Chorrol, Cyrodiil, 4E 181.
It had been 5 years since Vittoria had ventured out into the forest, and came into contact with that strange, winged boy.
She initially struggled to get the encounter out of her mind, how could she, the whole experience was unlike anything else in her life.
She had told her father all about Sarek and his wings, and his fangs and his talons and how he seemed like an animal and a boy all in one, but her father accused her of making up stories in an attempt to gain attention, and simply dismissed her anytime she brought it up.
At her young age, it was easy to brush her stories off as just that, stories.
But Vittoria was a stubborn child, and she was also honest. She couldn’t see what she had to gain from lying to her father, but he wouldn’t hear of it.
One day, Vittoria was in the garden with Sparky and some of the servants children when she noticed a rather grand carriage entered the castle grounds, it was silver and gold and pulled by two beautiful black draft horses with snow white socks.
Usually, Vittoria knew of any visitors, via eaves dropping on her father, but she had heard nothing of this and was understandably curious about who had come to her home.
She made her way over to the main doors of the castle, joining her father and his advisor, who both seemed confused at this newcomer.
All three watched as the carriage doors opened, as if by themselves, to allow a beautiful young woman, who couldn’t be more than twenty, dressed in a red coat wearing a rather strange looking red hat to step out.
After her, followed a slightly older looking woman, who was no less beautiful and was draped in a white silken dress.
The woman in red smiled at Vittoria, who then noticed a boy that looked identical to Sarek step out behind her, but he did not have Sarek’s wings nor his talons.
“What is the meaning of this, who are these people?” The advisor asked the count, completely caught off guard, he always kept a good track of who was coming in or out of the city.
“I have no idea, Maro. I’m not expecting any guests.” The count replied, he was honestly confused as well, mostly at the fact that these people and their carriage made it to his literal doorstep and he was only just finding out, the city guard were definitely due a pay cut after this folly.
The woman in red and the woman in white walked gracefully across the yard, with an unmistakable air of confidence, it practically oozed out of them, which was impressive seeing as multiple crossbowmen were following their every step.
The boy behind them walked with more swagger and bravado, as if he was the toughest kid in the world.
“Stop there.” The count ordered, holding a hand for the women to halt, which they did, looking at him expectantly.
“Who are you?” Maro asked, narrowing his eyes at the strange trio, who he noticed now were definitely some kind of imperial half-elves.
“Rachael Morgan, a pleasure to meet you.” The one in the red coat said, tipping her hat at the man with a smile, she radiated a calm aura, one that made a person feel safe in her presence.
“Sybille Vien, lovely to meet you.” The lady in white grinned, her eyes were dark and had a certain, inhuman hunger to them.
“What is the meaning of this intrusion? How did you get this far into the city without me knowing about it?” The count added, similarly staring down the woman.
“You should take that up with your guards, they’re very nice by the way, just not really good at, well, guarding.” Sybille chuckled, with some delight. Neither Maro nor The Count found this funny though.
Maro and The Count were about to shout for the guards, when they both realised they couldn’t speak. All they could see was the slight glow of the Rachael’s red eyes.
I don’t think you want to do that. But what you do want to do, is invite me and my friend into the castle. Being the gracious hosts that you two are.
Rachael’s voice said, echoing within the minds of the two, who were trying with every fibre of their being to drive her out but they found themselves categorically outmatched.
“Would you like to come inside? We were just about to get ready for dinner, you’re certainly welcome to join, my ladies.” The Count said, with an approving nod from Maro, this response elicited a strange look from Vittoria, who wondered why exactly her father had just done that, Maro too, he was always so nasty to outsiders.
“You are too kind, Count Valga. I would be honoured to sit at your table.” Rachael smiled, walking towards the men.
“This is my nephew, Sarek.” She added, as she shook the men’s hands. Vittoria’s eyes widened at the boy, who merely winked at her in response.
“But I doubt he would have much interest in a dinner with a bunch of boring adults such as ourselves” she laughed, looking down to Vittoria and smiling.
“Perhaps your daughter could, show him around the city? He’s eager to stretch his legs, you know how children can be after long carriage journeys.”
“She must most certainly would love to, isn’t that right Vittoria.” Count Valga said, giving his daughter the look every parent gave when it was clear that the child did not have a choice in the matter.
The girl looked awkwardly at the floor and then back to Sarek, who arched an eyebrow as he waited on a response.
