Thank you betas! I couldn't do this without you!

Under strange skies

Cap chapter 6

The mantle of a hero


However, it was not Mephala who facilitated the transformation from woman to specter, but another, some would say far deeper form of evil - Sithis, the Dread Lord, embodiment of the unending Void.

-'The Night Mother's Truth'-


"Well, that was anticlimactic." Farengar said with a blank face and Louise found herself agreeing.

She had been thinking so much about it, steeling herself for a confrontation of epic proportions, preparing a multitude of strategies and tactics to defeat this terrible enemy: should she attack from the front, with speed and strength, hoping to collapse the defenses of the elf; as a hero of old? Or should she attack from the shadows, using the element of surprise, to finish the combat before he discovered her presence; as she had recently discovered was more practical?

So many plans, so many ideas, and every single one of them ended up ruined with the discovery of Arvel's lifeless body.

It was a bit worrisome, to tell the truth. His back was contorted in an unnatural angle and his face had been forever frozen in a look of horror. A trap hadn't killed him.

"I don't like this." Louise commented, walking next to the body and putting a foot over its shoulder.

"What're you doing?" Farengar asked, disapproving the mistreatment of the corpse.

"The elf mentioned something before that spider attacked us." She pushed with her leg and turned the body over its back. From among Arvel's clothes fell a small book and, with a *clink* after hitting the floor, a claw which appeared to be made of pure gold. The noble kneeled and grabbed the strange object with one hand; it was surprisingly heavy for its small size. "He told me something about this claw. It must be important." She opened her backpack and deposited the trinket inside it.

"Mmm." The magician scoffed, he was sure that in one of his many books he had read something about the Nordic claws, but the memory was failing him. "Do you think there's any clue inside this?" He asked going and getting the book from the ground. He opened it and started flipping its pages; it was the smuggler's journal, "This is curious…"

"What thing?"

"'The Golden Claw is finally in my hands, and with it, the power of the ancient Nordic heroes.'" Farengar started to recount, reading the most recent (and last) entry that Arvel had written, "'That fool Lucan Valerius had no idea that his favorite store decoration was actually the key to Bleak Falls Barrow.'" He closed the book and put it inside one of his pockets, "Very few Nords know their own history, I wonder how a Dunmer found out about this."

"Do you know who that Valerius fellow is?" The noble asked while fixing her backpack over her shoulders, thinking that she had among her possessions a stolen article that should be returned to its rightful owner.

"I have no idea. After we return to Riverwood, I'll ask the local guard about him." Farengar stood up, in the process he shook off the dust that had stuck to his tunic. "Let's get moving, we already lost too much time in that place." Before crossing the hallway that conducted to the next room, his eyes fell on the wall to his right, "Prepares your weapon." He told his companion, "Whatever killed the elf is still around."

Louise nodded and with a steady hand she unsheathed her sword. Her face showed only strength, but she couldn't keep an uncomfortable chill from making its way down her back, because in the wall that Farengar had seen was a niche, that no doubt had once been occupied but now was empty.

'They are just undead. I can take them.' Draugr, zombies, undead or as whatever they were called; they were dangerous beings, without a doubt, but devoid of human intelligence they were no match for a prepared warrior. Louise had faced rebels and bandits, men and women who knew how to fight and surely had killed before, but in spite of that she had come out victorious. She had even confronted a horrifying eight-legged monster and had killed it! A few animated corpses wouldn't be a threat.

Before advancing she noticed a strange object inside the tomb. With her hands, she cleaned the dust and discovered it was a bow.

"This can be useful."

She hung it at her back.


The next room was a mess and the next one was even worse, it seemed that the further the workers built the less effort they put.

The air was heavy and was loaded with dust and the only light source that illuminated their way was the torch that Farengar was carrying with him. Every shadow projected was a space that the exhausted mind of Louise filled with monsters waiting to devour her.

Louise and Farengar hadn't found the draugr that had killed the Elf yet and her overactive imagination didn't help to soothe her nerves.

"Any idea why they never finished the work?" Louise asked her partner pointing at what seemed to be a half-carved statue. She needed a distraction.

"The rebels must have attacked before they could finish them." The mage explained while he illuminated the sculpture with his torch.

"That was during the war against the dragons, wasn't it?"

"Exactly. These ruins were originally designed as fortresses. It was us, the Nords, who turned them into cemeteries by burying our enemies inside."

"It'd have been better to keep them intact, it's a waste to leave such a…" They entered a new room and were faced with a problem, "We're not going through there." The chamber was a dead end, the only corridor leading further on had collapsed and now a heap of stones and debris was blocking the way.

Farengar got close to the wreckage and tried lifting a particularly big rock, "We'll need at least a dozen hands to clean this." He said discouraged.

"There has to be another exit."

"Mmm, maybe…" Farengar walked next to one wall and started to grope along it, he finally found what he was looking for, "Look! Over here!"

"What is it?"

"These bricks are loose and I think there's a shaft back there. If can bring this wall down …" He planted his feet firmly on the ground and started to smash his shoulder against the wall, "Ufh!" He groaned in pain after his third attempt to knock it down, "It's useless, it's too strong. We're going to need a lever or a…" Louise put a hand over his shoulder, stopping his tirade.

"Leave this to me." She said with a wide grin that showed the teeth. Without wanting to discuss with her, Farengar gave her space to work.

Louise made three steps back, took a deep breath, drew her dagger and…

"Fireball!"

*Booom!*

Blew up the wall.

"Bloody hell!" Farengar yelled, "Warn me next time you're going to do that!" His ears were buzzing and was sure they would keep buzzing for a good while.

The noble shrugged, "People always told me that my explosions were only useful to destroy things. It was time to do something useful with them."

Farengar approached the newly opened road, "Well, I'm not going to question the results. Good job."

Louise smiled and lowered her head. 'Not a bad job at all.'


"I'm just saying that with my dagger and with a good support point I could have climbed the wall!"

"And I insist that it was a bad idea! The snow was too loose, it would have collapsed on top of us!"

The path they took led them through a series of interconnected caves covered in ice. The cold was unbearable and they slipped more than once, but all the pain worth it when they found themselves at the bottom of a huge gorge showered by the light of the sun. Without any platform or catwalk to grab, Louise proposed climbing it. Farengar asked her whether or not she had hit her head.

The walls were simply too steep, any attempt to scale them without the proper equipment would have ended in disaster. It was hard to leave the comfort of the fresh air and the warmth of the midday sun, but they had no other option, they wouldn't be able to escape from there.

After only a few meters of walking they found another gap in the stone walls that they used to return to the dark and confusing corridors they already hated so much.

Half an hour later they were still walking, without hindrance or obstacle. The two descended a ramp, turned left in a corner and arrived to a huge room. Louise's eyes opened wide and her heart skipped a beat. "Founder above…"

One un-dead? Simple. Two or three? A challenge. Four or five? A difficult combat, but one she could overcome.

Inside this crypt, inside this massive necropolis, must have been dozen, maybe even hundreds of corpses. Niche after niche occupied the walls, in long rows up to the roof. The great majority of cadavers were already unrecognizable, only dust that had failed the test of time; but too many were still intact. Some of them looked like they had died only a few weeks ago. Some had been buried next to their weapons.

"This is not good." The mage grimaced.

"You think?" The noble deadpanned.

The necropolis was structured into several corridors, both to the left and to the right. Taking the central passage (which they hoped was the shortest way to the exit) they began to walk.

Louise advanced with her sword firmly held, inspecting the tombs to her left while Farengar inspected the ones to his right, expectant to any movement that could point to an imminent attack.

They came to an intersection and took the path to the right. The place was confusing, if the architect was intending to build a labyrinth, he certainly had succeeded.

They turned again, this time to the left.

The noble would have liked to take her diary and start drawing a sketch of the place, but that would mean pulling her weapon away. She'd have to rely on her memory to…

*Crash*

A noise, something had broken behind their backs. They turned, with their hearts in their throats, and Farengar pointed to the darkness with his torch, but the only thing they saw was a piece of broken ceramic.

"That pot didn't break on its own." Louise said, tightening her fingers around the handle of her sword.

"We have to get out of here." Farengar had a habit of pointing the obvious.

*Clac Clac Clac*

They turned again, facing back their original path. That sound had been different, but much more worrisome; those were footsteps.

Louise felt a hand resting over her shoulder. Although she was glad for the concern that the mage showed for her, that was something that was beginning to piss her off, she wasn't a crystal figurine that had to be treated with a silken glove, she wasn't going to be nor hindrance nor a nuisance. Louise was about to make voice of her complaints when she noticed a problem: Farengar was at her right and the hand was at her left.

The noble turned her head and saw a withered hand perched on her shoulder, connected to a dry body that had risen from its grave and was watching her through two black and empty eye-sockets.

The thing screeched and she screamed.

"Gyaaaaa!" She spin over her heels, executing with the same movement a fast vertical slash with her sword that cut enemy's extremity at elbow-height. The severed member fell to the ground together with to the reanimated body which, fortunately for those who were still alive, was still struggling to coordinate its movements.

The blood loss and the shock by the wound would have been enough to leave any other rival out of combat, but the draugr didn't have vital fluids to lose nor a brain to recognize the pain, so it was still trying to stand, supported by its remaining arm. Louise was ready to behead it and put an end to its misery when a heavy object fell over her back, almost forcing her to the ground.

Louise tried to jerk it off, but the draugr that had jumped from one of the upper niches had clung to her neck and her waist and wasn't going to let her go easily. The abomination groaned next door to her ear and Louise was afraid it would suffocate her with the arm or with the putrid breath emanating from its throat; but Farengar came to the rescue. Holding the un-dead's head firmly between his hands, the mage summoned flare that exploded at point-blank, incinerating the draugr's skull. The body fell to the ground and stayed down, it was finally dead.

"Thank…" Louise was about to show her gratitude, but was silenced by two fireballs that Farengar launched in quick succession, one directed toward the draugr that had to attacked Louise at the beginning and was still trying to stand, and the other toward the darkness of the hallway. The noble didn't understand the reason behind the second attack, until the explosion of flames illuminated the silhouette of several figures that were slowly approaching their position. Louise counted at least eight, but was sure that there were many more.

"Run!" The mage shouted and she didn't lose time answering before putting her legs in motion.

The passageway was narrow and its grotesque inhabitants had started to obstruct it. To her left a mummified hand was rising, Louise cut it; another of the reanimated corpses jumped in front of them and Farengar incinerated it. Each second the sound increased; more footsteps and growls were steadily encircling them.

