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::CLEARANCE REQUIRED- DELTA GREEN::
::MAY ONLY BE VIEWED BY CLEARED PERSONNEL::
((TS/SCI/X1//NOFORN))

(U//FOUO)


::CLEARANCE REQUIRED - DELTA GREEN::
::MAY ONLY BE VIEWED BY CLEARED PERSONNEL::
((TS/SCI/DG/X1//NOFORN))
USERNAME: S_F
PASSWORD: *********

LOADING...

WELCOME, S_F

PERSONAL MESSAGES
>MISSION DOSSIER

LOADING...
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MAIN OBJECTIVES
>ASSETS

LOADING...
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::CLEARANCE REQUIRED - DELTA GREEN::
::MAY ONLY BE VIEWED BY CLEARED PERSONNEL::
::PERSONNEL ASSIGNED UNDER FOSTER, STEVE::

::TEAM ROSTER::
::CASE OFFICER::
FOSTER, STEVE | M | CIA DIRECTORATE OF OPERATIONS, OPERATIONS OFFICER

::TEAM LEADER::
DONNELLY, JOSEPH | M | CIA DIRECTORATE OF OPERATIONS, SPECIAL ACTIVITIES DIVISION/SPECIAL OPERATIONS GROUP - GROUND BRANCH, PARAMILITARY OPERATIONS OFFICER

::ASSETS::
>...

::FRIENDLIES/CONTACTS::
ROY, MARYANNE | F | DETECTIVE, WEST VIRGINIA STATE POLICE, FLAG AS FRIENDLY

::TEAM RESOURCES::
::TRANSPORTATION::
-CHEVY SUBURBAN, ARMORED, GRAY
-FORD FOCUS, ARMORED, BLUE
-FORD EXPLORER, BLACK

::WEAPONS/AMMUNITION::
-BOX AMMO 9X19MM, 20X100RNDS
-BOX AMMO .40S&W, 20X100RNDS
-BOX AMMO .45ACP, 20X100RNDS
-BOX AMMO 5.56X49, 20X100RNDS
-BOX AMMO SHOTGUN SHELL, BUCKSHOT, 12 GAUGE, 20X100RNDS
-BOX AMMO .300 BLACKOUT, 20X100RNDS
-BOX AMMO 4.6X30, 20X100RNDS
-FIRST AID BOX, 6
-M249 SAW, 2
-BREACHING CHARGES, 20

::SIGINT EQUIPMENT::
-LAPTOP W/ SECURE CONNECTION TO CIA NETWORK AND SURFACE-WEB, 3 [MEMO FROM GREG: PLEASE, THESE COMPUTERS ARE NOT FOR PERSONAL USE, I.T. HAS A HARD ENOUGH JOB ALREADY WITH CYBERSECURITY THREATS.]
-EACH TEAM MEMBER IS SUPPLIED WITH AN ENCRYPTED PHONE TO KEEP IN CONTACT WITH EACH OTHER AND CASE OFFICER FOSTER, STEVE. THIS PHONE IS FIXED WITH A TRACKING DEVICE CONNECTED TO FOSTER'S COMPUTER TO KEEP TABS ON THE TEAM IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY.
-LASER MICROPHONE, TRIPOD, 3 - 8 HOUR BATTERY LIFE, 600 METER RANGE
-LASER MICROPHONE, HANDHELD, 10 - 4 HOUR BATTERY LIFE, 80 METER RANGE
-HIDDEN CAMERA, PLACEABLE, 24
-HIDDEN MICROPHONE, PLACEABLE, 24
-BUTTON CAMERA, 10
-SUNGLASSES W/ CAMERA, 10
-SHORT-RANGE AIRBORNE MICRO R/C DRONE, 6 - 2 HOUR BATTERY LIFE, 100 METER RANGE
Delta Green: Whispers in the Darkness, Occult Action and Intrigue




Choose federal law enforcement. Choose the military. Choose NASA or the CDC. Choose lying to your superiors. Choose to ruin your career. Choose no friends. Choose divorce. Choose life through the bottom of a bottle. Choose destroying evidence and executing innocent people because they know too fucking much. Choose black fatigues and matching gas masks. Choose an MP5 stolen from the CIA loaded with glasers, with a wide range of fucking attachments. Choose blazing away at mind numbing, sanity crushing things from beyond the stars, wondering whether you'd be better off stuffing the barrel in your own mouth. Choose The King In Yellow and waking up wondering who you are. Choose a 9mm retirement plan. Choose going out with a bang at the end of it all, PGP encrypting your last message down a securely laid cable as an NRO Delta wetworks squad busts through your door. Choose one last Night at the Opera. Choose Delta Green.
— An Agent Long Gone


You are sat in a room filled with peculiar characters you've met only an hour ago, or maybe you remember some faces, or know some names by reputation in the circles you're commonly found in. Scientists, scholars, as well as types you'd find in warzones or unmarked police cars, driving or riding in the back. Either way, it isn't every day you get a flight paid for by... well, you're not really sure. All is quiet in the small house here in Blackriver, West Virginia, that will be your home for the foreseeable future- even though the future could hold anything at this point. Finally, a man emerges from the door to the garage and smiles in a way that is too genuine to be trustworthy. "Hello, ladies and gentlemen, let's begin shall we?"

==Days Earlier==

You sit on the edge of your bed, the news playing in the background with a litany of what's wrong in the world- murders, kidnappings, pesticides, the war on terror, etc. You clutch a phone in your hand- not yours, a pre-paid thing of the past- waiting. Thinking and waiting.

The meeting with the higher-ups was odd. Told you to be at the meeting place- it could've been a coffee shop, a dive bar, a museum, a library, anywhere- but only if you got the go-ahead from the only number programmed on the phone. There was a man you'd never met before there, just sitting at the table, but eating and lounging as if no one else could see him. He wasn't even dressed like the others. The higher-ups asked you the routine questions- things about drug use in the past, past employment, what you were responsible for now in your current career. It was almost like a damned review, but nothing of that type was scheduled this month. After you give your answers, the man perks up and asks, "How do you feel about flying?"

What kind of question is that? You give your answer and he smiles and nods, then starts the conversation.

Have you ever been outside the US? Ever been in trouble with the law? Do you travel often? Do you have any friends or family overseas? You answer his questions, albeit a little stilted and awkwardly. You're not sure what the hell is with this guy.

"There's an opportunity for you. This is probably something you'd do well to take up. A door has opened for you, but only if you want it." The man says, suddenly the air in the room is even more serious than it was before the man first spoke.

"We do urge you to choose wisely."

A phone is slid across the table to you. A pre-paid thing of the past. "Wait for the text tonight."

The very same phone in your hands now buzzes. Flipping it open reveals the automated message '1 new txt msg.' Opening up the text reveals a peculiar message, You are cordially invited to a night at the opera. Meet me at, and you do. The meeting goes well, discussing you, your past, your home life, your social media presence. Then it delves into your knowledge of the recent news of the Blackriver Killer. Never heard of him. The man nods, "I wouldn’t think so. Let me tell you what this is about..."

==Present==

The day's briefing is held in the living room by the same lax-dressed man that you talked to those few days back, as well as an unnamed stranger. The familiar man hands out a sheet of paper to be passed around the room. A list of names, before he expands upon them. These people are all victims of the Blackriver Killer. A description of the wounds found on the victims, pictures of the victims from social media, etc..

"At 2200 hours, Officer Morales was kidnapped when he responded to the scene of the Blackriver Killer’s murder that night, which took the lives of Daniel and Vicki Mulligan. Officially, you are all advisers and consultants for the Department of Justice. The FBI has no presence here and the CDC hasn’t heard a word back from their team since they touched down and made their way to White Tree. It is of utmost importance that we find Morales, the Mulligans' killer, and these other missing individuals. The first lead I want you to visit is Maryanne Roy, a state police detective. Other than that, get a feel for this place, have a look around some places. Welcome to the team. My name is Steve Foster."

* * *


All Forum-wide Rules Apply

The GM's word is law

This RP was inspired by the Delta Green tabletop game, The Cthulu Wars by Kenneth Hite and Kennon Bauman, True Detective S1 and Denis Villeneuve's Sicario

What is Delta Green?


* * *


Hello!

As the title says, this RP is one about action and intrigue with an occult bent. Heavily influenced by media such as the Delta Green tabletop game and the Cthulu Wars book, from which came the premise of this RP, and mainly season one of True Detective and Denis Villeneuve's Sicario film, the atmosphere of which I hope to weave into this game. Your characters can come from any number of organizations and institutions both government and civilian. Although this is an action game, I don't want players to think they have to necessarily be Hank Stonebulge, war veteran and supercop with ten machineguns and gets his calories from red meat and cigarettes.

That is to say, you can be a scientist, a scholar, a private eye, a federal agent, or a career criminal with a history of working for the law to cut a deal. Steve Foster is not beholden to tradition for recruiting teams and neither am I. This is mainly to not alienate people who are interested but don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of federal agencies or the like. I do encourage players to get creative with their characters, as long as they make sense, of course. An analyst probably won't be the greatest at making 400 meter shots with a rifle.

Like said above, I do hope to capture the atmosphere of Sicario and True Detective. The RP will mainly be about the investigation of the case the team has been brought on for, as well as how they bond with their teammates, cope with the events of the RP that might challenge their ideals, and grow along the time spent working this case and just what it uncovers about the true workings of the world around them. As such, don't expect shooting first and asking questions later to get you far. You may be working for a shadowy 'Man in Black' but that doesn't give you legal immunity. Player characters will have to navigate this new world of intrigue and horror smartly, and may be called upon to do morally repugnant things in the name of not only national security, but the preservation of humanity as they know it. Join me on this romp from the heartbroken hills of West Virginia to the rain-slick, somber city of Seattle, and all the way down to Juarez, Mexico, and beyond.

Over the course of the RP, questions may arise. Who is Steve Foster? Why are the Mulligans so important? What connections do the Argentinian Ratlines of WWII have with Sergeant Gregory Morales? Why is such a small case being treated with such secrecy and ambiguity? How far does this whole thing go? Who can I really trust?

And remember...

“Deception is a right. Truth is a privilege. Innocence is a luxury. The war is never over.”

* * *








* * *


::CLEARANCE REQUIRED - DELTA GREEN::
::MAY ONLY BE VIEWED BY CLEARED PERSONNEL::
::PERSONNEL ASSIGNED UNDER FOSTER, STEVE::

::TEAM ROSTER::
::CASE OFFICER::
FOSTER, STEVE | M | CIA DIRECTORATE OF OPERATIONS, OPERATIONS OFFICER

::TEAM LEADER::
DONNELLY, JOSEPH | M | CIA DIRECTORATE OF OPERATIONS, SPECIAL ACTIVITIES DIVISION, PARAMILITARY OPERATIONS OFFICER

::ASSETS::
JIMENEZ, JASON | M | DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, DEFENSE CLANDESTINE SERVICE
MCCLINTOCK, MARVIN | M | WV STATE POLICE DEPT, TROOPER- NOTE FROM ON-HIGH: FLAG AS AGENT, FOSTER WANTS HIM OPERATIONAL
BHAT, PARINAAZ | F | FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION CCRSB, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION
1st of Midyear, 4e208
Gilane, Hammerfell
Conference Hall, Three Crowns Hotel

A short while after the debriefings...


The meeting room was left empty save for two men, both of which had not spoken to each other the entire duration of their presence being shared. The only sound among them were the flowing silk curtains covering the windows that would dance with each soft breeze. Occasionally, a seagull’s call would travel from the nearby harbor to Latro, but not a word was among the ambience. One of two, the more lithe of them, sat with the portrait of the Dwemer Magistrate in his hands, committing every wrinkle and hair to memory. It was not the first time he had been given a task like this. At least he wasn’t the one responsible for his death though. Latro sighed, taking a second to look about the chamber and give his eyes a rest from staring at something for so long. With his attention taken away from the portrait, his mind drifted elsewhere. He hadn’t been among the Redguard people in their homeland since… since Pale-Feather died some time ago and Latro walked away in his footsteps. He shook those memories away and took a nervous sip of his lemon water.

He chanced a glance at the other man in the room. He was an imposing presence, that much was already known. He held a kindness to him, but his eyes told of things anything but. He looked back at the portrait and placed it on the table, every crinkle of the parchment sounding like cracks of thunder in the near-pregnant silence of the hall. Reaching over, he grabbed up his cup of lemon water and drank the last of it, placing it as softly as he could back on the tabletop- that movement too seemed almost unbearably loud. Latro pushed his chair back onto its hind legs and propped his bare feet on the table. So far, Hammerfell’s dry and bright weather had brought him some amount of solace through the ill feelings being back in Hammerfell brought him; he could finally go about shirtless and shoeless once again. The long journey here and lack of time alone had also seen to it that he’d sprouted a jaw of good-length stubble, but only time and necessity would tell if he would keep it. He figured the ability to look like anyone of any gender was more important than trying at new fashion.

No matter how much he tried to relax, he felt as if he was being quietly judged, although his and the other man’s eyes never met in the stolen glances Latro had of him. A silly thought Latro threw over his shoulder and sent a peach rolling towards him with a forefinger, catching it as it dropped off the edge of the table. He grew tired of the silence and finally cleared his throat. “I don’t believe we’ve had a proper chance to talk before… well, this all happened.” He frowned, “Latro, if it’s slipped your memory. Gregor?”

The Imperial’s reverie was broken by the sound of Latro’s voice and he looked up to meet the Breton’s expressive eyes, the color of copper, accentuated by the golden afternoon sunlight that illuminated the room. Latro. A dainty name for a dainty man, Gregor thought. The young man’s appearance was so strikingly androgynous that Gregor hadn’t been sure of his gender until he had seen him shirtless. He suspected, however, that that belied a more dangerous man than first impressions would have him believe. There was a grace and purpose to Latro’s movements that reminded Gregor of people like Jaraleet -- trained killers that had such control over their body that no energy was wasted. Gregor had seen him fight and been impressed by the hand-to-hand style the Breton employed.

“Yes, I’m Gregor. Pleased to properly make your acquiantance, Latro.” He smiled the warmest smile he could muster. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything before. I’ve been lost in thought,” Gregor added and then gestured towards the parchment that held the artist’s impression of the Dwemer’s appearance. “What did you make of him?”

Latro pursed his lips and thought a bit on it. Finally, he had his answer after a few moments, “He’s like any master of people. Extremely polarizing,” Latro nodded, “some loves him, others wanted him dead. Truth be told, I don’t entirely trust our Merchant Guild hosts. Everything is profit and loss, but at the hands of the Dwemer, I’ve known only the latter. This Mer’s no different, he’s a war-dog, like the rest of them. Calm, polite- lovable, even.” He snapped his fingers, “As soon as the Governor wills it, though.”

He left the rest unsaid, knowing that Gregor could catch his meaning. He looked about the room, fully knowing that each of his and his companions’ movements could be watched from anywhere. They were strangers in this land, and if Hammerfell’s warriors could collude with the Dwemer, who was to say he and his companions couldn’t in the distrusting eyes of the Poncy Man and his benefactors? “One thing’s to be said, though. He’s dead now, and not at the hands of the Poncy Man’s trusted people, but strangers.” Latro shook his head.

“I’ve no love for the Dwemer after the things I’ve seen them do. Hammerfell’s merchants aren’t in my favor either, though. What do you make of the Poncy Man?”

Gregor was right. There was a sharp side to Latro. His words were wise and showed that he was perceptive and appreciated the political game that was being played over their heads. “You're right about the Dwemer. I met the Governor earlier with Daro'Vasora and Raelynn and she was very… impressive. Gave a long speech about her best intentions but she made it perfectly clear that they will do whatever is necessary to ensure their 'survival’. Which is to say, their sovereignty.” That was an emotion that Gregor understood all too well. He was willing to kill and condemn for the sake of his own life and that of his family. It wasn't strange to think that Rourken would do the same for her people. But that didn't mean the Redguards had to sit back and let it happen. Gregor fully expected that his victims fought back. Rourken needed to maintain that mindset if she wanted to survive.

“As for this Poncy Man, I consider him a useful ally. He and I share the same goals. We can develop a working relationship, I feel,” Gregor said in response to Latro’s question. He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling of the room, eyes searching for something that wasn't there. “But he shouldn't try to be too clever with us.”

Latro shook his head at the last bit, the easy smile on his lips, “No.”

With that, he let his chair go back onto all fours, standing and stretching his hands toward the grand painted ceiling. All of this was so opulent for a place to harbor fugitives of the Dwemer. “But one thing at a time, like you said. The Poncy Man hasn’t wronged me yet, it’s the Dwemer who have.” He grasped up his lute, the very same one Daro’Vasora had given him what seemed like another life ago, and strummed out a few soft notes as he sat back down on the table itself, ”What does a simple traveling busker care for the machinations of tyrants and insurgencies?”

He chuckled good-naturedly. “So, if I may ask, where do you and your big sword hail from?”

“Cyrodiil. Bravil, to be precise. Well, to be even more precise, the sword actually hails from Bruma, but I am from Bravil,” Gregor said and absent-mindedly lifted his right hand over his shoulder to finger the claymore’s pommel. “My family owns a business there. I haven’t been home in more than ten years, though.” He smiled again but there was a weariness to him now, and for a moment he looked like he wanted nothing more than to simply stay seated and never get up from that chair again. But the moment passed as he regained his composure and now it was his turn for his eyes to twinkle inquisitively. “What about you, Latro?”

Latro had to stop strumming when Gregor’s face drooped so. The feeling of empathy gripped his full attention and for a moment, it was as if he was an empath to Gregor. He hadn’t seen his own family for about that same stretch of hard, grating years. It didn’t help that the ostracizing was done by both parties. He’d alienated himself from them for too long and come back to them a stranger. He noticed he was doing a bit of drooping himself and set himself back to playing, “Camlorn in High Rock. We were well off and I set out to see what the world had to show me. I wasn’t content to sit on my arse and chew on sweetmeats my entire life. I never imagined this would be one of those things.” Latro frowned a bit before finding his easy smile once more, “First time in Hammerfell?”

Gregor laughed. Latro's story was the same as the fake tale he spun to curious travelers to explain his own departure from a life of comfort and security. Was there more to the nimble Breton than he was letting on? Gregor couldn't blame him, if so, for keeping his cards close to his chest. It was often the wisest thing to do in this world. He thought of Raelynn; her eyes, her lips, her hands on him -- but more importantly, he thought of how she'd clawed the truth out of him. Having been lost in thought again for a second, Gregor focused his gaze on Latro and saw a kinder, warmer look in his eyes than he expected to see there. Was he… sympathetic? Perhaps the two of them were more alike than Gregor knew.

“Yes, first time in Hammerfell,” he said at length and ran his hand through his beard. “Never thought I'd find myself here. I've always lived and worked within the borders of the Empire until now. This world we're in now…” he sighed. “What's your life on the road been like?” Gregor asked, changing the subject.

