I am Lena Wolf, Lena's life as it happens Options

[Lena Wolf]

22 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Assassin of old

"And do you adhere to the Creed?" - a voice with a strange accent spoke behind her. Lena spun around - there was nothing there, just the luminous mist filling the entire hall of the old underground structure beneath Dune. If that's where she still was.

"What creed?" - Lena cast around, looking for traces of a ghost, for what else could it have been? "Who are you? Show yourself!"

"I am an Assassin" - the voice replied. "Isn't it what you just said?"

"Yes. Dark Brotherhood. And you?"

"Your allegiance is unimportant as long as you follow the Creed" - the voice explained patiently. Was that a Redguard accent? No. It was no accent that Lena was familiar with. "Otherwise you are just a murderer."

"Which isn't the same thing" - Lena finished his sentence. "I know. But what creed do you speak of?"

"What Creed do you follow?" The unseen Assassin wasn't giving in. He sounded old, somehow.

"All right, I'll bite" - Lena smiled - it was a test of course, but she rather liked hearing the Assassin's voice. "Kill no one but the target. Remain unseen. Keep the Brotherhood's secrets." Lena went over the tenets in her head. "Oh, and a couple of things about not refusing contracts and obviously not harming other Brothers and Sisters."

"Spoken in a modern tongue, but still the same" - the Assassin replied with satisfaction. "Nothing is true; everything is permitted."

"We work in the shadows to serve the light" - Lena replied, not certain where the words came from. It wasn't something the Night Mother would say.

"Yes, very good, Assassin" - the voice sounded satisfied. "I am Altair, and you have my blade." An assassin in desert robes stepped forward from a dark passage and pointed at Lena's gauntlet. "And you are wearing my robes."[1]

"I..." - Lena gasped, looking him over. He was indeed wearing exactly the same attire as she, the Desert Robe and the other pieces of the Nightingale armour that Lucien gave her when Nocturnal made her a Nightingale. And he had the same weapons. But he was an old man, although his piercing blue eyes were still incredibly clear. "I've never heard of you..." - she said with some hesitation. "But then you are not from here. What brings you to these catacombs?"

"I am from here" - objected Altair. "Just not of this time." He stood calmly, watching Lena and waiting for her to react.

"What is this place?" - she looked at him intently. "First the Emperor, now you... Are we in the Fade?"

"The Fade? A realm between worlds? Perhaps" - Altair smiled. "The real question is however, why am I here?"

"And you are asking me?" - Lena exclaimed in surprise. "I never even knew you existed until you appeared!"

"A bit hot-headed, but the Creed doesn't prohibit that" - Altair smiled. "Indeed, you should have seen me in my youth..." - he chuckled. "It's better that you didn't. What are you doing here and where is your friend?"

"Hauk? He left" - Lena blushed. "We argued. I was stubborn. And cold" - she added with regret. "I hurt him." She sighed. "But I had to stay. Hearing my own voice from my youth... Knowing all that I know now..." - she smirked. "Baurus was right - I've been an assassin all along."

"And?" - Altair prompted her to continue.

"And what? Oh, why I stayed here..." - she looked at him, his clear blue eyes fixed on hers. "What is that phrase - We work in the shadows to serve to light - where did it come from? I've never heard it before. I am not so sure that the Dark Brotherhood really serves the light."

"Does it not?" - Altair smiled. "What is life's greatest illusion?"

"Innocence, my Brother" - Lena answered automatically.

"And therein lies your answer" - Altair smiled enigmatically. "And I could keep you busy with a few more similar phrases, and perhaps I should - Al'Mualim was right that some things you simply need to discover for yourself, not everything can be taught. But some things can be... Defend yourself, Assassin!" - suddenly he jumped with an agility of a twenty year old and nicked the skin on Lena's neck with the tip of his hidden blade, landing in a dark corner of the dungeon, well out of reach of Lena's short sword.

"What?!" - she spun around. The game was on.

Altair was fast and agile, he jumped and spun out of the way, and Lena couldn't get to him even after she switched to her longsword, while he landed a few more nicks on her skin, all armed just with his hidden blade. Then the lesson stopped as suddenly as it began.

"Not bad, you can handle a sword, I give you that" - he landed in front of Lena with his arms crossed over his chest, and she sheathed her sword. "But why do you not make use of that wonderful blade in your gauntlet? Does it not work? Oh, and you still have your finger!" - he took a closer look at it.

"It works, I just move my hand out of the way like so" - she demonstrated. "I don't know how to use it in battle" - she confessed. "I only use it out of stealth."

"Out of stealth!" - Altair snorted. "Any rusty dagger would do the job out of stealth!"

...

Professional discussions and lessons can take a long time, especially when both parties take it seriously. It must have been several hours before Lena realised that she was getting light-headed from hunger.

"I've got to eat something" - she said to Altair. "What about you? Are you corporeal or are you a ghost?"

He laughed heartily at that.

"If you had managed to get to me with your blade, you would have known" - he chuckled. "I am corporeal, and hungry, too. It's good to be alive again!"

"What?!" - Lena spun around, cheese in hand. "What do you mean - again?"

"Well, obviously I had already died long ago" - said Altair, taking the cheese from her and making a sandwich. "I am not of this time - didn't I say so? And yet here I am, in the flesh again. Remarkable, isn't it?"

"To say the least!" - Lena gasped, taking the opportunity to touch Altair's hand. It felt quite solid.

"No, I am not a ghost, and I would probably even bleed were you to cut me" - he grinned. "Which you never managed."

"Yes, I know, my footwork is all wrong and all that!" - Lena glared at him, remembering her brother's tutoring. She never took any proper lessons in swordplay in her life. Unwisely so, it seemed.

"So you know it, yet you haven't done anything to correct it" - Altair looked straight at her. "Why not?"

Lena froze. "Because as long as I don't master it properly, I am not a professional... assassin" - she swallowed. "Just an adventurer who... oh boy..." - she shook her head. "And now you are here."

"Yes."

"Who sent you?"

"You did. Sent for me" - Altair brushed the crumbs off his robes. "What did you say just before I appeared?"

"I am an assassin" - Lena thought of that moment. "I heard Baurus' words from my youth - he thought I was an assassin, but I disagreed... he didn't believe me, and he was right. But it took me this long to accept it."

Altair nodded. "And what does it mean to you?"

Lena paused, thinking. "It's a responsibility. Yes, we 'just' get contracts to fulfil, and I never stopped to think about the moral side of it, just did what was asked of me... Except that one time."

"So, you broke one of your tenets - tenets designed to keep the discipline, as I see it. Why did you disobey?"

"I had to... The contract was wrong... it was a fake... Of course I didn't know it at the time, but it just felt wrong..." - Lena blushed, remembering that whole dreadful business with failed Purification two hundred years ago.

"Fine, don't tell me" - Altair smiled. "I can see it's painful. Something to do with your Brotherhood, perhaps?" - he pierced Lena with his gaze and nodded with satisfaction. "And it turned out to be the right decision, didn't it? Well done."

"Nothing is true; everything is permitted" - Lena repeated Altair's phrase. "Is that what it means?"

"It means that you must always use your own judgement" - said Altair. "No matter where your orders come from, or where you think they come from. It isn't easy, and it has consequences, what would have happened if you didn't disobey that order?" - he looked at Lena and she shuddered. "Yes. But consider also that you could have been wrong. Imagine if you were to refuse one of the other contracts that you actually had accepted. What would have happened then? Did you always get it right?"

Lena looked at him with bewilderment. "I have no idea!" - she exclaimed. She thought of a few high profile cases that she had executed, what if those people were still alive, what would have been the consequence? "But I cannot know the answer to that!" She exclaimed again, looking at Altair with worry.

He smiled and poured her another drink. "Of course not" - he raised a toast. "You have to choose, but you rarely have the information needed to make a choice. Yet you always choose something - there is no other way. And may be sometimes you get it wrong. But in our profession it means you killed an innocent person. Innocent of that accusation, anyway, not necessarily innocent of all else..."

"Yes, life's greatest illusion..." - Lena drank the wine and the wisdom dissolved in it. "But, Altair... if I may" - she said with hesitation. "Who are you, really? Who were you when you still lived the first time?"

"My name is Altair Ibn-La'Ahad and I am an Assassin" - Altair smiled. "I am not of this time - how long ago have I lived? I cannot answer that, as all time lines are now confused. My world looked different to yours, yet the desert always remains the same... You are wearing the same robes as we did, so I know our Order continued, under whatever name. Your Creed is the same, even if the wording is different. Your God has a different name... Does it really matter? Still, we are the same. I lived to be an old man, and as you see me now, I was the Master of my Order, and it seems I have some wisdom to pass on to the new generations - I have been summoned like this before. Young assassins at a crossroads doubting themselves..." - he grinned, looking at Lena. "Or perhaps not so young after all..."

"How did you know?" - Lena's favourite question jumped at the fore.

"That you aren't in your early twenties?" - he grinned again. "I have known a lot of women in their early twenties to be able to tell the difference" - he winked. "I have watched my wife change with years, and I can see the same in you, despite your youthful appearance. Besides, you are pregnant, yet not fixated on it" - he smiled, glancing at her belly that was now showing more than usual, as Lena loosened the support straps to give herself a rest. "Shouldn't you be taking it easy in your condition?" - he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"What?! I am no invalid!!" - Lena replied hotly.

Altair laughed. "Maria all over again. What did I say?"

"Was she an assassin too?" - Lena asked, relaxing.

"As good as" - Altair nodded. "There was some... friction with my Order on that point." He looked sad and wistful somehow, and Lena didn't pursue the topic.

"So, what now?" - Lena sat back, propping herself on her elbows, visibly tired. "I am guessing you won't be coming with me?"

"Ah, no" - Altair shook his head. "I don't think I could, even if I wanted to. No, my life is done, and whatever magic allows me to appear here, is not going to carry any further. You will need to find your own way out." He gave her a long look, taking in her fatigued appearance and pale skin. "But you are in no condition to search for it, are you?" Lena shook her head. "Then we stay here a bit, rest, I am not in a hurry. In fact, I would not say no to another sandwich myself..."

They stayed in the old halls for a long while still, it must have been night time because Lena slept, and when she awoke, Altair was still there, greeting her with more food and fresh strong coffee that he brewed over the fire... "I still remember how to do that" - he smiled. But then it was time for Lena to go.

"Thank you, Altair, will I see you again?" - she asked him with hope in her voice.

"I have no idea!" - he smiled. "Take care of yourself, Assassin."

And with that he walked into the shadows and vanished.

Gathering her thoughts and trying not to panic, Lena was determined to find the one door that would lead her into the city sewers rather than into another dungeon, and after a few attempts, she found it. She was ready to kiss the sewer rat, but the rat had other ideas, and Lena had to kill it instead. She was out. But where was Hauk?

"Probably at the Caravanserai" - she thought. "He must have found a way out by now."

Hauk was drinking with the regulars, one of whom was a Nord. It seemed the two of them were entertaining the others with their Nordic humour. When Lena came in, the conversation abruptly stopped, but she did manage to catch a snap mentioning Breton women.

"Hello" - she stood right before Hauk, and he couldn't avoid looking at her. "Come with me, please" - she said softly. "To a more private place" - she added apologetically, trying to convey to Hauk that in fact she wanted to apologise, but not in front of everyone there.

"You see, what did I tell you?" - he said loudly, looking at everyone at the table in turn. "Breton women. You're never done with Breton women!" - he got up at the general laughter and applause and followed her out.

...

"I suppose I deserved that" - Lena said once they were inside the hut. "I am sorry, I hurt you back in that dungeon. I would never send you away!"

"Well, all right" - he smiled. "What happened back there?"

"I'll tell you" - she squeezed him in an embrace, and after a long kiss added: "Right after this. What was that about Breton women?"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[1] For those who don't know, Altair is from the Assassin's Creed, the first installment. His armour and weapon designs got imported into Cyrodiil, and so he was somewhat surprised to find Lena wearing the same style robes and carrying similar weapons.

This post has been edited by Lena Wolf: Apr 20 2025, 10:46 AM

[Lena Wolf]

24 Hearthfire, 4E202 - The road to Orcrest

Having spent several days in the catacombs under Dune, Lena and Hauk were eager to be on their way, and big open skies of the Elsweyr Anequina desert welcomed them and called them forth.

"Where to next?" - Hauk was enjoying the open space as they rode out of the gates of Dune. "Orcrest or straight to Corinthe? We spent too long in the catacombs, I think."

"Orcrest" - Lena was studying the map, leaving Roach to follow the road. "There doesn't seem to be a direct road to Corinthe anyway. Besides, don't you have business in Orcrest?" She winked at him, but Hauk was looking away and didn't notice.

"Whaaa--?" - he seemed a bit distracted. "Business in Orcrest? Oh, well, the anti-Imperial revolt, you mean? Yeah, I should look into that..." - he said absent-mindedly.

"Hauk!" - Lena tried to break the distraction. "What are you thinking about?"

"What? Oh, that..." - he turned to her, watching her straight posture and her rosy cheeks. "I am glad you fed before we left Dune."

"Ah... You noticed." - Lena turned to him, there was no guilt in her eyes. "I didn't relapse again, but since there was an opportunity... I took it."

"How did you do it? Without relapsing?" Hauk's eyes were probing, and Lena obliged by demonstrating that her fangs had in fact retreated. She showed her perfectly normal human teeth, and her eyes were amber, not red, she knew it.

"I nicked his vein with my dagger" - she smiled. "I cannot control my fangs, they don't come out unless I relapse. And yes, bottled blood does help, but it is no substitute for the real thing. And since the Chapel of Respite had a thrall... 'for everyone's convenience' as they put it... well... He is very well cared for, my feeding would not have harmed him!"

"Well, he's a thrall... he sleeps all the time, doesn't he? Not much of a life" - Hauk said with regret. "What is it, narcolepsy?"

"Yes. He only wakes up to eat, basically" - Lena nodded. "Did you see his tattoo?"

"The Order of Virtuous Blood. I thought they were vampire hunters?"

"They were. Or pretended to be. Some of them were, still are probably. In fact, they are still around. I wonder what they've been up to" - Lena smirked.

"You are not making any sense" - Hauk shook his head. "They are vampire hunters, and at the same time they supply thralls?"

"Yeah, funny, isn't it?" - Lena sat back in the saddle, preparing to tell a story. "It was a few months back... I was walking in the Imperial City, minding my own business, when suddenly this woman comes up to me and implores me to go to a certain address because her husband is in danger... or some such nonsense. Her husband is in danger and she stalks the first young woman she sees and implores her to help? Really, now. How much more obvious can you get? So I went to see what it was all about."