"Ah!" Farengar screamed and fell to the ground; a draugr had come crawling over the floor and had taken hold of his ankles. Louise stop on a dime, brandishing her sword cut the hands of the un-dead and grabbing her companion from the neck of his tunic, put Farengar back on his feet; he raised his hand and summoned a fireball that past at only centimeters from Louise's head, killing the draugr standing directly behind her.

They resumed their frenetic race. The hallway's ending was getting close, but also the unrelenting horde that was chasing them.

Breathless, they got to the other end of the immense chamber, a small area where the corridors of the gigantic catacomb converged, but there was no room for celebration, because there was no exit in sight.

"Damn it!" Farengar cursed, and Louis would have joined him if she hadn't had to jump to her right to dodge a sword that threatened to chop her head.

The new aggressor was one of those corpses that Louise had seen buried with their weapons; this one also had been buried with his armor, but the leather was almost as rotten as the body was and so was not a factor for her to be concerned about.

A couple of arms approached her, trying to hold her down, but she evaded them and decapitated their owner. This one looked like it had been a woman once, but it was difficult to know for sure.

A dozen or perhaps more draugrs were approaching from one corridor, but Farengar stopped them in their track with his magic.

The swordsman charged her again. This rival was terrifying, but Louise had already faced several powerful warriors and, in comparison, this one was slow and clumsy; she parried the enemy sword with her own blade forcing it to the left, she immediately changed her grip, swapping her hands to deliver a powerful blow to the draugr's face with the pommel of her sword, shattering its teeth and forcing the un-dead to take several steps back. In two fast movements, she first cut one leg and then the head.

She used the pause to breathe and that distraction almost cost her life; a heavy ax would have split her spine if it wasn't for the iron cuirass. Louise fell, mouth first, on the floor. Panting, she turned over her back and ended face to face with another draugr warrior, ready to execute her. A second before the ax fell the noble rolled backwards, letting the weapon to embed on the floor. Not wanting to give her enemy a chance to lift it again, Louise jumped forward and with a thrust she pierced its forehead. It was dead before touching the ground.

Louise observed the battlefield; the fire that Farengar was launching was spreading among the enemy lines, igniting the shrouds and the mantles the draugr had been buried with. Farengar was doing a good job keeping the horde at bay, but he needed some help and she could give it to him.

"Fireball!" she shouted pointing with her dagger at a nearby group of enemies that were approaching from the right. The explosion missed its target, hitting the ground a few meters in front of where the noble would have liked to, but the shockwave was enough to tear them apart. One of the un-dead survived it, but without legs and with only one arm it had been left out of the combat. Louise smiled, this was one thing she could do.

*Boom* *Boom*

The explosions resounded, each one dismembering bodies and launching the remains to the air.

'I would like to see that idiot of Malicorne trying to survive this!' To think that her classmates made fun of her magic, what would they do in her place!? The Guiche's ridiculous Valkyries would have been crushed and Montmorency's water magic would be completely useless against the army of corpses. The only one that could have fared better was Kirche, but Louise preferred not to think about that.

*Boom*

Another explosion and four enemies less to worry about.

Yes, this was going well, between Farengar and herself they were putting a stop to the assault and was only a matter of time before the horde run out of bodies to throw at them.

A lonely and dark figure walking among the flames was getting dangerously close, 'Must have split from the rest of the group.' Louise thought. The figure walked slowly, so Louise took her time to target it with her dagger. Her aim was improving but she wanted to be sure she wouldn't fail the shot.

*Boom* Her spell reverberated but… something was wrong, the figure continued moving forwards.

'I must… I must have missed.' Louise reassured herself, ignoring the cold sweat rolling down her back and the knot she felt in her stomach.

*Boom*

*Boom*

Two more explosions and the figure kept walking.

"No! No!" What was that thing? It was getting closer and closer.

A solitary draugr was in its way, trying unsuccessfully to move forward with its legs missing, Louise had already seen how the horde behaved in these cases, simply splattering the dead and the weak under their feet. But this new enemy did something different, with an armored hand grabbed its disabled comrade from the neck and threw it asides, with enough force to break its skull against a rock. That simple act made the noble's blood run cold; this enemy was different, was more intelligent than the rest.

*Fooom!*

Farengar focused his attention on the newcomer. Attacking with blazing fire he halted its progress, but without the mage's powerful spells to stop the onslaught, the rest of the draugr army was free to approach.

"Fireball! Fireball!" Louise was trying to stop them, but her explosions simply weren't enough, for each step that she forced them back, the abominations made two. It was hard to admit, it left a sour taste in her mouth, but even after accepting the power of her own broken magic she couldn't match Farengar.

"I'll take care of that one!" She roared, putting her dagger away and reading her sword.

"You can't do it alone!" Farengar tried to stop her, but Louise was already running to meet the enemy.

"I can't contain them; you're the only one that can!" With her sword held steady and with her feet firmly planted on the floor, she put all her weight behind a powerful thrust. Before the horrified eyes of the noble the tip of her sword barely pierced half a centimeter of her rival's armor before being completely stopped. The draugr had barely felt that attack.

Louise jumped back, evading a dangerous horizontal slash and seeking to put distance between the two. This enemy wasn't just a frail and withered body, but a powerful warrior completely covered by a thick black-steel armor, brandishing with only one hand an enormous sword of almost meter and a half in length. It was slow, but with such weapon Louise had lost the advantage of reach.

The noble sidestepped to the right, looking for any weak spot, she would have to use her speed to win.

She ducked, dodging a swing aimed at her neck and, taking advantage of the opening, she made two fast slashes. But it was useless; her sword couldn't get through its armor.

She cartwheeled again and attacked from the front, aiming at its face (the only exposed part of its body), but her rival's gigantic sword forced her to retreat.

"Dammed you! Dammed you! I'm not going to lose to you!" Louise didn't stop her attack, but the doubt and desperation were making dents in her spirit, her attacks were quickly becoming more imprecise, more frenetic.

Her clumsy swordsmanship wasn't enough. Her explosions weren't enough. She lacked the means and the ability to defeat this enemy.

Another slash that she barely had the strength to parry.

'Why I'm not a proper mage like mother?"

Believing she had an opening, Louise attacked seeking to cut the exposed inner part of the elbow, but it was a feint, she was easily rejected, lost her footing and before she could reposition herself Louise received a crushing blow to the stomach. She landed on her back. She tried to get back up, but the undead put a heavy boot over her chest. It was readying the coup de grace.

'Where's my sword?!" She was sure it had landed next to her but… there! Her right hand found the grip, but it was out of her reach, she could barely feel it with the tips of her fingers, she just had to stretch a little! But the draugr wasn't going to give her time…

*Fooom!*

A fireball blew up against its back, stunning the un-dead. The pressure over her chest ceased, Louise grabbed her weapon and in a swift movement she slammed it directly beneath her enemy's chin, piercing through the mouth and reaching what remained of the brain.

Louise barely had time to recognize what had happened before Farengar ran to her side, grabbed her from one arm and putted her back on her feet. She wanted to thank him, but before she could emit a single word the mage summoned a barrier in front of them. Three arrows bounced against it.

"Archers!" He shouted and Louise saw, standing on a platform about five meters above the ground, seven drawrs equipped with bows and arrows. It was madness! Where were so many enemies coming from?! Without giving her time to reflect on this, Farengar led her at full speed toward a nearby structure shape like a small pyramid. The space between the summit and the stone wall would serve them as a shelter from the arrows. They climbed the steps and got behind the construction just in time for five arrows to bounce against their cover.

"Agh!" a draugr was climbing the left side; Louise stabbed its chest with her sword. Another tried climbing the structure from the front, Farengar brought it down with an electric shock.

Another slash and then another one, Louise's arms were on fire. The bodies were piling up but new enemies kept arriving to replace the fallen. Everything was happening so fast.

"Louise!" Farengar screamed at her, looking at the object hanging from his partner' back, "You have a bow!

"Yes, and what?! I have no arrows!" Three passed whistling over their heads.

"Grab one! I can't kill the archers, but I can cover you while you shoot them down!" If the problem had been the rangers Farengar could have easily dispatched them, but to do so now would mean ignoring the dozens of enemies trying to storm their position.

"I never used a bow in my life!"

"What!? Then why are you carrying one?!"

"Because I thought it was a good idea!" Louise took a step forward and beheaded another enemy that was getting too close. An arrow hit her leg but was reflected by her greave. She pulled back, remembering that she couldn't abandon her position if she didn't want to become an easy target.

They couldn't move.

They were trapped.

No escape.

All had gone to hell.

'This is madness! Madness! How did it occur to me that I could deal with this? Of course not! I'm not that strong, I am not as strong as mother.'

"Over there!" Farengar stopped her somber thought pointing with his finger at a nearby corridor to their right that they had overlooked.

"What now!?"

"The pillars! The adornments!" He told her while conjuring several fireballs that he threw over their cover, "That passageway must lead to the Inner Sanctuary! We must reach it! It's our way out of here!"

A way to escape? Could it really be possible? Then all was not lost yet.

"Yes! If… if you can keep them at bay…"

"I'm going to be busy protecting us from the arrows! You'll have to clear our way!"

"I can't!" Two arrows went flying over their heads.

"Of course you can!"

"But…"

"Listen to me!" Farengar told her. A group of five enemies tried to encircled them, but he engulfed them in flames, "We are surrounded, if we stayed here we're going to get killed, but we still have a chance!" Farengar put a hand under her chin and looked her in the eyes, "I trust you!"

Trust. What a strange and powerful concept. A sign of respect, comradeship and even friendship. Louise had already forgotten the last time anyone trusted her with anything.

She closed her fists and readied her sword; she wasn't going to surrender yet.

"Let's do this!"

They stood up. Four arrows were fired in their direction, but never hit their targets; were blocked at the middle of their journey by the barrier that Farengar had summoned. They began to run.

From the inside of the shield, a golden bubble of almost three meters of diameter, Louise could see how the arrows bounced unsuccessfully against the transparent wall, but it did nothing to repel the draugrs trying to make their way in; she was in charge of that.

With sword in hand and with a determined mind, she started to cut.

A hand reached for Farengar. She cut its wrist.

A body got too close. She cut its legs.

Another one tried to attack her. Using the pommel of her sword as a maul, she crushed its chest.

It was a terrifying confusion of dark figures, shadows and hands trying to grab her. A treacherous part of her mind just wanted to surrender, wanted to fall to the ground and started crying. Her will silenced it.

