{ === + === }

[3rd Person Camera, Riften]

…

About a week before the Stormcloak army arrives at Whiterun, Aria and Delphine arrive at the siege of Riften. Standing on top of a small hill overlooking the city, they could see the ladders and nets thrown over the city's relatively low walls. Every so often, they could see a volley of magic fired from the Imperial battlemages and the sporadic return fire that is the Stormcloak's own cadre of mages.

Delphine huffs as she sees a volley of fireballs hit the walls. "Much as I hate to admit it, Thalmor mages really are the cream of the crop. You'd never get firepower like that from battlemages nowadays."

"Good thing they're on our side, then?" Aria laughs. "However temporary. What do we do next?"

"First, we need to find a way into the city." Delphine frowns. "Despite all that mess. While it would be safer to wait until this siege resolves one way or the other, accidents do happen."

Aria thinks it over. "Given the violence, sneaking in shouldn't be too difficult. Let's go."

The two of them then wait for an opening. Two hours later, as the Imperial army presses the Stormcloaks hard along the northern walls of the city, the two of them mingle with the lighter southern Imperial Army and, under the guise of being mercenaries, help the Imperial army cut into the guards on the wall and into the city. The Stomcloaks move reserves to the breach, and the two of them slip away into the city as the Imperial Army gets pushed back and off the walls.

Riften, much like the game, is a city sitting on the coasts of a massive lake. A unique city, it comprises two levels of architecture: a 'lower' level, centered around the numerous canals running along the city, and the 'higher' level, centered around the stone core of the marketplace. The locale the two were looking for, incidentally, is the Ratway.

The Ratway is the local nickname for the slums of Riften, which makes up the unacknowledged third level of the city. A mix of sewers, opportunistic low-income housing, abandoned mine shafts, and repurposed mausoleums, it makes for some hard traveling.

Unlike the game, there is no 'door' to the Ratway. It is more 'a part of Riften' rather than 'dungeon'.

Aria's first introduction to said Ratway was the smell. "Stinks like the high heavens down here." She says and gags. "Cripes."

"Riften's slums are famous for being undesirable." Delphine replies, a cloth covering her mouth and nose. "I see that the rumors do not do the real thing justice."

"How do we search this place?" Aria says. "It's not like the Clover." Her innate senses weren't pointing her to anywhere specific.

Delphine had some ideas. "Let's talk to the Thief's Guild first. They should have a better idea of who's in the Ratway."

Aria was vaguely aware of the existence of a thief's guild: each city tended to have one. Thus, she frowns slightly at the fact that this seems to be 'The' Thief's Guild. "Skyrim's Thief Guild has that much reach?"

Delphine shrugs. "Riften's a bit of a special case. In every other major city, the local thief's guild is effectively either nonexistent or a shriveled arm of the local lord. Here, they actually have a certain level of clout."

Aria, not very well versed in things that doesn't require things dying, didn't push the point further. "So how do we make contact?" She asks instead.

Delphine has no idea. "That's going to be the first step."

…

[1st Person Camera, Present Time]

…

We are currently on the walls, staring at the incoming Stormcloak army like every other curious citizen and town guard.

On one hand, I feel like somebody deserves to be fired for failing to discover the movements of an army this size. On the other, I don't see any siege equipment, so I guess it's plausible. I wonder how many there are?

"Alright, alright, you lot, off the walls." The guard captain says gruffly. "As you can see, we've a problem." His guard unit is busy assembling on the walls with bows and arrows ready…as well as a shield strapped to their arms. "Off the walls."

We do as we're told. Due to the sudden appearance of the army, panic hasn't really set in yet, but shop owners are basically packing up for the day.

I've never actually seen a Skyrim siege before, so this should be interesting. As long as I stay the fuck away from the fighting I should be good, yeah?

Unless the soldiers start looting.

Unless they start looting, yeah.

Well, realistically, we'll probably be drafted for defense, as mercenaries based in the city, after all.

Thus, we go back to our forge.

Currently, there is nothing, beyond…well, beyond more customers looking to get themselves equipped as needed.

…

[Next Day]

…

So I have learned rather quickly that sieges in Skyrim are hot. Like, stupid hot.

We sit at the base of the tree of Kynareth and watch as fireballs get shot at the Whiterun wall guards.

I guess this gets around the whole 'no siege weapons' thing? But it's not like fireballs can hit hard enough to break through walls.

…or…or maybe they could? I just had a weird thought that I should follow up on.

Either way, from a raw damage standpoint, the Whiterun guards are giving as good as they take, despite having not nearly enough fireballs of their own to hurl at the enemies. No signs of the defenders breaking or anything.

Some of the guards do get their bows burned to ashes due to fireballs. Overall casualties: minimal on both sides.

It doesn't look like there's any sign of major activity today.

…

[1st Day End]

…

Yeah, no surprises there. Both sides plinked at each other for basically the entire day without much result. Notably, the Stormcloak Fireball Barrage lasts for like thirty seconds and can only fire every three hours.

Now, it's entirely possible that they're trying to trick us with their barrage timing, which…boils down to them either 1) having more fireballs than it looks or 2) having less. I'm inclined to believe that they're trying to get us to believe that they have less, just because the additional firepower would be useful once the actual fighting starts.

The T-sisters kicked ass today: their archery skills were pretty good, especially Nerem. Even if we're just comparing them to Jake and Erik, whose archery is…really nothing to write home about. Also Jake broke like three bows just trying to draw them and that kinda sucks.

…

[Day 2]

…

More of the same. The Stormcloak accuracy has improved some, so anybody that can heal is being called up into the base camps to help patch up the wounds Just so we're clear: when the Stormcloaks stop using fireballs, they're still using arrows.

…

[Day 3]

…

More of the same, though the guys on the walls are now reporting that the Stormcloaks' siege equipment have indeed arrived and they're assembling them on the far side of the river. This is a problem because nothing we have can reach that far.

Not even fireballs?

Magic does have maximum range (spell efficiency/cost etc) and none of us can cast up that far. Scrolls also inherit that max range, but it's more…let's see…the crafter's expertise and the user's magical power.

Magic does have a maximum range, and it's dependent on the amount of mana being used. There's more nuance than this, but it more or less boils down to efficiency and cost. Spell scrolls, incidentally also have a max range, and it's more dependent on how well a user knows the spell written on the scroll…ish? Think of it like…a mage's fireball is heavily dependent on that mage for its range and power, while a scroll-ed fireball's damage is based on the scribe, while the range is dependent on the user.

…which…y'know, brings up an interesting point. According to Farengar, ye average soldier isn't all that interested in the magical arts, and doesn't get a whole lot of range out of them, and yet he's constantly seeing Stormcloaks sling magic from well beyond easy pickoff range. So…who's helping them?