“I-, uh, yes. Of course father, I’d be happy to.” The girl sheepishly replied.
“That’s a good girl, now remember, don’t be out past dusk.” Her father said, as he turned and gestured for Rachael, Sybille and Maro to follow him inside.
“I’ve left something in the carriage, I’ll find my way inside.” Sybille told Rachael, who just gave her a small smile and a nod.
After they left Vittoria was full of questions for Sarek, who had a lot of explaining to do.
“What are you?” She asked, looking him up and down, he was wearing clothes that made him look noble, and his hair was straight and combed back, in fact it was in a better condition than her own. A far cry from the feral looking kid she had met five years ago.
“Gud lookin.” The boy said without a second thought, and he did so with that dumb smirk on his face.
Vittoria’s face went red and she shot him a glare, she didn’t find that funny at all, but she couldn’t help but think that he wasn’t exactly wrong.
“I mean why do you look like a normal person now.” The girl clarified, frowning at him.
“A knew wat ya meant princess.” Sarek smiled, turning from the girl and walking towards the gates of the castle grounds. “Mon down to your wee town, and I’ll tell ye wat ya wanna know.”
Vittoria screwed her face up and sighed, before doing a little jog to the boys side.
After the two had left the courtyard, Sybille approached a pair of nearby guards, they were two young imperial boys, and seemed like they were very new to this.
“In exactly one hour, you’re going kill the first Bosmer, Altmer or Khajiit, whether they are a citizen or soldier, that you come across, and then you’re going to blame it on Count Valga, he was the one who gave the order, isn’t that right?” The woman said, her eyes glowing a bright orange as the men fell under her control, who found themselves incapable of anything else but a simple nod.
After she was done speaking to them, they continued with their conversation, as if nothing had happened.
She repeated this process a few times to multiple guards within the courtyard, before quietly making her way inside the castle.
Meanwhile, on the streets leading to central Chorrol.
“Gold coats called us ‘Nemer’, an en yous humans would prahbly call us fairies.” The boy explained, that was about the extent of his knowledge on the matter.
“Ers a lot more to it but ats the gist, ya’d have to ask my anty if ya wanted the prahper answer.”
Vittoria wasn’t any less confused though, she still had two burning questions.
“Why do you talk like that?” She asked, to which Sarek feigned complete offence.
“Like waaaaa?” He grinned, looking at Vittoria, he actually couldn’t focus on anything else for a few seconds before he mentally shook himself back to reality.
“Rachael and Sybille didn’t grow up in d tribe, Rachael’s ma was a imperial and one of em rich ones too, ats why she’s all polite. Same with Sybille, cept she’s from sum island over in High Rack, Betny ya call it, all posh over er as well” The boy said, scratching his hair, which seemed to be quite uncomfortable.
“Okay... But why do you, look like an imperial? What happened to your wings?” Vittoria questioned, thinking that would be the hardest thing to explain.
“Magic, avisly?” He said, thinking that was a dumb question on Vittoria’s part.
“It’s a good hing you’re pretty, isn’t it.” He teased, making Vittoria blush as she tried to come up with a retort, but she couldn’t, and elected to remain quiet for the time being, which suited Sarek just fine.
They walked for a while longer, making their way towards the big tree in the city centre, during this walk both were stealing glances, trying not to get caught by the other.
“Why are the three of you here, my father wasn’t expecting you.” Vittoria brought up, thinking it was odd for three of these until recently unheard of, shapeshifting elves to appear, and for three to appear at once.
Sarek shrugged, he was just a kid in their eyes why would he know what his aunt or her friend wanted with this dusty old city, all he knew was what he was after.
“I just wanted d see ya, to be honest with ye.” The boy admitted, fidgeting a bit with his fingers.
“What? Why?” Vittoria asked, she felt herself going red again but fought against it, she really was letting herself down here.
Sarek made a face at her, one that asked was she serious right now.
“Many times do I have to call ya pretty?” The boy murmured, looking at the nearby oak tree, he tugged at his shirts neckline, to which Vittoria could notice a visible rash.
The young countess-to-be didn’t know how to respond, but she was somewhat happy at the revelation, the pretty boy she fancied, fancied her right back, not that she’d say it out loud.
