Hello everyone,
Moving into a new house today, from my apartment of three years. It's a bittersweet feeling, let me tell you what. Lots of memories made in this apartment, and there will be more to come in the house. Anyway, enough about me, how is everyone's life going?
You know the best advice I ever got was?
'Life is chaos.'
Once you really break that down, and start to believe it, you'll start expecting the trials life throws at you. After you go through these trials, you'll realize that we are much stronger than we could ever possibly imagine. Don't let the trials break you, just accept them as life and beat those fucking trials into the ground.
Hold your head up high, square your shoulders, and look the devil in the eye.
Enough motivational talk, on to the chapter!
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Disclaimer: I own nothing.
The best possible application for Restoration is for a hangover.
That was exactly how I spent the first five minutes of my morning, the day after Igmund acting out in Rorikstead. Ariella and I had our fair share of alcohol. As a nord, that was saying a lot. Something in the back of my mind told me to watch out for cows.
What is that about? Cows?
I shook my head and got out of bed. Thank Talos there was nobody else laying around in the sheets. I would have broken my own rule. Rorik, and Imgund would both call for my head. They wouldn't get it of course, but it would be very very bad.
I quickly donned my, now signature, gambeson that was gifted to me by Calcelmo. My mind strayed to wonder what he was up to. Most likely, it involved the Dwemer somehow.
I walked outside my tent, to find that the sun was very close to peaking it's head out over the horizon. Legionnaires marched around me. Some were finishing their morning march, some were headed to take down tents and load them in the carts for our 'engineers'. Fancy term for labor.
I decided that was a good idea, and for the first time in this life, I began to take my own tent apart. The only difference was that I cheated and used magick. It was ridiculously easy and efficient. I was done in a few minutes.
Enden found me after I finished.
"We have set up the whipping post, and are awaiting your judgement." Enden told me as soon as he got within talking distance.
"Good morning to you too." I greeted the dunmer. Enden nodded at me, but did not return the phrase. "How many lashes do you think?" I asked him curiously. I already had the number in my head, but I wanted to know what he thought.
"Ten sounds efficient enough. One of the College healed his jaw, and a few other fractures around his face." Enden said uncaringly. He did not think very highly of Thren it seemed. My respect for the dunmer went up slightly.
"Agreed, will you do it?" I asked Enden, curious if he wanted the offer.
He let out a faint smirk. "Of course, Battlemage." Enden said before turning slightly, and motioning for me to follow. I obliged, and soon we ran into a crowd of legionnaires. The overwhelming majority of them looked at me with respect, and snapped to attention as we passed. A few gave me smoldering looks. It was inevitable that Thren would win over some of the men in Markarth after my departure. I knew that I still held more influence there, however.
Soon, we made our way through the crowd, where Thren was already tied to a whipping post with his back bared to us. I stepped forward to give the punishment quickly.
"For disobeying my orders of good behavior during our stay in Rorikstead, I sentence Captain Thren to ten lashes." I said, and paused to let the crowd adjust to the news before I dropped the real news of the morning. This was something I planned ever since I saw him sitting next to Igmund in that Inn.
"I strip Captain Thren of his position over the guard of Markarth and demote him to Legate for his actions."
A murmur swept over the crowd of disciplined men surrounding us. Clinks of armor shook and also rang out. I expected roars. I took it as a good sign.
"Legate Brun is now promoted to Captain, and will assume his duties. Carry out the sentence." I commanded with a slight grin and stepped to the side.
I didn't see the first lash, but I heard it and Captain Thren's moan of pain. A much louder murmur went through the crowd this time, as everyone started talking about the news. They weren't even paying attention to the man who was receiving his second lash. Brun's promotion was definitely a political play by me. That was a man loyal to me, and to the discipline I instilled to him.
Thren provided a great opportunity. The first, and most useful is the example I get to set to anyone who steps out of line during our march across Skyrim. If this could happen to a Captain, then nobody was safe. The second was getting to reward Brun for his time spent underneath me in Markarth. I had confidence in his abilities and the men respected him.
Thren didn't make it past lash number seven before he passed out. A part of me felt pity. A part called him a pussy. That wasn't really fair, considering I was using magick to offset both the impact and pain of the lashings he subjected me to. Wasn't my fault he didn't learn any magick after seeing how useful it could be in my hands.
"Brutish." I heard a feminine, but stern voice say beside me.
Mirabelle Ervine was standing there, watching the man be carried off to whoever decided to heal him yesterday. Something in my mind, considered the woman beside me as the main candidate for Thren's miraculous recovery from a broken jaw.
"Yes." I agreed with her. It was a bit brutish. "But effective."
She smirked slightly, and then nodded before turning and following the men carrying Thren. That told me she was, in fact, the College member responsible for healing Thren. But her reaction told me she approved of my punishment. She seemed the type of woman to see motivations behind people. That would explain why Ariella keeps her around, despite her vocal disrespect of the woman.
To Helgen. Let the road be smoother.
