- 2 - "I Will Say This Only Once"

- 2 - "I Will Say This Only Once"

Jun 22, 2023

"How are you?" demanded Delphine. "Thought I'd find you here."

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"Aah!" Skavild cried, as a suspicious but enthusiastic squirrel entered his otherwise ordinary dream and latched onto his face. "I mean, why? I mean, hello, Delphine, I'm fine, what are you doing here?"

And by Here, of course, Skavild meant Helgen Keep, now a sad, deserted ruin, with a few sad scavengers picking through the remains for charred coins and useful bits of scorched iron. Skavild was there because it was the first warm unoccupied building north of the border since running away from a former Penitus Oculatus commander who had recognised him. Or whose wife had.

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"Same as you, I'll bet. Searching for more information, where it all began. But it didn't begin here, Ysgald."

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"No? Where did I put my tunic?" said Skavild, searching.

"Shall I tell you when it began?"

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"Yes," Skavild failed to get out of bed again. "But where's my tunic?"

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"Look, it's not my job to find your clothes when you throw them on the floor and forget where." said Delphine. "I've been reading about dragons."

"Oh, really?" said Skavild. "Well, I'm cold."

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Delphine said, "Well, why'd you take it off?"

"If you keep your outside clothes on inside, you don't feel the benefit of 'em when you go outside." said Skavild.

"Who says?"

"My Ma."

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"It's worse than we thought." said Delphine. "And better."

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"Well, that's bad." said Skavild. "And it's nice, too."

"Are you always this difficult in the morning?"

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"Depends. Where's the sun?"

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"Sun? There's no sun." said Delphine. "If the sun was already up, I'd be able to tell you what time it was. It's morning, I know that much, because I went to bed at midnight and got up again, so it can't still be yesterday."

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"All right, E... Delphine. Give me a second to find some proper clothes."

"We're running out of time. Get your head together and meet me in the refectory."

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Delphine's advice, Skavild had to admit, wasn't bad. He found his tunic and his borrowed Orgnar-hat and slapped himself in the face so that he wouldn't call the acting Grandmaster of the Blades by the name of the Second Archivist of the Thalmor by mistake.

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The kitchens and refectory had been stripped of everything visibly valuable, but a lot of salted and preserved food had been left, by uncultured bandits who did not understand foreign delicacies.

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"So, what have you found?" said Skavild, being Ysgald.

"You know that map you gave me?"

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"Map." said Skavild.

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"The Dragon Stone of the barrow, Ysgald. That map."

Skavild wandered around the table. "That's a map? I mean, that's a map. Yes, I know the one you mean, I was just sayin' Map again for fun. Well, what about it?"

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"I went back to Falkreath. One of those burial mounds was near the Hammerfell border. I thought the ancient Nords marked those mounds to guard them, and make sure nothing disturbed them. What if they were guarding them to stop anything getting out?"

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"Well, then, maybe the ancient Nords are on our side."

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"Maybe they are." said Delphine. "But they're dead, and something's got out."

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As he reluctantly ventured out into the cold morning, Skavild thought two things. The first, that he wished very much that Delphine would not make such frightening statements about things he knew to be make-up, like dragons; the second, that it really was very dark, and the sky was full of stars.

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"Anyway, you didn't tell me how in Oblivion the news is good." He said.

"The guards in Whiterun managed to kill one of these things."

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"A dragon?"

"What else would I be talking about at a time like this? Yes! Not just kill. Really kill. Something ended a dragon's existence for good in Whiterun and sucked out its soul. Nothing left but bones. I tried to get in to ask the wizard but he wouldn't see me. He knows me, and knows who I am. There's only one thing he'd try to keep from me, Ysgald."

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"Yes." Skavild said bitterly. "A Dragonborn hero at the coming of the age."

"Exactly. All the signs are there. The dragon outside Whiterun was destroyed by somebody with the power to take its soul."

"What?" said Skavild. It hadn't even been a lucky guess, he had just been grumpy and wanted to say the most unlikely thing he could think of.

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"We need to find this person before they can be corrupted by folklore and distracting thoughts of glory. And I think I know how we can do it. We're going to steal the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller."

"What?" Skavild said again. "No, I don't understand, then. Did you hear something?"

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"What don't you understand?"

Skavild briefly stopped following. "We don't know nothing about dragons, and Dragonborn heroes ain't real. I won't have it. Skyrim's my home and I'm sick of bored hobbyists comin' here to gawp and ask the locals about silly stories that old men tell."

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Delphine continued on her way, whether he was following or not. "I don't care what you're sick of. Dragonborn heroes are real, chosen by Akatosh, because how else do you explain Saint Alessia, Emperor Reman, Tiber Septim, and the Amulet of Kings?"

"I don't." Skavild grunted. "Some people are just really strong or lucky and get loads of stuff. On the other side there are gods and daedra, and they don't owe us more'n an earful if they don't like what we do. And anyway, if there was a Dragonborn, I'd be damned angry with him right now because if you're right, there are dragons crawlin' out of the ground to meet him."

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"The Dragonborn doesn't attract dragons, they appear at a time of excessive dragons, a blessing from Akatosh to restore the natural balance, by which I mean kill dragons."

"So, after we blow the horn of Jurgen Windcaller and catch a Dragonborn hero, then what?" said Skavild.

