Chapter Five: Unleashing the Hounds
The First Emissary Elenwen smirked as the prisoner before her screamed out in agony. For the last three days she had been torturing him, trying to pry out information about the other Talos worshippers in their insurrection group. But so far, he hadn't cracked… Yet. She sent out another blast of lightning from her fingertips, striking his bare chest. The Nord howled in pain and arched his back. Foam dripped out of his mouth and his fingers were curled in the air. The First Emissary paused, watching the Nord relax in his chains and sob in pain.
"Now," She said in her almost seductive voice. She touched her golden fingertips to his cheek, looking into his eyes. "Will you tell me where the others are?" Elenwen asked. The Nord only stared at her with a blank expression, tears streaking down his bruised face. After another second's hesitation, she punched him hard with her gloved hand, hearing his neck crack and a weak yelp escaping his lips. But he still breathed, just barely. She grabbed him by his light brown hair and yanked his head back so that she could look at his face.
"Where are they?!" She shouted at him, anger and frustration clearly visible on her usually beautiful elven face. The Nord hesitated, his eyes glancing down at the ground before looking back into Elenwen's gold-brown ones. He opened his mouth to speak but only spit came out, a weak smirk toying with his lips. With a disgusted yell, she kneed the Nord hard in the crotch, stepping back as he doubled over in pain, his chained arms popping slightly. The First Emissary raised a fist to hit the Nord again but the door on the other side of the room opened, a Justiciar panting hard with excursion.
"First Emissary! We've been attacked!" The Thalmor soldier said, any remarks that the Emissary was about to say quickly fell away.
"How? Where?" She quickly asked in the Altmer language, not wanting the Nord to listen. The returning soldier spoke quickly in the elven language.
"A triad group on the outskirts of the Whiterun hold. They were chasing one of the Talos worshippers but haven't returned. They haven't checked in at any outposts for the past six hours and the only conclusion is that the worshipper killed them." The First Emissary listened carefully, trying to keep her anger in check; she'd use it later on the Nord chained to her wall.
"This traitor is a dangerous one, isn't he?" The Emissary said coolly. The soldier nodded nervously, unsure of what to say. He watched as Elenwen paced around the room. "Well, I guess we have no other option then to bring out the tracker." An evil smirk was sketched onto her face, the Justiciar returning the smirk. The First Emissary turned away from the soldier for a moment, looking at the Nord on the wall. He had been trying to listen in on the conversation but he didn't understand a word of it.
"Well, well, well. It seems like one of your comrades have been found." The Emissary said in the Imperial language. The Nord quickly looked up with shock and horror. Elenwen laughed at him. "Why are you so surprised? Our race is superior so it was only a matter of time before one was found." She smirked and leaned forward so they were face to face. "And I'm sure they'll tell me where all of your little comrades are." Elenwen stood up and looked at the soldier in the doorway. "Get me a black soul gem." A wicked smirk played across both elven faces. The Nord writhed in his chains, trying to pull away.
"No, wait!" He shouted, though his voice was hoarse and weak. The Justiciar walked away and the First Emissary looked at him from the corner of her eye. "I'll talk…" He said with a defeated tone, his body sagging in the chains. The Justiciar returned immediately with what seemed like a dark oak trinket box. The Emissary took it from his hands and turned towards the Nord, her smirk never leaving her face.
"I'm sorry, but you've ran out of time and I'm all out of patience." Elenwen said as she opened the box. The Nord only screamed for a second before a purple flash of light engulfed the room, the scream cut off abruptly. Once the light faded and the box was shut, the chains hung loosely from the wall, the once living Nord was nowhere to be seen. The First Emissary turned to face the Justiciar who was standing at the ready beside her.
"Put this in the machine and gather a party of ten. I want you to lead that party, Erikour." Elenwen told him as she passed him the box. He grinned with eagerness, taking the box from the First Emissary.
"Yes, First Emissary," Erikour said in a strong voice. "As you command." He bowed slightly before quickly leaving the room and running down the hall of the North Embassy. He ran down several halls and down several more flights of stairs before he came to a large stone room. The ceiling was high set and Dwemer carvings adorned the corners and pillars. The Justiciar was always amazed by this place, no matter how many times he went inside it.
