Resh POV
"Kayci, I'm going to leave today and put you in charge of all of this for a while," Resh announced as he intercepted her walk to the excavation site. "I'm going to fight dragons and I need someone I can trust to look after Markarth."
"I'm kind of busy Resh, you just sent me to help some geek kill a spider that's scaring him, why don't you just leave the steward in charge? it is his job to take over in times like this," she suggested, sighing as she continued going toward where her 'chore' was.
Resh growled, wondering why he still had the man in his high up members of court. "I don't even know him, it would be stupid to give him absolute power, whereas I know you would never abuse it."
She smiled. "That you trust me that much is great, but I still don't think I should do it, I was so shit the last time I was Queen do you really want to do that again?"
"Good point," he stated, before muttering. "It's not like I have a choice though is it? basically, you'll have to try and make as few decisions as possible."
"I guess I can try then, I'll start once I finish all this spider nonsense" she smirked. "I'll try to refrain from renaming the country to 'Kaycitopia' while I'm at it. This place still needs a new name though, 'the Reach' is shit in my opinion."
"Okay, does that mean I should stay a few more days? as for names, if you want you can try thinking of one, just don't change anything without my permission," Resh told her, he wanted a 'Tsaesci' sounding name for his new country as well.
"Yeah that'd be great if you could stay a little longer. You could even write to the other and get them down here so you could see them before you leave. Brelyna's College term is going to be over so she'll have a good couple of months she can visit, it'll be great for her to see where we could be living," Kayci went on happily, pleased with how things were turning out.
Frowning Resh snapped at her. "I don't want her in my Kingdom, she will stay at the College like always. Lydia is free to come down though, but not the Elf."
"I hate to say this, but she's coming down Resh, she's my girlfriend, I decide. I know you have some friction because of some events you barely understand, but you'll have to get over it, you have to admit, she isn't as bad as you thought she was," she explained, knowing that on some level he knew Brelyna wasn't trying to be cruel for no reason, but in the hopes of finding out where she was.
Having the Dunmer here would be a terrible idea, she would likely influence Kayci's judgement due to their particular kind of relationship, and it could be bad for the country. "Kayci, I said 'no'-"
"And I said yes. Even if you stay King it won't make a difference, you can't just 'not let someone in' because of misplaced personal feelings, it's just wrong," she argued, with any luck she could change his mind, it was unlikely but she'd rather have him on board too.
"Fine, but I am leaving before she gets here, and I don't want to see her when I get back! the only reason I am even letting you do this is because I can't do anything to stop it, that and because Lydia and the baby need an escort for their trip," he growled, he may hate the woman but his blood and lover came first.
Kayci practically squealed in joy. "I can't wait, the four of us will be back together again! you said you won't be around but you will be, I know it. I should tell Lydia everything, like how you mentioned she would be your Que-"
"That didn't happen," the current King hissed.
He got a laugh in response. "Yeah it did, and she's knowing. I'll see if I can prepare something, it'll be brilliant!"
Resh growled and tried to change the subject. "I managed to talk to that Forsworn man, he said if I let him go back to his people he would think about it some more. He still thinks the Reach is for him and his people, but he seems satisfied about how I'm not a Nord, and all the freedoms I am giving him. I'm sure I can trust him too."
Kayci paused for a few moments before giggling again. "You're going to get married! it'll be awesome, even if I have to force you into it you're doing it. We'll be like one happy family, especially when Brelyna gets here, I can't wait."
Closing his eyes in frustration Resh left her to her job. 'I can't keep the two apart so I just need to find a way to keep Brelyna from inevitabley influencing Kayci's decisions when she comes down. She's bound to say something, and Kayci will obviously listen, so something must be done…"
Resh's Letter
To Brelyna
I know we are not on the best terms as of recently, and there are reasons for that, of which I am sure you are sorry. But this is important, and I am willing to put my hatred aside for a while to sort some things out.
As I'm sure you know by now I have a Kingdom at my disposal which I have been managing while here. But I have to go soon, not because of personal problems I'm sure Kayci will tell you about, but because of what I am, and my duties to slay Alduin and the Dragons.
The letter is an… invitation to you to come to Markarth with Lydia as well, I am sure she would want to see the new place she'll be living, make sure that she doesn't believe what Kayci tells her I said too, because I didn't. Bear in mind you have only earned this invitation for helping with Lydia, were it not for that, and Kayci's persistence, I would have let you die from that assassin.
Lydia can stay when she wants, but you're here on the condition that you ensure Kayci doesn't do anything stupid when she's in charge as Queen, after one day she already made a lot of trouble, so I need someone somewhat intelligent to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid.
Now, to be clear, you are not going to be Queen while I am away, you will not make any choices, you will command no one. You are Kayci's advisor, that is all, you are to make sure that she doesn't do anything stupid like she has done before, and help her make the right choices.
