Chapter 33: Mara's blessings - part 4

[6th – 17th of Sun's Dawn 4E 202]

During breakfast in the next morning Jordis spread out the map and illustrated where we would have to go to in order to complete our current task, before hopefully returning to Riften for Lydia's and Inigo's wedding. 'Gjukar´s Monument', our target, was not far from Rorikstead, and thus we needed to walk westward for quite some time. Passing the Western Watchtower we greeted the few guards manning it, and we also took our time to again collect some mountain flowers and other plants while merrily walking; I firmly believed that one could never have too many ingredients for a healing potion. Once again we sneaked past Fort Greymoor and followed the road in southwesterly direction, just to cut cross country soon, heading directly west.

A couple of hours later we got close to the monument and soon encountered a ghost, apparently that of a woman. When she noticed us, she started to talk: "I'm Ruki, and I am searching for my Fenrig. He was marching with Gjukar's men, who they say were wiped out here. I've turned over every body, though, and I can't find him. Please help me look. He has a bright red beard and hair."

We were confused as we had not seen any bodies around and told her so. She just responded: "He must be here somewhere…".

After some more searching in the monument's vicinity, we split up to cover a larger area, and a couple of hours later I finally found another ghost quite some distance to the northeast. When I greeted him he looked somewhat worried and told me: "We're expected to fight there tomorrow. Gjukar elected to camp here for the night. I don't like it, though. Ruki – do you know where she is?"

When I confirmed that I did indeed know her location, he stated: "If she's come this far from home, it must be important. Lead on. I just need to report back to camp by sunrise."

Quickly I guided him towards the monument, and soon the two ghosts noticed each other.

"Fenrig! You're alive!"

"Of course I am. What brings you here?"

"I had heard that Gjukar's men were wiped out. I came to find you."

"But that battle isn't expected until tomorrow... Ruki, what's going on?"

"I'm so confused. What's happening?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm here. We're together now. And we will be forever."

Finally we could watch as the two ghosts flew up into the sky together, hopefully to spend eternity there, and it looked like this task was now completed. My wife and I hugged each other, being happy and relieved to see the two together again, although we weren't sure to what extent that would actually be an issue for ghosts. With all of the searching, the day was almost over, and thus we decided to camp right here with Pammy guarding us. T'mara and I were of course curious if there were any further tasks waiting for us in Riften, but we'd have to wait and see.

A few days later we arrived in Riften again, and we soon found Lydia and Inigo. Their wedding preparations were done, and the ceremony was tentatively planned for day after tomorrow. We also looked for M'lissa, but learned that she was out and had been for some time. Iona and Jordis went with Lydia and Inigo to help with final preparations, while T'mara and I went to the Temple of Mara to report on our success. The priestess, Dinya Balu, was happy to hear about our work: "Mara is really pleased about the work you did for her, and so am I. You have proven to be worthy of her blessing, and as a final favor I would like you to spread her word further in the city of Riften by distributing her pamphlets among the citizen." With that she handed us a stack of those pamphlets, which we took and took our leave. My pretty wife and I had a quick look at one of the pamphlets, and the missive started like this: "Rejoice, Reader… For Mara's Light Shines Upon YOU!" Reading the whole text we agreed that we should indeed distribute the pamphlets, and the upcoming wedding would be a good opportunity to do so.

As we had one day off prior to the wedding, my wife and I decided to visit Castle Dawnguard for one day. Our hike there was only interrupted by a minor dragon, whom we quickly dispatched; T'mara was happy to catch another dragon soul and mentioned that we should eventually look for more word walls, so that she could expand her knowledge of Shouts.

Sorine Jurard was delighted to heard about Calcelmo's interest in the Dwemer weapons: "Maybe he can help us to find further hints towards improving the bolts and crossbows. Please make sure to talk to him about that when you see him again!" Further she added: "By the way, have you seen our trained huskies yet? The Vigilants of Stendarr have used them as help to fight vampires for some years, and we have started to take over. I believe that you might be eligible to taking one, if you want."

T'mara looked at me and urged me to have a look. We quickly found a group of them in a kennel, and one whose name was Bran seemed to like T'mara a lot; his big eyes seemed to beg her to select him. My wife was indeed somewhat enchanted by seeing him. After some licking and petting she looked up at me and begged: "Timotheus, please, can we take Bran with us? He is soooo cute..."

I smiled and did not hesitate to agree: "Sure we can, once we have asked permission. I do like dogs, too, and Bran seems to be really nice. I am sure that we will get along quite well, and I am looking forward to have him as our companion. We need to find out if he can tolerate my familiar, Pammy, though."

In order to find out quickly, we guided Bran out for a quick walk, and I conjured Pammy. They sniffed at each other, and it certainly looked like they were getting along well, as they quickly ran around in circles and explored the vicinity together. While I left my wife behind to watch them, I went to Isran and asked permission to take Bran with us. He smiled and granted this: "Sure, take him. He is one of our best, and as you get around a lot, he may be a great help once you encounter more vampires." I thanked him and went outside again, to find my wife very happily playing with both Pammy and Bran.

