Interlude IV: Merriment, Panic, And More Merriment

The house offers its immense praise to GriefTheGrim for purcha- *Cough* earning a manegerial position within the mines, you now toil under their gaze.

No soup will be delivered today, much to your infinite sadness I know.

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(General POV)

"Serjo" The quiet voice of one of his aides almost made Davos jump out of his skin, his imported sujaama now quite thoroughly spilled all over his best pants. He glared at his subordinate but the Dunmer merely kept staring at him, the only sign of a reaction being the slightest upturn of the corner of her lips.

"What?" Davos almost growled as he was quite deep in his cups by now "Can't a Mer enjoy his time off after nearly getting crushed a dozen times?" He slurs.

"Certainly, Serjo." The woman bows, the upturn turning into a full-blown smirk as she looks up at him "Though the Lady Nightshade may have something to say to that seeing as she had just gone into labor."

Davos' entire body stilled as his cup outright fell out of his hand now, the nearby feast-goers giving him quick looks before returning to their revelry "Whut?"

The agent clears her throat "The Lady Nigh-"

"I head what you bloody told me" He curses and gets up, almost stumbling as he did "N'chow!" Even as he ran up the stairs he failed to see the grin on his subordinate's face, his journey would last for a while it seemed.

A full hour later, almost fully sober now and sweating all over, Davos finally found the room he was 'directed' at or misdirected as he'd grumble if he had the breath for it. As he neared the room and heard nothing coming from within his worry started picking up, fully expecting he had been tricked again and would need to run even further in his panicked state.

Only for the doors to open and one of the Falmer healers to step outside, greeting Davos with a raised eyebrow "Is everything alright sir?" The healer asked calmly.

Davos let out a sharp breath and immediately demanded "I am not late am I?"

"I am afraid you are quite late." The healer pointed out flatly.

Damn it all.

"...What?" He gaped slightly and stopped all movement as a tinge of worry went down his spine "I... I thought these things took time?"

He would end whoever sent him on this merry chase, and the fact he could not even remember the face made him that much more furious.

The Falmer gave him a deadpan look at that "Sir, we are magi. Ensuring a safe and swift birth is easier than healing a mild gash."

Davos' eye twitched, that he forgot the same words Reyvin had once told him made him quite suspicious, but he had other things to worry about now, like surviving his wife-to-be's ire "I am just going to get in now."

"Right." The healers' mouth quirked up and he stepped out of the way "Oh an sir?"

"Yes?" Davos does not slow down.

"Congratulations" The healer says genuinely "Your part in the hope of our people will not be forgotten."

Barely even acknowledging his words, Davos pulled the door open and stopped in his tracks.

The scene he was greeted to promptly took hold of all his focus, as he beheld the woman he had come to love over their time together, looking completely fine and not even tired after the birth.

But what truly drew his gaze, even as her eyes met his, was the bundle she held wrapped in a silken towel, a tiny pale creature with tufts of black hair snoozing with their eyes closed, the sight of whom filled him with both immense confusion and the unerring determination to murder anything and everything in the name of their continued happiness.

"Davos" Nightshade greeted him quietly and rose her hands ever so slightly "Your son."

In the blink of an eye he was next to her, daintily taking the child into his hands and feeling them both firm and shake at the same time. "What..." He croaked "What are we going to name him?"

She hesitates but swiftly firms her resolve "I would give him a Falmer name." And quickly adds "You must understand, he is the first true Falmer to be born in eras-"

Davos just rolled his eyes "He is one, love. You have any on your mind?"

"I do." She smiles beautifully and let out a quick and relieved sigh "Varador, like one of the ancient kings."

"Varador." Davos tests the name and nods "I like it."

The two hug each other in silence, Davos hesitantly returning the child to his mother's hands as he gave her a somewhat discreet lookover. Now that he was finally out of his daze he began to understand that the whole... scheme? Was meant to make him as panicked as possible when there was no danger whatsoever, but... why?

"The fuck was I even worrying about?" He heard himself mutter before he could control his mouth.

The vindictive gleam in Nightshade's eyes promptly informed him of all the reasoning needed, and giving it some basic thought he found he probably deserved it.

Now to spread the good news...

---

"What do you mean he is unavailable?" The right hand of Dagoth asked the massive construct standing guard beside the entrance to his lord's chamber "He hasn't been seen for almost a day! He is never absent for that long without notice."

Not that Davos was all that eager to spread the good news but he knew if he did not his boss would be an insufferable cunt about it, no doubt enacting another one of his... cunning plans again, but instead of focused on destroying his enemies it would be focused on him.

Ash to that!

