Skyrim is the property of Bethesda Softworks. I feel bad that it's been almost a month since I posted anything. Hopefully in the coming days I'll be able to get a better handle on my time-management and set aside a while to write. Thanks for reading, mash the fave/follow buttons, and drop a review.
'Not feeling well' might be the largest understatement of the year, I thought to myself while trudging up the road to Solitude. The days spent returning to the city were an agony as my body chose to react with a fever to the sudden denial of the drugs I had been forcibly addicted to. Thankfully for the last day, the pain and hot flashes dulled enough to allow me to stand pallidly against the wall of Tullius's office.
Hadvar was there talking to Tullius and Rikke. He appeared deeply embarrassed as he stood before his superiors. Tullius and Rikke were in fouler moods than usual.
"Legate, tell me again why I wasted valuable men and time chasing after a children's story?" Tullius demanded with a hand on his forehead.
"The Jagged Crown is not just a story sir," The legate replied crossly. "It was worn by the kings of our first empire. Now that it's in Ulfric's hands, he will be looked on more favorably by the Jarls."
"Then we must have Jarls that view us and Elisif just as favorably," Tullius mused. "Hadvar, move your men to Camp Kjenstag and await orders. I want to move on Dawnstar before the month is over. Rikke, get me a list of locals who could take Jarl Skald's place.
"And you," Tullius stared daggers into me while Hadvar walked out. "You broke into Thane Erikur's home."
Coming down from withdrawal is a bad time to be scolded. "He's supplying the Stormcloaks. I was looking for proof," I replied.
"You think Erikur is responsible? He owes his fortune to the Empire. He would be selling weapons to the Stormcloaks?" The deep contempt in Tullius's voice made my stomach sour.
"He has the means do it. And Elisif hurt is wallet and pride by ignoring him," I reasoned. A cold sweat began to work its way down my face.
Tullius just rolled his eyes while Rikke took over the dressing-down, "Think, Quaestor. What is the other big company that uses Solitude's docks?"
"The Summerset Mercantile Combine," I answered.
Rikke nodded and began using the tone of a teacher speaking to a less than stellar student, "That's right. The shipping company based in Alinor, partly owned by the Thalmor government, and moonstone weapons are arriving in Skyrim from somewhere. You don't find the SMC suspicious at all?"
"They still need a go-between. Nobody with the Stormcloaks would buy from a person with yellow skin," That was a grasping at a straw and my superiors knew it.
"And you got caught," Rikke said last, in a tone suggesting that was the greatest of all my sins.
"For that I have no excuse Legate," I humbly replied.
"Erikur threatened to deny the Legion landing rights at the docks! He didn't back down until Elisif restored his tax breaks!" Tullius resumed.
Greedy bastard, I thought to myself
"You burned down Northwatch Keep."
"I was so drugged up I couldn't begin to tell you how the fire got started," I replied honestly. My head was beginning to throb again.
Tullius leaned forward, supporting his arms on the table. "I told Ambassador Elenwen that it must have been a Stormcloak raid. She only believed me because I'm losing this war!"
The General was silent for a minute while he struggled to reign in his frustration, "As a further sop to Thane Erikur, I'm throwing you out of Haafingar. Your orders are to take the Reach. I want the hold under Imperial control by the end of Rain's Hand. The 25th Colovian will be arriving later this week and marching south. You will work with the officers of that legion to accomplish your mission. Let's see you harm the enemy for once."
I knew a dismissal when I heard it. I saluted and turned to leave.
"And Quaestor," Tullius said calmly. I turned to look at the general again. "The current situation in the Reach is your doing. You will get us Markarth or die trying."
My eyes were fixed on my horse's mane and the road was rolling away beneath us. Aela recognized my mood for what it was and simply rode in front of me, silently leading my horse along the road back to Labyrinthian.
General Tullius gave me just a month and a half to secure the Reach. It was a seemingly impossible order on top of a stinging rebuke. I felt failure looking right into my face: The Reach was a mess after years of cruelty and mismanagement. Forsworn raiders and Markarth militia companies hunted each other for sport in the hills. Civilians, Nord and Breton alike, kept their heads down and got assaulted and robbed by the Forsworn and Silver-Bloods anyway. I had spent the journey from Solitude turning the problem over in my mind and now I wanted to speak with Argis or any of the Companions from the Reach to gain their insight.
I approached the word wall in Shalidor's Maze where the Circle used as a makeshift office. Seeing the Circle and my house men assembled around the large map—one of the few times I have seen them all assembled—banished the last of the venom from Tullius and Rikke's scolding and filled me with a warm sense of pride for having met these people and earned their esteem. As Aela once said to me shortly after I joined the Companions, when it came down to a fight, there were no others I would rather have at my back. I owed them better than a winter squatting in a ruined city.
