Chapter XLV: Riots

"So, Reyvin." I find myself sitting across a curious Sybille in the most high-end inn/restaurant in the province, we arrived here some hours ago and spent most of our time gossiping about the rest of the court while eating, with a tiny bit of flirting in between of course... "What do you actually do besides being an unnaturally talented mage and earning ridiculous amounts of money?"

An eyebrow raises "You mean for fun?" I ask as I sip on some incredibly overpriced alto wine.

She nods expectantly.

I stare into the night sky and shrug wistfully "Honestly, I haven't really done anything for the sake of fun alone in quite a while. I guess that learning and fighting counts as fun enough for me, for example, my recent project was an absolute treat to make." Then I turn to her with a wink "Though I will admit you are not so boring either."

She huffs playfully "Oh my poor maidenly heart!" and looks at me with a bit of confusion "Is that why you chase power with such doggedness then? Because it is fun to you?"

I hum in thought for a moment before shaking my head "While it would be as good a reason as any that is not it."

"What is it then?" Her red eyes sparkle with curiosity.

I smirk and point back at her "You first, why do you do all that you do?"

Her eye twitches but she decides to humor me, after some thought she shrugs "I guess I prefer being high above the rest and my current work keeps me securely in that position."

"Really?" I raise an eyebrow "No overarching goal, you just like being above the plebs?"

She nods enthusiastically but then frowns "You almost sound... disappointed."

I scratch my chin thoughtfully "Not necessarily disappointed, it's just that you have the gift of agelessness already and are simply contented to do the same thing for a very long time... honestly, it sounds boring."

She huffs "Oh please, no matter the power I gained from my condition you should already know that even if ageless those of my kind always end up dead one way or another."

I give her a 'and your point?' look "So do the usual mortals, yet there are still dreamers and explorers among them."

Sybille's eye twitches in annoyance for a moment but she catches herself and gives me a forced smile "And I understand that. Unfortunately, my situation doesn't allow for dreaming and exploring."

Realization strikes me and I smile apologetically "Right... please forget I said any of that."

She raises her nose "You will be excused young man, but only if you regale me with your own goals."

I chuckle "As the lady wishes." And then while gazing at the stars I say with barely contained wonder in my voice "I wish to become so powerful that I may see everything and explore everything, and when I am finally done with Mundus, I wish to travel beyond."

She looks at me, dumbfounded "You want to explore oblivion? Are you insane?"

I am confused for a moment but then break out in laughter, seeing Sybille just about ready to throw her glass at my head I raise my hands placatingly "Sorry, sorry, it's just that..." My gaze becomes one of mockery and bravado "Did you really think I would limit myself to merely oblivion?"

The gears in her head start turning at inhumane speeds, yet she still decides to err on the side of caution "And what exactly do you mean by that?"

I smirk "Wouldn't you like to know."

I can practically taste her annoyance in the air as she barely contains a scream of frustration "Gods damn you Reyvin you cannot just say something like that and decide not to elaborate." she hisses out in an attempt not to draw attention from the other patrons.

My smirk widens "Hmm... no."

She lets out a frustrated sigh and gives me a dry look "What do you want?"

At this point my mouth is threatening to split my face "I am not sure what you mean Sybille."

If we weren't in a public setting she would no doubt be kicking my ass right now, but she is instead forced to patiently force the words out "What do you want me to give you to elaborate on what you were about to say?"

I pretend to think really hard about it, raising the tension way out of proportion... before dramatically raising my index finger and saying "You must pay for our next dinner!"

I think she might have preferred I ask for her kidney if her look is anything to go by, if she were capable of ocular pyromancy I would have long been ash. Sybille slowly palms her face and groans "Dear gods you are such a child."

"A child you wasted no time in seducing madam." I smirk.

Sybille takes a deep, long breath, slowly breathes out, and smirks back with a victorious gleam in her eyes "You do realize you could have just asked me, right?"

I let out a derisive chuckle "Oh you poor sweet summer child, that would not have been as fun now would it?"

Aaaaand she is back to barely holding herself from decapitating me! I really should stop doing this to people, I am starting to resemble Savos...

In an attempt to save my skin from being detached from my body I once again raise my hands placatingly "You still want to hear what I was going to say don't you?"

She takes another deep breath "Speak."

With a chuckle, I ask "You didn't think that Mundus was the only world in existence did you?"

Her annoyance is replaced with a mix of surprise and doubt as stares at me for a long while before speaking "There have been many theories about other worlds written by scholars far greater than any that live today, how can you be so sure that there really is something beyond Aetherius?"

I simply smirk "That I cannot tell you yet, or possibly ever, but just know that there is far more to existence than this singular rock we find ourselves on."

She narrows her eyes "Say I believe you, why would you even tell me about this? Such secrets are rather dangerous."

I shrug and with an innocent smile say "Well that is because you asked."

"And if I asked with bad intentions?" She drawls.

I roll my eyes "You defied a Daedra to help me, I trust you."

For a moment she looks ready to make another chiding comment, but then my words sink in and she quickly hides the tiniest blush with her wine glass.

Heh.

The pleasantly awkward atmosphere is broken when we hear a commotion coming from the ground floor of the establishment, as a person I recognize as one of the palace guardsmen who accompanied us in the catacombs starts questioning the owner where we are.

The owner first subtly sends a look my way and I nod, the man just earned himself a fat bonus for his discretion.

