Chapter 12: Her Domain
"My life is over.", Brelyna said with desperation in her voice. They had been walking for a while, past Winterhold, past Windhelm and took a right turn at the thermo active plains of the Eastmarch. And slowly but surely, the reality of what just happened sunk in. "Over! Done! Past tense!"
Nephiah's shoulder was still hurting. She kept a hand on it as they trotted along.
Brelyna was rubbing her forehead with one hand. "I'm going to get expelled!"
Nephiah looked at her, trying to understand.
"There are strict rules against violence at the college! That's it! And even if it wasn't, Neloth is not the kind who stops short of getting what he wants!"
They began to cross a shallow river bed, ankle high water running through it. "What am I going to do?! How am I going to live?! I can't go back there and I can't go back home either!" She looked into the sky, the red of dawn was beginning to show on the horizon. Her mind was racing with options and courses of action, all of them bad. "Azura guide me..."
Nephiah was looking at the water surface as they crossed. Suddenly her hand shot down into the water and came back up, holding a fish. She presented it to Brelyna by holding it into her face as it flapped about, giving off sprinkles of river water. "Dinner?", she said.
Brelyna gave off a short laugh as she pushed the arm away to get some distance between the wet fish and her face. It seemed to be a very simple approach to a very complicated problem. She sighed. "I hope you have a place we can go."
Nephiah threw the fish back into the water.
They moved up a hill, green grass, bushes and lush trees began to reappear. They continued to walk into the wilderness in silence, Brelyna was lost in thought. Eventually they reached a serene little pond which had a small island in its center.
Still thinking, Brelyna automatically moved to go around it but her course was quickly changed by Nephiah who grabbed her hand and pulled her into the water. It wasn't deep, it reached waist height before they began to re-emerge on the island.
Nephiah grabbed a bush and moved it to the side, revealing a wooden hatch. She opened it, a shaft let down into the darkness underground. She jumped in, ignoring the makeshift ladder attached to the shaft.
Brelyna looked around and then down the hole. "So this is where you live?", she shouted down.
No answer.
A flash of light appeared at the bottom revealing Nephiah who had just lit a torch. It was a few meters deep. She looked up and signaled to follow.
As Brelyna reached her - she used the ladder - Nephiah pulled a rope that was hanging down from above. The hatch closed and a brushing noise indicated that the bush had been placed back on top of it. Nephiah grabbed her hand again and began to lead her through a series of narrow tunnels. There was not enough space for two people to stand side by side.
Occasionally she stopped and pointed at hidden triggers for traps to avoid. Contraptions of wooden spikes to shoot from out the ground and heavy rocks to fall from the ceiling were ready to greet any unwanted visitors. The tunnel was lined with plenty of them. Eventually they reached a dead end. Nephiah let go of her hand and grabbed a big iron lever that by the looks of it had been installed there a long time ago. As she flipped it, one could hear a mechanism work behind the rocky walls. A part of the wall began to move to the side, revealing a larger cave behind it. Nephiah entered, making another gesture to follow.
Brelyna carefully entered and looked around. This was her domain. There was a table with a chair and a simple wooden bed filled with animal furs. A torch flickered on the wall, giving off a faint light over the humble scene.
Nephiah moved further in and held her torch to a large waist high chalice which flared up, illuminating the entire room. It was revealed to be much larger than the small torch at the entrance lead Brelyna to believe. She stopped moving and stared in awe. A corner of the wall harbored a chest filled with gems and jewellery, piles of gold coins to the left and right of it, there must have been thousands of them. Another corner contained stacks books of all shapes and sizes, another had animal hides and furs piled into it.
"Where did you get all this?", she asked not believing her eyes.
"Around." Nephiah shrugged. "It's everywhere."
"How long have you lived here?" She shrugged again and moved another lever. The door closed behind them.
Nephiah disappeared through another short tunnel on the other side, lighting torches on the wall as she went.
Brelyna slowly followed, still looking at the wealth of artifacts that had been collected here. As she left the tunnel she found herself in a small room that was set up as a cooking area. A small table with bloodstains and a butchers knife on it, a small cooking spit with a kettle under which one could light a fire, shelves filled with salted meat and various dried plants, she couldn't identify all of them. Nephiah was nowhere to be seen, she went into the next tunnel.
Before reaching the next exit she stepped on something soft. She looked down to see the novice robe Nephiah was given at the college. She looked up and hesitantly stepped forward into the next room. It was the last in the chain of caves, its circular wall lined with shelves on which an assortment of hide armor pieces and other clothing items were placed. A number of iron swords and war axes leaned on the wall, hunting bows, a pile of arrows and quivers, old clay jugs of all shapes and sizes. Nephiah was standing in front of a shelf, naked, picking up the various pieces that would make a full set of armor. She turned around and spotted her companion standing at the entrance, blushing.
"Oh, um, ha..." Brelyna scanned her up and down, looking past the scars. She was very muscular, yet curved beautifully in all the right places. She found it just a bit awkward, she couldn't get a thought to form.
Nephiah didn't apparently, she raised her eyebrows and tilted her head slightly as if asking her to say what was on her mind.
"Um... soooo... ha... "
Nephiah's patience had ended, she moved past her, grabbed a bow and an arrow quiver and left the way they came, pieces of armor in one hand, the weapon in the other.
Brelyna ran her hands over her eyes and laughed. "What an eventful few days this has been."
