Arc 3—Uncivil War—Chapter 8:

Bad weather forced me to take the southerly route through Whiterun rather than the shorter, northern route past Morthal on my way back to Windhelm. Seeing that I still had time and knowing that Serana would understand, I stayed in Whiterun for a couple of days with Lucia and Lydia.

"Pa, look at this!" said Lucia, over and over, as she demonstrated several new spells she'd learned in recent weeks. Once she'd shown them to me, making good use of the supplemental magicka devices I'd crafted and enchanted for her, she helped me with each spell in turn. She also presented me with a number of potions that she'd made for me for my journeys.

"Aerik, the girl has a real talent for potions," said Arcadia, owner of the local alchemy shop. "I've been training her in return for the potions she produces. Excellent quality work. Now, what can I get for you today? Did you know that you're looking a little peaked?"

Skipping her proposed remedy for my supposed ailment, I made my purchases there and picked up a few things at the general store before making my way to Warmaiden's. Proventus Avenicci had attempted to sell his late daughter's shop some months earlier to Sylo Frelnar, a Dunmer blacksmith originally from Morrowind, but the man hadn't had enough funds. Proventus told me of the interest following a trip to see Farengar, so, after a bit of thought, I'd asked to come in on the deal. Proventus and Sylo allowed me to front a third of the purchase price in return for use of the shop for personal needs whenever I wished and ten percent of the profits. Proventus was still very thankful that I'd succeeded in eliminating the vampire threat that had killed his daughter and son-in-law, and Sylo, excited to have been able to buy the shop with my aid, was always happy to help me however he could.

Sylo was spinning the wheel sharpening a newly produced sword when I arrived that afternoon. When he saw me, his eyes glanced at my battered armor before refocusing on the perfect sharpness.

"Hello, friend. Looks like you've come to the right place. I'd guess your armor has seen better days, but I can help you right up with that and set you up with a new set that would be the envy of the Dovahkiin himself."

Smiling, I said nothing, waiting until he took the sword off the wheel. When he did, he looked up at me thinking of the money to be made before I removed the helmet that covered part of my face.

"Ha! It seems the joke is on me, Aerik Bjornsen! Welcome home, young man. Why in Nirn...?" He was staring at the cracked leather.

"When one's drowning, one doesn't get much say as to which equipment the rescuer decides to cut away and what she decides to allow to stay."

"Drowning, eh? And your rescuer was a she? Must be quite a story, though I dare say, if she chose to keep that disaster for you, I'd question whether she was really trying to do you a favor."

I laughed. "Let's go inside, my friend. I'll tell you the tale."

He poured us each a glass of mead while I told him of my near drowning and the loss of all of my equipment, of the replacement set of Imperial armor I'd been given, and how I'd swapped that for an old set of leather at Beirand's shop in Solitude. "The young apprentice, Heimvar, had to dig around for it."

"Dig? I'd say it had been buried for quite a while. Quite deep and for decades, at least. Seriously, I'm really surprised Beirand would keep something like this around."

"Well, I must admit, it looked better before I abused it. I didn't want anything that could be used to identify me."

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to be identified in that either," agreed Sylo, completely misunderstanding what I meant. "You're looking for a new set?"

"I have a partial set of glass armor next door, but I need to complete it and do a few mods so it fits better and looks more like the set they cut loose to save me. Can I use the forge this afternoon?"

"You know you can, partner," he agreed. "Everything here is at your disposal. What can I do to help?"

I told him what I was missing and he nodded before going into the shop. He came back out a few minutes later with everything else that I needed.

"You have that set of lovely dragon scale if you truly need something light. Why don't you use it?" he asked as I started my preparations.

""Right now, rumor has it that the Dragonborn is in Solitude, and it's best if no one contradicts that for a while. The problem with dragon scale armor is that it practically screams 'Dragonborn,'" I told him. "Where I'm going, that's the last thing I need."

He nodded. "Understandable, I guess. So, Mister Not-the-Dragonborn, how can I help?"

~ESV~

"Pa, will the war ever end?" asked Lucia as we ate dinner in a private, side room of The Bannered Mare. "We've heard that there's a Stormcloak army north of Whiterun. Mila says her mom's even having trouble getting enough fruits and vegetables to sell because the farms north of the city are being made to sell their stuff to the Stormcloaks."

Hulda, who'd joined us, nodded. "Prices have gone up a lot since the Stormcloaks blocked the road into the Pale. It's not too bad yet, but the farms in the southern part of the Pale supply a lot of the grain and meat to the city. If it goes on much longer, the jarl will be forced to purchase grain from Falkreath Hold, if there's any to be had there." Seeing the look on Lucia's face, Hulda quickly added, "But I'm sure there is, and this mess will all be over soon."

