A normal guy, with a very limited knowledge of the TES universe, find himself in the place of the Last Dragonborn at the time he was a prisoner of the Imperial Legion, being escorted to Helgen. At least he is not alone, the Celestial Forge is his helping hand in this world that is proving to be a lot more dangerous than what was demonstrated in the game.
Reaching the Stars (Skyrim / Celestial Forge / SI)
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Chapter 1 - Awakening
- Location
- Brazil
I will need a beta for this, english isn't my first language, PM me if you're interested.
Idk how common it will be in the following chapters, but there's gore scenes in the first chapter, so, be warned. What I can promise is that I will not write gore or things like this for no reason, but to those that feel uncomfortable with it, I recommend you to not read.
Because I wanted to give a bonus to the MC at the start, I decided that after the first 4000 words he would roll 3 times or until he had 1000 CP in the forms of perks, wherein the first roll was in the Assistants table. The 3 Perks rolled have a total cost of 700 CP, the 300 CP that weren't used will NOT be added to the CP balance.
After that I will be using 2000 words for 100 CP and only when receiving the CP the MC will have the option to spend it in a random roll, because the MC is also the Dragonborn, I will be giving a bonus every time a Dragon is killed, that bonus will be a free random perk. If those options make the development too quick and it starts to be detrimental to the history, then It will be changed.
Also, because of the setting, to make it more difficult for the MC, I will ignore anything on the forge that gives unlimited materials for free. That also means that only materials that he can find in Skyrim will be available to the MC until he finds a way to acquire those exotics materials.
I copied some of the dialogue from the prologue. This will be the only instance that I will make something like this, I only made an exception in this case because I like skyrim's prologue. Still, there's some differences from the original, and, after the part where the Dragonborn is almost beheaded, the dialogue is all original.
Also, even though it's a SI, the MC doesn't have a lot of meta-knowledge, it will be explained what he really knows about Skyrim in the chapter.
Idk how common it will be in the following chapters, but there's gore scenes in the first chapter, so, be warned. What I can promise is that I will not write gore or things like this for no reason, but to those that feel uncomfortable with it, I recommend you to not read.
Because I wanted to give a bonus to the MC at the start, I decided that after the first 4000 words he would roll 3 times or until he had 1000 CP in the forms of perks, wherein the first roll was in the Assistants table. The 3 Perks rolled have a total cost of 700 CP, the 300 CP that weren't used will NOT be added to the CP balance.
After that I will be using 2000 words for 100 CP and only when receiving the CP the MC will have the option to spend it in a random roll, because the MC is also the Dragonborn, I will be giving a bonus every time a Dragon is killed, that bonus will be a free random perk. If those options make the development too quick and it starts to be detrimental to the history, then It will be changed.
Also, because of the setting, to make it more difficult for the MC, I will ignore anything on the forge that gives unlimited materials for free. That also means that only materials that he can find in Skyrim will be available to the MC until he finds a way to acquire those exotics materials.
I copied some of the dialogue from the prologue. This will be the only instance that I will make something like this, I only made an exception in this case because I like skyrim's prologue. Still, there's some differences from the original, and, after the part where the Dragonborn is almost beheaded, the dialogue is all original.
Also, even though it's a SI, the MC doesn't have a lot of meta-knowledge, it will be explained what he really knows about Skyrim in the chapter.
Chapter 1 - Awakening
The first thing I noticed was the cold and the wind, immediately I knew something was wrong. As I opened my eyes, my vision still somewhat blurry, I heard his voice "Hey, you, you're finally awake!"
When my vision totally returned, the forest and snow around me immediately caught my attention. It took me a few more seconds to look at the man in front of me and only then did I understand what was really happening.
Ignoring my shock he, Ralof, continued "you're trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and the thief over there"
"Damn you Stormcloaks, Skyrim was fine until you came along, Empire was nice and lazy, if they haven't been looking for you I could have stolen that horse and be halfway to Hammerfell" The thief, that I knew was named Lokir, said to Ralof before looking in my direction "You there, you and me, we shouldn't be here, it's these Stormcloaks the Empire wants"
"We're all brothers and sist…" Ralof tried to say but I interrupted him.
"This can't be real" My voice was trembling, I was trembling, and it wasn't only from the cold, but also anger and despair.
"Shut up back there!" The sudden yell almost made me jump from where I was, thankfully, that didn't happen, or else I would probably be dead.
I clenched my fists and felt a spike of pain in my wrists, probably because of the restraints around them. This made me angrier, it was in that state of mind that I said "Or you will do what? Kill us? Fuck you!"
The Imperial soldier looked directly at me as if contemplating my suggestion, I didn't regret my words, I always have been a self-destructive guy, instead I returned his gaze, trying to put on the best intimidating face that I could, it was ineffective because he smiled in my direction before returning to look forward "I will enjoy watching your head roll" I heard him say.
'And I will enjoy seeing the Dragon burn your ugly face' was how I answered him in my mind.
I looked at the direction of the other prisoners. Lokir looked defeated with his head down, staring intently at his own bounded hands; Ralof smiled at me, no doubt because he approved of the fact that I was exchanging barbs with the Imperial soldier.
I tried to relax, closing my eyes. It didn't work, the movement of the wagon made it something very uncomfortable, the binds around my hands and my clothes, or my lack of clothes appropriate to the cold also didn't help.
"We're all brothers and sisters in bind now, the least we could do is know each other's names, I'm Ralof, of Riverwood" I heard Ralof speak and panic slightly because so far I didn't think about a fake name, after all, my real name is… What is my real name?
"Lokir of Rorikstead" his voice sounding as defeated as his posture.
I remained silent, not able to think about a name, instead, I heard Lokir's voice "What's wrong with him?"
Ralof raised his voice to reply, totally unnecessary and uncalled for in my opinion, after all, he obviously didn't know Ulfric "Watch your tongue, you're speaking with Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King!"
"Ulfric? The Jarl of Windhelm? You're the leader of the rebellion! But if they captured you… Oh Gods! Where are they taking us?" The panic in Lokir's voice was clear and I contemplated trying to burn my binds with some fire magic, maybe removing the thing in Ulfric's mouth while at it, so he can create a distraction for me to escape.
Looking at my left, the walls of Helgen were already visible and I immediately knew that the plan was doomed. Even if I had magic, I didn't know how to use it, so the chances of burning my hands while at it was high, plus I would be left barefooted and with rags against Skyrim's climate and wildlife, running from a garrison and whatever soldiers General Tulius had with them. I didn't like my chance at surviving against such odds, even if Alduin appeared early for some reason.
"I don't know where we're going, but Sovgarde awaits" Ralof's voice was heavy and sad now, does he doubt the chances of him going to Sovgarde? Only he could answer this. I guess facing death really puts every life decision into perspective.
"No, this can't be happening! This isn't happening!" Lokir says, raising his voice in despair.
"Hey, horse thief, you said you're from Rorikstead, right?" Ralof asked.
"Why do you care?" Lokir answered, resigned.
"A Nord's last thoughts should be of home" Ralof answered.
The silence that followed Ralof's words was interrupted by a NPC that will probably die a few minutes from now "General Tullius, sir, the headsman is waiting"
"Good, let's get this over with" Tullius' voice could be heard.
Lokir entered a praying position, taking his tied hands to his mouth's height "Shor, Mara, Dibella, Kynareth , Akatasha, Divines, please, help me!"
"Look at him, General Tullius, the Military Governor, and it looks like the thalmor are with him! Damn Elves, I bet they have something to do with this" Ralof was definitely angry.
"If that's the case, then you have spies in your rankings" I decided to add gasoline to the fire.
He didn't answer for a time, time that I take to look around me one more time, what I saw surprised me, Helgen is definitely bigger than in the games, in hindsight, it should be obvious, here we're not limited by little details like game engine and processing power of a computer.
"This is Helgen, I used to be sweet on a girl from here, I wonder if Feeleth is still making that mead with juniper berries feasting" Ralof paused for a moment before continuing "Funny, when I was a boy Imperial walls and towers used to make me feel so safe"
In the distance a kid's voice could be heard "Who are they dad? Where are they going?"
To which his father answered "You need to go inside"
"Why? I want to watch the soldiers!" The kid answered.
"Inside the house! Now!" the dad yelled.
The dad was clearly worried about his kid, he knew it happen executions, I felt sorry about him, knowing that in a few minutes from here a Dragon will attack the city, different from the soldier that will not do shit to stop the execution of a innocent man and the bitch that will decided that killing a innocent man is better than dealing with whatever problem that liberating said innocent man could cause, he wasn't a bad person.
People were following our convoy, around us a lot of soldiers were in formation, it gave me an idea to try to save at least one more person from dying today, looking at Lokir's direction, who was still with his head low and trembling, I said "I know what you're thinking, thief, look around us, all you will achieve here is being a living target to train Imperial soldiers and even if you can escape them, the gates will be locked"
He quickly raised his head and looked at me, glaring in my direction "And what should I do!? accept my death!? I stole a horse, I'm not a rebel!" he lowered his head again before continuing with a whisper "My punishment should not be death"
"I have a plan that has a little bit of chance of making us survive" I said, I was obviously lying, I had some things that I wanted to say, mostly insults, but I really doubt of any chance of making us survive "also, believe me, a headsman's axe is a more merciful death than arrows of a Imperial quiver, don't run"
"He's not wrong, you know? I had seen lot's of my brothers and sisters staying awake all night screaming because of Imperial arrows only to die the next day from blood loss or infections" Ralof said to Lokir before looking in in my direction and continuing "It's better to be a pretty good plan, in all my years, I never saw or heard someone be put in front of the headsman, in line for the execution block and live through it"
"Get these prisoners out of the cart, move it!" a woman's voice could be heard in the distance.
"I would try to save you guys if I thought it was possible" I definitely would not try to save them, but why say the truth? They will survive either way and I can gain some goodwill points for these words.
The cart stopped, Ralof sent a sad smile in my direction before getting up. I followed his example, Ulfric also got up as an Imperial soldier approached and yelled "Get out of the cart!" Only then Lokir rose.
I enjoyed the momentary elevation to look around me, what immediately got my attention was that General Tullius was sided by a priestess. The moment that Ulfric and Lokir got out of the wagon I could also see Hadvar and her, Captain Bitch, the reason behind the Imperials never winning the civil war when I played Skyrim, not that I always sided with the Stormcloaks, but I always took her actions as a personal offence, now it was even worse.
I was trembling again, my jaws and fists were clenched. I took a deep breath to try to calm myself before also jumping out of the wagon. I would not help the Stormcloaks, fuck Ulfric and his racist bullshit, but if this bitch condemn me to death, I will kill her, no matter the cost.
Ignoring my revenge plans for mistakes not yet made, she started speaking out loud "Step towards the block when we call your name, one at a time"
By my side Ralof murmured to himself "Empire loves their damn lists"
Hadvar started reading the list "Ulfric Stormcloak" Ulfric stepped forward without waiting for him to finish, but either way, he continued "Jarl of Windhelm"
"It has been a honor, Jarl Ulfric!" Ralof yelled by my side.
"Ralof of Riverwood" Hadvar continued, Ralof stepped forward.
"Lokir of Rorikstead" Hadvar called, Lokir stopped in front of him.
"Please, I'm not a rebel, this is a mistake! You can't do this!" Lokir yelled, and I heard some boos from the crowd that were watching.
Captain Bitch yelled, her voice angry and authoritative "Go to the block!"
Lokir looked in my direction and I shrugged. If he dies or if he lives, or at least lives until after the execution that is, I could not guarantee that he would survive the Dragon, it was all in his own hands now. The author of his own destiny, literally.
He lowered his head and followed to the block, despite my demonstrated indifference I felt a little bit happy for him, at least now he has a chance. I knew he was a thief, and in medieval times, stealing the right thing could condemn a peasant family to die on the winter; hell, for all I knew he could also be a even worse person than a thief, I didn't have to know, I choose to save him because I felt sympathy for him, he was afraid and in the same situation as me now, being punished more severely than the crimes he commited.
"You there, step forward!" Hadvar said in my direction and I stopped in front of him, avoiding looking in Captain Bitch direction, it would only make me angry "Who are you?" he asked me, frowning slightly.
Out of nowhere, a name popped out in my head "Sorli sir, as of a few months ago without surname" It was the name of the favorite character I played as in a DnD campaign, also was the best group I ever had.
Hadvar looked in Captain Bitch direction "What do we do Captain? He's not on the list"
"Forget the list, he goes to the block!" She said calmly, as if there was nothing wrong in condemning an innocent man to execution.
"I will find a black soul gem just for you" I said, finally looking at her. My boldness was rewarded with the back of her plated hand swinging in my direction, I was on the ground just a few moments after that, ears ringing, and a familiar metallic taste in my mouth.
She spat me when I was on the ground before going out. After a few more moments Hadvar helped me get up and directed me to my position, I could hear some of the people laughing, for those I didn't feel sorry for what was about to happen to them.
"You picked a bad time to come home to Skyrim, kinsman, I'm sorry, at least you will die here, in your homeland" Hadvar said as he guided me, his voice sounding remorseful. I couldn't care less about it, It was always in my mind that if you see something that is wrong and don't do shit about it, then you are also partially guilty of it.
When I was finally in position, Tullius said "Ulfric Stormcloak, Some here in Helgen call you a hero, but a hero don't use a power like the voice to murder his king and usurp his throne. You started this war and turned Skyrim into chaos, now the Empire is going to put you down and restore the peace" Just as he finished the discourse that he was probably practicing since morning, Alduin roar could be heard in the distance and people started to look around.
It was clear that everybody was tense, and the roar didn't help the situation, nobody here had ever heard such a thing or knew what it was, but it was clearly big and it was close, or else we wouldn't be able to heard it from here, in the middle of the city, an Imperial guard spoke what was in almost everyone's mind at this moment "What was that?"
"It's nothing, carry on!" General Tullius said, but it was clear that he was also worried about it.
"Yes General Tullius!" The Bitch saluted the General before looking in the direction of pristeress "Give them their last rites"
"As we commend your soul to Aetherius, blessing of the eight Divines upon you…" The priestess started, raising her hand, it didn't last long because she was interrupted.
"For the love of Talos, shut up and let's get this over with" A Stormcloak stepped forward, because the priestess said eight divines? Who knows.
"As you wish" Was the priestess reply.
"C'mon, I ain't got all morning" The Stormcloak said as Captain Bitch put him in position for the decapitation, when the headsman raised his axe he continued "My ancestors are smiling at me Imperials, can you say the same?" it was his last words.
People around us started shouting, some in favor, others against.
"You Imperial bastard!"
"Justice!"
"Death to the Stormcloaks!"
it was so loud that I almost didn't heard Ralof when he said "As fearless in death as he was in life"
Captain Bitch yelled, high enough to be heard even with the sounds of the crowd "Next, the Nord in the rags!"
Once more Alduin could be heard, this time louder, he was closer. Immediately people started looking around once more, tensions grew. Hadvear spoke this time "There it is again. Did you hear that?"
Ignoring any common sense, as expected, Captain Bitch said "I said, next prisoner!"
"To the block, prisoner. Nice and easy" Hadvar completed.
"I will, as soon as I'm informed of what crimes I'm being accused of" Taking advantage of the silence of the crowd after Alduin roared, I yelled high enough for the crowd to hear.
"This is not a court, you're a criminal and you will be executed!" Answered back Captain Bitch, at the same time two Imperial soldiers started to forcefully drag me by my arms.
I did not resist, but I continued to yell as high as I could "Do you hear that, people of Helgen!? This is your Empire! My crime? Crossing the border at the wrong time, I wanted to return to my birthplace! Imperial soldiers ambushed me like the thugs they are!" One of the soldiers punched my guts and it was almost enough to make me puke. They continued to drag me, didn't give me time to recover from the punch.
In my mind I was praying for Alduin to appear, I knew what I was doing was only making it worse for me, but the moment that bitch decided to kill me for no reason she signed her and the Empire's obituary. Most people that are hearing me now will be dead in the next few minutes, there's no reason to do what I'm doing.
But I continued "Killing their own innocent citizens! Talmor Puppets, that's what the Empire is now! Nothing more!" The guards put me in the execution block with more force than necessary, another roar, even though I believed I was safe, an irrational fear started to take over me, I started to become more desperate "I will be coming for all of those responsible for condemning an innocent man, it will not be beautiful!" The headsman raised his axe.
"What in oblivion is that!" someone shouted, at this point I didn't know who. Finally, I saw him, bigger than every living being had any right to be, much bigger than how they were presented in the games. Right as the headsman prepared to swing his axe, he landed at the closest tower to me, debris flew everywhere, a big rock hit the headsman with enough force to knock him out and, more importantly, make him miss me.
"Jiid So Daan" Moon, Sorrow, Doom, Alduin shouted and it looked like the world had ended, meteors falling from the sky and a earthquake on the ground, I got up as quick as I could and started to run to the tower in front of me, others were quicker than me, probably because they saw the dragons first and were already up, Lokir, Ulfric, Ralof and a bunch of no named Stormcloaks were already in the tower.
"Jarl Ulfric! What is that thing? Could the legends be true?" Ralof asked, still shocked.
"Could the legends be true!? Of course it's fucking true! Go to a fucking old Nord ruin or look at the fucking big mountaing were those monks stay! Are you stupid!? More importantly, anyone knows how the fuck we get out of here alive!?" I yelled, my heart was racing, I was still panicking.
Suddenly, someone shoved me on the wall, my body, that was already hurt, complained about the sudden aggression "It is I that should ask if you're stupid! You said you have a plan? How is it that yelling to your soon to be executors is a good plan?"
I answered by trying to push the man that was holding me to the wall, only when I notice that it was Lokir I answered "It's a better plan than trying to run from a army when you're totally surrounded by them, you're alive because of me, you fucking owe me one!"
"Enough!" Ulfric yelled and after a moment Lokir let me go "Ralof, remove the binds of them, we will need all arms we can get if we want to make out of here alive"
Ralof did as ordered and in a few moments my hands were free "Thank you" I said, I didn't really know who or what I was thanking.
"Stormcloaks!" Ulfric waited a few moments to gatherer the attention of the room "If we want to get out of here we need weapons, this is a garrison tower, go help look if there is some up there, me, Ralof, Virkaug, Brysta and Harksen will stop any Imperial that tries to enter this tower, move"
Me and Lokir stayed, without knowing what to do, Ralof looked in our direction and said "What are both of you waiting? You're one of us until this ends, go!"
I nodded in his direction and started climbing the stairs, quickly followed by Lokir, some Stormcloaks were already getting down the stairs, Imperial swords, bows and quivers full of arrows at hand. A few steps in I was reminded of what happened with this tower. I stopped suddenly and Lokir ran into me, we both fell on the stairs, a few meters in front of us, Alduin busted open a hole in the tower.
Those that were up and didn't die because of debris were killed shortly after when Alduin Shouted "Yol Toor Shul" Fire, Inferno, Sun. The heat was so great that I could feel myself getting burned even though I was a few meters away from the flame.
Even when the fire breath finally stopped, we were not in a better situation, Alduin took off and left a crumbling tower, looking behind us the Stormcloaks soldiers and Ulfric already got out, instead of following then, I took a pick in the role Alduin made and founded what I was looking for.
"We need to jump on that house!" I said to Lokir, already taking distance to make the jump.
"What? Are you crazy!? The house is in flames!" Lokir said to me.
I didn't wait him, already taking my distance "The tower in crumbling, go down now and you could end up bellow a pile of rocks" I didn't wait for him to make a decision, already jumping in the direction of the house on flames, I broke easily by the wooden and straw roof, and landed ass first in the floor, the wood from the floor creaking with my weight.
A few moments later, when I was already getting up, Lokir landed by my side, hitting the floor with the same grace as I did, ass first. It was enough to make the floor give up, we fell for another floor.
My body was hurt, if I could, I would take a nap there, the house partially in flames and the Dragon raging out there prevented me from seriously contemplating such a thing, so I started to get up.
"You're a crazy son of a bitch" Lokir grumbled, still on the ground.
I laughed before asking "Hey, if it is insane but it is working, is it really insane?" I helped him get up before continuing "Also, you're following me, that makes you at least as insane as I am"
"I'm following you because you're the craziest luckiest man I have ever seen, the Divines love you my friend" Lokir answered, also laughing. It didn't take long for another earth tremor to spoil our fun.
Nodding to each other we started to run to the exit, as soon as we got out of the house Alduin also landed on the floor, fortunately a few meters away from us "Yol Toor Shul" Fire, Inferno, Sun. The fire from the gargantuan beast swept all the road in front of us.
We quickly returned to the house to avoid getting burned, Lokir looked in my direction, panic in his eyes "What now?" he asked.
Looking around the room, the front door was on fire, fortunately I quickly spotted an open window "There, our exit, I said, quickly moving to jump the window" It was small but desperate as we were, we passed it swiftly.
We moved away from the burning house, around us everything was burning "Now where do we go?" Lokir asked rhetorically.
I answered, already moving "In the direction of the destruction, the Dragon is intelligent and wants to destroy the city, we will be safer from him in the parts already destroyed, just remember to not inhale the fumes"
Lokir followed me and joked "You have to stop with this tendency of walking into burning buildings, it isn't healthy"
I laughed "Between a burning house and a big angry lizard that expels fire, I will take burning house any day of the week"
Suddenly time around me stopped and I was not anymore in the middle of Helgen, constellations all around me, my first reaction was to think that it was some kind of levelling up like what happens in the game, but looking at the first constellation in front of me quickly took away that notion of me.
I knew what that was, the Celestial Forge. I smiled like a lunatic, knowing that my survival capacity in this world just increased exponentially, internally I hoped for a companion that could take us out of here without much problem or one of those facilities that could transport me to a different dimension.
The first roll was in the Assistant Constellation and It got my hopes up. One of the biggest stars was selected and suddenly I knew how to make… Magical heritages?… The name of the star was Legacy Forger, one of the biggest stars in the Assistants constellation.
This star allows you to use a ritual to bless anything non-living with a concept, said thing gain abilities based on this concept, those abilities will evolve over time with the owner, the catch is that those items are week at first and can only grow a limited amount, after that limit is reached, you would have to pass it to another user if you want it to continue its growth, for this reason it is called a Legacy, it's still a boon so it would be better than nothing, not that I would be able to create one now.
There's two types of Legacies, the first is the Material Legacy that involves items that you can personally carry; the second is the Immaterial Legacy, and it involves titles instead of items, the more prestige and legitimacy a title has, the better.
Consequently, because without it I wouldn't be able to ever make a Legacy, it also made me a Wuxian, that is basically someone that takes power from the Abyss to improve oneself. It also gave me random facts about the Abyss, enough to know about the local language and that one shouldn't abuse the power of the Abyss or bad things would happen.
All in all, it was an amazing star, but it definitely wouldn't be useful at all for me right now, even if I could make a Legacy, legacies are surprisingly weak, they work by getting stronger with one user until a set limit, then, as it passes down to another person, the ability improves or a new ability is given and the process start anew, a better quality Legacy will improve quicker, but it will not affect the strength of the ability.
Then there's the fact that the star made me a Wuxian, but besides making legacies and improving myself a little bit physically, there's not much more I can do, I would need to train to understand more about how the energy works and what I can do with it.
After I finished analyzing the first star, the forge gave me another, coming from the Mundane part of the Toolkits constellation, Tool box, one of the smallest stars of the constellation. Literally a tool box with basic tools, at least it's stored in a pocket dimension, which means that I can call it whatever I want, also, I would be able to add any specific tools to the toolbox and it would be available for me forever.
Now I had projectile weapons in the form of tools to throw at alduin in case he ambushes me, nice.
I made a third connection, this time with a small star in the Magical part of the Facilities constellation, Portable Workshop, three small relics made of an unknown metal binded by a chain of the same material, small enough to be confused by simple charms of a necklace or bracelet. By removing one of the reliques of the chain and placing on the ground, one of three effects will happen.
The first relic looks like a hammer, his effect is creating a forge that is ready to be used at any time.
The second relic has a stick format, his effect is creating a campfire, already lit.
The second relic looks like a saw, his effect is creating a workbench with equipaments to maintain weapons and creating alchemical items.
Like the Tool Box, if you lose something it will be available to you the next day. It still wouldn't be useful against Alduin, but at least it would help protect me from the climate.
With no more connection possible, I looked around in awe, the Celestial Forge. It was beautiful to see, inumerables stars, mostly out of reach, but I knew that one day I would complete this, it was my long term goal.
And it was with these thoughts that I finally returned to the real world. Lokir's laugh made me remember the situation we were in, Alduin's roar behind us made me quicken my step. Now I need to concentrate on getting out of here alive, then I can plan how to deal with Skyrim.
We stayed in silence for most of our walk through burning buildings, trying to stay out of vision of the Dragon as much as we could. Suddenly I saw something that made me stop, parts of the Imperial Army gathered in a location, and with them, Helgan's militia, their formation was loose, a smart decision when fighting a dragon. Lokir noticed my hesitation and walked to my side to look at what I was seeing "Fuck, that's Helgan's Imperial Armory! There's a known escape room there, we need to pass the soldiers to get out of here" Lokir said.
"We can't, we will not be able to sneak through an army towards a building they are protecting" because they were obviously protecting it, for what reason and how effective they really were at it I didn't know, but they were definitely protecting it.
"Fuck…" Lokir whispered the words that were in my mind, I only heard him because of our proximity. A few moments later he, with a higher voice, continued "We could try the gate?"
"We could" but this was the place the original Dragonborn used to escape Helgen "But it's not easy to open a gate, it was closed because of the executions, it requires time and at least two people, I really doubt someone could open it in this confusion" There was a huge chance someone opened it, but would we survive a trip there? "We should wait here, hide and wait for a distrac…"
"Dragon!!" Someone yelled from the formation. People raised their weapons.
"Archers!!" Another soldier said. Arrows rained on Alduin.
He took everything, hovering in the air as if nothing in the world could stop him, and maybe today he was correct "Yol Toor Shul" Fire, Inferno, Sun. We could hear the cries of soldiers in the distance.
Someone touched my shoulder and I almost jumped because of it "Well, it seems you have our distraction" Lokir said, his voice more heavy, somber.
"You want to run in the direction of the big fire lizard?" I asked, incredulous. I knew I would, but his initiative now was strange.
He shrugged "It was your plan, right?"
I nodded towards him, looking at the battle again, Alduin's fire breath made a hole made a path in the prison's direction, we could use it "Follow me!" I said and started running.
Alduin landed and the ground trembled. We ignored it, passing soldiers on the way to Helgan's prison, nobody looked at us, they were occupied with a dragon problem, or maybe it was something silly like dumb luck or destiny, I cared not, I was approaching the building.
The sight of a group of Imperial soldiers made me stop "Ralof, you damn traitor! Get out of my way!" I heard someone speaking, I approached the scene and there they were, Ralof and Hadvar, both with soldiers of their respective factions behind them.
"We are escaping Hadvar, you are not stopping us this time" Ralof answered.
"Are you guys dumb? get insede the fucking building!" I yelled and both groups looked in my direction, weapons in hand, I was not afraid… Or I was more afraid of the dragon somewhere behind me than of a group of soldiers "Look, you can all start to kill each other later, but fighting here will not help any of your groups right now, not with a dragon so close"
Hadvar had eight soldiers behind him while Ralof had five, it was not surprising then that was Ralof the first to put down the weapons "I'm down to it if you are, Hadvar"
Another roar and Alduin took flight once more, looking around for more targets he looked in our direction, it was enough for Hadvar to make a decision "Follow me" he said before running in the prison's direction.
