The way to Kynesgrave was a long one. The weather remained peaceful and warm for the first couple of days but, once they got close to Windhelm, it changed abruptly.
Cold, wild wind blew in their faces. They were covered only by cheap hoods, bought in one of the smaller villages along the way. The snow came down in a fast dance, swirling all around them, holding onto them like mischievous little fairies, biting them through their armor and skin.
Windhelm was the oldest city of them all, built out of massive stones. Its mighty presence towered over the snowy, surrounding lands, like a dark and frightening omen. A warning to all their enemies, the Stormcloaks' pride.
A shiver went down Ruthalia's spine when they rode past it.
"It's not far anymore. Maybe another couple of hours and we are there. Be prepared."
"Yeah, yeah," Ruthalia mumbled, rolling her eyes. Not even the constantly growing snowstorm seemed to disrupt her companion's behavior. If anything, the snow and cold only made her eagerness worse. Ruthalia wondered if she had been a soldier once.
They had not talked a lot throughout their journey, partly. Because Ruthalia avoided her whenever she had the chance to. She had found out that her companion's name was Delphine and she had lived in Skyrim for quite a while. Together with Orgnar she ran the Sleeping Giant's Inn, until she found out about the Dragonborn being around.
However, she did not answer any questions concerning the Thalmor or how she had found out about Ruthalia being the Dragonborn. In return, Ruthalia told her very little about herself; how she had ended up in this harsh and beautiful land; how she had learned about the Graybeards; the whole legend surrounding the dragons and her fate to destroy them. Ruthalia had described her first fight against the dragon in Whiterun and that that was how she first discovered her ability to devour their souls.
And so, as Delphine kept her secrets, Ruthalia did too. She did not tell her anything personal about her past, and the woman did not seem especially interested in it. With each passing day, Ruthalia solemnly felt that Delphine saw her as a weapon and nothing more.
In some ways she almost felt bad for the strict woman. Ruthalia failed to imagine her having a lot, if any, friends. But who was she to judge? Perhaps she was very loved wherever she came from; maybe she had a family, husband and children.
"You're falling behind. Hurry up."
No, I guess not ...
It was late evening when they finally reached Kynesgrave, which turned out to be a quaint village. It consisted of an inn, a mine and a couple of farms and fields. It seemed like the owners did not realize they were surrounded by open, uninhabited terrain. Ruthalia asked Delphine why they didn't use the nearby grove for more farming land, and she simply replied that it was sacred to Kyne, an ancient goddess, and the people would not dare provoke her. Ruthalia thought she had heard the name before.
Kyne …
May she find eternal rest in the forest of dreams. One of the shouts.
It was the shout she had acquired in the tomb.
"Get ready now, we are almost there. Hurry." Dlephine pulled her out of her thoughts as she leaped off her horse still in mid-trot, sweat glittering on its flank.
Ruthalia followed her up a steep hill.
It was extremely dark for that time a day. Thick, heavy clouds were covering the sky and strikes of lightning wound themselves through the gray blanket, flashing white and purple. Thunder followed somewhere in the distance. Ruthalia narrowed her eyes against the increasing number of snowflakes swirling slowly to the ground, almost ponderous. The keen wind bent the giant pine trees in all directions, making them seem like silent giants, swaying to some unheard music.
Ruthalia thought she could almost hear them moan in dismay and pain.
Her gut tightened.
"Stay under cover. This is what we came for. We need to see what happens," Delphine commanded. She was out of breath but more determined than ever. Ruthalia could barely keep up with her.
Without warning, a voice reverberated across the land, as if out of the thick clouds above them. It was heavy and strong and filled with such bass it caused the ground underneath their feet to rumble.
"Sahloknir! Ziil gro dovah ulse!"
Ruthalia turned her head towards the top of the hill where a small, barely visible dirt path wound its way to the top.
What she saw up there froze the blood in her veins. Her eyes widened in disbelief and recognition, her muscles braced painfully.
"Lorkhan's eyes! Look at that big bastard!" Delphine shouted over the rumbling thunder and beating of wings. "Keep your head down, let's see what it does!"
Ruthalia had recognized the creature at once, despite the bad weather and the dim light.
The dragon from Helgen.
