Skyrim is the property of Bethesda Softworks. A lot of my favorite stories seem to be updating today so I thought I'd contribute too! I hope you all enjoyed my take on the Forsworn Conspiracy. The game sort of throws the quest at the player and for better or worse I wound up doing much the same to you. So here's the cleanup chapter: The Companions come back to refocus Ieago and more importantly, Alduin comes to put the fear of God into him.
The first half of my return trip to Whiterun with Argis the Bulwark was pleasantly uneventful, but stressful in the worst ways. The practical and well-read housecarl was nervous and excessively differential around me while he led me across the high plateaus that defined the land between Markarth and Whiterun. It was a habit that I have since discovered was not unique to him and Iona and one that I have spent most of my career trying to break my subordinates of. I understand that many people I work with wish to keep a professional barrier between them and me. I myself have encountered a few officers who were too eager to be 'one of the guys,' but attitudes like Argis' over the miles between Markarth and Rorikstead are dangerous. Our hours together were filled with "Yes Thane" and "No Thane." Argis and too many like him refused to accept that I want and need more insight from the people I work with than banalities like "The Forsworn are dangerous." It's like pulling teeth at times.
We were walking east into Rorikstead when a break came from the tedium. The late summer sky that afternoon was a brown-grey overcast. Every now and then a flash of lightning rumbled through the sullen clouds. Yet the air was dry and hot; and no breeze could be felt in the weak shadow of the thunderhead. All the residents of that small and prosperous farming village were outside. They stood where they had been working their fields or huddled on the porch of the inn. To a man and woman they gazed silently to the southwest.
Argis and I followed their collective gaze to the black form circling a mound on the mountain scarcely a mile from where the village stood. I dropped my pack and drew Revenant, "Bring your bow," I commanded my housecarl.
Alduin flew above the mound lazily, waiting for me to come close before continuing his demonstration.
"Nahagliiv, zil gro dovah ulse," the great dragon commanded in his deep voice.
Lightning flashed in the noisome sky above us. The crack of thunder and the beat of his wings fell on our ears as one. Alduin came to a hover above the mound and glared down at me with eyes like glowing coals. I swallowed my sudden fear and lit Revenant, not daring to glance back for Argis.
But we were beneath Alduin's consideration. He turned his gaze from us and spoke to the earthen mound beneath him, "Slen tiid vo!"
At his first word, the mound shook. At the second, the packed soil cracked. At the third, the dust and stones flew up in a dark cloud beneath the sepia-tinted sky. Stones clattered and bounced from the ward I cast above me and rattled on Argis' shield. A dragon sat in the midst of the raining soil, wings and neck stretched high in a graceful salute to its master. The dust cleared and the dragon settled down and turned its head to look at me with a single compound eye.
"Stay your wrath Nahagliiv. Go to the aerie where you dwelt of old. The Pretender is mine to slay," Alduin commanded his servant.
Nahagliiv turned to look at me with challenge in both her eyes. She snorted and flapped her wings, spraying dirt in my face as she took off and beat away to the south.
"Do you hear me Pretender?" Alduin roared at me, his orange eyes flashing with hate. "When the time is nigh and you are in my domain, I will devour you kopraan ahrk ziil!"
Alduin flew off, disappearing in the smoke-colored clouds above. His final wordless roar drowned out the persistent thunder. My heart beat to my throat and my stomach tried in vain to unknot itself in the wake of Aludin's promise.
I clipped Revenant back onto my belt. My shaking left hand found its way to my right arm to trace the diamond there. I prayed inwardly, Akatosh, Guide of the Wise and Father of Fathers, grant that I be ready when my final hour with Alduin comes.
"You drove them off!" Argis breathed into the brooding silence around us. The clouds above had dissipated with the departure of the dragons. Now even the grass was still on that chilly summer afternoon.
I shook my head. My bones audibly creaking in the silence.
"No, you heard the black one. He's biding his time."
Argis shook his head, "Thane, the World-Eater is raising his minions at will. He has already leveled Helgen. If he won't take the time to kill two warriors in an empty field now, he never will. He's terrified of you Thane."
I exhaled feelingly, "Argis, I wish I shared your confidence."
"Alduin is ignoring basic strategy by leaving you alive. He's either foolish or arrogant. Both diseases have been fatal before."
"I hope to the gods you're right."
The people of Rorikstead shifted their collective gaze to Argis and I as we walked back down to the village. The villagers were wary and kept their distance as my housecarl and I rejoined the road and began walking east. "Dragonborn," some murmured. "Witchblade of Morthal," others called me. My mood darkened further as the town fell away behind me.
As the night grew old, my foul mood and Argis' deference retreated as one. I soon found myself talking to a veteran of the Legions who had taken his papers and his pension and gone home. Bored with his early retirement and possessed of a sense of civic duty, Argis had joined Jarl Igmund's cadre of housecarls. He served with Igmund's personal housecarl Faleen to train the amateurs inducted into Markarth's militia. Among other things, I never worked up the nerve to ask him about his left eye. It was the cloudy-white of blindness from birth, but the scar running down his handsome face and into his trimmed beard pointed to a more sinister cause.
So it turned out that returning to Jorrvaskr was not the blessed relief from the days of strained conversation alternating with uncomfortable silence I feared it would be. I was still elated to be home however, and settled into my role as Harbinger with the ease of the sun rising to greet me in the practice yard. In minutes the day of my homecoming became busy as I discovered the activities of the Circle in the months I had been away on errantry.
Farkas and Vilkas had been recruiting with some of the junior members since I left them wondering at Ysgramor's Tomb. They had brought our numbers almost up to the five hundred that the Companions originally started with. Aela, Vignar Grey-Mane, and my two older housecarls had taken to location scouting with a will and had narrowed down the selection to less than a dozen possibilities. I left the final decision to old Vignar's considerable judgment. Since I was collecting property I wasn't likely to use regularly, I made it known that any Companion or person in my employ could use my houses as way-stations.
Aela's reserved public greeting in the upper hall of Jorrvaskr was almost cold until we sat at the great table for the evening meal. She and I sat close and as we ate at the crowded table she and I edged closer together until our feet were wrapped around each other.
"You've lost weight," Aela remarked as I slid my foot along the inside of her leg.
"Working for a month in the Silver-Bloods' mines can do that," I replied.
"Are you ready to admit your choice was foolish and dangerous?" she said as I filled my mouth with mead.
"I missed you too Aela," I replied.
She leaned in to let her hot breath wash over my neck, taking one of my hands beneath the table at the same time. "Then show me how much in the Harbinger's quarters tonight," she commanded while guiding my hand beneath the faulds* of her armor where I found nothing but a small wet spot. For a moment I found it hard to imagine life before meeting this woman.
A few days after that passionate welcome, Aela almost had to drag me away from the happiness of Jorrvaskr and back on the road to Ivarstead. Ultimately, I was glad she did. Above too many of the mountain peaks winged forms soared, calling out their challenges or diving down on unseen prey. A third army was marshalling in Skyrim and Argis' insight seemed less shrewd when their cries echoed from on high.
*The faulds are pieces of plate armor that hang from the breast plate or a belt to protect the upper legs and pelvis. Aela's are leather, but the function is much the same.
This was a short chapter but more is on the way soon. If you can, send me a review! I know I have blind spots as an author, but the only way I can mitigate them is by hearing from you!