The place was a lot different from what I remembered in the game, a lot bigger, as I was starting to notice, it was becoming the norm, all in all it made sense, with a lot more beds, chests and weapon racks that we could loot. When everybody entered, Hadvar quickly closed the door, he didn't lock it, probably hoping that some more Imperial soldiers would decide to come here.
People looked unsure of what to do in this situation, tensions were high all around, the Stormcloaks quickly got to a side of the room, distancing themselves from Imperial soldiers. I didn't wait for someone to say something and started walking in the chest's direction, Lokir, my shadow by now, following me.
I took everything I could from the Imperials, putting heavy armor, sword, sheath, bow and quiver all in a bed, it took me a moment to notice that I never used something like this and the armor would be pretty difficult to use it alone but it also gave me an idea, looking around and noticing that groups were talking with each other while we put gears, I looked at Lokir's direction "My friend, would you help me put the armor, I admit I don't have much experience with it" I asked.
Lokir looked at me for a moment, he had separated a bow, quiver, sword and sheath and was in the process of putting his own Imperial light armor, he stopped what he was doing and walked in my direction, when he was close enough I whispered to him in a way for only him to hear "In case everything goes to shit, we should side the Stormcloaks"
Lokir looked at me surprised "You want to side with the group with less numbers?" he whispered back, but his tone was the same as his facial expression.
Not only less numbers but with worst equipment and using weapons that while not unfamiliar, it is still not what they are used to use in battle "Armor are not made for protection from behind, if a fight start we take an advantage position behind the imperial soldiers and take pet shots at them, if even them it looks like we will fail, then we run" Isaid. Lokir still looked unsure so I continued "Look man, I will not side with the guys that tried to kill us, are you with me on this one?"
Lokir being behind me and still not answering made me nervous, I could not see his facial expression, but as time passed and he continued to help me without answering, the fact that he didn't stab me or something like this while at it reassured me.
When we finished, he silently walked to continue to put his gear on. I looked at him for a moment before placing the sheath around my waist, putting the sword on the sheath and placing the bow and quiver on my back.
When I finished I felt the Forge trying to connect with another star on the Magical part of the Facilities constellation. It unfortunately failed and I was left wondering what that star really could do. I didn't wondered for long because after noticing that we had finished Hadvar said "Right, let us continue, maybe then we can finally exit this damn place"
Stepping forward and leading the pack, Hadvar pushed a chain and slowly the gate in front of us that would lead us deeper into the Imperial Armory, directly into a corridor. It left me wondering how that mechanism really worked, if it had any magic involved or if it was pure engineering, maybe in the future I would be able to answer that question.
Walking the corridors of the armory, Hadvar stopped and raised a hand "Stormcloak soldiers ahead" he said, looking behind at the Stormcloaks of our group.
"I will deal with it" Ralof said and started to walk in the direction of the other Stormcloak.
We followed behind him, the Stormcloak, that now I noticed it was a woman, quickly picked up her weapon but didn't immediately attack "Ralof! What is the meaning of this?" She yelled, clearly nervous.
Ralof sheathed his weapon, raised his hand and said "Easy there, Metdvild, we're escaping this city"
Metdvild put away her weapon but was still tense "I don't like this Ralof, we cannot trust the Imperials" she said.
"We cannot trust the Imperials? Remind me again, who's the Loyalist and who is the Rebel?" an Imperial soldier said, provokingly, raising tensions all around.
Metdvild picked up her weapon once more, her actions were mimicked by some Imperials and Stormcloak soldiers, those soldiers without a weapon in hand were also tense, ready to draw their own weapons at any time "The Empire started all this when they bowed..." Metdvild started to answer the provocation.
I decided to interrupt her before any of this could become any worse "You want to fight so much? There's a dragon destroying the city, he's not very far away, go fight him, maybe then you can be named dragonslayer, gain a promotion and boost recrution for your cause" I yelled, interrupting the fight, anger was noticeable in my voice.
People looked at me for a moment before those that had their weapons in hand, Lokir scoffed by my side "Sorli, the reconciliator" he said.
With that tensions grew lightier, as if sensing our complacency in getting out of this place, Alduin proved he was still alive and nearby, the impact of what he did to prove it was enough to shook the whole building "We should hurry up in this escape thingy" I said nervously.
"That we should" Hadvar conceded before continuing in a more assertive tone "Follow me!"
We followed, finally going down a flight of stairs, like in the game a tremor made the ceiling fall, blocking our passage and forcing us to go throughout the store room, there we found 2 more Stormcloak soldiers, equalizing the amount of people in the groups, and we took food, mead and a few potions that we could found in some bags, dividing between all members.
The mead and potions we picked were all in bags made of some kind of skin and not in glass bottles. In hindsight it made some sense, glass is difficult to produce with medieval technology, but it still surprised me.
After we exited the room sounds of fight could be heard and everything went to shit, the Stormcloaks were the first to run towards the problem, the Imperials looked in Hadvar's direction, they were technically waiting orders but I knew that if Hadvar refused to go in the same direction that the Stormcloaks were going and maintained the truce, they would not follow him.
Hadvar knew this as well because he bit his lips before looking in my direction and saying "I'm sorry prisoner, It was noble what you tried to do, but we cannot let our brothers in arms die" he paused before looking in the direction of his soldiers and saying "Imperials, to battle!" they unsheated their swords before running in the same direction of the Stormcloaks.
I looked in Lokir direction and he looked back at me "Fuck, what we do?" He asked me.
I looked at the only path we had, already regretting my decision, but there was no other better option "We help the Imperials" I said before looking at Lokir once more.
He looked at me surprised "But you said that..."
"I know what I said!" I answered him angrily, Lokir flinched and I noticed that I was being an ashole for talking this way to him "Fuck, sorry… I should not take my anger out on you"
Lokir sighed and said "It's ok. I have a question though, you seem determined to kill the imperials, why the change of heart?"
We started to walk in the direction of the fight, none of us in a hurry to enter the ongoing battle "Two reasons, first, the Imperials know this better than any of us" I paused at that.
"And the second?" Lokir asked.
We were close, the sounds of lighting and the smell of ozone reminded me that it was possible that I had magic, even though I didn't know how to access it. Closing my eyes I tried to concentrate and bring flames to the palm of my hands.
'Let there be light' my brain unhelpfully reminded me of one of the passages of the book of Genesis. Light was not the result, but it made a grin appear in my face as fire appeared in my hands without burning me. 'And there was light', my brain finished.
I opened my eyes, only a few steps before entering the room "The other reason? The Stormcloaks are responsible for this fight, they broke the unspoken truce we had" Even if I hated the Empire, I was determined to not help Ulfric in this civil war. If I let Ulfric's soldiers go without consequences here, where would I stop?
Then I saw the fight and as Ralof dealt a killing blow at the Imperial torturer I froze. At my side, with bow in hand, Lokir let loose an arrow. Everything looked like it was in slow motion but I couldn't move, my eyes followed the path of the arrow until it hit a stormcloak soldier at the back of their head.
Ralof also saw the arrow hitting the Stormcloak, and as the only Stormcloak that didn't have an opponent directly in front of him, he rushed the ranged units, in this case, Lokir and I.
Lokir let loose another arrow in Ralof's direction but he sidestepped and continued his advances, Lokir trew his bow on the ground and unsheathed his sword. A quick glance in my direction was enough for Lokir to notice that I was not in the best state of mind to start a fight and he pushed me with enough force to send me to the ground and most important, away from Ralof.
It almost cost him his life, or at least his left arm, but he was quick enough to dodge most hits and those he couldn't dodge he made sure of it only hitting his armor. He was on the defensive and it was clear that he would lose this fight, fortunately for him the impact of me hitting the ground was enough to clear most of what made me freeze.
Like a flamethrower, I let loose two streams of fire in Ralof's direction. The attack took him by surprise, he grunted and after making a wide swing to successfully put distance between Lokir and him, he retreated, out of reach from the flames.
I took this moment to get up, Ralof looked in my direction with suspicion "A fucking mage, of course!" he said, probably insulting me a lot more in his head… This or thinking on the best way to deal with me. Either way Lokir used this moment to try to flank Ralof, slowly moving to his blind spot.
Ralof noticed Lokir's movement and instead of waiting, he, screaming unintelligible things, rushed at me, the guy that was still without a weapon at hand. I sent more flames in his direction, his screams turned pained one's. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to stop him and made it hard to see exactly where he was besides knowing that he was in front of me; Fortunately it also made it hard for him to see me and when he swung his sword at me, it was deflected by my armor.
He didn't stop there, at close range it was hard to maintain the flames in his direction and not burn me at the same time, he used this opportunity to knock me down. He was on top of me, ready to impale me with his sword when Lokir pierced his throat with his own.
Ralof's body immediately went limp, he could not even say his last words, later I would think that the reason behind it was that Lokir hit his spine directly, which saved my life. Now, the dead body above me and all the blood was enough to make me puke.
Despite my problems, the battle was still going. Lokir removed Ralof's body off me, looking directly in my eyes "By the Gods! You're as green as it gets! Think about it later Sorli, we still have a battle to fight!" He said, hand in front of me, ready to help me get up.
I was still in no condition to fight and he noticed it, looking at the battle for a moment and noticing that the imperials were winning, Lokir said "Alright, sit through it for a moment ok? I will help our temporary allies" and walked in the direction of his bow and started shooting once more.
The smell of burned flesh made me look at Ralof's body and I puked once more. I was not feeling guilty about his death, or even feeling guilty because I didn't feel guilty or something like this. It reminded me of talking with my mother about doing medicine once, and how I answered that I wouldn't do it because of all the gore involved in the profession.
It brought a smile to my face to know that at least I didn't forget my family, the smile didn't last long because once more I noticed the body at my side, this time I didn't puke, probably because I didn't have much more in my stomach to expel. He had blood everywhere but this wasn't the worst of it, the worst part was the burns on his flash. I looked away one more time.
The sounds of battle stopped and Lokir was approaching my position. I insulted myself internally, my weakness, of not being able to fight when it was needed. And it gets worse, sending someone to a battle that I didn't have the balls to fight myself and almost getting me and another person killed because of it. I could already imagine 'The tales of the hero with too much bark and not enough bite'.
Noticing my humor, Lokir sat by my side. We stayed in silence for a moment, watching the Imperials make some kind of prayer to those that died. But it didn't take long for me to say "I was nervous in the fight, paralyzed, it almost cost us our lives".
"It was your first fight right? Don't worry, you get used to it with time, you reacted better than me in my first fight" Lokir said, trying to distract me, it worked.
"How did you react in your first fight?" I asked, curious.
Lokir looked in my direction, with a smile on his face "Ok, I lied… You had the worst first fight I ever saw" he said, now laughing.
"That's what happened to you, them? You got used to fighting?" I asked, this time probing him, trying to identify the type of person he was.
This time, He gave me a sad smile, as if thinking about something he preferred to not remember "I'm a thief, not a murderer, since I became a thief I avoided fighting whenever I could… But to be completely honest, I was shitting my pants when that guy rushed us"
The forge chose this moment to try to connect with one of the biggest stars of the Enchanting part of Skills constellation, it failed. I ignored the forge, looking at my own hands and saying "I grew up in a pretty nice place, to be honest, this was not my first fight, but most of those I was not really at risk. There was one time though, that someone tried to rob me, he wasn't armed, I noticed this and when I refused to give my cellp…" I paused, in my current state of mind I almost told him that the guy tried to steal my cellphone.
Shaking my head before looking at Lokir and looking at him to see if he noticed my blunder, not noticing anything I continued "Well, like today, I froze, too nervous, you know? He attacked me and only then I reacted, and it was not in the best way I could. He grabbed me and I punched him two times, keeping him away from me. Then he withdrew, grabbed a big rock, approached me and trew in my direction, I blocked it with my arm, it only scratched me. Only after all of that he ran away, swearing to kill me"
I signed before continuing my tale "My mind was racing the whole time, you see, but I couldn't think of anything to do, I couldn't run, I couldn't take the initiative and rushed him when he bent down to pick the rock, nothing of that. After that, I never saw him again, thankfully, I don't doubt that he would try to fulfill his promise if he ever saw me again, and I was afraid I would have the same problem if I faced him again"
We stayed in silence for a few more moments, the Imperial soldiers were almost ready. I tried to get up but before I could Lokir grabbed my arm, stopping me "I have something that maybe will interest you, follow me" he said, getting up and walking in the direction of the cells.
I also got up and once more my body reminded me of previous mistreatments, closing my eyes once more I tried to find if I had anything that could heal me, the healing magic to be more specific. Sure enough my hands started to glow in an orange light, feeling the magic in my hands I opened my eyes once more before raising my hand.
For a second I felt as if nothing could go wrong, as if I was protected, a comfortable warm… It was hard to really describe, but it felt good and was definitely what I needed, not only in body but also in mind. I let the flow of magic stop and at the end of it all my problems returned, but I didn't let it take me down this time.
Looking at Lokir he was waiting for me in front of one of the cells, a dead wizard was there and with him a book. To be completely honest, in all this chaos I had forgotten about this wizard "I can pick this lock if you want" Lokir said.
I raised an eyebrow at him "You have a lockpick with you?" I asked.
"A thief always has a lockpick with him" was his answer.
"By all means then, please, pick the lock" I said, smiling at his antics.
Lokir made quick work at the lock and while I picked the book he started to undress the wizard. The title of the book immediately caught my attention 'How Lightning Speaks by Archmage Tertudius'. Reading the first lines I was a surprise "Motherfucker!" I yelled.
Lokir and some Imperial soldiers close to me looked in my direction "What?" Lokir asked.
"This book, it's a fucking joke, written by the torturer" I looked at a few more lines before continuing "It's surprisingly educational considering the objective it has, basically he gives this to a unlucky person explaining what he will do and how he will do, there's a lot of things about electric spells here" I finished my explanation, closing the book and putting it in my backpack.
Lokir finished undressing the mage's corpse and gave his clothes to me, I put it in my bag, which by now was quite full. I would make sure to wash them at least two times before deciding to wear it, not that I would choose to give the protection of my armor for some clothes, even if enchanted. Which brings the question, why do mages use those enchanted clothes? It must bring them some kind of advantage to the use of magic, or else I can't see them choosing clothes instead of good old armor.
By the time we finished, the Imperial soldiers were already ready and waiting for us. Of the nine of our group that fought, six survived, the torturer was accompanied by three other imperial soldiers, all of them died. As we approached, Hadvar nodded in our direction before saying "Thank you for your help prisoners, now, let's get out of this damn place".
I picked up a shield from one of the fallen soldiers before we continued our path, passing a few more cells on the way, following us a miasma of rotting bodies, piss and shit, enough for me to believe that my life expectancy lowered just by smelling some of the things here.
In front of us, the only path available was blocked by a wooden bridge, this problem was solved by Hadvar when he pushed a lever that looked older than the dragon above us, making the bridge collapse and allowing us to pass.
After we passed the bridge, rocks collapsed, making it impossible for us to try to return. It made me wonder if this also happens in the game, if that was the case then I didn't remember "Well, looks like there's only one path for us now" Lokir joked.
One imperial looked at him angrily "That path could be blocking our only escape from here" he said, the tone of voice mimicking his facial expression.
"No, no, I know this place… More or less… We're not totally lost, I can guide us from here" Lokir said, taken aback by what the soldier said to him.
"Do I want to know about how and why you know this place?" Hadvar said with humor in his voice.
Lokir's posture straightened and he took the initiative to walk in front of us to be a guide. All the time the soldiers were laughing at him "I will leave everyone behind if you don't forget this exchange" Lokir finally said and the soldiers immediately stopped to openly laugh, but were still chuckling, much to Lokir's irritation.
The next problem in our path presented itself in the form of frostbite spiders, to be more specific, their webs. That is, until we found the spiders themselves, they were not bigger than in the game, but they had a lot more numbers, at least, most of those numbers were small ones, which still is a spider with the size of a small dog.
"Me, Dravar, Natanian and Iniurtius will take the front and try to hold the bulk of the spiders. The rest, cover our flanks, we will use this pass to try and limit the amount of spiders we are against" Hadvar said when we finally found the place where the spiders were coming from.
Another imperial soldier added "Our foe can move on the ground, ceiling and walls, stay alert to attacks from all directions, don't let them bite you, enough poison will easily kill any of us" Looking in my direction he continued "Sorli, right? You're the most important man right now, be careful with your flames, fire intimidates those things, so, slow them down, try to control how many can attack us at any given time, or, if close enough, torch them" All the sounds drew the attention of the spiders toward us.
I threw the shield that I was carrying on the ground to use magic with my two hands, it didn't take long for us to be overwhelmed. I took care of all that tried to reach us through the ceiling, that is, until I had no more magic to expend.
Magic exhaustion is strange, you don't really feel tired, but you feel like there's something missing and it's not a good sensation. I could not contemplate the situation for much longer because someone at my side yelled "The wizard is out of magic, retreat!"
Our formation slowly retreated, one of our soldiers was bitten through a opening in his armor, his scream of pain was deathning and he stayed behind in our organized retreat, but in the middle of battle there was little we could do, one more soldier took his position, dropping the bow and raising a sword, I also picked my sword and tried to cover one of the flanks.
When I felt my magic returning I retreated, putting my sword between my arm and torso I felt my hands get up in flames once more. This time I was more careful with my magic, trying to choose targets. One of the big spiders took down one of the soldiers in the frontlines, but before the spider could finish him I torched it.
Another soldier advanced to try and cover for the soldier on the ground, taking his position. With the help of my flames our formation advanced once more, gaining more ground and allowing the soldier that was previously on the ground to get up and join the fight.
My magic was down once more, but by then the number of spiders were already little enough to not give us much more trouble. At the end of it I was tired, and I was not the only one, everyone was out of breath, but at least we were alive, different from the guy that fell behind during the fight.
"Fuck!" One soldier yelled, holding his arm "I was bitten" He continued. Looking at him I noticed that it was the same that the big spider knocked down in the middle of combat.
"Anyone have an antidote?" Hadvar asked, when nobody answered he continued "Yeah, I thought it was a fool's hope… Let's hurry then, the quicker we get to civilization, the quicker we will be able to deal with it".
"Potions can help it? I have some with me" I asked.
"It will close the wound, but not cure the venon" Hadvar answered.
"It would also accelerate the Venon's reaction, it's not recommended to use healing potions on cases like this" The soldier that helped in creating the strategy to fight against the spiders speaked.
After bandaging the Soldier's wounded arm, we quickly advanced, well, at least as quick as one could advance when trying to not get ambushed by more spiders. It didn't take long for us to get to, at least in the game, the last foe of the prologue, a huge black bear that was sleeping, hibernating? "Bear ahead, I think we should try to sneak by them, don't want to fight one in our condition" Hadvar said.
"At what season are we in?" I asked.
"Start of fall, farmers are harvesting their crops, why?" Hadvar said, looking at me.
"Don't know if that's the case with black bears, but most bears hibernate during winter, if it was winter I would try to sneak past them, but because that's not the case I think we should try to kill it. Don't trust my ability to sneak past a sleeping bear in heavy armor and covered in blood" I answered.
"We don't have equipment to kill a bear, it will be difficult without hunting spears" An Imperial soldier said.
Remembering a book I read one time about a technique to throw a sword I suggested "We can improvise our swords as a hunting spear, It's not the same thing but at close range it should be effective".
"And if it fails we end up without a weapon in front of an angry bear" The same soldier said, shaking his head negatively.
The forge failed to connect with one of the biggest Stars in the Magical Items part of the Crafting constellation when I argue "If you are in front of an angry bear with only a sword in hand chances are you will be dead anyway".
"True, but I prefer my chances with a sword than without one" The soldier said, looking directly at me this time.
"Can we try to intimidate it?" Lokir said hesitantly, when everyone looked at him he elaborated "I mean, attack with arrows at long range, make loud sounds while at it and Sorli can send fire in his direction".
"Sounds like a good plan" Hadvar said.
"No fucking way! I already learned my lesson, my flames don't work at a long enough range for me to be comfortable to use it against a bear" I said, a little bit too loud because then we heard the bear waking up, at least he didn't start to look for intruders.
"Fuck, everyone, loose formation, be ready to attack at my signal" Hadvar wispered and everyone started to slowly move, distancing from one another.
I crouched down and removed my quiver and bow from my back, putting the quiver on the ground for easy access, I also removed my sword and shield and let them at arm's reach. Holding the bow on my left hand I picked one arrow and took aim, ready to draw it at Hadvar's signal.
It was not the first time I used a bow, but I couldn't call myself an expert on it, fortunately the target was a big bear, so it would be easy to hit, unfortunately the target was a big bear, so there was a chance higher than zero of it rushing and killing one of us.
"Now!" Hadvar yelled and everyone that had a bow let loose an arrow, if Hadvar's yell didn't alert the animal of intruders, the six arrows that hit the animal did the job. We were overly cautious because while the arrows didn't immediately kill the beats, it made it run in the opposite direction of us.
We carefully followed it, occasionally firing another arrow, it didn't take long for the bear to hit the ground, it struggled for a time before finally stopping moving. We sent two more arrows at the bear to confirm it was really dead, when he didn't move we considered it safe to advance.
I returned to get the sword and shield that I left on the ground, immediately cursing myself for it, because if the bear did turn back and attacked me, I wouldn't have anything to defend myself.
"Do we skin it?" Lokir asked before completing "More meat is always good and I wouldn't say no to have a good bear pelt to sell".
"Unfortunately no, It would take too long, we still have someone injured and nothing to treat it right now, Riverwood is the closest village from here" Hadvar said.
"Let's find the exit, then" I said.
After walking some more we finally reached the exit of the cave we were in. To greet and congratulate us for our achievement, Alduin could be seen flying above us, finally getting away from Helgen, but not before letting another hoar that probably could be heard in our next destiny, Riverwood.
"How much time from Helgen to Riverwood?" I asked.
"Three to five days, depending on the condition of the road" Hadvar answered, looking at the sun "I think we have two more hours of light before it becomes impossible to travel" he finished.
We didn't talk much while moving, our pace was something that I would consider impossible in my previous life, principally after fighting for so long and running from a dragon. When it got dark we set camp, I considered using my Portable Workshop to set a campfire but decided against it. Mostly because of the amount of people in the group.
We were all gathered around the campfire, I removed my armor and was now using the clothes of the dead wizard. Disgust for using a dead man's clothes without cleaning already forgotten because of the need to use something comfortable that was also useful to protect against the elements. The others were still in armor, but they were all using light armor, much more comfortable when compared to the heavy one that I was using.
At the campfire we were roasting some vegetables, some were already eating some dried meat, but I was waiting for my vegetables to finish before starting to eat. Without water or erbs the amount of food we could eat was very limited.
"How's your arm?" I asked, breaking the silence we were in.
"Hurting like a bitch" The wounded soldier answered.
After that exchange, silence took over the encampment, I decided to break it once more, this time with something more important to talk about "Three to five days. ay? I don't think we have enough supplies for that journey, we could stop to collect and hunt but this would only extend the journey even more"
"I was thinking something along those lines" Hadvar said with a worried tone.
"Fuck! First a Dragon and now this!?" An Imperial soldier said, angrily, almost yelling.
"There's an easy solution for this problem, we can divide ourselves, one group goes with the supplies and the dying man…" I started my suggestion.
"Fuck you!" The wounded Imperial soldier said jokingly, interrupting me.
I continued as if I was never interrupted "The other group can scavenge until they find civilization".
"We can do this, we will divide the supplies at the rising of the sun tomorrow" Hadvar said, decisively.
"I need to go to Riverwood, my plan is to get some supplies there, go to Whiterun to warn the jarl and maybe get some money there, I want to visit the college of Winterhold, the college was the reason for me to cross the border in the first place" I lied at the end, it was never explained the reason behind the dragonborn's desire to go to Skyrim and I sure as hell didn't choose to be here.
"I intend to follow Sorli for now, if he would have me, that is" Lokir paused and looked in my direction, after I nodded at him he continued "We have similar short term objectives and two brains work better than one" Lokir explained his reasons.
One soldier objected "I don't like this, you want us to trust the safety of our friend and all the supplies we have to you?".
"I can follow them until Riverwood if you don't mind" Hadvar said, that was enough to put the soldier at ease, because he agreed after it. The plan was simple: Me, Lokir, the wounded soldier and Hadvar would go to Riverwood with all the food we had while the three other not wounded soldiers would go west to regroup with the Imperial Army.
After that was decided we eated the food and talked some more about various unimportant subjects. I also tried mead for the first time and dear god that thing was horrible, I almost spitted what I had drinked as soon as the taste was processed by my brain.
Soon enough people decided to go to bed. I was tired, but chose to be the first sentinel while the others sleeped, mostly because I wanted to have time to think about this whole situation and what best course of action would be the best from now on.
My experience with Skyrim was very limited, I always had a good memory but the last time I played the game was years ago, at the time I still had a PS3, fuck, I barelly speaked english at the time. The only DLC I was familiar with was the Downguard, and even then I never played it, but at least I had an idea about the plot and important characters. I also knew that the Dragonborn DLC involved the first Dragonborn, Hermaeus Mora and mind controlling dragons, and that was all information I had on it.
Of the guilds, the only one I knew a lot about it was the Winterhold College, with the thieves guild and the dark brotherhood being tied at second. All the other guilds I ignored in most of my playthroughs.
The daedric princes that I knew a lot about were Mephala and Molag Bal. Mephala was my favorite daedric prince, mostly because of something I believed but didn't know if it was true, which was a problem. Molag bal, I knew about his mace, I also knew that he was involved in the creation of vampires and that he raped Serana, so definitely someone that I wanted as far away from me as possible.
The daedric princes that I didn't know much about but I remember the quest about the artifact were Azura, Sheogorath, Hermaeus Mora, Meridia, Namira and Nocturnal. Of those I like to say one thing: Fuck namira's ring, not going close to that thing, there are certaing lines that I will not cross.
Then there's Clavicus Vile, that I only knew because of Barbas; Boethiah, that I knew because of his relation with Mephala and because of the Ebony Mail, that I didn't remember the quest; And lastilly, Sanguine, the only thing I knew about him was his staff that I also didn't remember the quest. If any other Daedra is present in Skyrim I don't know or don't remember it.
Finally, there's the main quest, and it is with shame and now a lot of regret that I admit that I never finished Skyrim's main quest, so, yeah… End of the world threat that I would have to deal with? Didn't know shit about how the game's Dragonborn defeated it.
To be honest I didn't even know if I was the Dragonborn, I mean, everything pointed that I was, I kinda understood Alduin's Shouts and I was also in the same place that the Dragonborn was at the start of the game, but until we kill a dragon I wouldn't be able to know for sure.
Then there was a problem that while this is the game's universe, the limitations of the game are not present here. So, things are bigger, there are more people, distances are greater and the number of enemies are a lot higher.
The good part of this being more real than the game is that magic should be a lot more versatile and destructive than in the game, I wouldn't really know until I could talk with an expert on it but all the signs so far pointed to this being true. If that was the case I would definitely abuse this characteristic.
