5 C:5 ... Portals and unfortunate coincidences
Chapter 5: ... portals and unfortunate coincidences
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Pov: Cinis
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I hear a loud, frustrated hiss next to me. When I open my eyes and look at the source of the noise, I see a small, light brown, female Wyver trying to eat an apple that is on the table next to my bed. Which is quite a challenge when you're only about eight inches and your head is only the size of a thumb.
While I watch the wyver, she manages to tear open the apple peel with her claws and bites out small pieces hungrily. I watch the Wyver until she has eaten almost all of the apple and then sit up on the other side of the bed.
Rubbing my eyes, I make contact with the 'Khala' and check what has happened to my sleep. My hand stops in the middle of its movement and I am suddenly awake.
Eight months have passed since I fell asleep and the city is now full of life. No matter if it is Daedra or the other races from 'Nirn', they all come here to trade, to look for treasure in the desert or to hunt monsters for material.
Anyone who tries to cause problems in the city is left lying in the depths of the desert or put in front of the monsters in the arena. But that doesn't prevent them from killing each other outside of town.
This is particularly noticeable with members of the various political groups. Regardless of whether it is the Aldmeri Dominion, the Ebony Pact or the Daggerfall Alliance, they are all fighting each other by all means or trying to gain influence in my city. The clans find this rather entertaining and prefer to throw them into the arena. Free gladiators are rare in a city without slaves.
I take a quick look at the Wyvern and now it is she who is watching me. Shaking my head, I walk across the room to the 3m high and 1.4m wide mirror that is in a corner and stand in front of it.
This reflects my new appearance. Like all Daedra Lords, I change my appearance from time to time, even if it is usually related to an increase in my power.
In front of me is a 22 year old dark elf with almond-shaped, orange-gold glowing eyes and long, pale, smoke-gray hair. Her skin is light gray and flawless. Her hands are filigree with slender fingers and short fingernails.
Around her left leg is the tattoo of a fire from which smoke and sparks rise. Under the fire is the image of a solar eclipse that is surrounded by an ash storm.
I brush my hair aside and look at my long, narrow eyebrows and eyelashes. The soft features and sharp teeth look exotic and dangerous. The body is athletic and elegant with small breasts and a firm bottom.
A masterpiece in my opinion. I turn around a few times and happily admire my body in the mirror.
When I finish my ego trip, yoga pants and a sports bra appear on me. Both are pitch black with light gray, fine patterns on them. A dark purple ribbon appears and loosely ties my hair together.
A calf-length, form-fitting dress is made from smoke with short sleeves. It's black on top and then turns light gray on the bottom. On the right side of the dress there is a slit from the waist down and a flame red, leafless shrub is depicted on it.
Thin, flat and ankle-high cloth shoes in dark gray form on my feet. On my right forearm appears a spiral-shaped bracelet made of black, gently deep red glowing ash-glass.
The wyver flies towards me and then lands on top of the mirror, from where it watches me curiously. We look each other in the eye until a knock scares the wyver and she flees the room. * Sigh *
"Yes, come in." I shout loudly and slowly walk to the balcony. Korra comes in through the door and looks around the room curiously. She is holding three scrolls in her left hand and she looks excited.
She quickly follows me and we both lean against the railing of the balcony and look at the city below. Sand sailing ships glide through the desert or dock at the harbor.
The bazaar (large, open Arab market) is teeming with traders who bring or take away goods on large lizards.
In the traders and magicians district, large portals are set up as arrival and departure points. They are guarded by several heavily armed and armored Dolorosa (Daedra) who check everyone who arrives or wants to leave.
Korra looks at me quietly as I happily watch my city and opens the lock on one of the scrolls. When she holds the scroll up to me and clears her throat slightly, I tear my eyes away from the city and look at the scroll briefly.
As I pick it up and read it, I have to pull myself together not to laugh. It says the Dominion requires me to support them in the war. When I look at Korra, she holds up two more and grins broadly.
"They don't really think, just because I recently took control of a level in the Oblivion and am comparatively weaker than Peryite (Prince of Diseases), that they can give me orders or take over my city?" I ask, amused, and look at Korra.
"Apparently yes. The factions' intelligence services are constantly trying to negotiate contracts with the clans and a few times they have even tried to gain control of the merchant clan. However, the agents responsible have been fed as thanks to the monsters in the arena. " Korra answers with a smile and points towards the arena.
