Resh POV
Travelling with a human was nothing short of hell. The few weeks together hadn't been that bad. But now Resh had no idea why but Lydia was being a nightmare today. Shouting at him for no reason and getting really annoyed without explaining why. Resh had never liked arguing with women, he had only ever done so in the past with Kayci, and that never ended well for him.
Usually a shattered nose was involved and possibly being knocked unconscious. He didn't expect Lydia to try injuring him the way Kayci used to. But he would rather just not anger her and skip any form of her being angry at all.
Unfortunately that still didn't stop her from having something to bother him about. It wasn't always anger, sometimes it was just… odd. For example, she had spent the whole morning after she woke up in the inn complaining that she didn't want to go to the College because of the bridge making her sick to walk across, and instead sitting in her room in the foetal position as if in pain.
Resh's first mistake of the morning was asking her if she was okay, he was not greeted with the answer he would have expected.
"No, I'm not fucking okay!" she yelled at him, causing Resh to jump back a foot, surprised at her sudden burst of anger.
Resh, still curious despite her anger, pried further, "Is there a reason you're not okay?"
Lydia's response was a loud yell of "I already told you!" and then her throwing the first thing she grabbed in his direction. Resh easily dodged the burning lamp and ducked out of the room to avoid further onslaught. He quickly took a seat next to the fire to keep warm and sighed. Why did she have to be so infuriating now? He sat for about half an hour, waiting her for her to be ready to leave the room and get out of… whatever it was immobilising her.
"Resh?" he heard Lydia call from the room.
He stepped into the room, this time prepared for if anything else were to be thrown at him, "Yes…?"
"Can you get me a few sweet rolls to eat?" Lydia asked. She always got hungry for sweet things when her time of the month came.
"Are you sure? Don't too many sweet rolls cause you to get fat?" Resh was pretty sure that's what happened with humans when they ate too much unhealthy food and commended himself in his head for his knowledge. From the look on her face it seemed Lydia wasn't as pleased with his statement as he was. This time he wasn't putting it past her to just attack him on the spot.
Resh didn't know his mistake but apparently a few of the other patrons of the bar did as they all winced in unison when he mentioned her getting fat. He expected her to yell and shout like she had earlier, but this time her response was much more unexpected. She started to cry. When he saw her retreat back into the room Resh felt a large pang of guilt, and began to feel horrible that he had her so badly… somehow.
Walking to the tavern owner, Resh decided to buy a few of those sweet roll things Lydia wanted with the coin from the looted giant. And after sighing in exasperation he bought himself a 'Nordic mead' as well, deciding that he needed a good dose of alcohol considering how his companion was acting.
Resh took a sip of the bottle expecting it to taste of fermented piss since it was Nordic, but was surprised when he discovered how good it was. Very surprised. He hated to admit it, but it tasted considerably better than Tsaesci alcohol, which usually just tasted like slightly flavoured blood. But this was something else entirely. Perhaps he could go back to Akavir and bring back knowledge of good drinks instead of politics, it would probably be more important.
Remembering Akavir made him sad knowing he could never go back and stay alive for very long so he quickly downed his drink and got up to see Lydia. The woman in question was sitting on the bed glaring at the doorway as if expecting him. He should have drunk more.
"You took your time," she snapped, seemingly angry again as if her previous sadness wasn't as serious as he had thought.
"I did, but I bought you those sweet rolls you asked for." 'Have fun getting overweight.' Resh left the last part in his head, deciding it wasn't the best idea to irritate her further.
Lydia didn't bother thank him when she took them off his hands and started eating.
"So anyway… just shout for me and I'll come if you need anything," Resh told her before leaving quickly. It didn't take long before Resh regretted his words, because of all the things she was asking of him.
