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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
———————————————
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.
———————————————
previous day
4-201-09-22 19:20
Uthgerd's House, Hviterun, Whiterun, Skyrim
After leaving my adopted daughter-housekeeper Lucia some money, I go out the western gate, chat a little with a passerby in the suburb and then head east, making a stop under the bridge at the southeastern intersection to wash myself thoroughly.
Not a painting. This is how the jarl's palace actually looks like from here.
Nearby is the entrance of the cave that leads to Outcast Valley. I go in. Coming out the other side, I see in front of me the relatively low defense wall of a village. A woman is walking towards me. I ask her if this is Outcast Valley. She says it is and there was some trouble at the inn last night and Almus the village leader has gone round the twist and tied up a suspect. I don't quite get it, but I suppose I can go to the inn and find out. She says the gates have been locked and no one can get in or out. She takes me back to where she came from. The defense wall ends at the edge of a deep ravine, but it's possible to climb past the end of the wall into the village.
I walk around looking for the inn. Unfortunately, most people I encounter outright refuse to even answer my greeting. They must stand in deadly fear of that Almus dude. Sure enough, it's him in front of the inn, holding a kneeling man on a leash. Unfortunately, neither of them is in the mood for conversation.
It's the innkeeper Theolina who fills me in. The kneeling man, Veny, lives in a nearby camp whose inhabitants are very unpopular in the village. Last night, he was talking to a man named Whilliam. The latter went missing later, and a man named Olvar accused Veny of having done something to Whilliam. Now it would seem that Veny faces the prospect of remaining tied up in front of the inn until he produces Whilliam, which he can hardly do while tied up. It's one crazy mess.
Olvar is present at the inn, but he looks like drunk and unpleasant, so I approach the fourth person in the taproom – an oldish woman Felicia. She is happy to talk to me about anything I want. She is, however, sorry that she can't remember absolutely anything about the last night at the inn.
So I take a deep breath and go sit at Olvar's table. However, when I ask him about Whilliam, he tells me bluntly to get lost, staring intensely at the bottom of his mug.
I think maybe he would warm up to me after we've had sex. I haven't had any for several days anyway. So I move to the chair next to him.
This gets him to lift his head. He eyes me up and down and then puts a hand on my thigh. One thing leads to another and eventually he goes to Theolina to pay for the use of a room, and I follow him into it with my eyes cast down. The bed is really comfortable, but to my dismay, Olvar not only finishes too soon, he then climbs out of bed in spite of my attempt to hold fast to his arm, gets dressed without a word and leaves the room.
This was a complete cock-up on my part. I lie there, with my eyes filling with tears. It takes me considerable effort to get dressed and return to the taproom. I leave the inn without delay.
I check out everything in the village and fail to get any new information. There's a gate on the northern side which presumably leads to that outcast camp. But the gate is locked. When I address the guard, he just stands there and doesn't answer. I can't find any other way out in this direction. So there remains only one thing to do. I find the house that belongs to Almus and break in when (hopefully) no one is looking. The man himself being currently busy elsewhere, I have a reasonable chance of being able to search his house undisturbed. And should things go sour, I'm confident I'll be able to fight my way out if needed.
I succeed in finding a number of keys. I return to the northern gate and try the biggest one of them. It fits and the guard doesn't react in any way when I unlock the gate and exit. There's a dirt road that leads to a camp.
I see Whilliam. He's apparently ill and a woman Fiona tells me that a crate of medicines she needs urgently for Whilliam was being brought here, but got lost somehow, apparently fell off the horsecart. All right, I'll go looking for it. There's nothing else to do anyway, as no one else, including Whilliam himself, would talk to me.
Indeed I find two bottles of something called Healing Tonic on the roadside, but those won't do for Fiona. I walk back and forth along all the roads twice, and there is nothing like a crate of medicines anywhere. I understand it's nighttime, but a crate that has fallen off a horsecart can't be so hard to find. I'm certain there is no crate. But Fiona just shrugs and doesn't say anything.
I return to the village and try to tell Almus that Whilliam has been found, but he acts like I'm speaking draugr language.
