Tallis found an unoccupied corner near some water barrels; a euphemism if ever there was one. What was in those barrels was as yucky as the murder she had just witnessed. Nobody seemed to care, and she didn't understand. She sat, huddled against the growing rain, and the growing dark, arms wrapped around her knees.

After what felt like a long time, a gentle voice spoke nearby. "When I see my parents, I will be given one of the bones of my second great-aunt Llevana Bethrimo." Tallis looked up to see Talmsa standing calmly before her, a ghostly silhouette against the darkening sky.

The Breton's' mouth fell open but she was too shocked to say anything. A bone of a dead relative?

Talmsa's expression was serene. "She is one of my guardians, and it will be easier to call for aid or counsel when I carry a part of her with me." Gracefully she settled down next to the water barrel, her legs folding into something that looked strange, but was apparently comfortable. "She stays in the world for a while yet for love of her family. Should I not be grateful? And heed her wisdom and lessons when I may?"

Tallis shook her head. "But. But she's dead."

The Dunmer raised a slender finger. "Her body is dead, and has been so for many hundreds of years, but her spirit endures."

Endures. Tallis thought about that. "Does it hurt her?"

She was rewarded with a slight nod. "Indeed. Those who stay are strong of spirit." Talmsa's expression darkened a little. "Or having erred in life, they are compelled to make good their obligations. Just as when I harvested from the body of the dreugh this day."

Tallis shuddered.

"You find this distressing."

It wasn't exactly a question, but Tallis answered it anyway.

"He was alive, and then he got murdered. Like an animal, like a cow made into meat and leather."

The raise of a delicate eyebrow was Talmsa's initial response. "That is a most valid comparison, Breton. He skirmished with the might of our sailors and legion and lost. All that he was became forfeit, just as the reverse would be true were he the victor." Her tone turned musing. "After all, Our Lord Vivic himself defeated the Ruddy Man, forever earning the right to claim the hides of the Ruddy Man's children to wear as armor, to protect where once their king had sought our Lord's defeat."

Tallis opened her mouth and then closed it again. The Dunmer's tone was a lot like one of the priests of the nine. They were much better at telling things than at discussing them. If Talmsa was in a mood to tell, then now might be a good time to ask her about Morrowind.

Later that night Tallis lay in the hold. Juib snored softly to her left, and Ursine snored rather more loudly to her right. Faintly she could hear Talmsa's quiet breathing, but she couldn't sleep. Running through her head like racing beetles were bits of the things that Talmsa had told her about Morrowind. It did have its own rules, but a lot of them were scary rules. Gold Heart was right. Morrowind was a land of predators, starting with the Dunmer.

For some reason that thought made her smile.

Predators. Everything had to eat something, which meant that death was a proper part of the world. And if people had to die, it was kind of nice for Talmsa's aunt to stay and talk to her and teach her. It was weird, but Tallis was a mage. Most of what she did was weird. Finally satisfied, she settled down into the wet, but no longer cold bundle of bodies and sacks and let herself fall asleep.

In her dreams Talmsa continued to explain things. Or anyway it was a woman's voice. Tallis had the feeling it was important, but as she was realizing that she was also waking up. She heard a man's voice. Closer now.

It was Juib, and he sounded worried. "Are you well, Breton? You were shaking. I think you were dreaming." The word he used was a dunmeri one she had only recently learned, and it sort of also meant 'listening to your ancestors'. Now that she thought about it, the lady in the dream might have been speaking dunmeri, but somehow in the dream it had seemed to make more sense than dunmeri did in any of Talmsa or Juib's lessons.

Tallis stood. Her clothing felt mucky. The smell of fish was strong in the air, and the slaps of the waves against the side of the ship seemed louder than usual. "I need a bath." She said, wrinkling her nose.

Juib nodded ruefully. "You may get one sooner than you think. The officers say that some of us are to depart here."

"We are here? I mean we are in Morrowind?" Darnit she had slept through it. What would this place look like?