As the morning dragged on Lydia had kept calling him back to the room to ask him for things, most of which involved getting her various fattening foods and alcoholic drinks. Resh still maintained, in his head of course to avoid having the bottles thrown at him, that she would get fat from. The day had barely started and he was already getting tired. And that was a lot coming from someone who only has to sleep every week or so. Resh couldn't believe his situation. He was running around like a servant getting things for Lydia when in fact she should be the person serving him.
Suddenly, as Resh entered their room, he started to smell blood. It was coming from Lydia. Had she somehow been injured when he wasn't looking? He was going to kill whoever hurt her behind his back.
"Lydia, are you hurt?" he asked seriously, taking in more of the scent to see if he could find out how badly she was injured.
"I'm in pain, but not injured," she snapped viciously, causing Resh to almost jump again at her unusual displays of anger and these confusing mood swings. "Why?"
"Because I can smell blood coming out of you," he told her. Obviously he had said something else wrong because Lydia looked enraged again and started to shout at him once more.
Resh watched her as she stood up with fury written all over her face, and without a second thought he bolted as fast as he could out of the tavern so he could no longer hear her anger. He managed to pick up some words from her frantic yelling but decided "Inappropriate, inconsiderate bastard," wasn't a phrase he wanted to find out more about.
Resh sighed when he finally stepped through the gates of the College. It was exasperating having to prove himself to that incessant woman on the bridge who doubted his prowess. Why did all women have to be so difficult? At least she wasn't angry for no reason, or having random mood swings like Lydia was. He could take solace in that much.
Whatever it was making her act that way, he hoped it would be gone when he got back to her. If not, he would just have to hide from her for a few days and hope time took its toll. Right now, though he had to find someone who could enchant things for him. Preferably for free as he had spent the rest of the small amount of money he had on alcohol and sweet rolls for his emotional housecarl.
In the courtyard there appeared to be a heated argument between someone he recognised as Thalmor by his robes, and another person who appeared to be a senior member of the college. He didn't care much for what it was about, but just hoped it would finish quickly so that he could find out who in this College enchanted things.
Thankfully, it ended almost as soon as he got there so he had an opportunity to ask around. He tried asking some of the many spectators of the scene to direct him, but they were all too caught up in what had just happened to give him a proper response. Just their insight on how the argument unravelled and their opinion of the Thalmor agent, no matter how irrelevant it was to him.
Instead of asking the people outside, Resh decide to stroll into the main building ahead of him and see if there was anyone in charge in there who could help him. On the way there he walked past the Thalmor who had been arguing previously. His face was painted with a look of arrogance and superiority, as if he thought every species but his was inferior somehow. Resh wondered if that's what he looked like whenever he had similar thoughts about the people around him. He hoped not.
The moment he walked into the large and rather, by human standards, impressive hall Resh could see there was a lesson of some kind going on. Not wanting to intrude, instead of asking the person who appeared to be in charge as he was currently teaching, Resh walked to the bald imperial that was strolling around and decided to ask him if he knew anything,
"Do you know anything about enchanting? Or know anyone that does?"
"You've come to the right place," the man replied. "I'm Sergius, I'm the head enchanter at this College. Need anything, and have the money to pay for it, and I'll make it."
'Finally,' Resh thought. He had, at last, found the right person after his horrible journey.
"I assume you want something to make your swords more powerful, or to make your armour make you stronger?"
"You assume wrong, I just want something that will stop me from dying in the cold," Resh told him.
The man looked confused, but decided to hold in his questioning for now. "I'll see what I can do. I'll make a ring that will make sure that as long as you're wearing it you won't get too… cold." Of all the things someone could have come to him for, this was it? Nothing hard just a bit of heat in a ring. If he wasn't going to be paid he would have laughed at the man.
"So this ring you make will stop magical ice?" Resh asked, hoping it could solve two problems.
"No, this will create heat with a very small fire enchantment. It will stop the natural cold but not magical. If I were to enchant something to lessen the blow of magic, then it would do nothing to actual weather," he explained. Resh had always had some knowledge of magic, but never very much in enchantments, so he wasn't too sure about how they worked.
