Middas, 20th of Last Seed, 4E 201

Lydia really hadn't been lying – she could certainly handle her drink. Although she became less attentive as Yngve bought more rounds, she was up quite early the next morning, to his slight dismay. He hadn't really expected to be able to slip out in broad daylight, but he thought it would have been interesting to try.

"Thanks," Lydia said nonchalantly, when she saw that Yngve was awake. "We'll have to do that again sometime."

"Let's go, then," Yngve said, as cheerfully as he could. He stood and dressed himself quickly, as Lydia looked at him skeptically. Once clothed, he made as if to head out the door.

"I didn't mean right now," she said with a laugh.

"Neither did I," Yngve replied. "But I'd like to take a walk. And maybe get an apple or something from that merchant and her daughter… Carlotta and Mila, was it?" As soon as he said this, Lydia's face suddenly took on a knowing look, as if she had just put the last piece in a puzzle.

"She's not interested in you, you know," Lydia said with a tone Yngve found condescending, like she was talking to a misguided child. "She's not interested in anyone at all. But especially not one so young as you," Lydia continued, openly stifling a laugh.

"What are you even talking about," Yngve deadpanned, refusing to acknowledge was Lydia clearly thought she was talking about.

"But, you know what?" Lydia continued, her laughter breaking through her voice. "Maybe we can arrange a match between you and Mila! A betrothal! You can get married in, say, eight of nine years – when you've both come of age!" She was practically cackling at this point, laughing so hard she couldn't breathe.

Yngve, meanwhile, was getting so angry that he could feel his face starting to turn red. This had always been his problem lately. He was sick to death of people treating him like he was still a small child. Apparently, his expression had become severe; Lydia quieted down suddenly and just looked at him for a moment.

"Kid, are you gonna be alright?" she asked.

"Don't," Yngve began with emphasis, "call me that." Lydia genuinely seemed concerned.

"Okay," she conceded, raising her hands in a peacemaking gesture. "Okay," she repeated. "Let's just go, then."

After that exchange, Yngve didn't really feel like any of it anymore. But he still felt antsy about his plan, and eager to check things out, so he went anyway. When they got to the market stalls, he didn't even stop or look up, and just kept walking.

"Whoa," Lydia called after him as he walked right past the markets in the Plains District. "Where are you going, exactly?"

Yngve ignored her and kept walking. She ran forward, surpassed him, and drew her sword. Holding the blade out in front of him, she blocked his path.

"I don't want to spill your blood, kid," she said. "But if I have to, I will. There's nothing down this way for you, do you understand me? There's a tavern run by some Wood Elves, and there's a blacksmith – and you're not buying any weapons or armor. So just turn around, and let's go back."

It didn't go unnoticed to Yngve that she had called him a kid again, and he could feel his anger rising again. He wished he could have anyone else guarding him – anyone. It felt like everything that had happened over the last several days had just caught up with him at once; he was completely miserable. He wanted to be taken seriously. He wanted to go home. He didn't even know what to do anymore. He turned on his heel and stormed back up the road, back toward Dragonsreach, but he didn't really want to be there either. He stopped and sat on one of the benches under the statue of Talos. At this point, he just needed to clear his thoughts and calm down.

A few moments later, Lydia was right there at his side. She was handing him an apple. He sideglanced, but refused to look her way or take her apple. She shrugged.

"I'll just set it here, then," she said, placing it next to him on the bench and then taking a seat herself, on the other side of the apple. They sat in silence for a while, as Heimskr carried on. After several moments passed, Lydia spoke again.

"Is all this really what you believe?" she asked, gesturing toward Heimskr. "Is all that what you're fighting for?"

"Yes… and no," Yngve replied after a pause. "He's got a very theatrical way of putting it," he said. Lydia nodded.

"We do fight against Thalmor influence, and for the right to worship Talos," he went on. "But it's not about Man being against Mer – at least, for me it's not."

"Do you hate elves?" she asked. How direct, Yngve thought.

"No. Of course not," he said. She nodded. "My father doesn't either," he added, softly. "But that doesn't mean I'll just bow to them and let them take away my religion. And just because the emperor goes along with it, doesn't make it right."

"Hmm," she said, nodding again. "Do you think elves hate mankind?"

"No," he answered. "I mean, not all. Some do. Just as some men hate elves." He paused, then added, "Men who hate Mer, Mer who hate Man – they're both wrong."

Lydia nodded, and seemed satisfied enough with his answers. Yngve glanced around, looking for any trace of the supplies he had asked Heimskr to collect for him, but trying not to be obvious. Trying and failing, it seemed.

