Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Three’s A Party...
Seyda Neen; Vvardenfell, Morrowind
The red and black scaled Argonian awoke in the hole of a room that the crew had locked him in for the past 2 weeks. Hissing out a sigh he woke up and looked into the mirror that was in the room with him. Two weeks stuck in a rotten shitty ship these sailors called a boat and only time he saw outside was when they opened the door to the hall. It was a miserable existence for Maldred Sees-The-Stars. But there wasn’t anything he could do about it, land had long ago been out of sight for the ship and Sees-The-Stars hadn’t thought of any way to escape then and there was no reason to try now. Plus it didn’t help him that he was being carried along because there was no prison ship going in this unknown direction.
Making due they had just shoved him onto the first boat they could and shipped him off for unknown reasons and for a crime he hadn’t committed. Though he would have loved to actually get his hands on the Dunmer that had falsified the evidence and payed the guards to arrest the Argonian blacksmith because Sees-The-Stars refused to lower the price for the ‘highborne’ twat of a mage, thinking about it he thought that the Dunmer had said they were a Telvanni... but he couldn’t be sure now. Though he had plenty of time to contemplate his life now since he couldn’t help but be bored out of his skull. Nothing to do, and still he felt the waves rocking the boat.
Though...something was different. He couldn’t quite place it... until he heard the door being unlatched and standing in the frame was a guard. There had been no guards on the ship before, where had this one come from...and this one too was a Dunmer... Dunmer everywhere and it began to rankle him and pull his scales the wrong way but at least he could see the early morning light coming in from the porthole in the hall and it made Sees-The-Stars happier.
“Prisoner! Get up! You are at your stop. This ship isn’t going to be taking you anywhere else.” The tone of the guard was terse and filled with disdain as he looked down on Maldrid. Giving a small glare back Sees-The-Stars sat and then stood up from his bed standing slightly taller than the Dunmer guard.
“Yes sir...” See-The-Stars voice rasped like a steel scrubber over wood. His tone though was a bit mocking when he said Sir to the dunmer. The Guard however just stepped to the side allowing Maldrid to exit his room for the first time in his weeks of travel. Even though his body had begun to lose the mass he was use to, he was still broad shouldered and muscular. But once he was in the hall the guard pointed down it to the end where the door was to exit the lower decks.
Even when Maldrid began to move the guard pushed him from behind and commanded that he move faster. Sees-The-Stars rolled his eyes as he moved at the same pace out of the boat. The guard didn’t push him again but it had more been a failing attempt to tell Maldrid who was in charge in that situation.
They moved along in silence after that up and out of the groaning decks and into the sky. The morning light was shimmering off the water of the bay. Imperial banners were fluttering in the stuttery wind. “Where are we?” Maldrid asked noncommittally as he continued moving forward to the gangplank that would let him off of the boat and onto the docks.
The guard who now Maldrid could see in full sunlight was wearing an Imperial guard uniform grunted. “You have arrived at Seyda Neen, Imperial trading outpost in Morrowind.”
That name made Maldrid trip on the deck as he lost his step and only barely caught himself before tumbling full faced into the deck itself. “Morrowind! I’m not going to let you make me a slave!” He said turning around a bit more aggressively. He would rather die than have that happen to him.
“That is not going to happen.” Called a higher pitched voice from behind him. Turning around Sees-The-Stars found a female Imperial, standing on the dock itself also in a guard’s uniform. “You are actually here to sign your release papers. Once that is done you can go anywhere...in Morrowind.” She then stepped aside herself and pointed to the entrance to a building past the docks leading into the city.
Maldrid was feeling his heart race, he didn’t know if that was true. They could be lying and just wanting to get him inside so he could be chained and gotten ‘control of’. “How am I to believe you?”
The female imperial could only shrug “You’d need to put your faith in the Divines then. Other than blind faith there really isn’t much I can think of that would convince you.”
Taking a look back at the dunmer guard behind him and the imperial infront he gauged his options... if he was to be a slave then they probably wouldn’t have taken him to Seyda Neen. Taking a deep breath he began to follow the female imperial down the dock until they were at the door. “Go on inside, this is the Census and Excise Office, they will take your information about who you are once you are inside Socucius will be able to help you.”
And with that she walked down the dock and began talking to the other guard. Maldrid shrugged to himself before looking up at the sky and giving a silent prayer to the divines that he wasn’t getting himself neck deep in whatever sewage mud heap the universe had decided to throw at him.