I would try to become a battlemage, it should be the most versatile build and capable of being a threat at any range. Probably the smart decision was to try to become a stealth archer, but I would never have the patience to sneak around waiting for the perfect shot.
With those considerations my path was clear, stay at Whiterun until the dragon's attack, maybe learn about the correct side of the weapon I should stick at my opponent while at it, then go to the College and become the best mage in Skyrim as early as possible… Yeah, I know, I'm definitely fucked.
Then there's the Celestial Forge, even though I have not got anything useful so far, there was always the chance of gaining something that would allow me to create the excalibur and with one swing and humanity's hope in my shoulders destroy Alduin… Well, one can dream right?
The Forge answered my prayer with a connection on the Biotech part of the Crafting constellation, one of the biggest of the small stars, Structural Biology was the name. It was a simple perk, it made me a great biochemist and also allowed me to easily understand and analyze living beings.
Trying to use this knowledge on Alduin based on my observations of him returned to me a bunch of garbage. Even though it has wings, it cannot fly; the wings, eyes and mouth are vulnerable, arrows should be able to pierce those locations; even though it looks like a dragon, it cannot breath fire; size suggests that It doesn't have much mobility but compensate with great speed for small periods of time that allows it to catch its prey, it's a ambush predator similar to a crocodile…
It was easy for me to understand why those pieces of information were wrong, if Alduin was a normal being those would be correct, but there's a lot more involved in him that I did not understand, not only magic itself but also the divine energy that being related to Akatosh ensures.
It was also possible that there were a lot more things involved that I didn't even know existed. Either way, it should not be something that I should pursue right now, mostly because I didn't have a way to gather this information.
Then, there was me, to be more precise, my natural resistance to cold temperatures. I did some physical tests and nothing that I could see could explain that unusual resistance. Because of the amount of time I stayed in rags in the cold, exposed to the elements of nature, when I was an Imperial prisoner, I should be feeling some symptoms of hypothermia, even now. Instead, all I felt during that period was a little bit of cold.
The obvious conclusion is that there's also some kind of magic involved but to know this for sure I would need to study a Nord's body, or even one alive… With non-invasive experiments, of course.
Does alchemical ingredients have different properties when compared to similar things in my previous world? If yes, how do they interact with the human body? Better yet, how does combining one ingredient with another improve so much a previous known propriety of an alchemical ingredient? How does a healing potion work on the body?
Can I stop the venom in the soldier's arm? This question stops my previous train of thought, The answer is… Probably no, unfortunately, at least not yet. In my previous world it would be easy to do so, it was only a matter of understanding how the venom is affecting the body and preparing a medicine with known ingredients to counter the effects. In Skyrim? How would I be able to prepare such a thing if I didn't know the ingredients I have available and what are their effects?
I was bound to become an excellent alchemist though, which is less useful than it was in the game considering that now I have to worry a lot more about inventory management and where to put the potions, after all, there's not an infinite supply of glass bottles for potions unfortunately.
Unfortunately the star didn't help much with my fighting problem, but it helped me understand what my problem is and how to solve it. It's related to the fight or flight response, but instead of picking one of those options, my body totally stops moving, then all my energy goes to my brain that tries to judge the situation and find a solution to the problem.
It's usually not a problem, it's a natural response that evolved this way because of natural selection, after all. My problem appears when I cannot find a solution for the problem, then my brain, for some reason, decides that the best option is to continue this overdrive state in detriment to the rest of my body and that state of paralysis is extended for a huge amount of time.
When fighting Ralof I was surprised when he decided to attack us and all of this happened. When fighting the spiders or even the bear we had a plan and for this reason I performed better. Unfortunately, there's not much I can do to solve this problem besides becoming more used to fighting. Training can help but this kind of problem will only be totally solved when I get used to fighting with my life on the line.
Which means risking my life some more in the name of survival. The irony of those thoughts brings a smile to my face.
Looking up, two moons and a bunch of stars were visible. I admired that scene for some time, also noticing that while I was awake, I was doing a terrible job at being vigilant for threats, I should not make a habit out of it, but now I needed this time for myself.
Overall, strangely enough, I was happy to be here. I was unhappy in my previous life, I had an amazing family and a few good friends, they were not the problem, and I would definitely miss them, I would also miss the internet, and playing tennis or volleyball. I was unhappy because in my perception, every day, the world I live in became a worse place, and no matter what I tried, this reality would not change.
I lacked purpose in my previous life. But here? There's so much that needs to be done… Also, the opportunity to visit new places, of adventuring, this all was my teenager dream coming true. A dream that never really died, even though I knew it would probably be a lot more difficult to achieve than even what I could imagine.
Assistants: Legacy Forger (The Gamer) (400 CP) - Bonus
Toolkits: Mundane: Tool Box (Generic Factory) (100 CP) - Bonus
Facilities: Magical: Portable Workshop (Divinity - Original Sin) (200 CP) - Bonus
Crafting: Biotech: Structural Biology (Half-Life) (300CP) - 12000 Words
Toolkits: Mundane: Tool Box (Generic Factory) (100 CP) - Bonus
Facilities: Magical: Portable Workshop (Divinity - Original Sin) (200 CP) - Bonus
Crafting: Biotech: Structural Biology (Half-Life) (300CP) - 12000 Words
Chapter: 13005
Total Words: 13005
Points Left: 100 CP
Total Words: 13005
Points Left: 100 CP
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Perks - Chapter 1
- Location
- Brazil
1 - Assistants: Legacy Forger (The Gamer) (400 CP) - Bonus
Description:
To be a Wuxian is to respect the concept of a Legacy, something that is handed down across the generations, gaining something with each new possessor. To be a Forger of Legacies is to be one who can craft such things, handing them down to others in the expectation that they will grow as they are used, then be handed down again, and again, and again. A Legacy can take any shape, such a sword, a staff, a cloak, or even a title. When a Legacy is made, the Forger instills in it one singular effect, attack, or technique at its most basic level, then passes it off to a Bearer. As long as the Bearer possesses the Legacy, they can use that ability, and that ability will grow and grow with usage and insight. Eventually, it will reach a point where it can grow no further (level 100 as Jee Han would say), and the Legacy should be passed on to another person. In doing so, the Old Bearer can either choose to instill a second ability (another effect, attack, or technique) into the Legacy, or to evolve the first ability. Unless the Legacy is specifically passed upwards, or there are no descendants, previous Bearers will be unable to use the Legacy. Each Legacy is typically dedicated to a unifying concept, such as a family, a nation, or an ideal.
* Lets you give magical artifacts to organizations, capable of being adapted to new circumstances even after you have left.
* Not useful for the short term, but still a unique crafting ability, suited for its purpose.
Observations:
I decided to roll 3 times or until a limit of 1000 CP as a Bonus after the first 4k worlds because I wanted to accelerate the development a little bit. this was the first perk the MC adquired because of it.
There's not much information about what a Wuxian is and what a Legacy can do, so I will be taking a lot of creativity liberty with this.
2 - Toolkit: Mundane: Tool Box (Generic Factory) (100 CP) - Bonus
Description:
This Tool Box can store any number of hand held tools, and will never get too heavy to carry. Always contains a set of basic tools that can be called on without notice and in any number like hammers, saws and blowtorches. Specialized tools you will have to place inside this box ahead of time.
Observations:
I decided to roll 3 times or until a limit of 1000 CP as a Bonus after the first 4k worlds because I wanted to accelerate the development a little bit. this was the second perk the MC adquired because of it.
3 - Facilities: Magical: Portable Workshop (Divinity - Original Sin) (200 CP) - Bonus
Description:
Being constantly on the move, Source Hunters are forced to find ways to ensure they have the tools of their craft even when far from their headquarters. This set of three small, metal charms are relics of an age past that were confiscated and put to better use. By pulling one off the chain that binds them, an easy act when one actually desires it, the holder can have what they require. Place the charm on the ground and a Forge springs into existence, hot and ready to be used. Or a campfire crackling cheerfully and ready to warm the air. The final charm is a Workbench, which includes a grinding wheel and all the small tools a budding alchemist might need to construct grenades, arrows, or even the smaller magical charms. By touching the small symbol etched into each, they will revert back to their charm form and hop back onto the chain in an instant. Should you accidently lose one or be forced to leave one behind, it will reappear on the chain at the next full moon
Observations:
I decided to roll 3 times or until a limit of 1000 CP as a Bonus after the first 4k worlds because I wanted to accelerate the development a little bit. this was the third and last perk the MC adquired because of it.
4 - Crafting: Biotech: Structural Biology (Half Life) (300 CP) - 12000 Words
Description:
The anatomy of specimens, both exotic and usual, is key to understanding how they work.
You have an instinctive understanding of how living things work, how tough they are, and how interactions between biochemical reactions work.
Description:
To be a Wuxian is to respect the concept of a Legacy, something that is handed down across the generations, gaining something with each new possessor. To be a Forger of Legacies is to be one who can craft such things, handing them down to others in the expectation that they will grow as they are used, then be handed down again, and again, and again. A Legacy can take any shape, such a sword, a staff, a cloak, or even a title. When a Legacy is made, the Forger instills in it one singular effect, attack, or technique at its most basic level, then passes it off to a Bearer. As long as the Bearer possesses the Legacy, they can use that ability, and that ability will grow and grow with usage and insight. Eventually, it will reach a point where it can grow no further (level 100 as Jee Han would say), and the Legacy should be passed on to another person. In doing so, the Old Bearer can either choose to instill a second ability (another effect, attack, or technique) into the Legacy, or to evolve the first ability. Unless the Legacy is specifically passed upwards, or there are no descendants, previous Bearers will be unable to use the Legacy. Each Legacy is typically dedicated to a unifying concept, such as a family, a nation, or an ideal.
* Lets you give magical artifacts to organizations, capable of being adapted to new circumstances even after you have left.
* Not useful for the short term, but still a unique crafting ability, suited for its purpose.
Observations:
I decided to roll 3 times or until a limit of 1000 CP as a Bonus after the first 4k worlds because I wanted to accelerate the development a little bit. this was the first perk the MC adquired because of it.
There's not much information about what a Wuxian is and what a Legacy can do, so I will be taking a lot of creativity liberty with this.
First part of it is the fact that it transform the MC in a Wuxian, the little bit I (with the help of someone on the CF discord) could found about it said that it is someone that can improve his own body with energy. I will be using chinese martial arts as inspiration for this.
Then there's the Legacy creation, the most important part of the perk, there's nothing about it online besides what the perk said, I divided it in two different things: Material Legacies and Immaterial Legacies.
Material Legacy:
Creation:
1- Choose a object;
2- Select the concept;
3- Start the ritual;
4- Define inheritance rules;
5- Make the ritual;
6- Give the Item.
Quality:
1- Quality of the materials used;
2- Relation between the concept and the item;
3- Quality of the craftsmanship;
4- Quality of the ritual;
5- Uniqueness of the Item;
6- Affinity of the user with the concept.
Immaterial Legacy:
Creation:
1- Select a title;
2- Select the concept;
3- Make the ritual.
Quality:
1- Legitimacy of the title;
2- Relation between the concept and the title;
3- Prestige of the title;
4- Quality of the Ritual;
5- Quality of the materials;
6- Uniqueness of the title;
7- Affinity of the user with the concept.
Then there's the Legacy creation, the most important part of the perk, there's nothing about it online besides what the perk said, I divided it in two different things: Material Legacies and Immaterial Legacies.
Material Legacy:
Creation:
1- Choose a object;
2- Select the concept;
3- Start the ritual;
4- Define inheritance rules;
5- Make the ritual;
6- Give the Item.
Quality:
1- Quality of the materials used;
2- Relation between the concept and the item;
3- Quality of the craftsmanship;
4- Quality of the ritual;
5- Uniqueness of the Item;
6- Affinity of the user with the concept.
Immaterial Legacy:
Creation:
1- Select a title;
2- Select the concept;
3- Make the ritual.
Quality:
1- Legitimacy of the title;
2- Relation between the concept and the title;
3- Prestige of the title;
4- Quality of the Ritual;
5- Quality of the materials;
6- Uniqueness of the title;
7- Affinity of the user with the concept.
2 - Toolkit: Mundane: Tool Box (Generic Factory) (100 CP) - Bonus
Description:
This Tool Box can store any number of hand held tools, and will never get too heavy to carry. Always contains a set of basic tools that can be called on without notice and in any number like hammers, saws and blowtorches. Specialized tools you will have to place inside this box ahead of time.
Observations:
I decided to roll 3 times or until a limit of 1000 CP as a Bonus after the first 4k worlds because I wanted to accelerate the development a little bit. this was the second perk the MC adquired because of it.
3 - Facilities: Magical: Portable Workshop (Divinity - Original Sin) (200 CP) - Bonus
Description:
Being constantly on the move, Source Hunters are forced to find ways to ensure they have the tools of their craft even when far from their headquarters. This set of three small, metal charms are relics of an age past that were confiscated and put to better use. By pulling one off the chain that binds them, an easy act when one actually desires it, the holder can have what they require. Place the charm on the ground and a Forge springs into existence, hot and ready to be used. Or a campfire crackling cheerfully and ready to warm the air. The final charm is a Workbench, which includes a grinding wheel and all the small tools a budding alchemist might need to construct grenades, arrows, or even the smaller magical charms. By touching the small symbol etched into each, they will revert back to their charm form and hop back onto the chain in an instant. Should you accidently lose one or be forced to leave one behind, it will reappear on the chain at the next full moon
Observations:
I decided to roll 3 times or until a limit of 1000 CP as a Bonus after the first 4k worlds because I wanted to accelerate the development a little bit. this was the third and last perk the MC adquired because of it.
4 - Crafting: Biotech: Structural Biology (Half Life) (300 CP) - 12000 Words
Description:
The anatomy of specimens, both exotic and usual, is key to understanding how they work.
You have an instinctive understanding of how living things work, how tough they are, and how interactions between biochemical reactions work.
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Chapter 2 - The Devil is in the Details
- Location
- Brazil
Chapter 2 – The Devil is in the Details
I woke up with someone kicking my ribs, it was not enough to really hurt me, but it woke me the same. Naturally, I jumped from the ground I used as a bed yesterday. The perpetrator of this? A smiling Lokir "Get ready, we are already breaking up camp" he said to me.
Even though this was not the first time I slept on an uncomfortable surface in the wild, it was still an uncomfortable surface in the wild and my body reminded me of that, it was a pretty annoying feeling of everything being more rigid than normal.
In the sky the sun was still rising, on the ground the snow was melting, it was a beautiful scene. Still, worry made appreciating the beauty of nature difficult "The wounded soldier, any improvement on his condition?" I asked, lowering my voice, enough for only Lokir to hear.
"Sweating, he also said that he was feeling weaker but that at least the pain stopped" Lokir answered, frowning a little.
This could be good or terrible, at least according to my biochemist knowledge. It could mean that the venom was not so efficient or the amount that was injected was too little to do much damage immediately and he was getting better, but could also mean that he was losing sensation of his arm and if that was the case it was really bad "The injury, is it bigger?" I continued probing.
Lokir looked confused but he still answered "Can't answer that, it's still bandaged, why?"
I started to remove the mage's robes to put the armor once more, while at it I answered his question "Because, while until yesterday I had never seen a real frostbite spider" Truth "it's not the first time I see Spider's venom in action" Lie "It can act by increasing the local of the injury, weaken the body or do both" Truth, but I only knew that because of Structural Biology, the star that gave me knowledge about things like this.
"Is It important?" He asked me.
Before answering his question I made my own "Can you help me with my armor again?" At his nod I continued "In the arm? If it becomes too ugly we will have to remove the arm and that's it. No, his body becoming weak is much worse, if it continues to develop it will come to a point where he will not have enough strength to even breath" There's a high risk of Respiratory or Cardiac failure, but I wouldn't drop scientific terms on a guy that probably wouldn't understand them.
After that, with the help of Lokir, I put on my armor and we joined the soldiers "Have you guys already finished dating?" One of the soldiers asked.
"Why do you ask? Jealous?" I answered his provocation with my own.
"Only in your dreams!" the soldier answered and started to laugh, he was not the only one. All in all, the atmosphere was lighter than what probably should be considering everything.
"So, here is where we part our ways" Hadvar said looking in the direction of the soldiers saluting them before continuing "Good luck on your journey brothers!"
The soldiers saluted back "A safe journey for your group as well".
We walked a lot, at a marathon athlete's pace, only stopping two times to take a few breaths and drinks, it only made it more obvious that biology in Skyrim is definitely not normal. I was the slowest of the group, what was saying a lot considering that I was using abyssal energy to push myself.
By the way, using Abyssal energy feels great, there's an incredible sense of invincibility that is easy to be lost in and a seemingly unlimited amount of energy available. My Wuxian knowledge made me aware that it works that way to attract people to use it more and that it is dangerous to take more energy than what you can control.
And that's the key for it, control. With very little patience and being an easy to anger person it was obvious that this energy was extra dangerous for me, so I would need to be extra careful with this stuff principally when in a fight, it would be easy to lose control of it in a fight.
And what was needed to improve control on said energy? Meditation, self-reflection and practical use. Self-reflection was needed to better see and understand your limits, meditation was the more controlled way to increase said limit and practical use was the most direct and dangerous way of increasing said limit.
Self-reflection should be easy, I was already a intrapersonal person and understanding myself was not difficult for me; practical use I would avoid until I became better at it, no reason to risk it right now; finally, meditation, I not even started and I was already dreading stay still for so much time, not only because of my patience but also because I hated doing nothing for long periods of time, but it was still better then losing control.
It was with all of this in mind that when we stopped once more to cook lunch, more fried vegetables and dried meat, and rest for some time that I tried my hand at meditation for the first time.
Instantly the infinity of the abyss called for me, tempting me with thoughts of power, enough power to achieve everything that I ever dreamed "Sorli? what are you doing?" I heard Lokir's voice and my concentration wavered.
"Meditating" I answered and tried to continue my activity. It was easy to understand why meditating was a lot more safe than direct use, in a fight you would be giving everything you have to survive and the temptation of using just a little bit more than what you're ready for would increase a lot in a life-or-death situation.
"Meditating?" he tried the world, as if he was hearing for the first time, considering the meaning it was probably the case "And what is this?" he asked me.
"I heard about it, it's a Graybeard thing, is it not?" Asked the wounded soldier. His condition wasn't improving but also wasn't looking worse, at least not at glance, all the exercise should not help in his situation because of the venom, but the other option was to make him wait here and try to convince a healer to walk all the way to here.
"It is" I answered and tried to return to my meditation. The forge didn't agree with my decision and chose this moment to connect with a new star. From the Safety part of the Quality constellation, Precisions Tools appeared and oh god what a good star it was.
It was a simple one too, it basically allows me to attune my creations with whoever I want, after that the process of those creations would not be able to hurt those that were attuned to. The process of attuning was also easy to do, I just needed to concentrate on the object for an hour and suddenly I could attune people to it. This can only be used once per Item so I should be careful with it.
My mind immediately reminded me of my third perk, to be more precise, the workbench aspect of it. It should allow me to build grenades, not that I knew how to build a grenade... Or do I? No, definitely not, there's some exothermic reactions capable of producing a lot of heat but those would be a lot harder to produce and are not exactly the explosion type, still, it was something to have in mind.
"And how does meditating help you?" Lokir asked curiously, Hadvar and the other soldier that until now I didn't know the name also looked interested. At this point I was already giving up on meditating, not just because I didn't like it, but it was kind of hard to do it with people asking me questions.
"It's supposedly relaxing, you can be a lot more reflexive while at it and you gain a lot more control over your emotions" Hearing me talking about it only made it more obvious that I needed to do it. Not only because of being a Wuxian but to also increase my emotional control.
"Supposedly?" Asked Hadvar.
"Supposedly, It's my first time trying so I cannot say for certain, but considering that it's a thing they Greybeards do to master The Voice it should be true" I shrugged.
While eating we talked a little more about the Greybeards and what the return of dragons meant for the organization, here I learned that they indeed believed that Dragons were legends, so that comment Ralof made a lot more sense. How they could believe that dragons weren't real when everything points that indeed they were I don't know. Hell, Akatosh is a fucking Dragon! There must exist something I'm missing.
People of Tamriel stupidity aside, after finishing with the food we quickly put out the fire and continued our journey, this time I was not the slowest one or the first to get tired, but that was not good news because the slowest person was the injured soldier, it was obvious that all the exercising was making everything worse.
It was strange overall, venom shouldn't behave this way, there's something involved in the time that is taking for him to recover or die, more magic bullshit or humans being harder to kill overall? Probably both.
We ended up in the guardian's stones and decided to set camp there. I think that Hadvar, who was leading us, deliberately decided to make camp here instead of progressing more because of some kind of belief, it still had some light and we could continue.
The stones had some kind of power, or at least they had power in the game. The only three that I remember what it could do were those three in front of me, unfortunately. I usually didn't change it after the first pick.
I also knew that those stones were somewhat related to constellations and people's birthdays, literally Skyrim's horoscope, I could already imagine people talking about it in the future. The funny part is that here in Skyrim there's a chance of all of that being true, or at least influence people in some way.
I stayed for some time in front of the warrior stone before touching it, I didn't feel any different because of it, or see any magical lights indicating that something changed, what I got because of it was a few strange looks from my partners in travel. They probably were surprised that I stopped at the Warrior's Stone instead of the Mage one.
The reasoning behind it was simple, my magic learning would be a bit limited until Winterhold and choosing it would be detrimental in the short term. Now I was vulnerable and I needed to learn how to properly defend myself, the easy way to do it was by becoming better at fighting. Before going to Winterhold I would come here once more and try to do the same thing with the mage stone.
Between here and Riverwood there's a mine with bandits, or at least it existed in the game, after getting out of Helgen I always explored that place, not that I could do it now, unfortunately. My mouth salivated with the perspective of resources to use with the forge, not that I needed those types of resources right now, I didn't have anything that used metal, but it was a thing to have in mind.
Bleak Falls Barrow was also visible from where we're from. I considered exploring it after Riverwood and picking the Dragonstone, but again, it was a terrible idea for various reasons. First, I doubt that Lokir would be inclined to help me with it; second, the thing should be heavy and we didn't have anything with us to carry it; third, neither me nor Lokir are capable of being a good close range fighter, so the chances of us dying while at it was enormous.
As I expected, the wound of the soldier was getting worse, he was also a little febrile, because of it an idea came to my head and when we were in front of the campfire I said "We should make something to carry him while we can, I don't know how much longer he will endure at this pace".
"It's a good idea, but it would also slow us down a lot now" Hadvar answered. After that, we stayed in silence for a moment, the atmosphere was a lot heavier than yesterday, maybe because only now we really noticed what precarious situation we really were in. And not only we, but also Skyrim as a whole, the returning of the dragons, the destruction of Helgen, nobody really knew what to do with all of it.
"How much ground do we still need to walk?" I asked.
"We walked a little over one third of the way" he answered and the atmosphere became a lot worse.
'at least we still have food' I thought about saying, but gave up, it wouldn't help, instead another idea popped out in my head "Maybe a compromise? We have time to kill now that we have little illumination so we can start by making rope, it's a slow process but the result of it shouldn't slow us down and if we needed to create something to carry him it will help tremendously to have something at hand".
It was a good idea, not only because it accelerated the process of creating a surface to transport the soldier if needed but also because having something to do distracted the mind of all the problems. Hadvar and the other soldier stayed in camp, the first taking apart some of our empty cloth bags to transform into ropes and the second resting.
Lokir and I were looking in the forest with a improvised torch, taking some precautions to not distance ourselves too much from the camp, mostly looking for fibers and some vines but also picking up some berries in the way, only those that Lokir was sure weren't toxic, of course.
While in the forest Lokir asked me "Sorli, why are we following them? We should go directly to Whiterun" I stopped and looked in Lokir's direction, he didn't look directly at me, choosing to look at the direction of the camp, that was visible from where we were, instead "Chances of that guy living are really low and…"
"And?" I inquired, prompting him to continue.
"And he is part of the Imperial Legion, the same people that tried to kill us two days ago" He finished.
I followed his gaze and looked directly at the camp, we couldn't really see the details of it but we could see the campfire and it was possible that they could see our fire as well. For this reason I walked more inside the forest and Lokir followed me "Do you blame them for it?" I asked.
Lokir thought for a moment before answering "No, but we don't own them anything, why are we doing this now?".
He was right, we could go to Whiterun a lot quicker if we abandoned the group, on the first day we walked a little more than one third of the way and from now on we would only get slower. The truth is that I didn't want to abandon one person that fought with me, but this wasn't what Lokir wanted to hear so I didn't say it.
Instead, I commented on the other motive that made me want to follow the group "Hadvar, he's from Riverwood, we can get supplies in the village more easily with his help, maybe for free if he still has family there" When you select Hadvar instead of Ralof he introduces to you the Riverwood's smith, don't remember if he is Hadvar's relative, but he definitely someone that help the player.
Lokir didn't say anything and we stayed silent for some time, he was staring at the trees, thinking, maybe it was his time to reflect on life and what to do in the future. I waited for him and at some point I threw the improvised torch on the ground after removing any foliage that could cause a forest fire, the heat of the improvised torch was uncomfortably close to my own arm for my tastes.
Still, he continued, the light from the improvised torch on the ground dimming, at some point I decided to ask "Are you okay, Lokir?".
"The spider's nest, don't know if you noticed it, but there were a few bodies there… Human bodies... I'm wondering if…" He didn't finish. Truth be told, I didn't see any bodies at the time, but I was more worried about the whole magic and all the fighting.
"If?" I asked, trying to end this quickly, the fire was ending and I didn't want to stay in the forest while it was dark, even this close to camp and with the two moons providing a lot of illumination at night.
He signed and after a few moments said "A few years ago I was a part of a group, we smuggled things for the imperial guard in Helgen and sometimes some of the prisoners there, simple things like better alcohol and food mostly but also other luxuries, according to the soldiers, imperial rations and drinks are bad and considering what we are eating so far I'm tempted to agree" he sent a sad smile in my direction, I almost couldn't see because of the darkness.
He continued "Anyway, the soldiers' compromise with us was to clear the escape tunnels of beats like this: Bears, spiders… Things that live in caves... I'm wondering if the bodies there were of my friends… Last I heard, the group disbanded a few months ago and so far I haven't heard from anyone, so...".
For a few more moments the only sounds in the forest were some bugs, small nocturnal animals and the torch still crackling, then I asked "And you believed that the soldiers failed with the compromise and for this reason your friends died?".
Lokir shook his head "There's no way to know now, but it makes sense".
"And what do you want to do with this information?" I asked.
Lokir shrugged "I… I don't really know… When I discovered that we were going to be executed I thought we were dead, then a dragon appeared and I for sure knew that we were going to die… Then the fight against the Stormcloaks and the Spiders… I don't know what to really think anymore, or what to do from here"
"You stole a horse, right? Why did you do it? What did you wanted to do with it?" I enquired. The idea of someone talking about their problems to me was strange, even though I'm good with people on an individual level or even small groups, I was pretty antisocial and besides some members of my family, there was only one other person that I had enough intimacy with to talk about anything and everything, and even she was a distant memory.
