Chapter 237 - White Ridge: The Story Of Servos
This Chapter comes to you by the good graces of @DarkPriest and @Patrick_Schuster… (½)
Also a quick announcement: I see that some of you are annoyed with the term [Cultivation] and actually me too. While it is possible in the World of the Elder Scrolls to do such a practice, it comes under the name [Meditation] and that how are we going to do it from now.
[Meditation] exists in the Psijic Order (see ESO) and the Greybeards (see Paarthurnax training). Both are known as the 'Elder Way' and the 'Way of the Voice' respectively. [Way] means [Dao] and that is how the game company got inspired with it so I am only reversing it back.
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Servos and Merilar Rendas, two Dunmer brother and sister grew up in Mournhold. Their family has lost most of its members during the events of the Red Year and the Argonian Invasion so when they were born afterward, they were born in a family of beggars and miners.
Mournhold, the once great capital of Morrowind is now not even a shadow of its former self, being close to the new borders with Black March, the home of the Argonians, the former capital city was now nothing but a frontier town. King Hlaalu Helseth and his mother Queen Barenziah disappeared and house Hlaalu fell from glory after the invasion, Houses Dres and Telvanni lost their foothold in the city and Houses Indoril and Redoran took over for a while. Still, the people grew up in poverty and the once classy Godsreach district and Plaza Brindisi Dorom are now camps for the refugees and slums for the fallen.
Servos and Merilar were born after all these events but they were from the generation that suffered the most, the Argonians bandits still raided around the broken walls of the city and the new rulers were busy with politics and hoarding armies rather than making ruling the broken city.
Life was still not that unlucky a charitable old lady from the city known as the 'Old Woman of Mournhold' gathered a batch of talented kids and sent them to Shad Astula Academy, an old place from the time of the Ebonheart Pact that was teaching magic and combat. The Academy accepted any kid with talent to magic and was overseen by the Six Great Houses of Morrowind. Of course, all these graduates would be enrolled in the private armies of the six houses.
Not every kid in the academy was talented in combat and a classification system appeared between the students, those who were not talented in Magic Combat were cast down as the Great Houses were looking for Warriors and Battlemages. Alas, Servos and Merilar were not from the talented ones. While Servos enjoyed Alchemy and the magical studies lately securing a place for himself, Merilar grew distant and aloof in her path of acquiring any power possible to join the elite.
Not too many years passed and Servos managed to become a scholar and a researcher while Merilar kept pursuing her wish to become someone with a real standing in the world yet she ended up to be a mere low-class battlemage that has no use to the six houses. She grew envious and hateful while her brother started to find his talent in researching. That what led them to White Ridge Barrow.
When they arrived at Solstheim, the discovered the native Albino Spiders and their ability to harness magic, they grew interested each for his own agenda. While Servos pursued his passion as a researcher, Mirelar found herself a new path to find the power she always sought and that's when it all started.
With his first discovery of the Cloaked Fire Spiders and the Jumping Fire Spiders, Merilar locked her own brother in the lab deep in White Ridge and pursued another kind of power the found in the Barrow, some chanting voices came from the innermost room in the Barrow but Merilar realized it is too dangerous to explore.
And with the new discovery of the mind control spider Merilar started becoming bold hunting down bandits and Rieklings with them, she started to make her own little force. She wanted the power in the Innermost Room so bad to the point that she was willing to even sacrifice her own brother for it.
She went completely mad and locked her brother for ten months, he himself managed to engross himself in the research for a while but he was having it tough lately. He could hear talking to herself and screaming and laughing, she was completely gone.
Servos suffered on the hands of his sister what he didn't think possible and started to have thoughts of finally confronting her with all his force but sadly she was totally in control. He was the one who managed to make the spiders for her so she had to keep him alive. She even put a mind control spider on him once but it didn't work and he was acting like an idiot, she had to keep forcing him like that for as long as she wished for.
His prison days were bleak and tough and he lost the track of time until one day, a band of explorers with four gigantic Nords and a Dunmer girl (who is tall but looked short beside the Nords) appeared in front of his cage. He was so desperate that he even offered his discovery for them but they were really well mannered and even agreed to exchange knowledge with him.
Yet before they could depart, Merilar appeared with a lot of spiders and mind-controlled bandits. This was so terrifying as Servos never wanted to see his demonic sister again. He didn't want to fall in her hands and suffer for it but he couldn't escape, he who is a mere lab nerd was only good at casting a few simple spells.
