Dreams of Warm Sands
by: Steven Hall
Chapter 1
Fredas, 5th Suns Dusk 4E 199
My name is Alexander Octavius Scipii (pronounced (SKIPY EYE) , I am a young captain serving in the Imperial 4th legion, my father, a general in the Imperial Army died many a year ago from illness, but he instilled in me one thing above all else, honor and chivalry to the land and to the people. With the great war over and the damned elves retreating back to their isle, I have been assigned to patrol parts of southern Skyrim and Northern Cyrodiil. My company was stationed at an outpost just south of the border between the two Provinces in the Jerral Mountains, and on patrol we came across the bodies of three Argonians, a Wood Elf, an Orc, and a Khajiit with three arrows in his chest, most likely bandits. There were no foot prints leading away from the bodies. Which leads me to believe this was a failed robbery, but the difference between the bodies was clear, the Khajiit was not one of them, he was wearing armor, Iron with Nordic steel bracers and Nordic steel boots, a man of wealth by the looks of it, or perhaps a great warrior, or an even greater looter who scavenged off of the dead from the great war. What ever the case he must be carrying something of real value the dead bandits around him must have wanted awfully bad, and then I saw it, a purse of coin on the Khajiits hip, I emptied to pouch into my hand with surprise, there was at only forty or so gold pieces here, not much comparatively, more than a common folk, but not the coin purse of a wealthy man. I turned the body over and began searching his knapsack, Inside I found a journal, and began reading the last entry.
Loredas 31st Frostfall 4E 199
If you are reading this friend than I am dead, I only ask you return this book “The Whisper of the Twin Moons” to the Magistrate in Elsweyr, go to the citadel in Riverhold, and do not let this fall in the hands of any Altmer or any mer for that matter as this book shows of their lies and deceit to the Khajiit people, I know I ask a hefty burden, however friend you must do this task for me, and once you arrive in Riverhold and accomplish this task, I ask you head south to the city of Corinth and seek my Father Dro’Kesh a captain of the guard in the city, and tell him of his sons discovery and rest his mind of my fate, tell him I died like any good Khajiit could, trying to save his people.
with all sincerity friend-----V’arr Kesh
I set the journal down deciding I would keep that and read farther into it,
“Men Search these bodies” I ordered, the men under my command immediately began searching the bodies.
I reached back into the knapsack and found a book labeled the “The Whisper of the Twin moons” which I assumed was the book mentioned in the dead Khajiits journal entry, I set the book down on top of the journal, and continued my search I found a couple pieces of meat, some bread, a torch, some quills, a whetstone, some rope, and a couple of extra clothes, but that was pretty much it, nothing of real value. I turned the Khajiit back over and one of my men and I began to pull the arrows out of his chest, before we could pull the last of out one of my men shouted over to me waving a piece of paper in his hand “Captain”.
“yes soldier what have you found” I asked
“ well sir the body of this Orc had a large bag of coin about two hundred sir and this piece o paper I think you should read” he told me
I began reading the paper
“ There is a lone Khajiit traveler on his way to Elsweyr with a very important message, take this bag of gold and kill him take his things and bring them to me, I am at the Thalmor embassy in northern Skyrim near Solitude, there will be more gold for you once the job is finished, This Khajiit can never make it back to Elsweyr, for reasons you don’t need to know, all that is important is that I must get his knapsack and all its contents, good hunting-Justicator Carnak.”
Ahhh it all starts to make sense now the Aldmeri Dominion clearly doesn’t want this book to ever make it to Elsweyr, and this was no ordinary robbery this was a assassination attempt by a bunch of arms for hire and thugs. But why does the Aldmeri Dominion not want this book destroyed so badly I wondered. As I continued thinking of this topic it started snowing lightly. I pulled the last arrow from his chest, and ordered one of my men to carry his body on his horse, we will give this Khajiit a proper burial, I thought to myself, he deserves that at least.
“all right men saddle up back to the outpost” I yelled
We all climbed on our horses and backtracked our route until we could see the fires of the outpost burning through the trees.
