A Break in Riften #4

 

  Once we were back in Riften, Ash bought a house, he would have rented it, but it was cheaper to buy. He also bought just about a full shipment of paper and ink. He started writing to various different Priories asking for some Knights to be sent to Whiterun Priory.

  I spent a day reading all the journals and letters that we had found in Forelhost. I bought a journal and started writing my findings about Dragons and Dragon Priests. At some point, we would have to track them all down and make sure they stayed in their crypts.

  The one thing that did stand out, aside from the tragedy of them killing their own children, is that they expected dragons to return. They expected Alduin to come back and bring them back to life. To them, it was a certainty, which did not really bode well.

  Ash was well into writing and didn't even lift his head when I put food down on the table. I told him I was going skinny dipping in the lake right outside town and he just said have fun. I'm sure sometime tonight he will run out to the lake and try and find me. 

  So instead of giving him a complete heart attack, I left a note on the lamp post on our back deck saying that I would be at the Bee and Barb. And just to see if he really was paying attention, I put on the same corset outfit, that he had already threatened to burn and asked him if he liked my new outfit. 

  I sighed at the grunt I got and picked up my lute, heading out to see if the wizard was any good with his hands. One way or the other, I planned on having some fun... and a couple too many drinks!

  I woke the next morning with a mussy head and an upset stomach. I got up and grabbed a piece of bread and tore off a chunk. That helped to settle my stomach, I grabbed a healing potion and downed it. My head cleared up, but I still felt, stale I guess is the best way to put it, so I grabbed some soap-sand and two towels and walked out the back door.

  The Water felt cool to my skin when I jumped in, but I needed the shock of it to completely wake up and lose the rest of the mussy head.  I swam for a good long time floating in the middle of the lake watching the star's wheel across the sky. When I decided I was wrinkled enough I swam over near the boat tied to our dock and washed my hair and the rest of me.

  I tossed the cloth up onto the railing and then swam around to the steps where I had left my towel. I looked around and saw no one, so slowly got out of the water wrapped the towel around me, and used the second one on my hair. 

  It wasn't until I got to the top of the steps and turned towards the door, that I saw Ash sitting in the shadow at the table. I stopped and glared at him.

"Geeze Ash, learn to whistle or something!"

"Why, would you have stayed in the water longer if you had known I was here?" I heard the amusement in his voice.

"ah, no, but it might save you a little pain when you startle the crap out of me and I throw a spell at you." I grumbled under my breath, " You know if it wasn't for the fact that you changed my nappies, I'd think you were a pervert the way you are always around when I take a bath." He tipped his head sideways slightly and narrowed his eyes.

"How many daggers do you have on you right now?" I stuck my tongue out at him.

"None, but I can caste more than you can carry." He inclined his head.

"And what about the Argonian that was fishing this morning? Could you have caste a spell at her, under the water, as she was pulling you into the deep?" I did not let my surprise show or at least I did not think I had, but he nodded anyway.

"That is why I watch and that is why if you are going swimming you need to have a dagger strapped to your leg and learn a spell that lets you breathe underwater." I shivered and headed towards the door, Ash got up and followed me.

  I tucked my bath towel in better then grabbed a chair and pulled it over to the fireplace. I sat sideways to it and started rubbing my hair to dry it, then tried to pull a comb through it. Ash watched me for a while but then got up with a sigh and grabbed the comb out of my hand.

"You're putting in more knots than you're taking out." he bunched up my hair and started combing from the bottom, teasing out all the knots.

" I ought to just cut it all short." I should, but my hair had always been long, Ash had always brushed it out when I was young. He grunted and made another non-committal sound.

"It's your hair and you are old enough to decide what you want to do with it. I have a knife or a pair of shears whenever you decide." He kept at my hair until it was dry, braided it, and then went back and sat at the table, picking up a bowl of stewed apples.

  I got up to go put a robe on and came back and fixed myself a bowl of the stewed apples, but put some cream and a bit of spice over the top. I sat at the table and we ate in silence. 

