The Pink Haired Pirate: An Old Norse Saying
Rated: M for language, future mature themes, violence, gore
Warnings: Spoiler alert for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
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The basket was filled up to the brim with goods, as they walked back to the bookshop. Most shops closed for an hour or two, during lunchtime, so Marcurio had to unlock the front door to walk inside. Upstairs, the table was set, and they seemed to be the only ones missing from the table. Sakura unpacked everything with Minerva, put them away, and leaned her basket against the leg of the table before she sat down.
On the table corner, there was a copy of the Black Horse Courier daily newspaper and a pair of reading glasses. Sakura glanced a little at the articles and could briefly recognize something about the Civil War in Skyrim and how General Tullius requested more troops as the Stormcloaks became more and more relentless. Yet they seemed to have an ace up their sleeves, confirming the war won't last for much longer and the deployed legionaries can return home soon.
Then, they all started talking about what happened so far. About the recent shipments, about Alessio's progress, about Alessia's classes, about Sakura's wandering and how Marcurio only received the minimal whacks over the head from his former Dean.
He would have gotten way more if not for the Dynamo Core. They had too few experimented students to go on the field, and excavations were always executed by a large number of capable mages and trained guards. Not by a single mage and a tiny woman.
The Ruins claimed a lot of lives, after all. So maybe, the old Altmer was at least a little bit impressed. It meant that both of them must have had good magical aptitudes, and that was well praised in an Arcane University.
"But how was your day? What do you think about our city so far?" Sakura was asked, she has decided to give a short version of it.
"I really like it. I think I visited most but the residential districts so far. I had to go take a look at the docks... I got really homesick." She played a little with her food. She left out the fence part, not knowing if they were affiliated with the Thieves Guild in any way or not. She could not risk offending them.
"Well, you're going to like Bard College, even more, I can assure you." Alessia boasted. "I will have to excuse myself, though. My shift at the inn starts soon." She grabbed her empty plate and used cutlery.
"Shift?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. I need experience so the lady who owns the Floated Boat tavern lets me sing there for minimum wage. Honestly, they won't hire someone without experience, but nobody can get experience if they won't get hired. It's like a vicious circle." Alessia sighed.
"Just be careful, pumpkin. One of us will pick you up in the evening." Alessia nodded, kissed her mother on the cheek, hugged her father, and ran into her room to search for her ivory flute. Soon enough, she ran downstairs and closed the door behind her, heading for the Waterfront District.
"Nobody really likes working in that tavern." Minerva sighed, as she finished the last bits of her pie. "We all keep worrying about the pirates, but so far Alessia seems to be fine. She insisted on working... she likes to earn her own money. Still, one of us keeps picking her up from work, so she won't be assaulted by thieves on the way back. To blazes with the Gray Fox!" Minerva stabbed the pie a little more aggressively.
"The... Gray Fox?" That perked Sakura's attention. She leaned a little closer, curiously.
"The Gray Fox doesn't exist, my dear." Vincent looked down at his wife, from his newspaper. "That was hundreds of years ago when the Oblivion Gates were still open. How could he still be alive after all this time?"
"Tesoro, I knew what I have seen! A friend was robbed recently! She didn't even see the thief! It was a breeze ... and then whoosh! No more! I know I have seen a masked man. On top of the roofs, in the evening, when I hung the laundry to dry."
"Mamma, calm down..." Marcurio put a comforting hand on her shoulder. The woman sighed, taking a deep breath.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't worry you or Sakura. Or Alessio." The youngest son merely shrugged. "Your time back home and your experience in Cyrodiil," Minerva looked at Sakura. "should not be ruined by an unscrupulous thief. You two should go and rest or have fun."
Sakura remembered something, out of a sudden. "I actually have to unseal something." In a flash, she gathered hers and Marcurio's empty plates, before tugging at his sleeve, to follow.
After a quick bow and thanks for the meal, she made a beeline towards Marcurio's room-turned-fort-blanket. He followed, albeit a little confused, after a sigh and a hurried sip of his coffee. He didn't even have the time to finish the goddamn thing.
