Betrayal of the Crown - Volume I

rip...

Drip...

Drip...

Ranguvar stumbled blindly along the dank, putrid corridor in hopes of escaping the darkness behind him. He was hardly able to suppress a scream as he slipped and fell in a pool of blood. He reached the end, only to find it blocked by a solid oak door. He turned in horror at the sound of scraping chains drawing closer, then hurled himself bodily at the door, hoping beyond hope to break through into the sunlight. He shuddered at the thought of what would happen should the monstrosity reach him.

He had already spent months stretched out upon a table, with beady-eyed mages and hawk-nosed alchemists studying the effects of water slowly boring a hole through your entire body, drop by drop.

Ranguvar had already endured enough of this torture, and was not keen on enduring more. The door splintered and Ranguvar renewed his efforts. Maybe there is hope after all, maybe I won't die down here disgraced like those before me, a calf for the slaughter!

...Back in the corridor...

"You fool! I told you to catch one insignificant prisoner! A weakened one at that, and you failed! Can't you do anything right?"

Gerzae stormed around the spectral image she had just yelled at, throwing empty bottles and candles at it. She knew they would simply pass through and land in a large pile of old projectiles thrown in anger at the Spectre as he made his report. Gerzae's temper was a fierce one to behold, and any living man or mer would have quailed at such a sight, but the Spectre took it calmly and stoically, as was its nature. This did nothing to calm Gerzae.

"What are you standing there all silent for? Say something! Why didn't you catch the fool? Now he knows everything! Everything!"

When the Spectre spoke, his voice seemed hollow, yet resounded against the barren stone walls with a clarity one can only achieve in undeath: "He is...Magi."

Gerzae was beside herself with this statement. "Magi? You are a spectre! You can kill with the blink of an eye, can't you?"

"You have seen my powers. You cannot dispute their reality. He has a lingering protection...of sorts. I cannot place it, yet I know it is from one far more powerful than myself. Since I am not of this plane, physical attempts would yield results just as poor. My apologies, Mistress," answered the Spectre, and with that, he was gone.

Gerzae's anger left with the Spectre. She sat for a while, pondering what the Spectre had said. I wonder what powerful ally a weakling like that could have. I must find out!

 
The sun was starting its decline in the evening sky as Ranguvar entered a roadside inn, exhausted and covered with dirt and grime from his escape. He stumbled through the door, laid down two drakes in front of the innkeeper, and gasped for food and ale. He chose a corner table smothered in shadow, dragged his aching body to it, slumped down, and promptly fell asleep.

When he awoke, it was to find himself face to face with several scrawny figures, huddled up against a bale of straw, looking at a dead rat, in what looked like a giant cage.

Ranguvar stood up, trying to shake off the effects of too much sleep, when he noticed the people in the cage were all looking at him now. Scared I'm gonna eat 'em, he thought to himself. He decided, however, that he was not going to get any answers from the dead rat, so he pointed to himself and said, "I am Ranguvar, Nord Hero! Who are you, and what place is this?"

One of the older figures looked up at him and regarded him with a lazy eye. "We are farmers all, now headed for the mines of Brunharrow, in Valenwood. You are in a caravan, and in your company are no strong warriors or great heroes of old, but slaves." He spat out this last word bitterly. They were obviously a recent addition to the caravan as well.

Name of the gods! I'm a slave!

Suddenly, Ranguvar was forced to forget his horror as he was hurled against the side of the cage by a mighty explosion coming from the far side of the cage. He looked about groggily at what used to be a wall of two-inch thick steel bars, which had turned instantly to a molten mass of red-hot liquid quickly burning its way through the solid wooden floorboards.

A charred crater of blasted and torn earth lay in the center of the remains of the old farmers and the beggar, now twitching corpses, left to smolder in the scorching midday sun.

Ranguvar whirled around, looking frantically for the source of the big explosion when his keen eyes spotted people - or things - darting between the trees and the underbrush of the woods on one side of the trail. Seeing as how these hidden figures were slaying his captors, Ranguvar decided to take his chances with the apparent enemies of his new enemies.

He leaned close to the ground and broke into a sprint, trying to reach the cover of the thick foliage before any of the remaining archers spotted him. He dared a backwards glance, and upon seeing a battlemage casting a spell in his general direction, he broke into a frantic scramble in an attempt to cover the last few yards as quickly as possible.

With only an arm's reach to go, Ranguvar tripped on a protruding rock and hit the ground with a loud thud.

Damn! I'm going to die!

He was about to start praying for safety when strong hands clasped his torso and arms, and half-dragged, half-pushed him into the brush.

After struggling for several minutes to escape the grasp of whatever it was that was dragging him so roughly across the ground, Ranguvar decided it was best to just relax. Almost instantly, the thing became more gentle in its... dragging.

By now Ranguvar had calmed down enough to realize he was weaponless, and that he had just left a very, very hostile area. He was trying to figure out where this had all gone wrong when he was dropped, not unkindly, on the ground.

Ranguvar sprang to his feet, whirled around, and immediately sat back down again as five Bosmer trained arrows on him.

"Alright, so I'm your captive now. What do you want from me?" He waited several moments for an answer, and when none came, he yawned, stood up, and made as if he were about to try and escape again.

Ranguvar had only gone a few paces when he realized no one was stopping him. He looked up in amazement and saw no one was even looking at him. They were all looking at the spot where he had been unceremoniously dropped only a few moments ago.

Realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere by trying to escape, Ranguvar let out a sigh and turned around, expecting to see some wrinkled elder leaning on a staff, demanding something from him. What he saw almost made him lose the contents of his stomach - which, thinking about it, were not much, he realized.