The Lost Sister/Thief/Prisoner
Thanks for the reviews so far. Due to the title not allowing slashes in it, I've had to use commas, but the official title is indeed the slashed one ^_^ Thanks to: TLOSpyrogirl for pointing that out.
"Where is my sister?"
"I…I…don't know…I've told you already…"
Hieronymus Lex rolled his eyes as he swept his hair back into his customary ponytail. Vilania was insisting on asking Jobert the same question over and over again, despite the fact that she had already previously been here earlier. Poor Jobert looked rather red in the face as Vilania shoved a threatening finger into his face.
"I'm asking you again Jobert! Where is my sister?"
"I…I don't know!" Jobert shrieked back. Perhaps if Vilania hadn't arrived in the jailer's office with his guard captain in tow Jobert would be less inclined to take the threats off the dark elf, but there was Lex. In a shirt, pyjama bottoms and boots yes, but still Lex nonetheless.
"Like Oblivion you don't know!" Vilania retorted, she reached forward and grabbed Jobert's shirt. "Why isn't my sister in her cell?"
Right, that was enough. Lex strode over to the table and grabbed Vilania's wrist, yanking her away from the flailing Jobert.
"He doesn't know," he growled.
Vilania glowered at him before slowly pulling her arm out of his grip. She stomped over to the door that led down to the cells and pouted at him. Lex noted with distaste that when the older elf pouted, she looked almost exactly like her sister.
"Jobert," Hieronymus turned to the jailer, who was regarding Vilania with a worried expression on his face. "We'll check around downstairs to see how she could have possibly escaped. The keys?" the guard captain extended his hand for the keys and Jobert swiftly dumped them into his waiting hand.
"She…she was in the cell opposite Dreth," he informed them.
As Lex unlocked the door and began making his way down Vilania tutted.
"Escaped?" she repeated in haughty tones. "Somebody's done something with her. If Malvi escaped she'd come straight to me."
The Imperial didn't reply; he was tired, fed up, and the overpowering, stifling scent of the dungeons was plaguing his nostrils, making him want to cough. That being said the irritating Dunmer behind him certainly wasn't improving his mood much either.
"Coming down here to be taunted again? Or did you not quite hear what I said last time? It's only a matter of time Imperial pig, till me and your wife meet!"
Lex groaned…oh great, another one. An angry looking dark elf stood up at the bars of his cell, glowering with unchecked rage at the guard captain.
Hieronymus knew who he was, Valen Dreth. The dark elf had been jailed numerous times in the past…but not for petty offences like Malvi. Dreth was usually hauled in for many, many years. He was a well-known narcissist and if anyone didn't agree with him on how 'great' he was, he would launch into a narcissistic rage, attacking anyone who dared doubt his greatness. Lex knew for a fact that this most recent stint in jail was the result of stabbing someone. Valen Dreth was going to be in prison for a long, long time.
"Dreth," Lex acknowledged. "Do you have any idea what happened to a dark elf called Malvi? She was supposed to be in the cell opposite yours."
"Ah yes, that little Dunmer," Dreth replied, a cruel smirk on his lips. He draped his arms out of the cell bars and looked the Imperial up and down, casually. "She was a looker eh? Looked the type to want to play around as well," the dark elf's eyes darkened visibly. "But she turned me down…the stupid, tight, little whore-"
Before Hieronymus could react, Vilania was grabbing Valen through the cell's bars, pulling the prisoner forward so that his face smacked against the rusting metal poles.
"You better shut your trap about my sister you cur," she warned, breathing heavily, her eyebrows pulled down in anger. "Because if you don't I won't resist pulling your head off of your shoulders."
Bug-eyed, the male elf managed to yank himself free of the female's grip, he rubbed his face and then glowered hard at her.
"Who do you think you are handling me?" he shrieked his voice high with indignation.
Vilania gave him a deadpan stare. "And who are you exactly? From what I can tell, you're just some grotty, smelly, prisoner."
Dreth stared at her in outrage. "Listen here you-"
"Alright that's it," Hieronymus cut in, fed up. "Dreth, where did Malvi go?"
Valen stared at the ground thoughtfully for a moment and then he looked up, a cunning glint in his eye. "Why should I tell you?" he questioned. "What's in it for me?"
Lex stared at him for a few, silent moments before sighing and then nodding at Vilania. Vilania grabbed Dreth and rammed him into the bars once again, resulting in yelp of pain from the aggressive male.
"You'll never get it out of me! Heeheehahahaha!" he began cackling wildly.
Hieronymus and Vilania stared at him for a few moments as he laughed manically, Vilania still clutching him by his shirt, and then Lex slowly jangled his jail door keys.
"Hahahaha…ha…ha." Valen trailed off as he opened his eyes to see Lex holding the door key.
"I have the key to your cell here, Dreth," Hieronymus told him calmly. "And let me just tell you that I would not be adverse to letting Vilania in there with you for a while,"
The prisoner's eyes widened in horror and his eyes flickered to Vilania, who was looking at Lex with a gleeful expression on her face, she then turned this gleeful look onto Valen, who gulped.
"So…we can do this the easy way, or the much harder, much more brutal way. What do you say Dreth?" Lex continued his face a picture of stony indifference.
