I trundled over, feeling rather shaky as the reality I was going to be addressing His Majesty finally sank in. I was already standing in front of him before I could work up a real panic, however. The Emperor greeted me with a small smile. “I see you found your own path.” I couldn’t help myself; I snorted. Loudly. In front of his Imperial Majesty of Tamriel. “Yes, Sire, I did, and n-no thanks to your guards.” I winced as a particularly nasty wound decided to remind me of its existence. “They might have let me come along from the start, and spared me almost turning pat seed.”
The Emperor blinked, frowning and looking rather puzzled. I waited for him to make the near universal request for me to repeat myself, and was surprised yet again. His face cleared of its confusion, as he seemingly understood what I was saying and laughed.
I noted idly in the midst of my embarrassment that he had a nice laugh. Also, the poor lighting made it hard to tell, but he looked paler than he already had earlier, his complexion nearly white. “It seems that nearly becoming ‘rat feed’, as you put it, does not seem to have done you any lasting harm.” He turned serious again, his voice growing urgent.
“I am truly sorry, good woman — Your name is Arliene Aswyth, is it not?”
I nodded, and that seemed to satisfy him.
“Time grows too short now for levity.” He gestured towards his guards, who were visibly growing impatient at the delay. “They cannot understand why I trust you. How could they? They’ve not seen what I’ve seen.” He shook his head, hunching his shoulders somewhat as though attempting to settle an immeasurably heavy burden. “How can I explain? Listen. You know the Nine? How They guide our fates with an invisible hand?”
Again with the talk of gods? I hadn’t heard the Emperor was a devout man, at least not to this degree. I shrugged. “Well, the village priests used to teach that the N-nine guide and protect us, when I was a child. Now I’m a grown woman, I don’t know. I t-try not to think about it, because then I start to think that I’m not on good terms with the Gods at all, or rather that They actually hate me. After all, They’ve dumped all this — ” I waved my hand at our gloomy surroundings — “on my head, haven’t they?”
“I have served the Nine all my days, and it has been a hard service, and a long one, though not without its rewards.” The Emperor sighed, even as his tone lost the hint of bitterness it had had. His smile was wry, as he continued, “Be sure the Gods love us. I have not doubted it — even if, on occasion, that love more closely resembles a teamster’s for his baggage mule.”
I choked on the weak ale I’d stashed as a thirst quencher.
He continued speaking, even as I wiped my mouth and sniffled from the ale that had gotten up my nose. “I chart my course by the cycles of the heavens. The skies are marked with numberless sparks, each a fire, and every one a sign. The signs I read show the end of my path. My death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”
I was both fascinated and appalled at how calmly he spoke of his death, as though it were a foregone conclusion. “What about me?” I was genuinely curious now, Julianos help me.
He looked at me, and once again I had that indefinable feeling of being caught by a terrifying force. It didn’t last long, however, because he broke the silence, voice soft, as though lost in a dream. “Your stars are not mine. Still, they have given you better luck than most, and the means to escape ill fortune when it comes.” He nodded, eyes growing ever more distant. “Yes. Today the Thief shall guide your steps on the road to destiny.”
I was too numb from the continuing surprises to even wonder how the Emperor knew what he knew anymore, though I supposed it was possible he’d just known my birthdate from whatever records the Watch had on me after my arrest, and had just made the obvious calculations. He had seemingly known my name, and even written me a pardon earlier, after all; which I devoutly hoped Baurus still had in safe and legible condition. My mind threw the troublesome thought at me that the Emperor had shown knowledge of more than a few things he shouldn’t have tonight, which thought I quickly suppressed as being too outrageous. Yet my damnable curiosity led me to ask one last question. “Can you see my fate?”
“My dreams grant me no opinions of success. Their compass ventures not beyond the doors of death. But in your face, I behold the sun’s companion. The dawn of Akatosh’s bright glory may banish the coming darkness. With such hope, and with the promise of your aid, my heart must be satisfied.” He shook his head, suddenly all business now.
The Emperor then stood, with difficulty; he moved rather stiffly, and sitting on the cold stone obviously had done him no good. “Come. We must go.”
“Where are we going? I mean, we’ll be out of here, that’s for certain, but afterwards?” Did he mean for me to continue following in his train? His reply chilled me with its iron certainty.
“I go to my grave. A tongue shriller than all the music calls me. You shall follow me yet for a while, then we must part.”
I’d had about enough of all this talk of death. For Arkay’s sake, he might be old, but he was far from being a corpse! Surely he wasn’t in a hurry to be one either. “Aren’t you afraid to die?” I challenged.
“No trophies of my triumphs precede me. But I have lived well, and my ghost shall rest easy.”
Unbelievable. I pitied the men and women who’d made it their work to keep him breathing. If this was an example of their boss’s general attitude towards his own survival, it must surely have them praying to the Madgod in short order. His fatalism was driving me crazy.
“Sire, what makes you so certain you’re about to die? Sure, all these assassins have been popping up like rats, but that’s no reason to give up hope of escape! Your people are determined to see you safe — don’t you trust they will get you out of here alive?”
He laid a hand on my shoulder, as though to comfort me. “Do not grieve what will come to pass, for the living know that they shall die; men are but flesh and blood. They know their doom, but not the hour. In this I am blessed to see the hour of my death… To face my apportioned fate, then fall.”
I gripped my bow tighter. “Well, I beg your pardon, Your Majesty, but I intend to do my best to make sure that “fall” doesn’t happen.”
The Emperor’s smile was very sad. “Thank you.”
He obviously didn’t, or wouldn’t trust my promise. He started to walk on, Glenroy passing by me to get in front of our ragtag group, now numbering only four, five if I counted myself.
Baurus hung back a little. “You made my lord laugh. He hasn’t smiled in ages, not since —” He shook his head. “Thank you.”
I had nothing I could say to that.
“Oh, right.” He handed me a lit torch. “If you’re going to be sticking close, you may as well make yourself useful. Here, why don’t you carry this, and light our way?”
I was momentarily dumbstruck before I shot him my best cross-me-and-die glare. Make myself useful? Ha! If it weren’t for our current situation, I’d show him useful.
I must’ve looked suitably intimidating, since Baurus backpedalled a little as he raised a hand. “No offense meant, I know you can handle yourself; it’s just that you’re looking pretty cut up already. Between the two of us, I think right now I’m better equipped to handle things, should the assassins show up again.” I wasn’t fully happy with that idea, and was still highly tempted to rake him over for his poor choice of words — useful, hah! — but I did have to agree with him there; my leather armour was already rent in several spots, and the only things keeping me upright by this point were potions and the burning need to be free of this place. Giving in with ill-grace, I stomped ahead.
Still bearing the torch, I moved up to just behind the Emperor, with Baurus and his comrade bringing up the rear, Glenroy again on point. Our footsteps on the stone and the clanking of my companions’ armour were the only sounds to be heard, apart from the occasional snap-crackle of pitch from the torches.
“For Lord Dagon!” The scream came from my left. Where the fuck had that man come from? We soon had our hands full, the assassins attempting every dirty trick in the book and then some to reach the Emperor.
The struggle carried us into the next room, where we killed the last of the assassins — a smaller group this time; perhaps we were thinning their numbers.
Our numbers were thinned too. Baurus and Glenroy’s comrade, whose name I didn’t know, had fallen in the line of duty — a loss we couldn’t afford. I felt a rush of dizzy panic as I realised that only the three of us now stood between the Emperor and his would-be murderers, and that I was indeed expected to throw myself between him and any knives heading his way. I began to feel the first seeds of self-doubt: When push came to shove, did I really have the courage to stand between the Emperor and the assassins?
Glenroy looked appraisingly at me as I jogged up next to him. “You handled yourself pretty well back there.” Huh. Was he actually softening his position on my presence? “Just keep out of our way, got it? We don’t need amateurs to muddle things worse.” Apparently not.
