Chapter One - Helgen

It was... cold.

Shinji groaned, his entire body feeling like a giant had just sat on it, and his head felt twice as bad. Some sort of constant noise was filling his ears. A vehicle? He struggled to get his eyes open; it was as if somebody had attached a ton of weight to them, but soon he could make out greyish light and someone sitting in front of him, looking away. The scenery around him was drab, looking like somebody had sucked the colour out of the world.

Where was he? Shinji wracked his brain, trying to work out how he got here, but it only succeeded in making his headache worse. He let out an involuntary groan, which caught the attention of the figure in front of him.

"Hey. You," it said. "You're finally awake."

Shinji shook his head, trying to clear out the cobwebs. The person sitting across from him, a rough looking blonde-haired man with his hands tied in front of him, raised an eyebrow.

"Just your luck to run into an Imperial ambush while crossing the border, eh?" he remarked, then nodded his head to his left. "Same as us."

Shinji looked that way, and finally realised where he was: on the back of a horse-drawn cart going along a road in a forest. At the back of the cart were two other men, hands also tied, but one of them had a strip of cloth over his mouth. There was also a young woman, sitting between himself and the gagged man, who was either asleep or unconscious going by how her head lolled back and forth with the rocking of the cart.

She was... familiar... but Shinji's throbbing skull was stopping him from focusing on how he knew her. Or even how he'd come to be... wherever here was.

"Godsdamned Stormcloaks!" the thin man cursed at the man sitting across from Shinji. "Skyrim was doing just fine until you came along! The Empire was nice and lazy. I could have been halfway to Hammerfell on a stolen horse if they hadn't been looking for you!" He looked at Shinji, anger in his eyes. "You! And that girl! We shouldn't even be here! It's just the Stormcloaks the Empire are after!"

"Well we're all brothers in binds now," Blonde replied. He glanced at the red-haired woman and quickly corrected himself. "Brothers and sisters."

"Will you lot shut up back there!" the guard at the front of the cart snapped, causing Blonde to laugh.

Horse-thief turned his attention to the gagged man. "Well anyway, what's going on with him?"

Blonde scowled. "You are speaking to Ulfric, the true High King!"

Shinji raised an eyebrow. The man's voice had turned somewhat reverent, as if he were talking about a god, not a person.

"Ulfric...?" Horse-thief gasped. "The Jarl of Windhelm and leader of the rebellion? But... if they've captured you... oh by the gods, where are they taking us?!"

"I'm not sure where we're going," Blonde sighed. "But I know this: Sovngarde awaits."

Shinji inhaled sharply; Sovngarde was the Nordic afterlife, and these Imperials had captured an enemy leader of some kind.. Was this cart on its way to an execution?

"No, no no nonono!" Horse-thief wailed.

"Hey!" Blonde cut into his lamenting. "What village do you call home?"

"Home? Uh... Rorikstead. Why does that matter?"

Blonde ignored him for the moment, turning his attention to Shinji. "And what about you two?"

"Um..." Shinji wracked his brain, which did nothing for the pain, but he at least managed to dredge something up. "B-Bravil. South of the Imperial City." He glanced at the girl. "I... don't know where she's from."

"Well then," Blonde said, looking around the cart at the occupants. "A Nord's last thoughts should be of home."

"General Tullius! The headsman is waiting!" came a call from up ahead.

Shinji looked to the front of the cart. where another cart full of people was following a man on a horse through a gate into a village. The sun was coming out from behind the clouds now, chasing away the greyness that had saturated their surroundings.

"Good. Let's get this over with," said, presumably, General Tullius.

"Shor. Mara. Dibella. Kynareth. Akatosh!" Horse-thief whimpered, praying to whatever god would hear him. "Divines, please help me!"

Their cart proceeded through the gate and past General Tullius and another man, a high elf by the looks of it. Blonde glanced over his shoulder at them and then spat on the ground. "Damned Thalmor. I'll bet they were behind this."

Shinji took a moment to look around. The village was small, little more than a dozen houses and a watchtower surrounded by walls. Several villagers stared and pointed at the carts as they drove past, a couple of children being urged to go inside despite the young ones' desires to watch the soldiers.

The young woman next to Shinji began to stir. She sat up straight and made to bring her hands up to her neck only to find them tied. "Huh? What the hell's going on?"

"Nice of you to finally join us, Red," Blonde remarked. "Don't want to be late for your execution, eh?"

"Execution?!" The girl looking around, her face setting into a grim line as she noticed their predicament. "Ah. Shit."

"Yep, we're on our way to the chopping block," said Blonde.

Red groaned loudly. "Just my godsdamned luck." She shot a vicious look at Shinji. "This is all your fault! If I'd known I was going to risk losing my head like this I'd have charged you a hell of a lot more!"

Oh. Oh. Things were finally starting to come together in Shinji's mind now that the pain had mostly dissipated. He had been planning a trip into Skyrim to visit the College of Winterhold. He had met this young woman, this... what was her name again? He had met... her in Bruma, literally bumping into her as he came out of the local Mage's Guild. As he got up from the ground, he had noticed that she was garbed in leather armour and had a dangerous-looking axe on her back, he'd quickly suggested an apology drink at the Tap and Tack. There, he made an offer to pay for her services.

At which point she had looked about ready to slam his head into his mug, through the table and into the floor, until he very swiftly and carefully explained that he was actually looking for an escort into Skyrim, from such a clearly experienced and dangerous fighter such as her. And then of course they had run straight into that ambush set up for somebody else. Not wanting to fight, he had tried to simply run away, while she had chosen to stay and fight.

Clearly, neither option had worked. Judging by his headache, someone had most likely hit him in the back of the head.

The front cart came to a halt near a gathering of people, another high elf standing out next to a woman shouting orders. Through an archway ahead, Shinji could glimpse what looked like the barracks for the local soldiers.

"W-we're stopping here? Why?" Horse-thief nervously asked.

"End of the line, obviously." Blonde didn't seem at all fazed by what was going on, nor did the man with the gag over his mouth. As their cart came to a stop, Blonde said, "Well, we shouldn't keep the gods waiting."

"Wait! We... we're not rebels!" Horse-thief shouted.

"Oh, just face your death with some dignity," Blonde groaned, nudging Horse-thief off the back of the cart. Red and Ulfric both silently hopped off the cart.

"Please! Tell them we're not with you!" Horse-thief babbled.

