Chapter 13
Spawn of Sithis
Present Day - Stormhold Sewers
Tolan lifted himself to his feet. Dropping the damp rag he had been using to clean up the mess Artemis had made. His head was aching, but it was a small pain compared to the one he felt in his chest. He lifted his head up, cracking his neck left then right.
He could smell them. Smell the bastards on the air itself. They were a fury of emotions. The primary of which was rage. The kind of rage that got a thrill from corpses left bloody.
Tolan sucked in a deep breath. He could hear the commotion in the room behind him. He could feel Ri'shai already channeling. They were coming. Coming for his family. Coming for his pack. Coming for the Dar'kir.
They wanted to bring pain to his doorstep, death to his loved ones, despair to his world. Tolan would rip out their throats, cut open their hearts, and split their skulls.
He turned from his little room, passing through the alcove toward the sewers entrance. Faradin placed a hand on his shoulder, but Tolan just shrugged it off as he followed the scent of the shadow-scales.
"Brother wait, we cannot fight them like this. Where are you going?" Faradin asked.
Faradin moved to grab Tolan once more, but Ri'shai grabbed him by the arm. Tolan could hear as much as feel the power reverberating through Ri'shai. There was a storm beneath her skin, building like rumbling clouds.
Tolan hesitated only a moment, standing in the alcove's archway, he turned his head and said, "This is Tolan's home Faradin, do what you will, this one will protect his own."
Shadow's pooled around both of Tolan's hands as he stepped through the archway. He entered the sewer tunnels, the scent of argonian's bent on a bloodlust was coming from the right. So they had entered the sewers through the hidden entrance, they would pay for their trespassing in blood.
He began a slow walk into the darkness of the tunnel. They were close. Closer than he had expected. They were moving through the tunnels at great speed. Tolan counted five pairs of swift footsteps and swaying tails.
"Ri'shai! Get them out of here." Tolan shouted.
"Yes Tolan!" Ri'shai replied. The familiar sound of Ri'shai releasing storm magic filled Tolan's ears.
"Don't brother, why are you trying to get yourself killed?" Faradin Asked.
The tunnel behind Tolan illuminated with a stark white light. Tolan turned to see the tunnel crackling with electricity. It looked like a web of lightning strung from wall to wall. It would bar anyone from passing.
He met Faradin's eyes through the web of magic. Faradin's brow was furrowed. He held Artemis in one arm. Tolan didn't reply to Faradin. Tolan had no desire to die. He had the desire to kill.
He was so tired of struggling against these spawn of sithis. These shadow-scale bullies who used their power like a bludgeon. These oversized reptiles who wanted nothing more than to rip open him and his kin. He turned away from the magical barrier and looked into the darkness ahead.
The argonians were almost upon him. He pulled the shadows of the tunnel into him. Channeling his own magicka in the process. His hands and arms filled with the darkness. It spread, covering his chest and head and legs.
Tolan could feel the power rising within himself as he stepped down the tunnel. He cloaked himself in the darkness. The tunnel was roughly a person and half in height. A shadow aided jump sent him toward the ceiling. He used more magicka to pin himself there. He was a spider waiting for his trap to spring.
Five argonians passed underneath him. Each garbed in tight-fit clothing. each armed with dagger, sword, and bow alike. Each of them a master assassin. Tolan thought he may of recognized a few of them.
"What in sssithisss isss thisss?" One of the argonians spoke slowing his pace to inspect the web.
As soon as they passed Tolan dropped to the floor. He summoned a shadowy clone in his location. simultaneously, he placed a shadowy cloak of invisibility over himself. The argonians were inspecting the web of lightning infront of them. At the sound of his landing, they turned to see his clone taking aim with a bow.
The group started, but Tolan was already moving. He stepped through mafala's shadow, appearing directly behind the argonian who had spoken. He sent a kick into the back of the spikey faced creatures skull.
The argonian went flying into Ri'shai's web. Tolan noticed Faradin, Artemis, and Ri'shai retreating down the tunnel. The argonian hit the web and stuck. Lightning coursed through the argonian's reptilian frame. The corpse began to smoke as Tolan readied his shadow retreat.
