Chapter 6 A Plan
It was a cold, damp morning. The ground was still wet after the heavy rain the night before and a fog was starting to rise. After several hours of preparing it for the battle the big field looked like a big puddle of mud. Finn sniffled. He was bound to get a cold. From deep within the forest on the other side he could hear the ominous sound of a drum. It frightened the people around him, but Finn stayed calm. He knew that no one could injure him, no matter how hard they tried.
"Archers, be ready." That smooth voice belonged to Nika, the servant he had met a couple of months ago. The grandson of the Champion of Cyrodiil, who apparently was called Émile Windstone, had sent Nika to lead the archers during battle. Instinctively he touched the ring on his thumb. It had more or less led him to where he was. He had volunteered to join Émile's army because he wanted a chance to return it.
A fight in The Flowing Bowl had gone wrong and one of the sailors had pulled a dagger. Finn was the one standing closest to the armed sailor, so he tried to push him down on the floor. Unfortunately he was sober enough to anticipate Finn's move and dodge. For a while they struggled in an unfair battle, but then Algernon tried to help him, which only resulted in Finn getting stabbed. Algernon and his grandfather pulled Finn out of the tavern, but since neither of them knew any healing spells they couldn't do anything to help him. After watching the pool of blood around Finn grow for a while Algernon went to find someone from the mages guild. Finn could feel how his strength left him and it didn't take long until he saw "the light" -it was more like a lack of darkness than light- and he realized that he was going to die. After that he didn't remember anything more, but Anguilon had told him what happened after he lost consciousness. Apparently the ring had started to glow and somehow it had healed him before Algernon came back with the mages guild member. Somehow it had saved him. Émile had saved him.
The sound of the drum was getting closer.
"On my signal," said Nika and raised his arm as much as he could. Finn could only see his hand from where he stood, but the archers in the trees behind him could see the whole battlefield clearly. The drum came closer and closer, and after a while they could finally see the first soldiers coming out of the forest.
"Wait." The soldiers were picking up speed. The drum beat quicker now. Finn was getting nervous. How close would Nika allow them to go before lowering his hand? The soldiers in front of him were unsheathing their weapons, so Finn followed their example and pulled the old sword he had been given when he came to the camp in Skingrad. Suddenly Nika let his arm drop and hundreds of arrows whistled through the sky.
All the arrows had been enchanted so that they exploded on impact. The soldiers on the other side of the field were swallowed in flames immediately, they didn't even have time to scream. No more soldiers came out of the woods when the smoke had cleared. The men around Finn stared at the charred remains in disbelief.
"Is this a joke?" one of them mumbled.
"It's a trap. It must be," another one said.
Nika was making his way through the neat rows of soldiers. When he passed by, Finn could hear him mutter to himself: "This was too easy."
Without thinking about it Finn grabbed Nika's shoulder to stop him. Nika looked at him with out any sign of recognition in his eyes.
"Yes?" he said with an annoyed voice.
Finn swallowed. Nika always managed to make him nervous. "I want to return this to Émile," he said and showed Nika the ring on his thumb.
At first Nika looked confused, but then his expression gradually changed to anger. "Where did you steal that?" The soldiers looked at them with curiosity, it wasn't like Nika to raise his voice. "We'll talk about it later," Nika said with a low, threatening voice before returning to his archers.
"Line up men! We're going back to the camp!" Einar Brunsdahl, a sturdy nord, was the one in charge of the soldiers. Everybody hurried to get back in line and a moment later they where ordered to march. It was about a days journey back to Skingrad. Nika and his little troop of selected archers was nowhere to be seen. They had probably chosen to go ahead, since the heavy armor and weapons slowed the soldiers down considerably.
When they arrived at the camp it was already past midnight. Most of the men went inside their tents immediately to sleep, while the rest of them drank. The mood in the camp had gone down considerably since the morning, which was odd since they didn't even have to lift their swords. Indeed it had been way too easy.
"Why weren't there any mages with them? I mean.. The Mages Guild is on their side, right?"
A woman wearing a mage's robe shrugged. "I thought so, but after today I'm not sure anymore."
"In fact I didn't see one single soldier with proper equipment. Isn't that weird?"
Finn sat down beside the mage. "It was almost like a execution.." he mumbled.
The mage turned her head to look at him. "That was harsh. It's not like we could have done anything different."
Finn smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was blaming you. But can there really be another reason for sending such amateurish soldiers?"
The swordsman that the mage had been talking to, before turning to Finn, looked appalled.
"Surely they can't execute their own soldiers, that would be idiotic."
Finn shrugged. "You're probably right. Seems odd though."
The two nodded before changing the topic to a more merry one. Finn didn't really listen, but it was something about ogre-training becoming more popular.
