Chapter 60: The Thalmor Embassy
[15th of Evening Star 4E 201]
On our leisure walk around Solitude we, that is Athis, Antonius, Janina and I, had been about to pass a hidden cave entrance, when first two males and then a female person came out in a hurry. While I did not recognize the first two and they seemed to be very much in a hurry and did not stop to introduce themselves either, the third person was Fiona, the Dragonborn. What was she doing up here?
The answer was provided only seconds later, while the petite young Bosmer lady ignored us, probably not even taking her time to see and find out who we were, and ran ahead, following the road south. Before I could even try to call out to her, three more people came out of the cave entrance, and they were quickly identified as Thalmor, judged by their size and characteristic Elven armor. Seeing the Thalmor as well I had a suspicion what this might be about, but didn't get a chance to dwell on it; the Altmer warriors had not noticed our party either, but one of them called out towards the fleeing Bosmer:
"Dragonborn, stop! You cannot escape us! Resistance is futile! You will be assimilated!"
What? No, the last phrase had been added by my science fiction addicted brain, still clearly recalling that from decades watching many Star Trek episodes and movies. However, the Thalmor were real, and before I could react in any way, two more Thalmor emerged and started to pursue Fiona as well. The Dragonborn turned around and shouted: 'FUS RO', so that the first three Thalmor were thrown back, but the last two Altmer came from a slightly different direction and were not affected. One of them, who wore robes rather than armor and looked like a mage, started to prepare a spell in his hand, and that was the cue for me to step in. I shouted with my best intimidating big bad Khajiit voice:
"What is going on here?"
The Thalmor were not impressed and clearly not intimidated; the one closest to me turned around and stated:
"Do not interfere! This is official Thalmor business!"
I did not like that reply at all, summoned Spirit next to Hanni and Nanni and responded:
"I don't care about your business, unless you decide to attack this lady over there. You can turn around right now or…"
The Thalmor obviously opted for the 'or…', quite as I had expected, and blasted a shock wave in my direction. I had expected something like this and evaded nimbly, and my three saber cat cubs raced ahead. My companions also got the hint, and Janina had her scimitars out while Antonius aimed with his bow. A few seconds later both of the Thalmor who had appeared last were down on the ground, not moving any longer, and we focused on the other three now, who had been slowed down and injured by Fiona's shout, but were now starting to heal themselves and resumed their attack. The first one had approached the Dragonborn, and she seemed to be too exhausted to do much about it. Antonius released an arrow and managed to hit that Thalmor right in the neck, so that he choked and dropped to the ground. The other two had planned to focus on Fiona as well but turned around now. Athis took one of them, while Janina swirled her scimitars around and had the other one disarmed and down on the ground in seconds. The Thalmor refused to surrender, and we had to kill all of them.
Once this was done, we found that none of us was really injured. I stepped over to Fiona, and one look at her confirmed that she was quite battered and exhausted; it appeared to be my destiny to meet her when she was not at her best. I handed her a potion of healing and one for stamina, and she gulped both of them down. She looked a little better now, and I made the introductions.
"So you are the Dragonborn" Antonius acknowledged her.
"Not much of an impression, right?" Fiona replied. She still wore the same armor she had had earlier, the one we had found in the entrance area of Bleak Falls Barrow. It looked somewhat worn and torn now, far from prime condition.
"Well, maybe not, but a person's real qualities are frequently hidden from view at first."
"Nicely phrased."
Naturally I asked her what had just happened, but she responded:
"I am sorry, but I am not at liberty to talk about it. However, I appreciate your assistance a lot, and I thank you very much for helping me out and saving me from being imprisoned by the Thalmor."
She looked at me specifically now and added:
"I guess that you have saved my poor hide once again."
I did not really want to tell her that this seemed to be part of my destiny and my 'job' and thus just nodded. Knowing that we were close to the Thalmor Embassy I had a good idea where she had just come from, and I asked:
"Fiona, where are your housecarls?"
"Oh, I had some business to do on my own, and they are waiting for me to come back."
