User:JohnB/Fanfiction/Book Three

BOOK THREE:

Caius Cosades appeared before Emperor Uriel Septim, who had recalled him to the Imperial City. Caius put his fist on his chest, dropped onto one knee, and bowed his head in the customary show of obeisance to the emperor. The emperor bade him rise and approach the desk on which was piled a heap of papers and scrolls. The expression on the emperor's face was stern, and Cosades knew he had a lot of explaining to do.

"Caius," the emperor spoke, "can you guess what these papers are?"

"I would venture to guess, your Majesty, that my presence here means that, whatever they are, they involve myself and that they cast a rather unfavorable light on me."

The emperor looked genuinely pained. Cosades moved as if to fall at the emperor's feet and beg for mercy, but the emperor raised a hand for him to back off. Cosades was one of extremely few capable men he could truly depend on, but...

"Caius, what I have to say now is more as a disappointed father to an errant son. We have known of your, uh, habit for some time now, and as long as you were able to produce good results as head of the Blades, we were willing to overlook this, uh, weakness. However, there comes a time when a recreational drug can have a deleterious effect on a man's judgment, and yours is no exception.

"As you know, corruption is rampant in our realm, but nowhere is it so bad as in the province of Vvardenfell, your area of responsibility. We have been trying to root out corruption, but in Vvardenfell especially we are stymied every step of the way by bad roads, bad communications, and bad people.

"We have received a petition from a legally dead arsonist named Decumus Scotti,” he said picking up a parchment, “in which he has offered to surrender to us and pay his debt to society in return for having his death expunged from the public record, and in return for others being called to account for their misdeeds. He was selective in who he wanted punished, but justice is blind to good as well as bad intentions when it comes to the laws being trampled on.

"And these papers contain the results of the investigation into his case. I am sorry to say that I must look upon his petition favorably as his is the most astonishing miscarriage of justice in the annals of the empire. We are also sorry that there are no good guys here, not Scotti (who committed the arson) and certainly not you (who did a lot of the wheeling and dealing). And now we must bring this case to a conclusion with a statement from you."

What to do with Caius:

The emperor rang a small bell on his desk and called for a notary to come into his presence with a quill and parchment. Cosades's head throbbed. He hadn't had a toot from a skooma pipe since handing over the operation of the Blades to Yumiya and leaving post-haste for the Capitol.

"Your Majesty, I freely acknowledge that I am culpable, but..."

"Silence. The notary is on his way. When he is present, you may confess to your heart's content."

"B-but if Your Majesty would only permit, I would like to know the present status of the quest against Dagoth Ur, for I would not want my indiscretion to have any impact on it," Cosades gulped as his stomach churned.

"Don’t be a fool—of course it won't!" the emperor chuckled sardonically. "Yumiya has already been questioned and found only to have been acting as Scotti’s financial backer. She has paid her bounty, and we have pardoned her so as not to cause any further inconvenience to the quest—and also on the condition that she pursue Dagoth Ur in a more timely manner."

As the emperor spoke, a notary entered, bowed, and sat at the desk on which he meticulously arranged his quills and parchments.

"And the question now," the emperor said pausing to let Cosades digest all of this, "is what to do with you. Keep in mind that you have served us very well, and we will be mild with you, on the condition that you tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So let’s start from the beginning."

When Cosades was on fire to confess everything, it would have been so easy, but now that he really had to explain himself, he realized how excruciatingly difficult it was going to be.

Caius's Testimony:

“As an aside and before I begin,” he said to the notary, “I would like to speak in Yumiya’s defense on how slowly she has been pursuing the Dagoth Ur quest. As she is such a petite woman, I encouraged her to take as much time as she needed to build up her strength and skills, and she has done remarkably well, for which reason I saw no need to deny her request that I help her friend.”

“We understand,” the emperor responded, “go on.”

“And when I first met with Mr. Scotti, I suggested we petition the emperor. He answered that he’d rather not since that entailed being tried and convicted of a felony he'd committed. I was afraid I was being sold a pig in a poke, so I took Yumiya aside to find out how much she really knew. She answered that all she could say for certain was that he was guilty but not of murder. Having encountered him as he was stowing away on the prisoner transport ship and later getting to know him, it reinforced her strong belief that even good people can do stupid things.

“My first and foremost concern was not to do anything that would alter Yumiya’s resolve to pursue the Dagoth Ur quest. I tried to weasel out by saying my operating expenses wouldn’t cover the amount of bribery this would entail, but she said she had so much gold socked away that I was free to use as much of it as I deemed fit. When you know you have so much gold at your disposal, your first impulse is to throw caution to the wind. But then that idiot botched everything when he ran into his woman in Gnisis and got into a shouting match...”

“You’re getting off track here, Caius,” the emperor said testily. “Don’t try to justify your own stupidity by calling the kettle black.”

“Right, I beg your Majesty’s pardon,” Cosades said calming himself down. “Where was I?”

“Yumiya’s largess.”

“Yes, so I headed over to Seyda Neen and talked everybody into my plan for smuggling a person into Vvardenfell. I distributed sacks of gold to everybody involved.”

“Can you say how much gold was expended in this endeavor?” the emperor inquired.

