Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5583506-20150708222546/@comment-5583506-20150716173600

Anjhari didn't want to sleep, knowing what she might see in her dreams. She had catched a glimpse of it in Cordius' house and she knew that she would eventually have to see it again. The further they would involve themselves with this case, the more they would delve into danger. She could feel it in her guts.

She eventually returned to her chambers. She had to be well-rested for whatever Kay had planned for them tomorrow, but she didn't want to dream. When she entered the room she was met by the sight of the broken pillow on the floor. All the insects living within it had probably escaped by now, but even then she wouldn't want to touch it. She was fine sleeping without it.

She lied down on the bed and stared up into the bunk bed above her, thinking about how her mother was doing. Amshira was just like her. She possessed the "gift", although her powers were more powerful and easier to handle. Her mother was a seeress. A fortune teller, as some others would call it. She had made a living welcoming travellers and citizens alike into her tent to ask questions about their future or problems in daily life. Even though a majority of the customers walked away happy, there were those who did not believe that a Khajiit could possess powers like those.

Those people had called her mother a trickster and a fraud, and one night they had tried to burn her alive inside her own tent. Anhjari had only been sixteen at that time, but she still remembered the events well enough. She had managed to save the mother, but not before the heat and the fire had driven her mother insane. Shortly thereafter she was instated at the Solitude's Estate for the Mentally Ill. Anhjari had been left at the care of a nearby orphanage where she had made... no friends. All the children had been terrified of her. Even the wardens. As soon as they came into physical contact with her, she had caught a glimpse of things they either thought of... or things that would happen to them. The latter had caused some problems for her. Especially the day when she had told one of the wardens that she would be a assaulted in an alleyway on her way home.

She had died from fifteen stab wounds to her guts that very night.

Eventually came the time when the orphanage had let the Investigators "borrow" her, as a way to get rid off her. She helped them solve a few cases and was thereafter indirectly employed into their service. Mostly just to earn the gold so that she could pay for her mother's well-being at the Solitude's Estate for the Mentally Ill. And now... she was here...

Stuck with a case she wasn't sure that she wanted to continue. It terrified her. Whatever they were dealing with her was beyond their understanding. She was aware of that much. She eventually felt her eyelids close themselves against her will as she began to breathe slowly.

(Music)

When she opened her eyes again she found that she was no longer present at the Five Claws Lodge. She was standing in a long, dark hallway with stone walls. They were dripping with moisture. This was however no reality. This was a dream. Along the path there were torches lit, glowing with an eerie blue hue.

She wanted to turn around and exit the place at the very instant, but found that she had no control of her own actions whatsoever. For every step she took in an attempt to turn around, she took a step further into the long hallway. From somewhere at the end of that tunnel, she could hear something breathing.

Long, rugged breathtakes, as if something was struggling to survive, or perhaps even choked. She wanted to escape, but there was nothing she could do. As soon as she moved, she moved in the direction of the sound at the end of the tunnel. She felt the walls closing in on her as if her entire world was shrinking to focus on whatever was waiting for her at the hallway's end.

Then she saw it. A huge, lumbering creature coming towards her. Bent and broken... and crooked... Covered in a black robe with a hood hiding its face, for which she was grateful. Long claws appeared from underneath the long sleeves, glimmering in the light of the torches... deadly and provoking.

It limped its way to her, coming closer and closer with every step until she was ready to scream. When it was just in front of here, she finally caught a glimpse of the hidden contents underneath the hood. And all she saw was darkness... and terror. Two sickly, pale eyes stared back at her.

She awoke screaming.

(Time to let the plot thicken.)

He didn't make a single noise as he entered through the cellar entrance of the basement. He couldn't afford the risk to be seen by entering through the regular front door. His master had done a terrible job by keeping their break-in as discreet as possible. But then again his master was unlike him in many ways.

Too many ways...

He crept within the shadows, hugging the walls. Back when he had been a lowly street urchin he had been one of the best thieves and pickpockets Leyawiin had to offer, but now he wasn't a nobody. He was Artus Aggio, loyal servant of the Crimson Order. And when the time for the completion of the Great Work had come, he would bask in their knowledge and glory... forever... No more the orphaned nobody from Leyawiin, but instead become known through history as one of those responsible for the completion of the Great Work.

He ascended the staircase, leading up to the first floor and quietly let the cellar door slid open with a vague creaking sound. A pair of guards were having the night shift and were currently on their lunch break in the dining room. They had lit a lantern on the table which provided enough light for them to notice if someone from across the room was to exit the cellar. Unfortunately for them Artus had years of experience avoiding the guards. These two wouldn't make an exception.

As swift as the wind and as silent as a shadow he ran past the dining hall. The guards didn't suspect a thing, still too preoccupied to finish their venison stew. Artus walked up the staircase leading to the study. He reckoned there had to be something there his master must have missed, a secret which Cordius brought with him to the grave. Cordius had accomplices... accomplices who at one point in their lives had betrayed the Order, tricked them on the Great Work, and left them as the monsters they had become.

''Undeserved... They will all die for what they did, and in time my master and the Order will rise to take their rightful place... The Great Work will be completed, and when it is ready... the whole world will bow before our might.''

He lit a lantern he carried in his belt and began to search the room thoroughly. His master had made quite a mess of the study. Years and years of agony and anger had been let loose upon Theomyr Cordius' and his work. A justified death... His fingers fumbled amongst documents strewn across the broken bookshelf.

''There is got to be something here... Something we might have missed... Something... Something the authorities missed...''

His fingers eventually came to a stop on a book titled Projects 102-114. Within its pages were the detailed the descriptions of Cordius' unfinished work. A project he had been working on just before he died. But that was unimportant. The alchemist was dead and the Order had no interest in his work. The only thing that mattered was the whereabouts of the formula. Nothing within the book however gave no inclination as to where the formula might be hidden... or rather the whereabouts of Cordius' accomplices... except for one small detail...

Artus raised the lantern a little higher to allow more light to shine over the filled pages. A footnote had been added to an incomplete calculation which involved several strange brews and mixtures. The footnote revealed a must curious location: ''This formula requires more of the imp gall of western Cyrodiil, yet my storage is out. Have to remind myself to send a message to Selebrand in Chorrol for more...''

''Selebrand? ''reflected Artus and put the book back into its place. ''He was involved in the Great Work as well... My master will be pleased to hear this... yet he cannot travel there himself. Seems like this must be carried out by another of the Order's esteemed members...''

He then scurried down the stairs and back through the basement. This was great news. And he was sure that he would be more rewarded than the others when the time for the completion of the Great Work had come...