Jul
Lucius
"We've been in Kynesgrove for days now," I told Delphine as we ate in the tavern. "We're wasting my gold and time with this. Nothing has happened here."
The woman frowned and crossed her arms. "Shut it. This is the next place that the dragons are going to attack. Believe me, it's coming," Delphine said. She scowled even deeper. "So don't think of running off in the middle of the night."
"Look, it's just that I'm expected back at Dour soon for my next orders," I explained. I sighed and put the chicken leg in my hand down. "I can't wait here for dragons forever, Delphine."
"They're coming!" she snapped. Her fist pounded against the table and the entirety of the town began to stare at us silently.
"Fine," I supplied. "But if they aren't here the day after tomorrow, I'll have to leave without you." I leaned back into my chair and sighed. "I'm sorry."
Delphine snarled and pounded her open palms against the table. She shoved herself upward to a standing position and glared at me with more fire than a dragon. "If you aren't going to take this seriously, maybe it's best you leave now," she hissed.
I shook my head and stood up as well. "Maybe I will leave. I'm done with your damn mood!" I shouted back. I pulled a few gold coins from my pocket and slammed them on the table. "Good luck killing dragons without a Dragonborn." I pulled my hood up and turned on my heel.
As I reached for the handle of the door, the entrance to the tavern flew open. Cold winds and snow flew into the warm inn with surprising speed. The pace of my heart began to quicken. "Dovah," I mumbled to myself.
In from the cold ran a woman. "There's a dragon attacking!" she screamed. The tavern, already quiet as an effect of Delphine's and my argument, remained deathly silent for a moment. Suddenly, screams broke out and the people rushed around me to run from their homes. I looked over at Delphine, who was trading a serious glance with me. I nodded, and the two of us ran from the building.
Delphine and I rushed together up Kynesgrove's main hill towards the dragon's burial mound. "I told you to believe me," Delphine growled as we approached the top of the hill.
"Shh!" I hissed. I pointed upward through the snow towards a dragon, one that felt terrifyingly different from the one I had defeated at Whiterun. This dragon was much larger, first off. Spikes arched from its body in directions that called to mind the most terrifying Daedric magicks I had studied. The dragon's pitch black scales seemed to be made of pure ebony, and glowed with the immense power of the dragon's soul within.
"Sahloknir, ziil gro dovah ulse! " the black dragon roared. The air before it shook with sheer power that ran down to collide with the burial mound. "Slen Tiid Vo!"
As the energy rushing from the large dragon hit the burial mound, the ground began to shake beneath our feet. Delphine and I each grabbed onto the rock nearby to remain steady. We watched in both horror and surprise as a single, bone dragon wing tore its way out of the ground. Orange energy swirled through the air, towards the wing. The bone, which was slowly becoming covered by flesh and scale, was quickly followed by another bone wing and a hollow dragon skull. "Alduin, thuri!" the skull said, pointed up towards the other dragon. The light dragged across the dragon skeleton as it pulled its grotesque, rattling form from the ground. More and more flesh and scale knitted itself from the fabric of reality to cover and protect the dragon that had been reborn. "Boaan tiid vokriiha suleyksejun kruziik?"
The flying dragon roared in grim delight before replying, "Geh, Sahloknir, kaali mir !" Then both dragons turned to the tiny, insignificant forms of Delphine and me. A feeling of disgust and rage – and, also, fear – rolled off of the dragons as they stared.
To us, the black dragon screamed, "Ful, losei Dovahkiin? Zu'u koraav nid nol dov do hi." The black dragon waited for a moment. I knew he was addressing me, but I could not respond. The dragon took cruel delight in that fact. "You do not even know our tongue, do you? Such arrogance, to dare take for yourself the name of Dovah."
"I'm Dov enough to kill you!" I shouted up at the dragon.
For a moment, the steady wingbeats of the monster stopped. It dipped downward, then quickly and elegantly reasserted its dominance over the force of gravity. For the briefest moment, it had seemed that my remark had scared the dragon that had brought one of its ilk back from the dead. The dragon roared with somewhat forced laughter, then turned to the dragon on the ground. "Sahloknir, krii daar joorre." The black dragon turned towards Delphine and me for a moment and growled. "Die mortals." Then, as if it had never been there, the dragon disappeared into the horizon.
