Chapter 25: The Tomb of Ysgramor
The funeral pire hadn't been burning for more than ninety seconds, before Katie began to hear footsteps, drawing gradually closer to her, and in almost no time at all, there stood Eorlund Gray-Mane, looking at her in what looked like curiosity. It was clear that he'd heard about what Katie had done; the extent she'd gone to, to save the last member of the Silver Hand, and for a moment, she wondered if he was going to raise the subject. However, when he did finally speak, fortunately, it seemed that he had something else to discuss with her.
"Vilkas gave me the other fragments of Wuuthrad." Eorlund remarked as he got within a yard or so of the place where Katie stood, "I should be able to reforge it soon."
Katie wasn't sure what to say at first, but after a few moments, she replied, "I hope it's worth it."
"Kodlak's life, you mean?" Eorlund asked, looking amazed by the very idea, "Not likely. He was a great man, and well respected among the other Companions. The loss of Kodlak will be a blow to the Companions, which even the reclaiming of Wuuthrad may not be able to mend. Still, we'll have to do what we can with what we have."
Katie just nodded, not even spending a moment contemplating those words.
"These last few months, I get the feeling that Kodlak was after something special; something more than just Wuuthrad." Eorlund noted a bit more quietly, perhaps in the hope that only Katie would hear him, "I'd dearly love to know what it was. Still, if you don't want to tell me, that's alright. Just tell me that he confided in you, and that's all I'll need to hear."
Soon, Katie found herself nodding, and a fresh smile spread across the face of the master smith.
"I'll tell you soon," Katie said after just a moment, "but it might not be safe to reveal it yet."
"Say no more." Eorlund just replied, "You see, I've been looking for someone who... someone who knew Kodlak's heart somewhat. I need someone to go through his things."
"You mean, sort his belongings?" Katie asked, turning to face Eorlund and feeling very surprised by the request, "Wouldn't Vilkas be a better choice?"
"Kodlak never shared his secret plans with Vilkas." Eorlund admitted, however, "He did share them with you. In fact, I don't think it would be going too far to say that he trusted you more than he did any of the others. No, don't argue. I could see it when he watched you training. He saw a potential for greatness in you that Vilkas has never seen; not since the beginning. Who knows? Maybe Vilkas and the others still won't see it. Anyway, as I said when you first came here, no Companion has a right to command any other. If you want to go through Kodlak's things, he and he alone could have stopped you, and I think you'd be the best choice, myself."
However, Katie was already starting to realize what was really going on, and why Eorlund had approached her.
"There's something you're looking for, isn't there?"
"There's a final fragment of Wuuthrad that wasn't found at the hideout of the Silver Hand." Eorlund explained, though his smile broadened as he spoke, "Kodlak once told me he kept one in his quarters, but I could never get in to see it, not being a warrior and all. If I'm going to reforge Wuuthrad back to its original size and strength, I'll need that fragment too. Just bring it back here, and we can see this mission completed, alright?"
Katie was still having a hard time smiling back at Eorlund, but she nodded, and in just a moment, was walking back down the stairs towards Jorrvaskr; actually glad to have an excuse to turn away from the pire for a while.
Katie had, of course, been in Kodlak's room before, so she knew the way, and once itside, it didn't take her long to locate the final fragment of Wuuthrad, which she was able to identify by its shape and color. It was sitting in one of the drawers of an end table, right next to Kodlak's bed, alongside a small, wooden bowl and a book, which Katie left where they were.
Soon, she was back at the Skyforge, and there was Eorlund; all alone, and already working on the pieces that he had as she approached.
"Where did the others go?" Katie asked in a little confusion.
"Just after you left, they made plans to gather in the secret chamber right below here, to finish their grieving." Eorlund replied as Katie handed him the final fragment, "If you want, you can join them."
However, the more Katie thought about it, the more she realized that she didn't want any more of their grieving and mourning. Kodlak's death had made her very unhappy, and seeing his funeral pire had made her even less happy, but she just didn't feel as if she had any obligation to continue being voluntarily sad over what had happened, and she didn't like the cramped tunnels of the underforge.
