Chapter 35: Side trip to Markarth

[22nd – 4th of First Seed 4E 202]

Before sunrise I got up, took my leave from the mages, and walked down to the city together with T'mara; she was going to see me off in town. We met M'lissa at the inn, were introduced to Karliah and Enthir, and soon M'lissa and I hopped onto the carriage to Markarth. For a while we were just sitting there, enjoying the winter landscape while being wrapped tightly in blankets against the cold, but soon the Khajiit got curious: "Timotheus, tell me, how was your wedding?"

I smiled and told her: "Well, you may recall that T'mara had proposed to me when we were in Riften, at the time we saw you last. A couple of weeks later we had our wedding in Whiterun; the Jarl insisted on offering Dragonsreach for the party, as we're both his Thanes. We spent our honeymoon in our house in Riften..."

M'lissa interrupted me: "You have got a house in Riften, too?"

I nodded: "Yes, we do. We were allowed to purchase property in Riften after we helped out the Jarl in some matters and T'mara was declared Thane of the Rift there."

The Khajiit looked surprised: "Wow, you do get around."

I continued the story: "Afterwards, we did some quests on behalf of Lady Mara, and finally, after attending the wedding of our two best friends – Lydia and Inigo – we managed to get to Winterhold, so that my wife can improve on her magic skills. I guess, I can learn more, too."

We carried on talking about various topics until we arrived at our first stop, Nightgate Inn, located in a tiny hamlet called 'Helarchen Creek'. It was a little early for a night stop, but this was a convenient location. For the next days, progress should be faster as we were supposed to have less snow on the road soon, once we had reached in Whiterun hold.

Indeed we got to Markarth after two more days of boring carriage travel, although we kept talking for some time, and a couple of times we had also been interrupted by some bandits and highwaymen. M'lissa learned more about us, while I was introduced to some stories related to Thieves Guild; of course she did not spill any guild secrets, though. In Markarth, I showed M'lissa to the guest room in my house, Vlindrel Hall, for the night. The Khajiit gave me another odd look seeing that I owned a house here in Markarth as well, but graciously accepted the opportunity to sleep on a bed which actually had a soft cover mollifying the stone foundation which was so typical here in this city.

After spending a night in my house, M'lissa and I walked up to the Keep and turned towards Calcelmo's work area. He smiled when he recognized me, and after exchanging a few pleasant phrases I explained: "Calcelmo, I am afraid that we need your help. A friend has died and left a journal which appears to be written in the Falmer language. I believe that you are best suited to help us with that!"

Calcelmo replied: "Then you were well informed. I am at this very moment on the cusp of completing my magnum opus on the subject. I'm calling it 'Calcelmo's Guide to the Falmer Tongue'. It will revolutionize the way we understand those ancient beings."

I was happy to hear that: "This is great! Perhaps I could view your work?"

The wizard did not like that idea at all: "Preposterous! That research represents years of personal toil in some of the most dangerous Dwemer ruins in Skyrim! You must be mad to think I'd allow anyone to see it before it's completed."

I took a step back and answered: "Calcelmo, maybe it is not required that we actually look into your work, but if you could simply translate that journal for us? I know that you are a busy man, but maybe there is something we could do for you in return?"

Calcelmo thought about it for some time and told us: "Well, all right, you have also helped me before, so that might be acceptable. Maybe you could look into the excavation area for me? There's a giant spider in Nchuand-Zel. My workers call her 'Nimhe', the poisoned one. If you find out what happened to my assistant Alethius in there and deal with Nimhe, I'll gladly translate the journal for you; actually, I can get started on the translation right now. What do you say?"

I smiled and confirmed: "Calcelmo, my friend, we have a deal!"

Turning to M'lissa, I smirked: "I hope that you are not afraid of spiders, M'lissa?"

She snorted: "I would not have survived all of the dungeons, caves, and other dark and smelly places Mercer sent me to if I was!"

We accepted the key from the wizard and stepped into Nchuand-Zel. I conjured Pammy, my familiar, to scout ahead, and we carefully started examining the rooms. There was no tell tale of spiderwebs nearby, so that I assumed the spider must reside further ahead and probably down. After following a small passage, we reached a section which was still under excavation, and soon we came upon a few frostbite spiders. As they were normal sized, we were able to dispose of them without trouble. However, I now sensed that we were getting closer to our target and the real danger.

"Look, M'lissa" I started talking, "if we find a real big spider, our best approach may be to pull back into a small passage it cannot follow us in and shoot fireballs and arrows at the beast. T'mara and I have done something similar in another dungeon before, and it worked well. All right for you?"

