The Fall of Lord Kelvyn
By Commentaholic
A/N: Well, I had one of my most successful chapters last submission. 2 Reviews! Of course, I'd like to thank ArtyThrip and DualKatanas for their very useful constructive criticism. For those of you who don't know, I'm new to writing, so these people who aren't new are really helpful in correcting my flaws.
In clarification, Velvet had to undergo very intense and painful training at the hands of Lucien (think the Spartan training from Halo: The Fall of Reach, but more brutal). After that, dislocating and popping back in one's shoulders would be like a bee sting, because as you can imagine, Lucien's training would be brutal.
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Chapter 5: Quartermasters and Speakers
Velvet Haven, 11:23 p.m.
Helen knew better than to interrupt Velvet while she was in her element, so she exited the archway and left Dunmer and Argonians to their planning.
She made her way across the compound, intent on carrying out Velvet's command to assemble the bandits for their march.
Uninhibited by the darkness, Helen strode towards the Quartermaster's tent. It was instantly recognizable, as none of the other tents had a chimney.
As she neared the archway, Helen could hear the telltale clang of a hammer on an anvil.
Helen shook her head. No matter how many times they'd offered to make him a stone building for his forging, he'd always refused. He claimed that he couldn't let them go through so much trouble on his account. Besides, he hadn't had any problems with his tent catching on fire so far, and his weapons were very useful, so they had dropped the issue.
She opened the tent flap to receive a blast of hot air in her face. As a vampire, she disliked heat, so she staggered back, tripping over one of the tent's support ropes. As she sprawled on the ground, a hand appeared in her vision.
Helen heard a mirthful chuckle, and a voice said, "Helen, my friend, when are you going to learn not to open my tent's doorflap when you're standing in front of it?"
Helen looked up, a Redguard stood there, hand outstretched to help her up.
"I will, when you learn not to keep your forge's heat so high. I think the ice on the other side of the camp is melted," Helen retorted, a smile on her face as she took the hand and got to her feet.
"Rhesus, we have something important to discuss," Helen said, her humor vanishing.
Similarly, Rhesus's smile vanished, he gestured towards his tent, "Let me put out the forge, then we can talk."
Rhesus went back inside, a minute later he called her in.
No matter how many times she entered his tent, she was still speechless at his trophies of many battles. She walked around the walls looking at the armor and weapons hanging on display while he changed out of his blacksmith's apron and into his normal light brown outfit.
In between trophies, she glanced at him, wondering what could turn an honorable warrior like him into the quartermaster for a bandit horde. Helen made a mental note to ask Velvet, she knew him better than anyone else did.
Originally from Hammerfell, Rhesus the Redguard stood at 6'8", a head taller than Helen, who was already tall for her race. She had seen him in his usual steel armor, expertly self-handcrafted to fit his athletic form. When practicing his fighting skills with some of the more violent bandits, he would easily floor them with his mace, dancing around them in an agile blur with the bulky weapon; it was truly a thing to see. It also made you fear how much more deadly he was with the more agile steel longsword he carried on his belt.
Helen paused at what looked like Imperial Arena heavy raiment hanging on the wall. It had a vicious slash through the stomach of its yellow-dyed cuirass.
"What's the story with this one?" Helen inquired.
"A bad Arena battle years ago. I was put up against an Orc, a big fellow. It was a good fight, but I came out the worse of the two of us, though." Rhesus said, grimacing at a memory.
"Then how did you escape? All Arena battles are to the death!" Helen said.
"Who said I escaped?"
Helen sat at a table, a quizzical look on her face, "Then how-"
"I don't want to talk about it, okay?" Rhesus said while he sat down, the look on his face closing the topic, "Now, what is this important matter?"
Helen, even though she was still curious, decided to let him have his secrets.
"Lord Velvet says that we move out at dawn, she wants the troops to be ready."
"Finally! I was afraid we'd be sitting idle forever, I've had my hands full keeping these guys busy," Rhesus said, his grin reappearing in a flash of white teeth.
After discussing the mobilization, Helen started back towards Velvet's Tent.
Cheydinhal, the same night at 12:43 p.m.
Mivryna Arano heard hoof beats and hastened up off her mat to open the gate to the horse enclosure. She prided herself in being able to hear a horse a mile away, giving herself enough time to make it up and to the gate. That way, even if the person already had a horse, she could be up and ready to advertise their black horses.
This horse that she heard coming up the road, however, seemed almost to be setting an impossible pace.
She peered out into the darkness, looking for the horse and it's rider. A few seconds later, two eyes appeared, and they were approaching fast.
A black horse soared out of the night, bowled Mivryna over, jumped the enclosure fence, and slid to a stop.
A cloaked rider dismounted, dropped a small bag of coins at Mivryna's side, and strode through the city gates.
Mivryna finally slipped from her weak cling to the fence at the same time that the rider passed through the gates. The nearby guard helped her up, asking her what had happened.
"A demon just walked through that gate," was her reply.
Cheydinhal Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, same night at 12:47 p.m.
Ovheeva heard the well cover slide open and close again. Feet thudded against each rung of the ladder as if they had done the person a personal wrong.
It had to be Lucien; all the murderers were accounted for except Shadow and Starlight, whom she knew had gone with Lucien.
Lucien stormed in through the small well archway, turned left, and went down into the Administrator's living chambers.
He had taken to living in the sanctuary after the whole Bellamont fiasco. Ocheeva believed this was because he no longer saw Fort Farragut as safe after his fortress had been assaulted by the Predator Legion. The Sanctuary, at least, could be sealed with a new password and key.
Ocheeva followed him down the hall. If he was aware of her presence, he didn't show it. Lucien just kept mumbling to himself. Ocheeva heard snatches of phrases, like: "Wasn't my fault..." and "Impertinent child..."
Vicente Valtieri heard him coming and stepped out of his room to intercept him, a slight limp in his step he'd had ever since Velvet's escape, when she'd inadvertently (she assumed, because Vicente still lived), stabbed into one of his vertebrae. Those nerves had never fully healed, even with the supernatural healing abilities of a vampire.
Lucien just brushed him aside, sending Vicente staggering into the wall. Ocheeva made sure Vicente was okay, and then continued her pursuit.
Lucien arrived at his door, entered, and slammed it behind him.
Ocheeva could hear quiet sobbing, accompanied by the words, " I'm sorry, my sweet Velvet... I'm so sorry..."
Ocheeva retreated quietly back down the hallway.
A/N: Well, I think this is my second-longest chapter after chapter 3. Dualkatanas, I may not be able to get to 9,000 words per chapter as fast as you did. I hope I did Rhesus justice; I kind of want to leave his survival to be a story for later, as well as the stories of Shadow and Starlight, Helen and Vicente, and Velvet and Lucien.
To clarify there are two people with very similar names in Cyrodiil: Myvryna Arano (thieves guild agent) and Mivryna Arano (worker at Black Waterside Stables outside Cheydinhal), for all of those who wanted to correct me.