Shinji, the last one on the cart, hopped down and took a step forward, only to immediately trip over as his feet got caught on the hem of his robe. He landed face first in the dirt only a foot away from the edge of the stone road. "...Ow," he mumbled spitting out a mouthful of dirt.

Two pairs of hands grabbed him under the shoulders and hauled him back up to his feet. Blonde, the owner of the hands on his left, chuckled. "Not what I'd choose as one of my last acts before death."

From his right, Red barked a harsh laugh. "I haven't known this idiot for very long, but I reckon that's just about right for him."

"Step towards the block when we call your name. One at a time!" shouted an armoured woman, standing next to a man with a book and quill. Neither of them seemed particularly amused by, or concerned with, Shinji's accident.

Blonde sighed. "Of course. Imperials and their lists..."

"Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm," the man with the book called out, disgust dripping from every word he spoke. Ulfric silently stalked off to stand near the block.

"It has been an honour, Jarl Ulfric," Blonde murmured at Ulfric's back.

"Ralof of Riverwood."

Blonde... Ralof... followed in Ulfric's footsteps. Shinji watched him go, noting that even now with death looming so close, the man showed not the slightest hint of fear. On the other hand, his own legs were starting to shake and his right hand was clenching convulsively.

"Lokir of Rorikstead."

"No! Wait! Please! You can't do this!" Lokir shouted, before sprinting off along the road back towards the gate.

"Halt!" the armoured woman ordered, to no effect. "...Archers!"

Before Lokir had managed to get more than a dozen paces away, two soldiers had drawn their bows and nocked arrows. They seemed to have no trouble aiming at the fleeing man, and seconds later Lokir fell to the ground, unmoving, with two arrows in his back.

The woman soldier turned to glare at the rest of the prisoners. "Anyone else want to take a shot at running away, give my men more target practise?"

"Hold on," the man with the book said, looking at Shinji and Red. "You two. Step forward."

All eyes were on the two of them as they stood directly in front of the man. "Who... are you two?"

Shinji and Red shared a puzzled look. These soldiers somehow had the names of all the prisoners, even the now-dead horse thief who had also stumbled into the ambush. And yet these Imperials didn't know about them?

"Your names!" the woman shouted.

Red sighed. "Alright, alright, keep your greaves on," she muttered, before drawing herself up. "Asuka Langley-Soryu, or Asuka the Red. No place I'd really call home." She muttered a word under her breath, which to Shinji sounded like, "...anymore."

The man looked down at his book again, flipping a page back and forth. He shook his head at the woman soldier then pointed the quill at Shinji. "And you?"

"S-Shinji Ikari, sir," he stammered. "Raised in Bravil."

"Bravil? You're a long way from the Imperial City now." Another glance at the book, another shake of the head. He turned to the woman. "Neither of them are on the list, captain. What are we going to do?"

The captain dismissively waved a hand. "It's the block for these two as well."

Shinji squeezed his eyes shut, his fist opening and closing harder and faster as his heart began hammering against his ribs.

"As you command, Captain," the man said. To Shinji, he continued, "But... we'll make sure your remains are returned home." He glanced at Asuka. "Not sure about yours though."

Asuka shrugged. "If there's a cemetery with a nice view, just stick me there. At least that way if I come back as a ghost I have something to stare at for eternity."

"I'll... see what I can do."

Shinji tried to summon up the courage to face his end as casually as most of the other prisoners were seemingly able to manage. There didn't look to be any way of getting out of this; soldiers were everywhere, his hands were tied, and he was in the middle of a village in unknown territory.

He didn't even know where his staff was. Or the book. He had seen another cart behind them on the road, but that wasn't here. Most likely these soldiers had stripped the prisoners of anything dangerous and loaded it onto that cart, and it was now sitting somewhere up the road.

"Follow the captain, prisoners," the man ordered as the woman strode off towards the block.

Shinji remained frozen where he was for a second, before Asuka nudged him forward with her shoulder. He stumbled, but luckily didn't fall over again as he trailed after the captain. She led them through the loose group of prisoners, then signalled them to stop as she passed General Tullius, who was talking to Ulfric.

"There are some here in Helgen that think you're a hero," he gruffly said. "But I don't think a hero would use something like the voice to murder a king and usurp the throne.

Shinji frowned in confusion. Voice? The general had said that word like it was some kind of magic, but he had never heard of anything like it. How could someone use their voice to kill someone?

Ulfric glared at Tullius, grumbling something unintelligible through his gag.

"You were the one who started this damned war," Tullius continued. "You were the one who plunged Skyrim into chaos. And now we are going to put you down. We are going to restore peace."

He might have continued, but a distant roar echoed across the landscape, drawing everyone's attention for a moment.

"What the hell was that?" somebody muttered.

"Ignore it," Tullius swiftly ordered. "We have more important things to be concerned with. Proceed."

"At once, General Tullius!" the female captain replied, before turning to a woman in priest robes. "It's time for their last rites."

The priestess raised her hands and began to speak. "As we commend your souls to Aetherius, blessings of the Eight Divines upon you-"

"Oh for the love of Talos!"

A prisoner stomped forward, glaring at the priestess. "Just shut up so we can get this over with!"

"...As you wish," the priestess stiffly replied.

"Hurry up!" the prisoner shouted as he stopped in front of the block. "I haven't got all morning!"

The captain moved behind the prisoner and shoved him down to his knees, then put a foot on his back and pushed his head onto the block. Even then, the man was still spitting defiance.

"My ancestors smile down upon me, Imperial! Can you say the same?"

The only answer he received was in the form of the headsman raising his axe and swiftly bringing it down.

Shinji flinched away as blood sprayed, but he still heard the thump of the head landing in the box next to the block. Angry shouting erupted around him from the prisoners, followed by excited yells from the villagers.

"As fearless in death as he was in life," Ralof murmured. Some of the other prisoners mumbled words Shinji couldn't pick up, but seemed to echo similar sentiments of the dead man's bravery.

"Next!" the captain shouted over the prisoners, pointing at Shinji." The renegade Imp-" Another roar cut the captain off. It sounded closer this time, Much closer. Several prisoners and soldiers muttered in surprise, searching the sky for its source. The captain gritted her teeth. "Next. Prisoner. Now!"

"Was nice knowing you, Shinji," Asuka whispered behind him, sounding like she was just saying goodbye at a tavern. "See you on the other side."

His hand now clenched tight enough to whiten his knuckles, Shinji slowly stepped forward, staring at the headless body the entire time. Coming to a stop in front of the block, he managed to tear his eyes away to look at the man who had been holding the book and quill. Sympathy was written all over his face, but it was clear there was nothing he could do.