Lokir and I, we weren't in that same level of trust, not even close to be honest, but we both survived Helgen and I was starting to think that, like me, he didn't have anyone else that he could trust or even a place that he could go. That and surviving together all of that shit was the greatest motivator of our quick friendship. The fact that I convinced him to not run probably also helped in this situation
When the forge failed to connect to one of the biggest stars of the Magitech part from the Skills constellation Lokir spoke "I was caught in a scheme in a dice game, the details aren't important right now. The important part is, I needed to run so I stole a horse and was stopped by the soldiers. I never thought I was going to see so many Imperial Soldiers so close to Eastmarch, when I tried to run they killed the horse with some arrows and I was imprisoned by them".
"You wanted to go to Hammerfell, right?" I asked.
"Right, I would try my luck there, start anew, maybe find some Redguard pussy to wet my cock" he laughed at the end, but it was noticeable, even with a face barely visible because of the lack of luminosity, that he wasn't fully invested in it.
I ignored his joke and continued my quiz "And do you still want to go there?"
"No… While in prison I heard some of the Imperial soldiers talking… Skyrim is literally under siege, almost all passes are blocked, only a few selected people can travel through it and most of them aren't the type to transport human cargo, even an alive one… Those that are… Lets just say that I wouldn't trust my safety to them" he answered.
"I see…" Now, that was new information, I didn't knew about this but it made a huge amount of sense, the Empire wants to pacify the region and one of his tools is controlling trade. It also blocked any help that the Stormcloaks could receive by land besides if it comes from Morrowind and considering those that live in Morrowind and the racist tendencies of the Stormcloaks, I really doubt that they would receive help from there.
The only route possible for the Stormcloaks was by sea, but then, how many ports does the Stormcloaks even have? Does Winterhold even have one? Wait... Is Winterhold even on the side of the Stormcloaks? To be honest, the rebellion was something that I didn't pay much attention to while I was playing the game. Fortunately this time, changing this lack of information was quite easy, I just needed to ask the right person, Hadvar, for example, should know a lot more about it.
Letting for later the thoughts about Skyrim's geopolitics I continued "Well, I have a plan to raise some funds while at Whiterun, so, if you follow me, we can figure things out from there" I didn't really have a plan besides getting to Whiterun, talking about the Dragon with the Jarl and from there try to get help to complete the mission, but this is something that I wouldn't say to Lokir.
If it fails, maybe I can use my knowledge to become an alchemist and gain money that way. Maybe I could even convince Lokir to help me sell potions, he should be good with words, being a thief and scammer previously. I laughed internally at the idea, being an alchemist in a medieval fantasy world was not really my definition of fun, but beggars can't be choosers.
Lokir nodded at me before saying "Yes, I was already planning to do it, we already talked about it, remember?"
"I remember, I was only making sure that this was still your plan, either way, we should return to camp now" I said and Lokir nodded once more, I would suggest going to camp but he still looked conflicted.
Looking directly at me this time, he asked "Sorli? How do you know so much about poison?"
His question surprised me and it was my time to stop and think for some time, no way I would tell the truth, even if it cost me an ally. My first instinct was to tell that it was not poison but venom and while venom is a type of poison, this distinction is still important, maybe it was the biochemist in me, because like hell I would normally care about it. But that wouldn't help my case, so I promptly ignored it.
Instead, I decided to go with the second alternative, lie. Now, I hated lying, strange to say that now considering that I did a lot of it since coming here to Skyrim, but that was because I didn't want to reveal my lack of past and the Celestial Forge. Once that's known, who knows what the Daedra will do… I would certainly try to delay anyone knowing this to as far away as I could, time was my ally in this case, and not only because there was a chance of me being connected to Akatosh.
Putting the most painful face that I could without exaggerating, I said "I had to learn about it… Sorry, I prefer not to talk about it right now" or never, but that also wouldn't help my case.
Lokir sent a painful smile in my direction. If he believed my lie or not I couldn't tell, but after that we decided to go to the encampment and after putting out the fire from the improvised torch we started to walk in the encampment direction.
While the wounded soldier was sleeping, Hadvar was still awake, waiting for us, probably, and taking care of the encampment while at it "The food is getting cold, what made you take so long?" He asked.
Lokir answered his question before I could "We decided to get some berries while looking for fibers" It was not a lie, but it also wasn't the whole truth. It still was a lot better than anything I had to say and at least I didn't need to lie this time… I would probably say that Lokir needed to shit and for this reason we took longer than expected.
What reminded me of toilet paper, how I missed it… And a shower, I desperately needed a shower… I totally forgot about those details while thinking about how I was happy to be in Skyrim yesterday.
My unhappiness aside, after eating, we spent the rest of the night making some rope until we decided that it was time to sleep. Hadvar took the first watch this time and continued to work while at it.
My watch was the last one, we decided that the wounded soldier would be a lot better if he slept the whole night so this work was left for Hadvar Lokir and me. When I woke, another time by a kick in the ribs, I started to take care of our camp. What consisted of extinguishing the fire, covering the pit and organizing our bags.
It never stopped to amaze me how much energy this body had, or at least how quickly it recovered energy. I was never much active in the morning and after so much exercise the day before I should sleep for at least 10 hours, principally in such lower temperatures. But to defy all logic, here I was, ready to run more marathons today. And to think that the soldiers and even Lokir were in better shape than me…
The wounded soldier was already awake, but one look at him and you would notice that he was in a bad situation. His whole posture was down and he was soaked in sweat, but at least he was awake. After finishing organizing the camp we talked about how life was in Skyrim, he didn't know much about it, was born and lived most of his life in Cyrodiil before entering a fight with an officer and being transferred to Skyrim because of it. For a reason that only he knows, he was still in good humor.
When the time came, I woke up Hadvar and Lokir, I admit I was a little bit vicious when waking up Lokir, using a little more force than necessary on the kick, but in my defense, he started this tendency. I didn't dare to do the same with Hadvar, he slept with his weapon in hand.
After putting on my armor, once more with some help, we started to walk again. As expected, the distance we were able to travel was a lot smaller, by night, we were almost two thirds of the way to Riverwood, according to Hadvar.
That night we finished the ropes and cut some small trees and branches to make an improvised board to carry the soldier. We knew that his situation would only get worse from now on and we wanted to have it ready by tomorrow.
The only thing that we had to cut the branches was our swords, at least the imperial sword was double edged, like the roman gladius… As if we needed any more clues that the Cyrodilic Empire was a copy of the Roman Empire… Because of it, I made sure of only using one side on it, to not lose all the cutting capability of the sword.
The next day, with the board ready, we used some of the leftover rope to tie him to the board and started carrying him the whole way to Riverwood. The third day's progress was a lot slower, but the soldier was still awake most of the time. By the time night came, we were all exhausted and didn't even bother to make a proper vigil routine.
At least we were really close to the river, so, as soon as I awake and noticed that I was the first one to do so, I went in the river's direction and washed myself. The water was cold, as in really cold or cold as fuck, but I was able to dry myself and quickly heat up using a little bit of magic.
I learned how to control the temperature of the flames because of it, and that magic is a lot more modular than in the game. It was really easy as well, the spell temperature, range and output are not set numbers like it is in the game, what I did was try to increase the area of effect to as much as possible and reduce the amount of magic that I purred in the spell and then I created what I call it cloak of heat.
It was really expensive when compared to the flames spell, but it was useful for the purpose it was created, being a glorified air body dryer. It could also help with the cold temperatures if one could use it that way, but because it was so expensive I really doubt it would be the case.
I admit that my idea of taking a bath was not thought out, if it had failed my other only option to dry myself was using the wizard robes as some kind of towel, I only notice the dry out problem after entering the water, fortunately everything ended up good.
The fourth day we pushed a little too much to finally arrive at Riverwood and used all the stamina potions that we had. We carried the soldier all the way, at some point he wasn't conscious anymore, but I recall that he was still breathing, at least he was the last time I checked.
I don't remember much after seeing Riverwood walls, exhausted as I was, but the fact that I woke up at home in a nice warm place with comfortable clothes and in a comfortable bed… At least a comfortable bed when compared to the ground, not that I was really complaining, considering the last few days any comfort was really good.
The fact that someone changed my clothes didn't bother me as much as it probably should, a little bit of embarrassment is a lot better than trying to sleep with the huge number of layers of protection that is the Imperial heavy armor. Plus, I had some clean clothes for once, even though I was still feeling dirty.
Getting out of the bed and looking around the place I noticed that we were underground, a fireplace and a few torches provided illumination and warmth to the place, the walls were made of stone and dirt with some unnecessary decorations all around to make the place more beautiful, the ceiling was made of wood, there was also a few holes in the ceiling, probably to avoid the accumulation of smoke, in the middle of the room two wood pillars could be seen, probably there more because of paranoia then real security.
Finally, I found what I was looking for, an exit… Probably… In the form of stairs that would take me upstairs, it was closed by a hatch, but a weak push was enough to open it. While opening it, the Forge failed to connect with a medium size star on the Technological part of the Crafting constellation.
This new room also had a fireplace and in there a cookpot, my mouth salivated a little, I didn't know what was in there, but it smelled good, and I was feeling quite hungry.
"Sorli, glad to see you back in the world of the living" Hadvar said, making me stop my staring competition with the cookpot and look in his direction. He, Lokir and a man that I didn't knew the name were all sitting together at a table.
"By your attitude I imagine that our friend survived?" I asked, remembering our effort yesterday.
Hadvar expression got more serious, but he nodded in my direction and said "He's alive and recovering, according to Riverwood's Healer… But his arm… Well, after the effect of the poison was totally removed, we used some healing potions, so he still has his arm and there's no risk of infection, but the damage that was made in his arm…".
I waited for him to continued but it looked like he had no intentions to do so, so I decided to ask while walking to sit with them "Magic cannot cure it?".
Hadvar looked at me strangely before answering my question "It definitely can, but mages so versatile in this kind of cure are rare and the treatment is very expensive".
I frowned and asked "The imperial legion doesn't provide this treatment?".
"It does, but only to high-ranking officers… Technically common soldiers also have access to some magical cures but nothing on the Level of what Natanian need and the magical healing situation here in Skyrim is a lot worse when compared to the rest of the empire, what happened with Natanian… There's a whole piece of his arm missing, we don't even know if he will be capable of moving it anymore" Answered Hadvar and we stayed silent after that. A soldier without an arm? His career was ruined.
So, the soldier's name was Natanian? Good to know, it avoids the embarrassing situation of asking 'what's your name, again?'.
There was also another useful information on what Hadvar said, well, more or less. Restauration magic, missing parts of the body are more difficult to restore, but it is possible, that creates at least two distinctive ways of healing.
One probably accelerating the recuperation and multiplying existing cells of the body that have a specific function, maybe molding, which would need knowledge about the human body, or utilizing some kind of conceptual things like 'the memory of the body' to recreate it.
The other is creating those cells altogether, which would need a lot more knowledge and it was, obviously, a lot more difficult. Not that it would be much of a problem for me, I had a lot of knowledge about how the human body should work.
But I wouldn't know for sure until I started to study said type of magic. It also made me wonder how this was related to the 'destroy undead' aspect of restauration magic. Is it still restauration or it is different? What makes a type of magic different from another? Again, it would need some research.
The silence was interrupted by the opening of the front door, the culprit? A red-haired middle-aged woman with a basket of vegetable on hand. As soon as she saw us her expression changed to a big smile, the type of smile that a mom gives to his son when proud of him, and only after that said "I see that all of the heroes are awake now" Then, looking directly at me, she continued "You're the one called Sorli, right? Hadvar had a lot of good things to say about you".
As far as first impressions go, you can consider me impressed, I immediately liked the woman, she seemed genuinely happy to see us, it made me feel safe and at home. Naturally, I gave her my best smile and got up "That's my name, yes" then, approaching her I continued "Do you need some help with this basket madam?"
She giggled and looked past me at the direction of the table "Finally someone with good manners, you should learn from him, Alvor! Hadvar!" Then looking at me she continued "No, dear, there's no need for that, let me just put these vegetables with the others and I will put the food on the table".
"Sorli, you're making us all look bad, sit here lad, make yourself at home" The man that I assumed being Alvor said in my direction, laughing. He was a strong man, but a little bit on the short side of the spectrum. He had brown hair and eyes and his most distinctive facial feature was a big nose.
I walked in the direction of the chair but then I remembered of the fact that I just run for four days and instead of sitting I sopped in front of it and asked him "As hungry as I am right now, I would prefer to wash myself first, where can I do this?"
Alvor answered my question "The river that crosses Riverwood, just go out of the walls and pick a spot there" I started to walk in the river's direction to do just that, but Alvor interrupted my progress by saying "The river gets narrower on Riverwood, for this reason the currents are a lot stronger, be careful".
"I will be" I said and continued my path to the river. Surviving a dragon just to drown a few days later, now, that's a funny thought. I was never a great swimmer, ironic considering I lived all my life next to big bodies of water, first a river and then the ocean. I knew enough to not immediately die in it, but I would not bet on myself against the currents of a river, I heard of too many people dying doing exactly that to try it myself.
Alvor's and Sigrid's house was inside the walls, as expected, the forge was also there. The house was mostly made of stone and there was a big distance of their house to all the others, probably for safety reasons, because of the forge, the last thing people would want is to burn the whole village because of one problem in the forge. A garden was also present right in front of the house, I didn't know anything that was planted here, gardening was not something that I knew much of.
I also took the opportunity to ask to one of the guards to climb onto one of the walls and take a better look at the city. They usually don't let people in it, it's not outlawed, but letting a lot of people in it could cause problems. I was able to convince him by promising to talk more about the Dragon rumors. The city was big, a lot bigger than the first city I lived as a kid in my previous world and that city had a little more than ten thousand people.
While this didn't let me know the exact number of people that called Riverwood home, it let me know that it had more than ten thousand people. Comprehensible, Whiterun should be one of the most populated provinces, if not the most populated, with the city of Whiterun being the most populated city in Skyrim, a lot of plains should make excellent farm grounds and being located exactly in the middle of Skyrim makes this region the perfect trade hub.
It would make finding someone specific a bit difficult, well, not as difficult as trying to find someone in one of the bigger cities, in small populated places like this, everyone knows each other by name, but I couldn't exactly ask for a specific person's location unless I had a reason for it.
I wanted to find Faendal, I didn't remember much about him except for some details, I remembered his quest had something to do with a letter to some woman and that he was a good archer, I always picked him as a companion, mostly for him to teach me archer for free.
I finally got out of the walls and walked to an isolated place to take a bath, I avoided entering the river this time, remembering Alvor's advice about strong currents. I was happy that at least it wasn't The Witcher's world, the last thing I needed is a Drowner or some other weird marine wildlife trying to kill me… Wait… I didn't know shit about Skyrim's marine wildlife, so it's better to stay aware, just in case…
When finished I used the same spell to dry myself, put back my clothes and walked in the direction of the village. While at it I tried to think about the reasons for the use of spells being so expensive, but I couldn't find any, there was just too much unknowns.
Returning to the village, it was a lot more alive than when I got out of the house. lots of people with axes walking out of the village, the name of the village was not only for show, apparently. There was also some with baskets, probably to collect fruit and herbs. I ignored most of it, I still haven't eaten today and my stomach was reminding me of that.
When I approached the house Alvor was already working on the forge, he was absorbed in his work so I also ignored him in my quest for food. Finally walking inside the house once more, Lokir, Hadvar and Sigrid stopped whatever they were talking about to look in my direction, the last one immediately getting up and walking towards me.
The forge choose this moment to make a connection with the Appearance part of the Quality constellation. One of the smallest stars, called Decadence, pretty useful to make some money. It would help me with decorating places, allowing me to find the best place to everything, even surveillance devices, and crafting more beautifully items, specialized for the upper crusts of society.
Grabbing my hand, Sigrid started to drag me to the table "Oh dear, I thought for a second that you were avoiding my meals, come, eat" she practically shoved me on the chair after saying that. There were trays with sliced apples, some kind of fish with a little bit of broth and roasted potatoes.
It was definitely a strange combination and I was not a fish fan, I always choose red meat if it was an option. Either way, I was hungry and the last three days were composed of roasted vegetables without season and dried meat without sauce, so this was the best meal in a while. Also, whatever the fish broth was, it had a lovely citric taste and an even better smell. Hell, even the potatoes had some kind of spice to it that made it delicious.
But because I couldn't have nice things, my foodgasm was interrupted by Hadvar "My uncle is repairing our weapons, he will also retrofit your and Lokir imperial armor, you're not a part of the legion and we couldn't let you walk around Skyrim using it, I hope you understand".
I nodded at him and between bites said "Considering I plan to go to Winterhold, that is considerable close to Windhelm and a lot of Stormcloaks, I appreciate this change" Lokir snorted, it was a funny thought, a man in Imperial armor trying to convince a group of Stormcloaks to not kill him. Ignoring those thoughts, I continued by asking "How much time it will take to do all of this? The sooner we get ready, the quicker we can talk with the Jarl about the dragon".
"It will be ready by tomorrow, there's no hurry, a group was sent to talk with the Jarl about it, to see if he can send more troops to help Riverwood in case of a dragon attack" While saying this Hadvar grimaced while talking, he probably didn't like the chances of Riverwood against a Dragon, but didn't want to talk about it, so instead he change topics "I would appreciate if you can also talk with the Jarl, as an eye witness your word has a lot more weight"
Nodding to him I said "Already planned to inform the Jarl, it would give me access to his court and from there I can look into ways of making money" It was partially a lie, I wanted the quest to pick the Dragonstone and maybe convince the Jarl to send a meat shield with us. After that I decided to return to the subject that Hadvar was trying to avoid, ignoring problems was something that I hated, so I inquired him "You saw the same thing as I did, right? The Imperial Legion and Helgen's garrison were decimated by the Dragon, just more man will not be enough to stop it".
Sure, they were taken by surprise, but that wasn't the only reason, I still remember Alduin fighting against all those people and just shrugging off attacks direct at him, one thing was certain, neither Skyrim or I was ready for the return of the Dragons and that worried me a lot.
How to fight against those beasts? I remember hearing about how it was only using the dragons own weapons against them and with the help of Paarthurnax that the humans were able to win against the dragons, Shout against Shout. How many people could Shout today? I doubt there were many that could.
But again, things can always be worse, and indeed they were. Skyrim was in decline, and not only because of the civil war but it was obvious that it didn't help, I didn't know exactly what caused all of this, but it was clear that something was wrong with the land. In the game, a lot of fortifications and mines were occupied by bandits, I didn't know if it was the same here, but it was probable that it was also the case. That was not the only indicator that something was wrong and it was not only based on that that I made my observations.
The other big indicator was the state of Riverwood walls. Riverwood didn't have much in the department of defense, considering the population ang local geography it was understandable, only three fourths of the village was covered in walls, the other one fourth used the natural protection from the river. That was not the problem, the problem was the state of the walls, it was not crumbling by any means, it was still solid rock fortifications and it would take a lot of time for a thing like this to happen, but it was obvious that it lacked manutention in recent years, maybe decades.
Not that walls would stop a Dragon, Alduin already proved that. I didn't want to create fortifications to fight Dragons, I wanted to create a group that fight them, but a group like this would need resources, and if people here didn't have enough to even maintain their own walls, how would be able to create such a group? Something must change, and I didn't know if I have what is necessary to spot and make those changes.
I admit I was afraid about what the future would bring, but at least one thing was true, the Forge would help tremendously to overcome those odds. At least I hope so…
Hadvar frowned in my direction, Lokir and Sigrid also looked worried, the atmosphere became a lot darker. I didn't feel bad about it, I didn't like to ignore a problem when it showed up. Hadvar asked in hidden aggression, directed at me "And what else do you propose we do?" It was clear by the tone in his voice that he didn't like me being the messenger of bad news.
I didn't particularly care about his opinion on this matter, for me it was clear that as it stands Skyrim has no chance against Alduin's might. So, instead of ignoring the problem like what he probably wanted, I asked him "Is there a chance for the empire to send more soldiers to Skyrim?"
Hadvar expression became less aggressive then, as he though about my question I finished my food. Finally, after some time of uncomfortable silence, he answered my question "I will talk with General Tullius about it, but I doubt something will change, the Emperor doesn't want war, bringing more troops to Skyrim could push the Stormcloaks to becoming more aggressive and also let Cyrodiil exposed to the Talmor".
I frowned; I knew the Empire's situation was bad, but this answer surprised me. It shouldn't, but it couldn't be avoided, ending of the world treat or not, nothing could really stop the ambition of man… Well, not only man in this case, but I digress.
"Arrows and Swords did very little, if nothing, to really hurt the dragon, how can we fight that thing?" I asked. I already knew the answer for this question, or at least I think I knew, the objective was mostly to confirm my own knowledge and maybe find new information with the locals.
"Magic? You're our magic specialist Sorli, do you think that magic can hurt that beast?" Lokir asked.
I didn't knew much about magic and even less about dragons, internally I laughed about being called a specialist in such subject, but I would not talk about my inexperience with them. So, instead, I shrugged and said "Maybe? We will not know for sure until we test it" Then remembering the little I knew about the enemies in the game I continued "Vampires and Trolls are weak to fire, Werebeasts have a weakness to silver, if Dragons have a weakness? Probably, but I cannot tell".
Sigrid, that was mostly listening to us talk until now, said "There's this old song that my grandmother used to sing to me, I don't recall the name, but it talked about how the tongues saved Skyrim from the dragons" pausing for a moment, probably to try to remember the song, she continued, this time singing "But then came the Tongues, on that terrible day. Steadfast as the winter, they entered the fray. And all heard the music of Alduin's Doom, the sweet song of Skyrim, sky-shattering Thu'um".
It was not the most beautiful voice in the world, but it was still pleasant to hear, and, most importantly, it mentioned the Thu'um and the Greybeards, probably the most prepared faction in Skyrim to this ordeal.
Hadvar nodded to her and commented "Most of the Nordic history was recorded in songs, in most cases it's not reliable source of information but maybe there's some truth to this tale".
After that we changed subjects, talking about Riverwood, Whiterun and the civil war mostly, Hadvar was really careful with his words, according to him, to not revel secrets of the Imperial Legion's plans. At some point Sigrid called his daughter, Dorthe, to help her in the garden. It ended up with only me, Lokir and Hadvar on the table, eating some of the already sliced apples and talking.
At some point I decided to change subjects, another thing was bothering me "Hadvar, you knew Ralof, right?" I asked, making Hadvar standstill.
After a moment he sighed and said "He was a friend of mine before…" He paused and the continued, anger and anguish in his voice "It's this damn civil war! Driving people apart, my family support the empire, his support the Stormcloaks, as you walk the land you will notice that it's not an uncommon story through all of Skyrim".
"If possible, I would like to talk with them about what happened with Ralof" I said and when both Lokir and Hadvar frowned in my direction I continued, explaining my reason "If someone from my family died, I would've like to know about it" I shrugged at the end.
Hadvar nodded at me and said "He has a sister, Gerdur, she's the only one from his family that doesn't outright hates the empire, if I were you I would talk to her".
"Sorli, are you sure you want to do this? If she doesn't react well there's a chance of things going bad because of it" Lokir said, worry clear in his tone.
"She's the leader of Riverwood, appointed by Jarl Balgruuf himself, she has a good head in her shoulders, if she hadn't the Jarl would not choose her. That said, grief is a powerful motivator and she is the highest authority in the village" Hadvar added.
"I will do it…" I paused for a moment, I didn't knew that she was the leader of the village, that was new information, but I knew that even if she wasn't it would be a bad decision, but I wanted to do it even knowing all of that. Not that I felt guilty about his death, but he died fighting to save his brothers in arms, I respected his decision even though it caused me to decide to side with the imperials, the idea of not telling his family about what happened with him would not sit well with me and would be a burden on my conscience "If I don't come back go find me in Whiterun" I finished my sentence.
"You're a very suicidal person Sorli, it leaves me wondering if following your plans is really such a good decision" Lokir said to me with humor, but there was a hint of worry in his voice. The Forge apparently find it funny because as a reward it connected with a Star named Nullspace Computer from the Mundane Small Scale part of the Supplies constellation.
This star gave me access to a huge computer with a holographic interface that I could access even in a different dimension, it was also a modular piece of technology, that means it was extremely easy to make improvements and change parts, not that I had knowledge about how to improve this beast.
It also came with files about the technology involved in creating this piece of technology, enough to make it possible to a capable computer engineer to recreate the machine if he had the resources. I didn't had either the resources or the knowledge to do such a thing, but one day it would be possible.
I wanted to test it so badly, but I couldn't, not in public, instead I looked at Lokir, shrugged and decided to continue our conversation, so I said "You're free to choose, but personally I think that travelling together has better chances of survival" Not only that but I would probably die alone, and that was something that I would prefer to avoid. Then, changing sights to Hadvar I asked "If everything ends up okay and you don't have anything else to do, can you train me in sword fighting?".
Hadvar raised an eyebrow to me "Finally noticed that a sword is better than magic? Sure, I can try to teach you, but I don't know how much you will improve with only one day".
More reliable? Maybe, mainly because I couldn't do much with magic right now, but better? Even limited by the game the sure versatility of magic was mesmerizing, I couldn't classify it as better knowing all you could do with it "Not even close" I laugh it off before continuing "but that day showed that only magic will not save my ass, plus, it's better than doing nothing the whole day".
When we finished the tray of sliced apples, after all we couldn't let good fruit goes to waste, I got up and started to walk in the door's direction, with the intent of finding Gerdur, only when I opened the door I noticed that I had no idea about how to find that woman, it shouldn't be difficult to find he, in small places like this everyone knows each other and it would be even easier considering that she was a prominent figure, but It was better to ask Hadvar for directions first.
Looking back at the table I asked "Oh, almost forgot, where can I find her?".
Hadvar snorted before replying "I was wondering if you would notice that you never asked her location, considering the hour she must be in the lumber mill, working".
After thanking him for the information I got out of the house. Finding the lumber mill was not difficult, it was a really big structure and I knew it was close to the river. One thing that was not portraited in the game, or at least that I don't remember being portraited, was the stone barrier in the river used to catch tree trunks, it made travelling by boat impossible but considering that Skyrim had a lot of waterfalls that already made such a thing difficult it wasn't much of a problem.
The barrier was huge but considering the speed of the river's currents it was understandable, said barrier was also used as a bridge to access the lumber mill that was in an island in the middle of the river.
There were guards in the bridge, controlling the passage to the lumber mill, but after explaining that I wanted to talk with Gerdur he directed me to her. Tall, blonde and beautiful, that were the first things I noticed, but I quickly ignored those thoughts, to focus on more urgent matters, like the fact that she had an ax strapped to a sheath at her waist or the fact that the guard was flanking me, it made me regret choosing this hour to give the news, I should have chosen a non-working hour, with a lot less axes involved.
After the guard explained that I wanted to talk to her she raised an eyebrow in my direction and asked "Never seen you around here, are you looking for work? If that's the case you should probably talk to my husband, he's responsible for the contracting side of the lumber mill".
Shaking my head in a negative form I said "No madam, that's not the case, I was one of the people that escaped Helgen, I have some more news for you, bad ones".
"More bad news? Sure, bring it on then, after hearing about a dragon what could be worst?" She joked, but when I didn't follow her in it, her expression changed to a more serious one "That bad, uh?" She rhetorically asked.
"Bad news concerning Ralof" I stated.
