2021-05-08

Always Lost, Always Hopeful (256) Can You Hide behind a Dragon?



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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






4-202-05-02 07:03
Palace of the Kings, Windhelm, Eastmarch, Skyrim



Yrsarald tells me to suck and I do it eagerly and then he fucks me sideways and then stops and just fondles my breasts and such until I get aroused and start making movements with my lower body and then he fucks me some more and stops again, and so it goes on with my getting increasingly impatient and he fingers me down there and I end up begging him to fuck me and he lets me have an orgasm and finally he comes himself.

Yrsarald is the only man about whom I can think that he fucks  me without feeling filthy.

"You violated the rules yesterday," he says, touching my buttock with his fingers, a symbolical slap.
"I'm sorry." I'm not, but I know I'm supposed to say it.
"Had you missed me so terribly or did something happen?"
"I missed you so terribly. And I felt awfully guilty."
"What about?"
"We were... my followers and I, we were in this area a couple of months ago, but we bypassed Windhelm without dropping by because we were going to a place in The Rift and I wanted to get there in daylight and that's why I didn't want to... be delayed here." I can't bring myself to telling Yrsarald the truth – that I didn't want to come here because I felt reluctant to go through that silly ritual of stripping naked in another room and waiting here until he would deign to turn up.
"And the next time we came here, you were gone," I continue when Yrsarald keeps quiet and just looks at me.
"I missed you too," he says, reaching over to squeeze my buttock. "I fantasized about you when... Well, when I was feeling lonely."
"Thanks!" I can imagine what it was he left unsaid. I press myself against him and try to make a kiss mark on his neck. He pushes me away and says "No."
"Sorry." Somehow what he just said has completely restored my mood. I kiss his penis and then sit up. "Yrsarald, there's something I wanted to tell you."

And I tell him about Ter'Avina, and that there may be some bad air that seems to give people mild delusions, and that maybe some people from Winterhold would like to resettle there, or, who knows, maybe even some Nords from Solstheim or Bruma County.
Yrsarald approves of my plan to talk about it with Jarl Korir of Winterhold and the wizard Sybille of Solitud. He can certainly supply a few ships. He tells me he's been sounding out Jarl Balgruuf who is reluctant to become the High King of Skyrim, but there really isn't a better candidate.
"I'm sure Korir wouldn't say no," I inform Yrsarald.
He laughs. "I'm sure he wouldn't."
Korir is a good man, but has far from enough public respect to rule (even nominally) over the whole of Skyrim. I know that.
Yrsarald goes on telling me how he asked the priest Runil of Falkert to tell him his views on the future of Skyrim (Runil apparently carries a lot of weight, although he's not letting it show), and we discuss his tour to Hammerfell. They fought some battles and pushed the thalmors back from the border, but then they found out that the local population didn't like them any more they liked the thalmors. That's why Yrsarald and Tullius decided to leave Hammerfell again. We'd better keep Hammerfell as a buffer zone – at least until the Empire can hammer out some kind of a deal with them. The main war is going to be fought in southwestern Cyrodiil anyway.

Before I go, I ask Yrsarald to send a message for me to Hviterun the next time he has to leave the city, and he reminds me not to forget the rules the next time I'm in Windhelm. I swear to him I'll be a good girl from now on. Yrsarald tells me I have to drop by the palace before I leave the city, in case he wants me on the table on top of the map of Skyrim or something. I reply I'm looking forward to it.

Should I have a bath with him, I wonder. No, he says, there'll be soldiers walking in and out and he doesn't want them to see me undressed. I'd better use the bath at the inn.


When I have freshened up, I go shopping. Sofie finds me and I tell her what I've been doing and ask her if she has found any new friends and would she want to live in Markarth. Sofie thinks she'd rather stay in Windhelm for the time being because, firstly, she has been making friends, and secondly, now that she can afford warm clothing it's not such a bad place.

I know. I've always liked it here, too.

