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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
4-201-09-27 10:52
Vilemyr Inn, Ivarsted, The Rift, Skyrim
I'm the last one to awake this morning. I go to the taproom and say good morning to Rayya. She informs me Lydia and Jenassa went out. So seems to have done the innkeeper Wilhelm. The only person at the inn apart from us is Bassianus, Fastred's boyfriend. I wonder if he has nothing better to do in the morning.
I ask Rayya to keep me company in the bath. Away from male ears, she tells me Bassianus chatted her up big time until Wilhelm came in and asked him about his plans with Fastred and he answered noncommittally that he doesn't really know because her parents don't want him anywhere near her.
Yeah, I think I'm getting the picture.
I look at Rayya and once again I have this feeling of having something very important in common with her, maybe even more so than with Lydia. During the month she's been with us, I have found out about how she ended up coming to Skyrim and generally a lot about her past, but I haven't asked her about her intimate relationships, because I wasn't sure she'd be comfortable talking about it. I think this is a suitable moment.
Rayya tells me she hadn't had anyone before she came to Skyrim. It's unusual in Hammerfell for the girls to remain virgins so long, but it kind of happened. She was very shy about letting boys touch her and the other girls even teased her because of it.
En route to Skyrim, Rayya was very uncomfortable with the caravan boss's insistence. She didn't know what to do about it and that's the reason why she escaped and asked Jarl Siddgeir of Falkreath to give her a job. She quickly learned he would want certain favors too, and she would have to give in because there was nowhere else she could go. And so she agreed to become Siddgeir's girlfriend. He wasn't exactly faithful, but it was clear to her that things could be much worse, apart from which he had saved her from real trouble, so all in all she was pretty content with her life. Eventually he grew bored with her, though, and that's most likely the reason why he gave her to me to take away.
I wonder if her caravan boss raped her, but I don't think it's a good idea to ask her about it now. Instead I tell her Siddgeir is the kind of man who would grow bored with any woman after a while. I've discussed it thoroughly with Lydia in the past and she's certain of that.
Rayya and I remain silent for a long time and look each other in the eye. Only when I hear Lydia and Jenassa's loud voices do I climb out of the bathtub. Rayya keeps eyeing me while I dry myself. Then Lydia and Jenassa come in and Rayya stands up.
"Good morning, sleepyhead!" Lydia greets me with jovial cordiality.
"You drunk or something?" I ask while I finish drying myself down there. I know it's afternoon, but what's the big deal about my sleeping late?
"I don't know why she's like that today," says Jenassa. "I had to hold her. She wanted to run ten laps around the village." Lydia hits her playfully.
"If you do that, Lydia, you'd better find a man to chase you," I say, reaching for my armor. "In fact, I can recommend you one."
"Get out of here!" Lydia understands immediately whom I mean. I wonder if Bassianus has tried to chat her up too.
I look at her and can't help bursting out in laughter. I so love my followers, all three of them.
Today we will go looking for Katria's ghost and the Aetherium Forge. It shouldn't be far and I'm most excited. But first we'll need to get rid of our loot. It's not much, but we are likely to be facing new enemies, so we need to free as much carrying capacity as possible. I also use the opportunity to brew some potions at the Alchemy Lab in the village shop kept by an adorably amicable woman Marni. Then I remember to read a letter I took from the dead Pigmasks last night. It would appear that they came from Solstheim on the orders of a certain Miraak who insists he's the real Dragonborn. My girls know Solstheim is an island in the Morrowind province and it has ship connection to Windhelm. Looks like we'll have to go there and teach that Miraak jerk some manners.
But that's not going to happen today. We head south. In the location I believe to correspond to the one marked in Katria's journal, we find the Rift Imperial Camp instead. This means that The Rift Hold is stork territory and the imps are keeping up an insurgency. I'm having half the mind to walk up to the soldiers who are idling the sunny day away and ask: "Guys, haven't you seen an Aetherium Forge somewhere around here?" But I figure we'd better go a little further to the east. (In the west, there are high mountains.)
We get lucky. Not far from the imp camp is a Dwemer structure called Ruins of Bthalft, and Katria's ghost is there.
Katria shows me a thing of unknown construction and purpose on a stone platform. She has figured out that our four pieces of aetherium should fit into the empty space on that apparatus like a key into a lock, and then something might happen. So I try.
I hear rumbling and Katria shouts: "Get back! Hurry!" I leap off the platform. A few seconds later, its central part begins to rise and a tower 20 or 30 meters high springs up from the ground. It's a most spectacular sight.
[series of 5 pictures you can click through; click on the first picture to make it big, then click again to see the next picture etc.; press Esc to return to the text]
A Dwemer elevator has appeared. We use it to go in after the dust has settled.
The elevator takes us into a huge underground space. We walk, looking carefully in every direction, but there are no automatons attacking us. Katria says nobody has been here in thousands of years.
A fire started to burn on top of that pedestal when we approached.
There are several other lights that are turned on as if by itself as soon as we get close enough.
Such automated magic is far beyond anything the mages of today could create (says Jenassa).
There are several other lights that are turned on as if by itself as soon as we get close enough.
Such automated magic is far beyond anything the mages of today could create (says Jenassa).
Caves, passages, doors... Finally we are in a big hall. There's a large construction and behind it is a lake of something dark yellow that looks like molten metal or stone.
We go closer and look around a bit, and then we are attacked by several waves of Dwemer automatons.
The battle is an absolute horror. I succeed in delivering death blows to one or two of those killer machines, and after that I completely lose control of the situation. I can only run away and try to heal myself without getting hit by other automatons appearing heaven knows from where. When I finally get a grip of myself, I see a huge walking machine, but we succeed in killing it before it can reach us. Katria starts telling me something, but I won't listen. I can only look around frantically trying to verify in the much-less-than-perfect light that all my followers are alive. Yes, they are. I think I'm almost as happy about it as Katria is about finding the Aetherium Forge.
She says we need to verify that this is indeed the Aetherium Forge. We need to craft something. I should have the honor, she says, because I've been of such tremendous help, and, well, because I have physical hands to operate that thing with.
With the materials I have brought with me and gathered from the pieces scattered all over the hall, I could craft one of three things – a circlet, a staff or a shield.
I choose the Aetherial Staff . It allows me to conjure a temporary "ghost" of a Dwemer machine to fight for me.
After I've finished, Katria says the successful forging of that staff proves that this is indeed the Aetherium Forge. The goal of her... undeath has been achieved.
Katria would probably hug us all with tears in her eyes if she could. Being what she is, she has to settle for telling us how happy and grateful she is and that she can rest in peace now. After cordial goodbyes, we witness our dear friend dissolving to never appear to us again. It's a profoundly touching moment.
[series of 2 pictures you can click through; click on the first picture to make it big, then click again to see the next picture etc.; press Esc to return to the text]
On the left: a part of that giganting killer machine we destroyed last.
We go out. Since it's already past 9 o'clock in the evening, we return to Ivarsted for the night.
The innkeeper Wilhelm tells us there's a terrifying ancient stone structure called Shroud Hearth Barrow near Ivarsted. The villagers don't dare go near it, because it's haunted by, as he puts it, spirits whose glare burned right through his soul that one time he was stupid enough to go there. Fortunately, the spirits haven't approached the village. They seem to be guarding the barrow.
We chat some more and then the girls and I go to sleep.
next awakening
