Skyrim: The Faces of Death

by Blackdrag-rose

War: Breaking Bonds

Amaryllis discovered that Deathtail was assigning the Khajiit who brought her group to the hideout, Zaraya she learned, to her side while they were working against the Dominion, meaning the two of them would be working from the shadows until Elsweyr was freed from the Altmer. That meant they were going to be studying their enemies from alleyways and whatnot, all while spreading rumors and lies about the organization, though there were some truths mixed in as well, which would really get the Khajiit worked up if they listened to what they had to say. Deathtail, of course, wanted to know exactly what they were going to say so he could either edit them or get things ready to help spread the rumors around, as the more of his kind that knew of the iron grip of the Dominion, and the fact that they gladly sacrificed their allies lives without offering any of their own, the better. The Silent Tails were surprised to hear what was really going on, that the Dominion sought to end the world by removing the Adamantine Tower with the power of the Numidium, something that spurned the group into action when they learned it, meaning they were eager to bring down the Dominion.

After that she and Zaraya moved from one shadowy area to another, this time hiding their identities so none of the guards, the Altmer ones anyway, knew that familiar faces were staring at them from the shadows, though as they did that Amaryllis paused as she found something strange.

"What in Oblivion am I looking at?" Amaryllis asked, as she was sticking to one of the shadows, so none of the Khajiit that were out in the marketplace would see the surprised look in her eyes, while at the same time Zaraya stopped behind her for a few moments and stared out at the crowd that she was currently observing.

Out in the marketplace there were all sorts of feline creatures, not just the Khajiit she was used to seeing, as there was one that looked like a normal house cat, though he was wearing a small golden collar, a small golden cloak of sorts on his back, a small golden head piece, and he was capable of speaking, hence how she knew the gender so quickly. Sitting near the first one was a feline that was nearly identical to the first, only the second was slightly bigger than the first, before she found a female Khajiit, of the type she was familiar with, laughing at a joke that had been said, though she was dressed as a traveler. Standing behind her was a jaguar Khajiit, who looked more like a warrior despite not having metal armor on at the moment, before she spotted another new individual, a shorter female who looked more like a lynx and seemed suited for the lower half of Elsweyr, not the northern half. She then spotted another male who looked like the last one, only his fur was white and he didn't seem all that different from her, though he wore guard armor, like he was an escort for her or someone else, before she found something that confused her, a lady who looked more like a Bosmer, though the top of her shirt was open, showing off the sides of her breasts, while she had a leopard print tattoo on the left side of her face and her left arm.

Near the leopard elf, or whatever she was, stood another human-like figure who stood on his heels, who had light fur over his body and possessed a feline tail, and he also had some sort of cat print tattoo on his arms and face, though the lower portion of his robe stopped at the skirt level, why she had no idea. After that she found two new types of Khajiit, who she could see looked like tall bipedal tigers, though the second one was even taller and had a plantigrade stance, but despite that difference she could tell that both were dangerous, since they were wearing leather warrior armor. After that she was able to see a large cat, tiger sized she guessed, who was sitting down and seemed to be sharing a tale or something with all of the others, before she found another one that was even taller than the first, but seemed to have a shorter body span and straighter legs. She then discovered two more figures, both female based on what she was seeing, though while both were man sized, with one being slighter shorter, both also had digitigrade legs, and while the shorter one seemed to have normal hands and feet, in terms of Khajiit, the other had claws on their hands and feet while their heads were more feline than the others, making them more cat-like than most of the other Khajiit.

The last two she could see looked like lionesses, who stood as tall as the last pair, though as Amaryllis focused on them for a time she found that one was slightly shorter than the other and didn't have claws on their limbs, while the other one did have claws and had a more feline head, while the former looked like a priestess and the latter looked like a warrior, maybe a monk since she had no weapons.

"I take it this is your first time encountering the other breeds of Khajiit?" Zaraya inquired, though she thought it was a little amusing to witness this, that Amaryllis had no idea that there were more types of Khajiit out there, instead of the one she was used to seeing, meaning a bit of education was in order before they moved forward, just to make sure she didn't out herself to the guards by not knowing the other breeds, to which she gestured to them in the order Amaryllis had spotted them in, "We have the Alfig and the Alfig-raht, the Cathy and the Cathy-raht, the Dagi and the Dagi-raht, the Ohmes and the Ohmes-raht, the Pahmer and the Pahmer-raht, the Senche and the Senche-raht, the Suthay and the Suthay-raht, and the Tojay and the Tojay-raht... to be honest, its rare to see some of them, as they tend to keep to themselves."