I stroke my face with my left hand and close my eyes. After a few breaths, I think about what to do now. Except for the Daedra lords and my Dolorosa (Daedra) nobody knows what I look like and if I introduce myself by another name I would simply be perceived as a dark elf mage.
While I am thinking, Korra takes the fruit bowl from my room and sets it down in front of me. Lost in thought, I take a few grapes and eat them. I look out into the desert, where in the distance two sand sailing ships are fighting with a huge desert worm.
The ships are modified for hunting and circle the desert worm as they bombard it with their magica cannons. If the desert worm gets too close to one ship, the other ship will attract attention. Simple and effective.
But they are approaching the city wall, endangering both the city and other ships.
One of the Magi-guns mounted on the outer wall shoots with a *bang* and a large part of the desert worm's upper body bursts into bloody pieces. The ships turn around and drive to the carcass of the desert worm, where the crew then begins harvesting valuable materials.
However, as a penalty, the crew will have to hand over most of the harvested material in the port, as their action has endangered the city and other ships. But that's still better than being thrown into the arena.
When I stopped thinking and started watching the fight carefully, I don't know, but it strengthened my resolve to travel. See the world and get to know different cultures.
Korra nudges me lightly and I flinch. I look at her angrily and throw a grape at her. She catches the grape and then eats it with a provocative smile. The same thing happens with the second and third grapes.
"And what are you going to do now?" She finally asks and I tilt my head. Grinning, I shrink to the size of a normal dark elf and throw a fourth grape at Korra.
"I'll travel through Tamriel and leave the city to you to take care of." I answer with an evil smile and toss a grape into my mouth. Korra suddenly jumps up and starts a joy dance. That's not the reaction I expected but the dance is really fun.
After Korra has calmed down, she hugs me. She talks in an excited voice that she will take good care of the city and that I don't have to worry as both she and the clan chiefs have been doing it for the past few months.
After a while, Korra stops talking and gets up. She hands me the scrolls, bows briefly and then runs from the balcony through my room and disappears after closing the door behind her.
After she closed the door, the little Wyver from earlier landed next to me. Reluctantly, the wyver approaches the fruit bowl and begins to eat the grapes inside. I put my hand next to the wyver and she starts sniffing it.
Cute little monster.
While the Wyver turns back to the grapes, I get up and go back to my room. So I pick up my shoulder bag that is next to the bed and put my 'Infinium Magica' in it as well as a few tools for alchemy and various rituals. When I'm done I open a portal to the bazaar and walk through it.
When I step out on the other side, a fat, sweaty Bretons dressed in expensive-looking clothes (light-skinned people with high elves in their early ancestry) yells at me because I'm in his way.
I ignore the man and slowly walk towards the large portals connected to key points in 'Nirn'. From there I will be teleported to the border between 'Elsweyr' and 'Valenwood' and join a caravan to 'Skyrim'.
Anyway, that's my plan. With my luck it won't happen that way. I am sure that when I step through the portal, I will get anywhere, just not my destination.
I use the 'Khala' to contact the Dolorosa (Daedra) so that they let me go through the portal without checking. One of the Dolorosa near me runs up to me and holds out his hand in greeting.
"Good morning, my princess. I am your escort to the portal and if you have any questions just ask them." Says the Dolorosa politely and I shake his hand briefly. Then he starts to work his way through the streets and I follow him with a grin.
The passers-by watch us carefully and some look at me curiously. That doesn't take long, however, and the dealers begin to offer their goods aloud again.
After a few minutes of pleasant silence, I go to a food stand and fish a silver coin out of my shoulder bag.
"Two skewers, please." I say and hold up the coin. The seller hands me the skewers with a smile and I give him the coin. The Dolorosa looks at me in confusion as I hold out one of the skewers.
"As a thank you for your help." I say as I roll my eyes and forcefully press the skewer into his hand.
He shakes his head slightly and takes the skewer with a smile. While we enjoy the grill skewers together, we continue towards the portal square. Some of the meat sauce runs down my lips and I use an incredibly underestimated spell to conjure up a handkerchief. Most mages don't even know that they can also use the magical school of conjuration to summon everyday items.
After wiping my mouth, I toss the handkerchief to one side and it turns into purple-red light. A man who is standing next to me is startled and jumps to the side.
