Elissandre, Odai valley

After the barge had passed the eggmine and dropped her companion there, Elisandre waited for it to go out of sight before disembarking. Waiitng for dusk, she ocupied herself by putting the finishing touches to her apearance. With ehr hair now dyed a slightly reddish brown rather than her natural fiery red. Then she took care of her attire, carfully tearing the dress - snatching in into a thorny brsuh and puling. Finally she deiced agaisnt hideing her blade - it wouldn't fit with the 'empty-headed noble' to have an hidden blade.

Putting in in plain sight, it could be explained as a precaution on behalf of her husband. Not that I'm any good with it you see, but the poor dear gets so unerved knowing I was out of the town, he insisted for me to carry a blade. When that thing came I was so scared I didn't even think about it...

Once the sun had almost fallen behinf eh hills, she rushed to the mine, appreaing to be in an advance stage of panic.

His eyes rested and became dead set on staring at the floor. His mind calmed down in seeing no need to over ponder this conversation, and his body refused to prepare should a fight occur. He was dancing on the edge of a knife, and his head still wouldn't motivate itself.

"Ironic how we both merely imitate our false honour."

He made sure to accentuate the 'imitate' in his tone.

"Now, explain to me your plan retainer. Continue to probe me for toying wisdom and fake ideals? You waste your time. I'm too young to know real wisdom, and I'm to old too fall for flamboyant tricks. So that leaves you with two choices in my opinion; you either have some wonderful scouts out there in Vvardenfell to keep an eye out for a witchhunter whose face no one of your House recognizes, and waste months tracking her down while more of her lackeys like myself raid and pillage your mines for their own selfless profits. That choice could involve you killing me, possibly driving her to seek retaliation or simply go into even more recessive hiding habits, or exiting my room right now and allowing me to still retrieve a decent sleep. On the other hand, you could interrogate my frail body and attempt to learn something that I'm as of yet unaware of."

Again, his face retained that neutral pallor as he glanced up to his guest.

"So what's it going to be retainer? Or do you have another course of action to parlay?"

Vel wasn't getting any answers from this man it almost seemed hopeless. He then sparked up with some plan. "That would be up to you really. I will not interogate you, I have no need to kill you. But I will add. If you wish to do actual selfless work, Hlaalu is always open. Or maybe you can work with me, I can split the income of this mission wich I might add is a considerable amount, you could help me find this S'wit take some good money and be on your way. That my friend you can decide." Vel got from his leaning position and made a respectfull bow to the man and backed away towards the door. "I will leave you to your rest, my offer wil lstand for aslong as I am here. If you wish to make some decent money I am in town for awhile." With that lastly said he slippedo ut of the door closing it behind hi meeting with Beniamus outside.

"I have no imformation as of right now, but he might turn around." He gave a smile and headed down the stairs.

OOC: Sorry about the slow posting.

IC:


A percieved weakness becomes your strength, and in this manner she was getting stronger and stronger. "Fine I will arrange the transport. I will see you at the Mages Guild." Soryna spoke in a plain tone, her mind more concerned on how she would go on about the whole ordeal. The situation seemed to suddenly be a turn off all together. Maybe she should have just stayed in bed this morning, but perhaps it would all be worth it in the end.

Later at the Mages Guild...

Soryna walked through the Mages Guild front door with her bow and quiver on her back and the plain robe wrapped around her figure hiding the much nicer clothes worn under. A hand was placed on Soryna's right shoulder from behind. She had almost spun around grasping the hand and breaking the arm at the elbow but quickly kept in mind where she was and innocently turned her head. "Hm?" Behind her stood a tall rather gaunt Altmer that retreated his hand once he noticed that he had caught her attention.

"Hello, who might you be?" He spoke in the usual Altmer manner.

"Indarys Soryna." She smiled and bowed her head.

"Can I help you in any way?" His disposition seemed to change somewhat upon having gazed a bit longer at Soryna.

"I need a transport to Caldera." Her words were soft and short.

"Very well, but could i know of you are a member?" He became quite inquistive now which slightly annoyed Soryna.

