Chapter 41: The lady and the bottle

[19th of Sun's Dusk 4E 201]

Recently I had been at Loreius Farm together with other companions, and due to Kynareth՚s grace I had been able shout 'KAAN', 'Kyne՚s peace', for the first time. I had used it to peacefully relocate a bear mother with two cubs, who had made themselves comfortable in the farm house, attracted by honey which had been stored there. On the way back we had encountered a jester who had refused to get his wagon searched, attacked the guard and got himself arrested, and I had also helped to get a badly injured quarry worker to the Temple of Kynareth in Whiterun quickly. All in all, it had been a few busy days with exciting events, and when I slowly walked back to the city, I was looking forward to a quiet evening.

When I passed the Honningbrew Meadery, I barely noticed two people standing not far from the entrance. I was still deep in my thoughts after the events of the day; after all, a worker in the quarry had been seriously injured, and I wasn't sure if that had not been partially my fault, as I had distracted him from work by talking. As a matter of fact, his legs had been almost smashed to pulp, likely way beyond the capability of modern medical knowledge and equipment of the early 21st century on Earth to restore, but Danica had assured me that superior restoration magic applied by master healers could bring back the man back to full health with two perfect legs, although it would take some time. Thus, I did not pay much attention to the environment around me; seeing people lingering around the meadery, in various states of inebriation, was not exactly uncommon either, as I had already noticed a few times. However, when I had almost passed, the taller of the two men called out to me:

"Can you help us, please?"

I needed a few moments before I reacted, and then I stopped and looked at the two men. One of them, the one who had spoken, was a bulky male Nord, and the other a small male wood elf, and both of them seemed to be unhappy and almost scared. The two men looked somewhat uncared-for, almost filthy, not quite the people I preferred to talk to. While they kept their distance from my two saber cat cubs, they looked at me almost pleadingly, and I hoped that they did not just want my help to get more mead or something like that. Despite my first impression of them I asked back:

"Help with what?"

"Do you know if one can get cursed by a bottle?"

Okay, that was definitely not what I had expected. Cursed by a bottle? What? I needed a few seconds to digest that question, and I assumed that they had probably consumed one bottle of mead too many. Nonetheless I tried to stay polite and replied:

"Cursed by a bottle? Seriously? No, I don't think so."

"You don't believe me? I swear that the bottle talked to me and cursed me!"

"Well, that does sound a little hard to believe, my friend. A bottle can neither talk nor do anything like that; I am quite sure about that."

"Yes, look, I know it's wrong to steal, but me and my buddy were so thirsty, and the young lady left her luggage practically unattended. We meant no harm, but when we opened the bottle it started to talk and it cursed us! I never heard anything so evil before in my life!"

Somehow that statement rang a bell in my head, and maybe there was more behind that than just ravings of drunk men, as I had initially assumed. The Nord continued to talk:

"What if I am cursed for the rest of my life? My lower back already itches; what if I suddenly grow a tail? Can you … maybe … take the bottle? And when you meet the young lady, can you please ask her to remove the curse from us? Please?"

Now my mind finally made the connection. Those two talked almost exactly like the two thugs who had stolen Vilja՚s bottle, in the intro quest for the 'Vilja in Skyrim' mod, but in the game I had to meet the young Nord lady first to find them, as far as I recalled. Of course, this was not a game but reality, and as I had seen and noticed before, not everything was identical. If this encounter gave me a chance to meet Vilja, my all time favorite female follower from the game, I would not mind that at all, and thus I decided to go ahead:

"I am having my good day today I guess. Yes, I will accept the bottle, and if I meet the lady, I will ask her to remove the curse from you. Of course I can't promise that she can and will actually do this."

"You will, really? What a relief! Thank you, thank you a lot! Here is the bottle, and I swear that I will never steal again!"

