The Demands of the Divines Chapter 7 in The Demands of the Divines

Fakhriya has managed to slip away from the crowd attending the First Planting Reception at the Thalmor Embassy and has made her way to the Ambassador’s private residence in another building on the Embassy grounds.

Fakhriya slipped through the door into the Ambassador’s residence and immediately crouched. The tiled lobby, which looked like a smaller version of the reception area of the larger Embassy building she had just left, was well decorated, but cold and empty. As she pressed deeper into the lobby she heard two male voices from an adjoining room. The men were exchanging cross words, but they did not seem to be aware of her presence. Fakhriya skirted past the doorway where the voices originated and took cover in a secretary’s work area. No sooner had Fakhriya hidden herself away than one of the men, who seemed to have been on the receiving end of a dressing down, left the room she had just sneaked past. Fakhriya could not see the doorway from her position behind the secretary’s desk, but she thanked Mara for her benevolence when she realized the man’s footsteps were moving away from her.

Fakhriya waited a moment. Once she was satisfied the other man was still in the room where she had last been aware of him, she started to look around the secretary’s work area. Delphine had not been very specific about what she hoped Fakhriya might find. Fakhriya’s instructions were to discover if the Thalmor knew anything about the return of the dragons. Fakhriya figured if the Thalmor were responsible for Alduin’s return, there might be some evidence to prove that, but if the opposite were true, she was less certain as to what evidence would prove the Thalmor were not involved.

When an inspection of the secretary’s station proved fruitless, Fakhriya stood upright and moved back into the hallway to reconsider her options. She was startled when a surprised Thalmor mage joined her in the hall. Fakhriya unsheathed her sword and lunged at the mage before he could cast his first spell, but the first strike was not enough to bring the Altmer down. Fakhriya had the upper hand in the skirmish, but she was afraid that the Altmer’s cries would attract unwanted attention. When the defeated Altmer slumped to the floor, Fakhriya heard the sharp clang of something metallic hitting the stone floor. The Thalmor had dropped a key. Fakhriya picked it up and sought both cover from possible interlopers and a new place to search for information. Then she noticed an office adjacent to the secretary’s work station.

Unlike the crisp, austere lobby, the office had a rich, warm décor. The well positioned windows, which undoubtedly took full advantage of whatever light and warmth the afternoon sun provided, were frosted white at the edges in relief to the backdrop of the dark evening sky. Fakhriya noticed an open letter on the desk. The letter was a report from Elenwen to her superiors in Alinor about the dragon attack at Helgen. A brief skim revealed that the Thalmor had been as surprised by the attack as anyone else. Satisfied that she had successfully completed her mission, Fakhriya turned to leave.

As she turned Fakhriya noticed an open safe that contained some loose papers and two red folders. She took the top folder. Delphine’s name was on it. Fakhriya laid the folder on Elenwen’s desk and briefly rummaged through the contents. The Thalmor, apparently, did not know much about Delphine personally and knew even less about her whereabouts. Fakhriya figured Delphine would enjoy the advantage of knowing what the Thalmor knew about her, so Fakhriya stuffed the folder into her messenger bag along with Elenwen’s report. The other red folder was much thicker than the one about Delphine. Fakhriya removed the folder from the safe and opened it on Elenwen’s desk. She gasped when she saw what was written on the top page.

Thalmor Dossier: Ulfric Stormcloak. Status: Asset.

Fakhriya immediately closed the folder. She was surprised to realize her hands were shaking as she picked up Ulfric’s substantial file and forced it into the messenger bag. It made sense to Fakhriya that the Thalmor would have a dossier on Ulfric – the current civil war was certainly enough to draw the Thalmor’s attention towards the rebellious Jarl – but that the Thalmor considered Ulfric an asset was as unsettling as it was confusing. Fakhriya had never paid too much attention to Skyrimic politics, but she thought Ulfric hated the Thalmor. Why would they consider him an asset?

Fakhriya’s anxiety escalated as she considered her options for leaving now that she had recovered the information Delphine needed. When Fakhriya had arrived on the Embassy grounds to join the party, she had hoped that she would be able to leave the same way she came: Wearing a warm coat as she sat in a reasonably comfortable carriage. After all the turmoil, Fakhriya was resigned to consider the second plan, which was based on sketchy evidence that there might be an exit under the Ambassador’s residence. Delphine had indicated that she thought it might even be an emergency escape tunnel for Thalmor operatives, but she admitted to Fakhriya that it might be nothing more than an outflow tunnel for refuse – or sewage.

Fakhriya exited Elenwen’s office, jogged past the secretary’s station and took the first staircase she saw going down. At the bottom of the staircase Fakhriya saw storage shelves and a closed door. She proceeded down the remaining stairs more quietly. She found the door was locked.

Fakhriya smiled as she recalled the key she had taken from the fallen Thalmor mage.

