Leaves crunched under her feet as she walked down the path. She was on her way to Riften. Every cell in her body screamed at her to get far away from that place, but the only way to redeem herself was lying beyond those gates. As quests go, it was a fairly simple one. But Lana had a way of making things complicated.

A few weeks back, her very best friend, an apprentice at the college of Winterhold, had seen her using Transmute. It was a fairly complicated spell but she needed money and a spell which turned iron to gold accomplished that. Her friend, Giana, asked her why she was ever using such a complicated spell at 2 AM on the highest balcony of the college. Lana would not tell her, not wanting to reveal how she got the spell (illegally) and said it was nothing.

Lana then set off to Whiterun to make the gold into rings and sell them. There, she saw an old acquaintance who asked again for a favor. To find a tablet in bleak falls barrow. That is where the story begins.

Lana walked through the barrow, she had tried this months ago when she had first met the jarl, just after she escaped from Helgen. She had almost died and as a result she ran. This then became her normal pattern. She'd try and help someone, hit a hard place, leave and never look back. She preferred little, miscellaneous favors.

Since then she has faced many draugr and was less afraid of them. As she entered a large room, she easily took down a draugr and grabbed the dragon tablet, she smiled. 'Back to Whiterun' she thought. But suddenly she became aware of a low deep chanting. She turned around and behind her she saw it.

Behind her was a wall covered in strange markings. She walked towards it and it was as though the world went black and only that word was visible. The chanting became deafening and suddenly it all stopped. The word was still there, but it stopped glowing and was simply faded onto the wall like every other carving. She stated at it for awhile until she heard draugr approaching and ran.

She was running from tree to tree. She wasn't sure why she agreed to this but it was stupid.

"You cannot hide from me!" The voice of the dragon yelled. Her 2 companions, incredibly brave women, were fighting the dragon and getting scalded in the process. One of them,lydia,went on a few quests with her and Lana had saved her life a few times and vice versa. Bit a dragon...no.

As the dragon turned her way, she used her whirlwind sprint shout to blast away. But apparently she needed more practice, because she ended up directly where she didn't want to be, two feet away from the dragon.

"Ah so it's a real fight now is it?" The dragon roared. Lana rolled her eyes in a very sassy fashion and said

"Oh screw it". With that she took out her great sword and started chopping at the dragon, it couldn't turn to burn her without burning itself. The dragon soon died and she absorbed its soul. She breathed a sigh of relief. 'Gone' she thought happily. After promising to meet Delphine, the one who asked her to do this in the first place, she left. The dragon bones and scales were heavy and she asked Lydia to carry them. Lydia made some sarcastic comment along the lines of " I would be overjoyed to my thane!"

She and Lydia traveled straight to Winterhold, only meeting a few wolves along the way, and Lana quickly deposited the scales in her drawer. As she grabbed a new set of clothes her friend, Giana, approached her.

"Where the hell have you been?! I find you practicing advanced alteration spells in the middle of the night! You say it's nothing and then proceed to disappear for days with some strange armored women in tow?!"

Lana sighed"Giana I'm sorry but I can't tell you. Don't worry about it. I'm fine nothing bad is happening its all good"

"No it's not all good you have proven I can't trust you! Why won't you just tell me?" Giana asked sounding genuinely heartbroken.

"What can I do to make it up to you?"

"You can stay here. Treat it as a school not a hotel from which you can come and go as you please."

"I can't do that. I'm sorry. Is there anything else? Anything at all?" Lana asked desperately. Giana thought for a minute.

"In Riften there is an amulet that one can only wear in the presence of those they are loyal to. Those that can trust them. If they wear it in front of one they have or will betray, it will burn them. Return here with that amulet and wear it in front of me, in front of the whole college. Then I'll forgive you. If you can't then leave and don't come back."

Lana cringed. It just had to be Riften, she hated Riften. But Giana was a good friend. She refused to lose her. And so she set off to Riften, knowing nothing good would happen there,to get the amulet.