Chapter I: The Unbindening
The first thing she felt was the sound of a cart moving down an uneven road, the hooves of the horse pulling it following soon after. The next was the smell, the sweet smell of mountain spring, 'the smell of home' a large part of her almost leaped for joy.
Realizing that she was awake, her eyes snapped open rushing to absorb the sight before she was otherwise distracted. But, as always, the world had other ideas as she swiftly realized she had gone to sleep in her armor and her neck was now incredibly sore from leaning onto the enchanted steel plate.
Her sudden groan of discomfort must have drawn some attention for it took only a moment for a male voice to address her from her side "Hey you, you are finally awake!" A brown-haired Nord of a stocky build wearing light legion armor adapted to Skyrim's climate greeted her with a smile as he waved his hand in front of her face.
She made a sound that vaguely resembled "Yesh."
The young man chuckled in amusement "You were lucky your companion had proper documentation when you were found camping at the border, we had just caught a large rebel raiding party and found you nearby." He pauses and looks away with a wince "Would not have liked what happened otherwise."
Her eyes snapped open fully as she shifted into a more comfortable position "How by all the gods did I sleep through all that?!"
Before the soldier can answer the amused laughter of her fellow adventurer draws her attention "Come now, you know it takes a giant swinging its club to wake you." The Altmer shakes his head at the memory invoked by his words.
A distant noise draws her attention "Who is that?" She asks a moment later while pointing at the cart behind them where a young Nord of noble grooming was attempting to rouse his fellow prisoners into action. His words sounded more like rehearsed preaching than anything else so they didn't have much effect... The heavily armed guards probably did not help him in making his point either.
The Altmer shrugs lackadaisically "Some naive kid, probably. Damn idiot is practically asking them to commit suicide by annoyed legionaries."
"Ah, one of those." She nodded, a slight feeling of disdain welling up within her unbidden.
"Let us hope they are smart enough not to listen." Her friend hums and returns to reading a ballad of some sort, one of the many he took from their temporary home in Cyrodiil.
Taking the hint she leaves her friend to his musing and turns back to the soldier "Where are we?"
"On the road to Helgen." He answered after only a brief hesitation "The prisoners need to be transferred to the dungeons and your other friend said you needed to refill supplies."
"I see..." She trailed off momentarily, creating a mental picture of their position like she was taught "That is probably wise." She concluded.
The mention of her other companion caused her mixed feelings. On the one side, she was a highly trained soldier assigned solely to ensure her protection and was almost fanatically loyal from the moment she was informed of her true name. One the other, the skillfully hidden devotion behind those cold eyes was growing more unnerving by the day.
She once more cursed the Mer that thrust her toward her destiny without one moment to ask if she even wanted it. She did, of course, but it was the principle of the matter.
"I am sorry?" She looked up and apologized to the amused soldier for ignoring him.
"Don't sweat it, I hear your journey has been quite long." The legionary waves the whole thing off "I wanted to inform you that we are-"
"ATTENTION YOU MAGGOTS!" A loud call makes all the legionaries surrounding the column of carts straighten up, even the drivers seem to stand at attention from their seats. An Orsimer wearing personalized heavy imperial armor walks by their cart as he speaks "Helgen is just over that hill and I've just been informed that we will be visited by the General himself. I want the formation in perfect order, not a hair out of place. Is that understood?"
A mostly affirmative murmuring greets him in response.
"I SAID" The orc bellows "IS THAT UNDERSTOOD!?"
"YES QUAESTOR!" The legionaries chorus, drowning out the insults being thrown at their officer by the furious rebels.
A silent moment passes before the amused voice of her friend is heard once more "Well now, he has certainly changed."
"You recognize him, Marco?" She asks in surprise.
"You don't?" He raises an eyebrow "That is Zarok, late of the Sprawl Freemen."
"Indeed." A clear female voice startles everyone on the cart as a lightly armored Imperial practically materializes in the sat opposite her "The Quaestor has proven his ability both in battle and as a commander multiple times since he enlisted. The High King himself honored him with a rather quick promotion after his actions at the battle of Helgen Pass." The agent's voice flows with perfect neutrality, not betraying a single emotion as she spoke as if she was discussing the weather.
"What Junes, did you just happen to check on his files before we accidentally ran into his unit?" Marco snarks amusedly.
'Junes' or Junia momentarily failed to suppress the twitch of her eye at the prodding, it lasted only for the briefest moment but Marco still took it as a win and smirked triumphantly.
Accepting that she would have to deal with the smug elf for a while Junia simply answered the question "I have read up on every Decanus and above stationed in the south of Skyrim before we crossed the border."
"I did not see you carry a library with you." Marco points out.
Junia merely smiled at that "We have our ways."
Before the two could start squabbling any further, she spoke "Where have you been Junia?"
The Penitus Occulatus agent inclined her head "Just scouting the cohort and ensuring we were not under any threat, my lady."
"You know, you could actually try and be subtle about this." Marco deadpans.
Surprisingly, it is the legionary who answers him "We know not to meddle with things so far above our paygrade."
"Aye, lad." The cart driver snorts "Selectively deaf, the lot of us are."
A brief silence descends upon the cart, and it takes her only a moment to realize her rudeness. She looks at the soldier "Apologies for my rudeness, I spoke to you without even introducing myself."
He chuckles and raises a hand to forestall her, earning himself a quick frown from Junia in the process "It is fine, you just woke up. Name's Hadvar."
"My thanks for your patience Hadvar." She smiles "Minthara is my name."
