"Come on Lydia, the sooner we get to Jarl Elisif, the sooner we can be Thanes of Solitude!" Amalia called back to her lagging Housecarl.
"I would my Thane….but this... pack is slowing me down." Lydia answered, dragging a heavy looking bag carry enough oddities to supply a general store for at least a month.
Coming up to the gates of Solitude, which, as per tradition, were closed. Moving her fist to knock on the gate, Amalia suddenly halted.
"My Thane?" Lydia asked, still struggling to catch up but perplexed that her longtime friend and master suddenly froze up like a skeever in front of a giant.
"Uh..Now that I think of it, this probably isn't the best idea." Amalia admitted, shyly glancing at the guards, who, in turn, just looked back before resuming their posts.
"Why is that, my Thane?" Lydia asked, finally catching up.
"Cause...well...you know, Helgen…"
"My Thane, I do not understand why you are so hesitant about this. You talked to General Tullius during the peace treaty. I'm sure he cleared your name." Lydia assured, placing a hand on Amalia's shoulder.
"Yeah, but you were the one who got him for the peace treaty. I went to grab Ulfric, remember?" Amalia reminded, looking up to the taller Nord, "I think he might still think of me as a stormcloak."
"My Thane, you are the Dragonborn. You could, quite literally, tear him apart with your voice. Why are you so afraid of him?"
"...He's has a really scary glare." Amalia admitted.
"My Thane…"
"And he just doesn't really seem the forgiving type ya know?"
"My Thane…"
"Plus, he's has a really good memory. So I don't think he'll forget the fact I accidentally spitted on the back of his head during the peace talk…"
"You spitted on his head?" Lydia had to make sure she heard that correctly.
"Yeah, when the peace talk was over, I went outside for some fresh air, and I wanted to see how long it would take for a wad to fall down off High Hrothgar...and it sorta landed on his head…."
Lydia didn't know whether to smack her friend, or to just ignore her. So she did both.
After spending a night at the Winking Skeever, Amalia and Lydia went over the Blue Palace. That is, after Lydia dragged the Dovahkiin to General Tullius, who, was this point, more confused then anything else. After clearing her name, and avoiding recruitment by Legate Rikke, Amalia stood in front of the doorway.
"Well, I'm glad we got all that sorted out." Amalia said, feeling confident.
"My Thane, next time we talk to the General, please do not stand and whimper behind me."
"Yoou shut up."
Opening the door, the sounds of an discussion already underway could be heard about the building.
"I swear to you, unnatural magics are coming from that cave! There are strange noises and lights! We need someone to investigate!"
"Then we will immediately send out a legion to scour the cave and secure the town. Haafingar's people will always be safe under my rule."
"Th...thank you, my Jarl thank you."
Coming up the steps, the duo saw a group of people in attendance. The Jarl and her stewards, and one imperial farmer with a receding hairline who stood in the center.
"What's going on?" Amalia asked in a whisper to Lydia.
"I overhead in the Winking Skeever that a scared farmer from Dragon Bridge was seen headed for the Blue Palace. This must be him." She answered quickly.
"Your eminence, my scrying has suggested nothing in the area. Dragon Bridge is under imperial control." A female breton dressed in blue mage robes asserted, "This is likely superstitious nonsense."
"Perhaps a more...tempered reaction...might be called for." A nord dressed in fine clothes suggested.
"Oh. Yes, of course you are right. Falk," The Jarl looked to the Nord, "tell Captain Aldis I said to assign a few extra soldiers to Dragon Bridge."
The farmer looked panicked for a sec, "Thank you, Jarl Elisif. But about the cave…"
Falk spoke up in the Jarl's place, "I will have someone take care of the cave as well Varnius, you can rest easy. You're dismissed." The farmer bowed his head, and walked out.
Sparing a nod to Amalia as he passed by, the farmer left the building.
"Hey Lydia, if we take care of the cave, do you think we'll get a few points with the Jarl?" Amalia whispered to the housecarl.
