Listen To The Sound Of The Ashlands, Chapter 2-> Lock Options

[Fiach]

~ Time to start Chapter 2, as always, feel free to comment and give your opinions on the story so far ~
Chapter 1-> The Return


Chapter Two-> Lock


The wind was merciless that night as it lashed against the thick walls of Vivec, Abigail looked down at the waters below.
She enjoyed the view from up here, it helped her forget everything. The hardships, the battles lost and the people that abandoned her.
There was knock on the door. Abigail smiled to herself. Not this again…

“Come in” she sighed, the door opening with a shallow creak. “Roderick, Fathis…what do you want?”
The dunmer and redguard behind her both turned a bright red, she didn’t even have to turn around. “Our men caught some travellers up north, we were wondering if…”

“Are they spies?” Abigail cut Roderick short, making his blushing redguard face darken even more.

“Eh…no, we don’t think so miss”

“Are they Fugitives?”

“We...we don’t think so…”

Abigail turned around, her eyes fiery. “Then why are you wasting my time?” she growled. Roderick paused, speechless. Less than a decade ago they were in Suran, drinking, dancing and having fun.
But the last ten years did a lot to Abigail, at nineteen she was still a girl with a pretty face and mischief in her eyes.
But she had grown since then; her face now was beautiful, ladylike. Her emerald eyes were hardened from seeing her friends die and her voice was like tempered steel.

Once she wore dresses and loose fitting leather armour, now she was dressed in the attire that once belonged to an Ordinator, with a purple sash tied around her forehead to keep her lush brown hair out of her eyes.

Fathis smiled softly, “We are pretty low on men Abigail” he said slowly, “They could come in pretty useful…One of them is a Tsaesci.”
“A Tsaesci?” Abigail whispered, interest showing in her eyes for the briefest moment. “Whatever” she murmured, giving a shrug before pointing at the door. Fathis and Roderick gave a bow and left the room slowly.

Roderick took a deep breath, “I hate it when she gets like that!” he wheezed. Fathis nodded in agreement. “Lock should have come with us… he knows how to talk to her.”
“I don’t think she’s waiting for Lock.” Fathis whispered
“What do you mean? oh”

When I finally woke up my body was sore, my feet and hands were numb and there was a warm, coppery taste in my mouth. Blood. “Just perfect” I muttered as I looked around. I was lying on a wooden stretcher with a sheet pulled tightly over the frame, the room around me was windowless but dozens of shelves lined the walls, each one filled with vials and potion bottles.

“You took quite a beating my friend” muttered a wheezy voice.
“Haeil?”
The Tsaesci stood up from a chair that was dipped in the shadows at the edge of the room.
“You were talking in your sleep… sounded like a nightmare.”
I shrugged.

“I can’t really remember”
Haeil smiled, “It was probably the medication…these guys have been pumping you with the stuff”
“These guys?” I asked
Haeil laughed, “The resistance Furan…. I’m a member of it now”
I looked at him strangely, “When did all this happen?”

“You've been unconcious Furan...for a week. When they tried to capture us I ended up beheading a couple of their men…it seems that the people here are just as blood thirsty as they are back home.” His laughter rang across the stone room. Before I could open my mouth to ask something else the door opened and someone walked in.

She was a Bosmer, dressed in the blue robes of a mage; her hands were filled with dozens of pale grey scrolls. With a sigh she placed them on the table in front of her and looked at Haeil.
“Is he doing ok?”
“Of course Madeline…don’t you trust me?” The mage--Madeline gave a grunt before turning to look at me.

Madeline looked very young for a mage, no more then thirty; her copper red hair was tied back into a ponytail revealing a pair of slender pointed ears. She had a light smile on her face but there was intelligence in her eyes as she scanned my arms and face, her gold pointed fingers checked my pulse and bruises.

“I’ve been in Morrowind for nearly 9 years and I never saw injuries like the ones you had ...” She said. Her sharp blue eyes were flicking from me to the book that was in her hands.
“9 years…” she sighed, “I swear to Akatosh if I ever see that swit Traven again, I’ll make him wish that he avoided magic as a child!”
“Whos’ Traven?” I asked
Madeline looked at me, “He’s the Arch-mage of Cyrodiil or at least he was when I left….”

She put on a high pitched voice, like what little girls did when they insulted someone. “Go to Morrowind Madeline the guild needs your leader ship there, it’ll be an adventure, think of all the spells you will learn…” She spat on the ground, “But noooo, one year I’m in Balmora and then I’m being harassed by argonians for being a witch. A WITCH! Can you believe it?”

“It happens a lot, just agree with her and we’ll be fine” Haeil whispered softly. I nodded with a smile.
Madeline gave a sigh and wrote some thing down in her book. “I think it’s time that you went down to Lock” she said, gesturing toward the door.

Haeil nodded and pulled me out of bed. “Where are we going?” I whimpered, the cold air nipping at my feet.

“To see Lock.”

“Who’s Lock?”

Haeil looked at me with a smile, “Oh, you are going to love this.”

