Straight from Darkom95, I am the host, and nothing more, this has been approved by the moderators:


Greetings Fan Fiction community. My Fan Fiction has returned, this time with approved consent by the moderators, so long as I do it in this fashion. With no further adu, I once more present my Fan Fiction, Initium de Viro, taken straight from the original posting.

Viro, protagonist of my other novel sized fanfic, returns in this prequel, named after the first chapter, which it is replacing. In this story, Viro just arrived from Valenwood when we see his sadistic side, as he kills two sailors. The beginning of the book details Viro's escape from Anvil and the guards that chase after him. It takes place in the County Anvil, inland from the gold coast, from the point of view of Viro, one of the guards chasing him, and a young imperial. It shows a much different Viro than the one in Fabula de Viro, more sadistic and malicious, an anti-hero of sorts, before the significant personality changes that take place in this novel and its sequel.

Initium

“Oi, get up elf, we’re here, in Anvil.”

Viro awoke in the hull of a small boat. He opened his eyes to see a large Redguard man standing over him, close enough that Viro could feel his breath.

“What?” Viro asked rudely.

The Redguard seemed insulted by Viro’s small comment, and shouted at Viro. “I said, we’re here, now get up!”

“Ugh.” Viro swung his legs over one side of his small, uncomfortable hammock, and stood up. He was displeased to see that the man who had woken him was a good head taller than he was. ‘Comes with being a bosmer, I suppose.’ Viro thought with a frown.

“We’ll be waiting on the dock.” The man said as he walked away. Viro followed him up a hatch into a small room with two doors. The man went out the left one, and Viro followed onto the ship’s deck.

Viro looked around at his first view of Cyrodiil. It was still dark, although Viro could tell the day was only hours away. The boat he was on was un-exceptional, much the same as the other two or three vessels in the harbor. He looked at the high, stone walls that contained the famous port city of Anvil; several guards patrolled the battlements. A lighthouse shined in the distance.

“Alright, elf, that’ll be 200 Septims.” An Imperial man whom Viro had seen during his trip said, holding out his rough, callused hand.

Viro silently reached into his bag and counted out the coins. The Imperial sailor stepped up to Viro, but when he got near enough for Viro to give him the gold, Viro instead stabbed him in the abdomen.

“What?!” The man cried, staring down at the silver kitchen knife still stuck in his stomach. Viro took the handle and twisted it, snapping the blade off in the man. Before the imperial could react, crimson blood stained his cheap, cotton shirt.

The other man pulled out a steel short sword, but as Viro jumped off the side of the boat into the dark waters below, he summoned a lesser skeletal warrior to deal with the man. As he swam away from the docks he stepped momentarily on the beach next to Castle Anvil. He laughed as he passed the guards patrolling the walls, causing a few of them to look momentarily at him, but quickly returned to their rounds.


Viro lowered himself back into the water again, and swam towards the northeast bank.


“Dammit, which way did he go?” An imperial guard cursed as he arrived at the scene of the murders. One of the sailors was flat on his back, in a puddle of his own blood, the redguard leaning up against the railing with a large wound in his back. Both were freshly deceased, and the blood still dripped slowly from their injuries.

“I-I’m not exactly certain, sir, but I believe he swam over to that hill.” A Bosmer man stuttered as he indicated the direction Viro went, not twenty minutes before.

“Ugh.” The man grunted and called out to two other guards on the wooden dock “Over there, Arus, Oritio!”

“Yes, sir!” The two men called out as they ran down the dock towards the place they were directed. In five minutes they were climbing the same hill Viro had. The first one, Arus, was a common Imperial; black hair cut short in the military fashion, and young, tan skin. He had a small, downward curving nose and large, bowl shaped ears; a moustache was starting to sprout on his upper lip. The other guard, Oritio, was less remarkable. He had medium length, loose black hair, and outstandingly normal features. His nose was medium sized and his eyes were an average dull brown. They both wore suits of Imperial guard armor without helmets.


“What do you think-happened on the boat?” Arus said, running up one of the grassy hills that formed the interior of the Gold Coast.

“I-can’t say. I would-guess he got into-an argument with those-sailors.” Oritio replied in the same staggered pattern of breathing that comes from talking while running.

“Hmm.” Arus said, as they ran along, getting ever closer to Viro.


Viro, having successfully escaped the city docks, ran further north, keeping the city in sight. He soon crossed the small road, and saw the ruins of a fort. Deciding it would be a fine place to hide, he was approaching the remains of a tower, when a Khajiit in leather armor ran towards him, swinging a mace.

Viro dodged a downward blow from the outlaw, and easily slipped in to his side and placed a dagger between his ribs, through his armor. The Khajiit fell with a look of shock on his face, calling out from the ground to his allies. Viro dropped a knee onto the cat’s face, breaking his nose and silencing him. He quickly retrieved his dagger, twisting it as he pulled it out.

