Shades of Ending, set after the oblivion MQ Options

[Olen]

Well it’s been a while, a long while, since I posted anything. I have been writing, some stuff which was non-TES, a false start which I spent too long fighting… There’s also another ~80k piece which I’ve left on a hard drive in Scotland so I’m taking a hiatus. Anyway I decided I fancied posting something.

This is unplanned and unfinished. I prefer to write all of something with a lot of planning and then post, but this time I thought I’d just let it flow and see what comes. Hopefully it won’t be too unpolished and I intend to make it more episodic so if I do lose interest for a bit it shouldn’t matter so much. The plan is to post one section while I write another, that way any criticisms can be addressed as I go.

Anyway without any more waffle a short intro.

Shades of Ending

1.1 Questioning

The prisoner met Verus’s eye across the scarred table. The watchman swallowed. “It does not look good for you,” his voice was quiet. He knew he should feel disgust, hatred even for what the man had done. But it was tempered. Perhaps it was because the man had more brain than most of the scum they dragged into the Cheydinhal prison. Or perhaps it was because he understood why, though he’d never admit it. Or it could just have been the passing resemblance to his son. Same dark hair and eyes, and not so different features.

Damn he hated this place, the sooner the investigation was over the sooner he could go and see the real thing back in the Imperial City. Not that distraction like this helped.

The prisoner looked back, “I’m fetched aren’t I?”

Verus winced at the tone and nodded. “Ferir,” he said the man’s name, gave him that much respect, “double murder of Imperial guards only leads to the gallows.”

“And it doesn’t matter that it was self defence, that they were trying to kill me? Had already killed my friends. We didn’t attack them.”

“It doesn’t matter. And even if it did you’re guilty of enough else to string you up. Possession with intent to supply – don’t tell me that much skooma was for personal use, our mage says you’re clean anyway. Bootlegging. Smuggling. As little as I like it you had it coming.”

Ferir nodded.

Verus could hardly believe it, they were always full of guar apples. Fake bravado to start with which slowly decayed into pleading. There was fear there certainly, he reeked of it, it was in the way he sat and moved. There was pain too, but mainly Verus thought it was resignation in the prisoner’s voice when he spoke. “Can you at least tell me who you killed?”

“I’m not meant to.” The gaze from the dark eyes flashed fierce like glowdust on a fire. It was the same spark which had cost the lives of two of the Imperial Legionaries who had raided the smugglers cavern, and it caught Verus off guard.

“You have a family.” It was a statement. “The people in that cave were as close to family as I’d found. You come and kill them, and within the next couple of days…” His gaze dipped to the scored boards of the table in the interrogation room. It slid uneasily round the manacles which held him. “I just want to know if any of them lived.”

“The patrol killed five. A two humans, a man and a woman, two khajit and a dunmer male.” If you had better luck you’d have been in that list. Verus didn’t add the thought, its truth was too bitter.

The eyes screwed closed. “The dunmer, what colour was his hair?”

“Red.” Verus watched Ferir deflate. His eyes shut and he thumped his wrists against the table, the chain which held them didn’t allow space for it to make more than a dull thud. He muttered something Verus didn’t catch, and decided not to press.

When Ferir finally opened his eyes again they were bloodshot. “Have you got what you want now?” There was anger in his voice, but also sadness, enough to suppress the flames, if not entirely quench them. “You know someone got away, you’ve got our contacts. I’m in pain, several of my closest friends are dead. Have you done enough?”

Verus frowned, it wasn’t something he was used to. Lines about choosing this fate when he chose crime seemed flimsy, paper props for the tragicomedy which passed as justice in this town. Ferir hadn’t lied about the pain either, the man was a mass of bruises. The legionaries had worked him over, and who could blame them? He wasn’t the only one to lose friends. Occasionally his hands would sneak towards the lower ribs on one side only to be rudely stopped by the chain.

Not that they’d waste healing on a condemned prisoner. You should have died in that cave. Verus shook his head, trying to dislodge the malaise which had built. He stood, this was too discomfiting. For a moment he struggled for words, then gave up and offered Ferir a single nod before leaving.

[Olen]

Sorry for the massive delay in posting. As it turns out a few of my exams were a bit hard. Posting should resume it's sporadic pace now though, there's still a small amount unposted too. This part is very short I'm afriad but the next one has no obvious break for quite a long section and I didn't want to make a monster by attaching this to it. This also serves to get things going again before the next bit which is a biggy.

McBadgere - Glad you like Adriel, to be honest I'm not exactly sure who's good in this piece either.

Athynae - I wouldn't take my view of TES as anywhere near cannon, I'm quite willing to modify it for fiction and fill in blanks. Where there is lore I try to useit as a foundation but in places there either isn't or it makes no sense...

SubRosa - Goos to know you're enjoying, and yes that little reference was waiting to be picked up.

