THIRTEEN ADVENTURERS IN TIME AND SPACE

[Maharg67]

-21-

THE THIRTEEN IN THE COLOVIAN HIGHLANDS

IN WOZZLEDOM

 

Count Rashenlos was a angry young man with a noble title and little else. The estate that he had sought was going to go to others and even his title was under doubt. Yet as he sat on his horse high on a hilltop overlooking the great valley with its thick forest, gutted in pockets by the stupidity of his brother the Duke, he vowed to himself that he would turn all of Wozzledom into his very own County, no a Dukedom. As the mood blackened inside him he was unaware that his personal followers, his servants, his bodyguards and the mercenaries were growing increasingly wary of him. For the Count had been growing increasingly erratic and his mood swings increasingly more wild.

 

They did not know that Count Rashenlos had made a deal with the Mythic Dawn, that he was possessed by a daedric demigod who was one Merunes Grasshi, an offspring of Mehrunes Dagon himself who was mothered by a greater daedric female. Not a false goddess for there were only Nine Daedric Gods, or at least that was the official line. If they had known the truth, most likely they would have attacked the Count and most likely he would have slaughtered them, then and there.

 

Count Rashenlos was quite insane.

 

There was already gathering an army of wozzles and other creatures to force him into a bloody retreat from the valley. The Second Thirteen themselves were ensconced in a set of caves in the side of a small mountain from where they spied distantly upon the Count and his small army. But Count Rashenlos seemed over confident to the point of irrationality and the Thirteen were sensing that there was something hidden behind his over confidence that made them reluctant to simply launch a frontal attack on the invaders.

 

The wozzles, the hulking wazzles, the nocturnal wezzles, the winged wizzles and the amphibious wuzzles were all eager to attack the humans. There were also exotic young women like dryads, nymphs and other such wildfolk. Centaurs stomped on hooves, varying from light fast breeds to great draft-horse like entities. There were tribal warriors also of the Hekarwi with their light, fast horses and hard leather body-armour. The Globeship generated a great stack of special power weapons and body-armour for the army to use but to the frustration of the Thirteen, many did not seem to want to use the new devices.

 

Addalla had come out of her capsule and so there were nine super-soldiers once more. They gathered loosely in a big cave chamber while the Globeship soaked up yet more sunshine. Wozzle cubs, some wozzles and the three active neobabies were in the Globeship. That is Drazen, Darusa, Addalla, Bab, Bob, Trapoia, Krezza, Zrezzo and Keading were there but Eggie, Appie and Ollie were with the wozzles in the Globeship.

 

Trapoia spoke then. She was one of the six female super-soldiers. "There is something not quite right about the Count. He is not himself."

 

Drazen nodded. "We have met this before. He is most likely demonically possessed. My guess is that this time it is by a powerful daedra of some kind."

 

Darusa frowned. "Such a form of possession is dangerous and costly of energy for the possessor. The daedra would have to have good reason for doing this."

 

Addalla. "Perhaps the daedra were originally working through the now dead Duke. Perhaps they have been seeking something here in this valley."

 

At that moment a scholary wozzle entered, followed by wazzle, wezzle, wizzle and wuzzle archivists, scholars, scribes and even a couple of Sages. They brought carefully preserved recording-skins, scrolls, scrollbooks, books and even some maps. These were very valuable artefacts and the Thirteen treated them with great care, taking careful electronic recordings of them all. In turn they promised to make copies in clever book form to give to the peoples of Wozzledom.

 

They also learned that the power armour and weapons had been taken up by the new army when the tribal humans went to take everything. Suddenly the others wanted to know why the Hekarwi considered the stuff to have such value and went racing to grab up their own shares. Drazen considered the few coins he had given to the Hekarwi to do this trick to be well spent.

 

The Thirteen and the wozzles, wazzles, wezzles, wizzles and wuzzles began to go through all of the documentation. Then they began to find possible reasons why Mehrunes Dagon would be very interested in what was in Wozzledom Territories.

