Barn of Riverwood is waiting in a luxurious hall in Riften. It was both an exciting and intimidating event for him. Knowing that he was going to meet someone who had the power, wealth and influence to own this place. And the person that could send the different parts of his body across Skyrim if he made a mistake. It had been only weeks since he became the new leader of the Blackborn Bandits near Riverwood. A result of a successful but fatal ambush on a Dominion Caravan. They lucked out as the long ears were carrying not just gems and sacks of gold coins, possibly from tributes, but also obvious important documents. The payment of their ambush was the death of some of his friends and also their old leader who died instantly after receiving a ballista bolt to his head.

He was visited by an envoy in the dead of the night after celebrating his rise to power. The cloaked individual invited him to Riften as part of the ongoing deal with the previous leader of the Blackborn. He asked their previous heads of the group about the matter and they confirmed that this was a tradition to pay respects. After all, no bandits could proceed in their operation without the blessing of the true ruler of the underworld.

He was not alone in the room however. He was just one of the many people sitting in patience and fear. Not one of them even tried talking to each other. As if they didn’t have the time or even wanted to waste energy to talk if death or even worst was going to happen once the doors opened. He counted and found that there were fourteen people with him. Some of them were even wearing expensive looking clothes.

Then the double doors opened. Ten men in full leather armor and hooded masks that you can only see the white of their eyes shining in the slits, entered. And finally a person entered after the men saluted in order. He quickly kneeled and bowed as she walked closer. Others followed suit.

He recognized her. She was Maven of Clan Blackbriar, the Queen of Riften.

“Gentlemen.”

She sat in edge of the long table. A handmaiden that was waiting, poured her a glass of black wine and waited for her mistress to finish.

“Do go straight to the point as I have other businesses to attend to.” She grumbled as she drank from her cup.

Barn and other attendees seemed to have a slight panic and became nervous as they can all see that she was in a bad mood. No one seemed to like to be the first man to stand but they all had to decide as their mistress will not wait for them. After all, one wrong word would spell their worst end immediately. Then a young man, probably at his teen, stood with a face of forced confidence.

“Milady. I am Gerding of Clan Black Leaf. I recently have come of age and was named as the heir to my father. As tradition, I am here to give my oath to Clan Blackbriar-”

“Accepted. Leave your presents to my servants. Next!” she interrupted which shocked the young man. A servant girl beside her, scribbles something.

Another person stood up and introduced himself.

“I am Brea of House Hardkyre. Owner of the Jon and Grim Brewery, here to ask for the Queen of Riften’s blessing to establish a trading post in your city. I brought gifts from Valenwood.” A lady with golden hair kneeled.

“Hm.” Maven nodded. “Talk to Stirling about your business. Next!”

Then he decided to initiate as he wants this to be over quickly.

“Milady. I am Barn of Riverwood. I am here to take my oath as the new leader of Blackthorn with your blessings.”

“Accepted. Next.”

“Milady, I have important documents that we were able to retrieve from a band of unwary travelers from the south.”

“Oh? Hand over the documents to my servant.” Maven said.

Right on cue, a servant was standing behind him. A butler bowed and waited for him to hand the documents which were inside a small chest.

“I’m afraid, it is something of importance that you may need to read.” He wanted to avoid of the possibility from being blamed for not informing her about what he knew.

“Really?” Maven raised her brow and nodded to her butler who promptly opened the box and then read the documents. The butler then made a surprised look for a moment then went back to his stoic face. After that, he folded the documents which surprised Barn as it was too quick for someone to read a several pages of documents. The butler went closer to Maven’s ear and whispered several lines.

Although it was different for Maven as she displayed a face that was disappointed on something. She sighed and waved out her butler who bowed and went back to his position earlier.

Then someone interrupted them. A servant hurriedly entered the hall and whispered something to Maven’s ear. They weren’t able to see her face as she immediately stood and quickly walked out, but not before leaving some words.

“We will postpone this for now and meet again tomorrow. My servants had prepared some food so do enjoy them.”

Another servant hesitantly walked forward to Maven as she was leaving.