I got the bottle, made sure that it was properly corked and stored it in my backpack, and when I started to walk towards the city gate and looked back for a moment, the two men really appeared to be relieved and less worried. How could they know I would not just go somewhere else and not bother about them and the bottle any longer? I did not look that trustworthy, or did I? Anyway, while I followed the main road west and barely noticed a few butterflies dancing around me, I thought about what to expect. If my suspicion was correct, I should meet Vilja in the Bannered Mare, so that's where I went of course. After entering the city and soon the inn I found lots of people in there, including some I did not know and many I had met before but didn't recall their names. However, I failed to identify a young lady who looked like Vilja. Longing for Hulda՚s excellent venison roast, I ordered dinner and a jug of juniper berry juice and found myself a small table in a corner; I could as well stay here for dinner and see if the lady showed up at a later time. I had just been served and started to eat, focusing on my meal instead of today's events for now, when a female voice with an odd accent asked from the side:

"Excuse me, do you mind if I join you? All other seats seem to be taken."

I had my mouth full and just nodded, and somebody sat down across from me. When I finally looked up from my tasty meal, which unfortunately did not come with potato dumplings as I would have preferred, but those ones seemed to be unknown here, my view found a pretty young lady; she was probably a Nord, but her skin was slightly more tanned than usual. Her hair was blond and partially bound in two braids, and her eyes were the brightest blue I had ever seen. Her face was quite stunning, at least in my eyes, and she was a little bit taller than most Nord women I had seen so far; her blue dress did not reveal much of her body, though, and it was more modest and practical than what lots of other women used to wear. All in all, I was very glad that my meal prevented me from making conversation, and I had to make an effort to focus on eating and drinking rather than ogling her.

As the lady did not have anything to eat yet, she felt free to talk, not really caring if I paid attention or not. Myself being a big Khajiit apparently did not stop here in any way, and she also did not look like she was intimidated by me or so. I did not remember her first few sentences, but after she had looked in her bag two times in a row, she mused:

"Blasted! Where did I put that bottle? I could have sworn that it was in here. Did those two actually steal it from me?"

Now she looked up and directed a question at me:

"Have you by any chance seen a huge, drunk Nord and a filthy little wood elf bastard?"

I guessed that I had, but I disliked her choice of words and that she had not even introduced herself. Thus I said, after I had enjoyed another bite from my tasty meal:

"Lady, if you are trying to make conversation with me, let it be known that I prefer polite words, and I also think that we should introduce ourselves first. My name is B'lushona, citizen of Whiterun, and I am pleased to meet you, whoever you are."

"Oh, I guess you are right on both points. My name is Vilja, I am traveling, and I suspect a bo… something was stolen from me."

So this was indeed Vilja, as I had already suspected. Wow, the real Vilja looked much more stunning than the one in the game, and I really felt tempted to spend some time with her. Maybe I could, too? But the question was, of course, would such a lovely lady want to spend time with a big and ferocious looking Khajiit? Okay, she had asked for a seat at my table, so maybe I did not look that bad to her. In addition, I did not know yet what her character was like; judged by her cursing, there might be a few edges to dislike, at least for somebody like me, who preferred to talk in a cultivated way and without cursing. However, I would want to find out, specifically as she actually spoke with that cute hint of a Swedish accent like in the game, and thus I told her:

"I am pleased to meet you, Vilja; my name is B'lushona. You miss a bottle, right?"

"Yes, but how do you know?"

"I have met a Nord and a Bosmer outside of the city, and they claimed that a bottle cursed them; they admitted that they had stolen the bottle, they begged me to take the bottle from me, and they also asked me to have the lady they had taken it from remove the curse from them. Apparently they are afraid to come back here and talk to you in person."

"Is that right? Did you take the bottle?"

I pulled the bottle out from my pack and handed it over:

"This is your bottle, Vilja, right?"

"Yes, it is, and I guess that I owe you an explanation."

I nodded, and she continued:

"You already figured out that the bottle is kind of… special, I guess."

