Ambush

The news about the high king's death spread like wildfire. Everyone in Whiterun knew about it before the day was even over. Plenty of rumors and speculations about the event circulated around the town. Some say Ulfric snuck up and stabbed him in an act of treason. Others say Ulfric challenged him in the tradition of the Old Ways. Some others state he simply walked up and used a Shout at him which promptly killed the high king. The huge bounty placed on Ulfric's head would motivate many people to try and hunt the man down. It would be interesting to see how long he could evade capture. Windhelm was a long was away from Solitude. Lots of forts and Legion outposts between the two.

Rictus was quite content to read all the various rumors while reclining and watching the surrounding countryside from the overwatch at white river watch. He was not tempted at all to try and find Ulfric. It seemed like a lot of unnecessary work to him. He would leave all that kind of stuff to someone else. Yes, stopping a civil war is a good thing, but Ulfric has the ability to use the Thu'um which greatly increased his deadliness. Rictus enjoyed helping, but his life was his priority. Besides, he had plenty to keep his interest right here, like the transformation of white river watch.

The overwatch and the rest of the caves had become much more comfortable as the Restored continued to work tirelessly to improve their new base. The overwatch area had been made even more defensible with stone walls and overpasses which would repel attacks from above. The Restored were a little confused by that aspect, but it did keep the weather off them, so they did not question it. There was even a pool which was dug out to collect the melted ice from the mountain. The base now had a source of fresh water. Once they got some crops planted, it would become even more self-sufficient.

Rictus was very proud of his new base. The breeze home was still his house, and the area in the dumps was still better than before, but this place was starting to shape into his own personal fort. He still had plans to make him a hidden base somewhere, but this place would work as the face of operations.

Speaking of operations, Rictus's information network seemed to expand each and every day. He now received a few reports from Riverwood and some small surrounding homesteads with a single report all the way from Rorikstead. The reach of his web was slowly growing to encompass all of Whiterun Hold, not just the city.

One piece of information stuck out to Rictus. Apparently, a group of Thalmor had snuck their way near Whiterun last night. They had moved to a building which was unofficially controlled by the Legion. Rictus was very curios about why they would sneak here under the cover of darkness. It was even stranger that one of the Battle-born clan had also been seen sneaking out of the building. This triggered a faint memory for Rictus, but he couldn't really remember anything concrete. He felt it would be a good idea to investigate more. It would be a great opportunity to test a new magic he had been working on while he was not busy training Ma'randru-jo, who was currently away with the caravans. The caravan had left to try and make a quick profit during all the chaos.

Invisibility was a famous spell from the Illusion School of magic. It was a staple spell for many famous thieves and stealth archers. It was more difficult here than Rictus thought it would be. Illusion magic focuses on changing the perception of the world from the viewpoint of the targets. The invisibility spell did not make one invisible in the classical sense. The spell actually changed how people viewed you. So instead of bending light, it would change a person's perception of the space the caster was occupying. This explained why in the game people could still track and attack you after you were discovered even if you remained invisible.

People with good sneak skills or someone using the muffle spell could take further advantage of the illusion spell. These abilities would limit the sound coming from the caster. Even if a mage cast invisibility, they would need to stay stealthy or else they were discovered. The people near the caster would still be able to hear them move which would create a dissonance between what they perceive with their eyes and what they are hearing. This would make the magic much less effective and more likely to fail. Illusion worked best on the unsuspecting and weak willed.

Rictus had used the spell tome for invisibility, but he was not satisfied with it. It was an expert level illusion spell which made it difficult for someone not well versed in illusion to use. Rictus knew some illusion magic, like calm, but he was not very proficient. Since he was a master in alteration magic, Rictus was able to more easily use other schools of magic compared to someone who did not have that knowledge. Similar to how bilingual people had an easier time learning a new language compared to someone only knowing one.

Rictus wanted an alteration spell which would make him invisible. He knew traditional invisibility was related to the bending of light. Rictus was already able to create light with the mage light and candlelight spells. He could even alter them into various colors and sizes. Rictus did not believe it was too much of a stretch to make that into an invisibility spell, especially when creating light from magic was a novice level spell.

