Hope y'all enjoy!
POV: Briljof
Up until this point my life had been rather… eventful. Not in the way of marvelous adventures but more in the way of me barely surviving from day to day. It wasn't like I was born in poverty either; I was born to a rather wealthy family. Never wanted for anything when I was young and my parents always encouraged me on whatever I did. I loved my parents and they loved me.
My father, a former legionare scout for the Empire, taught me how to hunt, track and kill prey in all forms and sizes. Got good at it by the time I reached my eigth winter; so much so that he would let me go out on my own at times. My mother was an alchemist and tried to teach me; Talos knows she did but it never stuck. The only thing that did stick from her was which ingredients were harmful and which ones would help me. That in and of itself saved me more times than anything my father taught me but making potions flew straight over my head.
Other than that my mother often told me of Skyrim and her home. She still had family near Whiterun and wished she to see them once more. She also instilled my faith in the Nordic Gods. My father wasn't much of one for religion but I didn't blame him for it. It's just how it is.
Either way I wasn't much good at anything else despite trying to learn new things. I was an 'okay' cook but that was the best I had besides fighting, hunting and foraging. By my 9th winter I was the best in the entire city as a hunter. Hells, I started challenging myself to see how close I could get to the animals I hunted. Getting close enough to literally pet the deer I was hunting before slitting its throat and taking it home.
Where it all went sideways was when the war started; it started out of nowhere for me. Having just reached my 11th winter I had been scouted by the Legionare school and after a few talks with them between myself and my father it seemed that my father was a former commander for the Hircine Division; HD they liked to call it. It was the group that would essentially be the assassins for the Empire; that or the ones that would go in and sabotage anything they needed to. In other words, they were the best of the best and my father had been one of them and they wanted me as well.
I never reached them though as on the way to the school to begin our convoy was attacked by the Thalmor. The anger and rage that coarse through me at realizing the Empire had been betrayed and attacked by the Thalmor was indiscribable to me. Like a white hot rage and there was nothing that could be done about it. I was still a child who was weak and had next to no magic against some of the best the Thalmor had to offer. Survival was not possible through rage.
That attack sparked the war between the Empire and the Thalmor and resulted in me and two other survivors ending up in chains. I was surprised that they didn't kill me outright as they had done to a few others. I found out why they didn't barely a day later when I was introduced to my new 'owner'.
I was a slave in all but name and knew it. Even gave me a gods damned collar around my neck with a fucking leash. It was degrading but if there was one thing I knew from being a hunter was that patience was what was needed. So, I shut my mouth, did what they told me like a good slave and waited for my moment.
Many of the other slaves saw me being obedient and treated me harshly as a result. More than a few hunger and beatings went hand in hand curtesy of my fellow slaves. It continued my whole time as a slave; never getting easier. Deviating from the course of just taking it though would spell death. Patience was the only path in which I could obtain my freedom.
The lack of food and beatings nearly killed me several times over but eventually they became a boon. All of the other slaves were either shipped off or outright killed; many cursing my name before they met their fates. My goal was to win and to survive and to do that I needed to stay in the same spot. That boon from the obedience worked though as my slavers eventually started giving me more freedom. They always watched me but could never keep watch at all times.
So when the opportunity presented itself I gathered ingredients around the place that I knew would do harm or work in my favor. It helped that at that point I was in charge of cataloging the incoming shipments. I, of course, had people watching me but like before they couldn't keep an eye on me at all times. Resulting in anything that could help me, wouldn't be missed and wasn't strapped down disappearing.
A few petals of Deathbell, bits Ash Creep Clusters, a Charus egg and a couple other things that would either kill them or effect their stamina. Regardless I kept collecting all of those ingredients one at a time and at increments to never raise suspicion. Helped that the Thalmor were so arrogant they never bothered to check me or go through my room thoroughly.
I wasn't able to do anything with them for years but let them ferment and they gained in strength as they fermented. During my 12th and 15th winters I gained the attention of a few of the guards. Guards that liked kids in every sense but I was blessed in the fact that men were under threat of castration to do anything like that to us. However, the women guards were not and they actively sought me out. I hated every moment of it but there wasn't anything to be done but take it; I wasn't strong, fast or powerful enough in magic to do anything to them.