“Milady, I-forgive me for interrupting but an Imperial Envoy-”

“I said that we will postpone this matter for tomorrow. Send them to the gallows if they refused to wait.”

“Yes milady. Apologies.”

Barn sighed in relief with his fellow envoys. Then they were all called to attend a banquet in the next hall. He left with a happy note that his first day of power started without injury.

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Maven was giving a look of disgust to a large ball of fur, or rather hairy monster. It was a man in long hair that looks like with few more weeks and people will only see a walking red hairball with two feet.

“Mortred… Did you even took a bath during your expeditions?” she scolded him.

“We did, the underground ruins we went had several bodies of water nearby.” He shrugged but couldn’t even be seen as his shoulders was also covered with his long red hair.

“Then why did you never bothered to have a haircut?”

“I had several times already during the expeditions with a fella Orc. But later I found it tacky that I stopped getting bothered by it. Wait, isn’t that also that time when Fang started to sleep separately from me?” he wondered.

“I don’t know.” Maven sighed. “I don’t want to talk with a hairy looking beast so I’ll have my servants cut your hair for you.”

She called for someone and after moments of waiting, twelve servants entered. Each were carrying towels, ceramic pitcher of hot water and buckets that had several bottles. They were followed by several men that carried three of each giant mirror, a tall chair, more buckets of water and a stove with a pot on top.

“Milady.” A strange but beautiful woman entered. Dressed in an expensive robe with a hairstyle that carries an aura of discipline, fashion and order.

“Zet, I want you to transform this hairy monster into a well groomed man.” Maven pointed at Mortred with still eyes of disgust.

“It will be done milady.” Zet bowed.

The woman then set to work as she had Mortred sit on a tall chair in front of a giant mirror.

Maven saw Fang quietly waiting near her and she asked.

“Do you want some massage?” she have no plan to waste her time looking at the hairball getting his haircut which would probably take an hour. As Zet called for another helper to assist her in grooming Mortred. Both helped Mortred in undressing himself leaving only his pants.

The brown haired woman nodded. Maven then had her servant to call for someone. Six women then entered with a wooden bucket of different ointments and bottles that had aromatic oils. They were followed by four large men who carried to tubs full of water. The six women then divided themselves into two groups, which they had each tub poured with the oils and ointments they brought. The water bubbled with sweet aroma of herbs and flowers.

Maven started undressing herself as she handed her robe and clothes to her servants then dipped into the tub. Despite her age, her body shined with youth that would make any woman jealous in seeing her body. It’s one of her treasure that she kept maintaining.

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Fang followed as she also undressed herself and relaxed herself on the tub as she also showed a body that could rival that of Maven’s. The only difference was her chiseled muscles that was quite uncommon to a female body. This made few of the female servants ogle at her in admiration.

The servants in charge of Fang quickly got her clothes that she left on the floor and went out. Some of her servants were uncomfortable as their lady just went naked in front of a strange man who was not her husband but they decided to ignore it and continued through their work. After all, they also knew that her husband doesn’t even have the balls to complain if he wanted.

They started massaging Maven as well as Fang while pouring another set of oils.

Mortred asked as he was requested to lean in back on the chair. Zet then started trimming his facial hair with scissors. Then he gestured at his barber.

“Just shave everything, leave only the part on my head that could cover the tattoos with shorter length.”

The woman nodded and continued.

“So how was the surface when I was gone?” he asked Maven whom he could see bathing in the corner of the mirror alongside Fang.

With this question, most of the servants around them would twitch in response after hearing it. As they know that their mistress will be talking about important or even classified information that could destroy a nation if leaked. But none of them even blinked or asked to leave. As if proving to Mortred that Maven would only hire servants who knew to keep secrets. After all, the head of Blackbriar wasn’t known for her mercy but for brutality to those who betrayed her.

“Much worse than after you disappeared.” Maven closed her eyes as a servant massaged her head. While Fang had her hands taken by two servants. Her relaxing breathes made it obvious about her opinion on their quality of service. “Do you want to hear everything?”

“That’s why I’m here and not on a tavern asking for a gossip.” He joked.

“Then I’ll go from the bad to the worst.” She replied as the servant washed her breasts with water and rubbed new oils.

