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

[Muttonhawk]

The initial way Do'Rhajul described his old life felt somewhat self-serving to Sabine. Getting back a chance to reach a noble title hardly seemed to justify his crimes. Not that much would. However, when he mentioned a wife and daughter, Sabine turned her face a degree. Her judgements clouded over.

Sabine blinked twice. "Have you seen your family since you were turned?"

[EliteCommander]

Do'rhajul shook his head. "No, I quickly realized that would be foolish. I could not control the corruption within me. I would have killed them, or someone else. I failed them. My wife came from poverty, and I wanted to give her and our daughter the kind of life they could have only dreamed of. Then, those werewolves took that away from them, and they took my family from me. If you want to know the reason I accepted Vile's offer when it was presented to me, it was because of rage. My rage towards the lycans that had cursed me. What right did they have to take away everything I had done? All of my dreams, everything I had worked for. Everyone grows up knowing lycans are monsters. Our parents tell us the stories of men who turn to beasts and eat up little cubs who stay out playing in the woods past their bedtime. It did not take much convincing for me to agree to fight you. Then, we started hearing reports of lycan populations growing all over Tamriel. The cultists' story seemed rather believable. Now...I realize that it would have been better for everyone if those werewolves had just killed me outright."

The Cathay-raht ran his claws through the dirt, staring in silence for a few moments. "That is surely the fate that was written in the Imperial records. For an officer like myself, I imagine my wife received a personal visit from a Legionnaire to inform her of my death and console her. Perhaps she was able to invest the compensation she received to start that store she was always talking about. She deserved that much. When I die, I desire for my remains to be burned quickly, to erase any chance of her learning of what I have become."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine's jaw quivered. She spoke in a broken, stilted tone as if trying to hold back her feelings on the matter. "What if you could see them now? You have better control now, do you not? I know what it is like to not know who your real parents are. It is not fair on your daughter to lie about yourself."

[EliteCommander]

Again, Do'rhajul shook his head. "To them, I died over twenty years ago. My wife certainly re-married, my daughter grieved and moved on. There is no reason for them to be re-visited by an old ghost."

Finally, Do'rhajul raised up his head and allowed his eyes to meet Sabine's. The fur underneath them was darkened somewhat by tears, and yet he still managed to maintain a firm demeanor. "But you should not care about my own personal tragedies. I am a broken old Khajiit who lived a lie. Who devoted himself to a snake and became a monster. There is no point in remembering my past. You should burn my body and leave me with no grave, nothing with which to remember me. I would consider it a great mercy if you allow me to be forgotten. Today is your victory. Please, try to drown out the memories of your pain with the knowledge that you shall never experience it again. After over a decade of fighting and toil and effort, you have done it. It's over. It's not just me you have beaten here. Perhaps the most valuable thing I can tell you about Vile's forces right now is that they are, in essence, defeated. They are not dead, nor even too weak to fight, but Vile himself has given up on you. This...my mission to kill the Champion of Hircine, it was the last effort. The last attempt to turn the tide in our favor. Even if it did not defeat you, killing her would mean that Vile would still commit to the fight. But, now that I have failed, there shall be no more war against the lycans. No more attacks on your clans or your people. Some dedicated lycan hunters may still attack you on their own, but they will be acting without Vile's orders, nor his support. The war is over, lycan, and you won."

[Muttonhawk]

"My name is Sabine. Call me Sabine, not 'lycan,'" Sabine said. Some defiance showed through her shaky voice. "You surrendered to me, not the lycans. You do not get to say what I should and should not care about."

Sabine breathed in. She attempted to level herself. "Vile has not given up on us. He has not given up on you, either. He has the souls he needs from us but he is not stopping there. He wants to topple the towers. He wants to swallow all of Mundus. Cyrodiil, the Dominion, Nirn, everything. That is why we were here in High Rock to begin with. We were finding what we needed to stop him. I do not care if the horrible war is finished because the fighting is not finished."

