This chapter has been edited due to content. If you want to see the unedited version GO HERE.
JASH
"The Dark Brotherhood will not be a problem." I said and added in Jel. "And you know why."
"Are you sure, Legate?" General Tullius asked, using my title earned during the Civil War.
To these eyes he was one to be admired due to how the Thalmor feared him. If not for the egg-friend, Ulfric Stormcloak might have taken full control of Skyrim. This would have, even if Ulfric didn't mean for it to do so, made the Thalmor stronger and brought them closer to their goal.
While I admired the man, he had learned through rumors of the dark that I helped flourish. Even though I could openly be the Harbinger of the Companions, there were other titles I couldn't use so freely. Those titles were Guild Master of the Thieves Guild and Listener of the Dark Brotherhood.
"If Jash says that the Dark Brotherhood won't be a threat to the moot, he is telling the truth." Serena retorted.
The vampire was here as a representative of the Dawnguard. A group of vampire hunters whose trust my egg-sister had earned. How was Isran supposed to distrust a daughter that would kill her own father? A woman who had chosen the world over family?
Of course her father had wanted her dead to fulfill a prophecy so...it hadn't been the hardest of choices. At least to these eyes.
"General," Elisif said in a hushed voice even though we were all gathered in the privacy of her room. "Has Jash not yet proven himself to the whole of Skyrim?"
The soon to be High Queen of Skyrim was the light to the land just as I was the dark. Though, as she liked to say, I was really the grey of Skyrim. If we had met in better circumstances maybe it was my hand she would take. Her bed I would lay in. But I now had power to spare, freedom many envied, and a loving husband.
How could I trade all of that for a noble beauty?
Elisif had become a good egg-friend and she accepted me for all my complexity. But she didn't need to know everything. Such as the assassinations I had done personally so those at the highest risk of performing the Black Sacrament, which would make it beyond my control to protect her life, would be scared off or serving Sithis in the Void.
It was a strange thing to look back on my life and see where I was now. Nothing had hinted in the beginning that I would be one of the most trusted friends of Elisif. Oblivion, that was nothing compared to being the Dragonborn. Not just any Dragonborn, the Last Dragonborn that ended Alduin's destructive reign on Skyrim.
Though a good portion of my life was now etched in stone, drowned in ink, and floating in ballads the very beginning was hidden to all but Scouts-Many-Marshes and my closet egg-siblings. The exact memories before entering Nirn had been erased from my mind. When a hatchling, that had bothered me but no longer. Whatever life I had lived before wasn't who I was now. There were too many responsibilities that concerned me in the present.
What I did remember was as if from the dream of another. My dryskin body had been flying out in the vast emptiness as if flung out by another. Though there was a good chance, in my dryskin days, I had ventured too far and gone too deep. In any case I had been flying in the darkness that surrounds the various realities.
Suddenly my dryskin body had come crashing into a dark wood. That body had died enough that my spirit was ripe for the taking by those that knew where to look. The Hist coveted me for the knowledge that they thought I had in my mind. After being disappointed, they made me reborn as a Saxhleel. What ignorant dryskins called an Argonian.
The only memories from back then that remained were of songs. If I just reached out I could find any from my long forgotten past. Sometimes I could even conjure the complex and grating sounds from that world. Those memories were the reason I had originally ventured to Skyrim for a chance of receiving training at the Bards College.
My time on Nirn began in Argonia with my Saxhleel family. Back then I was a small girl named Kysnier. The faces of my parents were lost to time as my peaceful time with them had been cut short by Dark Elf slavers. Slavers who had ignored the fact that it was now illegal to enslave my kind.
Up until I turned thirteen, I was abused by dryskins that cared nothing for my wellbeing. Sometime during my thirteenth year, one of the slavers' children 'played' with me by using a tool to cut into the left side of my face. Normally I would allow the blood to flow and not harm the child.
But something in me snapped. I killed her and helped my fellow Saxhleel kill our captors and escape back to Argonia. It didn't matter that Imperial justice wasn't served, just that their corpses lined the ground and I took a bite out of them.
The three scars on the left side of my face were the only things from that time I allowed to remain. A reminder to myself of the past, no matter how painful, as it proved I could overcome anything. The things I didn't allow to remain were my gender since I changed to a boy shortly after returning to Argonia. I also changed my name to Jash, an odd Saxhleel name that drew attention to me instead of letting me fade away.
"You know the power he holds, my Queen." General Tullius said, bringing me back to the present. "He could easily have you assassinated and play the part of the victim. Just like he has done with those that have wronged him. Thus he could maneuver himself into the position of High King."
"Hold your tongue, General." Elisif snapped. "Or do you not know the difference between removing the old Jarl of Riften and a helping hand?"
Maven Black-Briar had not only terrorized all of Riften, she had dared to infringe on my power. She had grown much too comfortable with having the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood at her beck and call. So when I became the leader of both factions, I decided to remind her that her power had diminished.
She didn't like that which meant she had to be removed. While I let her live, everything she held dear was now taken from her. She still held wealth but now no title and vast amounts of power. A few deaths had been necessary to make that happen.
"Why do I need the title of High King, Tullius?" I asked, my crest rising up slightly as if from a breeze. "I have all the power and freedom a mortal can wish for. Why would I trade that for a title that means I can't travel Skyrim as is my way? I know the dryskin way of distrusting Saxhleel, but I have done more than enough for this land to prove myself."
There was shame written clearly on the Imperial's face. He realized the line he had crossed in the name of security. Luckily for him, it took a lot to make me feel so impassioned that I swore revenge.
"I am sorry, Your Grace." Tullius said with a slight bow. "I did not mean to insult you. Nor did I mean to insult the Argonian that, against his species' history, saved Skyrim. Not only from Ulfric Stormcloak but from Alduin who endangered our very souls."
"I forgive you, Tullius." Elisif said and sipped her wine.
"I see nothing to forgive, Tullius." I said and my crest lowered. "The respect I have for you is not so easily destroyed to these eyes."
I put a hand on the Ebony Blade, the blade a stark contrast to my Dragonscale Armor, and was in the process of preparing a spell to give me time to unsheathe my blade when a realization dawned on me. The knocking on the door was too frantic to be coming from a killer. Not even the most skilled assassin would be hammering at the door in such a wild manner.
With a nod from Elisif, I opened the door and a courier came rushing in.
"Jash," The Courier said with hardly any air in his lungs. "I have important news. I am...sorry to be so informal but I barely escaped with my life."
"Speak." I replied. "Those gathered here are friends of mine. They can be trusted with whatever you tell me."
"It's your husband. Scouts-Many-Marshes. He's been captured."
I had experienced many horrors most mortals didn't know existed. I had risen to the task at hand no matter the cost. But now...now was different. Alduin stealing the souls of the Nords paled in comparison to the love of my life being in danger. We had been through the toughest of battles to keep our marriage alive. We had embraced each other and changed because of it.
Whenever I had lost control of my senses, the majority of the time it was due to Scouts being in danger. I had gone through dark paths in my life and he had always been there like the brightest sun. It was his idea to create the By My Soul Shout to prove that there was still something good in me.
I...I would save him. I always had before.
"I'll be safe, Jash." Elisif said.
"But I-" I began in Jel.
"Your husband is in danger and you've done more than enough to protect me. Tullius will help with anything else."
"Thank you, Your Grace." I said in the Common Tongue.
I raced out of the room with Serena behind me. We would pick up supplies at Proudspire Manor and then look for Scouts.
Hircine protect those that had dared to cross such a line with me.
No comments:
Post a Comment