Only five meters separated them from their destination.

Only four…

Three …

Two…

One…

Her legs burnt in pain, but with a last effort she flexed her knees and jumped forward, crossing the threshold and rolling over the ground. Farengar arrived shortly after her, dispelled his shield and activated a mechanism next to the wall which lowered a heavy stone gate at the entrance, separating them from the horde.

However, the horror was far from over.

*Crack*

*Crack*

*Crack*

Louise could hear them. The blows, the scratching at the other side of the door; they were there, trying to make their way in. The sounds echoed inside the small chamber in which they were making their stand.

Louise rose, readied her sword and to her side she saw her companion readying a spell. Her eyelids flickered a few times; her eyes itched with the sweat that had gotten inside them.

She swallowed hard.

If the door gave way beneath their tenacity or if they found a way to open it… Farengar and she could kill many, but the horde was numerous and eventually would drown them in a sea of bodies.

*Crack*

*Crack*

The blows were stopping, were they getting tired? Can the undead get tired?

The noble stood still, with her muscles tense, ready to explode at any moment.

She was injured and had troubles breathing; feared she had a broken rib.

* Crack *

Was… was that the last one? Was it really over? Several seconds passed, during which she didn't blink or breathe, fearing that the most minimal breeze could tear down the door that isolated them from the horrors that lurked on the other side. A minute passed and then …

*Plof*

Her heart almost bursts out from her chest after hearing that noise but, turning to her left, Louise saw that it was simply Farengar that had decided to sit (or rather collapse) on the stone floor. Her tired knees decided to follow his example.

The noble fell sited on the floor and stretched her legs. The fear and the adrenaline that had been pushing her body forwards were losing their effect and Louise was beginning to feel every scrape and every bruise that those creatures he had inflicted her.

She was tired. Thinking… thinking about those foul monsters revolved her stomach and made her hair stand on end in her skin.

'I will not cry.' And she wasn't going to. She took a deep breath, threw her head back and released a powerful cry of anger.

She ended with her throat dry and sore, but felt it was worthy.

She inhaled and exhaled, trying to catch her breath, and a soft golden glow illuminated their hiding spot. Louise felt a comfortable warmth spreading through her back.

"Farengar?" She told the mage who was busy using his magic to heal her wounds.

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

The mage blinked a few times in confusion; that was something that he really wasn't expecting. "Do you thank me? Not that I don't appreciate it, but I was the one that dragged us to this mess in the first place."

It was true, it was something that the noble wasn't going to ignore. However, she also couldn't ignore that Farengar hadn't forced her to do anything; it was Louise, in the end of the day, the one who had come with the idea of joining the doomed expedition. Her recklessness and her foolishness were the ones which pushed her to that decision. She had already forgiven the mage for the whole thing but her pride wasn't going to let him knew that yet.

"And don't forget it!" She said with bravery and false anger, "Those are several favors you're going to own me once we get out of here!" Slowly, not to strain her joints, Louise dragged herself over the ground and accommodated her back against the wall, "But … you told me… you told me you trusted me!" She told him lowering her head, " You told me that together we could survive that and… and we did it! In spite of everything, we did it!"

Farengar sat to her right, so close that their shoulders were almost touching. His chest hurt him but, despite this, he managed to emit a faint chuckle. The girl listened and followed his example, but a little louder to be noticed; without wanting to stay behind, Farengar repeated the process. Their laugh grew and grew up to become a resounding guffaw.

"Ha…hahaha! I can't… I can't believe we really managed that." The laugh stopped, Louise hugged her legs and buried her face between her knees to hide the tears that she could no longer contain, "I can't… I can't believe that we're still alive." She paused and took a deep breath to contain her sobs, "I was so scared." Farengar put his right arm over her shoulders trying to comfort her.

"I don't think I could have managed to go so far on my own." He said with honesty, "Thank you for your help, you did a good job."

"I didn't do that much." The noble answered cleaning the tears from her face with her hands, "It was… good team work."

"Yes." He admitted, "It was."

The two looked and smiled; Louise lifted her left hand and closed it into a fist. Farengar did the same with his right one. Their knuckles clicked when they collided. None said anything, it was not necessary, the gesture was enough; from now on they would be friends.

Louise spent a few minutes in that position before lifting her head to fully appreciate the room they were in. "You know, this would be a nice place to visit if it wasn't for all the undead."

That was a point that Farengar had to agree with. Their hiding spot was a gallery about three meters wide and seven meters long, the floor was delicately adorned with paving stones that formed different geometric shapes and the walls had been carved to show various scenes of what appeared to be a story.

"Yes. You see that mural?" The mage said, excited now that he could explain something he actually enjoyed, "That one represents a funeral procession and, that other one over there, the moth." Louise would have liked to ask him what was so special about those unpleasant insects, but didn't want to interrupt his explanation. Farengar threw his head back and closed his eyes, "Ha, you know, I feel like a character from one of Nordssen's books."

"Who?"

"Rolard Nordssen!" He yelled, surprised that the girl didn't know one of his favorite authors, "The one who wrote 'Ruins of Kemel-Ze' and… oh, yes," He sighed, "I forgot that you're not from here."

What followed was another uncomfortable silence that the two shared. Louise, despite having already spent several days in Skyrim, still knew extremely little about its inhabitants and their culture. These people were different, a little terrifying and with strange customs, but they weren't evil and maybe had interesting things to share with her and her own folks. This seemed like a good place to start as any other.

"Are the books any good?" She asked.

"Yes!" He told her and his face lighted up as someone who recalls his childhood, "They're about this archeologist that gets into all kinds of adventures. I loved them as a child. I have the entire collection on one of my shelves back in Dragonsreach! I can lend them to you once we get back." Farengar wasn't sure if that had been such a good idea, those books were his personal treasure, but after everything they had shared, he decided that he could entrust them to Louise.

"I'd like that." The noble gave him a warm smile and her cheeks ached a bit, she wasn't accustomed to smile like that. "I guess you never thought you'd be inside a real adventure, did you?"

"No, not really." He answered disheartened. "And to tell the truth, the life of an adventurer sounded much more glamorous in my books."

"Yes, I understand what you mean." 'The knight of the cart', 'The knight of the rusty armor' and so many others were books Louise was raised up with, reading about brave knights rescuing damsels in distress and facing perverse pagans and elves. These books had made her dream about a life of adventures and dangers; although after having lived one in her own flesh she had realized the abysmal difference there was between fantasy and reality, "The books I read were… very clean. This, all this, is so chaotic, so confusing, so… so…" Her mind was trying in vain to find a word to encompass everything that she wanted to express, but couldn't find one. It was Farengar who gave it to her.

"Shit." The noble was rendered speechless, her jaw fell to the ground and her face adopted a coloration similar to that of a tomato, "The word you're looking for, is shit."

Louise lowered her head. At that precise moment her feet had become surprisingly interesting to see. She knew that word; she had first heard it from the mouth of some sailors during a visit to the Kingdom of Albion and had asked her sister Éléonore about its meaning. She wasn't been able to sit for a week after that. Urgently seeking a distraction, her sight focused one the end of the room and the heavy stone gate located directly in front of the one they had used to enter.

"I guess we still have one last door to open, don't we?"

"I guess we do, but I hope that this's the last one."

Slowly, the two rose. Their joints creaked as they straightened up and their muscles would surely hurt for several more days, but the hope of finally reaching the end of their journey had lifted their spirits.

"How do we open it?" Louise asked inspecting the imposing gate. It was composed of four large sections that seemed to be made to slide inside the walls when opened (how that was achieved was beyond her comprehension) and exactly at the middle were four concentric circles. The inner circle was just a little bigger than her hand and had three small indentations, while the successive circles (that seemed to be able to rotate) had several engravings in relief showing an owl, a bear and what seemed to be some type of insect. She deduced that it surely was another type of booby-trapped mechanism like the one they found before.

"Do you still have the golden claw?" Louise nodded with her head and pulled it out of her backpack. When she saw it, she noticed that the three 'fingers' of the claw could perfectly fit in the three dents of the central circle, "We must turn the discs to match the password and then set the claw in position to open the door."

"Ah, like a key!" She exclaimed excited to see that her deductions had been right, "And how do we discover the code?" She asked, turning her head from side to side trying to find any clew in the inscriptions of the walls.

"It's on the other side of the claw." Louise stopped and looked into his eyes, that had to be a joke, but the completely serious face of Farengar suggested it wasn't. She lowered her gaze to the trinket she was holding in her right hand and began to slowly rotate it. Indeed, on the 'palm' were engraved three drawings: a bear, the insect and an owl.

"Oh, come on! This is ridiculous!" Louise blew up, tired of the Nords' strange antics, "It was already too much with the previous door, but now this? What… what kind of idiot places the combination to a lock on the very key?!"

"Well," Farengar began, trying to calm down the irascible girl; "Many archeologists and adventurers wondered the same thing in the past. This is not the first tomb of its kind to be explored, you know?" The noble, frowning, pierced him with the eyes urging him to continue, "A few years ago I read an essay from one of my colleagues who proposed that all these traps and obstacle weren't put in place to obstruct the progress of an individual, but to make sure that who used them was… sentient."

The mage paused for a few moments, giving time to Louise's brain to work. Finally her mind arrived to a terrifying conclusion and her face lost all its color.

"Wait! Does… does that means…"

"Yes." The mage finished, taking the claw from her hands and starting to set the disks in position, "These defenses weren't built to keep us out, but to keep things in."

"That… that is so… so…"

"Shit."

"… Yes." She didn't like the word, but Louise had to admit there wasn't another way to describe their current situation.

Farengar set the claw in the incisions and with a creaking sound of stone and metal, the old Nordic mechanism returned to life. The door opened and the two companions moved toward the Inner Sanctum.


"This… is magnificent!"

"Don't get distracted; don t let your guard down."

Louise didn't need to be reminded, she knew very well the dangers of carelessness, but still she couldn't avoid appreciating the beautiful construction before her eyes. It was a huge stone shrine built inside a natural cave, with two stairways at each side that led to the top. There were several stone braziers adorning it and a strange semicircular structure at the back.

But the important thing was directly at the center of the structure. Not even the crystal clear waterfalls that ran through the walls nor the soft glow of the midnight moonlight that slipped in from an opening at the roof could distract them from the solitary and ominous sarcophagus that rested at the summit.

"Is that what I think it is?!

