Fate's Games Chapter 56: Pinewatch, an elder scroll series fanfic

Fate's Games

(A/N: This one sprang to mind when going through Pinewatch. After reading her father's note, I was curious as to what she looked like. After I killed her I removed her helmet. Yeah, the version of her that spawned was the polar opposite of what the note said, so this sprang to mind.)

Pinewatch

Furiously she stormed into the main room, where all her bandits gathered. Immediately they leapt up. When she was in this sort of mood, someone always died or already had. "Read this and heed it!" she yelled at them furiously, tears of anger and something else they couldn't pin in her eyes. She put the note to a wall and drove a steel dagger through the stone, pinning it there. Saying nothing else, she stormed away. Cautiously, almost afraid, the others approached slowly and caught their breath at the message she'd left:

You've all been warned about trying to break into my treasure room, but Roars didn't think I was serious.

Now he's dead.

You've all had your cut of the take already, and if I catch any of you dung lickers trying to break in again, I won't let the traps kill you.

I'll do it myself!

– Rigel Strong-Arm

She had never believed herself a beautiful woman. She had never believed there would ever be a man in her life. What man would want a beast like her, after all? Her father had said as much over and over and over again. Her father had told her she stank, told her she was hideous and hairy and disgusting. Her father had told her that she had a face like a Skeever's and muscles the envy of strongmen… Her father had told her that no man in Skyrim would take her if he paid them to, not even for all the treasure he had… She believed it… Da had never lied to her before, had he? Not even when he said ma had died by falling even though she'd seen her father throw the woman over the edge of a balcony.

When she first became a Bandit Chief she had been a young woman; a young woman who had fled from home to get away from her papa. It wasn't hard to become the leader. She had learned in childhood how to wield one handed weapons, wear heavy armor, and utilize shields. Her favorite weapons were War Axes, which she always used. Heavy armor and shields could vary all they wanted. All those who opposed her, who tried to put her down, failed. Her father had wanted a son, you see, and so had taught her like one.

The gold she and her band had amassed from their spoils amounted to a great deal. It had proven noteworthy to her greedier followers. More than one of her bandits had tried to steal her treasure, and over time she had become more and more paranoid. She struck terror into the hearts of the men whom she led. None dared defy her. Those who did, those who rebelled, died… And then there was him…

He was a fairly new addition, joining her encampment shortly before they had killed the owners of Pinewatch and taken it over. Roras was his name, and she disapproved of him. He was loud and outspoken, defiant and rebellious, and he hardly hesitated to taunt her, belittle her, or call her out on mistakes. She glared icily at him from across the table as he smirked wickedly, handsome eyes dancing with mischief as she prepared to blow up at him for calling her whole scheme weak and thoughtless, for calling her a dumb fool.

"You stupid, insolent man!" she screamed.

"Coming from the one who is senseless enough to isolate all those under her? Your greed will end you, Rigel," he replied, smirking and unaffected by her outburst. "One day a rebellion will rise that you'll be unable to crush."

"You as ring leader, no doubt," she bit, because in all honesty if there was ever a man who stood a chance of overthrowing her, it was him.

"Of course; but the last thing I would want is your death," he replied, winking suggestively.

"Since when?" she demanded, laughing sharply. She didn't understand the reason behind his wink. She knew he wasn't trying to flirt with her. She was a hideous beast, and her father had said as much. What was he doing, then? Maybe his wink meant he was communicating with an accomplice.

Roras raised an eyebrow blankly then chuckled, shaking his head. "You really don't get the point of this game, do you?" he asked with a casual smile.

"You think this is a game?! This whole operation rests on my orders being carried out! Continue defying me and I will have you killed!" Rigel shouted.

"By the Divines, you don't get it," he said, laughing loudly in realization. She picked up a heavy object and threw it at his head. He barely managed to duck in time. "What a woman!" he exclaimed, grinning and standing as the other bandits laughed.

"Damn you!" she screamed, feeling the threat of tears behind her eyes. She didn't understand what was funny. She didn't understand what she was missing that seemed to be so hilarious. She never cried, though, not in front of these louts. That would make her seem weak. Furiously she turned and ran off. Her father's words burned in her mind, his insults. None of these men and women were any different, none of them!

