Rain began to fall as Tharlennis sat on a rock counting the Septims she'd stolen from Fargoth. She ignored the few drops at first, but the clouds soon opened, forcing her to find shelter. Wet and muddy, she ducked into the mouth of a cave to escape the rain.
A glimmer of firelight caught her eye. At the end of a short passage, a rough-looking Dunmer woman sat at a campfire, stirring a small pot. Tharlennis called a hello.
The other woman gave a start and leaped to her feet. "Melar! Mulvisie! We've got trouble! Guard the slaves!" she shouted as she drew a dagger and ran toward Tharlennis. Instinctively, Tharlennis cast a bolt of electricity at her, but she dodged it. "A mage, are you?" she said with a fierce grin. She stabbed at Tharlennis with her dagger. "Melar will turn you to dust, if I don't slit you open first!"
"Nothing doing, bandit," said Tharlennis, grabbing the woman's knife hand and channeling numbing cold. Her attacker dropped her weapon, and as she bent to pick it up, Tharlennis drew her own blunt dagger and held its point at the back of the woman's neck. "Move and I'll cripple you at best," she started to say, but the other woman rolled to the side before Tharlennis's knife could cut her. Tharlennis cursed and reached out with a handful of ice again, distracting her assailant from a quick slash of her knife. The gambit worked: the other woman dodged the icy grip, but dodged right into the point of Tharlennis's dagger. She grunted and doubled over as the blade slipped between her ribs. Tharlennis withdrew the knife and stabbed again, slicing open the woman's belly. She fell, bleeding, as the light faded from her eyes.
Tharlennis kicked the dead woman onto her back and rifled through her pockets. The bandit woman had little of value, and the only things worth taking were her marvelously-light dagger, made of something like bone, and a key Tharlennis assumed had something to do with the slaves she'd mentioned. She pocketed it. Looking around, she saw a passage leading to another chamber. She quietly opened the gate and peered around the corner. Wooden stairs led both up and down; at the top was a wooden fence with another gate and at the bottom, a man-shaped figure in a robe stood tensed and ready for trouble. iMelar,/i Tharlennis told herself, and whispered a few words to sent another bolt of electricity at the robed figure. It was no use. As he heard it coming, he waved his hands and countered it with a blast of fire, then ran toward her, shouting an alarm. Tharlennis dodged his fireballs and closed on him, but that was what he'd wanted – grinning as she got close enough to touch, he gathered a ball of flame in his hand and grabbed for her face.
Tharlennis cursed. She muttered a spell to summon icy cold into her own hand, sharpening her fingernails into gelid claws. The enemy mage grabbed for her again, and his burning hand landed on her shoulder, scorching her clothes and blistering her skin. Tharlennis gritted her teeth and lashed out at him with her own magical claws, once, twice – he fell, his throat cut. Tharlennis dismissed her spell, and her claws melted and dripped into a bloody pool on the cave's floor.
Tharlennis took stock of her injuries. She was scratched up a bit from the first woman's dagger, and her left shoulder was badly burned from Melar's fire. She took a deep, slow breath and gathered her magic in her right hand. She lightly touched the afflicted area, and the blisters subsided, leaving her shoulder good as new – and not a moment too soon. An aging, but lithe, Dunmer woman leaped out from behind the wall and threw something small at her. The throwing star whizzed past Tharlennis's ear as she leaped to her feet and threw a ball of lightning right back. It hit the woman in the chest, stunning her momentarily, and Tharlennis used that second to charge forward with her new dagger drawn. However, she was a second too late, and the older woman nimbly dodged to the side, drawing her own dagger and shashing at Tharlennis's arm. Tharlennis cried out in pain as the knife point scored a deep gash.
"You've taken on more than you can handle, child," the woman laughed, dropping into a knife-fighter's crouch. She leaped forward at Tharlennis, but was knocked backward by a bubble of force as Tharlennis magically shielded herself.
"I'm hardly a child, Grandmother," Tharlennis shot back. The other woman cursed and threw two more throwing stars at her. One veered off to the right from Tharlennis's shield, but the other hit home, leaving a deep cut in her side. Breathing heavily, she threw more lightning at the old bandit, stunning her long enough to freeze the air around her nose and mouth. As the bandit clawed at the ice on her face, struggling to breathe, Tharlennis lashed out with her dagger, slitting the bandit's throat.