I decide I won't take this bullshit. I'll return to Hviterun and this nutcase community can go to hell. I think I'll kill Almus before I leave, though. He's clearly a mad tyrant. It's not proper to hold a man on a leash like this, as if he were a slave or cattle. Oh, and I ought to kill Olvar as well for taking advantage of me like he did. Then again, one could say it was my own fault. I acted like a whore and he treated me like a whore.
This is a bit complicated. I sit down in a secluded spot behind the houses and think it over. I come to the decision to kill Almus, because he's causing harm to his people, and not to kill Olvar, because maybe he acted the way he acted because he was depressed about something or whatever.
After choosing a well-hidden route to the sidegate through which I entered earlier, I choose a place where I believe to be as inconspicuous as possible, go into sneak mode, wait until no one is paying attention to me and then shoot Almus. He's dead. One shot. The sounds of agitated people, then the shouts of the guards fade slowly as I sneak along my escape route. The few people walking near the sidegate haven't noticed the commotion yet. Either that or they're not too unhappy about Almus's death. I waste no time getting out of this crazy place.
Back on the road outside Hviterun, I send a telepathical command to my followers to come to me. Then we head for Mara's Eye Pond in the east to kill that vampire who had killed the wife of the Morthal butcher.
Our destination is in the mountains and my map shows no path leading there, so we'll have to improvise – go past Fort Amol towards Mixwater Mill and then start looking for a place where we can climb up.
So we start running east from Hviterun along the Windhelm highway. Opposite the Shrine of Talos, I make a brief stop and revel in sweet memories:
In the middle of the picture, you can see the path along which the giants descended with their mammoths.
On the left, in front of the two tall trees and above what looks like a cave entrance but is in fact a large niche,
is the place from which I outpatienced that ambushing thalmor.
In the niche is the shrine onto which I placed Torygg's warhorn.
On the left, in front of the two tall trees and above what looks like a cave entrance but is in fact a large niche,
is the place from which I outpatienced that ambushing thalmor.
In the niche is the shrine onto which I placed Torygg's warhorn.
Valtheim Towers has been resettled by new bandits. It was bound to happen sooner or later. We shoot a couple most audacious ones, but I can't be bothered to go up and hunt down the rest. We just proceed eastwards.
That banner indicates that we are crossing into Eastmarch Hold, the capital of which is Windhelm.
Safely out of the bandits' reach, we take a little break. Bending over the map, we discuss where to leave the main road in order to find a way into the mountains. I realize Rayya is always silent when we discuss combat strategy. She's an obeyer, not a planner. During the almost-month she's been running with us, I've learned that pretty much everyone in Hammerfell, boy or girl, is taught to use a sword and a bow, and Rayya showed special promise as a fighter, which is why she ended up joining a caravan traveling to Skyrim. (Maybe a more important reason was she wanted to have an adventure and get away from her overprotective parents.) However, she didn't enjoy the life of a caravan guard and decided to stay permanently in Skyrim. She has told me she was quite happy with her relatively quiet life in Falkert. Not that she regrets becoming my follower. She thoroughly enjoys our adventures, but that's mostly because it gives her an opportunity to see the world and, well, find out where would be the best place to have a home and a family, something she wasn't destined to have in Falkert. Basically I feel the same way about my adventures. It occurs to me now that when we're in settlements, Rayya often ends up walking with me and telling me about her childhood and such which I find utterly fascinating. It feels a little weird at times, with her telling and me just listening without sharing memories of my own, but Rayya has assured me she doesn't mind. She knows I can't remember.
At this moment, though, we are not talking about childhood memories. I, Lydia and Jenassa quickly come to an agreement that as soon as we have crossed the bridge between Fort Amol and Mixwater Mill, the hills on the left side ought to be accessible enough.
We continue our journey. The weather is warm and the views are charming:
The terrain looks very difficult in the previous two pictures, but once the winding highway has crossed the river, it turns out surprisingly easy to find an ascendable slope in the place we expected. Getting close to our destination, we see some kind of a stone gateway and next to it a humanoid shape. Don't tell me it's a spriggan. Yes, it is. I don't know if it would have been possible to just sneak past it, but now we have to kill it.
