Alexander in Morrowind (2) Options

[Alexander]

Alexander in Morrowind, Chapter 2


I spent more then a year at Tel Fyr. And many things happened there, but I will not go into all of them. Suffice to say, after I had found myself using magic Divayth offered to take me in for some time and teach me the basics of magic. He promised me that the headaches would never return; the cause appeared to be the gift of magic seeking release and not getting it. But Divayth also made it clear to me that while he could teach me the basics, the rest I had to learn for myself. “It’s always hard to teach someone else what you know, because their brain works in another way, but with you being also from another world, the makes it even harder,” or so he told me. And I’m sure had it not been for the second gift of Azura, I would not have been able to remember everything I was told and thought in that time.

So in that year he taught me many a basic spell, how to transport your body or that of another person, how to levitate or make someone else do so. How to heal and how to damage. How to calm people and how to get them into such a rage that they act without thinking. He taught me how to lock and unlock doors and how to cloak myself with my surroundings. And much, much more. I cannot and will not even begin to try and explain the procedures here as I’m sure you either already know them yourself, or do not and if you do not, then there must be a good reason for that.

During this time I found myself growing fond of not only Divayth but his daughters as well. Now, just so you know nothing ever happened there; Divayth had made it clear that he would not allow that and I’m not a man to not honor his host’s wishes. But we did grow to be friends.

Now all this time I hardly ever set foot outside Tel Fyr so I had no way of knowing what was going on in the outside world, but Divayth kept me informed there as well. He also told me things about the history of the province, how the Chimer became the Dunmer, how the Tribunal had come to be and more. So I can safely say after that year, even without the help of Divayth I would be able to make my way around Morrowind, well so long as nothing bad happened anyway.

Then one day Divayth approached me and told me that I should think about moving on and what I wanted to do with my life here. I knew I couldn’t stay at Tel Fyr for the rest of my life, especially since I knew I would never die of old age anyway, so I had thought about this a lot. And I made my decision then. I asked him, “How do I become a part of the Telvanni?” I knew being a part of a house would help me more then anything else to adapt here and looking at the three houses, the Hlaalu would never be my choice; they were backstabbers and nothing more. The Redoran were the most honorable without a doubt, but also the ones that had the most rules, and with all their honor, they had allowed a dishonorable person like Venim to lead them for so long- no, that would not be my choice either. Now the Telvanni, having never been fond of rules in the first place, and with their great towers, the choice was easily made.

I did not get the reaction I had expected from Divayth. I had maybe expected him to make me a member himself or something like that, but he just stood there and told me:

“If this is what you wish, then I show you the way. Though it saddens me to say, I will not be able to help you further there. To advance it will take your own effort. Becoming a Telvanni is easy, staying one and not getting killed by competitors is much harder and I do not have the time to constantly protect you from others. So if you want this, you must do it on your own.”

I guess that was one thing I hadn’t taken fully into account. Being a high ranking Telvanni was the same as being in jeopardy all the time. No rules meant that anyone that killed you would gain status in the eyes of others. But even then, I realized it was either Telvanni or no one, so my choice was made. And I made that clear to Divayth.

He announced that it was time for bed and that tomorrow we would go to Sadrith Mora and get the easiest part out of the way there.

On the morrow we were awakened by banging on the door; being the one closest to it I went to see who would be calling this early in the morning. It appeared to be a messenger carrying a package who told me he was in search of the Lord of Fyr. I told him where to find him and that was the last I saw of him. He left when I was eating that morning. And then Divayth appeared in the doorway carrying the package the messenger had brought. He gave to me and told me it was a gift he had ordered brought from the House Vault in Vivec. I opened it to find an Ebony Long sword of the finest quality. I knew from what I’ve been told that this was a princely gift, not many swords were a match for this one and so I thanked Divayth many times.

And then it was time to go. I said my goodbyes to the daughters and followed Divayth outside; he told me he had never been very fond of water so we would be transporting ourselves to Sadrith Mora instead of taking the boat. Which I, of course, found amusing seeing as how his tower was surrounded by water on all sides. But we all have our little quirks now and then so doing as he asked and taking his hand, we went to Sadrith Mora the fast way. I can hardly described how that felt, it felt like having your body split into many tiny pieces and then being put back together somewhere else, and the funny thing was, my first thought there was, “I want to go again.” And then I looked at where I was, Sadrith Mora, the biggest city of the Telvanni and the home to both one of the masters and the Mouths, as some of the most trusted servants of the masters were called.

Now Sadrith Mora could best be described of as a Mushroom city. All the houses, all the buildings, everything was of the same material as Tel Fyr only smaller and in different shapes. I had already been told that the manufacturing of the towers allowed for much diversity but this was beyond what I had imagined. In the center of the town was what I found is Tel Naga, the tower of one of the oldest members of the Telvanni. And off on the west side of town was an equally impressive building which had to be the council hall. Walking there alongside Divayth I took in the surroundings even more. And especially what appeared to be a slave market ahead of us. I looked upon it and felt my blood begin to boil. One of the worst things I could imagine was slavery and I had always held it in contempt. We actually walked right past it and I saw the slaver there take his whip and threaten one of the caged Khajiit. Noticing my enragement, Divayth stopped and leaned closer to whisper something to me;

“One of the prime values of the Telvanni is to act on your own. Let no one tell you what is good and what is not but decide for yourself what is. And to want the power, you must be ready to wield it as well without hesitation.”

I got the hint and approached the slaver slowly., Upon seeing me he came to me and asked me if I perchance wanted to buy one or more slaves. He assured me that they wouldn’t die, well not too soon anyway, and that they were perfect for use in experiments of any kind.

