text stringlengths 0 41.4k |
|---|
"This is a considerable chance you are taking a chance with us." Viconia said, the first words she had spoken all morning. "Why don’t you suspect us of betrayal?" |
His sudden smile was chilling to behold, and once more I realised that this seemingly frail old man wielded supreme power in the Empire. Power matched only by the late Emperor. "My dear, if you believe that you can escape the judgement of the Blades for any form of treachery then you are welcome to try." |
Leaning forward on the desk I saw his shoulders bunch and swell with strength under the loose robes, showing that there was a body as hard as steel an under the outer surface of a harmless monk. "but you wouldn’t have been the first to try, and I guarantee you that there will never be someone who’ll succeed..." |
Viconia actually seemed impressed by this, a ghost of a smile plucking at the corner of her mouth as she turned her attention to the items in front of us. There wasn’t much there that was of much use to myself, but Viconia soon added a pair of daggers and their sheaths, as well as a finely crafted belt and pack to her... |
"You may stay the night if you wish." Jauffre said as we made claim to whatever caught our eyes. "You won’t get far this afternoon and you’ll travel faster after a night indoors. Take this time to prepare yourselves for the journey." |
The thought of spending my first night indoors and in a regular bed for the first time in months was too good to pass up, and while Viconia’s face betrayed nothing of her emotions I doubted she would’ve voiced any complaint at the thought. I simply nodded my thanks, gathered my arms full of the quivers and the chainma... |
With the better part of the afternoon ahead of us I didn’t waste any time in making preparations. I stripped most of my equipment, repacking my pack that felt considerably lighter without the emotional weight of carrying the Empire’s rarest and most irreplaceable jewellery inside it. with that simple task completed I ... |
Dressed in little more than my tunic and pants with the leather belt from the hauberk holding it all together on my midriff I went outside into the Priory yard. It was early afternoon, barely past the 2nd bell by my estimate and I found myself whistling as I carried the collection of quivers and their contents in one ... |
With some assistance from Brother Piner, an Imperial and the youngest of the monks at the Priory I managed to move the garden’s straw stuffed scarecrow to the far side of the grounds. Propping the haphazard amalgamation of ancient clothes and stuffing against a tree on the edge of the forest I counted thirty paces unt... |
The burns made drawing the bow exceedingly difficult and each time I nocked an arrow, and pulled back on the double recurved bow liquid fire would explode under the scabs, rocking its way along my arteries and causing me to grimace and groan every time I pulled it back past half nock. Even with the reduced power, thir... |
I took my time, pulling an arrow out of the ground, drawing the bow back with a single smooth pull, holding it steady as I controlled my breath before loosing it with the familiar plucking sound that was shortly followed but the smack of the arrow plunging into the target’s chest. After the first five my arm was almos... |
By the thirtieth shoot I could feel the tenseness of the wounds fading while the exhaustion of drawing back on the bow began to build. The knotted muscles of my right shoulder and arm, obviously larger than its opposite were beginning to tire rapidly. It was as I attempted to massage some of the soreness away I saw Vi... |
"Shouldn’t you be resting your arm?" she said after I fired another arrow right into where the dummy’s heart would’ve been had it been flesh and blood. |
I shrugged, feeling the movement flare up a slight amount of pain. "Wounds such as this would heal in weeks, if not months if cared for normally with poultices and maggots. Any restoration mage worth his salt would have them healed in minutes, but that would mean that the muscles would be highly susceptible to weakeni... |
Gesturing over the wounds I showed how the light application of restoration magicka was healing the burns, but from the deepest regions outwards. "This way the body heals naturally, the muscles don’t wither and will regain their former strength. In the meantime however, I’m not stuck being unable to hunt and fight in ... |
"You’re expecting to have to fight then?" |
I glanced at her as I nocked another arrow, breathing in and out through my nose and releasing it with a solid slapping sound. "What do you think?" |
She remained silent, watching me go through the motions again and loosing another arrow. |
"May I try?" she asked suddenly, stepping forward and pointing at the bow. |
"Have you ever used a bow before?" |
A shake of her head and some strands of snow-white hair fell out from under her hood. "Only hand crossbows." |
She stepped in so close that the smell of her leather and ragged cloth clothing was overpowered by her own scent. Being so close to her suddenly made me feel extremely uncomfortable and I quickly handed the bow to her and stepped back hurriedly. |
