Serene of Cyrodiil, her true story, chapter 1 Options

[Elongar]

[quote=treydog]More please.[/quote]

Encore, encore! :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob:

[Magefire]

This has the potential to be something wonderful - because it already shows such promise. I look forward to the next instalment.

[minque]

I was left alone in my cell again, sitting on the bench, just waiting….staring at the little window with iron-bars without really seeing. There was no doubt I was to be sentenced to death, that being the usual punishment for murder, and in my case it was even worse….I had ended the life of an officer in The Imperial Legion. My thoughts were with those Dunmeri women in the settlement who died for trying to help me out. My despair was endless, but I couldn’t cry anymore, there were simply no more tears left.

"The events of the last days had been so stunning, so far outside my experience, that I was simply numb. Although I knew that a death sentence was almost certain, I could not even find the energy to be afraid. In three short days, I had lost my family, my freedom, and my innocence. I had killed a man- felt his warm blood on my hands. And I had been right to kill him, no matter what Imperial law said."

Then all of a sudden I felt the air tighten around me; there was a strange chill, obvious but not unpleasant. I heard a humming sound; it seemed the cell-walls were fading away; I was weightless free-floating in the void, when this soft female voice spoke.
“Serene, fear not, you are chosen. You shall be prepared for higher purposes, I shall watch over you.

The voice was merely a whisper in the air but the words infused strength and confidence in my heart. I closed my eyes and let the eerie atmosphere just sweep through me……

The door opened with a loud bang, and I once again faced my Uncle Varus, but this time I felt no fear. I gazed sternly right into his eyes, and he turned away. A faint feeling of triumph stiffened my spine. He couldn’t look me in the eyes….

Uncle Varus was accompanied by two imperial guards who held on to my arms rather harshly as they escorted me to the court-room. I still was under that Silence-spell and could not protest. I once more closed my eyes as we were heading down the narrow corridor, and then a name came into my mind…..”Azura”, the Dunmeri goddess of dusk and dawn, Azura….

The court room was filled with officers in The Legion, and a jury consisting of twelve honourable citizens sat along the left side of the room. Their faces were stern and merciless, and my heart sank; I could not possibly go free, not even with protection from some obscure Dunmeri goddess.

As I looked around I caught sight of my father, Rufus, sitting in the audience, his face totally emptied of all feelings. I cried inside for him; he had lost his only child twice, first when I ran away from home the day of my sixteenth birthday and then once more when I took the imperial officer’s life in the Dunmer settlement the day before yesterday.

The trial began. I did not hear much, for my mind was occupied trying to recapitulate as much as I could from those sixteen years I’d been on this earth. I noticed that there were two parchment rolls lying on the desk in front of the Judge, one with a white ribbon tied around it and one with a black. A thin trickle of sweat ran down my back as I understood that there could only be two ways, life or death, white and black. The jury went out for some last deliberation. After a short break the court assembled again and the jury’s representative read the verdict;

“GUILTY of murder of Crassius Varro, officer in The Imperial Legion …..

The world went black… I must have passed out for a minute or two, and then I abruptly was awake, because suddenly there was a riot in the court room, a Legionnaire in full Imperial Templar Armour rushed toward the Judge. He had a parchment roll in his hand…..a roll with a red ribbon tied around it. The Legionnaire was speaking rapidly in low tones to the Judge, and I overheard some occasional words…..”jail”…….”The Emperor”……”his orders”.
After delivering the roll, the Legionnaire stepped aside and the Judge untied the red ribbon.

“Serene Vantinius, you have been declared GUILTY of murder of Crassius Varro, officer in the Legion of The Imperial City. You will be deprived of your last name; Vantinius, because you do not belong to that family anymore….”

At that moment I looked right into my father’s eyes, but he turned away and my soul died a little bit………

”Also you are to be put in the City jail, for no less than twenty, and no more than fifty years. Court dismissed”

There was silence in the court room as the sentence was passed. Then I felt my tongue was loosened and I cried in despair;

“Father! Don’t abandon me!”

But Rufus Vantinius turned his back on me and went out of the Imperial court room together with his brother Varus.

