Chapter Fourteen: Teeth Gilding
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Raven Rock Mine
Reaver Nenya
Things were changing, and they changed fast. The mine wasn't just a fortified place for them to fall back to anymore -- it was connected to a whole network of tunnels and caverns. The ancient Nords linked their barrows together in a way the Dwemer would appreciate. Entire settlements of theirs were had underground -- Damphall, Bloodskal, White Ridge, and Raven Rock were all linked together now. She could go from the shores all the way to the frozen valleys with walking if she cared to.
Nenya didn't know what to make of the changes.
Most of the gang didn't, but they followed the boss because he'd looked out for them. The ancient Nords followed him because he was an object of religious significance.
The fact that they might be correct had the gang talking. Such as it was when she came into their cafeteria. What had originally been just a dining hall for the gang with a kitchen area had grown with more mages to work the stone. The two gangs had arranged a meeting there, to talk without the ancient Nords around.
Star patterns had been added to the roof, the ancient Nord mages and Nelos could just change the colors of the rocks to make them appear. There was an actual door to the cafeteria added.
The old gang was there, eating with the new batch of reavers the boss had brought in with Dukaan and his ancient Nords.
"So, let me get this straight." An Orc from the new batch scratched his head and pinched his face up from thinking. "Your boss… can bring the dead back to life."
"Aye," Rudrasa explained, like she was irked by the very question. She sipped an urn of sujamma without a care.
"And move the earth around like no one -- not even these ancient Nords, brought back to life by your boss -- thought possible. And he knows where pretty much all the mineral wealth on this island is?"
"Not hearing anything we didn't explain earlier, you know."
The Orc leaned forward, elbows on knees, to try and make her understand. "All of that is true -- and… you're sure he's not some kind of god in mortal form?"
Rudrasa scoffed, and gestured to the old gang to get them on her side. "You lot think if the boss was a god, he'd make himself that short?"
While they laughed, Nenya remembered the Northshore incident. Weapons and animals used as weapons -- turned to dust. Sure a mage could do that, but -- with words? And with all the knowledge the boss had, which he should have had no way of acquiring, but turned out to be true….
"And what if he is?" She asked, and got the two groups looking at her. "If he's not a god, he's our boss. If he is a god, he's still our boss." She looked at them, her face set in stone. "He's the reason we're here. Most of you lot woulda been drinking iron by now," she swept her arm at the old gang. "Me, Hakar, Briras -- we'd be torn apart by spriggans by now." She looked at the newbies. "And all of you would be right where we found you."
"But," the Orc said again, "if he is a god… don't we need to pray to him? Make sacrifices? Something?"
"Idiot, he's been a prisoner most of his life." Her words echoed in the cavernous cafeteria. "I've seen the rubbing scars on his wrist from where they had the shackles. The reason he hates House Redoran so much is they ruined his life. Ruined most of all our lives."
"And he also has ears to be hearing people talking in the middle of the night!" Farri's voice called out from behind them. There was the boss, in his nightshirt and his false eye out of its socket. "There is much work for everyone to be doing come morning, sleep is needed. Yet Khajiit sees you all here, drinking and eating."
The two gangs rushed to explain themselves, talking over each other in a dull roar that was only put an end to when Nenya approached the boss.
"The newbies want to know if you're a god. And if you are, if they should worship you."
Farri flicked his ears back, genuinely insulted from the look of things. He leaned around to address the newbies without Nenya being in the way. "Excuse please, does Khajiit look like a planet? Or a moon? Or a moonlet? No? Then he is not a god!" He leaned back and looked up at Nenya. "There are requirements to being a god, yes no? Checks on a list, Most important of all is having celestial body -- up in the heavens. At least in Aurbis, it is." He shrugged. "Is hard enough to be Khajiit, let alone god of something."
"There, question answered." Nenya turned to face the two gangs, her body language a mirror of Farri's. "Anything else?"
The gangs were silent.
"Then, since you all don't want to go to sleep right now, Khajiit will be asking a question." Farri tapped Nenya on the thigh and pointed to a seat. Once she'd sat down, he continued to speak. "We are not just a gang, anymore. Right now, the people in these tunnels are the major power on Solstheim." Farri, small as a Riekling but with a massive shadow cast by the gang's candles, paced in front of them.
