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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
4-202-03-30 05:58
Jerall View Inn, Bruma, Bruma County, Cyrodiil
Dar'taqto unloads himself into me quickly, but during his Khajiit-length orgasm, I still get one too. As he begins to get dressed, I coax him into bathing with me. He agrees, but under the condition I walk to the bath naked. Why, that's all right. There'll be no one around this early... um, except my followers, as I'm to find out to my mild dismay. Are they telepathically sensing when I wake up? At any rate, they are already in the pool and don't seem in any way disturbed by Dar'taqto joining us on the women's side.
Before we get in, though, Dar'taqto whispers me a command. I have to kneel, lick his penis and thank him for fucking me. Then we join my visibly amused followers in the pool. They have enough sense not to comment on what they just witnessed, but later when I've hugged my boyfriend goodbye and they have escorted me to my room (with me still stark naked because my clothes are in the room), and I'm getting into my armor, Lydia asks: "Was that a punishment or does he do it all the time?"
"A little revenge, I guess," I reply with a shrug. "For my tal... begging him out of anal last night."
"And you got your way?"
I nod.
"How many times did he do it?"
"Oh, just three. That's including the quickie this morning."
"Just three," Lydia repeats with a hint of irony.
"What?"
"You are just shining like the sun," she explains.
I smile in spite of myself. "Yeah, come to think of it, I feel very happy."
"It costs nothing to beg," remarks Jordis.
"Exactly. Let's go, I'm peckish."
Upstairs, I smile cordially to the seemingly forever-awake innkeeper Stantus.
There's no one else in the taproom. His wife and maid are apparently still asleep and Dar'taqto has already left to attend to his business. His expulsion from the city seems to be forgotten, but he still has to work hard to make ends meet. And he wouldn't take any money for me, the proud fool. I could only persuade him to sell some things I don't need and take himself a generous profit.
I realize I'm not really peckish, just impatient to get back to Skyrim. We eat a few bites and then exit into a crazy weather with some sunshine between depressing dark gray clouds and a slight snowfall. The only thing missing is a rainbow.
It gets increasingly sunnier as we travel northeastwards. No bandits this time, just an inquisitive elk and many birds. By the time we pass by the big statue of Sentinel, the weather is almost as beautiful as on our first day here.
Goodbye, buddy, whoever you were.
Long before we reach Snowstone Rest, Scruffy comes running along the road. He escorts us to the inn, jumping around us and barking happily. Erlus is just coming out, apparently to do some work outside. There's no one in the taproom. I tell Erlus not to mind us. We just want to rest for a moment, and should we take something from the bar, we'll give money to Scruffy. With a hint of a chuckle, Erlus leaves with Arnoth, his Bosmer helper. Me and my followers go inside
"Girls, I've been thinking about something," I say absent-mindedly while scratching Scruffy under his throat.
"Merciful heaven, Laura!" exclaims Lydia. "Are you all right?"
"Shut up!" snaps Jordis.
"Yes, Lydia," concurs Jenassa. "Don't you know how rarely she gets out of her pensive mood and tells us anything?"
I stare at Jenassa with my mouth wide open. "Rarely????"
"Never mind that," says Jordis. "What were you going to say?"
"I have realized I can't wait until my memory returns to perfection. As of now, I would already be able to find my way around Camlorn, I know the faces and names of my relatives, and I even know my mother has two sisters in Morrowind whom I've never seen. So it doesn't matter if I should occasionally fail to recognize someone I'm supposed to remember. I don't think I would be buried under a crowd of curious gossipers."
Jenassa nods. "Well, clearly you didn't find your peace of mind in Bruma."
I open my mouth to argue and then realize she's right. "I certainly want to meet Yrsarald and talk to the priestess Jora, so we'll go to Windhelm in any case. But I'm seriously thinking about traveling to Solitud after that and asking Elisif to organize a ship for me. Which, of course, is likely to take some time."
The girls just look at me without saying anything. "So I won't be leaving you right away," I tell them, making my voice sound cheerful. "And when I do go, I won't go forever."
