Power and Control: Falkreath pt. 4
Lydia looked at the exit door to the mine.
Freedom lay beyond...but at what price. She knew there were at least three sentries from what she'd seen earlier.
If she bolted now, she'd have to hope to outrun their shots, for she surely couldn't fight all of them with just a dagger. Even fully armed, it would be a tall task. Even if she did outrun the sentries, she would be far too easy for them to track down in the snow.
What other options did she have, though? Someone was bound to notice she wasn't tied to the pillar sooner or later, and despite cleaning up the area and stashing Torkild's body behind the crates, the stench would soon alert the occupants that something was wrong.
Weighing her options, she suddenly grew aware of voices closing on the door from the other side.
Rapidly turning, she scooted quickly back down the passage and back behind the crates in the alcove.
She heard arguing echo down from the passage as the door opened.
"Take the rest and keep searching. I'll show this to the Champion"
"It's getting late"
"It's not even dinner time yet. There's still plenty of light for you sots to search. Finding a body's not THAT hard, is it?"
"What if he fell in the river?"
"Then search it! Honestly, ever since winter arrived, you bunch have turned into such milk drinkers. Have to have someone hold your hand to do anything!" exclaimed the demanding voice before shutting the door on the other's protests.
Lydia held her breath in apprehension, as the lone bandit entering the mine strode by quickly, apparently oblivious to Lydia's absence by the post.
Her heart fell, though, as she saw him carrying Arn's tattered belt, along with the sheath containing Dawnbreaker, his other ebony longsword that he'd never given a name to, and his enchanted shield.
NO! It couldn't be!
In a vengeful impulse, Lydia suddenly realized she'd catapulted herself from behind the crates, dagger in hand, and was rapidly closing on the bandit carrying Arn's things from behind.
She was vaguely aware of passing a door on her right as she neared the lone bandit, who was approaching another door further down.
Hesitating for a moment, Lydia lurched back toward the bandit again when she realized he was almost at the door and that it might be the best opportunity she had to arm herself with something better than just a dagger.
She had to hurry to get to him before he made the door, but in her haste, she scuffed the ground with one of her boots, which caused the bandit to turn his head and spot her.
Lydia lunged, desperate to stop him before he could cry out.
Fortunately for her, the man had his arms full, and had no time to defend himself, but unfortunately for her, he managed to get out a half yelp before she sloppily buried her dagger in his neck.
Because it was a sloppy strike, the two floundered against each other awkwardly for a moment before Lydia pushed him back against the door, intent on trying to finish him off as he continued to gurgle and hiss out his final breaths, half dropping the weapons in his arms before Lydia pinned them between their bodies.
As the man's spasms began to subside, clawing more slowly at Lydia and the dagger in his neck, Lydia became aware of voices back and off to her right from behind the doorway she'd rushed past.
"What was that?"
"Quiet...I have watch tonight"
"Sounded like someone trying to holler out"
"Wait! Where's Torkild?"
"Out searching...with everyone else. Now, can I get some sleep or are you going to cover my watch tonight?"
"I didn't see him out there earlier"
"He's probably bribing the Champion into letting him have that Dragonborn's wench"
"That's a waste of money. The last few we just had our fun with once we'd taken them down to the river to finish them off. One of them even offered herself if we let her go."
"Yeah, well Torkild's not one for waiting"
"For the last time, quiet down or get out. If I have to suffer through any more noise, the Champion will hear about you lot shirking your posts"
Lydia cringed in despair as she heard footsteps thump closer to the other door. She had to get out of there, and also find some way to hide the body she was still mashed against.
Fumbling for a moment, she reached past the stilled body of the bandit she leaned against and unlatched the door, falling through it in a heap before scurrying back to close it before the other door in the passage opened with the sounds of several bandits walking out.
As the sounds faded toward the mine entrance through the door, Lydia realized she'd been holding her breath.
Only as she reached down to get Dawnbreaker and Arn's shield did she look around to see where she'd stumbled into.
A large cavern stretched out further down, with a large flat area filled with tables, charts, ingredients, and all manner of other things spread across them.
The area was lit by torches, but thankfully, Lydia saw no one sign of anyone present.
Hurrying to stash the bandit's body behind a pile of old shaft supports, she puzzled for a bit over the new weapons she possessed.
Arn's belt was broken and mangled and Lydia's was gone. Without sheaths, she wasn't sure how to keep both blades with her unless she carried them in her arms, or brandished them both and left the shield uselessly on her back.