"What has had you so fired up?" He followed behind, as Sakura frenetically looked for a scroll.
Sakura opened it and gave Marcurio a cheeky smile, before unsealing its contents. Three Centurion Dynamo Cores laid on top of the black markings of the parchment. Confused, he watched her grab one of the cores and walked over.
"This is yours. I kind of felt bad that my childishness destroyed a perfectly good Core so..."
Marcurio took it from her hands and looked over it. He raised an eyebrow, watching her like she has grown two heads. "So you went back and looked for another one? You have lost your marbles."
Sakura snorted. "No. Another ruin was in the way. This core is from Irkngthand."
"You went to another ruin. Really." Mzinchaleft gave them enough trouble as it did.
"It was... in the way." Sakura crossed her arms. "Do you want it or not?"
Marcurio sighed. "You could have been seriously hurt, you stubborn woman. But... I appreciate it." Of course, the demon cat must have closed her wounds in record time... but he just didn't know how close he has been to the truth.
"But how did you even get three of them?"
"The last two are for Calcelmo. I will deliver them personally." Sakura sealed them back. "The one you're holding comes from a Dwarven Sphere, actually. It looks pretty much the same... so I don't think the core was used for charging and functional purposes for the said Sphere. They are pretty sentient, maybe it found the core somewhere. The other two came from the same Centurion."
"Really? From a sphere? And a Centurion can hold more than one?" He raised an eyebrow, before looking down at the highly sensitive object.
"Un. And I guess you could say it was holding it for a friend." She chuckled.
"Or use it as a spare battery. But this is valuable information. The lack of mages sent on the field made it almost impossible to confirm certain theories. You're the only one insane enough to travel amidst Civil War to jump in a metal maw." Marcurio pondered it for a few moments, before putting it on the end table. He sighed.
"Thank you. I will let the Dean know tomorrow."
He decided to not spend too much time around the University for the time being. He wanted to spend as much time with his family as possible before he left for Skyrim again.
Sakura nodded. "You know, you could help me with something."
"What do you need help with?" He was certainly not going to complain now.
Sakura held up an Alteration spell tome. Actually, there were two of them. Oakflesh and Stoneflesh. Marcurio took the first one.
"With these. I found them, so I thought I should put them to good use. I think I found one in Shroud Hearth Barrow."
Marcurio flipped through the Oakflesh tome. "The Shroud Hearth Barrow?"
"Yeah. It's close to Ivarstead. When I was done, I headed back to Riften and sought you out to go ruin exploring. It was... I don't even know how to explain it in words." She bit inside her cheek. She didn't know why, but it felt too good to get it off her chest. She has told Chihiro about it, but the cat was clueless as she has been. "You see, there was a rumor that the Barrow was haunted. No shit, it was full of Draugr. But not immediately. The first few chambers were completely void of the undead, you know?"
"Mhm. Go on." He kept flipping through the spellbook. No, he was totally listening to her. In his own way.
"There was this guy who used a very weird invisibility potion. Actually, it made him look like a spectral apparition. Blue... almost transparent... " Like how she saw Gallus looked like... "And that was it. I headed back to the inn in Ivarstead and told the barkeep everything was clear. So he gave me a Sapphire Dragon Claw. Interestingly enough, I found a door inside that could only be opened with a claw."
"A claw..."
"Yes, a claw." Sakura rolled her eyes. "Anyways. The puzzle door kept the Draugr away from the whole entrance of the tomb. It was crawling with sorts of Draugr of all strengths, of all levels, of all kinds... including one Deathlord in the end. But there was something strange behind him."
"Something strange..."
"It was a weird, curved wall. It had a dragon statue on top. The whole surface was filled with scratches and carvings. But there was one word which seemed to be filled with chakra. It was like... it pulled me closer and closer. And when I got near enough..." she laid down on her back, on the bed. "KaaN. That's what it said. KaaN." Then a sudden thought dawned on her. "KaaN. Kyne. KaaN means Kyne."
Marcurio looked above the spellbook. "This is a very well preserved spellbook. Are you sure you found it in a barrow?" But he had no time to dodge the pillow that flew in his face, almost knocking him off the bed.