Roras watched after her, slightly surprised at the reaction. She had been near to tears. The others hadn't noticed, after all why would they, but he had. She hid it well, but it was there. What was wrong? What had he said? He sat back down, confused. "What's her story?" he asked the others. He'd never bothered to find out.

"Who knows? She's as strange as she is foolish," one of the bandits replied, shrugging.

"Which will make stealing her treasure all the easier," Roras hinted.

"Keep silent, Roras! If she learns you've spoken behind her back about theft, she'll kill you," a fellow bandit and close friend of his named Rhorlak, warned.

"She doesn't scare me," Roras said, scoffing. Still… He looked after her curiously. Perhaps it was time to find out more about his 'boss' ha, ha. As if he could be controlled by a mere Bandit Chief.

"No doubt you could outsmart her. We all could. Rigel was never educated, and even if she had been…" Rhorlak began, but he trailed off.

"Go on," Roras prompted.

"She's as dumb as a Horker," one bandit cruelly stated.

"Her level of intelligence is below the level of most normal people," Rhorlak said, casting a scathing look at the bandit who had been so blunt. "Even with education, she… she could never be like us, like the average person you speak to on the streets. She is…"

"An idiot," a woman flatly said. "And that is being gentle with my wording."

"Is she now…" Roras mused, looking in the direction their leader had gone.

He listened in disgust and horror to what the group of men he was with were saying. "Any one of us could trick her into getting out of her clothes," one said, snickering.

"Who would want to take advantage of her?" another asked, cruelly grinning.

"She isn't unappealing to the eye," a third half-heartedly defended.

"Far from it, but it would be a death sentence," the second who had spoken said. "While we could certainly trick her into stripping naked, we couldn't hope to trick her into believing what we were doing with her body—and making her do to ours—was for her own good."

"Roras could," the first said, glancing slyly at Roras. "He certainly has the charm and guile."

"What do you say, Roras? 500 septums of my own money to see you have your way with her and yet live to tell the tale," the second said.

"I'll throw in 500 meself," the first stated, immediately leaping onto the bet.

"Oh why not, count me in," the third added, shrugging.

"What you are asking me to do is rape her," Roras flatly said.

"She would be consenting, if you played your cards right," the first stated, brushing it off.

"The woman hasn't the mental capabilities of the average person to be able to properly defend herself again my honeyed words. It would hardly be fair. That alone makes it rape, and I will not sink to it," Roras stated proudly, rising and walking away from them all as they called out taunts after him.

Come on, it won't be that bad. Rigel may be paranoid, but she's as dumb as a mammoth! Body hair like one too!

I'm just saying if we can get into that treasure room we would be set! We could just take the money and head north to catch a ship. I know a guy, whose cousin knows a guy, that could get us set up with some pirates in Hammerfell. And in the meantime we could live high on that money for months!

Roras looked appraisingly over the note he'd written. He hand selected a choice few who were more likely than most to turn against Rigel. He wanted that treasure. He shook his head at the way he'd had to dumb down the note so that those he'd selected would actually understand it. That was the downside with joining a bandit camp. Many were utter fools, and in fact the only ones he had ever met who could match him were Rhorlak and the Bandit King himself. He had had to exaggerate some portions of the note to make the idea of turning on Rigel more appealing—parts such as 'she's as dumb as a mammoth'—but it was done; now to deliver the messages. It was a pity he couldn't include Rhorlak, but Rhorlak was unlikely to be fool enough to attempt to turn on Rigel. These others, however, weren't.

He had just finished slipping the last message into the hand of one of his selections. He had gone silently, then, towards Rigel's room. Her bed, after all, was located very close to the Treasure Room, and there would be no better time than now to scope out the situation. Imagine his surprise, then, when he saw something completely different…

He watched Rigel from the shadows as he was scoping out her treasure room. She was sitting at the table just outside of it. His eyes were wide, for she was sobbing. Why was she sobbing? Rigel Strong-Arm didn't sob. It just wasn't natural. She shoved away the letter she had just read then picked up a fresh piece of paper. She began to write a message, wiping her tears in frustration. She finished her note and left it alone, rising and going around the wall to rest in her bed.

