Sky Rose

Chapter 4

I don't own the mods I mention nor do I own Skyrim. That belongs to Bethesda. I am just a fan of their work.

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Windhelm, 29, Last Seed

Being nudged none too gently to wake up, had Alya in a sour mood as she hadn't slept well with her mind keeping her up almost all night. Opening her left eye and glaring at the guard for waking her up, she got up. The guard grabbed her left arm and hefted her up to her feet roughly. She gave a short scream before summoning a fireball in her right.

"Unhand me or you'll lose the family jewels!"

She said before the guard unhanded her with haste.

"Now, what do you want since you so kindly pulled me from a good sleep?"

"A man told us that the thief Sky Rose had robbed him of important papers that she plans to the imperials."

'That little fucker sold me out! Calm down Alya, you can get yourself out of this. I do hope that little fucker is ready for some pay back.'

She thought before grinning.

"Did he say the thief Sky Rose was in town?"

"Yes, he did. He said that she was wearing a mage's outfit and you are wearing a mage's outfit."

"Hmph! What nerve! I'm on my way to the College of Winterhold and I get blamed for being the thief Sky Rose! Do you have any idea how much honor it is to go to the college? Do you?"

She said as she crossed her arms and looked at the guard with an irritated expression. The guard quickly began to apologize for his actions.

"No and I won't bother you again, madam. Have a good sleep."

"No! I'm leaving Windhelm and continuing my journey to someplace else. This place is so hostile."

She said with a huff before lifting the illusion spell on her bag and left the inn without saying another word to the guard. She was in a rush that once outside she didn't notice the jarl himself walking outside and bumped into him, causing her to land on her ass. Her eyes twitched as she opened her mouth to insult the person she ran into before seeing Ulfric Stormcloak.

"I'm sorry my jarl! I didn't see you there."

She said as she stood up and brushed herself off.

"Next time watch where you're walking Breton."

"I will, my jarl!"

She said in a chirpy tone and turned to leave before being halted by the sight of the same man from earlier. Her eyes went ablaze with fury and her smiled turned vicious. An idea went off in her head. Since the man tried to sell her out, she could sell him out. She stalked up to the man, fury written clear in her face.

"How dare you accuse me of being the thief Sky Rose?!"

She yelled out, drawing anyone's attention that was near and that included Ulfric's.

"How dare I?! You're the one who has the papers!"

"You forced me to hold them! I wanted an explanation as to why I'm being forced to hold them when you run off, yelling that the thief Sky Rose stole from you!"

Alya said as she stood her ground with the nobleman.

"I have no need to explain myself!"

"Really? Then how does this hold up?"

She said before taking the package from her pack. She then handed the package to Ulfric. He looked very confused as to why she was handing him a package.

"My jarl, this man gave these papers to me to give to someone in Solitude. I don't know who he wanted me to give these to but I assume these papers are very important."

She said as she looked at the nobleman, who was red faced with anger. She didn't blab to anyone, she played her cards right and the man fell right into her trap. After all, a rose has thorns that can prick anyone unlucky enough to not prune it.

Ulfric opened the package and was outraged by the papers. They detailed movements of his army and where some of his spies were. He looked at the nobleman, who was looking at the woman with murderous eyes while said woman was looking back with only fury in her eyes. She looked familiar but he didn't know where.

"Guards, take that man to prison."

He said and the guards hauled the man off to jail. All the while, the man was shouting out that the woman was Sky Rose and her life was over. The woman huffed before shouldering her pack and left. He glanced at the woman's hair as she left Windhelm and it was just like the prisoner from Helgen. Short, uneven, and color of fire. Well, he found that friend of Ralof's but he was no closer…He looked down at the ground and found a sky blue rose. Sky Rose had struck again but she saved her own hide. The question was, how?

-Many miles outside of Riften-

'That little fucker will learn not to mess with me.'

Alya thought as she continued her way to Riften and to tell her dad the outcome of the job. The job was botched before it was even done so she will get another job, one that didn't involve trying to cause her to go to jail. The thought of getting something done in the guild made her giddy before she looked to her left and stopped.

Someone was following her and she didn't like it. She had the nightingale armor on but she didn't like how quiet it was around her. No birds chirping or bugs giving their calls of the night. She took a step forward, keeping her senses open and alert for danger. To her right, an arrow whizzed past right in front of her and some thalmor came forward, from the bushes. They couldn't tell what her face was like but she smirked before pulling out her nightingale blade.

"Did the little man send backup or did you people know where to find me?"

She said before they looked at each other before laughing.

'The fuck they laughing about?'

She thought before she looked down to the arrow. It never struck her nor did it carry any illusion spell on it. Was someone trying to get her worked up or just scared of them? Whatever it was, it wasn't working very well, just making her paranoid.

"You little thief are to come with us and make no fuss."

She snorted in amusement.

"You'll have to make me."

She said and they growled before launching themselves to battle her. Alya made use of her moniker, Dancing Rose, and her knowledge of weaving between enemies to get the upper hand. But even with the knowledge and moniker of Dancing Rose, she could only last so long. Alya knew she was running low on magika and stamina as the Thalmor were gaining the upper hand but she wouldn't allow them to take with them to use her for their dirty work, never. She would rather drink poison than join them.

'What I wouldn't give for some backup right now.'