This post has been edited by Fiach: Mar 30 2010, 03:08 PM

[Fiach]

~
hi Winter Wolf and welcome to the story, I'm really glad that you're enjoying it Thanks mALX, your optimistic attiude can really help pull the story along ^^,

And you're right about that Destri Melarg, I'm going with that all the events in Oblivion have happened, although probably by different people, so there isn't just one superpower that's in control of all the guilds etc... theres a few other things that has happened too, but I think that can wait until later


and thanks for another reply haute ecole rider, they're a joy to read and they really help me with anhy nits or mistakes in my wiriting Both Madeline and Abigail are going to have pretty big parts in the story so hopefully I'll make them as real as possible
next piece, I hope you enjoy it~

Haeil led me down the steps, the sound of my bare feet hitting against the cold stairs echoed around us, there was a door at the end, made of thick oak it creaked when Haeil opened it. “The war room” he muttered with a toothy smile.

The room was completely circular and windowless; the oil lamps that lined the circumference shone brightly, revealing a large map of Morrowind in the centre of the room. There was a man hunched over it.
“Lock” Haeil coughed, nudging me forward. The man--Lock turned around and my eyes widened.

He was a little small for a redguard, his dark skin shining under the harsh lamps. His thick black hair was bound into braids that hung down his back; a gold ring was on the end of each so that he made a ringing sound every time he moved his head.
His stock body was wrapped in thick bonemold armour and he had an ebony claymore strapped to his back. There was a silver ring on one of his fingers which he spun around quickly as he stared at me.

“So you’re awake” he croaked, his wild eyes returning to the map in front of him. I even took a moment to stare at the marvel myself.

It was a map of Vvardenfell island, exact to the barest centimetre, small miniature trees were poking out of the ground, miniature people walking along the tiny villages.

“We have some talented mages here” he laughed as my eyes widened.
“Your friend told me everything about you.” He whispered, gesturing toward Haeil who nodded.
“Jiub isn’t it?” he whispered. I looked at Haeil with a scowl who gave me a small wink.
“Eh, yes it is...Lock” I said. The map truly was a masterpiece.
“Here’s the deal recruit” Lock growled. “New faces make me nervous, and I just don’t know how useful you are going to be...Do you know how we lose most of our members Jiub?”

I stayed quiet. It wasn’t a question.

“We are the Nerevara Tong, named after the hero who came to Morrowind and freed us from the blight, he was a patriot and every recruit comes to us with dreams of being the Nerevarine recreated, does a stupid risk and gets himself killed.” He looked at me now, his brown eyes were rich, but they held a wildness to them that would only belong to a man that has nothing left to lose.

“The Nerevarine was a great mer and that’s it... don’t try to become him and don’t put the tong in danger... and we will get on beautifully.” I nodded slowly, resisting the urge to say something.
Lock clapped his hands together, “Now recruit, it’s time to see just how useful you will be...”
I shrugged, “I was in the Morag Tong sir” the sir part ended up sounding forced.
“I’m sure I’m pretty useful”

Lock smiled to himself and shook his head.
“We don’t need assassinations Jiub” he muttered, “The Nerevara Tong is dedicated to helping the people and fighting against the Caldera laws...”
“The Caldera laws?”
If Lock was surprised then he didn’t show it.
“They are rules that the argonian king put up to make us more...manageable” he said the last word with a sneer.

Lock held up his forefinger.
“The first law is the law of possession; a dunmer cannot own any property, ships, armour or weapons.”

He held up his middle finger.
“The second law is the law of ownership. A dunmer cannot own a dog, guar or any animal that is worth more than one hundred drakes... meaning that if an argonian passes us on our prized horse he can offer one hundred drakes for it... and we have to accept it, not even sure what the lizards would want with an animal...unless they plan to eat it.” He chuckled at that.

Lastly he held up the third finger.
“The third and final law is the law of knowledge, a dunmer cannot learn to read, write or use any magic at all... religion is also a part of this law meaning that the nine divines, tribunal and daedric shrines are pretty much erased from around here. “

Lock pointed to the map, “And that’s what we do... we smuggle weapons, we send food to farmers who cannot eat the food they produce because they no longer own their land and we free slaves.” Locks eyes darkened.

“Imperials and other races don’t do much better, like Madeline. We save the mage’s from slave labour or from being stoned to death. We also feed them and in return they create spells and enchant our equipment...”

There was a knock on the door and a small fat Redguard came in, “Sorry I’m late Lock” he huffed, his puffy red face even redder from exhaustion. “She was in one of her moods again...”
Lock laughed, “It’s ok Roderick...this is the new recruit, Jiub” the redguard gave a smile and shook my hand.

“So, its caravan duty today isn’t it?” Roderick asked, Lock nodded with a smile.
“Take Jiub and Haeil along with you, we should see what he can do” Roderick bowed and walked out of the door, gesturing us to follow.

“Jiub?” I asked Haeil with a growl.
“It seemed fitting” he laughed, “Evo did say that you were wanted by these people.”
I gave sigh, wondering now what this ‘caravan duty was’.

This post has been edited by Fiach: Mar 31 2010, 03:34 PM