Chapter 19: Mila's little secret

[7th of Second Seed 4E 202]

In the last couple of days Fiona, the Dragonborn, had told me part of her recent adventures, and her last report had ended when Janina and herself had split up in Helgen, after defeating the resident bandits in the ruins there. Today, I made myself comfortable on one of the benches under the Gildergreen tree, after I had done my usual morning workout and enjoyed a decent breakfast in Jorrvaskr. I watched some of the kids on their way to school, and Lucia rushed by with Garm, apparently to quickly bring him back to the Hall of the Dead before also going to school; she only had time for a very quick 'H and G' while passing me.

The new Gildergreen had reached a respectable size by now, not quite as tall as the old one yet, but growing much quicker than such a tree was normally expected to grow, specifically in Skyrim՚s harsh climate. It was apparent that Kynareth՚s blessing was responsible for that, and Danica՚s good care.

Carlotta Valentia passed by on the way to her market stall, and she stopped for a few minutes to wish me a good morning and chat with me. The Imperial was very friendly with me, but I had helped her on a few occasions, and her daughter Mila was one my best friends. Talking to her came easy, and we exchanged a few words on the weather and such before she moved on. Eventually Fiona showed up, with Nymeria at her side, and she asked:

"So, where do we go today to continue our chat?"

I pointed to the sky and suggested:

"Look, there are some dark clouds and it may rain soon again; what about finding a covered space today, like we did yesterday?"

"Seems to make sense, and where? You know the city much better than I do."

"May I suggest the outside of Dragonsreach? The roof has an overhang in some places, and this should be good enough."

She nodded, and I showed the way. The winds were from an easterly direction today, and thus I guided the Bosmer up the stairs and to the west side of Dragonsreach. There was something like a small garden, and the overhanging roof partially protected the space from the elements. A couple of benches were placed adjacent to the wall, and from experience I knew that they'd likely to stay dry today. Nobody else was in that section, and before we sat down I pointed out a very small section close by:

"Look, this is Mila՚s little secret spot here. She likes me and I have done a few favors for her; earlier this year I also helped her to get two gold fish for the small basin just outside of her home. She fully trusts me, and she has allowed me to look into her secret box and even given me a second key."

There was indeed a small strongbox hidden between some flowers, and before I opened it, I showed a small piece of paper to Fiona, with Mila՚s handwriting on it:

MILA'S VERY SECRET TREASURE
 STOP READING NOW! Or I'll tell mom and the guards! It's illegal to read things that don't belong to you!

If you're still reading, it must be because we're friends and I want you to have the treasure at my secret hiding spot!

I have a place where I like to play behind Dragonsreach. I pretend I have my very own vegetable stall, just like mom!
That's where I keep my best treasure. I keep it all locked up so Braith can't take it.

My favorite flower is also in there, and a really big bug I found last week.
I didn't kill it, it was dead when I found it. Honest!

"This is so sweet! She gave this to you? Really?"

"Yes, she did; Mila and I are very good friends."

I opened the strongbox with the key I had and showed the contents; there were a few septims, a few alchemical ingredients and a couple of minor gemstones; last but not least the dead bug was also in there. Once I had closed and locked the strongbox again, Fiona asked:

"Was it right to show this to me?"

"Oh yes, it was. I talked to Mila yesterday evening, and she allowed me to introduce you to this spot."

"She is a very special girl."

"That she is all right, and I like her almost like she was my own daughter."

The Bosmer looked at me and asked:

"So, the two Valentia girls, wouldn't they make a nice family for you?"

"Family? Oh, one to marry into? No, not really; Carlotta is a very nice lady and a good friend, but I don't like her like that."

"No, I guess not."

I decided to not pursue that line of thought any longer. Nymeria had found a comfortable position on Fiona's side of the bench, and my saber cats kept on my side, so that they could keep a reasonable distance to the direwolf. Once we were properly seated, I prompted the Dragonborn:

"Now, where were we in your story? We stopped at Helgen yesterday, right?"

