Day Thirty-five

Finding the location of the grove proves more difficult than I thought. Either they did not know where it was or they refused to even talk about it. I had to go all the way to Dragonsreach and ask Farengar, as much as I hated to. I did not tell him why but Lydia had no such tact. For whatever reason he must have found the whole business hilarious because he could barely get the location out while laughing. I left the teary-eyed mage to his guffawing and hurried to resolve this predicament once and for all.

It turned out Witchmist Grove was fairly close to Eldergleam Sanctuary. That must have been how I met her, I just did not remember it. I did not even recall what it looked like. I pictured it as some romantic hidden garden like the Eldergleam. My fiancee was probably one of the scantily clad nymphs frolicking in the warm waters. I suggested as much to Lydia on our way there. She needed to be prepared to alleviate her jealous streak towards me.

"If that is so, why would they name it Witchmist Grove?" she asked, "Wouldn't Lover's Garden be better, or in your case, Fool's Paradise, maybe?"

I shrugged, "It's probably meant to keep the riffraff away. Keep it exclusive for the higher class of people."

"Like you?"

"Exactly."

"Uh huh. Fool's Paradise, it is."

We closed in on the spot Farengar marked on my map, but I was getting skeptical at his memory. I did not see any hidden garden or anything like a romantic grove. All I saw was an old, overgrown patch of dying trees. This must be one of the mage's ideas of a joke. Lydia pointed out a hut deep inside and suggested asking the inhabitants if they had heard of it. With no one else around for miles, I decided that would be best.

As soon as we entered the clearing of the hut, I saw a nasty crone of a hagraven standing on the stairs. She appeared to be waiting for us but she did not instantly attack. She must have seen she was outmatched. I approached to within the staked fence around her home.

"It's about time you returned, dear Ralos," the hagraven said.

Recollection slowly, horribly, began to dawn on me. "Moira?"

"Oh, this is even better than I had hoped," Lydia said.

"So you've returned to consummate our love," the hagraven rasped, "And I see you've brought a female friend this time. Last time with Sam was fun, I'll admit, but we were all drunk. I don't really intend to have so open a marriage."

I meant to speak but only vomited in my mouth a little.

"He's all your's, you little water nymph," Lydia said, chuckling. "I'm just here to make sure the Dragonborn's legacy stays accurate for the bards."

"So you truly are Dragonborn. That explains that oddly shaped birthmark on your..."

"Actually," I interrupted before I vomited again, "I am here to get the ring back."

The hagraven's eyes closed to angry slits and she flexed her clawed hands. "What? You want it for that hussy Esmerelda with the dark feathers, don't you? I knew you two did more than throw stones at the giant's camp! My sister is such a slut! That's where you got those claw marks on your back!"

"Two hags?" Lydia said, "And sisters? You stud."

I was going to need constant mead to make sure that memory never returned.

"So be it, Ralos Likesitraw," Moira hissed, "But if I can't have you, no hag will!"

Moira sent a fireball crashing into us. I caught most of it and struggled to unsheath my sword. Lydia must have expected a fight would break out because she immediately summoned a wolf with her staff. The spectral animal nipped and bit at the hagraven just long enough for me to drink two healing potions then dive in after her. Past relations notwithstanding, if she intended on killing me, then she must die. Nothing can interfere with the destiny of the Dragonborn. My sword cleaved into her unarmored body while she attempted to claw my eyes out as well as several obvious swipes at my sensitive, yet well protected, Dragonhood. I ended the engagement by severing all ties with her, by which I meant her ugly head. I found the ring already on her bony, hairy finger.

I put the ring in my pocket and stood before Lydia. "I command you never to speak of this to anyone."

Lydia's face was stoic, but I could see the corners of her mouth twitching and her eyes were watering. "Really?"

"I am Thane of Whiterun and the Dragonborn of des... look, as a favor to me and as a decent human being and fellow Nord. Let's keep this between us. Deal?"

"And what will my silence get me?"

"Anything you want," I said, trying not to sound too hopeful, "Just name it."

Lydia paused, "I'll have to think on it. This isn't something like a stolen chicken or a murder in an alley. This is people will love to hear about."

"Take your time," I said, "It's a long walk back to Whiterun. No hurry, as long as you're quiet."

"Hmmm," Lydia said and simply walked back towards the road.

I did not like the sound of that at all. I may never drink again.

Lydia was actually quiet all the way back to Whiterun, which made me more nervous than her talking. She didn't have to give my offer so much consideration. A raise in pay or her own house would have sufficed. I don't think I wanted to know what she was going to come up with. We made it back to Whiterun without too much trouble and quickly found Ysolda in the market square. I pulled her aside out of earshot in case Lydia started retelling the tale for the fun of it.

"Here's your ring back," I said, "turns out it was a misunderstanding."

"Oh, sorry it didn't work out," Ysolda said, sounding truly sad, "You were so excited about the ceremony, saying you've never been to Morvunskar and that Sam was going to set it up for you."

"So Sam is at Morvunskar?" I asked.

"That's what he said. He said he would be ready for you if you showed up, even had some magic staff for you to handle the guests, whatever that means."

"Well, there'll be no ceremony but I still want to have a word with Sam. I've gone through too much to let him off that easy."

Ysolda waved goobye. "Farewell then and... hey, there's hair stuck to this ring. What did she do, throw it at you? She must have been furious."

Lydia said, "You could say she lost her head."

"Well, we better get some sleep if we're to go all the way to Morvunskar," I said and pulled Lydia away towards Breezehome.

On the way, Lydia asked, "What was that about a staff? What was she talking about?"

"I forgot about that," I said, "In fact that was the whole reason I started drinking with Sam, as a contest to win some staff he said I could have. I was going to give it to you, since you seemed down the other day. I think I won, but he never gave it to me. Believe me, he owes me a lot more than a staff now. In fact if he tries to give me just a staff for all this I may just shove it up..."

"Let me get this straight. You did all this for me?"

"Well, I started out doing that and I guess it just snowballed into this mess. Serves me right for trying to do something nice."

Lydia was quiet again and I did not like it but once we were inside Breezehome she said, "All right. If there's a staff waiting at Morvunskar, I won't say anything about your drunken escapades. I may not ever let you forget it, but no one else will know from me. Deal?"

"Deal."

I swore if Sam was not there with a staff, I would make one out of his spine. I started to get things ready for a dinner but Lydia told me she would do it and I could go get changed if I wanted.

Now I was really confused.