I mean it's probably the College of Winterhold buuuut I don't want to make that assumption right now with literally no evidence.

…

[Day 4]

…

The Stormcloaks, now with their siege equipment assembled, drop away from the walls and focus their efforts almost exclusively on the main gate. Whiterun, it would seem, does not have a sally gate or a backdoor of any kind.

I think they're trying to stop us from sniping the stone thrower they have.

A stone thrower.

The only way we know that a siege weapon is being built is through the materials being carried in. The actual completed product is hidden from view. I mean, the Stormcloaks literally put up poles and a cloth to obstruct it from sight.

So how do we know it's finished?

Well, Breezehome got leveled this morning by a sky rock, so I just assumed.

Either way, we need a way to get rid of that thing, so!

…

[Day 5]

…

Maaan the Stormcloaks do not have siege engineers with them, 'cuz of all the rocks they fired the only one that actually hit anything was the one that boffed Breezehome. Every other shot was pretty much short of the wall.

I've taken the day to do a little woodworking, and finished the super crossbow with plenty of time to spare. Compared with the mechanical disaster that is the autobalest, the superbow is so much easier.

The superbow is basically a giant slab of wood with a niche carved into it. The niche is a long piece of steel that I've Perked to hell and back to make it as smooth as possible, for that sweet sweet frictionless motion. The bow part is a large ribbon-like X mounted on the top. Ribbon-like to avoid getting it caught on the base, and X-shape to make good use of the extra tension. It does require what is basically a crank to reload, and the ammo has to be custom made. The ammo isn't hard to make, mind, but the fact that I have no ammo right now is certainly not helpful.

We would have made a Roman scorpion if we had more than 12 hours to put it together.

Anyhoo. Jake hauls the thing up to a tower in the secondary walls of the city, along with his papers.

"I will be the first to say that you have done this city a massive boon, Jake." Farengar says earnestly. "This is nothing short of fantastic."

"You're giving me way too much credit, man." Jake laughs. "If Ash didn't ask I would not have remembered."

Jake, through the powers of physics, math, and a little geometry, calculated the rough position of the stone thrower. He basically used a piece of wood, aligned it to the wall of Whiterun, and then developed that into a series of marks on the wood that allowed him to mark targets. The final area is still fairly wide, but considering that the target is very far away and there's nobody here with that kind of sniping experience, it's a very, very good step forward.

Now on the tower, he sets his papers onto a nearby table, holds it down with rocks and an inkwell, and then sets up the superbow. As he marks both it and the ground with some angle values, I grab firewood and shear them down into ammunition.

"Ok." Jake says to the shooter T'nerem after finishing setup. "Now, use these markers when I tell you to." He says and pulls out a spyglass. "Let's do this right."

"Got it." T'nerem nods and takes the first finished bolt from me. It's basically a three-foot-long wooden spear. "What's with these grooves?" She asks of the slight rifling on the bolt. "Is it gonna fly straight without fletching?"

"It should." I shrug. I never had the time to test it with these new munitions. "Let's test it out."

"Ok." Jake looks around in his spyglass. "Alright, 37 left, 24 up." He says. T'nerem orients the superbow to be somewhere between 30 and 40 and angles it up, frequently checking the markings on the bow's side to make sure she's near 24. And then two guards load a bolt and wind the bigger crank until it's in position.

Per Jake's request, the superbow has a circular base and a crank for angling. The base is circular because I couldn't get gears to work right on the horizontal, so it basically has to be hand moved for left/right aiming, and a circle base is easier to ensure that it's mounted on the same spot after it gets moved.

Farengar, upon hearing of our plight, laughed and told Jake to tear a wagon's wheel and axle and use that as a base, so the superbow's mounted on a barely rotating wagon wheel.

It's all very haphazard, but it works, so…

"Ok." T'Nerem says, peering out at the battlefield in front of her. "I have no idea where I'm aiming this." She observes.

"See that huge-ass tent over there?" He points for her benefit. "We're gonna use that to check our range."

Nerem nods. "Ok, I see it." Her eyes are hella sharp 'cuz I don't see anything but a blur at this distance. "Ready." She doublehands the trigger.

"Loose!"

SNAP!

The bolt fires, with no issue, but the recoil snaps the two pieces of wood designed specifically for the purpose of taking recoil. Think like the legs of a piece of modern artillery, only obviously not nearly as good.

They get replaced in good order. Also you never actually described how the thing looks in detail.

Ah, well, yes…after setup, the superbow is basically used kneeling. The base is about a foot off of the ground, with the front section mounted up on a thick-ass metal-and-wood pillar on a circle (which is on a wagon wheel). The base, being like six feet long, then extends back outwards. At the end of the base is a bunch of things, like the loading mechanism, which is a crank attached to a rope that pulls back the ribbon X's strings. Next are the pair of shock absorber arms, which flank the shooter on the left and right (but mostly the right). The loader more or less cranks it, and then gets out of the way for T'nerem to pull the trigger. Up/down adjustment is basically done by raising/lowering the shock-absorbing arms, which is probably why they'll break like nobody's business.

I did good for a day's work. Don't judge.

Jake and T'nerem both observe the shot. Judging by their lack of an immediate reaction I daresay that was a miss. "Well, fuck, I guess." Jake sighs, then writes down some numbers on a piece of paper. We all then wait for like five minutes as he reassesses his range table.

In those five minutes, the Stormcloak camp was in a state of utter confusion about the spear that just came out of nowhere and struck a good fifteen meters to the right of the general's tent.

"Alright, learning experience, learning experience." Jake mutters. "Load second round, adjust horizontal to 33 left."

They do, taking care to move the superbow veeery little, and load the second round that I just finished.

The second round hits about three meters to the left of the tent. The combined shockwave of the strike and Ash's less than stellar bolt construction techniques cause the bolt to shatter. The woodchips shear the left side of the tent, and it goes down.

"Alright, probably not the cleanest hit, but we got somewhere." T'nerem mutters, squinting. "So where's our target?"

Jake confirms his notes. "These numbers are probably wrong now." He sighs. "17 right, 43 up." He checks his notes. "Should be around there." Countersniping with siege equipment is a bitch.

The third round is ready after another five minutes, and…I don't know. I can only judge by Jake and T'nerem's reactions. Her tail does the little 'angry cat twitch' when she's pissed, so I assume there wasn't a hit?