It seemed we were almost through to the sewers, which were our destination; and thence out of the city, according to Baurus. Just before the last set of stairs, Glenroy hissed. Turning his head, he called back to Baurus. “Hold up! I don’t like this. Let me take a look.” He strode down the stairs, looking around for traps, then went over to examine the gate I could see stood in our way. “Looks clear. Come on. We’re almost through to the sewers.”
I drew in a deep breath. I could almost taste the free air of the outside world again, we were so close!
My dreams of freedom were squashed in a storm of swearwords coming from Glenroy, who was now angrily rattling the gate. “Gods dammit! The gate’s barred from the other side! It’s a trap!” I felt like swearing too. Whoever these assassins were, they were well-prepared, and overly well-informed about our plans.
“Break the lock and full our way through?” I suggested. Glenroy paused as he parsed what I’d said, then drew his blade and brought it down, hilt-first on the lock. All that happened was a loud, hollow bon-n-n-n-g and Glenroy losing his grip on the blade.
I got closer to assess the lock and its supports. In the course of our occasional jaunts through ancient ruins, Clesyne and I had managed to break locks like these through applications of magic to weaken the lock itself. “Maybe we should weaken the lock first?” Glenroy turned in my direction, his expression screaming what-hurry-up-out-with-it. “If either of you can cast a flame spell, or freeze the lock repeatedly, it’s easier to break the lock open…” He was shaking his head as I said it, though.
“I’ve no aptitude for the mage arts, Talos knows I’ve tried before, barely made a spark. Can you do it?” I shook my head. “Baurus? You ever tried — ?” The Redguard grimaced even as he shook his head — no help there either. I wasn’t surprised, given the Redguards’ known distrust of magic, but it was still a disappointment. Glenroy glared some more at the gate and its stubborn bespelled lock, as though willing it to melt from sheer force of will.
Baurus’s voice broke the silent gloom. “What about that side passage we passed by earlier? Maybe there’s a way out there?”
“Worth a try. Let’s go!” Glenroy and Baurus both headed into the side passage, with myself and the Emperor following close in their wake. It seemed there was no joy to be had there either, since the room ended in a cul-de-sac.
“It’s a dead end. What’s your call, sir?” Baurus asked Glenroy, who was looking rather overwhelmed.
“I don’t know. I don’t see any good options here.” His face showed the stress of the situation. We were trapped here, without any options to open the gate, or to knock it down. I had a thought. Our assailants had been popping out of side passages and corridors all night; and they didn’t seem to have been using the main paths, which to my thinking suggested secret passages existed here; the old Ayleid ruins were chock full of them.
I was about to suggest we try and find a trigger for such a passage when Glenroy looked alarmed. Obviously he’d thought of something and wasn’t liking it one bit. “They’re behind us!” I sucked in a breath. If they were really behind us, they’d have us cornered in this room, like rats in a trap — Glenroy had the right of it.
Glenroy’s shoulders were squared. I knew that if what he suspected were true, he would likely die attempting to ward off the attackers lying in wait around us. If he were afraid of it, however, he gave no outward sign. “Wait here, Sire,” was his only command before he took off, sword drawn in a high guard.
Baurus followed after, but not before saying to me, “Wait here with the Emperor. Guard him with your life.” I swallowed, feeling the shattering weight of responsibility descend fully on my shoulders. Stepping away and moving closer to the entrance, so as to give myself room to swing should the assassins come through, I tried running through my breath exercises, but found the focus they brought elusive. My mind was running in circles even as my ears strained to hear any sounds from the fight outside. Should the two Blades fall —
“Forgive me.” I was startled by the Emperor’s words, as I spun around to look at him. His face was still covered in that weary grief I’d first seen in my cell, which now felt a lifetime ago; but now there was a mute entreaty there, a look that soured my stomach.
“What?” What was he apologising for now? Why did he look so — guilty?
“I can go no further. For me, it ends here.”
I began to deny it, a hot rage curling in my throat. Why was he so obsessed with his death?
“That I shall die this day, I have known; yet it will be through no fault of yours.”
“Sire, stop this, p-please, I promised I would —” He shook his head, and the words died in my mouth.
“This is where my journey ends. For you though, the road is long and dangerous; I cannot see all that lies on it. Now, give me your hand.” The Emperor was insistent enough that I relented and began to move closer, one eye still on the doorway, even as he began to fumble with something around his neck, hidden by the rich robes he wore, which were now rather battered by dust and dirt. Behind him, stone panelling gave way with a loud rumbling crack and a mighty cloud of dust that momentarily obscured my view of the Emperor.
I froze at the sound, my tired mind thinking that the ruined stones had suddenly decided to give way, then realising in that same moment that the walls were too sound for that to happen. No!
I ran forwards, cursing my slowed reflexes. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Hadn’t I just been considering the idea of a secret passage in the area? Why had I left him in that corner near those stone walls? My heart sank as the armoured form of one of the assassins appeared from within the dust cloud, dagger already raised, thirsting for blood.
It was as though Akatosh had slowed the flow of time for a space, because the events I saw seemed to play out in slow motion, even as I cursed my tired body and forced myself to try and move faster. The Emperor was half-turned towards his assassin, who raised the knife and plunged the blade once, twice, into his unprotected back, then yanked the blade free.
I will never forget the sound the Emperor made as the knife entered his back. I dream of it still: the pain and surprise on his face, the soft grunt from the impact of the blade sinking in, then a hoarse cry as the blade was ripped out of his flesh, over and over. The thud his body made as he sank to the floor echoed above the ringing in my ears, even as my traitorous right hand went completely nerveless and dropped my sword.
“Stranger, you chose a bad day to take up with the cause of the Septims.” The assassin’s voice was distorted by the fiendish armour he wore, all cruel black jags and spikes, like the creation of some inhuman mind.
I don’t remember if I answered him — much of what happened then was, and still is, a blur to my mind. All I clearly remember was the insane urge to eradicate the confidence in his voice, by any means I could manage; pelting forward, screaming, wrestling the smug fetcher face-first onto the ground, hot tears already dimming my vision, and then simply taking the bastard’s head in both hands and slamming it with everything I had, repeatedly, against the stone floor.
I came back to myself, still numb and shaking, staring at my blood-covered hands, and the bloodied, unrecognisable face of the assassin, his bound armour long since vanished. For a few heartbeats I stared down at the still form. I’d just killed a man, pulped his face with my bare hands. My stomach rebelled and I rolled to my feet and away before emptying my stomach of its contents.
“Arliene.” I whipped around as I heard the faint voice calling my name. The Emperor was still alive! I flew to his side, fumbling for the last potion bottle I had on me. It was almost empty, but even the dregs would help keep him alive longer—
The Emperor’s hand, skin nearly translucent and waxy settled on mine. “S-stop.” His breath hitched, and I knew then he was going to die, no matter what I did. Bitterly I cursed the gods for my lost magical abilities. Oh, how I would have happily given my life to be able to cast a Convalescence spell! I persisted however, holding the bottle to his lips and trickling the remaining liquid slowly into his mouth, but he shook his head slightly, and turned away from the bottle.
I feverishly wondered if I had enough cairn bolete caps from the caves that I could chew into a poultice to stop the bleeding; then decided anything was worth trying and popped the mushrooms into my mouth. The taste was worse than dung, but I kept chewing for all I was worth. I fumbled for my dagger, forgotten until now, and started cutting strips from the edges of his robes to bandage his wounds, spitting the juices and pulp of the macerated fungi onto the makeshift bandages before pressing them to the wounds.
“I have — ” The Emperor wheezed a little. ” — spent long enough fearing this day’s arrival. I shall be glad, since that time has now been abridged.” He gasped, and I helped him up, leaning his torso a little to the side so I could get easier access to his back. He then looked at me in the face, again, and his eyes burned with a feverish light. “Remember me, when I am dead, and remember my words. This is only the beginning. Worse — ” He paused, breathing heavily as a spasm of pain showed on his face, ” — is yet to come. You are our only hope to stem the blood tide.” I shook my head, confused. This was too much beyond my understanding.
