Disclaimer: I only own a copy of Skyrim.
I know it kind of feels like I'm just repeating what they do in the questline, but I don't have any ideas as to what to do other than the Companion questline until after she joins the Companions as an official member.
"Tell me," Aela asked Lilith. The blind girl looked in the direction of her voice. "Do you believe you could handle Kodlak in a real fight?"
"If he was tied up and weaponless I may have a chance," she joked with a wide smile, before taking a sip from her cup. Farkas chuckled.
"Don't be so modest. You probably can't handle Kodlak, but I'm sure you could handle yourself in a fight," he told her. "You have a strong arm and perform sure strikes according to Kodlak, even though you can't see the target."
"Maybe," Lilith replied, her other hand wrapping around her cup. "But I doubt I'd do much damage. I'd need a stronger arm with eyes to help me, like you. Or Vilkas."
Vilkas glanced up when he heard her say his name. Kodlak had invited her and Jon to dinner. Jon was in a conversation with Torvar, while Lilth was chatting with Aela and Farkas. Vilkas looked next to him at Kodlak, who was smiling fondly at her. He wanted to scowl. She was blind. The blind couldn't make powerful Companions. A Companion needed to see his target. She couldn't see her target. She couldn't see anything.
Her shoulders hunched over some as she giggled at a joke from Farkas. Dark hair was covering her cloudy eyes. His eyes narrowed at her some, but his expression softened when Kodlak nudged him.
"Humor her, lad," he said gently. "I know what it is like to live with my vision blocked. People like us need a break from being babied and pitied."
Vilkas nodded, staring at Kodlak's clouded right eye. It was hard to remember that Kodlak himself was blind in one eye from an accident he encountered earlier in his years as a Companion. His left eye was on it's slow journey to becoming useless as well as he grew older.
"It is different," Vilkas insisted. "You saw once, and you just shifted to accommodate your eyes."
"But she is stronger than I, Vilkas. She walks in complete darkness with shoulders straight and chin high, knowing her way despite never seeing her path," he told the younger. "Lilith has never seen color. She does not even grasp what it is, and she never will."
The younger just nodded slowly in respect and understanding towards his elder before looking at Lilith. She was tearing a sweetroll in half, giving one of the halves to Farkas before tearing the other half in half again. She shoved one in her mouth and gave the other to Aela. The huntress smiled and thanked her for it.
He could not think of the girl going any higher than a whelp. But Kodlak seemed to have more than faith in her. He completely trusted the young Nord. And if Kodlak trusted her, then so did Vilkas.
"Vilkas? Would you mind being Lilith's Shield-Brother?"
Vilkas stared at Lilith before giving Kodlak a curious look.
"What are we doing?" he asked.
"You're going to Riverwood and getting rid of a small pack of wolves that have taken residence in the local inn," she told her. Vilkas raised an eyebrow.
"You think she's up for it?" Vilkas asked, looking at the blind Companion with logical skepticism. Aela had fitted her in some of her spare, studded armor.
"Kodlak thinks so," she replied. "Says her arm should be able to handle a few wolves, especially with a Shield-Brother or Sister."
Vilkas pulled Aela to the side some.
"I don't think she'd be much help if I brought her along," he told her quietly. "She's blind."
"Kodlak has faith in her," Aela replied, crossing her arms. "Her arm is strong, and I put good armor on her."
"The blind can't be good Companions," Vilkas insisted.
"Kodlak is blind in one eye," she reminded him.
"That is different. He can still see. A Companion needs to see their target. She can't see her target. She can't see anything," he protested. Aela flashed him an angry, dangerous look. He flinched some in fear. "Look, can't Farkas take her? Or you? I'm a Companion, not a babysitter for the blind."
"Kodlak specifically said that you were to take her," she told him through gritted teeth. Vilkas sighed heavily.
"Alright," he grumbled. He walked back over to Lilith. He stared hard at her, giving a silent scowl at the clouded eyes that stared at nothing. "Let's go."
She nodded, giving a frown when he grabbed her hand. They walked out of Jorrvaskr and out of Whiterun, walking along the trail silently.
"I'm blind," she suddenly said.
"I know," he grumbled.
"I'm not deaf," she told him. He froze some. "Yes, I heard what you said."
"Look, I just meant-," he began, but she cut him off by holding up a hand.
"You meant what you said, otherwise you wouldn't have said it," she told him. "I am blind, Vilkas. But I am not useless."
"I apologi-"
"And furthermore, I am not delicate either!" she growled, ripping her hand away from his. "You don't need to lead me. I am capable of walking without somebody dragging me along. I don't need a babysitter."
He winced at her choice of words. Looking at her, she kept her face straight ahead. He had to admire that she seemed to walk perfectly fine, avoiding the little holes in the ground, trees and bushes. Nor did she trail off the path the entire walk to Riverwood.
