A short search leads me toward a very worried and panicked looking Lokir.
He is looking around frantically, practically shivering, and the moment he spots me he lets out a long sigh of relief.
I place a finger over my mouth and signal him to follow me.
We make our way to the gate where in one of the dark corners Irilleth and three of her colleagues wait for us in full combat gear.
I take a moment to look at the housecarls. Two are tall Nord men, one with grey hair yet still vigorous and the other a bearded blonde, the last one is a young woman who I recognize as Lydia.
"Evening gentlemen." I say and quickly add with a nod "Ladies."
Irileth smirks slightly "You came quickly, good."
I nod "Yes, allow me to introduce Lokir. He will be our guide tonight."
Said Nord bobs his head, still panicked but to a lesser degree now "Y-yes I will show you where they usually go, just please make sure they can't hurt anyone else."
The grey-haired housecarl smirks viciously "Oh you don't need to worry about that. They won't be hurting a fly from now on."
He then turns to me and offers his hand "An honor to fight beside you Flame-tongue."
I accept the handshake and say wryly "While I can see you are quite the warrior and the honor of fighting together is evident I am afraid we were never introduced."
He guffaws "Oh, no need to be so polite. We housecarls avoid entangling ourselves with visitors."
"I can see how that would be wise." I nod to myself.
"Name's Adar Grey-mane." He says and points an open hand to his other male colleague "This here is Ungrim Battle-born."
We share a polite nod.
Adar then points to the last one present "And this here is Hrongar's kid, Lydia."
I turn to her with a raised eyebrow "Is it really wise to have you come with us? No offense, but I don't want to spend half the battle trying to not get Hrongar pissed at me."
Irileth palms her face lightly while the other two housecarls chuckle.
Lydia's face grows red and she almost shouts "I earned my place here! I can fight better than you, elf."
I raise my hands placatingly while keeping my smirk "Oh yes, but you can also yell while we are trying to be stealthy."
Her face becomes even more red.
"Real mature there." I snort.
"I am not a child!" She fumes.
"Oh yeah, I can see that." I say dryly while visibly checking her out.
I think the poor woman might die of embarrassment but my teasing is interrupted by Lokir's light cough.
We all turn to him and he says shakily "Excuse me, but could you please save your flirting for when you are done with saving my wife's life?"
Irileth takes this opportunity and quickly cuts in "Yes, lead on please."
He quickly leads us outside the town and toward the hills to the south.
During the entire walk, I can sense Lydia trying to burn me to death with her glare. Oh she is fun!
Lokir leads us further into the hills and we soon enter a sparse woodland, we start making a lot of noise by stepping onto leaves and twigs but I soon solve that problem by casting a muffle spell on everyone.
"You sure you should be wasting Magicka right now?" Asks Ungrim battle-born "I ain't a mage but I know you lot become quite useless without it, no offense." He quickly adds.
I wave him off "Don't worry, I am quite capable of fighting in melee and I am not known as a respected enchanter for nothing."
He raises an eyebrow "I know that much about you, but I don't see any items on you..."
I smirk and snap my finger theatrically, suddenly replacing my mundane clothes with my full regalia and staff "I can't really be walking around a town wearing this while trying to blend in now can I?" I ask jovially.
He smirks back and nods "Aye, excuse my curiosity."
"You are excused." I say overly pompously and we share a chuckle which is joined by Grey-mane.
Lokir soon stops and points us to a narrow passage carved into a hill "This is the furthest I ever followed them, I once took a peek inside and it looked like some kind of grove."
"Thank you for your help." I say and then ask "Are you capable in a fight?"
He shivers and quickly shakes his head.
"Understandable" I nod and pull out a potion of regeneration.
He looks at me confused and I explain "In case we die and your wife is having issues, this should save her life."
He thanks me and runs off.
We all stand in silence while looking at the entrance.
"That's a good thing you did." Grey mane says with approval in his voice.
"Can't have him doing anything stupid" I shrug.
There is realization in his eyes as he nods "Ah I see."
"What is the plan?" I ask Irileth.
"The Nords will go in front." She says slowly yet decisively "I will follow behind them, and you will be in the back. I will focus on assisting while you provide long-range support."
Ungrim clutches his heart dramatically "Oh Irileth, how could you be so cruel as to use your friends as meat shields?"
The Dunmer woman merely rolls her eyes and almost as if just remembering her, says "Lydia, you will be behind Reyvin guarding his back."
The young housecarl goes from merely annoyed to furious "What?! I can fight, why would I hide behind the mage?"
"And if said mage is tied up in melee we are all at risk." Irileth says evenly.
Adar cuts in "Don't worry about us lass, you are still young and shouldn't risk your life like us."
Ungrim merely grunts his agreement.
Lydia lets out a defeated sigh and positions herself behind me.
I smirk behind my mask "Oh the woes of being young."
She goes to respond but a raised hand from Irileth and her serious expression halts her.
The senior housecarl says "The time for jests and levity is gone, prepare for battle."
We all quickly gather ourselves and prepare to delve into the Daedric shrine, the feeling of anticipation making my heart dance in excitement.
-----------------------
We slowly march into the grove, my spellwork making sure that we aren't heard.
The two Nords leading our formation are armed with shields and axes and seem to be used to moving together. It is really odd seeing those of their clans being this close, but the civil war hasn't happened yet so it shouldn't be all that surprising.