"In your usual head-first fashion, I see" - Hauk smirked.

"Well, no! I was armed" - Lena protested. "Besides, it's the Imperial City, the best guarded city in all Tamriel, the Imperial Watch stops any crime in its tracks before it is even committed, does it not?" They laughed at the well-known slogans, and Lena continued her story. "But in fact no one was trying to attack me. I was greeted by a well-fed vampire or ex-vampire who was so overfed that he didn't even realise I was an ex-vampire myself. He should have sensed it - Fenris sensed it straight away when we met in Leyawiin. But feeding too often dulls your senses. So, this fellow - Seridur was his name - welcomed me to their order of which he was the leader, stating that my reputation preceded me, and that they absolutely needed professional help with this one particularly notorious vampire, and hence they sought me out. They themselves were apparently too old and frail to fight, and all that."

"Some vampire hunters!" - Hauk laughed.

"And they weren't old and frail, either. Seridur was an Altmer, the others were a Dunmer and an Argonian, not vampires, actually, but they didn't seem to have any idea that Seridur was one. Not the brightest moths of the bunch, if you ask me."

"But what reputation of yours did he mean?" - Hauk looked at Lena with mischief. "Champion of Cyrodiil or something?"

"Well, I didn't tell him about that!" - Lena smacked his leg as she could not reach his ribs, even though in the heat of Elsweyr sun Hauk was not wearing armour. "I don't know what he was referring to, but I imagine it was my Dark Brotherhood affiliation, because he kept going on about needing professional help to kill this alleged vampire. And I kept saying that I agreed, he did need professional help... 'So you should better contact the Dark Brotherhood or Morag Tong for that, not the Mages Guild' - I said and watched the Dunmer wince. 'The Mages Guild?' - Seridur couldn't hide his astonishment. 'But you are..?' - 'Warlock of the Mages Guild, at your service' - I introduced myself, with a nice little bow too."

"Oh I wish I was there to see it!" - Hauk was howling with laughter. "The look on their faces! I can just picture that!"

"Well, if people need an assassin, they should be performing the Black Sacrament, not pulling unsuspecting young women off the street" - Lena winked. "So I said I'd look into it and left. The other two vampire hunters looked rather worried and disappointed at that point."

"Oh, I can imagine! They thought they were enlisting an assassin, but they got some snooty mage instead" - Hauk was still laughing. "So then what happened? You went to see that alleged vampire, I take it?"

"That I did, not believing for a moment that he was a vampire. So I just knocked on the door of his hut and we had a polite conversation. He accused Seridur of being a vampire, and told me some story how Seridur apparently sucked his girlfriend dry in a back alley in the Imperial City."

"He actually saw it happen?" - Hauk raised an eyebrow.

"No, he didn't. What he did see was his girlfriend in a passionate embrace with said Seridur in a back alley of the Imperial City. At which point our brave knight ran away, and his girlfriend's body was discovered later. And I don't believe for a moment that it was a vampire that killed her."

"Oh, come on. Vampires do suck dry their victims!" - Hauk protested.

"Yes, they do, on occasion. If they are exceptionally famished" - Lena confirmed. "But this is the Imperial City - it's filled with cattle! Err, mortals. Vampires there never need to go hungry and they will certainly not endanger their existence by sucking dry anyone and raising the alarm with the Imperial Watch!"

"I see your point" - Hauk nodded. "So, whether Seridur actually fed on the young lady or not, is irrelevant. And you think it was her boyfriend who killed her."

"In a fit of jealousy, yes" - Lena agreed. "Of course, I have no proof one way or the other, but I think that's what happened. Anyhow, he was no vampire, and I think Seridur wanted him dead because that fellow was walking around telling everyone that Seridur was a vampire. Remarkably, the other vampire hunters didn't believe it - the 'vampire' was accusing their illustrious leader of vampirism in order to point the finger away from himself, of course!"

"Of course" - Hauk smirked. "And it is a plausible explanation - it happens all the time. So you looked into Seridur's background then?"

"I did. With some persuasion that owner of the First Edition hinted that I should go check out the Memorial Cave."

"Now, how did he know that, I wonder?" - Hauk grinned.

"Yeah, he probably has a servant with a tattoo of the Order of Virtuous Blood in his basement somewhere" - Lena nodded. "I went to that cave, and of course it was filled with vampires. Seridur has been supplying them with everyday goods, food, and that sort of thing, and by the look of the place, they might have experimented with thralls - there were some dead bodies there, in different stages of decomposition. They looked more like necromancers than anything else."

"Necromancers?" - Hauk was surprised again. "Vampires don't usually turn to necromancy, being undead themselves and all. Sounds pretty dangerous, in case things go wrong."

"Well, may be they were necromancers before they turned? I don't know. Or may be they were trying to produce thralls that were conscious and willing, rather than sleeping all day? You know, like they have them in Skyrim" - Lena shrugged her shoulders.

"That's a different strain of vampirism though, isn't it?" - Hauk looked at her shrewdly. "And you cannot carry more than one. So unless they had Skyrim vampires among them, I don't see..." - he pondered that topic a bit, then looked at Lena again. "How do you make them sleep all day, anyway?"

"Narcolepsy? It's a disease, quite independent of vampirism" - she explained. "You can catch it without any help of vampires - some insects carry it. We just make use of it, that's all. There is no cure or treatment for it, and it prolongs the victim's life quite a bit. The only difference is that if you get it from insects, you will eventually starve, while vampires feed you, of course. It seems the insects use it for the same purpose - they feed off the blood of the narcoleptic until that person dies."

"Molag Bal really had his hand in everything!" - Hauk shuddered.

"Kynareth, I think you will find" - Lena answered with scorn. "The bugs are her creations!"

They rode in silence for a while, then Hauk prompted Lena to continue her story.

"So you found a cave full of vampires, and they were unfriendly, I take it. What about Seridur though?"

"Yes, the vampires attacked, even though I did try to talk to them..." - Lena sighed. "Some of them even sensed me, but I was not of their coven, and therefore I was a threat. Seridur apparently convinced them that being so close to the Imperial City was particularly dangerous, while of course the catacombs under the City are filled with vampires... but Seridur seemed to have omitted that fact. I feel he was using them, but I am not sure how."

"And now we'll never know" - Hauk nodded.

"Indeed. Seridur showed up as well, as hostile as can be, because obviously now I had to die..."

"You signed your death warrant already when you went to talk to that other fellow rather than kill him without question" - Hauk interjected. "Seridur was up against the wall by then."

"Yes, which is why I say again: had he not been so overfed to not sense me right from the start, none of it would have happened."

"Is that why you don't feed as often as you should?" - Hauk looked at her sideways.

"What do you mean - as often as I should?" - Lena turned red. "I am no vampire! Well, not usually, anyway."

"Oh come off it! It's me you are talking to!" - Hauk sounded slightly offended. "I've seen you in all states of dress and undress, wounded, healed, relapsed and everything! No vampire, indeed!"

"Well... you are right, of course" - Lena sighed. "I am sorry" - she smiled at him. "And I guess my last feeding makes your point - I wasn't relapsed, yet I fed. But to answer your question - I do not feed unless I absolutely have to for two reasons: first, I am still in denial, and second, I like to keep my senses. It's a habit I got into when I was a full-blown vampire: always stay a little hungry. Overfeeding makes you... mortal."

"Is that how you survived during Purification?" - Hauk asked cautiously.

"It helped. But what do you know of it?" - Lena looked suspiciously at Hauk.

"A bit more than the official version" - he admitted. "But no details. Your Brotherhood keeps its secrets well."

"We must. You already know more than most. The rest is between me and Lucien."

Hauk was a little disappointed that his fishing attempt failed, but not surprised. Lucien wouldn't tell him anything about that either. "You know I'm alive, and you know that the Brotherhood never fell. This is more than anyone should know already" - he would say and change the topic. So Hauk returned to the topic of the Order of Virtuous Blood.

"So what happened to the Order?" - he asked lightly. "After you killed Seridur?"

"The other fellow took his place" - Lena was glad to return to the story. "Pronounced me a Sister in their Order and offered me advice in vampire hunting, imagine that!" They laughed heartily at that. "Of course he has no clue that I have some experience with vampirism myself... But anyway, they pay good money for vampire dust - better than regular alchemists."

"And how many portions have you already delivered?" - Hauk asked with a grin.

"None, of course!" - Lena sounded surprised. "What do you think goes into those poisons that you like using so much?"

They kept on chatting until the towers of Orcrest came into view.

[Lena Wolf]

26 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Orcrest

"Are we done in Orcrest then?" - Lena turned to Hauk at breakfast.

"Are we?" - he smirked. "What time did you get back here last night? I was asleep, so it must have been pretty late - or was it in fact this morning?"

"This morning" - Lena nodded. "It was dawning already. But you were still asleep!" - she added defiantly, as if that defined night time.

"Do you want to leave today?" - Hauk squinted at her. "It's past midday, you know."

"I don't want to spend a day too long in this slum" - Lena kicked the rat that poked its nose through a hole in the wall of their rented room. "Rats everywhere!"

The look of disgust on her face made Hauk laugh.

"Well, it's the Orcs for you. Or rather, Orc soldiers. These are no nobles, their King included. And of course, the goblins feed the rats."

"Disgusting."

"Are you going to feed again before we leave?" - Hauk asked matter-of-factly.

"On whom?" - Lena grimaced. "I'm likely to catch something worse than Porphyric Hemophilia if I feed on this lot!" Hauk started to roll up his sleeve. "No!" - exclaimed Lena. "Don't even start! I am not feeding on you! Not unless I'm dying or something."

Hauk was going to object that it wasn't the first time, but in truth the situation was very different. Previously Lena was on the brink of death, but now... now it would be just additional nourishment. She drew the line at that.

"I am not a vampire" - she said defiantly. "Not a proper full-time vampire anyway. I do not need blood, not normally. I carry bottled blood for when I relapse. I only fed before we left Dune because I had relapsed several times within a short period when we were stuck in those dungeons with the undead. I was weakened by that, I could not regenerate fully even after my vampirism went back in remission. It was an exception, or I want to believe that it was. No, I am not a vampire." She repeated, sitting up straight and biting into another ham sandwich. "I just need to eat and sleep. All right, we stay here till tomorrow."

...

Orcrest was a city of Orc soldiers, and it showed. Corpses in different stages of decomposition were hanging from every tall structure, and skulls on spikes constituted the city decorations. Piles of smouldering rubble littered the place, and that was in the Oasis - the nicer part of town. Orcrest Township was where most people lived, and it was nothing short of the most disgusting slums you could imagine.

"And people say Bravil is ugly!" - Lena turned to Hauk during their first walkabout. "Bravil is nothing like this! Bah!" - she kicked another rat, sending it into a stinking pile of broken crates. The rat didn't seem to mind.

"Yeah, Bravil is squeaky clean compared to this" - Hauk flicked another rat away. "Literally and figuratively - all the drinking and pissing is hidden away, not happening right in front of you." He lifted up the hem of his robes, stepping over a puddle of vomit and turning up his nose at an Orc pissing against the wall. Right in front of them. "These robes will need to be laundered now" - he lifted up the hem a bit more. "And I can't trust anyone here not to ruin the enchantment."

"That's a good blade" - a passing Orc pointed at Lena's Nightingale sword. "Even though it isn't big enough. But I've got something bigger for you, sweetheart!" - he gave Lena a broad grin, looking her over, up and down.

"Another time perhaps" - Lena replied pleasantly, signalling Hauk to cool off. "But why that hungry look in your eyes? Is there not a whorehouse in town?"

"There is" - the Orc nodded. "Except that it's closed!" - he glared at Hauk as if it was Hauk's fault. "Locked up and all the whores gone!" - he glared again. "Admittedly, they were all pussies - the Khajiit, you know. Still, better than nothing!"

"But why did they leave?" - Lena thought it very strange that no one had taken over the brothel. After all, in a town filled with soldiers, that would have been a gold mine.

"Couldn't satisfy the demand" - the Orc grinned. "They needed a few Orc vixen there, that's what! But the vixen here would rather fight than spread their legs. And then they wonder why the Orcish race is in decline!" - he added hotly. Lena decided not to argue.

"So what does a brave fighter like yourself do for entertainment here?" - she asked sweetly. They had not spotted any obvious gambling dens or working arenas so far, the two arenas that they'd seen, just had some animals in them.

"Looking for some fun, eh?" - the Orc winked at Lena. "Well, if you don't want me bedding you, which is your loss, by the way, you could try gambling - there's a gambling den in one of these houses, I forget which one - just knock on doors, and you'll find it. Bring money - that game is rigged, I think. I always lose everything. Perhaps you can trade this Nord of yours as well - it's been a while since we had a Nord slave, although this one is a bit too old..." - he looked Hauk over, and Hauk scowled. "Yeah, forget that idea" - the Orc hastened to add. "Otherwise there isn't much to do. Beat someone up. Mind the guards though - they'll put down everyone, they don't care who started the fight."

"All right, see you around" - Lena smiled at the Orc.

"Find me any time you change your mind, sweetheart" - the Orc smiled back, baring his fangs. "I bet I've got a bigger one than your old Nord."

Hauk glared at him again, but Lena thought it was wise to move on. She pulled Hauk into a house - the door wasn't locked.

"Don't take it personally" - she glared at him now. "I needed information!"

"And got us into a minotaur den?" - Hauk scowled, summoning a daedroth, as three angry minotaurs were getting up from the ground and picking up their warhammers. "Not every house offers a friendly welcome!"

The fight was fierce, with six large individuals and Lena swinging claws and heavy weapons in a small room. Lena hit Hauk a few times by accident, he ignored it at first, then complained quite loudly, which caused the guards to show up. They joined in the fight, knocked out everyone, and left.

"Ugh, that Orc was right - the guards don't care who started the fight" - Hauk was rubbing his head. "But at least the minotaurs are dead, I think, or knocked out for longer than you and me. What were you thinking hitting me with your sword all the time?" - he glared at Lena. "You dented my armour!"

"Minotaurs' warhammers dented your armour" - Lena glared back. "I didn't hit you on purpose! It was very cramped! I was aiming at the minotaur!"

"Well, your aim is rubbish and your footwork is all over the place - that's why you keep hitting the wrong target" - Hauk took another swig of the healing potion. "You need training." Now, where did Lena hear this before?

"All right, let's go before any of these minotaur wake up" - she got up resolutely. Their excursion of the Orcrest slums continued.

...

"Fancy that - a house for sale!" - Hauk grinned at the sign in front of one of the houses. "I wonder how much they want for it?"

"Are you serious?" - Lena looked at him in disbelief. "They should be paying anyone agreeing to live here, not the other way around!"

