A/N: Every 5000 votes, there will be an extra chapter!
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Night fell at the coastline of Winterhold, the chilly breeze of the Sea of Ghosts made it impossible for people to survive the damnable cold weather without the company of Fire and the cover of furs… most people not all people though, Nords can chug on a bottle of mead and walk around with one layer of clothing as if it is the mid of Sun's Height (July).
That night, a band of High Elves camped near the coastline under the cover of rocks and made a camp to warm themselves, among them at the most central area was a High Elven officer named Orenya, she was the leading officer of this camp and with orders to gather information about the new Nordic force rising in Winterhold.
Orenya always had a bad feeling about this quest, the higher ups sent a very mediocre force under her lead to investigate the new threat in the east with no real backup whatsoever, she only had her partner Elanar who had infiltrated into Winterhold three nights ago.
The mission went like this, each one of them would go into Winterhold for a week and act as one of the refugees coming from Winterhold, with her talent, Orenya performed very well in the first weak and gathered a lot of valuable information about the Thane of Winterhold and his group. There was an imperial contact waiting for her in Winterhold and provided her with all the information that happened in the meeting between Winterhold's top brass, the Empire's envoy and the Stormcloak Faction. The information she got her hands are really valuable and enough guarantee her enough merits for a promotion in the ranks.
The problem was her partner Elanar, he was as arrogant mer and the source of her headache, he would always go and brag endlessly about himself in every occasion, Orenya always wondered why would their direct superior, Justiciar Lenwe, would always tag them up together in a team. She is twice as talented and hard working that this Elanar.
Still, orders are orders, in order to root out any real threat in Skyrim, Orenya had to swallow the bitter pill and do her job. Speaking of, her report was still halfway through done and she was a bit worried about some certain events. An Altmeri Master Alchemist appeared in Winterhold, that mer was known for his radical beliefs about the Man-Mer relationship as he lived in one of the most damnable cities of men, Windhelm, the city that witnessed a lot of abuse against Mer in its past and present, and also this mer has taken an apprentice from the Men which meant he was passing knowledge that should have put into the benefit of his race. Such an individual is an assassination target to the Thalmor but him being in Windhelm kept him away from harm as Eastern Skyrim was not that welcoming to High Elves, it was easy to send some assassins but it was not worth it till now.
With the rising force in Winterhold that is seen as a threat, something had to be done but any stupid action right now would alert those people, Agent Orenya discovered some people who were very alert to her movement and spotted her more than one time, if not for the Imperial contact she had, it would have been impossible to move easily.
Another piece of news in her report was the individual power of the Thane of Winterhold as well as his close circle, no one had any solid information but the man was treated like a hero in the eyes of the people, it was said that he could turn the tide of any battle and like his surname, he was very daring in his actions, qualities that would prove that he is going to be a true headache if left alone. Other than that, the force of Winterhold was diverse and highly trained, there was always a training going on in the Mercenary Camp of the Dare Dragon Mercenaries and their ships were always moving in the sea, rumors were that the ships were always engaging with pirates for the sake of training, this meant that the troops of Winterhold have tested their metal in battle and tasted blood a few times, this is enough to give them the needed experience for any bloody conflict yet to come.
The problem here was that the Thane of Winterhold was very cautious in politics despite him being a Nord, he refused to take part in the religious conflict between Eastern Skyrim and the Empire and came up with the Old Pantheon as an excuse, the Temple of Kyne was a dangerous entity that the Thalmor didn't see coming. All the gods of the humans are equally dangerous, worshipping Kyne is also the same as worshipping the demon Doom Drum (Lorkhan) whom the Nords call Shor, whether it is Talos or Shor, worshipping these gods needs to be stopped as soon as possible for the sake of fulfilling the ultimate goal of the Thalmor.
Agent Orenya ended her report with these warnings to her superiors and requested a swift eradication for the new force in Winterhold.
As soon as she ended the report and sealed it, she went out of her tent while cursing the damnable cold of this freezing wasteland, she looked to the east and begged her partner Elanar to be here as soon as possible, she actually left nothing for him to investigate as she was hoping to horde all the credit for herself.
What worried her actually was that Elanar would go desperate and try something reckless like going into one of the red zones, these zones are places that got marked as dangerous to infiltrate because of the heavy security on them such as the new alchemy shop and the Dare Dragon Headquarters and Barracks. Orenya tried to infiltrate one of those places but she found that there was a presence that was about to obliterate her if she stepped further into the place.
This is how sensitive to Magic High Elves are even though she still didn't awaken her 'Highborn' power, the awakened power would allow High Elves to have more Magicka and a very high speed Magicka Regeneration, all Thalmor Executioners are awakened individuals with a power that are considered something with a tactical and strategic value, actually, an officer like her was under one of those extraordinary Elves, his name was Justiciar Lenwe and he was nearby with some of his trusted officers as he refused to stay in this camp for some reason.
Orenya sat beside a fire and waited for the return of Elanar to get this mission over with. She was surrounded by some soldiers from the Dominion that weren't really anything impressive at all compared to the Thalmor Soldiers, one must note that the Thalmor are the ruling faction of the Aldmeri Dominion so any Dominion Soldier was much lower in rank compared to an Elite Thalmor Soldier.
Hours passed and Orenya's head started to feel heavy, she checked her surroundings one last time and made sure that all the Soldiers were sober before going to her tent.
At that moment, she heard the sound of something tearing through the air, she looked behind her and conjured a shield to get ready to whatever that was, to her shock, tens of arrows mowed down on their small camp and started reaping the lives of the soldiers around her.
"Battle Stations!" She shouted at the top of her voice and the camp became the lively in a second, elite soldiers or not, high elves are not the foe to be made light of, their reaction was fast and accurate, every one of them was at least a seasoned soldier with seventy years of experience under their belt.
Compared to Nords who would be middle aged people at that time, High Elves are not to be looked down upon… well, in most cases.
The sound of arrows breaking through the air was heard once again faster than expected and another spray of projectiles started killing the soldiers around Orenya.
"What are these? Bolts? Crossbows? That fast? Dammit, take cover!"
"Take a hard Cover!"
Shields and armors were no longer an option, the enemy was using fast crossbows that were unheard off, the power was much higher than the usual and the firing rate was scary.
Orenya realized that they are under the attack of a new weapon.
In truth, these were the Lever Action Crossbows. Jon kept their existence a low profile matter as he didn't even hide them, he just gave some of the guards normal bows and other crossbows to make it look like not a big deal. In truth, these crossbows were a very scary weapon that only the trusted teams would carry around.
Wulfur marked his enemies and devised a formation with the help of Njord, Brenda and Bjorna.
"Advance!"
With his order, the Dare Dragon troops started to advance in the snow under the cover of the shooters, with shields above their heads and a few shooters in the ranks, the troops used a mix of urban assault techniques and normal ones, with some mages in the ranks, they could corner the High Elves and break into their camp.
This was the battle of the big forces. However, in the shadows, many eyes were watching how this situation was unfolding to be, Jon hid himself and started giving orders and sending individuals for the true fight that is yet to come.