Juib almost smiled. "Breton." He said softly.

The clomp of heavy boots announced one of the legionnaires. "Tal-is." He stated flatly, mispronouncing her name. "Til-za." Talmsa looked serenely up, and at Tallis wondered if he was doing it on purpose. "Deen-ah."

From her left, Tallis noted a faint hiss of irritation. She hadn't even realized that the Kajiit was so close.

"This way." Without waiting for a response, the guarde turned and walked toward the ladder to the upper deck.

Tallis took a breath, and took the first few steps on tiptoe. She was finally in Morrowind. Ready to do ... she wasn't exactly sure what, but something.

As it turned out, the first thing she ended up doing was sitting in an office, waiting. An older silver-haired official looking Breton took first Talmsa and then Dahleena into his office to review their paperwork. Tallis had the impression that he had been expecting them.

She looked around the office. Dark furniture. Dark wood floors. Heavy looking doors with big metal handles. The whole place had a very solemn air to it. That and expensive. She sat in a corner, wishing that she had something else to wear, or even that she dared return to the beach and try to clean up a little. There were guards on the pier, though, so maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea.

Eventually the silver-haired man returned, and Tallis scrambled to her feet.

"Hi." She didn't know what else to say.

"Greetings." He said, beckoning her over to the desk, where he sat down. Unrolling a parchment, he took up the quill. "I am Socucius Ergalla, and I need to ask you a few questions to complete your paperwork."

Tallis thought about that. Her Emperor had sent her here. So maybe he'd sent some sort of orders telling her what he wanted her to do.

Socucius frowned down at the papework. "And you were born under a certain sign?"

"The mage." She said hesitantly. That's what the officers in the prison had told her.

"And what sort of skills do you have?" He paused, quill over the inkpot, and looked at her expectantly.

"Well, I was training at the mages guide." She began. Most non-mages didn't really have a lot of understanding of magic, so she wasn't sure how much to say.

"And do you have areas of specialty? A focus or potential membership in one of the schools?"

Tallis' eyes widened. Then she grinned. "I'm a LifeDancer."

He looked up sharply.

For a moment she thought she was going to hear yet another lecture on necromancy. It was frustrating how many people somehow thought that just because LifeDancers worked with life and death that they were somehow more likely than any other mage to be tempted by the dark arts.

Maybe it was her expression, but he didn't actually say anything, and after another moment asked. "Weapons training?"

It took him two hours to ask her all the things he wanted to know. She wished she could have said yes to more of them. Other than magical studies, she didn't really have a lot of experience or knowledge. The only weapon she knew anything about was a spear, and that was mostly because it was so easy that all the Wards had been required to learn to use it. She could swim barely enough to keep afloat in quiet water, only spoke about thirty words of Dunmeri, and knew some of the rudiments of alchemy. She knew a little about bugs, mostly because of observing them in her little garden area, but nothing really about horses or dogs.

He finished the papers and added a small seal to the bottom. He waited a bit for the wax to set and then rolled it up and handed it to her. With his other hand, he pointed to the heavy wooden doors she'd noted earlier. "Through those doors, turn right, through the first door you come to, turn right, across the courtyard and into the office. Officer Gravius will instruct you further."

The courtyard proved to be a quiet little area between buildings. A grey stone wall, only about eight feet tall, assured privacy, but unlike the ones in the Imperial city, this wasn't cut stone, it was literally made of many stones mortared together. From what she could see, the buildings were covered with some kind of plaster, and didn't stand more than two stories tall. Unlike the capitol this was no sculptured garden. Near the edges of the wall, and the base of both buildings were a yellow-green hint of moss. The only other thing of note was a barrel, positioned to catch some of runoff from the building she was to go into.

