Chapter Summary: Miranja and Faendal set out for Ivarstead and High Hrothgar, with a surprising turn of events for both of them.
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As Miranja, Lydia, and Faendal had previously discussed, Faendal was asleep – in his clothes – in Lydia's bed when Miranja got home and checked on him. She wasn't sure why she didn't want him to know who she'd been with or what they'd done; it wasn't like he was interested in her, and she was pretty sure he wouldn't judge her for needing to relieve her sexual tension. If only she could tell him that he was the primary reason for that tension. If only he could have been the one to relieve her. Not that she hadn't thoroughly enjoyed making her fantasy an actuality.
She crept into the room and crouched next to the bed, gazing at him in the dim, flickering lamplight. He lay on his side, facing away from her. His breathing was a little heavy and his body was radiating heat. She could see sweat on his brow and a dark circle of sweat beneath his armpit. He hadn't seemed that warm the night they'd slept in the same bed at the Bannered Mare a month ago. Was he ill? Had he drunk too much brandy? He seemed to be sleeping peacefully enough. She reached out to wipe the sweat from his brow with her hand, but thought better of it and withdrew, not wanting to risk waking him. She may have been sexually fulfilled at that moment, but her heart still ached to touch Faendal tenderly and intimately.
In her room, Miranja poured some water into her wash basin, stripped, and began washing up before getting into bed. The brothers' camouflage paint had rubbed off on her face and body, so although she'd bathed earlier, she needed to wash everything but her hair all over again. Lydia lay on the far side of the bed, and Miranja was surprised when Lydia rolled over and spoke.
"Glad to see you made it home in one piece," Lydia said groggily.
"I had a little run-in with some wolves," Miranja told her, holding up her arm and showing Lydia the scratches. "But it was nothing I couldn't handle. As for the date, it was incredibly satisfying all around."
Lydia smiled and snuggled back into a comfortable position, pulling the fur up to her chin. "Glad to hear it. See you in the morning." She was back to sleep in just a couple of minutes.
Miranja finished her toilet and climbed in on the other side of the bed, but it took her a while to get to sleep. She was replaying tonight's erotic escapades in her mind, imagining Faendal in the mix, three sexy Bosmer men at once. Mmm, how would she satisfy all three of them? She wasn't sure, but it would certainly be fun trying.
She thought once again of Faendal and his strange feverishness, hoping he would be better in the morning. She mentally said a brief prayer to Mara and Arkay before finally falling asleep.
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They woke at dawn, ate a quick, cold breakfast, and set out for Ivarstead before the frost even started melting off the tundra plants. Faendal seemed to be his perfectly normal self, and he didn't mention feeling ill the night before. Miranja didn't mention it, either; she didn't want him to feel uncomfortable about her having come in to watch him sleep.
The journey to Ivarstead was a typical Skyrim road trip. There were wolves and skeevers near the Ritual Stone. A bandit at Valtheim Towers tried to make them pay a toll to pass, but Miranja's growing speechcraft skills convinced her to let them pass in peace. They were attacked by a dragon near Fort Amol. They made a side trip to Darkwater Crossing so that Miranja could visit Anneke, Hrefna, and mostly the handsome, gentle Sondas, who she'd met a couple of weeks ago when she'd played courier between Sylgja and her parents. Although Miranja had no intentions of having children herself, she found it extremely attractive and touching that Sondas helped Tormir with caring for and mentoring her daughter Hrefna, who was obviously very fond of Sondas. He was a simple man with a simple life who exuded contentment and a certain purity, and being around him made her feel happy and at peace, in a different way than being around Gwilin.
Today, Sondas was not quite as peaceful as usual. His fellow miners had been complaining of increased coughing and pain in their lungs. He asked Miranja if she would be so kind as to deliver a note requesting medicines to Quintus at the White Phial in Windhelm the next time she went there. Of course, Miranja was happy to oblige; there wasn't much she wouldn't do for such a compassionate, honorable man.
"We're on our way to High Hrothgar on a rather important mission," Miranja explained, "but since we're only going for information, we should be done by the end of the day, and we can go straight to Windhelm tomorrow."
"I can't tell you how much I appreciate it," Sondas told her. Miranja took advantage of the situation to hug Sondas and kiss his cheek. He seemed a bit embarrassed, but still pleased at her expression of affection.
Miranja and Faendal hung around the camp for about half an hour, having some lunch and chatting with Anneke about her old adventuring days. Miranja was almost able to forget the enormous responsibility looming in her future, if only for a little while, but she didn't want to linger there too long, since there was a dragon flying around nearby and she tended to attract them.
