Dominion [Closed]

[Lucyfer]

Skyrim was cold. It was one thing Dominee and Aurelius could agree on as they exited from the Legion’s barracks in Solitude. Dominee brought her cloak tightly around herself, before Aurelius whispered a few words.


Fire lit up in his hand, and then split into five orbs, which began to circle around the pair, adding warmth as they trudged away from the barracks. Dominee shot an appreciative smile to Aurelius and loosened her hold on her cloak. Her turquoise eyes took a little bit of time adjusting to the light. “Do you know how far Falkreath is?” Aurelius inquired.


“Far enough,” Dominee answered. It was where they were supposed to go, to look into an outbreak of murders. It would normally be beneath her, but apparently the way the bodies were found were rather…disturbing. It was being associated with cannibals or werewolves, and both possibilities needed to be investigated.


Thunder clapped overhead, and Dominee quickened her pace. Aurelius tried to keep pace without stumbling over his own robes. “Come on, you don’t want to get rained on.”


Fortunately, both of them made it into the Winking Skeever before the rain started to fall. Aurelius quickly dispelled his fire once they were inside. He’d learned quickly that many of Skyrim’s inhabitants didn’t trust magic, except for those in the college of Winterhold. While Solitude had many Imperials here, the Nords were still in the majority. It didn’t help he had the typical blonde hair and blue eyes, either—he’d been mistaken as a Nord by some and chastised for his use of magic rather than his pure strength.


Dominee took the lead to a table against the wall, and Aurelius sat across from her, “We’ll leave tomorrow morning. Figured we could stay at the inn tonight, since the legion’s paying for our travel expenses,” a smirk touched her lips, and Aurelius laughed a little at that.


“What, you don’t like your room?”


He knew that wasn’t the issue. She didn’t like the walls. They were too thin.


A young woman soon approached them to take their orders, and Dominee ordered first, “I’ll have the beef stew with a basket of bread rolls, and some spiced wine, please.”


Aurelius smiled at the word wine, understanding it would be acceptable for him to drink, “I’ll have the clam chowder and some of the argonian ale.”


“I’ll have those right out! Anything for dessert?”


“No, but,” Dominee decided to add, “we would like to have the use of two rooms for the night, and if possible, a few traveling meals prepared for our leave in the morning.”


“Sure! I’ll let Corpulus know.” And with that, the woman sashayed away.


Dominee leaned back and brushed a hand through her strawberry blonde hair, smiled at Aurelius, “Don’t worry,” she said, “We’ll get horses.”


“Oh thank the eight!” He was starting to worry. He didn’t have a horse, though he knew that Dominee had her own, brought over from Cyrodiil. He could conjure one, but that was usually a fiend of bones and spiritual energy that most towns didn’t like to see passing through.

 

[Lawson]

Cindaia Herecus had been waiting for a while. It was one of her specialties. She was used to the splitting cold of Skyrim, having known it her whole life. It affected her yes but not as much as non residents. She'd been in the dark corner by Radiant Raiment for a while, watching and waiting for her target. No one had noticed her with her hood up to hide her blood red hair and to keep the cold off of her ears. The only part of her visible in the shadowy area, if it was looked at enough to adjust to the light, was her light blue eyes which shone in the night.


When she saw her target with his partner walk out from inside the grounds of Castle Dour, she kept in the dark as she judged their path. The two stood out a lot she noticed with the flames circling them, for warmth she presumed. She'd been in Solitude a while, following their movements as they went about their routines. But this wasn't usual. This was new. Her informant had been right about their comings and goings. He'd told them earlier they had been reassigned to another area in the morning which Cindaia saw as a chance to finish her work without a large amount of witnesses.


As her eyes tracked them, they entered the Winking Skeever inn. Deciding to waste no time she slipped in after them, lowering her hood and letting her hair fall down past her shoulders. As she walked towards the main desk she caught some slight attention from nearby patrons due to her unusual hair color in the usual blonde and dark haired inhabitants of Solitude. After paying for a room she went upstairs and into the room she had rented, making sure to lock the door behind her, before laying down her items from her bag onto the small table.


Laying the contents over the table, she looked across them individually one by one. An ebony dagger, a map of Skyrim, a map of Solitude, a set of regular plain clothes and a spell tome of reanimation. She decided to switch from her current clothing into her clothing to better get close and overhear what her target and their companion were saying. After changing she went back down into the bar area, settling in a table near enough to them to overhear but far enough to not seem suspicious.

 

[Lucyfer]

Their drinks were brought first, the wine warmed and spiced. The legionnaire’s smile became a touch lazy after the first sip, and Aurelius decided then to ask, “Could we go on to Winterhold after this?”


An eyebrow arched, wary. Dominee knew it was even colder there. She also knew why he wanted to go, “We could see about new enchantments for your weapons and armor,” he added to sweeten the deal. Aurelius could enchant, of course, but there were masters at Winterhold.