A hand on Shinji's shoulder shoved him down, and a moment later his head was resting on the block, staring at the man that was even now readying his weapon to end his life. The axe raised up above the headsman...

And from his vantage point, Shinji was in the perfect position to see something huge fly around a mountain and head towards the village.

"What in Oblivion is that?!"

"What do you see? What's out there?!" the captain barked.

The massive winged beast landed heavily on the roof of the tower behind the headsman, the force of the landing causing him to drop his axe and stumble away out of Shinji's line of sight.

"Monster!"

"Is that a dragon?!"

The beast stared down at Shinji, seeming to look into and through his soul. before opening its mouth...

And the world erupted in noise.

Roiling storm clouds formed above Helgen, fire began to rain from the sky, and everybody was shouting at once. Nobody was paying attention to Shinji. He stood up, swaying as the world itself tried to tip him over, but managed to stay on his feet.

"Hey! Imperial!" a familiar voice shouted over the din. Shinji looked around and saw Ralof standing nearby, having somehow managed to get out of his binds. "The gods have given us another chance! Let's not waste it! This way!"

Ralof took off running for a nearby tower, its door open with somebody standing just inside waving at them. Shinji looked around for Asuka, but with half the world suddenly on fire it was impossible to spot her red hair, her biggest defining physical trait. All he could do was pray to the gods that she had managed to escape as well as he ran after Ralof.

The door slammed shut behind Shinji as he and Ralof came to a stop at the base of the circular stairs. Four other prisoners, Stormcloaks by the look of their attire, were already inside. Two of them were on the ground with another checking their injuries, and there was also-

"Jarl Ulfric!" said Ralof, confirming the identity of the last Stormcloak. "Was that... a dragon? From the old legends?"

Ulfric glanced at Shinji for a second, giving him a look that suggested the young man was worth less than something he'd scraped off his boots, before saying, "Legends don't burn down villages."

Despite the chaos happening outside, despite the roaring of the dragon as it flew overhead, Shinji found himself shivering at the dangerous-looking man's voice.

Ralof shook his head. "Well we can discuss legends another time. Right now we need to get out of here! Quick, up the stairs!"

Shinji, being the closest to the stairs, headed up first. As he reached the next floor, he spotted a pile of rocks and another Stormcloak working at getting them out of the way. The man turned as he heard Shinji ascend and got as far as shouting, "We need to clear-" before the wall next to him exploded inwards.

The dragon had landed on the side of the tower, claws digging into the stone, and seemingly bashed its head into the wall. Shinji stumbled backwards, almost falling down the stairs in shock until a pair of hands behind him stopped his movement, which ended up saving his life.

Yol... Toor... Shul!

Strange words reached his ears a split second before fire erupted out of the dragon's mouth, incinerating anything still on that floor of the tower. Shinji threw his arms up in front of his face, skin already feeling like it was starting to cook.

"You still breathing, Imperial?" Ralof shouted over the noise of the dragon taking off, to which Shinji gave a shaky nod. "Yes? Good. We're getting out of the tower here!"

"Here?!" Propelled up the stairs by Ralof's unyielding arms, Shinji stared out through the hole in the wall.

"Right here! Jump through the roof of that inn!"

The tower shook violently, and Shinji decided it would be a good idea not to be standing under tons of stone if it suddenly decided to fall down. He backed up slightly before sprinting and jumping to the inn, miraculously not catching his foot on a stone but not managing to roll as gracefully as the two warriors behind him would likely manage. With his hands still tied he couldn't do much to arrest his roll and he ended up almost smacking his head against one of the roof's remaining support beams while tumbling along the floor.

And then he fell through a hole in said floor, only being spared a broken bone by landing on a bed. He laid there for a few seconds trying to get his bearings, before getting back to his feet. A nearby open door beckoned him forward, and Shinji stepped out into chaos.

Fires were burning everywhere, the air was full of smoke, and there were two men standing nearby, one of them calling out to a young boy who looked about as scared as Shinji felt.

"Come on, Haming!" the soldier called out. "You need to get over here!"

The boy took a few steps forward... and the dragon landed right behind him. Without even looking back, the boy found his courage and began to run towards the men. They all took shelter behind a ruined building as fire belched from the dragon's mouth.

"Good lad! Go with Gunnar!" said the soldier before turning and spotting Shinji. "Well I'm surprised you're still alive, prisoner! If you want to stay that way, follow me! I need to find General Tullius and join the defense!"

With the dragon back in the air once more, the way was clear for the soldier and Shinji to continue on. They soon reached a gap between a building and a stone wall, and the soldier waved a hand. "Backs against the wall, now!"

Shinji did as instructed, moments before the dragon returned, landing on the wall with one of its wingtips dipping down to touch the ground only a finger's width away from cutting his face open.

Yol... Toor... Shul!

There were those words again, followed by another stream of fire. Was the dragon actually casting a spell to breathe fire? The research wizard in Shinji sorely wanted to look into this further, something which he could only good-naturedly blame his mother for, but there were far more important things to think about right now. Like getting out of this mess alive.

The dragon seemed disinclined to remain in one spot for very long. Yet again it flew into the sky, circling around and spewing flame at random parts of the village. The soldier waved Shinji forward and together they picked their way through a destroyed building... and over a couple of charred bodies. Leaving through what had once been a door, Shinji saw more soldiers in front of a gate, yelling defiance at the dragon as they fired arrows at it. The man he was following didn't stop there, so Shinji stayed right on his heels as they continued on down a street, past several more archers and through a gateway into the village keep's courtyard.

And almost running into Ralof, brandishing a sword with every intent of using it.

"Out of the way, Ralof!" the soldier shouted. "I don't have time for traitors!"

"We're getting out of here, Hadvar!" Ralof retorted.

"Bah!" the soldier -Hadvar- angrily waved his sword at him. "May that dragon send all of you Stormcloaks to Sovngarde!"

Ralof took off to the main doors of the keep, glancing at Shinji as if asking him to come with him, while Hadvar ran to a side door. When Shinji remained standing where he was, unsure of who to follow, Ralof scoffed and shook his head at his hesitation, opening the door and ducking inside before slamming it shut.

"Shinji!"

He turned around, surprised and not a little elated at hearing the voice of a certain redheaded warrior. Asuka, her hands free and carrying a sword she had picked up from somewhere, ran up to him.

