Little Gaius woke up with a smile. As the sun kissed the house he and his parents lived in, he knew that it would be a very special day. Because it was his birthday! Now, birthdays aren't celebrated in every culture across Tamriel but little Gaius had the fortune of having been born into a loving, Imperial family. Even amongst their kind it wasn't ubiquitous. But for little Gaius, every year he would get to have his very special day where everyone who loved him would come together to celebrate his slow coming of age. And this year, he would be visited and celebrated for the fifth time.
Gaius pushed away the blanket and stumbled through his room. When he rubbed his eyes, he could barely believe what he saw: Overnight, someone had decorated his room with immaculately cut paper ornaments and strands of coloured fabric! What a nice surprise that was. He passed by his emptied toy chest, grabbing his guar plushie by its tail in the process and proceeded to head towards the door to his room.
A flight of wooden stairs led him down into the parlour. His parents weren't up yet, but Gaius saw that every precaution for his special day had already been taken. Beautiful flowers in ornate vases, paper ornaments hanging from the walls and ceiling and the biggest sweetroll he has ever seen! What a great day this promised to be.
When he looked out the window, Gaius realised that it was well past noon. "How odd", he thought. Because his parents would have been up already. And all the guests he was expecting were missing, too! Surely, they must be somewhere and just haven't started the celebrations yet because he was still asleep. Yes, that's what it must be!
Dragging his guar plushie on the floor behind him, little Gaius stumbled through the empty rooms of the house. A lavishly decorated living room with many wrapped presents beckoned him to turn right and see for himself what they all brought. But Gaius restrained himself, not opening all the presents yet while no one was around. Also, he was still in his sleeping clothes! Now, what a strange picture that would be!
Some presents were as big as he was, some as small as his tiny hands. He wondered so very much what lovely things were inside them. And as he kept looking for all the party guests, he noticed that some must have spilled his favourite snowberry juice all over the table and walls! "How sweet", little Gaius thought with a smile, "they must have become impatient for me to wake up!". So whoever opened the bottle to begin the party must have been clumsy indeed.
Dragging his favourite plushie along, little Gaius exited the living room in his holy quest to find the missing guests and his parents. Next was the kitchen off to the right of the doorframe. "Surely", he pondered, "all the people must be there!". Because he knew that it was universal practice among families to gather at the food source and have chats while snacking on tasty treats. He shoved open the door with his tiny arms and beheld an empty room. A knife covered in mashed fruit lay on the counter. "Yes!", he thought. Because mashed fruit on top of a good cake was his favourite. He was overjoyed that his parents thought of that. But finding the kitchen as empty as it was, now that was curious! Were they purposely hiding from him for a surprise? Maybe so! This had little Gaius excited and with a little laugh of fun and joy, he continued his search. He was ready to play a game of hide and seek. His friends must have had that idea and he was so happy everyone played along!
"Come on Flewfs, let's find them together!" he whispered to his guar plush and held it tight in his hand, its head pointing the same direction as him so Flewfs might help looking for the guests.
Quietly, he snuck out of the kitchen and headed down the hallway to the guest room. His eyes immediately caught a large spill of juice underneath a closet door when he entered the room. "Good work Flewfs!" he said to his toy, patting it generously on its head. He approached the closet door and pulled at the handle, but it was locked. "A clever way to hide the broken bottle!", he thought. He turned around and knew where all of them must be hiding: in his parent's bedroom.
He gently climbed the stairs to the first floor as to not make a sound. He didn't want them to know he was coming, after all. Across the hall was the door to the bedroom, slightly ajar. Gaius encroached and peeked through the small opening. There they were! He saw a few shoes and legs but nothing else, for he quickly retreated when he saw one of the pairs of legs move and come for the door. Now, he thought, it was HIS turn to play.
Little Gaius ran for his room, closed the door behind him and looked for a place to hide. "The chest!", he heard Flewfs say in his mind. Of course! The emptied toy chest was such a clever hiding spot. And he could just fit in, too!
He listened close and steps were approaching his door quickly. So he did act and climbed into the chest, having to curl up quite a bit to fit in, but he managed. He closed the lid above him and even though it was uncomfortable, he knew that it won't be long until his mother would find him and lift him onto her arm to wish him a happy birthday.
The door opened. Gaius snickered with quiet hilarity, trying to contain his excited laughter. The steps came closer. There was a click noise from the outside, and then the steps faded into the distance once more. Laughing, Gaius thought "How silly of you not to look for me here!". And so, Gaius waited to be discovered. Because if they could play this game, he could too. And if it got too uncomfortable in his toy chest, he would just crawl out again and present himself openly. Can't delay his very special day for too long! Flewfs was with him, and he resolved to wait until someone would open the chest, excited about what a great day lay ahead of him.
