Author's note:
We've already met Agda, now it's time for her to meet a weird man from Cyrodiil. This should be the last chapter before things finally get interesting.
The title comes from "If on a winter night a traveller", an interesting book I read not long ago.
Thank you for reading - and please let me know what you think of the story so far!
26th of First Seed, 4E 201
The horse eventually got closer. It was panting heavily and its mouth was foaming because of the exhaustion. As soon as the dark-coated animal reached the entrance of the village, its desperate run came to a halt. Despite the pouring rain, Agda noticed that its rider was very tall and slender. He wore heavy steel boots, whereas the rest of his body was covered by a black cloak. His face was shadowed by a hood that left out only the bearded tip of his chin.
Agda addressed a silent prayer to the Divines: the stranger looked like an assassin from the Dark Brotherhood and seemed keen on staying where he was. There was no way she could sneak past him and find shelter at the inn.
All of a sudden, the man hopped off his horse and headed for the Sleeping Giant. When he tried to open the door, he let out a curse. In that moment, Agda's face turned pale – Sven had apparently used his emergency key to lock down the tavern. Had Delphine found out about that, the bard would have surely lost his job.
The mysterious rider wrestled with the door for a few moments, then shook his head and muttered something under his breath. When Agda realized that he was about to leave, she frowned. The Sleeping Giant needed money and Delphine was very nervous because of the lack of patrons.
Had the Breton found out about that lost customer…
Terrified by that thought, Agda took a big breath and eventually left the safety of the shadows.
As soon as the girl abandoned her shelter, the traveler unsheathed his sword and pointed it towards her. When the tip of the dwarven blade reached her throat, Agda let out a terrified scream, that was unfortunately muffled by a thunder.
"I work at the inn", she managed to squeak as she was forced to take a few steps backwards. "If you want a bed, I can open the door and let you have one. I can also cook you dinner, or breakfast, or whatever you want".
I can also father your children or massage your feet, but please let me live.
The stranger immediately withdrew his weapon.
"I thought you were a thief", he said with a weird singsong accent. "I didn't mean to scare you, I just panicked when I saw you. Are you alright?"
A thief, sure. As if thieves wore fancy yellow dresses and couldn't even use a weapon, Agda thought with a snort. Nevertheless, the stranger's apologies somehow managed to reassure her.
She said she was perfectly fine, then she pointed the man in the direction of Gerdur's house.
"There is a little farm over there" she explained. "You can leave your horse there, if you want. Meanwhile I'll prepare you a room at the inn".
As the stranger thanked her and led his horse towards Gerdur's house, Agda unlocked the door of the tavern with her spare key.
Luckily enough, Delphine wasn't awake.
The stranger reached the inn a few minutes later, when Agda had already used a few spells to dry her clothes and her hair. He walked on his tiptoes to avoid flooding the floor, something the young girl found very endearing. Nevertheless, Agda was displeased when the man didn't take off his cloak and his hood.
"We have a spare room over there", she said as soon as the stranger reached the counter.
"I'm sure that the room is nice", he said without even examining the bed he had been given. "Do you by any chance have anything left to eat? I'm afraid I'm starving. Stale bread is perfectly fine: it's very late and I don't want to bother you any further".
For the third time that night, Agda was surprised by the stranger's manners.
"I can cook you something, if you want. I can also prepare you a bath".
Under his hood, the man's eyes probably widened in awe.
"I'd kill for a hot bath. If it doesn't bother you, of course".
Smiling at his enthusiastic reply, Agda immediately reached the spare room on her left. The people of Riverwood usually bathed in the White River, but the inn patrons could rely on a makeshift bath formed by a metal basin.
Agda filled it with water, then heated it with a spell.
"Your bath is ready", she told the stranger.
When Agda asked him what he wanted to eat, he repeated that stale bread was perfectly fine. Yet, when the girl mentioned her famous Horker Stew, he immediately went for it.
As Agda was cooking, she sometimes glanced towards the locked room where the mysterious man was bathing. She felt completely safe now that she had talked to him, but she didn't know why. Perhaps Hilde's madness had slowly started to affect her.
Half an hour later, as the mysterious man got out of the spare room, Agda couldn't help but stare at him in awe. The stranger had shed his cloak and hood, replacing them with a clean shirt and fine trousers. He had short blond hair, that were now damp and stuck on his forehead. His grey eyes were surrounded by weird golden circles that gave him an innocent, yet sad look. His complexion was pale, whereas his face was now perfectly shaven. Under his shirt, Agda could see the taut lines of his shoulders and his pale chest hairs.
As the stranger went for his room, he gave Agda a little smile. The girl didn't even realize it - in that moment, she couldn't take her eyes off the man's perfect torso.
"I suppose that I look less threatening now", he said.
Agda somehow managed to regain her composure and nod at that comment. As the stranger laid his soaked clothes on his bed, she immediately went back to her usual professional self.
"You can leave your clothes by the fire, if you want", she suggested. "They'll dry sooner".
The man thanked her for the tip, then placed his cloak and hood near the fireplace. Agda noticed that he had left the rest of his clothes on the bed, as though he didn't want her to see them. From her place behind the counter, she could only make out a weird leather cuirass.
Before Agda could ask for an explanation, the stranger let out a curse - as he was laying his cloak by the fireplace, the piece of cloth had suddenly began to burn. Agda rescued it, then stitched it with a few spells.
"You probably thought I was a threat when you first saw me" , the man sighed. "Yet, now you've discovered the truth: I can't even dry my clothes without causing a disaster".
