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]

Haute Ecole Rider Thanks against for the help, I actually thought that glew was a word lol, I really should use a dictionary more often
And yes Umbra was a claymore in Morrowind, but I thought changing it to a longsword in Oblivionm was a great idea

Remko well it wasn't reallt the Nerevarine who abolished slavery, it was king Helseth, slavery was abolshed about 2 years before Furan had left only for the argonians to come over and bring it back, only in the oppossite extreme.I guess both sides have done horrible things, but Furan himself is trying to see the good in his own race.



I took a deep breath, my heart was beating too fast, my stomach was queasy, I fumbled with my sleeves and I thought the pastor noticed me.
“Don’t worry” he whispered. “You’ll be fine.” I gave him a small smile and took a deep breath.

We were near the sea of ghosts, atop a fleet of cliffs that seemed to touch the rich blue sky itself. The wind made the cold morning weather almost unbearable, the people around me held their robes and fine clothes close to their bodies but I was too nervous to care.
“Here she is!” yelled a voice and I felt my heart flutter,

She was dressed in a simply white dress, lilies embroidered against the neck line, hiding the small chain that she had worn since she was six and swore she would never remove.
There was a hushed silence as she walked up, the look on her face showing that she was just as nervous as me.

“Now let us begin” the pastor whispered, sweeping his right hand toward us and then to the sea.
I gulped and reached into my pocket, finding what I needed with a shaken grin.
A small, white gold ring.

“Do you Furan Saris, take Abigail Batian as your guide, your lover, yourself?”

I looked into her eyes, fierce emeralds, my breath turning into a wheeze.

“I do” I whispered.

There was nobody to greet me when I returned to the base, No fire, no Madeline...Madeline.
The room around me was wrecked, books lay half open with their pages ripped out at the seams, sitting in a crumpled ball like a beggar who died out in the cold. Broken vials and potion bottles lined the floor, bringing up a sour smell that made my nose curl.

Taking a deep breath I moved away from the stench and into the halls, holding my sleeve to my mouth while I moved past the bodies that lay on the floor, the look of fear still on their faces as they stared at the blood on the walls with a mindless expression.

Giving a sigh my hand hovered over to my scabbard before realising that I dropped my short-sword in the tomb, “Damn it”

Suddenly a scream rocked the walls, ignoring my pain, ignoring the fact that I was weapon less and that there was death all around me I ran to where the scream was created, moving toward the Madeline’s room who’s door was hanging open.

“I told you about this Maddy, but you Wouldn’t listen!”

“No..please..”

I peeked through inside to see Roderick, a smile cut into his chubby face and Madeline at his feet, covered in blood. Her fine robes ripped at the edges.
"Witch" Roderick spat, giving her a swift kick in the stomach, Madeline cried, the salty tears and blood runnign down her once pretty face.

With anger gripping me, I pushed some magicka out of my fingertips, fire reaching around Roderick with the most intense hunger. The Redguard screamed while I picked Madeline up gently in my arms, moving out of the room and at the stairs.

”We...need...to...get to..Lock” Madeline panted, moving her head gently in the direction of the map room. I looked down at her head sadly while we moved, her pretty bosmer face was now caked with old blood, a deep cut near her eyebrow had swollen and sealed her right eye shut.

Lock was in the map room when I entered, the remains of four argonians lying around him while he sent another into the wall with bloodlust in his eyes.

With a roar he raised his claymore again toward me before recognition returned to his eyes, “Jiub?” he whispered, his voice hoarse.
Madeline groaned and glared at him with her one good eye, “It was Roderick,” she whispered, her fingers on my neck beginning to drain the magicka from me while I looked at what was in Lock’s hopeless eyes.

Was it sadness? Betrayal? Maybe it was fear...that the enemy could twist the love of his own brother against him.

I stood there wondering while Madeline whispered the incantations as fast as she could, fatigue cutting deep into her while she pressed her fingers deeper and deeper into the back of my neck.
I winced and allowed the magic to take me,

the deep violet surrounding the two of us, leaving only blood and bodies behind.

This post has been edited by Fiach: Apr 17 2010, 06:33 PM