He lifted his hands to the neck of his robes, already shaking from the blood loss I could not stop, and drew forth a golden chain, on which hung a large red gem, many-faceted and set in gold, surrounded by eight smaller gems. The red gem flashed in the dim light, seemingly burning with a light of its own. I twitched as a sense of vast presence washed over me.
The Emperor’s voice was now little more than a whisper; I could see how hard he was struggling to hold on, even as I pressed the soaked cloth harder against his back, where the lifeblood flowed ceaselessly to the ground. “My guards are strong and true, but even the might of the Blades cannot stand against the Power that rises to destroy us. The Prince of Destruction awakes, born anew in blood and fire. These cutthroats are but his mortal pawns.”
I was confused. Was he actually suggesting what I thought he was? “Mehrunes Dagon? The Daedric Prince?” The Emperor nodded. His hand on mine tightened, barely just perceptible.
“This is the Amulet of Kings. It is — the Empire’s sacred emblem of rulership. It must pass to the last of the Dragon’s Blood. Keep it safe — from the pawns of the Destroyer. Take it, and give it to Jauffre.” He was fast weakening, and the effort to keep speaking was draining him even faster. “I have… secret son… Jauffre alone knows where… Find him. Find the last of my blood… close shut the marble jaws… of Oblivion.” He sagged backwards at this close. Only my arm, still pressed to his back kept him upright now.
I was crying freely and couldn’t stop. The Emperor had been nothing but kind to me through this entire nightmare, and now he was dying in front of me and I couldn’t stop it happening. I’d promised to see him out of here alive and I’d broken my word. Gently, I laid him flat onto the floor. “I will, I will. I won’t ff-forget. I’ll t-take it from here, I promise, with all my heart. I won’t mail you again. I’ll find your son.”
The Emperor’s eyes were already sliding shut, but his lips twitched upwards a fraction at my words, and he rallied a little. “You… haven’t failed me yet. Stand true, my friend. May your heart… be your guide; gods grant you strength.” His breath was already rattling in his lungs, the hated sound I knew presaged the last gasp of life.
“Go. My blessings… hope of the empire… with you.”
Those were his last words.
Dimly I heard the heavy footfalls of someone in armour coming from the doorway behind me, and wondered if it were Baurus or Glenroy, or another assassin, tying up loose ends. That thought spurred me into action as I slid away from the Emperor’s body to face whoever it was.
It was Baurus. He was flecked from top to toe with blood, his armour rent in places, and he’d lost his helm at some point. He saw the Emperor’s body on the ground, and rushed over. “My lord!” He dropped to his knees next to the body, stripping off a bracer to check for breath, fingers frantically feeling for a pulse. His cry of denial was heartbreaking.
“We’ve failed. I’ve… failed. The Blades are sworn to protect the Emperor, and now he and all his heirs are dead.” He clenched his fists as he stood, then stormed over to where I was huddled in my own stew of misery and hauled me up, pinning me against the wall by the shoulders.
“I TOLD YOU TO GUARD HIM! WITH YOUR LIFE!” He slapped me hard, and I let him. The pain in my face was infinitely better than the pain in my heart at the moment. “WHY?” He shook me so hard I grew dizzy. “Why did you let him die?” The last came out as a sob.
“I TRIED! EVERYTHING!” I screamed back at him. “Fuck you, you tt-think I didn’t? You think I get him die? Fucking murdering bastard came from back him— from the bloody walls, gods cursed s-s-secret passages! He was stabbed before I could even get close!” My own blood was up now. “Where the hell were you? We needed you!” Stabbing a finger onto his chest, I continued to shout, getting right up into Baurus’s face, standing on tiptoes. “I needed your help to keep him alive and you weren’t here! What took you so long? Where the fuck is Glenroy?”
Baurus hung his head. “Dead.” He breathed hard, a gusty wavering sigh. “He was my friend. And the Captain. The men we left behind — I knew them, served with them for years. All dead now, for nothing.” He wiped a hand across his face.
The last of my anger had died down to dull embers. I watched as Baurus stooped over the body of his liege; he seemed to be searching for something and was growing frantic. He turned on me. “The Amulet, where’s the Amulet of Kings? It wasn’t on the Emperor’s body.” His face turned dark. “You were the last to see him alive. Did you take it?” His hand strayed to the hilt of his sword. I didn’t miss the silent implication being made that I’d killed them both, the Emperor and would-be assassin.
I sighed and held up the jewel, fighting back the shiver that being in direct contact with its sheer power triggered. “The Emperor entrusted it to me, before he died.” I swallowed, throat dry and scratchy from crying. “He mentioned I needed to find a person named Jauffre.”
“Jauffre? He said that? Why would he send you with the Amulet to Jauffre?” Baurus seemed suspicious still.
I weighed my options. The Emperor had obviously kept his secret son just that, a secret; for what looked to be very good reasons. And yet Baurus had proved himself loyal to the end. He was also probably not going to buy any lies I could come up with on the spur of the moment.
“How do I know I can trust you? For all I know you could have been working with the assassins.” I stalled, still on guard, wondering how little I could tell him of the Emperor’s last request that would let me go free. I felt that Baurus might be trusted with the truth in full, but that didn’t mean everybody else he would be obliged to report to was. The Emperor had been betrayed tonight, I knew it as surely as I knew my mother’s name. Betrayed by someone who should’ve been loyal, someone who was close to him, who knew what route he’d be taking out of the city. Who could be more likely than the guards closest to him, who had shadowed his every move?
Baurus growled at this slight to his integrity. “I’ve served my lord with honour as a Blade for years, and I’ve kept all his secrets that I know of without needing a royal command. You don’t get to stand there and throw accusations around, prisoner.”
I scowled, but his words made me feel better about divulging a least a part of the truth. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to clear that I was jailed due to a m-mistake your people made. You bloody idiots in the Watch and the Blades couldn’t t-tell the difference between me and my sister, didn’t fact-check before bringing the wagons around, and didn’t care to ear when I tried to say, even though I told you who I was during my arrest.” The whole thing still rankled. Not least because had Clesyne actually been here, she’d probably have managed to save the Emperor — even back when I could cast them myself, my sister had always been naturally better at Restoration spells.
Baurus made impatient noises. “That’s neither here nor there. Never mind that now. Why go to Jauffre?”
“The Emperor gave me something to do for him, something important. He also said Jauffre would know where to go. And no, I won’t tell you what it is.” I cut him off before he could interrupt. “Say I believe you, and you’re entirely trustworthy. That doesn’t mean everyone you report to is.”
“We’re sworn to protect the Emperor and his family!” I wondered whether he was really that naive, or just that trusting, unwilling to doubt his compatriots’ honour. I knew very well from my experiences with Audens Avidius, that a man could swear an oath or several, on anything he fancied be it his mother’s honour or the gods’ witness; it didn’t mean he’d keep even the letter of it, never mind its spirit, or both.
“Oaths can be broken or perverted, man, you see it! Stop being — being ox, and think! I’m on your side, dammit, and I’m telling you, you need to scrub house, because you have got to have rats in your ranks.” I hoped he’d see sense, because right now he was the only ally I had that I could count on, and more importantly, he could make my life very difficult if he chose by not letting me go free. The matter of the pardon weighed heavily on my mind.
“Who else would’ve known the Emperor was taking this route? This way was supposed to be think to the Blades only, wasn’t it? And yet they found us again and again. Someone had to have been feeding your enemies — our enemies — inside information. Who else could it be? It has to have been a Blade, and fairly sky in your ranks to be able to access this information.” Baurus’s face was sour, and he looked like his brain was working hard at digesting what I told him. I hoped my lecture had done him some good.
