Hasir crossed the street and went inside the merchant's inn to find Infinite, Deem-Kiurz and M'aiq sitting at a round corner table
with bottles of Cyrodiilic brandy in front of them; they offered the smiling Argonian a seat at the table and the extra bottle of brandy,
he politely declined,
"I would love to join you, Hircine knows I would but I have to find out what these images that flashed through my mind mean," He
turned away from them and muttered, "well that among other things."
Infinite opened his mouth and was about to ask what those other things were when Hasir spun around and slammed his fist down so
hard that the table shuddered as if caught in a minor earthquake,
"Infinite don't ask questions that I have no time or desire to answer." With that, he left the inn and exited through the market district
door onto the bridge that lead from the Imperial prison to the Market District.
He walked down a path that lead off to the west down a cobblestone slope, passed the small village the elf spoke of until he found
himself outside Chestnut Handy Stables. He smiled widely and waved at the ostler,
"Hi, I was wondering if I could buy a horse." He almost yelled because the orc had fallen asleep minutes before he arrived
Upon hearing this, The orc yawned and waved back, albeit halfheartedly,
"I was asleep idiot! I also am not deaf." She yelled as her eyes bore into Hasir, forcing him to momentarily stop in his tracks.
Hasir's face reddened as his tail tucked itself between his legs, the orc shrugged her anger off as he came close to her,
"I'm sorry," He said, bashfully, "I thought you were-never mind, er, do you have any, erm, horses?" He asked, his tail relaxing
The orc shook her head,
No, we don't, I am sorry," She said making a mental inventory of her stable, "Well, that is not one hundred percent true, I have one
horse here, standing in the stable next to the house, an old chestnut mare." Hasir said that would do, paid the required gold,
mounted the old nag and galloped off in a southwestern direction.
Hasir galloped for what seemed like hours, until he saw a magnificent castle break the horizon. He slowed the horse down to a
canter as he looked in awe at the castle. He spurred the horse to a gallop. The old nag galloped through the two open doors of what
Hasir guessed was the east gate of the city; hooves clattered over the cobblestone. Hasir remained wide-eyed as he passed many
manors of well-to-do residents including Rosethorn manor.
Hasir and the nag sped past the manor and a short while after slowed to a walk and then stopped in front of a building with a blue
and gold sign with a styilized eye standing silent vigil. The Argonian cantered towards the back of the building, tied the nag to a
wooden fence post and walked to the front of the mage's guild and entered.
Once over the threshold, Hasir looked amazedly around at the guild's interior. Two doors stood at either end of the small entryway.
Hasir walked further into the mage's guild, but was stopped immediately by a breton mage,
"Stop, you need to join the mage's guild before you can roam this area completely, much less see the other areas here." She said,
crossing her arms.
Hasir's tail swayed from side to side; a grin broke across his face,
"That is exactly why I'm here," He said, "I'm here to join the mage's guild. I wish to learn magic and the ability to use it wisely, I
want to l-" The breton, who had introduced herself as Adrienne Berene, extended her hand to sto the Argonian in mid-speech. "I
don't want to hear it." She said shaking her bead, "just a simple 'I'd like to join the mage's guild' would've sufficed."
She smiled and shook Hasir's hand,
"Welcome to the Mage's Guild, you will find a pair of robes in the living quarters upstairs, again, welcome apprentice." Hasir smiled
back, tail dancing behind him and went through one of the doors that lead into a room with two sets of stars leading off in opposite
directions but ultimately ascending to the second floor.
Hasir ascended the stairs and crossed the room, passing a table where a fellow Argonian sat studying a spellbook. He opened the
door opposite the table and saw a pair of plain blue robes and a hood lying on a bed closest to the door that Hasir guessed was his
bed. He bounded over to the bed, grabbed the folded robe and hood and, ensuring no one was watching, stripped out of his armor,
stowed it in his bag and got dressed into the robe and hood.
He shouldered his bag, walked over to the small table and sat down. He grinned at the Argonian studying the spellbook and
drummed his claws on the table,
"Hi, nice to find a familar face here," He said sighing. "Erm... what rank are you in the guild?" He asked, hoping the Argonian looked
up from her book; she didn't.
After a long, awkward silence, she spoke; her snout still stuck in her book,
"Nice to meet you Argonian, my name is Druja, as for my rank," She said, finally looking up at the Argonian across from her, "I am
a, well, I don't actually have a rank, I am a battlemage."
