Chapter 55: Riften

[12th – 13th of Sun's Height 4E 202]

Riften – after quite a few adventures, traveling from Whiterun to High Hrothgar, spending a few days up there, down to Ivarstead, fighting against various enemies in various places, Fiona and I, with our housecarls and 'pets', had finally arrived in the capital city of the Rift. The challenges and events of the last days had made me almost forget why I had decided that coming here was a good idea, but after we had passed the southern city gate, I recalled the motivations. I wanted to see if Inigo was actually here, I planned to visit Fort Dawnguard, I might want to see the fishery, and I also intended to see how the Riften player home, Honeyside, looked in reality. Janina had managed to become Thane and had purchased the house, as the Dragonborn had told me earlier, but with Janina being absent, Fiona assured me that she was entitled to use the home whenever she wanted. Last but not least I hoped to meet Ferwen again; she had been vague about that, but mentioned earlier that she might be here in Riften around that time. On the other hand, Riften was home to the Thieves Guild, and we might have to be careful in the city.

"Here we are again!" Fiona called out when we had passed the gate; of course, she had been here before, when she had been looking for Esbern together with Janina and housecarls. Judged by her facial expression, she liked the city, or maybe she was just looking forward to sleeping in a real bed and eating a nice dinner again; the latter at least was something I was looking forward to as well, although I had adapted well to 'on the way' meals, prepared over a campfire, as long as there was plenty of meat. The guards at the southwestern gate had viewed our animal followers liked they wanted to not allow them inside, but one of them had recognized Fiona, and her reputation as Dragonborn seemed to be enough to keep the guards quiet.

Contrary to the game, the orphanage was not directly there, on the left side right behind the gate, but we had to pass a few other houses first, before eventually the sign 'Honorhall Orphanage' made it clear what a larger building to the left was. Like in the game, the outer walls were at least mostly wooden, but the size was larger; maybe more children were inside, more then the four of five in the game. Was that orphanage only supposed to be available for orphans in this hold or for needy children in other holds as well? I did not know and had not asked about something like this earlier. I was almost tempted to enter and have a look, to find out about the children inside and their stories, but realized that this was not on the agenda right now and would have to wait. Also like in the game, the building was located directly adjacent to the local canal, or whatever they called the narrow waterway in the city. Jordis must have seen me sniffing the air and looking less than happy, and she likely knew to interpret my facial expressions by now, which were somewhat different from humans; thus she asked:

"Is something wrong, my Thane?"

"Not really, I just start to smell the water from the canal down there, and it's somewhat less than pleasant."

Thinking about it, it was likely that the water was polluted with sewage and other waste, which was not really a surprise; the smell sure seemed to indicate something like this, and likely my sensitive cat nose was more affected by this than a human nose would have been. Would I have to get used to that while I stayed in the city? Iona chimed in:

"I guess Riften citizens are so used to it, that it doesn't really bother them any longer."

"Maybe so, yes. If I have a choice, you know, I prefer to smell clean and clear ocean water."

The housecarl smiled, and knowing about my past, she could understand that. Iona added:

"That's something I have never experienced; I haven't had a chance yet to see the sea. How is that, Jordis?"

"Well, very close to Solitude, the smell is also sometimes not that great, but a little outside of the city, like around the lighthouse and further north, yes, there is something about it, indeed. When you smell the sea, hear the waves breaking close to the shore and the cries of the seagulls, and see the turquoise expanse of the seemingly endless water, with the occasional ice floats here and there and maybe a lone ship in the distance, one feels almost tempted to board a ship and travel to a place far away."

I looked at my housecarl with surprise; I had not known about that part of her. Was she actually tempted to leave Tamriel, like Elves were driven to leave Middle Earth when the Era of Men started? She added, though:

"That's just a feeling. I don't think that I'd really want to travel on a ship for longer distances; I was on board once for a border watch on the northern shores of the hold, and I got horribly sick after a few hours. No, thank you."

"Oh, all right."