She frowned and, with a sigh, asked "What this problematic brother of mine did this time?" then looking to the guard she added "You can go now, I will take care from here".
The guard's exit didn't make me feel safer, not when I was unarmed and she was not, and not when a lot of people, also with axes, were a yell away from us, but made it made running to the river without getting stabbed, pierced or cutted more achievable. I didn't know where to start, so, instead of answering her, I made my own question "What people told you about what happened in Helgen?".
"Hadvar, the Imperial soldier, I believe you came with him, right?" When I nodded affirmatively, she continued "He reported about the destruction of Helgen to me and what destroyed it, but nothing much more about it, why?".
"Imperial soldiers ambushed Ulfric Stormcloak and some of his soldiers, because of it he surrendered without a fight, Ralof was one of those soldiers captured. The Imperials took them to Helgen and started a public execution as quick as they could possible arrange it" I started my tale.
"Ralof was executed!?" She exclaimed, interrupting me.
"No, the Dragon attacked before he could be executed and, in the panic, he escaped… I was also a prisoner, it was going to Helgen that I met your brother, I was apparently caught trying to cross the border when Imperial Soldiers imprisoned me as well, not that I recall much about it to be honest…" I continued.
Gerdur interrupted me once more, this time urging me to get direct to the point "My brother, what happened to Ralof?" Normally getting interrupted like this was one thing that angered me, but in this case I understood her motives, so, even if it bothered me a little bit, I let it pass. I had a tendency to change subjects while explaining something, mostly because I like to explain things to the details, but this time it was only making her more anxious about her brother's well-being.
The thing is, I was no expert in psychology, but I was sure that saying 'Your brother died trying to escape and even if I didn't kill him, I had a hand in helping on his death' was not healthier for me or my limbs and after escaping a beheading having all my limbs attached to my body was a priority.
So instead of being direct I said "Please, let me tell my tale it's important to you understand the context before deciding upon anything".
She frowned in my direction but after some time she nodded and said "Sure, but be more direct about it" Considering everything, it would be the best deal I would get.
Nodding in agreement I continued "After all the confusion, we met once more at Helgen's imperial garrison, there's an escape tunnel there and it was the safe way out of the city, but we were not alone, I was with another guy and Ralof had some other Stormcloaks with him, the problem was that a group of Imperial soldiers also wanted to use the tunnels as an escape route so we were at an impasse".
I paused for a moment to take a breath and let her process everything that I just saying, but after said moment I carried on with my tale "We didn't had time, the dragon was really close to us, so, as the neutral group I suggested a temporary truce, everyone agreed, and we continued our path".
Pausing once more I thought about what exactly I wanted to tell her, telling her that Lokir killed her and that I helped him could be a lot troublesome, but I also didn't wanted to lie about it, so instead I decided to just omit said information "At some point we heard sounds of fighting, the Stormcloaks rushed to it and the Imperials followed them not long after, things got crazy and after seeing that the imperials had the advantage I choose to side with them…"
"You're telling me that my brother is dead?" She whispered, barely audible, then she looked at me, anger and tears in her eyes "No! You're lying! He can't be dead!" This time louder enough that I was sure that the workers also heard it.
"Unfortunately, I'm not, I wished I was, Ralof seemed like a good man but…" She interrupted me once more, invading my personal space and pushing me, making me take one step back. I counted the fact that the ax was not yet in her hands as an advantage.
"No! Stop it! Fucking stop it! This can't be true!" She approached me once more and I backed of in the river's direction, already in mind the possibility of needing to jump in it, but it was all my fault anyway, I knew it was not a good idea, but I decided that I should be noble about it, I probably should name it Ned Stark Syndrome… Or just stupidity, who knows?
People were approaching us, most of the with axes in hand but nobody had raised it yet, so I also counted it as a win "Gerdur! Is there a problem?" the first man that approached us asked her, but hie eyes were focused on me.
It stopped her approach, just in time, because I was running out of space to back off. She looked away for me, at him and then at the mob that was gathering around us, I also took my chance to look at it, making sure that nobody would cut my access to the river. There were all kinds of expressions around it, mostly anger and confusion but also with some little bits of curiosity, at least it was what I could identify, it was hard to tell exactly because of the distance.
"This man just told me that he killed my brother!" She said to the man that asked the question.
Her declaration surprised me, mostly because I was sure that I was not stupid enough to go here and admit such a thing, but who knows, I was nervous and unconsciously took a step closer to the river, fortunately this time I didn't freeze because I was sure that doing so would be the death of me, before the mob could do such a thing I yelled "Wait... Wait! What!? That's not true! I didn't kill him!".
A blonde man approached and hugged Gerdur, but like the other guy his gaze was also focused on me, he was not anger, but he was calculating, as if deciding how to best deal with this situation, she returned his hug and started to cry and sob in his arms.
Fortunately for me my words were enough to dissuade the mob of immediately rushing me, but some people were holding their axes in a more threatening way, not exactly raising them, but ready for anything. Knowing how mobs works, it only needed one person to rush me and everyone would do the same.
I was ready to jump at the slightest signal of movement, and also praying that the river was deep and strong enough to carry me before those people could reach me… And that I didn't hit any stones when jumping… Or that I didn't hit any stones while on the river currents… Or that I don't drown… Well, that I don't die because of this stupid decision.
The forge failed to connect with one Star from the Reverse Engineering part of the Knowledge constellation when to make sure I was quick enough, for the first time I used Abyssal energy to really improve myself, and I did so in a tense situation. I knew I shouldn't, I was not ready for it, but at this point I didn't care.
Immediately I felt my body becoming a lot more stronger, agile and lighter; my attention to details also greatly improved, the background became more dull and the people more colorful, and I had the impression that everything was a little bit slower, but I was not sure about it; that feeling of invincibility was also back, but I knew enough about myself to know that I would die if I tried to fight those numbers without a weapon or armor; the last change I noticed was that my mind was also a lot more clear and focused, and not all over the place like what usually happens when I usually find myself in situations like this.
After some moments of tense silence, the first man that approached me said "Well then, you best have a good explanation to all of this…" He didn't finish his sentence, but the treat was there to all to hear. Strangely, his words made the mob a lot calmer and even I let go the breath that only now I noticed that I was holding.
"I didn't kill her brother" I said in a tone much more serene than how I was really feeling before quickly adding "But I was present when it happened, I'm one of those that escaped Helgen, some Stormcloaks were ambushed and were made prisoners, they were going to execute them in Helgen, one of them was her brother".
Hearing this the blonde man stopped hugging Gerdur and instead held her by the arms and looking at her, he asked "What he's saying it is true Gerdur?" he asked her and after a quick nod from her he hugged her once more and now, directed at the mob, he said "The show is over! Go back to your work!" When people started to move, he added "Not you, Torin, stay here" The first man that to approach me and Gerdur, apparently named Torin, nodded at the blonde man and stayed still, ax in hand.
Only when the mob started to go away, I let go the Abyssal energy and I immediately felt tired, not physically, but like when I run out of magic, it was once something that I never felt before, it was not a good sign, I knew it, but I ignored it. Instead, I continued to speak "We fled together, there were imperial and Stormcloaks in our group, only me and another person could claim we were neutral in this whole conflict, I convince them to not kill each other, the Dragon helped a lot my argument, but then shit happened and he ended up dead".
"How did you know how to find her?" the blond man asked.
I immediately answered "I didn't, I was also a prisoner, I was caught trying to cross the border, we were on a cart being transported to Helgen, it was there that I discovered that he was from Riverwood, we talked a little".
The blond man frowned and asked "How did he…?" then suddenly stopped, looking worried at the woman in his arms, probably also regretting his question.
I answered him anyway "There was a fight between Imperials and Stormcloaks, out of our group, considering everything, our group ware well behaved considering that one half hated the other… Anyway, The Stormcloaks rushed in and the imperials followed them, me and the other neutral decided to help the Imperials, they had the advantage in the battle" I stopped for a moment before deciding to add "He died a hero, defending his brothers in arms, he must be drinking and fighting with them in Sovngarde now".
It was apparently the wrong thing to say because Gerdur immediately and aggressively got out the hug, so much so that it almost knocked the blonde man down. Looking directly at me with eyes full of tears she yelled "Hero!? Sovngarde!? He died as a bloody fucking moron! I told him this would be his future if he became a soldier in this bloody rebellion! He died for his brothers!? What about his real family!? Do we matter to him!?" At the end of it she was at my face once more, not as beautiful as the first time I saw her, but I doubt anyone would look good after such news.
I closed my eyes, trying to think about one thing to say, anything, when suddenly some of Ralof words popped up in my memory and inspired me "He cared about you and your family, when we were on that carriage, being transported to Helgen and thinking we all would be execute one of the things he said was that a Nord's last thoughts should be of home".
After my words she collapsed, in my tired state I almost was not quick enough to catch her, but I did and now she was crying in my arms. I immediately looked at the blonde guy and plead him for help with my eyes, he apparently understood it because after nodding at me he approached Gerdur and took her in his arms once more, helping her to stand and letting her cry in his shoulders. It was not the first time something like this happened to me, but I didn't knew her and a guy that she was intimate was literally in front of us, it made this whole situation a lot more uncomfortable for me.
For some time the only sounds around us came from the river, from people working, from Gerdur crying and from blonde guy whispering that everything would end up okay. I don't know how much time it took, but it was really uncomfortable to look at the blonde guy and Gerdur, that was an intimate moment and I felt like an intruder to witness this, so instead I decided to focus on myself, or to be more precise, at the sensation of tiredness that I was feeling, that until now wasn't better.
It was sitting by the river and staring at it that I notice that I wasn't really tired, it felt like it because my physical capacity decreased without the Abyssal energy, but it was not exactly it, it was like something that I had was missing, but I could not explain what exactly it was. I tried to think about it, but I couldn't think of anything that could cause something like this and what would be the consequences for it. Knowing that something bad happened but not knowing exactly what it was made everything worse for me.
My thoughts were interrupted by someone gently touching my shoulder, it was Torin, still with that fucking axe in hand. After I looked at him, he pointed to where Gerdur and Blond guy were, she was not crying anymore but as I approached them the signs that she was crying not long ago were still there.
"I would like to thank you for bringing this information for us and say sorry for all the distress that having a mob of armed people ready to lynch you caused" Blond guy said in my direction when I finally stopped in front of him, then after some thought, he added "Do you have a place to stay? If not, I see no problem in housing you for some time, as an apology".
His words surprised not only me but also Gerdur that immediately stared at him like he was crazy, I gave the man some respect points that he didn't even flinch after all the treats that were infused in Gerdur's gaze. Like hell I would accept his offer, even if I didn't have a place to stay, I have enough fear for my life to decide that stay away from her would be the best course of action, so I politely declined "No sir, thank you for your offer but I already have a place to stay, I'm at Alvor's and Sigrid's house" If I sounded desperate while at it, it was probably a fruit of the listener's imagination.
After those words I said my goodbyes and started to walk to the place I was staying, after more or less ten steps I heard Gerdur voice "Alvor's and Sigrid's? Hey! Wait a minute!".
My heart skipped a few bets when, as a deer in headlights, I looked at her "Yes?" I asked, already predicting the worst possible outcomes.
"You're staying with Hadvar's uncle?" She asked.
"Yes?" It was my hesitant answer, even for me it sounded more like a question than a real answer, but she took as a confirmation.
"Hadvar, was he present when it happened?" She asked me, looking directly in my eyes.
Uh oh "No!" I said, my answer came too quickly and to loud to sound like genuine, she notices this, because instantly she her body language and facial expression indicated suspicion, to save face I added, this time more slowly "He… He was part of another group, we met on the way to Riverwood" It didn't help, she still looked suspicious.
She approached me once more, her eyes angrily looking at me, fortunately for me the blonde guy reached her before she could question me more "Gerdur, please, let the boy go" Touching her shoulder to, at the same time, get her attention and stop her, he pleaded in my behalf, increasing the respect points he already had with me.
After some staring between the two I was let go and walked away as quickly as I could without running. I knew I messed up at the end, in my defense, she took me by surprise, I thought I was already free of all this problem that I brought on myself for that reason I was not prepared, too focused on the feeling of lacking something to be prepared to a social conflict.
I finally accepted that I was at a dead in trying to understand what it happened to me when I arrived at Alvor's and Sigrid's house. Lokir and Hadvar where fighting with swords in front of the house, some kids were watching them, including Dorthe; Sigrid was also close to them, working at the garden and at the same time keep a watch in the kids; at a distance Alvor was working on the forge.
Hadvar was the first to notice me, he signalized Lokir to stop the fight and when Lokir stopped the fight Hadvar enthusiastically said "Sorli! I see you're still at one piece, looking for getting your ass beaten!?".
The kids immediately go crazy with his provocation. I only smiled and jokingly said "By you? Only in your dreams!".
In the whole afternoon Hadvar proved that indeed we were in his dreams, after all, he kicked my and Lokir's ass the whole training session. But I also learned a lot, previously to coming to Skyrim, my only experience with swordfight was youtube videos and only once I picked a real sword. That said, I knew a lot about melee weapons, so, much of what Hadvar explained I already knew about it.
The problem came at the practice side of things, the Imperial sword was really short and it was made to be used with a shield. I didn't have the timing, footwork or the motor coordination to be good at paring and I was not naturally offensive at my approach at fighting to balance that deficiency, Lokir and Hadvar were also quicker and had more resistance than me, with those conditions I was definitely the worst fighter there.
The forge tried and failed to connect with a star from the Mundane part of the Databases constellation when we changed to use sword and shield, a shield was a lot easier to use effectively and it didn't rely too much on timing, footwork and motor coordination to defend with it, a shield also helped the user to stand and hold ground, and at least at that I was good.
I was also particularly good at being unpredictable with it, using it as a weapon a lot of times, admittedly, sometimes using it as a weapon bit me in the ass, but with it I finally won my first fight against Lokir, so I counted as a win. Hadvar still trashed us both so that aspect didn't change, but at least now I could set a long-term target of beating him in the future.
When we finished the training, it was already getting dark, we returned all equipment that we used to Alvor that insulted us for using the swords, undoing some of his work. It was clear that he was only joking though, after all, he could have stopped us at any time considering that he was working at only a few meters away from us.
I also washed myself on the river once more, the water was considerable warmer than during the day, what was still really cold, and the fact that it was night didn't help it, fortunately my Nordic constitution helped me with the cold. There I also trained a lot more of magic.
At home Sigrid made a vegetable's soup, it was good, at least as good as a soup can get without red meat… Who was the fucking idiot that said that he was glad to be here again? Fuck bringing the innovations of steam engines, line production, farming tools, electricity and things like that, my long-term objective would be creating the toilet paper and raising cattle for meat.
Maybe a good barbecue could convince Alduin that it existed better things to eat than the whole world?
People in medieval times goes for bed early, mostly because the lack of luminosity at night made it difficult to do thing. I was not tired though, I was used to sleep at the next day's morning, so, instead of going to sleep like any sane person I tried to meditate once more, focusing on the Abyssal energy.
Suddenly I felt myself getting dragged by an unknown force, I opened my eyes but there was nothing I could see, I tried to yell but I could not speak… Then I noticed, I was not breathing, sweating or even feeling anything, even the usual feeling of always knowing where your body is I was missing, at least I could still think.
The force continued to drag me, and I tried to resist, I couldn't. I felt that I was approaching something, but as sudden as that force to pushing me started another contrary force made me stop.
"Oh! Look at that! A wild Dovahkiin appears!" Someone says, a unique male voice, the best way I could describe it is by saying that it is exactly how I imagine the old man that give candy to little kids in a white van sounds like and I knew that if I still had a spine his voice would send shivers to it.
"So many things that only you know about it, and the things you create? Tell me, how are you doing it? I never saw something like this" The voice continues.
"I don't know what you're talking about! I didn't create anything!" I declared, my mind? Soul? Whatever I was using to think right now was racing trying to make a grasp of this situation.
"Oh, I think you know what I'm talking about…" the voice paused for a moment before continuing "Interesting… You really didn't create it…".
I took the opportunity presented by him "Yes! Yes, you see, I'm not who you're looking for!".
"There is where you are wrong, mortal, you are exactly who I am looking for, you see, I'm always looking for new things to learn, I felt it when it was created, a whole new dimension, so similar to me but yet so different… You really do not know about it?" He asked.
"No, I fucking don't! Let me go!" I yelled at the end, panic was not letting me think strait.
"I see… A trade then, I give back what was taken from you, and you let me access a little of that knowledge that you are carrying with you, only enough to me to understand how you are connected to it" He said and I finally understood somewhat about what happened to me. Well, more or less, I was probably dealing with Hermaeus Mora, knowing this calmed me a little.
What was taken from me? What he's talking about? My previous life? If that's the case, how does he know about it? If he's asking for a deal to take my knowledge, I doubt that he really knows about it. Is he just pretending? I also doubt it, I cannot see how he would benefit from acting that way. And the connection? Is he talking about the Forge? Fuck, he probably is! How did he discover it? Does it really matter? The important part is that he knew about it, it just shows what a great fucking job I did at staying low profile while weak.
It didn't matter now, I needed to settle this new problem now. So, what should I do? The truth is, I was not delusional, I knew couldn't fight a Daedric Prince, I didn't knew what exactly they could and what they couldn't do, but trying to defy the Daedric prince of knowledge? Sun Tzu once said that knowing your enemy and yourself were the keys to victory, I agreed with his assessment, so picking a fight where I don't know shit about it and my foe is the incarnation of knowledge? There're simpler ways of committing suicide.
The best option is to accept his deal, but run away from everything that is related to eternal servitude… No, run away for anything related to eternal something, a eternity is a really long time after all, and I didn't have plans to clean the mess of others for such a long period for a temporary reward.
The thing is, it didn't need to be exactly in his set terms, I could try to negotiate, but again, I would need more information before trying it, so, instead of agreeing with his proposal I asked "What exactly are you offering? What was taken from me?".
"A part of you was taken, you felt it, did you not? The feeling of being incomplete, the lack of something that you should know about, but you cannot remember" He answered my question, but it only raised a few more, he was probably taking about that feeling that I felt after letting go the Abyssal energy, but 'something that I should know about but I cannot remember'? Is the price to use too much of the energy knowledge? It was expecting to grow some tentacles like some kind of Lovecraftian abomination, not an advanced case of alzheimer.
"But then I would be changing one thing for another, knowledge for knowledge, why should I do that?" I asked.
"We both know that is not the case, but I approve of your quest for knowledge" There was a pause and we both stayed in silent during it, me thinking about how to probe Hermaeus Mora for more knowledge, even though he just proved that he knew what I was doing, and him… Who knows…? But before I could ask something more, he asked me "Tell me, mortal, what do you think knowledge is?".
I thought about it for some time and the Daedric Prince patiently waited for it. As a man that lived most of my life in the 21st century, I knew how important knowledge really was. It was knowledge that made humanity the top species of the food chain, even if we were not the strongest, largest or quickest species out there. Even before the advent of civilization, entire species went extinct because of that aspect of humanity.
But there was not only it, even with humanity, the one's with more knowledge usually end up on top. One could argue that this is not the case considering the usual stupidity of politicians around the world, but in my opinion, those are only there because they are good with people and, most importantly, at lying. The real people on top today are the ones with influence over said politicians, the ones that help, financially or otherwise, a politician getting elected, and in exchange pull the strings, usually to approve laws to harm or even outright kill the competition, or to get big contracts with government agencies all around. Throughout my life I saw my country being a victim of that, and it destroyed any belief that I had in the system.
Then, there's information, with illustrious quotes of authors that I don't know the name like 'he who control the information controls the world' or 'as a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information', and what is this information that apparently can control the world, that decides if someone is successful or not, if not knowledge about specific things, like people and events? Another quote pops up in my mind 'he who controls the present, controls the past; he who controls the past, controls the future' and if I had a face, I would have frowned.
But none of that helped me answer his question, what was knowledge? I felt like I could spend ages here and not be satisfied with an answer, it was such a broad word that that encompasses so much, so instead I decided to answer with what I had right now "Knowledge… If I could classify as anything, it would be organized information".
"It is a good answer, but it was the expected one" He said.
Some more moments passed with me waiting for him to elaborate, but when he didn't, I asked "Well, am I correct?".
"Partially, knowledge comprehend everything that is known, but there is more nuance to it than just organized information" He replied.
Another half answer, but by now I already expected it, so I immediately followed with another question "And what is the thing I'm missing?".
"Look at yourself and answer my question, what makes you who you are? What makes you different from any other man or mer out there?" He asked.
'Who am I?', that was an interesting question, and I immediately knew where he wanted to go with it, it wasn't my first time thinking about things like this, for this reason my answer was immediate "The Ship of Theseus, it's a tale about identity, if an object stays the same when you change some aspects of it, you want to tell me that the difference between mortals are the things we know, do you not?".
For the first time his tone changes and he demonstrate a lot more interest in the conversation "Oh? I would like to hear about this tale… And would also like to know who this Theseus is".
For the sake of indulging the powerful being in front of me I explained everything that I could remember about Theseus, what was not much, and a lot more about the paradox that was the idea of the Ship of Theseus, I probably talked a lot more than I should about it, mostly because I always liked to talk about things like this. At the end of it, if he didn't knew by now that I didn't belong here, what I doubted, he definitely knows now.
He silently listened to all of it and only when I finished, he said "Indeed, it…" He paused at the same time that the forge connected with binary stars on the Mundane part of the Databases constellation, before I could think about the perk, he continued "Something changed in you right now… How? Are you perhaps like them?".
He noticed the Forge, that was all the confirmation I needed… Of fucking course he notices it, it was literally knowledge being added to me… I was afraid, so far, we had a civil conversation and it calmed me a lot, but now? Now I knew for sure that the secret that I tried to hide was already out, how many could also notice it?
Ignoring my internal panic, the being that I thought was Hermaeus Mora said "No… You are not, not yet… But your fate changed, slightly but it changed… How?".
"The… The deal, you want an answer? I can provide it to you, but only if you promise that you will be my ally while Alduin is still alive and that you will not harm me or my allies" There it was, how I planned to deal with all Daedric princes, don't try to fuck with me and I will help you if I can and it doesn't compromise my moral code.
"I cannot promise any of that… Until today I thought that fate was absolute, but it changed in front of me… You are changing, this makes you too dangerous and unpredictable to promise neutrality for such a long period of time" He paused for a moment before adding "But I understand your reasons, I can promise that if you share with me the answers for my questions, I will not act against you or yours while you don't go against my own long-term objectives".
"What are those long-term objectives?" I asked.
"To gather knowledge, of course" Was his answer, simple and to the point.
"I also want whatever was taken for me" I said.
"Done, shall we proceed?" He asked.
"No, not yet, what exactly is my part of the bargain? What I have to do? How are you fucking with me in the deal? Is my soul involved in it somewhat?" I admit I was paranoid, those questions reflected it, but I had a reason for it, it was difficult for me to put my trust in someone, but here? Did I even really have a choice? There was so much that I didn't know.
"You don't need to do anything, I will take my answers from your memory, I am tricking you on the deal but It's not something that you should be worried about as it is not really bad for you, just advantageous for me, your soul is not involved, not all deals with Daedric Princes involve souls" he answered my questions.
Strangely, he admitting that he was tricking me made me more comfortable with the idea, it's better to face the demons you know, after all, but could I really trust what he was saying? Did I really have a choice? To know all of it I asked "Why not just take whatever you want? Why make a deal in the first place?"
"Why take it by force what can be given to me willingly?" He made his own question. It didn't answer the doubts I had, but by now I just wanted all of this to end. If acquiring knowledge was his only objective, then I didn't saw a reason to be against it, we were not enemies, and I didn't saw a reason to change that.
Maybe he manipulated me from the start and I was only dancing to his tune, maybe he couldn't take by force, maybe it was a mistake to decide to do what I was doing. But if I said no and it was possible for him to take it whatever he wanted by force? Would I take that risk? The answer was no and for that I replied "Then we have a deal".
Then I could finally see and feel it, memories. The sensations that I felt in my mother's belly; my first kiss, that before that I only knew about because it was recorded in a videocassette tape; the fables that I read as a kid; my first day in school; my mother, teaching me the multiplication table; my aunt, teaching me calligraphy; lies that both of my grandfathers told me about their deeds when younger… Things that I had forgotten, things that I remembered little about, things that I knew; almost nothing was ignored, but some things were, nothing about what the forge was, only how it changed me; nothing about my previous identity, all the faces and names were blurred out.
When it stopped, I could hear the voice that I thought belonged to Hermaeus Mora laughing, but not for much time, when he finished, he started to murmur to himself, ignoring my presence "Interesting, interesting… He is nothing like them… He knows about it, but didn't noticed yet… And then there's the other being, what a frightening idea, something that can change fate, to the point of blinding even me…" Then, finally directly at me, he said "Mortal, it appears that we are natural allies indeed, continue your growth, I expect great things from you".
"It's over, then?" I asked.
"I still need to end my side of the bargain, but your part is over" he pauses for a moment before continuing "Word of advice, be careful with that energy, I think that our talk was enough for you to understand how dangerous it is, it would be terrible to lose your potential to it".
With those words I returned to my body, immediately taking a long breath, almost as if I haven't breathed in a long time, I tried to calm myself and think about everything. I was relieved that it was over and made a promise to stay away from Daedric Princes as long as I could, already knowing that I would probably have to break my promise in the future. I needed information about them, their limits, what they could do, what to expect when dealing with them… And after all of that, I would still need to be careful about it, underestimate them would be the last thing I wanted.
Everything considered, there was some good things that I could take from that talk that it was easier to notice now that I was calmer.
The first thing was that I finally understood what the price was for abusing the Abyssal energy was: Knowledge, and with it, any sense of identity, by the point you lost the sense of who you are it would be easy to lose to the temptation of power that the energy provided, turning you in a simple agent of the Abyss.
The second thing it was that I recovered 'what was taken from me', it was a lot of the knowledge that the Forge gave me about biochemistry, and, for some reason, what I knew about pokemons. It only solidified what I already knew, using too much of the Abyssal energy was dangerous, I needed to train it and increase my limit.
The third thing was that Hermaeus Mora noticed something change, at first, I thought that it was the forge, but his ramblings about 'a being that could blind even him' told me that was not the case. He knew that something was happening, he proved that when he noticed the new connection that the forge made, but only when it happened directly in front of him, he couldn't identify what exactly was happening, only that it was happening. If it was something that only he could do because of the knowledge aspect of his domain or if it was something that all Daedric princes could do, I didn't knew.
Lastly, Hermaeus Mora located me when I tried to connect with the Abyss while he was studying it, he said that he felt the creation of it, did all Daedric princes also felt it? And the Divines? He also said that the Abyss was similar to him, how similar? Is it the same with other Daedric princes? It was with all of this in mind that I finally fall asleep.
I woke up with someone kicking my ribs, it was not enough to really hurt me, but it woke me the same. Naturally, I jumped from the ground I used as a bed yesterday. The perpetrator of this? A smiling Lokir "Get ready, we are already breaking up camp" he said to me.
Even though this was not the first time I slept on an uncomfortable surface in the wild, it was still an uncomfortable surface in the wild and my body reminded me of that, it was a pretty annoying feeling of everything being more rigid than normal.
