The bridge leading up to the College of Aldmeri Propriety (yes, I had to write that name down) is quite impressive. The wood elf Baham is once again out in front of the bridge by her cart (I assume it’s her cart) with a couple of delicious-looking pies sitting in front of her. I’m not sure if they were supposed to be for sale or not, but I’m starved after the walk from Firsthold and fighting Daedra and I forgot to eat lunch, and she’s happy enough to take money for them.

“How did it go in Firsthold?” Baham asks.

“We killed the traitor and stopped the Daedric invasion,” I say around a bite of my pie. “All in a day’s work.”

“Ugh, Neri, don’t talk with your mouth full,” Eran mutters. “You don’t have to act like you were raised by barbarians.”

I swallow, and chuckle. “Sorry.”

“If nothing else, I can attempt to teach you proper table manners,” Eran says.

“Anyway, we can regale you with the whole story later,” I tell Baham. “What’s the situation here?”

“It hasn’t changed any since you were here last,” Baham says. “This doesn’t seem very important next to doing battle with Daedra, but I’m glad you came back nonetheless.”

I pull out an actually-official paper I got Ayrenn to give me when I told her about the potential issues here. (More accurately, she let me write any stupid thing I wanted on it and gave it her official seal and signature. That was fun.)

“I even brought some fancy paperwork to help open the door if need be,” I say. “There are very likely more people involved with the Veiled Heritance plot who may be at the college here. So not to worry. This is actually what we’re supposed to be doing anyway. Wow, that sounds kind of weird when I say that.”

“That you’re not just poking your nose into everything because it’s there?” Eran asks.

We bid her good day and make for the college.

“Just so you know, I’m blaming you if A-name isn’t still there,” I tell Eran lightly as we cross the bridge.

“You really don’t mean that,” Eran says with a smirk. “The situation in Firsthold was rather more pressing, though. Besides, even if they got away, how much trouble could one person cause?” He pauses. “Don’t answer that.”

We head through the college grounds, eavesdropping at the not-particularly-quiet discussions going on around us. If they can even be called discussions. The students are all Bosmer and Khajiit, and they’re all being berated by the Altmer teachers about how worthless they are. At this point, I just have to sigh.

“This all seems so counterproductive,” Eran mutters. “What I don’t get is why these Bosmer and Khajiit are putting up with this?”

“Because they might get thrown in the cave otherwise,” I say. “Whatever this cave is.”

“I’d like to think Altmer are better than this,” Eran says. “Better than simply being bullies. Isn’t this sort of behavior beneath us?”

“You’re welcome to tell these ‘teachers’ that if you like,” I say. “Though I doubt it will get you anywhere.”

As we approach, one mer in armor tells us, “Sorry, we’re not hiring new teachers right now.”

Eran scowls. “Well, maybe you should be.”

I clear my throat. “We work for the Queen herself and she has sent us to conduct an inspection of this facility.” I hand him my paperwork.

“And so far, we don’t like what we’ve seen,” Eran adds.

“Ah. Well. I am Tanion, the headmaster of this facility,” he says, raising an eyebrow at my document as he reads it over, then passes it back to me. “Are our instructors not being strict enough? The lesser races are so difficult to keep in line sometimes, but we will whip them into a shape suitable for the Thalmor, I assure you.”

“We’re not setting a particularly good example for those lesser races here, from what we’ve seen,” Eran says. “I mean, look. I believe in Altmer superiority as much as the next mer, but we can’t be behaving like this. We need to hold ourselves to higher standards as well. We can’t be calling people worthless to their faces if we expect to turn them into soldiers.”

“I see,” Tanion says evenly. “Well, I will certainly take the advice of the Queen’s inspectors under consideration. Why don’t you tour the facility some more, sit in one some classes, and test our combat trainers? You will see that everything is above board here. Yes, we are strict, but we will get results without coddling people simply because they have fur or are short.”

“We’ll be certain to take a thorough look around, Headmaster,” I say smoothly.

Eran takes on an increasingly sour expression as we explore the facility. A group of wood elves are being forced to repeat that they renounce the Green Pact (whatever that is) and that they acknowledge the Altmer as their betters. A terrified Khajiit is being ordered to tuck in her tail. She’s a brown-furred Khajiit with red hair who reminds me of a female version of Razum-dar.

“This is painfully embarrassing to watch,” Eran hisses to me. “Why is any of this necessary?”

“I’m glad you’re here, Eran,” I say.

“Why, because I needed to see this?”