We walk into the opening and what awaits is a sight of beauty. Think white-bark trees grown in such a way to create a natural canopy of orange leaves, the ground below is covered in said leaves making it look like the most opulent of carpets.
The sight is unfortunately marred by the vile aura of the place, to my magical senses it felt like someone covered a beautiful painting in pitch.
At the center of the clearing is a shrine made of rocks, made in the likeness of the old shrines of Kyne, but it is covered in Daedric symbols probably drawing power from the desecration.
The twenty or so cultists immediately notice our approach, and Jouane steps in front of their group.
The old Breton sighs "I see that my spell had no effect."
I scoff "You know where you can shove that amateurish work."
"Yes, I should have known better." He goes on "I guess you aren't here to join our peaceful congregation?"
I resist the urge to facepalm, but this whole situation feels suspicious and I activate my third eye to see what is going on.
I notice a flow of magic leaving the shrine and slowly suffusing the woods around us, before Jouane can continue with his distraction I yell "He is buying time!" and launch a fireball at the cultists.
The Breton manages to protect some of them from my spell and snarls in my direction, obviously furious that his plan failed.
Unfortunately, he did still buy some time as soon two corrupted spriggans come out of the trees and start launching their noisy swarm-like spells at us and making me spend some effort on warding them off.
The housecarls waste no time and charge into the cultists, with Irileth throwing lightning bolts and the Nords cutting through them like grass.
Lydia ignores her orders and charges in as well. I am totally going to annoy her to death for that.
The spriggans press their attack and focus on me. Thinking quickly I summon scorch and send him to attack one with his fire cloak and talons.
Since when can birds cackle sadistically?!
I turn to the other one and shout "WULD" appearing before it and spearing it with my staff, setting it on fire immediately. The creature dies within a couple of very painful seconds.
I see Jouane rushing toward the shrine away from his overwhelmed followers, the housecarls butchering them without a hint of mercy.
I launch a lightning bolt at him but he abruptly stops, making me miss.
He suddenly starts shaking and falls onto the ground, something leaves his shadow and rushes toward the shrine.
I feel a hunch as to what that might be so I quickly launch a sunbeam at it and the shadow creature stops abruptly, soon turning into a black blob that starts growing and turning into a humanoid shape.
I go to hit it with another burst of sunlight but suddenly a cultist throws himself at me out of nowhere and I am forced to fight him off. He dies within moments but alas, that is all the time that our true enemy needed.
The black blob coalesces fully into what looks like a pitch-black skinned human with two pairs of goat horns and far taller than even the housecarls, with massive clawed hands and sharp looking fangs.
The battlefield grows quiet, mostly due to all of the cultists being very dead, and we prepare for what is to come.
The Daedra spreads his arms and speaks in a powerful and unnaturally soothing voice "Be welcome honored guests. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"
"Filthy demon!" Adar shout and charges at him, but the Daedra sidesteps him and kicks him to the side while making it look like he was simply stretching.
"Rude."
He goes to say something again but Irileth shuts him up with a lightning bolt and the housecarls attack him again.
Scorch who was finally done with ripping the spriggan to bits starts healing the disoriented Adar, and I start launching lightning bolts of my own.
The Daedra is fast, very fast. Every strike he dodges with ease and the spells do barely anything to him.
I throw a bolt of sunlight, striking him in the chest and making him cry out in surprise while looking at the smoking wound.
He snarls and throws a massive fireball at me, but I merely smirk and cast resist element on myself making the fire feel like a morning breeze.
The Daedra looks at me dumbfounded, and is surprised just for long enough to get axed in the face by a snarling Ungrim.
He swings his massive clawed hand at the Nord's head, but it is in turn impaled and stopped by Lydia. Unfortunately her heroic attack doesn't make her immune to physics and she is launched away by the force of the strike.
I continue peppering him with sunbolts, but even if they are effective he seems much too strong to be hurt meaningfully by my low level solar spells.
Getting an idea I yell out "Irileth, I need him distracted for a while!"
(Irileth's pov)
I hear the sorcerer's request and almost start cursing him then and there.
Distract this thing for a while?!
I guess there is really no choice, I yell a 'Hurry up!' back at him and continue pressing the attack.
I swing for the creature's arm, and manage to cut it while Adar stops another of it's swings.
It strikes back at him, hitting him right on the shield with enough force to make a crunching sound come from the hand holding it.
Ungrim quickly intervenes and strikes at it's legs.
The creature kicks him away and attempts to stomp on Adar's head, as he was clutching his broken arm.
An arrow hits the Daedra, and I turn quickly to see Lydia who had pulled out her longbow.
I cannot hold back my smirk at seeing my student stand bravely against a strong foe.
I prepare to stab the thing one again but instead hear Reyvin shout "NOW!"
(Reyvins's pov, just when he asked for time.)
I pull out a potion of extra Magicka, and one to empower my restoration.
I summon up all of my reserves and start constructing a magic circle once again, fitting every possible rune of power I can think of, not even trying to make the spell efficient..
As the spell itself is finished I focus on the desire to purge this filth from the world and channel all that into my spell, further focusing it.
And just because I am feeling a tad cruel I add a dovahzul rune of SHUL for good measure.
I signal Irileth and focus on my enemy.
"WULD!" I appear in front of him and point my blindingly glowing palm at his heart.
He has a moment to realize what is going on before my spell explodes outward, blinding everyone present and causing the Daedra to scream in unimaginable pain, said screams last for but a moment as he is turned to dust.
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Stone pls.
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