Wir möchten euch heute den dritten Roman der „Elder Scrolls“-Reihe vorstellen. Er wird laut bisherigen Meldungen den Namen The Darkest Lantern – An Elder Scrolls Novel tragen und während der vierten Ära spielen. Auch dieses mal wird Greg Keyes der Autor sein.
Die Geschichte des neuen Romans handelt von Ilthaen, einer Altmer, die kurz vor dem Großen Krieg zwischen dem Aldmeri-Dominion und dem Kaiserreich gegen das Dominion spioniert. Ein Treffen mit einem Kontaktmann verläuft jedoch katastrophal: nach der Übergabe einiger geheimer Dokumente und Protokolle wird das Treffen von Thalmor-Soldaten gesprengt, und Ilthaen bleibt nichts anderes mehr, als Alinor so schnell wie möglich zu verlassen.
Zu den bisher recht spärlichen Informationen wurde jedoch auch eine kleine Leseprobe veröffentlicht, die wir euch natürlich nicht vorenthalten wollen:
Last Seed 24th, 4E 171
"It's darkest under the street lamps", Taldir had said. And so today's secret meeting between the two agents had led Ilthaen to this place – a crowded inn, the Emerald Plate, by the wayside of the road between Shimmerene and Shilmaren, the latter being the closest port to Shimmerene. Taldir had urged to meet her as soon as possible, which made her uncomfortable. The last weeks had developed badly for the cause she was serving – in fact, she expected to be uncovered soon. It was time to consider an organized escape, but plans had to wait until this meeting was over. Ilthaen sat at the inn's bar, next to some Bosmer poet on his way to Cloudrest and a fierce looking Khajiit mercenary waiting for work. She herself looked very inconspicuous. A simple blue magician's robe, the cowl drawn deep into her face, and a brown travel bag hanging from her shoulder – the kind of person that can be found in every single inn, tavern or hotel in all of Alinor. No human was in the tavern, though. Thalmor reign had severely hindered any human actions in the Aldmeri Dominion, and this was just one example for the reasons for her hate towards the Thalmor. It was her and her organization that tried to bring the Thalmor to fall, but this endeavor had lately proven itself very difficult. People suddenly stopped talking when she entered rooms; a subtle fear was spreading throughout every conversation and behavior that she encountered while being on duty. As a Thalmor battle-mage, people had trusted to tell her various facts which helped the organization sabotaging Thalmor property. This had stopped, and additionally Blade agents had started to disappear. They simply vanished. Taldir had news about this, and she was eager to hear them. She had to wait another hour until Taldir's arrival – he had announced himself for 11 pm – so she asked the waiter for another drink, and waited patiently.
He arrived ten minutes too late. She felt relieved upon seeing him, although he looked like he hadn't slept in days. The current crisis of the organization let him look the worse for wear. Silently he pointed towards the stairs, so she rose and slowly followed him. She walked upstairs to the second floor and went through a corridor that was lined with large windows to the left and guest room doors to the right. She stopped at room eighteen and knocked on the door. "Come in", she heard Taldir's voice, and so she entered the room. It was sparsely furnished; a plain bed, a cupboard, a chest, a simple wooden table and two chairs met her eye, and of course Taldir himself. He was an Altmer, just like her; with his modest black robe and unremarkable facial features, one could hardly think of him to be an experienced spy. He commanded a rather small garnison in the north, and in this position lots of important notes were passed through his hands. His small travel bag leaned on a table leg. "Sit down, please. We have no time to waste." he said, and Ilthaen obeyed. "Are we safe here?", she asked. Taldir nodded. "I think so. But I'm not sure – well... it doesn't matter, after all. This will be our organization's last meeting. The two of us are the only remaining operating agents in Alinor, if I'm not misinformed." Ilthaen was slightly shocked. She had known that the situation was getting worse, but in such a way? Indeed there is no time to waste, she thought, and waited for him to check the windows and corridor before he also sat down, pulled the bag in his lap and produced two sheets of paper. "The Thalmor have highly increased their counterintelligence activities, and things are getting a lot more complicated now. But let me show you what I found first. This" he said, and handed her