Serene of Cyrodiil, chapter 3 "Gathering Forces" Options

[Mazuk]

Wow. That is a very detailed and well laid out story. Very Very Nice Minque.

[treydog]

I am impressed by the way you were able to maintain the style of your story, even with a guest-writer. As always, you breathe life into your characters, even those who are only incidental to the story.

This calls for a celebration!

:cake: :cake: :cake: :cake:

[Fuzzy Knight]

:goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob:

:goodjob:

Great writing Minque, can only agree with what Trey is saying... Its simply... beautiful..

[Dantrag]

I swear to god, I'm gonna catch up on thisstory someday!

:determined:

[minque]

Thank you guys! Your comments are heart-warming!

I´ll post an update as soon as I come home tonight!

[MerGirl]

[quote=minque]Thank you guys! Your comments are heart-warming!

I´ll post an update as soon as I come home tonight![/quote]

Yay! *dances happily* I'll be waiting!

[Wolfie]

Sweet, an update

[minque]

I promised an update...here it is..Enjoy!


”Wake ye up lassie” The so familiar voice made me open my eyes, which then flooded with tears, I took a deep breath;

“Son.....”

“So nice te see ya,” the woman interrupted, “ Ye must be all worn out, ´ave ye eaten properly, lassie?, Le´ss go te me private quarters, and we’ll fix ye´up.”

I rose to my feet, aided by Sonya, for that’s who it was, my old friend from the Imperial Prison back in Cyrodiil, now apparently under cover as “Imsin the Dreamer”. Now what she was doing here and why she had to be disguised I did not yet know, but I wouldn’t be the one who revealed her, so I just followed her, wiping my face with my shirt.

As we entered her private rooms, located in one of the corner-towers of Fort Buckmoth, she closed and locked the door behind us, turned to me and embraced me.

“Serene,” she said, “I knew ye were te come, and I’ve been waitin´so long......” She put her hands on each side of my face and just looked at me, eyes filled with love and care. Naturally I started crying again; I never thought I’d see Sonya again, and particularly not here in Vvardenfell. For all I knew she had been brought back to Skyrim during my last year in prison.

“Sonya,” I sobbed, “I do think it’s time for an explanation here.” She nodded and told me her story of what had happened since we parted about three years ago.

“As ye may remember, I was said te be transferred te this labour-camp, some months after the plague where thee, Serene, actually was the saviour of the entire prison, using those great healing-skills of yers.....”

At first she was allowed to go back to Falcreath, to visit her mother. Shortly after her homecoming there was a message delivered to her with stamps and seals, from no less than the Emperor Uriel Septim VII, saying that she was requested in Vvardenfell, to join the Imperial Legion there as an agent for the Emperor. She was supposed to train her fighting-skills, her inborn ability of good leadership and then serve as commander of the secret Base that was to be formed in order to stop corruption and dishonesty within the Legion. She was to gather a group of loyal people to help her in this task. There was also another thing she should tend to, maybe the most important and delicate of it all, namely the preparations for the “Return of Lord Nerevar Reborn”. Her real superior was a man called Caius Cosades in the city of Balmora.....

Upon hearing this piece of information, I jumped to my feet and cried out: “What? I was told to look this man up as well, what IS this? Some kind of pre-decided setup?”

“Shhhh, calm yerself down, Renie, let me finish,” Sonya squeezed my hand and I sat down again, my mind all upset and scared.

Caius Cosades sent her to a man called Hrundi at Sadrith Mora; this man was a sturdy Nord who was known to be loyal to the Emperor and a skilled fighter as well as leader. Hrundi and Sonya got on very well, and it was he who told her to make up a cover-identity out of security reasons.

“Ye see, I couldn’t be Sonya, a former prisoner, so I had te get me self a cover-up.” She was silent for a while, but I sat still, waiting for her to continue. As she did a couple of tears started running down her face, and I knew she was to tell something that affected her deeply.

“I once had a lil´sister,” Sonya continued, “A sweet lass she was, cud neva say nay, so naturally she was abused, jus´ like I was, that brute te dad we had molested her, I cudn´t let that ´appen cud I?”

“ Oh Sonya”, I cried as well now, “ You never told me of all this back in prison.”

“He murdered ´er, Serene!” Sonya rose and started walking back and forth, “He beat her with a pole, fer not bein´cheerful enough, then he forced himself on her fer more then two hours, she bled te death, that she did!”

“That’s when I tuk he’s life! And right I was te do it; our mom didn’t dare te protest, not when he slayed me sister, not when them guards came te put me in prison!”

