When you first see the house in Solitude, it's lovely but leaves much to be desired. In person? It is an entirely different notion. After attempting to hide my blatant curiosity I couldn't help but openly gape at my surroundings. I had always seen the home made of slate grey stone and some what cold and uninviting. What was placed out before me was a room blooming with warmth and a subtle homey feeling that seemed to comfortingly settle over my form. Currently settled in a chair by a roaring fire in one of the first rooms you see when walking in the door my enjoyment was slightly put off by a woman sitting in front of me. Ri'Akari had set off throughout the house with a promise to show me the house after she was done putting away various items. That left me in the company of a House Carl with a suspicious glint in her eyes as she stalked my every movement carefully. Ignoring her as best as I could I found myself staring into the corner of the room. At first I couldn't finger out why and assumed I had begun to space out as I waited. Then it caught my eye; a very faint shimmer on the floor that was nearly imperceptible. After noticing them once I couldn't stop noticing them. In the corners, scattered about the floor, on the walls... I frowned in confusion and it didn't go unnoticed as a gruff and almost accusing voice interrupted my thoughts.
"What, you've seen warming runes before?" The house carl directed at me causing to blink rapidly in surprise. It took me a minute to realize she was waiting on an actual reply.
"Is that what that is? I wondered how it was warm throughout and not just by the fire... Are there runes for other things? What do they do and how does it work exactly?" She snorted unceremoniously at my questions as if they both annoyed and amused her.
"You sound like one of those scholars at the college of Winterhold. There are warming runes, spells for building and reconstruction, getting rid of waste... That sort of thing. As for how it works...How does any magic work? Ask a mage for that, milk drinker." Before I could open my mouth to ask anything else and possibly make an acid stained comment, some one cleared their throat behind me. I looked up to see Ri'Akari watching us with a little glint in her eye she motioned with her head for me to follow her. Sanding up as graciously as I could I hurried after her and up the stairs where she waited for me next to an open door frame The table that sat in the middle of the small room was intricately carved with floral patters and elegant swirls. To my right was a child's room with heavy looking chests. The beds looked exactly as uncomfortably as you'd imagine them to be with a bear skin as a blanket on a wooden post bed frame. Her rom however had considerably moremore detail. I peaked around her at a four poster bed with a plush matress an delicately sewn gold patters speakding across a heavy soft looking green blanket. Wardrobes that reached from floor to ceiling were made fromsome deep rich roodand inlayed with gold and silver desighes. A heavy wrought iron weapon rack held a softly shimmering silvered swrod with words carved into its blade I couldn't quite reed, a pure black bow with splashed of bright blood red next to it. Even the safe next to her bed was some how lovely and it shocked me to realize it was made of ebony.
"I get the impression you really like." She stated more than asked and I needed almost dumbly at her. She didn't hold much of an expression as she nodded for me to follow her again. This time we ventured all the way down the stairs to the lower level of the house. The mannequins were as creepy as I expected them to be. The plaques and weapon racks were strangley empty but I had a feeling she didn't have weapons she wanted to place there yet. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I saw the enchanting table however but it wasn't what was presented to me. Rather than having a strange hue, it seemed to hum and almost spark with magick and energy. It made the air close to it heavy and dry. I hadn't realized it had drawn me in to it like a magnet until my vision was blurring and she was carefully pulling my away by the arm.
"Enchanting weapons and armor isn't for every one. It's deep magick that can be too much, even suffocating for some.." She explained this to me as I caught my breath and swallowed trying to bring moisture back to my suddenly dry. She kept a firm grip on my arm she steered me away from the enchanting table with to the next room which held the every manner of alchemical ingredient I could think of. I screwed my face up and noted a few things of importance. The first was absolutely none of those mushrooms were eatable and smelled of the earth. The second was that troll fat looked like flower had been mixed with slime collected from hag fish and smelled of something rotting and in the middle of putrefaction. The last thing was that I really, really like all of the salts. The void salts swirled in circles in their bowl while humming faintly. Frost salts looked like finely ground ice that some how soft to the touch. My favorite was the fire salts. They were actually on fire, sparking small red, blue, and orange flames as they moved and danced in the small stone bowl that I realized was made of lava that had been hardened and cooled into a crude bowl. When I was satisfied I whirled around to tell her as much but couldn't find words in which to speak with. She had been watching me the entire time, that much I was sure. But the expression on her face was darkened with something akin to confusion and some intensity I couldn't identify let alone understand. Had I angered her in some manner? Before I could muster up the courage to ask her just that her expression cleared becoming neutral and blank.
"Are you satisfied?" She asked in a calm yet strong voice. Worrying my lip between my teeth I was reduced yet again to a nod. With a little huff she seemed to contemplate her next sentence. "We'll be leaving in an hour. I'd like to see a friend, sell some things and then we set forth for Riften. It had been brought to my attention there is much to be done there and I personally will never care for Maven Blackbriar." With that said we tracked back upstairs to rejoin her house carl. I sat at the table once again, this time nibbling at an oversized wedge of cheese as I listed to them bicker about the safety of Riften and something about the thieves guild. My mind wandered as I ate, Riften...Home of the thieves guild... I wonder what will await us there...
Authors Note: I thought about abandoning and deleting this story but I won't. I'll also post a chapter every other day or every day. I can't promise they will be long, but I promise I will post.