The Ebony Renegades (Skyrim)

Chapter twenty eight

"Ah, the ebony shadow himself, the champion of Azura, Boaithia, and Mephala. It is an honor to finally meet you." the steel plate armored bandit said as he pulled Chrysamere into a fighting stance " I'm sorry but I don't know you, Have we met before? Your voice does not sound familiar." The dark elf spoke back pulling the ebony blade off of his back and started circling his adversary. "No I've never had the pleasure of meeting you before today, I've only heard of you through reputation only. The first child in history to be taken under the tutorship of all three patron daedra of the dunmer." The steel-plated warrior praised it was clear that there was no bitterness in his voice but rather adoration and respect. Before the two could clash the lead crusader merlin walked over before asking the steel plate armored warrior. " You have the chivalry, and training of a true knight, pray tell what is your name child?" The lead crusader asked as the steel plate armored warrior turned his head slightly to look at him. placing Chrysamere into a yielding stance he looked to the crusader before removing his steel plate helmet revealing a young nord with blonde hair a little facial hair and dazzling hazel eyes. "My name is Erin, half son of the Arch-bishop of the crusaders from cyrodill." Instead of fighting why don't you join us in our crusade? This way you can continue your honorable path." Merlin persuaded before the steel plate armored nord nodded before honorably kneeling with his hands outstretched to relinquishing the sword of heroes to the lead crusader who pushed it back into his hands. " A warrior with honor and conviction such as yours has more than proven himself worthy to wield the sword of heroes, however, this nice group is searching for a statue of dibella that apparently was stolen by this group of bandits." Merlin said as the rest of the faction of renegades entered to witness their boss the two crusaders and the steel plate armored nord talking. Erin nodded before walking over to the now-deceased bandit treasure horde and digging out the dibella statue the group was after before walking over and honorably passing it to Ebon-shi. " Please forgive my rudeness for associating your group with lowly bandits I apologize." Erin said bowing his head which Ebon-shi placed an ebony gauntlet hand on his head giving him a light pat on the head as it was clear that the two although about the clash moments ago had developed a deep seed of respect for one another. "Atone for the sin by fighting with honor and dignity, fight honorably with the crusaders and you will be blessed by the nine." Ebon-shi said before the two groups parted ways although one did indeed rob from corrupted powers they were not remorseless killing machines and they especially fought with honor themselves soon when they arrived back at Markarth they walked into the trading post with the young nord woman's dibella statue immediately after doing that, they set up to leave while the sun was at its peak at high noon the group pulled out away from Markarth following the road back toward Karthwestern and rode past giving the breton landowner a wave as they rode past smirking seeing that the youngest silver blood they had jumped was no longer crucified to the tree they made their way to Morthal. They rode through the stone path the beautiful rushing rapids of the river on their right as they rode through the stone-covered road. They rode up the hill which eventually led to them crossing a bridge going over top of the river a perfect place to set up an ambush if they were being chased as all they would have to do is set up a couple of arcane runes which would cause the bridge to collapse and cause anyone who was chasing them over the bridge to go falling into the rushing rapids. As they crossed the bridge they passed a lone imperial soldier acting as a bodyguard for a high-ranking noble on a horse the noble of course gave a condescending snobby comment to which Sabrina in particular was half tempted to shove her ebony mace down his miserable throat. Ultimately she decided that such a snobby entitled piece of shit wasn't worth her time however that didn't stop her from being petty and very subtly bumping a tree making a rotten piece of fruit come down and smash all over the nobles fine clothes and by the time it hits the group was already a good distance away so the imperial bodyguard would at best think that it was a coincidence because they were so far away. As the group went over the hill Sabrina could hardly stop herself from laughing as she could hear the silver-spooned noble cursing like a sailor. As they made it up the hill there was a stronghold on their immediate right which was absolutely infested with Forsworn but when they noticed Gila with them they backed off and let them pass without any trouble it became clear that Gila's name was well respected among the ranks of the Forsworn. Following the river they wrote it down the cliff noticing the bridge crossing the river at the bottom of the mountain they took the shortcut and rode straight down the cliff carefully due to their horses being used to such a treacherous climb and descent it didn't faze them