20demayo Chapter 275: Chapter I: The Unbindening
Chapter 275: Chapter I: The Unbindening
Chapter 275: Chapter I: The Unbindening
The first thing she felt was the sound of a cart moving down an uneven road, the hooves of the horse pulling it following soon after. The next was the smell, the sweet smell of mountain spring, 'the smell of home' a large part of her almost leaped for joy.
Realizing that she was awake, her eyes snapped open rushing to absorb the sight before she was otherwise distracted. But, as always, the world had other ideas as she swiftly realized she had gone to sleep in her armor and her neck was now incredibly sore from leaning onto the enchanted steel plate.
Her sudden groan of discomfort must have drawn some attention for it took only a moment for a male voice to address her from her side "Hey you, you are finally awake!" A brown- haired Nord of a stocky build wearing light legion armor adapted to Skyrim's climate greeted her with a smile as he waved his hand in front of her face.
She made a sound that vaguely resembled "Yesh."
The young man chuckled in amusement "You were lucky your companion had proper documentation when you were found camping at the border, we had just caught a large rebel raiding party and found you nearby." He pauses and looks away with a wince "Would not have liked what happened otherwise."
Her eyes snapped open fully as she shifted into a more comfortable position "How by all the gods did I sleep through all that?!"
Before the soldier can answer the amused laughter of her fellow adventurer draws her attention "Come now, you know it takes a giant swinging its club to wake you." The Altmer shakes his head at the memory invoked by his words.
A distant noise draws her attention "Who is that?" She asks a moment later while pointing at the cart behind them where a young Nord of noble grooming was attempting to rouse his fellow prisoners into action. His words sounded more like rehearsed preaching than anything else so they didn't have much effect... The heavily armed guards probably did not help him in making his point either.
The Altmer shrugs lackadaisically "Some naive kid, probably. Damn idiot is practically asking them to commit suicide by annoyed legionaries."
"Ah, one of those." She nodded, a slight feeling of disdain welling up within her unbidden. "Let us hope they are smart enough not to listen." Her friend hums and returns to reading a ballad of some sort, one of the many he took from their temporary home in Cyrodiil.
Taking the hint she leaves her friend to his musing and turns back to the soldier "Where are we?"
"On the road to Helgen." He answered after only a brief hesitation "The prisoners need to be transferred to the dungeons and your other friend said you needed to refill supplies."
"I see..." She trailed off momentarily, creating a mental picture of their position like she was taught "That is probably wise." She concluded.
The mention of her other companion caused her mixed feelings. On the one side, she was a highly trained soldier assigned solely to ensure her protection and was almost fanatically loyal from the moment she was informed of her true name. One the other, the skillfully hidden devotion behind those cold eyes was growing more unnerving by the day.
She once more cursed the Mer that thrust her toward her destiny without one moment to ask if she even wanted it. She did, of course, but it was the principle of the matter.
"I am sorry?" She looked up and apologized to the amused soldier for ignoring him.
"Don't sweat it, I hear your journey has been quite long." The legionary waves the whole thing off "I wanted to inform you that we are- "
"ATTENTION YOU MAGGOTS!" A loud call makes all the legionaries surrounding the column of carts straighten up, even the drivers seem to stand at attention from their seats. An Orsimer wearing personalized heavy imperial armor walks by their cart as he speaks "Helgen is just over that hill and I've just been informed that we will be visited by the General himself. I want the formation in perfect order, not a hair out of place. Is that understood?"
A mostly affirmative murmuring greets him in response.
"I SAID" The orc bellows "IS THAT UNDERSTOOD!?"
"YES QUAESTOR!" The legionaries chorus, drowning out the insults being thrown at their officer by the furious rebels.
A silent moment passes before the amused voice of her friend is heard once more "Well now, he has certainly changed."
"You recognize him, Marco?" she asks in surprise.