“All right. You make a convincing argument. But what do I tell my superiors? They’ll want to know what my lord said to you, and where the Amulet is.” He grimaced. “The Elder Council, in particular, will have fits about letting an escaped prisoner run off with the Amulet of Kings. I almost can’t believe it myself that the Emperor gave it to you. It’s the most sacred symbol of the Empire there is. Most people think of the Red Dragon Crown, but that’s just jewellery. The Amulet has power, real power. And yet…” He sighed. “The Emperor, he saw something in you. Trusted you. They say it’s the Dragon Blood, that flows through the veins of every Septim, letting them see more than lesser men.” A heavy pause.
I held my breath. Would Baurus believe me, trust me enough, to let me go do what I had to?
“I don’t know what the Emperor saw, but I believed in him and his judgment; and if he trusted you, enough to give you the Amulet of Kings, I guess I’ll have to as well.”
I breathed out, utterly relieved, as I nodded my head to him. “Thank you. You do have my writ of pardon on you, you realise?”
Baurus’s smile was grim. “I do. So you are the Arliene Aswyth he mentioned back there?”
I nodded assent. I was mildly surprised he remembered, though I likely shouldn’t have been; those who served the Emperor as his personal guard were no fools.
“I’ll deliver it to the Chancellor with all speed once I’m done here. Can’t have you arrested on your way to Jauffre now, can we?”
“About Jauffre —” I cleared my throat. “Who is he? The Emperor didn’t manage to tell me where to find him before he… passed.”
“Jauffre is the Grandmaster of my Order, though you may not think so to meet him. Very few outside our Order even know who he is. He lives quietly as a monk at Weynon Priory, near the city of Chorrol. I don’t know what business you’ll have with Jauffre, but the Emperor must’ve given you the Amulet and told you to take it to him for a reason; perhaps he knows — something —?”
“Don’t speculate, please. It could be dangerous to your health and mine. In all reality I’d rather not have said you this much even, except that I wouldn’t know where to start looking for Jauffre and hoped you’d know.”
He laughed. “You’re a suspicious one, aren’t you?” He tilted his head. “You speak strangely as well. Not been in Cyrodiil long?”
I waved it off. “Speech problem. Old one. Happens. Not important right now. As for being suspicious — Wouldn’t you be, in my face? This thing,” I waved the Amulet in my hand, “is going to make me the next target of those red-robed bastards out there. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of them.” Baurus sobered up immediately.
“You’re right. The most important thing we need to do now, is for you to follow the Emperor’s last instructions, and get that Amulet out to Jauffre immediately.” He felt about under his armour, and brought out a key, which he gave to me. “Don’t lose that — you’ll need it to get to the secret way out through the sewers. We were supposed to bring the Emperor out that way so no one would know —” He swallowed, his expression crumbling before smoothing out again. “Well, it was supposed to be a secret way out of the city. Guess it wasn’t, huh?”
He pointed towards the opened door, through which the assassin had entered and struck down the late Emperor. “The entrance to the sewers must be through that door, past the locked gate. The key I gave you will open the last door into the sewers. There’s rats and goblins down there; but given you made it through the caverns earlier, and from what I’ve seen of you in a fight, I’m guessing in any case they’ll give you no trouble — you seem to be an experienced fighter.” He looked at the dead assassin’s remains, and winced, quite visibly. “Do all your enemies look like that when you’re done with them?” he joked, feebly attempting to make light of the pulverised state I’d left the murdering son of a netch in.
My smile was toothy. “I can do well enough to get myself out of trouble,” I agreed. “And to answer your question: only the ones who make me really angry.” I had not forgotten his earlier comments with the torch. Baurus looked uncomfortable even as he looked at my hands, and then back to the still body of the Emperor’s murderer. Hah.
“Good. Get the Amulet to Jauffre at Weynon Priory immediately. Take no chances with your safety, or the Amulet’s. I fear you may be right, and you’ll be hunted as soon as word gets out: the Elder Council leaks information like a sieve.”
I swore at the thought. “Goddamned useless bunch of old farts in p-petticoats! Haven’t they any sense? Do they not know the meaning of secrecy?”
“Hey, hey. Take it easy. One step at a time.” Baurus set his hands back on my shoulders, gripping much more gently this time, though still firm. “I know this is a lot to take in, and everything’s probably looking rather overwhelming right now. I do believe that the Emperor’s trust was well-placed, and he was wiser than anyone knew when he trusted you with this. If you are right, and the Blades have been infiltrated —” here his face twisted with chagrined anger — “our regular agents’ faces and descriptions have probably been leaked to our enemies. You might be our best shot at getting the Amulet away without detection.”
Divines. This was nothing I ever wanted on my shoulders. And yet, who else was there? “And you? What will you do now?”
Baurus smiled reassuringly at me, but it faded as he looked down again at the late Emperor’s form, still lying in a pool of blood. “I’ll stay here to guard the Emperor’s body, and make sure no one follows you from here. I’ll do my best to stall any questions the Council and my superiors may have, for as long as I can when they start the questioning, later. Give you more time to get out and away to safety, before whoever those bastards are start coming for you, hopefully.” He gave me a gentle push in the direction of the opened door. “Go on. You’d better get moving. Talos guide and guard you on your road.”
“The gods watch over you, friend.”
I turned to go at that, but then stopped short. I felt I had one last thing left to do here. I turned back to where the Emperor’s body lay. The aged face was peaceful, serene; I hoped that his spirit would indeed, in his own words from earlier, “rest easy”, after a long, colourful life that had been full of hardships.
I crouched down and leaned in close to whisper a last promise. “Sire, if you can hear me from wherever spirits go — I’ll protect your son with everything I’ve got, see him safely to the throne. I swear it.”
I walked the dark passages, wary of noises; my mind however repeatedly turned over the words I had said earlier, just before I left Baurus with the late Emperor.
“Don’t lose faith. The Emperor did leave us some hope.”
Poor Baurus. He’d obviously been rather confused by my words, and Divines alone knew what the Council might make of them, if he did report that last bit. Perhaps even giving out that cryptic hint was a mistake, but I found I really couldn’t care however: those words had been more for Baurus’ sake than anyone else’s, really. I’d found I couldn’t stand to see him so forlorn, and not leave him with something to hold on to.
I thought again of Baurus and his lonely watch, and hoped that help would arrive for him soon; being left alone with the dead strewn in his wake, guarding the body of his beloved liege-lord, stewing in his own guilt, was hardly good for his state of mind.
The light of the sun, even just under the horizon, was dazzling to my eyes, so long adapted to the darkness of prison cells and the gloomy, stinking sewers. The waters of the Rumare glittered blue and gold, the sounds of lapping, sighing water forming the background to the chatter of water-birds and insects. I took a deep breath, then plunged into the waters, swimming to the opposite shore.
Standing in the pre-dawn light and squeezing the ends of my hair to remove the water, the entirety of my imprisonment and the events of the previous night seemed surreal. I knew it was no dream however: I could feel the Amulet of Kings tucked away under my clothes and armour, its weight and solidity against my skin a constant reminder of my oath, its living presence a warm and vital sensation, like a fire on a cold night.
The Emperor was dead, but he’d charged me, a no-name, half crippled, jailbird adventuress, with carrying the hope of all the Empire to safety. The sheer amount of blind faith and trust in that gesture was staggering, even as it swelled my confidence and determination.
Chorrol was several days to the north and west, and I had no time to lose. No time to despair now over my sister’s whereabouts, or what I might do next after this. All those concerns seemed petty in the face of what had occurred in the depths of the City. As our mother used to say, “keep your head pointed to the sun and your feet moving forward”.
I did have a short side-trip to make first. There was a small cache of things, hidden outside of an Ayleid ruin a little ways from here that I’d found not long before, and I did need to restock on supplies and equipment. A detour to grab them would be a good way to get used to prolonged exercise again, before making the run for Chorrol.
Weynon Priory. I had only a foggy recollection of hearing the name once or twice, but no clear memory of its location, and Baurus had only said it was somewhere outside of Chorrol. Racking my brains for the geography around Chorrol, I remembered it would be either to the southeast of the city, or the southwest, I wasn’t sure which. I’d likely have to ask for directions in the city at some point.
