A Nord's Tale

Sanyue descended the stairs to the first level of Weynon Priory, feeling better than she had in days. She took the steps two at a time, wanting to make good time since walking to Kvatch would take the better part of a day and a half. However, as she reached the bottom of the stairs she was stopped by the same friar she had seen at the table the day before. Introducing himself as Prior Maborel, he greeted her with a smile instead of the annoyed frown of the previous day. "I know you are on a mission for the Blades." Sanyue had never thought of her 'errand' as a mission for the legendary servants of the crown. "Please if you need a horse, take mine from the Priory stables."

Sanyue nearly hugged the monk, however she kept her appreciation limited to a smile. "That's very generous of you. Thank you."

Prior Maborel nodded his bald head. "Go with Talos' blessings. Do not fail."

Sanyue blinked. She had not realized she had been given a choice. In less than a week, her life had gone from comfortably predictable to insanely complicated faster than a hungry dragon chasing a herd of cattle. She just smiled and stepped out of the Priory and toward the stables in the rear. The Prior's horse, a painted mare, was in the process of being saddled by the caretaker, Eranor, a sour looking Dunmer. He handed her the reigns and a simple, "Good luck," before turning around to tend to his duties. She smiled and climbed on the mare and nudged her out of the stable and onto the road heading west.

******

Sanyue patted the mare on the side of the neck. The two had made good time along the Gold Road, making what would have been nearly a two day journey on foot into a day trip. She had slowed the mare up as they neared the beginning of the steep climb to the summit of the plateau that the city of Kvatch was built on. It seemed that there was a storm brewing as night fell so Sanyue urged the mare on toward the city. Though as she came close to the foot of the plateau, she caught the light of several campfires with several people standing around. At first she thought that a caravan had stopped for the night, however the state the people were in, the way they just stood or sat still, staring blindly into the darkness gave a much different impression. As she dismounted, a Bosmer man rand up to her, a crazed expression on his face. "Come on! Run while there's still time!" Sanyue backed up, caught off guard by the wood elf's near crazed rambling. "The guard holds the road but it's only a matter of time before their overwhelmed!"

Sanyue gripped her sword hilt, just waiting for this Bosmer to fully freak out and try to make off with her only means of transportation. "Run? From what?"

The elf seemed taken aback by her lack of understanding of the situation. "God's Blood! You don't know, do you?" Sanyue shook her head mutely. "Daedra over ran Kvatch last night!" Sanyue's mouth dropped open. "There were glowing portals outside the walls! Gates to Oblivion itself!" Her eyes went to the walls of Kvatch as her stomach sank somewhere around her knees. "There was a huge creature," he grabbed his face as though to keep his head on his shoulders. "Something out of a nightmare!" The Bosmer's hands covered his eyes in an almost child-like attempt to shield himself from his own memory. "Came right over the walls! Blasting fire!" His eyes shifted left and right as though Daedra would pop out of the shadows near him. "They swarmed around it...killing."

Sanyue shook her head. "The whole city can't be destroyed." She remembered the promise she had made both the late Emperor and Jauffre and how it all seemed impossible to fulfill now.

"Go and see for yourself! Kvatch is a smoking ruin!" The Bosmer's voice began rising in volume as his panic returned. "We're all that's left, do you understand me? Everyone else is dead!"

Sanyue looked around again, counting the people she could see. There were no more than three dozen people here out of a city of how many hundreds? "How did you escape?"

"It was Savlian Matius." The Bosmer's voice seemed to have toned down but the terror was just below the surface. "Some of the other guards-helped some of us escape. They cut their way right though the city gates!" The madness returned to his voice. "Savlian says they can hold the road. No!" Sanyue jumped. "I don't believe him! Nothing can stop them! If you'd seen it, you'd know!" The Bosmer's eyes seemed focused on something far away as the trauma finely destroyed any semblance of sanity he had left. "I'm getting out of here before it's too late! They'll be here any minute, I'm telling you! Run while you can!" What ever the Bosmer said as he ran into the darkness had become meaningless babble until al that was left was the rolling thunder and the silence of the refugees.

Walking through the encampment felt to Sanyue like she was walking through a graveyard. Though instead of headstones marking the places where the dead were buried, these people seemed like their own gravestones, marking the places where they had once called home that was a hulking corpse itself. She passed an elderly priest who had taken to talking to himself, almost sounding as though he were reciting a eulogy. She remembered Jauffre telling her that Martin was not much older than herself, so she passed the white haired priest up and continued up the road. The rain seemed to have lessened this far and now only the thunder remained. Sanyue had tried to take the Prior's mare with her but it had seemed spooked the closer to Kvatch it had gotten, so she had left it at the encampment.

She began to understand what had spooked the horse the further up she went. When Sanyue had arrived, the sky had been dark. Now as she got closer to the gates, the skies had taken on an unnatural Scarlett hue, the thunder becoming louder as lightening streaked through the blood red sky. The sudden change seemed wholly appropriate for the sudden feeling of wrongness that covered the area barricaded by the Kvatch city guard. Sanyue stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the Oblivion gate. "Stand back Civilian!" She was startled as Savlian stepped up top her, his face dirty and set in a grim scowl. "This is no place for you! Ge back to the encampment at once!" Sanyue stood her ground as the Captain stalked up to her.

