6 Frostfall, 4E202 - The way home

The corridor opened into the throne room of Castle Vahkmaar, and many soldiers fell defending it. But when three Orcs and two humans finally stood on its polished marble floor, they met no resistance - not even from the high bridge above, usually occupied by guard archers. They too now lay dead below.

The throne was empty and the teleport in the centre of the room was inactive. The Orc mage started casting a spell to activate it, tension was literally visible around him.


"This is when last time a fresh group of archers turned up on that bridge and started shooting at Ghortarius," Hauk whispered to Dar-Pha, shivering. "So far the story repeated itself almost in every detail..."

"Almost," she whispered back, not taking her eyes off the bridge, a throwing knife at the ready. Hauk readied a fireball, and Lena did the same, quickly realising what they were expecting. But no archers appeared, and Ghortarius was able to keep the teleport active for everyone to jump in, himself included.

"Well, move along, move along," Lena heard his even-toned voice. They materialised in a small chamber, a research laboratory of some sort, with bookcase-lined walls and alchemical equipment taking up most of the room. "Do try not to break anything, it's a bother getting replacements. There's a large chamber just ahead, we can talk there," he added, touching Lena on the arm. She stifled her curiosity and obeyed.

The large chamber had a suitably large round table in the middle, and everyone was taking seats around it, so Lena did the same.

"All right, and now you tell us everything," Dar-Pha's black eyes were burning through Lena. "Don't make me ask twice."

"But..." Lena momentarily panicked, then collected herself. "There isn't much to tell. Hauk was getting delirious with fever, his scorpion poison wound reopened, flesh all black around it, he said it was from a magically corrupt scorpion, that it kept coming back from time to time, and when he lost consciousness, I decided to take us both to wherever that wound would lead us in the hope to cure it... And we emerged in the Swallows. I don't know how we got into prison from there."

"That's the easy bit," Ghortarius dismissed Lena's unasked question. "We have a problem with shattered past. Never mind that now. How did you get from wherever you were to the Swallows? That isn't an easy feat."

"I..." Lena stumbled and blushed, turning deep purple.

"She's a vampire, she drank his corrupted blood," Dar-Pha answered in her stead. "And something else... a poison of some kind. They both died, and emerged in the Void, where Hauk's Sight led them to the Swallows. The rest you know," she looked at Ghortarius and he nodded.

"How..." Lena started, looking at Dar-Pha wide-eyed. "And where are we now?"

"I have the Sight too," Dar-Pha's eyes smiled, you could not see her mouth under her veil. "So don't ever try to lie to me," she added and the smile vanished. "We are on Alsorna - an island in Antaloor. The real Antaloor, we are no longer in the Void. And you are far from home."

It wasn't Lena's first trip to the Void, and she knew that she had to die to enter it. She also knew she could return. But never in her dreams did she think she would return to a different world than the one she had left. Well, it wasn't technically a different world, you could take a ship and sail back to Tamriel, you would arrive in a few months, provided the ship was strong and the crew experienced... Such journeys were not without peril. But people undertook them, in fact Hauk had done it many years ago. But several months at sea wasn't something Lena was looking forward to.

"Oh come on, Dar-Pha, she meant well - you are being too harsh," Ghortarius smiled but his tone was mocking. "Humans. Inferior to mer in every way. Yet so much more dangerous." He looked disgusted. "But I suppose we'll have to help you and return you home," he sighed. "Although Hauk is welcome to stay, of course." He looked at Hauk with an expression that could almost pass for fondness.

"You have been very quiet," Rogdor suddenly spoke up, having kept quiet thus far himself. "What is your version of events, Hauk?"

"The same as everyone else's I guess," he shrugged. "Two things I don't understand though: what were you all doing in the Void, and why are you helping me again?" He looked at the Orcs around the table, lingering on Dar-Pha a little longer than on the others.

"We need you again," Rogdor offered. "Shattered past - what Ghortarius mentioned. It isn't as bad as it was last time, it's worse. But on the other hand, there is no rush because time itself broke. You can leave now, but we need you to come back."

"Come back when your child can walk," Dar-Pha's eyes smiled again. "I'll be waiting."

Ghortarius, Rogdor and Lena got up and left the room, with Ghortarius motioning Lena to follow. He led her to the laboratory with the teleport in the corner.

"If you ever had plans for Hauk, drop them now," he faced her, but he didn't look unkind and his disgusted expression vanished. "I don't actually hate humans, but I'm an Orc, it's expected. Getting here was no mean feat, even for an Orc. What magic did you use? What poison..?" He was going to ask more questions, then changed his mind, interrupting himself. "You can tell me later, we need to give Hauk and Dar-Pha some time. You need to eat and sleep too, you child needs rest and sustenance. Use the room across the hall, you'll find everything there... I don't expect Hauk will need it any longer. I shall send you both home when you are ready."

...

It was several days before Lena saw Hauk again. Oh, she heard him - he was in the castle... fort... fortress... whatever that building was called. He was busy, and Lena didn't want to interrupt. Hauk had had a life in Antaloor, she suddenly realised. A life that he had left behind when he boarded that ship bound for Tamriel, never expecting to return, because you only made such a journey once in a lifetime. What would he do now? Would he want to stay?

"I am sorry I've been preoccupied," Hauk approached Lena sitting on a clearing overlooking the bay. "Dar-Pha... she's rather special to me," he shuffled uneasily. "I never thought I'd see her again... And when I said I loved you - I meant it, I still do... But..."

"I know," Lena smiled at him. "I love you too, but... there's a reason I'm marrying Lucien."

Hauk took her hand and squeezed it gently.

"You are my best friend," he said softly. "My very best friend - make no mistake. Yes, I think we understand each other." He paused, sitting down next to her. "It's peaceful here now, or at least it seems that way." They were looking at the fortress rising from the sea. "We can leave when you are ready. We shall emerge on the beach in Anequina where we started, on the same day, if Ghortarius gets it right. He usually does. I shall come back here in a few years time, when my son can walk." He put his hand around Lena, pulling her close. "But I shall return to Tamriel again. And may be this time... who knows..."

"Your son?" Lena smiled, shooting him a sideways glance. "You sound certain."

"I told you, if it's mine, it's a boy - it runs in the family."

Lena shook her head, smiling at such stubbornness and wishful thinking. Men.

8 Frostfall, 4E202 - Going South

"Is that what passes for roads here?" Hauk was looking at a twisting path ahead of them. "It's just a marking on the side of a cliff!"


"Oh, it's not as bad as that," Lena was peering into the distance too. "I'm sure it gets better further on. Let's go."

After that disturbing journey into the Void with a detour through Antaloor, Lena and Hauk spent a couple of days relaxing on the beach in Anequina. Hauk's poisoned wound had closed, but the whole experience left them both rather shaken. Eventually when they'd had enough of crab meat and coconut water, they decided to go South into Pelletine, towards Torval and Senchal, and this was the road they were looking at.

The coastal scenery was splendid, but after Roach stumbled on sharp rocks a few times, Lena found it necessary to watch the road more than to watch the scenery. She had to admit, Hauk had a point.

"The Imperial Highway Code is very clear on this," he continued with annoyance. "A road must have a flat surface, be devoid of debris and vegetation and preferably be paved. And above all, it must be passable, mounted and on foot. Can you imagine a horse pulling a heavily loaded cart along here? It would tumble into the sea in no time!" Luna gave a loud snort as she too stumbled on a sharp rock. "There! Again!"

The road soon turned into the jungle, just as they came up to a small settlement of Tenmar. Just three houses there - a Mages Guild, a House for Sale and a single owned house. Several guards patrolled the area, but there were no guard barracks in sight.

"Do you ever sleep at all?" Hauk struck a conversation with one of the guards who was pacing nervously up and down the square.

"Khajiit sleeps every night, yes," the guard responded, sounding surprised. "Unless Khajiit is on guard duty, then he does not sleep," he clarified. "Does the Nord not do the same?"

"Yes, of course we do the same," Hauk nodded, suddenly realising how strange his question must have appeared. "But I see no guard barracks here..."

"Khajiit does not need barracks, Khajiit is one with nature," the guard replied proudly, looking down at Hauk, as difficult as it was for a short person to look down onto a tall person.

"Khajiit talks rubbish," the second guard joined the conversation. "Tenmar has no guard barracks, no place to sleep for Khajiit, no place to eat, nothing! It's the worst posting Khajiit has ever had!" He glared at the first guard as if it was his fault. "Too much skooma is not good even for the Khajiit!"

And with that the two guards turned around and marched off, resuming their nervous patrol of the village square.

"Yeah, it's a bit of a rotten post, to be honest with you," a Legion soldier further up nodded, noticing the newcomers. "There's an old fort just by the coast, but it is not in use, and frankly I'd rather take my chances with the forest spiders sleeping rough here by the village than trying to clear that fort." He looked at Lena and Hauk with a hope in his eyes. "May be some adventurer like yourselves will deal with it eventually... Or better yet, may be I get transferred some place else!"

Well, that didn't sound very promising, so they tried the Mages Guild. The mages seemed happy enough there, but also somehow nervous, constantly pacing up and down the hall.

"No-no, it's nothing," one of the mages hastened to reassure them. "N-nothing at all. W-we are just a bit... hot... you know... the weather..."

It was of course rather warm outside, but inside the building it was nice and cool, so Lena and Hauk couldn't quite figure out what would be the matter... But after their recent adventure they had no wish to delve into this particular mystery. Perhaps later.

"So, where can we get from here?" Lena changed the topic. "We are looking to get to Senchal or Torval, in no particular order."

"Well, they are both South," the mage smiled at her. "But both quite far away, you won't get there in a day, and travelling through the jungle at night... well... get your summons ready, and even then..." Somehow Lena got the feeling that the mage was advising her not to travel South at all...

Which was obviously completely unacceptable, so after lunch they set off straight South from Tenmar, going through the jungle rather than along the coast.

After a couple of hours riding, they came to a dead end. A large rock with a door was blocking their way, with "Torval" and "Senchal" road signs pointing at it.

"Are we supposed to take the tunnel?" Lena tried the door, and moist air wafted at her from within. "Roach won't be able to do it."

"Typical," Hauk got annoyed again. "There's a clearing behind this rock, and also a clearing going to the right, so it looks like they intended to make roads there, but then stopped for some reason and dug a tunnel instead."

"Or used a pre-existing tunnel, more like," Lena nodded. "What do we do?"

"Let's try this trail to the right," Hauk peered into the jungle. "It's been cleared of trees, let's hope it will lead us somewhere."

The trail was actually a pretty decent road, even if not paved. Paving wasn't required by the Imperial Highway Code, but flat surface was. Lena decided it was a good road, and the mood lifted. Right up to the point when they went head over heels down the slope where the road suddenly ended in a nearly vertical mossy hill.

"Blasted Khajiit and their skooma!" Hauk was beyond annoyed now. "That's why there was that rock going into a root tunnel!"

The good news however was that the hill ended in an actual paved surface... even though the lack of flatness disqualified it from the title "road".


The sideways incline got worse further on, and Roach and Luna were hanging on for dear life, considering that paving rocks were just as slippery as the moss, if not more so.

Eventually the road straightened out, and they came upon another tiny settlement with just two houses and no one in sight. The paved road ended in another cave entrance with signs pointing into it.

"No, we are not trying to ride past this tunnel entrance!" Lena protested. "Roach will break her ankle next time for sure, and then what will we do? Let's go back."

"Go back where?" Hauk shook his head. "If you remember, that hillside we tumbled down, was pretty steep and slippery, there's no way we can get up there from this side."

"Then we'll find another way," Lena was adamant. "We'll get through the jungle if we have to! We are going back to Tenmar and we'll try the coastal road tomorrow."

"...or whenever Luna agrees to carry me again," Hauk muttered, patting Luna who seemed to quite agree with his assessment.

The sun was setting when they went past the hillside that they had tumbled down earlier. There was no way to climb back up, so they continued following the paving, which straightened out eventually and could be called a "road" again. Then that too came to an abrupt stop - just got swallowed by the jungle. Lena and Hauk had to turn back.

"All right, this stretch of woods looks pretty flat," Lena was trying to see into the jungle, but it was very dense and the canopy made the twilight into complete darkness. "Let's go," she turned to Hauk. "Head East. Follow the stars." She motioned Roach to go in.

"What stars?" Hauk shook his head in disbelief again, but followed. You couldn't see the stars through the trees!

At first all was quiet, the forest seemed asleep around them. Then Luna bolted. Hauk nearly fell out of the saddle, but not quite, managed to calm her down enough to dismount, and promptly got attacked by two giant spiders - black spiders in a pitch black night against the black soil weren't exactly easy to spot... A fierce but short battle ensued, with Hauk being knocked out cold by the hits and the poison combined. Roach had bolted too, and Lena was having rather more trouble calming her, not until they found a clearing and noticed buildings showing through the trees - Tenmar. Lena dismounted and Roach took off to Tenmar, while Lena headed back into the jungle to look for Hauk.

Suddenly the jungle was filled with life, or may be Lena's life detection spell malfunctioned. Every tree was glowing, every root, every mushroom. "What the..?" She swore, rubbing her eyes, but the glow didn't dissipate. She spotted some movement not far from her, followed by a sharp sting and a hefty injection of poison... Lena too was out cold before she knew it. It was the Swallows all over again.

Fortunately the jungle spiders of Elsweyr were not magically corrupt, and after a short while Lena came to, but remained motionless, quietly casting night eye. She could see shapes now, bent and crooked - roots, branches, spider legs, she couldn't tell which. She heard clanking of metal not too far away and distinct Nord swearing - Hauk. A red glow appeared further ahead and a mighty roar shook the forest - Hauk summoned a daedroth. Lena followed his example summoning a clannfear, and together they eventually managed to finish the two forest spiders, having both received numerous cuts and bites.

"Funny, they don't look so big when they are dead," Lena noted, lighting up a torch and examining the dead spiders. "Just the two of them, and it was enough to overwhelm us like that..."

"It wasn't just the two of them," Hauk objected, pointing at another dead spider a little further away. "Let's not search for any more of them, this isn't a song I would sing in the mead halls of Sovngarde," he smirked. "Which way is the way out?"

"That way," Lena consulted her compass. "East. But what about Luna?" There was no sight of her anywhere.

"Don't worry about Luna, horses are smarter than they look," Hauk was ready to start walking. "She'll find her own way to Tenmar, probably avoiding forest spiders much better than we ever could."

You wouldn't expect a person wearing heavy armour to move silently, but then you probably never met a seasoned soldier. When Hauk said he was used to his suit of armour, this was what he meant, and this was why he was unwilling to have it upgraded - a fancy guilded suit was of no practical use, and added protection of daedric armour was offset by its increased weight which made for clumsy movements. The sheen of Hauk's steel armour was reflecting what star light was penetrating the thick canopy, and this was the only thing giving away his position. Moving quietly, they reached the clearing near Tenmar and saw the white stone of its buildings show through the trees. Lena was about to pick up the pace, but Hauk grabbed her arm, pointing at a bush right in front of her. He pushed her back a bit, raised his sword and forcefully stabbed the bush with both hands from above. The bush deflated. It was another forest spider.

"You're getting the hang of it," Lena whispered, trying to stay close to Hauk.

"It's just like in the Swallows," he nodded. "It's all coming back to me now."

When they finally emerged in the village square of Tenmar, it was well past midnight. A Khajiit guard was pacing nervously, he gave them a nod and continued his patrol. Roach was grazing on some flowers in front of the House for Sale, then suddenly they heard clattering hoofs and Luna came running down the road from the South. Phew. It was time for bed and they headed into the Mages Guild for the night.

9-10 Frostfall, 4E202 - Haven - Southpoint - Elden Root

"It's the Ninth of Frostfall," Hauk looked at Lena with significance at breakfast. "We have to be back in Anvil in a week. We have no time to go exploring the South of Pelletine." He hovered over the plate of fruit, picking up an apple. "And I've had enough of coconuts."

"You are probably right," Lena nodded, also searching for a familiar piece of fruit. "Besides, I hear that the coastal road has very steep patches as well, and we'll get stuck again. So what do you suggest?"

"Turn North and take a peek in Valenwood," Hauk seemed to go over a list in his head. "There is nothing that would interest the Legion in this jungle. Other than the Khajiit pocketing the Imperial Infrastructure Grant... But I've seen enough to report on that," he added with renewed annoyance. "Now I'm curious to see whether the Bosmer have done any better."

"Imperial Infrastructure Grant..?" Lena had never heard of such a thing.

"Yeah... Did you think they financed the roads themselves?" Hauk smirked. "The Empire paid for it, and root tunnels were definitely not a part of the deal!"

"But why would the Empire bother with provincial roads?" Lena was still not getting it.

"Because roads are a sign of civilisation!" Hauk recited what sounded like a slogan. "And because the Legion needs decent roads to move the troops," he winked. "Anyway, I hear the terrain in Valenwood is even more challenging, may be not so much of a jungle, but deep lakes, steep cliffs and generally not very passable areas. Plus you know how the Bosmer feel about cutting down trees... The kind of jungle clearing that the Khajiit have done here, would simply not be happening in Valenwood. We need to go and see," he concluded firmly.

"Well, all right," Lena nodded. "I don't think I'll find any clues for my assignment down South either. The only 'Dark' thing around here seems to be the spiders." This was probably not entirely true, but it had been clear from the start that Lena would not have time to visit everywhere. And Valenwood meant finally going North.

...

"Where is everyone?" Hauk struck a conversation with the harbour master in Haven. "It's an impressive city but has everyone just up and left?"

"But it's the holiday season, of course!" The harbour master gave him a big grin. "Everyone is off to the countryside, bond with nature, avoid the crowds, that sort of thing."

"Well, if they wanted to avoid the crowds, they should have stayed right here!" Lena seconded Hauk on that. "But we are not complaining. Is there an inn in town?"

"Oh yes," the harbour master nodded. "The Stairway to Heaven it's called. You will find it eventually."

"All right," Lena turned to go. "Oh, what about the horses?"

They entered the city over the bridge from Anequina, and this was the harbour side, not the "official" entrance on the other end.


"Yeah, you should have left them on the other shore," the harbour master agreed. "There's no hay for them here, and we are not keen on... you know... they stuff they leave behind," he twitched his nose and Roach snorted. "I always say we ought to build stables there so that travellers would get the idea."

"That is all well and good," a well-dressed mage joined in. "But what if people want to pass through the city? They'll still have to bring their horses in. I wager these travellers also intend to continue into Valenwood, that is to come out from the main entrance." Lena nodded vigorously.

"Yes, well, there's that," the harbour master agreed. "Leave them here then, or take them to the shore so they could graze. Come back once you know your way through the city." He nodded to his own solution and walked off.

The city of Haven was magnificent. All these stately houses with orange tiled roofs, narrow streets and complex layout. There were quite a few soldiers in the streets, and even an open air bar, with mead kegs found throughout the city.

"These people know what's important," Hauk approved.

The views of the harbour and of the hilly countryside were fabulous, and Lena and Hauk walked every street at least three times as they got thoroughly lost in the labyrinth of narrow passages, stairs and arcades. Of course Lena managed to fall into the same pothole twice, and had significant trouble getting out, having found herself somehow under the paving...

"Well, you shouldn't investigate every dark corner, really," Hauk was stifling a laugh. "Look, I didn't fall into any potholes at all. And in fact - here's the inn."

It was getting late and the inn was certainly a welcome sight.

"These Bosmer are really weird," Lena was saying as they were climbing to the top floor to the only guest room. "Just the one room?"

"Yes, but it comes with a triple door!" Hauk smacked his lips, examining that extraordinarily secure construction. "Was this built for royalty? Look at the size of the room!"

"Close the doors and never mind that," Lena grinned. "I like it. The bed's good too..." And seeing how it was well past midnight and they'd been in the saddle and on their feet all day, the bed was the best news of all.


The morning greeted them with bright sunshine - a lovely day for travelling. Southpoint was only an hour away, and they spent the morning wandering around the port and the markets of this beautiful sprawling city. A lady in an evening gown was pacing up and down a square, a few dock workers were lazying about the docks, but otherwise the place was deserted. Holiday season was clearly in full swing.

"That is a beautiful frock you are wearing," Hauk smiled at the lady. "Going some place nice?"

"I wish!" She looked at the same time annoyed and pleased to chat with them. "It's all nature and countryside, I'm fed up with it!" She said rather hotly. "What about culture, I ask you? Civilisation? You don't find that up a tree!" She went quite red. "There's nothing going on here! No shops, no theatre, no entertainment! You can't get flowers because that's against Bosmer values - plants can't be cut!" She snorted. "Oh I so miss the Imperial City!"

"But surely... somebody built this town?" Hauk looked at the elegant buildings around him. "A city to rival any in Cyrodiil. Haven too. And both so empty. What happened?" He smiled at the lady, gallantly offering her his arm. "Would you be so kind as to show us around?"

"Well, if you put it like that..." She calmed down and smiled. "It is a rather lovely city, actually. We have this long promenade along the water..."

The walk around town was very pleasant, and it was well past midday when Lena and Hauk finally took their leave, still not having found out where everyone had disappeared to.

"This is really odd, you know," Hauk was saying as they were riding on. "It's as if everyone just vanished."

"Together with their belongings," Lena nodded. "I poked my nose into a few houses - they were empty inside!"

"Very odd indeed," Hauk mused. "Hey!" He spun around and swore, pulling an arrow from between the plates of his armour. "I think we've found some locals!"

Bandits dealt with, they continued their journey along a scenic green road until they reached a small village of Meadow Run. This settlement wasn't empty.

"Does this look familiar to you?" Lena looked around at the tall houses.


"Umm... No," Hauk shook his head. "Why? What are you thinking of?"

"The Shivering Isles," Lena smiled. "Not the same of course, in particular not the same nature, and these rock formations are quite different, but there's something about these wooden steps and the doors being so high up..." She sighed. Perhaps she simply missed the Shivering Isles, or perhaps some of the Bosmer who came to live there, brought their style of building with them.

"Are you going to Elden Root?" One of the villages approached Lena. "It's just up that way, you know."

"Yeah, I suppose, we'll go see if it's nearby," Lena nodded.

"Elden Root is an ancient Elven city," the villager proudly informed Lena. "Well worth a visit! The inn there is still open too - the Eagle's Nest, on the Market Square. You can't miss it."

"Oh, that's good to know," Lena smiled. "Thanks!"

"Just..." the Bosmer shifted her eyes uneasily. "Well, you know, don't be too surprised..."

"Of what?" Lena had a suspicion. The holiday season.

"If you don't see a lot of people about," the Bosmer managed. "It's..." She seemed quite lost for words.

"The holiday season?" Lena suggested.

"Yes, that's true, but... Never mind," the Bosmer concluded brightly. "Enjoy your visit! The city is still there in all its splendour."

Lena and Hauk rode off, it was indeed just a short stretch to Elden Root. The city was nestled between the hills, and the views were lovely, despite the rain.


It was a wonderful place, they really liked it. But this city too was nearly empty.

"I am starting to wonder..." Hauk was saying as they were walking the streets. "That woman back in Meadow Run - what did she mean? There's more to it than just the holiday season."

"I had the same impression," Lena nodded. "Something isn't right. Oh wow, look at that!"


Elden Root was indeed an ancient Elven city.

Crossing the water, they found themselves in a poorer part of town. Grand stone houses were replaced by wooden shacks with people living on two levels, like in Bravil. But unlike Bravil, people here built whole streets on the upper level, much of it around a boarded up chapel and on top of an old Ayleid ruin. Wooden houses covered it all. A few people were walking around there, happy to see new faces. Lena cautiously asked whether everyone else was on holiday.

"Holiday?" The Bosmer didn't seem to understand what she was talking about. "Oh, you mean where everyone is gone to?" He clasped his mouth. "Me and my big mouth! Yes, holiday, indeed."

"Umm... Really?" Lena smiled her most charming smile. "It must be a wonderful place if everyone just up and left..."

"Well, if you must know..." the Bosmer looked around, but there was no one else in sight. "It isn't a holiday," he continued in a hushed voice. "Something awful has happened! They've all been taken!"

"What?!" Hauk exclaimed, then caught himself and also lowered his voice. "We've found the same in Haven and Southpoint!"

"Really?" The Bosmer went pale with anguish. "I... I didn't know that! This is worse than I feared! Oh Gods..!" And with that he buried his face in his hands and disappeared into the nearest house.

"This doesn't bode well," Hauk sounded grave. "And people are afraid to talk about it for fear of being taken also, no doubt."

"Taken..." Lena was trying to think what it could mean. "As in - kidnapped? By whom? And are they still alive?"

"We'll need to find out," decided Hauk. "This town is the only one so far when at least one person didn't try to cover it up. Perhaps there are clues to be found."

They walked around the city until it got quite late and their feet firmly refused to walk any further. They passed the Market Square several times, it was eerily empty without any traders, but the Eagle's Nest tavern was open, even though there were no customers. The Eagle's Nest inn was just next door, and Lena and Hauk gratefully headed inside.

"Welcome, welcome!" The publican greeted them cheerfully. "Do come in! We've got food, drinks and beds - and have you seen our outdoor cafe as well?"

"Yes, we are just coming from there, thank you," Lena beamed at her. "We are looking to stay the night."

"But of course!" Bothiel the publican was overjoyed. "You can use either of the larger rooms on the top floor - a twin or a double, whatever your preference," she winked at Hauk. "Would you care for any dinner first? We have a proper dining room just upstairs."

This was music to their ears and they allowed Bothiel to fuss about the food and the drinks. Lena had no wish to spoil the evening by asking about any mysterious disappearances, after all, that could wait till the morning.





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A new mod TWMP Valenwood Cities is in the making. You guessed it - it will be for TWMP Valenwood Improved, with or without the Southern Alliance. I am uncertain at this point whether it could be easily converted to the original Valenwood Improved - it could be a problem because of the changed FormIDs. We'll see. But my game is all TWMP, follow me if you wish! Those Bosmer will need rescuing and it won't be easy...

11 Frostfall, 4E202 - Holidays in Elden Root

"Holidays? Ha!" Jorgen Rammstein laughed derisively. "That's what the cowards would tell you. Rubbish! This city is in big trouble!"

Finally, Lena and Hauk found someone who wasn't afraid to talk about what happened. Jorgen Rammstein was an old Nord who'd clearly seen enough battles in his life to not be afraid of almost anything.

"Necromancers," he continued. "Swooped down onto the city shooting their spells everywhere tucking people into their black soul gems. A massacre it was. Those folks that had some wits about them, ran for cover, hid in their houses, in basements, crypts, what have you, but those that had to see what was going on... It wasn't just the cats that got killed through their curiosity." He shook his head in sorrow. "We tried to stand up to them, the City Guard fought bravely, and those of us who could still hold a weapon... But those were no ordinary Necromancers, I am not even sure they were of flesh and blood..." He beckoned Lena and Hauk to follow, leading them to his house - a stately mansion in the Upper District. "Some of them were, just people I mean, and we killed them all, but it didn't stop the attacks."

"Did they capture everyone into the soul gems?" Hauk was looking grim.

"Not everyone," Jorgen turned to him. "The City Guard... they are all dead. Just dead. But the Captain got taken."

They entered Jorgen's house, a comfortable home with many trophies on display, and Jorgen led them into the basement. There, between the kegs of mead and old battleaxes, lay some robes and scrolls.

"This is what they had on them," he pointed at the robes. "Regular Necromancer robes, some scrolls, some soul gems, nothing unusual. I just kept these as a sample. These were just acolytes - foot soldiers. But I found a few notes on them."

He handed them a stack of wrinkled notes. They were just scraps of messages, brief excerpts of communication, many were about getting more black soul gems, and none of it made any sense.

"You should go see the Chapel of Arkay," Jorgen was saying, passing the mead to Lena and Hauk. "Our coward of a Mayor had it locked up! What a disgrace! Instead of cleaning it up, he locks it up and denies access to those few of us that survived the attack!"

"Chapel of Arkay? Where is it?" Lena didn't recall seeing any chapels during the walk the day before.

"It's in the Lower District, it's quite built up there," Jorgen calmed down. "But the people used to go to the Chapel, and the Priest was a good man. Oh, just break those damned boards and go see inside! Prepare for a shock... But may be you'll find some clues. You are looking into it, aren't you?" He looked at Lena and Hauk in turn, and Lena nodded firmly.

...

"I wonder who else is still around," Lena turned to Hauk when they were back in the street. "Perhaps we should knock on some doors and see."

That seemed like a good idea and they knocked on the next door.

"Who is it?" A hoarse voice came from within. "If you are not from the inn, go away!"

"We are not from the inn, we are travellers," Lena was taken aback and said the first thing that came to her mind. "We were just..."

"Are you all right in there?" Hauk interrupted her, speaking loudly at the door. "We've just spoken to Jorgen, your neighbour. We know what's going on."

The lock clicked and an Orc peered through a narrow opening.

"Spoken to Jorgen, have you?" He squinted at them. "So are you looking into this matter or what?"

"We are," Hauk nodded.

"Well, why didn't you say so!" The Orc threw the door open wide. "Please, come in! Have you eaten? Do you have a place to stay? This town is a mess! I'm Ogg gro-Kash, at your service."

The change of tone was quite remarkable. Ogg gro-Kash was showing them around his lovely mansion, as if trying to sell it to them.

"Do you live here alone?" Hauk asked pleasantly, noticing that some of the rooms looked rather unused, if pristine.

"I do, I do!" The Orc nodded vigorously. "I just use that bedroom, quite enough for me! This suite here however is vacant! Well, fully furnished as you can see, but without an occupant. And you've seen the common room downstairs, we get supplies and service from the inn, even in these dire times, and..." He suddenly stopped talking, perhaps realising that he already said all that he wanted, and more.

"Very nice," Lena smiled at him.

"You think so?" Ogg smiled back at her. "Then perhaps would you consider taking it on? The suite, I mean. I would sell it to you for a pittance." He blushed and shuffled uncomfortably. "I no longer want to live alone."

"I see," Hauk looked up. "Thank you. We'll think about it, I don't know how long we'll be staying."

They chatted a bit longer, then Lena and Hauk continued their tour of the city. Most buildings were empty, but a large mansion with a door on the corner certainly wasn't. They were greeted by a butler who informed them that his Master and Mistress were currently not receiving visitors, and that because of the recent events in the city, his Master was no longer attending the Council meetings, as those had been cancelled. He suggested that all enquiries should be lodged directly with the Council.

"But is the Council still in office?" Lena asked in surprise.

"Not as such, no," the butler shook his head. "But the Mayor is still alive, if that's what you mean, and his clerk is usually loitering in the Council Chambers. Just go and see for yourselves, it's just over the water in those Ayleid buildings."

