Chapter 8: I've Put a Spell On You

"Murdering lunatic!" Brelyna had been walking on the snowy road for a while. Even though the sun was shining, it was very cold. The fur cloak helped. She had started talking to herself a while back. "Ok, let's do this rationally, let's make a list."

She reached a crossroad, one path continued the road she was on, the other led into the mountains. She had been using Azura's shrine in the distance to guide her way, she took a left turn, leaving the road.

"On the one hand, she smells like a pile of old books. I like books!"

The snow got deeper as she treaded up the path.

"On the other hand, murdering lunatic."

The wind was picking up a bit as she reached more height. "On the one hand, whenever she is close, all the chatter of doubt and uncertainty in my head is silenced. I don't know how she does it, but there it is. I mean, look at me, an hour apart and I'm back at talking to myself. STOP talking to yourself, Brelyna."

It had gotten colder, she stuck her hands under her armpits. "On the other hand, murdering lunatic! Damnit! That argument always works!"

The exertion of walking uphill in snow began to be noticeable, she stopped to take a few breaths, then trotted on. "Also, what a fighter. Saved my life three times when she didn't have to. Also, great kisser. That equals all the positives combined. The calm, the safety, and yet very exciting..."

She turned around and started to walk back the way she came.

"Murdering lunatic!"

She turned around again and continued up the path.

She reached a rock formation that formed an arc like a short tunnel through the mountain, the path led through and past it. "So this is what I'll do. I'll go back to the college and continue my studies there. They are probably already wondering where I am. I will study hard, yes. I will become a powerful mage like father wants and go back to Morrowind. And none of this is going to matter."

She stopped under the naturally formed archway. Somebody had set up camp there a while ago, there was a bedroll and a small portable shrine set up. No sign of recent activity though. "But first, I will rest here a little while." She sat down and leaned against the rocky wall. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Images began to pop into her mind, the first time Nephiah stepped out of the shadows, the bandage, her inquiring about her smell. She giggled.

Then a picture of the corpse Nephiah decapitated in the cave.

She opened her eyes and looked to the direction she just came from. Was that why she was in there? To find him?

She closed her eyes again. She remembered being held by her. How easy everything was, how there didn't seem to be a worry in the world. Her exerted breathing calmed down.

Their first kiss, she subconsciously moved a hand to her lips.

Nephiah's foot smashing the skull of the guardsman.

Her grin instantly turned to a frown. The screams of the one she set on fire, she shuddered. "I don't exist..." the words echoed in her head. "None of this is happening because I don't exist..."

"What made her believe that? She squeezed her eyes shut. "Stop thinking about it, Brelyna. It's over."

She re-opened her eyes, startled by the arrow that hit the ground right in front of her feet.

Four bandits approached, two of them had their bows pointed at her. "Move and the next one goes into you.", one of them said.

They slowly stepped closer. "We've got ourselves a college mage by the looks of it, there has got to be some coin there. See that woman with the glass bow over there?" He pointed at the bandit to his right. "She is really good with that bow. So if you want to do any magic, go right ahead. You'll be so much easier to rob once you're dead."

Brelyna froze, looking fearfully at the group.

Two arrows were primed, one to her left, one to her right, both ready to fire at any moment. A big man holding a warhammer stood confidently between them, their leader walked up and squatted down close to her. He removed a couple of ropes from his fur armour and tied her hands behind her back, then her feet.

He removed a coin purse from her bag, felt its weight and threw it over to the warhammer. "Feels like at least 200 coins in there, they give you quite an allowance, don't they."

She looked at him, he found her fear to be amusing. He ran the flat side of his steel dagger over her face, so it wouldn't cut it, but increase her fear even more. "Elves..." He looked disgusted. "I'm not much for discipline. Otherwise I'd have joined Ulfric's cause long ago." He moved the dagger up to her left ear.

He could hear the fear in her breathing.

"You know, my brother's party was wiped out by a Thalmor patrol a up in Hjalmarch. They snuck into camp in the middle of the night and stabbed them all in their sleep. If it were up to me, I would have killed all of you pointy eared vermin long ago. Might as well start with you."

A polished steel blade emerged from the snowy fog outside the archway, giving of swishing sounds with every rotation until it was implanted into the chest of one of the archers. As he let go of his bow, the arrow shot forward uncontrolled, hitting the rock above Brelyna's head.

The leader turned around. "What..."

A Falmer sword emerged from the fog in similar fashion, eventually getting stuck in the head of archer number two.

