I extinguish my Flames, stand up, and turn around, only to find that it's Jenassa.
She quickly puts a finger on my lips. Jenassa stands on her toes and shushes me in my ear. She scoots in closer and wraps an arm around my neck, which I peel off.
"Are you trying to wake Uthgerd?" She whispers seductively. My heart starts to race.
I whisper back, "What are you doing?"
"I couldn't sleep. You look... lonely, and it's pretty cold." She whispers, trying to slide an arm up my tunic. 'Keep that shit outta there.' I take her arm and push it away from me, before holding up my spellbook.
I whisper in her ear. "I'm not alone. I've got my spellbook." I toss a couple logs into the fireplace, before quietly saying, "Now, it'll warm up. That's two out of three. Last is for you head back to bed."
"Che~. And to think I thought you were fun." Jenassa pouts a little, biting her lip.
"I don't really know you. I literally met you this morning." I whisper.
"Oh, and that's not long enough?" She whispers back.
"Not for me. I like to know someone a little before I ah, *get to know them.* I'm sure you understand my meaning."
"How... Fortunate. It seems we are of a similar mind, after all. If you had accepted, I fear things might have gotten a bit... Ugly." Her voice changes to a heavier tone, and she reveals a dagger she has in her hand. She's finally stopped messing around. I understand her suspicions completely. She thinks that there's only one kind of guy that'd take women with him on an adventure – the kind that'll take advantage of them. Thank the Nine I ain't like that.
"Glad you feel that way. Well, if you're done here, please either leave me alone or go to sleep. I'd like to finish reading my book in peace." I'm relieved. I thought she might actually do something I would later come to regret. I can't focus on bitches right now. I got quests to do and a world to conquer.
She returns to the bed. I quietly thank the gods. I try to finish studying the spellbook, but can't, so I quietly leave the building and head to the river. I first wash my clothes and dry them with Flames, then dunk myself in. I let the cold water soak and cool my skin, which rose in temperature from the situation I was just in.
I soak my head completely under water, and come to a realization. If I can lower the temperature of my magic to an absolute freezing degree will I be able to cast Frostbite, the frost spell equivalent of Flames? The concepts of casting are similar, aren't they?
I cast Flames in my right hand, and Healing in my left, in case this goes wrong. I focus on the Magicka flowing to my right, trying to slow down the flow, and forcibly cool the Flames. As the spell turns colder and whiter, the Flames slowly start to disappear and become replaced with snowflakes. I try to remember what the spell looked like, and make the magic flowing in my hand look similar. A bug flies into the glowing white and red lights above my hand, distracting my attention.
The spell goes uncontrollable as I lose focus. My hand twitches down, and a spell shoots out but it's unlike any I've ever seen. It's a catastrophically self-inflictive spell that shoots a spike made of flaming ice into my foot, and my hand and wrist start to freeze, with frostbite creeping up to my elbow. My right arm turns black as the frostbite digs it's claws deeper into my flesh.
The spike pierces my foot, causing a fount of blood to spurt out, and eliciting gasps of agony from my throat. I don't know what exactly what I was thinking, but I didn't want to scream or make a loud noise and wake anyone up. 'Igotthis.Iknowwhattodo.Healing.Myhand!It'sgotahealingspellinit.Just.cast.the.spell.All I have. to do is. cast the spell.' My breathing starts to get slower and slower as I figure out what I have to do. The pain echoes out every few seconds, at first starting in a massive wave of red, but then dropping to black as the ice takes my focus. 'I need to focus. Healing. Healing. Healing.'
I hold my breath, before letting it all out. The pain hurts like hell, but I need to get a hold of myself. I take a couple more deep breaths before attempting to cast Healing. It warms my right arm at a very low temperature that's just barely warmer than the frostbite but it gradually gets warmer over time. As it does, my arm changes colors to a light grey, then a bluish white, then a red-pinkish color as blood proceeds to flow again, then my normal skin color. I can't move my fingers just yet, though. They're frozen solid, which the Healing starts to treat. When the pinkish shade reach my wrist, I hold my arm just above the water, and the cold radiating off of my hand creates steam near the waters' surface. The steam starts to help warm my hand up, little by little.
My foot, on the other hand, has a large flaming spike of ice presently in it. There's only one good thing about the flaming ice, and that it's cauterized my foot the second it pierced it. As the warm energy of Healing flows through my body though, it causes the flaming ice to stop burning and melt. As it melts, my flesh in my foot regrew, but not a fun pace. It took at least an hour.