[species5478]

"Nobody gives that much away with out wanting something for it." The young Sister Compassionate responded. "So, want do you really want?" - Maharg

 

Isn't it true that people always want someone from one another? Even if it's to be left alone...

 

 

[Maharg67]

Part of me agrees, Species5478, but another part of me always hopes that people will somehow prove themselves to be able to go above and beyond such concerns.

 

The cynic versus the idealist, perhaps.

[Maharg67]

-22-

THE THIRTEEN IN THE COLOVIAN HIGHLANDS

AT THE ANCIENT AYLEID CITY OF TREZANNO

 

There was an ancient Ayleid city hidden deep in the folds of the valley. The Thirteen travelled to its above ground structures that were themselves inside a vast suncavern lit and warmed by suncrystal. The nine super-soldiers and three globelors moved carefully towards the actual city, dividing into three teams to do so. With each team came some waeiou, the general name for all wazzles, wezzles, wizzles, wozzles and wuzzles. The Globeship was in the pouch of Addalla herself.

 

They were getting close to the city when they realized, to their surprise, that it was not abandoned. Ayleid Mer were busy harvesting crops in large farms with the assistance of free orcs, free humans and animated fleshgolems. No, not of the undeath, but magically animated as of the arcane arts. Other Ayleid were on guard in magical power armour, being armed with powerful crossbows with magical bolts, flame-swords and other such magical weaponry. The Ayleid warriors came marching and riding forth on horses with the attitude of those going to a final battle, with the attitude of those who will defend their home city at any cost. They seemed quite surprised when Drazen asked for truce talks.

 

Drazen sat at the meeting along with Addalla and Bab.

 

The wozzle queen UmbaTua sat there also with her priestesses, shamans, bodygurds and handmaidens. UmbaTua was a powerful queen by waeiou standards and she held prime authority over the whole of Wozzledom when it came to politics and affairs of state. Yet she had to survive a vote of confidence every three years when all of the waeiou gathered, along with other peoples of the Three Valleys, in the Caves of Congress.

 

The Ayleid King ResshenZuo was a tall, angular Mer who clearly did not want to negotiate with mere furry folk but who clearly knew he had little choice. His was only one small surviving Citystate and had only a population of some hundred thousand Ayleid folk along with about a hundred thousand former slaves, being humans and orcs. Why former slaves? Because the Citystate of Trezanno had come to realise that times had changed and that they had to change with them. Indeed fully a third of the Citystate Guard was now made up of orcs and humans. Another third were Ayleid warriors and the last third were fleshgolems.

 

Of the human former slaves, about half were Nords and half were Cyrodilin Commoners of the False Dragonblood.

 

ResshenZuo spoke with the natural arrogance of his kind. "One has come forth to speak with thee. One has much to do. One wishes not to spend too much time talking the talk with thee."

 

Drazen gave a mild grin. "On the world of Arthua, we Thirteen came upon an Ayleid Empire that spanned a great continent. It was based upon the brutal enslavement of many other peoples. It was powerful, sophisticated and it seemed it would last for ever. When we left it was fallen, shattered, was no more. It was we Thirteen who began the process of its fall."

 

ResshenZuo became a little more modest in tone. "One is only too pleased to attend these talks and to talk the talk. What do you want of my people and myself?"

 

UmbaTua spoke then. "Trade! Exchanges of goods and services. A local warren colony of waeiou. You will become part of Wozzledom. You will acknowledge our authority and we will acknowledge your authority. You will acknowledge our ways and we will acknowledge yours. If the Empire comes to reek revenge upon you for past crimes, then we will speak up for you and our voice is stronger than you most likely assume for you Ayleid are rather arrogant in your vision of the wildfolk. In recent years many centaurs came to Wozzledom, having fled from the rise of the Goblin Empire with its new Goblin Emperor. Many of them are good farm workers. They are not horses, though, so do not try to treat them as such for your own sake."

 

The Ayleid King nodded. "The centaurs would be welcome as workers to increase the productivity of our farms. We will help build for them a proper village. What is this empire that you speak of? We have been isolated for a very long time."