“Do you know how much further Winterhold is from Falkreath? We’re closer to Winterhold now.”


A pout crossed his face. “We’ll ask the Legate when we return, how’s that?” It was the best she could do. By the time they got to Falkreath and cleared it up, and returned to Solitude, there was a decent chance that more would be waiting for them here to do. If not, then seeing Winterhold would be nice. Admittedly, if it weren’t for the cold and the distance, she’d be more inclined. She had just started practicing Destruction spells, under Aurelius’s tutelage, and she did want to know more about it.


She didn’t want to enroll in the school, of course. She didn’t have the time for that.


Their food was brought and others settled in, including a woman with red hair on her own. They ate, for the most part, in silence. The woman did return to inform them that their meals had been packed, and then asked for the fee. Dominee had quite a bit of the gold already from the Legate, and so she covered it easily, utilizing the large piece coins that represented 100 gold. It’d be too difficult to carry around the thousands of gold pieces as individual pieces, after all. She’d be a prime target for mugging.


When the waitress left, Aurelius asked, “What do you think we’re going to deal with in Falkreath?” He spoke that in a whisper.


Dominee shrugged, “If I had to guess,” which he was asking her to do, “Money’s on cannibals rather than werewolves. I’d say pack silver, regardless.”


The look he gave her made it difficult to keep a straight face. No, she hadn’t forgotten he didn’t really fight. “Don’t you have a silver staff?” She asked innocently.


He just shook his head and went back to his chowder.

 

[Lawson]

After listening in for a while and hearing them mention Falkreath, Cindaia knew where she was to go next. AFter heading to the room she had bought for the night she packed up all of her equipment and changed her clothes back to her original attire of light, but strong, black armor over black cuirass and black boots with a black hood to cover her head.


Leaving through the window and carefully navigating around the roof, she made her way to the hideout in Solitude the Dark Brotherhood shared with the Thieves Guild, located inside the very top of the Solitude windmill. After packing up the gear she needed which included a bow, arrows, a crossbow she'd found on a dead member of the Dawnguard and took a liking to, crossbow bolts, a sleeping pack and a custom forged and enchanted sword named Elucidator that she had received after her first successful contract from other members of the guild.


Moving to the stables just outside Solitude she got her black horse, Rashmir, and loaded up his saddlebags. Riding out from town until she reached Dragon Bridge, crossing the elaborate designed bridge with's it's large dragon head sculpture. Taking up camp on the overlook she set up a small fire to keep herself warm during the night as she checked her equipment over again.


Becoming hungry she decided to eat the venison meat she had earlier gotten from hunting, cooking it over the fire before eating it using her hands, stripping the meat until it was just a bone. After setting some traps to warn her of any incoming people she finished setting up her bedmat she carried with her. Extinguishing her fire she laid in the bed, closing her eyes and drifting to sleep as she mentally made several plans on what she was to do to take her target out before they reached Falkreath and made sure to make a backup plan for each.

 

[Lucyfer]

Eventually, Dominee left Aurelius for the night. She did not know when he went to bed, but she did know that she woke before him as she usually did. Dominee would sleep till midday if she let him.


Naturally, she did not. She went about gathering her supplies, a horse for Aurelius, her own horse, sleeping and camping gear, and all the other things. She set them to be watched by a guard outside of Solitude before going to fetch Aurelius. With permission from the innkeeper, she was given a key to his room, and a bucket of water.


The mage always hated being woken by Dominee. He woke up, sputtering and complaining like a soaked khajit. “EVERY TIME. WHY?”


“It amuses me. Dry yourself off and let’s go. Breakfast is on the road for you.” She, however, went to have breakfast in the tavern while Aurelius got himself dressed and ready to leave. When he joined her in the tavern, she immediately got off of her barstool and started walking to the door, smiling to herself as she heard his audible complaints.


Aurelius was decidedly not a morning person. “For someone rumored to be a vampire, you sure are energetic in the morning.”


“Right?” Dominee laughed, “I can’t see how people get this idea.”


Aurelius could. He didn’t say as much. “Where did you get that ring, anyway?” He’d never been told the story. It was with Dominee when they met.


‘Which lie do I want to tell this time?’ Dominee had about ten different stories in circulation. “Coldharbour,” she chose. Before he could ask more, they were outside the gates and she pointed to the black horse, “That one is yours. I was told its name was Susan.”


“It?” He always bugged her about it. Every animal was an ‘it’ to her. “You mean ‘her’?”


“I mean it. Get on the horse.” Even her own horse, so-called Vigil, was an it, though it was a male in gender. “If we’re lucky, we should be able to make it to Falkreath by this evening, so we’ll have a bed to sleep in. If not…well, I packed camping supplies.”