Over in the Stormcloak camp, the stone thrower team stops upon hearing the sound of branches being torn off over their heads and cautiously looks up. Jake's estimate would have put the bolt about a good fifty meters behind where the machine actually is. To add to that, the Stormcloaks figured they were undershooting anyway and moved their siege equipment forward, meaning that Jake's shot was easily two hundred meters too long. On the plus side…

"I think I see them." T'nerem says suddenly, peering through a spyglass of her own (Farengar brought it over). Y'know, I don't really know the range of medieval siege weapons but I feel like…y'know, "slightly beyond visual range" is probably not normal.

…Then again, nobody here seems to find that weird, so maybe this is just how Elder Scrolls Siege Equipment works?

Either way, Jake's less enthusiastic about the potential location as he scouts it with his own spyglass. "I don't know." He goes over to his tables and makes some corrections. "Still, worth a shot."

Shot four.

In his haste, Ash fucks up the rifling on the bolt, so it flies far short of expectations and hits the river.

Whoa. I can see that plume of water from here.

…

[3rd Person Camera]

…

The plume of water drew the general's attention, and his head snapped towards the river.

"Probably what took out the tent, sir." One of his retinue says. "Makes sense for someone like Balgruuf to have some new toys." His general was never one to stay at his tent, and would rather spend his time accompanying his men.

"Too much reliance on magic and its ilk." The general says with disdain. "That's good for us. Up!"

His men toss ropes onto the walls. With reflexes that spoke of hard practice, the biggest men in each of the five lines place themselves into position, and each one of the climbing team use them as a boost to help them get onto the walls. The difference in having that boost meant that each man practically flew up the walls, to the point where the Whiterun guards on the walls had barely drawn their swords before being cut down.

"His training paid off it seems." The general's lieutenant remarks. "Truly, these men define the term 'cream of the crop'."

"If only fifty men could turn the tide of a siege." The general huffs. "Let's go, we have a gate to tear down."

…

[1st Person Camera]

…

Is it just me, or do the walls seem a bit…rowdy?

"Yeah, that doesn't look good." Jake mutters as he trains his spyglass towards where I'm starting (ish?). "Shit, that really doesn't look good." He gives me the spyglass. "Warwolf! We're going in!"

Uh

That seems a bit

Aaaand he's gone. Along with literally everybody else. It's literally just me and my girls since Farengar went off to do something.

I…can't fire this thing by myself.

…Welp!

We run after Jake. Also, why are your girls here?

They're getting more independent, but honestly I'm uncomfortable leaving them out of my line of sight in a wartime environment. Like if they get hit by a falling rock I can heal them if I can get to them. If I leave them at the temple and it gets bouldered then there's really nothing I can do about it.

From a distance, I can see Jake wow he's fast

Jake's already at the walls while we, at a full sprint, have only barely reached halfway. It's not like we're super duper far to begin with but good god the man's got legs.

We watch as Jake clears the stairs, draws his sword, and stops the Stormcloaks like a wall.

That kind of stopping power is honestly bullshit, though I have to say…

We watch as the Stormcloaks on the wall immediately reform into something that looks very much so like a phalanx…but with axes.

…It's a little hard to tell from down here, but it looks like a loose halberd formation…but it's not very tight.

We watch for a few more exchanges.

…Yeah, what's with them? These guys are definitely cut from a different cloth than the others. Three of them have put Jake on the back foot with their teamwork and the rest of them oh shit he's getting surrounded LIGHTNING!

We shoot lightning from our fingers at the Stormcloaks. One of the soldiers is hit in the back and staggers forward. Jake, taking the advantage, shanks the dude with his claymore.

Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Also Jake is still badly surrounded and oh lordy

Jake, pressed hard against the wall, takes a blade to his sides.

Judging by how the attacker bounced off I guess it didn't make it through. Scared the shit out of me though.

One of the other Stormcloaks, seeing this, body tackle Jake and both of them teeter over the wall and fall out of sight.

That? That's bad. That's really bad. We don't have the ability to go into the field right now because we can't leave. Shit. Also those guys are really good at what they do, like holy shit. Whiterun guards are armed with bows and all of them have the skill to use them (at close range), but the Stormcloaks are rushing so hard that the guards on the walls are basically forced into a melee fight, which they are losing, or else take one shot and get immediately cut down.

What the hell are those axes? They're bullshit sharp.

We, along with a few guards on the ground, are providing as much covering fire as we can, but the Stormcloaks are rushing through the guards so fast we're not getting many hits.

The Whiterun Guards being scattered to protect against errant fireball hits makes this way more damaging than it should be. Shit.

The Stormcloaks make their way to the stairs in record time and practically fly down to engage the guards at the bottom of the stairs. Three of them form a group and rush in our direction with the full intent to cut down the pesky mage.

Oh fuck that's not good. That's definitely not good.

Now that the Stormcloaks have closed in to their friends, the archers that we had (accidentally) embedded ourselves into drew swords.

While they're advancing that way, we're going to advance in the opposite way. I believe in a lot of things but winning a straight up fight is not one of them.

The T-Sisters, incidentally, followed Jake and had leapt down the walls after him (not that we saw any of it). The orc brothers were currently helping Mell at the forward medical tents.

Goddammit there are too many people here!

The Whiterun guards, intent on stopping the breakthrough, swarm the Stormcloaks and ruin our line of fire. They do, however, stop the Stormcloaks' advance as they finally get past the halberd's range. As they fight, though…

…There's a chill that just ran through my spine. I'm suddenly very terrified and I don't think this is a good sign.

We begin scanning the skies, rather overtly.

Oh…fuck me.

A trio of blips descend from the skies, one being significantly larger than the rest. The big one is Alduuin, though we can't tell from here.

Really? REALLY? REALLY.

Fuck me. "Dragons!" I shout. "Back to the house, girls, go go go!"

There's a little bit of looking around because battle is noisy, so only the people closest to me heard. Even so, one of the guards does notice the incoming dragons as well. He pulls a horn from a pouch and blows, and everybody hears the Dragon Warning ringing in the air.

Almost immediately, the battle stops…aaaand then starts back up again I mean seriously guys WE HAVE A BIGGER PICTURE THREAT HERE

Fuck. First things first, get Mell. Jake's got the T-sisters with him, so they should be ok.

…

[3rd Person Camera]

…

Alduuin and the two young dragons descend upon Whiterun.

"{Your kin was lost to this city.}" He says. "{Demonstrate upon them the fury of your vengeance!}"

The two young dragons, being young, did not quite have the ability to make sentences, and instead unleash packets of flames onto the city. The packets strike among the houses in the Clover and those houses begin to catch.

The young dragons, being young dragons, immediately roar in triumph, alerting everybody on the ground that, yes, there are indeed dragons in the sky.

Alduuin inwardly groused at the impetuous nature of young dragons. "{Good, now teach them the might of your lineage!}"

The two young dragons roar in response and dive deep towards Whiterun.

