58: Refugees

I stepped out of the swirling vortex of the teleport and landed on a platform just behind Darkasha. A tall Altmer helped me down off the elevated landing, and I immediately began giving her orders.

“Prepare yourself for more arrivals.” I said quickly, “refugees from Ald’Ruhn will undoubtedly be coming this way. I will get someone to help you, but I need to speak to the head of this hall.” She looked stunned for a moment, and then pointed me down to a lower level where some mages were milling around. Darkasha looked uncomfortable in the presence of so many arcane scholars; most could identify him as a vampire without much effort and I worried what their reaction might be.

“Darkasha, get outside and keep your head down, but be on the lookout for the Nerevarine. I’m going to need my staff back now.” He nodded his understanding and tossed the staff to me. The Dark One abruptly entered my mind and a wave of dizziness came over me. It passed, and I strode down to the group of mages on the lower level.

“Which one of you is the head of this guild hall?” I asked to the group at large. They looked at me briefly, their eyes absorbing the details of my face. A thin Dunmer narrowed his fiery eyes at me momentarily, and then responded.

“That would be me.” His voice had hints of the Vvardenfell dialect in it, low and gravelly. “What can I do for you, associate?” He pronounced “associate” slowly, contempt dripping from his voice.

“I would like to speak to you in private, if I may.” I tried to show as much respect as I could, I didn’t want to anger him anymore than I already had. He frowned, and then gestured off to the side. I followed him through a door into what appeared to be an office, but it was difficult to tell due to the stacks of scrolls and books scattered around the desk and floor.

“I think you need to explain who you are, outlander, and you’d best do it quickly.” He closed the door behind me and stood holding it shut.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, sir,” I said, giving my best effort to get to the point. “I have just come from Ald’Ruhn, and the Daedra have begun to attack.” He nodded; he was not surprised by this, apparently. I continued, “I’m certain you know that it will not survive the assault, but with any luck we may be able to get some survivors out via the guild teleport. My companion stayed behind in Ald’Ruhn to help guide people to safety. I recommend we begin preparing for any refugees who come through the guild teleport.” The Dunmer cut me off and opened the door back into the main hall.

“Covers-his-claw,” the Dunmer shouted out into the room, “We’re going to have people coming through the teleport, see to it that they are taken care of.” A short Argonian nodded his head and then jogged up the stairs. The guild head closed the door once more. “What else?”

“Well, I don’t know how else to put this… Gnisis is going to be attacked very soon.” I said.

“What makes you think that?” The Dunmer asked, mild surprise crossing his usually skeptical brow.

“Two things: Number one, I heard it from a very reliable source; Number two, they’re targeting the major cities of the three great houses. In any case, we should begin preparing for a siege, and should inform the city guard as soon as possible. I’m no defense strategist, and I don’t know the city of Gnisis very well, but apparently this city is defensible.” A sudden thought occurred to me. “Also, we may want to gather as many silt striders as we can and keep them near the city. They could be quite handy.” A look of disbelief formed on the Dunmer’s face, and I immediately regretted bringing up such a strange idea when I didn’t have time to explain my reasoning. Luckily, I was saved any humiliation by a figure pushing through the doorway into the office, followed by Darkasha. The trail of ash that drifted through the air behind the figure was familiar to me, even though the ash coated face seemed slightly different than it had on Red Mountain.

“Nerevarine!” The guild head exclaimed and fell to his knees in reverence. “I am honored! If I had known that… If there is anything I can do…”

“Enough.” The voice boomed through the air, though the Nerevarine’s lips did not move. He turned to me, “You have informed the guild head of the coming storm. He will do all that is required of him. Now come, we have much to discuss.” He strode out of the room and I helped the Dunmer to his feet, he looked slightly shaken, but he pushed past me and began issuing orders to other mages in the guild hall. I rushed after the Nerevarine.

Small groups of refugees had already begun to congregate in pockets around the guild hall, clearly lost and terrified. Perhaps fifteen to twenty people had made it through so far, and Kael was obviously not among them. A mage was trying to usher the scared civilians out into the streets where at least they would be out of the way, but they were slow to move, clearly in shock. As I followed the Nerevarine and Darkasha up the stairs out of the basement where all the activity was, a loud cry of frustration came from the teleport room.

“I’ve lost contact!” yelled the Altmer who controlled the teleportation fields. “No one else can come through!”