VIII: Top of the World

Shortly before noon, Lydia caught up with us, riding one horse and leading the other with a rope. We stopped for lunch and filled her in on what had happened.

Once we were finished, Lydia insisted on walking again while Lokir and I mounted our horses. We set off, having to stop regularly and wait for her to catch up.

"I don't care what she has against horses," Lokir muttered as we were waiting on her to catch up for the tenth time. "If we're her thanes, she's required to listen to us. I say we buy her a horse and make her ride it."

I laughed. "Good idea."

Other than a saber cat and a trio of bandits, we encountered no trouble on the way to Ivarstead. We heard dragons in the distance, and saw one circling a distant peak, but they never noticed us.

Ivarstead was a small village, smaller even than Riverwood. Apparently the only traffic through Ivarstead consisted of people headed up the mountain to High Hrothgar, the Greybeards' home. It was dark by the time we reached Ivarstead, so we stopped at the inn, Vilemyr Inn, for the night, and rose early the next morning to make our way up the mountain.

I looked up at the mountain as we left the inn. "You know, it doesn't really look that big from here. Maybe this won't be too bad…"

"I don't know, you can't really see the top," Lokir said. "There always seem to be clouds surrounding the top. I wonder if the Greybeards live above the cloud line…"

"Nah, they live right below it," an older Nord man said from behind us. "Those clouds have been there as long as I can remember. I take it you're pilgrims?"

We turned to face him. "Well… I guess you could say that," I said. I could have mentioned being the Dragonborn, but I was getting tired of everyone knowing more about it than I did.

"If you're headed up, do you suppose you could do a favor for me?" he asked.

"Sure," I said warily.

He took a knapsack off his back and handed it to me. "I go up every few weeks to bring food to the Greybeards, but the climb's getting hard on my knees. Could you drop this in the chest in front of High Hrothgar? I can give you some gold when you get back."

"Okay," I said. "Anything we should watch for on the way up?"

He shrugged. "You might encounter a couple of wolves, that's all. Nothing too dangerous. You'll probably see other pilgrims on the way. They'll help you out if you need it."

I looked back at the mountain. "That's probably not a good place for horses, is it?"

He shook his head. "I know they're supposed to be sure-footed, but I wouldn't risk it. The wolves might spook them. You don't want that happening on those narrow trails. If you slip, you can probably catch yourself, but if a horse slips, it's going all the way to the ground."

I nodded. "I was afraid of that. Do they ever let people inside the monastery?"

"Not very often. I've been making deliveries for years and I've never seen them. Most people just do it for the journey."

I turned to Lydia and Lokir. "Are you two coming with me? Doesn't sound like I'll really need help fighting."

Lydia frowned up at the mountain and shrugged. "If you don't really require my services, I'd be fine sitting this one out. Seems like a waste to walk up all that way if I'll likely just have to sit in the snow and wait until you're finished."

Lokir sighed. "I don't like the idea of climbing that thing, but we've been through a lot together, and this is an important event for you. I should probably stay with you for this."

I smiled. "Thanks. Let's go, then. I don't want to be stuck up there come nightfall."

We left Lydia at the edge of town and headed up the mountain. Here at the base, a set of steps had been carved into the ground, but as we went farther up, the steps were mostly broken or worn away, only appearing in small sporadic patches.

"You know," I muttered after we had climbed the first thousand steps, "there's a levitation spell in Morrowind. Why did you Nords have to be so hostile to magic?"

"Hey, don't blame me," Lokir said. "That's one spell they should have kept here."

I shrugged. "I suppose it could be dangerous. It had a short duration…"

"But most magic is dangerous. It's not our fault if stupid people get themselves killed practicing spells they don't understand."

"Yeah." I frowned thoughtfully. "The Nerevarine wrote of making levitation potions. Surely the Nords could at least import the ingredients. Cliff racer plumes and Dwemer scrap metal. That's not so hard to find…"

I spent the next 500 steps grumbling about levitation. I might have continued complaining for another 1,000, but I was interrupted by a pair of ice wolves charging down the trail at us. Once we had dealt with them, Lokir wearily suggested we listen out for other enemies, so I took the hint and shut up.

Beside the trail, rock slabs had been carved into alcoves with an inscription inside and an offering bowl in front and placed along the trail intermittently. Lokir had heard one of the villagers say there were ten of these emblem stones, and they told a story about the war with the dragons. While I was used to walking long distances, I wasn't used to climbing. By the time we passed the third emblem, I really wished we had brought the horses. I reluctantly suggested we stop for a few minutes. We found a boulder sticking out of the snow on the southeastern side of the mountain and climbed up on it. I took out a goat cheese wheel and offered Lokir half of it as I surveyed the landscape.

