Serene of Cyrodiil, chapter 3 "Gathering Forces" Options

[minque]

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
Lena Horne


Chapter 3 Gathering Forces

I decided to take a walk through the beautiful City of Balmora before finding my quarters. It was a rather big city, sturdy houses made of some kind of yellowish stone were scattered on each side of a river. I did meet quite a lot of people strolling on the riverbank, and in the streets. Most of them were very friendly, with few exceptions, who were clad in a strange type of armor and called themselves “guards”.

There seemed to be a lot of service available here, armorer, outfitters, various shops and to my greatest satisfaction I found a book-store. Now I can´t resist visiting a book-store whenever I find one and this time was no exception.

“Balmora Bookstore – owner; Dorisa Darvel” the sign by the door said and I stepped inside, meeting a young Dunmer girl, looking up from a book she was reading, friendly smiling at me.

“Good evening to you” she said, “what can I do for you?”

She was beautiful and the kind tone in her greeting touched me, so I smiled back to her;

“ I love books” I said, not the most intelligent answer, but I was somewhat stunned by the open friendliness with which she addressed me. “I´d like to look around for a while if that´s Ok with you?”

“By all means Muthsera, you´re welcome, take your time” With those words she got back to her reading.

I turned to the books, there were a lot of them, many unknown to me but also some titles I remembered seeing in Cyrodiil, even in the Library of the prison. When strolling among the bookshelves I suddenly heard someone coughing, naturally I got terrified, I didn´t expect someone else to be there besides the lovely Dorisa, but now I spotted a “guard” in that weird armor I´d seen in the streets. “Well naturally”, I thought when my heart stopped pounding, “she had to have some kind of protection, so young and all alone in her store.”

I found a couple of useful books though; A Guide to Balmora, and then there was another one where the name of it caught my interest, it was a Guide to Ald´ruhn, Ald´ruhn…there it was again…..my fate was somewhat bound to this place I imagined, far too many coincidences lately! Then I had to stop buying books, if I should be able to pay for night-quarters. It was obvious that I must try to get some kind of a job because I´d soon run out of the few septims I had.

With my new books in my satchel I then took a hearty godbye of Dorisa Darvel, certain that I´d visit her store again and made my way down the street. I noticed that the Mage´s and the Fighter´s guilds were situated nearly right across the bookstore, that knowledge could eventually come in handy later on…..

Further down, the street broadened a bit, stairs leading down to the river Odai, that I just learnt from the Guide, and also stairs leading upwards, then again I didn´t bother exploring anymore of the city tonight, all I wanted now was a decent meal and a bed for the night.

From a distance you could hear the whereabouts of the inn “Eight Plates”, laughs and raised voices accompanied by some weird kind of “music”…sounded out from a building to the left of the street. I hesitated for a while but decided it couldn´t be all that bad so I went inside…..

It was an Inn alright, but quite different from those back in The Imperial City….This one was dark, there was a distinct mouldy smell oozing from the very walls, and there were not many guests, just two Dunmeri sitting at a table heavily arguing about someone sleeping with someone else´s wife…..another rather drunk man in an ever weirder armor than the outside guards, was pacing back and forth muttering and hissing at some invisible enemy. Then there was the landlady, a tall elderly Dunmeri woman with an extremely dark voice, shouting at the drunken man to shut up and sit down otherwise he would be expelled from the premises.

I stopped at the counter and asked for night-quarters. The landlady stopped yelling at the drunk and turned to me thoroughly examining me before saying;

“Nah look what we have here guys!, an Outlander….and a woman, now that´s quite extraordinary” She laughed and stared at me, undressing me with her looks and I felt quite bad. It was not a good idea of coming here, but what choice did I have?

“Nightquarters” she laughed….”the little lady wants a bed, right?..and maybe some company to go with it?”

“No, I just want somewhere to sleep and something to eat if it´s possible” I tried to keep calm and be polite, despite the rage I felt inside by this insulting comments.

The men who were arguing before sat silent now and watched me with curiousity, the armored drunk had finally given up, lying beside the wall heavily snoring.

“Women don´t come in here unless they want some company”, the landlady snapped at me, “but nevermind, I´ll let you have the room downstairs to the right”. She then handed me the key and turned away.