There were more than a few nights during their 'visits' that found me curled up in a ball regretting not fighting back. It made me feel dirty in some sense but at the end of the day it only enraged me further. Rage that couldn't be used and had no outlet except for putting it towards the Thalmor. With no outlet for the rage I held onto it and let it stew waiting for my opportunity. One that eventually came.
They were understaffed as their cook and assistance had an 'accident' the day prior of a feast with plenty of high ups within the Thalmor coming to where I was; about 100ish leagues from the Empires border. All of them looked down upon me as they saw me but after all this time they finally let me operate alone and within the kitchen I worked. I slaved for six hours making one hell of a feast; all of it seasoned perfectly with everything I had nicked over the years. My fingers becoming deft and my cooking skills skyrocketing over the years because of this plan.
Either way, all of them ate my meal and loved it for a about 2 hours, enough for everyone including the guards to get some bites before they began dropping like flies. Even the others slaves who were usually given scraps from the meals got enough to eat.. Enough that when the poison set in every single one of them began to die. If they didn't die outright they suffered slowly until I got to them.
Of those few that clinged to life I slit all of their necks with a smile on my face. I waited years for this and I made sure to enjoy it. When it was all said and done I stood alone in the main hall surrounded by over 120 dead bodies. Smiling at my work I thought about burning the place down but decided against it.
Not for the reason that it was impractical or that I didn't want to but because there were still guards alive. Guards that weren't anywhere near the hall when it happened but within the facility that would eventually check out the hall to see how it was going. It was a tense time slitting the throats of the dying and more than a few would end up suffering for a while as there wasn't time to get to them. All should die though as it wasn't out of the realm of possibility for a couple to survive as I had to loot them before leaving.
I left the place with nothing to my name except for what I was able to stuff into a pack for myself. Namely some cooking and camping equipment along with a pair of glass daggers the high ranking Thalmor had along with a bow and a quiver with 37 arrows in it. I also made sure to change into a set of scout clothes and have an extra set just in case. That was everything that I had with me not counting a couple strips of salted meat.
From there I spent the next year evading Thalmor patrols and squads as they hunted me. Even in the unfamiliar territory of the Summerset Isles I was still damn near undetectable in the wilderness. Most of the time when they would get a whiff of my trail I would either completely evade them or turn it against them and hunt them down. I got extremely good at it over the couse of half the year until my 16th winter.
When my 16th winter began the patrols and squads sent out to find me became almost nonexistant. I was curious as to why that was and spent a couple weeks trying to find out the reason. I overheard a bard singing through the windows of an Inn. Apparently the Empire and the Thalmor had signed the White-Gold Concordant and that the war was mostly over.
I knew I couldn't just announce my presence though as it would end with my death regardless of whether the war was over or not. This ended up being the right move as I found out that Hammerfell hadn't signed the 'treaty'. I may have not been as learned as I could have but knew the treaty was anything but a treaty. It was a stoppage until either side felt they could win. Though the fact that the Empire outlawed Talos worship and allowed Thalmor access within their army was almost as infuriating as it was stupid. Especially since the Thalmor didn't allow the Empire the same amount of access.
Still, I calmed myself as there was nothing that I could do about it. Once I had calmed down I continued on my way out of the Summerset Isles and snuck aboard a ship headed towards Hammerfell. It was a 'merchant' ship filled with Thalmor but they all assumed I was a deck hand and left me mostly alone. Some of the women did try and their luck with me which was annoying but it was easier to just allow it to happen then to fight it. Thalmor women were never the right ones to deny, that's how you ended up disappearing; a fact I knew from my time as a slave.
I kept my mouth shut and dealt with it all the way to Hammerfell before we disembarked. Waiting longer than most to get off and when I did I made my way deep into the fighting. Avoiding most fights where I was outnumbered but kept moving at all times. The desert was unforgiving and I had to scavenge more than a few dead bodies for their clothes, water and any food that they had on them.
As unforgiving as the Desert was after the first two weeks there I started to understand how it worked. Not that there was something intricate about it but there was always life teeming everywhere, even in the desert. Learning to find and or make my own shade within it along with getting water. Using the actual air around me to make my own water after watching one of the native Redguards do it. The process took hours but the water was as pure as you were going to find anywhere Tamriel.
