[IC] Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

[Muttonhawk]

Between Sabine's defiance, the staff, and her knowledge of restoration magic, the thought of Yerig staying dead did not even cross her mind. She lowered herself to her knees by his side and placed a hand on his chest. A yellow light shone over the scorch-mark where the lightning bold spell struck. Sabine closed her eyes and mouth. Her face twitched as if dreaming. The light grew for another ten seconds, healing the immediate damage.

Sabine put a jolt through Yerig's heart. Just enough to make it beat. His entire midsection tensed and fell involuntarily. She tried again. A flash ended the yellow light. Yerig had not been dead long, which made Sabine's magic possible. She manually tensed his diaphragm to force him to inhale. Whether it would be enough to revive him or not, Sabine exhausted all she knew how to do. No more power applied to the problem would fix it.

She stood up and watched to see what would happen.

[EliteCommander]

While the staff did amplify Sabine's abilities, it was really her knowledge and experience that truly allowed her success in reviving Yerig. She restarted his heart, then manually forced him to begin breathing once more. Fortunately, she had acted quickly enough that his brain had not died along with the rest of him. Had that come to pass, no amount of magic would have been able to save him.

Yerig's breaths were shallow and unsteady at first, but gradually grew more firm. Still, he was delirious as his mind slowly drifted into consciousness. He opened his eyes, only to quickly cover them upon looking straight up at the sun. "I, where...what is going on?"

From Do'rhajul's point of view, he may as well have been looking upon a miracle before him. He still stayed back from Sabine, but Yerig awakening gave him something he knew he could, and should, be doing. "It is alright, friend. You are alive; I believe the danger has passed. Arinette betrayed us. She tried to kill you, and ordered me killed. She and the others..." He began as he cast his gaze down to the nearest body, paying particular attention to the slow rising and falling of his chest. "I think they are still alive. The lycan defeated them, then healed you."

Again, Do'rhajul froze in place. He stared off at seemingly nothing, contemplating his own thoughts for a time. Eventually, he knelt down and picked up his sword by the middle of the blade, then placed it atop Spellbreaker in his arms. He walked up to Sabine, knelt down onto one knee in front of her, then extended his arms forward to offer both Spellbreaker and the blade to her. "They are yours. I offer them to you. I offer my surrender to you."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine turned her head to look at Do'Rhajul's surrender. Her eyes flicked between the weapons and his face for several lost moments. She was shivering. After a while, her eyes and mouth narrowed as if about to resume crying, but she stiffened and swallowed it back.

There was not a word from Sabine. She broke eye contact and walked away. She shuffled herself over to the enemy's camp. Without regarding Do'Rhajul or Yerig, she rifled through the team's belongings with one end of her staff until she found something. A large fur-lined cloak. All the warm clothing was packed together, but the cloak she pulled out had not been worn by any of those that tortured her. She wrapped the cloak tightly around herself with both hands and continued shuffling around. She quickly located a skin of water and some preserved meats. Her next destination was the campfire, where she sat herself down.

Sabine stared into the fire with wide eyes. Her knees were drawn up to her chest, though the cloak covered everything below her neck. One of her hands beneath the cloak fed her tiny bites of food at a time.

It wasn't until she stopped shivering that she began listening to Do'Rhajul and Yerig again.

[EliteCommander]

Do'rhajul did not seem to know how to react to being essentially ignored by Sabine. He ended up sitting in silence for a while, then left his weapon and shield somewhat close to the campfire while Sabine was searching their belongings. Beyond that, the camp was still and silent for quite a while. It took time for Yerig to recover enough to even stand up, and Do'rhajul looked almost lost. For the most part, the Cathay-raht just ended up sitting on his knees with his head down, as if he were meditating.

Eventually, Yerig had managed to get up to his feet. His breathing was shaky, but otherwise, he seemed to be in decent health. At his age, it would be wise for him to continue visiting healers to make sure there were no unforeseen complications, if that became an option for him. But, for the moment, he was far more concerned about the lycan for whom he had risked supporting. Do'rhajul still seemed to be wary about getting close to her, but Yerig looked a bit more confident as he approached her. Though, even he stopped just across the campfire from her.