"I'm pouring my heart to you right here and you're not even listening to me??" She filled her arm again with chakra, to throw another one.
"Calm down! Crazy woman..." he removed the pillow from his face, spitting out a tiny feather. "I was listening... mostly..."
"Humph! I've been having nightmares about it! And it happened again..." In the Snow Veil Sanctum. "I don't know why... or what... but I saw a tablet in the museum in your Uni. The resemblance was uncanny... but I didn't take a better look. Now I regret it."
"Wait. What tablet?"
Sakura flopped on her back, sprawling across the covers, like a starfish. She sighed. "A tablet. I think it was under the Nordic section in the museum. Lines and dots; that's all they were. But strange enough, I started to decipher them on my own. How? Only the Divines know."
"On your own? Now that's strange." He looked down. "Do you still want to learn Oakflesh?"
Sakura rose up almost immediately. "Of course I do. What do I have to do?"
Marcurio flipped again through the tome. "Well, you have Oakflesh and Stoneflesh here. Stoneflesh is an upgrade. But why would you want to learn these Alteration spells if you already have something similar?"
Sakura shrugged. "It can help me understand better how your techniques work here."
"Fair enough." He motioned her to scoot over. Sakura sat down next to him, listening intently to his teaching. She needed some help to decipher them because the spells were not exactly new, and the language has changed over the years. Modernized.
She asked occasional questions, that were answered and explained, about Alteration theory.
Oakflesh provided a magical armor around the caster. It was better than wearing a chainmail or a metal plate armor if you had the necessary reserves of mana. It could drain you quite quickly and it had a limited effect. If you wanted to be stealthy, using Oakflesh emitted a spark of light and sound, so that could also give away your position.
"I mostly use Stoneflesh at the beginning of a battle, but learning Oakflesh first will make it easier to learn the next upgrade. At least I will be able to teach you Stoneflesh myself."
"Un. Let me try." Sakura did as instructed. She felt the mana pool swirl in her body and tapped right into it. With a soft pop, a blue coating shone over her body.
"Now let's test the theory." Marcurio grabbed her arm and pinched her skin. With a yelp, she took back her arm. "That's what I thought."
"What was that for??"
"You have to harden it. The mana. It looks rather interesting though. Kind of like water. You have to think of materializing it in a sort of almost-invisible armor."
"Oh.." She flexed her fingers. "It's so weird... and hard..."
He was holding her arm, inspecting the mana closely. "Don't stop, you're almost there." He said. "Damn it, don't use too much force."
"I feel it hardening now..."
It wasn't long before Alessio opened the door, looking at them, blinking.
"I did it!" She looked at her hand, with mild fascination. She poked around, but it didn't seem to touch her skin.
Marcurio noticed his little brother standing in the doorway. "What's wrong, Alessio?"
"Oh... nothing. Nothing at all." He shook his head. The truth was, that as he walked past Marcurio's room to head to his own, he heard quite a few inappropriate yelps and phrases that he just didn't want to believe. "What are you guys doing?"
"Learning Oakflesh," Sakura stated. She flexed her wrist again and dismissed the mana armor, seeping it through her pores and back where it belonged.
"Oakflesh. Right." He left.
"What's his deal?"
Marcurio couldn't say that he knew.
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Sakura offered to pick Alessia up from work, later that evening. On the way there, she slowly practiced Oakflesh on her hands. Who knew when it may come in handy? Alteration spells were pretty cool.
She knew her way to the Waterfront District and easily recognized the boat-turned-inn docked in the poorest district of the city.
She stepped inside, brushing off the blue skirt of her tunic dress, and waited for Alessia to finish her song. She had an even more melodic voice if she was accompanied by musical instruments and put effort into her song.
Alessia's eyes lit up immediately when she spotted Sakura standing close to the doorway, mostly unobserved. If anything, she would have sighed in relief if it wouldn't have affected the notes.
The patrons cheered as the song ended. It was a ballad about a Nord conquering a tyrant king. It was catchy, mostly, and they seemed to like it. And like all good things, the song soon came to an end.
