Chapter 587 - Jonrad"s Story (8)
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After a.s.sa.s.sinating King Jelric of Wayrest at the order of his daughter Queen Roselle for his involvement in the Corsair Invasion, Jonrad and Glymet left Wayrest for good especially Jonrad whose existence shall be a reminder for the Princess, now Queen, of what ended up with her on the throne.
As Glymet swore not to enter Skyrim until he finds the secret of the ancient Dragonknights, he stayed in Cyrodiil scavenging the old Blade hideouts for clues on their history and helping any ex-Blade Agent he meets by hunting down the Thalmor patrols.
Glymet, however, headed north to Skyrim and searched Falkreath for two weeks until he found the Black Door of the Dark Brotherhood.
It was almost impossible to contact the Dark Brotherhood in Cyrodiil since the group has gone dark for years. The Falkreath sanctuary, despite being small and semi-independent, was the only lead he had.
The one who met Glymet was a Dark Elf that went by Varlyn and he was an a.s.sa.s.sin. With the armor of the Dark Brotherhood and the markings of an a.s.sa.s.sin, Glymet was recognized to be an authentic a.s.sa.s.sin and was allowed past the doorway to meet with the leader of the Sanctuary, a young Nord woman that went by the name Astrid.
The meeting between Glymet and Astrid was filled with one bad impression after the other as Astrid wasn"t pleased with an outsider she didn"t handpick herself. However, a brother from another sanctuary is still a brother and no matter how independent she may try to appear, any violation of the code will cause trouble with the Listener and the Black Hand which are the last people Astrid wanted to meet.
To earn his keep, Astrid wanted to put Glymet to the test in a rather difficult mission.
"All right newcomer, let"s see what you can do. We have a contract on Rathir, the new priest at the Hall of the Dead. There"s something odd about that one; be careful. He"s been seen around Grave Concoctions potion shop." She said as she pa.s.sed the order to Glymet.
With so little information to go on, Glymet was supposed to act alone. Relatively speaking, the High Priest in the Hall of the Dead of Falkreath is the High Priest of Arkay, the Divine of Life and Death.
Killing such a person is an insult to the Aedra and Glymet was worried over that fact. Killing a priest would surely incur the wrath of its G.o.d, wouldn"t it?
And so the investigation began with Glymet looking for every excuse not to kill the High Priest. If he went to the Hall of the Dead directly, he may run into the High Priest and blow up the mission from more than just one side so he chose to visit the Grave Concoctions, the Alchemy shop in the middle of town where the High Priest was said to have been roaming the other day.
With the low probability of encountering the man, Glymet went in and started looking around the shelves of the shop.
"A customer at this time of day. Looks like I"m in luck. Browse around and pick what you want, be with you in a jiffy."
A woman"s voice came from inside the shop as a dark-skinned Redguard looked through the curtains to greet Glymet before going back to whatever she was brewing.
"Yes, good day." He replied, "Lovely to see such a collection in a small town like this."
"It"s a city, friend." The woman replied from inside, "Nords here would chase you out with torches and pitchforks if you call their little city a town."
Glymet giggled and waited in the shop until the woman came out.
"Greetings!" He said bowing to get a tiny bit.
"Greetings to you too." She returned the greeting while wiping her hand in a town and looked at Glymet with a wide smile.
The woman was young and beautiful, seemingly talented in her craft as her hair seemed to be well-nourished and her shelves were full of fresh potions.
"You find all these ingredients in Falkreath?" Glymet asked.
"Isn"t it a big forest at the end of the day?" She replied, "But what might interest you?"
"A Redguard"s hospitality." Glymet said with a laugh.
"Tell you what, handsome! You walk three months in the direction of the mountain, don"t take turns, pa.s.s the orcish castle and you"ll find yourself in a big desert land. There you can get all the Redguard hospitality you need. Right here, I exchange hospitality with gold." She said, not in a bad way, but rather in a light mood to prevent the man from even attempting to haggle.
Glymet nodded with a smile.
"I want to buy some supplies for a skeever infestation in a farm I am working on." He said.
"A good excuse to buy poisons." She sighed.
"And I will buy some of your finest magical potions as well." He said.
"Now we"re talking, dear customer." The young woman said, "Name is Zaria, you can request whatever potions you want."
"Very well." Glymet said and handed over a list of the goods he wanted to her as she took it and turned around to face her shelves.
After a few seconds, he spoke again.
"Do you happen to know of a man that goes by Rathir?"
The question fell on Zaria"s ears and caused her to halt for a moment before looking at him with expressionless eyes.
"Priest of Arkay, find him at the graveyard." She said and turned back to her shelves.
"Yes, I am not particularly looking for the man. I just met him and he"s quite the odd fellow. Something definitely doesn"t feel right about him."
As if her patience had run short, Zaria slammed two bottles against the counter in annoyance.
"I rather appreciate less of a nosy customer. If possible, please pay up and leave." She said.
Glymet always regrets having bad speech skills which he mostly needs Jonrad for thus he had to push further for information this time.
