Agent, Ebonheart's finest Options

[jack cloudy]

Yesterday was my birthday so here's my belated gift to all of you. The start of a new fanfic! (Wings of Light will be continued as well.) You may notice a shift of focus compared to my earlier fanfics.




Agent.
Chapter 1: In training.

My knees were shivering. For a good reason, I might say as the Duke towering over me looked very intimidating in his heavy suit of Ebony armour. Just to compare the two of us, the helmet would have been enough to crush me. Also, being dressed in cheap rags has never been a good source of courage. As it was, I had more than enough reasons to be afraid of him.

Who am I? I no longer use the name I was born with. I changed it upon my arrival here on Vvardenfell. Now I finally I have a name I can spell. Anyway, my name is Ro-El Frost. Sounds Khajiit? Maybe, but I am really closer related to the Nords, though without the muscles, the alcohol tolerance, the noise and without the size. Go figure.

The Duke turned to a man wearing some sort of golden armour. Probably the boss of the guard who was blocking the only way out of the room.
,,Is this the kid you were talking about?” The Duke asked with a stern voice. This did not sound well.
,,Yes, that’s the one.” Was the equally stern reply. This was one of those moments that your life would start to fly past your eyes.

How did I get here? Well, I don’t really know to be honest. People claim I must have been on the Skooma to have forgotten how I ever found myself in that mine. I didn’t like it there. The slavers forced me to do hard labour every day. I could feel my life slowly seep away with every single egg I harvested. I had to get out.

My plan took time but it worked in the end, except for one small detail. I harvested some poison one of the Kwama warriors had been spitting at the wall and mixed it with my food for the day. The day after that, I dumped it into the lake that was somehow inside the mine. The food had been swallowed by the Slaughterfish before I’d stepped away. The next part of my plan was the hardest. I’d been warned that the smell of their queen’s blood puts the Kwama into a killing frenzie. This information was meant so that the slaves were careful not to kill themselves, but it could also be used to my advantage.

So as you might guess, tapping blood from the queen is a potentially lethal act. Fortunately, I knew that by tapping just a little through a tiny wound made with my fingernail, the Kwama would not even notice. I carefully kept the blood sealed away inside a bottle till after four days, I’d finally collected enough. That night came the last part of my masterplan.

I managed to convince the slaves to go swimming in the lake, after showing them that the Slaughterfish had died through my act of poisoning. Next, I sprinkled the collected blood on the clothes of the slavers. I managed to get out to the lake before the killing started. I’d never been so glad that Kwama can’t swim. Those things were completely out of control. Which leads me to where I am now.

,,You have caused the death of three Dunmer and would have escaped if my Legionaires weren’t performing a raid at the same time.” The Duke spoke directly to me. Remember the little detail that went wrong? Well two dozen heavily armed soldiers who found a whole angry bunch of Kwama in their face, that’s what went wrong.
,,I thought they would run when the Kwama went mad. I didn’t expect them to die.” Was the weak defense I managed to whisper.

My arm was brusquely grabbed by the guard. The slave bracers I’d been forced to wear clattered on the floor.
,,Ro-El Frost, you have closed down an illegal egg mine and punished those who were responsible. You have further freed their prisoners who are being returned to their families as we speak. All that without harming the Kwama themselves, my men are responsible for that. As such, it is my pleasure as a servant of the great Emperor, Uriel Septim, to grant you your freedom and to take you into my service as an agent in the order of Ebonheart. Serius will escort you to your room.” The Duke now said with a smile and pointed at the guard who had released me from the symbol of slavery.

In a flash of inspiration, I snatched the bracers from the floor before I was dragged out of the room by Serius. We ascended many stairs before he finally threw open a wooden door and pushed me inside. ,,Consider everything in this room to be yours. You’ll be summoned tomorrow at 6 am. Wait inside your room till we come for you.” Serius ordered me before slamming the door shut. Not the nicest guy in the world.

I sat down on the bed and looked around, still unable to believe what had just happened. Instead of being branded as the bad guy and possibly executed, I had been turned into some sort of hero. Not exactly something that happened to me every day.

After I finally admitted to myself that things had turned out alright, I took a look around the room they’d given me. Apart from the bed, there was a closet, a mirror, a desk with several books on it and a sturdy wooden chest. It wasn’t big, but not small either. I opened the closet with the intention of swapping my dirty old rags with something more comfortable. It was cold this time of the year. The closet did not disappoint me. It was filled with all kinds of clothes ranging from simple but sturdy to downright extravagant and fit for a noble. There were shirts, pants, robes, shoes and even a few skirts, though I did not know what I was supposed to do with those. Men don’t wear skirts where I come from. Finally there were a few gloves on a separate rack.