From Rorikstead, we traveled southeast across Skyrim.
The schedule didn't change much. Wake up, march, lunch, march, dinner, and then exhaust myself with Mages Downfall. I stopped keeping up with my progress about two weeks after Rorikstead. All I knew was that I had a long way to go and three minutes was not long enough.
Luckily, it was an uneventful march, if long. Our numbers continued to swell with new members. Young nords, in search of glory and Sovngarde. I too still wanted to dine in Shor's hall, but I did not wish to see it anytime soon. I couldn't understand my people's obsession with death.
Truly, it was no different in my past life. Was I religious, absolutely. But in the world I found myself in, Sovngarde was all but guaranteed. You got to visit it, as the Dragonborn and recruit warrior of old to your cause. Plus, I was still a nord, and the prospect of Sovngarde called to me. I suppose it was natural of me to want peace at the end of everything.
Ariella and I talked on the subject often as we traveled.
What we never talked about was our past lives. We didn't even talk about our past in this life, until we reached Lake Ilinalta.
There were few warnings along the road that we were about to pass one of the biggest bodies of water in Tamriel. I knew that we had been traveling around the massive lake, but the road must have kept us around two or three miles off seeing it.
When we finally did, it was glorious.
I could see it through the trees as we passed a bend in the road. The light from the sun glittered off of it's surface and hit me in the eyes a couple of times, when it shouldn't have been able to. Finally, we came to a point in the road that bordered the massive lake.
And unlike the game map, there was a bustling town along the road. My memories told me it was right about where the lakeview manor should have been. Once again, the games did not do this world justice.
Mountains hung over the opposite side of the lake. I knew that same mountain range would run all the way back to my hometown, Riverwood. Pine trees surrounded the lake, reminding me of my past life.
And there was a little port, right there beside the road on the way to Helgen. I wondered how the hell a lake could support enough fishing for there to be an industry here. Is that even possible? I knew there was a river that extended from the lake and ran all the way to the ocean but still…
We set up camp on the side of the lake, and the men took the opportunity provided to them and explored the water. Some bathed, some just swam, and some purchased fishing equipment for dinner that night.
I was just about to undress and go to bed, when there was a knock at the front of my tent.
"Come in." I called out, without bothering to stand up.
Ariella walked in, dressed as she normally did. Her blonde hair was in an elegant braid that fell down her back. In her hand, she had what looked to be two wine bottles. I couldn't help but smile at what this meant.
"Nobody wants to drink with me." Ariella whined.
I laughed at the sight of her pouting with two wine bottles in her hand. Why not just one wine bottle? Because that wouldn't be enough of course.
"That's because the last time you drank, you pushed over a sleeping cow." I accused.
She got a look of betrayal on her face and pointed a wine bottle at me. "That's because you told me to! I didn't even know what cow tipping was!"
I continued to laugh at the memory of that night in Rorikstead. It took a couple of days on the road for Enden to bring up that particular night and what happened. Apparently Ariella and I drank entirely too much and I introduced her to a past time of the South United States. Really it was just a really old game nobody played anymore. And it was funny as hell to push a cow over. Kind of fucked up though.
"Nords value cows more than you can imagine." I told her in a serious tone.
"The people of Rorikstead hate me because of you." Ariella said in a whiny tone again.
I just shrugged and stood up before walking over to her. She gave me the death stare as I approached, but still handed me the bottle as I got to her. It was in a fairly fancy looking bottle.
"So what now?" I asked with a grin.
Apparently, accepting the wine meant that we were not going to be sitting in my tent drinking it, but rather going out by the lake.
"I spent all day here." Ariella said as she reached her destination.
We traveled north from my tent, through the forest surrounding the lake to this piece of elevated land. It was a cliff about thirty feet taller than the top of the water and when you got past the forest, it was mainly just stone.
The magelight she had above her head disappeared when I entered the clearing, and everything went dark. I summoned my magicka quickly and directed it to my eyes.
One good thing about being on the road, is that I got more magickal studying in than I ever could.
The world lit up as my eyes shifted to mimic how a cat would see during the night. It was an interesting experience, because while I could make out shapes during the spell, my actual vision deteriorated significantly.
I quickly saw where the edge of the cliff was and made my way over to where Ariella was starting to sit down with her feet dangling off the edge. I joined her.
"That seems like an amazing thing to do." I commented as I cut off the flow of magicka to my eyes.
"It was relaxing." Ariella said. "It reminds me of High Rock actually."
I took another drink out of my bottle of wine. I could have sworn that I was drinking faster than she was, but every time I looked down I saw a little bit more was gone from her bottle. It seemed a bit fishy, but I did not comment.
"Never been. Is it anything like Markarth?" I asked a little ignorantly. The city does sit very close to the border after all.
"Mmm the Reach does extend into High Rock, and there are many clans of people there. Most notably is Orsinium, although it is nothing like it's previous reincarnations. Not very fond of outsiders, I must admit." Ariella commented as she looked up at the stars. "At least, that's what mother said."