I remember reading somewhere that if you ever get frostbite to warm it in cold water, at first, then slowly warming it up from there. I don't know if I should do that or really need to do that, though, because Healing's working pretty damn well. But, of course, the second I have that thought, I run out of magic. I start gasping from the pain, so I dip my hand in the water. The flow of the water rubs the frostbite on my fingers, and my hand starts to feel like it's being tortured in a thousand different ways all at once. My hand prickles like it was numb and is regaining blood flow, burned like it was on fire, and twitched like it was being stung by bullet ants. My wrist writhed, twisting my hand in different directions.
The second I felt like I had more Magicka to cast, I casted Healing. The pain in my hand started to calm down, and the effects of the frostbite started to disappear from my fingers entirely.
When I ran out of Magicka again, I tried moving my fingers. My fingers moved, albeit twitching the whole amount. I put the rest of my clothes on and return to the room. Upon entering inside, I sat in front of the fire, and let myself warm up.
I very nearly lost my hand tonight. I twist and flex my hand and fingers. Slight twitches would strike now and then, but overall, the mobility in my wrist and hand was back. I... Think it's time for bed... I go back to my bedroll and fall asleep.
...
I sit up. I'm in the same place I usually meet the Benefactor. White smoke floats around me. I stand and turn around.
[
"No, I suppose it wasn't." I answer.
[
"No, thanks. I feel that if I'm given all the magic I cast, it's unfair for all the mages across the world who study for years while making only tiny steps in their field. I also feel as though it will be even more monumental if I can figure it out using just conceptualiztion. Please, I ask that you don't give me magic spells."
This time, the thing behind me is a frozen Dark Elf assassin with Daedric daggers in each hand in the middle of sprinting.
I get an idea. "Instead, why not allow me to practice my skills against an opponent that appears in here? Or study the books that appear in this place? Something along those lines."
[
Then, the dark elf stands up. He bows to me, and gets into a low stance that he could move quickly in. He bursts forward and tries to stab me with his right dagger and lunges at me with his left. I dodge the first attack, then the second, but then the elf swings himself into a roundhouse kick, and that hit me in the side. I was thrown a few feet, then I drop to my knee. I wasn't expecting a kick. The fact that I am unarmed and unarmored doesn't really help my situation.
I cast Healing with my left hand, and with my right, Flames, blocking the elf's approach. My side was heavily bruised, but it was getting better. When I was healed, I switched to dual-wielding Flames, and kept it equipped but not burning so that my Magicka loss to regeneration rate was low. The elf jumps from side to side in front of me, looking for an opening.
With the dark elf being a speed-based assassin, my goal was to force this into a grapple. If I could do that, then I could restrain the assassin, and blast Flames into his face. I shut my eyes, letting the assassin make his move.
The assassin was currently slinking around me, trying to sneak up on me. I let him try to slice my throat from behind. When I ducked suddenly, twisted around and grabbed hold of him, dropping into a German Suplex, he was finished. I used my Flames to burn his wrists, and he dropped the daggers.
I then grabbed his daggers and held them to his throat.
"I win." I said to the Benefactor.
[
"Agreed." I answered.
...
When I woke up, the fire was just burning out. I get up, put some firewood on it, and repack my backpack. It's early, around five in the morning. Not very bright out.
I set my stuff by the door, and stretch each of my muscles. First, my arms. Then, I stretch my core. I twist my waist and pop my spine, after that. Finally, I stretch my legs and pop my knees.
I put my armor on, and equip my gear. I pick up my axe and swing it around a little. I restring my bow.
I try something you couldn't in the game. I try casting Flames while holding my axe in the same hand. What happens, is a temporary enchantment that doesn't require soul gems. Just kidding. It just heats up the metal a shit ton and burns my hand, causing me to drop my axe. Although, I suppose if you do it right, you could light your weapon on fire. I think it might work if you cast it in a different way, or are using something like a shield. If I use my shield.... Ah, shit. I forgot to pick up my custom shield from Ulfberth. I'll have to head back there today.
I Heal my hand, sheath my axe, and pick up my backpack, and put the extra food from the basket in it. I look for the girls, but they're in the main room of the inn, eating a breakfast of smoked salmon and toasted bread. I join them, and eat quickly. The food's great, but I've got to leave to get my shield as quickly as possible. I tell the girls that I forgot to pick up my shield, and that I'll be back soon. I'm kind of pissed off at myself for forgetting something as important as my shield.
I stretch a bit, before jogging the way to Whiterun, a whole of three or so hours passing through the countryside. Small prides of sabre cats, the Skyrim equivalent of sabre-tooth tigers, run through the relatively empty fields of the tundra. A lot of them tend to chase herds of horses, but they seem to fail just about every time. The deer on the other hand... Let's just say I'm glad I'm not a deer.
