Lysanthir

A week after Iphislia joined the group and started training.

On a road to Orfarion, a Snow Elven city built under the Throat of the World.

Three horses being ridden could be seen.

They were in a triangle formation and were riding slowly.

As the beautiful sunlight shone on the left side of their hood, making shadows on their faces, everyone could notice that the person leading the triangle was male and the other two were female.

They silently riding as a voice suddenly said.

".... Stop! This is our camp's territory and you need to pay to pass." A Snow Elven bandit said as he stepped in front of the horses, stopping them.

As the horses stopped, the trio stayed silent.

"... ignoring me, Huh!?" The bandit said irritated and signaled something toward the back.

As the bandit glared at the male leading the formation, soon a sound of an arrow could be heard.

The arrow pierced the air, as it loudly came forward to the male.

As the arrow was about to pierce his head, he gently tilted his head to the right.

As the sunlight shone on him again, it showed his face.

A child's face.

A bored face.

Of course, they were Miraak's group.

"A child?" The bandit said surprised.

Before he could continue, Miraak said, "... Iphislia... You have one minute."

As the bandit was confused with the situation, he saw one of the females dismounting her horse and slowly walking toward them.

"Don't joke wi-" The bandit said but he was interrupted with a sudden pain in his throat.

'... Eh?' He thought surprised as he instinctively tried to suppress the blood coming out.

As he was falling, he saw the earlier group slowly advancing with their horse.

It was as if it was obvious.

Finally landing, the sound of his steel armor impacting the ground woke up his friends.

"He di-" A bandit said but his head left his body before finishing.

Like a ghost, Iphislia kept running and reappearing as she slashed her dagger.

No matter how much resistance the bandits put forward, she simply slashed.

From behind

From the front.

From the top.

from the bottom.

Her merciless dagger penetrated their flesh, ending their current life.

As Miraak and Asa continued forward slowly with their horses, Iphislia was slaughtering the bandits.

As she killed, in her opinion, the last one, Iphislia jumped from a nearby platform and landed on her horse.

But, suddenly, a bandit appeared from far away, trying to run away.

'... Run! I need to run!!' He thought naively as an arrow penetrated his head.

Before dying, his eyes turned at the earlier group and he saw the female that didn't move with a bow in her hand.

As the group left the blooded camp, Miraak said, "... one minute and 3 seconds... and you didn't see the last one..."

With her head down, Iphislia said, "Sorry, Master."

She started to refer to Miraak as 'Master' since he started to train her.

"... Looks like you need more training." He responded smiling.

He wasn't disappointed.

After all, in only one week, Iphislia was already extremely skillful in the assassination.

He noticed something innate waking up inside her, but he chose to ignore it, for now.

There were 2 reasons he chose to ignore it.

The first one was because he didn't have time to thoroughly research and find out what it's wrong.

And the second one was because he didn't have any necessary equipment to find out about it.

Strangely enough, his thirst for knowledge and power were, somewhat, lacking.

It was as if a part of him disappeared when he traveled to the past.

Shooking his head, Miraak stopped to think about it.

He wasn't even strong enough to start his plans and he was worrying about insignificant things.

...

A couple of hours after Miraak's group left, another group arrived at the slaughtered bandit camp.

With light clothes, daggers on various parts of their bodies, strange tattoos on their face, the group advanced, searching for clues.

They were from Lysanthir.

"... Leader!!" Suddenly one of them shouted.

In response to the call, a woman clothed like them stepped forward.

As she slowly walked over, she took out her hood and her mask.

Revealing a beautiful red hair.

But... it wasn't natural.

If paid close attention, there were silver hair hidden in the middle of the red ones.

The woman was Nakiasha or the BloodSeeker.

Her hair became redder and redder as she didn't bother to wash the blood from her victims frequently.

So, the blood started to slowly change her hair.

Although she had a beautiful face, her nasty scar on her left eye made her face strangely intimidating.

Seeing what her subordinate found, she smiled like a beast.

An arrow.

Different from any known culture.

Not Nedic.

Not Ayleid.

Not Chimer.

Not Snow Elven.

Not Dwemer.

The unknown was something Nakiasha searched for, thrived for, longed for.

After all, her job was to sell information.

If it was new and fresh information... Just thinking how much she would gain from selling it made Nakiasha lick her lips in anticipation.

...

As Miraak's group was advancing, Asa suddenly said, "... Miraak..."

"I know." He said relaxed.

After all, sometimes he used Life Detection and Death Detection spells as a scout precaution.

Since some minutes ago, he sensed a group slowly encircling their group.

Feeling their killing intent and their aura, Miraak knew that he shouldn't let Asa and Iphislia fight them.

They were pros. They were Experts or even Masters in their fields.

Letting two children fight them would be suicidal.

"... Children, huh." A female voice sounded around the group.

It was impossible to know where it came from.

From behind? From the front? From the right? From the left?

Even Miraak with his spells detecting the enemy group, he didn't know which one was talking.

"... What a disappointment." The female voice continued slightly disappointed.

Miraak just clicked his tongue in sarcasm as he closed his eyes, focusing.

...

Around Miraak's group, Nakiasha's group, Lysanthir was disappointed by finding only three children.