I was taken back to my cell to gather my few belongings, because now I was to be put in the Women´s Ward of the Imperial Prison of Cyrodiil.

I did not get a cell of my own- there were three more women sitting on their beds as I arrived. The cell looked much like the former one except somewhat bigger. The beds were stacked two by two, and I got the upper one on the left side of the cell. My three room-mates looked first at each other, then at me;

“Nah, what’s ya here for?” One of them addressed me.

She was of Nordic heritage, tall, broad-shouldered, with long braids of golden hair. Her eyes were dark-blue, peering but nevertheless friendly. I told her briefly what happened to me, just omitted the most disgusting details. She told me her name was Sonya and she was born and raised in Skyrim, in a place named Falcreath. She was sentenced for slaying her father….in self-defence that was, because he had done unmentionable things to her. I shrugged; the conversation reminded me far too much of the events I’d been through.

The two other women did not say much, just told their names, Leila, a thin fragile red-haired Breton-girl of 15 years; and Almina, a stout, lethargic Cyrodiilic woman of 40. Leila, I soon found out, was sentenced to death by incineration, for witchcraft and was just waiting for the sentence to be carried out. Her deed was that she supposedly had put Black-Heart’s Disease on a Temple-servant. I did not believe for one moment that she really had committed that crime. Diseases, at least the common ones, according to my thorough studies in The Lyceum undoubtedly were acquired through contagion from germs originated from animals or dead bodies. I was very sad to hear her story and I hoped that I could find a way of saving her. Almina, on the other hand, was sentenced to do time for theft. She had stolen an exquisite robe from a trade house in The City.

After I’d heard the stories from my room-mates I lay down on my bed, and let my thoughts wander …..

I was floating again...in that strange void, everything was dense, the chill surrounded me, and there it was! The voice which this time was familiar to me; I welcomed it, though I felt a strange sense of anxiety.

“Serene of Cyrodiil, you shall not fear, for I will be watching you. Study, increase your skills. You are the hope of an entire nation. You will be the saviour of many…….”

[Soulseeker3.0]

wow great minque!! i like the parts were Serene is getting talk to buy Azura (sp?)

[treydog]

Enjoyed the trial scene- also the way we get a sense of Serene from her descriptions of her cell-mates.

Great story, with a character we can really empathize with. It is nice to get much more background than the usual- "I was in prison, and I don't want to talk about it."

[minque]

I opened my eyes, and sat up in my bed, still shivering from that strange dream. It was a dream…or was it? Sweat was running down my back and I was simply terrified despite the voice telling me not to be.

“´ad a nightmare lassie?” Sonya didn´t even look at me, she just turned around and fell asleep again. The other two neither moved nor uttered one word.

I sat with my arms around my knees and tried to figure out why Azura kept coming to me in my dreams. She wasn´t even one of my gods. Back home Ranya often told me about the Dunmeri gods and what they stood for. Azura was the goddess of dusk and dawn. What did she want from me? I felt dizzy all of a sudden and lay down again. The thought of being some saviour did not appeal to me; all I wanted now was to do my time in prison, maybe be released a little bit earlier because of good behaviour. ……..

During the next two weeks I had the opportunity so to say, to experience what an imperial prison was like. The women´s ward was situated in the ground story of the building. Therefore the barred windows were high up on the walls, just below the roof. They were rather small and did not let much of the outside light in. Walls of raw granite made the cell damp and there was a distinct smell of dirt and mold. As it was the ground level the cold oozed right up through the stone floor, making us spend most of our time in the cell on our so- called beds. They were simple pallets made of some kind of wood and, as I said before, standing on top of each other two by two. On each bed was a lumpy mattress, apparently filled with mouldy straw, which smelled awful. With that we had one blanket each, a thin, worn blanket which did not help very much at night against the raw chill.

In one of the corners there was a bucket, to serve as a toilet. I did not visit it until the end of my second day in prison; I resented the stench very badly but at the end I didn´t have any choice anymore, I had to use it!