"Just Minthara?" Hadvar asks with a fair bit of growing amusement.
For a moment she finds herself confused at the reaction, only to be broken out of it by Marco laughing his ass off "Oh come on, you are a bloody dragonslayer." He shakes her head "There is not a Nord worth his mead that does not know your name."
Minthara, suddenly taken aback by this, could only react one way even with all the training she received back in Cyrodiil. She lowered her head and attempted to disappear in her corner of the cart, failing miserably.
Warm laughter erupts across the cart, even Junia joining in briefly.
But it lasts only briefly, for mere moments later the driver spoke "We are here."
---
Their approach was silent as the fortified town came into view, looking completely different from its state when they first left Skyrim.
The basic stone wall and crumbling towers were replaced with what looked to be a completely new layer of greater quality stone surrounding it all, the walls were thicker, the towers sturdier, and she could even spy scorpions mounted atop them.
A vast camp of the Imperial Legion surrounded the city from the west, incidentally also the direction from which they were approaching, so she got the perfect view of well over a thousand hardened warriors forming up within seconds, leaving their pastimes and tents with the efficiency of a well-oiled automaton.
Soon they were passing through the gates, catching just out of the corner of their eyes the sight of General Tullius furiously yelling at a frowning Thalmor robed woman who was quoting some kind of jurisdiction she supposedly held over the prisoners.
"Think you can take her out if she starts being a problem?" Minthara quietly asks Junia after she made sure no one else could hear her.
The agents gives her an amused look "A good line of thought, but no." She sighs dramatically "I am unable to kill the Altmer Ambassador at this time."
Realizing her mistake at not recognizing the Altmer, Mithara winces "Oh."
"Quite." Junia smiles, she was not assigned to her as a mere bodyguard but as a part time trainer in the matters of intrigue as well, and to her growing frustration the agent took her job very seriously.
They remained silent all the way until the carts were parked in the town's center, the officer with the list of prisoners not even looking up from her ledger and pointing to her right "The General wishes to see you, move along."
Hadvars offered a quick farewell before he fell in next to the Centurion and took over the list, questioning the prisoners about their origins and names, almost getting into a fight with a blonde man who was supposedly from the same village as him.
'Fucking Ulfric.' The thoughts came to Minthara unbidden, not that she disagreed.
Her attention was drawn back to the front as Junia offered the man in front of her a crisp salute "General." She greeted, genuinely respectful to the man.
"Operative." Tullius nodded and turned to her "Dragonbane." And added another quick greeting "Viarmo's kid."
"Nephew, actually." Marco smirked, minorly irritating the Imperial man.
The General, ignoring the Altmer's prodding, looked to Junia "We have been warned of your potential coming, what assistance do you need?"
Before Junia could answer shouting made them all look to the prisoners, the same young noble from the cart giving his last attempt at rousing his defeated comrades and probably the townsfolk "See this! They would execute us all so that we may not spread the truth of their corruption! For all their 'justice' and 'fairness' they do not even offer a trial!"
The General cleared his throat, his commanding presence stopping even the rebel in his tracks "Thank you." Tullius offered mildly as everyone quieted down and spoke in a tone with which one might address a toddler "Now, child." The noble winces at the term "Why exactly do you think you are about to be executed?"
A bit confused, the young man points at the headman's block in the center of the square "It's why you brought us here, no?"
"Every town has a headsman's block." Tullius deadpans, completely unamused.
"I... err..." The Nord sputters, his face growing red "What?" He finally asks.
Tullius takes a fortifying breath and slowly asks "Did you and your unit commit any rape, pillaging, or any other punishable war crime that we failed to discover?"
He reels back as if struck "What?! Of course we didn't!"
"Which is why you get to languish in the dungeons instead of being beheaded." Tullius explains patiently.
Seemingly lost as to what to say to the General, the young man looks around and notices her "You, you are Dragonbane are you not?"
Hiding her embarrassment to much greater effect this time as it was overwhelmed by her annoyance at being singled out, Minthara raises an eyebrow "Yes?"
"Why do you stand beside these traitors then?" He points a finger at the General who was by now palming his face and attempting to hold back a migraine "You are a true Nord hero, how can you betray your people like that?!"
Rolling her eyes at the pitiful attempt, she pulls back her crimson hair, showing off her slightly pointed ears "I will have to disappoint you then."
She pointedly ignored the newly arrived Ambassador muttering "Mongrel filth" With far more vitriol than she would assign to even the most arduous of Talos worshippers.
The Stormcloak pauses briefly before seemingly coming to the most obvious conclusion he could "Even with-"
"If you finish that sentence with what I think you are about to say, I will feed you your own cock." Minthara cuts him off, her eyes narrowing into slits. The amount of times she had heard that particular 'theory' from her fellow Nords was a very sore spot and her draconic instincts were not helping.
The townsfolk and many legionaries outright laughed at her reaction.
But the young man would not be stopped "So what, you will just let your own people be subjugated?!" Even his comrades were giving him exasperated looks at this point "Let them all die to that grey skinned monstrosity they call a Court Mage?!"
"N'wah says what?" A familiar voice resounds from behind the nobleman.
"WHAT!?" He whirls around, coming face to face with two burning eyes, and wets his breeches in an instant.
"Oi, Tullius!" The newly arrived Reyvin calls out "Why do you have Ulfric's brat with the grunts?"
Ulfric's what now?!
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It has been unilaterally decided by the council of me and I that a new n'wah tax shall be implemented. Seeing as you are all n'wahs I demand you give me all your stones posthaste, or I will pout terribly.
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