Chapter 65: Kyne's peace

[17th – 19th of Frostfall 4E 202]

While my wife and I followed the main road past Morthal, T'mara asked:

"Do you really think that the Arch-Mage is dead by now?"

I scratched my head and replied:

"I do not know, but I assume that a person cannot easily appear as a ghost while still being alive. I guess that we will find out next time we are in Winterhold."

A few minutes later I continued my thoughts:

"However, even if he still is alive, I have to admit that I will never able able to look at him again the same way. He used to be almost like a friend to me, but I think that it was not right that he and the other mages explored Labyrinthian just looking for riches and artifacts, and they really should have been more careful in looking out for each other."

My wife replied:

"I fully agree, but everybody makes a mistake from time to time; maybe he was just misguided at that time. Isn't it likely that he at least regretted that later on?"

"Also true, my love" I responded and nodded.

We continued to walk in silence for some time, and just before we reached the bridge across the Hjal river, T'mara suddenly stopped and stood like frozen for a few minutes. I started to get concerned, but eventually she moved again and said:

"I think that I have just had a vision, from Kynareth. There's one of her shrines not far south from here, and that's how she is able to contact me. She told me that she liked what we are doing, and she asks if we could do her a favor. There's a shipwreck on the coast, the 'Wreck of the Brinehammer'. For some reason, there is a 'Shrine of Kynareth' in it, and it had been properly maintained by the ship's crew. However, the crew got murdered by bandits when the ship stranded, and the bandits seem to mock the altar and make fun of Kynareth. She asks me, or rather us, to punish the bandits by killing them, but not before telling them that we are doing this for her, Kynareth, deity of the heavens, the winds, the elements, and the unseen spirits of the air."

I looked at my wife and asked:

"Do we know where this wreck is located?"

She nodded, had me get our map out, and replied:

"Kynareth marked it on our map. Look, it's right here, north of Morthal."

I checked the location and nodded:

"I think that we have time enough to do this before we need to be in Solitude. Off we go, all right?"

She looked at me happily, and we turned into a new direction. We left the road and traveled cross country in northern direction, first through snow and between a few trees, and later on passing the swamps north of Morthal. Traveling here was less dangerous than it used to be before we had eliminated the master vampire Morvarth, and we only encountered the occasional frostbite spider and mudcrab.

While we walked, I asked my wife about what she knew about Kynareth:

"As you are willing to engage for her so quickly, may I assume that you have heard about Kynareth before?"

She nodded and responded: "Indeed, I have. While my parents neglected some parts of my education, I was at least told about our gods and lore. The Khajiit call her 'Khenarthi, the Winds', and when she was feeling lonely in the sky, she was give the moons as siblings. It is said in Elsweyr that most of the ancient sounds were gifted to the world by Khenarthi. There is even an island off the coast of Elsweyr named after her – 'Khenarthi's Roost'."

"So, you have a good feeling about her?"

T'mara nodded again: "Yes, I have, and I am very happy that we can do something for her."

Noon was still ahead of us, and we made good time, walking briskly, until we stopped for lunch at the entrance to Ustengrav. What used to be a small bandit camp around the entrance had not been reclaimed by anybody since we had been here when we had searched for the 'Horn of Jurgen Windcaller', so that we could rest without having to fight first.

From there, we stayed close to the coast, and we reached the vicinity of the wreck in late afternoon.

"I guess" I asked my wife "that we can safely assume that the occupants at and around the wreck are all bandits, right?"

"Yes," she nodded, "this is what I have been told by Kynareth."

Getting closer and sneaking, we saw a group of bandits around a campfire, apparently getting ready for dinner. We attacked with bolts and arrows from a distance, careful to wound them only for now. The enraged bandits got up to face us, and each one we killed was clearly told by my wife that we were acting on behalf of Kynareth and that this was their punishment for making fun of her and her shrine.

Once this was done, we sat down at the fire, had Pammy and Bran watch out, and deliberately made some noise helping ourselves to the delicious meal the bandits had prepared. While we were eating, another bandit emerged from the wreck and was about to join us, calling out:

"Hey, why didn't you come in and tell us that dinner is ready? That's not fair!"

The guy came closer and realized too late that it was not his friends sitting at the fire; he encountered the same destiny as they had.

One by one the other bandits came out, wondering about dinner, and they all got killed once T'mara had told them that we were upholding Kynareth՚s rule. Once we had eaten, with some interruptions of course, we got into the wreck to check if we had missed somebody. Deep inside the wreck, on the second lower level, there was a nicely decorated room, and in there was Kynareth՚s shrine, being misused as a clothes hanger, and what appeared to be the bandit boss. He was eating at his own table by himself, and he had his back towards us.