I have faith in you enough that I hope you won't manipulate her completely and make every move for her when it's her choice. We both know that she doesn't know any better, and will do anything you say if you tell her to, so I trust that you will let her make the decisions.
If, and only if, you do this well, and Kayci maintains her role as Queen making her own choices with you advising not ruling, you can consider this offer an apology from me for being hostile towards you, and a hope that we can forget the whole incident.
Failing this, there will be repercussions…
- Resh
P.S. Tell Lydia I'm sorry I won't be able to see the child, I really want to, but I can't, she shouldn't see me like this.
Finally, check out KhajiitWarriorSam and their work, I love it so much I drew some fanart for it, I am very lazy so that means a lot, so go check it out cause I think it is that good.
Brelyna POV
Nudging the Nord beside her Brelyna gestured to the massive Dwemer palace they were walking through, pointing to all the statues and decoration. "How are you not astounded at this place? It's amazing, and I can't believe you aren't impressed considering the father of your child rules this country."
"It is big and grand, but in case you haven't notice, I actually have a child I care about more than any building, so am not really paying much attention. It will be great though when Resh gets to see Lissandra again, he didn't have time to contact her at the College," Lydia replied, looking down at her barely a month old baby. Luckily for her they had a fairly short trip to Markarth, and had fortunately managed to avoid any dangers that could have beset them.
"Fair enough, but still, with all the resources and servants you'll likely have now she should be easy to raise from now on. I guess you'll be considering this your new home," Brelyna continued as they walked to the throne room. "I'm not sure how happy Resh will be to see me, as the tone in his letter implied he didn't really want me here but had to, I should probably thank Kayci for that."
"I can't imagine he has completely forgiven you yet, so Kayci likely was the cause for the letter, so he'd give you a second chance," the Nord muttered. "I'll make sure to sort things out, I'm sure now we can be together again in the same place for a while we'll be okay, no more annoying hormones."
Brelyna frowned, still unsure. "If you say so…"
"Damn right I say so, give me five minutes around him and I can guarantee you two will be best of friends again," Lydia smirked, she knew Resh well enough to know he was a nice guy at heart, and that even if he was annoyed at the Dunmer he wouldn't stick to unnecessary hate.
All plans of that were dashed however when they saw who was currently in Resh's seat. "Hey! you're here!" Kayci shouted, jumping off the throne and running towards them, promptly wrapping Brelyna in a strong hug. "Guess what?"
Brelyna sighed. "That people who ask 'guess what' aren't expecting an ans-"
"Resh left about four days early, so I get more time as Queen!" she excitedly told her. "Can you believe that? I'm royalty now, it's so cool. I think you should start advising me already, I've already had to turn down loads of decision making recently ."
"He's already gone?" Lydia piped up disappointedly. "I was hoping we'd have some time together, he could help look after Lissandra and be with her…"
"I can't bring Resh back as he's doing important dragon-killing stuff, but I can get you some help with the child. My first order of business is to give you as many servants to help you as you want, pick all you want about them too, race, age, gender, who they like to fuck, which Divine or Daedra they worship etcetera, etcetera," Kayci laughed, before looking over at Brelyna for confirmation. "Of course that is if you advise me to…"
Brelyna frowned. "I would advise you to avoid being so discriminatory in the… 'choices' you give her. And Kayci, I hope you don't think I'm going to make these choices for you, I'm an advisor, and Resh made it very clear he doesn't want me here, and won't forgive me if I take over everything."
"So…" the Tsaesci said slowly after several moments thinking. "Is that a yes or a no?"
"It's not my choice to make," Brelyna said.
"I know, but in your opinion should I give her servants or not?"
"Again, it's not my choice, I'm only going to tell you the pro's and cons of things from now on," the Dunmer muttered in annoyance, knowing she would likely be doing a lot of 'advising' in the foreseeable future.
"If is was your choice though what would you s-"
"But it's not."
"But if it were up to you though what wo-"
"Shut up! it's not up to me, it's up to you!" she quickly snapped, silencing the Queen of the Reach, who suddenly looked very despondent at her harshness, prompting the Dark Elf to immediately feel sorry for her. "This is going to be a long couple of weeks isn't it?"
Resh POV
Instead of running to High Hrothgar, Resh decided to take his time on this occasion, he had already set off early to avoid seeing the others, so he could go slowly. It would probably take him a few more days at least to get to the Throat of the World.
He was already regretting putting Kayci as Queen again, and telling Brelyna she could advise. Outright telling her she could only give unbiased opinions was the only way he could think of to stop Brelyna making the decisions for Kayci when she inevitably went to see her lover, but he still felt uncomfortable with it. He trusted her vaguely, but still didn't like her at all, but he guessed if all went well then he must have been wrong about her.