Either way when I wasn't learning the land or just surviving I was hunting the Thalmor. Taking shots at their soldiers in the dead of night or laying traps along the paths that they were bound to take. Most of the traps didn't kill them but would wound them which out in the dessert was almost as good. They weren't used to this weather and only had a limited amount of supplies to survive and healing someone took magika and magika took energy. You would need to eat afterwards and if a bunch of the soldiers kept getting hurt you would either need to heal them or make them deal with it.
Whichever choice they ended up making was good for both myself and the natives of Hammerfell. As one would exhaust their healers and supplies and the other would make their soldiers less effective and they wouldn't be able to travel as far as normal. Both would slow them down and leave them vulnerable to the elements of the desert. Something that was just as much a death sentence as fighting in the war was.
Those methods along with hit and run tactics I would implement alone earned a lot of hatred from the Thalmor and a lot of love from the Redguards. Though it made the Thalmor occupied cities on the coast suffer more than usual by about a year into my stay in Hammerfell those cities were almost entirely abandoned by the Redguards. The rest of the cities were firmly under the Redguards control.
Still, I kept the methods up and eventually I earned a nickname from the Redguards that the Thalmor used with disdain. One that stuck with the people of Hammerfell; they called me Onsi's Envoy which I had no idea what it meant until I made my way to a city. The only reason I went to the city was because I had gotten wounded during a skirmish in which I made a few costly mistakes. Which ended up with me getting shot in the leg by an arrow and electrocuted before escaping.
The arrow was already out but the bleeding wasn't stopping; my guess was because the sparks kept making me twitch which kept the blood flowing. Plus, the wound in my leg had gotten dirt and mud in it; it needed to be cleaned and I couldn't waste water until I got closer to the city. Something that ended up being possible but a visit to the cities healer was still needed.
When I made it to the gates of the city the guards let me in without hesitation which was weird and shouldn't have been the case. Resulting in my having a hand on one of my daggers at all time as I didn't know why it was happening. The people in the city all poking their heads out of the buildings to look at me set me even further on edge. It was offset when a kid ran out of a house towards me and politely, for a child, asked me what I was looking for. When she found out it was the Healers she told me the way.
Getting there the Healers treated me and were very nice about it which was surprising as the Redguards of Hammerfell were notoriously cautious of outsiders. Either way after talking to a few of the healers as they treated me I found out the reason they even treated me was because they heard of me. Apparently rumors of a foreigner wandering the wastes of the desert attacking and killing Thalmor had boosted the confidence of the Redgaurd soldeirs. Then for me to appear shows that the rumors were true and that Onsi had helped them once again.
Being of the Nordic religion I had no idea who Onsi was at the time but the Healer explained it to me. Onsi was one of their warrior gods and was the one that taught humanity how to turn their daggers to swords as they said. I didn't exactly know the terminology there, still don't, but I assumed that Onsi taught them how to be better fighters. So it made sense that they were happy that Onsi was helping them again; hence the name: Onsi's Envoy.
Still, after being helped by the Healers I was going to leave the city until the guard planted themselves outside of the Healers. They politely asked me to accompany them and seeing as there were twelve of them, all heavily armored, I decided to go with them. No point in dying a fool's death. Especially when the best magic I could use was healing and even then I had very little magika to actually use.
Going with the guards I would find out that they were looking to conscript me for my services. I would work with a group of two or three other scouts and head out into the desert or where we were needed and do what I had been donig. Hit and run tactics and generally just making Thalmor lives miserable. It seemed like a good deal to me so I took it and within a month I was back out in the desert with three Redguards to aid me; two men and one woman.
With more bodies to help me it became a double-edged sword. On one hand more hands made for easier work in dealing with the Thalmor and we were able to do far more damage to them than I would be able to alone. However, at the same time more bodies meant more mouths to feed. So we couldn't just scavenge like I usually did or just loot a single body and leave. We needed to hunt and if we did loot we looted multiple people or their stores of food. All of which slowed us down in moving around.
