Hunted
by Casden Belaver
Seda Fastern didn't know why they were chasing her. All she knew is that they were, and that she had to flee if she wished to keep her life. Her Breton blue eyes flicked back and forth, panic ridden, as she moved through the saltrice field. It had been only three days, but it seemed already as if it had been ages. Three days ago she was a prominent member of the Mages' Guild in Old Ebonheart. Three days ago she had a life that made sense, a normal life.
But now, three days later, she was running for her life from a group of ruthless murderers. They killed Hroldgar, she thought with a pang of grief. They took his life as I watched from the shadows because he wouldn't tell them where I was...
Why were they after her? What had she done to invoke the wrath of such heartless people? And who were they, the Morag Tong? She doubted it. She knew some members of the Morag Tong. They were not so needlessly cruel and violent. And besides, Hroldgar had friends in the guild.
Not the Camonna Tong. There was no reason for them to do this. The Camonna Tong didn't kill indiscriminately. Did she have any enemies at all?
Obviously she did. But who would be so vile and insane to do this? A rustle in the stalks of saltrice caused her to pause, and draw her axe. As she drew closer, she saw it was nothing but a rat, which dropped its dinner and began squeaking as it saw her. She was horrified that the squeak might give her away, and reluctantly silenced it with a single swipe of her blade, severing its head. Seda buried the body and covered the blood with dirt- any trace left behind could betray her trail.
Certainly, there were those in the Mage's Guild who disliked her, who were envious of her standing, but that envy and dislike wasn't strong enough to prompt this... was it? Tirshin might... No, not even Tirshin. She was disliked, but not hated. And indeed, none of her Mage's Guild rivals had the power or influence to call an attack without being noticed.
Seda worked her way through the saltrice, hands reaching forward and pulling back rhythmically to clear her path. The rough leaves scraped against her exposed arms, and the loose seeds floating through the air forced her to stifle sneezes. She glanced up at the gray sky and shivered.
And then she remembered. Twenty years ago, her father, Dors, had come home with tears on his face. They were poor, back then, and her father did every job he could get his hands on and still they never had enough to eat. Then that one day he came home, tears on his face, and they were never poor again.
Her father never looked at her fully in the face again. A few days after, he took her mother aside into the bedroom and talked to her for a few moments in low whispers. That was the day her mother left. She had looked at Seda and started crying, and just ran out, never to return.
She had always wondered what had happened that day. Perhaps her father had lied about her. Could it be that he merely didn't want her to know of a shady deal he had made? Yet, he had never seemed close to her since that day. But there was another idea, that was too foolish to imagine, but at the present, nothing seemed too odd to put credit to...
Perhaps... perhaps her father had made a deal with someone, and she was part of that deal. But who had he made a deal with? And for what? Perhaps-
There was a sharp crack, and then darkness.
---
Hunted II
Seda Fastern awoke to the ringing of a bell in the distance. She looked around her and saw she was in her own room, laying in her own bed, with the pillows stacked around her and blankets pulled up to her chin. It had all been a dream...
The blankets were scratchy today, she thought uncomfortably. The pillows a little rough as well. Her head hurt so much... then she realized that she wasn't in her room, this wasn't her bed. She cried out and stood up. The sound was met with another: weeping from the corner of the small dusty room. Seda turned to look, and saw a woman, curled into the corner, shaking.
It didn't make sense. Why would they kill Hroldgar, and then put her in a room where they didn't chain her up? They even had supplied her with a bed. A bed! It didn't make sense. Perhaps she could get information from this female Dunmer. She staggered over to her, and knelt down.
"Excuse me... excuse me..." The woman ignored her and continued crying. "Excuse me... excuse me! Hey! I don't have much time!"
The Dunmer looked up and spat at Seda, tears running down her face, then started shouting "You S’wit! You killed my husband! Get out of here! Get out of here now!"
Fastern didn't understand. Exhausted, she sat down on the bed and leaned against the wall. The Dunmer woman's hard face softened and she began weeping again. Seda turned her head towards the woman.
"I'm... very sorry for your loss, but I didn't kill your husband. I didn't kill anyone..."
This was responded to with a short, harsh bark of a laugh from the Dunmer. She looked up and grinned mockingly through tears. "Didn't kill him? You n'wah, you S’wit, you killed him as surely as if you'd slit his throat. Don't understand? I'd figure you wouldn't. You want to know what happened? My Molek saw you rummaging through our saltrice field like an idiot, so he threw a rock at you to scare you off. What the mudcrabs don't get, you beggars take for yourselves."
"He hit you in the head by accident. And then he felt so bad that he brought you, a stinking n'wah, to our home, to take care of. He didn't leave you there like he should have, to bleed to death. No. He brought you home, and what do you bring after you? Why, my husband's killers, of course. He locked me in here with you, to protect me. Molek was such an honorable man, and he died to protect you. Wouldn't tell them where you were! Pfft! I saw through a crack in the door. "
"Molek saw them coming from a ways away, so he locked me in here and told me to be quiet. Then he picked up his pitchfork and went over to them, and started talking. They stood by the gate, and Molek started getting more and more agitated. Then they stuck a knife in his throat. I saw him die, and it's your entire fault, you stupid S’wit!"
