[color=B2A5D5][h3]Isai Sutor-Armaseptus[/h3][/color][sub][@Sir Lurksalot][@Quest Abandoner][@Simple Unicycle][/sub][hr]
At last, the horses were off to the races, as it were. A journal and feather quill in hand, compatriots in tow, and the Emperor and his trusted blades chomping at the bit and leading the charge, they descended beneath the belly of the Empire. With the ruinous bones that the heart of Tamriel was built upon, it was no surprise that there would be underground passages, either built or found or repurposed, though it may have been a surprise that one of its entrances was in a prison cell… though he must credit the thinking, for he doubted anybody would have suspected that one such passage would be found in a prison. Surely the Emperor had escaped his assailants and will live many more years.

Isai found himself near the front after some polite pushing past some bodies, allowing some more of the combatively inclined to take point, but still close enough in earshot of Captain Renault, Blades Baurus and Glenroy, and the Emperor to record any word they might have said. There seemed to be little that they shared with one another, as if psychically linked in their understanding of their duties and trust in each other’s competence, so more often than not, he was recording dialogue shared between them and the prisoners.

Hm.

[i]Though the Blades were diligent in their duties to the Empire, the magnitudinous weight of the prisoner’s lives and presence forced their attention away to address them – always from one, while the other two remained alert – but I feared that even a moment of distraction may spell disaster should they come upon their enemy.[/i]

As he wordlessly scribed, he found words from other conversations floated into his ears, prompting him to accidentally write an unintentional word or two that he’d be forced to cross out. Former inmates getting to know one another or their homelands, as if this evacuation was a meet-cute. He raised the end of his quill to his mouth in thought when he heard mention of Y’ffre or the Green Pact, perking his ear up a bit. He first heard of such things from his mother, so he may have had a bias for such things, even if in the grand scheme of Tamriel’s cosmology, he found it less likely than other explanations. Still, there were records of the bosmer’s strange abilities in certain times of distress, and the names and explanations for common belief may differ from more conventional academia, but the common belief persists nonetheless. Faith in the Earth Bones spread across opposite ends of Tamriel.

Oh, but the prisoners were talking about one another, of course.

[color=B2A5D5]“With the world so big, what brings anyone anywhere…”[/color] Isai mused, nibbling on the end of the quill, reshaping its writing edge with his teeth before testing it on the margins of his parchment. [color=B2A5D5]“Perhaps she’s just curious. They're curious people. My [i]mother[/i] was, at least. Having borne witness to the Green in prior ethnographical expeditions, I might add, the hoarvers and giant wasps by their lonesome are sufficient to prompt leave.”[/color]

Isai held up his quill, [color=B2A5D5]“Stingers as long as yay. Leaving eggs in your body whilst paralyzed, so you can only pray that a dog-sized tick finds you and drains your blood in seconds before the eggs hatch.”[/color]

Isai gagged and shivered, as if reliving the memory of seeing those creatures in person, before continuing to write in his journal.

[i]Accompanied by fellow academic. Be sure to record [b][u]EVERYTHING[/u][/b] & publish book before they do. Maybe make him write foreword.[/i]

[color=B2A5D5]"...Somehow, it's still better than Vvardenfell."[/color]