{ === + === }
It is roughly midday by the time we make it back to Whiterun. The first thing we do, of course, is to ask around for a family that's missing two little girls.
…which, if nothing else, shows my naivety on the whole subject matter. There isn't a governmental organization that keeps track of missing children, and the guards are…not exactly in the business of going out to find missing people. Searches, if they get conducted, tend to be done by people who know what they're looking for, which is usually family members, and the personal guards they employ.
In other words: the further down the economy ladder you go, the less likely you'll end up with search parties. Obviously exceptions exist, but we don't talk about them because they are exceptions.
Anyhoo, this means that I spent three hours to find out that these two girls are very much so unwanted and unclaimed. I'm leery to advertise because I don't want them to be taken away by some random nimrod, and frankly the fact that the two girls have been completely silent while under our guardianship isn't really helping matters.
I imagine it's a trauma thing. I don't have anywhere near enough psychotherapy knowledge to make a diagnosis though, so I'll lay off.
…So. What do I do?
We are now back home, with the girls napping next to the hearth that is indoors.
…they are dirty, malnourished, and tired. Riding on a cart in a caravan is pretty tiring, especially if you haven't eaten anything.
And we can tell because…
They won't talk, but they'll still nod or shake their head when prompted.
…Ok, so…
…Ugh.
"Can the two of you stay here for a little while? I need to step outside for a bit." I ask them. Please don't die of neglect.
The older one nods.
"Ok, good. I'll be back in a little bit." I say, and leave in a hurry.
Where are we headed?
The market. Jake is out hunting for real estate so I can't task him with my menial chores anymore. I mean, I know I asked, but…
We go to the market and purchase, in no order of importance: large bolts of cloth, large bags of cotton, fresh meats, grains, veggies, and potatoes.
I get the foodstuffs carted back to my house because I don't have the physical strength or the number of hands to carry the number of things I bought. Total cost: around 90 gold-ish.
Ok.
We are now home again, with a cart of food.
"Yo." Jake says. "Out shopping?" I guess he showed up when I was out. It was like a twenty minute trip so I'm not too surprised.
Still, good timing. "Aye. Taking a break from househunting?"
"Eeh." He shrugs. "Erik's got an eye for property, so I'm having him do some of the leg work. Kid wants to help, so I might as well let him."
Fair. "Cool, can you give me a hand?" I ask him and gesture to the cart of food. "Cook for four."
"Sure thing." Jake says. I prep some hot water, we wash, then go to work.
We do our work outside.
"How long do you think the kids are going to be here?" He asks as we cook.
"I have no idea." I admit. "I'm trying not to think of what we have to do next."
"The Whiterun Orphanages are already overcapacity." Jake says and shakes his head. "That is the most fucked up sentence I think I've ever had to say."
Aye. "I'm thinking about sending them to Riften." I wince after saying that. I say 'sending' because I've just come from a rather tiring business trip (so to speak) and I'm not in the mood to make another one that is potentially more dangerous.
The fact that I am willing to send two little girls to do exactly just that says a lot about my moral compass, doesn't it?
"Uh…" Jake says slowly.
I know. "Like, send them with a caravan with a bit of gold and just cross my fingers." I shake my head.
"Yeah, that ain't happening." Jake chuckles. "We both know it."
Har. "I figured as much. Could you finish up? I wanna prepare a shower."
"I figured as much." Jake parrots me with a grin. "What for?" He asks, just to rib me.
We do, in fact, blush. "Nobody eats at my table without washing." I say as toughly as I can.
"Yeah, yeah." He smirks as I go back into my house.
The two girls are napping next to the hearth. They're so tiny.
And so dirty, too. C'mon.
"Hey, you two." I say with just enough loudness to not scare them. "Wake up."
They stir. The younger one looks at me wi-no don't rub your eyes your hands are dirty
"Food's going to be ready soon." I say gently. "But before that, the two of you need to get clean. Can you stand?"
They both look at me blankly, but get onto their feet. God they're tiny, it hurts to look.
"Alright, come on." I take their hands and lead them outside, to the shower that I set up. Again, it's a bucket hanging high in the middle of a quad of hefty cloth to give them some privacy. This time, the square frame used to hang the cloth is a lot bigger, because I need room for myself and the two girls.
Erm.
I have zero faith that they can bathe normally.
"Ok, strip down." I'm beginning to see a problem here. I don't have a spare set of clothes for the girls to change into. Erm…
…well, one thing at a time.
The girls strip down as they're told and, again, they're so tiny…and so very bony. Good god.
Also they're incredibly dirty, so let's focus exclusively on that and worry about their health later.
Ok, here we go. I uncork the stopper on the first bucket and the water begins to flow. "You first." I gesture to the older girl, and she timidly steps forward and into the stream of warm water.
It makes her squeak in surprise, which I'm going to convince myself that it is a good thing. Ok. "Now stand still. Hold on to me if it helps."
I get my newest, and most amazing tool: a towel! PLUS SHAMPOO!
…kinda. Sorta.
Erm.
…so…you know how the trip back to Whiterun took a few hours? Well, travel is a great time to read, and I just happened to pick up the new best seller~
So. Transmutation. To summarize, it's basically my Replace but without the requirement of needing a destination rawmat—er, basically, if I wanted to Replace a section of armor with an Iron band, I would need to have that iron band on hand. Transmute doesn't have that requirement in lieu of having a hideously high mana cost, with the cost increasing exponentially depending on a] the volume of material being transmuted and b] the difference in material composition.
I tested point b) by transmuting two small pebbles: from dirt to iron, and from dirt to chicken meat. Dirt to chicken nearly made me pass out, while dirt to iron was 'merely' draining.
