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Arc 8 Chapter XVII: Securing The Chokepoint
🕑 Added 2024-10-22 22:13:03 +0000 UTC(Reyvin's POV)
The Keep of Leyawiin felt almost alive as our forces and those of the rebels swiped through the entire area, every single room and chamber needing to be thoroughly searched before I decided to declare the structure safe and we could finally let our guards down.
The little reception I received in the cathedral was absolutely wonderful for my already unhealthy levels of paranoia.
Not.
I was not a suspicious wreck but the fact that it happened once meant it would no doubt happen again, and so any laxity I previously had in visiting new places was quite thoroughly ruined.
And yet why, oh why, did my heart beat with excitement whenever I remembered shredding that eternal bastard's hand into bits?
'Self evident really, guess I was just being dramatic for the sake of it.' I let out a light snort, immediately drawing attention from the rest of the people seated in what was once Marius' dining hall.
Far too used to my shenanigans, Minthara chose that moment to speak up "What happened in the cathedral, Reyvin?"
"Oh you know, just the usual." I remove my legs from atop the large ornate table and light up a cigar "Overly arrogant little shit decided to sell his soul to Daedra, said Daedra tried use the chance to murder me, opened an oblivion portal, had to hold back an army, that kind of thing."
My nonchalance in retelling what happened made my words fly over everyone's heads for a moment but once they actually registered what I said I was promptly smacked with a veritable wall of questions, disbelieving exclamations, and demands to elaborate.
"He speaks the truth." Corvinus, who had no doubt awoken mere minutes prior, waddles into the room, his shaky hand holding a broken spear but as one would a walking cane "The vile demons tried making their way unto Nirn through Marius' treachery, yet Lord Zenithar saw fit to aid us, and ceased any attempt of the false gods to breach their way into the city."
"Good to see you didn't waste my effort by going to meet your god too quickly." I raise a glass of some acceptably good wine at the young man "I doubt channeling that much power was at all that healthy."
"The Divines shall provide." He huffs with some humor and takes an empty seat without bothering about the lack of invitation.
"About that." Minthara's mildly furious voice draws our eyes as she speaks up "How exactly did they manage to make such a large breach?" Her eyes momentarily flicker to her chestplate, where the Amulet of Kings was "It must have taken them a ridiculous amount of power to do."
"I will not go into too many details about powerful Daedra summoning for obvious reasons." I give pointed looks to the gathered leaders and nobles, mostly eliciting noises of agreement and understanding "But they were summoned through a temporary stopgap, likely aimed at killing me and maybe ravaging the city afterwards before they were forced out."
"So the Daedra were here because of you?" One of the six Legates from the recently defunct council speaks up, not quite daring to sound accusing but feeling such anyway "This whole invasion was to catch you?"
"I know it may sound a bit arrogant." I chuckle "But trust me, those three really hate my guts."
I see the old man mouth 'three?!' his eyes widening to a ridiculous degree as his gaze moved from me to Corvinus and back to me.
"Reyvin's quarrel with literal gods aside." Minthara cuts in with far too much amusement in her voice "I do believe we should get to the actual reason we have gathered here."
"Yes." Janus Caro nods eagerly "The future of our beloved city."
That he was the first to speak annoyed the Legates something fierce, while those among the rebels of at least some influence merely looked just about ready to start rolling their eyes.
Nodding to Minthara, I held back a grin as I put her on the spot.
"His Imperial Majesty." She begins, sending me a heatless glare "Has given us secret orders to deal with the corruption within this city by any means necessary. Since the corruption has gone all the way up to the Count himself, this makes your coup fully legal under imperial law."
There were a lot of sighs of relief there. Sure the bunch of them knew they weren't about to be lynched for doing this but having imperial approval would no doubt save and or extend their careers for a good bit.
