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It was raining hard the morning I walked up the steps to Dragonsreach. I was wearing the scales that Eorlund fashioned for me again. The black hood of the Thieves' Guild was thrown back. The smoke from the chimneys of Jorrvaskr and the few structures yet rebuilt hung low in the saturated air. It would be a crowded winter, but nobody would freeze. Jarl Balgruuf and the best men of his house were assembled before the throne. Behind me were the Circle and my Housecarls. I had sent most of the remaining Companions to Dunstad to relieve the stress on the damaged city's resources. The Legion occupied their own camp against the walls. The Jarl stood to greet me. "The great chains are oiled, the timber is repaired. The trap is ready Dragonborn," he said to me.

"Let's have done with this then," I said.

Farengar led all of us to the great awning where Numinex was held long ago. The far end of the open hall was exposed to the outside world and the rain slanted inward on the blustering wind. I waded through the frigid mist and leaned on the railing, gazing quietly up into the gray infinity above, inhaling the chill air.

When at last my heart was still I shouted the challenge. "Od-Ah-Viing!" Three simple syllables in rapid succession. The tremor of the name shook the air around me and faintly I heard the answering roar over the roaring wind. I had just withdrawn to the shelter of the hall when I turned and beheld him.

He was perched on the railing that guarded the opening of the hall, his talons cracking the stone. His wings were spread wide, almost touching each wall of the great awning. In the wan light of the morning storm, his scales were dark red.

"Behold Odahviing, Lord of Winter! Hear my Thu'um and know despair!" He shouted in the common tongue and then, "Faas ru maar!"

Instantly I was alone. The bravest people I knew, Companion or Housecarl, Jarl or soldier were cowering as far away from that dreadful Voice as they could. My mind was whisked away to a burning castle in the twilight, a hundred enemies before me, helpless men and women crying behind me as the spells smashed the gate, an inevitable tide of ruin held at bay by a heartbeat.

I recovered in time to see the massive dragon crawling deeper into the hall. He had eyes only for me. The stained blade of my sword sagged useless in my shaking arms. His Shout of terror drove me back toward the doors to the throne room.

"I will conquer were Alduin failed!" the great red demon exulted.

I came back to my senses a footstep before it was too late, "Joor zah frul!" Dragonrend lashed out at Odahviing, causing him to stagger in his onset and fall to the floor. "Now! Do it now!"

Rid of their dread at the sound of my command, Vilkas and Lydia sprang to the lever that held the great yoke above the hall. Its oaken beams smashed downward, pinning the dragon and its wings. The dust and noise settled, I sheathed my sword and stepped up to my captive.

"Horvutah med kodaav. Caught like a bear in a trap," Odahviing said. "Zok frini grind ko grah drun viiki, Dovahkiin. Ah. I forget. You do not have the dragon speech. My... eagerness to meet you in battle was my... undoing, Dovahkiin. I salute your, hmm, low cunning in devising such a grahmindol - stratagem. You went to a great deal of trouble to place me in this... humiliating position. Alduin hmm? No doubt you want to know where to find Alduin?" Odahviing rumbled from his lipless mouth.

"Where's Alduin hiding?" I scowled back.

"Hiding," the dragon rumbled disdainfully, "Rinik Vazah. An apt phrase. One reason I came to your call was to test your Thu'um for myself. Many of us have begun to question Alduin's lordship. Whether his Thu'um was truly strongest. Among ourselves, of course. Mu ni meyye. None were yet ready to openly defy him."

I choked down on my impatience once more, these creatures love to speak. "What does any of this have to do with me getting to Alduin?"

"Innumerable pardons, I digress. He has fled to Sovngarde, to rest and regain his strength by feasting on the souls of the mortal dead. His door to the netherworld is at Skuldafn, one of his ancient fanes high in the eastern mountains. Surely I do not need to remind you that the last of his remaining strength will be marshalled there. Now that I have answered your question, will you allow me to go free?"

