[b][i]24th of Second Seed, Anvil[/i][/b]

Alarm bells were blaring. 

Anifaire had been walking through town. She had no real destination, but sitting in her borrowed inn room had gotten stale enough to send her out into the unknown. She was just beginning to worry that the inn was out of sight; she'd wandered all the way to the city walls. That was when the alarms began. 

The crowd she was in began shuffling faster. A woman cried out a boy's name. She shuffled through the crowd, trying to reach her young boy. Anifaire watched the scene, bumping back and forth, in a stupor. [i]The Dwemer, again?[/i] She couldn't do that again. 

The chattering of people around her melded into one noise. She struggled to pick up any details about what was happening. The Dominion was here, she heard. The Dominion. [i]Why is that making everyone run?[/i] she thought. She didn't comprehend it. They must have arrived to help. 

The Altmer slowly made her way outside the crowd, trying to collect herself. She couldn't understand why her people brought such fear, but it was the same way when she went to the University. People believed her to be some sort of Thalmor agent and they hated her for it. [i]What have we done wrong?[/i]

If the Dominion was there, her sister may be with them. Anifaire wondered if they would bring her home, or help her get funds, or help her go back to the University. She missed her sister dearly, heart clenching at the idea of seeing her again. She'd always admired her. Alindril had known exactly what she wanted, and sought it out from the beginning of her life. Anifaire had always been uncertain, always following her parents' leads. 

Until Cyrodiil, anyway. She stepped farther away from the crowd, closer to the city walls. The Altmer didn't feel in danger; her own people were here, after all. She aimlessly touched her pouch of gold. She did that every so often, since acquiring it. It brought her an unfamiliar sense of pride. Money had never been an object to her. She rarely held physical coins, and spending was never a question. If she needed something, or wanted it, it was hers. Few questions asked. 

Things were different after the Imperial City was taken. She'd been thrown out, a refugee, refused service at the bank, and had to survive through living conditions she'd never considered before. 

Her few coins, truly not a lot to live off of, felt like a fortune to her. 

She wondered if, after all she'd been through, she could return to her parents' home. She would live the same daily life: study magic, the Dwemer, if she had any time, but she was out of translations to work on, eat, sleep. Perhaps her parents would arrange a marriage, and she would repeat the same lifestyle in her husband's home. She would be comfortable. She wouldn't be standing in an unfamiliar city, at the edge of a panicked, bustling crowd, trying to decide if that coloured patch of roof in the distance [i]was[/i] the inn she was staying at. 

"Eh! It's an Altmer!" 

Abruptly, she was grabbed by the shoulder and spun around. A large, brutish woman was gripping her far too tightly. Anifaire struggled to pull back, pushing at the woman's arm, but she held tightly. 

"Get off me!" she squeaked. 

"You're one of them - the Dominion thinks they can just come into my home and do things their way, eh?" the woman growled. 

"I've- I've got nothing to do with them!" Anifaire shouted, finally springing free of the woman's grasp. She stumbled away from her, quickly jogging a few steps away. Flustered as she was, she wasn't looking in the right direction and bumped directly into someone - someone armoured. 

"Scum," the voice grumbled. She was shoved backwards, toppling onto the ground for lack of balance. She looked up to find a lightly armoured Altmer, definitely Thalmor. She gasped, trying to get back up, but the man stepped towards her once more. She stumbled, still on the ground, to put space between them. 

"I'm not-I'm- you're- I'm from Auridon," she stuttered. 

"Disgraceful," he sneered. "A defector. Look at you." She thought about her ragged clothes, undone hair, and choked back a sob. She was pathetic.

"I- stop, leave me alone!" Anifaire made it to her feet with that last comment. Flustered and nervous, she hurried back into the crowd of people. As she made her way through, she took a quick glance backwards to see if the man was following her. He wasn't; clearly he had other priorities.

She hurried through the crowd before she really considered her destination. When she found herself looking down the street at the inn where she'd been staying with some of the expedition group, she thought for a moment that she should be surprised. She wasn't. Somewhere along the way, she'd found some sliver of a place there. The uncomfortable thought squirmed in her head. That group was leaving for Hammerfell. 

Images of the Dominion-hating woman and the cruel Thalmor agent flashed through her mind, and the idea of staying in Anvil didn't sound comfortable. 

She trudged on towards the inn.