"Come on, lass, one more song!" The pirate was encouraged by the cheers of his mates, making her blush and tuck her chin against her chest, shyly.
"I'm sorry, but my friend came to pick me up."
Sakura blinked, as Alessia's eyes suddenly shone with mirth and a brilliant idea.
"You know what? One more song, then. Sakura, can you sing?"
"I... I guess so." Mermaids usually had beautiful singing voices, but it has been a while since she has used her voice for more than a gentle hum. And by a while, she meant her last voyage with the Straw Hats. She'd always join Brook whenever he was singing or playing something.
"But I don't know any songs."
"You do. The Return of the Dragonborn. Come on!" Alessia grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer to the hearth fire in the middle of the tavern.
Sakura looked at Alessia for a few seconds, before she nodded. She'd just guide herself after Alessia and she hoped they'd be fine, and won't get kicked out of the tavern.
Alessia played the intro with a beautiful flute tune.
"Our hero, our hero
Claims a warrior's heart
I tell you, I tell you
The Dragonborn comes..."
They synced their voices together, and Sakura could have sworn that a grave-settling silence washed over the inn. If any of them would have opened their eyes to watch their audience, they'd see their faces mesmerized and washed with wonder.
"With a voice wielding power
Of the ancient Nord art
Believe, believe,
The Dragonborn comes...
It's an end to the evil
Of all Skyrim's foes
Beware, beware
The Dragonborn comes
For the darkness has passed
And the legend yet grows
You'll know, you'll know
The Dragonborn's come..."
Alessia started playing her flute, and Sakura only felt it natural to accompany her melody with a mermaidic hum. She felt strange and warm. Like something awoke in her body. No, it was not just a feeling. A weird, fleeting feeling. It was something of mystic origins; like a hand caressed her whole soul.
She opened her mouth and poured her Voice into the notes. She was singing something with her hypnotizing voice. What was she singing... that was a good question.
"Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin, naal ok zin los vahriin,
Wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal!"
Alessia's eyes widened, but she didn't stop playing the flute. The show must go on.
"Ahrk fin norok paal graan fod nust hon zindro zaan,
Dovahkiin, fah hin kogaan mu draal!"
"You'll know, you'll know
The Dragonborn's come..."
Alessia finished the last two verses. Sakura stopped and looked around. It took the patrons and the barkeep a few good moments to regain their senses before they cheered. Sakura and Alessia bowed, and it took Alessia a minute to collect her payment before they walked together back to the Market District.
"Sakura... what was that...?" Alessia eventually asked.
"What... was what?"
"The verse! It... it's like in my textbook. But I never showed you my textbook."
Sakura blinked softly. "What are you talking about?"
Alessia stopped. "You don't know? You really don't, do you?"
"I just... sang what I felt was right. It was a weird feeling." Sakura shook her head.
Alessia's eyebrows furrowed. "Weird, indeed. Come on, big brother may have a book on dragon language." They quickened their pace through the quiet district. Mostly quiet, anyways. The party went on, and Sakura could briefly recognize a few shanties sung by the sailors.
Yet her mind was constantly preoccupied with the foreign verses. As she focused, she could feel something truly has been wrong. KaaN. Kyne. Dovahkiin. Dragonborn. It made no sense.
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"What do you think? Their purses full?" Someone whispered in the distance, eyeing the two lost lambs.
"Are you crazy? You want to target a Motierre?" The second voice hissed. "Boss will have your head and Padfoot won't save you a second time."
"It's the other kid. You know the councilman is not that much of a family man. Come on, fish-breath. Just one little fishing... like the good old times. Come on!"
Two figures clad in Thieves garb were hanging around on top of the wall. They've been stalking the two young women for a while. They had to ambush them before they reached the gate to the Arboretum. The plan was pretty simple. The tail of the second figure swayed for balance as they slid down the wall, carefully.
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"Alessia, stop walking," Sakura commanded sternly, as she looked around. But it did not take much scouting for something to drop right behind Alessia.
The girl wanted to let out a scream, but the sharp tip of a dagger was tapped against her throat.
