The Dragonborn mounted the horse as he thought to himself, “I’ve spent too much time here at this location already. The ghosts of those moments, those decisions, and those words still live vividly inside of me. Let’s head in towards Bruma and find out what’s really going on.” He turned the horse down the trail towards the final post before entering Cyrodiil and its open roads beyond.
As he approached the post, he noticed the two new imperial guards posted at the gate, there was one up above them pacing back and forth on the walkway that all of these posts and gates had built on top of them and then he could see another guard higher up and to the left in a watchtower. He stopped at a collection of empty wagons, crates, and barrels thinking to himself, “Why are these here, I see no signs of misdeeds as both Sethri and Stultus had hinted at but maybe the evidence laid beyond the gate.”
He turned the horse and slowly finished his way to the gate. One of the guards at the border post came forward and said, “Halt! The borders are closed, what business do you have here?” The Dragonborn replied, “I am here to visit Bruma on official business. I have a pass.” The guard said, “Let me see.” The guard took the pass the Dragonborn handed to him. After reading it he said, “Okay, all seems in order. But I should warn you to keep your weapons sheathed, any acts of violence will be met with the full force of the law.” The guard paused then continued, “You may of course defend yourself if you are attacked, but those are the rules and laws.” He then turned to the other guard and said to him, “Open the gates.”
The gates were opened and the guards stood back at their post watching him as he passed through the doorway and into the greater province of Cyrodiil.
As he entered he saw a captain sitting upon a horse, behind him were some of the new Imperial guard near a mass of dead men, women, and children. They laid there in the snow which was stained with the blood of these innocent people. He slowly rode his horse over to the mass of bodies and sat there on it with tears dripping down his cheeks then dropping down into the blood stained snow.
The Imperial guard were getting nervous and the captain could be heard saying, “Move along quickly, there’s nothing here that concerns you.” Another of the guards said to the Dragonborn, “I’m warning you. Back off!” There was a pause as the other guards drew their weapons and began to surround him. The same guard again said, “That’s close enough.” It was then that the place exploded into action and one of the other guards cried out, “You never should have come here, you were warned!”
They all rushed the Dragonborn but he was prepared and dug his heals into the horse forcing it to leap forward over the dead and then had it running full up to the top of the rise. It was here he stopped the horse, dismounted, drew out Azura’s Bane whose runes were reacting with frightful intensity to his emotions.
The Dragonborn came upon them like an angel of death. He spoke the words of the unrelenting force, “Fus, Ro, Daah!” – “Force, Balance, and Push” which staggered the guard and too late they realized that the sins of their past had caught up to them and the justice of the divines were upon them. They burst into bright flames as the Dragonborn swung the two-handed bane with the force born by the blood of the dragons flowing through him.
It was not long before he stood there with the nothing but the dead lying all about him. The justice of the Dovah, “Ysmir, Dragon of the North” had been served this day. There were no one to witness these deeds other than the divines and innocent dead who he hoped now felt free to return home to their final resting place in the life beyond.
The Dragonborn turned away from the dead Imperial guard, walked over to the mass of dead men, women, and children, fell to his knees and cried out in prayer, “Azura and Akatosh! Forgive me for this justice but I could not walk away from the stain of the innocent that lie upon this frozen earth!” A light began to swirl around him and a voice came upon him, “My child, do not be so hard on yourself, what you did today has been foretold, you have freed the souls of the innocent who lie in the snow to come home. Be at peace as your father and mother are proud of you. Trust in the nine, always.”
Silence returned, the Dragonborn rose in time, walked back to where he left his horse at the top of the ridge and began the final journey towards Bruma and what he hoped would be a reunion with Rigmor.