"It would be a good way to introduce ourselves." Lydia agreed, nodding her head.
Stepping up to the steward, Falk Firebread looked at them scrutiny, "Do you have business with the court?" He asked bluntly.
"I heard you were looking for some help with a cave." Amalia answered.
"You mean the Dragon Bridge issue?" Falk crossed his arms, "I'll be honest with you, I was planning to let that go. Varnius is a bit jumpy at the best of times."
Amalia titled her head.
"There have been reports of weird happenings near Wolfskull Cave. Travelers disappearing, odd light. I suspect wild animals or perhaps bandits. I don't think it's worth our time with the war going on, but if you want to clear out the cave, I'll make sure you're repaid for you work."
Amalia smiled, "Quest accepted."
"So what sounds better? The man who cried wolf? Or Gone missing?" Amalia asked, writing in a small notebook as they trekked through the landscape west of Solitude."
"The man who cried wolf." Lydia answered without missing a beat as she climbed over a rock.
Scribbling that down her journal, the Dragonborn took Lydia's hand as the housecarl pulled her up.
"Are you still making those titles my Thane?" Lydia asked, taking a second to pull out a map and review where Wolfskull cave was. They had walked quite a ways, making sure to avoid the Thalmor embassy on the road, mostly because if they did, Lydia wasn't sure she could stop Amalia from unleashing the full power of her shouts on the building. Though the thought was tempting, they had other things to do.
"Yep." Amalia answered, looking over the rocky mountains.
It was an odd tradition, when Lydia had first met Amalia after she became Thane of Whiterun, she had discovered the newly named Dovahkiin had a habit of naming tasks and objectives. Dragonslayer, unbound, etc. She had claimed it was to help her remember anything she had to do. Lydia could agree to that logic, if thinking up a fancy name could help her recall any task she had to do, Lydia would name it as well.
"Over there!" Amalia shouted, snapping the Nord out of her thoughts. The Berton was pointing at a rock outcropping in the near distance.
"My Thane, are you sure that-" Lydia didn't get to finish as Amalia jumped off the rock they were standing on and began running to where she had pointed.
"By Talos…" Lydia muttered.
Straining a bit to catch up, (heavy armor was never easy to move in, after all) Lydia saw her master standing in front of a cave next to a large tree stump. Approaching her and taking a few breaths, she addressed Amalia, "My Thane, please don't do that again."
"Is this Wolfskull cave?" Amalia asked, ignoring Lydia's displeasurement and shifting the weight on her Skyforged steel greatsword she got from being a member of the companions.
"Aye...I think so." Taking out her map, Lydia scanned the location of her marker on the paper and their current location, "How did you know this was the right one?"
Amalia smiled, "Oh you know, eye of the dragon and all that."
Lydia looked to her, eyebrows raised, "Eyes of the what?"
"What?"
"Are you saying you can see like a dragon does?" Lydia asked, feigning amazement. Truly, the powers of the Dragonborn were strange indeed.
"Wha-no! I just have a good sense for these things." Amalia squawked, "...Wait...are you screwing with me?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, my Thane. You have strange powers beyond us mere mortals."
"Hey, what's that's supposed to mea-Lydia! Get back here! Answer me! What did you mean by strange?! Lydia?! LYDIA!"
Entering the cave with much ruckus, Amalia and Lydia slowly drew their weapons and proceeded through cave.
"What did you mean by strange?" Amalia asked, sounding like she was on the verge of heartbreak.
"Oh, just that, as Dragonborn, I assumed that you would take on properties of dragons over time." Lydia answered, keeping a still face as they walked through the cave.
"No I won't...would I?" Amalia mumbled, "I'm not gonna grow wings or anything like that...right?"
"My Thane…." Lydia sighed, absentmindedly slicing a draugr in half with a well placed swing.
"I mean, I think having wings would be cool, but I don't want to be all scaly and mean. What if I get a big nose like they do? Oh, I don't think I could take it…" Amalia sighed, clearly lost in her own world as they walked on.
"My Thane!" Lydia snapped.
