The Ebony Renegades (Skyrim)

chapter fifty eight

The lead nord went first charging forward with his fist raised as I grabbed his hand as he threw a punch allowing it to collide with the side of my face before I grabbed and twisted it before throwing him over my shoulder and into the gate in front of one of the guards who was watching the entire thing. " I don't need magic to beat a stupid drunk like you." I said looking up at his two friends who came at me with weapons I didn't even use mine I blocked the arm of the one who had a iron war axe before breaking his arm and then using him to beat on the other one. The lead nord who I had thrown into the gate came up behind me with an iron dagger as I ducked underneath him and swept his legs out from under him before kicking him right in the abdomen causing him to land on his two injured friends. "Wow, all that big talk and yet you barely managed to put a scratch on me, however I blame that on your drunken state. Let this be a lesson to you where arrogance and racist supremacy can get you."I said before turning and walking away having no interest in playing with these man-children any longer. Just as I was retrieving my weapons the lead nord came up behind me as I sigh before ducking underneath him and plunging my fist directly into his groin between his legs causing him to squeal like a gutted pig. His two friends came running up at me before I lowered my body temperature to absolute zero causing them to freeze on contact. "Fun fact about my people that you nords never knew, some of us especially among the royal family can lower our body temperatures to absolute zero degrees enough to freeze the very atoms in your body which means if I choose to I could shatter you like glass and leave no trace of your very existence so be smart assuming a drunkard like you is even capable of that and walk away." I said as I looked over seeing Shadow-step talking to the two guards by the front gate. "Hey guards, would you mind too terribly putting these three men in containment for a little while till they calm down? They're starting to cause a public disturbance, not to mention I don't know how much more our comrade is going to tolerate their stupidity." Shadow-step bargained while subtly slipping two coin pouches into the guard's hands to buy them off as the two guards nodded and took the three instigators into a holding cell after I thawed them out. After the others reconvened with us we walked across the bridge heading towards the stables where we had our rides waiting as we walked across the bridge Sabrina told us something interesting. That the potion vial that she had her uncovered in the forsaken cave was damaged and the apprentice of the local alchemist would send a letter to her with an update. We split off once we arrived back at the base, the first thing I did was inform the boss that we were back and headed to my room and lay down to relax and to get a grip on the situation. I sat on my bed and crossed my! legs and rested my hands on my lap as I did some breathing exercises to calm my mind and allow me to enter a meditative state and clear my mind. I crossed my arms over my chest as I took steady breathes as I carefully breathe in and out time seemed to fly by as I was stirred from my meditative state from a gentle knock on my door. I steady my breathing as I called out from where I was sitting. "Come in." I said as Ebon-shi limped inside still using that walking stick to help him walk he was moving a bit easier than he was but I could tell just by looking at him that he still was not in good state. "Hey boss, what brings you here?" I asked curious why he came. "Gentu gave me a rundown about what happened, do you want to talk about it?" Ebon-shi asked as I thought about it for a few moments before nodding as he sat against the wall by the door. "Well as I told you before I left, I had this gut feeling that something was wrong that I sensed a lost soul that was suffering. When I arrived at the frostvault where the others were I found the soul of an old friend who was trapped by the dwemer. As you know my people were the original owners of Skyrim before Ysgramor and his five hundred nearly wiped out my kind." I said which he nodded and looked up at me showing that I had his undivided attention. "Well according to the nords the dragons followed them from atmora but one was already here, and his name was Mhuvnak, he taught me how to use the frost breath and ice form shouts when I was little. I looked up at him like a mentor even though my mother and father didn't approve, I honestly didn't really care I was a major rebel at the time, my parents obviously wanted me to be there successor and be that obedient daughter but that just wasn't who I was, but I'm getting off track here. After the invasion of Ysgramor and his armada Mhuvnak flew me and my brother away from our castle before it was sacked by the army my parents were too stubborn to retreat believing that they're superior society would endure, and well you already know how that went."I said as he nodded gesturing me to continue. "After me my brother and the other survivors went underground with the dwemer Mhuvnak took off as well, I never knew what became of him after that until today. He was captured by the dwemer and left to suffer, he suffered in loneliness this entire time feeling nothing but pain and hatred in his heart even death his soul was trapped there. It was his soul I was sensing so while I was down there I put his soul to rest this way he could finally rest in peace." I explained as Ebon-shi smiled and nodded approvingly. "I'm certain that he thinks it was worth it, what do you think he remembers more, the pain and agony? Or the young lady that he took under his wing and bestowed onto her his teachings that he would never bestow anyone else, seeing you alive and well." He asked which I couldn't help but agree with him however the guilt of knowing that he endured such agony and loneliness continue to eat away at me. "I think you're right, I think that the thing he'll remember most will be seeing me and my brother again."I said as a small smile crept up my face. "And then after that when we went to Windham, I spotted a trio of three drunk nords being cruel to a pregnant dunmer woman, and when I walked her home and returned they were waiting for me. Started boasting about how Skyrim belongs to the nords and that they were the rightful owners and everybody else should just leave and i just snapped." I said clutching my fist. "As far as I'm concerned the stormcloaks are no different than the thalmor, they are cruel and racist and they let their own racist beliefs cause suffering and Injustice to everyone else who isn't a nord. They act like nords are incapable of cruel actions, well their hero Ysgramor and his five hundred slaughtered my people including women and children and the nords treat them like their heroes and not murderers." I vented as I felt his hand on my shoulder looking at me with a reassuring look on his face. I could see why everyone in the group looked up to him so much, he wasn't like a military leader who told you to keep your emotions to yourself and focusing on the mission. He was the type of leader who would listen to you if you had problems and he would offer you a listening ear if you needed to talk, if I didn't respect him already I respected him more. After a little while talking he left me to my own thoughts so I could rest since it was late and tequila was more likely than not preparing food I stayed awake so I could eat with the others. I decided to walk around the base for a little while and try to make myself useful since sitting down and moping wouldn't help anybody. As I wondered around I found Gentu in their trophy room as he was setting up the set of dwarven armor he had gotten from the frost vault and even put the dwarven sword from the leader of the Scrapheirs on the stand immediately in front of it in a display case I smiled seeing such reverence being paid. I decided not to bother him as I saw him walking towards the elevator down into his workshop I decided to see if Asadelf needed any help. As I approached the room that housed the enchanting table I wasn't surprised seeing Asadelf hard at work since Tully was standing next to her I assumed that she was enchanting his necromancer hood. "All right Tully so I am assuming fortify conjuration and what else?" Asadelf asked our vampiric necromancer who surprised me when he spoke and pulled out a daedric bow from his bag. "I think fortify archery would be good, I'm also going to practice on the archery targets in the training area to hone my skills with a bow." Tully said as Asadelf set up and got to work drinking one of the fortify enchanting potions that Sabrina makes and after a few moments of work she passed the clothing piece backed to Tully who put it on. Upon seeing that I wouldn't be much use at the moment and Asadelf seemed to have things handled I went over to the forge where I saw Yamma and Severin as Yamma was apparently reforging Severin's daedric crescent into something much more manageable since Severin was more partial to one handed weapons rather than two after a few minutes of working as I watched I saw Yamma turned the once two-handed weapon into a pair of two hook-like weapons that I have never seen before.