My wife and I looked at each other, and I started:

"Face the punishment now for defiling Kynareth and her shrine!"

He was a little slow in reacting, and when he finally got up, some food partially hanging out of his mouth, T'mara shouted 'FUS RO DAH', so that the bandit was thrown against the wall. When he got up again, I gave him a choice:

"Prepare to die, unless you are ready to repent for your sins!"

He looked at me oddly and then shouted:

"Men! Come in and help me!"

Obviously he did not know and not expect that all of his men were dead already, and he grinned madly. Okay, he had made his choice, and before he was able to react, I ran my greatsword though his chest. He suffered for a few minutes before he died, and while I did not normally enjoy something like that, I believed that Kynareth wanted it like this.

Once we had cleaned the shrine, there was Kynareth՚s voice in the air, for both of us to hear:

"Thank you for cleaning my shrine and killing the defilers. That has bothered me a lot, and now I can rest again. Please take some reward from me!"

A ring came down from nowhere, and I somehow knew that it was supposed to be mine. Kynareth՚s voice in my head told me that it was the 'Ring of the Wind', and that it would allow me to move more quickly when I wore it.

When I looked at my wife, she looked like in a dream, and a few minutes later she told with quite some excitement in her voice:

"Guess what – Kynareth taught me all three words of a new Shout – Kyne՚s peace. When I use it, animals around me will not attack – isn't that great?"

I smiled back at her and agreed:

"Yes, this is certainly nice. Let's find out soon how it works soon."

When we continued to search the ship for loot and other stuff, we suddenly heard some whimpering behind one of the wooden walls. After searching for an opening, we were able to lift a few boards, and we looked directly into the eyes of a small girl. She yelped when she noticed that we had found her, so that we first stepped back in order to not scare her. Eventually she noticed that we were not going to attack, and she looked at us with her big eyes:

"Please, do not hurt me!"

T'mara tried to soothe her:

"Don't be afraid; it is not our business to fight children. We have just taken care of the bandits here."

"You have? Really?"

Slowly she came out of he hiding spot, and we saw a timid looking girl, about nine or ten years old by my guess. She looked skinny and exhausted, and her clothes were not much more than rags. The girl looked around and saw the bandit chief slain in a pool of blood, and she shuddered.

"Shall we get you outside?" I suggested.

The girl nodded, and we led her outside to the still glowing campfire. There was still a lot left to eat, and we could see the poor girl drooling when she saw the food, so that my wife asked:

"Are you hungry? Would you like to eat something?"

The young girl nodded, and T'mara served her. The young lass seemed to be starved, and for some time there were only eating noises. Eventually the girl told us about herself:

"My name is Yumi. I traveled on this ship here together with my aunt and uncle to visit Skyrim, but the captain got drunk, and when the ship stranded, we were soon attacked by bandits. I think that all crew and passengers were killed, but I managed to hide, and sometimes I could steal some food, but not quite enough. I was afraid that the bandits would kill me, too, if they found me, and I had nowhere to go."

"Do you have any family left?"

"No, my parents and sister died some time ago, and my aunt and uncle had adopted me. They were the last relatives I had, and I do not know what to do now."

I looked at T'mara, and I was sure that she was having the same thoughts I was having. We were planing to find a brother or sister for Lucia sooner or later, and Yumi seemed to be almost the same age. Maybe we could adopt her?

For now I suggested:

"Once you have eaten, let's sleep, and see what to do tomorrow. For now at least, you are with us, and you are welcome to join us on our way to Solitude. By the way, this big husky dog here is Bran. He is a fierce fighter and also protects us when we sleep, together with Pammy."

"Who is Pammy?"

I summoned my familiar, and Yumi was impressed. While she kept a respectful distance from Pammy, she allowed Bran to get close to her, and ten minutes later we found her sleeping with her head resting on the husky's chest.

After enjoying breakfast on the next day, together with Yumi who had slept quite well, we started to move again, heading towards Solitude. Just a few minutes after he had left the wreck a huge snow bear approached us. Yumi looked scared, and normally we would have either attacked or gone out of its way, but today, of course, T'mara wanted to see how her new shout worked:

'KAAN DREM OV!'

The bear looked at us and sat down on the snow. My wife slowly approached, and when the animal indeed showed no sign of hostility, started to pet its fur. The bear started to hum and looked like it enjoyed the attention, and Yumi stared at the situation in awe. My wife continued petting and stroking it for maybe a quarter of an hour, when the beast started to show signs of uneasiness. We quickly retreated into a safe distance, seeing that the shout effect was wearing off now, but fortunately gradually rather than abruptly.