"What are you standing around for, stupid? Let's get inside!" she yelled as she passed him, heading for the door Hadvar was standing at.

Thus jolted out of his stupor, Shinji made to follow, only to suddenly lose his footing as the ground shook violently. He didn't need to turn around to see what had just happened. Ahead of him, Asuka had also fallen to the ground, while Hadvar had remained standing. The door was open, and he was waving and shouting at the two of them to get inside. Shinji got to his feet first; Asuka was also standing up, but she looked rather dazed.

Yol...

Time seemed to slow down. Shinji felt like he was trying to run through water as he surged ahead, shoving Asuka into Hadvar's arms.

Toor...

With no time for himself to recover and get through the door that was already starting to close. Shinji turned around and stared into the eyes of the dragon. His hands were tied, but his captors either didn't know how to properly prevent someone from casting spells, or didn't know he could. Holding his hands up in front of him, Shinji prayed that the lessons he had learned from his mother could stand up to the power of a legend.

Shul!

XXX

"Damnit!"

Asuka slammed a fist against the door in anger as she heard the telltale sound of the dragon's fire breath, accompanied by something that sounded almost like a church bell. She had had no time to react upon feeling herself getting shoved forward. By the time she had realised what happened, Hadvar was already pulling her into the keep and closing the door.

While she had become rather inured to the death of a companion, she thought of each loss as a failure of her skills. Taunting her about her inability to save them. Why did she still call herself a soldier when she could barely keep her men alive? Why did-

A soft sigh left the mouth of the man behind her, interrupting her thoughts. "May the gods have mercy on his soul."

Asuka took a deep breath, calming herself and banishing those thoughts to the dark recesses of her mind where they belonged. Now was not the time to lose her head; she needed to think clearly to get out of here alive. Through the door, she heard the dragon flap its wings and fly away. She put a hand on the door handle.

"There's no point going back out there, lass," warned Hadvar. "Do you really want your last sight of your friend to be his charred corpse?"

Asuka slowly turned her head to fix the man with a stare. "No doubt you've been a fighter a lot longer than me, but one thing I've learned is that you should never think a spell-slinger is dead until you see their mangled corpse in front of you. Preferably with their head removed." She glanced back at the door. "...Well... in this case that last part wouldn't be good here..."

"Fine, but be quick about it," Hadvar grumbled. "No telling when that dragon will-"

Something hit the other side of the door. The two of them blinked at each other as whatever it was tapped several more times, and then Asuka's face broke into a grin.

"Shinji!"

She wrenched the door open, and a figure fell forward into the room from where it had been leaning against the other side. Indeed it was Shinji, looking rather the worse for wear with most of his robe missing. Burn marks around the edges of what remained, as well as on his arms and legs, told the story of just how close he'd come to death.

"By the gods!" Hadvar gasped, rushing up to Shinji and kneeling beside him. Gently, he picked him up and walked over to a nearby bed. Now that she had time to look around, Asuka noticed that the place was a barracks for the village's soldiers. There was a row of beds, each with a chest sitting at the foot, as well as a couple of mostly-empty weapon racks and a table with some hastily discarded food scattered over it.

"Check those chests," Hadvar ordered. "One of the men might have left a potion behind."

Asuka did as instructed, wrenching the lids of the chests open. Most of them were either empty or only contained a piece of clothing or armour, but the last one thankfully held a couple of small bottles. Grabbing the red one, Asuka rushed back over to the bed where Shinji lay, handing the bottle to Hadvar.

"W-wait!" Shinji coughed as he held up a hand to stop Hadvar as the man made to pour it down his throat. "What... what's in that potion?"

"I'm no alchemist. Why does it matter?" asked Hadvar. "They all heal you the same."

Shinji slowly sat up, shaking his head. "Not... quite." He gingerly took the bottle from Hadvar and uncorked it, holding it under his nose. "A couple of ingredients you can make healing potions from don't agree with me in a rather... potentially deadly way. Lucky for me, they also give the potion a rather obvious smell." He took a whiff of the potion and paused for a second, before downing it in one gulp and shuddering. "Ugh. Thankfully this isn't one of them, but it still tastes like hell."

Despite her experiences as a sellsword, Asuka was still somewhat impressed at the effects of healing potions. She watched as the vicious burn marks slowly seemed to shrink down and almost completely fade away right in front of her eyes. Some of the wounds still remained, however; either the potion wasn't a very strong one or Shinji really had been at death's door.

"Don't suppose there's a magicka potion somewhere as well, is there?" Shinji asked as he checked over his remaining injuries. "I could really use one right now to finish the job."

Going back to the chest where she had found the red potion, Asuka found that a blue bottle had also been stashed away. She brought it over to Shinji, who consumed it with about as much enthusiasm as the previous potion. His hands began glowing with yellowish light as he passed them over the burns on his arms and legs.

"A healer, huh?" Hadvar remarked. "That will make things easier going forward."

Shinji nodded distractedly. "I do have some skill with the School of Restoration, but I mainly focused on protection, rather than healing."

"Yeah, it'd be better to avoid getting hurt in the first place rather than having to fix yourself up afterwards," said Asuka.

"Well anyway, pris-... er... Shinji," said Hadvar, pulling the young man off the bed and onto his feet. "We can't stay here forever. Grab whatever armour is left, and get a sword too. We need to leave."

Already knowing where to look, Asuka went back to the chests and pulled out the armour she had discovered. Surprisingly, there ended up being a full set of light leather armour. The chances were this stuff wouldn't fit Shinji very well, but it was vastly better than the almost-nothing he currently had. She personally preferred a mix of light and heavy armour, for both protection and mobility, and thankfully her captors hadn't taken the time to remove her own gear.

Of course, considering that would have left her mostly naked if they had tried it, none of them would have been able to have children anymore.

"But... I don't know how to use a sword," Shinji weakly protested as Asuka pulled what remained of his robe off of him. She forced herself not to react at the sight of his rather toned body as she set about helping him into the clearly unfamiliar armour.

"Take it anyway, just in case," she said as she belted the scabbard around his waist. He now looked exactly like an Imperial recruit fresh out of training, right down to the ill-fitting helmet. "You don't have your staff so you'll just have to make do."

Shinji blinked several times as the words sank in. "Well I'll just have to get another one later. I'm more concerned with- oh hells!" he cursed angrily. "The book! I need to get the book back!"

"There's no time to look for personal belongings!" Hadvar argued. "All of Helgen is on fire in case you haven't noticed!"

