Finding Destiny While Avoiding Fate
Chapter Six
I am so sorry! This last week has been so busy that I completely forgot to post the next chapter. We were the ones to host Thanksgiving this year so it has been very hectic here, but I promise to try and do better in the future.
Recap: Eri is now in Morthal and she is stuck there because of the weather. She decides to go and see Falion for some work and something to do, only to find out that there is a mystery to solve in the little swamp town and the poor mage is a suspect through circumstance. Meanwhile; Hjolinn is hot on her trail, but we'll get back to him later.
On with the show!
Turns out that Hroggar; the man whose family burned, was completely indifferent to the fact that they had died. Eri had gone to speak with him because the thought of a man not mourning his loss seemed wrong and Falion couldn't be right about that. So she had gone to speak with him herself only to discover that her illusions of a broken man would be broken by a love sick fool who cared nothing for anyone except a woman named Alva. She had never met this Alva woman, but she would have to be as beautiful as Dibella to make a man completely forget his family. It hurt to see a man not care about his wife let alone his child. Her father had loved her, she knew he would have been lost without Elisif and her. It was through the indifference of Hroggar that gave Eri a feeling of guilt about not thinking on her father, she was so focused on bitterness and freedom that she hardly dwelt on the man. She made herself a promise, that before bed she would send him up a prayer so as never to forget him.
Back to the present, she was currently staring in shock at the back of Hroggar as he walked away from there conversation on the bridge. His eyes shined with passion for Alva as he spoke of her, there was not an ounce of longing there for his family. Eri watched as he made his way through town, some of the guards whispered as he passed, arguing amongst themselves whether he was innocent or not. Personally, Eri was coming to the belief that he was indeed behind the fire and she was going to prove it.
"Well speaking with him has been a waste of time Meeko, should we check out what's left of the house?" Eri asked her canine companion as they began making there way back towards the center of the small town.
Meeko gave her a bark, she couldn't tell if he understood her or just barked whenever she spoke, but it was a comfort on her when he responded; it made her feel a bit less crazy speaking to the creature.
Just as they were nearing the inn; Angi, the daughter of Falion came shooting past from the direction of the burnt down home. She was alight with excitement as she went and Eri couldn't help but call out to her to see what had her so jubilant.
"Hello miss Eri!" Angi said breathlessly as she ran up to her.
"Hello Angi, where are you off to in such a hurry?" Eri asked, kneeling down to the height of the child.
Angi practically bounced with excitement, "I am going to ask papa if I can play with my new friend after dark, she wants to play hide-and-seek with me."
Eri frowned, "After dark? That doesn't seem very safe, why do you two want to play after dark?"
"She said that I'll only be able to find her after the sun goes down." Angi replied, not catching onto the concern of the adult in front of her.
"Angi, playing after dark here is not a good idea at all, there are plenty of things that would eat little girls in the marsh. Maybe you could talk your friend into playing during the daytime instead, surely her parents would not approve either."
Angi pouted, "But she has no parents and she really wants to play after dark, I promise we'll be really careful!"
Eri frowned, "No parents? Where is your friend staying then?"
Angi, who was still pouting pointed off in the direction of the inn. Eri had been staying there for two nights now and had not seen a child inside of its walls, the other girl must had lied to Angi so as not to worry the girl.
"Angi, sweetie, there is no one else staying at the inn but your aunt, Lurbuk, Meeko and I."
"No, not at the inn, there past the inn." Angi replied, grabbing Eri's arm she dragged the confused woman along with her around the back of Moorside.
Once they got around the inn, Eri froze. There; in all of its ominous glory, was the burnt remains of Hroggar's house. The young girl was still trying to drag her over to the home, but Eri stopped her.
"Angi, do you know what that house is?" Eri asked the girl urgently, turning her around so she could see her face.
Angi nodded, "Yes, it's the house no one ever visits, but she was so lonely I could here her crying."
"Who is she Angi? Who is the little girl?"
"Her name is Helgi, she said her momma is gone and her daddy doesn't come to see her, she's all alone. I just wanted to play with her so she wouldn't be lonely anymore." The young girl said, eyes downcast.
"Why didn't you come and tell someone that she was there? Everyone believes her to be dead. Come let's go get her and we can make sure she gets warmed up and fed." With that Eri started towards the remains, but a small voice stopped her.
"She is dead though."
The sad little whisper that left the girls mouth sent a chill down Eri's spine that had nothing to do with the cold of winter. She looked back to the girl and asked with a shaky voice, "What do you mean?"
