(General POV, months before Reyvin’s Solstheim trip)
Heavy breaths and heavier steps drowned in the noise of the rainforest as a lone figure trudged along what he believed may have at one point been a road, his legs barely keeping themselves upright as he fought for each and every gulp of air.
’Even the damned air of this place is wet’ Kinlord Narsis of Shimrene complained in the safety of his mind "Veil of mist indeed." He rasped, willfully ignoring just how tired he was feeling.
Shaking his head awake, he focused back on the road ahead of him, his eyes trailing in and out of focus as he did his best to pay attention to his surroundings.
Unfortunately for the Altr, he had never been in a place quite as loud as a rainforest.
Which is why he was far too slow in noticing his pursuer, as a striped dark blue feline pounced at him from atop a nearby branch, making not a sound as it cut into his robed flank.
"Akh!" Narsis hissed and rounded on the beast, the pain nearly taking him out of the fight before his training kicked in, his eyes montarily glowing as his hand lashed out and promptly pierced the large cat’s eye with a spike of ice "Damn animals." He scowled and absently began healing the worryingly deep cuts.
He felt his vision begin to swim but shook the nausea away ’Keep it together, Narsis. Can’t be dying before you ensure Nearys’ safety.’
Thus motivated he checked on the despairingly small room his magic could carve within Oblivion, wincing as he quickly understood that the waterlogged hardtack within would not last him long. The water was blessedly more abundant, and freezing the eternal mist around the island he was on would not be a great challenge for an expert of magic such as he.
But his main focus was not on his supplies, he could survive on restoration magic long enough, but on the folded parchnt safely tucked away within a tal tube he had prepared just for this occasion.
His identification, the sole item that would potentially save his life, and his only way ho.
Narsis sighed, looked down at the path before him, and then back at the cat "Well" He tried to keep the scowl from his expression "You did offer yourself up."
Done healing himself, and accepting that the scars would follow him until he could contract a proper healer, he picked the cat up and tossed it over his shoulder, nearly doubling over under the new weight as he began marching on down the forest path.
’At least the animals should back off with my trophy so openly displayed.’ The Kinlord thought blithely ’Well, at least the ones afraid of the obvious predator.’
-
The sun had long since begun to set as Narsis finally managed to navigate himself beyond the constant wall of trees, the sound of waves bashing themselves against the steep cliffs he had oh so wondrously gazed upon re days prior swiftly overtaking the constant noise of the forest.
Sighing tiredly, he forced his legs to move on and monts later found himself looking at the most beautiful sunset he had ever seen, the setting sun in the distance piercing the mists of Pyandonea in a dance of prismatic lights that looked to have been arranged by the hand of a master artist.
Even if it was swiftly ruined by the sight he caught just below where he was standing, an utterly ruined Alinori ship, the Sea Hawk, now completely covered in the highly invasive kelp that had spelled its demise long before they even had the ti to notice it.
Narsis forced down thoughts of his old friend Captain Arlatar and his fellow diplomats and finally turned away, beginning the long process of creating a proper campsite with liberal use of flas even as his upbringing revolted at the very idea of doing manual labor.
His expression turned rather brittle as he placed his prey on the ground and realized he would need to skin it and then prepare it before it had the ti to spoil.
"Think of it as a hunting trip." He muttered to himself even as his hand shook "A proper, noble adventure and not the scrambling of a starving peasant. Yes" He nodded half deliriously "That is correct, a proper. noble. act."
The bound weapon spell flashed within his hand, and he got to work.
Miraculously he did not throw up once, even if the constant breaks he took only served to prolong his suffering.
Hours later, when the sun was well and truly gone, the Kinlord’s expression was one of utter despair as he forced himself to chew on the mostly burnt, incredibly stringy muscles of a serpent-cat, wondering just what he had done to deserve this kind of fate.
Finarfin, the soon to be Overlord of the Dominion if nothing was done about it, was rather clear that he would protect him so long as he had his support, but Naerys’ recruitnt into the Thalmor would only be stopped if he managed to establish beneficial contact with Pyandonea that would be of use in the upcoming war.
But how does one form an alliance with a people not seen for generations, one known for their animosity for the Altr? And one with a supposedly immortal Aldr sovereign who would not easily forget his past animosity at that!
Narsis doubted his ’ally’ cared much for his thods, even if he supposedly wished for his success, ordering him to take one damned ship and sail for a continent no one knew the exact location of with what could barely pass for a proper noble’s entourage, much less that of a Kinlord.
Not that said Kinlord could possibly defy the High Justiciar and bring more forces with him anyway.
That would be impolite for soone of his station after all.
