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]

Ok guys, I hope you like the next part : )



[[Teinaava]]

I remember the first time I met the lizard king, it was nine years ago on a cold swampy night. The great tree where he had his home was still with an eerie silence. Arwen sent me up to him, in his light purple robes with his black scales like powdered ebony shining out from the light given by the nearby torches.
"Do you know why you are here?" he whispered quietly, his cold face looking out towards the window, green eyes unblinking at the hidden moons.

I shook my head softly.
The king turned and looked at me with a small weary smile, his young eyes seeming so old, so tired.
"You are here...because of your birth, because of the blood that binds you to this house and to the kingdoms service..."
He looked sadly at his own hand, raised up toward the sky, it vanishing beneath his gaze.
"As am I" he whispered.

Suddenly I heard a small whimper and I turned towards it to see a large bundle of rags that I had not noticed before.
Wait, there was something in those rags, the barest hint of ashen skin, the gleam of red eyes that have dimmed with cruelty and justice.

"Lord Tadave Dres" The King said silkily
"Was once the lord protector and governor of the Dunmer city of Tear...His treatment and capture of Argonian slaves at the border was..." The king swallowed a grin
"Legendary...Wasn't it Lord Dres.."
The Dunmer let out a small cry, covering his face with his hands, which I noticed looked mangled and fractured.
"Please.."

"Please?" the king asked, his voice rich with malice.
"Please what? You should be so proud of yourself, the hatchings and men and woman from our tribes that you stole... and of course when house Dres decided that they didn't want to take our people anymore, why you..."
He turned to look at me
"Decided to flee and pawn your interests to other rulers...unfortunately you were just unlucky enough to stray too close to the Argonia border..." the last words he said were clipped, tuned, the pleasure from his voice gone.

"You are bound to this kingdom Teinaava" the king whispered, "And this kingdom needs justice for what has happened to it..." he clicked his fingers, a dagger appearing in his hands with a swirled of green smoke.

"I trust you know what to do..." he whispered, handing me the blade.

I closed my eyes as I did the deed, but it didn't stop the screaming.

When I had finished the king smiled, not with his lips but with his eyes and I could feel his warmth go through my bloody skin.
You did a great deed today fellow shadowscale he said, waving his hand out toward the window.

"The mane has begun to attack again, taking the lands that the imperials robbed...I think it is time that we make the Dunmer apologise for centuries of torture, theft, slavery and murder.."
He extended his hand to me.

"Can I count on your help?" he whispered.

Circumstances brought me here to Vvardenfell, a land that apparently was damned and reeking of a great blight..that was banished away.

"It is good to see you my brother" a voice hissed behind me.
"So you are still alive Chalur? I chuckled gazing at the shadowscale before me, his green eyes glimmering with fear, or shame.

"IT was difficult to escape but Vivec is not the fortress it once was..."
I looked at him quizzically "You got in?"
"Not very far" Chalur growled.
"Those foolish guards saw me and attacked, they all weild life detecting amulets now, no doubt made my the mages who slipped through our fingers..."
"But you got it?"
Chalur looked at me, a mischievous gleam in his emerald eyes.
Without another word he plunged his hands into his robes and pulled out, very softly a thin roll of paper.
"The plan of the city" he whispered.
"The locations of the waist-works, the hidden passages in and out and of course where all of the wepons are stored..."

I gave him a cold smile and took it off him.

"And you are sure it is authentic?" I hissed

Chalur looked offended and pointed to a part where I just unrolled.
"I used that passage there to get out...so" he shrugged.

I gave him a small, cold smile.

"So this time next week?"

"Vivec will fall" he cooed.

"And the Dunmer will too..."

______________-

[[Furan]]

The Nord led me away from the village, past the snow capped huts and towards a great frozen lake.

Before long we stopped at a small hut that seemed to have built only recently,the Nord knocked three times and whispered softly though a slit in the door.
"It's us"
When the door opened the first thing I noticed was how empty it seemd to be, until my guide led to the fire place, pulling back the grate to reveal a freezing iron ladder extending down below.

"How clever" I muttered, allowing him to go first

The first thing that I had noticed when I arrived was the smell, it was like the slums of a massive town where the people didn't wash for months on end, where went to the toilet on the streets and carried on like they were animals.
However once my eyes got used to the darkness they widened.

Cages, 5 meters tall and twenty meters wide the bars were grimy and covered with muck, as I bent over to touch one I heard a roar and something pounded against the slim walls.

"Great, another Dunmer!" I heard a hiss, the voice heavy with irony.
She was a Khajiit, wrapped in dirty robes and she looked at me with fiery eyes.

"You are Jiub I presume?" he Cyrodiilic was perfect, the rasp of her voice almost completely gone.

She sighed and looked at me, "Just...don't touch the bars, the soldiers will get angry..."

"Soldiers?"

her eyes narrowed as she looked at me closely.
"Didn't Lock tell you?"
she clicked her fingers, light swirling around her hand so I could take a better look.
Inside was a mass of bristled hair, white fangs, claws sharp enough to break bone.
"It is our means of getting our country back" she whispered.

I took a gasp and stepped back.
They were breeding werewolves.

This post has been edited by Fiach: Jul 19 2010, 12:00 PM