 

Drazen nodded and then gave the shocked Ayleid a brief but concise history of the Cyrodilin Empire and the rest of Tamriel since the fall of the Ayleid Dominion of many kingdoms. The biggest shock to the Mer was that so few Ayleid Citystates had survived. The people of Trezanno had hoped that they would not be alone, that they would be able to link up again with other Ayleid populations. Now they knew that Cyrodiil was dotted with long abandoned Ayleid cities, mostly surviving underground levels with all the old towers gone, and that they were populated mainly with such as the lesser undead, goblins, necromancers, bandits and other such ilk.

 

The negotiations went on. Drazen was content to wait until he could talk with the Ayleid King alone and gain some vital information for he sensed that the Ayleid King was not being totally truthful when he said he knew of no other Ayleid cities being in the area.

[Maharg67]

-23-

THE OTHER THIRTEEN IN THE COLOVIAN HIGHLANDS

AT CLOUD RULER TEMPLE

 

The damaged Globeship of the First Thirteen sat as a three metre wide globe on a big cradle inside a large basement chamber beneath Cloud Ruler Temple proper. It was bigger inside than outside but only dimly lit thanks to the damage done to it that was only very slowly regenerating. The suspension-capsules were in deep safety status and the people in them could not be brought out. It was most frustrating. Stallon sat on a mat with a brass oil-lamp burning next to him. A neobaby was sitting sleepily in his lap waiting for her bathtime.

 

Stallon, Reeno and Karent were the male super-soldiers who were active. The active female super-soldiers were Treena, Samsu, Carolie, Sasha, Sarah and Milliena. The neobabies were Bibbie, Ickie and Dlibbie. There were also two dogs and even a horse, an old nag, in her own area. The Globeship could no longer carry out most of its instrinsic functions and they could not longer access the special resources that had come with it. It could not change size and it could not float. It could not generate tradegoods or help to heal. A special skylight in the ceiling let sunlight beam down to it for a few hours each day but the Globeship seemed to be absorbing less power in this manner.

 

Stallon frowned. "The Second Thirteen are in Wozzledom. They have a nearly fully functional Globeship. We need that Globeship to help repair our Globeship but, Reeno, we are not going to try any cunning trickery with our comrades."

 

Reeno scowled. He was dressed in BladeKnight armour unlike the others who all wore basic jumpsuits. The others thought he had become too loyal to the Blades and to the Cyrodilin Empire, to the Cyrodilin Emperor himself. They did not quite trust him as much as they once did, which was fully. "Fools! We can not take a chance. We trick them into coming into the open. We ambush them. We take them down. If we have to, we kill them."

 

Samsu sighed. "You go try any of that with the Second Thirteen, Reeno, and I will chop your manhood off."

 

Reeno could see he was out voted with out any vote having actually been taken. What he did not see what that the Cyrodilins had not actually accepted him any more than they had his comrades. That is except for most of the Blades themselves who had accepted the First Thirteen as good comrades. Jeffre, the BladeKnight Commander, was not quite as trusting but his command position did not allow himself that kind of privilege. Still, Jeffre did often stand up for the First Thirteen and had stuck his neck out for them more than once.

 

That the Thirteen had turned the Blades into such great fighters and survivalists was something that the Empire appreciated but it was also a constant reminder of just how dangerous these super-soldiers from another world could be.

 

Stallon spoke again. "Nobody is going to cut anybody's anything off. The Second Thirteen butchered those Imperial Legionaries in such a way that shows they are just as deadly as we are. We need them as allies, as good comrades. We need them to trust us for good reason. We will not betray them. Soon I am going to travel quickly as possible to Wozzledom using arcane magic. I would like you, Samsu, and you, Treena, to come with me along with Dlibbie in her globelor."

 

Dlibbie bounced up and down on the spot, in his lap, and made moogling noises. Stallon picked her up, turned her around and kissed her belly. She grabbed his ears and chortled happily. It took a little convincing to get the powerful baby figure to let go off his ears. He burbled into her belly-button until she laughed so much she let go.