Four more. Tolan was directly in the middle of them now. Two had swords unsheathed, each swinging toward Tolan. Two others had knives plunging toward him as well. Tolan tapped his shadowy clone, stepping once again through mafala's shadow, appearing beside his archer clone.
Tolan smiled as the argonians struggled to stop their blows from impaling each other. One of the argonians wielding swords sliced into another wielding knives. The argonian gave a screeching scream as green blood poured from his handless arm. He fell to his knees, gripping the arm, flailing to find his missing hand.
The other three turned toward Tolan's clone. Tolan once again cloaked himself in a shadowy disguise, blending in with the darkness of the tunnel. He unsheathed his bow, taking aim at the argonian who had removed the hand of his ally.
"Mafala, see my arrow true," Tolan whispered, letting go of the arrow fletching.
The impaling shot took the argonian in the shoulder. The argonian grunted as his sword arm went limp. The scaled-man snapped the arrow shaft from his shoulder, leaving the poisoned arrow inside the wound. All three shadow-scaled charged him.
He dropped his bow, unsheathing two daggers. Tolan began shifting as a mirage, using his shadow magic to distort his movements. Two uninjured assassins, one handless, one poisoned. Tolan smiled at his odds.
He gave the argonians one of his characteristically broad grins. He stopped the sword of one, while using the advantage of his mirage to plant a dagger into another. His dagger however found no purchase as the argonian ducked low. The argonian he tried to stab used his downward momentum to bring a foot around high. Tolan parried another sword thrust and used his offhand dagger to plant a blade into the kicking argonians ankle.
The argonian gave a screech as Tolan dodge'd two sword-swipes. One from the argonian he had been parrying and another from the left arm of the argonian he had shot. The scaled-man he'd stab viciously removed the dagger. Seeing the poison coted on the blade.
"Thissss bassstard has killed me!!" The argonian pleaded.
"Where hassss my hand gone you idiot!" the other cried.
As if answering their brothers plea the two standing argonians continued their assault. The uninjured argonian held his wavy long sword at the ready. Taking a defensive stance. The other stood in a fencer's pose, his right arm hanging lifeless from it's socket.
Tolan could feel his body cry out to move. The shadow's calling him to action. Mafala was with him. He could feel her in his very sword arm. Indeed, Tolan spotted several web-like shadows crawling up his arms.
He must kill them, kill them all. Tolan held a defensive stance, dagger at the ready. He glanced at the argonian he'd poisoned, hobbling in knee deep water. He extended his left hand, sending a shadowy blade to impale the argonian's neck.
The gurgling screech that spewed from the creatures mouth distracted his enemies for only a moment. A moment was all Tolan needed. Shadow's lept from Tolan's hands once more to assail the eyes of the fencer.
Simultaneously, Tolan struck out to parry the sword of the other. He managed to parry the blade only slightly, before taking a cut to his leg. The argonian never saw the shadow-blade form in Tolan's left hand. Tolan plunged death into the shadow-scale's jugular.
Tolan turned, the argonian he had blinded was trying desperately to scrape off the hundreds of shadow-spiders assailing his eyes. Tolan used his kris to slice open the reptiles throat.
Four dead. Tolan turned to inspect the argonian who had lost his hand. He took slow deliberate steps toward the bastard, savoring in his rage, his aching calf a distant cry.
"No! No! We were supposed to kill you all, Sithis wills it!" The argonian spoke.
Tolan tried to clear his thoughts. Tried to think rationally. It was not working. He only saw the deaths of his family. The deaths of his loved ones. He should let this argonian live. To question him. To find out more information.
Tolan planted a foot hard into the argonian's face. Sending him splashing several feet through knee deep water, before reaching Ri'shai's web. Tolan jumped from the water to a side terrace as the tunnel began to glow. Tolan watch solemnly as the argonian cooked in his watery grave. Lightning coursing through the scaled-man's corpse to the water itself.