"Tomorrow -- Khajiit, Nelos, and the Dragon Priests will go to Kolbjorn Barrow. We will open it up, and wake Ahzidal. Dragon Priests believe Ahzidal can create magic items to allow communication, until they learn Tamrielic and you all learn Dovahzul." The boss flicked his hands as he walked. "Kolbjorn is well preserved, many draugr will be there to resurrect." He stopped and looked at them. "Khajiit needs people willing to help them learn the ways of the world. Khajiit needs people who will keep the peace while he goes to Skyrim to bring more trade to Solstheim."
Nenya felt a pit of fear grow in her belly. The new gang members were reavers as much as their gang, aye, but she didn't know them. She didn't know if she could trust them with her life, or if they would trust her with theirs.
But a couple weeks ago, that had been true of Adives' gang too.
"Khajiit wants to turn this gang into a clan." He stood still and looked them over. The fact he was in a nightgown and had only one good eye to look at them didn't mattered any. If he wanted to be as vicious as Golven or Adives, there was nothing anyone could do to stop him. "Being a clan -- we would be kin. When I die, you would all gain inheritance. It would be nice, if we could be as family but Khajiit will not mandate it." He was silent for a minute, to wait for questions it seemed.
When none came forth, he pressed on. "Mostly, to be a clan means we are a group. We have group negotiation power -- all y'all would have this one's strength to barter with, and this one would have your skills to barter with. As it was when this one took over Adives' gang, all reavers present have a vote on this -- and Khajiit's leadership."
Nenya had listened, and considered her stance. To have a clan, a family, again -- it would be like the best days of her mercenary company assuming nothing went to shit.
Of course Hakar had to cut into the seriousness of people's contemplations with humor. "I suppose I could call the lot of you 'brother' and or 'sister'." He crossed his arms and smirked. "Just don't ask me to babysit, I'm awful with kids."
A few of the newbies chuckled, mostly the humans but also their Orc.
Rudrasa downed the rest of her sujamma and slammed the urn on the table. "Alright. All in favor of that one-eyed freak of nature leadin' us?" She pointed at the boss without looking at him, so she didn't see how he flinched at that.
The ayes won out.
"And on this fetching clan business?"
They ayes won out again.
All eyes turned to the boss. "What'll we call ourselves -- the clan name, and all that?" Nenya spoke for the group as the rest of the old-guard gang members kept Rudrasa from opening another urn of sujamma.
The boss tapped the side of his face a couple times, then smirked. "This one thinks… Gold-Tooth for clan name. Yes no?"
The ayes won out a third time.
--
Kolbjorn Barrow
Zahkriisos
After thousands of years, the three adjunct priests of Miraak were together again.
The star-wife was exhausted from the extensive use of the thu'um to clear the ash out of the barrow, and then revive Ahzidal's followers. He was on the floor, panting while his elf follower guarded him.
Not without cause, because Dukaan and Zahkriisos had moved to float between the star-wife and Ahzidal as the thu'um dragged him back to life.
His withered form swole visibly with bulging muscles. His skeletal hands took on their familiar size and scar-covered appearance. From beneath his red mask, his flowing white beard and hair emerged. He said nothing for a few minutes after the change stopped. He examined his hands, in wonder at their flesh.
"Brother?" Dukaan asked with his hands coated with ice magic. "Are you in there? Has the madness left you?"
Zahkriisos mirrored Dukaan's actions with his lightning. Ahzidal had been a raving lunatic when they last saw him alive -- a rabid dog Miraak would unleash on his enemies. As he glanced around the room, Zahkriisos saw that even Ahzidal's own followers cringed in fear from his every movement.
The fire mage collected himself, and rose into the air to join them. "It was so boring to be a Draugr," he said with a gravelly voice. "And now this...." He looked at his hands, he looked at his fellow adjunct Dragon Priests, and down at the star-wife. "This is interesting."
"You are returned to Nirn by the grace of a star-wife. As we all are." Zahkriisos did not lessen the itensity of the lightning he held. "Will you join us in their service, or remain loyal to Miraak?"
"Miraak? Bah, he hasn't had an original thought in centuries." Ahzidal swept his meaty hands dismissively. "As with all simple minds, when stretched out to infinity he loops in the same thoughts on a fixed cycle. He won't even know we're free of him until he finishes his current script."
"Which is not, brother mine, the answer you were asked for." Dukaan intensified his frigid aura. "Will you join us? Or no?"
The fire mage looked down at the star-wife and gestured with his hand. Too late, they realized Ahzidal had used Telekinesis to yank the star-wife from the ground, and brought him to Ahzidal's hand.
