Chapter 43: All Eyes, Second Strike
{I could not, for the life of me, find out who the most current leaders of the Thalmor, or the Third Aldmeri Dominion, are. If you know who they are, tell me and I will come back and edit the placeholder names I am giving them}
Titus Mede II, Emperor of Cyrodiil, the seat of power over Skyrim and High Rock, sat at his desk in his chambers in the Imperial City over a hundred miles due south of Skyrim. In his hands were two letters, one was a letter from his dearest general stationed in Skyrim that had been sent via an emergency instantaneous translocation. The other was a letter from the Third Aldmeri Dominion. He had a feeling the two were connected.
"Let's hope this is at least entertaining"
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A bronze-skinned and sharp-nosed Altmer was trudging/running through ankle-high snow on an empty stomach like his life depended on it. His bow was strapped to his back, knife to his waist, and he lacked arrows completely. Despite the weather, he was sweating like a pig and panting like a dog.
Northwatch was at least twenty miles from the Thalmor Embassy, the only place the stranded elf could do as he was asked by the man who spared him and the only place he could find some comfort.
After 5 hours of ups and downs, the hapless elf finally made his way to the mountain behind Solitude and to the front doors of the Embassy.
Two guards, Thalmor Justiciars, noticed the poor sod and immediately approached him.
"What's wrong, son?! Why have you come all this way?!" They recognized the glass armor he was wearing as Northwatch standard.
"I- hah- I have a... a message. It's an emergency!" He finally got out.
"Well spit it out!"
"Bring me to the Elenwen, this cannot be spread around carelessly!" Truthfully he just didn't want to stay out there for too long.
The guards looked at each other but still complied, escorting him to a room in the well-trimmed and modernish building. They knocked on Elenwen's door.
"Madam Emissary, we have a man from Northwatch who says he has an urgent message"
The door was opened and they were led inside by an Altmer woman.
"What's happened, soldier?" She asked.
After listening to a horrific tale the boy spun, she sent a few men to confirm and secure the area before sending an Emergency letter to the Summerset Isles that would break a storm out into a high-profile meeting.
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Yuri made his way to Solitude in his Nightwalker gear while still Shrouded, flying there in less than five minutes he arrived above Castle Dour and stood among the battlements before using ESP to find Tullius in his quarters. He sent a probe to him mentally.
'Hey'
"Whoaaa!!!" Tullius leaped off his bed and reached for his sword before stopping.
'It's you. Don't tell me you've already-'
'Made an example out of Northwatch? You should send a scouting party. There were more men in there than you could've possibly bargained for, and I killed all 106 of them. The Embassy is next after I give them time to tell their friends'
'I hope you made sure they don't point fingers at the Empire or we could have another Great War.'
'It's too late for that, war is what they want. There's no evidence this was the work of an Imperial anyway, I made sure to make a VERY Nord impression. Key cities taken out overnight, that's what I'm capable of. You shouldn't be afraid of war.'
'For all our sakes I hope you're right, Lightbringer. I sent a letter that made quite the impression to the Emperor, should I send another?'
'Tell him Northwatch and the Embassy have been wiped out by one man in a single day. By the time it reaches him, it will be a fact'
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*Bang!*
"What is the meaning of this, Justiciar!"
"The herald was sent urgently by First Emissary Elenwen, she wouldn't lie about this"
On an island due southwest of the major continent of Tamriel lie the Summerset Isles, or as the Thalmor call it: Alinor. The capital of the Isles is also called Alinor, and at the moment is holding a meeting with all the highest heads of the Thalmor government. In a meeting room covered in gold and green fabrics in the flags and chairs, with a marble rectangular table dominating most of the space sat twelve important looking people, presumably Lords of the Thalmor, two representatives from Valenwood, and one representative from Elsweyr. The one who spoke first was the man at the head of the table, Chancellor Fenderin. the Second was to his direct right, a woman by the name of Lady Arannelya. She was one of the highest-ranking people in the room as the one who led the March of Thirst and laid waste to Southern Hammerfell in a bid of conquest that nearly succeeded.
