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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
4-202-01-19 14:07
Ruins of Vizemundsted, Falskaar
Here in this underground dungeon with less than perfect light, nothing but our intuitive knowledge of the time reminds us that it's afternoon already. We walk through Dwemer-built passages and halls and rooms and big open spaces, stopped by an occasional automaton or draugr, as well as a few moderately horrible traps.
I'm glad we don't have to put living creatures to death. These ones are in fact longing to get together with their own kind.
Eventually we find a book titled "The Heart Chamber". That's the one we have come here to get. Nearby is an elevator which brings us to the ground northwest of Amber Creek. Meaning, we have covered a huge distance underground and passed below the Amber River!
It's dark already. The way to Amber Creek is easy, though. Loaded over capacity, I take an increase-carryweight potion.
It's not as warm here as further south.
In Amber Creek, there's a group of men assembled on the central square. We arrive just in time to witness the end of an interrogation. A terrified bandit, threatened with death, tells Jarl Agnar that "they" are in Fort Urokk and he swears he has no idea why they were kidnapped.
Agnar says "Svegard!" while he himself turns to go. Svegard clearly knows what the jarl wants him to do. I gasp in shock when he draws his sword and plunges it into the bandit's stomach. "Are you out of your mind?" I'd like to scream, but I realize it's futile. I'm barely aware of my followers' whispering with bystanders and learning it's Jalma and Wilhard, the jarl's wife and son, who have been kidnapped by Yngvarr's men.
I can understand it when people kill people who have wronged them, and there's no denying Yngvarr has deserved to die many times over, but this bandit actually gave the jarl the information required, under the belief his life would be spared. If it hadn't been for him, the jarl would have no idea where his family is. He could have spent years looking behind every stone and searching every ruin and cave on the island. Yet he had the person who spared him all that trouble and frustration murdered! I'm shocked to my core having found out I've been risking me and my followers' lives helping a man without a sense of honor.
Someone must have drawn the leaving jarl's attention to our arrival, because he turns back to ask me if I got the book. Too aghast and revolted to speak, I hand it to him. He passes it on to Brother Thorlogh who takes his time browsing it, and then seems to realize everybody's waiting for him to say something. He tears his eyes off the pages with some effort, and says he knows now indeed where The Heart Chamber is. (I've lost track of what we need it for. Hopefully not for being ambushed by Yngvarr and having all the Keys taken from us at the last moment.)
Right now, though, whatever we were going to do with that Heart thing, it has to wait. We are all in agreement that the liberation of Jalma and Wilhard is more urgent.
Fort Urokk is in the east. The jarl and his men head there immediately. He seems to expect me to do the same, but I ecxuse myself saying I'm so tired from two days of fighting draugrs and Dwemer automatons that I might drop down with exhaustion any moment. He grunts and tells me to meet them as soon as we can in a spot west of Fort Urokk which he marks on my map.
Only now as the girls and I walk slowly towards our house do I become aware of all those dead bodies lying on the streets.
Most guards who got killed were female, too.
People say many men were away on a mission with the jarl.
The attackers chose their time well.
People say many men were away on a mission with the jarl.
The attackers chose their time well.
A massive battle must have taken place here, judging by so many guards and bandits killed. Not to be compared to the carnage in Borvald, of course, but considering the local circumstances, this is unbelievable. Fortunately my house is all right, as are all the others as far as I can tell. The attackers seemingly came here just for Jalma and Wilhard, not to destroy any property or massacre the population. The village was obviously very well guarded, which explains the considerable losses on both sides. But in the end, the bandits still won.
It's almost midnight now, but we'be been up for less than 10 hours and I don't feel tired at all. So I decide to do my crafting at night. Through the night, to be more precise. By the time I'm finished, it's 8 in the morning, the sun outside is shining brightly and people are going to work. And I'm dog-tired. Walking past the sawmill, I merely hug and kiss Oudin briefly before I hurry home to get some sleep.
next awakening
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