We had stopped for a few moments in front of the orphanage, and I was curious if the orphanage was run by 'Grelod the Kind' like in the game, or maybe it had been already taken over by the younger woman named Constance something? If so, had Grelod been murdered? Maybe I could find out about that later, but for now Fiona obviously wanted to head for the house and moved on. Naturally, at least from what I had seen so far, the city was significantly larger than in the game, which was not really a surprise; I had seen the same in the other major cities I had visited before, in Whiterun, Falkreath, Solitude and Windhelm. All of those cities were nowhere near anything I had known as big cities in Germany, with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, and in particular nothing even remotely like the spreading metropolitan areas in Asia and America, but they were at least significantly larger than what Bethesda had made some cities look like in the game, with just a few dozen citizens.

From my position I could see the central market area, looking ahead and across one of the wooden bridges towards what I assumed to be the city center. I could clearly that the market area ahead was also larger than expected, with at least a dozen market stalls arranged in a circle. Judged by the smell, it seemed to be that one or two food stalls were also mixed in with, as the aroma of roasted meat started to overlay the less pleasant vapors from the canal below. On the other side steps led up to what likely was the Jarl՚s residence, the local keep, built from stone with very thick and robust looking walls. Fiona decided to skip the market area and guided us around. We passed one of the larger houses, and Iona pointed out:

"This house to our right here is the Black-Briar manor."

"Oh, Maven and family?"

"Yes, I guess that you've heard of her."

I had more than just 'heard of her', of course, but not everybody needed to know that. Besides, I need to be careful to not follow any prejudices I might have; there was a chance that some people were not quite like their game counterparts. A young black-haired lady stepped out of the door right at this time, and Iona greeted her:

"Good evening Lady Ingun, nice to see you again."

"Oh, hi Iona, likewise. I'm so sorry that I don't have time for introductions; I promised to assist Elgrim with analyzing the latest ore samples from the hold's mines, and I'm already late."

She hurried off, and I noticed that she looked quite attractive, at least in my opinion. Once again, the people in Skyrim were real people with real faces, and they did not have the bland standard looks NPCs had in the vanilla game, but more like extremely well modded; not like some mods which made many females look like teenagers and/or anime characters, but, well, real people, with individual faces, wrinkles, moles, scars, hairstyles and clothes. The rich ones, which clearly included the Black-Briar family, seemed to have access to all kind of items to enhance natural beauty, like make-up or so; I could easily imagine that this might be a lucrative business for those who were good in alchemy and thus able to produce potions in that category, even if I had not seen that in the game. While we slowly walked on, I could see Ingun Black-Briar rushing towards a wooden set of stairs on the north side of the city canal, likely heading for Elgrim's Elixirs, the alchemist's shop, which was, according to my gaming memory, located on the lower level, right at the water front.

Suddenly Fiona, who walked a few meters ahead of me, yelped, and when I looked at her, I could see a small shadow retreating from her in haste. Wait – this was Riften, main location of the Thieves Guild; had somebody just tried or even succeeded in pickpocketing her? I did not wait for an explanation and sprinted off, and before the small shadow managed to find a corner or hole or something else to hide in, I had grabbed a child clothed in not much more than rags. I could not even see if this was a boy or a girl, but they still had a coin purse in their hands, which I quickly and forcefully reclaimed. Fiona approached and took the purse from me, stating that it was hers. Iona sighed and suggested:

"Quick reaction, B'lushona. Better let the child go now, though."

I nodded, understanding well, and released the child, which was gone a few moments later. Maven Black-Briar was likely not only controlling the guild, but also many guards, and trying to get the child arrested would not really get us anywhere, except for stirring up trouble. Iona also explained to the Dragonborn in subdued voice, and next Iona pointed again:

"This is one of the city's most known buildings over there!"

"The Temple of Mara!"

I recognized it right away. The temple was set back from the street, and it looked quite lovely, surrounded by trees and flower beds. The top of the building had a small extension, like a bell tower, and it appeared tome that there was a small bell visible inside, which I imagined to see through the wooden slits. I asked Iona about it:

"Say, do they actually have a bell in the small tower?"