The three with me were hardy though and knew the desert far better than myself. Even though we were slower than what I wanted us to be they knew all the places we needed to go for clean water and sources of food within the desert. It was sort of fun what we were doing in a way just because there was nothing else to worry about. All we had was the desert around us and the people next to us against the Thalmor. It was simple and easy.
We worked like that together for three continuous years. Rarely did we see anyone who could be considered a commander for us and even rarer did we see the inside of a city. Most nights we spent out in the desert and sleeping together for warmth at night to deal with the temperature drops. Before them I would wrap myself in anything I could find or bury myself in the sand. Option two was about as comfortable as you would think it was.
Regardless we worked amazingly well together until we finally made a myriad of mistakes. It wasn't much of our own fault; things just cascaded downwards in a path of bad luck that was actually insane. Just nothing went right for us for a solid two weeks straight after three years of perfection those two weeks nothing went right for us. Resulted in my loosing one of the men to a Thalmor mage and the other one broke his arm when engaged in melee combat with a Thalmor. I killed the Thalmor with an arrow to the throat before he could kill my soldier.
As for the woman, she was still kicking and helping where she could. It was just that she had a pile of injuries on her that when they were documented took half a day to put together. The thing about that though was that they were all minor and she could still fight and ride with them. Not comfortably or anywhere near where she normally was when healthy but she could still do it.
I wasn't unscathed either with several long slashes across my chest along with missing a quarter of my right ear from an arrow to start. My left leg had burns across a good portion from a hastily made fire rune; if it had been a regular one I would've been dead or lost the leg for sure. I was now missing my left pinky as it had gotten infected and I cut it off so I wouldn't loose the arm.
Plus my whole left side of my body had pock marks for scars from when a mage had exploded a wooden barrel sending shrapnel into my body. The explosion was far enough away that I wasn't in any real danger from the shrapnel but it gave me a wound on my pinky; one that got infected and forced me to amputate it. Loosing the pinky in terms of prowess with my bow or knives was insignificant; it was just annoying and made me more recognizable. Something that completely eliminated me from going into towns with a Thalmor presence.
All that happened within a few weeks of each other and at the end of it I decided we needed a long break. We marched ourselves back to the capital on a slow pace and frankly we barely made it halfway there. There was no way we would've been able to make it all the way with the supplies we had as none of us were in any shape to hunt or gather. We were graced by Talos though as the Hammerfell army found and began to treat us.
We were given clean bills of health after a couple days but the one in charge, General Vhoslian, sent us back to the capital. He sent us with a group of soldiers who needed to be rotated off the front and the injured along with us. I helped hunt or gather when I could so I wasn't just dead weight. My two compatriots took that time to relax with each other. In plenty of ways if that is understandable. If not, they were having sex; a lot of it.
Moving on from that when we got to the capital after being healed I spent most of my time learning anythingthat they would teach an outsider. From weapon handling to sewing and healing practices. I never said no to learning which gave me a wide array of useful skills to survive. Plus, they taught me a few ways to deal with magic; Runes mostly.
Not magic runes of course, runes that had to be etched into the armor or clothes one wore. The only problem with that though was that you needed a soul gem to do so and you needed to inscribe the runes during the process of making the clothes or armor. These runes would resist or outright negate magic depending on how good the inscription was. All depended on who was making them. I wasn't very good at it, even remotely, but I was good enough that if I was hit in chest with a fireball I wouldn't catch fire. That was good enough at the time.
As for the inscribing of the Runes it wasn't to be mistaken for enchanting. You could enchant anything, to my knowledge, but it would be on a set charge for how good or how many uses it had; even armor had a counter in that regard. Runes didn't have that and were generally longer lasting for the flip side of being ridiculously hard to get to work and far more time consuming to create. For example a suit of enchanted armor and weapon will take about a tenth of a day to fully enchant while inscribing runes for the same thing will take days, at minimum. That's not mentioning that if you mess up the inscription even once its useless; you can backtrack on enchantments.
Beyond that I spent a night or two a month at the local brothel for the next several months. When I was ready to move on and get back into the fight the army gave me a new group as the woman was now pregnant and the man had shown an incredible aptitude for smithing and was now working as a blacksmith. Regardless I left a new group of three, all males this time, and we made our way across the desert to where the fighting was the fiercest.