"If they don't have a quest to send me on right away, where do you think we should go next?" I asked.

He waved at the landscape off in the distance, past a large lake. "Riften is on the east side of that lake. I've heard that's where you have to go if you want to join the Thieves Guild. I've been thinking about doing that. I'd only steal from corrupt rich people, of course."

"Right," I said, nodding. "Maybe I should try it. I may not be any good at pickpocketing, but I got very good at sneaking while I had to hunt my own food for two years. Grandmother Ma'hini was Grandmaster of the Thieves Guild in Morrowind."

"Didn't she basically take over every Guild in Morrowind?"

"More or less. Maybe I should see if I can outdo her… But she was Grandmaster of the Morag Tong, and they don't operate here, do they?"

"Nope. The only assassin guild we have here is the Dark Brotherhood, and I don't know if they're even still around. You hear rumors occasionally that they're operating, but it sounded like they were really in decline in recent years."

I shrugged. "Probably better that way. Grandmother Ma'hini said the Morag Tong were a highly honorable, well-respected organization, but the Dark Brotherhood were nothing like them. The Dark Brotherhood even tried to assassinate her."

"I wonder how the world would have turned out if they had succeeded?"

"Well, there's no telling what Dagoth Ur and the Tribunal would have done by now, but most people don't realize how important she was to ending the Oblivion Crisis."

"Really? I never heard anything about that."

"I have her journals. If things slow down enough, I need to go get them from my old cave. She thought she had enough glory and let the Hero of Kvatch take all the credit. She had just found her future husband and was ready to settle down and start a family."

"Maybe we could go get them if the Greybeards don't have anything urgent planned for you." He looked back over the lake, past Riften. "Or we could look into the Dawnguard. That tower past Riften is Stendarr's Beacon. Fort Dawnguard is supposed to be just east of it."

I nodded. "We could look into that after we check with the Thieves Guild."

Reluctantly I rose, knowing I could spend all morning admiring the view, and led the way up the mountain again. We were almost halfway there. I just had to keep reminding myself of that. It would have been less tedious if the stairs were still intact and I could keep up with exactly how far we had climbed, but there was no way to be sure.

I thought I heard an odd hissing sound above the wind blowing. I looked around but didn't see anything. "Do you hear that?" I asked.

Lokir looked around, then pointed ahead and hissed, "Ice wraith!"

"Where?" I asked. All I saw was a patch of snow that seemed to be blowing oddly in the wind.

Then the swirling patch of snow rushed at me, and as I was raising my shield, a patch of icicles sprouted in the ground in front of me, My shield blocked the worst of them and the rest splintered against my armor.

I thought I could make out some sort of face in the cloud of snow, but I could barely focus on it. It rushed at me, and I wasn't sure if it bit into my shoulder or cast another icicle spell on me. This must be what a vampire dog's bite felt like, cold as the grave.

I swung at it, but it was gone too fast, and my shoulder felt like it was made of ice. I turned and looked for it, but I couldn't pick it out from all the snow swirling around me. "Where is it?" I called.

Lokir was also looking around frantically. "I don't know…" he began, then his words changed into a cry of pain as the ice wraith struck him in the back.

It passed right through him, and I ran to meet it. I felt solid resistance when my blade hit it, then it grazed the top of my head and I dove into the snow to avoid it. I rolled to my feet and looked around for it, but it was gone again.

"Your left!" Lokir shouted. I called up Flames and let them fly from my left hand as I turned. It hit the ice wraith dead on. The creature squealed and fell to the ground. I lowered my hand and looked down at it. It started to rise, but Lokir ran up and finished it off. It dissolved into a bluish puddle that glowed faintly.

Once the excitement faded, I realized I was shivering. The places where it had struck my shoulder and head felt like they were coated in ice. I crouched and hunched over into a ball. "That was not a wolf! I think we need to have a word with that old man when we get back down…"

"Yeah, he's in for an earful." Lokir was shivering even harder than I was, but he stooped over and started rummaging through the blue puddle. He picked up what looked like two triangular chunks of ice. "These are ice wraith teeth. These things are hard to kill, so their teeth fetch a good price with alchemists." He held one of them out to me.