"Are you, uh, okay, girl? I know what happened; I know what...they did. Are you in decent health? Could you heal yourself with that thing?" Yerig asked.

[Muttonhawk]

While Yerig might have been referring to Sabine as a 'girl' in being relatively older than her, Sabine found it only fed into her behaviour. he cloak was too large for her, she was behaving like she used to before her ritual with the Hist, and -- when she did eventually speak after finishing her mouthful -- it was with a more subdued and almost childish voice than when they first questioned her.

"I did," she said tersely.

The staff was still at her side, laying flat and half-covered by the cloak. Sabine did not take her eyes off the small fire between them.

"Your friends," Sabine mentioned before Yerig could ask another question. "Five hours. Then they awaken."

[EliteCommander]

Yerig looked away and grunted. "What friends?"

There was a long sigh and an extended silence from Yerig before he finally spoke up again. "Look, there's no going back after this, not for them. I never swore anything to anyone, but my friend, Rhajul, he made a pact with that demon. Made a deal he just betrayed. I, well, he said you saved my life, said you healed me. I owe you. But, while I was out cold when you did it, I see the results of what you did to them. You hold all the power here, that much is clear. I know you probably need time, and take all you need, but I have to ask what happens next? What are you going to do about them, about me?" He asked.

[Muttonhawk]

A pause drew out from Sabine. For a moment, it seemed long enough that Yerig might have been getting ignored again.

The pause was not broken by words, not immediately. It was instead changed by Sabine lifting her eyes up to stare at Yerig. "What is the pact he made?" She asked.

[EliteCommander]

Yerig glanced back towards Do'rhajul, not answering immediately. After a few moments, he stepped up closer to the fire and knelt down to Sabine's right, though he still kept a respectable distance between them. "Took me forever to squeeze that bit of information out of him. It was a long time ago that he made it, after I parted ways with him. In exchange for curing his own lycanthropy and returning him the life he used to have, he would fight to 'end the major threat of lycans in Tamriel.' The man's a good leader, so he thought he could do it with enough soldiers and resources. Harder than he thought it was, apparently. Thing is, a pact with a Daedra isn't just some loose promise. There's power in it. He says that Clavicus Vile will end up his soul if he doesn't fulfill his bargain. Honestly, I think he's a damn fool for making that kind of promise."

Yerig shifted his gaze over the unconscious body of Arinette. "That witch-girl, the Daedric priestess, she seemed convinced that killing your 'Champion' would be enough to throw you into disarray. So, that was why they were hunting you. Why they did those things to you."

After a few more moments, a look of shame became apparent on Yerig. "I should have stopped it all sooner. It's my fault you had to go through all that. I just wasn't sure what to believe. I failed."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine's eyes dropped to the fire. She stole a glance at Do'Rhajul. She brought a hand up from her new cloak and wiped both of her eyes.

"Lorag...my packmate, he was a soldier under Do'Rhajul," Sabine's voice grew at least somewhat more audible. "He said that Do'Rhajul would not do the things he has done. Not normally." She looked at the fire silently. The pause lasted a few seconds. "If I took you both home, they would make you answer for everyone killed under his command. They would try him. And then sentence him to death."

Sabine stopped. She was thinking to herself but the pause let her words sink in.

"But..." Sabine hesitated. Her mouth stayed ajar for long enough to find words. "A long time ago, my sister tried to cure my lycanthropy when I was a child. She locked me in a silver cage and forced me to take medicines that did not work. She tried for a long time. Everything hurt. Everything made the beast rage and cry. And I cried. But after a long time trying, she stopped, she smuggled me away, and she let me free. Years later, I had my pack, they helped me. I did not tell them what happened. Then we passed near my old home. My sister found us. I was scared at first. But she..." Sabine blinked twice as her eyes welled up again. "She just wanted forgiveness. She thought she was doing the right thing. She stopped trying to cure me when she realised I was only getting hurt. She smuggled me away so I would not get killed. She let me free near a forest where I would not be likely to hurt anyone, and because she did not know how to hide me or take care of me."