Mara's Eye Pond is, well, a pond, and it has a small island in the middle. I swim over first and find there are several mudcrabs living on it. I have never taken them seriously, but now I have an opportunity to learn that two mucrabs attacking you simultaneously from different directions is no joking matter.
The horrible vampire with a sinister demonic name is, though. He's dead before he even spots me, and his two helpers aren't much better. I'm not sure if my followers even got a chance to fire one shot.
I'm pretty sure there's something valuable underwater, but I'm too lazy (Lydia says "squeamish") to dive in there.
We swim back from the islet to the shore:
Note the dead mudcrab on the left.
Now we proceed northeast down the slope and soon we have the impressive stone fortifications of a city that must be Windhelm before us. As far as I understand, this is where the rebel leader Ulfric Stormcloak rules, rather than the Empire. Might be interesting.
Having entered through the main gate, we witness some argument between Nords and elves, something to do with the latter not caring about the holy war of the storks. I won't stop to find out the particulars. We go to the inn where I ask the innkeeper Elda if she has a letter for Reginald. She has, and she doesn't mind handing it over to me, even though my name obviously can't be Reginald.
The letter is about some criminal scheme. Someone calling himself M informs his partner Reginald that he'll be stealing valuable items from a caravan he's traveling with, and hide them, leaving notes with clues as to their whereabouts for Reginald. The first one will be in Bitchen, a city further south. Fine.
Then I let the girls walk around on their own while I go to the palace to report to the steward about that killed giant. He thanks me and gives me the reward as promised in the bounty letter. We speak in an oblong hall, at the father end of which is a throne. On it sits a man in whom I recognize Ulfric. He's really imposing when not bound and gagged. He shows no sign of remembering me from Helgen.
I exit the palace and do some leisurely sightseeing and, um, gossip-absorbing? Among other things, I visit the house of a man named Calixto. He's keeping a museum of sorts. There doesn't seem to be anything unusual about the man, but somehow my intuition tells me I have to pay very close attention to him and find out more about him. I look everywhere in his house, once he has invited me to admire his collection. I notice a locked chest. I'd love to find out what's inside, but it has the kind of lock I'm unable to pick. I won't pickpocket Calixto for the key. Satisfying my curiosity is not worth the risk of getting caught stealing and thereby making myself a public enemy in this city.
I meet my followers on the marketplace. I learn a woman from the powerful Shatter-Shield family has been murdered and the city is buzzing with the wildest rumors. But I won't stick around to hear more right now. I'm headed for the smithy nearby.
The blacksmith Oengul is kind enough to let me use his equipment. While I work, I hear his assistant, a young woman named Hermir, tell him someone named Aventus Aretino is supposedly doing some black magic at home. I don't really care.
We all get to wear those super-strong Vampire Armors now.
Our gloves and helmets still leave something to be desired.
Our gloves and helmets still leave something to be desired.
After I've reequipped my followers, most shops have already closed, but I'm still fortunate enough to find sufficiently many traders to sell all our excess loot to.
It's past 8 now. Yesterday, I slept all day and was up all night. Right now, I don't feel sleepy, just pleasantly tired. This city is giving me wings. It's strange, but I feel surprisingly well among these heavy, massive, robust (and, let's face it, sometimes askew) structures. I tell my girls to walk around without me, keep their eyes and ears open and not get separated from each other (unless, of course, somone comes across an interesting man she'd like to be alone with). Me, I stroll back towards the palace in the dusk, just taking it all in.
I enter the palace and walk around without any specific purpose. I notice a man who is apparently Ulfric's military commander. He looks awesomely strong. I'd like to make love to him, but there doesn't seem to be any privacy in the palace with guards walking back and forth everywhere. Can I muster the courage to ask him to visit me in my inn room?
Gosh, what am I thinking? He can obviously order the guards to stay away from his room. He's their superior officer, isn't he?
So, believe in yourself Laura. You are pretty, your attire is in order, your hair is in order. He'll like you all right. You've been there before. You can walk up to him and start a conversation. Just greet politely and introduce yourself and ask him what he does and let him tell you how excited he is to free his people from the Empire's yoke, and look deep into his eyes and smile occasionally. He'll come around.
