———————————————
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
4-202-01-09 11:01
Grove Dwelling, Ebon, Summerset, Aldmeri Dominion
I wash myself and then go to the town and find my followers who of course woke up long before me. They have been helping the locals with repairing one of the houses. Or maybe they were just watching and commenting. I don't care. We need to get going, right now. It's almost noon and I want to check out the Cloudrest traders in case one of them has the formerly mine Staff of Magnus.
As we run to the north, I begin to think that we're not really in such an awful hurry. We'll need to go to Shimmerene later, and in any case we'll have enough time to reach it this evening, and in any case we won't reach it early enough to travel anywhere further today. So we can take it easy.
What I haven't yet decided is whether we'll return to Skyrim tonight or find a place to sleep in Shimmerene and continue exploring Summerset tomorrow. Nice as this island may be, we've got rather pressing matters to attend to in Skyrim and Fals...
Excuse me, I'm seeing something hostile ahead. Three men, running towards us, each one waving with some metal junk he's holding in his right hand. Of course they never get a chance to hit us. One of the men is quite good-looking. Was.
We soon reach the foot of a staircase that goes further north, but we take instead the steep uphill road east. It leads to the houses of Cloudrest. I still don't have a clear idea of the layout of the town, but I know the general direction of the king's palace, in the basement of which those traders work. So it probably won't be too difficult for us to find our way there, not even among all those hills and winding streets.
But right now I sit down on this very roadside and say: "Let's have a little rest, girls."
I lean my back against the stone barrier you can see in the picture above, stretch out my legs and say pensively to no one in particular: "I'm fed up with all of this. I don't mean Summerset, I mean all this warrior life. I want to go home to my family."
The girls are visibly puzzled. "I thought you don't remember your home and family," Jordis says cautiously.
"They're in High Rock," I reply softly. "I remember now. I mean, I know my parents and siblings are alive. Don't ask me how I know. I just know."
"You mean your elder brother and your younger sister?" asks Lydia who has sat down very close to me and put her hand on my forearm.
I nod. "All my grandparents are dead. I have many relatives all over High Rock, but I can't remember any specifics."
"Do you know what your mother looks like?"
I think for a moment. "No. Not yet."
I tell them my father was a warrior smart enough to retire early. I've no idea how I suddenly remember. My mother just took care of the family. I'm trying to recall how they met, but I can't remember. I mean, obviously I wasn't there when they met, I'm just trying to recall what I've been told about their first meeting, but I can't remember anything at this point.
However, my father strongly associates in my mind with Blacklight. That's in Morrowind, isn't it, Jenassa? Yes, she says, it is. It's the capital of Morrowind.
Well, I know my father must have lived for years in Blacklight, and maybe my mother did and maybe I'm even from there. I don't know. I'm no longer entirely sure my parents live in High Rock at this moment. Although I do remember having spent a lot of time in High Rock and I can't recall ever being in Blacklight myself. Could be I was born in Morrowind and brought to High Rock when I was very small. Or not.
Lydia's voice awakens me from musings. "Can you recall any names?"
I shake my head. I know names would help me ahead a lot. With the help of a name, a really good mage has even a chance of locating a person. Unfortunately, all I know at this moment is that Laura is certainly my real first name.
The point is, I'm beginning to gradually remember things. And even the little I've remembered by now has awoken in me a compelling urge to leave Skyrim behind and travel to High Rock and start searching for my family. I mean, all else failing I could just travel from town to town looking for someone who would recognize me.
The problem is I've no idea how to get from Skyrim to High Rock.
"You'd better stick around for a while, Laura," says Jenassa the Mature and Sensible. "If you succeed in putting an end to the civil war, they'll give you your own ship to take you anywhere in the world you might want to go."
I grin in spite of myself. "Right. Thanks. Let's go."
This street is on a rather steep mountain slope. We came from the right and the street ascends to our left and behind.
We walk uphill, knocking on doors. Most people are not home. In one house, though, is an Imperial man Syrius who likes the Aldmeri Dominion for, as he puts it, having brought unity and peace to Tamriel. We learn his wife's grandparents lived in a location called Dusk in the southeastern Summerset, but it was overrun by criminals. He would really appreciate it if we could spare the time to go and try to find something that belonged to her grandparents. Anything that would remind his wife of them. Sure, why not. Even though it's weird to like the Aldmeri Dominion. But I've nothing against traveling and exploring.
At the end of the street is that outdoors bar. We won't hang around, though. It's past 3 in the afternoon already. We go straight to the Underground Market. I succeed in getting a better look at that trader Saulian. He is wearing pants.
