User:JohnB/Fanfiction/The Adventures of Laila

(I had an early morning flight out of Tucson in Dec 29, 2017, so I slept in the taxi to the airport. I paid my fare, took my suitcase, and when I entered the airport, I realized I'd left my laptop in the taxi.

[“The best laid schemes o' mice and men / Gang oft awry.” Robert Burns]

Until I go back in August to pick it up, I needed a used laptop to load up with backed-up files in an external hard-drive.

Then what should I stumble onto while picking through folders but two stories I'd thought were long-lost forever. It's amazing what you can find when you're not looking for it. Both are dated Oct 16, 2010, but I remember having written them about two years earlier. The first, "Scotti's Revenge", generally follows the present story but for the target of Scotti's vendetta being the Silvenar of Silvenar and not Vanech. It's more cringe-worthy than of genuine interest so I decided not to post it in its entirety. "The Adventures of Laila", on the other hand, has a remarkable freshness because it is one of the very first stories I wrote that wasn't modeled on something else.

On the other hand, it skirts a lot of issues, such as how the two are able to evade justice using a reversed alias [Scotus Decumi] or even cooperate in the lovey-dovey way they do. There's a definite surrealism going on here, but rather than saying it's a flaw, let's say it's an immature style of writing.

Anyway, read it and decide for yourself which version you like better.)

Getting Scotti Off the Hook:

It didn't take long for the authorities to find out what happened, and Scotti and Laila hurried south to Southpoint to catch a ship to Blackmarsh, the home of the lizard people called Argonians.  Nobody went to Blackmarsh unless they had to, so it might be possible to evade the Dark Brotherhood and the Bosmeri authorities.  However, their ship was hit by hurricane-force winds that dashed it against the rocks.

Laila and Scotti were fortunate enough to clamber onto a raft-sized fragment of the hull and drift with the storm, which drove them westward. They finally drifted onto an uninhabited island.  They wandered around surveying their temporary home.  There was vegetation and fresh water but not enough to sustain them for very long.  Laila saw something further down the beach and went to see what it was while Scotti sat on the sand in despair.  He glanced over and saw her crouch down over whatever it was she'd found.  She stood up again and walked back to him.

"What did you find there?" he asked.

She sat down next to him on the sand.

"My husband, Decumus Scotti, lies dead over there."

"No, really, what did you find?" he persisted, unable to grasp what she'd just told him.

"I told you: my husband lies dead over there."

Scotti looked at her speechlessly.  He finally stood up and approached the thing she'd found.  Laila followed him.  There was a body washed up on the beach.  Slaughterfish had gnawed on the face obscuring its features, but on the little finger of one hand for everyone to see was the signet ring engraved with the Scotti arms.

Scotti's jaw dropped as he turned still speechless to Laila.

"Scotti," she said gently clutching his arm, "This is the only way.  You can either be this dead man and go on living, or you can die when the Dark Brotherhood catches up with you--and they will."

Under normal circumstances, he would have been horrified at what she'd done, but he realized this really was the only way out of his hopeless situation.

"I...I...understand that, Laila, but what about you?!"

"I have to go my own way to evade these people, and I think I have the resources and the ability to do so.  You, on the other hand, are better off being found dead here.  After that, everybody will leave you alone."

"But if we're parted by death, that means..."

"...nothing at all because you are not dead.  You will always be with me.  Now, I want you to get back onto that wreckage and keep going wherever it takes you.  And remember, you are no longer Decumus Scotti.  From here on, you are the commoner Scotus Decumi, and I will come asking for you in Vvardenfell.  Try to make your way there."

Scotus nodded in agreement.

Laila helped him push the wreckage back into the current.  He clambered aboard and turned to Laila as he began drifting away.

"Come look for me!" he called through cupped hands.

"I will!" she called back.  "And don't worry about me!  I will be okay!"

"I still love you!"

"I still love you, too!"

The faster current caught the wreckage, and Scotus receded toward the horizon.

When he was gone from sight, Laila braced herself for a long wait.  Fortunately, the island wasn't far from the shipping lane, so the chances of being rescued were very good.  To increase those chances, she set to work rubbing two dried sticks together to get some tinder burning.

Once she got a decent fire going, she threw green vegetation onto it to produce a lot of smoke.

Two days later, a ship appeared on the western horizon.  Since smoke was rarely seen in these parts, it was naturally a sign of distress, so the ship made for the island.

"Help!" Laila shouted flailing her arms.  She'd been weakened by hunger and having to sleep in the open for two nights.

The Imperial Coast Guard ship approached, and a boat was lowered into the water with rowers and the ship's second-in-command.  Laila collapsed from fatigue as the rowers raised their oars and the boat hit the sand.  The second-in-command jumped from the boat and waded to shore.

"Are you all right?" he asked crouching over her.  She shook her head.

"Are you alone?"