"Seeing as the highest leadership was in need of prompt deposition." She goes on "I will leave the rulership of the city under the temporary auspices of the reformed Council of Legates." The six officers/functionaries perk up while Janus narrows his eyes "Naturally all of your dealings will be investigated and should anything unacceptable be found you will be acquainted with my hammer before you can even think of running."
Cue absolutely terrified gulps and a lot of shivering.
She of course continues as if she didn't just threaten their backsides with a thorough hammering "The position of Count will be decided on at a later date." She gives Janus a pointed look "Such decisions belong to the Emperor himself after all and Marius will be judged by the Emperor himself, no you can not defenestrate him immediately, even if I want to do it myself."
Captain Gravus lowers his hand.
"However." Her voice suddenly turns a lot harsher "One thing you will have to accept before I even consider leaving you to your own devices." She pauses for a moment "The bridge is getting removed and replaced with something that permits the passing of sea worthy ships."
"What?!" Legate Fortunus jumps up from his seat, immediately followed by his colleagues and Janus "The bridge of Leyawiin has stood for hundreds of years! You can't possibly think we will just let you demolish it!"
The air stilled, a deathly chill replacing the warmth of the large fireplace behind the head of the table as Minthara slowly stood up, ever so gently laying her hammer upon the table and doing nothing as cracks begun to spread across the whole thing under the weight.
"Understand this." She spoke coldly and no one was stupid enough to interrupt "Had I wished I could have just killed you all for perceived incompetence." Her words rang true and many paled "Replaced you with someone more competent." The air grows colder "More compliant." They begin outright shivering now.
"But I am not that unreasonable, unless you provoke me of course." She smiles lightly, it was not a warm thing "You will obey my orders, you will do as I command, and you will do it with a smile on your face and loyalty in your hearts." She tilts her head "In fact..."
Her hand reaches below her neck and into her chestplate, quickly extracting a very familiar amulet and allowing it to hang freely for all to see "I will take your oaths of loyalty immediately, as your Crown Princess."
Before she even finished speaking, Corvinus was already kneeling on the ground, not even daring to look her in the eye.
The reactions of the rest made not laughing my ass off quite the challenge though, how no one managed to launch an eye from their skulls so far was a mystery.
-----
An hour later, after the people finally calmed down and offered their oaths under pain of immediate evisceration (implied of course) I found myself strolling through the keep, incidentally passing through the large chamber which the defenders used for their admittedly intelligent ambush spot, and which now served as a place for their corpses to be readied for burial.
There I saw Alor and Corvinus standing above a familiarly colored Khajiit corpse, my mind swiftly supplying the corpse as belonging to Ma'zaro. A real shame that.
"And he just turned cloak without a thought?" I heard Corvinus ask him, the young priest feeling like a veritable bonfire of conviction after all he had experienced in the past hours "I find it quite hard to believe my old friend would betray us so easily."
"I do not know how or why things turned out as they did and while I regret not leaving him intact for further research, I refuse to accept any risk to my charge." Alor retorted, respectfully yet firmly "If he had merely been controlled then that is a tragedy I will bear for the rest of my life, but I would still not hesitate even once."
"Your loyalty does you credit." Corvinus inclines his head respectfully, even as his voice is filled with sorrow "I guess I am simply too shaken to accept that he is dead, after all these years..."
"What happened?" I speak up as I approach the duo.
Both of them bow and Alor quickly informs me of everything that went wrong with the unfortunate cat man.
"A sleeper agent." I mutter as I scratch at my beard "I did not think they made use of those but it makes sense once you think about it."
"Pardon me, my lord." Alor's brows furrow "But are you referring to the theory you had on the Hermetics and their ability to hide from your agents?"
"Effectively." I do not grumble as my most annoying enemies are mentioned. Seeing Corvinus' questioning look I deign to enlighten him "A sleeper agent is someone conditioned to respond to a series of commands and then made to forget the conditioning, in theory they can live a normal life for decades before someone 'activates' them and they fulfil their original purpose, the rhythmic hissing Alor mentioned was probably some activation code in Khajiiti now that I think on it."