"Yes. I might be wrong, but I think that should be 'the Guardian'" Farengar stopped to examine their situation. At this point their best bet would be to ignore it and find a way out of that accursed place, but Louise had other ideas. "What're you doing?!" He asked the noble, who was busy climbing up the stairs.

"Lower your voice." She said in whispers, "Don't let it listen to you."

"Do you really want to face that thing?"

"Of course not! But we came here searching for a stone tablet and I'm not getting out without one!"

"This is madness."

"I agree, but I'm still doing this."

Slowly, measuring each step they took, they went up the treads.

Once they got to the top, they found themselves only a few meters to the left of the mysterious coffin.

"What's the plan?" The mage asked.

"I'll advance from the right so we surround it. I'll open the lid and then you blast it with the best spell that you have."

"..."

"Are you ready?"

"No, but let's do this anyway."

The two set in position, with the furious beats of their hearts as the only sound they could hear. They were nervous, their hands were shaking and none of them dared to take the first step in the direction of the fearsome enemy. It was Louise who finally made her choice and, gathering all her courage, moved her right foot in front of her left…

Fin kel lost prodah

Louise quickly turned her head. What had been that strange sound? She had heard it at her back, had the enemy surrounded them? But then…

*Varuuum!*

"Take cover!"

"Fus! Ro!"

Everything happened so fast, too fast for her eyes. The sarcophagus cover blew up and was violently hurled to the air hundreds of small pieces, leaving space for a dark and grim figure to rise from the inside. Farengar tried to attack it with a fireball while Louise charged at the draugr, but then it spoke, making use of that strange sorcery that the noble had assumed to be the exclusive domain of the dragons. The next thing felt were her feet detaching from the ground and her back was smashing against the wall.

She immediately stood up, the blow had left her dizzy and winded but hadn't been enough to take away her consciousness.

*Fooom!*

*Fooom!*

It took some effort to concentrate her sight, but managed to recognize immediately the flashes of fire magic that Farengar was throwing at his opponent. One after another the small orbs of magic exploded against the draugr's body, engulfing it in flames, but the imposing figure barely seemed to notice it.

The undead lifted a skeletal hand and Louise saw how an electric current began to circulate between its fingers.

'Oh, Founder, a mage!' She thought with desperation.

The draugr stretched out its arm and pointed its index finger towards Farengar.

*Krakatum!*

The Nordic mage barely had time to raise his barrier, but that accomplished a very little, the devastating lightning bolt shattered his defenses and impacted at full force against his chest. With a cry of agony, Farengar flinched in pain.

Such powers, a mage would have to be triangle, at the very least, to be capable of a spell of that magnitude. The girl feared that this enemy was surely much more powerful than that.

"Damned you!" Louise roared and, brandishing her sword, charged against her enemy. The sorcerer didn't seem to have noticed her, perhaps it believed that the initial attack had left the noble out of combat, better for her then. Just a meter before reaching her target, Louise planted her feet firmly on the ground and attacked with a powerful horizontal slash. She only cut the air.

At first, the girl hadn't understood how the draugr had been able to dodge her attack, the beast hadn't moved its legs, it hadn't even turned its body, it simply had moved gently away from the noble's reach and… upwards. It was then that Louise understood, the sorcerer wasn't standing on the ground, it was floating meter and half over it.

The undead turned its body to face Louise and at that moment the noble could appreciate the true power of her enemy. The draugr wasn't wrapped in vulgar clothes or worn out rags, but with a fine silk tunic that even after centuries remained beautiful, and its body was protected by a splendid golden armor that seemed to be crafted in reminiscent of a dragon's scales. But the most notorious evidence of its might was on top of its head: a delicate and beautiful crown. This wasn't a simple warrior or a servant that had been buried next to it master, no! In life, this one had been a king.

Powerful creature, confident in its complete superiority, didn't bother to punish the new nuisance with a spell; it simply struck her with the back of its hand. Louise attempted to cover her face with her left arm, thinking that the old king wasn't any stronger than the other draugrs she had faced; unfortunately, nothing could have been further from the truth.

When the withered hand impacted, it was as if a furious bull had rammed her, Louise was barely able to keep hold of her sword while her body rolled over the floor. Before her brain could react, she felt how an invisible force pulled her from her feet and lifted her in the air. The draugr didn't speak, didn't bother with complex enchantments, it simply looked as its prey approached.

At less than twenty centimeters from the thing's face, the force stopped and a girl was left looking directly at the cold and empty eye sockets of the undead. The creature raised its right hand and with a simple gesture pointed toward its right, ejecting the noble's body in the same direction. Fortunately this time it wasn't the wall that stopped her, but something softer, unfortunately that something was Farengar.

"Aghhh!" The mage groaned, he had barely had time to recover from the previous attack.

Louise had been left dazed; she readjusted herself just in time to see a mighty flare aimed at her direction. The girl was ready for the worst, but the attack never arrived because it was blocked in its path by a barrier of light.

"What the hell is that?" A terrified Louise asked her companion. Her spirit fell apart after discovering she had lost her sword at some point.

"A Dragon Priest!" Farengar shouted while making a great effort to keep his magic shield in place.

"A what?!"

"A Priest! This is bad! This is very bad." The flames were surrounding them and the heat was becoming unbearable.

"And this is the Guardin?" The girl asked panting, the fire was burning out the oxygen of the air, "Didn't you say a fireball would be enough to kill it?!"

"I was wrong, ok! And your sword?"

"Don't know!"

The attack stopped, Louise thought that was their opportunity to launch their counterattack, but Farengar wasn't going to have any of that. He grabbed the noble from the waist and dragged her down the stairs.

"What're you doing? We have to attack now!"

"We must flee! We don't stand a chance against that!"

"Are you an idiot!? We can't take…"

"Fus! Ro!" Farengar put his hand behind Louise's neck and forced her down while the powerful air pressure passed dangerously close over their heads, dragging with it dust and stones, and even the noble's sword that went flying and got stuck on the wall, about three meters above the ground.

"Damn!" Louise cursed, she wasn't getting her weapon back any time soon.

She did a quick turn and saw the undead sorcerer floating ominously at the top of the stairs, Farengar launched a series of lightning bolts in its direction, but the draugr summoned its own magic shield and the attacks bounced harmlessly against it. Deciding to take a page from his rival's book, Farengar summoned a torrent of fire. The flames surrounding the enemy and for a moment the Nord thought they might stand a chance against this beast, but the Dragon Priest didn't seem bothered by the fire. Farengar redoubled his attack, but no matter how much power he put behind it the flames didn't touch its body, and with horror he understood why: the draugr was holding its two hands in front of its chest, with one palm over the other with a small reddish orb forming between them, fed by the fire that covered it. Not only was the Priest blocking the attack, it was redirecting it.

Mage and noble almost didn't have the time to get out of the way before the powerful fireball burnt the place they were standingto a crisp.

Farengar crashed against the ground and was just beginning to thinking about his next move when…

"Fireball!"

Booom!

"Fireball!"

Booom!

"Fireball!"

Booom!

Louise had unsheathed her dagger and was trying to blow the Priest to kingdom come, zigzagging and taking coverbehind the rocks to evade the undead's attacks, but her enemy's agility and her poor aim made it impossible for the girl to hit the target, the draugr dodged all her attacks by drifting through the air; but with the draugr busy with Louise, Farengar had an opening.

The Nord started to prepare lightning bolt while he watched the movements of his opponent. First it dodged an explosion moving to the right and then to the left. It was curious that the Priest wasn't using its shield to defend itself, but id it followed that pattern… there! The draugr evaded another explosion and Farengar took his chance to attack; his electric discharge impacted the draugr's side, forcing it to withdraw back to its sanctuary.

"Louise!" He called her and ran to her side, "We have to escape while we can!"

"But we are winning!"

The Nord grabbed her from the arm, "No! Don't you understand? We`re just…!" He barely had time to erect a barrier to block a new fireball. The Dragon Priest was back.

"Farengar!"

"Listen to me!" He told her without lowering the shield, "There has to be another exit, I'm sure! Find it and get out!" Their enemy's magical attacks keep impacting against his barrier of light, soon it would collapse.

"I'm not leaving you!"

"You're not! I'll find a way to meet with you again." It was a lie, they both knew that. Farengar dispelled his shield and attacked with a flare, forcing the Priest's attention on himself, "Over here!" Farengar ran towards the opposite end of the cave with the sorcerer behind him.

Louise remained behind, petrified. There had to be something she could do! Anything! Where was her sword? She looked up, it remained firmly embedded in a crack on the wall… a crack… quite large.

She had an idea.


Farengar attacked with a fireball, as useless as their previous one, dodged the enemy's counterattack jumping backwards, but couldn't readjust his feet in time to evade the lightning bolt that stroke his leg. He fell to the ground with his muscles numbed by the electric charge. The Priest got close, ready to deliver the final attack.

"Fus! R…"

*Bonk!*

But before it could finish its chanting, a heavy stone hit the side of its head.

"Hey! You dog!" Louise shouted, throwing another stone that hit directly against its nose, "Didn't they teach you not to bully commoner?!" She threw another one that bounced harmlessly against its chestplate, "Or is that you are too much of a coward to face a true noble?!"

With the poor Nordic mage completely forgotten, the draugr started to float in direction of the foreign noble. 'Perfect.' She thought, anxious to trigger the trap with which she expected to finish the fight.

The draugr raised one hand and, in a swift movement, Louise threw herself behind a stalagmite, just seconds before a powerful fire blast hit the place she had been occupying.

"You have worst aim than me!" She mocked. Louise wasn't completely sure if the undead had enough brain left to comprehend the insult, but the intensified attack appeared to suggest that.

What she was about to do was extremely dangerous, but with the Dragon Priest in position, it was time to make her move. Louise jumped from behind her hiding spot and started to climb the wall. It was difficult, on either side of her the rocky wall exploded in flames, so not only did she have to pay attention to the placement of her hands and feet, but also had to watch out for the magical attacks trying to electrocute her or turn her to ashes.

Louise turned her head to look at her adversary and saw a ball of fire getting dangerously close. Setting herself firmly against the wall, she pushed with feet and hands and jumped towards the crack to her left, just above her sword.

'Just where I want you.' The enemy was below the wall and exactly in front of her. The draugr was already preparing another fireball, but Louise wasn't going to give it the time to finish it. She unsheathed her elven dagger and stuck it into the same crack where her sword was.

"Fireball!"

