148 Chapter XI: Torment

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(Reyvin's POV)

"I know what I am doing so stop distracting me damn it!" Edrassa hisses at me as her hands hover over a convulsing Falmer warrior, the creature's muscles bulge as the magic inside it twists and turns.

"Are you quite sure about that?" I retort condescendingly, my eyes glowing with attention.

Her head snaps in my direction just in time for the Magicka she poured inside the sedated creature to destabilize and cause all its blood vessels to burst, immediately covering the poor girl in blood and gore.

I cannot help but laugh at her expression, she looks like she wants to strangle both me and the recently detonated Falmer.

I raise my hands mockingly "Oh don't give me that look, I just sped up what you were about to do anyways."

"What do you mean?" She questions, completely done with life.

"Well, you obviously did not stabilize each organ as you went about your work meaning that the body was going to burst no matter what" I explain simply "And if I allowed you to continue you would have gotten bone shrapnel to the face and then I would have to heal you, which would be inconvenient."

She throws the towel she was wiping her face with onto a nearby table and grumbles "Why don't you do it then?" She asks sarcastically "If you are oh so wise and learned, why not just do everything yourself?"

I ignore her insolent tone and explain patiently "Because my dear Retainer I have other things to focus on and am still working on perfecting the spell formula and the notes you take on the process will help me greatly." and just as she is about to nod in understanding I add "And I would not wish to deprive you of the rich learning experience, that would be cruel."

She groans in frustration and leaves to write everything down everything she learned thus far, a very confused Nightshade hobbling after her.

I make my way toward a heavily secluded section of my little compound and unseal the stone doorway just in time to let a tired Marco, who was dragging a knocked-out Dunmer, enter.

As he does so scorch flies in and rapidly perches his shrunken form on my shoulder, immediately transferring his memories of the little adventure he went on.

"So that was the beast's master?" I ask curiously, my memories of the guild of murderhobos were quite dim as I always found the very concept of their organization to be idiotic and avoided them completely, well unless I was in the process of culling them that is.

I note the state of the prisoner as Marco tosses her onto the ground and can't help but jokingly ask "What happened to being a gentleman Marco?"

He sighs and very lightly kicks her leg "I thought I was finally going to get some and then she just had to go and be an idiot about it."

"Eh, worst case you can just go for one of the workers" I shrug "There ought to be an Orc whose tastes you fit."

"Fuck off" He scowls for a moment before bursting into laughter.

A moment of relaxed silence later I turn serious "I do not believe you want to stay here for what is to come" As expected he nods and I continue "Go and fetch Davos, I have need of his skills."

He looks down at the downed woman with pity, he seems to want to tell me something but merely shakes his head sadly before leaving.

Davos arrives quickly and we prepare the small room for what is to come, the spider the assassin sent to attack me while I was alone standing perfectly still in one of the corners and patiently waiting for my orders.

As everything is nice and tidy I nod to Davos who empties a bucket of freezing cold water onto the assassin's head, she gasps and rapidly looks around before her eyes land on me.

"Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly." I state eerily and she gulps in fear.

(Minthara's POV)

"What do you mean you can't tell me where he is?" I ask, impatiently tapping my foot on the hard ground in front of Reyvin's tents.

The one to my left tiredly repeats "The Lo- *Cough* Boss" I deadpan at his slip of the tongue "Has ordered no one was to disturb him while he does his work."

The one to my right sighs "What is so urgent that you can't wait for a while?" He taps his halberd which shimmers red for an instant "If you need assistance we don't mind giving you a hand."

'Oh yes because you can teach me how to progress with my thu'um' I sigh 'What am I to tell them, hey I am bored and really want to learn how to blow things up with my voice and really can't be asked to wait for another ten days for my teacher to actually continue teaching me so we can kill the damned dragon hidden in the literal sun hanging over our heads?' I palm my face slowly 'Might as well tell them my life story...'

"I just really need to see him, there is something very important we need to talk about and I can't share even a single detail with you." I state firmly, still hoping they might see reason.

"Look lady" The one to the left groans "I get that you are his apprentice and all but as I have said he is fookin' busy so stop being a brat and come back later."

Just as I am about to leave and simply sneak in from above a wave of heat lands on my skin before Scorch bursts out from the tent, evidently enjoying my discomfort as I hide a wince.

He looks at me with the same mocking expression Reyvin often wears whenever he disapproves of my headstrong behavior "Let this rebellious follower of mine in." He simply states and flies back inside.

I walk inside and through the walled-off section behind the tent, soon finding my way to a smaller tent, its canvas covered in runes that I vaguely recognize as having something to do with canceling sound.

A proud smirk worms its way onto my face as I realize I didn't even need to concentrate to translate them, the smirk disappears once I enter and loud screams of pain slam against my ears followed by sudden silence.