Every turn and every alley in Orcrest Town looked the same, except for the arrangement and variety of rubble along the walls. Every alley smelled the same too, and after a while Lena and Hauk had enough of it. They found a bustling tavern and sat down for a drink.

"Ugh, what is that?" - Hauk spit out a mouthful of something called "Mazte". "This is the worst mazte I've ever tasted!"

"Well, this isn't Morrowind" - Lena wrinkled her nose at the "Tamika West Weald" in her goblet. "This is no Tamika either."

"Anyshhhing the matter with your drrrinks?" - a hiccuping Altmer stood between them. "Iffff you don't want them, lllllet me helllllp..." - he grabbed Lena's goblet and emptied it in one gulp. "Seems perfffffectly fffine to me..."

"Well, you can have it" - Lena got up to leave, with the Altmer sinking into her seat immediately. Hauk was getting up too. "At least the provisions at the Broken Jaw were edible."

...

"I need to look into the gambling den--"

"I need to check out that closed brothel--"

Lena and Hauk said in unison after dinner at the Broken Jaw inn. They each had business to attend to.

"All right, we split up" - Lena smiled. "We keep the room for a few days, meet up back here. You don't think the brothel was a real brothel, do you?" - she looked sharply at Hauk.

"A real brothel would never go out of business here" - Hauk shook his head. "Perhaps there are still clues to be found. And something tells me you are not really interested in the gambling den, either."

"Well, we passed several houses that looked even less lived in than the rest" - Lena smiled. "I need to knock on some doors."

"Or windows" - Hauk winked. "See you later." He disappeared into their room, returning shortly without his robe, but with his sword clipped to his belt. The Orc vixen jumped up to him, clicking her tongue and running her fingers over his chest tattoos. No, this Nord wasn't too old. He smiled at her and left. Lena chuckled and went about her business too.

...

"Rats and goblins everywhere!" - Lena cursed, finding nothing else of interest in any of the unlocked houses that she entered. Some had locked doors, but then the windows were open invitations. She didn't actually pick any locks, and so technically wasn't trespassing... Or it seemed to work like that in Orcrest. Then suddenly she stood in a Dark Brotherhood office, or something that looked like it. It was yet another hut, but this one was empty inside, except for one small bed, one large desk and one ordinary chair, and half a dozen Black Hand tapestries covering the walls. Even Lucien's office didn't have quite as many of them. "Someone is making a point to advertise" - she thought. A woman was sitting at the desk, not saying anything, not protesting, just looking bored. Lena said hello, and the woman replied, but didn't have anything interesting to say besides common rumours. "Strange" - Lena thought. She spotted a trapdoor in the corner and opened it, completely unhindered by the woman. "Even stranger" - Lena wondered. "It could be a trap." But she went in, regardless.

An underground tunnel led her to a Black Door.

"Is it..?" - Lena wondered, placing her hand on it. She felt nothing. "Wait... no... it's an ordinary door! There is no enchantment!" She pushed the door, and it yielded, not issuing any challenges, not acting as a Black Door should, not protecting the Sanctuary within. If indeed there was one.

"Oh, you must be an assassin from Cyrodiil!" - a woman in black robes greeted Lena somewhere down the corridor. "I've got contracts for you! I'm the last one left after this Sanctuary was purified, and then the bridge collapsed, and so I'm stuck here for ever more!" - she babbled on cheerfully, and Lena didn't believe a word of it.

"You know of me?" - Lena asked cautiously.

"You are here! And you are not from here! So you must be an assassin from Cyrodiil!" - the woman continued to babble excitedly. Lena was getting tired of it.

"All right, what was it about a contract?" - she asked, wanting to know what was going on.

"Oh yes, you need to kill this Khajiit in Senchal, you see. A bit of breaking and entering job, that one, but not a problem for you, picking locks, is it?" - the woman beamed at Lena. A Khajiit in Senchal. Sure. There would be just the one there, of course. No mistake possible. Did that woman even care? It seemed not.

"A Khajiit in Senchal, you say?" - Lena squinted at her. "Why, I already killed that one!" - she lied.

"Ooh, you are so efficient!" - the woman was in awe. "But I don't know if you fulfilled the requirements for the bonus, see, so you just get the basic pay." She handed over the money. "Ready for your next contract?" - she beamed at Lena again.

"Umm, let me think about it" - Lena pretended to be thinking it over. "I'll be back for you." Of that she was sure, somehow. Wait until Lucien hears of this...

She walked up and down the tunnel a bit more, looking at the abyss below - the tunnel just ended abruptly. If there ever was a bridge there, it wasn't clear where it would lead - Lena could not see any further tunnels on the same level. "Looks like some very old mining tunnels or something similar" - Lena mused. It definitely didn't look like there had ever been a Sanctuary there, or any other structure for that matter. And of course the woman wasn't trapped there at all - she could just return to town the same way as Lena entered. "A local mercenary group posing as us?" - she thought. "But unlikely to be behind the attacks on the Dark Brotherhood. Time to move on."

She jumped into the abyss, to the horror of the woman in black robes. Altair's leap of faith - she had to try it. What made her do it? She couldn't say, but somehow she felt she wouldn't die... Not like in Kagrenzel in Skyrim, where were it not for Hauk, she would have never resurfaced. But here she emerged in another tunnel, surrounded by more rats. "Will it never stop?!" - she cursed, slicing through them.



-----------------------------
Dark Brotherhood contracts were added by Elsweyr Pelletine. The gambling den and the brothel were inaccessible in Elsweyr Anequina. I have opened up the gambling den - it will be open for business in the next release of Elsweyr Mysteries. The game is dice and you can and will lose everything you've got in it.

This post has been edited by Lena Wolf: Jan 17 2022, 02:04 PM

[Renee]

69:

Crossing the river, we see a spider, it picks a fight. Hauk zaps it. Spider spits venom. Hauk gets angry - "A true Nord never backs down!" This doesn't apply to true Nord spiders though because it tries to run away. Eight legs or not, but Hauk is angry and spider stands no chance. Note to self: avoid making Hauk angry.

They head toward Ivarstead in this post, and pass by that section with hot-springs and such. Note to self: Let's see if we can find a mod which adds actual geysers. There's gotta be one, by now.

Mistwatch - bandits. At least they have the decency to warn. Leave them be.

I love this feature of Skyrim. And it's something the naysayers never mention--the fact that not everybody in Skyrim attacks us.


70: Nice picture of the sleeping bear! Wow, they rode their horses right by the animal too. Interesting how Hauk keeps trying to prod Lena to go adventuring & looting, yet Lena wants to forego all the action.

"If you don't want to help people, you shouldn't be asking them about their problems"

Awesome! Hauk has a lot of funny one-liners lately.

Lena also drinks Nord Mead in this travel, which keeps off the cold (or gives that illusion at least). Yum. Always wondered why that brew is so much cheaper than Honningbrew or any of the other meads.

Candlehearth Hall is always welcoming, this is true. Especially since Windhelm is sooooo grey and grim.



This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 10 2022, 02:18 PM

[Lena Wolf]

Lena also drinks Nord Mead in this travel, which keeps off the cold (or gives that illusion at least). Yum. Always wondered why that brew is so much cheaper than Honningbrew or any of the other meads.

I was playing with Survival on, and I had some mod which changed the properties of various alcoholic drinks. Nord Mead was doing far better job in keeping out the cold than anything else, even those far more expensive drinks. Don't remember which mod it was though, something that changed a lot of things, I think, I lost it later (probably because I didn't like the other changes).

[Renee]

Cool, I am curious what mod that was. Doesn't sound like Frostfall (which is what I use).

5/87

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 23 2022, 01:29 PM

[macole]

Interesting adventure in Orcrest. Elsweyr Pellentine has features that fit your character to a tee.

It often amazes me how everyone that plays this game see the same environment yet interprets it differently. I am pointing to how you reacted to the Order of the Virtuous Blood quest. I hope you understand that when the Jandaga says,” May our paths never cross,” he wishes you well.

Have you perhaps looked into this one, Vampires and friendly Necromancers in Orcrest - Elsweyr.

Because of the requirements I am assuming that you are using TWMP Valenwood Elsweyr. I am hoping to see how it differs from Valenwood Improved.

[Lena Wolf]

Interesting adventure in Orcrest. Elsweyr Pellentine has features that fit your character to a tee.

It often amazes me how everyone that plays this game see the same environment yet interprets it differently. I am pointing to how you reacted to the Order of the Virtuous Blood quest. I hope you understand that when the Jandaga says,” May our paths never cross,” he wishes you well.

That quest bothered me from the very first time I played it. Now I'm just venting my frustrations.

Have you perhaps looked into this one, Vampires and friendly Necromancers in Orcrest - Elsweyr.

Good point, I should install it and see, since I am making some additions to those underground passages myself. I was initially going to play without Pelletine first, so didn't have any of those extra mods loaded. But I've enabled Pelletine now, so might as well.

Because of the requirements I am assuming that you are using TWMP Valenwood Elsweyr. I am hoping to see how it differs from Valenwood Improved.

I have both TWMP_ValenwoodImproved and TWMP_Valenwood_Elsweyr in my load order, and it was supposed to make my game explode because they are vastly conflicting. Well, no disasters so far, but I haven't looked at Valenwood yet. TWMP_Valenwood_Elsweyr only defines land, it has no locations, people or quests. It is a very old mod from before Valenwood Improved. TWMP officially declared it deprecated, in favour of TWMP_ValenwoodImproved which is just Valenwood Improved made compatible with TWMP. But Pelletine is using this old land layout... They are working on a patch to blend it all, but it's not available yet. I was planning to get to Valenwood and look at the conflicts and see if I could make a rough patch to reconcile them, since it can be a long time before the proper patch is out.

If you look at the pictures in my map module mod, you'll see what I mean.

[Lena Wolf]

Have you perhaps looked into this one, Vampires and friendly Necromancers in Orcrest - Elsweyr.

Good point, I should install it and see, since I am making some additions to those underground passages myself. I was initially going to play without Pelletine first, so didn't have any of those extra mods loaded. But I've enabled Pelletine now, so might as well.

Vampires and Friendly Necromancers does not actually require Pelletine, but it needs cleaning with TES4Edit to remove the dependency. I installed it, it's just a dungeon beneath Orcrest with vampires and necromancers, but they are in no way friendly. Perhaps I didn't find the friendly ones. It doesn't interfere with Pelletine addition, and also not with mine (to be released later), but be warned that all the Khajiit in there have glitched tails - their skeleton meshes are wrong. Anyway, that area was meant for the Dark Brotherhood, even if it was unfinished in Anequina, so this dungeon doesn't fit with the story. I intend to carry on the DB line started by Pelletine, but taking a different twist.

I have now downloaded all the mods for Elsweyr by that author. He's got good ideas but the mods need cleaning and the various updates need merging with the originals, in my opinion (and I have merged them for my own use). But hey, we are all just stumbling in the dark here.

[Lena Wolf]

27 Hearthfire, 4E202 - On to Corinthe

"All right, let's get going" - Lena tried to be gentle waking up Hauk in the morning. They went to the gambling den the night before and Hauk got into a fight with the Orcs there, so now he was not only nursing bruises to his pride, but also bruises to his nose, although the Orcs didn't get off lightly either. Lena lost most of her money, that game must have been rigged.

"Whaaa--?" - Hauk turned over, wincing. "Is it morning already?"

"Come on" - Lena brought a mug of hot coffee under his nose. "There are no sweetrolls, but the cheese is passable."

...

"On to Corinthe!" - Lena nudged Roach to move, and Roach obliged. The horses seemed eager to leave too. "That's supposed to be the centre of Khajiit civilisation" - she turned to Hauk. "I wonder what it'll be like."

"Hopefully not as stormy as Orcrest" - Hauk moved uneasily. "Every day a sand storm! Bah."

"Well, it can't be any worse than Gransys" - Lena mused to herself.

"Gransys? What's that?" - Hauk caught her words.

"Oh, sorry... Some place I got to from the Shivering Isles... Sheogorath has portals, you know" - she added a bit wistfully. "Gransys is a duchy in some far away land. They had a slight dragon problem, and I got there for no reason at all. Just woke up on the beach with my heart ripped out." [1]

"What?!" - Hauk was finally awake. "Heart ripped out? What are you talking about?" He didn't believe her.

"No, really" - Lena nodded. "I had to get it back from the dragon. That was a story and a half."

"I bet!" - Hauk nudged Luna to level with Roach. "Well, I'm all ears."

"All right" - Lena grinned. "I don't know who shoved me into that portal, there was a party the day before... in Sheogorath's palace, well, my palace at the time. But the fact was that I woke up on an unfamiliar beach with a mighty headache and a hole in my chest."

"Too much felldew" - nodded Hauk.

"Or brandy" - Lena agreed. "But there I was. The head eventually cleared, but the hole remained. The people in that village seemed to know me, called me 'cousin', acted as if I was born and bred there... Strange. Well, I later figured out why that was, it had to do with the dragon. Err... with my missing heart. They told me that every fifty years or so a dragon came around, made a big splash in the sea, picked someone and ripped their heart out. That person however would not die, but would rise again, destined to fight the dragon in order to get their heart back. And so now it was me, and I became the 'arisen'."

"Did you take the place of one of the villagers who died?" - Hauk looked at her shrewdly.

"I think I fell through that portal just as the dragon was choosing his victim, but since I was not of that world, some magic must have put those false memories into everyone's heads" - Lena looked very contended with that explanation.

"That seems rather far-fetched - mass hypnosis" - Hauk looked sceptical.

"Well, what else could it be?" - Lena was defiant. "No one outside the village knew me or knew of me, and there was no trace of my previous life besides people's memories. What happened to my mother, for example? Who was she, even? No one seemed to remember."

"Yes, that is odd" - Hauk had to give in. "All right, never mind that. So you woke up with a hole in your chest, and then what?"

"Well... then the adventure started" - Lena winked. "When I was well enough to walk, a young mage stepped out of a portal and declared that he was there to follow me around and aid me in reclaiming my heart from the dragon. Well, I've heard better come-on lines than that, but I've given him extra points for making sense. He indeed stuck with me for quite a while."

"But what did he really want?" - Hauk didn't believe in the mage's intentions.

"What he said" - Lena looked surprised at it herself. "The elder of the village explained to me that these people - 'pawns', he called them - weren't really people but some sort of magical constructs destined to follow around the arisen, that is me. And indeed people in the village treated the mage with disdain, and he seemed to be used to it."

"Was he a ghost?" - Hauk was trying to get his head around it.

"No, not a ghost - he was just a man, as far as I could tell. He had a glowing mark on his hand, but other than that, he was completely human. I thought the villagers were wrong to treat him the way they did."