"What happened here?" What ever Sanyue had been expecting did not hold a candle to the destruction that surrounded her.

"We lost the damned city, that's what happened! It was too much, too fast and we were overrun. Most of those who tried to escape were cut down in the streets" The fatigue in Savlian's voice seemed to show on his face before it hardened again. "And now the Count is trapped in the castle and we can't get in to rescue him with that damned Oblivion gate blocking the way."

"What are you going to do, now?"

"The only thing we can do. We'll hold our ground, that's what! If we can't hold this barricade, those beasts could march right down and overrun the encampment. I have to try and protect the few civilians that are left. It's all I can do now!"

Sanyue pursed her lips, watching the flaming gate. She knew that beyond that gate and the gates of Kvatch sat the reason she had traveled all this way. If he was still alive. She shook her head and forced herself to stop thinking that. "What can I do?"

Savlian seemed dumb struck and for a few moments, he just stared at her. "You want to help?" He paused yet again. "You're kidding, right?" Savlian waited for to retract her offer, though the more he thought it over, he had to admit that the offer was tempting. "Hmm...If you're serious, maybe I can put you to good use. It'll likely mean your death though. Are you sure?"

Sanyue nodded, hoping she looked more certain than she felt. "I'll do what I can."

Savlian sighed, sheathing his sword. "I don't know how to close this gate but it must be possible, because the enemy closed the ones they opened during the initial attack." Matius strode beyond the barricade, his boots scraping on the charred ground. "You can see the marks in the ground where they were, with the Great Gate right in the middle. I sent men into the gate to see if they could find away to shut it. They haven't come back. "Sanyue gulped loudly. If you can get in there, find out what happened to them. If they're alive, help them finish the job. If not...see what you can do on your own."

She nodded and gripped her bow tightly as she stepped closer to the Gate. "The best I can say is good luck. If you make it back alive, we'll be waiting for you." She nodded and held her breath as she stepped through the flames of the Oblivion gate. The sensation of stepping into a hot bread oven left Sanyue breathless, her eyes watering. She opened her eyes and just stared.

The ground was dry and cracked with little tufts of blood red grass poking through. Ahead of her was a bridge over a lake of lava. And on the bridge lay the mutilated corpses of Kvatch guards. Sanyue took a deep breath and fought the urge to turn around and go back the way she had come. She was startled by the sound of fighting in the distance. Focusing through the clouds of noxious gasses rolling off of the lake, she could see a man holding off two of the same brown skinned creatures she had seen laying dead at Kvatch. Against her better judgment, she rushed forward to help the man. As he dispatched the two he was fighting, several more of the fireball shooting creatures were on their way. The creatures fell easily when against two sword wielding opponents. The trick was to keep out of the fireball's path while they were busy hacking the creatures to pieces.

After several tense minutes of waiting for more to attack, the two relaxed. It was then that the Kvatch soldier finely noticed that he was not alone. "Thank the Nine!" He came up to Sanyue, introducing himself as Ilend Verius. "I thought I'd never see another friendly face." Though his happiness was stymied when he remembered where they were. The others," he pointed toward teh gate blocking the bridge. "taken...they were taken to the tower!"

Sanyue followed his eyes up to the tall spire, bone white against the blood red sky. "It's alright," she soothed, trying to keep the soldier from panicking again. "Tell me what's going on."

Ilend nodded, running his gauntleted hand through his hair. "Captain Matius sent us in to try and close the gate. We were ambushed, trapped and picked off. I managed to escape but the others are strewn across that bridge. They took Menien off the the big tower. You've got to save him! I'm getting out of here."

Sanyue stared open mouthed at Ilend. How in the name of the Nine could he leave her alone in this hell? "Hold on! I could use your help." She stopped just short of calling him a coward.

Ilend started at her wide-eyed but he seemed to realize what he had been about to do. "You're right," some of his shame made it into his voice. "You're right. I can't just leave poor Menian to his fate. If he's still alive, we've got to try and save him." Sanyue smirked. 'Way to skirt around the issue,' she thought. "Alright, lead the way. Let's find Menian and get out of here. She rolled her eyes. 'Why does everyone expect me to know where the hell I am going?'

Though, now that she took the time to look around, there was no other way to go but left. She jogged along the shore of the lake of lava until she saw a scamp patrolling an opening between the cliff and the wall. She notched an arrow and while it's back was turned, she let the arrow bury itself between it's shoulder blades. She and Ilend ran as fast as they could along the cliff. They managed to avoid a rock slide, however the scamp blocking their way was not so lucky and was swept off the walk way. Finely, another wall rose up beside them as the path turned to the right around a large boulder. Fires burned all along the winding path. Several more scamps attacked and were felled with both of their swords. The path ahead seemed to double back to the opposite side of the bridge they started from.

Though when Sanyue turned around, she saw a large set of doors carved into the rock. It took both she and Ilend to pry open the doors and rush in before they slammed shut with a resounding crash.
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