Soon the guardsman is standing in front of our table and seems ready to say something in a panic, but my raised hand stops him "Deep breaths Ulf, no need to alert the whole city."

He nods quickly and takes the cup of water I offer him before giving the both of us a serious look and speaking in a quiet yet urgent tone "Riots have broken out in the sprawl, the guard has managed to contain them but the King worries that this is merely the prelude. A meeting of his inner council has been called and the two of you are required."

Sharing an annoyed grumble Sybille and I get up, she seems far more annoyed than myself so in an attempt to comfort her I pat her shoulder and whisper "We will continue where we left off another day."

Instead of calming down she sends me a glare and whispers back in a dangerous purr that sends a shiver of excitement down my spine "Oh no, we are continuing this later."

Heh... I am in danger!

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As we enter the balcony overlooking the city I note that even from here one could see a part of the slums having caught fire, thankfully it didn't seem to be spreading but if this was the sign of things to come it wasn't looking pretty.

The second thing I note is that only the two stewards and the King are present, Falk seems to notice and explains before I even ask "The Thanes were tasked with leading the guardsmen in dealing with the situation."

I nod slowly "It is a shame that such bright minds wont be able to present their agenda *Cough* wisdom in this unfortunate situation."

Both the King and Steward snort while Sybille laughs openly "I keep telling you Torygg, those two are completely useless for running a city, much less a state."

The King nods tiredly "I am afraid I agree with you on this, but we are not here to discuss the Thanes of this fair city."

I hold back an amused smirk "Quite, we are here to discuss what is to be done with the literal cancer growing out of this fair city."

"What in oblivion is a cancer?" I hear Ingvar mutter.

"Not the point." Torygg gives me a pointed look.

Ever the straight man Falk speaks up plainly "The situation we find ourselves in is a dire one, if the rioting spreads too far we will be forced to establish order with military law." He frowns deeply "And we all know where that will leave us."

"Bowing before Stormcloak" I say needlessly, much to everyone's dissatisfaction.

Torygg growls "I am not killing thousands of my own people!"

Falk sits back down and sighs "I am afraid that I don't see another way." He turns his hopeful eyes to us "Do you two have any suggestions?"

I raise an eyebrow at Sybille and she hums in thought "We could theoretically set up a mass-calm ward around the entire sprawl, that would allow us to get in and secure the place without any bloodshed wouldn't it?"

I shake my head "Theoretically yes, but at that point it would be cheaper to just toss bread at them via catapults, not to mention making the guards immune enough to the ward so that they can actually do their jobs."

She shrugs without a care, clearly indicating how invested she is in the situation "You are the Master enchanter Reyvin."

I wave her off "No, using any kind of blunt force magical or otherwise in this situation is pure foolishness. We must be subtle if we want to deal with this efficiently."

Torygg gives me a puzzled look and urges me to continue.

I nod "I recommend that we infiltrate the more pliant gangs and organizations, and offer their leaders the chance to keep their positions with the crowns blessing if they assist us with pacifying the slum."

The High King frowns "You suggest we pardon... nay, reward slavers and skooma dealers?"

I shake my head "Of course not, I suggest we take the opportunity to put them all to the sword while rewarding those that helped organize their people enough to survive the unfortunate situation they found themselves in."

Falk stares at the ground and lets out a long breath "I agree that this is the best solution, no matter how distasteful." his son merely nods along, clearly realizing he is way out of his depth here.

Torygg's frown deepens "I would first hear who you had in mind, but if it means peace for my people I am fully prepared to offer the Thanehood of the sprawl to one of them."

I raise a hand indicating for him to slow down "We first need to actually gather information, do you have skilled agents for the job?"

He shakes his head "No, most of our information we get from the bards and their own information is likely outdated."

I sigh "I also got some news from them, but nothing too useful, merely a couple of names." after saying this a thought occurs to me "Though I can offer the services of my retainer for information gathering."

Torygg gives me a conspiratorial look "I might not be too learned in the traditions of Morrowind, but retainer usually implies something else..."

I groan "Are we really doing this right now?"

The King chuckles mirthlessly "We did put it off for an entire month, the current situation doesn't allow me all that much blind trust unfortunately, especially with your presumably dubious origins."

Sybille coos at me from her seat "Oh come now 'my lord' no one is going to hate you for your grandpa's temper tantrum."

The look I give her promises pain, but just serves to amuse her further.

I let out a long sigh "Alright, I don't mind sharing it with all of you since I consider you to be honorable, at least so far." I give a pointed look at all the Nords "But let it be known that if you betray my trust, I too shall throw a rather sizeable temper tantrum of the magical variety."

Torygg snorts while waving off a fuming Falk "We are adequately threatened I assure you."

I chuckle and then mock-bow "Very well then, Lord Dagoth Reyvin, at your service."

The King seems stunned for a moment and mutters "Now that... I did not expect."

The Firebeards are both frowning in slight confusion, but after a moment there is a hint of recognition in Falk's eyes and he looks at me with a mix of fear and confusion.

Torygg is silent for a while and then lets out a tired laugh "So I have been having the child of the Devil of Morrowind whispering in my ear for months now."

I raise a finger "Grandchild."

He waves me off "Not the point" and then stares at me for a bit "Still... you don't appear to be some evil creature from the Red Mountain, so I see no reason to distrust you."

I shrug "You need me, I don't strictly need you."

He seems to age a bit as he nods his agreement "That is fair, now what was that about a retainer?"

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