Indeed, if she had just done what I suspected – the infiltration of the Thalmor Embassy, instigated by Delphine – she could not have taken her housecarls with her. She had probably told them to wait either in Solitude or closer to the embassy. Suddenly she raised her head and yelped. When I asked what the problem was she whispered to me, making sure that the others could not hear:
"I don't know, but Lydia and Rayya may feel tempted to do something real stupid, like trying to storm the embassy, if I am not back soon."
"Where exactly did you tell them to wait?"
"Just out of sight from the embassy. They were supposed to follow my carriage and wait for me there, and they do tend to get impatient."
"If it's all right for you, I will get them."
"Really? Do you know how to get there?"
"I will find a way. Rest here for some time, and I will be back with them soon."
I quickly told the others and set off. I had looked at the map, and I should be able to climb the rocks separating us from the embassy. First I ran south, then I followed an opening and then I started to climb, closely followed by my girls. Being a Khajiit certainly gave me an advantage here, as my bare 'paws' helped a lot, and I was not afraid of heights either. The climbing was not that bad, and my sense of direction, which I had already had before as a human, guided my towards the road, with the embassy clearly in sight. Thus I followed the road southeast, and when the embassy got out of sight, I looked around. Naturally, they were probably hidden somewhere, so that I started to call:
"Lydia, Rayya – where are you?"
There was no response, and I added:
"Fiona came out of the embassy grounds at a different entrance, and she wants you to come with me!"
That worked, and both warrior ladies jumped out of the bushes not far from me, with their hands on their weapons. Lydia questioned my statement:
"Khajiit, how do we know that you tell us the truth?"
"She told me that she had business in the embassy and had ordered you to wait just out of sight from there."
"Hm, it looks like you have indeed met her. All right, let's go, and I hope that you are not going to deceive us, Khajiit!" Rayya added.
I was still just 'Khajiit' to them; when would that change? We went down the same route and met the others, and Lydia and Rayya fuzzed around Fiona for some time. Lydia recognized my housecarl; they had served and trained together in Whiterun for some time after all:
"Antonius, fancy meeting you here. Aren't you supposed to be in Whiterun to complete your housecarl training?"
My housecarl nodded:
"Aye Lydia, that I did, and I got to use it earlier than expected."
"What do you mean?" Lydia asked.
"B'lushona is my Thane."
"What?" Lydia stuttered; clearly she had not expected me to be a Thane now.
Fiona now also asked:
"You made Thane, B'lushona?"
I nodded and explained:
"I had a few opportunities to do something good, including helping to slay a dragon, and Jarl Balgruuf decided to honor that."
"And why are you in Solitude now?"
I did not really want to tell her that my main motivation had been to hopefully get Jordis assigned, and thus I fell back to my second and official reason:
"The Bards College asked the Companions for help, and our Harbinger trusted Athis and me to do that quest. We succeeded, but some other issue came up, and we may be busy here for a few more days."
Looking at the sun, I added:
"Look, everybody, noon has passed, why don't we slowly walk back to the city?"
This suggestion found general agreement; we followed the road south and Janina now kept close to me again. She had some questions:
"So, how do you know the Dragonborn?"
"We met when we were at Helgen, when Alduin showed up for the first time."
"Is she traveling around searching for dragons all of the time?"
"No, not quite that. She is supposed to find out more about Alduin and the dragons, but I haven't had a chance yet to ask her if she made any progress with that. I had not seen her since we visited High Hrothgar together."
"You were up there, really?"
"You heard about the place?"
"Even in Hammerfell High Hrothgar is known, almost like a fairy tale, a mythical place. I never met anybody who had actually been up there, though."
"Well, yes, one could call it a mythical place. The Greybeards live up there, in some kind of monastery, and I had quite a good time with them. They even helped me to learn a dragon shout."
Now I got an odd look from her: "You can use a dragon shout? Really?"
I nodded, and the opportunity promptly presented itself to demonstrate that. We were just passing Wolfskull Cave now and were about to turn left, in southern direction, when a pack of wolves noticed us. Normally they would have ignored and avoided such a large party of people, but there were about a dozen of them and they looked hungry. They came closer, from all directions, and my companions prepared themselves for a fight. I called out:
"Do not attack them – I will calm them down!"