"Any special powers?" - Hauk wondered.

"No, nothing out of the ordinary" - Lena shook her head. "I met many others like him later, some mages, some warriors, archers, healers, all sorts - in a space between worlds called 'The Rift'".

"The Fade?" - Hauk was digesting this new information.

"I think so" - Lena nodded. "The Void, the Fade, the Rift - I think it is all one and the same thing, just called by different names."

"So then he was a spirit" - Hauk concluded.

"How many spirits do you know that have physical bodies?" - Lena grinned. "That have to eat to stay alive?"

"None" - admitted Hauk. "Draugr could be called spirits with bodies, but they definitely don't eat."

"Well, whatever they were... On the mortal plane they acted exactly the same as mortals, except that they couldn't die. Just like the daedra here - when their body was killed, the person himself was transported back to the Rift, and you could go there and fetch him again."

"That's it then - they were daedra" - decided Hauk. "All right, what happened next?"

"Next..." - Lena paused in thought. "How about lunch?" - she pointed at a campsite along the road that appeared to be unoccupied. "I could eat something fresher than the cheese that we had for breakfast."

...

"Well, now that you started that story, you have to continue" - Hauk complained once they were seated at the camp. "How did you get your heart back?"

"Oh, that's a very long story" - Lena smiled. "I spent a long time in Gransys... a few years at least, may be more."

"All right, you'll have to tell it bit by bit then" - Hauk conceded. "But skip straight to the end first - about the heart. I've not seen any scars on your chest."

"Magic" - Lena smiled. "I died."

"What?!"

"I died several times, it was completely bizarre" - Lena nodded. "I am not even sure it really happened, but I still lived through it. It was a cycle, seemingly impossible to break, yet at some point I woke up in Sheogorath's palace, with my heart back in my chest."

"So" - Hauk looked disappointed. "Then the whole thing was only a dream."

"How often do you bring things back from a dream?" - Lena smiled, playing with an amulet she used to wear under her clothes. It was shaped as a hand, and Hauk thought it stood for the Dark Brotherhood, although the shape wasn't quite right.

"You brought that with you?" - he asked with surprise. "So it isn't from the Brotherhood?"

"No" - Lena shook her head. "No, the shape is all wrong" - she looked at Hauk, and her glance said 'You should have known'. "This has the symbol the pawns in Gransys had glowing on their hand. Some said it was the same shape as the chest scar on the arisen to whom they were pledged, but that's just sheer nonsense - I met a lot of pawns and they all had the same symbol. Besides, my scar looked nothing like that."

"The amulet is shaped as a hand" - Hauk was examining the amulet closely. "With another hand in it, upside down" - he nodded. "So that's the symbol?"

"Yes, they would raise their hand in greeting, and that's when you'd see the glowing mark most clearly" - Lena placed the amulet back around her neck. "Every one the same."

"So how did you get it?" - Hauk thought there was more to it.

"It's..." - Lena blushed. "It's in memory of Scorpio" - she said pressing it to her chest. "He was my companion throughout that whole time."

"What happened to him?" - Hauk asked quietly.

"He is lost in the Rift" - Lena looked sad.

"Explain."

"Each arisen got a dedicated pawn - not the young mage who came to greet me. I had to pass a test first, then I could choose a pawn, and I picked Scorpio. If arisen were to die - which was possible, actually - his pawn would just wander the Rift on his own forever. He might get a summon from another arisen, but that would be just for a short time. They are basically discarded, but they don't die." She sat looking into the fire for a while. "We came across some of them in very sad and gloomy places, they just seemed lost.[2] I died several times - it was a cycle I spoke of - but each time that I woke up on the beach with a hole in my chest, I always managed to find Scorpio in the Rift again, and everything started all over. After some time, we already knew every step we were going to take. There didn't seem to be a way out."

"What a nightmare!" - Hauk shuddered.

"It was" - Lena nodded. "But at the same time..." - she sighed. "There was Scorpio. I could have gone forever like that."

"I see..." - Hauk said slowly, watching Lena look into the fire, shadows of memories crossing her face. "And one day you woke up on the beach but Scorpio was not to be found."

"Yeah..." - Lena nodded. "He broke the cycle for me. I took too long in the Rift looking for him, I had to leave and try again later. I tried several times, in vain. Then I had this amulet made, and when it was ready, I jumped off a cliff." She paused. "I woke up back in Sheogorath's palace. He must have known it would happen."

"Is that why you go into the Fade every time you get a chance?" - Hauk looked at her intently. "Hoping to find him?"

"Not specifically, no" - Lena looked up. "But the thought did cross my mind every time I entered the Fade. I cannot find him there, Hauk, not if he does not want to be found. The Fade is no place for mortals - we cannot navigate it. I would just perish."

"You've lived a lot longer than fifty years" - Hauk said quietly. "I imagine this wasn't your only time in another world. How many more?"

"A few more" - Lena nodded. "Time passes differently everywhere, I wouldn't know how to measure it."

They sat a while longer, looking into the fire, each lost in their respective thoughts. Thoughts about people they've loved and lost, wondering whether they'd ever meet them again after they finally die in Mundus and before their mortal souls dissolve forever in the Void.

Finally, Hauk got up and walked over to Lena, lifting her up from her seat as well.

"Come" - he said, holding her close. "Let's not get lost in the Rift while we are still standing in Mundus. We need to get to Corinthe before nightfall, if we can, I think another sand storm is coming."

They mounted their horses and rode to Corinthe without talking.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[1] Dragon's Dogma
[2] Dark Arisen DLC

[Lena Wolf]

27 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Another world

"You have been very quiet ever since you told me about Scorpio" - Hauk looked at Lena at dinner. "That brought up memories, didn't it?"

"Yes, but that's not what's been keeping me quiet" - she smiled at him. "I mentioned I've been to other worlds... Well, some were less pleasant than others. I've been to worlds that were just like ours."

"Parallel universes?" - Hauk looked up. "I've read of this concept - some mages claim there are many universes exactly like ours, but they each have different events in them. I didn't think it was possible!"

"I think that's what it was" - Lena nodded. "One of Sheogorath's portals led me to a barren place filled with more portals, and they all led me back home - or so I thought, until I looked closely. Cyrodiil was the same, towns and villages, and most houses everywhere, it all was pretty much the same in each of them. In the first one - I thought I was back home - I went to my house in Bravil, only to find it locked... I asked Daenlin, but he didn't recognise me, like he'd never seen me before, said that the owner of the house next door was out of town - and it was a man! So definitely not me. I went to the Mages Guild, and the same story - no one knew me."

"That's awful!" - exclaimed Hauk. "How did you get back?"

"I thought I was stuck there for sure... but I went to the Shivering Isles portal, and it returned me into that barren space with the other portals... Trouble was, I couldn't remember which one was the way home." She shuddered and poured herself some wine.

"So... how long did you spend drifting from world to world until you found ours?" - Hauk stopped eating.

"Years..." - Lena sighed, and her face cringed in pain. "I think it was years. Very long."

"Gosh..." - Hauk took her hand. "Don't do this again. What did you see?"

"Well, it's not so much what I saw, but what I didn't see" - she smiled at him. "After a few times I was used to being a stranger, although seeing those familiar faces and getting no response from them was rather unsettling and... painful. That made me realise just how much I value my friends." She squeezed his hand.

"Yes" - Hauk nodded. "Yes, I understand. But there was something else, wasn't there?" - he looked shrewdly at her.

"Yeah... Lucien" - Lena shot him a glance and blushed. "He was... different."

"Just Lucien? Or other people too?" - Hauk's eyes narrowed. "What about me?"

"I never met you" - Lena shook her head. "We hadn't met at the time, I think you weren't even born! It was a long time ago" - she smiled at him. "No, it wasn't just Lucien who was different, I think everyone was a bit different. But Lucien hurt the most."

"Ah. Another woman?" There was no hiding from Hauk, was there?

Lena nodded. "Another woman every time. I suppose he wasn't that different after all, he is not exactly celibate here either" - she smiled. "Yet I trust him."

"And you felt like he broke your trust" - Hauk nodded. "Even though it wasn't actually the same person."

"That's the trouble" - Lena agreed. "These worlds - they looked exactly the same, the people looked, moved, spoke in the same way everywhere, it absolutely gave the impression that it was one and the same person. But they were all different."

"This must have been a very disturbing time for you" - Hauk tried to calm her down, as tears started running down her face by now.

"Y-yes" - she sobbed. "And I wasn't with the Dark Brotherhood there, or with any of the Guilds, and no one knew me... I tried talking to some of the mages about parallel worlds, but they just looked at me as if I was mad" - she didn't bother to dry her tears, as there was no end to the stream. It would stop at some point, she hoped. She felt being thrown into the depth of despair, just as she felt back then, moving from world to world, and never getting home.

...

"Is that... Wolf?" - a Khajiit turned to her table companion at the back of the room. "That sobbing Breton? Is that Wolf?"

"What?" - the other Khajiit peered to see, flicking his fingers to make his eyes adapt to the gloom inside the caravanserai. "You know, I think it might be. She's got her Nord with her, too."

"But she's crying! Sobbing like a kit. Not what you'd expect from a ruthless killer" - the first Khajiit shook her head. "Or is it an act, you think?"

"No, I don't think it's an act" - he said slowly, not taking his eyes off Lena. "She's upset about something. May be her conscience finally caught up with her."

"Don't talk rubbish" - the first one snapped. "She's a Silencer, they have no conscience. Plus, she's a vampire."

"Well, if the stories are true, she's an ex-vampire" - the second Khajiit corrected his companion. "She went through all the trouble of getting everything together for the Witch's Potion. But I hear it didn't clear all the effects completely."

"Mmm, you're right about that" - the first one nodded. "J'rama took it too, and he's still clinging to every neck he can find."

"I wonder why she's here" - the second Khajiit mused.

"Are you going to send word to the Jandaga?" - the first one raised her eyes in question.

"Yes, I suppose I should" - the second one nodded. "The Jandaga will want to know."

"That old fae is too old to fight!" - the first Khajiit's ears went flat. "He has barely enough strength to wear his armour! It's those women he keeps with him, they are doing all the fighting."

"WHAT did you say about the Jandaga?" - a Dunmer from the neighbouring table glared at the first Khajiit. "He may be five hundred tomorrow, but he can knock you out in one strike! He's an Aelf! That age puts him in his prime!"

"Which explains all the ladies" - the second Khajiit grinned. "Well said, Adryn. If he finally decides to go after Wolf, she'll stand no chance, Nord or no Nord at her side."

"I don't think Wolf will accept a direct confrontation" - the first Khajiit flicked her fingers to have a better look at Lena, who was now calming down and regaining her composure. "She is an assassin. She'll use stealth."

"Stealth!" - the Dunmer spat. "There is no honour in stealth!"

"But it prevents you from getting killed" - the second Khajiit smiled. "Some find it useful."

The Dunmer glared again, but didn't argue.

"No, she won't allow the Jandaga - or his ladies - to assault her directly. And that Nord of hers isn't just an average battlemage. He's that Optio from the war." The first Khajiit was watching Lena and Hauk as she said this.

"Optio Serck-Hanssen?" - the second Khajiit and the Dunmer exclaimed together, making Hauk turn his head.

"Sshhh, he'll hear you!" - the first Khajiit glared at her companions. "Honestly, call yourselves agents?" - she bared her teeth in disdain. "...And he had a much bigger one than either of you!" - she added quite loudly. "So yeah, it was a good night out!"

She watched Hauk out of the corner of her eye, her cat eyes allowing her to see everything quite clearly. Hauk grinned, said something to Lena and turned away.

"Phew" - the Khajiit let out a sigh of relief. "Keep your voices down!"

"If that's Serck-Hanssen" - the second Khajiit said in a much quieter tone, - "then he must have been the one our other agent met in Dune. Which explains his tattoos."

"What tattoos?" - the Dunmer tried to make out Hauk's tattoos, but firstly, Dunmer eye sight was no good in the dark, and secondly, Hauk was wearing armour.

"You can't see them now" - the second Khajiit rolled his eyes. "They are on his body, and he's suited up now. But in Dune he wasn't wearing a shirt because of the heat - Nords are not good with heat."

"I'll have to follow him around town then, the sun is just as hot here as it is in Dune" - the Dunmer nodded, making a mental note. "But if that's really he... Why is he here, should be the real question."

"The Jandaga doesn't care for politics" - the second Khajiit cut off the Dunmer. "It'll be some Imperial Legion business - the revolt in Orcrest or some such nonsense. The Jandaga had had enough of that already in High Rock and in your precious Morrowind!" - he glared at the Dunmer.

"Leave Morrowind out of it!" - the Dunmer's eyes were glowing with rage. "I'll have you know that Morrowind..."

"Stop it!" - the first Khajiit hissed quite aggressively. "This isn't the place! The Khajiit knows all he needs to know about Morrowind!" - she glared at her companions. "If the Dunmer agent wants to inform whoever it is he is working for, he should do so without hesitation" - she said quite formally, shooting a sharp glance at the Dunmer. "I'm sure the Morag Tong would like to know" - she added, using the common speak.

"If he ever sets foot in Morrowind again, he'll be in a lot of hot water" - the Dunmer said much more calmly. "And Morag Tong will be the least of his worries. He's wanted by half of Morrowind houses for what he did to their daughters."

"What?!" - both Khajiits stifled an exclamation. "Daughters?"

"Well, and wives. Mostly wives, actually" - the Dunmer grinned. "'Thief of Virtue' is what they call him in Morrowind."

"You elves are no more virtuous than the Khajiit" - the second Khajiit grinned too. "Was there anything to steal at all?"

"I was speaking figuratively" - the Dunmer smirked.

"Riiiight" - the second Khajiit's ears spiked up in surprise, then flattened out - he was being sarcastic. "Anyway, I don't think he's here for those kinds of pleasures, and what he did during the war was of a completely different nature."

"That was work" - nodded the first Khajiit. "The Khajiit are glad to not have been involved in fighting in Skyrim."

"Oh come on, he was just one man, how bad could it be?" - the Dunmer rolled his eyes. "The Legion had plenty of other operatives, I'm sure!"

"True, but none quite like him. You know what they call him in Skyrim?" - he looked at the Dunmer flatly. "The Animal."

"Why?" - the Dunmer was looking perplexed. "Don't the Nords appreciate brutality?"

"It's not brutality as such that he's known for" - the Khajiit shook his head. "The Thalmor would engage the Dark Brotherhood to go after their agents in The Animal's 'care' - it was considered the merciful thing to do. He would keep them alive for months."

"So, what was his mission then?" - the Dunmer seemed to be slow to understand, or perhaps he only wished to appear that way.

