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 stared at the ceiling without seeing a thing. I was not made for this life. Danger, lies and death lurking in the shadows were not my idea of pleasant activities. I sighed. It wasn’t just me who was living that life. Leroth, Dren, even Serius were all involved. Especially Dren, who had to play the game both in the open and behind the curtains. I tried to imagine how it would be, to fear every meal in case it had been poisoned. To go to bed, wondering if you would wake up to see the next day. To judge every man, woman and child before you, hoping that they weren’t an assassin hiding behind an innocent face. No, then those who kept low and seemingly outside the whole matter had the better deal.

I forced myself to get out of the bed. I did not know who brought me to my room, so I had no idea what happened after I passed out. Now, I was determined to find out. Leroth deserved that much. He’d been the closest thing to a friend here. Serius was always cold and distant while the duke, he was too busy to talk. I would find the Bosmer and if he was death, I would make sure he received a proper burial. I hoped this wouldn’t be needed though I feared the worst.

Through the last few days, I’d learned a lot from the talkative Bosmer. Most importantly, I’d learned to recognize tiny scratches on the wall that allowed me to know where I was inside the dark tunnels. I stormed through, my fingers stroking against the cold stone, slowing down only when I had to pass a servant. As I went in deeper, the amount of traffic dropped rapidly. Soon, I was all alone, deep underneath the ground.

The plain wooden door looked as if nothing ever happened. It had no right to look as if nothing happened. I threw it open and marched into the room without even bothering to check if it was safe. The room looked just like when I left. A game at diner was still lying on the table. The disastrous results of my Alchemy experiments still bubbled and sizzled angrily. The Imperial shortsword was still stabbed into the training dummy’s heart. The only sign of what had happened was the large pool of dry blood at my feet.

For a moment, I’d lost all hope. Then, I finally noticed what I should have noticed right away. Someone was snoring. I grinned. My fears had been completely useless. Leroth was sleeping in his bed. There wasn’t a problem at all.

The Bosmer opened one eye.
,,Oh, hi Ro-El. Nice to see you. I was wondering if you’d show up today. Eh, I’m afraid that I need to stay in the bed for a few days. So I’ve been thinking.” He whispered. I leaned in closer so I could hear what he was saying. It was then that I noticed the bandage covering his throat. The assassin had come close, very close to finishing his job.
,,The duke wanted to send me to Ald-Rhun. Something about Sarethi being a murderer. Athyn Sarethi is an influential member of the Redoran council. This could cause a large shift in the balance of power. So, could you go in my place and find out what is going on? I’ve prepared a package for you to take. It’s on the table. Now, goodnight.” Leroth fell asleep almost instantly.

With nothing better to do, I picked up the package. It contained only a few documents and a pouch filled with a small fortune. I read the first document. It was a publicly available guide to Ald-Rhun. Then, I had a small list of inhabitants and whatever we knew about them. Finally, there was a note regarding the shipping of goods right here in Ebonheart. The last note got me.

Leroth didn’t plan to send me to Ald-Rhun at all. He’d simply given in to my constant complaints and presented an easy way out, including the money to start a new life. I crumpled the last document and burned it with a candle. I would no longer back out of things. Whether Leroth had wanted me to do this or not, I was going to Ald-Rhun.

No one saw me leave that night. No one would see me return until I’d found out about the truth.