Dear readers, being the amazing Borderlands 2 player, I TheGreatJabberyJamie, easily defeated SpiritOfJazz about 6 times in a row, despite the fact she was a higher level than me, adding even more to my awesomeness. Even when I went easy, and did not use the phaselock, I prevailed, yet again. I have proved my moral, intellectual, and skillful superiority over those who play as Zer0. She said she would kill me as I read this out to her, but alas, I am TheGreatJabberyJamie, winner of duels!
I hope you all enjoyed that little banter between me and SoJ, but I just needed to establish I am the best BL2 player ever. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Have fun.
Resh POV
Esbern leant down and brushed his hand against the seal, knowing immediately what it wanted. "The blood seal needs your blood Dragonborn."
"No, that's just not true," Resh muttered after snorting in derision, frustrated at the man's ignorance and how he called him 'Dragonborn'. "No true Tsaesci would like a Dragonborn."
Esbern rolled his, hating those who used the 'no true Nord' fallacy. "Yeah, and no true Nord would drink milk either."
Resh turned on him, not liking the tone to which he replied, and glared, "What's that supposed to mean?! no true Tsaesci would, they hate Dragons, and the Dragonborn is one of them."
"It's supposed to mean that because you think the Tsaesci only think one way. And if one of them, or in this particular case, all of them, have an opposing view or act differently, they aren't a real Tsaesci," Esbern explained, it didn't really help as Resh got seemingly more pissed off. "You can try if you want. Open the Akaviri blood seal, it will respond to your Dragon blood, which will be proof enough that they like the Dragonborn, because they wouldn't have it able to open for you if they didn't."
The larger man growled, before stretching his arm out, knowing it wouldn't work, but wanting to convince the older stubborn man of the truth. Not bothering with a blade he dug his nails into his forearm and ripped, cascading a spurt of blood onto the seal.
The moment the blood touched the floor it started to flow through the seal, unnatural in the way it moved so no doubt of some form of magical design. Once the seal was full with his blood, it shone brightly as if aetherius itself was pouring from the cracks, and the giant stone face that was a door shifted upwards, revealing a passage way. 'Somehow' he had opened it with his inferior Dragon blood. He glanced over to Esbern who appeared to be smirking, and suddenly hated the man even more.
'It's probably because I'm a Tsaesci. And it opened to the creator of locks kind,' he thought to himself, knowing that his kind would never be 'pro-Dragonborn', but annoyed that this probably strengthened Esberns ignorance on the topic.
As the trio walked up the steps Resh wondered if this was the end, because so far it looked amazing, he definitely wanted to live here once the Thalmor arrested these two. He'd make it the Tsaesci embassy when he got the chance.
The Tsaesci was snapped out of his musings when they were greeted by the sight of a magnificent interior, there were beautiful carvings and depictions all over the walls, leading Resh to fall in love with the place immediately, it reminded him of some of the older buildings back at his home.
That was however until he saw the ornately drawn wall, with patterns representing Dragons, and the Dragon god Alduin…
Resh was so caught up in anger at what he saw he missed most of what Esbern said, not that he cared to listen. "-It appears ancient Nords actually used a shout to defeat Alduin-"
"Shut the fuck up!" he shouted, silencing the old man. "This, this…" Resh stumbled over his words in rage before finally finishing, an outstretched pointing finger shaking in anger. "Monstrosity! it's defiled this great place! You disgusting Nords have ruined what was an outpost of my people, an ancient memory of my ancestors. And you've ruined it!"
Esbern recoiled in shock, trying to explain. "It was always like this, it's an Akaviri proph-"
Seething with unadulterated rage he continued, cutting him off again. "And what's worse, as well as destroying and tainting a historical treasure of my kind. You create this mockery and claim it's made by us, even going so far as to find a way to carve it exactly how we would!"
"What are you talking about? the Akaviri people worshipped the Dragonborn the time they first saw one. They made this prophecy about Alduins death after meeting him, this is genuinely from them," he stammered out, Delphine had reached for her weapon, but was hesitant after seeing the larger man freak out for no reason. Hopefully he was only going to shout.
"Liar! it makes no sense! why would a species of Dragon haters worship someone who is one?!" he hissed, none of what the Nord was saying could be true. Yet the walls design was so… authentic…
The old Blade was shouting too now, pissed off at the mans denial, and how strangely he was acting, as if he was one of them,"They just did! that's what all the books say! that's what that potentate says! that's what the wall says! it what every single Tamrielic record says! only you disagree!"
"Well that means everyone else is wrong! I am a Tsaesci! I should know more than you! you know what fuck it, I don't care anymore, fuck you," he snapped, throwing his arms in the air as if he had given up. It was all too much to handle, it clearly wasn't true, it couldn't be, but the wall was authentic Tsaesci carving, and he could see Esbern wasn't lying to him, he was just wrong.
