I was jarred back into reality by my face meeting the dirt floor of my prison tent. With a groan, I was hoisted to my feet by strong arms, and dragged up to Aiden's house on the hill. Eventually, I was seated on the rough ground in front of Aiden, as he toyed with his omnipresent dagger. "Have you come to a decision Armel? Will you join me? Or will you throw your life away?" His voice danced in my mind. My magicka was slowly returning to me as their poisons wore off, but I needed time. I needed a chance.
"Let me die in my armor, Altmer."
"That can be arranged." he said, an almost sad note teasing me in his voice. He flicked his wrist, and I was once again hoist to my feet, and dragged into his shack, where my armor was kept. I hid a smile as they dragged me into it. Hopefully this would give me my chance.
"Any last words?" Aiden asked, his palm freezing around the edges. My hopes for escape were fading as fast.
"Just get it over with, scum," I growled. He smirked, and I closed my eyes, reciting a prayer to Arkay in my mind. I heard a whisper in the wind, and looked up at Aiden, confused. Aiden was clutching his shoulder, which had sprouted feathers. Arrow feathers, I realized, as his robes started to be stained by the red seeping between his fingers. Aiden roared in pain, and stumbled out of my vision. Chaos erupted. Someone yelled that the Legion was attacking, and over the din you could faintly hear the Legion marching in, their boots stomping in time. I felt the hands holding me down disappear. It was now or never. I burned my bonds off, using a large portion of the magicka I had, and ran for Aiden's shack. I wanted my staff back, and hopefully some revenge.
I heard Aiden cursing and rummaging around as I entered the shack. I grabbed my staff, and peeked into the back room, spying Aiden's hunched shadow. With a crack, Aiden snapped the arrow shaft, and pulled it through him, hissing as it exited. His hand glowed with a soft golden light as he started to knit together the flesh. I took the blunt end of my staff and smacked him in the elbow, making him to release the spell and look at me, rage filling his eyes. "Miss me?" I taunted, before he launched a shard of ice at my head, which I narrowly dodged. "I see you just did," I snapped out, my staff rushing towards him.
Aiden nimbly dodged, before he hurdled a blast of frost at me, chilling me to the bone. Suddenly he was on me, dagger in hand, bloodlust in his eyes. I shoved him away, earning a gash on my forearm for my troubles, and another face full of magical frost, ice starting to cling to my skin.
I stumbled back into the main room of the dilapidated building, Aiden hot on my heels. I winced as pain lit up my side, his dagger managing to plunge through my armor. I couldn't keep this up much longer, not without magicka. Aiden crashed into another wall, and the shadows on the walls swayed. Wait, swayed? My mind almost froze, then I glanced up to see a lantern hanging from the rafters. I knocked the wind from Aiden, before bringing what little magicka I had left into a charge of lightning in my palm.
"Die," I growled out, and snapped the thin rope holding the lantern with a bolt of lightning, draining me completely. I jumped from the shack, landing roughly in the dirt, as the lantern shattered, and Aiden started to scream. As the flames caught, and the dry wood starting to eagerly burn, Aiden's screaming petered out.
"Armel!? what are you doing here!" I heard a familiar voice cry incredulously. I rolled over to see Hadvar jogging up, sword bloody and shield dented.
"Hadvar! So good that you could join me!" I coughed out. Hadvar smiled, before getting an apologetic look on his face.
"I am sorry about this Armel, but we have been ordered to take any survivors into custody, which includes you friend. I'm sure you were not part of the bandits holed up here, but orders are orders." I stared at him, shocked, before slumping back down on the ground, exhausted, my wounds throbbing in pain.
"Fine. You wouldn't happen to have a healer, would you?"
"You were at Helgen." It was less of a question and more of a statement. Tullius recognized me.
"Yes I was, General. I was on my way here to seek a pardon, until I was captured by some bandits. Luckily for me, this time your Legionaries were on my side. Sort of." Tullius gave a snort, and paced around his map.
"Well, as far as I see it, your involvement in Helgen was all a mistake, and by all accounts you were a captive of the bandits, until you escaped in the assault. Besides, if you were one of those Stormcloak traitors or a bandit you wouldn't have came here willingly," He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "You are sure you don't want to join the Legion? Hadvar speaks quite highly of you, and you managed to escape Helgen, not many can boast of that."