There was indeed a cluster of buildings on the other side of the canal looking very much like the buildings in the Imperial City.

"The Imperial City was built by the Ayleids," Hauk reminded Lena. "It is not Imperial architecture, it is Ayleid architecture."

The first door led to the Mages Guild. The room was well appointed but empty, as was the residence suite upstairs.

"Four beds," Lena noted. "And four chairs at the dining table downstairs. This chapter has four mages."

"Had four mages," Hauk corrected her. "We don't know what happened here. Do they have a basement?"

They did, and in it they found Menandril.

"Well, I am not coming out, not until the City Guard is restored," he said defiantly. "Forgive me. It was awful. And yes, I am a mage, but not a Battlemage," he looked at Hauk with significance, recognising a battlemage in him. "I am the head of this chapter, and as such responsible for my mages. I've teleported them to safety. Restore the City Guard and we will be back, but until then I'm staying here."

The next door led to the Council Chambers.

"The Council is closed," a clerk informed them as they came in. "Due to the recent events, the Mayor cancelled all Council meetings as there aren't enough people left to govern." He looked dejected. "And we have no City Guard."

"The City Guard seems to be the key to many things here," Lena noted.

"Oh yes, the Captain--" he clerk interrupted himself. "Well, yes. The Captain was so reliable..."

"And let me guess - the Mayor has locked himself in his residence and is not coming out until the City Guard is restored," Hauk offered.

"Yes! How did you know?" The clerk looked at him in surprise, then realised something. "Oh, you've been talking to some of the others... Yes, well, it's not like the Mayor can do anything about it, can he?"

This was a very depressing scene, so Lena and Hauk left. The next door led to the City Guard Offices and barracks, the building was well furnished and completely devoid of people. Crossing the cemetery, they returned to the town proper, now looking for the Chapel of Arkay somewhere in the Lower District. They soon came upon two doors that were boarded up.

"This must be what Jorgen talked about," Hauk tried the boards. "These are solid, and the door behind is that of a house, this must be the Priory. Try the other one."

The other door looked like a chapel door, and the boards were somewhat loose, so after a few attempts they managed to break them off. The door behind them wasn't locked, so they entered.

"Oh Gods!" Lena exclaimed in horror. The Chapel had been desecrated, with blood and decomposing bodies everywhere. A corpse was strung up by the statue of Arkay, mort flesh was on the altar. Dried blood covered the floor.

"They could have cleaned it up!" Hauk looked around with disgust. "It must have been awful when the attack happened, but now it's just disgusting rather than dangerous. But what is this?" He walked over to a side table pointing at a scroll and a book on it. "The Register of Elden Root," he read on the cover. "Look - names and occupations of everyone living here... Everyone who used to live here," he corrected himself with sadness.

"Oh, this scroll is interesting," Lena unrolled the blood stained document. "It's a really nasty letter to Prior Livan - he must have been the Priest here. But it does explain what had occurred." She passed the scroll to Hauk who read it attentively, trying to focus on the important information among all the angry dribble.

"So, there is a way to rescue these people," he looked at Lena thoughtfully, rolling up the scroll. "We better take this, but leave the Register here, we'll be needing to consult it time and time again. This is going to be a very lengthy affair, trying to find those soul gems..."

"Yeah," Lena sighed. "Where should we even start looking? And when? We have no time for it now..."

"Oh hello!" A voice coming from the door startled them. "Finally someone came to investigate!" An ageing Orc woman entered the chapel. "Ngana gra-Kadash, a mercenary, an adventurer, now retired," she introduced herself. "We've killed quite a few of them, between the City Guard, Jorgen and myself," she was looking around the chapel, turning a rotting corpse with her boot. "They rot just like everyone else," she snorted. "It's such a shame and such a disgrace that the Chapel is just left like this," she sighed. "The Priest was a good man, but I was too late to save him..." She looked away, and Hauk thought he saw a tear glistening on her cheek. "He's been taken, you know," she looked at Lena and Hauk with anger. "Into a black soul gem - I saw it!"

"Then we might be able to rescue him," Lena handed Ngana the Necromancer's scroll. "Except we have no idea where to look."

Ngana took a few moments to read the scroll, her face contorting with rage.

"Oh, that changes everything! The bastards!" Ngana added a few words that made Hauk blush. Lena figured that was an Orc swear. "I can help you with this," Ngana's tone suddenly changed from angry to hopeful. "I've got scraps of paper I took from their bodies. Made no sense to me, but I saved them anyway. They make sense now. Follow."

She led them to her house nearby and handed them a bunch of scraps similar to those they got from Jorgen.

"These must be the names of the ruins where they took the black soul gems, or at least where they were going to take the soul gems," Ngana was pointing at some of the inscriptions. "Noutar Emero, that's a ruin near Haven, for example. And here's another - Atatar."

"That's not far from Leyawiin," Lena nodded. "I recognise a few others, but not all."

"Some are in Valenwood, some in Cyrodiil," Ngana confirmed. "I can mark them on your map. It's a start."

...

"This isn't something we can solve in a day," Hauk was pouring over the map with Ngana's markings. "Not in a week, and not in a month, it's all over the place!" He sat down at the table. "And I'm due to leave for Morrowind soon. You must promise me you won't go alone."

"I promise I won't," Lena smiled. "What are we expecting here? More Necromancers and undead?"

"Undead, I should think," Hauk nodded. "Take Jowan. And Garrus - Jowan is no good with a blade."

They were drawing up battle plans, assessing potential resistance, putting it to a schedule. Lena was four months pregnant, she still had time before she'd be forced to take a long break. Yes, she could help at least some of these people until then...

It was well past midnight when Lena and Hauk finally got up from the table at the Eagle's Nest Inn and went to bed. Their current assignments were pressing them on, they'd be leaving Elden Root on the morrow. The hunt for the soul gems would have to wait.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The people, places and events in this episode are a part of the upcoming mod TWMP Valenwood Cities. They are already present in my reality!

12 Frostfall, 4E202 - The journey

In the morning Lena and Hauk left Elden Root to continue their journey North. They would be passing through Silvenar and Arenthia on their way to Skingrad and finally Anvil where Lucien was expecting Lena in just a few days. The Legion was expecting Hauk too, but he wasn't saying when or where.

The road was scenic, it went through a forest studded with lakes, white stones of Ayleid ruins visible in many places. Suddenly Lena stopped her horse, peering into the distance.

"Whaa--?" Hauk was caught off-guard, nearly colliding with her. He too was lost in thought in that landscape.

"There - can you see it?" Lena pointed into the valley. It was hard to make out anything at that distance, but Hauk too saw a figure in red.


"That's an unusual robe, I'll give you that," he nodded. "But that's not why you stopped, is it?"

"No," Lena said slowly, still peering at the figure. "I've seen this person before... in a dream."

"Oh?" Hauk turned his horse to look at Lena. "Good or bad? Good, it seems. Look, there's a clearing just there, why don't we stop for lunch, and you can tell me all about it."

...

Sands everywhere, dunes moving across the horizon. Wind moving sand, gently and slowly, it was a landscape that never stood still. At night the sky was dotted with stars, some were falling. One star at the far horizon shone particularly brightly, calling you to follow...

As the sun rose, Lena got up, wrapping her red cloak around her and lowering her hood - the sand was getting everywhere. And yet this wasn't an unpleasant morning. She tried to remember which way was the bright star, no longer visible during the day. She wasn't entirely sure, so just picked a direction and started walking.

The sand was soft under her feet, it was easy to walk - she was almost gliding above it. Almost. She felt the warmth under her feet. "May you always walk on warm sands," she remembered an old Khajiit greeting - this must have been what it meant.

A ruin appeared from the sand, there was a carving on the wall. As Lena approached, the carving lit up, it seemed to be telling a story. A pilgrim walking towards a bright star...

Lena climbed on top of the ruin, and now she could see further ahead. There were more ruins there, larger ruins, something looking like a city buried in the sand. And something else - fireflies. Bright shining slivers floating in the air, then swarming, rushing upwards, breaking up the swarm and gently falling to the ground again. One floated close to Lena, touching her scarf. The scarf caught fire - no, wait, it grew longer, and with it, Lena felt lighter than air. Now she could fly.

Flying consumed the scarf though, and then she had to walk again. But there were more shining slivers around, they would attach themselves to her scarf for a time, allowing her to fly. She was sure that's how it worked.

She was nearing the large ruin now. She started noticing standing stones in the dunes. They had carvings on them, but she couldn't make out the words - the sands have washed away the details. They looked like tombstones that one finds in the wilderness or along roads - tall narrow things, marking a place where someone died during their journey.

Lena stood at the ruins of several buildings arranged in a circle, with a tower in the centre. They all seemed to be gateways to somewhere, each having a wide porch with a door leading into the dunes. Some were not accessible - the porches were too high, and the staircases had collapsed. But look - here were the fireflies, perhaps there was a way...

...

At night the sky was dotted with stars again, and some were falling. The bright star at the horizon was still calling Lena to follow. She was sure which way to go now.

As the sun rose, it coloured the sands pink. Lena could see far from the top of the tower in the centre. She noticed more ruins in the distance, and more tombstones. What was this place? She felt the urge to go through one of the portals.

A pilgrim in a red gown was approaching the ruins, wondering about the same things that Lena had been wondering about. Their gowns were the same, only their scarves differed in length. Together, they gathered enough fireflies to rise above the central tower and reach a shining beacon. Suddenly a bridge appeared linking the tower to one of the porches, and Lena and the other pilgrim took it. As they stepped onto the porch, a bright light stopped them in their tracks and a shining figure of a tall pilgrim appeared, lighting up the carvings on the walls. They were to seek out the bright star, and the carvings told of a perilous journey ahead, a journey taken by so many pilgrims before them. There was hardship ahead, danger and possibly death, but also great wonders and discoveries - everyone's journey was different.

The light on the porch was extinguished, the carvings on the walls fading into the shadows again. But as Lena's companion got up from her seat, they both saw a bright light shining from within the depth of a passage at the far end of the porch - the passage into the dunes. A great gate was opening, and the light was shining from within. The light of the bright star. Lena and her companion walked towards it, and their respective journeys began.

...

"That sounds like quite a magical dream," Hauk smiled. "Did you manage to explore more of that world?"

"Oh yes, the dream would revisit me occasionally," Lena nodded, looking into the distance and seeing dunes coloured pink by the rising sun. "And every time I would continue from the point where the previous dream ended. I always flattered myself thinking it was just my rich imagination, but now that I've seen that pilgrim here, in Tamriel... I am not so sure. I mean, you've seen him too, haven't you?" She looked at Hauk, uncertain.

"Indeed, it wasn't just your rich imagination," he agreed, passing Lena a sweetroll. "Dreams can take you to other worlds, after all Vaermina does it all the time. Although this doesn't sound like on of Vaermina's nightmares."

"It definitely wasn't a nightmare," Lena shook her head. "There was some danger in it, sure, but nothing that couldn't be overcome."

"And how did it end?" The sun was high above them and Hauk thought it was time to get going.

"It didn't..." Lena smiled. "Oh, I reached the bright star... But that wasn't the end, it was only the beginning of another journey."



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The dream is the Journey. The pilgrim's gown was brought to Tamriel by Natterforme. The pilgrim is now in Valenwood, and there are rumours of an unusual red gown seen on the shelves of the Adventurer's Heaven in Elden Root. Stranger things have happened.

15-16 Frostfall, 4E202 - Back to Anvil

When Lena and Hauk were finally approaching Anvil, the night had already fallen.

"Shall we stay at the Gweden Farm?" Lena turned to Hauk, looking and sounding tired. "Then go into town tomorrow?"

"Good idea," Hauk agreed. "I think you'll find someone picking you up in the morning, too," he winked at her. Lena was missing Lucien, and knowing that he was somewhere in Anvil, somewhere nearby, made her wistful.

...

"Oh hello!" Signy greeted them enthusiastically as they entered. "It's been a while! Gosh, you both look tired, come in and sit down - we'll fix you something to eat." Then called out over the shoulder: "Faustina! Come and help me get their armour off!"

"Oh thank you, but we can manage with the armour," Lena protested, but Signy and Faustina were already undoing the buckles and pulling various bits of metal off Hauk, while Tsarrina was purring around Lena's sword belts and throwing knives.

"This is a Desert Robe, is it not?" She was shaking the sand out of Lena's robe. "Heavily enchanted, but no shield. This one knows such an enchantment," she gave Lena a toothy grin. Even after a month in Elsweyr, Lena still had trouble with that. "Someone wearing the same enchantment was asking about Warlock quite recently." Tsarrina wisely chose Lena's Mages Guild title over the one that went with the robe.

"Is he here?" Lena exclaimed with hope in her voice, and Hauk smirked. She'd been trying to hide her impatience and apprehension for the last day at least, as they were headed towards Anvil, but he noticed it anyway.

"No, he isn't here now," Tsarrina shook her head. "But this one knows where to find him. Warlock needs to rest, her Speaker will be here in the morning."

Lena sighed with disappointment, but with her travel garments removed, she suddenly felt her every muscle hurt as if... well... as if she'd been in the saddle for the last day and a half non-stop. Which she had.

"We have a bath house if you want it," Signy looked at Lena and Hauk as they were tucking into their stew. "You will sleep better afterwards."

"I'm falling asleep already," objected Hauk. "Do you know when was the last time we stopped for a meal and a rest?" He looked at the ladies, and all they could do was shake their heads.

"And in your condition, too," Faustina looked at Lena sternly. "You need to eat and rest regularly, you know." Hauk gave her a warning look, but it was too late.

"My condition!" Lena exclaimed hotly. "First, how do you know? And second, it doesn't mean I'm an invalid!"

"Oh, well..." Faustina crouched level with Lena and put her hand on Lena's shoulder. "You're all this town is talking about now, of course." Lena felt a wave of calm wash over her, just like what Lucien would do it in such situations. Faustina too was an Imperial. "Your upcoming wedding."

"My wedding," Lena repeated with disbelief. "I didn't realise I was such a celebrity here. And you didn't answer my question - how did you know I was pregnant?"

"Well, dear..." Faustina didn't have another charge of calm in her and had to turn to more mundane diplomacy. "Cyrodiil is but a small village in a way... That robe of yours... We know what title it carries, and when someone from your organisation gets married, people hear about it. In particular people who are in the business of information exchange, as we are here. At your own suggestion, by the way." She smiled in the most charming way and shot a pleading glance at Hauk.

"It's true, you know," Hauk said to Lena soothingly. "They are supposed to know rather more than an average person. I wager it isn't widely known otherwise."

Lena sensed that he didn't believe it himself, but she was too tired to argue. She supposed she might have done a thing or two in all these years that made her stand out from the crowd. And of course it wasn't all about her - the better part of it was probably about Lucien. Master Assassin was getting married! That would make heads turn. She sighed and went to bed.


"You sleep rather soundly for a murderer," she heard a familiar voice in her sleep. "That is good - you need your rest."

"Wait, no, this isn't how it goes!" She laughed and woke up. Lucien was sitting on the bed next to her, and everyone else had left the room. "I missed you," she pulled him in and allowed him to take advantage of the privacy.

...

"How was your trip?" Lucien asked her after some time, handing her a robe and pulling one on himself. "We should let the others in, you know," he smiled.

"If we must," Lena giggled. "Do you want a report, now?"

"No, not about the assignment - we'll talk later, it can wait, can it not?" He looked at her and Lena nodded. "I was referring to a more personal side of it. How have you been?"

"All right," Lena looked at him with suspicion and thought to herself: "He means how have you been travelling around Elsweyr with a pregnant belly. Good for him that he didn't say it." Then continued aloud: "But you've talked to Hauk, haven't you? So you know."

"I am asking you, though," Lucien objected. "Tell me."

Was there anything to tell? It was a month-long trip, they've had their share of dungeon delving, fights and unpleasant encounters, and that being Elsweyr, she'd consumed more skooma than was probably good for her... in her condition... she had to admit, it did make a difference.

"I'm all right, we both are," she put a hand on her belly. "My vampirism relapsed a couple of times, but I had blood with me, so it wasn't too bad... Not too long, anyway. And Hauk wouldn't let me go without feeding... you know how he is. But you can't buy bottled blood anywhere there, did you know that? Ah, you didn't!" She concluded with triumph, watching worry wash over Lucien's face. "I'm all out of it now, so I'll need to restock. We didn't stop at Skingrad - there was no time."

"We can get some in Anvil," Lucien was writing a note. "Here, give this to Beatrice Gene at the Castle." He handed it to her.

"Who is Beatrice Gene?" Lena glanced over the note which simply said "As usual. LL.".

"She's a maid at the Castle, you will most likely find her around the dining room," Lucien replied matter-of-factly. "She supplies the local Sanctuary. Since the Sanctuary itself is not open to us - we must follow the rules, mustn't we - you'll have to ask her directly."

"There are vampires at the Anvil Sanctuary?" Lena looked up, surprised.

"It isn't that unusual," he smiled. "Vicente is certainly not the only vampire in the Brotherhood."

Of course not. She was one too, she reminded herself.

There was a knock on the door, then Signy's head appeared on the top of the stairs.

"Are you two up? We heard voices," she smiled and entered, seeing them already dressed. "Coffee and sweetrolls are here!"

"Sweetrolls!!" Lena jumped out of bed in excitement. "I missed sweetrolls!!"

No Khajiit Delight could replace a sweetroll for her. The day was starting well.

16 Frostfall, 4E202 - Elsweyr report

"So, let's hear it. What did you find out?" Lucien sat back in his chair, looking straight at Lena. The Dark Brotherhood Speaker Lucien Lachance was waiting for a report from his Silencer. Lena swallowed involuntarily. Lucien's new Anvil office was established in the previously abandoned house that came into possession of the Brotherhood after Lena completed the contract on Corvus Umbranox. It was uncommon for Speakers to have more than one office - and Lucien's main office was of course at the Cheydinhal Sanctuary - but the Night Mother must have had her reasons to deviate from the rule this time. This office wasn't particularly secret either - or sufficiently secure, and it was on purpose. No valuables or papers were kept in it, but the Black Hand tapestries could be seen through the windows from outside, if anyone was curious enough to peer in. This house was a message, even if Lena wasn't entirely sure what it said.

"Well, I haven't found the attacker," Lena started her report. "But this wasn't the requirement. I poked into every mystery I could find and talked to everyone and tried to separate gossip from information. There's also a revolt against the Empire going on, which complicated things. I believe it is completely unrelated."

"This is the first important conclusion," Lucien nodded. "Are you sure?"

"Not fully, but I think it very unlikely." She gave Lucien a long look - as usual, he knew more than he was saying. "Why, is there a connection between the Brotherhood and the Empire?"

"May be or may be not," he smiled. "Continue."

"I met several people with assassin skills, but as you requested that I shouldn't reveal myself to anyone, I don't know if any of them were ours, because they didn't say anything either," she smiled. "They were not hostile to me, and I haven't seen them work at all, which could mean anything really, but I don't think any of them is our attacker."

"Why not?" Lucien's gaze was probing. "They could simply be biding their time."

"True, and I can't explain it. It's just my impression," Lena was apologetic. She didn't have proof one way or the other - it was very hard to prove that someone didn't do something. "But I had to limit the number of leads to follow. I can give you a list of their names, if you want." Lucien shook his head, signalling her to continue. "In Orcrest I was contacted by someone wanting me to do a job on behalf of the Dark Brotherhood. I thought it suspicious, took the job, but I now think that isn't our attacker either. I think it's a local mercenary group posing as us, actually. The same amateurish approach as that of Skyrim assassins - parading their affiliation and babbling something about being the only survivors of a Purification. They've got a house plastered with the Black Hand tapestries worse than this one," she rolled her eyes at the tapestries around her, "and a Black Door in a rat-infested hole, but the door is fake - it's just a door without any protection. Painted to look like ours." Lucien was listening intently, then suddenly took out a scroll and started making notes.

"Not our attacker, most likely, I agree, but an imposter organisation needs investigating anyway. Purification, indeed!" He smirked. "I wonder what our branch in Orcrest has to say about this? It's right under their noses!" He sounded annoyed, and Lena thought that someone was likely to receive a visit from an equally annoyed Listener in the near future.

"Orcrest was a mess anyway. The anti-Empire revolt started there, no Imperial is safe, and even Hauk was picked on, since Skyrim had been with the Empire from the start. But Hauk has no difficulty standing up to a couple of stray Orcs, so they soon left him alone," Lena chuckled. "It is however an ideal place to hide for someone who wishes to vanish into thin air. Although I don't think that the attacker resides there, I think he or she uses it as a stepping stone to get away. You lose track of anyone there very quickly."

"Interesting," Lucien nodded, making more notes on a fresh scroll. "Anything else?"

"About Orcrest? No," Lena shook her head. "Didn't find anything of substance there. Hauk had his own business, as you can imagine, so I had a lot of time on my hands, and nothing. This isn't it."

"All right," Lucien drew a line under his notes. "Continue."

"Corinthe," Lena started a new chapter. "Lots going on there, that's a big city, bustling with all sorts of things, and I thought I caught a trail of someone suspicious." She smiled contentedly, and Lucien looked up. "A woman approached me with a proposition to steal something, said I looked promising. I thought she singled me out because she suspected me to be an assassin though."

"And?"

"Well, she's dead. Sorry," Lena blushed and Lucien looked annoyed. "I went on this 'heirloom recovery' job with her that she was talking about, but there was an ambush set up in the cellar. I had to defend myself. Didn't get a chance to interrogate her..."

"Hauk?" Lucien interrupted her.

"Wasn't with me," Lena looked apologetic. "I regretted it the moment that woman attacked. Hauk would have made her talk..."

"You need to invest in a paralysing dagger for just such an eventuality," Lucien pointed out. "Like the one I gave to Fenris back in Leyawiin - ten seconds paralysis. Impossible to resist and gives you enough time to tie them up." He made another note. "And Fenris' blood - he did give you some, I trust? That would have been the time to be a vampire again."

"I didn't take Fenris' blood when I was there last," Lena blushed again, realising just why he had left it for her. "I couldn't imagine why I would want a relapse on purpose... I see it now."

"Well, anyway, that's for another time," Lucien dismissed the topic. "Continue."

"I didn't find any documents on the woman's body, save for a scrap of parchment - a fragment of some pamphlet or a manifesto." She passed the fragment to Lucien. "I searched the house, nothing out of the ordinary, but lots of valuable jewellery, so I think she probably was with the Thieves Guild. May be a fence or a doyen or something. But this trail went cold."

"It's a lead though," Lucien looked thoughtful, turning over the fragment in his hand. "The Thieves Guild has every reason to hate us, what with your recent projects and all," he smiled. "Both in Cyrodiil and Skyrim. Perhaps they want to warn us not to try the same thing in Elsweyr. Be on the lookout for more such scraps of parchment." He gave it back to Lena.

"Since when have thieves become skilled assassins?" Lena looked dubious. "Skilled enough to kill some of ours?"

"The attacker is not necessarily a skilled assassin," Lucien objected. "I did say that most attacks ended with the attacker running away. They are good at stealth and escapes, but they are not that great with a blade. This is not a professional assassin."

"That was my impression too - that there are no professional assassins in Elsweyr. Which means of course that they keep out of sight. I did find a lot of thieves though, and most of them not affiliated with the Guild, but just working for themselves, with little skill too, I might add. Which is probably why they are not allowed into the Guild."

"They just add to the general confusion which allows the attacker to escape," agreed Lucien. "But what about smaller places like Riverhold, for example?"

"Great skooma there!" Exclaimed Lena, then blushed. "Umm, I mean I had to mingle, didn't I?" Lucien shook his head and smirked.

"You know it addles your brain, right?" He looked at her, still smiling. "Do you even remember anything of Riverhold? Apart from the skooma den?"

"Of course I do!" Lena said hotly, but with little conviction. "Well, there wasn't much to remember - nothing happened. The people there were very talkative. There's a lot of smuggling going on, but with the Khajiit it's almost legal, even the Legion often looks the other way, and Riverhold thrives on that. An assassin would stick out as a sore thumb there. Or someone who was trying to kill assassins," Lena corrected herself. "Dune, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely."

"Oh?" Lucien sat up, feeling that she was now coming to the juicy bits.

"A city of mysteries, that one," Lena grinned. "Pretty much everyone you talk to, has a story that they are not telling. You can tell from what they do say. There's always more of everything."

"And?"

"And... nothing," Lena sighed. "Nothing concrete. Too much potential, I couldn't choose which lead to follow and didn't have time to follow them all. An attacker could be hiding there. Or it could be a group of attackers, or - if it is indeed run by the Thieves Guild - it could be directed from there. But I have nothing, other than to say that I don't see another place with equally good provisions."

"All right, I see. Were any of those possible assassins that you mentioned, living in Dune?" Lucien raised his quill, ready to take notes.

"Yes, Jagar, a Redguard. He was rather obvious though, so might not be one of ours - I hope we're better than that. And I think their Fat Cat Zayiq Cherim is with the Thieves Guild, must be the local head. He practically runs the city. And then there's Under the Influence - a skooma den without an obvious owner with a Redguard woman selling skooma and a Khajiit doing apparently nothing. They have a chest there with odd jobs from various 'clients' - some 'heirloom recovery', some 'honour recovery', some also just plain requests for rare ingredients like vampire dust or daedra hearts. I think this might be an independent mercenary broker. I took a few of those scrolls, they turned out quite straightforward."

"Honour recovery?" Lucien looked up with amusement.

"Revenge killing. Someone didn't want to do a Sacrament. The Khajiit can be finicky about making an effigy of one of their own."

"But that chest does not guarantee the results," noted Lucien.

"Quite. Yet it seems to be good enough for some."

"All right. A small scale mercenary broker, never mind that. People who want guarantees will do the Sacrament. However, that broker could be used to set a trap for one of our own."

"Without anyone realising it, yes," Lena nodded. "And we would never be able to catch them doing it, either."

"We'll need to watch that somehow," Lucien paused in thought. "And I don't even know if we have a branch in Dune. I wonder why... A city of mysteries..." He looked at Lena searching. "Coupled with an escape via Orcrest... That could well be how they do it. Whether it's just one person or several." He made some more notes, then took out a fresh scroll. "Well done! I have enough for a report, it will have to do for this round. If they won't tell me whether or not we have a branch in Dune, they can continue the investigation themselves," he said with defiance. "I am but a Speaker..." He smirked. "All right, we'll see." He got up, walking over to Lena and raising her from the chair in an embrace. "I have a report to write... and some other duties. You have things to do as well, don't you?" He kissed her and she got the distinct impression that he was trying not to make her feel dismissed. But he was the Speaker, and, well, he had work to do.

"It's all right, I'll leave you to it, Mr. Lachance," Lena smiled. "See you later."

"Are you staying at the Benirus Manor?" He asked, not quite letting go of her.

"Yes, I think I will," Lena nodded. "Hauk is already gone - he's got a report to write as well." Lucien released his embrace and Lena turned to leave. "I've got some chores to run, but then... I could use some rest. Find me at the Manor when you are finished."

Lucien nodded, sitting back down at his desk, and Lena stepped out the door, catching a glimpse of him already absorbed in his report. "I've got a report to write too," she suddenly remembered. "For the Cartographers Guild. They did ask me to check those Elsweyr maps on the ground. Now, where did I put those notes..?"

16 Frostfall, 4E202 - An evening in Anvil

"I grew up in this city, you know," Lucien was looking over Anvil from the top of the lighthouse. "It was quite different back then."

"Yeah... I can imagine," Lena put her arm around his waist. "And with everything that happened in this lighthouse, too..."

"Oh, that is still ongoing," Lucien turned to her. "What with Rayenna still living here... She's got to live somewhere, of course, but I can see why some think that the lighthouse carries a curse."

"So... where did you live? Is the house still standing?"

"It is, but we didn't live in a house," Lucien laughed. "We lived in the chapel - my mother was an initiate and later a Priestess here."

"I see..." Lena nodded. "So when you joined the Brotherhood, you left."

"Yes, I was assigned to the Cheydinhal Sanctuary, so I moved there." He paused. "My mother's grave is on the chapel grounds. She lived to be an old woman - for an Imperial," he smiled, looking at Lena over the shoulder.

"Did she not object you joining the Brotherhood? It is quite different from the service to Dibella."

"Well, she would have preferred me becoming a Priest, yes," Lucien smirked. "But I followed my father's path, and she did not object. She saw him in me somehow."

"But your father - are you in touch? I assume he still lives?" Lena raised her eyes to Lucien in question.

"He lives, as far as I am aware," Lucien nodded. "But we've never met. He chose to stay away in order to protect us, and he was probably right - he is with Morag Tong."

"Yeah..." Lena was remembering something. "But wait... weren't you born in Morrowind? So you can't say you've never met. It's just that you don't remember."

"Well..." Lucien laughed. "True - he was with my mother of course when I was little. But it's like you say - I don't remember any of it. When the Arnesian War started in Morrowind, my mother left for Cyrodiil, and all contact with my father was lost. As far as I know," he added with some hesitation.

"I think you might find that not to be entirely true..." Lena sensed that there was more to it, but that it wasn't the time to pick at that particular mystery. "Things may have changed since then. Perhaps the future holds surprises."

Lucien looked at her with amusement. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you are playing a seer. Yes, the future definitely holds something, when does it not?"

They dropped the topic - the sun was setting colouring the sea and the sky pink, with the deep blue of the night already creeping in from the East. The evening was too beautiful to waste on philosophical discussions, so they locked their arms and went down to the quay for a stroll.

...

The Flowing Bowl was busy and Maenlorn was dashing back and forth serving drinks and food, but he noticed Lena and Lucien come in, motioned them to a table at the back of the room and disappeared into the kitchen. A few minutes later he emerged with a loaded tray and started offloading it before them.

"It's good to see you again, Lucien," he smiled. "Even though you won't be needing a room here any longer, I expect? And congratulations on your upcoming wedding," he beamed at Lena, then turning to Lucien, he added: "Your mother would have been pleased to see her boy finally settle down. Although I wouldn't count on that myself." The twinkle in his eye was unmistakable.

Lucien laughed, not trying to pretend he didn't get Maenlorn's insinuations.

"We don't worry about such things, Maenlorn," he looked around the room, noticing some people turning to listen in, and some women staring a little too hotly at the mention of the wedding. "Dibella be praised!" He raised a toast to the room, and people quickly turned away to mind their own business. "I see this city remembers me in more than one capacity," he winked. "How did you know about the wedding?"

"The Temple, of course," Maenlorn's broad grin directed at Lena showed her that Lucien's question was for her benefit. "You're all they talk about - the word came from Bravil almost immediately. Lucien is getting married! Who would have thought! And we believed he was a true Dibellan! And so on, and so forth. Oh, and also: but his bride is already pregnant! No surprises there though," he grinned at Lena again. "Don't you worry dear, we don't mind such minor details. Not here in Anvil we don't." He moved a few platters towards her. "You've got to eat."

