Teresa of the Faint Smile, Adventures of a Stringy Bosmer Options

[SubRosa]

Hi all, welcome to Teresa 2.0. Some of you may recognize the stringy wood elf this fan fic is about from another forum. I am going to start reposting her adventures here. However, I have taken this opportunity
for a fresh start to go back over the story and do some work on it. Starting with an entirely new scene, which you see below.

I have decided to give up the idea of breaking things up into separate Acts like I did with Not A Hero and Moving Through Darkness. It was probably a little confusing. Instead I am just going to go with a single title and let it go on as long as it needs to, hence the new name.

You will also find that the first half of what used to be called Not A Hero has been heavily edited. Hopefully an improvement! The rest of the story will also receive a facelift, although generally not as great. There will probably be a few more entirely new chapters turning up between some of the old ones as well. So this is not the same story you might have seen on the other forum.


For people new to the TF, you might find it easier to catch up with the cliff notes version in the spoiler tags below:




* * *

Chapter 1 –Warning

12th Second Seed, 3E433

The harsh croaking of a raven prompted Teresa to raise her green eyes from the only slightly bruised apple that she was eating. The alley behind the Tiber Septim Hotel was narrow, a thin gouge cut between massive stone buildings that loomed high to either side and cast its depths into dim shadow. Sacks filled with trash dotted the length of the lane, clustered in small islands near the back doors of every business and home.

The pale wood elf stood at one such mound of garbage, filled with slops and other castoffs. Rich people threw away the best food, she knew, making the back streets here in the Talos Plaza district a practical gold mine for street urchins like herself.

Screenshot

Her scavenged lunch fell from suddenly nerveless fingers however, as she gazed down the alley and saw the figure of a man running in the shadows. He was clad in plain linens, the clothing of an ordinary plebeian. But there was nothing ordinary about the way he held a drawn sword in his hand, nor the blood that stained it.

Before the elf could bolt and run herself, the interloper was upon her. Now she could see he was an Imperial by his olive skin and dark hair. He reached out to her with his free hand, and as Teresa backed away she realized that it was not only his sword that was washed in blood, but the front of his tunic as well.

"You must warn them!" the Imperial croaked through the blood that flowed from his mouth. As she stared with wide eyes, Teresa was certain she could see tiny bubbles of air bursting up from the red flow. She had seen that before, from deep knife wounds to the chest. He was a dead man, she thought, he just did not know it yet.

His hand clutched at the shabby tunic of worn sack cloth that Teresa wore, grabbing a handful of the rough material. Teresa nearly jumped as his fingers pressed against one of her breasts. The sword fell from his other hand with a clatter of steel on stone, and the Imperial dropped to his knees, collapsing into her.

Teresa stared with wide eyes at the dying man, whose head was now buried in the valley between her small breasts. Her heart raced like a wild horse, and she felt her skin grow cold as Skyrim. Try as she might to flee, her feet seemed rooted to the spot however. All she could do was gape in growing horror as the man clutched at her willowy frame and spat blood over her already bedraggled clothing.

The sound of footsteps caused her to lift her eyes and gaze back down the way the Imperial had come. There stood a handful of figures wearing dark red robes, nearly black in the dim light. Hoods of the same material covered their heads, shrouding their faces in darkness. She saw blades in their hands as well. Not mortal steel, but rather monstrous, wavy knives, like the jagged teeth of some fearsome Daedra.

"They're going to kill the-" with that the Imperial's voice gave out, and she heard a rattling noise issue from his throat. It was like a dry breeze through an abandoned tenement. Then he fell limp at her feet, open eyes staring blankly back up at her from the pavement.

"Hey, what's going on back there!" came an iron growl from the other end of the alley. The clash of armored boots rang out between the high buildings, reverberating in the Bosmer's ears. Wrenching her gaze from the dead man, Teresa turned to see an Imperial Watchman charging down the alley toward her, dark eyes glittering like polished ebony within the 'T'-shaped slit in his full-faced helmet.

"You there! Put down your weapons and surrender." The legionary had his arming sword out now, and before the wood elf knew it, he was standing before her. He took a moment to first glance down at the dead man at Teresa's feet, and then the blood that washed her tunic.

"I didn't-" Teresa gasped, feeling her blood turn to ice with the understanding of how things must look to the watchman. Then the steel gauntlet of his left hand was reaching out for her, and the words slipped from her throat.

