It took my people only a couple of days to find a bunch of rumors about the Moth Priest moving about, a bit slower than I would have liked but I was running them ragged across the whole province already, and finding him wasn't an absolute priority, even if Isran would probably attempt to glare me to death again if he learned that little tidbit.
From what we learned, the old priest going by the name of Dexion intended to visit the college but as he passed by Whiterun he caught wind of a rumor about a scroll being held somewhere close to Morthal.
Naturally, the old fool ran there like a complete idiot with only two guards and has not been heard from in days if not longer. And these guys were supposed to be priests of Julianos...
Demented decision making aside, I immediately moved out, only taking Serana and Mephys with me, much to Davos' immense relief. We had no need of transportation as I could just unsummon the Daedra and both Serana and myself could fly at immense speeds so reaching Whiterun took us only a couple of hours.
We met Isran early in the morning hours, many of the men he brought going to bed after the long night shift. He was not truly surprised I got the information so quickly so he had his people ready to move out within a couple of minutes.
Naturally, we weren't about to wait for a bunch of heavily equipped Dawnguards to march their asses across the now cleared out Labyrinthian Pass, courtesy of Durrak, so after giving Isran the information and promising that we were only going there to scout things out we took to the skies once again and quickly found the poorest city in Skyrim.
And by all the gods above what a shithole it was.
The stinking marshland practically surrounded the central city while the rest spread outwards from the sickly looking wooden walls in a way that dare I say was less organized than the original Solitude Sprawl.
The center was raised atop a small hill or artificial dirt platform, I couldn't really get a good read since if it was raised by humans it happened thousands of years ago when the region was still rich in bog iron and someone made an investment to populate the place.
The houses in the center followed the usual Nordic style of architecture, no doubt meant to house the small number of wealthy or noble families living here, while the homes that were further out seemed to be standing on stilts and were all relatively small due to weight constraints.
Yet with all of this, I still found myself liking the place more than I did Riften.
Sure, Hjaalmarch was a complete shithole when compared to the Rift but at least the city did not radiate a near visible aura of poverty and destitution like Riften did.
As we approached, dressed in traveling clothes so as to not draw undue attention, I got a good look at the locals, and as I predicted from seeing some of them in Solitude they were all a bit lanky by Nord standards and even with the Nords' respectable bathing habits everyone seemed to look just a bit dirty to my sharp eyes.
The guards were armed lightly, in form fitting light armor that would not constrain them in the rough and dangerous terrain and when the situation called for it would even allow them to swim. They were all armed with freshly supplied steel tipped spears and handaxes from Solitude, both of the weapons designed for both melee and throwing.
As we stepped through the gates after making sure the guards didn't raise a fuss I head Mephys take in a deep breath and exhale with a hum "Such a dreary and uninteresting place you've brought me to."
"Oh please" I roll my eyes "You've already noticed that something is going on here."
"But of course" Mephys tuts "What do you take me for?"
"Do you really want the answer to that?" I deadpan, causing her to giggle "Why don't you go and ply your trade while I deal with the boring politics."
"Already excluding me, are we?" She raises an eyebrow, questioning me simply for the sake of doing it.
I nod firmly and retort amusedly "Of course, now go and do your job."
"How commanding" She swoons lightly "Very well, I am off, your lordship." She offers one last wink and heads toward the tavern.
"I still do not like her." Serana mutters as Mephys leaves us alone "Why does she need to be here?"
All Serana knew about Mephala's meat puppet was that she was a Dremora gifted to me by my patron that would follow all of my commands and was very adept at everything that had anything to do with being a rogue, from seduction to thievery to assassination.
"Her presence entertains my patron and an entertained Daedra is a helpful Daedra." I explain easily as we head toward the Jarl's longhouse, a structure seemingly barely above the standards of the local nobility.
Serana shifts uncomfortably "Trusting a Daedra is never a good idea."
"Trust?" I turn to her with a raised eyebrow "True, I might trust that she will act in a certain way because that is her want I will never trust her as a person. Her servant" I barely stop myself from accidentally blurting 'she' "Is bound to me far more than any other Dremora out there, it takes only the lightest twitch of my intent and she is back to the Spiral Skein."
Still visibly uncomfortable with the idea, but somewhat assured by my words Serana nods slowly "If you are certain."
"I am confident but never certain" I shrug "But that is enough of that, it would seem the locals have prepared a welcoming drama for us." As I say that I point toward a crowd gathering in front of the Jarl's longhouse armed with torches and pitchforks, a bunch of them yelling at who I guess is the hold's Steward.
"Why hasn't the Jarl done anything?!" One of the more well dressed Nords in the crowd asks "We all know that the fire was no accident, so why have the guards not investigated yet?"