It didn't make him happy about it all though, with any luck after seeing what was on the Elder Scroll in a few days time he would be able to deal with Alduin quickly and get back to sort thing out himself. Maybe even get back together with Lydia too and see the child more.
Brelyna POV
Surprising for the most part things had gone well, she hadn't dictated what was to happen herself, yet still managed to stop Kayci making bad decisions. Occasionally Kayci slipped away for a few hours a day, where, Brelyna didn't know, but it was likely to escape the stress of leadership. The way things were going Resh would have no choice but to forgive her.
Despite all this the mage couldn't help but feel at ill ease, in the few days she had been with Kayci again they hadn't once even mentioned the Thalmor that had tortured her lover. And she knew it was either very good, or more likely very bad, the bitch might have managed to escape.
"I hope you don't mind me asking this Kayci," Brelyna started once the two were alone, so that Lissandra would not be subject to this conversations details. "I know it's hard for you, but what happened with… Elenwen…?"
Of all the ways Brelyna thought she would react to hearing her abusers name the Dunmer did not at all foresee what happened next, Kayci laughed, after a few moments passed Brelyna snapped her fingers to get her attention, prompting her to start speaking again. "Do you want to see?"
Nodding instead of giving an enthusiastic answer like she wanted to about the Thalmor bitch, Brelyna followed her lover down to the new Cidhna prison, past all the normal cells and living area, but to what seemed like a private room.
Already guessing what was behind the door Brelyna smiled, it was the first genuine one she has about good news in a long time. As expected the Dunmer was greeted by the sight of the emissary hanging off the wall. Or better put, the husk that evil woman.
"This is where I've been going every so often," Kayci smirked before gesturing to the ragged Altmer. Her clothes were ragged and torn all over and several of her fingers were nothing but ragged stumps, or twisted bleeding messes; not just that, but there were burn marks and cuts all over, not those from a conventional blade though, but seemingly the remains of a well applicated painful torture weapon.
Brelyna jabbed her in the side, prodding what seemed to be a large chunk missing from the Thalmor. Almost immediately this got Elenwen to jolt awake and twist away in pain, hissing at the feel as the wound was clearly untreated too.
Smirking, Kayci continued. "I would've just killed her for revenge, but unfortunately for her she felt like she could mess with me and Resh, so any chance she had for mercy is definitely gone."
The Dunmer frowned, wondering if by 'mess with Resh' Kayci was just referring to his protectiveness of her or something more. "What exactly do you mean by that?"
Her girlfriends face immediately lost all cheeriness as she was forced to remember the most recent issue. "It is unlikely he would want me to tell you… I'm sorry abo-"
She was unable to finish before the Ex-Thalmor managed to cut in, laughing in pain and hysterics. "The bitch couldn't even handle the tiniest fraction of what I did to Kayci over here! seriously, I would be embarrassed if I were friends with such a fucking coward who doesn't know how to take something like a man!"
As quick as a flash Kayci hands were around the woman's neck, tightening to the extent almost no air got through, stopping her from carrying on about the evils she had done. "The 'tiniest fraction' is still awful and wrong! and you deserve every scrap of pain you're going to get for the rest of your life for raping him too!" she shouted, before letting go and storming a few steps away in anger, she didn't want to kill her and lose all the torture time.
Rubbing her throat once the Tsaesci had released her so she could speak Elenwen laughed. "Oh, cause that alone is so fucking wrong?! nothing you've done to me is bad at all is it? Torture? mutilation? Why do you draw the line at rape!? why!? it's no different, no worse, probably even less bad than some things you've done!"
"It just is!" she snapped. "It's taking pleasure from anothers suffering, and is painful and traumatic, both mentally and physically!"
"Ever had actual torture like this? I can tell you now it's a fuck of a lot more painful that unwanted sex that pathetic scum like yourself and the coward can't hand-"
"That's enough talking for you," Kayci hissed, stopping the Altmer continuing by shoving a hand into her throat and grasping her tongue. "If you want to keep this you had better shut the fuck up."
Brelyna watched the scene unfold in a combination of glee and horror, wanting nothing more than to see Elenwen in this position, but not sure if she was comfortable with Kayci doing the work. However much the Elf deserved to die for being evil, in many respects she didn't deserve lifelong torture…
About two weeks ago I was playing Borderlands 2 with a fanfiction author you may know, (whose work is really amazing and you should check out) 'SpiritOfJazz' (you will no doubt find a link to their account when she criticises this authors note). And then all of a second, as I was tricked into dropping my treasured grenade mod the author in question stole it from me! I begged and pleaded for it back, but my cries fell on deaf ears as they threw it out of the map, rendering it useless.
I write the authors note to explain the woes of my life, and to tell you not to believe a word that amazingly talented writer says! (P.S. there are no hard feelings in this banter, so no one actually think SoJ is genuinely cruel.