Akulakhan merely pointed his thumb at the door (which Davos absolutely refused to accept just shuddered!) and shrugged as if to say 'You wanna go in there?'

And thus Davos' determination disappeared into the air, as if it were never there.

"Right." He smacked his lips and chose life "...I think I will just come back later."

The cold eyes of the automaton followed him all the way as he left its line of sight and even a bit beyond that, the gaze behind them almost feeling amused.

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Within the halls of the Thalmor Embassy, the air was of a far less jovial nature.

"Would you care to repeat that, Justiciar?" The High Justiciar Finarfin narrowed his eyes at the sniveling fool before him. He was only half-paying attention to the young Mer's report as he was currently far too engrossed in the news of a god being slain to truly care about the minutiae of a patrol.

"As you will, your lordship." The noble scion at least had enough backbone to keep his voice from quivering "As per your directions, we investigated the remnants of Falkreath in search of the missing Executors and the disgraced Ambassador."

Finarfin's eyes narrowed as the Justiciar paused "And?" He hissed sharply.

"We-" He takes a shuddering breath "We found all of them, dead without a single wound and their souls missing." His shoulders sag as if he had just thrown the metaphorical weight of the discovery at his superior.

Which came quite true, Finarfin realized with a mental 'tsk!' "And not a trace of the cursed Argonian?"

"No, my lord." The young one bows his head in apology "It would seem that whatever wounds your curse was able to deliver were... countered by the beast."

His lips almost quirked up as the fool saved his life by not calling his spell a failure. Still, the Argonian surviving was not good, the opposite of it in actuality. Already his rivals were circling him like vultures, waiting for any sign of weakness to pounce and take his exalted position.

His failure in fully hunting down the last Arana had quite thoroughly sullied his chances at achieving his ambitions and becoming the true Overlord of Alinor. A great act of victory was needed for his star to rise once more and he knew that the only place left for such achievement was in a new great war.

"Leave" He commanded after a silent moment and the aide was more than happy to follow.

'We will have to retreat from Skyrim, there is no getting around that' He concluded after only a minute of thought. The situation in the north was untenable and wasting any further resources on keeping their presence here was something he could quite easily justify to the council...

'Now to spin the lies' He began, even as he raged against the very idea of retreat.

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"Magnificent! Absolutely magnificent!" Emperor Titus Mede II exclaimed to the chamber filled with his most loyal subordinates, laughing merrily as he just finished processing the message his personal mage had received on one of those marvelous new orbs Winterhold gifted him "The gods truly do favor the Empire my friends!"

All of the nine seated men and women of various races rose their cups in salute "The Empire!" Not a one of them could have hoped for this kind of outcome a mere year ago and now they considered themselves privileged to be able to bear witness to the glory that was to come.

Finally, the old Emperor was able to calm his joyous laughter and cleared his throat "Commander Maro."

The leader of his personal guard stood and saluted "Your Majesty."

"I think it is high time we sped up our preparations" Titus smiled unkindly "I want the entire Vestravian family and their syndicate gone before the day is out."

"We were waiting for that order." The commander suppresses a grin "Not a single traitor will survive your wrath."

'Fucking Thalmor sellouts the lot of them. A noble family of Cyrodiil burning a newly repaired temple to Talos?! Might as well request I cut off your damnable heads instead of wasting all of our time' Titus did not allow his furious inner thoughts to show and nodded "Go then, I will be safe for a few hours on my own."

The commander saluted once more and left.

"Jukulus, my friend." The Emperor turned to his aide and Chancellor as the rest of the table began paying rapt attention "I think it is high time we invited the honored heiress to return, preferably with Dagoth if she can manage it." Not that he doubted her for a moment, the two did not even bother hiding their possible relationship and Junia was quite dutiful in her reports "I think it is high time we announced our fortune to the world, no?"

"If you believe it to be wise, Titus." Jukulus nodded a bit hesitantly "I still think you are grasping too quickly and too greedily. Especially with the rumors of the level of influence a house of Morrowind has over her." He looks away "If we push too hard we may have a rebellion on our hands... fools will do anything with the excuse of perceived tyranny."

"We have limited time before the Thalmor wake up from their stupor and begin their shadow war once more." Titus pointed out with a shake of his head "We must act quickly..." He pauses and grins "Besides, having both Godslayers present by our side when the time comes to cow the council fully sounds just... perfect."

He knew his old friend understood his meaning then, as the Bosmer's eyes lit up and he began composing a missive, the rest of the nine already planning around the new move to extract as much advantage from the ensuing unrest as possible.

For once, Titus felt, it was good to be Emperor.

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