“Not always easy.” Latro shook his head, effortlessly juggling between the conversation and his playing of Wayward in Wayrest, a favorite ever since Sora gifted him the lute, “No. But I’ve made my way and kept it through everything. That’s what matters isn’t it? I’ve been blown by the winds here and there and now I’ve found a little piece of home in these people we travel with.”

“I’ve no shame in saying that I’ve missed that feeling ever since my mentor and I parted ways. There’s a peace in it, isn’t there?” He shrugged.

The Breton’s words rang true within Gregor and he nodded slowly in agreement, looking away and out the window at nothing in particular. “Yes, there is,” he said and combed through his beard again with his fingers. Their escape from the Dwemeri counter-ambush had been harrowing and Gregor feared for his family, whom he had never felt further away from than now, but the daunting task that he had worked to fulfil for the past decade felt a little easier now that he had Raelynn. Nblec was just the beginning. He wasn’t alone anymore. While he mused on that, Gregor found that he enjoyed Latro’s music and his company and decided that, even if the young man wasn’t a warrior, he was something of a kindred spirit after all.

“Who among us do you feel closest to?” Gregor suddenly asked and his gaze returned to Latro at last. His eyes, so often hard as iron, had softened and there was something vulnerable about him now that they were broaching more personal matters.

Latro set his lute down on the table, leaning back and propping himself up on a hand, taking a bite out of the pear he’d set next to himself earlier. He chewed thoughtfully for a second, how they’d jumped right to this subject. There was really only one sure answer for him and his mind drifted back to her and the memory of Anvil. Her softness, her purring voice, those eyes that saw everything good in him. If there was one thing he’d learned in his albeit short amount of years so far, it was to never let go of a good thing once you have it. You might never find anything like it again once it’s lost.

“Sora.” He answered surely, looking off at the cityscape beyond the curtains with wistful eyes. “Daro’Vasora. If it weren’t for her, you and I would never have been able to have this conversation. I owe her my life.”

He nodded, before adding, “And, well, also the fact that I’ve also saved hers once means I wouldn’t take kindly to those who have a notion of taking it away from her.” He chuckled, “What of you, friend?”

The Khajiit? That was a surprise. Gregor had only ever seen her be standoffish and even vitriolic before, so the fact that she had grown close with someone as soft-spoken and gentle as Latro was… unlikely. War really did bring the strangest people together.

“Well, Jaraleet and I had to cut our way out of the Dwemer ambush back in Cyrodiil together. He’s just as dedicated to the cause as I am. And Calen and I already met once before in Skyrim, before all of this happened, and in Anvil he composed a song in my honor,” Gregor said and smiled sheepishly at the thought. Then he realized he was doing it again -- lying, hiding, only telling half-truths. Why did he always feel like that was necessary? Daro’Vasora had noticed that he and Raelynn had… a thing, so the secret, insofar as it was one, was bound to come out sooner rather than later. He took a deep breath and added: “But the truth is that Raelynn and I have grown very fond of each other. You know, the Breton healer?”

“I know her.” Latro nodded. “She’s a good sort. A good heart. I can tell.”

Latro continued playing without words for a few moments, letting the music be the only thing that filled the ambience of the room. It broke through the tension that was first there, along with the conversation, of course. But one could rarely feel awkward in the presence of a song, he found. Finally, he finished through the notes of the song, letting the last remnants of sound from his lute slowly fade and give over to the soft flapping of the silk curtains that had come before it. How many times had he played that song, he wondered. In taverns from Falkreath to Bravil this song had run through his fingers, memories upon memories connected to it but now, only one. A bedroom in the upstairs of a trinket shop in the Imperial city, a Khajiit watching him play it with eyes that saw all the good in him. He smiled at that and put his lute to rest beside him.

He took a breath and let it out, “She must see good in you, Gregor.” Latro said, at last, “Keep that close. Sometimes, it takes others seeing it before we do.”

Gregor did not immediately reply. A small smile played around his lips, gradually growing until he was practically grinning, and he clasped his hands together over his stomach -- for all the world to see, he looked like a man amused at a joke. “I’m not sure what she sees,” he said tactfully, his mind wandering back to his and Raelynn’s sexual encounters: violent, passionate, destructive. And how she had encouraged him when he sacrificed the soul of Nblec Mrazac. “Either way, it appears that she and I are compatible. It is definitely good to not feel so… lonely.” That part was sincere, at least. “To be appreciated,” he added. Gregor’s gaze focused on Latro again and he frowned almost imperceptibly.

“What makes you say that she has a good heart?”

“She’s a healer.” Latro said simply, as if that was enough. He continued, with eyes that might betray a little piece of the man he once was. Or child, more like, “It is incredibly easy to do violence upon another living thing. A selfish thing to do, to take from someone everything they are, and everything they will be for any reason that would make Mara frown in her heavens.” He chewed on his bite of pear slowly, before making his point, “To heal someone from the violence done takes a better person.”

“Or an opportunist,” Gregor countered and smiled languidly. “Someone who knows that they have no talent for combat and instead realize that they stand to profit greatly from healing the wounds of those that do. And I disagree with your notion that all manner of violence is inherently selfish. Boys who march to war beneath the banners of their countries, risking their lives to keep their homeland safe, certainly don’t cut down their enemies for any selfish reason that I can see. Except staying alive, perhaps.” The Imperial cleared his throat and recited, more than sang (for he had no talent for it), a song that his father had taught him.

”O Land of Cyrodiil how glorious the sight,
When millions of freemen rise up in their might,
To battle for Empire and Liberty's cause
And aid in the defending thy time-honor'd laws;
The Empire it must and shall be preserved
So we say, let traitors decide what they will,
The flag of Cyrodiil shall float o'er us still
Shall float o'er us still, shall float o'er us still,
The flag of Cyrodiil shall float o'er us still.”


Once he was finished, he paused for a few seconds out of respect for the tradition of his forefathers before speaking again. “We fight against the Dwemer to preserve our way of life, our safety and our liberty. The Dwemer fight to take lands that aren’t theirs. I know which side I think to be selfish and which side I don’t.” He sighed and laced his fingers together. “Nblec’s death was a grave mistake, though. Don’t get me wrong.”

“For any reason that would make Mara frown in her heavens,” Latro re-stated, “Too many think the meaning of being good is having no claws. A wolf loose amongst the sheep should be killed. Murderers and rapists are hanged or beheaded, it is the law and what morality tells us to do. A thin line between murder and justice.”

Latro sighed, “It was a mistake. I had my part in endorsing it all, I won’t discount that. Not only may the Poncy Man distrust us that much more, but the Dwemer don’t forgive easily. We are the wolves to their sheep now.” He shook his head, “The very symbol of Dwemer benevolence kidnapped and killed. The propaganda makes itself.”

“That is true,” Gregor replied thoughtfully and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t understand why Nblec died, though. I was there the whole time. I saw what Jaraleet did. It wasn’t that severe. I blamed the torture when asked about it because I can’t think of any other reason, but… honestly, it looked like his heart betrayed him. His eyes rolled back into his head and he just went limp in that chair. I tried to save him but I’m not an expert. Raelynn could have done it, but… well…” Gregor left the sentence unfinished and looked away uncomfortably as the sight of Calen in a pool of his own blood flashed through his mind’s eye. He glanced back at Latro quickly, however. He wanted to see how the Breton reacted to his lies.

He only nodded, chewing his lip thoughtfully. Gregor didn’t look the type to do anything to foil the group’s mission, but neither did Jaraleet. No matter the startling revelation that the Argonian had much more to him that Latro first thought, ironic coming from his own thoughts, being what he was. Even so, the Dwemer didn’t look too old or frail to crack under the pressure of anything less than a knife in his neck.

He shook his head, “Whatever it was, it wasn’t what they wanted to happen. I’m sure Jaraleet will say the same as you. I wouldn’t think any of us to be liars.” He said, the easy smile back on his lips as he continued, “Hiding something, maybe. But aren’t we all?”

Gregor breathed out slowly and mirrored Latro’s pleasant expression. It looked like the Breton had bought it. That was a relief. “Probably,” Gregor replied. “I’ve done things that I’m not proud of. Based on what I’ve seen you do, there’s also more to you than meets the eye. And we both know that Jaraleet isn’t just who he says he is. I agree with you, though. We all have the same goal. We all regret what happened. Gods, I know I do,” he continued and laughed. “If only I had studied Restoration more, I could have saved him, and others before him. But it’s no use thinking like that. What’s done is done. We can only focus on the way forward.”

Forward. Ever forward. Snow fell around him and Gregor looked down on the pentagram he had drawn on the forest floor, each star-tip crowned with a black soul gem -- the souls of the innocent hunters he had killed in a mistaken rage, years ago. You can only go forward.

He blinked and shook himself from his memories. “Daro’Vasora will be furious, I assume.”

“A pleasant thought.” Latro chuckled, putting his feet on the table, legs crossed. Sora, he wondered just how she faired. She looked to already be in a foul mood when he saw her in glancing as they walked the halls to the debriefings for their respective missions. “I’m sure she’ll come to each one of us with questions. It’ll be as mysterious and infuriating to her as it is to us.”

An interrogation from the Khajiit… that wasn’t something Gregor was looking forward to. He had accidentally given her reasons to suspect him back when they first talked in Anvil. “Even more so, I should think. She wasn’t there.” He gave Latro a sympathetic smile and got to his feet. “I think it’s time I get some rest. You should, as well. We’re going to need our strength for the challenges head,” the Imperial said and gave the Breton a slight bow.
Shaft and Stormy Collab Deluxe


Gilane, Hammerfell
3rd of Midyear, 4e208
Three Crowns Hotel, Infirmary

Shortly after a run-in with a Khajiit…




The goings on of the infirmary had quieted down since the arrival of Raelynn, her only healing needed now was that of consoling her. So far, the staff of the infirmary was busy elsewhere, leaving a skeleton crew behind to manage things. One such attendant sat on his lonesome by the entrance to the infirmary, reading a book and utterly bored with how slow the day was. At least it wasn’t filled with the groans of the dying, he consoled himself.

Of course, all good things must come to an end at some point…

Latro slumped against the wall, being accompanied by a squawking handmaiden that was very much in over her head at the Breton who’d stumbled across her worse for wear. Opposite her panicking, Latro’s sole purpose was getting to a healer. He had begun spitting up blood on his slow trudge back to the hotel and it hurt to breathe, sure signs of something deadly if left unchecked.

The handmaiden finally opened the door for him and he pushed past her, dropping to one knee and erupting into a coughing fit that left specks of blood on the floor. It was a few moments before he regained himself, “Healer, please.”

Bloody spittle was hanging from his chin as the attendant jumped to attention and helped Latro up and into a bed somewhere down the hall. It was quiet, and he couldn’t see anyone else here. How was he to explain his wounds to the others? The attendant said something in broken Cyrodiilic that must have been along the lines of ‘I will find a healer for you.’

He nodded his thanks and lay back, flinching slightly in his shifting to a laying position before finally settling down, a ragged breath rattling from him. Every breath was a shock of pain through his chest and his head still swam. He felt weak, his hands shaking before his eyes and it took him everything to keep them open. He didn’t know if he would wake again. Finally, footsteps were heard beyond the cloth privacy curtain around his bed.

In walked Raelynn, immediately pulling shut the curtain but not before casting a long glance to make sure they were alone. She had heard him staggering through the infirmary while she had been taking cloth bandages, and upon seeing him she instantly knew what had happened to him. “Latro…” she began in a more hoarse voice than usual. Her demeanor that of a timid creature - her gloved hands displaying tremors, particularly the left. “It was him wasn't it?” she drew her face closer to his, her eyes bloodshot and puffy as she began examining his face, turning his head from left to right quite intrusively. A shrill and anxious giggle escaped her round lips.

She took a cloth from the bedside table and began mopping away at the blood around his mouth as a wry smile danced over her mouth, and she gently caressed the break on his nose with her finger. “Mmmmm…” came the broken melody of the bard's song in a hum. “He did tell me he was going to do it… Looks to me like you were the mouse.” Her head tilted to the side in an unsettling manner before she clasped her fellow Breton’s nose quickly and expertly snapped it back into place - a sharp jolt of pain that would be followed by instant relief and a release of pressure. “Sorry, there’s no nicer way to do that I'm afraid.”

Latro yelped as Raelynn set his nose back in place. The fact that they’d gotten Rae and not one of the hotel’s dedicated chirurgeons was surprising, and it would have been a sight more pleasant of a surprise if he didn’t notice how shaken she was. Bags under her eyes and a gauntness to her visage unsettled Latro and hung his mouth open. She was a pitiful sight. When she mentioned something about someone getting him too, he dropped any notice of the throbbing pain in his nose, “Who?” Latro asked, before he went to put a consoling hand on Raelynn’s own but she flinched away with a fear that made him all the more sad and confused for her, “Raelynn… who did this to you?”

She yanked her hands from him with a subtle hiss of pain and then she shuffled back meekly, moving them behind her - out of his sight for now. “It was the cat, came to ask me about our dearly deceased Dwemer friend…” All of a sudden she grew paranoid, and once again peaked her head out of the curtains, “did he ask you too? Did you tell him?” The questions came quickly as she slid back to his side, her face inches from his - eyes welling with tears. “Did you see him? I didn't see him…”

She stopped for a while, before noticing the bruising on Latro’s chest from where his shirt billowed open. She had to help him, she felt strangely close to him in that moment - an unspoken bond now existed between them. She wanted to remove her gloves. What she couldn’t find the words to say or explain, she would show. Slowly she took one from her right hand, revealing the wounds from Zaveed’s embedded claws - the punctures were closed now, but looked raw to the touch still. Refusing eye contact with her patient, she placed the newly freed hand on his chest and let her magicka flow in. She concentrated her energy into assessing the injury, closing her eyes and taking slow, meditative breaths “It feels bad in there, you fought back didn't you?”

Rae’s nervousness only made Latro the same, regarding the woman with sad and concerned eyes as her own flitted and shifted about as if whoever had brutalized her would materialize from the walls themselves. When she removed her glove Latro winced as if the wounds were his own. What had they done to her? Before he could say anything to her questions, he winced and grunted as she put her healing hand on his aching and broken ribs. He found himself white-knuckle gripping his sheets as he could feel the bones themselves grinding on each other to reform.

When she was done, he lifted his arm to wipe a bead of sweat away from his brow, taking solace in the heavy breaths he was no able to take. Healing hurt almost as much as getting the wounds. Even so, he was more concerned with Raelynn, “Fought or no, you look worse than me, Raelynn.” He said, plainly stating it, “What did…” he hesitated on the question, wondering if he should ask it.

But if his suspicion was true, he would not let Shiburi walk Nirn again. Already, he could feel anger start to snake into his blood, “What did he look like, my friend?” His voice soft, trying to lessen the blow of the question, “Was he more cat or man?”

With Latro now stabilised, Raelynn took to the seat beside him, remaining at the very edge of it, bouncing her leg nervously on her heel as she mulled over his question. She held the moment for a painfully long time, as one leg bounced animatedly, she tapped her other foot against the tiled floor, the heel of her boot echoing in the prolonged silence. She exhaled lengthily from her nose before finally breaking the silence she had commanded, “he didn't want me to see him. There was a bag over my head… A dark room. He had a dagger - more than one.” After several more deep breaths, she turned to the Breton in the bed, and gently ran her fingers through the long strands of his hair that framed his face. “Your hair is almost longer than mine…” she remarked while forcing a shaky smile, her voice wavering. She knew she must continue to tell him anything of interest.

“Latro…” her tone was low now, with a terrified pain beneath it. “He was going to kill me in that room. He was going to kill me and he wouldn't think a thing of it. Man or Khajiit you ask? He was a monster.” She used her right hand to wipe at her eyes before hurriedly standing, reaching for the cloths again to continue cleaning him up.

He tried to force a smile of his own when she admired his hair, the touch that was supposed to be soothing instead making him feel like his very skin would crawl away from her fingers. It was an odd thing for Raelynn to say, but she looked to be in the grips of mania. He knew what that was like. It was only a few years ago, less years than the fingers of his hands could count when he had taken nails and a hammer to the skulls of his rapists and abuser. No amount of time or sorrys could heal those wounds on him, and he remembered being as shaken and scared and alone as her. It was because of this he had to restrain his own emotions. Whoever had done that violence to her was mortal, and mortals bled. He finally sighed, “Mine had a voice like a sabercat’s growl. A face like a man, but a tail and claws still.”

“He fought like a beast. But if he wanted to kill me, well…” he let the silence tell it for him, “He…” he paused, wondering just how much he should tell her about his meeting with Shiburi, or whatever his real name was, if that wasn’t it. “He told me about another. Far more brutal than him, and if I and…” he had to look away and force the tears back for a few moments and his first few words came at more ragged than the rest, “If Sora was to survive, if all of you were, I would do what he asked of me. You must not tell the others, Raelynn. I’m to meet him in a few days’ time.”

He looked at Raelynn with heartfelt eyes, “They won’t corner us like lambs. I’m so sorry, Raelynn. I wish I could have been there with you.”

“Funny… Mine said he would harvest us all one by one.” The way in which she spoke was almost melodic in tone, lackadaisical in fact. She could hear Zaveed's vicious words ringing in her head over and over. She looked at Latro lying there in the bed, held her gaze for a while on him. An intense thing to do to the boy, she broke off her stare with a fervent chuckle that rasped from the back of her throat; “maybe I'm still there. Maybe this isn't real… I did dream down there. I thought that… I had a dream that Gregor saved me. He undid the work of my captor and whisked me away in his arms and I was safe.” She traced a clean, damp cloth across Latro’s neck gently, removing all the traces of the violence. “But then I woke up in darkness. I don't wish you were here -- there.”

She placed the blood stained cloth back on the table. He almost looked as good as new, and now she sat down on the bed placing a hand on his leg, above the sheets. “You wouldn't wish you were there either Latro.” A grim emptiness fell over her eyes, her expression plain - hollow features enhanced in the lighting of the room. She cleared her throat abruptly, a faint warmth returning to her face once more “I won’t tell if you won't. I don't… I don't like my stories being shared around, and I don't want our friends to know what happened to me.”

“I won’t tell another soul. I promise that.” He nodded. “I don’t think any of us should wander alone for the days ahead.”

“How did you get free?” He asked, looking at her hand on his leg, looking at the rawness of it.

“He left me for a while, he made sure I couldn't leave, I passed out for a moment and then when I woke I fought my way out of there. Blood, sweat, tears. He left me no choice.” The memory of finding her strength to escape brought some steadiness to her, as if reliving it by telling Latro was a kind of therapy. She began to feel relief hit her.

