[b]Fifth of Sun's Height, midnight, wall nearest the docks warehouse[/b]
[hr]

After leaving the company of Tsleeixth, Sagax did little more than kick rocks in the Stone Quarter for a little while. He simply couldn't think of anything he could really do. He had no Restoration prowess or any knowledge of medicine, and the guards seemed to have a handle on things since the Argonian elder called for a cease of hostilities between the citizens of Windhelm. In all of the events of the day, he hadn't before noticed a strange sense of...lightness. As if he were missing a part of himself. Then he remembered something before the bombing run: His bag. It was still in the warehouse! He remembered now, leaving it behind so it would not be damaged by the waters of the river Sagax knew he would have been inevitably thrown into. A sinking feeling met Sagax upon the realization that Felix's manuscript was still in there. If it were still in his possession, he would have left his bag at the docks; he could always get a new one from somewhere, and a majority of the things inside could be easily replaced. But this determined Imperial wasn't about to toss out a man's dying wish like yesterday's rabbit haunch. So, Sagax waited until nightfall...

Which takes things to Sagax's daring escapade. Crawling low to the ground atop the wall overlooking the docks, Sagax remained out of sight of the Kamal until he reached the portion of the wall nearest to the warehouse which held his things. He knew he wouldn't be able to just jump down off the wall; that'd be VERY silly of him. Sagax came prepared, though, as he had snagged a length of rope from atop a random barrel; there seemed to be a large amount of such things just lying around the city, messy messy people. Making sure to tie a secure knot on a battlement still solid enough to hold weight, Sagax threw the rest of the rope over. It would lead him down a majority of the wall on its own. Good enough, he supposed; he could easily drop the rest of the distance and jump back up to grab the rope on his way back. After waiting for the current volley of projectiles to cease, the tiny Imperial man, no doubt a blurry silhouette to the Kamal along the river, slid down the rope, making more liberal use of his gloved hand to avoid rather painful rope burns. When he finally touched down onto the crumbling remnants of the docks, Sagax stood still for a second, checking for sounds of alert from the Kamal, along with any sign of another volley aimed for him. Good thing, too.

One of the giants patrolling the top deck must have seen the slithering shadow that was Sagax rappelling down the wall, despite his efforts to shoo away any torch bearers manning his area of operation, because as soon as laid eyes on the hulking ships, the ports of the nearest one glowed with a very familiar energy, prompting Sagax to, intelligently for a change, run the fuck away and into the warehouse, barging down the weakened door and diving as far into the room as possible. A very large mound of ice followed him, careening into the door frame, shattering it and a good chunk of the wall around it, before finding its place in the wall opposite the cowering snake. A few more spikes hammered on the walls around him, but thankfully the stonework of Windhelm was worthy of its status of legendary hardened ruggedness. Miraculously, some of the torches were still lit. Quite a few fell onto the ground and went out, though. Sagax knew it wouldn't hold for long, and so he scrambled about as fast as his limited vision would allow him, sweeping dust and rubble with his hands until he bumped into a familiar brown and leathery shape. He took no time practically ripping it open and digging around. Felix's manuscript was still there, excellent! "Now...how the hell do I get out...?" Sagax wondered aloud.

Then it hit him; probably not as hard as the ice spikes were hitting the warehouse, but still, it hit him pretty hard: The invisibility potion! Pulling it out from its snug place on top of his pillow, Sagax smiled triumphantly. If Varulae were with him he would have kissed her. Probably. Maybe. Might be a bit awkwar-GOD DAMN IT SAGAX QUIT TAFFING AROUND AND GET OUT OF THAT FORTIFIED DEATH TRAP. [i]Why are they so damn focused on me, anyway!? What the hell did I do!? ...oh yeah. The boat.[/i]

He sat and waited, even with few precious moments left. He was figuring out the volley pattern of the kamal ships. One was firing at the warehouse, the others were still hammering the walls of Windhelm. His best bet would be to make a dash back for the rope just as the ship focusing on him began to charge its volley, as it delayed slightly after the other ships. As soon as he had the pattern down, he drank the whole lot of the invisibility potion. He figured it would give him around forty seconds. It was stronger than most, but it took true masters to make lengthy brews, and even Varulae would admit her own skill fell a little short. Still, it would give him enough time to get up the rope and back into Windhelm, he was certain. As soon as the effects of the potion took hold, the other Kamal ships fired their volley at the walls. Now was his chance.

