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 10 An unlikely meeting.

Lady Barenziah was nearing the end of her patience. Ambassador Moven had been wearing at her patience since arriving half a year before. He kept submitting the same proposal over and over again. To be sure, each time he submitted it, it was worded differently, clauses had been intermingled, sometimes entire parts had been rewritten, but in the end it was still the same piece.

Looking up Lady Barenziah saw Ambassador Moven was still droning on; he had the uncanny ability to speak for hours on end, without ever tiring, either physically or of his own voice. Looking to her right, she saw the seated form of Divayth Fyr resting comfortably in his seat. He was slowly breathing in and out and to all appearances, had been lulled to sleep by Ambassador Moven’s endless droning. Barenziah knew better though; there was nothing Divayth missed, no matter how long a boring person had been droning on.

Resigning herself to at least another hour of this, Barenziah sat back in her chair and hoped time would somehow be sped up. If she had known she would have to listen to people as boring as Ambassador Moven, she might never have become ruler of Morrowind, well at least ruler in name.

A knock on the door caught her attention, followed by a familiar figure entering the throne room. Barenziah knew who it was before she saw his face. There was but one person who entered the throne room without leave from her, and without setting off Divayth Fyr’s alarms; Lord Nerevar. Even though she knew him as well as a family member by now, she could never get used to calling him Relien. As a Dunmer, it was always a thrill for her, seeing lord Nerevar alive and well, if in a different body, standing before her.

As always, she made a bow from the waist, honoring him. He might have seen fit to persuade everyone that the proper ruler of Morrowind should be Lady Barenziah, but she definitely had a different view on that. “Lord Nerevar, welcome, and thank you for coming.”

“The honor is mine, Lady Barenziah,” was the reply, followed by a bow of his own. “Hehe, when are we going to cease this formality, Barenziah?” He said with a smile.

Barenziah smiled back and replied; “Likely when Azura starts coming to our meetings, then we can both defer to her.”

“Hahaha, well spoken Barenziah. Well spoken. I believe...” A cough behind Barenziah interrupted what he was about to say.

“Ah, erhm Lady Barenziah, my apologies for disturbing, but I believe there is still a proposition on the table.” Annoyed, Lady Barenziah turned around to face Ambassador Moven, “No Moven, the matter is off the table.”

“Ah, but if I may point out, milady...”

“No you may not, Ambassador; for weeks now you’ve been in here nearly every day, and every time with a so-called new proposal. I rejected the previous ones, reject this one and will reject the following ones. You wish for me to make House Indoril whole again with the stroke of my pen, and I will not. As far as I’m concerned Gahprovihn Drules is still the undisputed leader of House Indoril, and if and when he accepts you and the rest of your kin back into his House is his choice. I will not take any side in the matter.”

Looking like he’d just been struck, the ambassador for once seemed speechless. He stiffly bowed, turned around and left the throne room.

Turning back to Lord Nerevar, she noticed he was failing miserably at stifling a laugh. “Well done, Barenziah, though not entirely tactful, was it?”

“I’d say he had it coming though, Relien.” Turning around, both Relien and Barenziah smiled at the words of Divayth Fyr.

“Good to see you again Divayth.”

“Likewise Relien”

“Now, Barenziah, I understand there was something you wanted to discuss.”

“Yes, yesterday a small caravan came here from Cyrodiil. I first assumed it was a caravan similar to ones we always get, but then late yesterday evening I received a message from one of the Blades operatives inside this palace. That by itself was unusual; a spy exposing himself for the sole purpose of delivering a message. But the contents of the message were even more unexpected; it identified two ranking members of the Blades, including their grandmaster, as traders of the caravan and asked us for a private audience. With everything that’s been going on in Cyrodiil in recent years, I thought it best to ask you to be there.”

“Thank you, Barenziah, I’m as curious as you are to find out the reason behind this. While I’m here though, I’d like to ask your opinion on something else. Perhaps we can have a seat and a drink while we discuss it; I’m afraid it’s quite a story.”

After Lord Nerevar had told Divayth and Barenziah everything Baurus had told him, they sat for a moment in silence, all thinking over where to go from there. It was Divayth who spoke first; “While this may be too obvious, have you tried visiting Oblivion yourself yet?”

“Yes, I remember your lessons Divayth, those doors leading into Oblivion though, have been shut alongside the other ones we knew.”

“Hm, this is a problem then.”

“Have you considered taking the matter before Lady Azura?” Barenziah interjected, “Who better to offer a solution to this, then a Daedra prince?”

For a moment Lord Nerevar just looked at her, then he said with a smile and a wink, “I could kiss you, if I didn’t know Reynel would become jealous.” For some reason that made Barenziah feel very warm inside.