Angi looked up to her, "She is so lonely, no one comes to see her, but if they did, they would be to afraid of her. She is there but her body isn't."
"Angi, if you are making up stories this one is not funny. This is very serious, is there a little girl there or not?" Eri asked sternly, her insides still trembled with nerves but she tried to ignore it.
"I'm not making up stories! She's there, but her body isn't!" The girl cried out.
"What does that even mean?"
"She's a ghost I think. I can see through her, but that doesn't mean she isn't lonely! I don't want her to be alone."
Eri looked at the now crying girl horrified, if what she was saying was in fact true, then there was a spirit of a dead little girl living in the ruins of her old home. Her spirit did not cross over when she died, but why? Surely her soul would have been ferried to Sovngarde along with her mother's, why was she still here? She had revealed herself to Angi during the day, so why would she want to play hide-and-seek after dark?
"Angi, did Helgi say why she wanted to play after dark and not right now?"
The girl nodded, still sniffling.
"How come?"
"Because she said someone else was playing to, but they could not play until night time, it wouldn't be fair to play when the other one couldn't" Angi trembled out.
So there was someone else involved as well, this was getting more worrisome as the conversation continued, "Did she say who the other one was? Is it another child here in town?"
Angi shook her head in the negative, "She didn't say, but she did say that she wanted me to find her first, the other one made her nervous."
There was something wrong here, and Eri was certain that Angi should have nothing to do with it.
"Sweetie, why don't you take Meeko here inside the inn and get yourselves a sweet roll. Tell your aunt to put it on my tab."
"But what about Helgi? She'll be waiting for me to play tonight." Angi said pitifully.
Eri smiled reassuringly at the girl, "Don't worry Angi, I'll stay out here tonight and see to her. I promise I wont let her be lonely."
The girl smiled brightly at her and nodded, then she turned to Meeko, "Come on boy, let's go get those treats before miss Eri changes her mind!"
The dog barked looked to Eri, who gestured him to follow Angi, then trotted along with the girl.
After watching to make sure they went inside, Eri raced across town and straight to Falion's. She just hoped her hadn't wandered off into the marsh in search of ingredients. She did not stop to knock but slammed through the door startling Falion, who subsequently spilled his tea down the front side of his robes.
"God's!" He shouted jumping up from his chair, hastily airing out his robes trying to alleviate the burning sting from the hot liquid.
"What in Oblivion is the matter with you!? Is this some kind of habit of yours, startling people to injury?"
Eri panted, ignoring his irate outburst, "I h-have a lead!"
Falion stopped glaring at her, "What?"
She gulped in more air bending over at the waist, grabbing her knees for support. It took her a few moments to collect herself, she needed to work on that, it wouldn't do to be out of shape when trying to join an army.
Falion waited for her to catch her breath, there was no point in rushing her for information, any thing she said would be useless if he couldn't understand her. He still had tea soaking the front of his robes, so while he waited for her to compose herself he went over to the wardrobe to change. The girl was clearly not in the best of shape if it was taking her this long to calm her breathing, either that or she had some kind of lung sickness but he doubted that. After he changed his outer robe, Falion walked over to his potions shelf and retrieved a stamina potion. He cleared his throat to get Eri's attention, once she looked up to him, Falion handed her the potion and sat back down. Eri nodded her head in thanks and downed the whole bottle in one shot, grimacing when she tasted the foul liquid.
"Ugh, what's in this?"
Falion gave her a bored look, "Charred skeever hide."
Eri turned green and groaned, "That's disgusting Falion."
"No, that's alchemy. Now what reason did you have to storm in here without knocking? You owe me new robes by the way."
She ignored his complaint, "We may have an eye witness to the house fire and you wont believe who it is."
"Well? Who?" The mage asked impatiently.
"Helgi."
"...Helgi." Falion said replied hesitantly, "Hroggar's deceased daughter? That Helgi?"
"I know it sounds crazy and it might not even be true, but Angi seemed pretty sincere about meeting her and-"
"Wait, wait, wait! Did you just say Angi met her? Where in Oblivion did Angi see a dead girl?!"
"Can I finish? You can ask her yourself later and do the whole parent/child thing when I'm not about to reveal valuable information." Eri griped at him, her arms folding over her chest as she stared down the glowering Redgaurd.
Falion matched her stance, "Fine. Continue. Dead girl...?"
"Right, Angi said that there was a girl crying in the burnt down house, at first I thought maybe there was a child hiding out there to avoid being sent to Honorhall or something. But she said it was Helgi and that she was all alone. I assumed that meant that she was still alive and had just been staying in the ruins because she didn't know what else to do considering her father doesn't seem to care that she and her mother were supposed to be dead."