They made a space for Aela and me at the table. I looked down to see a map covered with markers and notes: The copious fruits of the Empire's task list.
"How are our shield-siblings?" I asked. "How are they reacting to working for the Empire?"
There was an awkward pause before Vilkas spoke up, "Many were not happy when they discovered where their gold was coming form. A fistful have left."
I grumbled, not surprised at the response, "We knew this wouldn't be easy. Let it be known that any who feel ill-used are free to leave."
Vilkas scowled at that, "Harbinger, you can't just dismiss them like that. Once you let them go, they'll never stop leaving."
"How many do we have here at the moment?"
"A hundred. The rest are out on jobs."
I smiled thinly, "Would it make them feel better if they were a part of storming the strongest fortress in Skyrim?
"Shor's bones! What are you planning?
"Let's go for a walk. We need to figure out how many of us came from the Reach or know how to climb."
Almost a week later we were hiking along an unpaved, disused road through the highlands on the border between Whiterun and the Reach. Men and women stretched in a single long line behind me. Knee-deep snow reflected the brilliant sunlight of a treeless alpine meadow. It was so much like a winter patrol through the Colovian Highlands that I felt a rare twinge of homesickness. I glanced to the south, sure I would find the outline of the Kvatch and Chapel of Akatosh on their distant hill. If I kept them to the left, I would be in Anvil by the middle of next week and home by the Coast Road five days later.
I paused for a moment at the crest of Bleakwind Bluff, inhaling the cold air on that flawless morning. Looking back, my heart filled with pride. Following in my footsteps were a hundred Companions-nearly a third of us that remained-in a line nearly a quarter of a mile long. I was elated that so many were willing to come with me on this adventure. Eventually I was obliged to turn volunteers away to ensure that the Empire's contracts still be filled. To a man and woman they were eager: some like my housecarl Argis to see their home; others like Farkas to fight beside the legendary Dragonborn; or others like the Dunmer mercenary Jenassa to carry out a unique and challenging task. Between us we carried miles of rope and hundreds of pounds of climbing gear.
Looking forward, I felt anxious. "You've stopped. What is it?" Aela asked, coming up to stand next to me.
"Just taking in the view before we start down," I replied.
She gave me one of her more penetrating looks, "Our trail goes around the foot of Karthspire. You're not thinking about the Blades?"
In all honesty Esbern and Delphine Hadn't received a second thought since coming down from High Hrothgar. "Not until you mentioned them just now," I leaned forward to pick my path down the slope into the Karth River's watershed. "But now that you have, I'm not really concerned about them and want nothing to do with them." I took a first careful step. The thick snow gave away, causing me to slide down several feet before stopping. I turned to gaze up at the Huntress and spot her as she followed my track down.
"They want Parrthurnax dead. Once they figure out you're never going to kill the old dragon, they may try on their own. It may be for the best if you confront them now," Aela observed as she came to a graceful stop beside me.
I selected another likely path and stomped, causing my feet to slide downward again. "The only way I could force them to abandon their vendetta would be to kill them. Then I'd end up being the murderer they want me to be anyway."
It took most of the day for all of us to climb down the slope. I decided to stretch our march by a few hours and find the Forsworn camp my housecarls, Aela, and I fought through beside the Blades to find the entrance of Sky Haven Temple.
The ramshackle wooden platforms and skin tents were rotted almost to uselessness before being buried by the winter snows. Not a trace of life could be found anywhere among the few standing shacks as we set up our tents. Evidence of recent violence was there to be found however, often by stumbling on a mutilated Forsworn body buried in the snow and frozen mud or a discarded shield or weapon decorated with the stylized ram horns of Markarth's militia.
The night came on quickly in the narrow valley our camp was situated in. After the hard downward climb, the Companions with me were subdued, either crawling into their tents early or sitting quietly around campfires to soak up the last of the flames' warmth before retiring. Aela and I were two of the latter and she felt my body go tense next to hers as she leaned against me. I withdrew my hand from around her waist and we sat upright before our unwelcome guests.
There were a dozen of them, led by a bent figure wrapped in heavy cloaks against the cold. A neatly trimmed beard protruded from beneath the hood. Next to Esbern was Delphine. She was clad in a peculiar armor that looked to be made of thin steel bands tied in layers to a leather backing. At her waist was a copy of the peculiar Akaviri sword that I knew only from my reading to be called a katana.