“Now then, now that we’ve helped you find an answer to your problem Lord Nerevar, will you help us find an answer to ours? Let’s ask these emissaries into the palace and see what they want shall we?”

After seeing both Lord Nerevar and Divayth nod, she sent a servant to locate the Blades and ask them into the palace.

Choosing the throne room for what might be the first formal meeting since the informal secession of Morrowind from the Empire, Barenziah watched as the three emissaries entered the room. Lord Nerevar whispered the names into her ear, “The one on the left is Captain Steffan, usually charged with command over Cloud Ruler Temple, what passes as the Blades headquarters in Cyrodiil. The one on the right is Grandmaster Jauffre, the head of the entire Blades organization in Tamriel, and arguably the most well informed man in Cyrodiil.”

The man in the middle was wearing a brown travelers robe, and Barenziah understood from the hesitation that Lord Nerevar was not entirely certain just yet who this was. She sensed a spell emanating from him, after which he chuckled and spoke up.

“Chancellor Ocato, I had no idea you were gracing our province with a visit, else I would have met you at the border.”

The hooded figure lowered his hood and sure enough, there was Chancellor Ocato in the flesh. “Lord Nerevar, I must admit I was not expecting your presence here, either. Greetings to you, Lady Barenziah, Master Fyr.” He nodded to each of them.

Barenziah looked at Lord Nerevar questioningly, but he nodded to her as a signal that as always he deferred to her.

“Chancellor Ocato, on behalf of all of Morrowind, welcome to Mournhold. I trust you find the city to your liking?”

“Yes Lady Barenziah, it is a fair city, and a fair land. And I must say, your new Ghostfence is very impressive.”

“It is isn’t it; Lord Nerevar did a remarkable job constructing it. But I’m sure you haven’t traveled all this way just to chat about the Ghostfence, have you?”

“No milady, I have not. This might sound odd, but I believe I was visited in a dream by the avatar of Talos- an old man who called himself Wulf and who offered me a solution to the current crisis, if I would promise to do something for him in the future.”

At the name of Wulf, Barenziah looked sideways to Lord Nerevar, who nodded, indicating that he caught it too. “And what, pray tell, did Wulf tell you in your dream, Chancellor?”

“He told me there is one more descendant of the Septim bloodline, one even better hidden then Martin, because this one was hidden by Talos himself. Talos told me; ’In naming him, he will know himself.’ Now this might sound odd, but I was told he is masquerading as a Jester in Ebonheart.”

Barenziah and Divayth both looked at Lord Nerevar, waiting for him to speak. Chancellor Ocato caught the look and also looked questioningly at Lord Nerevar.

“There is such a person in Ebonheart. I don’t know his name, nor does anyone else. Everyone simply calls him Jester. Are you sure that’s what Talos said, Chancellor? Because I’ve been around the Jester many times, and I’ve never noticed anything out of the ordinary with him; besides, he’s not very bright, if you know what I mean.”

The Chancellor looked disturbed by that. “Talos can’t expect us to put a token emperor on the throne. Why bother to go through all this when we can never expect him to rule anyway?”

“Knowing Talos as I do, I’m sure there is a good reason for everything, and with him, things are often not as they appear.”

“I would like to ask a favor then from you Lady Barenziah, that we be allowed to travel to Ebonheart and take this Jester with us back to Cyrodiil. If he is to be the next emperor, I understand if you’ll want a steep price in exchange.”

Barenziah didn’t even have to confer with Lord Nerevar to answer that; “Chancellor Ocato, we require nothing in return, well, nearly nothing really. Merely a confirmation of our independence after he ascends the throne, and a non-aggression pact or even an alliance between the Empire and Morrowind would be most welcome as well.”

“So be it Lady Barenziah, if that is what it takes to preserve the rest of the Empire, I reckon we have little choice. I agree on behalf of the Empire.”

“I’m glad of this, Chancellor. I hope this will be a very big step towards eternal peace between our two nations. Now, let’s see if we can’t shorten the trip to Ebonheart somewhat. If you don’t mind leaving the rest of the caravan here, I’m sure I can persuade either of these two men standing next to me to teleport you three to Ebonheart.”

“Actually,” Lord Nerevar started, “if Divayth doesn’t mind, I’ll take you three there myself. I’m fascinated by this latest ploy of Talos’.”

“Before we go Lord Nerevar, I’d like to have a moment to send a messenger by fast horse to Cyrodiil. He can send word to my retainer for an escort to meet us shortly after we cross back into Cyrodiil. Safety at that point will be most important.”