As she arrived back in the main living room, Nephiah sat on the small table by the entrance, already in the process of strapping the last shoulder piece to her armor. She then wrapped a black piece of linen around her forehead and looked up at her friend who felt incredibly out of place. "I hunt.", she said grabbing the bow and jumping off the table. Then she pointed to the ground. "This is safe." Then she pointed at the lever on the wall. "If you must leave." She stood up and flipped the lever, the door opened. She stepped into the tunnel and put a hand on the switch outside. "Don't leave.", she said over her shoulder. She flipped the switch, the door closed.
As the door mechanism fell silent, Brelyna stepped further into the room, browsing the signs of life. The treasure chest contained pieces of jewellery of different styles and levels of craftsmanship, some of them looked very old. A dragon claw was amongst the riches, she remembered those from history books. They were used to open elaborate doors to ancient Nordic burial grounds. Nephiah must have spent a good deal of time underground, raiding tombs.
She looked at the stacks of books. There seemed to be no particular order in which they were placed. The ones at the bottom seemed to be more dusty than the ones on top, probably stacked in the order she had found them. "Why collect books if you can't read?"
She moved on to the pile of furs. Obviously taken from animals she herself had hunted. Behind it a pile of ingots revealed itself. They mere made of different materials, she didn't know much about smithing. It all looked very lived in, well thought out and built upon over time. While the main room looked like it had naturally formed, the other two had been dug out manually. "How many years has it been?"
She moved past the kitchen, picked the robe off the ground and folded it to place it on one of the shelves. She ran her hand over the various articles of clothing. Some of them looked self-made, some didn't. She moved her face closer and took a deep breath. Everything smelled of her, a subconscious smile formed on her face. She picked up one of the black linen pieces and wrapped it around her forehead, just like Nephiah did. She giggled childishly.
She turned around and picked up one of the iron swords. She lifted it up, it was heavy. How one would swing this through the air with any kind of precision she had no idea. She took an uncoordinated swing. She quickly lost hold of the blade, it flew across the room, knocking over a shelf. It crashed to the ground, scattering boots and arrows all over the floor. "Damnit!"
She quickly moved to the entrance and looked across the tunnels to see if Nephiah had returned and heard the noise. Nothing. She turned to the chaos at her feet and sighed. "That's what they'll write on my tomb stone one day." She bowed down and lifted the shelf back up. "Here lies Brelyna Maryon, slayer of furniture."
She was about to turn to pick up the pieces when she noticed a button behind the shelf. It was made of the same stone that surrounded it, it was barely visible. She put a hand on her mouth as temptation grew.
She looked back through the tunnels. Still nothing.
She pushed the button. Another mechanism rumbled behind the walls, another piece of the wall began to move sideways, a hidden door just like the entrance. She took a torch off the wall. The secret room was small, a single wooden table, an old chest placed on top. She stepped up and slowly opened it. Inside was a rusty Dunmeri dagger with traces of dried blood on it, a dusty notebook and a rough linen robe. She placed the torch on the wall inside the room and lifted up the robe. She gasped. It was tiny, no way Nephiah would fit in there.
Blood had formed patterns of spots and lines on both sides, the robe was torn in several places. She quickly put it back down and took a deep breath. She reached for the book as a hand grabbed her from behind.
Nephiah roughly pulled her out of the room and hit the button with her fist. She angrily looked at her as the door shut.
Brelyna felt terrible. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her, had she known what was in there she wouldn't have looked. "I'm sorry..."
Nephiah's expression didn't change. After a moment she lifted her left hand, presenting the two dead rabbits she'd been holding. Then she turned and left for the kitchen.
Brelyna reluctantly followed.
She leaned against the entrance to the room, she didn't dare step in. Nephiah slammed the rabbits down on the table.
"That robe..."
The butchers knife made a metallic swing as it moved through the air, the wood cracked as it was implanted deeply into the table's surface, decapitating both animals.
"...was it yours?"
Nephiah looked up at her, even angrier it seemed. She raised her left fist, drawing attention to the branding. "Still is.", she whispered. She picked up one of the rabbits and violently pulled off its fur in one powerful stroke.
"How old were you?"
She slammed the skinned animal back onto the table's surface and looked back at Brelyna, giving no further answer.
"All right. I'll stop asking." Brelyna crossed her arms and left for the living room with a bowed head.
She found a chair to sit in and placed her hands on her knees. She could still hear the butchers knife in the other room, slamming into the table a lot harder than it needed to. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and shook her head. After a while the noises stopped.
A moment later she could make out the rumbling of the door mechanism on the far end. She looked at the tunnel to the kitchen, focusing on any other sounds coming from there. After a while Nephiah stepped through. She had the notebook from the secret room in hand and looked at her. Then moved to the bed and sat down, looking at the book she now held in both hands.
A moment passed before Brelyna realized that Nephiah had sat down on the top half of the bed, leaving space on the bottom half for someone else. It was an invitation. She stood up and moved over.
As she sat down Nephiah inhaled deeply. Upon exhaling she handed the book over. Brelyna held it for a moment. "Do you know what's in here?"
She nodded.
"But you can't read."
She shook her head.
"But how can you..."
"I was there."
Brelyna slowly opened the cover. On the first page was written 'Notes on training techniques - Frokwulf - 4E 181'
"That was twenty years ago!" Surprised she looked at Nephiah who stared at the ground, not moving. Brelyna browsed through the pages. The last entry was dated as 16th of Sun's Dawn 4E 186. She looked back to her side. "Five years?"
Nephiah nodded slowly, still with an expressionless stare. "This Frokwulf... is he one of the people you are looking for?"
Nephiah closed her eyes. She very slowly shook her head.
Brelyna looked back at the book. She moved back to the first entry and began to read.
