———————————————
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
4-202-01-02 14:55
High Hrothgar, Whiterun, Skyrim
I've slept unusually late, but we still have plenty of time to reach Ivarsted in daylight and possibly even do something meaningful today.
As we descend the snowy steps, I reflect, with a fair degree of resentment, how gullible some people seem to think I am.
During our conversations, Arngeir has said essentially the same thing to me Rudelphine did: "I have found a way to use you for my purposes and that's why you must never let anyone bring you away from my goals." I wonder if either of them has any idea how infinitely despicable they make themselves in my eyes with such attitude?
How hard can it be to realize that I pursue my own goals, and I can help other people with their goals, but only as long as they're not at odds with my own?
My primary goal is to get my memory back and find out if I have any family alive, and if I do, to meet them.
My secondary goal is to find a man to establish a family with. Actually, it's my primary goal. To pass on life is more important than finding out about the past. But the second goal can wait a few more years.
All in all, it would be more correct to say my most important goal right now is to find out about my past while keeping my eyes open for the most suitable fiancé. My followers agree that this is the proper wording.
What I really meant to say, though, is that Rudelphine's wish to defeat Alduin is at best fourth or fifth on my list of priorities, and the elusive spiritual pursuits of the Gaybores are of no importance to me whatsoever, unless they have access to some essential information about my past, in which case I'll need to do them whichever favors they require to share it with me. I guess I'll try discussing it with Paarthurnax first, the next time I visit him. Even though he claims ignorance of downtoearthly affairs, he seems free of selfish crusaderly concerns of petty humans, so maybe he'll be able to give me some kind of a lead.
I must have an elder brother and a younger sister. I have a distinct feeling that my brother is 7 years older than me. I don't know about my sister, but I always treated her like a child, even when she was already a teenager. Shame on me! Guess I had made her the object of my overwhelming desire to take care of someone, the way my brother always cared for me and protected me.
I stop walking when tears obscure my sight as fleeting pictures from the past come into my mind's eye. A moment later, they're gone again. It's all right, girls. I'll tell you later. Let's go. Look, isn't that a troll over there?
Yeah, never mind the troll. A few minutes after we've left it behind, a dragon attacks us.
He looks like he has overslept and then eaten a very large breakfast.
I'm surprised he can get his body off the ground at all.
I'm surprised he can get his body off the ground at all.
We kill him easily and soon we're in Ivarsted where we meet Fastred on the street. She is eager to find out if we've done anything super exciting recently. Of course. You can come with us to the inn if you're sure you won't get in trouble with your possessive parents again.
Fastred decides to give it a miss this time. I have the feeling she's more afraid of potentially embarrassing herself in the presence of Bassianus than a possible reprimand from her parents.
I decide to take a look at the madman Narfi rather than go to the inn where I might have to listen to that skeez Bassianus again. I kind of feel doing a good deed to someone, even if it's completely insignificant in the global perspective. The girls had better stay behind and keep company to Fastred rather than accompany me and potentially scare the wits out of the poor guy who the villagers assure is harmless.
Narfi is quite mad and evidently it's because he's grieving his sister Reyda who got lost. From the little what he's able to say coherently, I get that the innkeeper Wilhelm has assured him Reyda will soon return.
Wilhelm confirms exactly what I had suspected – he has no idea what happened to Reyda; he was only trying to make Narfi feel less awful.
Wilhelm knows Reyda made frequent trips to the nearby island in the lake, so should I want to search for her, that would be the only specific place he could possibly think of.
I thank him and head for the lake.
Standing on the shore and looking at the water, I realize that if a woman got lost on her way to the island, it might be a good idea to search underwater first. So I take off my clothes, cast the Waterbreathing spell and only then remember to look around me. Dammit! I stripped in view of a guard patrolling up on the bridge. Well, can't be helped now. Trying to act like nothing is out of the ordinary, I quickly jump into the water.
I don't need to swim around for long until I see a dead body. Practically a skeleton, to be more precise. Almost the only thing the fish have left is an amulet. This person's name was Reyda all right.
I resurface under the bridge where I get dressed, arrange my hair as well as I can, and return to Narfi, without seeing that guard from earlier. I give him the amulet and when he asks when will Reyda come home, I risk replying Reyda will no longer come home, because she's dead. Narfi breaks out in tears and I stand there at loss what to do. But then he calms down and says: well, at least I have Reyda's necklace to remind me of her. He thanks me for bringing it to him. The end of uncertainty and anxious waiting seems to have done good to him. Sad as he may be, he no longer needs to worry. As he turns away to return to his daily routine, whatever that may consist of, I walk back over the bridge to meet up with my followers. It was a very right decision to go and talk to Narfi. And I pray to the gods my brother hasn't gone crazy waiting for me to come home.
It's half past six and the sun is already setting, but it's not too dark yet to actually go somewhere tonight. Our final destination is Winterhold which would mean traveling across all the eastern part of Skyrim. That's far too much for one evening, but we should easily be able to reach at least Darkwater in spite of the difficult terrain. As joyful as the colored holiday lanterns above the main street may be, I feel no desire to hang around in Ivarsted. The girls aren't all that keen either. Darkwater is a much nicer place, and by traveling there now we'll be making good use of the remaining daylight hours.
So we get going. The weather is really nice. It's a delight to be hiking here right now.
We reach the edge of the mountain range pretty quickly. The descent looks awfully frightening, but in fact isn't all that bad. It's not even eight o'clock yet when we stand on the western end of the bridge that leads across the river to the houses of Darkwater.
I say: girls, let's proceed to Windhelm right away! Then we can be in Summerset tomorrow. (The spell for traveling to Summerset works only in Winterhold.)
