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User:Emzi43/Shades of Black

< User:Emzi43
                                                                Shades of Black

When the sun went down around Riften, the streets came alive. They always did. Thieves crept towards buildings with dark windows, and the only buildings actually generating light had silhouettes fighting and dancing in the windows. The Inns were like little kingdoms of their own, going to war frequently with their neighbours. As the day’s crowds began to subside, only the foolish or the brave stayed outdoors. The beggars were most of the crowd now, pleading and faking injuries and illnesses for any amount of coin. About five miles from Riften there was a Convent of religious sisters dedicated to Stendarr, where many beggars would go because of their generosity. This evening there were but three beggars outside. A sister came out and regretfully informed them that there were only two beds available in the convent, but plenty of food to go around. The beggars crept back into the shadows at the roadside to discuss who would get what. All three boys were fourteen, although there were a few months between them all. The eldest was called Aventus, and had dark hair, cut short and blue, piercing eyes. The second was called Elris, and had curly ginger hair, was quite short, and his eyes were a muddy brown. The youngest was called Rohsahn, and was a redguard, with straight long hair, which was an oily black. His eyes were a dark green. It was eventually decided that Aventus and Rohsahn would sleep there, and Elris would have to meet them in Riften. They went inside and ate a meal of beef, potatoes and cabbage, then Aventus and Rohsahn retired to their beds, leaving only Elris awake outside the Convent. He began to walk away when he noticed something moving in the shadows. He focused on it and could make out the shape clearly now, it was darker than the darkness behind it. Suddenly there was a scream, a long, drawn out, mournful howl. It was coming from the shape. After Elris had recovered from the shock of hearing the scream, he started towards the shape. A light came on in one of the convent's windows, illuminating the shape. A second scream was heard by those inside.


Aventus and Rohsahn rushed outside, but saw nothing of their friend. They saw a shadow, moving away in the distance, which vaguely resembled the silhouette of a stormcloak soldier. Rohsahn thought this was strange, because the stormcloak army was skirmishing around whiterun, preparing for an assault against the city. Only the hold militia guard would have patrolled, and it was unlikely that they would patrol this late into the night and this far from Riften. There was no sign of the boy, apart from lots of blood on the ground, near the bushes across the deserted road, but after a long search, they found nothing there either, just a few blood patches. “Stendarr protect us!” There was a cry from the convent. The boys ran over to see. Two of the religious sisters had found something just behind the convent’s main building. It was Elris’s head.


Neither of the boys had known Elris that well, they were simply orphans joining together for some extra drakes. Still, the mysterious circumstances of his death had frightened everyone. Still, they could do nothing about it; they were on edge the rest of the night. It was when they were trying to sleep in the spare room that Rohsahn saw it. It glided past the ajar door without making a sound, but it’s bright, burning red eyes stood out against the darkness. Another five of the creatures followed. Rohsahn got out of the bed and followed them. They had gathered in the room where the sisters slept, then the screaming began. Rohsahn dared to look, and saw the things slaughtering the sisters with huge battle-axes. He also managed to get a decent look at them. They were stormcloaks, or looked that way. They were totally black, like slivers of midnight. They had the upper body of a stormcloak soldier, though a dead one, bits of bone could be seen through their tabards, yet they had no legs, they floated. Rohsahn heard a loud noise from behind him, like lightning striking a tree, and heard a tortured scream which he knew came from Aventus. In the hallway, there was a tall Breton with a hood drawn up over his face with a long brown beard. He wore strange robes, there was an imprint of a skull in the centre. The sign of necromancy! Rohsahn finally realised what he had come across, a necromancer and his minions were attacking the convent. One of the sisters who hadn’t been in the sleeping quarters rushed out of a doorway holding a dagger. She started towards the man, but he must have heard her coming and turned. He raised his hand and a white-blue mist erupted from it, like a bold of cold itself. It struck the sister and she flew back into the room she had come from, trailing a white mist. “Excellent! That should be everyone; now that was a suitable test wouldn’t you say?” Rohsahn realised that the man was talking to someone. Right on cue, a young nord lad stepped out of the same door as the sister had come out of. “Um, yes, well, good test, yes, these minions will work, more war more strength for us, yes master Malkoran” the nord said. The Breton man examined him before sending him back through the doors with the same spell he had used on the sister. “Not sure why I bother with apprentices, but I love doing that!” Rohsahn began to creep away from the horrible Breton necromancer, but was swept up by one of the undead creatures and dumped before the Breton called Malkoran. “Well now, what’s this, a beggar here to stay for the night, I don’t have time for this.” He then turned to face Rohsahn, looking at him with a malicious glint in his eyes “You see these creatures; they’re made from the soldiers being killed in the war, oh yes, very useful. This was merely to test them out, see how many I could make from a stormcloak patrol. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a god to defile”


Rohsahn saw that horrible blue mist once again and screamed before the necromancer claimed him.