In the sky the sun was still rising, on the ground the snow was melting, it was a beautiful scene. Still, worry made appreciating the beauty of nature difficult "The wounded soldier, any improvement on his condition?" I asked, lowering my voice, enough for only Lokir to hear.
"Sweating, he also said that he was feeling weaker but that at least the pain stopped" Lokir answered, frowning a little.
This could be good or terrible, at least according to my biochemist knowledge. It could mean that the venom was not so efficient or the amount that was injected was too little to do much damage immediately and he was getting better, but could also mean that he was losing sensation of his arm and if that was the case it was really bad "The injury, is it bigger?" I continued probing.
Lokir looked confused but he still answered "Can't answer that, it's still bandaged, why?"
I started to remove the mage's robes to put the armor once more, while at it I answered his question "Because, while until yesterday I had never seen a real frostbite spider" Truth "it's not the first time I see Spider's venom in action" Lie "It can act by increasing the local of the injury, weaken the body or do both" Truth, but I only knew that because of Structural Biology, the star that gave me knowledge about things like this.
"Is It important?" He asked me.
Before answering his question I made my own "Can you help me with my armor again?" At his nod I continued "In the arm? If it becomes too ugly we will have to remove the arm and that's it. No, his body becoming weak is much worse, if it continues to develop it will come to a point where he will not have enough strength to even breath" There's a high risk of Respiratory or Cardiac failure, but I wouldn't drop scientific terms on a guy that probably wouldn't understand them.
After that, with the help of Lokir, I put on my armor and we joined the soldiers "Have you guys already finished dating?" One of the soldiers asked.
"Why do you ask? Jealous?" I answered his provocation with my own.
"Only in your dreams!" the soldier answered and started to laugh, he was not the only one. All in all, the atmosphere was lighter than what probably should be considering everything.
"So, here is where we part our ways" Hadvar said looking in the direction of the soldiers saluting them before continuing "Good luck on your journey brothers!"
The soldiers saluted back "A safe journey for your group as well".
We walked a lot, at a marathon athlete's pace, only stopping two times to take a few breaths and drinks, it only made it more obvious that biology in Skyrim is definitely not normal. I was the slowest of the group, what was saying a lot considering that I was using abyssal energy to push myself.
By the way, using Abyssal energy feels great, there's an incredible sense of invincibility that is easy to be lost in and a seemingly unlimited amount of energy available. My Wuxian knowledge made me aware that it works that way to attract people to use it more and that it is dangerous to take more energy than what you can control.
And that's the key for it, control. With very little patience and being an easy to anger person it was obvious that this energy was extra dangerous for me, so I would need to be extra careful with this stuff principally when in a fight, it would be easy to lose control of it in a fight.
And what was needed to improve control on said energy? Meditation, self-reflection and practical use. Self-reflection was needed to better see and understand your limits, meditation was the more controlled way to increase said limit and practical use was the most direct and dangerous way of increasing said limit.
Self-reflection should be easy, I was already a intrapersonal person and understanding myself was not difficult for me; practical use I would avoid until I became better at it, no reason to risk it right now; finally, meditation, I not even started and I was already dreading stay still for so much time, not only because of my patience but also because I hated doing nothing for long periods of time, but it was still better then losing control.
It was with all of this in mind that when we stopped once more to cook lunch, more fried vegetables and dried meat, and rest for some time that I tried my hand at meditation for the first time.
Instantly the infinity of the abyss called for me, tempting me with thoughts of power, enough power to achieve everything that I ever dreamed "Sorli? what are you doing?" I heard Lokir's voice and my concentration wavered.
"Meditating" I answered and tried to continue my activity. It was easy to understand why meditating was a lot more safe than direct use, in a fight you would be giving everything you have to survive and the temptation of using just a little bit more than what you're ready for would increase a lot in a life-or-death situation.
"Meditating?" he tried the world, as if he was hearing for the first time, considering the meaning it was probably the case "And what is this?" he asked me.
"I heard about it, it's a Graybeard thing, is it not?" Asked the wounded soldier. His condition wasn't improving but also wasn't looking worse, at least not at glance, all the exercise should not help in his situation because of the venom, but the other option was to make him wait here and try to convince a healer to walk all the way to here.
"It is" I answered and tried to return to my meditation. The forge didn't agree with my decision and chose this moment to connect with a new star. From the Safety part of the Quality constellation, Precisions Tools appeared and oh god what a good star it was.
It was a simple one too, it basically allows me to attune my creations with whoever I want, after that the process of those creations would not be able to hurt those that were attuned to. The process of attuning was also easy to do, I just needed to concentrate on the object for an hour and suddenly I could attune people to it. This can only be used once per Item so I should be careful with it.
My mind immediately reminded me of my third perk, to be more precise, the workbench aspect of it. It should allow me to build grenades, not that I knew how to build a grenade... Or do I? No, definitely not, there's some exothermic reactions capable of producing a lot of heat but those would be a lot harder to produce and are not exactly the explosion type, still, it was something to have in mind.
"And how does meditating help you?" Lokir asked curiously, Hadvar and the other soldier that until now I didn't know the name also looked interested. At this point I was already giving up on meditating, not just because I didn't like it, but it was kind of hard to do it with people asking me questions.
"It's supposedly relaxing, you can be a lot more reflexive while at it and you gain a lot more control over your emotions" Hearing me talking about it only made it more obvious that I needed to do it. Not only because of being a Wuxian but to also increase my emotional control.
"Supposedly?" Asked Hadvar.
"Supposedly, It's my first time trying so I cannot say for certain, but considering that it's a thing they Greybeards do to master The Voice it should be true" I shrugged.
While eating we talked a little more about the Greybeards and what the return of dragons meant for the organization, here I learned that they indeed believed that Dragons were legends, so that comment Ralof made a lot more sense. How they could believe that dragons weren't real when everything points that indeed they were I don't know. Hell, Akatosh is a fucking Dragon! There must exist something I'm missing.
People of Tamriel stupidity aside, after finishing with the food we quickly put out the fire and continued our journey, this time I was not the slowest one or the first to get tired, but that was not good news because the slowest person was the injured soldier, it was obvious that all the exercising was making everything worse.
It was strange overall, venom shouldn't behave this way, there's something involved in the time that is taking for him to recover or die, more magic bullshit or humans being harder to kill overall? Probably both.
We ended up in the guardian's stones and decided to set camp there. I think that Hadvar, who was leading us, deliberately decided to make camp here instead of progressing more because of some kind of belief, it still had some light and we could continue.
The stones had some kind of power, or at least they had power in the game. The only three that I remember what it could do were those three in front of me, unfortunately. I usually didn't change it after the first pick.
I also knew that those stones were somewhat related to constellations and people's birthdays, literally Skyrim's horoscope, I could already imagine people talking about it in the future. The funny part is that here in Skyrim there's a chance of all of that being true, or at least influence people in some way.
I stayed for some time in front of the warrior stone before touching it, I didn't feel any different because of it, or see any magical lights indicating that something changed, what I got because of it was a few strange looks from my partners in travel. They probably were surprised that I stopped at the Warrior's Stone instead of the Mage one.
The reasoning behind it was simple, my magic learning would be a bit limited until Winterhold and choosing it would be detrimental in the short term. Now I was vulnerable and I needed to learn how to properly defend myself, the easy way to do it was by becoming better at fighting. Before going to Winterhold I would come here once more and try to do the same thing with the mage stone.
Between here and Riverwood there's a mine with bandits, or at least it existed in the game, after getting out of Helgen I always explored that place, not that I could do it now, unfortunately. My mouth salivated with the perspective of resources to use with the forge, not that I needed those types of resources right now, I didn't have anything that used metal, but it was a thing to have in mind.
Bleak Falls Barrow was also visible from where we're from. I considered exploring it after Riverwood and picking the Dragonstone, but again, it was a terrible idea for various reasons. First, I doubt that Lokir would be inclined to help me with it; second, the thing should be heavy and we didn't have anything with us to carry it; third, neither me nor Lokir are capable of being a good close range fighter, so the chances of us dying while at it was enormous.
As I expected, the wound of the soldier was getting worse, he was also a little febrile, because of it an idea came to my head and when we were in front of the campfire I said "We should make something to carry him while we can, I don't know how much longer he will endure at this pace".
"It's a good idea, but it would also slow us down a lot now" Hadvar answered. After that, we stayed in silence for a moment, the atmosphere was a lot heavier than yesterday, maybe because only now we really noticed what precarious situation we really were in. And not only we, but also Skyrim as a whole, the returning of the dragons, the destruction of Helgen, nobody really knew what to do with all of it.
"How much ground do we still need to walk?" I asked.
"We walked a little over one third of the way" he answered and the atmosphere became a lot worse.
'at least we still have food' I thought about saying, but gave up, it wouldn't help, instead another idea popped out in my head "Maybe a compromise? We have time to kill now that we have little illumination so we can start by making rope, it's a slow process but the result of it shouldn't slow us down and if we needed to create something to carry him it will help tremendously to have something at hand".
It was a good idea, not only because it accelerated the process of creating a surface to transport the soldier if needed but also because having something to do distracted the mind of all the problems. Hadvar and the other soldier stayed in camp, the first taking apart some of our empty cloth bags to transform into ropes and the second resting.
Lokir and I were looking in the forest with a improvised torch, taking some precautions to not distance ourselves too much from the camp, mostly looking for fibers and some vines but also picking up some berries in the way, only those that Lokir was sure weren't toxic, of course.
While in the forest Lokir asked me "Sorli, why are we following them? We should go directly to Whiterun" I stopped and looked in Lokir's direction, he didn't look directly at me, choosing to look at the direction of the camp, that was visible from where we were, instead "Chances of that guy living are really low and…"
"And?" I inquired, prompting him to continue.
"And he is part of the Imperial Legion, the same people that tried to kill us two days ago" He finished.
I followed his gaze and looked directly at the camp, we couldn't really see the details of it but we could see the campfire and it was possible that they could see our fire as well. For this reason I walked more inside the forest and Lokir followed me "Do you blame them for it?" I asked.
Lokir thought for a moment before answering "No, but we don't own them anything, why are we doing this now?".
He was right, we could go to Whiterun a lot quicker if we abandoned the group, on the first day we walked a little more than one third of the way and from now on we would only get slower. The truth is that I didn't want to abandon one person that fought with me, but this wasn't what Lokir wanted to hear so I didn't say it.
Instead, I commented on the other motive that made me want to follow the group "Hadvar, he's from Riverwood, we can get supplies in the village more easily with his help, maybe for free if he still has family there" When you select Hadvar instead of Ralof he introduces to you the Riverwood's smith, don't remember if he is Hadvar's relative, but he definitely someone that help the player.
Lokir didn't say anything and we stayed silent for some time, he was staring at the trees, thinking, maybe it was his time to reflect on life and what to do in the future. I waited for him and at some point I threw the improvised torch on the ground after removing any foliage that could cause a forest fire, the heat of the improvised torch was uncomfortably close to my own arm for my tastes.
Still, he continued, the light from the improvised torch on the ground dimming, at some point I decided to ask "Are you okay, Lokir?".
"The spider's nest, don't know if you noticed it, but there were a few bodies there… Human bodies... I'm wondering if…" He didn't finish. Truth be told, I didn't see any bodies at the time, but I was more worried about the whole magic and all the fighting.
"If?" I asked, trying to end this quickly, the fire was ending and I didn't want to stay in the forest while it was dark, even this close to camp and with the two moons providing a lot of illumination at night.
He signed and after a few moments said "A few years ago I was a part of a group, we smuggled things for the imperial guard in Helgen and sometimes some of the prisoners there, simple things like better alcohol and food mostly but also other luxuries, according to the soldiers, imperial rations and drinks are bad and considering what we are eating so far I'm tempted to agree" he sent a sad smile in my direction, I almost couldn't see because of the darkness.
He continued "Anyway, the soldiers' compromise with us was to clear the escape tunnels of beats like this: Bears, spiders… Things that live in caves... I'm wondering if the bodies there were of my friends… Last I heard, the group disbanded a few months ago and so far I haven't heard from anyone, so...".
For a few more moments the only sounds in the forest were some bugs, small nocturnal animals and the torch still crackling, then I asked "And you believed that the soldiers failed with the compromise and for this reason your friends died?".
Lokir shook his head "There's no way to know now, but it makes sense".
"And what do you want to do with this information?" I asked.
Lokir shrugged "I… I don't really know… When I discovered that we were going to be executed I thought we were dead, then a dragon appeared and I for sure knew that we were going to die… Then the fight against the Stormcloaks and the Spiders… I don't know what to really think anymore, or what to do from here"
"You stole a horse, right? Why did you do it? What did you wanted to do with it?" I enquired. The idea of someone talking about their problems to me was strange, even though I'm good with people on an individual level or even small groups, I was pretty antisocial and besides some members of my family, there was only one other person that I had enough intimacy with to talk about anything and everything, and even she was a distant memory.
Lokir and I, we weren't in that same level of trust, not even close to be honest, but we both survived Helgen and I was starting to think that, like me, he didn't have anyone else that he could trust or even a place that he could go. That and surviving together all of that shit was the greatest motivator of our quick friendship. The fact that I convinced him to not run probably also helped in this situation
When the forge failed to connect to one of the biggest stars of the Magitech part from the Skills constellation Lokir spoke "I was caught in a scheme in a dice game, the details aren't important right now. The important part is, I needed to run so I stole a horse and was stopped by the soldiers. I never thought I was going to see so many Imperial Soldiers so close to Eastmarch, when I tried to run they killed the horse with some arrows and I was imprisoned by them".
"You wanted to go to Hammerfell, right?" I asked.
"Right, I would try my luck there, start anew, maybe find some Redguard pussy to wet my cock" he laughed at the end, but it was noticeable, even with a face barely visible because of the lack of luminosity, that he wasn't fully invested in it.
I ignored his joke and continued my quiz "And do you still want to go there?"
"No… While in prison I heard some of the Imperial soldiers talking… Skyrim is literally under siege, almost all passes are blocked, only a few selected people can travel through it and most of them aren't the type to transport human cargo, even an alive one… Those that are… Lets just say that I wouldn't trust my safety to them" he answered.
"I see…" Now, that was new information, I didn't knew about this but it made a huge amount of sense, the Empire wants to pacify the region and one of his tools is controlling trade. It also blocked any help that the Stormcloaks could receive by land besides if it comes from Morrowind and considering those that live in Morrowind and the racist tendencies of the Stormcloaks, I really doubt that they would receive help from there.
The only route possible for the Stormcloaks was by sea, but then, how many ports does the Stormcloaks even have? Does Winterhold even have one? Wait... Is Winterhold even on the side of the Stormcloaks? To be honest, the rebellion was something that I didn't pay much attention to while I was playing the game. Fortunately this time, changing this lack of information was quite easy, I just needed to ask the right person, Hadvar, for example, should know a lot more about it.
Letting for later the thoughts about Skyrim's geopolitics I continued "Well, I have a plan to raise some funds while at Whiterun, so, if you follow me, we can figure things out from there" I didn't really have a plan besides getting to Whiterun, talking about the Dragon with the Jarl and from there try to get help to complete the mission, but this is something that I wouldn't say to Lokir.
If it fails, maybe I can use my knowledge to become an alchemist and gain money that way. Maybe I could even convince Lokir to help me sell potions, he should be good with words, being a thief and scammer previously. I laughed internally at the idea, being an alchemist in a medieval fantasy world was not really my definition of fun, but beggars can't be choosers.
Lokir nodded at me before saying "Yes, I was already planning to do it, we already talked about it, remember?"
"I remember, I was only making sure that this was still your plan, either way, we should return to camp now" I said and Lokir nodded once more, I would suggest going to camp but he still looked conflicted.
Looking directly at me this time, he asked "Sorli? How do you know so much about poison?"
His question surprised me and it was my time to stop and think for some time, no way I would tell the truth, even if it cost me an ally. My first instinct was to tell that it was not poison but venom and while venom is a type of poison, this distinction is still important, maybe it was the biochemist in me, because like hell I would normally care about it. But that wouldn't help my case, so I promptly ignored it.
Instead, I decided to go with the second alternative, lie. Now, I hated lying, strange to say that now considering that I did a lot of it since coming here to Skyrim, but that was because I didn't want to reveal my lack of past and the Celestial Forge. Once that's known, who knows what the Daedra will do… I would certainly try to delay anyone knowing this to as far away as I could, time was my ally in this case, and not only because there was a chance of me being connected to Akatosh.
Putting the most painful face that I could without exaggerating, I said "I had to learn about it… Sorry, I prefer not to talk about it right now" or never, but that also wouldn't help my case.
Lokir sent a painful smile in my direction. If he believed my lie or not I couldn't tell, but after that we decided to go to the encampment and after putting out the fire from the improvised torch we started to walk in the encampment direction.
While the wounded soldier was sleeping, Hadvar was still awake, waiting for us, probably, and taking care of the encampment while at it "The food is getting cold, what made you take so long?" He asked.
Lokir answered his question before I could "We decided to get some berries while looking for fibers" It was not a lie, but it also wasn't the whole truth. It still was a lot better than anything I had to say and at least I didn't need to lie this time… I would probably say that Lokir needed to shit and for this reason we took longer than expected.
What reminded me of toilet paper, how I missed it… And a shower, I desperately needed a shower… I totally forgot about those details while thinking about how I was happy to be in Skyrim yesterday.
My unhappiness aside, after eating, we spent the rest of the night making some rope until we decided that it was time to sleep. Hadvar took the first watch this time and continued to work while at it.
My watch was the last one, we decided that the wounded soldier would be a lot better if he slept the whole night so this work was left for Hadvar Lokir and me. When I woke, another time by a kick in the ribs, I started to take care of our camp. What consisted of extinguishing the fire, covering the pit and organizing our bags.
It never stopped to amaze me how much energy this body had, or at least how quickly it recovered energy. I was never much active in the morning and after so much exercise the day before I should sleep for at least 10 hours, principally in such lower temperatures. But to defy all logic, here I was, ready to run more marathons today. And to think that the soldiers and even Lokir were in better shape than me…
The wounded soldier was already awake, but one look at him and you would notice that he was in a bad situation. His whole posture was down and he was soaked in sweat, but at least he was awake. After finishing organizing the camp we talked about how life was in Skyrim, he didn't know much about it, was born and lived most of his life in Cyrodiil before entering a fight with an officer and being transferred to Skyrim because of it. For a reason that only he knows, he was still in good humor.
When the time came, I woke up Hadvar and Lokir, I admit I was a little bit vicious when waking up Lokir, using a little more force than necessary on the kick, but in my defense, he started this tendency. I didn't dare to do the same with Hadvar, he slept with his weapon in hand.
After putting on my armor, once more with some help, we started to walk again. As expected, the distance we were able to travel was a lot smaller, by night, we were almost two thirds of the way to Riverwood, according to Hadvar.
That night we finished the ropes and cut some small trees and branches to make an improvised board to carry the soldier. We knew that his situation would only get worse from now on and we wanted to have it ready by tomorrow.
The only thing that we had to cut the branches was our swords, at least the imperial sword was double edged, like the roman gladius… As if we needed any more clues that the Cyrodilic Empire was a copy of the Roman Empire… Because of it, I made sure of only using one side on it, to not lose all the cutting capability of the sword.
The next day, with the board ready, we used some of the leftover rope to tie him to the board and started carrying him the whole way to Riverwood. The third day's progress was a lot slower, but the soldier was still awake most of the time. By the time night came, we were all exhausted and didn't even bother to make a proper vigil routine.
At least we were really close to the river, so, as soon as I awake and noticed that I was the first one to do so, I went in the river's direction and washed myself. The water was cold, as in really cold or cold as fuck, but I was able to dry myself and quickly heat up using a little bit of magic.
I learned how to control the temperature of the flames because of it, and that magic is a lot more modular than in the game. It was really easy as well, the spell temperature, range and output are not set numbers like it is in the game, what I did was try to increase the area of effect to as much as possible and reduce the amount of magic that I purred in the spell and then I created what I call it cloak of heat.
It was really expensive when compared to the flames spell, but it was useful for the purpose it was created, being a glorified air body dryer. It could also help with the cold temperatures if one could use it that way, but because it was so expensive I really doubt it would be the case.
I admit that my idea of taking a bath was not thought out, if it had failed my other only option to dry myself was using the wizard robes as some kind of towel, I only notice the dry out problem after entering the water, fortunately everything ended up good.
The fourth day we pushed a little too much to finally arrive at Riverwood and used all the stamina potions that we had. We carried the soldier all the way, at some point he wasn't conscious anymore, but I recall that he was still breathing, at least he was the last time I checked.
I don't remember much after seeing Riverwood walls, exhausted as I was, but the fact that I woke up at home in a nice warm place with comfortable clothes and in a comfortable bed… At least a comfortable bed when compared to the ground, not that I was really complaining, considering the last few days any comfort was really good.
The fact that someone changed my clothes didn't bother me as much as it probably should, a little bit of embarrassment is a lot better than trying to sleep with the huge number of layers of protection that is the Imperial heavy armor. Plus, I had some clean clothes for once, even though I was still feeling dirty.
Getting out of the bed and looking around the place I noticed that we were underground, a fireplace and a few torches provided illumination and warmth to the place, the walls were made of stone and dirt with some unnecessary decorations all around to make the place more beautiful, the ceiling was made of wood, there was also a few holes in the ceiling, probably to avoid the accumulation of smoke, in the middle of the room two wood pillars could be seen, probably there more because of paranoia then real security.
Finally, I found what I was looking for, an exit… Probably… In the form of stairs that would take me upstairs, it was closed by a hatch, but a weak push was enough to open it. While opening it, the Forge failed to connect with a medium size star on the Technological part of the Crafting constellation.
This new room also had a fireplace and in there a cookpot, my mouth salivated a little, I didn't know what was in there, but it smelled good, and I was feeling quite hungry.
"Sorli, glad to see you back in the world of the living" Hadvar said, making me stop my staring competition with the cookpot and look in his direction. He, Lokir and a man that I didn't knew the name were all sitting together at a table.
"By your attitude I imagine that our friend survived?" I asked, remembering our effort yesterday.
Hadvar expression got more serious, but he nodded in my direction and said "He's alive and recovering, according to Riverwood's Healer… But his arm… Well, after the effect of the poison was totally removed, we used some healing potions, so he still has his arm and there's no risk of infection, but the damage that was made in his arm…".
I waited for him to continued but it looked like he had no intentions to do so, so I decided to ask while walking to sit with them "Magic cannot cure it?".
Hadvar looked at me strangely before answering my question "It definitely can, but mages so versatile in this kind of cure are rare and the treatment is very expensive".
I frowned and asked "The imperial legion doesn't provide this treatment?".
"It does, but only to high-ranking officers… Technically common soldiers also have access to some magical cures but nothing on the Level of what Natanian need and the magical healing situation here in Skyrim is a lot worse when compared to the rest of the empire, what happened with Natanian… There's a whole piece of his arm missing, we don't even know if he will be capable of moving it anymore" Answered Hadvar and we stayed silent after that. A soldier without an arm? His career was ruined.
So, the soldier's name was Natanian? Good to know, it avoids the embarrassing situation of asking 'what's your name, again?'.
There was also another useful information on what Hadvar said, well, more or less. Restauration magic, missing parts of the body are more difficult to restore, but it is possible, that creates at least two distinctive ways of healing.
One probably accelerating the recuperation and multiplying existing cells of the body that have a specific function, maybe molding, which would need knowledge about the human body, or utilizing some kind of conceptual things like 'the memory of the body' to recreate it.
The other is creating those cells altogether, which would need a lot more knowledge and it was, obviously, a lot more difficult. Not that it would be much of a problem for me, I had a lot of knowledge about how the human body should work.
But I wouldn't know for sure until I started to study said type of magic. It also made me wonder how this was related to the 'destroy undead' aspect of restauration magic. Is it still restauration or it is different? What makes a type of magic different from another? Again, it would need some research.
The silence was interrupted by the opening of the front door, the culprit? A red-haired middle-aged woman with a basket of vegetable on hand. As soon as she saw us her expression changed to a big smile, the type of smile that a mom gives to his son when proud of him, and only after that said "I see that all of the heroes are awake now" Then, looking directly at me, she continued "You're the one called Sorli, right? Hadvar had a lot of good things to say about you".
As far as first impressions go, you can consider me impressed, I immediately liked the woman, she seemed genuinely happy to see us, it made me feel safe and at home. Naturally, I gave her my best smile and got up "That's my name, yes" then, approaching her I continued "Do you need some help with this basket madam?"
She giggled and looked past me at the direction of the table "Finally someone with good manners, you should learn from him, Alvor! Hadvar!" Then looking at me she continued "No, dear, there's no need for that, let me just put these vegetables with the others and I will put the food on the table".
"Sorli, you're making us all look bad, sit here lad, make yourself at home" The man that I assumed being Alvor said in my direction, laughing. He was a strong man, but a little bit on the short side of the spectrum. He had brown hair and eyes and his most distinctive facial feature was a big nose.
I walked in the direction of the chair but then I remembered of the fact that I just run for four days and instead of sitting I sopped in front of it and asked him "As hungry as I am right now, I would prefer to wash myself first, where can I do this?"
Alvor answered my question "The river that crosses Riverwood, just go out of the walls and pick a spot there" I started to walk in the river's direction to do just that, but Alvor interrupted my progress by saying "The river gets narrower on Riverwood, for this reason the currents are a lot stronger, be careful".
"I will be" I said and continued my path to the river. Surviving a dragon just to drown a few days later, now, that's a funny thought. I was never a great swimmer, ironic considering I lived all my life next to big bodies of water, first a river and then the ocean. I knew enough to not immediately die in it, but I would not bet on myself against the currents of a river, I heard of too many people dying doing exactly that to try it myself.
Alvor's and Sigrid's house was inside the walls, as expected, the forge was also there. The house was mostly made of stone and there was a big distance of their house to all the others, probably for safety reasons, because of the forge, the last thing people would want is to burn the whole village because of one problem in the forge. A garden was also present right in front of the house, I didn't know anything that was planted here, gardening was not something that I knew much of.
I also took the opportunity to ask to one of the guards to climb onto one of the walls and take a better look at the city. They usually don't let people in it, it's not outlawed, but letting a lot of people in it could cause problems. I was able to convince him by promising to talk more about the Dragon rumors. The city was big, a lot bigger than the first city I lived as a kid in my previous world and that city had a little more than ten thousand people.
While this didn't let me know the exact number of people that called Riverwood home, it let me know that it had more than ten thousand people. Comprehensible, Whiterun should be one of the most populated provinces, if not the most populated, with the city of Whiterun being the most populated city in Skyrim, a lot of plains should make excellent farm grounds and being located exactly in the middle of Skyrim makes this region the perfect trade hub.
It would make finding someone specific a bit difficult, well, not as difficult as trying to find someone in one of the bigger cities, in small populated places like this, everyone knows each other by name, but I couldn't exactly ask for a specific person's location unless I had a reason for it.
I wanted to find Faendal, I didn't remember much about him except for some details, I remembered his quest had something to do with a letter to some woman and that he was a good archer, I always picked him as a companion, mostly for him to teach me archer for free.