Tallis peeked into the barrel. It was dry, but there was a metallic glint at the bottom. She reached in, a bit of a struggle, and managed to catch hold of a small ring with her fingertips. As she straightened up out of the barrel, she felt the soft whisper of magic from it. She held it on her open palm. A copper ring set with a smooth green and red colored stone. Whatever enchantment it had was a very subtle one, a bare whisper of potential. She wondered what it had been doing in a rain barrel.

Then she focused on the door next to the barrel. Where Officer Gravious waited.

Officer Gravius turned out to be every inch an Imperial Legionnaire. Tall and broad-shouldered with impeccably polished armor and boots that literally shone. He took the roll of parchment and snapped it opened with a practiced hand. Apparently absorbing all of the information with a single glance, he rolled it back up with another quick snap, and tossed it onto a shelf with practiced ease and perfect aim.

"Mage Tallis." His voice had an air of command that seemed to nail her feet to the floor.

And mage. He'd called her mage, not apprentice or even Ward.

He held out a letter. "Read this." She took it in her right hand, but her gaze wouldn’t seem to focus. Mage Tallis. "Take these." He handed her a small pouch and a sealed package.

He'd really called her mage.

"Mage Tallis." He said again, this time in a more irritated tone.

She looked up, startled.

He pointed to the doorway.

Oh. Right. She walked forward. Her feet didn't feel like they were touching the floor.

Tallis stepped out of Legionnaire Gravius' office holding onto the package and the letter. She had actual official orders, and a real live Imperial Officer had addressed her as mage.

Three steps out the door she almost bumped into someone. She looked up, and only saw a chest dressed nicely in a forest green vest over a pale yellow shirt. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that his pants were almost as dark as the wood of the Census and Excise office desk. Actually looking up, she noted the delicate features and pale yellow-gold hair that said he was a Bosmer. His hair was braided just enough to keep it from falling into his eyes. She guessed he must do a lot with his hands. That kind of braiding usually meant someone who was too busy to worry about fussing with their hair.

"Oh." Tallis tried for a moment to come up with something that a sophisticated actual mage would say in this situation. Nothing came to mind. She pushed the letter into her pocket.

"Greetings, Friend." The tenor voice was effusive. "My name is Fargoth. I wonder if you might help me find a lost enchanted ring?"

Before Tallis could do more than open her mouth, the blonde Bosmer continued, spinning a tale of ill-treatment at the hands of cruel legion officers and a lost, no a likely stolen family heirloom.

As she listened, Tallis frowned thoughtfully. It seemed unlikely in the extreme the any member of the Imperial legion, much less several of them would be involved in the kind of harassment that Fargoth described. Granted, Bosmer were among the least overtly arrogant of the mer, still one Bosmer should be able to take the steam out of the average legionnaire with a glance or two.

Equally unlikely was the idea that something with such a minor enchantment would be described as an heirloom. And now that she thought about it, even someone with less curiosity than the average mage would be almost certain to look in the only container in the courtyard - the same courtyard that any new arrival to Seyda Neen would have to pass through.

Fargoth wasn't asking if she'd seen it. He was asking if she was willing to return it.

Without actually saying anything, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the ring.

When Fargoth exclaimed in joy and recognition and reached for it, she closed her fist. "So do I pass your test?"

It was his turn to pause. Then he grinned at her, and when he spoke, it was in a sotto voice half an octave lower than previously. "That is a question I rarely hear, Breton."

She opened her hand, and when he took the ring, she kept her hand out. "Tallis d'Artagnan."

His gaze flickered over her shoulder so briefly that she almost didn't catch it. Then he pumped her hand in both of his. "This is a wondrous day! We will be the best of friends!" Keeping her right hand held tightly in his left, he gestured expansively toward a building across the town square. "You must come and meet my friend Arrille! He'll be so happy to get to know you!."

Tallis glanced down at the fish-scented prison garb that she'd not had a chance to clean in days. "Only if he doesn't have a sense of smell."

Despite Fargoth's nonstop gushing, she did catch the smallest quirk of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

Along the way they passed several Legionnaires. Tallis was very familiar with the weight of their measuring gaze. She noted that while most of them made a point of noting her, in general they tended to discount Fargoth. Apparently his obsequious manner was very convincing.

