It would be his fourteenth this time, so he had to make it work even if it’s just the engines. He repeated this many times in his thoughts as if to motivate himself in continuing his dream. Ever since he saw the great working pistons and gears of the dwemer temples, he was in love with its technology. With the support of the Winterhold College and investment of his former teachers, he finally got the funding to buy dwemer artifacts and rights on every dungeons and underground ruins that were found.

Two argonians were also seen discussing each other on the roof of the ship. Both of them were Taleel-bex and Drarax, crews of the recent expedition of his most powerful investor.

He had supported a theory that dwemers have the technology to access the skies through flight. And in his recent digging, he recovered an intact dwemer ship. Also much to his excitement, it bears the technology and proof of concept that he argued in his thesis that dwemer ships could not only handle seafaring but also flight.

Not only that, this ship could house over 500 people inside and carry several small ships as its cargo. He theorize that this ship was meant to be a main ship during raids or attacking coastal defense. Also, this ship was capable of carrying weight ten times its own at sea and 20 times its own on the clouds.

“Argo!” a loud voice yelled his name. He turned and saw a large red haired man walking towards him.

“Lord Mortred. Thank you for allowing me to continue my work in your place. It’s been a hard thing for me to find a peaceful workplace to be honest. The village where I stayed always complained of the noises and scary lights that appears from my workhouse.” He then wiped his sweat and stood. “And of course, the chance to access dwemer spare parts.”

He gazed at the dwemer ships that were smaller than what he found but had parts that he could salvage. They were retrieved from his and Mortred’s past expeditions. They were just sitting here, gathering dusts on the recently built hanging gardens of Skyhaven Temple.

“So were you able to make a good progress?” Mortred asked.

“The engine that my ship used probably requires a lot of fuel than all of the ships that we have found combined. The pistons didn’t even produce enough heat to make me sweat.” He looked at the engine that was currently being overhauled. “But still, its progress. I think the either amount of fuel I used not capable of producing mechanical movement on the pistons or I am using wrong fuel. I have been testing every possible material that can be used as fuel but magicka is currently best thing that I could use.”

“How about others?”

“The mock up ship that I presented on my thesis was capable of giving speed of 10 knots if used on the water. Most people would see this as fast but it wasn’t actually the average speed of the actual dwemer ship. According to their writings, it was capable of giving speed of 25 to 30 knots at harsh waves. And it wasn’t able to prove my theory that they are capable of flight. At least not yet.” he explained. “Thankfully, the dragon priests were also willing to help me with my endeavor and would sometimes discuss with me about their suggestions on some things that are still blank to me.”

“Good. If possible I want them also be capable of flight by next year. Or if not, it’s still a good investment if the large ships were capable of giving me 30 knots at most on the rough waves of the sea.”

“Are you planning to use them on your travels milord?” he asked.

Mortred was about to answer when he was interrupted by a call from someone he knew. It was Archmage Mirabelle from Winterhold. He sent a request to send him knowledgeable and expert mages that he could use on his expedition. He noted that he doesn’t necessarily need combat oriented mages but more on academic and scholars that studied in the lore of Akavir.

“Mirabelle, forgive me for not contacting you personally, sooner.” He said. “So how was my request?”

He could hear static sounds in the line, something that can only happen if there’s something or someone that’s disturbing the space around the origin of the caller. At first it was gibberish, he couldn’t understand any word that’s being stated. So he waited for several seconds until clear words were received.

“Ah! Mortred? Yes, your request was granted by the council but they have a condition. It’s nothing dangerous, really.” her voice said but with obvious tone of trying to make her statement positive.

Shit. Mortred cursed. It’s going to be another bothersome task.

“But I want you to come here personally so that we could discuss about such topic… and…”

There’s something else? Mortred thought. Then he sent a pulsating magicka to sense any disturbance from Mirabelle. Which he then received back the echo that told him that the city itself was surrounded by countless non-mer entities.

His archmage friend felt the spell he casted on her.

“Eh… with your detection magic, I’m sure you already have an idea of our situation here.” Mirabelle awkwardly smiled. “We are kinda in a troublesome situation here. The city you see… we’re kind of like under siege right now… yeah… hehe.”