Narsis scoffed in a vaguely amused manner and shook his head, his amusent swiftly overtaken by bitterness ’Not much use to now, are they?’
Naerys had obviously tried coming with him but he made sure the Headmaster of the tower he himself had financed for centuries did not make the sa mistake again and kept the girl properly distracted until he left.
Best she learn how to better defend herself, even if she was already leagues above her ’peers’ long before she faced off against Lord Dagoth in her idiotic attempt to suck up to the Thalmor.
"The sheer gall of those peasants" Narsis scowled "Thinking themselves worthy of being the heirs of Aldris."
A small part of him allowed himself the fantasy of imagining what it would be like to use the connections he would form with the sea elves to overthrow the traitors but he quickly shook it off.
Now was not the ti for childish daydreaming, even if he could use so actual dreams right about now.
Leant as he was against a trunk he had spent far too much Magicka drying, Narsis didn’t even notice as he dozed off, the stinking fur of the creature he had (badly) skinned helping him keep warm as he slept for the first ti in days.
---
The sound of a dry branch being stepped on had the Kinlord’s eyes snapping open, the elf? trying and failing to sneak up on him flinching away in surprise as the Altr jumped up on his feet with surprising agility, his bound sword already moving to parry the young elf’s panicked spear thrust.
"What manner of cowardly worm tries stabbing his fellow r while they sleep?" Narsis hissed and waved his sword threateningly "Who are you, cur?"
The younger elf’s eyes narrowed as he yelled sothing in a language Narsis could make no heads or tails of and he lunged with his spear once again, nearly stabbing the Kinlord as he riposted on sheer instinct, shoving the spear away from himself and following up with a poml strike.
The child’s nose broke with a wet crunch and like an inexperienced fool, he dropped his weapon to grab at the wound, giving Narsis the perfect opportunity to punish the peasant for his insolence.
Only sothing in the back of his enraged mind told him that would be a terrible idea right now, so all he did was use the flat of his sword as a club and smacked the blue skinned elf in the side of his head, knocking him out.
Once more, the Kinlord found himself troubled by the humid air as he felt his excitent leave him, the still rising and falling chest of his opponent telling him he had not slain him on accident.
"So that is a Maorr." Narsis muttered as his eyes moved from the child to the trees "As distinct as the rest of my kin, I suppose."
’Even if they could use better clothes than those rags’ his inner noble scoffed.
Just as he was about to see to properly tying his new prisoner up, Narsis heard a hiss to his side, rounding on a serpent that had snuck up on him, cursing internally he imdiately moved to slice its head off before he could be poisoned.
A sudden thump on the back of his head interrupted that, and then all was darkness.
---
His consciousness returned with a sluggishness, the noise around him becoming audible in layers as he groaned and tried returning to sleep.
The events of the past few monts flashed within his mind and his eyes snapped open once more, rapidly scanning his surroundings only to find himself stuck behind a series of wooden bars within so kind of stone building.
A rather small one if the noise around him was any indicator.
Narsis narrowed his eyes as he noticed that no restraints were placed on him, and then smirked as he realized he had used not destruction magic during his fight, the temptation to simply incinerate his way out imdiately rearing itself within his mind.
But he quickly decided against it.
This... unfortunate situation he had found himself in was in fact an opportunity in disguise, even if he could have done with accommodations more befitting of his station.
His musings were swiftly interrupted as the door to his prison was shoved open, a trio of figures wearing... acceptably elaborate blue and bronze steel scalemail marching inside.
The leader of the group was rather obvious to Narsis’ practiced eyes, as a tall and bulky Maorr clad in much heavier garb, masked helm held in the crook of his arm, approached him. He spoke in the sa language Narsis could not understand before growling and repeating "You, who are?"
"Ah, finally a civilized tongue to be found." The Kinlord could not help himself as he smiled at his captor "I am Kinlord Narsis of Shimrene, a lord of Alinor and its foremost diplomat."
The warrior narrowed his eyes, then glared at one of his subordinates as she chuckled, realizing her leader could not understand a word Narsis had said.
The woman straightened her shoulders and shut up imdiately, but the Altr in the room could still see her amusent.
Hissing in annoyance, the lead guard turned back to Narsis and repeated "Small words. Who are you?"
’Ah to be tempted and then cursed so.’ Narsis lanted internally and considered for but a mont before answering "ssenger."
"ssenger?" The guard repeated, frowning "ssage for who?"
"Your lord." Narsis said imdiately, not wanting to seem too arrogant to the guard by outright saying he sought King Orgnum.