This being said, I opened my mouth wide and shouted: 'KAAN'.
Right away the wolves stopped their attack. They looked around, like reconsidering what they were doing, and started to disperse.
Janina stared at me with open mouth:
"Wow!"
Fiona also looked at me:
"So, you actually managed to learn and use that shout."
I just nodded, and we all passed the wolves and proceeded. Fiona continued to talk to me:
"So, what else have you been up to?"
"Do you really care?" was my response.
She lowered her head, and after not saying anything for a couple of minutes she replied with a very subdued voice, after she had checked that nobody else was within hearing distance:
"B'lushona, I understand that you are angry with me. We have both been pulled into this world, and I should have learned to see you as a fellow person from Earth rather that a ferocious beast. I have been lacking trust a lot, and you have saved my hide several times nonetheless. I know that I have no right to expect this, but can we start again, please?"
I looked at her, and her face seemed to indicate that she was serious about her statement. Her change of mind surprised me, but I was happy to hear it. Thus I replied:
"Fiona, no, I am not angry with you at all; I know that I look like the kind of person a pretty girl would not want to encounter alone at night. But remember, when we separated on the slopes of High Hrothgar, I told you that I would not mind to get some time to spend with my saber cat cubs, and I meant it. Also, I am kind of used to other people not caring about me, and in my previous life, I was very slow in making friends. So, of course, shall we have peace and friendship from now on?"
"Yes, please, and thank you."
We were both behind the others and out of hearing distance if we did not speak loud, and we continued to talk, just between the two of us.
"So, Fiona, first of all, my friends call me 'Balu', and I would like you to use my short name as well, if that's all right. Would you like to learn more about how and why I got into Skyrim?"
"Yes, I would like to hear about that, indeed."
I finally told her about the vision I had had and about my near death experience after the car accident. She listened attentively, and she had one question:
"So, Akatosh specifically told you to assist the Dragonborn?"
"Yes, he did, and I liked the concept. First of all, I was not going to be Dragonborn myself, and thus my agenda would be more flexible. Second, the Dragonborn was going to be female, and I was supposed to be close to her. Pardon my expectations, but I assumed the Dragonborn to be an impressive warrior, like Wonder Woman or Xena or so. Being close to such a woman for an extended period of time would have been nice, I thought."
Fiona started to laugh and I laughed with her, and when she had calmed down, she further asked:
"This is so much of a male stereotype expectation and wishful thinking! So, even with a Khajiit body you think like that?"
"Well, I do not know; I still have to find out about how certain things work. But I have to admit that I do like strong and tall women, you know, like Freya."
She got my meaning and laughed again, and then she said:
"You know, Freya did not talk much about her feelings, but I think that she liked you as well; it's such a pity that she had die. And now, let me tell you a little bit about how things happened on my side. You see, I have always been on the tiny side and smaller than my classmates, and I found it hard to excel at something; I was mocked about my size a lot, and most others looked down at me, not only literally. In the last few years I got into archery lessons, and that was finally something I was good at. A couple of years ago my parents died in an accident, and I was taken in by an aunt. She gave my a roof over my head and something to eat, but nothing for my heart and soul; I was close to despairing, as I did not have any real good friends either. One day I was on a boat on one of the lakes, just on my own; managing a boat with sails is also something I can do quite well. The weather changed very quickly, and before I realized it a storm came up. I had a bit of a trouble getting back to the shore, and suddenly I thought that perishing might not be such a bad idea; nobody would really miss me. I must have fainted for a minute or two from the effort, and I vaguely recall some odd dream about two very impressive apparitions, and the two Divines, as they called themselves, were Akatosh and Arkay, as they said. They both told me that they would like to have me for another world where my services were needed, and I would not regret that; I would even be some kind of hero. Dazed, dreamy and exhausted as I was, I mentally nodded; the boat dropped me into the water, and although I can swim well, the waves and the wind made me drown. I did not feel any pain, but just fainted, and when I woke up some time later, I found myself in Helgen, with soldiers yelling at me to get off the cart."
"Wow, that's quite something. It looks like they are grabbing people who were not really happy before."
