5
Breakfast was much easier than supper. Liman and the other cook, the female "old hag" that Carius had mentioned, just cooked up a few huge pots of porridge with oats and some chopped up vegetables. Tomas and I cut up most of the vegetables and helped serve bowls of steaming porridge to the guards, and then sat back to wait until they were all done eating so we could clean up.
The old woman was named Grilda and had lived her whole life on the island of Solstheim. She'd been born in a northern village where she lived until her husband had died, and then she came south to work at the fort not long after it had been built. She seemed happy when I told her that I was from Skyrim, and we spent the morning chatting together, sharing old stories and bonding, being the only two natural-born Nords in the fort.
After breakfast, I wandered over to the Imperial Cult office building. It was nice to go outside dressed in warmer clothes. I actually got to enjoy the outdoors for a few minutes. I promised myself I would make time later and talk a walk around the fort and maybe down by the shore.
I went inside the building and nonchalantly walked around the main floor until I found Antonius Nuncius' office. Carius had told me where it was. He had also informed me that Nuncius would be performing his daily prayers at this time of day, so the office would be empty.
I had to hand it to Carius. He was a smooth one, alright. He hadn't even bothered to ask me if I knew how to pick locks. He just casually suggested that I break into Nuncius' office and look for evidence of the doctored supply orders, as if he was just asking me to run a totally innocent errand for him.
To be honest, I was almost offended he would assume something like that about me. That I was capable of such an act, and that I would be willing to do it. It was certainly bold of him to ask me to break the law, but the whole thing seemed so funny that I agreed to do it.
No one was around, so I fished a lockpick from my pocket and casually leaned against the door. I didn't even have to look at my hands. The lock was about as simple as it gets, and within seconds I opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind me.
Nuncius' office was neat and orderly, as would be expected of a Cult official, but it wasn't very impressive. There was a threadbare rug on the floor, two wooden cabinets, and a small desk that looked like it had been cobbled together from other pieces of furniture. On top of one of the cabinets was a pile of scrolls and other parchments, and an ink bottle and quill were on the desk.
I opened the drawers on the cabinet and quickly rifled through the contents, mostly sheets of paper and folders with shipping invoices and other business documents. They all looked the same to me. I wondered how I was going to find evidence of Nuncius' activities, when I couldn't even tell the difference between all the different forms and documents in the office. What I needed was an old shipping order with alcohol clearly on the list, but I didn't have time to read through every single one of them to find it. I didn't even know how long Nuncius would be gone. He might be back any moment.
I went to the other cabinet and opened the drawers. The bottom drawer, however, was locked, so I took a few seconds to get it open.
Two fat bottles of shein and a narrow bottle of flin greeted me, tucked down in between two stacks of paper and a tattered shipping log. I smiled at my good luck, and snatched the bottle of flin. I wasn't entirely sure what documents would incriminate Nuncius, but the ones in the locked drawer seemed like good candidates. I grabbed a stack of papers and folded them up, sticking them into my coat. I left the drawer open.
Then, just as I went to leave, I grabbed one of the bottles of shein as well, just for good measure. I poked my head out the door to make sure no one was coming, and then made a casual, hasty exit from the Imperial offices.
In a few minutes I was back at Carius' office. I nodded at the two guards in the hallway, but they ignored me, just as they had done the day before. If they knew the contents of the bottles I carried, maybe they would be more sociable.
I knocked on the door, hearing voices inside. Carius called for me to enter, and I went inside to see him at his desk, facing the man from the East Empire Company, who sat across from him. He sat upright in his chair, legs crossed, hands in his lap, his lip twisted in a sneer. He eyed me up as I came inside.
Carius flashed a very brief smile. "Sasha, good to see you."
The East Empire man stood up, brushed imaginary dust off his pant legs, and extended a hand. "My dear, I don't think we've been properly introduced."
"Yes, and the pleasure was all mine," I said, keeping my free hand at my side.
"This is Carnius Magius," Carius said. "He's the local supervisor for the East Empire Company. They're setting up a mining operation here on Solstheim."