"Isn't it obvious?" - the first Khajiit smirked. "Information gathering, of course. What else would an agent do behind the enemy lines during a war? That, and subterfuge."

"Charming" - the Dunmer rolled his eyes. "I don't expect he fights with honour either."

"Which is why he and Wolf are such friends" - the first Khajiit squinted, looking at Lena and Hauk again. "Birds of a feather and all that."

...

The conversation at the back of the caravanserai quieted down, with the Dunmer turning back to his own table and taking out a quill and a small piece of parchment. He was going to send word to Morrowind - the Spy Master would like to know just whom the Legion was sending his way. What Hauk didn't tell Lena, was that he knew that his mission in Elsweyr was a test - a test of his mettle as an agent during peace time, when none of his usual techniques could be used. He needed to go to Morrowind, and the Legion agreed, just after he'd finish that survey in Elsweyr. Hauk knew he'd be watched, he'd been with the Legion long enough to know how they operated. Was he qualified for peace time work? The Dunmer agent was going to watch and see. If this was The Animal, things were more serious than he had thought...

This post has been edited by Lena Wolf: Jan 25 2022, 01:49 PM

[macole]

This is great. So much fun to see an entry into other’s story. For me it makes the world seem more alive. I had hoped that others didn’t mind me mentioning their characters in my journal.

I can imagine coin being passed across the table as a bookie kept tally in the fantasy game called The Arena - A Battle of Heros.



This post has been edited by macole: Jan 25 2022, 06:54 PM

[Lena Wolf]

28-29 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Corinthe

"By Akatosh, I've seen enough palaces today to last me a lifetime!" - Hauk breathed with relief when he and Lena finally left the Palace District of Corinthe to return to a more down-to-earth Market District. "How can they stand wearing all those heavy velvets in this heat?" - his voice was momentarily muffled as he pulled off his robe. "Ah, that's better!"

"Yeah, it was getting rather repetitive" - Lena nodded. "Too posh for my blood!"

The air finally started to cool under the stars of the Southern sky.

"Hungry?" - she turned to Hauk, but for once he shook his head.

"No, they put too much sugar in everything" - he put a hand to his belly. "I think I'd better skip dinner tonight."

"Well, in that case..." - Lena turned and started to climb some steps leading to the narrow alleys of the more popular part of town. "A little more sugar will be just the thing" - she winked.

It was nearing midnight when they finally emerged from Sugar Coated.

"Well, that was a friendly place!" - Hauk remarked. "I could have stayed longer, but the smell of vomit was cutting through everything after a while."

"Mmm..." - Lena made some non-commital sounds, trying not to get lost in the alleys that ran without rhyme or reason. "Yeah, it wasn't the Feast Hall of Riverhold" - she sighed with regret. "All right, let's see what other entertainment we can find."

A red lantern peaked their interest. Did this center of civilization really have a brothel? The door was unlocked, so they entered.

"I am Inga, welcome!" - a young Nord woman greeted them. "Here for a threesome or did you just want to watch?" - she addressed Lena first, which made Hauk smirk. "Oh, perhaps it is you who wanted to watch!" - she turned to Hauk with a smile. "It's all good with me. I also provide training" - she added proudly.

"All right, let's see it!" - Lena grinned.

"See what?"

"What can you teach me?"

It is remarkable how professional people can make even the most exciting topics sound dull. Lena soon got bored with the theoretical foundations of eroticism in humanoid males, and Hauk discovered things about his "zones" that he never even suspected.

"That sounds fine in theory, but can you demonstrate?" - he cut through the lesson, becoming visibly impatient. "Because I have my doubts, you see" - he grinned.

What happened next was not what he expected. Inga got up from her seat, signalling Lena and Hauk to remain seated at the table. She walked around them and stood behind Hauk's chair with a quill in her hand. Then she started drawing on his neck and shoulders.

"You see, the primary zone of preliminary erotic stimulation in males is actually in their shoulders and the base of the neck" - she drew a line along the back of Hauk's shoulders, drawing blood with her sharp quill.

"Ouch! That hurts!" - he protested, but Inga continued unperturbed.

"One must suffer for all the good things in this world, so hush" - she cut him off. "Once you've stimulated him sufficiently there - which you can tell by the angle of the neck hairs, they must be what the laymen call 'standing up' - you can then gradually move on to the secondary zone of preliminary erotic stimulation which is in their earlobes, even with the Khajiit" - she smiled at Lena and stabbed Hauk's earlobe with her quill, drawing blood again. "It is not necessary to always draw blood, but many do like it, in particular Orcs."

"But I am not an Orc!" - Hauk protested again, but Inga slapped him on the head.

"Hush!" - she stretched out his arm, pointing at his bicepse. "The bicepse is the tertiary zone of preliminary erotic stimulation that is too often overlooked." She drew another line, right across Hauk's All-Seeing Eye tattoo, making the eye bleed. "It is important to follow the correct sequence and stimulate each zone in order, not jumping the queue, so to speak. The quartiary--"

"Enough!" - Hauk bellowed, jumping up from his chair. "I don't ever want to know what you'd do with my other zones! Come on, Wolf, we are leaving! And throw all of that nonsense right out of your head!" - he stomped out the door.

"Well, he's got a bit of a temper, doesn't he?" - Inga winked at Lena. "It does work out a lot better in practice, trust me, I am a professional."

"I have no doubt!" - Lena grinned. "I too follow the same method, but without the quill."

They laughed at that, hugged, and parted.

...

"What took you so long?" - Hauk scowled as Lena came out of Inga's house. "Don't let that witch put the wrong ideas into your head!"

"Oh, I don't know" - Lena looked dubious. "I think her method has merit. We should try it out tonight."

"WHAT?!" - the look of sheer horror and outrage on Hauk's face sent Lena into a fit of laughter, followed by giggles that she couldn't suppress for days.

"I wasn't actually serious" - she managed to say through her laughter. "That caravanserai doesn't have private rooms. It's just going to be plain sleeping tonight."

It appeared that Hauk was fine with that.

29 Hearthfire

"We should visit the Mages Guild, you know" - Hauk said at breakfast, looking uneasy. "See what's been going on here since the events in Cyrodiil... Traven and whatnot." He didn't sound very convincing, and Lena thought there must be another reason for him wanting to visit the Mages Guild, but didn't say anything.

"That will mean going back to the Palace District" - she grimaced.

"Yeah, well, can't be helped" - Hauk mumbled, pulling on his robe.

...

"Well met, Warlock!" - a richly dressed Imperial stopped Lena in the street.

"Do I know you?" - Lena squinted at him. "Guild mate?"

"Indeed! The Mages Guild Hall is just down that way, if you wanted to stop by" - he smiled at her with his perfect pearl-white teeth. "Your reputation precedes you."

"Oh?" - Lena started, when Hauk finally caught up with them. The Imperial threw a disdainful glance at Hauk's not-so-fresh Battlemage robes.

"Evoker" - he said with emphasis.

"Optio, if you don't mind" - Hauk replied pleasantly. "I need a word with your Arch-Mage."

At this point the Imperial proved that he was a true mage by disappearing into thin air. Lena and Hauk exchanged grins.

The Mages Guild Hall exubed wealth. It was furnished with the best quality pieces, but its most luxurious feature was empty space. In a crowded city like Corinthe where space was at the premium, wasting it like that was something only very few could afford.

The conversation in the Guild Hall was almost a word-for-word recount of the conversation in the street, with the richly dressed mages looking down on Hauk's well used robes and Lena's casual attire. The Arch-Mage spoke benevolently and didn't appear to be impressed by Hauk's rank or questions, but an attentive observer would have noticed a slight twitch in his right eye.

"Your Guild chapter is doing very well financially" - Hauk smiled, looking at the rare plants and artefacts in Arch-Mage's reception room. "Quite impressive, really. My compliments, Arch-Mage! You put the chapters in Cyrodiil to shame, without a doubt."

"Oh, we are just doing our jobs serving the people" - the Altmer answered with a slight bow. "It isn't always the easiest path to take, but that's what we must do."

They exchanged a few more pleasanteries, then Hauk signalled Lena that he got what he wanted.

"An impressive display of wealth indeed" - Lena summarised their experience looking at the spacious white stone buildings occupied by the Mages Guild right in the Palace District. "I wonder where all this wealth is coming from" - she mused, looking at Hauk.

"A good question" - he nodded. "The Arch-Mage didn't say anything, and that says a lot. And here is another place I need to visit." They were standing before one of the Imperial Offices with the red banners adorning the walls.

"Of course" - Lena smiled. "I should have known."

The Imperial Offices were only partly occupied. The Offices themselves seemed in good order, with friendly staff giving directions and everything else you would expect. Multiple copies of the History of the Empire were on offer, no one needed to remain ignorant of anything. However, the Census Office was empty, apart from the guard. Oh, the furniture was in place, but there were no papers, no books, no scrolls, nothing of any kind there, and no staff. "What's up with that?" - Lena turned to Hauk, but he prodded her to go on and into the Vaults.

The Vaults were definitely not empty. Two stern looking staff members and several guards, one of which a Captain, were pacing the brightly lit room. All doors were understandibly locked.

"Don't even think about it" - Hauk followed Lena down the stairs, seeing her peering through the bars on the gate. "They'll confiscate your Nocturnal's key, and Nocturnal won't be happy about it."

"No, I wasn't..." - Lena blushed. "Honest. I was just wondering what they were keeping under such an impressive lock since the vault appears to be empty."

"Not all that is valuable is shiny and golden" - Hauk grinned. "I think you'll find it's information. Some dusty scrolls and well-worn missives, no doubt, stashed away out of sight. So, don't get me into trouble, because I need to leave you on your own for a bit." And with that he walked away, with the Captain following.

"No, I wasn't planning on another stay in the Imperial Prison" - Lena murmured to herself. The sight of those bars brought back memories.

...

Back at the caravanserai that evening Lena was surprised to find Hauk wearing full armour. He was making notes in his book, and the whole thing looked strange. Lena sat down at the table next to him and took out a notebook of her own.

"Did you learn what you wanted to learn?" - she asked in a hushed voice.

"Some of it" - Hauk nodded.

"What's with the armour?"

"I've got work to do" - he looked up, closing his book. "I should be back in a day or two, but don't worry if I stay out longer. I'll be back eventually."

And with that he got up and left into the night.

[Lena Wolf]

30 Hearthfire, 4E202 - The sewers and the Palace District

At six o'clock in the morning a young woman clad in black entered The White Moon Hotel in the Palace District of Corinthe. She was met and greeted by the hostess in a white dress of the finest quality accompanied by a Khajiit of an unusually short stature.

"Welcome to the White Moon Hotel!" - the hostess smiled. "My little brother and I run the best hospitality establishment in the city." The hostess' nose twitched because the visitor in black reeked of sewers. However, it would be bad manners to turn away potential customers, especially the ones with throwing knives tucked into their boots. The short-statured Khajiit took advantage of his height and his sister's engaging conversation to have a good look at the visitor. Satisfied, he gave her a little nudge and she proceeded with her room offer. "We can offer you the best experience anywhere at all! Would you like the Jone's Room which is a beautifully appointed lodging, well worth staying in, except that it would make you miss out on the luxury of the Jone's Suite which comes complete with dinner! What will it be? Oh, it's 50 septims for the room and 110 septims for the suite, per night. I mere trifle for a lady of your... err... profession." She twitched. "You may stay with us as long as you want!" - she added with a big smile.

Lena was listening to this tirade with a little smirk on her face, thinking to herself: "Oh yes, I'm sure you'd love to have me staying with you for a whole week, at 110 septims a night! Good grief, woman!" But she'd been up all night going through the sewers under Corinthe, and she could use a dinner and a bed - she intended to sleep all day and be out and about again in the evening. Perhaps this house of splendour even had a bath. So she smiled politely and paid for the Jone's Suite.

"Wonderful!" - the hostess beamed. "I am sure you will be most comfortable! My brother has got everything ready, you'll find your dinner served in the room. It's up the stairs, the door on your left."

Up the stairs on the landing there were three doors, and Lena dutifully opened the door on the left. The room was quite nice, but not exactly a suite, the table was indeed already set ("How long for?" - Lena wondered), and there was someone already at dinner...

"Oh, pardon me!" - exclaimed Lena, thinking that she got the wrong room.

"Well met, Guild mate!" - the richly dressed (what else?) Altmer at the table greeted her. "Please, join me." The table was indeed set for two.

"Err..." - Lena stumbled, she didn't really want company. Was that the extra luxury of the Jone's Suite? Was that Jone? There was just the one double bed in the room, she noticed. "I'll be back shortly" - she offered and stepped out onto the landing again. "I'm sure she said the door on the left" - she thought. "Hmm... What about these other two doors?"

The door on the right was locked, but the door in the middle wasn't. Lena entered. This room looked a lot more like a suite - it was at least double the size of the other one. However, all cupboards were empty and there was no dinner on the table. Lena tried the bed - it seemed nice, she could sleep here. "Oh sod it!" - she swore, really not wanting to go back to Jone next door, or whatever his name was. She got some food out of her pack, ate what she had and fell into the bed, exhausted. She'd take it up with the management in the morning... err... evening... whenever she woke up...

...

After Hauk left the previous evening, Lena decided to use the time on her own to investigate the less prominent sites of Corinthe, starting with the sewers. One might say that going there alone could be too dangerous, but she hadn't heard of a daedric incursion or a zombie plague, and figured that any vampires or necromancers would be keeping to their lairs. Besides, she had Dessos, the dremora in the service of Sanguine - he made Kynval by now and was eager to prove he deserved it. She'd be fine.

As it turned out, she didn't need Dessos - she could deal with rats on her own. There was nothing else down in the sewers! "How strange" - Lena thought, not finding anything of interest. "Oh wait, here's a door. Sewer lowlife, by the looks of it." Indeed, the hideout housed some bandits. Six in all, and after summoning a few clannfears, Lena called up Dessos.

"Fall on your sword!" - he roared, not bothered by the fact that the bandits were mostly armed with axes. It didn't matter though - they fell on their axes instead. "All finished" - he turned to Lena in a few minutes. "Anything else?"

"No, thank you" - she smiled. "There's nothing but rats here otherwise."

"And these were rats also" - he smiled back. "See you later."

"Give my love to Sanguine" - she waved and dispelled him.

She cleared the hideout of all valuables (not much) and fresh food (better not let it go to waste), and continued her exploration of the sewers. On the opposite end of the system she found another door, with open coffins in the water in front of it and cold emanating from the whole wall. "Vampires" - she thought. "Leave them be." If there was nothing else to do in Corinthe, she would return there with Hauk.