Raelynn removed her hand from his leg and finally took off her other glove. The lesions on her skin were purple, her knuckles almost black - and the entry point where the nail had been was a clear puncture through the centre of her palm. Closed now, but frightful to look at. “It's quite something…” she furrowed her brow as she looked at her trembling hand outstretched like that. She almost smiled, finding solace in Latro's company. She brought both hands to her lap. “Enough about it. We must protect the others, how do you know it's not a trap - what if something happens to you? What then?”

“Then why not take me right then? He almost fucking killed me, Raelynn.” He said with a bit more anger and panic than he ought to, “He’d have had no problem subduing me and bringing me wherever he wanted and doing whatever he wanted to me. He spared me for a reason, he said he was pressgang’d into Dwemer service too, and even warned me about his brother.” He said, shaking his head, “He even started out the entire thing saying he wanted to give me a choice between meeting him or doing what his overlords commanded of him.”

“And anybody who could fight like he did ought to be listened to when they spare you your life, as much as it pains me to say. I either go and meet him, see what he has to say, or I spring his trap and they kill me or capture me. If I don’t go either way, we will all be dead.” Latro shrugged, his eyes becoming distant as he remembered the fight, if he could call it that. Imagining Shiburi visiting the same brutality on Raelynn, or Meg, or even Calen. “Either way, I’m here now.” He said, a forced smile twitching at the corners of his mouth before it became a bit more sincere, “Maybe I was beat to shit, but I’m alive yet. Thanks to you.” He said, his usual soft smile upon his lips once more.

His eyes went to her hands, gnarled and bruised, “What are you going to tell Gregor?”

“We could just gather everyone and run. What really keeps us here?” What had just seconds ago rinsed away, was apparent once more on her face - anguish. “They're not normal. They will say anything, do anything to us. For nothing more than their own amusement,” she felt an echo of Zaveed’s hand brushing her cheek, causing her to shudder. “The only way we get out of this is to kill them before they kill us, he told me that this is nothing but a game, Latro.”

An innocent clatter of a tray and equipment in the distance made Raelynn jump up from sitting, her head turned in the direction of the sound until she laughed dryly at it.

At the mention of Gregor, she tilted her head to the side again and began to pull the gloves back onto her hands. “I will tell him nothing, I just don't want him to look at me like that… Like I was the girl who got kidnapped.” a sigh followed.

Latro only nodded. He couldn’t blame her for not wanting to speak of it. He had his fair share of that sentiment, whether it worked was lost on him, and he’d gotten so accustomed to just being someone else for long enough that it had seeped into the core of his being like the roots of a tree. “Only we will know, then.” He said quiet and somber, almost a whisper. “We can gather the others, try to plant the seed in their heads about leaving this place. As much as I hate the Dwemer, I hate what’s happened to you more, Raelynn. My friend.”

Friend? A strange thing to say, she thought. They had barely spent time together on the journey so far. All of these people in their group just so willing to toss the word around. That said, after today - after this? She would say the same. Her spiteful nature betrayed her emotions. “You’re still going to seek him out though, aren’t you?” she asked, sounding half-interested and as if her attention was pulled in two different directions. “I tried to get them off our scent, but they know it was us. All they need is one of us to say something, you know?”

“I do. I am.” He nodded to the questions, “My curiosity at his proposal is setting me on edge. I need to know if this is his game or if he is being true. He didn’t kill me, he didn’t take me in, he didn’t ask a single question about our antics in this city.”

He shook his head, “It’s all just… curious. I’m not ignorant of the danger, no, but there has to be something more to him. I need to find out what this is.” He said, chewing his lip before he turned to Raelynn, “I’ll at least tell you when I go to meet him. Perhaps I’ll convince one of us to come along. I won’t meet him alone after knowing what they’re willing to do.”

“You must be careful Latro. Especially of mine - of the second one. He cares for nothing.” She moved to his bedside once more, placing a hand on the crown of his head. “You must tell me when you go - please. So I know. Nothing I can say to you will convince you to take any other action, I know that.” Gently she brushed her fingers through his hair again with a hesitant smile. “You really do have nice hair, and eyes too. I never noticed before.”

Latro had to hide his face away lest the red in his cheeks show. “Thank you.” He managed, “I’m sure bards write songs of yours.”

He sat with his hands over each other on his lap, easy smile on his lips. It wasn’t often he was given compliments, even the crude and disgusting ones he used to get when he was in the brothel, earning instead of spending. Despite the excitement of the past weeks, he let himself sink back into the bed. Rae’s touch was motherly, tender. So unlike the rough, callused and wandering hands he’d had to endure being a whore in Wayrest. Under Raelynn’s touch now, though, he couldn’t help but to resign himself to the very much needed calm it brought. “I wouldn’t blame you for not noticing me,” he said, almost dreamily, “We haven’t talked until now, and it’s regrettable that we didn’t meet in better days. You could’ve seen me play in the inns, I miss doing that.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to see you properly for looking down my nose at you if we’d met in better days, as you call them.” Raelynn hadn’t ever admitted to being so judgemental and snobbish out loud before. It would almost make her laugh if it didn’t sting so much to confront herself with it.

“I didn’t know you played music,” her tone surprised, and her eyes lit back up at the thought of Latro singing. “I love music - maybe when this blows over I’ll join you for a song.” Once again, she hummed under her breath, swaying from side to side invitingly before she changed again, as if a switch was flicked internally; “if we all make it out alive, that is.” she muttered it in a saturnine manner and she fell still in her seat again.

Latro’s calm had seeped away from him as he saw Raelynn once again slip into her gray mood. It was so erratic, her changes in emotion. It hit him too close for his liking, almost wanting to throw the blankets from himself and scurry away. But he vowed he would never do that, not after what he had been put through in Wayrest for too many days to count, nor did he ever want to. He vowed to stand and bear witness. He forced himself to sit facing her, bare feet finding the tile.

“We will.” He uttered to his friend, looking her in the face, though her eyes did not meet his. He chanced inching closer to her hand with his own, finally making a hesitant touch on her fingers with his. Progress, he thought, just maybe. “We will.” His smile on his lips.

“I hope so,” she spoke softly with a slight smile as his gentle touch met her fingers and brought her attention back onto him. She allowed her other hand to fall on top of his, giving him a light squeeze in acknowledgment, “I'm starting to like everyone in some way now. Getting soft I think...” Raelynn got herself out of the chair and stretched with a long yawn. She was exhausted still and knew that rest would do both her body and mind some good “It seems that the day is escaping us, maybe you should rest here for the last of it.” Finally she looked him in his eyes again, finding comfort in their rich copper hues - “Thank you, Latro.“
3rd of Midyear, 4e208
Morning

Latro sat alone in the little alley zen garden that he and Sora had sparred. Where it had been still and the air tepid, it was now filled with the sounds of chirping birds and warm breezes. It was peaceful, tranquil, beautifully serene. All the things his thoughts and dreams were not. He looked at the bottle of poppy-wine he hadn’t indulged in since Cyrodiil and sighed. He wanted to so damned badly, to feel a measure of comfort. His hands wrapped around the cork but refused to pull and twist. He uttered a curse and set the bottle down next to himself. Nothing was going his way the past weeks and he’d gone beyond getting angry at any of it.

He decided to stand and walk away from the garden, perhaps being among the crowds would help him. The hubbub of the streets did little to calm him once he was walking on them, but he was fiercely determined to find something to take the edge off. With his lute on his back, he cast an errant thought to just set up on a bench and play, but decided against it. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself after the stunt they’d pulled the resulted in Calen’s grave wounding. Something he regretted the other bard had gotten himself into, painfully naïve to just what this war was about. Because of all that, he walked the streets fully garbed and painted like a woman, letting his hair flow freely in the breeze.

He settled for perusing the vendors’ stalls and window shopping along the avenues. As the next hour passed, he’d gotten a skewer of meat and filled his water skin with Daggerfall wine. After a while of walking the streets his eyes were pulled towards something for seemingly no reason. They settled on a pair of hazel eyes that regarded him in the same way a sabercat would an elk. An Ohmes-Raht was leaning against a wall, chiseled, swarthy features and a large build, thick arms folded. Quicker than he was meaning to, he turned away and walked the other direction, trying to put as much space between him and the Khajiit. No matter how quickly he tried to weave through the crowds and disappear the Khajiit was behind him. He had much practice in this, he could tell.

That only set his nerves more on edge. What did this Khajiit want with him? Was he a random thug? Whatever he was, Latro rounded another corner to get away from him, finding himself on the docks after the lengthy slow, but tense chase through the crowds. He tried at a warehouse door but found no luck, as the door handle only jiggled in place. He could feel his heart stomping up into his throat. Two more doors and he finally found one that was unlocked. He quickly slipped inside and climbed to a higher vantage point among the crates. All was painfully quiet, the smell of dust and sea salt mixing, the sound of settling wood. After a few moments, the door opened again and the Khajiit walked in with footfalls effortlessly as quiet as his own. His mouth was dry at that, a hunter of men, but who sent him?

The Khajiit pulled a splintered practice sword from his belt, the same one he and Sora had broken a couple nights before. He hadn’t noticed it missing from the alley when he was there. The Khajiit tossed it, letting it skitter across the warehouse floorboards. “You dropped this.” Came the Khajiit’s deep voice. “You have two choices-“

Latro didn’t want to give him the chance to finish. Noiselessly, he leapt from his perch, poised to land a stone-skinned elbow atop the Khajiit’s head and brain him, but before he even got close to him his vision was enveloped in the brightest white that burned his eyes to look into. He shielded his eyes but lost his footing, clattering to the ground with a grunt, still disoriented.

His vision adjusted and he quickly got to his feet, pain gripping his left ankle as he teetered on his right foot and took a few limping steps. The Khajiit nowhere in sight and there was an eerie silence that befell the room, his blood thumping in his head as his eyes flitted about the room in search of his enemy. He felt a big hand grab his hair in a fist and once again his vision was white as his head met the side of a crate, a searing pain clouding his mind that much more and he felt his ear split, feeling the blood run down his neck. He stumbled, not knowing in which direction as the room spun before once again, he felt himself grabbed by his shirt. All at once, he was weightless and he collided with another crate, breaking it open with his side. He gasped for breath as he lay there, the pain sapping the breath away from him.

“I could smell you. You should use less fragrant soaps if you’re trying to hide from someone.” He looked to the source of the voice, the Khajiit was walking towards him with the pace of someone who had not a worry, “Like I said, you have two choices-“

“Fuck your choices!” He sprang to his feet and launched himself at the Khajiit, finally finding purchase against him as he landed a hard kick to the Khajiit’s abdomen, sending him stumbling to his left.

Latro followed with a left hook to the Khajiit’s face, snapping his head to the left. Not giving the Khajiit time to recover, he launched himself into the Khajiit, knee-first, doubling him over and then another knee to the face stood him as upright as Latro needed him to be. A flurry of lightning quick punches to his stomach knocked the air out of the Khajiit, Latro deciding to finish this by giving the Khajiit a taste of his own. He grabbed the Khajiit by his hair and roared, sending him headfirst into a crate, splintering the wood of the crate with the first hit and then breaking a hole in it with the Khajiit’s face.

Latro stepped back, hand grabbing his aching side and rested himself on a crate. His shoulders heaved with his breath and he watched the Khajiit cautiously. His mouth hung open as he watched the Khajiit stir and then stand, popping his neck and then rolling his shoulders, hands balled into meaty fists. “Tougher girls than you have tried to brain me with a board to the face, little one.”

“Wha-“ Latro tried to mutter but his voice was cut off by a lightning quick palm to his chest, knocking the air out of him in a mist of bloody spittle and slamming his back against the crates he was leaning against.

He lay there spluttering and once again trying to gasp up air, but the Khajiit didn’t waste time in once again grabbing his hair and yanking his head to look up at him. He scarce had a look at the Khajiit before a fist came down once, twice and had him spitting bloody. He’d be unconscious were it not for the mage-armor, but the pain he felt still made him wish he was unconscious. The Khajiit grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up without much effort, leaning his head back and bringing his forehead into his nose hard enough to crack it and make him cry out.

He couldn’t even finish his pained howl before he was thrown once again, this time landing in a pile on the floor, back arching as he hit the floorboards and he let out a cry of pain that came out only as a breathless croaking, eyes screwed shut. He heard the sound of the Khajiit coming towards him, “I’m getting tired of beating you into mud, Breton. I’ve never liked you posh shits from Daggerfall or wherever.”

“I’m,” Latro started, heaving in a breath, “I’m a fucking Reachman, you godsdamned rug!”

He yanked his knife from his sheath, and lunged at the Khajiit, his thrust finding only empty air. The Khajiit grabbed up his wrist and made to throw him again, but Latro pivoted, quite tired of finding himself hurling through the air. He sliced into the Khajiit’s wrist attached to the hand that grabbed him before he slashed out at the Khajiit’s face, but he ducked. Not giving him time to gain back the offensive, Latro put all of his strength into a kick that sent the Khajiit stumbling back when it connected with his chest. Like a charging bull though, the Khajiit came back at him, wrapping him in his thick arms and roaring as he carried them both at a breakneck speed.

Latro grunted as his back found itself once again crashing through a pile of crates. He tucked his knees to his chest and planted his feet on the Khajiit’s hips, but his effort to kick the Khajiit away from him was foiled when the Khajiit brought down his fist like a hammer on his head, whacking the back of it on the floorboards. He felt himself getting picked up before he was slammed on the ground again, breathlessly squirming. The Khajiit let him lay there, Latro heaving in breaths and too weak to get back to his feet. He knew full well now though that if the Khajiit wanted to kill him, he would have been dead long ago.

“Do you want to listen to me or do you want to keep going at this?” The Khajiit asked between breaths, forearm wiping his split lip, “I could’ve snapped your neck from behind at the start of all this, but I decided to see what you were made of. Shame it was just a fucking ponce I found.”

“Fuck you, Khajiit.” Latro responded lamely, it was the only thing he found appropriate, or found at all with such pains seizing his every movement.

“No, Breton,” The Khajiit spat in further insult, “Fuck you. I came to give you a choice, not a hard beating. Are you ready to hear it?”

“Fuck it, just tell me.” Latro struggled to a sitting position, groaning and wincing, aching legs outstretched before him as he rested his spasming back against the mostly intact crate behind him. “I’m not really feeling up to strolling out of this place and resuming the fucking good day I was set on having.”

“Oh, trust me, it’s been a vacation every day since I came to this forsaken desert country.” The Khajiit rolled his eyes and Latro was almost taken aback at how casual this all suddenly was. It was odd times all around though.

“So, my two choices are my money or my life, I take it?” Latro asked, frowning.

“I’d pick someone with a fatter purse. Now shut the hell up and listen to me or I’ll start beating you into shit again, ponce.” The Khajiit took a moment to spit blood to the side, “I didn’t come here just to throw you around like a twig-thin girl until the sun goes down. You have two choices, like I keep saying before I’m fucking interrupted by your limp-wristed pillow-fists.”

“I came to Hammerfell with a very specific task to fulfill. My being pressgang’d into Dwemer service has thrown a wrench into the cogs, but I’m not set on bucking their saddle on me. Not yet, at least.” The Khajiit rolled his neck and shoulders before continuing, a pained look on his face that gave Latro a little too much pleasure in knowing he was the reason for it, “I can either be your friend or I can be the one who kills you and all of your friends. And trust me, if they fight like you, I’ll have a fucking boring time of it. Meet me in that zen garden a few days from now at nightfall, or I can tell my new friends and their shiny rifles where to find you.”

“A few days from now? When will I know when it’s enough time?” Latro asked, face screwed up in confusion.

“I’ll find you. It was easy enough the first time. Nice hiding hole too, you should see mine.” He said humorlessly, frowning, “I wouldn’t want you being the reason I’m dropping your girl’s corpse at the feet of my associates. You should try to be more receptive to new friends.”

“You have an odd way of making friends.” Latro huffed.

“You tried me first.” The Khajiit replied. “Shiburi ibn Sev’Ahmet.”

“What?” Latro asked, looking back at the Khajiit.

“My name.” Shiburi said. “What’s yours?”

“Latro.” He said, before adding, “Your name sounds fake.”

“So does yours, Reachman.” The Khajiit only smirked before walking away towards the entrance where it all began. “I’ll find you.”

It was both a reminder and a veiled threat, Latro was aware. He rested in his crate, still throbbing and altogether still not set on strolling back out and resuming the good day he was trying to have. Before the Khajiit finally disappeared beyond the threshold of the warehouse, he stopped, saying over his shoulder, “Beware the Khajiit with evil in his eyes. He won’t be as lenient as I am.”

“There’s another? Why are you warning me?” Latro asked, still struggling to his feet.

Shiburi stood in the doorway without a word, before he spoke again, “He’s my brother.” Shiburi sighed, “But he’s strayed far from the Khajiit I once knew him to be. I gave you two choices, Latro. He’ll give you none.”

“I see.” Latro said, looking to the doorway, but the Khajiit was already gone.
Origins

Shaft and Dervs collaboration

Somewhere outside Gilane, early morning 2nd Midyear, 4E208…

The prisoners had been handed over to Major Kerztar and his team of “specialists”, leaving the Cathay to his own devices, which had involved drinking half a pitcher of wine to himself in the common area and now he ran a whetstone over Jone, the first of his axes, and Jode, sat waiting on the table next to his seat. The hearth kept the Khajiit warm, the halls were cold and possibly haunted. The Secret Police headquarters, after all, had been established in what had once been one of the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuaries in Hammerfell before that wretched organization was put to the blade.

The guild of assassins probably would have been retroactively pleased with how the new inhabitants were putting it to use, he mused.

The room he was in had once been where they’d made sacrifices, he’d learned. The alter that had stoned soaked with the coppery scent of dried blood was now covered in a gaudy rug and served as an impromptu bar; their organization had better inventory than some inns, he reckoned. The macabre decorum that had once dominated the place were replaced with far more lively and juvenile things, such as the statue to the Lucky Lady that had been a replica of the one forged in Bruma years and years before was now dressed in the garb of some insurgent boss they’d taken down, her outstretched hand holding a woman’s pair of undergarments, and upon her head was a chef’s hat. Various trinkets from about town and the occupants’ lives occupied the place, and while they’d all started off as strangers, many of them had bonded considerably over the course of the past month; most of them had come in as prisoners and arena combatants, but the Major saw potential in each of them, despite their ill-repute; he offered them a position on his task force doing thankless, dirty work they’d likely had a hand in before, and in exchange they’d have a sort of freedom and autonomy that they would have forsaken otherwise. They were free to wander the streets, were paid a weekly wage, and otherwise treated well, but they were quite feared.