Yes, he does. His name is Yrsarald and he takes me to one of the nicer rooms upstairs. His bedroom, in fact. Ulfric's is right next door and of course I have to take a peek inside:
The next moment I'm dragged away and Yrsarald is all over me.
His room is somewhat smaller than Ulfric's, but has also a fireplace and feels even cozier. We make wild love in moonlight coming in through blue glass windows. It gives the room a breathtakingly magical atmosphere.
But screw the room. Yrsarald's mighty dick drills my cunt for three quarters of an hour. Now there's a man!
I'm insane with happiness. I doubt those walls are thick enough to muffle my screams, but I don't care. This is the climax of my life, both in the literal and figurative sense.
Excuse me, I'll have to stop writing for a mo.................................
* * *
I open my eyes. I see hairs on the chest next to the shoulder on which my cheek is resting. Yrsarald tells me I slept, like, 10 minutes. Seriously? I fell asleep? (I don't think it has ever happened to me before; after sex, I mean.) Yes, I did, he says. But I can't stay the night. Ulfric himself doesn't keep women overnight, so his subordinates aren't allowed either. It's called military discipline. Eastmarch Hold is at war.
That's all right. I understand. As long as I can come back.
The corridors are being patrolled even at this late hour. Trying not to look at the guards, I quietly walk down the stairs. The huge throne room is completely empty. That includes the throne. I can't resist the impulse to sit on it. I might never get another chance.
I look at the beautiful furniture. Suddenly I feel so naughty that I take off my clothes. I sit on Jarl Ulfric's throne, stark naked, Yrsarald's sperm flowing out of me slowly. (You'd like to see that, wouldn't you?) I close my eyes for a moment. When I open them again, I happen to look more closely at the main door in the other end of the hall and I see two guards. I realize they were there all the time and they saw everything. Merciful heaven, what have I done? Lightning-fast, I get dressed again. As I walk the longest walk through the vastness of the throne room, I keep my eyes on the floor, but I still can't help seeing the guards' wide happy grins. It realize they won't tell Yrsarald, because then they'd have to explain why they didn't arrest me for desecrating the jarl's throne, and arrest me they can't, because they're too grateful for the show. In their current state of exhilaration, they're utterly unable to lift a finger against me. How long it'll last, I don't know. Hopefully long enough for me to get out that door. Otherwise, I'd be completely at their mercy, and that would be much too horrible after my recent journey to supreme heights of carnal delight.
I keep on walking. It's all I can do. Shortly before the exit, I lift my eyes and give the guards a coy smile before uttering a polite "good night" like a well-bred little girl.
I sigh the mother and father of all sighs of relief when the heavy door closes behind me. The guards outside wouldn't know that anything is out of the ordinary, so I walk by the shortest straightest route to the nearest corner casually like a regular unconcerned citizen. Out of their sight, I run as fast as I can until I'm completely out of breath.
I'm in an unknown neighborhood. I start walking back the way I came. This is a residential area and the streets are completely empty at this hour, save for a rare guard. The sight of the supposedly empty throne room rises up in my mind's eye. I can't believe I failed to notice those two guards. Actually, I should have remembered there were guards both inside and outside. Whatever. Should they talk, I can just make an innocent face and deny everything. I'm good at looking innocent. They have no proof and I'm the lover of a very mighty man.
The lover? Or a lover?
I suddenly realize I'm thinking about joining the Stormcloaks. Stop it, Laura! What's gotten into you? Are you in love or something?
Yeah. Come to think of it, I am in love. And what's supposed to be wrong with that?
Around the next street corner, I notice at some distance the cemetery which I passed by earlier today. In order to avoid the vicinity of the palace, I choose a different route to the inn. By the time I arrive there, I feel completely calm again.
My followers are waiting for me, sitting around a small table. They see it. They can't wait to hear about it. No, you hussies, not now! Either you keep your mouths completely shut or you'll sleep in these very chairs tonight.