Before an eerily calm Reyvin sits a Dunmer woman, both her legs and her left arm missing. My eyes whip to the left only to see a massive frostbite spider munching on a grey foot.

The sight makes me queasy but I don't react visibly.

"Welcome Minthara" Reyvin states simply "I do hope forcing your way in was worth the trouble." I note some minor amusement in his voice as he says this, though the light twitching in his expression informs me of just how furious he is.

An instinctual anger stirs inside me as I look at the completely ravaged Dunmer before him, but I know Reyvin is not one fir needless cruelty so before I react outwardly I ask "And why are you torturing this woman?"

"I am torturing no one." He smirks "Davos is."

"Oh fuck off" The short Dunmer scoffs as he sharpens a knife, his expression is one of boredom, the Grey Quarter elf treating dismemberment as just another day on the job...

The tied-up woman is delirious, likely temporarily knocked out from the pain "And who is she to deserve such treatment?"

"Just a member of the Dark Brotherhood on a mission to kill me." Reyvin deadpans.

My eyes immediately narrow at the bound Dunmer, I always hated assassins and could barely tolerate the ones Reyvin employed. The Dark Brotherhood was the worst of them and any torture he inflicted upon them would not be enough.

Reyvin sees my expression shift and snorts "Knew you would see it my way" He points at the prisoner "Bitch tried to off Marco before he clobbered her with his lute." He shakes his head amusedly "Fucking madlad."

"And why would the Dark Brotherhood target you?" I ask, even if I could immediately name a couple of people off the top of my head who would profit from his death.

"That'd be dear Elenwen, the Thalmor Ambassador. Poor girl is still a bit pissy after I slapped her in front of the entire court of Solitude." He waves it off like it is no big deal.

Oh, that is not good "Why would she try and assassinate you and not just use her authority to try and capture you?" I ask after some thought.

Reyvin scoffs "And what is she going to do, accuse me, a Dunmer of Talos worship?" he shakes his head "No, I showed her her place in the magical hierarchy and she knows she cannot openly challenge me, it is a rather idiotic part of Thalmor culture but it works for me."

That is... interesting to know "So do you suspect there are more of them here?" I ask tentatively.

He nods "At least one is my guess... though the little shit has proven uncooperative."

The prisoner stirs and her eyes open, I see the realization in her eyes as she understands she was not in a nightmare, her lack of limbs doesn't faze her but the moments she sees the spider eating her flesh tears streak down her face... odd.

"What were you expecting, sending a spider to hunt a Mephalan?" Reyvin condescends, obviously not intending for the assassin to live if he was ready to spout that loud and clear.

The woman shifts, desperately trying to get out of her bindings, something rendered rather difficult by a severe lack of appendages. Finally, she sighs in defeat and painfully croaks out "Just kill me. The void shall embrace me."

Reyvin cackles like a madman and shakes his head "Oh no my dear Gabriella, we haven't even started yet." He looks at Davos "Give her the big one."

"Aye boss" Davos grabs a glowing red potion and tries to stuff it down Gabriella's face but she shuts her mouth as hard as she can.

Rolling his eyes Reyvin raises a hand, forcing her jaw to open with a groan of bones, and forces the liquid down her throat with the other.

The assassin looks as if she expects pain, but when her limbs slowly start re-growing she first feels relief, and then an expression of pure dread appears on her face.

"Ha!" Reyvin exclaims "You thought!" he points at her with disturbing amounts of satisfaction. I quickly leave the tent, deciding that my lessons could wait a bit longer.

(Reyvin's POV)

It took me three empowered potions of regeneration to finally break the murderhobo. As I had guessed there was another member of the brotherhood skulking about, the Shadowscale Argonian.

He was not among our hired help, yet he had somehow sneaked in with us. He would likely skulk about before trying to stab me in a crucial moment of weakness, and we can't be having that. Besides, killing a Shadowscale will give me some nice brownie points with the Telvanni.

I delivered my own brand of poetic justice by having Gabriella's spider consume her and sent the thing to hunt the Argonian.

I was not surprised by the brotherhood's attempt to kill me, I expected it even... but I was still furious at them and would thoroughly enjoy butchering the whole deranged 'family' of death cultists.

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A couple of days after the Falmer attacked us and I dealt with my unannounced visitor we were finally prepared to go on the attack. Well, I say that but we would still need to skulk about as our numbers did not magically increase all of a sudden.

My automatons were good for defending but I did not have the time to optimize their systems for all-purpose warfare so sending them forward would be wasteful. 

We had to take baby steps in our expansion, take too much and we get overwhelmed, take too little and people get uppity. The clearing of Blackreach would likely take us months, and keeping morale up was no doubt going to become a problem.

Still, the rewards would no doubt be worth it. Now just how to convince everyone that fighting a dragon was a good idea?

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Remember my little parable about spiders and bone chewing?

Did you think I was kidding?

Stones, please!

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