Each morning a guard came in with a second bucket with almost clean water, cold of course, and a piece of hard greyish soap; we had to share that between us, so we took turns in who was to be the first in line to wash herself. Towels were non-existent; we used our blankets. My strong sense of hygiene made me suffer severely the first week from this inability to keep myself clean, but after that I gave up and in fact didn´t even notice the thick odour of human grime that was consistent throughout the cell.

Sonya, Leila and myself tried as well as we could to wash ourselves and keep the cell tidy; it gave us something to do and kept our thoughts busy. I admired Leila`s calm, and the fact that she was nice, friendly and even laughed rather often…..despite her death warrant she was in good mood. I was nearly constantly thinking of how she could be saved- it struck me as a crying shame that a lovely girl like Leila should be deprived of her life, for a crime she undoubtedly did NOT commit.

The food was not as bad as one could imagine, drab , but we got rather big portions. For breakfast there were kwama-eggs, beaten and fried, with some peculiar grey stew with chunks of meat in it. I didn´t ask what kind of meat it was because I thought I would prefer not knowing. At noon we got fairly the same, sometimes there was some bread to go with it, or boiled saltrice. In the evening we just got bread and cheese , in fact that was the best meal.. The overall drink was water……on Sundays we could get some comberry-juice, that was if Margoth was the warder…..Margoth was a bosmer, and had worked at the prison for ages. She was afraid of no one, and had the compassion to sometimes cheer up the miserable lives of the imprisoned women.

I got on very well with my room-mates. I told Sonya of my nordic grandmother and we found out that the families were somewhat related. But then again it was no wonder, Falcreath isn´t that big. I repressed the fact that I was not the real granddaughter of a nordic lady named Reidun of Falcreath……

As I´ve said Leila was a nice cheerful girl and very easy to be with. She ate very little and often treated us with leftovers from her plate. Sonya helped herself to it and so did Almina, but me, I just couldn´t …..my grief for the fate of Leila made me physically sick.

Almina puzzled me even then at this early stage, and considering what happened in a few days , I still can´t explain why she did what she did and why she did it at that particular moment. She hardly ever spoke with us, just sat there on her bed, glaring out into the air with a stubborn grumpy look in her broad face. Hygiene didn´t bother her at all, she never asked to be the first to wash herself. In fact I don´t remember her washing at all…

It´s strange how you get used to certain routines and find them quite endurable at a time like that. We never spoke about our final punishment, never mentioned the fact that at least two of us were supposed to be executed in a couple of weeks or months; the time-schedule of executions was not for us to know about.

On the night between Middas and Turdas the second week of my stay in the Imperial Prison I had my next encounter with my dream-God Azura…..

This time I was surrounded with a red mist, swirling around me, covering me in a strange chill, yet not unpleasant. Azura´s voice came through the mist, loud and clear this time;

“Serene, Serene of Cyrodiil, be prepared! Have no fear, I will be with you……You will hold in your hands the fate of an innocent, have confidence ……all will be revealed in time.”

Then Azura disappeared and I woke up, drenched in sweat and badly shivering. I swept the dirty blanket tight around me and just sat on my bed for a while, thinking I was slowly going insane. None of my room mates were awake so I finally lay down again and soon fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next day the memory of my strange dream was almost gone and we continued our tedious time in prison. On Loredas evening we got some overcooked crab-meat for supper together with a bottle of comberry-wine, served by Margoth, naturally….At the time, I did not understand that this “special” meal was an ill omen- a sign of death to come, although not the death that was intended…

[Oozae]

A professional writer you are my young padawan[img]http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/ups/DeNiro/jawa.gif[/img]

[treydog]

I like the way you make the cell-mates individuals, each with her own personality- you manage to sketch them with no wasted words. I commented elsewhere on the cliff-hanger ending- I feel that I am being repaid for my wicked ways...

[minque]

We ate our meal in silence. Almina helped herself to the crab-meat , but even more energetically to the wine…..I found this a bit odd, not the fact that the imperial woman ate and drank heavily, that was common knowledge, but the fact we got wine, now that was odd! We never had that before at all.