The info we had was that if the Thalmor lost there then the war would be over within a couple of months. With that information spurring us on we made our way there to get our orders from whoever was in charge. Upon getting there and meeting with said general we got the order to cut down all supplies going to the Thalmor. An order that put us deep in enemy controlled territory hunting shipments of food and other supplies.
Even knowing the danger of the order we did as asked and hunted those convoys. As a group we were nowhere near big enough to outright attack them but we did what we could. Picking them off at certain advantageous points that would force them to slow down. Sabotaging their wagons or outright destroying their food and water. No point in doing anything with the weapons they carried as without food or water they would have no energy to use the weapons.
That's what we did for months and had a mostly spotless record along the whole way as we wrecked havoc on the Thalmor. The few times they sent out groups after us we simply gave them the run around until they got lost. Then we picked off one by one as the desert did most of the work for us. We rarely got into a head to head confrontation with the Thalmor.
The few times that we did we came out on top almost purely because of the runes that we got inscribed onto our armor. Had to pay a ridiculous sum for them but it was worth it as we would've been dead several times over without them. We were always outnumbered when we had to fight them and they had mages who could both support their own and attack us. We were heavily outclassed in that regard but always won anyways.
They couldn't make up for the fact that we could move faster than them in the desert. Were more accurate in the environment with our arrows and could hide from them even in broad daylight. That last one took me over two years to perfect but when I did it was scary. I could basically disappear in the middle of a fight by simply going into the shadows before attacking them from a new angle. I am convinced Lady Nocturnal favors me.
Either way, my arrows and daggers were plenty drenched in elven blood after a few months of fighting. When those months, four as I would find out later, ended the wagons and convoys of the Thalmor stopped going through the paths. After a two week spell of this we made our way back to the General to see if they needed us for anything. They didn't, they won. With that fight won the war had an inevitable conclusion; it just depended on how quickly the Thalmor would cut their losses.
As for my group and I the three who had been with me were folded back into their scout regiment. I was cut loose with a rather large sack of gold and a grateful thank you from the people of Hammerfell. I ended up putting most of the money into a new set of armor that was inscribed with runes by the best runesmith and blacksmith in the capital.
Full body coverage with the hardened leather capable to taking a greatsword to it without letting it through. Flexible so I could move and do just about all I wanted without having to worry about being constricted and lightweight. All inscribed with Runes from a master to make magic useless against it. It was perfect.
Almost all of my remaining gold on getting two new daggers. Ebony made with runes inscribed on them to make sure that they never loose their edge and were indestructible. I thought about doing the same with a new bow but it wasn't worth it in the end. Bows are generally very long lasting unless treated like trash and you can't inscribe bow string with runes. It would've just been a waste of gold.
After spending my money on that stuff I had 30 gold coins left. 20 of which went to the Inn to allow me to stay while I waited for my orders to be finished. With ten left I did was any respectable man almost to his 20th winter would do. I went to a brothel but was happily told that I wouldn't have to pay along as I did something for them.
This sent me on the path to be a mercenary for the next year and a half until the Thalmor fully pulled out of Hammerfell. During that year and a half I made an absolutely insane amount of money. People would pay out for the head of anyone that had wronged them in the past and they would pay a good sum for it. I generally tried to keep it to Thalmor as even if any Redguards saw it happen they wouldn't say anything about it. However, there were a few that the pay was just too much to walk away from. Especially the contracts that the Redguard generals would give me on capturing Thalmor captains or others like them. With my armor and skills at sneaking around I got all of them that I was asked to.
Most of them deserved it as they were slavers or ones that had sold out others to the Thalmor so that they would survive. I understood the latter but that didn't make it any more acceptable. Regardless I killed or caught people for a fair amount of money over that time. Once that time came to end though and the Thalmor had officially pulled out of Hammerfell I took a good month to relax.
Though I did find out that the Thalmor had officially put a rather sizable bounty on my head of 4000 gold coins. An amount that really had me curious if I could turn myself in but I digress. I found out that that had given me the name Pinky, which was just as fucking insulting as you would think. I thought about going after them on principle but held off. Either way, with the war now over and mercenaries everywhere having a 4,000 gold bounty on my head was not good for me.
