It took my people only a couple of days to find a bunch of rumors about the Moth Priest moving about, a bit slower than I would have liked but I was running them ragged across the whole province already, and finding him wasn't an absolute priority, even if Isran would probably attempt to glare to death again if he learned that little tidbit.
From what we learned, the old priest going by the na of Dexion intended to visit the college but as he passed by Whiterun he caught wind of a rumor about a scroll being held sowhere close to Morthal.
Naturally, the old fool ran there like a complete idiot with only two guards and has not been heard from in days if not longer. And these guys were supposed to be priests of Julianos... Dented decision making aside, I imdiately moved out, only taking Serana and phys with , much to Davos' imnse relief. We had no need of transportation as I could just unsummon the Daedra and both Serana and myself could fly at imnse speeds so reaching Whiterun took us only a couple of hours.
We t Isran early in the morning hours, many of the n he brought going to bed after the long night shift. He was not truly surprised I got the information so quickly so he had his people ready to move out within a couple of minutes.
Naturally, we weren't about to wait for a bunch of heavily equipped Dawnguards to march their asses across the now cleared out Labyrinthian Pass, courtesy of Durrak, so after giving Isran the information and promising that we were only going there to scout things out we took to the skies once again and quickly found the poorest city in Skyrim.
And by all the gods above what a shithole it was.
The stinking marshland practically surrounded the central city while the rest spread outwards from the sickly looking wooden walls in a way that dare I say was less organized than the original Solitude Sprawl.
The center was raised atop a small hill or artificial dirt platform, I couldn't really get a good read since if it was raised by humans it happened thousands of years ago when the region was still rich in bog iron and soone made an investnt to populate the place.
The houses in the center followed the usual Nordic style of architecture, no doubt ant to house the small number of wealthy or noble families living here, while the hos that were further out seed to be standing on stilts and were all relatively small due to weight constraints.
Yet with all of this, I still found myself liking the place more than I did Riften.
Sure, Hjaalmarch was a complete shithole when compared to the Rift but at least the city did not radiate a near visible aura of poverty and destitution like Riften did.
As we approached, dressed in traveling clothes so as to not draw undue attention, I got a good look at the locals, and as I predicted from seeing so of them in Solitude they were all a bit lanky by Nord standards and even with the Nords' respectable bathing habits everyone seed to look just a bit dirty to my sharp eyes.
The guards were ard lightly, in form fitting light armor that would not constrain them in the rough and dangerous terrain and when the situation called for it would even allow them to swim. They were all ard with freshly supplied steel tipped spears and handaxes from Solitude, both of the weapons designed for both lee and throwing.
As we stepped through the gates after making sure the guards didn't raise a fuss I head phys take in a deep breath and exhale with a hum "Such a dreary and uninteresting place you've brought to."
"Oh please" I roll my eyes "You've already noticed that sothing is going on here."
"But of course" phys tuts "What do you take for?"
"Do you really want the answer to that?" I deadpan, causing her to giggle "Why don't you go and ply your trade while I deal with the boring politics."
"Already excluding , are we?" She raises an eyebrow, questioning simply for the sake of doing it.
I nod firmly and retort amusedly "Of course, now go and do your job."
"How commanding" She swoons lightly "Very well, I am off, your lordship." She offers one last wink and heads toward the tavern.
"I still do not like her." Serana mutters as phys leaves us alone "Why does she need to be here?"
All Serana knew about phala's at puppet was that she was a Dremora gifted to by my patron that would follow all of my commands and was very adept at everything that had anything to do with being a rogue, from seduction to thievery to assassination.
"Her presence entertains my patron and an entertained Daedra is a helpful Daedra." I explain easily as we head toward the Jarl's longhouse, a structure seemingly barely above the standards of the local nobility.
Serana shifts uncomfortably "Trusting a Daedra is never a good idea."
"Trust?" I turn to her with a raised eyebrow "True, I might trust that she will act in a certain way because that is her want I will never trust her as a person. Her servant" I barely stop myself from accidentally blurting 'she' "Is bound to far more than any other Dremora out there, it takes only the lightest twitch of my intent and she is back to the Spiral Skein."
Still visibly uncomfortable with the idea, but sowhat assured by my words Serana nods slowly "If you are certain."
"I am confident but never certain" I shrug "But that is enough of that, it would seem the locals have prepared a welcoming drama for us." As I say that I point toward a crowd gathering in front of the Jarl's longhouse ard with torches and pitchforks, a bunch of them yelling at who I guess is the hold's Steward.
"Why hasn't the Jarl done anything?!" One of the more well dressed Nords in the crowd asks "We all know that the fire was no accident, so why have the guards not investigated yet?"