The arrow leaving the glass bow went straight through the bandit leader's shoulder, as he was still squatting close to Brelyna. After a short scream he fell to the ground and stopped moving.

The fourth bandit held on to his warhammer in a defensive stance, looking at the fog with panic.

The unclear dark shape turned to a silhouette turned to a Dark Elf charging towards him. He took a step back as he identified the danger and began to raise his hammer to intercept. But the movement was way too slow. By the time he had raised it, Nephiah had ample room to ram her shoulder into his guts and push him backwards with force, until they entered the fog beyond the exit on the archway's other side.

Brelyna looked at the whiteness, listening to sounds of struggle and exertion. Then silence. After a moment she heard heavy footsteps in the snow. Brelyna began to struggle against her ropes. But it was Nephiah rushing towards her. She kneeled down, removed her bindings and brought her to her feet. Overtaken by relief not only that her life wasn't in danger anymore but even more so that she saw Nephiah again, she embraced her tightly.

She let go after a moment and looked at her. "You came for me! What about your quest?"

Nephiah quickly moved her head forward and pressed her lips against hers.

Brelyna's eyebrows rose, her eyes closed. The fear that was present moments ago vanished as if it had never been there at all, the sounds of sharp winds blowing outside the cave faded into nothingness. As Nephiah moved her head back, she giggled.

Immediately after she opened her eyes and forced a stern expression on her face. "What about what happened at the inn?! You can't just..."

Nephiah interrupted her with another kiss.

Adrenalin levels fell, her heart rate stabilized, it didn't seem to be cold anymore. Nephiah moved her head back.

Brelyna smiled, her eyes still closed. She giggled again. "Well maybe we can figure something out." Now it was she who moved forward until their lips met. It was so peaceful there, she had trouble coming up with words for it. 'Magic' was the only one springing to mind.

Then unexpectedly there was also the feeling of thick warm liquid forming spots on her face.

She opened her eyes and looked at Nephiah who had as much surprise written on her face.

They both looked down to the tip of a steel blade that stuck out of Nephiah's chest. She plummeted to the ground revealing the bandit leader who had regained consciousness and used their distraction to plunge his dagger into Nephiah's back up to the hilt. "Skyrim belongs to the Nords!", he shouted, coughing up blood.

Tears shot into Brelyna's eyes. "No!" Without thinking she extended both her hands and let fire engulf the bandit. She screamed in anguish and didn't let up until he was reduced to a pile of ash. She finally let the flames dim and fell to her knees beside Nephiah who was lying on the ground, the snow under her becoming increasingly drenched in blood.

Nephiah reached over her shoulder until she got hold of the dagger and slowly pulled it out. Her face showed how painful it was, yet she didn't make much of a sound.

Brelyna looked around in panic, they were in the middle of nowhere. Then she looked back at the wound that was gushing out large amounts of blood.

Nephiah took her hand and lay it onto it. Her strength was fading. "Magic.", she whispered.

"I don't know any healing spells!", Brelyna cried.

Nephiah shook her head. "Fire...", she said barely audibly. "C-close the wound!"

Brelyna yelled in a surge of hope. "O-ok, listen!"

Nephiah's head fell to the side.

She turned it back to her, giving it a couple of gentle slaps. "Nephiah?! Listen! Your skin is naturally heat resistant! I will have to make it really hot! It will be painful, do you understand?!" She was yelling loudly to make sure she got through.

Nephiah nodded, removed a leather strip from her armour and bit down on it. Then she nodded again.

Brelyna reached under her and pressed her left hand against the entry wound. Her right hand she placed on the exit wound on top. She closed her eyes to focus.

Her hands began to glow, small flames began to engulf them.

Nephiah arched up in pain, biting down hard on the strip in her mouth. Again, she didn't make much noise.

As she struggled, Brelyna fought to keep her hands in place as the fire did it's work. Finally the bleeding stopped. And so did Nephia's movement. Brelyna stopped and quickly stuck her hands into the snow. A sizzling sound was heard. "Ou ou ou!" She then turned back to her patient and put her head to her chest. The heart was still beating.

She looked around. Nephiah had tossed her cloak into the snow before charging in. She picked it up and spread it out beside her unconscious friend, then she rolled her onto it. She walked to the front, grabbed the paws of the bear cloak and walked a few steps, dragging Nephiah along. "Ok... this will be a fun trip." She looked down behind her. "Hold on to something."