Chapter One- Rumours

The sun beamed down on the Ayleid ruin of Vilverin, just outside of the Imperial City. Thick bushes and vegetation surrounded the ancient structure, encasing all sorts of wildlife. Two bandits sat around a campfire adjacent to the dirty white ruin, not speaking. They both just looked at the fire, chucking the odd twig into the crimson flames. One of the bandits decided to break the silence.

"Screw this, I'm going to practice" the female Dunmer said.

Her Khajiit accomplice nodded slightly, still staring into the flames. The Dunmer took her bow off her back and notched an iron arrow. Her target: an apple balanced on top of a wooden crate. She pulled the string back and released. The arrow flew into the crate, just below the apple with a 'thunk'.She notched another arrow and released the string. This arrow just grazed the apple, peeling it slightly. She then notched a third and fired. It flew straight past the apple and into some bushes nearby.

Now what she was expecting to hear was either a 'thunk' of the arrow hitting a branch or a slight rustle in the leaves as the arrow brushed past them. But instead she heard a 'clang' of the arrow hitting metal, followed by a whispered voice say 'Shit!' Now this Dunmer wasn't the brightest soul gem in the drawer, but she knew that bushes didn't say 'Shit!'. She also knew that they weren't normally made of metal. However, she didn't know that when armed with an unloaded bow that you should never go over to the bush that just cursed and start poking round into it looking for the source of the noise.

Her search uncovered a male Imperial in his late twenties, with long brown hair and brown eyes, clad in heavy steel armour and holding an unsheathed steel sword. His armour was covered in dirt and scratches from his hiding position. He also had a shield… with an arrow in it.

"What are you doing he-" The Dunmer said before her sentence was interrupted by the Imperials steel sword slicing through her cuirass and into her heart.

The Khajiit heard the sound of his fellow bandits demise and sprung into action, producing a steel mace from his side. The outlaw ran at the intruder and swung, but his blow was blocked by the Imperials shield. The arrow in it snapped with the blow. The Imperial spun round, sword gleaming in the midday sun. The Khajiit's head rolled to the floor a few seconds later.

The Imperial wiped his bloody sword on the fur cuirass of the ex-Khajiit, then knelt down and searched the body. He found what he was looking for: a silver ruby ring, engraved with a flowing script. He pocketed the ring, sheathed his sword and after taking a quick look round to check there were no other threats, started on the long journey back to Chorrol. The Imperial brushed his long brown hair out of his eyes and into a ponytail, just like he was used to. The man was a Journeyman in the Fighters Guild and had been for a few months now. His recent encounter had been his latest contract. The ring belonged to a member of the Galien family and he had been tracking that damn cat all over Cyrodiil to try and find it.

***

After about a week the Imperial arrived back at Chorrol. He could have done the journey in less than half the time if he had a horse, but he wasn't earning that much just yet. He opened the door to the Fighters Guild hall and went inside. There was no-one there. That is, there was no-one there until a Dark Elf in iron armour leaped out from behind a tapestry and rugby tackled the man to the ground.

"Aha! GOTCHYA!!!" cried the Dark Elf as he pointed a steel dagger at the Imperials throat.

" Sir! Its me, Calvus, put the dagger down!!"

"Oh". Modryn Oreyn almost looked disappointed as he got up and sheathed the dagger. "Sorry Journeyman, I didn't think it was you. I was expecting somebody else…"

"Excuse me sir, but who were you expecting? The Gray Fox?"

"Well…yes actually, there have been things going missing around here."

"Sir, you will never cease to amaze me! I'm not wearing a cowl stolen from a Daedric Lord for a start!" said Calvus as he got up and dusted himself down.

"Well you never know, he may have been in disguise!"

At this point Calvus gave up on the conversation.

"I've completed the contract, here's the ring." he said.

He dropped the ring in Modryn's palm, who then held it up to the light to see if it was genuine.

"Here's your payment Journeyman, 200 gold." Modryn stated as if it was the end of the matter.

Calvus looked at the small bag of gold that was handed to him. "Is this it?" he said in disbelief. "I tracked that bloody bandit from Black Dog Camp to Fisherman's rock, then to Bruma, then Anvil, then Skingrad, then back to Bruma because he had forgotten something, then to Cheydinhal, then Skingrad again, I almost had him there, but some Goblins got in the way, then I finally went to that Aylied ruin, where I managed to finally get that damn ring…and this is what I get???"

Modryn looked at him for a few seconds before answering.

"Rather it was 100? It could be arranged."

"Oh…never mind…any more contracts while I'm here?" Calvus said as he pocketed the small bag.

Modryn went over to a large brown leather book sitting on the dining table that contained all the contracts for that month. He put on some thin spectacles that didn't really suit him and casually flipped through the pages. After a while he snapped the book shut.