“AYE who goes there” I heard yelled as we approached the gate, “Captain Young back from patrol” I yelled back, The gates opened up to reveal men standing around fires their tents covered with extra blankets to keep the cold out, and the sounds of lutes and drums being played in celebration of the first snowfall of the year beginning now. We rode to the stables and dismounted the horses and handed the reigns to the stable manager there. I made my way to the middle of the camp and enjoyed a nice large cup of cyrodiilic brandy where as my men drank ale and black briar mead imported from Skyrims best ale producers in Riften, we had plenty of stores of the stuff, as the men and I celebrated and the hours grew late we sang songs and played instruments and continued getting drunk like all good men should on festive evenings. Around midnight I retired to the center of camp in the log cabin built to house the commander of the outpost, while my company of forty or so men outside continued to celebrate, even the watch guard were permitted to drink on such an occasion, one of my men Lance Dantius had a son born on this exact day, so that just gave us another reason to celebrate, “To Dantius and his kin and kin to come” I heard the men roaring outside, I just smiled to myself either from he thought of such happiness or the good buzz I had going but I removed what was left of my armor and climbed into bed. By the candle light I began reading The Whisper of the Twin Moons
The book was not dated but one could tell it was old, ancient even. I opened the first page and it was written in a language I did not recognize, It looked Dwemmer, or perhaps older than them, I could not tell, so I decided that I would find someone to translate in the morning, I instead grabbed the journal I had taken from the Khajiit I opened it to the first page dated ten years ago
Morndas 5th Second Seed, 4E 181
Today is a great day I can feel it My father has given me permission to leave Corinthe and travel East into Imperial lands in search of fame and fortune, I am to accompany a caravan headed toward the Province of Skyrim, a cold desolate place I am told, but I have no say in where I go, that is up to the Caravan Master Ahkir. She decides most things, It was by her doing that I was able to go with them in the first place, and my childhood friend Kharjo will be accompanying us on the trip as a guard as well, I could not have asked for a better time or better people to leave with , I’ve known Kharjo since we were cubs, and Ahkir has been like a second mother to me at times. She says we will not just be going to Skyrim, we will travel to Highrock and even Hammerfell. Oh yes this is exciting indeed. We head out in a couple of hours so I should finnish packing my things, Armor-check, food- check, weapons-check. Thank Alkosh for giving me this opportunity. And thank my Father Dro’Kesh for allowing me such travels with his blessing, with his blade and some of his coin I will make him proud I swear it.
Tirdas, 6th Second Seed, 4E 181
We have begun our travels across the desert there are three other Khajiits from the city with us, another guard Dro’Marash, he wears nice armor, probably from a wealthy family, and two more Caravaneers, Zaynabi and J’rabaz, we are headed toward the border into cyrodiil where we will stay at the city of Leyawiin and begin peddling our wares there for a while at least. With luck we can make a profit, however I’m told that there is a lot of racial tension between our Khajiit Kinsmen and the bastard Argonian lizards from Black Marsh, I’ve also been told that we are not to start trouble and we are to keep our mouths shut, we are hired to be muscle not mouths, as Ahkir put it. But she is wise and we will listen.
Fredas 16th Second Seed 4E 181
We made it to the border of Cyrodiil today, they imperials gave us a lot of trouble crossing into their land, do they treat all guests like this or just Khajiit, V’arr Kesh does not know, they searched the whole caravan looking for Skooma, they found none, nor will they ever find some, “we do not peddle Skooma we are honest Khajiit traders looking for profit” Ahkir told them, eventually they let across the border at a 10 gold piece fee of course greedy imperials taking every chance they can get for some coin, but after the great war, I suppose they need as much coin as they can get to rebuild, Khajiit would do the same. It will be a few days now but we will soon be in Leyawiin and into the first city in the Empire, V’arr Kesh is excited.
It was 2 in the morning now, most of the men were asleep, spare the few still up on watch or the few in the encampment sitting by fires telling stories of their families and homes int he cities of Chorral or Kvatch, I was about to start on the next journal entry when I heard a large clash outside fallowed by screaming and yelling.
“We under attack” I heard one of the men yell, I jumped out of bed and started putting on my armor, the door kicked in and I drew my sword in a flash and turned toward the opening, “Captain were under atta---” one of my men were saying but they fell dead struck by an arrow in the back. I finished putting my armor on and charged outside and yelled to what was left to my men “Regroup”.