"You don't?" He raises an eyebrow "That is Zarok, late of the Sprawl Freemen." "Indeed." A clear female voice startles everyone on the cart as a lightly armored Imperial practically materializes in the sat opposite her "The Quaestor has proven his ability both in battle and as a commander multiple times since he enlisted. The High King himself honored him with a rather quick promotion after his actions at the battle of Helgen Pass." The agent's voice flows with perfect neutrality, not betraying a single emotion as she spoke as if she was discussing the weather.
"What Junes, did you just happen to check on his files before we accidentally ran into his unit?" Marco snarks amusedly.
'Junes' or Junia momentarily failed to suppress the twitch of her eye at the prodding, it lasted only for the briefest moment but Marco still took it as a win and smirked triumphantly. Accepting that she would have to deal with the smug elf for a while Junia simply answered the question "I have read up on every Decanus and above stationed in the south of Skyrim before we crossed the border."
"I did not see you carry a library with you." Marco points out.
Junia merely smiled at that "We have our ways."
Before the two could start squabbling any further, she spoke "Where have you been Junia?"
The Penitus Occulatus agent inclined her head "Just scouting the cohort and ensuring we were not under any threat, my lady."
"You know, you could actually try and be subtle about this." Marco deadpans.
Surprisingly, it is the legionary who answers him "We know not to meddle with things so far above our paygrade."
The General cleared his throat, his commanding presence stopping even the rebel in his tracks
"Thank you." Tullius offered mildly as everyone quieted down and spoke in a tone with which one might address a toddler "Now, child." The noble winces at the term "Why exactly do you think you are about to be executed?"
A bit confused, the young man points at the headman's block in the center of the square "It's why you brought us here, no?"
"Every town has a headsman's block." Tullius deadpans, completely unamused.
"I... err..." The Nord sputters, his face growing red "What?" He finally asks. Tullius takes a fortifying breath and slowly asks "Did you and your unit commit any rape,
pillaging, or any other punishable war crime that we failed to discover?"
He reels back as if struck "What?! Of course we didn't!"
"Which is why you get to languish in the dungeons instead of being beheaded." Tullius
explains patiently.
Seemingly lost as to what to say to the General, the young man looks around and notices her
"You, you are Dragonbane are you not?"
Hiding her embarrassment to much greater effect this time as it was overwhelmed by her annoyance at being singled out, Minthara raises an eyebrow "Yes?"
"Why do you stand beside these traitors then?" He points a finger at the General who was by
now palming his face and attempting to hold back a migraine "You are a true Nord hero, how can you betray your people like that?!"
Rolling her eyes at the pitiful attempt, she pulls back her crimson hair, showing off her slightly pointed ears "I will have to disappoint you then."
She pointedly ignored the newly arrived Ambassador muttering "Mongrel filth" With far more vitriol than she would assign to even the most arduous of Talos worshippers.
The Stormcloak pauses briefly before seemingly coming to the most obvious conclusion he
could "Even with-"
"If you finish that sentence with what I think you are about to say, I will feed you your own
cock." Minthara cuts him off, her eyes narrowing into slits. The amount of times she had heard that particular 'theory' from her fellow Nords was a very sore spot and her draconic instincts were not helping.
The townsfolk and many legionaries outright laughed at her reaction.
But the young man would not be stopped "So what, you will just let your own people be
subjugated?!" Even his comrades were giving him exasperated looks at this point "Let them all die to that grey skinned monstrosity they call a Court Mage?!" "N'wah says what?" A familiar voice resounds from behind the nobleman. "WHAT!?" He whirls around, coming face to face with two burning eyes, and wets his
breeches in an instant.
"Oi, Tullius!" The newly arrived Reyvin calls out "Why do you have Ulfric's brat with the
grunts?"
Ulfric's what now?!
It has been unilaterally decided by the council of me and I that a new n'wah tax shall be
implemented. Seeing as you are all n'wahs I demand you give me all your stones posthaste, or
I will pout terribly.
If you want to support me directly and get access to 35ish chapters (Some 70k-ish words) in
advance visit my patreon page patreon.com/Rastislav156
If you want to discuss the story or just meme about join my discord server: https://discord.gg/NSDHGQpvsF (refreshed)