M'lissa simply nodded, and we proceeded carefully. There was no apparent exit at the other side of the small hall, but some areas were tightly covered by spider webs. After blowing the webs away, another small passage became visible; it lead to a larger room with a high web covered ceiling, which immediately reminded me of a similar location in 'Bleak Falls Barrow'. And indeed, when we looked up, we noticed a giant spider about to drop down on us. Quickly we retreated into the passage, so that the huge spider missed us, and while M'lissa made use of her bow, I sent fireballs into the beast. The giant spider tried in vain to enter the passage, but it was too big to fit, and we kept enough distance to be able to dodge the streaks of venom the beast was ejecting in our direction. As it was not smart enough to retreat and wait for a better time, we could continue our attacks, and eventually the spider succumbed to our arrows and fireballs. We took a few moments to recover and then searched through the area. Close to a stone walkway we found a dead body. According to a journal we found on the corpse, this must have been Alethius, the assistant Calcelmo had mentioned. Behind the dead body, there were more webs covering a tight gap, and we saw that there was probably a way to go on. However, our current task was done, and we decided to return to Calcelmo with what we had found.

The old wizard was quite surprised to see us back that quickly, and he told us that the translation was not done yet. We handed over the journal and other belongings we had found on the corpse and confirmed that the giant spider was dead. "Come back in a few more hours", Calcelmo suggested, "and I should be done with the translation. If you want, we can sit together for dinner here in the Keep and talk some more than."

Both of us nodded politely and retreated for now. We spent a few hours strolling through the city and browsing the shops, and in the late afternoon we returned to the wizard. He smiled and handed over both the journal and the translation to us: "Here you are! The task was actually quite helpful to hone my Falmer language skills; after all, I do not encounter properly written Falmer text every day."

We thanked him and walked over to the Keep's living area for dinner. Faleen, Calcelmo's love and the Jarl's housecarl, also joined us, and we spend two happy hours talking, laughing, eating, and having a good time. Eventually, we took our leave and returned to Vlindrel Hall for the night.

At breakfast on the next morning we found out that Argis, my local housecarl, was also here in the house. He had returned very late last evening so that we had not noticed. He was happy to see me, and we chatted for some time before M'lissa joined us. I introduced them and told Argis that she was my wife's cousin and that T'mara was waiting for me in Winterhold, attending some lessons in magic.

While we had originally intended to start our return trip right away, Argis mentioned: "You know, I have become acquainted with Lisbet, the proprietor of 'Arnleif and Sons Trading Company'. She lost her husband to the Forsworn, and also a lot of her shipments. The last shipment included a very special statue of Dibella, and she really needs it back. Latest news say that the Forsworn who stole the shipment have retreated to 'Serpent's Bluff Redoubt'."

"What?" I exclaimed. "We cleared this place just a few months ago!"

"Indeed, my Thane", my housecarl confirmed. "Rumors claim that the Forsworn have reclaimed a place they had been driven out from, hoping that nobody would suspect this."

"What a shame. Is there something to be done about it?"

Argis nodded: "There is a bounty on retrieving the shipment, and I had planned to go for it. Alas, in order to clear a whole group of Forsworn, I'll need to have help, and I was about to search for some mercenaries to assist. Unless the two of you would …"

I briefly pondered this: "Well, the bluff is close to our way towards Whiterun. I guess that we could get there, retrieve the statue, send you back here with we find, walk on towards Whiterun or Rorikstead, and get a carriage from there. This would not make us lose more than one or two days, I guess. M'lissa, are you up for that?"

The Khajiit nodded right away: "Yes, I am. I have had my own encounters with the Forsworn in the past, and none of them were pleasant. Let's teach them another lesson and help poor Lisbet!"

This being said, we got onto the road right away once we had finished breakfast, and we turned east after the stables. We figured that we might be able to get to our target before dusk, if we walked steadily. Indeed, we had lunch along the riverside, close to the Shrine of Dibella and thus not far from 'Old Hroldan Inn'. While eating, I kindly recalled the nights I had spent there with my wife, not always sleeping, and the giant hickey I had received one time. Absent minded I wondered how I could return the favor, but with her smooth fur any kind of hickey would be barely visible, I was afraid. Well, I might be able to find other ways to annoy and 'torture' her.

Mid afternoon, after climbing up the hills, we got close to the target location, and similar to our last time I suggested that I would want to find a proper higher place to start shooting down into the camp first, and the two others should attack when the confusion was largest. I took a detour and found the same place I had used months ago; when I noticed that my two companions were ready, I released the first bolt from my crossbow and immediately made the second one ready. As I had targeted an isolated guard first, nobody had noticed the danger yet, and I managed to put another one down. This was noticed, but I still found a third one not moving much, and he paid for his mistake. Now the whole camp was in uproar, and shooting over a long distance was getting tricky. Rather I decided to send a few fireballs; even if they did not hit a Forsworn, they were likely to draw attention towards me. While I was lucky to actually hit one of the enemies with a fireball, everybody else now looked in my direction, but I was well hidden behind a large rock. M'lissa and Argis had already started to take advantage of the distraction and ran across the open area in the southeast of the camp, whereas I was north – consequently, nobody noticed them until they were close enough to also attack. M'lissa released her bow a few times, and while this made most Forsworn turn towards her direction, I successfully send two more bolts away. Before they had a chance to do much, the number of Forsworn was less than half of what it had been just minutes before, and now also Argis attacked with his big sword. This time, there was no Hagraven or Briarheart there, and the fight was over soon, with none of us except Argis even having a scratch. My housecarl's sword arm has quite a deep wound, which he had received from his last enemy. However, my healing spell fixed that without leaving much of a scar, so that we were soon all fit again.