Maenlorn walked off as new customers were coming in.

"I remember Maenlorn from long ago," said Lena watching him dash around the room. "And his brother Caenlorn too. But they probably don't remember me from back then."

"Of course they do," Lucien smirked. "Bosmer have long memories. But they don't let on much."

"I wouldn't be so sure..." Lena looked around the room noticing people being interested in Lucien, not herself. She didn't mind. "I am only known here as one of the mages with the Guild."

"Yeah, the one who sorted out the Benirus Manor. And the Serpent's Wake. And Lelles' 'houseguests', and that Bjalfi at Fort Strand... Oh, and the Gweden Farm of course - do I need to go on?" Lucien smiled. "You are not exactly incognito here."

Lena smiled at the recollections. "The Serpent's Wake was really strange though. 'Someone murdered the entire crew!' - Varulae told me and I didn't believe her, I thought it was she who murdered the crew. But then I changed my mind, and I still don't know what to think of it."

"When was it that you helped her?" Lucien looked at her shrewdly.

"Mmm, last year? Why?"

"Because she's been running that gag for two hundred years at least," Lucien smirked. "It was true enough back then - they had returned from the Summerset Isles and someone did in fact murder the entire crew. It was one botched job if you ask me - the contract was on Varulae, not the crew!"

"It was ours?" Lena sat up. "So how come Varulae is still alive?"

"Did you not find any papers on that when you were searching the lighthouse?"

"In the cellar?" Lena looked shocked.

"In the cellar," Lucien nodded.

"Oh... Yes, I did... A contract on the owner of the Serpent's Wake... I didn't pay attention to it though, I found many other similar papers, I just thought since Bellamont was a Speaker..."

"Yes, of course, most of those papers were just ordinary contracts," Lucien nodded. "But he had started undermining the Brotherhood already long before he main events. That was supposed to be an ordinary contract and it should have been passed on to the Anvil Sanctuary, but Bellamont twisted it, murdered the crew instead of the actual target hoping that the contract giver would complain... Trouble was, the contract giver was among the crew... And Varulae now had a ghost ship to milk."

"Milk? But she paid me for the recovery of the crystal ball? A most ordinary crystal ball, I might add..." Lena said, still puzzled.

"Yes, she paid you - what? A hundred septims? And collected a few thousands from the bookie. Why do you think there was a crowd there waiting to see whether you'd come out alive?" Lucien sat back, smiling.

"So if that was - is - a common thing, why would anyone remember me for falling for it?" Something didn't add up.

"It was because of the noises heard coming from the bowels of the ship when you were inside, and because of the damage to the ship," Lucien explained. "Did you summon a daedroth? Or something equally destructive? Were you throwing fireballs? On a wooden ship?"

"Well... I might have done..." Lena turned red realising her mistake.

"Oh don't worry about that!" Lucien laughed. "Varulae made more than enough money on you to cover the expense of repairs. But she became a lot more careful with her selection of candidates after that. No more mages!"

"Right... So she was doing it for two hundred years, and then one Lena Wolf comes along, and boom goes Varulae's ghost ship..." Lena noticed several people in the room smirk and giggle and wondered just how many of them were listening in on their conversation. "Yeah, I can see why they might remember me," she concluded with a smile.

...

They returned to the city through the Castle Gate and Lena noticed Lucien glancing at the cemetery by the Chapel. He seemed somehow detached.

"I need to stop by the Mages Guild," offered Lena. "I'll see you at the Manor shortly."

Lucien nodded and smiled.

...

Irene Lachance's grave was well cared for, although the stone was plain, with just her name on it. No dates, no epitaphs.

"Hello, mum," Lucien kneeled by it. "I did as you asked. I've waited for the right woman. It took a while."

He didn't expect a reply. Ghosts of Imperials did not linger in Mundus, didn't follow their children along like Dunmer ancestors did. Yet he thought he felt something... a presence. "Probably just my imagination," he reasoned. He looked up and saw a faint ghostly apparition further on among the graves. It beckoned to him. Lucien got up and followed.

The ghost disappeared through the doors of the chapel undercroft. Lucien pushed the door fully expecting having to fight Sanctified Ghosts within, but the undercroft was empty, the dead resting peacefully in their coffins. The ghost from the cemetery was hovering in the middle of the room, looking more solid in the gloom.

"Your mother has departed," the ghost said to him. "Just as you thought. But I am still here. We are all still here - you are not alone."

Lucien peered into the ghost's face, he could now make out the features. They didn't look familiar, but they were Dunmer.

"My father's side? Are you my father?" He asked.

"I am your Great Uncle," the ghost replied. "Your father still lives. You wished to speak with your mother... That isn't possible. So they sent me instead. I was like you - an assassin. Like your father. You are one of us."

"My father... I don't remember him." Lucien wasn't sure what to say to the ghost.

"No, you were too young. And you know why he's been staying away, although it might be less of an issue now..." The ghost turned around, as if listening to someone behind him whom Lucien couldn't see. "They say I shouldn't interfere, that you know what to do. Do you?"

"Do about what?" This was a most perplexing conversation.

"Your marriage will anger that other woman... a Redguard? She will turn to Mephala for help."

"Rayenna?" Lucien had been talking to Sa'Sinar about her only that very morning. Rayenna had tried to have Lena murdered before, hoping to have Lucien for herself, and now she had been exiled from the Dark Brotherhood. That didn't mean she couldn't work, it only meant to she had to face the Wrath of Sithis in her sleep. Sa'Sinar, her Speaker, was giving her contracts, trying to keep her close and under observation, more than for any other reason. It seemed the Ancestors thought she would make a move.

"Yes," the ghost nodded. "There is no telling what she'll do, but if she turns to Morag Tong..."

"All sorts of unpleasantness might follow," Lucien finished his sentence. "Yes. I know. But what can I do? Lena won't stay at home, and other than taking precautions and sending someone to warn my father, I don't see..."

The ghost laughed, and the sound of its cackle resonated in the crypt.

"You do know what to do, my boy!" He exclaimed, clapping his hands. "Welcome to the family!" He span around, listening to the unseen others. "Come and visit us in Morrowind some day," he said, as if relaying a message. "We have an Ancestral Tomb not far from Odrosal, just inside the Ghostfence."

"The area obliterated by the eruption of the Red Mountain," Lucien looked at the ghost with suspicion. "I know it must have been after your time, but..."

"But don't I read the papers?" The ghost chuckled. "Yes, I do. Well, come and see for yourself. Perhaps not all of the official accounts were true," he winked. Could ghosts wink? Evidently.

"Come when things get settled, we are in no hurry," the ghost winked again.

"Why have you never come to me before?" Lucien wondered why none of his Dunmer ancestors ever came to his defence as they did to their Dunmer children.

"You are not a Dunmer," the ghost came closer. "We can't... It's against the rules. But you called on your mother now, and since she couldn't attend, we figured those rules were more like guidelines anyway. I mean, what can they do to us? We are already dead..." The ghost paused, listening to something. "Oh, turns out, they can do things to us after all... But never mind that, we'll manage. Come and visit us some day..."

The ghostly shape twisted, swirled and disappeared. "Someone definitely did something to that ghost," thought Lucien with a shudder. Odrosal, just inside the Ghostfence... the Salvel Ancestral Tomb... he'd remember that. For later. For some day.

I am up to Page 5, Post 93. I have never had a character go to Shivering Isles yet, so I have no idea what it actually entails. But the verbal exchanges between Lena, Sheo, and Dylan are a delight! I also 'enjoy' (not sure if that's the right word) the fact that Lena actually struggles with her semi-vampirism.

Maybe I've said this before in the past, probably have. But vampirism should not be something as casual as portrayed in ES games, it should be dramatic at times. Stressful. Maybe even embarrassing, amongst her friends & followers. Which is definitely captured at times.

Renee - the way Sheogorath speaks, is pretty much taken from the game. Not necessarily the actual words, of course, but when you do get there, you'll recognise it, I hope.

As for vampirism... Lena indeed has a problem with that. I mean, she got infected by accident, it took her literally years and years to get everything together for that cure with the Witch's Potion (the only possibility before Vile Lair came out), and then when she took it, she lost such a chunk of her abilities and looked so bad, that everyone shunned her because of that... And now it turns out she wasn't even fully cured! Yeah, she's got a problem with that.

16 Frostfall, 4E202 - Carahil - Raevus Palenix

"So it's true!" Carahil was eyeing Lena's pregnant belly which started becoming noticeable. "I didn't think vampires could become pregnant."

"It happens," Lena turned red. "I know your views on vampires and other undead, Carahil. Yet you didn't object working with Hannibal Traven."

"It's not the same!" It was Carahil's turn to go red. "He was a lich... He didn't suck the blood of the living!"

"I don't either!" Lena's voice was raised higher than she would have liked, but Carahil's comments really stung.

"Now, now, ladies," Thaurron walked in from the adjoining room. "There's no need to quarrel. Vampirism is a disease, Carahil, you don't get it by choice..."

"...whereas lichdom..." Lena put in.

"And he renounced that!" Carahil cried, this argument was clearly not over.

"Enough! Both of you!" Felen looked up from his alchemy station. "You are making this potion go sour!"

"What..?" Everyone looked at him in disbelief, but the shouting stopped.

"Good," he smiled and winked. "You should be congratulating Lena on carrying a child, not argue with her," Felen said, looking at Carahil with meaning. "It's a blessing, not a curse."

"She's a human, it comes easy to them," Carahil replied bitterly, shooting Felen a sharp glance. "And they don't value it as we do."

"Carahil..." Felen started, looking at her intently, then changed his mind and walked over to her, taking her hands into his. "Yes, it is harder for elves. But there is no need to despair - we have more years before us, too."

Thaurron nodded, watching them, then tugged on Lena's sleeve, motioning her to follow him into another room.

"Carahil is bitter, forgive her," he said to Lena when they were out of earshot. "She is no longer that young, not even for an elf, and she fears her time is running out. They are both elves, yes, but different elf races don't mix all that well..." He sighed and looked at Lena with a sad smile.

"Oh I had no idea..." Lena said softly. "Restoration magic... I see now."

Thaurron nodded.

"Yes, this is how it started. A long, long time ago." He looked over his shoulder, making sure that Carahil was still out of earshot. "This was even before your time - before you were born. She lived in High Rock, she was involved with an Imperial Agent, she was even with child..."

"But the child didn't survive the Dragon Break," Lena gasped.

"Quite. The Agent vanished too - his body was never found, if indeed he died. Carahil was never quite the same." Thaurron shot another glance over his shoulder. "I've known her for some time - some time even before that."

...

When Lena returned to the Benirus Manor, Lucien was examining the vast wine collection in the cellar.

"This is really quite remarkable," he turned to Lena, showing her a dusty bottle. "What?" The look on her face made him put the bottle down.

"Don't you die on me," she whispered, pulling him into an embrace.

"I wasn't planning to, no."

The child in Lena's belly turned and kicked, and they both felt its movement. It wasn't true that humans valued their children less. Besides, these two both had elven blood in them.

...

Once Lena calmed down, they picked up a few of those old bottles of wine and settled down by the fire to let the stress of the day go up in smoke. Then Lena remembered something that happened in Corinthe.

"Do you know Raevus Palenix?" She asked casually, watching Lucien out of the corner of her eye. He looked up at the mention of the name. "He was with the Mages Guild in Corinthe."

"Was?" Lucien sounded interested.

"Yes, well, there was a bit of a bother with the Guild there, nothing to do with us. But Raevus approached me later asking to come with me. Claimed he's in trouble with the Brotherhood - expelled. And you know what that means. He knew who I was though, and I thought it strange." Lena just realised she should have mentioned it in her proper report earlier. Oh well.

"So why did you not mention it earlier?" Lucien looked at Lena with a twinkle in his eye, not with reproach or annoyance that Lena had expected. Something didn't add up.

"I... well..." Lena's mouth went dry for some reason. "I should have... Speaker."

"Indeed. But let's hear it now - what happened?" Lucien was smiling, as if expecting an amusing tale. Lena noticed that he didn't answer her question - whether he knew Raevus or not.

"He wanted to come with me - wherever I was going. He had the Cruelty's Heart but I couldn't decide whether it was rightfully his. He said he killed someone he shouldn't have, and stole some scrolls, several times, so that the wraith was set onto him, and now his Speaker decided to expel him, which means of course the assassins have been sent out. He was basically asking for protection, I figured and I refused. And then I changed my mind."


"And?" Lucien wasn't betraying any reaction.

"I sent him to Orcrest," Lena looked up.

"Not the safest place for an Imperial!" Lucien smirked. "But a good place to hide, from what you told me."

"There's an old Dark Brotherhood Crypt there underground, with a shrine to Sithis. I sent him there. Promised to come for him later, too..." Lena blushed, not understanding why.

"Sent him to the Dread Father, have you?" Lucien laughed. "Well done."

"So, you know him?" Lena repeated her question.

"Indeed I do," Lucien nodded. "He made some waves with that murder. He killed his Speaker's Silencer and took his summoning scrolls similar to the ones we gave you to summon Rufio's ghost. Each Silencer gets them."

"So of course his Speaker had him expelled," Lena nodded. "But he said he'd done it several times."

"Well, he stole the scrolls several times because he wanted every single copy."

"But why?" Something still didn't add up. "He's a mage - a Conjurer with the Mages Guild, he's quite capable of summoning whatever he wants without any scrolls! What's so special about those? Did he kill that Silencer for them too?" Lena thought she might have guessed the connection.

"Do you remember your Rufio scrolls?" Lucien looked at her with expectation.

"They summoned Rufio's ghost to fight for me..." Lena tried to recall the details - it was two centuries since she used them. "Long term binding..." she nodded. "He'd stay in Mundus until he was defeated or dispelled. So, who is being summoned by the scrolls that Raevus stole?"

"Someone dear to him," Lucien answered somewhat evasively. "Like Matthieu Bellamont, Raevus joined the Brotherhood because someone dear to him was murdered. This was many years after that dreadful business of course, and the Brotherhood was very watchful. But Raevus didn't become a traitor, at least I never believed it. He just wanted to get that one person, and eventually he did. I don't know when he learned about the scrolls, but of course then he had to have them."

"So who placed him in the same Sanctuary with the Brother who killed his beloved? For it was his beloved, wasn't it?" Lena thought there was more to the story.

"It was," Lucien nodded. "It was his Speaker who approached him and took him into his Sanctuary, arguing that he would be able to watch Raevus and make sure he didn't become a traitor. Several of us thought he was playing with fire, but ultimately the Night Mother didn't object, and the matter was settled. Raevus has done very well for himself, he is an Assassin."

"And now?"

"Now he is being hunted, of course," Lucien was looking into the distance and shadows passed over his face. "And we both know how that feels."

"Is there a solution?" Lena asked softly, suspecting that the answer would be "no".

"Yes," said Lucien equally softly. "Kill the Speaker."

"What?! Why?" Lena spun around, looking at him intently. "That's..."

"Treason?" Lucien smirked. "Well, it rather depends who it is, don't you think?"

"Tell me the whole story," Lena's brow furrowed.

"Well, there isn't much more to tell, really," Lucien shrugged his shoulders. "But you might remember the Speaker: Alval Uvani."

"Gosh!" Lena was startled. "I spared him!"

"And rightly so, he is a Speaker. Which doesn't make him a nice person, necessarily," Lucien sighed.

"Alval Uvani lives in Leyawiin," Lena mused. "So Raevus was with the Leyawiin Sanctuary, right?" Lucien nodded.

"Leyawiin-Rimmen Sanctuary," he corrected her. "But close enough."

"The Border Watch?" Lena's eyes went wide. "We have a Sanctuary in the Border Watch?" Her laugh became rather uncontrollable. "The Plague of Burning Dogs!" She couldn't help herself.

"Yes, I've heard of that peculiar phenomenon," Lucien was laughing too. "So it was you, was it? That figures!"

"She-sheogorath," Lena managed to say between fits of laughter. "I only stole some cheese and poisoned some sheep, but the dogs were his!"

Once the laughter subsided, they continued their otherwise very serious conversation.

"Yes, we have a Sanctuary there," confirmed Lucien. "It's the perfect place - everyone avoids the crazy cats! But some of that craziness seems to have rubbed off on the Sanctuary too."

"Well, I can't blame Alval for being grumpy," Lena smiled. "If that's where he has to call home. No wonder he travels from place to place."

"He travels because he's a Speaker," Lucien pointed out. "And grumpy, well, that's just how he is. But he didn't handle that business with Raevus very well, I don't think."

"But is that reason enough to kill him?" Lena was dead serious now. "He is a Speaker."

"It's a choice between him and Raevus," Lucien nodded. "If Alval is killed, Raevus will be exonerated."

"Does Raevus know this?"

"He does, I told him," Lucien smiled. "But he refused to kill a Brother, even to save his own skin. He only made one exception, he said, no more."

"You spoke to him?" Lena gasped.

"This has been going on for a while now," Lucien sat back in his chair. "It's been several years since Raevus killed that Silencer. Alval has a new Silencer now, and although he did send her after Raevus, she wasn't successful."

"But she still lives?" This matter was getting stranger by the minute.

"Indeed. Raevus paralysed her and vanished. She never found him again. Alval changed his mind and sent out a group of assassins after Raevus instead, they are roaming Tamriel as we speak."

"But he's right there with the Corinthe Mages Guild..." Lena said, then remembered how good Raevus was at vanishing into thin air. "A Master of Illusion?"

Lucien bowed his head. "We should help him."

"You mean I should--"

"No, this will be a tragic accident," Lucien smiled thinly. "Alval is partial to apples, both poisoned and regular. It's too easy to make a mistake, especially when drunk..."

"Mead!" Lena exclaimed, remembering something. "Oh, this is evil."

"No, this is practical," Lucien looked serious. "In his own house, in his pantry where he keeps both kinds of apples quite close together. 'This was an accident waiting to happen' is what we are aiming at."

"But the Night Mother will know," Lena objected.

"Of course she will," Lucien nodded, "since it was her idea in the first place." He smiled. "I wouldn't worry."

"So me meeting Raevus..?" Lena gasped.

"Was completely accidental," Lucien interrupted her. "I was supposed to do it myself, I might still do it myself, if you are occupied elsewhere. We'll see, it's not the time yet."

"Then when?" Obviously, there was a lot more that Lucien wasn't telling her.

"Not yet," he smiled. "This will have to do. Raevus will be safe in Orcrest."

This closed the discussion. Lucien opened another bottle of wine, poured a little into a clean goblet, rolled it around, inhaled the aroma. He wouldn't taste it until it would have had time to breathe. It wasn't the time for drinking it yet. Patience was the key.

16 Frostfall, 4E202 - Doubts

"You haven't said anything about Valenwood," Lucien said to Lena as they were sitting by the fire in the Benirus Manor in Anvil after a long day of reports and conversations. Lena had just returned from a month-long trip to Elsweyr and Valenwood, but didn't say anything about Valenwood in her report.

"Well, there wasn't anything to report there," Lena shook her head. "Mostly because we didn't have time to look around. We always knew we couldn't do it all. We also didn't go to Torval or Senchal for the same reason."

"But?" Lucien looked at Lena shrewdly - he could tell there was something.

"But... Well, the cities in South Valenwood were empty!" Lena looked shocked. "In Elden Root we discovered that it were necromancers. Captured a lot of people into black soul gems, then hid the gems in various ruins throughout Tamriel! I don't know what happened in Haven or Southpoint though."

"This is awful, but not that unusual, as far as your adventures go," Lucien kept his gaze on Lena. "So you'll round up some of your friends and go delving into the ruins. You do it all the time. There's something else."

"I guess you are right..." Lena stared into the fire. "There were a few occasions that brought back memories. And also I took Hauk to the Void."

"He mentioned it briefly," Lucien nodded. "You met Dar-Pha."

"You know Dar-Pha?" Was there anything that Lucien didn't know?

"Not personally, no," he laughed. "But Hauk told me about her. He thought he'd lost her forever when he left Antaloor and she wouldn't follow him to Tamriel. Not the kind of woman to follow anyone, she isn't, but the sound of things. But now he found her again... How are you taking it?"

"I..." Lena was taken off-guard with this question. She realised now that seeing Hauk's reaction to Dar-Pha was a shock to her, a shock of which she was ashamed. Hauk wasn't her man, she herself chose Lucien, and yet there she was feeling jealous and betrayed because Hauk loved another woman... She shouldn't have been having those feelings, they had no right to exist, and yet there they were. "I am dealing with it," she answered firmly. "He is my best friend."

They sat in silence for a while, Lucien was watching Lena's face that was awash with emotion - she wasn't trying to hide it. She was confused, her soul was in turmoil, and it wasn't just Hauk that she was thinking about. The same as Hauk had thought that he'd lost Dar-Pha forever, Lena thought of Scorpio - her companion in Gransys, one of the worlds where she had spent many years, having stepped through a portal in Sheogorath's Palace. What would happen if by some miracle she met Scorpio again? What would she feel? Would that shake her commitment to Lucien? Should she even be getting married? There was still time to call it off... And her child... who was the father? A few weeks ago she felt certain it was Hauk, but after their trip to Antaloor, she realised it was only wishful thinking. She could not know it, it wouldn't be certain for years to come, not until the child was sufficiently grown up to show signs of lineage. She had been fooling herself.

She got up and went into the basement of the manor. Lucien didn't stop her and didn't follow.

...

"Is that why you wanted to be a lich?" She was sitting by Lorgren Benirus' altar where his body was resting. "Liches have no emotions, as I understand it. Were you tormented in life? Why did you turn to Necromancy? How did it start?" She smoothed out the cloth on the altar, but Lorgren did not respond. "I am sorry we had to fight you, this is none of our business. We interrupted your ritual... well, your grandson interrupted your ritual... I hope it will be completed some day."

The crypt was quiet, there were no ghosts within, and Lorgren Benirus lay undisturbed on his altar. Lena wasn't getting any answers.

There is no pain stronger than that of the soul. Self-doubt is a plague that destroys all, crumbling everything to dust. Lena curled up in the corner of the crypt and fell asleep, exhausted. She dreamt of the people she loved, past and present, as if saying good-bye to them all, as if preparing to depart. There was no pain in the Void, and Sithis was waiting for her in the distance.

She woke up with a jolt just under her liver. The child in her belly was kicking.

"You don't want me to die, do you," she told it, smiling, stroking her belly. "Well, if you insist... Let's go see what your father is doing." She got up and started walking through the long corridor of the Benirus Manor basement. "Whether he is your real father or not... he will be your father," she concluded, shaking off the last of her doubts. The pain was subsiding.

...

"And now you feed," said Lucien, lying down on the bed with his neck exposed. "Your vampirism has flared." Lena found Lucien waiting for her to emerge from the basement.

"What?! No!" Lena cried in indignation. "I'll go out and find a beggar."

"Come - it isn't the first time," he smiled. "You'll get arrested in your present state."

"What..?" Lena was confused - the candle by the bed highlighted Lucien's throbbing vein with tiny scars of puncture marks around it. "Who did this? When?" Lena sat on the bed and touched the scars. "They feel old."

"They are old," Lucien nodded. "It was you - I let you then just as I do it now. You need blood. Feed, and I'll tell you later."

"But..." Lena gasped. "Oh no!" A fragment of a memory flickered before her eyes.

"Feed," Lucien repeated, taking her hand. "We'll talk later."

She could not hold off for much longer, the scent of living blood was driving her hunger up and up, she was getting dizzy. She remembered Dylan telling her the same thing when she got to Thadon's chalice... She kneeled over Lucien and fed.

...

Lena woke up to the smell of fresh coffee and saw Lucien handing her a cup. There were fresh bite marks on his neck.

"Thank you," Lena followed him with her eyes. "I should carry more blood."

"Nonsense," he brushed it off. "You cannot prepare for everything."

"Tell me about that other time," she said darkly. "I don't remember."

"No, you wouldn't - you were too famished," Lucien nodded. "And wounded too, must have been in a fight. You came to Fort Farragut to rest no doubt, but that time I was there too. I cloaked immediately but of course you could smell me."

"And I attacked?" Lena whispered with horror.

"No, you tried to climb the ladder to leave, but your wounds made you too weak. Then you said I must leave, warning me that you would not be able to control your hunger for much longer..."

"Oh," Lena thought she recalled something like that. Or possibly only imagined recalling it. "So why didn't you leave? My wounds would have healed enough in a few hours and I would have been gone."

"I couldn't... you might not have survived. I lay down on the bed and let you feed instead."

"And you were gone by the time I woke up," she guessed.

"No, but you could not smell me any longer," he smiled.

"Not after I just fed," Lena touched his face. "Repeatedly. How many times?"

"That night? I lost count," Lucien kissed her. "You were very weak."

"Was that the only time?" She looked at him with suspicion.

"No, but it was the first."

Lena fell on the cushions, her face burning red. "I don't remember any of it," tears were running down her face. "Vampires must be killed - I see it now."

"Don't blame yourself," Lucien lay next to her, wiping away her tears. "Do you remember other people you fed on?"

"Mostly, yes," Lena looked at him, surprised at the thought. "So why not you?"

"Because you never regained consciousness. You were wounded and dying. Your feeding was instinctive." He paused, trying to calm her. "And the dressing I put on your wounds made you sleepy."

"Why did you not want me to remember?" She looked at him with worry.

"I didn't want you to stop coming back."

They were looking into each other's eyes, each reading the same. That Lena would have never returned for fear of feeding on Lucien again, and that Lucien needed her to keep coming back, until one day, he hoped, she would stay...

"What about the other times?" Lena wanted to have the full picture now.

"Twice more," Lucien pulled her into an embrace, her head resting on his shoulder. "But not so extensive. You were always wounded though, when you came."

"That's why I came - to recover," nodded Lena. "I was getting into a lot of fights - everyone wanted to have a go at a vampire." She was calming down now. "It eased off after I took the cure."

"And I haven't seen you in a long time then," said Lucien softly. "I almost gave up hope." He was stroking her hair. "Then one day I found some of the apples missing..." He smiled.

"You must never allow that cupboard to run out of frost salts," Lena said suddenly. "Not like that time..."

"Oh," Lucien laughed. "That's how it became self-replenishing," he grinned. "I was surprised - and pleased - to wake up with bandages all over."

"My chameleon isn't as good as yours, but it didn't need to be - you passed out as soon as you got to the bed."

"It happens."

"So then in Riften... I mean, if you remember it from before... Why did you say you were surprised?" Lena raised her head to look at him.

"I was - I've never seen you do it. It's not the same to discover the result afterwards, you know," he smiled. "How many times have you undressed me like that?"

"A few..." Lena blushed. "Well... quite a few... As many as was needed," she added defiantly. "You get into fights a lot."

"I am an assassin," he shrugged, grinning.

The room was quiet. The two people on the bed were thinking of Fort Farragut. They had been meeting in its sanctuary for the past two hundred years, never admitting it to each other, and sometimes not even to themselves. Their private relationship had been shrouded from prying eyes, and neither of them wanted to make any claims or demands on the other. The lack of bonds was perhaps the strongest bond of all.

Good ole Lucien, using Lena's affliction to his advantage. But then, I'm not entirely sure who is using who.

I think they may be worth each other. Neither one is an angel.

17 Frost Fall, 4E202 - Below Anvil

"What are your plans for today?" Lucien asked Lena at breakfast.

"I don't know..." she mused. "Probably get going to Bravil - the wedding isn't that far away, and I've got nothing to wear," she rolled her eyes.

"Mmm, I see. How do you feel about delaying it for a bit and delving into some sewers with me first?" He smiled at her.


"Sewers? With you?" Lena's eyes lit up. "Any time, dearest! What's up?"

"Apparently something fishy is going on in the sewers under Anvil," Lucien poured himself another cup of coffee. "Now, that in itself is not surprising, the thieves and smugglers have been rattling in there for ever and a day. But two assassins from the Sanctuary here disappeared recently, and then were found dead in the sewers. Admittedly, those were not the brightest Brothers, but still. We need to find out what happened."

"And they asked you to investigate it?" Lena shook her head in disbelief. "You, a Speaker?"

"Well, no," admitted Lucien. "I was talking to Sa'Sinar the other day and he mentioned it. He was going to send his new Silencer, but I volunteered. Thought it would be fun," he winked. "Besides, there's a passage into the sewers from our new office here in town - the formerly Abandoned House, and I need to know what's under my feet."

This made a lot of sense to Lena, although she was sure that the trapdoor in Lucien's office was locked. Then she realised something else.

"Aren't you familiar with the sewers already? From when you were growing up here?" She smiled at him.

"Of course I am," he grinned. "But that was a very long time ago, and sewers do change. They've opened up new passages and closed off some of the old ones, so it isn't going to be all as I remember it. And of course new tenants moved in everywhere - sewer real estate is very volatile," he smirked. "Have you heard about that pirate ship stuck inside a cave? There's more than one under Anvil, apparently. And we'll need to check the passages into the Castle too, you never know. It might take a few days."

"A ship..? ships? passages into the Castle?" Lena was looking at Lucien round-eyed. "Yes, I've heard some stories, but never knew they were actually true!" She exclaimed.

"All right then, finish your coffee and let's get going," Lucien laughed. "Oh, and don't wear anything clean - there's no point."

After all the conversations, reports and doubts, trawling through stinking sewers filled with rats, goblins and other vermin was an offer that Lena couldn't pass up. Nothing better to take your mind off things than imminent mortal danger! And for Lucien, not having to be careful to only kill the target and no one else, not needing to cloak in chameleon, not bothering with slipping poisoned apples into people's pockets, but just going out there, swords blazing, cutting down everything in sight, was a welcome change of pace, too. It wasn't quite their honeymoon yet, but it was coming decidedly close to it.

30 Frostfall, 4E202 - Wedding

"Before we go through with it, I have to tell you that I was married before," Lucien looked at Lena intently across the table. They were having dinner in Lena's house in Bravil, their wedding was scheduled for the following day. "The Priest will point it out to you tomorrow, I'm sure they dug it all up. Also, I have a child."

"Interesting," Lena mused, sensing that, as sensational as it sounded, it wasn't all that important. "What happened?"

"What happened?" Lucien looked surprised and amused. "This isn't the reaction I expected! Where's the indignation, the jealousy?"

"Oh, I know you are not a virgin," Lena grinned. "You can't shock me with that. And you must have had a reason to never speak of your wife and child. Do they still live?" In truth, Lena was getting rather jealous and more than a little hurt that Lucien waited that long to tell her this. But she wanted to get him to tell her the whole story, and so she had to control her temper and appear calm, or Lucien wouldn't talk.

