I take a deep breath and let out a tired sigh, Mephala's grin widens as I silently take a seat across her, and after making sure I am not about to ingest divine LSD I take a sip of the offered drink and sigh once more, this time in contentment.
"Getting confident, are we?" She teases.
I roll my eyes in response "I've been herding rowdy adventurers for an entire day and then spent the rest of my time tinkering with the same damn automaton over and over, I think I would accept a mug of coffee from Dagon at this point"
She gasps falsely "Ah, to be so easily discarded!"
I cannot help but chuckle at her reaction "I thought you were into that sort of thing?" I tease back.
She pouts and crosses her arms with a huff "I don't know what I have done to make you view me in such a negative light, I have been nothing but helpful." She smirks wryly "Am I not one of the Good Daedra, Reyvin?"
"And since when was I a worshiper of any Divine or Daedra?" I retort lazily "I may pay homage or grant some lip service but I am not devoted to any higher power nor will I ever be."
She waves my answer off "Oh I know that much, you wouldn't be interesting otherwise." Her answer makes me deadpan and she continues after a light giggle "If you would satisfy my curiosity, what drew you down here?" Before I can answer she adds dryly "Besides the obvious."
I breathe in the warm scent of my drink before answering carefully "A certain scroll awaits atop the tower of Mzark, and a certain lizard within the false sun."
She leans on her elbows and draws closer to me "Oh, and why would you be interested in those?"
A mocking smirk spreads on my face as I answer "Oh I don't know, I thought the two would be fine additions to my collection."
She gives me a dry look and deadpans "Really Reyvin?"
I cackle in satisfaction "Oh I know you know why I am here" I cross my palms conspiratorially "I also know you Princes have some rules to this whole game, otherwise the person of interest would have been snatched up already." My smirk turns feral "So no, I don't think I will be telling you anything outright."
The Daedric Prince of lies is completely stunned for a split second before she breaks out into merry laughter once again, it takes her a whole minute to calm down before she looks at me with both fury and pride in her eyes "Well played Reyvin, well played."
I stand up and bow theatrically "I live to please my Prince."
She pouts "I really want to be angry but I am far too busy being impressed instead."
"No offense meant Lady Mephala" I smirk "I just do not trust the future of the world to the games of your bunch of bored lunatics."
Her eye twitches "I am not sure how you expected me not to be offended by that."
"Oh well, the mad one is obviously insane enough for the both of you" I drawl flippantly "I would never insinuate that you, someone who keeps bothering some random elf on a whim, to be insane."
She deadpans "You have become far more cheeky these days."
I take a sip of my drink and shrug "Authority has gone to my head, it would appear."
"I wonder" She begins after a beat of silence "How have you made use of my most recent gift? Besides the spiders, that one I saw myself." She quickly adds.
"The guild branch you mean?" I raise an eyebrow "Can you not look at them whenever you please?"
"I can, but that would not be as interesting now would it?" She asks as if it were obvious.
I roll my eyes and slump deeper into my seat "I have them establishing a basic information network in every hold of Skyrim, I do not expect to find anything too valuable but a merchant here and a beggar there feeding me rumors will no doubt prove at least somewhat useful."
"Good" She nods "I would be disappointed if you were to merely discard them after I went through the trouble of sending them your way." She then tilts her head "Though why not send them to eradicate the Sithites?"
I blink at the question and repeat it to myself, why not just snap my fingers and have the brotherhood removed from existence? Do I not trust my servants or am I so paranoid of the possibility of some escaping?
No, it is something else, something far more animalistic... I want to do it myself.
I hum as the realization strikes me, forgetting I had company for a moment as I mutter "Damn, I have become the very murder happy lunatic I have sworn to destroy."
A peal of laughter breaks me from my thoughts and I remember I was sitting with a bloody demon, mentally slapping myself I look up at Mephala with an irritated expression "I am happy my misfortune has entertained you."
"As you should" She nods with certainty and then closes in conspiratorially "So you plan on doing it personally then? Want to feel the fools expire below your foot as you decry their lack of skill and ability?" Her questions have a seductive ring to them as she comes ever closer.
Finally, as she is but a breath away from my face she asks "What if I offered a more... entertaining alternative?"
My left eyebrow raises inquisitively and the Daedra gleefully begins its explanation.
====================
I walk out of my tent with my thoughts in a blur, Mephala's deviousness was as eye-opening as it was completely unsurprising. Still, her little game might prove to be both entertaining and enlightening.
My passive precognition warns me to stop just in time to avoid an armored Nord from bumping into me, the man notices me and stops abruptly, he seems to want to say something but is too busy panting tiredly.
