Chapter 628 - The Bloody Wedding (4)

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[Soft Warning: big chapter... and you might wanna brace yourself for this one.]

The day was as good as any in terms of weather but it was extraordinarily bright when it came to Jon's mindset at the moment. After all, he received some good news this morning.

Truthfully, he was looking forward to this quest for ages but he failed to get leads on how to initiate it or how to find its location. When it came to the game and real life, there was a massive difference especially in terrain so unless the place is a known landmark, there's no way he would find a cave hidden in some mountain unless he does some rigorous excavating and brings a team with him.

So he waited for the opportunity and here it was.

But that's not the time for it anyway, he has to wait for his cake in order to eat it properly. Right now, however, is the time for Vittoria's Wedding, an event that he can't miss for the world.

Also, he was acting so openly with a wide smile on his face.

Many believed in the rumor regarding Jon Dare and Vittoria Vici, so those many were anticipating the look on his face now that his girlfriend is being taken away, the thing that made his smile seem more unsettling. Either way, Jon is an oddball so there's no way of knowing what goes in under his red hair.

But that day was a day of celebration, this doesn't mean that people will celebrate as much as they seek opportunity and try to reap as many benefits as they can. That was especially true for the Imperial Guests who would flock around their Nord counterparts in the various fields in order to exchange knowledge and connections.

Still, Jon secluded himself and rudely took a seat between Solitude's secret lovers, the steward Falk Firebeard and Thane Bryling. The two exchanged awkward looks as Jon remained seated chewing on some fruits.

During this, a woman passed and stood in front of Jon looking extensively at his face. Jon met eye to eye with her but neither of them was taking any initiative first until she decided to talk.

"He didn't have to die, you know!" The woman said.

Jon didn't move his eyes off her nor did he stop chewing, the only instance he did was when he wanted to grab another apple from the table in front of him.

Falk Firebeard stood up and cleared his throat before trying to introduce the woman unpleasantly.

"This girl here is the sister of the late Thane E…" Falk said but Jon interrupted.

"Gisli." Jon said the woman's name, "I know who she is."

Of course, Gisli is a character from the game and the family of one of Jon's most annoying enemies, Thane Erikur.

"I know that your people took him, I know you may have him alive till now…" Gisli seemed to be trying to say something but Jon interrupted her speech.

"He isn't." He said.

The phrase was so direct that it only meant that Jon Dare had Thane Erikur executed at some time. While Thane Erikur's actions were later criminalized, his fall into the hands of the people of Winterhold three years ago was his final downfall.

He just admitted that he killed a man before even putting him to trial. A man who was one of the top political movers in Skyrim.

"How?" Gisli asked as her eyes became filled with tears, "How?!"

"Ask my wife. She's the one who had to deal with him." Jon replied with zero chills as he started peeling another fruit.

Of course he knows how Erikur's life ended. Alina was sadistic enough to almost have that man skinned alive but she later put him to Jullanar's mercy that wasn't any better than her. He lasted as much as a month just because the two of them were trying to make him live for as much as possible. And they even gave him a name called Gecko.

That's the part of the story he would never tell since he wasn't even interested in the fate of an enemy that had no honor.

Falk Firebeard finally had Gisli escorted away as she was too devastated to be left alone. On the other hand, he couldn't help but feel both angry and fearful towards Jon. Whatever happened to Erikur, it surely happened during the life of High King Torygg, a clear disrespect to kill someone's Thane outside their jurisdiction.

But those who know what Erikur had done had no way of speaking their complaints regarding that matter in front of Jon, the one who was hurt the most by Erikur's actions.

"The Bride and the Groom have arrived!" A bard announced and that's when the wedding's main characters came in.

All the attendants stood on the way in the castle's temple as the music was played smoothly announcing the start of the ceremony. Vittoria Vici walked down from a carriage as Asgeir Snow-Shod met her down and offered his arm for her to lean on.

She was wearing a white dress covered from the outside by a long red garment and wore a circlet of flowers over her head.

The look on his face wasn't that of a man who is getting married and the look on hers was cheerful and full of smiles. The situation seemed perplexing to those who stood near to them but what made it even stranger is the look on the faces of the family members of the Groom and the Bride.

Vittoria's mother, Countess Alexia Vici, was frowning at every living soul since she didn't like this marriage from the start. It was Count Vici that pushed the affair onto their daughter and ironically he didn't bother to attend which made the countess very upset.