"By Talos." One of the Stormcloak elites mutters. "Truce?" He calls to a Whiterun guard.

"Truce." The guard replies and draws his bow. "Alright, lads! Eyes upwards! We've done this once we can do this again!"

Hearing the call, the rest of the guards cheer (halfheartedly) and draw bows, aiming at the incoming dragons.

The incoming dragons, having zero sense of danger, slam into the largest buildings they see and roar among the scattered thatch roofing.

"Kill them both!" The guard roars, and the Whiterun guards fire, using nearby houses for cover.

The dragons don't seem to care too much about the arrows, and instead burn down said houses with their packets of flame. The battle between the two parties continues for a few more exchanges, and very quickly many buildings are on fire.

Alduuin, for his part, noted how quickly the humans seem to shake off the natural terror that dragons inflict against lesser beings. Granted, the ones inflicting that terror were young dragons, not revived ancients, but the complete lack of inflicted terror was surprising. "{Interesting.}" He rumbles. "{So humans are capable of learning.}"

He watches as the two young dragons, despite their firepower, get steadily pushed back due to their inexperience. After ten minutes of fighting, the dragons lose heart and take off into the sky, leaving below them a steadily burning city hellscape and its contingent of cheering humans.

Alduuin laughs. "{Young, but driven.}" He calls upon the two young dragons. "{Watch. This is how a dragon lives.}"

…

[1st Person Camera]

…

Oh my god I hate dragons with a BURNING PASSION

We have made it home.

"What should we do?" Atra asks. "What are you going to do, sir?"

Fuck me I have no idea. "I'll need to get Mell." I say. Gotta recover the split-up team. "Go into the bunker and hide unt—"

"NO!" Atra yells and it makes me jump. "No, we're…I mean…we…" She looks frustrated.

…PTSD. Got it. Shit. The bunker is basically a cellar that I dug underneath the magic lab. Both the lab and the cellar are protected with layers of cold enchantments (plus a reinforced door that blasts cold) to protect against dragons. To be honest I never really thought about using it to shelter the girls.

I'm a bit panicked. Shit. I don't want these girls to die but if I force them to go into the bunker they might never trust me again. "I understand." I crouch to pat their heads. "At any rate, hide in the lab, ok? And please hide in the bunker if things get dangerous. I love both of you and it'll make my life easier if I know you're safe."

Atra looks literally pained by my statement. "Dad said something like that too."

Ooh, ouch, wups. Uh… "Sorry. I'll be honest: this is probably the safest place in Whiterun beyond the castle, and if you hide in the bunker then the enchants will keep you as safe as possible. I won't say there's no risk, but I need to make sure Mell and the others are safe. You saw Jake go over the wall." Atra nods slowly. "Yeah, I want to make sure they come out of this alive too."

Atra nods slowly. "I understand, it's just…I'm scared." She starts to sob and oh my god my heart

I give both of them hugs. "Have faith in us." And rush out, because I'm starting to cry.

So we do. We hurriedly charge down the main street and run for a good thirty seconds.

Mell is currently at the temporary field hospital.

Roar above the sky.

That's probably not good.

We create multi-layered wards above our head and mix it with layers of ice for good measure.

WHOA

The blast of Alduuin's fire hits like an incinerating train and the house next to ours almost immediately turns into ashes.

Aaand I'm on the ground. Jesus. That's absurd. One blast of fire and all of my wards are fucked. I'm otherwise alive and my reserves are fine, but hell. Alright, let's keep going.

As we run towards the hospital, Alduuin fires off selective blasts of fire. One of which hits a particularly clustered group of guards and practically melts them into a puddle of metal instantly. Another one hits Warmaiden and scorches it to ashes. Ulfberth War-Bear and Adrianne Avenicci, helping out at the guard's forward base camp, were mercifully spared.

Fuuuuck that looks like it hit something important. I can feel the heat from here. More wards, I guess.

Alduin's next blast hits the tree of Kynareth. The nearby structures start to catch, but the tree itself is more or less unharmed.

Christ each hit sounds like it hits so hard. Good god, if that's Alduin up there, that damage is MILES away from that Whiterun Hitting Dragon. Terrifying. Utterly terrifying. Stay focused, stay focused, don't think about anything else.

We reach the medical ward.

The guards are helping evacuate the wounded into the brick-and-mortar building that is the primary guardhouse on the account of shit burning down nearby.

"Ash! What the hell's going on?!" Mell demands of me as she sees me round the corner. "Where's Jake?! What do we do?!"

Fuck me if I knew. "For now, indoors!" So we do. I quickly tell her what the hell's going on while the Warwolf gang gets together.

"So you think he's going to be ok?" Mell asks. "He fell from the wall." She glares at me.

I mean… "Between the two of us he's the one who's most likely to survive a fall like that, nevermind the T-sisters showing up." Besides. "I need to enchant the bejesus out of this building."

Mell looks startled. "What? Why?"

C'mon, really? "Because you're here, duh." Alright, let's see here.

Over the course of the next minute we put up a series of high-powered wards and concentrated ice spells across the roof of the building.

I don't need this to last more than a few minutes, so I don't care about longevity.

"While you're here, boss, we have some guys who need help." One of the Orc brothers says. "Dude's got his arm burned off."

I…don't think I can do anything about that? "I can repair things, but I don't think I can regrow arms." The knowledge base needed to make it work and the mana needed is too much for a situation like this.

The…yeah, his arm's basically…erm…burned to nothingness? Like I'm kind of surprised Alduuin's(?) flames have such an obscenely high burn rate, despite…I dunno, not burning as much? Like if it takes out an arm it should also take the rest of his body, but the rest of his body is functional. Dude's not dead or anything.

Also I can't heal him for shit since the burn also cauterized the wound. Hm.

Fuck, let's stay focused.

…

[3rd Person Camera]

…

Jake was a little dazed, but otherwise ok. Landing in the middle of a Stormcloak army who wanted to shoot him with arrows? Slightly less ok. Immediately upon landing outside the walls, he tosses the man bodily away from him with such force that the man lands on the roof of a nearby house.

"That's the Mountain! Shoot him! Loose!" A Stormcloak captain roars.

"Oh fuck me." Jake crosses his arms in front of him and soaks the incoming barrage of shots. The arrows, those that hit, bounces off.

"Jake!" T'mare calls out as she lands in front of him with her shield.

"Oh I regret my decisions." T'nerem grouses, immediately firing back with her bow. "Really should have stayed on the wall."

Jake makes a split-second decision. "Take cover there!" He points to a nearby wagon. The T-sisters not armed with a shield bolt for the wagon, with Jake bringing up the rear.