"They might do... after a fashion," Lucien said slowly, refilling their goblets. "There is no grave I can visit, although they no longer walk the Nirn. They've been taken."

If Lucien's family had been killed, he showed little sadness about it, and Lena thought it strange. This was Lucien Lachance, the merciless killer. Did he kill them himself? But no, they were not dead. Wait... Lena tried to remain calm and listen.

"Rosa... my wife... she was an assassin too, and as such, she came into contact with various people, most of whom she killed. She was a most striking woman... a Black Widow. She used to play with her victims first..." He smirked. "Well, no matter. I did not resent her the entertainment, as I was having some of my own... The child I spoke of, wasn't hers."

"And you were blessed by Mara like that?" Lena couldn't hide her surprise. She couldn't quite see such a couple getting married at the Temple.

"Oh, we weren't married at the Temple," Lucien shook his head. "But we were married nonetheless. The Priests don't go by the letter of the law, and so they will speak to you about it."

Where was this going? Lena was getting impatient, although she tried to control it.

"Please, Lucien, just tell me what happened," she smiled at him.

"I see you are holding your nerve," he smirked. "Very well. Just note that I was the first to bring up past marriages, you still haven't told me about yours."

"Mine..?" Lena gasped. "But that was... in another world!"

"It counts." Lucien looked straight at her. "I know it because the Priests dug it up. I didn't like to hear it from them, and I am sparing you that experience now."

"All right," Lena's eyes were hard and cold, just like his. "Let's hear it. Thank you."

"This story is short: one of Rosa's targets was a Priest of Boethia. Not a person to cross, and not a person to have fun with. She should have killed him straight away, but no, she engaged in her usual entertainment. Granted, Boethia is not Mephala when it comes to sex, but she's not far off in other respects, and this Priest converted Rosa to Boethia's side before she could fulfil her contract. Which she never did, by the way."

Lucien paused, and Lena was listening silently, sipping her wine. Clearly, he had to go after that contract himself, which is probably how he found out.

"Boethia wanted a sacrifice. Rosa chose my son. They are both in Boethia's realm now." He put down his goblet signalling the end of his story.

"What happened to the mother of the child?" Lena asked in order not to ask the other more burning question - whether Lucien still loved Rosa.

"She went after him. Never to return."

"No, you don't normally return from Boethia's realm," Lena thought of her own experience - the Tournament of Ten Bloods. What other fun was taking place on those planes? More fighting, she figured. "But you would have survived it. Did you try?"

"I did. It wasn't a Tournament for me though. Boethia had me watch Rosa sacrifice my son. Then I had to fight Rosa. I killed her, but later found out that none of it was real. A show for the Prince's entertainment."

"But what was the point?!" Lena exclaimed with disbelief.

"Suffering, of course," Lucien smirked. "You had to do the Tournament, that was the easy bit, I am afraid."

"I got lucky," Lena nodded. "So... what now? Are you supposed to go on living with them trapped in there?"

"I think the intent was to make me suffer, yes. And to make me come back and try to free them again and again. But I solved that little riddle - I never went back." Lucien sat in his chair, looking at Lena with those hard, cold eyes of a seasoned assassin. What's another life, after all?

"Please continue," Lena knew there was more.

"Oh, you don't think that I just put it out of my mind, do you?" He smirked. "Very well, I asked someone else. Vicente went in there, and he got the Tournament, because Boethia had nothing else to hold over him. He saw my son's corpse on display and he killed Rosa - whether he killed her for real, or whether she'd rise again, I do not know. Did you have to fight a dark-haired Imperial who moved like a Redguard? No? Well then, may be she is dead."

"And now you owe Vicente a debt," noted Lena.

"More than one, but so does he," Lucien nodded. "We stopped counting a long time ago."

They sat in silence for a long while, drinking wine and watching each other, without saying anything else. Lena would have to decide for herself what Lucien's feelings towards Rosa might be, and whether that was a problem. Then Lucien broke the silence.

"Tell me about your marriages," he said matter-of-factly.

"I left them," Lena shrugged. "There's nothing else to tell."

"Not good enough."

"Very well, it was in another world - in another time. I got there from the Shivering Isles - Sheogorath has portals, you know. I spent years there... in Albion. But when I got back, it was the evening of the same day, that's in the Shivering Isles. And also here in Mundus, I think. Something like that."

"Yes, time dilation, or whatever you want to call it," nodded Lucien. "That's unimportant, and you know it."

"You want to hear about my husbands, my families..." The memory was bothering Lena. "I was married multiple times there - there was no punishment for that, other than the wrath of your spouses. I didn't care. I didn't care enough for any of them, and that's just the thing. I had others on the side. I could do what I wanted."

"There are plenty of men here too, and Sanguine preaches just that behaviour," Lucien objected. "You are his lover, but besides Hauk and Dylan, you are not having anyone else. What changed?"

"I got bored," Lena smiled. "I think I've seen every shape and every variety of... you know. It gets old after a while."

"You don't say," Lucien laughed, and the tension in the room suddenly dropped. "You are not a virgin either."

"You know about Dylan," Lena stated the obvious and sighed.

"Of course," Lucien smiled. "You told me. Then Sanguine told me. Then Hauk told me. I think we all know each other. I should meet Dylan too."

"And you still asked me to marry you?" Lena raised an eyebrow, smiling. "The Priests will be shaking their heads throughout the ceremony."

"I was a Dibellan, remember?" He smiled.

The next round of drinks went in a much lighter atmosphere. Then Lena realised something.

"Your marriage to Rosa - when was that?" She looked at Lucien intently. "I never noticed anyone at Fort Farragut - or were you just keeping it as your private residence?"

"It is my private residence, has always been," Lucien nodded. "And Rosa never stayed there. I married early, and the marriage did not last long. My mother didn't think it was the right match, but we did not intend to marry at the Temple, so it didn't matter. Oh, they never met - but I guess what I told her of Rosa was enough."

"What was your mother's objection?" Lena was wondering what Lucien's mother would have said about her.

"That she liked hurting people," Lucien smirked. "I replied that it was normal because she was an assassin, and mum said: 'I know what an assassin is. Your father is an assassin. You are an assassin.' So? - I asked, but she didn't explain. She made me promise however to wait for the right woman before marrying again - and that was before any trouble with Rosa even started! I made that promise not realising just how soon I would have to start acting on it..."

The child in Lena's belly turned and kicked, and she jerked involuntarily.

"And you think I am the right one?" Lena sounded dubious, perhaps on purpose. "What would she have said about me?"

"She thought you were a bit young for me, to start with..." Lucien laughed watching Lena's surprised and dismayed reaction. "Of course she still lived then! It was two hundred years ago, after all, that whole Purification affair."

"Purification? But we weren't... You were just my Speaker at the time, nothing else!" Lena exclaimed hotly.

"Except for that one time..." He winked. "But I guess you put it down to an accident, did you?"

"But I was seventeen!"

"And I was forty three, so?"

"I didn't know what I was doing... and yeah, I didn't believe it even happened."

"For two hundred years," Lucien nodded, still smiling. "Oh, it happened. On purpose. From both of us. And then you vanished without a trace, and I didn't even get a chance to tell you that I made you my Silencer. Not until much later. Someone who makes Silencer at seventeen, is no longer a child," he added, looking straight at her.

"I guess I had to grow up," Lena sighed.

...

The ceremony at the Chapel of Mara in Bravil was supposed to be quiet. Of course they needed witnesses, and it wasn't right to keep it from their friends, so Lena asked Hauk, Jowan and Garrus to join them, and Geralt came from Skyrim. They couldn't invite the entire Sanctuary - that would not have been prudent - but Ocheeva and Vicente had to come, and Antoinetta Marie turned up anyway, with Gogron appearing a little later. Kud-Ei, Henantier, Ardaline, Delphine and Ita from the Mages Guild entered en force, followed by Volanaro, Selena, J'skar and even Jeanne - although that wasn't surprising. Dagail and Agata arrived the day before, and Dagail and Ungolim's warm reunion became the talk of the town for weeks to come. Nilawen, Ungarion and Daenlin came in to say hello, not wishing to impose, but Borba quickly set them straight, ushering them in. A pair of Dunmer stayed back in a dark corner, but Lena spotted them and signalled Hauk to bring them in - Falanu and Fenris. Mazoga surprised everyone with her Daedric armour and a Leyawiin shield - she wore her full Knight attire for the occasion. The chapel got full and hot, and once the official part was over, the festivities spilled into the street, and some people said they even spotted a dremora or two passing the ale around... But surely, everyone had had too much to drink at that point to really notice anything.

"Who are they?" A young guard asked his older colleague. "Mages?"

"Of sorts," the older guard smirked. "Lena lives here - you've seen her around. As for Lucien... just hope you never get on his business side."

The young guard didn't really understand, but thought it was wise not to ask. After all, they were getting free ale - and who could argue with that!

A note to Lena's readers

You may have noticed that we no longer follow Lena into every cave she visits. As Lena's pregnancy progresses, she finds herself in need of more rest than before, and her mornings are often marred by the less pleasant signs of carrying a child. She does not want these things recorded. From this point on we shall focus on the more important events in her life, for be assured that you won't miss any of those.

Until her child is born, Lena finds herself unable to go adventuring in her usual fashion, and with Hauk gone to his Legion assignment in Morrowind and Geralt following the werewolves in Skyrim, she just wants to stay around Lucien most of the time. Being a housewife is not exactly her thing, but an assassin with a morning sickness lacks a certain prowess, too. She hopes that life will return to normal once the child is born. We hope so too.

31 Frostfall, 4E202 - Travels

"Go. I don't want to see either of you for at least a month," Ungolim was saying to Lena and Lucien from behind his Listener's desk at the Black Hand Office in Bravil. "Ocheeva is perfectly capable of keeping an eye on your Sanctuary while you are away, Lucien," he added, moving a large pile of scrolls to one side. "No, you can't have those - I'll give them directly to Ocheeva." Lucien looked annoyed, and Ungolim chuckled. "I am relieving you of your duties as a Speaker for a month or two - don't make me suspend you as well! You're supposed to be on honeymoon, for Sithis' sake!"

Lena was watching them with a smirk of her own. She wouldn't have minded returning to normal duties herself, having done a lot of travelling in the past few months, but it was obvious that Ungolim was having none of it. She wondered why.

"Your reunion with Dagail yesterday was very touching," she said with a smile. "I didn't realise you knew each other."

"We do," Ungolim nodded. "We go a way back..." He looked at Lena with a vacant gaze, seeing a mental image instead of her. Perhaps he was looking at a young Dagail. "I knew her father..." He said slowly. "It was a very long time ago. But some things you never forget." Then, as his gaze returned to the present, he suddenly asked: "Why did you not try to kill me during the Purification Crisis? I was on Bellamont's list. You've seen me here in Bravil often enough, did I not succeed in appearing like a silly lovestruck Bosmer?"

"The Blade of Woe and the Shadowhunt in your bedroom told a different story," Lena smiled. "I had orders to investigate every target before proceeding," she shot a glance at Lucien. "So I searched your house."

"I see," Ungolim fixed her with a probing gaze. "You didn't make many mistakes... I always wondered how Lucien managed all those investigations while the entire Black Hand was out to get him. But in fact he didn't. It was you." He smiled approvingly. "Now your appointment makes sense. It isn't often that someone makes Silencer at seventeen."

"Now you see why I insisted," Lucien looked at Ungolim with significance.

"Yes..." Ungolim turned to Lena and almost started saying something, but then changed his mind. "No, I won't tell you that story - even now, it may be too soon. Lucien will tell you some day."

"Tell me what?" Lena's curiosity was aroused.

"She already knows parts of it," Lucien smiled. "That I insisted on making you my Silencer even though you've vanished and we couldn't find you. But I knew - well, hoped - you'd be back, and the Night Mother had to intervene to make Ungolim allow it," he smiled at Ungolim. "You thought I was being sentimental," he smirked. "But that was only a half of it."

"Well, anyhow," Ungolim drew himself up, putting an end to that conversation. "Have you two decided where you going for your honeymoon? No? I thought as much. Here, have a look at these." He pushed a bunch of scrolls towards Lucien. "All holiday destinations. Most are even free of vermin and bandits, if you believe their prospects. Bring your swords along anyway. Pick something and go - pick several, if you wish. Shoo!"

...

"Most of these start in Anvil," Lena was going through the scrolls advertising the holiday destinations. "They should really establish a travel agency there," she laughed.

"Ardah," Lucien was reading from one scroll. "If you are sick of the dirty environs, the lousy weather and the eternal same lookout of Tamriel, give it a try and make holidays on Ardah. The Stroti Agency."

"Finally a place with good weather, by the sound of it!" Lena laughed. "Or how about this: Madgod's Paradise: a perfect retreat for a Madgod with the colour and bliss side of madness. MikkHep Agents in New Sheoth."

"That requires going to the Shivering Isles first," Lucien objected. "And I'm not even a tourist."

"I'm sure I can get in a good word with Sheogorath for you," Lena winked. "Besides, I've got the key."

Lucien picked up another scroll. "The Island of Saldaea," he unrolled the scroll on the table. "Two islands south of Leyawiin that contain a town with two towers, a wreaked ship with an interior, a lighthouse, a cavern system, stables, and an Ayleid ruin with two levels. They have horses and accommodation too, from Unit Alpha. Starts in Chorrol."

"Why in Chorrol if the islands are South of Leyawiin?" Lena looked at her wine with suspicion. "That's like going from Anvil to Rimmen via Windhelm."

"Mages," Lucien smirked. "There's apparently a portal somewhere near Chorrol, that gets you to a Temple of Leya where you find another portal to get you to those islands. Don't ask me! It's a part of the adventure."

"All right, listen to this," Lena was skimming through another offering. "The isle of Centiel is a dangerous, yet beautiful Island which holds a dark secret deep beneath the surface. Can you gather the fabled Jewels of Centiel and open the way to the long forgotten tomb of Lord Ondor? Friendship, betrayal, danger, and untold riches will meet you on your journey. From Armless Wunder Agencies in Anvil."

"That sounds like a theme park!" Lucien pulled the scroll towards him. "Two islands in the Abecean Sea, it says. Bring your swords. Towns, cities, dungeons, monsters - the whole nine yards." His eyes sparkled.

"Well, if you want a working holiday," Lena smirked, "then how about some pirate fun? Nascosto Isles is made up of several large islands, all beautifully landscaped, and full of unique houses, caves, dungeons, and ruins to explore. But recently they've been plagued by pirates which forced them to re-market their islands as an action adventure. Save the island from an impending attack and fight pirates in Pirate Cove. Sounds like fun! JBVW Agencies, a ship is moored on the Eastern shore of the Upper Niben."

"Or we go for something epic," Lucien was reading a long scroll. "The Island of Cybiades needs your help! This is a plea from the Captain of a ship moored in Anvil looking for a hero to lead the fight for the liberation of Cybiades. This isn't a theme park, this is for real." Lucien raised his eyes from the scroll. "Deathless Aphrodite is waiting."

"Is that their ship?" Lena pulled the scroll towards her. "Shall we?"

"Let's," Lucien nodded. "And then Ardah for balance."

The honeymoon of two assassins was befitting their occupation - it was filled with danger and death. "We work in the dark to serve the light," Lena recalled the phrase with which she responded to Altair's greeting, not knowing where it came from. It was instinctive. Was that even possible? Lucien noticed that something was weighing on Lena's mind, but he knew better than to ask. She would speak of it when she was ready. For now it was between her and Altair.

After a month of on the Cybiades they were ready for a break. Ardah proved true to its advertising - clean, peaceful, idyllic. By the end of the second week Lucien even forgot to put his dagger under the pillow for the night. Lena noticed. "No, he didn't forget it," she thought, "he chose to trust this place." Finally they relaxed.

Three days later they were bored, however. Time to go home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

17 Evening Star, 4E202 - Fenris

"Mistress, you are back!" Fenris kneeled before Lena as she entered the Leyawiin Sanctuary. Something seemed to be different this time, Fenris knew Lena didn't want him to kneel, and yet he did it.

"Hello, Fenris," she replied, lifting him up by the shoulders. "How have you been?" This had become their usual greeting by now, but again, something was different this time.

"I am keeping well, Mistress," he smiled at her. "I did not expect to ever see you return, and I am glad you are back."

"Never return?" Lena asked in surprise. "Why not? What happened?"

"Your wedding..." Fenris looked at Lena's visible pregnant belly. "And your new life."

"My new life..? Oh, my child? But why never to return here? Wait, is it what I'm thinking it is?" She thought she guessed it, but wanted to hear it from Fenris first.

"What are you thinking, Mistress?" He looked at her, smiling.

"Fenris, you are not answering my question."

"No. I am your slave, your property. You are free to make me answer. Or try to, anyway. See how long I can keep disobeying." He stood there, smiling at her, then he kneeled again, looking at her from below. "My Mistress."

Lena was perplexed. She no longer had any idea what was going on - she thought it might have had something to do with vampirism, but perhaps not. Fenris was rebelling, yet at the same time imploring her to... what, exactly? Or was that a test? Could a slave be testing his master? Was Fenris still a slave?

Since Lena couldn't decide what to do, she did nothing. That is, she lifted Fenris by the shoulders again and marched off to the dining room to have something to eat. Fenris wasn't leaving her side, but she acted as if nothing was the matter, even though this was not Fenris' normal behaviour. "Something will come up and explain the situation," she thought, watching Fenris out of the corner of her eye.

Lena had been travelling all day and was now tired. She would normally bathe in the Purifying Pool and then go to bed. But Fenris would not enter the pool for fear of losing his vampirism. Normally he wouldn't enter, that is. "I wonder what he'll do now," Lena thought with mischief. She went to the pool, with Fenris following.

She entered the pool cavern, and Fenris cringed, but entered with her. After all, as long as he stayed away from the water, he was safe. She undressed and entered the pool. Fenris picked up her clothes, folded them neatly and sat there, watching her bathe. Finally, she finished bathing and walked up to Fenris, or rather to her clothes - he was sitting right next to them.

"So it's true, then," he said, looking at her intently. "Your child."

"Did you think it was a ruse?" Lena laughed, allowing him to touch her belly. "You can feel the child inside. Why are you surprised?"

"But you are a vampire!" Fenris looked at all of Lena now. "Your skin... your scent. Your eyes aren't red and your fangs have retreated, but that doesn't change anything."

"Yes, well, I was surprised with it as well," Lena admitted, getting dressed. "I never thought it possible."

With that cleared up, she went to bed, expecting Fenris to resume his normal behaviour - to leave her alone. But he stayed by her side. When Lena awoke, Fenris was still sitting by her bed, looking tired.

"Have you slept at all?" She asked him, wondering what was the matter now.

"No, I watched you sleep," he said. "Your sleep was peaceful."

"Why wouldn't it be?" Lena's perplexed state of mind must have been showing, because Fenris smiled.

"I can think of a number of reasons. You take lives. You serve Molag Bal. You stood naked before me even though you said your vows at the Temple. And of course, you are a vampire," he was quite serious now.

"Fenris... oh dear," Lena shook her head, unsure how to untangle this ball of confusion. "I take lives - I am an assassin. If that troubled my sleep, I would not have gotten far. I do not serve Molag Bal - did you think he made me a pure-blood? And that I carry his child?" She looked at Fenris and he nodded. "No. It's the Mazken Wellspring that restored me." Fenris sighed a sigh of relief. "As for my wedding vows... well... that's between Lucien and me. Our bonds are stronger than that - make no mistake." Fenris paled, and Lena decided to leave him with his doubts of a possible punishment from Lucien Lachance. "Is the thrall well?" She asked, suddenly changing the topic.

"Ye-yes," stammered Fenris. "Well fed and all."

"What about the blood chest?"

"Empty," Fenris admitted. "You haven't been here in a while... and blood doesn't keep. Not even mine. But I can refill it easily, fresh." He got up, presumably to go see to it, but Lena pulled him into the bed and pinned him down.

"Later," she said, nicking a vein on his neck with her dagger. "Tonight you are coming with me." She drank his blood. Two vampires went into the night.

21 Evening Star, 4E202 - Domination

"You thought Molag Bal made me a pure-blood," Lena looked at Fenris sideways as they sat by the fire in an Ayleid ruin. "You thought I carried Molag Bal's child. It was a logical assumption. But did you really think Molag Bal would have allowed me to marry after he'd made me his bride?"

"I wondered about that," Fenris admitted. "It bothered me. It would only be possible either if your husband was a pure-blood himself, or if you were going to sacrifice him."

"We are talking about Lucien Lachance!" exclaimed Lena. "Molag Bal would have a problem with Sithis if anyone were to sacrifice Lucien for him," she smirked. "And everyone fears Sithis, Molag Bal included."

"Does Sithis own you too?" Fenris asked matter-of-factly.

"Sithis owns everyone," Lena nodded. "Everyone and no one. Sithis gets every soul anyway. But as the Dark Brotherhood made Sithis their patron, everyone thinks that Sithis protects us. Truth is, he doesn't care. If anyone were to sacrifice any of us in the name of another god, Sithis would not go after that god, but that god would fear it anyway, and cower before Sithis. This is how it works."

Fenris was listening and struggling to believe it. "How do you know?" He asked, uncertain.

"Sithis told me," Lena said simply.

"Sithis..!" Fenris gasped. The way Lena said it, it was clear that she wasn't referring to one of those mystical visions that people were having when they were lying prostrate at the foot of a statue representing a deity they were praying to. No, Lena was referring to an actual conversation.

"Yeah..." Lena smiled at him. "Perhaps I am not as innocent as you thought."

"Innocence is but an illusion," Fenris nodded.

...

They've been out for three days, and Lena's vampirism had reached its full power. Fenris' too, but he was used to it. Lena didn't dare to drink bottled blood thinking that it would send her vampirism in remission completely, only to be triggered again by the next wraith they encountered - switching between states so frequently could be deadly. But her endurance was dropping faster than that of a regular vampire, and in three days she grew as weak as if she hadn't fed for a week.

"You need to feed, Mistress," Fenris was looking at her with worry. "This can't be good for your child - you are so weak. Every wraith will knock you out now." They were still going through ruins filled with undead.

"Well, firstly, there are no mortals to feed on here," Lena objected. "And second, if I were to drink living blood, it would clear my vampirism, and then every wraith would be able to knock me out anyway. Might as well save it."

This was the fourth time they were having this conversation, with Lena refusing to feed and growing weaker and weaker with every hour. They needed to return home, but the labyrinth seemed to go on and on, and they couldn't be sure how much longer they would stay in it.

"I didn't expect this ruin to be a labyrinth," Lena looked at Fenris apologetically. "Or I would not have drunk your blood before we left. Although it would not have taken long for the wraiths and liches in here to trigger my vampirism with their spells anyway," she smirked.

"You must drink my blood again," Fenris said firmly. "It will sustain you. But what other effects it will have, I do not know."

"Vampires can't drink vampire blood!" Lena exclaimed, remembering a vampire recoil after drinking her blood back in Skyrim. "One that drank mine nearly died!"

"Your blood is different," Fenris objected. "You've taken the cure - the Witch's Potion. It's the worst there is. I wouldn't drink your blood, but you can have mine."

Another wraith interrupted their conversation, knocking out Lena with one hit of its frost spell. She came to after some time, finding herself on a bedroll by a fire. Fenris was there too, he dropped to his knees in meditation. "Just like Geralt," Lena thought. She stirred and Fenris opened his eyes.

"Ah, you are finally awake, Mistress," he smiled at her. "I tried to keep you warm," he gestured at the fire. "My body has no warmth now, but I tried to preserve yours." His features were gaunt, he was famished. "You must drink my blood and regain your strength, or you will never get out of here. I am immortal of course, but you are not. You will perish."

"How long was I out?" Lena tried to sit up, but her head was spinning.

"Half a day, I think," Fenris estimated.

Lena looked at two bottles of living blood in her pack. It might be enough to boost her regeneration once her vampirism was cleared, but she would require proper food and a lot of sleep, neither of which she could get until they returned home. It would not restore her endurance, and the first wraith they meet would knock her out again, triggering her vampirism and leaving her in exactly the same predicament.

Fenris sat watching her. His features were gaunt, but for a regular vampire going hungry for three or four days was in no way life threatening. He was a little weaker than when they just started, but he could go on for weeks before any serious exhaustion set in - Lena remembered it from her own experience. He could continue for months without feeding, and not die. She couldn't. She took bottled blood out of her pack and put it in front of Fenris.

"Drink it first."

"Make me." Fenris looked at her with a challenge.

"What?" Lena sat up, steadying herself, and looked straight at Fenris. "What?" She repeated in a firmer tone.

"I won't drink it," Fenris shook his head. "Make me."

"What are you asking me to do?" Lena was confused. Should she have understood it? Perhaps she was still dizzy and misheard Fenris somehow.

He didn't answer, just sat there, looking at Lena with defiance. He, who just offered her his blood. Repeatedly. Insisted that she'd take it. He was now looking at her with defiance. He, her slave.

"Do it, he is waiting!" A voice spoke in Lena's head. "He knows what must be done."

"Molag Bal?" Lena thought she recognised the voice. "You again!"

"Of course, and I never left. I shall yet have you for my own, Dragonborn. I do not fear Sithis."

"It's not Sithis you need to worry about," Lena replied in her thoughts. "Get out!"

"You show promise," Molag Bal smirked. "You need to do the same with your slave as what you are trying to do with me - dominate."

May be this was what Fenris was expecting. He'd been a slave of Rowley Eardwulf for some two hundred years, he could not get used to not being treated as a slave. Was that it? Or was he serving Molag Bal by enticing Lena to dominate him? Serving Molag Bal in exchange for what?

"Did you ask Molag Bal to make you a pure-blood?" Lena spoke sternly and coldly. Fenris shivered.

"No, I did not," he shook his head, but didn't elaborate. Perhaps that wasn't it.

"Continue and you might earn my mace still," she heard the voice of Molag Bal again.

Lena got up and put away the bottle of blood that she had previously set before Fenris. She stretched and walked around, with the feeling returning to her limbs and warmth returning to her body. She uncorked the last bottle of Tamika West Weald and drank it, filling herself with vigour. It would not last, she knew it, but she didn't need it for long. If domination was what Molag Bal wanted, he was going to be disappointed.

Fenris was still kneeling before the fire in meditation position when Lena came up behind him. She was quiet, but of course he heard her, but didn't move, still looking into the fire, his hands on his lap. She knelt behind him and kissed his neck. Fenris jerked, then froze. Lena's breath was warm, much warmer than Fenris' body, and it made the hairs stand up on the back of his neck as Lena kept circling around him, kissing his neck left and right, rubbing her cheek against it, but not touching him otherwise and not looking into his face.

After a while, it wasn't just Fenris' neck that started to glow under his dark Dunmer skin, but also his cheeks felt warmer, Lena noticed. "It's too bad you can't see him blush with this skin colour," she giggled to herself. Yet, he still sat motionless before the fire. "Time for phase two," decided Lena.

Keeping her hands behind her back and still kneeling behind Fenris, she lifted herself up a bit, twisted, and brushed her glowing cheek against his ear. Gently and slowly. Left, right. Again. And again. Kiss his neck. Brush against his ear. Let hot breath run down his cheek. "Oh look, the Dunmer do have tiny hairs on their faces," she noted to herself. "Now I'm getting somewhere!" Fenris' face was glowing.

He spun around and kissed her, locking her in an embrace and pressing her to his chest, which was now heaving with heavy heartbeat. Quite unusual, for an undead. But then, he wasn't a lich, he was a vampire.

"Drink my blood because I want you to," he whispered into her ear, covering her face with kisses. He gently pushed her onto the floor and was now on top of her. The warmth of her body made his body respond... "What are you doing?" He whispered. "Just because I'm your slave, it doesn't mean I'm..." He moaned, rolling over onto his back, as Lena's touch finished his phrase for him.

"I know," Lena kissed him. "I'm glad it worked." She bit his neck without domination.

...

Semen and blood covered the Ayleid floor. The blood was dark, undead. Lena was sitting by the fire eating cheese and grapes that were somehow well preserved in the chill of the ruin. Fenris was trying to clean the floor, then just threw a cloth over it, giving up.

"I haven't experienced this in a very long time," he smiled at Lena, sitting down at her feet. "With Rowley, it was always the opposite," he shuddered. "I bless the stars that made him sell me to you." He looked at Lena fondly. "My Mistress. But why did you do it? You could have just tied me up and drank my blood - I would not have resisted much."

"No," Lena shook her head. "Domination is not my way. Not usually, anyway," she winked at him. "Why did you suddenly start to resist? You've been offering me your blood for days already! Then this defiance. I was confused."

"But you have to dominate me, I am your slave," it was Fenris' turn to be confused. "Not entice and arouse me as you did..." he blushed. Yes, you could see it under the Dunmer skin, even on vampires. "I resisted as long as I could. Pain is far easier to endure than a promise of pleasure." He sat looking into the fire for a while. "If Lucien Lachance decides to kill me now, I won't mind."

"Lucien won't kill you," Lena was finishing the cheese. "Because actually nothing happened."

"What? But I..." Fenris pointed at the puddles on the floor.

"Yeah, on the floor," Lena nodded. "Exactly. I wasn't even naked."

Fenris smirked at that. "It wasn't necessary. I've seen you the other day. I've felt you now. I put it together, and there is the result. Do you mean to say you won't tell your husband about it?" He looked at Lena with hope in his eyes.

"Oh, I don't know. I might do if it comes up," she answered, and Fenris shuddered. "I drank your blood!" She exclaimed. "We are not exactly strangers. It wasn't an anonymous feeding, and you are not a thrall."

...

"How are you feeling?" Fenris was looking at Lena intently, trying to judge what the results of her drinking his blood while relapsed could have been. "You look better - did I provide nourishment?"

"You did," Lena smiled. "Thank you. But also something else... I feel different somehow." Lena got up and walked around, as if testing her body. "It feels... familiar. I suppose we'll find out once I drink living blood again - whether my vampirism is still recessive."

"You will need more blood," Fenris looked at her and grinned. "I never want to leave this labyrinth."

20 Sun's Dusk, 4E202 - Arrival

"Come on, Nord, this ain't Skyrim!" A guard kicked Hauk in the shins trying to wake him up.

"Whaaa--" Hauk groaned, turning sleepily and trying to ignore the guard.

"Up, I said - up! You useless piece of..."

Thud. The guard's head hit an awkwardly placed crate, putting an end to his swearing. Hauk turned over and continued snoring.

"Now you've done it!" A fellow passenger on the prison ship was going through the dead guard's pockets, trying not to disturb the Nord. "Wait until they discover this! I better make sure it's clear I had nothing to do with it!" He snuck up to Hauk and carefully clipped the guard's dagger onto Hauk's belt. "There... should there ever be any doubt... Ouch!"