*Boooom!*

The effect was instantaneous, the wall didn't just fall apart, it exploded, and as a landslide is crashed against the Dragon Priest, burying it under several tons of rocks and dust.

"To teach you not to mess with me!" Louise shouted while hanging precariously from the cliff. Her plan had worked flawlessly, but had left her in a very precarious situation without foothold. The height wasn't too big anyway, so she just put her dagger away and let herself drop the three meters that separated her from the ground.

"Ufh…" She groaned with the landing, her knees hurt and the impact hadn't been gentle with them, but she didn't care, after helping Farengar he would have enough time to heal her. "Where is…? Ah!" Her steel sword had ended under a big rock, but pushing it with a leg it was easy to make it roll. Louise lifted her weapon, fortunately it wasn't chipped or bent, so the last thing to do was to find Farengar and get the hell out of…

"Fus!"

"No…"

"Ro!"

The pile of stones under which the undead had been buried exploded, forcing Louise to make several steps back and to cover her faces to guard it against the dangerous shrapnel flying in every direction.

"But what do I need to do to kill you?!" She had thrown a ton of rocks on top of its head and that hadn't been enough, there it was standing in front of her and… it was standing, not floating, the Dragon Priest hadn't escaped unscathed. Its scale armor had been shattered and a dark liquid poured from several cuts on its body. Several glowing yellow threads were crossing its flesh, keeping the exposed bones and muscles in place as some sort of magical suture stitches.

Louise smiled; if the Priest was using its willpower to keep its body in one piece that meant there wasn't much energy left to attack her with.

The noble readied her sword and charged at her enemy. She had wounded it, now it was time to finish the fight.

The sorcerer attacked with a fireball, small and weak; Louise zigzagged and evaded it with ease. Louise leaped forwards, shortening the distance and going for a thrust, but the undead sidestepped her and counterattacked.

Steel and claw met in a wild and deadly dance.

Louise ducked, dodging the draugr's vicious nails, and slashed with her sword. The blade found flesh and drew blood from the opponent's chest, but soon enough those glowing threads started to sew the gruesome wound, mending the damage. That was frustrating, with her speed and her reach the noble had inflicting multiple wounds, but her enemy kept attacking, unconcerned by its injuries; and she was getting tired, very quickly, she could feel it. With each second that passed her movements got slower and clumsier; with every second it got harder to move her feet and raise her sword; very soon her body would fail her and that would be the end.

Louise made another powerful attack, trying to cut off an arm, but she was too slow. It was only a moment, a fraction of a second too much that she wasted rearranging her weapon, but that was all the time her opponent needed. The draugr landed a powerful blow on her face. The helmet protected from the sharp claws, but did little to soften the impact.

It was as if a horse had kicked her in the head.

Her sight got blurry and she was assaulted by a terrible dizziness. But Louise wasn't going to let herself be knocked down that easily; she slammed her sword on the ground and used it as a makeshift cane to stay upright. It was hard to breath and she could feel the taste of her own blood with the tip of her tongue, but even like that she managed to raise her head and show the Dragon Priest a defiant look. If this was her end, Louise was going to receive it with her head held high.

The undead raised one hand and stretched out the index finger. The noble swallowed hard and got ready for what was coming next, but didn't avert her eyes. Did the bastard wanted her to show fear? To beg for her life? Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliére wasn't going to give an enemy such satisfaction. However the draugr wasn't pointing at her chest or at her head, but at her leg; and it wasn't electricity what was forming in his hand, but ice.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Louise gave a harrowing scream of pain when the ice arrow pierced her left thigh. She fell to the ground.

The Dragon Priest closed the distance and with its putrid hand grabbed her from the neck of the cuirass. Louise pulled and hit the draugr's arm with her fists, but it didn't loosen its grip. The draugr dragged her towards a nearby wall while the blood that poured from her leg stained the floor.

The draugr raised her and dragged the noble's head close to its own. It was a cruel and frightening face, without lips or eyeballs, but Louise no longer had even the strength to feel fear. In a last act of challenge, she took a deep breath and spat on its face.

The draugr smashed her body against the rocks of the wall.

One time.

Two.

Three.

This was no longer even an execution, it was simply cruelty.

With each hit her armor chipped and dented and the stones shattered; or were those perhaps her bones?

Louise had lost count of how many times her small body had crashed against the wall, but it shouldn't take long now to the end.

Another blow.

Her consciousness was already failing her.

Another one.

She could feel a warm and metallic liquid climbing up her throat.

The draugr flexed its arm and prepared for the next hit. Was this going to be the last one?

"Let. Her. Go!"

Fooom!

A fireball impacted against the enemy's back, engulfing its body in flames.

Fooom!

Another one and the draugr released its prisoner.

Louise collapsed as if she was a ragdoll.

She saw him. She saw her… friend.

He walked with a limp and the right sleeve of his tunic was soaked in blood, but he kept the pressure on his enemy.

The undead turned and tried to advance but discovered that it couldn't lift its left leg, something was obstructing its movement. The drawr lowered its head and saw that the girl, who still clung to her life, had closed her hand around its ankle. The Priest kicked her in the stomach.

Louise coughed and spat out blood. The kick hadn't been so severe, but in her weakened state that was enough to force her to release her enemy.

The Priest closed the distance. The mage didn't stop his attack, fire and electricity smashed against the undead's body, but it kept walking. With a fast movement, the Priest jumped on Farengar and closed its hands around his neck. For a moment Louise thought that it wanted to crush Farengar's throat but, once again, the draugr went for a different approach.

"Aghhhhh!" The mage screamed in pain. He was being electrocuted.

Louise pushed with her arms. She wasn't going to remain idle and let that monster kill her friend.

She stood up, but it was difficult to keep her balance, her body was completely numb. It was probably better that way, other ways the pain would have been unbearable.

Took a step and almost fell to the ground, but she wasn't going to stop, she had a job to do.

Took another step. Each time she was going faster and faster, she needed to reach her objective.

Another step and she began to run. Louse doubted she would be able to stop safely but that hardly mattered, it wasn't in her plans to do so. With her hand she searched for the grip of the dagger that sill remained firmly attached to her belt.

"Please God, give me strength." She prayed.

Louise never noticed, because she was completely focused on her target, but if she had looked at her weapon she would have seen how the blade of the dagger started to glow with a shimmering light.

She slammed her shoulder against the back of the undead. Louise wasn't pretending to knock it down, she just needed a support point. She grabbed her dagger with her two hands and, with a movement swift and brutal, stabbed the enemy in the back.

The mind of the Dragon Priest had long ago lost all its remnants of humanity, having been replaced with anger and darkness. So, when the dagger penetrated its body, it didn't hurt, at least not in the same way it would hurt the livings; but feeling how the magical energies that protected its body were extinguished, feeling how its connection with the Aetherius was brutally severed; was the closest thing to absolute terror that it had felt in more than five thousand years, and in that fraction of a second… the Priest doubted.

That pause, that moment in which the draugr stopped and released Farengar, was the opportunity that he so desperately needed.

With the electrical attack stopped and with the pressure over his throat alleviated, Farengar focused all his remaining magicka in a last attack.

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention; desperation works very well too.

To his mind came the image of a sword, an impossibly sharp blade covering his hand, his imagination gave it the form and his willpower gave it the temper.

He flexed his arm, now wrapped in a red and furious light, and aimed at his target. He pressed hard, with his palm straight and extended, the point where he thought his opponent's sternum could be found, and with ease he pierced through the undead's chest. Farengar kept the pressure until his hand came out from the other side.

The Dragon Priest gave an inhuman scream of pain that threatened with deafening them, but Farengar wasn't done yet. The Nordic raised his arm, cutting ribs, meat and putrid organs until it exited through the draugr's right shoulder. With a horizontal movement, he cut its neck.

The Priest's head detached from its shoulders and fell rolling to the right. The rest of it body fell to the left.

Louise couldn't do more than look open-mouthed the incredible spectacle that was taking place before her. It was impressive to be witness of such a superb display of magic. That was why the mages were the pillars of the Halkeginian society! That was why they were the last line of defense! Because where the meat and the steel failed, they did not! That was their power.

Unfortunately, and despite how much they refused to admit it, mages must never forget that, at the end of the day, they were mere mortals, just as vulnerable to fatigue and wounds as any other living being. Farengar hadn't gotten into the fights like Louise had. In its place he had done everything in his power to remain as far away from his opponents as possible, but he was exhausted and every scratch and every blow he had received had accumulated. His body couldn't take any more punishment.

Louise's look of admiration turned into a look of horror as she saw how Farengar's body fell backwards. Everything was going so slow and despite that she couldn't get out of her stupor. She felt so impotent. The mage's body made a dry sound when it crashed against the floor; he didn't even have enough strength to try cushioning the fall with his arms.

"Farengar!" She shouted and stood up, she had a multitude of wounds still open and bleeding, but she didn't give a damn about the pain, she had to get to him. Her right leg was burning with pain, she could barely stand on it, but Louise walked.

*Drip*

*Drip*

In the absolute silence that had covered the cave she could hear with perfect clarity the sound of the drops of blood and sweat that fell off her body, mixed with the tears that flowed from her eyes.

'Oh God! Oh God! Please founder!' She prayed, begging that the best person she had known in years hadn't just died in front of her eyes. She felt her dagger excruciatingly heavy, she let it slip from her fingers. The helmet was blocking her view, so she took it off.

She arrived to her companion's side and kneeled next to his body. The mage wasn't moving.

"Please! Farengar! Say some…"

"… ket…"

"What?!" He had said something! His voice was barely a murmur but she had heard it! He was still alive! But what was he trying to say?! Louise couldn't understand him; his words didn't make any sense. Supporting her weight with her hands she leaned over his head and put an ear as close as she could to his mouth.

"… eft… ket…" Her voice was very weak and it was obvious that Farengar was making a great effort to speak.

"What?! I don't understand you!" She grimaced.

"L… left… p… ket." That had sounded clearer and now Louise knew what he wanted.

"Po-pocket? Left Pocket?" It was a small movement, almost imperceptible, but she recognized that Farengar was moving his head up and down.

Louise began to desperately seek among his clothes. She opened his tunic and saw that his shirt had been torn; later she would worry about all uncomfortable places she was touching. Finally, inside his left trousers pocket, she found a small glass bottle filled with a bright blue liquid; it was a miracle that it hadn't been shattered so far. The noble uncorked the bottle and dropped its content into the convalescing mage's mouth; he drank it and before Louise's eyes every single vein in his body started to glow with an intense blue light. A second later his body returned to its normal state.