"Sorry, we kind of panicked." T'mare says as soon as Jake enters into the wagon's cover. "We saw you go over the wall."

"Nah, I get it." Jake pacifies her and creates a ball of fire in his hand and tosses it out. "It's a goddamn stupid decision, but I get it."

"Sorry." T'mare says again. "What do you want us to do?"

Jake's plan was pretty simple. "Get in, stay in, stop them from shooting us from arrows." He suddenly springs from cover with his claymore and cleaves right into the Stormcloak lines. The rest of the T-sisters look at each other then immediately charge in after him. After a few instances of one sided slaughter per Jake's sword, they dig their way past the frontmost line of Stormcloaks and crash their way into a barn.

The barn is pretty much a large, empty box, with a ladder that goes up to a second level. On that second little are two dinky little windows to the left and right of the ladder. The entire building smells of hay and feels very flammable.

"Here's to hoping they don't burn this place down." T'Ma says. "Think they'll burn this place down?"

"Hopefully not." Jake winces: as invincible as he is, the damage does still add up, especially when he's not focused. "If we get fireballed we're fucked." He takes a potion from a belt and downs it.

"Upstairs, Nerem." T'mare says. "Eyes on the enemy."

T'nerem nods. "Yep." She flies up a nearby ladder. "They got us surrounded, but it doesn't look like they want to come over and play for now." Her ears twitch. "…Huh."

All of the T-sisters hear the young dragons landing in Whiterun. "Wow, that thing sounds heavy." T'ma notes. "Shit."

"Dragon in the sky." T'nerem notes from her perch. "It's big and scary."

Probably Alduin. Jake notes. Don't die on me, buddy. "Alright, we'll turtle in here for now. No point going around killing Stormcloaks when there's dragons in the sky."

…

…

Ultimately, the combined assault of Alduin and the two young dragons lasted for the better part of twenty minutes. Towards the end of those twenty minutes, the two young dragons rejoined the fighting and were pretty much the reason why Alduin pulled them out: they were taking damage despite not knowing about it.

Regardless, the impact was severe. The Stormcloaks and the Whiterun defenders teamed together to fight the numerous fires raging around the city in a massive operation that lasted well into the night. Then, come the next morning, the Stormcloaks declared their conquest of Whiterun.

…

[1st Person Camera]

…

Ooooh my goodness.

So…in a nutshell, the Stormcloaks' position was, in a nutshell, "you can either let us take the city, or we can fight your dragon-burned down city, kill a bunch of people, and take it over anyway." I should lay off the nutshells.

Either way, Jarl Balgruuf, upon hearing that statement, was basically like "yeah, that's fair" and conceded defeat. I'm pretty sure part of the reason was because the Stormcloaks actively tried to not leave the city after the dragons left. Smart fucks, honestly.

Incidentally, since we're on the side of the losers in the conflict, we're getting kicked out of the city. Better than being captured and killed, I suppose?

Oh, just to clarify: Jake and the T-sisters are ok. Jake has a broken femur (that he apparently SPRINTED WITH) but is otherwise safe. After the dragons showed up, he took up command of a few Stormcloak units and helped out with the firefighting.

Ha…well, whatever.

So, as a result of Whiterun's…transition of power, I guess, Jarl Balgruuf is exiled, and all groups overtly associated with the Imperials are banished as well. Of course, that includes us.

Fortunately, Balgruuf has some seriously good PR for turning over the city to avoid the loss of Skyrim lives, so (going by Jake's information) he's heading to Falkreath to get an army together to retake Whiterun—at the moment, Whiterun's deeply vulnerable for the exact reasons why it's been lost in the first place, which makes sense.

…Not sure how the Stormcloaks plan to hold it against a retaliation army, but eh…

As for us…

…well, after Alduuin practically vaporized buildings with his breath in Whiterun, we're…uh…kind of on alert about taking care of the dragons before worrying about the civil war, under the premise that, y'know, if Alduuin boffs human civilization, then the civil war wouldn't matter one whit.

To that end, we (Warwolf) will be beelining towards Riften to rejoin with Aria and…basically devote all of our available resources to solving the main storyline. There are some key points that might be hard to solve, but it's starkly obvious that the longer this goes on, the better the odds of Alduuin just leveling a city.

Incidentally, the girls are suuuuper pissed with me for shoving them into the bunker. I'm getting the silent treatment. I should note that the house caught on fire and only the bunker and the lab about it survived. I consider it to still have been a good idea, regardless of how guilty I feel about it at this point.

…

[Next Day]

…

So this is the day after the day after the day of firefighting. A day was allowed so that the evicted parties could be prepared and leave Whiterun with the minimal amount of fuss. In total, apart from us, about, oh…a few hundred people are getting sent out from the city, including (among others) the Battleborn family. No surprises there, really.

In Warwolf's case, we put together a wagon with a summoned giant wolf and basically nothing since everything burned down and it's like wow we're basically poor again.

Anyways, the journey to Riften will take about a week. So…points. I have 126 to spend, and Jake has 151. We'll have to take some time to mull over our options over the week, so that's what we'll do. The goal, of course, is to figure out how to deal with flying targets.

And also I've incinerated what was left of the superbow: fuck giving that away.

…

[Travel Day One]

…

We arrive at Helgen. After a year of slapdash rebuilding (ish) there's something akin to an inn on the border of the city wall between…uh…the center of Helgen and Riverwood, I guess. There's no place to rest, so we just have to camp…despite, y'know, the fact that when we got here there's still some hours of daytime.

The rest of the day's spent more or less mending fences with my girls and recovering any other damage. Speaking of which, I noticed an interesting thing among the T-sisters. For the battle (or the preparation of it) they were given the enchanted bracers. The bracers, when returned, were fucked.

That's not the interesting thing though. What was weird was that the T-sisters showed signs of magical burns on where they wore the bracers, and for the duration of their battle they could not use magic.

…Well, or so they say. None of them tried to actually use magic so they're just kinda speculating. Also T'yanna said to me privately that she could still heal just fine while equipped with bracers so I don't know what the other three are saying. Still, I should take it as a sign of some kind of defect if the sisters have that kind of opinion.

Back burner, I guess, since basically everything but my books were lost.

…

[Day Three]

…

We've made it past the mountains. There's no snow in the pass, and I've created enough thick clothing to make solid campsites, so the nights aren't too bad. I will be the first to say that watching the T-sisters cuddle together at night with my girls is the cutest fucking thing and I wish I had a camera.

…

[End of Journey]

…

Thirteen days in total. We got slowed down some due to inclement weather. The Imperials have indeed managed to conquer Riften, though judging by the look of the town it was a bit of a hard fight. The area outside of the town is still an Imperial war camp, for example, and we're not going to be able to actually go into the city without being placed under severe scrutiny.

