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Apotheosis II	By : OneMoreAltmer Category: +A through F > Elder Scrolls - Oblivion Views: 3007 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I didn't create and do not own Elder Scrolls: Oblivion or its characters (except for Tavi, within game format). I make no moneys.

Chapter List
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Nine � A Purpose to
Serve

The first note filled me with glee.
Go to Leafrot Cave, east of Bravil.� There you will find a necromancer in the
process of trying to transform himself into a lich.� Celedaen has not finished the process, but he
will still be quite powerful.� I am
compelled to advise you to caution despite your experience.� Help yourself to his books, though:� perhaps they will be of interest to you.
When he is destroyed,
you will find your payment and next orders among the roots of the Great Oak in
Chorrol.� May our Dread Father keep you
in his cold embrace. � LL
A necromancer.� A necromancer hiding in a cave.� I would be able to use my neglected
destructive powers, even my unique spells, and act openly:� no one would question my reasons for killing
a necromancer!� I rode out with a song in
my heart.
There was a peculiar comfort in stealing down into the
cavern where Celedaen was hiding, a delight in finding that he had summoned
undead things to his defense.� I mowed
them down with joyous abandon.� And
Celedaen himself � yes, a glance confirmed my thought from his name, a self-important Altmer � fell more easily
than many of his kind, a slight disappointment but no less satisfying to my
sense of righteousness.
And that, perhaps, was a mistake on Lucien�s part.� As a short-term way of cheering me, it was an
astounding success:� but the ashes of the
part of me that had been Tavi seemed to stir, and to ask me in whispers what
had become of my dignity and my purpose.
There was no help in that, of course.� Even if I could have found some new purpose
outside of the Brotherhood, I had already killed a great many people in its
service, and the oath in any case was not revocable.� And my whole purpose had been to destroy Tavi
and then Methusiele, so her reawakening was not desirable.� I choked her back into silence as best I
could as I rode to Chorrol.
The next assignment was not as pleasing:
Well done.� Your next contract requires you to eliminate
the entire Draconis family, including Perennia and all four of her grown
children: Matthias, Andreas, Sibylla, and Caelia.� Only the mother�s whereabouts are known � she
is on the Applewatch farm west of Bruma.�
I suggest you get her to reveal the locations of the children before you
kill her.
Your next contract
will be waiting in the well in the courtyard at Skingrad.� Go with our Mother�s blessing. � LL
I wondered whose contract this had originally been.� Gogron�s, maybe � a whole
family.� On the other hand,
information gathering sounded more subtle than would have suited him.
Happily, �west of Bruma� was not the same thing as Bruma
proper:� it was not near enough to cause
any unpleasant grumblings from Tavi.� The
old Draconis woman lived on a remote farm alone with her dog, and there was no
other dwelling around for miles.� Good,
that would save some effort.
She greeted me warmly and approached as if she�d expected
me.� Started babbling about the service she�d
ordered, and the list, which she
pulled out of a pocket on her apron.� I
scanned it and had to stifle the chuckle.�
It was a list telling exactly where each of the children were, and what kinds of presents they would like.� She was expecting me to shop and deliver
packages for her.
Of course, that meant that there might well be someone else
coming soon, so I decided to work quickly.�
I stabbed her, and also had to stab the dog because it defended
her.� That felt a little odd, so I
distracted myself by riding off a short distance and returning my attention to
the list.
Two of the four children were in Leyawiin.� I�d started to associate that city with
trouble as well as rain:� I felt that my
works there had a tendency to go wrong.�
I would have to be careful.� One
was a crazy woman living in a cave back near Cheydinhal � she wasn�t a cultist
or a necromancer, it didn�t sound like, just a recluse.�
The last was in the Imperial City.� Damn.�
I decided to do that one first and have it out of the way.� And in Talos Plaza,
too.� The
western side of the city, the more problematic side.� Wonderful.
Once there, I spent a bit of time in Talos Plaza,
locating the house and noting its points of entry.� I went to the Foaming Flask to eat, and as I
went inside, a rough Argonian voice called out my old name with
enthusiasm.� Jeelius, the priest I had
rescued from the Mythic Dawn when I�d gotten the Mysterium Xarxes.� So long ago.� He
offered to buy me lunch, and I accepted.
He didn�t ask what I had been doing since I�d seen him
last:� that was a matter of public
record, at least the parts I wanted anyone to know.� He had been working at the Temple of the One, which was flourishing in a
city with newfound religious fervor.� It
was becoming something of a place of pilgrimage.
�Why don�t you come to a service while you�re in town?� he
asked.
