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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
4-202-03-09 07:09
Manor Keep, Summerset, Aldmeri Dominion
Lydia and I wake up before the others and cook breakfast. Then we look around some more in our new property, but I'm going to leave a thorough exploration for the next time. I'm impatient (yes, I'm impatient and I don't care what anyone has to say about it) to return to Skyrim and have some new adventures – as well as stay away from Summerset until we can be sure we're not going to have a new all-out war with the Dominion.
Manor Keep is not very far from Alinor and in fact one can see the highest buildings from here:
This is what you see when come out of the front door and turn right:
We head for Shimmerene, towards the rising sun.
I've changed my mind about visiting Sunhold. My instinct tells me we're not going to find out anything all that exciting, and enjoy as I may being with Thoromhel, I'm still so happy from my intimacy with Bradwin that I'd rather not go to Sunhold today.
I very much hope we'll be able to return here for an occasional vacation.
Red Beggar's Hole is conventiently on our route. On our way there, we pass by that spriggan grove again.
We've used Spriggan Soap again this morning, so the spriggans just stand there peacefully and let us admire them. It's a pity we don't know how to talk to them.
That Red Beggar woman seems indeed to be delusional, but there's nothing we can do for her, so I just put down her Finely Crafted Bowl inconspicuously and we leave. I hope she'll be reasonably safe in that cave.
We do a bit of shopping and sightseeing in the Shimmerene village. I use an opportunity to talk to the mage Agol. I ask her about soul gem mines and the Corgrad trader Othanaro's strange reaction.
Agol laughs and says of course a soul gem vendor wouldn't reveal the location of a soul gem mine to me. She says she knows of only one soul gem mine called Attero Caverns. As a matter of fact, Agol knows where it is, but she won't tell me, because it would be very unsafe for me to go looking for it.
She explains that soul gem trade is a traditional business which is well arranged so that all participants are reasonably happy. Many people would be upset if I interfered and upset the balance, and why would I want to do that?
Obviously, I can't tell her that it's for strengthening the Skyrim militaru to fight the Aldmeri Dominion.
Besides, I reralize she is right. This country may technically be my enemy, but they have accepted me as their guest and it would be simply rude of me to abuse their trust and hospitality by using their own natural resources against them.
On the bright side, Agol makes it quite clear that she told me all that because she wants me to stay out of trouble because she likes me and wishes me well.
This makes me very happy. Apart from which, it pleases me once again to notice how the traders in Summerset tend to have many more metal ingots in stock than the ones in Skyrim have. Got to return here for shopping occasionally. Right now, though, it's time for us to run to the Mages' Guild and travel to Skyrim without even going inside.
After my casting the spell, we materialize as always at the upper end of the College bridge. We run quickly to the library so I can say hello to Ertzebet and inform her I talked to Drevis when I was here four days ago and hinted to him she might like him.
"Oh, so that's it," Ertzebet replies grinning.
"So what's it?"
She says she has been seeing him a lot in the library these past days. No small talk yet, though.
"Make sure you keep me informed!" I tell her.
Ertzebet rolls her eyes. Yes, I know – she has always kept me informed of everything. I am the one who can't make time for chatting. Right now, though, it's she who has to go. Her boss Urag wants something from her. I wish her good luck with Drevis and leave with my followers.
It's about noon and snowing. We have plenty of daylight left for traveling.
Having reached Amol City, I realize that now that we have those Cushioned boots and thus won't have to be afraid of jumping down from high places, we can see if we can cross those mountains in the south, instead of bypassing them along the road southwest or down the hill towards the estuary.
First, we need (of course) to climb up. With some moderate effort, it's quite possible. My followers are also getting the hang of it. We end up overlooking a path that seems to be cutting through the mountains from east to west.
There are two mages who decide to attack us. We kill them easily. Then we jump down the ten or so meters to the path and follow it eastwards. It leads to the elven refugee camp northeast of Windhelm.
Looking from a distance at those round tents, I suddenly feel I don't want to go to Windhelm. I dread the mental image of meeting with Yrsarald, submitting to his rules, not knowing what he'll do to me... For that matter, I've been having doubts for several days now if I want to marry him at all, and while this may be just some temporary doubt and for that matter we aren't having any serious marriage plans yet to begin with, one thing I know for certain is that at this moment when I imagine walking into the Windhelm palace, everything inside me screams: "I don't want to! I don't want to! I don't want to! I don't want to!"
Of course I know I'm about a week away from my period. To some women it's a convenient excuse for everything. "I'm sorry I set the house on fire, but I couldn't help it – I was premenstrual (or almost or had recently been)." I hope I'll never fall so low. Nevertheless, we're not going to Windhelm today. We'll go back westwards and see where this path leads to.
Yeah, it looks like it's going to reach the road near Fort Kastav and that's too far north. So we turn south before that and climb up the mountains. There's some gold ore up here, in case you're interested. Soon we reach that horribly deadly drop where we would have an amazing view to Windhelm if there wasn't any snowfall.
We're not taking the deadliest route down – it'd take us straight to the city. We head south and, accompanied by great fear, reach the ground safely near the bridge that is east of Anga's Mill.