The key fit smoothly into the lock and effortlessly turned. Fakhriya opened the door to a balcony. She looked over the edge of the railing into what appeared to be a stable. Fakhriya froze where she stood when she heard a man suddenly cry out.

Below Fakhriya could see a Thalmor mage seated with his back to her at a makeshift desk. A Thalmor soldier spoke to the mage as she exited what appeared to be a horse stall. With metal bars around it. A prison cell?

It was only then that Fakhriya realized how horrible the room smelled: Straw. Sweat. Blood. Urine.

The soldier picked up some sort of metallic instrument from the mage’s desk and returned to the cell. After a few moments a man cried out that he had already told the soldier everything he knew.

Fakhriya stumbled on a loose floorboard as she reacted to the man’s scream. The mage looked up from his work and turned his head left and right. He then stood and turned around. Fakhriya crouched, but the mage saw her on the balcony. He raised his arms to start a spell. Fakhriya moved forward into the room and to her left against the back wall in the hopes of avoiding whatever the mage was casting. A ball of lightning struck the wall where Fakhriya had been.

Fakhriya noticed an alcove with a staircase going downstairs set further back from the edge of the balcony. Positioning herself at the doorway near the top of the stairs would definitely take her out of the mage’s line of fire. Fakhriya took a moment to refresh her armor spell. She heard the soldier say something to the mage as the mage bounded up the stairs.

Fakhriya moved just inside the doorway to wait for the mage to reach the top of the staircase. She crouched to minimize the target she presented as she retrieved her bow and nocked an arrow in anticipation. The force of the arrow she drove into the mage’s chest as he turned at the top of the staircase was enough to drive him into the back wall. The second arrow ended any further resistance from the mage.

No sooner had Fakhriya released the second arrow than the soldier came clamoring up the stairs. Fakhriya wasn’t quick enough to fire a third arrow, so she dropped her bow and unsheathed her sword. The Thalmor lunged with her own unsheathed blade at Fakhriya, who moved to one side to avoid the hit. Fakhriya tried to slice into the Thalmor’s side but the Thalmor had used the momentum of her own attack to pull herself out of Fakhriya’s reach. Fakhriya assumed a stable forward stance and advanced on the Thalmor, who handily deflected each of Fakhriya’s blows. When the Thalmor tried to advance on her, Fakhriya parried as well as she could, but she was less skilled in defense than the Thalmor.

Fakhriya, however, moved quicker than the Thalmor.

When Fakhriya had nearly reached the door where she had entered the room, she suddenly dodged hard to her left. The Thalmor reacted quickly but lost her footing on the loose floorboard where Fakhriya had stumbled earlier. Fakhriya sliced the Thalmor in the thigh nearly from behind. The soldier continued to struggle, but Fakhriya had gained a decisive upper hand and made quick work of the soldier.

Fakhriya retrieved her bow, stepped over the dead mage, whose body crowded the landing, and made her way downstairs.

On the mage’s desk Fakhriya found a half-written report on the knowledge extracted from an informant. There was another red folder similar to the ones Fakhriya had found in the office upstairs. The name listed in the dossier was Esbern. He was described as a member of the Blades. Fakhriya wondered if Delphine knew him as she placed the third folder into her bag.

Fakhriya looked up from her activities when she heard a man moan.

She walked to the edge of the cell and tentatively peered around the corner to see inside. A human was chained to the wall by his wrists. His arms were fully extended as the bulk of his weight was slumped onto his knees, which barely reached the floor. The man wore pants made of rough spun burlap but he had no shirt. His face was discolored and swollen. Sweat and blood ran in intermingled streams along his face and chest. He looked exhausted.

Fakhriya slowly advanced into the cell as if she were afraid the man would attack her if she startled him.

“Please leave me alone,” the man moaned as he struggled to lift his head to face his tormentor. “I swear, I have already told you everything I know.”

When he finished speaking, the man let his head fall until his chin rested on his chest. Fakhriya immediately regretted saying the first thing that came to her mind.

“Tell it to me again.”

“There’s an old man,” the prisoner said. “He lives in Riften. He could be the Esbern you’re looking for, but I don’t know. I just know that he’s old and seems kind of crazy. That’s all I know.”

There had been impatience in the man’s voice when he started his explanation that deteriorated to a pleading whimper by the time he finished. Fakhriya suddenly remembered that she was carrying some potions. If she could give the man some relief, maybe he could tell her how she could get him free.

“You cannot escape us,” said someone who was running on the balcony. “And we have your friend, too.”

“I’m dead anyway,” Malborn yelled. “Just go.”

“Shut up,” a third person yelled to Malborn.