She interrupted herself when her stomach made itself heard, and it was loud enough to be noticed even with the background noise in the tavern; I smiled, and while I loaded some more chunks of leeks on my spoon, I suggested:

"Maybe you'd want to order your meal before you tell me about it?"

She hesitated and replied hesitantly: "Well, the thing is, I… ran out of money. My room here is booked and paid for one more night, but I do not even have enough for something to eat, at least not anything more than an apple or so. I had hoped to find a job today, but that did not work out as planned."

Why wasn't I surprised to hear that? While playing the game, I had listened to her accounts about her various attempts to find herself a good position multiple times, and she seemed to have a talent to ruin it always by some clumsy actions, like activating a powerful scroll by accident, stumbling at the worst moment, and such. Yep, she probably had not had many opportunities to make a lot of money. On the other hand, the Vilja in the game had at least managed to somehow pay for a horse. I used the opportunity to think about her admission while chewing, and then I decided that I could allow myself to be generous:

"What about that, Vilja? I pay for your dinner, and you tell me more about yourself and the bottle."

She reluctantly accepted, I ordered dinner for her, and her story went on:

"I got the bottle from my grandmother, you know, and there seems to be some kind of mystery involved. I do not really think that it is an evil one, but I was told that the content could only be released in Skyrim, or more specifically, in a place called Eldergleam Sanctuary."

I nodded while eating more of my own meal; I had no intention to wait for the lady's meal to arrive and have my own one getting cold. Meanwhile, she continued to talk:

"However, although I have been here in Skyrim for some time now, I have not been able to find this place yet, and I have not been given more information on it either. You don't happen to know where Eldergleam Sanctuary is located, do you?"

"Well, not exactly, but I do have a pretty good idea."

"You do, really?"

"Yes, while I have not been in the area yet, I am positive that I can find it without too much trouble. You see, I read a book about it, and the book told about the place."

"So, could you show me the way?"

"Of course; I will mark it on your map; let me see."

She got her map out and I marked the area I assumed to be correct, saying:

"I do not have the precise location, but it's somewhere around here, north of Darkwater Crossing and about east of Fort Amol. You can easily get there by taking the road east out of Whiterun, passing the bandits at Valtheim Towers; you will need to be careful, as they might insist on getting paid by travelers, one way or another I guess. Make sure to cut northeast before you get to Fort Amol and whatever evil resides in there, or keep further south to get to Darkwater Crossing, and eventually you only have to avoid the various bears, wolves, saber cats and necromancers on the other side of the river. For someone like you, who has traveled half of Skyrim already, that should be easy."

I tried to radiate confidence, and of course I had slightly overdone it with my description of potential dangers, but I was curious to see if she was actually going to travel there on her own. I always had to remind myself that this was not a game any longer, and the people around were real ones. How it was possible that the environment and many characters were so similar to the game, I had no idea, but here I was, and so far Vilja had been quite close to the one I knew. Happy with what I had told her, I shoved the last chunk of venison into my mouth and started to chew again. The Nord lady took my bait and looked quite uneasy, and she seemed to hesitate; eventually she looked at me and asked:

"Look, I know that the Skyrim wilderness is tough enough, even without bandits and conjurers being added. I have managed to cope so far, but more due to luck and my fast horse than by my own ability. I have to admit that I would much rather have somebody with me, but there is no way I can afford to pay a mercenary."

I nodded, but did not reply anything yet. In the game, it was indeed correct that you could run away from many dangers if you were on a fast horse, or even while running and sprinting, but that might not be that easily possible in reality. At this point, Vilja obviously did not know how to continue, and I had to admit that I also needed to think about options and my willingness to potentially travel with her; back in my old life on Earth, I had usually preferred to sleep on important decisions at least for one night, and this seemed like a good plan here, too. Saadia, the Redguard maid, arrived with the meal Vilja had ordered, I paid for it, and then I said:

"Lady, your dinner is here now. Why don't you eat and I will return to Jorrvaskr; I have had a long day. Let's talk again tomorrow; maybe we can find a proper solution for you then."