Three bowmen in similar leather armor ran towards Viro, leaving their positions in the fort to fire arrows at Viro. Viro dodged one arrow, and the other two missed as Viro ran towards them

Viro leaped right up to one and cut his bowstring, and then stabbed him in the chest in one swift motion. Viro then summoned his favorite skeletal warrior immediately behind another archer, while simultaneously turning to the third with his dagger. He gave a savage cry and the man fled, while his skeleton stabbed the other. Viro released his beast and turned to the fleeing man. After a taking a moment to aim, Viro released his dagger. It flew through the air, spinning rapidly in a vertical pattern. Viro held his breath as the bandit archer ran further away from the fort, until he finally fell, Viro’s dagger in his back. Viro smiled as he entered the fort.


Arus and Oritio were a mere fifteen minutes behind Viro, running on foot, stopping to examine the ground several times where they thought they saw Viro’s tracks. Unfortunately for them, none were his.

“No, I don’t think he’d go that way, he wouldn’t pass the border.” Arus said, to himself more than anyone else.

“Why do you say that?” The other guard, Oritio asked.

“Because he just got here; I don’t think he’d go through all that trouble to leave so soon.” Arus replied, contemplating Viro’s location “Do you still have the map?”

“Yes, here you are.” Oritio handed him a detailed map of the nearby countryside. Its edges were from Anvil to Skingrad, but it showed most geographic features and landmarks.

“Let’s see…” He said, pointing to the map, finding their location with his finger “We’re here, and he was last seen travelling north-northeast, so he’d have to run into…a shrine to Akatosh, an Ayleid ruin, a few caves, and a single fort. He probably won’t go far; he knows we’re after him, so the road would roughly be his border before daybreak.”

“Then he’d want to hide out somewhere, right?” Oritio asked.

“Yes, probably one of the caves nearby, or the fort; you check Smoke Hole over there, and I’ll take fort-what is it? Strand, Fort Strand.”

“Yes, sir; if he’s not there, what do I do?”

“Meet me at Gottshaw Inn, north of here, along the road.” Arus said, as he put the map into his bag and tightened his sword belt.

“Yes sir.” Oritio said, firing off a quick salute.

“Good luck, and don’t underestimate him; we don’t know what kind of guy this is.” Arus said seriously, then broke eye contact with his partner and ran off as Oritio gave him a final farewell before he too ran off.

Viro, upon entering the fort, found himself in a long narrow hallway of old stone. He walked forwards, down a few short steps, and up to a metal gate. He paused at the gate to listen to footsteps coming from the hallway to the right. Quickly pressing himself against the wall on the right side of the hall, he pulled his dagger out from his bag.



Beyond the small gate he saw an imperial, dressed in leather armor with a long sword at his hip, who he presumed was a bandit. Viro waited until he passed the gate, and then opened the door as quietly as possible. Once in the hallway, he stalked behind the bandit for a few feet, and then grabbed him by the neck in a quick leap. Viro made sure to cover the man's mouth with his small hand, to avoid him from alerting his friends, and kept his dagger at the man's throat. He whispered threats and reassurances to him softly "I won't hurt you, so long as you don't call out to your friends, got it?"



The marauder gave a quick affirmative nod and Viro continued his whispers "They'll never get to you before I slash your throat, so for your own sake, don't even try. Now then, I'm going to take you outside, and you're going to tell me everything you know about who and where your friends are, understand?"



Once the marauder gave another nod, Viro dropped his hand from the bandit's mouth. With his now free left hand, Viro took the man's sword, sheath and all, and threw it to the ground, talking to the man the whole time "Okay, I'm going to take your sword now, move and I'll cut your throat faster than you can blink. Walk towards the door slowly, hands in the air, don't make a sound. Good. Your friends outside weren't so cooperative, so don't be alarmed, got it?" One more nod.



Viro instructed the man to open the door and, once outside, told him to turn around.



"Alright, you have been good, so I'm going to let you go, but first, I want to know who you guys are, and a rough sketch of the inside. Can you do that? You can speak now." Viro maintained eye contact the whole time, and spoke in soft, re-assuring tones. Now that the man was turned around and in the low pre-dawn light, Viro saw he was young. 'Very young,' He thought 'Sixteen, seventeen, tops. What's he doing in a place like that?' Viro questioned the paths some people chose for their lives, missing the irony in his own self assured psyche.



The man had short, black hair, in a military cut, with a large, imperial nose and wide set, brown eyes. He was taller than Viro, as most humans are, Viro guessed him to be about six foot and one hundred fifty, one sixty pounds. "Y-yes sir. Thank you for sparing me, I won't try anything, I promise." The man was almost pleading.



Viro rolled his eyes as he said "I know, now, who are you and what are you guys doing in this old ruin?"