"Perhaps you're a threat to clothes".
Although that comment was quite lame, the stranger unexpectedly burst into laughter. Agda, on the other hand, blushed: she had just made a joke and a handsome man was laughing because of it. It definitely was her lucky night.
As her patron sat down at the counter, he asked Agda where she came from.
"My parents are from Skyrim, but I grew up in Anvil".
The man welcomed the news with a smile.
"We were probably neighbors, once upon a time. I'm from Kvatch".
"From Kvatch? I thought you were from Chorrol! Your accent…"
"Dad was from Chorrol", the stranger explained. "I'm afraid I've inherited his boring accent, as well as his hooked nose. Mum instead was from Kvatch, just like most of my ancestors".
Agda couldn't hide her surprise.
"Even if your ancestors were from Kvatch, you don't look like an Imperial at all! You have blonde hair, grey eyes, a pale complexion..."
"I know, I know", the man chuckled. "The Nordic appearance starter pack was a gift from my grandma. She was from Falkreath and met my grandpa when she joined the Legion. All my ancestors were born and raised in the Imperial Province. She's the only exception".
Those few sentences marked the beginning of a friendly conversation. Agda would have liked to ask the man what his name was and why he was riding through Riverwood at that time of the night, but didn't want to seem too curious - after all, the best innkeepers were those who could listen to their patrons without asking useless questions. The stranger, on the other hand, was very chatty: he asked Agda what her name was, where her parents were born, why she was in Riverwood, what her hobbies were… The girl felt as though she was being questioned by a Thalmor.
When she told the man about her love for alchemy, he seemed very impressed.
"I once knew a woman who could brew every potion in the world. Unfortunately, she never managed to teach me anything - I'm as dumb as a Horker when it comes to dealing with mushrooms".
Agda wanted to comfort the stranger by telling him that alchemy was a very difficult art, but stopped in her tracks when Delphine appeared in the main hall. Apparently, the continuous chatter had disturbed her sleep.
"Who is this man, Agda?", Delphine asked with her usual suspicious tone. Although she had just woken up, she was perfectly alert.
Before Agda could even open her mouth, the stranger edged himself into the conversation.
"There's no need to worry about me. I'm just a simple patron".
Despite the man's reassuring smile, Delphine didn't relax.
"If you really are a simple customer, then you can tell me your name", she said with her default stern expression. "You could also be so kind to explain me what brought you here in the middle of the night".
"I'm afraid my name is mine, and mine alone. Unfortunately, the same goes for my business".
"No honest man is afraid to say his name", Delphine pointed out.
"I've never claimed to be an honest man", the man carelessly said.
Agda was startled by that bold reply. Had she made a mistake by admitting that weird Imperial inside the inn?
Worried by the man's mysterious ways, Delphine reached the dagger strapped to her waist.
"There's no need to fuss, Breton", the stranger said as soon as he noticed that movement. "Here are three hundred septims. For your hospitality and for your silence".
Delphine's default frown got even deeper than usual.
"Why do you need my silence?"
"I'm an Imperial and Imperials aren't particularly appreciated in this frozen land of yours", the man said. "In case you haven't noticed, there's a civil war going on".
While her eyes darted back and forth between Delphine and the stranger, Agda didn't know what to think. The man was well-mannered and looked like a common traveler. Still, his mysterious ways were very unusual.
If he was an honest man, why was he so eager on hiding his identity?
There was a long tense silence as Delphine carefully eyed the coin purse the stranger was offering her. 300 septims were a lot of money and the Sleeping Giant was in terrible need of gold. Delphine would have been mad to refuse that offer, but at the same time she didn't want to run any risk with the local guards.
If the stranger was a criminal...
"You can stay for the night, but I want you to leave at sunrise", the Breton eventually decided.
Probably alerted by Delphine's cold tone, the man agreed without protests.
As soon as the deal was struck, the Breton went back to bed, whereas the stranger rose from his stool. When he bid Agda good night and disappeared behind the locked door of his bedroom, the girl couldn't help but frown. She wanted to find out more about him, but didn't want to seem too curious.
As Agda was cleaning the bowl the stranger had used for his well-past-midnight snack, she noticed a letter on the floor of the inn. It was near the fireplace, not far from the mysterious man's cloak. Agda looked at it for a moment, then decided to act - after all, as a wise man once said, the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
With that thought in mind, Agda grabbed the letter and examined it carefully. The envelope didn't give her any clue about the stranger's identity, whereas the seal was a simple red mark. The girl didn't dare to break it, so she decided to put the letter back where it belonged. Still, when Agda finally found the only pocket on the stranger's cloak, she unexpectedly came across what she was looking for – a little dragon-like symbol on the inside of the cloth.
As soon as Agda saw it, her jaw dropped to the floor.
The stranger was a member of the Imperial Legion – and if the way he was desperately hiding his identity meant anything, he probably had a very high rank.
Agda laid in her bedroll for what felt like centuries. She wanted to stay awake and ask the stranger a few trick questions about his work, but her tiredness eventually got the upper hand.
When she woke up the following morning, the man was already gone. Nevertheless, before Agda could let out one of her usual curses, she noticed a weird leather satchel next to her bedroll. Attached to it there was a handwritten note:
Thank you again for your hospitality, Agda - if you hadn't saved me from that thunderstorm, I would have probably come down with a flu. I wanted to tell you that your Horker Stew was delicious and that my cloak looks better than ever. Given your love for alchemy, I've decided to leave you a satchel containing a few rare ingredients. I'm sure that you'll put them to good use.
To our next meeting,
S. C.