Happy with our visit, we made our way back to Riften to make sure that we got there for the night, as we wanted to be fully rested for the big day tomorrow. All of the 'girls' (T'mara, Iona and Jordis) spent an hour with Lydia before going to bed, to talk about final details, whereas I had a chat with Inigo. Apparently the Khajiit was much less concerned about details than his future wife, and he seemed to be quite happy to have Lydia and the others do most of the planning. I understood this; after all, a wedding in Skyrim was quite common, and there was not really a need to plan too much ahead. However, some ladies apparently thought different. Well, it was not my wedding.

The sun was rising to a clear sky on the next day, and fortunately only few clouds were visible on the early morning sky. T'mara jumped out of our bed quickly and vanished, just telling me that she had to help Lydia to get into her wedding dress. I did not really understand why she was in a hurry, as the wedding was only supposed to start much later in the morning, but that was all right for me. I took my time yawning and stretching, enjoying breakfast, and finally entering Inigo's room to check if he needed any help. He bickered a little about the formal dress he was supposed to wear and said that his normal attire was so much more comfortable, but after all he'd only have to suffer through that for a day.

"But, my friend and thane", Inigo started, "I am glad that you are here. Will you do me the favor and stand by my side in the temple? I could need some moral support, as the girls are sure to bond together, and I am just a little bit afraid that I might feel intimidated!"

I laughed a little bit and answered: "Of course, my dear friend Inigo, I will do that."

Just before the ceremony was supposed to start, Inigo and I walked over to the temple, and Lydia was escorted there as well, flanked of course by Iona and Jordis. I had to admit that Lydia looked gorgeous in her wedding dress. Since I had known her, I had very rarely seen her in a dress or skirt at all, as she almost always preferred her heavy armor, and I knew that she even slept in her armor frequently, at least when traveling. Seeing her clad like this was a special sight, and although Inigo had seen her probably with different or even no clothes before, I could see his eyes almost popping out. On the other hand, Inigo also looked very handsome, and I noticed Lydia blushing a little when looking at him. Naturally, I had to be careful and not look at Lydia to much, if I wanted to avoid getting admonished by my wife, but I was too late for that, as she stepped close to me and whispered:

"Timotheus, don't stare at the bride all of the time!"

I replied, also whispering: "T'mara, she looks gorgeous in that dress, but I am spoken for, and there is only one girl whom I love and who makes my heart sing, and that's you, my dearest! By the way, your dress looks very nice on you!"

T'mara looked up at me and smiled – apparently I had provided the proper answer.

In the temple I stood next to Inigo and T'mara stood next to Lydia while the rites were performed, and half an hour later Lydia and Inigo were a married couple and the party started. Similar to our wedding in Whiterun, almost everybody in the town was invited to take part, and even the Jarl showed up for some time. Most of the Riften guards managed to stop by at least for a few minutes, and the party got a little heated when a dragon also showed itself in the city. Despite the semi-drunk state of lots of people, the guards, T'mara and myself managed to fight it off quickly enough, and when it crashed down just outside of the norther city gate, we killed it, allowing T'mara to absorb the soul as usual. Some of the party guest simply assumed that this was planned interruption; we knew better, but decided not to correct the rumors. Later on, we also found plenty of opportunity to distribute Mara's pamphlets, and many citizens were in a mood to at least have a look.

"I believe that we have done our part to spread Mara's word here in Riften and also in some other places", I told my wife, and she happily agreed.

In the evening, we took our leave from the newlyweds, who were planing to spend one night here and start off to their undisclosed honeymoon location the day after. We agreed to expect them in Winterhold a few weeks later. Although Lydia had initially been not a friend of magic at all, she had spent much time with Inigo and had managed to at least partially overcome her aversion to magic; by now she was at least able to cast a minor flame and sparks spell as well as the lowest level of magelight. Later on, she and Inigo would also spend some time at the college to relax and learn, and we would meet there.

While we waved them off towards their wedding night, T'mara looked up at me with her very special smile and just purred "Dragon soul – you know what that means?" I smiled back at her and responded: "Yes, my dear, I do. Let's hurry up and find the bedroom in Honeyside, and let's also hope that Bran does not get in the way!"

Fortunately, it turned out that Bran preferred to stay outside anyway, as he was trained to patrol during the night; thus he was just fine joining the Riften guards during their nightly vigil. We allowed ourselves to sleep in on the next day and had a late breakfast, and afterwards we picked up Bran again, who had found a quiet corner to get some well earned sleep. As it was about time to embark on our journey to Winterhold, we arranged to take a carriage to Windhelm for early in the next morning for the first part. We spent the remaining day in Riften and got some more supplies. We also talked to Iona and Jordis and ask them to keep our multiple homes in order; they would not join us in Winterhold.

After one more night in Honeyside, we got up early in the morning, collected our belongings, and hopped on the carriage. T'mara looked back as we left and said: "Good bye for now, Riften. We spent some happy time here, but now we are expected somewhere else. I do hope that we can be back at some time in the future!"