"None. Sorry Journeyman, but we haven't got any. It's that damn Blackwood Company stealing all our work."

"Thanks anyway sir. I'm going to go downstairs to practise a bit if that's okay with you." Calvus said as he went over to the basement door.

"Why would I have a problem with you doing that?" asked the Dark Elf.

"Because last time I didn't tell you, you thought a thief had broken into our basement and deliberately vandalised our practising dummy!"

"They're very slippery characters, thieves…"

Calvus ignored his superior and went into the basement anyway. Once he got down there his heart leapt. Aranwen was down there. She was a beautiful Bosmer that he had a crush on since he joined. He slowly went down the stairs and watched her practice her archery against a helpless straw target. 'thunk, thunk, thunk!' Three bull's-eyes. She was pretty damn good at using a bow that's for sure. She also had a pretty nice ars- Aim. Aranwen felt his presence and turned round.

"Oh, hi! Where've ya been?" she said cheerfully.

"Tracking a bandit half way round the world. Its times like that that you wish you were a mage and could teleport." Calvus said as he went up to the dummy and drew his sword.

"Tracking him? I'd have just shot him!" she replied as she knocked another arrow and fired.

'thunk'

Calvus struck the dummy a few times. The dummy rattled in the chains that kept it in place. Someone who had a sense of humour had carved a smiling face on the wooden head, just visible beneath the multitude of scratches in the woodwork.

"I would have shot him…if I could have found him first. He was very crafty."

'thunk'

"I can imagine…hey have you heard about the Blackwood Company? Their taking all our contracts!"

'thunk'

"Yup, Oreyn told me. Got nothing to do at all."

He struck the dummy a few more times. The wooden body shook with the blows.

'thunk'

"Kinda sucks doesn't it, not having anything to do?"

"Sure does…"

'thunk'

Calvus decided that this was the time. He took a deep breath.

"Aranwen, I was wondering. Do you want to come and have a drink with me at the Oak and Crosier…tonight?"

There was a clatter as her arrow fell to the ground, skittering across the cobbles of the basement.

"Sure…"

"About eight?"

"Yeah, I can make it"

"Its a…date"

She smiled at him. Although he continued practicing, inside Calvus' heart was leaping around his ribcage like a Scamp on skooma.

***

The door of the 'Oak and Crosier' banged shut in the night. Outside it a slightly tipsy Calvus walked through the streets, a giggling Aranwen on his arm.

" - and then she found me, hiding, in the bushes, an arrow in my shield, looking rather suspicious and what does she do? Challenges me! 'What are you doing here?' she said. Though she didn't quite finish the 'here' bit."

"And why was that?" Aranwen enquired with a small laugh.

"She died." Calvus answered, and Aranwen giggled again.

"I remember once," she said, "When I was an apprentice, I was contracted to deal with a mudcrab that had somehow crept into some woman's kitchen. This was in Anvil I think...anyway, I go in with an arrow strung, expecting a thing...this big."

Aranwen gestured with her hands, the alcohol making her stumble slightly.

"And I go into the kitchen, and there is the tiniest crab you have ever seen. It was barely bigger than my hand!"

"And you have small hands..." Calvus interjected.

"Shush!" exclaimed Aranwen, placing a finger on his lips. "Anyway, I shoot the thing, just to please the woman, who pays me fifty gold extra for making a quick job of it! I had never done anything so ridiculous!"

"Was she nobility?" Calvus asked.

"Probably..."

"That explains it then!" he said with a chuckle.

The pair were now outside the guild hall, illumiated by the latern that burned above the door. Calvus was about to climb the steps when Aranwen pulled him back down.

"Come here..." she said softly, and kissed him in the lamplight.

Calvus moved closer, wrapping his arms around her waist and her shoulders. After a few seconds she stopped and looked into his eyes for a moment.

"Night!" she said cheekily, before escaping his grasp and running indoors.

Calvus stood on the steps smiling to himself.

"My kind of girl..." he said as he entered the Guild hall.

***

Calvus was awoken at about eight in the morning to the sound of birds twittering on the great oak outside. However it was not the birds that awoke him, but the sound of 'WHO PUT THAT BLOODY CLAYMORE THERE? IT COULD HAVE SOMEONES EYE OUT!!!" That told him Modryn was awake. It was like the man never slept. Well it could be the reason for the Dark Elf being so grumpy and paranoid, Calvus thought as he put his shirt on. He went downstairs and sat down at the dining table. He ate some bread and drank some wine, made by the Surilie brothers no less. A fellow guild member called Andre sat opposite Calvus, the days Black Horse Courier in his hand.

"So what's going on in the world?" Calvus asked innocently.

The Breton had been engrossed in the paper, but after some time he slowly put it down on the table, a melancholy expression on his face.

"There's been a terrible attack on the Chapel in Anvil. All of Dibella's priests and priestesses murdered…" Andre replied solemnly.