Strangely enough, that sister of his provoked the leader of the band that freed him in a way that it seemed impossible for anyone to bear. Servos didn't understand what did she say or do but he only heard those words from the red-haired man.
"Didst thou just 'Dare' me? Art thou aware of the out-turns of thy words?"
The man acted as if he heard a taboo in his religion and the atmosphere around him turned scary.
"..." Merilar and Servos were shocked by what she saw.
The air around the red man called Jon turned heavy… so heavy that she couldn't breathe. His Aura was overflowing and could be seen clearly as vines of green energy flowing around him.
This was the Aura Art, a martial tradition that was developed back in the day by the remnants of the Dragon Knights and started to take many forms and shapes, all the best elite warriors of Shad Astula have at least dappled with the art but this man was on a whole insane different level.
Unspeakable fear started to manifest in Merilar's heart but she couldn't take back the order she gave to the spiders, spiders are creatures that don't know fear or going back, they are cold blooded and would never share the feeling of the hot-blooded humans. They followed her previous will to attack the people in front of her and kill them but she wasn't aware that a mere word offended someone she should have foreseen his power.
She was getting ready to acquire the power of the Energy in the sealed room but she knew now that she faced the adversary a bit too early and had no way of turning back.
"Thou wanted to dabble into that power from the Word Wall, art thou not? Therefore, alloweth me to showeth thou the power of Jon Dare, lord of Winterhold, as mine breath is pure anger… FUS RO DAH!"
The force manifested from Jon's shout and battered its way across space to Merilar, she who was staring with absolute disbelief as she was crushed and sent away to the endless abyss of the cave she came out from. Never to be heard of again from this day onwards.
All the spiders and the mind-controlled bandits that filled the tunnel behind her were all crushed and sent away with Jon's shout. The most fitting word for this image of domination was 'Purge'. Jon purged those who stood in front of him with no single trace left.
"Aaaand he did it again!" Alina smiled wryly at what happened.
"Why are people too crazy to use that word in front of him? I did it once and… I am suffering some memory loss." Jullanar remembered some traumas.
"I have seen a lot of people say it to him in Riften, believe it or not, I still have some memory of that day I said it to him as a joke." Wulfur said.
"What happened?" Alina asked.
"He carried me with two hands and threw me into Riften's canal. Almost drowned."
"I heard about his hate to the 'D word' that he even made it his last name so people think twice before saying it. But is it me or he just quoted a piece from the Prayer of Talos." Bjorna pointed out and everyone ignored her.
Yet behind the five, there was a Dark Elven man who stood with a pale face, he was in utter shock and disbelief.
"Impossible!" Servos reached wit's end before collapsing from shock.
***
Servos woke up after some time in a different place. As he looked around himself, he only found a small girl sitting nearby him and they seemed to be still in the Ruins of White Ridge Barrow.
He sat up from and looked at the girl who stared back at him with her lazy eye, she looked away with no interest at all. She seemed to be a human around eight years of age and she was extremely lovely. She was wearing a black dress that seemed really classy, her hair was black and he skin was pale which made her seem to be a bit sick but she had rosy cheeks and beautiful blue eyes that made her look as lovely as ever. Still, she gave the feeling of a doll made by a master artisan.
"Child, where is this? Who brought you here?"
She looked at him and spoke.
"Hooman did."
"Ho… Who?"
"... I forgot! He told me to say his name in front of others. Jon brought us here."
"... Jon… the Red-haired main! Sir Jon! He is still here?"
Servos looked around himself and looked for Jon left and right.
"They are behind that door." Nefertiti simply pointed at the door at the end of the hall.
Servos realized at once that this place is the innermost room of the barrow, the place that he sealed in fear of the unknown power behind it.
He stood up and went towards the door but Nefertiti spoke.
"Don't bother them, you will only get in the way."
"Eh, but…"
"Tsk! Annoying!"
Nefertiti was not in the mood to have a conversation with a stranger. Being told to look over a man she doesn't know was beyond her understanding but Jon promised her a good reward.
Servos was overwhelmed by Nefertiti's personality and retreated to the wall opposite to her then sat on the ground. He didn't understand why would the party of Jon would bring a little girl in such a dangerous place but he would be damned if Jon came out of that room and found him sleeping.