I eventually make it to Warmaiden's, where Ulfberth greets me happily.
"There you are! I've been waiting for you ever since yesterday. Here you go!"
The brute of a man passes me a buckler about the size of my thigh. Roughly egg-shaped, and made of an ash wood frame, lined and covered in a wall of quicksilver, it's designed with both looks and function in mind. It weighs about eight pounds, so it's going to kill my arm if I wear for longer than a few hours, but my arm will eventually grow stronger to fit it's weight. Overall, though, it's beautiful.
I thank Ulfberth for holding onto it for me, and give thanks to his wife as well. She's the one who made it. After that, I slide into my backpack, and jog back to Riverwood. Another three hours later, and I was there. My legs are killing me. Casting Healing fixes them, so I use it and let them calm down. Healing didn't stop my legs from twitching like I was still running, though.
After eating a light lunch, I need to get Faendal as an ally. Faendal is a Bosmer hunter who's in love with Lucan's sister, and is the love rival of Sven, a Nord brute of a bard who's currently in the lead of the competition for Camilla's attention. Not only is he a potential follower, he can also teach people archery up to level 50 or so, in-game.
Speaking of, there he is, leaning on a tree. Brown skin, sharp cheekbones, a weathered face despite his young age, and salt-and-pepper hair. He's wearing the clothes a farmer wears: a long-sleeved greenish tunic that reaches to his waist with a brown vest over it, brown pants and boots. A hunting bow and a quiver of steel broad-headed arrows. Yeah, it's definitely him.
"Hey, you're Faendal, right?" I ask, trying to emulate a friendly sort of person.
He looks over to me. "Depends who's asking."
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Drake. I heard you're having trouble with Camilla." I continue.
"And? What's it to you?" He scowls.
"I don't especially like Sven either, so you can calm down, first. But I think I can help you. Lucan and Camilla, ah... We're on friendly terms."
"Oh? You're willing to help me out?" He smiles, pleasant at this turn of events.
"I am."
"That's great! Alright... So... I've been thinking... maybe Camilla needs a little help seeing Sven for what he is." His dialogue has changed to that of the gams'. I remember that well enough.
"Could you... could you give her this letter, and say it's from Sven? I think I've matched that Nord's lack of cleverness perfectly." Faendal continues.
"Sure, I'll head there right now." I say. His method of getting the girl was mid at best, and pretty underhanded.
I go to the Riverwood Trader, with Faendal following close behind. I tell him to wait outside, before going inside and looking for Camilla.
I don't find her immediately, as I expect to, but Lucan finds me first, and tells me in an uppity sort of tone, "Fine. I forgive you for that sneaky move you did, ripping me off like that. Hey, wait, are you igno-..."
I ignore him, and continue looking for his sister. I still don't find her, so I ask him directly.
"Oi, Lucan, where's your sister?"
He backs up, gasping, raising his hand to his mouth. "Not another one! Look, there's two guys already after her affections, okay?"
"I know." I start, nodding. "I'm just here to deliver a letter for one of them. So, where is she?"
"She's in the downstairs storage room right now. I'll go get her."
He disappears for a few seconds, then reappears, his sister in tow. She was being dragged by her hand.
"What? W-what's going on? Why are you stopping me from doing inventory? You're the one who told me to take it again!" I could hear her asking as she comes into sight.
Lucan swings her around, to face me.
"Hear you go," I say, giving her the letter written by Faendal. "This is from Sven."
"Another poem, I'll bet. He does know how to make a girl blush." She smiles, happy. She unfolds it, and takes a few seconds to read it through. She starts to mutter quietly, faster and faster as she reads it through multiple times. She crumples it up in one hand, veins clearly popping out on her temple. "What's this? If that OAF! thinks all I'm going to do is stay in that filthy house of his and clean, I'll.... You can tell Sven that he already has a mother. I'm not speaking to him anymore."
She tosses the letter into the fireplace, and storms back off to the basement, pissed off.
"What in Oblivion did Sven write?" Lucan says, scared.
"Probably better not knowing." I say quietly. Even I was a little scared.
I walk back outside, to where Faendal is standing, biting his nails anxiously.
"So? How'd it go?"
"Camilla won't be spending any time with Sven any time soon, that's for sure."
Faendal laughs, then cries a little bit. "Thank you! Thank you so much! If there's anything I can do for you, please let me know!"
I smile. Finally. He's part of the team. "It's funny you say that. I need your help."