"Yes, from Narsis actually. I havn't been active in a while however." That line of work didn't suit her very much but she did grasp some rather interesting techniques from some of the mages there.

"Ah I see, well the transport as you well know costs and..." He was cut off.

"My colleague will pay for it once he arrives." A small smirk appeared on her face.

Artenell walked around the city, checking the merchant stands while he waited for the hour's to pass. One merchant tried selling him a goat skinned coat, while another tried selling him a new 'Potion', it was obviously just some cheap healing potion. The day finally began to end. As the day ended, and the sun ducked behind some mountains, and the moon began to lite up the sky, Artenell returned to the pub, which was still some what empty, but the bosmer woman stood near the back door. Artenell walked over to her, "Well I'm here and wondering what the deal is?", the woman looked at him with a worried look, "I cant talk to you here, not even in the back room, we must meet some where else!", the bosmer looked around artenell, as he turned around to see what was up?

Two men in dark hooded robe's sat at a booth on the farside of the pub. "Who are they?", the bosmer looked up at him for a moment, "Their trouble, thats all you need to know", the bosmer walked off, out of the pub as the two figures followed. The figure's stood about as tall as a Argonian, but they showed no tail?

Artenell slowly pursued, as he followed the figures...

Money.
What it all came down too; always. Sway the mind by swaying your purse. Yuri found it despicable, but a necessary evil. He recognized he was a hypocrite, and a liar and certainly a hedonist. He spent a fortune on this place alone.

Sleep Yuri, you need to sleep. he thought to himself as he stood up and removed the vibrant white robe. Money, or loyalty; what a poor set of choices.

He set the robe on the back of the chair by the desk and laid himself on the decent fineries of the House. He closed his eyes but easy sleep didn't come. He fought adamantly for it.

I can ignore their presence and act as if it never happened. I've done it before. Or I can aid them in killing a friend?

A friend. He wasn't so sure he could call her that. True, she helped him out of some tight binds, but a friend is supposed to be concerned of your own welfare. THen perhaps she's an acquaintance?

What would my mother think... he dozed off before he could finish his contemplation.

He finally slept, and he slept deeply.

"If you're scared then Ren, I'll deal with it" he smirked and pulled out his silver longsword and looked at the forager as it got close until it was but a few feet away.

Aryon immediatly thrust his sword forward and peirced the creature, killing it instantly. Turning around he smiled and said "Well, wasn't to difficult was it? Little creature like that can do no harm to one with any experience with a weapon"

After saying this he cleaned his sword on some Bittergreen plants at the side of the road to wipe of the Kwama blood that stained it.

"Ah, Richard." Dalam Delmnevan, a Dunmer who looked to be well in his fourties, stepped out of one of the rooms. He frowned, noticing that the Breton had interested himself in occasionaly tapping some barely steaming Dwemer device that lay on the table directly across the hall from the room that Dalam stepped out from. "I'd rather you kept your hands off it. I know your past deeds full well, and there's no guarantee you won't decide to take the thing you helped me get back."

"You'll never know, with an unpredictable genius like me." Richard smiled slightly, before returning his left hand on his crossbow. "I'll need another favor, although this one can be considered an extention of the one you did me by putting a word in for me in Hlaalu."

Dalam sighed. Working with the Breton outlander was not pleasant business, and not simply because he seemed to never stop bragging - another unpleasant character trait of his was that he thought that if he did someone a favor, that someone has to return it tenfold. This time, Dalam was unlucky to end up being that someone, but he considered the deal with the Dwemer device a rather big one, so he felt inclined to give the outlander some nudges in advancing within the House - who knew, maybe on the way Richard would find another 'friend' and that'd effectively get him off Dalam's shoulders. With that in mind, the Hlaalu Kinsman nodded, showing Richard that he'd help him if possible.

"I need a contract of sorts to place me in the Caldera Ebony Mines. I doubt that I'll be getting into such a place without any indication of trust from the House."

Dalam raised an eyebrow in response, however when Richard didn't care to explain anything, he gestured the Breton to follow him into his bedroom.