"No thanks." Katie just replied with a shrug, turning to go, "I'm done mourning."
Katie had spent much of the rest of the day either preparing potions or cooking food. She managed, once again, to gather a number of potions, though it cost her a pretty penny, and made a dinner that night, which none of the other Companions were unsatisfied with, and most couldn't finish. At last, she moved a bit of furniture around in the living space of the Companions, making a single, large bed out of three normal ones, and stretching herself out on it, she drifted off to sleep, for the very first time in Jorrvaskr.
However, she'd only been asleep for less than four hours, when she felt a strong, armor-covered hand shaking her by one shoulder.
Katie got up only slowly and groggily, with a nasty headache and a fog covering her field of vision, though she could have sworn that she'd hadn't drunk nearly enough to give herself a hangover. There, however, was Vilkas, looking very grim.
"Dragonslayer... Wake up. We need to talk."
Slowly, so as not to lose her balance, Katie sat up, looking at Vilkas in confusion. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting from him. Anger? Pride? Remorse? Gratitude? Stubborness? However, he didn't seem to be demonstrating any of those. Even as she watched him, waiting for her head to clear just a little, she could see that he was only maintaining the same grim expression as before. After about ten seconds or so, she replied.
"What do you want to talk about, Vilkas?"
"I've been discussing Kodlak's fate with some of the others." Vilkas explained in just a moment, "We've arrived at an agreement. You see, Kodlak made it pretty clear before he died that he didn't want to die a werewolf."
A fresh sense of sadness swept over Katie when she heard those words.
"Yes, he mentioned that to me, too." Katie replied quickly, "He even had a plan to undo the curse of lycanthropy, but..."
"I'm not surprised." Vilkas noted, sounding just a bit worried as he spoke, "We've finished sorting his things, and he left behind a journal, which... Well, it has some phrases in it that we haven't been able to decypher."
"Like what?"
"For one thing, much of the last couple dozen entries refer to 'clues' as to the location of 'the burning place.' You don't suppose he's talking about an oblivion gate, do you? Was Kodlak planning to bargain with a daedra in exchange for a cure?"
For a moment, Katie wasn't sure what to think of a reference like that. Could it refer to Oblivion? A fire pit or volcano of some kind? Perhaps the Skyforge itself, but she'd never heard Kodlak refer to it as...
All of a sudden, it dawned on Katie what Kodlak must have meant, and with only a moment to think it over, she recalled the rhyme that Kodlak had taught her almost a month before.
"Thus until the day will dawn," Katie recited,
"a day by your immortal will,
when blood and brain of your low pawn,
burns in the place that you have drawn;
the hair and blood of Glenmoril."
"Burns in the place! Of course!" Vilkas exclaimed, looking awstruck as he removed a thick book from a pack that had been hanging from his left hip, and started flipping through the pages, "Yes... Yes, that fits! Kodlak must have been trying to find out the location of the place where the witch's head could be burned. But that means that the mission he sent you on..."
"I was able to recover one witch's head and a skull..." Katie admitted as Vilkas' words faded away in amazement, "There won't be any more, though."
Vilkas swallowed hard a moment later, just staring at Katie as she implied, though not in so many words, that the Glenmoril witches had all met their death at her hands. In another moment, however, though he still looked at her suspiciously, he continued sifting through the pages, and came upon the last relevant entry.
"An old document has surfaced, which seems to suggest that the curse is in some way connected to our group; the Companions, and that therefore, the correct burning place will be connected to our history. Finding it may involve entering the tomb of the founder of the Companions, but this can't be done without Wuuthrad."
"The founder of the Companions?" Katie asked, feeling a little left out, "Who's that?"
"Ysgramor." Vilkas just replied, "I'm surprised you've never heard of him, as he founded not only the Companions, but the first human empire. Before him, mer were always dominant over men, and even killed us to keep us under control. Ysgramor changed all that. He first landed here, and tried to settle on Tamriel in peace, but the mer killed his people and drove him off, so he returned with an army, drove the mer out of Skyrim, and later, he wrote about it."
