Although he had undergone an aggressive phase of re-education with a plank, there were still some things that could not escape the attention of Eldaline's secretary Ondolemar. "The Second Archivist isn't in there."
This news was bewildering, and alarming, for the last thing they had heard from this person had been a terrible scream. But as Agent Aralina and the soldier called Aranwen arrived to try and disprove the statement, they found the room as described, and devoid of a Second Archivist of any kind.
Skavild did not believe they had looked hard enough, and so joined the search a little irritably.
"Eldaline? Did Rufus scare you with a frog? Are you hiding under that bath towel?" He demanded.
Alas, she was not there.
"There you are, you little villain. Why have you upset your Auntie Eldaline and where has she gone?"
"It wasn't me Da I was stood all the way over there next to the liquor cabinet when it happened but definitely not so close to the liquor cabinet so I could've put my hand in the liquor cabinet and definitely not been drinking, Da."
"Just when I could have done with you sober, I catch you in the bastard brandy. Your Ma's spoiled you to death and we'll be having words later. Where's Auntie Eldaline, you tiny crook?" said Skavild.
"I haven't got a problem, Da, it's Count Spoonface." said Rufus. "And I'm going to have a nap if you're going to shout at me like that."
"Hey!" said Skavild.
"Hey!" said the soldier called Aranwen. "Where is this brandy?"
"We should take this thing." Rufus suggested. "We can use it to look for Auntie Eldaline, and then if we find her we can use it to look in girls' windows, in case they go missing too."
"Rufus, I'm giving you three seconds before I dangle you off the staircase by the legs."
Rufus said, "Da, I don't feel well. It was horrible, what he was saying. No wonder she snatched him and ran off."
"Eldaline's run off with Count Spoonface? Start at the beginning, son."
"Well, Auntie Eldaline woke up and said she could hear fighting and asked me if I was still playing soldiers. Then the Count said, "They're all dead!'
Then she just got out of bed and she went to the window and it was like she was trying to touch the light but she said the sun wasn't warm."
"The Second Archivist has been very busy and must have been tired." said Aralina. "Where is she now? Oh! The bear! The bear in the nursery! Did the bear come back and eat her? Without leaving any mess? We must find it and cut it open immediately!"
"Then," said Rufus. "the Count started talking big important grown-up things like wars and armies, and that's odd 'cause he don't usually. Usually he talks about other dolls and rocks and cake."
"It's the damn daedra." said Skavild. "The daedra Feyfolken's got into the doll. Come to think of it, why were we all talking to the doll like that's normal? What happened, then Rufus?"
"She just opened her eyes and I thought she was angry."
"Then she screamed and grabbed Count Spoonface and went invisible. But she was too slow. I saw her turn visible and run away down the corridor."
"Why didn't you tell me straight away, Rufus?"
"I had to go to the toilet."
"What did the Count say, son? I mean the important grown-up things?" said Skavild.
"He said:
Your army is dead, the tower is lost, and the Legionnaires are coming for you."
Aralina cried: "Which way did she run, human hatchling?"
"This way." said Rufus. "But I'm not damn well running. I've got indigestion off the brandy.I didn't drink it, I was just looking at it."
"Come on, son, you can do a fast waddle, can't you?" said Skavild. "What's the daedra been telling Eldaline, Aralina?"
"The human is right, Count Spoonface has been lying to us and make us doubt what is real." said Aralina.
Skavild, hurrying, said, "It's not Count Spoonface, it's Feyfolken."
"I will never forgive the Count if the Second Archivist has met with harm!" said Ondolemar.
"By the Nine, you elves seem to know where you're going, so are you going to tell me how fast I should be running?"
"Count Spoonface, I mean Feyfolken, is speaking of the events of the War with the Empire." said Aralina. "When our armies in Cyrodiil were destroyed and they took the Imperial City from us, the Second Archivist was cataloguing the Imperial Library and could not get out."
"Oh yes." said Aranwen. "The woman who spent the first half of the war telling us in gruesome and needless detail how to avoid being taken alive, somehow managed to be taken alive."
Aralina said, "It was not her fault, Aranwen. She tried to throw herself out of the tower. The cursed Moth Priests thwarted her attempt. They wished for nothing more than her suffering at Imperial hands. It is my theory that they were envious of her superior library cataloguing genius. You are instructed not to speak of the Second Archivist with that tone again."
"My father and both my brothers were lost that day, so that the Second Archivist could enjoy a comfortable interrogation and then sit around a cosy table with the Imperials afterwards playing with bits of paper. It can't have been that bad. After all, she demanded to go straight back out fighting again, and against the mad Alik'r. Pass me that brandy, Rufus."
"She's on the tower." said Aralina.
"No more drinking." said Ondolemar.
Skavild said: "Run."
"Hello, Eldaline." said Skavild.
"Go away, go away." she said. "I failed. They're all dead."
"No they're not, they're standing over there. Eldaline, did someone tell you to jump off this wall?"
"Skavild. What are you doing here, in this place, at this time? You don't belong here."
"Yes I do, you ninny elf. I've worked it out. It's Feyfolken the daedra; he's here. He's made us all think we were talking to a doll. He's been pulling things out of our memories and made us think they've come back. He hasn't got one original thought in his thick Daedric head."
"What did you say?" said Eldaline.
"Now, don't you worry. You look worried and I'm telling you that there's nothing real to be afraid of."
"You said that he didn't have an original thought." said Eldaline.
She turned abruptly towards the wall again and Skavild was relieved when she only pointed northward.
"Did I say something significant?" He suggested.
"That humming noise. Now I can hear it, out in the open. We're going over there. Daedra only have original thoughts. They have no understanding of ours whatsoever. Feyfolken my arse. That's common magic. I'm going straight over there to put a stop to this."
Eldaline could see the length of the battlements, now; they were most certainly not dead. In fact, they were watching her with interest.
She was glad to see them. Of course they were not dead. Now that she saw them, she wondered why she had been so certain.
Skavild said, "Your soldiers want me to tell you that they don't know for sure they'll be able to get home if anything happens to you, and I've been with you all long enough to know that's an Altmer expression of genuine love and the highest possible respect."
"Auntie Eldaline, are you crazy?" said Rufus. "That's amazing. I never met a crazy person."
Eldaline wordlessly returned Count Spoonface to his possession and considered his question. Her soldiers looked as though they wanted very much for her to be sane.
"You needn't have all come up." she said. "I have determined our next move."
To be continued.