CO-OPs: Ka Ek Akai and The Armed Republic of Dutch Colonies
When the Brass Tower walks and Time is reshaped
When the thrice-blessed fail and the Red Tower trembles
When the Dragonborn Ruler loses his throne, and the White Tower falls
When the Snow Tower lies sundered, kingless, bleeding
The World-Eater wakes, and the Wheel turns upon the Last Dragonborn.
-The Book of the Dragonborn
Thalmor Prisoner Convoy
En Route to the Thalmor Embassy
The shouting of orders. Metal clashing as sword and shield collided. The dying cries of the wounded, unheeded by those still fighting.
“There’s too many!”
“Why are the Thalmor here? We were told that this was just a regular supply convoy!”
“Where’s the commander?!”
“For Skyrim!”
Blood fills my vision as I see my friends and comrades being cut down in front of me. I reach out to try and save them but it’s too late. Their heads roll across the snow covered ground, their insides spewed about, cuts run up and down their bodies. The life is gone from their eyes, and I know I will soon be joining them.
Sure enough, I see an arrow fly towards me, almost in slow motion. I’m able to avoid it, but I choose to instead stand where I am. Why should I live, when so many others have fallen? No, I will accept my fate. Arms wide open, I make it so that the arrow will strike true, and I close my eyes while I await my end.
The sound of the arrow striking true fills me ears, but I feel no pain. I open my eyes, only to see them meet another pair of striking blue eyes. It’s Emily’s. I feel my mouth open in shock and horror, but all that is seen on her face is a small smile. She mutters out a single word, even as I can see her soul leave her body.
“Live.”
“Einar. Einar. Einar! Wake up!”
My eyes snap open as I’m shaken awake, my heart still pounding as I lock my gaze with those same pair of blue eyes from before. For a split second, I think that I am dreaming again, and panic begins to return to me. However, a jolt from the seat below me makes me remember where I was.
I, along with over a dozen others, were stuck in a wooden wagon that was surrounded by an entourage of mounted Thalmor Justicars. Our hands were bound together and we had been stripped of any armor we previously possessed, leaving even myself freezing in the frigid conditions that my homeland was known for. My eyes went back to Emily’s face which visibly showed her concern.
“Einar, you were thrashing about in your sleep and then suddenly you went limp. The guards told me to wake you up before they’d do it themselves, and we both know what that would have meant.”
Her voice suddenly got quiet.
“Was your dream about...?”
She trailed off at the end of the question, but I knew she was referring to their failed ambush the day before. I opened my mouth but found myself unable to speak, eventually settling for a small nod. Emily seemed to relax a bit, understanding why I was so upset. They’d lost a lot of good people that day all because of bad information.
Emily glanced about, ensuring that none of the guards were looking at us before whispering into my ear.
“I’ve counted two dozen guards, a dozen of them on horseback and the remainder riding on the other wagons, including the one that they threw all of our gear in. I don’t know how close we are to wherever they’re taking us, but it must be close as they haven’t stopped to rest for the night. If we’re going to do something, now’s the time, since once we’re locked up they’ll be no way of escaping.”
The evening light make it hard to see in order to get a good count, but Emily’s estimate on their guards’ numbers seemed to be correct. I noted that a few had already lit torches, meaning that they indeed were planning on travelling throughout the night. They seemed more bored than anything, no doubt annoyed that they were forced to travel in these freezing conditions. With the sun beginning to set, the temperature was rapidly beginning to drop. These Dominion Dogs were used to much warmer conditions, so seeing them suffer from the weather was at least somewhat fulfilling to see.
“Anything useful you think we could use to our advantage, Emily?”
Emily shook her head, a frustrated look now on her face.
“Not from what I can tell. They’re fairly spread out and while they seem to be a bit weary from all the travel, I doubt that we’d get through even one of the bastards before we’d find a bouquet of blades and arrows embedded in our backs. Not to mention they have at least four or five magic users, and we both know how unfair they fight.”
Emily gritted her teeth, the weight of the situation weighing down on her. Indeed, I felt it too, as I myself had no idea what we would be able to do. Our hands were bound with rope, they had no weapons, and they had no idea if the people with them would even help them escape, even though doing such would be their only chance at avoiding a painful death at the hands of the Thalmor interrogators. Our only chance would be if they could distract the guards long enough to make a break for it. However, being this deep into Imperial-held territory meant any chance at rescue was non-existent.
I let out a frustrated groan, loud enough that the guard riding nearest to us noticed.
“Keep quiet Stormcloak, unless you want your trial to be held right here and now with myself as the judge, jury, and the executioner.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at that, even as I knew doing such a thing was only going to make things worse.
