Chapter 71: Saadia's story

[27th of Evening Star 4E 201]

After finding out that it was Christmas time, Fiona, the Dragonborn, Irene, the female Breton who was a new whelp with the Companions, and I had celebrated and enjoyed a few quiet days. For Fiona and me it had been the Christmas holidays, whereas for Irene it had been Saturalia, which had a Breton background, as I had been told.

When I woke up in the morning after the holidays, I made an effort to get back into my habit and do a morning run; when I stepped out of the building, there was darkness still all around me. No surprise here; we were almost in the middle of winter, and the sun was rising much later than in summer. This difference had not been apparent, at least not much, in the game, but once again, reality was another issue. From my point of view, I enjoyed the difference between seasons with all related effects, like I had done in my previous life as well. I had never understood why some people enjoyed living in places like Florida or southern California with almost perpetual summer, but maybe I just liked how it was in the area I had grown up in; in Germany some people used to say something like 'if you don't like the current weather, just wait a few hours'.

Thanks to my Khajiit eyes, seeing and following the path around the city in darkness would not be a problem, specifically as Secunda, the smaller of the two moons, was out. I quickly drank some juice and water to replenish my body fluids and then made my way towards the city gate. I took off running from the stables, heading first west and then north, and once more I enjoyed to work my muscles and have my body rapidly moving across the Whiterun plains; after the rich food during the days before and some lack of movement, this was good. As usual, Hanni and Nanni frolicked around, and I had probably as much fun watching them as they had running around in circles. They slipped a few times on icy spots on the ground, and I needed to move more carefully, too. Once I had passed the most western section of the city walls I continued running north instead of turning northeast towards the Whitewatch Tower. I felt like deviating from my usual path, and by doing this, I actually found a few iron and corundum ore veins I had not noticed before. When I got on a small elevation and stopped there to look around, the first hints of daylight were barely visible on the horizon to the east, and I also recalled that there was probably a Shrine of Talos somewhere close to the mountains ahead; I owed it to Jarl Elisif to deposit Torygg՚s War Horn there some time soon.

Slower than before I continued on my way and approached the Whitewatch Tower from the western side. The guards at the watchtower had not seen me for some time, but a big Khajiit with two saber cat cubs, specifically one who was a Thane of the hold, was not easy to forget, and within minutes we were sitting together chatting, like in the 'good old times'. The sun was slowly climbing up above the horizon, and we shared our breakfast, as we had done many times before. We had just started to eat and enjoy the scenery, when a tall Redguard woman came running on the road east of us. At first I thought that she was running from something and stood up to scan for potential danger, but then I recognized Janina, and quite obviously she was doing the same I had been doing – her morning exercise. The distance was too far for shouting, but I waved my arms until she could see me, and she seemed to get the point, as she turned into the small side path leading up to the watchtower. Five minutes later she had arrived, and while she struggled a little to catch her breath, she nodded and said:

"Hello everybody!".

The guards looked at me while I explained:

"Janina is a friend of mine, and she came with the Dragonborn and me from Solitude."

The soldiers nodded, and one of them told her:

"A friend of Thane B'lushona is always welcome here, lady."

I turned towards the Redguard lady and asked:

"Janina, want to join us for breakfast?"

"Yes, please. I think that I ran a little further than I had planned, and something to drink and eat would be great."

While food and drinks were distributed and she took a long gulp from a bottle of water; I asked her:

"So, you are an early riser, like I am?"

She nodded enthusiastically:

"Sure am. I love to start the day early, and seeing the sun rise during a morning exercise is just lovely. Yes, I have always been one to wake up early, and I find it hard to stay awake long in the evenings; not good for parties and such, but I don't like parties anyway, so no great loss here."

I smiled and replied:

"I feel the same, honestly, and I am glad to meet a kindred spirit."