I try not to look in their faces while we go to the reception and I rent a room for us. When Rayya puts out the light, I believe to see Yrsarald's face in the darkness. I close my eyes and sink into marvelous black relish.
next awakening
return to the table of contents
4-201-09-22 19:20
Uthgerd's House, Hviterun, Whiterun, Skyrim
Not a painting. This is how the jarl's palace actually looks like from here.
Nearby is the entrance of the cave that leads to Outcast Valley. I go in. Coming out the other side, I see in front of me the relatively low defense wall of a village. A woman is walking towards me. I ask her if this is Outcast Valley. She says it is and there was some trouble at the inn last night and Almus the village leader has gone round the twist and tied up a suspect. I don't quite get it, but I suppose I can go to the inn and find out. She says the gates have been locked and no one can get in or out. She takes me back to where she came from. The defense wall ends at the edge of a deep ravine, but it's possible to climb past the end of the wall into the village.
I walk around looking for the inn. Unfortunately, most people I encounter outright refuse to even answer my greeting. They must stand in deadly fear of that Almus dude. Sure enough, it's him in front of the inn, holding a kneeling man on a leash. Unfortunately, neither of them is in the mood for conversation.
It's the innkeeper Theolina who fills me in. The kneeling man, Veny, lives in a nearby camp whose inhabitants are very unpopular in the village. Last night, he was talking to a man named Whilliam. The latter went missing later, and a man named Olvar accused Veny of having done something to Whilliam. Now it would seem that Veny faces the prospect of remaining tied up in front of the inn until he produces Whilliam, which he can hardly do while tied up. It's one crazy mess.
Olvar is present at the inn, but he looks like drunk and unpleasant, so I approach the fourth person in the taproom – an oldish woman Felicia. She is happy to talk to me about anything I want. She is, however, sorry that she can't remember absolutely anything about the last night at the inn.
So I take a deep breath and go sit at Olvar's table. However, when I ask him about Whilliam, he tells me bluntly to get lost, staring intensely at the bottom of his mug.
I think maybe he would warm up to me after we've had sex. I haven't had any for several days anyway. So I move to the chair next to him.
This gets him to lift his head. He eyes me up and down and then puts a hand on my thigh. One thing leads to another and eventually he goes to Theolina to pay for the use of a room, and I follow him into it with my eyes cast down. The bed is really comfortable, but to my dismay, Olvar not only finishes too soon, he then climbs out of bed in spite of my attempt to hold fast to his arm, gets dressed without a word and leaves the room.
This was a complete cock-up on my part. I lie there, with my eyes filling with tears. It takes me considerable effort to get dressed and return to the taproom. I leave the inn without delay.
I check out everything in the village and fail to get any new information. There's a gate on the northern side which presumably leads to that outcast camp. But the gate is locked. When I address the guard, he just stands there and doesn't answer. I can't find any other way out in this direction. So there remains only one thing to do. I find the house that belongs to Almus and break in when (hopefully) no one is looking. The man himself being currently busy elsewhere, I have a reasonable chance of being able to search his house undisturbed. And should things go sour, I'm confident I'll be able to fight my way out if needed.
I succeed in finding a number of keys. I return to the northern gate and try the biggest one of them. It fits and the guard doesn't react in any way when I unlock the gate and exit. There's a dirt road that leads to a camp.
I see Whilliam. He's apparently ill and a woman Fiona tells me that a crate of medicines she needs urgently for Whilliam was being brought here, but got lost somehow, apparently fell off the horsecart. All right, I'll go looking for it. There's nothing else to do anyway, as no one else, including Whilliam himself, would talk to me.
Indeed I find two bottles of something called Healing Tonic on the roadside, but those won't do for Fiona. I walk back and forth along all the roads twice, and there is nothing like a crate of medicines anywhere. I understand it's nighttime, but a crate that has fallen off a horsecart can't be so hard to find. I'm certain there is no crate. But Fiona just shrugs and doesn't say anything.
I return to the village and try to tell Almus that Whilliam has been found, but he acts like I'm speaking draugr language.