"But... I need that book!" Shinji weakly protested. He turned to Asuka, his new helmet almost falling over his eyes. "And what about your axe? Didn't you say it had been in your family for generations?"

It was Asuka's turn to curse. "Damnit." She rubbed her eyes with a thumb and forefinger before looking at Hadvar. "Would the wagon you put our stuff on be anywhere near the village entrance?"

Hadvar thought for a moment. "Well... yes, it was sitting just inside the main gate. We were going to go through it later to look for anything we could use to plot Stormcloak movements. But you can't be thinking of going out there now, even for an heirloom!"

"We'll just have to circle back around once we get out of here," replied Asuka. "After all, I assume you came in here to reach some sort of escape route, right? By then the dragon should have gotten bored and flown off."

"We can only hope," muttered Hadvar, taking a shield out of a nearby chest and buckling it to his left arm. He glanced at the door they had come through as a faint roar reached their ears. "So many lives lost to that damned thing in only a few minutes. How can anybody stand up to such a beast?"

Asuka paused, and slowly turned her head to look at Shinji. "Yes... how did you survive against that dragon? I know you're a spell-slinger but-"

"Um..." Shinji interrupted her, rubbed the back of his head. "Can we just... get out of here first?"

"Yes, move now, talk later," said Hadvar. He pulled a chain hanging from a wall and the portcullis nearby dropped into a gap in the floor. "Come on, this way."

XXX

The three of them proceeded down a short hallway and stopped in front of another portcullis. On the other side, Nordic voices could be heard.

"Stormcloaks," Hadvar whispered as he pulled the chain. "Think they'll be reasonable?"

The portcullis went down, and Shinji was the first one through into a small circular room. He immediately wished he wasn't.

"Um-"

"More Imperials? Die!"

Shinji had almost no time to react as a man in Stormcloak garb swung a heavy battle axe horizontally at him, missing by a hair's breadth. Another person, a woman in similar attire, drew her own axe and began to circle around to attack from another angle.

This, unfortunately for her, meant she was not paying attention to anybody else entering the room, which meant that Asuka was able to easily step up behind her and thrust her sword into the woman's back. She died gurgling, alerting the remaining Stormcloak to the presence of other attackers. He turned around just in time to receive Hadvar's shield in his face and died seconds later to a sword in his heart.

"Damnit, Shinji!" Asuka yelled, stomping up and glaring at him at point blank range. "You froze up! As a spell-slinger you're supposed to make the other guy do that!"

"S-sorry!" Shinji apologised. "I was hoping we could avoid a fight!"

Asuka breathed deeply, rubbing both hands down her face. "This is a hostile situation. Expect a fight around every corner."

"They likely attacked immediately because of the armour," Hadvar remarked, pointing at his own garb. "You are basically an Imperial soldier right now."

"Well in that case..." Asuka turned to Hadvar. "Shall I take point or do you want to do it?"

"I'll go first," replied Hadvar as he headed to the next portcullis. "I have a shield, and I'm a known face around here. Other Imperial soldiers might attack you on sight, and Stormcloaks are liable to attack first and think of some questions later."

Asuka nodded. "Good idea. Shinji, get those damn spells of yours ready now. I can almost guarantee we'll be fighting our way out of here."

"Y-yes ma'am," said Shinji, closing his eyes and focusing. He had been hoping to avoid getting into a fight, but most of his plans had gone out the window the moment they'd stumbled into that Imperial ambush. He clenched his hands into fists; the right one moved in a circle before turning palm up and opening with a flash of green light. Outwardly nothing seemed to have happened, but he could feel the spell settle down inside of him, ready to be unleashed in an instant. He then flicked his right hand, preparing a defensive ward, and his left hand began to freeze over, ready to unleash a shard of ice.

When he opened his eyes, Shinji noticed Asuka and Hadvar staring at his left hand with bemused looks on their faces.

"You... uh... you know Nords are famously resistant to the cold, right?" asked Asuka.

Shinji stared at them, his eyes occasionally darting to his left hand, then gave a weak shrug. "I just... prefer ice spells. Fire and lightning get too... um... messy for me. And I think we've got enough fire in this village as it is."

Asuka and Hadvar glanced sidelong at each other, then shrugged and proceeded through the portcullis and down the stairs. Hadvar checked every corner they came across, but nothing dangerous sprung out at them right up until the dragon outside roared and a section of ceiling collapsed, completely blocking the corridor.

"What was that about the dragon getting bored?" Hadvar pointedly asked of Asuka, getting a roll of the eyes in response.

Fortunately, the nearby door had been missed by the collapse. Hadvar cautiously stepped into the next room first, then swiftly raised a hand to halt them.

"Why are you wasting time looting?" Two more Stormcloaks were standing near some barrels, one of them picking through their contents. "We have to get out of here!"

"Those Imperials store potions here," the other one argued. "If we want to get out of here in one piece we're going to need them."

With a glance backwards at Shinji and Asuka, Hadvar signalled that he would take the man with his head in a barrel. Asuka nodded, and together they charged forward. In such a tight passageway, Shinji couldn't offer much support to the two fighters without risking a hit on of them. He still clenched his left fist, readying a shard of ice, but the two men were quickly dispatched without his help.

"They had the right idea at least," said Hadvar once the dust settled. "See if we've got anything left down here."

Shinji and Asuka complied, starting with the barrel the looter had been perusing. There was only a couple of healing potions and a single magicka potion. Shinji immediately drank the magicka potion, feeling more energy return. Even after the previous potion back in the barracks, he had felt almost empty after the effort he'd put into simply not dying against the dragon.

They passed through another door, emerging on the other side of the blocked corridor. Some stairs were ahead, and Shinji could make out the sounds of battle, punctuated by the zapping of a lightning spell.

"The torture room's ahead," Hadvar muttered. "Wish we didn't need one..."

By the time they reached the room, the fight was already over. Two Imperials were standing over the bodies of two Stormcloaks, one of them wiping his sword on the corpse at his feet, while the hooded old man turned and raised a hand crackling with lightning at their approach. Upon seeing two Imperial uniforms, he slowly lowered the hand.

"You're a little late to the party," the torturer said, his voice making Shinji think of a snake. "These two seemed rather upset at my choice of entertainment for their friends."

"Why are you still down here?!" asked Hadvar. "There's a dragon attacking Helgen!"

The torturer scoffed. "Really? A dragon? If you're going to tell stories at least try to make them believable." He paused. "Now that I think of it though, I have heard rather a lot of noise coming from up there." He pointed at the corridor leading out of the room and past a row of cells.