"Beginners have to start at a very young age, usually as soon as they could walk." I began, pulling one of the bodkin arrows out of the ground at our feet and handing it to her. I grinned slightly as she pulled back on the string experimentally and raised an eyebrow at the bow’s strength. "Over the course of their liv... |
"And is this one of the greatest of bows?" she replied mockingly, feeling the weight and power and bouncing on the balls of her feet slightly. |
"No." I shook my head, watching and silently laughing inside my mind at the thought of her using my bow. "The Bosmer utilise bows with draw strengths anywhere up to 110-120 pounds. The Legion Standard for Foresters are 100 pound bows." |
I pointed to the bow in her hands as she looked over to the target and steadied her breathing. "That is at least a 90." |
The grin I was struggling to contain broke out as she heaved back on the string, barely even moving it back any further than half a hand’s span. The look of surprise on her face was the most amount of emotion, and in fact the only emotion other than anger and arrogance I had ever seen her show. |
She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes as I snorted with amusement, the glare stopping me dead and making me choose to remain silent instead. The threat in her look turned into a sudden snarl of determination as she raised the bow with her left arm outstretched, and heaved back with her right and forced it to ... |
"Impressive." I stated, honestly as she held the string back with barely a tremble. "For a beginner that’s..." |
Stopping in mid-sentence I opening gaped as she heaved back even further, her face tightening with the effort and eyes squinting as she looked at the target thirty paces away. In one strong continuous pull, straining at the weight and sweat suddenly beading on her brow she kept pulling back with arms filled with tight... |
The arrow thundered into the target with armour shattering and bone breaking force. The bodkin punched through the target until the fletching was hidden in the depths of the scarecrow’s chest and the arrowhead imbedded deeply into the tree. |
She simply gave a grin, a true grin of pleasure with a single corner of her mouth, pressing the bow into my chest as I stood there staring stupefied at the quivering dummy and the arrow punched clean through it. |
"Good lesson Jaluk." She stated simply, turning and walking away without further word and leaving me to ponder just what sort of being I had found myself as a traveling companion. |
We left first thing in the morning, rising and dressing ourselves as the sun made its presence known by the greying of dawn. Clad in our armour, pouches, packs and weaponry the two of us set off, bidding Jauffre and the monks of the Priory goodbye and travelling south. All major roads and tracks to the southern colovia... |
My feet were wrapped in in a uniform layer of rags, stuffed tightly into my boots which meant no slippage or rubbing while I marched; a trick long since permanently ingrained into my mind from countless patrols. Having the thick leather boots being a little on the large side helped as it allowed for the eventual and i... |
After her display with my bow the previous day, and what I had seen of her the week we had been together, I now knew full well not to underestimate this beautiful elf. While she only stood up to my nose in height and would’ve only weighed half of my mass if fully dressed, armoured and carrying her pack loaded to the b... |
Our progress was good however, easily making our way through the forest despite the places where the greenery hemmed in a little too close and we were forced to find other paths around thickets and dense shrubbery. All the while I kept my eyes roving around us, watching and ensuring that nothing was going to approach ... |
Viconia travelled mostly in silence through the journey, keeping to herself and keeping up with my pace. I noticed how she too constantly kept an eye on her surroundings, hand resting on the hilt of her sword while moving with a sublime grace that I had no hope of matching. Her movements were more pronounced than mine... |
As the day wore on I found myself growing unaccustomedly fatigued. The gnawing sensation in the back of my mind of a thirst that could not be quenched was making its presence known with far greater force each passing day. I found myself consistently parched, throat strangely dry in the late winter humidity of the fore... |
The beast that had fed upon me had passed along its curse, and for hours I pondered my fate in silence. As we continued moving I tried to understand how the disease had managed to survive the medicinal herbs. The Mandrake root alone should’ve been a powerful enough to annihilate any trace of the blood plague but deep ... |
Making camp in the depths of the forest for the first evening it was uneventful despite my increasingly poor sleep. The cravings were growing stronger exponentially now and my dreams were now nightmares of wanton excess and hedonistic gratification coloured in shades of red. Being so deep in the forest and the threat ... |