"You didn't really want to do that, did you?" Hauk pinned the prisoner against the wall, squeezing his throat. "I wonder if anyone would be bothered by an extra corpse?"

The prisoner was making strange gurgling noises.

"What's that?" Hauk looked concerned. "You are not making a lot of sense, pal. You do know why they had me sedated, don't you?"

The prisoner seemed to be nodding and making more desperate gurgling noises.

"But I suppose I could use the dagger," Hauk turned it over in his hand. "Imperial steel ain't bad. All right then..." He released his grip and the prisoner dropped to the ground, still making gurgling noises and now bracing his throat.

Hauk lay down on his cot and resumed snoring.

The guard Captain was passing by, saw the dead guard, noticed the bloodied crate corner, the sleeping Nord and the cowering Dunmer looking terrified and clutching his throat... "I did tell him to go gently," the Captain muttered, prodding the guard with his boot. "What an idiot." Then, turning to the Dunmer he added: "All Imperial property must be accounted for, and everything this guard possesses, is Imperial property. Including his side arm." Then, noticing an incredulous look on the Dunmer's face, he clarified: "His dagger!" The Captain turned away and walked off, smirking to himself at the stifled swearing of the Dunmer.

He walked to the end of the ship and unlocked the last door with his key. The storage room was filled with crates and chests with Imperial seals. He picked one up, hoisting it on his shoulder with a swear - the chest was heavy. Locking the door again, the Guard Captain carried the chest to Hauk's cabin, pushing the dead guard out of the way and glaring at the Dunmer prisoner who was trying to pretend not to exist.

"C'mon, Hauk, we're nearly there," the Captain patted Hauk's shins.

"Hullo, Julius, here's your man's dagger," Hauk passed the dagger to the Captain. "Did you not teach him the code?"

"I did," the Captain nodded. "But he didn't believe me. Idiot. Here are your things. You better get ready, the ship will dock soon."

The Captain left and Hauk opened the chest, shooting a glance at the Dunmer.

"This isn't happening and you never saw the Captain here," he said slowly. "I am a prisoner like any other and they sedated me due to my violent nature. Got it?" His eyes weren't leaving the Dunmer, who was nodding vigorously, still clutching his throat. "All right then..." Hauk started rummaging in the chest, removing bits of steel armour and laying them out on his cot. "Everything seems to be here..." He muttered to himself, starting to strap the armour on. His robes were on the bottom of the chest, he rolled them up in a bundle and tucked it into his belt. An assortment of knives and daggers got distributed into specially made sockets on his otherwise ordinary looking steel cuirass, greaves and boots. There were no gauntlets, shield or helmet - Hauk was a battlemage. He was nearly ready when the Captain brought him his claymore.

"Your blade," he said, passing it to Hauk with a smile. "Ebony core, silver plated - right? We don't see them often. Imperial Battlemages use plainer weapons, not like you Specialists."

"Imperial Battlemages don't normally fight the undead," Hauk pointed out. "Not every smith can forge a blade like this." He strapped it to his back and turned to the Dunmer prisoner. "Remember - violent nature. I slept the whole time. You saw nothing."

The ship jerked as it docked and Hauk turned to leave, accompanied by the Captain. The prisoner craned his neck trying to see and mostly to hear without being seen.

"Good luck to you, Animal," the Captain waved goodbye to Hauk.

"Optio!" The guard on the shore snapped to attention.

"At ease," Hauk grinned, walking towards the offices.

"Optio?" The prisoner sat back on his bench. "Animal?" He was trying to put together what he'd heard. "No, it can't be!" He swallowed hard. "I saw nothing at all."

...

"Your 'Release Order'," the clerk in the first office slid a piece of paper towards Hauk. "Nonsense of course, but formalities must be maintained. Go see Gravius in the next room."

Hauk nodded, taking the paper and moving on. Best get it over with.

"Ah, there you are," Gravius took Hauk's papers. "Let me just file those. Here, your 'allowance' and a package for Caius in Balmora. Formalities. Where would we be without them." He yawned, and Hauk thought that the Captain was just as eager to get it over with as Hauk himself. It was 2:30 in the morning.

"Did you have to stay up waiting for me?" He asked.

"Yeah, they made sure... Three separate messengers brought me that order! Three!" He glared at Hauk, then glared at the guard by the door who cringed. "Anyone could have given this stuff to you, right? So why me?" He glared some more.

"You know my face, Gravius, the others don't. Perhaps they wanted to make sure there was no mistake. I wasn't the only prisoner on that ship, you know," Hauk remarked.

"Yeah, but I trust Julius didn't let anyone else off the ship here?" The Captain looked worried for a moment, undoubtedly not looking forward to handling any more released prisoners at that time of night.

"No, it's just me," Hauk reassured him. "There was a Dunmer sharing a cabin with me though, he might have seen a bit too much. But I think he won't tell, not after he heard what they call me," he smirked. "It's been a while, but Morrowind seems to remember."

"Morrowind remembers," Gravius nodded. "And not just the Animal. Your other 'title' too."

"Pursuing love interests is beneficial in more than one respect," Hauk objected. "It gets you access to families where you wouldn't dream of getting access to otherwise, not as an adventurer and certainly not as an Imperial Legionnaire."

"But even so, the Telvanni? By Talos, Hauk, you may be a mage, but you're no match for one of them!"

"And I wasn't there to fight," Hauk grinned. "Besides, it was the lady's idea. How was I to know she was a virgin?" He laughed as Gravius's jaw dropped and the guard by the door giggled. "She wasn't of the first youth, you know."

"Get out of here, Thief of Virtue," Gravius laughed, waving him away. "Seyda Neen is but a humble settlement, we are not used to the likes of you."

Hauk smirked, muttering: "That I very much doubt," then left the building.

In the courtyard he found a barrel, and hoping to get a torch, went through it. A basket, a ladle and a candle was inside, but no torch. "Yeah, a humble settlement, all right," Hauk smirked. "Oh, but what's this?" An enchanted and engraved ring was on the bottom. "Confiscated from someone for 'safe keeping', no doubt," he decided, pocketing it. Morrowind hadn't changed at all.

...

"Did you find a ring in there?" A Bosmer ambushed Hauk just as he emerged out of the main door of the offices. "An engraved enchanted ring? A family heirloom, you know! The guards confiscated it, I swear!" He was about to burst into tears.

"Here, I found it in the courtyard," Hauk handed him over the ring. "Don't annoy the guards quite so much next time." He brushed off the Bosmer's profuse thanks and looked around. It was nearly dawn. "Hang around here until the first light, then set off to Balmora," he decided.

If we go there. So far none of mine have been to Shivering Isles yet! But that's what it is. I read what SI is like through the words of others over the years. Kinda nice knowing there's this whole other worldspace none of mine have gone to, yet.

Up to Page 5, post 94. She just got back from S.I. Hauk is reading. I can just imagine for these folks of ours who go on large adventures all over their world, that reading a book has a whole different meaning than it does for us earthlings.

Love the end part when she cuddles up next to Hauk. That's really nice.

23 Sun's Dusk, 4E202 - Settling in

"So, how is it that it took you three days to walk from Seyda Neen to Balmora?" Caius Cosades looked stern. "How many ladies did you bed along the way? Could they not wait?" He glared at Hauk.

"None, and that's the truth, Master," Hauk stood at attention. "I did run into some, but it wasn't me who bedded them."

"For once," Caius softened his tone. "Anyway, you're here now. I suppose it's too late to tell you to keep your nose clean as your reputation has preceded you already. Everyone knows you're in town! And the Dunmer have long memories." He opened the package delivered by Hauk, skimmed through the contents of the scrolls contained in it, nodding. "Yeah, no surprises here, I knew that already." He tossed the scrolls into a corner. "Elsweyr. Someone saw you go to that fort near Corinthe - that was my agent, he sent his report. But you kept your nose clean there, I'll give you that."

"Sir." Hauk was still standing to attention.

"At ease," Caius waved at him. "So you know who I am, good. Do you also know why you are here? No? Also good. I hear you requested this transfer. What is your ulterior motive?"

There wasn't much you could hide from the Spy Master, and Hauk wasn't surprised by the question. It didn't take a genius to realise that no man in his right mind would request a transfer from Cyrodiil to Morrowind, not then and not ever. Or at least this was the Spy Master's opinion, even though he himself seemed quite comfortable in Balmora. But perhaps looks were deceiving.

"I need to find two people in Morrowind," Hauk replied. "This has nothing to do with the Legion, but it does touch on our allies," he gave Caius a meaningful look. "Our long standing allies who prefer to remain in the background."

"I see," Caius nodded. "I had word... that matches what you are saying. The Mother does not object. But what do you intend to do with those people when you find them?" Caius' gaze was penetrating.

"Nothing," Hauk shook his head. "The Redguard I only need to locate and put a trace on, nothing else. Preferably so that she doesn't notice, but of course the Webspinner will know. The Dunmer I shall warn about the Redguard and... well... may be add a personal message, I think it is time for him to resurface in his son's life. That is all."

"Good," Caius nodded. "This won't interfere with anything, because I shall have duties for you, make no mistake. But what of your other project?" He smiled slyly. There wasn't anything you could hide from the Spy Master.

"My project?" Hauk raised an eyebrow.

"Solstheim."

"Oh..." Hauk's gaze shifted. "When the Moons turn to blood, I'll have to go there. The Hunt will be on. There's someone I need to follow, watch over. He will be on the other side, but he's a Prime. He must not die."

"Interesting," Caius mused. "The Moons aren't crimson yet, but it isn't that far off. Very interesting..." He got up, walked to a bookshelf, browsed through some books and scrolls, read this and that, all in silence. Then he returned to his seat. "Fort Frostmoth will lose its Captain at just about that time, you will go and assist them," he said, looking straight at Hauk. "I shall tell you when to leave so you won't miss the party."

Hauk raised an eyebrow at this unexpected turn of events, but didn't say anything. There was no point in asking the Spy Master how he knew what was going to happen in the future. The Spy Master knew everything. "Yes, Sir," was all he could say.

"Very well," Caius rose from his seat, and Hauk did the same. "Get settled in here in Balmora, this will be your base of operations. Join the Guilds - the Mages and Fighters Guild at least, I am not fussed about the Thieves Guild, although I don't imagine it would suit you. I don't need to tell you to stay away from Morag Tong for now, do I?" He was watching Hauk's reaction. "Good. The Temple, the Imperial Cult, the Great Houses - do what you like, you're not a Novice. Pay a visit to Fort Moonmoth near here - they could use your skills. Come back in a few days, I'll have a job for you then. Dismissed."

...

"Well, the Spy Master certainly lives up to his reputation," Hauk was musing as he left Caius' apartment. "And yeah, that skooma... that wasn't just skooma," he recalled what the Healer had told him in that fort near Corinthe - that Caius Cosades' "skooma" was something altogether different and was the very thing that allowed this Imperial to remain the Spy Master for the last two and a half centuries, at least. Although going by the smell, skooma was still a part of it. "Whatever works," concluded Hauk, standing in the central square of Balmora and deciding where to go next.

...

"But you are in Morrowind now, so you will have to re-join the Mages Guild afresh, Evoker," a Dunmer of authority told Hauk at the Mages Guild. "Take an oath and all that. You will not use your Cyrodilic rank and will start at the bottom," she glared at him. "We make no exceptions!"

Hauk sighed, but had no choice but to accept.

"Excellent, you are now a member of the Balmora Mages Guild, Associate," the Dunmer savored the sound of that title. "Find someone to give you duties. You must perform duties to advance." She gave him a toothy smile that didn't look friendly and marched off.

...

"You want to join the Fighters Guild? Of course you do!"

That was easy enough. The Fighters Guild accepted anyone, it seemed. Perhaps the rumours of their connection to Camona Tong were true, after all.

...

"Want to join House Hlaalu?" A Dunmer batted her eyelids at Hauk, and he had to steady himself. Those sanguine eyes always got him going. "We accept outlanders. In particular Nords. I personally prefer Nords..."

She took a few steps forward. Hauk took a step back. This was too soon. Too aggressive. Too obvious. Something was wrong.

"Perhaps later," he stammered - the lady did have an effect on him, although he managed to stay in control for now. He turned around and walked off, his face red, sweat running down his neck. Ouch, that was close. He needed a place to stay, preferably with a bath tub.

...

"Where to stay?" A Khajiit passer by flicked her ears in surprise. "Oh, you're new here, aren't you?" She looked him over, up and down. "You'll do, I suppose. We could put you up at the South Wall, for free. You'll just have to work it off." She smiled.

"Doing what?" Hauk went red and broke a sweat. It was a good act, he actually had an idea what his duties would be, and that they wouldn't involve staying in bed, but he wanted the Khajiit to spell it out for him.

"Well, not what you are thinking, although if you really want to, I'm sure we could work something out," she grinned. "No, you'll just need to retrieve a few things now and again." She gave him another toothy grin. "Interested?"

"Umm... Let me come back to you on that," Hauk stammered evasively. He was sure he would cross paths with the Thieves Guild at some point, and although he had no intention of joining, he didn't want to alienate them either. This Khajiit seemed important.

"Find us at the South Wall then," she nodded. "When you run out of money paying for each of the eight plates."

That was a good point. The Eight Plates was a nice inn, but at ten drakes a night, Hauk couldn't really afford it. The Guilds had no accommodations for him either - "All the beds are taken, but you can use them during the day, if you like," he was told. He had no intention of sleeping in the Temple either. He walked around Balmora rather aimlessly looking at the buildings around him, grey and dreary in the incessant rain.

"Hopefully this will look better when the sun comes out," he thought. He was missing Cyrodiil already, and it wasn't just the buildings. "Go away as far as you can and never come back," was the common greeting here, and although Hauk remembered the attitude from his previous visits, it was still jarring, all over again. "It's either that, or they drag you into bed like some some sort of a male prostitute," he muttered to himself. "Or both." Nords had a reputation... Vigour, stamina, it was all true, but was that reason enough to ignore all else? "To some, perhaps," he nodded to his own question. After all, this very attitude served him well in the past. Of course, he was younger then. But even now, at just over fifty, he was obviously still alluring, in spite of his hair turning silver here and there. "And some remember me from before," he grinned at a passing Dunmer woman who suppressed a smile of recognition. She looked exactly the same as twenty years ago, while Hauk... "Well, no point dwelling on it," he cut himself off. Elven longevity was not given to him, but he wasn't an old man yet either, so he brushed off those thoughts and focused on a more pressing business of finding some lodgings. If Balmora was to be his base of operations, as Caius had put it, he had to find a place to stay that didn't cost him ten drakes a night and didn't have "friends" sharing the room with him. In a word, he needed a place of his own.

At the North end of the Eastern terrace he stumbled on what looked like an abandoned market stall trading in everything and anything, especially if it started with "sk", he suspected. Or at least "sk" would be something the owner of the stall would buy on the proceeds of the trade. The house by the stall was locked, requiring a key. There was no one around, although the guards kept a sharp eye on Hauk - even though the stall seemed abandoned, they wouldn't let anyone - and especially not an outlander - touch any of the items on it.

Hauk thought the house looked promising. He scaled the hill between the city wall and the house and climbed onto the roof terrace.


Skooma pipes and other paraphernalia confirmed Hauk's suspicion of the occupants of the house. Still, it all looked a bit weathered and abandoned. A note on the table explained what might have happened - the recipient was to meet someone "in the usual place", to come alone and not to bring any of his addict friends... or else. Hauk feared that "else" was what happened. The key to the house was right there in a little box as well, so Hauk decided to check inside.

It was a typical drug dealer's abode, simply furnished but containing considerable amounts of money and some valuables. There was no sign of drug use inside, the "addict friends" must have kept to the terrace. "Change the locks and ask around about the owner," Hauk thought. "Otherwise I've found my house." He assumed that since the house hadn't been ransacked by the authors of the note, they weren't interested in ransacking it. Still, he decided to stay away from the goods or the money.

Another stroll through town got him beginner's duties with the Guilds, and a reliable-looking Orc agreed to change the locks on his newly acquired house.

"I'm a commoner, I do what needs doing, cooking, cleaning, making, breaking, you name it," he said, grinning. "Changing the locks too, and I don't even keep a copy of the key. He who used to live here, won't be missed."

Thus reassured, Hauk locked the doors, slid a dagger or two inside the pillow case and stretched out on the hammock. It's been a long day.

1 Evening Star, 4E202 - Establishing a cover story

"Establish a cover story, no one should be left wondering what you are doing in Morrowind," Caius Cosades told Hauk during the briefing. "A freelance adventurer cover always works, although since everyone already knows you're with the Legion, you might as well join up officially. Gnisis accepts new recruits, I hear." He smirked at his own joke, looking at Hauk's professional gear. "With that Cyrodilic kit you'll stick out as a sore thumb," he continued. "Yeah, yeah, I know, this armour actually fits... Fine. Keep it. Work on your skills then - presentation is everything."

Hauk was about to object that he was a seasoned battlemage already, but the sore bruises all over his body reminded him to be humble.

"Many creatures here are unfamiliar to me," he replied. "Many weapons wielded by men and mer also. It's been a long time since my last visit, Master."

"Long enough for you to forget that mating kaguti are best left alone!" Caius laughed. "Yeah, I've heard that story. Hard not to. 'Some mad Nord went against a pair of mating kaguti and got thoroughly thrashed!' It's all over town now, if not all over Morrowind."

"But I got both of them in the end," Hauk objected. "Although it wasn't easy."

"To say the least!" Caius laughed again. "Never mind though - Nords are known to rely on their brawn first and their brain second, if at all." Hauk was about to object, but the Spy Master interrupted him. "I don't mean you, even though engaging a pair of mating kaguti was outright stupid, if you ask me. But the brainless Nord stereotype is an excellent cover." Hauk nodded.

"I've got a few other jobs lined up, I'll see that this stereotype is maintained," he grinned. "I don't mind getting knocked out."

"All right, and while you are at it--" Caius handed him a scroll. "Fill that in, will you?" He waited for Hauk to unroll the scroll and stare at the blank surface. "The Cartographers Guild - you know their tricks! Of course there are maps of Morrowind around, but they want an up-to-date one with all the roads on it. In fact, they just want the roads, they'll fill in the surrounding scenery themselves. So, you're a mage - fill that in." Caius looked at Hauk expectantly.

"Is this some sort of a test?" Hauk squinted at him. Morrowind was not like Elsweyr, there was just the one version of it, as far as he knew, and all the various maps actually agreed with each other. So what was this then? Unless... "You want to know where I've been," it dawned on Hauk. "And not just the landmarks as they could be copied."

Caius smiled. "Yes, but there's more to it. Morrowind keeps changing, the eruption of the Red Mountain keeps having an effect. Areas that have been declared 'obliterated' are far from obliterated in fact, and although some caves and barrows got covered in ash, others again emerged. The Blight is back too, and Corprus, and we don't know what that means. Are we to expect another Nerevarine? That seems unlikely, although Vivec is presiding over his City again... Yeah... Don't ask! We too thought that the Temple was well and truly dead. But may be not completely. Talos alone may know what's going on..." Caius stared into the distance, reliving the events of the Third Era and wondering whether they were to come to pass again. At least this time he would know what to expect. "So you, and all the other agents, are under strict orders to make notes of anything and everything, places, roads, conversations - we don't want to miss any warnings this time. Nerevarine or not, but something big is coming."

"What about the Dragonborn?" Hauk thought it might be a complication.

"What about her?" Caius raised an eyebrow.

"Her... You know who it is?" Hauk looked up in surprise, and Caius nodded. Of course he knew it. "So then... Alduin is back in Skyrim, Dagoth Ur is rising in Morrowind, all we need now is to have Mehrunes Dagon join the party in Cyrodiil..."

"With the Greymarsh on in the Shivering Isles and the Great Hunt soon to come to Solstheim, yes," Caius nodded. "Shattering the Amulet of Kings was a bad idea."

...

"Ajira must study local mushrooms for her Journeyman report," a Khajiit at the Balmora Mages Guild looked Hauk over. "Associate will bring her these mushrooms."

Hauk wondered whether gathering those mushrooms wasn't a part of the job. After all, a Journeyman of the Mages Guild should be able to defend herself from some wild life, no?


"And this is why," Hauk thought to himself standing waist deep in a swamp. "Yeah."

After the mushrooms it was the flowers, then put a fake soul gem into the desk of another Journeyman hopeful, then find Ajira's mushroom and flower reports stolen by said other Journeyman hopeful... Delightful. But it did get Hauk promoted from an Associate to Evoker in a little over a day, at which point Ajira told him that she would only have tasks for him once he reached Wizard, and not before.

"Excuse me, but this mage is not even a Journeyman yet! How can she have tasks for a Wizard?" Shaking his head, Hauk went next door to the Fighters Guild to see if they made any more sense. The first job was rats - he expected that. No one wanted to deal with rats, so it was always the newcomers who got those jobs. The next job was to murder two people... "But this isn't Morag Tong, is it?" He almost asked, but the Steward looked very stern. "I am your Steward and I'm giving you a job to do, so go to it!" Yeah, Nord women were not to be trifled with.

Egg poachers murdered, he returned to the Fighters Guild. The next job was to murder four "Telvanni agents" near the Caldera ebony mine. They were all Thieves Guild, but this wasn't a Thieves Guild job, so they had no protection and were fair game. The Steward went on and on about them being with the Thieves Guild... Hauk thought that rather strange. But after another stern look from her, he went to it.

With the four "Telvanni agents" taken care of - "Thieves Guild agents more like," Hauk thought - he decided to spend the night in Caldera and stopped by the Mages Guild. No, they had no beds available either, but one smart looking Dunmer enlisted Hauk's help in retrieving propylon indexes. Hauk had heard of those ancient magical devices, so was glad to help.

"I know of ten such indexes," the mage explained. "I'll tell you where to find the first, and when you've got that and bring it here, I'll tell you where to find the second. And no, not before. The first one is at our pawnbroker's next door. Go get it."

This was too easy. Why didn't this mage go and get it all by himself? It didn't even require standing waist deep in swamp water! But it was late and Hauk left it for tomorrow.

In the morning he found out why the mage didn't do it himself: the price. The pawnbroker had it for sale for 826 septims. Hauk shook his head again and left - the mage would have to find someone else willing to "retrieve" this from the shop. If Hauk was expected to steal it, he was in the wrong guild.

...

"Where is this Khajiit going to?" Hauk noticed a well-dressed Khajiit, possibly a mage, taking the road North West from Caldera. "Oh, probably going shopping at the Hlaalu Commercial Post," he reasoned. But no, the Khajiit turned West - into the swamps. Hauk got naturally curious and decided to follow.

...

"Hello, friend," someone greeted him from the bushes. "Chilly today, isn't it?"

Oh no! Out of the bushes stepped a naked Nord. Well, nearly naked. Young, well-built, somewhat dazed, Hauk figured out what happened.

"A witch, was it?" Hauk squinted at him, before he could even say anything.

"How did you know?" Hlormar blinked at him. "But, err, yes."

"I've been young once," Hauk smirked. "I know how it goes. So, what's the damage?"

"My axe! She's got my axe!" Hlormar was both tearful and angry - the worst combination.

"All right, come along then," Hauk nodded. "Which way?"

"Umm... Err... Ugh... That way... I think?"

Right. The Khajiit was of course long gone into the swamps and Hauk couldn't hope to find him again this time, so he headed North West, as Hlormar indicated. They walked for a while, had some fun with nix-hounds, rats and even cliffracers, but no witches. Except one.

"Oh hello!" A friendly young Redguard stopped them on the road. "Could you escort me to Gnaar Mok, please? I'll reward you! With enchanted boots!"

Hauk looked at Hlormar but he shook his head - the wrong witch.

"And what's in Gnaar Mok?" Hauk gave her a broad smile.

"Well..." She smiled again and licked her lips. "I have an... err... arrangement... with a... client... yeah, that's it!" She concluded radiantly. "And I... ugh... need to deliver some goods... but... ugh... the roads are so dangerous these days!" She turned to Hlormar and smiled at him too, but Hlormar glared angrily and she quickly turned back to Hauk.

"Well, you see, Miss," Hauk put on his most charming smile. "Ordinarily I would be thrilled to escort you to Gnaar Mok or anywhere else, but today... well... my friend and I are rather busy just now and we are going in the opposite direction." Hlormar nodded vigorously. "So I'm so sorry, but could I may be come back later?"

"There is no later!" The Redguard got angry. "It's take it or leave it! And you left it!" She pouted her lips. "Well then, I'm sure I can find a real knight here somewhere to escort me to Gnaar Mok!" She turned around and stomped off.

"I'm not sure real knights go to Gnaar Mok," Hauk smirked to himself.

...

After a few more hours wandering through the hills, he and Hlormar noticed another woman on the road.

"That's it!" Hlormar was pointing at her excitedly. "That's the witch!"

The witch had no intention of returning Hlormar's kit, but was willing to meet them at the Mages Guild in Caldera in three days.

"I'm not waiting three days!" Hauk didn't even try to convince Hlormar to wait as it was clearly pointless. The witch turned violent, proving in fact to be a witch, but Hlormar landed a few punches on her and all was finished before it even began. Hauk's scamp stood there polishing his claws for the want of something to do.

"These clothes cannot be used any more," Hlormar commented on the rags he found in the witch's pack. "Were they that bad to start with?" He shook his head. "Perhaps I should be getting new ones more often." He discarded the clothes and retrieved his axe. "Here is the important bit anyway," he grinned. "Clothes can be replaced, this axe - can't. May the wind be on your back, friend!" He waved goodbye to Hauk and disappeared into the hills.

"Yeah, at your age I didn't need clothes either," he smirked to himself.

...

The sun was setting and Hauk decided to go West to Gnaar Mok and see what the place was like, since both the young Redguard woman and the well-dressed Khajiit were going that way, it appeared. But he ran out of dry road very soon. Here was a road sign pointing left, but there was no road to be seen, all Hauk saw was the swamp.


"It says go West," he shook his head. "Well, all right - I see no road, but how hard can it be?" And remembering the well-dressed Khajiit, he went West towards the setting sun.

Gnaar Mok wasn't very far away, it turned out, and if you looked closely, you could in fact spot some remains of a road on the ground, although grass had covered most of it already. Hauk was glad to find quite a sizable town there, even though it was surrounded by swamps on all sides. The town had a tavern which didn't rent beds, and if you were with House Hlaalu or with the Guild, you might be entitled to services. They didn't even specify which Guild it was... Hauk was with two Guilds, but neither was the right one. He sighed and asked whether someone without an affiliation could possibly find a place to sleep there? "Yeah, sure, some of the huts are not in use," was the reply. "Knock on some doors, look around, if you don't see anyone, you can sleep there." Hauk thought that rather unusual, but apparently people came and went quite a lot in those parts, so it was perfectly normal. "It's not like you are going to find any treasures in those huts!" Several people laughed at that.

Hauk did as was suggested, and sure enough he soon found a hut that was definitely without an occupier. A note left on the bench read:

Schoash, you are an idiot! Leave immediately, never to return. Or it will be your head sticking out of the swamp - without the body! They are not joking. Leave your stuff behind, no one will touch your shack now.

Signed - A friend.

"Well, Schoash, I thank you heartily," Hauk left the note on the bench. "You just provided me with a place to stay."

He took off his armour and stretched, looking around with satisfaction. The hut was plain, but it had everything he needed, and most of all, it had privacy. Hauk took out his journal and started taking notes. "I'm not sure Caius will find anything useful in today's events," he mused, "but at least he'll chuckle at Hlormar."

Page 5 Post 97-- Neat how Lena's in contact with Fenris, who is still living the vampiric life. Why is he calling her mistress?

98 -- I really love that cell phone pic at the start. I used to take a lot of cell pics too. I kind of miss them, because sometimes they have a slightly-blurry quality which PC screenshots can't capture. The lighting is different. I dunno... cell pics can be a different artisitic style, which is just as good as screenshots, imo.

Whoa... "in a few minutes the skin would start to burn..."

99-- Now they're in Bloodcrust Cavern, but not being attacked. Did you align Lena with other factions? Just curious. I know you are good with going back and forth from Xbox to PC to Xbox. I don't think these pics were taken on PC.

Pretty neat how she's taking Fenris into an underground place where he's safer. Rowley seems like a meanie, keeping Fenris as a slave.

Exactly. Rowley sold Fenris to Lena when the Empire started cracking down on slave trade. And although Lena doesn't want Fenris to be a slave, he doesn't know any better... She wants to make him into a free person, but to him, she's his Mistress. Kind of sad, really. This is also why he's kneeling before her all the time.

In the actual Vile Lair DLC Fenris is a nameless "Dark Minion". He lives in the lair and can be sent out to... err... plunder. Makes no sense at all! So I changed that and made him into a follower. And to make him a slave - that comes from Macole's story, actually! I liked it and put it into my story as well. Rowley was a mean fellow anyway.

The Bloodcrust Cavern - that was simple. I put those vampires into the PlayerFaction, since they were special NPCs and not just generic vampires. Turn down their aggression, and there you are!

I see, wow, so Fenris really is supposed to be her property.

Every time I read some I am Lena Wolf btw, it makes me want to play Oblivion!

Yeah, that's why everyone is getting so stern with her about Fenris. Slavery had been long outlawed in Cyrodiil! So what is she doing here owning a slave?!

Rowley didn't tell her he was selling her a slave. He said he'd arrange for a servant to tend to the Deepscorn Hollow. But this "servant" knew otherwise...


Oh thanks! That's nice!

5 Evening Star, 4E202 - Finding your way

"I don't seem to be able to summon the creatures I used to summon in Cyrodiil," Hauk was saying to Estirdalin at the Mages Guild in Balmora. "While at the same time I am able to summon someone's Ancestral Ghost. Very odd."

"Yes, magic doesn't quite work in the same way here," Estirdalin nodded. "Personally I think it's the proximity to the Red Mountain. You need to update your spell knowledge - you know, get the local summons or tweak your existing ones. I can recommend Skeletal Minions and Bonewalkers - they are like Skeletons and Zombies in Cyrodiil, and come in different grades, too." She summoned a Skeletal Minion to demonstrate. It stood there looking around, and Hauk thought that it was in fact exactly the same as the skeletons in Cyrodiil. Or Skyrim. Or Elsweyr. Or even Antaloor. Stripped of their flesh, men and mer were the same everywhere, it seemed. "It is interesting about the Ancestral Ghost though," Estirdalin continued. "Are you sure you have no Dunmer ancestors?" She squinted at Hauk, but it didn't make him look any more Dunmer.