After a minute or two he decided to go to bed. Nika probably wouldn't contact him until tomorrow.
That night he was haunted by nightmares. Burned bodies crawled after him, screaming his name with horrible voices. If one succeeded to grab him by the ankles, they would pull him down and crawl over him until he couldn't breath anymore. After waking up for the umpteenth time he decided that enough was enough and got out of the tent for some fresh air.
The sun still hadn't risen above the mountains, but it was light enough for a walk through town. Normally the guards wouldn't let anyone of the soldiers inside, it would cause to much of a crowd, but nobody really cared about one or two so early in the morning.
When waking past West Weald In he saw Einar Brunsdahl hurrying out of the Fighters Guild-building, he looked stressed and disorderly. A young woman in remarkably complimenting menswear bounced after him, looking like a little girl following her father. Finn watched them closely until they disappeared behind the corner of the Colovian Traders. What was that about? he wondered, but decided to not look any further into it.
He was just about to step into the West Weald In when an angry voice made him stop dead in his tracks.
"Stop right there, criminal scum!" Finn turned around and saw Nika sprinting towards him.
"I haven't stolen anything, give it a rest you stuck-up.." before he had time to finish the insult Nika grabbed him by the arm and pulled him in the same direction that Einar had taken.
"You're gonna wait in the hallway while I talk to Émile. If what you say is true then you can go, but if it's not I'm gonna.."
"Tear me to shreds?" Finn suggested.
Nika frowned. He flung open a door and more or less tossed Finn inside before shutting it behind himself.
"You really need to stop throwing my guests inside, it's a very bad habit." Finn immediately recognized the voice. When he looked up he saw a very peculiar looking young man. He was clearly blind, but his steady gaze still seemed to register even the smallest movements. The smile on his face looked a bit silly and his dark hair looked messy, as if he had just gotten out of bed. Just judging by his looks, Finn would guess that he was 15 or 16 years old. He's older then he looks. Finn could tell that from his way to move his body. There was a certain graze in his movements that didn't belong to a boy.
Nika took no notice of his joke. "How come this man has your ring?"
Émile smiled sheepishly. "Because I gave it to him."
Nika made a noise that Finn hadn't heard before, it was almost like a growl. "You must be kidding me. Don't you know how much I went through to acquire that ring?"
"I know, but he needed it more than I did at that time, and besides.. He brought it back, didn't he?"
Nika sighed and seemed to calm down. "Something Yatniel said?"
Émile nodded and turned towards Finn. "May I have it back?" he said and reached his hand out.
Finn immediately took the ring of and gave it to Émile. "Certainly. I want to thank you. You saved my life."
Émile just shook his head and smiled. "Why don't you stay for a while? I must attend to a meeting now, but afterward I want to talk to you. Ragnhild will make you some food," he said and smiled.
An all but happy expression covered Nika's face when he showed Finn the kitchen. When he left Finn could feel someone staring at him so he turned around. By a large fireplace stood an old Nord woman who were preparing some shepherd's pie.
"Hello." It was a young woman who had spoken. She was beautiful, but seemed somewhat uncomfortable in the big mansion. Like the walls are gonna fall on her.
"Oh well, another mooch," the old lady sighed.
Finn tried to smile. "I'm not staying that long. I'm just here to speak to Émile, then I'll be leaving."
"Hmph! They all say that at first, but somehow they always end up living here. You're a mooch, no doubt about it." Her harsh tone seemed to make the other woman even more nervous.
"Oh, shut your gap and give me some food woman!"
For a while Ragnhild just stared at him, unable to comprehend what he just had said, but then she put one of the hot pies on a plate and served him the food. She even poured some wine for him from an old, fine bottle before leaving the room.
"I can't believe she didn't hit you," the woman said.
Finn grinned when he tucked in on the rich pie. "No other way to handle a Nord woman when she's in that mood," he said with his mouth full. The woman smiled timidly.
At the third floor of Rosethorn hall five people waited for Émile and Nika's arrival. The atmosphere was tense, to say the least. Einar and Laverne stood in one corner of the room and Kai and Thanatos in the other. In between them sat Yatniel, staring out of the window with his usual spaced out look.
Émile was the first to enter the room. While he was greeting Einar and Laverne, Nika slipped into the room. The first thing he noticed was Kai. He was shaking like a leaf, as if he was about to freeze to death and he looked pale. If it hadn't been for the odd, amber-brown color of his eyes Nika would have thought that he was sick, but that obviously wasn't the case. By pure instinct he placed himself between Émile and Kai, just in case.
"Friends, I have some alarming news for you," Émile was talking to Einar and Laverne. "Less than an hour ago these two gentlemen arrived here, and showed me a scroll." Émile stopped and nodded to Thanatos, who unlike Kai hadn't bothered to take his hood of. Thanatos pulled the scroll up from his bag and presented it to the others.