 

Carolie was the commander so of course she was still in charge. She nodded in acceptance of his offered terms. "We need to keep up the training with the Blades as much as we can though now the new BladeMasters are doing much of the training. Stallon, you will leave quickly and you will do so with out warning the Blades. I will inform Jeffre of what has happened exactly one hour after you have departed. None of you others are to say anything to anybody. The Empire may easily decide it does not want us to meet the Second Thirteen. They can not be allowed to stop us from doing so. Then we can do our best to convince the Cyrodilin Empire that having two Thirteens on their side is better than having one Thirteen on their side."

 

Reeno scowled but said nothing.

 

Soon it was neobaby bathtime and Stallon was bathing all three neobabies at once with the help of a puppy called Poops, as named by a neobaby, and Samsu.

[Maharg67]

-24-

GRAHAM MAHARG IN THE COLOVIAN HIGHLANDS

IN THE CAVES OF THE MOON

 

He was quite insane but in a special way that he used to his advantage. Graham Maharg stepped out of nothingness and stood in the Caves of the Moon, sniffed the air and frowned softly. He wore a dull silvery jumpsuit dotted with an amazingly large number of pouch-pockets. On his head was a transparent bubble-helmet. On his hands were dull silver metallic gloves and on his feet dull silver metallic boots. Realising there was not much use in sniffing the air as long as he wore the helmet, he snapped his fingers and made it vanish with a sparkling shimmer. Then he knelt and sniffed again.

 

Alpha: "The First Thirteen passed through here and then, years later, so did the Second Thirteen."

 

Beta: "Will you find them? Will you find them in time?"

 

It was always a matter of timing. His old Masters used to tell him that often before they sent him to find all three Thirteens and to stop them from getting revenge on the daedra. Graham Maharg had been to many worlds, far too many worlds, and he had to admit that he was tired.

 

Alpha: "The show must go on!"

 

Damned voices in his mind. Would they have anything positive to tell him? Sometimes they did. He opened a pouch-pocket and slipped out a foodtab and popped it into his mouth. He chewed it into liquid and swallowed it.

 

Beta: "Always eat your drink and drink your food."

 

Then he made the bubble-helmet return to existence with another sparkling shimmer before he set out running quickly, smoothly and with amazing lightness. Indeed he left behind very few traces of his passing through the area. After a surprisingly short while he came upon the very place where the Second Thirteen had spied upon the wozzle settlement and had been mooned by the wozzles. Graham Maharg was soon descending into the small valley, was effortlessly floating down through the air as if by invisible parachute. He landed, rolled and came up on his feet. Then he was pacing through the forest carefully.

 

The wozzle cub almost blundered into him. Graham Maharg held up the wriggling, snarling wozzle cub in gloved hands and examined him carefully. Then he spoke in the waeiou common language. "You can stop that, please, I will not hurt you. Do you come from that settlement that I saw from up there in the Caves of the Moon?"

 

The wozzle nodded rapidly and then shook his head. "Me come from camp where wiggy women are. They gather up cubs and look after us. You want to go see wiggy women?"

 

Graham Maharg gave the cub a foodtab. "Eat it slowly, chew it well until it is liquid, it will taste better and then swallow. We go and see wiggy women. You want to ride up on my shoulder?"

 

So the cub rode up on his shoulder as Graham held him firmly there with one hand. They went through the forest, falling a narrow path made by large herbivore animals like deer and such like. Then they came to the encampment of tents and a wooden palisade of sharpened poles. Sisters Compassionate and Brother Protectors were there. Not all were human for waeiou had begun to join the Orderhoods. Graham made his bubble-helmet and gloves vanish, surprising and amusing the cub. Then he was entering the encampment.

 

The gate should have been locked but it swung open too easily and beyond it lay two Brother Protectors sprawled on the ground. One was dead and the other was dying. Something big, powerful and amazingly fast had struck them and dealt with them with brutal savagery. Graham Maharg kissed the cub and made it vanish into a safe place. Then he made his helmet and gloves retun. He took some tiny silvery balls out of a pouch-pocket and threw them into the air. At once they streaked through the air in different directions.