"Except her corpse lies in the ground next to the body of her mother." Falion interupted.
Eri glared, "I know that. Angi explained that Helgi was indeed dead, so I thought she was playing some sort of game and reprimanded her for it. Of course she became very adamant that she was not playing again and said that Helgi's spirit still resided amongst the remains of the house."
Falion was silent, a thoughtful expression graced his features as he went over what she had told him. Due to his history in Conjuration magic, he was familiar with wandering spirits, though why the small girl's soul would not have crossed over was just another mystery. Spirits only remained in the mortal realm if there was something tying them to it, unless she was there for her father, Falion could see no reason for the girl to remain.
"Have you gone to the house to see the girl for yourself?" He asked Eri, who had now sat down at the small side table next to the fire.
"No I haven't, if what Angi said was true, then she wont be around again until after nightfall."
"Why after nightfall?" The mage asked.
Eri shrugged, "I'm not exactly clear on the details, but from what I understand she wanted to play a game with Angi after dark because there is someone else who is playing as well who cannot play until after the sun has set."
Falion looked sharply at her, "She said that? Someone else who could only play after dark?"
"Yea, Helgi called them 'the other one' I guess, she said this person made her nervous." The woman replied hesitantly, "Why? Do you think this person has something to do with her death?"
"I'm not sure about her death, but they could very well be responsible for why she is still in this plane. Dark magics are often performed at night as the darkness is what fuels the evil energy."
Eri thought that made sense, "So we are dealing with another mage then? Necromantic?"
"That is an overwhelming possibility, which makes this situation rather hazardous..."
"How so?"
Falion glared at her, "Have you no sense? Necromancy is a very dangerous form of magic, usually practiced by daedra worshippers! They do not speak with reason, they kill so that they can raise!"
The woman was startled by his outburst, he was dead serious about this. She had never dealt with an form of magic except for alchemy and even that she was not very well aquainted. Sure she had heard stories of Potema the wolf queen and heard mercenaries at the inn speak of old ruins where necromancers were known to practice, but never in her life had she seen or had any dealings with them. This was new territory and from the sounds of it, not something she should go diving head first into dealing with.
"So what do we do then? Helgi will be waiting for someone after sundown, and from the sounds of it, if we don't get to her first then whoever is behind this will." Eri said quietly to the fuming mage.
Falion was silent again for the moment, there really wasn't much they could do. He was but one mage who dabbled in Conjuration magic, he mostly dealt with potions and enchanting; and Eri was little better than a child. What could they really do?
"I am assuming that when she means hide-and-seek, she must mean find her body. That is what the necromancer will need in order to perform any type of ritual. So we need to find her body before they do. But first I should report your findings to the Jarl, if we were to get caught in the graveyard messing with bodies the locals are sure to string us up. After that I am unsure how to proceed, perhaps we could set up some sort of trap..."
Eri nodded along with his logic, "You could go to the Jarl and I can go to the grave-site, that way one of us will be there."
"That might be to dangerous, we don't know when the 'other' will arrive." Falion said worriedly.
"Be that as it may, it would be better to have someone there protecting Helgi than to just let some skeever hide run off with her. I'll wait in a hiding spot, this is after all supposed to be 'hide-and-seek'."
He still looked unsure, but there was little time to argue, the sun was only an hour from setting, "Very well," He said resigned, "But take one of my scrolls with you, at least you'll have some sort of defense against whoever it is until I can get there, hopefully with some of the Jarl's men."
This was the best plan they had, Falion gave Eri a 'circle of protection' scroll at least it would keep her safe for a short while if worse came to worse.
"If anything happens get out of there, a dead little girl is not worth your own life." Falion told her sternly, grabbing her before she walked out.
"To Angi she was important and I made a promise, but-" She held up a hand to keep the mage from interrupting, "I am no fool, if things go south I will get away as fast as I can."
He nodded, "Good, now get going. I'll get there as soon as I can."
With that they went their separate ways, praying to the gods they were not to late.
Author's note: I promise next chapter will have Hjolinn again, he was meant to make an appearance in this chapter but the story seems to be writing itself and getting away from me. So next time... Hopefully ;-)
For my American readers; how was your day of thanks? What were you thankful for this year? Me? I am so thankful for my readers. Cliche I know, but come on! I enjoy writing for all of you so much, and I love when I get feedback. To see that people have actually been reading my stories just fills me with such a humble joy, each one of you makes me smile. So yes, I am thankful for all of you. Have a great week!