A couple of minutes later, Richard left the manor, letter in hand and his plan beginning to take shape. He quickly found his way to the Mages' Guild; pushing the doors open, he hoped Soryna had already found it on her own and warned the mages about her companion, or else Richard would be thrown right out the door as tended to happen with more prestigious institutions and the hapless researcher.

"That's him." Soryna pointed toward Richard causing the Altmer to walk toward the Breton who lifted up his hand for coin.

"The fee for the transport sir?" Altmer generally tended to seem down right arrogant but this one seemed to be proud of his arrogance if that could be possible.

"Come on pay him and let's go!" Soryna tapped her foot, her hands grasping onto her hips with an annoyed look on his face. The trick was to add to the feeling of urgency causing him to pay without really thinking about it. She also knew that her pose and annoyed scowel expression was really actually "cute". So something frustrating when she really wanted to express her anger but perfect for this sort of thing.

OOC: Short post, not much to do inbetween

"I prefer to save my blades for worthy opponents, Aryon." Kwama forager's hardly fit that description." Ren replied.

'Speaking of which, we're at the egg mine. Try not to make a scene in there before we've found our targets, obviously. This should be relatively simple. We go in, find out where the thieves are, and deal with them. It would be better to lure them away from the mine, but that could prove difficult. They're of more use alive to us, but if they resist I think we can put one of them down. Preferably the outlander." Ren smirked, and headed for the mine. Opening the door, he entered the egg mine, his eyes adjusting to the dim lights.

Taken aback a bit by the sudden onslaught of the coin-demanding Altmer, Richard quickly reached out for coin. It took him quite a few seconds to realize his pouch was pretty much empty, although he did grasp one single object there. It seemed larger and heavier than a Septim, but he didn't hesitate, pulling it out. "I hope you accept Dwemer coins." To tell the truth, I didn't think I had any of those left... I knew I couldn't be wrong by rejecting that last tankard. A genius like me is never wrong. He supressed a smile, sticking his 'contract' behind his belt and extending the Dwemer coin with one hand while waiting for the change with the other.

The Altmer seemed to be rather confused for a moment, hesitantly accepting the coin and looking in his bag for change... Except that he didn't know how much was the coin worth. "50 Septims. Trust me, if I pay with it I'm bound to know how much it's worth." Richard suggested, accepting twenty septims as change. A bit too much for a scrap of magic... But whatever. Probably has to do with me not being in their fancy guild and all, but I'd bet if I wore a robe over myself they'd welcome me with open arms.

"You owe me ten septims. And don't count on me to forget that, it's quite the sum for me." He muttered to Soryna, stepping on the teleportation pad.

"Well there are different ways of paying." Soryna smirked while stepping on the pad as well. The next moment they were both at Mages Guild of Caldera, in the west of the town. She had never been here but as soon as they arrived, a robed Imperial bowed and smiled.

"Welcome to Caldera." She smiled gently to both Soryna and Richard.

"Hello." Soryna replied simply while stepping off the platform. "Where to now?" She then turned to Richard expecting him to lead the way. Suddenly a flash of excietement washed over her mixed with nervousness. She may have to fight if things did not go right. Hopefully Richard was smarter than he looked or this would be a very short trip.

Beniamus nodded to Vel. Things had gone well so far.

"I've aquired a room already, just down the hall. I suggest we spend the night, alternating turns at watch to keep tabs on our friend here."

It would do them no good if the mage mysteriously disappeared or if his employer showed up to his defense. Keeping the man close seemed vital to Beniamus and he thought Vel would have likely thought the same thing. The Morag Tong assassin would likely have experience in keeping tabs on individuals.

I'll make an entrance later.