I finally got out of the walls and walked to an isolated place to take a bath, I avoided entering the river this time, remembering Alvor's advice about strong currents. I was happy that at least it wasn't The Witcher's world, the last thing I needed is a Drowner or some other weird marine wildlife trying to kill me… Wait… I didn't know shit about Skyrim's marine wildlife, so it's better to stay aware, just in case…
When finished I used the same spell to dry myself, put back my clothes and walked in the direction of the village. While at it I tried to think about the reasons for the use of spells being so expensive, but I couldn't find any, there was just too much unknowns.
Returning to the village, it was a lot more alive than when I got out of the house. lots of people with axes walking out of the village, the name of the village was not only for show, apparently. There was also some with baskets, probably to collect fruit and herbs. I ignored most of it, I still haven't eaten today and my stomach was reminding me of that.
When I approached the house Alvor was already working on the forge, he was absorbed in his work so I also ignored him in my quest for food. Finally walking inside the house once more, Lokir, Hadvar and Sigrid stopped whatever they were talking about to look in my direction, the last one immediately getting up and walking towards me.
The forge choose this moment to make a connection with the Appearance part of the Quality constellation. One of the smallest stars, called Decadence, pretty useful to make some money. It would help me with decorating places, allowing me to find the best place to everything, even surveillance devices, and crafting more beautifully items, specialized for the upper crusts of society.
Grabbing my hand, Sigrid started to drag me to the table "Oh dear, I thought for a second that you were avoiding my meals, come, eat" she practically shoved me on the chair after saying that. There were trays with sliced apples, some kind of fish with a little bit of broth and roasted potatoes.
It was definitely a strange combination and I was not a fish fan, I always choose red meat if it was an option. Either way, I was hungry and the last three days were composed of roasted vegetables without season and dried meat without sauce, so this was the best meal in a while. Also, whatever the fish broth was, it had a lovely citric taste and an even better smell. Hell, even the potatoes had some kind of spice to it that made it delicious.
But because I couldn't have nice things, my foodgasm was interrupted by Hadvar "My uncle is repairing our weapons, he will also retrofit your and Lokir imperial armor, you're not a part of the legion and we couldn't let you walk around Skyrim using it, I hope you understand".
I nodded at him and between bites said "Considering I plan to go to Winterhold, that is considerable close to Windhelm and a lot of Stormcloaks, I appreciate this change" Lokir snorted, it was a funny thought, a man in Imperial armor trying to convince a group of Stormcloaks to not kill him. Ignoring those thoughts, I continued by asking "How much time it will take to do all of this? The sooner we get ready, the quicker we can talk with the Jarl about the dragon".
"It will be ready by tomorrow, there's no hurry, a group was sent to talk with the Jarl about it, to see if he can send more troops to help Riverwood in case of a dragon attack" While saying this Hadvar grimaced while talking, he probably didn't like the chances of Riverwood against a Dragon, but didn't want to talk about it, so instead he change topics "I would appreciate if you can also talk with the Jarl, as an eye witness your word has a lot more weight"
Nodding to him I said "Already planned to inform the Jarl, it would give me access to his court and from there I can look into ways of making money" It was partially a lie, I wanted the quest to pick the Dragonstone and maybe convince the Jarl to send a meat shield with us. After that I decided to return to the subject that Hadvar was trying to avoid, ignoring problems was something that I hated, so I inquired him "You saw the same thing as I did, right? The Imperial Legion and Helgen's garrison were decimated by the Dragon, just more man will not be enough to stop it".
Sure, they were taken by surprise, but that wasn't the only reason, I still remember Alduin fighting against all those people and just shrugging off attacks direct at him, one thing was certain, neither Skyrim or I was ready for the return of the Dragons and that worried me a lot.
How to fight against those beasts? I remember hearing about how it was only using the dragons own weapons against them and with the help of Paarthurnax that the humans were able to win against the dragons, Shout against Shout. How many people could Shout today? I doubt there were many that could.
But again, things can always be worse, and indeed they were. Skyrim was in decline, and not only because of the civil war but it was obvious that it didn't help, I didn't know exactly what caused all of this, but it was clear that something was wrong with the land. In the game, a lot of fortifications and mines were occupied by bandits, I didn't know if it was the same here, but it was probable that it was also the case. That was not the only indicator that something was wrong and it was not only based on that that I made my observations.
The other big indicator was the state of Riverwood walls. Riverwood didn't have much in the department of defense, considering the population ang local geography it was understandable, only three fourths of the village was covered in walls, the other one fourth used the natural protection from the river. That was not the problem, the problem was the state of the walls, it was not crumbling by any means, it was still solid rock fortifications and it would take a lot of time for a thing like this to happen, but it was obvious that it lacked manutention in recent years, maybe decades.
Not that walls would stop a Dragon, Alduin already proved that. I didn't want to create fortifications to fight Dragons, I wanted to create a group that fight them, but a group like this would need resources, and if people here didn't have enough to even maintain their own walls, how would be able to create such a group? Something must change, and I didn't know if I have what is necessary to spot and make those changes.
I admit I was afraid about what the future would bring, but at least one thing was true, the Forge would help tremendously to overcome those odds. At least I hope so…
Hadvar frowned in my direction, Lokir and Sigrid also looked worried, the atmosphere became a lot darker. I didn't feel bad about it, I didn't like to ignore a problem when it showed up. Hadvar asked in hidden aggression, directed at me "And what else do you propose we do?" It was clear by the tone in his voice that he didn't like me being the messenger of bad news.
I didn't particularly care about his opinion on this matter, for me it was clear that as it stands Skyrim has no chance against Alduin's might. So, instead of ignoring the problem like what he probably wanted, I asked him "Is there a chance for the empire to send more soldiers to Skyrim?"
Hadvar expression became less aggressive then, as he though about my question I finished my food. Finally, after some time of uncomfortable silence, he answered my question "I will talk with General Tullius about it, but I doubt something will change, the Emperor doesn't want war, bringing more troops to Skyrim could push the Stormcloaks to becoming more aggressive and also let Cyrodiil exposed to the Talmor".
I frowned; I knew the Empire's situation was bad, but this answer surprised me. It shouldn't, but it couldn't be avoided, ending of the world treat or not, nothing could really stop the ambition of man… Well, not only man in this case, but I digress.
"Arrows and Swords did very little, if nothing, to really hurt the dragon, how can we fight that thing?" I asked. I already knew the answer for this question, or at least I think I knew, the objective was mostly to confirm my own knowledge and maybe find new information with the locals.
"Magic? You're our magic specialist Sorli, do you think that magic can hurt that beast?" Lokir asked.
I didn't knew much about magic and even less about dragons, internally I laughed about being called a specialist in such subject, but I would not talk about my inexperience with them. So, instead, I shrugged and said "Maybe? We will not know for sure until we test it" Then remembering the little I knew about the enemies in the game I continued "Vampires and Trolls are weak to fire, Werebeasts have a weakness to silver, if Dragons have a weakness? Probably, but I cannot tell".
Sigrid, that was mostly listening to us talk until now, said "There's this old song that my grandmother used to sing to me, I don't recall the name, but it talked about how the tongues saved Skyrim from the dragons" pausing for a moment, probably to try to remember the song, she continued, this time singing "But then came the Tongues, on that terrible day. Steadfast as the winter, they entered the fray. And all heard the music of Alduin's Doom, the sweet song of Skyrim, sky-shattering Thu'um".
It was not the most beautiful voice in the world, but it was still pleasant to hear, and, most importantly, it mentioned the Thu'um and the Greybeards, probably the most prepared faction in Skyrim to this ordeal.
Hadvar nodded to her and commented "Most of the Nordic history was recorded in songs, in most cases it's not reliable source of information but maybe there's some truth to this tale".
After that we changed subjects, talking about Riverwood, Whiterun and the civil war mostly, Hadvar was really careful with his words, according to him, to not revel secrets of the Imperial Legion's plans. At some point Sigrid called his daughter, Dorthe, to help her in the garden. It ended up with only me, Lokir and Hadvar on the table, eating some of the already sliced apples and talking.
At some point I decided to change subjects, another thing was bothering me "Hadvar, you knew Ralof, right?" I asked, making Hadvar standstill.
After a moment he sighed and said "He was a friend of mine before…" He paused and the continued, anger and anguish in his voice "It's this damn civil war! Driving people apart, my family support the empire, his support the Stormcloaks, as you walk the land you will notice that it's not an uncommon story through all of Skyrim".
"If possible, I would like to talk with them about what happened with Ralof" I said and when both Lokir and Hadvar frowned in my direction I continued, explaining my reason "If someone from my family died, I would've like to know about it" I shrugged at the end.
Hadvar nodded at me and said "He has a sister, Gerdur, she's the only one from his family that doesn't outright hates the empire, if I were you I would talk to her".
"Sorli, are you sure you want to do this? If she doesn't react well there's a chance of things going bad because of it" Lokir said, worry clear in his tone.
"She's the leader of Riverwood, appointed by Jarl Balgruuf himself, she has a good head in her shoulders, if she hadn't the Jarl would not choose her. That said, grief is a powerful motivator and she is the highest authority in the village" Hadvar added.
"I will do it…" I paused for a moment, I didn't knew that she was the leader of the village, that was new information, but I knew that even if she wasn't it would be a bad decision, but I wanted to do it even knowing all of that. Not that I felt guilty about his death, but he died fighting to save his brothers in arms, I respected his decision even though it caused me to decide to side with the imperials, the idea of not telling his family about what happened with him would not sit well with me and would be a burden on my conscience "If I don't come back go find me in Whiterun" I finished my sentence.
"You're a very suicidal person Sorli, it leaves me wondering if following your plans is really such a good decision" Lokir said to me with humor, but there was a hint of worry in his voice. The Forge apparently find it funny because as a reward it connected with a Star named Nullspace Computer from the Mundane Small Scale part of the Supplies constellation.
This star gave me access to a huge computer with a holographic interface that I could access even in a different dimension, it was also a modular piece of technology, that means it was extremely easy to make improvements and change parts, not that I had knowledge about how to improve this beast.
It also came with files about the technology involved in creating this piece of technology, enough to make it possible to a capable computer engineer to recreate the machine if he had the resources. I didn't had either the resources or the knowledge to do such a thing, but one day it would be possible.
I wanted to test it so badly, but I couldn't, not in public, instead I looked at Lokir, shrugged and decided to continue our conversation, so I said "You're free to choose, but personally I think that travelling together has better chances of survival" Not only that but I would probably die alone, and that was something that I would prefer to avoid. Then, changing sights to Hadvar I asked "If everything ends up okay and you don't have anything else to do, can you train me in sword fighting?".
Hadvar raised an eyebrow to me "Finally noticed that a sword is better than magic? Sure, I can try to teach you, but I don't know how much you will improve with only one day".
More reliable? Maybe, mainly because I couldn't do much with magic right now, but better? Even limited by the game the sure versatility of magic was mesmerizing, I couldn't classify it as better knowing all you could do with it "Not even close" I laugh it off before continuing "but that day showed that only magic will not save my ass, plus, it's better than doing nothing the whole day".
When we finished the tray of sliced apples, after all we couldn't let good fruit goes to waste, I got up and started to walk in the door's direction, with the intent of finding Gerdur, only when I opened the door I noticed that I had no idea about how to find that woman, it shouldn't be difficult to find he, in small places like this everyone knows each other and it would be even easier considering that she was a prominent figure, but It was better to ask Hadvar for directions first.
Looking back at the table I asked "Oh, almost forgot, where can I find her?".
Hadvar snorted before replying "I was wondering if you would notice that you never asked her location, considering the hour she must be in the lumber mill, working".
After thanking him for the information I got out of the house. Finding the lumber mill was not difficult, it was a really big structure and I knew it was close to the river. One thing that was not portraited in the game, or at least that I don't remember being portraited, was the stone barrier in the river used to catch tree trunks, it made travelling by boat impossible but considering that Skyrim had a lot of waterfalls that already made such a thing difficult it wasn't much of a problem.
The barrier was huge but considering the speed of the river's currents it was understandable, said barrier was also used as a bridge to access the lumber mill that was in an island in the middle of the river.
There were guards in the bridge, controlling the passage to the lumber mill, but after explaining that I wanted to talk with Gerdur he directed me to her. Tall, blonde and beautiful, that were the first things I noticed, but I quickly ignored those thoughts, to focus on more urgent matters, like the fact that she had an ax strapped to a sheath at her waist or the fact that the guard was flanking me, it made me regret choosing this hour to give the news, I should have chosen a non-working hour, with a lot less axes involved.
After the guard explained that I wanted to talk to her she raised an eyebrow in my direction and asked "Never seen you around here, are you looking for work? If that's the case you should probably talk to my husband, he's responsible for the contracting side of the lumber mill".
Shaking my head in a negative form I said "No madam, that's not the case, I was one of the people that escaped Helgen, I have some more news for you, bad ones".
"More bad news? Sure, bring it on then, after hearing about a dragon what could be worst?" She joked, but when I didn't follow her in it, her expression changed to a more serious one "That bad, uh?" She rhetorically asked.
"Bad news concerning Ralof" I stated.
She frowned and, with a sigh, asked "What this problematic brother of mine did this time?" then looking to the guard she added "You can go now, I will take care from here".
The guard's exit didn't make me feel safer, not when I was unarmed and she was not, and not when a lot of people, also with axes, were a yell away from us, but made it made running to the river without getting stabbed, pierced or cutted more achievable. I didn't know where to start, so, instead of answering her, I made my own question "What people told you about what happened in Helgen?".
"Hadvar, the Imperial soldier, I believe you came with him, right?" When I nodded affirmatively, she continued "He reported about the destruction of Helgen to me and what destroyed it, but nothing much more about it, why?".
"Imperial soldiers ambushed Ulfric Stormcloak and some of his soldiers, because of it he surrendered without a fight, Ralof was one of those soldiers captured. The Imperials took them to Helgen and started a public execution as quick as they could possible arrange it" I started my tale.
"Ralof was executed!?" She exclaimed, interrupting me.
"No, the Dragon attacked before he could be executed and, in the panic, he escaped… I was also a prisoner, it was going to Helgen that I met your brother, I was apparently caught trying to cross the border when Imperial Soldiers imprisoned me as well, not that I recall much about it to be honest…" I continued.
Gerdur interrupted me once more, this time urging me to get direct to the point "My brother, what happened to Ralof?" Normally getting interrupted like this was one thing that angered me, but in this case I understood her motives, so, even if it bothered me a little bit, I let it pass. I had a tendency to change subjects while explaining something, mostly because I like to explain things to the details, but this time it was only making her more anxious about her brother's well-being.
The thing is, I was no expert in psychology, but I was sure that saying 'Your brother died trying to escape and even if I didn't kill him, I had a hand in helping on his death' was not healthier for me or my limbs and after escaping a beheading having all my limbs attached to my body was a priority.
So instead of being direct I said "Please, let me tell my tale it's important to you understand the context before deciding upon anything".
She frowned in my direction but after some time she nodded and said "Sure, but be more direct about it" Considering everything, it would be the best deal I would get.
Nodding in agreement I continued "After all the confusion, we met once more at Helgen's imperial garrison, there's an escape tunnel there and it was the safe way out of the city, but we were not alone, I was with another guy and Ralof had some other Stormcloaks with him, the problem was that a group of Imperial soldiers also wanted to use the tunnels as an escape route so we were at an impasse".
I paused for a moment to take a breath and let her process everything that I just saying, but after said moment I carried on with my tale "We didn't had time, the dragon was really close to us, so, as the neutral group I suggested a temporary truce, everyone agreed, and we continued our path".
Pausing once more I thought about what exactly I wanted to tell her, telling her that Lokir killed her and that I helped him could be a lot troublesome, but I also didn't wanted to lie about it, so instead I decided to just omit said information "At some point we heard sounds of fighting, the Stormcloaks rushed to it and the Imperials followed them not long after, things got crazy and after seeing that the imperials had the advantage I choose to side with them…"
"You're telling me that my brother is dead?" She whispered, barely audible, then she looked at me, anger and tears in her eyes "No! You're lying! He can't be dead!" This time louder enough that I was sure that the workers also heard it.
"Unfortunately, I'm not, I wished I was, Ralof seemed like a good man but…" She interrupted me once more, invading my personal space and pushing me, making me take one step back. I counted the fact that the ax was not yet in her hands as an advantage.
"No! Stop it! Fucking stop it! This can't be true!" She approached me once more and I backed of in the river's direction, already in mind the possibility of needing to jump in it, but it was all my fault anyway, I knew it was not a good idea, but I decided that I should be noble about it, I probably should name it Ned Stark Syndrome… Or just stupidity, who knows?
People were approaching us, most of the with axes in hand but nobody had raised it yet, so I also counted it as a win "Gerdur! Is there a problem?" the first man that approached us asked her, but hie eyes were focused on me.
It stopped her approach, just in time, because I was running out of space to back off. She looked away for me, at him and then at the mob that was gathering around us, I also took my chance to look at it, making sure that nobody would cut my access to the river. There were all kinds of expressions around it, mostly anger and confusion but also with some little bits of curiosity, at least it was what I could identify, it was hard to tell exactly because of the distance.
"This man just told me that he killed my brother!" She said to the man that asked the question.
Her declaration surprised me, mostly because I was sure that I was not stupid enough to go here and admit such a thing, but who knows, I was nervous and unconsciously took a step closer to the river, fortunately this time I didn't freeze because I was sure that doing so would be the death of me, before the mob could do such a thing I yelled "Wait... Wait! What!? That's not true! I didn't kill him!".
A blonde man approached and hugged Gerdur, but like the other guy his gaze was also focused on me, he was not anger, but he was calculating, as if deciding how to best deal with this situation, she returned his hug and started to cry and sob in his arms.
Fortunately for me my words were enough to dissuade the mob of immediately rushing me, but some people were holding their axes in a more threatening way, not exactly raising them, but ready for anything. Knowing how mobs works, it only needed one person to rush me and everyone would do the same.
I was ready to jump at the slightest signal of movement, and also praying that the river was deep and strong enough to carry me before those people could reach me… And that I didn't hit any stones when jumping… Or that I didn't hit any stones while on the river currents… Or that I don't drown… Well, that I don't die because of this stupid decision.
The forge failed to connect with one Star from the Reverse Engineering part of the Knowledge constellation when to make sure I was quick enough, for the first time I used Abyssal energy to really improve myself, and I did so in a tense situation. I knew I shouldn't, I was not ready for it, but at this point I didn't care.
Immediately I felt my body becoming a lot more stronger, agile and lighter; my attention to details also greatly improved, the background became more dull and the people more colorful, and I had the impression that everything was a little bit slower, but I was not sure about it; that feeling of invincibility was also back, but I knew enough about myself to know that I would die if I tried to fight those numbers without a weapon or armor; the last change I noticed was that my mind was also a lot more clear and focused, and not all over the place like what usually happens when I usually find myself in situations like this.
After some moments of tense silence, the first man that approached me said "Well then, you best have a good explanation to all of this…" He didn't finish his sentence, but the treat was there to all to hear. Strangely, his words made the mob a lot calmer and even I let go the breath that only now I noticed that I was holding.
"I didn't kill her brother" I said in a tone much more serene than how I was really feeling before quickly adding "But I was present when it happened, I'm one of those that escaped Helgen, some Stormcloaks were ambushed and were made prisoners, they were going to execute them in Helgen, one of them was her brother".
Hearing this the blonde man stopped hugging Gerdur and instead held her by the arms and looking at her, he asked "What he's saying it is true Gerdur?" he asked her and after a quick nod from her he hugged her once more and now, directed at the mob, he said "The show is over! Go back to your work!" When people started to move, he added "Not you, Torin, stay here" The first man that to approach me and Gerdur, apparently named Torin, nodded at the blonde man and stayed still, ax in hand.
Only when the mob started to go away, I let go the Abyssal energy and I immediately felt tired, not physically, but like when I run out of magic, it was once something that I never felt before, it was not a good sign, I knew it, but I ignored it. Instead, I continued to speak "We fled together, there were imperial and Stormcloaks in our group, only me and another person could claim we were neutral in this whole conflict, I convince them to not kill each other, the Dragon helped a lot my argument, but then shit happened and he ended up dead".
"How did you know how to find her?" the blond man asked.
I immediately answered "I didn't, I was also a prisoner, I was caught trying to cross the border, we were on a cart being transported to Helgen, it was there that I discovered that he was from Riverwood, we talked a little".
The blond man frowned and asked "How did he…?" then suddenly stopped, looking worried at the woman in his arms, probably also regretting his question.
I answered him anyway "There was a fight between Imperials and Stormcloaks, out of our group, considering everything, our group ware well behaved considering that one half hated the other… Anyway, The Stormcloaks rushed in and the imperials followed them, me and the other neutral decided to help the Imperials, they had the advantage in the battle" I stopped for a moment before deciding to add "He died a hero, defending his brothers in arms, he must be drinking and fighting with them in Sovngarde now".
It was apparently the wrong thing to say because Gerdur immediately and aggressively got out the hug, so much so that it almost knocked the blonde man down. Looking directly at me with eyes full of tears she yelled "Hero!? Sovngarde!? He died as a bloody fucking moron! I told him this would be his future if he became a soldier in this bloody rebellion! He died for his brothers!? What about his real family!? Do we matter to him!?" At the end of it she was at my face once more, not as beautiful as the first time I saw her, but I doubt anyone would look good after such news.
I closed my eyes, trying to think about one thing to say, anything, when suddenly some of Ralof words popped up in my memory and inspired me "He cared about you and your family, when we were on that carriage, being transported to Helgen and thinking we all would be execute one of the things he said was that a Nord's last thoughts should be of home".
After my words she collapsed, in my tired state I almost was not quick enough to catch her, but I did and now she was crying in my arms. I immediately looked at the blonde guy and plead him for help with my eyes, he apparently understood it because after nodding at me he approached Gerdur and took her in his arms once more, helping her to stand and letting her cry in his shoulders. It was not the first time something like this happened to me, but I didn't knew her and a guy that she was intimate was literally in front of us, it made this whole situation a lot more uncomfortable for me.
For some time the only sounds around us came from the river, from people working, from Gerdur crying and from blonde guy whispering that everything would end up okay. I don't know how much time it took, but it was really uncomfortable to look at the blonde guy and Gerdur, that was an intimate moment and I felt like an intruder to witness this, so instead I decided to focus on myself, or to be more precise, at the sensation of tiredness that I was feeling, that until now wasn't better.
It was sitting by the river and staring at it that I notice that I wasn't really tired, it felt like it because my physical capacity decreased without the Abyssal energy, but it was not exactly it, it was like something that I had was missing, but I could not explain what exactly it was. I tried to think about it, but I couldn't think of anything that could cause something like this and what would be the consequences for it. Knowing that something bad happened but not knowing exactly what it was made everything worse for me.
My thoughts were interrupted by someone gently touching my shoulder, it was Torin, still with that fucking axe in hand. After I looked at him, he pointed to where Gerdur and Blond guy were, she was not crying anymore but as I approached them the signs that she was crying not long ago were still there.
"I would like to thank you for bringing this information for us and say sorry for all the distress that having a mob of armed people ready to lynch you caused" Blond guy said in my direction when I finally stopped in front of him, then after some thought, he added "Do you have a place to stay? If not, I see no problem in housing you for some time, as an apology".
His words surprised not only me but also Gerdur that immediately stared at him like he was crazy, I gave the man some respect points that he didn't even flinch after all the treats that were infused in Gerdur's gaze. Like hell I would accept his offer, even if I didn't have a place to stay, I have enough fear for my life to decide that stay away from her would be the best course of action, so I politely declined "No sir, thank you for your offer but I already have a place to stay, I'm at Alvor's and Sigrid's house" If I sounded desperate while at it, it was probably a fruit of the listener's imagination.
After those words I said my goodbyes and started to walk to the place I was staying, after more or less ten steps I heard Gerdur voice "Alvor's and Sigrid's? Hey! Wait a minute!".
My heart skipped a few bets when, as a deer in headlights, I looked at her "Yes?" I asked, already predicting the worst possible outcomes.
"You're staying with Hadvar's uncle?" She asked.
"Yes?" It was my hesitant answer, even for me it sounded more like a question than a real answer, but she took as a confirmation.
"Hadvar, was he present when it happened?" She asked me, looking directly in my eyes.
Uh oh "No!" I said, my answer came too quickly and to loud to sound like genuine, she notices this, because instantly she her body language and facial expression indicated suspicion, to save face I added, this time more slowly "He… He was part of another group, we met on the way to Riverwood" It didn't help, she still looked suspicious.
She approached me once more, her eyes angrily looking at me, fortunately for me the blonde guy reached her before she could question me more "Gerdur, please, let the boy go" Touching her shoulder to, at the same time, get her attention and stop her, he pleaded in my behalf, increasing the respect points he already had with me.
After some staring between the two I was let go and walked away as quickly as I could without running. I knew I messed up at the end, in my defense, she took me by surprise, I thought I was already free of all this problem that I brought on myself for that reason I was not prepared, too focused on the feeling of lacking something to be prepared to a social conflict.
I finally accepted that I was at a dead in trying to understand what it happened to me when I arrived at Alvor's and Sigrid's house. Lokir and Hadvar where fighting with swords in front of the house, some kids were watching them, including Dorthe; Sigrid was also close to them, working at the garden and at the same time keep a watch in the kids; at a distance Alvor was working on the forge.
Hadvar was the first to notice me, he signalized Lokir to stop the fight and when Lokir stopped the fight Hadvar enthusiastically said "Sorli! I see you're still at one piece, looking for getting your ass beaten!?".
The kids immediately go crazy with his provocation. I only smiled and jokingly said "By you? Only in your dreams!".
In the whole afternoon Hadvar proved that indeed we were in his dreams, after all, he kicked my and Lokir's ass the whole training session. But I also learned a lot, previously to coming to Skyrim, my only experience with swordfight was youtube videos and only once I picked a real sword. That said, I knew a lot about melee weapons, so, much of what Hadvar explained I already knew about it.
The problem came at the practice side of things, the Imperial sword was really short and it was made to be used with a shield. I didn't have the timing, footwork or the motor coordination to be good at paring and I was not naturally offensive at my approach at fighting to balance that deficiency, Lokir and Hadvar were also quicker and had more resistance than me, with those conditions I was definitely the worst fighter there.
The forge tried and failed to connect with a star from the Mundane part of the Databases constellation when we changed to use sword and shield, a shield was a lot easier to use effectively and it didn't rely too much on timing, footwork and motor coordination to defend with it, a shield also helped the user to stand and hold ground, and at least at that I was good.
I was also particularly good at being unpredictable with it, using it as a weapon a lot of times, admittedly, sometimes using it as a weapon bit me in the ass, but with it I finally won my first fight against Lokir, so I counted as a win. Hadvar still trashed us both so that aspect didn't change, but at least now I could set a long-term target of beating him in the future.
When we finished the training, it was already getting dark, we returned all equipment that we used to Alvor that insulted us for using the swords, undoing some of his work. It was clear that he was only joking though, after all, he could have stopped us at any time considering that he was working at only a few meters away from us.
I also washed myself on the river once more, the water was considerable warmer than during the day, what was still really cold, and the fact that it was night didn't help it, fortunately my Nordic constitution helped me with the cold. There I also trained a lot more of magic.