"Really? I heard he"s a customer or some sort of a patron here… maybe a lover?"
"I don"t know anything about Rathir! I"ve already asked you to leave, so I guess we"ll have to do this the hard way."
Without even raising her hands, Zaria launched her fingers against the bottles and they flew at Glymet"s face which caused him to retreat immediately. All he could do was to evade one which exploded behind him in a buff of nasty red smoke and hit the other one with his dagger causing a yellow burst of stink.
Zaria then threw another bottle and in that instant, Glymet managed to redirect it with his hand and catch the one that followed before jumping at Zaria and pinning her down.
"KYAAA!"
"Got you!"
"Help…"
"Not a word!"
Zaria was pinned to the ground with the blade striking through her floor just beside her neck.
"Stop, stop. I"ll tell you everything." Zaria finally shouted as she submitted to the a.s.sa.s.sin.
"Good call." Glymet retreated his weapon and helped Zaria up, "Got to be one scary Rathir to scare a woman like you like that."
"Not as much as you, it seems." She said while touching her neck, "Why are you after Rathir?"
"Why should I be after him? I am merely asking around about the man." Glymet said as he narrowed his eyes, "You can say it is some sort of a debt."
"Rathir? Debts?" Zaria caught on to the lie, "I don"t think he is the kind of guy who deals with loan sharks. He"s a High Priest for Arkay"s sake, he sleeps on a h.o.a.rd of gold."
Running low on patience, Glymet skipped the part where he has to hide his motive and played with the dagger in front of her face.
"Mind being more helpful?" He asked.
"Alright! Alright! What do you want to know?" She raised her hands and backed off.
"Where he stays, where he goes, anything about the rascal."
Zaria looked at Glymet up and down and with a slight grin, she nodded.
"So you want dirt on him."
"I would appreciate it."
"Fine." She nodded, "Rathir is a necromancer."
"Interesting." He said, "How exactly do you know that?"
"Long ago, he used to invite me to meetings… moonlight walks, whatever you call it. I was invited to his merry little band short after but when I found out about his practices, I left his cult."
"Interesting." Glymet smiled, "I am glad he"s just another sc.u.m at the end of the day." He then glanced at Zaria with a malicious intent glimmering in his smirk.
"What do you want more than what I already told you?" She asked in fear.
"Do you know how to get closer to him without being spotted?"
Just that question was enough to give her trouble but now that she thought about it again, this may just be the end of her troubles. If Glymet can just kill Rathir or whatever s.h.i.t he wants to do to him, it may be very useful.
"Tell you what. I"ll let you borrow my old cult robes to sneak into his ritual if you do a little something for me. I have this new poison I"ve been dying to try out. Why don"t you test it on those cultist sc.u.m?"
"I"ll take your robes and your potions, milady."
***
When it comes to a.s.sa.s.sinating, Glymet had a style different than most of those in the business.
He likes it more when it is b.l.o.o.d.y.
Normally not a trait for a Hero… or maybe a trait for every Hero for his purpose is to purge whatever in his way to achieve his goals.
The High Priest of Arkay, Rathir, was such a stepping stone. As Glymet upheld justice in his heart, he didn"t want to kill innocents but Rathir was a betrayer to the Divines. If the Priest of the G.o.d of Death succ.u.mbs to the G.o.d of Undeath, they deserve a thousand deaths over and over again. Glymet would gladly deliver that.
He walked into the Worm Cult shrine where Rathir was gathering his followers that most of them wore the habits of the Priesthood of Arkay. On the main altars were the corpses of aged men who hanged the Amulets of Arkay around their necks which reveals what has befallen the real Priesthood of Arkay.
Rings upon rings of necromancers gathered around the ritual ground and in their center stood a man giving a heated speech.
"In this night, the Necromancer Moon shall arise! On this night, the Worm G.o.d Mannimarco shall accept our sacrifice. By drawing the blood of the zealots to the most hated Arkay, we shall extend our Lord"s grasp. The ghosts shall dance and our Lord will reward us." Rathir shouted and swayed under the moonlight before opening his hands, "Gather round, my children. It is time for the ritual to begin. Tonight, the dead walk!"
"Not so fast." Yet a voice spoke.
Everyone looked at the Necromancer who rudely interrupted the ritual and in an instant, part of the cave fell from the ceiling and targeted Rathir almost flattening him into a smoothie.
Still, almost.
"Your Grace! Move!"
One of the Necromancers wearing Arkay"s Priesthood robes ran towards the man and pushed him out of harm"s way as the stones fell. Instantly, blood and gore exploded around where the stones landed with seven necromancers dying beneath them at least.
"Tsk!" Glymet clicked his tongue as Rathir seemed unharmed and he was now exposed before taking the life he was supposed to take.
"What? You"re not one of us! It"s the a.s.sa.s.sin I was warned of!" Rathir shouted.
"Warned?"
Now that"s interesting!
Someone would warm the a.s.sa.s.sination Target of an a.s.sa.s.sin that only the Dark Brotherhood members could have known about.
Who in Oblivion would that be?!
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