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"Well, someone is bringing the dragons back. We need to find out who's doing it, then we need to prove it's the Thalmor. Then we need to appeal to the Emperor to take our word and not theirs, string them up from every tree in Tamriel and get the elves back under control. Then we can have our jobs protecting the Emperor back after the Penitus Oculatus stole them. Once there's a Dragonborn Emperor again, that is."

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"So the only thing standing in our way is some fire-breathing dragons, a treaty signed after five years of horrible war, the basic nature of mortals, and two shadowy organisations armed to the teeth with powerful magic and intricate intelligence networks, who are guarding all the evidence we need to continue the investigation."

"Exactly." said Delphine. "And now my back's gone, too."

"And your back's gone."

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"Ysgald, help. If I move right I'll fall over and if I move left it'll hurt more."

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"Well, sit down, I'll try to put it back in." Skavild ordered, helping.

"Ow, no, no, no, no, no, why did you make me sit down, I can't get up. No, just go and get my tonic. This has happened before. I'll be fine."

"I'm not leaving you here, there are wolves."

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"Can't you go any faster?" Delphine asked, at the edge of Riverwood. "People will be awake soon."

"Oh, get down and carry yourself if you want to go fast, I'm not a horse." said Skavild.

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"I'll need another bottle from the apothecaries, and then we can set off for the ancient ruin at Ustengrav."

"Ustengrav? Ustengrav? You're not going to Ustengrav, you're going to bed." Skavild said, and his voice was higher than he intended.

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"All right, two bottles." Delphine conceded.

"I need two bottles." said Skavild.

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"Hurry, Ysgald, they already think I'm strange here. I don't need people talking about me; talk could leave the village."

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"I'm going as fast as I bloody can, woman. I have to say, you're a lot lighter than I was expecting."

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Everybody got up all at once.

"Look at that hussy. Can't even walk home she's so drunk. Well, looks like that bald man's luck's in." said Hilde. "Not that she can be fussy at her age. What does she think she's wearing?"

"Shut up, you old trout." said Delphine.

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"Don't be so judgemental, Hilde." said a passing village woman. "I have always said that Delphine only needed a strong man to complete her. Now perhaps she'll stop ogling my husband."

"I wasn't ogling him."

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"Hello, Delphine!" said a chicken guard. "That looks like a fun way to get around. The Riverwood Chicken Guards guarded the chickens.

"Will you all stop staring at me? Ysgald, the Sleeping Giant is back there."

"Bok." said the chicken.

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"Hello, Delphine, why is Ysgald carrying you? Why are you wearing armour?" said the Wood Elf who worked at the sawmill. "Hello, Ysgald, you've come back!"

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"Ow." said Skavild.

"What is it?"

"Acilius Bolar's Oath Blade is prodding me in the nose whenever I go uphill."

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"Why didn't you take me back to the inn like I asked?" she growled.

"Because you're going to see a doctor because I say so."

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"What did you mean, I'm Lighter than you were expecting?"

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"Has she been getting enough sleep?" said the head apothecary. "What about those light exercises I showed her?"

"Does she lift anything heavier than a small dog, on a daily basis?" an apprentice asked.

"Has she been communing with the woodland spirits I recommended?" said a Wood Elf.

Delphine wailed: "Don't tell them anything, Ysgald!"

"How'm I supposed to tell them anything, I don't understand a damn thing they're asking." said Skavild.

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The head apothecary became irate. "If you're not going to take my advice, I'm going to ask the Guild Master to get involved. And you know how he tends to release intoxicating fumes when he gets agitated. I don't care how bouncy the tonic makes you look. You're fifty-three, I'll remind you."

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Delphine made another unsuccessful attempt to escape from the bed. "I don't have to do light exercises, I was trained by the sword-masters of the Royal Windkeep Duellists' Guild and the Guild Master knows it."

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"And now you've put your back out because you thought you were too good for light exercise. I'm prescribing you a week's bed rest, two hours' sensible stretching a day, and a staring competition with a spriggan."

"Wonderful! I'll go and get the spriggan." said the Wood Elf.

"Ysgald, don't let them keep me here! We have to go to Ustengrav, the fate of Tamriel could depend on it, and that spriggan always wins. It doesn't have any eyelids."

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"This wouldn't have happened if you stopped trying to do everything. Orgnar can mind the inn and I can sort out Ustengrav, and you can stay here."

"Apprentice!" said the head apothecary. "Rearrange the patient's back. The right way up, this time, if you please."

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"Ysgald, wait, wait." Delphine called after the Nord she knew by this name.

"I was just so confused by the diagram you gave me." said the apprentice. "I can do it much better by instinct."

"Well, you have to learn to use the diagram too." said the head apothecary.

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"What?" Skavild turned around as he inspected the far bookshelf before leaving.

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Delphine crawled about.

"The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. I need it. I mean, we need it. It might not be there if you wait."

"But you let her do it without the diagram." said the apprentice.

"I'm not allowed to use paper because of the Green Pact." said the Wood Elf.

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"I still think it's not fair. You're still allowed to look at paper."

"Do you think so? I'd be afraid to try in case Y'ffre blew me up."

"Y'ffre wouldn't do that." said the head apothecary. "And I never said you rearrange spines without using the diagram."

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"You gave me the leather version." said the Wood Elf. "But I think it was upside down and I forgot to move it when I changed sides."

The other apprentice said, "Do you think that's why Thaddgeir of Falkreath was walking like a crab when he left?"

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- continues! -

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