I remember now I wanted to check out the Shrine of Azura near Winterhold and I forgot. Well, no matter. We'll be in that area often enough.
I also realize that the next time I'm with Yrsarald I'll have to tell him I was here and didn't want to meet him. That's something very serious, but I'm utterly unable to think of a solution. It's in the future, so I'm just putting it out of my mind right now.
By the time we run through Kynesgrove, it has occurred to me I can tell Yrsarald I chose to bypass Windhelm because I was hoping to reach Broken Helm Hollow near Riften in daylight, and that is technically even true.
Before Vernim Wood, we meet a traveler who mentions an imp camp in southeastern Eastmarch. I haven't seen that yet, so I decide we'll turn off the road and check it out. We come across a hunter camp first,
Then we travel south along the path that runs parallelly to the main road. East of us (i.e. on the left) are high mountains. We notice a citadel on top of a steep rocky hill.
We succeed in finding a path up. The place seems to be an ancient Nordic ruin. A mage is busy with something near the campfire in front of the entrance.
We have no reason to pick a fight and he's not seeing us, so we just sneak back the way we came and proceed southwards.
We travel past Kagrenar, presumably a Dwemer ruin, and then see a group of thalmors and a group of Stormcloaks in combat. Since all thalmors are to be banished from Skyrim and all the agressive ones killed, we waste no time and start shooting arrows into the thalmors. As we approach after the battle, the Stormcloaks, apparently not recognizing us, tell us to go where we were going and not hang about.
The sun is setting and the birches with their yellow leaves are heartwarmingly beautiful.
Soon we are approaching the main gate of Riften. We catch up with my friend Wujeeta and walk with her sharing the news. Near the gate, we meet Asgeir Snow-Shod, the business partner of Maven Black-Briar whom I couldn't find the last time. He is evidently returning to the city. He insists he only invested in Maven's business and didn't know anything about any illegal activities – although he was greatly surprised at the astonishing speed at which Maven was able to win new customers for their meadery.
I inform Asgeir he'll have to come with us to the city jail. He may be telling the truth, but I'll leave it to the authorities to find out. The fact he hasn't escaped speaks strongly in his favor, but still I can't just let him walk free before he has been thoroughly interrogated.
Having handed the prisoner over to the guards, I go to the palace. I tell Jarl Laila about the skooma trade center I destroyed in the mountains near Vernim Wood, and she informs me Mjoll has dug up some documents proving that the late Maven Black-Briar had indeed participated in the narcotics trade just as I had presumed all along.
That taken care of, we walk to the inn. Keerava informs me all is generally well, but the people are really cross at me for having failed to destroy the Thieves' Guild. Yeah, I was planning on doing it tonight.
Before that, I just pay a quick visit to the orphanage to ask Constance if everything is all right. Turns out the city has become so safe that the children are even venturing out onto the streets:
Samuel is late returning and he'll be severely admonished. (Not beaten, though, Constance assures me.)
Now I take my girls and twenty soldiers and we enter the Ratway. I leave the soldiers waiting outside the Ratway inn entrance. Accompanied only by my followers, I walk up to Dirge and Vex and inform them that the activities of the Thieves' Guild in Riften cease as of now. Everyone in the premises will be taken to the city prison, all the Guild property will be confiscated and everyone who tries to resist or even says something that rubs me the wrong way will be killed on the spot. Tonilia is the only one to take me up on that last point. With two arrows in her back, she falls down in front of my feet. No one else makes a move to join her.
I tell the gangsters I am grateful to several of them for the favors they have done me in the past, but this is official business and I can't show any favoritism. I'm going to ask the city administration to be lenient and allow those who aren't guilty of very severe crimes to serve time in the prison and make themselves useful sweeping streets and repairing buildings or something like that. Then I order Jordis to call the soldiers in. All the people we find are stripped naked and handcuffed.
Now we smash in the secret door in the wardrobe and enter a larger area known as the Cistern.
There are more bandits there. They grab their weapons, but then they see me and hesitate. Walking towards them alone, I notice Sapphire. I've been feeling bad about getting her arrested, because we've been kind of friendly, but then I remembered she's a depraved criminal and deserves no compassion.
When I explain the gangsters the situation, including the possibility to be spared the death penalty, a man named Mercer who seems to be the leader of the "guild" tells his people that resistance is evidently futile and they ought to surrender quietly.
Strangely enough it's Sapphire, the only woman in this section, who urges the men to fight, screaming unspeakable insults at them. She is promptly killed. The rest is easy, although our thorough search of the premises lasts deep into the night. I wonder if Sapphire might have been guilty of something really terrible, so she realized she would not be among those who could avoid the death sentence, and thus figured she'd be no worse off trying to fight her way out. Be it as it may, I'm glad we were able to accomplish this raid with so little bloodshed.
Among the prisoners is Etienne whom we liberated from the Thalmor Embassy three months ago, but again – being held prisoner and tortured is no justification for hanging out with criminals. He should have stayed in Dragonbridge with Eydis.
The guards pick up many documents, but strangely enough the vault is almost empty. The gangsters insist they have no idea where all their treasures have gone and indeed cast very angry looks at each other, mostly Mercer.
Swaying on my feet, I reach our house together with my followers only by 6 o'clock in the morning.
next awakening
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