Chapter 79: Mission to Windhelm
[Edited 2023-04-16 - forgot to mention Hanni and Nanni]
[10th of Morning Star 4E 202]
We had traveled together as far as possible, but we had finally reached the point where our ways needed to separate. Janina and Fiona with her two warrior ladies were heading for Ivarstead, whereas Antonius, Jordis, my two saber cats and I were going to turn left soon and aim for Windhelm. I would have loved to see the Greybeards again, too, but I was on a mission for my Jarl. We had made camp for the night close to the road southeast of Valtheim Towers, not far from the bridge across the river, and after a shared breakfast I told Fiona and Janina when we parted:
"When I am back from Windhelm, I plan to stay in Whiterun for some time; I intend to see if I can start building a house soon. Feel free to visit whenever you want; I would like that."
Fiona mused:
"Getting an own house would be nice. I wonder when I may have time for something like this. So far I can think of High Hrothgar being my home, I guess. The Greybeards at least don't try to order me around all of the time, like Delphine does, and I consider Master Arngeir almost like a grandfather, or maybe like Obi-Wan Kenobi."
Janina had a thoughtful and reflective look on her face for a few moments when she heard that, and then she said:
"Obi-Wan Kenobi? Where have I heard that name before? But anyway, I will certainly show up in Whiterun again at some time, but first I need to continue the search for my history and destiny, and this may take some time. Saadia got me started, but I do not have any idea how long this will keep me busy and where it may lead me."
Fiona added:
"Oh, before I forget, I have a gift for Jarl Ulfric; please hand it over to him when you see him."
She handed me a small package and explained in a whisper, so that only I could hear it, that this was the dossier the Thalmor had on Ulfric, one of the documents she had stolen from the embassy during her quest there, plus another one on General Tullius. I had an idea what the first one was about, but not for the second; Jarl Ulfric might be very interested to read both of them, and I just nodded. Whereas Janina quickly hugged me, Fiona just waved, and then the ladies went off. After a few steps the Bosmer turned around and called out with some giggling:
"Good bye, Chewbacca!"
With a smile I called back:
"Good bye, Princess Leia!"
We both chuckled, and they went their ways, following the main road southeast. Antonius and Jordis looked at me, clearly confused about the names we had called each other, but I did not offer an explanation. This time, as there were four of them, I had a good feeling, and I expected that they'd be able to cope with whatever problems and danger came their way. I sure hoped that Fiona was able to find the person she was looking for, and I specifically hoped, for her own sake, that she'd stop to allow Delphine to control her life and her actions. However, I felt sad about parting from Janina, and based on what she had said, I would not know when I was going to see here again; it might be just a few weeks, but it might also be years. I had very much enjoyed her company during those past weeks, and seeing her part from me somehow did not feel good. When the ladies were out of hearing distance, Antonius chuckled and said:
"That was all? No kiss?"
What was it with him and his assumptions? Did he really think that Janina would want to kiss me? I might hope so, but that was just wishful thinking. However, I had alternate options; one by one I grabbed Hanni and Nanni and gave each of them a kiss on the cheek, which they liked; with a smirk on my face I said:
"Let's go, shall we? And, by the way, can we make it to Windhelm today?"
"If we march steadily, I think yes, with some time to spare, too."
"Let's do that; I am curious to find how we shall be received. After all, I am a Khajiit, and as far as I know, the city may be off limits for my race."
With only Jordis and Antoninus at my side, our speed of walking was faster than before, when he had adapted to Fiona's speed – my two saber cats did, of course, not mind my speed at all – and mid morning we passed 'Mixwater Mill'. A female Imperial was working the sawmill, and when we approached she looked at us warily.
I asked if she was running the mill all on her own and she sighed:
"I used to have five good men who worked the mill with me. Then this war started and they all ran off. Idiots with mead in their blood. Of course, without functioning mills, who will make the arrows for our soldiers? Men have no sense of irony."
