Chapter 9

A Fortuitous Meeting


Salazar stood outside of his guest room, greeting each of the guards who had come to investigate the scene. With each one, he got a crisp, well-rehearsed salute and a stern look before they entered. If nothing, the Palace Guard were disciplined. None of them engaged in conversation except in short, hushed bursts with Captain Redaxe to discuss what they discovered. Redaxe had recently explained to Salazar that there was an opened window on this floor where the assailants could get in. No one had seen them and no other bodies had been found, at least not yet. Just as I thought. Real professionals. Salazar thought. Dead guards were a liability and to be avoided at all cost. The less evidence you were there, the better.

Salazar had to admire the audacity of this Drenavan fellow. Sending assassins to kill him in the Imperial Palace was reckless, even foolish. It would damage what little relations Morrowind had with the Empire, possibly irreparably. He was desperate: losing grip on power. The heads of the Noble Houses of Morrowind were probably at his throat after his successor and many of his lieutenants were killed in a single fell swoop. They wanted results he couldn't provide. Salazar knew the feeling.

A beautiful woman in her mid-twenties with brown hair in a braid, dressed in fine robes and decked with gold and silver, brought him out of his reverie. "General Salazar-jiin, I am very pleased to make your acquaintance." She said, her eyes looking him up and down in a way that unnerved him.

"Enchanted, my lady." Salazar said, bowing down to kiss her hand. He'd only heard descriptions, but if his hunch was correct, this was the emperor's wife. A ruthless woman named Sylvana Dantius. Her marriage to the much younger emperor was arranged as a political ploy to throw suspicion off of the Elder Council after Titus Mede II's assassination. According to his sources, she'd suggested the idea to her father. "I am sorry for the current unpleasantness. I would have preferred to meet under better circumstances."

"As would I," Sylvana said, looking inside the room with little reaction, as if she'd seen the aftermath of a failed assassination attempt before, "I will have to have the Captain reprimanded for his laxness, but, alas, my husband and his soft heart will most likely stop that in its tracks."

"You seem to know my name, my lady, but it appears I do not know yours," Salazar said, giving her his best approximation of honest curiosity.

"Oh, of course! Where are my manners? I am Sylvana Dantius, wife to our glorious Emperor, Titus Mede III." Sylvana said, in a way that made her seem slightly absent-minded and clumsy. Salazar knew better.

Salazar gave her a low bow and did not rise until given permission by a raise of her hand. "Forgive me, my empress. I would have recognized you had I been to court. I'm sure I could not have forgotten such beauty even had I seen it only once." Salazar said, lacing his words with honey.

"You flatter me, General," The skin around her eyes tightened almost imperceptibly. Almost. "My husband has asked me to accompany you to dinner. If you would be so kind as to follow me to the dining hall?" She held an arm pointing down the hall.

"Yes, my lady," Salazar said.

Salazar followed behind the queen. The hall was a fifteen-foot tall expanse of stone lit by sconces on the wall, giving it a hollow feeling that reminded him of Skyrim's deepest barrows. Banners bearing the Imperial sigil and vast tapestries showing the heroism of several Septim Dynasty emperors lined the walls. He supposed this was one of the few places in the Palace that hadn't been burned during the Great War.

"You're quite good at that, you know." The Empress said, taking in the tapestries like he was.

"Good at what, my lady? I don't quite follow." Salazar replied.

"Don't act dumb, General. It's beneath you. We're out of earshot. We can speak openly." The Empress answered without answering, stopping in front of a tapestry depicting Akatosh defeating Mehrunes Dagon at the end of the Third Era.

"Have I done something to offend, my lady? If so, I-"

The Empress put a hand up to silence him. "Lying, Salazar," she said with a disappointed sigh, "You knew who I was without any introduction necessary. I saw it in your eyes."

"Ah," Salazar said, deciding to change his tact, "The eyes betray the intentions of the mind quite often. You're a good liar as well."

"Oh? And how is that, General?" Sylvana asked, turning to him.

"I didn't flatter you. In fact, you seem to be repulsed by comments about your appearance. You've heard them all before, so you're exhausted by them. I'm a walking lizard, so that didn't aid matters much. A woman in high standing like yourself has been bothered endlessly by older men all her life. Not that the men her age were any better, of course." Salazar said, giving her a small smile.

"Perceptive. Despite the fact you jump to conclusions too quickly for my liking, you were correct in your assumptions." She said. "I wonder who your etiquette tutor was. You take to it quite naturally."

Salazar's smile tightened. He'd had no etiquette tutor. He read a manual on the subject and had Boras give him a small amount of coaching on the way to Cyrodiil. "I suppose I'm just talented, my lady."

Sylvana seemed to notice the small change in his demeanor and smiled back. "Whatever small amount of coaching you've had won't help you in court, General. They will pick your carcass clean like those charming piranhas in your homeland."

"Am I to assume that you will be among the piranhas, then?" Salazar asked.

Sylvana turned back to the tapestry, taking her time to answer. When she finally did, Salazar finally understood why her reputation preceded her so well. "No. I do not concern myself with small prey such as yourself. My game is not to take small bites among a school of equally small fools trying to do the same. I like to bask in the sun for a while before taking down larger prey in one fell swoop. In that way, I suppose I am a crocodile." She let him stew on that comment for a while before turning back down the hall, motioning him to follow. "As much as I'd enjoy to continue chatting about Black Marsh ecology, my husband awaits us in the dining hall."