I cross my arms and tap a finger on my elbow impatiently, each tap causing the man to look more ashamed as he finally manages to calm his breathing "Flame-tongue sir" He begins in a panic "There has been an incident!"
One quick explanation later I am following the man toward another cluster of Dwemer houses, my guards and a dozen other adventurers trailing behind us. A loud chittering noise alerts me to what the problem is and I start rushing toward the largest concentration of life I manage to detect.
I crash through a half-opened doorway into a large Dwemer house and am met with a swarm of chaurus feasting on a bunch of dead adventurers, one Nord woman still swinging at them wildly in an attempt to survive.
A whisper of "Arise" And another swarm joins the fray. The spiders, too small to be noticed by my compatriots in the dark, start consuming the massive insects from the inside out, leaving empty husks of chitin whenever they reach.
Soon everyone else catches up and falls upon the distracted chaurus like an avalanche, they are taken out within seconds.
I approach the woman slowly, wishing to check her for poison, only for her to swing a glass broadsword at my throat with surprising ferocity. Deciding to not waste time I simply immobilized her with telekinesis, it took me a surprising amount of Magicka, and just in case I lazily disarmed her with another twitch of my left hand.
After making sure that she was indeed not about to die of poison I kept her afloat until she finally stopped panicking. Her eyes widened comically as she finally calmed down and I slowly put her back on the ground.
"Now then" I begin ominously as she and the man who ran to warn me hug it out in relief, they both flinch and stand at attention "What exactly were you fools doing so far out of camp?" My eyes narrow and I almost growl "I gave strict orders that no one was to leave without my dispensation, what gave you the idea you could ignore my orders without consequence?"
"I-it was Tongvar... sir" The man stammers "He said we should not waste time waiting for you mages and threatened to kick us out of the group if we didn't follow..."
He isn't lying surprisingly enough... still, I have to keep appearances "How awfully convenient for you that he is too dead to deny your claims." I deadpan.
Both of them immediately began offering apologies and promising they would do better, honestly, it was painful to listen to but I had to let it play out for the audience.
After enough simpering was had I begin with a bored drawl "Well... seeing as your company has already paid quite the price for your ignorance" I lazily kick a half-eaten corpse "I will not have you return to the surface immediately" As I say this both of them let out sighs of relief "However!" I interrupt and they both stiffen "You will be on latrine duty for a month."
Both of them cringe in disgust, knowing damn well that we used my spiders for such work, yet they let out not a peep of protest.
"Good" I nod and turn to the woman "You, what is your name?" She seemed familiar and I might as well satisfy my curiosity.
She blinks and points at herself questioningly.
"No, the other woman behind you" I roll my eyes and the rest of the adventurers chuckle.
She blushes "Mjoll, sir."
Yup, knew I recognized her from somewhere "Right then Mjoll" I drawl "Do keep practicing with that blade... almost took my bloody head off and you weren't even aiming."
Her blush deepens and most of the Nords present cheer, all the while my personal guards give her death glares behind their masks.
We return to the camp and immediately get back to work digging in, the little excursion has no doubt reduced the window of time we had to prepare and I was not about to face an army of angry Falmer without proper fortifications just because some idiots got greedy.
Soon a moat filled with iron spikes surrounds the walls, and towers are built to house the spheres I reactivated. I personally took the time to erect a very tall tower in the camp's center, most adventurers giving me odd looks because of it and likely attributing it to 'the mage wanting his tower even in this bloody place'.
The odd and lightly mocking looks turned to awe as I summoned Gatecrasher atop the new tower and made sure it had full 360 degree coverage over the entire camp.
It was two days later that Phineas returned, his bones heavily battered and his robes still repairing themselves. I had to smuggle him into the camp to avoid any questions as the old necromancer was far too exhausted to even summon his usual glamor.
I promised to make him a ring to house the spell at all times in return for all the research he attained on the Falmer during the expedition, and he accepted happily.
Three days after that everyone was finally down, with only some supply runners and messengers remaining topside. Tolfdir immediately got to work strengthening the walls and their foundations as he descended, our little camp looking more and more like a massive murder fortress as more time passed.
Finally on the tenth day since I first laid my eyes on the ancient city of the Dwemer my clairvoyance informed me that we were spotted, not even an hour later the scout informed us of an approaching Falmer warband.
Instead of feeling apprehensive at yet another siege, I started feeling giddy, my staff hand was getting twitchy with all this administrative work and tinkering... sometimes I just needed to smash something apart.
As I spotted the first blind elf I couldn't help but mutter to myself "Oh boy, here I go killing again." Minthara's loud facepalm didn't deter my enthusiasm in the slightest.
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Stones for the stone throne!
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