"Now move. The leader is going to want to see you personally." The woman said motioning for us to continue along the path down to the Hidden village.
Alontar spurred his horse forward lightly while I walked calmly. The woman and four others slid down the mountain face and trailed behind us ready to shoot us down if we tried to make a run for it. I briefly considered snapping these rope bonds and grabbing Alontar before making a break for it but chose to play along for now.-
As we got closer to this Hidden village it became quite clear that this one seemed specialized in food production. Most of it was fields being tended to while a large ring of stone surrounded it all like a wall. The woman and her squad were clearly only one group of fighters guarding this place, no doubt the scout unit if I didn't have these more heavily armored fighters pegged wrong. Getting paraded through the Hidden village in bonds earned quite a lot of attention from those tending the farms. But I ignored it as we were pushed towards a large but simple stone cottage at the center of the place.-
I heard voices coming from inside this building as we approached.
"We should strike now while they are so heavily weakened!" One of them, a male voice said fiercely.
"How exactly Tolmen? Those rats are surrounded by the people of Hammerfell. We can no more openly attack them than they can risk moving freely. Especially after being dealt such a harsh blow. They even sense us approaching them and they'll bite at anyone near them." A second voice, also male but deeper than the first spoke calmly.
The woman walked up to the door and knocked loudly "It's Sadi, got a couple big fish rounding the mountain pass." she called through the door loudly.
"This isn't over, Nahir." The first voice said gruffly before the second spoke up.
"Enter." it spoke with authority.
The woman, Sadi she said, pushed open the door and walked in with the clear implication that we were to follow. Alontar crossed the threshold first without needing to duck but I had to lower my head and crouch slightly to clear it. Inside the building was a single massive wooden table with a very detailed map of Hammerfell laid across it with weighed color coordinated pieces positioned in various places. Considering most of the red pieces were in the towns and cities I deduced that that color represented the Thalmor. -
Inside the room were actually three people but the third hadn't spoken so I hadn't known they were there until entering. It was two men and a woman with the woman surprisingly being an Altmer in a green and gold mages robe. One of the two men was a Redguard with light brown skin and hair braided with beads of bone and gem. He had a single dark chin spike beard tied at the tip with a golden ring. The second man was surprisingly a Nord. Short for the race but built like a boulder with a blonde goatee and shaved head.-
The Nords face twisted when he saw me "Sadi! What is the meaning of this!? Why is the Sand-tongue in bonds!?" he demanded with a fierce anger.
"Because reputation is not any reason why a stranger can be allowed to walk into the village freely. At least this way he's no threat." she replied challengingly.
I casually strained and snapped the ropes on my wrists like twine before reaching up to remove my gag.
"You were saying?" I said calmly, my voice rumbling from my throat making all four of the resistance fighters flinch slightly.
"You were properly bound. I checked myself." Sadi said in horrified disbelief.
"You should have used metal." I replied casually.
"HAHAHAHA! Well spoken kinsmen!" the Nord barked out a laugh.
"You are aware of my identity?" I asked a little confused since Sadi clearly knew about it.
"Aye, Royal elf blood and all that. But are you not Alexan of Riften? A fellow man of Skyrim here in Hammerfell. That makes you kinsfolk." he said with a grin.
"It helps you've done enough damage to the Thalmor to match this entire year of our own work in a single battle." The Redguard man said with a chuckle.
"Aye, that too." The Nord agrees.
"And that's all well and good but I'm with Sadi, he should be restrained until we are sure he's no threat to us." the Altmer woman said with a wary look.
"I wasn't even aware this place was here to be honest. Merely thought I could slip back to Skyrim through the mountains without having to deal with more Thalmor delays." I said frankly.
"And you'd have been right too. Those cowardly milk drinkers wouldn't dare bring the fight to us here. Instead they hide behind the citizens where we can't cut them down without a bloodbath." the Nord said spitting on the ground in frustration.
"We were actually just discussing the topic when you arrived. Tolmen here is of the opinion that since you cut down almost a tenth of the Thalmor stationed in Hammerfell the time was ripe to attack the rest." The Redguard man said calmly.
"He's both right and wrong. The cut to their numbers IS an opportunity but now is not the time to strike. Rather it's the time to undermine. One man killed almost a thousand armed trained soldiers and walked away. The Thalmor are scared. So you should make them more afraid. Capture as many as you can and put them still squirming on spikes in the sun. Let them know just how unwelcome they are and watch them desert by the droves." I suggested calmly.
"Barbarism!" the Altmer woman hissed.
I looked at her calmly "They've done far worse." I replied evenly.
"The idea is dirty, but has merit. We've tried harassment for years now but it barely does anything as every soldier we cut down gets replaced with another. If we could make them too scared to leave the safety of towns we could slowly choke them out starting from the coast moving inward." The Redguard said with a frown.
"Aye, it might work but theres no honor or glory in doing that to a person, Thalmor or not Nahir." Tolmen said shaking his head.
"That was just the easiest option. You could also just attack from underground before they even know you were there. No innocents caught in the crossfire and if you take the coast towns working inward reinforcements become nearly impossible for them to deploy." I say since the easy option was rejected.