This place had been discovered decades ago, before the North Embassy had been built. An undercover scouting party of Thalmor were sent looking for an alleged Dwemer ruin that was supposed to be filled with unheard of machines and treasures. The Aldmeri Dominion, needing everything that they would need for the upcoming Great War, hoped to find this ruin. But as fighting broke out south of the Skyrim border, the scouting party stumbled across a cave in the northern mountains just a little west of Solitude. Or more of, they fell into the cave and had no way of climbing back out. The scouting party stumbled through the dark cave for almost three weeks, running out of provisions and quickly running out of group morale when they found it. The ruins of Moark-Zoa.
It had started out as just a simple Dwemer hallway, half covered by rocks and ice. But after pushing open a burly door, the Thalmor scouting party discovered a huge labyrinth of ancient dwarven hallways and rooms. But these ruins weren't of living areas for important Dwemer clans like the ruins of Nchuand-Zel. These ruins were purely for war. The Thalmor scouts were astonished. These ruins had been untouched for centuries, not even Falmer lived in these ancient halls. After thoroughly searching through the crumbled halls and caved in rooms, they found a room that had been untouched by nature's hand.
It was the Hangar, the legendary room that held all kinds of war machines that no one had seen before. Only the Chimer had supposedly seen them but these machines were so effective that it left no survivors. The scouting party of Thalmor quickly catalogued all that they could before finding a way to the surface. By the time they returned Alinor, the Great War was coming to an end and there was no need to bring out the machines. They kept them hidden deep within the bowels of the mountains. But to ensure that no one else would find the machines, the Thalmor built the North Embassy on top of it, concealing the secrets beneath it.
Erikour quickly walked down the ancient steps, glancing around the room. Old Dwemer contraptions littered the room but they had been restored to their former glory. Thalmor engineers bustled around the room, working out the kinks of different devices. The Justiciar left the stairs and walked towards a large golden metal machination. These contraptions weren't like the average ones found in the average Dwemer ruin.
A slight smirk played across his golden lips as Erikour stepped towards the contraption. It had the body of a Dwemer spider but each leg was about eight feet long when fully extended. All eight legs were crouched low to the ground, the upper apparatus of the machine resembling a Dwemer Centurion. Its golden metal face had been redesigned to look like a Thalmor, the angles more chiseled and regal. But unlike the average Centurion which was adorned with a hammer arm and a saw arm, this contraption had two of each. And on top of it all, the metal monstrosity was able to rotate its entire upper body on the spider legs. It was the ultimate fighting machine, and Erikour was going to lead it into battle.
The Nords don't have a chance, Erikour thought as he climbed up on the platform that surrounded the machine. He stared up into the metal face of his brethren and grinned. The ultimate superior race, none shall surpass us, his thoughts continued as he opened the chest plate, revealing a soul gem cavity. Slowly opening the dark oak box, Erikour saw the black soul gem, glowing with essence of the Nord's soul. Carefully taking it out of the box, he held it with his fingertips in one hand and pulled off the glove on his free hand. With extreme caution and skill, the Justiciar cut a small slit in the hand holding the gem, allowing the blood to pool in his palm. After a few seconds, he smeared his blood over the glowing stone. He closed his eyes as he spoke quietly.
"With my blood, I bind us together; flesh and machine. With my blood, you follow my commands; master and servant. With my blood, you kill my enemies; Stormcloacks and Talos." He murmured quietly, shoving the soul gem into the machine's chest cavity afterwards. There was a click and a dull flash as the machine seemed to take in a deep breath. Steam hissed and boiled through its piping as it slowly rose up on its spider legs, its arms stretching out. Hinges screamed out in protest from sitting idly for so long but the soul gem beat like a black heart.
Replacing his glove onto his hand, Erikour placed the chest plate onto the machine, looking up at it. Its metal Thalmor face was looking down at him, waiting for its instructions; waiting for its prey.