Impassioned, Sabine raised her voice. "So you do not get to run away! If you are so guilty, you should make things right! Revenge is useless to us! Everyone wants revenge. It is the main reason why there is so much pain and killing. It makes hurt people hurt others! I hate it! If I get to decide your fate, I do not want revenge on you. I say you have to help us! When you do, you will get to save the lives of everyone in the world. Everyone in the Empire! Even your family. And you still care about them, so do not lie and tell me you would rather die. You would be a coward to them after you spent everything you had to get them back. And after all the effort you did before you did monstrous things I want you to be remembered as something better. Because even if imperial records will not say anything, we will remember. We know what you did. Most will not forgive you, but..."

She was ranting. Sabine lowered her head. She was weeping again. "...but I will," she ended softly. "Because I am sorry your life got taken away. I am so sorry. And I do not think anyone has said that to you for too long."

[EliteCommander]

The demand for help was not something that Do'rhajul expect, particularly since he had no reason to believe there was anything left to help with. Without the background knowledge that Sabine possessed for context, her ramblings sounded almost nonsensical to him. The anger of such a powerful mage would have been something that most would fear, but Do'rhajul clearly no longer feared any such consequences, so he was not beyond arguing with her.

"Towers? Swallowing Nirn? What are these absurdities you are speaking of? You do not need to search for anything; you have already stopped Vile's followers. Unless you intend to keep hunting them down, but you have already said that you do not desire revenge." Do'rhajul responded, letting out a huff and looking away. "I do not understand what you are talking about, but I am sure I cannot help you with anything. The most I can do for your people is to give them something to cheer about when they hang me in front of your clan. I have...killed too many. It was always painful to do, but I thought it was necessary. I thought it was for the greater good, that more lives would be spared because of those that were taken. But I am no 'General.' I am a pawn and a murderer. Whatever foul intentions Vile had by spreading lycanthropy, I allowed it to happen. I was responsible for the early successes that allowed Vile's cult to expand his influence. They were inexperienced and disorganized at first. I did not merely fight for them, I organized them. I built their command structure, their training principles, convinced them to focus on an intelligence network. Had I not prepared them, you would have defeated them within a year, perhaps two. It is not justice for me to go unpunished."

[Muttonhawk]

"I do not care! You can help," Sabine retorted. "If you do not understand, let me tell you. Let me teach you. We are not making your end now. I refuse."

Sabine stood up and took the Staff of Magnus in both hands. She impatiently dug four straight lines in the dirt between them, intersecting at the middle of their lengths a central point, making a crude eight-pointed star. She turned her eyes up to Do'Rhajul, wasted tears and all.

"Why do you think Vile wanted lycan souls in the first place, Rhajul?" she demanded.

Sabine had spent much time wrapping her head around the towers. She had no guarantee of convincing Do'Rhajul, especially with a simplified explanation, but she was determined. She would teach Do'Rhajul everything about the universe if she needed to.

[EliteCommander]

Do'rhajul's expression was one of skepticism, but given that Sabine was still firmly in control of the situation, it was not as if he could stop her from giving her explanation. He looked down at the lines that Sabine had drawn, not quite understanding their meaning or how they related to Clavicus Vile.

"They were Vile's price." Do'rhajul answered. "A Daedra was not going to help Tamriel out of charity, even if it also benefited him. He was to give us the aid of his power and influence to eliminate the lycan threat, in exchange for us sending their souls to him, whenever we could. I took no pleasure in empowering a Daedra, but I also had little sympathy for lycans." He explained.

"What do you say he intends with them, and how certain are you of what you are saying?" Do'rhajul asked.

[Muttonhawk]

"He does not want a price for the sake of it. Our souls are powerful but we are not numerous. Not even with the extra lycans he ordered made. Look..."

Sabine tapped the butt of her staff at the centre of the crude star she had drawn. "This is where Mundus is. Where we are. On its own, it collapses," she said, before tapping at each of the points of the star. "So it has towers holding it up. Eight of them. They are not...like usual towers. But they have physical manifestations here on Tamriel. They also have stones which are needed to keep them working." She drew a circle around the star. "This makes the wheel that all of reality is in. Between the towers are plains of Oblivion, where Daedra live."