And so after a long and mostly fruitless dreg through the sewers, she emerged in the Palace District right in front of the White Moon Hotel and decided that rest was what she needed most. The 110 septim fee for the luxurious room was being paid by the bandits.

...

Lena woke up in late afternoon. There was still no food served in her luxurious suite, and the dining room downstairs was equally empty. There was also no one to be seen at the reception. "Well, so much for the best stay ever" - Lena thought with annoyance but didn't want to waste any time chasing after them. She wouldn't be staying at that hotel again, of that she was certain.

Feeling bored, she returned to the sewers to have a look at the vampire lair - just have a look, not slay everyone in sight, as that would be too difficult to do alone. And why would she, anyway. The lair was locked, they clearly didn't wish to be disturbed.

Yes, those were vampires, quite a substantial group of them. They had a comfortable dungeon under Corinthe with the door quite close to the sewer exit into the Palace District. "I suppose they have no need of a thrall" - Lena smirked. She went through all the rooms, occasionally throwing Nocturnal's Subterfuge spell at the vampires to keep them busy fighting each other while she had a good look around. A vampire coven. Nothing special. Every city had them. "These seem to be mostly nobles" - she noted from their attire and the furniture in the rooms. "Still like their comforts. Perhaps they are even locals. Leave them be." She left, while the vampires were still fighting.

The last thing to investigate in this city were the two abandoned houses that Lena spotted earlier. The doors were barred, but perhaps the windows offered access. The first one was positioned conveniently by a staircase - it was occupied by beggars. The second was a bit more troublesome, the window was quite high. Eventually Lena climbed in. A ghost of a woman was sitting at the table in a room with overturned furniture. "My babies are crying" - she said. Lena heard noises coming from above.

Jumping over some crates, she scaled the stairs to the upper floor, it must have been the bedroom. There was a skeleton on the bed and four or five little ghosts floating around. It was all too clear what had occurred.

The fight with the ghosts wasn't difficult, yet their spells triggered Lena's vampirism, and that was the bigger problem. She needed blood. She lay on the bed next to the skeleton to gather her strength, even spoke to the ghost of the woman again, but the ghost had nothing more to say. How did she die? The place wasn't rich, perhaps it was disease or starvation. In a city full of riches some people would still starve to death.

"Well, there's only one thing for it" - Lena decided, feeling the familiar powers curse through her veins. "And I am not wasting bottled blood on this."

In the dead of night she walked through Corinthe. Some passers by reflected on the paleness of her visage. Some blamed the lighting, some suggested she should see a healer. "No, it is much too late for that" - she thought to herself. The mages at the Corinthe chapter of the Guild were rich, not only in clothing, but also in their diet. "Better them than some poor sods sleeping rough" - she reflected, entering the Residence Hall. No one heard her, no one woke up. Someone had faint bite marks on the neck in the morning.

Lena returned to the White Moon Hotel to catch some much needed sleep in the room that was still hers. She'd be right as rain again when she woke.

[macole]

At six o'clock in the morning a young woman clad in black entered The White Moon Hotel in the Palace District of Corinthe. She was met and greeted by the hostess in a white dress of the finest quality accompanied by a Khajiit of an unusually short stature.

Ah, the nights spent at The White Moon Hotel. We remember Bhirshasa and her little brother Buz. IIRC Bhirshasa is an Ohmes while Buz could be either a Dagi or a Dagi-raht.

Interesting how they determine the per-night rate.

[Lena Wolf]

Interesting how they determine the per-night rate.

Compared to some London hotels, they are being overly logical. A decent room for 50 septims, a room double in size for 110 septims. In London I've had options of a tiny room for £110 versus exactly the same room with a piece of toast for breakfast for £198, because we want to remain under £200. That was one expensive piece of toast! But the room was labelled "executive" because of that.

[Lena Wolf]

30 Hearthfire, 4E202 - The hot sun of Elsweyr

Hauk preferred to travel at night. The sun in Elsweyr was hot enough to melt his armour while he was wearing it, or that's how it felt. He regretted not having the enchanted robes he got in Antaloor - there too the sun was very hot. But an agent must do what an agent must do, whatever the weather.

Peace and opulence of Corinthe jarred badly with decomposing bodies in Orcrest, he felt, especially since the Pshara kept squabbling and did little to actually govern the city. Even though the presence of the Imperial Offices and the Imperial Legion accounted for some measure of tranquillity, the calm still felt enforced. But by whom? Hauk had to find out. The Captain of the Imperial Guard had some suspicions but couldn't leave town, which is where Hauk came in.

"Worshipping the Moons is weird" - Hauk thought, patting Luna and letting her relax into a quiet trot. "Why worship a celestial body? Even if it does determine their breeds - it does so reliably and every time the same, that's just nature, not any kind of a deity."

A ruined fort appeared in the distance, nearly swallowed by the sands. Hauk shifted in the saddle, his whole body straightening up - he sensed danger.

The fort presented several layers of defences. A Khajiit tribal village could be seen nearby, and that tribe clearly considered the fort to be their property. It took a while for Hauk to convince them otherwise, but after half a dozen warriors lay dead, the mages retreated into their huts, declaring ceasefire. Hauk was annoyed and wanted to chase after them, but they weren't what he came there for, so he left it for later and proceeded into the fort.

On the inside the fort was definitely not Khajiit property. A group of particularly aggressive necromancers were calling it home, and it took Hauk the rest of the night and the better part of the morning to clear them out. "Blast those zombies, they are too hard to kill" - he cursed, chewing on mandrake root again. Astral Vapours was a bane for mages as it stunted one's magicka flow, and every zombie there seemed to carry the disease. Finally feeling the familiar tingling of magicka in his fingertips, he spat out the rest of the bitter root and looked around for a place to rest before continuing on.

"One thing I'll say for necromancers" - he grinned, discovering their dining area, - "they do have good mead!"

He stretched out by the fire for a couple of hours to catch some sleep, but didn't eat anything - the heat seemed to make him lose his appetite. "There will be time for that later" - he told himself, getting up.

The furthest chamber of the fort appeared to be a dead end. With the ease of a long-standing habit, Hauk ran his hand along the embossed relief, found a hidden button, pushed it and saw the entire wall swing open revealing a passage beyond. A smell of fresh blood and old rotten flesh came rushing at him. "Ugh" - he grimaced. "But at least I'm in the right place."

Closing the door behind him, he descended into a system of caverns that seemed to house more skeletons than the necromancers had above them, except that the skeletons here were not animated. Each crevice was fenced off with prison bars - there was no where to run, and the skeletons weren't attempting it. A few iron maidens and stretching racks were placed around the room, chains were hanging off the walls in abundance.

Hauk walked from one cavern to the next, with the smell of fresh blood getting stronger as he went. Fresh blood stains started to appear, too. Moans were coming from the space ahead.

"Oh, there you are!" - Hauk greeted an Altmer sitting at a desk in the middle of a large cavern lined with prison cells. "I thought I'd find you here, Healer!"

"Animal!" - the Altmer looked up. "Welcome! Troubles again?" - he looked half-joking, half-concerned.

"Yeah, well, you know, the usual, some people just don't know where to stop" - Hauk grinned. "Any news?"

"None" - the Healer shook his head. "These ones won't talk or don't know anything, I can't figure out" - he jerked his head towards the prison cells - some of the prisoners were still alive.

"The Captain mentioned you could use some assistance" - Hauk grinned. "Are they..?"

"Picked up near the Oblivion gate where that unit was slaughtered" - the Altmer looked sad. "Those were good men. And they were not killed by the daedra!" He glared at the prisoners.

"Sword wounds?" - Hauk's eyes went hard.

"Swords and spears, mostly of a local make" - the Altmer nodded. "The same as what they carried" - he pointed at a heap of weapons in the corner.

"That doesn't prove anything though" - Hauk objected. "Everyone here carries this stuff. Did they say anything at all?" He walked over to the cells, peering through the bars. Some prisoners were listening in and looked back, others either didn't care or were already dead.

"They spit a lot" - the Altmer grimaced. "But this is not exactly my line of work..."

"No, Healer" - Hauk smiled and started removing his armour. "I've seen the equipment in the front rooms - have you got the elixirs ready?" The Altmer nodded. "Good, then let's not waste any time. We'll start with this one" - he pointed at a Bosmer cowering at the back of his cell. "Hello, darling! Starting to shake already? Tszt-tszt!"

"He hasn't had his sugar for two days now" - the Altmer unlocked the cell. "He's ready."

"No, it isn't the lack of sugar that makes him shake" - Hauk picked up the prisoner's chains, prodding the Bosmer to move. "Have you seen his eyes? He isn't a Bosmer."

"An Ohmes?" - the Altmer brought a torch close to the prisoner's face which made him cringe. "By the Nine, you are right! I feel foolish not to have noticed..." - he sighed. "I used all the wrong elixirs on him, no wonder he..."

"Which is why I prefer more universal methods" - Hauk nodded, lifting up the prisoner by the chains and fixing them to the ceiling. "Start from the ankles, then move up. Even the hardiest ones give up when we get to the groin. Tourniquet" - he stretched his hand and the Altmer handed him a piece of frayed rope. "Mmm, not the greatest, but it will do. Knife."

A trickle of yellow liquid ran down the prisoner's leg, some of it got on Hauk's hand.

"Remember me, do you?" - he stood up, shaking the liquid off his hand. "I said I'd find you eventually. So, what secrets do you have for me today?"

...

"Do you want him alive?" - the Altmer's hand hovered over a selection of vials. "Or are we done?"

"Alive" - nodded Hauk. "We'll take him back to the cell and he can tell the others all about his experience." He stood back and allowed the Altmer to inject the elixir into the prisoner's thigh. "He still has his feet, and perhaps he can convince the rest that they want to keep theirs too."

"He can't walk though" - the Altmer shook his head. "The Khajiit need their toes, even the Ohmes."

"I know" - Hauk grinned, hoisting the prisoner across his shoulder. "But I didn't cut all of them off. He'll adapt, eventually. He's done it before."

...

"It's been a while, Healer" - Hauk turned to the Altmer when they were sitting comfortably by the fire in a separate cavern. "Been keeping busy?"

"Oh, there's always work for someone like me" - the Altmer smiled, refilling his goblet. "Poisons and potions are ever in demand. But the Legion takes their dues, and I could not refuse when they called me here. Even though they really needed someone like you."

"I'm here now" - Hauk winked. "The Legion didn't take these attacks seriously at first, they thought simple alchemical stimulation would make these people talk. It works in everyday life, you know."

"Yeah, it's no longer everyday life, is it" - the Altmer clicked his tongue. "Reminds me of the Oblivion Crisis. We never had a lot of gates here in Elsweyr, the bandits and other lowlife overran these lands, not the daedra. And with the Legion being stretched thin..."

They sat looking into the fire, the Altmer thinking of the events two hundred years ago, Hauk thinking of much more recent events during the Great War.

"The Legion is stretched thin now again" - he noted. "There's unrest brewing, and the Elder Council is paralysed with fear" - he grimaced. "I'm off to Morrowind after this."

"Morrowind?" - the Altmer raised an eyebrow. "The Spy Master called?"

"Well, I never met the Spy Master personally" - Hauk opened another bottle of mead. "I hear he has a sugar problem?" - he grinned.

"That he does" - the Altmer nodded. "Which opens so many doors for him, you wouldn't believe. He's spending a lot of time in Riften now, too."

"Just over the border" - Hauk mused. "Of Cyrodiil, as well as Morrowind. Interesting."

That sat drinking in silence for a while.

"But he must be a very old man now" - Hauk said quietly. "Didn't he serve during the Morrowind Crisis already?"

"And he wasn't a young man then either" - the Altmer nodded. "That sugar is not just sugar, you know. But you didn't hear that from me."

Two old friends sat down for dinner. Nothing unusual about that.

[Lena Wolf]

4 Frostfall, 4E202 - The last day in Corinthe

Hauk returned to Corinthe just after dawn and found Lena missing. "Typical" - he thought to himself. "Leave her alone for a couple of days, and she'll be off all night exploring gods know what, most likely beneath the city." He was just about to pay for accommodation at the caravanserai, when the host assured him that the bed had been paid for a week in advance.

"Assuming you still want to share with her?" - he twitched his nose. "I haven't changed the sheets."

The bed wasn't the freshest, and Hauk thought he could smell death and sewers on it, but it was nothing like where he spent the last couple of days. He lay down and fell asleep immediately.

"Hrmph" - the host smirked to himself, poking his head into the common room. "They must be who people say they are."

...

Lena returned to the caravanserai just before midday, tired and ready for bed. She nodded to the host and went straight upstairs, pulling off her weapon belt going up. Hauk was still asleep, he looked tired and smelled of blood and poisons. Lena smiled, removed her boots and gauntlets and got into bed next to him. They'd need to find a bath house in the morning... err... whenever it was that they woke up.

...

Lena didn't sleep very long, just a few hours. She woke up to loud noises downstairs and poked her head to see what was going on.

"And I am telling you - he is an Imperial agent!" - a scruffy Khajiit was gesticulating wildly, pointing at Hauk. "A spy! A lowlife!"

"Well, now, contain yourself, J'rama" - the host was trying to calm him down, while Hauk was just standing there with a little smile on his face, clearly amused by the situation. "You can't just accuse every Nord of being an agent!"

"He's not just any Nord!" - J'rama grew more agitated still. "Can't you smell it? The blood!"

"Blood, eh?" - the host narrowed his eyes. "You should go back to that witch and ask for a refund!"

"So, my senses are better than yours!" - J'rama glared at him. "Call yourself a Khajiit! Ohmes are Bosmer!" - he spat.

Wow, that was the wrong thing to say. The host was at J'rama's throat in no time, and they tumbled on the ground, each trying to pin the other one down.

"What's it all about this time?" - a sleepy Redguard woman emerged from behind the screens. "They are always at each other's throats."

"Apparently I am an Imperial spy" - Hauk grinned at her.

"Oh, and are you?" - the Redguard winked. "Don't answer that. You are what you are and I'm not asking." She turned around and went back to sleep. This was another person who preferred to be active at night.

Lena pulled on her city clothes, picked up Hauk's robe and went downstairs.

"Here" - she pressed it against his chest. "Let's go. We have things to do." She went out, and Hauk followed.

"Where are we going?" - Hauk caught up with Lena who was walking briskly towards the gates leading into the Palace District.

"The Mages Guild" - she threw over her shoulder. "I have something for the Arch Mage."

"What have you been up to while I was away?" - Hauk stopped her. "Tell me first."

Lena sighed. "Oh, all right, I suppose it's for the best. Follow me." She turned into a side alley and held open a trapdoor. The sewers.

"So?" - Hauk asked impatiently once they descended.

"We can talk here" - Lena leaned against the wall. "A few things happened while you were away..."