When they reached Riverwood, a man was waiting for them outside the inn in a chair.
"Are you the owner?" Vilkas asked. He shook his head.
"No, but I basically run the place," he said. "Name's Orgnar. I locked the inn so that the wolves couldn't escape."
"Is there anybody inside?" Lilith asked. He shook his head no.
"Okay, since nobody's inside, we don't have to worry about accidently hitting somebody," Vilkas said aloud, a subtle hint to Lilith. He didn't want to let this Orgnar know that they let a blind person into the Companions. "Can you let us in?"
As Orgnar unlocked the front door, Vilkas took out his greatsword as Lilith pulled her Skyforge steel sword out and held her shield up. He debated on asking her to wait for him while he dealt with the issue, but he didn't want to risk her anger or telling Kodlak.
He opened the door and the two went inside. Vilkas looked around for signs of wolves. He sniffed the air, his beast blood excitably telling him that there were definitely wolves there.
A whine caused him to snap behind him, weapon prepared, to face Lilith. Her sword was covered in blood and a dead wolf lay at her feet. She must have known he was looking at her, because she gave him a smirk.
"You got lucky," he said stubbornly.
"Luck had nothing to do with it."
Vilkas turned when he heard a wolf growling. His beast blood made him feel awful for killing the animal in one blow. It always made him feel like that when he killed a wolf. A bite on his arm made him remember the task at hand. Before he could do anything about the wolf that snapped at his arm, Lilith had delivered a painful blow to the creature's back. It didn't die, but whimpered and collapsed to the ground. Vilkas stabbed it through its side, killing it before it had the chance to rise again.
The two wiped out the rest of the wolves. Vilkas could barely admit it to himself that he was surprised when they killed the last one. His arm had a bite mark, but she bared no signs that she had walked in, save for her bloody sword.
"Give me your sword," he told her.
"Why?" she asked, giving him a suspicious look.
"So that I can wipe off the blood before you sheath it," he told her. She accepted his answer and handed it to him. Taking a clothe from the table, he wiped off the blood and fur from her sword before handing it back.
"Thank you," she told him. She ran her fingers over the blade before putting it away. Vilkas wiped off his greatsword before they walked out.
"They're all dead," he reported to an anxious Orgnar. He sighed in relief. "Kind of a mess in there."
"As long as the wolves are dead," he told them, pulling out some coin and handing it to Vilkas. He brushed past them to go inside the inn.
Vilkas stared at the coin before grabbing Lilith's hands and slipping it into her hands.
"It's yours," he told her. She handed half of it back.
"We both did the job. Take at least half."
He gave in after a minute of arguing with her and took half of the two hundred coin they were paid. They walked side by side back to Whiterun. Partway there, she stopped him.
"You're hurt," she told him. He chuckled.
"A wolf bit me," he replied, glancing at some of the drying blood on his arm. "How'd you know?"
"I could smell the blood," she explained. "I thought it was just the wolves blood, but now that we're away from the inn, and I can still smell it, I figured you probably got hurt."
"It's nothing," he insisted.
"I have a bandage," she said, completely ignoring him. She grabbed his right arm and felt it. Upon feeling no cut, she dropped it and grabbed his left, her fingers brushing against dry blood. She pulled him towards the stream. "I'll take care of that."
Before he could protest, she had him sitting next to the stream, his left arm bare as she cleaned it off. She expertly wiped off all the blood and bandaged it with no problems.
"Hey Vilkas," she said slyly as she finished bandaging the wound.
"Yeah?"
"Isn't it ironic that the strong, brave Companion got hurt and the delicate, fragile blind girl walked out with no injuries but yet still did the same amount of work?"
He growled.
"Shut up."
"How was her arm?" Kodlak asked. Vilkas scowled. They had returned, and Lilith was excitably telling Aela her adventure. The redhead was eagerly listening to every word.
"She was…okay," he said hesitantly. Kodlak chuckled at him.
"She did better than you expected, didn't she?" he said more than asked.
"…Yes…"
"Remember that, Vilkas," the elder spoke, looking eye to eye with Vilkas. "The Companions is welcome to all who have a fire burning in their hearts. Even if they are blind, deaf, mute or anything in between. All that matters, Vilkas, is their hearts."
"Aye," he said weakly, staring at the two girls squealing over Lilith's adventure.
He stood up to leave, catching Lilith's attention. Vilkas walked down the steps to the living quarters, needing some sleep. She excused herself from Aela and caught him in the hallway.
"What do you want, milk drinker?" he grumbled.
"Just wanted to say thank you for accompanying me today," she said, giving him a small frown. Lilith then flashed a huge smile and a giggle. "Are you still mad that I did better than you?"
"You didn't do better than me," he argued. Her hands found his cheeks and patted them lightly.