In this case I did mean outwith, that meaning of without isn't one I would ever use. I think it's a dialect thing.

Ghastley - Without meaning to confuse things

Grits - Your comments are always very much appricited, I can guage whether half saidthings are noticed and that the characters are going the right way from them. I'm so glad you picked up on that half formed thought, and as awful as it is who wouldn't think it? The dagger is another shade of grey to play with, there will be more.

Haute - I always aim to create characters who people can sympathise with while they do often questionable or even just wrong things so I'm glad I have people liking them. It makes the whole moral thing more fun to play with. The mages guild quest line is going to be very loosely interpreted in this piece, as you may have guessed.

Renee - Confusion in the OP, I suppose I agree. I like to start in media res and explain after, I glad the hook worked

Where we were: Ruben and Ferir had gone to investigate a purple light (the Shade of the Revenant), been attacked by a pair of necromancers and a zombie before they got to it and then escaped with the mysterious Adreil. We join them, all still alive, in the morning.


3.4 Old Ways

"So where are you headed?" asked Ferir. The sun still lurked below the jagged peaks of the Valus mountains. The pre-dawn light washed the forest in blood.

Adriel gave a short laugh. It was shrill like a weird echo to the absent birdsong. Ferir felt the hair on his neck prickle. "Where the wind blows. We are few, and disorganised."

Ferir let a half smile creep onto his features. Where the wind blows. The phrase could mean a thousand things but Adriel lived it. It took one to know one, and he saw the signs. Ruben was quiet and it wasn't just his obvious malaise. It had been close the night before, had there been another, had luck been against them, had the wine been stronger. Had any of a thousand things happened differently they would be dead, or worse.

But they weren't and the sun was rising and the wind was blowing under the free sky. "How long have you stalked them?"

Adriel went to her pack and started filling it before she replied. "Hard to say. I've noted where they are for years now but never taken much interest. They are changing though. Even so I still walk the wilds more than I watch them. And you? What brings a vagabond and a..." she paused. "I'd say mercenary, but I'm almost tempted by guard..." Ruben looked with a scowl. "It's in your movements, if you don't want people to know don't make it blatant. What brings you here?"

"The wind," answered Ferir as he started on his own pack.

She smiled, this time it reached beyond her mouth, but was no less unsettling. "And you're following it?"

"We're headed for a cave, my former home."

She paused at his tone. "I may follow for a bit, with you if I am welcome."

Ferir looked sidelong at her. "Why?"

"Don't worry I mean you no ill, but you interest me. The timing, the circumstance, you. Can it all be chance?"

***

The trail had been laid by men of some description but had seen no traffic in a long time. Briars and vines crawled over the rounded cobbles. The fingers of nature scratching an old scar. In places tree roots ripped up the surface, in others water had torn trenches though it, the dead grass and dried scum the only remains of the power of winter's floods. Ruben watched the witch jump one where she walked ahead of them. He'd motioned Ferir back almost half and hour before and was grateful the man had kept his silence. His face almost ached from the scowl etched on it, she was out of earshot now surely?

Even so he whispered, "I don't like her."

"I'd noticed." Ferir's tone was dry as ever. At first Ruben had taken him as odd, then unfriendly but there'd been enough chinks in that façade now. True it was probably his way, but it was holding a lot back and Ruben was worried what might happen at the cave. That in itself was a surprise.

He snorted a dry laugh. "There's something weird about her."

"Something you're not used to you mean? She might well have followed anyway so might as well have someone else to gather wood."

Ruben snorted. "At least she's easy on the eye before she kills us."

"If you say so. I doubt she wants to harm us though, she already could have done."

"Fine comfort," said Ruben. A silence stretched between them. What had happened at the cave? What would happen? There was afterward too, what then? Too many questions filled his mind but at least they helped obscure the memories of the previous night. Necromancers. Like before. "Are there many necromancers in the wilds?" he asked.

"Not if you avoid obvious places," replied Ferir, "Ayleid ruins often harbour them but I've never heard of anyone coming across them like that. Though I suppose you wouldn't."

Ruben winced at the half jest.

Ferir glanced then returned his gaze to the road. "Sorry," he said after a moment. Ruben said nothing. "I don't really know about..."

"About my squad being wiped out?" Why wouldn't he drop it?

Ferir didn't reply.

"There were a couple of skeletons, barely anything we smashed them. The place was a maze, all dancing shadows and ancient magic. The stones whisper you know. Then they sealed the door behind us. Picked us off, played their games. Only I escaped." He still felt the fear, like the echo of a shadow and even so it was dreadful. Not quite helpless, but futile. That was the crux of it. And the deaths, and blood. Awake or asleep they occasionally returned.

"And you can't escape things, but a deep enough bottle gives brief relief."

Ruben nodded.

"She's waiting for us."

Ruben glanced up along the long disused track.

This post has been edited by Olen: May 26 2012, 11:08 PM