The material that we're transmuting into is also dependent on the knowledge that the caster has on said material. The chicken meat wasn't very tasty and was still vaguely dirt-like, for example. The quality of the material asymptotically increases to 100% with each cast is what I'm saying.
So all this talk circles back to the fact that I've used an incredible godlike power to make some soap and shampoo, and I am going to use it to clean up a pair of orphans.
…honestly? I think this is probably the best use out of this power.
It doesn't sting, too.
…seriously though, how does it work?
Transmute water into shampoo, transmute dust into 'no sting powder', Replace 'material in shampoo' with 'no sting powder'. If I had the energy to rinse and repeat it I would, but I don't, so I'll just make do with this for now. It's powder, which is cool. I have enough for a small packet and it is, quite literally, only somewhat better than nothing.
Anyhoo!
I use half of it and mix it with the hot running water. When the towel's nice and slippery I get to work cleaning the slightly bigger girl. Some of the dirt's already been washed off by the water, so the soap has a little less work to do. The water running down her legs are basically black with dirt.
Some thirty seconds of scrubbing.
I pause a little upon realizing that I would have to clean her more intimate areas, but hygiene comes before social norms. I'll get her to clean up after herself when she's better fed.
Some more thirty seconds of scrubbing.
She had wispy, gray, matted hair going into the shower. Coming out, her hair is sky blue. It's very pretty and goes to the middle of her shoulder blades.
"Wow." I whisper. And then I remember that Mirmulnir's attack was practically two months ago. Time flies, no? Two months is more than enough time for a girl to starve to death, so good on her for having held on for so long.
"Ok." I give the older girl a pat on the shoulder. "Get one of those towels and dry yourself off." I turn to the younger girl. "Your turn." I uncork a second bucket.
She, with far less reluctance compared to the older girl, walks into the water. She also squeaks in surprise upon realizing that the water is warm.
We scrub her down. She's…um. Purple? Purple-blue-ish? Hair that goes to her neck at best. Wine-colored hair? Red-wine colored hair?
But anyways, the second bucket of water's gone and she's cleaned up nice and proper, and I also send her to the towels so she can dry off.
They do a…decent…job, and are now clean and somewhat dry. They are also starting to shiver so we should probably head indoors.
"Done?" Jake asks as we leave the shower setup and back into the house. "Good, food's ready." He's already set the table for four. We have a full spread: soup, veggies, meat, bread, not divided into any portions.
"Awesome." I lead the two girls by the hand to the table. "Jake, take care of them for a bit." I then bolt back into the house storage for the cloth, cotton, and my sewing gear.
Nothing frilly, nothing tacky, just make two dresses at MAXIMUM SPEED
It takes us eight minutes to sew two dresses. Meanwhile, Jake has the girls huddle over the hearth again so they don't get a cold.
The dresses are very, very basic. It's basically two tubes of cloth sewn together with cotton stashed in the middle. The stitching holds up, though if I pull on it with any semblance of force it buckles rather worryingly, so…well, it'll hold for this meal and honestly that's all I need it to do for now.
We gained five points.
"Whew." I leave the back room. The two girls may be shivering harder despite Jake's best attempt to wrap them in a second blanket each.
Ok. "Let's get you two dressed." I hand over one of the dresses to Jake, and we get the two of them warm. "How does it feel?" I ask afterwards. "Does it scratch anywhere?" I'm a little worried about my handiwork.
The older girl shakes her head, and the younger follows suit in an act of big-sister mimicry. They don't seem to have a problem with it immediately, so that's good…
We then eat dinner without further incident.
I hope they liked the food.
Anyways, bedtime!
…minor tangent: the layout of our house.
We have a big room with a fireplace and a table. I built the fireplace because I don't trust myself to have an open flame in the middle of the floor. The big room also stores a multitude of boxes and barrels that store basic necessities like foodstuffs. Attached to the big room are three small rooms—one for my enchanting table, one for enchanting material like the enchanting books (currently one), and one that's basically an armory (also has only one resident). The bed is built on the second floor-ish: there's basically a somewhat walled-off half-attic that's built close to the fireplace to take advantage of the residual heat. I've also Replaced some steel pipes into the wooden floor with a water system heated by said fireplace, to get better results from the heating.
Anyhoo, the bed's there.
The bed itself, incidentally, has been upgraded into a mattress lined with springs. It's about the comfiest thing I can do because I don't know how modern (like, post-my-Highschool) mattresses work.
I made it big because I like big beds. It's like a solid ten-by-ten(by 1.5) feet of material. So we get the girls to sleep here.
Upon seeing that the bed bounces, younger girl gives (oh my heart) she gives the mattress a little push, but she doesn't have the arm strength to move the spring. I want to give her all the hugs.
So…real talk. What's the plan for the future?
I have no idea. I imagine that, as these girls are exposed more to the outside world as clean and well-kept girls with no obvious parents, "parents" might start appearing from the woodwork under the presumption that these kids are somehow lost nobility. So…either I'm handing them off or I'm keeping them around. I get attached easily, so it's better that I hand them off early.
What about Jake?
He's sleeping next to the fireplace on one of the many futons I made.
And as a caretaker…
He's going to be running a mercenary company. I don't think he's going to be doing a lot of dadding.
…
[Next Day]
…
It's snowing.
Why the fuck is it snowing.
It's like…still fall.
Oh my god.
The snow outside is rather heavy.
I still have work, don't I? At least the forge will be warm.
"Welp." I say after a light breakfast. "I'll be outside at the forge. Stay inside, it might be cold. Don't play with the fireplace."
Older girl nods.
We step outside to our forge.
Oh motherfucker it's cold as tits out here.