"I don't know about all that." Katie replied, looking a little suspicious.
"It's a matter of historical record..." Vilkas suggested, but Katie still didn't look convinced.
"Well, think about it. Suppose you were Ysgramor, writing your own biography, about how you'd played a key role in driving the mer out of Skyrim. Don't you think you might have... well... dressed it up a little? Maybe made yourself look better in your book than you really were? Is there any good reason to trust an autobiography like that; especially one written about a legendary, dynamic figure like him?"
At first, Vilkas seemed upset, but after a few moments, as he calmed down and started to think, a puzzled look began to spread across his face.
"Anyway, it doesn't matter." Vilkas said at last, tossing aside the reflections on historical criticism, "All that matters, for our purposes, is that Ysgramor was the founder of the Companions, and that he was a person who really existed. Furthermore, the location of his tomb is public knowledge. It's up north, not more than a day's march from Driftshade Refuge."
"Wow." Katie muttered, a smile creeping back onto her face, "I wish we'd known that before we left, then."
"It wouldn't have done us any good." Vilkas explained, however, "As Kodlak's journal says, we can't even enter Ysgramor's tomb without Wuuthrad, and until now, it's been lost for ages."
"So Eorlund just finished reforging it?"
"That's right. Do you want to join us?"
However, Katie was starting to feel just a little confused as she thought about Vilkas' words.
"Join you in what?"
"Well, obviously a mission to the tomb of Ysgramor. We have to find the 'burning place' that Kodlak spoke of."
"Oh, I see." Katie replied with a pleased, understanding smile, "You mean you don't want to be a werewolf anymore."
However, it was then Vilkas' turn to look a bit puzzled, and soon, he said "You know, I'm not sure. I haven't been giving it much thought. Mainly, I think we should be trying to find some way to save Kodlak's soul. After all, he wanted to spend the afterlife in Sovngarde, but it just can't be done if you're a werewolf, or at least that's how the legends go. If we can somehow find a way to apply the cure to him, it will, I think, be worth the journey."
However, by that point, Katie was feeling very nervous. There was something about what Vilkas was attempting that troubled her deeply.
"Are you... are you sure we should be messing around with the souls of the dead?" Katie asked at last, "I mean, we still know so little about what happens when you die, and for all we know, we might be tampering with something that would put us all in a lot of danger."
"I've been in danger before." Vilkas said with a shrug, but Katie still didn't like it.
"I'll come with you," she said, "just not yet. Give me a day and a half, and I'll be ready to start out on another expedition."
Vilkas nodded, but didn't say another word to her that night, or during the entire next day, leaving the room, and letting her get back to sleep.
As it turned out, however, Katie wasn't ready the next day, or the day after that, and up to the very moment when everything was packed, she was still fiddling with samples of many sorts, which she'd collected from tombs and crypts. Bones, powders, ash, undead flesh, and even ectoplasm all passed across her table, and she examined each, reading her alchemy book in front of them to discover their many, strange uses. However, aside from one recipe, which claimed to be able to resuscitate those who'd died less than three hours before, she didn't find anything on death, or the dead. Katie had been hoping to find at least some information in her book about what happens when people die, but it seemed that the afterlife was rather beyond the scope of even very advanced alchemy.
Finally, after more than a whole day's work, doing her best to research the subject, Katie had discovered that it was time to leave, and had been forced, reluctantly, to give up. Taking her supplies and ingredients with her, she'd joined the rest of the Companions, as well as Lydia, who of course, was joining them, and began the long journey north, but although she continued gathering what ingredients she could on the way, and studying them as best she could while walking, she somehow knew that it wouldn't do any good. She knew that they were about to come face to face with something dangerous; something that none of them really understood, and she'd been hoping that the various ingredients and chemicals that she'd picked up on her travels would allow her to somehow escape from that fact. Still, it was a lost cause, and deep down, she knew it.
All the same, Katie couldn't help but feel that something about what they were about to try was very, very wrong, and that in the end, her main job might well be to save Vilkas from his own mistakes.