Zaveed of Senchal was once a privateer for the Aldmeri Dominion, and over the 38 years of his life had gone from a street urchin to abused, sometimes sexually, cabin boy, to a ferocious warrior and eventually a captain of his own ship, where he’d earned a reputation as one of the Dominion’s best and most deniable assets; his enemies knew him as Captain Greywake of Merrunz’s Wrath and the hardships he’d lived with since his mother he didn’t even know the name of was forced to dump him and his twin sister out into the streets to continue whoring herself in a brothel at the orders of her handler left him largely cold and apathetic towards most people, but the man who came into the room at that moment, wiping his hands of water, was certainly not one of them.

“I hope you did not break the Major’s new playthings, Sevari. We worked so hard to acquire them. Think we can ask for the weekend off? I grow tired of the big Orc’s snoring.” He inquired, staring at the curve of his blade up to the firelight.

Sevari had not gotten up to these sorts of tasks since his days in the Bhaanu Sasra, a token of irony left in his mind that he was once again a member of a secret police force at the service of a larger client government. “I didn’t even get to Villaume. He wouldn’t answer the nicely asked questions but he shit himself when I told him I was going to collect on that tooth debt he’d been racking up since his screaming on the way here.” The Ohmes took a seat next to his comrade and long-time friend. He breathed a bit more well now that he was in the company of someone he trusted, and also because he was now away from the putrid smell of a man fear-shitting himself, “Roux though, waterboarding makes me thirsty.”

He reached over and grabbed up the wine, pouring himself a portion into what was once a probably very restricted and sanctified gaudy goblet of the Dark Brotherhood’s rituals. He downed the contents without any hint of ceremony. After a few moments of thought, he spoke, “I never thought I’d be in such a place. Nor would I have ever thought our lives would have been brought together again in such a way, my friend.”

“I told you I would.” Zaveed replied with a half-hearted shrug. “Besides, you know Senchal is the largest port city in the Southern hemisphere and my base of operations. Even someone like you who’s been gorging on the Imperial Teat would be able to get there easily enough to request my services.” the Cathay replied, slamming his axe down into a mannequin that had been holding his axes as he serviced them. It was cathartic. “Only difference is I’m not the half-starved boy you took pity on. I dare say I’ve tasted much more luxury than you have in the past couple of decades, my friend.”

Sevari nodded, and smirked, “Those without conscience usually do have a better time of it. Truth be told, I thought you’d knife me at the first opportunity when I found you and asked to take me here. Our differences of opinion when it comes to who we have hand over our septims all those moons ago.” Sevari chuckled bitterly, a piece of him still resentful towards who Zaveed chose to serve when their lives had parted ways the first time, “our friends don’t like each other all that much, I’m told. I’m sure they’d pay you well to have me in their jaws, but here we are. I’m touched.”

Zaveed waved a dismissive hand. “You and I both know that was never on the table. The only difference between your government and mine is how pointy the ruler’s ears are. They both employ, ah, morally flexible individuals to do some rather morally bankrupt things in the name of some pretentious justification. I do not much care about who rules over me, so long as I’m a free man with more coin than sense at the end of the day. Besides,” he shot over a toothy grin. “I’d be executed if I tried to seduce the Queen of Alinor, but our dear Governor… she seems fond of the exotic.” he mused with a slight smirk.

“Careful,” Sevari good-naturedly shook a finger Zaveed’s way, “If Saffi and Hessiim’s drunken gossiping is anything to go on, Kerztar might get jealous of being replaced as midnight bed-mate.”

Sevari chuckled, it was true that Zaveed’s allegiance had strayed from his greatly over the years, but a friend does not forget a friend in Elsweyr. His mind wandered back to his first days in Senchal, a brooding and angsty child with a balled fist to the world for all weight it had pressed on his shoulders. His hand brushed his necklace, fingering the beads, “And you’ve misunderstood me all these years. It was never pity I had for you… or her. Your sister.” He asked, tone lower than it had been the rest of the conversation, “She and I haven’t spoken since…” his eyes went from the tabletop to Zaveed’s, wordlessly asking for an answer to the question his lips could not form.

The topic had shifted from playful to dead-serious in a hurry. Zaveed’s ears pulled back as he pulled his other axe free to begin working in its blade; it was a topic he didn’t care to venture into. “Since you decided to leave us alone in the streets to pursue a vengeance that no longer mattered. It is poor taste to abandon one family for one who no longer needs you, yes?” he asked, his tone low and with no small amount of resentment. “You were not there for Marassa when she was arrested and pressed into the army. For what, your father who got involved with the wrong people? There were others who still breathed who depended on you, I hope you do not lose sight of that.” he replied, his voice terse and edging on rueful. “For someone who claimed to love her, you had an interesting way of expressing that when you fled.”

“My decision was made on this task of mine far before I met you, Zaveed. Aeliel took me and my brothers in and to Senchal to serve the Bhaanu Sasra. If it were up to me, I would never have left you there to starve alone.” Sevari looked away and then poured himself another cupful. “Or her. If I could find her now, I would. And I would tell her that leaving is one of my deepest regrets.”

“But they took my family. Wrong people or no, I had to do what I did and I will see it done.” He sighed, “I wish I could set it all aside, but I have always done what I said I would. You two of all people know that.”

“And how many families have we made little orphan boys such as yourself, Sevari?” Zaveed asked, the stone running down the polished blade without friction. “Vengeance is an exhausting endeavor, is it not? Dedicating your life to it rather than caring for everything else you have going on, it’s an illness. Now look at us, half-way across the world and caught up in something remarkably stupid and unlikely.” he looked up to gaze his friend in the eye. “And yet, I had never thought you’d chose such a stupid endeavor over us, but here we are, so many years older and none the wiser. I’d hoped you’d have met up with me again so many years later a changed man, a better one, and yet nothing’s changed. It’s so… droll.” he remarked with a grunt.

“You pick a path and think it’s only for the day.” Sevari looked at his hands, so much larger than that angry boy’s but nothing else changed, “You blink and it’s been years. I could never imagine myself anything else, I don’t know if that’s me being true to myself or me being a stubborn shit like I always was. Both, perhaps.” He smiled, sour.

“Whatever the case may be, you’ve forgotten how to have fun, my friend.” Zaveed replied mirthfully, slapping his friend on the shoulder. “Maybe we head out after, go spend our hard earned coin on some questionable consort and entirely too much liquor? You’re getting old, enjoy your life while you can.”

The smile came back to Sevari as he chuckled, “Let’s do that. I’d like to let our friends sit and think on if they really want to play this game of ‘I don’t know’ with us.” Sevari frowned at the other rooms where their guests were kept in, “And I need a break from this damned place. I really think it’s haunted, Harald’s copy of the Lusty Argonian Maid ended up in Saffi’s room. By the third kick, Harald came around to Saffi’s pleading that it wasn’t him.” Sevari chuckled, “Luckily for me, they both sleep heavy and I step softly. Perhaps it’ll be a lesson to stop treating assignments as time to write poems to his favorite whore like last time. I waited under that bridge for hours trying to shake the thugs.”

He stood, stretching his arms and sighed, “Even the bogeymen in the shadows need some time for themselves, hm?”




Many years ago, Senchal…

Sevari stood wide-eyed at the opulent crowds milling about, all the different Khajiit living together in such harmony. He had never seen such a thing in the Torval slums, a Cathay woman with a Dagi about her shoulders, laughing along to a Senche’Raht’s joke. In Torval, that Cathay would never be caught close to the quadrupedal sub-races.

And the jewelry! Worn about wrists and necks and fingers as if pickpockets and muggers were never heard of on these streets. He blinked and swallowed, only then noticing his mouth was agape wide enough for birds to nest. The smell of the sea too, mingling with spices from vendor’s stalls and cooking food at food carts.

“Move, child!” A pink-skin with a face redder than he’d ever seen near drove over him with his cart and horses.

So much movement here. It made his head swim. He ducked into an alleyway to catch his breath, perhaps going off on his own while his brothers got up to whatever mischief was a mistake, but he’d never felt at home with them, why should it start now? He shook that resentful thought away and brought himself back to the moment. He wanted to see everything this place had to offer!

Without warning, careening down the alleyway was a young Cathay, an armful of bread and grapes and two Altmer at his heels screaming for him to stop. He stood wide-eyed in confusion once more until the other child tripped and landed on the ground in a rain of bread heels and fruit around him. One of the guards bent down to grab him up but a rock pelted off his helm, causing him to turn and look at Sevari indignantly.

“Shit on you, knife-ear!” Sevari spat.

The young Cathay grabbed at the gauntleted hand behind him, trying to scratch at the wrist with claws, but only found that metal was hindering his effort. “Let me go!” He shouted kicking back as hard as he could.

Suddenly, the elf bent over with a shout when something hard clanged off of his helm; a board of wood held by another Cathay that had chocolate-coloured fur and amber eyes, and this prompted the first elf to drop the young cat, giving him a chance to run while the other disappeared down another alleyway. Both took off in opposite directions like a crack of lightning.

Sevari stood rooted to his spot for a few moments when the Altmer turned to him. The first one didn’t even have time to take his first step before Sevari had sprung off his foot and took off running at breakneck speed away from them. Say anything about his penchant for fighting, but he knew when to choose them and the odds were not in his favor. He spared no thought as to what direction he would take, only letting his body do the thinking. He slowed down only a tad when he was sure he had lost the guards, which was still a good pace, by all means. He narrowly ducked under a board swinging out from behind an alleyway corner fast enough to brain him, tripping up and crashing to the ground in a series of scraping tumbles.

He propped himself up on his elbows, stinging in several places and blood thumping in his head, raising his voice, “Do I look like a damned Knife-Ear?

The board was still held aloft. “Don’t follow us! You’ll bring them here!” The girl snarled.

The Cathay boy, however, placed a hand to bring the board down and offered a hand to the fallen Ohmes-raht. “Excuse her, she’s not a big people person. You didn’t have to do that for me.” he said quietly.

Sevari blinked before he took the offered hand, not knowing exactly what to say. This girl was so pretty yet she spat venom at him from the first words they shared. All of this was a lot to him, made only worse by the fact that their eyes never broke until her… friend? Her friend cut through the tension. When the Cathay apologized for his friend and told him his thanks, he only blinked again and then nodded. Truth be told, he wasn’t entirely sure why he did it either when he didn’t have to at all. “Yeah.” Was his only response for a few moments, before he decided that he should probably speak more, glancing at the fiery girl before going back to her compatriot, “I know what it is to be hungry. I’ve taken food before.”

She grunted in annoyance, turning away to break eye contact with the creep who kept staring at her. “I’m going to keep watch. Get rid of him, Zaveed.” she said, an irritation clear in her tone.

The grey-furred one smiled apologetically. “I had assumed that was the case; not many other people stick their necks out for thieves, although... “ he looked back the way they came, a look of defeat across his face. “This is going to be two days without food, I’m not as strong or fast as I was. I’m Zaveed, the bundle of joy over there is my twin, Marassa. I took after mother, we think she’s after father... if you can call either of them anything other than jerks.”

“I can help you get food.” Sevari smiled, something he rarely did since his parents were gone. There was Aeliel, but, well. He seemed to be very distant. “My brother Suffian taught me how to pick pockets, I can get some coins. It’s sneakier than, um,” He cleared his throat, remembering how they’d met in the first place, “You know, just taking the food. But no one chases you if you don’t get caught.”

He waved Zaveed on to follow him, where they stood at the mouth of the alley onto the bustling streets. Sevari eyed the crowd carefully, waiting for a good mark to pursue. He chewed his bottom lip while he waited until he found it, a portly Breton dressed in the style of the upper classes. “Watch me.” Sevari smirked, eager to show his skills.

He pulled the small carving knife from his pocket and tucked it into his sleeve as he moved into the crowds, weaving through them with a practiced ease for such a young Khajiit. Finally, he was behind the Breton. He reached out with his knife but his wrist was caught by the Breton’s surprisingly quick hands. Sevari hissed and bit down on the Breton’s wrist and the big Pink-Skin let go with a yelp, rubbing his bleeding wrist. “Why you- Oh!” Sevari threw the handful of sand he’d grabbed up into the Breton’s eyes, leaving the Pink-Skin spluttering and crying for help while he slinked back into the crowds a pilfered coinpurse richer under the distraction.

He made his way back to the pair, chewing his bottom lip again. “That never happens, usually.” He chuckled sheepishly before jingling the coinpurse, “We can get food now though.”

Zaveed’s eyes gleamed at the sight of the coins, and even Marassa seemed begrudgingly impressed. “I can’t really say anything, considering how you found us…”

Marassa cut him off. “Why are you helping us? You could have kept that for yourself.” She stated bluntly, stepping over to offer a hard stare at the human-like face that contrasted so much to her own.

He flinched back as Marassa once again questioned his intentions but recovered, that familiar anger that had been simmering low since the raid that took his parents’ lives finally gripping him again, albeit for but a moment, “Why are you being so mean?” The spark had left him with the last word, but he was intent on fanning it, he was growing a little annoyed at his kindness and effort being spat on by this girl, “You’re like the rest! If you want to be rid of me so much then fine, I’ll keep it.”

He made a show of jerking the purse back as if he was worried she might snatch it. He turned around and stalked off down the alleyway but he gritted his teeth and cursed himself as each step grew harder for him to take. By the time he decided to stop, he was at the other end of the alley and wiped a tear from his eye. No matter where he went and who he was with, they always threw his looks back at him. Too mannish to be Khajiit and too Khajiit to ever be a man. He wanted his mother’s kind words, her reassurance, but he swallowed that down and wiped another tear away, “Stop. Fucking. Crying.” He growled under his breath. He turned back around, purse still held at his side, “If you want to eat, you’ll follow me. If not, I couldn’t care less!

He continued on at a brisk pace towards the nearest food cart, selling good portions of spiced gazelle and lamb wrapped in the leaves of moonsugar plants. “Three of those.”

“Twelve of those.” The Cathay-Raht manning the cart smiled at Sevari.

Sevari nodded, taking out the set amount by the handful and counting how many was in his hand each time until there was enough coin in the vendor’s own. “Thank you, S’rendarr bless your day.” The Cathay-Raht nodded.

Sevari nodded back as he cradled the three small meals in his arms. He closed his eyes and took a breath, counted to three and turned around, admittedly hoping Zaveed and Marassa were there when he did.

The two of them decidedly were, staring at him with wide eyes and in a sense of disbelieving. Marassa herself had to wipe her mouth indelicately, her hunger overriding the caution she felt. “I… I’m sorry.” she managed, looking somewhat ashamed of her behaviour from before.

Zaveed smiled apologetically. “It’s not been easy for us, and trust is something that can get you hurt if you let the wrong people close. You’re really nice… I never heard your name.” he said, blinking with sudden realization. “Thank you… are we friends?”

Sevari chuckled, looking to the ground and then back to the both of them, relieved and altogether nervous. A part of him wanted them to have not been there, to once again just be alone and find comfort in whatever sense of familiarity he had with being just that. But when he saw the looks on Zaveed and Marassa’s faces, saying nothing to the fact they were still there at all, he felt something better. When Zaveed asked him his name, he took his moment so as not to stammer.

“Sevari.” He finally said, then offered out the two leaf-wraps, “We can be friends.” He smiled, the expression that small bit more familiar on his lips.




“I’ll be damned, they sell lamb here. I have you to thank for introducing me to that.” Zaveed said, the rather busty waitress dropping off the dishes before turning away and walking to the back, Zaveed’s eyes following her all the while. “I remember the first time we met, I ate so quickly I vomited half of it up later. Such a waste.” he mused nostalgically, cutting into the steaming meat with a long and curved carving knife.

Sevari smiled in silence for a bit as he chewed, only opening his mouth to speak after he’d swallowed the moist, tender meat. “It’s my favorite.” He chuckled, “To think it’s only my favorite because it was the first thing I saw all those damned years ago.”

He held one of the lamb chops by the bone, other arm draped over the chair beside him and a foot resting on another across from him. He stared at the cut of meat with a smile, wistful. They were so small then, innocent, as children are wont to be. Or as innocent as they could be. It was no matter that in those days, he saw more of Zaveed and Marassa than his own brothers- except for maybe Suffian, who’d check up on him every week or so- Zaveed and Marassa had grown as close to him as any family he’d had. Closer, considering the family he had. “What a time we had back then.” Sevari mused, “I miss it sometimes. Even being hungry together, it at least led to us doing something crazy and laughing at the end of the day.”

“When’s the last time you’ve actually laughed? You look positively dour most of the time since you discovered my whereabouts weeks ago. The things we had to do to survive, it was a simpler time. Somehow starving to death seemed like lower stakes than the years following would bring. We were somewhat foolish to think life wouldn’t take us away from our little street family, but our reunion now has been nice, even if things are rather… at odds, no?” Zaveed replied, gulping back a not insignificant portion of his trencher and wiping his mouth with a cloth before digging in. He moaned appreciatively of the food, which was a damn sight better than the rations they’d grown accustomed to. “None of us had a fair start to life, it seemed. No families, no fortunes, no education. Just the desire to not die like some piece of shit that would be tossed into a bin at the end of the week, or chopped up and thrown into some mystery stew by some run-down diner.”

“I’ll admit I’ve done a lot more of it since we’ve been together again.” Sevari nodded, “And you should know that’s always been my face. We grew together, I frown. Even then, could you fucking blame me?” Sevari’s head shook.

“We scraped what we became out of the dirt and shit. My opinion? That commands more respect than some poncy, limp-wristed fool learning how to author laws on the dime of their family’s old money.” He put the lamb chop to his mouth and it came away that much less. He chewed, stopping to talk around his food, “Even if my handlers in Cyrodiil put you on my list, I could never do it. The banners behind us might be at odds, but you and I? There’s too much for me there to forsake it. It’s why I felt as safe as I could when I shouldered through that fucking tavern you called a home and asked for you by name.” He laughed softly, “I had my doubts, I hardly slept past allowing myself to blink every other hour the first day.”

Zaveed chuckled, a wide toothy grin crossing his face. “You know full well I’ve never been a patriot; even if the authorities somehow discovered your regrettable choices, what happens on my ship is law. Besides, I could always say that you were a flipped agent and the labyrinthian corridors of Thalmor bureaucracy would have had them scrambling for months to make sense of if you were an agent or if I were lying. What tangled webs we weave, and besides, why do you think I stayed in Senchal? I had a feeling you’d come back.”




The Grinning Senche Tavern, Senchal, six weeks ago…

For a seaside tavern, it was hard to beat the views of The Grinning Senche, the coastal climate allowed for no walls to be erected so the patrons could enjoy the tropical breeze rolling in from where the sea met Topal bay, and the stilted building supported by lumber brought in from the Tenmar Forest. Sailors from at least 5 different vessels drank under its spacious area, lined with carpets and rugs of all manner, and the shelving holding the liquor, ales, and wines were suspended from the ceiling above by chains. In one shaded corner sat a number of floor cushions and a pair of large hookahs, filled with a mixture of moon sugar and liquor, and upstairs, the wooden floorboards creaked under the passionate throes of lovemaking between the courtesans and their clients.