They passed a Dunmer woman, who sneered, sniffed and muttered one of the few Dunmeri words that Tallis knew: outlander. She managed to make it seem like something between a moral weakness and a personal offense.

Fargoth offered her an excessively cheerful greeting. "Good morning, Telveri! It's such a wonderful day, don't you think?"

Teleri fixed him with a crimson stare. "Bad enough to have a Bosmer here, but a Breton as well?"

Tallis was kind of used to a level of low grade hostility, not only from Dunmer, but from many of the higher ranking guild members. This was a lot less subtle. "Good morning." She attempted.

"Just. Go. Away." Was the impatient reply.

Fargoth gestured in her direction in a friendly way. "Teleri is really a nice person when you get to know her, but she's very busy."

It wasn't very far to a three story building with stairs up to the second level. Tallis wondered what was in the first level. The one door that she could see didn't really look like it was much used. Still effusive, Fargoth took her by the hand, up the stairs and around to the back which was apparently the public entrance. Or at least one of them. "Arrille!" He called out cheerfully as they entered the building. "I have brought someone you will surely love to meet!"

Arrille turned out to be a very well-dressed Altmer, with golden skin and deep auburn hair braided with red dyed spider silk that matched some of the sticthing in his tunic. The mer graciously listened to Fargoth's tale of how wonderful his new friend Tallis had been to return his lost heirloom. As Fargoth embellished his tale, Tallis had a chance to look around.

Also browsing the store, or perhaps just watching to see who would enter it, was a slender Dunmer. She wore a vest and shirt similar to Fargoth's, and a nearly floor length green skirt. Her delicate ears were adorned with multiple earrings made of gold and set with some dark stone that Tallis didn't recognize.

Arrille himself stood behind a well-made counter. Behind him were a number of shelves containing everything from ceramics, to what must be sections of armor, to samples of plants and mushrooms, many bottles and something that looked like a giant egg. It was almost the size of Tallis' head. She wondered what sort of creature had laid it. The armor didn't look metallic, but it didn't look like leather either. There were a number of large baskets in the room, and chests and crates behind the counter. She suspected that he had a great deal more merchandise for sale than was initially apparent. Officer Gravius had given her some money. Maybe she could find something better to wear.

Arrille turned toward Tallis. "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance." His voice was so beautiful as to be almost musical, but it didn't succeed in distracting her from his appraising gaze.

"A pleasure to meet you," Tallis gave him a semi-bow. "Fargoth tells me that you are the premier trader in this area. Perhaps you have knowledge where I might bargain for a bath, if not a room?" She made her tone wistful.

His expression warmed slightly at her request. "Normally I do not rent rooms. However you have been so kind to my good friend, and you clearly are wearied from your travels. For a mere eight septims, and the tale of your journey, I shall provide you with a hot bath, a meal, and a room for the night." He paused delicately. "And perhaps a small bit of conversation, if you will have it."

"I would be grateful." Tallis couldn't keep the relief out of her voice.

Fargoth clapped his hands in enthusiasm. "Oh, dear friend Tallis, you will not regret this! Arrille is such a wonderful cook he could make a banquet out of a single Kwama egg."

Arrille held up a fingertip. "I appreciate the generous compliment, but you persist in confusing me with my brother-in-law in Balmorra."

Tallis asked. "Um, what is a kwama egg?"

Fargoth started to answer, but Arrille interrupted. "I'm sure she'll be much better able to concentrate on the myriad detailings of your introduction to Morrowind after a bath and a meal." Upon which Tallis was brought to a stairway in the back of the shop floor, then up past what appeared to be a bar of sorts. Arrille unlocked the single door in the corner of the bar, which opened into a small room.

