Chapter 9

Day 26

The days continued going by the same. Over a week had passed since the mage ambush, still no sign of the commander or the men who had gone with her. The soldiers where restless and worried yet continued their work on the fortress. I heard from one of the injured men that they had been serving under their commander for years now and where worried that the Thalmor high mage that was there would be placed in charge of the battalion of soldiers.

If the Thalmor had that much influence, was the empire really the better choice for Tamriel? What if alliances could be forged? All races united to fight against the Aldmeri Dominion might have a chance for victory right? But how could the races and lands of Tamriel come together? Was that even possible? I tried to wrack my brain of the many books I had seen in both the oblivion and skyrim games but couldn't think of anything that involved all the races coming together under one banner.

"This is hopeless" I groaned to myself as I retired to my tent and tossed my satchel on the cot. "What am I to do? I can't just-" I stopped myself from speaking any more as I realized that it could be dangerous to speak my mind in an open area surrounded by supporters of both the empire and Aldmeri Dominion. Sighing heavily I sat down and rummaged through my satchel.

When I found what I had been looking for my body began to shake. Many questions swam through my mind, I hoped that this could answer at least some of them. I held in my hands the book I had found when I had first awoken here. The texture of the cover was smooth, like leather but the color was a dark shade of purple, the sign for conjuration on the front of it. I knew the sign as it was on the cover of the oblivion game case. I had always just associated the sign with oblivion but I believed I had seen it as the conjuration symbol in the schools of magic.

I tried hard to stop myself from shaking and slowly opened the book. I was surprised by what I had found. Well, more or less didn't find. Every page in the book was blank.

"What?" I asked out loud in confusion. What was this? I flipped through the book, each page empty as the first. Was this book a fake? Had they taken the actual tome? If so then why was this book on the table with me?

"Great. Even more mysteries." I was getting tired of this and fast. Everything in this world was so confusing and I found no answers at all. "What am I to do?" I closed my eyes and placed my hand over my face. "Akatosh, I need answers. Please assist me." I prayed, hoping something would happen. But just like before, no response from the divine being that apparently had taken note of me. I threw the book back into my satchel in frustration, put it on and stormed out from my tent and right into a soldier.

"Ow, watch where you're going you robe wearing milk-drinker!" A young woman swore as she picked herself back up.

"Me? You're the one skulking around my tent. If you hadn't been that close then I wouldn't have run into you!" I retorted, not in the mood to have someone yell at me. I looked over the women that I had run into. She looked to be a wood elf, wearing what looked like regular leather armor from the game. She was a wood elf, short, slightly slanted eyes and light brown skin. Her pointed ears where made more prominent by the dark brown hair that was tucked behind them then tied in a long ponytail. I had never seen her in camp before and wondered what she must be doing here.

"I wasn't skulking! I was told I could find a priest of Akatosh here. It's rare to find one in skyrim. But I see that you're just as pompous as the rest of them!" With that she stormed off to a different area of the camp that I hadn't noticed before. There where two circles of tents that had many furs draped over them. Two large campfires where in the middle of them, surrounded by men and women with all assortments of armors and weapons. Had the empire hired mercenaries to oversee the protection of this area? Were the soldiers not enough?

I wondered what exactly the leaders of the empire where thinking. Was this area so important? It was then that a thought crossed my mind. I quickly dated back into my tent, pulled out my map and looked at the area around Valtheim towers. This was indeed a valuable position but I wondered what exactly it would mean if a fortress was built here. It was then that I remembered the markers on the maps in the game. The ones that signaled weather an area was empire controlled or stormcloak. If a fortress was built here then it would cut off any stormcloak troops from advancing on empire controlled cities. They would have to go through this fortress first.

I had made up my mind, I gathered what provisions I could in both my satchel and my pack. Went out and refilled my water pouch in the fresh stream and began to walk away from the military camp. I put up my hood and avoided all gazes as I walked past the towers and headed west. I avoided a few soldiers asking me where I was going or what I was doing and continued on. I wondered how long I would last. The Thalmor would surely send someone after me but I needed to get out of there. I had to get to safety, maybe Windhelm. It made sense to me that if I wanted to stay safe from the empire and Thalmor I would need high walls and people around me that hate them. What better place than the capital city of the Stormcloaks.