User blog:SkyrimsShillelagh/Justice Rides Again

The J’darr Bar in Senchal was a quiet, unpeculiar place. Working men came here after long days to drink aware their troubles and share words with like minded men. Bar fights were infrequent and those that did start were always ended quickly. The lighting was soft, the seats barrels, the tables converted wagon beds. The floor was planked wood, scattered with hay that had fallen from the thatched ceiling. It was rustic, pleasant, the atmosphere calming. It was a place a man could think.

And Sir Nohaden’Cade, the Augur of Justice, Saviour of the World, needed to think. Or at least, listen. If he were entirely honest with himself (which he never was and never had been), both were difficult tasks for him. In the months since the end of the Darkest Night, Cade had encountered a lot of difficulties. In his search for Graicus, in his search for evil, in his search for friends. It was as if all three had suddenly dried up. The world was rife with evil, but not the kind which he was capable of purging. How did one Augur put an end to war between two armies? How did one Augur fight things he could not face? Alrithos, Ulren Silver-Blood, Yaden-Gal, Black Ulrus, Morgus. All evils that had been felled by Cade’s hand. And what did they have in common?

They had all come to him. Or he had been guided to them. Cade was fast learning that that was what he needed, someone who could lead him to evil. Graicus had been good at doing so, but now Graicus was gone, and Cade got the sense that, without help, he would be unable to find his best friend. In fact, Cade had been unable to do more than slay the occasional monster recently. Before the Darkest Night, he would not have been concerned, he would have been pleased with that. But now, now that he had seen real evil, that he had done real good? It was not enough.

And that is what brought him here, to the The J’darr Bar. A search for a quest. And by the sounds of it, he had found one.

“They got away with killing him?” Rash-ek leaned across the table, nearly spilling his drink. His tail swished furiously in a mix of anxiety and disbelief.

Yan’il nodded, somberly. “The outlanders had some noble lady with them. This one knows not words were shared between them, but they walked free after. Only one was taken under guard.”

Cade knew their names because he had noticed the peculiar tick Khajiit had of referring to themselves in the third person. Cade found it to be extremely helpful and charming and was considering adopting the mannerism himself.

“His poor mother…” Rash-ek was saying.

“His brother saw the whole thing. You did not see his face.” Yan’il shook his head. “Khajiit will remember it until the end of moons. And the folk he ran with? This one never seen cutthroats like these ones, Rash-ek. The way they talked, the weapons they carried, the size of some of them… there was one that was a shadow that moved through walls, like the Great Darkness herself.”

“This one does not believe it.” Rash-ek said, dropping his snout into his palm. “Is there no law? Is there no one to pursue them? Surely it will not stand.”

“This is Elsweyr, Khajiit.” Yan’il scoffed. “There is no such thing as justice here.”

A heavy, cold gauntlet settled on Yan’il shoulder, and he just about jumped out of his fur.

“Y’ffre!” The Khajiit spun around to look at who it was. He looked directly into a dark chestplate, and had to look up. And up.

The largest man Yan’il had ever seen stared down at him, two warm blue eyes shining out of a black helmet. The gauntlet was removed from Yan’il’s shoulder, reached up, and pulled the helmet open, revealing a blockish head with square features--square nose, square mouth, square cheeks, square jaw--and the knight’s square face split into a beaming smile.

“Greetings!” He boomed. “I did not mean to eavesdrop, but I could not help but overhear your statement regarding Justice!”

Yan’il stared at him. “What?”

“My name… is Sir Nohaden’Cade, THE AUGUR OF JUSTICE.”

Yan’il exchanged a blank look with Rash-ek, who shrugged helplessly.

“You say Elyswer is without Justice… but no longer, for I, Sir Nohaden’Cade, am here.” He thumped a fist to his chest. “Tell me the name of this evil doer, good Khajiit. Tell me their name, and I shall bring them to Justice.”

Yan’il and Rash-ek shared a look again. “This one thinks her name is Lysilde…?”

Cade clenched his jaw and slapped the visor of his helmet down. “Lysilde.” The Augur brooded. “Lysilde and a band of cutthroats. Villains, if there ever had been. Pure evil. And evil must be PURGED.”