…or at least that's what the Imperial soldier said. Upon entering Riften it seems to be more of a 'business as usual' atmosphere, plus additional grumbling about Imperial Occupation. Since Riften wasn't assaulted by dragons, the amount of burned buildings were understandably less than what Whiterun suffered.

…was. I'm really tired, not gonna lie. Anyways, Riften!

So…by virtue of Riften being essentially a half Venice, it's a bit difficult to describe. The city itself has three layers, two of which are immediately visible: the 'top' layer, the 'worker' layer, and, of course, the Ratway.

The top layer is functionally Riften as a city—it comprises all of the constructions made on sturdy land as well as the center of Riften. The top layer can be loosely split into a wheel with nine parts. The northern parts (2-3) include the city's southern gate, inns, and general worker housing. This is the part where you'd enter the city if you fast traveled to the place. Parts 4 to 6 are basically the temple district, the eastern gate, and some slightly more upscale housing, and the graveyard. Parts 7 and 8 are noble housing, the palace, and the northern gate plus gatehouse. Riften's garrison is also concentrated along those gates for obvious reasons. Parts 9 and 1, then, are the…upper level docks. It's kinda weird to describe. For now, just remember that it's the docks.

The lower layer is almost exclusively built around the center of Riften (built into the center too) and is a smaller ring. This ring is…well, it can be split into essentially three sections: the dock, the ring, and the surrounding. The 'surrounding' is the land that's surrounding the center, understandably, and the ring is the part that extends out from the center. There's a channel between the two sections, hence the difference. Anyways, both the surrounding and the ring are fundamentally either shops, piers, or shops and piers. These shops are a bit like the ones you'd find in the upper edges of the clover: not exactly poor but definitely not upscale.

So…middle class.

Yeah, kinda.

The dock area also has two layers, as I previously said. The upper layer is basically a mix of administrative buildings and large scale(ish) cranes and elevators, built to ferry goods to and from the lower level. The lower level, then, is basically worker housing, storehouses, and piers. Riften is not a true 'port' per se, but it is the biggest port in the Rift, and the area's surprisingly navigable rivers lead to all towns and villages coming here for its trade. I say surprisingly because I don't think the rivers in the game were good for anything other than splashing around in…and they also had a fuckton of waterfalls and rapids and looked like a nightmare.

Finally, the crown jewel of Riften is the stone circle that acts as the center of the town and oh my god it's HUGE. Like…it takes you a solid minute of sprinting to make it from one side to the other if it was clear of all obstruction and it is definitely not clear of obstruction. The center of Riften, the stone pillar/cistern/whatever the fuck is basically…well, a fire hazard in the making.

On top of the stone center is…basically two extra stories of wooden structure and stairs. These structures are basically other shops, stalls, so on, so forth. In general, the most well-known establishments are closer to the docks, while the priciest are closer to the palace and rich people districts. The Tower of Power in the middle is also segregated on wealth: the wealthiest are on top while the poorest are on the bottom. It's…honestly a bit of a surprise that the megastructure hasn't collapsed in on itself from the foot traffic it gets.

Either way, we got our work cut out for us. During our trip we were accosted by some local wildlife, so the pelts were sold for money and, with the (relatively high) amount of resources we have, we bought an abandoned…thing, in the area near the docks. It is, very much so, a step down from our old place, though it is leagues larger. Also I don't have a forge, so if I want one I will have to pay to get one built, and right now I don't think we'll stay here long enough for that. It's a bit cramped for a group of, like, a dozen people, but eh.

So, our primary objective at the moment is, in no particular order: rendezvous with Aria and find what's-his-face in the Ratway. Preferably both. Actually, now that I think about it, there is no guarantee that Aria will still be here after two weeks.

Well, not like we could stay in Whiterun anyway…besides, the news of Whiterun falling to a one-two combo of Dragon and Stormcloak Opportunism was already the talk of Riften by the time we got here, so I assume she'd know.

Anyhoo, we (me and Jake) talked at length about dragons and counter dragon action, as well as what caused Alduin to hit Whiterun. It's our consensus, upon reviewing the dragon's behavior, that it was somehow training the two younger dragons. This…seems odd, because Alduin doesn't seem like the teaching type, and I don't know how 'young dragons' come to be in the first place. Second, we're going to go ahead on the assumption that Alduin hitting Whiterun was not a coincidence, since the timing was just way too perfect. We don't know why he went there, but it seems reasonable to assume that Alduin was acting on some kind of information that he had that we did not.

…Not gonna lie, he makes me jumpy. I've caught myself staring into the sky on many, many occasions at this point, and I'm usually the type of person to look at my feet. Scares me.

…From a points perspective, I put mine into maxing out Tailor Mastery and Fine Eye, more as a response to our current situation rather than a concerted effort to go dragon hunting. For my seven greater perks, I took: Greatest Dress Tailor, Great/er/est Minute Detailing (better results when working with small objects), and three ranks of Alteration efficiency to better abuse Transmutation. I gained the finishing effect 'Magic Weaver' as a result, which lets me weave magic into thread. Sadly, once I stop using magic the threads vanish, so it's…not as obscenely broken as I had hoped upon getting it.

Jake finishes off Defender (only 3 points), combat healing, and dumps everything left into jump mastery, which makes him jump higher. Right now, if he puts his mind to it, he has a jump height of about six meters. He can't change direction when he's jumping though, so it's…really damn cool, but not all that useful by itself.

Which is why Jake took Great/er/est Aerial Step, which effectively gives him three midair jumps. Jake is now able to propel himself into the and hit the impressive altitude of 20 meters (roughly 60 feet, rounding down). He also has natural flight and aerobatics, so once he learns to work all the perks together he'll practically be flying by himself. The fact that he has to learn to keep them all active is what's stopping him from being a literal flying murdertank, mind: when he's jumping, he's not focused on fighting, which means he takes normal damage from attacks, and if he refocuses on combat while jumping, he stops being able to do midair jumps. It's quite a finicky system.

He also takes Weapon Thrower (Great/er/est), Defense Master (Great/er/est), and two ranks of 'Natural Order', which seems to act as a small buff to all of his abilities. No new finishing effects, weirdly enough.

This basically just continues Jake's path to becoming the walking apocalypse, though the weakness of perks not activating when he's not focusing is all the more apparent.

…

[Day After Moving In]

…

So. The structure we purchased was, I had thought, a warehouse, but in reality it's an abandoned…I was about to say 'hotel' but uh…hostel? Apartment? Terrible business decision? Workhouse? Workhouse. Workhouse seems to make sense. The walls are fucked in multiple places and I'm pretty sure it's not actually safe to live in, but there are a grand total of 24 rooms spread over two floors. The rooms are pretty snug, big enough for the bare necessities of sleep and little else. I might just combine each pair of rooms into one bigger room for mutual safety purposes.