"You should come with us. We're getting out of here," Hadvar suggested.

"I'm staying right here, boy," the torturer retorted, folding his arms.

"Forget him," said the other man. "I'll come with you."

He and Hadvar proceeded past the cells, but Asuka paused upon seeing a black book sitting on a small table next to a knapsack. "The Book of the Dragonborn," she read aloud. "Well considering what's happening outside, I'm taking this." Snatching up the book, she made to continue on, but doubled back and picked up the knapsack as well.

"Oh, by all means, help yourself to my things," sneered the torturer, sarcasm pouring off of him like a waterfall. Asuka ignored him, shoving the book in the knapsack before shouldering it and chasing after the two men. Shinji directed a helpless glance at the torturer, but the man simply stared coldly at him until he too made his exit from the room.

"It's just a dead end down there!" the torturer called after him, his words echoing slightly off the walls.

Shinji chose not to believe him; he hadn't known Hadvar for very long, but he was fairly certain the soldier would not have gone this way just to lead them nowhere. And indeed, in the next room, he was satisfied to see a hole knocked through the back wall that Hadvar, Asuka and the assistant were standing next to. He tried to ignore the bodies and skeletons in the gibbets hanging from the ceiling as he caught up with them.

The tunnel behind the wall looked natural, but somebody in the past had installed sconces along its twisting length. The tunnel itself soon opened up into a room with a natural rock roof, but there were also man-made stone floors with a couple of small bridges passing over running water.

Stormcloak men were already in the room, arguing about which way they were supposed to go when Hadvar and Asuka charged in, the assistant close behind with mace in hand. Two of them drew swords and met the charge, while on the other side of the room two archers nocked arrows and aimed at Shinji. His training took over and he raised his right hand to throw up a ward just in time to deflect the arrows, then clenched his left fist and flung an ice shard at the left archer in response. The archer instinctively threw up a hand to protect his head, and therefore received the shard through his arm. He dropped his bow and screamed in pain, clutching at the injured arm while his companion nocked another arrow and let fly.

The arrow bounced off the ward again, and Shinji felt the spell begin to weaken. Rather than stand out in the open, he stepped to the left, putting a natural stone column between himself and the archer for the scant seconds he needed to dispel the ward and summon ice to his right hand as well. As the archer tried to manoeuvre to shoot past the column, Shinji brought his hands together until the wrists touched, concentrating the two spells into one. The archer moved into view and Shinji let the larger chunk of ice fly forth. It hit the archer square in the chest, knocking him back and down. He didn't get up again.

Shinji looked around to see that his companions had dispatched the two Stormcloaks they had been engaged with, and the assistant finished off the injured archer with a swing of his mace to the man's head. Shinji headed over to them, pointedly not looking at the bodies on the floor.

"I think I'll just shut up about magic for now," Asuka remarked, appraising the two dead Nord archers. "You just keep doing what works for you, Shinji."

"It's a good thing he didn't use fire," said Hadvar, pointing to the ground where a large puddle of strangely coloured liquid sat where the archers had been fighting from. "Looks like an oil lamp or something leaked here. Hit that with a fireball, the explosion could have collapsed the ceiling."

Shinji didn't feel like correcting him. At most the puddle would have erupted in fire and burned the archers alive, but wouldn't do much to the ceiling besides blacken it slightly. And then he would have had to deal with the stink of cooked human flesh. Again.

"You know what..." the assistant hesitantly said, looking back the way they'd came. "On second thought, I'm gonna head back and look after the old man."

Hadvar nodded, disappointed but understanding. "Very well. Good luck to you both, and stay safe."

"The same to you three."

The assistant left without a backwards glance. Shinji watched him go for a moment, then returned his attention to his companions. Both Hadvar and Asuka were now carrying the bows and quivers the archers had used, although judging by the disapproving snort Asuka gave, they weren't in very good condition.

"Better than nothing. They'll at least last until we get to safety," she said, and Hadvar grunted in agreement.

Ahead, a lever operated a wooden bridge to let them cross a small gap. As soon as they were on the other side, the ground rumbled and part of the ceiling collapsed behind them, destroying the bridge and blocking their way back. Somehow, they could still hear the roar of the dragon down here.

In the next room, the reason for that was made clear. Man-made stonework ended, leaving the group looking at a natural cavern with a small brook and holes in the ceiling for light to pour down and illuminate the area.

"Come along," said Hadvar. "We're almost out of here."

Shinji and Asuka followed him down the brook until he stopped at a section of wall that stopped just above the surface of the brook.

"...Not quite out of here," he groaned in annoyance, then pointed to their right where the tunnel branched off "Let's go this way."

Only a few seconds down the tunnel, Asuka paused and swore. "Look," she quietly said, pointing up at the ceiling where cobwebs were starting to form.

"Spiders?" Shinji looked ahead to where the tunnel opened up. There were a lot more cobwebs, and some rather large egg sacs.

"Frostbites," Hadvar confirmed, pointing out the dog-sized creatures scuttling around. "They look nasty, but a sword cuts through them just as easily. Just watch out for their spit."

"That's all I need to hear," said Asuka as she strode forward, twirling her sword around her hand a couple times. Hadvar quickly took up position next to her, and together they began to deal with the spiders. While the spiders outnumbered them, the humans had tactics that went beyond simply rushing a target and trying to bite or spit at them. But as a giant, eight-legged shadow descended from the ceiling, Shinji belatedly remembered that spiders could, in fact, be ambush predators.

The giant spider landed on Shinji, knocking him to the ground. A ward spell was useless at this range, but his mother had done a good job of teaching him to be ready for times like this. The Stoneflesh spell he had prepared back in the keep burst forth just in time for him to throw up an arm to hold off the spider's mandibles. Even so protected, he could feel the pressure on his arm, but he just needed enough time for his free hand to conjure another ice shard, which was flung into the spider's soft underbelly.

It shrieked and backed off, but its movements were already sluggish, and Hadvar had no trouble shoving his sword through its head. He held out a hand to Shinji, who grabbed it and was hauled back to his feet. Looking around, the battle was evidently over; Asuka was taking her time pulling her sword out of a dead spider. With a grimace, she swung it to the side to try and flick off some of the viscera that now stained it. She looked at Shinji and raised a puzzled eyebrow at him.

Shinji had expected this reaction; the School of Alteration's defensive spells were good for protection from physical attacks, but they achieved this by turning the caster's skin to oak, stone or metal depending on the specific spell. He would now be looking like a statue that had come to life until the spell ended.