"Yes, indeed, there is a bell there, and they always ring it a few times when there is a wedding in progress in the temple."

Wow, I did not remember that from the game, but I had another question:

"But they don't ring the bell on are regular basis, say once an hour or so, to indicate the passing of time or so?"

"No, why should they?"

I was so used to hearing a church bell or also a bell on top of a town hall building sounding the time from my earlier life; I had lived close to a church, and the regular bell chimes had been very much part of my life, even providing some comfort. Of course, that concept did probably not exist in Tamriel. Lydia, though, had something to add:

"Actually, I have heard from travelers, that at least some of the Great Chapels in cities in Cyrodiil do exactly that, ringing their bells on the hour every hour. It eludes me why they do that, but it appears to make sense to some people at least."

There were bells sounding the hours in the big chapels in Cyrodiil? Really? I was not sure if that had been part of the vanilla 'Oblivion' game and did not recall that detail from playing, but it was nice to hear. After a few moments spent looking at the Temple of Mara we proceeded on our way. The housecarl who had grown up in Riften also pointed out a few more notable houses, including the Snow-Shod Manor, explaining:

"The owners of the farm we briefly visited outside the city live here. They prefer to live in the city, while having other people work their farm. Also, they are still in mourning."

"Mourning? What happened?"

"The Snow-Shod daughter, Lilija, was a Battle Maiden with the Stormcloaks. As a Battle Maiden, she healed those who fell in battle, never lifting a sword to fight. Only a few months after Lilija had joined the Stormcloaks, a fight between the Imperial Legion and Stormcloaks resulted in her death; that happened last year, or at least the news about it arrived here last year, just before I got my housecarl assignment. Vulwulf and Nura Snow-Shod took it hard and still miss her dearly."

Well, there was a Civil War ongoing, and such things were inevitable. Not everybody fighting probably thought about the grief relatives of killed people had to go through. The Bosmer pushed on again; we turned around the next corner, and once we had passed an older and somewhat shabby looking building with a weathered sign designating it as 'Haelga's Bunkhouse', Iona unlocked and opened the door to Honeyside for us. The house was entirely built of wood, but it was clearly larger than the in-game house. When we were shown around, I saw two guest/housecarl rooms with two beds each, so that all of us would easily find accommodation. The porch was larger than I had expected and had a table with six chairs around it, and the house was almost fully equipped with furniture; Fiona explained that they had only skipped fully building the basement so far, as Janina had not seen a need to spend money on doing that.

There were not many food supplies available in the kitchen area, as nobody had been here for some time; tinned food had not yet been invented here in this world. Fiona suggested to just go the Bee and Barb and get dinner there, but her housecarls opted to go shopping and take care of dinner preparations.

"That's fine for me, too" Fiona replied. "I just want to sit down and relax and enjoy being in a proper house again for now."

"That can be arranged, my Thane" Lydia told her.

Iona and Jordis volunteered to go shopping quickly, and I got busy with the fireplace. Starting a fire was something I could do reasonably well; not only had I learned the basics from my grandmother in my first life, but doing it here I did not even need matches and paper and such; I only had to blast flames into the wood a few times. Lydia watched me, and she told me:

"This is certainly one of the times when magic comes in handy."

"Indeed, it is, Lydia."

I assumed that constantly being around people who wielded magic, including her own Thane, made even a traditional Nord review their own views. About an hour later a nice dinner was ready; we indulged, and not much later we decided that it was about time to retire to our respective rooms. Fiona got the master bedroom, Lydia and Iona shared one of the guest rooms, and Jordis and I took the other one. I was slightly uncomfortable about sharing a room with a lady, but this was Jordis, my housecarl, and at least the two beds were separate. Before we actually got to bed, though, I went out to the porch and used the convenient outside access stairs to go down to the docks and the grass around the lake, so that Hanni and Nanni could run around a little more and do their evening business. They liked the environment, but for the night I preferred to keep them in my room; it wouldn't do for them to run around during the night and scare the guards, who did not know them. This was different in and around Whiterun, where almost all city and hold guards knew my two saber cats and they knew them.

