Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-24449631-20140905103828/@comment-3293219-20140908152739

“Em-Emerall!” A familiar, gruff voice called after her, sprinting towards the Dunmer with something bundled in his arms…

-

Nadira had been left for several hours, not knowing what was in store for her. If she could trust Ra-Jeed’s word, then she would be released but that still didn’t tell her how she could save Azarath. Even if he was an ass, even if he did beat up her best friend and Sophie’s… girlfriend. He didn’t deserve to die, few people were deserving of that and she knew that Azarath wasn’t one of them.

She knew that Sophie had faith in Emarrel, she said it herself but Nadira just wasn’t capable of having that much faith in someone… Even if she did love them, like they were family. The fact of the matter was, that if she was left here, she’d be psychologically and telepathically tortured to death and if Azarath came for her, he’d be killed and there was no guarantee that she would be released afterwards.

The Breton was starting to get anxious, more so for her friends than herself but she couldn’t help but feel a little fearful. Should she have spoken to Ra-Jeed, told him those things, as unhelpful as they were?

It was then that she heard it, a loud bang, the door had been thrown open and someone was coming for her. Heavy boots pounded the dungeon floor and marched to her cell, within seconds, the shadows of two guards were cast over her, both guards were… completely void of life. Expressionless, inhuman…

It chilled her very soul…

The gate was unlocked and opened and they stepped in, the two nords grabbed at her, with their gigantic, paw-like, hands and dragged her away…

-

After being dragged through a number of corridors, twists, turned and even a staircase, Nadira arrived at some sort of office. She could tell that it was an office as the two guards, as lifeless as they were, seemed hesitant to enter but did so anyway. The door opened, revealing a large table, with several leather straps on it at the center of the room and several alchemy/chemistry sets around it. It looks like some sort of lab/torture chamber hybrid, a ghastly sight to someone who had never seen either of those things before…

“Put her on the rack…” An Altmer voice echoed, coming from a dark robed man on the far side of the room, he turned around and revealed his face, a healthy looking Altmer, with grey, glazed eyes. He was, as far as Nadira could tell, middle aged.

The two guards nodded, not even giving her a chance to process his orders to them… The ‘rack?’ That made it sound even more ghastly… What was this place, why was she here?

She was immediately slammed against it and her wrists were pinned down, strapped to the table by the leather straps, her ankles were also pinned down and the table was lay back on a slant as the Altmer approached her, his Khajiit apprentice shuffled along behind him.

The guards moved back to their positions, stood on either side of the mages as their leader approached her. Nadira just focussed on her breathing, trying to not show any sign of the fact that she was truly fearful.

“Nadira Sans?” He asked, like some sort of boarder patrol guard, disconnected and unfeeling…

There was a long pause, a vacuum of silence as the world stopped, to allow Nadira to answer his question. She knew full well the consequences for not doing so…

<p class="MsoNormal">“Y-Yes… How do you know my name?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I’ll be asking the questions… Though, it was your father, who told me your name…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“M-My Father?” She gasped; she felt her fingers tingle as she went a shade of pale, why would her father send this… creppy Thalmor after her? Wait… Did he?

<p class="MsoNormal">“You know him?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Nathaniel Sans, a Breton, like you, doesn’t have your eyes or your hair… He runs a community on the High Rock/Skyrim boarder, so insignificant that you wouldn’t stain a map with it. It was him, who sent me on this chase, after Azarath.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Nadira froze again, her heart beat violently on the inside of her chest as she processed this. Her father, someone who was supposed to love and protect her, had sent a sociopath to attack her and kill her best friend? She wasn’t open about her relationship with Azarath but… He must have known…

<p class="MsoNormal">He must have…

<p class="MsoNormal">Even if he didn’t know, one look at this man you could tell, he was… Evil, creepy and… unfeeling. He wouldn’t think twice about killing her or anyone half as defenceless.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I’ve read your thoughts, I know enough about Goris to know that he is gone and… In order to get him back, we’re going to have to do something… drastic.” He turned to his henchman and snapped his fingers, watching as they moved over to the Breton and placed their hands on either side of her head, holding her still as Ra-Jeed looked away in shame.

<p class="MsoNormal">They lay the ‘rack’ back and she lay before the Altmer, like she was waiting for surgery, she could be, for all she knew…

<p class="MsoNormal">“He’s gone… You’ll never find him… He’s probably out of the country by now…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“No, I know where he’s going, I know the route… Thanks to my apprentice here… We need him to make a… slight detour but don’t worry; I know just the thing to rile him up.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Y-You don’t want to make Azarath angry… He’s dangerous… He’ll kill you.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“You really think that? Because you don’t sound very confident…”

<p class="MsoNormal">He snapped his fingers and Ra-Jeed ran over to him, he couldn’t bare to look at Nadira, his bleeding heart kept him from looking her in the eyes, like a real man.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Ra-Jeed? Remember what I taught you? Just like I did with the bandits…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“What!?” Nadira snapped, suddenly seeing where he was going with this, she didn’t like it.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What’s he talking about, what are you…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Well, killing you would be the easiest way to do this but the Dunmer will surely bring reinforcements…

<p class="MsoNormal">This way, I know that your little band of misfits will fracture and Azarath will come straight to me.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Nadira’s heartbeat went crazy, due to the stress as a result of her fear, this guard’s cold, lifeless hands sent shivers down her spine, Jorthar’s words were like ice and she felt… unnaturally uneasy…

<p class="MsoNormal">“Wh-What about me?”