"A scroll?" Einar sighed. "I do admit that the idea about the arrows wasn't a bad one, but please.. We can't win a war with a scroll." He had never had much belief magic, that was the reason he had joined the Fighters Guild in the first place.
Laverne acted differently. She quickly snapped the scroll out of Thanatos hands and looked at it closely. "Exquisite parchment, beautiful writing with the most expensive inc. This must be worth a fortune." Since Émile recognized that lingering gaze of hers from the time that he lost his purse, he quickly removed the scroll from her hands.
"I'm sure it is," Émile said before turning to Thanatos. "Tell them what you told me."
He was just about to start when Nika cut him of. "Can you do something about that first?" he said and frowned at Kai.
"Nika.." Émile said in a reproachful tone.
"He's a danger to everyone here, I can't just ignore it!"
"Leave him alone." Thanatos didn't sound happy.
Laverne and Einar both looked confused. "Is it contagious?" Einar said and scratched his head.
Nika couldn't help but to laugh. "You could say that."
The laughing quickly stopped when Thanatos growled loudly. "I'm not gonna stay here and let you insult him. Goodbye." He grabbed Kais arm and walked towards the door, but before he could reach it Émile stepped in the way.
"I'm sorry for this, but please don't leave. I still have more questions for you."
"Get out of the way!" he growled. Émile just shook his head.
"Nika," he said and pointed at the door.
"But.."
"Sorry, but I need to get my questions answered. I'll tell you later."
Nika reluctantly exited the room without saying another word. It was clear to everybody that he wasn't pleased.
Thanatos looked around, trying to figure out if he should leave or not. After a few seconds he dragged Kai over to the table and sat down.
"Don't really know where to start.." he mumbled. "I received this scroll from Vicente Valtieri, former speaker of the Dark Brotherhood. Apparently it has the power to open a Great Oblivion Gate."
Einar and Laverne gasped for air at the same time. Émile who had already heard most of the story stood silent with a grave expression.
"Arch-Mage Kalma has apparently opened minor gates with it, but she wasn't powerful enough to open a Great Gate."
"Then we have nothing to worry about, right? Even if they had the scroll they wouldn't be able to use it," Laverne said with a smile.
Émile shook his head. "I wouldn't be so sure. I doubt that this is the only scroll."
"But they have no way of using it," said Einar. Émile simply nodded towards Thanatos, so that he would continue.
"Apparently there are two mages that are powerful enough to use it. I'm one of them."
Émile listened carefully because this was new to him.
"I have no idea where the other one is, but I know that he's a vampire.."
"Yippie, vampires!" Einar snorted.
Thanatos grinned, revealing his fangs. "Indeed."
Einar almost stumbled over his own feet when he quickly pulled his claymore. "Is this what Nika spoke about earlier?"
Émile sighed. "Einar, sheath your weapon. If he wanted to hurt us he would've come here before sunrise."
Einar didn't sheath his claymore, but he relaxed a bit. "Fine. But if any of them try anything.."
"How do you know that he is a vampire?" Émile interrupted.
"Apparently Vicente turned us into vampires at the same time, but I have no recollection of it. We were.." Thanatos looked out of the window. His hood had slid back a little, so that they could see the fine features of his face. "Brothers."
"So this man might still work within the mages guild?" Laverne said.
"I don't think so. If he had, they would have tried to use him instead of me."
"I've gotten reports about strange movements within the mages guild recently. I thought that they were looking for some magic object or something, but what they're really searching for must be your brother." Laverne smiled. She had an odd smile, it made her look like a cat, despite the fact that she wasn't a Kahjiit. "Been wondering about that."
"Shouldn't you know where he is? I mean, he's your brother." Einar sounded annoyed.
"I don't even remember what he looks like, much less his name. I have no idea how to find him."
Émile smiled. "Laverne, you should be able to help with that, right?"
She smiled again. "I'll ask around."
"Until we find him and render him harmless we have to have a plan. As I see it, they could strike any minute now," said Einar.
Thanatos laughed coldly. "Yea, we just need to find someone who remembers how to close an oblivion gate. That should be easy." Thanatos knew, as well as the others, that the last living man to close an oblivion gate was Selestin Windstone, and he had passed away over 30 years ago.
"Can't we just look it up in a book?" Einar wondered.
Émile shook his head. "Remember that time, it must have been 9 years ago, when the high chancellor suddenly decided to burn a bunch of books? Luckily Nika managed to save my grandfathers journal. Guess we should try to read it."
"Try?" Thanatos said.
"Well, it's written in a language that I don't recognize."
"Let's have a look anyway." Laverne insisted. She probably wanted to see if there were any secrets written in it, greedy for information as she was.
