Author's note:

First of all, I send a big thank you to reddevil47 for their review - it is nice to know that you enjoy what I write! Of course, I also thank all those who are reading/following this story. Your support is a great morale boost to me!

I was planning to post this chapter immediately after the previous one, but my Internet connection hasn't been working well over the past few days, hence the delay with the updates.

Chapter 7 was a fun story about Agda's friendship with Adaeze and their drunken letters to Hadvar and Steinarius. Unfortunately, our poor innkeeper is now in for a troubled day.

Warning: violence, language, depressive thoughts and a very humorless title.

19th of Sun's Dusk, 4E 201

A few days after Agda's hangover, Adaeze got into troubles. Sigrid claimed she had seen the Redguard drinking mead with her husband, therefore she angrily threw her out of her house. After that accident, Adaeze lived at the Sleeping Giant for two weeks, then bid Agda goodbye – she had had enough of Riverwood and wanted to try her luck in a bigger city. As she watched her leave, Agda couldn't help but feel like she had lost the only true friend she had ever had.

The two following months went by in a haze of boredom, dullness and snow. Agda hated the crispy autumns of Skyrim – she was always cold and had to chop wood whenever Orgnar was in Whiterun to buy mead and food for the winter. Moreover, during that endless season nothing interesting ever happened.

Even the news coming from the rest of the country were quite lame. The mysterious Dragonborn was said to have slain another beast shortly after the attack on Whiterun, but no one knew what happened since then. Some claimed that the mighty warrior had been killed by a bear, others said he had slipped off a cliff; some thought he had joined the Forsworn, others firmly believed that he was living with the Greybeards, thus learning the art of the Thu'um. Judging from the ungodly shouts coming from the Throat of the World, Agda believed the latter theory to be the most accurate one.

The girl didn't feel safe knowing that her life depended on a legend made up by her ancestors - after all, Nords were extremely famous because of their chronical abuse of mead.

As she looked at the pale sky above her head, Agda yawned. Dawn had just broken in and another cold, boring day was about to start.

The girl sighed, then returned to the warmth of the Sleeping Giant. On the previous evening she had received some rare alchemy ingredients from Adaeze, who had surprisingly managed to find an unspecified, well-paid job in Riften. As a consequence, Agda was looking forward to spending a few hours at her alchemy lab.

That morning she was completely alone: Orgnar had gone to visit the Honningbrew Meadery, whereas Delphine had left the inn about a week before. Agda had no idea what her employer was up to.

The girl had just started brewing a sleeping draught for Hilde when the door of the Sleeping Giant suddenly burst open. When Agda looked over her shoulder, she couldn't stifle a smile.

Two days after the attack on Helgen, Steinarius Crepusculus had returned to Riverwood and talked to Lucan Valerius about a stolen golden claw. According to that snobbish Camilla girl, the clumsy warrior had taken it upon himself to retrieve the precious item and had luckily succeeded in his task. Since that moment he had become the woman's personal hero, a fact that had deeply offended both Sven and Faendal.

During Steinarius' short visit in Riverwood, Agda had been lucky enough to meet him. The man had greeted her with a cautious smile, then had taken the road across the bridge and disappeared from her sight. On the following morning, when he had brought the stolen claw back where it belonged, he had been so stealthy that no one had seen him.

Agda didn't know whether Steinarius was still angry at her – after all, she didn't even know what had upsetted him in the first place. Despite her worries, as soon as she saw him enter the inn, the girl greeted him with an open, warm and endearing smile.

"Good to see you, Steinarius!", Agda smiled as she took a step in his direction. "It's always wonderful to have you here! How are you? How's the Legion…"

Before Agda could end the sentence, she was violently shoved against her alchemy lab. Next thing she knew, Steinarius had pinned her to the wall and had gripped her throat with his strong hands. His face was just a mere inch from Agda's, so that the girl had a very clear view of his eyes. She had never seen anything like that: the Imperial's grey irises had got completely golden, whereas his whole body was shivering violently.

"You thought that your little note was very funny, didn't you?", the man hissed before Agda could overcome her surprise. The grip on her throat was so tight that she could barely breathe. "You thought that a conventional message was too boring, didn't you? Damn you, woman, do you have any idea what I've been through just because you wanted to speak to me?"

As she desperately gasped for air, Agda tried to understand what Steinarius was talking about. After a long moment of shock and fear and confusion, it dawned on her: apparently, the Imperial had received the letter Adaeze had sent him while she was drunk. Had she been in a more comfortable situation, Agda would have rolled her eyes - although she had hoped for the courier carrying the letter to come across a very angry group of trolls, her prayers had been in vain.

"Steinarius, I was drunk when I wrote you that letter!", she squeaked as soon as the man loosened the grip on her throat, thus allowing her to talk. "I didn't think you would overreact like this!"

"Overreact?", Steinarius spitted the word as if it was poisonous. "You lured me into an abandoned ruin, stole the item I was looking for and replaced it with a fucking note that asked me to come here! And you dare say that I'm overreacting!"

In that moment, the grip on Agda's throat became tighter than before, preventing the girl from telling Steinarius that she had no idea what he was talking about. The innkeeper tried to scratch the Captain's hands with her nails, but the man didn't even flinch.

As Agda realized that the Imperial was about to strangle her, she started to panic.

"I had to get past draugrs and spiders and bandits to get to that damned place!", Steinarius kept on screaming while the girl was desperately trying to break free from his grip. "I'm a busy man, Agda, so I don't have time to deal with stupid girls like you! I have a life, for Stendarr' sake! Skyrim is in turmoil, a dragon has destroyed Helgen, the civil war is getting tougher than ever and you left a note inside a Nordic ruin just to ask me to come here! If you think that was funny..."