Valen stared at him for a few moments, lost for words for once in his pitiful life. His mouth was slack as he slowly weighed up his options. Eventually the dark elf seemingly decided the Imperial wasn't bluffing and so spoke.
"The…the Emperor-"
"He's lying," Vilania interrupted immediately. "Making up troll dung!"
Lex gave her a narrow stare from the corner of his eyes to quieten her down before looking back to Dreth. So what if the elf made up a few outlandish story additions? Eventually he would get to the point about where Malvi had gone and then Lex could leave all these worries and Vilania behind.
"I'm not lying," Valen spat, looking rather outraged at this accusation. "As I live and breathe, I swear that the Emperor came down to the cells, accompanied by three…Imperials," Dreth rolled out the word Imperials, a nasty look upon his face as he did so.
Vilania still wasn't convinced. "The Emperor eh? Did he speak to you? Let me guess, he made you a knight!" she cajoled, a look of annoyed disbelief present upon her face.
Dreth chose to ignore her and turned his body towards Lex, blocking out the female elf. "As a matter of fact, he did speak to me," he confided to the guard.
Hieronymus nodded along, half pretending he believed the elf and half trying to hurry him along.
"But those words were for my ears, and my ears only," Valen nodded confidently. "Anyway, they were talking, saying things about how the heirs were dead and-"
"What?" Lex interrupted as Vilania's eyes widened in shock. "The heirs are dead? By whom?"
Dreth shrugged, apparently not too bothered by the death of the future emperors. "They didn't say. But after that they ventured to the cell, which that childish little Dunmer was in," he flicked a glance Vilania's way to see if she was bothered, she glowered at him, her arms crossed. "They got rather annoyed that she was in there, but then they told her to stand aside," the elf went quiet, looking rather humbled as he recalled the next part of his memory. "And then…and then the walls…moved aside…"
"The walls…moved aside?" Vilania checked.
Hieronymus couldn't speak, the heirs of Cyrodill…dead. But…the Emperor had survived? This was good news, it gave the Imperial something to hope for. Clearly something very wrong was happening within the shadows of Cyrodill…
"Yes," Valen returned a moody tone to his voice. "And then they all disappeared through it…"
There was a moment of silence as both Vilania and Lex let this sink in and then Lex grabbed the elf. Valen shrieked in disdain and anger.
"What did they say? Did they talk to Malvi at all?" Hieronymus interrogated.
"I couldn't hear from my cell!" Dreth yelped. "But I think the Emperor was talking to the girl for a bit…then they all just disappeared."
"What could the Emperor want with my sister?" Vilania questioned, looking dumbfounded.
Lex released Valen and turned, only then did he realise that the door to Malvi's cell was open. The Imperial rushed in, and saw that in the left hand side of the wall was a large hole, big enough for any race to walk through, and apparently Malvi had done just that.
Growling, Lex hurried out of the cell and took the stairs up to Jobert, two at a time, Vilania leaping up them after him.
The Imperial and the Dunmer burst into the jailer's office, Jobert looked over at them, wide-eyed.
"Jobert!" Hieronymus exclaimed. "How could you have forgotten to tell us that the Emperor passed through here?"
"The…the Emperor passed through here?" Jobert looked puzzled and then he blushed. "I…I was probably asleep…I'm an extremely heavy sleeper."
Lex stared at him in horror, before dragging his hands down his face.
"So…my sister's with the Emperor?" Vilania questioned as the guard captain scurried past her to go back downstairs.
"Yes," Hieronymus nodded, sounding extremely depressed. "Your thieving little sister is with the Emperor…Oh by the will of Akatosh, what if she tried to steal from him?"
"My sister isn't stupid," Vilania returned, looking affronted. "She'd know better than to steal from the Emperor."
"She tried to steal from High Chancellor Ocato…" Lex deadpanned as they reached the cells.
"Back again are you? Well I refuse to tell you anymore!" Valen announced from his cell.
"Quieten yourself down Dreth, this goes way beyond you," Hieronymus hissed.
Both Imperial and Dunmer entered Malvi's cell and then stood before the hole in the wall.
"You first," Vilania whispered, giving Lex a slight shove forward.
"Aren't you an adventurer?" Hieronymus replied as he yielded to her pushes and began making his way down. "Surely you shouldn't be acting like a scared child."
"I'm not acting like a scared child! How dare you?" Vilania replied angrily.
"Oh I dare," Lex sighed back tiredly as he arrived at the end of the initial passageway.
"Well you shouldn't dare," Vilania decided confidently.
"Well I do."
"Well, you shouldn't."
"Well I do."
This argument brought the two all the way to another area, and probably would have lasted them longer, if they had not been confronted by many, many dead bodies. Four were dressed in blood red robes, but one was wearing armour that troubled Lex deeply…she was wearing the armour of The Blades.
Yay second chapter! I understand that this chapter took the story in a very different direction, and there is perhaps an inkling within me that says I should change this to romance and adventure, but be assured; the comedy and romance will still be the main forte of the story. I hope you enjoyed it. R&R?
Oh and thank you to Ghostsammeo, TLOSpyrogirl, Sara and Enakaz- The Fallen Angel for your initial reviews, it means a lot! ^_^