"Ash...Why you?". He looked up from the last of his breakfast and chewed slowly. 

"Because I was there." I blinked a few times and tried to sort that out, I knew that would be the short answer and the truth, but it could not be all of it.

"Just because you were there? No other reason? You weren't the best man for the job.. the most skilled, you got my guardianship simply because.. you were there?"

His lips thinned to a tight line and I could see the far away look in his eyes.  He rolled his shoulders and tipped his head to one side quickly and I could hear the joints popping.

"No, not that simple. I was sent to the Priory you ... no,  hummmp. Do you remember anything of the Priory in High-Rock?" When I shook my head he lifted one shoulder and dropped it. " Well not really much chance, you were a toddler when I got there. While I did help bath and dress you, you were already out of *nappies*, when I got there." He pulled out the thin-bladed knife he carried and reached over his shoulder to the shelve grabbed a small piece of wood he was carving."

"The Priory was run by two old Knights and an even older Priest. I and two others were sent there to help out and in time, perhaps take over. I was newly a Knight, just two years, but had already fought many Deadra and other things at the Orders bidding." His smile was lopsided as the scars on his face pulled in odd angles. 

"You had been brought to the Priory by a woman, the Priest said she was *otherworldly* they were told to care for you, as you were our Father's Daughter. It did not take them long to figure what was meant, not when you conjured tiny dragons made of fire, that talked to you in another language." He turned the wood in his hands and started whittling from another direction.

"Not long after I and the other Knight got there some Deadra attacked the Priory and the Priest decided to bind your powers, for a time, they were drawing things that you could not handle." I looked at the scars that crossed his nose, cheek, and eyelid, four long scars made by a Winged Twilight that he had found standing over my bed. I did not remember, but still, it caused me to tremble, that was the first time Ash had saved my life and he had been doing so since.

"The Priest decided that as soon as the snow melted with the spring, I would take you to a Priory near the Imperial City. We left in the dead of night, two days before Winter Solstice. I got you to safety and the Head of our Order decided that I should be your Guardian." He again pulled that lop-sided smile," In no small part because you would not let me out of your sight." I looked into his ice-blue eyes and saw the laughter in them, I smiled back at him.

"It was long ago, Tsurista and I have taken being your Guardian seriously. Two Priest's and three Knight's gave their lives that night so that we could escape. I know I have been restrictive, but think, since your powers were unbound, we have kept on the move. Never do we stay any one place too long." He sighed and I could see regrets in his eyes, not of things he missed, but for the childhood that I never had. We had been over that topic before.

I stood up, having finished my breakfast, and leaned over to kiss his cheek. 

"Thank you, Ash, not just for what you have done, but for who you are. You have been the rock that I have clung to in the raging storm of life. I know you often push me away and I act like a spoiled brat at times, but I have learned my lessons well. I can care for myself, though I learn new lessons in that, daily, you are still my mentor, guardian, and best friend."

 

Dragon this and Dragon that.... #3

   

Tsurista: A Knights Tale

Page 3  Dragon this and Dragon that

It had been some god's awful hour before the sun came up that Ash woke me to leave for Whiterun. Which I suppose was a good thing, after getting ready we made it there just in time to help some people with a giant that was attacking a farm. 

  We helped to slay him, but I was sad, giant's never seemed to understand that not all the cows on Nirn belonged to them. A woman came up and thanked us, while her comrades cleaned their swords nearby. She stank of Hircine and I could practically see Ash's hair stand on end.

   She told me I would make a good shield sister and that I should come join the Companions. I played right along and asked her if "we" could join, she looked at Ash and said it wasn't for her to decide, that I should talk to Kodlak White-mane. 

 I watched her walk away and grinned when she looked back over her shoulder at me and winked. Huh... shield-sister or pillow friend? I chuckled and looked at Ash, who was just shaking his head.

"You do realize..." he started sternly.