Taking that last moment to regain his slowly degrading composure before entering through the door to find an older Breton in rather common clothing sitting at a desk working on some papers in front of him only glancing up once to see who was entering before going back to his papers and fingering through them before pulling out a small stack of papers and placing them in front of the empty chair on the other side of the desk.
“Read through these and fill them out please, once that is done we can give you your release forms.” That was all as he went back to work, taking a moment to look around the room he found a book shelf, the desk, two chairs...really it was just an office. So with that moment out of the way Maldrid did as instructed and look through the papers.
His name, his race, his previous occupation which he filled out as he use to be a smith...his major skills...minor skills....this seemed odd but he kept filling it out like requested. Birth sign? Oh what was it...ah yes, he had been told he was born under The Tower. It took Maldrid a couple more minutes to finish up all the paperwork before handing it back across the desk to the Breton who he could only assume was Socucius that the guard had spoken of.
Socucius took the papers and looked over them passively and nodded before handing over another scroll, this one with a couple of official seals on it and it looked like he had grabbed it from a pile next to him. “This is your release form, a member of the Imperial Guard is waiting in the other building to receive that and tell you some information you will be needing to know.”
Maldrid felt a little numb, this seemed to be a bit of an odd procedure for this sort of thing. “Um...I have a few questions for you if you don’t mind actually.”
The old Breton looked up from his work before putting his quill down and taking off a pair of well worn glasses. “What can I answer for you?”
Looking back to the pile of scrolls his own had come from he asked the first one that came to mind. “Well, I guess the first one I want to ask is why you are releasing me...and from what I’m assuming from the other scrolls mine came from there are at least two others that are going to be released as well...why?”
“Do you know the legend of the Nerevarine?” Socucius mentioned as he interlaced his fingers as he looked at Sees-The-Stars with a deathly serious expression.
Maldrid became a little warily at this. “Not too well to be honest, prophecy...well... I’ve never payed much attention to them.” The Argonian readjusted himself so he was a bit more comfortable on the chair. It didn’t help.
“To put it simply, someone, somewhere, at some time under an uncertain sign would be born and save the world essentially. Though this is coming from Azura and her cult so I’m not sure how accurate what we DO know is. But you and others have been narrowed down out of many as potentials for being this so called savior....But I don’t put much stock in that.” Socucius sat up then and it seemed the tension in the air broke as he put his glasses back on. “But yes, the writing you have with you is going to allow you freedom from all previously reported crimes but it only sticks, if you stay in morrowind...unless you’re the Nerevarine, at that point you don’t have to worry about it.”
“Well, I guess that’s a consolation out of all of this then...” Maldrid stood after speaking and strode out of the room and down the hall a bit before finding a door that lead outside, and then to another door that lead into what Sees-The-Stars could only assume was the ‘second building’ and he walked through that door as well. What was this universe coming to?
Mages Guild, Vivec, Foreign Quarter: Vvardenfell, Morrowind
Trebonius Artorius Arch-mage and head of the Vvardenfell mages guilds stood waiting a certain...new comer to the isle. There had been a very unfortunate turn of events in Cyrodiil regarding a very promising member of the Imperial Mages Guild. Another of those problems was that it involved the guild member stealing enchanting supplies from another, in this case a rather ‘nice’ amulet had been stolen. But the thief had been caught and she was being sent here. It seemed this member of the guild had also the proper markers for being a potential Nerevarine, that had made Trebonius raise an eyebrow as to why they were being pardoned and sent home when they should be rotting in a prison but they were and this was the outcome.
It was about then that there was a sound of changing air pressure and a pop of light that was accompanied by the falling form of a female Dunmer coming through the teleporter from Mournhold. Mai’Istar of house Dres, Ex member of the Guild from Bravil.
“I’m Innocent!” Mai said sitting up not quite realizing where she was at the moment. Once she was sitting up fully she looked around and found Trebonius standing there holding his staff and wearing his usual robes.
“Welcome Mai’Istar Dres, to Vivec.” Trebonius said as he walked over to the young Dunmer mage.
“No, no... NO!” Mai’Istar screamed as she moved to where the portal had been and looked around panicked at the runes and circles trying to decipher what she needed to do...but it was too complex for her. “I’m innocent...” she pleaded quietly at the wall.
“Well...that certainly is one way of introducing yourself...”
Mai’istar turned around and looked on the Arch-mage with a shocked expression as she looked upon Trebonius’s robes and staff and seeing that he was a mage of rank. “Sir!...Ar...ARCHMAGE Sir!” Mai’istar dusted off her own robes and tried to look more presentable. “I...I wasn’t expecting someone like you to...um...welcome me...”