It did not take nearly as long as Rictus had thought it would. The couple days since he had gone to dragonsreach was enough to have a rough working prototype of the spell. The magic cost was higher than expected, moving fast would break the spell, it did not last long unless constantly channeled, and it took more mental focus than his other spells. Regardless, the spell worked as intended. He was even able to use a weak telekinesis and shape earth while channeling the spell. He could only do those two for now since they were almost instinctive at this point. He could not bring out their full potential while using his invisibility, but it was a start. He could use his telekinesis to float at a walking pace while channeling invisibility which was great since floating worked wonders for being stealthy.

Rictus was amazed he was able to get a working spell so quickly. It was not even comparable to the amount of time he wasted working on his burden spell at the beginning. He was not sure exactly why this was the case. Maybe he was more comfortable with his magic and altering his spells than he had been before. He also felt his mind was in a better place than in those early days of him being in Skyrim. It would explain how he wasted so much time basically recreating spells he already knew or forgetting about spells entirely. Those were good practice but a total waste of time. It seemed he took a lot longer adapting to his situation than he originally thought.

Rictus did feel the invisibility spell was a lot rawer compared to his other spells. It was more similar to manipulating the world with mana and his will than a typical spell which could easily be recorded in a spell tome and reproduced. It was much close to the magic in 'Breathing Water' by Haliel Myrm which was the ultimate goal with spell casting. Rictus was quite happy with his progress.

His musings were interrupted when he noticed Ken was also on the overlook now and reviewing some papers. Always working hard that man.

"Ah Ken. Wonderful timing. I was wondering if you could recommend and help gather some of the people for a little outing I was planning. They will be stuck in an overwatch position unless I decide to engage."

Ken nodded along as he was already thinking about good candidates.

"May I ask who we may be watching and investigating?"

"As I am sure you know, there are Thalmor in town. I believe they are up to no good and want to go investigate them. I think they will probably try and sneak out of town tonight, and I may want to arrange a little stop for them on their way."

A cruel smile appeared on Ken's face as he learned the target was the Thalmor.

"Ah you should have mentioned it was the Thalmor to start. I can guarantee all the veterans would be more than willing to take another crack at those bastards. I will have more trouble stopping people from joining us than recruiting. Many of the old soldiers here fought in the war and got their injuries during it. We would love nothing more than to get a little payback on the damned knife ears."

Rictus was a little taken aback at Ken's ferociousness. It made sense though since it was during the great war he had gotten a lot of his injuries. There were quite a few Restored who were veterans from the great war now. Ken had been constantly reaching out discretely to the disabled veteran community across Skyrim. More were constantly trickling in to join up and be healed. Those people would like nothing better than a little vengeance against the Thalmor.

Rictus shrugged his shoulders. He was not initially planning on violence, but it seemed like it may happen regardless. It would be fine. The attack would be blamed on the Stormcloaks, especially given Ulfric's actions.

An ambush would be a great change of pace for Rictus. He was usually the one walking into them.

------

Thorald did not know what to think. He had been apprehended by the Legion and held in a secret base for the past few days. Last night a group of the cursed Thalmor had showed up and told the legion commander they were taking custody over him.

Thorald was disgusted at the way the Legion just complied without so much as questioning the Thalmor. It showed how far the empire had fallen since the Concordant. The Thalmor could basically do anything they wanted while the Empire cowered in fear. It was no wonder Ulfric was able to gain so much support.

His confusion started a little before he was to be escorted to wherever the Thalmor took their prisoners. He had just taken a beating from his new jailor and was laying with his face pressed to the cold stone for some relief. The elf had just left the room to make sure of the travelling arrangements when Thorald felt the soft caress of restoration magic on him. He quickly scanned his surroundings thinking it was some kind of Thalmor trick. He heard what sounded like stones being pushed together behind him, yet when he turned, he saw nothing.

Thinking the stress was starting to get to him, Thorald laid back down. He was soon startled by a whispering voice which sounded to be in the same cage as him.