She had a point here, but I did not quite understand; were most arrows actually made of wood? My crossbow bolts were certainly made of steel entirely, and I thought that arrows were made of metal as well? On the other hand, maybe only the tip was a metal one, and the shaft was actually mostly wooden? I did not know; I was not a weapons expert. However, when I had played the game, arrows had been called 'iron arrow', 'steel arrow', and so on.
Although we were in a hurry and had a place we wanted to get to today, I asked the lady if there was something we could to to help her, and soon we found ourselves chopping firewood. While we alternated with the task, as there was only a single wood chopping block available, I asked Antoninus about the arrows, and he explained that most arrows had indeed a wooden shaft and just a metal tip:
"See, an arrow fully made of metal would be too heavy to release from a bow, and thus a wooden shaft and a metal tip are a good compromise."
That seemed to make sense, although I had no idea if arrows on Earth were done in a similar way. I imagined that arrows used for sports competitions were probably made of some lightweight plastics or carbon fibers, and bows maybe composite materials, but I did not really know that. Those materials were not available here, and using wood for the shafts suggested itself, although probably wood from some specific trees was more suitable than that from others. Even though, crafting arrow shafts was probably not exactly easy, to make sure that they were really straight. I stopped those thoughts when it was my turn again, and I found that my companions had left some of the largest lumps for me. I did not mind, and I actually enjoyed hitting the lumps with full force; I could not use my own axe as the fire enchantment might have partially burned the wood, but fortunately the mill owner – I could not recall if she had mentioned her name – had a few axes of different sizes available, and the largest one was just good enough for me. We chopped for maybe twenty minutes, chatted a little more, and then we walked on; we were on a mission after all. Hanni and Nanni has used the break to catch themselves something to eat; a large rabbit each.
Looking right I could see the hot spring area, and I felt tempted to go there, but that would have to wait for another time. I had visited the southwestern section of the area, around Eldergleam Sanctuary, together with Vilja a couple of months ago, and once I had left again, together with Maurice and the sapling, I had had just a little time to relax in one of the hot water pools for half an hour or so; I certainly would want to do this again, for a longer period of time, if possible, and without urgent things to do.
We stayed on the road, and I sometimes bowed down and picked some ingredients from flowers and other plants I saw. I did not know most of the names, as my knowledge on the Skyrim flora was still quite limited and I did not get the benefit of a name floating above a plant like it did in the game; back in Whiterun I could ask Mia and Arcadia. The book I had purchased from them before my journey to Solitude, 'Herbalist's guide to Skyrim', had several blank pages at the end, and I made a few notes there about plants I found in this area. While I was not good at all in adding drawings, Jordis helped me with that, and she was actually able to do some nice sketches of plants with something like a pencil; I wondered what she might be able to do if she got access to color pens.
Specifically I liked to collect small parts from the red creeping plants close to the ground; I did not know what those were good for, but I vaguely recalled that I had collected many of those when playing, so that they must be useful for something. The plant was not mentioned in the book I had, but at least Jazbay was there, with some enlightening description:
There was a time when it would be considered treason to pick one of these grapes without express permission from the Emperor himself. It is my understanding that although growers in Skyrim were successful in improving the fruit's survivability, it came at the cost of flavor. No longer is it quite the prize it once was. And yet, growing amidst the volcanic tundra of Eastmarch, it is still immensely useful for concocting potions. Mages value it highly as it can be combined with simple garlic to enhance the regeneration of magicka. While no longer against the law, picking these grapes in large amounts is best kept to oneself.
I was happy about apothecary satchels being very special. At first, I had stored ingredients in my backpack, but found them mixed and partially broken later on. At a later time I had learned from Mia that there were special satchels with many small compartments, and I assumed that they were also enchanted to keep ingredients fresh until used. I wondered if there were other enchantments for bags as well; didn't the game have enchanted backpacks to increase your carry capacity?
While I was focused on the plants next to the road, Jordis called out:
"Look, over there – is that a dragon?"
She pointed to the southeast, towards the hot spring area, and indeed, when I looked there as well, a flying creature circled at some distance from us, too far away to bother us as I assumed.
"Yes, Jordis, I believe that you are right; this appears to be a dragon."