I almost laughed. "No! You will remain under the yoke until I have dealt with your master."

"There is one... detail I forgot to mention about Skuldafn," he chuckled.

"Well?" I pressed when the dragon refused to go on.

"You have the Thu'um of a Dovah, but without the wings of one you will never set foot in Skuldafn before Alduin returns. Of course... I could fly you there, but not while imprisoned like this."

"That's awfully convenient for you. If I set you free, will you take an oath to serve me?"

"Nid. No. But if you defeat Alduin I will reconsider."

"Then what will hold you to my purpose when your bonds are lifted?"

He drew his head back as far as the yoke over his neck would allow, "You wound me, Dovahkiin. It was you who lured me here into this trap. I have done nothing to earn your distrust. Zu'u ni tahrodiis. Alduin has proven himself unworthy to rule. I go my own way."

I looked hard into those cloudy green eyes of his. Trying to see sincerity, duplicity, fear, anything at all.

"Guards, raise the yoke!" I said at length.

"After all the trouble we went through to get the dragon like this?" One of them complained.

"This is a part of the Dragonborn's plan," Balgruuf vouched for me. "Do as the Thane commands."

"Your funeral Dragonborn," the soldier said.

As the great yoke lifted off Odahviing's neck he stretched to his room-filling extent. I felt absolutely puny next to him. The venerable Paarthurnax was magnificent with his years of wisdom; and Alduin's gaze alone gave nightmares to last lifetimes; but here was the beauty of a war-beast in its prime. He spoke again, "I await your command, as promised. Are you ready to see the world as only a dovah can?"

"Not yet. Give me until nightfall to settle my affairs."

My farewells were a quiet gathering within the warm walls of my Jorrvaskr quarters. Aela, Farkas, Vilkas, and Lydia. My love and my friends. We stood quietly around walls.

"Should I not return, Vilkas will be Harbinger. And while I am away he will act in my stead," I told them. "Lydia, you will join the Circle at all events. Your valor speaks for itself. My housecarls, should I leave them master less, may take the house they guard as their own or they may return to their Jarls. Let none gainsay their decisions."

I looked last to Aela, so still, solemn, and proud outwardly; but to the eyes of those who knew her best, she was quaking with dread. I took battered Revenant off my belt, "Aela... I don't have the words to say how I love you," I held my weapon for her to take, "It is yours now." She and I were openly weeping now, "I love you," my voice broke, "I only regret not making you my wife and giving you the honors you deserve."

"I am your wife. Whatever priest or god says yes or no." She wept. Her hand was on my cheek, becoming stained with salt, "If you do not return, I will seek you out where ever you may go."

The evening came and the persistent downpour abated at last. A glorious sky opened above us in the wake of the rare electrical storm. The moons shone bright, low, and full. The aurora were out in green and blue, dancing ribbons beneath the stars in their black field. Odahviing waited patiently under the shelter of Dragonsreach. "So joor, are you prepared to see the world as only a dovah can?"

"Take me to Skuldafn. Let us end this hunt."

"Then climb onto my neck and hold tight Dovahkiin. I warn you, once you have flown the skies of Keizaal, your envy of the Dov will only increase!"

I had no idea how right he was. To fly is to know freedom in every last sense of the word. A mile below, the formless world passed in flickers of reflected light on black as the wind roared around my ears. Overhead the sky crept past us, the black fading to purple as the hours passed. We arrived high above the Velothi Mountains at last. The slow beat of wings propelling us became a shuddering roar of wind as Odahviing dove with his wings back for a valley still filled with the deep black of night.

He set me down in an empty dragon grave nestled discreetly in the side of a narrow rift. Across a water-filled gulf was the familiar dark stone of Nordic ruins. "I can take you no farther. I will look for your return-or Alduin's," Odahviing told me before launching upward.

Thanks for reading. More to come in a few days.