“No, because if I weren’t listening to you freak out about this, I might have started hitting people by now and we’re not done investigating yet. Oh, hey, look what I found.” I hold up a book with the words Aranias’ Diary stamped on the front, and flip through it. “Very interesting! It seems our dear Headmaster Tanion works for the late High Kinlady Estre. He probably doesn’t know she’s dead yet.” I continue reading. “They went to Quendeluun? Did you see them there?”

“No,” Eran says. “Maybe. I didn’t exactly ask the name of everyone involved there. Although it does ring a bell, now that you mention it, but I think you’re pronouncing it wrong.”

“Probably. Well, either they’re dead along with everyone else there, or they went to Greenshade like they were hoping.” I toss the book in my pack. “Either way, they’re not here and for some reason left their highly incriminating diary behind.”

“If they went to Quendeluun, they were probably already long gone before we came by here the first time,” Eran says.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

We head back to Tanion for a little chat. (He probably wants us to go spar with the sparring people, but I don’t care and he’s probably not actually checking anyway.)

“So, how is your inspection going?” Tanion asks.

“Oh, we’ve been finding some interesting things already,” I say. “By the way, my condolences on the death of High Kinlady Estre.”

“W-what?” Tanion is taken aback.

“It’s unfortunate that she choose to throw in her lot with the Daedra,” I say. “Can you believe it? A kinlady of her stature turning out to be a Daedra worshipper! The scandal!”

“That—that’s ridiculous!” Tanion sputters.

“I could hardly believe it myself,” I say gravely. “Fortunately for you, we have detected no signs of Daedra worship here so far, although as you might imagine, we will deal with it harshly should we discover it.”

“Of course, of course!” Tanion says quickly. “We won’t tolerate that sort of blasphemy here!”

We move on and once we’re out of earshot, Eran snickers. “Did you see the look on his face? The Veiled Queen got caught trafficking with Daedra! Reverse harder!”

I politely refrain from pointing out that Eran did exactly the same thing. Baham is coming up to us anyway, apparently wanting to show us some more bad stuff. Students have been injured in training, and not just in accidents. Not just in things they’re even pretending were accidents. Since we’re inspecting the place anyway, she sends us to collect and distribute medical supplies.

The Khajiit named Nurad panics when he sees us come inside one of the dorms, begging us not to hurt him and pleading that he doesn’t know where these supplies came from.

“We’re not here to hurt you,” I say. “Baham sent us.”

“Altmer?” Nurad says. “How does this one know you were not sent by Tanion?”

I pull out my paperwork and show it to him. “Nope. We’re working for Queen Ayrenn. We’ve already found evidence that Tanion is connected to a treasonous group involved with multiple attacks on civilians.”

Nurad’s eyes go wide and he takes on an expression as if Mara herself has descended from Aetherius to answer his prayers. Then he finishes reading the paperwork. “This says you may at your discretion confiscate any delicious moon sugar biscuits you find?”

“I developed a taste for moon sugar while on Khenarthi’s Roost,” I say. “I needed to pad out the word count and didn’t think Tanion would actually read that far.”

“This explains so much,” Eran mutters.

“Sadly, Nurad must disappoint you. We have no delicious moon sugar biscuits here, alas.”

“Damn,” I say.

“The Baandari trader may be able to help you, though,” Nurad says, lowering his voice.

“We’re working, Neri,” Eran says with a groan. “He’ll still be there later.”

I clear my throat. “Baham wanted us to help pass out bandages,” I say. “And I’ll throw in some of my own healing potions as well, though I’m not very good at alchemy. I think I’ve got some plants I can use to make more potions if I can find some equipment, too.”

“Nurad does not believe there is any here, but he is grateful for the offer. The Baandari camp would be your best bet for that, if they have any.”

I shove the bandages in my pack and bid Nurad good day. As we step outside, two of the instructors are berating the red-haired Khajiit, Ilara, again and declaring that they will take her to the cave.

“Hold a moment,” I say, stepping forward and putting on my best Hortator face.

“Don’t tell me you’re coming to this worthless cat’s defense,” the man says.

“You misunderstand,” I say, showing him the paperwork I haven’t put away yet. “I am Inspector Neralion, here under orders from the Queen. I need to take this Khajiit for questioning.”

“Oh!” His eyes light up at the Queen’s seal. “Of course, of course! You are more than welcome to make use of our equipment if needed as well.”

“Thank you,” I say. “I’ll bear that in mind if this does not go smoothly. Ilara! Follow me.”

Meekly, the Khajiit pads after me into a nearby building. “Ilara will tell you anything, just don’t hurt her, please!”

“Calm down, Ilara,” I say, putting my document away. “My first question is… are you alright?”