With great effort and pain, Farengar raised his arms and started to flex his fingers. At first Louise didn't understand what he was trying to do, until she recognized the figures: the index bent in forty-five degrees angle, the thumb crossing over the palm: Farengar was trying to cast the healing spell! She had seen those forms only a couple of times, but she had a good memory. Without hesitation, Louise placed her hands over his and helped him form the necessary gestures.

After a few agonizing seconds with nothing happening, a small sphere of golden light formed between Farengar's palms and started to slowly descend to his chest. It was extremely difficult to control the spell without the corresponding chants as Farengar didn't have as much experience in Restoration as some of his colleagues; that was a mistake he decided to correct as soon as he got back to Dragonsreach.

When the sphere touched his body, he suffered a violent spasm and from his teeth escaped a lament of pain.

"Farengar! Farengar!" Louise shouted, fearing that something had gone wrong.

"Do… not… scream at my ear!" Was his answer.

"Oh, God!" Louise couldn't contain herself any more, she hugged Farengar and buried her head on his chest, "Idiot, idiot! I was so sacred!"

"Easy, easy." He told her, placing one hand on her back and starting to heal her with his magic, "Don't cry, I'm fine now."

"I am not… crying!" Her tears suggested the opposite, but he chose not to correct her. "I thought… I thought you had…"

"I can't die yet." Farengar interrupted, "I still have to tell you in which shelf I keep the books you want me to lend you, remember?"

"Idiot." She groaned.

They remained like that for a long time, Louise fearing that Farengar's heart would stop if she stopped listening to it, and he too tired to move.

"Help me to get up." He told her at the end. After almost five minutes the floor was getting too uncomfortable.

"Oh, of-of course!" Louise rose from her position and put an arm behind Farengar's back to help him sit. His breathing was agitated and it was clear that the body still hurt him, but the worst was already over. The noble still had with her the glass vial that had contained the mysterious liquid, she lifted to her eyes and inspected it carefully. Some blue drops remained inside, "What's this?"

"A magicka potion." He explained.

"A potion of… magicka? Willpower? That's amazing!" She started to tilt the bottle from one side to the other, fascinated watching the movement of the wonderful substance. In class she had learned that many had tried to develop a method to accelerate the recovery of willpower and gave the mages the ability to cast spells one after another. The results had unfortunate ranged from 'pitiful' to 'disastrous'. If the imperial mages had indeed discovered how to solve that problem, it was another thing for what they deserved admiration.

"And extremely expensive. I used a pearl to brew that one." Louise's eyes opened wide and her face adopted an expression that reminded that of a fish.

"A … pearl? Like a pearl… pearl?" She mumbled.

"That thing women like to wear around their necks? Yes. One must use good ingredients to get good results." He affirmed. Well, there goes Louise's idea of brewing a million of those potions and conquering Germania." Let's get the hell out of here, I'm tired of this place."

"Agree." Louise got back to her feet first, put one of Farengar's arms over her shoulders and helped him to get back up. Thanks to him, her wounds were no longer bleeding, "Do you think we'll have any other surprises?" She asked, pointing with her head the remains of the Dragon Priest.

"I sincerely hope not, I am not made for these things." He grumbled, "I'm a scholar, not a bloody battlemage!"

"Maybe not," The noble answered with a smile, "but you make a good impression of one."

"And you a good one of a knight."

"I do what I can with what I have." Louise didn't bother to hide the slight blush that adorned her cheeks. Leaning one against the other, to maintain their balance, they walked back to the stone shrine. They had gone through many dangers, survived dozens of enemies and now they had to find the prize at the end of the road, "Where do you think…?"

Aan suleyk wah ronit faal krein

Louise, startled, looked to one side and then to the other. There was that strange sound again, what was it?

"What's wrong?" Farengar asked concerned, getting into a fighting position.

"No, it's nothing." The noble replied, examining the ceilings and the walls.

"Sure? I really don't want any more surprises."

"Yes, sure." Of course she wasn't, but whatever that sound was, she didn't think it was dangerous; somehow it sounded safe, "Where do you think we can find the tablet?"

"Only one place comes to my mind. Come, follow me."

They went up the stairs for a second time and walked next to the coffin where the 'Guardian' had been buried. Farengar cleaned the dust and rocks from inside it and, indeed, in its interior he found a stone tablet with a map of Skyrim engraved on it and several annotations which he hoped would guide his associate to the hidden tombs of the ancient dragons. Once he had translated it, of course.

"Eureka." Farengar announced lively, "Louise, here it is! Now we just have to…" He kept talking , but Louise wasn't paying any attention, she was busy trying to find the source of that sound that wouldn't leave her in peace.

What was it? Where was it coming from? Farengar didn't seem to hear it, was she the only one who could? Was she mad?

Her gaze fell on the structure that was erected directly behind the sarcophagus, from where Farengar seemed to be struggling to lift something heavy. It was an imposing stone semicircle with a multitude of carved decorations and antique engravings that appeared to represent scenes from battles. The figures of dragons and scarabs were the most prominent.

But all those ornaments, all those beautiful details, were secondary, simple additions to the main attraction: a section of flat stone over which a series of words in ancient language had been carved, the same language that Louise had seen Farengar translating previously. She didn't understand what was written there, didn't know that dialectal. But even so, somehow, she felt that she knew its meaning.

She took a step forward, she needed to get closer.

The sound became clearer. Were those… voices? Were they singing? Speaking? She couldn't know that, but Louise wasn't scared of the voices, they sounded familiar.

She took a second step, her vision became blurry and her knees started to shake.

Something was screaming at the back of her mind, wanted to escape, wanted to get free, express itself, but couldn't. It was crippled, incomplete, it was like opening a book and started reading from the middle of the story; she lacked the context and that was driving her crazy.

She took a third step, a fourth and then a fifth. She was directly in front of the wall of words now.

Lights… figures… shadows… began to emanate from every phrase, every letter. Her mind was assaulted by hundreds of sensations, every muscle, every nerve was stimulated. It was a wonderful show, different, unique… it was… it was too much… it was terrifying.

She tried to call for help, but her words were drowned as an alien knowledge was brutally forced into her brain.

Here lies the guardian,

Keeper of the dragonstone

And a force of unending

Rage and darkness

The last thing that Louise heard, before everything turned black, was someone screaming her name.


Years ago, back when Louise was just but a child, she remembered going to see a play at a nearby theater together with Princess Henrietta. It was a Gallian show, with actors and actresses dancing to the beat of a fantastic orchestra.

'Ballet' they called it, and Louise had been fascinated with the agility and the extravagant movements of the dancers but, above everything else, with the voice of the lead vocalist; a stunning woman who had captivated the audience with her singing. So exited Louise was that she had even asked her mother if she could learn how to sing like that as well. Of course the answer was a resounding 'no', and at the slightest hint of protest, the young Louise had been severely punished. 'That's not proper of the nobility', they told her, 'that's a commoners' thing'.

Of course, she didn't care about that anymore, because she was no longer a slave to the superfluous duties of the nobility, or fool child trying to seek the approval of a family that, she knew, would never accept her. She was happy, she was… free.

And, so, she sang.

Her voice was beautiful and carried the power of her will. She sang through fields, lakes and forests, and with every step she left behind the unforgettable marks of her passing.

Her face was cleansed by the water that fell from the highs. It was raining, and soon she discovered that the rain was following her, always looming over her head. But Louise wasn't troubled by it; she received it with opened arms. The water was fresh and pure.

But then, something changed. The music became faster, darker. The cries of pain filled the air as an oppressive shadow covered the land.

Louise looked at the horizon and saw a marching army. It was an army of abominations wielding the power of fire and steel that had come to ravage her land. Some were malformed titans, with their bodies covered in grotesque tumors. Others had lost their skin, leaving their muscles and tendons completely exposed to the wind. The bones of others had grown beyond the limits of their bodies and now came out as murderous hooks.

Louise wasn't afraid, they weren't going to intimidate her, the rain became a storm and with a thunderous Shout she attacked.

The rivers overflowed and the water drowned one third of the attackers.

The wind blew and ripped off the leaves of the trees that, as sharp blades, shredded the enemies by the hundreds.

Lightning bolts smashed the earth, killing those who had survived.

Louise looked around and smiled. The enemy army had been annihilated thanks to her. She had done it, she had saved her people, she was a …

"What have you done?"

Louise turned and came face to face with her Princess. Henrietta looked devastated, terrified; her beautifully dress had been torn and was covered in filth and burn marks.

"Princess?" Louise called, "I-I don't't understand!" She tried to move, but her feet hit something. It was a body. It was Cattleya's body. "What?! No! No!"

She saw, mixed with the remains of the attackers, the bodies of her family, of her friends. Hadvar was there, also Guiche, Montmorency, Kirche, Charlotte, Alvor and Farengar. Even her mother was there; always so regal and untouchable, now was nothing more than a broken mess of flesh and blood.

"It's over Louise. It's over." With her face covered in tears, Henrietta raised her wand, but before she could launch her attack she was hit by a lightning bolt and her body collapsed to the ground.

"Henrietta!" The pink-haired noble dashed to the side of her old friend, but it was too late, the Princess was dead.

She hugged the lifeless body of who had once been her best friend and broke down in tears.

The last thing she saw before darkness engulfed her was that the Tristanian crown was no longer on the Princess' head.

Because it was on Louise's.


Louise woke up with a stare, trembling and with her back cover in sweat. That was quickly becoming a very sad habit.

After recognizing that everything had been just a bizarre nightmare, Louise leaned back again on the bed. Her whole body ached, every single muscle and every single joint; she could barely move her arms without them hurting. She felt like throwing up.

Slowly all the memories of the previous day came back to her as a relentless tide: the blood, the dirt and the sweat; the spider, the undead and the Priest; all images that had been burnt to fire in her mind. And then… she drew a blank.

What had happened with Farengar? And with the tablet? And… wait a minute…

"This is not my bed."

No, of course that wasn't her bed, but neither was a bed she recognized. She looked around her; she was inside a small room with wood walls and a thatch roof, modestly decorated, with a door directly in front of the bed and a single window to her left, from where she could see the morning sun.

What had happened to her? How had she arrived there? And where were her things?! Louise couldn't see nor her armor nor her weapons anywhere. She soon realized too that she also wasn't wearing her own clothes and that someone had dressed her in an unfamiliar garment; it was a set of shirt and skirt that had probably belonged to farmers or shepherds.