The Snow-Shod clan, on the other hand, were quite opposite to their son Asgeir. It wasn't that they were pleased but rather they realized the importance of this marriage and how much it can benefit them to have the Emperor's Daughter as part of their clan.

This can ultimately end the bloodshed while it would leave Skyrim forever divided into the Eastern Old Holds of the Stormcloaks and the Western New Holds of the Empire. Either way, it would benefit them greatly either way it goes.

There was a lack of attendance when it came to the Stormcloak envoys since they didn't want to walk into the stronghold of their enemy just to dine and celebrate while their brethren are sharpening their axes on the battlefield.

Jon scanned the crowd carefully looking for any suspicious faces which led him to notice Maven Black-Briar who seemed to be hiding behind a score of Imperial Soldiers. He also noticed some movement on the roof of the castle and many watching eyes here and there.

In the end, he chose to sit back and relax as the bride and groom were seated to receive the blessings of the Divines before the actual ceremony. He even displayed a lot of friendliness as he gathered many people around him and started telling them stories of his travels and adventures.

There was a lot of wealth spent on this wedding and many people wanted to benefit from it, some more than the others and some over the others' interests. Those who stood at the top of this list were the Black-Briar clan for sure but those who stood a step higher were none other than them.

Jon noticed them for sure as his Alarm spell started ticking in his head. They were moving at last.

One at the eastern entrance of the Temple, two at the western entrance, three on the roof, one in the middle of the guests.

That last one… it was her… Serana.

Jon looked towards Vittoria who took a minute before noticing his gaze towards her and realizing that the plan was in motion. Her smile finally died down and she became somewhat nervous.

"I'll go ahead with the speech now." Vittoria stood up and announced to her maids.

"Why so soon?" Asgeir Snow-Shod, who was sitting just beside her, asked with a sour look on his face.

He was sure that his soon-to-be wife wanted to skip pleasantries to the actual ceremony and call it a day.

Vittoria also didn't give him any heed and walked to the stairway leading up to the ceremonial balcony of the Temple and emerged from there.

The guards moved to organize her security and the attendants moved to get a good angle to witness the bride's speech. It was a tradition that the host of the wedding should thank the attendants of an event for their gifts, but it wasn't Asgeir who would do it but rather Vittoria which is odd.

Still, this is an Imperial Castle and she is the Emperor's cousin, many complications were involved here.

"Dear Guests from far away lands, Dear People of Solitude, Dear neighbors, brothers, and sisters."

Vittoria greeted the crowd and steeled her nerves before continuing.

"I just wanted to take this time to thank you all for being here. To thank you for sharing this wonderfully happy day with myself, and my new husband. Are you all enjoying yourselves? Please, eat, drink, and make merry on this most happy of days. My husband and I thank you for coming to our reception. We thank you for sharing the love we have for each other." She said and turned to Asgeir who paused a second before smiling enough not to cause a scene.

Finally, she moved to the last words.

"May you all be as happy in your lives as… as I know I will be in mine. Thank you… again for…"

*Swoosh*

And in the next second, an arrow was seen resting in Vittoria's chest, and around where it struck, the white dress was being painted red mixing up with the outer garment she's wearing.

Vittoria looked at the arrow as her vision became dizzy then she raised her hands up but suddenly lost all the strength in her body and fell down from the balcony.

"NOOOOO!"

A strong scream of anger and sadness echoed in the sky as the crowd descended into madness.

"Assassins! Run!"

"They're everywhere!"

"The Bride has been killed!"

"Save yourselves!"

There was no longer a solution out of this madness and every man was to themselves except for a single man who stood over Vittoria's body with dark expressions.

"I'll kill you! I'LL KILL YOU, YOU BASTARDS! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

Jon Dare's voice shook the heaven as a greatsword emerged in his right hand. Right away, he turned around and threw the heavy weapon towards an assassin that was blending in the crowd.

The assassin was immediately impaled by the blade and carried by the force of its throw to the castle wall before getting pinned against it.

Jon didn't stop there, he pulled the blade back with Telekinesis and launched it towards another assassin splitting the man in half as the blade was rammed into the other wall. He then pulled the greatsword again with Telekinesis and started hurling it at all the assassins in sight.

"Shit! Escape! Now!" One of the assassins, an Argonian known as Veezara, pulled the one who shot the arrow from her shoulder and lowered their heads down.

