Cyrodiil Options

[Alexander]

Ok, so for the unavoidable introduction babble, as most of you know I was rather pleased with Morrowind. I thought it was far better then the dribble I wrote prior to that, and most people seemed to agree with me. After I finished Morrowind I already had an idea for a sequel, I actually wrote the very first chapter of said sequel while I was posting up parts of Morrowind. Unfortunately though, after that first chapter I kind of lost interest. I didn’t think the ideas I had back then were enough to weave an entire story together, and I was probably right.

But as these things have a habit of developing themselves, over the past months I kept thinking back to the sequel, and kept adding ideas to the pile I already had. Now it’s done. I once again enjoyed writing this, and I hope you’ll have similar fun reading it.

As I’ve explained in the past, I’m not very good at making up things like titles, Akatosh knows it took me about as long to come up with the various titles of the chapters as it did to write the entire thing, so I’ve named the story “Cyrodiil” (catchy wot? )

Before I end my babbling and get on with posting the story, I once again would like to thank Treydog for agreeing to help with my story as editor, and for fixing the many, many, many grammatical and spelling errors, and placing every comma, semicolon and whatchamacallit in the correct place. And thanks to everyone who ever read Morrowind, and commented. I really enjoy the comments.


Now, while you don’t have to have read Morrowind, I believe in order to get the most out of Cyrodiil, it would be recommended.


So, enough babbling and on to Cyrodiil.

[Alexander]

Chapter 2. Aftermath.

Walking through the aisles of wounded made Filben feel very sad. Such suffering, such a heavy price paid to bring back peace to the Empire and close the doors to Oblivion. And now the Empire would have to rebuild itself, restore order, and try to endure- all without an Emperor. A groan from one of the beds caused her to kneel down and cast another healing spell. She was reaching the end of her endurance, but how could she sleep knowing so many brave men and women were suffering, or even dying?

Filben often thought back to the day when she came to Cyrodiil. Nearly three years ago now, she came here from Valenwood. A typical Bosmer, she had been a master at the longbow nearly as soon as she could walk. But to Filben it simply wasn’t enough, where many Bosmer find they have a knack for the more stealthy professions, Filben knew at a very early age that she wanted to use her time on Nirn to heal and help those less fortunate then she.

With the help of a local Mages Guild Wizard, she was teleported to the Imperial City and presented to Raminus Polus. He must have seen something special in her, because he accepted her into the guild at face value. She thought to herself that it surely had nothing to do with her exterior; she wasn’t tall, or muscular, but then no Bosmer was. Her sign surely had helped, the Ritual both helped restore her and turn the undead; for a mage that was always helpful. And like any healer she had spent many years training her will, and trying her best to develop a helpful bedside manner.

A new noise ended her day-dreaming. Two voices down the hall were loudly arguing. What a thing to do; a sickbay in the middle of the night was no place for a loud argument such as that. Walking briskly towards the sound of the voices, Filben found the voices were coming from two people, a Redguard with some nasty looking cuts over his face and body, and an Altmer towering over him, trying to keep him in bed.

“Gentlemen! Please lower your voices; this is a sickbay, and people are trying to rest.”

Two sets of eyes turned towards her, and Filben was shocked to see the Altmer who was standing with his back to her was none other then Chancellor Ocato.

“I agree, and I’ve been trying to explain it to Baurus here. A sickbay is a place of rest, Baurus, and you need to get some rest. I understand you’re concerned for Varvur, but you can’t help him if you’re exhausted now can you?”

“But Chancellor, how can I rest knowing Mehrunes Dagon has him, knowing what he must be doing to him?”

Filben could see the pain in Baurus’ eyes; she tried to think of something comforting to say, but in the end realized all she could say was the truth; “Ser Baurus, you look exhausted. I understand you’ve been up for more than a day now, and it’s the middle of the night. What good will you do Varvur if you die of exhaustion? Besides, even if we allowed you to get up now, where would you go? Who would you see? Who could help you get to Oblivion now?”