Ariella looked to sober up slightly at that thought, and then took a big swig of her wine. I didn't comment, and instead waited for her to continue.
"The province gets more and more Bretonish as you move west. I can't speak much of the other states, but Glenumbra was my favorite. It is so beautiful there. There is this massive forest of Beldama Wyrd trees that cover the forest floor. The fauna that grow underneath that haven are just as beautiful and deadly. At the center is the Beldama Wyrd Tree, I know… original name." Ariella threw that last part in after I gave her a look.
"The forest disappears as you move even further west into Daggerfall. Mostly grassland to the west until you hit Daggerfall and the ocean. North is Hag Fen, home to a bunch of hags. Can't say we haven't tried to rid ourselves of those menaces." Ariella paused once again to look up at the stars. "At least that is what mother claimed."
I hadn't planned to comment on her mother, it seemed like a sore subject. But, I did anyway.
"You miss her." I summed up simply.
Ariella nodded to me and took another swig of her wine.
"I didn't know my parents well enough to miss them. Both of them died in the Great War, at least that's what they told me." I commented, trying to relate somehow to her. "My uncle and aunt took me in, Dorthe must be coming into her own by now."
I could only barely picture her face, it had been so long since I last tried. "Might even be forging by now. She was so adamant when I left, but could only swing a hammer a couple of times before she tired out. Uncle Al always had a lumpy piece of iron afterwards. Still, he'd praise her for her work while she sulked. He used to turn them into swords or daggers and let her name them. I think she's named the last two thousand items to come out of that smith." I said with a smile. I took a swig of wine and looked to Ariella.
She was staring at me. One knee was brought to her chest, and her head was resting on it, looking at me. I winked at her and looked back to the sky.
The past few months, I had become spoiled to the view Skyrim provided. Out here in the wild, with no cities casting light pollution, you could truly look into the sky and see stars. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.
"I never had any siblings." Ariella said. "Only a few friends that turned into acquaintances, and now strangers. Mother was always there for me. She taught me everything." She paused for a moment.
I didn't talk, instead just let her gather her thoughts. I did almost memorize the information however. Anything about her past, I was quick to latch on to. It was a habit I picked up in my last life about people I cared about.
"Before…" She paused again and gestured to the world around us and then herself. "...this, I was a victim. Could never get ahead, always looking for someone to blame. When I got here, mother beat that out of me pretty quickly. Not literally of course!" Ariella corrected herself.
She's talking about before her transmigration, she was a victim.
That was the first bit of information of who Ariella was before she got here. And the way she talked, it seemed like she had been here for a while. Much longer than myself if I had to guess. More information filed away.
"Taught me my first spell, it was the equivalent to a lighter." Ariella laughed as she said that.
I couldn't imagine her creating such a small flame. Instead, I imagined her raining down suns of flame on her enemies. She had definitely grown since then.
"When she saw how advanced I was… well she made sure to drag every ounce of potential out of me." Ariella continued.
"I probably shouldn't ask." I started, but we were close enough that I could ask the question without offending her. "But was your mother Altmer?" I asked curiously.
Ariella smiled and nodded to me. "Full blooded." She clarified. "Fell in love with a damn nord too, who would've known."
That shocked me, but explained Ariella's height and build. Altmer seemed to be a little slimmer, naturally. It was obvious to me that Ariella was more ...developed than normal. Also she was closer to nord pale than Altmer pale. Her hair did scream otherworldly though. Now that I thought about it, she resembled Snow Elves more than Altmer.
"He died in the Great War too. Never knew him. The Aldmeri thought it ironic that a nord fought and died for them. My mother cursed her homeland for that." Ariella said a little morbidly. I could actually see the Altmer doing that, now that I thought about it. "Fled to High Rock, got caught up in court politics until she too, was killed."
And that was what I was waiting for. A part of me knew that Ariella's mother was dead, just by the way she referred to her. I wanted to say sorry, or something, but it always felt hollow saying that about someone you never knew. Instead, I just stayed still as she leaned against me and laid her head on my shoulder.
Her bottle clattered on the stone around her, empty. I hadn't even noticed her drink the rest of it, maybe she hadn't.
"She'd be proud of you." I commented truthfully. Any mother, or father, would be proud of the things Ariella had accomplished, and what she will go on to accomplish, which was sure to be grand.
"Thanks." Ariella mumbled sleepily.
I rolled my eyes, because I knew she was about to go to sleep on my shoulder. It seemed like such a cliche for it to happen. But as her light snores hit my ears and her breathing evened out, I could only do one thing.
I smiled in content.
A/N: Boom!
Another short chapter in the books! This time we get a little backstory with Ariella and a stupid romantic scene. We're really just traveling right now, so I don't want to just skip through it too much and I don't want to focus on it. Also it does provide some opportunities with world building and character relationships.
So anyway, Captain Thren is demoted, something Hadvar loved to do! And traveling. Filler but it is what it is baby!
Let's talk in the reviews!