"That man!" The one who shot the arrow, Serana, decided to go down and initiate the escape.

"Jon Dare." Veezara replied, "Believe it or not, we tried to assassinate him once in this same cursed city. Didn't go well! This time, he's much stronger and we will be caught if we face him."

It seemed that Veezara was unwilling to even think about the idea of facing Jon Dare. Serana knew that Jon Dare is the mastermind of this whole scene but to witness first hand how he manipulates both his enemies and his allies to serve his agendas. In a way, she was impressed, in another, she was terrified.

She decided to retreat and waited for Veezara to initiate the signals.

"Now!" He waved his hands to more assassins who were hiding around the roofs and a hail of arrows descended towards all the guests in the hall.

"Shit." Inside the hall, Jon saw the arrows coming down and filled his lungs with air, "FUS RO DAH!"

The shout broke everything up in the sky and all the arrows that were meant to make a massacre of the guests were scattered to nothing. However, that was not the purpose of these arrows as the actual purpose was to delay Jon Dare long enough in order to escape.

Indeed they managed to escape as both Veezara and Serana had already climbed the ropes and reached the roof. Veezara then wanted to give more orders to the assassins he put on the roof yet suddenly, a terrible situation happened.

Those who were stationed on the roofs were all thugs, mercenaries, and anti-Imperial rebels that got hired by the Brotherhood to cause scenes and act as lackeys. It was expected from them to be nothing special in front of a powerhouse assassin but that wasn't even good enough to describe what was going on.

A figure in black appeared on the roof of the castle and like the Wrath of the Aedra and the Daedra, the figure worked their blade into those lackeys as if they were mere blades of grass. That figure had an average build but a natural feminine body that was blessed with a lot of agileness and swiftness. Once that figure stopped, all the ones who stood in its way were laying on the ground bleeding.

The woman was standing on the other side of the roof with the hall in between the two parties. She noticed the two individuals who stood up there and did two things. The first, she pushed a piece of the wall with her leg to fall down on the ceremonial balcony and squish down the groom, Asgeir Snow-Shod. The second, she walked to Veezara and Serana and took her mask down.

Seeing the face was one thing, reacting to it was another. Both Veezara and Serana were quite familiar with that face which left an unforgivable impact on them.

"Look who's here! Not who I expected to see… nope, that's a lie… I expected to see one of you. The other is completely unexpected… Hey anyway!" The woman said.

"You!" "Mabia!"

Both Serana and Veezara reacted at the same time before realizing that the other knows this person they are up against.

"Mabia?" Serana asked.

"Oh! That's the name of a girl who died long long ago." The woman replied.

"You look pretty much alive to me." Veezara spoke hatefully, "We knew that you were alive all that time. Don't think that we just didn't realize that."

"Still, I am dead to you all, isn't it? Shouldn't it be kept that way? Or do you wish for the decline of your little band of killers to be courted so soon?" The woman replied with an insane smile.

"She's one of us?" Serana asked.

"Was." Veezara replied as he readied himself for a fight, "She's bad news now."

"As I said, the girl named Mabia died under this castle a long time ago. I met a God and he resurrected me. Now I live in his worship. Isn't he just amazing?" The woman said, "I go by Jullanar now. My God is right over there."

Jullanar was obviously referring to Jon who was waving the greatsword around with Telekinesis and making a scene as he slaughtered all the assassins down there.

Jon was indeed displaying a great effort in discovering the assassins hiding around, moving the blade, killing them, and protecting the crowd all at the same time. He even conjured 6 Frost Atronach to lift up the castle gates for the crowd to flee through.

But in the end, it was all too obvious and not obvious at the same time. It was all just a display after all. Making a sword fly around and kill some assassins with it, it may look impressive but Jon could have just subdued all those assassins in a few seconds rather than acting like that. He could have escorted the attendants to the safety of the temple rather than setting them loose in the city.

A great plan was happening, a plan within a plan.

"Either way, I think this all for now." Jullanar said as she smiled back at Veezara and Serana.

"So, we're fighting Jon Dare's famous dog, Jullanar the Mad." Veezara raised his twin daggers as he said so.

"Well, Jon only told me to get rid of all the pests on the roof until my target starts moving." Jullanar shrugged her shoulders.

"Then we shall…" Veezara was about to initiate his attack but Serana suddenly held his shoulder and jumped with him off the roof.

