Chapter XLVIII: Slumming it (Part 2)

Minthara's eyes widen comically "What did you smoke before coming down here old man?"

Davos snorts humorlessly "I've had my dealings with Daedra, and my boss gave me hints about this specific one. I am nine tenths sure it is the mad god."

A beat of silence passes and she gives him a look of doubt "Why would a Daedric Prince waste his time protecting a bunch of orphans?"

He shrugs "How in oblivion am I supposed to know what passes through the mind of the mad one?" he scratches his chin below his mask "My boss could probably make a guess, I am even less sure what passes through his head most of the time, but he does seem to know a lot more than one can reasonably expect."

She rolls her eyes "And who is this boss of yours?"

"Stick around and find out." Davos smirks.

She can feel his smug grin behind the mask and lets out an annoyed growl. Realizing that he is most likely doing this on purpose she takes a deep breath and says "Let's just get this over with old man."

"Sure thing kid."

"Stop calling me that, I am not a child!" Minthara scowls.

But this only makes Davos more amused "Sure kid, whatever you say kid."

Followed by the grumbling young Nord, Davos skedaddles out of the madhouse the moment he notices 'Uncle Sheo' get distracted by a butterfly landing on one of his cheeses.

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A group of five young children wearing rags are on their way back from another day of begging and stealing food. Today's take was quite good surprisingly, enough for everyone to get a proper meal, so their mood was as jovial as their surroundings would permit.

Said mood was ruined rather catastrophically when one of the children, a short blonde lad, toppled over a lying Kajiit on accident.

"Ugh" He let out a grunt of pain, and the rest rushed to help him up.

Before they could get to him a loud hiss interrupted them, as the Khajiit rose up with surprising speed and stared at them with bloodshot eyes "Are you here to steal Ki-jar's sugars?! ARE YOU!?" He quickly starts patting himself down and his eyes widen further in a panic, his head snaps back to the terrified children as his sharp claws extend from his paws "GIVE IT BACK!"

The young Nord stammers out with tears in his eyes "W-we d-d-didn't take n-nothin'"

"Lies!" The cat-man snarls "There is no way Ki-jar could drink it all in one night! You must have stolen it!"

The poor child cannot even speak from the fear, and his fellows are all younger than him, making it even worse.

The weight of the situation hits him like a horse and his young Nordic heart beats with the courage of his ancestors as he turns to the rest and yells "RUN!" Before using all of his meager strength to kick the cat-man in the groin.

His foot lands straight into the delirious Kahjiit's privates, making him screech a couple of octaves higher than what he should usually be capable of.

Unfortunately, the rest are all still stunned and any window of escape had long passed as the skooma addict slowly gets up and mutters "Vile child, Ki-jar will rip your throat!" and lunges at the boy.

He stares at the claws, almost moving in slow motion as his life flashes before his eyes, the panic turns to acceptance and grief when he realizes he will never realize his father's dream of continuing the family trade...

And as if the gods themselves were taking pity on him, suddenly a foot crashes straight into the cat-man's face knocking him out on the spot and sending his teeth flying.

He looks up with tears in his eyes, only to see a familiar face "Big sis Minthara!" He rushes to her and hugs her leg.

Minthara pats the boy's head slowly "It is alright Rollo, you will be fine." which just makes him cry harder and hold onto her for dear life.

A short Dunmer with a bored posture leaves the nearby shadow and looks at the downed Kahjiit with disgust "Why is he still breathing?"

Minthara gives him an odd look "He is not a threat anymore."

Davos scowls behind his mask, only a narrowing of his eyes visible to everyone "He attacked one you call a sibling, and you consider it acceptable to let him live?"

She rolls her eyes "I obviously have other priorities."

Davos nods and shrugs, and without a hint of hesitation slits the Kahjiit's throat, immediately proceeding to rummage through his pockets. He finds some bread and hands it to Rollo while ruffling his hair "Good work there kid, but the next time you should off him while he is down."