“I’m all ears.” He replied as he relaxes also to the sound of scissors.

“Major clans in Morrowind is stirring.”

“That’s not new.” He yawned. Zet went to the right side of his head after finishing the other, leaving a mound of long red hair on the floor. Then two new servants walked towards him. One of them brought a bucket of warm water with some small fish swimming. And they helped his feet dipped into the water, being played and nibbled around by the fishes, giving him a relaxing sensation. After that, they sat on the short chairs they brought and started massaging his hands and legs.

Since the fall of the Tribunal, they have become somewhat armed on just enough for self-defense. Even during the civil war in Skyrim, they only sent their own house guards to guard their respective borders near the region, in case the war seeps into Morrowind.

“So a gathering of army in each clan’s strongholds is not new.” Maven stoicly revealed.

Mortred opened his eyes in mild surprise.

“How many?”

“Currently, my spies told me thousands of mercenaries, mages and bandits are entering their borders each week. And the price of iron, weapons, magic scrolls, salt and wheat are starting to rise.” Maven replied. “Mournhold is currently holding the highest number of soldiers, about sixty thousand.”

Now that was strange for Mortred. Dunmer Clans were always the lovers of chaos. Fighting each other and others. But never to this extent in this current era.

“Have they finally stopped hating each other? What happened?”

“You do know them very well. But you should also remember that they also hate other races, especially argonians.” Maven took out the fruit from her wine and swallowed.

She stretched out her hand and let her servant massaged the wrists and muscles while she wiped out the dead skin from her mistress’ arm using some kind of hard stone.

“And these argonians are disappearing across Tamriel.” Maven added. “Need to I remind you that this isn’t the first time it happened. And when it happened, they were able to overpower the forces of otherworldly horde. It’s already a troubling matter that the Clans in Morrowind are also possibly preparing for another possible daedric invasion. May it be Daedra or from the Black Marsh. I don’t blame them. They probably remembered that last time both happened, they suffered a lot because they were unprepared.”

Mortred agreed. During the Oblivion Crisis, gates of hell opened across Tamriel. Each provinces were paralyzed with this invasion that they couldn’t help the other or much more take advantage of the chaos for their profit. Morrowind was one of the badly affected regions as they had lost their treasured demigods, the Tribunals and also their savior, the Nerevarine. The last of the tribunal suddenly disappeared and the Nerevarine followed later, giving confusion, panic and chaos amongst the dunmer clans in fixing the power vacuum that was left behind. Then at the worst timing, gates of Oblivion started appearing in the region. Paralyzing and disposing any possibility of cooperation between the clans in defending their homeland. The death toll after the event almost reached million.

But only one region was able to respond with great success. Argonia or also known as the Black Marsh. Homeland of Argonians and the great mysterious trees, Hists.

These ancient trees were sentient and powerful that they were the object of worship of the Argonians. And they have the ability to see the future. This was proven when they foresaw a daedric invasion on Tamriel. In response, they started preparing years before it happened by calling all argonians back to their homeland. So when the gates of Oblivion opened on their region and daedric armies poured into their province, they were well prepared.

So well prepared that in fact, they swarmed the daedric spawns and pushed them back to their gates. They were relentless in their attack that the daedric armies who were known to swarm their enemies by consistently spawning after death and overwhelming their foes in numbers… were out swarmed and overpowered by the creatures they were trying to massacre.

The argonians then turned the defense of their homeland into a counter invasion to the Oblivion. Which was quite unheard of. But they were able to. The An-Xileel who retold this tale to him was laughing in pride.

Then the lieutenants of the daedric prince would later be forced to close the gates in panic as his plane of Oblivion was at risk of being colonized by lizardmen. This achievement made Mortred give respect the Argonians and the Hists trees. And also a consistent wound for Mehrunes Dagon that Mortred continues to pour salt on for fun.

Something must have provoked the Hists again. And this was red flag for Mortred. The Hists will never make this action unless they felt endangered by something. Did they foresee another Daedric invasion? Or are they preparing to invade Morrowind? He made a mental note to visit Black Marsh to ask for an audience later.

