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SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is largely based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it's inevitably a spoiler.
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previous day
4-201-08-29 07:04
Dead Man's Drink, Falkert, Falkreath, Skyrim
Lydia has joined us during the night. I leave my followers sleeping and go to the taproom. Talsgar is there and there's nothing I can do to avoid him. He evidently spent the night with Vera, only he tells it to me vaguely and at great length, using greasy and sleazy hints which he probably believes to be witty. He is so arrogant and disgusting that I'm having difficulties refraining from throwing my breakfast into his face.
My new friend Valdr enters. I greet him cheerfully and he nods back, but sits down in a farther corner. Luckily Jenassa and Rayya turn up and we go have a bath together.
There's apparently a celebration coming up. The town is decorated with colored flags.
Rayya draws my attention to a mysterious structure up the mountain ridge
(on the left, about halfway to the top) that looks artificial. She doesn't know what it is.
The direction is east-northeast. Got to remember to explore it someday.
(on the left, about halfway to the top) that looks artificial. She doesn't know what it is.
The direction is east-northeast. Got to remember to explore it someday.
That topic I said yesterday I wanted to talk about to Lydia only – you may have guessed it was that breast-increasing spell. I think Lydia just has to have good breasts, because she's otherwise so beautiful. This morning, I do tell her. Of course I'm not saying in her face that there's something wrong with her breasts.
I was if not quite terrified than certainly apprehensive of how Lydia would react to my suggestion and if I would be able to phrase it delicately enough. So I'm greatly relieved when Lydia looks delighted and excited. Her trust in me is touching.
Nevertheless, I want to make sure everything is safe. So we'll do it at the magic shop in Aurora this evening. Kaldred looks trustworthy enough.
Right now, though, I visit a shop called Ayleid Artifacts which was closed the last time we were in town. The shopkeeper is a middle-aged man Nuri. I have no idea who the Ayleids are or were, but in order to strike up a conversation, I ask Nuri if he studies the Ayleids. He says he does and they are such a fascinating civilization and whatnot. He is very secretive about his research, but something has made me so curious that I just have to press him further. Finally I manage to wheedle it out of him that there are four mystical stones in various places in Skyrim which would be very valuable to him. I promise to find them.
Very pleased with my conversational success, so to speak, I step out of the shop. It's almost 11 o'clock. Perfect timing! Oh, I haven't told you yet. That strange abandoned house opposite the watermill, remember? I have re-read all the notes I found there, and learned that the woman whom that so-called monster adored would appear at 12 every day near the waterfall from which the river flows to this very watermill. Meaning, now, an hour before noon, is exactly the right time for me to go and find the waterfall and wait for the woman. I won't be taking my followers, because it might scare her.
I follow the river upstream. It turns into a shallow creek. I find the right place. It's not noon yet, but the woman is already there. Regrettably, she is dead.
I take an enchanted ring from her corpse. I presume it can be used somehow to open that door in the cellar. That's good, but I feel sad for the woman.
It occurs to me that being a thane now, my standing is reasonably secure here, so I can take a chance and kill that bastard Solaf. Why put it off?
It has to be done in such a manner that he won't shout for help and cause the town guards to rush in. The problem is that when people see you, they often sense that you intend to attack them. The gift is highly individual and most developed in mages and professional warriors. (You simply don't survive long when you lack the sense of hostility as it's commonly called.) Solaf doesn't look like either, but I don't want to risk more than necessary.
After some discussion, the girls and I come up with the following plan. I go to the shop, strip naked and pretend to be horny. This gets Solaf confused, probably even irritated, at any rate very distracted from thinking of a potential physical attack. Lydia and Jenassa will enter a little later, having found a moment when no one is paying attention. With any luck, I will have be able to hug Solaf tightly by then, or even manage to take his penis into my mouth. Rayya will remain keeping watch outside the door and make sure no one enters the shop. She's the one who knows the locals and knows how to talk to them in a right way.
As proper as it would be to deliver the death blow myself, it is clear to all of us that it would be unfeasible. Jenassa says she has no problem with killing Solaf on my behalf, and a second later Lydia volunteers to do the same. I choose Lydia, because Solaf, being a Nord, might be more suspicious of an elf approaching him than of another Nord.
While Solaf will surely be embarrassed by her sort-of-girlfriend's crazy behavior, the girls and I are going to act and talk normally as if nothing was wrong. From there, we'll just have to improvise. In the worst case, Jenassa can assist us from the distance with a magical staff.
I go into the shop. Solaf is standing behind his counter. I go into the corner to his right. He doesn't take his eyes off me. I quickly cast off my armor.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asks, baffled.