I just tasted the wine, and did not eat very much either; I had this uneasy feeling that something was very wrong, the little food I had just lay like a lump in my stomach and I struggled to hold back the urge to vomit. So the guard came back for our dirty dishes…..When he turned his back on us to exit the cell I felt a paralyzing fear, and at the same moment Almina rushed towards him and hit the back of his head with a bottle……the bottle we had just emptied a while ago. At the blow the bottle broke, and its knife-sharp ends dug deeply in the soft flesh of the young imperial guard, who slowly sank to the floor, severely bleeding from the deep cut. Almina ran incredibly fast down the corridor outside our cell, while Leila let out a terrifying scream that would certainly be a call-out for every guard within the prison. A quick glimpse of a faint movement from the wounded man caught my eye and then I took action; I slapped Leila’s face to get her out of the catatonic state she was in and then grabbed both her hands and put them directly on the gaping wound of the guard.

“Hold tight”, I hissed and held my hands over hers while I concentrated on the bleeding wound. Leila was immediately quiet and just stared at me with horror all written on her face, yet still she kept her hands, guided by mine, holding tight to the back of the guard’s head. His blood flowed freely over our hands; but soon enough I sensed it diminish. I closed my eyes and concentrated to merge my healing energy through Leila’s hands into the deep cut. My entire body shivered, drenched in cold sweat. From far away I heard the footsteps from several guards approaching….Then I finally was aware of the wound slowly closing, the heavy blood-flow stopping. Leila opened her mouth as to say something, and I cautioned her,

“Shhhh, hold tight and concentrate on the wound.”

I removed my hands from Leila’s and fell trembling to the side, panting heavily as tears started running down my face. During my training, Marthona had told me that there was a price to be paid for a major healing; for the first time, I understood what she had meant. I was more exhausted than I had ever been in my life.

“WASS´UP” three guards, fully armoured, stood in the doorway, staring angrily at the strange scene in front of them; one imperial guard lying on his belly, a young Breton girl whose blood-stained hands held his head where the deep cut was slowly closing itself up, and one imperial girl sitting against the wall, crying. Leila’s face was remote, totally emptied of feelings, just calm and silent. I watched her through a mist of tears and knew that I most certainly had triggered the healing-powers that dwelled deep inside her.

“She saved this man’s life,” I sobbed, “he was dying!” I cried fiercely now, the last minutes had been too much for me, I had simply “crossed the border.”

“Aye, look´ere Curio, e´s cumin´te his senses.” One of the guards bowed over the wounded one, who moved his head from one side to the other.

I just leaned against the wall and watched from a distance as the three guards helped their comrade to his feet. His uniform and armour were blood-stained but there was no cut in the back of his head any more; it was healed. The guards looked warily at Leila and me, and Sonya, who had been stunned with fear during this breakout, now cleared her throat and addressed the guards;

“Nah, see, yer mate would´ave been a stiffie if the lassie ´ere ´adn´t put them ´ands on´is ´ead.” It was obvious Sonya had grasped the situation …..

The guard named Curio turned to Leila and asked for her name and her sentence.

“Aye, Breton, you apparently saved young Telemachos´ life, and that shall not be unnoticed.”

With these words the prison-guards left our cell.

When we were alone Leila burst into tears, and I put my arms around her and we sat like that for a while. Sonya stared at me as if I was some kind of Cyrodiilic witch…

“Ye shud ´ave seen yerself, Serene,” she said, and shook her head, “them luk in yer eyes….creepy t´was….creepy, all tremblin´an´shakin´….sweatin´all over…….Wha´ are ye reely?”

I looked back at her and explained about my newly discovered healing-powers. Then we overheard some shouting and yelling from the corridor…..

“Almina!” I had completely forgotten about her, whose actions directly triggered this chain of events. A premonition came to me, telling that Almina´s life was over, then a terrible scream…… abruptly cut off…..and it was over.

We did not sleep very well that night, as Leila experienced the healing over and over again in her dreams, and so yelled and cried in her sleep. Sonya merely sat on her bed trying to figure out if I was a witch or just an ordinary lunatic or perhaps a mage.

As for myself, I had another date with Azura……

“Serene! Justice has been shaped,…..A life for a life…..Your path has been established, do not fear, for I shall be watching you. A release will come...”