 

There was an explosion inside a hut and out of it lurched what had once been a normal mercenary warrior. His body was twisted horribly, his skin was flushed almost blood red and his teeth had become long fangs, his nails had become long claws. He saw Graham Maharg and with an incredible scream of hatred this former human being charged towards the silvery clad figure. Graham Maharg watched as the other silver flasherballs shot through the air and exploded into the monster. The former human screamed and writhed, falling to the ground, then died. His body shimmered and became that of a normal dead man though covered with odd red marks and small bleeding sores left over by the distorting transformation.

 

Alpha: "Man was seduced by the dark side."

 

Beta: "Bring back the cub. Cute little wozzle cub."

 

Alpha: "Never good to be seduced by the dark side. Look what it did to Darth Vader."

 

He was able to save the lives of most of the humans and waeiou that he found there. He sat with the most injured and cared for the mature Sister Compassionate with all of his healing skill and experience. He was still doing so when Addalla of the Second Thirteen came to the encampment. She entered the large reinforced tent and scowled at him. Maharg smiled at her.

 

Addalla spoke. "Hello, father, so you caught up with us at last."

 

Graham Maharg nodded. "Your people no longer want to take revenge on the daedra, not even on Mehrunes Dagon, for you see it has already been done. The nuclear weapons that the military fanatics on our world sent through the Oblivion Gates upset the whole natural balance of the Realm of Oblivion. Their larva oceans are drowning their realms. The daedra are being forced to flee from Daedraki and to invade other worlds. We need to warn other worlds of the threat that the daedra now hold for them."

 

Addalla sat next to her father and kissed his cheek, now that his helmet was not there. "We are in trouble. We need your expertise, your special abilities, your skills, your experience. Are you still quite mad?"

 

Graham Maharg nodded. "Afraid so."

 

At that she smiled. "Good! You have always been nicer that way. We need to deal with a mad count who has willingly allowed himself to be possessed by a powerful daedric demigod."

 

Graham Maharg grinned. "Well, that is a nice little challenge to start with on this wonderful new world. Do you know where I can get hold of some green lime jelly? I have this craving for green lime jelly. I think I got it when I killed that demonic monster three worlds back. It kind of looked like a huge green lime jelly."

 

Addalla sighed again and kissed him on the cheek again but in truth she was very glad to see him.

[Maharg67]

-25-

GATHERING FORCES IN THE COLOVIAN HIGHLANDS

IN A NEW GATHERING PLACE

 

The Second Thirteen expanded their Globeship in a small sheltered valley where it would get a good supply of sunlight. They met with the various waeiou peoples there, with others peoples. They were able to keep an eye on the Mad Count and his army that had remained on the one hill with out seemingly good reason. The Mad Count and his mercenaries had become more concealed as they sought not to be spied upon so easily. They observed the enemy directly through a 'cave window' and indirectly through others at first but then took turns in going out as scouts.

 

Adalla came to the others with Graham Maharg tow. With her came Bab and Keading, both of whom had been warier of Graham than had been Addalla.

 

Drazen met them in the big chamber to one side of the valley where the Second Thirteen actually did many activities. Furry winged folk flew around and furry other folk ran around. Waeiou of course were good at getting underfoot at times, even the adults.

 

Drazen stood and frowned hard at their father and spoke coldly. "So they sent you; they must have been desperate."

 

Graham sighed. "Drazen, you know that is not the case. The military fanatics that sent you and the two other Thirteens were locked away not long after you departed. Problem was you were told to move in such a way that you could not be easily tracked, even by your own people. They sent me. The Third Thirteen are following me. They wished to stop both the First and Second Thirteens from doing anything foolish after I explained the situation to them. They have a fully functional Globeship."

 

Then Graham smiled. "I look forward to gaining more experience of this world of Mundus and this great continent of Tamriel."

 

Drazen nodded. "We went to the cliffwall city of Shegratho."