"Wanna fuck my ass?" I try to sound sexy, but I rather seem nervous to myself.
"I didn't know you're such a whore!"
"Yes, I'm your horny whore!" I bounce my breasts on my palms. I can see he's torn between disgust and lust.
The door opens. Solaf jumps and turns around quickly. Lydia and Jenassa enter and greet politely.
"For heaven's sake, put your clothes on!" he snaps at me and turns to my followers. I'm not sure he even recognizes them. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if he has ever seen them, but that's really not something to dwell upon right now.
"What's wrong?" asks Lydia. "Don't you want her?"
"Huh?" Now Solaf is certain to think the world has gone crazy.
"You're right, you know," says Lydia with a smile.
"Right about what?"
"She's no good. I suck a lot better. Would you rather have it upstairs or here?"
Solaf can't even think of what to reply before I bend down, take my dagger Nettlebane from its sheath attached to my armor, leap to him and stab him from behind. I pull out the dagger and stab him quickly two more times. Solaf falls down and I step up to him carefully and slit his throat, just to be on the safe side. "This is for calling me a whore," I whisper to his lifeless body.
I stand up and look at Lydia. We are both trembling. "Well played," says Jenassa, cool as a cucumber. "Yes, I will never tell anyone," she adds, seeing me open my mouth. "You'd better get dressed."
"I know that," I reply peevishly. I have some blood on me. Lucky I'm naked, save the boots which I wipe clean. "Thanks, girls." We have a quick hug and leave for the inn.
Everything looks calm on the street.
I inform the innkeeper Valga that we found Solaf dead.
"Thank you," she replies to my utter astonishment.
Somewhat speechless, I ask if I may use the bath. She says: of course.
After I have cleaned up, I ask Rayya if she has any idea what it was all about. She says she doesn't know any details, but the word is that Solaf and Valga had a relationship in the past, but then she began to hate him. The implication is obvious.
I ask Rayya if she wants to know why I wanted Solaf dead. She says I can tell her if and when I want to. I reply I'll tell her some other time then.
We return to the taproom. Valga refuses my money and says not to worry: she and her serving girl Narri will tell the captain of the guards a plausible story about some disreputable strangers. And I'm in good books with the jarl anyway.
I still can't think of much to say. I thank Valga and leave with my followers.
"Narri must have seen us entering the shop," Jenassa explains.
"Possibly," I reply. "By the way, I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier."
"Oh, don't be silly. I'm not offended."
Suddenly I must laugh. It went pretty well, really.
We walk around leisurely. Among other things, I have a chat with an old man Dengeir, an uncle of Siddgeir. He was the previous jarl. He says he was deposed because he supported the storks. He is very bitter and asks me to break into the house of Lod the blacksmith and steal a letter he has been writing – to the imps, Dengeir suspects. No, I'm certainly not going to have any part in that.
Then we travel to Little Vivec to report to Bal-Ran. He believes the bandits were killed by that mysterious visitor of his. It's clearly the same man Mandyn Hlaalu is looking for. This time Bal-Ran agrees to reveal to me where he was headed. It's a place in the far east of Skyrim. He categorically refuses to tell me what they talked about and what the man is up to, but urges me to think before I act. I hate such secretiveness, but there's nothing I can do.
Belvadyr's house is straight ahead and Selyse's shop is the one you can see on the right.
To our right, outside the frame, goes another walkway that connects this islet to Toren and Taren's.
To our right, outside the frame, goes another walkway that connects this islet to Toren and Taren's.
I thought I had gotten quite wealthy by now, but Aurora and Little Vivec have so many trainers between them that I'm soon down to my last couple hundred septims (which I have to keep in reserve to be able to afford lodging).
Before turning in, Lydia and I have one more business to take care of. We go to Kaldred's magic shop. After our whispered conversation, she asks her husband to take a little walk outside. Then Lydia strips from the waist up and I use the spell on her. Lydia is amusingly scared and somewhat confused afterwards. I can see she's indeed been very self-conscious about the size of her breasts. I'm sure she'll be most happy with them once she gets used to them. Rayya, FYI, has proper breasts already and Jenassa's are not very large but look adorable on her body. (Gosh, I'm not sure I should even tell you about such things!)
We thank Kaldred and return to the inn. It's still quarter to 9, but I feel strangely tired – emotionally, not physically, from everything that's happened today &ndash so I decide to go to sleep and have a very early start tomorrow. We will not return to Hviterun just yet, because the place where I believe to remember Arkngthamz to be, that enigmatic location from my dream the other night, is in the west and not very far, and I'm dying to see it.
next awakening
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