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]

Walking a bit further I then I looked upon what I knew right away to be one of the most powerful people in the land. The only time I had seen such power before was with Divayth and I knew right away this man might be second in power only to Divayth. But where Divayth wore heavy Daedric armor and had almost white hair, Baladas had black hair and looked as if he was in the prime of his years and had only just come to power. Looking into his eyes, however, told another story altogether. They spoke power. And he might dress himself in a normal mage’s robe, but this was no ordinary mage at all.

I cautiously approached him and asked him if I could have a word with him; he didn’t kill me then so I took that as approval. I explained I had been sent by Master Aryon to offer him a position on the council, and gently broached the subject about the vote that Aryon wanted in return. At that name he looked at me with those penetrating eyes. After I had finished he quietly asked me if I knew what had happened for Baladas to move out here. I responded that I did. And he replied, “Well then it will come as no surprise to you that I say to Oblivion with Aryon and the entire house with him. Good day.” And with that he turned his back to me and grabbed a book from the pile on his desk.

Well there I was. Inside the house of Baladas with him not wanting to work with Aryon and me about to fail the mission. I knew it would be a bad idea to go back to Tel Vos without the support of Baladas. So being my bold self and risking life and limb again I walked up to him and without hesitation asked him what he wanted in return for his working with Aryon. I had barely finished when he looked up from his book and his eyes cried out murder. This was it; I knew I had made a mistake. I felt him draw power and knew this was when I would meet my maker.

But then when I expected him to fire something at me, he released the power and a smile crept over his face and suddenly he was laughing. Great, I thought, yet another mad soon to be Master. Just what the house needs. But then his laughter subsided and he stood up and actually clasped my arm. He explained that this was his way of testing me. He had heard some things about the new apprentice of the Lord Fyr and wanted to know if what he had heard was accurate. And he was not disappointed, he told me. But with my mission still in my mind, I broached the topic again. This time he didn’t seem so reluctant but still answered in what I would discover was his normal cryptic way.
“Do I want to cast my vote with Aryon, you ask, Alexander, hm, well I might just do that. Then again, I just might not. It depends really.”

“On what?” I asked him.

“Why on you of course. You see, Alexander I have a few chores that I need someone to do, but I’m so busy at the moment that I really can’t find the time to do them myself, so if I were to find someone able and of course willing to do them for me, then I might just give Aryon my support.”

I got the hint so of course I “volunteered” to do those chores with about as much enthusiasm as I would normally offer someone to pay for their drink. And he told me for the first job he wanted me to set something straight. It seemed to be that a day ago there was someone calling at the door of this tower, and he apparently was so annoying that Baladas transported him to the dungeon of the tower. But again due to the fact that he was so busy at the moment, he hadn’t gotten around to dealing with that person yet. He of course assured me that the person had enough food and drink and such, but he would rather just get rid of him. So if I could get this person off the property there and persuade him never to return, that would please Baladas quite a bit already.

After he told me the prison wing was actually to the left from the entrance, I went there immediately. Since it wasn’t far it only took me a couple of minutes to get there, and as I opened the door leading to the cells I heard shouting and rattling. Apparently someone wasn’t very happy about being locked up and wanted to get out right away. As I approached the cell, she told me the obvious, “Hey you’re not Baladas.”
I’m glad she pointed it out otherwise I might never have had that great mystery unveiled. I asked her name, and she told me she was called Ragash Gra-Shuzgub and that she was the local tax collector. Yes, she was an Orc, but fortunately I had gotten over my fear of them already so I asked her what she was doing here., She explained she was the local tax collector and that she came to collect just that, and after Baladas hadn’t answered the door and she had called out a couple times, she suddenly found herself in here.

I explained that for the time being I was the servant of Baladas and that he wanted her gone. She said she wasn’t going until she had the taxes she came for. Not wanting to get into a discussion, I asked her what Baladas owed them, and after hearing the amount, I gave her triple that, after she promised that she would leave and not disturb Baladas for the next three years.

“Well,” I thought to myself, “if all the chores will be this easy then I’ll be on my way in no time.” Of course we all know even thinking such a thing is tempting fate and wouldn’t you know it, when I reported success, he told me had another small errand to run. He asked me to bring him copies of three odd-sounding books. Nchnak's Fire and Faith, Chronicles of Nchuleft, and Antecedents of Dwemer. Those were the ones he needed for research. He told me I could either steal them from the secret Library in Vivec, or from the Holamayan monastery or buy them in certain bookstores. I knew it would be a bad idea to steal something from a monastery, not that I was or had ever been very religious, but still there were certain things one does not do. The alternative, this secret library he spoke of, sounded nice enough but would bring me awfully close to the Nerevar’s Castle and I knew I wasn’t ready for that either. So I choose to invest yet another bit of my money and just buy the books. I bid Baladas good day and was on my way to Vivec.

I had promised myself to one day visit Jobasha once more and today seemed the perfect day for that. So, taking the silt strider, I soon found myself on my way to Vivec. Quickly walking to Jobasha’s, I heard some people whisper behind my back. Either they remembered I had been infected with corpus there or they knew I was Telvanni and wanted to comment on that. Either way I didn’t stand around and ask them but made my way to the store. Inside I was warmly greeted by Huleeya once again. Just like the last time, he didn’t appear amazed at seeing me and I rather suspected he knew I was coming a mile away. But I hadn’t come here for him so I moved past him and asked Jobasha about the books., He told me he had two of the three and could easily give them to me for a small price of course. It seemed he had both Chronicles and Antecedents. He was also able to tell me that Dorisa in Balmora had the Fire and Faith, the last on my list. So I thanked him mightily and set our for Balmora. A silt strider and a small walk later I was there, and it took me again all the willpower I had to limit myself to the one book I needed. I am convinced I was actually drooling as I had in Vivec, but somehow I was able to get out again without spending my entire fortune.

Content that I had done enough for today, I took the silt strider back to Gnisis and presented Baladas with the three books. He thanked me and as a gift, gave me a few things he just happened to have lying around there, a belt, an amulet, some shoes; like I said, what he just happened to have lying around there. Then he told me to get some sleep as the next day he had one last chore for me but also told me it would be a bit more complicated then these other ones.