'Please let it be that a woman had been the one to dress me.'

She tried to remember. Farengar had killed the undead Priest and then… then…

Darkness

Rage

Force

"Ugh!" a terrible pain invaded her temples, it was as if a million arrows had been nailed to her head. Dizzy, she fell back on the bed with her hands trying unsuccessfully to contain the pain. The room was spinning all around her.

*Knock* *Knock*

'Damn it.' "Who is it?" The noble asked, maybe a bit more forcefully than it would have been appropriate.

The door opened and from it came an old woman bringing a tray with a piece of bread, cheese and a glass of milk.

"Good morning, little one." She said with sweet voice, "I am glad to see that you're up, I was coming to wake you up."

"H-hi." Louise answered a bit confused. She didn't know that woman, was she in Riverwood? Was she a friend of Farengar? There was something wrong with that last idea, "Who-who're you?"

"Ha! Forgive me, I forgot to introduce myself." She said with a smile while placing her tray her guest's lap, "My name is Anise. Last night your friend called to my door asking for help and I gladly gave it to him."

"Farengar? He brought me here?" Louise asked and with her hand she grabbed the cup of milk that the woman was offering her. At no moment she took her eyes off Anise's face, for some reason she felt little intimidated under her gaze but she didn't understand the reason. The old woman had a warm and friendly face; it reminded Louise of one of those old midwives that had taken care of her before the Academy. Louise took a sip of milk and almost chokes. "Agh."

"He, he." Anise giggled gently, "That's not cow milk, dear, it's goat. It tastes different."

"I noticed, "The noble answered sharply, but that didn't make disappear the smile on the face of her host. She bit some cheese and realized that it was also different from what she was accustomed, it surely was goat cheese too. It really didn't taste bad, but it was a strange flavor, a little rough to the tongue and maybe a bit spicy. She took another sip from her cup, she could get used to that.

"And about your question, yes, it was mister Farengar who brought you here last night. You were unconscious, so I put you in my bed."

"Ah, thank you very much for that." Louise thanked her, more relaxed now and a little embarrassed for her earlier rudeness, "And these clothes?"

"Those belonged to my sister, Moira." She explained and her face turned dark for a moment, "Has been many moons since the last time we saw each other, but she writes me letters every other week. I understand she's doing quite well for herself."

Louise couldn't avoid thinking about her own sisters and how much she missed them. She even missed Éléonore, despite their poor relationship. At that very moment she would have given anything to see her family again.

"Louise!" A voice called from somewhere else inside the house. The noble couldn't have been happier to hear it.

"Farengar! I'm here!"

The mage rushed inside the bedroom. For a split second, Louise failed to recognize him. Was that Farengar? It has difficult to associate that person to the intelligent but sometimes cranky scholar that she had seen in Dragonsreach; or with the powerful Magister that had made rained fire and destruction on their enemies' heads back in the Barrows. His tunic looked like it had been washed recently, but still exhibited several holes and burn marks, and his face looked tired, very tired and fragile.

Curiously, his gaze didn't fall first on his companion, but on Anise and her hands. The old woman didn't give the impressed of noticing that.

"Louise, are you all right?" He asked facing the girl. His eyes were gaunt and exhibited some prominent dark circles under them. He had slept very little last night.

"Yes, yes. Tired and hurt all over, but I'll be fine. And what about you? How did we end here?"

Farengar took a deep breath and sit at the foot of the bed, in front of Louise and opposed to Anise.

"I'm not going to tell you the whole story now." He started, "But the short version's that after you fainted, I carried you…"

"Wait, wait!" She interrupted, incredulous, "You carried me here?"

"Yes, don't even remind me." His voice was raspy, but for a second Louise saw a very small smile on his face, "I had to master very fast all the spells of hauling and lifting that I had never used in my entire life." He paused before continuing, "In any case, I found an exit and carried out of there together with the stone tablet and our remaining things. I feared I'd have to carry you to Riverwood, but luckily I found the hermit's house and she offered to help us."

"Hermit?" Louise asked addressing the elderly.

"You don't have to thank me for that." Anise announced and Farengar huffed.

"I thank you anyways!" The young noble said raising from the bed. She tried to contain herself, but couldn't stop a grunt of pain from escaping through her teeth, "A-and… if there's anything I c-can do to return the favor, you just need to name it."

"Oh, that won't be necessary, I assure you. I am always happy to receive interesting visitors." By the corner of her eye Louise saw Farengar glaring at Anice, "And, by the way, I have a hot bath ready, if you're interested."

Yes, she was very interested in that.


'What a pleasure.'

Immersing herself in the hot water, letting the dirt, the dust and dried blood washed away from her body. She didn't know where the hermit had found soap, and the truth was that she didn't care. The woman even had some oils for the hair! They smelled of lemon. Without wanting to think too much in the issue she put some of the sweet-smelling substance on her hands and massaged vigorously her head, but stopped abruptly when her hands couldn't feel the hair that should have reached to her back.

'The hair grows.' Louise reminded herself bitterly.

To think that around a week ago she had been enjoying the beautiful marble baths of the Academy. Now a wooden bathtub at the outside of a hut lost in the middle of nowhere was virtually a luxury.

She submerged her head under the water and thought about the teachers, the classes, her… classmate? Acquaintances? Some of them might have become her friends? It all felt so distant, all her old problems seemed so insignificant now. Louise would have gladly accepted returned to be the 'zero' if that meant going back to Tristain and forgetting about this curse land.

'But… perhaps I could return from time to time. To visit Farengar. And Hadvar. Maybe take a break to visit Alvor and his family if I have time. I'd make the time.'

"Little one!" She heard Anise calling her, "Lunch's ready!"

"I'm coming!" She got out of the tube, dressed up and went to the kitchen.


The food was a meat pie with potatoes, carrots and apples. Louise couldn't recognize which animal had 'contributed' its meat to the dish, but it was fantastic. Anise didn't have cutlery to lend her, so that the noble was devouring her portion with her hands.

"W-uts hitz?" She asked with her mouth full, ignoring everything she knew about etiquette.

"It's chaurus pie." The women answered with her ever-present smile.

"Thitz… ah… delicious!" Louise praised her after having taken a good sip from her glass of goat milk. Indeed she had become accustomed to the taste.

"I'm glad you like it, it is my specialty."

Farengar ate in complete silence, to the noble's irritation who thought that was a blatant lack of education. Although, to tell the truth, she couldn't blame him, it was a big change moving from the succulent dishes prepared for the royal court to the ones prepared by a commoner in her humble home. Louise understood that very well.

After finishing lunch, Anise led them toward a small room.

"Did-did you really washed my armor?"

"Of course I did .It took me some time, but with a brush and some effort I managed to clean all the blood."

"Thank you very much." Louise said happily before heading to a corner where Anise had been keeping her things. Everything was there! Her armor, her weapons and also the backpack that Hadvar had given her. But, something was missing, "And-and my clothes?"

"I am sorry." The old woman said with a saddened face, "But with all the blood and other… things… I had to burn them."

It was as if a stone had landed in her stomach. Those were her clothes! What right did that hag had to burn them? She… they should… they should have tried to sew them, fix them, anything!

Her face turned red and her eyes began to fill with tears.

"Louise." Farengar stepped forward and gave her a one arm hug.

"I… I… yes. I'm sorry." She answered and cleaned the tears from her face with a handkerchief that Anise was offering her.

"Don't worry," She said, "I understand that clothing's important for a young girl." She searched one of her pockets and pulled off the broach that Louise used to keep her cape in place, "But I kept this, and now I'm giving it back to you."

The noble's face brightened and snatched the piece of jewelry from the hands of the elder.

"Thanks." She said with a sad smile.

"Don't worry about that." Anise grabbed the iron cuirass and gave it to Louise. "You know, this armor reminds me of a bosmer who came to visit me recently."

"Really?" Louise asked wile tightening her armor's various belts and straps around her body.

"Yes. Some nine or ten days ago this young bosmer and his friends came here looking for adventures. I suggested them visiting the nearby ruins to see if they could get any interesting treasure." The woman sighed nostalgically, "I wonder, what would have happened to them?

Louise's face turned pale, immediately recognizing the sad outcome that particular adventure had. But she had to thank the bosmer (whatever that was) for his armor; it had saved her life more than once.

"Well, I think we're done here." Farengar announced breaking the silence.

"You seriously don't want to stay a little bit longer?" The elder asked, "Goodbyes always sadness me."

"I'm sorry ma'am, but we have a duty to fulfill back in Whiterun. I'd like to return as soon as possible." His voice was severe and determinate.

"Oh, but we can spare some minutes, can't we?" Louise asked, not wanting to return to the road so soon.

"No, Louise, we can`t. Besides you must remember that the sooner I finish with my studies, the sooner I'll begin to search for a way to send you home."

"Are-are you serious?" She asked full of hope, "Then we must part immediately!"

"Don't worry about me, little one, but if you ever come to these places remember that you'll have a roof at your disposition." Louise nodded energetically and grabbed her things.

The three said their goodbye at Anise's door. Farengar and Louise headed to the northeast, in direction to Riverwood. At her back, Louise heard the door to the hut closing.

"If we keep this pace it'll take us just couple of hours to get to the village, but if we're lucky we'll get there before nightfall." He explained to his partner.

"We should do something nice for Anise one day!" Louise announced, putting her hands on her waist.

"Where does that come from?" He asked, confused by the girl's student outburst.

"Well, it's the duty of all proper nobles to reward those that serve them well!"

"I doubt she needs our help."

"Oh, but we should do something." She pouted, "I say, she lives so alone, aren't you worried that some bandit or monsters might want to attack her?"

"I doubt that there're any in this area." He answered, "And I pity the one stupid enough to come here."

"What was that?" The noble asked, she hadn't heard the last part.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." Louise simply shrugged and turned to see the hermit's home for one last time.

She hadn't noticed until then, but directly above the door someone had carved the symbols of a star and a moon.


It was ten o'clock at night and Sigrid was finally about to finish her daily chores. Alvor, as usual, was out partying with his friends (probably at the tavern) and Dorthe was in her room, surely playing with her wooden dagger.

"What a girl!" She exclaimed to the air. Her family might be a headache to deal with, but she loved them anyways. Busy thinking about the next day's food, she barely heard the person calling at her door.

*Knock* *Knock*

Leaving her broom resting at a corner, she asked "How is it?"

"Sigrid, it's me, Louise. I am back."