Fiona needed a moment to follow the change of topic, and then she told me:

"Yes, we did. I told you that Janina and I swapped housecarls; she got Rayya from me and I got Iona from her. The two warrior ladies had agreed to the swap, and I like Iona. Now, once Janina and Rayya were gone, Lydia, Iona and I traveled to Riverwood, and Delphine was very happy to see Esbern; the two of them spent a few days to discuss options while I mostly rested and took it easy in the inn. The old blade mentioned that we should try to find a place called 'Sky Haven Temple', but he did not know the exact location. Most of the old archives had been lost, as he claimed, and he only knew that we needed to look for a place only reachable through a Forsworn cave west or northwest of Old Hroldan. I was about to take my leave, as this is in The Reach and I'd better not go there, but they insisted that they needed my help. We made a deal that I'd help them one more time and then I'd be off, and we went west. So, searching was tedious, and we needed to keep away from Imperial patrols, of course, too. Esbern was sure that we were getting closer, after weeks of searching, and when we looked down at a large Forsworn camp Esbern called 'Karthspire', a camp partially built next to and even into the river, they had somehow managed to surround us and we had to surrender. We had more than twenty Forsworn against us, and there simply was no other choice. We were brought to a place in the middle of the camp, and to our surprise a male Nord was there to question us together with the Forsworn leaders. He introduced himself as Ragnar, and he seemed to have quite a reputation among them. We did not really have a choice and told them what we were looking for, in slightly vague terms, and Ragnar consulted with the others for some time in their language, before he told us that they were giving us a chance. They'd get us to a place where a path and puzzles led on, and they'd observe what we'd do there. This had been a location, as the Nord said, which had irritated the Forsworn for a long time, and if we could solve the puzzles there, they'd allow us to investigate further."

"Wow, fascinating. So, the Forsworn aren't really total savages?"

"No, not at all. They sometimes try to look like this to others, but mostly to discourage them from getting too close. So, we were guided into a cave inhabited by many more Forsworn, and at the end there was indeed a way forward and a puzzle. The first one was not difficult at all, and by trial and error they had managed to manipulate a wooden drawbridge, but they had given up at the next one. The four us, including Ragnar who kept very close, solved the remaining puzzles, and eventually we got into the place – 'Sky Haven Temple'."

"With Alduin՚s Wall, right?"

"Yes, that was what Esbern called the largest relief in there."

"Did he tell you what this was all about?"

"He seemed to know some of the background, indeed, but he claimed that he'd need weeks or even months to understand it all. He mentioned that he'd have to try to order some old books from Cyrodiil, some with more background on dragon lore. I don't get it; what's the big deal with a large stone relief showing a dragon and a few people?"

"That's interesting, you see. In the game, Esbern looks at the relief for maybe ten seconds and then understands what it's showing and implicating."

"Is that a problem?"

"No, I don't think so. Look at it like that: Now you get some time off while Esbern studies the temple and the reliefs."

"Good point, yes."

"Above and beyond that, you may not be ready to proceed anyway. Tell me, how many dragon shouts do you know?"

"Well, there is 'FUS RO DAH', of course, I have 'WULD', I know 'KAAN' and I have 'YOL'. That's it, I guess. No, wait, when I was in Riften, I went to kill a dragon at a place called 'Lost Tongue Overlook', together with Janina and the housecarls, and there was a word wall with a new shout – 'FAAS'. It is part of the 'dismay' shout, as I have learned, and it is supposed to make enemies flee rather than fight. I tried it a couple of times, but it does not work against dragons. However, it is useful against simple bandits and such; it makes them run away in fear indeed. It fails on some of the bandit chiefs, but they are kind of lost when all of their gang runs away."

"So, you know five shouts out of several dozen, and most of them with the first word only. No offense, but you probably need more if you want to fight Alduin eventually."

"I will never be ready for Alduin, really."

