Serene of Cyrodiil, chapter 2 "A New Start" Options

[minque]

Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.
Jean-Paul Sartre

Chapter 2, A New Start

I am an incurable landlubber; boats are not my cup ´o tea, not in the least! I remember once when I was a child back home in Cyrodiil and my father and I went out on the quite calm Nibenay River in a small wooden boat just to take a pleasure trip……I was hanging over the side trying to get rid of whatever I had eaten the last couple of hours…the whole time.

I awoke with a terrible nausea, and honestly thought I was dying. The squeaking of wood against wood and the salty smell showed me I was on a ship somewhere at sea. I didn’t dare to move lest I have to empty an already empty stomach. The boat was tossing and turning and the sound of the heavy storm reached my ears as I tried to fall asleep again. A soothing hand was stroking my forehead, and I felt the bitter, yet refreshing taste of Hackle-Lo-tea on my lips.

“There now, lassie, drink this and you’ll soon feel better.”

A hoarse voice caused me to open my eyes and I caught a glimpse of the dark face of a man kneeling beside me. I drank the bitter fluid and my stomach slowly calmed down. When I opened my eyes I looked right into the red eyes of a young Dunmer with a gruesome scar across his left cheek. He wiped the cold sweat from my face and gave me a friendly smile.

“ Nah, feelin´better now? “

I nodded and he continued;

“Try to get some more sleep, we are far from our destination and the weather is getting even worse, so the best is if you sleep it through.”

I closed my eyes and drifted away, the last thought that came into my mind was a slight wonder what he had put in my tea………

It is sometimes hard to decide what is dream and what is reality. I was walking in a strange ash-covered landscape, no grass and the trees seemed all dead, no sign whatsoever of life. There was an eerie humming sound as the air thickened and went reddish. Then the humming sound grew stronger and the wind started to blow the ash from the ground. I tried to cover my mouth from the whirling red ashes and trudged forward, forward……Then Azura´s voice came to me as so many times before.

“Serene, Serene of Cyrodiil, they have taken you from the Imperial City’s Prison, first by carriage and now by boat, to the east, to Morrowind. You have been chosen, you are the first, and others will follow. Fear not, I will guide you….”

The landscape changed to a dark stormy night, rain pouring down; lightning crossed the sky in an outrageous tempest. I was running in the rain trying to escape from something yet unknown, when the world started to fall apart…..

A hand was shaking my shoulder; I tried to avoid it by turning aside but the shaking was persistent and I had to open my eyes. The Dunmer with the scar was bending over me with a friendly grin in his face.

“Hey wake up lassie, how are you? Here take my hand, you are shaking, did you have a bad dream?”

He took my hand and helped me to my feet; I was all shivery and felt nauseous with a terrible headache. The ship was slowly turning and I swallowed frantically to alleviate my obvious sea-sickness.

“Now there, take my hand, I’m Jiub, by the way, here, drink this.”

He held a pitcher to my lips and I downed the bitter liquid…..

“Thank you”, I said in a hoarse voice, “I’m Serene from Cyrodiil. What´s the matter, why are we not moving?”

Jiub told me we’d reached Morrowind, as he’d overheard from the guards. Morrowind….I closed my eyes for a second and remembered the words from the dream “……”to the east, to Morrowind”….

The sound of heavy footsteps approaching made the young Dunmer put his finger across his lips;

“Shhh, guard’s coming, better be quiet.”

The guard was a stout, heavy built Cyrodiil with sharp blue eyes. He looked emotionlessly at me and told me to follow him. I didn’t argue with him; there was no point in doing that from the look in his face. Besides, I wanted to feel solid ground under my feet again; the rolling of the ship didn’t agree at all with my stomach. I stumbled after him up on deck.

Bright daylight struck my face when I stepped out, and so did the smell of rotting fish, salt and the smoke from cooking-fires when using damp wood. My stomach turned and I swallowed…..As I looked around I saw a few buildings scattered along the shoreline, a lighthouse and a strange creature resembling a giant insect. I shrugged and approached the dark-skinned man standing on deck. He gave me a faint smile as he unlocked the bracers I had worn since I left the Imperial Prison and then pointed me down the gang plank.

“This way, m´am,” he said, “there will be an escort for ya.”

In full Imperial armour he came marching towards me, my escort for the day, sternly peering at me as he asked for my name. I gave him the requested information and was ordered to follow him up to the Excise and Census-office to complete my release. So apparently I was to be a free woman at last, after 7 years in custody. That was a strange, yet not unpleasant feeling.

An elderly man with a white beard greeted me as I entered the office. I felt uncomfortable; dirty and smelling from the mouldy ship where I’d been for such a long time, with no possibility to wash myself. My worn shirt was soaked with sweat and my hair was in terrible shape, being neither washed nor combed for more than 2 months. I looked into the eyes of the old man and remembered my grandfather back in Cyrodiil……Grandfather?? Do I even have a grandfather anymore? The memories made my eyes fill with tears and I turned away, taking a deep breath in order to compose myself.

“Ah! We’ve been expecting you!” The man presented himself as Socucius Ergalla and gave me a welcoming smile. Then he asked me quite a lot of intricate questions, who I was, who my parents were and about my skills and abilities. When I told him I was a foundling he looked at me very sternly and nodded.

“Ah, the letter that preceded you states you are a very skilled healer, now might that be a fact?”

Ergalla´s soft voice made me jerk, “Letter?” I sensed some kind of set-up, someone knew I was coming here, and that someone also had gathered information about me…..