And a release came, though not mine, for in the afternoon two guards came to us and told us about the death of Almina; it was young Telemachos and Curio, and they addressed us with great courtesy, which did not surprise me- men tend to respect women with exceptional powers. Especially when one of those women has saved a life.

“Killed during attempted escape,” they said.

“Leila of Jehanna; you shall follow me; General Vantinius wishes to see you.” Curio’s words tore my soul to pieces, and I crouched in the corner of my bed, buried my face in the pillows and let the tears come. I would never get over the loss of my family; just hearing them being mentioned caused me to break down completely.

Leila leaned over me and kissed my wet cheeks, “ I owe you my life, Serene. If I ever can do anything to repay you, let me know!”

Then she was gone…….I didn’t think I would ever meet her again, but oddly enough I did……but that’s another story.

Telemachos was one kind of a guard….he was kind and compassionate, as I found out on that gruesome Sondas afternoon in The Imperial Prison.

“Serene, there now, drink this and you will feel a lot better.”

I turned around and found a mug filled with hot comberry wine handed to me. Telemachos’ brown eyes looked at me almost tenderly. He handed me a piece of cloth to wipe my nose and dry my face with. As I took the cloth from his hand I noticed he had a badly treated wound on his thumb; it was watery and green pus oozed out from it. The bandage was dirty and did not even cover the wound properly. I asked him how he got it and he said it was a horse-bite.

Obviously Telemachos would run the risk of losing his thumb due to acute infection if the wound was not treated and quickly.

I took his hand and gently removed the bandage; the smell that now emanated from the poor man’s hand made Sonya rush to the bucket and get rid of her lunch.

First I did not even feel it, but after examining Telemachos thumb with my fingers I noticed a rise in temperature in my hands, a tickling sensation in my fingertips…..The pus dried into small flakes and the red inflamed flesh took a healthier pinkish colour, as I held his hand.

I looked straight into his eyes and then saw there, that he now knew who really had saved his life the day before….

[milanius]

The scenes and events are almost alive in my head, furious and wild and uncontrolable - well, almost uncontrolable since we have our saviour here - not yet wielding a DDK, but nevertheless, she is a hero. And a woman of golden heard, that one is...

[Elongar]

Let's hope she gets to wield a DDK sometime then!

[minque]

Aye..she will....in due time, but now the last part of chapter 1

Telemachos never revealed that it was I who saved his life and not Leila; that I do give him credit for. He seemed somewhat fond of me and tried to make my life in prison a little more endurable than it would have been otherwise.

All in all I spent 7 years in the Imperial Prison, but when I look back I don´t regard that time as completely wasted. Due to my proven healing-skills I was allowed more freedom than most of the other prisoners; I was allowed in the apothecary to mix ingredients of different kinds for potions that were commonly used in prison; also I was allowed to go out to collect the necessary plants and herbs, naturally under close supervision, but still I was able to get out in the fresh air now and then, which I really appreciated. But the fact remained……I was not free, and that made me think about what freedom really means and why it´s considered a punishment not to be free. For me it was the issue of very strict routines, and no personal space, always having to live with another person present, no opportunity of splendid solitude, to read a book or just sit down and daydream; having to be awakened every morning at the same time and eat breakfast together with a lot of more or less strangers with different eating-habits, that disturbed me most.

Sharing quarters can be very annoying, especially when you are not used to it. The sounds at night in a prison-cell with three or four women are sometimes unbearable……That I think was my real punishment, together with the obvious fact that I was not free.

I shall try to describe what a day in prison is like:

06.00AM Reveille, that is a guard walking down the corridor while he very loudly bangs at every cell-door shouting,

“ Wake up there ya´ (here he uses a word that is inappropriate), it´s mornin´ …..”

So we crawl out of our beds, fighting to be the first in line at the washing-bucket, if there is any water left from the day before, and if that water still is usable….

Then breakfast, normally some tasteless mire, as I´ve already told you about, but sometimes we get some kwama-eggs or a piece of bread. There´s no talking allowed during breakfast, “let the food silence your mouth,” as my grandmother used to say. Right after breakfast we tend to our daily tasks. No breaks, except for lunch, we just keep working; but that is also a good thing, keeps the mind busy. After supper they put the lights out and we are supposed to go to sleep.