The journey took literally days, and was lengthened by the fact that they often found that the trail they were following lead nowhere, or up a mountain pass that was too dangerous or too steep to cross. Still, in the end, they found themselves at yet another recess in the ground; the normal setup of a cairn, and there, Katie and the others entered by the door, which, it seemed, was unlocked.
However, once they got inside, Katie started to see just why Wuuthrad was needed in order to enter. The first chamber contained a single statue; apparently of Ysgramor, on a raised, stone platform right in the center, which had its hands up, as though to hold an axe or hammer, but it was missing the weapon. The entire perimeter of the chamber was solid stone, except for three recesses, which looked a lot like doorways, but stopped abruptly, only a couple of yards in. They were doors leading to stone walls, and not just decorative arches, built to honor the fallen hero. Katie knew as soon as she saw them that at least one of those doors had been meant to lead somewhere.
Quickly, Katie and the other Companions took up positions around the statue of Wuuthrad, and Vilkas began to advance towards it, carrying a huge axe, which, as he'd previously explained to Katie, was Wuuthrad. It was the legendary weapon of the Companions founder, and Katie could already see what he was planning. However, when he was only one step from the statue, Vilkas paused, his look of determination faltering, until at last, he glanced across the chamber at where Katie was. Finally, after a couple of moments, Vilkas spoke, and sadness was falling from his words like a light, barely-perceptible rain.
"Katie, I have something to tell you before I return Wuuthrad to its rightful place. I've been thinking about this, and about what we did at Driftshade Refuge..."
"You were right when you said that most of us went there for revenge." Vilkas admitted at last, "At least, I know that's why I was there. I don't know if Kodlak would have agreed with you about showing mercy on our enemies, but I know that a craving for revenge had driven to the center of my heart during that mission, and Kodlak would have scolded me for allowing that; perhaps as well as you did. From him, I would have taken the criticism respectfully, but I was angry at you for getting in my way instead. For that, I feel I should apologize. I suppose it proves that I've been treating you with prejudice, though Talos knows, I've been trying not to. You and Kodlak had your differences, but I feel you may be more like him than anyone else here. In a certain sense, it should be you up here, holding Wuuthrad."
For a moment, Katie felt utterly taken aback. Not only was Vilkas apologizing for his actions in the Driftshade Refuge, but he was paying her some of the highest compliments she'd ever imagined receiving from any Companion. However, she didn't expect, or really, wish for it to last, and sure enough, in just another moment, Vilkas continued.
"However, you also rescued someone who's proven that she has both the skill and the desire to slay many of us. Perhaps I was wrong to seek revenge, but you endangered the rest of us by what you did, and that's one rule that no Companion should ever break. I won't try to punish you for it, but I want you to know that it's only because I feel like it would make me a hypocrite. Neither of us, I think, deserves to hold Wuuthrad right now, but someone has to, and it might as well be me."
Katie just nodded. She'd considered the danger that she'd been putting them all in by saving the life of the last Silver Hand member, but she hadn't thought about what would happen if the woman tracked them down, or even tried to kill them all in their sleep, and Vilkas' words had brought those kinds of thoughts into her head. In just a moment, however, while Katie was contemplating dark, future possibilities, she heard the sliding of metal across stone, and a strong clicking noise. Then, she saw that the great axe Wuuthrad had been stuck into its place on the statue, and something was beginning to happen.
She could hear a grinding sound from behind her; the sound of one huge, stone slab being dragged across another, and when she spun around to look, she saw that sure enough, the stone wall behind the doorway across from the tomb's entrance had slid open, revealing a passage beyond.
"Be careful." Vilkas said, drawing his weapon as he advanced towards the passage, but Katie had gotten there first, pressing on down the tunnel before any of the others could. She, of all people, needed no warning about the dangers that tombs contained.
As Katie and the Companions proceeded down the tunnels, over and over again, they found themselves under attack by ghostly figures, who, nonetheless, reacted like real, physical warriors when struck with a spear or sword. They were certainly very different from any ghosts, or even wraiths, that Katie had heard about in stories, and they were much different from any of the enemies she'd ever seen in person. Worse yet, they were very skilled and powerful, dealing heavy damage when they hit, and Katie found that she had to keep her guard up carefully when fighting them. In fact, it was almost like fighting stronger versions of the Companions themselves.