Sonya took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders and turned to me , face completely empty of all feelings.

“Renie, you cry-baby!” she smiled and handed me a piece of cloth to dry my face, “Nae use te cry for ´er now, she’s in heaven, livin´a guud life!”

“Anyway me sister’s name was Imsin, and she always wandered along dreamin´of a better life, so I tuk ´er name, Imsin the Dreamer.......” Sonya gave me a faint smile and took out a bottle of Cyrodiilic Brandy from a cupboard.

“We need a lil´fortification, don’t ya think?” Sipping the golden liquid, Sonya continued her story:

Sonya, or Imsin as she called herself now, stayed with Hrundi for almost two years. He trained her well and they became very close, in fact they became as close as can be, they even married in secret. But because of the situation they couldn’t live together, and that was one of Imsin´s great sorrows.

After concluding training Imsin was ordered to go to Fort Buckmoth, where she for almost a year now had slowly built up a network of agents, all faithful to the Emperor and to Caius Cosades.

“I can’t tell ya their names, Serene, ye wouldn’t be safe if I did, but I’ll tell ya what you are supposed te do!”

“Ye have te stay at that training-camp for a year, te improve them fightin´skills of yers, and ye do it alright, ye hear!” Imsin smiled at me when saying that. “ General Artorius expects nothin´but the best of ye!”

“After that, I have a mission for ye, and I just know yer gonna like it! So make sure ye report back to me after the training.” Imsin took me by the hand and put a light kiss on my cheek.
“Nah, we aint gonna meet until yer a trained fighter, Serene, there shud be no suspicion of former connections between us.”

I nodded; it made sense to me. I finished my brandy and was heading for the door when Imsin stopped me;

“Ye may eventually come upon a man, Serene, a man that is believed to be Lord Nerevar Reborn....maybe I’ll give ye some snippets of information about him, sae ye know what te expect.”

I was totally confused; I never heard of Lord Nerevar Reborn, who he was or even what he was, then again I had just spent a couple of months in Vvardenfell, and hadn’t met so many people yet.

Imsin then opened another cupboard, filled with books of various styles, and took out two small books that looked ancient to me.

“Here y´are,” she said and handed me the books, “ Ye might wanna study those, so ye see what I´m talkin´about.”

The two books; “The War of The First Council” and “Nerevar Moon-and-Star”, really were of considerable age according to their looks so I tucked them into my backpack, to study them later.

“That man I was telling ya about,” Imsin looked at me thoughtfully, “He’s by far the nicest man I ever met!, They say ´e was a stable-boy from far out in High Rock, then did time, ´e did, just like us, then was shipped ´ere and now is walkin´around doin´ good things just te prove he’s Nerevar Reborn....”

“So ye´d recognize him, he’s tall and fair-haired, and ´e has the brightest an´ friendliest blue eyes I’ve ever seen on a man,” Imsin gazed into the air, probably thinking of this wonder of a man who apparently was walking about in Vvardenfell doing good deeds.

I then happened to look out the window and saw the sun was already setting, so apparently I had spent most of the day in the company of my former friend, but now I needed to get things in order, so I asked Imsin about the registration-business, that I originally was here to accomplish.

The registration in The Imperial Legion was a fairly simple matter, I had to tell my name and birth date as well as my origin and that was it. Imsin glared at me with a queer smile when I told her my full name.

“Catraso huh?”

After completing registration I said goodbye to Imsin and headed back to the training-camp, where a new part of my life was to begin.

[Mazuk]

Wow another great update. Awesome job minque.

[Chumbaniya]

I really like the story minque (I don't normally read a lot of the fan fiction but I want to see where this one goes ) but there's a little thing I have to point out - in the second part of the story written in this thread, you use the terms "greener pastries", which should read "greener pastures".

In fact, actually, leave it in. I have this cool vision of a green pie

[Wolfie]

Cool
And would The Lord Nerevar Reborn happen to be a young Breton called Trey? lol

[Dantrag]

[quote=LoneWolf]Cool
And would The Lord Nerevar Reborn happen to be a young Breton called Trey? lol [/quote]

That would be most interesting... (Not to mention awesome!)

[minque]

[quote=Chumbaniya]I really like the story minque (I don't normally read a lot of the fan fiction but I want to see where this one goes ) but there's a little thing I have to point out - in the second part of the story written in this thread, you use the terms "greener pastries", which should read "greener pastures".

In fact, actually, leave it in. I have this cool vision of a green pie [/quote]


:rofl: Now that was funny! That´s the way things can go if you´re not native english....This is the second really funny remark found in this story!