"Honestly, I don't know if you are insane, or you actually are a Tsaesci and are just overreacting, but you obviously do care, so listen. This says that to stop Alduin you need a shout, one made by humans, I wouldn't know where to start with something like this though, but it needs to be done," Esbern told him, trying to calm the man down, he seemed distraught.
Delphine finally spoke up now, still keeping a hand on her sword. "You should start with the Greybeards, I don't like them, but they are the only one's who could know anything about this shout."
"Just shut up," he snapped, not wanting to hear any more nonsense about 'shouting' or 'Dragonborns'. "You know what, I would kill you two right now for saying all this if it wasn't for the fact my new friends have shown up for your arrest."
The two looked confused for a moment, before looking behind and seeing the Thalmor filtering through the passage they walked through themselves. Delphine pulled her sword out all the way preparing to fight but lowered it after seeing how many there were. "You bastard! you sold us out for no reason when we were trying to help you!"
"I made it clear I wanted nothing to do with you or the Blades long ago. The Thalmor on the other hand? they did want something, and Elenwen asked me to help them out, so I did. There is no problem with this, everybody wins. Me, the Thalmor, if this horrible wall is true then the rest of the world too. the only people who don't are you. But I don't care about that as you lie about my kind and try to protect someone because they are a Dragon!" he growled even more, his tone getting more angry with each syllable until he was close to yelling.
The Blades decided not to even bother argue as the robes were tied around their hands, and sighed in defeat at the betrayal. Not understanding why this had happened to them, especially coming from a Nord, or even a Tsaesci if he wasn't just insane.
Delphine hissed in pain as the lead Thalmor tightened the rope a little too hard, instead of loosening it he did it again, whispering in her ear. "You like that? over the trip things will get a lot more painful than that. I'm in charge here and I haven't had a fuck in ages.
Picking this up with his Tsaesci hearing, Resh dashed over as fast as he could in a state of pure rage, seeing nothing but red, and snapped the leader Thalmor's neck, ripping his skull and spine from his torso, and hissed at the headless corpse. To be honest it looked as if Delphine was about to do the same thing, seeing as somehow her hands were already out of the binds, but Resh beat her to it. She was clearly no damsel in distress, shown by the annoyed look on her face when he killed the Agent instead of her doing it.
Immediately at that the other Justicars got ready to attack him at what he did, but he shouted. "I have diplomatic immunity! deal with it! I can do what I want! besides, did you hear what he said? it was disgusting, that sort of thing is horrible and he deserves to die and how someone that detestable could get in charge is beyond me. Anyone who thinks the same way will get a similar fate, believe me when I say I will personally execute anyone who does think that way without question or second thought."
They lowered their weapons slowly, but begrudgingly accepted he was right. After seeing this Resh smirked, tying Delphine's hands together again, but with a better type of knot so there was no escape possible. "I guess this is my team now. Back to the embassy then, take the prisoners, these disgusting people tried to lie about my people. I can definitely see why you hate the Blades…"
Also, I feel I should say, congratulations reviewer number 500, you are awesome for getting it, three cheers for, 'TheGreatJabberyJamie', damn, that guy's the best.
Resh POV
The journey to the embassy had been pretty uneventful in all senses of the word, some things happened, but nothing overly interesting, that could have delayed them, the Thalmor were nothing if not efficient. Resh liked that.
Neither of the Blades had tried to escape, either due to the obviousness that they couldn't escape, or the fact Resh was far superior than that scumbag he killed at tying knots, probably the latter. The only thing that had really delayed their trip was the fact the three inferior races had to sleep during the night.
He had heard murmurs of discontent between his new 'lackeys' but, they all knew full well that if they tried to displace his new leadership they would get the same treatment as their old leader. They could probably all take him on at once and win, but they all well aware that he was practically untouchable, Elenwen had ensured that. So if he didn't do it, the rest of the Thalmor would kill them.
It was obvious the Altmer agents knew something was 'off' with him, seeing as he didn't sleep, didn't act like a Nord, and was high up in the Thalmor, but Resh didn't care, he was in a bad mood, so would genuinely be happy if one of them caused trouble, so he would have a reason to vent his frustration by ripping someone limb from limb and having a decent meal.
His anger wasn't just directed at the last leader of the band of Justicars and his despicable actions, which he would be raising to questions next time he spoke with Elenwen to find out how someone like him got to the rank he did. But also because of Lydia, to the best of his knowledge human gestation lasted nine moon cycles, and it had already been about seven and half of them. Although he was annoyed at her for various reasons, he still expected a letter or something to that effect.
Maybe he was just expecting things too early though, he was sure when the final few weeks came about he would be offered an olive branch in the form of some kind of invitation to be at the birth, which he still wanted despite all the high tensions in the group.
Other than seeing his future child Resh also wanted to see Kayci again, he didn't trust her around Brelyna anymore, although he knew his anger was mostly an 'in the moment' thing he knew he had cause to be upset, big cause, so would definitely have to do a bit of questioning there to find out the context behind it all. For now though he still had a minimum of one and a half weeks to do get stuff done. He supposed he should probably talk to the Greybeards again concerning the 'shout' used to defeat Alduin. He didn't want to, or believe it, but if he could kill the God of dragons he would be content, he would still avoid shouting though.