Checking again that the Amulet was safely hidden, I turned my steps towards my destination. Whatever happened next, I was sure it was going to be interesting.
The Emperor blinked, frowning and looking rather puzzled. I waited for him to make the near universal request for me to repeat myself, and was surprised yet again. His face cleared of its confusion, as he seemingly understood what I was saying and laughed.
I noted idly in the midst of my embarrassment that he had a nice laugh. Also, the poor lighting made it hard to tell, but he looked paler than he already had earlier, his complexion nearly white. “It seems that nearly becoming ‘rat feed’, as you put it, does not seem to have done you any lasting harm.” He turned serious again, his voice growing urgent.
“I am truly sorry, good woman — Your name is Arliene Aswyth, is it not?”
I nodded, and that seemed to satisfy him.
“Time grows too short now for levity.” He gestured towards his guards, who were visibly growing impatient at the delay. “They cannot understand why I trust you. How could they? They’ve not seen what I’ve seen.” He shook his head, hunching his shoulders somewhat as though attempting to settle an immeasurably heavy burden. “How can I explain? Listen. You know the Nine? How They guide our fates with an invisible hand?”
Again with the talk of gods? I hadn’t heard the Emperor was a devout man, at least not to this degree. I shrugged. “Well, the village priests used to teach that the N-nine guide and protect us, when I was a child. Now I’m a grown woman, I don’t know. I t-try not to think about it, because then I start to think that I’m not on good terms with the Gods at all, or rather that They actually hate me. After all, They’ve dumped all this — ” I waved my hand at our gloomy surroundings — “on my head, haven’t they?”
“I have served the Nine all my days, and it has been a hard service, and a long one, though not without its rewards.” The Emperor sighed, even as his tone lost the hint of bitterness it had had. His smile was wry, as he continued, “Be sure the Gods love us. I have not doubted it — even if, on occasion, that love more closely resembles a teamster’s for his baggage mule.”
I choked on the weak ale I’d stashed as a thirst quencher.
He continued speaking, even as I wiped my mouth and sniffled from the ale that had gotten up my nose. “I chart my course by the cycles of the heavens. The skies are marked with numberless sparks, each a fire, and every one a sign. The signs I read show the end of my path. My death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”
I was both fascinated and appalled at how calmly he spoke of his death, as though it were a foregone conclusion. “What about me?” I was genuinely curious now, Julianos help me.
He looked at me, and once again I had that indefinable feeling of being caught by a terrifying force. It didn’t last long, however, because he broke the silence, voice soft, as though lost in a dream. “Your stars are not mine. Still, they have given you better luck than most, and the means to escape ill fortune when it comes.” He nodded, eyes growing ever more distant. “Yes. Today the Thief shall guide your steps on the road to destiny.”
I was too numb from the continuing surprises to even wonder how the Emperor knew what he knew anymore, though I supposed it was possible he’d just known my birthdate from whatever records the Watch had on me after my arrest, and had just made the obvious calculations. He had seemingly known my name, and even written me a pardon earlier, after all; which I devoutly hoped Baurus still had in safe and legible condition. My mind threw the troublesome thought at me that the Emperor had shown knowledge of more than a few things he shouldn’t have tonight, which thought I quickly suppressed as being too outrageous. Yet my damnable curiosity led me to ask one last question. “Can you see my fate?”
“My dreams grant me no opinions of success. Their compass ventures not beyond the doors of death. But in your face, I behold the sun’s companion. The dawn of Akatosh’s bright glory may banish the coming darkness. With such hope, and with the promise of your aid, my heart must be satisfied.” He shook his head, suddenly all business now.
The Emperor then stood, with difficulty; he moved rather stiffly, and sitting on the cold stone obviously had done him no good. “Come. We must go.”
“Where are we going? I mean, we’ll be out of here, that’s for certain, but afterwards?” Did he mean for me to continue following in his train? His reply chilled me with its iron certainty.
“I go to my grave. A tongue shriller than all the music calls me. You shall follow me yet for a while, then we must part.”
I’d had about enough of all this talk of death. For Arkay’s sake, he might be old, but he was far from being a corpse! Surely he wasn’t in a hurry to be one either. “Aren’t you afraid to die?” I challenged.
“No trophies of my triumphs precede me. But I have lived well, and my ghost shall rest easy.”
Unbelievable. I pitied the men and women who’d made it their work to keep him breathing. If this was an example of their boss’s general attitude towards his own survival, it must surely have them praying to the Madgod in short order. His fatalism was driving me crazy.
“Sire, what makes you so certain you’re about to die? Sure, all these assassins have been popping up like rats, but that’s no reason to give up hope of escape! Your people are determined to see you safe — don’t you trust they will get you out of here alive?”
He laid a hand on my shoulder, as though to comfort me. “Do not grieve what will come to pass, for the living know that they shall die; men are but flesh and blood. They know their doom, but not the hour. In this I am blessed to see the hour of my death… To face my apportioned fate, then fall.”
I gripped my bow tighter. “Well, I beg your pardon, Your Majesty, but I intend to do my best to make sure that “fall” doesn’t happen.”
The Emperor’s smile was very sad. “Thank you.”
He obviously didn’t, or wouldn’t trust my promise. He started to walk on, Glenroy passing by me to get in front of our ragtag group, now numbering only four, five if I counted myself.
Baurus hung back a little. “You made my lord laugh. He hasn’t smiled in ages, not since —” He shook his head. “Thank you.”
I had nothing I could say to that.
“Oh, right.” He handed me a lit torch. “If you’re going to be sticking close, you may as well make yourself useful. Here, why don’t you carry this, and light our way?”
I was momentarily dumbstruck before I shot him my best cross-me-and-die glare. Make myself useful? Ha! If it weren’t for our current situation, I’d show him useful.
I must’ve looked suitably intimidating, since Baurus backpedalled a little as he raised a hand. “No offense meant, I know you can handle yourself; it’s just that you’re looking pretty cut up already. Between the two of us, I think right now I’m better equipped to handle things, should the assassins show up again.” I wasn’t fully happy with that idea, and was still highly tempted to rake him over for his poor choice of words — useful, hah! — but I did have to agree with him there; my leather armour was already rent in several spots, and the only things keeping me upright by this point were potions and the burning need to be free of this place. Giving in with ill-grace, I stomped ahead.
Still bearing the torch, I moved up to just behind the Emperor, with Baurus and his comrade bringing up the rear, Glenroy again on point. Our footsteps on the stone and the clanking of my companions’ armour were the only sounds to be heard, apart from the occasional snap-crackle of pitch from the torches.
“For Lord Dagon!” The scream came from my left. Where the fuck had that man come from? We soon had our hands full, the assassins attempting every dirty trick in the book and then some to reach the Emperor.
The struggle carried us into the next room, where we killed the last of the assassins — a smaller group this time; perhaps we were thinning their numbers.
Our numbers were thinned too. Baurus and Glenroy’s comrade, whose name I didn’t know, had fallen in the line of duty — a loss we couldn’t afford. I felt a rush of dizzy panic as I realised that only the three of us now stood between the Emperor and his would-be murderers, and that I was indeed expected to throw myself between him and any knives heading his way. I began to feel the first seeds of self-doubt: When push came to shove, did I really have the courage to stand between the Emperor and the assassins?
Glenroy looked appraisingly at me as I jogged up next to him. “You handled yourself pretty well back there.” Huh. Was he actually softening his position on my presence? “Just keep out of our way, got it? We don’t need amateurs to muddle things worse.” Apparently not.
It seemed we were almost through to the sewers, which were our destination; and thence out of the city, according to Baurus. Just before the last set of stairs, Glenroy hissed. Turning his head, he called back to Baurus. “Hold up! I don’t like this. Let me take a look.” He strode down the stairs, looking around for traps, then went over to examine the gate I could see stood in our way. “Looks clear. Come on. We’re almost through to the sewers.”