The room was very small, a bed, a chair and a little table at the bedside, and it was filled up. Now I didn´t mind that at all, all I needed was a bed, but I checked the lock on the door very thoroughly, didn´t want any visitors….

After putting my gear on the bed, I went upstairs to investigate the possibility of having something to eat. The landlady was not very pleased with the thought of cooking me a meal so she shook her head in a negative answer on my request.

“Now now Dulnea, what about those kwama-eggs I brought you this afternoon, you haven´t finished them already have you?” A soft voice came out of a dark corner of the inn, and a young man stepped forward. He was a Dunmer, tall and slender, of about my age, maybe a few years older, pointed cheekbones, a complexion fairly light grey, and a tribal tattoo on his forehead, his red-brownish hair glowed in the dim lights from the lanterns on the wall, his eyes were red but then very sad and he looked thoughtfully right into my face.

“Oh heck,” Dulnea snapped at him, “Very well I´ll fry some eggs then, you certainly are a strange kind of man, Sedrane Mirpal, always volunteering to aid, being a woman or an outlander, your father would be ashamed of you”…..

“You know perfectly well that I don´t have a father” he said harshly and then turned to me;

“I bid you welcome to Balmora lady, and do forgive Dulnea, she is a hag sometimes but basicly she has a heart of gold, by the way my name is Sedrane Mirpal” .The young Dunmer reached out his hand to me and looked me straight into the eyes.

I felt weak, my legs trembled as I took his hand; strong and warm…..I was all lost in his earnest gaze, my voice was not but a whisper when I told him my name.

I simply had to sit down, having no idea what was happening to me,…….

“Ok Serene, let´s put you to bed before you pass out”, Sedrane took my hand again and led me down the stairs to my room, “I´ll bring you the food in a minute, but I think you have to
lie down for a while”
Lying on my bed I let my thoughts wander…..No doubt I was attracted to Sedrane Mirpal, he was very handsome, and that dark low voice, so soothing so calming and so sexy……and his hands, strong, warm and supporting. I closed my eyes and let it come to me, the feeling of something not yet experienced but still I knew what it was….Love!

[minque]

First of all I´ll thank you all for your nice feedback, and for being patient with me for not posting very regularly.....sorry to say real life is intruding on my writing...

But here´s an update anyway.....nothing very fancy but it takes her a bit further on her destined path....

enjoy!

The first thing I had to do was to look up General Artorius again and show him the registration-forms I got from Imsin. Whether he was pleased to see me again or not was hard to judge; his scarred face revealed no particular emotions.

First thing on the agenda was to provide me with some armour and weaponry. The deal was I would get more fancy utensils each time I raised in rank, a fair thing I reckoned.

I started out as a Trooper because of my already proven skills; apparently The Legion had gotten some records of mine already. I never stopped wondering how the information-flow on this continent actually worked; it seemed as there was some pre-destined path that I was supposed to follow; each time I was ordered to do something or to meet someone, it was already known by the people involved!

The appropriate armour for a Trooper in The Legion was a steel Imperial style, and fairly heavy. I tried to wear the cuirass and almost panicked, because I just could not make a move wearing it and even less handle a sword or shield. General Artorius looked at me and shook his head; of course this armour would not be suitable for a woman, with that much less strength, and so he sighed and told the officer at the Armoury to find me something else.

“Now Trooper Catraso, report back to me after you’ve got your uniform and we’ll get you your quarters,” General Artorius saluted his subordinate and went back to his office.

The Armoury-officer gave me a somewhat queer smile, looked at me very thoroughly and then presented me with a Studded Leather Cuirass, Imperial style,

“Try this one on, miss,” he said, still undressing me with his looks. I shrugged and put the cuirass on, and almost panicked again....The leather was thick and absolutely motionless, I couldn’t even get my arms in front of me and it was so tight , my breathing was affected. I tore it off with a groan;

“I can’t breathe in this one,” I stated, panting, “Please find me something else.”

“Now there lassie,” he said in a superior tone, “It’s not for you to state the rules here, and demanding some special treatment.” He then turned away from me, and began poking among the different types of cuirasses lying on a shelf behind him.

I was getting slightly angry now; this was no voluntarily action from me; I was ordered to go here and that for a certain purpose, yet unknown to me. So I found it very unfair of the officer to treat me in such a humiliating manner.