I admitted I was fairly skilled in the noble art of healing, and I also had to tell about my other virtues, such as that I consider myself to be intelligent; I knew quite a lot about alchemy; and I’d learned a lot about how to manage a long blade, thanks to Telemachos; I can repair my weapons as well, when needed…

The final question was about my birth-sign; what relevance that had I don’t know but the man was satisfied when I told him I was born under The Ritual. I was also told to pay a visit to the captain in the adjacent building in order to get my orders and a release-fee. Being given orders didn´t appeal to me, but the word “release-fee” was another thing, I could certainly need something to get me started in this godforsaken place.

Then my papers were properly signed and stamped and I stepped out of the office as a free woman.

[minque]

I closed the sturdy door behind me and took a deep breath; so this was how it was supposed to feel, being free; or almost free, I still had to take care of the business with that captain.

I found myself in a short corridor, lit by wooden chandeliers hanging from the roof. . On my right side I discovered a room, a dining room all set up for dinner. A distinct murmur from my stomach revealed that it was very long time since I last have had something to eat. So I scanned the room and found a basket filled with freshly made bread on a bench. Ah yes, it was delicious….and so was the crabmeat on a plate, which I also consumed as I pondered the possibilities.

I must state, I´m not a thief, but in my current situation I had very little choice; if I was to survive in this place I might be forced to do things I normally wouldn´t dream of, such as eating a man´s dinner in his absence. The bottle on the table contained flin, not my favourite drink but as I said…… not much choice other than downing the potion.

Someone had stuck an irondagger right into the surface of the table…not a very nice thing to do, but I grabbed it anyway; a dagger is not my favourite weapon, but it´s better than nothing.

My further investigation of the room revealed two baskets standing beside a large shelf to the left. The contents of those baskets were a fair selection of herbs and plants, which I decided to take custody of. I didn´t want them to end up in the wrong hands….It was quite obvious that I wouldn´t be able to carry with me all items that I might decide I would have use for, because there was a lot of silverware and a nice lockpick on the table, which I realized could come in handy later on . I tried the lockpick on a small chest standing on the shelf, and I was very happy to discover 31 drakes inside it. I pocketed those and went further down the corridor in order to investigate if I´d find something to carry things in.

In a small room in the basement I found some sacks , some with contents, some without. I took one of them and headed upstairs again, filled it with the silver cutlery from the table in the dining room, the ingredients from the baskets and also 2 bottles of Mazte which I found on a shelf.

I went out again and ended up in a narrow backyard facing another building with a worn green door. I realized I couldn´t possibly step inside the captain´s office carrying a sack full of stolen goods, so I decided to hide it somewhere……and when I discovered a rain-water-barrel outside the office it seemed most promising. When I shoved the sack into the barrel I caught sight of something that glittered; it turned out to be a golden ring with a rather vulgar green stone attached to it. I reckoned I´d get a drake or two for it selling it to some local trader so I put the ring in my pocket, and opened the door to the office…

So I faced the mighty Captain of the Imperial Legion- Sellus Gravius!

My heart jumped as I encountered a stout Cyrodiilic man in imperial templar armour, sitting at his desk busily writing in a ledger as it seemed. How he resembled my father! Tears burned behind my eyelids and I swallowed to get rid of that lump in my throat, as I addressed him;

“ Good afternoon captain, my na…” I was brusquely interrupted by Captain Gravius;

“ Give me your papers, girl, I found out about your arrival only yesterday, but anyway you are welcome to Morrowind. I´m Sellus Gravius by the way. He took my release-papers and studied them thoroughly.

“ Ok so I don´t know why you´re here, or why you were released from prison, but the letter was clear, authorized by the Emperor, Uriel Septim VII, and that´s all I need to know.

“So when you leave this office you are a free woman”, he continued, “but before you leave I have some duties for you….”

I looked at the man, I was not at all interested in performing anything for him, the very looks of him made bad memories come to my mind….

He handed me a package of parchment-rolls, saying;

“ This was submitted with the letter that preceded you; you are to deliver it to a man called Caius Cosades in Balmora. Serve him truthfully as you would serve the Emperor. I also have a letter for you to deliver.”

Then he gave me 87 drakes, my release-fee, and for the first time since I got off the boat I could show a smile.

And so I stepped out of the office and into the fresh air, carefully remembering to bring the sack with my custodial items. The evening was already long gone and the sky had darkened considerably. The clouds in the sky predicted the possibility of some rain during the night.

I shrugged and put down the sleeves of my shirt, it was already getting quite chilly and as I didn´t fancy staying outdoors the whole night, I decided to try and get some night-quarters.

The little town was well guarded; I spotted quite a few imperial guards patrolling the small square outside the Census and Excise office. Now I didn´t want to address them with my inquiry about accommodations; in fact I wouldn´t draw their attention to me at all, not with the goods I carried with me. Then I heard some screaming and shouting, and to my surprise three of those guards were harassing a short man in a yellow shirt. I went to have a closer look and saw the little man fall down on the ground, the guards kicking him and insulting him terribly. The victim was bosmer, I could tell from the look of his angry, distorted face and sharply pointed ears. Now I have nothing against bosmers; I still remember Margoth, our warder at the prison, and I certainly do NOT like when someone is tormented by a bunch. Besides the guards were supposed to GUARD, not to slay the citizens. I dropped my sack and addressed one of the guards;

“ You should be ashamed of yourselves, three against one, it´s really cowardice” I actually shouted at the guard so they stopped kicking the poor bosmer and stared at me with anger.

“Nah ye shan´t interfere ´ere lassie, nona yer bisnes……go ´ome an make supper ´ta yer ´man an let us finish this off ´ere….or else…”

“ What?”, I said, trembling with anger and fear; the guard was a huge man with really big hands and I could very well imagine what those hands could do with me.

“You really are a big hero, slaying a man smaller than yourself and threatening a woman...A really big hero, the Emperor must be proud of you all.”

I saw I had gone too far; the look in his eyes was frightening, as he let go of the bosmer and slowly stepped towards me…….