Sadly, no one among the traders here has got the Staff of Magnus.
While we sit down to rest our legs a little, I reflect on the words of Syrius and I suddenly realize there is surprisingly much racial variety in Summerset. In fact, one sees more humans here than one sees elves in Skyrim. This is surprising, to say the very least, in a country we've always held for supremacist and oppressive. Maybe the Dominion isn't quite as bad as I've been assuming?
Why do the Nords insist on worshipping Talos as a god anyway? After all, nobody denies Talos was a man of flesh and blood. I recall a line from a book I read some time ago: "Talos was a great man, but he was not a god."
Gosh! I'd better not share that thought with my followers. I stand up decisively. We'll head for Shimmerene now.
After descending the mountains to the Shrine of Auriel, we run south. Just short of Shimmerene, we get attacked by a group of fire mages. They're a bit nasty.
The building of the Mages' Guild and its surroundings look even more stunning than the last time.
I give Quillinda the book she wanted and ask if there's anything else I can do for her. She says there's an alchemist whom she would like to join the Guild and she'd be grateful if I went and talked to him on her behalf. Is he handsome? She says why don't I go and find out. Right. :-)
I ask Quillinda if it's normal for women to walk around naked in Summerset or if they may be forced to do so as punishment. Quillinda says the customs vary a little bit from one region to another, but she has never heard about such a punishment. However, it's not uncommon for prostitutes to walk around naked when the weather is really warm. They're tainted anyway, so nobody looks at them weirdly when they do, and they themselves have gotten over being ashamed of their nudity. Generally, people here are more relaxed about clothes than in Skyrim. Even officials and guards can wear quite revealing dresses. (Yeah, I've noticed.) But Quillinda definitely doesn't recommend for me and my followers to be seen in a public place in a state of undress.
However, she adds with the hint of a smirk on her face, they are very easygoing about intimate relations here at the guild. I wonder if she has noticed how I've been looking at that Khajiit guy Dulizar. I wonder if he has noticed. Well, whatever. I understand the rules on this island a little better now. Maybe that female Argonian farm worker is also providing services to men off-hours.
Since looking is all I can do with Dulizar today and for a few days to come, I go to find Master Bolwing now and give him the Mort Flesh . As I had guessed, this one ingredient in not enough. He'll need another one, from the other end of Summerset.
Back downstairs, I hear from my followers that Quillinda told them there's a village nearby. Yes, I think we even saw some houses earlier. It's almost 9 in the evening now. This means the traders will have gone home, but we can just as well look at the people and then come back to sleep and return to the village in the morning for shopping.
That's what the Shimmerene village looks like:
There are many houses, but the only people outdoors are two guards on the marketplace. There are a few people in the big temple, but they're leaving as well. Most people are in their homes and not too pleased to receive us at this time of evening. Having walked around a bit, we return to the Guild and retire to the students' dorm. There are 4-person rooms, some for male students, some for female ones. It's one dorm, meaning a men-only room and a women-only room can be next to each other, but there are no mixed-gender rooms.
Each one of us gets accommodated with three female students. I share a room with Berenice, Heloise and Noemie.
They're all Bretons from High Rock!! I can't believe my luck.
I ask them how to get from Skyrim to High Rock. They reply they don't know anything about Skyrim.
All right, how to get from Summerset to High Rock then?
They say there are ships traveling between Lillandril and Daggerfall (a harbor town in southwestern High Rock), but not very frequently, which is why you need to book a place in advance and you need a valid document.
What kind of a document?
An ID. A document with your name on it. They show me their High Rock IDs. It's got their first and last name as well as the place of permanent residence and the names of both parents. In order to make sure it can't be used by someone else, it has a magical square that changes color when the right person puts her finger on it, but doesn't when someone else does. The girls explain me that it's quite expensive to get a document like this, but you will need one in the Aldmeri Dominion.
Wait, no one has ever required a document from me in Summerset.
That's as long as you remain within one province, they explain patiently. You can travel all across Summerset and indeed spend your whole life here and no one cares who you are. But as soon as you want to cross into another province, you need a document.
So that's why Sylwia had to teleport me here like she did, I realize (and don't say).
Well, I have now found one possibility to physically get to High Rock, but it won't be of much use to me, because I don't have a document to prove my identity, and to the best of my knowledge nothing like that exists in Skyrim.
Do the authorities of High Rock demand a document from someone who enters the country, I ask.
Well, not where my three roommates come from, but it can differ from region to region.
I keep questioning the girls about High Rock until they insist they need to get some sleep because they'll have classes in the morning.
next awakening
return to the table of contents