It was a good atmosphere, and one thing that kept Zaveed returning to this particular port of call, even years down the road. He was such a regular that the staff often tossed him in little gifts and freebies, largely because he was one of the few captains that kept his men in line to respect their workers and the establishment itself, and so the business was good and everyone involved could feel good about their time.

That time, however, seemed like it was swiftly coming to an end when an unexpected face turned up at the Senche’s gate.

The calming murmur of the tavern that had added to its ambience had died down to a still nothingness that even overpowered the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore. A weathered Ohmes-Raht that forwent the facial tattoos scanned the room with a frowning gaze that did not change a millimeter no matter how severe and intimidating the faces he looked at were. He was made all the more a curious sight by the fact that by the time his slow gaze had swept the entirety of the room, the bouncer had just found the last of his weapons. He thought. The Khajiit stepped forward and into the soft light the torches gave, shadows playing with his chiseled, mannish features.

“I’m looking for Zaveed.” Were the only words he spoke.

“And who might be asking?” Came a voice from Sevari’s left from a shaded table that sat out from under the roof. A few murmurs broke the silence and Zaveed stood, having taken his boots off of the table and he approached the newcomer, a coin spinning between his fingers and a hand on his axe. “Is there some unsettled business, friend? If I stole your wife for a night, worry not; I paid her.” a few from his crew chuckled at the brashness, but something in Zaveed’s disposition changed as he studied the face. It was the eyes that told the truth, even if the face did not. He blinked slowly.

“...Sevari?” he asked suddenly, taking a step back.

All that came from the other Khajiit was a nod. “I am him.” He said, another glance to the men about the tavern before it settled back on the Khajiit he hadn’t seen in such a long, long time, “I’ve a favor to ask of you.”

The blue-eyed Khajiit’s face soured considerably, his eyes narrowing and his ears pulled back. “Quite some bloody nerve you’ve got, coming back here after all of this time. You leave my sister and I to die, and Alkosh knows how many damned years later, you don’t even say hello, just that you need a favour?” Zaveed stepped to Sevari suddenly, jabbing a finger into the Ohmes-raht’s chest. “From our past, you have my word you can leave here unscathed, but after everything, you come back here, demanding I help you? What delusions consumed you in our time apart? I assure you, distance did not make this one’s heart grow fonder.”

“I demand nothing, Zaveed.” Sevari’s frown grew a tad deeper, “A simple thing of business for the best privateer and smuggler this side of Leyawiin. I can compensate a Khajiit of that stature accordingly.”

Under his exterior, it truly did hurt something in him to be chastised first thing after all the years between then and now. It still remained to be said, Sevari had a job to do, and as much as he wanted to try to mend things between himself and the Khajiit before him it was business first. And he was the only one he trusted to make the journey north with him to fulfill his current assignment. Feelings of family had nothing to do with that, it was simply a matter of him choosing the best smuggler. So he told himself.

“I’m ever so sure that your friends don’t pay nearly as much as my commission, so I have no inkling what makes you think whatever you’re about to say remotely even worth my time nor effort. You cannot afford my time, nor my attention. Good day to you, and maybe next time we cross paths, you’ll have more to you than a script your masters forced you to spew. Go.” Zaveed snapped, turning and returning to his table. From his back, he pulled the elven dagger with a sapphire pommel and it soon replaced the knife between his fingers.

A quintet of sailors stood suddenly, staring Sevari down as if daring him to make a move. Sevari’s face did not change, though his heart was aching and he was on the verge of exploding with frustration. The climbing claws disguised as bracelets helped him keep his nerve in the middle of this tavern full of brigands. The quintet flinched for their weapons in unison when Sevari started to raise his hand, but the Khajiit stopped and paused long enough for the precarious calm to recover. Sevari finished bringing his fingers to his lips and whistled, the crack of reins outside the only reply along with the chuffing of horses. “On that cart is enough septims to buy a mercenary company.” Sevari spoke, “This favor is very important.”

“Yes, quite so wise as to announce that to an entire tavern full of privateers, pirates, and brigands alike. Literally the only thing keeping you intact and that wagon full of coin is the fact that I will it so.” Zaveed replied, glancing away for a few moments in agitation before eventually relenting and gesturing to the seat across from him. “But fine, I’ll entertain this schrade long enough to decide whether or not our past means enough for me to keep my word. That is entirely your decision, Sevari; choose wisely.”

Sevari’s heart relented a tad as he stepped up to Zaveed’s table. One of the quintet of large, scary, scarred and tattoo’d sailors lagged a bit in his way and they locked eyes, neither of them relenting. Finally, the large Nord stepped to the side and Sevari took the offered seat. “I know my name tastes like piss in your mouth, Zaveed. I need a good smuggler to take me north, to Hammerfell. You don’t even have to dock, I’m arranged to be picked up and ferried to my destination once I get close enough. You’ll be free of me then.”

As if washing said name from his mouth, Zaveed took a drink from his trencher before setting it down and lacing his fingers on the table. “So far, not good. Why now, why not sooner? You’ve barely paid the barest minimum of courtesy, considering I thought of you as my own flesh and blood, and right now I’m having a hard time differentiating you from any Altmer passenger I’ve carried.” he said, bypassing the offer. He wasn’t letting Sevari get off without an explanation; it had been over twenty years since they’d last seen one another.

He almost cringed at that, that small piece of him that still cared when others called him anything but Khajiit. And that small boy he was long ago that shared meals with the Khajiit before him ached. Sevari sighed, leaning back in his seat, wondering whether to tell him everything. Zaveed deserved an explanation of why he disappeared and where to. He didn’t know whether to divulge who his employers were though. “It wasn’t my choice, Zaveed.” He answered lamely. “I was a boy when I met you and I was still only a boy when they took me.”

“And now you're here, a stranger in all but name, who cannot speak of anything but wanting me to endanger my ship and my crew for some mysterious assignment with a wagon of coin to buy our silence.” Zaveed said, leaning forward with a scowl. “Was it ‘taken’ or was enticed to leave’, I have a hard time differentiating the two. You always have a choice. You chose a stranger over us, and you expect me to believe your good intentions now?”

“It isn’t a choice when the Bhaanu Sasra comes for you, Zaveed.” Sevari said, head shaking, “I understand why you hate me now. If you left me alone with no note, no anything, just an empty bedroll next to you, I’d want answers too. And every year added between that and when I saw you again would only be more resentment.”

“Aeliel gave me a debt when he took me and my brothers away from digging beggars’ graves in Torval. It was just shitty timing when he decided to collect on it.” Sevari met Zaveed’s indignant gaze, “I don’t know what to say other than I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything. If I didn’t still love you and you your sister, I wouldn’t have kept her necklace. All those years spent away from you, I didn’t want you to be involved in any of it, to see what they made me. But now you do.”

Zaveed massaged his temples with a pair of fingers. “We’ve all tales to spill, to be sure. But fine, what is this job you’re trying to press me into? Why Hammerfell? If you want my help, I need to know everything.” He leaned forward, tapping a claw into the table between them with a long finger. “Ev-er-y thing. I don’t care what shadowy master has you by the balls, you owe me some transparency. So, what could possibly be worth weeks of my life to help you?”




The streets brought a chill to Sevari, who wrapped his robes tighter. He and Zaveed walked in silence for a few moments, both enjoying the scenery and architecture of Hammerfell. The moons were just starting to rise, bringing a soft light to the sky but doing little to illuminate the streets, which hardly bothered the two Khajiit. “When I heard about the great and terrible Captain Greywake, I never thought it’d be you, to tell the truth.” Sevari spoke, “I was just looking for a great smuggler, but when I was told who it was, I didn’t believe it. Until I looked at Captain Greywake. I knew who I was looking at. I didn’t know whether to be proud or…”

“Firmly disappointed I did not turn out to be an accountant or something equally boring and detestable? When were either of us going to have kind and generous lives, Sevari?” Zaveed mused, biting into an apple as they walked and chewing thoughtfully before continuing. “At least this way, my name is immortalized, even if my body and soul are not. Alas, I simply grasped the cards that life had dealt me and cleaned out the house. It is an impressive achievement, is it not? Starting with literally nothing and propelling myself to infamy and considerable influence?”

“Where did that leave Marassa, Zaveed?” He shook his head, hand straying to the necklace she’d given him those years ago, “It doesn’t make it any better that I wasn’t the one that apprehended her. Thievery isn’t the jurisdiction of the Bhaanu Sasra. I’ve heard whispers from my associates that she’s doing well enough for herself, but I hardly think the reunion would be any better than ours, given where life’s hands has put us. Facing each other on the board.”

“I have no love for the Thalmor, but I love you two like my own blood.”

“I’ve not heard from her for some time,” Zaveed admitted, his gaze following another shapely woman who had passed by with her male companion for a few moments before turning back to Sevari. “She’s her own person who made her own choices. Like me, she took a terrible situation and made a name for herself. Why shouldn’t she be proud of her accomplishments? She’s done so well that even many of the Altmer bend to her will, which is better than she would have had if she’d been left to her own devices and not been given a chance to ascend.” he paused, considering the circumstances with a grim smile. “Were you to find her, right this moment, what would you even say to her, hm? Do you think she’d approve of who you’d become, or that she’d be able to look past that and just enjoy the moment?”

“No.” Sevari shook his head, sad and slow, “But we’d both know we have our jobs to do. It’s a dangerous world for people like us. I’m sure she knows that. She’s always been strong, but so have we all, each of us.” Sevari frowned, sighing, “I doubt she’d approve of either of us. I only hope my task doesn’t bring me to face her.”

“This task that lost me my ship and my entire crew?” the privateer inquired caustically, taking a rueful bite from the apple.

“A simple setback for Captain Greywake. Names would flock to you if you whispered you were hiring in any of these seedy taverns we go to.” Sevari frowned, “I didn’t conjure up that storm, nor did I write a letter to the Governor to kindly accost us on the shore.”

“And yet, it was your appealing to a long-dead history that prompted me to take you up on your offer at great personal risk that even cost me that nice payment you offered.” Zaveed replied, rolling his eyes. “I could have been quite contented in Senchal, raiding ships upon Topal Bay, and not be stuck in shackles held by the bloody Dwemer because you’re loyal to people who have done nothing but shit upon our people since they conquered us so many moons ago.”

“It was our people that never accepted me as one of their own. That doesn’t direct me in anything I’ve done, my associates feed me what I need to know about my task. Show me another who will do the same for me that I can trust and I’ll call him an ally.” Sevari clucked his tongue, “With all this talk about me bending over for the unseen hand of another, you seem to be nagging at me atop a fine high horse given to you by those Knife-Ears.”

Sevari shot a frowning glance at the man he called his brother, “The same people who turned an orphan into a killer, that took your friend, your brother, away from you in the dead of night and turned him into me. That took my brothers and came for me next. The same people who burned everything I held dear to send a message, make an example for questioning the strings on me.” Sevari spat, “What would you do if they executed Marassa for her crimes instead of pressed her into their service?”

Zaveed scowled. “Oh, it was quite a fine high horse they gave me, alright. Scooping shit and peeling vegetables by day, being passed from crewmate to crewmate, or to settle a bar tab at night. It was glorious life being degraded into even less than a street rat, Sevari. I am ever so grateful for the opportunity they gave me; indentured servitude with no pay, reducing me to nothing but a toy for their desires. It wasn’t until I had enough and drive a knife through the quartermaster’s heart did they start to see me as anything but that.” he spat upon the ground as they walked, his hands gripping his axes tightly in tense hands.

“Had they killed her, I would have died trying to take down as many of them as I could because she was the only family I had left. I only stayed alive because I didn’t want my actions reflecting badly upon her.”

Sevari stopped walking and stepped up to his friend, his brother, “You killed a man for rubbing your face in shit so long you couldn’t stand it anymore. You would’ve avenged your family.” Sevari looked Zaveed up and down, “Don’t ever judge me for pulling Aeliel’s guts out through his stomach while he screamed for mercy in my face for doing the same to Jivami and Fusosi.”

“Don’t ever judge me for seeking to destroy everything the Thalmor has built or is trying to wherever I find it.” Sevari’s gaze did not waver, “Don’t ever doubt that I would have done everything I’ve done so far and more if it were you and Marassa hanging from those poles in Senchal. I was kidnapped, Zaveed, forced to pay a debt forced upon me weeks before I met you with my very way of life. When will you stop blaming me.”

“When you stop blaming others for the choices you made. We’re all products of our decisions, Sevari, and as much as you tell yourself you were at the mercy of those people and had to bend to their wills, you could have walked away from it, or at least tried to. What you are is a product of your own decisions, not mine. The only difference is I never sought you out to ask you to put yourself and everything you’ve accomplished at risk for my own selfish desires.” Zaveed shook his head ruefully. “Like you, I could have fled back into the streets every time I made port to escape their cruelty, but I chose not to, because it was likely the only chance I had to make anything of myself. Now all of it is gone, sunk to the bottom of the sea, because you asked me to betray my duties to help you. You asked me what I’d sacrifice if they’d simply killed my sister instead of recruiting her? Look what I sacrificed for you.”

Sevari grimaced, taking a step back. His friends words angered him, not because they were insulting or scathing, but he knew they were true to an extent. He looked his brother in the eyes and for a moment, he saw them through the eyes of the child he once was, food in his arms for the only two people he found a place with since Suffian or his mother. He swallowed, before speaking gravely “You act as if a debt of blood is so easily forgiven or forgotten.” Sevari said, “I could’ve crossed you off my list of potential smugglers to get me here. Perhaps I should’ve. But here we are.”

Sevari shook his head, “I don’t want to spend it under a thunderhead of arguing. Make my own choices for once?” Sevari asked, a quick smile flashed across his face before it dropped into the resting frown again, “I’ll be a product of my choice to go back to our hole. Be a product of your choice to follow me or not.”

Zaveed grunted. “The night is young yet, and I have a job to do. Farewell, Sevari. Perhaps tomorrow will bring more positive tidings for us both.” the Cathay said tersely, stepping ahead and walking apart from Sevari, the gap between them growing ever wider.

1st Mid Year, 4E208CE

The morning came early, and it was a restless sleep for Daro’Vasora. After returning from the raid on the guard headquarters and learning of the abject failures much of the company had been responsible for, she gritted her teeth to the point that anything she tried to chew on to satisfy her oral fixation snapped over the pressure. The news, particularly on how Jaraleet had tortured the Dwemer administrator to the point of death and the complit nature of those who joined in that ordeal, she needed to find answers. She needed to find Latro, who had been a part of it; he’d surely have some insight of how things got so fucked up.

Deciding that she needed to get out of the room before she snapped at someone, she gathered her things and left the room before the others awoke, heading down the gilded hotel walls towards the male quarters to find Latro, needing to step away for a while. Before long, she found the quarters she knew the Breton bard was assigned to and with an idle thought, managed to pick the lock and slip the door open, silently stepping across the floor until she found the prone sleeping form of Latro. She gently shook his shoulder to rouse him.

“Up, we need to talk.” she whispered.

Latro jolted awake, snatching Sora’s wrist with a ferocity that surprised even him after he’d had time to realize where he was and who he was with, though the latter did remain a surprise. He gingerly let go of Sora’s wrist, almost guiltily moving away from her and wedging his hands beneath his legs as if he was trapping the heads of serpents. “I’m sorry.” He muttered, “I don’t sleep well.”

He reached over to the nightstand beside his bed and took a gulp of the water there and took a breath. He looked at the closed door, then the window. The silk curtains were fastened shut still, but he remembered just who was in the room with him, “The door was locked.” He muttered, “Why have you come?”

Daro’Vasora only rubbed her wrist where Latro had grabbed her; it was an understandable reaction, waking up anyone after the past month or so suddenly was always going to be a gamble. “Nothing to apologize for. Thanks for not grabbing a dagger first.” She said with a tight smile. “I couldn’t sleep and I needed to talk, care to indulge me?”

“Whatever you’d like.” He smiled sleepily. He lay back against the wall and finally settled with laying his hands on his lap, fingers entwined. “What did you need to talk about?”

“Outside, let’s not wake these guys.” She said, getting up from her crouch and walking through the dark and out of the door. When Latro finally roused, she was leaning against the wall with arms crossed. She began to walk to find a courtyard, or anything, that was private and wouldn’t likely be intruded. She let out a long sigh after a few minutes, staring ahead. “What happened yesterday?” she asked, her tone flat.

Latro had rejoined her after getting dressed, which for him, was only slipping on a pair of trousers in the Redguard style. He leaned on the wall with Sora, relaxed. When she finally revealed what she needed to talk to him about, he tensed up. It wasn’t that he couldn’t tell her, wasn’t that the Magistrate’s death was weighing heavy on him, no. It was that some part of him felt like he’d betrayed his own convictions in a way. Finally, he sighed, “We killed him.” Latro said. “We killed that Dwemer and I have no idea how we did it. Men don’t die from needles under their nails or being cuffed in the face.”

Her teeth ground again, her arms tight around her chest. “Who did it? The entire point was to bring him back.” She replied tersely, staring ahead. “We were told to do a mission, not torture some asshole because a few of our company are blood thirsty bastards. Did they not stop to think this is how we’re supposed to get support and assistance in our own goals? Why do they think we have a roof over our heads?” she asked him, frustration seeping through her teeth. “I’m trying, Latro. I really am. Rhea kept this gaggle of idiots in line and I thought it was the proper thing to do. I don’t know how to lead people, or motivate them, and for the most part, I’d probably laugh at most of them if they broke their legs. And yet, here I am, over my head, trying to get them to fight some bloody war they may or may not have a stake in.” she sighed, stopping in her tracks. Looking over to Latro, she shook her head, her expression softening. “Look, I know whatever happened wasn’t your fault. I’m just… I don’t know what to do.”

“We were compromised, Sora. The guards were on high alert after the stunt we pulled, do you think it would be easy enough to snag an officer?” He shook his head, “We shook them, got to the safehouse that was described, everything had gone to plan after that and we were going to lay low before bringing him back. They knew where we were, we fought them, but the Magistrate had succumbed to wounds nobody succumbs to.”

He slid down the wall onto his arse, “Poison, maybe. But who?” He shook his head, eyebrows furrowed in the frustration of remembering it all, “Why?”

That was an interesting revelation. She blinked slowly, her composure firming again. “If it were poison, it would have been premeditated. They’d have been plotting to murder the Administrator since before setting out, or deciding to deny his safe return if the mission was compromised. Who was in the room with him? Was anyone alone?”

“Jaraleet, Raelynn, and Gregor. No one else.” He sighed and wrung his hands, “I watched it all. If Jaraleet tipped his needles with poison, I never saw it, but poison doesn’t just stick to blades for more than an hour.”

“Nothing is right about this, Sora.” He rubbed his face and looked at his friend, he had so little morale and he didn’t want to waste it playing the past day over and over again, “I’ve never trusted merchants from Hammerfell, this very place sets my skin to crawl. I haven’t been here in a long time.”

