Together Baurus and I returned back to the dining hall and Luther noticed the distinct way how three men had gone into the basement and only two had returned. He didn’t even spare a sideways glance at the two of us and provided even less of one as I nodded once to Viconia and waited for her to finish the current round of dice she was playing. Standing, and collecting her winnings she made her way across the crowded room with several more pouches of coins than what she had started with. Together the two of us followed Baurus up the stairs to the sleeping quarters and the second floor where some of the longer term resident’s apartments were located. Typically, while the higher floors had better views and ventilation, most of the longer term residents lived on the second and third floors rather than the fourth to sixth due to the increased risk of dying if a fire broke out. Fires may have been uncommon in the Imperial City but were still a considerable risk and never far from everyone’s minds.

  Without a word he motioned us inside his room, locking the door behind us and moving over to one of the several sturdy appearing cupboards built along and against the walls. Each were large enough to hide in comfortably and it didn’t surprise me when he opened one, shifted some clothing aside and pushed the false panel away before stepping through.

  Carefully hidden and completely unnoticeable on the floor that it was situated a secret room had been built in the decades or centuries past. It was hidden in one of the many crawlspaces that allowed the collections of plumbing, pipework and ventilation to snake through between rooms in most Ayleid constructions. Within this space were several stacks of chests built into the walls, racks of armour, clothes, containers containing official papers and all manner of items and equipment required for the Empires spy network to operate clandestinely. If the time came however for stealth and secrecy to be put aside, the several suits of recognisable splint mail and rows of katana’s were available to outfit over a dozen blades in their full panoply of warfare.

  Closing the cupboard doors and the false panel behind us I felt the tingle of magicka as the enchantments sealing the room ensured that any sound, spoken or otherwise would go no further than its confines. It was a consistent hum in the back of my mind that was felt as though preceding a headache but I knew that for the moment at least we could speak freely.

  “Now that we have some privacy I guess it’s about time that I let you know exactly what is going on.” he said, after introducing himself to Viconia. “This evening’s event has unfortunately pushed things over a precipice somewhat and we are now running out of time.”

  He motioned for us to take seats in the tiny room, Viconia lifted herself up onto a chest mounted to the wall and somehow managing to appear completely at ease but quivering with a dangerous energy at the same time. I leant against the wall next to a suit of Avakiri armour and waited for Baurus to seat at the desk in the room and begin explaining the situation.

  “As Jauffre has certainly told you, the Assassins who killed the Emperor and his sons were part of a daedric cult known as the Mythic Dawn. I’ve been tracking their agents in the City, but they have obviously noticed. The Imperial City so far appears to be their primary recruiting location but the members of this cult come from across Tamriel.”

  “Jauffre said that they were good at covering their tracks.”

  Nodding sombrely, he clenched his fist and began rapping his knuckles against the wood of the desk. “They are. Too damn good. Unlike most cults they don’t start as a little club banding together in the sewers or meeting for book readings or twisting sermons to suit their own interpretations. They are a lot more esoteric and far more difficult to track down as a result.”

  Viconia’s eyes shone in the darkness, glints of malice and strangely familiar with such situations. “How do they recruit members?”

  “With these.” With a heavy thump he pulled a trio of books out from a drawer and lightly dropped them on the desk. “These are the Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes, written by the leader of the cult; Mankar Camoran.”

  “I don’t understand.” Viconia said, running her fingers lightly over the surface of one of the books and feeling the vellum as she lightly flicked through the pages.

  “There are four of these books, together they apparently show the way to the home of the Cult, but it is extremely difficult to get all four. Books one and two are easy, and as far as any of our investigations have found there are copies in nearly every bookstore and market across the entirety of the Empire. Book three is more difficult and while there are easily thousands of the others scattered to the four winds, there are possibly only a couple of hundred of book three to be found. This is the 2nd copy I have managed to find in the entire city and I had to bribe the owner of First Edition just to get my hands on it.”

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  “And book four?” I asked, picking one of the books up and briefly leafing through the pages and trying to discern what appeared to be the words of a madman scrawled throughout it.

