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A mouthful of blood splattered over my boots and was lost in the congealing amount already covering them. "Fuck you." |
"That’s not very nice." |
"I don’t give a fuck." Anger was building into his voice and I knew that it was his way of dealing with the situation that he had found himself in and the fear that accompanied it. "The rest of us are going to have fun with you lot." |
"And just who are you lot?" |
"They are the Black Bows." Alexi answered, glancing between the rest of us as we turned momentarily to look at him. |
He shrugged his shoulders and gestured to the injured bandit while picking one of the fallen bows from the floor and handing it to me. "They used to be the biggest bandit group in all of Leyawiin county until a few years ago. One of the primary duties of the Order of the White Stallion was hunting these bastards down.... |
Turning the strung bow in my hands, I saw how the wood had been painted with a black paint many, many months before and had a lot of ash rubbed into it to stain it into their namesake. What I also noted was that the bow was of poor quality, barely larger than a teenagers training bow and showing clear signs of rot and... |
"So you know a lot about them?" |
Again shrugging, he gestured to the bandit watching us all warily. "Used to. It’s been a while since anyone in the Order encountered them. Guess we’ve found where they have been hiding." |
"Still good to know." I replied, stepping closer and keeping an eye on the wounded man as he sat there trying not to look like he was threat. "So, how many are there of you and your merry band?" |
"Choke on a cock." |
My hand smashed across his face and he was left howling and grasping at his injured face. It wasn’t anger or insult that had forced my hand to move but intent. I also had ensured that I hit him in such a way that would create pain but not knock him out or otherwise incapacitate him. |
"Not nice. I’ll ask you again, how many of you are there?" |
"Fuck... you..." he hissed through clenched teeth and eyes streaming with tears. |
Behind me I heard Viconia’s customary sigh as she stepped forward. "We’ll be here all night at this rate and I don’t have the patience for fools." She tapped me on the shoulder and gestured for me to step out of the way, looking down on the bandit like he was something foul she had stepped in. |
Turning his gaze from me to the Drow who carefully knelt down over him, the bloodstained grin grew wider even with the way he was clutching at his face. There was amusement in his eyes behind the tears of pain that didn’t seem to take into account her cold, dark expression. |
"You lot need a woman’s help eh? Going to sweet talk me?" For a second he chuckled wetly before spitting another mouthful of blood. "I’ll tell you what, how about you wrap those pretty little lips around my co-augh!" |
The flash of silver was the first sign of Viconia moving and not once did she take her eyes away from his as her dagger sunk to the hilt in his thigh. Shrieking and the pain in his face forgotten, he was left scrabbling at her hand and its iron like grip on the dagger as she slowly twisted it in his flesh. |
"Aaah! You fucking whore!" |
"How many are there in your group?" She said very simply, her voice cold and completely oblivious to the way that more than just myself were wincing at her actions. |
"I don’t know!" |
Slapping his hands away from the dagger, there was a burst of magicka and the blueish glow from her free hand as she pressed a finger against the metal pommel. There was a crack of lightning, the smell of burnt hair and the bandit began truly howling. |
"Fuck you! I don’t know!" |
Another tiny crack of thunder and he continued shrieking as she electrified the dagger buried in his flesh. He was crying now, sobbing and begging as the cold yellow eyes stared into his without the slightest hint of emotion. I was left feeling strangely concerned but not by how Viconia’s nature and past was being sho... |
Even as I watched her torture our prisoner I couldn’t bring myself to feel disgust or anything of the sort. It was this fact that left me feeling deeply troubled but not as much as how I was trying my best to ignore how I was somehow enjoying it. Her actions were speaking to me on a much deeper level and similar to th... |
As she went to electrify the dagger again he began weeping, pleading wordlessly and trying desperately to stop the hard faced dark elf inflicting pain on him with as much emotion as brushing her hair. |
"Going to talk now?" |
There was a nod, shakily and leaving tears and blood from his nose dripping down the front of his leather armour. For a moment she seemed to hold herself in place as though struggling to resist the lure to continue but she drew the blade out of his leg, healed the wound with a quick burst of magicka and rose to her fe... |
"I... I don’t know exactly, but there’s about a hundred of us." |
"Been recruiting have we?" Alexi asked, trying his best to retain his composure and to move away from Viconia as she stood up from the bandit. without appearing to do so. |
Shaking his head, the bandit spat a wad of pink stained drool that hung from his nose and mouth in several long strands. "Not really. Greagious managed to get a couple of other groups to join up with us. Promised loot and somewhere to get away from the local guards." |
