Author's Note: I'm back bitches.
UNBOUND
Ralof rushed over and put my arm over his shoulder and carried me to the room's center, "Shit, did you take a hit? You looked fine after we dealt with Hadvar."
"No," I pushed Ralof off of me and stretched, "It's not worth explaining. We just need to get ready."
Ralof looked at me, confused, "For what? Is your dragon going to topple the keep on top of us?"
"First off, not my dragon," I grunt as I pull the Fur Boots off of Gunjar. "And second, for the Imperials about to come through that gate," I point with a boot, then pull it on.
"Well, this is jarring," Ralof mutters as he heads to the opposite locked gate.
"Locked dumbass. And the fuck you mean by that?" I retort as I struggle with Gunjar's Stormcloak Cuirass.
Ralof tries the door anyway and chuckles. "Well, whaddya know," he mutters under his breath.
"You gonna answer my question or what?" I glare at Ralof. Ralof shakes his head with a smile and puts his hand on his axes. "Are you gonna answer mine?"
"Look, Ralof, we don't have all day." I stand and pull on the Cuirass. "Your question will take a night of vodka to wash down, so you don't go insane or zero-sum. All I asked you is what the fuck you mean by jarring." I say as I tighten the Stormcloak Cuirass belt.
Ralof begins to speak but is cut off by the Captain. "Come on, soldiers! Keep moving!"
"Fuck!" I interject as quietly as I can. I shove Ralof and dash behind the pillar next to the gate. "Get in cover; they're coming!"
Ralof thankfully acts quickly and dashes behind a pillar on the other side. I ignite the Flames spell in one hand and clench my sword in anticipation with the other.
The Imperials don't seem to have noticed us, luckily. "So many fucking gates," the Captain murmurs as they clank towards us. "Well, what are you waiting for, Soldier? Get this one open, too!" she barks.
Ralof readies his and Gunjar's Iron War Axe and gets ready to pounce. The lever clangs and the gate raises. The Imperials barely cross the threshold when Ralof lets out a Battlecry and sinks his war axes into the first Imperial. The Captain and the other Imperial Soldier were surprised and backpedaled and reached to draw their swords. With them funneled so perfectly, I'd be a fool not to take the chance. I concentrate as hard as I can and let my flames pour out. The flames lick forward through the doorway, hitting them both and lighting them aflame. The still standing Imperial Soldier stumbles and screams from his burning flesh, startling me enough to lose concentration. Ralof removes his head from his body, stopping the screams. The Captain clenches her teeth and charges through the weak flames, shielding her face with her bracer. She swung her sword, and I barely deflected, but it gave Ralof the diversion he needed to sink his axes into her as well.
I look at the bodies before me, still burning with magic fire, and I chuckle. "Haha, Ralof! We did it this time! Out of the frying pan and into the fire, amirite? Eh? Eh?" I turn to him, seeking validation for my shit pun.
Ralof steps over the body of the Captain, unamused. "Shut up and see if one of them has the key to the other gate."
"Rude," I pout, "Relax, the Captain has it. Or rather...had it." I chuckle again, earning a disapproving shake of the head from Ralof as he heads to the other gate.
"Aw, come on, Ralof! Don't be a spoilsport! We did good! And where are you going anyway? The Captain is right th-," I gag from the stench of burning flesh in the air. Upon looking at the bodies, I notice that they are roasted and charcoaled by the magical fire that is now starting to cool.
"Didn't want to burn myself on your 'burnt human steak,' turns out you're a worse cook than the dragon, eh?", Ralof sneers. "Just grab the key once it dies down."
"Since when has it done...this?" I gasp in horror as I slowly get down to search the Captain for her key. Luckily, and likely due to the magic, her body was the only thing that showed many signs of burning.
"What do you mean since when?" Ralof replied in disbelief. "You know events that will come to pass but not what fire magic does to its victims after they die? What kind of mage are you?"
I carefully search her armor's pockets, find the key, and then remove her Imperial Bracers as it's the only piece of armor that can fit me. Her burnt flesh nearly falls apart at the touch.
"I'm not a mage, Ralof; I'm-." I stop and think of a way to explain as I tighten the Bracers.
"Crazy? Evil? Some kind of daedra? Or just stupid lucky?" Ralof yells at me. "Nothing has been adding up; it's like you know everything that is going to happen like you've seen it with your own eyes! So answer my question, who are you really?"
"Well," I grunt as I compare the damage on the two Imperial Soldiers' helmets and weigh my options for a response. I put on the one with the least denting and bending and sigh, "Just call me Guy, I guess. I have seen most of the things that have occurred here with my own eyes...but I'm not really from here...but-", Alduin flying overhead shakes the keep again, "I'll just explain when we're out of here, let's go."
"Fine, 'Guy,'" Ralof mutters. "Let's go, unlock this gate."
I walk toward the gate and have a flashback to the early leveling bug with Ralof, where if you have the key, he can't unlock the gate and abusing his essential status; you can hit him with your weapon or spells and level up your skills. I stop and wonder to myself, Just how real is this world? My hand wanders to my sword hilt.
Ralof chuckles, hands on his axes, clearly noticing my quizzical look and hand on my hilt. "What are you waiting for, Guy? You wouldn't be thinking of doing something stupid, would you?" he smiles warmly.