Then he noticed how his head became lighter. He took a look at the mirror and his hair was now shortened like what he wanted. The servants that were massaging his hands, gently lifted his feet from the now-cold water and started massaging. Zet then started shaving the sides of his head.

“Putting the possibility of another Oblivion invasion aside, my investment on slave trade will be affected if war happened. I still haven’t got my profit back.” Maven grumbled as she sipped wine and asked to pour her more from her standing servant.

Then she felt a tick on her neck that she turned to look at Mortred.

“I never expected you to dip your toes in Slave Trade.” He asked with a smile. But Maven could tell that he didn’t like her revelation about her involvement on such business. And she also partly forgot how Mortred absolutely hated such trade that he forced the emperor to approve an Imperial Decree to ban slavery. But she doesn’t care. For her, everything is business.

“As far as I remember, I had that kind of business in the past here, until you had it ban from Skyrim.” Maven said without sugarcoating even after seeing the change in Mortred’s eyes. She snapped back as if she didn’t care about his principle and stance about the issue. “Please don’t show your hypocrisy here.”

The servants around them suddenly stopped. Their lips shivered and eyes went to the floor to escape the sudden predicament. They can’t even walked out if they wanted to as they feared in displeasing their mistress and some of them experienced a disobedience from their body to command their feet to stand and walkout.

They all sensed the sudden tension between their mistress and her guest. As servants, they became knowledgeable on every guests of their mistress even if they never started as a spy or even had information from spies. They were able to learn through scraps of gossips, words and actions about each identity of their mistress’ connections. Maven was never a patient nor a merciful lady of power. She was famous to her servants that she will use her power to great effect to let every person that both knew or didn’t know of her that she doesn’t know the word “overkill”.

Some of them also felt some shock amidst fear because if this was another person, their mistress would just call in her disposal team to immediately execute this person or send him to the torture chamber then sending the different parts of his body to different parts of the city. She doesn’t care if you’re of the same blood as her as she once sent her own two sons to prison for years and tortured her daughter just to teach them a lesson. Even her own husband would never look at her eyes that the servants started wondering if he even once slept with their mistress.

But the difference of this treatment proved that the man in the same room as them was someone on the same power or equal standing as their mistress… or probably more. Some even trembled as they held their tools in fear. The uncaring cold look in their mistress’ eyes and the intimidating aura they felt emanating from Mortred made their body confused on which of them should be their cause of fear.

The only people whose unaffected were Fang and Zet who was playing with the bubbles in her tub while the latter was focused in Mortred’s haircut.

Mortred breathed deeply to try to calm himself as he don’t want to start any trouble that will just prolong his planned preparations. Then he looked at Maven.

“We will talk about this on a later time as I have more pressing matters-”

“There will be no talks about this later. Nor will there ever be. I will not repeat myself. Don’t try to push your hypocrisy unto Me.” she interrupted him then drank from her cup. She sent neither a smile nor a glare to answer Mortred’s furious eyes. “And as far as I remember, a certain someone recently damned countless souls to their eternal torment.”

That sentence made Mortred stand with seething rage in his eyes. His true nature surfaced with the will to dominate. The fishes in the water that were previously swimming without care earlier started jumping in panic as if to escape the increasing heat from the water where his feet rested.

While Maven just responded with cold indifference as she leans out her head to her shoulders as if complaining that she doesn’t have time for this.

The tension spiked that the entire room felt to be shaking even if it wasn’t. The servants despaired as it wasn’t an impossibility anymore that they will get caught in a potential clash that may happen. The mutual silence and hostility between the two went as long as several minutes that felt for an eternity for the servants, until it was disturbed by a loud clap.

Fang was trying to catch the bubbles that were now floating around her.

The servants all felt the disappearance of hostility and then unanimously decided to continue their work to help ease and contain the atmosphere. Which thankfully, it did. Mortred went back to his seat while still looking at Maven. Zet sent a look to her two helpers to start massaging Mortred to help him relax. They quickly saved the poor fishes from his still, heated feet. This was also passed to other servants, servicing Maven, who then in turn, helped massaged her back and legs.

Her two servants started bathing her hair while Fang requested a back massage on her tub as she purred in pleasure.