That was actually a term I rarely used. Descriptions I had read about that included phrases such as 'like-minded and like-souled people with whom an instant connection of love and understanding is mutually experienced', 'people who share common interests, values, or worldviews' and 'they resonate at the same frequency, and there is matching energy between them'; I had been fascinated by the concept for a long time and read about it a lot, and I had even memorized a few phrases. My favorite example used to be Anne and her friend Diana in the book 'Anne of Green Gables'. That was, to some extent at least, how I felt about Janina, but I was not ready to admit that yet, and, of course, I had no way to know if she felt anything like that. About half an hour later I rose and wanted to continue my morning run, when Janina asked:

"Can I run with you, B'lushona?"

"Sure; which direction would you like to go?"

"Where did you come from?"

"I took the route on the western side of Whiterun, off the road."

"Can you show me, please? Would you mind going back the same way?"

"No problem; let's do it."

For some time we ran silently side by side, and like before, when we'd had breakfast, I could not resist the temptation to ogle her from time to time. If she noticed, she didn't tell and she certainly didn't complain. On the contrary, more than once I felt and saw her eyes going in my direction, too, and I wondered what her thoughts about me might be like. When we were somewhere northwest of the city, out in the middle of nowhere, Janina slowed down, and she said:

"B'lushona, can we talk for some time?"

"Of course, but why here?"

"What I want to talk about is sensitive, and I really don't want anybody else to hear it."

Oh, personal stuff? That got me curious, so that I just nodded and switched from a fast jog to a slow walk. The pretty Redguard walked beside me for a couple of minutes before she started:

"It's about my friend, Saadia. You've met her, too, as maid in the 'Bannered Mare', right?"

Oh, that was the topic. Silly me had hoped that she might talk about some feelings she might have, liking me or so, but this was about Saadia and not about me. Stupid me. I nodded, and she continued:

"I may have mentioned before that Saadia is not her real name, and she had to flee from Hammerfell, like I had too, but for a very different reason. She is a noblewoman of Hammerfell, from House Suda; she is a distant relative of my parents, and her real name is Iman. Last year the uncovered some clandestine and highly illegal Thalmor activities, and the Thalmor hired a group of skilled Alik'r Warriors to capture and kill her. Apparently they did not stop at the border, but continued to follow her into Skyrim. I believe that we don't have a choice and we need to stop the Alik'r, probably by killing them; they are unlikely to listen to reason. Now I know that this is not really your problem, but it may be a little too much to chew for Iman and me alone. I don't know anybody else to ask, so are you willing to help us?"

I did recall part of the story from playing, and I remembered that, in the game, it seemed to be deliberately unclear if Saadia/Iman or the Alik'r were 'right', and whatever side you took, there was a good justification behind it. Here and now, with Janina clearly on Saadia՚s side, the situation was much more biased, but there was still a risk to help a criminal if I chose wrong. However, I had seen some of those Alik'r warriors bothering Redguard women, and they had not been polite at all. Of course I just had to assist, and I had to assume that Janina՚s friend was one of the 'good guys', or at least that's what I believed. Thus I nodded and told her:

"Of course I will help you. Do you have a plan yet on how to proceed?"

"Thank you so much, and indeed, we do. We, Saadia and I, learned yesterday that one of the Alik'r warriors is in the Dragonsreach dungeon; he was imprisoned for molesting people and not following the guards' orders. Maybe we can talk to him and learn where the others are hiding. Saadia is sure that there is a whole group of warriors, or maybe more likely assassins, and they must have a hiding place somewhere. Considering that I am a Redguard, too, it might be best if you'd go to the dungeon; you could pretend that you want to meet their leader and negotiate handing over Iman or so."

"Hm, I guess that I could try at least. Let me do that later on when we are back in the city."

"Thank you very much, this is really great. Now, there is also something else I need to mention. You may have noticed that I am sometimes a little bit distracted. I am bothered by something which I really want to find out, and this is related to my childhood. I do not have any memory about my childhood at all, and the first thing I recall is finding myself in Hammerfell and being adopted, when I was not quite a teenager yet. I need and want to find out about my past and my destiny, and Iman can probably help me with that. She promised that she'd spend time with me to figure things out when we got rid of her pursuers, and this is another motivation for me to push. Does this make sense?"

