Aeyrin and Azshan left for the noble's estate early in the morning.
Azshan had assured her, when they met in the common room after dawn, that his arm was completely fine and that he didn't even need to heal it again himself.
That was very uplifting. She actually managed to learn that new spell pretty fast. She was sure that she still needed more time to master it, but even so, it was an encouraging development.
"That's a nice armor you've got," Azshan said idly as they walked towards the homestead. He probably liked it because her Dwemer-metal plate with almost white underchain was bright-colored and shiny too, just like his shimmering armor. It was definitely more beautiful than any other armor that she had ever had.
"Yeah? I made most of it myself," Aeyrin beamed at him proudly.
On that, Azshan raised his brow at her with palpable surprise: "I didn't know you could smith."
"I'm trying to learn. It was one of the reasons why I came here too. Skyrim smithing is pretty legendary," she smiled. She still remembered the first armor that she had made back with Alvor in Riverwood. Bishop made fun of it constantly.
"True," Azshan smiled back. "So, are you still doing that pilgrimage?"
"Kind of… I suppose. There's been a lot of stuff happening. More often than not, I'm not even sure what to do first here with the dragons and… other things," she sighed. She had decided against telling him about her plans with Jora regarding the Talos worshippers. Not that she didn't trust him with it, but…
Hmm… perhaps she actually didn't.
It was hard to share things like that with him. Even though he was her friend, she still associated him too much with the Order. She could never really be sure that he wouldn't feel compelled to divulge her endeavors to them and there were simply too many connections to the Thalmor.
It was an uncomfortable thought – trust. When she pondered on it, who here could she really trust after all that had happened? Everyone she knew, she felt compelled to keep some secrets from when she was affiliated with so many people, so many plans and plots. She didn't feel secure talking about the Blades, about Jora and definitely not about Karliah. Not with anyone who hadn't already been involved.
The only person who knew about all these things was Bishop. And yet… she constantly thought about how she couldn't trust him. How he lied and kept secrets.
Maybe that was a bit unfair to him. Even now, after all that had happened, he was the only person that she would never hesitate telling these things to. He would never judge her, never even humor the thought of betraying her to anyone. Was it really fair for her to constantly think about not being able to trust him?
Even in Falkreath, he never meant to keep her in the dark forever. He wanted to tell her everything.
He did tell her everything.
He told her too late, but he did. And she knew that it wasn't just out of guilt. He assured her time and time again that he would.
She couldn't say that she wasn't angry at him anymore. But despite what she kept convincing herself of, she knew that she still did trust him. No matter what.
But it was still a bit unsettling to know how easily he was able to convince her of his lies and subterfuge.
She wasn't sure if she would ever be alright with knowing that.
"Hey, are you still worried about it? You know… after the battle?" Azshan interrupted her ruminations as he looked her over with concern.
Well now she was.
"I guess. It's just… I don't know. It's hard to withstand," she sighed. She wanted to tell him that it was getting worse lately, but she stopped herself. She wasn't sure why. She told Bishop practically instantly at first, she didn't even realize it. When she denied it later, it was only to ease his worries.
To protect him, in a way… like he did.
She was getting all wistful about him, excusing all that he had done again. Thoughts like these came to her all too often. Then at other times, she could just spend hours seething, almost blaming him for anything bad that had ever happened to her.
As unfair as it was to him, she couldn't help it.
Why did it still all feel so confusing, so… fresh? It's been almost three months now.
"It's gonna be alright, Aeyrin. I'll be there. If anything happens, you know that I can heal you. You will be fine, you'll see," Azshan smiled at her encouragingly.
It wasn't that simple. If the soul won over her, no amount of healing could help. But at the very least, he would be there. It was a bit comforting to know that someone would definitely be there with her this time. Someone she knew and was comfortable with, instead of a stranger.
It would definitely be better this time.
She smiled at him gratefully in return and he promptly ruffled her hair. Why did he love doing that so much?
…
The two of them continued on their way towards the estate, and it didn't take them much longer until they reached the area.
A large building was towering on the rocky hills around, surrounded by small fields of crops and animal pens both below and upon the rocks.
But everything was empty, abandoned. There were no animals in the pens and no workers on the fields.
The scene was eerily quiet.
"Strange," Azshan whispered with an unsettled tone in his voice.