She shook her head again, and the second-in-command looked around.

"You say you're not alone," he repeated uncertainly.

"My husband, Decumus Scotti, is lying dead over there," she answered weakly.

The second-in-command gave a start, and Laila watched as he hurried to the body and crouched down.  She could see him remove the signet ring from the corpse.  He came back to Laila.

"Mrs. Scotti," he said firmly, "we will take you back to the Capital, and after you have convalesced, we have some matters to discuss regarding your husband's activities in Silvenar."

He called some men to come and carry her back to the boat.

Getting herself off the Hook:

Laila had had plenty of time to formulate an alibi.  She told the authorities how she met and married her husband in the Capital, and the two of them went to Silvenar on her husband's recommendation to celebrate their honeymoon in style.  A Tamrielic wedding ceremony amounted to just an oath to the gods and didn't involve any official records, so this could have happened anywhere.  If the authorites needed any corroboration on this, all they had to do was question the inn keeper in Arenthia.

She then went on to explain that soon after their arrival in Silvenar, they just barely defended themselves from a Dark Brotherhood attack.

Her husband suspected that the Silvenar had taken out a contract on him due to problems between the Silvenar and the Vanech Building Commission, which her husband was working for at the time.  So one day her husband left their room at the inn, and later in the day he came running back saying they had to pack their stuff and get out of Valenwood as soon as possible.  She had no idea what this was about, and he wouldn't explain.  So they boarded a ship and were thrown into the sea when the ship hit some rocks.  Her husband was hit very badly and died of exposure in the water.

It all seemed to fit--maybe a little too neatly--and there was no evidence of her involvement.  She was allowed to go after the deposition was written up and notarized.

To avoid the Dark Brotherhood, she activated the invisibility amulet and went back to her little house.  She went into her room, pulled up the floor boards, and took out her Daedric katana and Daedric wakizashi.  Using these with the two-handed fighting style, she was invincible.  She put the right hand katana in attack position and the left hand wakizashi in the parry position and practiced a few offensive and defensive movements.  It felt really good to be control again.

"Just let that Dark Brotherhood scum try and get me now!" she hissed as she sheathed the swords and left her house for good.

Ulwaen

Laila made her way toward Vvardenfell, joining guilds and picking up odd jobs along the way.  She crossed the inner sea by ship and arrived in Seyda Neen at the same time that a prisoner transport ship arrived.  The transport ship unloaded first and then sailed away.  Laila's ship docked, and as she came down the gang plank, she saw the prisoners lined up like soldiers waiting for their shackles to be knocked off.  Laila noticed a particularly handsome young Bosmer, and she gave him a friendly look as she walked towards the Census and Excise office.  He noticed her smile and turned around to see if anyone was standing behind him.  He then turned back and smiled back sheepishly.

After she exited the Census and Excise office, she loitered in the village square waiting for the young Bosmer to come out.  He finally emerged examining a packet of documents that had been given to him by Sellus Gravius.

"Hello!" Laila said coming up to him.

"Hi," he answered glancing up from the packet.

"What's your name?"

"Ulwaen, and you?"

"Laila, pleased to meet you!"

"Likewise," he said shaking her hand.  "Do you know how to get to Balmora?"

"I'm just as new here as you are, but maybe we can make a team and figure out where to go from here."

He looked her up and down.  She stood a good head and shoulders above him.

"So which are you," he asked peevishly, "an Altmer-Bosmer or a Bosmer-Altmer?"

Laila gave him a mean stare.

"Listen, if you want me to go away, just say so!  What I do know is you've been banished to the mean streets of Tamriel, and if you want to stay alive, you'd better take on a friend like me!"

"If you say so," Ulwaen answered chastened.  "But why me?"

"Well, that packet with all its wax seals shows you've been commissioned for something big--and I'd like to see some excitement here."

"A big commission?  What do you think it is?"

"No idea.  We'd better get over to Balmora and find out."

Getting Suited Out:

After asking at the South Wall Corner Club in Balmora, the two made their way to the home of Caius Cosades.  Laila waited outside while Ulwaen went in and spoke with Cosades.

Ulwaen emerged looking a bit punch drunk.

"Are you all right?" Laila asked.

"I've been officially inducted into the Blades.  I am now the Emperor's eyes and ears in Vvardenfell," he answered distantly.  "He also gave me this."

He shook a leather pouch, and 200 gold coins jingled merrily.

"He said to get myself armed for my first assignment," he added.

"The Emperor's eyes and ears, huh?  Why you?!"

"Good question!  This doesn't look good.  This doesn't look good at all."

"Look, I'll do as much as I can to help you out because I don't think you can make it on your own.  First, let's get you some good equipment."

They went to the blacksmith Thorek in the Razor Hole to pick up a steel katana.

"Not as good as Daedric, " Laila told him, "but better than most other swords."