I slammed down my drink and frowned at him.� �Surely you understand that I can�t.� I can�t go to the place where � �� I stopped myself
short, and dropped my eyes.� �At any
rate, I am not on speaking terms with Auri-El.�
He placed a hand over mine.�
�I do understand.� You are always
in our prayers.�
The city was starting to work its dreadful magic on me, and
for just a moment it was so easy to imagine Martin�s hand, and how his eyes
flashed and his voice trembled when he was desperate enough to be angry.� You�re
drowning!� If you would once allow someone to help you �
Then what?� I dared
the ghost of my memory to finish the thought, furious.� Then what would happen?� Could Jeelius bring people back from the
dead?� Could he make Lucien let me
go?� Could he erase an oath to
Sithis?� Could he rework the very fabric
of my soul?
No?� Then there was no
help that he could give me.
Curse this city.
I pulled my hand away and rose to my feet.� �Forgive me, Jeelius.� I have business to which I must attend.�� Then I left the concerned Argonian behind me.
I killed Matthias in his sleep that night and fled the place
I had come to hate, making my way toward Leyawiin.
It was raining.
Andreas ran a little inn outside of town.� No one seemed to be there except for an
officer of the Imperial Legion.� Andreas
himself was a bit of a drunk, and brief interaction revealed him to be a
volatile one.� I insulted his manhood and
he grew belligerent, drawing the soldier�s attention.� I leaned in and whispered that I�d seen his
mother die and he flew at me in pure rage.�
I blocked his attacks without returning them, and the soldier dutifully
stepped in and killed the man for me.
Caelia was going to be more of a problem:� she was actually captain of the city
guard.� Wait� no.� That was going to be perfect.� I approached when she was not particularly
close to any of her fellows, whispered to her
that I�d killed Adamus and had come to kill her, and fled to the Mages Guild,
where my guild mates were horrified at her assault and defended me.� She was no match for half a dozen mages.� They shook their heads and said they�d always
suspected the city guard was out to get me, and that they would make sure to
tell anyone who asked how it had really happened.� Even Dagail remained scrupulously silent.
Sibylla was hardly worth mentioning.� She was so feral that wild beasts lived in
the caves along with her and paid her no attention.� I killed the lot, and brought the animal
skins back to sell in town.
I didn�t like going to Skingrad, and particularly didn�t
like going close to the castle, because Hassildor always made me nervous, but I
went and retrieved my next orders.
Your next target is a
Khajiit noble named J�Ghasta:� his home
is in Bruma.� He turned down a marriage
proposal for insufficient dowry, and the girl�s family has procured our
services.� J�Ghasta is very skilled in
unarmed combat, and has also bribed the local guards not to interfere in his
fights.� Be cautious.� The next contract will be under the Old Bridge
south of the Imperial
City. � LL
He had never bothered to explain the reason for a contract
before:� I wondered what made this one
special.� Well � there had been the one
early on that Vicente had told me was a pederast, but that might have been
something he�d invented for my benefit.� The
marked reference to guard interference made me suspect that Lucien was keeping
track of the other contracts after all, which made me feel a bit less
neglected.� On the other hand, he still
stubbornly refused to acknowledge my special repulsion for Bruma.� At least I would not have to go into the Imperial City proper for my next assignment.
J�Ghasta lived just down the street from Tavi�s memorial
house, past the Tap and Tack.� I found
him in his basement, practicing his hand to hand fighting skills against
bags.� I had decided not to use spells
against him in a city whose Mages Guild had not yet recovered from other
wounds, but the sword kept him at a comfortable distance just as well.
The next note flattered me a little:� You are
a useful tool indeed.� Let�s see if you
can continue to impress me.� Now I
was to hunt down a mass murderer, an Argonian named Shaleez, in the Flooded
Mine near Bravil.� A virtuous kill, then,
if rather ironic:� and also refreshingly
straightforward, since against a criminal within a mine, I was free again to
use my destructive talents.� They felt
better every time I used them.
The contract after that, however, was against another
destructive mage, so I would have to be more subtle.� Alval Uvani, this one, and the issue was a
bad marriage.� Why Lucien continued to
furnish the excuses for the kills I didn�t know, since Vicente and Ocheeva had
long since given it up.� Perhaps he
wanted to be particularly careful of me since the Purification.� Alval was Dunmer, and had a severe allergy to
honey.� I found him in Bravil, invited
him to drink with me, and �accidentally� ordered us mead instead of ale.�
The drop after Alval was back in the accursed Imperial City, in the Market District.� I took the bridge from Weye and circled
clockwise, as always, avoiding the district that caused me most offense.� The atmosphere had returned to what it had
been before the talk with Jeelius:� sad,
watchful silence.� I was grateful for
small favors.