"What are you looking for?" Lydia asked, with a small chuckle.

"Um," Yngve began, searching his mind for an answer that didn't sound suspicious. "I need to, uh…" he squeezed his thighs together and held his hands over his crotch, in the universal I need to piss gesture. "I don't really want to go all the way back to the keep, that's all."

"Ahh," she said, halfheartedly helping him look for a place to conduct his business nearby.

It wasn't a total lie, anyway – he did need to go. After looking around vaguely for long enough that he thought it wouldn't seem suspicious, he gestured in the general direction behind the statue of Talos, toward a cluster of trees and bushes.

"I think that's the best place," he said. "So, uh… I'll be right back," he said awkwardly, getting up from the bench.

"Yeah, alright, you do that," Lydia said quickly, cutting him off, like she didn't want to hear any more and he couldn't be done talking soon enough.

Lydia turned her full body in the opposite direction, which Yngve found convenient. He went up onto the ledge behind the Talos statue, did what he said he was there to do, and spied it on his way back to the bench. Nestled behind the statue of Talos, at his feet, was a fur backpack. Yngve was sure it must be the supplies he had asked Heimskr to leave for him. It was only early afternoon, but now he at least had a plan. He returned to the bench in higher spirits.

"Let's hit the tavern," he suggested as he came back around.

"Nah," Lydia said, reaching up to massage one of her temples. "I was serious, not again this soon."

"Well, then let me get a drink, and you can watch," he offered.

"Um, no," she said. "We've had enough fun for today. It's time to go back to Dragonsreach." Before Yngve could protest, she added, " If I have to take you in at swordpoint, I will."

Just as they were leaving, they overheard a heated argument between a man and a woman, their voices carrying from the other side of the square. Yngve stopped and tried to make out what was being said, before Lydia nudged him to keep moving.

"Come on," she said gently. "Don't gawk."

"What was that about?" he asked, complying with her demand to keep walking.

"Poor old Fralia," Lydia tsked. "Fralia Gray-Mane," she clarified. "Her son Thorald went off to fight for the—for your father."

"Did something happen to him?" Yngve asked, pretty sure that he already knew the answer.

"He died," Lydia replied. Yngve winced. "But Fralia swears he's still alive, and that he's being held captive by the Thalmor. It broke her, I guess, to hear of her boy being killed." They walked most of the steps up to Dragonsreach in silence.

"You know," Yngve said, "it's possible that she's not wrong."

"Maybe," Lydia replied. "Maybe not."

"You sound resentful," Yngve pressed.

"Of this war, I am," Lydia replied coldly.

"So, why does Fralia Gray-Mane think that man knows anything about her son?" Yngve asked.

"He's a Battle-Born. The two clans are bitter over this war going on," Lydia said pointedly. "I guess Fralia thinks the Battle-Borns are responsible for it, or that they know something about it."

That evening, as Yngve kept mentally planning his escape, he couldn't get thoughts of Fralia Gray-Mane and her son out of his mind. He wanted to assure her that someone would get to the bottom of it all. That, alive or dead, he could bring her the proof she needed of her son's fate. That he'd talk to his father about it, or that it would actually do any good even if he did talk to his father. But Yngve knew that none of those things were true. His father, just as Lydia here in Whiterun, still only thought of Yngve as a child to be protected – to hide away inside the keep until all the danger passed. Where it concerned Jarl Balgruuf, Yngve had to admit, being thought of as a child rather than a dangerous enemy was probably what saved his life, but still he wasn't satisfied with it.

With all that in mind, Yngve adjusted his plans, and decided he'd show all of them that he wasn't anyone to underestimate anymore. That he wasn't to be counted as a child. He decided he would make it back to his father in Windhelm only after he found and freed Thorald Gray-Mane. And his first step would have to be finding out how much and what this Battle-Born clan knew.

For this task, he would have to be able to ditch Lydia, so he wouldn't be able to just walk out the front door. Luckily, he knew from his earlier tour here (provided by Lydia herself) where the door leading into the dungeon was. So, when Lydia was clearly asleep, Yngve slipped away into the dungeon to find another door leading outside. He was nearly to the exit, when he ran into a guard.

"Oh! What are you doing down here?" the guard asked him, confused. "You're to be held upstairs in the main keep."

"Yes," Yngve agreed. "I was just looking for someplace to get some air," he lied, putting on his youngest-, dumbest-, and most innocent-sounding voice. "Is there a way outside somewhere around here?"