“Great….”


And off the pair of them went, Aurelius digging in his bags for fruit and bread as his breakfast.

 

[Lawson]

Cindaia woke up knowing her plan. She knew what plan of the many she had thought up would be best and knew exactly how to pull it off. Waking up early as she usually did due to her condition making sleeping hard for her outside of her usual dwellings she packed up camp and climbed on her horse.


She kicked her horse into a fast gallop as she rode for Falkreath, stopping short as she finished her book and practice of reanimation, allowing her to bring a deceased person to life for a short amount of time. Eventually she came across a lone traveler who she approached. Ash he greeted her warmly she smiled and giggled at him, lulling him into a false sense of security. When he realized she was not as dumb as he thought it was already too late. The air escaped his lungs from the large wound that had opened in the front of his chest. Allowing him to lie where he fell Cindaia covered herself in his blood and scared away his horse, laying against a tree and acting as if she was injured. She knew her plan, it was simple yet effective. She laid back, looking to the sky as she waited.

 

[Lucyfer]

The way to Falkreath was more-or-less clear. A few stray wolves, and one bold sabre cat tried to halt the two as they progressed down the main road, but that was little trouble. No bandits tried anything, even though neither wore the armor of the Legion. Of course, that might have been why. The black robes of Aurelius had an off-putting glow to them, and the light, black armor of Dominee spoke of someone who knew how to handle themselves around Daedra.


The only thing that really caused them to pause was when they came to a curve in the road, and a tree near it, where an individual lay wounded. Both horses came to a halt, and Aurelius whispered a spell under his breath. “Still alive,” he said, seeing a pulse of color that signified life come up around both Dominee and the injured individual.


Dominee dismounted, though Aurelius remained up on his horse, and she was the one to approach, looking for signs of consciousness. “Should heal her, Aurelius,” though of course, he was already working on that, speaking again under his breath to cast a healing spell upon the woman who looked injured.

 

[Lawson]

Cindaia would be pretending to be barely concious. She'd weakly point towards the body in the middle of the road as if to try and tell them to head towards it. She says in a weak voice "H-Him."


On closer inspection Cindaia would appear to have no wound and just blood on her body, her left arm would be out of view and her fingers would be moving in a small motion as she mutters several words repeatedly under the breath while looking towards the body.

 

[Lucyfer]

“Never mind him, he’s dead,” Dominee informed the wounded person, not needing confirmation from Aurelius. The fact he excluded mentioning the man when noting the living meant that he was dead.


The golden aura of the healing spell fell over the woman, but Dominee noted then that no wound was being knit together. She’d been in combat enough to recognize the sight of a healing spell working, and this one just fell over, the golden aura falling into the ground and not moving to any one spot.


Naturally, that put the legionnaire immediately on guard, and she stepped back and drew her blade, so-called Tyrannus.


“What’s wrong?” Aurelius asked her, for he wasn’t close enough to see how the healing spell fell over the woman.

 

[Lawson]

Cindaia stood up, her hair falling along her shoulders and back. She pushed her hand out towards the corpse, casting her reanimation spell to give it movement.


"Which one of you is the servant of Molag Bal?" Cindaia asked as her eyes darted between the two. Drawing her Elucidator sword in one hand and holding her ebony dagger in her other hand in a reverse icepick grip.


"My reason for being here only considers one of you, it does not concern the other but if you choose it to, it will," she spoke in her calm voice.


The reanimated corpse would move back out of the ranges of any of their swords in slow, lumbering motions with blue shining eyes with no pupils or iris', just a light blue glow.

 

[Lucyfer]

Any servant of Molag Bal would never deny it. It was a bragging right, after all. So, Aurelius immediately stated, “None of us!” And then hurriedly, stupidly, said, “She just wears the ring for…I don’t even know why.”


The legionnaire had blade drawn, but didn’t move to attack. Her eyes moved to take in the reanimated corpse, “Because I like it,” she answered Aurelius's statement, and then looked the woman in the eye, ignoring the reanimated corpse. Aurelius would deal with it if necessary. “I do not serve Molag Bal, nor does Aurelius, or he would have tried to strike me down by now.” For that’s usually what servants of Molag Bal did when they caught up with her. They wanted to avenge the humiliation that took place by the fact she did wear that ring. “You’ve been misinformed.”

 

[Lawson]

"Then it seems we may be in trouble." Cindaia replied. "I've been told to strike down the servant of Molag Bal to stop a great catastrophe that will be brought upon the earth. How and where did you get that ring?"


She sheathed Elucidator and approached the reanimated corpse, plunging her dagger into the skull of it, as she had read as a backup in case the spell didn't work as intended, reducing the corpse to ashes on the floor.