We talk around and get the verdict that private rooms, even if small, are desired.

Well, fuck that then. Either way, today's goal: have a structure that doesn't look like it's likely to be blown the fuck away by a stiff breeze. Transmutation is so great.

…

[Day 2]

…

Time passes so fast when you're busy building a new life, or something.

I spent the previous day doing construction while Jake and party went around our new neighborhood to collect information and start making contacts. While we'd like to immediately get started on finding Aria, randomly asking questions will very likely get us noticed and not in a good way. Both of us (Jake and I) are worried about the Black-Briars and the Thief's Guild, and since this Riften is a lot bigger than the game it stands to reason that there are more big players in the city trying to play politics. Since Riften just came out of a battle nerves are still pretty high, so, y'know, being careful.

Anyhoo, they're doing that, I'm doing this.

Transmutation being used over the entire building lets me reinforce and repair the outer walls to the point where it's actually sturdy. I need more wood.

For the record: despite buying the building, we're not sleeping in it yet. Too dangerous.

…

[Day 3]

…

I got wood and slag metal. Transmutation lets me turn the slag into something more useful (nails, hinges, etc) and then use them to help rebuild the interior structure. I've done some drawing, and I've decided that, basically, the first few rooms need to be knocked down into something of a reception area to make this more of a home base and less of a business…or, at least, a business that accepts people. I'm now realizing that if we have a business-like location with pretty girls we might actually get some unfortunate misunderstandings.

…

[Day 3 Summary]

…

The building is now more or less safe for human habitation, but we still need furniture. Like…I'm not entirely sure how to deal with the mental whiplash that occurs from switching between "surviving a dragon attack" to "shopping for bed sheets", but I'll deal. Consumer goods are at a bit of a premium since people are trying to profit from the existence of an army of customers. Also I think they're a little afraid of having their shit stolen.

Anyways, we still can't move in because there's no furniture, but I've knocked out around half of the rooms and basically refitted…er, intend to refit them into a storage room, a workshop, and maybe something like a forge? Hm.

Meanwhile, Jake's made a lot of friends since he's THE MOUNTAIN and is…well, he's not as famous here as he is in Whiterun, but a few know his name. Everybody is aware of the T-Sisters because they're smokin' hot, and arguably they're the reasons why Warwolf is now well known in the group.

As a response, T'yanna and T'nerem partnered up and are…if not necessarily being suggestive, then at least leveraging their popularity to start to create a web of informants within our neighborhood. Incidentally, our neighborhood is technically the 'Waterlily' block: one of the earliest neighborhoods of the city and now one of the more neglected. Given how we basically shopped for that, it's not really surprising.

Otherwise, no news on Aria. The residents of the Ratway are pretty insular, so getting any news is hard. There's not even the news of a very pretty woman asking questions, which…I was kind of relying on to gauge on if Aria is here or not, so that sucks.

…

[Day 4 Summary]

…

The need for raw materials is pretty much a necessity at this point, so Jake's party switched gears for the day and instead went out to the forested turf south of the city and cobbled together a lot of wood. Jake himself brought in what I think is a literal tree, which…y'know, good for us. Most of the house repair is done, so the materials go into furniture. By the time the day is done, we have enough bed frames for all of us.

Each room, I should note, is small, and I'm not doing it any favors: with a floor space of about four square meters, half of it is taken up by the bedframe (I like my beds huge) and the rest by a cabinet. After talking it over, the girls don't want anything else since the room's already cramped enough already. We then paid a premium for scrap tent material (I think we were laughed at) but again Transmutation and Replace is Fucking Broken™ so we (read: I) don't care.

…

[Day 5 Summary]

…

The repair work is done! The outside of the house still looks like crap, but that's more or less by design—don't want people to come visit when we're not home. The…base…of the building has dropped by like two feet or so, because I Transmuted the soil into…uh, hardened soil, and then Replaced it into the walls and the floors for both insulation and defense against flames. The expanded ground room is then integrated into the two stories to give the rooms a little more headspace. The entire structure also has a prototype wiring. In effect, each room has a soulstone setup enchanted with candlelight. The 'bulb' soulstone is in the ceiling, while the charging stone is inside the room. The efficiency is kinda bad, but in general you can get something like five minutes of light after a full charge.

On average: The T-sisters can get more, the sisters get less. Normally there is only about 60 seconds of light, though.

It's very nice, if I do say so myself.

I also have a magic workshop again, though I can't buy a new table. Kinda pissed about that, not gonna lie. I also have a new forge and a tailoring bench. The new forge is built…well, I mean, I built it, so…it's built according to the fact that I'm almost constantly using magic with my forging. Instead of a big open pit fire, it's instead a small steel box insulated with Wards to help conserve energy, and enchanted on the inside with Flames to help bring it up to heat faster. I had to buy the anvil, though, which, y'know, it is what it is.

Because of the build of our new forge, it burns several orders of magnitudes hotter, and combined with the fact that we're constantly Replacing steel to make it purer, means that the steel we're working with is of a stupidly high quality. In game terms, it would be like if the baseline qualities for a reinforced steel weapon (i.e. a sword upgraded to 'exceptional') is actually the starting build quality, functionally allowing you to upgrade it a second time.

The need for large tools is comparatively lesser here than in Whiterun, largely because Waterlily doesn't have as many nearby workers for the outside, though once my name gets out that should change. Tailoring…medieval times really isn't well known for poor people having designer clothing, so it's very unlikely people will ask me to make clothing for them. Well, no worries there.

Otherwise…we have an armory for spare gear, storehouse for spare housestuffs, and a chilled fridge for food! We can keep fresh fruit and grains in the main fridge, and smaller freezers can keep meat for a long-ass time. It's nice.

…

[Day 6]

…

Now that our housing is in order, we go out shopping to actually stock our larders. Our destination is not the main marketplace, but some of the wholesalers scattered about the docks. In our case, we approach one of the larger-looking establishments with the name "The Grand Gatherer" hung over its doors.

"Ah, welcome." The owner…the receptionist? The receptionist Argonian says wheezily. "The Grand Gatherer has the Grandest of deals, all under one roof." He sounds bored. "How may I help you?"

We get to work buying food of all types and then materials for tailoring and smithing. As we do, we gain more and more attention, especially as it becomes obvious that we're incredibly big spenders when we cross the 1000 gold threshold.

How are our funds?