the first sheet, "is a report of the shipyard manager in Skywatch. Anything suspicious?" he asked and waited for her to read it. Ilthaen took the paper and read it carefully. "The note speaks of some quota being hit, and the Thalmor navy now being ready for attacks – what does this mean? Are the Thalmor about to wage war soon?" she asked, now a bit more shocked. "Apparently there have been preparations in most fortresses in Alinor. Yours and mine were not affected, since they served only the purpose of keeping the peace inside the Dominion – but almost every other fortress was instructed to perform additional drills. If you check the second document, I think, things will make a lot more sense. Go ahead." he concluded, produced the second document and handed it to her. While Ilthaen was reading, Taldir spoke again. "I was on my way to a dead drop, and saw some Thalmor soldiers coming towards me. They had Kaidien with them, our contact with the Blades. He was half naked and in chains. They probably killed him by now. At the dead drop, he had stashed copies of internal Thalmor reports, along with a personal hand-written note. Three words. They hunt us." Ilthaen shuddered. "Those reports... they all tell success in an Alinor-wide strike against Blades. But how did the Blades not notice that?" she asked, frightened. "Oh, some of them did" Taldir replied. "Although late, three or four of them escaped. Barely. But what counts here is that the Thalmor simultaneously wipe out Imperial intelligence and prepare for war. Which is, in my opinion, no plain coincidence. They are planning something bad, and I fear, it's up to us now to inform the Imperials. I know we're not very concerned with the Empire, but it appears we are the only ones left to warn them."
Ilthaen pondered the matter. Hundreds of dead Blades, the fleet being reinforced, Thalmor troop drills happening in large scale... widely unnoticed, no less. Those were war preparations, and if Taldir's information was true – if the Thalmor had secretly taken care of all hostile agents in Alinor –then they were in a very dangerous situation. "Taldir, we should act now. I will take those documents and travel to the continent." she said, and for the first time this evening Taldir smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that. Perhaps there is still some hope for our cause. I think I will stay -" he started, but the sound of heavy boots on wooden planks interrupted him. "Damn it! They are coming. Grab those papers and conceal yourself – maybe I can reason with them. When I open the door, just slip out." Ilthaen quickly grabbed the documents and stuffed them in her own travel bag. Then she whispered some incomprehensible words, and her body turned completely transparent. She was hidden to the eye, and crouched to the side of the door. The loud footsteps stopped. "Your plot ends now!" another voice shouted, and two strong legs kicked in the door and made Taldir fall down, who was standing right behind it. Immediately three Thalmor soldiers stepped in. When they saw Taldir lie on the floor, they immediately kicked him in the face, pulled him up and started beating his body. Following the soldiers, a Thalmor officer entered the room. "Did you seriously think we wouldn't find out, vile traitor?" he shouted to Taldir. "Where is your conspirator, you bastard? We have overheard a conversation." Taldir, lying on the floor, rolled on his back. His face was bleeding, and every movement seemed to cause him pain beyond belief. Still, he smiled. "Go... to hell... you coward!" he snarled, and the officer's face turned even more grim. "Beat the bastard up", he told his soldiers. "Afterwards we'll take him to the dungeon – maybe he will talk there, just like Kaidien did." An iron-clad fist hit Taldir's face again, and this time Ilthaen gasped. "She's in here!" the officer shouted. Recognizing the only chance she had, Ilthaen rose from the floor and shoved the soldiers aside. She ran past the staggering Thalmor, left the room and found herself trapped between more soldiers to both sides.
"Catch her, idiots!" was the call that still sounded in her ears, when she leapt through the closed window and fell into the darkness of the night.
Ein genauer Veröffentlichungstermin wurde noch nicht bekanntgegeben, es war bisher lediglich von 2013 die Rede. Wir halten euch natürlich wie immer auf dem Laufenden!
APRIL APRIL, diese Newsmeldung war nur ein kleiner Aprilscherz von uns!
Englische Newsmeldung bei Bethesda
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