I decide I won't take this bullshit. I'll return to Hviterun and this nutcase community can go to hell. I think I'll kill Almus before I leave, though. He's clearly a mad tyrant. It's not proper to hold a man on a leash like this, as if he were a slave or cattle. Oh, and I ought to kill Olvar as well for taking advantage of me like he did. Then again, one could say it was my own fault. I acted like a whore and he treated me like a whore.
This is a bit complicated. I sit down in a secluded spot behind the houses and think it over. I come to the decision to kill Almus, because he's causing harm to his people, and not to kill Olvar, because maybe he acted the way he acted because he was depressed about something or whatever.
After choosing a well-hidden route to the sidegate through which I entered earlier, I choose a place where I believe to be as inconspicuous as possible, go into sneak mode, wait until no one is paying attention to me and then shoot Almus. He's dead. One shot. The sounds of agitated people, then the shouts of the guards fade slowly as I sneak along my escape route. The few people walking near the sidegate haven't noticed the commotion yet. Either that or they're not too unhappy about Almus's death. I waste no time getting out of this crazy place.
Back on the road outside Hviterun, I send a telepathical command to my followers to come to me. Then we head for Mara's Eye Pond in the east to kill that vampire who had killed the wife of the Morthal butcher. Our destination is in the mountains and my map shows no path leading there, so we'll have to improvise – go past Fort Amol towards Mixwater Mill and then start looking for a place where we can climb up.
So we start running east from Hviterun along the Windhelm highway. Opposite the Shrine of Talos, I make a brief stop and revel in sweet memories:
In the middle of the picture, you can see the path along which the giants descended with their mammoths.
On the left, in front of the two tall trees and above what looks like a cave entrance but is in fact a large niche,
is the place from which I outpatienced that ambushing thalmor.
In the niche is the shrine onto which I placed Torygg's warhorn.
On the left, in front of the two tall trees and above what looks like a cave entrance but is in fact a large niche,
is the place from which I outpatienced that ambushing thalmor.
In the niche is the shrine onto which I placed Torygg's warhorn.
Valtheim Towers has been resettled by new bandits. It was bound to happen sooner or later. We shoot a couple most audacious ones, but I can't be bothered to go up and hunt down the rest. We just proceed eastwards.
That banner indicates that we are crossing into Eastmarch Hold, the capital of which is Windhelm.
Safely out of the bandits' reach, we take a little break. Bending over the map, we discuss where to leave the main road in order to find a way into the mountains. I realize Rayya is always silent when we discuss combat strategy. She's an obeyer, not a planner. During the almost-month she's been running with us, I've learned that pretty much everyone in Hammerfell, boy or girl, is taught to use a sword and a bow, and Rayya showed special promise as a fighter, which is why she ended up joining a caravan traveling to Skyrim. (Maybe a more important reason was she wanted to have an adventure and get away from her overprotective parents.) However, she didn't enjoy the life of a caravan guard and decided to stay permanently in Skyrim. She has told me she was quite happy with her relatively quiet life in Falkert. Not that she regrets becoming my follower. She thoroughly enjoys our adventures, but that's mostly because it gives her an opportunity to see the world and, well, find out where would be the best place to have a home and a family, something she wasn't destined to have in Falkert. Basically I feel the same way about my adventures. It occurs to me now that when we're in settlements, Rayya often ends up walking with me and telling me about her childhood and such which I find utterly fascinating. It feels a little weird at times, with her telling and me just listening without sharing memories of my own, but Rayya has assured me she doesn't mind. She knows I can't remember.
At this moment, though, we are not talking about childhood memories. I, Lydia and Jenassa quickly come to an agreement that as soon as we have crossed the bridge between Fort Amol and Mixwater Mill, the hills on the left side ought to be accessible enough.
We continue our journey. The weather is warm and the views are charming:
The terrain looks very difficult in the previous two pictures, but once the winding highway has crossed the river, it turns out surprisingly easy to find an ascendable slope in the place we expected. Getting close to our destination, we see some kind of a stone gateway and next to it a humanoid shape. Don't tell me it's a spriggan. Yes, it is. I don't know if it would have been possible to just sneak past it, but now we have to kill it.
