Meh, I kinda want us to leave the manor and get back to dungeon delving. Not that the manor wasn't fun or anything, but I enjoyed our little expidition in that last Dwemer ruin a fair bit more
Night-Runner grabbed the bowl Leiden had served for him. It was warm and tasty, the best food he'd had in months. He savoured it. Taking only small mouthfuls. He turned to one of the bottles of wine on the counter and uncorked it, pouring out glasses for all of his companions, all the while listening to their conversation in the background.
"Those guys still going?" He laughed. "I thought the Empire had wiped them out by now." He drank more of his stew. "And you Nightrunner? Veriax? What do you plan on doing after all this is over?"
Qa'Mhirr came into the room, leaping onto the corner of the table and picking up one of the bowls, sprinkling the contents of a small bag into the stew and stirring it with his claws.
He lapped up some of the broth before sticking a single claw back in and skewering a piece of meat, biting in.
Spoiler:
Glad to see people are still pushing politics and lobbing assumptions as fact
Oh well, that seems like a very good reason to write history as you like
Maybe I'll talk about how Qa'Mhirr's old employers, the Thalmor, hired him to delve into the Ayleid ruins in their new territory of central Cyrodiil and Dwemer ruins in Southern Hammerfell
Side note: The sugar is in Qa'Mhirr bowl, not the stew itself.
Avenge his fallen family by killing Stormcloaks, something along the lines of "I won't rest until every Stormcloak lies dead", leaving the outcome of the Civil War in ambiguity
Thoryn returned from his brief nap, finding that although he was tired, he could not fall into the deep and blissful sleep he had hoped for. Regarding the stew hesitantly he sat himself beside the others.
The "I thought" thing was supposed to leave it ambigious - as in a "Why haven't the Empire gotten rid of them yet?". Sorry if it seemed too straight-forward
"And you Thoryn? What are your plans after all of this?" He asked, gently sipping on his stew, quite glad he had taken some before Qa'Mhirr put his paws in it. "Surely a holy-man needs a vacation?" He chuckled
"This adventure is merely a distraction from my ultimate quest," Thoryn replied, "albeit a welcome one. I must admit I am eager to reach Vivec, to visit the ruins of High Fane and the Palace of Vivec, but after we have finished in the City of Vivec I shall return to my original path, to Mount Vvardenfell, and then perhaps, across Vvardenfell and Morrowind, as always, under Veltho's guidance and Nerevar's protection."
"Well," said Night-Runner, "I am a soldier by trade, I've never really known another life. I should return to my superiors in morrowind, but my mission here was a failure, i'd be surprised if they let me keep my head.." Night-Runner trailed off, taking another mouthful of stew.
"I think that if i can sell all of this treasure here.." He patted his bulging satchel "then i can buy a ship and a crew and sail west around skyrim. I've always wanted to visit the west."
Leiden finished his stew, listening to his companions stories. The heat of the stew made him sleepy, and given they needed to rest up anyway, he decided he'd take his leave. "How about we get some shuteye?" Leiden asked. "Big day ahead tomorrow. If Azura was right, we still have more Daedra to deal with... apart from her, that is."
Thoryn finished the remains of his stew before downing a final mouthful of Vintage Brandy he had liberated from the cellar. Then he returned to the bedroom he had come upon before, this time undressing and letting himself drift intot he sleep that had so long alluded him.
Qa'Mhirr licked his paw dry and returned to the adjacent room, laying on the floor and hoping the next hit of the pipe would silence the voices for him long enough to get some sleep.
Llarays turned around. "Actually..." he said, walking to the soup, "It might not be so bad... better to rest on a full stomach than resting on an empty one." He took a bowl and filled it with soup. He drank the majority of it. "It... tastes fine... but... I bet I'm going to be sick in the morning."
Leiden quite easily drifted off to sleep, and for the first time, it was a good, long, uninterrupted one. The house was silent, and in a good way. But in the back of his mind, a nagging thought invaded his dreams. And it was that Boethiah wasn't done with them. Breaking Goldbrand hadn't stopped her - only made her more angry.
The sound of a Raven woke Leiden up in the morning. The night had passed without incident, and his full belly from the night before made sure that he was quite content getting up. He could have been back in Windhelm, for how he felt. He hoped that there were still buildings like this nearer to Vivec - but wouldn't hold his breath. At this point, they'd start to see the devastation that the meteor had caused.
"Everybody still alive?" He called out, getting suited up for the day.
Llarays was dead. He lied near the soup, poisoned by it.
"I guess I still am," Llarays said, rising from the floor. "I fell asleep on that, not exactly a good sleep," he said, pointing to the floor. "And my stomach is a bit.. erm.. feeling sick?"
Thoryn was already awake, having risen early, feeling refreshed, if unsettled. He sat in the kitchen once again, nursing a bottle of Cyrodilic Brandy as he cleaned the Ebony Scimitar he had lifted from the armoury the night before.
He heard Leiden's call and responded in turn, "Morning," he said gruffly, although not unkindly, "Are the others awake yet?"