Authors note: I didn't expect anyone to read it yet alone like it enough to follow it! Thank you so much if you even jut read it. This is my first fanfiction so tell me what you think. Oh and I forgot…

Disclaimer I do not own Skyrim or any of the characters apart from Zofie.

Is that it? Is that all I have to do? Great. On with the story!

Battle Mage

Chapter 2- a good first impression?

She opened the door carefully and only so that she could slide in without being noticed. Inside were a lot of people most of which she didn't recognize a few that she did, however, were Vignar Gray-Mane an old man last time she saw him and now an even older man. Brill, an old friend of Vignar. She never really understood why he stayed a personal slave to Vignar after all these years. Everyone else seemed relatively new to her apart from a young woman sat in the corner who seemed vaguely familiar to her in some way yet Zofie couldn't place where however as soon as the woman spoke her voice gave her away.

How Alea had changed since they had last spoken face to face. The once small girl had grown into a tall strong nord woman, then again so had she. A pang of guilt struck the mages heart she wished she had written to her old friend more. The scars of pain and violence littered her entire manor and yet there was a new sharpness to her. It was maybe the way she sat further from the others or the way her eyes slowly inspected the entire room, noticing everything, every movement, every sound and every shadow cast by the fire pit's flames.

Something about this new Alea made her feel like a baby rabbit being watched by a hawk, so in a flimsy attempt to protect herself she pulled up her hood to hide her face. Her uncle was right a lot had changed in the time that she had been gone, maybe not in the outside world but certainly within this hall the very air had changed. It choked you, the silence and antisocial atmosphere acting as its murder weapon. It wasn't like that when she was here last, the hall was full of songs and tales from the older companions and the inspired and amazed sounds of the younger aspiring companions. The mead flowed as freely as the conversation and it felt homely, but that was last time.

It was clear that the silence was getting to everyone as moments after Zofie arrived a fight broke out between a dark elf man and, a clearly more skilled, nord woman. The mage watched with a mixture of disgust and anticipation as each one of them took brutal swings at each other. The nord woman barely had a scratch on her but the dark elf was weakening quickly. There was a cut across his cheek where the nord's knuckle had caught his bone in an attempt to knock him out swiftly. When he did yield she boasted of her strength and glory and of how she would challenge anyone to anything and would always win. It sickened Zofie to see this, her uncle always told her that the companions were brothers and sisters in arms not wild dogs scrapping at each other to gain higher positions in the ranks.

"Let's go again" the nord jeered "I'll fight anyone in this room. Anyone! How about you whelp?" before Zofie could move all of the eyes in the room were on her including Alea, thankfully no one who knew her before recognized her. Zofie didn't really want to fight her that would only make her as bad as the nord herself. "what's the matter milk drinker? Too scared? Did you inherit cowardice from your parents?"

With that comment she snapped, rage flowing through her veins. She discarded her weapons, including a staff and an elven blade, before walking forward to face the brutish woman. The mage didn't say anything to the nord but instead sent a quick powerful punch to the left side of her jaw, surprising the brute with her strength. Silence fell over the hall and every pair of eyes were on the brute woman, anticipating her reaction. With a roar the bear of a woman turned around, her face already red from the impact of the mages fist, her own fist targeted to Zofie's face.

Anticipating the time the delivery of the blow would take the nimble mage ducked under the bear woman's paw and quickly punched her in the side. Gasping the bear woman spun messily in an attempt to hit the mage rage fueling her every move. Zofie moved but not quickly enough causing the companions fist to slam into her back throwing her off balance so that she fell flat on the floor. Zofie's back was a red hot wire of pain and she could feel a second blow coming. She had two choices: one, let the woman hit her and break a few bones or second, attempt to trip the woman up. She went with the second one swinging her body around to kick the woman in the back of the leg, right in the joint. The force of the blow alone was enough to stagger the companion so that she walked backwards in pain, tripping over her own feet and landing on the floor herself.

The mage took this time to stand up and regain her balance before watching the nord woman stumble to her feet and charge for her with a single fist raised to punch her hard. Knowing exactly what she had to do the mage set her stance and waited for the attack. When the bear's paw was just within the reach of her, the mage ducked once more and slammed her fist into the companions jaw with an almighty thwack. The brute woman cried out as she was sent flying backwards to the floor once more where she mumbled that she yielded.

"What was that?" It was Zofie's turn to gloat now, "Did I hear a member of the great companions give up? Did I hear a great warrior yield to a mage?" the looks of the people in the room were increasingly colder now as each companion reached for their weapons. Zofie turned and, knowing she couldn't take them all on, she cast a simple spell that relieved them all of any of their weapons and sent them up to the celling of the hall. This, however only seemed to make the problem worse as they were all now on their feet apart from Alea, who instead just stared at her inquisitively. Feeling very threatened, Zofie started to move back slowly, when a gruff familiar voice sounded.

"Stop this at once" the gruff voice of Vignar sounded "is this any way to treat our honored guest?" All but one of the companion's faces twisted into that of confusion at the sound of this comment. Smiling to herself, the mage turned around and bowed mockingly, earning a smirk from Vignar, before turning to the man who stood next to him. "Hello uncle Skjor, Vignar" she nodded at both men as she said their names, "I'm back, did you miss me?"

Skjor laughed walking forward to hug her, "That I did lass." On looking up he noticed the weapons and shot the girl a disapproving look. "Zofie. Give the companions back their things. What did I say about no magic in the hall?" His tone was like that of an adult with a small child which irritated her slightly.

The girl moved backwards and said firmly "they were silently threatening me uncle, what was I supposed to do? All because I beat that one over there at her own game." Zofie gestures to the brute woman on the floor, "and I did that without magic." Skjor nodded at her despite his actual expression not changing much. For a moment the mage felt genuinely guilty but this was quickly banished when Vignar and her uncle started to laugh and congratulate her for her win but it didn't please her, after all, violence for sport was not her sort of thing. Remembering that there were still a fair few dangerous implements dangling over their heads, she quickly returned the weapons to their owners. Ignoring there gazes she then followed her uncle and Vignar outside. Before the door shut she popped her head back through the door and summoned her own weapons to her hand, "it was nice to meet you. Well, most of you. Some of you are people I just need to catch up with." On that note she walked out shutting the door behind her.

Authors note: what do you think? Please any comments would be appreciated.