Rastislav
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Arc 7 Chapter LXXXV: Calculating The Damage
🕑 Added 2024-08-27 00:58:33 +0000 UTCA/n: The arc's finale approaches ever so slowly! We enter a planning phase and only a single short side quest is left before the World Eater learns his fucking place (It is in the trash by the way, if it wasn't already obvious)
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(Reyvin's POV)
Leaving the solemn Isran behind I made to check if anything critical remained before I had to go to Solitude and see the true extent of the damage.
I shudder at the mere though of how many people died today. Oh sure, the cities no doubt survived with some casualties, but the villages were simply put fucked without lube.
Well we did try relocating as many as possible, no point in getting depressed over it...
An agent shuffled out of a nearby shadow and dropped a scroll on my table before wordlessly leaving, offering only a slight incline of his head in acknowledgement of my presence.
"Let's see here" I mutter, Dawnguard has lost half of their people in the fight and they are still the most numerous in terms of survival 'No wonder Isran looked like someone shat in his bed' The siege engines are recoverable and the automatons I lent Maven were mostly intact.
The bitch did leave them stationed on the towers meant for people after all.
The looting had already had the time to start and get crushed by my people, only two dozen houses were ransacked and only forty six people died in the ensuing fighting.
Man do I hate this fucking city...
You know what? Fuck it. I am leaving this shit to Davos, I have better things to worry about than the literal rotting arsehole of Skyrim.
Without a further care in my mind I snap my fingers and recall myself to the Mage's Tower atop the Blue Palace.
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The housecarls open the way almost hurriedly as I step into the throne room, the chaos inside as loud as it was expected.
The Thanes as usual were shouting at each other, Falk looked like he wanted to strangle them and Ingvar looked like he wanted to be anywhere except here. The interim Court Wizard was the first to notice me, the thin Altmer giving me a light nod before returning to his orb with an almost obsessive focus.
A mere second later Torygg's head twitched up from the scroll he was reading and his expression lightened somewhat "Reyvin." He greeted and the hall turned almost deathly silent "What happened?"
But I was not about to answer the question without asking my own "How bad is it?"
He looked just about ready to grind his teeth but he understood the need of context well enough to answer first "Multiple settlements were burned to the ground today alone, reports are streaming in constantly so I don't even know if more of my people are dying right now." He grinds out, his near frothing fury evident "Eastern Whiterun lies in ruins, Riften's walls were brought down, Morthal lost an entire district, Dawnstar its harbor and I have no doubts that even more will be lost before the day is out." He breathes in deeply "So I ask again, Reyvin. What. Happened?"
"Right." I nod, more to myself "We used what information we had to follow the upsurge in Dragon Cultists and went to put them to the sword." Everyone nods along, that was the point of the excursion "What was not outright stated but was still very much so part of the plan was that they were converging around a dragon mound."
"A dragon mound?" Erikur cuts in with a blink "Like a burial place?"
"No, it was their shit pile." I grouse, a tad more annoyed than I was willing to admit "Of fucking course it was a burial mound you s'wit."
Suitably chastised he shuts his stupid fucking mouth.
"Where was I?" I ask needlessly "Yes... So the idea was since Alduin needs to actually revive his brothers we would ambush him while he was drained from the ritual."
"A good plan." Torygg nods "But what went wrong?"
"Nothing went wrong." I snort, much to their disbelief "We killed the recently revived one, Sahloknir in moments and fell upon the World Eater as we planned, I delivered a rather nasty wound to him with some means I will not reveal and Minthara nearly cracked his cowardly spine."
"But?" The King frowns.
"But." I nod "He started pulling his divine powers onto Nirn."
Helm looks at me like I grew a second head, Erikur chokes on his wine, Bryling goes white and Falk frowns deeply. Torygg just stares at me, waiting for the explanation.
"We survived, obviously." I smirk "We were able to counter him long enough for Akatosh's edict to do its great work" And this is where I pause "But... before he could be banished fully he sent out one final command to his brothers. No doubt ordering them to do as much damage as possible and conquer in his name."
"And so here we are..." Torygg sighs and slumps into his throne.
"Report just came in." The Altmer wizard calls out "Winterhold has been completely secured by the College and its Jarl, two magi of great power are moving to Dawnstar and Windhelm respectively to provide aid where needed."
"Good." Falk grunts "How swiftly can they cover the holds?"
"Dawnstar has already been placed under protection by the Argonian Shalazar, the head of the Flame-Hearts informs me that any dragons remaining have been placed under simultaneous attack and one had already fled with grievous injury."
I snort "Fucking Lizard Wizard."
The court give me odd looks but just shake it off as my usual eccentricity.
The Altmer goes on "Windhelm will take a bit of time, Court Wizard Wuunferth has already begun cooperating with Master Tolfdir Ebon-Frost in chasing down the sole dragon still ravaging the west of the hold." He clears his throat "He shall proceed to Morthal in short order, Farengar Secret-Fire notes that Whiterun has already been cleared out as well by local forces."
Durrak and his lot did their job then. Hopefully Delphine's dragon murder boner was satisfied, I do not want to waste any more breath on her stubborn ass.
Torygg sighs in relief "The honorable magi will get their due rewards after this crisis has been dealt with, you an rely this to them."
"At once, High King." He bows and gets back to work.