That was multiplied when I heard whispers of the Dark Brotherhood snooping around. They were apparently not happy at all that I had taken several of their contracts and didn't need them hunting me as well in Hammerfell. The Thieves guild was the same but less of looking for reimbursement they were looking to hire me to start up a guild in Hammerfell. Something that if they had come to me 10 winters from now I would consider but not now.
With that information I decided to leave Hammerfell. There were plenty of places I wanted to visit but decided on going to Skyrim. I don't know if my mom's family is still near Whiterun like she said but at this point it was the best way to get in touch with her if she was still alive. It had been almost 10 winters since we last saw each other.
Getting near the border was easy enough with a bit of pay and the promise of protection to a caravan of traders. It took a few good months of travel to get close to the border but it all ended when we got close. A squadron of Imperial troops were denying entry to anyone not with the Empire. A statement that infuriated the merchants almost to the point of having an all out fight.
Cooler heads prevailed and they turned around and decided that they would take their goods somewhere else. As for me, I thanked them for the company, especially a couple of the women, and left them a few leagues after we turned around. I wasn't alone in my endevor there however as one of the others who had travelled for protection instead of paying was with me.
I didn't know the woman's name but we had met before as she had been with some of the platoons and soldiers who gave me orders during the war in Hammerfell. She was almost as tall as me and with blood red hair, emerald green eyes and a weird combination of both hard and soft looks. Someone who was naturally beautiful but had been hardened by war and fighting. Sculpted like a Nordic beauty she was. She was also a couple winters older than me and the most important bit was that she was a mage.
Mages were looked on with scorn in Hammerfell as their religion viewed them as blasphemous. They were generally not trusted at best and attacked outright at worst until they left the city they were in. So for one to not only fight for Hammerfell as more than just a mercenary but to do so far years was impressive. Told me that she was an expert at her craft at the very least. Best guess for why she was going to Skyrim though was to attend the College of Winterhold.
We chatted idly at the time as we avoided the patrols with her following my lead there as it was obvious I was the sneakier of the two of us. She did contribute by casting Muffle on the both of us making me damn near undetectable and her a fair bit better than she was without it. Either way I found out that she was indeed going to the College but not to learn; she was on her way there to help in teaching Destruction magic. Said she loved teaching the other orphans when she was younger and wanted to do it again.
So yeah, found out she was an orphan and mostly in the same boat as me for background. Had been scouted by the Empire for magika training when she was younger but unlike myself, made it and was a few years into studying when the war started. Upon finding out the terms of the Concordant between the Empire and the Thalmor she deserted because of her worship of Talos would've led her to be imprisoned. Then she made her way to Hammerfell and continued the fight there. With the war over she wanted to head to Skyrim to teach and relax away from war.
Found out that she was had just passed her 24th winter as well. Making her three winters older than me and that was the last thing we were able to talk about as we crossed the border. We shook hands and split up and I honestly didn't think I would see her again for at least a long while.
Continuing on my way through the forest past the border of Skyrim and into the land proper; well almost. I was a few leagues away from being in the clear when everything went to hell. Fighting erupted barely a hundred paces to my right with a barrage of fireballs to start off. Most of which missed whoever their targets were and slammed into the trees around me with the first one to be fired hitting me square in the chest as I had turned to look at the sound of fighting erupting.
It sent me flying a couple feet through the air and slammed my back into a tree; had to be master level. Groaning from the pain I got up from my spot on the ground and started to make my way away from the fighting. I didn't know who was fighting at the time and didn't care to be caught up in it. I made it barely 200 paces before realizing a group of at least five were chasing me.
Upon realizing that I knocked an arrow and got behind a tree and waited for them to get closer, relying on my ears to carry me as they had before in the desert while hunting. The moment one was within ten paces I popped out from behind the tree and fired. My arrow finding its home straight through the mans helmet. Only then did I realize that these were legionares but I couldn't afford to care. They were after me for a reason or another and it was going to be a fight.
Knocking another arrow I located the archer of the group and fired before she was able to recover from seeing her, probable, commander get killed in front of her. My arrow went straight through her neck and she fell to the ground grasping at her neck but I heard the gurgling; she wasn't long for the world unless a proficient healer was within 10 seconds of her.