<p class="MsoNormal">The Thalmor’s eyes narrowed as if he didn’t expect this question but he knew that it was coming, you didn’t need to be a telepath to see it coming.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What about you? Will you live, do you mean?

<p class="MsoNormal">If I have no further use for you, then I may let you go, yes… For now, I’m going to be taking your free will, to make you a little more loyal to your companions…

<p class="MsoNormal">Or one of them at least…” He paused and turned to his apprentice, who was doing everything in his power to stop himself from stopping this, he felt… sick and wrong, he wanted out, he didn’t want to see, he wanted nothing to do with this.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Ra-Jeed? You know what to do…” The Altmer reminded him, stepping aside and letting the Khajiit work on his new patient. He took one nervous step forward but was eventually shoved by his Master, who was growing impatient.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Get to it!”

<p class="MsoNormal">Ra-Jeed flinched as he yelled, his yell was almost as powerful as his psychic abilities, you wouldn’t think that he was capable of yelling like that, until you angered him.

<p class="MsoNormal">He stood over her, his hands trembling, both out of fear of his Master and reluctance to remove this girl’s free will. She lay, staring at him with a shimmering gaze, pulling at everyone one of his heartstrings to stop. His eyes tracked down to his hands as they shook, violently, making it so that he couldn’t even create a spark.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Ra-Jeed… I’m growing impatient…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Right… I’ll…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Please… R-Ra-Jeed… Y-You don’t want to do this… You said it yourself…” Nadira sniffed, tears slowly pouring out of her eyes and down her cheeks as her lower jaw trembled, the bridge of her nose ached.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Please…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Did you now…?” The Altmer replied, sounding somewhat suspicious of this fact, he didn’t recall authorising Ra-Jeed to talk to the prisoner, so he must have done it behind his back.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Guards, take Ra-Jeed away and show him the error of his ways…”

<p class="MsoNormal">The Khajiit gasped, taking a step back, straight into the heavy hand of a guard that was slapped onto his shoulder as his right arm was grabbed by his other hand. The other guard marched over to him and took both of his arms, in a similar manner before dragging him away.

<p class="MsoNormal">“N-No! Please! Don’t hurt him! I’ll… I’ll go through with it, you can kill me, just…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Don’t worry…” Jorthar cooed as the door slammed behind him and the sounds of beatings echoed throughout the fort, the occasional scream or squawk could also be heard.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I plan to do both…” He whispered as he approached her, bringing his hand closer to her forehead as she jerked her head away.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No!” She snapped, defiantly, though her defiance was pretty much wasted at this point as he just tracked his fingers to her forehead and placed his hand over it, sending a signal through her brain, similar to Ra-Jeeds. This one felt different, it was like… control… like someone was taking her hands and protecting her, sort of like when a parent holds onto the handlebars of a bicycle, controlling but… welcomed, due to the nurturing nature of it.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No.” She stated again, though, nowhere near as fired up, her mind was already 20% gone, lost to Jorthar’s Psymancery.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No…” By now, it was just mere instinct… She didn’t know why she was saying it, she just had to, her final will and testimony was to repeatedly defy the Thalmor, until the bitter end.

<p class="MsoNormal">“N-o…”

<p class="MsoNormal">-

<p class="MsoNormal">Azarath marched through the Rift, blissfully unaware of the events that had transpired; he was still pretty aggravated about what had happened the night before.

<p class="MsoNormal">It wasn’t so much the fact that she had attacked him or that she had forced him to attack her but… what she said…

<p class="MsoNormal">Did this hurt Nadira that much?

<p class="MsoNormal">In truth, he’d stuck around with her, because he didn’t have anything else to do, he’d hoped that he would find his feet out here but there were no bandits with his ambition anymore. He was getting too old to be leading that kind of lifestyle and he’d be lying if he said that Nadira hadn’t grown on him, over the last ten years.

<p class="MsoNormal">He sighed and shook his head, what’s done is done, Emarrel isn’t going to let him back and he knew that. This was for the best, they’d be together, Nadira would be happy and she could make her own way through the world. He didn’t know why he did some of the things that he did and he knew that Nadira often disapproved. She and him, their styles didn’t exactly match and that’s where the conflict came from. They didn’t have enough in common to be friends…

<p class="MsoNormal">He looked up and saw the morning sun come up; Nadira would probably just be waking up now and seeing that he was gone… That’s if Emarell hadn’t gotten peckish and gave her the chomp or had a quarter life crises and tried to smooth talk her.

<p class="MsoNormal">Still, it was her choice, he’d be damned if he was going to lose any sleep over it.

<p class="MsoNormal">It was then, that he came to a stop, seeing something in the road, it looked like… A body? Maybe a bandit, highwayman, who got his/her ass handed to them? The body had short red hair, so it could be a man or a woman; it was rather small though, so it was most likely a woman.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Dunmer slowly marched over to it, being careful as this was the sort of thing that people did as traps. As he caught up to them, he placed his boot on its shoulder and rolled them over, watching as it limply rolled onto its back, its mouth agape, face a little dirty from where it had been lay in the mud.

<p class="MsoNormal">It was then that he saw it, it was Nadira…

<p class="MsoNormal">“What the fuck…?” He muttered, gently kneeling down and placing his fingers to her neck, seeing that she was indeed alive. She was alive and left to die in the street…

<p class="MsoNormal">“What the fuck? Did she do this!?”

<p class="MsoNormal">He looked over his shoulder, there was quite a long walk back to the inn but he guessed that he would know when he got there. If she had just left her on the side of the road, he’d kill her and wear her fangs around his neck…