"Why are you heading to Falkreath?" She questioned the two, looking them both up and down and accessing whether she'd need to fight them and if so how she'd overcome them.

 

[Lucyfer]

Aurelius glanced between the two women from atop his horse, “What sort of trouble?” That allowed Dominee to ignore the question about the ring.


Dominee shrugged her shoulders, brushed a bit of her hair back over her shoulder, “Likely another doomed attempt by the prince of domination to dominate Nirn.” She walked back to her own horse, clearly unconcerned. Her casual blasphemy caused Aurelius to give her an anxious look, and then look around, expecting daedra to show up.


She always became this way when the topic came up. Her concern with Molag Bal and many of the other Daedric princes was non-existent. “I wouldn’t be too worried there, assassin,” Dominee told her as she got back onto her horse, “Aurelius and I are just going to deal with an outbreak of murders in Falkreath. Imperial business.” Nothing that ought to concern the assassin, really, and nothing that Dominee needed to hide. “I doubt very much one of Molag Bal’s is there. You’ll note they’re not subtle.” She was half-tempted to suggest the assassin hang around.


Inevitably, she ran into his servants.

 

[Lawson]

Cindaia shrugged and walked off into the wood to her horse, deciding she had the wrong person but felt as if the people she had spoken to would have some effect later. She regained her gear and climbed onto her horse, deciding to ride for the Rift to do some hunting at her usual grounds where only a few people knew what she did and where she went.


She rode east, stopping in Riverwood to buy some supplies for the road before riding further with her destination and route planned as it usually was whenever she went on one of her trips. None of her fellow guild members knew what she did there, only that it was where she went to unwind between contracts.


Eventually she reached Ivarstead at the base of the Throat of the World. There she rented a room with some of the coin she had and rested in her room after making sure it was secure and had multiple early warning traps set to alert her to anyone trying to get inside.

 

[Lucyfer]

No answer ever came from the assassin as to what sort of trouble was around the corner. Dominee and Aurelius trekked on after the odd encounter. “Should we report that?”


Dominee shook her head. “Molag Bal’s followers exaggerate. There’s nothing to worry about.”


“Doesn’t he pick good ones?”


“They all think they do.”


“What if it’s a Vampire Lord?”


Dominee gave him a withering look and he looked down at the neck of his horse. “Right. It will be dealt with.” A sigh parted his lips and he asked again, “Did you really get the ring in Coldharbour?”


“Maybe.”


They were in Falkreath by the end of the day, and put their horses up. They met with the Jarl and found that Jarl Siddgeir didn’t know much. Nenya had more information for them. They were informed that those being killed were mostly clerics in service to the 8 Divines. With that bit of information, the two went off to the tavern to get their rooms for the night, and to listen to gossip about events going on.


Eventually, Aurelius went off to bed. Dominee remained awake and opted to take a walk to the Falkreath cemetery.


“You.” Someone addressed her, and she turned to see a young man, “You must be the one we were promised.” She saw the way his eyes slipped to her ring.


She lied, “Of course I am.” This was about to get interesting.

 

[Lawson]

Cindaia decided that instead of continuing to her hunting spot she was going to ride North and rest in Whiterun. Mounting her horse she went back east through the barely used roads before having to suddenly stop. Right infront of her were two men wearing black robes. One was holding a rather large mace and the other a sword.


They stood there. Just staring at her for a few moments before they spoke.


"We heard you needed servants of Molag Bal. We have been sent by our master to bring you to him." The first one said.


Deciding that would mean anything but good, she quickly drew Elucidator, flicking it towards the first daedra as she moved at a speed not expected of her. Slashing the first daedra as she unsheathed her dagger and aimed a stab towards the second daedra.


As she swung for another hit she froze as she felt cold steel pierce her side. She stared into the daedra's facial area as it pulled back it's sword with her dropping to her knees. It was in that moment she knew she had to do it. There was only one way she'd be able to survive such a wound and at least escape. She only used this method when the going went tough and if anytime was that, it was now.


She raised her head to the sky and released a loud, feral howl. She dropped to her knees, her bones rearranging painfully as she howled again. She felt her hair shorten as hair started growing onto her hands and arms and all over her body. Her nose and mouth elongated into one long snout as her eyes sharpened. Her sense of color disappeared, leaving only black and white. Her nails elongated into claws and her armor fell from her body, falling to the floor. Her feet rearranged to become paws as her toenails sharpened and elongated into claws.


She released another howl, louder than the first that could be heard as far as Ivarstead. The cultists had the look of fear on their faces as they saw what was happening. She immediately lunged towards the first cultist, biting down into his throat with a crunch as the bones broke. Pulling her bloody snout from where his throat used to be, she turned and slashed her claws along the second cultist's body, almost separating him in half. Picking up the first body in between her teeth, she quickly bounded off to find a cave to rest and feed until her form returned to normal.