"That she is a member of Hircine's pack? And runs with the Full Moon? Yes, Ash, I do realize that she stank of wolf."

   He nodded and turned to walk into town. There is something about Ash's frown that makes most people tuck tail and run, but we ran into a Redguard, who snidely asked if we got to the Cloud District often and then said smugly probably not. When Ash put his hand on his sword and asked if the man wanted to be a permanent part of the cloud district, he hurried away.

  One of the guards nearby chuckled, but then said as much as he would love to see that, we should not harass the citizens. We made it to the Jarl's Longhouse with no further interruptions.

  I spoke to the Jarl, while Ash went and talked to the Court Wizard, who generally knows much of what is happening. The Jarl wasn't happy to get confirmation of Helgen's demise but thanked me for letting him know. His housecarl and his Steward seemed to be of two different minds about how to handle beefing up the protection for Riverwood.

  I bowed and left the Jarl and went to find Ash, he was still talking to the Court Wizard who wanted him to get some kind of stone from a barrow, but then gave directions for another barrow that seemed to involve catching a carriage to Riften. 

   Ash took our leave telling the wizard that we would look into the other barrow as soon as our business was done. He motioned me to follow him and we headed to the local Inn. Ash ordered our lunch, with cider to drink. I looked at him and from the way he was frowning at me, I knew I was not going to get my night of drinking.

   When our food arrived,  Ash still had not said a word, but his frown of concentration told me he was trying to remember something. I tucked into my food and listened to the Bard, he wasn't half bad, but nowhere near as good as he seemed to think he was. 

   "Do you remember reading anything about the Dragon Cult?" I finished chewing the food in my mouth while thinking about the little I had read.

   "Very little, I don't recall much was written about them." I frowned and then blinked as a couple passages from a book took form in my mind. " The only thing I recall is fairly recent, historically speaking." I took a drink and gathered my thoughts. " Storm-strider, he found a hold-out while chasing some Elves. There wasn't much in that account, I don't remember why. It was here in Skyrim."

   "Yes, the Wizard said that there is a barrow over near Riften, that is said to be where the Dragon Cult last was. We will be heading their soon as lunch is over. When we get back from there, I told him we would look into getting a *dragonstone* for him. It's supposed to be a map of where all the dragons are buried. Why he wants it, he wouldn't say, but there must be a reason and once we get it, he'll tell us." 

   I sighed, 'cause it looked like I wasn't going to get my drink after all. Ash asked the Inn Keeper if she wouldn't fix us up a basket of food, to take with us. Once she brought us the basket we headed out to the carriage and took the three-day trip into the Rift.

   We spent a couple days helping the locals and getting some information about where the barrow was that we were looking for. A Dunmer needed some help retrieving a family bow and a stable man was being asked to pay a debt for items that had gotten stolen, by that person. Going to get some ore from the mine in Shor's Stone for the town's Alchemist and then clearing the mine of Spiders.

   I did have a nice night on the town, twisting Ash's tail and had a few drinks with a wizard Mercenary. Ash and I were sharing a room or I might have shared more than just some ale. It was a good night, nonetheless.

   "Forelhost!" Ash burst into the room as I was lacing up my boot. I looked up at him inquiringly. "The Barrow we need is called Forelhost and it's not all that far from here, I've ordered some food and asked the Stableman if we can borrow a couple horses."

   The Altmer we met a the entrance to Forelhost was very suspect, but as he was asking us to do something that we were planning to do anyway, we agreed to his plan. Not that he would get anything we brought out, if he wanted it that bad, he should have gone in and got it himself.

   The first thing we met inside the barrow, was ghosts. I dissipated them with a spell and went on our way. In each room, we looked for books, journals, or notes that might give us any information about dragons and their return. We ran into many of the walking dead, what the Nords call Draugr. 

   In one of the rooms were skeletons each had a bottle of poison near it. This upset me, but not as much as the small linen-wrapped bodies and I was all but in tears when I read the notes that went back and forth between an Alchemist and the Dragon Priest. 