We work for like, an hour.
NOBODY ELSE IS OUT HERE WHY AM I OUT HERE
…
Yeah I'm done.
The snow has gotten harder and it's impossible to work out here.
What are we working on, anyways?
Steel wiring. A new tool for me to play with, really.
But it's cold and snowy and I just don't want to be out here anymore, so I'm going home.
So we do.
The two girls have, mercifully, not done anything to burn down the house, though I get the feeling they may not have done much of anything in the past hour.
…well, not like I have anything akin to parental experience.
We spend the rest of the day reading our spellbooks and the enchanting reference book.
…
[Next day]
Well that was irritating. The strength of the snow made it feel like the roof was going to collapse at one point. Fortunately I could responsibly clear the snow via shooting fire from my hands.
I am a bad parental figure.
Anyways, thanks to magic, my yard and forge is cleared. Throughout the day, teams of mages…oh, I guess that's why the roads are pretty clear. Teams of mages clear the streets with a sweeping janitor team, and they burn/sweep the snow off the street. The result is still a wet, gloppy mess, but at least it's done faster.
So…
Since me and Jake had all the time in the world(ish) yesterday, we trained, planned, talked, and wrote. It's decided that we would document all the neat shit we want to build and draw diagrams for later use. The paper, of course, is built from transmuted plant waste—parts of veggies we don't eat, straw, etc.
Transmuting is doing a lot of work for improving my quality of life, not gonna lie. I now have a stack of printer paper (ish) lying on my desk and inside a series of wooden book binders. The paper is thicker than actual printer paper and is smoother than sold paper, and its way the fuck better than that paper for my purposes of writing and documentation.
Through our practice, both of us gained fifteen perk points each. I had points stashed that I didn't use beforehand, so we both sat and checked the tables again before taking points.
Result: Jake takes five ranks of nutritious cooking (better food results), five ranks of missile awareness (increased evasion against arrows), and five ranks of poison resistance (gives poison resistance).
I have a major perk, so I take Enhanced Magic Breathing. I now regenerate mana at quadruple speed before bonuses, though I also take 4x damage from magic attacks.
For my minors, I take ten ranks of heal mastery (better healing effects), 10 ranks of magic recovery (mana recover speed up), four ranks of weapon and armor making masteries, and two ranks of tailor mastery.
For the last two points (because I could not do math), I took a rank of enchant mastery, and a rank of Multicast mastery (better results when casting two spells at once).
Basically, I want to fill out my role of a mage fighter in the event that I get jumped in a dark alley…while staying true to the fact that I have a day job that involves comparatively less violence. Jake is sufficiently worried about being assassinated that he's proactively taking precautions against it. He's getting pretty famous, after all, and if current trends are anything to go by, it's not gonna stop.
Anyways, snow is over. I'm outside at my forge. A lot of people need daily necessities like nails, lanterns, fire pokers, and so on, so I'm more or less making those.
The girls have received clothes that weren't made in eight minutes. Another thing that transmute can do: change colors. Older girl now has a metal blue-ish dress with extra thick cotton padding, and younger girl has a similar dress but in a metallic maroon. I didn't want to make the dresses brightly colored because that draws unnecessary attention.
Given that it's sunny and relatively warm, the two of them are now outside. I'm having them play outside to help build up their strength, though they're afraid of my regular customers…the fact that I picked up two children from a slave raid is an open secret, so nobody minds that I now suddenly have two kids. My regulars are as friendly as they could be under the circumstances, and are trying to be on their best behavior.
More importantly.
"Wow, so this is your shop." The Nord Fighter woman…Frieda? Remarks upon coming to my shopfront. "Good afternoon, Ash." She says.
Hm. "Yo." I greet her in reply. "Need something?" It's afternoon, and most of my regulars have left, leaving me to the process of restocking on lanterns. My lanterns are basically steel mesh cubes that let you remove the bottom to attach the candle onto, nothing ingenious. I'm making them because winter's coming and people want to buy them.
"I'm here on a recommendation from Rovain." She says rather dubiously. "But you're a blacksmith." She adds, almost to herself.
"Yeah…?" I do a lot of things. "I can also heal, carpent, tailor, and dechant." Sadly I don't know how to enchant still. I should start retrying. "What did Rovain want you to do here?"
"He wants me to have you check my health." Frieda says, still dubious. "Apparently he thinks rather highly of your clerical skills."
…I know what she means, but it sounds like she wants me to photocopy things for her. "I'm glad for the praise." I say. "Though if you're looking for healing, you'll have to wait." The temple's warmer anyways.
"Oh, sure." Frieda pulls up a chair and warms her hand by the forge. "It looked like you were busy, so I didn't want to impose."
She patiently waits as we finish our lantern. "How are those kids?" She asks as I invite her inside. The kids follow obediently, since (I think) they're terrified of being alone.
"They're more physically fit, though I wish they'd talk." I say. "It'll make everything easier." They also don't know how to write, either, so we can't just give them a pad of paper and be done with it.
"Ain't that a shame." She says and sits down per my invitation. "So, what do you need me to do?"
Easy. "Just hold still for now." I say and put my hand on her head.
So, I've been experimenting with the whole 'nerve ending' healing thing that I learned back at the camp. I've been practicing on myself and some dead chickens. Related: I have some dead nerve endings.
Basically, magic power can be channeled through the nervous system. I plan to go buy books of Calm, Rage, and Hero(?) later, but for now I can get some feedback just by using raw magic power. The nervous system doesn't need to be alive to respond to the magic power, though it feels way better when the system is alive than when it isn't.