"It's probably cleaned up and abandoned because of the dragon," Aeyrin shrugged. It didn't seem that strange – obviously the noble would want to limit the potential damage that the beast could cause, right?
"There should be guards here though," Azshan scowled.
With an uneasy feeling, the two of them waded through the fields, marching up the hills towards the estate. They didn't even reach the structure when they finally noticed the carnage around. A dozen armored men, dead on the ground. There were no signs of anyone surviving. But these men were certainly not killed by a dragon. There was no hint of the decimation that the beasts would inevitably leave behind, no charred ground, no crops frozen to death, no hints of corrosion on the men's armors or acid-stains on the grass, not anything of that kind.
But there was blood everywhere, more than this number of men could probably produce in their death.
Before they could investigate further, however, a loud roar echoed from behind a large cliff by the estate.
Huh… the dragon was there.
But that still didn't explain the dead guards.
There was hardly any time to ponder that though. The creature finally appeared a second later, swishing through the air above the cliff. Then there was a loud cry and something… no… someone tumbled to the ground in the distance, as if they fell right off the dragon.
Was someone riding it?
Well… that was unlikely. They probably just got caught up on it in the heat of battle, like she had once before too. Luckily for that person, it didn't look like the fall was from a very great height – the dragon was flying very close to the top of that cliff.
The beast was approaching steadily and only now Aeyrin actually noticed it properly. With barely contained horror, she noted the lithe frame and the colorful glistening scales.
Oh no… it was one of these ones.
But… maybe those two that she had encountered before were just a coincidence. Maybe this one didn't know that horrible purple Shout.
It would be fine.
It had to be.
She could have sworn that the dragon noticed her. Its bright blue eyes seemed to lock onto her almost instantly. It let out a menacing roar while she readied her mace and, a second later, it was already plummeting towards her at great speed.
She stood still, ready. And fortunately for him, Azshan stood some distance away while he tightly gripped his greatsword in his hands. He wouldn't be able to jump out of the way quickly enough otherwise. The dragon was approaching steadily – it was almost upon her. It would crash right into the ground where she was standing. But she had a plan.
"TIID!"
The dragon stopped a hair's breadth away from her. Its head and neck were pressed to the ground with chunks of dirt stopped mid-air all around it from the impact. That was such an odd sight. Too bad that she didn't have much time to enjoy it.
She smashed her mace into its head quickly with all her might before she rushed towards its flank where she smashed again into one of the wings. She could hear the crack of bone under the force.
Perfect.
She wasn't that used to this Shout yet, unfortunately, so she wasn't sure just how much time she got.
She ran some distance away from the beast, just in case, and stood there in the spot, waiting. When the odd tingling aftertaste in her mouth after the Shout dissipated, she wondered if she should try to cast lightning down upon the dragon, but she hadn't actually tested that one properly yet. It could hit Azshan.
Better safe than sorry. She needed to be very careful with unfamiliar Shouts. Even the familiar ones could get out of hand from time to time.
"FUS RO DAH!"
Just as the words left her lips, the time started to flow again. The dragon didn't even have the time to finish its roar of pain after being hit with her enchanted mace and it tumbled into a strange convoluted shape of limbs, neck and tail, shoved back with the impact of her Shout.
"Holy- what?!" Azshan yelled out. His eyes went wide at the strange scene unfolding in front of him. It must have been very confusing to see it all happen at once when the time started to flow again. But, to his credit, he composed himself pretty fast and charged against the dragon. He promptly thrusted his sword into the beast's back, eliciting another loud roar from it.
Aeyrin rushed forward too while the dragon started to thrash wildly, trying to hit them with whatever part of its body that it could manage, just to get them away.
Then suddenly, an arrow swished through the air. Before they even noticed it, it hit the dragon in its neck, right between the bright scales.
Who…?
Aeyrin looked sharply towards the source.
There was a man, standing atop the cliff, bow drawn. That must have been the person that had fallen off the dragon before. It was a good thing that he was unharmed.
But in her distracted state, Aeyrin's attention got diverted from the beast in front of her for too long. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the glint of its large tail, swinging. Before she could react, it hit her into her torso. Hard.
She barely registered what had happened, everything seemed to be vibrating around her and a dull pain spread through her body.
When she managed to open her eyes, she noticed that she ended up some distance away, sprawled on the ground. Her mace was no longer in her hand.