I reached for it, wishing I could just stay curled up to conserve heat. "Can they be used to make Resist Cold potions? Setting myself on fire doesn't sound too unreasonable right now…"

"It's just the ice wraith's spell. It'll wear off in a couple minutes," Lokir assured me with his teeth chattering.

I nodded and curled back up. "Then we can just wait here until it does."

I expected him to protect, but I guess being struck in the back was worse than the shoulder, because he mimicked my pose and we waited a few minutes until we started feeling warm again.

The path had started out straightforward, but now it became difficult to find in spots. The stairs would disappear completely for short distances, and instead of continuing in a straight line, the path would curve down and around rock outcroppings that hid the next patch of steps from view. Fortunately rocks had been piled together into small cairns with red fabric strips tied to the top to indicate the way, but it was still difficult at times to find them. I was glad it wasn't snowing and the snow kicked up by the constant wind wasn't enough to obscure the path.

After we passed the fourth emblem stone, the path led through a narrow gap between two high rock walls that curved out of sight to the left. There was no other way past, as the mountain was too steep on the right and dropped off on the left. I slowed and looked at the entrance warily. "That would be a good spot for an ambush…"

"I don't think there are any bandits up here," Lokir said, sounding uncertain. "And I don't think the ice wolves are smart enough to figure that out."

I sighed and shrugged. "Maybe I'm just getting paranoid."

With one final glance around at the surrounding mountain to be sure there wasn't a way around it, I stepped between the rock walls, telling myself I just needed a day off.

A deep roar echoed through the pass, coming from somewhere above us. I looked up to see a large, shaggy white humanoid figure standing on top of the rock wall on the right. It leaped down into the pass and advanced on us. Its gait was odd, as it almost seemed to be trying to walk on its knuckles.

"By the Eight, it's a frost troll!" Lokir groaned.

"I've never fought a troll before," I said, backing away slowly.

"They're slow, but they're very strong. You don't want it to hit you."

Once we were back out in the open, we stood our ground. It came at us and swung one arm at me. I ducked it and lunged in, not counting on it following up by swinging its other arm. It hit me in the side, the blow almost as jarring as the one I had received from the first dragon I killed. At least landing in the snow was less jarring than slamming against a boulder had been. I rolled over and tried to climb to my feet, still feeling my bones rattling.

Lokir was dancing around the troll, avoiding its blows but not landing any of his own. Suddenly I saw an arrow strike the troll in the back. It flinched and turned to find this new threat. Lokir struck the troll in the back while it was distracted.

I saw two archers back the way we had come. They both had their bows out, shooting at the troll. For a moment they kept the troll distracted while Lokir fought it, letting him wound it many times without being struck himself. Then Lokir got a little too bold and struck too quickly, and the troll struck him a glancing blow that still sent him sprawling.

The world still seemed to be swaying, but I forced myself to my feet. The troll turned to face me, soaked with blood but just as steady as ever.

If it hits me like that again, I might roll off the side of the mountain, I thought, then wanted to kick myself for not thinking of this sooner. I circled the troll until it was between me and the dropoff, then shouted, "FUS!"

My Voice struck just as heavily as I had hoped, flinging the troll through the air and over the side. I backed up and leaned against the rock wall wearily, listening to the sound of it rolling down the mountainside. I looked over at Lokir, half-buried in the snow beside me, and said sheepishly, "I keep forgetting I can do that."

Lokir picked himself up out of the snow wearily. "I've heard fire works well on them too."

I nodded. "I am definitely kicking that old man in the butt when we get back to Ivarstead."

The archers approached us cautiously as we took a moment to catch our breath. "You… Did you just use the Voice?' one of them asked. "Are you the ones the Greybeards called to?"

"So it would seem," I said wearily.

They looked over at the side of the cliff where the troll had disappeared. "Maybe we could travel to the top together?" the other suggested tentatively.

"Yeah, sure," I said.

"As long as you're willing to go slowly," Lokir said. "I think that troll hit us hard enough to damage our stamina regeneration."

The archers were fine with this. They said they made the pilgrimage every few years and liked to stop briefly to meditate at each emblem, which would give us regular opportunities to rest. So after a few more minutes resting, we set out again, halfway up the mountain and already exhausted.

Thankfully, we saw no more living creatures on the way up, but it was a long walk. I was about ready to start crawling when I looked up the slope and saw what looked like a castle wall stretched out before us.

"Whoa," I said softly. "So that's High Hrothgar. I was expecting them to live in a cave."