"Maybe, but why Akatosh and Arkay? They are two of the Nine Divines here in Tamriel, aren't they? How could they find me on Earth? Is this a different universe or just a different galaxy or so?"
"About the latter, I do not know. Akatosh and Arkay are indeed two of the Nine Divines, with Akatosh being the 'The Dragon God of Time' and kind of boss deity – you know, like Zeus was in the Greek mythology – and Arkay being the 'God of the Cycle of Life and Death' or something like this. For you as Dragonborn it seems to make sense that those two showed themselves to you, I think."
"What about the other Divines?"
"Maybe you get a chance to get in contact with some of them later, like I did with Kynareth."
"Hm, maybe. Now, what about you? You mentioned something abut your earlier life; you were an engineer and made quite some money; why did you agree to come here?"
"Fiona, yes, I had money, but I lacked most of a social live and had very few friends, and I always thought that I'd be missing something. I definitely have no regrets about coming here, and I am very grateful to Akatosh and now, with my new shout, also to Kynareth."
"I also don't have any regrets, but at first I was so scared. I had no idea at all what was going on."
"That's an advantage I had. Once I had recognized that environment, I had a good guess."
"Yes, I have wondered about that. You claimed that you had read books, but are there really books on this world on Earth?"
"Actually, there is a series of computer games on Tamriel, and that's where I have my knowledge from."
"Wait a second – is that the 'Elder Scrolls' series?"
"Yes, it actually is, and the fifth installation is about this province. You know about it?"
"I have heard about it, and some classmates claimed that they played it. I am not into computer games at all and spent much more time outdoors. But, is this really the same? The computer game shows how life here is?"
"For some odd reason, yes. The events in Helgen were mostly like in the game, and many quests are, too. I have done many things so far like in the game, and events match a lot, though not fully. I even know why you were in the Thalmor Embassy."
"You do?"
I looked around again to make sure that nobody else was withing hearing distance. Antonius was talking to Lydia and Athis chatted with Janina, while Rayya was at the very rear; we were good.
"Yes, you talked to Delphine, who suspects the Thalmor to be behind the reappearance of the dragons, and she got you an invitation to a party. You got in, got smuggled through the kitchen by that male wood elf whose name I forgot, and you collected some notes from Elenwen՚s solar. You got out through the basement where you also managed to rescue a prisoner who had been tortured there."
She looked at me with open mouth and swallowed. After a minute or so she replied:
"Wow, that's really amazing, and yes, you are right. It was quite difficult, but at least Delphine had a pretty good idea what I'd encounter, and she managed to get a few invisibility potions for me; without those, I would have utterly failed already in the main embassy building."
I nodded, and I recalled that I had once, while playing the game, managed to complete this quest almost completely without being noticed with a few potions of invisibility; only at the end there had been no way to avoid a fight. Meanwhile Fiona asked:
"One more question. How come you are a Khajiit? That's not even close to your former body, right? And Balu is also not your real name, I should think."
I laughed: "No, you are right. I had frequently selected a Khajiit in the game, and my former body was not really impressive. I am very glad that they decided to transform me into a big Khajiit, and I adopted the name I had invented for my last playthrough. What about yourself?"
"Well, I did mention that I was tiny, and that has not really changed. I now have a darker skin than before, which is good, as I won't get any suntan lotion here, my ears are much longer and pointed, and my body is somewhat better proportioned and more agile and nimble, although I am not quite sure how to explain that. Overall, I feel much better in this body than in my old one, and I start getting used to being here. The one thing I really hate is to get into scary situations all of the time. In the embassy, they almost got me, and I shudder when I think about what they might have done with me. I really should not have listened to Delphine."
"She can be quite persuasive, right?"
"It's not only that. You see, I am like a seventeen year old school girl, and she behaves like she's my teacher or so. It's natural to obey and go along with what she says."
"But you don't have to. Actually, as you are the Dragonborn, she is supposed to follow your lead!"
"Me and lead? Where to? I don't know anything!"
"And she does not know much either. Believe me, you are allowed to take your time and think about the situation and possible options to go forward. Nobody, maybe except Delphine, expects you to solve that dragon problem within a few days or so, and you are also not alone."