A nervous system that ends 'normally', like, say, the tips of the fingers, will have a graduated fade compared to a cut system, which just ends. This way, I'll be able to feel out any faults within the target body's nervous system. The problem, of course, is that if I'm getting too much information I won't be able to pinpoint exactly where the issues within the bodies *are*.
Right now, I am basically always getting too much information…though I do have a guess based on how fast the response rate is. Faster = closer to the point of origin. Raw magic power seems to be slower than electrical power, so…y'know, that's good.
Anyways, I take a look at Frieda's nerve system response and all of it is pretty nominal. I don't have the experience to figure out anything else…correction, mostly nominal. There's a fast blip response that indicates the presence of a nerve-ending injury.
…given the response speed…her hand? Might be her hand. Let's start there.
"Clench your fists for me." I say.
We unconsciously mimic a doctor's tone.
"Ok." She does as she's told…her left pinky doesn't move. Well, it moves, but only in the sense that it's connected to the rest of the hand. It doesn't bend, is the point I'm making.
I put my hand on her pinky, touch a raw chicken, and Transmute/Replace a section of chicken to emulate the nerve endings in her pinky.
Er…
I don't have the medical knowledge to 'make' new nerve tissue, but Transmutation can be mixed with Replace to copy/paste existing materials. The efficiency is also not 100%, but it's better than…like, 2%. If I didn't have this bullshit huge mana pool I don't think this would even be possible, so that's nice. Or something.
In any event. "Alright, try again."
Frieda clenches her entire fist. The pinky's a little stiff, but it seems to be serviceable. Apart from that little tidbit, I didn't feel anything else wrong with her nervous system.
Frieda is staring at her hand, clenching and unclenching it as we move to put the chicken back into an ice box.
"How did you do this?" She asks, sounding rather surprised.
I'm not about to blab. "Trade secret." I say. "That does it for an examination. If you have specific injuries you want looked at, I suggest you go to the temple for a more comprehensive care."
"I'll keep that in mind." Frieda says in a low tone. "Thank you for your services." She drops a pouch of gold on a crate I'm using as a table and leaves. There's about two hundred there.
…what was that all about?
…oh well.
"Are you two hungry?" I ask the girls.
The younger girl nods enthusiastically. Dinner time it is.
…
The next week passes by without incident. Snow starts to come down on a regular basis, but it's light and fluffy and not a big issue to people who are familiar with this environment.
I am not familiar with this environment. Which is why I made coats. They are big, furry, beige (why beige?) and rather cumbersome looking. The fact that they are cumbersome has made me and Jake rather stupid.
"Hello, comrade." Jake says in a stupid fake Russian accent. "How does the morning greet you?"
"Da, comrade." I reply in an equally stupid fake Russian accent. "The snow, it is good for work, eh?"
I mean we even have the circular furry hats, too.
You made them.
I know, and that is why I know they are stupid. Very comfy, though. Missing a red star up front.
"Comrade Ash!" Jake says with one of his better attempts to keep a straight face. "I have request!"
"Yes, Comrade Jake." I reply and I am barely keeping my shit straight. "What is your requ" nope
We burst out laughing.
"Almost. Almost." I almost had it. "What's up, man?" Back to normal I go.
So…
Jake's Warwolf Headquarters is about five doors down to our forge. He's bought an abandoned warehouse (and its neighbor) and is spending some money to redecorate and rebuild the insides as a passable barracks. To that end, he's directing a lot of money throughout the Clover to build rapport and to, y'know, hire people.
He's not funneling money my way because a) I'm going to be Warwolf's chief weapons producer and b) I need to study my magic and my enchanting. Jake's looking into hiring a proper enchanter for the up-and-coming company, but the general consensus is that the cost is too high for a new group that doesn't have a lot of monthly income to back it up.
…So I'm going to be the Smith, Enchanter, Healer, and Tailor of the group. I better get four paychecks.
Jake also tapped Mell to be the party apothecary, and she agreed. She's also moved her old workshop to be at the new building. Her old location was pretty terrible in terms of foot traffic and she was slowly losing money. Plus she still has a crush on Jake (I think) and this is a good opportunity for her.
Aria is nowhere to be seen, and nobody has seen her for a while. If I had to guess, I would think that she's going to find the horn of Jurgen Windcaller, but I have no way to confirm that suspicion.
…is Jurgen Windcaller the Civil War quest target or the Greybeard quest target? I forget.
Erik is the group's quartermaster because he has a mind for these kinds of things. He's also Jake's backup in terms of swinging around objects designed to cause death.
Currently (as of this morning), Warwolf has a total of four leaders and two prospective newcomers, and Jake already has a mission lined up for them (clearing wolves from a farm). I have no comment on how Warwolf's first official mission is to wage war on wolves.
Anyways. While he's off doing that, I'm going to learn my magics and then focus all of my efforts on figuring out enchanting.
First off, I have my eyes set on the spells Calm, Fury, Courage (not Hero), and Ward (of the lesser variety). If I bankrupted myself I could buy all four books, but I'm not in that much of a hurry. I have enough spare cash to buy two of the four, and so I took Ward and Courage.
Ward is basically what I wanted Oakskin to be. A ward is a shield of magical energy projected in a shape pointed in a certain direction (usually in front of the caster). The shield absorbs a certain amount of incoming MAGICAL energy and bleeds it off into the environment. Wards can be strengthened by pouring more power into it, and its shape is changeable (with more esoteric shapes taking inordinately more power). Wards can be broken by magic that either a) overpower the ward entirely or b) can 'pierce' the ward somehow.
I stress magic because it can't stop physical strikes. I got Jake to toss some pebbles and they went through the wards without problem. Otherwise, wards…do pretty much what I want them to do. I have big plans for this thing if and only if I can get enchanting to work.
