Valentine, Memoirs of a Skyrim Soldier Options

[TrisRed]

I've always wanted to do a Skyrim story, but I haven't felt the time was right. I did attempt a SKyrim story a while back but it kind of lost it's way.

Then came Valentine.

Valentine is a feisty red-headed nord with a new lease of life. I won't say to much as I have a habit of spoiling the story whilst introducing the character, so I will let her story speak for itself.

Also this is kind of an experiment for me. Valentine is my first charachter that doesnt have a pre-planned story, so I will basically write as I explore with her, which is extremley exiting. The only thing Pre-planned was the backstory, which is the 'Prologue'.

I hope you enjoy

0.1 Prologue: A day in the life of Valentine

I woke up and looked to my left. My lover, Arthur, was still fast asleep as I saw a glimpse of the morning sky through the window of my house, Honeyside.

It was going to be another Riften day; dull, dreary and most likely boring.

I climbed out of bed carefully, not wanting to wake Arthur, and headed to the dining area. I buttered myself a slice of bread and sat down, taking a book from the shelf a reading it.

Just as I was getting into ‘The Lusty Argonian Maid’ I heard a knock at the door. I put down my book and breakfast and hastily put some clothes on before answering the door.

"Hello, Valentine."

"Good morning, Jenassa." I said to the Dunmer stood in my doorway.

"Not quite as good as you would think, I'm afraid I have some bad news. May I come in?"

I nodded and she entered. She sat at the table and I joined her.

"Everything okay?" I asked her, a little concerned.

"Not really, no. It appears the Jarl has ordered for my removal from the Co-Captain role. Therefore I must leave Riften and find a new purpose in life."

I laughed, but Jenassa didn't. I looked at Jenassa, stunned. Her tone was so deadpan it seemed like it was a joke, but it wasn't.

"Wait, what? She can't do that? Did you hear her right? The Jarl is getting on in years? Maybe you heard FIRED when she said... tired?" I said to her, convinced she must have been mistaken.

"There is no doubt about it. I have been ordered to leave my position. Apparently Dunmer arne't welcome as guards of Skyrim."

"WHAT? But you are MY Co-Captain. I am captain! I should choose the Co-captain to my captain!" I stood up. "I'm going to talk to the Jarl."

"I'm afraid that will not be of any use."

I stared Jenassa in the eye. "This is NOT fair."

"This land belongs to the Nords. If they choose I don't belong, then who am I to argue?"

I laughed in disbelief.

"Have you SEEN Riften? It is the most multi-racial city in Skyrim! Why would you think you don't belong?"

Jenassa looked at me and then smiled. She stood up and hugged me. She released me from the hug and held my arms.

"I must go."

"Where?" I asked her, my tone sounding meek and pathetic.

She shook her head. "I do not know. But know this. You are a wonderful captain and a true friend. Don't let ANYONE put you down. Always remember to trust your instincts to come out on top, Okay?"

I could feel a tear welling. The fact that Jenassa, my trusted friend, would be leaving without any reason or a place to go broke my heart. I wasn't sure if I would ever see her again.

As she left my house something bothered me. The way she said not to let anyone put me down. Did she mean in general... or a specific person?

***

That same night Arthur and I sat in the Bee and Barb for our mothly date. I decided it was the perfect time as I needed cheering up.

"This is nice. We hardly ever do things like this." I told him, holding his hand across the table.

He smiled at me with his blonde, blue eyed, sexy ruggedness. "You have an intense job. I understand that you can't be free all the time."

"Well you have an intense job too. I mean, you're a stormcloak. Fighting the empire has gotta be tougher than fighting skeevers."

He laughed. He then looked to the bar and saw the bar matron, Keerava, approach us with two plates of delicious looking food.

"Enjoy." She said, placing the food on the table.

"Thank you." I said to her.

Before she headed back to the bar, though, the asked me a question.

"I was wondering if I could ask you something? A favour, if you will."

I looked at Arthur, unsure if he would be happy with work talk during our date. The reassuring look on his face convinced me he was perfectly fine.

"Of course you can, Keerava; what is it?"

"Well my problem is that I've been waking up in the morning to find my inventory and some of the guests private things have depleted overnight. I worry that someone on the inside is using the master key to steal from us as there appears to be no signs of forced entry anywhere. It doesn't appear to be your average theif."

I thought about her problem for a short while before coming up with a suitable soloution. "Don't worry about it, I'll make sure to have hourly patrols near the Inn for any suspicious behaviour as well as a guard on twenty four hour watch inside the building itself. How about that?"