She thought as one Thalmor had her pinned under his bound sword. They couldn't make out her expression but she was gritting her teeth, trying not to yelp out in pain as her arms burned to hold the sword off. A yell went out and an arrow struck the thalmor in the head as the rest fled. She looked before sighing in some relief. Stormcloaks and she must have wandered close to their camp for them to hear fighting. She sheathed her sword before activating agent of stealth to get away from them but she had forgotten that she had to wait a full day for the ability to be used again.

'Fuck! Damn this to Nocturnal for the shitty luck I have at the moment!'

She thought as she panted to catch her breath. The Stormcloaks were getting closer to her and she was wounded as well but she didn't want her identity to be known to them. Lack of sleep and food made its presence known before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fainted.

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Windhelm, 1, Heartfire

Alya normally would've groaned as she woke up but she slightly shifted her body to feel her body's stiffness. Murmurs and clinking of a mortar and pestle signaled to her that she was someplace she shouldn't be. She slowly moved her hand to her face to feel if the mask was still there to only find it gone. Now, how was she going to get to Riften if she didn't know where she was?

"Ah. I see your awake miss. I'm Wuunferth."

An old man's voice made her move her head to look at the old man before hissing in pain as her head moved.

"You took quite a beating from those Thalmor. If it hadn't been for a patrolling guardsmen that spotted you taking those Thalmor on, you would've ended up being interrogated by them. I also wonder why jarl Ulfric took such an interest in you once that armor came off."

'FUCK! Of all things to come back to, this isn't one of them!'

She thought as she groaned in despair. She was essentially a prisoner now or going to be once she fully healed. Wuunferth's hands hovered her back as she was laid out on her stomach. He had a look of curiosity on his face before looking at her.

"Did you know that you took twenty poisoned arrows to your back? Heavily poisoned might I add."

That got her attention quick. Twenty poisoned arrows...in her back?!

"Are you fucking serious?"

"I'm being very serious."

Wuunferth said before he went back to work on her back.

"Fucking shadows…Why does my life have to so shitty?"

She mumbled into the pillow as Wuunferth continued his work on her back. Now just how in the world did she not feel twenty poisoned arrows in her back or feel the poison in her veins? She had almost not immunity to poison and the nightingale armor had no enchantment for poison, so it brings up more questions and no answers.

"I assume you're awake, miss Sky Rose?"

Came Ulfric Stormcloak's voice from the doorway.

"I'm awake and fucking pissed off but more curious as to why I survived twenty arrows with heavy poison to my back. Care to answer that?"

She said while turning her head to him.

"I wouldn't have any answers in that regard. Now tell me why were you fighting thalmor close to Windhelm?"

"Fuck if I know. I was supposed to humiliate someone here in Windhelm publicly before that whole mess with the nobleman got me caught by the Thalmor. Hell, the little fucker told me himself that if I blabbed this to anyone, my career as a thief would end."

'I only thank Lady Nocturnal for saving my ass.'

She said and thought as Ulfric began quietly to ask questions to the wizard caring for her. From what she was hearing, he wanted to know how it was till she was full recovered. She rolled her eyes but clenched her fists as pain began to run its course through her body. Wuunferth placed his hands on her back to see what was going on but it made the pain worse.

'The fuck is going on? I don't remember being in so much pain before, well other than trying to be a thirteen year old fighting a grown man that had years of experience on top of her own experience in fighting. That was very hard to explain what the hell happened to Karliah and dad but even they don't know how it happened and they were right there to witness it. Now, why do I feel like my whole body is very numb?'

She thought before her right arm rose, a bit fast for Wuunferth to react but it hit him in the side of the face. She turned her head to look at him and both men saw that she looked at her arm with wide eyes.

"Not again…This can't be normal for me…Why the fuck does my body feel like I don't own it anymore?"

She muttered while she gazed at her arm, her eyes still wide.

"You said this happened before…Care to explain?"

Wuunfreth said, curiosity peaking at something intriguing. Ulfric would like to know as well but from how Sky Rose looked at Wuunferth, she looked like she wanted to either murder him or just say crass words to him. He did get option 2.

"Are you fucking serious?! Hell, I didn't know how the fuck I got this condition or know of it till I was thirteen and even then, it only happened once. If I fucking knew how this condition happened or occurred, I would avoid the situations that trigger the condition to appear. Happy?"

She said while her right arm waved lightly back and forth, punctuating some of her words.

"Interesting. You say it happened when you were thirteen. What were you doing…?"

Wuunferth was cut off Sky Rose, who angrily pointed her right hand at him.

"I'll not tell a single soul what I was doing when I was thirteen years old. No one except me, my adopted father, and a dark elf know what happened but even they don't know how it happened."

"I see…"

Ulfric narrowed his eyes at Sky Rose. She didn't need to curse Wuunferth out but her words rang all true. He had spent many years as jarl, learning to listen to words and how they sounded. By how her body was coming along, she was almost completely recovered, just the poison needed to flush itself.

"It must've been a sort of poison the bastard used on me…"

Came the murmur of Sky Rose, who was staring at her arm in slight interest.

'How in the world did she get poisoned at thirteen?'

He thought before he saw her arm at her side. She was looking at him with bored eyes and it irked him some but he let it slide, for now. He walked out, leaving Sky Rose and Wuunferth alone. He had to think of something. Sky Rose had only been around for a few years but already had both the Thalmor and the Empire biting to get her either imprisoned or dead. With the Thalmor, she would've been forced to either endure torture or become a spy. Neither option sounded pleasing but he had to get information on the Dragonborn. But what he planned for her wasn't a complete release. She would pay for her crimes in a different way. He just didn't know he was messing with the very person he wanted to join his army.