The Argonian Maid?...Nope!

If you have questions or anything else like "We wanna see the kitties have a go at it"-requests, feel free to drop a note

I really should not wait to upload a chap until everything is fixed. My computer broke a chapter...dammit. It had juicy melons in it.

 

Well,no sense in crying over spilt cream...only an opportunity to write it better at the next try..

 

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"You...I remember you. The argonian..same cell so long ago and you have come back. Came back for me now that you are free,to free me?"

I smiled behind my mask, nodding and checking the area with a spell. No one near, but they would come back soon, walking their rounds.



Picking open first my lock, than the one on Dreths cell "Have clothes for you that hide you, leave your old ones here and fast please" I urged him on, listening for the sound of heavy boots on stone, metall clanking together or similiar things while keeping an eye on the Dunmer.



"I close the cell and than we slip out through the passage, stay behind me, there are guards" maybe the clothes there and a pile of ash I dumped there from my bag would distract the guards enough..in an amusing way

"You make me look like a vampire!" the Dunmer sounded angry but I didn´t care.

"Well when they think you are ash, they won´t search for you, more time for us to get to safety"

This made him think and he inclined his head. For now he seemed decent, not hurling cutting sentences at me.

"By the way...I swam..."

"You seem to have humor"

"Very much so" turning back into my old cell, leading the Dunmer back. Surprisingly he was pretty decent with his sneaking skills..no wonder that he sat in prison for so long. He must have done something big with his talents.



Sometimes it was uncomfortable close to getting detected, but we made it into the sewers, lending the dunmer a cloth to protect his nose from the smell.

"Let us stay true, I didn´t get you out because I am such a kindhearted fool and we are best of friends. The beggars told me some things about you and I could use your help"

"Did they and could you, really?"

We had stopped at a high point, a dry pathway high over the stinking waters that lead to another section

"There is a cave and some bandits...and an old Ayleid ruin. So much shiny stuff, but I need some help against the bandits and there are so many riches for us to collect. It is just...you Dunmer are naturally better at such things, talented...agil. I am good at swimming and a bit of sneaking" honey was thickly smeared around my words.





Oh with that glittering in the eyes of the Dunmer I could tell what went on in his mind.

Greed, a craving for blood and riches.

"Five bandits the most, bretons I gathered" offering him a flask "For some more stamina and endurance" he looked skeptic so I let some of the liquid run into my mouth without touching the container to my lips. Which Dunmer would drink from a bottle that had meet with the lips of a lowly argonian?

"Good..I could use some" grabbing the flask and emptying it before I lead us out of the sewers, jogging further over the isle on which the city was built to a small mine that had been long since abandoned, overgrown, the wood half rotten, once had been a sturdy door.



You could only see it when you searched for it, or knew where the entrance was, the formation of rocks, overgrown with plants hid the door well which seemed to nearly vanish under the looming boulders.





"Doesn´t look like much..and you say there are treasures, enough to share and get away from here?"

"Yes, very much, more than I can carry alone..so many pretty stones" bumbling like a fool which seemed to work, the red eyes of the Dunmer nearly glowed with want.



Nontheless I had to enter first, leading him down the old mine until we reached the breach where it would get really interesting.





"That...looks like an Ayleid ruin" I could tell he looked a bit spooked, first a dead bandit laying there, than the sea and the ruins that glowed slightly in the dark, tendrils of green winding around them

"Ayleid ruin...yes like I said. Did you think I lied? Well,there are the jewels and the gold and those glowing stones, the stones are very pretty"

"Pretty..." the dislike in his voice for me was clear, not understanding the value it seemed.



It was so silent here...wonderful silent except the noise of the water when we walked through it, the crystalline sound of water droplets hitting the ground or the lake.

I let him take what he wanted, gems out of the mounted retainers, taking gold coins from another fallen person...they looked all so fresh.

Guess the magic of this place preserved them.



His joy was immense as he entered the hall with the artificial sky full of stars, glowing crystals and roots snaking over the floor

"I am rich...so rich..." he slowly turned to me as I stood near the entrance, just watching him without any word or movement

"And I won´t share, mine..everything mine..mine!"

He lifted his hand...oh Dunmer, yes they are one of the mer with quite a bit of magic



"I don´t need any of those riches"

"Stop bartering for your life, it is useless, it is all mine and you can tell no one"

His hand glowed red but than...the next moment he hung upside down and I chuckled airily



"No, no bartering for my life. I can not barter with something that doesn´t belong to me, can I?



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Where before was greed, now there was fear. Fear because...of everything.

The Argonian looked...detached, so silent and calm, walking up to the Dunmer who hung there, struggles had proven to be useless as he was wrapped tightly in green tendrils.

Big blue green eyes stared up into red ones and there was a silver sheen to the green, reflecting the light of the crystals

"I was sent to take your life and now this life is mine to handle...I won´t kill you because that would be a waste, but to the world you are dead." a voice so smooth, a whisper just, but loud in the silence where the rustle of the roots and the drip-drap of water was the only other noise so far.



Black pupils were blown wide as the Argonian stopped in front of the Dunmer, smiling and showing the glimmer of teeth between his lips.



"Unhand me you beast, you can not do that to me..you...you..." words had left the Dunmer who couldn´t come up with any of the fantastic things he had said at their first meeting.

And a stupid beast he had underestimated..so desperate for freedom and greedy for material riches that he hadn´t thought about what a breakin really could mean.



No one dumb or unskilled could have done that...he knew he was doomed even when his mind didn´t want to accept it



"You will never know real riches" the Argonian said, pupils full blown, endless black with the shimmer of stars, or just the reflection of the crystals in them..why couldn´t he see himself in the eyes of the beast?

"You will never feel real riches...never..your mind is so small" and it sounded like a whispered carress, not like an insult ...pity, pity for him, his mind?



"No..."

"Yes...but maybe you might get a breath of it...more than most will..maybe. You will live, don´t worry...Meridia is not keen on undeath beeings..her realm is life"



And her servants coiled, pulling the dunmer back into a secret passage that opened when the engraved tree glowed silver, the branches dancing in a nonexisting wind.





What the Argonian saw in his mind, the riches that had once been here, the beauty unmarred by time. Black, unreflecting pupils went up to the ceiling, the starlit sky..and that was what had been seen in the black plane, the sky above him, stars moving before they halted for a rest again.



"We are all just tokens in a game, but not mindless ones...how I yearn for you my king...soon. Your Avatar will fly again and it will burn"

A hand to his heart the Argonian stood, staring up in the sky, branding the position of the magical starts into his mind, tuneless songs and voiceless ballads of birds while blood broke from his back, thin streams of crimson gliding in pearls over the feathers, dripping on the ground, thin lines visible on the skin under the downs as the lizard shuddered and the feathers fluffed up for a moment, gazing up with a peacefull expression on his face once more.



"Soon..." a sound of regret as his eyelids fell shut in the same motion as his head sunk down, hand falling from his heart "Soon my king" followed by a shudder before pupils contracted again back to normal and Kyrell walked away, back out of the sunken, forgotten city. Forgotten like nearly everything about the Ayleids.



There was much more to do, so much more....