"Take it easy, Laura," says Lydia. "We understand how important it is for you to return to your home and your family. You don't have to feel guilty in front of us."
Scruffy's teeth touch my hand gently. Sorry! I continue to caress him. "Or should I have documents made in Summerset and take the regular ship from Lillandril?"
"You can't do that!" exclaims Jordis. "Have you forgotten you're officially declared an enemy of the thalmors?"
"But the ones in Bruma haven't tried anything."
"That's because they can't afford a scandal. But are you certain that the two we met that night coming down from the mountain where really sent to look for the Talos worshippers and not to ambush us?"
"Yes, I am certain."
"How come?"
"Because they would have never sent only two men against the four of us. They're not stupid."
"Exactly." Jordis is not wavered by my reasoning. "Here they don't have the necessary strength, but if you get on a ship on Aldmeri territory, what would prevent them from attacking you with dozens of men?"
Jordis has a point. And Erlus is returning, shaking snow off his clothes. We'd better get a move on. "Let's go and see first if we're even allowed through the Cyrodiil–Skyrim border post," I say as I stand up.
We run to the closed gate. I ask the soldier on duty if we may pass. He says "Sure, go ahead," and opens the gate.
Having stepped through the gate, we can see further Imperial soldiers, as well as thalmors mostly up on the system of wooden platforms to our right. Most of them are just sitting and talking peacefully. As soon as the gate has closed behind us, the thalmors jump up and grab their weapons. Some attack us, the others the Imperials. I have no time to wonder if someone tipped them off or they have been here waiting for us day after day. We need to spread out (good, the girls have already leaped away from me in different directions!) and defend ourselves.
Now, just so you get the idea of the layout of the battlefield: to the left of the gate is a medium-sized military tent. The wide road goes straight ahead past the citadel you can see in the picture above, and then descends steeply. There are elaborate fortifications to my right. Grabbing my bow, my eyes barely register something that looks like a citadel ruin at some distance behind that tent to my left and up the hill.
The thalmors don't exactly outnumber the Imperial soldiers, but they kill several within the first seconds and more of them begin to appear from that citadel ruin on the left I just mentioned. A loud and furious fast-moving melee has unfolded in all directions (apart from the high border wall behind me, obviously) and I must be very careful not to hit our Imperial allies. Having taken a few successful but rather risky shots which seem to tip the scales in my immediate surroundings to our favor, I realize I need to get out of this skirmish into the open to meet the new enemies whom I can clearly sense approaching from down below. Luckily I haven't taken too heavy damage yet. As to the state of my followers, I have simply no chance to wonder about it just now.
I run a little way down the road. The bright glow of the sunlit snow makes it difficult to use Sense of Smell and I realize I shouldn't have given my girls Glass Helmets, because the non-mage thalmors wear just those. Right now, however, the girls are obviously somewhere behind me.
There aren't too many coming this way. The main enemy force seems to have been hidden on the hill where that citadel ruin is. So I hurry in that direction. It's very difficult to climb up, but finally I'm behind the attacking enemies and they begin to drop down one after another with my arrows in their backs. The ones along the road were quite tough to kill, but the ones here are being taken completely by surprise. I can see Jenassa in a few meters from me. We shoot the remaining enemies in this improvised stronghold
The thalmor was wearing an armor during the battle, of course. It's us who took it from his corpse, like we always do.
I find a man who looks like a commander. He's called Legate Centos Durius and is dark-brown-tanned. Probably from the south. I ask him if he has any idea what this was about. He says he doesn't. They have been under orders not to pick a fight with the thalmor outpost further down the road even though this is Skyrim territory. The thalmors, in turn, have been perfectly civil and in fact given them a hand with patrolling and repairs and such.
Well, guess we'll just proceed down that road and see if there's still some kind of a magic field there that throws us somewhere unexpected.
No, there's nothing of the kind. Just more thalmors who wouldn't let us pass by. The Thalmor Checkpoint has been remanned.
This is the outpost we attacked coming from the opposite side, across those hills, before we went to Bruma.