Tharlennis sat down, panting, to examine her wounds. Blood from her side and her arm was soaking through her shirt, so she used the last of her magic to stanch the bleeding. The pain was still there, but it would have to do: she would be unable to properly heal herself until she got some rest. She was covered in mud and blood, but at least the cave she was in was dry, and there was no more danger of bandits. She took the dagger from the last woman, and searched the mage's body to find another one. If there were slaves here, it would be best to arm them. She searched for more valuables, finding a few scrolls and a vial of something that smelled like skooma, which she slipped into her backpack – she never touched the stuff herself, but she knew that some would pay good money for it. She made her way back to the room with the fire and the soup, stoked it and added a log, and rolled out her bedroll to await morning and the end of the rainstorm.
On the morrow, she magically mended her cuts and bruises, and climbed the wooden stairs leading up from where she'd fought the mage and the old assassin. There in a wooden cage sat two Argonians and a Khajiit, all three wearing slave bracers. She tested the cage door – locked, but the key she'd lifted from the first outlaw opened it. She stepped inside, and the three slaves huddled against the wall.
"You needn't be afraid," Tharlennis told them. "Slavery is barbaric. As soon as I heard there were slaves here I decided to free them." Key in hand, she approached the Khajiit. "Let me see that bracer," she said. Soon, he and the two Argonians were rubbing their wrists, finally free of the heavy bracers.
"Baadargo is free now," the Khajiit said. "Will the Dunmer guide Baadargo to safety?"
"Safety where?" Tharlennis asked. "I'm sorry, I don't know anywhere for you to hide."
"Baadargo hears the Twin Lamps keep safehouses for escaped slaves," he replied. "Baadargo hears there is one kept by one who is also Khajiit, now in Pelagiad. Will the Dunmer bring Baadargo and Okaw and Banalz to Pelagiad?" He indicated the two Argonians as he said their names.
"My name is Tharlennis," Tharlennis told Baadargo. "How far is Pelagiad? I'm afraid I'm new around here."
"Half a day's walk," said the female Argonian, Banalz. "Thank you for freeing us, Tharlennis, but we will need someone to keep us safe from hunters and bandits."
"Then I suppose I'm the one to do it," she sighed, nodding. "Here – Okaw and Banalz, take these daggers." She handed the two slaves the daggers she'd taken from the mage and the assassin. "Baadargo, do you need a weapon? I do have another knife, but it isn't a very good one."
"Baadargo has claws," he replied. "Baadargo does not need a knife."
"Good," said Tharlennis. "Come with me, then. Baadargo, you keep watch behind us once we get outside, and warn us if anyone's coming. Banalz, you let me know if we're going the right way." The three slaves nodded, and Tharlennis led them out of the cave. She checked to be sure they would not be seen, and hurried her charges out of the cave.
"This way," Banalz whispered, and Tharlennis nodded. She scouted ahead to be sure there were no other travelers on the road, then returned, motioning for the slaves to follow her.
"How will I know which house is safe?" Tharlennis asked Banalz as they walked.
"I do not know," Banalz replied. "There might be a marking, but it will be small and secret. But that is only an idea."
"All right," said Tharlennis. They crested a hill, and the swampy land that they'd been in gave way to lovely meadows and forests. "This is the way?" she asked. Banalz nodded.
It was slow going keeping out of sight, but by evening, Tharlennis and the slaves had reached the shores of a lake that was, according to Banalz, near Pelagiad. Under cover of the lengthening shadows, the four of them were able to move much faster, and they were soon on the outskirts of the small Imperial town. Tharlennis asked a question she'd been wondering about. "Baadargo, who are the Twin Lamps?"
"You do not know? Baadargo was sure…" Baadargo began. "But you should be a member. You freed us, and that is what the Twin Lamps do. If Baadargo asks, 'Have you seen the Twin Lamps?' you say, 'They light the way to freedom.'"