The steward takes a fortifying breath before speaking "The Jarl is already investigating the fire, I need you all to return to your hos and allow us to do our jobs. This... unrest will bring us nothing."
"Threatening martial law already, eh Aslfur?" The presud nobleman scoffs "As I expected." Before the Steward can give his answer the man waves for the crowd to follow him "Co on people, we are obviously not getting anything out of him tonight."
As the crowd disperses, many of them grumbling, the Steward lets out a tired sigh. His troubles were, however, only beginning because it was exactly at that mont that I decided to make my presence known by loudly clearing my throat.
Aslfur turned to his eyes widening by a fraction as he recognized even without my usual regalia "What are you doing here?" He asks before he can compose himself.
I raise an amused eyebrow but say nothing.
"Right, apologies." The tired man mumbles "Greetings, Court Mage. What brings you to Morthal?"
"I seek a Moth Priest." I tell him plainly.
"Then you are out of luck." His shoulders sag "The honorable Dexion has left the city five days ago and the scouting party we sent after him found signs of struggle an hours walk from the gates, both him and the guards were gone without a trace to follow."
My mind races briefly before I co to the obvious conclusion, the local vampire lord wannabe was in cahoots with the Volkihar and was asked to hold the priest for them.
Too bad for them I decided to butt my nose into their dealings "Then it would seem our issues
are one and the sa." I say after a brief pause.
The Steward looks at with obvious confusion "What do you an by that?"
"I would have thought you have gotten used to mages being cryptic by now." I muse.
Suddenly he looks even more tired than before "You are like her then?"
"The comparison offends but I do not wish to waste ti with the specifics" I wave his question off, much to his chagrin "How co the Jarl was not able to see sothing was
going on?"
He looks around worriedly before whispering "Because the Jarl has been bedridden ever since this whole thing had begun. Whenever she tries to look into what is going on she gets a painful headache and she... can't quite control it."
"Of bloody course she cannot." I say dryly before muttering "Bloody untrained fools."
"So you will help us?" Aslfur asks hopefully, not even bothering to ask about my capabilities. "I will" I nod lightly "At least then the crone might actually learn her lesson take the ti to learn how to cast proper spells." It still irked that the old woman constantly tried to instinctually cast a massively complex spell, sure she was talented in mysticism but that did not make her any less of a weakling or the side effects any less problematic.
The Steward pointedly pretends to not hear the second part of my statent and instead asks
"What do you need to know?"
"The general idea of what happened for one."
The man sighs tiredly once again and begins his tale.
An honest working man by the na of Hroggar had apparently started seeing one of the...
less respected won of the city by the na of Alva, and a month later his ho, including his wife and daughter, was burned. Many thought it to be an accident but when Hroggar, without even mourning his loved ones, moved in with Alva and seemingly forgot them overnight people got all kinds of suspicious.
It took only one of the more opportunistic nobles to start stirring the issue up and people were already walking the streets at night, many of them ard, in so vain attempt at
hunting down the culprit.
Funnily enough, no one dared enter Alva's ho. Everyone was suspicious of her, yes, but no superstitious Nord was about to head into the 'bad juju land' without so very nasty weapons at his back.
Just in case I do a quick scan of the city and hold back a grimace as a widespread ward seems to attempt to latch itself onto my mind but finds both and my spell too potent to do
anything.
At least I had the general location of its origin now but I would still investigate the entire situation first. We did have to wait for the Dawnguard to get here and that would take at least a
day even with the shortcut.
"I see." I say as he finishes the story "There is certainly so kind of coercion going on there at the very least, though I suspect the problem is greater than that. I will investigate the situation and see what I can do about it."
The Steward looks at hopefully "Thank you, and please inform if you find anything." "Naturally" I lie smoothly and quickly leave, followed by Serana.
"You really seem to not like the Jarl." Serana speaks up as we head toward the burned house
near one of the taverns.
"She likes to play at being a seer" I grumble "Rather offensive when you are a genuine seer
yourself."
Serana actually giggles at this "Oh, I did not take you to be so petty."
"My natural majesty usually hides it well." I raise my nose.
We share a quiet chuckle and keep walking in pleasant silence. "Speaking of seers" Serana begins slowly "What do you actually know about what is going on?"
I quickly relay to her all I have surmised so far, including my suspicion/knowledge of vampires in the city itself. I did not have the actual location of the main vampire's lair so finding the ones prowling the city would probably lead to it.
I was not about to spend my days searching for a single cave in a massive swamp even if it killed and I would murder as many vampires as I had to prove that point.
May your house be prosperous
and your stones plentiful.
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