"It does, believe me. I also have some very strange past, but contrary to you I can recall it pretty clearly. Tell you what; when you have managed to find out more about your own past and are ready to share some of it with me, I will also share about mine, and I promise that this won't be boring. Deal?"

"Deal!" Janina beamed, came over to me, planted a quick kiss on my cheek and said:

"Let's continue running, shall we?"

Running we did, and for quite some time the warmth from the kiss on the cheek occupied most of my thoughts. I could not help myself imagining how it might feel if she kissed me on other parts of my body, specifically on my mouth, of course. Even if my mouth was actually more like a snout, this was still something I longed for. A bolder person might have just gone ahead and claimed a kiss, but I was much too shy for that.

My thoughts were rudely interrupted when we were more than half way back to the stables and encountered three wolves. I got ready to fight when Janina warned me, but this time, with our saber cat cubs running ahead of us as well, the animals decided to turn around. Further south, I made a wide jump across a narrow part of the creek which came down from Whiterun through a gap in the city wall, and when we arrived at the stables, we were both panting. This young woman was really trained and fit, and it was real great to run and train together with her. I promised her that I'd go to the dungeon later on that day, but first I needed to clean up, and thus I headed right for the Jorrvaskr bath. As I knew, my saber cats were welcome there as well, at least in the large common pool; those who wanted to relax without any disturbance could always use one of the smaller pools. Today Ria and Hranura were already in the large common pool, and they both liked spending time with Hanni and Nanni, playing with them and rubbing and fondling their fur. The two adolescents enjoyed that greatly, and so far they had not even once lost control over their claws with friends.

Janina had planned to spend the later part of the morning with her friend again, and thus I walked up to the Cloud District without her, once I relaxed in the bath for some time, but I took Antonius with me. The guard who was in charge did not see a problem to allow the city's Thane to talk with one of the prisoners, and thus my housecarl and I looked at the individual cells. There was only one Redguard in there, so that we did not have to ask, and when we both stepped towards that cells and looked at him, he asked:

"What are you looking at?"

"I need to talk to the person who is in charge of the search for the Redguard with the scar; some Alik'r have been looking for her, and I think that I have some information the leader may be interested in."

"So, if you know something, why didn't you tell my brothers right away?"

"I am still not sure if you are telling the truth, about the woman being a traitor. Before I say where she might be, I need to talk to your leader and make sure that the accusations are correct."

The prisoner slowly nodded, and he replied:

"I understand, but there's not much I can do to help. Our leader is Kematu, but if you actually find him, you need to have very good arguments to survive. So, you have a death wish? Besides, I am not a traitor, and I don't think I should tell you where to find him."

Antonius looked at me and I nodded, encouraging him to take it from here. He looked at the Redguard for a couple of minutes and then stated:

"Nonetheless, you are here, in the prison; we might be able to help you!"

The Alik'r pondered that and replied:

"You are right; it seems that we both have needs. Perhaps we can help each other out?"

"So, what is it you need?"

"I have dishonored my brothers by being captured, and so they have left me here. We're supposed to be the best of the best, but I clearly wasn't. My life with the Alik'r is over now, but I have no wish to die in this gods-forsaken land. If I can be released from prison, I may start over. See to that, and I'll tell you what you where to find Kematu."

Antonius looked at me, and it was obvious that he did not fully trust the prisoner, but I asked anyway:

"How much to pay your fine?"

"100 gold will secure my release. You can afford that, can't you? I suppose you'd better hope you can, if you want the information. Get the money into the hands of one of these guards, and I'll tell you what you want to know."

I decided to see what I could get out of him, approached one the guards and paid the fine, and the warrior could see what I did from his cell. I got back to him and told him:

"Your fine has been paid, as you have probably observed. Now tell me about Kematu."

"Very well. Kematu is west of Whiterun. It's an unassuming little cave called Swindler's Den. You realize if you set foot in there, you're never coming back out. They'll kill you, unless you are very convincing. But that's your problem, not mine."

"Indeed, this is my problem. Thank you for giving me the information I need."