The dragon that had tore its way from the barrow, however, was glaring directly at me. It roared and began to march towards Delphine and me, shouting fire from its gaping jaw as it went. I shoved Delphine out of the flame's path and lifted a ward. The magickal wall shattered as the fire collided, but still prevented the flames from burning our flesh. "This was hard enough with an army," I grunted to Delphine as I drew my blade. "Now you expect me to kill a dragon with just you?"
Delphine's katana slid from the scabbard at her side. "I expect you," she said sternly as she readied for battle, "to kill those by yourself." Then the woman rushed ahead to attack the dragon.
"Oblivion, she's nuts," I sighed. Then I rushed forward to aid her against the dragon.
The dragon that the two of us were attacking was much stronger than the one I had fought at Whiterun. This dragon breathed fire as I approached, a spell I ducked under. I expected to have a moments reprieve from the magicka, however I was hit head on with a blast of frozen air as I came up again. I stumbled backwards as the chill spread to my bones, barely activating a healing spell before frostbite set in. The dragon laughed at my efforts and taunted us mortals. "My lord Alduin requires your death! I am glad to oblige him!" He roared to the sky and lashed out at Delphine's form with his wing. The Blade rolled out of the limb's way and jammed her katana in between two scales.
The dragon roared and twirled around with a hop. Delphine's form was thrown away by the force of displaced air. "I am Sahloknir! Hear my voice and despair!" The dragon shouted. He turned his head to me again and gathered a breath of magicka in his throat. I raised a powerful ward in one hand and the powerful shout dissipated against the magick wall; I ran towards the dragon and slashed my blade against its heavy incoming teeth. Sparks flew as the dragon's head was forced out of its trajectory, exposing its neck to my ice spike spell. The ice shattered against the dragon's scales, but so too did one of the scales. The dragon's head quickly slashed back and the force of the hit caused my heavily armored frame to stumble backwards.
"Your voice is no match for mine, Dovahkiin," the dragon stated. "But you honor me with your ferocity!" The dragon breathed inward again to kill me with his ancient magicka. "YOL-TOOR-SHUL!"
"FEIM!" I screamed as the last syllable left the dragon's throat. I felt as if my spirit had left my body as the world around me took an orange tint. The fire rushed around me and through me harmlessly, my magickally charged form gliding effortlessly through the fire that would have burned away my flesh and left me a blackened husk. I rushed forward, towards the cracked scale that was falling off of the dragon's neck. The fire ended just as my shout wore off.
"And you honored me with yours," I told the dragon. I twirled my sword into a back hand grip and drove it into the exposed flesh of the dragon's neck with both hands. The dragon roared, the powerful force of breath rushing out of the sword sized hole in its neck and throwing me backwards once again. I rolled beneath the dragon's wing and looked up at the katana still embedded in its hide. "Even you deserve this: Talos guide you." I raised both hands, charged once more with magickal lightning – this really sounds like it was becoming my go to move – and unleashed the magicka into the blade. The dragon shrieked in pain as the electricity chained through the sword and cooked it from the inside out. The dragon's flesh melted and sizzled, the orange light once again flying through the air and into every pore of my body.
I stumbled to my feet, shoving the skeletal wing of the dragon off of me. I grabbed the katana from the dirt and my own sword from the neck bone of the dragon. I turned to see Delphine walking towards me, awe in her eyes. "Well, I guess you're going to want answers... Dragonborn," Delphine said. She dropped to one knee and bowed. "My lord."
"Um... please don't," I asked. I grabbed Delphine's shoulder and dragged her to her feet. "What are you doing?"
"You already know I'm a Blade," she said. She sighed. "One of the last, actually. Truth is, we were floundering before the War."
"Why?"I I asked as I handed her her katana.
She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "The Blades, we're the... descendants, for lack of a better word, of the Akaviri invaders. They... they followed Reman Cyrodiil during the second Empire, fought for him because he was Dragon-blood," she explained. "So, because of them, the Blades follow the Dragonborn. Ever since Martin Septim died during the Oblivion Crisis, the Blades have been like a ship without a rudder, aimless... dying. We've searched for a Dragonborn – for you – for over two hundred years."
"So no pressure, huh?" I asked with a groan.
Delphine laughed dryly. "Yeah..."
"So what do the dragons coming back have to do with me?"
Delphine shrugged. "I don't know. You can kill them, and that's all I care about at the moment," Delphine said. "But I do have a theory about who is behind the dragons coming back."
"The Thalmor?" I asked.