He waited a long moment until he was sure she was asleep. Only then did he dare slip out of hiding and make his way cautiously to the table, avoiding the hanging bone chains she had set up everywhere. He picked up the letter she had been reading and looked it over.

By the Nine, Rigel! Think about what you're doing!

I don't care if you kill off a couple skooma-headed Khajiit traders - they have no business being in Skyrim anyway. But think about what you're doing!

There are armies fighting out there and they're bound to use the roads from time to time. They're going to start noticing if traders go missing and for that matter, why don't you just join up with one of the armies?

I gave up on marrying you off to some merchant's son since ya got the face of a skeever, but that doesn't mean you couldn't put a helmet on and find some work for a soldier. Use those meaty arms of yours, girl!

And quit sending me money! I don't need your charity!

- Da

He gaped at the note, eyes wide. Gave up marrying her? Face of a Skeever? Meaty arms? How could a man say such things about his own daughter? For that matter, why would he give up marrying her off in the first place? Surely there had been men who had desired her. Contrary to all that was written in this letter, she was by no means ugly. Truth be told, he found her quite attractive. He'd thought himself quite lucky to be brought under her authority. She was well-built and muscular, yes, but meaty was exaggerating greatly. Her firm build was part of what made her so appealing. He wondered, what was in the note that she'd been writing in response? He turned to Rigel's reply, looking it over.

Now look here Da,

You're the one who always told me that swinging an ax was the only thing I've ever been good at so what do you expect me to do? The Stormcloaks pay dung for soldiering and I'm not going to fight for those mud-sucking Imperials. I've got a good racket picking the traders off the road here and I couldn't give a damn what you think about it.

Your 'little sabrecat' has a tidy operation out here and I'm not going to give it up just cause you're afraid of getting caught.

Oh and quit trying to send back the money. These louts just try to steal it and I have to beat their skull until they learn any different.

- Rigel Strong-Arm

He realized, then, how true the words of the others were. Rigel was uneducated, most certainly, and as Rhorlak had said, even with education she would never be at the level of most. However, what she lacked in genius she made up for in strength and her uncanny ability to come up with and create efficient and deadly traps. In this regard he had yet to meet anyone who could stand to her, and that included the wile Bandit King. If anything she was near to genius when it came to devising snares, even if in everything else she was below average. To say that the only thing she was good at was swinging an axe… he shook his head darkly. What sort of a life had she lived under her father, he wondered.

"You've just signed your death warrant, you scum!" an all too familiar voice suddenly said from behind. A chill raced up his spine as he felt the blade of an axe against the back of his neck. Rigel had awakened!

Roras cringed, closing his eyes and silently cursing himself for not being more aware. This was just perfect. He slowly put his hands in the air and turned. She pushed the blade farther, forcing him to bend over backwards on the table. "Well, aren't we forward?" he remarked.

"Forward about what?" Rigel questioned suspiciously.

"You don't grasp the concept of innuendo, do you?" he asked dubiously.

"Innuendo?" she asked.

"Suggestion, hint," he clarified, using words the woman would more clearly understand.

"What sort of hints are you giving?" she suspiciously wondered.

"Sexual," he growled lowly.

She started, looking a cross between appalled and flustered. She was blushing deeply but her mouth was agape in something between disgust and fury. Was this man mad? "Don't you dare play that game with me," she said harshly, voice in an infuriated whisper. "I know what I am. Do not pretend you actually like what you see!"

"If I didn't, why would I be here now, checking up on whatever it was that made you weep?" he smoothly asked.

She caught her breath, paling. He had seen her crying! "You dung licker!" she screamed, striking him. Roras gasped and covered his injury, reeling from the blow. "You came to examine my treasure room! Don't pretend you came for any other reason! You think I'm stupid!" she accused.

"I don't deny that, but surely there are areas in which you excel," he replied.

"Swinging an axe," she said.