She smiled with elation. "Thank you Captain, thank you so much! Please, your meal is on me!"

I smiled and shook my head, "Oh no there isn't any need for that. I'm just doing my job."

"I refuse to take no for an answer! Either you accept the free meal or you never eat here again!"

I laughed, "Okay, well thank you Keerava, that's very kind."

Keerava bowed with gratitude then headed back to the bar. I looked at Arthur, who gazed at me with a loving look in his eyes. I smiled.

"What?" I asked him.

There was a short moment of silence before he responded.

"You're amazing, do you know that?"

I didn't reply, only blushed, trying not to smile too much. I changed the subject.

"Eat your stew, It's getting cold."

***

"How was the patrol of the northern sector?" I asked Gunter, one of my guards.

"No signs of any trouble." He informed me.

I nodded. "Good work, soldier. Back to your position."

"Cap'n." He replied before scurrying off to guard the main gate.

I began to wander round the city, greeting the citizens who walked past me. I liked the fact that I had garnered a lot of respect from my position. I would always get the occasional free piece of fruit or bottle of mead. I was convinced it was through my position, but Arthur remained convinced that it was because I was just a nice person. Either way, I couldn't complain.

"Ahh, Captain Valentine!" Greeted Haelga as I walked past her bunkhouse. "How are you?"

"I'm very well thank you, Haelga, yourself?"

Her face suddenly dropped. She folded her arms.

"I am well, apart from the fact that I cannot help but wonder where the guard with the beautiful eyes has gone..."

I laughed. " Who Sinding? I'm afraid he left the guard a few weeks ago. He went to live in Falkreath."

Her eyes widened. "What? Oh no, what a shame... well I best get back to work..."

She smiled solemnly and then turned to walk back into her bunkhouse.

"You do know about her reputation, don't you?"

I recognised the voice instantly. I turned to see Sapphire stood behind me. The raven haired nord stood leaning against a wall, her arms folded.

"Her reputation has nothing to do with me. Sapphire." I assured her.

She smirked sarcastically.

"If I were you, I'd keep an eye on your man. I've overheard Haelga claiming that the moment you and Arthur break up, she's going to swoop in."

I smiled at her. I wasn't in the mood to play her games, so I just put her down with a witty comeback instead.

"I wouldn't worry if I were you. Arthur and I are engaged now. That's more than enough reason for me to trust him."

She gave a look which suggested she was impressed with my comeback, so she decided to verbally stab me with words that equalled a very sharp blade.

"Was that Jenassa I saw leaving the other day? You finally fired the useless lump."

Whatever Sapphire's problem was I wasn't in the mood to deal with it. Before I had a chance to make any kind of response, though, she'd already turned and walked away, heading to the bee and barb.

Although it had been three days since Jenassa left Riften, the pain she left in my heart was still raw. Not only was she my trusted colleague, she was also my best friend. Ever since my dad died she was the only person I trusted...

Yet she didn't trust me enough to tell me why she so willingly left? That makes no sense...

"Miss Valentine. Should you be standing around? Don't you have a job to do?"

I looked up to see Maven Black-Brair stood before me. I smiled a false smile. I despised the woman and her perfect, prissy lalala-ness. She was heartless, cold, evil, manipulative, EVERYTHING.

"Hello Maven, How wonderful to see you!"

"Please be quiet. I'm not here to chat; I have an job of extreme urgency for you."

"Oh yeah?" I said, curious.

"Fort Greenwall. My son had been doing some research there and he left some very important papers behind. Unfortunately he managed to land himself in jail-"

"He didn't 'land himself'. You put him in there." I reminded her.

She performed a half smile and then continued her story.

"I have to many errands to run and I need someone trustworthy to fetch them for me. The information on those papers are too important to be read by any normal citizen. Can you do this for me?"

I thought about it for a second. I had a job I needed to do here; I couldn't just up and leave for anything. Then again, Maven was the most respected and possibly the most powerful woman in Riften, maybe even more powerful than the Jarl.

I smiled and nodded without saying a word.

"I will be away until tomorrow evening so bring them to me then. I highly suggest you go at 6pm as I return at 7pm and I will need them immediately as you get them. As I said before, I can't risk the papers getting into the hands of civilians. The less time you have with them the better. Here is the key to room where the papers are kept,"
She handed me the key, then looked at me again.