I drew in a deep breath. I could almost taste the free air of the outside world again, we were so close!
My dreams of freedom were squashed in a storm of swearwords coming from Glenroy, who was now angrily rattling the gate. “Gods dammit! The gate’s barred from the other side! It’s a trap!” I felt like swearing too. Whoever these assassins were, they were well-prepared, and overly well-informed about our plans.
“Break the lock and full our way through?” I suggested. Glenroy paused as he parsed what I’d said, then drew his blade and brought it down, hilt-first on the lock. All that happened was a loud, hollow bon-n-n-n-g and Glenroy losing his grip on the blade.
I got closer to assess the lock and its supports. In the course of our occasional jaunts through ancient ruins, Clesyne and I had managed to break locks like these through applications of magic to weaken the lock itself. “Maybe we should weaken the lock first?” Glenroy turned in my direction, his expression screaming what-hurry-up-out-with-it. “If either of you can cast a flame spell, or freeze the lock repeatedly, it’s easier to break the lock open…” He was shaking his head as I said it, though.
“I’ve no aptitude for the mage arts, Talos knows I’ve tried before, barely made a spark. Can you do it?” I shook my head. “Baurus? You ever tried — ?” The Redguard grimaced even as he shook his head — no help there either. I wasn’t surprised, given the Redguards’ known distrust of magic, but it was still a disappointment. Glenroy glared some more at the gate and its stubborn bespelled lock, as though willing it to melt from sheer force of will.
Baurus’s voice broke the silent gloom. “What about that side passage we passed by earlier? Maybe there’s a way out there?”
“Worth a try. Let’s go!” Glenroy and Baurus both headed into the side passage, with myself and the Emperor following close in their wake. It seemed there was no joy to be had there either, since the room ended in a cul-de-sac.
“It’s a dead end. What’s your call, sir?” Baurus asked Glenroy, who was looking rather overwhelmed.
“I don’t know. I don’t see any good options here.” His face showed the stress of the situation. We were trapped here, without any options to open the gate, or to knock it down. I had a thought. Our assailants had been popping out of side passages and corridors all night; and they didn’t seem to have been using the main paths, which to my thinking suggested secret passages existed here; the old Ayleid ruins were chock full of them.
I was about to suggest we try and find a trigger for such a passage when Glenroy looked alarmed. Obviously he’d thought of something and wasn’t liking it one bit. “They’re behind us!” I sucked in a breath. If they were really behind us, they’d have us cornered in this room, like rats in a trap — Glenroy had the right of it.
Glenroy’s shoulders were squared. I knew that if what he suspected were true, he would likely die attempting to ward off the attackers lying in wait around us. If he were afraid of it, however, he gave no outward sign. “Wait here, Sire,” was his only command before he took off, sword drawn in a high guard.
Baurus followed after, but not before saying to me, “Wait here with the Emperor. Guard him with your life.” I swallowed, feeling the shattering weight of responsibility descend fully on my shoulders. Stepping away and moving closer to the entrance, so as to give myself room to swing should the assassins come through, I tried running through my breath exercises, but found the focus they brought elusive. My mind was running in circles even as my ears strained to hear any sounds from the fight outside. Should the two Blades fall —
“Forgive me.” I was startled by the Emperor’s words, as I spun around to look at him. His face was still covered in that weary grief I’d first seen in my cell, which now felt a lifetime ago; but now there was a mute entreaty there, a look that soured my stomach.
“What?” What was he apologising for now? Why did he look so — guilty?
“I can go no further. For me, it ends here.”
I began to deny it, a hot rage curling in my throat. Why was he so obsessed with his death?
“That I shall die this day, I have known; yet it will be through no fault of yours.”
“Sire, stop this, p-please, I promised I would —” He shook his head, and the words died in my mouth.
“This is where my journey ends. For you though, the road is long and dangerous; I cannot see all that lies on it. Now, give me your hand.” The Emperor was insistent enough that I relented and began to move closer, one eye still on the doorway, even as he began to fumble with something around his neck, hidden by the rich robes he wore, which were now rather battered by dust and dirt. Behind him, stone panelling gave way with a loud rumbling crack and a mighty cloud of dust that momentarily obscured my view of the Emperor.
I froze at the sound, my tired mind thinking that the ruined stones had suddenly decided to give way, then realising in that same moment that the walls were too sound for that to happen. No!
I ran forwards, cursing my slowed reflexes. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Hadn’t I just been considering the idea of a secret passage in the area? Why had I left him in that corner near those stone walls? My heart sank as the armoured form of one of the assassins appeared from within the dust cloud, dagger already raised, thirsting for blood.
It was as though Akatosh had slowed the flow of time for a space, because the events I saw seemed to play out in slow motion, even as I cursed my tired body and forced myself to try and move faster. The Emperor was half-turned towards his assassin, who raised the knife and plunged the blade once, twice, into his unprotected back, then yanked the blade free.
I will never forget the sound the Emperor made as the knife entered his back. I dream of it still: the pain and surprise on his face, the soft grunt from the impact of the blade sinking in, then a hoarse cry as the blade was ripped out of his flesh, over and over. The thud his body made as he sank to the floor echoed above the ringing in my ears, even as my traitorous right hand went completely nerveless and dropped my sword.
“Stranger, you chose a bad day to take up with the cause of the Septims.” The assassin’s voice was distorted by the fiendish armour he wore, all cruel black jags and spikes, like the creation of some inhuman mind.
I don’t remember if I answered him — much of what happened then was, and still is, a blur to my mind. All I clearly remember was the insane urge to eradicate the confidence in his voice, by any means I could manage; pelting forward, screaming, wrestling the smug fetcher face-first onto the ground, hot tears already dimming my vision, and then simply taking the bastard’s head in both hands and slamming it with everything I had, repeatedly, against the stone floor.
I came back to myself, still numb and shaking, staring at my blood-covered hands, and the bloodied, unrecognisable face of the assassin, his bound armour long since vanished. For a few heartbeats I stared down at the still form. I’d just killed a man, pulped his face with my bare hands. My stomach rebelled and I rolled to my feet and away before emptying my stomach of its contents.
“Arliene.” I whipped around as I heard the faint voice calling my name. The Emperor was still alive! I flew to his side, fumbling for the last potion bottle I had on me. It was almost empty, but even the dregs would help keep him alive longer—
The Emperor’s hand, skin nearly translucent and waxy settled on mine. “S-stop.” His breath hitched, and I knew then he was going to die, no matter what I did. Bitterly I cursed the gods for my lost magical abilities. Oh, how I would have happily given my life to be able to cast a Convalescence spell! I persisted however, holding the bottle to his lips and trickling the remaining liquid slowly into his mouth, but he shook his head slightly, and turned away from the bottle.
I feverishly wondered if I had enough cairn bolete caps from the caves that I could chew into a poultice to stop the bleeding; then decided anything was worth trying and popped the mushrooms into my mouth. The taste was worse than dung, but I kept chewing for all I was worth. I fumbled for my dagger, forgotten until now, and started cutting strips from the edges of his robes to bandage his wounds, spitting the juices and pulp of the macerated fungi onto the makeshift bandages before pressing them to the wounds.
“I have — ” The Emperor wheezed a little. ” — spent long enough fearing this day’s arrival. I shall be glad, since that time has now been abridged.” He gasped, and I helped him up, leaning his torso a little to the side so I could get easier access to his back. He then looked at me in the face, again, and his eyes burned with a feverish light. “Remember me, when I am dead, and remember my words. This is only the beginning. Worse — ” He paused, breathing heavily as a spasm of pain showed on his face, ” — is yet to come. You are our only hope to stem the blood tide.” I shook my head, confused. This was too much beyond my understanding.