The dragon looked straight at her and opened its maw.
Oh no!
An unpleasantly familiar purple light started to form at the back of its throat. She couldn't let it hit her. That would be the end of her. That strange Shout could kill anyone in an instant – she had seen it before.
Suddenly, a loud shrill battle cry echoed across the area, but Aeyrin was already acting on saving her skin.
"FEIM!"
Aeyrin expected the purple light to be hurled at her, but it wasn't. Another person appeared as if from out of nowhere, jumping upon the dragon's neck with great speed and agility. It was a lithe woman with long light-red hair flowing everywhere around her and… very scant fur clothes.
It was obvious now.
Forsworn.
The woman held two jagged daggers in her hands and she stabbed them into the beast's neck instantly, making it roar out again. The Shout in its throat dissipated.
Azshan didn't hesitate as he again pierced the beast's back. His sword was swirling with light magic. Aeyrin couldn't recognize the enchantment, but it reminded her of those sun spells he had taught her some time ago.
"IIZ!"
She Shouted again, after which her throat got enveloped with an uncomfortable cold. The dragon's entire head got encrusted in thick ice and it slumped to the ground instantly under the weight. It was hard to say whether the beast could actually feel anything anymore. It must have been barely clinging onto its life now.
The Forsworn woman on the beast's neck started to stab into the ice furiously, making more and more cracks appear in the glittering case. Perhaps she wanted to see if the dragon's head could be shattered outright, or maybe she just wanted to try to stab it in the head now that it was frozen and barely able to move.
Then another arrow swished through the air and pierced the beast's back, right where Azshan's sword penetrated it previously. The dragon could no longer roar, but it was clear that it was only seconds away from death.
Aeyrin finally scrambled from the ground and charged at the beast as well. She picked up her mace from the ground on the way, before she smashed it again into the ice around its head.
That did it.
The ice didn't shatter, but the strong impact must have caused enough damage on its own.
The dragon slumped down completely as the last vestiges of life left it at last.
But Aeyrin didn't take any time to stop, to look upon the forsworn woman or to watch the dragon die. This would be the worst part – she already saw the purple light, she knew what she was in for.
She rushed towards Azshan instantly, almost instinctively. He looked a little taken aback when she hurled herself into his arms, with their armors clanking against each other loudly, but he recovered pretty fast and draped his arm around her.
The other one still clutched his sword firmly.
She closed her eyes, but even from behind her eyelids, she could see the brightening light by her side.
It would happen soon.
The pain hit her like a tidal wave. She felt herself scream, but everything got drowned out by an intense ringing in her ears. It was so overwhelming, it felt like her brain would explode at any second. Her entire body started to shake uncontrollably, like she was caught in an intense earthquake, centered in her very core. Her heart started to beat wildly, as if it wanted to jump out of her chest and a sharp pain spread throughout her spine, stabbing her mercilessly.
Then… it all stopped. But there was no relief. It all… died. She couldn't feel herself anymore. She couldn't feel any part of her body. She felt… empty. Hollow. As if she was a glass shell of herself, just waiting to shatter at the slightest touch.
She was sure it would happen. She could feel it approaching. A soft touch at the top of her head.
This was it, she would fall apart into a million little pieces.
The touch got firmer.
It was cold.
Like metal. A large metal gauntlet pressing upon her.
She could feel her heart beating wildly again, her fingers twitching slightly.
She could feel herself.
It was over.
The gauntlet still pressed upon her head. It felt so heavy.
But it was there, it was real.
She dared to open her eyes, only to be blinded by a bright light.
What was that?!
She tried again and found herself face to face with what appeared to be her very distorted reflection, swirly and barely recognizable.
Oh. It was Azshan's armor. She recognized it now, the polished silvery plate with a few splatters of blood on it and a familiar dent that she had noticed last night already.
She let out a relieved sigh and the hand finally left her head. It had been so heavy. Comforting, in a way, grounding, but so heavy. She wasn't sure if she was glad or disappointed that it was gone.
"Aeyrin?" his familiar voice reached her ears.
