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 backed away a few steps as the guard came nearer, then I decided not to withdraw anymore. I was right; he was not and I felt that the only way to survive in this somewhat hostile country was to stand up against evil even if that would cost me my life. I had seen and encountered my share of gruesome events and evil; therefore I was not afraid of anything anymore, on the contrary I felt utterly strong and invulnerable as I sternly gazed right into the eyes of this slightly fat imperial officer. He couldn´t look me in the eyes for very long; he started looking lecherously at my body instead, which caused me to break into a cold sweat and made me even more determined to stand up to him. Suddenly he flung himself against me with a roar and grabbed my shirt, tearing it at the front. I gave ground, letting myself fall backwards and thus getting him out of balance, so when he fell over me I managed to put my knee very hard right between his legs, and hit the right spot. As the imperial guard bellowed in agony, quite a few citizens gathered to see what this was all about.

Then things started to happen very fast. First an elderly altmer lady put a cloak over my shoulders, to cover me, since my shirt was totally torn apart. Then a tall man in a really exquisite outfit combined with a strangely shaped hat, stepped forward and raised his rather nasal voice;

“ Now then officers, what is this fuss about? It´s past sunset, and we do not want any uproar at this time of the day.”

The overall reaction was peculiar; it seemed that everyone either was afraid of this well-dressed gentleman or they hated him for some reason, because the crowd quickly dispersed as did the imperial guards. Left behind were the poor bosmer, the strange gentleman and myself.

The gentleman looked at me, saw that I apparently was not hurt, then lifted his headgear, bowed at me and headed towards the Census and Excise office.

The bosmer then quickly rose to his feet, glanced at me and spat in the direction the well-dressed man had disappeared. I stretched out my hand to him and asked him gently if he was alright.

“ I guess I owe you one,” he answered with a whining voice, as he brushed the dust from his trousers, “Them guards are picking at me all the time, it´s their kind of fun, always picking at Fargoth.” The little bosmer was building up a rage whilst talking to me; he started stamping his feet and waving his arms. I could hardly resist smiling; his behaviour looked somewhat ridiculous.

“Ah,” he then hesitated, “ You´re the one who got off the boat earlier?” He virtually undressed me with his looks, “Heard them talk about someone important coming, can´t be you though; you´re a girl.”

I frowned at those words; I certainly don’t regard myself as some royal highness but nevertheless I resented his assumption that I could not be important just for being a woman, and then I didn´t fancy the way he looked at me. I drew the cloak tighter around me, partly because of the chilly wind and partly because of the peering eyes of the little annoying bosmer.

“Nah,” he continued, “I don´t suppose you´ve seen my ring somewhere around?” It´s a family heirloom and I really cherish it, so the guards are always stealing it from me just to annoy me, filthy bastards them guards are.” he started to jump up and down again, continuously staring at me, and not at my face…..

I understood that the ring with the green stone that I found in the rainwater-barrel was his “family heirloom,” and since I now was pretty eager to get rid of this little Mer I took it out of my pocket saying;

“ Could it be this one, maybe?” and then handed the ring to him

When I saw the sheer joy in his face I forgot about his annoying manners; I do like to give pleasure to people…

Then he started to tell me about his very good friend Arille at the local tradehouse. Now that was some useful information since I urgently needed some supplies, due to the harsh encounter with the local guards. Fargoth said he would put a word for me with Arille…..

I bid the bosmer good evening and walked away. The lady who had given me the cloak to cover me up was outside her house trying to close the shutters for the night; they seemed to be a bit stuck, probably due to the humid air this evening so I volunteered to help her. She presented herself as Eldafire., She was originally from a farm outside of Seyda Neen, but moved into town after her husband died and was now making her living being a cleaning-lady at the Census and Excise office.

“Ah yes, Mr Ergalla is a nice man, don´t pay that much, but always has a friendly word to say and never complains about me works.” Eldafire then invited me in for a cup of tea, “ To warm you up, lass, ´tis a cold eve tonight, an´ye need to get shelter, rain´s comin´this way.”

So we sat by the fire in Eldafire´s little cottage sipping hot hackle-lo-tea and I took the opportunity to ask her a little bit about the small town I´d ended up in. It seemed there weren´t many services in this place. Of course there was a “Silt-strider-line” to a couple of other towns, among them Balmora ..now that rang a bell in my mind; I was supposed to look up a man in that place, so now I at least knew how to get there. When I asked about the Silt-strider, Eldafire told me that this was the giant “insect” that I spotted earlier on my arrival. I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach; I can´t stand ordinary small insects, and this one was huge…..and you actually were supposed to ride inside it. I must have gone quite pale because Eldafire patted my shoulder and laughed;

“ Easy lassie, ´tis quite normal, everyone rides it! Fast n´cheap, yer in Balmora in a jiffy!”

Then she also told me about the well dressed man that came to my rescue earlier this evening, and why the people just vanished as he approached…..

“Processus Vitellius it is, you know, the local tax-collector! he´s not very liked here, collectin´ those taxes an´ all……livin´a good life he is ….maybe them taxes end up in ´is own pockets…..you never know!”

I pondered over this bit of information; the local tax-collector came to my rescue in the encounter with those imperial guards, now why would he do a thing like that? Or was it just that he saw another source of income? Or was he just a righteous man that didn´t like injustice?

“he´s gonna end up beheaded one ´o these days” Eldafire nodded solemnly at me as she looked straight into my eyes. I shrugged and moved closer to the fireplace.

Now as I sat there in the cozy cottage, listening to Eldafire´s stories about the citizens of Seyda Neen in general and the story of Processus Vitellius in particular, my eyelids started to drop; it had been a long day and I was totally exhausted. All I really wanted now was a place to sleep. As Eldafire´s cottage was utterly small, she couldn´t put me up for the night but she suggested I go to the Lighthouse, where she told me that her friend Thavere Vedrano might have an extra bed that she´d rent out. Thankful for that advice I bade Eldafire good night and headed towards the Lighthouse of Seyda Neen.