He lifted his hands to the neck of his robes, already shaking from the blood loss I could not stop, and drew forth a golden chain, on which hung a large red gem, many-faceted and set in gold, surrounded by eight smaller gems. The red gem flashed in the dim light, seemingly burning with a light of its own. I twitched as a sense of vast presence washed over me.
The Emperor’s voice was now little more than a whisper; I could see how hard he was struggling to hold on, even as I pressed the soaked cloth harder against his back, where the lifeblood flowed ceaselessly to the ground. “My guards are strong and true, but even the might of the Blades cannot stand against the Power that rises to destroy us. The Prince of Destruction awakes, born anew in blood and fire. These cutthroats are but his mortal pawns.”
I was confused. Was he actually suggesting what I thought he was? “Mehrunes Dagon? The Daedric Prince?” The Emperor nodded. His hand on mine tightened, barely just perceptible.
“This is the Amulet of Kings. It is — the Empire’s sacred emblem of rulership. It must pass to the last of the Dragon’s Blood. Keep it safe — from the pawns of the Destroyer. Take it, and give it to Jauffre.” He was fast weakening, and the effort to keep speaking was draining him even faster. “I have… secret son… Jauffre alone knows where… Find him. Find the last of my blood… close shut the marble jaws… of Oblivion.” He sagged backwards at this close. Only my arm, still pressed to his back kept him upright now.
I was crying freely and couldn’t stop. The Emperor had been nothing but kind to me through this entire nightmare, and now he was dying in front of me and I couldn’t stop it happening. I’d promised to see him out of here alive and I’d broken my word. Gently, I laid him flat onto the floor. “I will, I will. I won’t ff-forget. I’ll t-take it from here, I promise, with all my heart. I won’t mail you again. I’ll find your son.”
The Emperor’s eyes were already sliding shut, but his lips twitched upwards a fraction at my words, and he rallied a little. “You… haven’t failed me yet. Stand true, my friend. May your heart… be your guide; gods grant you strength.” His breath was already rattling in his lungs, the hated sound I knew presaged the last gasp of life.
“Go. My blessings… hope of the empire… with you.”
Those were his last words.
Dimly I heard the heavy footfalls of someone in armour coming from the doorway behind me, and wondered if it were Baurus or Glenroy, or another assassin, tying up loose ends. That thought spurred me into action as I slid away from the Emperor’s body to face whoever it was.
It was Baurus. He was flecked from top to toe with blood, his armour rent in places, and he’d lost his helm at some point. He saw the Emperor’s body on the ground, and rushed over. “My lord!” He dropped to his knees next to the body, stripping off a bracer to check for breath, fingers frantically feeling for a pulse. His cry of denial was heartbreaking.
“We’ve failed. I’ve… failed. The Blades are sworn to protect the Emperor, and now he and all his heirs are dead.” He clenched his fists as he stood, then stormed over to where I was huddled in my own stew of misery and hauled me up, pinning me against the wall by the shoulders.
“I TOLD YOU TO GUARD HIM! WITH YOUR LIFE!” He slapped me hard, and I let him. The pain in my face was infinitely better than the pain in my heart at the moment. “WHY?” He shook me so hard I grew dizzy. “Why did you let him die?” The last came out as a sob.
“I TRIED! EVERYTHING!” I screamed back at him. “Fuck you, you tt-think I didn’t? You think I get him die? Fucking murdering bastard came from back him— from the bloody walls, gods cursed s-s-secret passages! He was stabbed before I could even get close!” My own blood was up now. “Where the hell were you? We needed you!” Stabbing a finger onto his chest, I continued to shout, getting right up into Baurus’s face, standing on tiptoes. “I needed your help to keep him alive and you weren’t here! What took you so long? Where the fuck is Glenroy?”
Baurus hung his head. “Dead.” He breathed hard, a gusty wavering sigh. “He was my friend. And the Captain. The men we left behind — I knew them, served with them for years. All dead now, for nothing.” He wiped a hand across his face.
The last of my anger had died down to dull embers. I watched as Baurus stooped over the body of his liege; he seemed to be searching for something and was growing frantic. He turned on me. “The Amulet, where’s the Amulet of Kings? It wasn’t on the Emperor’s body.” His face turned dark. “You were the last to see him alive. Did you take it?” His hand strayed to the hilt of his sword. I didn’t miss the silent implication being made that I’d killed them both, the Emperor and would-be assassin.
I sighed and held up the jewel, fighting back the shiver that being in direct contact with its sheer power triggered. “The Emperor entrusted it to me, before he died.” I swallowed, throat dry and scratchy from crying. “He mentioned I needed to find a person named Jauffre.”
“Jauffre? He said that? Why would he send you with the Amulet to Jauffre?” Baurus seemed suspicious still.
I weighed my options. The Emperor had obviously kept his secret son just that, a secret; for what looked to be very good reasons. And yet Baurus had proved himself loyal to the end. He was also probably not going to buy any lies I could come up with on the spur of the moment.
“How do I know I can trust you? For all I know you could have been working with the assassins.” I stalled, still on guard, wondering how little I could tell him of the Emperor’s last request that would let me go free. I felt that Baurus might be trusted with the truth in full, but that didn’t mean everybody else he would be obliged to report to was. The Emperor had been betrayed tonight, I knew it as surely as I knew my mother’s name. Betrayed by someone who should’ve been loyal, someone who was close to him, who knew what route he’d be taking out of the city. Who could be more likely than the guards closest to him, who had shadowed his every move?
Baurus growled at this slight to his integrity. “I’ve served my lord with honour as a Blade for years, and I’ve kept all his secrets that I know of without needing a royal command. You don’t get to stand there and throw accusations around, prisoner.”
I scowled, but his words made me feel better about divulging a least a part of the truth. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to clear that I was jailed due to a m-mistake your people made. You bloody idiots in the Watch and the Blades couldn’t t-tell the difference between me and my sister, didn’t fact-check before bringing the wagons around, and didn’t care to ear when I tried to say, even though I told you who I was during my arrest.” The whole thing still rankled. Not least because had Clesyne actually been here, she’d probably have managed to save the Emperor — even back when I could cast them myself, my sister had always been naturally better at Restoration spells.
Baurus made impatient noises. “That’s neither here nor there. Never mind that now. Why go to Jauffre?”
“The Emperor gave me something to do for him, something important. He also said Jauffre would know where to go. And no, I won’t tell you what it is.” I cut him off before he could interrupt. “Say I believe you, and you’re entirely trustworthy. That doesn’t mean everyone you report to is.”
“We’re sworn to protect the Emperor and his family!” I wondered whether he was really that naive, or just that trusting, unwilling to doubt his compatriots’ honour. I knew very well from my experiences with Audens Avidius, that a man could swear an oath or several, on anything he fancied be it his mother’s honour or the gods’ witness; it didn’t mean he’d keep even the letter of it, never mind its spirit, or both.
“Oaths can be broken or perverted, man, you see it! Stop being — being ox, and think! I’m on your side, dammit, and I’m telling you, you need to scrub house, because you have got to have rats in your ranks.” I hoped he’d see sense, because right now he was the only ally I had that I could count on, and more importantly, he could make my life very difficult if he chose by not letting me go free. The matter of the pardon weighed heavily on my mind.
“Who else would’ve known the Emperor was taking this route? This way was supposed to be think to the Blades only, wasn’t it? And yet they found us again and again. Someone had to have been feeding your enemies — our enemies — inside information. Who else could it be? It has to have been a Blade, and fairly sky in your ranks to be able to access this information.” Baurus’s face was sour, and he looked like his brain was working hard at digesting what I told him. I hoped my lecture had done him some good.
“All right. You make a convincing argument. But what do I tell my superiors? They’ll want to know what my lord said to you, and where the Amulet is.” He grimaced. “The Elder Council, in particular, will have fits about letting an escaped prisoner run off with the Amulet of Kings. I almost can’t believe it myself that the Emperor gave it to you. It’s the most sacred symbol of the Empire there is. Most people think of the Red Dragon Crown, but that’s just jewellery. The Amulet has power, real power. And yet…” He sighed. “The Emperor, he saw something in you. Trusted you. They say it’s the Dragon Blood, that flows through the veins of every Septim, letting them see more than lesser men.” A heavy pause.
