Chapter 18: Fiona and Mjoll

[6th of Second Seed 4E 202]

Fiona and I had talked about what she had done and experienced in the last few months, and on the day before she had also joined me and we had visited the Whiterun school together. Once she had demonstrated one of her shouts outside, the kids had been in awe, and we had had a good time there, with Lydia narrating some highlights of the Dragonborn's earlier adventures. Afterwards, Fiona had continued to tell me about recent events in her life later, in Riften.

As Jarl Balgruuf had let me know that he needed to talk to me, I climbed the stairs up to Dragonsreach after my morning practice and breakfast, and I managed to find him when he was just getting on his throne. Thus I did not have to wait long, and as soon as the Jarl had concluded his morning instructions to the steward, he waved at me to come closer. He made sure that nobody else but his brother Hrongar could hear what he said:

"B'lushona, now as you're back in my city, I wonder if the Dragonborn and you might be able to help me with something. It's not anything like fighting, but kind of personal…"

"Sure, if I can be of help. I can't speak for Fiona, but I can at least ask her. So, what seems to be the problem, my Jarl?"

"You may have noticed that my three children, Frothar, Dagny and Nelkir, don't quite behave like they should."

"Indeed, I could not help seeing that from time to time. But certainly it's your prerogative to decide that and not mine."

"Well, they haven't always been like this. Sure, growing up in Dragonsreach and being my kids doesn't really help to stay humble, but in the last few months it's like they don't listen to me any longer, and specifically Nelkir, my youngest, almost appears to hate me. All of a sudden, he has become kind of a... dark child. I don't know what to do with him. He was always a quiet lad, but lately... something has changed. He's become brooding, rude, and even violent. He won't say a word to me, but I don't know how I upset him. If you and the Dragonborn could speak to him, draw out the truth, if possible, I would be immensely grateful."

"Nelkir? Yes, I have noticed that he does not quite behave like lads his age do, well, at least according to what I know, which isn't much. I have actually heard all of your children being kind of rude occasionally, but he seems to be the worst; no offense meant. I'll do what I can."

"That's all I can ask; thank you, my friend."

I gave him a friendly nod and turned around. As the person we had talked about wasn't far away, standing by himself in a corner, I took the opportunity to talk to Nelkir right away. I approached him and stated:

"Nelkir, your father suggested that I speak to you."

"So the disgusting pig sent you to bother me? One day, I'll tear his face apart so he can leave me alone. My father doesn't know anything about me. But I know about him. And about the war. More than he might think."

I was horrified; that was clearly not the proper way to speak about other people, specifically not about one's own father. It could not even be a teenage rebellion phase, as Nelkir was not a teenager yet; he looked like nine or ten to me. But anyway, I tried to stay calm and asked:

"What sort of things doesn't he know? Maybe I can understand better?"

"I know that he still worships Talos. That he hates the Thalmor almost as much as the Stormcloaks do. That he worries about being chased from Whiterun. That he... that I'm... that I don't have the same mother as my brother and sister."

He didn't? Well, I had never met Jarl Balgruuf's wife. I did not even know if he was married, and we had never talked about that aspect of his personal life. Never seeing a wife, I had assumed that he was likely a widower. I continued to ask the boy:

"How do you know these things?"

"This castle is old, very old. Lots of places nobody's been in a long while. Places where you can overhear things. See things. And the Whispering Lady."

The Whispering Lady? I must have heard that name before, at some time during my hundreds or even thousands of hours playing the game, but as usual the context eluded me; maybe he could elaborate and tell me more:

"Who's the Whispering Lady?"

"She won't tell me her real name. I've gotten good at listening to keyholes. At the door in the basement, I hear her talking to me. I thought I was caught, but she started telling me even more secrets. But I can't open the door."

A door in the basement? A warning bell started to sound in my head, and I realized that this must be related to some side quest in the game; again, I failed to remember details, but maybe I should investigate? I asked for more:

"Where is this door?"

"In the basement. Trust me, you'll see it. I bet she'll talk to you, too."