Lydia looked worried but was forcing a smile as she nodded in agreement. "Yes, Jarl Balgruuf will do what it takes to make sure the people of Whiterun have what they need."

Lucia looked at each of us in turn before shaking her head. "Miss Hulda, Lydia, Pa tells me not to lie. You two should listen to him since you're not very good at it."

I had a sudden coughing attack to cover up a severe urge to laugh at my daughter's perceptiveness, but Lydia helped end it by kicking my shin under the table. We ate the rest of our meal with light conversation and occasional laughter, but I noticed Lydia glancing at me from time to time out of the corner of her eye.

When we put Lucia to bed a little later that evening, I gave her a hug and kissed her forehead. "I'll be home soon, sweetheart. You be good and listen to Lydia and your teachers. Arcadia and Farengar both say you're doing great, but keep at it."

"Oh, Pa! You know I will."

I grinned. "I know it, Sweetie, but what kind of dad would I be if I didn't say it?"

She laughed as she threw her arms around my neck. "You're the best, either way!" She kissed my cheek and added, "Come home soon, Pa. I miss you."

After prayers, Lydia and I tucked her in and I closed her door behind us. Lydia then took my hand and led me outside. She nodded at the rock wall a little way down from our house and had me be seated before jumping up next to me. Positioned as we were, I could still see the front door to Breezehome.

Lydia's hand went around my arm and her head rested against my shoulder. "Aerik, we've been friends for a long time, and I think I know you as well as anyone and I care for you as much as anyone except Lucia...and maybe your princess. Maybe." Her eyes twinkled as she teased me, knowing that I loved her but not in the romantic way she really wanted. "When I look at you and see something troubling you, I don't have to ask IF it's troubling you. I know, so tell me. Oh, and don't try to tell me it's a Stormcloak army north of Whiterun or the spiraling price of vegetables. Seriously, Aerik, what is it?"

I sighed, debating on whether I wanted to get into it with her, but the words came tumbling out in a whisper. "Lydia, I once told you that there were no little Aeriks running around in Cyrodiil. Well, that's true."

A little squeeze of my arm told me it was okay, that she was there for me. "I found out a couple of days ago that there may be a little Eric from Cyrodiil running around in Solitude. I don't see how, though. If it's true, it had to be the last time Dre and I were together, but I was so careful. So very careful."

She looked at me, biting her lip at the thought that I was admitting to something that she wanted but that I would never share with her. She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts before replying, "Accidents happen, Aerik, particularly in the heat of passion."

"True, Lydia, but there wasn't much heat or any passion by then. To me, it was goodbye, which was why I was so careful. Really, I can't believe it."

She gave me a funny look and stared at me for a few moments before nodding. "I remember what my late mother used to say. 'A man lies to get a woman to lie down in his bed. A woman lies to keep a man in hers.' If you really don't believe it, find out if it's true."

I nodded in agreement and was about to hop down when I saw a friend from the Companions coming in the city gate. He came our way and saw us in the dim torchlight before nodding.

"Hello, Companion," he said. "Back in town for a while?"

"Hello, Companion," I replied. "Just passing through, I'm afraid."

"Well, come by the Hall if you change your mind and need work. We have plenty at the moment, and you're always welcome." He gave a polite nod to each of us and continued on his way.

"Thanks, and goodnight," I called.

Lydia watched him go, too. She leaned in and whispered to me, "I've seen him around town a few times but have seen him do little more than grunt. That sounded, well, surprisingly civilized."

I chuckled. "I suspect you have a case of mistaken identity. That was Vilkas, twin brother of Farkas, both members of the Companions. Farkas, let's just say, isn't exactly a higher thinker, but Vilkas is a very nice, very intelligent guy."

She watched as his form faded into the darkness. "Vilkas, eh? I may have to remember that."

~ESV~

Dressed in the battered leather armor, I left Whiterun well before the sunrise the next morning. Once outside the city and beyond the usual area patrolled by the guards, I stepped into a copse of trees and changed into my new armor that was very similar to the set I'd worn on leaving Windhelm some days before. My plan was to make a raid on the bandits causing trouble north of Mixwater Mill, but, like my late father always said, plans will only take you so far when fate steps in. As I neared the old tower bridge on the border between Whiterun and Eastmarch Holds, three bandits stepped out in the road before me.

"Hold, good traveler," called one of them. "Good day to ya', fine sir. Where ya' headin'?"

"Past," I replied.