I held my breath. Would Baurus believe me, trust me enough, to let me go do what I had to?
“I don’t know what the Emperor saw, but I believed in him and his judgment; and if he trusted you, enough to give you the Amulet of Kings, I guess I’ll have to as well.”
I breathed out, utterly relieved, as I nodded my head to him. “Thank you. You do have my writ of pardon on you, you realise?”
Baurus’s smile was grim. “I do. So you are the Arliene Aswyth he mentioned back there?”
I nodded assent. I was mildly surprised he remembered, though I likely shouldn’t have been; those who served the Emperor as his personal guard were no fools.
“I’ll deliver it to the Chancellor with all speed once I’m done here. Can’t have you arrested on your way to Jauffre now, can we?”
“About Jauffre —” I cleared my throat. “Who is he? The Emperor didn’t manage to tell me where to find him before he… passed.”
“Jauffre is the Grandmaster of my Order, though you may not think so to meet him. Very few outside our Order even know who he is. He lives quietly as a monk at Weynon Priory, near the city of Chorrol. I don’t know what business you’ll have with Jauffre, but the Emperor must’ve given you the Amulet and told you to take it to him for a reason; perhaps he knows — something —?”
“Don’t speculate, please. It could be dangerous to your health and mine. In all reality I’d rather not have said you this much even, except that I wouldn’t know where to start looking for Jauffre and hoped you’d know.”
He laughed. “You’re a suspicious one, aren’t you?” He tilted his head. “You speak strangely as well. Not been in Cyrodiil long?”
I waved it off. “Speech problem. Old one. Happens. Not important right now. As for being suspicious — Wouldn’t you be, in my face? This thing,” I waved the Amulet in my hand, “is going to make me the next target of those red-robed bastards out there. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of them.” Baurus sobered up immediately.
“You’re right. The most important thing we need to do now, is for you to follow the Emperor’s last instructions, and get that Amulet out to Jauffre immediately.” He felt about under his armour, and brought out a key, which he gave to me. “Don’t lose that — you’ll need it to get to the secret way out through the sewers. We were supposed to bring the Emperor out that way so no one would know —” He swallowed, his expression crumbling before smoothing out again. “Well, it was supposed to be a secret way out of the city. Guess it wasn’t, huh?”
He pointed towards the opened door, through which the assassin had entered and struck down the late Emperor. “The entrance to the sewers must be through that door, past the locked gate. The key I gave you will open the last door into the sewers. There’s rats and goblins down there; but given you made it through the caverns earlier, and from what I’ve seen of you in a fight, I’m guessing in any case they’ll give you no trouble — you seem to be an experienced fighter.” He looked at the dead assassin’s remains, and winced, quite visibly. “Do all your enemies look like that when you’re done with them?” he joked, feebly attempting to make light of the pulverised state I’d left the murdering son of a netch in.
My smile was toothy. “I can do well enough to get myself out of trouble,” I agreed. “And to answer your question: only the ones who make me really angry.” I had not forgotten his earlier comments with the torch. Baurus looked uncomfortable even as he looked at my hands, and then back to the still body of the Emperor’s murderer. Hah.
“Good. Get the Amulet to Jauffre at Weynon Priory immediately. Take no chances with your safety, or the Amulet’s. I fear you may be right, and you’ll be hunted as soon as word gets out: the Elder Council leaks information like a sieve.”
I swore at the thought. “Goddamned useless bunch of old farts in p-petticoats! Haven’t they any sense? Do they not know the meaning of secrecy?”
“Hey, hey. Take it easy. One step at a time.” Baurus set his hands back on my shoulders, gripping much more gently this time, though still firm. “I know this is a lot to take in, and everything’s probably looking rather overwhelming right now. I do believe that the Emperor’s trust was well-placed, and he was wiser than anyone knew when he trusted you with this. If you are right, and the Blades have been infiltrated —” here his face twisted with chagrined anger — “our regular agents’ faces and descriptions have probably been leaked to our enemies. You might be our best shot at getting the Amulet away without detection.”
Divines. This was nothing I ever wanted on my shoulders. And yet, who else was there? “And you? What will you do now?”
Baurus smiled reassuringly at me, but it faded as he looked down again at the late Emperor’s form, still lying in a pool of blood. “I’ll stay here to guard the Emperor’s body, and make sure no one follows you from here. I’ll do my best to stall any questions the Council and my superiors may have, for as long as I can when they start the questioning, later. Give you more time to get out and away to safety, before whoever those bastards are start coming for you, hopefully.” He gave me a gentle push in the direction of the opened door. “Go on. You’d better get moving. Talos guide and guard you on your road.”
“The gods watch over you, friend.”
I turned to go at that, but then stopped short. I felt I had one last thing left to do here. I turned back to where the Emperor’s body lay. The aged face was peaceful, serene; I hoped that his spirit would indeed, in his own words from earlier, “rest easy”, after a long, colourful life that had been full of hardships.
I crouched down and leaned in close to whisper a last promise. “Sire, if you can hear me from wherever spirits go — I’ll protect your son with everything I’ve got, see him safely to the throne. I swear it.”
I walked the dark passages, wary of noises; my mind however repeatedly turned over the words I had said earlier, just before I left Baurus with the late Emperor.
“Don’t lose faith. The Emperor did leave us some hope.”
Poor Baurus. He’d obviously been rather confused by my words, and Divines alone knew what the Council might make of them, if he did report that last bit. Perhaps even giving out that cryptic hint was a mistake, but I found I really couldn’t care however: those words had been more for Baurus’ sake than anyone else’s, really. I’d found I couldn’t stand to see him so forlorn, and not leave him with something to hold on to.
I thought again of Baurus and his lonely watch, and hoped that help would arrive for him soon; being left alone with the dead strewn in his wake, guarding the body of his beloved liege-lord, stewing in his own guilt, was hardly good for his state of mind.
The light of the sun, even just under the horizon, was dazzling to my eyes, so long adapted to the darkness of prison cells and the gloomy, stinking sewers. The waters of the Rumare glittered blue and gold, the sounds of lapping, sighing water forming the background to the chatter of water-birds and insects. I took a deep breath, then plunged into the waters, swimming to the opposite shore.
Standing in the pre-dawn light and squeezing the ends of my hair to remove the water, the entirety of my imprisonment and the events of the previous night seemed surreal. I knew it was no dream however: I could feel the Amulet of Kings tucked away under my clothes and armour, its weight and solidity against my skin a constant reminder of my oath, its living presence a warm and vital sensation, like a fire on a cold night.
The Emperor was dead, but he’d charged me, a no-name, half crippled, jailbird adventuress, with carrying the hope of all the Empire to safety. The sheer amount of blind faith and trust in that gesture was staggering, even as it swelled my confidence and determination.
Chorrol was several days to the north and west, and I had no time to lose. No time to despair now over my sister’s whereabouts, or what I might do next after this. All those concerns seemed petty in the face of what had occurred in the depths of the City. As our mother used to say, “keep your head pointed to the sun and your feet moving forward”.
I did have a short side-trip to make first. There was a small cache of things, hidden outside of an Ayleid ruin a little ways from here that I’d found not long before, and I did need to restock on supplies and equipment. A detour to grab them would be a good way to get used to prolonged exercise again, before making the run for Chorrol.
Weynon Priory. I had only a foggy recollection of hearing the name once or twice, but no clear memory of its location, and Baurus had only said it was somewhere outside of Chorrol. Racking my brains for the geography around Chorrol, I remembered it would be either to the southeast of the city, or the southwest, I wasn’t sure which. I’d likely have to ask for directions in the city at some point.
Checking again that the Amulet was safely hidden, I turned my steps towards my destination. Whatever happened next, I was sure it was going to be interesting.