The Ebony Renegades BOOK ONE

chapter sixteen

(Third person POV)

Severin rode down the three-eyed frost troll and crashed to the ground a corpse as the entire front of his face was completely covered with troll blood he had a wicked big grin on his face eyeing his group with a sadistic glint in his eyes. Before jumping off and letting Gila go rabid on the trolls, the group stayed back to let their resident troll hater commit mass genocide upon the three-eyed annoyances. Not turning into her werewolf form surprisingly instead pulling off Trollsbane from her back before laughing maniacally as she rushed towards the frost troll ducking underneath it swinging with its clawed muscular arm as she slammed the claw of the steel war hammer into the troll's knee making It fall to its knees before rushing around and slamming the spike into the side of its head through the temple of the skull before pulling back jumping off of the collapsing body doing a backflip Landing onto the anothers back and held onto its head as the other troll agressivly charged as she jumped up to grab onto the branch as the one troll that had lunged ended up tearing the other trolls head off trying to get her only for her to drop down on the other troll that just killed the other one as she smashed its skull with the blunt end of the hammer smirking watching the fire enchantment on the troll killing Warhammer as she laughs maniacally as she began brutally and sadistically smashing its broken body. " Ahh, I feel so much better~," Gila said as she cracked her neck and washed Trollsbane off in the nearby stream Gila took a deep breath to collect herself. She placed the Warhammer back on her back onto the holster that was mounted onto her back underneath her backpack which also held the Rueful Axe in the center meanwhile the glass bow of the Stag Prince was set on the right side. Horksbane was firmly mounted onto her right hip and her quiver for her bow rather than being mounted over her shoulder, it was around her hip with the quiver sticking out words a little bit. Together their combined weight was an added twenty pounds which her werewolf blood made it next to nothing added to her so she was still able to be rather mobile despite the extra weight. She returned to the group and gave a nod after finally calming herself down and they made their way back toward Falkreath. Walking through the Pine Forest along the path back towards Falkreath. entering the city the group headed toward the jarls loghouse as Gila entered first. Jarl Siddgar after seeing Gila enter stood and walked over to his dear cousin and pulled her into a hug. " Is it done? Are the cursed bandits dealt with?" Jarl Siddgar asked in a hopeful tone as Gila nodded. "They weren't bandits at all, they were penitus oculatus agents, and the trolls were dealt with too and we got the people's stuff back including the blacksmith's forging materials." Gila replied as Jarl Siddgar growled in rage hearing the imperial tyrants were the ones who stole their supplies as he looked at her and asked if they got his crown back Shadow-step approached and handed over the Jarl's crown. " my word, you lot are extremely efficient, id expect nothing less from my dear cousin. it's clear to me that she has loyal allies at her back." the young Jarl said as his steward handed Gila a large coin purse which she would distribute among the group later as she left the loghouse with the group staying close as they returned the items to the rightful owners dropping off the blacksmith's materials carefully bringing placing the materials on the workbench so the blacksmith could take note and make sure everything was there. as without warning the City of Falkreath became more lively as they were celebrating a local holiday. " it's the harvest moon festival" Gila said as she looks at the rest of the group and started explaining. " every year the people of Falkreah do this festival to thank Kyne for another year of abundance, and they make an offering for another year " Gila said as Ebon-shi nodded softly. " why don't you and your friends stay for bit as our way of saying thank you for getting our stuff back and dealing with the troll problem" Jarl Siddgar said as he was accompanied by two heavily armored orcs seeming to be his new body guards  they both wore wearing orcish plate armor with one wilding an orcish warhammer and the other holding a orcish greatsword. "say I recognize you two, your Atub's brothers " Yamma spoke to the two orc bodyguards as they nodded and spoke " hail champion of Malacath, your kin bid you well" Yamma returned the look as they spoke but not leaving the Jarl's side staying on guard. " alright Siddgar, I'm sure we could use a small break." Gila said as she walked towards the town square to relax and mingle with some old friends. Suvvan wasted no time bolting to the buffet and getting a big plate of cheesy Goods. Tully walked over to Lod the blacksmith with his broken Daedric helmet " Excuse me sir blacksmith, but I was wondering if you had the materials needed to repair this?" He asked taking off and holding his heavily damaged daedric helmet. Revealing his burning Amber eyes with a goatee his long black hair lightly matted and greasy lightly blowing in the breeze. " I'm afraid not friend, not only do I not have the ebony ingots required for repairing such an item. I'm afraid once a helmet looks like that it's best to just be used as a prop on a mannequin in your home. In my expert opinion that old helmet looks like it has Maybe one maybe two weeks of life left before it becomes completely unrepairable" Lod said as he gave Tully a sympathetic look when he realized that the helmet held sentimental value. " excuse me, but I couldn't help but hear that you needed an ebony ingot?" The owner of the general goods store walked up and asked. " yeah, it seems my helmet here is on its last legs so I was hoping I could get it repaired but it turns out repairing is impossible once it gets like that."  