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The trek through Arcwind Pass was as ominous as the one Lydia and I made through Labyrinthian a few months ago. Even though the sky was clear and the air lacked the freezing bite of the northern holds, the feeling of being watched and unwelcome radiated from the Nordic lookout tower above us. Esbern's insights were interesting, though not terribly encouraging. Arcwind was one of the youngest of the Nordic ruins in Skyrim, among the final bastions for the faithful of the Dragon Cult during the mythic-era war.
Late in the evening a few days hence, the four of us strode under Riverwood's wooden arch. It was a frigid evening and most of the townsfolk had crowded into the inn. It was there that we found Delphine bussing drinks out to the locals. She looked up when I called out to her. I think I saw her become ten years younger at the sight of the grizzled old man standing next to me.
"Esbern! It's really you," she said, tears flowing down her face as she hugged the aged man tightly.
"Delphine! I... It's good to see you," Esbern whispered, returning her embrace more gently. "Is there a place we can talk quietly?" he asked.
"Yeah, this way," she replied leading us down to her hideout once more. "Did Ieago tell you about himself?" she asked Esbern.
"Yes indeed. This changes everything, of course. There is no time to loose. We must locate... Let me show you. I know I had it here, somewhere," he said while pacing and fumbling among his pockets and backpack.
"Esbern, we really don't have time..." she began as Esbern at last pulled out what he was looking for and unfolded an old map on the table.
"You see, right here," Esbern said, pointing at one of the spots on the map. I stepped forward to look the map over. It was a work of art, Skyrim as it was known in the Second Era of the Empire. There were a series of small castle symbols with a strange vertical script next to them in red ink. Only a few were where I knew a current fort or town to exist. "Sky Haven Temple," the old man continued. "Constructed around one of the main Akaviri military camps in the Reach, during their conquest of Skyrim."
"How does this help us?" I asked.
"This is where they built Alduin's Wall," he replied. "To set down in stone all their accumulated dragon lore. A hedge against the forgetfulness of centuries. A wise and foresighted policy, in the event. Despite the far-reaching fame of Alduin's Wall at the time - one of the wonders of the ancient world - its location was lost."
"Esbern, what are you getting at?" Delphine asked.
"You mean to say you haven't heard of Alduin's wall?" he looked aghast.
Delphine and I glanced at each other for a second, blank expression meeting blank expression, "Let's pretend we haven't," she replied, "What's Alduin's Wall and what does it have to do with stopping the dragons?"
"Alduin's Wall is where the ancient Blades recorded all they knew of Alduin and his return. Part history, part prophecy." Esbern explained to us.
"And this will give us the information we need?" I asked.
"This wall at least tells the legend of how Alduin was defeated long ago. It may yet provide the means to permanently defeat him," Esbern explained.
An hour later the five of us set out for the Sky Haven Temple in the Reach. Delphine was perused by the farewells of the locals. She had been loved by the whole town in her role as publican.
The cool and rainy forests of springtime Falkreath gave way slowly to the jagged canyons of the Reach. This was a pleasant and under-populated area of the world, with only distant ruins and more recent bridges to remind us that men and mer periodically came here to trouble the world. The trip was blessedly uneventful. There were enough of us in our party now that there was rarely a silent moment between listening to Esbern's histories of the area (admittedly, his story-telling was fascinating to listen to.)
Days later, we came in sight of the mountain known as Karthspire. The winding ravine our road guided us down kept it hidden until we were at a large bridge that crossed toward the site of the old Akaviri camp. The scene was quiescent. From where we stood looking north, the brook in front of us was fed by a smaller stream to make a wide and shallow section of rapids running away to the west. The old stone bridge crossed here and in the distance we could see people pacing around the fires and huts of a much more recent camp.
"At last! We're nearly there," Esbern said. "According to the maps, the entrance to Sky Haven Temple is through that camp.
"We'll let's go meet the neighbors," I said, setting off across the bridge.
With her wolf's hearing, purer than mine, it was not a surprise that Aela heard trouble coming before the rest of us.
"Scatter!" she yelled, fitting an arrow to the string even as my own enhanced hearing heard the beating of colossal wings.
We dove hard for the shelter of the bridge's railing as the beast came on, escaping the worst of its blast of fire. The women in our group had all drawn bows and begun to aim at the copper-scaled dragon when Esbern spotted a second bearing down on us much lower in the canyon. It swept toward us at the level of the water at a speed to outpace any arrow. The shock of it meeting my desperate Unrelenting Force Shout was like a clap of thunder. It stalled into the stream, bounced, and tumbled partway over our shelter. Its crash-landing on the bridge tore the railing on the far side off as the dragon slid and tumbled into the water and rolling before coming to a rest.
Igniting Revenant, I rushed the beast as it struggled to right itself. Aela and Lydia would later tell the story of the Harbinger's Charge to the rest of the Companions. The two women told my shield-siblings an intrepid rush and agile dance between claws, tail, and teeth. The Companions relished in every detail of the glowing emerald blade sinking deep into the chest of the beast; of golden flame enveloping me as the dragon let go of life. My own retelling is of a man desperate to keep the dragon on the ground, slogging through swift flowing knee-deep water, hacking without grace at anything that came into view. I remember stumbling on the rocky bed of the stream and being battered by the creature's flailing limbs before finally throwing all my weight into one last sodden lunge.
The first dragon quickly whirled in the air and dove from on high. Its own Unrelenting Force Shout shattered the bridge beneath my companions' feet. Lydia and Delphine were blasted feet into the air. Remarkably, Esbern stayed standing and sent bolts of ice up as the dragon passed overhead, scoring hits. Many of the scars on my body ache in sympathy at the memory of those horrid spikes driving through the thick scales.
Dragons are much more powerful creatures than any humanoid so many of these ice blasts were needed to cause the beast to crash into the side of the canyon for Aela and me to finish off. Delphine and Lydia had been forced to retire from the fight by their wounds.
Esbern was speechless for minutes as the dragons' souls rushed to me. For my part, I struggled under the assault of the dragons' lives. I saw flashes of graceful ships with triangular sails moving away from a crimson dusk. A white tower was slowly being built on an island in the midst of a jungle. Lightning broke on a towering mountain to the north. My mind encompassed all this and more, histories of Tamriel from those who had seen it from above.
He found his voice again as Aela and I began tending to Lydia and Delphine. "By the Nine!" Esbern exclaimed, "You truly are the prophecy come, Dragonborn."
"That remains to be seen," I replied as I shifted from Lydia over to helping Aela with Delphine. "I do not like this consuming souls phenomenon. If there were another way to stop the dragons I would leap at it."
"We may have no choice in the end Dragonborn. Only the near total destruction of the dragons saved humanity before. We may need to be more thorough this time."
I was too busy getting ready to compress Delphine's chest to reply to that bloodthirsty comment. She had been face down in the water for a few minutes now. Aela pulled her mouth and gave her two long
breaths before looking over to me. I nodded and pushed down hard, compressing her ribs with a crunch that twisted my stomach.