The guard Captain? once more frowned and looked Narsis over, no doubt noticing his damaged but obviously high quality robes made of the finest of blue silks, and bearing his emblem of a light purple starburst contained within a sunburst.
As the r turned to his subordinates and began rattling off commands, the high elf focused on the way they spoke, quickly realizing that while the language was most definitely not Tamrielic, it still held roots in Ehlnofex, and was thus related to it, no matter how distantly.
’Which fit in rather well with the supposed history of these lands.’ He reminded himself, pushing his mind to translate any word he could catch, and mostly failing save for managing to catch the word ’warrior.’
’Now what could that possibly be implying?’ He mused.
Soon enough the guards left without a word, and what he would guess was an hour later returned, only to grab him without ceremony and drag him out and through so kind of market square.
rely touching a Kinlord without permission was grounds for punishnt, much less manhandling one so, but sothing told the high elf that complaining was not the wise thing to do at the mont, and so he instead of throwing a tantrum he focused on his surroundings.
The market around him looked to be middlingly prosperous, the many wooden stands all surrounding a much larger round stone structure with a seashell like roof that looked to house the more prosperous rchants within.
Speaking of buildings, every single house around him was made of stone, and so were the roads, a fact he could appreciate if not for the utterly alien focus on shell and scale thes that seed to be oh so abundant in these lands.
And the clothing! Why, Narsis had not seen sothing quite so scandalous since he was invited to visit that one Redguard Crown who wanted to show off his harem. And the man was a known deviant!
Every single Maorr around him, and they could be naught else with their blue skins, wore clothing that did not cover nearly as much as it should have, so of them foregoing the covering of their shoulders, knees, and stomachs utterly as they clad themselves in admittedly impressively colorful clothing that was more fit for a bathhouse than a proper city.
’How ghastly.’ The Altr noble shivered.
His inner high elf wanted to mock their barbaric aesthetics but he was taught his lesson more than once as he observed the mistakes of his kin. Judging a people based on how they seed instead of how they were was a road to folly and humiliation.
And Kinlord Narsis of Shimrene had had more than enough humiliation heaved upon him to last a lifeti.
The guards dragged him out of the market and into a walled off section of the city, its buildings growing both larger and more elaborate while its inhabitants actually seed to be clad in sothing that could pass as appropriate.
If one squinted.
’Ah’ Narsis realized ’The noble’s quarter.’
T’was the sole reasonable conclusion after all.
Fun as it was to have his superiority reaffird to him, Narsis did notice that many of said nobles seed almost frantic with preparation, and many looked to be ard and armored, so of them even going as far as to be openly ard and armored even if they were not soldiers.
They were preparing for a conflict of so sort.
A conflict he could doubtlessly use to get closer to his goal.
Any further thoughts were interrupted as he was led into a middling palace covered in snake iconography, the constant noise that had surrounded him even in the noble’s quarter dying out instantly as he was brought into a large chamber.
’A throne room’ He quickly corrected himself as he took in the figure atop the spiked throne.
Hushed whispers erupted all around him as the nobles within realized what he was, but the enthroned elf rising his hand was enough to shut them up for now.
"I am told by my Serpentguard you claim to be a diplomat of Alinor." The elf atop the throne, one that looked worryingly similar to the child Narsis had defeated, and was clad in actual proper robes befitting high station, spoke with authority and skill "What would the Altr" He spoke the na as if it were an insult "Want with our lands?"
Narsis bowed, hiding his excitent at hearing proper Tamrielic "Allow to introduce myself first. I am Kinlord Narsis of Shimrene, acting as diplomat for my beloved Alinor."
"A Kinlord." The elf frowned before his eyes opened wide in realization "You were shipwrecked, were you not?"
"Indeed" Narsis hid his scowl well "Our ship was unprepared for the kelp infestation."
"And you are the sole survivor?" The Maorr asked.
"Indeed" The Altr answered simply.
"You have my condolences." The sea elf ever so slightly inclined his head, obviously not believing him fully but willing to let things play out "I am Sealord Norevalion, the master of Tiguna Pleteau and its surrounding islands."
Frowning as he seed to notice Narsis’ lack of reaction, he leaned forward in his throne "Now, what ssage was so important that it would need a Kinlord to deliver it?"
"I carry a missive of introduction" Narsis answered without fear "One ant for King Orgnum of Pyandonea."
"I am afraid you have co for naught if that is the case." The Maorr Sealord gave him a confused look "King Orgnum is dead, has been for two centuries now."
Narsis felt the world spin around him and his throat beco dry as the situation rapidly beca clear. His etiquette, already drained by the events that had brought him here, finally broke "Fuck."
-------
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