"Silence! Scream and I will sever the head off your body!"
"Sakura..." Alessia whimpered.
"Sakura can't help you. Padfoot!" A pair of furry hands grasped Sakura's wrists, preventing her from escaping. But that did not mean she couldn't struggle. And boy, she did.
"Shut your trap." Padfoot hissed. "Now listen here, sweet-cheeks. If you want to keep your life, you'd better hand over the shiny things. Padfoot is getting impatient and so is his friend."
Sakura tugged at his grip.
"I thought that thieves were not supposed to kill." That's what Brynjolf's been endlessly drilling her head with. Are the stuff in Cyrodiil going that different?
"Not normally." Seeing that she couldn't talk her way out, she had to act quickly. But she had to be careful not to hurt Alessia either.
One of her eyes began to sting and bleed. Sakura needed one moment and one placed fire to ensure their freedom. She closed the other, letting murky flames ignite Alessia's captor's foot.
The man let out a scream as the fire started to spread.
"Alessia, run!" Alessia didn't need to be told twice. With one elbow to the face, she broke free. Sakura slammed the back of her head against the khajit's head.
"Oh, no you won't!" The thief fell down but still grabbed onto Alessia's foot.
"Let me go!"
Padfoot opened his claws and lunged for Sakura's throat. She stepped back.
"Alessia!"
Sakura dodged another swing of claws. Her Sharingan was keeping up with the katas, but there was something off about them. And she had yet to land a hit. Her fists filled up with chakra as Sakura advanced. She began her offense.
Sakura was busy and she could do nothing to help her. The man was clinging on her ankle just like he was clinging onto his dear life. His lower part of the body was burning, and the black flames were spreading agonizingly fast.
"Just, fucking let go!"
She pulled out her flute and slammed the first, sharper end into the hand locked around her ankle.
"You bitch!" He let go as the sharp ivory point stabbed through his hand.
Without a single thought, Alessia lunged and threw around Padfoot's neck. Sakura stepped back, as Alessia tried to bring him down. With a swift tail and body movement, she was thrown off his back.
"Padfoot hates being touched!"
That's it. Sakura spotted an opening.
"Padfoot should watch his back!" Sakura's foot collided with his jaw, pushing and sending him flying a few feet back. Sakura cracked her fists.
She helped Alessia up, first. And as the younger girl was regaining her balance, she watched Sakura walk over to Padfoot's landing spot.
She crouched and roughly grabbed the khajit's jaw. Padfoot groaned in pain.
"I won't finish you off if you tell me one thing. Where is the Gray Fox?"
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"Not a word to my parents, Sakura. Not a single word." Alessia sighed, as she twisted the doorknob. Sakura wanted to say something. Her jaw opened, then closed. She simply nodded.
"As you wish." Sakura took care of the bruises they acquired in the scuffle, on the way back to the Market District. 'Scuffle'. They were lucky they escaped with a few scratches; the thieves were not that lucky. The first one was dead... most likely. Carbonized and stabbed by Alessia's flute.
She was right, it actually made a pretty nice weapon.
Sakura had to seal the Amaterasu flames before they left. She doubted there was a Sharingan user around to do it for her. Many people could get hurt just by getting too close to the flames, and regular water wasn't enough to extinguish them.
The second one, the khajit, was healed just slightly after he sold Sakura a rather good tip. 'Ask the old lady in the shack about arena fights.' She had a half mind to pay the fence a visit anyways.
When they seemed... 'normal', including Sakura's freaky eyes and all the blood on her face was gone, they walked inside the bookshop and climbed the stairs up.
Everybody else was asleep, except of course, for Marcurio. And they went straight to him.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." He raised his head from his desk for nothing more than half a second.
"You're not far from the truth." Alessia sighed, as they both sat down on his bed. "Big brother? Do you have any books on dragon language?"
That made him put down his quill. "Dragon language? Why?"
"Yes. Sakura did something weird at the tavern."
"Nothing new so far." Marcurio started to look through the tomes in his personal library. He had quite a collection on Ancient Nordic history, so a few documentations were present as well.