"Why is it circling over there?"
"I cannot be sure, but maybe there is a dragon lair on that large hill in the hot spring area, the one over there in the distance. Maybe it is just patrolling its territory."
As a matter of fact, I was almost sure that there was indeed a dragon lair on that hill close the center of the hot spring area, but of course I could not know if the dragon we saw actually had its lair there. It would be interesting to see if the dragon mound in the area was now empty, indicating that Alduin had been here to bring another dragon back to life, but that would have to wait for another time. Antonius, Jordis and I watched the dragon for a few minutes, but there was no indication that the dragon planned to extend its patrol radius, so that we eventually moved on. Around noon time the weather was about to change from pleasant sunshine to cloudy, and ahead there even seemed to be some snow. We stopped for our lunch break while we still had some sunshine, but soon after we had eaten, snow started to fall around us. Visibility dropped, but at least it wasn't a storm and we could still clearly see the road ahead of us. A couple of hours later we reached the main road, or at least the road we assumed to be the main road, as visibility was still limited, and we turned right; I checked my map to make sure that I took the correct turn, and indeed, soon we could see the vague outline of city of Windhelm in the distance. There was a thin cover of snow of the road now, and I was happy to see again that my feet did not really get cold, even though I did not wear anything on them. True, Khajiit feet were formed in a different way than human feet, and I tended to walk more on the balls of the feet rather than on the entire soles. Even not considering the size, it might have been very challenging to find proper boots for them. But for some reason, my feet protected reasonably well against rough underground and adverse temperature, and this was more than good enough for me. We passed the stables, walked across the long stone bridge across the river and addressed the two guards at the gate, both of them Nords of course:
"Hello there. We are envoys from Whiterun and need to talk to Jarl Ulfric."
"No Khajiit allowed in the city – sorry."
I had been expecting that and got a small envelope out, adding:
"Can one of you please deliver that message to the court and the Jarl – thank you."
One of the guards took the envelope and got in the city, and we had to wait. Some time later the gate was opened again, and a familiar face appeared:
"B'lushona, it's really you! I am glad that you finally came!"
There stood Ralof, who had been with me in Helgen. True to his in-game character, he had suggested that I show up in Windhelm more than once, and here I was, probably much later than he had expected and hoped. Of course, I did not really intend to join the Stormcloaks right away, but I had an important task. I smiled and replied:
"Ralof, it is good to see you!"
"Come on in and follow me."
"But we are not allowed!"
"Oh, I cleared that. Jarl Ulfric read your message and gave his permission. Guards, let them pass!"
"With the saber cats, too? One of the guards asked?"
"Yes, with the saber cats as well; I know them, and he's got therm well under control."
"Yes, of course, Commander Ralof."
"You made commander?"
"Yes, I did, just about a week ago."
"Congratulations!"
"And I know that you made Thane, not only in one, but in two holds; you told me when we last met. That's even more impressive than me being promoted to commander, I should think."
"Well, no, I don't really think so, Yes, I became Thane of Whiterun first and Thane of Solitude later on, but I had a lot of help for everything I did related to that."
"You are too modest, my friend. I hope that we can find a nice evening to sit together and talk about everything what happened; when we met in The Reach, we were in a hurry and did not have much time to talk about all of that. But now, please come with me."