Farri immediately bit Ahzidal's hand, hard enough that blood poured from around his fangs.
"This is a star-wife? Interesting." As if the cat's fangs and claws were irritations, he moved the cat around to examine him. "Hmm. Lost a fight to a werewolf, it looks like. But no infection. Certainly lends itself to being a divine creature." He pulled up one of Farri's legs and looked up his robe. "A male? Are you sure this isn't Magno?"
While Farri kept biting, he pulled down his robe and kicked Ahzidal in the mask repeatedly while Zahkriisos and Dukaan remained still. Their powers to destroy would stop Ahzidal if he wad still mad, but Ahzidal's power to create and power to change exceeded theirs. As long as the star-wife wasn't harmed, all was well.
"Please stop manhandling the divine being, brother," Dukaan muttered, at the end of his patience with Ahzidal.
The fire mage grabbed the star-wife by his tail and started to tug on it. "I'm just examining the star-wife, if 'he' objects he can -- "
"Force! Balance! Push!"
Farri released his bite on Ahzidal's hand to howl in pain at the tail-tugging, then took a deep breath prior to the Shout.
Ahzidal was there one moment, and gone the next -- taking part of the star-wife's robe with him, and leaving his mask as he vanished. An Ahzidal-shaped hole appeared in the wall at roughly the same time, seconds before it collapsed and the whole barrow seemed to slant from the displaced ash and rock.
Zahkriisos had never seen a use of Unrelenting Force that caused such rapid displacement. He automatically caught the star-wife in unseen hands as he tried to parse if Ahzidal could survive such a thing. He passed Farri down to the elf woman Nenya when she approached him.
After the echoes of Farri's shout faded from the barrow, the stone began to move again. However, unlike prior, they moved back to where they had been originally. The barrow's roof solid back to its proper height, and stones knit back together from unseen hands.
As the stone wove back together, Ahzidal emerged from the hole he'd left. His grey eyes shined with delight, he had blood dripping from his ears and mouth in addition to his new wounds.
"That was a strong thu'um," the fire mage said and floated to them again. He collected his red mask with Telekinesis and donned it again. "How very interesting. I will serve this star-wife, as you do."
Dukaan and Zahkriisos lowered their elemental magics, and drifted down to the ground. Ahzidal followed.
"I don't suppose the first thing you do is make something so we can understand their language?" Zahkriisos curled his lip under his mask. "It's so… inelegant."
"That depends, can I trust my brother to give me some of his enchanted ice?" Ahzidal asked the skinniest of the three priests with his hands on his hips. His blood continued to flow, without notice or care from the fire mage.
"Say please," Dukaan responded and mirrored the gesture. "And stop bleeding on the floor."
"It's my floor, I'll bleed on as much of it as I want. Nah! Nyeh!" Out of spite, Ahzidal collected some of his blood and threw it around the chamber.
"You are thousands of years old, why do you still behave like a chi -- ack! Blood on me!" Dukaan rapidly froze the offending liquid and scraped it off his robe. "This robe was a gift from the star-wife!" He made ready to hurl spells at Ahzidal.
"Could! You! Not?!" Farri, fed up with their antics, shouted at the top of his lungs -- enough to send him into a coughing fit.
"The two of you are debasing us all in front of the star-wife," Zahkriisos said with clear disgust for the siblings. "We are leaders of our people, voices of the ancients brought to an unfamiliar future. You," he pointed at Dukaan, "provide the enchanted ice. And you," he pointed at Ahzidal, "use it to help us speak this ugly modern tongue."
The two grumbled, but obeyed.
--
Raven Rock Harbor
Nenya Gold-Tooth
Introducing the hundred-plus Atmorans to Raven Rock had been a struggle. With the third dragon priest, they started to have amulets and rings which allowed each group to understand one another.
A blessing and a curse, because she could finally talk to their rowdy friends -- but they could also talk to her.
It had never been clearer that most of the former Draugr were late teens or in their low twenties than when she talked to them. The boss -- or rather, clan-head -- had much the same reaction. They were young, impulsive, and powerful. None of which played well with each other.
At least the Dragon Priests were able to reign them in when Farri wasn't around. And through their repeated differement to her -- so was Nenya.