If Alexi managed to inject any further sarcasm into his voice it would have been able to cut with a knife. "And I see that it has been working wonderfully for you so far." |
"Used to be captain of the guard in Leyawiin." There was anger in Alexi’s voice as he answered my question, which seemed extremely unusual for a man with his sense of humour and optimism. "A real piece of work. Quite a few years ago, well before the Order was founded he was caught with the Count’s daughter but somehow... |
"The count’s daughter? I didn’t know that the Count has children." |
"He had a daughter." Weebam-Na added from behind us all. "From his first marriage. The little girl never recovered and the Countess threw herself off the castle walls in the months after the funeral. Alessia Caro is his second wife." |
Rubbing my jaw and the stubble I suddenly found myself wishing that this Greagious was under Viconia’s knife instead of the hapless bandit in front of us. |
"How well do you lot know him?" Viconia’s voice was still cold as ice off a Skyrim glacier without the slightest hint of emotion. |
"You could say extremely well." There was no mistaking the way that Alexi’s hand had found its way to the hilt of his sword or the way he clenched his jaw. "He was one of the several sword masters who taught the original Knights of the White Stallion. After he fled, he united a handful of the bandit groups in the coun... |
Now wishing to be helpful in an effort to stave off Vicona’s attentions the bandit nodded. "I was part of a group near Border Watch when he grouped us all together and came this way. Said there was better plunder and that we were going to have some space away from the likes of you." He flinched as Viconia’s eyes narro... |
It was Mazoga’s growl that caught us all by surprise and the way she shifted forward like a jungle cat on the prowl. "Mogens? Mogens Wind-Shifter?" |
The confusion in the bandit’s face was overwhelmed by his fear of the orc moving towards him threateningly. "Y-Yes." |
Despite not understanding the language, the guttural and explosive orchish that ripped from Mazoga’s throat did not need much translation as she turned and stomped out of the hut. That she was angry was easy to see, but she was somehow pleased with the answer despite all of us not understanding the relevance of the ba... |
"Uh... Maybe someone should go after her?" I said hesitantly. |
Almost as a single entity, the others looked amongst themselves before turning and looking at me. |
"You’re the commander, commander." Smiled Alexi, nodding in the direction of the doorway. |
"Fine. You lot stay here and babysit this one. I’ll go find out what her problem is." |
Giving only a momentary glance to our terrified prisoner as he flinched away from how Viconia began grinning in his direction, I quickly made my way out of the room in Mazoga’s footsteps. |
The night, while quieter than it had been during the last hour was still full of activity. The spotfires had been put out where the bandits had attempted to burn homes and the locals were hurrying about to clear the dead and wounded from the village. If the previous days had been any indication I certainly didn’t want... |
Mazoga was very easy to find and not just because her stature put her head and shoulders above everyone other than Falid. Her voice also carried in the night and I quickly caught up to her where she was gesturing, pointing and almost shouting at every villager that she came across to stop what they were doing and take... |
Her tusked mouth was twisted into a snarl of annoyance as she twisted in my direction and away from the elderly Argonian that she had approached. With both hands gesturing and hissing away like a pot coming to boil it was obvious that he had been trying to either tell her that he didn’t understand her, didn’t want any... |
Trying not to similarly flinch away from a hundred and sixty kilograms of orc who was obviously frustrated and struggling to contain her race’s legendary anger, I strode over to her while trying to appear as relaxed as possible. |
"Planning on going somewhere?" |
Narrowing into slits, her eyes burned into me before she shrugged and gestured to the Argonian who was trying to pick up what looked to be the upper torso of a dead Dunmer. "I’m going to the fort." |
"If I need to, then yeah. I will be." |
"Because this Mogens is there?" |
There was no mistaking the sudden spike of tenseness that ran through her body like she had been on the receiving end of Viconia’s magicka. This time when she turned her attention was fully drawn to me. "Yeah. That’s my business though, not yers." |
"Maybe. I just thought that you might have preferred some company before you go charging head first into a group that could be two or three the times the size of this lot." |
The silence between us dragged out and she stood as still as a statue or as still as Falid did while he meditated. "Mazoga... Are you a knight?" |
My question seemed to shock her and her mouth fell open as far as it could with the pair of tusks growing up from her bottom jaw. "Detane said that there aint such a thing as a Knight without a lord. Yer also said that I aint a knight." |
"What do you think though?" |
Frowning at me and at the questions she shrugged. "I’m a knight. I swore a knight’s oath so that makes me a knight." |
