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]

Dang, I wasn't planning on updating today. But since you all are eagerly waiting for one, here it is.





Within minutes, the courtyard was flooded with just about everyone who was awake and not stuck with patrolling a different section of Ebonheart. The Duke was among the last to arrive, dressed up like the noble he was. I didn’t envy him. This constant looking after your reputation would give me a headache. I always wore exactly the same blue clothes. I had like five sets of them. The Duke on the other hand had a closet the size of my room filled with nothing but varying clothes for all kinds of different purposes. He also had a professional clothing expert.

,,What’s going on here?” He asked with a stern voice that still hinted at the sleep he enjoyed till the guard burst into his room. I looked around at the gathered crowd.
,,Everybody leave please. Except you, you, you and of course the Duke.” I told the staring faces. A bit disappointed, they all left. I bet they were hoping for something exciting to breach the monotony of the night. I would love to have the monotony back in my night. I said nothing till they’d all left.
,,That patch of ash over there is what I believe to be some sort of humanoid Sixth House construct sent to kill me. More accurately, the remains of a Sixth House construct.” My words lacked any subtlety which managed to get the message across quite nicely.

Leroth was the first to bend down near the black substance and touch it with a finger.
,,It looks just like normal ash to me. The kind you can find in an ash storm. Are you sure these are its remains?” Leroth seemed unconvinced. At least he believed me about the attack. I shrugged.
,,Well, I wasn’t staring out of the window when it hit the ground but that ash wasn’t there before it came in through the window. So it feels like the logical conclusion. I think I have to thank Demith though. Just because that thing used the cook as a distraction I was all pumped up and alert. If Dhemit hadn’t tried to kill me a few seconds earlier, that thing would have killed me without me noticing a thing.”

The Duke now snapped to attention.
,,Dhemit tried to kill you? I don’t believe it. He is one of the most honest and friendliest men I’ve ever had the honour of meeting.” He blurted out, forgetting about the required noble accent for a moment. Not that it mattered. Those who were still around would not hold it against him.
,,No need to blame him or punish him or whatever. Apparently, the statues have spread beyond Ald-ruhn. Dhemit received one of those about a month ago. I suggest we should get a public notice out regarding this. Those statues have become too much of a plague to control. If we just tell the people that those statues represent a health hazard due to contact with some diseased animals or something, I’m sure we should be able to keep the situation on a tight leash. For a while, that is.” I explained before anyone could draw a faulty conclusion.

We all looked at the patch of ash silently. Leroth had claimed that the ash was exactly like the one found in your average ash storm. Just the thought of ash storms changing into armies of evil creatures made a cold shiver run down my spine. The Sixth House’s army was like the ultimate guerrilla force. No matter how locked up the enemy was, they could always sneak in a few assassins. It was a frightening idea, to say the least.
,,Ro-El, they’re clearly after you.” Serius noted. The man had warmed up considerably. What I first saw as mere grumpiness was because he worried about me.
,,I don’t get it though. Why me? I mean, the Nerevarine is prophesized to destroy the Sixth House. I’m just a Nord who might be the reincarnated Dwemer king. I’m not really a threat to them. If they were really serious about it, they could crush me within a heartbeat. Why all this playing around, why do they give me a chance to survive?” I complained to no one in particular. The whole situation had given me a great deal of frustration.

,,The Nerevarine is a powerful man, both a great warrior and a great mage. His tools are legendaric and equally powerful as the man. Yet, despite all that, he is still mortal. Dagoth Ur, the leader of the Sixth House is, according to everything we know, immortal. In a battle, the mortal will always lose. I don’t know how the Nerevarine is supposed to break this rule but I do know this. The only thing the Sixth House truly fears is the intervention of another god. Pelinal is such a god, a god born of steel who has claimed victory over what was always believed to be an invincible weapon as powerful as the Tribunal. You are the only person who can bring Pelinal back from its slumber and make it challenge the Sixth House.” The Duke answered solemnly.

,,Perhaps this is how the Nerevarine is destined to vanquish Dagoth Ur. If all of the devil’s attention is focussed on you, he might underestimate the actions of a single mortal. Ro-El Frost, you are hereby authorized to use any means necessary to recover Pelinal. I want you to follow in Dumac’s footsteps, find out what he did, how he lived, how he died. You are the key to Dumac, who is the key to Pelinal. With Pelinal in our possession, we will have two aces up our sleeves. The Nerevarine and the Shield of Resdayn. The holy vanquisher of evil and the great protector. You are now dismissed, make any preparations you need for your quest.” The Duke continued, a passion I hadn’t heard before echoing in his voice. I now knew that this man believed in me. He believed in a child to save his land. It was a sobering thought.

I returned to my room and packed everything I felt was needed. A portable repair kit for my rapier, the rapier itself, lockpicks, probes, maps, a few potions, a small alchemy kit, money and paper for writing notes. I then went for the man who could help me chasing my first clue. Zarador.
,,What? You want to go to that Dwemer ruin near Balmora and that cave where we all nearly got killed? Clearly my young friend, the heat of the bright days here must have clouded your mind. And leaving at night, you might get lost.” The Altmer argued when I dragged him out of his bed.
,,This is no joke, Zarador of the Steel Tower. I’ll fix your Centurion for you but I need your help. You look at Dwemer objects with a scholar’s eye. You can fill in the gaps I don’t remember.” I pleaded. If he didn’t want to come out of his free will, I would have to force him. Fortunately, I pushed just the right buttons.
,,Since you put it like that, I have no choice but to humbly accept your offer.” The Altmer said, making a bow.