Note: Wards soak incoming force based on its impact size. Magic tends to 'bleed' when it comes into contact with a target, which allows the ward to soak more of it. A pebble with kinetic energy will impact a smaller area and lose less energy as a result. We don't really find this out until later because Jake threw the pebble as hard as he could and it went straight through the ward.
Courage is basically liquid stupidity. The target becomes more confident and more willing to take stupid risks, becomes more resilient to magic damage, and is in general more willing to do stupid things. The spell does not increase health or actual damage resistance. I have every reason to believe that this spell affects the target's nervous system, but the only thing I can observe is the outward effect, so…yeah.
I think the spell can be used for interesting things, but I don't know how to make use of it yet.
…
As for Enchanting…
Given that the previous system did not yield results, I figured I should go back to the drawing board. Over the week I have gone through four different such drawing boards. No luck so far.
Is it possible to hire an enchanter to teach us?
I'm sure I mentioned this before, but enchanting is a pretty rare business and good enchanters are highly desired. I…don't have the money to get an enchanter to come to the Clover and teach it to me. All the good enchanters (the ones that can teach the skill) are attached to a house or a guild, so getting those houses to farm them out is nigh impossible. The alternative is to farm myself out to a house with enchanters (i.e. Battle-Born) but that implies that they will agree in the first place.
Still, I think I have something promising. Prior attempts resulted in me using one soulstone to do what I wanted to do. Now I'm using n+2.
Erm.
n being the amount of enchants that can theoretically be placed into an item. When I'm trying to enchant one item, I first Transmute and Replace the soulstone into a wire-like shape, taking inspiration from the illustrations within the enchanting book. I then Replace the soulstone wire with a metallic wire that I've built (Replaced) into the weapon.
I am abusing my power.
Next, soulstone 1 is used as a balancer for my magical power. I get the sense that I don't know how much energy I'm using and that's causing problems, so this stone is there to prevent that.
Soulstone 2 is used as the transference tool for the actual enchant, and it uses Soulstone 1 to bleed off excess energy as it places the enchant into the weapon.
…Sadly, this is all theoretical because I don't have an enchanted weapon to show for all of my theorycrafting, but I have managed to enchant a pair of fruit knives to be slightly hot and slightly cold respectively. I know they are their respective temperatures because I burned the cold one and froze the hot one and they didn't change. Or else I could just be bullshitting, I have no idea.
In game terms, both knives deal 1 point of elemental damage and reduce the target's resistance to that element by 1% per hit. The active mind will never find out.
On the plus side, all this got me 60 points to spend, so that's something. Jake only got 30 for the same time period, so I'm catching up.
So…
I take 60 ranks of magic recovery. I'm not entirely sure what is wrong with me.
I also take the final ranks of Magic Breathing and Magic Channeling perks, so now I have a massive MP pool that recovers extremely quickly. I will also explode into a million pieces if I'm ever hit with something like a fireball. I am very glad that I was not hit by a fireball back against the bandits.
I also take the next rank of Combat Support (double crafting skill experience, half experience of everything else).
Why?
I uh…to be honest, I was having a bit of a downer kind of day when deciding what perks to pick, and I just kind of…y'know, went with the simplest option. Less depressingly, I'm like 20 points away from maxing out magic recovery, and I'm very curious to see what's going to happen when I do.
Also, fun fact: taking the ranks gave me something like an adrenaline rush, because I could not stop shaking for the better part of the day.
As Jake usefully pointed out after the fact: "yeah, you have to spread 'em out over a few hours or things get weird." So that's nice.
And the children?
Have more or less recovered physically. Younger girl helps out by cleaning vegetables when I need to cook, while older girl tries to do everything she can.
…It would make everything easier if they could talk, though. I've done checkups on them and I'm reasonably certain their mute-ness is not because of actual damage to their throats. I've also heard them talk behind my back in very hushed tones, so that's…y'know, good indication that they're capable of speech.
What's the problem if they never speak?
They become unable to reliably defend themselves in court due to the lack of a standardized form of sign language, I guess.
…
[Next Day]
…
There's a bit of a hubbub. A few guards are rushing over to one of the more middle-class houses near the temple district.
"What's going on?" I ask a nearby guard.
"Somebody ransacked Amren's house last night." The guard replies. "We're on the lookout for suspects."
Amren…Amren…um…I feel like I should know that name. It's still bright and early, so I'm gonna go take a look.
We hang a "Out Walking" sign over our forge.
People complained when I left the other day without so much as a prior notice so I made this sign. Plus, this is a good way to stop them from knocking on the door and scaring the kids.
Let's see here…there's a small but building crowd in front of one of the houses. I'm going to assume that's Amren's place. Let's see here…
The house's front door has been forced open, based on the fact that it is swinging on its hinges in a very…loose, kind of way. The insides look seriously tossed, and the ground is just scattered with shards of pottery and destroyed flowers.
Wow, somebody had it out for 'em.
We mutter that thought out loud.
After a few minutes, the guards manage to scatter the crowd. I lag behind because I'm curious and have a slightly warped sense of self preservation. Amren and three guards take stock inside the house and come out after the crowd had dispersed more or less.
Some people (like us) are still hanging around, a good twenty feet away, trying to listen in.
"What happened here?" One of the guards asks Amren. "Start from the beginning."
"I don't know." Amren says while clutching a bloodied cloth to his head. "I heard a loud noise and woke up, and four of these…strangers…were in the house." He takes a breath. "Ok, I don't know if it was four, but I met four over the course of the night."
"What did they look like?" Another guard asks. The third guard walks over to me. Based on his body language, he's one of the guards usually patrolling the Clover.