I had lost two thirds of the men already most of them didn’t get their armor on and some of them didn’t even draw their swords, they barrage of arrows ceased for a second, enough time to form a ring of the men who were left, about thirteen of us.
“Can anyone see them?” I yelled out. At that moment a arrow that had been set alight was fired into the air, fallowed by shadowy figures appearing on the ramparts and walls all around us. They had swords drawn and in a moments flash they began pouring into the camp, there must have been at least twenty or maybe thirty of them. “Stand fast men, brace for combat” I yelled out, they were closing in now only twenty feet away at most. “A little closer” I thought to myself. As one had run by a lit torch I could make out the figures, “High Elves, this far in the Empire?”, they wore black cloaks and very little armor, “their mistake” I thought. They were closing in on all sides about ten feet and charging fast. “Now” I yelled out, we broke formation and rushed out at the attackers, within a seconds we collided with our enemy, I hacked and slashed through one, then another, the enemy fell to the strokes of my blade. I fought through the swarming Elves with a intensity I’ve never had before, this was it. Life or death, and by the hands of a damned Elf, I will not fall here, not now. The skirmish continued for about two minutes, they were fast but their lack of armor made for an easy kill, but the speed they moved at was incredible, assassins most likely, a few more of my men had fallen to the enemy, but still we kept fighting we had killed about four of them for every one of us, now down to six men including myself we struck dead the last of the visible enemy. And just as I breathed a sigh of relief from the sight of no more enemies. I was just about to call for a regroup of what was left of my company when the front gate exploded. “What in Oblivion?” I thought to myself as I turned away from the explosion and flames, when I stood back up straight I could make out a lone silhouette walking in through the area the gate had previously been. “For the empire” One of my men had shouted, rallying the other into a charge. “Wait” I yelled out but either they didn’t here me or they didn’t care. My men were closing in on the lone figure when all of a sudden his hands grew a bright blue. “A mage” I thought “HOLD” I yelled out again to my men, however I was met with the same response as I had the first time never the less the kept charging on him, he swept his hands from the left to the right spraying a sort of Ice magic that froze most of the men solid, the men who weren’t frozen quickly halted and began retreating back toward me, as they did so the Mage Spewed a bright red fire from his hands that burned them alive. “Bastard” I yelled as I began to charge, I ran so fast, faster than I had ever run, he just walked toward me smashing the frozen soldiers as he passed them, I Lifted my sword high and with great force,as I threw it at him I picked up my sprint and the sword spun a couple of times before coming a few feet from him he quickly lifted his hand and stopped the sword in place. As he let the sword drop I jumped forward tackling the mage to the ground, I drew my fist back and brought it across his face, and continued to switch arms and keep up bringing them onto his head, once then twice I kept bringing my strikes on him, after about the seventh, I felt a sharp pain in my right side, I looked down to see the mage had stabbed my with a dagger. I slide off him and laid on the ground staring into the sky. He stood up and looked down on me and said three words “Where’s the book?”. I spit on him in response to his question “Go to Oblivion bastard Elf.” He grinned as Lifted the dagger into the air, I quickly reached above my head and grabbed my sword and swung it from right to left cutting one of his legs clean off. He fell to the ground screaming. I swiftly stood up and brought my sword down into his chest before he could raise his arms to perform more blasted sorcery. With the attackers defeated I cried out for any man in my company to respond to my voice if able. I was answered with silence. I looked around the camp, some of the tents were on fire arrows littered the ground as did bodies Man and Mer alike. I fell to one knee and began praying to Talos that I live to carry out the quest given me by the Khajiit anything I could do to disrupt the damned Aldmeri Dominion and their blasted Elves. I know the Khajiits of Elsweyr were no friend of man but they would have to listen. I retreated back to my cabin in the center of the burning encampment and retrieved the journal and knapsack of the dead Khajiit this V’arr Kesh. I mounted on of the horses and began my ride to Bruma the northern most city in Cyrodiil and the closest city to the encampment. I grabbed my side gritted my teeth, there is a long ride ahead of me.