"... What a disappointment." Nakiasha said sighing.

She wanted to fight.

She just wanted to find someone that could fight her.

Since she was a child, she was different from other Snow Elven.

She hated magic to the bones.

While other children were training in Ice Magic, she was doing push-ups.

While other children were crying for a new wand, she was punching a wolf to death.

She lost innumerable times.

She liked to see blood on her hands.

She liked to see blood on her face.

Her entire body, covered with scars and burns, was a testimony that she survived.

Since she found something new recently, she thought that maybe, there was something or someone that could fight her.

With their fists.

With their legs.

Not through some magic tricks.

Nakiasha thought that Magic was like cheating on a game, it took away any enjoyment.

Where is the blood? Where is the violence?

"... Bunch of weaklings." Miraak's voice suddenly said inside the member's heads.

Every member widened their eyes in surprise and confusion.

After all, they were one of the bests groups in hiding themselves.

"... Are you coming out or I will need to go for you?" Miraak's voice suddenly said again inside their head.

As they stared at each other, the members finally turned to Nakiasha's direction, wanting to know what to do.

But, even she was lost about what to do.

After all, she knew that the boy was using magic, therefore, he was the one behind the unknown origin magic they found earlier.

So, Nakiasha was hesitant to put all her subordinates in unknown danger.

Although she didn't want to admit, her group, Lysanthir, was her home and her subordinates were like brothers for her.

Sighing, she slowly walked out of hiding.

...

With his Detection spells, Miraak saw one of them slowly walk out, exposing himself.

Deactivating the spells, he saw a red-haired snow elf glaring at his group.

'... Red hair?' He thought slightly surprised but soon, he returned to normal.

'... Red, yellow, white, black... Who cares.' Miraak thought shaking his head.

Being surprised by something as small as a hair showed him that he was taking it too lightly.

Feeling how powerful the woman was, Miraak was certain that she could kill Asa and Iphislia instantly if they attacked her.

"... Stay down. I will take care of it." Miraak said to his comrades.

Dismounting the horse, he slowly took out his cloak and hood.

Finally, he revealed himself fully to the world, after one week.

As his pure black robe blew in the air and his blonde hair danced in the air, Miraak adjusted his glowing gloves.

Although he still a child, Nakiasha was becoming tenser and tenser.

Closing her eyes, she felt it.

A feeling.

An instinct.

She didn't know what it was but... it was screaming.

After years upon years, she finally felt it again.

The difference in power.

But... She didn't shiver in fear or ran in desperation.

Why? Someone would ask.

Because she felt this feeling in the past.

Against a wolf.

Against a saber tiger.

She smiled at the feeling.

She smirked at the feeling.

As she opened her eyes again, there was no child reflected on it.

There was no weakling reflected on it.

Only an opponent she shall respect and fight.

Finishing adjusting his gloves, Miraak glanced at Nakiasha.

The two stared at each other, like two tigers waiting for a response.

When one took a step to right, the other took a step left.

When one stopped, the other stopped.

The two studied each other.

Muscle Strength, Aura, Posture, Breathing Pace, etc...

As their clothes blew and their hair danced in the air, the pure pressure made everyone else present sweat more and more.

Even Asa and Iphislia, who were Miraak's comrades, didn't know his limits.

Suddenly, Nakiasha squinted her eyes in focus as she dashed furiously at Miraak.

Her speed was so fast that Asa and Iphislia didn't even register what happened before Nakiasha was already kicking toward Miraak's face.

The pure air pressure of such a kick was so powerful that the nearby leafs fly in the air.

But, Miraak's expression didn't even change.

He simply glared at Nakiasha as he raised his right arm and blocked it.

Like an explosion, the impact was so powerful that the air pressure blew everything nearby.

As the air pressure blew Asa's and Iphislia's cloaks, they put their hand in front of their face as they focused on the fight.

Finally, the pressure returned to normal.

Focusing, Asa and Iphislia started to see the duo.

As leafs rained down from the earlier explosion, Miraak stared at the stunned Nakiasha.

After all, he blocked her full focused leg attack with one hand.

"... Undisciplined." Miraak commented bored.

He wasn't stronger than her.

He was weaker than her in every fact.

Principally Physical strength.

But, he had something no one had.

Knowledge.

Since the moment she dashed to the moment she kicked, Miraak saw every single action through her muscles.

He saw its weakness.

The point he could block it with limited strength.

"... Looks like you forgot something." He continued sarcastically.

Looking at the gloves the young man was wearing, Nakiasha saw glowing red runes.

"... I'm a mage." Miraak said bored as he punched the still mid-air Nakiasha in the stomach.

As the punch impacted, it was like the world wanted to shine like a star.

Glowing more and more, it finally happened.

The Earth beneath trembled.

The leafs burned.

Flames.

Flames everywhere.

Like an arrow, Nakiasha flew away through several trees, alive or dead, unknown.

The members of Lysanthir started to tremble and ran away in fear.

The Lysanthir that Nakiasha treated like her home, abandoned her, abandoned everything.

Looking at the destruction, Asa and Iphislia were speechless.

After all, they knew that Miraak was still holding back.

They felt it.

Taking his cloak from the ground, Miraak mounted his horse again.