"What?" Still in a daze, Amalia looked around.
"Get back!"
Amalia turned just in time to see a fireball head right for her face...and miss her by mere inches as Lydia reached out by the collar and pulled her back.
"We're under attack, my Thane." The housecarl said, readying her elven sword and orcish shield as the Dragonborn fell flat on her ass.
"I see, thanks Lydia."
"Well, ain't this a surprise!" A necromancer gloated, readying another fireball spell with his right hand.
"For Whiterun!" Lydia bellowed out, charging towards the two mages who
"For pony!" Amalia joined in, still on the ground and sending a firebolt at the mage, who blocked with a basic ward spell.
Growling, the mage sent out another fireball towards Amalia. Which caused a massive explosion as the other sent out a stream of frost towards Lydia. Which had about much luck as you might expect.
When the smoke cleared, he saw that his spell hit true. The intruder was burnt all over and covered in ash.
"Ouch." She muttered, shaking her head and clearing the soot away, "Really glad I put some magicka resistance on this thing." Standing up, Amalia seemed unharmed as she picked up her greatsword and laid the tip against the ground. Grinning, she turned to the mage, "Soo...I'm betting you thought that would work right? Well, let me tell you something I-"
The nercomage's attention was taken away when Lydia brutally cut his head off.
"Ah, Lydia! I was about to tell him off!" Amalia protested at the kill steal.
"Should've been faster, my Thane."
"Well, I like to see you take a fireball to the face like I did." Amalia huffed, crossing her arms and looking away.
Kneeling down to check their pockets, Lydia nodded, "I sure you could, my Thane."
"Damn right."
"Quite, my Thane."
"...Are you even paying attention?" Amalia asked, perplexed.
"Ooh, this one had three hundred gold on him...and a dwarven dagger!" Lydia proclaimed, holding her new prize up.
"Lydia!" Amalia shouted.
"What?" The housecarl asked, turning her head.
"I call dibs on next!"
After moving through the cave and mowing down a Draugr scourge by pelting him with arrows and fireball spells. Amalia and Lydia were standing over a large pit.
"Well. You first." Amalia said, turning to Lydia.
"What? Why me?" Lydia asked, confused
"Because your sturdier than I am." Amalia answered honestly.
"My Thane, I am wearing heavy armor." Lydia replied.
"And?"
"You are wearing light armor." She pointed at Amalia's scale armor minus a helmet.
"...Your point?"
"You won't break your legs when you hit the ground?" Lydia offered.
"Oh don't be baby." Amalia said, walking behind her.
"My Thane, I really do thiiiiIIIIINNNNK!" Lydia yelped as Amalia kicked her off the ledge.
There was a loud thud when she hit the ground.
Jumping down and landing without a scuffle, Amalia brushed herself off.
"Well, that wasn't too bad was-OW" Staggering back, Amalia held up reflexively used a restoration spell to her eye.
"My Thane. Don't do that again." Lydia growled, holding her fist up.
"Okay okay! Just don't punch me again!"
Stepping into the next cavern, (with Amalia still nursing the eye), they saw that Varnius fears...weren't quite as unfounded as Falk thought.
"Wolf Queen. Hear our call and awaken. We summon Potema!"
"We summon Potema!"
The voices echoed throughout the chamber, with channels of massive arcane energy surging through the air, snaking around the stone fortress forgotten by time, all gathering around a center point. A massive orb of power with a white, translucent being in the center.
"...Why is it purple?" Amalia asked.
"Is this really the time, my Thane?" Lydia returned.
"Good point."
"Long have you slept the dreamless dream of death, Potema. No longer. Hear us, Wolf Queen! We summon you!"
"We summon Potema!"
Looking around, Lydia pointed down to down to an staircase that would lead into the fortress, "There, let's go!"
"Okay!"
Quickly taking a detour through a side passage, and taking down a novice mage who had the unfortunate luck to be there, Amalia and Lydia moved through the stone fortress.
"Wolf Queen. Hear our call and awaken. We summon Potema."