So the days passed year after year….

Telemachos often volunteered to supervise my plant-collection-odysseys; maybe because he just wanted the opportunity to get out of the dull grey prison …or maybe because he had grown fond of me personally. When we were on these expeditions, he trained me in the use of different weapons, such as long- and short-bladed swords. The reason he showed this confidence in letting me use a weapon was our secret, but naturally he knew about what had happened to me and why I was sentenced to prison. He also knew my Uncle Varus, who was now his commanding officer, but who also had some tryst with his elder sister. He never told me much about this but I got the sense it was not at all pleasant

He used to tell me that I might need to be able to defend myself when I get out of prison, so he arranged a dummy consisting of a “doll” made from empty sacks, on which I was supposed to practise my blows and thrusts.

I was a good student; I quickly learned how to use the blades, and oddly enough I was better with the long-blade, which is not common among women. I was not as strong as a man but I was tall and because of my rather long arms I had a considerable reach and so I could easily keep the enemy at a distance when fighting. We had practice “fights” Telemachos and I, and after a couple of months intensive training I finally succeeded in beating him in one of those fights.

It was a warm sunny afternoon, in the middle of Sun´s Height; I had finished with the day´s collecting of marshmerrow and trama roots, and Telemachos suggested we should try a “fight.” He´d brought two beautiful steel katanas with him and wanted to see how my skills had improved.

At first I didn´t do very well; Telemachos successfully avoided my attacks …..but as the fight went on, my greater reach proved itself an advantage, and I slowly forced him backwards until he hit an upright boulder…..then I found myself pointing the knife-sharp edge of my sword at his throat. Telemachos stood absolutely still, looking right into my eyes, knowing that one single movement could send him straight on to his ancestors. I was panting heavily, drenched in sweat, totally aware of the sudden opportunity to escape that had presented itself.

I put down my sword with a sigh, the tension of the moment vanished and I smiled at Telemachos and asked him to recognize my victory. Some things are just impossible; I couldn´t kill Telemachos. I was not a murderess, although I did take a man´s life once, and was therefore sent to prison in the first place. But I would never believe that it had been murder- I was protecting myself and others and would do so again, if necessary. But this time it would have been cold-blooded murder, and that was something I was not capable of.

After some 5 years in prison, my healing-skills came to be of use again, when an epidemic of swamp-fever broke out in the men´s ward. In two weeks, fifteen of the prisoners were infected and the guards were terrified that it would spread throughout the prison. I worked the whole time in the apothecary with the ordinary physician, preparing healing-potions. The terrible thing was that if the potion was not distributed within the first two days after the outbreak of the disease, it had no effect at all. So when I came upon the first prisoner who was too far gone with infection I thought I´d try something else.

The disease affected the lungs mainly; they filled with fluid and the patient was slowly suffocated. The cause was a kind of germ that developed in the swamps of Cyrodiil, and sometimes, when the conditions were right, became very aggressive and so attacked humans.

I put my hands on the chest of the patient, who was in a very poor shape, delirious and with a bad cough. I closed my eyes and concentrated…..Almost immediately I felt the heat in my hands as the energy built; the unpleasant bubbling in the man´s lungs slowly diminished, as did the feverish heat that emanated from his whole body. I shivered, sweat running down my back, as his fever seemed to go right through me. I had to let go……and so I did, falling to the side, panting with exhaustion. But I knew I´d succeeded; the man would survive.

Then the real struggle began, as we, the physician and I, tried to cure as many as possible with potions. In the end, there were a couple of men that I had to heal “my way.”

After these events I was regarded as “official” healer and did get some more benefits, such as being allowed to visit the prison-library, a privilege that pleased me greatly. I always loved books and being able to spend quite some time in a library, regardless of its size and content, was a pleasure. I read all books in that library……literally, and thus increased my skills in strategic planning, alchemy, how to repair weapons and different war-strategies.