Having Hanni and Nanni in my room, which I shared with Jordis, was fortunately working out fine. My two girls were fine with sleeping on the floor, but as usual they insisted on a cuddling session first. Jordis, who had been with me and them for quite some time, had been getting used to have them close, specifically after the night at Valtheim Towers when she had been sad and had found solace by hugging one of my girls, and she willingly participated, so that we had stereo purring for some time.

Fiona was going to sleep with the door to the porch open, but Nymeria was posted there; nobody was going to be able to approach without being noticed.

We enjoyed breakfast on the next day on the porch; the table out there was marginal, but just large enough for our needs. Fortunately, our housecarls had bought plenty of meat on the day before, and there were some meaty bones for our animals as well. While we ate, I looked around and enjoyed the view, and I also asked about what I saw:

"Hey Iona, over there, that looks like a farm, right?"

"Yes, this is Merryfair Farm. The owner had his bow, a family heirloom, stolen, and we found the weapon in the Ratway Vaults, while we were looking for the old guy down there. Dravin Llanith, the Dunmer who owns the farm, was more than happy when he got the bow back."

"So, a Dunmer owns and runs the farm?"

"Yes, he does, together with his wife. It does not exactly look like this is a flourishing business, but they seem to get along."

"How do the others treat Dunmer around here?"

"They seem to get along reasonably well, as a matter of fact. With the border to Morrowind not far away to the East, we get a lot of traffic in both directions, and there appears to be less resentment against Dunmer here than there used to be in and around Windhelm. Nevertheless, I heard both the farmer and his wife contemplating moving back to Morrowind, for various reasons. They suspect that the Thieves Guild target their farm on a regular basis, which doesn't make life for them easier, I guess."

I nodded, and soon I had another question:

"And that island on the lake is Goldenglow Estate, right? The one where the soldier mentioned that they had trouble with some beehives being on fire?"

"Right. There's some shady business going on, but I don't know any details. Rumors are that the Black-Briars are somehow involved, too."

I bet that they were, but not necessarily in the same way as in the game. Based on a few observations so far, like the number of burned beehives and the order of the events at Goldenglow and the meadery close to Whiterun, I had a hunch that the Thieves Guild quests might differ somewhat from the game. That might be true or not; did I really care? As long as they did not target me and us specifically, we shouldn't have to bother with them, right? Anyway, I had no particular desire to stay in that city for an extended period of time, at least for now.

Today we decided to take it easy and spend a lazy day exploring the city and talking to some citizens. I excused myself and opted for some task of my own; after all, I was quite eager to find out if my good friend Inigo was actually in the local prison. Of course, even if he was there, he wasn't my good friend quite yet, but he had been when I had played the game, and I had always very much enjoyed his game character, specifically his funny and witty comments, including the bantering with other NPCs, like Lydia and Vilja. However, since Mia had told me that a Khajiit matching the description had been seen here, many months had passed, and I somehow doubted that he was still here. However, I needed to see for myself, and thus I made my way towards the local keep; Jordis joined me, but that was all right.

Naturally, the guard watching over the entrance to the prison area was not willing to let us pass just like that, specifically with my saber cats, and I grudgingly bribed him, assuming that this might be the best option; I could have tried to intimidate him, but was unsure of the potential implications. The inside of the prison area looked somewhat similar to the game, with the interior section covering two levels; there were more individual cells on each level, though. On the upper level, in the first cell to the left, there was no Khajiit inside, but on the table there was a jar with a small insect. Mr. Dragonfly, maybe? Had the insect survived and Inigo was gone, dead or so? The cell looked like it had looked in the game; the door was unlocked, though, but clearly there was no person inside. What a pity.

[Author's Notes: The Oblivion Wiki states: 'The chapels in each city will also ring bells every in-game hour, but they can only be heard while outside and standing very close to the chapel's entrance.' Thus, having a bell tower for the Temple of Mara seems to make sense, too. BTW, sorry for the delay; I was out for vacation.]