Vilja nodded and I took my leave. I had left Hanni and Nanni with Ria, who had become quite fond of them, as Hulda claimed that some of her customers did not exactly appreciate the idea of having two adolescent saber cats in the main tap room. I could understand that, and fortunately I had a few options, both Ria and Mia liked to have them around for some time, and a couple of times I even allowed Lucia, the orphan girl, to 'walk' them, at times when she was not with Garm; the husky and the saber cats did not like each other very much. When they were with a person they liked, Hanni and Nanni were very docile and well behaved, and so far at least I did not have to worry.

When I was back at Jorrvaskr and had retrieved my two 'girls', I took a seat on the back porch. The evening sky was darker than usual and there was some tension in the air; it looked and felt like a thunderstorm was coming. I had learned that thunderstorms could happen in this area at any time of the year, and I had come to enjoy them, specifically since I had moved to the attic room, which gave me a great view. Here, on the east side of Jorrvaskr, one could look out over the area and enjoy the view of the Throat of the World to the southeast and some lower mountains in the northeast; between them, the White River flowed, and in the distance one might even guess the peaks of Valtheim Towers. For that view, one needed to get up and stand close to the city wall. The wall was actually quite high, and only tall people like me could easily look over it.

Once I had enjoyed the view for some time, seeing that the sky to the east was still mostly clear while the thunderstorm approached from the west, I sat on a bench on the back porch for some time and I considered my conversation with Vilja. Talking to people here in Skyrim was, to some extent, easier than talking to people back home. In particular in Germany, one always had to pay attention to the proper form of addressing people, as the German language not only distinguished between first names and last names, but also between a more formal and a more casual way to address people. Here, as the English language was the obvious template for Tamrielic, or whatever the official name for the language might be, the latter was eliminated, and in addition almost everybody seemed to use first names only. Sure, people of great respect might expect something else, like when I met the Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold, I was probably supposed to address him as 'Arch-Mage' rater than 'Savos', and I also did not normally address Kodlak by first name, but used the term 'Harbinger'. For the vast majority of people one interacted with, though, first names were good enough, and I realized that I had not even bothered to invent a last name for myself.

Now, I had made a few interesting encounters over the last few days. There had been Cicero, the jester and suspected member of the Dark Brotherhood, who was by now hopefully serving time in the Dragonsreach dungeons; I was not actually eager to meet him again, but I suspected that I might not be able to avoid seeing Dark Brotherhood members at some later time, as the Dragonborn was likely to become a target for that association. Vilja now was a very different category, and I would have to see if an opportunity came up to spend a little time with her; was I supposed to be her tour guide to Eldergleam Sanctuary? I surely did have a choice, but I had not made up my mind yet; maybe the next day would offer some guidance, and it would be wise to sleep on that issue and decision.

Later, when I sat with some of the other Companions in the big hall, lightning flashed outside and thunder rolled across the plains, and once I was on my small attic room later on, the visual and audio impressions from the thunderstorm were even closer. I did not mind and I was not afraid, but my two saber cats snuggled very closely up to me, and they seemed to be a tiny little bit scared. Once I was in my bed, I noticed one flash of lightning very close and even visible through my closed eyelids, and the rolling thunder following almost immediately was very loud, so that I almost yelped when that noise hit my sensitive ears; I wondered if it had hit somewhere in the city. Well, I might see on the next day; for now, I was too tired to get up again and look. I had a nice warm bed, which was actually long enough, and I had Hanni and Nanni cuddling up to me, smelling nicely; I wrapped my arms around them and heard them purring, and soon I was asleep, while the thunderstorm slowly passed to other regions.

[Author's Notes: Vilja is indeed my favorite follower in the Skyrim game; the dialog in that mod is incredibly varied, and even at high levels, like more than 50, you will still see something new from time to time.]