Oh I´ll leave it in.....maybe someone else can have a big laugh! It´s on me then!

EDIT: Oh and Lord Nerevar Reborn.....hmmm stay tuned you guys and you will be enlightened!

[jonajosa]

Shame treydog... shame. How could you miss that? Leaning on that spellchecker to much eh?

Good next part. Now.... I have to catch up on all these other dozens of stories... :eek:

[milanius]

Owwwww :shocked: this is beginning to look like Orson Wels's "The Third Man" :eek: Spies and counter-spies ewerywhere ! Ruuuun ! *runs*

p.s.: Ah... before I run - in the original MW skin-set I found Eldris, Imsin and Ygfa to be the three most lovely females on the entire island and that comes from a man who prefers brunettes... gotta love that good old Skyrim gene pool !

[Lucidarius]

I've read your story so far, minque, and I immensely enjoy the way you depict even the minor characters and show us their personality. The main character, Serene, is a very warm and emotional person with compassion for almost all the persons she meet. She is in no way a stereotype, and I feel that I get to know her and her particular way of embracing life. Very, very well done.

Right from the start it was a pleasant surprise to be let in on Morrowind NPCs that the PC didn't actually get to meet in the game. To meet Tarhiel and Processus Vitellius was a real treat and you managed to make them stay in character with the way the other NPCs spoke about them in the game. And a funny scene, too, when Serene is tricked into trying out the Icarian Flight scroll.

Your detailed description of the years in prison and Serene's friendship with two of the other inmates was very realistic in the sense that you didn't just skip over that part, but dug deep into the routines and the training that Serene did, which would account for the skills that she acquired (apart from healing that she had a huge talent for already).

As some of the others have speculated, I can't help but guess about who the Lord Nerevar Reborn is, especially after reading Treydog's story.

I'll just have to be patient and wait to learn more about the undercover mission, whether the Ashlander love interest will return?, etc. etc.

[minque]

First of all I´ll thank you all for your nice feedback, and for being patient with me for not posting very regularly.....sorry to say real life is intruding on my writing...

But here´s an update anyway.....nothing very fancy but it takes her a bit further on her destined path....

enjoy!

The first thing I had to do was to look up General Artorius again and show him the registration-forms I got from Imsin. Whether he was pleased to see me again or not was hard to judge; his scarred face revealed no particular emotions.

First thing on the agenda was to provide me with some armour and weaponry. The deal was I would get more fancy utensils each time I raised in rank, a fair thing I reckoned.

I started out as a Trooper because of my already proven skills; apparently The Legion had gotten some records of mine already. I never stopped wondering how the information-flow on this continent actually worked; it seemed as there was some pre-destined path that I was supposed to follow; each time I was ordered to do something or to meet someone, it was already known by the people involved!

The appropriate armour for a Trooper in The Legion was a steel Imperial style, and fairly heavy. I tried to wear the cuirass and almost panicked, because I just could not make a move wearing it and even less handle a sword or shield. General Artorius looked at me and shook his head; of course this armour would not be suitable for a woman, with that much less strength, and so he sighed and told the officer at the Armoury to find me something else.

“Now Trooper Catraso, report back to me after you’ve got your uniform and we’ll get you your quarters,” General Artorius saluted his subordinate and went back to his office.

The Armoury-officer gave me a somewhat queer smile, looked at me very thoroughly and then presented me with a Studded Leather Cuirass, Imperial style,

“Try this one on, miss,” he said, still undressing me with his looks. I shrugged and put the cuirass on, and almost panicked again....The leather was thick and absolutely motionless, I couldn’t even get my arms in front of me and it was so tight , my breathing was affected. I tore it off with a groan;

“I can’t breathe in this one,” I stated, panting, “Please find me something else.”

“Now there lassie,” he said in a superior tone, “It’s not for you to state the rules here, and demanding some special treatment.” He then turned away from me, and began poking among the different types of cuirasses lying on a shelf behind him.

I was getting slightly angry now; this was no voluntarily action from me; I was ordered to go here and that for a certain purpose, yet unknown to me. So I found it very unfair of the officer to treat me in such a humiliating manner.

At last he presented me with an Imperial Newtscale cuirass; it looked hard but was lined and seamed with soft netch-leather and seemed both lighter and smoother than the other one. I tried it on and it fit perfectly; also I had very good mobility in it. Apart from the cuirass I got a pair of Netch-leather boots, a helmet also made from Netch-leather and some soft leather gloves to protect my hands from being hurt when handling the sword, and a steel longsword, newly sharpened and cleaned.