"Ah a Grey-mane. I remember now. Don't worry my guy. You will be set free soon enough. Just bare with it until we get a little out of the city. No need to cause anyone in the city any troubles."

Thorald had tried to catch the person talking but was unable to move until the voice stopped speaking. No body was there though when he finally was able to look around. He would have thought he was hallucinating it all, but his wounds were mostly healed and the metal cuffs on his hands were significantly lighter. He felt the metal was weakened significantly and thought he could break out of them if he needed. He decided to temporarily trust the voice to see how things played out.

The convoy had left the city and was making its way up north. There were 3 wagons in the group with 4 horsemen following along. Two horsemen at the front and back with the larger covered wagon in the center of the formation. It was obvious to anyone who really looked that this was a group of Thalmor. The wagons were not marked, but everyone riding a horse or driving the wagon was done up in traditional Thalmor garb or elven armor. Thorald was being held in a small cage in the middle wagon. The other wagons had supplies and more Thalmor.

Rictus was laying on the top of the third wagon looking to the sky and waiting for the fun to begin as the sun was just about done setting. It would not be much longer at all before the Thalmor were under attack. The priority targets were the robed ones since they were the stronger mages. In total, there were 14 Thalmor. 4 horsemen, 3 drivers, 2 in the back of the first and last wagon, and 3 in the covered wagon. Rictus was quite happy with this number since he had almost 20 of the Restored waiting in ambush. He was not sure of the exact number of participants since there were so many volunteers.

The initial plan was simple. Block the roads with a fallen tree, it's a classic for a reason. Then the ambush would start with a volley of arrows and end with a good brawl. It was a good simple plan. There was a major problem Rictus overlooked. The route the Thalmor were taking was over the plains of Whiterun where trees were hard to find, but Rictus trusted his people were able to find a way to stop the caravan.

He then heard some faint sounds over the noise of the moving caravan. It was faint, but familiar. There came a shout from up where the leading horsemen were which drew Rictus's attention. He looked down from the wagon to see what the commotion was.

Goats.

A herd of goats were currently blocking the road. The horsemen were currently having an argument with the shepherd to get them moving along. The goats had even begun moving around the edges of the caravan and soon were all over the place.

Rictus had a funny feeling about this. When he looked around, he saw there were no large trees in sight. When he took a good look at the shepherd, he noticed he looked an awful lot like Ken. The other horsemen made their way up to where the argument was still going on. Rictus could only shake his head in exasperation as he prepared for a fight. Why did it always seem to be goats?

Once all 4 horsemen were near the shepherd, shapes suddenly stood up from the surrounding herd of goats. The twang of bowstrings could be heard piercing the night sky. The 4 horsemen never stood a chance as they were impaled by arrows. More shapes stood up from surrounding the carriages and quickly took out the drivers. The attackers quickly made their way towards the carriages as the remaining Thalmor were still trying to figure out what had happened.

Rictus had turned himself invisible once the attack started. He was standing on the back edge of the carriage waiting for someone to appear. It did not take long before two guards tried to exit the covered area. Once they had stepped out, Rictus wasted no time in decloaking and launching two of his metal spikes through the top of their heads. The guards quickly dropped dead right behind the carriage.

Rictus quickly recloaked and began floating himself towards the opening at the back of the carriage. He could feel a buildup of magical energies coming from the last guard in the carriage. Once he got to the opening, Rictus could see the robed woman channeling what would most likely be some kind of destruction spell, probably a cloak of fire or something. Before she could fully charge the high-level spell, Rictus dropped his invisibility to shoot her in the face with another metal spike. The mana instantly dissipated as the now dead elf fell to the floor.

Rictus was a little sad he was not able to use a strong telekinetic force while maintaining the cloak, but it was still highly effective to decloak and then shoot immediately afterwards. As the fighting quickly died down, Rictus had a sudden revelation. He basically acted as a sneaky archer just then. Rictus never expected that despite being the Skilled in alteration and a master mage, he still devolved into a stealth archer.

It seemed somethings were just inevitable.