Second Archivist Eldaline was very pleased. As she had chanced to look down upon the training hall, the elite soldiers that comprised her security detail were hard at practice with the one-handed sword.
The Breton knights of the city of Evermore would shortly arrive for their hour's training before breakfast, and Eldaline felt proud that they would gaze upon the martial excellence of the Aldmeri Dominion and be cowed by it.
"Ahh!" shouted the soldier called Aranwen.
"Ahh!" said Agent Aralina.
"Admirable display." Eldaline nodded. "Carry on."
"Help." said Very Junior Archivist Linvel, from elsewhere in the large hall.
"Good morning, Second Archivist! You blackguard! You miscreant!" cried Aralina.
"Agent Flopsy?" said Eldaline.
"Morning, Second Archivist! You lying trollop, I'll knock you out!" insisted Aranwen.
Agent Aralina performed two light bounds in retreat, followed by a graceful hop back into the fray. "Aranwen has impugned my honour and I humbly implore permission to obtain satisfaction, Second Archivist."
Aranwen was not startled by the hop. "And I humbly implore permission to nut my commanding officer in the face, Second Archivist."
"Return my treasured property, you rude purloiner!"
"You take that back, with respect, Agent Flopsy, I mean Aralina, or you'll be sorry, with permission, I didn't take it."
"Help." said Very Junior Archivist Linvel again.
"Is this some manner of altercation?" said Eldaline.
"This is simply untrue!" cried Aralina. "Give it back at once, Aranwen, and I shall be merciful in my sternly-worded report for the Second Archivist."
"I haven't got it, Agent Aralina, and now that's MY honour impugned, so have at thee, you deluded little goose."
"Help."
"But I left it beside my boots, wrapped in sack-cloth, and I have searched the human Skavild's effects and it was not there!"
"What are you looking for, Flopsy?" said Eldaline. "We shall all help you look for it."
"Hyargh!" Aranwen snarled and charged forward with gleeful abandon.
"How dare you strike a superior officer, Aranwen? The Second Archivist will hear of this!" said Aralina.
Aranwen prodded at her commander's faltering defence. "You take that back! Say I didn't steal from you!"
"How dare you provoke a superior officer into doubting his or her assertions, Aranwen?"
"Say I never steal from anyone and I am the most honest and incorruptible soldier of the Thalmor in a century, Agent Aralina."
"This is monstrous insubordination! It is your duty to accept responsibility for the loss of my things. Even though upon this occasion it may have been due to my own negligence."
"Help." said Linvel, from over there.
"'Aranwen is a paragon of Altmeri brilliance and deserves a medal', say it, Agent Aralina, or so help me I'll nut you and then deny it."
"STOP!" Eldaline cried. They stopped.
"What is the meaning of this unauthorised violent exchange? What cause can two decorated elite soldiers of the Thalmor find to become so disagreeable before breakfast?" She waved her arms a little, to faster elicit a response.
"Second Archivist, I was endeavouring to punish my soldier for wanton theft, and she has wilfully refused to be punished!"
"Second Archivist, don't listen to her, she's talking bollocks, just like my last commander, and the one before that. I'm not a thief and I don't steal things."
"It was the gift you yourself gave me in Hammerfell, Second Archivist! Aranwen was overcome by jealousy at the favour I had earned of you, if indeed I have earned any such favour, and so she stole it, with malign intent!"
"I don't even know what she's talking about, honestly, Second Archivist Eldaline. I didn't even know you gave her a present in Hammerfell, and now she's misplaced it, though I hold my commander in the highest esteem."
"Have you got Flopsy's thing, Aranwen?" said Eldaline, frantically trying to recall what she had given her.
"I prized it more than any other gift, Second Archivist, so deeply affected by your kindness was I! Make her give it back, I beg you!"
"Oh, fine." said Aranwen. "Have your silly doll back. I didn't want it anyway."
"There was nothing to become so upset over, Flopsy." said Eldaline, as the knights of Evermore began to file into the training hall. "Aranwen, put the ears back on the doll."
Aranwen wrestled momentarily with the doll's head. "All right, look. The ears stick straight back on. Whoops. No, I've fixed it. I think. Just don't wobble her too much until I get some glue."
Aralina picked up her doll and followed the Second Archivist towards the rest of the party, most markedly Linvel, who was still saying 'Help'.
"How did you get locked in this cage, Junior Archivist Linvel?" demanded Eldaline. "And why is there a cage in the training hall in the first place?"
"Help, Second Archivist, Aranwen will not let me out."
"Everyone's always blaming me for everything." said Aranwen.
"Stop hooting, I will unlock this gate."
"Hurry, Second Archivist, I fear I shall die." said Very Junior Archivist Linvel.
Aranwen watched with alert interest. "It was worth locking her in there just to see you break that lock, Second Archivist. Well done."
"I have never been so frightened." said Linvel.
The lock, in fact, clicked open, and Eldaline opened the gate. "Well, now you know. So, don't think you can hide contraband in your jewellery box, Aranwen."
"That wasn't mine." said Aranwen.
Eldaline said, "It was an example."
"Oh, Archivist Halthir." said Linvel. "I feared I would never see you again!"
"You could see me the entire time, Archivist Linvel."
The Bureau of Advanced Communications (Solitude outpost) were returning from Hammerfell through north-western High Rock. The weather at the beginning of Sun's Dawn was unfriendly, and so were many of the inhabitants.
They had spent many days trudging inconspicuously, discounting their golden shining moonstone armour and ostentatious bird helmets, through mud and storms.
Then, at last, the clouds had parted and beyond a still, cold lake had lain the city of Evermore.
continues