I thanked him and hurried out of the Armoury. I definitely didn’t like the man back there; his staring eyes and superior manners didn’t appeal to me at all.

Back with General Artorius I felt better. The aged officer had a friendly attitude towards me; he maybe didn’t exactly like the fact that I was a woman but never rubbed it in my face; in fact he treated me like any recruit, at least that’s what I thought before I went into his office all armoured up and with the longsword hanging by my side.

Getting sleeping quarters for me was not that easy; the General was worried about how his men would react having a woman living amongst them, especially as most of them had been without female acquaintances for quite some time. He therefore put me up in the storage-building, a rather spacious Redoran-style house, not far from the big main-building where the dining-rooms, the kitchen and the leisure-rooms were situated.

I didn’t mind sleeping next to the foodstuffs and the other army-gear that was stored in that building; I got a small room of my own with a lockable door, inside there was a bed with a fairly new dark-red blanket and at least four big pillows. Beside the bed there was a small cupboard with a jug and a pitcher on top of it, and covering one of the walls there was a bookshelf, almost filled with various specimens of literature. Now that surprised me, until the General said:

“This is the room I normally use when I need to get away from the daily life, when I need to contemplate and think about other things than warfare and other military matters. I have always been a huge friend of books,” he smiled at me, “Not so common amongst military officers, really.”

I found this very appealing though, and it raised my disposition toward the General quite a bit. I asked if I could read some of the books in my spare time and he nodded, with a kind of odd smile on his face.

“It’s rather late now, Trooper Catraso,” he said, “The supper will be all finished, so why don’t you go into the kitchen on your way back to your quarters, tell the people there I sent you and ask them for something to eat...Now reveille is tomorrow at 0600 sharp, breakfast will be served at 0630! ..Dismissed!”

I walked down to the kitchen and asked politely for some supper. A lady worked down there, a Dunmeri woman in her late fifties, tall, dark with a sad look in her face. She provided me with some bread and an omelette from Kwama-eggs. A cup of hot hackle-lo tea accomplished the meal, and I thanked her heartily for her trouble.

“No trouble at all, little lady,” she said, “I´m only happy to meet another woman; it has been a long time since I’ve met one here at the fort.”

I realized that she wanted to have a chat with me, since she poured herself a cup of tea and sat down at the table opposite to me.

She told me her name was Lalatia Vabdas and she originally lived in Gnisis, but after she became a widow half a year ago she started to work as a cook and kitchen maid at the training camp at Fort Buckmoth. For the time being she stayed at her daughter’s house in Ald´ruhn. Her late husband had worked at the Gnisis Egg-mine, but after its closure the couple was near starvation so the poor man once went into the mine in order to collect some fresh eggs; unfortunately he was caught by a notorious legionnaire and foully slain.

“I reckon it was their bad conscience that made them give me this job,” she grumbled, sipping her tea.

I felt uneasy about this killing of a starving man just trying to support his family, I regarded it as cold-blooded murder, and the feeling that there was something more to this wouldn’t leave my mind.

It was quite late as I unlocked the door to my quarters and flung myself on the bed after putting all my armour-gear in a corner.....So I fell into sleep, not even undressing...

“Serene, Serene of Cyrodiil! The first part of your mission has now begun, be a good soldier and improve your skills. Talk with the golden-haired lady in the castle, follow her orders. Before this year has ended you will be elsewhere, in a place of despair and agony, but you are to be the pathfinder, the guiding star, the prophesied saviour......Serene, I will watch over you, I will guide you.....trust me!”

Azura! It had been a long time since she’d visited me in my dreams, so I sat up in bed, shivering from a strange coldness, yet I could feel sweat running down my back and between my breasts. Trembling from the experience, I wrapped the blanket tight around me, lay down and let the tears run until I at last fell into a dreamless sleep.

[Fuzzy Knight]

Nice Minque... Great writing... as always Its nice to see how it is to be woman in the Imperial Legion, very nice.. :lickinglips:

Please feed us more!

:goodjob:

[jonajosa]

:goodjob:

[MerGirl]

*cries (in happiness, mind you!)* I'm so happy that you updated! I love Serene so much!

Please write more, I want more! :goodjob:

You've probably heard this a million times, but you have a way with emotions and character in this story... I mean, you write the characters (all of them, even minor ones) with such emotion, and you give them life! This is what makes your story unique! And I admire that very much.

So, please don't ever, ever, ever give up writing! Your writing inspires me very much and I just love Serene too much, so please continue when you can.