51 Chapter XXIV: Getting away with murder

I levitate down the tower and am greeted by the sight of Hjolmir yelling at the Nords that decided to help me, while a bunch of Dunmer servants or workers are standing in a corner looking kind of lost, some of them sporting completely blank looks.

He turns toward me with an expression that tells me he might be a tad annoyed with me "Reyvin what the fuck did you do?"

I raise my hands placatingly "Can we all calm down first? I have the perfect expla-" I suddenly hear someone rushing behind me and see that same lawman jumping at me with a dagger.

Almost instinctively I point my fist at him and summon my spear making him impale himself on it.

Surprisingly I feel barely any strain holding him up one-handed with my new strength, I guess that being 5 over average is far more than a mere 50%.

Remembering I am not quite alone I stop my musing and turn to the other Dunmer "Anyone else feels like they want to get shishkebabed?" there are no takers "Good"

I turn back to Hjolmir while unsummoning my spear, making the body hit the ground "As I was saying before the rather uncouth interruption"

He gives me a blank look.

*Cough* "I have the perfect explanation for this, though it does concern the Jarl personally so it might be better explained in the keep"

Hjolmir stares at me for a bit then nods "Very well, you didn't give me a reason to distrust you yet, but if I so much as see a hint of you trying to run off we will be having words"

I nod "Of course" and look toward the Dunmer "Your master has been given his due punishment, wait for me here until I am done and I will sort out your futures" Some of them fearfully nod, while others merely continue with their empty stares.

The guard Captain raises an eyebrow "You speak as if you think them your servants now?"

I shrug "Basic Telvanni customs, winner takes all. After I explain what Dyrren did you will appreciate my actions in a new light, I assure you"

He gives me a stern look "This is Skyrim, not Morrowind"

Once again I shrug "Let's just go to the Jarl please?"

Hjolmir grunts and as we are about to leave turns to the guards "You lot and I will be having words later, depending on what Reyvin has to say some of you are looking at latrine duty" surprisingly they all laugh without a care, knowing that we were justified.

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We enter the Jarl's keep, and waiting there is the Jarl, his mother, and the court wizard.

Just as I am about to start my spiel, Savos pops into existence next to them, making the boy jump in surprise with a girlish 'EEK' to which we all chuckle. The young Jarl's face turns red but he calms himself down quickly, probably used to Savos' shenanigans.

The Regent mother speaks first "Reyvin Flame-tongue you and a group of guardsmen have without authorization assaulted a respected resident of Winterhold, I hope that there is a very good reason for this or no amount of college protection will help you."

I smile, showing no signs of being worried "Of course, I am not foolish enough to ignore the laws of Skyrim on a whim. The reason I attacked hi-"

She interrupts me "Assassinated."

I smile "It was merely pre-emptive self defense I assure you" Savos snorts and I continue "You see, the 'respected' Dyrren sent me a staff as a gift, said staff was enchanted to enthrall me into his service so he could gain access to my knowledge about the animanculi I displayed recently"

She nods and the steward who arrived while I was talking starts writing something down.

"So naturally as is Morrowind custom, such things were to be paid in blood." Before I am interrupted I raise my hand "Please, let me finish." She seems annoyed but still lets me go on "I did consider informing you of this, but even if you deemed him guilty he would have just teleported outside of the city and continued his schemes"

She shakes her head "This still just seems like a merely personal vendetta of yours"

I fake a guilty smile "Indeed, it did start as one I will admit. But once I was confronted with the Telvanni, still pretending to be under his control, he revealed some very interesting information to me. Namely he admitted his offence at the departed Jarl Korir insisting on him earning his place and using said reasoning to justify to me or himself, I am unsure, the assassination of your husband, and the attempted assassination of yourself and your child"

She shakes as if struck "A-are you certain of this?!"

I nod solemnly "Yes, the fool spent a good ten minutes grandstanding about his schemes controlling the foolish n'wahs that dared disrespect him. He even mused about sending a couple of his 'gifts' to the Jarl"

The poor woman is constantly shifting between grief and utter fury, her son on the other hand is looking at me with admiration, good.