With that being said, the boy turned around and left, obviously not willing to tell me more. I clearly wanted to find the door, but maybe it was a good idea not to do this alone. As I was going to talk to Fiona again today, I could ask for her assistance, and we could find out more together. However, it might be better to wait a day or two – I had a bad feeling about that.

Once I got down to the Gildergreen tree, I was right on time to see Fiona step out of the inn together with Iona and Lydia. Today was another clouded day, and it looked like there we were going to get some rain very soon. Thus I suggested:

"Good morning, Fiona. Looking at the weather, we better search for a place with a roof today, what do you think?"

The Bosmer nodded, and I added:

"We can see how much activity there is at Jorrvaskr, if you want. The back are is quite large, and a nice part of it is covered. Unless they do major training activities there, that might work."

I got another nod in return, and off we went. Normally, non-Companions were not welcome around Jorrvaskr unless they had specific business there, but the Dragonborn was an exception and seen as a kind of honorable Companion. When we got to the back, here was only Aela there practicing archery with Ria, and they did not mind at all Fiona and me finding seats under the roof. Once we managed to get comfortable, I started the conversation:

"So, you had arrived in Riften, and you started to collect information on where to find an old man somebody in Solitude had claimed might be hiding somewhere in the city, right?"

"Yes, true. Fortunately, meeting some interesting people, specifically Madesi, brought some light into my stay there. Riften isn't exactly nice, and I did not like the permanent smell from the water in the city center."

"Yeah, that was something the game wasn't able to bring over, fortunately."

We both laughed, and Fiona explained:

"So, I did try to get information, yes, and we all started to talk to various people in the city. Soon we realized that many were somehow connected to the guild or the Black-Briars, one way or another, including many of the guards, but a few, like Mjoll, proved to be good sources. She promised to help right away, but I knew that our search would take time. Janina wanted to pursue some other activities; she had picked up some hints about drug dealing, and I gave her Rayya to help her investigate, while Lydia, Ferwen and I worked with Mjoll. You know, many people call her 'Mjoll the Lioness', and I am not sure if this is only because of her blond mane."

"I never was in Riften, and thus I wouldn't be able to tell. Was she hanging around with somebody most of the time?"

"Actually, she was. A guy, probably an Imperial, called Aerin, was around her a lot. I could not really figure out what their relationship was. Mjoll mentioned a couple of times that she owed him her life and that she found him amazing, and this Aerin was always respectful and called her 'Lady Mjoll'. They both live in the same house, but they don't appear to be a couple. Yet I heard Aerin saying that he'd miss Mjoll terribly if she left the city."

Two almost simultaneous thuds interrupted our words for a moment as Aela's and Ria's arrows hit the target almost at the same time; despite the drizzle which had started they continued to train their skills with the bow, or probably the huntress continued to train her younger shield-sister.

"Hm, strange, but maybe not our business."

"Not, it's not. But Mjoll was quite helpful, although Aerin kept mostly out of our search activities. You know, some of the people in Riften seem to be a little bit crazy, like this Argonian near the fishery. By the way, the Riften fishery is nice, and I had a few nice chats with the people there, in particular with another Argonian called Swims-In-Deep-Water. He told me something about fishing and how the fish I might catch usually depends on water type, daytime and even weather, and he also told me which fish tastes best, in his opinion at least. I did not really have a chance yet to do any fishing, but I like to eat fish, and maybe I will try some day."

"Maybe you should. Feel free to talk to Antonius about that – he recently started to do some fishing as a hobby; maybe the two of you can learn from each other."

"Sure; I will do that. But anyway, there also was this weird Argonian woman, who called herself From-Deepest-Fathoms, and she always mumbled something about a lexicon to be returned, to a place names Avance or so. I had no clue what this was supposed to be, and I ignored her."

"Hm, interesting."

For a moment I was reminded of the Argonian I had met in Riverwood, right after the initial events at Helgen; she had been called 'Swims-Faster-Than-Salmon', and I had seen her once or twice when going for a visit to that town. Fiona continued her story:

"It did take a lot of time to search places and talk to people, at least a couple of weeks, but finally we found a secret and well-hidden entry to an area called 'Ratway', or more precisely the part being called 'Ratway Warrens', I think. One of Mjoll՚s friends helped us to find it, but we decided that we'd better check out the environment before. So, Lydia, Ferwen, Mjoll and I entered the Ratway through the access from the Riften canal."