"Will you make me one?"
"I don't see why a Nord like you would need an enchantment like that. Maybe an Argonian might, or perhaps a Breton, but Nords like you are meant to be able to handle the cold." little did he know that Resh wasn't actually a Nord.
Resh had to suppress a hiss at that. He hated being thought of as weak. "Are you going to make this thing for me or not?" he snapped.
"Yes, I'll get round to it. Are you in a rush or something?" Sergius replied, startled at the large man's tone.
"Oh Gods, no!" Resh blurted, remembering what he would have to go back to if he left.
"Okay… well anyway, there's just one thing left before I make it: payment," the college member said as he looked up at Resh expectedly.
Resh sighed, "How much will it be?"
"About 300 septims," the man replied. Resh checked his pockets for any money he may have left. He knew it wouldn't be that much, but perhaps he could pay a small amount now and then send some money via courier when he gathered some more. He pulled out 12 coins. It was all he had left from Lydia constantly wanting him to buy things. If he died because he didn't have this enchantment, he was blaming it on her.
"Can I pay some now and then send you the rest when I get more?" Resh asked him, holding out the small amount of gold.
"Not with that little. Either find me something worth the amount or get the money," he replied sternly, causing Resh to give out a defeated sigh.
"I'll be back in a few minutes," Resh told him before leaving the enchanter's room and ducking out of sight.
Resh didn't want it to come to this but he had little choice. Reaching into supply pack he was still holding Resh pulled out a small vial that contained a healing potion and drank it down quickly with no other reason but to empty it. Now with the empty bottle, he raised it to his mouth and pressed it to his teeth. Draining out his venom to sell wasn't really something he wanted to do because of the many issues it could cause. Such as confusion about where Tsaesci venom was coming from. But he didn't have much of a choice and knew it would fetch a high price.
He waited until the vial was almost full before putting the lid back on, sealing it. It looked like the average health potion just a slightly different shade of red, but would be easy for anyone who knows a thing or two about alchemy to differentiate between a potion and a poison.
"Here," Resh said, tossing the sealed bottle to the man as he re-entered the room. "It should be worth at least the 300 gold." Knowing how rare it was, it would probably be worth considerably more.
"What is it?" Sergius asked, taking the lid off the bottle and smelling the liquid, wincing away at the vile odour.
"It's very rare," Resh replied, trying not to give away too much. The man then stuck his finger in the liquid and went to taste it before Resh quickly stopped him, "And very poisonous!"
The imperial hastily wiped the liquid off his finger. Surely it couldn't be that poisonous. With most poisonous potions you could at least taste a bit of it and be fine. Even so he didn't want to take any chances.
"Very rare you say? I guess this is good enough. Come back in about 15 minutes and I'll have it made for you." Usually he wouldn't have started work immediately and would have made him wait a few days. But if this poison was really so rare then he was more than happy to start work straight away. Perhaps he could sell it to someone more interested in alchemy and make even more of a profit.
20 Minutes Later
"As I said, I don't know why you of all people will need this, but here you go. It would have been a lot harder to make and would have taken longer if I hadn't made one of these recently," he explained, handing the finished ring to Resh who put it on quickly because he was starting to shiver again.
Strangely. This was the second of this particular enchantment he had ever made in his life, and they were both in the same week. Even stranger still was the fact both of those buying it were Nords.
As he left the hall, Resh looked back at the enchanter as he studied the bottle of Tsaesci venom. Resh hoped he wouldn't try to taste it again. Something that stupid would kill him in seconds. Regardless of that, Resh was still overjoyed. At last the constant bite of the cold was gone and he could react and move normally.
Unfortunately, there was a new issue to solve. Whatever in oblivion was making his usually talkative, but relatively normal, companion go completely insane for no reason. Perhaps it was the injury he smelled earlier and she just didn't want to talk about it because it meant admitting weakness.