The room was dimly lit by light that filtered through closed shutters. There was a single bed with a small table near it. There was a tapestry centered on each wall; all were black and red abstract looking designs that Tallis didn't recognize. Maybe they were some sort of script. A small wardrobe stood to one side, and right in front of Tallis was a very large empty bath almost large enough to hold Gold Heart. Next to it was a high backed chair.

Arrille said quietly. "Enter in peace and be welcome."

As Tallis stepped inside, she felt the faintest tingle of a ward. It didn't seem to have any lasting effect, so whatever it was protecting against, she wasn't one of them.

"I'll just get a bath ready for you." With gesture a few subtle words, Arrille called clear water into the bath, and then running his hands across the surface, called heat into it so that Tallis could see steam rising. When he turned back to her, he chuckled at her expression. "I take it this isn't quite the way you did things in the capitol?"

She shook her head. "I've never seen magic used like this," She considered. "Come to think of it, I don't really know why not."

Arrille nodded, as if to himself. "It seems to me," He moved to the wardrobe, and pulled out a towel and a fluffy looking robe. "Oftentimes men who learn magic are more concerned with powerful applications, whereas mer are more concerned with beauty and subtlety."

Tallis sighed, thinking of Borrisean's emphasis on what was practical. "Well, I suspect most mer have more time to refine their art." After all, the lifespan of a man was measured in decades, that of a mer in centuries. That was bound to have an effect.

Arrille looked directly at her.

She realized that up till now, he hadn't. She also realized why. Having received his full and direct attention, she would never mistake him for the flighty shopkeeper and gossip he'd been masquerading as. It wasn't as thorough a disguise as Fargoths, but there was no mistaking the added depth that was present once she was on the receiving end of his regard.

A flicker of his expression said that he knew what she'd seen. Bringing the towels and robe over to the chair near the bath, it was as if parts of him were sort of folded away, and she could see less of his humor, less of his age, his calm. He said. "You would be a LifeDancer, then."

She nodded. "I am." How he could tell from just looking at her, she wasn't sure, but mer could do things that men couldn't. Maybe this was one of them.

He turned slightly away from her, one hand held out. "If you will hand me your clothing before you slip into the bath, I will clean them for you."

She did so, sinking gratefully into the slightly steaming water. It felt wonderful. Her eyes started to close. Distantly she heard a chuckle. "This is why I stayed, young mage. I'd hate to have someone drown in my bath."

She meant to answer that, to tell him that she wasn't really that sleepy. As she tried to work out what she wanted to say, and struggled to keep her eyes open, she was sort of aware of someone running a sudsy cloth over much of her skin. It felt nice, but really she could do that sort of thing herself. The soap smelled like flowers.

She woke, wrapped in something soft, lying on something soft. She looked up. She was lying on the bed in Arrille's back room. He must have put her there, since she didn't really remember anything past the start of the bath.

The auburn haired altmer was sitting in the chair which he'd moved next to the bed. He was looking down at her. The room was lit only by candle light and moonlight. She must have slept a good few hours.

"Now, young mage. Tell me of your journey, and I shall tell you some things you need to know."

Well, Tallis had already agreed to tell the tale of her journey as part of the cost of the room. So rather than start with her journey, she told something of her studies, and of the summons to the Captain Montrose. She left out the tale of her meeting the emperor. Partly because it really wouldn't seem believable, and partly because it was just too special to talk about.

Finally, she asked. "Why did you say you thought I was a LifeDancer?"

Arrille nodded. "Exactly what I needed to speak with you regarding. I've encountered many young mages trained by the empire's schools, and I've found that each school has a weak spot. Yours, young one, is using your mage-sight too much. It's a common failing. Granted, in a purely scholarly setting, it can be an advantage. Here in Morrowind, it's something to use only carefully."

"Mage-sight?"

"That's what mer tend to call it. Of the Empire-trained, it comes most easily to LifeDancers and Seekers. A way of attuning yourself to the flow of the world, and seeing things more deeply than most. I wouldn't call it a spell, or at least not the version that you were doing. However it does tire a person, all the more so if they are unaware of how much they do it." He paused, considering his words. "It also carries dangers."

