While Thorfinn was getting a dressing down from Hjolmir because he left the formation without orders I walk toward the dead snow elf and the tortured Thalmor.
She looks at me with relief in her eyes "Ah good, quickly release me from this I have reports to make" she speaks as if talking to a servant.
I blink before saying tiredly "I know Altmer are cursed with a lesser intelect, but I will ignore your tone on account of you being delirious" And then completely ignore the fuming woman while rummaging through the documents I noticed on a nearby table.
Finding an official letter with the symbol of Aldmeris beautifully drawn on it I call Hjolmir over.
The Nord Captain walks away from the now pale and completely chastised Thorfinn and asks me what I want.
I do not answer and simply open the letter and prepare to read but am interrupted by the Altmer woman shouting "Leave that alone! That is not for your kind to see!"
I sigh and turn to one of the guards "Hey Garm, the prisoner seems like she is having an episode of insanity, please put something in her mouth so she doesn't bite her tongue off"
The guard gives me his most charming smile "But of course Reyvin, we wouldn't want our dear friends from Aldmeris to hurt themselves now would we" Before walking over to the dead snow elf, taking off one of his socks.
The Altmer's eyes widen and she starts shouting again "DON'T YOU DARE YOU NORD DOG, I WILL HA-" her raving is interrupted by said sock being stuck in her mouth.
I smile "Ah, blessed silence" And everyone nearby shares an evil chuckle "Anyway back to the letter"
I open it, cough for a bit because my throat still hurts like a bitch, and start reading out loud: "Justiciar Myriel, you are to use your new discoveries in restoration and alteration to advance the colony of Falmer in Thamz-mzinch, after the initial success you will start harassing the Nord settlements and destabilizing the region. Your ultimate goal is to weaken the entire province by growing an army far more agreeable to our rule, lesser success is acceptable. You are permitted to conduct any and all research you might need to accomplish your task and will be provided with a guard of four warriors. Signed High Justiciar Finarfin"
The elf woman somehow looks even more pissed than when she got a sock put in her mouth, if looks could kill we would be facing armageddon. The Nords all turn to her and give her a similar treatment, Hjolmir goes to smash her to pieces in his anger but I stop him with a hand on his shoulder.
He looks at me and asks very slowly "You aren't going to ask me to spare her are you Reyvin? I may like you, but I don't like you that much"
I give him my best conspiratorial smile "Of course not Captain, I just thought we might as well get some use out of the bitch" before I walk toward the downed snow elf and pick up the black soul gem.
I give her a cold look "I am guessing that someone as arrogant as you won't be willing to give us the details of your work here even if I have this?" As I shake the soul gem in front of her.
She looks at me with a mix of terror and unwavering defiance.
I shrug carelessly and walk toward her while giving a little monologue "Sadly, the dear diplomat from Aldmeris was already cut to pieces when we arrived, there was just nothing left of her so we as honorable people gave her a proper burial before leaving in defeat" and then with all the strength I can muster I ram the soul gem into her throat while using what little soul manipulation I can force her soul into it.
The look of pure agony on her face makes me rethink what I am doing for a second, but I remind myself of what she did and continue.
The feeling of filling a black soul gem is disgusting beyond any description, it is so wrong that if I did this to anyone who didn't completely deserve it I feel I would kill myself the next day.
I shudder and everyone gives me a concerned look, one guard who seems a bit slow on the uptake asks "So how are we going to explain the dead Thalmor?" I blink at him and burn the body to ashes "What Thalmor?"
He tries to speak again but Thorgrim smacks him on the shoulder "There were no Thalmor here"
Bor and Brienne walk up to me and the male twin speaks up with a cautious voice "You know you can't do that Reyvin, it is strictly forbidden, you know where souls go when you use those things"
I wave him off "Oh shut up, I know you wanted to do it too, besides the bitch deserved it"
He goes to speak again, but Brienne interrupts him "Let it go Bor. We saw nothing and heard nothing, it isn't worth it. Besides, Reyvin isn't stupid enough to start collecting those disgusting things is he?" She turns to me with a surprisingly threatening smile.
I shake my head, suppressing a shiver "Of course not, even filling this one felt awful" Yes, totally won't use it in the future to punish my enemies, not at all ma'am.
They seem to accept my answer and we go to ransack the place after we have confirmed that there were no more enemies around.
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As I am searching through the corpse-filled research room I suddenly hear
[Quest complete]
and trip on a couple of books, that is one way to give rewards I guess. Flipping through the schematics I got, I was satisfied with the surprisingly good reward. A way to make dwarven spider workers and control them, it might seem like useless at first glance but the money making potential was immense.
As I am reading through the research notes, I am surprised by the precision of the anatomical research conducted here. I guess it was the Thalmor agent doing most of the work, for whatever reason I cannot imagine the Falmer being in any way effective but when I found the bodies of four other Altmer ripped apart I started to doubt that, then again was the Thalmor insane enough to use her own guards as subjects?
No matter, the research notes are very valuable on their own, unfortunately the bloodline atavism process described here requires some very nasty sacrificial rituals that seem horribly inefficient but at least it offers a base to work from.
My reading session is interrupted by Thorgrim who enters the room with some others "What've you got there Reyvin?"
"Research notes on everything they did here."
Thorgrim grabs a torch "Good, lets get rid of it"
I look at him as if he was an idiot "This is too valuable to simply burn, I get killing the ones who did this, but this can still be of use"
"Of course a fucking knife ear would say that" He seems very angry all of a sudden.
I glare at him and prepare for what is inevitably going to turn into a shouting match but Hjolmir suddenly enters the room "Thorgrim what is going on over here?"
"I want to burn the disgusting research that the whore elf made using our people, the Dunmer here" He points at me with disgust "Wants to save it, it will be useful he says"
The Captain shakes his head "It will indeed be useful, if we can use this to heal some of our people when they need it, at least the sacrifice of those tortured here won't be in vain"
Thorgrim gets even more angry "For the love of Talos Ca-"
Hjolmir interrupts him "Where did I tell you to leave your bullshit Thorgrim?"
The old Nord mutters "Of course a fucking Ebon-frost would agree with the elf"
Hjolmir gives him a cold glare "What was that soldier?"
Thorgrim calms down forcefully "I leave it at home sir"
"Exactly, now get out and get some fresh air" the old man leaves the room and Hjolmir tells me "You better keep that safe, never know what the fool could do"
I nod and get back to work while wondering what made Thorgrim's attitude do a 180 all of a sudden, maybe he got war flashbacks? He is after all a great war veteran, he had shown no hatred for elves on our way here but maybe he was just hiding it very well.
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The looting of the place took almost as much time as searching it did, but no one made any complaints. We were all making it out of here rich and that was not an overstatement.
We found many more enchanted trinkets, and even a storage of Dwemer animanculi parts in another section of the tower, the valuable weapons and armor we took of the corpses would see us all wealthy on their own, not to mention the finders fee the college was sure to give us for discovering an entire Dwemer village.
We even discovered a caved in path to the side of the cavern, meaning it led somewhere and my hunch was an elevator heading down.
Taking everything that wasn't nailed down and was worth more than a stone we left the cave system looking more like pack mules instead of people. Thankfully no beasts or bandits bothered us on our way to Winterhold.
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