He could sense a lot of action and magic behind the door's room which meant there was an ongoing fight but in his mind, he had to take care of Nefertiti.
As the long wait started, Servos started to look left and right for anything that might come out in this unexplored area and was a bit terrified himself. Yet as he was looking at the corridor that comes to this room, he noticed something moving.
It was Albino Spiders, lots of them.
"Girl, watch out, hide behind me!" Servos jumped up in front of Nefertiti preparing his 'Flames' spell to face off that horde of spiders.
His heart was beating wildly but what he didn't foresee was Nefertiti walking in front of him.
"Jon said to take care of you and I get more fish tonight, don't cause me trouble, noisy guy!"
As she said those words in contempt, a strong wave of Magicka gathered around her hand in a strange black color devoid of the usual light that comes out when someone casts a spell, just as this spell was evoked on Nefertiti's hands, a barrage of black bolts and blades came out towards the Albino spiders that appeared. In less than a few seconds, they were all wiped out.
Servos was in a frozen state and didn't utter a word. He just stood there observing Nefertiti's actions.
Nefertiti, of course, wouldn't give a rats ass about how mere mortals look at her and walked in small steps towards the spiders she killed. She then started to break their pods from their bodies, she put the pods neatly on the side with other pods and threw the bodies away to the pile of bodies.
'Other pods? Pile of bodies?' Servos noticed something he didn't notice before and understood what happened here.
These were not the first spiders she killed, there were more when he was sleeping. Servos was terrified from that girl's ability and backed away to his wall and sat silently.
A few minutes later, the door of the boss room was opened and the Dunmer girl walked out with a sword and a crossbow in her hands and a buckler tied to her forearm. She was wearing a leather battle dress that looked like that of the imperial legion but it was sleeveless and black. Servos remembered her as the girl Jon described as his fiancee.
"Nefertiti, come heal big sister." She saw the small girl and ran towards her with open arms.
Nefertiti frowned a bit and tried to back away but the Jullanar was fast and hugged her while trying to give Nefertiti a kiss but Nefertiti was pushing Jull's face away.
Soon after, Jon and the rest came from the door.
"This is really a good harvest, a Word Wall, a Black Book and a Dragon Priest's Mask. We finished two locations in two days!" Jon said.
"This one was much easier than Ahzidal!" Bjorna said.
"Of course, Ahzidal was a legend and powerful Necromancer, Dukaan is a Cryomancer and we have Wulfur and Alina on our team so Frost Magic is really not a problem at all." Jon replied. He was excited and gave a cheer.
Just as they noticed Servos, Jon came towards him.
"Servos Rendas, was it? Sorry to give you such a scare and sorry about your associate. She gave me no choice back then." Jon said as he offered his hand.
Such a mighty warrior was offering Servos a shake, Servos was already sweating but he managed to get a hold of himself.
To Jon's words about Merilar, Servos sighed and nodded.
"It is okay. Merilar has already done what she has done. I hope that what happened today put an end to her suffering before she would turn into someone I would never bear to know."
"No hard feelings then!"
"Not at all, Sera, thank you for saving me."
"Don't mention it. My men should be outside the barrow by now to scavenge what we can't carry. We recovered the body of Merilar for you to give her a burial. My men will escort you to Raven Rock and we will meet there in a few days."
"Thank you, Sera, truly."
Jon patted Servos's shoulder and led the team out of White Ridge Barrow to the outside.
Outside the Barrow, Ongeim and twenty Dare Trooper were waiting for Jon and his team. Jon gave Ongeim the orders on what to do and assigned him to take care of Servos and keep an eye on him.
To Jon, Servos was a good asset and someone worthy to spend some time and money on. Jon wanted to see the true potential of the Spider Scrolls as something he really enjoyed when he played the game.
In the game Servos was already dead before the player reaches him and Merilar would be commanding a horde of Mind-Controlled Bandits and spiders that he created but that should be a long time from the date they are in right now, it meant that Servos's suffering would have been greater if Jon didn't come to help.
With that all said and done, Jon led the team to the last dungeon in 'Phase 2', Gyldenhul Barrow, the resting place of the King of Ghosts, the Legendary Pirate, Haknir Death-Brand... Captain... Captain Haknir Death-Brand.