"You're capable of so much more than that," Roras stated, cautiously rising and watching her guardedly for any signs of an attack. "I can teach you, you know," he offered, and for a moment she paused, taken aback by his words…

In the following weeks they drew close. He taught her things like how to better her writing skills. In fact, that was the main thing they focused on; that and reading. Of course she'd never taken well to being given direction, and as a result she and Roras had been quite a pair. One minute they would be screaming at each other, the next… who knew what to call it. It hadn't taken long to learn things about each other that would have probably been best left unknown. For instance, he was violently defiant and he was opposed to her lead. She despised any form of rebellion and thoroughly squashed it. She had tried to quell him more than once already. Teacher or not, she would show him no favoritism; though the fact he wasn't dead yet served to argue against that. He had proven a harder force to suppress than she had expected, and in no time at all the two had become very much enamoured with each other…

"I have lived all of my life believing all that my father said. Believing that I was hideous, ugly, useless," she murmured to him as they watched for any passing caravans, lying together on the soft grass.

"Your father was a worthless, good-for-nothing man," he replied.

"Are we much better?" she asked.

"There is more than one type of good-for-nothing man. In the regard I speak, yes… we are so much better than him," he answered.

"Are you a good-for-nothing man?" she asked.

"More than you know," he answered, eyes becoming a moment guilty as he recalled the message he had written so long ago. Nothing had ever come of it, but last he checked some of the men to whom he'd given it still held onto the note.

"Then it's a mistake to let you get close to me," she said.

"It is, but do you regret it?" Roras questioned.

"Why can't I shake the feeling that I soon will?" she asked.

"You know, in the time I've been tutoring you, you've greatly improved your sentence structure. Spelling not so much, but then it wasn't overly awful to begin with," he remarked, changing the subject swiftly.

"You think you're better than me!" she shot.

"There are few I don't think I'm better than," he answered. She scoffed in disgust and rose to leave. "Rigel, you are beautiful, never forget it. No matter what you read that I have written in the past saying otherwise, no matter what others tell you I've said, remember that. All else is false except for these words I speak to you now… You are beautiful, and though your intelligence leaves something to be desired, you have potential within you that your father never even began to dream of."

She paused a long moment. Finally she turned. What he'd written? This sounded like a plot. "You know how I feel about secret plots, Roras. Don't think that you will be spared retribution if you dare try to go against me," she growled. He said nothing, just watched after her. He wondered… did she know how he felt about her? Something told him that she did. Did she know how she felt about him? That was an entirely different thing altogether, and though it was plain for him to see, part of him knew what the answer was. She would keep true to her word. If he crossed her he would die… and only after he was gone would she know what she had truly felt.

Come on, it won't be that bad. Rigel may be paranoid, but she's as dumb as a mammoth! Body hair like one too!

She read the note, tears sparkling in her eyes as she fought not to cry in front of the loyal bandits who had finally decided to bring this information to her. "Rigel, what is your order?" one asked. She was silent, too stunned to reply.

'You are beautiful, never forget it. No matter what you read that I have written in the past saying otherwise, no matter what others tell you I've said, remember that.' Those words echoed in her mind, but she hardly paid attention to them.

"He doesn't know any better, Rigel. He's still relatively new. Give him a chance," Rhorlak, a close personal friend of Roras's in fact, said.

"No," she replied. "He's run out of chances."

Rhorlak shivered and looked away. "Shall we kill him?" one of the loyal bandits asked.

"He plans to steal my treasure. Let him try. He'll find his diagnosis of me was correct in the end. I have skills my father never began to imagine, and he will learn soon enough that he too underestimated me," Rigel replied.

"It will be too late for him then! To let him go through with it is a death sentence," Rhorlak protested. "This is no temporary lesson, Rigel, this will be forever!"

"I know. Let the traps carry out his execution," she stated. Immediately she regretted the words she had spoken, the sentence she'd passed down, but once she gave an order she didn't back away from it. It was what made her so effective. If suddenly she spared Roras… No, she wouldn't jeopardize her position for a man… she wouldn't…

"You will die if you go through with this mad plan of yours, Roras!" Rhorlak vehemently insisted. "She's warned us time and time again not to try to take what's hers! You don't think there's reason for that?"

"Perhaps I will, perhaps I won't," Roras replied.

"Why are you doing this?" Rhorlak hissed.

"You know how I love a challenge," Roras answered.

"You're going to your execution!" Rhorlak stated.

"I will survive," Roras said.

"And it things don't go as you hope?" Rhorlak asked.

"You'll hear of my death, make no mistake about it, but you have to know that only time will tell whether the risk I took this day spared me my life," Roras replied.