His smile wavers, before breaking away. He's still trying to maintain a kind demeanor, as he attempts an escape. "B-before I help you, I'd like to check on Camilla, and makes sure she's alri–..."
I put my hand on his shoulder. "I wouldn't recommend that, friend, she seemed pretty mad when I left. Besides, it should only take a day or so. You might want to get some armor and gear ready. We'll be climbing a mountain tomorrow."
Faendal's smile disappears entirely. "I– I suppose a day isn't a whole lot." His head droops.
I send him off to his house to get his things ready, and head to tell Hadvar we'll be ready to go tomorrow.
I go for an early dinner at the inn. For the rest of the day, I talk to Uthgerd and Jenassa a bit, eliminating the awkward airs between us all. I also read through my spellbook, and practice controlling my Magicka. I eventually figure out to control the strength, speed, and density of my Flames the more I use it. I also figured out that a person's Magicka pool is like a muscle, in that if you completely drain it, then refill it, then repeat the process dozens of times over, you could grow it, allowing you to strengthen over time. However after draining it twice, I got a headache, so I casted Healing, and the headache went away. Eventually, though, I reached a point where I just had a constant migraine that wouldn't go away even with Healing. I think that was around my 20th to 25th Magicka refilling. I stopped emptying my pool at that point.
The next day, we all get started on the trail, after a quick introduction of Hadvar and Faendal to Uthgerd and Jenassa. The way up to Bleak Falls Barrow is covered in different flowers. Blue, red, and purple mountain flowers line the majority the trailside. I collect some and put it in one of the leather pouches I have extra of. I've been consolidating the gold pieces into one large pouch, and now I have a bunch of empty small pouches. I fill several pouches with over 30 mountain flowers of varying colors.
"So, Drake, how long do you think you'll be doing this adventuring sort of thing for?" Jenassa says, as we're hiking. "You ever tried mercenary work? It might suit you."
"I haven't been doing this for very long, but it's... Fun? Tale-worthy? Something like that. If mercenary work ever comes my way, I'd say I might try it out." My answer was the best I could give. "Eh, I was planning on joining the Companions at some point, sooner or later."
"Ooh, the Companions, hmm? I heard they've been allowing non-Nords to join recently, so that's not a terrible idea." Jenassa had a bright voice regarding the Companions, despite her love for criminal activity.
"Errgh. Could we not talk about the Companions?" Uthgerd cut in. "I don't have especially good memories with them."
I slowed to Uthgerd's pace. Hadvar and Faendal take the lead.
"Do you mind if I ask what happened?" I ask, trying to find out why dislikes them. It's been a while since I've had her as a follower in the game, so I forgot her story.
She suddenly gets defensive. "It wasn't my fault! I told them over and over that it was an accident! They wanted me to prove my worth, so they threw me up against a young whelp of a lad, hardly old enough to grow his first chin-hairs. I guess they thought a woman wasn't strong enough to hurt him. I didn't mean for him to die! Why would I want that? I just... lost control."
I stop, and she does, too.
"Whoa. That's... I'm sorry. It's unfortunate that he died, but that's not your fault. If he was that young, then he shouldn't have been put against you. You'd think they'd be able to see your strength as easily as I did. Well, I'm glad I'm not one of them. If it makes things right, I'll confront them about it and make them publicly acknowledge that what they did, putting a kid against you, was on them." I was not expecting that. It's been a while since I've heard her dialogue.
"No, I'm sorry, I just felt a weird urge to dump all that on you. I'm sorry. That was strange." Uthgerd frowned, and shook her head.
"I agree with Drake... That was on them. You shouldn't have had to prove your worth against a child. Rather, they should use criminals such as murderers or rapists as subjects to prove strength over, or even animals like sabre cats, skeevers, or wolves. Those would be your likely enemies, anyways." Jenassa concurs. She had an interesting taste on it, but she has a point. Reform would come to the Companions when I become Harbinger.
Uthgerd smiles at me, then looks back to her feet as we clob the rest of the mountain. We've reached the height of a mountain where snow starts appearing as a constant. The wind starts to pick up, and even more snow starts to fall.
Uthgerd shivers.
"Time to put on our cloaks, guys." I say, stopping and pulling out mine. Uthgerd stops and pulls hers out as well.
"Ah, shite." Jenassa curses.
"You don't have one?" I ask. I hand her mine.
"Oh, you don't have to do that." Jenassa tries to avoid taking my cloak.
"Can't have our scout freeze. If our scout freezes, then we don't have a scout, and we'll be in danger. Besides, I'm a Nord, and I can cast Flames. I'll be fine in this weather. You won't." I counter with a valid argument.