Fortunately, there are only four or five, their main force having evidently been up at the border post. The ones here are excellent fighters, but my group maintains perfect discipline with no one getting in the others' way, and we survive this without losses.
There's a horse cart full of crates with Black-Briar Mead bottles. Some of the bottles are missing, possibly consumed by the thalmor garrison members. We find some documents indicating that it was a delivery headed for Cyrodiil. A perfectly civilian and legal endeavour, but apparently the thalmors shot first and asked questions later.
Our most interesting find is something else – documents found in a locked strongbox which explain why this thalmor outpost was established here in the first place. Orders signed by Elenwen herself instruct the troops to track down "the felon traitor Nelacar"!!
Jenassa, what do you know about this?
She doesn't know anything. Clearly Nelacar had no ties to the thalmor organization, but Jenassa swears she had no idea about his possible involvement in, in Elenwen's eloquent words, "heinous deeds and assorted crimes against the good people of the Aldmeri Dominion". But if he's hunted by the thalmors, we must find him and bring him to a safe place. Jenassa has done so much for me. Now is my chance to do something for her in return.
The investigation material we've found suggests he was trying to cross the border to Cyrodiil (and that's what this outpost was supposed to hinder). Now, we explored the area between here and Fort Neugrad in the past, and there didn't seem to be a place suitable for permanent hiding. What we have not explored are the mountains south of here. So let's go and see if we can find something. At least the weather is good.
It's a pretty steep climb. We soon find a metal door in the mountainside.
It has a lock I'm unable to pick. But we can see fortifications further up. It seems impossible to get there, but the people who built the thing somehow did, so there has to be a way.
After arduous efforts, we arrive indeed at a beautiful little citadel. Chilly as it may be, this place feels really heartwarming.
The citadel is called The Hollow Tooth. There's a trapdoor, again with an unpickable lock. We walk cautiously up the stairs. I can sense someone hostile further up. That can hardly be Nelacar, because he has no reason to be hostile to us. But whoever it is, it's quite possible he has the key to that structure inside the mountain below us.
Jenassa gives me a sign that she'd like to go first. I nod and follow closely behind her as she ascends the flight of stairs that should be the last one separating us from that mysterious enemy. Jenassa has an arrow on the string. With her feet in front of my eyes, I can hear an enemy approach. Something magical hits Jenassa at the very moment she releases her shot. The arrow kills the enemy and now we get to know his name was Nelacar. I hurry up the stairs after Jenassa. Without attempting to approach the dead man in a mage's robe, she looks at me. "It's not him."
I step closer. Yes, it's not Nelacar of Winterhold. It's another man with the same name. I'm so relieved. We all hug Jenassa who has tears in her eyes. That's something you don't see often.
The man isn't carrying any key, though. All right, girls! Jenassa will search this level, I'll go check the upper platform and Lydia and Jordis can take the lower floors.
There is nothing resembling a key on the two upper levels. Just sights and such.
Note the border crossing on the left. We're higher still than that citadel ruin where the thalmors were hiding earlier. (Not visible from here.)
It's Lydia who finds the key that opens the trapdoor. Now, we have no idea if there'll be another dozen or two of thalmors falling upon us, so we'll just have to be as careful as we can.
In through the trapdoor, we arrive in the kind of dungeon usually found in castle basements. It's a system of perpendicular passages, in unusually good repair and clean.
Through the walls, I can sense two humanoid creatures nearby who are friendly (so far). Hardly anything dangerous for the four of us, so I just turn around the corner and see one of them is a ghost. So is, as we find out a little later, the other one. A man called Wilvor Merilion and a woman called Ilfhild Merilion (not Ilfhild of Kynesgrove, a beautiful and modest farmer who is hopefully still alive and well). Both are perfectly friendly.
The structure consists of rooms, mostly large, mostly luxurious, which the two are apparently keeping in order. Neither we nor they know for whom.
There's much money lying about, but I'm not touching any of it. We walk around, admiring rooms with beautiful furniture, plenty of beds, lots of delicious food on the tables. How does it all stay fresh, I ask the ghosts. They have no idea.