"Very good. I'll be at the bar for awhile so I guess I can take watch." He began walking down the stairs and turn ed the corner towards the bar. The owner was absent leaving her slave to watch the place. Vel took a seat on a stool and the Khajiit motioned towards him. "What can Khajiit do for you?" She said picking up a glass and towel cleaning the inside. Vel reached into his last small purse of coin and took out twelve coins. "Just a small meal, anything thats good and a small glass of flin please." He set the coins infront of her and she nodded. "We have a crab meat special today, basically a soup." She pointed at a small perchment that was laying on the bar top. "Sounds good I'll take it." He gave a small smile and the Khajiit made a slight bow with her head and put the glass cup down and pulled out a small bottle of flin and a cup/ "It will be right up." She walked away and Vel opened the bottle pouring it contents into the sall cup and started sipping at it.

Hrolf walked carelessly towards the Hlaalu Manor, looking down at the note in his hands, reading it for what was probably the hundredth time today. He looked up occasionally to avoid hitting anything, and looked back down to the parchment, brushing his long, blond hair from his exquisite eyes. A long, beautifully crafted falx hung from his back, the tip facing down to avoid taking out any innocent eyes, and his free left hand rested on the dagger at his side, as he drew nearer to the entrance. His short, dark blue traveling cloak swished back and forth, the hood resting behind his head, and the entire thing rather dusty and ragged looking. As was everything other article of clothing he owned.....

His armor rubbed uncomfortably against his side, even though he wore a light linen shirt underneath his armor, and he made a mental note, one he was sure to forget again, to get the chains fixed. He reached the doors, and glanced at the guard standing to the side. He merely nodded, and Hrolf took that for an "okay" and he entered the building, the excitement building steadily at the thoughts of new adventures he could have.

He was here to make a nice living, while doing what he loved.... fighting. And what better way to make that living, then by becoming a member of a powerful House in Morrowind. He did not pretend to know the situation that the Houses were in, and truly, he didn't want to know. He was here to earn a living, so he could retire back in Skyrim, a place he preferred more then this rather dreary place the Dunmer called home.

As he walked through, he straightened out, and puffed up his chest, and set his jaw firm, but not as to be imposing. He walked slowly forwards, and stopped a little ways in, not wanting to be thought of as "nosy" or "intrusive", and waited, looking around to see if anybody was able to point him in the right direction......

"If you insist" Aryon said as he followed into the mine. The sudden darkness overtoke him quickly and he could see nothing until his eyes adjusted. They were both in a dimly lit mine passage that looked typical of a Vvardenfell egg mine. The passage seemed to lead downards and got steeper and steeper the further it went until the darkness blocked any further sight.

"Allow me to go first, remember that I will speak first to the miner" suddenly he stopped talking and looked into the darkness while deep in thought "We shall lure them out of the mines, one at a time where no one can possibly see us. We shall use our cover as miners and 'befriend' them to get them outside. Once they are out we can begin our interogation and if things prove difficult you can take over and do your thing. Now as leader I will grant you the power to choose which miner we shall 'talk' with first. Your choice..."

He wasn't particularly bothered who he would find the information from first as he wanted to get out of there quickly. Spending too long in a mine wasn't exactly what Aryon had in mind for the day. He thought that if he could apprahend the culprit before too long and get back to Balmora then a reward would be offered. If he could do it before the day was over then that would most certainly be impressive. Plus he would not have to stay in that horrible inn in that swamp town with that fool Ren.

Hm hm, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves with such payment! Richard supressed a grin at Soryna's reply as he stepped off the pad. He checked if his letter was still safely behind his belt, and just to be sure took it into the relative safety of his hand again, to avoid pickpockets ruining his plan. "Now we'll have to cover the distance to Caldera Mining Company on foot, and that's where my plan kicks into action. This letter ain't for nothing." He finally gave his companion a reply, proudly lifting up the fist in which the letter was clenched.

Without explaining anything else, though, Richard proceeded down the stairs and into the busy streets of Caldera. By now, he was quite familiar with Vvardenfell and knew some places like the back of his hand. Caldera was a frequent spot for him to meet his employers, mainly because in the large mixed crowd of legionnaires, pilgrims, miners and locals a conversation could easily slip past unnoticed by even the most observant eyes and ears; the Breton had also seen the Mining Company itself, although never from up close. He knew fairly well how to get to the mines from the town and only hopped Soryna would keep up.