He was outfitted in a respectable suit of Nordic armor embossed with bears while his men wore a hodge-podge of leather and ill-fitting steel plates. My supposition that he was the leader was confirmed a few seconds later when he continued. While he initially focused on what appeared to be his well-manicured fingernails, he looked up at me and said in a low, forceful voice, "Well, there's a little problem with that. See, the road in these-here parts is in desperate—I mean dire—need of repairs, so with the jarl's permission, we're assessin' a special road tax on users passing through so we can make 'em. My assistants will be accepting your payment now. Just put what ya' got in the bag an' ya' can be on your way."

"Well, there's a little problem with that, too," I told him. Pulling out a bounty sheet for some bandits in Western Whiterun that I'd picked up from Hulda after our dinner at The Bannered Mare, I decided to fake it. I looked at it for a moment, did some nodding, pointed to the talkative one, and folded it up and put it back in my pouch. "The jarl decided to rescind your little road tax scheme by putting a bounty on your heads, and he's paying me to bring them in."

The two bandits nearest me looked back questioningly at their leader, who shook his head hard. "You're full of it, mister! There's three of us an' only one of you, so you better pay us or you're gonna' die."

Hoping to talk him down, I continued the bluff. "So you're a believer in quantity over quality, eh? I'd agree in some cases, but three to one isn't very good odds...for you. However, since I'm running a little further behind today than planned, I'll give you two choices. Go back in your tower, close the door, and let me pass so you can live to collect again another day. That's the simple, easy way. Or, if you really want to do it the hard way, you'll be surrendering your heads so I can collect the bounty. So what will it be, gents?"

Of course they thought I was faking so they charged at me rather than walking away as I'd hoped. While I didn't want to give away my identity, three against one will result in the one being dead far more often than not, so I hit the two front ones with the full blast of my Unrelenting Force shout. They went flying, with one sailing over the embankment, apparently down into the river. I had my sword and dagger out as I moved up to the leader who tried to cut me down with a big two-handed sword.

There was a huge clang as my longsword deflected his massive assault and angled it down to make a gouge into the rocky soil. Immediately, he was bringing it up for another blow against me, so I used my dagger in my left hand to cut upward.

He screamed as the knife drove into the gap in his armor and then slid back out. He contorted his body, whether from the pain or from trying to the clamp the wound and stanch the blood flow, I didn't know. However, he was still a very dangerous opponent. He cut sideways with his huge sword, trying to cut my legs out from under me.

Ideally, I'd have had my sword down low so I could deflect his blade down once more, effectively pinning it. With that, I might have stomped the blade, snapping it out of his hands, but my sword was too high and at a bad angle, so I could do was make a direct block. The sound of steel on steel reverberated in the river canyon as my arm stung at the impact. I brought it around for a largely ineffective blow, while he struggled to get his big sword back up and into play against me. He swayed, unsteadily, and I could see that the loss of blood was getting to him.

If it had been just the two of us, I could have forced him to lay down his weapon or, if he resisted, could have finished him off, but the second bandit, who had been struggling to get back on his feet, finally made it and started toward me.

"No, go home," I told him. "Take your boss with you, or I'll have to kill you both."

Indeed, even against both of them in their state, I knew it wouldn't be all that hard to come out victorious, but that changed a second later when the tower door slammed open. Four more bandits swarmed out toward me, screaming as they spread out and came forward to encircle me.

At that point facing five, or possibly even six to one odds, I made very quick decision; I turned and ran!

~ESV~

With my lungs and legs burning, exhaustion was creeping up on me when, instead, it caught the last two bandits still chasing me.

After they collapsed in the road some distance behind me, I continued on for another minute or so before slipping into the woods alongside the road and watching, half expecting them to try to sneak up behind me, but it seemed that they truly were finished...or were much stealthier but far less observant than I imagined. Either way, I'd seen the last of them, so a short rest followed before I ventured on through Mixwater Mill and then made my way toward Windhelm.

I waited until after after dark, hoping that the guards at the gate would be the same as the morning crew from our departure some days earlier. Of course, that wasn't the case so those on duty questioned me for a while before making me pay the entry tax and finally allowing me in. Most importantly, there was no questioning about whether I might be the Dragonborn.

Once inside the city gate, I wandered around for a few minutes to be sure I wasn't being followed before making my way to the White Phial. As I entered, I was surprised when it was Serana who, briefly, threw her arms around me and gave me a hug before becoming her usual, reserved self.

"You made it," she said. "I was starting to worry that I was going to have to break in a new partner." She gave me a little grin before Quintus stepped up and shook my hand.