"Pretty sure," Hauk nodded. "I was born in Cyrodiil of course, as were my parents, but they've always kept to the ways of the Nords, and there are Serck-Hanssens in Skyrim."

"Which proves exactly nothing," Estirdalin smiled. "Summon your Ancestral Ghost and we'll see."

Hauk took a deep breath and summoned the Ancestral Ghost. That spell took almost all of his magicka - the Nords didn't have quite as deep magicka reserves as the elves or Bretons, for example. But then again, his willpower made up for that, he always reckoned.

The Ancestral Ghost was hovering before him, it turned around, surveying the room, probed Estirdalin and turned back to Hauk.

"This isn't just someone's Ancestral Ghost, this is your Ancestral Ghost," Estirdalin was watching with fascination. "A very old one, really ancient. You have deep roots in Morrowind, possibly going much deeper than your clan memory. How many generations of Serck-Hanssens do you actually know about?" She squinted at Hauk again and he shrugged.

"Three, four, may be," he mused. "Family lines get blurred after that."

"And therein lies your answer," Estirdalin concluded with satisfaction. "This ghost is much older than three or four generations. This is why it takes so much of your magicka to summon it, especially since you're not a Dunmer. And you were never able to summon it before?" Hauk shook his head. "That must be the Red Mountain," Estirdalin decided.

"But I've been here before," Hauk sounded uncertain. "In Morrowind, I mean. Stayed here quite a long time, some twenty years ago. Was never able to summon this ghost before."

"Yes, that is interesting," Estirdalin agreed. "Something must have changed..." She squinted at Hauk again, seeing someone different with her mind's eye, and walked off, lost in thought.

...

"Go and collect guild dues from Manwe and convince Llarar Bereloth to join us," the head of Balmora's Mages Guild told Hauk casually. "Those are your duties. Manwe defected to the Telvanni and Llarar is a Telvanni himself, so we'll have him in exchange." She smiled at Hauk - this task was simplicity itself.

"And you expect them to just agree?" Hauk thought that highly unlikely.

"If they don't, kill them," Ranis Athrys shrugged her shoulders. "You are a battlemage, aren't you?" She dismissed the topic.

"Yeah..." Hauk thought to himself. "A battlemage, but not quite with Morag Tong." He wasn't sure whether this was any better than assisting the squabble of two Journeyman hopefuls that he had to do before. "Perhaps I should pay a visit to the Telvanni first, see if someone there still remembers me," he grinned at the memory - he was sure they did. Perhaps it was time for him to join the House since the Mages Guild in Morrowind didn't live up to his expectations. But then again, may be his expectations were too Imperial.

...

"Your first round of orders is to get information from two people at the Fighters Guild and at the Mages Guild," Caius told Hauk during their next meeting. "They will undoubtedly want some 'favours' from you first. Do it - you know how it works. I want that information."

That was clear enough. Caius was not taking 'no' for an answer. "He's a tough fighter," was the word from the other Blades agents. "He's fair though and doesn't get under your feet." That was good enough for Hauk, and although he had so far no chance to see for himself just how tough a fighter Caius actually was, he could feel the toughness of his character. "Why do I feel like a novice in Lucien Lachance's Sanctuary?" He smirked to himself. The punishment from the Spy Master would likely be comparable to that from the Master Assassin.

...

Molag Mar greeted him with a sand storm. The sky went dark and red sand was blowing into his face.

"This isn't sand," Hauk realised, chewing on some of it as it got into his mouth. "This is ash. Yuck!" He spit it out. "I forgot about this bit. I should wear a scarf over my mouth." His musings were interrupted by a sharp pain under his knee, where the armoured plates did not reach. "What the..?" He swore, spinning around. It was a rat. A rat! Unbelievable. One swing of Hauk's sword should have dealt with that vermin, but it didn't. "Since when did it take five swings to kill a rat?" Hauk was checking his claymore with surprise. "And why does it feel so much heavier than usual all of a sudden?" Sheathing it behind his back, he realised that he'd broken a sweat too. In fact the sweat was still pouring off him, even though he wasn't moving... Faint blotches appeared on his hand. "Damn it!" He swore again. The Blight was really back in Morrowind, and he just got infected.

...

It was sheer madness to continue wandering through Molag Mar during an ash storm while suffering from Blight Disease, but Hauk wasn't carrying much gear and figured he'd manage. Yes, his armour now seemed to weigh a ton, and his claymore seemed to be far less effective than usual, but his magic still worked as normal, and so he pressed on, unwilling to turn back and seek a cure first. "It can wait," he reasoned. "This is not Porphyric Hemophilia, it won't progress any further." He saw a cave entrance and decided to wait out the ash storm in there.

The cave was lit with red candles and there was a strange gurgling sound emanating from deeper in. Hauk took a few steps and got attacked by some sort of a zombie. It proved no challenge for his Fire Atronach though. Several people attacked him as he progressed, but although their flesh was not decomposing as that of a zombie, their minds seemed to have gone. Their pockets were filled with ash. "Strange," Hauk thought. "What are they doing here?" He noticed that some of them had wrist irons on. "If these are slaves, then where are their masters?"

Deeper in the cave Hauk found a shrine with a strange statuette in the center. Bells were arranged in a row next to it and bundles of decomposing flesh were deposited in an ornate open sarcophagus. Another open sarcophagus had chests and sacks with valuables. Hauk made a wide bow around the rotting flesh and helped himself to the valuables - this was no holy shrine, and whichever deity was being worshiped here, did not need the money. "No real deity needs money anyway," Hauk reasoned. "And this place reeks of Dark Arts." And although he was tired after all the walking and the fighting, he didn't want to stay in that cave any longer.

Back outside the ash storm had subsided and Hauk continued his trek through Molag Mar. All lava-covered roads looked the same though, and soon he was completely lost, not helped by the fact that the map that Caius asked him to fill in, was completely blank. Pulling out a couple of commercial maps, Hauk tried to compare the roads and the landscape around him to that indicated on the maps, and concluded that he was "somewhere on Molag Mar" as everything looked the same. In particular the "road" he was standing on, was not marked on either of his commercial maps. Suddenly understanding why Caius asked him to fill in the roads as he walked them, he vowed to do it next time he found himself at an intersection that he could find on an existing map. For now however he decided to head back to Balmora, approximately South West from where he estimated to be standing.

...

The lava road still looked like a lava road and an hour later there was still no Balmora in sight. "Perhaps I was in a different spot than I thought," Hauk reasoned. The ash storm picked up again, and try as he might, he could not see beyond a few feet around him. He was desperately tired and was ready to take a nap even in another cave lit by red candles.

Suddenly he noticed a cave entrance, and entered immediately.

Yes, this was another cave lit by red candles. Knowing what to expect, Hauk summoned his Fire Atronach and fought several zombie-like creatures and people. The gurgling sound was coming from deeper in, but there was also a branch leading away from it, and that's where Hauk would rest, but first he needed to clear the rest of the cave.

Zap! Hauk went down before he could finish that thought. Fortunately, his Fire Atronach continued fighting.

Rising heavily from this knock-out, Hauk tried to spot the mage. A slender figure seemed to hover further on, surrounded by more red candles. "He isn't hovering," Hauk realised. "There's a raised platform there, and what looks like the shrine. May be he's the priest." The priest had noticed Hauk however, and shot another lighting bolt at him.

"Damn it, this one isn't like the others," Hauk thought, rising heavily from the knock-out again. He was feeling very weak, and the priest's lighting bolts were quite strong, but equally Hauk didn't think he would fare very well outdoors in the ash storm. "This is where honour conflicts with survival," he thought, summoning another Fire Atronach and casting invisibility onto himself. "Let them fight it out."

...

An hour and many knock-outs later, Hauk finally prevailed. Or rather, his Fire Atronach prevailed. Dagoth Fovon's burned up body was rolling in the ash of the cave. Of course Hauk didn't know who the priest was, but he could see it was someone important. He took the priest's ugly amulet that somehow made him feel ugly himself. "Caius would want to see this," he reasoned.

With the cave now quiet, he retreated to a section as far away from the shrine as possible, took off his armour and fell asleep, exhausted.

I like that you, in this newest episode, point out that magic doesn't work the same in different games. Important since your characters do move from game to game.

Buffy, my elf, has noticed the same thing as she moved from Oblivion to Skyrim to ESO - and has had to evolve as needed.

Yes, magic seems to be the thing that morphs and changes the most. After all, how many ways are there to stick a sword into someone? But with magic there's an almost infinite pool of possibilities. Morroblivion is interesting in this respect because it tries to reconstruct Morrowind magic with Oblivion rules.

Not any easy thing to do. Magic in each game had their own pluses and detractions which makes it hard to say which I prefer. I do like how you resolved the Ancestor Ghost dilemma.

Thanks! I was surprised to find Ancestor Ghost spell on Hauk when I started, I figured he'd only get it if he was a Dunmer... But of course since he's the hero of the story, he's supposed to become the Nerevarine, so he must have Dunmer roots, even if he's unaware of them. A Nord born in Cyrodiil... why, he could have any kind of roots!

I don't remember enough of TES3 Morrowind game to compare magic mechanics - I didn't play it enough. But compared to TES5 Skyrim, I prefer Oblivion, even if it is mostly because of the animations... I just find Skyrim "ready weapon/spell" animations really clumsy, unnatural and static. Umm, I want to cast a light spell, so I should get my sword out... Really? Sorry, rant over.

10 Evening Star, 4E202 - Travels - Eno Hlaalu

"Aren't there any horses in Morrowind?" Hauk was talking to a Legion soldier at Fort Moonmoth. "Or do you always have to walk everywhere?"

"There are no horses here, no," the Legionnaire shook his head. "They don't do well on volcanic terrain or during ash storms, plus there's nothing for them to graze." He looked around wistfully, remembering lush meadows of Cyrodiil. "But if you're looking for personal transportation, you can get a guar."

"What, you mean to ride that thing?" Hauk raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

...

"Yeah, they are not exactly built for the Nords," Sjorvar Horse-Mouth shook his head, glancing over a small herd of guar under his care. "But you'll get used to it. If anything, you can use them to carry your gear!"

"I was hoping to move faster than on foot, actually," Hauk was handing over the cash. "We'll see. If that's all there is, then that's that."

Nord pragmatism was a good thing, because it took a few tries before the guar allowed Hauk to mount it. There was no saddle, so Hauk had to hold on to the guar's shoulders. But all in all, it worked out pretty well.


"This one is a lot bigger than many other guar I came across," Hauk returned to talk to Sjorvar again. "I can get used to it. But why no saddle?"

"They don't like it very much," Sjorvar coughed uncomfortably. "They need to be trained for that. This one is a beginner's guar, meaning it's not used to be ridden yet. It's not very fast and we'd rather not aggravate it with a saddle. But you've done all right!" He slapped Hauk on the back. "Come back when you are ready for a faster one."

Hauk nodded, thanked Sjorvar and left.

"Come on, Henk, let's go," he patted the guar, getting onto its back. "We are in no rush."

...

Back in Balmora Hauk wondered what to do with Henk the guar. What did guar eat? Plants and insects, he hoped, so he took it to the one green patch near Balmora - the patch by the Temple. There, to his surprise, he saw two armoured guars pacing up and down.


They seemed rather uncomfortable with their armour and saddle. Were they envious of Henk the guar who wasn't burdened with such things? Or was Hauk just imagining it all? "They do look impressive though," he thought. "House Hlaalu" was embroidered on their covers. "Well, official guars as well," he clicked his tongue, patted Henk and left, confident that he'd picked a good spot to station his guar.

Now that Hauk had transportation, he could venture further afield - he was not keen on point-to-point transport like the silt strider because it only went to major cities leaving him to walk everywhere else. His duties for Caius were taking him to an Ancestral Tomb South of Pelagiad, and his search for the Propylon Indexes was taking him to Vivec. He would be away for several days and planned to set off in the morning. But first, he paid a visit to the guild hall of Morag Tong.

"Yes, can I help you?" He was greeted by a friendly Dunmer - may be not that friendly by Cyrodiil standards, but certainly much friendlier than an average Dunmer in the streets of Balmora.


"I have a message for one of your members," Hauk started cautiously. "But I need to deliver it in person and so I need help locating him."

"Oh?" The Dunmer raised an eyebrow. "And you are..?"

"Hauk Serck-Hanssen, Optio of the Special Division of the Imperial Legion," Hauk introduced himself, omitting his recent appointment as an agent of the Blades. He wasn't even certain that it was real. "But the message I carry is not strictly Legion business."

"Yes, we've heard of you," the Dunmer nodded. "Not the first time in Morrowind, are you?" Hauk smiled. "Well, who is it that you are looking for?"

"Azarath Salvel."

"Ah!" The name was clearly familiar to the Dunmer, and he paled a little. "You will want to speak to our Grandmaster about that." He swallowed hard. "In Vivec--"

"Eno Hlaalu, yes, I know," Hauk nodded. "It's not the first time," he smiled. "I'll see myself out."

The Dunmer followed Hauk with his gaze. "By the Ancestors, The Animal is back and he's looking for Azarath Salvel..." he shivered. "A message, he said... For all our sakes... Let the Whispering Lady and the Night Mother be one and the same after all..." He hoped in his heart that the message that Hauk carried, would not start another bloody war between Morag Tong and the Dark Brotherhood. Some said that the Night Mother was just another re-incarnation of Mephala. Others claimed that she was not, and that Mephala was jealous of the Night Mother's proximity to Sithis. And although no one seriously believed that the Black Hand of the Dark Brotherhood were the actual children of the Night Mother, the claim did give them an aura of superiority, and Morag Tong was having none of that. Mephala was amused by the strife, not caring for the lives of mortals, even if they were her followers. Some even whispered that it was Mephala herself who fueled the wars of assassins...

Gilyan Sedas sighed, and as Hauk left the guild hall, he too went out, walking around the building and quietly opening an unassuming door set into the rocky hills surrounding Balmora. Few were aware that the door even existed, although it wasn't hidden or enchanted in any way - it was simply grey, unlit, set into a grey rock in a back alley of the Guild Hall of Morag Tong, and that alone was enough to dissuade most people from venturing there.

The door led into a crypt - a typical crypt resembling many Ancestral Tombs in Morrowind, complete with Ancestral Guardians. They turned to Gilyan, but let him pass, recognising him for one of their own. It wasn't a family crypt, it was a crypt of Morag Tong, used for those members who didn't have a family crypt of their own. Some whispered that the descendants of the Sixth House were buried there... May be, but Gilyan wasn't worried about that. He walked into the depths of the crypt and knelt before a shrine. He said no prayer, for he did not believe that the Dread Father was hearing prayers at all. He simply knelt, postulating his devotion to the Old God. The meditation brought Gilyan peace.

...

Vivec was vast. Hauk remembered getting lost in it more than once. Each canton looked the same to him, and each level in each canton looked even more the same... How was anyone finding their way in there?

"The key to finding things in Vivec is to first find the right canton, and then stick to it until you find the right place," someone told him years ago. That was useful if you knew where you were going... Plain sightseeing that worked in other places, was just going to get you hopelessly lost in Vivec. So, having left his guar by the entrance to the Foreign Canton, Hauk proceeded straight to the Arena Canton, descending to the lowest level into what looked like the sewers. There he found an unassuming door like any other - the entrance to the headquarters of Morag Tong.

"Optio," he was greeted respectfully by a thrall inside. "The Grandmaster is awaiting you." Of course, the word had already been sent.

Hauk entered a room deeper in where Eno was seated at a low table. He gestured Hauk to shut the door and join him.

"Back in Morrowind, I see," Eno observed, passing Hauk a glass of shein. "And looking for one of our men?" Eno's gaze was penetrating.

"Indeed," Hauk nodded, sipping the drink. "I've got a message for him, semi-official, but the Mother is aware and does not object. It concerns his son."

"Ah," Eno nodded, not looking surprised. "I expected something sooner or later. What is it?"

Hauk tilted his head, watching Eno out of the corner of his eye. Should he reveal it before even speaking to Azarath himself? Could he avoid revealing it? Was it even necessary? He decided on a half-way approach.

"A Dark Brotherhood assassin is expected to seek favour with Mephala in an attempt to take revenge on Lucien Lachance for not making her his love interest. She is a talented assassin and is expected to do it through Azarath Salvel," he summarised the matter. "Although Mephala may well approve of this, such course of actions is not in the interest of either organisation." He watched Eno's reaction.

"Indeed," Eno nodded. "This would be most unwelcome to all of us, the Legion included." He paused in thought. "Name?"

"Rayenna. She's a Redguard, very attractive, very deadly."

"She hasn't contacted us here yet," Eno sat back, relaxing. "So it's not too late. We shall warn Azarath to be watchful." He rose from his seat, signalling the end of their interview.

"But I still need to speak to Azarath myself," Hauk insisted, also rising.

"So, what is it that you haven't told me?" Eno's eyes twinkled.

"His son just got married and the child is soon to be born." He was about to add something, but didn't. Eno noticed and understood the unsaid part.

"It is Lucien's business, not ours. But very well. Azarath will contact you."

The Dunmer took family ties very seriously, and the fact that Hauk did not say "his child" but only "the child" told Eno about the uncertainty around the child's father. Yet it had no bearing on Morag Tong, and although they would continue keeping tabs on Lucien and his new family, they would not interfere directly. Taken together with the affair with Rayenna, Eno considered it serious enough to allow a meeting between Hauk and Azarath, even though he deduced what else Hauk was going to say to Azarath that he didn't say to Eno. "This day had to come," Eno thought, watching Hauk bow good-bye and leave. "And he is much closer to this than he would like to appear," he smirked. "The father of the child, perhaps?" Eno walked over to his desk and wrote a note in triplicate, then called a thrall to have the notes delivered to the Morag Tong guild halls. They read:

Master,

Gather all information on Lucien Lachance and his newly wed wife, as well as Optio of the Imperial Legion Hauk Serck-Hanssen and his possible ties to the Dark Brotherhood and in particular to Lucien Lachance. He is allowed contact with Azarath Salvel and is to be offered assistance.

Be warned of a Redguard assassin named Rayenna who is likely to seek favour with the Lady of Whispers for personal revenge on Lucien Lachance. This is deemed detrimental to our organisation.

Be watchful.

...

"Azarath will be in touch," Hauk smirked as he leaned on the railing of the Arena Canton in Vivec, looking at the busy passages beneath. "They still won't tell me where to find him." He didn't really expect it though, not even after all these years passing messages between the Morag Tong and the Legion - he was still an outsider, and would always remain one. The Legion had dealings with the Dark Brotherhood as well, and for that reason alone the Morag Tong would never fully trust an Imperial agent, not even one they'd known for thirty years, not even one like The Animal. "And I bet he deduced the lot from what I said and didn't say," Hauk thought. "Well, it cannot be avoided," he decided. He was making progress, and that was all that mattered. "Would Rayenna be already here?" He wondered, spotting a few Redguards in the crowd. "Probably not," he shook his head. "Let's hope not." If there was ever a place to hide, Vivec was it.

17 Evening Star, 4E202 - Vivec - Suran - The first dream

Hauk didn't like Vivec City. The place was huge, with those canton islands looking all alike, with people being equally unfriendly everywhere. Some places were crowded, other places where completely empty. Where was everyone? Hauk was standing on a completely deserted outer ring of the Foreign Canton looking at gondolas in the canal. Why did you need gondolas when you could just walk from one canton to another? Or was he not the only one to constantly lose his way there?


"Hey, watch where you're going!" Someone pushed him from behind.

"Whaaa---" Hauk turned around - the place had been deserted just a few moments ago, but now there was a thick crowd coming right at him. Wait, he wasn't moving, so what..?

"You outlanders are all alike!" A young Dunmer was coming at him with a dagger drawn. Hauk too pulled out a dagger, but then quickly put it away. Although self-defense was of course legal, he didn't trust the Ordinators to see it as self-defense, should Hauk kill the young Dunmer in the altercation. In fact, one of the Ordinators was calmly looking on from a nearby doorway. Instead, Hauk cast invisibility and stepped aside. The Dunmer looked around in bewilderment... and attacked another passer by, killing her on the spot. But since she too was a Dunmer, the Ordinator got involved this time, killing the young Dunmer as well. Hauk's invisibility spell ran out just as the Ordinator was getting up from checking both victims for life signs or gold or both. He squinted at Hauk, his sanguine eyes burning with rage through the slit in his helmet. "Outlander!" He roared, his sword drawn. Ordinators did not need law, it appeared, they were considered infallible in their judgement, and this one just decided that the whole incident had been obviously Hauk's fault. "Well, they are certainly as I remember them," thought Hauk, casting invisibility again and moving away. "Time to leave Vivec City."

...

Riding through the countryside of the Ascadian Isles with its many farms and plantations, Hauk was reflecting on that spectacular rumour that Vivec City had been destroyed in the year 4E5 with some Dwemer artifact that was brought to life for the sole purpose of getting rid of the Tribunal. "This is really strange," he thought. "Not so much that the whole rumour was obviously false, but that it emerged in the first place - wasn't it Nerevarine who killed Lord Vivec back then? I think it was." He scratched his head wondering whether Lord Vivec had actually become immortal, because obviously he was back from the dead. But then again, Hauk himself had returned from the dead once, and he didn't think it made him into a god...

Musing this way, he found himself on a shore of a lake looking at a town across the water. There were no bridges that he could see, but the lake didn't look very deep or very wide, so he left his guar to graze and swam to the other side. There he entered Suran.


It was a lovely leafy town, but the streets were strangely empty, save a few guards and a couple of arms-bearing citizens. "Where is everyone?" Hauk asked a friendly-looking Orc vixen. She reminded him of someone... Dar-Pha. "Wish you were here," Hauk sighed to himself.

"Oh, there aren't a lot of folks living here to begin with," the Orc smiled at him. "It's just a small village really. We provide services to the surrounding farms, is all."

"Is that so?" Hauk smiled back. "And what are those services?"

"Just the usual," the Orc grinned ear to ear. "A smith, a healer, a slave trader, a whorehouse and a temple. A few other shops too, but nothing over the top."

"Bare necessities," Hauk agreed, with a grin of his own. "And no inn?"

"No need," the Orc shook her head. "All the farmers either spend the night at Desele's or simply return home - they all live nearby anyway. And the guards keep clearing out skooma-addled rough sleepers, but you might still find a hammock or a bedroll tucked away somewhere if you look closely." At that moment a cliffracer made a dive at them, and Hauk realised the necessity for carrying arms in this town.

With the cliffracer taken care of, Hauk continued walking around. "Not a big town, certainly, but still strangely empty," he couldn't shake off the feeling that it was too empty, even for a small town.


"Just hope it's not the same as in Valenwood," he thought.

All that walking around made him tired and hungry, and so he went to Desele's House of Earthly Delights as that was the only place in town serving food.

...

"Welcome to my house!" Desele greeted him. "Do make yourself at home! How can we be of service?" She winked at Hauk, gesturing at the girls dancing on stage.

"I was looking for something to eat, actually," Hauk smiled timidly. "But there's no other inn in town..."

"And you've come to the right place!" Desele beamed at him. "We serve food too." She said something to a Khajiit standing next to her, and the Khajiit disappeared into the kitchen. "Anything else?"

"Not at the moment," Hauk thanked her and decided to make the best of his time talking to other customers. Drunk people with their minds on other things were his favourite conversation partners - they were too distracted to think carefully what they were saying.


...

"...and he couldn't remember a thing afterwards!" A very drunk Imperial was telling Hauk in between sips of beer. "Imagine that! He could have killed someone while sleepwalking!"

"Rona is really something else," a Nord joined their conversation. "Just look how she moves..."

"So that's why everyone is afraid to leave their houses, is it?" Hauk turned to the drunk Imperial.

"What? Oh that... yeah, may be, and all the escaped slaves, too..." He had a long drink, finishing his beer and signalling for more. "Like the one I'm looking for. I'm a slave hunter, you see. Except that them slaves aren't wanting to get back to their masters, they aren't!" He looked at Hauk defiantly. "Ever tried to catch an Argonian under water?" He glared. "Don't!" His beer arrived and he seemed intent to catch an Argonian in it, so Hauk left him to it.

"What's that about people having nightmares around here?" He asked Desele as she seemed to be the only person there who wasn't drunk.

"Oh that... Ssshh... We don't want the Temple to hear about it. But yeah, people have been having nightmares. It's Vaermina's work, if you ask me! But hey, I'm not complaining - we've had a lot more business since the nightmares started. Want to stay in my bedroom?" She dangled a key in front of him. "It's 84 septims a night, dear, escort not included. Guaranteed nightmare-free!"

"Ummm... Let me think about that," Hauk felt the weight of his coin pouch, thinking that 84 septims was about eight and a half times the going rate... especially since escort was not included! "How much is with escort?" He asked, grinning.

"More than you could afford," Desele smiled. "Sorry dear, but the girls are all booked up, and to shift prior arrangements is above your pay grade, I'm sure." She turned away, signalling the end of conversation.

"Don't worry, you're not the only one who gets to look but not touch," the Nord said in his ear. "Rona will talk to me, but one look from Desele and she goes back to dancing..." He sighed, exasperated.

...

"Let's see if I can find that hammock or bedroll around here," Hauk thought, leaving Desele's house. He wasn't paying 84 septims for the privilege of sleeping indoors, with or without escort. He hoped he didn't wave that no-nightmares guarantee too quickly though...

"Ah-ha, that's it!" Tucked away between a corner of a building and the city wall, there was a cozy hideaway with all the paraphernalia for an aspiring skooma addict. "Or an Imperial agent in need of a cover," Hauk smirked, settling down to his daily task of making notes for Caius. "No skooma in Suran," he wrote. "Almost." He corrected himself.


The next morning saw Hauk return to Balmora, taking a detour to the Ancestral Tomb where he needed to retrieve a certain skull for Sharn gra-Muzgob from the Mages Guild - Caius' informant. "The Dunmer protect their dead with gods know what," she warned him. "Such a prejudice against Necromancy..."

The tomb was in fact filled with products of Necromancy in the form of skeletons and bone walkers, besides a single legitimate Ancestral Guardian, so Hauk was very much in doubt whether that particular Dunmer family was indeed all too prejudiced or whether rather they wanted to keep their Necromantic materials from being plucked from their own Ancestral Tomb. Be it as it may however, he needed that skull because Caius wanted Sharn's notes, and sure enough, five bone walkers and seven skeletons later, he found it, complete with a Dagger of Judgement next to it - the person in question appeared to have been assassinated. "Charming," he smirked, pocketing the dagger. "But here's the skull, along with my payment." Victims of murder were particularly valuable to Necromancers because they had such angry ghosts.

The way back to Balmora seemed long and tiresome - Hauk got hit by multiple curses and was feeling sluggish and numb, but Henk the guar faithfully carried him home, despite of the skies darkening, the wind picking up and finally a thunderstorm erupting right above them.

In Balmora, having picked up the notes from Sharn ("No, I am NOT a Necromancer!" she protested loudly, stashing away the skull), Hauk went straight to Caius, and finding him asleep, stood for a moment hesitating whether it would be safe enough to wake up the Spy Master. But then he thought that delaying the notes by not waking him up, was probably going to be more dangerous.

"Ah, you got the notes," Caius looked satisfied. "I shall need time to study them. Find something to do. Dismissed."

As Hauk was crossing the square on the way to his house, he found two dead bodies on the ground. People were going back and forth, stepping over them but otherwise behaving as if nothing was the matter.


"What happened?" He asked a passer by.

"Oh, that fellow grabbed a dagger and attacked someone, so the guard intervened," was the reply. "Two guards actually, because that poor sod went completely berserk! He even managed to kill that one guard before the other one cut him down! Whatever got into him..." the passer-by shook his head.

"This is terrible!" exclaimed Hauk. "Was he a disturbed soul?"

"No... Well, yes, actually," the passer-by looked over his shoulder and lowered his voice. "He did say the other day that he'd been having disturbing dreams..." He looked over his shoulder again. "And now this." He sighed. "Stay safe." He nodded and walked off.

Hauk returned home, dropped his gear in the corner and stretched on his hammock without even having anything to eat. All the tiredness of the long day seemed to have come down on him at once. He fell asleep immediately.

...

A tall figure with a golden mask was leading Hauk among the dead as through a wedding celebration. He heard many voices, but no lips moved. Hauk strained to breathe, but his chest didn't move. The tall figure spoke with each figure as he passed among them, laughing and joking, as if they were alive, but they made no reply. Hauk tried to cry out, but without breath, his tongue fluttered in vain.

...

Hauk sat up, it was 2 a.m.

"Sovngarde?" He wondered. Yet the figures in his dream did not look like the Nords. "Must be all that fighting the undead," he reasoned, going downstairs and opening the drinks cabinet. "And this stuff!" He flicked away an empty mazte bottle. His hand probed for something at the back of the cabinet, he grabbed it and pulled it out. Mead. He drank it in one go. "Ah, that should clear it up," he sighed with satisfaction, returning to his hammock. He fell asleep and didn't have any more disturbing dreams.

19-21 Evening Star, 4E202 - Ald'ruhn

"Some story indeed," Hauk was muttering to himself leaving Fort Moonmoth where he went to see Larrius Varro, the Legion Champion. Having showered Hauk with condescending advice, he told him a story about a "bad Councillor" and a "good officer" and how the "bad Councillor" was accepting bribes from "bad people" that the "good officer" was trying to put behind bars for crimes against men, mer and the Empire, not necessarily in that order. The "good officer" had a dream, you see, of a little bloodbath for the "bad people". As simple as that. "And he wants me to administer that bloodbath," Hauk smirked. "Yeah, right. Like I'm with the Dark Brotherhood or something." He didn't even need to ask around to know who the "bad people" were - the Camonna Tong, of course. Just as Morag Tong was legal in Morrowind advertising their services of assassinations, Camonna Tong was sort of legal, supported by House Hlaalu and perhaps others, and very much at home in this Province of Law and Order that was Morrowind. Bathing them in blood was not only dangerous, but most importantly, pointless. "Kill those four or five members, and another batch will take their place," Hauk was shaking his head. "No, I'll have nothing to do with it." Larrius would just have to take out a writ on them before someone takes out a writ on him first.

Hauk was getting rather disappointed both with the Mages Guild and the Fighters Guild. Convincing two strangers to do the bidding of the Mages Guild and charming a thief into handing over a "code book" were questionable assignments in themselves, made even more questionable by the suggested alternative solutions: "And if you can't convince them, kill them." He would talk to the two mages in question, but if they refused, as he felt they would, he would not press the matter and certainly not kill them, especially since one of them was a Telvanni and the other one was expected to join the Telvanni, and Hauk was in no rush to get in the bad books with House Telvanni. As for charming the thief... he felt he would have more luck with a mating kaguti. Charming a Nord woman was a tall order on the best of days, and since Sottilde refused to even talk to him, he felt it would be harder than usual. Besides, once charmed, she would be wanting satisfaction of a different kind, and Hauk didn't fancy it. Not with her. He had his principles, you know. Did Eydis really expect him to stoop that low? Eydis Fire-Eye didn't care one way or the other, he figured. There was another Nord woman he wasn't able to charm... or didn't try hard enough. "If I wanted Nord women, I would have gone to Skyrim," he reasoned. He shook his head and decided to try the guild halls elsewhere.