Hasir thanked her for her reply and was about to get up when a wood elf he hadn't seen in thie guild hall pushed him back down in
his chair,
"Go back where you came from lizard, your kind isn't welcome here." the wood elf said, sneering
Druja heard this and got up from her chair, furious,
"Erthor, you always have to play the race card don't you? Instead of picking and choosing what races get to join the mages guild why
not accept them with open arms?" She asked, poking him in the chest, "because all you give them is the cold shoulder."
Hasir lunged at the wood elf but Druja was quick enough to step in between them, keeping them two scaly arm lengths apart,
"Druja, I've been told I wasn't good enough all my life and I can't join things because I am different, but this is the straw that broke
the camel's back, "let me at him," Hasir growled, "I would love to make some fine shoes out of HIS skin." Hasir snarled at the wood
elf, blocked by Druja's body barricade.
Druja's eyes flitted from the wood elf to the Argonian,
"No, Hasir, I will not let you stoop down to his level, you have a good heart, you are no killer." She said, fighting to remain calm
Hasir laughed while his tail slammed down, making several people stop what they were doing downstairs and look up,
"Druja, you've no idea what I might do or who I am, so who the fuck are you to judge me?" He asked her, his eyes alight with the
fires of Oblivion. Erthor found a weakness in the female Argonian's defense and took advantage of it, leaping at Hasir. Druja grabbed
him by his hair causing the bosmer to slam into the floor. Druja turned him around so that he looked her dead in the eyes,
"Erthor, stop this right now, I am sure Hasir is here to learn magic same as you, me and everyone else here. You didn't hate or
disrespect me the first time I set foot in this guild, what changed?"
Erthor muttered under his breath that he did hate her he just didn't show it. She shot daggers at him, asking what makes him
different than her,
"Well, first off, he has only just started whereas you, you've been here longer and got to know my disliske of cats and lizards." He
said, smiling sheepishly. Druja chastized the wood elf for his sever lack of judgement and told him that if he was put down he should
'play nicely.'
Erthor nodded slowly; Druja released him, he got up shakily, smirked evilly, grabbed Druja and threw her at the wall near the
bedroom, and renewed his attack on Hasir. The Argonian shot at the bosmer like a bolt out of a crossbow driving him into the wall
near where Druja lay, unconscious. Fire leapt into Hasir's eyes as something other than his normal sense flooded his eyes; he took
the bosmer by the throat and slammed him repeatedly into the wall and threw him down the stairs to smack face first into the wall
diagonal from the flight he had just been thrown down.
Hasir got down on his hands and feet, cleared the entire staircase in a single bound and grabbed the wood elf, who had blood
pouring from his nose. He dragged the elf out into the main street by the ankle and around to the back of the mages guild where a
grassy area stood with a well in the center. Hasir removed the grate, which glinted like the metal of a forged sword in the moonlight,
off of the well and lifted the sniveling bosmer high above the open well,
"Any lasst wordss bosmer scum?" He asked staring into Erthor's frantic eyes
The Bosmer struggled against the Argonian's vice-like grip,
"Why are you do this? I only berated you for fun, i-it's something I do for all new mages... kind of like a ritual of mine you know?"
Hasir considered the bosmer's words and immediately shook his head,
"No, sorry that doessn't ring any bellss, ssorry." He said, a scowl on his face, "Now you will see firsst hand why you don't mess with
an Argonian from Black Marsh."
Erthor nodded, begging to Oblivion that the Argonian would let him go. Hasir heard this and chuckled darkly,
"Oh, I'll let you go alright," He said, pulling out a dagger from his belt and stabbing it into Erthor's stomach, twisting it as it went in
watching maliciously as the elf's life slowly flowed from his body. When the life had left Erthor's eyes and his frantic flailing lessened
and finally stopped did Hasir release him. He fell into the well with a sickening splash.
Hasir grabbed the grate and slid it back into place hopefully helping to hide the wood elf's corpse. He hoped to Hircine and Kynareth
that no one had reason to use the well behind the guid; if they did, they would surely notice a body floating in the water and soon
trace it back to him. Hasir cleaned of the blade with a cloth he removed from his bag and sheathed it.
Hasir felt weary as the adrenaline flooded out of him. The tired Argonian stumbled over to a bedroll not too far from the well, laid
down on it and fell asleep.
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