Azena — Roleplayer Guild

The Story so Far:
During the Arcane Purge, a dark period in Tamriel's history when a special force of Imperial Legionnaires raided and executed the mage chapter houses in Cyrodiil, Ryder Montierro discovers a young Dunmer in one of the chapter houses. A stroke of conscience come over him and he finds himself unable to kill her. In fact, he kills one of his own men that threatens her life. Ryder carries the girl out of the battle and with the help of his older brother, Alexander, he escapes into the night and deserts the Legion. Years pass and Ryder raises the girl, Ashe, as his own daughter. However, they are now fugitives and Ryder knows it is no life for a young girl. Even worse, without proper training, Ashe's magika has become dangerous and uncontrollable.

Ryder is pressed to find the girl a safe home where she can receive the proper instruction in the Arcane arts. Their travels are dangerous and the pair live in constant fear of bounty hunters tracking them down or Ashe's powerful destruction magic hurting people. While staying the night in Bravil, Ryder enjoys too many drinks and starts sharing his story with the locals. The town alchemist is sympathetic and informs Montierro about the college in Skyrim that still operates free from the Aldmeri Dominion's control. There would be no safer place for Ashe to study. The information sobers Ryder up and he suddenly realizes what he's done after he notices some faces had disappeared from the tavern. He runs upstairs to their room, but Ashe is not there. She had grown impatient and bored and disobeyed her father to sneak out into the city.

She returns in the middle of his panic and Ryder explains that he put them in danger. When their brief argument calms down, they gather their things and make for the city gates. Their path is blocked by a group of mercenaries that enter the inn to capture the Montierros. Ashe climbs back out the window and runs for the gate to fetch their loyal black horse, Zermic. Meanwhile, Ryder deals with the team of hunters with skilled precision. He may have left the Legion, but has not lost his touch. The fight causes the inn to catch fire. Ryder flees only to find Ashe cornered at the stables by a hooded figure. Listening to the conversation, the man seems to know too much about the Montierros and threatens to capture her until Ryder intervenes. Not willing to fight a powerful mage and a talented soldier, the hooded man disappears. Ryder and Ashe mount Zermic and escape into the forest.

They make camp a safe distance from Bravil and try to rest, but there are strange noises coming from the shadows. Ryder figures that it must be an ogre, an already terrifying half-giant creature that only becomes unstoppable when women are involved. Zermic panics and flees as the ogre catches Ashe's scent and goes into a frenzy. Ryder and Ashe dart through the trees as the ogre tears through the forest to close in on them. They run into a cliff with the only option to jump into the river below. It is a difficult feat for Ryder who suffers from a fear of drowning, but they have no choice. They have to jump.

The raging waters carry the pair down river and pelt them against rocks and debris. Ashe manages to secure Ryder's safety before plummeting over the waterfall and disappearing in the misty chaos. Ryder heads into the forest to find a path down. Ashe regains consciousness on the calm riverbank, bruised and suffering a nasty cut on her arm from the fall. The forest is eerily quiet, but she knows a persistent ogre is looking for her. She follows their pre-established contingency plan and makes for the nearest city of Skingrad, leaving blood marks on the trees for Ryder to follow. In the dawn's light, Ryder arrives at the bottom of the river with no sign of Ashe, but he hears shouting coming from the woods. He returns to the trail to find a trio of bandits chasing after Zermic.

Ryder follows them to interrupt their ambush. Their leader, a Breton illusionist named Isabel offers to help him find Ashe. They return to the river and Isabel picks up Ashe's trail of blood. They follow to a road where the tracks indicate that she stopped to rest and was picked up by a passing wagon headed to Skingrad. Lightning and thunder erupt over Skingrad in the distance, a tell-tale sign that Ashe was in danger and losing control of her magika. Ryder and Isabel kick Zermic into full gallop and make for the city.

Inside Skingrad, the hooded man from Bravil caught up to Ashe. His lies convince her that Ryder is dead and he's taking her. In her whirlwind of emotions, she conjurers a deadly storm overhead. The man senses the power and runs for his life, but it is too late for Ashe. She has lost control and the storm begins to strike lightning onto the buildings and fire starts to spread through the city. The guards gather and try to stop her, but are repelled by accurate lightning strikes around Ashe. Ryder and Isabel arrive to see the hooded man escape and Ashe in trouble. With no regard for his own life, Ryder runs into the lightning storm and calms Ashe down. Drained from the spell and her injuries, the girl passes out. The guard captain shows enough sympathy to order them to leave instead of arresting her. However, Ryder knows that her condition is critical.