Mara's Eye Pond is, well, a pond, and it has a small island in the middle. I swim over first and find there are several mudcrabs living on it. I have never taken them seriously, but now I have an opportunity to learn that two mucrabs attacking you simultaneously from different directions is no joking matter.
The horrible vampire with a sinister demonic name is, though. He's dead before he even spots me, and his two helpers aren't much better. I'm not sure if my followers even got a chance to fire one shot.
I'm pretty sure there's something valuable underwater, but I'm too lazy (Lydia says "squeamish") to dive in there.
We swim back from the islet to the shore:
Note the dead mudcrab on the left.
Now we proceed northeast down the slope and soon we have the impressive stone fortifications of a city that must be Windhelm before us. As far as I understand, this is where the rebel leader Ulfric Stormcloak rules, rather than the Empire. Might be interesting.
Having entered through the main gate, we witness some argument between Nords and elves, something to do with the latter not caring about the holy war of the storks. I won't stop to find out the particulars. We go to the inn where I ask the innkeeper Elda if she has a letter for Reginald. She has, and she doesn't mind handing it over to me, even though my name obviously can't be Reginald.
The letter is about some criminal scheme. Someone calling himself M informs his partner Reginald that he'll be stealing valuable items from a caravan he's traveling with, and hide them, leaving notes with clues as to their whereabouts for Reginald. The first one will be in Bitchen, a city further south. Fine.
Then I let the girls walk around on their own while I go to the palace to report to the steward about that killed giant. He thanks me and gives me the reward as promised in the bounty letter. We speak in an oblong hall, at the father end of which is a throne. On it sits a man in whom I recognize Ulfric. He's really imposing when not bound and gagged. He shows no sign of remembering me from Helgen.
I exit the palace and do some leisurely sightseeing and, um, gossip-absorbing? Among other things, I visit the house of a man named Calixto. He's keeping a museum of sorts. There doesn't seem to be anything unusual about the man, but somehow my intuition tells me I have to pay very close attention to him and find out more about him. I look everywhere in his house, once he has invited me to admire his collection. I notice a locked chest. I'd love to find out what's inside, but it has the kind of lock I'm unable to pick. I won't pickpocket Calixto for the key. Satisfying my curiosity is not worth the risk of getting caught stealing and thereby making myself a public enemy in this city.
I meet my followers on the marketplace. I learn a woman from the powerful Shatter-Shield family has been murdered and the city is buzzing with the wildest rumors. But I won't stick around to hear more right now. I'm headed for the smithy nearby.
The blacksmith Oengul is kind enough to let me use his equipment. While I work, I hear his assistant, a young woman named Hermir, tell him someone named Aventus Aretino is supposedly doing some black magic at home. I don't really care.
We all get to wear those super-strong Vampire Armors now.
Our gloves and helmets still leave something to be desired.
Our gloves and helmets still leave something to be desired.
After I've reequipped my followers, most shops have already closed, but I'm still fortunate enough to find sufficiently many traders to sell all our excess loot to.
It's past 8 now. Yesterday, I slept all day and was up all night. Right now, I don't feel sleepy, just pleasantly tired. This city is giving me wings. It's strange, but I feel surprisingly well among these heavy, massive, robust (and, let's face it, sometimes askew) structures. I tell my girls to walk around without me, keep their eyes and ears open and not get separated from each other (unless, of course, somone comes across an interesting man she'd like to be alone with). Me, I stroll back towards the palace in the dusk, just taking it all in.
I enter the palace and walk around without any specific purpose. I notice a man who is apparently Ulfric's military commander. He looks awesomely strong. I'd like to make love to him, but there doesn't seem to be any privacy in the palace with guards walking back and forth everywhere. Can I muster the courage to ask him to visit me in my inn room?
Gosh, what am I thinking? He can obviously order the guards to stay away from his room. He's their superior officer, isn't he?
So, believe in yourself Laura. You are pretty, your attire is in order, your hair is in order. He'll like you all right. You've been there before. You can walk up to him and start a conversation. Just greet politely and introduce yourself and ask him what he does and let him tell you how excited he is to free his people from the Empire's yoke, and look deep into his eyes and smile occasionally. He'll come around.
