I'm back! And I'm reading over what you wrote, everything looks good so far, including Mirabelle, and I will try to respond to what I need to soon. I encourage everyone to join the bonfire tonight in my actual collab, found
here. Here you can talk to Dengeir or our special new arrival on the scene, or do anything else, and I will be sure to respond to it. Just make a separate paragraph and note your username and I think it will work well.
Just in case some shenanigans go down or the site crashes here is what I wrote.
The sun began to set in Falkreath, and the recruitment center had closed. The captain and Jarl Dengeir went back to the longhouse to begin preparations for the "Fall of the Imperial Empire" bonfire that was going to be held later that night. The word had let out that some very special guest was going to appear to make a toast. The word 'Sidonis' was even ushered from the lips of a few high ranking officials.
Quarivier, meanwhile, stalked the back routes and alleys of the town; a shadow in plain sight. He looked for any sign of Elves, but there weren't many traces. Obviously, the Elves still in the city had to be pretty bunkered down in the homes of sympathizers or in some other hole in the ground. What Quarivier gathered, however, was that there was in fact a mass killing. The graveyard had been upturned where a very old and wealthy Dunmer family had buried their kin for generations, and in it were the bodies of dozens, if not hundreds of Falkreath's elven citizens. They were executed legally, or as legal as this Alessian Empire was to be considered legitimate (So, not at all, thought Quarivier).
More curious than this fact, Quarivier had found the home of a very well respected Bosmer philosopher, Aethronnir of Falinesti. Quarivier had read many of the man's works, who was known to take a pessamistic outlook on the purpose of life on Nirn and the role of the gods. Quarivier always found him soothing. Anyway, this Aethronnir fellow was not killed like the rest. He was removed from his home, and several witnesses saw him being dragged out of town by the Alessian Legion, accompanied by a regionally famous Dunmer philanthropist and wisewoman who happened to be a guest speaker at the school. Quarivier had to wonder why these people were not killed like the rest of the Elves. Did Sidonis wish to conserve the knowledge of the Elven people? Maybe he believed that they held some ancient secret of longevity from the humans? Quarivier had heard that one from a drunk farmer once, and he couldn't get over it. Either way, as he found his colleagues, he passed the information he gathered on ever so subtly, with an added push to attend the bonfire. Quarivier also invited Syndelius to a special recon mission, should he choose to meet him by the graveyard.
The bonfire and its crowd took up the entire town green. Jarl Dengeir was throwing wood into the fire. At a closer glance, one could see that it was actually furniture and portraits taken from the homes of the Elves. Hundreds of citizens and soldiers were gathered around the massive fire. At Dengeir's side was an old woman standing stiffly, uncomfortably. She was short and rather overweight, in a demure purple gown. Her grey hair barely fell past the crown on her head bearing a red diamond. All in all, she looked very out of place, but it was not hard to guess who the special guest was. Hilaria Sidonis, the newest Empress in Tamriel and the General's wife had made her first public appearance.
The members of Dragon's Eye had gotten a rundown on the officials that Sidonis took with him. Many left on their own, but the general only selected a very small cadre to accompany him into Skyrim. Among them was his family, to protect them from the Medes' wrath. Hilaria, from the report read by Dragon's Eye, was a housewife, born to a farmer in Anvil and married to Lyvander Sidonis at a young age. She was not considered a threat or an accomplice; rather another victim swept up in the General's ambitions.