When we had met last time and had traveled from the Reach Stormcloak camp to Whiterun, there had not been enough time to talk about everything, indeed. Right now, we were led directly to the palace, and there was not much of a chance to look around and talk further. I did notice, though, that the streets and roofs were mostly snow covered and that the temperature in the city was not much higher than outside. But okay, we were in the middle of winter, and Skyrim was a cold country in general, so that was probably very normal; maybe today was even a relatively balmy day; what did I know. Anyway, I might want to ponder the climate at a later time; we had reached the gates to the palace, and when Ralof vouched for us, the guards there let us pass, too. Once we had entered, I stopped for a moment to take in the view. Contrary to the mostly red colors which dominated the interior of Dragonsreach and Jorrvaskr in Whiterun, the dominating color here was blue, in the tapestries hanging from the walls and the carpets on the floor. They must really like this color, as it also showed on the Stormcloak uniforms. The ceiling was quite high, probably taking the height of about three normal floors, and despite the open fire in the central fireplace and the various braziers along the walls, the temperature in the hall was still almost icy. A long table stood in the center of the big hall, and a throne was placed at the other end; except for those elements of furniture, the hall was mostly empty, except for some benches and chests along the walls. The hall was lit by chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, smaller braziers on the walls, and some candles on the table; except for the last group, they all had tusk like lights, maybe with oil in them. At the far end, the throne was occupied, and most likely Jarl Ulfric was now waiting for us to approach; Ralof encouraged us to move on, and slowly we crossed the hall. A few meters from the throne we stopped, and the Jarl spoke with a deep and kind of commanding voice:
"So, you are an emissary from Jarl Balgruuf, and he sent a Khajiit of all races. Not only that, but you've got two saber cats with you as well. What is the meaning of this?"
"Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak, I am B'lushona and happen to be a Thane of Whiterun. Jarl Balgruuf the Greater wishes to learn more about your cause and your attitude towards different people of Skyrim, and who else might be better suited to find out than a member of the races who are sometimes discriminated against, here and in other holds?"
"Well and bravely spoken, Khajiit; I concede your point. So, what is your message?"
I retrieved a thick sealed letter from my pockets and handed it to the person next to the throne, who was likely the steward, adding:
"You may want to take some time for reading the messages and thinking about it. May I suggest that my housecarls and I find a place to sleep and we meet again in a day or two?"
"Housecarls, as in plural?"
"Yes, indeed. Antonius here to my right is my Whiterun housecarl, and Jordis, on my left side, is from Solitude; she joined me when Jarl Elisif the Fair made me Thane of Haafingar."
"Ah, yes, Ralof mentioned something like that. So, you are also the Khajiit who met Ralof and helped him and his soldiers when he got back from The Reach some time ago?"
"Yes, that would be me, although my comrades helped as much as I did."
I could have also pointed out that we, Jarl Ulfric and I, had met at Helgen half a year ago, but I wanted to wait and see if he got to that point on his own. For now, he obviously did not; he just raised his brows and pondered that revelation for a few seconds, before he replied:
"Very well then. Jorleif, find guest rooms for the three of them. You are all my guests in the palace, of course, provided that you make sure that your saber cats behave; Ralof claims that they do and he knows them. I understand that you have traveled today and would not mind some rest, but please join us for a banquet on the day after tomorrow in the evening; I will use the opportunity to introduce you to my court then. I have business to attend to for the next two days anyway, and reading the message from Balgruuf will take some time, too, I expect."
I nodded, and the steward led us towards a door, and we climbed some stairs leading to a long corridor with many doors on both sides. He assigned a room for each of us and told us how to find the kitchen if we wanted some food. Once he had assured that we did not need anything else, he left, and a few minutes later Ralof found me in my room.
"Hey, B'lushona, it is really great to see you again. I guess, though, that by being a Thane of Whiterun, you are not likely to join our side anytime soon, right?"
"No, probably not. But at least I am here to learn more about the hold and the Stormcloaks. My Jarl and I both want to get more information."
Hanni and Nanni knew Ralof from our earlier adventure, and they allowed him to scratch their fur; the Stormcloak suggested:
"So, what about I guide your through the city? I guess that it's too late today; it's already dark outside and you will want to rest, but what about tomorrow? I will have a day off, and I'd gladly spend more time with you and your housecarls."
"All right, let's do that. Want to meet us in the main hall tomorrow at breakfast?"
"Absolutely, yes. Rest well!"
When the Stormcloak commander was gone, I quickly went to bed and got to sleep; after two days of walking I was reasonably tired now. However, I was looking forward to the next day; so far, the start of our time here in Windhelm had been all right, and I'd have to see what was still to come.
[Author's Notes: So, how are the Windhelm citizens going to treat Balu? As always, of course, reviews are very welcome and greatly appreciated!]