"I am sure sir. No offence to the Empire, but I want no part in this Civil War. I can to Skyrim to learn at the College of Winterhold, not to fight in a war!"
"Very well. If you change your mind, the offer still stands." I gave a slight bow, before exiting. Hadvar was waiting for me in the waiting room.
"So how did it go?" He asked, boredom leaking through every syllable.
"Well, I am a free man, no worrying about the Legion anymore. I'm off to the docks, to find a ship to Winterhold."
Later, I stumbled into Hadvar in the local inn, nursing a mead. I plunked myself on the stool next to him, and whistled myself up a Cyrodillic Brandy, one of my favorites from home, and had the barkeep leave the bottle with the glass. "Well, the first ship to Winterhold leaves in four days time. I might go up and see if the court needs anything done. The Divines know I need the gold." I downed the first glass of brandy, before pouring myself another. Hadvar chuckled, before downing his bottle.
"If you would like some backup, I'm on leave for the week. Just tell me when." I laughed, before slapping him on the back.
"You and me, back together? Those bandits better run!"
"We are going in where?" asked Hadvar again as we climbed up the snowy slope of the mountain.
"Wolfskull Cave. You know, where Potema did all her necromancy during the War of the Red Diamond. The court looked ready to dismiss the poor fella who came to ask for help, but he seemed actually scared, so I volunteered. We don't get paid unless something is wrong, so hope for the worst, I guess." Hadvar groaned halfheartedly.
"So this is the place?" Hadvar asked, his voice adopting a tremor. The entrance to the cave was little more than a gash in the surrounding rock. No wonder the locals were scared of this place.
"Yep." I started to duck into it, before a rasping caught my attention. I turned around to find a skeleton digging itself from the hill face beside me, followed by another. I quickly sent them back to their graves with a jolt of magic, but they sealed the deal, so to speak. Something was definitely wrong with this cave. "Come on Hadvar, let's get this over with." I heard him grumble as I stooped into the cave.
"What is that!" I yelled. A shriveled up corpse stared up at me, eyes aglow in blue light. It growled something, before swinging at me, it's war axe glinting. I managed to deflect the blow, before taking its head off.
"Draugr," Hadvar grumbled, yanking his sword from the chest of another. "We must be dealing with Necromancers." We stepped through another opening to find a ruin, aglow in blue magic that flowed through the air like a river. Definitely Necromancers.
"We hoped too hard Hadvar."
"Wolf Queen. Hear our call and awaken. We summon Potema!" The chant echoed off the cave walls, and it made my blood run cold. These damned necromancers were trying to summon Potema herself! Hadvar and I hurried through the ruins, cutting down the Draugr and necromancers that stood in our way.
"Yes, Yes! Return me to this realm!" I heard a female voice answer the chants. It couldn't be... They had actually succeeded in bringing her spirit back! Hadvar and I crashed our way through the remaining necromancers. We could not let Potema be bound.
"You ants don't have the power to bind me!" Potema's spirit hissed maliciously at the necromancers. Hadvar and I finally made it to the last tower, and the chanting stopped. We heard the necromancers murmur, confused to why their binding was not working. We would give them no time to understand why.
I leaped up the last steps and shoved my staff through the closest Necromancer, his cry bouncing off the cave walls. Hadvar charged up after me, swinging at the others. A fireball charred the front of my armor, rocking me on my heels, before I sent another Necromancer hurdling off the tower, electricity crackling along his robes. The last Necromancer was still weaving the streams of Potema's soul, still trying to finish the binding. She jerked as my blade sunk into her, and Potema's soul fled the cave.
"Well, that was a fun way to spend your break from the Legion, right Hadvar?" I joked, as I healed the cuts we had earned from our headlong charge. Hadvar gave a small chuckle, before we broke out in laughter.
"They were trying to summon Potema!" Falk Firebeard gasped after I told him about the necromancers. "The chaos her return would have caused at a time like this! We cannot thank you enough," Falk set a rather large coin purse into my hand. "But we can try."
Hadvar and I drank our fill that night, laughing and enjoying our spoils. When the ship finally left, I still had quite a bit of gold jingling in my pockets. Life was starting to look up again.