I knocked another arrow and tried to fire at the one with the shield but he had recovered and blocked it with his shield before charging me. Thing about a shield charged though is if your the only one doing it your legs were extremely vulnerable; especially with the other two swordsmen a good ten paces behind him at the start. As he charged I waited until he was within two paces before firing another arrow. It went straight through his shin breaking the bone and forcing him to a knee.
The moment the arrow was released I was already in motion though and had taken out one of my knives. Catching the edge of his shield with my bow before yanking it to the side leaving his neck exposed and his sword on the wrong side I plunged the knife into his neck before ripping it out. His veins and throat sliced in half as the knife exited his neck.
Finishing him off the other two swordsmen were already on me attacking. It took me all of two seconds to realize that these soldiers were green at best. Maybe not the Commander but the rest of the group had to be green; this was far too easy. I had spent the last almost six winters escaping and fighting Thalmor death squads along with hunting them in the desert. Plus sparring Redguards consistently who were considered on par with Nordic warriors; the best the Empire had to offer. So it was possible that they were just completely outclassed however.
It should've been an easy fight as one was disarmed within five seconds and the other had been kicked away leaving him open to die. Before the killing blow could be made a fireball flew at me forcing me to dodge and letting the man. Taking a quick glance at where the fireball had come I saw six mid level mages, denoted by their markings, not 20 paces from me. Seeing that I decided to cut my losses and retreat.
It was the right decision to make but that didn't mean it gave good results. Made it barely 30 paces deeper into the woods before I was hit dead center in the chest with three master level lighting bolts. Gasping at the pain and falling my body instinctually knocked an arrow and fired at where one of the bolts had come from. Getting a scream of pain in return but then a fireball in answer that hit me in the back and slamming me face down.
Slowly standing back up after surprisingly not dying I got to see myself surrounded. The two swordment from before along with six Mages chasing me and three mages in front of me; all of higher rank than the ones behind me. Though one of the three in front of me was sporting an arrow from their shoulder.
"You are under arrest for sedition against the Empire and siding with the Stormcloaks. Surrender now and you will get a fair trial, if not you will die here," one of the mages in front of me had stated.
It was easy to tell from looking at the man's young and baby fat ladden face that he was both still idealistic and stupid. I wouldn't get a trial but they would let me live long enough to figure a way out. I wasn't going to be able to do that surrounded by Nine mages on all sides with absolutely no cover and no element of surprise. Surrendering was my only possible option for both finding a way out and finding out what the Hells a Stormcloak is.
They took my bow, both my rune inscribed daggers and my leather armor. Stripping me to the bone leaving me in my undergarments only and marched me back to where the others were. The ones I didn't recognize were all armored up in bluish armor with a bear on it; Windhelm's symbol if I remembered correctly.
Though surrounding them was soldiers of the empire and not just a scouting party either. There was a good 100 men around not counting the ones dead or dying for the Empire. Just for this small bit of land by the border, I was definitely missing something here. As for the others on the ground tied up that looked high ranking only one stood out. He was gagged which was weird but I had heard of why; the Thu'um. Magic through using ones voice.
Then I noticed that the Thalmor were here as well; only about six of them but all of them looked high and mighty. Nothing would've made me feel better than to kill them but it wasn't possible at the moment. Though the fact that they had already removed my clothes and weapons along with binding my hands together was a gift from the gods. If the Thalmor had seen my armor, weapons and my severed pinky they would've put it together and death would've been guaranteed.
Pushing those thoughts from my mind I noticed that the woman from earlier was here as well but she was on the ground bleeding from a head wound. She was still breathing though and her head wasn't deformed in any way, just a skin deep cut was my best guess but she would be dizzy when she woke up.
Not much later we were loaded up onto carts and they began taking us somewhere. I was loaded up with the woman and the gagged man along with two others who were among the high ranking soldiers captured. From there they began taking us somewhere and split us from the main group of prisoners early on. I don't know where we were going but the woman was beginning to stir. Her eyes snapping open and locked onto mine.
"Ah, you're finally awake," I stated to her. And that's been my life until now.
That's the first chapter for my Elder Scrolls Series. This will be the main one I write with the Star Wars one coming and going as I please or as inspiration strikes. Every other week this will be updated at the minimum. Shooting for every week around this time.