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]

This will be the last one for a week or so due to far too much fuzz at work but don´t worry there will be more to come!



Naturally the rain started as I was walking towards the Lighthouse; in a couple of minutes I was totally soaked, so I started running with the thick wet cloak dangling around my legs. When I knocked at the Lighthouse-door it was immediately opened by a thin Dunmer woman in her forties with a weary look on her face.

“Please step inside, outlander,” she said in a soft gentle voice, as she stepped away from the door. “You are going to catch a cold in those wet clothes.”

“Thank you” I said, my teeth chattering severely, and quickly went inside the warm and cosy Lighthouse.
I presented myself and politely asked Thavere if she had a bed to rent for a couple of nights. I had no intention of going to Balmora yet; first I wanted to enjoy my newly achieved freedom before I reported to somebody and immediately risked getting some duties.

You don’t value freedom to its full extent if you haven’t been deprived of it and been locked up for some time. For me it was wonderful to be able to go wherever I wanted, to just sit and drink tea and do nothing, not to have somebody telling me what I can or cannot do, to go to bed when I want and not at a certain time because some ridiculous bell is ringing…..

Thavere was more than willing to rent out a bed to me; she was pleased with the fact that I wished to stay for a while, because she lived a lonely and restrained life in the Lighthouse. She could hardly go anywhere because the fire on top of the lighthouse needed constant supervision, but when I later asked her how she managed to get supplies like food and wood, she just smiled shyly and nodded her head.

I took off my soaked cloak and when Thavere was aware of the state of my clothing she gasped;

“Oh, so that’s how they trea….” Then she silenced herself by putting a hand before her mouth, blushing, “I’ll lend you a shirt and a robe,” she continued a few seconds later.

I was given a worn but spotlessly clean shirt and a beautiful green robe made from pure wool and dyed probably with cork bulb-leaves, which yield a deep green colour.

I pondered about why she was so unwilling to talk to me other than about the most necessary things, such as if the clothes fit me and if I was hungry….HUNGRY? I hadn’t eaten anything since this morning when I “took custody of” the bread and crab-meat at the Census and Excise building, and that was more than 8 hours ago. There was a pot on the stove, and its contents, a thick stew of crab-meat, saltrice, comberry-leaves and ash-yam, smelled wonderful. My stomach started to grumble profoundly and the sweet Lighthouse-keeper served me a large portion of it.

While eating I came to think of that there was a mystery here; why should Thavere make such a gigantic amount of food all for herself? Was she expecting someone? Or did she know in advance that I was coming to visit?

One part of the answer to these questions then entered the Lighthouse, in the shape of Processus Vitellius, the local tax-collector and also Thavere Vedrano´s “friend.” My jaw dropped as I found myself face-to-face with this official authority of Seyda Neen.

The presence of the tax-collector entirely filled the small lower room of the Lighthouse; he was a tall, well-built Cyrodiil with short brown hair and sharp piercing brown eyes, which now were staring sternly at me, as I sat there, eating my supper.

He took off his hat and cloak and handed them to Thavere, who immediately as he entered had rushed to his side, with a humble look on her face.

“Now will there be any evening-meal left for me tonight, Thavere?” he said in a sharp voice, still staring at me…

“Oh yes dear,” she replied in a soft voice, “We have a visitor, she ca…

“Quite! I’ve already met that woman earlier tonight, as I’ve told you, remember?” Processus turned towards Thavere with a sour look.

I felt a peculiar strain between them; it was obvious they had some kind of relation. I rapidly finished my supper, then decided I’d go upstairs and leave them to sort out whatever was bugging them.

As I sat by the fire on top of the Lighthouse I had a wonderful view of Seyda Neen, if it hadn’t been a dark rainy night that is….Despite the darkness and the pouring rain there were quite a few people moving around the small town; besides the patrolling guards I spotted some regular citizens, and among them the little Bosmer the guards harassed earlier. Now he acted rather strange I realised, sneaking away along the house-walls towards the Lighthouse. I moved away from the fire, didn’t want him to see me if he accidentally should look up. He headed past the Lighthouse and into a small swampy pond just below where I was sitting. While there he climbed into a hollow tree-stump in the middle of the swamp. I didn’t actually see what he was up to, but imagined it would have to be something slightly illegal, why else go sneaking around in the middle of the night?

It started to get really chilly so I went inside the Lighthouse again. No raised voices from below, so I imagined the couple sorted out everything. I went down to ask my hostess the whereabouts of my night quarters, but then the mighty Tax-collector showed his friendliest face and even smiled at me;

“I bid you good evening milady,” he said, stretching out his hand. I greeted him back, and sat down for a while on a bench beside the small table. He asked me if I was going to settle down in Seyda Neen, and also informed me of the local rules….that is of course taxes and when and where you pay those. I maybe disappointed him saying that I was just passing through on my way to Balmora, but I didn’t want him to think of me as his next source of income.

Then he started to tell me of the obedience of the villagers, or rather lack of obedience with some.

“This Fargoth fellow you were aiding earlier on is a highly annoying man; he’s always late with payment. That might end up nasty,” he continued.

I also learned about Foryn Gilnith, a poor Dunmer fisherman living in a house of his own manufacture. He always refused to pay taxes………….

As I clearly understood, this man wasn’t very popular with the other Imperial authorities of Seyda Neen. I also got an uneasy feeling that the last word was not yet said in this matter!

After some more small-talk, I decided it was about time I got some sleep, but first I took the opportunity to wash myself in a bucket with warm water that was given to me by Thavere. I enjoyed pouring the fresh, warm water over me, a luxury that I had not encountered for a very long time.

Processus Vitellius was apparently not spending the night in the Lighthouse; it was not really appropriate for a man in his position Thavere told me, he was staying at Arrille´s, who also rented out beds, but at a considerably higher price than the Lighthouse-keeper. In fact, as the fee for my accommodations, Thavere just asked me to help out with the supervision of the Lighthouse-fire during my stay so she could get out for a bit, to acquire some supplies and also to visit her old mother, living in Pelagiad, a small town north-east of Seyda Neen.

I considered this indeed was a fair price to pay, and so I bid her good night and lay down on the bedroll at the top tier of the Lighthouse-tower.

I drifted away in my sleep…and so Azura came to me again;

“Serene, Serene of Cyrodiil, you have arrived at your foreseen destination. Fear not, you are doing well …..I am watching you. Before the moons are full the next time, you are to go to the north, to Balmora, to fulfil the task that is laid upon you…