Tully said to the young woman." well you might not be able to make it combat ready anymore but you can still repair it so it looks good as new this way when you put it on a mannequin in your home it looks just like it did when you first got it." Lod said as Tully nodded with a grateful smile his mustache hanging over the front of his mouth lightly concealing his fangs. He paid the general goods store owner for the single ebony ingot and gave it to Lod who then took the Daedric helmet over to his Forge " I will get to working on it in the morning, for now, why don't you enjoy the festival" he said to Tully with a warm smile Tully and turned return to the smile and went over to the bar that was set up near the bonfire Tully being a vampire making extra sure to stay as far from the raging Inferno as possible. He ordered from the bartender a single bottle of cyrodilic brandy And went to join Severin, Salazar, Lianya, Suvvan, and Yamma who were over at the dining table with their own food. Myra was over at the alchemist shop selling the potions Sabrina made for selling to the local alchemist who happily traded the multiple bottles of water breathing and carry weight for a surplus of health stamina and magic potions. Sabrina had asked the blacksmith if she could borrow his grindstone so she could sharpen her swords which she felt were getting a bit dull Lod happily agreed not to mention the coin purse of gold to sweeten the deal further. Gentu and Asadelf were sitting by the fire reading a book on Dwarven craftsmanship to further comprehend the schematic of the project they were currently pursuing. Ebon-shi was walking around the perimeter of Falkreath not being much of a party person although he enjoyed being around his allies, but being surrounded by a bunch of strangers was not exactly his cup of sujamma as any one of them could be an enemy lying in wait. Taking in the crisp night air he continued walking through the roads of Falkreath passing nearby guards and giving them a gentle nod meanwhile Shadow-step of course was doing what he does best. Silently breaking into houses stealing the valuables and out before anyone knows quietly jumping the wall and putting all the stolen loot he got in his horse's saddlebag for later more specifically gathering certain items such as lavender incense, raven feathers, and an entire jar of void salt. Once he had raided literally every household in Falkreath including the Jarl's log house he tucked everything in the saddlebag before returning to his group and bumping into Ebon-shi. " Hey Shadow-step, how was your exploit?" Ebon-shi asked as the Nightengale agent spoke in a hushed whisper. "Very good, lots of goodies that I'm sure will turn a nice profit." Shadow-step said as the two walked past the hall of the dead of Falkreath. " Hey boss, I wanted to thank you for letting me take a leave of absence for a little bit while we were here in Falkreath hold. I understand it was sudden but I wouldn't have asked if it wasn't important you know this." He said before Ebon-shi placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. " I should have told you before but you don't have to ask if you can, just let us know that you need to go and we'll discuss a meeting place you don't have to explain yourself if it's something personal. I'm sure everyone would understand and we would take jobs that were small until we got reunited. Every one of you is a vital part of this team that's what makes us so great. Is because we operate as a single unit, and that can't come without trust in each other." Ebon-shi said as Shadow-step nodded " When we were in Riften I paid a visit to my friends at the thieves guild and found out that a fellow Nightingale, Karliyah died and I went to nightingale hall to retrieve the chest that she asked to be distributed among the guild which is also where I got this dagger harness that she left for me. So while we are here in Falkreath I'm heading over to the temple of Nocturnal so I can get answers." Shadow-step explained as Ebon-shi nodded as he was listening. "All right then we'll set up camp back at cracked tusk keep since we already cleared the place out and we'll wait for you there." Ebon-shi said giving the kahjiit's shoulder a light squeeze. " I'm grateful for your understanding boss, I should only be gone for a day, maybe two days at Max." The nightingale said to the dark elf who in turn nodded as the two walked in silence back towards the festival to reunite with the rest of the gang. Upon reassembling with the rest they came upon to no one's surprise Sabrina is in the middle of a drinking contest with four other drunk men and women while the four looked like they were about to pass out Sabrina looked perfectly fine because she is a pirate weak mead like black-briar and honningbrew mead is nothing she can't handle, it takes an entire pitcher of a combination of Argonian blood wine, Cyrodilic Brandy, and Alta wine to even get her tipsy let alone drunk. As the other four contestants either passed out or got sicker than a dog Sabrina collected the five coin purses that were bet as she walked to the group walking a little in a zigzag which was a very rare occurrence to say the least. " All right guys we're heading back to cracked tusk keep and we're going to camp out there for one to two days while our friend here has personal business to attend to." Ebon-shi said as the group nodded and hopped onto their horses as they rode back to set up camp back at cracked tusk keep it was already cleared out and big enough for them to relax and house their horses plus they're close to Falkreath so they can take up small jobs for now. Once they arrived at cracked tusk keep the group disposed of the bodies and started doing their own thing. Gentu and Yamma made use of the forge and other smithing equipment such as the workbench and the grindstone to repair as well as improve the armor and weapons the bodies had while the rest were cleaning up on the inside Shadow-step spoke to Ebon-shi. "Boss, I have to go now, I'll meet you all back here once I have completed my business." Shadow-step spoke as Ebon-shi nodded and shook the kahjitt's hand and saw him off as Shadow-step rode off into the night.