"Don't tell me you've never before dealt with a wizard that didn't use a Flesh spell," he remarked with a chuckle.

"Not really," replied Asuka. "But I have heard stories in taverns of fighters attacking spell-slingers that had turned themselves to stone. I thought they were just exaggerating. Doesn't that feel... weird?"

Shinji held up a hand in front of his face, opening and closing it to the sound of clacking akin to knocking two pebbles together. "A bit, but a little discomfort is better than getting stabbed." A moment later, he felt the spell end; his temporary new skin began to flake away into nothingness. "And as you can see it doesn't last long anyway."

"Let's keep moving," urged Hadvar. "For all we know these eggs could hatch any second and we'll have more damned bugs to deal with."

Both Shinji and Asuka paled, quickly following after Hadvar as he ran down the next tunnel, which rejoined the brook in another cavern.

"Hey! Stop!" Hadvar threw up a warning hand, his voice suddenly a whisper. He crouched down and pointed ahead. "Bear."

Indeed, up ahead, on the other side of the brook, a large shaggy bear was sprawled on the ground, its chest slowly rising and falling.

Asuka's face turned serious. "Hm. I'm not mad enough to try and attack a bear, and it looks to be asleep. Think we can sneak by?"

"Yes, let's please do that," Shinji swiftly agreed. He knew enough about the various animals of Tamriel to know that bears were shockingly tough to bring down, able to practically shrug off anything short of a lopped off limb or a lucky stab to the heart.

Hadvar nodded, and quietly led them along the nearby wall at a pace barely above a crawl. Each footstep sounded like thunder in Shinji's ears, and every second he expected the bear to wake up and take his head off with a single swing of those massive paws. Fortunately, they managed to pass without the beast stirring, even as they gingerly stepped over and around several skeletons. Whether they were the bear's victims or they died to something else was unknowable, and Shinji wasn't inclined to stick around to learn.

The brook had ended, going somewhere further underground, but the tunnel continued on, turning several times before a long passage gave the group what they had been desperately hoping for: an exit from this hell.

"Thank the gods!" Asuka gasped, running towards the light pouring in from the mouth of this cave. "I was starting to think we'd be stuck down here forever!"

As Shinji ran after her, he found himself having to shield his eyes as he stepped out of the cave. The weather was clear, not even a sign of the smoke that had been practically turning day into night in Helgen. There was little time to celebrate, however. Asuka suddenly put a hand on his shoulder and shoved him down behind a rock. Hadvar didn't require the same treatment, already crouching down and scanning the sky.

In the distance, Shinji heard a long, familiar roar gradually fading away. He peeked over the rock; through the trees, he could just make out the form of the dragon disappearing behind a far away mountain.

"Yeah, you'd better run," Asuka muttered, slowly standing up. She turned to the men. "Well, we're finally out of that damned cave."

Hadvar nodded. "And this is where we split up, if you're serious about trying to get your things back." He pointed somewhere to the north. "I'm going to head down to Riverwood, the blacksmith there is my uncle. If you decide to go that way too once you're done, mention me and he should put you up for the night. Meanwhile I'm going to be sleeping for the rest of the week after what we've just been through. Farewell, and good luck."

With a wave, Hadvar set off down the road. Shinji watched him go, hoping that he would get to see the soldier again. Despite appearing in front of him as a prisoner, Hadvar had treated Shinji with respect, not to mention what seemed to be true regret at not being able to do anything about his intended execution.

Shinji frowned. What had happened to the other prisoners? Many of them were of course dead at Helgen, either at the hands of him and his fellow escapees, or the dragon. But surely some of them had managed to escape. Like that Ralof person, and the scary-looking Jarl of... Windhelm, wasn't it?

"Hey, snap out of it," said Asuka, giving him a light tap across the back of the head. "We gotta try and recover our stuff, remember?"

"O-oh. Right. Sorry." Shinji looked around, but wasn't really sure where they were. About all they could do was follow the path, and so they set off.

After a twenty minute walk, the rough path they had been following joined up with a stone road snaking down from further up the mountain. A nearby signpost helpfully informed them that Helgen was up the rather steep road and Riverwood was the other way; a third sign, labelled 'Falkreath' directed travellers to the southwest road. It took another twenty minute slog up the mountain for the road to level out and the burnt out wreck of Helgen to come into view. Asuka sped up into a jog towards the gates and Shinji, already out of breath from the climb, struggled to keep up.

Asuka pulled the gate open and headed into what remained of the village. Shinji jogged through the partially open gate and almost ran right into her back. She was stopped in the middle of the road, taking in the devastation caused by the dragon. The fires had died down, the smoke cleared enough for them to see the results of the attack. Numerous bodies, mostly soldiers, littered the ground. Apart from the stone keep to their right, there was not a single intact building left in the entire village.

Asuka turned around to give Shinji a concerned look. "The thing that did this... I'm pretty sure the soldiers didn't even manage to wound it," she grimly remarked.

"We were all caught by surprise," replied Shinji. "Nobody even noticed the dragon until it was right on top of us."

Looking around at the ruined village, Asuka sighed. "We should tell someone about this. One of the local mayors or something."

"Jarls," Shinji absently corrected, stepping past her and looking around for what they came for. "My knowledge of Skyrim isn't much though. We'll have to ask when we get to Riverwood." His questing eyes stopped, locking onto an overturned cart near the other gate. "There it is!"

The pair ran over to the cart; Shinji's heart sank when he noticed the burn marks on one side of it. As they came around, they saw the contents of the cart spilled onto the ground. The nearby fire had seemingly gone out partway through consuming everything.

"Ah, damnit," Asuka groaned, reaching down and picking up a chunk of metal that turned out to be a large axe head; what remained of the handle was still on the ground.

"...Sorry, Asuka," Shinji mumbled, ashamed that he had brought her here just to, basically, get her family's weapon destroyed.

Asuka glanced at him. "Hmm? Oh, this?" She waved the axe head. "Well... sure, it's a pain in the ass, but it can be fixed. Just need to get a blacksmith to fashion a new handle."

"Wait... that's it?" Shinji tilted his head to the side. "What about it being a family heirloom?" He had to pause upon seeing the amused look on Asuka's face.