It was as I poked the fire, sword gripped in the tightened ball of my right fist that I looked up the length of my bare forearm. Looking past the fresh burns that were beginning to seal properly with my magicka I saw the faintly visible streaks of an older set of injuries from the month previous. Suddenly I knew. In t... |
Not all the magicka in the world could save me from what I was becoming, and I knew that it was only a matter of time until I gave in to the vampiric curse. As soon as I fed I knew that I would be eternally damned but I had no idea what to do. Suicide was an option, but despite the darkness threatening to overwhelm me... |
My fresh burns brought the image of how expressionless Viconia had been as she applied the burning sword tip to my arm. Could I rely on her to put me down when the time came? Undoubtedly so I decided with little thought. She’d cut the head from my shoulders and walk away with a clear conscience before I’d be able to f... |
I looked over her prone form, huddled next to the fire and laying on her side facing towards me. Still fully clothed and mostly wrapped in her cloak and hood she lay with her pack under her head for a pillow, face illuminated by the crackling campfire and framed by the loose strands of hair protruding from the hood. I... |
But my attraction to her was growing darker with every passing hour. I found myself unintentionally staring, eyes gazing up over the tiny strips of flesh that were not covered by the cloak, hood or armour. While little was visible beside a single collarbone, neck and face it was enough that I could easily see the slig... |
Time seemed to compress and my sight narrowed to that spot of flawless skin, where the throb of her heart made the tiniest of movements in her throat. My mouth was suddenly drier than an Elsweyr desert as I subconsciously felt the dum-dum, dum-dum, dum-dum of her heart in the pit of my stomach. Eye twitching, fingers ... |
The glint from under her hood caught my attention and my attention snapped back into reality as I realised that her eyes were open. Like a deer instinctively sensing the eyes of a wolf upon it, she had woken from her light slumber and now looked accusingly into my eyes with anger shining behind them. |
"See something you desire?" she said softly, voice equal parts alluring and dangerous. Seemingly of her own accord her hand ran lightly down the toned flesh of her neck and chest that was visible under her clothes. |
My breath caught and I suddenly felt as though my heart had indeed ceased beating. For a moment I sat perfectly still, as though carved from granite before her face twisted into the all-too familiar expression of feral hatred. Her lips, peeling back from white teeth that gleamed in the darkness formed a snarl at me li... |
"You will know your place Jaluk." She hissed threateningly. "Now avert your eyes elsewhere lest I do it for you!" |
I looked away, blood rushing to my face in a bloom of heat and the bloodlust fading with it. She rolled over into a sitting position, flicking the few wayward strands of hair out of her face and glaring at me as though she sought to stop my heart beating with a look alone. "You best get some sleep while you can, for I... |
Attempting to murmur a poor excuse of an apology that was stopped before it escaped my lips by her thunderous expression, I lay down with my back to the fire and her and struggled to snatch some fitful hours of sleep. Between the guilt of being caught looking at her, and the hellish cravings that staring at her had aw... |
Once again we awoke at dawn, dressing and shouldering our packs for the day ahead. This time we travelled a little more swiftly, both emboldened about the fact that we were reaching the half way point on our journey and that my growing desire for blood was driving me ever onwards voraciously. By the time the sun reach... |
Running purely on instinct I motioned for Viconia to stay where she was, watching with pleasant surprise how she slowly lowered herself down below the height of the shrubs as not to alert the herd of our presence. I carefully began to pick my way carefully through the vegetation, pulling the string loops over the horn... |
Within 80 paces I stopped, gazing indirectly at the small herd and picking my target. Carefully and slowly, moving in time with the swaying bushes as the wind plucked at them I raised my bow and controlling my breathing. Completely ignoring the protests of my wounded arm I drew back to the ear, holding it steady and a... |
The slap of the bowstring against the leather bracer protecting my left forearm and wrist was the first audible sound I had made. The arrow flew through the air, straight and true and punched into the side of one of the younger does. With a clean hit through the lungs it dropped with barely a sound and the others stop... |
The doe was wounded but not quite dead. The arrow had punched cleanly into its side, the design of the arrow head slicing arteries and veins and cutting through its skin with almost no resistance. I may have missed the heart but the wicked nature of the arrow meant that it would soon bleed out. |
But I stopped in my tracks at the sight of the arrow lodged deep into it’s flesh. Blood, bright red and arterial pulsed from around the shaft protruding from its hide and I found my gaze locked upon the ruby flow. Sickeningly the deer tried to get up and move, pitifully incapable and with flecks of blood puffing into ... |
