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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
4-202-03-04 07:21
Silver-Blood Inn, Markarth, The Reach, Skyrim
I'm beginning to wonder if he has an interest of his own in this.
Jordis turns up when the rest of us are just about done with our delightful bath. She hasn't invited Hreinn to accompany her. I mean, of course she wouldn't, at least not without asking us first.
I let Lydia and Jenassa get dressed and leave while I stay behind with Jordis. After enquiring briefly if it was good with Hreinn last night, I ask:
"Jordis, is it clear to you that I would never tie you up with force nor let anyone else do it?"
"Yes, Laura. I'm sorry I got angry yesterday."
"No, you had the right to get angry. It was my fault. I shouldn't have brought such a topic up. It's just that Lydia irritates me with her smutty jokes and sometimes I try to get even with her."
Jordis smiles. "I know. I don't actually mind letting myself go and having things done to me. It was just the situation where I couldn't be sure where the next Falmer was going to turn up." I already know Jordis doesn't share my compassion for Falmers.
"If you want to, we can tie you up with your legs spread – in a safe place, on a nice bed as I promised," I tell her. "But... When you lie there, exposed and helpless, no one will lay a finger on you, and we'll tie you loose again."
"I think I'd love that. Just please tell me about it before and give me some time to accept the thought."
"All right. So you trust me?"
"Laura, I would trust you with my life."
"Likewise. Are you wet?"
"What do you mean "wet"?" With a sudden movement, Jordis throws a handful of water into my face. I laugh and splash water at her in turn, and we end up wrestling a little bit, and then we climb out and dry each other up. (I mean, the water on our bodies.)
Lydia and Jenassa don't ask any questions. I'm sure they could guess I wanted to talk to Jordis about what happened yesterday and they're smart enough to keep their curiosity in reins. I'll tell them when Jordis is in the loo or something.
On our way to the palace, we go and see Ut-Keen to ask if he, by any chance, knows the reasons behind many traders' having gone out of business. He says he hasn't been in Markarth for very long and doesn't know anyone important, but the people say (unsurprisingly) the Silver-Bloods demanded a bigger share in their proceeds than they were ready to give up.
Right. I had expected something like that. I mean, I had expected the rumors to suggest something along the lines of a protection racket. It's not sufficient to satisfy my curiosity, but this is obviously all I'm going to get out of Ut-Keen.
Now I want to do something to help Cairine, but I'm unsure if I should talk to Jarl Igmund or the steward Raerek. I can't know what their relations with, and their attitude to, Cairine may be. So I ask Faleen for advice.
She says Cairine has slept with both of them and no one wants her around because there is no telling what she might know and whom she might tell. In fact, she's surprised Cairine is still alive.
Well, I'll go and talk to the Stormcloak garrison commander. She can't have slept with him. I'll have her sent to the temple of Kynareth in Hviterun. There she'll be safe at least, and hopefully find herself some productive activity in a new environment away from all those memories. And maybe I'll be able to coax her into sharing some of her memories with me. ;-)
But first I talk to the steward Raerek who is on his way to his workplace just now.
He agrees I ought to be given that thane residence for free.
The house is called Vlindrel Hall and it's really nice in its robust and not-too-full-of-furniture way. It could greatly benefit from dusting, but we're not going to bother with that today. I want to go to Summerset. We really must help those people in Holly Falls to leave their miserable underground dwellings. They weren't ready with their preparations the last time, but they'll surely be ready now.
This is the view just outside Vlindrel Hall's front door.
The weather is very nice as we pay a brief visit to the Left Hand Mine suburb and run east towards Granite Hall. We'll have to get across all of Skyrim and I'm rather impatient. That's why I only briefly sit down at the shrine of Dibella that is on the roadside west of Granite Hall. I tell my girls to run ahead. I still remember very vividly the dream about my best friend from the other night. I wonder what's become of Petrille. I'm unable to recall anything about us being together in more recent years. Of course it's possible I just don't remember, but I kind of have the feeling we drifted apart somehow.
My thoughts wander back to my conversation with Faleen earlier this morning. She's suspicious of strangers and not very sociable, but basically a nice girl. Something in her reminds me of Rayya whom we so tragically lost in a roadside skirmish. Jarl Igmund is also nice, as is the old steward Raerek. I really hope I have turned a new page in the history of Markarth and all the oppression and bloodshed will be forever in the past.
Well, time to get going, I guess. Oh... I've daydreamed here for an entire hour. Got to run, lest my followers get worried.
I find them in Granite Hall, chatting with the blacksmith woman Callia. Now, my plan is to check out a place that ought to be north-northwest of Blackmoor. The author of a letter I recently received asked for my help. I'm supposed to look for a stand of pines along the south shore of River Hjaal. That should stick out. I've yet to see one pine tree in Skyrim. I really miss them. I remember there were many pine forests around Camlorn, but in Skyrim there are only spruces. And many broad-leaved trees, of course.
We could go through Granite Hall and past Fort Masser, but I fancy taking the more easterly route over the hills.
After having descended to the Western Whiterun plain, we find the Whiterun Imperial Camp. I haven't noticed it before, or it might be newly established. Northeast from there is a modest wooden house called Eagle's Knob, just like the letter said. Except that those "pines" are the same old spruces one can see all over Skyrim:
I grew up among pines, so I know exactly what they look like. These trees here are decidedly spruces.
I ask my girls if the people of Skyrim call spruces pines by any chance. Lydia and Jordis assure me they don't. A pine is a pine and a spruce is a spruce. It may be different down south, though. At least there are quite a few placenames in Falkreath that contain the word "pine", yet there are no actual pines anywhere near them. Lydia and Jordis have seen pines only on pictures.