"He's telling me a DIRTY NORD singlehandedly wiped out the entire Northwatch! This must be a plot by the Empire, the Embassy has been compromised!"
"Fenderin," Arannelya interrupted as the voice of reason. "Titus does not have the ability to antagonize us at the moment. His nation is in turmoil and we just marched all the way to Imperial City."
"So what, did Shalidor rise from his grave?! These were over a hundred elite troops!"
"Perhaps the report was slightly wrong... but I don't doubt this was the work of a third party no matter their number. But the Empire will definitely try to use this to their advantage, let's beat them to the punch. The culprit left a Statue of Talos according to reports, we can call for an answer for a breaking of the Concordat and move more forces into Skyrim."
"Anyone else care to add anything?" Fenderin asked the rest of the table.
"Lady Arannelya is most wise, I see no issue save for the fact that the culprit is still at large." Bootlicked a Bosmer ambassador.
"Then we use the Empire to help us find them as penance." Hissed a Khajiti one.
"Great! Send a reply to the Skyrim Embassy. I'll take care of the threat to Titus." Fenderin spoke to the Justiciar who brought the letter who went immediately.
After discussions ranging from dealing with the Civil War in Skyrim to matters of the state in Valenwood, Elsweyr, and Alinor, the Justiciar came back twenty minutes after being sent away.
"Sir, the Embassy... the Embassy isn't receiving my message!"
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A bald man with a short gray beard in royal robes opened the first letter from his General Tullius.
'Hail, Emperor,
It appears that many men of sickly yellow appearance have arrived in too great a number from the North and Northwest. A dear nameless friend has offered to help me cure them the night prior, and amazingly has already done so! He is requesting payment that the cure may spread further, perhaps in more tropical lands. I humbly ask for assistance, for my coffers have run dry.
Your humble servant, Tullius'
'Ha, working in code as always.'
Titus Mede II's eyes grew foggy blue before he looked a bit deeper at the page.
'The Thalmor sent too many men to be keepers of the Concordat at Northwatch and the Embassy, a single man who wishes to remain nameless has destroyed both of them in spectacular fashion and is offering to strike Alinor personally. Hmmm... the only downside would be this man's success because that would mean we owe them far too much. I now know what the other letter is probably referring to, though. A call for accountability and a manhunt, most likely. Very well, let's play dumb and see how far this man can go. No harm to me anyway.'
He folded the letter and destroyed it with fire before moving to write a new one.
'Dear Tullius,
I hear the South is beautiful this time of year. Please give our friend a reasonable sum from the amount he may help us save after he comes back from his pilgrimage. And do send him to the Capital for tea when the time comes'
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Two Justiciar stood in the cold winds in front of the Embassy, spears lazily angled to their sides or used as leaning posts. In the clearing of evergreen trees, Nighttime was slowly creeping forward a few hours before sunset.
"What the hell?" Spoke one guard.
In slow and measured steps walked a man in killer's clothes, but the Nighttime wasn't coming early but being brought by him. He was already 20 feet ahead, and nothing behind him was visible.
"Fucking monster... Halt!-" He was about to give the standard before his colleague started blowing his whistle frantically. He felt stupid for not doing so himself.
With a swish of whistling silver, a long and gleaming sword came into focus, its hilt and the hand that held it concealed in black smoke.
The two guards pointed their spears immediately and the whistle blower immediately charged.
"No one crosses the Thalmor!!!" He shouted.
Behind the gated fence, two slightly elevated walls partitioned to the sides of the entry started being flooded by archers.
They paused, not wanting to kill their own. But for them, it was too late.
When the charger came within five feet, the monster moved in a straight and colorless blur and arrived ten feet in front of where he was originally with his clean sword stretched to his right. The charger paused for a moment, then looked down. His torso tumbled off of his legs with a diagonal cut. A burn mark stretched across the cut, and the man turned to dust.