She dug at the point of the star nearest to her. "One is the Red Tower. It is the Red Mountain in Morrowind. In the third era, its stone -- the Heart of Lorkhan -- was severed by the Nereverine." Sabine dashed aside the dirt, ruining one of the lines.

"Another is the White Gold tower," Sabine continued. "The capitol of Cyrodiil. Its stone was the Amulet of Kings. The stone was severed when Martin Septim died at the end of the Oblivion Crisis." Sabine dashed another line.

"Crystal-Like-Law is the next. In the Summerset isles. It also fell in the Oblivion crisis." The dirt was scraped again.

"There is Oricalc tower. No one knows truly where it is. Most people think it was in Yokuda. Yokuda sunk into the ocean." Another line was ruined. Only four remained.

"Brass-Walk was the strangest. The Dwemer made it. It was the Numidium, the great creature that Tiber Septim to conquer Tamriel. It was destroyed in the Warp in the West in the third era." Only three lines remained untouched.

"Green-Sap is a graht oak in Valenwood. The first graht oak. Many things have happened to it. However, there is no certainty whether it is still working or not. Everything about it is...'Perchance.' In the worst case, it no longer holds Mundus." Sabine scratched it away.

"This one you will certainly know. It is Snow Throat. The Throat of the World. The mountain in Skyrim where the Greybeards live. Its prophecy told that Anduin would appear when the Snow Tower lies sundered. Anduin did appear. Its fate was sealed with High King Torygg." With this line scratched out, only one was left standing.

"This is the only tower we know is left. The first tower. Ada-Mantia. It's Direnni Tower, on an island off the coast of Daggerfall. It has yet to fall."

Sabine raised her eyes to Do'Rhajul and continued with conviction enough to preclude any lies. "Every time a tower falls, a disaster strikes Nirn. No one knows exactly what will happen when the last dies, but we know that nothing will keep Mundus separated from Oblivion. A powerful Daedric prince could swallow Nirn into their realm and take everyone in it. We were given the proof of these theories by research given by the highest offices in the Aldmeri Dominion, and corroborated by the Empire through our contacts. This is real. The nations are paralysed by military tension. And...other policies. We have already been fighting Vile, so it came down to us. They know what we are capable of. But we still need help."

It was the simplest explanation she could manage. Sabine's initial frustration had simmered down. She was prepared to clarify anything Do'Rhajul had to ask, though if he knew history, he would see the pattern Sabine was showing him.

[EliteCommander]

Once more, Do'rhajul was quite reasonably surprised by what Sabine was telling him. The idea of towers that were somehow holding up Nirn seemed farfetched, and yet, Sabine presented it all with confidence. Do'rhajul's first instinct was to doubt her. It was still hard for him not to look at her as he had when they were enemies. He expected lies, manipulation. However, no matter how hard he thought, no matter what angle he considered, he could not think of any possible motivation she would have for lying to him. He had surrendered and was ready to march himself to his own death. He had already agreed to give Sabine and her allies every bit of information he had on Vile, so there was quite literally nothing left to gain from him. She did seem to want his aid, but if she was lying and there was no threat from Vile, then there would be no reason for her to want his help. The only way it made sense for her to be so adamant about it was if there was still a reason to fight.

Beyond the message Sabine was trying to convey, there were also other aspects of her explanation that caught his attention. "Dominion researchers? Imperial contacts? We knew your clans were organized, and we had suspected you might have been receiving outside help as of late, but the two largest powers in Tamriel...I had no idea. Even if I had killed your Champion, I doubt it would have been enough. But aside from that, this sounds...well frankly it sounds insane. But you have little reason to lie. Truthfully, I am still not sure I understand, but you say these towers somehow protect Tamriel? But if the Adamantine Tower is his true goal, then why did he ever bother with your souls to begin with? I know that souls can grant power to a Daedra, but...no, that does make sense. Lycan souls are powerful; my researchers told me that many times. It was why it was so difficult to get the poison just right. Two beings, a soul and a, what was it, a...vestige, in one body. Direnni Tower is in High Rock, deep in Imperial territory. Even if it were not well-protected, which it is, I do not imagine the first structure in Tamriel would be so easy to destroy. And if what you say is true, if he wants to 'swallow' Tamriel, then that would likely require him to be stronger as well."