“So you came into the city, wore that outfit, that you clearly can’t stand to be in, and used magic to make yourself look like a human, just because you thought I was pretty?” Vittoria asked, he hadn’t seen her in five years, she could’ve looked like a goblin since then.
“Aye, ats exactly it, thought the monster look musta scared ya away, seeing as ya never came back into the forest” The boy nodded.
“Well, I think I like the boy with the wild hair and wings better, if we’re being honest.” She smiled shly, looking down at her feet.
When she looked back up however, the perfectly coiffed hair was now a black mass of curls and rough tangles, and the uncomfortable shirt was lying on the floor. No sign of any wings or talons though, but what Rosalia could see, was that the light vine-like markings that snaked their way across Sarek’s upper body all those years ago, were now deep and black, giving the impression of veins almost.
“At better for ye?” He smirked, as he sat on a nearby bench, he got a lot of stares from some nearby civilians but he couldn’t care less about them.
“What happened to the wings, or the claws?”
“Don’t you worry, they’re still er, I’ll show you em anor day-“ Sarek was about to add something when the two of them heard shouting and then an explosion coming from just up ahead.
Vittoria, as the ruler of the cities daughter, felt compelled to make her way to the source of this noise, these were her people after all.
Sarek just sprinted after her, bewildered at the sudden change in pace.
The dashed through a crowd and turned into a street to see a gruesome sight, three dead altmer women, and two burnt bodies just a few meters away from them, wearing guards armour. What was more worrying was that there now seemed to be a standoff between the city guard and a group of Thalmor Justiciars.
Vittoria was visibly shocked by this, the Imperials never liked the Thalmor in the city from the get go, but she never thought they’d end up fighting on the street.
The girl was about to approach the situation, with the intention of calming things down, when she was unceremoniously knocked to the ground, whacking her head off the stone, by an Thalmor soldier who was making his way into the fray.
Sarek saw red at this point and with speed not capable of any human, grabbed the elf and shoved him to the side with great force.
“Are you fuckin stupid?” The boy growled at the Altmer, as Vittoria lay dazed on the floor, thankfully a citizen was already helping her, which allowed Sarek to focus on the Thalmor.
“You dare assault an officer of the Aldmeri Dominion, boy? You’ll suffer for that, you filthy halfbreed!” The older elf spat, drawing his golden sword and bringing down in one quick, fluid motion, intent on ending what he thought was an insolent half elf.
In an instant Sarek raised his hand, and the sword met with his talons, the high elf was evidently too shocked by this to see the Nemer’s other hand fly upwards, piercing straight through the upper section of his throat and clean through the chin. He gasped and clutched at the wound as he began to choke on his own blood.
Everyone gasped loudly at what just happened, some weren’t even able to process just how quickly it had went down.
Sarek had full intentions of charging into the crowd of Thalmor and butchering them all, unable to control his rage he was just beginning to dispel the enchantment that hid his wings when he felt a rather strong hand wrap around his wrist, when he turned round, it was aunt, glaring at him with crimson red eyes.
“Do. Not. Say. A. Word.” The woman warned, waving her hand as she forced everyone else that had gathered in the street to into a sleep, Vittoria included, she then proceeded to allow two massive black wings to appear on her back. Without saying anything else, she launched into sky, dragging her nephew upwards with her, away from this drama.
Sybille came walking down the street, whistling as she watched Rachael drag young Sarek out of the city via the sky and back over towards the north of the forest.
“Well, that went better than expected.” A man said as he joined the woman’s side, he was wearing the armour of a Imperial General, and bore a large scar across his throat.
“Well, I’m holding up my end of the bargain. I’ll sow as much strife and discord between the people of Chorrol, that they’ll have no reason not to take up arms and drive the Dominion out.” Sybille said,
“As long as you make sure they don’t make any progress in finding what they are so desperately searching for in the forest.”
“Don’t worry about that, Lady Vien. The forest people will be safe, you have my word.” The general told her, but he did wonder something as he watched the other Nemer fly out of the city.
”Your friend, you still believe she won’t interfere with our plans?” He asked, she’d just put an entire street of people to sleep with a wave of her hand, surely that merited some concern.
“You needn’t worry. She cannot contend with me, and if she tries, I will destroy her.” Sybille assured him.
“I’ll take your word for it, Lady Vien.” The man said, with some amount of fear in his eyes.
Sybille nodded, and simply turned and walked from the man, out the gates of Chorrol, and back into the woods.