The carriage driver could afford to take the direct road towards Windhelm this time, via Fort Greenwall, as the fort had recently been cleared from bandits by Riften guards. Thus, we arrived at Shor's Stone before lunch, and after a short break we proceeded. In the late afternoon we passed the hot springs, and my pretty Khajiit wife suddenly exclaimed and looked at me with big eyes: "Let us get off here and enjoy the springs one more time, pretty please!"

I smiled hearing the way she said this, and I told her that I wouldn't mind that at all. We had the driver stop for a couple of minutes and got off with our packs, to walk in the direction of that special pond we had used a few times before. Bran had not been here before, and he ran around excitedly. After a while he looked up at me in a special way, and I understood that he wanted me to conjure his friend Pammy, which I did – the two of them were now happily chasing each other and having lots of fun.

The sun was already quite low we we arrived at our favorite pond, and although the hot water beckoned, we decided to enjoy this on the next day, as the winter air was cold and we would need sunshine to get dry afterwards. Thus we erected our tent, had a quick supper, and retired into our sleeping bag, with both Bran and Pammy guarding our sleep.

When I woke up again, the sun was already up, and I could hear my wife snoring a little next to me; it appeared that she was still in deep sleep. I got an idea and decided to do a prank on her. Following some pre-sleep activities from last evening, both of us were still fully in the nude. Carefully I picked her up in my arms, walked over to the nearby hot spring, stepped in, and dumped her inmidst of the small pond. Naturally, that woke her up immediately, but when she turned around to see what had happened I had already submerged my body so that it could not be seen at first glance. When she continued to turn around to get back some orientation, I grabbed her from behind, touched some sensitive areas, and made her squeak in very high pitches. When she had calmed down and turned around to face me, she could not avoid to smile, but tried to look serious while saying: "You are in so much trouble, my dear husband!" When I failed to look concerned, we both laughed and had quite some more fun in the pond, which somehow went way beyond the kissing we had done last time we were here, but at that time we had not been married yet.

After spending almost all day frolicking around and having a good time, we got out and helped ourselves to get dry, supported by the low power fire spell I had used last time on Inigo. We made our way towards Windhelm in the late afternoon, so that we could hopefully catch a ride to Winterhold in the morning after. When we reached the big gate, one of the guards looked at us and mentioned thoughtfully: "I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee.…". Really, didn't they have any other greeting? I must have heard that phrase hundreds of times before.

After spending a night in the local inn, we found that no carriage was scheduled to go to Winterhold in the next few days. We learned that the route was not popular at all, as usually no passengers were waiting for the return trip. As we did not want to wait for a week or longer, we decided to walk. Rather than following the main road, we were going to take a shortcut by turning north from the docks, past the local Winterhold Stormcloak Camp, to meet the road again close to 'Whistling Mine'. This should be doable in one day for some trained warriors like us, I thought.

I had warned my wife before: "If we do that, walking will be demanding, as we have to go uphill for quite some time, and we are likely to encounter snow bears and ice wraiths and such. Most likely, you are going to be exhausted in the evening!"

But she replied: "That's all right. We have had a lot of slow and quiet days, let's do something demanding for a change; we need some real exercise to keep our bodies in shape, I think. Let's go!"

I smiled: "All right, off we go!"

We had risen very early, long before sunrise, as we had not known if or when a carriage might have been scheduled. The sun was still not yet up when we stepped down to the docks and turned towards the snow and ice along the bay. Pammy and Bran were happily running around in circles, sometimes ahead of us, sometimes behind us, and sometimes on the side. T'mara couldn't avoid smiling when watching those two, and neither could I. It did not take us long to reach the camp, and from there, we had to hike uphill a lot. Fortunately, we were both in good condition and well trained, so that we could manage. Eventually, though, maybe half way up to the mine, T'mara was slowing down and demanded a break: "Come on, Timotheus, stop showing off – time for a break and something to eat!"

"All right, my dear – why not?" I replied, and we sat down on a few rocks, unpacking our supplies. Bran also got some meat to devour, and we rested for about twenty minutes before resuming our trip. Just when we had started to march on, Bran and Pammy suddenly stopped and raised their ears. We looked around, and soon a couple of snow bears approached from the side. T'mara blurted out: "Let me do this, please!" and raised her hand to cast fire balls. As her magic was not trained that much, the fireballs hurt the bears, but did not stop them. I was starting to get concerned, but my wife had her axe out in no time and fought expertly, so that the two beats eventually went down. T'mara had a few scratches, though, but nothing serious.

From that point on we were able to reach the road without further interruptions, and when being close to the mine, we had our lunch meal. We met Thorgar, the mine owner, and he proudly claimed: "I know they laughed when I said I wanted to keep the mine open. I'll show them. I'll show them all." One of his companions added: "It's going to happen soon, I know it. We'll strike something better then iron. Silver, or maybe even gold. You'll see."

After lunch, we wished them good luck on their mining and proceeded towards the city.