"We summon Potema."
"That chant is getting really old." Amalia muttered, ducking under a skeleton's blow and chopping it's legs off.
"Aye." Lydia agreed, stabbing a Necromancer through the chest and finishing it with a spinning slash.
After finishing off the next batch of adversaries, they ascended up a spiral staircase.
Being in the lead, Amalia quickly took out the Dragur that had was stationed there, "Alright, I think it's-"
"Fus ro dah."
Knocked clean off her feet, Amalia was smacked against the wall, a Draugr Deathlord ran towards the stunned Dragonborn with it's honed greatsword raised for a killing blow.
Amalia scrambled for her greatsword, and found it out of her reach. Looking up to her killer, Amalia hoped, in her last moments, that Lydia would be all right.
"Not today, freak!"
And found her prayers unneeded, Lydia was standing between the two, holding her orcish shield in Amalia's defense. It's modern metal more than a match for the ancient sword.
Grunting, Lydia bashed the sword away.
"Thanks Lydia!" Amalia said, rising to her feet and running to her sword.
"Don't thank me yet!" Blocking another blow from the Draugr, Lydia returned the favour with a slash, but found the hide of the undead to be tough indeed, "Damn freak, die already!" She grunted, pulling up her shield for another block. The next blow proved to a powerful one, causing Lydia to stagger as her shield arm went numb for a few moments.
The Draugr opened his mouth
"Fus-"
"Yol toor!" A roaring column of flame over took the Draugr Deathlord. Burning it, and giving Lydia the chance to recover.
"Die!" She yelled, cutting it's knees with a wild slash, causing it to stumble and fall to it's knees.
And giving the perfect opening to the resident two hander.
"Hyyah!" With a roaring cry, Amalia cut it's head off in one clean swoop.
Pausing for breath, Lydia nodded her head at Amalia, who merely smiled in return.
"Yes! YES! Return me to this realm!"
"Was that…" Amalia trailed off, looking to the ceiling.
"Potema is being resurrected. We have to hurry." Lydia commanded, heading up the stairs.
"Hey, wait for me!"
"As our voices summon you the blood of the innocent binds you Wolf Queen!"
"Summon with words. Bound by blood."
"What are you doing?! You fools! You cannot bind me to your wills!
"Summon with words. Bound by blood."
"Eh? Are they trying to take control of her?" Amalia asked, her frow burrowing as she pelted a scourge with fireballs with a freehand before switching back to two handed with the Skyforged Greatsword
"I believe so!" Lydia confirmed, raising her shield to block an attack by another deathlord.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Amalia complained, skewering the Draugr Scourge with her blade.
"How so?" Lydia asked, bashing the Deathlord with her shield before going in for a power attack with her sword, cutting a gash across it's face and giving Amalia enough time to catch up and stab it through it's side.
"You ants don't have the power to bind me!"
"The Wolf Queen was human right?" The Dovahkiin asked, sliding the body off her sword.
"Yes, like they said, her real name was Potema. Born in the sixty-seventh of the third era, she was renowned for being a powerful necromancer." Lydia explained as they moved up the steps.
"But...How? Her soul would be be over five centuries old." Amalia said, confused, "I don't know too much about her, but wouldn't her soul be recycled the dreamsleeve by now?"
"She must be exceptionally stubborn." Lydia commented dryly.
Moving through the fortress and cutting down anyone who stood in their way, the duo arrived at the last spiral staircase.
"Something is not right. There is an intruder." The first voice declared.
"Gee, ya think?" Amalia muttered, "You think she would've noticed all the noise we made."
Lydia just nodded.
Two necromancers came down the staircase. Now, normally, in the case of most cases, this would allow the mages a height advantage. Castles designed spiral staircases with defense in mind. As per each design, each one either shifted to the left or the right, to allow for defenders to hold off an attacker either by running their weapon into the wall, or simply firing downwards and backpedal up while attacks would be assaulted by spells. But in this case, with the adjacent wall gone and the mages heading downwards, meant they were giving up the single advantage to the two adventurers.
