User blog:Psychomantis108/The Fall of the Aubeanic Reign (The unused chapters): Chapter VIII - Let them have no quarter (Part 1)

Landyt sat in his office, staring his iron bull in the face, curling his fingers around the arms of his chair. He'd never forget the day that he got this, he recalled it well, he crashed, ramming speed into a ship bound for Hammerfell, it was an easy enough job, a small trading vessel.

The Bull was technically a relic, from the second era, apparently it belonged to a hammerfell noble and even then it was practically ornimental. He had done a little bit of research on the subject as he tried to figure out what it was and what it did, when he learned that his had been used by slavers, kings or Daggerfall Covenant Generals, during the Three Factions War. There were a few carvings on it, beautiful pattersn, engraved into the metal, of course, these were just for show and the closest they ever got to being used, was when Geneerals who lacked spines, would show them to defiant slaves or prisoners.

Landyt fell in love with it at first sight, a work of art and a magnificent source of entertainment. The undead Pirate Captain sat back and began to relax, closing his eyes and exhaling softly, he did need to sleep, so he didn't and even if he didn't need to sleep, he'd keep the amount of time that he spent asleep to a minimum.

This time was his time, a time for relaxation and contemplation, close his eyes and lose himself in past experiences, thoughts and ideas...

It was less like sleeping and more like meditation, something with a purpose, to pass the time. He began to venture deep into his subconscious, taking himself back to the past...

Back to better times...

He didn't spend much time in his relaxed state before he was awoken by an almighty crash, several decks bellow. Landyt sighed, heavily, his voice sounded like a forced groan or even a growl as he slowly rose to his feet as Melisa opened the door and barged into his office.

"Sir, the cells!

The Half-Breed and her Dunmer have escaped!"

"Keep every door to the upper decks locked! Make sure they find 'emselves cornered, leave them nowhere to run, so that I can personally gut them!"

"Yes Sir!"

"C'mon, this way!" Mona hissed, she'd be damned if she was to get caught now. She and Niall were getting out of there, she was going to get him home, get a slap off her Mother and a telling off from her Father. If Landyt tried to follow them, then Mom would just blast them out of the sky, with an ungodly amount of force, sending that pirate and his crew back to whatever plane of Oblivion shat them out. For now though, she had to keep her eyes focussed on the task at hand, busting herself and her scrawny Dunmer friend out of prison.

The 'Scrawny Dunmer' followed, keeping his head down and keeping close as they crept forward.

"Where are we going!? Top Deck's back that way!"

"I know but we need our weapons!" She whispered, trying the door and rolling her eyes as it clunked.

"Shit, locked!"

"Here, let me..." Niall whispered, pickuing up a small iron bar, like a fire poker and blasting the tip of it with a fire spell, until the tip glowed orange. As it did, he inserted it into thelock and listened to it sizzle as the lock mechanism melted and the door fell open.

Mona hopped towards it, turning back and giving her partner a grin.

"Great work killer, now let's stock up."

The Half-Breed turned around and skipped into the armoury, that was full of confiscated weapons and a few sentimental items, that would be a liability if they were left in the cells.

A specific item caught the Half-Breed's eye, she ran straight over to it as Niall reached up, for his gnarled, wooden staff. This staff was special to him as he had it crafted and enchanted, the first week that he joined the Mage's Guild. Most Guilds did this, in order to creat some sort of bond between a pupil and their staff and to make their first staff somewhat special, so that they wouldn't lose it every five minutes.

He smiled as he examined it, recalling every scratch and scuff and how they came to be. Thankfully, it hadn't gained any new ones during its stay here. Mona returned, mere secodns after departing, now with an odd looking but radient curved balde, that looked like a normal sword but with a crescent shaped curve at the center. Not even Naill could tell its origin he knew that the Redguards of Hammerfell often had curved swords but this blade was quite elegant...

It almost resembled elven design, perhaps it was from Morrowind? Still, it looked surprisingly sturdy, despite it's... odd design.

"So... What'dya think?" She asked, finding herself to be excieted at the prospect of owning this unique blade.

"Looks... Nice..." Niall muttered, barely suppress his many points about the practicality of the weapon.

"THis blade was apparently used by one of Tiberionus' officers, so it must be good!"

Niall was going to ask how she knew this but escape suddenly crept its way to first place as far as his list or priorities were concerned.