And there was the pain in the ass she had been trying to forget. It seemed that Sigrid had been living a very comfy life, so that the gods had sent her that plague to equilibrate the universe.

"Louise! I wasn't expecting you until a couple more… and who're you?" The women asked after opening the door and finding herself facing to the alleged noble and an unknown man, though his tunic was a dead giveaway of his identity.

"Hi Sigrid, this is Farengar Secret-Fire, the court wizard for Jarl Balgruuf." The girl presented him, "Can I… Can I rest here tonight?" Louise showed her a weak smile and Sigrid raised an eyebrow. That courtesy was new.

"Yes, yes, sure. Come on in, surely I have some food to offer you." The nodded with the head and made her way toward the interior of the house. She then made herself comfortable at the kitchen's table.

"Goodnight." The man greeted her from the entrance.

"Goodnight." She greeted him too offering a hand he quickly shook, "So, are you the girl's boss or something?

"Well, yes, but she's not really my employee, it is… complicated."

"I suppose this isn't some sort of strange relationships, is it?" Sigrid asked, nailing him with her eyes. It wouldn't be the first time she heard some sordid rumor about what happened between mages and their apprentices inside their dark and lonely towers.

"What?" He asked in confusion. It took him a few seconds to understand what the woman was suggesting, "Ah! No, no, I assure you that our relationship's purely professional."

"I hope so. The previous Whiterun's court wizard was caught making his moves on one of his apprentices. The hardest part was cleaning the walls after Balgruuf finished with him." Far from flinch under the woman's gaze, Farengar returned it, deeply offended by the comparison. After a few moments spent in complete silence, she continued, "I suppose you also want to come in?"

"I'm sorry, but no," He said and Sigrid gave thanks for the small miracle, "I have a room reserved at the tavern and I was planning to eat there."

"My husband Alvor must be there, if you found tell him that if he comes home stinking to alcohol again, he's going to have to go and ask Hod for a place to sleep."

"I'll take that into account."

The two parted ways coldly and Sigrid made her way to her pantry. She was convinced there was some salami somewhere. That and some bread would be sufficient to make her guest a sandwich.

Louise had remained quiet throughout the whole exchange, barely paying any attention. After everything that had happened she was finally at peace and just wanted to enjoy the familiar ceiling over her head. Sadly, that wasn't fated to be.

"Louise!" Dorthe, who had come following the noble's voice, shouted and crashed against her friend, hugging her with a strength that shouldn't be possible for such a small child.

"He-hello Dorthe." Louise said trying to hide how much her bruises-covered body still hurt her.

"How're you? How was your adventure? Did you fight bandits? And zombies? And that armor? It's new, isn't it? What happened to the old one?"

"A-a spider ate it." The noble mumbled, completely overwhelmed by the child's energy.

"Ohhh! And what happened?"

The truth was that Louise didn't want to think about the whole affair. She didn't even want to remember it! But after seeing Dorthe's smiling face, filled with a mix of admiration and curiosity, she didn't have any other option but to start telling her story.

"Well, you'll see…"


"'You want more of that?!'" Louise said, jumping on the bed, "The hellish sorcerer charged me, trying to attack me with its deadly claws and its infernal magic, but I was prepared; with quick feet I was keeping my distance, while returning its attacks with my trusty sword." In her right hand she was carrying a spoon she was using to mimic the described movements, "But my enemy was powerful and with the agility of a snake it slipped through my defense and placed a solid punch on my stomach." She filched, faking a grimace of pain. That ended up being a very realistic performance, because the fast movement had actually hurt her, "Fo-fortunately my loyal companion was ready and attacked it from the back, entirely unprepared. Taking advantage of the distraction I elevated a prayer to God and with my sword I cut its legs! Unfortunately the cold steel was not enough to put an end to such a terrible beast, which was now crawling on the floor with its withered arms as the cockroach it was. But, once again, gallant Farengar come to my aid and with a demonstration of his superb magical prowess, he conjured a powerful flare that turned the monster to ashes." Finishing with her story, the noble sit on the bed, "We picked up the tablet and got the hell out of that terrible place."

Her small public (that consisted only in Dorthe) rewarded her with a standing ovation. At some point in the middle of her story, and after finishing her improvised meal, the two girls had retired to Dorthe's room to spend the night for what was going to be third time.

"You are so awesome Louise!"

The small girl sat to the noble's side and placed her head on the older girl's lap. Louise was taken aback with the gesture, many times she had done the same thing with her sister Cattleya, but that was the first time someone used her own legs as pillows. It was a strange sensation, but not an unpleasant one. She put a hand on the child's head and started to caress her hair.

"Weren't you afraid?" A drowsing Dorthe asked her.

"Of course not!" The noble told her with pride while punching her chest, "The Great and Powerful Louise isn't afraid of anything!

"You're *yawn* a hero, Louise!"

"..."

Little Dorthe remained a long time lying on that position, with the noble petting her head. In just a few minutes started the snoozing that indicated she had fallen asleep. Seeing her like that Louise couldn't avoid feeling envious; she was resting so relaxed, without any worries.

'Hero, me? She doesn't know what she's saying. I am just a failure of a mage whose sole merit is having been desperate and lucky enough to survive all that.'

The noble gave a sigh of sadness, and delicately placed her host's head on the pillow of her bed. The poor girl had fallen asleep with her clothes one. Recalling her first visit, Louise headed to the back of the room where Dorthe had a big leather trunk. She opened it and from its interior she pulled off three blankets. She tossed two on the ground, next to the bed, and the third one she used to cover the younger girl's body. Slowly, she began the arduous process of undressing to go to bed.

She undid the fastenings that kept her breastplate in place and with her hands she examined it carefully. It was bent in some places and completely covered in scrapes. She recognized the origin of several of those; one had been caused by the ax that had almost split her in half, others were from swords and claws. If any of those attacks had been able to go through her armor, if any had hit her armpits, her knees, her neck or any other exposed part…

She shook her head to push away those somber thoughts. She finished with her armor and put it aside, where it couldn't bother anyone. She pulled off her clothes and placed in the same spot.

Her makeshift bed attracted her, Louise wanted to sleep, to close her eyes and let her exhaustion overtake her. But Dorthe had a small mirror on her chest of drawers the temptation was too much. Making use of the dim light of a candle, Louise closed the distance to look at her reflection.

She remained several minutes in front of the mirror, wearing only her underwear. She had promised herself that she was going to get over it, that it was all behind her; but without thinking she started to travel her belly with her fingers. The spider attacking, feeling its fangs penetrating her flesh. Only now she could really assess the severity of the wounds she had suffered and how close had been of death. The face of the undead as they try to catch her. She caressed her shoulders, her arms and her legs. Farengar's body, hurt and bloodied, falling to the ground. They were covered by a collection of small cuts and scratches, several might never leave her. [Her body being hacked to pieces.]

'I was so close to death…'

She gave thanks to God that Dorthe hadn't asked about her hair, she didn't know with what kind of barbarity she would have responded the poor girl.

She soaked two fingers in saliva and with them she pressed the thread of the candle, extinguishing the flame.

She got back to the bed she had prepared for herself and covered her legs with one blanket. She was tired, but her mind kept digressing aimlessly, lost in the sea of possibilities.

If she hadn't accompanied Farengar in his expedition, would the mage have died?

If she had insisted and had travelled to solitude alongside Hadvar, where would she be now?

If she hadn't sneaked into the execution, would she have to come out of Helgen alive?

If she hadn't gone to the Academy, would she have saved herself from all this?

That last one was the most painful.

His mother had been clear: the responsibilities of the nobility are not for those who lack magic; but Louise, obstinate girl she was, had refused to accept the comfortable life that her mother had presented her on a silver platter and had insisted going to the academy, clinging to a childish hope that someone could help her. The rest was history, a history she regretted.

She stretched out her hand and, in the darkness, searched for her backpack. She had left it close to her head. She grabbed it, opened it and examined its content.

Inside was her waterskin, some gold and her diary. She even had a towel there! It couldn't hurt to be prepared. Finally her fingers closed around a small and round objector. She took it out, inspected it under the moonlight that entered through the windows and couldn't avoid being invaded by the melancholy.

I was ridiculous, but she missed her clothes, she missed her Academy uniform, silk cape and her comfortable shoes. Her cape had been torn apart in Helgen and she had lost the rest of her clothes in the barrows; the Academy brooch, with the pentagram of the five elements engraved on its surface, was the only thing she had left to remind her of Tristain. She closed her hands around it and pressed it hard against her chest, thinking about home and family.

She was also thinking about something else.

Why had she lied to Dorthe? No, that wasn't the correct word, Louise hadn't really lied, she had hidden part of the truth. She didn't know what the difference was and she was convinced that it didn't matter that there was one; it was wrong anyways. Then, why had she done that? Had it been to preserve her image? To feel better with herself? She doubted that. Despite everything that she had accomplished, she had the nagging feeling that any half-competent swordsman would have had a better performance.

'Perhaps I should renounce to the nobility and devote myself to the office of mercenary.' She thought bitterly.

Tilting her head, she focused on the sleeping figure of Dorthe. Her story had been short and silly, and as she exaggerated it, detaching it further and further from the truth, Dorthe's smile had grown in a similar fashion.

And there was her answer, she hadn't told that story for herself, but for Dorthe. She wanted to entertain her, to cheer her up. She had realized that watching her smile… felt really nice.

Louise didn't believe that she would ever become one of those big heroes of legend that were immortalized in the annals of history, but she had become Dorthe's heroine. It wasn't much, but all her efforts and all her tears, all her blood… maybe… just maybe…

"Maybe it's worth the pain.' And that was enough.

She put her broach back in her backpack and got comfortable in her bed. The wooden floor was hard and cold, but she had never felt so calm. She closed her eyes with a smile on his face.

That night she didn't have any nightmares.


A/N: There you have it folks! Hope you liked it.

Translation time:

Fin kel lost prodah - The scrolls have foretold

Aan suleyk wah ronit faal krein - A power to rival the sun

Now, an announcement: next week I'm going to the beach (yeah!) so it's extremely unlikely that I'll have time to write, but I have the next chapter mostly outlined so I hope it won't be delayed that much.

And I have two questions for you:

1- Have you figured out what Louise summoned? With that last dream sequence there goes the last hint before I reveal it at the end of USK (two chapters left!)

2- Have you been reading the quotes at the beginning of each chapter? I... just want to know. It's a totally innocent question. Really.

See you next time and remember to review!