She nodded slowly in response. She could finally perceive everything around her. She was clinging desperately to Azshan's form, standing on wobbly feet, but she could actually feel herself physically there. When she slowly looked up at his face, she saw that he was gazing down on her with palpable concern etched on his face, but she noticed that his eyes kept darting to the side every now and then. One of his hands was wrapped around her waist now, holding her tightly and comfortingly, but the other hand still held his sword firmly.
When she followed the direction in which his sword was pointing, she noticed the two figures standing by the dragon's corpse at last. One was a man. His bow was still drawn and he was aiming it at Azshan, whose sword was in turn turned towards the man. Although it was not like the claymore was any danger to him – he was too far away for that.
Aeyrin looked upon the man more closely.
Forsworn, predictably – he was much more muscular than any Breton she'd ever seen in her life and his sweaty brown hair clung to his face. He had dark circular war paint designs around his eyes and a few furs fastened with leather straps and strings on his body for 'armor'.
"Are you alright?" Azshan's gentle voice interrupted her scrutiny of the man, but there was audible tension in his tone.
"Yes," she let out an exhausted huff and finally let her embrace of Azshan ease. He did the same, letting his arm fall from around her waist, but neither of them stopped looking at the Forsworn man with his bow drawn the entire time.
"Good. Let's end this," Azshan gripped his sword with both hands and turned towards the Forsworn menacingly.
"What?!" Aeyrin gaped at him, but he didn't react. The two Forsworn also gripped their weapons firmly and turned their hateful glares towards Azshan. What was he doing? What were they doing? Aeyrin frantically looked at the Forsworn warriors, unable to hide the panic and shock at how fast this deteriorated into another battle.
Wait… the woman! She knew her!
"Robin?!" Aeyrin gasped when she finally focused her eyes on her.
Azshan wavered and his eyes went wide at their familiarity. Robin, however, still clutched her daggers firmly with her eyes hatefully narrowed. The side of her face and body were scratched, filthy and bloodied – she must have been the one who had fallen off that dragon before. But other than that, she looked just like Aeyrin had remembered her – barely clothed with her long flowing braided hair covering a lot of her bare skin and a fierce look in her eyes.
"Aeyrin, you know this barbarian?!" Azshan gaped at her with unbridled outrage.
"Careful who you call 'barbarian', knightling! Don't think we don't know who you are!" Robin spat at him.
What?! How did they know him?!
What in Oblivion was going on here?
"Enough of this already! Aeyrin, let's end them!" Azshan fumed. Where was this blood thirst coming from? Aeyrin had never seen him like this. He wasn't one to just outright start butchering people, not even in tense situations.
"No! Stop! Everyone just stop!" Aeyrin yelled. Why would Azshan be so adamant about killing them? Was it because of last night, when a group of Forsworn had attacked him? He did sustain a lot of severe injuries – perhaps he was still sour about that.
"What? They are Forsworn! They clearly killed all those guards! We need to deal with them!" Azshan retorted instantly. He still didn't lower his weapon.
"And why, I wonder, huh?!" Robin spat at him hatefully once more in turn.
"Enough! Everyone, lower your weapons, or I swear, I'll stop the time again and just take them from all of you!" Aeyrin said determinedly. There was clearly a lot more going on than she knew and she needed to know what it was before everyone attacked each other. This was getting out of hand.
"Wait, what?" the Forsworn man raised his brows at her.
"You… what? You stopped time?" Azshan gaped at her in astonishment. For a while, he narrowed his eyes, thinking hard, then it seemed to dawn on him just when did this happen.
After a brief tense moment, Robin was the first to let out a resigned sigh and she finally lowered her jagged daggers. "Alright. Anu, it's fine. I don't think she'll let her little knightling attack us," she gestured towards the Forsworn man who finally let his bow down upon her urging as well.
Azshan, however, did no such thing.
"Aeyrin, what are you doing? How do you even know these barbarians?!" he sputtered through his gritted teeth.
"What am I doing?! I'm not the one ready to attack the people that helped us kill that thing! And I know her because she saved my life, if you have to know," she retorted furiously while giving a pointed look towards his sword.
With an uncertain expression, Azshan finally lowered his sword. He didn't sheathe it though and one of his hands still gripped it firmly, as if he was ready to kill anyone present in a matter of seconds anyway. Aeyrin was pretty sure that he wouldn't have any trouble doing that either, with his battle prowess.
"Good to see I didn't live to regret it," Robin murmured.