She remembered all too clearly; the heat of its flames, the smoke of the burning houses, the stinging smell of burning flesh, the screams and the shouts, drowned out by its all consuming roar.
Black and tremendous. Its body hovered several feet over the ground, looking down at something Ruthalia could not make out.
Finally, they reached the top of the hill, cowering down all too late. It had already seen them, its giant head turning their way. Ruthalia thought she saw a big grin on its grotesque head. But before she could determine whether this was just a doing of her imagination, it turned its attention back to what it had been looking at before: a big round surface rising lightly from the ground. It was covered with thick, dark earth, and surrounded by a circle of stones.
Ruthalia and Delphine moved up to a large rock, cowering behind it to watch the disturbing scene before them.
"Sahloknir! Ziil gro dovah ulse!
"Slen tiid vo!"
Its voice rumbled again, causing the earth underneath it to shiver and shake. Delphine and Ruthalia looked at each other for a second. Both their faces mirrored their fear.
"This is worse than I thought..." Delphine mumbled.
Then, with a loud crack, the round surface broke open, reveling a creature almost more beastly to look at than the black dragon hovering over it.
All flesh had been ripped from it. Where once were eyes was now nothing but empty, dark holes staring right at them. Its skinny carcass of wings were breaking through the ground supporting the creature as it heaved itself out of the pit.
Massive feet clawed at the edge of its grave.
"Alduin, thuri! Boaan tiid vokriiha suleyksejun kruziik?" it spoke in a tongue unknown and yet oddly familiar to Ruthalia. She did not understand their meaning, but guessed it was asking something of the black dragon.
"Geh, Sahloknir, koali mir. Ful, losei Dovahkiin? Zu'u koroav nid nol dov do hi," he answered with his thunderous voice.
It made an even deeper sound as it slowly turned its pitch black head towards Ruthalia.
It was chuckling, chuckling over Ruthalia.
"You do not even know our tongue, do you? Such arrogance, to dare take the name of Dovah," it said, another leer spreading over its scaled face. Ruthalia felt small and all too exposed, the rock not of any shelter at all.
"Sahloknir, krii doar joorre," the black beast finished, throwing itself higher up into the sky and taking off with only a few beats of its strong wings.
"By Lorkhan..." Ruthalia heard Delphine mumble, but her attention belonged to the remaining beast.
It had regained all its flesh. Strong, thick muscles wrapped themselves around the bones which had been exposed before, dark green scales armoring them. Big, leathery wings spread out from its side and, with two swooping beats, it soared into the sky.
It filled the air with a loud roar, followed by lightning as if to underline its power.
Ruthalia grasped her bow, readied an arrow and aimed at the giant beast. With steady arms and one brown eye closed, she followed the creature's path in the sky. She closed everything out; Delphine, the weather, the deep bass of the dragon's beating wings, the roaring thunder and the blinding lightning. She was deeply concentrated, waiting for just the right moment to let go of the pressure that slowly caused her arms to shiver.
The dragon turned with the wind, increasing its pace.
It opened its massive mouth, exposing long, sharp fangs. It blasted out a roar, followed by a blazing stream of fire.
At that exact time, Ruthalia let go of the arrow.
Hungry and impatient with waiting did it seek its target, going straight forward with deadly dedication. With immense speed the arrow dug itself into the creature's body, going through scale and flesh. She had hit it right between the eyes.
It roared in pain, as did Ruthalia as she got bit by the fire's heat. She barely managed to jump out of the way.
Delphine, meanwhile, had not been lazy. She had been watching the dragon and charged towards it as soon as it hit the ground. It dug its' talons into the frozen earth and one of its wings hung down by its side, useless and broken.
"Ahhh!" Delphine roared, and let her sword come down on the giant creature. It barely cut through the dragon's scales. It turned its head, annoyed, and before Delphine could even begin to react, she found herself embraced within the dragon's flames.
Ruthalia watched as she closed her eyes in panic. Holding her breath, Ruthalia charged at Delphine and tackled her to the ground – out of harm's way.
Panting, they looked at each other. It was the first time Ruthalia saw something other than cold determination in Delphine's eyes. Gratefulness.
They both got up again and readied themselves for yet another attack.
So did the dragon.
