Chapter IX: Of Guilds And Goblins

A few days had passed since the arena event and oddly enough things had greatly calmed down. And while people were still attempting to curry favor and 'expose' our 'vile plans' with every opportunity they could get their grubby little hands on, which usually ended up with them publicly shamed by a sudden surge of rumors.

The guilds were mostly reasonable at least, with the Fighter's Guild quickly realizing that their presence would be useless at best the current Guildmaster decided to shove her head into the dirt and pretend like she didn't exist. People swiftly understood just how influential either I or Minthara were, even if no title was officially granted, and that same Guildmaster had been trying to gouge prices and exploit the fact that a dragon apocalypse was happening.

Quite frankly I approved of her decision to hide herself, if for the momentary decision making than anything else as he was still quite thoroughly fucked in the end. The Fighter's Guild was an organization primarily created to replace official armies in the culling of monsters and the protection of property for the lower classes, a partial privatization of the security sector if you will, and the fact that they decided to even for a moment falter in their perceived and tradition imposed duties for the sake of quick riches was going to be making issues down the line no matter what.

I could already see it, militias forming, trust in both the government and guild falling drastically, people taking things into their own hands instead of paying professionals to do it and suffering the consequences of that same decision, et cetera et cetera.

Basically the greedy cowards were making work for me and that was unacceptable so at least their leader is ending up defenestrated before I waddle over to Morrowind in a few weeks.

If I could be bothered to do it anyway.

The Synod was also being incredibly annoying recently, with constant requests for 'colaboration' and poorly hidden attempts at 'enlightening our northern guests' being spammed into my proverbial mailbox.

Scorch huffed, having been forced to go through their increasingly asinine attempts to gain influence over me 'If you could just le-'

'No Scorch you are not the spam filter.'

Grumbling bird noises aside, I had the whole thing quickly investigated and to my grand annoyance it wasn't that the Synod was largely incompetent but that the representative they sent to the capital was quite frankly an attention seeking special needs child who only became a mage because his father is one of the higher ups in the whole organization.

I could inform them of the dumbfuck's constant attempts to self aggrandize while alienating a force of immense influence but who was humble little I to stop them from digging a hole for themselves that would let me demand their loyalty and their liver to dig themselves out of.

The College of Whispers were cooperative in word but reticent in truth, their leader taking a more wait and see approach before she committed to anything beyond the most vague of trades.

The merchants were far smarter than the rest of the lot combined. Barely any of them wanted to engage stupid politicking that did not have to do with competition between each other, all of the savvy cunts capable of surviving the market jumping at the lucrative opportunities that suddenly appeared in Skyrim and Morrowind with a downright ravenous hunger that left me wondering if I was dealing with merchants or vampires.

I was downright surprised when nothing stupid happened when I called for a meeting with all of them, Titus having entrusted me to vet them as a 'renowned expert' and 'commissioned consultant' of the Empire.

There was some shouting over each other, a near-brawl between some of the more lively ones, and a few I had to throw out because they straight up weren't being serious about the whole thing, or were sent to sabotage the whole thing by some dumbasses I offended intentionally or not.

In the end a merchant company from Colovia got their hands on the Skyrim contract, a few of the others dipping into lesser roles and shares when allowed, while a company from Cheydinhall was going to be be most of the Morrowind work when the time came, the border county having a somewhat peaceful relation with the Dunmer by sheer virtue of trading for centuries.

And speaking of the Cheydinhall trader, the older man had just finished regaling me of his preliminary plans for the venture and was escorted out of my mansion. The city was one of the neutrals and mostly uncaring for the wider Empire except when it came to taxes and going to war, a bit isolationist for my tastes but I could work with it given enough time.

Having nothing left to do in truth, I found myself skimming through the booklet the vampire gave me once more. It named a few officers in the Legion who had mostly been purged or forcefully retired as collaborators and a few prominent citizens as semi-ignorant assistants in the deed itself.

It even named one of Titus' old councilors but the man was already dead, choked on a bite of cheese if rumors were to be believed.

I did not like how the mere mention of the specific food made me shiver in discomfort.

Writing down orders for the death of all those still remaining I reached the section that actually mattered. The final collaborators and even financers of the deed were none other than the counts of Leyawiin and Skingrad, the Thalmor fucks being unable to openly pay for the murder lest they be tracked down through the money flow.

Now Leyawiin I could understand, the man was their bitch through and through, but Skingrad... Something was off with that damn city and I needed information as soon as was reasonable.

Still, I had a clue I could follow and time to kill, so I closed my eyes and began to focus my gaze south, the air sizzling with tension as the veritable torrent of Magicka remained barely contained within my body.