Yan’il was staring at him with wide eyes. “Oooo-kay. This one thinks they are still somewhere in the city. If you were to leave now you might find him…”

“You are right, clever friend Yan’il!” Cade agreed happily. “The Augur of Justice never hesitates and shall henceforth set off on his quest!”

Cade made for the door, navigating between the cluttered tables and barrels. The two Khajiit watched him go with utter bewilderment and turned away when Cade neared the exit.

Outside the sun beat down on him and Cade couldn’t help but look at it (which his mother had told him never to do, and thus he only had wanted to do it more), squinting. His eyes adjusted to the outdoors, and the city of Senchal settled into view--a city of topless towers and gold sands. A beach and a glittering sea extended to his left, the round coast of south Elyswer.

“Elyswer is bright! This Augur understands why the Khajiit prefer the night.”

To Cade’s right, several Khajiit children were gathered around a massive stallion tied to a hitching post, guzzling from a trough.

“She’s pretty.” A little girl said. She was dressed for the heat in a little cloth sash, barefoot, like the other children. Her tail swished side to side, mesmerized by the animal. She giggled “Pretty-big horsie.”

“I’m going to touch it.” One of the boys said, building up the courage. They stood now out of the animal’s range, as it had started to grow agitated when they got any closer, hooving the dirt like a bull about to charge.

“Don’t be stupid Hil’jii!”

“It’ll eat you, Hil’jii!”

“Do it!”

“Look!” One of the children jabbed a finger at Cade, and they all turned in his direction. “It must be his horse!”

“You are right, young Khajiit.” Cade loomed over the Khajiit children, and they stared up at him with gaping maws. Each had to crane their necks all the way back to fully see the knight. “And my friend Justus here is a boy!”

Cade crouched down to their level and pulled his visor back, to smile at them. “He is a very good horse,” Cade held up a finger, “but he does not like to be touched, you were good to leave him be. It is dangerous to touch animals that do not belong to you, for they may bite.”

“Are you a knight?” One of the children blurted out and Cade boomed with laughter.

“I am, my little friend!” He ruffled the boy’s thick mane of hair. “You may call me Sir Nohaden’Cade.”

“You’re big.”

“Ha!” Cade thumped his chest. “I am of good stock. And it appears you are too!” Cade slapped the Khajiit’s skinny arm and the boy flexed it to demonstrate his strength. “Very good! Perhaps one day you will grow bigger than me?”

Cade grinned at him and the little boy grinned back at the thought. Cade gave the boy a pat on the head and shoved himself to his feet, “I do not mean to be hasty, little ones, but there is Justice that needs doing, and an Augur to dispense it!”

They parted for him and he walked between them, freeing Justus from the hitching post. The stallion snapped at him and Cade cuffed the stallion.

“No, bad Justus! Friends do not bite!” Justus dropped his head back towards the water and Cade mounted up, swinging heavily into the saddle.

A top the stallion, Cade and Justus looked like they were one long interlocking series of metal plates, more mechanical centaur than knight and steed.

“Make way now, friends!” Cade called to the assembled children, who were staring up at Cade with empty, vapid gazes. He was some splendid, foreign ideal they had encountered only in story books. And there could be no better representation of a storybook knight than Sir Nohaden’Cade--heroic, brave, true. He was that epitomized.

They shuffled aside for him, and Cade pulled Justus’ reigns, guiding the horse towards the street.

“Farewell, children.” Cade said as Justus started in a trot towards the beach. “Be good for you parents.”

“Are you going to rescue a princess, Sir Justice?” A little girl shouted after him.

“No,” Cade replied, whipping the stallion’s reigns, “for all the princesses I know of can rescue thine-selves. The Augur of Justice fights for his friends!”

And then he was off, hooves thumping across the sand.

The young Khajiit ran after him, “Good-bye Sir Justice!” They called.

Justus ducked his head low, speeding for the beach, where the tide rose up to meet the sand, and then banked hard, running along the water.

“Good boy.” Cade patted Justus’ neck, and the stallion threw his head, shaking his mane out. The sun was hot, and the metal they wore hotter than the ground beneath Justus’ hooves, but the wind was to their backs and the sun to sky above them.

Cade pulled lower in the saddle, Justus accelerated into a gallop, and Cade hollered: “It is a good day to be, Justus, for we have finally have a quest! The Augur of Justice rides again!”