"We'll leave you to it," one of the pilgrims said. "We'll head back down once we've finished meditating." They headed over to the final emblem stone to the right of the stairs leading to High Hrothgar's door.

We waved to them, then plodded up the steps. One foot in front of the other, I thought. I can sit down once we get inside.

I paused at the door, wondering if I should knock or just let myself in, but it opened before I could make up my mind. An elderly man with a long white beard stood before us, dressed in a long gray hooded robe.

"Hello," I said. "I'm Ra'wati, the, uh, everyone says I'm the Dragonborn, so… uh, you wanted to see me?" I wanted to kick myself for my lack of eloquence.

He looked me over silently, then nodded and beckoned me inside.

"What about my friend Lokir?" I asked. "I heard you don't let many people inside, but can he come with me?"

The old man looked Lokir over, his expression dispassionate, then he shrugged and nodded.

We followed him inside, into a large dimly-lit room. It was made entirely of stone, rather than partially of timber like Dragonsreach. While there were halls and stairways leading off the sides of the room, the main room was open and mostly empty. Three other gray-robed men were standing around a patch of tiles arranged in a diamond shape in the center of the room.

Lokir and I paused just inside the doorway while the one who had led us inside joined the group around the diamond. A different robed figure stepped forward, so I cautiously went to meet him.

"Greetings," he said. "I am Master Arngeir, speaker for the Greybeards."

"I'm Ra'wati, and this is… well, my bandit-hunting partner Lokir. We're going to be fighting side-by-side for the foreseeable future, so I thought he had a right to know what's up with me."

Master Arngeir nodded. "So, a Dragonborn stands before us once again," he said.

I saw no point in trying to be dignified and eloquent, so I shrugged and said, "I'm still not sure what that means, but they say I'm the Dragonborn and you summoned me, so I'm here for answers."

"First, prove to us you are Dragonborn. Let us taste of your voice."

I briefly wondered how mad they'd be if I used my fire spell, then remembered how they said Ulfric Stormcloak shouted the high king to pieces, so I decided to use my force spell instead. I took a deep breath and shouted, "FUS!" I watched them all stagger when it hit them, reflecting that I sort of enjoyed doing that.

"So you are Dragonborn," he said. "Now tell me, why have you come here?"

I fought not to sigh. Isn't it pretty obvious? But I just said politely, "I wish to know what it means to be Dragonborn, and to find out what you want with me."

"The Dragonborn are those with the Dragon Blood, a gift bestowed by Akatosh. We are here to guide you, as we have guided many others."

"You mean I'm not the only Dragonborn?" I asked, feeling a little less special.

"There have been many in the past, but we have not seen one for quite some time, not since Tiber Septim. There could be others out there, but you are the only one that has been revealed to us thus far."

"Okay… So what exactly does it mean to have the Dragon Blood?"

"That means you have the natural ability to focus your voice into a thu'um, or Shout. This ability was a gift to men from the Goddess Kynareth. Anyone can learn to do so, but those without Akatosh's gift take many years to learn each Shout."

"Can you teach me more about using the Voice?"

"Yes. It is our duty to help you to learn to use your gift in fulfillment of your destiny."

My ears pricked. "Do you know what my destiny is?"

He shook his head. "No. We can help you find that path, but we cannot say what lies along it. That is for you to discover."

Darn it… I sighed and said, "Okay. If you have something to teach me, I'm ready to learn."

"Very well. You have proven that you have the inborn gift, and you have taken the first steps in projecting your voice into a thu'um without training. Let's see if you are willing and able to learn." He turned and beckoned me to follow him as he returned to the group in the middle of the floor. "When you Shout, you speak in the ancient language of the dragons. Your dragon blood gives you an inborn ability to master this. Each shout is made up of three words. Each time you master a new word, your shout will grow stronger. Master Einarth will teach you ro, the second word of Unrelenting Force. It means 'balance.' When combined with fus, it will allow you to focus your shout more sharply."

Another of the Greybeards came forward and stood before me. Before I could ask what he intended to do, the wind that rose up when I absorbed dragon souls and Shouts began swirling around us, seeming to draw streamers of flame out of him and into me.

When the wind died down again, I was momentarily frozen in horror. "Did I just absorb your soul?"

"No, he allowed you to absorb his knowledge of ro," Master Arngeir assured me. "When you absorb a dragon's soul, you are absorbing all of its knowledge, just as you absorb knowledge from the Word Walls."