  “Book four can only be given by a member of the Cult, and only after you manage to find the location by translating and discerning it from the first three. An associate of mine in the Arcane University is an expert in daedric cults and has my other copy of the third book. Tar-Meena may be an argonian but she’s got a smart head on her shoulders and knows more about daedra and their worshippers than we do about breathing. Only those who have all four books can utilise them to find the hidden path and therefore prove themselves worthy to join the ranks of the cult.”

  “So if we get our hands on the fourth book, we can find out where their home is and then Viconia, myself and a group of Blades can go and destroy them?”

  “Exactly, but hopefully retrieving the Amulet of Kings in the process. Without it all we’ve done is buy ourselves time before the end.”

  “Are they really attempting to destroy the world?” Viconia was reading through one of the books with a combined look of interest and annoyance at trying to understand the jumbled ramblings written within it.

  “In a way. They are trying to merge Oblivion with Mundus and allow Mehrunes Dagon to rule over whatever remains. Needless to say that no one will survive in any measurable capacity once this occurs. While it’s easy to dismiss all this as ramblings of the insane and of the usual run-of-the-mill daedra worshippers out of their minds, the Mythic Dawn is easily the most dangerous group of individuals in thousands of years.”

  He looked over the books again and motioned with a weary sigh. “The level of planning to undertake something like this is staggering and I doubt any group other than the Blades or even the Legion has the manpower or resources to pull this off. To supply every bookstore and market stall in the Empire with these copies, seeding them in such a way that the interested take it upon themselves to track down and eventually join the cult means that they have been doing this for decades. To create so many books means some form of printing operation or even series of printing presses, which then represents the fact that they were able to gather and stockpile the materials required like ink, parchment, vellum etc. There is quite possibly thousands of cultists throughout every province, a dozen or more in every city and so far they all have waited until now to strike. I’m not an expert chess player but I know that you don’t start to move your pieces until you are ready and have a damn good chance at winning.”

  Pausing for a moment he rubbed his eyes. “Right now they have us at check, and I think only because you two have gotten involved that they didn’t checkmate us.”

  “This Mankar Camoran sounds like a lunatic.” Viconia muttered, still reading through the pages of one of the books.

  “Oh he undoubtedly is, but it seems as though his madness has pushed through the barriers between it and genius. These books are his take and thoughts and translations of the Mysterium Xarxes. The Xarxes is a book written by Mehrunes Dagon himself and is one of the few Daedric Artefacts within the world. The power in that single book alone is unfathomable and both I and the rest of the Blades are certain that Camoran has it in his possession. This shows that he has significant favour with the Prince of Destruction that alone is enough cause to worry without the fact he has a literal army of crazies at his beck and call. They are willing to destroy entire cities to kill a single man, attack hidden locations of the Blades and sacrifice themselves if called on to do so. They are numerous, fanatical and have been preparing for all this for a very, very long time.”

  I looked at him seriously and found myself unconsciously running my fingers up Sunchild’s hilt. “What do you need us to do?”

  A grin flickered over his face as he looked over to me. “I had planned on going to a meeting with “The Sponsor” and taking the place of one of the potential inductees after you arrived, but being followed by one of their members wasn’t part of the plan and has brought forward the schedule. We can’t afford to wait for a more opportune time otherwise they will begin to miss our late friend and most likely go to ground. I need you two to come with me to this meeting and watch my back. We need to get the fourth book no matter what and as I can’t go to the meeting armed without drawing suspicion so I’ll need you two to keep me alive.”

  I glanced at Viconia and saw her shrug before she closed her book with a snap. “Sounds easy enough I suppose.”

  Baurus seemed to have a physical weight lift from his shoulders. “Thank you both. I know this is all rushed but time is of the essence. The bad news is that the meeting place is in the sewers beneath the city. The good news is that I’ve managed to scout out most of the area and know it well enough that between the three of us this will work.”

  “When do we leave?”

  His grin was savage, constricting itself into a familiar expression that I recognised from when he fought the assassins who killed the Emperor. “Right now.”