   Ash stopped us and we had a good talk, I was extremely upset and he understood but said that I should turn that into anger. Anger at the creatures attacking us, anger at the dragons that encouraged this kind of cult. 

  I sucked it up and in a few more room's we found the crypt of the Dragon Priest Rahgot and I found the perfect being to take my anger out on. The battle was swift and bloody as I pounded spell after spell into him, never letting up, the short time I needed to recharge my magic, I pounded him with my sword.

  Ash was dealing with draugr, he was sending the last one to its final rest. I sent the Dragon Priest to his final rest in a great explosion, that caused me to stumble around seeing large white spots. 

  I sat down right where I was put my head on my knees and cried. Ash sat beside me and rocked me in his arms til I was hiccuping. 

  He took some of our water wet a cloth and let me wash my face. That made me feel better. I picked up the Dragon Priest's mask and staff and placed the Mask in my backpack, then tied the staff to it. 

  When we went outside, we saw the Altmer dressed in a Stormcloak uniform and knew there was something up with that. He attacked as soon as we got close to him and right beforehand I heard him saying that we were Imperial spies.  I felt bad having to kill the soldier, but not the Altmer. Ash looted his body and found a note.

  He placed that note with the other papers we had, then took the two bodies off, while I set camp back to rights and started out dinner. It was way too late to head for Riften.

  I pulled out the notes and journals that we had found but before I could do more than decide which to read, I fell asleep. 
  

Black Wing's Unfurled #2

   

We went in the gates, but not a soul resided within and I mean that Literally, the souls of the dead, not a one lingered, and that in and of itself was strange. I was no Priestess to Arkay, but I knew that those killed in this fashion often lingered. In a town, parents would look for children, and children would not know to depart. I would have to do some research when we got back to the Priory.

  We went around the whole of the fort and into the undercroft, I used spells to look for the living and other spells looking for any hidden passages. We ran into a cave-in, and I managed to squeeze through, but not long after, I found another cave-in and could not pass, though I could see what appeared to be a rather large cavern. When I got back to Ash, I suggested looking for a cave entrance that might lead into the undercroft, as I had seen what looked like natural formations.

I put out some of the fires with spells of ice and snow and cried at the bodies I found within. We left the Fort and headed along in a broad downward angle, knowing that if there was a cave entrance, there would be some kind of game trail.

We found the cave entrance, and it took about an hour, as we entered the cave I cast a detect life spell and got back two glows. Ash went after the furthest one and I found the closer man, an Imperial. He asked for a healing potion, which I gave, and then used a spell to augment it. As I helped the man to his feet, I looked for Ash who was only halfway to the other person.

Hadvar he said his name was and that I should hurry without him to Riverwood and let them know a Dragon had attacked Helgen. I told him Alvor had sent us here and they were already on guard. A huge crash caused me to wobble and dust flew all over the place.

"Ash... ASH!" I yelled his name and cast another detect life spell, I found him getting up from where he had dived out of the way of a falling stalactites.

"Ralof, he was right behind me."  I caste another detect life spell as I helped Ash to his feet.  He was fine, but I saw another tear in the hem of his armor, that would need fixing. When I saw no tel-tail glow, I caste a detect dead spell, and under the rubble was the shape of a man. I shook my head and the Imperial bowed his.

"He was a good man, we grew up together playing soldiers along the river. Until we became them, on different sides. I will miss my brother."  Ash and I helped him out of the cave and then walked all the way back to Riverwood with him. It turned out that Alvor was his Uncle. Before we headed back to the Priory, we promised Alvor we would head to Whiterun and let the Jarl know about the destruction of Helgen and the dragon who had done it.



I looked up from the book I was reading as Ash thumped another stack down. I frowned down at the dusty tomes.

" Surely those aren't all about Dragons and Alduin in particular?" I had been hard-pressed to find any mention of Alduin in the books I had read about dragons and their Cult.