Ilara looks up at me with a dumbstruck expression. “Ilara… has been better, but… You do not intend to hurt her?”

“No, of course not,” I say. “And you can bet your money on some Altmer dying before the day is done. Eran, would you stay here with her while I distribute the medical supplies? Just in case they’re still watching.”

“Not ready to start killing people yet?” Eran asks with a smirk.

“Not in the middle of the school,” I say. “The students might get hurt. No, once I’m done with tending to the injured, I think I need to inspect this cave people keep talking about.”

“By yourself?”

I snort softly. “If you’d like to come along, I’ll come get you before I go.”

“I appreciate you trying to keep me away from having to fight other Altmer,” Eran says. “But you need not worry. I can handle killing people and not just Daedra. These bastards sound like they have it coming, anyhow.”

I nod, and head out to visit the other buildings, and quickly realize these people don’t need bandages, they need actual healing. I leave them the bandages but I also pass out my entire supply of shitty healing potions, too. I expend all my magicka on Restoring Light for the worst of them.

Baham finds me when I’m done with that. “Ilara tells me you saved her from the cave. Thank you for that. Your friend Eran tells me that you plan to pay that cave a visit.”

I grin widely. “Yes. And I have a plan. Keep your people safe, Baham. Or the ones who are in a condition to fight might want to find some weapons. Things are about to get… spicy.”

I collect Eran and head off to locate Tanion again, who is looking rather sour at the moment.

“I trust you didn’t find any signs of Daedra worship in the student dorms, either?” Tanion says. “I heard you intercepted a Khajiit who was destined for the cave.”

“Ah, yes, the cave,” I drawl. “I think it’s about time you gave me a little tour of this cave, hmm? Caves are often prime centers of Daedra worship and foul rituals. Where is this cave? I believe I need to inspect it next.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Tanion says in a pleasant voice with a murderous undertone.

Before we go, he informs a couple of the other teachers (the ones who were just pushing Ilara around) where we’re going, and leads Eran and I off down a worn path toward the beach. He moves in no particular hurry, making noises about how awful Daedra are and so forth and assuring me once again everything is on the up-and-up here.

The cave is naturally full of overly aggressive giant spiders and bats, Auridon’s favorite cave-dwelling vermin. Pure fun for an armed warrior, but if they’re sending students in here unarmed, well, I doubt they’re giving them training for hand-to-hand combat against giant spiders. The cave is also full of vibrant plants, and I’m always amazed at how lush and green even the caves in Auridon are.

Also naturally, the two teachers brought in some racist bandits to ambush us, apparently thinking that just because there are two of us and six of them, that that means we’re outnumbered.

“Bad move, Tanion,” I say. “You could have walked away from this with your life. Even if you somehow managed to kill us, do you seriously think that the Queen would ignore the loss of her agents?”

“Ayrenn is a false Queen!” Tanion exclaims. “You lied about Estre. The Veiled Queen will lead us to glor-aaaaAAAAH!!”

That’s the point where I remove his arm. Never monologue, kids. It will distract you from lunatics wielding battle axes.

“In the name of Queen Ayrenn, I hereby proclaim you too dumb to live,” I announce, and decapitate him.

We finish off the rest of them and head back out after thoroughly inspecting the cave. There’s no Daedric paraphernalia in there, by the way. Not that it really matters at this point. But we had to make sure no one else was still in there, either friend or foe.

Once we return to the college campus proper, we discover that the students have led a revolution while we were gone. As it turns out, training people to fight and making them angry enough to kill you is not necessarily good for your survival rate. They’d been terrified and beaten down before, but a bit of healing has gotten them back in good enough shape to fight back.

“Neri!” Baham exclaims when she sees us. “Good to see you’re alright. I noticed Piromir and Malangwe slip away and hoped they wouldn’t prove too much for you.”

“Her name was Malangwe?” I say. “That’s not a name, that’s a choking sound. Which also happens to be the last sound she made. No, they didn’t give us any trouble. Nor the three Veiled Heritance members they brought in to back them up, either. What’s the situation here?”

“We’ve retaken the school,” Baham says. “We took some injuries, but we caught them by surprise and you successfully lured out their leadership and probably the most competent of them.”

“Whichever of your classmates is fit to travel will need to get a message to Firsthold,” I say. “We can escort them as far as North Beacon but we’ve got business there and somebody to find and murder who may or may not be there.”

“You really need to word these things better, Neri,” Eran says.

I clear my throat. “Does it help if I say ‘a traitor to execute’?”

“Yes,” Eran and Baham say in unison.