Now Lucien was �only too eager to indulge my homicidal
instincts,� which amused mildly.� On Gnoll Mountain,
east of Bruma � Bruma again! � was Havilstein Hoar-Blood, who had killed a Nord
chieftain.
�Odd.� The usual Nord
custom among their own was to demand payment in
restitution, not blood.� But the sister
of the victim wanted this man dead.� It
was not my place to question the order.�
Again I was dealing with a criminal out in the wilderness, and could
prevail on my older skills without fear of notice.� I chose fire, out in such cold.
The next drop was to be back near Cheydinhal, in
Nornal.� An Ayleid ruin!� Such grand indulgence!� And the note was peculiarly full of
enthusiasm:� My compliments on another job well done!� You must not stop!� You must kill again!� Ungolim, a Bosmeri archer in Bravil, was
enamored of another man�s wife, and the jealous husband had ordered the
contract.� I was to find Ungolim on his
nightly visit to the statue called the Lucky Lady, to which he had been praying
for the affections of his intended.� I
was advised again to be cautious, as he was an archer of great skill.� And like J�Ghasta, he had an understanding
with the city guard not to interfere in his fights.
This required some thought.�
Was it necessary to cover my tracks in Bravil?� It was not a very civilized place.� Then again, if my hand was seen in his death,
his desire for a married woman was not going to be seen as much reason for the
Arch-Mage�s involvement.� Would rumor of
my violence spread past Bravil, or would such a rough people simply look the
other way?
I need not have thought too much about it.� I arrived in Bravil after dark and decided to
watch him at the statue while I made my decision.� Ungolim was there � already alert, and aware
of how to spot someone under a chameleon spell.�
He fired on me immediately.
Startled, I fell back on old instinct, throwing fire back at
him.� Happily the street was empty, so
even though my aim had worsened from lack of use, I hurt no innocents.

He had a well-trained eye:� he followed
the trail of my fireballs back to where I was, and two of his arrows found me
before I got the better of him.� I fell
back between the nearby houses, cursing under my breath as I pulled the arrows
and healed my injuries.� I hated it when
they surprised me like that.
An arm I did not see grabbed me around the middle, and
Lucien�s voice hissed into my ear.� �With me.�� Without
another word he dragged me to a door in the building I�d leaned against, opened
the door, flung me inside, closed us in together.� He plucked the ring from my finger before
letting me go and becoming visible himself.
His face was full of fury, and he immediately grabbed me
again and threw me against the wall with all his strength, then leapt onto me,
his forearm pressing into my throat.
�What have you done?�
I�d completed my contract.�
Like I was supposed to.� I couldn�t say it because of the pressure
against my throat.
�The Listener!� he
whispered, with an intensity worse than shouting.� �Have you gone mad?� You have violated every � every Tenet � of � �� He looked at the shock on my face, and his
expression grew less wild, then bewildered.�
�You don�t know.� You don�t
understand what I�m saying.�� He drew
back his arm a bit so that he was still holding but not choking me.
�What are you
saying?� I snapped.� �I�ve done nothing
but what you told me to do!�
He was indignant.�
�You think I told you to kill
Ungolim?�
I pulled out the drop note and showed it to him.� He snatched it from my hand and read it, and
then fell back a step, pulled a hand across his face, and sighed bitterly.
�I see.� It�s not my
doing but no less my fault.� I should
have made sure you learned about forgery.��
He handed it back to me with a desolate look.� �It is not in my hand.�� He stepped away and started pacing.
I could not have heard that right.
�You have just killed the Listener,� he said.� �You have been killing off the members of the
Black Hand.� Curse the day I gave you
Shadowmere!� I would have beaten you
here.�
�How�how many?�
�This was the fifth.�
Before Ungolim you felled three Speakers and a Silencer.�� He continued to pace and to pull at his face
and hair in frustration, and now he laughed a little.� �They can�t stand against you.� You�re too resourceful, too powerful.� And you were my idea.�
I was mortified.� �But
they can�t think that we � �
�They do not think that we
did anything.� They still think that you are only following orders.� You were not here when this began.� But I
was.� And then I recruited someone capable of doing this to the Black Hand.� They blame me.�� He stopped, overtaken
by his anger.� �Why would I try to destroy the Brotherhood?� It is all I know!�
A peculiar line of thought came to me.� Destroying the Brotherhood.� Well, now, after all, it was Lucien who had
first set me against my own.� I had only
inadvertently carried on with the cleansing, gone on killing the killers.