We were fortunate, as we found a large chest with stolen goods, including the statue, right in the largest tent in the camp, so that there was no need to actually delve into the ruins. The fight had only taken a few minutes and dusk was still a few hours away, so that we decide to move on towards Rorikstead after a short break and packing the things we wanted to take. While walking in that direction, I wondered if we would also encounter a dragon in the same spot as last time, and indeed, just when the town was in sight, a loud roar could be heard. I almost could not believe the coincidence, but a dragon actually descended towards the southern section of the city, threatening the fields and the road. The distance was close enough for my crossbow, so that I started to deliver bolts as soon as I could, whereas M'lissa and Argis moved on to get closer. The dragon blew frost over a field, so that I switched my standard Dwemer bolts to those with additional fire effect, and this soon got the beast's attention. While it turned towards me, it made itself vulnerable for an attack from the flanks, and both Argis and M'lissa used this opportunity. Even without the benefit of Shouts, we managed to get the dragon down onto the road, and a few more mighty blows from Argis's sword and my final fireball killed it.

We looked around to check if anybody was injured, but except for some damage to the fields and some debris on the road we could not identify any issues. As we earned a rest now, we moved on to the local inn, where some of the locals talked to us and celebrated us. They were very grateful that we had arrived in time to kill the dragon before it could deal much damage to houses and fields.

One patron recalled the last time I was here: "Somehow I believe that I have seen you before, when you also killed dragon. Didn't you have a different female Khajiit with you last time?"

While nodding I replied: "Yes, indeed, you are correct. The Khajiit with me last time was my wife, and this one here is my wife's cousin. We came to the area to retrieve bandit loot from 'Serpent's Bluff Redoubt' and thus came here into town. We are glad that we arrived in time and could help!"

The innkeeper made sure we got the best dinner he was able to serve and we were not allowed to pay for dinner and also not for the rooms we booked for one night.

At breakfast on the next day M'lissa and myself separated from Argis. He was going to bring the statue and some other stuff back to Markarth, to deliver to the rightful owners, whereas the Khajiit and I wanted to get back to Winterhold as soon as we could. Fortunately, a carriage from Solitude had stopped here for the night on the way to Whiterun, and there was place for two more passengers; I paid the fare and we climbed aboard. While the other passengers got off at the Whiterun stables, I asked the driver where he intended to go next, and he said that he did not know yet.

I offered: "My companion and I need to get to Winterhold; could you maybe get us there tomorrow?"

The driver pondered this but replied: "You know, it is always difficult to find paying passengers for the way back from there."

I nodded and responded: "Yes, I know. Winterhold isn't what it used to be. Let's do this: If there are no passengers waiting in Winterhold for the ride back, I will pay for this as well – what do you think?"

The driver looked happy now: "Well, this is a generous offer – thank you, you've got yourselves a deal. Let's start tomorrow morning at sunrise."

I invited M'lissa to spend the night in the guest room in Breezehome, and after some talking and a quick supper we went to our respective rooms. As expected, we showed up at the stables before sunrise on the next day, and soon we were on our way to Winterhold again, where we arrived two days later in mid afternoon, after a night stop at 'Nightgate Inn' and a smooth ride without major interruptions.

In Winterhold, we first went into the inn to meet Enthir and Karliah again. They were happy that we managed to get the translation done, and they intended to continue their efforts to make things right in the Thieves Guild together with M'lissa; I wished them good luck for that. I was naturally eager to see my wife again and thus hurried up to the college as soon as I could manage. However, as I had kind of suspected, Mirabelle told me right away: "Tolfdir went to the ruins of Saarthal with the students a few days ago, as planned. Your wife is with them, and they are not expected back for a few more days. Tolfdir reiterated that you are welcome to join them, so that you might as well get over there."

Dusk was now close, and I did not feel like walking over the ice fields towards Saarthal on my own during the night, so that I decided to spend the night here. Before first light, though, I was up, had a quick breakfast, and got started. The first rays of sunlight greeted me when I turned west in the city of Winterhold and climbed up the hill, away from the ruins and towards the ice and snow, which covered almost all of the landscape around here. A beautiful vista opened before me, and I could even see the Statue of Azura to the South. Saarthal was not very far, but there was no real road, and progress was quite slow on the snow and ice. Pammy was happily running around and, so I guessed, looking forward to seeing Bran again.

Soon after I had left the city, clouds started to cover the sky, and about halfway to the ruins a light snowfall started. I was not really concerned yet, but the snowfall quickly migrated into a full blown blizzard soon after; visibility was reduced significantly, and I was not even close to Saarthal yet. Pammy should help me to not lose the way, I thought, but in addition a pack of hungry looking ice wolves picked that time to attack. I defended myself with fireballs and finally, when some of them got real close, with my big sword, and Pammy helped as well. When I just stepped aside after impaling the last of the wolf pack to catch my breath, I slipped on the ice and managed to hit my head on a rock. I saw stars and started to feel cold, when my vision went black and I lost consciousness.

[Author's note: The cliffhanger at this point is intended – the next chapter will be coming soon]