“Of course not, if you were then you might not have been giving such a...vigorous entry.” Trebonius then turned and began to walk towards a desk that had some paper one it. “Now Mrs. Dres, do you know why you’re here rather than in some prison rotting like the law would normally have of you?”
“N...No Sir...they did not.”
Trebonius huffed at this and turned back towards the small Dunmer woman. “Figures...of course they wouldn’t tell you. Well I guess it’s up to me then...like always.” His huff turned into a sigh as he reached over to the desk and pulled open the Rite Of Pardon that was sent beforehand “Mai’Istar of House Dres of Morrowind is hereby pardoned by Imperial Decree from the Seat of the Empire with the Sigil of the Emperor, Uriel Septim the Seventh. It goes on to say that this allows you to have free movement in Morrowind and only Morrowind. If you are or were to leave the province that you should be arrested on sight and imprisoned. This however will extend to the rest of the empire when the Tribunal finds worth in your actions and notifies the offices of the Empire that you have sufficiently redeemed yourself. On a related tangent I am expelling you from the guild.”
Being stunned by this news Mai’Istar had to shake herself back into the now before she could find the sufficient words to express what she wanted to say. “But...Sir! If I am banned from the guild then what am i supposed to do?! The guild was everything I have!”
Trebonius raised a hand and stopped Mai’Istar’s tirade a bit short. “Mrs. Dres, There is more to the world then just the guild and I think some time outside of the dusty walls of a building would do you well. After some time has passed and you think of what you have done, come back to me and I might let you rejoin our ranks.” He put the Pardon paper down and lifted a letter that he also had been given to give over to Mai’Istar. “Now I guess this will help start you off. This letter and package need to go to someone called Caius Cosades. You need to travel to Balmora and find this man.”
Mai’Istar was once more stunned into silence as she heard this news. “But....sir...”
Once again Trebonius lifted a hand stopping her short, “Mrs. Dres. I will not accept any attempts to wiggle out of this. I suggest that you follow this letter and deliver it, who knows you might actually enjoy Adventuring. Now Mrs. Dres you are dismissed, take the teleporter to Balmora directly or, you can walk.”
With that Trebonius gave a motion of dismissal and sat down at the desk and began to do paperwork. Pretty much at that point even though Mai’Istar wanted to argue she resigned to try to be a bit more dignified...though it seemed she had been arguing with the Arch-Mage in front of a lot of the other mages in this section of the guild. Only slightly blushing at her terrible display of manners to the head of the guild. Taking a second to straighten her robes Mai’Istar looked over to the portal runes again, her look of confusion was noticed by another mage nearby who walked over and took a second to activate the essential runes and a small energy ball appeared, the typical expectation of for a portal.
Nodding a bit as she walked forward she touched the orb and in a puff of light she was whisked away.
Seyda Neen; Vvardenfell, Morrowind
“ Cera An’Hayraa...you just had to steal the silverware didn’t you...you silly, silly girl.” Blinking the slight small Dunmer girl moved and heard the jingle of metal chains. She was wearing her worn and overused leather armor....which now that she actually stopped herself to think about it...probably didn’t offer much protection any more. But she blinked again and looked around her. It took her a second to notice her hands and ankles were shackled to each other while she lay in a brig on a ship that she couldn't quite remember getting on.
With a small groan she sat up on the hard wooden floor and feeling her back pop as she did so. ‘How long was I out?’ she thought as she shook her head. What had woken her up though seemed to happen again as she heard the lapping of water on the hull...and strange bird cries. Then the sound of wood brushing against more wood...well more like improperly fitted door wood against the frame...but it still counted.
There were some harsh voices coming from the stairs up to the decks above...they seemed to be getting closer and more angry as they came her way. Deciding to try to see if she could try to hear what they were saying she moved closer. “Oh dear girl, don’t you know that curiosity killed the cat!...but it did get the mouse the cheese...hmm”
Once she was to the bars she could hear their arguing voices and it seemed it was two men yelling at each other. “...Trespassed on MY SHIP, and stole every piece from the silverware!”
“I understand sir, but this is an Imperial Pardon from The Imperial City itself. Are you arguing with the Emperor’s decision sir?”
“n..NO of course not! I’d just like to have my cutlery back!” The...Captain said? Cera needed to give them better names.
“Good, and if she stole them then why don’t you just search her and reobtain them?” The...um...Angry Man, explained.
There was a huff as their boots began to come closer and the voices louder. “She stashed them somewhere and I can’t find them on the ship...I don’t know how she did it either.”