Ald'ruhn was a strange city. Every "house" was a crab shell and the central plaza was inside the biggest shell of them all - the Skar. Hauk had only a vague memory of this city from his previous visit many years ago - last time it was obscured by a nearly constant ash storm, so the houses looked like hovels of ash. "As do crabs when they bury themselves in the soil," he smirked. The weather was clear this time however, and despite it being past midnight, there were some people out and about.


"Well, hello!" Hauk was greeted by a young and enthusiastic Dunmer woman in a side alley. "New in town? I can tell you all about the services we offer!" She beamed at him.

"Umm... Thanks," Hauk smirked. "Perhaps another time." After a day riding his guar, the only service he was interested in was a bed - just for him alone, thank you. He pushed a door - it was an inn. Plenty of people inside, just finishing their last drinks. Hauk tried talking to each and every one of them, but no one would rent him a bed.

"Get away from me! What do you want?" An aging Dunmer woman nearly screamed at Hauk.

"Oh, sorry ma'am, nothing of the kind, I'm sure," Hauk backed away, showering her in apologies.

"Are you a messenger? You must be a messenger!" A richly dressed Breton almost bumped into Hauk. "No? Oh... I'm waiting for a message from my airship..."

That caught Hauk's attention, and after some cajoling, the Breton explained that he had built an airship based on old Dwemer designs, hired a crew and sent them off to an expedition to Solstheim to recover a "certain item" from a secret barrow that could only be identified from above - hence the need for an airship. But it'd been a long time and he hadn't heard anything from them and feared the worst - that they ran off with the item, or crashed the airship, or died, or... whatever.

"Are you for hire? Are you? Would you find out what happened? Please? I simply must have that amulet... err... item! Oh, and see if anyone survived, too. The women..." After some more shein, the Breton finally revealed that the special item was an Amulet of Charm that made the wearer irresistible to the opposite sex. Hauk looked him over and nodded - he could see why the Breton would need that amulet but doubted it would do him any good. "I, on the other hand, could use something like that on Sottilde..." he thought. But the amulet was all the way on Solstheim, so all Hauk could do was to promise to look into it when he went there and suggest to the Breton to sober up and get a grip on himself in the meantime, "Which would also help with the ladies," he added, grinning.

As entertaining as this was, it didn't solve Hauk's need for a place to sleep, so he left the inn and wandered around town some more.


All the beds at the Mages Guild and the Fighters Guild were taken, and several people woke up with angry looks - what was he doing making a racket at three in the morning? Desperate, Hauk entered a place called "The Rat in the Pot", and although the name was obvious enough, he was too tired to care. He spotted a free bank and was asleep immediately.


Hauk woke up rather late but he felt refreshed and decided to go see the stewards of the two Guilds that would not have a bed for him to sleep in. He wanted to clear this up for the following night and see about some better duties than the ones he got in Balmora. Not that he was particularly interested in advancing with either guild, but Caius ordered him to maintain that cover.

The Mages Guild was again useless - "We have no spare beds, sorry, but why don't you join us for breakfast?" which he did. May be not so useless after all. He bought some spells and cure disease potions, although they had nothing against the Blight. Yes, they could help him to cure paralysis, so Hauk bought two vials of that - one for an unfortunate Nord he found standing naked on a road to Ald'ruhn (what was it with people there wanting to strip naked every Nord they laid eyes on?), and the other vial to keep in his pack, should he face the same predicament himself.

"Oh, and since you have obviously nothing to do--," a grumpy Dunmer mage turned to him, "find me the Chronicles of Nchuleft." Hauk had heard of that book - it was very rare, he would likely have to go to Vivec for it, but at least it didn't require charming anyone, he hoped. With a sigh, he left the guild.

The Fighters Guild was just across the street, but when Hauk looked over his shoulder, he saw a small crowd following him around.


"Whaaa--?" he stopped in surprise.

"You want to join the Thieves Guild," an Orc told him in no uncertain terms and glared. Hauk could almost hear "...or else!" added to that, so he glared back. The mutual glaring continued for a few minutes, but when Hauk turned to leave, he found the crowd following him around town. He smirked to himself thinking that this hadn't happened since he was competing in the Arena and some annoying fan just wouldn't leave him alone claiming that he was his "most favourite Gladiator ever". But here in Ald'ruhn people started noticing the little procession, and Hauk didn't care for that kind of fame. Quickly, he dived into the Fighters Guild. Fortunately, the crowd didn't follow.

"Got the code book job, did you?" The steward smiled at him. "It's all right, but do try not to kill Sottilde. Nah, she isn't as tough as that, you can charm her. Or is the follow-up going to be a problem?" Persius winked, and Hauk could do nothing else but laugh politely and bow out. He did however spot a large dormitory that he didn't see the night before and sighed with relief - surely he would be able to sleep there.

The necessities taken care of, Hauk decided to have a look inside the Skar, or the Manor District. All the rich people holed up there, apparently, and the shops were supposed to be better stocked, too, "and naturally charge double for everything," Hauk added to himself. The entrance was through an unassuming hatch. He entered and found himself... in Antaloor. The Swallows. The barren landscape devastated by a magical explosion. There was an encampment there where Hauk got his Sight... Surely, Eric was somewhere over to the left?


Hauk shuddered, cold sweat beading on his forehead. His eye was on fire - the one he had sacrificed for the Gift of Sight. Oh, you couldn't tell from looking at him, but one of his eyes had been replaced. The Sight proved to be a curse, not a gift, just as people had warned Hauk, for it allowed him to see what really happened, in all its graphic detail of suffering and death, and he could neither forget it, nor turn it off.

"What is it, outlander?" A guard eyed Hauk suspiciously, bringing him out of his reverie and back to Ald'ruhn. "Lost your way?"

Hauk jerked and looked around. He wasn't in Antaloor, this was Morrowind, and Eric was no where to be seen. What lay before him was not an encampment in the Swallows, but the interior of the Skar, although the darkness, the strange smells and sounds and the network of hanging bridges and wooden platforms were all too familiar...

"Thanks, I'm alright," Hauk stammered to the guard and took a few steps along a hanging bridge to prove it. He didn't feel like staying there very long, or like shopping there, no matter how well stocked the stores might be. But he felt it his duty to get the lay of the land, or of the crab shell in this case, and find out what was behind the numerous doors along its perimeter. "House Redoran Council Chambers and rich people's manors, no doubt," he guessed, and went about marking them on his map. One of the doors opened to a spacious interior lit with dim red candles - the Morag Tong Guild Hall. "Yep, they are here, under the Skar, while the Imperial guilds are in the lower part of town, right next to a Thieves Guild hideout. I guess that tells you who's who," he smirked.

"Welcome," a Dunmer greeted him. "Is there anything we can assist you with, Optio?" The word had clearly been sent.

"Not at the moment, thank you," Hauk smiled. "Unless you have any interesting spells on offer?"

"Of course," the Dunmer nodded. "We do trade with the general public," he coughed uncomfortably. "Or no so general public. You'll find the traders here in this hall."

Once again Hauk reflected how useful Morag Tong Guild Halls could be, even if they wouldn't let him sleep there.

...

It was the middle of the afternoon when Hauk emerged from under the Skar feeling like he'd had enough of the place for years to come. He unrolled his map, wondering what to do next. His search for Propylon Indexes was sending him to Maar Gan, and Caius wanted him to visit Gnisis and sign up with the Legion there, but either city was too far away to set off now. However, Ald'ruhn was quite close to the Ghostfence - an impenetrable barrier meant to keep the Blight from spreading all over Vvardenfell, or at least this was its function last time around, some two centuries ago. The structure was never taken down though, and Hauk was curious. "Also, if you believe the reports about the eruption of the Red Mountain, all of Vvardenfell must now be under ash and lava, totally obliterated. And yet here we are, seeing no evidence of that. Apart from the ash storms and the foyadas, of course." The reports seemed to have been exaggerated. Curious, Hauk decided to take the path going North East from Ald'ruhn right into the Ghostfence. "If it is still working, I should not be able to pass. We'll see."


The ground was scorched and the trees burned, and the only patches that weren't black, were covered in ash. There was no lack of wildlife, however - cliffracers, alits, netches, rats, kaguti, they were all there making Hauk's trek more interesting. Most of them were diseased, and before Hauk even got close to the Ghostfence, he was already infected with two types of Blight that all but wiped him out. "Good thing stubbornness is not an attribute that Blight can affect," he smirked to himself. Then zap! and he went down under a powerful shock spell.

"Ash slaves?" Hauk shook himself awake, looking at a nearly naked Dunmer preparing to send another bolt of lightening at him. The Dunmer was only wearing a dirty loin cloth and wrist irons. Hauk rolled away and summoned a Flame Atronach, expediting all of his available magicka - the Blight was taking its toll. With his Willpower suppressed, Hauk was out of magicka and out of breath, barely able to stand, and stealth remained the only viable approach. That, or Divine Intervention to whisk him away to safety. "And where's the challenge in that?" He smirked to himself, collecting ash salts from the defeated slave.

Zap! Another bolt of lightning sent Hauk flying, and this one was much more powerful than that of the ash slave. Whatever it was, Ghostfence was not keeping it out!

Zap! Zap! Zap! ... But the Flame Atronachs that Hauk kept summoning, were wearing down the zapping mage, and eventually he ran out of magicka long enough for Hauk to aim with his bow and administer a few helpings of Mage's Bane poison to interrupt magicka flow. Then all he could do was watch how the mage tried to punch the Flame Atronach and got burned to a crisp for his trouble.

"This one wasn't an ash slave," Hauk was looking down at a strange creature on the ground. "Looks like a zombie, or a bone walker, as they call them here, except... what's that hanging off its face?" Strips of flesh were hanging down from the face and chest of the creature... person... whatever. "This was a person once," Hauk noted with regret. "Is this... Corprus?" He shuddered, realising that here was something much worse than the Blight, and that he walked right into it. He scraped some of the hanging flesh for further analysis and looked around. He could see the pillars of the Ghostfence just ahead, as well as the ghostly mist stretching from one pillar to the next, but he could also see that animals walked under it or flew over it completely unhindered... "That's bad," he thought, shaking his head. "Very bad indeed." He got up and followed the road leading him right through the Ghostfence into what was supposed to be inaccessible territory. He met no resistance.

The area ahead was all charred with dried lava - there was no doubt that the Red Mountain had erupted at some point, and more than once, and would do so again. Yet there were plenty of animals around, and some of the tough vegetation of the Ashlands, like trauma roots and scathecrow plants, were coming through the ground. Most of the animals were blighted, however. The trek was difficult but educational, Hauk was sure to stop and mark his location on the blank scroll that Caius gave him - these roads into the "inaccessible territory" would prove important. He saw a Dwemer ruin nearby, with roads branching off towards it, he marked them, but turned West instead, heading towards Ald'ruhn. He would need to get his afflictions cured before venturing there. And then, suddenly, the skies turned red.


"Ash storm?" He wondered. No, the dust was red, not grey. Then it died down as suddenly as it came on. Not waiting for the storm to resume, Hauk proceeded West as fast as he could, emerging behind the Temple in Ald'ruhn completely out of breath and out of energy, partly because it was once again three o'clock in the morning. Kicking off his boots by the entrance, he tiptoed into the Temple trying not to wake anyone, paid a 35 septim "donation" for the cure of his Blight Disease, then with renewed energy quickly crossed town to the Fighters Guild and fell into a bank in the dormitory. Sleep was the sweetest of brides after all.

22 Evening Star, 4E202 - Azarath Salvel

"Keeping busy, I see," a hooded man in a dark robe stood over Hauk, waking him up. The bodies of bandits and smugglers that Hauk had "cleared" for the privilege of sleeping in that cave were piled up in the adjacent cavern. "You wanted a word."


"I see where your son gets his habits from," Hauk smiled, sitting up. "Yes." He gestured for the man to take a seat. "We haven't been formally introduced--"

"And yet we know who we are," the man interrupted Hauk. "Too many words can be detrimental."

"Very well," Hauk agreed. "You got the warning?" The man nodded. "The details are as graphic as you can imagine them, which fuels the want for revenge. Plus, she's been exiled."

"Ah! I wasn't told that!" The man looked up.

"Because I did not tell them that. But you should know. Also, the woman who sparked her jealousy is the one that your son married."

"That... explains a few things," the man pushed back his hood revealing a black hand tattoo on the side of his face. "And the child?"


"Either his or mine." Hauk felt uneasy saying this, but he'd come this far and was not going to leave it half finished.

"Tell me about my son's wife," Azarath Salvel sat back.

Hauk took a deep breath. "Lena Wolf, daughter of Wolf Asgarsen and Lilian Delacour, born in the year 3E417. Cured vampire, mage assassin, Champion of Cyrodiil, and now also Dragonborn. What else do you want to know?"

"Interesting..." Azarath mused. "Wolf's daughter? Does she have a brother?"

"She does," Hauk nodded. "You knew Wolf Asgarsen?"

"I know Wolf Asgarsen," Azarath corrected him. "He is not dead."

They sat in silence for a while, Hauk hoped that Azarath would say more without prompting, but he didn't.

"What do you intend to do about Rayenna?" Azarath asked a direct question.

"Nothing," Hauk shook his head. "I am to locate her and put a trace on her, but I was so far not able to find her, let alone figure out what putting a trace on her actually means."

"Yes, if she went to the Lady of Whispers, it won't be easy..." Azarath stretched for a beer, watching Hauk out of the corner of his eye. "How's your Mysticism? Your Mages Guild banned most of the spells."


"I'm not bad, I guess," Hauk smirked. "But I didn't realise you were a mage?"

"I'm not, but I know what it takes," Azarath remarked. "You will need help."

"I thought as much," Hauk nodded. "Where do you think I am going?"

"All right," Azarath looked him up and down again. "Father of my future grandchild," he smirked. "Anything else?"

"It's time you appeared in your son's life, I think," Hauk said after some hesitation. "He does not remember you at all."

"No, he was just a baby last time I saw him..." Azarath looked into the distance, bringing back the memories of days past. "And once he joined the Brotherhood, I had to stay away. But Eno tells me it is less of a problem now... What changed?"

"I wouldn't know, I am not one of them," Hauk shook his head.

"And not one of us, and yet here we are, Animal," Azarath smirked. "You are my son's friend, are you not? You must know more."

"I think the Great War and the attempts of the Aldmeri Dominion to wipe out both your organisations brought some peace between you," he offered. "You no longer kill each other on sight, am I right? So, there you are." Azarath nodded but didn't look fully convinced. "And also... certain events some two hundred years ago shook the Brotherhood to the core, and raised Lucien's reputation high enough that having a Morag Tong Brother as a parent is no longer a problem. Besides, the Mother knows."

Azarath squinted at Hauk, taking in the information. "You know my rank."

"I am an agent," Hauk smiled.

"Well..." Azarath rose. "I hear you, but it's too early." He turned to leave. "Tell him..." he hesitated. "Tell him that we have an Ancestral Tomb inside the Ghostfence. When he is ready to meet, he should visit there." Azarath walked off, then returned. "I'll see you again." Then he really left.

"If I didn't know better..." Hauk mused watching Azarath disappear into the depth of the corridor. "The way he moves..." Family resemblance was undeniable.

22-23 Evening Star, 4E202 - Joining the Legion

"Yeah, we could use new recruits!" An Orc Legionnaire beamed at Hauk in Gnisis. "We are decidedly understaffed." He looked over a large central square that was quite deserted.

"I'm not so sure that me joining would really solve your staffing issue," Hauk smirked, following the Orc's gaze. "May be if a few dozen of me joined..."

"Stop talking and snap to it!" The Orc barked at him and glared. It was the Legion, all right.

Hauk was about to put the Orc in his place, but then thought better of it. Not now, not yet. Let General Darius do it - it would be more fun to watch.

Before going to see General Darius however, Hauk decided to look around town. It wasn't all that empty after all. It had two outdoor bars and a market, an egg mine, a silt strider station and a trade house, a number of typical Redoran crab shell houses and an Imperial fort. There was indeed a large empty space in the middle - larger than a square but not quite an avenue - and Hauk figured it was used for group drills. "Practicing their parades, no doubt," he smirked to himself.


The sun was going down and people started trickling into the bar on top of the silt strider platform. Sailors. If there were sailors about, there must be a port nearby. Indeed, a short walk towards the mouth of the river, and suddenly Hauk got all home sick.


An Imperial ship. Probably sailing to the Imperial City. A chat with the captain revealed that yes, they were sailing regularly between Gnisis and the Imperial City. Five days and 800 septims would get you there. Hauk sighed - he neither had the time nor the money...

Feeling rather melancholic, he didn't fancy taking orders from any Generals just then, and decided to enjoy his freedom while it lasted, for he knew for a fact that as a fresh recruit, he'd be immediately overloaded with tasks that no one else wanted to do... regardless of his rank in the Imperial Legion. "You may be an Optio with the Special Division, but here you are just a fresh recruit," he pictured the General telling him. That could definitely wait until tomorrow.

Back in Gnisis Hauk looked for an inn but there wasn't one. He couldn't sleep in the barracks because he wasn't one of General Darius' men, and the sailors all but booted him out of their bunkhouse. There were no Guilds, and Hauk wasn't sleeping at the Temple. The sun had already set by then, and finally Hauk spotted some candlelight coming from under the heavy wooden beams supporting a platform above...


"What are you two doing here?" He addressed two people sitting in that nook, bending over a candle.

"What does it look like we are doing here?" One of them smirked. "Keep quiet and join us if you like. The stuff's in the crate."

They had bedrolls too, Hauk noticed. He found a place to sleep.


"You may be an Optio with the Special Division, but here you are just a fresh recruit," General Darius told Hauk in the morning, suppressing a smirk. "Can't have it any other way, or the troops would revolt," he explained somewhat apologetically. "You'll work your way up in no time, I'm sure. Besides, we use a slightly different rank structure here in Morrowind - after Agent you jump straight into Champion and from there onto the Knights, and I doubt you'd be interested in that."

"Indeed not," Hauk nodded.

"And since your enlistment is only a cover..." General Darius winked and Hauk could hardly believe it, "yes, I received word from Caius," he clarified. "Members of the Blades get no preferential treatment here either. Is that understood?" The General's tone suddenly became commanding, and Hauk snapped to attention.

"Yes, sir, understood, sir," he straightened up and mentally congratulated himself for spending an hour polishing his armour the night before. Presentation was everything.

"At ease," the General waved at him. "All right, Animal, don't get your knickers in a twist. I've got a few jobs for you," he passed Hauk a scroll. "Go get yourself local gear and make sure to be seen wearing it, too. And I want no excuses about the wrong type of armour hampering your magic! I know all about you battlemages..." General Darius looked through a few papers on his desk. "And go see the drill master - he'll want to train you. Or try to train you. Don't be too hard on him," he added and winked again. There was more to the man than what his General's uniform was letting on.

...

"Well, let's see what you are made of... Recruit!" The drill master took up a fighting stance. "Try to get this sword out of my hand!" He smirked, watching Hauk move uncomfortably in the Legion chainmail that he was issued. He was used to heavy armour and he had to swap his claymore for a standard issue Imperial broadsword. Nothing wrong with the weapon as such, but it didn't have quite the same reach.

After a few rounds circling the room with tentative attacks, Hauk realised that the Orc drill master was taking it seriously. Taller and broader than Hauk, and undoubtedly with a greater battlefield experience, the drill master easily repelled any and all of Hauk's obvious attacks, but had so far not issued a counter, still letting Hauk show his mettle first. "All right, let's try something different," Hauk thought, noting that the blade of this practice sword was very dull, but the drill master didn't tell Hauk to wound him, but to get the sword out of his hand... which was probably more difficult.

Lunging forward in another mock attack, he summoned a scamp that shrieked and clawed at the drill master, distracting the Orc for a brief moment, but long enough for Hauk to come close and touch the Orc with numbing frost, so that Hauk's next strike with the blunt sword at the Orc's wrist made the hand open almost by reflex. The Orc dropped his sword. Hauk dispelled the scamp.

"Treachery and deceit, is all you battlemages are capable of," the Orc grunted, rubbing his hand. "Well played though. Not regulation, but well played." He grinned. "In your own armour and with your own weapon, you'll make for a passable soldier." He put the practice sword away signalling the end of their training session. "Did General Darius give you duties? Go to it. Come back to me when you make Spearman. Which will be in about thirty minutes, I reckon." He smirked, sitting down and opening a bottle of beer. "I'll be waiting."

It's true, I read some Lena Wolf, and I get the urge to play Oblivion. It's been months since I've played OB. Jeez, maybe I haven't even played at all in 2022! I don't think I have! That'll probably change to-day.

Page 5, Post 100-- Lena's in Skingrad > All Things Alchemical. Falanu knows exactly which ingredients to fetch for her, too. Whoa, she locks the door after she meets Fenris. That's rather peculiar. Okay, she's knows Fenris from her past.

That's a pretty pic of Falanu's shop.

Page 6, Post 101== She's headed to Bravil. This post is rather unique, in that there is no dialog.

Yes, vampires. Some of them succumb, some of them even enjoy their new existence. Others struggle. Very true.

Page 6, Post 104-- Quite some posturing and teeth-baring going on here, as she meets up with Sanguine's worshippers.

"I honor my lord by destroying you!" I love the things NPCs say in this game, even Daedric ones!



You know about this, right? We pay for the room, and it's forever available for free, if I remember correctly. This is one of those things overlooked by whichever dev was writing the room quest for Three Sisters. One of those things "fixed" by the Unofficial Patch on PC, iirc. Hey, not all glitches and things missed by the devs are bad!

Whoa, she meets with Sanguine directly. I've never done any of the Shrine quests (not that I recall), so this is new territory for Renee and her characters. Looking forward to the next update, which looks like some sort of gala.

But for now... time for some gaming (thank you).

Fenris' surname is Bero. If you played Morrowind, you know the significance of that name (or otherwise you can look it up ). Falanu's last name is Hlaalu. She's not just "House Hlaalu", she is an actual Hlaalu. Now put it together.


I don't use the Unofficial Patch. I tried it, and I think most changes I simply never noticed, but the ones that I did notice, I regretted. For example, the Honorblade of Chorrol looks like an ebony longsword in Bethesda's version. However, there is a silver sword in the CS that is labelled the Honorblade of Chorrol. So the patch switches the model from ebony to silver... I don't think it was a mistake by Bethesda, I think rather they first thought to make it a silver sword but then changed their minds and made it ebony. Considering how much they are fussing about it, it is surely more than just silver!


This is a really funny quest! Not so easy to pull it off properly, either. Note however that Lena meets Sanguine in person only in my story, not in Bethesda's. But Lena and Sanguine have been friends for a long time already, ever since she took over from Sheogorath running his Realm for a while... So yeah, of course they meet in person. It isn't that uncommon - Sanguine turns up in Mundus quite regularly. A certain story with goats and giants in Skyrim comes to mind...

22 Evening Star, 4E202 - A Floating Rock Fortress

"So you say that rocks always fall to the ground?" Keld looked menacingly at the other drinkers in the High Inn in Ivarstead. "And I say not so."

"What's in the mead?" One of the customers whispered to the inn keeper. "Or is he just not right in the head?"

"There's nothing wrong with my mead," the inn keeper shook his head but didn't get offended - this wasn't the first time Keld had been claiming that rocks didn't always fall to the ground. "Keld isn't mad. But this sure is one mad story." He smiled at the people around the bar, not wishing to spoil what was coming.

"All right, I'll bite," the first customer turned to Keld. "What's all that about the rocks not falling to the ground?"

"Enchanted they are," Keld grinned, happy to have found an audience for his tale again. "Up over the old aqueduct above Fort Talos."

"Wow, hold on. Fort Talos? Where's that?" Another customer chimed in, signalling the inn keeper for more mead.

"It's not far from here," someone else interrupted before Keld could reply. "Just take the road to Riften, you know, along Lake Geir. You'll pass under a giant waterfall - and that's Fort Talos."

This was making no sense. The waterfall was Fort Talos? There was certainly something wrong with the mead.

"All right, I see," the first customer winked at the others. "So I'm new here and you locals are just pulling my leg. There's obviously no such thing as a fort which is a waterfall. Stop beating about the bush."

"Ten septims there'll be a brawl," one of the locals leaned to the inn keeper. "My money is on Keld, this newcomer doesn't look tough to me." The inn keeper nodded and scribbled something in his book. More discrete bets followed.

"He isn't lying," Keld raised his voice over the din. "Fort Talos is a waterfall, with an aqueduct above where rocks float in mid-air. When this side of the mountain collapsed, it buried Fort Talos under the rocks and it sunk into the lake, but some of the rocks didn't fall to the ground."

"Well, if that were true," the first customer squinted, "then there'd be no way up onto the old aqueduct, so there's no way in Oblivion how you'd know about the floating rocks."

This made sense and a few people nodded, refilling their mugs.

"If you were man enough, you'd have found the way up," Keld squinted back. "Rather than just sit there saying it can't be done!"

"What?! Get up you lying coward - if you can still stand - and let's see who's man enough!" The newcomer was quick to start a fight, it seemed. He jumped up from his seat, his fists at the ready. The others started forming a circle, pushing Keld into it. He put up his fists, and blows followed.

...

"You are tougher than you look," Keld was rising heavily from the floor, his face bleeding. "Good fight," he grinned, spitting out a tooth. "Where d'you learn to fight like that?" He looked over the newcomer, now noticing something wrong. The man looked in his sixties, but his hair was already snow white, and his eyes... "You part Argonian?" Keld tried to focus his vision, now blurred by a bruise quickly swelling under his eye. "Orange eyes? Split pupils?"

"What? Cat's eyes?" Another regular had a better look at the newcomer. "He's a... oh no!" He shook his head and retreated to the back of the room.

"A witcher," Geralt was patting the dust out of his clothes. "Yes. I slay monsters. So, let's hear it about those floating rocks."

He sat down on the bench, with cheers and calls for more mead all around. No one held a grudge.

"So Fort Talos did sink into the lake," Keld said by way of restoring peace. "But only its entrance part like... You know, the bit that looks like a fort. There's a door there still, and if you force it open, you can enter, but of course it is all flooded in there."

Everyone nodded, with several people starting on the stories of giant slaughterfish that they'd caught in the lake as well as inside the flooded fort. The slaughterfish were getting bigger by the minute.

"Oi, shut it! This isn't a fisherman's tale!" Keld glared around the room and the conversation subsided. "So yeah, the fort is still there, and it's got slaughterfish all right, and something far worse, too. Draugr."

"Under water?" Geralt raised an eyebrow.

"They aren't breathing any longer, dumbhead," Keld grinned at Geralt. "They don't give a goblin's piss for air. Undead, they are."

"So. An old flooded fort filled with water draugr. Now get to the floating rocks!" Someone around the table was getting impatient.

"And that's just it!" Keld glared at him. "Don't interrupt! I've been there, and you? Eh?"

"Oh, I meant nothing by that," the other person quickly backed down, calling for more mead for everyone at the table. "Just an observation."

"Observation..." Keld glared at him again, but accepted the mead and continued. "So when the fort sunk, it broke the passages that were connecting it with the old aqueduct high on the mountain. The aqueduct and its towers are still there, there's a spring inside the mountain, and that's where the waterfall comes from."

"That waterfall is a sight to see," someone else chimed in. "And those towers... ancestors knew how to build, no doubt."


"Ever seen it at night though?" Another person joined in. "There's that eerie white light around it, and the flame in the torches is white, not orange red as right flame should be."

Several people turned around to look at the fireplace, as if making sure that the flame in the grate of the High Inn was right orange red.

"Undead, that's what it is," the first speaker confirmed.

"Enchanted," someone added.

"Spooky," a voice came from the back.

"There's a wraith up there," another person suggested.

"Not a wraith - a Dragon Priest," Keld had to raise his voice again to make it heard over the chatter. "And you wouldn't know." He glared around the table again for good measure.

"A Dragon Priest, you say," Geralt asked with interest. "Did you defeat it?" He looked straight at Keld.

"I... err... not exactly," Keld turned red and got very interested in something inside his mead mug.

"There's no shame in that!" One of the others exclaimed. "Defeat a Dragon Priest! Why, no mere man can do it, not even a Nord!" He looked at Geralt with a challenge.


"They are tough, granted," Geralt nodded soothingly, not wishing to start another brawl. "The one in Blackmoor had an army of draugr with him as well. What about this one here?"

"Blackmoor? You've been to the Blackmoor Watch?" Keld looked up at Geralt, respect showing in his eyes. "It's true then, what they say? That you returned from there and had great treasures with you?"

"Great treasures are an exaggeration," Geralt chuckled. "But yes, I've been there, and the fight was tough. I wouldn't go into another one like that if I can avoid it. Besides, you can never really kill them - only a Dragonborn can do that."

"A Dragonborn... that's a myth though," the skeptic at the table objected.

"Not a myth, but you ain't it," several people hushed him.

"So what happened at Fort Talos?" Geralt wanted to get back to the story. "How did you get to the aqueduct if the passages are all caved in?"

"That's just it - I don't know," Keld replied uneasily. "One moment I was down in the flooded fort fighting the draugr and the slaughterfish, and the next moment I stood on top of that aqueduct..." He stared into his mead, but found no explanation there. "The view was breathtaking. Then an arrow flew past my face, and I knew I wasn't alone..."

"You must have touched something, a portal of some sort," someone suggested.

"May be," Keld nodded. "I was being knocked about a bit."

"So then what?" The same impatient person urged him on. "You're standing on top of that aqueduct enjoying the view and someone shoots arrows at you?" His tone was mocking and Keld didn't like that.

"Oi, get out of here!" He rose menacingly. "You ain't been there, get back to your rats and goblins!"

The rest of the people at the inn agreed and the impatient person was escorted out.

"Adventurers," the locals were returning to the table, shaking their heads. "Just because he climbed up to Ivarillion, he thinks he knows it all. And Ivarillion isn't even 'open for business'."

"Why? What's that about?" Geralt got curious, sensing a job for a witcher.