"Hey, Ash." The guard says. "Can you come take a look? He's bleeding kind of bad…his wife needs some help too."
Aye aye. I nod and head in.
"Who are you?" Amren says to me, a little rudely. "Wait." He stops short. "I've seen you at the Temple of Kynareth. Can you take a look at my wife? She's inside, sleeping."
Uh…I'm a little bit paranoid, so here's to hoping that she is literally just 'sleeping'.
First things first though. "Sure. Take that cloth off first." I say to him. He obliges, and I put in a round of healing onto his head before heading into the room.
Amren's headwound was a shallow cutlass cut. Normally it would heal after a day or so.
…
The insides of the house isn't very large. There's two bedrooms, a kitchen/living space, and a storage room. Everything is also trashed, with broken pieces of everything scattered every which way. It feels like a bull gained sentience and decided that he hates all china shops with a burning passion.
In what I assume is the master bedroom is Amren's wife along with two guards. The bedroom is hideously bloody, along with a dead Redguard dude in Redguard gear. I guess we know what caused this.
Amren's Wife is…oh dear. "She's…sleeping." I ask for confirmation.
"That's what we told Amren." Guard A replies. "Better if he doesn't get his hopes up about Saffir."
Amren's Wife, Saffir, is…uh…for context, upon entering the bedroom I thought the sheets were red as a decoration.
I put my hand to her head and run a nerve check.
Verdict: she's alive, but it's not looking good. There's a shitton of dead stops, to the point where I don't know what's going on below her waist.
I run another set of checks, starting from her hands and feet. By the looks of these responses, her torso has been messed up something fierce.
We glance at the bundle of rags bunched over her body. It's a bloody mess.
In retrospect, I could've guessed this without using magic. She's still alive, though, which is kind of incredible given how red everything is.
"Let's get these rags out of the way." I say to the guards. "Give me a hand."
We remove the rags and…wow. She has severe cuts all over her body, along with what I'm assuming is a piercing strike right through the lower left section of her torso. I think something vital is there.
Um…well, she's still alive (somehow), so let's see if we can do something about this.
"The two of you, get that corpse out of here." I order while getting a metal washbasin. "Last thing I need is more contaminants in here."
"Aye." Guard B says readily and carries the corpse out with Guard A.
When out of our earshot, Guard A asks B a question. "Can we really trust him with this?"
"If he wants to try, then it's his problem." Guard B replies with a shrug as they toss the body out of the back door. "Besides, it's that healer living in the Clover. He's pretty good."
"Yeah…yeah." Guard A nods to make himself feel better. "Besides, Saffir's tough. She's practically a half-orc."
"She'll kill you if she heard that." Guard B chuckles.
Ok…let's see. Where do I begin? Let's…first take stock of the situation.
Saffir's been bleeding for an unknown amount of time, to the point where, by all rights, she should have died. She's wounded in many areas, badly wounded in many other areas, and has a near-fatal injury in one part of her body. She's likely lost a lot of blood, and I don't even know how oxygen deprived her brain has been for the past…well I mean, if she's still alive she should be fine, right?
Hmm…well, the body dies when it gets so out of balance it stops being able to…er…balance. The first thing I have to do is…to keep the brain from dying. To do that, I need to make sure it has oxygen.
Normally…what happens normally? The bloodstream carries oxygen into the brain area and it…does weird biology things and good things happen. For this to work, I would need to have her lungs and her veins…and her heart…to work.
…yeah that's not happening. What else can I do?
Um…
…Well, I just need to get oxygen to her brain, right? In that case, I have other ways of doing this.
We set a pair of soul stones near her head.
As long as I'm using a spell, I can use soul stones to help channel those spells as if I was enchanting. The spell gets burned and used, but so long as energy is provided they can cast for me. In this case, I put a switching type effect into the first gem and extra energy into the second one.
While switching materials is technically a perk and not a spell, the perk's effects still cause a spell reaction (in the same way that, say, the Voice of the Emperor racial trait causes a Charm spell reaction in Oblivion). Since the reaction is a spell, I can then put it into a soulstone for a reduced effect.
In this case, the perk is collecting oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere and is directly injecting it into the blood that goes into the brain (wherever it may be). It's not great, but it should at least keep her brain sustained for a while.
Next…what should I do next? Um…
I need…to start repairing damage. Let's start with…uh…the parts that are the most critical to the body's functionality. So, first up, the circulatory system.
We begin to pump magic power into her entire body and throughout her slowly congealing bloodstream.
…
[3rd Person Camera]
…
Outside, the two guards responsible for disposing of the body had rounded the corner on the house and were in the front.
"Yo." The front guard greets the two of them. "How's Saffir?"
Amren, sitting with his head buried in his face, perks up slightly.
"That Clover healer is looking at her right now." Guard B says calmly. "We'll know by the end of the day."
One way or another. Guard A adds mentally. "Amren, how do you feel?" He asks.
"I'll live." Amren sighs. "What happened?"
"What we think happened aligns with your story, Amren." Guard B says. "Seems like this was done by that dead Redguard and his friends. We'll see if we can get some information out of the one we captured, but I won't be surprised if they're looking for Saadia."
"But…Saadia's at the Bannered Mare." Amren says in slight disbelief. "Not my house. Why come to my home?"
Guard A rolls a small medal around his finger. "I got this off of the dead guy." He says. "It doesn't look like the ones the visitors to the Bannered Mare had. My bet's that there are multiple groups working here, and not all of them are smart." He shows the medal to Amren.
Amren stares at the medal as if it was responsible for everything that had happened. As far as Amren knew, it was.