Sorry about the gabbing. Of course it has no importance whatsoever if the writer of that letter is too stupid to tell a pine from a spruce. We'd better find out what's inside the house.
There's only one room, almost as dark as Ma' Rasa's house in Lillandril. It seems empty, but when my eyes have gotten used to the semi-darkness, I see an old man in a mage's robe slouching in a big chair in the corner. Instead of returning my hello, he says "This is not a tavern. Leave while you can." Yes, I know, it looks like a very small brothel. What about this letter I received, though?
Now the man introduces himself as Soldir and informs me his associate hasn't returned from Riverwood and he wants me to find him.
Meaning, you do have an idea.
I ask what the man is called and what he looks like, but Soldir says that information is much too secret. He promises me 200 septims for any kind of information and tells me I have no idea how important this is. I laugh. For things that really matter to them, people pay a lot more than 200 septims. Soldir keeps his calm and volunteers no more information, so we exit the house again.
Obviously there's a lot more to this quest than meets the eye. The roads in central Skyrim are relatively safe, so there's no reason why Soldir couldn't have gone looking for that missing associate himself... yeah, unless he had a very good reason not to show himself to... um, guards maybe? There doesn't seem to be much point discussing it with him, though. We'd better trace that mysterious associate and then we'll know where we stand. If he was headed this way, he can only have traveled by the Riverwood–Hviterun road, and there are guards walking back and forth all the time. Someone must have seen something.
Anyway, I'm not too fond of that old man, and since we're headed for Winterhold, I decide after some consultation with the girls to take the shorter route via Elisdriel (the blue dot on the map), Dunstad Grove, Morthal and Dånstar.
Once again I find the scenery of northwestern Whiterun breathtaking.
We discover yet another giant camp along the way. Near Elisdriel, we witness a bandit attack on a traveling horseman and shoot the bandits dead from a safe place at elevation.
We take a little rest in our lovely Bosmer-style house. It reminds me of our romantic encounters here, and that in turns brings my thoughts to the most recent time I was with Yrsarald four days ago. I remember something he said, and ask the girls: "Why do you think the Dragonborn turned up to be a woman?"
"The gods wanted to be clever," replies Jenassa.
I look at her.
"The Dragonborn would be just one person who would presumably end up facing overwhelming forces," she says.
Lydia explains: "Many a powerful man has helped a beautiful woman where he wouldn't a man."
I get it now. "And it's likely that men would, if not help a woman, then at least refrain from attacking her, or at least hesitate long enough for her to escape or for someone to interfere."
"Unless she's alone in the wilderness," adds Lydia. We laugh at this macabre joke.
"And there's one more thing," says Jordis. "A woman is able to act humbly and swallow an insult where a man would get himself in trouble."
"And she can generally appear harmless," adds Jenassa. "We keep winning battles easily because most men can't believe even four armed women could pose a serious threat."
Right. Another mystery solved. (Although I suppose I would have figured it out myself in due time.) Let's travel on.
My boots with the Cushioned enchantment work indeed the way they're supposed to.
I can jump down from here to the riverbank without getting hurt at all.
I'd better make such boots for my followers as well, and give them some time to practise
and overcome their fear. (Quite frankly, I've got a lot of fear left to overcome myself.)
After that, our traveling ought to get a lot more comfortable.
I can jump down from here to the riverbank without getting hurt at all.
I'd better make such boots for my followers as well, and give them some time to practise
and overcome their fear. (Quite frankly, I've got a lot of fear left to overcome myself.)
After that, our traveling ought to get a lot more comfortable.
We make it to Morthal early enough to do some shopping. I give Lami the book I brought for her from Solitud, and she teaches me some Alchemy.
I also visit Falion's magic shop and ask him if he has heard anything about soul gem mines. He says there are told to be some in Summerset, but he has no idea how much they yield or even where they are.
I decide we'll travel to Dånstar directly over the snowy hills rather than by the road.
Northeast of Morthal, past that former master vampire lair, we discover the Hjaalmarch Imperial Camp and the Hjaalmarch Stormcloak Camp right next to each other.
This is the finest example of Imperial-Stormcloak cooperation so far.
I wonder if we'll get a chance to find out something about that missing associate of Fortune's today or shall we have to wait for daylight. It won't make much difference, because we're going to spend the night in Dånstar anyway. It'll be obviously too dark for traveling to Winterhold and besides, I could use some Gregor (as in "sensationally awesome sex").
Well, turns out it's still light enough for us to notice a rowing boat beached on a sandbank or something near a group of tiny islets (or big rocks if you like) off the coast of Dånstar.
That Khajiit dude Trick was playing games with me. Instead of chunks of flesh at the ocean bottom, we find a corpse of a man named Dalmyn ar the bottom of that boat. The benches are broken, but the body is in one piece. I never believed Trick's crazy story to start with... I think. Anyway, this man could have been hurled into the boat by a giant. The boat might have then drifted here and gotten stuck. But I'm only guessing.
I dive into the sea just to have a look, and I find a small cube called Dwemer Puzzle Box at the bottom. Fortune said something about some kind of a Dwemer object, but if he wants to get this into his hands, he'll have to tell me in precise detail what it's for. Either that or I'll just keep it as a souvenir.
We go to the town now where I make arrangements to have that dead man transported to Markarth so that Fortune can bury him with proper rites as he wanted to. Then I find Gregor and tell him he can be with me tonight if he promises to do it in the right hole.
He does. (I've hired two rooms this time, so Lydia can be with her boyfriend without having to hurry.) I have to suck Gregor first, but that's all right. Soon my hungry pussy gets a thorough treatment. Honestly, I keep getting orgasms until I feel like begging Gregor to have mercy with me and put and end to it. But I don't say anything. Gregor comes finally and I just collapse on the bed.
Here is a cute bunny for you from earlier today:
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