"Oh, it's a shame, that, really," the inn keeper spoke loudly over the din of the conversation. "We used to get a lot of tourism here for that - it isn't nearly as high up as High Hrothgar, and far less dangerous to climb. People used to flock there so that they could see a real Ayleid ruin without the monsters or undead about. But it's all stopped now," he sighed. "Some of those tourists must have been necromancers in search of a new home, and before we knew it, they took over the ruin, so it's now filled with monsters, undead and Akatosh knows what other horrors!" Many nodded and exchanged hushed comments. "We've put a notice on the board, perhaps someone like yourself can go in there and clear them out?" He looked at Geralt expectantly. "There's a reward in that, too. Unlike Fort Talos."

"I'll think it over," Geralt replied non-committally. "So what happened on the aqueduct?" He turned to Keld. "Those were draugr archers shooting at you, I take it?"

"Ai, that they were," Keld nodded, smiling gratefully for the return to his tale and for the seriousness of Geralt's tone. Geralt wasn't one to mock someone being apprehensive about draugr archers. "Coming at me from the towers, they were. Glowing eyes and all." He shuddered. "It didn't help that we were so high up, either. I don't have vert-... verto-... err... I ain't afraid of heights, but it's unnerving the first time, like." He took a gulp of mead, and many people did the same, with nods going all around.

"But you cut them down all the same," Geralt prompted him.

"Shattered their bones," Keld grinned, patting his axe. "And that's when I saw it - the floating rocks."

"Ah-ha, so they exist?" Geralt exclaimed with a poorly concealed surprise.

"Of course they exist, I said so right from the start!" Keld's voice was getting a little too high-pitched with clear annoyance and a promise of another brawl.

"Of course you did. Please continue," Geralt looked at him apologetically.

"It's not easy to believe, I know," Keld was cooling off. "But there they were - floating in mid-air. Big ones, small ones, all sorts - just hanging there. And I had to walk under them, as I was sure that if there was an exit, it would be at the back, behind the towers. Of course this is where the Dragon Priest was hovering too, I could see him there."

"Did he attack?" someone asked impatiently, and others hushed him.

"No, actually, he didn't attack," Keld looked up, still surprised. "He offered me a sweetroll and commented on the nice view." He smacked his lips. "Of course he attacked, what did you think, dumbhead?" He glared at the person who asked that question. "As soon as he saw me, he attacked."

"But you're here, so you survived," Geralt thought it was best to intervene.

"That's it - survived," Keld nodded, turning a bit red again. "Focused on finding a way out and dodging his attacks. Used up all my magicka casting healing spells, too. Found that exit, and the next thing I knew I was standing at the foot of the aqueduct, on the shore of the lake, just by the waterfall."

"Another portal?" Geralt sounded interested, noting the details.

"It was a trapdoor," Keld nodded. "It was covered with rubble and I thought it would be hard to clear it all off with the Dragon Priest attacking, but as soon as I grabbed the ring, I was teleported."

"A lucky escape," Geralt approved. "I wish more fortresses had such trapdoors."

A murmur of conversation went around the inn, this time about various trapdoors that people had opened and all the wonders and horrors they'd found within. Slaughterfish were back too, in ever increasing sizes.

With the main tale now told, the inn returned to its usual mixed entertainment with card games and arm wrestling, but Geralt asked to rent a room for a few days, may be a week.

"You are going up to the old aqueduct, aren't you?" The inn keeper looked at him shrewdly, accepting an advance payment. "Well, I'll keep the room booked for you. And if the next batch of slaughterfish turns out to have white hair in their stomachs, we'll know where it came from, won't we?" He winked.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fort Talos, the trouble in Ivarillion, Blackmoor Watch and many other things will appear in the next release of TWMP Skyrim Alive.

Page 6, Post 109 -- Ha, no kidding? Sanguine's quest strips all those guests down to their under-clothes!

Cool. I like that Lena feels her home is Mundus, not the Isles. These pics are great, by the way. OH NICE.

She's speaking with Seridur! Does this mean she'll be doing Order of Virtuous Blood? I hope so. I'd like to see her take on this series of events.



The Argonian changes color! That's so full of win!

I was wrong about the Order, darn! Not saying she should join, I'm just saying it'd be an interesting take if she did.

In the next post, is the quest she's doing (to kill Thieves Guild members) an actual Beth quest? I've never completed Dark Brotherhood, not sure if I ever will, so just curious.

I enjoyed the description of her coming back to Mundus too. I like the way that part is written.

Up to Post 112.



I agree. Doesn't seem like a Bethesda mistake.

I tried an unofficial patch for Skyrim which basically broke my game. I forget which patch is was, but after installing it my Skyrim was lagging and freezing. Going from indoors to outdoors in Windhelm guaranteed a CTD.



Okay. Yes, this is also true that the various Daedra can show up in different forms, directly in Tamriel.

In my first playthrough so many years ago, when Lena became a vampire by honest accident at level 1 (me not understanding how things worked yet), she went through the whole Main Quest as a vampire, which took a mighty long time. During this time she also stumbled upon the Order of Virtuous Blood quest, was invited in, completed it, was made Sister, etc., etc., all while being at full vampirism most of the time. No one objected. So these vampire hunters are either daft or completely incompetent. This put me off them for good, hence all the sarcasm in this second playthrough.


No, this is my fiction. Both Lena Wolf and I really despise thieves, and Lena would never steal, except to eat.

However, parts of it exist as quests in my game already within a completely reworked Dark Brotherhood quest line. I too disagree with the linear progression and zero choice there. One day Lena will write her memoirs about those dreadful events during the Purification Crisis, and then she'll play through my modified quest line. But even so, I don't know if I shall ever release this mod.

28 Evening Star, 4E202 - The Valkyrie

When Geralt entered Windhelm, celebrations were in full swing.

"Who's the poor sod that's been strung up?" Geralt asked at the bar.

"Oh, just one of the Valkyrie bandits," the barman brushed it off passing Geralt his mead. "The City Guard raid the Valkyrie Towers every so often. Of course most bandits get slaughtered then and there, but the Jarl insists on proper process and so the Guards have to arrest at least one. Just so he could be hung at the gallows, proper like."

"We do things proper here in Windhelm," a large Nord sitting next to Geralt joined the conversation. "These are all proper Nords, too," he looked over the crowd. "The Greyskins don't come in here." He spat with disgust and looked straight at Geralt. "And who would you be?"

"Geralt's the name."

"Yer ain't a Nord."

Geralt didn't answer. He drank his mead, making sure not to waste any, for once a brawl breaks out, bottles and mugs go flying. "Wait for it..." he started a mental countdown. "Five, four, three..."

"Answer me, m'wa!" The large Nord swore in Dunmeris, and Geralt smirked.

"I'm as Nord as they come," he answered calmly, taking care of the remaining mead.

"Then prove it!" The heavy punch was thrown even before the verbal challenge. Geralt dodged, and the Nord's fist hit the bar. Everyone went quiet, then two more men stepped forward, fists at the ready.

"If I was kneeling with my hands tied behind my back and a sack over my head, then may be I'd be your equal," Geralt spoke slowly into the silence, measuring up his opponents. "No, not even then." He shook his head, jumping off his stool in an elegant pirouette, making use of the extra height. Legs are far stronger than arms, and the two standing challengers got the full swing of Geralt's back kick, which sent them flying before they could even comprehend what happened. With them out of the way, Geralt landed facing the large Nord still sitting at the bar.

The Nord was faster than he looked. His enormous fist grazed very close to Geralt's jaw, too close for comfort. A punch like that was likely to remove the jaw, not just knock out some teeth. The Nord grinned, seeing worry in Geralt's eyes.

Geralt did not play fair. A kick in the groin with a punch under the ribs, and the Nord couldn't help bending over, ready for Geralt's pincers - a hit over the back of the Nord's neck forcing it down, right onto a sharply set and fast moving right hand, impaling the Nord's jaw from below. One twist, and Geralt could have broken his neck.

The Nord fell with a thump. He wasn't dead, for Geralt didn't do the final twist.

"That Nord enough for yer, m'wa?" Geralt looked into the faces staring at the large Nord slowly getting up, rubbing his neck. The barman put another mug of mead before Geralt.

"Never seen swords like that," he jerked his head at Geralt's swords propped up against the bar. "Not Dwarven, not Elven, not Imperial. Where be ye from, Geralt?"

"From here," Geralt shot a glance at the barman, swinging the swords onto his back. "Skyrim. I am the White Wolf."

"He's a Nord, there can be no doubt!" The large Nord finally got up and found his stool. "New in Windhelm though. Or... wait... scrawny... white hair... orange eyes... muttered somm'aht about being bound with a sack over his head..." The Nord's nose suddenly stopped bleeding and colour drained from his face. "White Wolf?" He swallowed hard. "I never said anything against an Asgarsen!"

...

The Candelhearth Hall was hot and loud. After the brawl, everyone seemed to recall another such brawl some months previously, when again Geralt had to prove he was a Nord. Cheer and song followed, and mead was flowing freely again, which went some way of explaining the collective loss of memory afterwards.

"Back in Windhelm, are yer?" A tall fellow in full armour sat next to Geralt. "Last time you had your sister with you, and my... err... her friend." The fellow blushed somewhat. "I remember the same brawl then."

"They never learn, do they?" Geralt smiled at him. "Stenvar, is it?" He squinted. "Still fishing for work here?"

"Ai," Stenvar grinned. "You remember." He blushed again. "It's my spot, I do get work often enough," he said a bit defensively. "But you... here on business?"

"No, actually," Geralt shook his head. "The truth is that that large Nord probably knows more about my father than I do," he smirked. "I am here to find my roots."

"Well..." Stenvar whistled. "That's a tall order... Most Nords here don't know their roots beyond their grandparents... What are you going to do?"

"What any adventurer does - poke my nose into every crypt and ruin, just like my sister," he winked and slapped Stenvar on the shoulder, laughing. "And you know what she's like!"

"But then..." Stenvar suddenly brightened up. "I wouldn't tell her that, that's crazy, but you... Do you know the legend of the Valkyrie Bridge?"

"The one with the tower that the City Guard keep raiding so as to have someone to string up with due process?" Geralt squinted.

"The same," Stenvar nodded. "The mighty bridge over the White River not far from the Dunmereth Pass. There's a mystery there, and a curse, and from what I've seen, that legend is no legend but the truth!"

...

The Valkyrie used to escort the Nords to Sovngarde, protect them from the dangers of the Void. No Nord was foolish enough to refuse this protection. No Nord except Skjor the Unbending.

Skjor died in battle as befits a Nord, and the Valkyrie were ready to escort him on, but Skjor wasn't called the Unbending without a reason. Skjor refused. He had a battle to finish, and he wasn't going to let his opponent win.

"There is no way back to the living," the Valkyrie tried to reason with him. "You are dead now. Let us escort your soul to Sovngarde."

"And what songs will I sing in Sovngarde?" Skjor was adamant. "Those of my defeat? No! That I will not! Out of my way, fishwives!"

And with that he attacked the Valkyrie.

Skjor was not only unbending, he was also foolish. Of course he stood no chance against the Angels of Death, and as his body was already dead, it was his spirit that perished then. Alas, the insult he dealt to the Valkyrie, wasn't that easily forgotten, and they turned away from the Nords. From then on, every Nord had to cross the Void on his own, and many perished before reaching Sovngarde.

The Valkyrie Bridge is where it happened. It is said that the four insulted Valkyrie still haunt the tall towers of the bridge, each of them holding something of Skjor. A piece of his armour or his weapon perhaps. But they don't have it all, the rest is scattered in the Valkyrie tombs under the towers.

The insult brought on a curse, too. In their rage, the Valkyrie turned against the crew of a passing ship, slaughtering them all, and as those were soldiers, they became draugr, still wearing their armour and wielding their weapons. No ship is safe passing under the Valkyrie Bridge, having to survive the attacks of the dead. And if that wasn't enough... Misfortune attracts misfortune, and the waters under the bridge are filled with Sirens distracting the sailors before devouring them alive...

...

"That's as good a legend as any I've heard," Geralt nodded approvingly, calling for more mead. "I did hear some strange noises as I crossed the bridge."

"Ay, trouble is never far away from that place," the large Nord joined in the conversation. "Which is why the Jarl is not keen on having bandits skulking there as well, even though no matter how many of them he strings up, they keep coming back..."

"That's the way of bandits, ain't it," someone else put in. "That being right by the Dunmereth Pass and all. It's a shame about that curse on the passing ships though."

"Isn't there a way to lift that curse?" Geralt looked into the faces of the people around him. Many shook their heads, all sombered.

"Lift it?" The large Nord looked at Geralt with amusement. "Yer being a witchhunter or somm'aht? No mortal man can lift the curse of the Valkyrie."

"Well... There's been speak of a way..." A voice sounded from the back of the room, but Geralt couldn't quite make out who said it. "You ought to tell him, you know. He beat you fair and square."

"Ai... Arright!" The large Nord nodded, turning to the voice but not seeing the speaker either. "There is a way... But no mere mortal can do it!"

...

After the spirit of Skjor was ripped to shreds by the enraged Valkyrie, a new dark presence emerged in its place. Skjor reincarnate, if you will. Some say that the Dread Father himself created this soulless spirit, or may be it was the way of the Void all along. The spirit dwells in one of the tombs under the Valkyrie Bridge. Defeat it, and the curse will be lifted.

But it isn't as simple as that. The spirit of Skjor is immortal, invulnerable to any and all attacks, as numerous adventurers and daredevils have found out. Skjor wears his old armour, wields his old sword... Or rather, the spirit that is Skjor, is clad in spirit armour and wields a spirit sword, the same as those of Skjor of flesh and blood. Only one wearing the real Skjor's armour and wielding Skjor's sword has a glimpse of hope to defeat the spirit. Skjor must face his twin.

...

"That's a tall order, that," Geralt nodded. "A job for a witcher."



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Valkyrie Bridge is a part of the upcoming release of TWMP Skyrim Alive. The legend comes alive there, and now you know what to do. Can you face Skjor the Unbending?

3 Morning Star, 4E203 - The Jarl of Hjaalmarch

The new year 203 of the Forth Era found Geralt riding through the forests of the Pale, delving into the many Dwemer ruins there, and finally concluding that as entertaining as it was, it didn't help him to find his roots. His father wasn't a Dwarf, so why was he searching in the Dwemer ruins? Perhaps because they were too much fun to pass up...

Finally however Geralt arrived in Morthal. The town was hiding on the moors among the tall pine trees and the mist hanging over the water. The inn had food and rooms, and that's all that Geralt wanted after days upon days sleeping in caves.

"You should go see the Jarl when you feel up to it," the inn keeper told him. "He likes to know who's staying in Morthal."

Sensing that there was more to the request than just satisfying the Jarl's curiosity, Geralt decided to oblige. The Jarl's longhouse must have been the one building with a roof fully intact, rather than patched up like all the others.

"I am the Jarl of Hjaalmarch, Sigfrid the Fair," the man on the throne told him. Geralt noticed the Jarl's bed behind the throne and the housecarl's bed in the corner, and besides a few benches and cupboards, the house didn't have anything else - there was no room.

"I thought the Jarl of Hjaalmarch sat in Snowhawk," Geralt smiled and bowed.

"What? Oh, you know..." Sigfrid grimaced. "The Jarl sits in Snowhawk, ai, and pays us no mind. Might not even know we exist! But Morthal has been ruling over the moors since the Second Era, and while I may not be the actual Jarl of Hjaalmarch, I am the Jarl of these parts!" He looked at Geralt with a challenge, and Geralt nodded.

"Have it your way, Sigfrid, I don't meddle in politics," Geralt replied soothingly. "I hear you wanted to see me, and here I am."

"Ai, that I did," Sigfrid nodded, smiling. "I've heard of you, White Wolf. Heard you came to Skyrim in search of your roots. Asgarsens have lived here for centuries. In one of these crypts you'll find what you are searching for."

"And..?"

"And... You'll stay in Skyrim. Nay, you are staying already," Sigfrid chuckled. "But have you got a house to live in? A house that is truly your own?" He gave Geralt a sharp look.

"Err... no," Geralt shook his head. "But you happen to have one for sale, am I right?"

"Windstad Manor," Sigfrid nodded. "A splendid house out on the moors."

"I'll take a stroll out there and have a look," Geralt smiled. "What filth should I be watching out for? There's a problem with it, of course."

"It's right what people say of you then," Sigfrid grinned. "Straight to the matter. Ai, there's a problem. The kind of problem we'd need a witcher for. Go out there, here's the key. Be watchful at night, mostly, for then besides the filth, you'll also face danger. It's been like this for a while, and none can venture onto the moors any more. But you can help us, and then the house is yours for a mere thousand septims."

"So, you'd have me solve your problem, and then still pay for the house?" Geralt raised an eyebrow and almost turned to leave.

"Yes," Sigfrid's tone was sharp. "The house is worth far more than that, and we need the money to support an orphanage."

"An orphanage? I saw no children in the village," Geralt objected.

"And yet there is an orphanage on the moors," Sigfrid's brow furrowed. "But that's a story for another time. Go, look around, you might even stumble upon it, it ain't a lie."

Geralt pocketed the key to Windstad Manor, picked up his swords and went to look around on the moors.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This doesn't sound like Skyrim or ESO! - I hear you say. No, this is TWMP Skyrim in Oblivion. Morthal, the moors and the troubles there are coming in the next release of TWMP Skyrim Alive. Snowhawk already exists, and it is a grand city indeed, built well before my time.

Nice job bringing Morthal to life. Looks like Geralt's intended rest is to be cut short out on the moors.

3 Morning Star, 4E203 - Windstad Manor

Something in the appearance of the Jarl of Hjaalmarch in Morthal made Geralt want to fulfil the Jarl's request - go and look around the Windstad Manor. A path going into the moors was a good start, and Geralt took it.

Geralt loved the moors since the first time he set foot in the area a few months earlier. He'd had no time to look around then, and so he took the opportunity now. He came off the path and simply wandered through the shallow water with its low hanging mist and dry patches in between. Pine trees were standing tall around him, save for the clearings here and there, where the trees had been cut for one reason or another, but young pines were already taking hold. Like last time, the air was cold but not freezing, and the salty smell of the sea indicated the way to the shore. To a Northener like Geralt, this landscape looked idyllic...

"What now, you filth?!" Geralt spun around unsheathing his silver sword in one motion. Not a spider, not a chaurus, what was approaching him from behind, was a zombie. "You shouldn't be here!" He bellowed, cutting the zombie's head off and realising that it had no effect on the zombie's advance. In fact, it seemed to have only made it angry.

The zombie hastened its step and took a swipe at Geralt. Geralt dodged. The zombie swiped again, still advancing. Geralt kept dodging, but walking backwards isn't easy for someone who needs to see where he's going. He tripped and fell onto something soft. A giant hairy spider.

Compared to the zombie, the spider was a blessing. Not that aggressive to start with, spiders would normally prefer to run off, but having a grown man land on its back, made it decide that the line had been crossed there. It reared, throwing Geralt off, then turned and spit. Geralt's vision went blurry and he staggered, which was quite a feat, considering that he was sitting in a puddle on the moor. The poison wasn't that strong, but it was very disorienting. The spider poised for another spit and a pounce, but stench and groan right behind it made it reconsider. It turned around...

"Take this, you filth!" Geralt was back on his feet lunging at the zombie with his silver sword while the zombie was attacking the spider... With Geralt and the spider momentarily united against a common threat, the zombie was finally defeated, but not before it lost all of its limbs to Geralt's sword. Was the torso still alive? It was hard to tell, but it was disarmed, quite literally... "Ironic," Geralt smirked to himself. Unfortunately, in the heat of the battle the spider took quite a few hits from the zombie and now succumbed to its wounds, its green blood oozing from the abdomen. "Thank you for joining the fight," Geralt honoured the spider, for it was only an animal, not a monster. "Now, where did this filth come from?" He turned his attention to the mort flesh scattered around. He wanted to take a closer look, perhaps to identify the type of the zombie, get some clues, but the stench was so strong, that he had to reconsider. "That's a dread zombie, it must be," Geralt concluded. "They carry diseases and will infect you even when they are dead," he thought, backing off. "Well, deader than what they were before." It was getting very confusing. How do you kill a zombie? Isn't it already dead?

This incident reminded Geralt that there was a reason the Jarl asked him to look around the moors, and it wasn't sightseeing. He heard groaning further ahead and realised that zombies must have been a part of the problem - he knew better than to hope there would be nothing else. "At night you will also face danger," he recalled Jarl's words. So, there was something worse than zombies, but it only came out at night. Yeah, he thought he knew what that could be...

But since it was still morning, he had time before then, and Geralt decided to head to the Windstad Manor and see what he could discover. There should be clues inside.

...

Geralt liked the house as soon as he saw it. Windstad Manor was set on a high shore looking out onto the sea. The moors surrounded it from the other three sides. There was the a fairly large house built of whole logs, solid and spacious, with stone foundations going into the ground. "Another storey underground," Geralt thought. A turret at the front was large enough to serve as an annex, yet not overbearing as a castle tower would have been. "Yen would like that," Geralt's mind wandered. "She would put her megascope on the top floor, those windows should let in enough light..." But Yennefer wasn't in Skyrim yet, and Geralt shook off the memories and the longing. Next to the main house there was a smaller one, with a well by the door. "A bath house?" Geralt smiled to himself. A large stable on the other side was perfect for Roach, and large enough for several visitors' horses too - Roach disliked overcrowding. "The Jarl knew what to offer me," Geralt smirked. There was more to the man than just his title, a symbolic title too, for the real Jarl of Hjaalmarch sat in Snowhawk and paid no mind to the affairs of the moors.

But before Geralt could settle down in Windstad Manor, he had to clear it of the filth. Expecting zombies inside, he drew his sword and entered the house.

...

"Don't you touch me!!" Geralt's enraged bellows must have been heard all over the moors. Indeed, the house was swarming with zombies, and Geralt aimed to put them down without getting infected with those horrid diseases that they were carrying. Most zombies weren't that hard to put down - they weren't dread zombies like the one on the moor, and they would normally quickly succumb to fire, but Geralt was reluctant to use fire in what would soon be his own house. Filth and mort flesh he could scrub off, but replacing burned timbers would be a much bigger job. So his sword was his only weapon in that fight.

It was a little harder than usual, but still, after a while all the zombies in the house were reduced to bits of mort flesh strewn over the floor. With the house and the turret finally quiet, Geralt set out looking for clues as to what happened.

The first clue was obvious: a body of a mage on the floor in the bedroom. No blood. The man had been sucked dry. "Just as I thought," Geralt nodded to himself. "Vampires." Which didn't explain the zombies.

Assuming that the dead mage was the previous owner of the house, he must have been quite a scholar. There were books and scrolls in tall bookcases everywhere, and the turret contained an impressive library. Geralt went through the books - besides the usual scholarly texts and popular literature, he found a number of rare books on necromancy and several more on vampirism. It seemed the mage had studied both. Was he a necromancer who got vampirism? The two factions didn't get on, but necromancers were just people, and therefore susceptible to Porphyric Hemophilia. So what if they got infected? Which faction would they be with?

However, the dead mage hadn't been a vampire, Geralt noted upon investigation. But he must have been a necromancer - a handbook on making zombies and a laboratory in the cellar seemed to point to that. So were the zombies his, created for protection from vampires, perhaps? A necromancer's private army?

The house yielded no further clues, and neither did the bath house, and Geralt decided against staying on the moors for the night - he was in no rush to meet the vampires. He wanted more information first, so decided to return to Morthal and ask around. Someone must be able to tell him what happened there.

...

"You have been out on the moors," a middle aged but still attractive Redguard woman approached Geralt as he was walking in Morthal. "I am Alima - the healer. You need my services."

"Do I?" Geralt smiled at her. "I was careful not to touch any of those things. But of course there's no harm in cleansing anyway." He allowed Alima to cast a cure disease spell over him. "It's nice to see a shrine out here," he added, looking at a statue of Dibella.

"It's from our ship, I insisted we retrieve it," Alima smiled. "I am a Priestess of Dibella, although now-a-days I just stick to healing services," she winked. "This place is too small for Dibella's Temple, and with the two younger women around... Well... You know. Youth has its perks," she concluded.

"As does experience," Geralt smiled, looking into her eyes. "I'd take experience any day." But then thinking that Morthal was perhaps indeed too small for it, he looked away and changed the topic. "You mentioned a ship - your ship. What happened?"

"We are from Hammerfell, Karim and I," Alima shot Geralt a grateful glance. Morthal was indeed too small for frivolities. "Karim is my husband. We used to sail the seas on a large merchant vessel, and the sailors would have no other shrine on board than that of Dibella. There were several of us, from the Temple... But the ship capsized not far from here, some people drowned, some were lured by the Sirens, and some - like us - made it ashore. We stayed here, in Morthal. We brought a few things from the sunken ship, and there are still some trinkets on the bottom of the sea. Karim spends most days by the shore, fishing. Well, reminiscing... diving, sometimes. There's something he's still searching for..." Alima's eyes glazed over, and Geralt thought she was seeing the sands of Hammerfell floating over the moors. "But anyhow," she returned to reality. "We brought the shrine from the ship, and now Morthal has a proper altar," she concluded, clearing some dirt off the stonework.

"Tell me about the people here," Geralt asked. "Like you say, it's a small place."

"Well, there's the self-appointed 'Jarl'," Alima smiled. "You've met him. Sigfrid the Fair. He does right by the people on the moors though, so everyone calls him 'Jarl' without the sarcasm. Then there's Felion the mage, he does all sorts of studies, in particular the ones you're better off doing in the woods away from civilization..." She smirked. "But he's a good sort, really. Then the two sisters - the younger women I mentioned. They pick mushrooms and plants in the woods, sell most of it to Felion, but they'll trade with anyone. Just walk around town, you'll meet everyone. The guard house is largely empty as we don't have guards, but it is there so that Legionnaires have somewhere to stay - we call on the Legion when things get dire on the moors."

Geralt thanked Alima for all her help and wondered whom he should ask about what happened at the Windstad Manor. "The innkeeper", he decided, especially since it was time to have something to eat.

...

"Windstad Manor?" The innkeeper was taking roast off the spit. "Yeah, that's bad business. The previous owner was a mage, a scholar. He built that house so he could live out his life quietly among his books. That didn't work out though," he sighed.

"Yeah, I found his body in the house," Geralt nodded. "Vampires."

"Vampires have been living around these parts for centuries," the innkeeper confirmed. "But they've been always keeping to themselves. No nightly attacks and no kidnapping of people. It's said they have thralls, so don't need other folk for feeding, like. May be. It doesn't matter. They were quiet neighbours and never did us any harm." He paused and focussed on roast potatoes.

"But that changed," Geralt prompted him.

"Ai," the barman looked up. "One of those ruined forts in the mountains got new tenants - necromancers. Dibella preserve us from that filth!" He spit and kicked a rat back into its hole. "Before we knew it, skeletons started roaming the moors - the necromancers took to digging up old graves."

"Skeletons?" Geralt sounded dubious. "I came across..."

"Zombies?" The barman interrupted him and gave the rat another kick. "Yeah, it started with skeletons. The Jarl would have none of it though, a few of us went to that fort, but the necromancers were too strong, so he called in the Legion. By the time the Legionnaires arrived, things went out of hand." He paused again, busy with the vegetables.

"The vampires didn't like their new neighbours, right?" Geralt guessed.

"They didn't!" The innkeeper raised an eyebrow. "It's true what they say that necromancers and vampires don't get along. I am not entirely sure what happened... But suddenly there were zombies out on the moors, and no one was safe! And the vampires started coming out at night, attacking everyone... And they've never done so before!" He looked up, still perplexed by it.

"So the Legion..?" Geralt suspected that the Legion hadn't handled it in the most tactful manner, or else that they got the wrong culprit.

"Yeah... well... Necromancy is legal in Skyrim, regardless of what the mages in Cyrodiil say... Yeah, we've heard of that. Vampirism however is not legal. So what could the Legion do? They took the side of the necromancers and tried to exterminate the vampires... A futile attempt, if you ask me," he shook his head.

"Did it not occur to them that vampires don't make zombies?" It was Geralt's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"It did," the innkeeper nodded. "But the law is the law, and the Legion has to uphold it, whether it makes sense or not." He sighed, setting a full plate of roast meat, potatoes and vegetables before Geralt. "They perished, all of them," he added with sadness. "The very necromancers whose side they took, slaughtered the Legionnaires and used their bodies to make more zombies..." He sighed again. "Bad business, that."

"And now?" Geralt's focus was shifting from the conversation to his dinner.

"Now you are here," the innkeeper suddenly brightened up. "A witcher. A man who can find the clues and solve a mystery. The White Wolf. You'll defeat whoever needs defeating, you'll rid the moors of the zombies and send the vampires back to their lairs. Then you will settle in the Windstad Manor and will come here for my roast for years to come," he concluded with a smile. "That's the plan, at least."

"Right," Geralt grinned. Finally someone was making sense.

Yikes, so she became a vampire during your first playthrough. Were you on PS3 at the time? Even if you wanted to cure this, chances are it's not possible on PS3 (Game of the Year version, anyway).


I'm up the part when she is dealing with Roland and Seridur. Yes indeed, this is a compelling quest. Is Seridur really what they say he is? And now that I know she was a vampire the original time you did OVB, I can see how silly she must feel, since they can't even detect they're trying to use her to do their bids.

Whoa, Lena's mother was supposed to kill Lena's father? Did I get that right?

There's a ghost Lucien, and a physical Lucien. 🥶

Up to Page 7 now, yuah. All the pictures are great, as always!

Fortunate aid from that spider out on the moors. I didn't realize that necrodudes and vampires didn't get along. Were it not tragic, it would be funny how badly the Legion gooned up their intervention in the necro-vamp war.

I was on Xbox 360 and got the cure with the original quest, but it only comes on much later in the game, when she had done a few Mages Guild quests at the Arcane University. I wonder what if you never join the Mages Guild or never enter the University? Does the quest even come up then? But yeah, that's why she had to do the whole MQ as a vampire.


Yes. Which is why she broke the rules. But it is all rather vague at this point, Lucien mostly just knew it from rumours. Perhaps things will clear up later.




Vampires are undead while necromancers are mortal, so I guess they are fair game for vampires to feed on, and so necros object (just as everyone else). And then once they defeat a vampire, can they even use that undead body to make zombies? Do you need fresh bodies for that? Not sure... Plus, vampires rise again after a time, unless you manage to get them to disintegrate into ash completely somehow. Necromancers are jealous because the only way for them to rise again is to transform into a lich, which they all aspire to of course, but only very few accomplish - too difficult. Which probably explains why liches are the only undead to hate vampires.

You don't often see vampires and necromancers face each other in the base game, but it happens on a few occasions (by design or accident, not sure), and then they sure do fight.

Zombies don't normally attack other undead (including vampires) unless they are doing the bidding of their masters, as they do here. So then all gloves are off!