“Oh, like I expect anything different once you bring me to our destination. We all know how you operate, Dominion Dog.”
The Thalmor guard, as was expected, seemed to not appreciate this, as he began to reach for his sword.
“Why you-”
He was interrupted, however, as his mounted suddenly went up on its hind legs, letting out a screech as its eyes stared at the darkness ahead. The Thalmor, confused as to what was happening, turned his head to find the source of his mount’s fear before an axe suddenly found itself embedded in his chest. The Thalmor tried to gurgle out something, but all that came out was a spurt of blood before he fell from his saddle. This gained the attention of the Thalmor behind him, whose eyes widened in surprise. She was able to scream out a single warning before several arrows embedded themselves all across her body, causing the elf to slump over in her saddle.
“Ambush!”
The cry brought the entire convoy to attention, but it was too late for them to react as from the shadows of the night several figures leaped out from the shadows. These figures wore black hoods which concealed their faces as they slashed out at the Thalmor who were completely caught off guard. All of the wagons, including the one the prisoners were riding in, stopped in their tracks as their guards attempted to defend themselves from the onslaught.
I had no idea who these ambushers were, but nor did I care. I locked eyes with Emily for a brief second, the two of us knowing what we needed to do. I hopped out from the cart and ran over to the guard who still had an axe embedded in his chest. I used to free side of the axe’s blade to cut through the rope that had bounded my hands and then reached for the dagger that was strapped to his waist. Once I had it, I looked back to the cart where Emily was. Several other prisoners had made a break for it as well, while the others remained in the cart seemingly not knowing what to do. I tossed the dagger up towards Emily, who managed to catch it.
“Emily, use this to cut yourself and the others free! I’m going to get our stuff from the other cart!”
Emily gave a small nod before going to work on her bindings. I looked back down to the dead Thalmor before me, his eyes still displaying shock even in death. I had no pity for the elf, and nor did I feel any guilt as I yanked the axe from his chest. I noticed that the axe possessed several odd designs that I didn’t recognize as being made by any blacksmith in this area. It seemed to almost possess a...aura, one that filled myself with a sense of dread. I quickly shook off this feel, instead focusing on the task at hand.
Running towards the direction of the cart, I tried to avoid getting caught up in the fighting. The Thalmor had managed to recover from the initial surprise of the ambush, but at a considerable cost as almost half of them had been slain. While most were busy fending off their unknown assailants, two of them were still guarding the cart which contained the items that belonged to myself and the rest of the prisoners.
As a I approached, one of them noticed me and shouted out to the other. I gritted my teeth as I continued to charge forward as they hastily turned to face me. Swinging my axe, I attempted to go with a low cut towards the first one’s legs, managing to knick his calf as I did. At the same time, I reached out with my other arm and pinned the second Thalmor’s arm so that he was unable to swing. The first Thalmor, now put off balance with his fresh wound, attempted to thrust his sword towards me. However, I was banking on him doing just that, as I jerked the second’s Thalmor’s arm in the way, causing the blade to pierce through it. The elf screamed in pain, dropping his weapon as he did. I let go of my grip on his arm and instead delivering a barehanded blow to the first’s face, knocking him further off balance to the point he tripped over. The second one, realizing what had happened, tried to retrieve his weapon from the ground, but before he had a chance I sliced through his exposed neck, nearly decapitating him as I did. The first one, still on the ground, tried to scramble away, but I quickly finished him off as well.
The guards now dealt with, I unhitched the back gate of the cart as well as removed the tarp from the top of it. As much as I hated the Dominion, I had to respect how neat and organized they were, as each prisoners’ gera were separately organized form each other. I grabbed the bag which contained my armor and threw it over my shoulder, grunting all of the weight was put on at once. I reached for my greatsword, glad to see that it hadn’t taken too much of a beating from my last use.
The fatigue already beginning to set in, I struggled to keep my breath steady as I began to make my way back to where Emily and the rest were. It appeared that Emily had freed the rest of the group, some of which stuck around while the others scattering. I frantically began to wave my arms to get her attention, which she eventually noticed. She began to rush over towards me, as did a few others whom she had freed. I bit my lip, not knowing if it would be good for these strangers to find themselves with weapons in their hands once more. I debated whether or not it would’ve been better to try and kill them myself before they had a chance to betray us, but at this point I knew getting stuck in a fight would only increase the odds that either the Thalmor or whoever they had picked a fight with were going to get to them. So instead, I waited for Emily and the others to arrive, pointing them towards the cart as I yelled at them with a sense of urgency.