"Last time I checked, whether you are a knight or not doesn’t make any difference to whether you can fight or whether you are good or not. Look at Detane, he used to be a knight but that obviously didn’t make him a good person if he was the same back then as he is now." |
"He aint a knight anymore." |
Chuckling softly, I nodded. "Probably not the best example, but the point I’m trying to make is that whether you are a knight or not doesn’t make a scrap of difference. What makes a difference is whether you choose to do everything alone or work with others." |
"It’s been a long time since I had someone watching my back." |
"Well, you have people watching your back now." My attempt of a friendly slap on the arm felt like I had struck a boulder, and probably wouldn’t have made much difference whether she had been in her orichalcum plate or not. "Now whatever business you have with this Mogens, you can be confident that you won’t be having... |
Her grin this time was fierce, but I could tell that she wasn’t entirely convinced. She was convinced enough to follow me back to the hut where the others awaited, checking their weapons and equipment with the pale faced bandit sitting against the wall looking as though all the blood had drained from his body. He was ... |
"What did you all find out?" I asked as I entered the communal hut with the towering green shadow at my back. |
"Other than he can be very talkative with the proper persuasion?" Alexi replied with his usual cocksure expression but it was obvious that he was still concerned with how easily Viconia had thrown herself into her "interrogation’. |
Standing against the wall holding her dagger that was now gleaming and blood free once more, Viconia grinned but unlike Alexi it was not from optimism or a cheerful personality. "We’re potentially facing anywhere between fifty and a hundred bandits, most little more than the usual assortment of thieves and cutthroats ... |
The breath I blew out was long and I rested both hands on my head in exasperation. "What’s the bad news then?" I asked with sarcasm dripped from every syllable. |
Alexi and Viconia looked at each other and Weebam-Na chuckled from his position on the floor where he was busily resharpening a collection of spears to replace those that he had thrown during the battle. |
"That was that bad news." With a curt gesture to the bandit sitting quietly on the wall, idly rubbing his bloodstained pants where Viconia had stabbed him Alexi continued on. "These lot are about a quarter to a third of their total strength, and we have until early morning before they are going to be missed." |
I caught on his meaning immediately. "Which means that if we are to have any chance we need surprise on our side. We have to attack them now, if not sooner..." |
"You got it." His cheerful disposition finally won out over the situation that we found ourselves in and his sarcastic giggle was infectious. "We have to rush into a ruin teeming with bandits in the middle of the world’s largest swamp in the middle of the night in the off chance that they will mostly be asleep and unp... |
Strapping his enormous greatsword to his spine Falid rose to his full, impressive height and grinned. "The more difficult the path, the higher the calling." |
"With words like that to inspire us along our journey how could we possibly fail?" Alexi checked his blade, gave it a few experimental twirls and slid it into its sheath almost without needing to touch it. |
Nodding and feeling my heart begin to race as it always did with the prospect of violence, a gave a smile of my own that I hoped appeared confident. At that point I was trying not to wonder who out of our group would still be alive when the sun rose once more. Judging by the shadows creeping into everyone’s expression... |
The cold, brackish water soaked through my armour and left my flesh crawling with goosebumps as I felt it rise up to my chin. Despite the temperatures during the day the Blackwood rapidly cooled during the evenings and at such an hour mists were beginning to form. While heated by the sun during the day, as soon as you ... |
It had not taken us long at all to prepare ourselves after the battle in the village, and with a haste brought about by the prospect of further fighting we began making our way in the footsteps of the Argonian guide. Barely old enough to be classified in her teens, the young villager had been chosen by the crippled sh... |
Unlike the portion of land that we had been travelling across for the better part of three hours, the fortress was set off on its own tiny island that was barely larger than the walls themselves. It wasn’t as large as a legion fort, but it was still impressive in its own way with walls easily six metres in height, a h... |
At a first glance it appeared to be nothing more than an ancient watch post or border station abandoned to the shifting politics and administrative morass that was the local area, but the more you studied it the more that you were able to discern. The walls were exceptionally well built, surviving two centuries of tid... |
There was a strip of land, barely wide enough for a cart to be pulled along that ran from the "mainland’ to the fort itself but it was waterlogged and soft despite the thick grasses growing on top of it. To make matters worse, this strip of land was easily watchable by the collection of bandits within the fort as what... |