Basically, their legs got chopped off by the high quality weapons they used and flung over their heads.
Emerging onto the top of the tower, Amalia and Lydia saw the last three of the necromancers.
"Hold them off!" The Ritual master commanded, "The spell is almost complete!"
Two of them, one drawing an iron dagger and the other readying a lightning spell, charged the two.
"Wuld!"
Or one of them.
Moving so fast, the world seem to blur, Amalia now stood in front of the Ritual Master, who gawked in surprise.
"Hi." She said merrily.
"Hi?"
"Bye."
"Bye?"
With a single movement, Amalia chopped off the head of the master. Causing the surges of arcane power to simply dissipate out of the air, and the orb that was summoning Potema to disappear.
The two remaining mages stopped mid charge and looked at each other.
"Well? Get." Lydia ordered.
The two mages quickly got.
Regrouping, Amalia frowned, "Well, that was anticlimactic."
Lydia shrugged, "Honor to you, my Thane."
Stepping out of the cave, Lydia shuffled around in her new steel plate armor. Having find a conveniently located chest after descending a drawbridge with some decent loot, Amalia and Lydia had made off with a decent score.
"My Thane, shall we return to Solitude?" Lydia asked,
"Hm? Yeah yeah…" Amalia answered absentmindedly.
"My Thane?" Turning around, Lydia saw what the problem was, "My Thane, please look where you're going…"
"Huh wha?" Looking up from her book, Amalia looked over to where Lydia was just in time to trip on the large tree stump and fall over, causing a loud thunk.
"Ow…" Amalia mumbled, laying face first on the stump.
"Are you alright my Thane?" Lydia asked, rolling her eyes.
"Just damaged pride…" The Berton muttered, shuffling to her feet, she picked up her book, The Refugees.
"Should we head back to Solitude, my Thane?" Lydia repeated.
"Uh, yeah, sure." Amalia nodded, wrapping her cloak around her shoulders. Turning back to the road, Amalia set off back on the path to Solitude.
After making it back to the Blue Palace and spending another night in the Winking Skeever, Falk Firebread was standing in his usual spot, and Jarl Elisif….wasn't.
"Great…." Looking around, Amalia sighed, all that work, and they couldn't show it in front of the Jarl, still…
Approaching the steward, he nodded in greeting, "You've returned, good. What did you find at Wolfskull cave?"
Amalia shrugged, "Some necromancers were attempting to summon and control Potema." She answered.
Falk's eyes widened, "Potema herself? Please tell me you stopped them."
"Well, we interrupted the ritual before it could be completed, so yeah."
Falk's shoulders sagged in relief, "You've done a larger service to the realm then you could possibly know. A resurrected Potema….I shudder at the thought." Reaching into his pocket, he held out a large sack of coins, "Here, take this."
"Thankyee kindly." Amalia smiled, taking the purse.
A silence overtook the room.
"So...I'll just...be going then." Amalia decided, rubbing the back of her head and walking down the staircase.
Exiting the building, Amalia and Lydia passed by a guard by the doorway.
"I don't abide fancy clothes, but you look like you might.I hear The Radiant Raiment has a large selection." The guard appealed.
Amalia and Lydia turned to look at him.
"You're really lonely huh?" Amalia asked.
"..."
"..."
"...Aye." The guard admitted.
Man, writing action scenes is HARD. It's just so tempting just say something like "They dueled for a time" or somesuch. Anyway, I hope you've noticed some of the creatives liberties I've taken, like Amalia somehow using magic despite using a two handed greatsword. Well, it's easier just to think of it as Amalia pointing the tip into the ground and holding it at her waist and using her free hand to cast. Anyway, this is a long chapter, and I wrote it all in one day. New record! Also, this little bit at the end with the guard, he literally said that as I was walking out. I find that just standing around all day in isolation leads to boredom and/or loneliness.
Anyway, please, Read and Review! I find that your reviews really help!
Truly Wandering, Outlaw.