Fakhriya ran out of the cell and looked for a place to hide. She found cover behind some barrels in a dimly lit storage area. Two Thalmor soldiers came spilling onto the lower floor from the staircase. Fakhriya could see Malborn. One of the Thalmor had him by the arm and led him to the mage’s desk. It appeared Malborn’s hands were free. The other Thalmor ran into the cell where the prisoner was. When she realized only the prisoner was there, the Thalmor turned around. Fakhriya fired an arrow into her.

The room exploded with a fireball.

Contrasted against the orange of the flames Fakhriya could see the silhouette of the Thalmor with an arrow in her throat. Fakhriya fired a second arrow into her and she fell prone. Fakhriya could hear Malborn screaming and could smell burning flesh as a result of the fireball, but she could not see where the Thalmor soldier who had cast the spell was standing. Fakhriya agonized as a second fireball exploded. She wanted to save Malborn but she didn’t want to risk exposing her location or killing Malborn herself by firing without a target.

As the flames from the second fireball dissipated, Fakhriya could see that Malborn was dead. She bowed her head and shut her eyes tightly to stop herself from crying. When she opened her eyes and raised her head she saw a key on a cord hanging from a nail. She looked around to see what the key might be for and noticed a trap door on the floor. Fakhriya took the key and opened the door. Fakhriya could hear the Thalmor soldier running towards her as she lowered herself into whatever was below.

There was nothing comforting about hearing the Thalmor laugh as she locked the door over Fakhriya’s head.

Fakhriya cast a spell that produced a blue orb which she threw to her left. The orb stuck to the wall and created a glow with the illuminating strength of a candle. Fakhriya found herself in a cave. As she looked around she saw a small, round wooden table and a chair. There was a candle in a holder on the table, but nothing to light it. Opposite the ladder Fakhriya had just descended there was a path going deeper into the cave. The opening was illuminated but it was only a short distance to a bend that blocked the light behind Fakhriya as she went around it.

Beyond the bend Fakhriya could see a dim light source below her position and to her right. The air was damp and cold. She cast a second orb and tossed it to her right. The light revealed that Fakhriya was standing on a ledge. She walked to the edge and cast another orb to see how far the drop was.

Before the orb hit the ground a frost troll emerged from under the ledge. It was not a sheer drop to the lower ground, but the frost troll was unable to reach the lowest protruding rock to hoist itself up to Fakhriya’s level. The creature howled as it darted left and right and flailed its arms wildly. Fakhriya fired four or five arrows into the creature’s body before the frost troll found the assault annoying enough to retreat to the safety of what Fakhriya assumed was the entrance to the cave.

This left Fakhriya with a problem. She could no longer attack from the safety of the ledge if the creature maintained its cover, but she also had no prayer of defeating the monster alone in straight hand-to-hand combat if she jumped down to the lower level. Going back the way she came, of course, was not an option.

Fakhriya fired a few pointless arrows whenever the creature peered from around its hiding place. Then she got an idea.

She cast a new orb to ensure there would still be light if the earlier orbs dissipated. Then she fired a few more arrows at the entrance of the cave to drive the frost troll deep into cover to buy a few moments of time. She jumped down to the lower level and moved as quickly as she could to a point directly in front of the cave’s entrance. As anticipated the frost troll had moved back into the cave to intercept Fakhriya as she came down. The creature lifted its arm high above its head and swung down as Fakhriya shouted.

“Wuld nah.”

Fakhriya ran with the force of the thu’um out of the cave into Divines only knew what. She staggered as the force of the thu’um dissipated but she continued to run under her own power. After running some distance, Fakhriya embraced a pine tree and gasped to catch her breath. She thanked Mara that the frost troll had not followed her. She turned around to look up the face of the mountain but could not see the Embassy from her vantage point. Down below she could see the road to Solitude.

Fakhriya was nearly bouncing with joy as she headed down the hill to the road. A deep growling stopped her cold. The mountains near Solitude were home not only to bears but also to sabre cats. It had already been a long night. Fakhriya did not want to confront whatever this growling creature was. Suddenly walking the open road did not seem like such a good idea.

Fakhriya carried her bow at the ready as she darted back and forth between the trees just out of sight of the road. The snow muffled most sounds, but it seemed to amplify others. Fakhriya’s heart was pounding relentlessly. At some point she realized her feet were cold from trudging in the snow. Despite the growing discomfort of a long journey made even longer by avoiding the easy passage of the cobbled path, Fakhriya was too frightened of exposing herself to hungry animals to take the more comfortable option.

It was not until Fakhriya saw the warm glow of the first lamppost at Solitude’s docks that she gave up her cover. She could not resist skipping part of the way to the doorway of the access tunnel between the docks and Solitude’s open air market.

“Some Dragonborn hero I turned out to be,” Fakhriya muttered to herself with a self-deprecating chuckle as she made her way along the tunnel and into the city. She couldn’t think of a single song that praised a hero for skulking in the woods like frightened rabbit.