"With how some of the other races treat beast races, I'm not even surprised." Amaryllis remarked, though as she studied each one, committing their forms to memory in case she needed a new disguise and didn't want to fall back on a race she was familiar with, she noticed how disgusted some of the Altmer were when they laid eyes on the types of Khajiit that were in this area, before they hid said emotion before one of the felines noticed it, "We might be able to use this to our advantage, to aid us in breaking the bonds between the Dominion and Elsweyr... but first, we need to start pulling at the seams, with rumors and accusations, or whatever we come up with."

The problem was that the forces of Elsweyr basically worshiped the ground that the Dominion walked on, due to the like of them bringing the moons back with 'Dawn Magic', and while Amaryllis knew there were those who didn't agree with the idea of bowing to all of the Altmer, most of them were lingering in the shadows. Such a thing meant they had to figure out a way to actually pull both factions apart from each other, which told her that they had to spread rumors about the Altmer and just slander their name, even though that would be easy to do given the fact that their organization hated all of the other races and made sure their superiority was well known. As she thought about everything they knew, however, a new idea came to mind, one that centered around the Altmer commander she slew back in Cyrodiil, before using his form to totally mess up the Dominion's forces, and it became an even better idea when she passed by an inn and noticed that all sorts of people were there, Khajiit and Altmer alike. It was an idea that might spell the end of the Dominion's hold over the city and start a rebellion that would free Elsweyr and if they found the Mane, and if he or she accepted the aid of the new Empire, their forces could wash over the province and liberate everyone from the Dominion's grasp.

Zaraya knew something was up, just by watching how her charge moved, especially after seeing the breeds of Khajiit for the first time in her life, and sure enough she found that they were heading back to the hideout without any of the guards spotting them leave, where they ended up in Deathtail's presence once more.

"I have to ask something, before we get started: is it known in Elsweyr that the Commander of the Dominion's forces in Cyrodiil, Ariantar Atheus, is no more?" Amaryllis asked, because if the Dominion knew that he was dead her idea would be broken in an instant, and coming up with a new one that could allow her to deceive their enemies would take too long, as there was no telling what the Dominion had planned.

"He's dead? A shame, I was looking forward to executing him at some point... but no, no one in Elsweyr, be they our own forces or the Dominion's, knows that he's dead." Deathtail replied, though as he said that his eyes lit up as he recalled the power he had seen earlier, her shapeshifting power, something that was followed by Amaryllis taking on the Altmer's form once more, causing the Khajiit, a Cathay she noticed, to smile, "Oh, I have a feeling that I'm going to like the idea that you've been thinking about. What do you have in mind?"

Amaryllis reverted to her own Cathay form for a moment before detailing her idea to them, where she could see that all of the Silent Tails liked it, as it was something all of them could get behind and they instantly got started on transforming the information she gave them into spreadable rumors that would damage the bonds between the two races, so when she sprung her trap it would have disastrous effects for their enemies.

---

Amaryllis ended up spending a week in Riverhold, allowing her and her allies time to whisper into the ears of everyone in the city, as in spread rumors about the Dominion that were only heard by the various Khajiit, while she used her power to be a nameless grunt so she could gain information from the Altmer captains. Her reasoning for doing that was to figure out if they had received any messages from the other provinces and seized them, before the Dominion's forces learned of the assault on Cyrodiil, allowing the others to work their magic in spreading all of the rumors they had decided on. Such a thing meant that she had to put a few in the heads of the Altmer, mostly in the chance to see if there were others like the liberated Altmer, who didn't want to subjugate the other races and were too afraid to speak their minds, which was all she needed, since it spread dissension among their enemies. For her plan to work the Dominion's forces needed to be divided, filled with discord so they couldn't react well when the time came to spring her trap, and to be sure that no one accused her of trying to bring down the Dominion she made several different Altmer forms, using several per day to make it seem as if multiple people thought the same way, and Amaryllis was pleased to see that it was working.

While she did that Deathtail and the Silent Tails went to work spreading the other rumors to the Khajiit of Riverhold, just to make them more upset with the Dominion's forces, so when it was time to make their move against their enemy whatever bonds they had would be broken. She could tell that her plan was working as she intended, as when she watched both the Khajiit and the Altmer from the shadows it was easy to see the tense between them, as many of the former now believed that they had been lied to and were waiting for something to happen to speak their minds, while it was clear that the latter were more disgusted with the former. Both races were basically a bomb waiting to go off, so they could consume the city with their fighting, and right now they were waiting for a spark to set them off, which she would provide in due time, once she was sure that they could capture their enemies and liberate both races at the same time. She knew that it was going to be hard, despite the work they had already put into weakening the bonds between the Khajiit and the Altmer, but she was up to the challenge and was eager to liberate another province from the Dominion's foul grasp.

