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]

When she entered the lobby, fortunately all she saw was Raminus. Perhaps Janus had changed his and the Arch-Mage’s mind about expelling her. She certainly hoped so. Her hopes were soon crushed though, “Filben, thank you for coming. The Arch-Mage is expecting us in his chambers; please follow me.”

Resigned to her fate, Filben walked behind Raminus as they entered the Arch-Mage’s chambers. She had only seen the Arch-Mage once, a kind looking old Breton who had personally welcomed her to Cyrodiil.

She had seen the others in the room far more often though; Caranya, a female Altmer, Irlav Jarol, an Imperial male, Tar-Meena, an Argonian female and the one who had provided Filben with her staff; together with Raminus and the Arch-Mage, the five of them formed the Council of Mages, the highest ruling body in the Cyrodiil chapter of the Mages guild.

“Welcome Filben.” She just didn’t understand this pleasant tone, and now the Arch-Mage was also smiling at her; surely they wouldn’t enjoy expelling her? Or could Janus have been right in saying she surely wouldn’t be expelled?

“Filben, Count Hassildor tells me you’re worried we might expel you, is that so?”

No one lies to the Arch-Mage, so obviously she replied truthfully “Yes Arch-Mage, I was wrong in speaking so to the Chancellor in sickbay that day, and I will understand if I am expelled for that.”

“Well that’s funny, because Raminus tells me the Chancellor came here in person yesterday to speak on your behalf. Apparently he has been as impressed with your work as Count Hassildor, and the Skingrad chapter members.”

“He, he came to speak for me? Not against me?”

“Indeed. After having spoken about it with the rest of the Council, and in light of your accomplishments, we see no other choice but to promote you to Magician- with all the benefits and responsibilities that go alongside it.” The Archmage was smiling through all this, and so were most of the others. Filben could have hugged them if not for the fact that they would likely consider it beneath their stature.

“Now then, with that out of the way, there are pressing matters. Filben, please stay a while longer; I have an assignment for you as well. One that might make you wish I had not promoted you just now.”

“Rumors have been floating to the surface for a while now that an organized group of Necromancers has started to show itself. Reports are increasing and Tar-Meena here, while retrieving the wood required for your staff, found the guardians of the Wellspring cave slaughtered and the necromancers who did the deed still present. Unfortunately none could be captured for information, but if they were able to best the two guardians the organization is powerful indeed.”

“After this event we sent a Mages guild member to infiltrate the organization. Unfortunately we haven’t heard from him for some few days now, and to be honest, I’m worried harm might have come to him. The last communication from him was when he was holed up in an Ayleid ruin along with a number of Necromancers. The name of the ruin is Nenyond Twyll. Filben, I want you to travel there and see if you can find him and bring him back. Or if you can’t find him, find out what happened to him. I shall mark the location on your map and provide you with a code which you can use to recognize him.”

Turning to the rest of the council, the Arch-Mage continued, “While she is doing that, I have a different task for the rest of you. I want you to each travel to a city or series of cities and convey the news that a band of Necromancers is active. I do not wish to use magical means of communications, because there is always a chance of them listening in. Caranya, I want you to travel to Bruma, and then on to Chorrol. Tar-Meena, you will visit the southern cities Bravil and Leyawiin. Irlav, you will travel west, first to Skingrad, then Kvatch and then on to Anvil. And Raminus, travel to Cheydinhal and while you’re there, please promote Deetsan to Wizard and confirm her as the new head of that chapter.”

“Irlav, while you’re in Kvatch, speak with Falcar. He’s a competent administrator and I’m sure he’s doing his best to complete his voluntary mission of building a new Mages guild chapter there, but let him know I would value more frequent updates. Now I want all of you to return post haste after you’ve informed the various cities. Once our informant returns we will have much to discuss.”

It was Caranya who spoke next, “Arch-Mage, might it be wise for Filben to know the name of the Informant rather than just a code?”

“You may be right Caranya. His name is Mucianus Allias.
Leave as soon as you can. That will be all.”


As soon as she could for Filben was immediately. She was so happy for being named Magician. Janus was right; she always thought too negatively about events, and this time not only had she not been expelled, she had been promoted, even skipped two ranks. She was so pleased, that she nearly didn’t see the man in a black robe as she rode across the old bridge on her black horse. Her horse just barely missed him but he had to jump to miss the horse. How odd though, she thought. She hadn’t seen him come from down the road, so he must have come from under the bridge. What could he be doing under an old bridge dressed as he was?

She got down from her horse to see if the man was alright, but as he raised his face to look at her, she noticed what she had often seen caring for the ill ; insanity. The man was clearly not sane and he proved it when without warning, he drew a dagger and came at her. Filben barely had time to think before he was on her, but casting a quick invisibility spell gave her the edge. Almost as an afterthought she cast a silence spell. An invisibility spell was effective until one acted, but never disguised the sound one makes while moving around. The spell combination gave her enough time to walk around the man and take up the staff she always carried on her back.

Dispelling the spells she called to the man, “I wish you no harm, but am a member of the Mages guild and will defend myself if forced to. Drop your dagger.”

He would not listen to reason, though, and came after her again even before she had finished speaking. With a heavy heart she lowered her staff and cast the shock spell on the man. He was killed almost instantly, but not before having time to quietly babble about some revenge he would be unable to take now.

Filben was torn; on one hand she did not want to leave a dead body out here without proper burial rites; on the other hand she had an important mission. In the end she chose to continue on her way and sent word through magical means to the Imperial City, informing them of the corpse.












Not long after Filben had left, a tall woman in a black robe similar to that of the dead man stumbled across the corpse. She was supposed to find her latest orders underneath the old bridge south of the Imperial City. But the last orders had said nothing about finding a corpse so close to it, and while the Silencer was a Nord, she was not dumb. By the look of the clothes and the enchantment on the knife lying beside the dead Breton, this was obviously a member of the Dark Brotherhood.

What was he doing there? She didn’t know. Looking underneath the bridge she did find her new orders; to kill a known psychotic called Shaleez in flooded mine. You didn’t have to be a scholar to sense something was odd here. Rather than pursue her next target, she thought it best to return first to her Speaker, Lucien Lachance, and ask if the dead body should be seen as a change in plans.