He couldn't say for certain about her. But if he were to show any signs of weakness, it would definitely be a problem for him. Nevertheless, he couldn't let her interfere with their travels over something as minor as what seemed like a small injury from the little amount of blood. He should just insist on seeing the injury and then heal it for her so she stopped acting the way she was. And if she carried on… he would just have to order more of that delicious Nordic drink, and try to ignore her.
In fact, he would order more of that anyway.
Lydia POV
It had been about half an hour and Lydia still couldn't believe how he had just run away from her. For someone who claims to be some honourable warrior that deserves respect, he was a coward for sprinting. Fair enough, she had thrown things at him. But he should just learn to put up with it.
Her nausea had calmed down enough for her to go looking for him. So, leaving her room, Lydia went to head out of the inn before something caught her eye. More appropriately, someone. Someone who was sitting at a table drinking while she had been previously suffering. If she was already going to kill him for his earlier remarks, she was definitely going to slaughter him now.
"Resh!" she growled from behind him, causing his head to snap around quickly.
The surprise in his voice was evident, "Oh! Lydia, I was just… err…" he grabbed his half-finished bottle of mead and offered it up to her, "I was just buying you a drink…" he finished, pride showing at his quick thinking.
Lydia snatched the drink off him and downed it, briefly considering smashing him over the head with the bottle, but decided against it. Too many witnesses…
"Is there a reason why you're here drinking while I was in there suffering?" she spat venomously, not really asking a question.
"Well, I just assumed that because you're acting the way you were I should have a few drinks before I try to talk to you," he explained.
As if that was going to make her any less pissed. "It's your own damn fault! You should be trying to look after me like this, not run away because you a coward!" Her last words clearly hit him hard as instead of acting defensive at her anger he started to bite back.
"I'm tired of this! I'm not a coward! I've been trying to put up with you but I can't take it anymore! I smelled blood earlier. You're injured. Let me see it now. I can help, I still have a potion left." It was now Lydia's time to jump back at his harsh, yet firm voice.
"Are you insane!" she hissed. "I'm not going to let you see where the blood's coming from!" Lydia wished he had asked to see that area when it wasn't bleeding and causing her horrible discomfort.
"But you're hur-" he tried to protest before being cut off by the embarrassed and still angry woman dragging him into their room to avoid people hearing their embarrassing conversation.
"It's not an injury you idiot! Gods, it's like you've never even heard about what a woman's 'time of the month is'!" she shouted, hating how ignorant he could be.
"It's like that because I haven't," he replied.
Lydia was confused now, "You had a female companion, though. Surely you must have experienced it once."
Resh shook his head. Kayci was a snake, like him. She never had any of this human nonsense. She was still violent to him, though, hence his extreme caution around the angry woman.
"Well it's when once a month my body goes strange and feels like it's ripping me apart from the inside. Hence the anger. I also get emotional and have mood swings because of it as well. Something to do with hormones. I never really paid that much attention when it was being explained to me, so I don't know many details."
Resh pondered this for a few moments. It must be horrible to be a human. He would hate to have all these mood swings and emotional spikes, "Once a month? That doesn't sound too bad, how long does it last, is it only a few hours or the entire day?"
Lydia's anger dissipated as she saw the look on of hope on his face that it would only be for a few hours. She almost didn't have the heart to tell him. "A bit longer than that… about a week…"
"An entire week!? So you're saying for a quarter of the time I'm going to spend with you you're going to act like this!" Resh yelled, clearly distraught with the new thing he had learnt about humans. 'Why Kayci ever had a relationship with one of these disgusting, demonic creatures is beyond me,' he thought. If the every female human was like this, he wondered why any potential mate ever stayed near them.
It was a few moments before Lydia replied. She was clearly trying to hide a smirk at his reaction. "Yeah…" Lydia couldn't help but start laughing completely when Resh's jaw literally dropped.