We pass by Fort Amol without seeing anyone. At Mixwater Mill, we exchange a few words with Gilfre. After that, as we're about to proceed along the highway under the beautiful northern lights, I suddenly get a warning from Bardslayer. I have to watch out for an Orc man waiting for me on the roadside quite close. It is imperative that I kill him before he can get near me.
I go into the sneak mode and tell my followers to spread out damn well, so whatever that may hit me won't get them too. I equip my strongest bow, make sure the arrows are poisoned, put on my best sneaking gear and take a Fortify Sneaking potion. With my bow at the ready, I begin to prowl forward very slowly in the darkness in the midst of the bushes and high grass on the riverbank, looking in the direction of the road and casting Sense of Smell after every few paces. I don't know what exactly this is about, but Bardslayer has transmitted me the feeling of extreme tension.
When I have covered maybe 50 meters, but it could as well have been only 20, I can indeed detect something moving towards me in the darkness. I immediately take a shot and the target falls down dead. Getting closer, I learn it was an Orc man all right. The girls and I observe our surroundings most carefully. I have the feeling he wasn't alone, but we can't detect anyone. Eventually, I decide we'll just move on.
We pass by the Secret Enclave without meeting anyone and a little after half past nine we enter through the main gate of Windhelm. A huge burden falls off my shoulders when the big metal gate slams shut behind us.
I don't feel like going to see Yrsarald. I promised him I won't raise any objections to backdoor sex, but I didn't say anything about when it's going to happen. And I had it done to me only two nights ago and I just can't stand the thought of submitting to it again so soon. Lydia thinks it's all right if I skip meeting with Yrsarald this once. And should he dump me just because he finds out I was in the city and left without seeing him, she says, then he's not the right man for me to begin with. I agree with her, but I decide nevertheless we'll go straight home without even dropping by the inn. Apart from which, I feel really tired.
As I close my eyes in bed and listen to the barely audible street sounds, everything that happened on Mount Nexus flies past my mind's eye once again. Suddenly, I see myself back at the Mixwater Mill. We begin to run towards Windhelm feeling light and carefree. I see someone on the roadside and slow down. It's an Orc man. He informs us that he belongs to a sect that worships the true god of the Orcs and fights against the traitors who worship Malacath. He needs someone to help him defeat the heretics. I try to tell him I'm not interested. He says it doesn't matter, it was all a ruse anyway. And then something falls upon me and I wake up lying on the ground. In the bright light, I see man's legs right in front of my nose and a harsh voice tells someone (maybe me) to stand up. As I do that, I become aware of two more men around me. Calling me scum and whatnot, they sneeringly tell me I'll be sold to slavery and trained into an obedient servant.
They take me to a large hall where I'm lined up among other people who are naked, shackled and gagged (as, as I now realize, am I). Most of them are women. Before leaving me standing on my assigned place, the guards won't fail to whisper me that the slaves sold to a certain location whose name doesn't mean anything to me get their tongues cut off so they won't talk back – nor be able to tell anyone what's been done to them.
We are brought forward from the stage one by one to be looked over and groped by a score of prospective buyers, and then auctioned off to the highest bidder. There's an Argonian man whom no one wants, and at the auctioneer's sign the servants just stab him to death and drag his corpse away. I am sold next, to an elven man in a green garb whose left eye glows in green, similar to the yellow glow in hungry vampires' eyes.
Unable to do anything to defend myself, I'm taken away, having to leave my followers behind, naked and shackled just like myself, to be sold to gods know whom gods know where.
I understand now why the guards were so hateful. They have to witness day in, day out, how naked women are being sold to some toffs in fancy clothes loaded with cash while they have to settle for watching. That's why they abuse us all they can.
I am anaesthetized and wake up after an unknown period of time in a small metal cage. Formidably built as it may be, the door is unlocked. Rather astonished, I step out. There's another such cage in a few meters from mine and that's pretty much all that fits into this... room? Cave?
All my things and money are gone, but my hands are not bound, my mouth is not gagged and I've even been dressed in some rags. In more practical terms, this means I can do spells and shouts, as well as use my Khajiit Claws . And yet I can't believe this has happened to me. All my inventory, tediously gathered piece by piece over a long time, more than 600,000 septims of money – all gone. Worst of all, Lydia, Jenassa and Jordis have been brought to unknown locations. I have little doubt that I can break free from here, but will I ever be able to find them? Will they even want to see me in the state they'll be by then – raped, beaten, possibly brandmarked or even mutilated? How can I go on living with the knowledge I brought it upon them?
My owner enters, still wearing that same green garb. He's somewhat haughty and short-tempered, but I've seen much worse in Skyrim. He informs me that this cage will be my home from now on. I ask him a few questions, but then I realize I'm just not in the mood for conversation. I disable him easily with the Slow Time shout and kill him.
In the other cage sits a vampire man who won't talk to me. In fact, he acts like he's not even aware of being talked to. I go through the passage into a big cave filled with furniture and such. It may well qualify as living quarters by elven standards. I search it thoroughly and take whatever I may be able to use. Then I exit into a huge badly lighted cavern with large jellyfish-shaped glowing things hanging in the air. I see a "house" similar to the one I just came out of. It's locked. I try to break in, but I have only one lockpick on me and when that breaks I have to give up.
I realize I made a bad mistake earlier. I should have kept talking to that elven man, found out what orders he would have given me, and gone along with this slavery thing until I had found out the whereabouts of my followers, and possibly even my inventory. The way things stand now, I'm not even sure I can ever find a way out of this place or anyone to ask. But it's done and I can't turn the time back.
I believe to vaguely see yet another "house" at the farther end of the cavern. As I walk in that direction, the world around me suddenly flickers and disappears.
next awakening
return to the table of contents