Before we could speak further the door to the throne room is opened once again and a pair o familiar figures walk in. Legate Rikke looked to be in pristine condition if a bit tired but the figure next to her.
Well, let us just say that Serana's eyes were blazing with power as she grinned at me.
"Serana!" I spread my arms welcomingly and scoop her up in a hug "I see that my message has reached you."
"It has." She nods happily and leans in for a whisper "You didn't tell me dragon blood was this delicious."
I blink and give her a look "How the fuck should I know how dragon blood tastes?"
She shrugs and lets me go, offering Torygg a slight bow to which he responded with an incline of his head.
"So it was you..." I hear Rikke whisper before offering a crisp salute to the King "King Torygg, we have been patrolling the less defended settlements as commanded, on our patrol we found the Lady Volkihar standing atop a freshly slain dragon."
"And the dear Legate was kind enough to invite me over to the palace." Serana grins, far, far more chipper than I remembered her ever being "A marvelous sight, if I do say so."
"We are of course delighted to welcome you into our halls, Lady Volkihar." Torygg nods along, the pleasantries ingrained into his very bones "But I can't help but wonder about the reasoning behind your... hunt?"
"Oh that is simple." She smiles "Reyvin asked me to."
The young King sighs and mutters "Of course he did." And looks up to me "And you did not see fit to inform me of this?"
"She is here to help but that is no reason for your warriors to relax." I shrug easily "Better that they be paranoid about the very real threat of sudden sky lizard than rely on the good Lady Volkihar to do their jobs for them."
He rolls his eyes, annoyed at my dodging of his question but unwilling to waste any more of his energy on questioning me about something so beneficial for his own personal hold. Instead he looks to Serana "And does this request from our mutual ally carry a deadline?"
"Of course not." She answers immediately and with a sudden seriousness she did not carry a moment earlier "I do live here, even if it is on the outskirts."
I roll my eyes "That is semantics and you know it."
She shrugs "It is all you are getting." Eliciting an amused snort from me.
"Whatever your reason know that you are welcome to stay here as long as you like." Torryg brushes past the perceived awkwardness with practiced ease.
"My King." Falk cuts in "As... grateful as we all no doubt are for the good lady's help, how do we explain her presence in the palace?"
Torygg cups his chin for only a brief moment before his eyes shine with an idea "A mercenary archmage from High Rock, here to hold down the defenses while the heroic Court Mage and Dragonborn hunt for the dragons outside our walls."
The Steward hums and nods in approval.
"As good an explanation as any." I fold my arms "What no-"
"P-p-pard-don me my lords." The shivering voice of the Altmer mage draws our gazes, the Mer's golden skin looking paper white as he looked at his orb "I-I..." He breathes in and closes his eyes "I have just received word that Falkreath has been ravaged utterly, and the Imperial supply train with it."
There is a silence then, for just a brief moment as we compute what in the everloving fucking shit just happened, and how exactly whoever did it managed to avoid both my sight and that of Krein... and that of Shalazar as well...
My eyes narrow, and turn slightly bloodshot as I channel a downright ungodly amount of Magicka through them, immediately turning my gaze to the south and slightly to the east, the lack of anything problematic immediately making my hairs rise as whoever laid the trap was so good that they managed to make the place look at peace while it was no doubt being ground to dust.
Absently I note the walls and windows in front of me being tinged with red as I channel even more power through, using my liberated soul as an additional channel and then and only then do I notice a very... gentle spell being laid over an ENTIRE FUCKMOTHERING HOLD!
I pushed another surge of Magicka, tinged with my divinity, just in case it was more of Mora's fuckery but found it to be completely 'natural' in its existence, as far as magic was natural in this world anyway.
The worst part, however, was that I could not even begin to track its source as it felt aggressively neutral in nature. Like it was always there and we just did not notice it at all ever.
I blink rapidly as I retract my sight. This would be Shalazar's job, whoever did it did not carry the usual deathly tinge of a Dragon Priest and took great care to hide from someone of my nature. I needed to focus on the real problem and chasing after obvious bait was not something I had bloody time for.
Before I could even lift my orb it already buzzed with a message:
[LizardWizard: Already on it, Reyvin. Focus on Alduin, will report as soon as I find the culprit.]
I don't know how long I stared at the damned orb but it must have been long enough because only Torygg's slightly frustrated and mostly worried shout of my name brought me out of the utter surprise that was serious Shalazar.
"Sorry." I mutter and look to the immensely upset court, not at me obviously but at the situation "I was trying to gleam at what had happened. It seems the dragons have had help, knowingly or not."
"Great." Torygg grits out "Just bloody great."
"Whoever it was it does not matter." I cut off his frustrated grumbling "The attacks will only escalate and nothing will end them except the slaying of Alduin and another taking his place in rule of the dragons."
"And how do you plan on helping the Dragonborn slay him?" Falk Firebeard asks "She is the only one that can, you have already told us this, but if he was banished from Nirn by Akatosh, how do you even reach him?"
"Well... about that." I shift awkwardly "I may or may not know where he was sent to..." I trail of, very awkwardly.
"Reyvin." Torygg leans in "This isn't the time to hesitate, where is the World Eater hiding?"
"Sovengarde." I admit slowly "He is hiding in Sovengarde."
And it was then that the High Kong utterly lost his composure "HE IS FUCKING WHAT!?"
Aaaand there it is.