 

His father nodded back. "Addalla told me of your experiences there. It was unfortunate that so many Cyrodilin Imperial Legionaries were killed."

 

Drazen frowned. "They attacked with out provocation. What could we do? Yes, two of us did accidentally kill the young Legionary who was trying to force us to leave our rooms. What he was doing was corrupt as he was trying to impress the Imperial Governor by gaining for him the favourable rooms that we had."

 

Which was when Stallon, Samsu and Treena came pacing into the room in their special armour. With them floated a globelor with Dlibbie inside it. Drazen turned and frowned and Stallon but then nodded welcome. Stallon and Drazen frowned hard at each other.

 

Stallon then spoke. "I hope that we are welcome, especially now that your father has captured up with you."

 

Drazen frowned. "You would have been welcome anyway. You are our comrades. What do you know of the Cyrodilin Empire and how have you remained hidden from them so long?"

 

Stallon frowned but before he could speak, Graham held up his hands. "No, not now. We will talk of such things in a proper meeting. I have a feeling there could easily be problems of miscommunications and resulting tensions. Now for some relaxing time together to get once more used to being each other. We could have a nice cup of tea each and, why not, a cupcake as well. I have my own Globeship you know and it is fully functional."

 

Both Drazen and Stallon frowned hard at him but Addalla smiled richly and hugged her father from behind.

Edited August 18, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

-26-

GATHERING FORCES IN THE COLOVIAN HIGHLANDS

GREAT BATTLE OF WOZZLEDOM

 

The great battle with the Mad Possessed Count and the Wozzledom Army showed that now not only was the Count possessed but so were the surviving mercenaries. The Mad Count had killed most of the mercenaries that had come with him, absorbing their life forces and bodies but not their souls for souls were-are inviolate. Then the Mad Count had summoned forth five great monsters. Then he had gone to battle. But the Mad Count was in for a shock.

 

Led by Graham Maharg himself, the Second Thirteen hurled the Mad Count, his five great monsters and his monster mercenaries back. Brought forth by Lord Maharg were cloned warriors in magical power armour and with mighty power-blade weapons and power-shields plus pulseblaster guns.

 

Wozzle, wazzle, wuzzle, wizzle and wezzle warriors gathered in their forces along with nymph amazons, mighty centaur warriors and others in time to find themselves fighting a force of lesser daedra brought forth through a temporary Oblivion Gate.

 

The three super-soldiers of the First Thirteen observed from a distance until they noted one of the Count's Monsters heading towards the hidden Ayleid city. They followed the great monster until they saw it meet with a group of Ayleid nobles, not the leaders, who swore to obey it if they were made leaders of the city. Stallon, Samsu and Treena fell upon the group with power-swords, moving with amazing speed and deadly strength. They cut down the monster and slaughtered two of the nobles. The other nobles went to escape only to run into Ayelid City Guards who killed them with out mercy for their stupidity and treachery. For the Ayleid had once worhshipped Mehrunes Dagon but when they had needed him and his powers the most, he had betrayed them, despite that they had served him loyally for many centuries.

 

Lord Maharg thrust his great power-sword into the distorted monster of the Mad Count who screamed out in rage and agony. Then Lord Maharg cut off his head. The great monster fell backwards and struck the ground so that it shook. Then his body shuddered horribly and exploded into greasy black ash that settled to the ground. After a while the ash vanished and the ground once more began natural but only after some months.

 

Too many of waeiou, centaurs and nymphs died that day but far many more of the enemy perished. Indeed it was a hundred to one at least. This was partly because Lord Maharg sent clone-warriors to assist the local army and of course they had magical power armour and weapons, but mostly it was because of the courage of the waeiou themselves and their determination to defend themselves and their homeland from evil.

 

Lord Maharg walked amongst the dead of the battlefield and he healed who he could as the living lamented the dead. Dead lesser daedra were heaped up and burned with out ceremony but Lord Mharg surprised others when he paused to pray for their souls, chanting for their souls to find the Light and Enlightenment. Instead of being angry, the waeiou joined in chanting for they followed the Light in their own way and would not do otherwise.