The dagger pressed into its throat, slicing deeply and with little resistance cutting the major neck artery in a wash of blood. For what seemed to be an age as time slowed to a crawl I found myself staring, watching as the animal went about bleeding to death from the mortal wound. The desire to drink was overpowering,... |
Warm liquid welled into my mouth and throat and I drunk as though a man dying of thirst coming across an oasis. The blood jetted into the back of my throat and I could hear an animalistic groan rumble from deep within my ribcage as I sucked away, teeth sinking into the warm deer flesh as I sought to gain greater purch... |
With the sudden lack of movement from the deer whatever hold my unnatural desires had over me vanished, and I found myself spiting a wad of hot blood out onto the ferns nearby, desperately trying to rid myself of the taste and the self-loathing. While strangely, sickeningly satisfying it was nowhere near what my body ... |
Quickly cutting into the deer while it was still warm and supple, I carved several large pieces of flesh away. A couple of kilograms of steaming deer flesh was soon attached to the pair of hooks attached to my pack for this very purpose, the cooling essence of life dripping onto the forest floor in shining streams. Sw... |
That night we feasted on venison. Viconia seemed to thoroughly enjoy the taste as she ravenously devoured her roasted meal, white teeth gleaming and uncomfortably reminding me of how I had killed the animal. Like most of the day we sat in silence, both seemingly looking everywhere else except at each other but there w... |
The camp we had made was on the outer edge of the Great Forest, giving a clear view across the rolling hills and rocky plateus of the southern highlands. There in the distance a rise of rock dominated the land, raising the construction of stone and brick upon it above the surrounding fields and farms. Our destination ... |
"Did that guard tell you why I was locked away?" Viconia said, wiping the fat of her meal away on the corner of her cloak. |
"You murdered a farmer and his son." |
My reply seemed to satisfy her for a moment, and her gaze hardened at the memory. "When I awoke to find myself in this living hell I had truly expected to be dead." She began, not looking at anything in particular and idly drumming her fingers on the hilt of a knife. |
"The first time the sun rose I found myself in agony, skin blistering and peeling as I sprinted like an animal in search for shelter. Only pure luck allowed me to stumble into a cave. It was more a cleft in the side of a hill than anything but it was shelter enough, at least for the first days until I regained enough ... |
"I will admit, I do not have your skill in hunting the beasts of this land but I managed to find berries that weren’t deadly, and use my own skills in the search for meat." She looked at me with her strangely glowing yellow eyes, holding a deceptively dainty hand up for me to see it suddenly begin glowing as blue curl... |
Her gazed shifted almost imperceptibly, brow furrowing ever so deeper and she paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "In the Underdark, treachery is the normal course of events, the end to which all paths eventually lead. After weeks of interacting, of mild trade and discourse between us when the betrayal finall... |
"To think that those fools thought that merely burying me alive was enough to bring death. The insult was almost more grave than their poor attempt to snuff my life. I started with the boy, his father listening to his screams as I broke his bones and crushed him into the pit, burying him deep into the latrine but not ... |
The look of utter horror and morbid interest on my face caught her gaze and she stopped, looking at me with a face highlighted by the glowing flames. Her hood was down, letting her hair flow in the slight evening breeze as she told her story of death and suffering. "Why are you telling me this?" I eventually replied a... |
"I’m telling you this so you are fully aware of what will happened when you betray me." She said simply, the threat hanging on every word like poison on an assassin’s dagger. |
"And what makes you think that I’ll betray you too?" |
The quizzical look that came across her face was not the reaction I was expecting. "Betrayal is as inevitable as death itself. There is no escaping it, merely prolonging the inevitable." |
"Then why stay with me?" |
She laughed, an honest laugh despite the darkness underlying it. "Where else would I go? Should I simply wander this hell of stone and greenery until someone else deems to use me for their pound of flesh? At least with you I can learn more about this land and be able see your perfidy ahead of time and be ready for it.... |
"Then why didn’t you resist when the guard came to put you in prison?" |
"If I resisted then they would have just slew me where I stood. Although if I’m honest I am still surprised that they didn’t do so where they realised what had happened." She shrugged, her long hair moving with the rise and fall of her shoulders. "I am not willing to simply lay down and die, especially for any male wh... |