The key to the situation, as she eventually discovered, was a somewhat drunk Alfig who had what appeared to be a small magical focus, a crystal attached to a necklace, who a respected member of Riverhold when she wasn't drunk, who agreed to help them out when the time was right... so on the seventh day, with everything ready for them to break the city away from the Dominion's grasp, Amaryllis emerged from one of the houses that the Silent Tails lived in, while wearing the form of Ariantar, and got to work.

"Hehe, fancy Altmer thinks we're fools!" the Alfig said, speaking when Amaryllis was within range of the inn, no doubt the location that she had been drinking in before she and the other liberated individuals reached the city, though as she said that Amaryllis was sure that her voice reminded her of someone, which was when she stopped and everyone around the area glanced at them, expecting trouble to follow, "Thinks he can shove lies down our throats and expect us to follow their orders... hic... but I know your game!"

"And what would the dumb drunken cat know?" Amaryllis replied, recalling the rude and offensive voice that the Altmer had used when he was talking to his own allies, not to mention how he acted towards the other races, something she had perfected over the last few days, just to really drive the point home, "Lesser creatures, like you, should know their place in this world."

"Oh... hic... I know you lied about the moons! Your fancy 'Dawn Magic' doesn't exist!" the Alfig stated, where Amaryllis was able to see that they were really drawing a crowd, as a number of Khajiit and Altmer had stopped what they were doing as they heard her statement, but the Alfig's had stopped everyone cold, which was exactly what Amaryllis was expecting, the Khajiit to realize the lie and the Altmer realizing they had been caught, "You were just... hic... planning on using our people as disposable soldiers in your... hic... war effort."

"That had better not be true," a voice said, where Amaryllis found something interesting, the Tojay-raht monk had stepped up and was now right in front of her face, the lioness monk she had seen a week ago to be exact, and sure enough the rest of her group, possessing one of each breed of Khajiit, stood nearby, and she even gripped Amaryllis by the collar, while all of the Altmer guards seemed unsure of what to do.

"So what if it is? There's nothing you can do to us... we OWN you and your province, little beast, and we can do whatever we want with your kin..." Amaryllis said, though before she could finish her statement, as since intended to end on 'kind', the monk punched her right in the face and knocked her backwards, enough to draw blood and start the riot she and the Silent Tails had been waiting for, the Khajiit ambushing the Altmer in moments.

Thanks to the ensuing chaos she was able to switch to her own Cathay form and joined the riot, capturing Altmer before they had a chance to do anything, though as that happened she found that the monk seemed to be following her, likely due to the fact that she caught onto what was going on. Amaryllis guessed what was going on, the monk had figured out that she had been Ariantar, due to her unique eye color no doubt, and had tracked her down within a few moments, but as the two stared at each other the other members of the Silent Tails, backed by the Argonians who had been waiting for this, continued to liberate Riverhold. What happened next was that the monk kissed her, where she could guess why due to what was happening to the area around them, and she returned it, though once that was done they turned on the rest of the Altmer and resumed capturing them as all of the other Khajiit joined the fun. Sure enough she found that Abiru's group pulled away at one point and started liberating those who had been captured, allowing them to see the truth and not be tied to the Dominion anymore, where Amaryllis had to explain the situation so they understood what was going on right now.

After some time Riverhold was no longer under the Dominion's dark hold, with the liberated Altmer bowing and taking a moment to apologize to the Khajiit, weirding the felines out, but it was the start of Amaryllis' plan to liberate this province, as with one city claimed they had the stepping stone they needed to liberate Elsweyr and she knew that it was only a matter of time until the Dominion lost this province, a day they were looking for.

Comments

[Night_Moon60606]

well, at least no one was avoiding curfew...or getting drunk on kitchen duty...or throwing up in the soup...

[Blackdrag-rose]

11165449 Hehe. Nope, just one drunk kitty, helping to tear open the Dominion's plans... though there's always the chance that it happens to her from time to time.

[Night_Moon60606]

11165476
hey! the whole town was going to Oblivion, im sure shes barfed in better gutters than that place. she may be a drunk, but shes got standards...

[Blackdrag-rose]

11165495 I'll have to take your word for it, since I don't know much of what happened back in the Second Era... I mean, I started to play the game, but never got very far, so I missed out on drunk kitty mage and everything else.

[Night_Moon60606]

11165527
as did i, but theres plenty of vids...

[Blackdrag-rose]

11165529 True. I found a few to observe the drunken kitty for her part of the chapter, plus looked at her wiki to get an idea of what I had to do to make a character similar to her.

[Night_Moon60606]

11165548
were u looking at her tummy? better not be looking at her tummy, if she sees u looking at her tummy...

[Blackdrag-rose]

11165605 Nope, definitely not peeking at her tummy... I know enough about cats to know that its a bad idea.