"You waste my time!" it bellowed, furious that not even one of its attacks had yet been successful, and it prepared to soar back into the air to crush them. But, in its anger, it had forgotten about its broken wing. Ruthalia took that moment of confusion and swung herself on its back. Her sword supported the climb, digging its way just barely through the scales.
The dragon began to surge to-and-fro. It was outraged and astonished at her behavior. It started to speak in dragon again but Ruthalia did still didn't understand, and did not care to at this moment. She made her way up to the massive head, trying hard not to fall off; the dragon's long neck underneath her wound like a huge, crazed snake. It snapped and thrashed its tail, giving Delphine no chance to join her.
Thick, wet snowflakes splashed against the three fighting beings on the hillside just above the little village that lay unaware and silent, or so it pretended to be.
Ruthalia finally reached its head, her legs clinging tightly to the beast which would not give up its struggle. She took a firm grip of her sword's hilt with both hands and lifted it over her head. She put all the strength she had left into this one final strike.
She let the sword come down.
The impact of it clashing through scales and flesh felt like her arms were being broke apart, but it went all the way through to the dragon's brain. With that instant it was dead and all the thrashing and winding stopped abruptly. Its head dropped to the ground, its body went limb, the leathery wings collapsed aside and its eyes lost their ferocity.
Ruthalia stumbled to the ground, her every limp feeling soft like rabbit stew. If she hadn't been so beat, Ruthalia might have been surprised to find Delphine come to her aid to support her.
The two women looked at the dead creature before them. They heard a sizzling sound as if somebody set a fire somewhere. It grew louder and louder, and there were indeed flames. They emanated from the dragon's corpse, embracing it like a thousand arms. The flames grew bigger and brighter and ravenously ate their way through the dragon's flesh until nothing but its bare bones were left. Just as it had first been, when it had risen from its grave. How it should have remained.
Swirls of magic, like dancing creatures, wrapped around the skeleton, then flew into the sky, embracing some of the closest standing trees and, finally, as if it was searching for her, the magic wrapped itself around Ruthalia as well.
The storm around them had stopped almost as suddenly as their fight, and it was almost completely silent except for the hushing noise the magic created.
A heavy throbbing went through both Ruthalia and Delphine, causing the ground to vibrate as it did when the black dragon had spoken, but this time it was gentle and soft, almost loving.
And then Delphine knew. Ruthalia could see it in her face.
She had just witnessed one of one of the most abstract, strange and probably one of the most intimidating moments in all of Tamriel. She witnessed a Dragonborn taking in a dragon's soul. Learning from it, growing from it. Taking its wisdom and strength as their own.
As slowly and softly as it had started, it ended.
Subsiding.
It left Ruthalia breathless for another moment or two, before she turned her head towards the still speechless Delphine.
"I … it's true, isn't it? You really are Dragonborn," she finally said, and after another short silence, "I owe you some answers, don't I?" She looked down, almost apologetic and rubbed her neck. "Go ahead. Whatever you want to know. Nothing held back."
Ruthalia's eyebrows lifted a little in surprise, her biggest concern to remain standing and not fall down. Now that the fight was over, and both her body and mind were able to process the physical obstacles of the past few days, all she really wanted was to just lie down and rest.
But there were questions indeed.
Throughout their whole journey she had wondered about all kinds of things to ask and, now that she had the chance, she almost found herself speechless.
But she also remembered how the woman had treated her throughout their days spent together. The harsh and demanding demeanor she had revealed.
She didn't know when another opportunity like this would come up again, and also, the woman could use a little bit of her own medicine, so Ruthalia started bluntly.
"Who are you and what do you want with me?"
"I am one of the last members of the Blades. A very long time ago, the Blades were dragon slayers, and we served the Dragonborn, the greatest dragon slayer. For the last two hundred years, since the last Dragonborn emperor, the Blades have been searching for a purpose. Now that dragons are coming back, our purpose is clear again. We need to stop them," Delphine answered, immediate and serious as Ruthalia knew her to be.
Ruthalia was generally against slaying any kind of creature, no matter how dangerous. Dragons were living beings like anything else and had a right to live. It was strange that the black one had spoken to her, that it had summoned another of its kind, but what if they had not interfered? What if they had never shown up and disturbed whatever had taken place? Would it still have looked for her to kill her? Only because she was Dragonborn? Did being Dragonborn necessarily mean to make dragons go extinct again? Ruthalia did not recall the Graybeards having said so.