"Mining ebony," Magius clarified. He brushed a finger across his slight mustache and cleared his throat. "Very lucrative, the ebony trade is. If you're looking for work, I'm sure I can find a place for you."
"Thanks, but I work in the kitchen," I said stiffly.
He chuckled at that and pursed his lips. Running a hand across his greasy hair, he looked back at Carius. "Well then, Falx. If you have other business, I'll leave you to it. We can continue this conversation later. This evening, perhaps."
"Of course," Carius said.
Magius walked past me and left the office. I shivered as the door closed and took a seat in one of the other chairs, not the one that Magius had sat in.
"You'll have to forgive him," Carius said with a shrug. "Being an arrogant, unlikeable little worm is pretty much a prerequisite for employment at the East Empire Company."
"That guy would give a pimp a run for his money in the scumbag department."
"That's Carnius for you," Carius chuckled.
I dug the sheets of paper from my jacket and dumped them onto Carius' desk. He laughed and immediately began reading through them. Before he got far, I placed the bottle of shein on his desk as well, and he looked at it suspiciously.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Yep. So is this," I said, taking the smaller bottle of flin from my pocket.
"Oh, you are a wonder," Carius said. "Care for a drink?"
"I would love one," I said with a smile.
Carius took a pair of wooden cups from the crate behind his desk and poured flin for both of us. I preferred flin to the cheaper beers like shein and greef. Just one swallow was enough to give me a shot of warmth and boost of energy, as well as a comfortable burn down my throat. I gasped and downed the rest of the cup.
"Good job, Sasha," Carius said, pointing at the sheets of paper. "These are the original supply orders. I guess that Antonius held onto them because paper is so hard to come by. He probably meant to erase everything and reuse the sheets."
"I wondered why he would keep them. Better to destroy the evidence."
"You didn't have any problems, did you?"
"No, none at all."
He smiled wolfishly at that. "I knew I could count on you. In fact, I was so certain of your success that I had the boys down in the armory bring me up a present for you."
"A present?"
Carius walked into the adjacent room momentarily and came out a few seconds later carrying a shining new short sword with a gleaming gold hilt and a green gemstone embedded in the pommel. He held it out hilt first so I could take the grip.
"Wow," I said, completely speechless. He had told me that he would get a sword, but he hadn't said it would be one like this. I had been expecting a plain blade with an iron hilt.
"I can't take this," I said. "Everyone will think I stole it or something. This is way too fancy for me."
"It will be fine," Carius assured me. "It's not as expensive as it looks. The hilt is just gold-plated, and the gem there is only colored glass. It's actually a replica of a real ornamental sword. But it's perfectly functional."
It looked real enough for me, and I felt awkward just holding onto such a beautiful weapon. Carius handed me a sword belt with a plain scabbard, and I buckled it around my waist. The sword slid cleanly into the scabbard, the hilt clicking firmly against the locket, the top of the scabbard. It felt nice to have a real sword hanging at my hip once more.
"Thank you," I said. "I don't know what to say."
"Say you'll spend the night," Carius suggested.
I laughed. "Are you really that lonely, Falx? I would think you should have no problems finding a woman to warm your bed. You're a good looking man, and the Captain of this fort besides. There must be more women available. I'm sure one of the female guards would be happy to sleep with you."
"You haven't been around them long enough," Carius said. "Sadly, they are of the opinion that it is improper for a female soldier to have an affair with a superior officer. And the Cult women are no different."
"How terrible for you," I said, trying to sound sympathetic through my smile.
"Remember when I said that being stationed here is like a punishment? Well, it's a punishment in more ways than one."
"So what did you do to get sent here?" I asked, crossing my arms. "What are you being punished for?"
His response was interrupted when someone began banging on the door to his office. A plaintive, worried voice came from the hallway.
"Captain Carius! I must speak with you! Something terrible has happened!"
"Come in," Carius said.