The young Nord nods enthusiastically while Minthara glares at Davos, before she can comment he claps his hand "Alright, you saved your little family, now we should be on our way."

A young girl, likely an Imperial asks with innocent curiosity "Why are you going with that weird creepy elf big sis?"

Davos almost topples onto the ground from the comment, while Minthara gives her adoptive sister a strained smile "He will give me something to help Bella, now off you go. It will be dark soon and you don't want to be outside."

The kids quickly scurry off and Minthara once again glares at Davos "What in oblivion are you thinking killing him in front of children?!" she hisses while still keeping her voice down.

He rolls his eyes "They do not have the luxury of a pleasant childhood, learning to kill to protect their own will save their lives in the future."

She scoffs "And what would a 'Noble Retainer of Morrowind' such as yourself know about hardship?"

A dry laugh leaves Davos' throat "I grew up in Windhelm kid, The Grey Quarter might be better than this place, but it's still just as cutthroat." he sighs in reminiscence "Trust me when I say this, things rarely get better for us slum kids, better to harden your heart than to get killed by someone who did it first."

She seems regretful "Sorry, I just assumed..."

The apology is stopped by a raised hand "Don't worry about it kid, I get where you were coming from." he sighs "Let's get moving, I need to get done with this today."

As they get moving once again, weaving through the sea of tents and makeshift homes and avoiding anyone in their way, Minthara asks with furrowed brows "Why are you in such a rush anyway?"

Davos grunts as he vaults over another overturned and rotten food cart "The riots rustled some feathers with the higher-ups, they want the sprawl pacified and organized as soon as possible."

She lets out a scoff of pure disdain "Yet they were all content to let us rot down here for years."

Her companion shakes his head "It isn't like that kid, the King has been trying to find a way to calm the situation down for years now, but outside pressure like Ulfric Stormcloak and the Thalmor would constantly block him one way or another."

She nods "Even my mother, the Nord" She quickly explains when he sends her a puzzled look "Hated Ulfric, always called him a hypocrite... But that doesn't explain what suddenly changed and made the King actually try?"

A hint of pride can be heard in Davos' voice as he says "It is the work of my Lord, he came up with a somewhat risky plan that could have this place secured in days."

"The way you speak of him, I can't wait to finally meet him..." A shiver went down her spine for unknown reasons when she says that.

Davos chuckled upon hearing this, pure malice in his voice "Oh, I can't wait either."

They proceeded in silence, going deeper and deeper toward the swamps. On their way there they were almost accosted by a group of pissed-off Orcs going on a rampage because someone had apparently called Malakath a shitstain and one of them heard about it.

"This place sure is lively..." Davos said sarcastically as they finally got out of range of the massive brawl.

Minthara shrugged in defeat at her own hometown's state "Eh... it IS Morndas."

Davos nods sagely "Morndas is whack, yes."

She was about to make another comment but suddenly stopped when they came upon a wooden palisade, built inside of the slums themselves. Davos stared dumbly ahead, completely stunned by the literal walled town built into the sprawl.

Minthara spread her arms dramatically "Well here we are, I present to you the Battlements of Tsun."

"Y'all Nords are fucking weird..." Davos mutters tiredly.

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Another peaceful day was coming to a close in the fortress of the Brotherhood.

Well, they called it a fortress but in truth it was just a walled settlement inside a walled prison people sometimes called a settlement. That didn't bother Bolvar none, life was good to him in their little community.

Even if he disliked his elder brother's decision to practically enslave a bunch of people, he knew deep down that they were saving their lives. It was after all the duty of the strong to protect the weak in this years-long struggle of theirs, even if some refused to be protected.

His peaceful day of leading the gate-guards was interrupted when a rather out of place looking masked Dunmer approached, followed by... damn, why did it have to be Helga's brat?

As the Dunmer closed in on the gates Bolvar pulled out his bow, and pointed it at him without drawing the arrow "Who goes there?"

