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Hieronymus Lex had seen a lot in his time as captain of the city watch. He'd apprehended a vendor who was poisoning his competition, he'd quelled a horde of goblins who attempted to invade the city through the sewers, and he'd watched the Thieves' Guild grow in power, looming out of the shadows, threatening the honest, hard-working citizens who called the Imperial City home.

But never had he seen anything like this.

Over the horizon, a band of ten skeletons approached the gates. They had tried all manner of attacks: arrows, catapults, spells. Nothing could stop them. Even when broken apart into dozens of pieces, the foul necromancy that powered them drew the bones together, repaired the damage and sent the skeleton lurching forward once more.

A barricade had been set up at the end of the bridge leading into the city, and a troop of the finest guards had been mustered. But how could they defeat that which does not die? Hieronymus looked on with a grim mien, weighing up different options, trying to figure a way out of this mess. Nobody spoke, and the eerie wails and creaks of the skeletons grew steadily louder as they approached.

Hieronymus saw movement in the trees a few metres away from the skeletons. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if fatigue had gotten to him. But no, there was... a person? A man draped in a dark cloak strode forward, parallel to the skeletons.

"Halt, in the name of the emperor!" Hieronymus cried.

The figure either didn't hear, or chose to ignore him. A few seconds later, he held up his hands, indicating he held no weapon. I'm not that foolish, Hieronymus thought. He was likely controlling the skeletons.

"You three," he said, addressing the guards nearest to him. "Go and apprehend that man. Bring him here."

They looked at the captain with horror. "But Sir, the skeletons..."

"Are not attacking him. So they won't attack you, either."

It was a gamble. Either this man had information for them, or he was the necromancer responsible for the undead soldiers, in which case they might be able to negotiate.

The guards moved timidly forward, stopping every few seconds to make sure a skeleton hadn't snuck up on them. But true to Hieronymus's word, they stayed in their group, ignoring the men. They took the cloaked man's arms and marched him quickly behind the barricade. He was thrust on his knees before Hieronymus, and his hood pulled back to reveal an Altmer with thinning blond hair.

"Who are you?" Hieronymus demanded.

"I am Landil Aelsinor. A humble mage from the Summerset Isles. I come bringing information about these creatures."

Hieronymus grit his teeth. This could all be a diversion, but what choice did he have?

"Alright. Stand up and tell me what you have to say."

"They are undead Akaviri soldiers, come to retrieve an amulet that belonged to their master. The Amulet of Bonebreath, it is called."

The Archmage had said that it was likely an artefact of power drawing the skeletons to the city. Hieronymus hated to admit it, but he had been right.

"And this amulet is in the city?"

"I believe so. It acts as a homing beacon, drawing the soldiers towards it."

Hieronymus eyed the man suspiciously. Clearly he knew more than he was letting on.

"Why? And who owns this amulet?"

"Why? I am not sure. I have various theories..."

Hieronymus gazed severely at him, and he did not elaborate.

"As to who: a Dunmer woman. She is young, and accompanied by a dark-scaled Argonian. I have been trailing them from Chorrol, but it seems my attempts to avert this catastrophe have been for naught."

The Altmer raised his eyebrows at Hieronymus, as if he expected a reward for his help.

"Thank you for the information, citizen. We will handle things from here. Go and find refuge. Corellus! I have a message for the Arcane University."

The Altmer scowled and slunk away as Hieronymus handed out orders. The skeletons were almost at the barricade now. They would have to hold out until this amulet could be found.

By Akatosh, he would not let his city fall to these fiends.

* * *

"You know, it's not nearly as bad as I expected."

Nusha snorted at Karme's comment. "What, did you think it would be a shower of excrement? There has to be some way for them to perform maintenance."

As long as they kept to the stone pathways and bridges and tried to ignore the foul-smelling sludge that flowed through the canals below them, it was manageable. Nusha had known that one day she would end up creeping through a sewer. It was often the only way to assassinate high-profile targets in the Imperial City without being caught. She hadn't expected to use it as an escape route with a Dunmer woman in tow, granted, but life was full of surprises.

"Where are we going?" Karme asked.

"What, you think I have a map of the sewage system? We're going somewhere else, and hopefully by the time we surface people will have calmed down about the whole skeleton thing. I'm sure they've already been captured by the guard."