He seeks the help of the town alchemist, a elderly woman that reluctantly agrees to help. With the help of her assistant, Blake, and Isabel, she gets to work on stabilizing Ashe. Exhausted and with nothing more to do, Ryder falls asleep and dreams about the day he lost his daughter. She was about the same age as Ashe at the time and was killed during a bold bandit raid inside the Imperial City. In his anger, Ryder joins the Legion to bring the bandits to justice. When it is revealed that the majority of them were mages, Ryder develops a hatred for spellcasters and gladly joins the Arcane Purge, becoming an efficient mage killer alongside Alexander. He is awoken by the alchemist who informs him that Ashe is stable, but in bad condition. She may not wake up.

For reasons unknown, Ashe suffers from memory loss and can recall little about her youth before sometime after meeting Ryder. However, in her coma, she vividly relives the night that the Purge until arrived at her chapter house. A brutish soldier killed her sister that fought to protect her before Ryder arrived and was offered to kill Ashe. Ryder hesitated for a moment before turning on his own man and cutting down the brute. He calmed Ashe down and carried her through the battle until they found themselves in the bloody mess hall. The rest of Ryder's unit, including Alexander, stand over mage bodies. Ryder pleads for his brother's assistance and escapes with Ashe while Alexander holds off the rest of their unit. Her vision ends and she wakes up to Blake watching over her while the other room erupts with arguing after the guard captain Titus arrives and threatens to arrest them.

Glad to see Ashe okay, but realizing the danger they were still in, Ryder develops a plan that Ashe refuses to agree with. Isabel casts a sleep spell on the girl and prepares to take her to Alexander's house in the Imperial City while Ryder turns himself in to the Skingrad guards. Blake tries to stop him and reveals too much sensitive information about the Montierro fugitives. It results in both Ryder and Blake being imprisoned and tortured for the whereabouts of Ashe. Meanwhile, Ashe comes to and commands Zermic to stop not far from the city. She convinces Isabel to help her sneak back into the city and rescue Ryder. They use an old smuggler's den to access the sewers and enter the dungeons. Once out Ashe comes up with a plan to get them safely to Alexander's and avoid the Skingrad patrols that were searching the forest. She leaves Blake and Isabel Zermic and grabs on to Ryder.

Seconds later the pair appear over Alexander's kitchen table and crash through it. Ryder is furious with Ashe for using dangerous teleportation magic that they learned even ArchMages are hesitant and careful to use. After their fight calms down, Alexander urges Ryder to share the secrets of Ashe's past that they had been keeping from her. He refuses and they all go to bed in high tension. In the morning, Ashe is awakened to Zermic's arrival, but Isabel and Blake are nowhere to be seen. She hitches Zermic to the stable and heads in to town for a morning walk. Ryder tries not to panic when he wakes up and finds her gone and heads into the city to find her. He sees a number of old faces, friends that help the Montierro's when possible, including an old flame, a Redguard named Jinelle. On the other side of the market, another familiar face confronts Ashe.

The hooded man corners her again and slaps a strange mechanical collar around her neck. Knowing that Ryder is being slowed down by a group of mages and that the device will only reflect Ashe's spells back on her, he is finally confident in his success. However, a strange mist rolls into the market and allows Ryder to escape the mages and find Ashe. During a struggle with Ashe, the hood falls off to reveal the man as Alexander. Alex casts a lightning bolt towards Ryder to keep him at bay. There is shock as magika was an ability that Alexander had never revealed to know. He explains that his bloodline is full of powerful mages and as Ryder is only his half-brother, with a Redguard servant for a mother, he would never have known. Alex also reveals that he has been chasing Ashe because of her powerful magic being the result of a divine destiny that he intended to capitalize on.

The other mages arrive and Ryder isn't able to stand against the onslaught of spells. Left for dead, Ryder can only watch as Alexander takes Ashe away before he blacks out. A woman's voice echoes in the darkness and hints at Ryder's own destiny as a Guardian and commands him to get up and save Ashe. Ryder comes to a couple of hours later with Jinelle watching over him. She tells him that the city was able to repel the mages after the mist rolled in, but most of them escaped. Ryder takes Jinelle's sword and fights the pain to stand up. Believing that it was Jinelle's voice he had heard, he thanks her for bringing him back. Having only just arrived when he woke up, she has no idea what he is talking about and just smiles as he limps after Alex.

Alexander has set up camp deep in the woods around a mysterious alter. He explains to Ashe that they will perform a ritual. Her destiny is linked to the Deadra and through her their might will ravage Tamriel. But Ashe can only focus on the loss of Ryder. She use her cleverness to try and use the collar to commit suicide by casting lightning spells back on herself. Alexander and the mages do what they can to try and stop her until the ritual is complete as Ryder arrives and stalks the edge of the camp outside of the fire light.

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