At last he presented me with an Imperial Newtscale cuirass; it looked hard but was lined and seamed with soft netch-leather and seemed both lighter and smoother than the other one. I tried it on and it fit perfectly; also I had very good mobility in it. Apart from the cuirass I got a pair of Netch-leather boots, a helmet also made from Netch-leather and some soft leather gloves to protect my hands from being hurt when handling the sword, and a steel longsword, newly sharpened and cleaned.

I thanked him and hurried out of the Armoury. I definitely didn’t like the man back there; his staring eyes and superior manners didn’t appeal to me at all.

Back with General Artorius I felt better. The aged officer had a friendly attitude towards me; he maybe didn’t exactly like the fact that I was a woman but never rubbed it in my face; in fact he treated me like any recruit, at least that’s what I thought before I went into his office all armoured up and with the longsword hanging by my side.

Getting sleeping quarters for me was not that easy; the General was worried about how his men would react having a woman living amongst them, especially as most of them had been without female acquaintances for quite some time. He therefore put me up in the storage-building, a rather spacious Redoran-style house, not far from the big main-building where the dining-rooms, the kitchen and the leisure-rooms were situated.

I didn’t mind sleeping next to the foodstuffs and the other army-gear that was stored in that building; I got a small room of my own with a lockable door, inside there was a bed with a fairly new dark-red blanket and at least four big pillows. Beside the bed there was a small cupboard with a jug and a pitcher on top of it, and covering one of the walls there was a bookshelf, almost filled with various specimens of literature. Now that surprised me, until the General said:

“This is the room I normally use when I need to get away from the daily life, when I need to contemplate and think about other things than warfare and other military matters. I have always been a huge friend of books,” he smiled at me, “Not so common amongst military officers, really.”

I found this very appealing though, and it raised my disposition toward the General quite a bit. I asked if I could read some of the books in my spare time and he nodded, with a kind of odd smile on his face.

“It’s rather late now, Trooper Catraso,” he said, “The supper will be all finished, so why don’t you go into the kitchen on your way back to your quarters, tell the people there I sent you and ask them for something to eat...Now reveille is tomorrow at 0600 sharp, breakfast will be served at 0630! ..Dismissed!”

I walked down to the kitchen and asked politely for some supper. A lady worked down there, a Dunmeri woman in her late fifties, tall, dark with a sad look in her face. She provided me with some bread and an omelette from Kwama-eggs. A cup of hot hackle-lo tea accomplished the meal, and I thanked her heartily for her trouble.

“No trouble at all, little lady,” she said, “I´m only happy to meet another woman; it has been a long time since I’ve met one here at the fort.”

I realized that she wanted to have a chat with me, since she poured herself a cup of tea and sat down at the table opposite to me.

She told me her name was Lalatia Vabdas and she originally lived in Gnisis, but after she became a widow half a year ago she started to work as a cook and kitchen maid at the training camp at Fort Buckmoth. For the time being she stayed at her daughter’s house in Ald´ruhn. Her late husband had worked at the Gnisis Egg-mine, but after its closure the couple was near starvation so the poor man once went into the mine in order to collect some fresh eggs; unfortunately he was caught by a notorious legionnaire and foully slain.

“I reckon it was their bad conscience that made them give me this job,” she grumbled, sipping her tea.

I felt uneasy about this killing of a starving man just trying to support his family, I regarded it as cold-blooded murder, and the feeling that there was something more to this wouldn’t leave my mind.

It was quite late as I unlocked the door to my quarters and flung myself on the bed after putting all my armour-gear in a corner.....So I fell into sleep, not even undressing...

“Serene, Serene of Cyrodiil! The first part of your mission has now begun, be a good soldier and improve your skills. Talk with the golden-haired lady in the castle, follow her orders. Before this year has ended you will be elsewhere, in a place of despair and agony, but you are to be the pathfinder, the guiding star, the prophesied saviour......Serene, I will watch over you, I will guide you.....trust me!”

Azura! It had been a long time since she’d visited me in my dreams, so I sat up in bed, shivering from a strange coldness, yet I could feel sweat running down my back and between my breasts. Trembling from the experience, I wrapped the blanket tight around me, lay down and let the tears run until I at last fell into a dreamless sleep.