I could not get a clear image immediately but a story slowly began to form before my proverbial eyes. The worshipper of a long-forbidden faith, the acts of the Ayleid forever tainting the purity of that particular light, the bitterness of a devout young man, an offer from outside, the manipulations of the outsiders, the fall of the city's leadership under the devout man's grip, more and more depraved acts following after each other, and a blinding, uncompromising light watching over it all.

By the end of the vison I was half-scowling and half grinning, my eyes blazing with both hatred and excitement, the growl of a name leaving me unbidden "Meridia." 

Naturally it was exactly then that a hand fell upon my shoulder and I barely held myself back from exploding the offending limb. Not that I could have done it quite as whimsically as I initially thought as I realized who it belonged to.

Minthara leaned in on my side, looking like she had just woken up from a nap "What has you so distracted?" She asks as she presses her other hand into my second shoulder, giving a not very skillful impromptu massage.

It was the intention that counted I guess.

"Just found another reason to deal with Leyawiin as quickly as possible." I pause and add "Them and Skingrad for that matter."

"You said Skingrad would take time." She points out lightly.

"Yeah." I nod "But I never said a thing about the two working together so we could probably deal with issues of both cities separately before I fuck off north."

I could hear the pout in her voice as she asked "Do you really have to go?"

"Mephala has been badgering me with hints for days now." I groan lightly "I have no doubt her colleagues will not be too slow to follow. Also more bodies to throw at the Thalmor is always good."

"Yes, yes." She rolls her eyes and scoots around to sit next to me and pretends to sniff dramatically, I'd give it a 6 out of 10 "The smartass elf has everything planned already, I should just settle for smacking people into bits."

The dry look I give her makes her look away with a light blush after only a moment's staredown but before I could get in a quip or fifteen a stray thought occurs and my eyes light up "Say, Titus already gave you the rank he promised?"

"Reserve Legate, yes." She nods "Not as powerful as the real deal but still influential enough to make some commands happen."

"I bet people bitched like mad when you were given such a high rank." I snort, having been busy coordinating the merchant meetup when Minthara was invited to a hunt followed by a trip to Fort Legion.

"At first." She admits "Most of them simply felt I was not educated enough in command to hold the rank, they weren't against the promotion itself."

"Merely having your name attached to them is a point of prestige." I chuckle, not exaggerating one bit.

"As it should be." She lifts her nose and sniffs disdainfully "Also they all shut up when I utterly trounced them in a war game we had organized."

I stare at her for a long moment "You just personally broke their formation, didn't you?"

"No actually." She looks just a tiiiiny bit smug "I won with tactics."

"Huh." I blink "Nice."

"Just nice?" She pouts but I can see the cheer in her eyes as I believe her without further questioning.

"Most neat indeed, my dear." I drawl and she huffs "Anyway I may need you to go on a bit of a walk soon, and by soon I mean tomorrow."

"What kind of walk?" She turns somewhat serious.

I began to lightly rub my palms as the time came for schemes most devious "How about you take whatever legionaries you can scrounge up, Roland and his boys, and your own followers, and head to that half sunken goblin encampment by Water's Edge?"

"The same Water's Edge north of Leyawiin?" She raises an eyebrow, catching on almost immediately "That camp was reported to be rather large so I doubt people will make too much of a mess about it."

I hum along "And what with the (completely unrelated to me) rumors I have been hearing about the Fighters Guild's recent lack of reliability I doubt people will make too much of a fuss about a military force being dispatched."

"And what will you be doing?" She asks "I can convince Titus to let me go quite easily but what is our actual goal?"

"Jackal should be returning from Leyawiin within a day or so." I explain "When he does I will personally infiltrate the city and uncover whatever sordid idiocy is happening within, the moment I do so you will just happen to be leading the closest legionary detachment and barge into the city the moment you see something happening or I contact you."

"That could work..." She admits slowly "And I am guessing we can't just assault the city immediately because we lack visible justification?"

"Just so." I nod "We are working in conditions a bit more complex than Skyrim where one's word and reputation is enough. So yes, we will need an actual excuse to go in, even if we know they are traitors already."

"Irritating but it makes sense." She grumbles along before looking up "Fine, I will have my people march in the morning, gods know Roland will be eager at least."

"Man is exactly as eager about killing goblins as he should be" I nod in genuine approval.

"Your fixation with goblins is unhealthy." Minthara points out dryly.

Me eyes narrow "That sounds like goblin apologist talk."

She just rolls her eyes and yanks the both of us from our seats "That is enough brooding for today" Her eyes meet mine with a very familiar hunger glinting within "We have work to do tomorrow and I am definitely not doing it without motivation."

Now that I could agree on.

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I too need motivation

you know what must be done

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