My housecarl and I turned around, and while we left we heard the Alik'r shouting for the guards to let him out and one of the guards saying something about a misplaced key to this particular cell. That could be interesting, but none of my business any longer.

So, 'Swindler's Den'; fitting name in my opinion. Before I made any further plans, I got my map out, but could not find the place. Antonius, though, did know, and he was even able to mark the approximate location on the map. Hm, this was almost the same distance as Granite Hill was from Whiterun, so that we'd need about a day to get there. But there was something else in the same direction, with a little detour, and this was the place called 'Dustman's Cairn', where I had been together with Farkas. There had been a word wall in the final room, and if my memory served me right, it provided a word of the fire shout. Fiona might be interested to learn that, and she should have one or two dragon souls in her to unlock it, too; thus, I decided to negotiate with her. First I went to visit Dragonsreach and talked to Proventus Avenicci, and once he heard about the annoying Alik'r warriors, he quickly discussed the affair with Jarl Balgruuf, and in a few minutes I had a bounty letter in my hands regarding any Alik'r who refused to leave the hold. For things like that it paid off to have friends in high places.

Finding Fiona was not a problem; she was relaxing on a bench below the Gildergreen tree, and when I saw her there, I was amazed to see how much that little tree had already grown. A few weeks ago I had brought a little sapling, less than one meter tall, and now the tree had grown to three meters already. That was not exactly a growth rate like bamboo or so, but considering that we were in late fall or early winter, that was unnatural; Kynareth՚s blessing was obvious.

The petite Bosmer saw me coming, and she actually smiled.

"You know," she mused, "sitting here almost feels like home. I mean, not quite the home I used to have, but a place where I actually feel at home. Whiterun is a nice city, people treat me respectfully, and I feel good. Do you think that I can just shift the Dragonborn business into next year and stay here for a few weeks or so?"

I could see that she was not really serious, and I replied:

"And I just thought that I could tempt you with something. Oh well, forget it."

I turned around and pretended to leave, and of course she called me back:

"Wait, tell me, what would that be?"

"Let me ask one thing first. How many other shouts have you learned so far, above and beyond the one from Bleak Falls Barrow and what you learned from the Greybeards?"

She sighed and responded:

"Truthfully, none. I have not even made my way back to the Greybeards to return the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller…"

"...which you did not find where it was supposed to be, but got it from Delphine who wanted to have proof about your capabilities."

"How could you possibly know that? Oh yes, of course, you told me. Well, I admit, another word wall or two would be nice. There are sure a few more nice shouts I could use, don't you think so?"

"I fully agree, and I happen to know a place which has a word wall with a very useful shout, if I am not mistaken."

"Somehow you look like you are not ready to hand out this information for free."

"Well, you got me there. But, I know that your task is really important, so that I will guide you to the place even if we can't get a deal, I promise. I am just asking that, once you've learned the shout, you go with us a little bit further and help to drive off the Alik'r warrior who are hunting Saadia, although she may not want to go into details. You and your housecarls would really make a valuable contribution."

"What? Are you talking about Saadia, the barmaid in the 'Bannered Mare'?"

"The same one, yes. Saadia is not her real name, and you can ask Janina for more details if you want. We learned about the place where the Alik'r they are hiding, and we may have to kill all of them. I even have a bounty letter from Jarl Balgruuf, so it's fully legal."

"Okay, count me in. I really like Saadia, and whoever wants to hurt her is not my friend. When do we leave?"

"Considering that this is quite some distance, why don't we get a nice full night's sleep and start off tomorrow morning? If you took both of your housecarls and I take mine, and Janina is going to be with us as well, we should be doing fine."

"And Hanni and Nanni, right?"

"Of course they'll be with us, too."

So that was settled. I did not even have to talk her into the adventure, and I just hoped that I remembered properly about the word wall in the cairn teaching her the 'YOL' shout. Even if I recalled that correctly, there was no guarantee that this detail was exactly like in the game, right?

[Author's Notes: More action coming up now, after the (story) holidays.]