The Journey Begins

"You have to admit," she said, embers falling from her fingertips. The sun was red, casting pink across the sky as it began its slow dip behind the mountains. "This can be a truly beautiful country."

"Of course," one of her assistants answered in rote. He was pulling the corpse of a young Nord girl to a pile in front of the statue of the Pretender. She didn't look back, though she didn't like the practised manner he spoke in; as if he were humouring her.

A dragon spread its wings on a peak in the distance. She frowned. The dragon roared, and leapt into the sky.

"Someone approaches."

"We've finished, ma'am," her assistant called as she walked down past the blood stained benches and strewn arrows.

"Light them," she called back, stopping at the top of the path leading up to the shrine of Talos.

"From the Ambassador herself," the messenger panted, handing her a sealed letter. She nodded.

"Your horse is being stolen," she said as she started reading. The messenger turned with a squawk and staggered back down the path.

"New orders?" her assistant asked as she folded up the letter and turned back to the plume of black smoke that rose into the sky.

A half smile played on her lips as she watched the flames cast a pale light on the stone features of Talos Stormcrown in the fading light of day.

"Pack up. We have someone to meet."

Her assistant blanched.

"Not the Khajiit?"

"Oh yes," she paused, and then her smile widened. "But there's someone else we're going to talk to first. Maur."

Her assistant gave a small sigh of relief. She laughed and patted him on the shoulder.

"Come, we must be off..."

She paused again.

"You forgot my name again," the assistant sighed. She shrugged.

"I go through so many," she said without remorse. He blanched again, and turned to issue marching orders to the milling soldiers and archers.

She turned back to the peak, the dragon roaring as it circled its perch.

"So many mysteries," she murmured to herself before making her way to the road.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Magess?"

One Dunmer slave poured Cyrodillic brandy into a pair of matched drinking globes while another stoked the fire to ward off the barbaric northern chill. Castle Dour was drafty, even in the interior chambers granted to the Thalmor Embassy. It took constant vigilance, and copious firewood, to keep the air at a respectable warmth reminiscent of autumn in he Summerset Isles. The fact that it sweltered for any Nordic interloper was a not unfortunate side effect.

Caethras Maur sat in one of the room's high-backed velvet-draped armchairs, clad in a loose silk shirt that did not entirely hide the vest of ebony mail beneath, one boot hooked over his other knee, his brandy glass balanced with effortless regal disdain in his long-fingered right hand. The decor of the parlor around him had been entirely transformed: heavy timber-and-tusk Nordic furniture shifted unceremoniously into storage in favor of elegant Aldmeri designs made of carved ivory, glass, teak, and moonstone, the woven mammoth-wool rugs replaced with brilliantly colored carpets from Hammerfell, the weathered and ancient bas-relief figures on the walls covered with hanging tapestries that described the history of the Aldmeri Dominion in rich gold, blue, and crimson thread. Everything Nordic about the room had been either banished or hidden, and but for the arched stone ceilings above, Caethras may have been a highborn warrior noble lounging in his ancestral home in Alinor.

"You owe the dragons," she answered simply. She paused, thinking about it. "Or the Blades. You've heard there's still some kicking around?"

She shrugged and sat down, the motions causing some snow to fall from her cape and robes onto the finely upholstered chair and rug. Her hair was damp and clung wetly to her face, but she simply swiped the offending strands away.

"The esteemed Ambassador believes they might be the ones resurrecting the lizards. Apparently," she drew out the word, reaching for the glass of brandy and only stopped speaking to toss it back in one quick movement. She swallowed, holding up one finger, and set the glass down.

"...they already have assets on that lead." She waved her hand, as if brushing away a fly. "They have asked me to study the dragons themselves, and the ruins devoted to them. Knowledge is power, after all."

She leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees.

"Normally, I'd just requisition a small team and start excavating. But there have been reports from some of the squads of 'guardians' or something similar found around the ruins. Locals call them Draugr. I'm sure you've heard of them. I require the help of a seasoned commander if I'm going to be able to study these ruins or get a good look at these dragons.

"So I came to you."

Blades. Dragons. Enticing lures, after two weeks of prowling the court of Solitude like a sabercat on a leash. Still, he frowned.

"I've encountered Draugr before," he said. "Wasn't much impressed with them. I daresay even your usual caliber of hired sword should be able to handle a few desiccated Nordic corpses."

He sipped his own brandy more delicately, savoring the flavor of conquest. Appropriately, the aftertaste was bitter.

"What are you really here for?"

"Aha," she said more than laughed. "You'd be right, save for the fact that there are some quite dangerous old corpses out there, some that use whatever magick Ulfric used to kill Torygg. Shouting him to death. But yes, there is another thing that brings me to you out of all people."

She leaned forward.

"You are what I need. You know as well as I do that our offensives in Cyrodiil would not have been nearly so successful without the Orb of Vaermina. Our overconfidence and lack of a supplemental spy network were our undoing, partially because we were so reliant on one resource. The Imperial Legions are still a force to be reckoned with, and war with the Empire looms. We need more. Another daedric artefact? Maybe. But perhaps these dragons, or at least their magick, can also be a resource we can use. You have more combat experience than any other Altmer in Skyrim. You are also intelligent enough to be able to see the military applications of whatever we may find."

She smiled wryly.

"Who knows? Perhaps the Council will be sufficiently impressed with the results that you — we — will no longer have to stay in these forsaken lands. In fact, if this expedition and the future ones it spawns prove as useful as I expect, I can almost promise it will wipe clean any... stain they may perceive."

May be more people will post and we will find out,I got my ember so long ago thinking the barracks was not in our kingdoms then,and I bought my second ember with gems