I felt as much as heard the two bodies slamming into each other as Ash's bellow of rage rang over the camp. I blinked hard to get my sight to clear and when I did, I saw Ash pounding on an Altmer dressed in black robes. They were both shimmering through a ward spell, so it was hard to get a really good look at them.
I saw the Imperial Commander standing on the other side of the shield and yelling something. When I was close enough, I winced at the damage that Ash was doing to the Elf's face. I put my hand out to feel the ward, without touching it, it was not Ash's ward.
As I readied a spell in my hand two other High Elf's drew their bows and pointed them at me, only to drop them quickly as half the camp trained their bows on the two of them. I sighed, this would not be fun.
"Ash.. Stop! Drop the Shield wizard!" neither man listened to me, but then again, I had not really expected them to. "Wizard, drop the shield or I will pull it down the hard way." I could see he was almost in-coherent and gathered the energies needed for the spell that I was about to do.
I grabbed the magical energy that was sustaining the shield and ripped it away, this caused more pain to the caster than it should have, but that is the nature of some spells. I walked over and put my hand on Ash's shoulder.
"Stop Ash, you're killing him." He pulled his arm back one more time and hit the man, whose eyes rolled back in his head... I had never actually seen that before.
I grabbed Ash's hand and looked at the knuckles and tisked at him. "You're not going to be able to draw a bow or handle your sword without extreme pain. I then caste a simple healing spell that closed the torn skin, reduced the swelling, but didn't take away all the pain. I then knelt next to the Altmer and did the same thing.
Ash looked to protest, but I quelled that with a look. I healed most of the damage done but again left most of the pain. By then the Imperial Commander had walked over and started to apologize that I had been attacked in his camp. I told him that I did not consider it his fault and had just accepted an invitation to dinner when the Altmer came to.
"Commander, I want that man arrested! He has attacked a member of the Thalmor Embassy." His voice was as arrogant as most of the Thalmor and grated on my nerves.
I turned and looked at the man, his two guards flanking him, but the entire Imperial camp was behind them. I took a deep breath and collected the serenity that I needed badly at that moment.
"You sir have attacked a High Priestess of Akatosh! If we are going to talk about arrests, then I would also like to voice my opinion on the matter. As it is I will be lodging a complaint with the Embassy in Solitude and will be forwarding that complaint to the Arch-prelate of our order.. You do know the Arch-prelate do you not?"
I didn't need to go on, it was very clear that he did know and so did his guards. His face lost all color and he clamped his mouth shut and turned on his heel. The commander looked after the man and then raised an eyebrow at me in inquiry.
"The Arch-prelate is related to the High Thalmor Justicular, favorite younger cousin or something. Even though they have differing opinions. I am sorry to bring this trouble to your camp. "
"Lady, you have been nothing but kind, healing both my soldiers and our prisoners. Unfortunately, you probably made an enemy today." I nodded at him, I figured so.
"Tsuri, why? He was focused on me, now it's you he will focus his hatred on." His voice was deep and gravely which for him meant he was holding on to his emotions, hard.
"Ash, you are my Knight Protector.. with his anger focused on me, you can watch my back, same as always. Whereas if his anger was focused on you, you would have to watch two fronts, mine and yours." Both Ash and the commander nodded, though Ash did not look happy.
"Commander if you prefer we will head out to Dawnstar, I think that we can make it before full dark. Only the one soldier with the gut wound needs any further tending and that not much really, the rest just need, rest."
"Lady, My soldiers and I would be more than happy to have you stay the night. But tactically I think you should head out, that way they don't know exactly where you are and can't set a trap, it will occur to him, but not right away." I nodded and we decided that is what we would do, though we did eat a nice hot lunch before we left.
We made it to Dawnstar by twilight, but the Inn was almost full and Ash and I had to share a bed and room, it wasn't the first time and I knew it wouldn't be the last.
It took us two more days to get to Winterhold, they were mostly uneventful. I got in some good practice with calm spells. The only thing of note was that we found a burning circle with a body in the center, a book, and a scroll the only clues were that the mage wasn't fully taught and was over her head.
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