"Oh, fine." Jenassa gives in, and takes the cloak.
"Wait. You can cast magic?" Uthgerd asks.
"Yes... It's not super strong, but as of yet, it's been pretty versatile." I say.
"You... Don't know the value of magic like that, do you?" Uthgerd continues.
"Apparently, I don't." I answer, confused. The value of my magic? What does she mean?
"I'll tell him after I come back from scouting." Jenassa cuts in.
We continue hiking. I take the lead, and check to see how far away we are.
"Alright, guys, we're coming up on it. Jenassa, can you scout ahead?" I ask.
"Got it." She drops her backpack, taking only her bow and arrows with her. She bounds up the mountain like a deer.
"Alright. Let's find a clear area, and set up camp." I say. Uthgerd splits off from me and we start looking through the snow-covered brush for a clear enough area.
"I've got a spot," Uthgerd calls out. I meet up with where she's at. She's picked up a roughly 12 by 14 area. A ledge from the mountain above stretches over and covers just over half of the area she chose. There's very little brush here, and the minimal amount of snow makes it great. I pick up Jenassa's pack, and bring it with me, setting it next to the ledge.
"Nice." She picked out a good spot.
Hadvar and I pull out our tents, and set it up close to the wall made by the mountain. Our tents are of a simple design, an A-frame supported by two poles. A cord from the middle back of the tent is staked to the ground, the cord pulls out on the back end, and the front has two small support cords on the corners, instead of one like in the back, which pull out the front end. A pole in the middle front and middle back of the tent hold it up.
While Hadvar and I get our respective tents up and ready, Uthgerd and Faendal looks for rocks and builds a simple fire pit close to the mountain wall.
With most of the tent near the mountain wall, and the fire pit close to the tent, I imagine the heat will carry over to us quite nicely.
As Uthgerd sets up the fire pit, I start looking for wood. I find a bunch of sticks and parts of a fallen down tree. I bring the sticks and tree over and set them in the fire pit. Jenassa returns as we finish setting up camp.
"There's five archers, and four warriors. They have extra weapons, but I doubt they'd switch to ones they're bad with."
I thank Jenassa, and cast Flames on the wood. The wood takes a few seconds to start burning. When they do, I start blowing on it, and make it bigger. The wood's pretty wet because of all the snow that was on it, so I turn up the amount of Flames pouring out, turning it into a cone of Flames, rather than a stream. The steam rising up from the wood makes little popping noises as the pressure releases from inside the wood. We're all sitting around the fire.
"So it's true... You can cast magic. You said that you don't know the value of the magic you cast, right?" Jenassa explains. "Well, the majority of the value is in it's rarity. In the last 50 years, we've had a high influx of immigrants to Skyrim, but we've had the roughly the same density of magic casters for the last 50 years, probably even longer than that. There's maybe one mage for every 30 people. That sounds like it might be a lot, but it used to be one for every 10. There's less magic casters now... Something has affected Aetherium in the last half-century, and nobody knows what it is."
My head whirled. Aetherium was the realm where the gods, the Aedra, made their domain. Not only is it the home of the gods, it's also the source of Magicka for all of Nirn. If something could affect them... Their influence on the mortal realm, Mundus, was disappearing. This is bad. Very, very bad.
A quest was added to the Scribe. My heart fell as I read it.
Quest Added: The Fall of Aetherium|
-----------------
Funds: 800 Septims
Weapons:
💠 - Fine Steel War Axe (+15 extra damage)
💠 - Nordic Daggers
💠 - Quicksilver Throwing Knives {x5}
- Hunting Bow, Unstring/Wrapped {x25 arrows}
Apparel:
💠 - Refurbished Steel Helm (15% more armor)
💠 - Steel Armor (HP Regen. Injury Heal Rate 25%↑, Light Wound Heal 50%↑)
💠 - Spiked Iron Gauntlets (+15 extra H2H damage)
💠 - Refitted Steel Boots (15% more armor)
💠 - Custom Quicksilver buckler
- Winter Cloak (20% Cold Resistance)
-
Food:
- Basket of Fruits and Vegetables; {onions x4, apples x8, leeks x5, potatoes x8, head of cabbage x2, carrots x6, loaves of bread x2}
Ingredients:
- Giant's Toes {x10}
Books:
- Stack of Stormcloak notes and letters to family {x15}
- Letter to Thrynn & Torturer's Ring
- Spell Tome: Sparks
Supplies:
- Backpack
- Bedroll
- 50 feet of hemp rope
- Cooking pan
- Waterskins
- Metal Bowl
- Torches x3
- Tent
Miscellaneous:
- Lockpicks