The Mad Queen

Kaisa woke slowly in her bed at the inn and groaned, not wanting to leave the safety of her soft and warm bed. Rolling onto her back she stared up at the ceiling to her room and sighed.

"Why do mornings exist?" Kaisa whined dramatically, complete with arm thrown over her eyes.

Resigning herself to her fate she rolled to her feet and somehow managed to keep her stumbling to a minimal. Lady Magnessen had left the night before due to her cover being in danger. Kaisa didn't blame her in the slightest, she had only been in the Iliac Bay for a day and she already wanted to get the hell out. Pulling her still way to big orc armor on she clanked her way down the stairs and towards the fairy to take her to Daggerfall, or as close to it as they could. Arriving at the fairy she shoved some Septims into his hands as he eyed her way to big armor hanging off her form with a mixture of confusion and humor. Thankfully he didn't say anything and simply waited for her to tell him her destination.

"Daggerfall please."

"Right away miss," he said simply before turning to the task.

Kaisa sat at one of the benches and looked out over the bay. Aside from it trying to kill her yesterday it really was a beautiful view. With the rolling grasslands and forest of Highrock to the north and the endless dunes of Hammerfell to the south, it was a sharp contrast of green verses brown. About mid-day the fairy dropped her off at a small village with the instructions to head due north and she would reach Daggerfall by late afternoon. True to his word she arrived just as the sun was setting. Luckily, she managed to catch the blacksmith still at his shop and she approached him with hopeful eyes. Armed with her best pout she assaulted him with the most pitiful look she could muster. Her turned towards her about to say something but stopped at the potency of her assault. His eyes traveled up and down her figure a full three times before he finally found his voice.

"Say no more, put it over there and let me get your measurements, I'll start working on it in the morning," he said despite Kaisa not actually saying anything.

"Thank you, you're my hero," Kaisa purred earning a deep blush from him.

Half an hour later and a down payment of virtually all the Septims she had found in the ruin she made her way to the safe house that thankfully was just across the street. She would have to make her stops in the morning due to everything being closed. The safe house was a simple two room home. The front door opened to a work room of sorts with a fire pit and bench for doing maintenance on armor and weapons. An arched cut out in the wall led to the second room that contained a fireplace, dining table, bed, and some dressers. She was happy to see a shrine to Debilla on a nightstand next to the bed and she ran her fingers across it. Kaisa smiled at the warmth that filled her when she did. She always had an affinity towards Debilla and considering Kaisa's mouth watering beauty it seamed only natural. Kaisa spent the afternoon making the space hers before falling face first into the bed.

She spent the next day waiting on her armor to be resized, and selling all the jewels she found. Walking out with a few thousand Septims she now had enough to finish paying off the blacksmith. Kaisa assumed that she would spend a lot of time traveling so food and a tent were on her list of things to acquire as well. Her final stop before the returning to the blacksmith was an alchemist's shop to turn those bats she collected into very potent cure disease potions. Finally with all her shopping finished she returned to the blacksmith with a hopeful smile.

"Right on time miss, I just finished," he said cheerfully.

"That's wonderful, thank you," Kaisa said handing over the rest that she owed him.

"My pleasure, although would you mind putting it on, just to double check the measurements."

"Sure."

Turns out everything fit just fine and with a small tip for altering it slightly to show off her feminine assets and still protect, she was out the door. Once again it was too late in the day to go see the Royal Family so she went back to the safe house to rest for the night.

The next morning found herself climbing the marbled steps of the throne room and face to face with the beautiful Queen Aubk-I. Her dark brown skin looked smooth and glowed with a healthy light. Her long dark hair framed her round face and full rosy lips smiled up at her.

"Your majesty," Kasia said bowing her head and curtsying deeply.

"Speak," she said as her eyes traveled Kaisa's beautiful face and body.

Noticing the Queens roving eyes she stood with a smirk.

"I hear you are looking for mercenaries, I would like to offer my services."