"Did you know the layout?"

"Only roughly, but that was good enough. Two brutes approached us us right after the entrance, and I told them sternly to let me pass or else, and they backed off. I have to admit that I had not expected that to work; maybe my training with the Greybeards had also had positive impact on my skills in intimidation. On the other hand, maybe they had just noticed that I wasn't alone. Further inside, there were a few more obstacles, but nothing we could not handle, and we managed to find the Ragged Flagon all right. Brynjolf was sitting at a table, and when he saw us approaching, he was visibly shocked, and he told me: 'Well, well... color me impressed, lass. I had not expected to see you down here!'"

"I can imagine that."

Aela's voice could be heard in the background as she explained a few details in proper stance to Ria, and Ria apparently tried to follow the advice she got; seeing that distracted me for a moment, and I almost missed the first few words of Fiona's next sentences:

"While Ferwen and Mjoll were with me, but kept in the background, I tried to respond to him in a calm way: 'I am just trying to look around a little, and I have heard various things about the Ragged Flagon here. So, what kind of food is offered here?' I could see that the Nord relaxed a little bit, and while he looked conspicuously towards a door next to the bartender, he tried to make easy conversation with me. I actually ordered a small snack for myself and my housecarl, and when we were done, I smiled around and said 'Good Bye', and off we went."

"They did not try to stop you?"

"No, they did not. I guess that I looked innocent enough, but Brynjolf՚s eyes had told me that I was close to the area I was looking for. Maybe that was not important, but I preferred to scout the area around as much as possible before using the hidden entrance."

"Good to hear that you made it out from there alive."

"Yes, me too. And now, just before we got ready to use the hidden access, Janina and Rayya were back. They had used the time to uncover a Skooma dealing operation and do a number of favors to the local Jarl, and guess what, Janina became Thane of the Rift. She even managed to purchase a house; it was not huge, but there were beds for the housecarls, and Janina and I shared the large bed in the master bedroom."

"I did not know that Janina had money enough to buy a house."

"Me neither, but she claimed that she had collected a lot of loot from the Skooma dealers; there also seemed to be some other sources, and I believe that she got the house offered with a rebate, too. However, she was not able to afford furniture for all rooms yet."

I did not recall how expensive the house in Riften – Honeyside, I believe – was, but this was somewhat curious. Again there two thuds from arrows hitting the target, and it looked like the two Companions were trying to find out how close they could get the two arrows to each other. That was impressive and way beyond my own capabilities with a bow, but I tried to focus on Fiona's story again, and there was another question I wanted to raise:

"So, Janina became Thane? Not you? But Iona?"

"Yeah, about that; we had some discussion with our housecarls and between ourselves, and Janina had worked closely together with Rayya for quite some time. The two of them have a very similar fighting style with their scimitars, as we had already seen last year in places like Dustman՚s Cairn, whereas I found that Iona՚s attitude was more to my liking. In addition to that, Rayya is also quite tall, not as tall as Janina is, but still, and I feel more comfortable with somebody at my side who is somewhat closer to my own size. I mean, even Iona is taller than I am, of course, but at least I don't have to bend my neck backwards when I talk to her. So, we talked to the two warrior ladies, and although there seems to be no precedent for that, we simply swapped housecarls – Janina got Rayya and I got Iona. From my point of view that was a good exchange; I feel much more comfortable with the Nord than I ever felt with the Redguard."

"All right, this seems to make sense, and I have seen, too, that Janina and Rayya make an excellent team. I understand your motivation, and I assume that you have not come to regret that decision?"

"No, certainly not."

"Okay, what did you do next?"

