Marie stumbled around as she tried to orient herself. The breton's bare feet were cold, rough cobbled floor below her digging into her skin. She was surrounded by darkness, a seemingly endless expanse in all directions.

Marie couldn't see her body, or anything other than the black void that engulfed her. Her breaths were shallow and anxious, pulse racing as her eyes desperately searched for any sort of light to cling to. The darkness was too much, paralyzing her as though any direction she moved might see her slip off a cliff or walk into the waiting maw of a dragon. It was unknown, aggressive, predatory, and she had nothing to fight against it with. Try as she swung her unfeeling arms and slapped at the inky black, no spells lit the space, as though she were little more than a floating pair of eyes trapped in purgatory.

Suddenly, from behind, a golden light erupted. It felt warm against her back, washing over her shoulders and allowing them to relax. Her mind immediately moved on from the dark, as though it were never there to begin with.

"Speak, child, and choose how your new life shall begin." A gentle female voice echoed across the area, breaking across Marie's back like a wave from the warm oceans she'd only ever heard about. It put her at ease, even if she wasn't sure why.

"My new life? What about my old one?" She protested, unable to turn to face the ethereal-sounding speaker. Now that the place was illuminated in a golden glow, she could see that she was standing in a tiny prison cell, a stone wall mere feet from her face.

"What about it? You're trapped, there's nowhere left for it to go." The woman argued. Somehow, Marie knew this was correct, as though the voice couldn't lie. It took her a minute to remember that she had no idea why she was in a jail cell dressed in rags.

"I'm… not trapped." She spoke hesitantly, as though grasping at a faint memory. She knew this wasn't right, but the voice was so comforting she had to truly put up a fight to argue against it. Something about this wasn't right, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. "I'm camping…" Marie murmured, grasping at her most recent memories.

"Perhaps, but you're trapped. You're going nowhere, no goals, no purpose. Wouldn't you want to start over on your own terms?" The voice cooed. If she didn't know better, Marie could say she felt the ghost of hands on her shoulders. When it was phrased like that, she couldn't help but agree. She had to physically stop herself from nodding along.

"…no I'm not. I don't know wh—"

Before Marie could finish protesting, she suddenly woke up.


Normally, I wouldn't bother with such longwinded author notes before the story has even begun properly, but I do find it somewhat important to add some context to what I'm doing here. This entire experience is intended to be a bit of a writing exercise for me, a thought I had whilst playing through an earlier Skyrim character. My selection of mods tend to lean towards a much scrappier, slower, and more slice-of-life roleplaying journey, so what better way is there to help hone my character-building and appreciate the game than by transcribing her journey across Skyrim one-to-one! The game has days, I have iNeed, and FFN has chapters, it's like it was meant to be. It goes without saying that the journey will follow the exact events of Skyrim quests, as well as my own personal adventures and any added by mods, so keep an eye out for anything you recognize!

So, every day within Skyrim becomes a chapter here. I play one in-game day and take notes, write a chapter recounting that day, and rise and repeat. I intend for this to be updated daily or every other day, at least through the end of the year… if it's 2022 and there are more than thirty chapters, I guess I did my job! Hopefully this is an interesting read, it's been a hot minute since I've done any fan writing. Thank you for stopping by none the less!