…
[1st Person Camera]
…
…Whew. Ok. Pumping magic through her veins isn't giving me any other significant issues, so most of the major problems should be patched. Next…
…Motherfuck. I forgot something very important.
We set another pair of soulstones for Healing To Immunity.
I need her immunities at full blast, especially since it looks like she's stopped breathing. Doesn't matter too much, I don't think, since we're basically keeping her alive as a brain jar right now. This will definitely cause problems down the line, but we can cross those bridges when we get to them.
What's next…
…I need to fix her internal organs. Or at least check to see if internal organs need fixing (they probably do). I should…start from the least critical components and move inwards? Start from the most critical and move outwards?
Let's do it from the bottom up. We'll finish with the heart and lungs. If I'm doing circulation via magic then, strictly speaking, the heart and lungs are secondary in importance.
…Let's also prepare the rest of my soulstones to help keep each organ oxygenated and functional. Whatever the fuck that means.
…
[3rd Person Camera]
…
As Ash continues to feel his way through Skyrim's first magically assisted surgery, Healer Danica Purespring arrives at the front of Amren's house along with a young orc and Braith in tow.
"Dad!" Braith yells as she sees Amren hunched and sitting. "Are you ok?!"
Amren leaps to his feet. "Braith!" Braith leaps into his arms. "Daddy's ok. Daddy's ok." He pats his daughter on the back softly. "Can you wait for daddy here?" He says.
Braith nods and lets go of Amren's hand. "Can I go home?" She asks the guard standing at the threshold of her doorstop. "I want to see mommy."
Guard A feels his heart tighten. "Your mother is sleeping. Don't wake her." He says and gives Braith a gentle but nevertheless stopping hand. "I'm sorry, but you really should wait here."
"…ok." Braith leans against the wall and tried to find interesting things to look for in the dirt near her feet. Children tend to be good at picking up the feelings of adults, especially when one such feeling is complete and utter panic.
Amren, upon letting Braith go, rushes right over to Danica. "I-is she ok?" He asks and grasps her hand. "She hasn't been hurt or anything, right?" He couldn't see anything wrong with his little girl, but…
"Braith is alright." Danica smiles. "A few minor cuts but nothing else." She chose not to mention the bits of metal she had to dig from her arm, an all-too-common result of being cut by badly maintained swords.
Amren breathes out. "Great. That's wonderful." He looks around, relieved. "C-Can you go and check on the condition of my wife? A Healer's already in there, but I'd feel much better if it was a true healer from Kynareth, rather than…well…I'm sure he means well, but…" He trails off as his emotions fight each other for the best words to use.
"Let us see." Danica says and makes a beckoning motion to the orc. The two of them make their way to the window looking into Amren's bedroom. She takes one look through the dusty and slightly warped glass and smiles.
"Something wrong?" Guard A asks slowly.
"Hardly." Danica's smile tempers itself a little. "Haskar." She says. "Pay attention." She gestures into the room and leans to the orc. "Watch closely."
Haskar narrows his eyes and peers through the glass. Inside, the man had arranged a series of stones around the woman on the bed, and had the glow of Healing Hands around his palms. Haskar could not help but roll his eyes. Just Healing Hands? Any cleric worth his salt in the Temple of Kynareth knows Healing Hands. He was a little disappointed that the great Danica Purespring would put that much stock in some third-rate healer from out of nowhere, especially when the healer doesn't appear to be anything of interest.
…Haskar takes a moment to rein himself in. Danica was—is—a good judge of character, and this was definitely a healer that had Danica's attention. Regardless of his own thoughts on the matter, Haskar figured that he should still focus and see what can be learned from this situation. He returns his attention to the healer's hands.
The Healing glow in the man's hands was…smaller, than he remembered. For the sake of comparison, he casts Healing Hands himself and sees the extremely large glow around his own hand. The aura around the man's hand was near nonexistent.
Haskar, now intrigued, enters the house for the closer look. Ash's Healing Hands had an illumination radius the size of his palm, and, as Haskar watches from the shadows, the glow was steadily shrinking. How's he doing that? He can't help but wonder. In no time, the illumination shrinks to the size of Ash's fingers as he traced his way over the organs beneath him.
Ash's inner thoughts: I have no idea what I'm doing but I think I'm doing good things. Or something to that effect.
For the next two hours, Haskar watches Ash slowly sow together Saffir's insides without really understanding what's going on.
…
[1st Person Camera, two hours later]
…
Ok. Whew. Jesus. This was hard. My hands hurt. Ow.
We shake out our hands with absolutely no knowledge that we're being watched by Haskar, who's standing a little beyond our range of vision (should we turn around).
I think that about covers it for her organs. I'm currently spending 40 petty soul stones to keep her insides stabilized and I think this is a terrible way to do things moving forward.
Regardless, all I have to do now is to restore her heart and then…make a prayer to the right gods that all this works out, I suppose.
Let's do this.
…
[3rd Person Camera]
Amren watches Ash work from the windows along with Danica. "Are you sure about this?" He asks her. "I would much rather have your expertise there."
"Calm your worries." Danica soothes Amren. "That man is one of the finest healers I know."
Amren was not quite convinced. "Is Saffie going to be ok?" He asks insistently.
Danica knew what he was really asking. "We healers cannot do the impossible." She says soothingly. "In a situation like this, all you can do is to pray to the Eight that they give your wife grace. If it helps, you can pray now for their guidance."
"I…alright." Amren finds a place nice to sit and does so. Braith walks over to her father, and both of them offer what prayers they could to the Nine that everything goes well.