"Goodbye." She said rather bluntly.

She started to walk away. I could have just imagined it, but there was something sinister about the look in her eyes when she bid be farewell.

This post has been edited by Rihanae: Jul 16 2012, 02:51 PM

[TrisRed]

mALX: To put your mind at ease, I can confirm that Acadian's opinion of Arthur's dragging was spot on, so worry not; although I am pleased that you are viewing the story with such an open mind! Thank you so much!

Acadian: Thank you so much for your kind words. It's wonderful that you understand what Valentine must be going through at this time. I'm sure Maven Black-Briar will get her just desserts at some point; should Valentine ever remember the whole story of that night.

DE: I'm so pleased you enjoy this! I very much leave parts of my story very open to interpretation, so I enjoyed that you noticed the oddity of the unusually quiet city. I imagine Valentine was just in the right place at an odd time ;P Constance appears angry? Hmm, that is interesting that you mentioned that. Looking back I agree to some extent. I think she is very much a lioness looking after her cub.

Grits: How wonderful to see you reading! Hehe, yes it seems inevitable that Valentine will encounter a guardian spirit. It will be interesting to explore a different relationship than that of Lissa and Rihanae

Previously on Valentine: After waking up on morning and discovering that she just about survived a brutal attack, she also learns that she has absolutely no memory of the events that occurred.

She also learned that Arthur wasn't as lucky as she...

2. It's all too much

"What?"

The others all looked at me. I began to laugh if disbelief then stopped. They all looked so solemn and full of pity. I glared at them. There expressions didn’t change. It's like they were fixed in time.

"This... this can't be right..."

Silence.

I shook my head, "No, that's... it wasn't Arthur. Arthur's alive I... I saw him... I did, I saw him."

Nobody said a word. Everyone looked so certain. I hated that.

"Get out." I said, gritting my teeth.

No one did. I had to make myself clear. "Get out, get out, GET OUT!"

I screamed, accidently pulling a stitch from my lip.

Constance leaned over to hug me, but instead I slapped her round the face. "Get out you nasty, lying harlot.

She recoiled for a second but wasn't even the slightest bit upset; not for her, anyway. She looked at the others and stood up. She nodded at them and they left. She then looked back at me, but I didn't look at her. She leant over and kissed my forehead.

"I'll come back later, okay?" She said before turning to leave the house. I looked at the door, grabbed my tea and threw it across the room.

I screamed at the top of my lungs to let out the excruciating pain. It felt like my stomach had been squeezed and my lungs closed tight. I couldn't breathe.

I got out of bed, the turned and looked at it. I stared at Arthur’s side of the bed for a while. I then grabbed the mirror on my bedside table and looked at my reflection again.

This time all I saw was a woman who barely survived an attack that her lover died from. This woman was weak, undeserving of life. She couldn't protect her man. Everything she'd ever loved was taken away from her in an instant because she was meek.

I collapsed onto the floor and cried. I didn't think I was ever going to be able to stop.

***

It was the day of Arthur's funeral. A day I refused to believe was going to happen.

I refused to let anybody else come to the funeral. I wanted to be alone. Nobody knew him. Nobody trusted him. They'd be there purely to support me when it wasn't their support I wanted. I wasn’t sure what I wanted.

As I walked through the city I could feel the patronising pity burning me from the eyes of the citizens.

They tried to talk to me but I wouldn't let them.

Once I made it to the chapel I turned around. I could see everyone continuing on with their lives. It was just another day to them.

I entered the chapel and approached the priest, Maramel. I looked around, but there was no coffin.

"Where is he?" I asked Maramel.

"He is outside ready to be put in the ground. We must first proceed with the burial ritual inside the house of Mara before we perform the actual burying."

I looked at him, emotion draining from my face. "Okay."

I turned and sat down on the bench. He didn't say anything. I thought that maybe he assumed more people would be arriving. "You can start." I told him.

He waited a moment, then started. "We gather in this, the house of Mara to send the spirit of Arthur-"

It didn't take me long to completely shut off. My gaze was fixed on Maramel, but my mind was somewhere else entirely.

Everything seemed to move so slowly; my thoughts included. I couldn't even remember what Arthur looked like. His face was covered by the same fog that clouded my memory of that night.

I touched the scar left on my cheek. Four straight lines spread across my left cheek and my lips.

I stopped touching my scar and then looked at my clothes. I wore a black dress that Haelga had let me borrow.