"WH- WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" The other guard could hardly see him move! What kind of monster?!
With the sound of whooshing arrows and twangs of bows, the Archers behind hardly needed a reason to wait. One of them had already gone back to inform the rest from a mix of fear and intuition.
Yuri leveled his crimson eye's to the arrows coming towards him and merely raised his sword. There were worse ways to practice, his confidence came from overwhelming physical ability but he needed to make up in the skill area. A flaw he planned on filling with the points he gained recently.
Yuri ducked, dodged, and weaved the onslaught of arrows from the nine archers he was multitasking. He was cutting all the arrows that traveled by their lonesome in half for visual practice. It became increasingly easier to track them with the skill he had activated, [Accelerated Processing].
It wasn't draining much mana at all, but he felt like he was on a flight that just took off and the pressure was building in his head and behind his eyes. Nothing he couldn't handle so far.
Yuri launched himself atop the thin fence bordering the Embassy and landed gracefully. The arrows all arrived at once and Yuri used a pulse of Shadow to knock them off course. He then leaped once more onto the wall that protected the archers and sheathed his sword in an elfs brain.
The archers on the other side had to come around to reach him now, he had time. The Archer's got wise and decided to put away the bows, but magic was even worse. Only one decided to take the long-range route and retreated to the courtyard, the other three stayed.
One tried sweeping at his feet with a dagger, Yuri flipped over it and landed on solid ground before blocking another swipe from the same guy with the flat of his blade and getting inside his zone. The elf held his other hand up, but it didn't matter. Yuri swiped his sword diagonally up from left to right and cut the guy's arm off and his heart in half. He was already facing the other two, one of which was charging with an actual sword.
The last archer was firing spells that kinda tickled, and the ones from the other side were almost here. Yuri sideswiped the blade with his own and threw it from his grip while catching the other guy's dagger-holding wrist simultaneously. Dagger man received a headbutt that nearly knocked him unconscious and dislocated the arm Yuri wouldn't let go of.
Yuri stabbed the disarmed man's center chest and the sword went to the other side of the wall. Yuri took the opportunity to channel ridiculous amounts of Shadow into the sword as it billowed from the tip inside the front receiving house. While he did that, he sent a single ice bolt into the forehead of dagger man, then stared at the archer who was switching to arrows once more due to lack of mana. He caught one and returned to sender, smoking with Curse of Horror this time.
'Tsukuyomi!'
The arrow only hit the elf's shoulder, but his eyes grew cloudy and he would never wake up again.
Yuri pulled out his sword. The other siders had arrived and fifteen more mages came out of the main back house.
"Pardon the intrusion. I've come to spread the gospel of Talos!"
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"Alright, I've just sent the message. It should arrive shortly and we'll have our orders soo-"
She couldn't finish her sentence before a standard agent barged into the room with bow in hand.
"We will need assistance! An intruder has killed his way into the compound!"
Elenwen rose from her chair and walked out to the living room. "Who and how many?!"
Justiciars had already begun filing out from their rooms.
"One, Emissary! A- A demon with red eyes!"
Her eyes turned into saucers as she looked again at the traumatized man still sitting in her study. He slowly dragged his gaze back to her in horror, a single tear struggled out from him and gave her her confirmation.
"EVERYBODY MOVE! NOW! KILL HIM AT ALL COSTS!!!"
Out the door, fifteen Justiciars filed as fast as they could with spells and swords at the ready. Five remained behind to guard the Emissary against her will but in line with protocol.
"Pardon the intrusion, I've come to spread the gospel of Talos!" They heard muffled outside while the door opened to let out their men. Elenwen tightened her little hands into fists until her nails drew blood. Her worst nightmare had come.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Reddsaint
Reddsaint Cliff! Writing motivation died. Gonna be intense tomorrow though. I'll add a bit of flair to it.
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