"Well in that regards we are not that similar." With a flick off into the darkness I threw a chuck of gristle from the last of my meal, wiping my hands and face on my cloak like she had before. "I am not going to sit back and wait for death to claim me. If I have to meet it head on then I will, but I will not be caugh... |
Another smile raised the corners of her mouth, but still somehow not managing to reach her eyes. |
We sat in silence for a while, watching as the night grew deeper and the clouds crawling across the sky and covering the stars and moons from view. A storm felt as though it was building towards the coast, many kilometres away to the south and west, and to the north the great plains and deserts of Hammerfell would be ... |
It had seemed like I had merely placed my head on my pack for an instant before I was awoken by a sharp series of kicks to my legs and feet. Waking groggily and mind numbed from the short hours of rest and dreams of blood and desire I looked up at Viconia as she stood above me, waiting for me to regain consciousness. |
The sky was still dark, not even the grey of predawn on the horizon but the fire had begun to burn into a dull red of hot coals. Viconia was fully dressed as she had been every morning she had awoken me to continue on our journey but this time there was an obvious tenseness about her. |
"Something’s wrong." She stated simply, motioning towards the south. |
Rolling onto my side and looking about the camp I blinked the sleep from my eyes, still groggy and feeling exhausted from the intensity of my dreams. The thirst was growing worse and worse but as I looked out over the darkened landscape the urges suddenly vanished in a surge of unease. |
Rolling banks of clouds had rolled over us and blotted out the stars while I had slept, seemingly lowering the roof of the world to only a few hundred metres above our heads. With no Moons or stars to light the sight before us it appeared as a featureless expanse of nothingness except the glowing cluster of lights far... |
Throbbing a hateful red pulse into the sky, the far off sight of our destination glowed with an unusual intensity from its spire of rock. It pulsed and moved with the breeze, shifting and swaying slightly in the distant kilometres between it and our position on the edge of the Great Forest. For several minutes I stare... |
"Looks like neither of us are getting a full night’s sleep." Viconia muttered to herself as she began to place the last handful of items she had near the fire into her pack. |
"How long ago did you notice that?" I asked, throwing my cloak around my shoulders and wrapping a bandanna of cloth around my forehead. |
"About an hour ago. I thought it was a trick of the clouds but it’s steadily getting more noticeable." |
I ran my fingers through my hair, slicking it back before pulling the steel coif over my head where it rested against the bandanna. My cloak was soon wrapped around my shoulders, clasped to my throat and covering most of the chainmail from the morning dew. Soon I was covered and wearing every piece of armour and cloth... |
"It looks to me that the city is on fire." The gnawing fear in my belly was getting worse now as I mentally checked off all my equipment, ensuring that my belt, pouches and pack were all attached securely. |
"There is the taste of magicka on the wind." Her eyes were glowing a cold yellow light now as she weaved her fingers through the air, tracing out intricate patterns out of nothing. "Unless some surface dwelling excuse for a mage exploded I doubt that it’s as simple as arson." |
There was definitely magicka involved, while not as attuned or experienced as Viconia the pressure in the back of my skull told me more than what my eyes could. Something was terribly wrong and we set off hurriedly, kicking soil over the hot coals and not waiting for dawn before we set off. |
With undue haste we travelled in the darkness, witnessing the rising mists floating out of the ground as they consumed the world around us. For some time I grew concerned with the thought of travelling in the wrong direction but twilight announced the rising sun and allowed us to continue our path south. We marched in... |
Dawn broke and the sun rose slowly as we marched on through the swirling mists. The chill in the air was nothing compared to the frozen north but the faint traces of light that penetrated through the fog was enough to cause discomfort to me. So far gloves, cloak and hood were enough to ward off the sun’s vicious embra... |
As the early morning began to give way to midday the fog began to lift across the broken spires and plateaus that surrounded Kvatch. Ancient soil allowed bountiful harvests to be sewn into the hills, a soil that was thick, black and rich under the carpet of knee high grasses and shrubs. It would’ve been serene and cal... |
The taste of death and fire caught in the back of my throat, with hints of sulphur and rot that went little towards scrubbing the taste of copper from my tongue. It was growing stronger now and soon Viconia and I found ourselves trading expressions of concern and confusion at what was occurring. She was testing the ai... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.