Ought I really to stop?�
Or could I flatter myself that I had not fallen quite as far as I�d thought, that this was even the purpose for which I had
pretended falling?� Could I pretend that
I was still a Blade after all, a spy infiltrating and burning one more evil
nest?
I couldn�t, quite.� In
a corner of my heart Tavi sang it with an air of triumph, but I remained too
much Methusiele to believe her.� I was
more capable of shame that I had been so easily tricked into violating the
Tenets, the only law I had left.� All
that remained to me now was anarchy.
No, there was still one step between me and that end.� I could be faithful to my own Speaker, to the
man who had kept me alive by keeping his teeth dug into my flesh.
�What can we do, Lucien?� I asked quietly.
He took a deep breath to bring himself back under
control.� �Where does it tell you to pick
up the next assignment?�
�Anvil.�
�You must go.� You
must find out where these orders are coming from, and bring the evidence to
me.� I will wait for you at
Applewatch.� That was your last real
contract, and perhaps it is remote enough to be safe.�
Remote enough to be safe � yes, because
the tattered remnants of the Hand would be looking for him.� That was alarming.� �What� what will you do if they find you
before I do?�
He smirked.� �I will
attempt to reason with them.� I will
attempt to delay them until you arrive.�
�And if that doesn�t work?�
�Then you will find me dead.�� He waved off my look of horror.� �I will not violate the Tenets,
Methusiele.� Not even to save my own
life.� I told you, it is all I know.�
I didn�t understand him.�
I had never understood him.� I put
a hand to his face, perplexed.� He raised
his own hand to keep mine there and then kissed me deeply.� As I responded, he grabbed me to him tightly,
the kiss growing desperate.� Abruptly he
pulled his face back from me and caught his breath.� �Further from the door,� he whispered.
Before I could comment, he grabbed me by the hand and led me
upstairs, where we found a bedroom.�
�Stay quiet,� he urged as his hands sought out the fastenings for my
robe.� �We must hear it if someone tries
the door.�
�If they�re that close behind you, you
should go.�
�I will.� After.�� Another fervent kiss as he pulled my robe
down from my shoulders.� He started
opening my shirt, and I reached up for his hood.� He sighed and licked at my lips as it fell
away.� We stripped each other between mad
kisses until we were both naked:� then he
threw me to the bed and climbed on top of me immediately, renewing the kiss
again.� His hands pressed demandingly as
they sped up and down my body:� I stifled
a moan as his head dropped to let him suck at my nipples and pull at them with
his teeth.� He grabbed at one of my
thighs and brought it up beside him as he moved into place to take me.�
His breath had grown loud and jagged, and he smothered his
own noise in the side of my neck as he thrust into me.� He pumped hard and fast from the moment he
entered, pulling my leg up as high as it would go for the angle he wanted.� He reached down to tug insistently at the
other leg, and I brought it up as well, whimpering as quietly as I could manage
and digging my fingers into his back.� He
growled in satisfaction and looked briefly into my eyes, dark fire in his.� He started to kiss me again without closing
his eyes, stifling his own gasps as well as mine.� He went harder still, clawing at my haunches
as if trying to pry me even further open, as if he
intended to get as deep inside me as I was within myself.
He hissed and his eyes went wild as he came, the spasm
through his body making him dig his fingers into my flesh.� He went still for a moment, twitched again
and gasped, then slowly relaxed over me, his head resting on my shoulder.� We lay there for just a moment, and I
listened to his breath slow back to normal as he slowly ran his hands over
me.� As soon as he was calm, he rose and
started to pick up our clothes.
�Go at once,� he said.�
�Do not wait until you think of your excuse.� Think of it on the way there.� I will be at Applewatch.�
I accepted the pieces of clothing he tossed to me and
started to put them on.� �Do you want
Shadowmere back?�
�No.� I am going to
one place and staying there.� You are
gathering vital information and bringing it to me:� you will have more need to be quick.� Keep her.�
Now � now listen.�� He stopped,
still shirtless, and faced me for a moment.�
�You were tricked, and this is not your fault.� Whoever fooled you has fooled everyone in the
Black Hand.� If you do not find them in
time to save me� then that is still not your fault.� But find them, and avenge me and the rest of
your Brothers and Sisters.� And then
accept no further blame for us.� Do you
understand?�� That is my order.�
I had never hoped to hear another noble whatever happens now speech.� This was not one to break my heart, but I
tasted gall.� �I understand.�
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Apotheosis II