“I didn’t keep accounts because I didn’t want to leave a paper trail, and Yumiya was agreeable to that arrangement. Altogether, I would estimate a good 500,000 drakes were distributed.”

The emperor whistled through his teeth in astonishment.

“Where did she acquire so much gold?!”

“An enterprising individual can do remarkably well in Vvardenfell. The Hlaalu are generous, and there are enough rare weapons and armor scattered everywhere to equip an army. Some are so valuable that one item can clean out a rich dealer’s cash box.

“Anyway, I also instructed the captain of the prisoner transport ship and all the guards to look the other way when a person came on board during the night. It was timed when there were no moons and the wind and sea were calm to make an approach of a rowboat to the ship very easy. He clambered up the side of the ship, and that was the last I saw of him until he came to visit me in Balmora to thank me personally for the efforts I’d made on his behalf.”

“And this,” Cosades said concluding his testimony, “is how the Scotti case was handled by me, and I hereby swear that I have not left out any details or misconstrued any of the facts.”

The Emperor's Judgment:

The notary reached the quill to Cosades to write his signature on the designated line. After the signing, a dab of hot wax was poured onto the parchment, and Cosades pressed his signet ring into it until it hardened.

The emperor, wearing green-glass spectacles that he never used in public, was silent as he went over the notes he had made of Cosades’s testimony.

“We are happy to say,” he finally spoke, “that this corroborates everything told to us by Scotti and Yumiya. But there is one point that is still unclear,” he said gesturing a “one” with his forefinger. “Why did you do it?”

Cosades shifted uneasily in his chair. “Now comes the really hard part,” he thought and dredged his mind to come up with a first cause for everything that happened.

“If your Majesty will allow me to think out loud, it would greatly help me because I never considered why I was doing these things. I don’t want to blame Yumiya for having put the idea into my head; however, I must add that the suggestion did come from her, and I deemed it the most reasonable thing to do. I also don’t want to blame the skooma either because I wasn’t high when I made this decision.”

“Well, let us put it into the context of your making a decision that were better left handled by us. We tend to, uh, frown on people doing things that inevitably blow up in our face the way this one has.”

Cosades thought for a moment.

“Well, when one considers the finality of death, how when a person crosses that threshold there is no turning back. Here was this man who legally crossed that threshold but is still living and breathing as we are. How does one bring him back if not by subterfuge?”

“S-s-subterfuge! Are you mad?! We are the emperor!” He said rapping the desk with his forefinger. “We can do whatever we want! If we say a man lives, he lives! Do you doubt this?”

Cosades thought, “Oh, crap! I’ve cooked my goose!”

The emperor calmed himself down and removed his spectacles.

“Caius, we also value candor above all else. You didn’t mince words or dance around the question but rapped that bung into the hole where it belonged. But what you did was foolish beyond words. You failed to communicate this case to us for our consideration. You arrogated an authority that was ours alone. You broke we can’t count how many laws that try to prevent this sort of thing from happening. In short, what you’ve done is tantamount to treason, and we are sure you have seen enough public executions to know what we do with traitors. But we’re going to let you off because we’ve got other plans for you.”

The notary reached the quill and parchment to the emperor, who signed it and pressed the imperial seal into the hot wax. The Scotti case was now officially closed. The notary bowed and exited with the writing utensils and signed confession. The emperor then slid his chair closer to Cosades and dispensed with the imperial “we” as he spoke from the heart.

“Now listen, the hetman in Ald Velothi is up for promotion in the civil service. He is serious, resourceful, and incorruptible, and I want to create a new post of Comptroller for the Province of Vvardenfell. All movement of goods and gold will be subject to his, and my, approval, and his bark and my bite will put Duke Dren and his cronies in a more subservient place. But I need your cooperation because we can’t leave the hetmanship vacant for too long.

“I want you to proceed as soon as you can to Ald Velothi and continue where he is leaving off. There, you will be surrounded by nature and a more rustic people who mind their own business and don’t get involved in the ways of the world. You will be able to recover your health, breathing in the salt sea air and viewing the rugged coastline. You might even buy an easel and watercolors and take up painting.

“I admit being hetman of Ald Velothi is not a very demanding position, but somebody has got to do it. I hope that after three years your health and state of mind will have become more robust, and then you will be useful to me again.” When the emperor said he would be mild with him, Cosades didn’t know what to think, but now he was overwhelmed. What he’d forgotten was that the emperor’s mercy and generosity were very well earned.

Who the Hell is Yumiya?

“And Yumiya?” Cosades asked.

The emperor’s elbow seemed to slide off the desk when he heard that. Why should Cosades care about this slip of a girl, who the emperor himself had appointed as candidate for Nerevarene, only Azuras knowing for what reason?

“I say throw her under the silt strider.”

“May I ask why?”

“Caius, your own intelligence has found that the Nerevarene is of uncertain parentage, but this young lady is certainly a princess-of-the-blood of the House of Akavir,” the emperor shrugged nonchalantly.

Cosades’s expression changed to that of consternation.