"No, just books that may reference dragons, I don't read as fast as you do, but I can skim and find keywords.  You read and I'm going to replace some of the potions we used, magic healing is all good and well, but I can't heal you."

" I need to go meditate and ask Akatosh for guidance, I'm just going to the chapel."  I put the book down, the one that told me most of what I needed to know about Alduin, World eater, Bringer of the End of Time, devourer of souls. I shuddered at that, he used the souls of Man and Mer as a source of energy, those poor beings would not go to their final reward, but disappear completely.

I entered the chapel and knelt in front of the Shrine to Akatosh, I wiped all the worries from my mind, grounded within myself, and then cast my awareness outwards into the Aether.  I was calm as I asked our Father for direction, the answer I got was that "Time would show me the way". 

I centered back into myself and shook my head, I really hated riddles. I still planned on getting rip-roaring drunk, but after we got back from talking to the Jarl in Whiterun. I stood and turned to find Ash behind me, that was so normal that I felt like bursting into tears.

"You know all those within the fort are gone." I looked up at Ash and trembled inside, " Not just dead Ash, gone from existence, Alduin eats their souls for the energy he needs and because it delights him." He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. Telling me that tomorrow was time enough to worry about it all and that we should get some sleep.

As I made ready for bed I thought of all the things I had read and about the cryptic advice I had gotten from Akatosh, Divines and Deadra alike made little sense to Man, until after the fact, then you shook your head and wondered at being so dense.

I laid down but never fell asleep, so I got back up, only to find that Ash had not yet gone to sleep either. We stood on the balcony overlooking Whiterun and talked for a while.  I asked him questions that I knew he did not have the answers to and very Ash-like, he gave me answers that directed me to where I could look for those answers or told me he just didn't know.

I had long ago asked about where I had come from, but none of the Priest's or Knight's knew. They knew I was Breton and that is about all they knew. We went back in and I skimmed through a bunch more books before I gave it up and went to bed. I blanked my mind and relaxed my muscles, it wasn't as good as sleeping, but as it did tonight it allowed me to fall into sleep.

I dreamed of huge black wings
covering the sun.

Our New Home #1

 

 There has never been a day that I can recall that Ash has not been my shadow. From my earliest childhood, he handed me toys as he practiced weapons, clinging to his back as we galloped across the night. No matter the reason he was sent out, I was always with him, from Priory to Priory, the Priests and Knights my watchers, teachers, and friends.

  I never thought twice about him handing me a wooden sword or teaching me to use a  steel dagger, the small "horse bow", that progressed into a larger one. That is until I showed the beginning of magic. Then we were off again, this time to a Priory that had Knight Mages and Ash was my weapon's teacher, the Mages taught magic, but ever and always I was taught the ways of a Priestess.

  Law and Morality, along with the Lore of all the Divines and Deadric Princes. Everything I did, everything everyone around me did, was a lesson, it got to the point where I rebelled just to rebel.

  As I came into my woman's body, Ash tightened his watch on me to the point, that I was practicing spells of Invisibility and muffle, just to get away from him. I had to go and break my own heart and lose my virginity, I could not have stayed innocent forever, but Ash was there to hold me while I cried and threatened the young Lordling with horrible torture and death if he ever saw the young man around me again.

  So when we got the order to come to Skyrim and start a Priory, Ash was with me and I was never so happy to have him. We chose the Priory near the town of Riverwood first, Whiterun Priory, named for the Hold and the river that ran through it.

  The building had already been done and the Knight's in charge of that had already left when we got there. They would move on to the Next Priory, which would be near the town of Solitude. We would need some Chapter houses as well, some place for the Knights and Priests to overnight and minister to the people, though we are not a preachy lot.

  Our Personal things had been brought and mine where in the only private room, Ash's on one of the beds. We talked it over and decided to get the lay of the land, wander about doing things for the locals, and get to know them and the Jarls. 