Chapter 2
Fredas, 19th Suns Dusk 4E 199
As I peaked the top of the last mountain in the Jerrals, the sight of the great city of Bruma came into view, I sighed relief that my journey was near its end, I could finally rest, and continue reading the Journal and get a decent meal in me, I haven’t eaten for a couple days now, after the stores of food I had brought ran out I began eating the food from the V’arr Kesh’s knapsack and than that ran out, my stomach rumbled at the thought. I rode hard for the cities gates stopping only to reassure myself I wasn’t being fallowed, I had an eerie feeling traveling through the Jerral Mountains that I was being fallowed, The Elves wouldn’t dare come this far into the empire though I thought, So I continued my ride and when I arrived I was stopped at the gate. “Welcome to Bruma” one of the guards said as he reached up and grabbed the reins of my horse, “What is your business here?” He asked, “I require medical attention, I have wounds than need to be treated and I have important information for your count.” I replied “Slow down traveler who did you say you were again?” The guard asked “I am Captain Alexander Octavius Scipii of the Imperial 4th Legion, and I need to get into the city so move aside.” I said as I dismounted my horse and began walking toward the gate. “Yes Captain, sorry Captain, Open the Gate” he yelled, and almost immediately the giant twenty foot doors began to swing inward revealing the cold city. The first sight was its people walking about preforming basic daily tasks, I made my way toward the keep at the back of the city. As I walked through the streets I noticed a mugging in an alley way, Like I said basic daily life, two Nords were extorting a older Dunmer or Dark Elf Lady, they pushed her down and spit on her. “Give me your coin purse and you need not die” One of them said, I began making my into the alley, as I closed in on the mugging I could here them Nords saying they should just kill her and be done with it. “Hey” I yelled over to them, “what are you doing?” I asked. “Nothing of your concern Imperial” One of them scoffed, I drew back my fist and threw it into the back of one of their heads, the man immediately dropped out cold, the other turned to me and looking up at him he must have been at least six and a half feet tall, maybe I should pick my fights a little better I thought to myself, He moved toward me fists bared ready to brawl with white knuckles, gods his hands were big, I kept thinking. I simply backed up a little and drew my sword and pointed the tip of the blade at his throat, “make a move friend, I implore you” I said to him, He just locked his gaze at my eyes, I’ve seen your face imperial “you will regret this” he growled. He picked his friend up and began to exit the alley, I turned to the Dunmer on the ground “You alright?” I asked as I lent my hand down toward her. She just looked at me and almost cried “Thank Azura you came, they would have killed me in an instant, and all for the coin in my purse”. I helped her up “What is your name Dunmer?” I asked, “Shanak” she replied, “alright Shanak take this and go back to Morrowind” I said as I gave her all the coin I had on me. “Thank you sir, thank you” she gleefully replied “I will do that”.
I continued my walk to the cities keep at the back of the city, I opened the doors to the castle and walked in, I strode up to the throne where the new countess of Bruma sat, she was a beautiful Nordic woman, she had blonde hair that was put up and she wore nice clothing defiantly expensive. Before I could reach her a guard stopped me with his hand “What is your business?” He asked, “My business is with the Countess” I replied “And I Intent to speak with her now let me through” I said trying to push my way past him. He pushed me back and put his hand on the hilt of his sword. “ I think you misunderstood Imperial, What is your business with the countess, Tell me or leave.” He growled angrily. “I am Captain Alexander Octavius Scipii, son of General Hadrian Scipii, and you will let me pass and share my business with the countess or spend the rest of your existence in the prison of your own city” I stated in a very intimidating tone. He moved aside and I approached the Countess. I knelt before her “Countess Ingrid Sevarious, I come to you bearing important news from the encampment between Falkreath and Here. Where part of the forth legion was stationed.” She looked down to me and told me to rise, I stood up then she spoke “Was stationed?, Captain was there an order to move out of that encampment?” she asked “No my lady we were attacked two weeks ago by high elves, a small army of them killed my company and destroyed the encampment, I must relay this information to the emperor.” I told her “And where is this small army now?” She questioned “Dead my lady we killed them until there were no more, I was the only survivor.” “Interesting” she said to me “we will send a small guard to the outpost to support your claims” she wavered. “But countess this is not a claim, it’s the truth, the Elves have committed and act of war