"No, I do have two housecarls with me, but they don't have a clue about what's going on either."
"Maybe not, but there are other people as well. The Greybeards, for instance, can give you some valuable advice, although they are also somewhat biased."
"Isn't everybody biased?"
"Actually, probably yes, at least to some extent. That is one of the rules in the game. As the player and the Dragonborn, it's you making the decisions, and the others have to live with that. Of course, it's probably not a good idea at all to antagonize everybody who you meet; you will need friends and comrades. Somebody who plays the game for the first time does not know more than you do now, and it's made in a way that you can still proceed. In other words, more information will offer itself sooner or later, and real Skyrim probably has more alternate routes and options either."
"Alternate routes?"
"Well, in the game you sometimes can only proceed if you do certain things in a specific order. For instance, you will not get anywhere with the dragon issue unless you actually go to that party in the embassy. There might have been other options here, but at least I can tell you that the next few steps will be less scary. In addition, for almost everything coming up you can take your warrior ladies with you."
"That is comforting, at least. So, what can you tell me about what's ahead of me?"
"To be honest, I am not really sure how much I should tell you. Getting more information might help initially, but you might also get too much focused in a specific direction. I believe that the next few steps will come up by themselves, assuming that your next stop is going to be Riften?"
"Yes, indeed, that is going to be on my list." She sighed and continued: "I think that Delphine will come up with more plans and won't give me any rest."
"As I said, you are not obliged to do everything she says whenever she says. Above and beyond that, for most of what you are supposed to do there is no tight timeline. You are allowed to rest from time to time and get a free weekend at least. Hey, what about that. I have some business to conclude here in Solitude, which may take a few more days, not more than one week, I expect. Janina, the tall Redguard over there, wants to get to Whiterun to meet somebody, and I will travel with her. Why don't you join us, and we take it easy until then?"
"That sounds good – thank you. Fortunately, I did not leave whatever I could not take into the embassy with Delphine, as she had suggested, but with Lydia and Rayya, so that I have almost everything back now. Well, I still do not have much money; say, the job as Dragonborn does not come with a regular income, or does it?"
I laughed and replied:
"No, unfortunately it does not. But don't worry; there will be plenty of opportunities to find loot and sell it, and to collect bounties."
I had to admit that I was quite happy that Fiona and I could talk normally now; maybe we could establish a lose friendship and occasionally talk about our past; that would be nice. She had one more question, though:
"Now, about Janina, where is she from? I have not seen anyone yet in Skyrim with slanted Asian eyes."
"She says that she is from Hammerfell, where the Redguards live, but there is probably more to it. I do not know a lot about her, and I only met her for the first time a few days ago. However, she is quite a formidable warrior. You may not have noticed earlier, but when we fought the Thalmor, she took two of them on her own, and when she moves her scimitars, that looks amazing."
"Are you talking more about her scimitars or about her body?" Fiona smirked and looked up at me.
I laughed and replied: "Good point, Dragonborn. I think both, actually. No offense meant, but when I thought about a female Dragonborn before, I had someone like her in mind, in my imagination."
Now she laughed as well: "So, when you found out that it was me instead, a tiny wood elf, you were disappointed, right?"
"To some extent, yes. But I do know quite well that a person is not only defined by his or her outer looks alone. It's just what catches the eye first. Hey, by the way, I met another petite wood elf, and she's quite a nice person, too; Mia works in the alchemy store in Whiterun now, and you will probably meet her when we get there."
Yes, indeed, I was looking forward to get back to Whiterun again, which I considered my home. We'd have to complete our work here first, though, and I had a feeling that at least one more challenging task might be waiting in Solitude.
[Author's Notes: Yes, we have met the Dragonborn again, and once more she's been in trouble.
About reviews: One of latest reviews I got, the one from 'jack gofyourself', is IMO border line. While I do appreciate to also get (constructive) negative feedback, I ask that reviewers refrain from using curses and cusses, please. If somebody is interested to get personal replies, which I very much like to do, please send reviews from an account I am allowedto reply to. Thank you!]