Soryna noticed the letter in Richard's hand as he stepped off the pad. She lifted up the scarf around her mouth and pulled down the resin goggles covering her eyes. Along with this she pulled her hood over her head. In this manner she would be hard to recognize and would look like any other ashland traveler. As she followed Richard she saw this also helped her blend in a bit. Although alot of the populace seemed to be Imperial, they were dressed much in the same manner. (The climate has a way in ruining one's dress plans) she thought to herself as she continued staying just one step behind Richard.

"I have a feeling this will all be easier said then done." Ren replied. But we'll do it your way, provided complications do not arise. And since your giving me the choice, let's go after the Dunmer first, Neldam, wasn't it? We'd likely have a better chance of getting the info out of him. If they're working for someone else, I doubt the Orc was informed. Those things rarely think of anything more then where their next meal is coming from, after all." Orcs were one of Ren's least favorite races, closely followed by all other non Dunmer.

"Well, we best get this over with. I'll be right behind you, leader. Now's the chance to prove you have the skills our House so values." Said Ren.

As artenell followed the cloaked figure's, they began to get closer and closer to the bosmer woman. Artenell was prepared to draw his sword, or even cast some sort of spell just incase something happened. The bosmer looked behind her, as she realized that the figure's were following her.

Damn! she thought, as she saw artenell following behind them. The two figures began to follow her into a small merchant crowd, as artenell began to follow closer, I've got to make sure she's safe, artenell thought, as he moved into the crowd. The merchant was yelling out to the crowd, that had gathered around, as artenell looked up at him for a moment, then returned his attension back to the cloaked figure's. The figure's were gone. They were right in front of him, and then suddenly vanished. Artenell looked around, trying to find where they could have gone, but every where he looked there was a building or a person standing in front of him. There were no alley's for them to hid, suddenly as artenell continued through the crowd, he spotted one of the figure's holding something infront of him, What the hell?, he thought as he moved-in, the figure dropped what ever it was in his hand, and artenell realized it was the bosmer, artenell quickly drew his short sword, as he charged up behind the cloaked figure. As artenell charged into the cloaked figure with his sword, the other figure smashed into him from the side, knocking him down to the ground. Artenell quickly got back up, casting a large fire ball at the second figure. The fire ball was some how deflected by the figure, as the other charged him with its broad sword. Artenell quickly jumped back from the large swinging sword, "Who the hell are you people?", the crowd of people that was out, saw the fight, and started to scream and run around in fear. With no answer, artenell quickly gathered himself, and parry'd the oncoming attack, the two blade clanged together, as artenell kicked the figure in the gut, making it stumble back.

The other figure tired to cast something, but artenell once again, quickly casted another fire ball, this time hitting the figure. The figure that had been hit with the fire ball quickly gathered himself as well, and quickly casted several ice shards towards artenell, who countered with another fireball. The figure with the sword tried rushing artenell, who tried to parry once more, but was knocked down by the strength of the blow.

The figure stood above him, preparing to finish him as the sound of city guards running to the scene entered the vacant street. The two figure's looked at one another, and quickly rushed off into the darkness of the night. Artenell slowly got up as he tried to gather himself from the blow. Three city guards rushed over to him, and quickly surrounded him.

"Who are you... Speak intruder!"

"Me... I came in here from the front gate", artenell said with a angered tone

"You are under arrest for causing a scare!"

Artenell looked at the man for a moment, he was about in his late 30's or early 40's. He had no facial hair, but he had long hair, that was tied into a bun, so his hair would fit in his helmet.

"I'm not going to any dungeon, I'm trying to find someone. And if you get in my way of finding this person, I'll have to report you to the lord of this town!", the man looked at the other two who giggled and smirked at each other.

"Your coming with us, this person your looking for can wait!", artenell looked at the man, as he motioned to one of the men, who pulled a pair of shackle's out of his waist belt.

"This person I'm looking for, you may have heard of him, the 'Master of Security', heard anything about him?", the man motioned to step back from him, as he approached curiously.