Finally, Do'rhajul willed himself to stand to his feet. "As terrifying as it is to say, I believe you. It means I not only was responsible for the murders of many innocents of your...our kind, but I am also responsible for putting the whole world, and everything within it which I once cherished, in more danger than it has been in since the last era. Truly, I would have been better off dead." He said, his eyes closed and his hands clutched into fists. After a few seconds, his eyes opened and he let out a slow breath. "But that is not our reality. You said you were here searching for something, yes? Is it some way to protect the last tower?"

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine tilted her head and looked aside. "From a certain point of view, yes. Daedric Princes cannot be harmed by us normally. But they are vulnerable to parts of themselves. Artefacts they make are part of themselves. We were looking for something called the Rueful Axe. An axe Vile made. We were going to turn it into a weapon, find a way into Vile's domain, and use it to weaken him. Thus weakened, Hircine can attack. Defeating Vile will not kill the Daedric Prince. It will force him into a weak torpor, though. And we can take back the souls he stole and release them in the process."

Sabine nodded and quickly added. "And the Empire and Dominion. They found us first. They could have destroyed us, but it would be expensive, time-consuming, and we would fight back. So, in secret from the wider population, they are...finding a way to 'assimilate' the clans as subjects, in exchange for their help and protection. We negotiated a level of autonomy. Progress has been slow with them and yet without them we may have lost the war. Mostly they send captured lycans to us instead of executing them." She gave Do'Rhajul a sideways glance. "The Empire even wants lycan legionnaires as a secret project. Lycans with good control and skill. Both can be trained."

Despite the uncertainty of sharing as much as she was, Sabine had now long put aside the notions that Do'Rhajul and Yerig were threats.

[EliteCommander]

By itself, the revelation that the lycan clans had been colluding with Tamriel's two largest political powers was enough to surprise Do'rhajul and capture his curiosity, but even that was far eclipsed by her admission of what her allies were intending to do about Clavicus Vile.

"Did I hear you properly? You wish to find one of Vile's relics and use ti to attack him? Directly, as in to create a portal into his realm of Oblivion and try to assault an actual Daedric Prince yourself? That is mad, insane, and you are insane for even considering it. I cannot even begin to list the number of ways that could go wrong, the least of which is death. Even assuming that you are able to somehow break through into Vile's realm, do you not realize that you could doom yourself to an eternity in Vile's clutches? If you die in his realm, and fail in your mission, then your soul will be his. At least if you die here on Nirn, your own lord can claim you for his realm." Do'rhajul protested. However, after a few seconds, his confrontational demeanor deflated.

"But, you already knew that, didn't you? Of course you did. You are a master mage; you understand the workings of souls. But you are willing to do it anyway. Willing to take on that risk for the greater good. The greater good..." He repeated, looking away. "Even with all of that, I do not see how I could possibly helpful. As merciful and enlightened as you may be, most people are not. I know how people are, and I know that your clan will want my head. They will want their justice, and I do not deny that they deserve their justice. They will not stand for letting me live; I would not, in their position."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine stared back at Do'Rhajul through his protests, just as determined. She did not budge until he answered his own questions regarding her convictions. His own role was another matter.

"The axe. The last we heard of it was that its wielder was to try and slay a dragon." Sabine stayed blunt as ever. "You are the best fighter I know except for one other. And that one other is the military commander of all lycan clans in Tamriel. We cannot lose her. You do not have to allow the others their justice yet. As I said, you surrendered to me, not them. And I want you to help me find the axe. And then I want you to help us wound Vile."

[EliteCommander]

"Your plan is...idealistic. As rational as it is, the masses will not be. They will need their closure; they will demand me be made an example of. I do not see how we could present it to them so that they will even accept it. Not unless...perhaps..." Do'rhajul began, but then there was a pause. Suddenly, he knelt down on one knee in front of her and bowed down his head.