"You'll hang for this street meat!" the legionary growled.

With that Teresa finally felt her body come back under her control. Twisting away from watchman's grasp, she sprang for the other end of the alley. Her eyes saw that the red-robed figures were gone now. Then her view swam as her foot caught upon the corpse of the Imperial. She felt herself falling, and her head slammed against something hard as she came to a stop.

Her vision narrowed, as if she were within a tunnel. She was vaguely aware of the thin, blue slit of the sky above her, flanked by the grey stone of buildings to either side. She thought she saw a dark bird spread its wings in that sliver of light. But then the shape dissolved, and turned into the steel helmet of the legionary, looming closer and closer. Finally, darkness consumed her.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jul 30 2020, 01:31 AM

[SubRosa]

Who said you can't go home again?

That would be Thomas Wolfe, and that is not until Chapter 6...


Winter Wolf: Thank you Wolf. There were a lot of questions there that needed addressing. As often happens IRL, Teresa will never know the answers.


haute ecole rider: "It's been years since I waded through sewers for fun." OOps, wrong game.


Olen: Thank you Olen. All of her life, Teresa has never known what she is capable of. Everyone around her has told her that she is a loser, and she believed them. The Emperor changed all that. Now the person who has been buried under the muck of Teresa's life is finally emerging.

As much as I would like to take the credit for roseate, I must admit that I have seen hot collie use it so often that I was inspired to steal it...


Destri Melarg: Yes, the first faint smile! About time too eh? Well, there are many more to come. I am tempted to go back to the prologue and tweak the first paragraph a bit to get a faint smile in there as well. Seeing that the thread is named after that trait, it does seem kind of odd that we do not see one until Chapter 3.

Good eye by yourself and haute on the initiation of the bath at the end of the sewers. It not only cleans her of the physical muck from her prison experience, but also washes away her old life as well. When she emerges, she is forever changed, born into a new life. We will begin seeing some of the evidence of that this next post.

* * *

Chapter 4a - For The Emperor

12th - 23rd Second Seed, 3E433

Still dripping with water from her bath, Teresa dressed and took in her surroundings. Far in the distance across the lake from her she could just barely make out a crumbling ruin of white stone blocks. Its elegant, curved spires were broken and its walls shattered. For some reason it made her think of White Gold Tower in the center of the Imperial City. She had heard that had been built by the Ayleids long before the Empire had ever existed. So she imagined that the ruins might have been built by them as well. She saw the distant glow of a campfire somewhere in the fallen stones, and wondered who might be there. Probably no one she wanted to meet, Teresa reasoned.

Looking behind her she could see the massive, dark stone blocks of the Imperial Prison looming high up on the hill that crowned the City Isle, and beyond that the even greater mass of the city itself in the distance. She certainly did not want to go back that way either, she thought. One experience in the Imperial Prison had been enough for a lifetime!

Teresa knew the prison was at the north side of the City Isle, and Baurus had said that Weynon was west of the city, across the lake. So she reasoned that if she kept the city to her left and followed the shore that should take her in the right direction. She would just have to hope she found a place to cross somewhere as she travelled.

So bow in hand she began to walk along the shore. Here and there she stopped when she noticed plants that she knew had alchemical properties. She could sell those to Claudette at the Gilded Carafe back in the Imperial City, Teresa thought. She might even use them herself once she got back to the Waterfront shack where she had her mortar and pestle hidden.

She had learned a long time ago to grind up simple poisons to sell to the thieves and ruffians on the Waterfront, she thought. They were always looking for an edge; to see in the dark, become invisible, or quite simply to poison someone. Most did not want to spend the time to learn to make potions themselves. Teresa, on the other hand, had nothing but time. It was not like she was going out robbing people or drinking herself silly in the taverns after all.

What would people think of her back in the city when they heard this story? Teresa wondered. Then again, maybe it would be better if she never mentioned it to anyone. No sense admitting to escaping from prison after all, she thought. The less anyone knew about that, the better.

A familiar clicking sound broke her from her reverie. It was a mud crab, she knew. She had run across many of them at the Waterfront. Nasty creatures, she thought as she looked around for it. Then she spotted it coming out of the water behind her, its beady eyes staring directly at her and pincers reaching out.