This is one of the more simply furnished corners. It still looks so cozy and inviting.
I have the feeling they're longing for someone to come and live here. It's not going to be us, I'm afraid. Too remote, too cold (outdoors, I mean). Lydia has heard people say that the climate in this region was much warmer in the distant past. Whatever. We can spread the word, but I can't imagine who would want to settle down here. Maybe the beggars in Bruma? Yeah, enough of this now. Thanks for the warm reception, Wilvor and Ilfhild, but we have things to do further north.
We're headed in the general direction of Riverwood. I want to travel via The Guardian Stones where you can exchange some dragonsouls for perks. And then we'll search for that traveler who was probably up to something no good and disappeared between Riverwood and Hviterun.
Thanks to our Cushioned armors and boots, we can try to go straight down the mountains instead of traveling by the road through Fort Neugrad (see picture below) and Helgen.
For that matter, Falkert is not far, so maybe go there first? On second thought, we have nothing important to do there. We'll head straight for The Guardian Stones.
The journey is delightfully scary, with us jumping down cliffs assuredly deadly for the unenchanted. Then we can hear a combat ahead of us. Sneaking carefully to the edge of the next cliff, we find three bandits down below. We can't see whom they're shooting arrows at. It's not us; they've got their backs turned and are probably not even noticing us before we kill them swiftly. We jump down and loot their camp. Whoever their enemies were, they have run away.
We can see a structure with typical ancient Nordic ruin architecture in the distance.
Don't tell me it's Bleak Falls Barrow!
Well, it has to be. It's amazing from how far it can be seen when there's no snowstorm. But that's not the point. What I started to tell you is that while studying the map, I realize we're really close to Aulbryn's House. How about we'll check out Dreamborne Isle one more time? I think I haven't told you, but some time ago one of us (yes, Jordis, it was you; I remember now) came up with the idea that maybe there's something on the other side of the bridge that led to that so-called temple. That'll be to your right when you come out of the temple and cross the bridge, or to your left when you come from the direction of the house. Jordis had pointed out we didn't explore that direction because it was dark already.
I think she was right. However, at this moment, when I look at the spruce forest north of us and the almost-mountain-high stone arches in the distance, I realize I'm so thrilled being back in Skyrim that I can't make myself care about Dreamborne Isle after all. Let's spend some time in the midst of this cozy familiarity. Besides, we have things to do in Skyrim that are far more important than that missing Aulbryn dude.
So we head for Riverwood as I had initially planned.
Shortly before The Guardian Stones, I almost run into a Khajiit bandit. He shouts for his companions to come here quickly. Then he sees my followers and runs away. I grab my sword and run after him, ordering my girls to find the others. I catch up with the Khajiit and slice him with my sword, and again, and then he turns around to defend himself. I play with him, cutting his various body parts until he finally falls down. I kill him and find my followers who inform me that the remaining bandits had been cut down nearby by a military patrol.
In Riverwood, I'm delighted to find Lucan's shop still open. Camilla isn't at home. After shopping, I go back onto the street and chat a little with Alvor and then enter his house. Hadvar is there!
I can barely muster enough patience to make some polite small talk with Sigrid and Dorthe. In fact, Hadvar has something he needs to do, but he promises to join me at the inn shortly.
I walk to The Sleeping Giant where I talk with Esja until my boyfriend arrives. Then I go with him into the secert room where we make love. Getting dressed again, I put on a beautiful blue dress from Bruma. Hadvar and I go to the taproom and talk a while with Camilla and Alvor.
I know, the footwear still leaves something to be desired.
The Vampire Boots look cool with an armor, but they don't go well with this dress.
The thing is, I haven't seen any really beautiful shoes anywhere, not even in Summerset.
The Vampire Boots look cool with an armor, but they don't go well with this dress.
The thing is, I haven't seen any really beautiful shoes anywhere, not even in Summerset.
Hadvar pays for the rooms for me and my followers. He sleeps with me, and the girls share the other room.
next awakening