"Okay... Now t oget out of here..." He muttered, uncertainly as he looked back over to the door, looking somewhat concerned as they must have wasted two minutes, stood around talking about Mona's new 'toy.'

The Dunmer looked back to his companion, who stodo before him in a white-baige shirt, that was made out of a material that was only just better than sack cloth. Her skirt was a dark brown colour, made of a slightly different but just as ugly and inferior material, her boots were a pair of beaten up old stompers, laces and materials were strewn everywhere above the heavily scuffed soles.

One of the monstrosities on her feet flew forward sas she took her first step towards the exit, nodding, determinently at her companion as she di so.

"RIght, through here!" She ordered, marching through and immediately finding herself stood face to face with a couple of ghastly pirates, glaring at them with their bleak, white, pupiless eyes.

Mona drew her sword and brought it up to her face, uing all of her concentration to avoid having it tremble, with the rest of her body. Niall stood behind her, almost paralysed with fear as he looked death in the face and swallowed hard. The Dunmer had never been in a fight before, the most threatning thing he'd ever took on was a wooden training dummy, that resembled his head teacher and now he was fighting savage pirates, who were just stood, waiting and eager for a chance to run him through.

He stopped his trail of thought dead in its tracks, forcing some concentrated well thought out reasoning to comfort himself and to smother his knee-jerk reaction of fear. He was stood next to someone who was the closest... No, screw it, she was his friend. If he died, he'd die wit hher, for her, both of those things were like a key to sovenguard or wherever he was meant to go when he departed. Her determination got them out of that cell, if it were up to him, he'd still be asleep, waiting for the noose...

Or the meat cleaver...

Mona had saved his life, whether he made it through this or not, he owed this chance to defy Landyt to her and he wouldn't let her down now!

"O-Outta my way!" He growled, his own internal pep-talk immediately got the better of his judgement, even Mona was shocked.

The Pirates shambled towards them, raising their swords above their heads as they appraoched. Niall countered, almost immediaely, by blasting an ice spike at one of their heads, piercing the undead Redguard's forehead and driving its tip deep into his brain. The Pirate's head was thrown back and he keeled over, landing to the ground, with a thud.

His commrades charged forwards, not even flinching as the Redguard died, in front of them, they ran aheead and encountered another two of them, both swords hit Mona's blade and she found herself wincing at the force of the blows, she found that she didn't need to keep it up for long before two ice spikes flew into their heads and finished them off.

"Great, just got to make it to the top deck!" The Half-Breed called, marching towards the door. Above and below, nothing but pounding boots could be heards as the pirates above and below ran about the ship, hoping to find the escapies. It was odd though as they all seemed to be running the same way, towards the top deck.

"What's the plan for when we're up there?" Niall called as he followed her throguh, it didn't seem like she was listening due to the determined look on her face but she eventually picked up on it.

"Erm... There'll probably be something." Mona replied, completely crushing the seemingly endless amount of faith that Niall had in her.

"What!?" The Dunmer froze on the spot, not out of protest but fear as the reality of the situation hit him like a ton of bricks.

"There's... No way out!?"

"There's always a way out Niall...

We'll find it, on the Top Deck."

"Sh-Shit..." The Dunmer wasn't even listening anymore as he had laready processed what he had just been told, she had no idea what she was doing. They were both on the run, trapped, Gods know how many feet in the air with no way down.

He'd put all of his faith in her and she had no idea of what she was doing, his life was in her hands and soon it was to be taken out of her hands, by Landyt, who would probably crush it in his bear-like palms.

This was a terrible mistake...

"Niall? Niall... Look at me..."

The Half-Breed's words continued to echo inside his head as he stubbornly kept his gaze on the floor, frowning intently as he did so. He eventually looked back to her, his eyes weren't exactly full of confidence.

"It's going to be okay..." She whisperedl, like she was talking to a child. Niall usually detested being talked down to but in this instance, it seemed appropriate, her softened whisper eased the tensions inside his stomach as their eyes met once more.

The Dunmer's eyes and face softened as he eventaully gave in and gave her a nod. Mona gave him a smile, to assure him futher before taking his hand and leading him towards the top deck, placing her hand down on the door handle and pushing down...

Clunk

A smile crept across Landyt's lips as he heard the satisfying 'clunk,' he slowly approached it, gesturing for Melisa and several fallen to join him as they gathered around, waiting for the door to open.