"Sabine, I pledge myself to you. I pledge my present, my future, my life to you. You have shown yourself as wise as you are powerful, as merciful as you are determined. After facing you as my enemy, I concede that you are my better, in both strength and judgment. I am not worthy to live, but I am worthy to serve. You. To the end of my days, I promise to serve you. Just as a slave to a master, I shall serve every order and request you make of me. My service to you shall be my penance." Do'rhajul said with a distinct amount of conviction.

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine reminded herself to breathe once Do'Rhajul's pledge was done. She was not sure how to react. Taking an oath to serve her did not seem to have any apparent purpose. At least not at first. She clutched her staff tightly in both hands.

"You...believe they will respect my wish to have you alive?" Sabine asked hesitantly. "There will be many that will wish to fight me. I can defeat them."

Sabine was overwhelmed. She wrung the staff in her hands and looked around the ground. "Some of the people that will fight me are my friends. But I..." She exhaled. There was no compromise she could make short of only one extra alternative. "...I accept. Arm yourself and show me where my belongings are. We are going to get the axe on our own."

She turned and started back towards the tents. "Yerig? How much did you hear?"

[EliteCommander]

Do'rhajul gave a single nod. "I believe that I have to be made an example of to satisfy them. Execution is the most obvious method, but there are alternatives. What better way to defeat one's enemies wholly and completely than to have them bend their knee to you. It may be wise for me to repeat this oath in front of your clan. Such a public act of submission would be both a shame to myself, Vile's great 'General', and elevate you in their eyes. Some may still want blood, but I believe it shall satisfy many. And, just so you know, the oath is not false. None of it. You deserve my submission, master." He explained.

Even as he had only just finished speaking the words, Do'rhajul's eyes widened upon hearing Sabine's very first order for him. "Get the axe on our own, but...you did say that its owner went to slay a dragon, yes? Unless he succeeded, that would mean that we would need to contend with a dragon. You wish to face it ourselves...without reinforcements from your allies?"

Do'rhajul let out a long breath. "I...refer to my previous statement about your insanity." Nevertheless, Do'rhajul started walking back to the camp with Sabine and pointed towards the largest of the tents. "Your belongings are in our armory, in a cloth sack on the left side of the tent. I was the one to search them."

Yerig, meanwhile, had been sitting on the edge of camp on a fallen log he had dragged into the camp. He seemed to have recovered by this point and stood as Sabine approached. "I heard it all. Ears aren't that bad yet. Never would have thought I'd hear Rhajul of all people make an oath like that, but then again, I also never thought I'd see him leading an army of cultists, so maybe I'm not the best judge." He shrugged. "For what its worth, I do believe you, even if I didn't understand everything you were talking about. I had actually heard of the Towers before, believe it or not. At least, I knew there was something special about the Throat of the World. Used to live there, back when I was young. I don't seem to remember anything ever breaking down the mountain to destroy the tower, but I'm guessing it's more complicated than that. Always is. So, regardless, where is this axe?"

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine retrieved the sack that Do'Rhajul pointed out. She could smell her reagents and potions within, even if her own scent was not strong on the item. She stepped out of the tent to speak to Do'Rhajul and Yerig both, holding no reservations about dropping her cloak and dressing herself. Modesty was nothing -- the pair had seen Sabine tortured without so much as a sock on. The oddness was dressing over the top of the streaks of dried brown blood that still clung to her skin. She was not even itching at it.

"We will do two things before going. We will test the warding shield and we will bring the sleeping ones to the nearest clan without you both being noticed." Sabine's voice shivered with the cold momentarily on her skin, but she still spoke with determination, if wide-eyed and hard to place. Also strangely, she made pains not to let her staff separate from her touch. "The axe is in the hands of a Redguard bounty hunter. He is in a band of mercenaries. He thinks he is invincible. He was sailing from Sentinel to Daggerfall to slay the dragon with his band. The dragon has a bounty because it is attacking ships from an island near the Daggerfall coast."