So these perverts searched through her things while she was asleep. Well she was going to need to make sure they didn’t take her stuff...well they were other people's stuff...but if they were so lazy that they just left them around for the taking then they shouldn’t have such stuff. “Don’t touch MY stuff!” Cera yelled out to them rather spontaneously actually.
It was then that she could see the two men that had been arguing with each other. One was the captain of the ship who had ‘Nice’ clothing as some people would call them. He was a merchant after all so he was suppose to look...’nice’ but she didn’t care much about his slowly turning beet red face with a look of anger. Her attention was stuck more on the other man.
His garb was that of a Imperial Guard...but not just that but he was also wearing the hood of an Imperial Battle Mage. Cera took a step or two back from the bars then and seemed to panic as she tried to find a place to hide. The Captain seemed to be yelling something at her but she wasn’t paying attention.
When the Battle Mage got to the bars he said something to the captain but in the cell Cera was placing her back up against the wooden bulkhead. Her eyes were panicked and her breathing was elevated. In her mind she was seeing the splash of red across the wall, the scream instantly silenced...a friend...gone.
“An’hayraa? Miss...are you alright?” The sound of this man’s voice warbled and reverberated the room...Cera wasn’t sure if that was just her imagination, or if that was something the Mage was doing himself. “Cera An’hayraa, You are to be pardoned and released into Morrowind under Imperial Pardon for all previous crimes. And from what I’m hearing I shall repeat that part. All previous crimes, any you commit from this point forward will be dealt with as usual. Do you understand?”
Cera only nodded quickly and continued to try to press herself through the bulkhead to try to escape from the battle mage. With that thought the mage turned his attention to the Captain again and nodded as well. The Captain seemed to be still very angry and trying to convince the Mage to do other wise but the Mage only shook his head and motioned for the captain to open the cell door.
Seeming to grumble the entire way the Captain pulled out the keys to the door and began to unlock it. Once it was unlocked both The Captain and the Mage stepped out of the way and it looked like they were expecting her to follow them but Cera didn’t move. She was still looking at the Mage with wide, panic strained eyes. The Mage tilted his head slightly confused a bit before he cleared his face and made a motion with his hand and spoke up once more. “Mrs, An’Hayraa. If you could please follow me we need to get you to the registration office to make this all official.”
Not being able to help it she nodded slowly and moved forward and carefully placed herself between the Captain and the Mage. Trying to stay equally distant from both of the men and being...proper.
Cera even stayed pretty passive throughout the entire experience attempting to answer all of their questions. Eventually they told her she needed to go to Balmora and meet a certain person who lived there and give him a package. So she moved away from the Census buildings and she noticed that the battle mage was no longer near by. Cera began to calm down...she was still wary of the people around her and so didn’t stop in any of the buildings. Instead something caught her interest...there was a VERY large bug creature just outside of town. Being interested Cera moved quickly over to investigate, her recent remembrance of horror forgotten for now.
It seemed that the bug creature was just standing next to a hill and when Cera squinted she could see a person standing near the creature at the top of the hill. That person seemed to be going over the hide...carapace?...Chitin? Of the creature with what looked to be a brush in hand and was mumbling something.
“Um, Excuse me!” Cera said in what she hopped wasn’t a ‘Oh look i’m a sneaky person’ voice and began to climb the hill. The person who she had been trying to get the attention of turned around to look at whoever was now calling them to see Cera climbing the hill.
“Yes, what can I help you with? Looking for a Ride?” The person who turned out to be a female dunmer of maybe middling years but looked very tired. Cera who had been climbing the hill finally reached the top with a slight shortness of breath, it had been a bit since she had been allowed to move about freely so maybe a bit squishy now too.
“I...was actually coming up here to ask what this...thing, is?” She wheezed slightly while also making a general waving motion at the tall bug like creature next to them.
“Oh? This here is a Silt Strider, able to get you most anywhere in quite the jiffy. This one here is Krazzt, and I’m Darvame Hleran.” Dravame...Cera was now going to call her Drav, in her head anyway. People didn’t like her nicknames. Then turned back to Cera and gave a tired smile putting her hands on her hips looking at her expectantly.
“Oh....um....sure I’m Cera An’Hayraa. Now what do you mean when you said am I looking for a ride?”
“Well, I can take you to Vivec, Gnisis, Suran and Balmora on the back of Krazzt here. For a small fee of course.”
“To be honest that does sound more appealing than walking all the way there...” Cera couldn’t argue with that. So using some money she had acquired from the Census building...and the pockets of people on her way up the hill, Cera found herself on the back of a Silt Strider on her way to Balmora in short order. “Off on a magical journey of ADVENTURE!”