The Dunmer picked up a bucket full of greasy water and threw it at Seda. The water hit her like a solid wall and drenched her. "You ruined my life and took my husband's! Get out! Get out now!" Seda raised her hands in denial, but headed towards the door. The woman resumed crying as Fastern opened the door with a creak and headed out.
The wind whipped her soaked clothes and stung her wet skin. She looked at the pile of crimson-stained peasant clothing by the gate and began to shiver uncontrollably. A tear dropped slowly from her eye onto her cheek, and she stumbled down the dirt path.
It was so cold, so icy cold. Her head hurt so much. She lost track of where she was going, and started thinking about that day, so long ago. Her father... what could he have said? What would have promised those... murderers that was so important that they would kill so many people?
A sudden gust of wind brought her out of her thoughts and forced her to try and make a magical fire to keep warm, but her teeth were chattering too much. Refuge was found in a small opening in a hillock. It began to rain, spattering upon the stone.
She made a fire and closed her eyes, trying to abandon all thoughts of conspiracies and murders, and only that she was back in her house, under her sheets and by a warm fireplace.
Seda Fastern slept fitfully.
---
Hunted III
The sun had set hours ago, yet it was still raining. The wind swept, howling, across the long dark plains, balefully wailing across the small cave opening Seda was holed into by the elements. She had woken as an immature nix-hound had bound into the cavern seeking shelter. It was mere luck that had saved her from the beast; it was too young to do anything but nip at her arm, and she was only strong enough to shoo it out of the cave before collapsing from exhaustion. She couldn't bring herself about to leave the cave and hopefully throw off her murderous trackers, yet couldn't sleep. All Seda Fastern could do was think, and nothing else.
And think she did. She surfaced every memory that could be brought to mind that might help with her present situation. Did her mother say anything to her before she fled the family? Did her father ever mention what he'd done? Did he ever give her any clues? Ever anything that might save her now? There was nothing. No matter how hard she tried, there was merely nothing. She had grown up, played with the other children, eaten dinner with her father every night, and gone to bed and slept. Nothing, there was nothing.
The rain continued to pound the ground outside the cave. Seda shuddered as a gust of cold wind blew in on her. When was the last time she had eaten? The dull pain in her stomach had grown to a roar in her ears and in her mind. She felt around in the pockets of her now-tattered robe to see if there was anything, anything that might save her freezing body. A quill pen: useless. She slipped it back in her pocket. A piece of folded parchment: soaked and unreadable. It was probably just an order of potions anyhow, so she stuffed it in her mouth greedily for the bit of sustenance it might provide. It hardly sated her appetite. The next three things in the pockets were string, a fork, and a piece of saltrice. The latter she devoured hungrily while the former two went back in the pocket. That was all. There was nothing else.
She lay back down, supporting her back against the wall of the cave. The magical fire flickered and wavered at another gust of wind, yet stayed alive. Seda's exhaustion began to win out over her freezing skin and hunger, and as her eyes began to close, she noticed a small movement outside the cavern. Quickly, she leapt to her feet and crouched unsteadily, ready to run. There was another movement, this time closer. Her body tensed, and perspiration hung out on her brow. She could see the outline of something outside through the rain. It crouched down and leapt-
It was the infant nix-hound. It squeaked and nipped at her heel. She began to chuckle at herself, and relaxed back against the wall.
But the wall was not what she had relaxed against. It was the arms of a crouched rogue, ready to intercept her. He grasped her around the neck and shoved a piece of cloth in her mouth to silence her, and then put a sharpened dagger to her throat. "My dear," He said shortly, huskily. "Why do you make this so difficult? Come." The man dragged her out of the cave into the night while rain poured down from the heavens.
---
Hunted IV
Sky.
The word echoed through Seda Fastern's head as she gazed out the window of her room, past the beautiful drapes and finely constructed frame. It had been months since she'd seen daylight, but the sight brought her no emotion. She was too exhausted, in too much pain to feel emotion any more. The man who'd captured her brought her to this place over the course of a week, sometimes in plain view while other times she'd been crammed into a small hollow in the back of a guar-cart, but it had rained constantly. She'd been blindfolded and verbally abused by her captor, but he never laid a hand on her.
The last time she'd seen sky was when she arrived at this tower, so long ago. It had been noon, the sun blazing overhead, and her captor had taken off the blindfold. The light had pierced her eyes like daggers, but she'd seen the magnificent tower, overshadowing even the grandest of mansions or castles she'd seen anywhere else. It was built on the remnants of a Dwemeri keep, but was constructed with some type of seamless shadowy black stone. A guard in a strange type of armor came out and roughly dragged her in through the gate.
The next three months were pain and torture beyond anything she'd ever experienced in Old Ebonheart. There had been no apparent purpose for the torture, and neither the owner of the tower nor the man who had captured her ever made themselves known to her: it had all been brutish thugs, Orcs for the most part, though sometimes an Imperial with a scar running down the length of his face, and once even a goblin performing the beatings.