“What of you, though?” He asked, eager to change subjects, “Your mission?”

“A mess. I managed to get the guard patrol list, but I got caught and only got out because I fought dirty. Meg let a bunch of prisoners out of their cells as a distraction to buy us an escape, and we didn’t find a prisoner transport list, but we managed to snag a few sets of armour thanks to Anifaire, Alim and Solandil. A few guards were killed, but I don’t think anyone really saw who we were except for the officer who attacked me.”

She concluded with an annoyed grunt. “So, yeah. That’s where I’m at. I’m realizing that avoiding a fight is becoming less of an option, and I really don’t think I’m capable of handling my own. Can you help me learn how to stand my ground when I run into situations like last night… I kind of got my ass kicked.” she said, glancing away, glad for the fact she couldn’t blush. It was embarrassing to admit.

“I’d say the best defense is fast legs, but since we’re set on fighting wars.” Latro chuckled, “Well, come. Let’s walk, at least warm up our bodies before we go hurting ourselves further.”

With that, Latro stood, hooking a finger on one of Sora’s own and taking her with him. They tip-toed through the hotel and picked their way into the training room in the basement. Latro felt young again, trying to stay as quiet as he could past the skeleton crew of hotel staff still awake at night. Guests of the Poncy Man or no, Latro had come to enjoy keeping his skills sharp the past few days in Gilane. After raiding the training room they slinked out of the building and onto the streets.

The one thing he did like about Hammerfell was that the early hours were always walking-weather. Not too warm, but a balance that supported his chronic abandonment of as many articles of clothing he could do away with while still being somewhat decent. Tonight was no exception. They walked the streets together, the early morning needing no breezes to make it comfortable. By the time they’d found a spot suitable enough for their liking, they could smell salt on the air and the sound of crashing waves. A lonely hideaway that was surprisingly spacious in an alley that connected two streets. A bench on one end and a zen garden on the other, sand combed into mesmerizing patterns and what looked like a standing stone to Latro in the center. “Well,” Latro said, “As good a place as any?”

“Such a romantic. I wonder what the real estate costs around here?” the Khajiit mused, crouching into a stretch. “You’re already dressed for the occasion.” she noted.

“One never knows when.” Latro smirked. He tossed a wooden training sword Sora’s way, closing his eyes as she caught it and taking a few deep breaths. He could feel his skin begin to tingle intensely and a slight numbness was the familiar feeling of a mage armor spell. “You needn’t worry about my safety.”

“Yeah, but what about mine?” She asked, looking the training storm from hilt to tip, moving it to get a feel for the weight. “This feels so backwards, with a mace all the weight is in the head. I guess pain’s going to be a good teacher, huh?” she asked, working out a kink in her arm. “So, en garde?” she asked with an impish grin.

“Well, they had wooden swords.” Latro shrugged, before adding cheekily, “Wooden maces are just called clubs.”

“I guess Hammerfell doesn’t have an abundance of sticks. Well, I guess it’s probably not a bad thing to go outside my comfort zone.” she replied, moving in for a low level thrust, much like she’d seen fencers do in performances.

Latro responded with a crisp riposte, stepping to her right from Sora’s thrust and batting the point off course. He quickly stepped back forward in a lunge, point aimed towards her chest.

Her balance was off, and the Khajiit tried to slow her momentum to avoid skewering herself on the wooden point, and ultimately she stumbled onto her hands and knees, scrambling back up to her feet with her sword pointed defiantly at Latro, circling him. “Well, that was rude.” She retorted, moving in with a few probing thrusts to test his defences. After being parried, Daro’Vasora made a wide underhand swung from the lower right, under his arms and towards the abdomen.

Latro was somewhat surprised to have stumbled Sora and she managed to gain a measure of respect back by immediately putting him on the defensive. Her footwork left something to be desired, but that would come in time. He parried, stepping in at the same time she made her swing. Almost caught off guard, his mind caught up quickly and he immediately transitioned into half-sword. Grabbing his blade, he hooked Sora’s sword with his crossguard, pulling it down before he followed up with a jab to the face with his pommel. He stopped just short, playfully butting his shoulder into Sora’s, “The blade isn’t the only part of the sword.” He grinned cheekily, “You swing it like a mace because you’re used to maces. It isn’t a mace.”

He stepped back from Sora, “The arming sword was the first of the weapons Francis taught me. He made a fool of me for three months every time we practiced.” He settled into Fool’s Gate stance, tip towards the ground in front of him, “In four months I was able to parry him and keep balance. In six months, I broke one of his ribs with a training blade.”

“En Garde.” He motioned for Sora to come at him.

“Can we reduce the making a fool out of me portion of the training down to a week? I’m in a bit of a hurry.” She said, not rushing into the invitation, studying him. How would she normally work on engagement with a foe, she wondered. Normally she used the environment to her advantage and her natural agility to take advantage of elevation and ambushes, and landing a single good hit was often enough to slow down her foes without them being able to give chase. Since that wasn’t an option here, she knew she had to improvise.
Latro would expect her to be entirely reliant on her weapon, but perhaps…

She charged at him, her blade held behind her, like she would the mace, like she was going to try another wild swing again, but instead, she pivoted last second into a slide across her knees, bringing her weapon up into a swing to catch Latro’s counter against an easy opponent, and she kicked back off the sand towards him, driving her shoulder into his exposed arm and dropping her own weapon to free her hand to grab Latro’s wrist as her momentum carried her back and down in front of him, pulling him off balance and into the dirt while her weight stayed on his arm. With claws out, she slashed, shallowly across his neck, knowing his spell would prevent any mark from showing. It was a desperate gamble that left her on her knees and giggling like a girl, but it was certainly unorthodox. “Sorry about the arm.” she said, slumping down to her back in the sand with a foolish grin across her countenance.

Latro was so surprised by the throw he let out a high squeal that quickly became a full-chested laugh. His sword had slipped from his grasp in the excitement and he lay on the ground, panting with laughter. He covered his mouth until his laughs had subsided, turning to Sora laying next to him, “I like it. Your swordplay almost made me forget who you were. I’m glad you reminded me. I like that ferocity.”

Latro rolled into a sitting position. He looked about the hideaway they were in and put his hands on his hips. “Another round? Or something else?”

“Oh hush, I can’t be perfect at everything.” She replied, tossing a handful of sand at him as she sat up and crawled over. “I could go another round or two, but I think I have an idea of a tie breaker.” she purred seductively in his ear before suddenly spryly leaping to her feet and scooping up her training sword with her foot, catching it by the grip like she’d practiced that particular trick a lot.

Oh, thank Baan Dar I didn’t muck that up. she thought triumphantly.

“Come on, Latro; going to let a small and helpless lady like me leave you in the dirt, or you going to show me how you really fight?” she taunted, performing a small flourish and standing in a defensive posture, blade at the ready. “Come and get me.”

He brushed off the sand from his chest with a chuckle as Sora crawled over and his breath caught in his throat when Sora’s lips brushed his earlobe and implied exactly what he thought she’d implied. He swallowed, regaining his composure. Although his heart beat far faster than it did up against death, he was still a bard. “That flourish almost tricked me into thinking you’d gotten better.” He said, sticking his tongue out cheekily as he got to his feet. “How I really fight?”

He rolled his shoulders and flexed his fists with his easy smile perched where it always was, “En Garde.”

Lightning quick, he put all the power in his right leg into launching himself towards Sora. She responded with a quick jab he caught under his arm, wrapping the corded muscle extremity around the blade and bracing it by wrapping his hand around Sora’s own on the hilt. With one quick twist of his core and upper body, he splintered the piece of wood all bent. The suddenness of it sent the two of them stumbling against a wall when Sora flinched back and his own balance failed him. Soon enough, they were pressed against the wall. “What a morning, eh?” He said.

She pressed her back against the wall, breathing heavily, holding the broken training sword in front of her with a surprised bark of laughter. “I guess this means we move on to the tie breaker. You broke my wood.” she teased, casually discarding it off to the side into the sand. She slid across the wall closer to Latro, running her fingers up his bare abdomen. “How about we break a wooden bed frame in and not get out until noon?”

“I’d say we’ve earned it with all this Dwemer shite.” He smiled, acting tenfold more level-headed than he felt and even surprising himself. What a morning. “Can’t have Gregor and Raelynn be the only ones having fun around here, can we?”

“Would you believe me if hearing them go at it’s haunted my dreams more than the Falmer infested caverns?”

Latro laughed, “I thought it was bears until now.”

“I can try sabercat, high end bargain there.” She offered helpfully.

“We’ll need to outdo them, we can try banshees and go from there.” He chuckled, “we should get back soon before we have less than 8 hours before noon.”

“8 hours? I’ll hold you to that.” Daro’Vasora smirked, pinning Latro to the wall and gently, yet seductively, kissing him on the lips. “So, you going to whisk me off my feet or what?”

“Mother Mara, where are my manners?” He smiled, swooping up Sora easily and carrying her off towards the hotel, “Do you think they’ll start to talk when they see us coming back like this or when they wake up from dreaming about Dibellan churches in High Rock?”

With an arm wrapped across the nape of Latro’s neck and a hand upon his chest, Daro’Vasora let out a rueful laugh. “Well, I suppose we better make it a story worth telling. Reminds me, you still owe me a song.”

Latro had that easy smile on him again, glad that it had found its way back to him after yesterday. Glad that he and Sora had found their ways back to each other, most of all. He looked at her with kind eyes and a sweet smile, “I do, don’t I?” He squeezed the back of her upper thigh where his hand supported her and made her jolt and giggle, “I know what a few lines will be about.”

“I suppose we will have to rehearse the source material until we get it right.” she purred.
Woah, shit, a huge fuck-off wall of text just got Schafted right in there
Raising an Objection with the Local Representative: Apprehending the Dwemer Administrator


@Dervish @Stormflyx @Spoopy Scary @Leidenschaft @Mortarion & @Father Hank


The Bazaar, Sunset, 31st Second Seed, 4E208CE

The parade was in full swing, and Nblec Mrazac could not envision a more perfect evening. The streets were populated with increasingly familiar faces, a small bag of chocolates hung from his waist belt, and more and more, he felt like he was making real progress with the locals. He applauded and cheered with as much enthusiasm as any of the Redguards who came to marvel at the acrobats, dancers, magicians and fire breathers that made their way through the winding Gilane streets, celebrating the talent of the city and of life itself. He tried in earnest to make himself visible to the people, to walk the same streets as them, to actually get to know them. At first, distrust seemed to be prevalent, but over time and by listening to people’s concerns and fears, he came to see them as his people, and he was not a faceless and heartless automation of a foreign occupying force to many in the city. Even for those who firmly opposed the Dwemer, he was seen as an exception rather than a rule. It was humbling and a great responsibility all the same, and it was nights like tonight that made him really feel that progress was being achieved. His people would be accepted by the Redguard, and they would find a security that they had not known for centuries.

A child called out, drawing Mrazac’s attention. A young Redguard girl was looking around frantically, searching for her mother. He approached, pulling some of the chocolate out of the bag and offering it to the young girl, “Hello, little one. Did you misplace your mother?” he asked. The girl nodded, wet eyes darting between the Dwemer’s face and the offered sweets. She took it timidly, and he crouched next to her, bringing himself eye level with her.

Offering a hand out, he said, “Please allow me to help you find her. My name is Nblec, you can call me Lecky if you’d prefer.” he said with a warm smile.

Together, hand in hand with the young girl, he began to call out the mother’s name, “Dalia, Dalia! I’ve found your daughter!”

Gregor watched the proceedings, and Nblec Mrazac in particular, from a distance, lurking in the shadows of a small space between two buildings. He had changed back into his old, black clothes for the occasion, hiding his identity beneath the folds of his cloak and the shade of his hood. It was very, very warm and he stood out like a sore thumb if he mingled with the crowd, but at least people would not recognize him if he walked through the streets in his new clothes later, should this mission did not go according to plan. He hadn’t forgotten the Poncy Man’s words, nor what the objective was, but Gregor had goals of his own to pursue. If the opportunity presented itself, he would not hesitate.

He narrowed his eyes and straightened up. There. If Calen and Latro were paying attention, now would be a good moment to strike. The Dwemer was calling out for the child’s mother -- if they pretended to know her or where she was, they could lure the Dwemer and the girl away from the parade. To abduct an elf while he was trying to help a lost child find her mother again… Gregor almost felt bad.

“You know, this ain't all that bad.” A muffled voice commented just behind Gregor’s ear. It was Calen, and it was muffled because his voice had to travel through a mouth full of chewed up flatbread, falafel, and some kind of delicious and creamy sauce. His cheeks were bulging out as he peered around the Imperial’s shoulder. He was in rather stark contrast to Gregor, wearing airy and silky clothes in pastel colors against his friend’s blacks. The bard continued to comment, “I feel kinda bad actually. He seems alright.”

Gregor exhaled sharply and removed his hand from the grip of his shortsword as he recovered from the fright Calen had given him. He’d expected the Nord to be mingling in the crowd, which he thought was the game plan, but perhaps he was mistaken. He looked behind him, hard eyes staring at Calen from the darkness of his cowl, and said: “Don’t forget he’s part of a ruthless, totalitarian administration. His shit could cure Rockjoint, for all I care. Now go on and get him away from the crowd. You look trustworthy, abuse it. Alright?”

“These things take time, my friend!” Calen nonchalantly said as he casually strolled on ahead. “People are delicate. Isn't that right, Rae-rae? Let's show him how it's done.”

“Errr, my name is Raelynn. You can call me by my name…” came the overly saccharine voice of the Breton from behind Calen. She too, was adorned in pastel tones. A soft lilac bralette that was beaded and embellished with an elegant gold trim. The chiffon let her skin breathe, and revealed her shapely hips and midriff, the skirt a deeper hue with an equally revealing split up the side, allowing a view of her thigh when it opened with her movement. She let her eyes cast a gaze over the crowds, she was also holding some street food in her hands. It was a festival after all. “I'm going to weave my way through the crowd alongside the women, try and distract his guards,” she said, before taking a bite from the stick, letting a soft moan slip, “this is actually rather amazing…” her eyes widened as she looked at it in awe, not expecting something from the markets to pack such flavour.

Blending into the crowds and moving with them like a fish through the currents had come back to Latro in time. He’d come to the festival bedecked in street garb not unlike the locals, enough garb to confuse people about his gender. A long scarf draped over his shoulders he was planning to use as a mask being the only clothing with hidden motive. Beyond that, he looked like any other troubadour taking a rest from the road life.

After a while of actually going to vendors’ stalls and tasting the local food, he felt as at ease here as he thought he could. When the time came though, he was sitting beside a few others taking a rest from the loud but otherwise cheerful happenings. If only his life could be lived so simply, nothing else to rest from but a good day’s work and too much walking around a festival. He caught sight of Nblec, almost immediately recognizing the Dwemer official. It helped that he was in full uniform and was accompanied by a very official looking attachment of guards.

He wordlessly rose from his seat, trailing behind the Dwemer Magistrate at a reasonable distance. When he stopped to enjoy the goings on, his guards grew a tad more lax, but still dead set to the task of keeping their eyes out for anyone or anything suspicious. He was in the main square now, the others should be here. Soon enough, he caught sight of Gregor in an alleyway, swaddled in shadow and hooded in black. That obviously did nothing to soften the eyes’ initial response to seeing him in an alleyway. He wondered whether to nod or not and then decided against it, only waiting for his moment to set his role of the plan off.

Along with Latro, Jaraleet had also been mingling with the crowds gathered for the festival. Much like the Breton, the Argonian had decided to go dressed in garb similar to those used by Gilane’s citizens with the only exception being a hooded cloak that the assassin planned to use to hide his features once the moment to strike came.

Jaraleet was unsure if his comrades had come armed but he for his part had decided to bring his swordbreaker in case it became necessary to defend themselves, the dagger easily concealed behind the traveling cloak he wore. He had not forgotten the words of the Poncy Man about the growing love Gilane's citizens had for the Dwemer official, and as such the assassin was ready for things to turn violent at a moment’s notice. He only hoped that the other members of the group would be ready for that same possibility.

As Calen closed the distance on the administrator, he heard him yelling and calling out for someone. “Dalia,” he was saying, and then his eyes fall on the young girl at his side. Then it began to click. His eyes darted between the alleyways surrounding Gilane’s bazaar; there was no way he was willing to let some innocent girl get caught in the crossfire, and though he trusted that Gregor or Raelynn wouldn’t be so brash to endanger her, he wasn’t sure how the other two would behave. That Latro fella seemed like soft enough folk, but he wasn’t sure about Jaraleet, and it wasn’t because he was an argonian. There was something about him that Calen couldn’t put his finger on; he carried himself differently. Regardless, he had to get the girl out of the way first and foremost.

The bard strolled up by their side and began joining them in their calls for the girl’s mother. “Dalia!” He called out. Nblec looked down at Calen, who greeted him with a smile, and smiled back, before resuming in their search for Dalia. As far as Calen was concerned, this was a double whammy: get the girl to safety and earn the administrator’s trust at the same time.

As the others got to work on the plan, Raelynn kept a safe distance and meandered through the crowds watching carefully for any level of trouble that may arise - keeping herself out of harm’s way in the process. She spotted Calen again, and heard him too. The her eyes found Latro and Jaraleet. It would be time to strike soon…

“It is good to see a do-gooder like yourself!” Nblec enthused before cupping his hands around his mouth to continue calling for the child’s mother. It didn’t take long before a frantic Redguard pushed her way towards them, her eyes wide with dismay. On seeing her mother, the young girl raced into her mother’s arms. Dalia, as she was called, looked up at Nblec.

“Thank you! Thank you so much for finding my daughter. Bless your heart.” She said, holding the girl tight against her bosom before rising up to take her hand in hers. Dalia turned to lead her daughter away from the crowd when the child cried out, “Thank you Lecky!”

The time was now, Nblec was distracted with his glee at reuniting child with mother, Latro was poised and ready, and Calen was there too. The only members of the party whose location she was unaware of were Jaraleet and Gregor. She had to get in there and distract the bodyguards of the Dwemer. She knew the best way, too. Raelynn stepped through the crowd, starting from some way back with fanning off her face and she loosened strands of hair from her braid to make herself look more disheveled.

As she got even closer to them, she began to stagger in her steps, gasping for breath loudly. Those around her began to watch, trying to stop her, but she continued forward, sliding right in front of the guards. Her eyes were wide in fake shock, she leant over, panting and gasping; “It’s… too hot… I can’t… I can’t!” her voice came out as a dry squawk, and she started rolling her head from side to side, her body tilting left to right slowly, their eyes were on her. The helpless maiden in lilac, a small crowd formed around her - inadvertently pushing Nblec forwards on his path - widening the distance between the Dwemer and his guards, and Raelynn was in the centre, about to complete her act. “...I think I’m going to--” she cleverly cut herself off, and flopped backwards lifelessly, knowing that someone would catch her.