After awkwardly doing on her last article of clothing and replacing her enchanted trinkets, Sabine threw the oversized cloak around her shoulders again and walked to the camp fire. She picked up Spellbreaker, Do'Rhajul's shield, and took it to him. "Activate it."

Without waiting, Sabine took a few paces back and looked to Yerig pointedly. "Shout at Rhajul."

[EliteCommander]

Yerig had subtly averted his eyes when Sabine went to dress. Of course, the kind of clothing that lycanthropes tended to wear around was not terribly covering to begin with, but the cloak helped with that. He focused when Sabine made a request of him, though there was a brief moment of confusion in his expression. "Huh? Why would I...oh, wards do work against the Thu'um, yes. It is still a kind of magic. Though I guess you'd want to see it for yourself."

Do'rhajul grabbed and raised up his shield, and after he made sure his path was clear, Yerig spoke a single word: FUS! A staggering wall of pure force erupted from Yerig's mouth, pushing back grass and leaves in its path. But, upon reaching Do'rhajul, the shield's ward glowed briefly with no apparent effect on Do'rhajul.

"Spellbreaker is a wall against magic. It shall never falter." Do'rhajul explained, lowering the shield. "But if we are truly to do this, I believe you should know how that staff of yours works. I was quite insistent that Arinette explain it to me, once I knew how dangerous it could be. As you probably know, it is the Staff of Magnus, the original architect of Mundas itself. It was the only object that could contain the power of the god. Its capacity for absorbing magicka is not unlimited, but it may as well be. However, that does not mean it will be a limitless power source for you. It can only hold what has been absorbed into it. After our first fight against your pack, Arinette had to use our entire stock of soul gems to fill it with power again, as she had nearly depleted it. I am not sure how much magicka remains within it right now. Though if we are to fight a Dragon, I suppose you could absorb its shouts into the staff to help keep it charged. There is also another limitation with its use. I am not so certain on the details of this part, but I believe that Arinette and the other researchers that were working with the staff...changed it somehow to allow the wielder to draw power from it. But it is not completely stable. There is a limit to how much a mage can safely draw from the staff at once. Go beyond that, and as Arinette explained, it could have 'adverse effects on the local reality'. I am not entirely certain on her meaning, but it is what caused those strange magical wisps that appeared in our fight. She did not summon them on purpose."

Do'rhajul eyed the staff for a few moments, then looked more closely at his unconscious former allies. "Arinette was a prideful person who did not like to admit her shortcomings, but she was no master mage. Even having just obtained the staff, you show more control with it than she did. I believe the limits of what you can do with that weapon are greater than what she could do."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine listened while holding the staff close to her chest. "I understand," she said.

Turning her head slowly, she looked down on the gently slumbering team as well. "Help me gather them."

Sabine strode up to the Argonian and dragged him by the hand closer to the Nord shieldbearer nearer to the centre of them all. "The Thu'um. It is like dragon fire, correct. If wards can stop the shouts, it will stop the dragon fire."

Sabine knelt down to strip the equipment from each of the unconscious captives and bind them in whatever restraints they had. Sabine hoped they were lucky enough to find another set of manacles that drained the magicka of the wearer. She was not the only mage in her pack, after all.

[EliteCommander]

"Wards should be able to block anything the Dragon can do, except crushing you with its teeth and claws, of course." Yerig replied as they were gathering up the unconscious bodies around them. Do'rhajul's team had brought enough bindings for all of the Champion's pack, so they had no issue restraining them. Each of them were stripped and bound in turn, their chains linked together to make any escape attempts that much more difficult. The Argonian had suffered severe blood loss and would require extended treatment to survive, though Sabine could make sure he survived long enough to be imprisoned, if she chose to do so.

Following Sabine's orders, Do'rhajul had now armed himself with his shield and a steel sword, given that silver would no longer be useful to him. Once they had their prisoners gathered and ready, Do'rhajul looked to Sabine for direction. "I suppose you will want to use one of your portals to bring these prisoners to your clan. Do you wish for us to stay here? My presence would require some explanation to them." He asked.