Yes, he does. His name is Yrsarald and he takes me to one of the nicer rooms upstairs. His bedroom, in fact. Ulfric's is right next door and of course I have to take a peek inside:
The next moment I'm dragged away and Yrsarald is all over me.
His room is somewhat smaller than Ulfric's, but has also a fireplace and feels even cozier. We make wild love in moonlight coming in through blue glass windows. It gives the room a breathtakingly magical atmosphere.
But screw the room. Yrsarald's mighty dick drills my cunt for three quarters of an hour. Now there's a man!
I'm insane with happiness. I doubt those walls are thick enough to muffle my screams, but I don't care. This is the climax of my life, both in the literal and figurative sense.
Excuse me, I'll have to stop writing for a mo.................................
* * *
I open my eyes. I see hairs on the chest next to the shoulder on which my cheek is resting. Yrsarald tells me I slept, like, 10 minutes. Seriously? I fell asleep? (I don't think it has ever happened to me before; after sex, I mean.) Yes, I did, he says. But I can't stay the night. Ulfric himself doesn't keep women overnight, so his subordinates aren't allowed either. It's called military discipline. Eastmarch Hold is at war.
That's all right. I understand. As long as I can come back.
The corridors are being patrolled even at this late hour. Trying not to look at the guards, I quietly walk down the stairs. The huge throne room is completely empty. That includes the throne. I can't resist the impulse to sit on it. I might never get another chance.
I look at the beautiful furniture. Suddenly I feel so naughty that I take off my clothes. I sit on Jarl Ulfric's throne, stark naked, Yrsarald's sperm flowing out of me slowly. (You'd like to see that, wouldn't you?) I close my eyes for a moment. When I open them again, I happen to look more closely at the main door in the other end of the hall and I see two guards. I realize they were there all the time and they saw everything. Merciful heaven, what have I done? Lightning-fast, I get dressed again. As I walk the longest walk through the vastness of the throne room, I keep my eyes on the floor, but I still can't help seeing the guards' wide happy grins. It realize they won't tell Yrsarald, because then they'd have to explain why they didn't arrest me for desecrating the jarl's throne, and arrest me they can't, because they're too grateful for the show. In their current state of exhilaration, they're utterly unable to lift a finger against me. How long it'll last, I don't know. Hopefully long enough for me to get out that door. Otherwise, I'd be completely at their mercy, and that would be much too horrible after my recent journey to supreme heights of carnal delight.
I keep on walking. It's all I can do. Shortly before the exit, I lift my eyes and give the guards a coy smile before uttering a polite "good night" like a well-bred little girl.
I sigh the mother and father of all sighs of relief when the heavy door closes behind me. The guards outside wouldn't know that anything is out of the ordinary, so I walk by the shortest straightest route to the nearest corner casually like a regular unconcerned citizen. Out of their sight, I run as fast as I can until I'm completely out of breath.
I'm in an unknown neighborhood. I start walking back the way I came. This is a residential area and the streets are completely empty at this hour, save for a rare guard. The sight of the supposedly empty throne room rises up in my mind's eye. I can't believe I failed to notice those two guards. Actually, I should have remembered there were guards both inside and outside. Whatever. Should they talk, I can just make an innocent face and deny everything. I'm good at looking innocent. They have no proof and I'm the lover of a very mighty man.
The lover? Or a lover?
I suddenly realize I'm thinking about joining the Stormcloaks. Stop it, Laura! What's gotten into you? Are you in love or something?
Yeah. Come to think of it, I am in love. And what's supposed to be wrong with that?
Around the next street corner, I notice at some distance the cemetery which I passed by earlier today. In order to avoid the vicinity of the palace, I choose a different route to the inn. By the time I arrive there, I feel completely calm again.
My followers are waiting for me, sitting around a small table. They see it. They can't wait to hear about it. No, you hussies, not now! Either you keep your mouths completely shut or you'll sleep in these very chairs tonight.
I try not to look in their faces while we go to the reception and I rent a room for us. When Rayya puts out the light, I believe to see Yrsarald's face in the darkness. I close my eyes and sink into marvelous black relish.
next awakening