The boy was still stuttering with fear as he said "I am Hasus, part of this group of marauders led by Bjalfi the Contemptible. We are roughly 8 strong, not including me and these men." He indicated the slain archers. "This fort is called Fort Strand, and we chose it as our hideout until Bjalfi is done with his family troubles."



"Family troubles?" Viro raised one of his small eyebrows at the phrase.



"Umm, yes. You see, he recently left his wife, Maeva the Buxom, and his home at Whitmond Farm, taking a precious family heirloom, an enchanted mace to go be a thug. He complains about her by the fire after he has, well, had a few." He seemed to calm a little.



Viro noticed the familiar story made the man more comfortable around him, which was good. It told him the man wasn't very smart. "So, your leader has an enchanted mace, what about the rest of you? Draw me that sketch." Viro said, handing him his personal journal, which he kept all his notes and maps in, and a rough quill and inkwell.



"Umm, I don't have the best memory, so don't blame me if it's wrong." The man said sheepishly dipping the quill in ink. "There are two main sections, connected by two doors. The first one, the one I was patrolling, has about 4 other men and some rats. Umm, they are usually here, and here." He drew some rough corridors and rooms, disproportional and blotchy. He indicated a few dots where he thought his fellow bandits might be. He had difficulty drawing a stairwell, having to explain it to Viro and have him draw it.



The original tension was lost, as Viro had suspected a menial task would accomplish. 'Hasus is used to following orders without explanations. Sounds like Bjalfi doesn't treat them nice, all the better.' Viro smiled as Hasus finished his drawing, explaining the second chamber and its occupants as he had the first, he drew some of the traps located throughout the ruins as well.



'Fool doesn't realize if I die in there, I won't be coming after him. He is blindly obedient now, completely forgot his situation.' Viro, satisfied with the drawing, blew on the ink to dry it, closed the book, and returned it to his pouch. He turned to Hasus once more.



"Alright, you're done. What I want you to do is run back home, be careful of any guards about, and stay on the proper side of the law from now on. The Dark Brotherhood will be checking up on you; you got a family?" Viro asked, surprising Hasus with his request, and more so with his mention of the infamous assassin's guild.



"Y-yes sir." Hasus' look of surprise turning to confusion.



"Go back to them, apologize and tell them you want to pick up the family profession. Which is?"



"Umm, farming, sir." Hasus said.



"Then from now on, be a good little farmer. I'll be killing your friends, so don't come back."



"Okay." Hasus was dumbfounded now "Wait, you want to beat Bjalfi? He's very strong, a nord, and a head taller than me and twice as wide. I wouldn't say to go against someone like that."



"I think I'll be okay." Viro smiled and turned his back to the man. "I'll be just fine." Viro opened the door and walked inside, trusting Hasus to do as he was told.







Oritio was mounting the top of a hill when he saw the cave. A rock outcropping with a small wooden door indicated the opening to the subterranean structure. In front of the rocks, Oritio could just barely make out a few tombstones and a bowl shaped object, gray in the pre-dawn sun. Making his way to the door, he was surprised by two ferocious wolves, just barely managing to pull out his silver long sword and jump out of the way of one's jaws.



He sidestepped the other and stabbed it in the side, penetrating deep into the canine's fur and flesh. He pulled out the now crimson blade and faced the second wolf. He searched the beast's body with frightened eyes for signs of attack.



The wolf lunged, and Oritio cleaved down in a large swing, crushing the wolf's head with a signature crunch-squelch. The poor creature died instantly.



Panting as he wiped his sword with a cloth he retrieved from his pack, Oritio stared at the freshly deceased animals. He cursed his job as he opened the cave door and walked inside, sword at the ready.







Hasus ran through the hills, tripping over logs and jumping at the slightest sound. He was without a weapon, since Viro took his only sword, and his armor was ready to fall apart. He estimated he was on a bee-line to the city of Anvil, and that he should reach the main gate before day break. He was going over his plan in his head 'Go to Anvil, find my parent's farm, and live there until I get a better job. Don't want that crazy, smooth talking assassin to find me .Gods forbid.'



As he was jumping over a particularly nasty rock, he glimpsed a flash of light that he knew could only be armor. He stopped stiff and got into a low crouch, cursing his squeaky greaves. Hasus searched the location of what he saw, only to find an imperial legion officer walking not twenty yards downhill.



He had normal legion iron armor, without the traditional helmet, and the silver long sword at his side. Hasus studied his face for a moment, and immediately identified him as Arus, a guard from the nearby city of Anvil. 'I'd know that face anywhere, that's Arus! Dammit, what's he doing here?! I thought I was released, no more checkups!' Hasus always thought of himself first, and others second 'Oh, he must be after Bjalfi, that's the only reason for going this way, to get to Fort Strand. Well, he won't catch me up there.'