But then she had a glimpse memory of the Draugr.
What fate was it to end up like them, undead servants to the Dragons? Maybe they were nothing but savage beasts.
"What do you know about the dragons coming back?" she continued to ask.
"Not a damn thing," Delphine confessed. "I was just as surprised as you to find that big black dragon here." Ruthalia could tell that lack of knowledge about a matter so dear to this woman could drive her mad.
She seems mad in general...
"I've seen that dragon before, the one that got away," Ruthalia began hesitantly. "It was the one that attacked Helgen, when Ulfric escaped from the Imperials."
"Interesting… Same dragon… Damn it, we're blundering around in the dark here! We need to figure out who's behind it all!" Delphine exclaimed, startling Ruthalia who had drifted off in her memory of Helgen.
"So what's our next move then?" she asked, trying to remain alert.
"The first thing we need to do is figure out who's behind the dragons. The Thalmor are our best lead. If they aren't involved, they'll know who is."
Does this woman ever show any signs of weakness?!
"Who are these 'Thalmors'?" Delphine wrinkled her forehead, not missing Ruthalia's mockingly suspicious tone at the name 'Thalmor'.
"The faction that rules the Aldmeri Dominion. The ones that almost destroyed the Empire during the Great War, thirty years back," she began heading back down the hill. Ruthalia followed. "There's no worse enemy to humankind in Tamriel. The Empire barely survived the last war. The Thalmor don't intend to lose the next one."
"So, what makes you think the Thalmor are bringing dragons back?" Ruthalia asked, trying to make some sense of this.
"Nothing solid. Yet. But my gut tell me it can't be anybody else. The Empire had captured Ulfric. The war was basically over. Then a dragon attacks, Ulfric escapes, and the war is back on. And now, dragons are attacking everywhere, indiscriminately. Skyrim is weakened, the Empire is weakened. Who else gains from this but the Thalmor?"
"And why are they after you, then?" Ruthalia asked, remembering Delphine's previous fear upon their first meeting – how she suspected Ruthalia might be a Thalmor plant.
"Before the Great Wars, the Blades helped the Empire against the Thalmor. Our Grand Master saw them as the greatest threat to Tamriel. At the time, that was true. Maybe it still is. So we fought them in the shadows, all across Tamriel. We thought we were more than a match for them.
"We were wrong."
Ruthalia had no great interest in political issues. She never had and probably never would. She had never understood the human kind and their desire to rule over one another. She wished she could have stayed out of this all together. A sharp bite of regret dug its teeth into her heart and mind over having come here in the first place. She should have gone back to her homelands once she had escaped her execution. Back to Valenwood. Back to her…
"So, we need to find out what the Thalmor know about the dragons. Any ideas?" Ruthalia asked, quickly trying to get her thoughts back on the matter at hand, away from memories...
"If we could get into the Thalmor Embassy… It's the center of their operations in Skyrim… Problem is, that place is locked up tighter than a miser's purse. They could teach me a few things about paranoia..."
Ruthalia lifted her eyebrows in disbelief but gave Delphine a grin. Ruthalia thought she might even have returned it, but it was too little and short to be sure.
"So, is it possible to get into the Embassy?" Ruthalia had no real interest in working any further with Delphine, but she wasn't about to tell her that, yet.
"I'm not sure yet. I have a few ideas, but I'll need some time to pull things together. Meet me back in Riverwood. If I am not back when you get there, wait for me. I shouldn't be long."
They reached the little village again and stopped by their horses. A few torches lit the place and a couple of guards had started making their way up the hill, probably alarmed by all the noise from their fight. Ruthalia couldn't make out what they were saying however.
"Keep an eye on the sky. This is only going to get worse."
Ruthalia turned her attention back to Delphine and found her seated on her mount's back already. With those words, Delphine dismissed herself and spurred her horse into motion, gone without so much as a backwards glance.
Ruthalia stood there for a little longer, watching Dlephine ride off until she couldn't see her anymore.
It had stopped snowing.
"I might just reward myself with a sweet roll or two," Ruthalia mumbled to herself and disappeared inside the inn.