...

Mortred had so many questions yet decided to only reply for now.

“Fine I’m coming over.” Mortred sighed and immediately conjured a portal to Winterhold.

When he arrived, he saw the city walls being rammed by large strange feral beasts with icy rock-like bodies but exudes cold temperature. And battalions of riders in black bony armor were in formation, waiting for the walls to collapse while some of the units that were probably mages, were bombarding the gates and city with spells. Thankfully, the ward that was deployed around the city was still holding. Then he remembered that he forgot to bring Fang. He could only imagine her pouting face as she probably felt left behind, bored and angry.

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"Fuck! Why do I have to bow to such lesser creature than a swine?" A female voice echoed throughout the woods of Cyrodiil. She was still shivering in pure bloodlust after her experience with an imperial senator.

Their only advantage is their crotch, making them almost similar to cockroaches! Fuck if I will be given freedom to kill every single human, I would gladly do it in a single day with great pleasure!

Her long pointed ears became red with anger. She was leading a large column of Dominion soldiers. As a Justiciar, she was tasked to hunt and purged heretics across the province of Cyrodiil. The horse was probably thankful that it was wearing full plate armor with chainmail underneath to stop the kicking of its master from giving it any pain. It just snorted in annoyance.

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"I swear we will make note of this and send an official complaint to their emperor! I could already see their faces begging for mercy!" She grinned in anticipation.

"But milady, the emperor actually-"

"I know but I was refering to the next one! So shut up!" One of the bosmer adjutants on behind her tried to correct her but she immediately cleared out that she wasn't in the wrong.

"Fucking useless..." She gritted her teeth in anger. "I didn't expect him to die over something stupid like that. Even in death he is still trying to hinder the vision of our Dominion."

Rianella blamed her current predicament to the unexpected death of Emperor Mede. When he was alive, she was able to freely apply her power over the imperial citizens without any problem. She was able to control the senators and even the local officials to bend to her will if she wanted to by bribery or intimidation.

But the Emperor's death in the picture ruined all the effort she painstakenly done to keep the order in the province. Claimants to the throne suddenly appeared aside from the announced and groomed heir. Faction wars started across the Cyrodiil. The Clashes between the senators and local overlords had become frequent due to standing on different claimants on the throne. The loss of central authority made her job harder or sometimes worse than she had started. There's now no one to be considered as a concrete authority over the Empire. Making even the situation in the province much chaotic. With no stewardship or central figure to go to, she was lost in her mission. Now she would frequently fight with bandits or rogue mercenaries than purging heretics.

In fact, they just left the Imperial Capital after a failed attempt to detain the heretic monks that are spreading blasphemous new lies across the province. They are now passing a wooden bridge that have full lines of people lining up. Probably to escape the capital.

One of the soldiers was nearby and she yelled.

"Hey" she tossed him a pouch of gold coins and clicked her tongue.

The soldier just grinned as he pocketed the gold and whistles at one of his companions that were controlling the crowd in three files. Two soldiers ran towards them and inspected her horse and her entourage.

"You're going to need more than that lady elf." The one who caught her bribe earlier grinned with several missing teeth on the top, that she had the urge to even his missing teeth with her mace. But she swallowed her temper again and threw three pouches of gold. One of the soldiers stooped and pocketed the pouches.

"Hehe... Come this way, we will led the way." His other friend waved towards Rianella. She silently nodded and reined her horse to follow. She could see that the banners around the place was not of Imperial standard but of that of that disgusting archduke. She decided not to think further about him for her ease of mind. She finally arrived at the inspector point where tax collectors and bounty hunters were also waiting for their hunt.

In the end, she had to expensively bribe another dozens of people just to pass through a single inspection poll. In the past, she would just use intimidation to such arrogance and succeed. But now, they would just laugh at her taunts and even try to provoke her into attacking them. Something that she knew was a trap. She held her temper many times already that she lost count in wanting to flay humans in broad daylight.