"They fight like you." Katie noted aloud, after the Companions had just succeeded in dissipating another group of ghostly warriors, but Vilkas had a reply ready.
"They should. These visions must be the spirits of long dead Companions. If so, they surely recognize that we're Companions as well."
"Then why are they attacking us?" Katie asked, feeling confused, "Is it because you're werewolves? I mean, are they just attacking for the same reason the Silver Hand did?"
"I don't think so." Vilkas replied, however, "It's more likely that they just want to test us in battle, to make sure we're worthy to enter Ysgramor's tomb."
"Yeah, but what if they kill us?" Katie asked back.
"Then we weren't worthy." Vilkas explained. However, Katie knew better than to think that was a sufficient answer. Sure, Vilkas had challenged her to a fight once, during her initiation into the Companions, but he hadn't planned to kill her, and she could barely imagine the Companions killing innocent people; even in their transformed states as werewolves. Something, she reasoned, must have changed in the minds of those long-dead, ghostly Companions, to make them attack with such ruthlessness and abandon. Once again, therefore, Katie found herself contemplating the subject of what happened to people after they died, and why the dead buried in tombs like that one seemed so restless in, at best, one case out of five.
What was really beginning to bother Katie, however, as she fought her way through the tunnels under Ysgramor's statue was the way the ghostly figures kept reacting, and the kinds of words that she could hear them saying as they rushed to attack. There was no sense of honor in those hollow-sounding voices; only an empty contempt for life, man, and all things mortal. They mocked the companions as they fought, taunting them that no living creature could escape death, and that they'd seen the face of eternity. The other Companions seemed mainly untroubled by those words, focusing on their struggle to survive against such powerful enemies, but to Katie, the words were puzzling, and they set her mind racing; trying to figure out just what was going on.
More and more, Katie thought about the actions of those ghosts, and realized that they didn't add up with what Vilkas had warned them against. Indeed, the undead in general seemed to act very differently from how Katie would expect a reanimated dead body to react. If, after all, it were the same as the person who'd died, they should still have intelligence, and some of the undead demonstrated that by donning armor and weapons, and using them, in some cases, rather well. Yet, they never seemed to act like the same person who'd died in any other way. Even if they weren't the same person on the inside, though, Katie would have expected them to have at least a basic, animal understanding of self-preservation, and shy away from armed warriors too strong for them. Yet, the undead rarely demonstrated such sense.
It was almost, Katie thought, as though the undead were moved by some entity, which was neither animal nor mortal; some being who commanded them, and organized them for the purpose of causing harm and confusion to mortal man. Yet, was it a daedra? That seemed impossible, since the daedra, according to popular lore, couldn't really control things in the mortal world directly, without entering it first, and whenever a daedra entered the mortal world, it was obvious, just as it had been with Mehrunes Dagon hundreds of years before.
The thought made Katie swallow, because she was starting to suspect that either one of the daedra was making inroads into their world in secret, or else they had something to worry about which was even more powerful.
It was a long, hard struggle to get through the tunnels and reach the final chamber of the Tomb of Ysgramor, but at last, Katie emerged into a large chamber with a strange-looking fire in the center. The fire was blue, and sitting in a raised basin, surrounded by a blue, stone pillar in the center of the room. The far side of the chamber had a big door, flanked by two extinguished torches, and on the opposite side of the blue fire, standing in the middle of the room, there was one more ghostly, transparent figure, holding its hands out for the blue flame.
"Kodlak!" Vilkas exclaimed, pushing his way around Katie, to get to the apparition first, "Is it really you?"
Katie took a few steps forward as well. She was having a hard time making out a face, but the contours of the figure were certainly those of Kodlak. Soon, she was standing before him, along with Vilkas, with the other Companions following close behind.