"Now, how about someone finally enlightens me about what happened here?" Aeyrin folded her arms across her chest and gave them each an expectant look. The uncertainty has gone on long enough.
"What's there to say? These barbarians have been menacing this place for weeks, attacking caravans and livestock to ruin the owner's business. And now they killed all the guards to let the dragon take care of the rest!" Azshan spat at them again. His eyes were still dangerously narrowed in disdain.
They didn't seem to be on as friendly terms with the dragon as he seemed to suggest, but… Robin didn't make secrets of their tactics before. It wasn't that implausible.
"Oh, you wanna tell stories, knightling? I'll tell her a story," Robin sneered. "How about the one where the woman who owns this place has her precious guards scour the hills to look for our camps and slaughter our people. How about the one where she has our mages kidnapped and experimented on to find if any of them are Briarhearts?! Why do you think we bother with that bitch's estate! We are here to get our people back!"
What? A noblewoman experimented upon their people? Why? Aeyrin remembered Cael telling her about the strange magic with those 'briar hearts'. Did that woman try to find out the secrets behind it?
"You think your heathen magic is an excuse?! You attack people on the road with no provocation and then you think that a few captured zombies justify it?" Azshan yelled right back at her with fury in his eyes.
"You… knew about this?" Aeyrin gaped at him in astonishment.
"Of course he did! He's here on the old bitch's bidding! He attacked one of our camps just last night!" Robin exclaimed. "And whatever you think of our magic, those people were not Briarhearts! She kidnapped every single person who could cast a spell when they defended themselves from those guards!"
"You… you said that they attacked you," Aeyrin turned an accusing look towards Azshan. Why would he lie about that? If he had told her that the Forsworn had been attacking people, she might have understood. But… that was without knowing about the kidnappings.
She wasn't sure who was the real 'barbarian' here.
"Come on, Aeyrin! I'm here to protect the noblewoman and her people. They have been attacking them!" Azshan gave her a defensive look. It all seemed… strange.
Was this really what the Order was doing? Azshan knew about the kidnappings… he didn't seem surprised in the least.
And he was here alone.
"Azshan… did the Order even send you here?" she couldn't feel but feel hurt and betrayed.
Was she overreacting?
But… the secrets and lies… it all hit too close to home right then.
Each of them claimed that they killed because the other side was killing too. Each of them claimed to be protecting someone.
That all seemed too familiar too. For some reason, she remembered Bishop's confession about that girl in Whiterun – how he murdered her to protect her. Everything seemed to be all too muddled when it came to defending someone you care about or feel duty towards.
She wondered if she would do the same if she thought she had no other choice.
She worried that she already knew the answer to that. Right and wrong always became a vague concept when a person thought they had no other choice. She couldn't pretend to be different.
She knew that she wasn't.
"Does it matter who sent me? I'm here to protect someone who needs it," Azshan sighed somberly.
That said more than enough. The Order likely had no idea what he was up to here.
There was silence.
None of them dared to raise their arms again, but none of them put them entirely away either.
No matter what happened, the least Aeyrin could do was to try and end this now without any more bloodshed. She had no idea what else to do anyway. She didn't want to kill the Forsworn, not when they were just trying to help the captives. And Azshan was just here to stop the attacks too, even if he had lied about a lot of the details.
"Our people are still in there, Dragonborn. If she hasn't killed them yet," the man, Anu, was the first one to speak. His voice was surprisingly pleading.
"Alright," Aeyrin sighed. "This ends now."
"Azshan, you go inside and you release all the Forsworn. I'm sure that you can be persuasive," she turned towards him, wearing the sternest expression that she could manage. For some reason, she felt really confident now. Maybe it was still the adrenaline from the battle and the surprisingly successful absorption. It wasn't really that bad this time. It felt horrible, but she didn't pass out at least. She really expected that to happen.
Azshan looked positively astonished at her proclamation. He certainly didn't seem eager to comply.
"Can't he just lie and tell us that they're all dead?!" Anu spat at Azshan contemptfully.
Don't give him ideas.
Aeyrin didn't really have an answer to that. It was certainly possible. She could think of no other avenue than to turn to Azshan again and give him a somewhat threatening expression.
"You're… you're seriously taking their side?!" he gaped at her. It was painful to see him looking so betrayed, but she was doing the right thing. And what did he expect after lying to her?!