Well that was not a smart thing for him to say.. Focusing my will I released it on him and he suddenly found himself floating upside down several feet up in the air. Probably without thinking about it he whipped out his whip and tried to swing it at me- a thought later and his whip was incinerated. I guess that got the message clear because he now resorted to begging for his life. I wasn’t going to kill him of course, but I did want him to know he could not try and hit me without getting something back for it, so I sent him spinning round and round till he was so dizzy his face was turning green. Not wanting him to soil my nice robe, I let him back down and once he had given in to his urges, I demanded the key to the bracers and cells of the slaves. He reluctantly gave them to me but warned me that Master Neloth would hear of this. I knew of course that was the local Telvanni master but I was bound to make some enemies anyway so no sense in avoiding it.

[Alexander]

After the slaves had thanked me and were safely on board the boat to Ebonheart, we resumed our walk to the council hall and went inside.

We were greeted by a female Dunmer called Dalyne Arvel. She apparently had just been allowed to join the house and was now awaiting her first assignment. But from the look she gave us, she had been waiting for a long time already. Divayth ignored her and we moved on through the door into the room beyond. There I saw the mouths for the first time. It was a round room with seven platforms. Five of them were occupied and two were empty. Divayth explained that there once had been seven council members until one had died ages ago and the other was killed by Arthur, obviously only a short time ago. Divayth pointed them out to me one at a time, to the left of the Archmagisters place Arara Uvules the mouth of master Neloth, next to him Galos Mathendis the mouth of master Aryon. And on the other side of the room, at the back Raven Omayn mouth to mistress Dratha, then Felisa Ulessen, mouth to mistress Therana, and just on the left of us Mallam Ryon, once the mouth of Gothren, now the mouth of Divayth after Divayth allowed him to stay on. Both Ryon and Mathendis politely inclined their heads to me and I greeted them back, the others just stood there with an air of self-importance so it was not hard for me to decide there who I liked and who I didn’t.

Divayth was about to tell me something when the door was thrown open violently and an old mean-looking man entered the room. He came up to me right away and demanded to know if it had been me that had released those slaves. Not seeing anything in denial I admitted to this. He then went on a tirade lasting several minutes. I won’t repeat the things he said here but I will admit he found ways of using certain words I had never imagined possible. And it really was very colorful language he was using. Then looking a bit beyond me, he suddenly stopped in mid-sentence as he finally spotted Divayth standing next to me. He quickly closed his mouth when he found he had left it open and tried to regain a bit of his posture. It was obvious from the start that he didn’t like Divayth at all and I’m sure the feeling was mutual. They regarded each other with cold stares for a moment before Neloth, for that is who he was, looked back at me and a smile crept over his face.

“So you’re the famous Alexander that fell out of the sky, I assume. Well now, what brings you here? And I hope I am not so impressive as to make you bring your keeper with you.”
Before I even spoke Divayth took charge and told him I was here to join the house. And that as Neloth well knew he could not stop anyone from joining the house, if that person had brought a patron with him to vouch for him. Neloth smiled and assured Divayth that he knew all about that but that he wondered if Divayth knew the fact that one may only sponsor another member once. And that after this he could not do it again. Divayth said he did, but I must say I had no idea what that meant; I mean entering the house was all it took was it not?. Maybe it was just an empty threat or loose words by Neloth. He then spoke again;

“Well now that that’s settled I will take my leave. A good day to the Lord of Fyr and good luck in our house Alexander. Hahaha.”

Somehow that laugh at the end warned me that I had not seen the last of Neloth and would have ample trouble with him in the future.

Next Divayth told me the time had come for him to leave me on my own. He handed me a purse with some money in it; from the weight of it, a lot of money- and told me that I could return and visit him anytime I liked. I bid him good day and wished him luck, which he did to me as well of course. Then he left and I was alone in the room with the mouths.

Deciding it would be best to talk to one of the nicer mouths before I was rejected right away, I went and talked to Mallam, mouth to master Divayth Fyr. I introduced myself to him and he told me Divayth had already told him about me, so I asked what I would need to do to join the house Telvanni. This is what he told me:

"We trust all members of House Telvanni to use their own judgment. If you steal from another Telvanni, but still live, then clearly you deserve whatever you stole. Murdering your opponents by magic or treachery is the traditional way of settling disputes. If you win, then clearly your argument has more merit. You may be expelled as in any other Great House, but most Telvanni will not care or even know about it. Does this appeal to you?"

I answered that I already knew about this so, yes I did acccept.

“Then I now name you hireling of house Telvanni. Since My master sponsored you into the house, I have no duties for you, but I can give you advice. Talk to all the mouths and get more then one job. Often things are close by and that will save you time. On behalf of my master the Lord of Fyr I wish you much luck.”

Seeing as I had little choice, I moved to the nearest mouth, which happened to be Felisas, mouth to mistress Therana. She was nicer then I had thought when I first saw her and she welcomed me into the house., When I asked her if she had any chores for me, she told me she did have this one small job for me. Apparently her mistress had just ordered the production of a skirt and now Felisa needed someone to deliver it to Therana. “Well,” I thought to myself, “how hard can this be?” So I accepted, took the skirt from her and headed to the docks. Walking past the slave market and seeing it empty and abandoned gave me a good feeling. Arriving at the docks and catching a boat to Tel Branora, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was the same town I passed on my way to Tel Fyr. Of course that meant thinking about Arthur again and how he had left me standing there alone as he went away. He might not have had much choice, but still it was not something I looked back on with mixed feelings. I was happy remembering the time we had spent together, but sorry it had been so brief.