*****
Thorus Blackward sat at his table in the bureau in the White Gold Tower when he opened a letter that would turn his skin pale with horror. After reading it, he would grab his gear without hesitation and ordered two of his agents to come along. "We're off to Anvil", he said sternly but with a shaky voice. Without questioning him, his agents followed him out of the tower, onto the street, boarding the nearest Imperial carriage.
"We've been summoned by the city guard to the Aurelius residence. Apparently, something took place there that goes way over their heads so it is up to us to investigate", he told his colleagues. A man of short brown hair and muscular stature and a woman of long, curly blonde hair, slender in appearance, nodded with understanding and acknowledgement at Thorus' withholding of detailed information. After an hour, they arrived at the residence. Two guards were posted on either side, looking pale and ill. Recognising the uniform of Thorus and his associates, they made way. Thorus opened the heavy door to the estate.
Before him was a whimsical scene. Colourful decorations littered the hallways and rooms of the house. Presents big and small. But something wasn't right. He already knew, of course, the extent of the iniquity in this place. At least he thought he knew. He ordered his colleagues to have a look around and collect and record evidence, to see if the perpetrator had left any traces of themselves that they could follow. Meanwhile, Thorus was headed straight for the heart of the incident. He passed by the bloodstained living room and wondered what gash must have been necessary for the size and direction of the stain. He walked by the kitchen and caught a glimpse of what he assumed to be the tool with which the splatters were inflicted. He walked straight ahead, up the only flight of stairs in the house and traversed the hallway on the first floor. At its far end was the discovery that the letter had mentioned.
He dared not go near that unconsecrated door, yet he was drawn to it. The darkness had always beckoned him to plumb its depths in spite of his natural reluctance to experience it. Thorus was helpless. It was his job as much as his calling. And this was precisely why he was so good at it. He had been appointed head of his department for a reason.
The cursed air sucked him in. As he approached, there was nothing. Only the door, slightly ajar. Promising dark secrets. In pushing it open they revealed themselves to him. To Thorus, seeker of darkness.
First came the smell. The odour of death and flesh decay. The pile of bodies that filled the room slowly began to melt into one clump of rotten meat, if not for the venerable raiments of the deceased, this would have already happened. Thorus inspected the bodies carefully, soaking in all the little details that he could. The cause of death for all of them was a sizeable gash in the throat, inflicted no doubt with the knife from the kitchen. Slashing wounds on the hands and forearms, severed fingers and removed nails told him that some of the victims were fighting for their lives. In vain. The bloodied clothes were still largely intact and all of the victims' possessions appeared to be present. The killer had only the desire to murder. But why? And who on Nirn could have had any such motivation?
Thorus ruled out the Dark Brotherhood. While the murders were evidently cruel, the scene wasn't messy enough. He knew that Dark Brotherhood assassins indulged in the kill, the thrill of the hunt. They celebrated a good gorefest when there was one to be had. But aside of two large blood splatters and a few small pools, the house was clean. The bodies weren't tortured or dismembered, either. All of them were killed by one, clean cut. Thorus dealt with a skilled professional.
He desperately searched the bodies and the room for a pattern, an item. Anything to be identified as a calling card. But he had no such luck.
Material gain wasn't the motive. Neither did anyone perform the black sacrament. Thorus didn't know the family history well enough to know if they had any enemies. They were quite wealthy, yes, but also charitable. Maybe it was a disgruntled family member then?
Thorus stopped in bewilderment when he began to sift through the pile of bodies. Because underneath the 15 or so adult corpses he discovered a layer of child bodies in much greater decay. "Oh no", he whispered. The questions as to the perpetrator's identity mounted. This was definitely a thing the Dark Brotherhood would do but all other evidence suggested otherwise. So: Who would go out and kill about 15 adult men and women, indiscriminately of race and gender, and kill all 7 children that were with them as well? The question was: who COULD do it? Thorus already had a hunch about what kind of person would be merciless enough and began looking for clues on the bodies.
Due to the advanced state of putrefaction, what fluids the bodies had held once had already leaked out of their pores and orifices. Most were covered in a slimy film. Brushing the mounting insects away moment after moment, he did make a discovery only visible on the lowest lying child corpses: a clear substance, with semi-fluid consistency. A balm, maybe? Thorus reached out and soiled his fingertips with it and held them underneath his nose. The smell was unmistakable. This substance was used for embalming corpses. His assumptions had been correct. Now, Thorus Blackward knew that he was dealing with a necromancer. From the way that the perpetrator had been operating it was clear to him that they were of the most reckless sort. A force best not confronted head-on. From the amount of bodies he concluded that this necromancer had been waiting on an opportune moment to raise an army of capable underlings and this party was perfect for this purpose. A nefarious mind out for grander things. An experienced mage, well-versed in the black arts. This was the type of person they were looking for.