With any luck it would only take about a week to get to the High Hrothgar himself, and he could deal with whatever they wanted him to do before the birth, he was running short on time, but he was sure he could do everything perfectly.
Now though? he needed to have a little talk with Elenwen, about the capture of the Blades, and what had happened on the trip with the ex-leader. This was a serious issue, one Resh needed to know about.
Elenwen POV
It hadn't been unexpected when Resh marched through her office's doors, it was something she saw happening a lot in the future, he was a very independent and forceful man, one who would clearly say when he is not happy with something. Fortunately despite all that, at the end of the day, was still a man. And that alone meant he was putty in her fingers regardless of his views.
"I captured those Blades for you," he muttered, something irking at him, her guess was that it was to do with the head Justiciar he had killed. The other Thalmor had sent letters off to her, but she was still wondering why he did it in the first place. She didn't really care if he was just abusing his power or if he had a reason, but it was better to know.
"That's excellent," she purred, walking over to him and glancing up slightly to look him in the eyes. "Remember what I said what would happen if you did a favour for me? I'd say this is a pretty big favour, worthy of a pretty big rew-"
"I haven't finished yet," he snapped, surprising her slightly. She quickly collected herself though, and cooly let him continue. "One of your Justiciars, the leader one. He… said something I had to kill him for."
Elenwen frowned, if he would kill someone just for saying something she wondered how safe she was being around him let alone trying to fuck him. "What did he say that irritated you so much?"
"He… implied he was going to molest one of the prisoners. I snapped his neck as soon as he did it to save you lot the hassle of executing him yourself. But I was just wondering how something that sickening and evil could be a trait someone promoted to that rank could have," Resh explained, sounding more and more annoyed with each word.
This worried the Emissary, if that is what he did to someone merely mentioning the act of something like that she could only imagine what he would do if he found out what Elenwen had ordered all those years ago. She liked to think she could manipulate the man, but knew that if he learned the truth nothing would stop him. "I'll be sure to enforce regular screenings on soldiers and Agents to ensure nothing like this happens again, and a punishment would be immediate execution."
"Good, that's just what I wanted," Rehs smiled, pleased that somehow the Altmer could grant all his wishes without him even asking. "Anything less would not have gone down well with my kind. If they found out something like that was happening and the Thalmor wasn't doing absolutely everything they could to prevent it there would be an all out slaughter. We don't even have a word for this problem, it just doesn't happen. So I wouldn't expect anything short of a war."
Elenwen managed to hide it, but on the inside she was actually panicking, something she rarely did. If Resh learned that not only had the Thalmor, mostly herself, condoned Kayci abuse, but enforced it he would go crazy and kill everyone without a doubt, triggering a war. And a war was definitely not what they needed, any conflict with the Thalmor directly would be devastating, it would cause the Legion to overthrow them too at the opportunity, so she couldn't allow that to happen.
Resh took her silence as agreement and continued, "I also feel I should let you know that after I visit High Hrothgar I plan on going back to the College to see my friends before my child is born, so I won't be able to help you when I get there in a couple of weeks."
"No!" the Ambassador spluttered, before seeing what she had done and speaking normally again. "You can't leave High Hrothgar that early. You need to err, start a peace conference, to temporarily halt the civil war while the Dragons are here. It's too dangerous for Skyrim to be in turmoil."
The Tsaesci was confused, "Why do you care? surely their war wouldn't matter to you."
He was right, if anything the war was a benefit to the Thalmor currently, but she just needed an excuse to keep him from the College as long as possible, this could potentially add another few weeks before he set off to the College, and by then she might have figured something out. "Because… I need to… get you a city I promised, I'm sure if we negotiate things properly I could give you an entire city, and the Tsaesci a foothold in Tamriel. You just need to get the Greybeards to start a conference and a treaty. And all the factions will meet at High Hrothgar, including me to do some negotiating.
He was a little uneasy with the timing, but nodded anyway, preparing to leave without another word. It seemed he wasn't in the mood for a fuck, and rightly so, considering his anger at the Justiciar, which would definitely be a problem considering what she herself had ordered to happen to his best friend.
She thought to what she could do about his friends, seeing as the moment they saw him they would tell the truth. It wasn't a preferable choice, but it was the only viable one if she wanted to keep the truth from him.
'I need to kill them, I can't jeapordise an alliance like this. It needs to look like an accident and not Thalmor intervention, but either way they need to all die. Kayci, Brelyna, Lydia, and… Resh' child. It has to happen or everything will be ruined, it's for the greater good.' Elenwen thought sullenly before sifting through her list of potential assassins. It needed to be done, but killing a pregnant woman, and the baby of her lover was a little extreme even for her.