NABC Chapter 397: Chapter XVII: Securing The Chokepoint
Chapter 397: Chapter XVII: Securing The Chokepoint
Chapter 397: Chapter XVII: Securing The Chokepoint
The house thanks Left_Nut_Of_Madara for their most wise and generous support and bids them to enjoy a restful sleep beyond the mines. On a completely and utterly unrelated side
note, today's soup may taste a bit spicy.
(Reyvin's POV)
The Keep of Leyawiin felt almost alive as our forces and those of the rebels swiped through the entire area, every single room and chamber needing to be thoroughly searched before I decided to declare the structure safe and we could finally let our guards down.
The little reception I received in the cathedral was absolutely wonderful for my already unhealthy levels of paranoia.
Not.
I was not a suspicious wreck but the fact that it happened once meant it would no doubt happen again, and so any laxity I previously had in visiting new places was quite thoroughly ruined.
And yet why, oh why, did my heart beat with excitement whenever I remembered shredding that eternal bastard's hand into bits?
'Self evident really, guess I was just being dramatic for the sake of it.' I let out a light snort, immediately drawing attention from the rest of the people seated in what was once Marius' dining hall.
Far too used to my shenanigans, Minthara chose that moment to speak up "What happened in the cathedral, Reyvin?"
"Oh you know, just the usual." I remove my legs from atop the large ornate table and light up a cigar "Overly arrogant little shit decided to sell his soul to Daedra, said Daedra tried use the chance to murder me, opened an oblivion portal, had to hold back an army, that kind of thing."
My nonchalance in retelling what happened made my words fly over everyone's heads for a moment but once they actually registered what I said I was promptly smacked with a veritable wall of questions, disbelieving exclamations, and demands to elaborate.
"He speaks the truth." Corvinus, who had no doubt awoken mere minutes prior, waddles into the room, his shaky hand holding a broken spear but as one would a walking cane "The vile demons tried making their way unto Nirn through Marius' treachery, yet Lord Zenithar saw fit to aid us, and ceased any attempt of the false gods to breach their way into the city."
"Good to see you didn't waste my effort by going to meet your god too quickly." I raise a glass of some acceptably good wine at the young man "I doubt channeling that much power was at all that healthy."
"The Divines shall provide." He huffs with some humor and takes an empty seat without bothering about the lack of invitation.
"About that." Minthara's mildly furious voice draws our eyes as she speaks up "How exactly did they manage to make such a large breach?" Her eyes momentarily flicker to her chestplate, where the Amulet of Kings was "It must have taken them a ridiculous amount of power to do."
"I will not go into too many details about powerful Daedra summoning for obvious reasons." I give pointed looks to the gathered leaders and nobles, mostly eliciting noises of agreement and understanding "But they were summoned through a temporary stopgap, likely aimed at killing me and maybe ravaging the city afterwards before they were forced out."
"So the Daedra were here because of you?" One of the six Legates from the recently defunct council speaks up, not quite daring to sound accusing but feeling such anyway "This whole invasion was to catch you?"
"I know it may sound a bit arrogant." I chuckle "But trust me, those three really hate my
guts."
I see the old man mouth 'three?!' his eyes widening to a ridiculous degree as his gaze moved from me to Corvinus and back to me.
"Reyvin's quarrel with literal gods aside." Minthara cuts in with far too much amusement in her voice "I do believe we should get to the actual reason we have gathered here."
"Yes." Janus Caro nods eagerly "The future of our beloved city."
That he was the first to speak annoyed the Legates something fierce, while those among the rebels of at least some influence merely looked just about ready to start rolling their eyes.
Nodding to Minthara, I held back a grin as I put her on the spot.
"His Imperial Majesty." She begins, sending me a heatless glare "Has given us secret orders to deal with the corruption within this city by any means necessary. Since the corruption has gone all the way up to the Count himself, this makes your coup fully legal under imperial law."
There were a lot of sighs of relief there. Sure the bunch of them knew they weren't about to be lynched for doing this but having imperial approval would no doubt save and or extend their careers for a good bit.
"Seeing as the highest leadership was in need of prompt deposition." She goes on "I will leave the rulership of the city under the temporary auspices of the reformed Council of Legates." The six officers/functionaries perk up while Janus narrows his eyes "Naturally all of your dealings will be investigated and should anything unacceptable be found you will be acquainted with my hammer before you can even think of running."
Cue absolutely terrified gulps and a lot of shivering.
She of course continues as if she didn't just threaten their backsides with a thorough hammering "The position of Count will be decided on at a later date." She gives Janus a pointed look "Such decisions belong to the Emperor himself after all and Marius will be judged by the Emperor himself, no you can not defenestrate him immediately, even if I want to do it myself."
"An excuse used by the locals for eras now." I scoff "Letting them leech the rest of the
province is just unacceptable, you know this."
"Yeah, yeah." She sighs "Still is a shame."
"On that much we can agree." I allow.
"What do we do about Janus?" She asks after a moment "I doubt the little shit will just accept
not being Count and quite frankly removing him before he becomes irritating is too easy."
"I think we should let him rule actually." I shrug, much to her surprise.
Her whole face twitches in disgust "But he is so... worthless"
"He is also a weakling" I point out lightly "An easy to control weakling whose entire
powerbase depends on your good will."
"Ah." She nods "Keeping the city weak and dependent on us while we enact the bridge plan
will make things much easier, won't it?"
"Ah, she can learn!" I exclaim dramatically.
She crosses her arms and pouts. "Hey, Reyvin?" She speaks up after a full minute of companionable silence "Are you sure you
are doing fine?"
"Still jittery about the whole ambush thing." I admit somewhat reluctantly as we near the
middle of the bridge, a cigar appearing between my fingers on mere instinct showing my
actual nerves "I knew it was going to happen at some point but never expected it to be so blatant and forceful."
"They will try again after this." She sighs as we both sit at the stone fence of the large bridge,
only the dead center of it being free enough of buildings that we could look at the horizon on both sides.
"Yeah." I agree "If they did it once, I don't see them stopping, even if I did shred Molag's arm."
She turns to me slowly, her face contorted in an admittedly cute expression of surprise "You did what?" She half asks half hisses.
"Nearly blew the fuckers arm right off." I most assuredly do not giggle like a deranged child as
I mention this "Dumbass tried grabbing me from within the portal and I shoved all of my growing divinity into my sword, bastard didn't suspect a thing before it was too late."
She stares at me for a moment before letting out an annoyed huff, her shoulders visibly loosing tension as she relaxed "Could have just led with that you twat." Chuckling I embrace her in a side hug, my amusement only growing as she blushed at the
relatively simple act of affection "Can't make things too easy for you, now can I?" She just huffs again but pointedly does not untangle herself.
We remained there for a long while, both of us enjoying the view after a long day's work.
Heed, mortal, my command
Dulfill today's stone demand
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