  We would also be making contacts with suppliers, the Priest would have a home garden, and the Knights would hunt, but there are some things that need purchasing. 

Why the Headmaster had sent us here, I did not know, though I had the feeling that Ash had a good idea. Sometimes I wondered about the whole Order, as they treated me differently than any of the other Knight Priestesses.

Ash and I never stayed in one place too long, I had come to the conclusion a long time ago that trouble followed me around, why was the question. 

Ash my keeper, watcher, friend, and the one man I knew I could count on at my back. He may have secrets about my past, but I knew he would have good reason for them. I did not have to like it, just live with it. 

We had been in Riverwood for the better part of a week when Alvor asked us to go to Helgen, it seemed that no one had heard a word from anyone from the small fort town in a few days, but the smell of smoke and death was on the wind.

We put our armor on and geared up, potions and food because you never know what you are going to find. I tend to wear, for want of a better word, outfits that ticked Ash off. He had something of a prudish side, at least where I am concerned and the looks on his face...priceless. 

But for real trouble, when I know we will find it, I wear something that the Order made up long ago for their mages. A segmented armor, lined with silk,  that was light and durable. I preferred the short version, as tight as was comfortable, cause Ash.

I am a mage, and I use spells to augment my armor anyway, so if I choose to I can wear bits and pieces of armor, just enough to be modest and still have the rating of plate steel. But as Ash has pointed out, an arrow from the dark will hit before I can caste a spell. So, I make sure that I have respectable covering, I really do not want to have to ask Ash to pull an arrow out of my ass. I'm young enough, that IF I thought I could see the look on his face as he did so, I might put an arrow there myself.

More than you needed to know? I suppose, well, we got to Helgen early in the afternoon, but as we approached the fort, I felt a disturbance, like a huge shock wave. We heard a loud roar and I landed face-first in the snow, with Ash lying on top of me.

I squirmed to get out from under him, I wanted to see. Then I did, a huge black dragon, flying towards Riverwood. I felt my soul shudder in recognition of something kindred and I whimpered. 

I looked at Ash, whose face had gone dead white, to match the hair on his head. He pulled me to him and laid my head on his chest. I was shaking and didn't know why, I had taken no hurt and surely I was not that afraid of a dragon?

I closed my eyes and tried to find my center and re-ground myself, I seemed to be adrift. I finally did and took a huger breath.

"Ash, who was that?" I knew it was a dragon, I'm not daft and I had read the Lore. I also knew there was something... something more. I felt him suck in a huge breath and then let it out. His chin resting on my head, arms wrapped around me so that I felt safe.

"Alduin, Akatosh's firstborn," He paused and I could feel the tension in his muscles. " One last bit of Lore has always been kept from you and that is the *why* of our Order. We are not just Priests or Knights, We are watchers for Akatosh. We watch for Alduin and we watch to see if *you* would be born."

"What do you mean, watched for *me* to be born?" I was not sure I wanted to know the answer.

" Tsurista, you've always known you were different, you are. You have the soul of a Dragon, you must, there is no other way to defeat Alduin, only one born of Dragon Blood stands a chance."

I wanted to get up and run, I felt a gut-wrenching twist in my stomach, his words finding a home in my heart.

"Akatosh sent you as the Balance to Alduin, we knew he was gone, Nord's long and long ago cast him out of Nirn with an Elder Scroll. Akatosh sent dreams to Priests to let them know, he was not gone for good, though most assumed he was." 

He stood and looked down at me, his face hard to read, but then, it always was. He put out his hand and asked if I was ready to face my destiny. I grabbed his hand and pulled myself to my feet.

"Destiny Hell... We are going to go see if anyone is still alive and then I am going to get rip-roaring drunk...and stay that way for a week.. Destiny can kiss my ass for a little while."

Yeah ok, so thumbing my nose at the Fate's probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but to Oblivion with them all. I am only 20 and I want to have some fun.

You do know the Fate's have a wicked sense of humor...right?