This left only one option. One or more of us would have to brave the fetid waters surrounding the fortress, infiltrate it and clear the lookouts stationed on the rubble of the gatehouse or otherwise create a distraction to allow the others to cross without exposing themselves to fifty metres of open terrain. As most o... |
If I was being entirely honest with myself it was the idea of swimming through a swamp, especially a Blackmarsh one that was threatening my calm. Weebam-Na had helpfully declared that all the things that we needed to watch out for the in water slept through the night, but he certainly didn’t help when he quickly added... |
Thankfully enough, the water wasn’t entirely deep and while it was slow going as we felt along the bottom for holes or submerged stones and logs it was better than trying to swim with all our additional equipment. Neither Viconia or myself had reduced our armour by much as once battle was joined we were going to need ... |
At least... I hoped it was mud. |
The main dangers of the swamps; those that we all were hoping were asleep seemed to be entirely absent as I slowly and carefully made my way towards the towering walls. It was a darkened mass in the night, illuminated by the handful flickering lights of lanterns, braziers and torches arrayed along the walls. The whole... |
Leeches clustered around the tiniest scrap of flesh that they could access, which after wrapping my coif around my head, mask over my face and stuffing my hood in around my throat left only my forehead and fingers. Every few seconds I could feel something latching on somewhere only to release its hold due to my vampir... |
Slowly lifting myself out of the marsh on the thin strip of mud and grasses at the base of the wall I tried my best to ignore the slimy, squirming sensation of the various things that fell off me. In the back of my mind I tried to convince myself that it was all merely the collections of reeds and water plants that ha... |
Viconia was detectable only by her heartbeat and with my mask soaked with muddy water and every inch of me covered it was almost impossible to smell anything other than decay and grime. Before I had begun the crossing I had taken care to smear a layer of mud across my forehead to hide my pale skin from view and I had ... |
Carefully sliding my way over the ramparts on a portion of wall that appeared utterly undefended and lacking even a single sentry I could sense Viconia’s presence several dozen metres away. Despite the fact that she had taken a longer way through the swamp to reach a separate portion of the fort, she had managed to be... |
With Sunchild and the Light of Dawn clasped down my spine I instead moved about with only my dagger which had been covered in a considerable amount of ash and charcoal to dull its blade. I held it steadily in one hand, moving as quietly as I could with the fact that I was still dripping with moisture, covered head to ... |
The fort itself was spacious but it was more and more obvious that it hadn’t been designed for the same purpose as those I had seen or served at during my time in the Legion. It was built in a similar way but was lacking in many key features. There was no real space or building set aside for accommodation other than t... |
Illuminated by a handful of slowly dying lanterns and campfires and the faint light of the moons it was far too easy to see that the bandits had claimed the fort in force. Tents, canvasses and tarpaulins had been strung out between the outer walls and the interior keep in haphazard attempts to provide cover from the d... |
One bandit died quickly and while it would have appeared that I had cut their throat I used the opportunity to slake my growing thirst. While I tried to convince myself that I was doing so simply to state my appetite for blood it was also pragmatic because I would need all the strength I could muster for us to have a ... |
With Viconia’s presence growing closer along her path of cooling corpses I could also faintly sense Weebam-Na and Bejeen lurking in the water a short distance from the ruined gatehouse. Even if any of the bandits on sentry duty had been keen eyed enough to be able to see them, there was very little that the top of the... |
My heart was hammering away in my chest as I realised that the last dozen metres or so across the pile of broken masonry that was the fort’s original gate was completely lacking in cover. Only by calling upon my true nature would I have been able to cross the distance between the walls and the last handful of sentries... |
Thinking quickly, a crumbling, moth eaten cloak was pulled around me from my latest victim and doing everything I could to steady myself I simply began walking casually in the direction of the remaining guards. My hood was pulled down, mask over my face and keeping it hidden in shadows and slowly and carefully and wit... |
One of the more alert ones heard the sounds of my boots on the moss and creeper covered stones and turned, eyes squinting and his head slightly moving from side to side as he tried to make out my shadowed figure in the gloom. "Who’s that?" |
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