"Sure," the guard said, gesturing toward the exit and just letting him go.

Yngve couldn't believe that had worked, and he left quickly before the guard had a chance to realize that he wasn't supposed to let Yngve go unsupervised. Leaving the dungeon, Yngve pulled his hood well over his head, covering his face in shadow, and quickly descended the steps leading down from the keep.

By now it was fairly late, and the shops and market stalls were all closed. Yngve didn't see Fralia Gray-Mane anywhere. He was just about to give up when he did see another person, at least. On a whim, he decided to just ask the man he saw if he knew where to find her. As it turned out, Yngve was extremely lucky; the man he was asking was called Eorlund Gray-Mane, and he was Fralia's husband. When Eorlund asked Yngve why he wanted to speak with Fralia, however, he wasn't really sure how he should answer. He said that he was interested in helping Fralia find closure about her missing son. Eorlund grunted in acknowledgment and gestured for Yngve to follow him to his home.

When Yngve got to speak to Fralia, she insisted that the Battle-Borns had proof somewhere in their home of her son Thorald's whereabouts. She then described to him the location of the Battle-Borns' home, imploring him to find it, whatever it would be. Yngve found himself unable to say no to her pleas, and so it became another part of his plan. Depending on whether or not he was caught, he supposed he would either go out of this world with a bang, or slip out of Whiterun right under the entire city's nose.

. . .

Turdas, 21st of Last Seed, 4E 201

Yngve spent the day thinking about how and when he might break into the home of clan Battle-Born. The weather was fair, and Lydia had allowed them to spend most of the day outside. Yngve took the opportunity to engage in some people-watching, in a weak attempt to learn anything about the family that might help. He had asked Lydia to tell him more about the feud between the Gray-Manes and the Battle-Borns, hoping to draw her into giving him some useful information. To some degree, it worked. While Lydia was leery of having the conversation at first, when Yngve pressed a little, she soon shifted into a comfortable enough demeaner. The two spent the day talking about them, with Lydia pointing out members of the two families as they passed by. Still, Yngve wasn't really sure how much of the knowledge he gained about them could be of use.

When nightfall came, Yngve was again able to sneak out of Dragonsreach through the dungeon. This time, the guards had been asleep. The first thing he did was go to the Bannered Mare, having been informed by Lydia at some point in their mundane conversation about the clans and their feud that many of the Battle-Borns frequent the tavern in the evening. Surely enough, when he went into the Bannered Mare, he saw three Battle-Born men enjoying the evening – although he still wasn't rightly sure which name belonged to which man. He wasn't sure he would get a better chance than this, so he visited the backpack Heimskr left for him behind the Talos statue and decided to go ahead with the rest of the night's plan.

Finding his way to the home of clan Battle-Born, Yngve miraculously made it in and out without being caught, thanks to the supplies. On a desk in a small room, he found what Fralia Gray-Mane had been looking for: an Imperial missive describing the whereabouts of Thorald Gray-Mane. Yngve himself was somewhat shocked to learn that Fralia had been right all along, and the Thalmor really did have her son. Yngve knew he wouldn't be able to leave Whiterun that same night, but still there was no time to lose. He returned the tools he had used to break into the Battle-Borns' house, as well as the missive, to his backpack.

Northwatch Keep was a name Yngve was sure he had seen on his father's map, and he was sure it was far in the west of Skyrim, deep into enemy territory. It was not marked on the map that Heimskr had purchased for him from Belethor's store. Yngve slipped back into Dragonsreach through the dungeon and quietly made his way toward the great hall. Even when Lydia had given him a tour of the keep, he hadn't been shown the Jarl's war room. But he was sure he could find it if he snooped around a little; he wouldn't expect it to be very far from the hall anyway.

To Yngve's fortune, no one seemed to be in the great hall when he entered it, but the fire was still high and fairly bright. Yngve first stepped up onto the dais, where Jarl Balgruuf's throne was, and looked around. Where is the most obvious place to go from here? Yngve wondered to himself, supposing that the keep's layout was similarly practical to the one in his own city.

"Hey! What are you doing there?" a voice suddenly rang out from across the hall.

Yngve practically jumped out of his skin. He turned frantically around in all directions, trying to find the source of the sudden noise. His gaze landed finally on Jarl Balgruuf's court wizard, who was standing with his arms folded, looking annoyed.

"I, uh…" Yngve stuttered, not really sure how to answer. "I couldn't sleep..?"