"What's the crap?" He yells at me and tries to grab my shoulder. I avoid his hand and the Dolorosa who accompanies me steps into an attacking position between us. The man turns pale and takes a step back in panic.
"What's that about?" The man hisses and reaches for his dagger.
I can't believe the man is stupid enough to challenge one of my Dolorosa with just a dagger. It's like attacking a tank with a knife. Just stupid.
The man draws his dagger and the Dolorosa disarms him immediately. The man gives a startled scream and turns around and runs away in panic. Another Dolorosa, who is on guard across the street, telekinetically fishes the man out of the crowd and drags him towards the arena.
Through the 'Khala' I hear him inform the arena beastmaster that he has been collecting food for his monsters. The subsequent jokes by various Dolorosa are so vicious that I wonder why I can keep listening to them or even laugh at them. To my shame, I have to admit that I also added a few comments and jokes myself.
Fortunately for me, that was the last incident on the way to the portal, if you ignore the fact that some perverts have turned on me and one of them has even tried to grab me. My escort drove everyone away with targeted blows and the last one was also carried away by a Dolorosa in the direction of the arena.
Some monsters will fall asleep fed up today.
As we stand in front of the archway in which the portal is fixed, I say goodbye to the Dolorosa, who has been my escort until now. Even if we didn't speak much, he was a pleasant company.
Suddenly people near the gate start screaming loudly and running around in panic. One of the 10m long and about 3.5m high, six-legged transport lizards went crazy and thrashed out.
The lizard throws transport baskets and bodies around, which slam hard against the archway. The portal is destabilized and flickers slightly. One of these baskets flies towards us and the Dolorosa blocks it with a telekinetic shield. Unfortunately, a small box comes loose and hits me on the shoulder.
I stagger back and fall into the portal, which is pretty bad since I am now falling through an unstable portal. For me that means that I don't know where or how quickly I'll fall out on the other side.
But until then, I'm trapped in a tunnel of flame, smoke, and orange light.
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Pov: Legatus (Roman military rank, commander of a legion) Gaius Backus
My legion was sent out two weeks ago to protect a small border town near Elsweyr. After we had further strengthened the city walls and had fortification weapons such as ballistae, onagers and large pots of oil all over the city wall, the Dominion forces began setting up their fortified encampment nearby.
Then yesterday some of their agents tried to gain access to the city. We then hung their bodies over the city gates and since then the Dominion soldiers have begun the siege.
In just one day I lost a whole centurie (about 100 men) of soldiers and two of my five war magicians. I already asked for support in the next military camp and received confirmation. In two days three more Centuries are supposed to arrive here and support my troops.
One of my centurions is preparing his troops to accompany a caravan of refugees from the war zone. Hopefully when they come back they will be accompanied by the support.
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One week later:
Those damned elves set the city on fire and forced us to move to the second camp behind. It is no longer a siege. Now it's an open battlefield with rivers of blood and soldiers screaming and being trampled.
Two other legions have been brought in through emergency portals to assist us. Now there are about the same number of soldiers fighting on both sides but with the help of our necromancer we will be victorious. The first rays of the sun can be seen on the horizon and we are preparing a big offensive in the hope of achieving success.
Dark clouds darken the sky and I hope it doesn't start to rain.
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Five hours later:
The battlefield had spread further than we had planned in the battle plans. The mages cast spells while the archers and small, easily transportable siege weapons bombard the enemy ranks. Arrows fly in the air and soldiers and horses fall to the ground screaming in pain.
There is a smell of blood and other body fluids, orders are shouted and the catapults bombard the back rows of the enemy battle formation. Suddenly the sky lights up brightly and with a loud thunder a burning figure falls from the sky.
When this figure hits the ground in the middle of the battlefield, it causes a pressure wave that knocks over everyone within a radius of two hundred meters. When the smoke settles, a young-looking dark elf stands in a shallow crater, cursing loudly, knocking the dust off her dress.
I can only hope that an Ebonheart Pact army doesn't show up and take the chance to get involved in a two-front battle.
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Pov: Cinis
I'm finally out of the portal tunnel. I look around and realize that I'm high up in the air. Falling fast and engulfed in flames, the only thing I can hear is the whistling of the wind and the clang of weapons below me.
For my protection, I build a spherical barrier made of magica and use a spell that reduces damage from injuries. Then I pull my legs up and protect my head with my arms.
As I serve, I feel every bone in my body crack and my head buzzes like an angry hornet's nest.