I choose for a simple blue shirt with matching pants and a pair of shoes fit for indoor use. As the last action of the day, I picked up the book lying on top of the pile. ‘History of the Empire, part 1’ it said on the cover. If my idea of an agent was somewhat correct, these books had been placed here for a reason. I had some reading to do.

[jack cloudy]

I'm glad you like it. Yes, first person feels a bit harder though it can definitely be done. Just look at Trey, it's a masterpiece. I have to admit I actually started out here in first person. I have gone a full circle. Now for the next update.




Next morning, I was awoken by the loud sound of someone banging on the door. Normally, I’m not much of a sleeper. I suppose this is my body’s way of telling me it was the best bed I’d ever slept in. Still, it seemed unlikely that whoever was banging on the door would just leave, not to mention I had my duty as an Agent, whatever that duty might be. Slightly panicked, I scrambled out of the bed and rushed to get dressed. In my haste, I accidentally switched shoes and I was still hopping around on one leg while trying to correct my mistake when the door was opened.

Serius said nothing about the laughable pose I was in. He just threw a loaf of bread in my arms and marched out again. ,,This is your breakfast, follow me.” He said with a commanding voice. I was beginning to wonder if Serius ever laughed or allowed himself to lighten up. Munching on the bread, I followed him, still struggling with my shoes.

Today I would learn about the untold shadows that hide behind the walls of every nobleman’s house, or castle in this case. Serius led me into a maze of tunnels used by the servants and us Agents. The entrance we used was masterfully disguised as a painting of a reddish mountain with dark clouds pouring out of its tip. I had no idea which mountain it was or even if it was real. My geographical knowledge was lousy at its best.

Serius led the way with a torch, leaving it up to me to decide whether to follow him or not. Naturally, I choose to follow him while doing my best to remember the route we took. Not only were the tunnels so dark that you couldn’t see a thing beyond the torch’s light, it was also completely featureless which made navigating a serious pain in the behind. We walked for what felt like hours before Serius finally stopped in front of a simple wooden door. By now, I had absolutely no idea just where we were.
,,Get inside.” Serius grunted and walked away.

I took a deep breath before opening the door. Beyond the door, I saw a large room lit by countless candles. Deep shadows penetrated those areas that were not lit up. It had a very creepy atmosphere.
,,Ah, you must be the new kid!” A Bosmer yelled as he leaped out of the shadows. I stumbled backwards in fright, tripped and ended up on my back. If I planned to make a good first impression, I’d failed miserably.
,,I’m Leroth, Duke Dren’s official spymaster. We can do everything the Blades can, only better!” The little man continued and helped me get back on my feet. To be honest, there wasn’t all that much of a size difference. My eyes were about as high as the tip of his ears.
,,Ro-El Frost. Nice to meet you.” I mumbled, feeling the blood rush up to my face.

Leroth was full of energy and he almost literally threw me on a stool.
,,Sit down, my young friend. You may call me master Leroth. I will be your commanding officer as well as your teacher. The Duke likes your improvising back in that mine so I have to turn you into a fine Agent if I don’t want to disappoint him. Now, where do we start?” He rambled on. I had no chance to interrupt him even if I knew something to say.

Still, he was a likeable fellow. A really likeable fellow. It was as if we’d been friends for years. I frowned at that thought. We’d only met a few seconds ago. How could I like someone that much after such a short time? It just felt odd.
,,Very good. Seeing the trap is the first step in avoiding it.” Leroth said with his cheerful voice. The odd feeling vanished just as sudden as it had came. Leroth had tested me, to see if I could notice when someone tampered with my minds. Just the fact that he considered this test necessary made me somewhat worry about my new profession.

,,Alright, Ro-El. First things first. The interrogation the Legionnaires put you through revealed some things, such as your age, your gender, your race and of course your name. What I do need to know are other things, skills, knowledge and your birthsign.” The Bosmer had rushed off to a second room I only just noticed. He came out a bit later with a big book and a quill.
,,I’ll write it all down. From the impression I’ve just received, you are not much of a talker and being a slave means you are unlikely to know much about economics either. So that means Speechcraft and Mercantile are in need of improvement. Next, you appear to be either clumsy or you just have bad luck. I’ll need some more observation to decide on that. You are intelligent enough to come up with overly complicated escape plans when needed, so I’ll put a plus next to your intelligence profile. That leaves us with the other things. Do you know on which day you were born?”

I was feeling dizzy from the rapid talking. It took a moment before I’d realized the question was directed at me. I shrugged.
,,I have no idea to be honest.” I muttered. Leroth noted it down in that big book of his.
,,In the field, such a slow answer could have been fatal. Pay attention.” And so the questioning continued.