"You won't have to fight him alone."

"I won't? That should help, but still…"

"Yes, still, you may want to work on your fighting and magical skills and also find a few more word walls."

"How do I find them?"

"According to what I know, you either travel around a lot and find dragon lairs and dungeons which have them or you ask the Greybeards, or both. I believe that they can sense which word walls you have already visited and will tell you about additional ones."

I hoped that I was guiding her in the right direction. In the game, one could rush through the main quest with mediocre fighting and magic skills and only a handful of shouts, but in the game you could also reload if something went wrong, and you could also change the difficulty settings; we did not have any of those options here, of course. So, in order to guarantee her own survival, or at least to make it more likely, I firmly believed that she needed to do some more training, but at least she had a few capable companions with her. She had already achieved a lot in less than one year, and apparently some tasks took much more time than in the game, which was, in my opinion, a good thing. In the game, with me as the main character, I would at that time already have defeated Alduin, established myself as Harbinger of the Companions and Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold as well, plus maybe more. Oh yes, and ended the Civil War in a bloody way in another week or two.

Fiona nodded and continued to talk:

"Okay, as Esbern said he'd need time, I decided to leave soon, but before I did so I spent a day or two looking at the area around the temple. My face was known to the Forsworn around and in the large camp, and once a patrol of Imperial soldiers was seen not far away while I was down there. Ragnar and the Forsworn did not want to initiate a fight and kept hidden, and from our viewpoint we could see the soldiers fighting against a pack of wolves. The wolves were killed, but when the soldiers had left, I saw a single juvenile wolf limping in my direction. My heart made a jump, and I could not help myself; Ragnar and I approached it, and while it turned around at first I shouted 'KAAN!'; the injured wolf stopped and looked at me, and Ragnar helped me to carry it back to the camp. I healed the wolf with my restoration magic and fed it, and after that it stayed close to me, licked my hand and looked at me in a way I could not resist; I had found a pet."

"And you named her Nymeria, you said, right?"

"Yes, I did. After I had checked her body for more injuries than the damaged leg she had, I found that she was female, and yes, I called her Nymeria."

"Why this name?"

"You don't know where this is from? Have you not watched the 'Game of Thrones' episodes?"

"'Game of Thrones'? No, this was too violent for my taste, but I read a few of the books before I gave up; I could not stand having my favorite characters getting killed almost all of the time. Wait, is that the name of one of the direwolves in there?"

"Right, it is; it's the one Arya had for some time."

"She is a little bit different from other wolves, isn't she?"

"Yes, she is, indeed. I talked to Ragnar about that, and he believes that a small wolf pack lives in a cave in a location somewhere in The Reach, although he does not know precisely where; they are all like her, larger and more muscular than other wolves. That may be true or false, but Nymeria is with me now, and I like her very much. I call her race 'direwolves', although probably nobody but you and me knows where this is from."

"Well, yes, I understand. I can see that she likes you, when she looks at you with her kind of puppy eyes. I am happy for you!"

Fiona smiled and cuddled with her pet very affectionately, and while her companion made sure to keep her distance to me, she continued to talk:

"After I had found and healed Nymeria, I decided to return to Whiterun, and Ragnar promised to escort me back to the border of The Reach. When we had passed the side road to Old Hroldan Inn, as Ragnar had called it, a large Imperial force found us. We were fortunate that we had been able to acquire horses just before, and we hurried east as quickly as we could, hoping to find some help in Whiterun hold; you know the rest."

Old Hroldan Inn? Yes, I vaguely recalled that one. They had the special guest room the called 'Tiber Septim՚s room', and there was a chance to encounter a ghost when you stayed there for the night. I got my notebook out and added an entry about that, reminding myself to visit the inn when I had a chance. While I wrote, I nodded:

"I do, yes."

