicately.

"I..I don't know." I stammered lightly, appearing weak and confused. I'd spent too long with this man, I was better off letting him think I was weaker than previously believed. Or maybe I actually was? It was like I'd been thieved of all my previous skill and talent.

"Go on ahead, I'll catch up. I need to search this room for anything else useful."

Watching them steadily disappear, I dropped my compassionate pretense and began making my way back to my earlier opponent. Picking up a small dagger, I lodged it in his chest and electrocuted it, like the healers did if they were seconds too late, and restarted the man's heart.

He began taking raspy breaths and I held my sword against his neck. Something was wrong with me. Time for answers.

"Talk. Quickly." I growled at him, "What is your position here?"

"T..Tor..."He began to cough up blood, his lungs must have been burned from the electricity. Holding my left hand over his chest, I was relieved to find the Healing Hands spell was still within my grasp and soon a glowing light lit him up as his lungs fixed themselves back to perfect condition. I held the blade tighter against his throat.

"Torturer." He glared at me.

"So Torturer, tell me, you're obviously familiar in magicks affecting someone else offensively, but who else is, that you're aware of, involved with Helgen and it's prisoners, that has a greater understanding of magic than you do? Particularly in non harmful, offensive magic"

"Go to Oblivion."

"Wrong answer." I smirked and dug my blade deeper into his flesh.

"The Thalmor." He hissed back at me, amongst feeble cries of pain.

"You're sure?" I asked innocently, and with my free hand I grabbed the still protruding dagger hilt which was now healed into his skin tightly, and twisted it slowly.

"AGHGH! YES I SWEAR! THEY'RE THE ONLY OTHER SPELL CASTERS!"

"Good." I muttered, removing the dagger and slashing his throat open.

He died within seconds.

Dropping the bloodied dagger, I dashed over to a stray shield and shouldered it, grabbed gold coins behind a counter along with a few books I shoved into a pack, and rushed to follow Ralof and the others.

I met them almost immediately,

" I heard a shout from back where we came from. Sounds like a lot of them. We need to get moving come one! Too many to fight!" I said, faking panic and attempting to push them out of the door. It would raise too many questions if they saw the body. We rushed along the corridor, them in front of me, until we reached further torture chambers. The room was just like the last, except from the dead-end. Well. Former dead-end. The bricks had been blown apart to reveal a tunnel, and running water could be heard from ahead. We soon crept along past lit fires and lanterns, following the curved path, until loud voices reached us from ahead. Discussing the General's orders. Imperials.

I leapt round the corner and slashed open the nearest one, narrowly avoiding the arrow he fired at me. Sheathing my blade, I picked up his bow and quiver and nocked an arrow. There were four more soldiers, and two were already being fought. We were on a U shaped, bridge like structure, not that far above the rocky stream. Across from me, the other two soldiers were lifting their bows. Firing my first arrow, I caught one of them through the throat. He immediately started flailing and tripped, fell forward and broke his neck. The second soldier managed to loose his arrow at me. Spinning, I caught it on the shield on my back, and then I fired another which pierced the back of his hand and pinned it to his chest. The yelp of pain was immediate. One of the two stormcloaks we had rescued let out a cry as the only unharmed imperial stabbed her in the stomach, and Ralof cut his throat from behind. The injured stormcloak, slowly lowered herself to the ground, and her teammate pulled her into a close embrace.

"Go, you two should leave. We'll stay here in case Ulfric appears this way."

Rushing as fast as we could, we crossed a wooden draw bridge, situated under a large opening to the sky, quite high up. No way of climbing, but the sound of wings had been audible seconds before...diving out of the way, a stone block fell down, crashing into the bridge I had just left, and the tunnel behind us collapsed.

"No way out for them now.." I stated quietly, before turning my attention ahead, to our escape.

There was a river ahead, and the only way to travel available was following its path.

"I hate caves."

After a few minutes, the river traveled under debris, and the path veered off right,

"I guess we follow that then."

Skeletons were strewn about the place, along with random coins and lanterns.

Webs also became more and more frequent.

" I think we're getting close to a Frostbite Spider nest." I whispered quietly, "Be careful where you stand."

Ralof wasn't next to me though, he was ahead, running out to attack what he clearly thought was a lone spider and not a nest. Drawing my bow, I stared at the ceiling and waited for my shot. There were always nest parents, waiting to swoop in. I almost never reacted in time, as the two giant bodies began to lower from the roof. I let one arrow go, and severed the web holding one of them suspended. It fell the rest of the way and lay broken on the cave floor. This alerted Ralof to the other one and he swore, taking a massive jump backwards. I shot another arrow past him and took out the smaller spider on the ground. From his position, Ralof took out his own bow and started embedding arrows in the spiders soft underside. I buried two between its many eyes and it soon died thereafter.

"As I said. Frost spider nest." I stated, strolling past him, and down the next tunnel.

We rejoined with the stream again, and followed it towards another large cavern filled with light. A few discarded carts were strewn around the room, some adorned with supplies. The main focal point of the room however was a giant bear sleeping in the center of the floor.

"Damn." I cursed under my breath.

This cavern was lighter than previous one, a large beam of light descending. Silently signaling Ralof, we both drew our bows and gingerly advanced within shooting range. Pulling an arrow lightly back on the string, I felt the tension of the bow resist, then strengthen at full capacity. Ralof loosed his first, and as it twanged the bear reared up from sleeping position and narrowly missed the arrow. It searched around for us, before charging recklessly. I fired my bow and caught it in its right eye, causing it to skid to a stop and roar in pain. As I drew another arrow Ralof was already firing, catching it in the center of its stomach and piercing up to the feathers on the shaft, yet it still kept charging! Roaring with abandonment, I unsheathed my sword and slid it down the bears gullet as it dived for me, side stepping simultaneously and slashing it open.

"Nicely done," Ralof commented.

Rushing on, we twisted and weaved through passage ways, and were finally met by a shaft of light at the end of the tunnel.

"Is that...?" I began before being cut across,

"A way out.. I knew we'd make it!"

We ran on, into the sunlight, and freedom leaving behind Dragons and Imperials, and our executions we escaped. It was a good day.