As she was pondering this dilemma, she suddenly tensed as the sound of voices echoed faintly from the back of the vast chamber.
Deciding quickly, she readied Dawnbreaker and Arn's enchanted shield before sneaking further toward the back of the chamber.
Moving closer, she finally spotted two men at the back, one hunched over a table while the other stood next to him, remonstrating.
It only took Lydia a moment to recognize Sinding's voice as the one remonstrating over something. She didn't know who the other was, but he was a well built Dunmer with some sort of custom or enchanted ebony armor on.
Creeping closer, she began to pick out their conversation.
"Enough pestering Sinding, I have things to do..."
"Please, I already asked Feorus and your group has the most territory. Surely you've seen the White Stag..."
"I agreed to help you if you provided us decent enough coin or something interesting to leverage against Siddgeir. You have provided neither"
"I had to do what I did. You didn't see what he could do!"
"You think we can't handle ourselves? We've so far kept ourselves off the Empire's chopping block well enough. Why worry over one fighter?"
"Come now, you'll find the body soon enough! The wench should be worth something, and her armor should fetch something good in Rorikstead or Markarth"
At that point, the aggravated Dunmer turned on Sinding with mounting anger.
"The wench is useless except as a diversion to sate some of the men's baser insticts. The road to Markarth is now fouled by Forsworn attacks, and the people in Rorikstead begin to grow suspicious of us when we sell things there. Again, you've given me nothing!"
"Just tell me where you've seen it. Please, then I will leave you in peace"
"You plan not to leave me in peace if I don't?!"
Sinding seemed to shake his head in confusion, backing away from the Dunmer.
"Please, Champion, do not raise your voice at me!"
"No need to act pretentious. I know what you are...and I know why you want to find the White Stag so badly" sneered the Champion as he turned and snatched a flask of something off the nearby table.
"Stop...just stop" Sinding waved at him wildly while slowly backing away.
"Afraid of a little silver powder are we?" sneered the Champion.
"Y-you don't know what you're doing" Sinding retorted, continuing to shrink away.
"I know exactly what I'm doing, and if you'd leave me alone, I could get back to my own creations!"
"You can be free of my questions and my presence if you'd just tell me where you've seen the White St-" Sinding was about to mournfully finish before the Champion whirled abruptly and raised his hand to silence Sinding.
Lydia didn't think she'd made any noise, but she'd been so focused on the conversation that she wasn't sure.
"We're not alone" hissed the Champion before turning and crouching into a sneaking stance.
What followed next surprised Lydia even more. The Champion seemed to turn nearly invisible as soon as he began sneaking, looking like little more than a greyish black haze against the cavern walls and very soon, Lydia lost track of him in the flickering torch light.
She briefly considered heading back towards the door, but...that's probably what they would expect an intruder to do.
Without being able to see him, this 'Champion' would surely get the drop on her, ending any fight before it could start.
Deciding to force the issue, Lydia instead went after Sinding, who was still standing by the back table, looking around out into the area.
Sneaking for a short way, Lydia emerged from behind a mining pillar and closed on the surprised Sinding.
To Lydia's surprise, Sinding fled.
"NO! Get away!" he exclaimed as he hopped and dove one way and then another to dodge the arcs of her blade swings.
This continued only for a few moves before Lydia connected with a satisfying slice across the back of his left leg.
"Fools! Both of you get away from there!" interrupted the Champion as Lydia turned just in time to see him appear clearly leaping over a nearby table on a beeline straight toward her.
Turning to engage the Champion, Lydia quickly felt she was overmatched.
He seemed to produce an ebony shield and Longsword instantly and wielded them with such speed and force she was barely able to block his attacks, much less counter them.
She spent a few moves getting backed up before sidestepping just when the Champion sensed the chance for a killing blow. His over committing to a broad slice at her neck area gave her a chance to slice at his shield wielding arm, gashing a small wound near his arm pit, but nothing serious.
"Both of you...STOP!" Sinding was crying from off to the other side, as though the violence pained him for some reason.
Both of them ignored him, clashing blades and shields again.
"So...lass...you have some skill" he tried to banter as they clashed before separating and circling each other again.
Lydia was growing desperate. She couldn't keep this up forever. Eventually, Sinding would get involved in some way, or at least call the others in. Not to mention, the longer she fought him, the weaker she felt for some odd reason.