At first the worship if Talos was easy to gouged out of the populace due to the weakness of hairless monkeys for gold. They were willing to sell their own for just a small pouch of gold coins. It was necessary practice for Rianella in her mission to hunt these worshippers. But she couldn't avoid feeling disgusted on how far human greed will take itself.

She once got an information where a father accused one of his daughters of worshipping to Talos. Only to find out later that he actually framed her just to get that pouch of gold for his gambling addiction. The thought of letting such creature breathe in the same air as her made her skin crawl with pure disgust and revulsion. The daughter was of course summarily executed as a stain on her sword. It was a wrong verdict but Rianella assured herself that even if the daughter was sentence to be innocent and released, the risk of her going to their pagan worship was high. Either due to desperation or despair for being betrayed by her family. At Rianella couldn't risk such a thing.

And the daughter would become a good example to those who will try to worship their pagan god in secret.

But that all changed after the Civil War in Skyrim. She was not assigned on that province but the effects of the war and chaos on that province had spilled on her jurisdiction. The return of the dragons made it even worse. This was the second thing that caused ruin on her plan for the province aside from the Emperor's death.

Then she remembered something important.

"Did we receive any messages from the Embassy in Skyrim?" She asked.

"None yet milady. This one found no doves today." A khajiit in glass armor replied.

"Now that we are outside from any interference of Oculatus agents, send a message directly to Alinor." She commanded. "Tell them that we had new reports of increasing frequency of resistance from purging this new religion that they called Cult of Eternal Shame. I fear that this isn't just a recently sprouted cult but a well hidden religion that finally decided to expose itself to take advantage of the chaos in the capital."

The khajiit immediately wrote what she ordered and turned to one for he cages on his saddlebags. He inserted the scroll on the pocket chest of the eagle and whispered something on its ear. Then he threw the eagle in the air, which disappeared from their sight. One of their countermeasure against interception.

Rianella was now assuming that the recent attack on the embassy in Skyrim was more likely done by this Cult.

Then she felt the darkening around her. She immediately looked around and to the sky and found that it's going to rain heavily. They don't want to be wet under full armor so they quickened their pace towards the nearest inn that they remembered.

First the heretics, then the gate toll and now the fucking rain? Are the gods testing me or something? She angrily thought.

But they were too late as the sudden downpour fell upon them. It was so heavy that every droplets made knocking sounds on their armors hindering their hearing.

Then an unexpected occured. A massive explosion struck just in front of Rianella. She and her horse flew into the air due to the impact and destructive wave to it's vicinity.

"Protect the lieutenant!"

The rest of the Dominion column suddenly went into chaotic defense formation while trying to hastily defend their downed leader. Rianella herself was injured in the head. It was a shallow wound but enough to keep bleeding. She struggled to stand up even with the help of her companions. But she focused her attention on the large crater in the middle of the road.

A little more and I would have become pieces of meat! She thought in fear and anger. She wasn't that proficient in magic unlike her five battlemage escort but she could sense the traces of Magicka from the crater.

"What was that?! A fucking lightning burst spell?! Seriously? What in the fuck is happening?!" Rianella asked as she endured the stinging pain on her head.

"Milady please let me tre-"

"That will be for later! Search the area! Investigate what happened! Any suspected individual must be detained!" She ordered. "I want them alive! You hear me?! I want them alive, if not then barely!"

I swear if I find the one whos behind this attack, I will fucking flay his family in front of him while being eaten by flesh maggots! She yelled in her thoughts.

She sat on the body of her dead horse and was now being treated by one of the mages with a healing spell.

"We should immediately report about this. Don't let your guard down! Ther-"

"Milady!"

She was interrupted by scream calling for her name. She turned to the source and found two of her men at the middle of the crater.

They found something.

She immediately went down the hole without waiting for her injury to fully heal. And she was shocked to see something unexpected at the center of the crater.

"Someone please tell me what the fuck is going on..." She grumbled to herself as she was looking at a mask person, partially buried in dirt. He was still breathing and she can see from his broken mask that he wasn't just a normal person...it revealed his long ears... a much beautiful face of a male elf.

Rianella leaned closer to check anything from his body for identification. But then she heard him say something.

"Zireal..."