User blog:HambleBee/Honest Hearts (Part 2)

This is the 2nd part of a very old blog I posted here in the Sandbox, except that it'll cover more than one POV/Point-of-View per part

It was raining heavily, as he walked towards the city of Bruma. The rain was so heavy, it was as if the sky itself was weeping over a loss or grief.

The man made his way over to the old city of Bruma. Bruma is a primarily Nordic city, which is reflected in the architecture. It is always relatively cold and snow-covered. The city's population includes followers of the Divines as well as those who follow the traditional Nordic Pantheon. Unfortunately, it has fallen into severe disarray since the White-Gold Concordat. Being the center of the Great Chapel of the youngest of the Nine Divines, Talos, which dominates the center of town, didn't help either...

The presence of Thalmor Justiciars were heavy in this city, always looking out for Talos worshippers to capture, imprison, and likely murder. Even so, the man decided to enter the city itself for a small stop.

...

He made his way to Olav's Tap and Tack, which was cozy enough for an inn. He sat down at the bar and ordered a bottle of mead. He proceeded to drink himself away to forget about his footsore.

As the normal day at the inn began to go by, a woman entered the inn. She was covered in a cloak and hood to hide her identity. Sadly for her, it took the attention of some Thalmor whom sought to exploit the girl.

"You! Hold it right there!" The main Justiciar said. "You are under arrest for suspicion of being a Talos worshipper!" He exclaimed.

"W-What..? I-I don't k-know or worship T-Talos..." The girl said, trying to defend her dignity,

The three Thalmor drew their weapons in response. "We can do this in one of two ways: You can walk with us, or we can drag your lifeless body. Your choice." The Justiciar said.

"B-But I..." The girl mumbled in fear, as she was already crying.

"Take her away." The Justiciar ordered his two soldiers, whom happily complied and forced her out of the inn as the Justiciar left.

"You just let something like that happen?" The man asked the Innkeep.

"We don't have a choice. The White-Gold Concordat's literally the only thing keeping the Thalmor from destroying the Empire-"

"You're saying that you're being weaklings?"

"No-"

"As I thought."

The man shook his head and decided to get up. He left 20 septims, and left the change of 9 as a tip. He began to tail the Thalmor agents taking the girl away.

The Thalmor led the girl towards the wilderness, and began to force her clothes out of her, with the girl crying for help.

Seeing this as an abhorrent act, the man quickly began to walk towards the scene, with a rock in hand. He proceeded to smash one of the Thalmor's face in with a single but brutal blow, killing the elf almost instantly. The second Thalmor tried to attack with his mace, but was quickly countered by the man with advanced unarmed techniques, and had his skull smashed by his own mace.

The last one fired a dual-casted Thunderbolt at the man, which seemingly staggered him. To the altmer's horror, nothing had happened to the man, aside his anger skyrocketing as he bolted towards him and smashed the Justiciar's kneecaps and elbows with a brutal swing from his Elven Mace. The man proceeded to smash the Thalmor agent to the point where he was unrecognizable after 7 hits to the face. The man left the mace stuck at the bloody remains before removing his cloak and covering the girl with it.

The man waited for the girl to calm down, before speaking to her. "You alright?" He asked. She shakily nodded in response.

"Come on. We'd better leave before more of their buddies show up." He told her as he helped her up before heading for a nearby cavern.

After a small while of walking, they ended up in Bruma caverns, which had been cleared out long ago, but allowed a small amount of vegetation to grow.

"Stay here." The man said as he began to gather some wood for fire and set it alight with a basic technique to start a campfire. The girl slowly headed a bit closer to the fire to warm herself up.

"You're lucky that those agents didn't try to actually kill you straightforward. Last mistake they made. Thalmor bastards." He said.

"Th-Thank you for s-s-saving me..." The girl said.

"It was nothing. I only did what had to be done." He noted. "What is your name?" He asked after a small moment of silence.

"Umm ... my n-name's... Elara..." The girl mumbled.

"Nice to meet you then, Elara." The man greeted.

"Wh... Who are you?" Alana asked. She noticed that her savior did hide his face a lot. He was wearing a dark College Robes, along with some Mages Gloves and Miner's Boots, and also a Black Hood complimented with a face mask likely made of linen.

"...You can call me Nox. That's what almost everyone I knew called me, and the name's been stuck since." The man said. He cleaned up a bedroll used by a previous occupant of the cavern for the girl to rest on.

"A-Alright, N-Nox..." Elara shakily nodded.

"We can talk more tomorrow. Right now, you need to rest. I'll keep watch." Nox said. With no other choice, and heavily exhausted, Elara decided to rest, and fell asleep almost immediately.

Nox continued to stare at the fire for some reason. The fire fascinated him in some way, but also brought him bitter memories, which haunted him, even in his sleep.

He felt a sense of dry rage coax through his blood. He had the weird taste in his mouth before and after every battle as well as he stared at the fire while reminiscing in his thoughts.

''Their cries... their agony... my joy... Their cries... their pleas for mercy... So enjoyable, and yet, so very sad...''