"This is so great!" T'mara smiled at me. "I so love petting animals!"

"Well, I agree, and so do I," I told her, "and fortunately I have my personal petting animal right next to me!"

Before she really got my meaning I grabbed her and cuddled her, until she squealed. Yumi looked at us with tilted head, but she seemed to like our affection. Later on she mentioned that her parents had also been cuddling a lot and that she missed seeing that.

We had enough time left to get to Solitude so that we did not have to hurry, which was good, as we had Yumi with us, and we decided to stroll along the coast. A cold wind was blowing from the sea, but it did not bother us much. For Yumi, we had found some warm garbs in the ship, and although the clothes were several sizes too large, they kept her warm at least. Along the way we collected some ingredients, like grass pod, slaughterfish eggs, a few clams, and the occasional nirnroot. For most of the day, we enjoyed the scenery and took our time, also for Yumi՚s benefit.. T'mara got a chance to also use her new Shout on a group of horkers, but told me soon that bears were more cuddly than horkers.

Close to the end of the day we approached the area around the wreck of the 'Icerunner'. We had already been here before when bandits had extinguished the fire in the Solitude lighthouse, hoping to lure more ships into crashing here. Another group of bandits had now made themselves a home here, as we saw from a distance. Well, at least we assumed them to be bandits, but they could also be harmless travelers and adventurers, so that we approached peacefully. And indeed, we were greeted in a friendly manner and invited for dinner. The group of five men and two women had a big piece of horker roasting, more than plenty for all of us, and they told us that they were mercenaries looking for work, pausing here for a few days. We had no reason not to believe that, but I found it odd that they had what looked to be very high quality utensils and kitchenware.

When the sun was down, T'mara and I were invited to take a room in the shipwreck, but we preferred to sleep outside and found ourselves a nice spot for our bedroll, with Yumi next to us in her own bedroll and Bran next to her, and soon we were asleep.

In the middle of the night I woke up from T'mara stirring next to me, and the reason appeared to be Pammy and Bran making noise. Bran barked and Pammy growled; we knew this to be a sign of danger and got up quickly, and I heard a voice saying:

"What is this? I thought this to be an easy kill, but they have a dog and this other animal around. Kill them all, now!"

I had some trouble recognizing much as it was fully dark; none of the moons were out and only few of the stars glimmered. T'mara, though, had a clear advantage with her Khajiit eyes, and she used it. While Bran stayed with Yumi to protect her and Pammy slowed down the attackers, my wife approached some of them from the side and landed hits. I stepped away from our bedroll to gain some distance, and then I cast a few magelight spells and send the lights in various directions. Some of them were mere distractions, but a few of them highlighted enemy positions, and for a few moments I had enough light to see where to aim my crossbow; this allowed me to kill or at least severely injure three of the enemies. Edric had been conjured by now as well, and he soon helped by attacking from the air.

About one quarter of an hour later none of the attackers were alive any longer, and we had time to ponder the situation.

"Well, it appears that they were bandits after all." I said.

"So it appears" my wife confirmed. "I am real glad that we had Bran and Pammy guarding and warning us."

"Yes, they probably expected it to be easy to kill us in our sleep."

After we calmed down, we managed to get back to sleep for a few more hours before dawn came. We enjoyed a nice breakfast from the plenty of food the bandits had had, and once more I wondered about the utensils, and I asked my wife:

"T'mara, have you noticed the quality of the kitchenware and utensils? The pots and pans and other stuff here seems to be very high quality, and I wonder where they got that from."

"Well, they probably stole all of that. When we're back in Solitude, we can ask people about it."

"All right, let's do that. As a matter of fact, we could ask Bendt, the chef at the Bards College. He's got a nice collection of utensils himself, and he might know who the real owner is."

Starting from the wreck, the distance to Solitude was not much, and we happily marched on. At first we followed the coastline, and when we stepped on an island via some ice floats, I noticed a wooden shack I thought I had seen before. To get a closer look I changed directions, and T'mara got curious:

"Where are you going now? Isn't Solitude west rather than south?"

"Yes, it is, but look at this shack over there. I have been here before!"

"When was that?"

"Do you recall when I was abducted by Astrid, the leader of the Dark Brotherhood? It was here in this shack when I was confronted with her request to make me kill at least one of the three captives."

"But how did she manage to get from the Rift to here that quickly?