Delphine nodded. "They're the only ones I can think of with the power and desire to do it. It cannot be a coincidence that Ulfric escaped due to the dragon. Think about it – Ulfric is captured, Skyrim is on its way to stability, and the Empire not far behind? Only the Thalmor and the Stormcloaks have any motive to help Ulfric escape... and only the Thalmor have the means."
"So do you have a plan?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"Now that you mention it... I do," the woman said with a grin. "How do you feel about breaking into the Thalmor embassy?"
"That sounds like an amazing idea," I replied with a grin of my own.
Fahiil
Thera
"Not often an elf will walk right into Windhelm and demand an audience with the true High King of Skyrim," Galmar Stonefist remarked.
Ulfric laughed obnoxiously – or humanly, depending on your synonymous adjective of choice. "Aye, but an elf that wishes to pledge fealty to the Stormcloak cause? Such an event would be worthy of an epic!"
"Damn your inner poet," Galmar responded, shaking his head. "You would overlook anything if it made a better song to do so."
"Aye," Ulfric said, suddenly somber and subdued. "That I did. For that damned crown I let so many of our men die." Ulfric covered his eyes with one hand and a great shadow seemed to overtake the room.
"I pushed you into that," Galmar supplied, desperate to raise his lord's morale. I barely held in a snicker at the sight – the same Ulfric that had withstood years of torture was on the verge of breaking down just because of a few humans' lives. It was a sight that lifted my spirits.
"No. The choice laid with me," Ulfric said. "As does this one. This elf, this woman, helped save me from the dragon attack and the Empire at Helgen. She has shown me intense loyalty, and deserves such in kind."
Galmar growled, a noise reminiscent of the bear skin he wore draped across his shoulders and skull. "Fine," the Nord snapped. "But she goes through the test."
"I would expect nothing less," Ulfric said.
"I'm right here," I said, barely holding in a sneer. "Don't talk of me as if I am elsewhere."
"Agh, fine, elf. Do you want to do what we ask? Are you willing to do what we ask?" Galmar growled back at me. His teeth were bared in a grimace that reminded me once again of the bear across his shoulders.
"I would not have come here otherwise," I replied tersely.
Galmar nodded, his features softening. "Good, then," he said. "Good. The test you have to take is this – go far to the north. There is a standing stone, the Serpent Stone. There you will find a colony of Ice Wraiths. Your job is to kill those wraiths and bring their teeth back to Jarl Ulfric."
"That won't be a problem," I responded.
"Cocky, eh? I like that. But I'm still betting on you not coming back – only a true Nord could hope to do as we have asked," Galmar said.
"A true Nord at heart, Galmar," Ulfric interjected from his throne. "And that this woman may be."
"I'll be back soon," I said. I turned on my heel and marched from Ulfric's castle in Windhelm to kill a few measely Ice Wraiths."
Jul
Lucius
"Good job, Auxiliary," Tullius said as I handed him the crown.
"I hope it was worth it," I said, sullenly. "A lot of good men died for this."
"It's not for you to say if it was," Tullius snapped. His features softened. "But they will still be missed." He turned his attention to the map on the table. I was obviously being dismissed. Still, however, I remained where I was. Tullius sighed and turned his head to me. "Is there anything else, Auxiliary?"
"Sir, what if I told you that... someone... was breaking in to the secure backrooms of the Thalmor embassy?"
Tullius studied me for a moment. "I would have to tell you that such a person would have no backing from us."
"I agree," I said. "But what if this person could bring confidential information back with him... say directly to you?"
Tullius froze and turned his body away from the table. "What?" he asked, quietly. He looked around nervously, as if afraid a Thalmor agent would appear from the walls. He leaned towards me. "I would have to say to you... be careful. The Thalmor are trickier than one could imagine. But if you are dead set on going, Auxiliary Lucius, I would not refuse the aid to the Empire that such a break-in could achieve."
I nodded. "Of course, Sir," I said with a salute. I pulled a letter from my pack. "Could you have a courier send this to Whiterun? My Housecarl, Lydia, is there with the Jarl. She has to be worried about me, as I have not checked in with her recently."
"You care about this woman?" Tullius asked.
"She is a good friend," I replied.
Tullius grunted. "Fine. I needed to send something to Balgruuf anyways. Your Housecarl will be a fine source of credibility in his court," the General said. He took the letter from my hand. "Report to Whiterun as soon as you get out – I have no doubt Ulfric has his eyes on the city even now."
I saluted the general. "Of course, Sir. See you soon." I turned from the general to go speak to Delphine's friend, Malborn, in the Winking Skeever inn of Solitude.