 

But the super-soldiers did not understand and they openly wondered if indeed Lord Maharg had become weak. If he was weak, why would they want to listen to him, let alone to follow him in any way?

Edited August 20, 2010 by Maharg67

[species5478]

Lord Maharg thrust his great power-sword into the distorted monster of the Mad Count who screamed out in rage and agony. Then Lord Maharg cut off his head. The great monster fell backwards and struck the ground so that it shook. Then his body shuddered horribly and exploded into greasy black ash that settled to the ground. After a while the ash vanished and the ground once more began natural but only after some months.

-Maharg

 

That's pretty crazy...I love swords in games and movies. Decapitation is best...good scene.

 

[Maharg67]

Thank you, Species5478. As always you give me great incentive not only to continue to write but to go on improving my writing as best that I can.

 

-27-

GATHERING FORCES IN THE COLOVIAN HIGHLANDS

DIPLOMACY AND TENSIONS

 

The three super-soldiers of the First Thirteen in Wozzledom soon learned that the Emperor was angered that they had gone with out Imperial Permission from Cloud Ruler Temple and had put the other six super-soldiers plus three neobabies under 'chamber arrest'. That is they were guarded by BladeKnights, BladeGuards and BladeMages. BladeMages were a new rising group of Blade battlemages given extra training above that of most battlemages. They were becoming unique from, for instance, the battlemages that served the Mages Guild.

 

CourierMages flew by aerial-platform to take stern messages to those in Wozzledom and thus it was that Lord Maharg announced himself to Emperor and Empire, sending warning of a coming daedric invasion of Tamriel through Oblivion Gates and-or other means.

 

Addalla and other super-soldiers, along with all of the neobabies, were loyal to Lord Maharg. They and the clone-warriors began to build up a cave settlement of sorts with the assistance of wildfolk, many of whom were going to live in the settlement. Yet many super-soldiers, led by Stallon and Drazen, had become colder to Lord Maharg and hung back, taking up residence in another great cave chamber. Maharg's Globeship and the Globeship of the Second Thirteen became linked and magical energies flowed between them as the second Globeship was being repaired, regenerated, renewed.

 

"The death of the Mad Count destroyed the daedric demigod that possessed him and did much damage to Mehrunes Dagon who was lending his power to the demigod." Lord Maharg was sweeping small stones into a pile with a good quality straw-broom as made by waeiou artisans. He was clearly enjoying doing such basic manual labour of a domestic kind. "Mehrunes Dagon will use this as a reason to hate me but then again, he already does."

 

Some wozzle cubs raced past carrying baskets of gather wild berries of many kinds. A meal was being served up on long, wide knee-tables, called that because they were very low off the floor and sitting cross legged at one meant the tabletops were at knee height. At least for wozzles they were. Finely woven grass mats, carved wooden bowls, stone mugs and much else was also being placed on the table. From the kitchen cave chamber came the tasty smells of roasted whistlebirds, tubers, tatoes, small blue cabbages, longfish and stripelizards.

 

Addalla was sweeping also. "What of Stallon and Drazen?"

 

Lord Maharg sighed. "They need to learn that true strength is not always linked to aggression or indifference or such actions. Lesser daedra are fine from being good folks but they are oppressed, manipulated and exploited by the greater daedra, especially the Nine Daedric Gods. What most non-daedra do not know is that lesser daedra have rebelled violently against the Daedric Gods more than once and though they have failed many times, a few times they have been successful. There are lesser daedra who do not worship any of the Daedric Gods and who have no intention of doing so but they are secretive peoples, hiding away and always in fear of the Daedric Gods who would destroy them at any chance. That is except for three special cases of which I will not speak now."

 

Addalla snorted. "More secrets?"

 

Lord Maharg sighed. "The three cases I speak of are sensitive for special reasons. Soon the meal will be ready. I hope they have some nice fresh fruit juice. I like fruit juice."

 

Addalla smiled at her father. "I can see clay jugs of it being placed on the tables."