At home Sigrid made a vegetable's soup, it was good, at least as good as a soup can get without red meat… Who was the fucking idiot that said that he was glad to be here again? Fuck bringing the innovations of steam engines, line production, farming tools, electricity and things like that, my long-term objective would be creating the toilet paper and raising cattle for meat.
Maybe a good barbecue could convince Alduin that it existed better things to eat than the whole world?
People in medieval times goes for bed early, mostly because the lack of luminosity at night made it difficult to do thing. I was not tired though, I was used to sleep at the next day's morning, so, instead of going to sleep like any sane person I tried to meditate once more, focusing on the Abyssal energy.
Suddenly I felt myself getting dragged by an unknown force, I opened my eyes but there was nothing I could see, I tried to yell but I could not speak… Then I noticed, I was not breathing, sweating or even feeling anything, even the usual feeling of always knowing where your body is I was missing, at least I could still think.
The force continued to drag me, and I tried to resist, I couldn't. I felt that I was approaching something, but as sudden as that force to pushing me started another contrary force made me stop.
"Oh! Look at that! A wild Dovahkiin appears!" Someone says, a unique male voice, the best way I could describe it is by saying that it is exactly how I imagine the old man that give candy to little kids in a white van sounds like and I knew that if I still had a spine his voice would send shivers to it.
"So many things that only you know about it, and the things you create? Tell me, how are you doing it? I never saw something like this" The voice continues.
"I don't know what you're talking about! I didn't create anything!" I declared, my mind? Soul? Whatever I was using to think right now was racing trying to make a grasp of this situation.
"Oh, I think you know what I'm talking about…" the voice paused for a moment before continuing "Interesting… You really didn't create it…".
I took the opportunity presented by him "Yes! Yes, you see, I'm not who you're looking for!".
"There is where you are wrong, mortal, you are exactly who I am looking for, you see, I'm always looking for new things to learn, I felt it when it was created, a whole new dimension, so similar to me but yet so different… You really do not know about it?" He asked.
"No, I fucking don't! Let me go!" I yelled at the end, panic was not letting me think strait.
"I see… A trade then, I give back what was taken from you, and you let me access a little of that knowledge that you are carrying with you, only enough to me to understand how you are connected to it" He said and I finally understood somewhat about what happened to me. Well, more or less, I was probably dealing with Hermaeus Mora, knowing this calmed me a little.
What was taken from me? What he's talking about? My previous life? If that's the case, how does he know about it? If he's asking for a deal to take my knowledge, I doubt that he really knows about it. Is he just pretending? I also doubt it, I cannot see how he would benefit from acting that way. And the connection? Is he talking about the Forge? Fuck, he probably is! How did he discover it? Does it really matter? The important part is that he knew about it, it just shows what a great fucking job I did at staying low profile while weak.
It didn't matter now, I needed to settle this new problem now. So, what should I do? The truth is, I was not delusional, I knew couldn't fight a Daedric Prince, I didn't knew what exactly they could and what they couldn't do, but trying to defy the Daedric prince of knowledge? Sun Tzu once said that knowing your enemy and yourself were the keys to victory, I agreed with his assessment, so picking a fight where I don't know shit about it and my foe is the incarnation of knowledge? There're simpler ways of committing suicide.
The best option is to accept his deal, but run away from everything that is related to eternal servitude… No, run away for anything related to eternal something, a eternity is a really long time after all, and I didn't have plans to clean the mess of others for such a long period for a temporary reward.
The thing is, it didn't need to be exactly in his set terms, I could try to negotiate, but again, I would need more information before trying it, so, instead of agreeing with his proposal I asked "What exactly are you offering? What was taken from me?".
"A part of you was taken, you felt it, did you not? The feeling of being incomplete, the lack of something that you should know about, but you cannot remember" He answered my question, but it only raised a few more, he was probably taking about that feeling that I felt after letting go the Abyssal energy, but 'something that I should know about but I cannot remember'? Is the price to use too much of the energy knowledge? It was expecting to grow some tentacles like some kind of Lovecraftian abomination, not an advanced case of alzheimer.
"But then I would be changing one thing for another, knowledge for knowledge, why should I do that?" I asked.
"We both know that is not the case, but I approve of your quest for knowledge" There was a pause and we both stayed in silent during it, me thinking about how to probe Hermaeus Mora for more knowledge, even though he just proved that he knew what I was doing, and him… Who knows…? But before I could ask something more, he asked me "Tell me, mortal, what do you think knowledge is?".
I thought about it for some time and the Daedric Prince patiently waited for it. As a man that lived most of my life in the 21st century, I knew how important knowledge really was. It was knowledge that made humanity the top species of the food chain, even if we were not the strongest, largest or quickest species out there. Even before the advent of civilization, entire species went extinct because of that aspect of humanity.
But there was not only it, even with humanity, the one's with more knowledge usually end up on top. One could argue that this is not the case considering the usual stupidity of politicians around the world, but in my opinion, those are only there because they are good with people and, most importantly, at lying. The real people on top today are the ones with influence over said politicians, the ones that help, financially or otherwise, a politician getting elected, and in exchange pull the strings, usually to approve laws to harm or even outright kill the competition, or to get big contracts with government agencies all around. Throughout my life I saw my country being a victim of that, and it destroyed any belief that I had in the system.
Then, there's information, with illustrious quotes of authors that I don't know the name like 'he who control the information controls the world' or 'as a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information', and what is this information that apparently can control the world, that decides if someone is successful or not, if not knowledge about specific things, like people and events? Another quote pops up in my mind 'he who controls the present, controls the past; he who controls the past, controls the future' and if I had a face, I would have frowned.
But none of that helped me answer his question, what was knowledge? I felt like I could spend ages here and not be satisfied with an answer, it was such a broad word that that encompasses so much, so instead I decided to answer with what I had right now "Knowledge… If I could classify as anything, it would be organized information".
"It is a good answer, but it was the expected one" He said.
Some more moments passed with me waiting for him to elaborate, but when he didn't, I asked "Well, am I correct?".
"Partially, knowledge comprehend everything that is known, but there is more nuance to it than just organized information" He replied.
Another half answer, but by now I already expected it, so I immediately followed with another question "And what is the thing I'm missing?".
"Look at yourself and answer my question, what makes you who you are? What makes you different from any other man or mer out there?" He asked.
'Who am I?', that was an interesting question, and I immediately knew where he wanted to go with it, it wasn't my first time thinking about things like this, for this reason my answer was immediate "The Ship of Theseus, it's a tale about identity, if an object stays the same when you change some aspects of it, you want to tell me that the difference between mortals are the things we know, do you not?".
For the first time his tone changes and he demonstrate a lot more interest in the conversation "Oh? I would like to hear about this tale… And would also like to know who this Theseus is".
For the sake of indulging the powerful being in front of me I explained everything that I could remember about Theseus, what was not much, and a lot more about the paradox that was the idea of the Ship of Theseus, I probably talked a lot more than I should about it, mostly because I always liked to talk about things like this. At the end of it, if he didn't knew by now that I didn't belong here, what I doubted, he definitely knows now.
He silently listened to all of it and only when I finished, he said "Indeed, it…" He paused at the same time that the forge connected with binary stars on the Mundane part of the Databases constellation, before I could think about the perk, he continued "Something changed in you right now… How? Are you perhaps like them?".
He noticed the Forge, that was all the confirmation I needed… Of fucking course he notices it, it was literally knowledge being added to me… I was afraid, so far, we had a civil conversation and it calmed me a lot, but now? Now I knew for sure that the secret that I tried to hide was already out, how many could also notice it?
Ignoring my internal panic, the being that I thought was Hermaeus Mora said "No… You are not, not yet… But your fate changed, slightly but it changed… How?".
"The… The deal, you want an answer? I can provide it to you, but only if you promise that you will be my ally while Alduin is still alive and that you will not harm me or my allies" There it was, how I planned to deal with all Daedric princes, don't try to fuck with me and I will help you if I can and it doesn't compromise my moral code.
"I cannot promise any of that… Until today I thought that fate was absolute, but it changed in front of me… You are changing, this makes you too dangerous and unpredictable to promise neutrality for such a long period of time" He paused for a moment before adding "But I understand your reasons, I can promise that if you share with me the answers for my questions, I will not act against you or yours while you don't go against my own long-term objectives".
"What are those long-term objectives?" I asked.
"To gather knowledge, of course" Was his answer, simple and to the point.
"I also want whatever was taken for me" I said.
"Done, shall we proceed?" He asked.
"No, not yet, what exactly is my part of the bargain? What I have to do? How are you fucking with me in the deal? Is my soul involved in it somewhat?" I admit I was paranoid, those questions reflected it, but I had a reason for it, it was difficult for me to put my trust in someone, but here? Did I even really have a choice? There was so much that I didn't know.
"You don't need to do anything, I will take my answers from your memory, I am tricking you on the deal but It's not something that you should be worried about as it is not really bad for you, just advantageous for me, your soul is not involved, not all deals with Daedric Princes involve souls" he answered my questions.
Strangely, he admitting that he was tricking me made me more comfortable with the idea, it's better to face the demons you know, after all, but could I really trust what he was saying? Did I really have a choice? To know all of it I asked "Why not just take whatever you want? Why make a deal in the first place?"
"Why take it by force what can be given to me willingly?" He made his own question. It didn't answer the doubts I had, but by now I just wanted all of this to end. If acquiring knowledge was his only objective, then I didn't saw a reason to be against it, we were not enemies, and I didn't saw a reason to change that.
Maybe he manipulated me from the start and I was only dancing to his tune, maybe he couldn't take by force, maybe it was a mistake to decide to do what I was doing. But if I said no and it was possible for him to take it whatever he wanted by force? Would I take that risk? The answer was no and for that I replied "Then we have a deal".
Then I could finally see and feel it, memories. The sensations that I felt in my mother's belly; my first kiss, that before that I only knew about because it was recorded in a videocassette tape; the fables that I read as a kid; my first day in school; my mother, teaching me the multiplication table; my aunt, teaching me calligraphy; lies that both of my grandfathers told me about their deeds when younger… Things that I had forgotten, things that I remembered little about, things that I knew; almost nothing was ignored, but some things were, nothing about what the forge was, only how it changed me; nothing about my previous identity, all the faces and names were blurred out.
When it stopped, I could hear the voice that I thought belonged to Hermaeus Mora laughing, but not for much time, when he finished, he started to murmur to himself, ignoring my presence "Interesting, interesting… He is nothing like them… He knows about it, but didn't noticed yet… And then there's the other being, what a frightening idea, something that can change fate, to the point of blinding even me…" Then, finally directly at me, he said "Mortal, it appears that we are natural allies indeed, continue your growth, I expect great things from you".
"It's over, then?" I asked.
"I still need to end my side of the bargain, but your part is over" he pauses for a moment before continuing "Word of advice, be careful with that energy, I think that our talk was enough for you to understand how dangerous it is, it would be terrible to lose your potential to it".
With those words I returned to my body, immediately taking a long breath, almost as if I haven't breathed in a long time, I tried to calm myself and think about everything. I was relieved that it was over and made a promise to stay away from Daedric Princes as long as I could, already knowing that I would probably have to break my promise in the future. I needed information about them, their limits, what they could do, what to expect when dealing with them… And after all of that, I would still need to be careful about it, underestimate them would be the last thing I wanted.
Everything considered, there was some good things that I could take from that talk that it was easier to notice now that I was calmer.
The first thing was that I finally understood what the price was for abusing the Abyssal energy was: Knowledge, and with it, any sense of identity, by the point you lost the sense of who you are it would be easy to lose to the temptation of power that the energy provided, turning you in a simple agent of the Abyss.
The second thing it was that I recovered 'what was taken from me', it was a lot of the knowledge that the Forge gave me about biochemistry, and, for some reason, what I knew about pokemons. It only solidified what I already knew, using too much of the Abyssal energy was dangerous, I needed to train it and increase my limit.
The third thing was that Hermaeus Mora noticed something change, at first, I thought that it was the forge, but his ramblings about 'a being that could blind even him' told me that was not the case. He knew that something was happening, he proved that when he noticed the new connection that the forge made, but only when it happened directly in front of him, he couldn't identify what exactly was happening, only that it was happening. If it was something that only he could do because of the knowledge aspect of his domain or if it was something that all Daedric princes could do, I didn't knew.
Lastly, Hermaeus Mora located me when I tried to connect with the Abyss while he was studying it, he said that he felt the creation of it, did all Daedric princes also felt it? And the Divines? He also said that the Abyss was similar to him, how similar? Is it the same with other Daedric princes? It was with all of this in mind that I finally fall asleep.
All Autor Notes will be at the end of the chapter because then I can talk a little about the chapter here.
I still need a Beta Reader for this, use the PM if you're interested.
The formatation changed a little, that's because I changed the text editor that I was using, later I will change the 1st chapter to follow the example of this one.
I now have a page in the CF discord, you should try to join if you're not on it yet, all the rolls of Perks are happening there. There's also sometimes where I ask people there to roll to help me make a decision. For this reason I'm adding a new information called Fate Rolls, the Fate Rolls will say the roll result, who rolled it and what are the consequences of said result.
After the first chapter I read the wiki for some time and learned that people indeed believed that dragons are legend, this makes no sense in my mind for various reason but I will mention it in this chapter to make up my mistake in the previous one. This only proves one point that I didn't talked about yet, but it's real, I'm not infalible, so, if I make a mistake, tell me and I will try to correct it.
I will also accept ideas about how to use some perks, because of how the forge works the MC will eventually know a lot more than I do about a lot of things... Hell, he already does! Biology and Chemistry were literally my worst subjects in High School, to write this chapter I had to research a lot and I know for sure that there's things I still missed, so, please, help me on this.
About Hermaeus Mora's voice, seriusly, look at that fucking thing, it look suspicious as fuck.
Every time the MC uses more energy from the Abyss than he is prepared for he will lose something important about his identity, most times it will be perks. That doesn't mean that every time something like this happen Hermaeus Mora will be there to make a deal in exchange of said knowledge, this case was an exception because of a coincidence, when the MC used the Energy, Hermaeus Mora was stuiding the thing and was capable of noticing the influx of knowledge and intercept it.
About Hermaeus Mora, there's a few important things I want to say about his motives. While most of the time all answers he gave where half answers at best, he still reveals a lot talking with the MC, that was mostly because he wanted to manipulate the MC to do his bidding and because he wanted to undertand what exactly was happening because something like the Forge is totally new for him and for a being like Hermaeus Mora, new things are a rarity.
Then there's the relation between Hermaeus Mora and fate. In TES lore, fate cannot change, while the hero can choose his path, the end is always the same. Hermaeus Mora noticed that something (the Forge) or someone is changing the Dragonborn's fate, a thing that even him, the Prince of Fate, cannot do. So, for the same reason that the MC was careful and afraid of him (Not undertanding what is happening and not knowing the consequences of going agaist the will of a being greater them himself), Hermaeus Mora choose the safer option of just watch and learn.
Then, at the end, after the MC shared his memory, Hermaeus Mora understood how the Forge was affecting the MC, giving him knowledge, allowing him to create new things. As far as Hermaeus Mora knows, that makes whatever is happening to the MC a good thing for him, after all, the more things the MC creates , the more that is to learn.
Lastilly I want to talk about Hermaeus Mora being the prince of Fate in a place where fate cannot change. In the Fandom it is said that 'his sphere is the scrying of the tides of Fate', and I see this as only one more aspect of his seek for knowledge, as in he knows so much about so many things that is only natural that he can predict the future, at the end of it, all the philosophical arguments that the MC made was to end in this conclusion, but the MC couldn't make the analogy because he doesn't know about the relation between Hermaeus Mora and Fate.
That's all I have to say about his character, more than that and it will be spoilers. What do you think about how I portraited him? Liked? No? Why? and all the Others? Do they feel real?
I will probably only start to write the next chapter next week because I have some things to do than I can't delay more than I already did, It will take more time than what it took to write this one to the next update.
I still need a Beta Reader for this, use the PM if you're interested.
The formatation changed a little, that's because I changed the text editor that I was using, later I will change the 1st chapter to follow the example of this one.
I now have a page in the CF discord, you should try to join if you're not on it yet, all the rolls of Perks are happening there. There's also sometimes where I ask people there to roll to help me make a decision. For this reason I'm adding a new information called Fate Rolls, the Fate Rolls will say the roll result, who rolled it and what are the consequences of said result.
After the first chapter I read the wiki for some time and learned that people indeed believed that dragons are legend, this makes no sense in my mind for various reason but I will mention it in this chapter to make up my mistake in the previous one. This only proves one point that I didn't talked about yet, but it's real, I'm not infalible, so, if I make a mistake, tell me and I will try to correct it.
I will also accept ideas about how to use some perks, because of how the forge works the MC will eventually know a lot more than I do about a lot of things... Hell, he already does! Biology and Chemistry were literally my worst subjects in High School, to write this chapter I had to research a lot and I know for sure that there's things I still missed, so, please, help me on this.
About Hermaeus Mora's voice, seriusly, look at that fucking thing, it look suspicious as fuck.
Every time the MC uses more energy from the Abyss than he is prepared for he will lose something important about his identity, most times it will be perks. That doesn't mean that every time something like this happen Hermaeus Mora will be there to make a deal in exchange of said knowledge, this case was an exception because of a coincidence, when the MC used the Energy, Hermaeus Mora was stuiding the thing and was capable of noticing the influx of knowledge and intercept it.
About Hermaeus Mora, there's a few important things I want to say about his motives. While most of the time all answers he gave where half answers at best, he still reveals a lot talking with the MC, that was mostly because he wanted to manipulate the MC to do his bidding and because he wanted to undertand what exactly was happening because something like the Forge is totally new for him and for a being like Hermaeus Mora, new things are a rarity.
Then there's the relation between Hermaeus Mora and fate. In TES lore, fate cannot change, while the hero can choose his path, the end is always the same. Hermaeus Mora noticed that something (the Forge) or someone is changing the Dragonborn's fate, a thing that even him, the Prince of Fate, cannot do. So, for the same reason that the MC was careful and afraid of him (Not undertanding what is happening and not knowing the consequences of going agaist the will of a being greater them himself), Hermaeus Mora choose the safer option of just watch and learn.
Then, at the end, after the MC shared his memory, Hermaeus Mora understood how the Forge was affecting the MC, giving him knowledge, allowing him to create new things. As far as Hermaeus Mora knows, that makes whatever is happening to the MC a good thing for him, after all, the more things the MC creates , the more that is to learn.
Lastilly I want to talk about Hermaeus Mora being the prince of Fate in a place where fate cannot change. In the Fandom it is said that 'his sphere is the scrying of the tides of Fate', and I see this as only one more aspect of his seek for knowledge, as in he knows so much about so many things that is only natural that he can predict the future, at the end of it, all the philosophical arguments that the MC made was to end in this conclusion, but the MC couldn't make the analogy because he doesn't know about the relation between Hermaeus Mora and Fate.
That's all I have to say about his character, more than that and it will be spoilers. What do you think about how I portraited him? Liked? No? Why? and all the Others? Do they feel real?
I will probably only start to write the next chapter next week because I have some things to do than I can't delay more than I already did, It will take more time than what it took to write this one to the next update.
Spiritual Liege on Discord rolled a 18 in a d20, the roll was to help me decide what would happen with the wounded soldier, he is alive because of it, but with a weaken arm, so he cannot return for his military carrer. I have some plans about what to do with him in the future so maybe he will show up again.
Casinodoug rolled a 8 in a d20 on discord, the roll determined how Gerdur would react, she is a very reasonable person even in the game (Seriouslly, look at her quotes on the Elder Scrolls Fandom, you will see what I'm talking about) so nothing really bad would happen unless the roll was a one. Now she respects the MC for his decision of telling her about it but at the same time she... Well, she doesn't hate him, she understands why he did what he did, but she's conflicted about this whole situation. The most important thing is that it was because of this roll that all of that scene with Hermaeus Mora happened, I was not planning to include him this early in the story, but it happened. Seriously, before that I was planning in finishing the chapter at Whiterun, even the name of the chapter changed because of it.
Casinodoug rolled a 8 in a d20 on discord, the roll determined how Gerdur would react, she is a very reasonable person even in the game (Seriouslly, look at her quotes on the Elder Scrolls Fandom, you will see what I'm talking about) so nothing really bad would happen unless the roll was a one. Now she respects the MC for his decision of telling her about it but at the same time she... Well, she doesn't hate him, she understands why he did what he did, but she's conflicted about this whole situation. The most important thing is that it was because of this roll that all of that scene with Hermaeus Mora happened, I was not planning to include him this early in the story, but it happened. Seriously, before that I was planning in finishing the chapter at Whiterun, even the name of the chapter changed because of it.
Quality: Safety: Precision Tools (MtG - New Phyrexia) (200CP)
Quality: Appearance: Decadence (Dune) (100CP)
Supplies: Mundane Small Scale: Nullspace Computer (Megas XLR) (100CP)
Databases: Mundane: Strange Formula | Nitrimine (Marvel Cinematic Universe Vol. 1) (200CP)
Quality: Appearance: Decadence (Dune) (100CP)
Supplies: Mundane Small Scale: Nullspace Computer (Megas XLR) (100CP)
Databases: Mundane: Strange Formula | Nitrimine (Marvel Cinematic Universe Vol. 1) (200CP)
Total Words: 29439;
Chapter: 16434.
Total Points: 1200 CP;
Points Left: 300 CP.
Chapter: 16434.
Total Points: 1200 CP;
Points Left: 300 CP.
Last edited:
Perks - Chapter 2
- Location
- Brazil
5 - Quality: Safety: Precision Tools (MtG - New Phyrexia) (200CP)
Description:
The exarchs, elite of the Core Augurs creations, managed to create a thought field specifically attuned to the Mirran resistances minds, disabling their will. While you might not be as versed in the neuroscience involved(yet), you have found a way to attune your creations to a certain group of targets' ' ensuring they will not damage your own allies. This also lets you make your own creations useless against you, ensuring they wont be used to fight you not for long, anyways.
Observations:
This Perk will work almost the same way as the attunment of D&D, but instead of only making connection with one person after said person expend one hour with the object, the MC will be able to make a list of people the object will be attuned to.
6 - Quality: Appearance: Decadence (Dune) (100CP)
Description:
You have the skills to sacrifice neither form nor function when you design, create, or arrange things, which is especially important in a society whose upper crust values opulence the way this society does --after all, the Emperor's throne is carved out of a single massive gemstone. Whether it's interior decorating, crafting a knife or sword, building furniture or a vehicle... you can make it appeal perfectly to the most crass or the upper crust. You can also figure out the optimal decor for any purpose or environment, which includes the best places to hide discreet surveillance devices.
7 - Supplies: Mundane Small Scale: Nullspace Computer (Megas XLR) (100CP)
Description:
You have a computer tower you can summon from and banish to nullspace. allowing you to upgrade it but otherwise keep it safe. You may summon a holographic interface for it at will.
Massive upgradable supercomputer that can be kept safe by existing outside reality and simultaneously be used due to its holographic interface making it an extremely useful item which benefits from all abilities which improve its performance while being entirely tamper proof.
Observations:
There's not much that the MC can do with it right now, there's no connection with the internet and while the PC works fine in the void, transporting it to the real world would create the problem of needing energy to work. That said, it works in nullspace and, as of now, the MC have access to some basic function that you can find in almost all Operational Systems these days.
8 - Databases: Mundane: Strange Formula | Nitrimine (Marvel Cinematic Universe Vol. 1) (200CP)
Description Strange Formula (100CP):
This chemical formula is the brainchild of the German scientist Dr. Erskine, and is directly responsible for the creation of Captain America. As is, this is only the formula, and you must make it yourself... but as a result it could possibly let you modify the serum for other uses. Beware its tendencies to amplify the personality traits of the user, or be prepared to find a way to fix that fact.
Description Nitrimine (100CP):
The formula for the chemical compound known as Nitramene, this compound has multiple purposes. A typical Nitramene bomb has a blast radius of five hundred yards after which it creates a vacuum that causes an implosion as matter rushes to fill the void that it has created, but a grenade of that size will do considerably less damage. On the other hand, Nitramene also emits low levels of Vita Radiation, which has a specific wavelength that has stabilizing properties.
Observations:
I'm having some problems at deciding what's needed to create those things so any help in that direction would be appreciated.
Description:
The exarchs, elite of the Core Augurs creations, managed to create a thought field specifically attuned to the Mirran resistances minds, disabling their will. While you might not be as versed in the neuroscience involved(yet), you have found a way to attune your creations to a certain group of targets' ' ensuring they will not damage your own allies. This also lets you make your own creations useless against you, ensuring they wont be used to fight you not for long, anyways.
Observations:
This Perk will work almost the same way as the attunment of D&D, but instead of only making connection with one person after said person expend one hour with the object, the MC will be able to make a list of people the object will be attuned to.
6 - Quality: Appearance: Decadence (Dune) (100CP)
Description:
You have the skills to sacrifice neither form nor function when you design, create, or arrange things, which is especially important in a society whose upper crust values opulence the way this society does --after all, the Emperor's throne is carved out of a single massive gemstone. Whether it's interior decorating, crafting a knife or sword, building furniture or a vehicle... you can make it appeal perfectly to the most crass or the upper crust. You can also figure out the optimal decor for any purpose or environment, which includes the best places to hide discreet surveillance devices.
7 - Supplies: Mundane Small Scale: Nullspace Computer (Megas XLR) (100CP)
Description:
You have a computer tower you can summon from and banish to nullspace. allowing you to upgrade it but otherwise keep it safe. You may summon a holographic interface for it at will.
Massive upgradable supercomputer that can be kept safe by existing outside reality and simultaneously be used due to its holographic interface making it an extremely useful item which benefits from all abilities which improve its performance while being entirely tamper proof.
Observations:
There's not much that the MC can do with it right now, there's no connection with the internet and while the PC works fine in the void, transporting it to the real world would create the problem of needing energy to work. That said, it works in nullspace and, as of now, the MC have access to some basic function that you can find in almost all Operational Systems these days.
8 - Databases: Mundane: Strange Formula | Nitrimine (Marvel Cinematic Universe Vol. 1) (200CP)
Description Strange Formula (100CP):
This chemical formula is the brainchild of the German scientist Dr. Erskine, and is directly responsible for the creation of Captain America. As is, this is only the formula, and you must make it yourself... but as a result it could possibly let you modify the serum for other uses. Beware its tendencies to amplify the personality traits of the user, or be prepared to find a way to fix that fact.
Description Nitrimine (100CP):
The formula for the chemical compound known as Nitramene, this compound has multiple purposes. A typical Nitramene bomb has a blast radius of five hundred yards after which it creates a vacuum that causes an implosion as matter rushes to fill the void that it has created, but a grenade of that size will do considerably less damage. On the other hand, Nitramene also emits low levels of Vita Radiation, which has a specific wavelength that has stabilizing properties.
Observations:
I'm having some problems at deciding what's needed to create those things so any help in that direction would be appreciated.
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Legacy Forger Perk
- Location
- Brazil
People suggested me to remove the Wuxian aspect of the Legacy Forger perk, like the forge updated itself or something like this, I'm inclined to do it so I created a poll to gather the oppinion of the readers.
In other notes I'm looking for a beta reader, if anyone is interested, please, PM me.
In other notes I'm looking for a beta reader, if anyone is interested, please, PM me.