Before he can even ask I interject "I know what you must be thinking, 'Was he ever my firend to begin with?'" The priest nods uncomfortably "I'd say that he was, as unfortunate as this whole thing was he still chose to follow your ideals and nearly sacrifice himself for you, his upbringing and forging into a tool by the Dominion being akin to a possession neither of you could reasonably control."
"Should I have held back, my lord?" Alor asks, suddenly uncomfortable "This whole situation makes me... reluctant."
"Oh no." I shake my head, drawing surprised looks from the both of them "As much as I lament the waste of a righteous life, he threatened Minthara, and that means he dies."
Alor simply nods, while Corvinus takes a much longer time to let out a reluctant sigh and nod as well "The child of Akatosh and the future of the Empire must not be placed under risk, no matter what. I just hope Zenithar accepts his broken child into his domain."
"I am sure your prayers will reach him." I clap the priest on the back "After all this I doubt you will have much peace, what with how much divine power you are radiating."
"Uh... wha-?" His mouth falls open as he gapes at me.
"You've become a conduit for your god." I grin at him "Do make sure not to let it get to your head or I will have to assassinate you, toodles~" I wave behind my back as I walk off, leaving the confounded man behind as Alor turned to him with his signature ravenous curiosity.
Poor man was probably going to be strapped to a table by the end of this with how he was getting stared at.
Oh well, not my problem.
------
Hours later I found myself strolling beside Minthara, with only Akulakhan stepping softly behind us as protection as we went sightseeing throughout Leyawiin.
"Destroying this will be a real shame." She mutters as we cross the bridge practically covered in manors and warehouses "It is one of the oldest structures in history."
"An excuse used by the locals for eras now." I scoff "Letting them leech the rest of the province is just unacceptable, you know this."
"Yeah, yeah." She sighs "Still is a shame."
"On that much we can agree." I allow.
"What do we do about Janus?" She asks after a moment "I doubt the little shit will just accept not being Count and quite frankly removing him before he becomes irritating is too easy."
"I think we should let him rule actually." I shrug, much to her surprise.
Her whole face twitches in disgust "But he is so... worthless"
"He is also a weakling" I point out lightly "An easy to control weakling whose entire powerbase depends on your good will."
"Ah." She nods "Keeping the city weak and dependent on us while we enact the bridge plan will make things much easier, won't it?"
"Ah, she can learn!" I exclaim dramatically.
She crosses her arms and pouts.
"Hey, Reyvin?" She speaks up after a full minute of companionable silence "Are you sure you are doing fine?"
"Still jittery about the whole ambush thing." I admit somewhat reluctantly as we near the middle of the bridge, a cigar appearing between my fingers on mere instinct showing my actual nerves "I knew it was going to happen at some point but never expected it to be so blatant and forceful."
"They will try again after this." She sighs as we both sit at the stone fence of the large bridge, only the dead center of it being free enough of buildings that we could look at the horizon on both sides.
"Yeah." I sigh "If they did it once, I don't see them stopping, even if I did shred Molag's arm."
She turns to me slowly, her face contorted in an admittedly cute expression of surprise "You did what?" She half asks half hisses.
"Nearly blew the fuckers arm right off." I most assuredly do not giggle like a deranged child as I mention this "Dumbass tried grabbing me from within the portal and I shoved all of my growing divinity into my sword, bastard didn't suspect a thing before it was too late."
She stares at me for a moment before letting out an annoyed huff, her shoulders visibly loosing tension as she relaxed "Could have just led with that you twat."
Chuckling I embrace her in a side hug, my amusement only growing as she blushed at the relatively simple act of affection "Can't make things too easy for you, now can I?"
She just huffs again but pointedly does not untangle herself.
We remained there for a long while, both of us enjoying the view after a long day's work.