They made Ivarstead by early afternoon. Miranja made the rounds visiting everyone. Speaking with Wilhelm, she asked what was wrong with Narfi and who Reyda was. Wilhelm told her that Reyda was Narfi's sister, who had disappeared about a year ago somewhere between Ivarstead and the island in the middle of Lake Geir while gathering alchemy ingredients. He admitted to having told Narfi that his sister would return, but told Miranja that he was pretty sure that Reyda was dead. Miranja's heart was filled with compassion for Narfi, and she decided to take the time to search for Reyda.
"Her remains would most likely be near the lakeshore or underwater," Faendal told Miranja as they stepped out onto the porch of the inn. "Considering that the villagers and the guards would have searched the shore first, and they obviously didn't find her, I'd wager ten septims that her remains are in the river. The question is, how far would the current have carried her?"
"I have a clairvoyance spell I can use, so that should help save us too much swimming around in this cold mountain water."
Fortunately, they located Reyda's skeleton not too far downstream from the bridge. Miranja stripped to her under-armor clothes and, to get the shock over with quickly, submerged herself entirely under the water by wading in and letting her legs collapse beneath her. Reyda's skeleton was visible just a few feet away, and Miranja made her way toward it against the current. There was an apothecary satchel among the bones, and it contained some surprisingly intact herbs and a silver necklace. She took everything and hurried back to shore. Behind Klimmek's house, she changed out of her wet clothes and into her fur armor in anticipation of the trip up the snowy mountain. She dried her hair as well as she could and tucked her braid up under her fur hat. She left the wet clothes to hang over the porch railing at the inn, with Wilhelm's permission, so they could dry while she was on the mountain.
When she returned Reyda's necklace to Narfi, she was faced with the uncomfortable choice to either keep him believing the lie that his sister would come home or tell him the truth. Either way, she figured, Narfi would be disconsolate, so she opted to tell him the truth. Of course, Narfi was upset, but Miranja hugged him and soothed him the best she could before she had to get moving again.
Miranja had assumed that the trip to High Hrothgar would be quick and easy, but that was not the case. After she returned the horn to the Greybeards, Arngeir taught her the final word to Unrelenting Force, as he had promised. When she spoke to Arngeir about the dragon-killing Shout, he told her it was called Dragonrend, but he couldn't teach it to her because he didn't know it himself. He was obviously displeased that she had been associating with the Blades and didn't really want to do anything that might assist them, but to Miranja's surprise, Einarth took her part and chastised Arngeir to let her speak to Paarthurnax. They taught her the Shout Clear Skies so that she could get past the strange, dangerous wind and mist that had blocked her path before.
The path from High Hrothgar to the mountaintop had two ice wraiths and a frost troll, but they made it up there close to sundown – only to be confronted by a dragon who landed in front of an unexpected dragon wall! But this dragon wasn't hostile; this was the mysterious Paarthurnax, the leader of the Greybeards. What a surprise! He spoke to her in a rational, almost soothing manner, and he even taught her another Shout word – "yol" for the Fire Breath Shout.
Paarthurnax told her that the strange, sparkling patch of space near the dragon wall was a time-wound, created by the warriors known as the Tongues in the Merethic era when they had used not only the Dragonrend Shout but also an Elder Scroll to banish Alduin from Nirn. He was cast onto the currents of Time and, while they had hoped he would be gone forever, he had obviously returned. She must find an Elder Scroll to defeat him once again, Paarthurnax told her.
By the time their conversation had run its course, it was full dark. Miranja didn't want to journey back down the mountain in the dark, so she and Faendal set up camp in the shelter of the dragon wall. Their day had begun before sunrise, and they were tired and hungry, so they cooked some of the food they'd packed. Once their bellies were pleasantly full, they spread Miranja's bedroll under the lean-to shelter they'd set up, and they spooned together under Faendal's bedroll to keep each other warm against the cold.
Faendal insisted on being the one in front, saying it was in case anything happened during the night, so he could be the first line of defense. Miranja had mixed feelings about that; either he was being truthful or he had some other reason, like perhaps he didn't want to have her in his face while he slept. She felt a strange certainty that she could trust Paarthurnax, and if anyone was going to be the first line of defense, it would be Paarthurnax. Who or what could get to them through a dragon? What creatures would even come up here, knowing there was a dragon residing here? Oh well, being behind Faendal meant that she could put her arms around him and press her face into his shoulders and fall asleep with the scent of him in her nostrils. She couldn't really complain about that, now, could she?