We sat on our rock for a few minutes without talking, and then I summarized what I had done since the start of the year, specifically my two trips to Windhelm and the Valtheim Alliance. I skipped over some special events, though; I neither mentioned Lana's visit to my bedroom nor my capability to cast magic with my tail; both were my secrets, and my housecarls would not tell anybody. Fiona, was, understandably, worried about the political ramifications:

"Are you sure that it is the right thing to do to actively join the Stormcloak side?"

"Quite sure, Fiona, for several reasons: Number one is that I have a mandate from Talos himself to help restore worship to the Nine in Skyrim again. Number two is the way the Imperials have treated you and me so far. Number three is my allegiance to Jarl Balgruuf; I am his Thane, and he has made up his mind. Yes, I am a Thane of Solitude as well, but Elisif – I think that she basically does what Tullius tells her to do. I am not sure how this will work out long term, though. With the White-Gold Concordat and all…"

The Bosmer interrupted me:

"I have heard this term before, but never explained. What is this?"

I certainly wasn't a history teacher, but I knew the basic at least:

"A few decades ago the Aldmeri Dominion – mostly Altmer, living on the Sumerset Isles, but extending their influence over many regions of Tamriel – started a war against the Empire in Cyrodiil. They almost won, and eventually the Emperor agreed to sign a peace treaty, the White-Gold Concordat. The Emperor needed to make some concessions, as he did not want to risk having the fighting going on with his depleted legions. One of those concessions specifies that Talos worship is prohibited all over the Empire, and this includes Skyrim. The Thalmor, as special forces for the Dominion, have rights to enforce this."

"Why are they so much set on stopping Talos worship?"

"I don't know, Fiona. Maybe it is the thought to have a mortal arise to deity status, maybe it is forward looking to create unrest among the population, maybe it is something else."

"So, based on that, Thalmor in Skyrim and maybe other provinces can legally arrest people whenever they want?"

"Well, not quite, but almost. I am afraid that their position allows them to watch what is happening all over the Empire, including military strength and all. Some people believe that the Civil War here in Skyrim is welcome for them, as it kills soldiers rather than allowing us to build an army to fight outside. Some even believe that the Thalmor had a hand in starting the Civil War, though I am unable to judge if this might actually be true. It seems to be obvious that the Aldmeri Dominion likes to see Skyrim being divided and busy with itself; sometimes I wonder what they do in other provinces."

"So, the Thalmor are the real bad guys here, right?"

"As far as I can tell, yes."

"All right, enough talking for now; let's head back."

We rose from the rock we had been sitting on, and my two adolescent saber cats jumped ahead of us on our way back to the city, while Nymeria kept behind and stayed very close to Fiona. As we had been sitting close to the Pelagia Farm, we approached my building site now, and I realized that I had not yet shown it to Fiona. She had not really paid attention to it yet either, but today I decided to explain:

"Look, Fiona, over there, this is where I am building my house."

The basement was completed, the ground of the main floor, about one meter above ground level and easily accessible via a front porch, inspired by the house mod 'Skyfall Estate', was also done; two workers had already started to raise the massive stone walls for the ground floor. One could easily see that this was going to be a big house, and the Bosmer commented:

"Are you building a mansion here?"

"Well, its not only going to be for me alone. First, I do have two housecarls already, second, I may want to adopt a few kids eventually, and third, I thought that you might want to have a home as well, eventually. Jarl Balgruuf suggested that, and I plan to have a few rooms for you and your housecarls."

She was silent for a few minutes, and then she nodded:

"This is very thoughtful, and yes, it would be good to have something like a home, indeed, at least for the time this Dragonborn business keeps me occupied. So, tell me, what exactly are you planing?"

"Well, why don't we have a look at the plans and the site?"

[Author's Notes: Mila՚s secret place is actually part of the game and makes an appearance in one of the quests related to the 'Fishing CC'; I liked this.

The phrase 'H and G' is from an old movie I like; I wonder if anybody knows the reference?

Also, there is a Skyrim mod about direwolves – "Game of Thrones - Direwolf Followers".]