in the slightest. Once they were right next to the river they proceeded following their way and eventually passing a campsite called 'Robbers Gorge' where of course there were a bunch of bandits in the way Gentu took care of them almost instantly by scalding them with a breath of steam which caused them all to drop their weapons screaming in agony as they rode past without a care in the world. As they continued through the winding road making their way towards Morthal they made extra certain to take care of whatever was around them. Just because they were out of the reach and out of Forsworn territory that was no excuse to lower their guard. Salazar continuously used the detect life spell just to scan the area it wasn't long before they came into the marshy swamps that Morthal was Infamous for. Although it didn't have a local blacksmith and since Myra had not made any more silver crossbow bolts yet she would need to make them soon although she could have easily done that back in Markarth However due to her relationship with the silver-blood family, she didn't dare risk an interaction. They came to a fork in the road knowing that their destination was east they went towards the road that went east. As they continued riding the imposing figure of the local stronghold of Fort Snowhawk quickly came into view over the horizon which was a telltale sign they were going the right way. They could easily fortify this as it seemed to be only guarded by skeletons due to it being a very old fort. Deciding to do a public service knowing full well that if there were skeletons roaming about there was a necromancer nearby and the last thing they needed was more undead problems than Morthal already had. They parked their horses a good distance away as Lianya fired a sun-hollowed arrow at the sun the sun flashed and rained down spears of solar energy demolishing the skeletons and necromages outside as the group stormed the undead-infested fort. Gentu took point with Dawnbreaker and Spellbreaker out Gentu, Lianya, and Asadelf utilizing they're anti undead strategy with Asadelf wielding Goldbrand and the Arm of the sun, and Lianya wielding Aurei'els bow with another Sun-hollowed arrow drawn back as the hoard of skeletons ran up the stairs they were blasted into dust by the arm of the sun from Asadelf then another section from the sun hollowed arrow. When the chunk was destroyed Gentu charged with Asadelf and Lianya close behind Gentu slashing with Dawnbreaker when upon contact with the undead skeleton it exploded in a fiery blaze that annihilated the skeleton hoard inside in an instant. When they got to the ground floor Tully jumped through the doorway conjuring a bone colossus along with two skeleton champions that tanked the necromages and skeletons. Tully, Suvvan, Yamma, and Sabrina took the ground floor as the group split to sweep the rest of the inside within the hour the fort was theirs. The place had a forge, an alchemy lab, and an enchanting table the outside had a few weak spots that would be easy to fix and fortify Gila went to chopping down trees to repair the wall with Severin, Salazar, Suvvan, and Lianya outside with her to both supervise and assist in the repairs. Myra followed Yamma and Gentu over to the blacksmith station as Sabrina occupied the alchemy lab making use of all the potion ingredients and Asadelf got to enchanting. Yamma made dozens upon dozens of silver bolts for Myra along with some steel bolts from the pile of steel ingots on the nearby shelf. " Thanks, Yamma you to Gentu. I really appreciate this." Myra said as Yamma and Gentu waved it off as forging was an activity they were good at and they loved doing. A small sweep group consisting of Ebon-shi, Tully, and Shadow-step swept through the prisons to make sure no prisoners or more enemies were lurking inside. Shadow-step instantly pointed out a secret entrance through a flooded section that led outside through a narrow cave passageway taking advantage of the knowledge they would tell the others about the secret entrance to be an emergency exit. But before they could go back they had to block this from sight as it could be easily used as a back entrance to blindside them so they gathered up lots of snow like a snowman before rolling them on top of each other one by one making a snow wall completely camouflaging it from the outside as Tully had used a branch to sweep away their footprints leaving no choice they were there before hurling the branch over the wall and went in through the main entrance which was being booby-trapped by Asadelf casting a combination of invisibility and fire rune magic making the rune completely invisible just as the gate lowered making no way of entering without drawing attention to the trespassers. After everyone was reconvened in the main room Tully went back into the dungeon to finish his sweep before he sensed a familiar presence in the cage farthest from the entrance to the back way. After he locked the entrance to the secret passageway he went over to the jail cell that was hidden behind a screen tapestry which admittedly was a pretty clever trick but not one he hadn't seen before. When he opened the cell door his eyes widened when he saw a very familiar face. " Serana?!"