She also outfitted him from head to foot in chitin armor because it is light and he was poor.  In spite of his small size, he looked rather dashing decked out in chitin and brandishing his steel katana.

"Now you need some training.  Leave it to me!"

She handed him a hardwood stick the same length as a katana and told him to beat a gunny sack repeatedly until the contents spilled out.  By the time the sack finally tore and the contents started dribbling out, his arm and chest muscles were very well developed.  Laila then taught him the moves in katana fencing, and they practiced offensive and defensive maneuvers.

Ulwaen is making Strides:

In the mean time, Cosades kept Ulwaen busy with a number of intelligence collecting assignments on something called "The Sixth House", something both he and Laila barely understood.

His first big assignment was to clean out the Sixth House in the Ilunibi Cavern north of Gnaar Mok.  They entered together and cut down every dreamer and bonewalker they encountered.  Ulwaen was doing very well, so well, in fact, that they could take on the monsters separately.  They made their way through the "Carcass of the Saint" and "Marowak's Spine" tunnels.  Ulwaen's confidence grew from strength to strength as they made swift progress.

However, when they came to the grand stairway in the "Blackened Heart" tunnel, everything went wrong.  At the top of the stairway was a Daedroth, resembling a crocodile-headed man, who throws shock and poison spells that can kill at a distance.  Ulwaen had never encountered such a monster before and didn't realize what he was in for as he rushed at the Daedroth with his katana upraised to strike.

"Ulwaen, no!" Laila yelled, but the shock and poison brought him down even before he was close enough to strike.  He scarcely knew what hit him.

Laila used the invisibility amulet to beat a hasty retreat because she herself was unprepared to face such a powerful monster.

Laila Takes Over:

There was a knock on Casades door, and Laila entered without being invited in.  Her clothing was thoroughly blood-spattered.

"Yes?" Cosades asked surprised at the sight.

Laila introduced herself and explained how she'd befriended Ulwaen; armed and trained him, then accompanied him into Ilunibi to provide support.

"I just wanted to let you know," she told him downcast, "Ulwaen didn't make it out of Ilunibi."

"I see.  And what is the present status on the Sixth House?"

"I couldn't get to it.  The monster was like nothing I'd ever seen before!  It had a crocodile head..."

"A Daedroth!" Cosades said and let out a big sigh of consternation.  "I hate to say this, Laila, but you'll just have to go back in there and finish what Ulwaen--like many others before him--was unable to accomplish.  Do you think you are up to it?"

"I need to train up my Magicka."

"Do that," he said taking 200 in gold from a chest on the bureau and handing it to her. "There's no rush.  You served the Blades well, and I hope you can continue to do so."

Reconnecting:

A month later Laila was back in the Blackened Heart tunnel where she cut down the Daedroth and destroyed the Sixth House base there.  However, her work still wasn't finished.  There were other Sixth House bases all over Vvardenfell that had to be subdued before their supreme leader, Dagoth Ur, could be destroyed.

In the course of her adventuring, she happened to be passing through Gnisis in the northwest.  She wore a motley assortment of armor she'd plundered from dead enemies and shouldered a bag of precious armor and enchanted weapons she'd gathered along the way.  Now she needed to pawn off whatever she could to put more gold in her pockets.  As she swaggered along with her Daedric katana and wakizashi jutting from her waist sash, she resembled more a dusty, sun-burned, battle-hardened mercenary than the newbie assassin who'd been subdued by a middle-aged building commissioner long ago.

She came to the armor and weapons merchant in the open-air market outside the Gnisis temple and dumped all manner of jeweled weapons and exquisite armor onto the table.

"What can you give me for all this?"

"I can't!" the trader responded in shock, "There's not enough gold in all Gnisis to pay for all this!"

"Got a hundred?  Give it to me and you can have everything.  There's a lot more where it came from."

The merchant's hands shook as he counted out 100 in gold and gave it to her.  She thanked him and, as she was turning to leave, noticed a middle-aged trader manning a table of sundry goods not far from where she stood.  It couldn't be!  Or could it?  She walked up to his table.

"Scotus Decumi, is that you?"  He had grown a beard and looked a bit older.

He nearly fell over at the sound of Laila's voice.

"Laila!" he exclaimed taking her hands in his, "Great to see you!  You're looking good!  Are you going to be in town for long?"

"Actually no, I'm on my way to Mamaea cavern to hunt down the Ash Vampire there.  Then I have a whole lot of other things to do before this quest is finished.  At least now I know where you are--you won't be moving away from here, will you?"

"Oh, no, Gnisis has been my home for some time now and will continue to be.  When will you be back?"

"I can't say, but I will be back--I promise!" she said and kissed him.

"May the gods protect you," he said choking up.

She continued on her way to Mamaea cavern.

A dangerous place, that Mamaea!

Maybe she will see him again, maybe she won't.