The Dunmer slowly pulled out a scroll with a red seal on it that he couldn't quite identify from up there "Name's Davos, retainer of the Court Mage Reyvin Flame-tongue, here on Royal business with the leader of your band."

Bolvar's eyes almost popped out of his head upon hearing this, and looking at his brothers in arms they were equally stunned, even the elf's companion looked surprised.

Gathering himself he looked at 'Davos' again "I am guessin' that there scroll is your proof then?"

The Dunmer nodded, and Bolvar signaled his brothers to open the gate. As the duo entered Bolvar waved for them to approach "I see you finally decided to show you face Myrna."

"It's Minthara Bolvar." She responded through gritted teeth.

He shook his head but kept further comments to himself, instead he signaled Davos to show the scroll he was carrying and it was indeed the Royal seal, something he recognized from his soldiering days.

Bolvar nodded in affirmation and signaled for them to follow.

As he was led through the settlement, Davos noted that the entire place was an ecosystem of its own, basically not at all connected with the rest of the wider slum. He noticed farms, mines, small fisheries... They were mostly manned by somewhat well fed adults, but there was a child here and there sharing the hard work.

He naturally chose not to comment at this, as it wasn't neither his place, nor truly against his views. When you grow up in The Grey Quarter you learn a lesson rather quickly: You don't work, you don't eat.

His inner monologue was interrupted when Bolvar led them into a longhouse in the center of the settlement, it was all in all a rich Nord landowner's home, looking completely out of place.

The well oiled double doors were opened by guards wearing steel plate, and both of them were ushered inside, as soon as they entered they were blinded momentarily by a large hearth one would usually find in an inn.

Once they adjusted their eyes they were met with a tall, bald, bearded Nord seated on a simple throne resembling that of a Jarl's seat. All the skin they could see on him was completely covered in scars, Davos thought that the man needed no armor with that much scabbed flesh covering him.

Without a word, Bolvar went to his side and started whispering to him, several emotions passed through the warrior's eyes as he regarded the new arrivals.

Bolvar cleared his throat "Allow me to introduce Helm, the Silent Brother of The Brotherhood of Tsun, and our respected leader."

Davos nodded in greeting, while his companion chose not to react.

Helm looked at Minthara first, with a mixture of respect and disappointment. Bolvar nodded at his brother and said "She is not needed for this conversation is she?"

Davos immediately shook his head and rose a hand to stop Minthara from responding "She will remain with me if that is no issue to you."

"And why is this?" Bolvar's eyebrow rose.

Davos shrugged without a care "She is currently under my employ."

After a long beat of silence Helm nodded and Bolvar sighed "Very well. Would you kindly explain what his Royal Highness High King Torygg wants with us?"

"I am not here to present the terms." Davos said curtly "I am here to scout the place out, and if I judge you to be adequate for the Court Mage's plans, I am to invite him for negotiations."

Helm narrows his eyes at the elf's audacity and Bolvar follows "And... are we adequate?" He asks slowly and through gritted teeth.

Davos smirks behind his mask "You will do."

The air grows tense, and even Minthara glares at Davos, for different reasons than the rest of course.

Helm's narrowed eyes turn into a scowl, he turns to Bolvar and signals something with his hand, his brother nods and gives Davos a half-lidded stare "You have done your scouting, and obviously know nothing of respect, so I advise you call for your Lord so you don't ruin whatever leniency the King's seal gave you, elf. We will prepare a proper reception."

Davos chuckles and shakes his head "No need for any preparations, he will be here momentarily." As he says this he pulls out a scroll and activates it.

Nothing visibly happens, and everyone looks at him like he was an idiot, but Davos simply stands there completely unbothered.

Bolvar speaks up "Are you do-" but then a wave of pure dread covers the entire longhouse, making even Helm flinch.

"Well it isn't a heart chamber, but I guess a hearth chamber will do..." A deep, terrifying voice reverberates in everyone's ears, as a shadowy figure enters the longhouse next to two shivering guards.

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