Émile nodded and went over to the desk. From one of the drawers he retrieved a small book. The leather cover looked old. When he opened it some of the pages fell out and spread over the floor.
Laverne carefully collected the fragile pages and gave them to Émile. "Is this even a language? It just looks like a bunch of random drawings."
Einar leaned over to look. "Yeah, and they ain't even pretty."
Émile sighed. "That's what I thought too when I first looked at it. But my father had a similar journal, and he wrote in it everyday, so I find it hard to believe that it's just a sketchpad. They must have had some kind of code."
"And how are we going to solve it?" Thanatos sighed. He had already given up, that was obvious.
"I don't know, but we have to do it somehow, or we will perish if they manage to open the gate," Émile said.
"Sorry to interrupt but," Nika came in through the door again, "I might be able to help you with that." He kept a watchful eye on Kai as he went to have a look on the book.
"Have you been listening he whole time?" Thanatos wondered. He didn't seem angry, just confused, and he looked at Émile like he was expecting him to get angry.
"Of course. I don't leave the safety of my master in the hands of the likes of you," Nika said with a voice that sounded even prouder than it normally did.
"The likes of me? Have you looked in the a mirror lately? Oh, that's right.. You can't 'cause you're a vampire just like me!" Thanatos laughed at Einars pale face. "You should really learn how to spot a vampire."
"Nika's not like you," Émile said with a stern voice. "Can you read this?" he said in a gentler tone and pointed at the book.
Nika shook his head. "But I know how to close an oblivion gate."
Émile looked surprised. "Did my grandfather teach you?"
"Yes. Since he knew that I would be serving this family for the rest of my life, he thought that I should know.. Just in case."
Émile nodded. "Then tell me." His expression was inscrutable.
"It's simple really. You just have to get to the top of the highest tower and remove the sigil stone that keeps the gate open."
"It won't be easy to get through the hoards of deadra you'd be facing." Laverne looked serious, strangely enough.
"With an invisibility spell they wouldn't even be able to see you, much less fight you," said Thanatos. Nika didn't like it, but he agreed with him. With an invisibility spell the person who entered would be safe, or at least safer.
"Well you can count me out if we have to be stealthy. Not my thing you know.."
"I'll do it!" said Nika and Thanatos at the same time.
Nika immediately got a suspicious look on his face. "What's in it for you?"
Thanatos shrugged. "Glory? A chance to escape the gallows when all has settled down? Who knows."
"Both of you should go," said Émile. "It will be safer for both of you."
"Guess we have a plan then," said Einar.
Nika sighed. "I'm not gonna wait for you if you fall behind."
"Back at you."
Since the sun had already risen Thanatos and Kai couldn't leave the house. Instead they choose to stay in Yatniel's room. Nika and Émile stayed to. Émile wanted to know more about the strangers pasts, and Nika stayed to protect him. For the first time they heard Kai's voice. He sounded weak when he told them about his days in the arena, and they were both very surprised to hear that the strong young man they had seen in the arena had been diminished to the thin, shivering, diseased man before them. Then, in the middle of their conversation Yatniel suddenly turned around and gazed at Thanatos.
"If you can't recall his face, death awaits for both of you," he said with a solemn voice.
Émile was probably the one who looked most surprised after hearing his brothers voice. "What did you see?" But it was too late. Yatniel had already turned back to his window.
Nika stared at Thanatos. His face? Then he reached out to pull Thanatos hood back.
Facts about the characters:
Émile
Race: 50% Altmer, 25% Breton, 25% Imperial (and a teeny tiny bit of Kahjiit)
Birthsign: The Lord
Class: Bard
Rank: Count, Skingrad
They're only half-brothers!
Yatniel
Race: 75% Altmer, 25% Imperial
Birthsign: The Atronach
Class: Healer
Nika
Race: 50% Breton, 50% Imperial (Vampire)
Birthsign: The Steed
Class: Nightblade
Rank: (Former) Wizard, Mages Guild
He dropped out of the Mages Guild when they choose to support the High Chancellor.
Finn
Race: 75% Nord, 25% Imperial
Birthsign: The Warrior
Class: Scout
Rank: Apprentice, Fighters Guild
Althea
Race: 100% Breton
Birthsign: The Lady
Class: Healer
Rank: (Uncertain) Nun, Priory of the Nine
She hasn't heard from the priory since she ran away with Nika.
Kai
Race: 100% Imperial
Birthsign: The Lover (unexpected, eh?)
Class: Warrior
Rank: Grand Champion, The Arena
Einar
Race: 100% Nord
Birthsign: The Warrior
Class: Crusader
Rank: Master, Fighters Guild
… There will be more facts in the next chapter! (Btw, if you have any suggestions on how I should continue this story, please speak up! 'Cause I have no idea..)