"In a way," Kodlak replied in a ghostly voice, however, "though I feel no more than half here. All of the heads of the Companions are here. If you'd known more of them in life, you would see them here too. However, they came here for a different reason than I did. You see, I'm now fully convinced that this is the burning place."
"It is?" Vilkas asked, "You mean, if the witch's head is burned in this place, we won't be werewolves anymore?"
"That I'm not sure of." Kodlak replied, however, "Some of you won't be, but whether the countercurse would effect all the werewolves created by Glenmoril's spell, or only the ones here in this chamber when it takes effect, I have no way to tell. I'm also not sure whether it would effect a person who's already dead. If it doesn't, I'll have no escape from Hircine. I've been hiding from him in here for a while, but I can't keep it up forever. If there's even a chance for my soul to be freed to Sovngarde, it will be in this chamber."
"Are you saying that you think we might be able to remove your curse with the countercurse, even though you're dead already?" Vilkas asked in amazement, "It would ease my conscience if I thought that was possible."
"I don't know whether it is or it isn't." Kodlak admitted, "Still, it's the only chance I have left. If this doesn't work, nothing will."
As soon as he heard that, Vilkas turned to face Katie with a smile, gesturing in the direction of the fire. Katie knew what she was being asked to do. Swiftly, she reached into her pack, and drew out the old, withered head of Dassan; the glenmoril witch, unwrapping it and holding it by the hair. Soon, she'd held it in the air near the blue fire, which seemed to almost rise up in an attempt to seize the head, but as she put her spear away, Katie's wrist brushed against the hilt of her black sword, and suddenly, for just a fraction of a second, she felt strong doubts fill her mind.
Katie wasn't quite sure what happened just then, but she was suddenly sure that she had to seize her sword again. It was strange, because there weren't any enemies around, and yet, her mind was all in forgetfulness and confusion, just as it had been in Bleak Falls Barrow, when she'd grasped the sword for the first time. Just as before, she seized the sword's hilt in her hand, and just as before, the feeling of disorientation and distraction faded, and Katie felt her mind clearing, and her vague doubts becoming clear doubts, then a coherent realization, and finally, a firm conviction that something wasn't right.
"No." Katie said at last, pulling the head back from the flames, which seemed to make some attempt to pursue it for a moment, as though they were alive, "No, I'm not going to make it that easy for you."
"Katie?" Vilkas asked, looking partly confused, and partly angry with her again, "What do you think you're doing?"
"I should be the one asking questions right now," Katie replied, however, her expression darkening as she spoke, "and until I do, he's getting no help from me at all."
Beyond the mods addendum; Things you can't do in-game
1. Eorlund Gray-Mane is more perceptive, and his confidential talk with Katie is more personal than in the game. Also, the mission that Kodlak sent Katie on has far more significance in this story, in terms of her relationship to the elder of the Companions.
2. In Skyrim, if you don't go into the Underforge after retrieving the last fragment of Wuuthrad, the quest won't continue. Also, the other Companions know a lot more about the werewolf cure plans than Kodlak's secrecy implies.
3. You can't cook food for others in Skyrim, in general.
4. You can't move beds around in Skyrim.
5. If you fall asleep in Jorrvaskr at this point, Vilkas doesn't wake you up, nor does he consult you about Kodlak's plans. You just go to the underforge, hear them talking about what Kodlak wanted, then Eorlund marches in with Wuuthrad, and "it's off to Ysgramor's tomb!" The whole thing happens much too fast, and with too little deliberation and dialogue.
6. Vilkas doesn't explain as much about Ysgramor in the game; at least not at this point, and Katie doesn't give him a lesson in historical criticism on the subject of this nord legend.
7. Death is handled -very- differently in this story than in Skyrim. Katie's worried about tampering with the dead, and she's right to be worried.
8. Vilkas' words to Katie are very different than in Skyrim, though in both, he expresses misgivings over having been so driven by revenge.
9. In Skyrim, it's the main character, not Vilkas, who returns Wuuthrad.
10. Katie's concerns about the undead are sensible and well-founded. However, in Skyrim, that's just kind of how the undead are.
11. In Skyrim, you just put the head in the fire and that's that. Not in this story.