"Shinji, this is my family's axe, yes," Asuka explained, slowly as if she were talking to a child. "But it has been my family's axe for hundreds of years. It's a weapon. Weapons get used. Sometimes the blade's needed fixing up, or maybe even a reforge or replacement. Perhaps an ancestor decided to engrave some great accomplishment into it. I'll bet one of them broke the handle while cleaving a beast's head in two. It's changed over time, sure, but it's still a damn good axe. It's still my family's axe."

Shinji blinked several times in astonishment. "So then... getting a new handle doesn't matter?"

"Not in the long term, no." Asuka hefted the axe head thoughtfully. "Actually while I'm at it, I should see if there's anything that can be done to make it less prone to getting turned to ash, since there's giant fire-breathing beasts going around now."

"That could be your contribution to the heirloom!" Shinji abruptly exclaimed.

"Exactly!" Asuka looked up at the sky. "...And killing that son of a bitch with it would be even better." She brought her gaze back down to earth. "Anyway, did your book make it?"

All thoughts of the axe suddenly gone from his memory, Shinji dropped to his knees and began digging through what was left of the cart's contents. Several weapons had survived the fire mostly intact, due to being made from metal, but as he expected his staff was not one of them. Only the crystal remained, but that was cracked and useless.

Sighing in disappointment, Shinji chucked the pieces behind him and shifted a sack out of the way. A book lay underneath it; he inhaled sharply, only for the breath to catch in his throat as his eyes took in the condition of the book. His head dropped to his chest and he brought up a hand to rub at his eyes as they began to sting with tears. It looked as if a flame atronach had simply taken a bite out of the book.

"...Damn." Asuka knelt down next to him, taking in the state of the book. "I don't suppose there's any kind of magic that can restore damaged books is there."

"If there is, I don't know about it," Shinji hollowly replied, standing up. He turned around and began to walk back towards the gate.

"Huh? Wait!" Asuka called out behind him. "What about the book?"

Shinji stopped, but didn't look back. "What about it?" he dully asked. "It's not like your axe. I can't just get new pages and write things."

He couldn't see her, but he was fairly sure Asuka was scowling, probably with her hands on her hips. "Yeah, but you just said you don't know if there's magic that can repair books. I've seen you throw ice from your hands and turn to stone. I know there's other crazy shit magic can do. Who's to say there isn't something that can repair the book?"

Everything he had learned about magic had been from his mother, the Archmage of the Mage's Guild in Imperial City. Of course, his learning had been cut tragically short. It was possible that a spell, probably from the School of Restoration, could... well... restore the book.

Something waved in front of his face and he jolted backwards; it was Asuka, brandishing the ruined book. "Look, worst case scenario is that the book is toast. Best case is you can get the book fixed, but you can't do that if you just leave it here."

With the decision now out of his hands, Shinji sighed as Asuka shucked off the backpack she had stolen from the torture room and opened it up, dropping his mother's book inside. She hesitated for a moment, then put a hand into the backpack and drew out the black book she had also taken.

The first thing Shinji noticed about the book was that it had the insignia of the Imperial Legion on the front cover. The second was the title. "Oh right, that book about Dragonborn."

"Yeah, figured I'd give it a quick read while we're heading to Riverwood." Asuka looked skyward again. "I think we're going to need to learn all we can about dragons. They don't just disappear for hundreds of years then suddenly come back to attack a single town."

"...You think there's going to be more dragons?"

"I'm sure of it." Asuka headed off towards the gate they had entered the town through. "Fate's not going to be so kind as to throw just one at us."

Shinji glanced around at the ruined town. If there were more dragons to come, it was likely that the events of Helgen would repeat themselves elsewhere. "In that case, we should probably not waste any more time and get to Riverwood." He broke into a slow jog, passing Asuka just before she reached the gate.

Asuka snorted in amusement. "Hah. Sure you can keep up that pace all the way, spell-slinger?"

He glanced over his shoulder. "Probably for longer than you expect, mercenary!"

A grin erupting on her face, Asuka returned the book to the backpack and began to jog as well.

XXX

Going downhill was certainly easier than uphill, but Shinji had to take care not to slip and sprain -or break- an ankle. While he could simply heal the injury with magic, as Asuka had said before, it was better to just not get hurt in the first place. The boots he had been given, while at least close to the right size, were rather uncomfortable, and he would probably have to take a healing spell to his feet when they finally reached Riverwood.

By the time they reached a hairpin turn in the path, half an hour later, Shinji was more than ready to take a break while Asuka looked like she could continue for another hour. Thankfully for him, there was something that caught their attention.

"Well those rocks look ominous," Asuka remarked, heading down the slope where a trio of stones, taller than bother of them, sat at the corner of a second hairpin turn.

Slowing down to a walk and rubbing a hand across his brow, Shinji walked over to the closest one and examined it. Underneath a perfectly circular hole in the rock, a cloaked figure wielding a dagger had been engraved into the stone. "Oh, these are... uh..." It took Shinji's mind a moment to cough up the information. "Standing stones. That's it. Supposedly they're attuned with the thirteen birthsigns. Nobody really knows where they came from, but they've been said to grant power to those they deem worthy. Cyrodiil has some too, but they don't look like these ones."

Asuka nodded distractedly, placing a hand on the stone with an image of an axe-wielding warrior. "Oh yeah, I think I've seen them." She paused a moment, then shrugged. "Well damn, I guess I'm not worwhoah!"

A beam of light shot down from the sky, striking the stone she had touched and causing it to glow green. Lines appeared over the stone's image, resembling the constellation of the Warrior. After a few seconds the stone faded back to dull rock.

"...Do you feel any different?" Shinji hesitantly asked.

Asuka flexed the hand that had touched the rock. "I... don't really know," she replied. "I guess I feel a bit more... energetic?"

"Well... if the Warrior and the Thief are here..." Shinji mused, stepping up to the third stone. "Mage, just as I thought. I'll give this one a try."

Just as with Asuka, the stone he touched began to glow. He could feel the magicka embedded in the stone rapidly flow into him until the glow faded. He glanced at Asuka. "I, uh, guess the stones think we're worthy?"

"Yeah, but what did they actually do?" Asuka tried touching the Warrior stone again, but nothing happened.

"Maybe we'll find out later." Shinji pointed down the road, that was starting to run alongside a river. "Riverwood should hopefully be not far away now."

They set off again. Despite being out of breath when they had stopped at the stones, Shinji found he could now easily keep up with Asuka; by the time they saw a gate up ahead he wasn't even winded. Was it the blessing of the stones? Surely the Mage Stone would have given him some magical power, not simply the ability to run for a long time... right?

He would have to look into this at some point. For now, though, Riverwood awaited.