"I'm right here, you two." Sakura snorted.
"Do you know the Return of the Dragonborn? The song. We sang it together at the tavern before we left, but Sakura got creative about it and sang the verses in dragon language close to the end. She can't recall a thing." Alessia explained.
Marcurio shook his head. "Nothing on dragon language. Ancient Nordic, Nedic, documentations on Saarthal excavations... Ahzidal's descent into madness... but nothing about dragons." He pulled his chair and sat down.
"Can you write down what do you remember from that song? Alessia, bring your textbook." Sakura was handed a piece of parchment as Alessia went to fetch the textbook.
Sakura took the quill from the awaiting hand and started to hum. She could remember nothing, but the melody started to awaken a few memories in her brain. She closed her eyes. Then, she rested the tip of the quill against the paper and started to move it.
"Dovahkiin, dovahkiin... naal ok zin los vahriin..."
Sakura paused.
'Wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal!
Ahrk fin norok paal graan fod nust hon zindro zaan,
Dovahkiin, fah hin kogaan mu draal!'
Then, she opened her eyes. The song was done... mostly. She could feel there was more to it. Something ancient. There were shouts and battle cries ... which reminded her of a long worn battlefield. And three Nords. And one dragon.
Sakura looked down and stared blankly at the paper. Sure... the writing was a little misaligned... but the characters were scratches and dots.
Like the words on the Walls. "Marcurio..."
"What's wrong?" He was handed a piece of paper. And when he looked down...
"Sakura, what is this?"
"The writing on the Wall... the tablet... like in Shroud Hearth Barrow... or in Snow Veil Sanctum. Both had walls like these. Do you think that something happened when I touched them?"
"It could be..." He scratched his head. In the meanwhile, Alessia brought her textbook. She flipped it open to the page they needed.
"What did you guys find out so far?"
"Sakura can write in Dragon Language too."
Alessia blinked owlishly. "Well, do you think you can translate as well?" The song had the Tamrielic adaptation on the opposite page so she could correct it if necessary.
The words usually got translated in her head. Somehow. Like she was supposed to know their meaning.
"I don't know. I guess I can try. Dovahkiin means Dragonborn, right?"
Alessia nodded.
"Dragonborn, Dragonborn... by his honor is sworn... to keep evil forever at bay. And the fiercest foes rout when they hear triumph's shout, Dragonborn for your blessing we pray."
"That was... correct."
"It means you have some kind of weird, innate ability to understand, write and speak dragon language," Marcurio concluded. "But how? If you were a Nord, it would be a wild guess that you are a descendant of Tiber Septim or past Dragonborns. Or other aspects of Ysmir." He theorized. "But you're not. You're far away from your birthplace and your bloodline holds a definite ancestry."
"How do you know that?"
Marcurio waved her off. "But I wouldn't let it get in the way of your sleep, Sakura. You can speak the dragon language. So what? You're in the biggest city in the Empire, go crazy."
He waited for a second. "Not too crazy. You pissed off the Thalmor before; don't do it again. They're vengeful, they would hurt you in any way possible before going physical. Only then, they'd actually use force on you."
"You're right. I guess I will be able to sleep better from now on." 'I hope...'
Alessia smiled and closed her textbook. "I have classes in the morning, so I will go now. I advise you two not to stay up too late. You don't want to sleep through breakfast." She reluctantly hugged her brother goodnight, who just as surprised returned the embrace.
"Good night, twerp number two."
"Good night, Alessia."
When Alessia was out of sight, Sakura let out a soft chuckle. "Way to ruin the moment. And here I thought you two were bonding."
"We've always been like that. Still... it's weird to see them all grown up. I've been away for so long... they barely hit my middle when I left. Now Alessio is almost as tall as me." He sighed and laid down on his bundle of blankets. They still didn't pick up the fort blanket.
Sakura did the same, but she didn't bother changing. She just kicked off her boots and laid down next to him, on the spot she has claimed last night. Seeing him so deep in thought, she softly poked his shoulder. "Septim for your thoughts?"
"What if I never have left? I wouldn't have missed so much out of my family's life."