"I do not have a clue. Maybe some special Dark Brotherhood magic."

We had a quick look inside, but it appeared that the shack had been abandoned since Astrid and I had been here with the three poor captives, and thus we left again and continued our walk towards Solitude.

A few frostbite spiders and mudcrabs later we could see the eastern part of the big Solitude arch right in front of us, and Yumi looked at that in awe. Right when we were about to enter the narrow walkway leading up to the city, a dragon appeared in the sky and swooped down top attack. On a hunch, T'mara shouted her new 'KAAN DREM OV!' on the beast, and it actually interrupted the attack. The dragon settled down in front of us and asked:

"Your try to calm me down rather than fighting? This is remarkable. I will have you know, though, that I am not affected by this."

My wife called back: "Are you aware of the fact that Alduin was defeated and that there is now peace between dragons and mankind?"

"I have heard those lies" the beast responded, "and I do not believe them. Alduin is eternal and cannot be defeated!"

"But yet it happened. The majority of the dragons are now loyal to me, the Dragonborn, and to Paarthurnax. Why don't you ask some of your brethren further south to confirm that? Of course, if you prefer to fight me, I will be happy to oblige – I have already defeated more than a dozen dragons, and I can always use another soul."

The dragon seemed to be unsure now, and eventually it decided to find out if that was indeed true. It rose again and flew southeast, maybe towards the Throat of the World.

Yumi looked at my wife: "You have really killed more than a dozen of dragons?"

T'mara nodded: "I have, yes, but not alone – my husband helped with almost all of them, and for most we had others with us, too. You know, I am what they call a 'Dragonborn' around here."

Apparently this did not ring a bell, but according to what Yumi had told us, she came from a place very far from here, and she probably was not familiar with Skyrim lore.

A number of guards had been close, preparing themselves for a tough fight, and they cheered now. T'mara told them:

"We were able to make this dragon think, I guess. But while most of them are now loyal and will not attack mankind an our settlements any longer, there are always a few stray ones we need to be wary of."

We took our leave from them and climbed the stairs to enter the city of Solitude. As the sun was still up, we decided to check at the Bards College first. We found Bendt, the Chef, in the kitchen in the basement, preparing the next meal. However, as it was not dinner time yet, he muttered without looking when he heard us approach:

"Meals are served to Bards at designated times. Find an inn if you want to make requests."

I cleared my throat and replied:

"Bendt, we are not here to eat, but we need to ask something, please."

"Come over some other time; I am busy."

I happened to know that he always claimed to be busy, so that I tried another approach:

"We do need your expertise on something, and you may be the best qualified person to properly assess the situation and the trade merchandise."

This got his attention and he turned around, finally noticing who I was:

"Oh, it's you, Timotheus. Well, all right, the next meal can wait a bit, so what is it?"

I started to lay down the utensils and kitchenware we had found at the wreck of the Icerunner on an unused table, and the cook's eyes became quite big:

"Where did you get those?"

"We found them with bandits who were around the wreck of the Icerunner."

"Can you believe that those are mine? A few weeks ago we had a break in here at the college, and I found my highest quality kitchenware gone. And here it is again!"

It looked like he had tears in his eyes and was unable to speak further for a few moments. We gave him time to clam down, and eventually he said:

"I can't even say how grateful I am to get those utensils returned. They have been in our family for generations, and I had mourned their loss. To have them back now… How can I reward you for your service?"

"Bendt, there is no need for a reward. Just, as we came back and have only now arrived in the city, we're looking forward to a good dinner. We plan to sit down with the other bards tonight, and we would not mind at all to get a few of your specialties served later on."

"Well, that's the very least I can do – you can bet on it!"

When we had refreshed ourselves in our Solitude home and changed into comfortable clothes, we also found proper clothes for Yumi. Jordis had stayed here in Solitude since our last visit, and she volunteered to take care of Yumi right away. Thus, my wife and I could now join the bards at the college for dinner as promised, and while all kind of stories and tales were exchanged, Bendt served one of his excellent meals to all of us.

The entire dinner, with bards' tales and songs being presented between the courses, took several hours, and at the end of the day T'mara had to admit that she had rarely eaten that well. When we eventually got back to our home here in the city, Jordis told us that Yumi was already asleep in one of the guest rooms. We had a quick peek in her room and then also retired.

[Author's Notes: A girl named 'Yumi' is available in the game via a mod. She looks quite cute IMO – my kudos to the mod owner, 'comicalmuse' – and I sometimes adopt her when I play the game. The mod makes her available in Honorhall Orphanage in Riften, but for my story I added a different background.]