...

"Wow, that explains a lot!" - Hauk whistled, looking through the book that Lena held before him. "I wonder what he's got to say about that!"

...

The business with the Arch Mage was concluded to Lena's and Hauk's satisfaction. It had no bearing on their respective assignments though, and Hauk disappeared into the Imperial Offices again to talk to the Captain. Lena was aimlessly strolling around waiting for him.

"Hello" - Raevus Palenix approached her with a smile. "That was quite a storm you raised at the Guild. Your reputation is well deserved, I see."

"Well, I just can't help it sometimes" - Lena smiled back at this attractive young Imperial. He reminded her of someone... "So, you're still talking to me, then?"

"Oh, I have no love for this establishment" - he scowled. "Can I come with you?"

"Come with me where?" - Lena was taken aback.

"Wherever you are going!" - Raevus beamed at her.

Lena looked over his rich clothing and his handsome, well-groomed appearance and shook her head with doubt.

"Do you actually know what you are asking?" - she asked, trying to sound friendly. "Do you know what I do? Where I spend my time? Whom I frequent?"

"I do, actually, Sister" - he smiled, pulling out an amulet from under the collar of his tunic. The Cruelty's Heart.

"Well, in that case, surely you don't need to stay with them" - she looked in the direction of the Mages Guild. "Unless there is a problem?"

"Yes, well, there is" - Raevus admitted. "I wondered if you could put in a good word for me... seeing how I gave you a hint?" He looked hopeful.

"What is the problem?" - Lena looked stern.

"I... well... killed someone I shouldn't have" - he sighed.

"It's a sin, but they would not have kicked you out for this" - Lena shook her head. "Continue."

"Gosh, you are a Silencer" - he looked at her in awe. "And I stole some scrolls."

"And?"

"And... what, is this not enough?"

"What else have you done?" This was clearly the last warning, and Raevus melted before her.

"Nothing else, but I've done it several times... I've fought the wraith, I'm not worried about that... I just want to be accepted back" - he pleaded with her.

"Well, it's not up to me, is it" - Lena was cold as ice. "Your Speaker will make his decision. Oh, he already has? Well then, it's out of my hands. I didn't realise we allowed Brothers to quit."

"We don't" - Reavus went pale. "Which is why I need to leave."

The further this conversation progressed, the more Lena was perplexed by it. Was any of it true? She couldn't decide. And why would she want to help this fellow, if he was breaking tenets left and right? Yet something about him was intriguing. Lucien had warned her not to reveal her membership with the Brotherhood to anyone, but this fellow already knew it... she wondered how he knew, who he was really... and was that amulet actually his or did he steal it too? Steal it or worse...

"So what you are really asking for is protection" - Lena was looking down at him. "I am no bodyguard."

"No, I was foolish to ask..." - he looked dejected and turned to leave, nearly bumping into Hauk.

"What's the matter?" - Hauk stopped him.

"Optio" - Raevus smiled with sadness and walked away.

Hauk looked at Lena with a question in his eyes.

"He says he broke the tenets several times and they kicked him out" - she offered, still looking at Raevus standing by the pool. "He's got the Cruelty's Heart, and if it's his, he is not a novice. We do not allow people above novices to quit, and he seems to be afraid for his life - he wanted to come with me!" - she smirked. "He knew my rank which is strange..."

"So you said no" - Hauk too was looking at Raevus. "There's more to him than meets the eye."

Lena nodded - she made up her mind, throwing caution to the wind, as usual. She walked over to Raevus.

"Go to Orcrest" - she spoke and his face lit up. "Find the Brotherhood Crypt, say your prayers. Who knows. Mind the local mercenaries - I think there's an imposter group. I don't know how to find the Sanctuary there. Survive. I'll be back for you, then we'll see."

"Orcrest..." - he smirked. "You are sending an Imperial to Orcrest!"

"Well, you survived the wraith that was set onto you, and you so far evaded the assassins, so you must have some skills. Improvise. This is not an absolution, Brother."

This offer was final, and Raevus bowed his head.

"I shall wait for you in Orcrest, Silencer - find me in the Crypt."

...

"So, what else have you been up to? Surely, that wasn't all" - Hauk was stretching in a full-size bath tub, scrubbing away the grime of the last few days. Lena was blowing bubbles in another tub - they finally found the bath house.

"What do you mean - surely it wasn't all?" - she looked at him quite innocently. "I thought that was plenty!"

"Oh come on, I know you!" - Hauk laughed. "There's a hole of 36 hours in your story."

"Well, I..." - Lena laughed awkwardly. "I got arrested."

Hauk's bellowing laugh sounded through the whole of Market District, if not further. Some heads turned, shook and sniggered.

"I... might have wanted to see what their dungeons were like" - Lena said tentatively. "Or who was in them. So I attacked someone in the street and went to jail. That was interesting."

"Interesting?" - Hauk smirked. "More interesting than your stay at the Imperial City Prison some two hundred years ago?"

"Well, no, not quite as dramatic as that" - Lena grinned. "But they have quite a varied selection of prisoners here, and no cells."

"No cells?" - Hauk looked up. "And the prisoners don't escape?"

"No, they can't. There's no way out. When you are due for release, the guards open up a manhole in the ceiling, shout your name, and if you are quick enough to appear, they throw you a rope and pull you out. They might try it a few times if you don't appear immediately, but after that they just give up. Most people rot there for the rest of their lives." Lena shuddered.

"Wow, that's decisive" - Hauk whistled. "And you can't pay your fine here either, only bribe the guard. But that's devolution for you - the Empire does not dictate its member states how to handle their prisoners." He contemplated the soap for a while. "So, did you meet anyone of interest down there?"

"The ones who hadn't lost hope yet, tend to stay close to the manholes - no one knows when they'd be due for release because it's impossible to tell the passage of time down there. But the ones that gave up, retreat to the back reaches of the dungeon, and lead a life of their own."

"Meaning?"

"They are cannibals."

"Oh!" - Hauk looked at Lena with worry. "And?"

"My wraith had a lot of fun chasing after them" - she smirked.

"Namira won't be happy about that! She protects them." Hauk looked at Lena with significance. "Remember Skyrim."

"Well, she wasn't there, was she?" - Lena replied with defiance. "And I didn't kill them all. I bet the survivors are grateful to me for all the fresh food they've got now."

"I think you should avoid getting arrested in the future" - Hauk said casually. "Next time it could be vampires, you never know. They might enjoy a slice of a juicy young mortal like yourself."