Sonya had been transferred to a labour-camp some months before; apparently her mother had untied her tongue and reported her husband to the authorities for abuse and there was evidence that Sonya had acted in pure self-defence and so her death-sentence was withdrawn. That pleased me because I had been rather fond of that harsh Nordic girl.

In the end of my seventh year in prison I had an encounter with Azura again, something I had not had since the day I saved Telemachos’ life through Leila. But this time it was different; this time she came to my dreams in person, not only as a voice……

I saw a tall, slender woman dressed in bluish white, a face hard and yet delicate, eyes burning, standing beside my bed in an aura of coldness, her smooth voice speaking words of wisdom, words of fate:

“Serene of Cyrodiil, you have passed the first trial that was laid upon you; there will be a change of scenery, for good and for ill. You will encounter further trials, and you will be the hope of an entire population. You will be a saviour, but fear not; I shall guide you.”

Shivering, I drew the blanket tighter around me and fell asleep again. I was abruptly awakened by a hand shaking my shoulder rather harshly.

“Wake up, and be quiet. Hurry up, lass, it´s time to leave.”

The hoarse whisper went through my sleepy mind and I was dragged off my bed, a hooded cloak was cast over me and I was taken outside into the dark quiet street. I saw a wooden carriage in front of the prison-gates and started to ask what this was all about.

“Shhhh, girl, don´t speak, just come along, we have a long way to go.”

I was pushed into the dark carriage and off we went, through the empty streets until the smell of fish and salt caught my nose and I realized we must be at the harbour. The carriage stopped and I was taken out. Two figures, totally covered in black cloaks, grabbed me by the arms and led me on to the pier, where a low ship was lying alongside. I was hustled up on the gang-plank and onto the ship. It was all dark and I heard my escort whisper some orders. Another cloaked figure appeared from the hold and turned towards me. He looked at me, muttered something I couldn´t understand, and I fell into darkness…..


Here ends chapter 1

[Soulseeker3.0]

great story Minque! i just read the last three parts. Serene is really lucky to be trained and such by Telemachos.

i like Telemachos, do you think we will some how see him again??

[minque]

[quote=Soulseeker3.0]great story Minque! i just read the last three parts. Serene is really lucky to be trained and such by Telemachos.

i like Telemachos, do you think we will some how see him again??[/quote]

Thank you! Glad you like it..About Telemachos...well it certainly is a possibility, I haven´t really outlined all of the following but there is a fair chance he´ll turn up.......hmmm really a good idea, got me thinking here

*outlines several plots*

[Elongar]

If not, I'll start a petition to get him back!

Very nice new part minque!

[Soulseeker3.0]

[quote=minque][quote=Soulseeker3.0]great story Minque! i just read the last three parts. Serene is really lucky to be trained and such by Telemachos.

i like Telemachos, do you think we will some how see him again??[/quote]

Thank you! Glad you like it..About Telemachos...well it certainly is a possibility, I haven´t really outlined all of the following but there is a fair chance he´ll turn up.......hmmm really a good idea, got me thinking here

*outlines several plots*
[/quote]
lol just have fun... i feel like an adult talking to a kid or something :shrug:

[jonajosa]

I wrote alot at your story at ES so if you wanna know what i thought about it please go read it. cause i dont think i can type all that again.

[Elongar]

Copy an' paste?

[jonajosa]

um you have to forgive a slow person of his mistakes. My mind doenst work as fast as you all.

[jchamber]

Alittle of topic but did you use mods to create your character. I've never seen a hooded cloak before?  ...  You did a very very good job for english not being your first language.

Ok.. so the prologue showed that Serene in fact is writing down her story for the sake of her daughter. It´s like a self-biography, mark the title, .....her true story... something like the author of the self-biography of Princess Diana....mmm it was intentional!
About language oh well treydog has been my editor and kindly helped me to correct the worst mistakes.....

still even with editing the word usage is better than anything I have ever written in any language, you truly have a knack for writing, if not a full blown gift. I love the style that you use in your writing as far as what words go where and descriptive depth. I am very impressed, perhaps I will share something of mine later to let you see how talented you are, Keep in mind that English is my first and only full language (I can carry some conversation in spanish, latin, and know some japanese, still working on japanese though.)