"And in the meantime all who cared for you will suffer," Rhorlak spat.

Roras chuckled gently and placed a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder. "Trust me," he said. With that he walked away, Rhorlak watching helplessly after him and ruefully shaking his head.

She feigned sleep as she waited to hear him pickpocket her for the key to her stash. She tried to decide whether she would follow him or not. What if the traps didn't stop him? In that case his death would fall to her. She would see him dead before she let him leave her behind and run away. If he survived her hall of death, though, perhaps he deserved to escape with his life. She heard him approaching her bed. She heard him stop above her. There was silence a long moment, and for a second she wondered if he may have actually managed to pickpocket her without her even feeling it. All at once, though, she felt something soft pressed against her cheek. Wait, lips? He-he was kissing her? She felt him remove the key from her pocket.

"Sorry love, you know how I like a challenge," he murmured.

He started to walk off, but suddenly she said, "Body hair like a mammoth, hmm?"

He froze and spun in alarm, teeth clenched. After a moment his body relaxed and he stood up straight. "Rigel, I should have known," he replied, ruefully shaking his head.

"You were right; there is more than one kind of good-for-nothing man," she stated icily, sitting up and glaring murderously at him.

"I warned you from the start," he replied.

"Your words were empty, they were all lies," she said. "Yet for all your smarts, I've still bested you."

"What are you going to do? Kill me? We both know you won't. What if I should spring your traps? You know that with good timing I can make it," he replied.

"We'll see about that," she answered.

For a moment he was quiet. Finally he said, "My words were not empty lies, none of them. Don't you dare believe they were."

"You will die in there, Roras. Either by the traps or by my hand," she stated.

"Oh yes, your 'no idle threats' policy," he murmured, cursing his luck a thousand times. "You'll regret it, Rigel, if you come after me with intent to kill. You see, I won't fight back…"

Rigel looked down painfully, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. After a moment she looked up once more, saying and doing nothing. He smirked and chuckled, turning his back on her and walking onwards. "I loved you," she suddenly said to him.

He paused, frozen in place. After a moment he turned, obviously taken aback. "What?" he asked.

"I loved you," she repeated. He turned around, eyes hesitant. For a moment it looked as if he would come back, but soon he turned on her again.

"Your father made a mistake, giving up on marrying you off… I would have had you… Perhaps I still will, someday. Only this way, I suppose, your father will get nothing from me," he remarked. She could have sobbed, but she refused. Not here. Not now. She did rise, though, and go towards him.

He stiffened, watching her cautiously though she carried no weapon. To his surprise her arms draped over his shoulders regretfully. "You underestimated me, just like everyone else always did. You were never the man you pretended to be. You betrayed me, and for that you will die," she said to him softly. To his shock she gently took his lips, wistfully kissing him. After a moment she pulled away. "Oblivion be kind to you, because when I meet you there, I certainly won't be."

For a long time he was silent. Finally he replied, "We'll see about that." She took his hand gently and held it, placing it against her cheek. His heart fluttered, but stubbornly he rebuked it. If he let his emotions rule him now, he would back down.

"Why didn't you listen to me? Why couldn't you obey my warning? My love, we could have been together always," she whispered, voice cracking.

His eyes instantly softened and filled with guilt and shame. In that moment he almost threw this plan to the side, if only for her sake. "I wanted nothing more," he replied. "I would have taken you from this place, you know; if you had so wished. You and all who chose to accompany us… I would have taken you from this place… I would not have abandoned you here," he answered.

She sobbed and brought his hand to her lips, kissing it softly. Until he pulled away for the last time, she held it. She watched after him, tears freely falling from her eyes. Wordlessly she returned to her bed, anger consuming all else; Anger born of grief. Her men would never know of what had transpired in this room tonight, though. They couldn't.

She scribbled a note ferociously. She hardly cared that she'd spelt his name wrong. Finishing, she took a steel dagger and waited. All at once she heard the tell-tale whooshing of the swinging axes being sprung and a cry. Tightly she closed her eyes. He hadn't seen that trap until too late, she realized, and in that moment if felt as though a part of her died with him. There was no going back though, and she took her threatening message, marched from her room, and pinned it to the rock before quickly leaving the room.

(A/N: Whether he lived or died I left up to reader discretion.)