"Thank you, Aerik. It worked! Serana brought the powder and we were able to restore the phial as good as new."

"Nurelion?" I asked, hoping that it had been accomplished in time, as Serana helped me out of my equipment and armor.

Quintus gave a compassionate smile as he nodded. "Master Nurelion was as happy as I've ever seen him when he saw the result. He drank from it to relieve the pain he was feeling and looked quite peaceful when he went to sleep that night, but he didn't live to see the morning."

I nodded. "I'm sorry, Quintus. I know he was your friend and mentor."

"It's okay. He fulfilled his goal and died happy. What more could one ask?" He looked down, remembering, before he added, "I'm sorry. He would have very much liked for you to be there but we couldn't wait any longer. We had a service for him two days ago."

"I understand," I replied with a nod. "Say, where's Sofie? Is she already asleep?"

"No, she went out to sell flowers earlier. She's usually home by dark or just after," said Quintus. Going to the window, he looked out. "She's probably having a good night of sales at the Cornerclub—that happens sometimes—but it's later than I realized. She really should be home by now. I'll go after her."

"No, Quintus. I'll do it," I said, picking up my belt with my sword and dagger and strapping it back on without reequipping my armor.

"We, I think, is the correct word," Serana replied with a roll of her eyes as she put on her belt with her supplies and picked up her staff.

I threw a cloak around my shoulders and headed out to look for her with Serana right behind me.

~ESV~

We made a beeline across town to the New Gnisis Cornerclub. Music met us as we opened the door and ventured in. Two Dunmer were playing instruments and a somewhat plain but very well endowed Breton female was singing and shaking a tambourine while several couples danced and a few men sat at the bar drinking and watching her.

"Excuse me," I called to the bartender, a Dunmer who I'd seen before but never met.

He spat on the floor at my feet. "Slumming, tonight, I see. So what do you want, Nord? More taxes? Free booze? My firstborn?"

"No, not quite. We're looking for a young Nord girl, 15, maybe 16, who sells flowers."

"What do you want with her?" he growled, his hand moving uncomfortably close to his dagger.

"Sofie's late getting home and we're here to make sure she gets there safely."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

He relaxed. "She's about the only decent Nord in this whole blasted city. Sweet girl, sells her flowers and usually gives me a septim if she had any success. Didn't look like she was going to sell any more tonight, so she left just a few minutes before you came in."

"Thanks," I said, sliding him several more gold.

"Get her home safely," he said with a look of concern as he palmed the coins. "She's always welcome here."

Back outside, I said, "She's probably back at the Phial by now, but let's split up in case she's stopped to speak with someone along the way."

"Meet you at the shop," agreed Serana. She headed to the left and I went right.

Knowing that she hadn't gone the way we'd come to the club, I went quickly, searching for her and even calling softly a few times when I thought I heard something. I fired off a candlelight spell, one of the relatively few non-healing spells I'd truly mastered, and raised it high.

"Hhhheee!" hissed a black cat at me. Atop a crate, its back was arched as it sought to protect what was left of its mouse.

"Sorry, kitty," I said as I stepped wide around it and continued on my way.

What sounded like another cat attracted my attention as I started to pass between the Temple of Talos and the graveyard. "What is it with you cats tonight?" I asked as I cast another candlelight spell. It was when I raised it high that I saw the basket on the ground, flowers scattered about it.

"Sofie!" I called, frantically looking around the area but seeing nothing except her flowers. It was only when I stepped behind one of the above-ground vaults that I saw a foot at the edge of my light. Moving quickly, the light illuminated the rest of her body, slashed and bloody.

"Sofie!" I cried out in surprise and then shouted, "Somebody, please! Help me!"

I scooped her into my arms, a barely audible moan escaping from her lips, and I grabbed for my pouch for a potion that could stabilize her. It wasn't there; I'd removed it with my armor.

"Serana!" I screamed as I held the young woman, trying desperately to stop the blood from flowing. "Anyone, help! Please!"

Sofie opened her eye that wasn't swollen shut and tried to focus on me. "Aerik, you're...back. Tell...Quintus...I lov..."

I was trying to cast a Healing Hands spell but it was too late; Sofie died there in my arms. My Candlelight spell expired a moment later as three men with torches ran into the area. Seeing me cradling the girl, one of them shouted, "Stop, Slasher! You're under arrest! For murder!"

~ESV~

Author's Notes:

Thanks, as always, for reading! This chapter is the half-way point in this arc.

This was also a tough chapter to get right. What do you think? Any feedback?

I'll be on vacation next week, so the next chapter will premiere on Sunday, 9/20/20.