Agda never heard the following words – as her body painfully spasmed at the lack of oxygen, she closed her eyes and slipped into darkness.

When Agda finally came to, she realized that she was still sprawled on the cold floor of the Sleeping Giant. She was shivering violently and her throat hurt so much that she feared it would never be the same again. At that moment even the simple act of breathing was much more complicated than she remembered it.

After she took in her surroundings, Agda realized that her alchemy lab had fallen to the ground together with the many potions she had brewed over the previous weeks. As she looked at the shattered phials, tears welled up in her eyes. The young Nord couldn't understand why Steinarius had hurt her and, although he was nowhere to be seen, she could still feel his vicious grip on her throat and hear his angry voice in her mind.

I don't have time to deal with stupid girls like you, the Imperial had said. And, at that moment, Agda believed him to be perfectly right.

She was just a stupid, weak girl who couldn't even defend herself. She wasn't a Nord – she was just a pathetic waste of space.

That thought caused Agda to start sobbing like a baby. Right then she regretted her choice to come to Skyrim, her love for alchemy, even her friendship with Adaeze. She should have listened to her parents, forgotten her potions and become a warrior. In that way, her life would have surely been much easier.

All of a sudden, Agda started hearing some distant voices. Although that didn't make any sense, it seemed as if Delphine and Steinarius were arguing not far from where she was laying.

"Because of your secrecy, I almost killed an innocent girl!". It sounded as if Steinarius was screaming from the top of his lungs. "I thought she had left me that message in Ustengrav, not you!"

Although Delphine's voice was much lower, Agda could easily make out her reply.

"Your innocent girl is still alive just because I reached the inn at the right moment!", she hissed. "Hadn't I prevented you from strangling her, she would have died for good! By the way, how could you be stupid to think that someone like Agda could sneak past draugrs and spiders and bandits just to leave you a note?"

There was a short silence, as Steinarius apparently didn't know how to answer.

"You said your friend Orgnar would take care of her, but he is nowhere to be seen", the Captain said as soon as he realized that Delphine was right. From his tone, Agda could understand that he was still very angry. "When the hell will he come here and start healing her?"

"I don't know – and, honestly, I don't even care. Your destiny is much more important than a simple innkeeper from Anvil. We have to reach Kynesgrove as soon as possible".

"I'm not going anywhere, Breton - not until you tell me who you are and what you want".

As Delphine's whispers became too blurred to be understood, Agda shook her head. The voices she was hearing came from the floor of the inn – and under the floor of the inn there was nothing but the musky soil of Riverwood.

She was definitely losing her mind.

Worried by that thought, the girl closed her eyes again and sobbed. She had never felt so helpless in her whole life.

Agda kept on crying until the door to Delphine's room suddenly burst open. A moment later, the girl felt a warm hand on her shoulder and gentle fingers flowing through her hair. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Steinarius was beside her. His eyes still had some golden specks, but their rage had been replaced by a great sadness.

"Agda, I'm sorry", the Imperial whispered as he goofily kept on stroking her hair. "I'm really, really sorry".

Agda knew that those words were true – she could tell from Steinarius' voice, from the pain she saw in his eyes, from the way he was gently caressing her. Nevertheless, when the man tried to touch her cheek, she made an effort and managed to pull away.

She had often thought about Steinarius' hands touching her body, but none of her fantasies had involved sour tears or broken potions or shattered pride.

The captain seemed mortified by the disgusted look in Agda's eyes. He tried to touch her again, but was stopped by Delphine.

The Breton was wearing her leather armor and had been so stealthy that nor Agda, nor Steinarius had heard her approaching them.

"She's scared by you, can't you see?", she harshly told the Imperial. "If you remain here, you'll only waste your time - and you don't have time to lose".

"Stop telling me what I have and what I don't", Steinarius hissed. "I'm not leaving her like this".

Angered by the man' stubbornness, Delphine rolled her eyes.

"In case you haven't noticed, the girl's mad at you and won't forgive you no matter what you do. It's too late to win back her trust, but it's not too late to reach Kynesgrove. We need to go, otherwise all our efforts will be useless and your friend will have suffered in vain".

Agda didn't understand the meaning of those words, but Steinarius apparently did. He looked torn for a few seconds, then eventually took his decision.

"Wait for me", he coldly told Delphine.

A second later, he scooped Agda up in his arms and headed for the Breton's room. The girl didn't want to have anything to do with the man who had almost strangled her for unknown reasons, therefore she tried to free herself from his embrace. Nevertheless, her weak efforts could do nothing against Steinarius' strength.

"Delphine says that Orgnar will be here soon", the Imperial whispered as he laid Agda on Delphine's huge bed. "Meanwhile I'll ask Sigrid to come here and take care of you".

As Steinarius spoke, Agda looked at his figure for the first time since he had entered the inn. She saw that he was covered in mud and sweat and dried blood, then she realized that his cuirass had been torn to pieces, thus revealing an awful gash on his chest.

Although the injury looked very painful, Agda didn't feel any hint of compassion. This man has just tried to kill you, a voice in the back of her mind reminded her for the thousandth time.

"Agda, you do deserve some explanations for what has happened", Steinarius muttered after lowering his gaze. At that moment, he couldn't stand to look the young Nord in the eyes. "Unfortunately, I don't have much time. I just want you to know that there's been a terrible misunderstanding and that I got mad at the wrong person. I shouldn't have treated you like that. I know that you probably hate me by now, but I also want you to know that I'm very sorry for what I did. If you granted me your forgiveness, I'd be the happiest man in Nirn".

Steinarius waited for Agda to reply, but his words fell on deaf ears - at that moment, the young innkeeper was only capable of hating him.

When the Imperial realized it, he sighed and left the only healing potion he had near Agda's pillow.

As he looked at her for the last time, his eyes were full of shame and sadness and regret.