The two Dwemer guards looked at each other for a second before Raelynn fell. One of them quickly moved in to catch her and gently lowered her to the ground. “Madam? Madam? Are you quite alright? Can you hear me?”

The other guard hovered over his comrade's shoulder. “I think she's suffering from heat stroke.”

“Really?” the first guard asked and looked up at his colleague with a slight hint of incredulity. “Was it the 'it’s too hot’ comment that gave it away?” He shook his head and returned his attention to Raelynn. He knew their duty was to guard the magistrate but he also knew that Nblec would not take kindly to them ignoring a woman in need. Public relations, he called it. “Let's move her into the shade. Make way, please!”

“Egast!” Calen cried out dramatically. “Poorest fair damsel! Look what fate had befallen her!”

Gregor had retreated further into the alleyway in preparation for what was about to happen next, but he was still able to observe Raelynn's little theatre and smiled in wry amusement. His eyes sought Latro in the crowd but could not find him. Hopefully he was already moving to strike.

Latro pursed his lips at Raelynn’s display, appreciating how convincing it was for the guards. He moved ever closer while wordlessly thanking his companion for that. As he got closer, he heard Calen’s voice eek out something even he had to stop and cock an eyebrow at. Were they kidnapping a man or putting on a play for him? He chuckled and shook his head, pushing past a pair of children and quickly slipping his scarf over his mouth, covering up any trace of Latro’s identity. In the chaos Raelynn had caused amongst the guard troupe, Latro slithered past them almost too easily. One had to double-take at him before he yelled something at his back, reaching out a hand to grab Latro by the shoulder.

An almost effortless feint had the guard’s hand grasping up only air and before the guard could call out to Nblec, Latro had gently pushed a confused bystander out of his way and into the guard’s, tripping him up. It was all falling into place. Latro shoved his shoulder into Nblec’s and with a lightning quick movement his knife cut through the twine holding Nblec’s coin purse to his belt. The Dwemer grunted and with a good-natured grin he turned in Latro’s direction to presumably apologize, but the smile fell away when he locked eyes with Latro’s own. He watched him push into the crowds and checked his belt, finding his coin purse missing.

Latro slipped through the crowd just sloppily enough that Nblec could keep him within eyesight. He wanted the Magistrate to follow. “Stop!” He heard from behind him, “Stop! Thief!”

The voice of Nblec was her cue for the second part of the act of distraction. She opened her eyes slowly, once again a look of shock on her face, pretending to be roused to consciousness by the guard who had caught her, in the scuffle, she hoped he hadn’t heard Nblec call out - but she was about to make sure he didn’t move from his spot with a sudden exclamation. She yelped out convincingly; “ahh! Get your hands off me, don’t touch me there! You heathen!” Raelynn slapped his hand away and jumped to her feet, there was a clear look of confusion on the guards face that turned to embarrassment quickly enough. “He touched me! Did you see it! He grabbed at my rear, I’m simply astonished!”. The witnesses who were scattered around began to shake their heads and tut at him, taking the words of the pretty Breton woman as gospel in that moment. The crowd grew larger and louder - drowning out Nblec’s calls.

Calen turned to face Nblec, looking as simply astonished as Raelynn and indignant at the whole chain of events. He incredulous face darted between the administrator at Latro’s retreating back, “I can’t believe it! That rascal -- that scoundrel! I don’t think he knows who you are! We should give him chase before we lose him for good! Why, we’ll work the apology of a lifetime out of that man!”

Nblec rubbed his hands together and found himself nodding in agreement with Calen as he spoke and, looking back toward his bodyguards who were becoming increasingly useless as the crowd swarmed around them, he finally said, “I think you’re quite right! I’ll see to his justice myself!”

“This way!” Calen proclaimed, taking chase after Latro with Nblec close behind.

Jaraleet, much like Latro, had used the commotion caused by Raelynn’s act as a means with which to move closer to their target without being noticed. Like they had planned beforehand, the Argonian assassin had stayed slightly behind the Breton man as the latter approached the Dwemer administrator and grabbed his attention.

As soon as Nblec was chasing after Latro personally, something that was made easier thanks to Calen’s urges, Jaraleet pulled the hood from his traveling cloak over his head, hiding most of his features with the exception of the tip of his snout, and began following the administrator at a brisk pace, sticking to the shadows cast by Gilane’s buildings under the sunset to ensure that his presence wouldn’t be detected.

Everything appeared to be unfolding according to plan. Gregor had hidden himself even deeper into the alleyways, his shrouded form lurking in the shadows around one of the corners, listening intently to the ruckus in the street. He thought he heard the word ‘thief’ being called and prepared himself, drawing his silver shortsword from its scabbard -- it was easier to maneuver than his claymore in the small spaces between the buildings and he wasn’t trying to kill Nblec, just capture him. Latro ran past him and their eyes met briefly before Latro found a place to conceal himself in the few seconds that remained before Calen and Nblec himself appeared. Gregor could hear their running footsteps approach before they rounded the corner and he felt his heartbeat quicken as they came closer and closer, until--

Nblec barely had time to register what happened when Gregor burst forth from the darkness like a bat out of hell and forced him to the ground, the red-hot edge of Gregor’s enchanted blade pressed against the bare skin of his throat and the Imperial’s weight pressing on him. He opened his mouth to cry out but Gregor silenced him with his free hand, leaving no recourse for Nblec but to gaze at him accusingly. Gregor’s eyes were hard as ice, however, and he could feel the Dwemer deflate as the reality of the situation set in. “Cooperate with us and you will live,” Gregor hissed, his face mere inches away from Nblec’s. “We want information, not your life, but we won’t hesitate to kill you if you resist. Come, on your feet.” He stood up and dragged Nblec to his feet in a single motion, the battlemage far stronger than the magistrate, and pushed him face-forward against the wall. “Tie his hands,” Gregor said to Calen and Latro, while he himself made sure that the Dwemer could not move. His guards could not remain very far behind, he knew, as Raelynn’s distraction would only work for so long. He hoped Jaraleet was ready -- it was his job to dispose of them when they followed into the alleyways.

With their target secured, Jaraleet retraced his steps until he was back at the entrance of the alleyway through which Latro had run after stealing Nblec’s coin purse. The commotion caused by Raelynn’s theatrics had already quieted down, with the Breton healer being nowhere in sight, and the two Dwemer guards were busy asking some of the remaining citizens if they had seen the direction in which the administrator had went.

Instincts honed by years of training had prepared Jaraleet for such a situation and he retreated to a side-alleyway as he waited for the guards to orient themselves. It didn’t took too long for the pair of Dwemer to find where the administrator had gone, but Jaraleet had made good use of that time. As soon as he had joined the group charged with capturing Nblec, the Haj-Eix had begun preparations to ensure that the capture of the administrator, and the disposal of his guards, went smoothly as possible. Preparations which had seen him brewing several poisons of paralysis, something that was possible thanks to the fact that the Poncy Man had both alchemical apparatuses and a few of the ingredients necessary.

He had carried a few bottles of the poison on his satchel, also conveniently hidden behind his cloak, and in the time that the guards had spent questioning Gilane’s citizens he had made sure to coat the edge of his swordbreaker with the poison. When the guards passed by the side-alleyway without noticing him, Jaraleet struck in a second. His free hand covered the mouth of the first Dwemer while his dagger sunk on his victim’s throat, the poison ensuring that the guard could do nothing as the Argonian assassin let him drop to the ground before advancing on his comrade.

To the surviving guard’s credit, he quickly realized that something was amiss when he heard the thud made by the body of his paralyzed comrade as it hit the ground. Unfortunately for him, Jaraleet was quicker and the Argonian easily managed to hit him with a shoulder charge directly on his chest. The second that the surviving Dwemer needed to regain his air was all that Jaraleet needed to bury his dagger on the guard’s throat. With the poison spent on the previous Dwemer, Jaraleet knew that the second one wouldn’t go as quietly and as such, to avoid drawing undue attention, the assassin grabbed the body of the dying mer with the arm that held his dagger while he used his free hand to cover his mouth.

“There’s no use struggling now.” He said quietly as the Deep Elf thrashed in his grip, trying to free himself. “Shhhh, shhhh, it’ll be over soon.” The assassin said softly as the dying mer tried to speak, the only result being an inarticulable gurgle that was easily muffled by Jaraleet’s hand. “Before you, nothing. Behind you, the Void.” The Haj-Eix intoned quietly in Jel as the light left the mer’s eyes and his body went still. Gently depositing the cadaver, he checked that the other Dwemer was also dead.

Satisfied that he had managed to take out both of his targets without drawing attention, Jaraleet sheathed his dagger and disappeared into the shadows once more as he made his way towards the rendezvous spot that they had agreed on previously.




“There you are, come in, come in,” the Redguard keeper of the safehouse said as he opened the door after he and Gregor had exchanged passwords. The party and their captured bounty -- which was still trying to protest as loudly as possible despite the gag they shoved in his mouth -- swiftly shuffled inside. They found themselves in the front room of another luxuriously decorated house, not dissimilar from the interior of the Three Crowns, and a plate with wine and refreshments was ready for them on an elegant salon table. Gregor, who was still holding Nblec, looked to the Redguard for instructions, and was subsequently directed to a smaller, spartan, windowless room that contained only a table and two chairs. Nblec was unceremoniously dumped on one of them and his arms tied to the table with the same rope that kept them bound already. Gregor and the Redguard stepped outside after that task was complete and the Imperial shook hands with their host.

“Casimir, pleased to meet you,” the young Redguard said as he introduced himself while walking back to the front room. “You are the leader of your unit, I presume?”

Gregor paused. They hadn’t discussed who was the leader, or if they even had one. “We’re all equals. My name is Gregor.”

“Very well,” Casimir replied quickly and cleared his throat. “I have very bad news, I’m afraid. Reports have come in that the Dwemer are sweeping the city in search of our friend inside, going door-to-door and searching through everything. It is only a matter of time before they come here. We--” He stopped to breathe and swallowed hard, and Gregor could see that he was afraid. “Nblec cannot stay here but we cannot move him either.”

They had joined the others by the time that Casimir was finished speaking and Gregor averted his gaze from the nervous Redguard to look at his allies. This was troublesome news, but Gregor wasn’t about to lose his cool now. “You heard the man,” he said to the rest. “If anyone has any clever ideas, now would be a good time.”

“The solution to our current predicament seems quite simple to me.” Jaraleet replied calmly, taking a step forward. “We interrogate Nblec, obtain as much information as we can from him.” The Argonian spoke in a cold, matter-of-fact, tone to the gathered individuals. “Much like Casimir said, it is only a matter of time before the Dwemer find us and Mrazac has already seen our faces. If he is rescued, it could very well endanger the entirety of the Samara cell.” He said, crossing his arms behind his back. “It is not an ideal solution, but it seems the best one given our present situation. Any objections?” Jaraleet asked calmly, turning to look at the faces of the various members of the group as he waited for their answers.

Calen could only bring himself to stare incredulously at the argonian as though he had just sprouted a second head, utterly speechless. He slowly swiveled his head around to look at in direction of the bound and gagged Nblec in the adjacent chamber, then looked to everyone else in the room before his eyes landed back on Jaraleet before responding with the most indignant declaration of disbelief he could muster, “No! Shor’s bones, I think our ship has sailed off course enough as it is.”

Calen gestured in the direction Nblec in the next chamber. He didn’t exactly know what Jaraleet meant by interrogation, but Calen was nothing if not imaginative. The bard continued, “You know, I was hoping we could just slip Lecky outta there nice and easy, maybe have a pleasant cup of tea, talk about our feelings -- and he’d be all like, ‘gee, you rebels don’t seem all that bad, you must be really convinced you’re doing the right thing.’ The next thing I know, we start gagging him and you come back with blood on your clothes.”

Raelynn paced softly around the room as she listened - the faint jingle of her jewellery suddenly the only sound. She made her way to the table and helped herself to a glass of the wine. She was going to need it. She let the men speak amongst themselves, her ears pricked at Calen’s voice of concern - they way he rejected the plan of interrogation. She smirked, hiding it behind the goblet as she took a sip.

There was a few moments of pregnant silence before a soft, high voice came from a corner of the room, “Do it.”

Latro rose, taking a few steps closer to Jaraleet, “What other choice do we have? Let everything we’ve done thus far go to shit?”

Latro frowned, “These are Dwemer. I saw them slaughter the Imperial City without any notion of pleasant cups of tea. If any of you weren’t there that day in the White-Gold city,” he cast an eye over the room that was uncharacteristically angry and jaded, “Mothers were killed with babies in their arms without a notion of talking out feelings. I’m no murderer, but I am convinced that whatever we do to Lecky,” He spat, “is the right thing. Violence deserves violence.”

The other Breton surprised her, he harboured such an anger within him towards the Dwemer - she hadn’t seen much of him so far but this side was a pleasant surprise. She let his words of emotion ruminate for a few seconds before she knew that it would be the voice of a woman that should anchor everyone back to reality. “I say we interrogate him,” she began, as she moved from the outskirts of the room to the centre, her voice bore a subtle tone of confidence to it, “I am here, I can stay with Nblec to ensure no harm comes to him, and that he leaves in one piece.” Her eyes met everyone in the group as she spoke. “There are many ways in which we can get him to divulge what he knows… I have the necessary skills to safeguard him from anything fatal.”

Taking another small sip from the glass, she approached Calen and placed her hand gently against his arm, “he will leave as he arrived Calen, I will make sure of that.”

Gregor raised his eyebrows when Latro voiced his approval with such conviction, but the outburst of emotion made sense after he explained what he had seen in the Imperial City. Gregor had only heard of the atrocities committed while he was among the refugees in Skingrad; this was the first time anyone in their party had talked about it in his presence. “I agree,” the Imperial said and nodded in Latro's direction. “They are invaders. We are not here to make friends with them. I admire your gentle disposition, Calen, but the time for compassion has come and gone.”

With that, Gregor looked at Jaraleet and Raelynn and motioned for them to follow him.

“I’m keeping watch.” Latro’s eyes remained angry as he put them on the door to Nblec’s room, in which his enemy was bound and helpless. A supreme hatred of these mer that shattered his peace and threw the lives of so many to the gutter, bleeding and dead. It was the best reason to hate, in his eyes, even as gentle and peaceful as he tried to make himself be. The anger was still there when his gaze was on Calen, as if by his words he’d thrown his lot in with the Dwemer and betrayed the rest of the group. Before he reached in his bag stashed in the corner and changed his shirt and discarded his scarf and leaving, he said to no one in particular, “Good people detest violence. But good people doing nothing when it’s visited upon others is the only thing worse.” the only sound after that was the door slamming shut.

The only thing that broke the silence after was Casimir, “I, eh, I guess I will join him. Good luck, my friends.” And he too closed the door behind him. Calen was too distracted by Raelynn’s agreement to the plan and her touch paired with Gregor’s disapproval. It threw him into a deep melancholy thought, thinking about what they were saying and trying to assess why it still didn’t sit well with him even after he understood where they were coming from. It was something he disagreed with on a fundamental level

“Ever heard of Barab Okama?” Calen asked idly after a few moments of awkward silence. His arms were crossed, his back was pressed firmly against a wall, and he was looking away from Latro. When he got no response from the Breton lad, he suppressed a sigh and decided to keep on going. “He was a Redguard leader a few generations back who authored a book or two. I read some of his work back at the Bard’s College. One of them, ‘Hope’, was about his belief of pacifism within an Alik’r warrior culture. ‘Violence for violence is the rule of beasts.’”

Calen paused for a second, reflecting on the irony of the story as he added nonchalantly, “Then he perished. Killed by his own people, so maybe I missed the deeper meaning in that story. I don’t know, but I liked the message it sent: ‘an expert swordsman can rout an entire army with only his blade, but a master could rout the entire world without ever drawing it.’ I’m no soldier or warrior, so maybe my beliefs mean nothing to you or even to anyone for that matter… but I do believe in victories.”

Still, there was only silence. Calen raised a curious eyebrow and turned around to look to where he thought the Breton was, only to find the corner he thought him to be sitting in to be empty. He looked around the room -- there was nobody to be seen. Then he heard the front door creak open, revealing Latro’s pretty, if still sour face. Oh yeah. He had just left not long ago.

“Are you talking to yourself in there? Why don’t you help us by keeping watch out here instead.”

“Uh… r-right.” Calen stammered with an embarrassed smile on his face, rubbing his hand against his neck. “Sorry about that.”

“Mm.” Latro grunted tersely before closing the door again. He took his seat next to Casimir once more, the pair sharing a rug with a teapot and two cups between the two. The balcony they were on offered a decent enough vantage point with only two blind spots that could be used to assault the safehouse.

That was something that did not sit well with Latro, his eyes imagining movement there every so often. He sighed, rubbing his face at the energy he’d exerted earlier. Casimir spoke up, “Your friend. He seems weak in this task. I would not toler-“

“I will not have this conversation.” Latro frowned at the man beside him. Despite everything said before, Casimir speaking on someone he traveled with gripped him with anger, “You know nothing of any of us, Redguard.” The two sat quietly, waiting for Calen.




Raelynn followed Gregor into the room, Jaraleet behind her. Despite his position of complete vulnerability, Raelynn would not look Nblec in the eye. Still she had a fear of them, it wasn't an anger like Latro, it was an uncomfortable knot in her stomach that only fueled her conviction that they were doing the right thing. She said nothing, and stood in a corner, far enough away from the bound Dwemer that made her feel more at ease. This was no place for a womans tongue, and so she held it. Waiting for either her Argonian companion, or lover, to break the tense silence.

Jaraleet had remained silent as the rest of the group had spoken in support (or against in the case of Calen) of his idea. He had expected someone to protest, but the way that Latro had agreed with him, the conviction in his voice, had surprised the Argonian slightly. Still, despite Calen’s protest, this situation had helped Jaraleet to know who he could call upon for help to do what needed to be done to ensure that the group would continue to survive the Dwemer’s invasion.

Closing his eyes, the Argonian willed his mind into a blank state. Right now he couldn’t afford distractions of any sort, his sole focus must lay on Nblez Mrazac and in obtaining the information that the Dwemer held. “Raelynn.” Jaraleet spoke, tone of voice cold and detached already, as he turned to look at the Breton. “I have need of a needle, or a similar object, would you happen to have any at hand?” The Argonian asked before turning to face Gregor. “Gregor, I need you to make sure that our captive here hasn’t loosened his restraints while we were discussing what to do with him. If he has managed to do this, please make sure to tighten his restraints again.” He said before turning his attention towards Raelynn once more as he waited for a reply from the woman.