Backing away from the Champion to the back table, she fumbled briefly before grabbing what she thought had been the same flask the Champion had waved at Sinding earlier.
"NO!" he yelled as Lydia hurled it at him.
It had an even greater effect than she'd hoped for.
Instead of a smoky explosion of silvery gray against his shield, there was a bright blue explosion of powder along with crackling energy to it as the Champion flailed wildly.
Not taking any chances, Lydia stepped to one side, deflected the wild swing from the Champion and sliced across the side of the bewildered Champion's head, gashing it open and sending him pitching sideways as he clawed to hold his wound, yelling in pain.
Mercifully, Lydia made a clean kill of it by taking his head off once he hit the ground.
Turning back to one side, she fully expected Sinding to have armed himself or to be fleeing the cavern to warn the others, but instead she saw him writhing on the ground, seeming to froth and groan at the mouth.
Unsure what to make of this, she turned and hurriedly looked over the ingredients on the table before finding the flask of silver powder.
She turned back just in time to see Sinding's legs and arms sprouting out longer and hair growing out all over his body as his torso and head grew larger.
In a matter of seconds, she was staring at a large, brown haired Werewolf.
Howling loudly, it immediately turned on her, preparing to pounce until she popped it in the face with the flask of silver powder.
The POOF of silvery gray air sent it flailing back, swiping at the air like a bear that's gotten stung by too many bees.
It howled again before turning and bolting across the cavern and crashing through the door, leaving Lydia breathing a sigh of relief, but only briefly as she heard voices cry out in alarm at all the noise.
Glancing around quickly, she grabbed what appeared to be two healing potions from the table, a pile of writings that might show what this 'Champion' had been up to, and quickly acquired the Champion's belt so she could carry a sheath.
There were many other things worth grabbing: phials, potions, books, armors, weapons, and even a few chests laden with valuables, but Lydia knew her time was short.
She had planned to just go, but it occurred to her that if she found Arn, he would be weaponless. She wasn't much of a housecarl if she rushed to find him, then left him defenseless or left herself defenseless to protect him.
Considering her options, and the fact that she could still hear cries and Werewolf growls from outside, she decided to take some time and fully prepare before emerging.
As a precaution, she quenched all the torches that were near the back of the cavern, ensuring she worked in the light cast from the torches by the entrance to the cavern and also allowing herself the luxury of seeing anyone entering before they got a good chance to see her.
After getting Arn's old longsword in its sheath on her belt, she made sure to take all the parchment writings and anything that looked like a journal and pack it in a small satchel.
She thought she was about ready to go when she noticed something odd. The custom ebony armor that the Dunmer Champion had worn had changed somehow.
Looking more closely, she could sense a faint green glow from it, and noticed that it had actually changed in size. When she'd fought the Dunmer Champion, it looked to have fitted him snuggly, like a glove.
Now, it sat loosely on the corpse, as if prepared to remove.
She recalled stories of Daedric armor that magically changed to suit whoever wore it. If it did fit her...and she could wield the near invisibility she'd seen the Dunmer use, it might ensure her escape a lot easier than any weapon might.
Biting her lip with worry, she quickly moved to the Dunmer corpse and easily extracted the armor from it.
To her delight, when she put on the gauntlets to test them out, she felt them slowly shrink some to fit her snugly.
Unable to suppress a grin of excitement, she quickly removed them again before starting to unlatch her own armor.
Her excitement quickly died, though, when she heard the sloughing noise of a footstep from someone trying to sneak back behind her.
She had only just gotten most of her own armor off and was in little more than her leathers when she spun to see a dark shape move around a table, turning to see her at the same time.
"It's the wench!" hissed one of the bandits in surprise before charging her.
Rapidly reaching down to grab Dawnbreaker and Arn's shield, Lydia sidestepped around the side of a table to avoid the charging bandit, knowing if he hollered out, there must be at least one more of them nearby.
"Leave the wench! Just find the gold and let's get out of here!" came the holler from across the room.
With Lydia's attention on the armor changing, she'd failed to hear or see the bandits sneaking into the chamber.
"The Champion's dead. We're in charge now. No need to run anywhere!" came another voice.
Lydia went on the offensive.
Feinting in with a high, arcing slice across the bandit's left shoulder, she veered away and back in again to bypass his block with his own sword and made him pay for not using a shield with a slice across the right side of his neck before bashing his sword away to his left and running him through to finish him.
