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]

This is called retconning I believe. The original Luper story never made a mention of Ro-El anywhere. Then again, it also never went into great detail. For example, it told the whole Redoran Hortator meeting in a single sentence. Ah well, here's the latest.





I made a mental list of the situation. One, since I was inside the building it was impossible for me to warn Zarador which removed any possibility of having a spellhappy mage and a Dwemer machine coming to my aid. Two: The guards would likely try to inform Dren of the intruder unless he’d ordered them not to disturb him. Well, no one would disturb him now but that was not so important right now. Three, Dren only had a single wound in his chest right where the heart was located. To get there, the Nerevarine had to slice through an Orcish cuirass. The cuirass had a single clean cut where the blade entered. So the Nerevarine could cut through high-quality armour with ease. That did not reassure my unprotected neck. The only good thing had to be four. We were potential allies, if I could convince him of my point.

,,Luper Alkad, I presume?” I asked as politely as was possible while sitting on the floor in a pool of someone else’s blood with a sword against your neck.
,,Yeah. Why is that important to you? I’m quite convinced we haven’t met before. And even if we did, this is probably going to be the last time. If you thought you could kill me, you’re wrong.” The man replied. Ok, so apparently he’d forgotten about me and now considered me an enemy. Not that nice to hear.
,,We did meet, in Ald-ruhn, during the meeting of the Redoran council. I don’t think it is quite necessary for you to knock off my head. I prefer to keep it where it is, thank you very much.”

To my relief, the Redguard withdrew his sword. I carefully got up from the floor and turned to face him.
,,Now I remember. You’re the kid with the cultist. Well, don’t look all that surprised. It’s hard enough to keep track of the people who are out to kill me. I can’t possibly worry about those who are not going to stick a sword into my back given half a chance.” If it was meant as an apology, it definitely did not sound like one.
,,Why did you kill Orvas Dren?” I asked him while I did my best to get rid of the blood. I didn’t had a lot of success with it. I hoped that Dumac’s airship contained a place where I could wash my clothes.

,,You mean the Dark Elf who’s soiling the floor over there? Nothing special. He was going through this dreadfully boring speech about how he was going to kill me for the greater glory of his lord and blablabla, more of that Guardung. I slipped a sword into his heart while he was working his tongue. I’m a busy guy, I don’t have time for speeches.” Alkad explained to me with a smug grin. I frowned. This was not the most likeable fellow.
,,There’s not much honour in killing people who are not ready to defend themselves.” I noted. In reality, I didn’t care though my Dumac side protested loudly. That same side had been protesting against my own questionable form of honour so I ignored it as always.
,,I’m a bigshot Telvanni. I don’t remember the word ‘honour’ being used in the Telvanni dictionary.” He quipped, still with that smug grin of his.

The grin faded as he looked down at the corpse.
,,Well, so much for that. I needed him to persuade his friends into naming me Hortator. Oh boy, mommy is going to be pissed. Yup, add an angry Daedra to my list of enemies. If things keep going like this, I should build a waiting room back at my mushroom.” He noted grimly. This was a side to the man that seemed to be the complete opposite of his earlier personality.
,,You could claim it was an accident.” I said with a shrug.
,,Accidents normally don’t tear through Orcish armour as if through paper. They usually miss vital organs as well.”

,,Well…” I began but cut myself off. Something had just materialized out of thin air. My reflexes took over and I withdrew a pair of throwing stars from my sleeves which I shot at the form. To my surprise, the form actually managed to dodge the point-blank attack.
,,Invisibility! Behind me!”
I went into a crouch while simultaneously dodging to my left and spinning around to face the second attacker. A Glass blade stabbed the air where I’d been a moment earlier. I sent a fist towards the second man’s face but just like his companion, he managed to dodge though to do that, he had to jump away which gave me a split second to look for the Nerevarine.

The Redguard had engaged the first assassin. Despite his heavy suit of armour, he moved as if he was wearing a suit of mere air. He parried a Glass dagger with his left hand and summoned a Daedric longsword with the other. I had no time to watch any further for the second assassin had come back to strike at me. He lunged out with his dagger, I moved around it and countered with a kick towards his knee. He stepped around the attack and struck out with his fist which I pushed away with my own hands. It was as if we were moving through water, each blow seemingly dodged or pushed aside with ease. Neither of us managed to hit. This Dunmer was as good at fighting unarmed as I was and his reflexes were at least as good, if not better, than mine.

We kept striking at each other yet somehow only managed to hit air. In the tense battle, I could not draw my rapier which gave him an unfair advantage with his dagger. I took a step back. Unexpected, the ground vanished below my feet. Before I could lose my balance, I’d jumped up and aimed a kick at his nose. Like with all previous attacks, my opponent dodged though this time he managed to slice through the upper skin of my leg. My leg went numb for a short moment but I’d absorbed the daggers power so fast, it seemed as if I’d never even been effected by it.
,,Paralysis. Not nice at all.” I noted to myself as I landed at the bottom of the stairs. We stared at each other across the distance. Both of us knew that he who moved first would have to lower his defence and likely forfeit his life. If the sound of blades clashing was any indication, the other battle was still in full swing.

I let my eyes wander across the environment, never loosing sight of the Dunmer I was up against. I was looking for something, anything that could give me the needed advantage. In the meantime, I unsheathed my rapier.
,,That sword! You’re with Vedam!” The Dunmer spat. So he had been involved with Ephraim. I noticed an open window. I quickly figured out where it was directed at and knew I’d found my advantage.
,,Shoot him!”

During the last moment of his life, he looked at me with a questioning expression, as if he was trying to make sense of my words. Then, he was thrown aside like a doll and pinned to the wall by a bolt the size of my lower arm. Leave it up to the Dwemer to built a weapon capable of shooting through windows from threehundred steps away. It made me wonder how the Chimer ever managed to hold on long enough during the war for Kagrenac’s betrayal.

While this was an interesting question, it was unimportant right now. I rushed up the stairs as the crackling of lightning and the loud boom of thunder roared through the building. Zarador had arrived at the scene and was now in the process of giving the guards outside a shocking experience. I got to the upper floor where the Nerevarine and the second assassin were still fighting. Wasting no time, I picked a fallen Dagger from the floor and hurled it at the Dunmer. Perhaps he’d heard my footsteps, perhaps he was warned by the whistling of moving air. Whatever was the case, he turned around just far enough to see the dagger that would enter his face. He’d dropped death within a heartbeat.
,,Well kid, you stole my fun for a bit but still, nice throw.” Alkad admitted reluctantly. I mimicked his own smug grin from earlier and looked out of the window. A bearded man stood on the grass below, waving at me.
,,Your machine suddenly went berserk so I thought, why not give them a display of my might? Now what are we going to do with our spoils of war?” Zarador shouted up.

I looked at the Nerevarine who shrugged.
,,Every time I kill someone, I get to keep their house. I can’t handle another one so it’s all yours as far as I’m concerned.” He said and walked downstairs. I looked around the room. It required some cleaning but in the end, not bad at all. I leaned out of the window and waved at Zarador.
,,This place needs to be renamed! How about Frost Plantation? Centurions can replace the slaves and we can send those poor people home with a nice bit of gold in their pockets! I’ve always dreamed of my own house. Heh, looks like reality turned out to be bigger than my dreams!” I laughed.