Chapter Two
It had been the fourth skirmish of the day. The few remaining trained longbowmen of the Sixth and Seventh Legions loosed arrow after arrow at the backs of...
The dawn came slower than expected, golden rays crawling over the horizon like vines over a fence, slowly climbing over the city walls and lighting the city with a faint golden glow.
Sticker hadn’t even noticed it at first, only realising that the darkness was retrea...
Chapter 21
The New Year’s Festival had come and gone more quickly than Takarro cared to admit. Day by day, shinobi were leaving Tsukikage in droves on a fresh wave of ass...
Interlude
Excerpts from record four hundred twelve through four hundred forty-eight, Operative 4-146-4 Torako
412:
I had originally intended to reserve any fu...
Chapter 20
As it turned out, Francesco knew frustratingly little. Galathil prodded him with questions every day on the path back to the Imperial City, both while they rode and ...
Chapter 19
Kelp yanked his spear from the Telvanni mage and leant to the side to avoid a green paralysis bolt. He pressed forward mechanically, methodically, before absorbing a...
Chapter 18
The Dunmer called it Elred Bal. It was one of the tallest mountains along the slope of the Lindraths, formed out of an enormous mass of shifted rock from a gash of t...
Shitshitshitshit! Sticker cursed as he peeled off the elven assassin and rushed through the shadows into the tunnels below the slums. He was right on the slavers’ heels. There were four of them - not as many as he’d feared, but even one would be enough to cause proble...
Even the best laid plans could fall apart due to unforeseen complications, and his mission had already been a gamble from the start.
Still, it had been a reasonable gamble - although over half of the bidders were nobles and stand-ins for nobles, none owned quite the capi...
Silence. It is said that true silence is unobtainable - it is a utopian notion of freedom, an escape from the oppressive clutches of the world’s song that only the deaf can know. Silence is stillness, it is the death of motion, and everything is constantly i...
A number of Nedic tribes have been recorded using the rose as a symbol and literary device connoting transient beauty. It is more than likely that it is because these tribes did not know how to care for flowers properly, leading to a short lifespan of months - often weeks - eve...
A curious form of art found detailed in Aldmer historical documents involves using magic to stretch out the death of a rose over as long a period of time as possible. It is recorded that several masters once made a red rose wilt over a century, and even the smallest change in t...
Together with honey, molasses, agave nectar and concentrated yacon syrup, rose extract forms the backbone of a High Rock joke dish known as the 'Bowl of Sweet Disgust'. Having sampled the dish once while on a mission in Evermore, I can assure the...
Thanks to the efforts of alchemists and mages across Nirn, roses are one of the singularly most diverse flowers when it comes to colour. In addition to natural red, yellow, orange, pink and white roses, there have also been roses selectively bred...
Information compiled over the ages seems to suggest that the Sanguine Rose - the fabled artifact of the Daedric Prince of Debauchery - is actually a common organism found in one of the Prince's Myraid Realms.
&n...
An analysis of Dwemeri historical texts seems to indicate that, at some point during the early First Era, sailors aboard Dwemer dreadnoughs were issued extract of rose in order to prevent scurvy. It is unclear why this was done at all, as there a...
The Imperial Battlemage Zurin Arctus has reportedly taken down an entire fortress in minutes by explosively accelerating the growth of a climbing rose sprouting from a crack in the castle wall.
&...
Despite the relative difficulty in cultivating roses in desert regions, roses have become a popular ingredient in both Hammerfell and Elsweyr cuisine.
...
Magical influences have been known to affect the growth patterns of wildlife. Roses are particularly susceptible, forming fantastical spirals and circles in areas with exceptionally strong confluences of Magicka.
...
While roses already take a central significance among Bretons due to High Rock's emphasis on culture and elegance, the flowers occupy an almost religious position in Wayrest, being the symbol of the Knights of the Rose, the official military forc...
A surprising amount of Shadeclaws have made use of roses as assassination tools. Fourth Grandmaster Satsujin has a confirmed kill count of thirty-seven kills using the thorns on rose stems.
*Footnote: Of course, this is the Fourth we are...
Roses flowers do not survive long after being separated from the main bush. Expect a blossoming rose to last a maximum of one week after being cut... without additional processing. Certain Altmeri tec...
The art of rose-breeding is believed to have originated in High Rock, pioneered by Ayleid wizards experimenting with plant reproductive morphology and popularised by Breton slaves.
...
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
(very) ADULT CONTENT!
The rose is an extremely pretty flower, fragrant of scent, vibrant of colour, but also prickly beyond compare.
Any man coveting the rosebu...
You are a candle
Of flickering flame
And I the moth your fire singed
You are a snake
Of slithering lust
Your wet coils on my flesh
So tightly wrapped
You are a bride
Of velvety midnight
&...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The original version of this short story was written quite a while ago during last year's AMOSS. a time when I was not nearly as familiar with the site's text editor, and did not come out the way I wanted it to. The images were too poorly integrated and what I tried to do with paragra...
Chapter 6
‘Yamayubi!’ Harrow shouted, his voice tinged with frustration as he brought his hand down in a smiting motion. The dummy in front of him remained standing...
*NOTE: This is a very early concept of mine. Readers of R.T.H.L. might already know that I devote a fair amount of my attention to cuisine when writing. I have always been quite interested in the various forms of food found in the land of Tamriel, from the more orthodox ones derived from mainstream ...
Chapter 33
‘Your form is much better,’ Takarro said, weaving backwards and hopping up with his legs drawn in as Ambarro swung his father’s bo in one high swee...
Chapter 27
Lencius felt uncomfortably out of place in the Dominion’s side of the camp. Here, the Empire’s red and gold standards switched into that sickly, greenish...
Chapter 26
Lencius drew his bow back, adjusting for wind speed, gravity, and the movement of the target while holding his breath. He released it along with the bowstring. The h...
Chapter 25
The first thing Harrow asked for after he woke was a selection of books from the library. The healers had been all too happy to oblige, if only to ke...
Chapter 21
‘I am never complaining about constipation ever again,’ Ambarro groaned, making bubbles with his mouth as he slid down into the onsen. The hot water soot...
Chapter 20
‘I thought all we had to do was drink the damn potions,’ Ambarro complained. ‘Why do we have to sit through a lecture, of all things?’
 ...
Chapter 19
‘This place reeks,’ Ambarro coughed, waving his hands in front of his face. His boots squished on something and his face contorted in disgust.
&n...
Chapter 15
Ambarro wandered aimlessly around the market square. The Imperial City guards had managed to put out the fire after a couple of mages were summoned...
Chapter 14
The Imperial in the coat – Ambarro had taken to calling him Coattails in his head – was in quite the hurry. He almost lost him a couple o...
Chapter 11
Ambarro seemed to get more and more excited the further they got from Tsukikage. He was positively quivering by the time the sky began to dim. H...
Chapter 9
Ambarro grunted as he threw the fireball flaming in his hand. The small ward around the training dummy flickered as it deflected the magic. The now ten-y...
Chapter 7
The great moonstone gates of Tsukikage never creaked. Spells woven into the hinges kept them smooth and ready to swing open in a second.
&nbs...
Chapter 4
The halls of the Tsukikage Hospice were silent. Arngrimur paced back and forth outside one of the only rooms alight, chewing on his lower lip.
...
Chapter 1
The wolves of Skyrim were fierce predators that hunted both alone and in packs, capable of bringing down even the largest of mammoths. In times of harsh winter, however, when food ...