Danica makes a prayer as well, though of a different kind. She knew from personal experience that what Ash was trying to do had an astoundingly low success rate, and had hedged her bet by recommending him without stepping in herself. This way, his success would reflect well upon her judgment of character, and his failure would harm only her reputation rather than the reputation of the temple.
As such, Danica prayed to Kynareth that Ash's healing goes well, if only to sooth her own sense of discomfort at throwing him to the proverbial wolves.
…
[1st Person Camera]
It is now dusk.
I've done all I can. Now for the final step.
Ok…what goes first? Blood, right? If the heart ain't pumping then the rest of the system won't be working.
We charge some Shock onto our hands. Haskar, still watching and undetected, nearly breaks his detection to stop us.
Alright, Clear! One quick jolt to the heart in three…two…
ZAP.
Her body jumps and flexes. My hands are telling me that the heart is beating. The blood is moving…let's pump some magic into the veins and move the blood along…more…more…
…beat is irregular. One more time. Clear!
ZAP.
…Lungs have restarted, she is breathing. She is breathing! I hope she doesn't suddenly turn into a zombie and bite me on the neck but otherwise she is breathing!
Magic sense…heart is moving normally, lungs are coming close to normal, circulation is being restored. Ok. Whew. Good. Fuck. Jesus.
I'm tired.
Let's take her off of life support, one set of stones at a time.
So we do, slowly, over the course of the next hour.
The pancreas bone is connected to the…kidney bone.
The kidney bone is connected to the…stomach bone.
The stomach bone is connected to the…bone bone.
The bone bone is…hm. Her appendix is a little weird. Let's see if we can do something about it before it explodes.
We blast some magic into Saffir's appendix, clearing it up without issue. The active mind never finds out that the reason she had an appendix issue (something like appendicitis) was because we had placed her under magical life support.
The bone bone is connected to the…Blood bone.
We continue to butcher that song as we take Saffir off of life support one stone at a time.
…
[The end of the hour]
All soulstones are hereby disconnected. Saffir is breathing normally.
She groans…in a good way. Not in a zombie way. The first time I saw a zombie in Oblivion I freaked the fuck out, and I was like sixteen. I am rambling because I am tired.
"By Kynareth." I hear someone say and how long has that person been there?
We finally notice Haskar six hours after he entered the house. He actually left for a sandwich and we never noticed him leaving or coming back, or chewing.
Oh my god. "Hello." I greet…him? Her? It's hard to tell with the lighting and the fact that he/she/it has a hood over their head. Should I be worried?
"Temple Master!" The…orc? He sounds orc-y. Says. "Amren! Saffir has awakened!" He rushes out in a hurry.
…Was she dead? Oh god, did I just commit necromancy? Necromancy is legal in Skyrim, though, so I should be ok. I should get a set of robes with skulls painted on them.
There's some hubbub outside, and Amren comes into the room and uh…when did I throw up magelights? The room is very bright and I don't remember doing this.
Haskar threw up the lights when it was getting dark. We, as you can see, did not notice.
Anyways, Amren charges into the room, freeze upon seeing Saffir sit up weakly, gives me a look of…I don't know what, and then oh my god
He gives us a bear hug.
He's also crying on my shoulder. A grown man is crying on my shoulder and I don't know what to do somebody help
We weakly give him some pats on the back.
He's crying rather hard on my shoulder. Sir. Sir? Sir! SIR
…
After about five minutes of him just crying his eyes out on my shoulder (my shirt's soaked) he finally let go. Saffir's status seems more or less stable, as judged by Danica Purespring, and so I'm cleared to go. Why didn't she just come in and help? I could've used a set of expert hands.
As I leave, their little girl accosts me. "Thank you for saving my mom." She…Braith? Says. She introduced herself to me like a minute ago and I've half forgotten.
"I did what I could." I say truthfully. "She's the strong one."
Whew.
Saffir would be physically weak for the next six months or so before making a full recovery.
…
When I get home, the two girls leap up and clutch at my pants. I feel bad.
I give them a hug. "Were you lonely?" Big sister nods furiously. I feel really bad. "I'm sorry. Something came up and I couldn't step away."
As soon as I say that, there's a knock at my door. The two girls would not let go (though they have moved to clutching my shirt instead of my pants), so I don't have a choice but to open the door while trailing my girls.
Huh.
They're my girls now. I have claimed ownership.
Anyways, at my door is Jake. Jake and…company. A lot of company. Wow.
In the front row are Jake, Erik, and a very pissed off Mell. Behind them is a quad of four…um. They're basically quadruplets. They all have pink(ish) hair. They all have cat ears. They are all…hot. Like…Aria-level hot.
…ok, not quite Aria-level hot. Still, what gives? Like, either Jake found out how to use a mod manager while inside the game or else he's being hunted by quadruplet succubi, and for some reason I consider both of those options to be realistic and viable.
I don't know what's going on. "You went to kill wolves and came back with…what?"
"Dude, I know." Jake sighs. "It's a long story. How's your day?"
Well…
I mean…
Jake killed some wolves and returned with a 400% increase to his harem.
I saved a mother's life.
Hmm. "All things considered I think I had a decent enough day. What gives?"
Jake, maybe embarrassed, launches directly into the reason why he's here. "We have a contract to find and maybe kill a bunch of Redguards. You in?"
…Yes, tentatively. "As soon as you explain why you suddenly have a girl group backing you up." I say.
"Funny story." Jake says with a nervous grin. "Let's go to the HQ." The HQ being, of course, the home base of the Warwolves.
So…yeah. Let's.
.
.
.
{ === + === }
Author Notes: This feels like a good way to mesh together Sadia and Amren's minor quests.
Also: I would 100% mod in a troop of eerily identical hot anime girls for the sake of…
of…
…actually, pretend I never said anything.