I startle away from my thoughts and, to save my skin, respond quickly, "Nonono, never man, I was just...uh...thinking about the next engagements is all!" I take my hand from my hilt with a friendly smile and slot the key in the gate, unlocking the door.
Ralof smirks and slaps me on the back, "Haha, I thought not. So tell me, how many Imperials are waiting for us below?"
I think for a second as we head down the stairs. "Do you want a total estimate or just the amount for our next fight?"
"Are they that splintered that there won't be a lot in a group?" Ralof asks.
"Well, if memory serves, there are a few in front of us, a few in the torture chamber with some Stormcloak survivors, and then a group of four or five at the end waiting for Tullius," I respond at the bottom of the stairs.
"Tullius!" Ralof exclaims as we turn the corner. "Will he be there too? Those surviving Stormcloaks will be a great help."
"No, thankfully. Or maybe not so thankfully for you, I'm sure you'd like to capture him or whatever. And yeah, they would be-" as we enter the hall around the corner, Alduin flies overhead and shakes the Keep, dropping the ceiling of the hallway before us.
"LOOK OUT!" Ralof grabs my belt and pulls me back as stone and debris fall feet in front of us, knocking us both off our feet.
Ralof stands and gruntings. "Damn, that dragon doesn't give up easy. Come on, let's get out of here before that dragon brings this whole tower down on our heads!" He offers me a hand and pulls me to my feet,
Luckily the door to the left is unobstructed. We open the door and head through, finding ourselves in a storeroom...and the view of two Imperials. One, donning Heavy Imperial Armor with no helm, draws his sword and bellows, "Stormcloaks! Get those traitors!" while the other in Light Imperial Armor, who was searching through some barrels, fumbles one shut, then jumps off the platform, drawing his sword. I let my Flames greet them while they approach, and I draw my sword while Ralof flanks them on the other side of the support pillar. The one in heavy armor charges through my Flames while the other tries to face Ralof.
The Imperial Soldier makes a vertical swing at me, but it is apparent the flame is too much to handle as it is weak, and I easily block it, making him stagger. I grit my teeth and take my sword with both hands and swing down as hard as I can. It doesn't cut very deep, but it didn't have to, as he slumped over the magic fire did the rest of the job. Ralof's Imperial is clearly dead as he removes an axe from his skull.
Ralof looks around. "A storeroom! Look around with me, let's see if the Imperials left any potions, we'll need them!" He pops open the barrel the Imperial was digging through before.
I grab a Potion of Minor Magica off a shelf and a Potion of Minor Healing, and a half-loaf of bread on the table. "Fighting sure does build up an appetite, eh Ralof? At least we got this bread" I take a bite and nearly break my teeth on the rock hard loaf. The stale taste caused me to spit it out.
Ralof chuckled as he fit the last potion into his pouch. "Could have told you not to eat that shit Imperial bread. If you're done, let's get moving." I shrugged and threw it into the fireplace, and we headed to the door on the other side.
We found ourselves on the other side of the hallway debris. Upon turning the corner, we heard the sound of fighting. "Do you hear that? Trolls blood! It's coming from the torture room!" Ralof drew his axes and rushed ahead.
When we arrived, the fight was just about over; three Stormcloaks were battling the torturer and his assistant. Upon entering the room, the Torturer's Sparks electrocuted the Stormcloak woman from before, and she fell to the ground convulsing. In response, the Torturer earned a strike from a warhammer of the Stormcloak next to him, crushing his skull and sending him flying half-way across the room. Near the Torturer's office, his assistant successfully blocked the Stormcloak Soldier's Iron Greatsword with his shield and let him have a swing of his mace, making him crumple to the floor. Ralof was about to turn his attention to him, but my flames reached him first.
"Ralof! It is good to see you!" The Stormcloak came over, excited to see a friendly face. After greeting Ralof, he turned to me, "And who is this? The lucky Breton?"
"Nice to meet you, too," I muttered, heading to the knapsack on the table to get the lockpicks inside.
"Great to see you made it out, Harald! Sorry, we were too late for Ana and Ulrik, though." Ralof embraced him. "Have you seen Ulfric? Did he make it through?"
Before Harald could respond, I responded for him, "Relax, Ralof, Ulfric will be fine. He finds another way out." I began to fiddle with the lock on a cage containing a dead mage, a spell tome, and some copper and silver coins next to him, hoping lockpicking worked the same as in the game.
"But you can't know that for sure!" Harald retorts. I roll my eyes, another one I think to myself. I insert the lockpick into the lock and try turning it slowly. It turns slightly but stops, giving strain to the pick. I then move it slightly to the left, gaining no movement, then move it to the right, and it clicks open.
"Good thinking! We can use those Septims when we get out!" Ralof congratulates me. "Grab anything useful, and let's go!"
I pocket the Septims on the floor and search in the dead mage's pockets to find more. I also pick up the Spell Tome and open it up to read on the way out. Typically in-game, just reading a Tome would teach you the spell and lead to the Tome's destruction. I was not so fortunate. There were actual words on the page. WORDS! I shut the book in frustration and shoved it in my pouch.
"Done?" Ralof asked as I entered the hallway leading away from the torture chamber. I nodded, and we caught up to Harald. In the hallway, some cells were filled with skeletons and rats. Upon turning the corner, we entered a larger room with cages hanging from the ceiling, filled with skeletons and one unfortunate and smelly corpse.
Ralof and Harald were waiting for me. At a nod, we headed through a hole in the wall leading into a cave system.