The modus operandi suggested that an immediate halt had to be put to their doings. But it had been a week and they could be anywhere right about now.
Thorus was just about to leave the room and ask for his colleagues' findings when he noticed a detail that had previously eluded him. Bloody footprints that led out of the room and into the hallway were on the floor. He inspected them closely, took a few measurements. By sheer size alone the prints suggested a male Nord of average height. However, the slenderness of the soles told him a different story.
A proficient magic-user, an expert killer, with a knack for the dark arts. Power-hungry, ruthless towards humans to an unreasonable degree. A tall, slender figure. All the pieces fit together. This was the work of a female Altmer wizard. Thorus had no doubt. The picture he was able to paint got clearer and clearer. "Now, who ARE you?", he silently asked himself.
Thorus noticed that the footprints went down the hallway and to a closed door. The only room he had yet to inspect. Could it be this easy? Was the necromancer hiding in that room? His sense of duty compelled him to go inside immediately. He failed to call for his colleagues who were still occupied with surveying the scene downstairs. He followed the bloody trail and opened the door brashly and with no hesitation, his arms readied for combat. But the room was empty.
Thorus let down his guard and let his expert gaze wander from left to right, top to bottom. It didn't take much guesswork to figure out that this room belonged to the child of the family. Toys on the floor, expensive, dyed bed sheets. The decorations hung from the walls and ceiling also told him for whom the party was. It must have been for said child, probably to commemorate their coming of age. The rest of the furnishings and decor also told him that the child couldn't have been older than seven years.
Thorus once again eyed the footprints that led to a closed chest, not much bigger than a child, sitting against the wall in the room's center. A lock on it indicated that the chest was sealed. However, a wave of panic struck the seasoned investigator when he realised that all the toys that would probably belong inside that chest were lying about in a half-circle around it. Yet, it was locked.
His eyes widened. He mumbled "Nononononono" as he hurried towards the toy chest. Maybe, if he was just quick enough, there was yet a soul to be saved? He feared the worst. But Thorus was clever. A quick thinker when a situation called for action. He did not hesitate and drove the tip of his sword in between the lock and the locking mechanism. With some leverage applied to the hilt, he managed to break the lock and unseal the chest. His hand lost grip of his trusty blade and he touched the lid. Thorus pushed it upward, the wood creaking from not having been used in days.
His fears, in all their terror, manifested themselves within the blueish-gray corpse of a young boy. Thorus wanted to speak but the lump in his throat would not let him. He caringly stroked the little one's head. He drove his fingers through the curly, brown hair when a few tears escaped his eyes.
"Why? Oh, little one. Why did you not leave the house? What horror made you hide in here?", he managed to aspirate before his voice broke. He barely kept his composure.
He gulped a few times and breathed in deep, on his knees in front of the chest. He wiped away the tears in his eyes and looked closer at the body. The skin colour suggested a Dunmer child, but the facial complexion, gazing past the dead look on the boy's face, told him he was of human descent. "Asphyxiation?", Thorus whispered. "You hid. And you ran out of air?". He kept himself from tearing up once more.
He inspected the bruises on the elbows, wrists, fingers and ankles. "You tried to escape? So you didn't hide with this intention in mind. You didn't expect to get trapped?". It was evident to him that the boy struggled inside the confines of the chest. A space that was barely bigger than he was. "What's this?". In his right hand, the corpse held the plushie of a guar. "He was your favourite, hm?". Thorus began to sob quietly.
"At least he was with you on that day". He stroked the boy's head one more time before getting up.
"May the Divines take good care of you", he finally said before leaving the premises.
The report Thorus Blackward wrote would go down in history as the most cruel case of mass murder in the province. But his attention to detail and detective work led to the quick discovery of an Altmer woman going by the name of Saursha. The bureau was able to pinpoint her location from the clues and evidence Thorus' associates were able to discover. She hasn't lived far off and actually holed up inside a cave just outside the city borders. The Imperial army caught Saursha when she was about to pack her belongings and move. She resisted confinement and a battle ensued with heavy losses. But in the end, the sword of General Marcus of the Imperial Guard impaled her heart in a moment of her own inadvertence. Following her death, her army of shambling corpses dropped dead and the terror was slain.
Thorus took a month off following the event. When he returned to the bureau in the White Old Tower, he already had an assignment for him on the table. The letter he received spoke of the kidnapping of a Bretic family near Leyawiin. But in the following days, reports of missing people mounted. He had no idea what he would get himself into next.
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