The barrier around me quickly crumbles into soft light and I kneel on the floor, my face grimacing with pain. Coughing, I try to wag the smoke that rises from me, then I brush my hair back and a new headband ties it together.
After a few painful breaths, I cast a powerful healing spell to heal my injuries and get up. Cursing loudly, I dust my clothes and repair the damage with a spell from the School of Change (transmogrification).
Around me are dozens of people and mer (generic term for elves) who are injured or dead. However, most appear to have sword wounds or to have been hit by arrows.
The magical fire in which I was enveloped only hit those who were in the immediate vicinity of the crater. I know that because the corpses around me are charred until crispy.
Suddenly an arrow hits me in the left shoulder and I erect a new, milky, veiled, transparent barrier under pain. After the barrier has stabilized, I look around, angry and vigilant.
Only now do I notice that I am standing on a battlefield and not as I thought in a small battle. On one side are three legions of the empire, easily recognizable by their armor and flags. On the other side, Dominion troops with their golden eagle motifs on all armor and the feline Khajiit in their ranks.
While I stand still and examine the two armies, both sides start fighting again. The magicians, however, must have decided that I pose a greater danger than the magicians of the other army's and throw fire and lightning at me.
In a little panic, I strengthen my barrier and create some red lightning bolts that wind around my right hand and forearm. After the spells coming towards me slide off my barrier, I throw my right hand in the direction of the Imperial magicians and the lightning bolts shoot at them.
The lightning bolts branch out and hit everyone who is nearby. One of the magicians can barely erect a magica shield and block the attack while the other is hit directly without protection.
The lightning bolts throw him backwards where he remains smoking and partly burned. Dozens of legionnaires who were ordered to protect the two of them are also lying smoking on the floor. Those who are still alive raise their shields in desperate courage and position themselves protectively from the surviving imperial magicians.
Meanwhile, I run as fast as possible towards the edge of the forest that is next to the battlefield, right next to the front between the armies, and throw every soldier who is in the way telekinetically through the area.
It has to look like a scene from 'Asterix and Obelix' to every viewer.
Since the Dominion troops try to evade me as much as possible, I partially ignore them and pay more attention to the legionnaires. They try to shoot me down with their ballistae and archers.
While I'm running around and dodging attacks or throwing soldiers around, a second arrow hits me in the top left of the back and I fall into the bloody mud that has formed on the battlefield. I slide forward a few meters and scream in pain.
When I finally stop, I hunch over and cry softly. I am immortal, but you can still injure or destroy the vessel. I am lying on the floor right now while my wounds heal. The two arrows burn and even the mud dries under the heat I radiate.
[AN: The Et'Ada are the Original Spirits of Concepts or Elements and are therefore not physical. Their bodies are a type of possessed doll through which they can interact directly with mortals. If a body is destroyed or critically damaged, it dies and disintegrates after a short period of time. The Daeda Prince then creates a new body or takes over the body of one of his cultists.]
Coughing and crying softly, I get up and spit out bloody mud. Out of all the pain, anger and frustration, I cast a kinetic fire spell and overload it with magica.
In the palm of my right hand, a white gold ring consisting of concentrated fire appears, which hums softly and aggressively. When the ring begins to pulsate, it begins to turn around its own axis like a circular saw and a low screeching can now be heard from it.
The soldiers around me, who have just surrounded me, are now backing away fearfully and one of them pokes at me with his short spear. As I dodge, I turn slightly and keep my palm out.
The glowing ring contracts into a small ball and then explodes as a red-gold, semi-transparent, burning pressure wave.
After I trigger the spell, the soldiers are thrown away and I summon some red lightning bolts and throw them at every archer I can see.
While there is a miniature version of the apocalypse around me, with fire and lightning, I start walking towards the edge of the forest again.
This time archers and mages from both armies are shooting at me and I am forced to wrap myself in a storm veil. I don't like such spells because they are unreliable and have elementary weaknesses.
The magicians immediately start casting fire spells at me and I swear softly and start throwing the soldiers near me into the trajectory of the spells. The screams of the soldiers hit follows me to the edge of the forest.
When I finally run past the first trees, a slight smile forms on my lips and a branch that I have overlooked hits me in the face. Despite the leaves in my mouth, I feel like laughing. I'm finally out of the battlefield.
But now I'm alone in a forest full of monsters and no idea where to go. Damn it.