"Like exhaustion?"

"No, that's more of a cost. The danger is," He tapped his fingers to his chin. "What is the most difficult thing you have ever seen?"

That was easy. "The sailors. They pulled up someone strange in their nets. Not a person like a man or mer, but it was still a person." She thought back to Juib's comment. "Dreugh. It was a Dreugh, and he was just trying to breathe and they just killed him." She shuddered. The memory was still fresh, too fresh in her mind.

A touch of Arrille's hand on her shoulder brought her back to the present. "This is what I mean." He said. "The lovely things you see this way will stay with you, but so will the horrors. And just as something truly joyful can nourish your spirit, so something truly vile can damage it." He held her gaze for a moment. "If you look too closely at the wrong thing, young Breton, you may never recover."

It was on the tip of her tongue to say something about he had to be joking, but the sorrow in his regard held no humor.

So she let out a long sigh.

They were quiet then, Breton and mer. The room was silent. Tallis glanced up at the windows, which shouldn't be able to block sound that completely. She thought of the tingle of magic she'd walked through that said this room was warded. Then she looked back up at Arrille.

"I asked Fargoth if I passed his test." She said quietly. "His answer was to introduce me to you, and the first thing you did was bring me to a room so well warded that I can't even hear the sounds of the waves."

Arrille just sat, watching her and waiting.

"Regardless of style, you are a more experienced mage than I am. The both of you are probably much older than I am, and even with that, and even with the way that LifeDancers usually outlive other mages, you and Fargoth will both outlive me. Yet you treat me kindly and answer my questions. So I ask again, did I pass his test? Or maybe a better question is what do you want of me?"

"Have you heard the phrase 'honor among thieves'?"

"I have heard of it." Tallis answered doubtfully.

"Or the name Lia Kvar?"

Tallis shook her head.

"It's an Orsimer term. The closest I could render it in Breton would be 'to re-balance the wounded', more practically speaking it is the name of a guild that in Imperial would be rendered the thieves guide."

"If this is an offer to join, and I say no, do you kill me?"

"I'd certainly prefer not to."

"That's not very reassuring."

Arrille stood, and paced over to a window, and stood, looking out into the night with his hands clasped behind his back. "You are perceptive, Breton. Usually it would be Fargoth who had this discussion. He is much better at this sort of thing than I." The mer sighed. "However, as he is not here, and I am, I will do my best." He returned to the seat by the bed she lay in.

"The Lia Kvar is several things. It is a professional guild like any other, though the skills we study and hone are a bit unorthodox. We are also family to one another."

Tallis raised a quizzical eyebrow at the idea of a mer considering any man family. Or for that matter a Kajiit or an Argonian.

Arrille nodded his appreciation of her point. "Granted, that part can take some time for some of us." He continued. "We also enforce certain rules. It is one thing, and some would consider it almost a sport, to take from those who have much. We do not take from those who have little. And we correct the mistakes of any that do so."

"Hence the name."

"Hence the name." Arrille agreed. "And we also smuggle, which is to say that we divert items from the technically lawful trade of the country we happen to be operating in. Among other things, here in Morrowind, this makes us abolitionists of a sort."

"But," Tallis sat up in the bed. Abolitionists meant slavery. Which she had heard about, she'd studied Morrowind, the newest province briefly and she recalled that it was the one place in the Empire that slavery was technically legal. She just hadn't really thought about it. "Oh."

"Fargoth thinks you have intelligence and potential, but more than that he thinks that you could be depended on in a pinch to help those you would consider family. Those are generally his criteria." Arrille concluded.

"That's a very kind assessment." Tallis settled down in the bed again.

"Now sleep, Breton. He'll be here in the morning to share a breakfast with you and speak on the matter further."

There may have been a touch of magical encouragement in the Altmer's words. Tallis didn't even recall closing her eyes.