Seeing Baurus had no reply to that, Filben walked up to him and gently pressed him down into the bed, and covered him with a blanket. “Trust me Baurus, in the morning you’ll be in much better shape. And you will need all your strength to do something as monumental as traveling into Oblivion itself.”

Filben saw Ocato smile at her, and gesture for her to follow him. “It would be wise to give him some sleeping potion, or at least something that will help him calm down. Knowing Baurus I would not be surprised to see him try and sneak out of here in an hour or two.”

“It shall be as you say Chancellor. Ah, and Chancellor, my apologies for just now, I should not have spoken to you in such a manner, asking you to be quiet I mean.”

“Nonsense, you were right. Tell me young lady, what is your name?”

“Filben, Chancellor, recently promoted Journeyman in the Mages guild.”

“Filben, I shall have to remember that name. Good night Filben.”

“Good night Chancellor.”

Journeyman indeed. Oh Filben was a Journeyman, but it hadn’t been exactly conventional. She had done all the recommendation quests save the one from Cheydinhal as she had heard the ranking member there was none too pleasant, so she wanted to save it for last, when the Oblivion crisis erupted. All conventions were thrown out of the window at that point, and Filben was made apprentice and stationed at Skingrad to assist the rest of the mages there. For her work there she was promoted once again to Journeyman and was presented a choice of staves. After some consideration she chose one with a powerful shock damage spell on it because while skilled in the arts of healing and even subversive magic, destructive magic had always been her worst side.





During the next week Filben cared for the wounded in the sickbay, and thanks to the efforts of all the healers doing their best, most of those injured had recovered by then, or enough so at least to allow them to go home. One day though, one of the apprentices came by to escort her to Raminus Polus.

When she entered the Arch-Mage’s lobby she was startled for a moment to see Chancellor Ocato there, speaking to Raminus. While it was true the Chancellor was technically a Master-Wizard in the guild, he was rarely seen at the university, spending most of his time at the palace ruling, as best he could, the Empire.

“Ah Filben. Thank you for coming. We were just speaking about you actually.” While Raminus said it in a pleasant voice, Filben wasn’t too assured. Had her speaking out against the Chancellor cost her her place in the mages guild? She certainly hoped not.

“Master-Wizard Polus, you asked to see me?”

“Yes, I have a small errand to run. As you know all the counts and countesses are in the city, including Count Hassildor. I understand you got to know him a bit during your time in Skingrad?”

“Yes Master-Wizard, I did.”

“Good. I would like you to go to him and ask him to meet me here tonight. There are some matters I wish to discuss with him.”

“As you wish, Master-Wizard. Was there anything else?”

“Now that you mention it, be here first thing in the morning. I believe the Arch-Mage will have a few things to discuss with you.”

“Yes Master-Wizard.”

That was it then; the Arch-Mage wanted to personally scold her for speaking against the Chancellor, and then personally expel her. So much for her days in the Mages guild. She worried about this the entire way to the hotel of Count Hassildor, and obviously it must have still shown when she delivered the message from Raminus, because the count stopped her before she left and asked her what was wrong.

Surprisingly he laughed after she was done telling him. “You shouldn’t worry so much, Filben; I’m sure things will be fine.”

“I’m not, Janus.” Even after calling him that for months now, it still felt strange. During her time in Skingrad she had had to visit the castle often, and while she was at first shocked to see a Vampire rule an Imperial city, she soon found out why. Janus had one of the most flexible minds she had ever met, and they soon became close friends. Janus had insisted she call him by his first name, and after he nagged her about it for weeks, she had agreed. As close as they were, Filben never allowed herself to forget he was a Count though. “I’m not at all sure Janus, but I’ll try to face my expulsion with dignity.”

The two of them talked for over an hour, but even after Filben was lying in bed that night, she couldn’t help but dread the next morning.