Hasus stayed where he was until he was sure the investigator had passed, and then he continued on his way to Anvil.







Viro sneaked his way back to the stone corridor where he assaulted Hasus. Looking at the map he had the imperial draw, he noted the fastest way to the leader of the bandits was to the right. He poked his head around the corner, and saw a large Khajiit down the corridor in the room beyond. The Khajiit was looking to Viro's right towards where they both knew an adjacent corridor lay. Viro pulled out his dagger and made his way down the hall, putting out the small fire by the door.



Once Viro had entered the room with the Khajiit, he kept to the shadowed wall. He hid in a broken corner of the room and blew out the nearby torch. The marauder cursed and walked over to the mounted torch to re-light it. Viro took the opportunity to leap behind the man and stab him in the base of the neck; he missed the Khajiit's bony spinal cord by a half an inch, driving the blade through the feline's neck to the hilt. Viro also covered the bandit's mouth with his small hand, to prevent him from calling out. His body crumpled with a soft thud into Viro's arms, which then set him softly into the corner he had just vacated.



Viro checked his map in the relative darkness to confirm his thoughts on the location of the next bandit. He also noted the traps in the hall separating them, two iron maces rigged to swing down when a pressure plate is activated. Viro sat and thought of the best way to kill the next guard for a few moments, then turned his head around the corner.



In the flickering light of another torch, Viro noticed that this bandit was an archer, with an iron bow over his fur armor and a quiver over that. Viro thought of his need for a bow and chastised himself for not taking one from the corpses outside. He justified the action with the thought of his knife piercing the last bandit's throat.



Viro took a nearby rock, half the size of his fist, and threw it onto the furthest pressure plate. A large mace swung down, and the bandit looked towards the motion. The large, Nordic man watched the iron sphere swing back and forth, until it stopped. At which point he walked into the hallway to discover the source of the trap's going off. Viro heard him mutter under his breath "Damn things, always falling for no reason. Bjalfi says we gotta keep 'em up though. I don't see the reason, myself?"



Viro smiled as his suspicions about Bjalfi's popularity were confirmed. Viro tossed his second rock, and hoped the bow would survive the impact as the second set of maces fell down. The Nord made a final cry as he was being hit; silenced when his body struck the wall. Viro prayed no one heard, and waited for a few minutes to be sure no one came to investigate. He recalled the map, and realized that the nearest marauder was far down the hall, past the door to the second section of the ruin.



Viro silently snuck in that direction, towards the door leading to what Hasus described as the "Great Dome". He pushed through the chains and spikes of the trap, avoiding the blood splatter as best he could. He found the Nord's body, or at least what was left of it, and took the thankfully undamaged bow and arrows. Viro strapped them across his back and walked upright to the door.



After entering the Great Dome, Viro consulted his map once more. He noted that the shape of the hallway made it possible to kill the normal guard, without being seen by Bjalfi or his battle mage companion. Hasus had told Viro that the battle mage was Bjalfi's old friend, a powerful warrior and stronger spell caster. 'Both of them at the same time will prove difficult.' Thought Viro.



Viro sat and considered his plan for several minutes, considering every path the assault could take. Whether to start with the guard, or with Bjalfi himself, whether or not to use magic, if he should poison his arrows and dagger now; all these things ran through Viro's head, and more. He finally settled on a plan both well thought out and precise. Viro began the process of poisoning his arrow-heads and dagger blade with mushroom caps and other ingredients he found on different parts of his journey. The night-shade he found on the boat that brought him here, some sacred lotus seeds he found near the dock, and St. Jahn's Wort Nectar he discovered amongst the hills of the Gold Coast. He continued running the plan in his head as he worked, careful to poison each effectively and completely. He chuckled silently to himself. He recalled a past experience of poisoning his blade, one that ended quite nicely. He continued to work as the flood-gates of his mind burst with memory and emotion.





Viro, a few years younger, sits on a mattress in a stone room, poisoning his silver dagger with raw night-shade. He too chuckles to himself, but that is the only similarity. Viro's hair was up in a rogue knot, instead of the loose fashion he followed in the present. He wore dark leather armor, contrasting with Viro's current cloth apparel. He was also considerably tanner and thicker around the edges, but not yet portly. The younger Viro finished his task, and hopped off the bed. He walked the short length of the room, making no sound on the thick, burgundy rug. He opened the wooden door as he put out the candle that had illuminated the cold room.



Outside it was pitch black, night had fallen on a large castle. The room exited onto a hallway with walls open to the elements, with stone pillars supporting the roof above. Viro moved silently in his crouched position, un-detectable in the soft moonlight. A faint sound of a commotion is heard from somewhere far behind Viro as he sneaks down the landing.







Thank you all for reading once more. If you read the other one, then please wait while some newer readers catch up Comments always welcome, I'll be sure to answer them myself.