Sabine blinked again, fresh tears joined the drying lines on her cheeks. "I had a knife at her throat. I could have killed her. I did not want to. I did not want to make more suffering." She closed her eyes for a moment.

"I forgave her in the end. My pack found out about the story. Meesei knew how to help me by having me talk with the Hist. My sister helped us in the end. She helped me recover. She is a good person. She always was. She did bad things because she thought it was right. When she realised it was not, she knew her mistake and tried to make up for it. She did it all because she loved me."

Sabine's cringed forward neck straightened. She took a deeper breath. "The lycans clans will not fall apart if Meesei dies -- they are not organised purely under her. Vile would want another lycan dead, and another, until there are none. Even the children would die. Many children have already died. Vile would not have to fulfil anything. He keeps the souls of each one killed by the gas as well. They are powerful souls." Sabine swallowed down a dry throat. "...I do not know what Rhajul lost that Vile would bring back. But I know that if Rhajul is honest about what he really wants, I can help him. I can forgive him. If he helps us, if he is still a good person, I want to give him a second chance. Even if he asks for something impossible, I could probably do it. He just has to tell me."

[EliteCommander]

Yerig listened along with a sympathetic look in his eyes for Sabine's entire story. As it went on, his posture gradually became more relaxed, and he eventually ended up sitting back while looking into the flamed in front of them. He remained respectfully silent while Sabine spoke, but his face told his reactions quite clearly. Sympathy and regret were both mixed into his gaze when he hazarded a glance towards her. Even if he had not directly harmed her, he still took some responsibility for her suffering.

"That's real good of you to be so forgiving, even after all you went through. For your sister, and Rhajul over there. I don't really know you, but you sound like the kind of person that anyone should aspire to be. It's just..." Yerig said with some dread in his voice, giving another glance over to Do'rhajul. "I appreciate that you're open to forgiving him. I really, really do. It's just that, I don't think he's going to be willing to forgive himself nearly that easily."

Indeed, if Sabine looked over to Do'rhajul, she would see him hunched over, staring blankly at the ground. After giving his surrender, he had hardly moved a muscle, and his face looked even more internally tortured than Sabine's. She was more than accustomed enough to Khajiit expressions to see the overwhelming guilt permeating him.

Yerig continued. "The things you just described to me: taking souls, killing children, it doesn't sound anything like the Rhajul I knew. But if those things are true, and he just found out is was all because of lies, then he's not going to let this go. I know he's still a man of honor, and that honor might make him ensure that there is justice for those crimes."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine wrapped herself a little tighter in her oversized cloak. She thought for another moment. Though her expression was still neutral, if negative, Yerig had not discouraged her. "I was never beaten by Meesei when I misbehaved. If I ruined a hide, I had to hunt for another one. If I broke something, I had to make a replacement. I made it right again."

It was a simplistic idea. One that Sabine knew she had to elaborate if she wanted the others to understand. "...Rhajul cannot bring those people back that he killed. But he can save their souls from Clavicus Vile. That is better justice than getting executed."

Whether or not the team had discerned the plans Meesei and her pack had, Sabine did not want to go back on her claim of the impossible.

[EliteCommander]

"That is a good thought, and don't get me wrong, it's one I agree with. But, well, I'm not the one that would need convincing." Yerig replied with another, brief glance to Do'rhajul.

"Look, I don't want to put too much on you right now. I know you just want to get home. You deserve that, I think. But, like you said, these people are only going to be out for a few hours. Something has to be done for them. I honestly don't know if most of them will continue to be a threat to you after this. Though, I know one will try. Arinette, the priestess, the zealot. I had a bad feeling about her from the day I met her. Today just confirmed everything I feared. She's a horrible woman, to her core. She's worse than any bandit I've slain in my days. She'll hunt you to the end of her days if she walks away from this. She won't be as dangerous without that fancy staff, but she's still a menace. I hate to ask, but what are your plans for her?"