Heart pounding and breath less-than-steady, Sagax burst out of the gaping hole in the warehouse and straight toward his escape, going over the heads of his attackers completely; they still nailed the warehouse, and boy, was he a lucky one. The walls of the warehouse buckled and everything came crashing down, kicking up dust in all directions. Great, a cover, except the Kamal were probably fine with blindfiring. Better get a move-on, eh Sagax? Making his way back to the rope, his breath was taken away by the sheer closeness of a spike to his getaway. The end of the rope was even frosted a little! He was inches away from possibly being trapped on the docks. Good gods above, he would be praying his thanks tomorrow, that much was certain. 

Halfway up the wall, Sagax considered himself home-free. Until he heard the ship behind him launch a volley, of course. Quickly peering behind him, he saw a spike heading straight for him. Swearing loudly, Sagax swung to widely to the left, dodging the spike, but he knew the wall wouldn't hold him much longer. As he fell back into position, the Imperial used the spike as a jumping platform, launching himself a few more inches up the wall. He could hear the battlement he secured the rope to cracking, and he climbed as fast as he could. In fact, he couldn't recall any time before when he had scaled something with such desperation. The scaling of the Forsworn gate back in the Reach was nothing compared to what he was going through now. Panting heavily, Sagax had finally made it to the top of the wall when suddenly, the battlement finally gave out. One last lunge let him catch onto the top of the wall with his good hand, but with his other arm weakened and his bag weighing him down, he would have a bit of trouble getting up on his own.

"[i]I am stupid, I am SO FUCKING STUPID![/i]" He screamed at himself out loud. Yeah, great going Sagax. You got your stupid bag back, and now you'll get to [i]die[/i] with it! Why didn't he put the damn thing somewhere more secure earlier, like INSIDE the city, in a barrel somewhere? Or, shit, he knew Leif, the man had a house! Could have just asked the man to keep his gear for him! God fucking-wait a second why was he suddenly floating upwards? No, not floating, he was being pulled up. Was he visible already? Huh, time flies fast when you're [i]about to fucking DIE[/i]. As soon as Sagax hit the sweet, sweet solid ground of the wall, another spike slammed into the battlements sending both him and his helper flat on their asses. Didn't kill them though, that's something right? Dragging themselves away from certain death by pointy glacier, the person who helped Sagax grunted with a hint of frustration as they got up. 

"You owe me TWICE now, Sneak." God damn it. Sagax must look like an absolute clutz to this guard. "I get a few hours of shuteye, and the minute my boots hit the street I catch word of some delirious rogue scaling the damn walls trying to get back to the docks! I hope whatever you went to get was worth it, you brainless twit."

"Uh...I went to get my bag." Sagax said sheepishly. The guard sighed a very long, exasperated sigh. "But it was important though! Well, kinda. To me, a least. One of my company mates, he gave me a manuscript for a book he wrote. He died attacking the Kamal, and I sort of see it as his dying request to get it published" he explained. 

Sagax could almost feel the man rolling his eyes. "Well, that's better than nothing, I suppose. But still! You REALLY ought to get out of the habit of nearly getting yourself killed! One of these days I'm not going to be strolling by and happening along you dangling off of the edge of a mountain face or wherever else you might plan to go. Now, building off of that, [i]get off my damn wall[/i]." He didn't need to tell Sagax twice. He said his thanks and scurried back down below into the streets; he got his stuff back, and that was good enough for him.

[hr]

[b]Present time - Tenth of Sun's Height[/b]

The next few days did not go so well for Sagax. Even after escaping the confines of Windhelm, he suffered frequent nightmares and was generally jumpier than...something. He was too tired to make any intelligible comparison. From escaping Windhelm to finding his way to Dawnstar with the rest of the refugees, the sullen sneak had maybe a total of six hours of sleep. Even the simple clanking of eating utensils jolted him upright from whatever corner he decided to call his bed. Is this what Caius had to endure during his time in the Legion? If so, Sagax could not blame his father one smidgen for not dwelling on any of it. Why the hell would you WANT to? Let such memories die the quiet deaths they deserve. Though he had a feeling the siege of Windhelm would stay with him for many, many years to come. The constant crashing of projectiles, the accursed Kamal and their taunts, the screaming of the dying...truth be told, Sagax felt like he was going to snap at any moment, all it would have taken was one shove too far. 

For this reason, Sagax forwent any and all other possible activities, and instead found a dark corner of Windpeak Inn to sit in and go to sleep. He could barely get out a half-hearted wave to Sevine as he passed her on the way in; he didn't even look at her. He didn't know how long he'd be out and he honestly didn't give a taff, and if anyone tried getting him up Sagax was liable to crack them in the knee with the pommel of his sword.