Tharlennis nodded. "Keep out of sight," she instructed. "We're almost in town, and I don't want anyone capturing you three again. And look for something that might indicate a safehouse." The three slaves nodded assent, and Tharlennis led them into the darker parts of Pelagiad.
"Tharlennis, look, see here," Baadargo whispered as they passed an apothecary. He pointed to the corner of the house's wooden door – Tharlennis had to squint to see it in the night, but there was carved a small open shackle. "And look – the sign says Ambika. Ambika is Khajiit name."
"That's enough for me," said Tharlennis. "Wait here, I want to check and make sure." She pushed open the door and a female Khajiit stood up from the table where she was eating her supper. Shutting the door behind her, she whispered to the Khajiit, "I have a few… friends… who need your help."
Ambika nodded. "Have you seen the Twin Lamps?" she whispered back, and at Tharlennis's reply of "They light the way to freedom," she told her to bring them inside. Tharlennis opened the door and motioned for the three slaves to come in as Ambika struggled to move a large flower pot containing a gold kanet plant from its place in a corner. "Friends can hide under here," she said as she removed the pot from its place. She lifted a few floorboards to reveal a ladder down to a hidden cellar, and hurried Baadargo, Okaw, and Banalz down into it. "Friends will be safe here until nobody looks for them," said Ambika. "Then we will help them go home."
"Thank you," said Tharlennis, helping Ambika to replace the pot. "Is there anything else I can do to aid you?"
"Ambika has a letter for friend Aurora in Ald-Ruhn," said Ambika. "Could the Dunmer friend bring it to her?"
"I suppose I could if I knew how to get there," said Tharlennis. "I'm new to Morrowind. Is it far?"
"Yes, it is far," Ambika replied. "But not so far to walk. Balmora is not far, and the Dunmer can ride a Silt Strider from there."
"Oh, good, I'm going to Balmora anyway," said Tharlennis. "Yes, I can deliver it for you. And my name is Tharlennis."
"Tharlennis is good Dunmer," said Ambika. She picked up a sheet of paper from next to her hammock, and gave it to Tharlennis. "Aurora's house next to big crab shell. Tharlennis will know when she sees it."
"I'm sure I will," Tharlennis assured the Khajiit. "May I trouble you for a candle and a knife? I won't be a minute."
"Of course, friend," said Ambika, indicating the candle on her eating table. Tharlennis sat down and took the sealed package for Caius Cosades from her backpack, and held it just above the candle flame until the wax seal softened. She slid the knife under the seal and the package came open with the seal intact.
She looked at the incomprehensible jumble of letters inside and swore mildly. "I should have known it would be in code," she grumbled, and gently pressed the seal back into place, blowing on it to help the wax cool faster. "There," she said, and showed the sealed package to Ambika. "Does this look like I've tampered with it?"
"It looks sealed to Ambika. Good trick, Ambika must remember it."
"Good," said Tharlennis. "Thank you for what you're doing for those people. I'll head to Balmora tomorrow. It's too late to travel now."
"Visit Ambika again," said Ambika as Tharlennis left her house. "Bring more friends."
"I'll be sure to," said Tharlennis. "If I find anyone to introduce to you, I'll gladly bring them here."
She walked up the hill past the small houses and gardens into Pelagiad proper, rounding a corner of a brick building whose sign read "The Halfway Tavern." iAs good a place as any to stay the night,/i Tharlennis decided, iand a damn sight better than a cave or a prison ship./i She opened the heavy wooden door and stepped inside. The place was large, well-lit, and well-attended. She located the proprietor, a Dunmer woman of middle years, behind the bar. "Do you have any beds available here, or food?" she asked.
"Both," said the innkeeper, "at the same time, even, if you want." She chuckled. "How long will you be staying?"
"Just a night," Tharlennis replied. "How much will that be?"
"Ten Septims, plus food and drink," was the reply, and Tharlennis took it without haggling. She followed the innkeeper up the stairs to the end of a hallway, where the innkeeper unlocked a door for her. "Enjoy," said the innkeeper, and handed Tharlennis the key to the room. "Come on downstairs when you're ready for some food." Tharlennis thanked her and placed her things in the chest at the foot of the bed. She locked the door and went downstairs to eat soon afterwards, and spent the remainder of the night in dreamless sleep.