"Yes, I need someone to check on my husband's poor grandmother Nulfaga. We have not heard from her since the late King's death."

"What's the catch?"

The question obviously caught the Queen off guard as she just dumbly looked up at her.

"You don't need a mercenary to do a curtesy call, which means there is danger involved. I would like to know what kind so I can keep my beautiful ass intact," Kaisa said crossing her arms.

"That would be a shame," the Queen mumbled before catching herself and shaking her head, "I'm afraid Nulfaga hasn't been herself since the death of her son and Nulfaga is a mage of considerable power. Depending on her mental state, entering her castle could be…dangerous."

"I see…I accept, where is her castle?"

The Queen's handmaiden handed her a map of the Iliac Bay and pointed to a castle far to the east. Kaisa whistled at the distance she would be traveling; it was to the north of Wayrest.

"Know a good horse trader, that is a pit much to walk?" Kaisa said pocketing the map.

Granted it would probably be faster to take a ship to Wayrest and then go north from there but she was hesitant to go by ship considering how her last naval experience went.

"A horse will be waiting for you at the castle gates," the Queen said matter of factly.

"That works for me, if there is nothing else, I will start immediately?" getting no objection, she turned and headed for the castle gates.

The week-long journey was thankfully peaceful and she found herself looking up at Nulfaga's modest castle. It was clear that this was a castle in name only and this couldn't hold off an assault any better than a peasant house. When she shouldered the door open, she immediately got the impression that something was definitely wrong. Cautiously heading towards where she thought the old bitty would be, she stumbled across her first thing trying to kill her. A mage who flung lightning at her the moment he saw her and forced her to dive behind the corner as the stone next to chipped at the lighting striking it. Waiting for the lightning to stop she flowed around the stone corner with arrow notched. She saw the mages eyes widen in fear as the arrow flew home and buried itself in his neck. Stepping over the body she continued her search and quickly ducked as the fireball impacted against the wall where her face had been a moment ago. The Imp snarled at her and prepared another ball while Kaisa raised her shield and charged the little monster. The Imp launched the fireball that washed harmlessly across Kaisa's shield. Kaisa rammed the floating Imp with the shield sending it flying into the wall and before he could recover Kaisa impaled the creature with her ebony dagger. Repeating the process with two more Imps Kaisa finally came face to face with Nulfaga.

"My Lady, are you well?" Kaisa cautiously ventured noting the unfocused eyes.

What she got in return was just mangled gibberish about her son. Kaisa tried several times to get her attention but nothing worked. Just when she was about to turn and leave those eyes suddenly snapped into focus on Kaisa.

"You! How did you not drown in the storm I conjured?"

For a moment Kaisa just stood there looking at the old woman. That storm that appeared to have come out of nowhere was caused by her! Anger flared in Kaisa at the revelation and she had to restrain herself from decking the old woman. The only thing keeping Kaisa from taking revenge was she was pretty sure Queen Aubk-I would not take kindly to learning Kaisa punched the mother of the late King. Suddenly a type of clarity came over Nulfaga and remorse washed over her face.

"But you are not responsible for my son's death…I apologize for that."

Kaisa opened her mouth to respond but was cut off as the clarity was short lived and Nulfaga was back to rambling about her son. Sighing, Kaisa turned around and began heading back to Daggerfall. Her mission was to verify Nulfaga's condition which Kaisa had accomplished. She was crazy but alive, hopefully that would satisfy the Queen and mark her as a trusted asset. Getting in good with the Royal Family was critical to Kaisa finding information on how the late King died. One thing Kaisa did gleam from Nulfaga's rambling was she very much believed that her son was murdered. If she could figure out how and why he was murdered that could tell her how to lay his spirit to rest so his ghost would stop terrorizing Daggerfall at night. Although it was strange that Lysindius' spectral army never entered any buildings at night, just roamed the streets.

"Aubk-I better have a damn good reward for this," Kaisa grumbled as she swung onto her horse and began the long trek back to Daggerfall.