———————————————
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
4-202-01-15 07:11
Mages' Guild, Shimmerene, Summerset, Aldmeri Dominion
We waste no time. As soon as we've had our bath and breakfast, I use the spell to bring us to Winterhold.
I doubt any magical teleportation can be more depressing than the one from the fairytale yellow sand on the warm and sunny Shimmerene beach to the biting cold in the northeastern Skyrim where even noon is semidark but it doesn't matter much because your eyes are full of snowflakes anyway.
Come to think of it, the teleportation to that cage in the auction house in my nightmare was a lot worse – if it was teleportation. But let's not dwell on that now. We've got to get moving or we'll turn into snowwomen here.
Without going inside, we descend through the arches below the College bridge to the ocean shore.
From there, we travel to the west. I want to investigate that strange little turret or statue on the protruding rock at the edge of a high cliff we saw last time. From there we'll proceed to Dånstar and take a ship to Falskaar.
8 o'clock in the morning is just about the perfect time to begin our exploration, sunlight-wise. Too bad the snowfall is particularly heavy this morning. But there's nothing we can do about it. I cheer up considerably upon the sight of a lovely polar fox. If that plucky animal spends its entire life here in these conditions, we can put up with half a day of it too.
From where we are, we can't see anything resembling that place with the turret, but the coast area isn't all that large, so I'm confident we'll succeed eventually.
Running over the sea surface covered with blocks of ice, we end up on an island and discover one of those ancient Nordic structures that consist of a big round hole in the earth, stone stuff around it, and a dungeon entrance down below. This one is called Ysgramor's Tomb. I have no intention to explore the interior. Outdoors, there's no one about.
We proceed along the western coast of the island and discover a Shrine of Talos. Found a place to build a shrine!
I think this location epitomizes Nord stubbornness like nothing else.
The island continues in the northwesterly direction. I'm surprised to find it's not quite as desolate as one might think:
We end up on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a grim world of water, ice and rock.
Even the Winterhold College can be seen through the air filled with snowflakes, but nothing like a small column or turret on a protruding rock.
All right, let's try to find a safe path down.
Back on the shore, we run farther to the west, partly over blocks of ice, partly in shallow water, until we reach the next island.
This is the one with those huge stone arches I've been wondering about in the past. There are staircases and statues and things. The place is called Yngvild.
I don't care about exploring it. We go forward and end up once again on the edge of a deadly drop tens of meters high, overlooking snowy mountains and the icy ocean.
I remember that maid in Old Falls yesterday. "Girls, have you ever seen an Argonian being whipped on the butt?"
Lydia looks at Jenassa who asks "What about it?"
"What do they do with their tails?"
"They lift them up," she confirms what I had thought.
"And when they won't, will it be tied up or something?"
"Not necessary," Jenassa replies with a hint of a grin. "A lash on the tail hurts a lot more than on the butt."
"Really?"
"Sure. Just like it hurts more on the back than on the butt."
Jordis nods. "The buttocks are the least pain-sensitive body part."
How does she know? I look at her enquiringly.
"I used to work in the Solitud prison," she explains with a somewhat shy look on her face, as if regretting what she just said.
"That's why the butt is whipped mostly in the bedroom, but serious punishments are done on other body parts," Jenassa enlightens me.
Wow. I had no idea. I thought public whippings were done on the back in order to spare the offenders the shame of exposing their private parts.
We descend and find a place where we can get to the mainland almost dry. And then, dammit to hell, we're seeing that thing on a high protruding rock:
How did we end up bypassing it and how will we be able to get up there?
I realize the place is much closer to the mainland than I had thought, and we circled around it from the north. :-(
We couldn't go directly to the west from the point 0, because there were mountains in the way.
So we went north and then followed the coast and interesting objects, not realizing we were going in a wrong direction.
Number 5 is where we are now. The question mark is approximately where that mysterious object appears to be.
FYI, what's marked as water on the map is mostly very thick ice.
So we went north and then followed the coast and interesting objects, not realizing we were going in a wrong direction.
Number 5 is where we are now. The question mark is approximately where that mysterious object appears to be.
FYI, what's marked as water on the map is mostly very thick ice.
The only good thing is that the snowfall has more or less ceased and visibility is good.
Now we go to that peninsula, doing our best to not lose sight of our goal. We pass under that very protruding rock and circle clockwise the mountain whose slopes are practically vertical. On the eastern side, we find what seems to be the only path up the mountain. And there it finally is!
It's one of the Standing Stones – The Tower Stone. The special power you can get from it is pretty useless, so I won't take it, but I'm happy I found the place. And the view is great, too. I don't even mind it has started to snow again.
We now return to the mainland and run to Dånstar which is no longer far. By the way, that small tower just outside Dånstar which I told you earlier could be a modest lighthouse is indeed a lighthouse. There's a fire burning in it this time.
In Dånstar, I get a new hairstyle. I'm totally fed up with the one I've had so far.
Cutting one's long hair short like this would generally be scary,
because you can never know if you'll regret it a week (or an hour) later.
How lucky we are that hairstyle mages can make it long again just as easily as cut it off! :-)
because you can never know if you'll regret it a week (or an hour) later.
How lucky we are that hairstyle mages can make it long again just as easily as cut it off! :-)
Along with walking around and exchanging news with people, I also do my crafting. I'm a little disappointed that I can't enchant almost anything. We haven't found any new cool enchantments for ages. Then again, enchanting requires souls of (formerly) living creatures, so maybe it's not good to do it at all.
It's almost morning when I'm finally done. My followers are already sleeping. Lydia has taken her boyfriend into her bed which, by an unwritten rule, has until today been my prerogative, but last night I wasn't there, so I guess it's legit. Well, It's not like I mind. The "rule" has in fact more to do with my girls being shy of displaying their intimate relationships so openly.
I lay out the girls' new gear for them, and go to sleep too.
next awakening
return to the table of contents