[Muttonhawk]

Her initial thoughts for an answer had Sabine slowly shrink back into her cloak again. Her thoughts went swiftly back to the still-fresh memories of her torture. The constant fear and pain. And the way she was so angry at Arinette. She did not even realise that she was shuddering and crying until she had left Yerig without an answer for at least half a minute.

"I do not know," she whined under her cloak. She held her eyes shut and quietly cried further. "I was angry before. So angry. I could have destroyed her. Painfully. Cruelly. I could have kept going." She forced in two hard breaths. "I could have killed them all like that. I...I am scared. I do not want to become like that. I do not want to be a monster."

[EliteCommander]

At this point, Yerig felt secure enough to extend out a hand to Sabine's shoulder. "That's good. You shouldn't want to be like that. No one ever should be like that. You had the power, and still do, but you didn't use it like that. That was your choice. But, sometimes, there are things we don't get a choice in. These people have to be dealt with, Arinette especially. And I don't know if there's a good way to do it. I've met a lot of people over the years, a lot of good and bad. Some people do wrong because they're desperate, some start from their own pain. But some people are just wrong in their hearts. Like their soul is cursed with evil. I think that's her. But, uh, maybe you don't have to be the one to deal with that? You've already been through enough."

Yerig gave another look down at the staff protruding partially from Sabine's cloak. "I can't even pretend to understand how Arinette got that thing to teleport us around, but you seem like you'd know a lot more about that than I would. I know your friends also had some way of teleporting like we did. Do you have a way you can get yourself back home? Can you take things with you?"

[Muttonhawk]

Though still crying and keeping her face low, Sabine tried not to be too loud. She did not react to Yerig placing a hand on her shoulder. Yerig could tell just how tense she still was, even through the cloak.

To Yerig's questions, Sabine nodded without facing him. She normally needed to fortify her magicka reserves to open a portal but the staff would easily mitigate her deficiency. "What about you two?" Sabine asked through her crying.

[EliteCommander]

"We don't have homes, really. I'm kind of a hermit, lived in the Reach. And Rhajul has been with those...people for years. Both of us just need to get away from here, away from High Rock, and away from anything having to do with Clavicus Vile." Yerig answered.

"Since you went through all of that trouble to plant that book, instead of slitting my throat in my sleep, I'm guessing your people don't have a grudge against me, specifically." Yerig reasoned. "Since you brought me back from the dead, the least I could do is join you and tell your people what I can about Vile's cult. Truth be told, though, I don't really know that much. They know a lot more." He explained, gesturing around at the unconscious people around them before his gaze finally settled back on Do'rhajul. "He knows a lot more."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine sniffed loudly and raised her eyes. She forced her breathing until she could at least try to compose herself. Enough to speak, at any rate. "I will speak to Rhajul first," her roughened voice croaked.

Now that she was warmed up, fed, slaked, and at least partly calmed down, Sabine carefully took up the staff and stood to her feet. The cloak pulled up with her by the shoulders. She did not walk immediately. "Yerig. Thank you for saving Kaleeth-Rei's life."

Her steps were so light in approaching Do'Rhajul that Sabine made more noise with the cloak dragging over the ground. She did not make eye contact with Do'Rhajul at any point. She simply stood opposite where he knelt and knelt down in turn. She was still a head shorter than the massive Khajiit. The only things keeping her from being just as terrified as the ambush were the Staff of Magnus and the sheer sadness he radiated.

Sabine waited a few seconds to see if Do'Rhajul would speak first. She had things she wanted to talk about but they had disappeared from her mind out of nervousness.