She knew others were near, but the next attack nearly ended her.
Even as she was running the bandit through, she heard the faint huff of someone heaving a heavy weapon through the air nearby.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the rising outline of a bandit swinging either a Greatsword or a large Battle Axe at her head.
She was moving back and away from the slain bandit and had no torque to pivot and block with.
So all she could do was duck back and away before swinging Dawnbreaker back up and around to block.
A split second later and she might have lost her head. Still, the tip of the Bandit's Greatsword cut a nasty gash along the top of her forehead and down the right side of her head. For a split second, Lydia thought she had failed and was done for, but despite the stinging slice, she was still on her feet, flailing away from him and still had her weapons.
Gaining her footing, she was ready for the next blow, but was quickly aware that the gash on her head was bleeding a lot and would soon obscure her vision in one eye if unattended as it dribbled down the side of her face.
Trading a few blows, Lydia got a sense of the bandit's timing on his greatsword attacks before trying something she'd seen a fellow guardsman try once.
She never got the chance, though, as she was so focused on the bandit with the greatsword, she didn't sense the other one creep up behind her until large arms closed around her, pinning her arms to her side and shaking her violently from side to side, trying to get her to drop Dawnbreaker.
"Gotcha" he grunted in her ear as she grunted and kicked, trying to get Dawnbreaker into position to poke or slice his arm, but instead he smashed her hand against a table repeatedly until it fell to the floor.
"I call first since it was my idea to come back here" came another voice off to one side, distracting the Greatsword wielding bandit, who clearly didn't like that idea.
Struggle as she might, Lydia knew she wouldn't make headway using what she was currently doing. She froze for a second, realizing the bandit behind her was only in leathers as well.
Probably was sleeping when all the trouble started.
Waiting for him to slacken just to readjust his grip, she struck when he tried to shift his hold.
Pushing back down behind her and between them, she grabbed his manly parts and gave them a good twist and pull.
Instictively, the bandit let go of her to hold his crotch, giving Lydia time to grab Dawnbreaker up off the floor and roll forward past the swinging Great sword of other, coming to crouched stop between his legs before stabbing Dawnbreaker straight up into his groin from below.
The scream of pain he let out was unlike anything Lydia had ever heard, and startled everyone in the chamber as she ripped Dawnbreaker back out before rising and finishing him off with an arterial slice to the right side of his neck.
"I'll...rut...you... in...the.." the grabby bandit tried to threaten her, still holding his crotch before she charged him and he fled.
At least, he fled until two more of his compatriots showed themselves.
Lydia had hoped that Sinding in his Werewolf form would have killed most of them, but that was either not the case or there were simply more of them than she had guessed.
Pausing as she was confronted by two other bandits, one wielding a longsword, the other aiming a crossbow at her, and the crotch wounded one pulling a battle axe from off a table.
"Leave, or I'll kill you all" she glowered, channeling all her frustration into a growled threat.
"We're not going anywhere!" sneered the crotch wounded one, but the other two didn't seem quite so confident. In fact, the Crossbow bandit was visibly leaning away and glancing nervously at the bodies behind Lydia that were visible.
"M-maybe we should just go" he muttered.
Lydia knew she couldn't wait. The longer she did, the less they would be shocked by anything she did, and the more likely they would get reinforcements or pluck up their courage.
"I warned you" she sneered before closing on them with deliberate strides.
The two in the front were slowly inching back until Lydia charged, prompting the Crossbow bandit to fire.
Glancing off her shield, it apparently dismayed them enough to force the two to turn around and flee out the cavern, leaving just the crotch wounded one to attack Lydia with a hefty diagonal slash.
Unsure how the shield would hold up against a full on blow from the Battle Axe, Lydia avoided his swings the first few times, staying out of reach.
It gave her a chance to note the bandit's stunted movement due to his likely crotch pain.
Measuring his movements as they got closer, she took the next time he swung as the moment to strike, parrying his axe blade wide with her shield while bringing Dawnbreaker around and on the top of his left hand, slicing it nearly to the bone.
Unfortunately for Lydia, she had pivoted too far, and the Axe blade strike had been heavy enough to just slide off her shield and caught her shield holding arm on the back of her upper arm, sinking into flesh down to the bone.
