This is my first Elder Scrolls/Skyrim fic. It's a one-shot from the POV of my female Khajiit Dragonborn, Sheeta. The fic is loosely based off of the Quest 'Double Edged' from the 'Alternative Armors-Leather' Creation Club add-on. I felt the quest seemed a little lacking, regardless of which path the player took, so I decided to re-write the quest the way I felt it should have gone, while also adding in a bit of lore on my Dragonborn as well.
The Elder Scrolls Series belongs to Bethesda.
It all started on Loredas, the 20th of Evening Star.
I was out adventuring, as usual, when I thought I would stop by the Cliffside retreat, and chat a bit with the resident hunter there.
But when I arrived, I noticed a book and a note sitting on a barrel by the entrance to the hunter's cabin, that hadn't been there the last time I was here. Curious, I first picked up the book and began to read it.
It was a Guard's Dossier on a Bosmer named Ehlhiel.
Ehlhiel was a former member of a Bandit gang called the Crimson Dirks, who had been active in Cyrodiil, but were betrayed by one of their own and fled north, here to Skyrim. Ehlhiel had joined them after the deaths of his parents, due to wanting others to belong with.
Apparently, Ehlhiel had been captured by the guards at some point, who revealed to him that it was in fact his fellow Bandits who had been responsible for his parents's deaths, and in retaliation, he sold them out to the guards. He had been the traitor, it seemed. In the end, he had done the right thing.
I had been hunting down the surviving members of the Dirks for some time now, and I had believed they were all gone…but I was wrong.
I then read the note next to it. It was written by Zaharia, another member of the Crimson Dirks, who had slain a random guardsman on a whim, and had found the Dossier on her former comrade, and discovered his treachery. The note said that she planned to leave a note for him at the Temple of the Divines in Solitude, where the guards were known to send him messages, to come alone and unarmed to Lost Echo Cave.
I couldn't let that happen. I had already failed to stop one tragic death, with Larina at Hob's Fall Cave in Winterhold. I couldn't do it again.
Mounting my Unicorn steed Heimdall, I spurred him towards Haafingar Hold and Solitude as fast as I could. I didn't stop at all, not even to eat the lunch I'd brought with me. It felt like hours before I arrived at the gates of Solitude.
Leaping out of the saddle, I burst through the gates of the city and made haste to reach the Temple of the Divines at Castle Dour. Hurrying upstairs to the message point, I was shocked to find no note there. That meant he had already picked it up and was likely on his way to Lost Echo Cave already!
Cursing the time I'd just wasted, I rushed back out of the Temple and towards the city gates-nearly running headlong into a patrolling guardsman- and hoisted myself back into Heimdall's saddle, before striking the reins hard.
The ride took quite a while, and I was keeping a sharp lookout for any Bosmer on the road-but I hadn't seen any by the time I'd reached the Entrance to Lost Echo Cave. Hoping for the best, but fearing the worst, I threw open the wooden door and ran inside.
As I entered the eerie blue glowing cavern, I desperately called out.
"Ehlhiel!? EHLHIEL!"
Suddenly, I heard a noise- footsteps. And they were getting louder, until someone walked out from the shadows into the candlelit area of the cavern.
It was a female Redguard, tall and imposing. She wore brown leather armor, gauntlets, and boots, and a hood of blue fabric rested over her head. White, tribal looking tattoos surrounded her eyes, and there were also matching white tattoos resembling clenched teeth over her mouth. The unhinged look in her eyes made it clear she was dangerous, and in her right hand was an elven mace with blood on its head.
The redguard's eyes furrowed, and her tattooed lips parted into an ominous grin, as she spoke.
"I'm afraid you're too late, Khajiit. I've sent him to the gods."
Shock and even stronger anger began to rise within me, as I realized this Redguard woman had to be Zaharia.
The rage, the rahgot, within me began to rise to dangerous heights, as I glared at Zaharia, too shocked and upset to move otherwise. I could feel the draconic part of my mind and soul becoming stronger and louder with each passing second.
"But don't feel too upset. You'll be joining him soon enough, you mangy cat!" Zaharia added, before she raised her mace, and charged forward towards me.
At that moment, I clenched my fists, as my growing anger and rage finally snapped, before I opened my mouth, and, without thinking, I impulsively let out the first Dragon Shout that crossed my mind, channeling all my rage and energy into it.
"FUS RO DAH!"
As the thu'um blasted forth from my mouth, the entire cave started shaking from the shout, as if a major Nirnquake was passing through the area. I could barely keep my footing as the cave trembled violently, until I finally dropped to my hands and knees, hoping the shout wouldn't cause the whole cave to collapse on top of me.
Until eventually, the shaking stopped, and everything was absolutely still-and quiet.
Slowly picking myself up from the cave's floor, I summoned my night eye ability to see in the dark, as the quake had put out the candles.
Looking to where Zaharia had been, I noticed her armor was lying on the ground, and it was full of…dust.
Oh no…
No, no, no, no, no!
This can't be happening!
By the Divines…WHAT HAVE I DONE?!
How the Greybeards would probably be furious with me, once they found out about this.
How Ulfric would be laughing at me right now, if he were still alive, claiming that for all I called him a traitor and monster, I was no better than him.
How the Imperials would call me a dangerous creature that needed to be chained like a beast.
As the tears of emotional pain fell from my eyes, I noticed something further back in the cave out of the corner of my eye.
It was a dead Bosmer, with brown hair, a beard, and wearing the robes of a monk. I quickly realized, this must have been Ehlhiel. Picking his corpse up and slinging it over my shoulder, I turned and left the cave.
After tying Ehlhiel's body into Heimdall's saddle, I mounted him, and departed for a plot of land I had purchased, in northern Hjaalmarch.
As I arrived upon my land, I looked briefly to the small, one-room house I had constructed here, before turning my attention to a grave.
It was the grave where I had buried Larina after bringing her body here from Winterhold.
Jarl Idgrod had initially sold this land to me so I could build a house upon it. But I ended up using it for a different purpose: a small cemetery, for burying the bodies of those whom I failed to save, in my adventures through Skyrim.
My eyes traveled quickly over the writing carved into the grave's headstone.
Here lies Larina, an Imperial Bard
whose financial troubles lead her to the darkness beyond death.
May the Aedra one day rescue her soul
from the King of Worms and the Ideal Masters
"My Thane?"
I was greeted by my Hjaalmarch Housecarl, Valdimar, who had been patrolling the grounds. I pointed to Ehlhiel's corpse, and then to Larina's grave, and Valdimar nodded in understanding, before he went to get the shovel, stone, and chisel.
We spent the next hour digging a second grave, before I laid Ehlhiel's body in it, before mounting the headstone, and chiseling the writing into it.
Here lies Ehlhiel, a reformed Bosmer Bandit
Who in the end chose to do the right thing.
May Stendarr forgive his crimes
And Arkay reunite him with his parents in Aetherius
With my task finished, I closed my eyes and whispered a prayer to all nine of the divines, wishing Ehlhiel's soul peace and rest, before the memory flashed through me, of Zaharia and her demise.
Go to Oblivion, you piece of Bandit Trash.
But then another thought occurred to me: I had blasphemously misused the Thu'um. As much as I feared their anger towards me when they would learn of it, I needed to go visit the Greybeards. Perhaps they could suggest a task of penance I could perform, to repent of what I had done.
I made my decision.
I would stay here for the night, and then travel to the Throat of the World tomorrow morning, to seek penance from the Greybeards.
And I would repent, or die trying.