Maybe I shouldn't have worn this. It shows to much leg. I should have worn something which didn't show leg too much leg...

I tried to stretch my dress down as much as possible. It didn't make it longer, but it made me feel a little bit better. I looked back up at Maramel. His words were still not registering in my mind. Although it was what I wanted, I felt so alone.

I want my Daddy. I want Jenassa.

Daddy would take care of things. He would have taken control. We would have organised everything. He would have let me grieve. Jenassa would have comforted me. She would have told me everything was okay. She would have held my hand. She would have made me feel like the world wasn't ending.

Suddenly Maramel's words began to fade back into understanding, "... we are sure, By Mara, that he will go to Sovenguard."

"No he wont." I interrupted for an unknown reason. "He'll go into the ground. He will rot."

It didn't feel like I had actually said the words. The moment passed so quickly I had completely forgot that I had just spoken.

Maramel tried to be as compassionate as possible. "I must finish the ritual."

I said nothing more as Maramel continued to speak. I started to stare at him, my eyes becoming transfixed and hypnotised. My mind when numb. Any thought that entered me mind would be deemed a luxury.

I felt a hand slowly grab mine. I looked down to see a hand gently squeezing mine. I looked at it for a second, not really noticing what was happening until-

ARTHUR

"Arthur?" I said as I turned. It wasn't. It was just Constance. I didn't say anything, and neither did she. I'd made it clear that I wanted to be alone and she ignored that. By that time I didn't care. I wasn't angry, I wasn't grateful. I wasn't anything. I didn't feel anything.

She continued to stay right to the end. She stayed during the actual burial. We watched Arthurs body being lowered into the ground. Slowly going down. Never to be seen again.

An hour after the funeral I was still stood by Arthur’s grave; as was Constance. Neither of us said anything the whole time. Constance was just there for me. Eventually I spoke; a task I felt I wouldn't accomplish so soon.

"Do you think he deserved it?" I said rather bluntly. A genuine question for a genuine answer.

"Do you?" Constance replied. She could tell my question was for my own benefit. I wanted an answer that only I could give.

I didn't reply. I just stood there. I watched as the rain began to fall; splashing elegantly off the tombstone. Every drop that bounced off the gravestone seemed large and significant.

"It's raining." Constance stated. She waited a moment for me to reply before continuing. "You'll catch a cold."

I didn't move. I didn't care. I wasn't ready to move yet.

Constance knew this and didn't persist any further. She took off her hat and put it on my head. She then grabbed my hand and squeezed it with support.

I squeezed it back.

We stood as the rain began to fall on the grave.

***

After a few hours Constance and I sat on the deck of Honeyside overlooking the fishing dock. Arthur's favourite spot. We sat, protected by the heavy rainfall.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there more for you." Constance admitted.

I continued to stare out into the distance; the fishing lake looking mighty and ominous.

"It's okay." I replied.

We didn't say anything for a while.

"Would you like more tea?" Constance asked me.

I didn't reply, but she took it as a yes and heading inside.

I kept staring at the lake. It was so beautiful. It looked so fresh. Gorgeous.

I stood out of my seat and walked to the steps that led to the lower deck. I stood by the railing that protected me from the water below. I looked up. The rain splashing softly onto my face. I looked down. I could see my reflection rippling at me in the lake. It was taunting me with a clear image of a woman I didn't recognise.

I continued to stare at her. The black veil covering her face proved it wasn’t me. It was respectful, yes, but Arthur wasn't around to BE respected.

I continued to watch her. Mimicking me. Mocking me.

I began to cry. I hated what the emotion was doing to me. I couldn't handle it. I loved him, and then he was gone. Just like that. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.

I looked back into the lake. I knew what I had to do. I had to make things right.

I climbed the railing. I was going to be with him. It wasn't fair that I was alive and he wasn't. I needed to let him know that I was sorry for letting him die.

Then it happened. The heavy rain suddenly melted into nothing. The dark clouds began to shift revealing a small beam of sunlight which covered me in its essence. It made me feel warm. It made me feel safe. It made me feel forgiven.

Arthur?

I stepped down from the railing and basked in the sunlight. Every doubt and self-loathing I had inside melted away like snow.

I took off my black veil and looked at it. I then threw it into the lake, watching it as it slowly drifted out of sight.

I looked out into the distance again. The cold, dreary day suddenly turning bright and beautiful.

I smiled.

This post has been edited by Rihanae: Jul 21 2012, 09:01 PM