That made for bitter medicine as she walked with the boss for the harbor. "Ahzidal taught Nelos and Khajiit that 'summon bird' spell, so you can send this one updates or requests for advice when needed." Farri talked to her as he watched spools of spider silk, samples of their gems and gold, and a few well-hidden samples of ebony and stahlrim loaded onto a Khajiiti sloop.
'Bandaari Girl', the ship was called. Nenya knew enough to know that was a reference to the popular tavern song.
"You won't be gone long, right?" Nenya asked, as she rested her hand on the hilt of her scimitar. Gods, it felt like years since Fadar had tossed it at her.
"Not long, no." Farri shook his head. His voice was a weak rasp -- sore from all the word-magic he'd used. "He is going to tell Jarl of Solitude about clan formation -- and hopefully convince traders to send people to Solstheim to do business. Along with delivering this holy thing," he reached into his bag and pulled out the faceted orb he'd gotten from Bloodskal Barrow. "Should not take long, no." Back in it went.
"Alright. I'll keep the mine from catching fire, and keep the Nords from going through your stuff." The clan-head had been vehement about keeping the three large black books they'd recovered from the barrows under lock and key. He reminded her of it again. "The key stays in a locked chest, the key to which is in another locked chest, and the key to that one is be hidden in the spiderpit -- I know, Farri."
"Alright." Farri held up his hands. "He will trust you have it handled." He smiled at her, proud -- something someone his age should never have to be of someone Nenya's.
But she didn't rebuke it, the life she had at present beat the shit out of living in a wrecked ship.
She glanced up at the Cathay Khajiit who leered at them from atop the cabin of the Bandaari Girl. That 'Dulini', who stalked the clan-head through town. "And I trust you not to let that fetcher skin you in the night."
"Khajiit will do his best -- but he can always grow new skin. He will be even uglier, but he will live." The smile he gave her became brittle.
Nenya rubbed her forehead. "Rudrasa was drunk, she's apologized."
"And this one forgave her. Still, she spoke the truth." Farri shrugged. "This one is… ugly. He has to learn to live with that. At least, for now." He sighed. "It will make negotiations harder, but eh. No helping that, yes no?"
All around them, Raven Rock was alive. Alive in a way Nenya hadn't seen in decades. With gold from their mine, silver and iron from Damphall, and gemstones aplenty, there was commerce in the market again. The newcomers, hunters who were there for some event, brought in fish, meat, and hides. There was color in the cheeks of locals, and smiles on their faces.
Instead of Redoran Guard looking down their nose, there were Nords in Draugr armor, or Gold-Tooth former reavers talking to people, pointing them where they needed to go.
Even still, most of the city stood empty. Entire districts were covered in dust and cobwebs, literal dozens of homes vacant. Solstheim still had no children -- no visible sign of a future. All the growth that happened thus far wasn't enough. And Raven Rock was one city on the island -- there was still plenty of room in the city-tombs.
Gods did Nenya hate that word. If she'd been raised in Morrowind like a normal Dunmer, perhaps she'd accept that sort of thing. But being from Summerset, it made her feel squicked -- to borrow one of the clan-head's odd terms.
Nenya knew, in her head, that Farri going out to settle Daedric matters and get them more resources to grow with was vital.
She crossed her arms and looked down at Farri. "Now, as the older one -- there are some things I should say while you're still here to listen to me. What my folks told me when I first left home." She pointed at him. "Don't come back pregnant, that's most important." While he smirked, she added a second finger to her pointing. "Don't kill anyone important enough to be avenged." And a third finger. "Don't get into the skooma trade." She raised her eyebrows at him. "I'm serious on that one."
"Khajiit will endevor to abide by such strict rules." He gestured for her to bend down, and then encircled her in a hug when he did. As soon as she returned the hug he whispered into her ear. "Don't let those Nords explode our home."
"I'll do my best," she whispered back. "But they're maniacs."
After that, she stood on the docks as Farri boarded the Bandaari Girl. She remained in the same spot as the sloop pulled away into the Sea of Ghosts and became a dot on the horizon.
"I should go pray at the Daedra temple for them to have a safe voyage." She nodded to herself, as that seemed reasonable. But paused. Which one of the 'good' Daedra was least likely to get Farri killed for fun, again?
---
I based Ahzidal's physical appearance on Gwyn the Lord of Sunlight, by the way.
Don't try to parry him. It will not go well for you.
The name Gold-Tooth comes from a D&D thing me and my friends would play. My monk, my friend's wizard, and another friend's dread necromancer would be leaders of 'Goldtooth Conglomerate'.