"And that has… what? …to do with the Jarl's throne?" the wizard asked. He didn't sound like he was buying the excuse.

"Nothing…" Yngve said. "I just wanted to walk around, I guess."

"Well walk around somewhere else," the wizard barked at him. "I can't have some kid bumbling around here; I'm doing very important research."

During this exchange, Yngve noticed the stairs leading up off to the side of the dais. As naturally as he could, he walked toward them, apologizing to the court wizard for causing an interruption. To Yngve's immense surprise, the court wizard didn't stop him. And, surely enough, there was the war room. Yngve was fairly quickly able to locate Northwatch Keep on Jarl Balgruuf's map. He spent some time memorizing its location, so he could copy it onto his own map. Then, as quietly as he could, he slipped back through the great hall and toward the room he was being kept in, managing to avoid the court wizard's notice this time.

Arriving back in his cell, Yngve resolved to stay awake as long as he possibly could. His thought was to plan his escape during the night, and sleep the following day, so that he could leave Whiterun the following night. When he left, he would travel as far as he could go before stopping, to try to put as much distance as possible between himself and Whiterun. As long as Heimskr's involvement was unknown, Yngve reasoned that his chances of evading Jarl Balgruuf's men were decent. The Whiterun guard would be looking for someone in mage robes, with no supplies, heading east, when in fact Yngve would be wearing fur armor, well supplied for travel (at least to the next major settlement), and heading west. If they even thought to look in the right place, it shouldn't be until at least a week after he was gone.

. . .

Fredas, 22nd of Last Seed, 4E 201

Yngve's plan was going well so far, although Lydia did scold him for sleeping so much during the day. It wasn't until late afternoon that he was fully awake, and when Lydia asked he simply told her that he'd had a restless night and hadn't slept well. She seemed to accept this, but not without suspicion.

"By the way, I heard that the Battle-Borns were robbed last night," Lydia said pointedly that afternoon, watching Yngve closely for a reaction.

"That's terrible," Yngve said, as expressionlessly as he could,

"Yeah," Lydia agreed. "It is."

"Will they be able to get by?" he asked calmly.

"They'll be fine," Lydia said. "Only one thing was stolen."

"Oh?" Yngve said, sounding surprised. "What did the robbers take?"

"The Battle-Borns won't say," Lydia replied. "But they're not happy about it, and they immediately started accusing the Gray-Manes. Your father's name came up, as I recall."

"As it tends to, these days," Yngve replied with a dismissive shrug.

He hoped he had played the situation the right way. If Lydia found out anything about the last two nights, then his great escape plan was done for. Luckily, the rest of the day passed uneventfully. However much Lydia suspected his involvement in the break-in, she couldn't prove anything and she couldn't get him to admit anything. As for the Jarl and the guards, they had no idea that Yngve had been asking about the Gray-Manes or the Battle-Borns; they had no real reason to suspect him.

Night fell, and Yngve began to feel somewhat anxious, as Lydia was not going to sleep. She kept giving him accusatory looks, and seemed resolved to remain awake through the night just to watch him. He was beginning to think that he would have to postpone his escape. But as the night deepened, it was clearly getting harder and harder for Lydia to stifle her yawns. When she finally fell asleep, Yngve got ready to go.

The first step of his plan was to put on the mage robes he had arrived in. He would change out of them later, but they would still be missing from Dragonsreach, so the Jarl's men would still be looking for a kid in robes. Next, he went down to the Talos statue and took the backpack. He'd had a nagging feeling that someone might have found it in the two days it had remained there, but he was relieved to find it exactly where he had left it. Next, he immediately marked the location of Northwatch Keep on the map in his backpack.

Finally on his way out of the city, he stopped in the Drunken Huntsman, the Bosmer-owned tavern near the city gates. One thing he had not asked Heimskr to supply him with was food. Yngve wanted to bring as much as he could carry, hoping to travel as far as possible before stopping for any reason. And no one had seen him in the Drunken Huntsman, which made him feel safer stopping there. It was a simple, easy transaction. But, as Yngve was leaving, a large dog got up from her place by the fire and tried to follow him.

"You should call your dog back," Yngve said to the owner.

"Not my dog," he shrugged.

Not really knowing what to do, Yngve just let the dog go out the door with him. As he walked toward the city gates, the dog continued to follow. This was somewhat puzzling, but she seemed friendly enough for an owner-less dog. Besides that, Yngve really didn't have time to argue with a dog. He decided to just let the dog go where she pleased, and the two of them headed off into the world.