“Your stuff should be in there! Don’t bother throwing on any armor, it’ll take too much time. Have your weapons ready in case we need to fight, but avoid getting caught up in this if you can!”
I received a mix chorus of responses, some verbal, some physical, and others nothing at all. I didn't care, as long as we could get out of this warzone. I could see that the Thalmor were holding their own at the moment, but they were quickly becoming overwhelmed as their initial losses had been too great. It appeared that whoever these assailants were were indeed not to be trusted, as I saw several prisoners be cut down by the unknown group.
“Einar, we’re ready!”
Behind me, Emily and the others appeared to have assembled all of their gear. Emily normally wore lighter armor, so her bag didn’t seem to weigh her down nearly as much as mine did, something I was okay with as it meant she’d be able to get away quicker than I would. I nodded in response, prepared to run, before looking at the others that were present.
“If you are no enemy of the Stormcloaks and promise to not betray us, I promise free shelter once we make it into friendly territory.”
Nobody seemed to object to the offer, and so I began to sprint away from the ongoing battle and towards where I hoped was East. I could hear the breathing of several others behind me, which meant that at least a few of these members had decided to tag along. I prayed to Talos that they could be trusted, but at the moment he doubted they’d be stupid enough to try anything as they fled for their lives.
They had made it several dozen yards before a wall of flame suddenly appeared in front of them, forcing them to stop suddenly. Before they could try and turn around, additional walls of flame erupted all around them until they were completely surrounded. I cursed out loud as I dropped my bag of gear at my feet and prepared to defend ourselves from whatever was next. The others seemed to have the same idea, as they joined me in a loose defense circle as we awaited for the attack.
The wall of flames in front of us suddenly seemed to open up like a curtain, revealing the figure of one of the masked ambushers. However, this was less of a concern for me, as flanking this figure was beings I immediately recognized as something something not of this realm. They were clad in dark black armor from head to toe with two large curved horns protruding from their helmets. A deadly aura seemed to surround them, one that chilled me to the bone.
The masked figure in front cocked his head, almost in amusement, before suddenly pointing towards Emily.
“Capture the girl, do whatever you want with the rest.”
The two armored beings obeyed the ordered immediately, walking towards our group immediately. The masked figure stood back, seemingly waiting for his minions to do the dirty work for him. It appeared that we would be forced to fight their way out of their situation, something I was all too familiar with doing.
I looked over at Emily, who gave me a small nod. We had fought many battles side by side, and we knew each other like the back of our own hands. For whatever weakness one of had, the other would make up for in their own strengths.So although I had no idea just what exactly I was up against, I decided to take the initiative and charge forward, as did Emily.
However, before we could even get close to our opponents, the masked figure’s hands suddenly began to glow as he prepared a spell. Apparently he wasn’t planning on doing nothing at all after all, as his hand slammed towards the ground in front of him. When it did, a bright line began to trace its way towards us until suddenly stopping at our feet and then proceeded to form a magical glyph.
Before I could even react, the ground below me exploded, casting me and the rest of the group into the air like ragdolls. When I landed, I could feel all of the air escape my lungs, stunning me as I lay there unable to move. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the armored figures walk past me, apparently not bothering to finish us off. Instead, they reached down to pick up Emily, who weakly tried to resist before a swift punch was delivered to her stomach, knocking her out. I reached out shakingly with one hand, trying to do anything I could to save her. All I got was a swift kick to the side of my head, causing my vision to blur and my ears to ring as I fell on my face.
As my consciousness began to fade, I hazily noticed a small portal being opened in the air in front of the masked figure. The armored figure, one with Emily tucked in his armed, quickly walked through it, disappearing as they did. The masked figure look back to me one last time, once again cocking his head almost in amusement, before stepping into the portal himself, causing both him and the portal to disappearance. Emily was gone, and it was my fault.
These were the last thought I had before darkness finally overcame me.
I eventually came back to, but as my eyes opened, I soon realized I was no longer on the road from earlier. Since I was still alive and appeared to not have any restraints on me, I deduced that someone must have dragged me out of that mess. I was laying down next to what to be a small fire, and I could hear conversation taking place around me.
Emily.
The thought of her name made me suddenly jolt upright, an action that caused my head to immediately begin to pound. I cursed out loud, knocking over several items that had been placed next to me as I did. Once the pain in my head subsided, I looked around to see that the conversation had ended, and now I looked to see a few of the prisoners from earlier were now staring at me. I didn’t bother with an introduction, instead I moved straight to the questions.
“Who are you? Where are we? Where’s Emily?!”