"You said you had no regrets, last night."
"I don't have any. But it doesn't change the fact that I don't even know my siblings anymore."
"Spend time with them," Sakura answered, staring at the ceiling. "You might be gone tomorrow. Or next week. Or next month. But when you will... at least you'll know your own family is not a stranger anymore."
"That's the smartest thing I ever heard you say before."
Sakura poked his shoulder again, but this time she used chakra.
"Hey! Crazy woman..."
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"Padfoot? Can I ask why is Tobias burnt to a crisp?" A man with a face entirely covered by a horrible, gray, burlap mask, lifted his head from the registry book. He appeared to be irritated. But an irritated Gray Fox was better than an angry Gray Fox.
"The fool targeted a Motierre... and naturally, Padfoot wanted to help his comrade. We didn't know she was well guarded."
"A Motierre?" He cursed something under his breath. "The Motierres are directly under our protection. What was he thinking!?"
The Fox walked closer. The man was dead, that was for sure. "And how didn't you know they had protection?"
"She was only accompanied by a young woman. She released black flames on Tobias. There was nothing I could do."
"Black flames?"
Padfoot nodded. "Yes, boss. Black flames. The woman's been living in the Market District since yesterday. Pink hair. Goes by the name of Sakura."
The Fox stared down at the corpse.
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A/N: Done. I burnt out my brain during the update spree last time so I needed some time for my muse to recover. What do you think about the chapter? Too bland?
I'm still laying out the terrain for the actual plot to happen. The Cyrodiil Arc might get longer than expected but I hope not.
There are a lot of secrets surrounding the Motierre family; I'm curious if anybody will be able to decipher them all before they are actually revealed.
Regarding the song scene: there was a really nice extended version of the Return of the Dragonborn by Malukah. I thought it would be nice to get deeper in the whole Dragonborn aspect... mostly as a teaser before the shit gets serious.
We are literally one arc away before the official Skyrim plot takes place. She crosses the border with Cyrodiil and ... you know what happens next. No more spoilers.
But the Dragon Language is not the main aspect of this arc. Sakura came here with a mission to carry on in the name of Nocturnal. Will she get the cowl? Dunno. Maybe. Maybe not.
I always found the game weird. If you guys are wondering why can she translate and shit like that... okay so. I started my game (I literally started a new save game because my old file corrupted after trying out so many mods), escaped Helgen, headed to Riften. No Balgruuf, no nothing. There were the Word Walls in Shroud Hearth Barrow and Snow Veil Sanctum and I could absorb the words just fine. You just can't unlock them without dragon souls. That's all.
On top of that... no dragons meant no dragons swooping down to bug your quest and kill NPCs. I mean they can get killed by vampires eventually... but no dragons means one less thing to worry about. Right?
The words in your game are translated, you know what they mean and you know what they do. Explain that. It's written in Dragon Language and translated in English (which we'll pretend it's Tamrielic). On your screen, the dragon language words appear written with the Latin alphabet whenever a Priest or a Deathlord is talking. So yeah.
It makes sense that the Dragonborn has the innate ability to speak Dovahzul.
I think it's only natural for me to say that Paathurnax is going to live. No buts. I recommend installing Paathurnax Dilemma mod if you play the game and you want to spare him. Fucking Blades.
They do have those cool katanas tho.
The newspaper is actually a real thing, by the way. Oblivion players will know. They hired khajits strictly to deliver the newspapers all across the country. Dunno if in the whole Empire.
I'm really curious if you guys can guess the identity of the Gray Fox.
Also, if you have any pairing ideas (males only and game characters), let me know.
I've been thinking of making a one-shot series once the pairing has been established; featuring the guys that never made into the story. I also got a really cool spinoff idea from a reader; a Sakura and Miraak story of all things. At first I was reluctant about it, then my muse slapped me hard across my face. I will have to get onto it when I'm done with this one. But I already reached over 100k words and I'm not even done with the pre-prologue sequence. Fuck my life.
If you stayed up til this point, you're an absolute legend.
I apologize for the shitty fighting scenes.
Cheers!