The sudden change in demeanor did not go unnoticed by Raelynn, and his request prompted her to raise an eyebrow. She unfolded her arms, saying nothing but she did look Jaraleet in the eye as she ran her hands through her hair, fingers pulling against the bun atop her head. After a few seconds she pulled two sharp pins from inside, which caused the bun loosen and unfurl around her face. “They're not needles, but they have a point and they'll do the job,” her suddenly cold gaze then met Nblec’s as an audacious smirk played across her full lips, “you may have to use more force, my friend.” Her voice was soft and innocent, a stark contrast to the sadistic words that rolled off her tongue. The increased look of terror on his face delighted her, the very thought of his pain was melting away her fears.

“My thanks, I'll repay you once things have calmed down.” Jaraleet said, accepting Raelynn’s hair pins before he turned to face the bound Dwemer. The Argonian crossed the short distance separating him from the captured mer in silence, not even bothering to address Nblec as he knelt in front of the Dwemer and began sliding one of the pins under one of his nails. It was clear at a quick glance that Jaraleet's actions were performed with a degree of familiarity and ease that wasn't found in just about anyone, as he methodically and mechanically burrowed the pin before pulling a nail. “Where do you keep your prisoners Mrazac?” The assassin asked calmly, the needle burrowing ever so slightly under the flesh hidden behind another nail to give Nblec a hint as to what would happen if he didn’t answer.

Nblec was terrified. From the moment he had a blade to his neck, when he was tied like a pig, and now as he sat in this chair. He swallowed dryly as he watched the happenings, his mind wandering to the darkest depths of his fears when he saw the lizard-man take the woman’s hairpins. He tried to gasp out a pleading ‘no’ as the lizard-man drew closer but only managed a whimper.

When the needle pried in between his nail and finger, his hand involuntarily flinched, only adding to the pain as he let out a terrified shriek, body tremoring at the pain. When he finally caught his breath, he yelled out, “I have no idea! I have no clue! Please!” His head drooped and he let out another whimper, “I-I know nothing about prisoners.”

Jaraleet slightly pushed the needle further in, looking at Nblec directly in the eyes. “What about the location of other officers? Where do they live? Who do they live with?” The Argonian assassin asked, pushing the needle further and further in until it was poised to pull another nail. “Don’t move, otherwise you’ll lose another nail. Same if you lie.” The Haj-Eix asked coldly, his eyes staring dispassionately at Nblec’s terrified face.

Nblec gritted his teeth, he’d gotten no more used to the pain in the last few seconds and it still sent tremors through his body. He sat and flailed as the needle dug in further and finally, another nail gone. Tears were streaming down his cheeks by then, he felt so weak. “Why are you doing this to me?” He asked, “Tell me why!”

He knew they were going to kill him when they found out he knew nothing. His heart sank ever deeper thinking about his little girl at home. She’d be expecting treats brought back from the festival but now all she’d be getting is a folded up flag and news of his fate. “I have a family, please. I won’t tell a soul about this if you just let me go, just let me see my daughter, please.” He sobbed weakly, face screwed up with pain and sorrow.

He threw any notion of being strong to the wind now, he’d be dead soon enough and he let the tears flow freely as he quietly shook with his stifled cries. His fingers were still throbbing with pain, “I don’t know anything of value to you. P-please, my daughter, she’s waiting for me.”

Gregor had done as Jaraleet requested and made sure that the Dwemer's restraints were still fastened tight before taking up position behind Nblec, ready to intervene in case their prisoner had any tricks up his sleeve. That didn't seem to be the case, however. Quite the opposite: either Nblec was a fabulous actor or he had truly broken. It was almost disappointing to see one of the butchers of White-Gold and conquerors of Hammerfell reduced to such a state. It seemed that they were just mortals after all. Nblec’s tearful begging and pleading to be reunited with his daughter sparked a pang of sympathy within Gregor but the Pale Reaper quickly squashed it. It was like he himself had said: now was not the time for compassion.

He knelt down behind the Dwemer and placed both of his hands on Nblec's shoulders, his mouth only a few inches from his ear. “If you cooperate, you will see your family again. You don't have to be brave. The longer you resist, the more my associate here will torment you. Think of your daughter: confess.” Gregor's voice was low and firm, treading the line between comforting and menacing. He looked past Nblec at Jaraleet and then Raelynn. It seemed like the three of them all had a much more sinister side, and he was now sure that Jaraleet had not been entirely forthcoming about his previous life. The Argonian’s cold detachment was remarkable.

“Th-there is nothing to confess!” Nblec cried out and tried in vain to shake the large man away from him, feeling his skin crawl under his touch. “I. Know. Nothing!”

Like a lamb bleating, he sobbed again, choking on his tears and holding his face away from his two nailless fingers, “I’m an administrative officer of the City’s guard. I don’t know anything about prisoners of war or other officers.” He gritted his teeth, “If you carry on with this, they’ll bring them to hunt you!”

The threat was not empty, and a quick ferocity flashed upon Nblec’s face. He knew who they would send if news the insurgency was getting more brazen and tales of their ruthlessness were aplenty within every rank of the Dwemer government in Hammerfell. “Kill me! High Command will never let it go and you’ll be hunted like dogs!” He thrashed against his restraints now, “I don’t know anything. You can either kill me or let me go. If you let me go, I’ll tell my superiors that it was only thugs, but you go on with this and they find me, it will be the end of you.”

As the Dwemer sobbed and struggled, Raelynn smirked, the more pain he was put under, the less frightening and intimidating he became to her. He became smaller and smaller to her, insignificant. Jaraleet was focused on his task and was working with an intense precision - the normally polite Argonian had gone, for now. She couldn’t help but think of the night before - Gregor’s passion and fury at the Dwemer. His secret, and she looked at him then, kneeling behind Nblec, his voice so serious. Her own stare held a sudden sinister darkness to it and she took a sharp breath in - knowing that it wouldn’t be long until Gregor was thinking the same thing - if he wasn’t already.

Jaraleet remained silent as Nblec threatened them after his little surge of bravado, pulling yet another nail free once the Dwemer was done talking. “A reminder to not threaten to us again, it can only lead to more pain for you.” The Argonian said coldly, moving the hairpin to the next finger. “And do you truly expect me to believe you know nothing? It is true that you might not know much about the wider machinations of your peoples war efforts.” The assassin continued, slowly sinking the pin under Nblec’s fingernail once more. “But you must surely know other individuals who know more than you, no? Cooperate with us and the pain will lessen.” He said, stopping the pin from sinking further into his flesh, but not removing it, so as to prove his point.

Nblec strained against the rope that bound him to the chair once more as the Lizard-Man stuck another pin under his nail. He screamed and cursed and hung his head low when the damage was done, breathing heavily. A bead of sweat cascaded from his widow’s peak to his beard as he sat silently for a few moments. “Have you no concept of information being classified?” Nblec took a long breath, wailing and thrashing was tiring work. He had resigned himself to his fate at this point, knowing that no matter if he told the truth or simply lied to end the pain, it would result in his death. May his daughter live well after all was said and done. “By next morn, they’ll know I am gone. They’ll know something is afoot, Lizard-Man.” A look of hatred upon his face as he finally met the Lizard-Man’s eyes, “Then they’ll come for you. And you will not be so cold when they visit these same pains and more onto you.”

He frowned deeply, “Nor you,” he said to the big man with an even bigger sword before turning to the woman, “They’ll make you cry out first, to soften the men’s hearts while they imagine what’s being done. Wench.” And he let go a gob of phlegm that stuck to her cheek before roaring out with a cracked and thirsty voice, “End me!”

“I know full well the pain that you speak of Nblec, I’ve lived through it more than once and have gone through worse myself. Any fear that I might have had for such a fate, or towards such pain, is long gone from my mind.” The Argonian said nonchalantly, unperturbed by Nblec’s words or by what he had said. “And you will not die, it is not up to me to decide whether you return to the Void just yet Nblec.” He said quietly upon the Dwemer’s request to end his life, taking hold of one of his fingers and breaking it painfully. “Cooperate, or only more pain awaits you.” He said, settling the broken finger back into its original position. “Tell us what information you might have, and this will be over.”

So the magistrate had some fight left in him after all. Gregor had seen that type of defiance before. As it did so often, the last moments of Hannibal the Vigilant replayed in his mind’s eye. He could feel the latent anger that simmered like hot embers inside of him at all times rise to the surface as Nblec threatened painful deaths on them all and actually spat in Raelynn’s face. Gregor drew in a sharp breath of air and had to stop himself from reaching out and breaking something important in the Dwemer’s neck. Any sympathy he might have felt for Nblec was gone now, replaced by irrational wrath, and he wondered how Jaraleet could stay so calm. How often had the Argonian carried out such interrogations? Gregor was reminded of the stories he had heard about the Thalmor Justiciars.

This was taking too long. Gregor reached a hand around Nblec’s face and firmly grabbed his jaw, preventing him from shirking away, and leaned in closer to whisper in Nblec’s ear, his voice so breathless that none but the Dwemer could hear him now. “The lizard-man is being kind to you. You don’t fear death, I see that now… but there are fates worse than that. Confess, or your soul will never see the light again.”

Wiping the back of her hand over her cheek, Raelynn removed the Dwemer’s present. She restrained herself from diving towards him, tearing at his eyes with her fingers, or from raising a hand to him. She couldn't stand to be near the revolting creature, but she would not give Nblec the satisfaction of her looking scared and shaken by his threatening words. She remained as stoic as possible for as long as she could before once again, a devilish smirk grew, she could see Gregor’s face pressed to his ear. She didn't need to know what he said, she knew it was something truly wicked.

Nblec managed a haggard, but rueful laugh, “Just end me. I don’t know anything you want, only merchant ship schedules and civilian supply caravan routes, you fucking fools!” He heaved in trenoring breaths and he didn’t know if he was shaking from the pain or the anger he felt. “I’m an administrator. I know nothing of high-level information because that isn’t my job!

Nblec’s head whipped around as he heard a sharp crack, then a few moments later, a full staccato of the same. “They’ve come.” He grinned.

As soon as Jaraleet heard the distinct crack of a Dwemer rifle being shot a curse in Jel left his throat before the assassin regained control of his emotions. He looked at the bound figure of Nblec and then at both Gregor and Raelynn, “Gregor, stay over to guard him. Make sure that Nblec is ready to move at a moments notice.” He said as he stood up and made his way to the door. “Raelynn, I need you to come with me. We are not sure who might be wounded or how badly, so we’ll have need of your talents.” The Argonian said to the Breton woman before he turned to look back at Gregor. “We’ll return once we’ve managed to secure an escape route for us.” He said before leaving the room for good, leaving Gregor alone with Nblec.




Latro and Casimir had sat alone and in silence until Calen arrived, after which the silence still continued with some awkwardness. It was eerily quiet within the safehouse and Latro had to wonder if they were torturing him at all in there. “These walls are thick?”

“Enchanted. We’ve had seals placed in the corners to muffle the sounds that could’ve made it out.” Casimir said, “Useful for interrogations.”

Latro nodded and sighed, watching the view they had from the balcony. “A lot of interrogations then?”

“I was not always employed by the Poncy Man.” Casimir frowned. Suddenly, he squinted, leaning forward as he sat, “Did you see that?”

“What?” Latro asked, before he saw a light like sparks in the distance. Then a second later, he heard the crack and turned to Casimir to ask what it was, but Casimir was laying back against the wall.

Both Latro and Calen stumbled away from Casimir dumbfounded, who was leaking from a hole in his brow and a ruined eye socket. Latro immediately prepared a hasty mage-armor spell while Calen held his breath in preparation of a muffling spell of his own, before a roaring thunder of cracks followed and left sandstone raining down on them. Latro caught sight of a large group of Dwemer ascending the stairs to the balcony and readied himself, strengthening the mage armor while Calen sneaked around the side of the balcony. He stood as they came at him, counting six, fists at the ready. By the time the first one got to him, his sword-swipe cleaved only air as he snaked away from its path.

Latro’s arm lanced out, quick as a viper, and a fist dented the front of the Dwemer’s helmet in. The Dwemer stumbled back and Latro shoved him into his comrade to trip him up. Without thinking, he dodged away from a mace coming down on his head and kicked out with all his strength, shattering the Dwemer’s knee and bending his leg the wrong direction. Another foot stomped down and dented the back of the Dwemer’s helm. He sidestepped another sword swipe and grabbed the Dwemer’s arms, muscles straining in wrenching it over and blocking another blade with the Dwemer’s own. He pried the sword from the first Dwemer’s grip and sent the hilt swinging into the other Dwemer’s helm, metal panging off metal hard enough to almost shake it from Latro’s grip. Only more were coming up the stairs.

Calen was quick at work, silenced by magic, making not a sound as he undid the fastenings of a tapestry draping the side of the building and praying that none of the Dwemer soldiers would see him. When he finished, he bundled the tapestry up in his arms, hurried over the side of the balcony overhead of the encroaching soldiers, and unfurled it and draped the tapestry over their heads. Hopefully that would buy them enough time to retreat.

Wasting no more time, Latro kicked the other Dwemer he’d disarmed square in the head as he turned and followed after Calen into the safehouse, bellowing, “They’re here!”

“Yes, we heard your warnings. I left Gregor to guard Nblec.” Jaraleet said as Calen and Latro entered back into the safehouse, having grabbed his sword and dagger once again. “Do we have an approximate number of how many troops the Dwemer have sent? How many riflemen?” The Argonian asked, briefly pausing when he noticed that Casimir wasn’t with them. “I assume Casimir is dead, no?” He asked as he readied himself for the Dwemer’s inevitable breach of the inner space of the safehouse.

Raelynn hurried too, following Jaraleet out of the interrogation room. She had no idea what would happen next - how many there would be. Nblec’s words did cross her mind; They’ll make you cry out first, to soften the men’s hearts while they imagine what’s being done. She’d had some kind of power in that room, and now she didn’t. Her heart began to race in her chest as she readied herself for whatever was about to happen. There could be any number of Dwemer arriving - and only Jaraleet, Latro, Calen, Gregor, and herself. She prayed internally that they would not be overly outnumbered. “I’ll be back here, I can’t fight but if you are in too much trouble I’ll patch you up. Be careful out there…” This was the first time since the Imperial City that she was in such immediate danger - Alim appeared in her mind and she momentarily found herself hoping that he was safe, that his groups’ mission hadn’t gotten quite so off track...

Back in the interrogation room, Gregor was left alone with Nblec and began unfastening his restraints. They had to get him out of here. An idea had come to him, however, born from the darkest recesses of his mind; the Imperial stopped what he was doing and turned his head slowly to look Nblec in the eye. The sounds of combat outside intensified and Gregor knew that he had only the briefest of moments to act. Nblec’s eyes widened at the sight of the unnatural hunger that fell over Gregor’s features and before he could open his mouth and alert the others about what was going on, Gregor got to his feet and slammed the door to the interrogation room shut.

“What are you doing?” Nblec asked, but Gregor did not reply. He knelt down in front of the Dwemer, clamped his left hand over the magistrate’s mouth and gathered his magicka in his right hand. A ghastly, pale blue light illuminated the room and cast long, stark shadows on the walls for a second before it disappeared into Nblec’s chest. Gregor looked up at him and saw in his eyes that the Dwemer felt the deathly chill squeezing his heart -- the soultrap of Oblivion. He began to struggle now, desperate cries muffled by Gregor’s unyielding grip, and the Imperial shushed him while he prepared another spell. This time the room was lit up by a blood-red glow and Nblec looked down his nose, terrified, as Gregor placed his palm over the Dwemer’s heart.

“Rejoice,” the Pale Reaper said, his voice high and cold, his face a mask of iron, and drained the life out of him. Nblec’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body went slack as his heart gave out, all of his life-force stolen in seconds, before his soul swiftly followed suit. The room was filled with a bright flash and a rushing sound, like a waterfall or a hurricane’s winds, and ethereal streams of light poured out of the Dwemer’s corpse and into one of the pouches that lined Gregor’s belt. He exhaled a shuddering breath, only now aware that he had been holding it in, and loosened the pouch’s strings with trembling fingers. He pulled out a black soul gem, warm to the touch, and gazed at the dim light that shone within: the soul of Nblec Mrazac.

He laughed, a mirthless sound that echoed unpleasantly off the walls, and put the gem back where it belonged. He’d done it. He’d actually done it. The Ideal Masters would be thrilled, he reckoned. But he wasn’t in the clear yet. Gregor drew his silver shortsword, took a deep breath, wiped the satisfied smirk off his face and opened the door to the rest of the safehouse.

From the Dwemer’s belt, a pouch fell to the floor. Across the dusty tiles several pieces of chocolate rolled, coming to rest alongside their owner’s final resting place.

Like Jaraleet had expected, it didn’t take long for the Dwemer to finally breach into the interior of the safehouse. A quick glance told the Argonian that there were about a dozen or so soldiers along with the fact that some of the soldiers had decided to forego the use of their rifles in the interior of the house in exchange for melee weapons. Any further thoughts on his part were cut short as he saw the few Dwemer that hadn’t switched weapons lining up their shots towards him and the other members of the group.

“Everyone, down!” The Argonian shouted as he kicked a table over, using it as an impromptu cover to protect themselves from the rifle shots.

It all happened so fast after that, things happening all at once. The booming cracks of thunder reverberating on the walls of the safehouse disoriented him and the others. He felt someone wrap themselves around him and he began his fall. The table next to him had splintered in half and he had no idea if Jaraleet was alive behind it.

By the time he hit the ground, he heard Raelynn’s scream. He looked down to see Calen on top of him. The two rolled over and there was crimson blossoming from a hole in his shirt. Latro let go a shuddering breath as Raelynn dropped to her hands and knees beside them. Calen looked between him and Raelynn with wide eyes, tremoring hands going to his chest and touching hot blood.

Like the bleating of a lamb that gripped his heart near-still, Latro heard Calen’s wordless yelps as the pain finally found him. He looked to Gregor, then to Jaraleet, who was wiping a hand over a weeping arm wound with the same face someone would look at a splinter. Gregor was the first into the fray, carving out a Dwemer’s neck with his short sword. Latro and Jaraleet fell in step beside him while Raelynn trudged along behind them with Calen limp in her arms.

The fight seemed to have lasted hours, but in truth only minutes, with Latro’s limbs feeling like jelly and his entire body a host of aches and stinging. They hid in alleyways and even houses, Raelynn taking the small moments of rest to keep Calen stable before they moved in earnest. They finally made it close enough to the Five Crowns Hotel to be intercepted by some of the Poncy Man’s men, no doubt catching sight of them from a vantage point over the streets. They hurried Raelynn and Calen to the nearest master healer they had at the Five Crowns while the rest trudged defeated back to their dorms.

Latro sat on his bed, seemingly unable to move from it since they’d gotten back. He looked at his hands and his shirt, both covered in Calen’s blood. He swallowed, lips uttering a single curse under his breath as he sat. How did it all go so wrong?
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