"I'm trying to stop all this killing! They get their people back and stop attacking the estate and the people here," Aeyrin turned towards Robin then, giving her an equally stern look.
"You know we can't be held responsible for the other clans," Robin scoffed.
"No, but I'm sure that you have this area under your constant watch already. If another clan tries to attack this place, I'm sure you can solve that in whatever way you think is best, can't you? And if not… well… you might actually end up regretting saving me back then," Aeyrin narrowed her eyes at Robin. She didn't like threatening people, especially someone who, despite everything, had helped her in the past. But she saw no better way to get her point across.
Robin raised her brow at her, but she actually looked a little unsettled at that.
Good. Aeyrin wasn't sure if anyone could actually ever find her threatening.
"And you will make sure the attacks from the guards stop too, Azshan," she turned back to him. She was sure that he wouldn't find her threats of violence convincing, but he had other things to worry about. "Especially since the Order might not see all this the same way you do."
He did seem to look a little nervous after that.
"You know what… fine. As long as they stop attacking this place… I am done with this," Azshan growled in annoyance. He didn't wait any longer before he marched towards the estate with quick strides.
Good.
That went a little better than Aeyrin had originally feared it would.
Although an awkward and tense silence ensued when she was left to wait with the two Forsworn there. Luckily, the silence did not last for long.
"What did I tell you about wearing your hair like that?" Robin smirked after a while, inclining her head towards Aeyrin's hastily fastened ponytail and breaking the tension.
Aeyrin only chuckled at her in turn. "It's practical! When no one tries to shove my face in mud. If I left it flowing around like you do, it would get caught in my armor."
"Well you shouldn't be wearing all that damn tin anyways! How can you move like that?! This would be much more 'practical' for you," Robin shook her head with a smile, gesturing to her furs.
"Definitely," Anu murmured with a strangely suggestive smirk.
Aeyrin flushed at his comment involuntarily, but she tried to laugh it off. It came out a bit more nervous than she had intended.
"So… how's Cael?" she asked after a while, changing the subject.
"Why don't you come with us and you can ask him yourself. I'm sure he'd love that," Robin rolled her eyes, eliciting a knowing snicker from Anu.
Aeyrin didn't answer and only chuckled again with a brief shake of her head. It was probably not a good idea after all that had happened here.
"You know, it's not ideal, but… thank you for doing this," Anu piped up after a while. "I didn't think you'd give a second thought to attacking us with your… friend."
"Hmpf, Cael will definitely love hearing about that too," Robin scoffed. "I just hope your 'friend' delivers."
Aeyrin really hoped so too.
…
It didn't take long before Azshan emerged from the estate with five men and women at his heels. All of them were wounded in a way, some more than the others.
They all glared hatefully at him, but none of them attacked him, fortunately.
They finally reached the three of them and one of the mages approached Robin right away.
"They killed Lefa and Hauc," the mage reported somberly, lowering her head.
For a second, Robin looked ready to escalate things again, but Aeyrin quickly cleared her throat and motioned with her head towards one of the mangled guard bodies littering the ground around the estate.
Robin looked in that direction. Her eyes were full of anger, but she sighed defeatedly, after a while, and gently laid a hand on the mage's shoulder. "We will honor them, Ieaha. No more dead."
Aeyrin smiled at Robin gratefully, earning a nod of acknowledgement.
"Our people need a shaman's attention, Dragonborn. We will take them to our camp now," Robin said while her eyes continued scanning over the mages with concern. "The terms are clear. I hope the Imperials honor them as well," her next look was directed at Azshan, hateful and suspicious.
"I settled things. You better keep your word," Azshan scowled fiercely.
Robin paid him no more attention. She gave Aeyrin another acknowledging nod before she turned on her heel and ushered the group of Forsworn away.
They looked at the leaving band of Bretons for a while until they disappeared into the hills again.
"Well… that could have gone better," Azshan muttered. There was palpable bitterness in his words.
But Aeyrin was no less bitter about the whole ordeal.
"Did you really have to lie to me, Azshan?" she didn't look at him, only muttering through gritted teeth.
"I didn't think that it would come to this," he answered resolutely.
Great excuse.
"Come on. Let's get back to the inn. It's… been a long day," Azshan sighed and turned back towards the fields nearby.
That was at least something that they could agree on.