“If your Majesty will allow me to contradict, the direct line of the kings of Akavir died out centuries ago. Subsequent inquiries I made in the Akaviri community have found that this young lady is extremely delusional. She thinks but cannot prove that she is the daughter of self-styled King Nobunaga III, who was himself a pretender to the throne of Akavir.

“And even if she was his daughter, nobody knows who her mother was. It is said there were about a dozen concubines in the Nobunaga household, so any one of them could be her mother. She can show you a jasper amulet she says her mother gave her, but it could have come from any pawn shop.

“However, the Akaviri have a strong belief that such a ‘cracked’ personality has something of the divine embedded in it — some kind of superhuman ability. Left to itself, it can do awesome things from the sheer energy of will placed there by the divine. I have no doubt that this ‘slip of a girl’, as your Majesty calls her, can carry the day when she comes face-to-face with Dagoth Ur.

“Let’s make a deal, your Majesty. If your Majesty throws her under the silt strider, your Majesty may as well hang me with my own entrails. Place no time restrictions on Yumiya, and I’m your Majesty’s hetman.”

“Done,” the emperor responded, but Cosades could see he didn’t like being checkmated in this game. Of course the emperor had no intention of hanging him with his own entrails. Cosades was tired and a bit disoriented from the lack of skooma. Ald Velothi was going to be a good change of pace for him.

The Sleeper Awakes:

Or so he thought.

His days were spent seeking out wild coastlines with waves dashing against cliffs. And there he'd set up his easel and go to work painting the scenery. This went on for a good long time, but there was a nagging premonition that all was not well. He no longer craved skooma, and he felt he was going from strength to strength as the dregs of the skooma was being ejected from his body. The fact is he knew he was lying to the emperor when he claimed the quest against Dagoth Ur was all under control. He now saw very little of Yumiya and had no idea what she was up to.

It was one fine day as he was working on another watercolor.

“The sleeper awakes!” a voice behind him said.

Caius's blood froze. He turned slowly and found a group of shirtless Dunmer, maybe five of them, arrayed behind him. He knocked over the easel as he stood, but before he could run, he lost all consciousness from a debilitating spell.

When he woke again, he found himself kneeling on the floor, his hands tied around a post behind his back in the Dagoth Ur complex.

In front and facing him, Dagoth Gilvoth and a number of Sixth-House functionaries sat as if in judgment against him.

“Master Cosades,” the dagoth announced in a commanding voice, “it is our understanding that you are the Imperial representative leading the quest against our House. How do you plead?”

“I certainly don't deny that I used to be! And if guilty is good, then I'm guilty,” he chuckled.

“Master Cosades has a sense of humor,” the dagoth observed to the other members of the jury. “Bring the stairway!”

The stairway was a wooden board with deep triangular crevices cut across the surface lengthwise so that, when propped up at an angle, it resembled a stairway that your fingers could climb. The board was placed below his shins where he knelt, and the sharp points of the crevices immediately felt very uncomfortable as his weight settled on them.

“Master Cosades, we would like to know the details of this quest against us. Our lord-and-master doesn't like being kept in suspense.”

“For example?” Caius muttered in pain.

“Exactly how and when this quest is to happen?”

“I honestly have no idea! The Nerevarene has not been in contact with me for a very long time.”

“Bring a flagstone!” the dagoth ordered.

Two ash slaves carried in a large flagstone and slowly placed it on Caius's lap.

“AAAAAAAAAAGH!” Caius cried as the full weight of the flagstone pressed his shins deeper into the serrated surface of the board.

(I googled this Japanese device, which I saw only once in a historical drama and it looked pretty excruciating, but I couldn't find it. It was the preferred torture device at the immigration office, called the Hakone Sekisho, because the culprit who tried to bypass the office [all travel was done on foot] would never be able to walk again.)

“Master Cosades, we haven't got all day!”

So as not to inconvenience the reader with the details of how the interrogation went, it did take all day as one flagstone after another was stacked onto his lap till he could feel his knees burst.

The following morning, the residents of Balmora were greeted with the bruised and bloodied corpse of Caius Cosades sitting propped up on the stoop of his former home. A signboard around his neck read, “The sleeper awakes!”

Yumiya stood with John-John among the crowd and averted her eyes when she witnessed this. She fought back the sick feeling in her stomach.

“There's your so-called Nerevarene!” a voice called out, and all eyes were on Yumiya.

“Fie, scoundrel!” people shouted and began throwing stones and filth at her.

John-John hurried her out of Balmora, and they retreated to Castle Vianden. Yumiya shut herself up inside the chapel, which she had dedicated to her patron goddess, and there remained alone for several days. John-John was at a loss what to do. He had been ready to lay siege to Dagoth Ur for some time, but his sister always found some excuse to put it off. And now this.

He finally forced the chapel door open and found her in sackcloth lying face-down before the statue of Azura.

“Yumiya, get over it!” he told her. “The time to act is now!”

“No, I've failed!” she moaned shaking her head.

“What do you mean?! We haven't even started!” he reprimanded her.

He pulled her to her feet and guided her in her weakened condition toward the kitchen to break her fast and restore herself. When she felt composed again, they made their preparations and warped to the Ghostgate to make the final assault on Dagoth Ur.