"For the trip down to the Ratway Warrens, we decided that we'd go together, all six of us – Janina with her housecarl Rayya, Mjoll, and myself with my housecarls Lydia and Iona. We had heard rumors that Thalmor had been seen walking around and asking questions, and we needed to be prepared for hostile encounters. Getting in and down was not a problem, via the secret entrance had found, and although it took some time, we found the person we had been looking for. It took some time to make him trust us, but we could finally convince him to come with us to get to Delphine in Riverwood. Now, unfortunately, the way out wasn't as easy as the way in, and somehow the Thalmor had managed to find us. There were quite a few of them, but there were six of us, too, or rather seven, with Esbern now. The old man was most surprising; he turned out to be an excellent mage, and besides some destruction spells he cast, he could conjure mighty atronachs to help us. The Altmer did not stand a chance at all, specifically as they did not attack all at once, but had agents on different levels. Apparently they had learned about the area in general, but did not know exactly where to look. They also had probably not expected to encounter so many of us either."

"Did you find out how the Thalmor had managed to get in?"

"No, we did not. There is a chance that they also found the secret entrance, or maybe they just went through the Ragged Flagon; I don't think that the members of the Thieves Guild would have denied access to a dozen or so Thalmor. I decided to not mention that topic to them. It was good enough for me that no Thalmor got out from there and that we did not have any casualties."

"No injuries?"

"Oh, there were injuries, of course, and not too few of them. After all, the Thalmor did not send weaklings, and we had to fight hard; some of us got hurt by spells, and if they had all attacked together in one group, we might have all been killed. However, they had not, and the injuries we suffered could be treated with some potions we had with us and with the restoration magic Janina and Esbern are capable of. So, altogether, not bad."

"So, now as you had found Esbern, back to Riverwood?"

"Yes, indeed, but without Janina. She claimed that she needed to go to Markarth next."

"Markarth? Why there?"

"She did not mention details, but apparently she was supposed to visit the Temple of Dibella there. She is still pursuing tasks which she believes should guide her in the direction to find out more about herself and such."

"Oh wait, this actually matches what I heard. Some time ago a carriage driver from Markarth reported that a tall Redguard lady had been seen there, and she had been doing something related to the Temple of Dibella. Did she say what she would do afterwards?"

"No, she did not. From the little she told me about her task, she may be doing something like a paper chase, and each task may lead to the next. But anyway, we traveled to Ivarstead and onward together, and in Helgen we separated. We took the time to defeat the bandits who apparently tried to settle there, collected some loot, and that was it. Janina and Rayya moved west towards Falkreath, and my housecarls and Esbern and I moved north towards Riverwood. Honestly, without Janina I might have failed in Riften, and I was very lucky that she had been with me; she is one smart and capable lady, for sure, and I do hope that she will be back eventually."

"So do I, Fiona, so do I."

Fiona raised her head, looked directly into my eyes for a few seconds and asked:

"You have some feelings for her, don't you?"

I hesitated to reply, as this was very personal, but the Bosmer and I had in common that we both got here from Central Europe, and I did consider her a good friend; thus, I decided to not deny what she apparently already suspected:

"I am not sure about my feelings, really. I'd like to spend more time with her and find out, but I am not sure if I will ever see her again. I like this Redguard, and sometimes I wish I could have gone with her. Maybe it was just the fact that I could actually save her from the bandits, although it wasn't only me, of course. She seemed to feel comfortable with me, even sleeping in the same room, and I had hoped to be able to spend more time with her."

I had omitted some details, but that was apparently good enough; the Dragonborn did not dig deeper, at least not at this time. The drizzle turned into more intense rain, and Aela and Ria decided that they had trained enough; they stowed their weapons and joined us under the roof for some eating and drinking. The Dragonborn used this opportunity to suggest:

"Now, actually, enough talking for today. Can we continue tomorrow, please?"

"Of course, Fiona. Meet you again tomorrow morning at the Gildergreen?"

She nodded and left with her wolf, and I got some time to ponder the events she had mentioned, before Aela and Ria also wanted some training with me. Okay, it had been good to hear something about Janina, but apparently Fiona and Janina had split up, and who could know where Janina was now and what she was doing.

[Author's Notes: So, a strange door and a 'Whispering Lady'; I guess you know what will be coming up here.]