The door burst open and a man waddled into the room, wearing a plain brown tunic and cloak of the Imperial Cult. It was tied at his waist with a thick purple rope, and his feet were in a pair of dirty sandals, hardly appropriate for the cold weather. He had a pudgy face and a receding hairline.
"It's terrible, Captain," he said. "Someone broke into my office! I just returned from my daily prayers and someone had ..."
His voice trailed off when he looked on the desk and saw the scattered papers. His eyes seemed to snap back and forth from the documents to the bottle of shein on the desk, growing wider as they did so.
"I ... Captain ... what ..."
"Antonius," Carius said smoothly. "Would you like to explain to me why you were changing the supply orders without my permission?"
"I wasn't ..."
"Yes, you were. Here is the evidence."
Nuncius swallowed nervously and then took a deep breath before standing up straight, regaining what was left of his composure. He cleared his throat and said, "You ... you broke into my office and stole my personal property. This is a very serious matter, Captain. Your authority does not extend to the Cult, and you have no right to invade my privacy like this. I'm afraid I will have to lodge a formal complaint with the Imperial Legion."
Carius nodded, completely at ease. "I understand. Of course you will. And I will have no choice but to reveal to the entire fort that you are solely responsible for the lack of alcohol in the past few months."
"You ... what?"
Carius crossed his arms, and even though he and Nuncius were almost the same height, he seemed to look down on the Cult clerk as if the man was far shorter than him. "How long are you still stationed here, Antonius? If memory serves, you still have at least a year left. Isn't that right?"
"Yes," Nuncius said, beginning to sweat.
"If you file your complaint against me, I will certainly be punished. But once the Legion gets word that you countermanded my own orders, they will find a way to stick you here for as long as possible. Say, five more years added on? How would you like to stay on Solstheim for five more years?" Carius emphasized the "five more years" very bluntly, punctuating each word with a short pause.
"How do you think the soldiers here will treat you if they find out about this?" Carius added. "You know that Legion troops have a low regard for Cult officers to begin with. The only reason they haven't rebelled against me is because I'm their Captain. But you're just a clerk. What kind of treatment do you think you'll receive at their hands?"
Nuncius was frozen in place, and once again I had to hand it to Carius. I had dealt with quite a few Imperial officers in my life, even a few Captains, and for the most part they were a bunch of stiff, unimaginative, humorless grunts. Carius, on the other hand, was as slick as a snake oil salesman. With just a few well placed threats, none of them even very serious, he had managed to completely defuse the situation. It was like watching a magician at work.
"Maybe ... there was a misunderstanding," Nuncius offered, clasping his hands together as if in prayer. "I thought ... I thought that you had given me permission to alter those supply orders. Maybe I was mistaken."
"I'll accept that," Carius said with a careful nod. "In the future, you'll make sure to send in the orders exactly as they were given to you, correct?"
"Of course."
"And we can forget about this little misunderstanding?"
Nuncius nodded fervently, his cheeks quivering. "Yes, I suppose we can. I'm glad we were able to ... work this out together. It would have been a shame to bring our superiors into this, after all."
"I agree completely," Carius said.
Nuncius fidgeted and gestured to the desk. "May I have those documents back?"
"Of course," Carius said, and handed the stack of papers to Nuncius. "I think I'll hold onto these bottles though."
"Yes, perhaps you'd better."
"You're dismissed, Antonius."
"Thank you."
Grasping the supply orders to his chest, Nuncius left the office. When the door closed after him, I finally laughed to myself, having held it in the entire time. I made sure not to laugh too loud, or else Nuncius still might hear me.
"Impressed?" Carius asked with a smirk.
"Yes," I admitted. "That was just brilliant."
I had to admit to myself that I was developing a crush on him. He was handsome, charming, funny, and respectable. Maybe a bit too arrogant, and far too presumptuous. And I could tell there was a secretive side to him as well, probably due to his military habit of keeping a professional distance between himself and his troops. But he was making all the right moves, and what was worse, he knew it.
He had other work to get done, so I said goodbye and left the office, holding my new sword close against my leg. I wanted to go down to the training area and get some practice with it, and then I wanted to take a walk around the fort.