"You're too cute when you pretend to be big and fierce," she teased before kissing his nose and going back upstairs to continue her conversation with Aela. He growled to himself and slunk off to bed.
Two weeks passed. Every morning, Jon would drop Lilith off at Jorrvaskr and head off to working at the meadery, coming back late in the evening to take her home.
To his annoyance, Kodlak always had Vilkas travel with her as a Shield-Brother. He was sure it was due to him being the only one that just couldn't warm up to the blind girl.
Every trip they took, they would fight over Lilith's abilities the entire way there. He always expected to carry back her corpse, but he surprised her each time by surviving. Not just surviving, but able to do more than just stand there and wave a sword around. Lilith silently impressed him with preventing attacks that almost killed him, her surprisingly stealth always keeping her just out of harm's way and the ability she possessed to detect ambushes. It only happened twice, but she detected both and prepared Vilkas for the fight.
When he asked her how she knew, she grinned.
"I'm blind, but I'm not deaf," she had told him. "If you listen, really listen, then you can hear them moving around the trees."
Vilkas woke up two weeks after the whelp first joined to find her nowhere. She was normally in the dining hall, talking to Farkas or Aela. But when he stepped in, he didn't see her. When she wasn't with them, she was with Kodlak in his private quarters but he had checked before he stepped to the dining hall and found neither Lilith nor Kodlak there.
"Where's Lilith? Did Jon not drop her off?" he asked Skjor.
"She went with Farkas for her trial," he replied. Vilkas was bewildered. He was always stuck going with her.
"But Kodlak always has me go with her," Vilkas said slowly.
"Yeah, but she hears you bitch every time about it, so she asked Kodlak if somebody else could take her for her trial, and Farkas volunteered," Skjor said, giving him a Look. Vilkas felt a bit guilty. "Look, Vilkas. Every other Companion, from Torvar to Kodlak, has no complaints concerning her but you. I do not know exactly what your problem is, pup, but you need to deal with it and move on. Lilith is here to stay."
Pup? Vilkas winced. He hadn't been called that since he joined the Circle. A term used for the youngest or more immature members of the Companions. It was a low blow. He looked up at Skjor, who was giving him a warning glare.
"I will ask for her forgiveness," he said quietly. Skjor nodded in approval and went out the door to the courtyard.
Vilkas stood anxiously on the front steps of Jorrvaskr.
"Vilkas, come inside. It is late," Ria's voice told him from the doorway.
"They should be back by now," he said aloud, ignoring her.
"She will be fine, she has Farkas with her."
"But she is blind. What if she let an enemy strike his back while he fights?"
"They will both be fine, Vilkas. Now come inside," Skjor echoed Ria from inside. Vilkas looked down one last time, and he grinned.
"They have returned," he informed them.
"I told you they would both be fine," Ria scowled. She echoed Vilkas's words to Skjor, who distantly spoke of gathering the Companions for Lilith's initiation.
Lilith rushed up the steps, Farkas chasing her. Both were laughing merrily. Farkas stopped when he saw Vilkas, putting a hand on Lilith's arm to prevent her from running up into Jorrvaskr.
"Follow me," was all Vilkas could say.
"Why?" Lilith questioned. He didn't answer, but Farkas took her hand and led her to the courtyard. "What's going on?"
"We're making you an official Companions member," Farkas told her gently. "The Circle is all here to stand witness."
Lilith beamed as Farkas gently guided her to where she was to stand. He stood next to her, Vilkas on the other side of Lilith. Kodlak was holding a torch, since the sun had recently set behind the mountains of Skyrim.
"Brothers and Sisters of the Circle," he began. "Today, we welcome a new soul into our mortal fold. Despite having an extreme disadvantage, this brave woman has endured, has challenged and has shown her valor. Who will speak for her?"
Vilkas looked around. Aela was smiling fondly at Lilith, Kodlak mirroring her and even the corner of Skjor's lips were turned upwards.
"I stand witness to the courage of the soul before us," Farkas responded, looking with favor at the blind Nord.
"Will you raise a shield in her defense?" Kodlak asked him.
"I would stand at her back," Farkas replied. Vilkas saw his hand slip into hers, immediately sparking a small pang of jealousy. "That the world might never overtake us."
"And would you raise your sword in her honor?"
"My sword stands ready to meet the blood of her foes."
"And would you raise a mug in her name?"
"I would lead the song of triumph as our mead hall reveled in her stories."
"Then the judgment of this Circle is complete," Kodlak determined before concluding. "Her heart beats with fury and courage that have united the Companions since the days of the distant green summers. Let it beat with ours, that the mountains may echo and our enemies may tremble at the call."
"It is so," every Circle member said. Vilkas had a hard time letting the words escape him, his eyes fixed on Farkas and Lilith's hand. After it was said, they released hands. Everybody stood to congratulate her, but Vilkas. He muttered a word of praise before slipping off into his room.