Hysterical laughter emanating from the bath house caused a few more heads to turn, but the bustle of the Corinthe market soon drowned out the noise. Lena and Hauk would be leaving on the morrow.


~~~~~~~~~
The business with the Arch Mage is a part of a new quest to appear in the next release of Elsweyr Mysteries. So I am not revealing anything about that!

This post has been edited by Lena Wolf: Feb 7 2022, 02:12 PM

[Lena Wolf]

4 Frostfall, 4E202 - Corinthe bath house

"D'ya know what I find so str-hic-range?" Hauk kicked another empty bottle of sujamma. "We're in Elsw-wweyr, yet that's from Morrowind!"

"I d-don't mind," Lena giggled, taking another sip from her own sujamma bottle. "We don't discri-... mmm... -criminate?"

Sujamma-induced hilarity filled Corinthe bath house.

"Better not get into any ffffights now," Hauk shook his head. "I think there's thr-ree of you over there."

"But w-which one d'ya like best?" Lena laughed and sank under the water.

Hauk stared at her bathtub for a while, but as Lena wasn't coming up, he started getting worried, even through all the sujamma he'd consumed.

"Hey, c'm'n now, that's long enough!" He called, but Lena stayed under water. "Wh't'f'?" He swore and shook his head again, then cast a spell to try and clear at least some of the alcohol out of his system. The room stopped spinning. Hauk got out of his tub and walked over to Lena's. He could see her shape under water, but there were no bubbles coming up and she wasn't moving... "Hey!" He lifted her up, ready to push the water out of her lungs.

"Hmmm?" Lena opened her eyes, finding herself in Hauk's arms. "Wassss'up?"

"Phew," Hauk breathed out, setting her down on the rug. "You scared me."

"Why? With what?" Lena seemed to have sobered up too. "What did I do?"

"I thought you drowned!" He looked at her with worry and reproach. "You were drunk and I didn't see you cast any waterbreathing spells."

"Ah, but look at this," Lena stretched her neck to show a patch of skin covered in Argonian scales. "I did cast that spell."

"Gills," Hauk rubbed her neck as the spell started to wear off. "But I didn't see..."

"I was brought up by an Argonian, remember?" Lena smiled. "My grandma - my adoptive grandma - drilled it into me from an early age. I grow gills as soon as I enter the water now, quite subconsciously."

"That's..." Hauk was still examining the spot on Lena's neck where the gills were a few moments ago. "That's not how the rest of us do it, though." He cast a waterbreathing spell onto himself, but his appearance didn't change - there were no gills on his neck. "I can breathe under water now, but I didn't grow any new body parts."

"Oh..." It was Lena's turn to be surprised. "Wait..." She dispelled Hauk's waterbreathing spell, then cast one onto him herself. Still, Hauk had no gills on his neck.

"It feels the same, it's the same spell as what I use," he said. "But it isn't the same one that you cast automatically."

"Hmm... What I cast on you was the spell that Deetsan taught me back at the Guild," Lena mused. "Remember that awful story about the drowned associate?" Hauk nodded. "Well, Deetsan wanted to make sure I wasn't another one... She couldn't know of course that I already could breathe under water."

"Deetsan taught you the standard spell," Hauk nodded. "She herself being an Argonian, has no need of it, of course. But what your grandmother taught you with the gills - that's different. How do you do it?"

"I..." Lena tried to imagine herself casting that spell. It was indeed different. "I... don't actually cast any spells," she finally realised. "I transform." She paused, thinking of something. "Geralt is a werewolf, did you know that?" She suddenly asked.

"Yes, he told me," Hauk nodded. "Not just any werewolf though, he can transform at will. Or not transform even under full moon. He thought it was brought about by the witcher mutations."

"No, we have it from our father," Lena said slowly. "He was marked by Hircine for the Great Hunt of the Third Era, and we thought it was because he was Dragonborn. But may be there's more."

"How do you know this?" Hauk was listening intently, completely sober now.

"Skyrim..." Lena was transported in her thoughts to that day when she and Geralt saw a ghost of their father deliver a message to them in the Crystal Chasm near Falkreath. "Father left messages in Jyggalag's crystals for us, we found one of them. Geralt said he felt Hircine's call too, for the Great Hunt of our era. Skyrim is overrun with werewolves in preparation for the Hunt."

"Yes, I noticed the werewolves," Hauk nodded, ignoring the humour of his understatement. "But the Blood Moon hasn't risen yet."

"No," Lena was thoughtful too. "Geralt said it could be a while still... I am not sure how he knew, he just did. He said he would go to Solstheim when it was time."

"Hircine must have spoken to him," Hauk said firmly. "Like Molag Bal speaks to you - in your head. But you are not a werewolf... and I don't think your father was one, not from birth anyway. So what exactly did you inherit from him?"

"The ability to transform, according to Geralt," Lena looked straight at Hauk. "He thinks this is why I picked up vampirism so easily, this is why it wasn't cleared by the Witch's Potion, and this is why I am still... well... not rid of it."

"May be," Hauk didn't seem convinced. "But again, your father wasn't a vampire, and you do not transform at will. He was Dragonborn, which doesn't mean he could transform into a dragon."

"No, indeed," Lena nodded. "It allows us to learn the dragon language easily, that's all... Well, may be not all... We consume dragon souls, too. We absorb them."

"And how does that work, exactly?"

"You're asking me?" Lena looked up. "I have no idea! It just happens... I feel this surge of energy, and words in the dragon language rush through my mind, and I suddenly know what they mean... But it doesn't make me grow wings or talons!"

"But it does make you breathe fire," Hauk interjected. "Have you learned that one yet?" Lena nodded. "How do you do that?"

"Stop asking me questions I cannot answer!" Lena exclaimed half-annoyed, half-laughing. "It just happens!"

"Well, there must be more to it than 'just happens'," Hauk wasn't satisfied. "But if you don't know, then you don't know. This ends the interrogation," he winked at her and smiled.

"Oh, I'd like to have those answers too," Lena smiled back at him. "There's so much that doesn't add up here - about Geralt, me and our father, together and separately. And why do I feel that Father might still live... Geralt doesn't believe it, but I just know it..."

"Geralt isn't Dragonborn, you are," Hauk pointed out. "May be that matters. I guess time will tell."

Thinking about Geralt made Lena wistful - she missed him. She missed Skyrim too, a stark contrast to the hot sands of Elsweyr. But she was only half way through her assignment and they had to go further South still. She got up, sighed, and started clearing up the mess of empty sujamma bottles in the bath house.

"I am going to Morrowind after this," Hauk said suddenly. "After we're done in Elsweyr, that is," he clarified. "I shall be gone for a long time. I may not be back in time for when you give birth."

"Oh, I'll miss you," Lena hugged him. "How soon will you leave?"

"Right after your wedding," he looked into her eyes and kissed her softly. "Lucien will look after you and the newborn."

She smiled at him. "Yes, I have no doubt. But I still think the child is yours."

"Then I'd better stay alive in case you're right," he grinned. "And try to keep the babe's future uncle out of trouble too."

"Are you going to Solstheim?" Lena exclaimed in surprise.

"Not in the first instance, I have business on Vvardenfell... But when the Blood Moon rises, things will change."

"You too..?"

"No, but I can recognise the White Wolf even when he transforms. And I too want answers about Wolf Asgarsen, for your sake, if anything." Hauk started getting dressed, indicating that the topic was closed.

"So you too believe that the child is yours," Lena watched him, suddenly realising that he must have known it for a long time.

"I do," he nodded. "As does Lucien. But he will raise him, nevertheless."

"Him? It's a boy? How do you know?" Lena was still standing in the middle of the bath house, barely dressed. Everyone seemed to know more about her pregnancy than she did herself.

"If it's mine, it's a boy," Hauk grinned. "Runs in the family."

"Wishful thinking," Lena murmured and proceeded with getting dressed. "Men," she added to herself, not quite knowing what she meant by that. She wished her grandmother was still alive... she didn't remember her mother... and now that she was going to be a mother herself, she suddenly felt apprehensive about it. "Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," she told herself, brushing away the anguish. The child in her belly turned, and she suddenly realised that that bridge was already behind her - her motherhood started the moment she decided to keep her pregnancy. She froze. She wasn't ready yet!

"You're doing fine," Hauk whispered in her ear, hugging her from behind. He noticed her standing there in the middle of the room with a hand on her belly and a look of horror on her face, and guessed what was going on. "Being a mother doesn't make you stop being yourself," he said, turning her around. "You're still a mage, an assassin, an adventurer, explorer of Ayleid ruins and slayer of monsters," he smiled. "And a woman. You don't stop being any of that."

"Thanks," Lena smiled, relaxing. "I don't know what came over me."

Hauk released his embrace, letting things fall into place again. It was good to get back to normal.

[Lena Wolf]

6 Frostfall, 4E202 - Scorpion fever

"Snow, we need more snow! There's not enough snow!"

Lena woke up on a beach in Southern Anequina, Hauk was tossing in his sleep next to her. His forehead felt hot.

"Uh-oh," Lena shook her head. "He's coming down with a fever."

Hauk was never ill. He could swim in a frozen river, then walk for miles in wet clothing, get hit by poisoned arrows, bitten by rabid wolves, and yet with a flick of his wrist he'd cast a healing spell, and be right as rain again. But here under the hot sun of Elsweyr, he got the fever... What was Lena to do?

"The cities here have no Temples of the Nine," she was thinking with regret. "Most don't even have any Temples at all," she sighed. "And there's no mandrake root..." She fumbled in her bag, finding a shrivelled piece that wouldn't yield any juice for Hauk to drink - he would have to chew on it and hope for at least some healing effect. "Out here, on the beach, far from everything... Not something I anticipated..." She threw a knife at an approaching red sand crab, hitting it at the base of its neck and killing it instantly. "At least lunch comes right to you," she smirked, retrieving her knife and preparing to roast the crab along with several others that she killed earlier. Hauk was partial to crab meat.

The sun was rising, and with it the breeze was getting warmer. Hauk was lying under a palm tree and some shrubs, and although they shielded him from the sun, he was still overheating. Cold sweat was gathering on his forehead in big beads that would swell, then melt and drip down into the sand, only to be replaced by new beads of sweat... He started thrashing, he was having a nightmare or a feverish delusion - Lena wasn't sure that his state could be described as "sleep".

"Salah..?" Lena could make out some of his disjointed speech. "Your Aunt... The medicine..." The rest was incomprehensible, but the thrashing got worse. "Sailors, they were sailors..." Lena cast a mild frost spell on Hauk and he calmed down a bit. "Cool, dark, looks fun..." The tone of his voice changed, it was calmer, more relaxed. "Scorpions... You filth!!"

Suddenly he sat up, awake.

"Huh?" He looked around, wiping off his forehead. "I was dreaming..." he smiled at Lena. "I got poisoned yesterday," he loosened the belt on his trousers, dropping them just enough to reveal an angry wound on his hip. "See, it's not healing. Scorpions. I don't do scorpions."

"Scorpions?" Lena noticed that the edges of Hauk's wound were black - it wasn't a fresh wound, yet she'd never seen it before. "But there are no scorpions here..."

"Not here - in Antaloor. A tar scorpion pinched me there... they are poisonous, but also magically corrupt, so the wound never heals. Yeah, you didn't see it before... It goes in remission, a bit like your vampirism. But when I get poisoned with something similar, it reappears, bright and angry..." He swore with resentment. "Some creature poisoned me yesterday, or may be some plant - there's a lot of strange stuff around here..." He glared at the surrounding palm trees. "Put some ice onto it, will you?"

Lena cast another frost spell and watched the ice crystals form and melt on the wound.

"So what do we do?" Lena looked at Hauk with worry - she had no idea how to treat something like that.

"Nothing, it will pass," Hauk sighed. "The fever will rise and fall a few times, then eventually it will subside. Don't pay any attention to what I might say when I'm rolling around with it," he winked. "None of it is true... Isn't it what you assassins say?" Sweat started gathering on his forehead again. "Here it comes." He lay down and braced for another nightmare.

"Yes," Lena said softly, realising that Hauk was getting delirious again. "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." She got nightshade extract out of a secret compartment of her bag, poured some into Hauk's mouth, swallowed the rest herself. Using her silver dagger, she sliced into the black flesh of Hauk's festering wound - a drop of dark coloured blood appeared on the surface. She bit into the cut and drank deeply. The world around her started to spin - she was falling into the Void, taking Hauk with her.

...

"You don't have the Sight," a man with a strange pale face and almost blank eyes was speaking with a shallow, echoing voice. "The Swallows will kill you."

"Yet I have to try," a tall, broad shouldered man insisted. "I must find out what happened."

"Well, if you must..." The pale man seemed to look right into Hauk's soul. "I can give you the Sight. Which eye do you want to sacrifice?"

Sharp pain seared through Hauk's skull as Eric was cutting into his eye. Yet besides the pain, there was something else... It wasn't just his flesh that Eric was cutting. "Once you get the Sight, you will never be able to lose it, and you will want to," several people had warned Hauk. "The curse of Sight is that seeing is believing." Hauk didn't understand it at the time.

The visions came and went. The Sight allowed Hauk to see shadows of what once was, in places where something of importance had happened. A memory would linger if the event involved strong emotions or a lot of magic. At first he thought that he was seeing ghosts, but then he realised that some of the people in the visions he had met, so they were not dead and those were not their ghosts. "Seeing is believing" meant that he now knew the truth, knew what really happened in Antaloor some twenty five years ago - a huge magical explosion ripping through that space, devastating the larger part of the island he was on, creating a corrupt forest known as the Swallows. What was once a tropical island became a dark and warped jungle filled with mutated beasts, demons and other creatures that he didn't know how to classify. Yet the Swallows wasn't without human habitation. The people who lived there, were affected by the magical corruption as well - their skin was unnaturally pale, their eyes almost blank, their voices strangely hollow, and they had the Sight. These people moved through the darkness like shadows, blending with their surroundings, surprising Hauk more than once with their sudden appearance. They did not congratulate him on gaining the Sight, rather they commiserated with him - some truths were best left unknown.

It was there, in the dark forest of the Swallows that Hauk got pinched by a tar scorpion. Tar scorpions were common there - they were once the regular giant scorpions native to Antaloor, but the magic explosion corrupted them, turning their chitin black. They were just as poisonous as their regular cousins, and that alone could kill a man, assuming one avoided getting one's head clipped clean off with those razor sharp pincers. But on top of that, tar scorpions spread magical corruption, so any wound they inflicted, would never heal. Every resurgence of the poisonous fever sent Hauk back to Antaloor, back to the Swallows, the caves, the swamps and the towers filled with anguish and suffering that he was forced to see through the power of the Sight. It was a curse indeed.

...

"Which way?" A strangely familiar young woman appeared next to Hauk. "Which way to the scorpion cave?"

"What?" Hauk spun around. "What scorpion cave? What are you talking about? Who are you? Wait... I see..." A vision of the gates of Sovngarde made Hauk stop. "That... hasn't happened yet."

"And this isn't Antaloor," Lena said softly. "We must find the cave where you got poisoned, I must try to stop the corruption."

"That won't be easy," Hauk smirked. "But there's no point in arguing, is there?"

"None," Lena confirmed. "Now, which way?"

The Swallows wasn't an easy area to cross, and its version within the Void wasn't any different. As a mortal, Lena still could not navigate the Void, but her repeated outings had taught her at least how to find the island that she wanted. The nightshade extract and Hauk's corrupted blood helped her to get in, even if she wasn't entirely sure how to get out. Something would come up, she argued. It always did.

"I don't know which way," Hauk was apologetic. "It happened more than once... There are a lot of tar scorpions here! Well, there were, in Antaloor. What do you intend to do?"

"I don't know," it was Lena's turn to be apologetic. "Something will come up."

She turned and started walking before Hauk could stare her down.

"Watch out!" She barely took two steps and got hit by something green and slimy. It stang like acid, eating away at her skin. Stingers. Elephant-sized mosquitoes with an acid spit. "You won't last here this way!" Hauk screamed, pushing Lena behind a rock. "This isn't Tamriel!" He raised his staff and cast a spell, summoning a giant spider that promptly attacked the nearest stinger. He cast another spell sending a missile through the air that exploded behind the largest stinger summoning three spiders there. When the total number of legs reached a hundred, he crouched behind the rock next to Lena. "Let me see that acid burn," he opened up her collar to expose the area, took a vial from his bag and smeared the viscous liquid over the burn. The stinging stopped.

"This is the wrong way around," Lena smiled. "I'm supposed to be saving you... and you're supposed to be delirious with fever." She looked at his attire - a robe like she'd never seen before, a heavy staff that looked more like a blunt weapon than a magical instrument, a sword on one hip, a dagger on the other.

"I didn't know you could summon giant spiders," she pointed at the battle of multi-legged creatures that was still raging just ahead.

"Well, now you do," Hauk smiled at her. "These are very mean poisonous ones, native to here... They don't turn up in Tamriel. Stay behind this rock," he looked at her sternly. "There's a Colossus up ahead."

Lena looked where Hauk was pointing but saw nothing but some twisted branches. Then the branches grew bigger, turned into a tree with a vaguely humanoid shape, the tree was now marching towards them, swinging its massive arms... Hauk shot a missile from his staff, fire, Lena thought, that staggered the Colossus for a moment, long enough for Hauk to get close. Another fireball, and then... he spun around and hit the Colossus with his staff - the heavy crystal on its top end was not just for focussing magic. Another hit, and the Colossus fell to his feet.

"What are you doing?" Lena couldn't stay behind the rock and was now crouching next to Hauk who was cutting into the Colossus' trunk with his dagger. "That heart is still beating!" She exclaimed with horror seeing what Hauk was stashing into his bag. "But why? We won't be staying here! Not long enough to indulge in alchemy, anyway!"

"May be not," Hauk looked weary. "But I want to make sure he doesn't get up," he kicked it suspiciously. "Come on - that way."

There was a path before them, a clearing of sorts where the bushes weren't as dense as elsewhere. Lena thought she could even see cobblestones.

"This was a road once," Hauk confirmed. "There is a ruin of a temple over there," he pointed at an area darker than the rest. "But let's not go there, this is where the explosion happened... I'd rather not relive it again," he added, his brow furrowed. The Sight was manifesting itself.

"Where are we going?" Lena was surprised that Hauk suddenly knew where to go.

"That way," he waved in the general direction of forward. "There are... things... if anything... may be that..." He was muttering, not making any sense to Lena, and she was hoping he was making sense to himself. This was no time to come down with a delirious fever.

"Watch out!" Hauk yelled again, pulling Lena to the side so hard, she nearly fell. A man of sorts stood where she was a moment ago, his sword drawn, and he was lunging at her... Suddenly time stood still. Every sound was hushed, Lena's limbs felt mushy and lifeless, she was being pulled to the side, thrown to the ground, out of reach of the man's sword. She saw Hauk spinning with his staff outstretched, felling several such men in one twirl. They fell to the ground, but they were not dead, far from it, they were rising, two, three, six of them... A bolt of some dark energy was flying towards Lena and Hauk, there must be a mage a little further away... Slow motion seized as suddenly as it began, the air was ripping with the sounds of lightning, screams, taunts, animal noises. Six men in black armour were rushing at Lena and Hauk, their swords, maces and spears pointing at them. "Fire! Use fire!" Hauk screamed, casting fireballs and spinning his staff, aiming at their heads. Lena caught herself, summoned a clannfear, but the spell failed - it wasn't Tamriel. She swore, drawing her sword, casting a fire shield, all in one motion. The man nearest to her was already lunging, no time to block, damn that footwork - Geralt was right! She was nearly tripping over her own feet now... Some assassin! Oh wait... assassin...

Invisibility did work. Her attacker's lunge found its target though, and Lena felt the trickle of blood running along her side, yet she felt no pain... Strange... But at the same time she felt empty... "Is that how a victim feels when a famished vampire sucks them dry?" She wondered. Her disappearance disoriented her attacker for a moment, he stopped, looking around, then noticed Hauk who was fighting three others. "No!" Lena thought with defiance. "Not like this!" She lunged, aiming for the man's heart. Her sword made contact, and the man fell, but was his chest empty? The sword ran through him and Lena didn't feel his heart. At that moment another bolt of that dark energy hit Lena, and she felt emptier still, her will faultering.

"An assassin fights with his will as much as with his weapon," she recalled Altair's words. "You must always act to your greatest advantage." Right. Act to your greatest advantage, not rush into battle against overwhelming odds and get slaughtered. The mage.

The mage was standing behind a rock shooting spells from cover. There was no way for Hauk to shoot back, even if he wasn't fighting several others already. He was getting pale, Lena noticed, and grey somehow... Were those bolts of dark energy doing that? But she had no time to think about it. She had no magicka left for another invisibility spell, so she crouched and moved towards the mage, keeping to the bushes. She hoped her footwork would not fail her now.

The mage was too tall for her to reach his heart from crouching, and she hoped that his kidney would do. He wasn't wearing armour, just robes. She thrust her dagger into his side and drove it under his ribs. He stopped casting, staggered and fell, but he wasn't dead, he went for his dagger. This was going to be a messy battle.

Hauk realised that the casting had stopped, shrugged off the remaining effects of the hostile spells and finished the last attacker with simple decapitation. He looked around. Six Vidons were littering the ground, but something was going on behind the rock... Huffs and puffs, moans and swears, cries of pain and then silence. Somebody won. He hoped it was Lena.

He moved slowly, leaning heavily onto his staff. The Vidons were not to be trifled with, and he didn't come away unscathed. It took him a few minutes to walk the short stretch to the rock behind which Lena and the mage had their fight, behind which they both still lay. He heard movement, then quiet swearing... too high-pitched for a Vidon, he realised with relief. Lena was cleaning her dagger on the mage's robes, and it wasn't an easy task.

"Does this blood ever come off?" She shot a glance at Hauk, taking in his battered condition. "Sit down," she patted a small rock next to her. "We won't be going anywhere for a while. What were they?"

"Vidons," Hauk replied, dropping heavily onto the rock. "Very dangerous. They come from under the earth - through the earth. They have no hearts or souls, they are neither dead nor alive. Tall, strong, hard to kill. Their mages are the worst... They drain your soul."

"Tar scorpions seem warm and cuddly in comparison," Lena smiled.

"Yeah..." Hauk shot her a glance. "You shouldn't be here. This is my burden to bear. I had to have the Sight... I had been warned. It cannot be undone. It isn't the tar scorpion's poison that pulls me here, it's the Sight."

"So, I cannot save you," Lena said softly. "I was foolish and rash, I didn't think. I didn't ask. I thought I knew it all." She stared before her, keeping her hand on that wound in her side that was still bleeding. "And now... we might both perish here."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is an account of real events seen in Two Worlds II.

This post has been edited by Lena Wolf: Feb 20 2022, 09:50 AM