Then one day after one of the worst torture sessions she'd had in her captivity, she was taken from her cell and dragged up flights and flights of stairs while drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness and laid in this elegant room. When she awoke, it was day, and she'd seen the sky. Everything was calm. Outside, a distant bird flew, turned to shadow by sunlight. Through the window she could smell leaves.
Yet Seda felt nothing. She felt no joy at the fresh air, and no fear of what was to come. When the door opened and a clean-cut Altmer walked in, she barely looked up from the chair she was seated in. "Have you come to torture me?" She asked him as he sat down in a chair opposite to her.
"No," he said, pulling a lock of hair away from his face and tucking it back. "I've come to answer your questions."
---
Hunted V
Seda didn't respond to the Altmer. He sat up straighter and brushed something invisible off his expensive looking trousers, then smiled artificially.
"Don't you have anything to ask me?" She looked up from the floor at him with dead eyes, and then averted her gaze to a spot two paces ahead of the man's feet. He sighed. "Well, here, I'll ask the questions for you."
"First of all, who am I? A perfectly reasonable question, I think. I am Lord Telod Seliph II, master of this tower and the surrounding countryside. I believe you knew my father? No? Well, you really should have, he was quite the man, ah, quite the Mer, I should say."
"Secondly, why have I brought you to harm, after forcing you to this place in such a distasteful and low-handed manner? Believe me, I wish it wasn't necessary, but I feel for you to realize your full potential-"
Seda said nothing and made no movement, but the man stopped suddenly as if she had.
"Yes, your full potential. I knew if I'd let the experiment run its course, you'd be wasted, a wasted life, and that would be a pity. Life is the most precious thing there is, and a wasted life is a terrible thing. There is some knowledge which can be learned through pain which cannot be learned any other way. You now know more about your limits, more about yourself than you ever would have if I hadn't put you through this ordeal."
"Thirdly, what is this experiment I keep babbling on about? Pardon my manners, I really should tell you what this is all about; I must have seemed terribly rude. Now Lord Telod Seliph, my father-"
"You killed my husband."
The Altmer halted, then looked unsure and glanced at Seda, who had raised her eyes at him from the floor. "Um, I'm sorry, I... I don't think I've killed any... are-"
"Hroldgar the Poet; my husband; you killed him."
"What? No, I'm sure not, I haven't killed-"
"Your man killed him as I watched from behind the bookshelf. He took a dagger and slit his throat when he didn't give up where I was hiding."
"Oh, well-"
"He didn't KNOW where I was hiding. He didn't even know I was home from the Mages' Guild meeting. You killed an innocent man trying to bring me to my 'fullest potential'."
Suddenly, she leapt from her chair, toppling it, and grabbed the Altmer by the pale yellow throat and began to squeeze.
"And now you're going to die." He tried to breathe in, but the hold on his neck forced him to merely open and close his mouth like a fish on the beach, running out of air, time, and life. He thrashed out wildly with his arms and legs and knocked over an ornate vase, which was reduced to shards of porcelain after falling to the floor. Two orc guards instantly butted in the door with swords drawn.
Seda violently twisted her body towards the guards and got Lord Seliph in a stranglehold, then dipped down to pick up a piece of the vase, the point of which she pressed against the Altmer's temple, painting a thin line of blood down the side of his face, red against gold, made even harsher by the glare of sunlight from the window. "Take me out of here safely," She said in a low, dangerous tone, "Or I will take this man's life." The Orcs looked at each other, and then at the Altmer. “Do... it...†he managed to croak out. Still unsure, they stepped aside slowly to let her pass.
She started to make her way towards the door, when the man who'd killed Hroldgar and kidnapped her to this terrible place stepped through, a content smile on his face. “Very good, very good,†he said. “I am Lord Telod Seliph II. Please put down my assistant so we can talk.â€Â
---
Hunted VI
Seda Fastern stood there as the faux Lord Seliph trembled in her stranglehold. The true Seliph smiled genially while she pressed a fine dagger of porcelain into his assistant's temple. Blood dripped and collected in a small pool on the floor beneath their feet.
"Put him down, Seda," Seliph said soothingly. "Then we can talk. Do you want to know why this all happened? Talis followed what I told him to say spectacularly well, everything he told you was the truth." She shifted her position on the assistant and pressed the shard deeper into the Altmer's skin, causing him to gasp in pain. "Do you want to know why I brought you here? Why the saltrice farmer died? Do you want to know why your husband had to die, Seda?"
"No."
In one swift movement, she snapped the Altmer's neck and lunged for Lord Telod Seliph II. He moved backwards, but not quick enough- she rammed the shard of porcelain up through his eye socket and crushed his windpipe with a sharp blow to the throat. He fell down to one knee and clutched at his face with both hands, screaming without sound. Seliph slipped down to the floor and began convulsing.
"You were right," She said to the dying man. "There are some things which can only be learned by pain, and now I'm glad you taught them to me." Seda opened up the window, and left.
Hunted [ADDED]
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