Both combatants cried out in pain, but Lydia had the advantage of a one handed weapon...and a greater zeal for vengeance.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed the Axe out away from her and let it drop to the floor, along with the shield she could no longer hold onto before running the surprised bandit through the heart with Dawnbreaker in her right hand.
Quickly drinking one of the health potions and dribbling the other over the deep gash in her arm, she looked around the room at the bodies.
Her face was half covered in blood and the gash on her head still oozed more blood. She couldn't lift her left arm and the wound would take a lot longer to heal, potions notwithstanding.
Still, she was alive, and victorious. Outnumbered and with no armor, she had triumphed.
Slowly, a smile crept onto her lips as she looked around.
Arn wasn't the only one who could fight his way out of a scrape.
The thought of Arn, and the odds of seeing him again wiped the smile off her face.
Quickly, she went back to patching herself up as best she could before, armoring up, and setting out.
With a hobbled arm, it took a lot longer to get her new armor on, but when she did, it made her feel nigh impenetrable.
Grimacing to get Arn's shield situated on her back, she slowly set off up the passage, stopping occasionally as a precaution in case there were any bandits left alive nearby.
There was carnage outside. Lydia had been right about there being more than three sentries, or maybe their search party had come back.
Either way, there were bodies or body parts belonging to six more bandits spread in bloody swaths around the mashed down snow of the camp by the barricade.
One thing was for sure, Sinding had laid into them viciously and the ones who weren't killed had fled.
She found Sinding's bloody tracks leading off down the winding path.
Following them down, she found many sets of tracks going every which way.
Remembering their reference to a river and hearing the splash of a waterfall close by, Lydia carefully moved through the brush and trees to the base of the mountainside.
It was slow going. Her wounds were hampering her, she didn't know the terrain, she had to watch for any other bandits still prowling the area, and light was fading into dusk.
Finally reaching where the waterfall sprouted out of the mountainside down into a pool before winding its way through the snowy countryside further, she sat down and looked back up toward Knifepoint Ridge.
She had been the one to best see where Arn fell...besides Sinding that is.
There was a tall, broad based pine tree near the river's edge.
Looking up, she could see where branches had been broken off either completely or left dangling after something had fallen into them.
It had to be Arn. It had to be.
Following the trajectory of broken branches down brought her gaze back to the waterfall pool and the river running away into the wilds.
She spent the next day and a half slowly tracing the river, looking for any sign of Arn. She only stopped to drink water occasionally, even spending the night searching with a torch.
By now, she wasn't worried as much about bandits. The farther she'd gotten away from Knifepoint Ridge, the less tracks there were.
A day's distance out, she ceased to see any tracks at all.
Still, there was no sign of Arn anywhere.
It was starting to get to her. Her resolve wasn't fading, but the nagging "What if" questions kept popping into her mind more frequently.
Her injuries didn't help matters either. Occasionally, her head wound kept coming open, seeping blood down the side of her head inside her newfound helmet, and her left arm was still useless for little more than pushing small branches aside.
After almost two days of this, with exhaustion seeping in, she sat in a heap by the river, wondering how much further she could go without taking some time to sleep.
She could still see vividly in her mind, the moment when he fell off the edge at Knifepoint Ridge...with her crying out his name and failing to catch him, failing to do anything to help.
She sighed with emotion, eyeing her surroundings again, and refusing to give way to doubts when the most incredible thing happened.
She heard a loud sound in the distance, but it wasn't just any sound.
It was a Thuum Shout.
She could tell. She'd heard Arn shout dozens of times now. It had to be him!
Buoyed by the sound of hope, she got up and limped forward, wading through the ice cold river waters and trudging straight toward the sound of the Dragonborn.
Author's notes:
1. Since it doesn't make any sense for a Daedra's custom armor set to look exactly like something mortals would make, the Champion's armor in this case should look more like "Boethiah's Ritual Armor" from Nexxus Mods instead of the Ebony armor in the game. The only beef I have with it is the headpiece makes it seem like your peripheral vision is blocked on one side completely, but I don't think it matters for the sake of my story. In this fic, it just doesn't :)
2. I think I've pointed it out before, but I'll say it now anyways. Narratively, the magic, shouts, and skill increases don't function in this story like the game. You can't really use game mechanics and have it make a whole lot of sense beyond a basic template for how the 'world will work'. Shouts and magic I have deliberately left unexplained since no one really knows about Dragonborns and Arn isn't a mage/hasn't been to Winterhold yet. When Arn learns about them, you'll learn about them.