[EliteCommander]

For most in Sabine's position, the Do'rhajul in his current state would have been a polarizing sight. He was utterly despondent and defeated. Even as Sabine knelt down in front of him, he could not bring his eyes up to meet hers. He seemed almost a shadow of the great General he once was, and yet, as a general, he had been an ever-present terror for what was now the majority of Sabine's life. He was ultimately responsible for thousands of lycan deaths, including many innocents who did not even bring up arms against his own forces. Although it had been lies that had motivated him, he had led a genocidal campaign against them. And for Sabine, he had not personally participated in her torture, but he had been right there for the entire time. For hours on end, he had watched her suffer and done nothing to stop it. He had been complicit. Now that his righteous perception of his own cause had been stripped away from him, it was of little surprise that he was now so crippled by his guilt.

Do'rhajul did not look up from the ground, and for a while, there was complete silence between them. It was subtle, but the more Sabine paid attention to him, the more she would notice how his body shook, and how irregular his breaths had become. It took several minutes for him to actually speak. "You have my surrender, lycan. I will accept the fate I deserve."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine wished she knew what to say. She dearly wanted to make things right. She did not want Do'Rhajul to keep suffering. But everything she could think of and all the experience she had could not measure up to the magnitude of the general's actions. The more she thought about how he must feel, the more she remained at a loss. She worked out after a while that the years she had spent running from Do'Rhajul with her pack made her think differently of him. There were times she wanted to kill him for the pain he had caused her friends. And that is to mention nothing of what he did to Meesei.

She could not connect the two in her head; the unstoppable warrior that was poised to strike her down beside this pitiful man in front of her now.

When Do'Rhajul reiterated his surrender, Sabine was not so panicked as to walk away from it this time. She realised she was still afraid of him. She needed to do something.

Sabine propped herself up on her knees to level her eyes with Do'Rhajul. A shivering hand extended from her cloak, slowly edging towards Do'Rhajul. With some reservation, she reached and settled her hand on the side of Do'Rhajul's face. Then, leaning further, she lifted her hand and placed it upon Do'Rhajul's ear, folding it down. She continued to explore the side of his head. As she did so, her hand stopped quivering. She grew more comfortable.

Finally, Sabine settled back and brought her hand behind her cloak again. "Yerig said that you made a pact to get your old life back. What was your old life like? You deserve to tell me why you did everything."

[EliteCommander]

Do'rhajul showed no resistance when Sabine seemingly started to inspect him, even though he did not understand her motivations for doing it. In that moment, she could have started stabbing him with a knife and he still would not have fought back. It no longer quite seemed like Do'rhajul was afraid of her, but from the context of Sabine's conversation with Yerig, that was likely because he was no longer fearing death.

Initially, Do'rhajul looked slightly confused. "My old life? I don't understand...no, of course. Of course you would wish to know everything. Then yes, I can tell you. I was born in Cyrodiil, my family's home for many generations. Our stories tell that my family was one of the first to embrace Imperial rule when it came to Elsweyr. It has been family tradition to serve our nation, and there are many opportunities for a Cathay-raht in the Legion. I did not have to. My family were not quite nobles, but we had wealth, influence. We had our place in the Imperial City. But it was in the Legion that I found my purpose. I served with distinction, rose through the ranks despite being Khajiit. I would not need to tell you that there is a distinct prejudice against Dominion races in the Legion, but that did not stop me. Perhaps it was my family history that allowed my superiors to trust me, but it was my ability, motivation, and effort that gave me my own command. Distinguishing myself in the Skyrim Civil War, it was to be my defining achievement. Had I been there for Windhelm, had I been there to capture the city and finally kill the traitor to bring about the end of the war, I would have made Legate. I was certain of it. That is more than just a rank. It is an honorable title; a path to true respect within the Empire. There are few ways that commoners or merchants can come to mingle among Imperial nobility, but that is one of them. Not just for myself, but my family would have finally been able to claim the nobility that they had long sought in the home they had so loyally served. My wife and my wonderful daughter, the would have known the life they had only been able to dream of before. That was the life that was taken from me when those werewolves attacked us. When they corrupted me with their cursed blood. I could not walk among people as I had before. I could not return to my duties. Everything that had once been my life was gone."