The steward takes a fortifying breath before speaking "The Jarl is already investigating the fire, I need you all to return to your homes and allow us to do our jobs. This... unrest will bring us nothing."
"Threatening martial law already, eh Aslfur?" The presumed nobleman scoffs "As I expected." Before the Steward can give his answer the man waves for the crowd to follow him "Come on people, we are obviously not getting anything out of him tonight."
As the crowd disperses, many of them grumbling, the Steward lets out a tired sigh. His troubles were, however, only beginning because it was exactly at that moment that I decided to make my presence known by loudly clearing my throat.
Aslfur turned to me his eyes widening by a fraction as he recognized me even without my usual regalia "What are you doing here?" He asks before he can compose himself.
I raise an amused eyebrow but say nothing.
"Right, apologies." The tired man mumbles "Greetings, Court Mage. What brings you to Morthal?"
"I seek a Moth Priest." I tell him plainly.
"Then you are out of luck." His shoulders sag "The honorable Dexion has left the city five days ago and the scouting party we sent after him found signs of struggle an hours walk from the gates, both him and the guards were gone without a trace to follow."
My mind races briefly before I come to the obvious conclusion, the local vampire lord wannabe was in cahoots with the Volkihar and was asked to hold the priest for them.
Too bad for them I decided to butt my nose into their dealings "Then it would seem our issues are one and the same." I say after a brief pause.
The Steward looks at me with obvious confusion "What do you mean by that?"
"I would have thought you have gotten used to mages being cryptic by now." I muse.
Suddenly he looks even more tired than before "You are like her then?"
"The comparison offends me but I do not wish to waste time with the specifics" I wave his question off, much to his chagrin "How come the Jarl was not able to see something was going on?"
He looks around worriedly before whispering "Because the Jarl has been bedridden ever since this whole thing had begun. Whenever she tries to look into what is going on she gets a painful headache and she... can't quite control it."
"Of bloody course she cannot." I say dryly before muttering "Bloody untrained fools."
"So you will help us?" Aslfur asks hopefully, not even bothering to ask about my capabilities.
"I will" I nod lightly "At least then the crone might actually learn her lesson take the time to learn how to cast proper spells." It still irked me that the old woman constantly tried to instinctually cast a massively complex spell, sure she was talented in mysticism but that did not make her any less of a weakling or the side effects any less problematic.
The Steward pointedly pretends to not hear the second part of my statement and instead asks "What do you need to know?"
"The general idea of what happened for one."
The man sighs tiredly once again and begins his tale.
An honest working man by the name of Hroggar had apparently started seeing one of the... less respected women of the city by the name of Alva, and a month later his home, including his wife and daughter, was burned. Many thought it to be an accident but when Hroggar, without even mourning his loved ones, moved in with Alva and seemingly forgot them overnight people got all kinds of suspicious.
It took only one of the more opportunistic nobles to start stirring the issue up and people were already walking the streets at night, many of them armed, in some vain attempt at hunting down the culprit.
Funnily enough, no one dared enter Alva's home. Everyone was suspicious of her, yes, but no superstitious Nord was about to head into the 'bad juju land' without some very nasty weapons at his back.
Just in case I do a quick scan of the city and hold back a grimace as a widespread ward seems to attempt to latch itself onto my mind but finds both me and my spell too potent to do anything.
At least I had the general location of its origin now but I would still investigate the entire situation first. We did have to wait for the Dawnguard to get here and that would take at least a day even with the shortcut.
"I see." I say as he finishes the story "There is certainly some kind of coercion going on there at the very least, though I suspect the problem is greater than that. I will investigate the situation and see what I can do about it."
The Steward looks at me hopefully "Thank you, and please inform me if you find anything."
"Naturally" I lie smoothly and quickly leave, followed by Serana.
"You really seem to not like the Jarl." Serana speaks up as we head toward the burned house near one of the taverns.
"She likes to play at being a seer" I grumble "Rather offensive when you are a genuine seer yourself."
Serana actually giggles at this "Oh, I did not take you to be so petty."
"My natural majesty usually hides it well." I raise my nose.
We share a quiet chuckle and keep walking in pleasant silence.
"Speaking of seers" Serana begins slowly "What do you actually know about what is going on?"
I quickly relay to her all I have surmised so far, including my suspicion/knowledge of vampires in the city itself. I did not have the actual location of the main vampire's lair so finding the ones prowling the city would probably lead me to it.
I was not about to spend my days searching for a single cave in a massive swamp even if it killed me and I would murder as many vampires as I had to prove that point.
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May your house be prosperous
and your stones plentiful.
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