We hang around on the marketplace for some time, talking to everybody and taking in the mood and such. Having gotten the permission to leave from Yrsarald (without having to lie down on the table first), I exit with my followers by the northern gate and hang around a little in the elven camp. Then we run across snowy hills towards Amol City, admiring a nice snowfox and killing a couple of trolls and wolves along the way.
three wolves ahead on a snowy slope howing, gathered around what looks like their prey
It was not our fault! The wolves started it. Although, on second thought, maybe we got too close to their meal.

The structures on the left in the above picture are Amol City. The big castle in the background is, of course, the Winterhold College. And in the next picture is the main street of Amol City. (Just to remind you – the days when it was a city are long past. Amol City of today is little more than a village.)

Even though we don't have any particular business in Amol City, we somehow end up spending more than two hours socializing and shopping. Yeah, the two are largely the same thing when you stop to think about it.  ;-)

Never mind me. I seem to be in a philosophical mood today. The weather is really nice, cold as it may be, but we don't care, we're warmly dressed. We run to Winterhold now.

Remember the quest I got from the priest of Azura to find the artifact called Azura's Star? Well, I end up discussing it at the Winterhold inn, and the people point me to that jerk Nelacar (don't tell Jenassa I called him that) who remembers a rogue mage who studied it and went insane and got several students killed in the process.

That's all I need to know. I'm not going to mess with that thing.

Now I go and talk to Jarl Korir about Ter'Avina. He is very much interested in sending settlers there, as well as in general cooperation with Yrsarald. His enthusiasm is dampened considerably when I tell him about the seamen having gone crazy believing to recognize me and not even seeing my followers. So he agrees to wait until I have consulted a powerful mage I know somewhere in Skyrim. (He obviously doesn't need to know it's Sybille.)

Laura in a blue hooded robe stands on the Winterhold College bridge, sky full of gray clouds
I have changed into non-combat clothing, as I usually do inside settlements.

I'm not sure what to do about Onmund. I don't really fancy spending the night with him. But then the girls remind me we were actually planning on traveling to Summerset. Right! This gives me an ideal excuse – we can leave in the evening and sleep in Shimmerene. Naturally, Dulizar will want something from me too, but I'm fine with that.

Before the evening, though, I have a lot of work to do. I go to the library first where I chat some with Renna and Lilia. Then Ertzebet gets a free moment and joins us, and a little later I take her aside to ask how it's going with Drevis. Ertzebet tells me he is spending a lot of time in the library, choosing moments when Alec is not there, and she finds their discussions utterly fascinating. They haven't yet kissed or anything, but Drevis clearly likes her.

I now tell Ertzebet about that Falmer quest and she is very interested and we approach Urag together. First, I show him an unusual book titled "Chronicles of Nchuleft". It has nothing to do with the Falmers, I just found it on my travels. Urag is really excited about it and I let him have it. Then he says he wants to get his hands on a book titled "Last King of the Ayleids" which he can magically see to be currently located on or near the wreck of a ship called Orphan's Tear on the coast of Haafingar, and would I get it for him? I promise to do it and he puts the location onto my map.

Now I ask him about the Snow Elves' so-called exodus and I end up browsing through a whole heap of books with Ertzebet. On the side, I overhear a rumor of that irate High Elf Nirya having a thing going on with Master Sergius. I find it most incredible, but Ertzebet confirms she has been seeing them together a lot. Well, quite frankly I don't care whom Nirya may fancy or sleep with. She has been pointedly respectful to me after I became the Arch-Mage, and for that matter I have never had any trouble with her before that either, and I really have to focus on the topic of the Falmers right now.

I end up fascinatedly absorbed in a book on Dwemer "marital aides" for some time. Some books contain nothing useful: a collection of weird jokes, a collection of weird food recipes etc.

To tell you the truth, some of the authors seem to have not been too averse to witty exaggeration, apparently valuing entertainingness more highly than veracity.

Anyway, I end up reading a lot about the Dwemers and very little about the Falmers apart from what I already know – that the modern Falmers are indeed the Snow Elves believed to be rotted out by the Nords in ancient times, and that they live in Blackreach (but not only, as I've had many opportunities to find out), as well as that persistent legend about them being blind which I know to be not true.