Behind the two ranking Blades were ten men and women in gear similar to Delphine's. Singularly they would look strange in armor known to most of the world only by studies of history, but in a group the jagged angles of the banded armor and the peculiar curve of their swords felt oppressively alien.
"It's far too cold to be traveling at night. The two of you should have stayed in your mountain," I said to my former allies as they sat down across the fire from Aela and me.
"We were terrified when we heard you left Dragonsreach on the back of a dragon. That was flashy, even for you," Delphine said from behind the fanged jaw guard of her helmet.
"Why are the two of you really here?" I asked. The men and women following the Blades were spreading out around their side of the fire. My hand crept to Revenant's hilt and I felt rather than heard Aela growl at the intimidating display.
"Look well. This is the Dragonborn," Esbern said to the people gathered behind him. My scowl deepened as it dawned on me what was going on.
"Since the days of Reman Cyrodiil, the Blades have been charged with guiding and guarding the Dragonborn," he went on as if I hadn't spoken. "He neglects his duty and so turns his back on the Blades."
"The 'duty' you required of me was to betray and kill a friend," I replied.
"Just as his deeds do not expiate those of his past, your deeds do not excuse us or you of your duty. Paarthurnax must die!" Esbern exclaimed. His kindly, moderate voice venting bigotry and fanaticism was an ugly dissonance in my ears. His knowledge guided me to Alduin's wall and his forceful wisdom chastised the warlords of Skyrim; and here his precious oaths reduced him to nagging a man in the wilderness.
"And who are you to judge? That old dragon contributed just as much to my victory as you did. If I remember my history, the Akaviri were the authors of terrible atrocities of their own. Surely the passage of time does not expiate the crimes of your order?"
Delphine gave a frustrated sigh and Esbern just sounded sad, "I'm sorry this had to come between us, but until you kill Parrthurnax, we cannot offer you any aid or support. Our oaths as Blades forbid it," he said.
I spoke again, just as the two Blades stirred to get up, "Just for once in our acquaintance, both of you listen to me." They paused and turned to me. I held that silence for a second, "I do not count any Blade among my enemies, but I do count Parrthurnax among my friends. If I find that either of you or any of your thugs have so much as thought about the Throat of the World, you will become my enemies," I could feel Delphine roll her eyes in the dark as they turned away.
"I have not dismissed you," I growled, letting the Voice of the Emperor leak into my speech. Against their will they turned to face me again, "You esteem yourselves hunters," I said, letting my contempt leak into my speech. "But hunters who grow too bold will find themselves far from home, in the dark, and surrounded by the wolves."
The Blades looked around in surprise as a ring of eyes bright in the firelight appeared around them. Vilkas and his brother had circled the Companions around the Blades while Esbern and I exchanged insults.
"If I discover that Paarthurnax, the Greybeards, or any dragon who chooses peace have been attacked or harassed at your behest, I will come for you in your precious temple. And you two will live just long enough to rue the hour you tested the honor of the Dragonborn. That is my oath," for a long moment I held their gazes in silence, "I am no Blade and nor do I need them. Get out of my sight."
My composure held just long enough for the Blades to fade into the blackness of the river valley around us. I crawled into our tent and was still shaking with rage when Aela crept in next to me. I felt anger when she started biting at my neck. I still felt it as her fingernails traced the sides of my manhood. I acted on it when I grabbed her hair in my fist, pulled her onto her back, and rolled on top of her. I acted on it as I kissed her neck, sucking hard, and pushed myself into hips raised to meet mine. The anger was released a few minutes later to the sound of her moans, the pain of nails digging hard into my back, and muscular walls clamping down on me. It faded with a few final hard thrusts into her and was gone altogether. We wrapped our arms around each other, panting for air.
"You'd think it would be otherwise," she whispered to me, "But hate is often the hardest thing to let go of."
The insight and wisdom of her actions and words could only have one response that night, "I love you Aela." I held her tight and kissed her gently this time.
The before-dawn breakfast was eaten with a handful of the other Companions. The awkward silence lingered during our brief march to the place where I intended to ford the Karth River.
"Oh let it go guys," I said to no one in particular. "Last night could have been a bloodbath, but it didn't happen. If we wind up with another Silver Hand, so be it. We don't get to choose our enemies."
"What are we doing out here?" Ghent asked. He and Morgan were two of the few I insisted come along.
I smiled, "To storm the most formidable castle in Skyrim," I replied. A small crowd was gathered around us. "Listen closely everyone, this is going to be complicated..."
What? I can see Aela being on board with rough sex and willing to catch Ieago in a bad mood. Stay tuned: Markarth gets knocked over tonight or tomorrow.