After a pretty uninteresting month of NaNoWriMo, I'm back with more TSD! If you notice any formatting issues in the upcoming chapters please let me know, I tried something new and it didn't work too well :(
After a hearty and delicious lunch in Solitude, the group decided that it was finally time to set out for Meridia's statue. It hardly felt real - after all this work, they finally had all of the pieces. The soul gem fragments were all stashed inside a tiny sack, which was wrapped in cloth and then kept in yet another bag. Ulfric was holding on to it, and Leola trusted him implicitly - there was no way that her father would let anything happen to those pieces
It wasn't far from Solitude at all, and they decided that they could walk it. They had plenty of time to make it there, and then, Odahviing was supposed to fly them to the portal. After they finished their business there, Ulfric intended to have Odahviing return them to Windhelm, and life would resume as normal - at least, for everybody else
For Leola, though, she wasn't sure what her life would be like after this. Her entire life since her mother's passing had consisted of the various Daedric artifacts - finding them, identifying them, and returning them. After that, it had been about finding her mother's soul and returning it to its full form. There was no normal for her, no life where she was simply the High King's daughter. To go back to normal for her would be a return to Lakeview Manor and her simple life with her mother, and that was no longer an option
She'd spent a lot of time daydreaming and fantasizing about what life might be like once the ordeal of souls and Daedras had been dealt with. After all, she was a princess now. She'd always been a princess, of course, but nobody had known about it. What would life be like as a princess? Would there be royal balls and beautiful gowns? She hoped there wouldn't be suitors or anything like that - she had Erith, and that was all she wanted. She knew that her father knew that, too, so he wouldn't try to make her marry some Jarl's son from somewhere.
Is that it?" asked Bottar's voice, drawing Leola out of her reverie. Her gaze shifted to look ahead, and her mouth fell open slightly. Sure enough, there was a grandiose staircase up ahead that led to a tall stone statue of a winged woman with her hands above her head.
Wow," Leola murmured.
It will never cease to amaze me that there are all these Daedric shrines and temples across Skyrim," Ulfric said. "How does nobody know that these are here? Surely Stendarr's vigilantes would want these torn down, would they not?"
Who knows," Aventus replied. "Maybe there's some kind of reason they can't approach? Perhaps they're warded or guarded against those who come with malicious intent."
Then how could Samuel have approached any of them?" asked Erith, glancing over.
His intent wasn't malicious towards the shrines or the Daedras, he purely wanted to ruin things for us," Aventus replied. "Thus he was allowed to approach."
"It's an interesting theory," Ulfric said. "For now, though, what matters is that we're here. It's finally time.
They approached the stairs, exchanging looks and unspoken questions. Should they all go up? Should just one of them approach? Ulfric had the pieces, so should he go alone?
"Leola, why don't you come with me?" Ulfric said finally, breaking the uncomfortable silence and exchanged glances.
"Of course," Leola said softly. She gave Erith's hand a soft squeeze before beginning to follow her father up the steps. Ulfric took the small sack from his pocket, removing the first sack before unwrapping the smaller one from the cloth.
"I'm proud of you, Leola," he said, looking over at her and smiling. "You and your friends have done an incredible job finding these - I could never have done so well alone."
"Thank you, father," Leola replied in a soft voice, smiling. It felt so nice to be able to call him her father, to know that this great man was truly her blood. When all this was over, she looked forward to being able to bond with him over something other than their mutual desire to save her mother's soul.
They reached the top of the steps and took a brief look around, wondering what to do. There was no altar upon which they could lay the pieces, which would have been Leola's suggestion. Slowly, Ulfric opened the tiny sack and knelt down. He began to take the pieces, one by one, out of the bag. He set them down on the stone landing around the statue, all in a small pile in front of him. He wasn't quite finished yet when a glimmering purple magic began to envelop the pieces.
One by one, the magic began to lift them upwards. Leola watched them fly up into the spot between Meridia's hands. As quickly as Ulfric was setting them down, they were flying away until he had emptied the bag of its contents and all the pieces had floated upwards, into Meridia's grasp.
Leola offered her father a hand and helped him to his feet, and both of them turned their gazes upwards to watch what was happening above. The pieces all swirled around together, surrounded by a gleaming pearl of violet magic. They twinkled in the late morning sunlight, and slowly, their shine became brighter. Finally, both Leola and Ulfric shifted their gazes away, not wanting to risk damaging their eyes. When the light faded, they looked back, and an entire soul gem was slowly floating down to them. Leola outstretched her hands and it landed delicately in them, and she gazed into it in awe. She was certain she could see her mother's face in it, gazing blankly outwards.
"We did it," murmured Ulfric, also seemingly awestruck by the result.
"We did," Leola agreed softly. They turned and began back down the stairs. As they walked, Ulfric handed the piece of cloth over to Leola and she gently wrapped the soul gem up in it, holding it close to her body as she walked down.
"That was amazing," said Erith when they were within earshot, and Leola grinned.
"It was, wasn't it?" she agreed. "Now all we have to do is deliver it to Sovngarde and she'll finally be free."
At this, all eyes turned expectantly towards Ulfric. He smiled, glancing around. "I suppose it's my turn, then," he said. He turned so that he was facing away from the group, and Leola could see him bracing himself for the power of the magic he was about to wield. She'd never seen somebody use a dragon shout before, and ever since finding out about the unusual power her parents had wielded, she had wanted nothing more than to see what it looked like.
"Od-ah-viing!" Ulfric shouted, his voice deepening as he spoke and becoming more powerful. Leola could almost see the waves of magic pulsating forth from him as he called the dragon, and then, as the echos of his voice faded away, there was a long silence.
"Is he coming?" asked Bottar, the first to break the silence. Ulfric said nothing though, instead simply kept his gaze turned towards the sky and waited.
Several long moments later, they finally heard the distant roaring of a dragon. Leola's eyes widened as, sure enough, there appeared a dragon in the distance. She'd not seen Odahviing back when he'd first helped Ulfric to retrieve her mother's body - they'd landed just outside of the city, and Ulfric had carried her mother back. He'd gone to great lengths to avoid letting Leola see it, and she suspected that her mother's body had been damaged in some way - or perhaps he just hadn't wanted her to remember her mother as a cold and lifeless corpse.
The dragon drew nearer, and they could hear its great wings beating against the sky as it soared forth. Finally, stirring up the leaves in a harsh breeze, the dragon came to land in front of them, bowing his head briefly.
"Drem yol lok…" murmured the dragon in a deep, spine-chilling voice. "You called, King of Skyrim...?"
"We need to travel to the Sovngarde portal, as the Dragonborn once did with your help," Ulfric said. "We have here her soul, trapped in a soul gem, and it must be delivered to Sovngarde at once."
"I see…" the dragon responded. "I can carry two of you on my back… Jun, King of Skyrim, you must be one..."Slowly, the dragon's gaze shifted to eye Leola, and she bit her lip nervously, mentally stopping herself from taking a step back. "And kiir, child of the Dragonborn, my fron… you shall come as well…"
Leola glanced towards her father, who nodded. "Very well," he said to the dragon. "Leola and I shall come with you." He turned away from Odahviing to face the others. "I'm sure that you can make your own way to Windhelm to meet us there?"
"We can be there tomorrow evening," Aventus responded.
"Good," Ulfric said before turning next to face Leola. "Are you ready to ride a dragon, my child?"