"What are you doing?" Veezara asked.

"Don't you see?" Serana said as she landed with Veezara on the roof of a different building, "We are not her targets."

The two of them looked at the smiling Jullanar as she snorted and looked the other way before disappearing off the castle's roof herself.

They may have survived Serana but which poor fool was about to meet their end on her blade?

***

Back in the castle, Jon finished off all the assassins and rushed towards Vittoria's body. There was much preparation that needed to be done in this tight window of time before the place gets flooded with Imperial Soldiers and curious nobles.

Looking around, many corpses were littering the ground, from Assassins to Soldiers to unfortunate Guests, Jon made sure that the important people rush to the streets where they should take care of themselves.

The guards and the legion will have a tough time calming the crowd especially since Jon made them all run through a single way out. The priests, the nobles, the Jarls, and the guests all together are now running in the streets and seeking help.

It is time to see things through and Jullanar should have made her move.

Her first target was obviously Asgeir Snow-Shod. The second target…

"Secure the place! Hunt down the assassins! Tell the guards captain to make sure of everyone's safety…" Legate Rikke of the Imperial Legion stormed the Temple ground and paused at the sight of the great massacre.

She then saw Jon sitting in front of the body of Vittoria Vici.

"Lord Jon… Lady Vittoria… is she…" Rikke asked.

"She's with Kyne." Jon replied in a heavy tone.

"… This is… Heavens be with us! That's the Emperor's cousin." Rikke said as she felt the scale of the crisis they are in.

"Inform your general to prepare an Imperial Funeral. I am going to hunt down the rest of the assassins myself." Jon stood up as he recalled the greatsword he was waving just a moment ago.

"Lord Jon, you need to coordinate with us. We need prisoners to interrogate." Rikke shouted at him.

"I left many of them alive. Do your job, Legate." Jon said and walked out of the castle fuming with all the rage in the world.

In a far away location, many of the wedding's important guests were rushing through the streets with their bodyguards. They were mostly escorted by their Thanes and Bodyguards away from the open streets through the alleys and the hidden routes.

The most important of those guests was none other than the Jarl of Solitude, Elisif the Fair.

She ran and ran but all she had was some guards. She couldn't even get in touch with Falk Firebeard or Bryling. Even Bolgeir Bearclaw, her Housecarl, was caught in fighting some assailants.

This was just way too sudden, way too terrifying… it felt as if everything was turning into chaos all of a sudden.

Jon Dare saved her life in the castle, the guards saved her life outside, some assassins were trying to attack from all the locations, and many rebel groups and anti-Imperial used the situation for sure but this was moving to a dangerous point.

When the guards raised their shields above their heads in order to cover her from any archer on the roof, Elisif could see something in the distance.

*Spark* *Spark* *Slash* *Swoosh*

A blade of a strange shape rushed towards the guards taking in weird angles and curving and bouncing off the walls.

Elisif immediately lowered her head and the guards who tried to block the blade got their arms sliced off. Not only one blade but a stream of them followed and every guard who stood in their way was completely shredded.

Elisif watched the blades as the blood-splattered and covered her dress and face. She saw the blades fall on the ground then suddenly stand up and roll back like wheels on the ground. Finally, these circular blades joined together and became one before rolling over to someone's feet.

"Good day to you, Jarl Lady." The owner of the circular blades walked to Elisif with a cold sadistic smile.

"No! You! Why?" Elisif couldn't believe who the owner of the blades was as she tried to run away as fast as she could.

Jullanar put her compact chakram on her side and picked a sword from the ground before throwing it into Elisif's back to come out of her chest.

Elisif could barely stand as she held the blade coming off her chest. She looked at it with bitter eyes and fell on her knees before collapsing on her face with cold motionless eyes.

"Sorry, I really liked you but nothing personal, Jarl Lady." Jullanar giggled as she said so.

The circlet of the Jarl she used to wear rolled off her head then fell on the ground.

On this day, three important figures died.

The Groom, Asgeir Snow-Shod, heir to the Snow-Shod clan and a major contributor to the wealth of the Black-Briars.

The Bride, Vittoria Vici, overseer of the EEC branch in Skyrim, daughter of Count Vici, and cousin of the Emperor.

The Jarl of Solitude, Elisif the Fair, widow of High King Torygg, and the puppet of the Empire.

Chaos is just the start of what is going to happen afterward.

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