…As a completely unrelated side note that has absolutely no bearing on what we're doing right now whatsoever…Septims don't have any kind of anticounterfeit designs on them apart from their complex design. Replace and Transmute don't have any increased costs for, y'know, straight up copying a coin. Or a few hundred.

…Y'know, as a possibility.

The reason why we're so good at Replace/Transmute now is because, among other things, we've been making coins nonstop on the trip towards Riften. Incidentally, because we're using magic so much, our cap is now extremely high.

Anyways, after buying all the things, the now very, very friendly Argonian volunteered a team of four workers to help us carry our new goods back to our living place. They were…surprised, I think, at the fact that we headed into Waterlily and not someplace more upscale, but they're getting paid so it's not like they care.

For the record: the outside appearance of the building is very much so just a long, tall house. We do have a section of the roof that's accessible and is flat (need space to air out laundry), but otherwise it's pretty indistinguishable from the general skyline that is the Waterlily area. I like it.

…I've also put in a fair amount of defenses, because I know the Thief's Guild exists and I don't see why I should trust them.

…

[3rd Person Camera]

…

"Hard to believe a place like that has any kind of wealth." Argonian Worker A huffs after pocketing his service fee. "Good people, though."

"Yeah." Argonian Worker B chuckles. "Think They'll be interested in a place like this?"

"Hard to believe they wouldn't." Argonian Worker A shrugs. "What do you think, Byrnjolf?"

Nord Worker C, Byrnjolf, scratches his beard. "Well, I don't know. They don't seem to be the dangerous type." He lies. "Could be worth a few more coins if we play our cards right." He tugs at the bandanna covering his hair. "The big one's The Mountain himself, after all."

"I've seen plenty of men be named after mountains." Argonian A says. "This one doesn't seem that different."

"And the weedy one's got some adorable daughters." Argonian B says. "I don't think they're poor enough to live in the Waterlily."

Byrnjolf thinks it over. "Well, a little bird told me that they're escapees from Whiterun, after the town was lost to the Stormcloaks." He grins. "Refugees come in all shapes and sizes, after all."

"So, what's your plan?" Argonian A asks.

"Well, that's an easy one." Byrnjolf says.

…

[Next Day]

…

The fact that a newcomer to a poor neighborhood bought a large house and did not immediately try to use it as a business was lost on nobody, least of all the second-in-command of the Thief's Guild himself. Almost as quickly as Ash had started to work, Byrnjolf had pulled strings to ensure that his every step was watched and every purchase was cataloged—part of the reason why Ash was able to find some things much faster than he had expected.

Byrnjolf also expected carpenters to be hired for what he had correctly deduced was a repair effort, but curiously that did not happen. Even so, going by the proviso that nobody is dumb enough to spend all of their money on a house, Byrnjolf calculates that these newcomers have a net wealth of somewhere around ten thousand gold, more, depending on what actually came in with them through their cart.

That kind of refugee money would easily make them a minor noble family. Byrnjolf notes as he watches the Warwolf house from a neighboring shed. And judging by the clothes the daughters wear, their father's a bleeding heart. He quickly tallies Jake and the T-sister's gear. Are they a mercenary company? The way they move seems very experienced. He makes a note not to fuck with Jake. He feels dangerous.

After ensuring that Jake's unit had left, he sneaks towards the house while keeping care of his surroundings. Waterlily, by virtue of being largely worker's housing, tends to be empty during the day of any civilians, and those that do frequent its streets know to look the other way. Byrnjolf, wearing his favorite quilted coat, was thus unharassed as he beelines towards one of the many points of entry of the house. Gauging distance, he tosses his grapple onto the railing protecting the top floor, and nods to himself as it catches with much more strength than it would a stone railing.

"All castles should have these railings." Byrnjolf grins as he climbs with incredible speed. "Would make them so much easier to loot." In no time at all, he's on the roof. "Well, that looks ominous." He mutters at the sight of the glass door blocking his way in. "What is that?"

Keeping himself low, he sneaks up to the glass door and sees the handle. So it is a door. He examines the lock and recognizes it as a lock delivered by a locksmith well within his pockets. With practiced ease, he picks the lock and steps in.

On the first floor in the forge, Ash immediately perks up. Well, fuck. He thinks as he sees the corners of the forge light up. He pulls a half-finished sword and immediately leaves. Good thing the girls are asleep.

Byrnjolf, in his case, steps into the house, down the small staircase, lands on the second floor, and then immediately feels his hair rise. What kind of floor is this? He gingerly takes a step, hearing no noise. Worrying.

He takes another five steps before the sound of a door opening causes him to stop and retreat. Normally, a house like this would have blind spots for him to hide in, but here there is nothing but a straight hallway.

The source of the sound is Alma, who rather needed to use the bathroom. She steps out into the hallway, turns to close the door behind her, and then freezes upon seeing Byrnjolf.

Byrnjolf grimaces inwardly. Well, a little roughing up wouldn't hurt my conscience too much. He suddenly sprints forward, fully expecting the little girl to react in the way any little girl should. True to his expectations, she turns and immediately sprints away.

Being better trained and faster, Byrnjolf reaches Alma immediately and, with a firm tap of his sheathed dagger, sends her staggering onto the ground just as Ash climbs the staircase with his blunt sword in hand.

Ash, seeing this, is immediately pissed off. Byrnjolf feels the prickle of magic power and immediately guards the best he could against whatever was going to come his way. That whatever, as it turns out, happens to be a bolt of Shock with so much power that Byrnjolf was blown away and onto his back, numb and stunned.

"Alright, you little shit." Ash snarls. "You got balls." He stomps towards Byrnjolf, crackling electricity dancing around his fist.

Shit. Byrnjolf gasps for breath. What the hell was that?! He struggles to get to his feet as Ash stomps towards him. "W-wait!" He coughs as he puts up a stopping hand to distract his attacker from his other fumbling one. The electricity, however, made fine motor actions very difficult, and the health potion he was hoping to swallow rolled out from his pouch, out of his grasp.

Ash, brought to his senses by the sound of the rolling bottle, takes a deep breath. "Alma, are you ok?"

"Yes, sir." Alma stands. "That surprised me." She rubs her bruised face. "Who is he? A thief?"

By now, Atra has opened the door and is also in view. She, being a little bit less surprised than Alma, readies her Shock spells just in case the weird man on the floor in front of her tries anything funny.

Ash, for his part, saw the rolling bottle and was immediately surprised, which, in turn, surprised Byrnjolf. Is he worried about that? He wonders as Ash closely examines the bottle with the curious wolf insignia.

…

[1st Person Camera]

…

So…this is a bottle that I made.

For Aria.

Obviously, there are some questions that I need to ask.

To start with: "Who are you?"

.

.

.

{ === + === }

Author Notes:

2020's been a year so far, huh?