And to put the final nail in the coffin of his last shred of dignity "I do have to mention, while we are still on the topic that he was a cultist of Namira that used his servants as cattle"

The steward takes over since the poor Jarl Regent is still in a state of mild shock "There were no reports of his servants going missing, we are a large hold and I am sure people would have noticed the change over the years"

I shake my head "He didn't change servants, he regrew them with alchemy as he butchered them"

Everyone shares a look of pure disgust, Hjolmir spits on the ground and turns to me "Are you sure of this?"

I nod "His own daughter told me about it after some diligent persuasion"

Now everyone turns to me with looks of markedly lesser disgust.

Even Savos looses his usual playful aura and sternly tells me "We will be having some very choice words about that later Reyvin"

I sigh "Yes, it was not the most ideal of solutions but I think I was justified in this"

He just continues staring at me for a bit before pulling back, hopefully I will be able to finagle out of this later.

The Jarl's household whisper among each other for a couple of minutes while a servant brings me some refreshments, I use my new identification skill to check the drink just in case, you never know when people will make stupid decisions so I might as well train myself to be on constant watch.

Finally the young Jarl speaks up "While we will have to confirm your claims, we are prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt in this case, seeing as you have fought honorably for our hold."

His mother interrupts "Naturally, if you have told us the truth we will have to spin the tale to the people, something along the lines of you investigating him under our request"

I smile and say humorously "I see no issue with my misdeeds being ignored" The Regent rolls her eyes.

She mutters "We will also have to deal with the inheritance of the tower itself"

I shake my head "I am afraid that under the customs of house Telvanni, that tower and it's servants are now mine"

She looks at me like I am joking "Are you sure you aren't overreaching right now? His daughter is still very much alive and by the laws of Skyrim the tower is hers"

I nod and smile "True, but his daughter also swore loyalty to my own house just yesterday"

Thaena shakes her head "That doesn't matter one bit in Skyrim, besides since when do you have a house?"

The Archmage butts in "I can confirm that Reyvin is indeed a noble of Morrowind, the name of his house has been held back due to it's relative infamy" and then turns back to me, his gaze stern once again "And she swore said oath under great duress and what I guess was a threat on her life."

I don't back down and stare back at him "She didn't even warn me Archmage, I could have literally been eaten alive and she didn't care, so neither shall I. If she betrays her oath I will end her one way or another"

He seems irritated at my talking back, but decides to leave it for later.

The Regent sighs, very tired from the emotional rollercoaster I just put her on "In any case, we will not allow you to take ownership of more land just like that, you already got a sizeable plot of land within the city and the people would grow angry if you were suddenly to get more."

I grit my teeth and go to protest but she interrupts me "You may, however due to your service, intentional or not, to the hold take what you wish from the tower and offer employment to the servants, the tower itself shall fall to Edrasa Moabain who may continue serving your house if you get the Archmage's agreement."

I nod in satisfaction but she raises her hand "But, this is only under the condition that you tell us what house you serve exactly, we made the mistake of offering foreign powers land in our city and will not do so again, no matter your previous service"

I sigh "Very well, but I must have your word that you will not spread this around unless I do so myself first" everyone nods and I straighten myself, sending a pulse of Magicka to my robes I cause the purple beetle symbol to appear on them "I am the last living descendant of house Dagoth"

Their reactions are somewhat subdued, but I see recognition in most of their eyes, well except the child but that is understandable.

The regent looks me over appraisingly "You haven't given us cause to suspect you yet, so despite your house's history we will honor our end of the bargain."

I sigh in relief, thankfully Dagoth Ur has been dead for long enough for humans to generally forget the impact he had on Morrowind and possibly the surrounding provinces.

"You may leave for your discussion with the Archmage now, we have a lot of work to do. You will be informed if anything changes in the meantime." she says and turns back to her son who is still looking at me with awe.

I look at Savos, who is still giving me the disappointed old man stare, but seeing as I am also an old fart it has little effect on me, still I hope he won't make my life hard with the coming conversation.

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