"What do you know of the 'Master of Security', he's just some fairy tale character made up for children?", artenell knew that the man was hidding something, the man clearly knew something about the 'Master of Security'. The man looked at artenell with a sturn face, "If I hear anymore of the 'Master of Security' again, then I'll have you killed. So stay on your good behavior and we wont have any problems!", the man motioned to the other's as they started to walk away. The man leaned over to artenell, looking past him, while placing something in his hand, he looked at him with a worried look, "Dont lose this, its your only way?", the guard walked off, as artenell turned and held up the paper.

Meet me at the North Gate Entrance fountain, tomorrow afternoon. DONT be late.

Artenell looked around and quickly placed the paper in his pocket, and walked back to the pub for a drink...

Vel Had received his meal and nwow has taken up a spot in the corner of the bar. He took occasional sips of the stew like meal with Crab meat chunks and some imported vegetables from Cyrodiil. He kept a visual on the whole entry area glancing occassionaly at the dancers. Few people had left the building giving an openess and relaxing atmosphere. After taking a last mouthfull of stew Vel pushed his bowl forward to the center of the small tabe and sat back placing his lfeet crossed on the edge. Giving a slight push he leaned the chair on two legs and put his hands together, his thumbs pointed towards him and his fingers apart forming a diamond like shape. He surveyed the room sweeping his eyes slowly back and forth from left to right.

No sence of doubt entered his mind about the mage. Only two possibilities came up. First, He woudl accept the proposal or second, He would try to walk out of the building and iform the target that she was being tracked down and hunted. That second outcome would resort to Vel killing the man before he left the town giving him no other lead to the where abouts of his target. But he knew what ever would happen would happen and there would be no changing it. Yes, he knew the man would make the best choice. The letter Vel had seen, about the mans mother ran threw His head like it where infront of him. He gave a small smirk and in his grimm dark mind he thought to himself. Yes, the man will take my offer. He would Sit there, All night if he had too. He had no weary taint, no need for rest. He could wait.

He never slept long. But he had needed it. He was exhausted from the duties that were presented to him the latter day by the witch. He cursed his atronach lineage and sat up in the bed. He wondered if the man was still outside his room, or if he had left. Or maybe they were in the next room sleeping.
Maybe.

I'm tired of being the lackey; tired of being the slave. ALMSIVI forgive my tirades but according to the ashlanders, your liars anyway.

He got up and replaced his pristine white robes back across his frame, accentuating his lean, wiry body. Just then he wondered if maybe he could just nick himself invisible and just casually stroll from the place.
No one would know.

It didn't take long for him to discover the flaws. He demanded closure in things. He hated to merely sit in anguish and never discover the ends of things. People were just the same. If he left, to be by himself and escape the world, he would always seek the fate of the witch and her seekers.
He wouldn't know.

He grabbed the letter, folded it and placed it within the confines of his robes deep pockets before opening the door and looking both ways into the hallway; seeing a man just standing there he passed by him, making little eye-contact as he made his way to the bar and sat next to the agent. Assailant, acrobat, thief, swordsman, whatever he was. And motioned to Desele to bring him a refill of cheap wine.

"I'll help you." Quick, clean, concise. To the point.

He would wait for his response and then make his own demands.

Vel' eyes had jumped to the mage as he came from the stairs and appraoched him. He sat down and agreed to help. His smirk had long left, and he did well to kept his face emotionles. He turned his head to the man and gave a slight nod and removed his feet from the table taking his hands apart. The mage was quick to answer and straight to the point at hand. Vel liked that better then bending mind games. He still leaned back in his chair, stareign at the man for a few seconds then opened his mouth to speak. "It is suprising on how fast you thought of this, you were so tired." He half lied, he was not suprised. He new people, By their actions and how they spoke. It was a trait any assassin or agent could gain after so many years of perfectign their abilities. He nodded slightly. "And?" He asked. He new the man wanted something. He sat up and reached his hand for the flin bottle and sipped at the rest of its contents.