Teresa stepped back to give herself plenty of room. Then readying her Flare spell, she gestured at the creature and loosed a bolt of fire into its shell. It jumped and began to furiously click its pincers at her. Teresa fired another bolt and it fell into a smoldering heap on the shore.

The smell of the roasted crab meat brought a growl from her stomach. How long had it really been since she had last eaten? Teresa wondered. Too long, her stomach replied with another moan. She descended on the crab with gusto, cracking open its still-hot shell with her hands and digging out the meat with her fingers. She had always like crab, it was usually the only fresh thing she was ever able to eat.

Eating her fill, Teresa continued on her journey west along the shore. She came across another sewer exit after a few miles. Like the prison, once in there was enough for a lifetime as well, she thought, and steered well clear of it.

By now the sky was lightening to the east, and Teresa began to find it difficult to keep her eyes open. Casting about for a place to sleep, she found a large clump of bushes not too far inland and hid herself within. She did not want the assassins finding her, she thought, nor the Imperial Legion for that matter. No sooner had she lain down, she found herself falling into a deep sleep.

* * *

She was standing in a large cavern. Unlike the corridors and chambers underneath the Imperial Prison, its rough stone was carved out by the forces of nature. Shadows clung to the walls of the cave, and the wood elf sensed that deeper pools of darkness within them were of smaller tunnels leading further into the bowels of Nirn.

Before her however, the ceiling of the cavern was open to the sky. Shafts of yellow sunlight slanted through the gaping hole, illuminating the center of the chamber in golden light. Beneath these fingers of the sun Teresa saw a large pool of water, and as she approached it she found that its crystal clear waves held a small forest of marine plants gently waving under its surface.

Teresa stood in the light of the sun for long moments, allowing it to bathe her in its light. Then she sat, sliding her bare legs into the clear water. It was warm against her skin, and she watched how the water bent the image of her legs as she gently kicked them back and forth under the waves.

That is when she realized she was not alone in the cavern. A dark figure loomed across the pool from her. Standing at the edge of the shadows, it seemed to be wearing a black cloak, whose hood completely obscured its head. Somehow Teresa sensed the figure was female, although how she knew that was a mystery to her, as the cloak she wore betrayed no features at all.

Teresa's breath caught in her throat, and she quickly pulled her legs from the water. Leaping to her feet, the wood elf stared at the other woman. Yet the dark figure did not move. Teresa was not sure if she even breathed.

* * *

Teresa woke as the sun was lowering on the western horizon. Shaking her head at the fleeting memory of the dream, she rose to her feet and cast about herself. There was no grotto, no pool, and certainly no cloaked figure. She was completely alone by the lake shore. The only sounds that came to her ears were the lapping of waves from the nearby lake, and the distant cawing of crows.

Well, that had certainly been strange, the wood elf thought as she stretched her limbs. Yet the more awake she felt, the more the details of the dream slipped away from her memory. It should come as no surprise to have odd dreams, she imagined, given what she had been through. Let alone spending her first night alone in the wilderness.

She shrugged, giving the dream no more thought as the weight in her pocket drew her attention. While there was still some daylight remaining she drew forth the Amulet of Kings. For the first time since the Emperor had given it to her she examined it closely.

The central red stone was huge, easily the size of her palm, and cut into a diamond shape. She had originally thought it was a ruby because of its red color. However, now that she took the time to really study it, she saw that it seemed to pulse with an inner red glow. As she watched its surface, she could swear she saw tiny shifts and eddies of color, as if some energy were swirling beneath the crystalline surface of the gem. Clearly, it was no ordinary jewel, she thought.

A gold band wrapped around the main stone, and was also diamond shaped. Eight smaller gemstones were laid into the band equally along its length. Sapphires, emeralds, pearls, and a few she was not sure about. The entire thing was held by a great gold chain. It was remarkably light for its size, and Teresa could swear that it felt warm in her hands.

Out of curiosity, she lifted the chain around her head and dropped it onto her shoulders. Yet somehow it slipped from her fingers and fell into her lap instead. She tried again, with the same result. Then she undid the clasp on the chain, and this time looped it around her neck and then tried to snap it shut once more. Again, she found the amulet falling loose from her grasp.

So it was true, Teresa thought. Only someone with the blood of the kings could wear the amulet. Now she saw why it was so important. It would prove who the rightful Emperor was, and who was not.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jan 7 2011, 03:37 AM