By then, Master Drevis has turned up. He sees Ertzebet with me and hesitates. I invite him to join us, making it sound like the most natural thing in the world, and ask him what he knows about the Snow Elves' exodus. Ertzebet suddenly mentions that a few books were recently stolen by a group of mages from Cyrodiil. They had put some kind of a spell on Urag so he noticed the theft only much later. But those mages were not looking for anything Falmer-related, that's why Ertzebet didn't think it was relevant. Exactly which books they took, she doesn't know. Urag wouldn't tell her.

Anything else she remembers about those mages?

Well, they looked very much like Synod and were very demanding and irritated. She only saw very little of them, but she heard Mzulft mentioned.

Well, yes, I know that group of Synod mages who came here, then went to Mzulft and lost their lives there.

No, she says, it's not the same group who looked for the Staff of Magnus . Those didn't steal anything. This group she's talking about came only recently. They went to see Tolfdir who is the acting Arch-Mage in my absence, and talked to him for quite a long time.

Drevis is convinced they were a follow-up to that party of Synod mages that got killed in Mzulft. He knows about the two sources of extreme energy the Synod mages had found – one, to refresh your memory, was ther Eye of Magnus in Winterhold and the other one was the Staff of Magnus in Labyrinthian. By now, the former has vanished from our world and the latter has been moving around (with me). That second group of mages seemed to have been headed for Mzulft to find out what happened to the first group. But he's not sure. Does or doesn't it have anything to do with the Falmers, he has no idea.

Right. I leave the two and ask Urag about the stolen books. He shows me the list, but points out those books don't have anything to do with the Falmers.

All in all, there's no indication of the Synod group having been in any way interested in the Falmers. Except, of course, that there are Falmers in Mzulft – as in many other places.

I cast an encouraging smile at Ertzebet and Drevis and leave the library. Searching for Tolfdir, I happen to see Alec and Renna looking at each other in a highly suspicious manner. I wonder if I ought to tell Ertzebet. Well, if she's getting along nicely with Drevis, then it's actually a good thing if Alec is finding himself a new girlfriend. Still, Ertzebet ought to know. I'll tell her, but I really don't have time for all that relationship stuff today.

I find Tolfdir and he confirms what Drevis told me. The mages were from Synod and they were headed for Mzulft for all he knows.
Is there any danger of them having come to Skyrim to find me (or the Staff of Magnus  I'm carrying)?
Maybe, he says, but am I really afraid of them?
No, I'm not. But what took them so long to start missing their first party?
Everything takes long in the Synod, Tolfdir explains. I laugh. This is true.

We now turn to our business. Tolfdir is pleased with the rupture in Eastmarch closed, as well as grateful for the Dragon Heartscales that will be most helpful in his research. He gives me the latest spellbook he has written. From it, I can learn a strong protective spell called Dragonhide. It's supposed to deflect 80% of physical damage for about 21 minutes. This sounds really good. I will use this book instead of selling it. I'm really happy of finding after a long time a spell that is actually useful.

Now I send a telepathic summons to my girls. While waiting for them to turn up, I walk around with Renna and chat with some other students.

I notice for the first time that J'zargo has truly fascinating green eyes (even though a cruel face). But now Lydia, Jordis and Jenassa have found me, it's quarter to ten in the evening and we really have to get going.


The first thing I do in Shimmerene Mages' College is ask Quillinda about the war. She says, yes, there are clashes in Hammerfell, and thalmors are being expelled from the Empire, but Summerset has a tradition of not caring much about global politics, and there are many Bretons and Nords in Summerset anyway, and the Aldmeri Dominion has no troubles with High Rock to start with, so she doesn't think we're in any danger.

I feel a soft hand on my shoulder. My boyfriend Dulizar has turned up – as if he had smelled my arrival. Come to think of it, maybe he did. I leave the girls chatting with Quillinda and walk away with him. I'd rather fancy a nice bed, but that being unavailable I guess I'll have to settle for the warm tropical beach under the moons and the stars.  ;-)




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