I nodded, let my breath out and glanced around the room. "Do you want me to use Unrelenting Force again?"

"No, that won't be necessary. We have to use a Shout many times to master it, but you seem to learn Shouts automatically. Go with Master Borri now. He will teach you a new shout in the courtyard. It's not safe to use this one indoors."

After glancing back to motion Lokir to come, I followed another of the Greybeards up a set of steps and out a set of double doors set in the back wall. The courtyard was much less impressive than the front of High Hrothgar had been. It was an empty-snow-covered space dotted with a few random stone pillars, although it did have one very tall watchtower remaining.

"Now we will see how quickly you master a completely new Shout. Master Borri will teach you wuld, which means whirlwind."

I approached Master Borri, and absorbed his knowledge the same way I had done to Master Einarth.

"Now Master Wulfgar will demonstrate Whirlwind Sprint, then it will be your turn."

I followed him over to a pair of pillars set several feet apart. Some thirty feet ahead, a second set of stone pillars supported an iron gate. Master Wulfgar shouted something, and suddenly he was standing in front of the open gate. He walked over to the side on one of the pillars, where a lever was mounted that I assumed would close the gate.

"Now use Whirlwind Sprint before the gate closes," Master Arngeir said. "Running into the gate won't kill you, but it isn't very pleasant."

"Wuld!" I shouted as Master Wulfgar pulled the lever. My stomach seemed to stay behind as my body was propelled forward at high speed. I came to a stop past the gate, feeling giddy.

"Yeah, let's see those kids beat me at tag now!" I laughed.

Master Wulfgar raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, uh, I mean, let's see those bandits try to escape now," I said, much more subdued.

Off in the distance, I noticed a path leading further up the mountain, but a strong wind was blowing across it. If I tried to walk on the path, it would blow me right off the side of the mountain. Strangely, the courtyard was unaffected by the wind, which ended abruptly at he start of the path.

"What's up with that path?" I asked. "That wind can't be natural."

"That is the path to the home of our leader, Paarthurnax," Arngeir said. "He is even more selective in who he allows to visit than we are."

"Do I need to speak to him?"

Eventually, but you are not ready yet. When you can use your voice to clear the path, you will be ready. For now, I have one last task for you."

I turned away from the path. "If I have to fetch something for you, I hope it can wait until tomorrow. I had a nasty encounter with a frost troll on the way up here."

He nodded. "I need you to retrieve the horn of Jurgen Windcaller from his tomb. Perhaps then you will be ready to speak with Paarthurnax. The task is not urgent, so you may rest here if you wish. Or we can give you some stamina potions for the journey down the mountain."

I handed him my map to mark and looked over at Lokir questioningly. He shrugged and said, "I'm in favor of the stamina potions. We need to meet back up with Lydia and plan our next move."

"Very well. We keep them in a large chest near the base of the front steps."

"Oh, that reminds me," I said, reaching into my knapsack and pulling out their bag of supplies. "Someone asked me to bring this to you. He said his knees weren't up to the climb right now."

"Ah, yes. Be sure to thank Klimmek for us when you return to Ivarstead."

"Yeah, I'll definitely be having a word with him," I said through my teeth.

Lokir and I said our farewells and headed back through High Hrothgar and out the front door. We retrieved a few stamina potions from the chest out front, then walked over to the edge of the cliff to spend a moment admiring the scenery.

"That's Dragonsreach, isn't it?" I asked, pointing at something to the northwest.

"Yep. We could save ourselves a lot of trouble if we just rolled down the mountain."

I sighed. "Tempting, but Lydia would be mad when she realized we weren't coming back."

"Pity. It's going to be a long way around. Looks like Jurgen Windcaller's tomb is way over there past Whiterun, near Solitude."

I shook my head. "I know I have to go there eventually, but… Well, after Dustman's Cairn…"

Lokir shuddered. "Yeah, I know. That was the worst fight I've ever been in."

"Yeah, I just don't feel like going into another draugr nest just yet. Let's go to Riften and check out the Thieves Guild while we're in the area."

SOUNDTRACK: "Only a Mountain" by Jason Castro, "Pittsburgh" by Amity Affliction (tongue-in-cheek) (Yeah, not much musical inspiration this time.)

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ra'wati isn't actually going to kick Klimmek in the butt, but doing so was my first thought when I encountered the frost troll for the first time.

The next 5-8 chapters cover the part of the story I really wanted to tell, and should make it clear what my vague story description is talking about.