Nusha's voice betrayed her doubt, though. The creatures had made quick progress from Chorrol, and judging by their restorative abilities, they wouldn't be easy to down. Besides, if the guard knew that the skeletons were essentially providing a breadcrumb trail to her and Karme, they would be in even deeper dung than they were right now.

"You sure you can't remove that necklace?" Nusha muttered.

"I've tried a hundred times. The chain is growing smaller, I swear. And it's glowing brighter. We need to figure out how to get rid of this thing, and fast."

"Do you know of any necromancers in the city?" Nusha asked hopefully.

She reasoned that they would be the kind to know about the amulet. But with the Archmage's recent ban on necromancy, they were going to have to go underground. Nusha kept hoping that they would turn a corner to find a necromancer's secret lair, but all they found was bats and skeevers.

"No," Karme said. "But I heard about a merchant, a guy with a shop in the Market District. He had really cheap wares, until it was found out that his goods were gotten from grave-robbing. His supplier was a necromancer, I believe."

"The Market District?" Nusha groaned. "We've been walking away from there for almost an hour now."

That was the least of their worries, though, as they turned a corner and a gush of wind greeted them, extinguishing Nusha's torch with a thwick.

Karme cried out and Nusha shushed her.

"We're near one of the exits. Hold my hand, I'll guide you."

Nusha realised now just how strongly the amulet was glowing. An eerie red sheen came off the Dunmer, like a magical aura. Despite this, it was too weak to see more than a few inches in front of it, as if the air around it was thick with fog.

Nusha dropped the torch and took Karme's trembling hand. It was coated with sweat, which managed to nauseate her in spite of the already unsavoury surroundings. Argonians did not sweat, and she wondered how on Nirn men and mer dealt with it.

Another advantage of her physiology was the superior eyesight she possessed to Karme's. Not on the level of a Khajiit's, of course, but enough for her to make out the vague silhouettes of the steps that lead to the surface. They carefully ascended and pulled open the manhole cover. The hazy glow of gas lamps poured onto them, and Nusha squinted, climbing out of the hole and helping Karme up.

They stood in a narrow alcove, barely big enough to fit two people, separated from the street by a locked iron gate.

"Great, how are we going to get out?" Karme muttered.

"Shh!"

Nusha pressed herself against the wall and Karme followed suit. The sound of an approaching battlemage came from the distance, and Nusha could just see two silhouettes convening in the street beyond them.

"Any luck?"

"No, but we've received extra intel from the University. The amulet is held by a Dunmer woman, accompanied by a female Argonian with black scales."

Nusha felt Karme take in a sharp breath, but she gave her a look that said "Don't move an inch". The battlemages complained about working overtime, and then left to continue the search. One of them came towards them, whistling, and walked within inches of the gate. Nusha readied a knife, calculating the angle at which she could throw it through the bars, but thankfully the mage passed by without noticing them.

Once she was sure the coast was clear, Nusha turned to Karme.

"Don't suppose you know any unlock spells, then?"

Karme shook her head. Nusha shrugged and climbed over the iron gate, dropping down onto the street below. Karme struggled to do the same, and Nusha hissed at her to hurry up. She flopped onto the ground, stifling a cry of pain, and Nusha whisked her into an archway.

"Which district are we in?" Nusha said.

"This is, um..."

Karme stuck her head out.

"The Talos Plaza District. Look, there's the statue of him in the middle, there."

She pointed to the centre of the square, where the silhouette of a dragon stood surrounded by columns. Nusha raised a finger to her chin and gazed dubiously at her.

"Isn't that Akatosh?"

"Yes, yes."

"That means we're two districts away from the Market District."

Karme looked crestfallen. Nusha wasn't feeling confident, either. On a normal day it would take most of an hour to get there, but hiding from the guards?

"Maybe we should try and go through the sewers," Karme suggested.

Nusha shook her head. "We don't have a light. Look, you're going to have to follow my lead and hope we don't get caught. Take off your shoes, you'll be quieter that way."

Karme reluctantly did so, muttering something about how she'd never be clean again.

"You're sure this guy lives in the Market District?" Nusha asked, scoping out the street ahead of them.

"Positive. The Copious Coinpurse, that's the name of his shop."

"Then we better hope he's at home."