Although on one of them there was a long chain attached to it with a weight on the other end with a chain reaching about twelve to fifteen feet long and it looks like the chain and the weight on the chain could be disconnected so the two weapons could be wielded together.

"What kind of weapon is that? I've never seen one like that before."I asked as I walked over curiously quite interested in these new weapons. "I believe the Akaviri called them kamas, and when they have the chain with the weighted ball on the end it's called a kusarigama, Akaviri assassins use them sometimes to wrap around their enemies throat and yank them close or to simply snap their necks."Severin explained as I nodded and we all went into the main hall when Gila brought out dinner. It appeared we were still having leftovers as we were having fried horker stew with garlic toasted bread, I was wondering how Gila managed to make such a rare and exotic meal but I was more interested in eating, I dumped a piece of the garlic bread into the stew and took a bite and the slightly gamey taste of the horker meat accompanied by the slightly salty garlic bread made a beautiful combination. "Hey Gila this is really awesome, how did you make the garlic bread?" Gentu asked as he took another bite. "Well I toasted the bread on both sides using a little butter, and then I crushed the garlic into the butter and fried it on both sides." Gila explained as she was eating as well I looked around seeing everyone enjoying the meal even my brother Salazar who was tearing into his meal enjoying the home cooked meal. "Okay so does anybody have anything planned tomorrow?" Gentu asked catching everybody's attention I lifted my eyes for my food to hear what was going on tomorrow. "Well I'm heading Southeast to Fort dawnguard in the rift to check on the dawnguard and make sure everything's going well with them." Gentu said as I remembered him telling me about the group of vampire hunters that was a slight branch off from the vigilints of stendarr who specialized specifically in vampires. "Can I come too?" I asked as he nodded.