Buffy's Book of Short Stories, Somewhere in Time Options

[Acadian]

Welcome to Buffy's book of short stories! Rather than another chronological saga, this will be a collection of independent (generally short) stories that freely span Buffy's long and ongoing adventuring career. She'll tell you a bit more about that choice of format in her prelude below. One feature of the format she has insisted on is that the stories are not directly linked, sequential or particularly interdependent. While I believe you will find them reasonably consistent with 'Buffy lore', I'm looking forward to what I hope will be quite a bit of freedom and flexibility. The format should also make it easy for any readers who join us in progress or return from an absence, to jump right in with the current story.

For those well-familiar with Buffy, I hope you will continue to enjoy the enigmatic elven mage as she presents selective peeks into her neverending adventures across Tamriel. It is easy for Buffy and I to become emotionally overwhelmed as we contemplate the kind, enthusiastic and encouraging support that many have graced us with over the years. And for that we are profoundly grateful. My fervent hope is that you continue to find our efforts worthy of your valuable time.

For those new to Buffy, please do not let her long history deter you from jumping right in and joining us. While her series of full books are available on the Acadian sub forum, their sheer size makes reading them a daunting prospect. Fortunately, our 'Executive Summary' thread on the same sub forum offers what I believe to be a very effective summary that can easily be read in one sitting per book.

Table of contents

- Hard Crowds and Dancing Whales (1 episode) – post #12
3rd Era. Buffy fills in for a sick bard at an Anvil tavern.

- Unfinished Business – Buffy and the Box (1 episode) – post #24
3rd Era. Buffy finally reports back to Sanguine after inflicting nakedness upon the Courtess of Leyawiin and some of her party guests.

- A Bard’s Tale (5 episodes) – posts #34-66
4th Era. Buffy receives some musical training at the Bards College in Solitude.

- The Case of the Missing Court Mage (2 Episodes) – posts #76-85
4th Era. Buffy helps locate an absentminded missing mage in the Riften area.

Prelude

"Acadian, I don't want to write about the Oblivion Crisis right now." Getting up from the desk, I climbed up atop the corner bookshelf and sat down. "I want to write about being ambushed in the Reach by a Thalmor patrol. Or my first encounter as a Slayer with the vampiric Count of Skingrad. Or how, after I managed to lose Azura's Star, we traveled through time to retrieve it. Or maybe about that time when-"

"Buffy," interrupted the paladin, "all those things can eventually be crafted into your larger, overarching plot such that they fit properly along your timeline."

I hopped to the floor. "No!" Both hands planted themselves on my hips as my chin lifted defiantly. "I want to write about those things when the passion moves me to do so, not wait until it 'fits' into some silly book that's so long and complicated we can never write it. Whenever I write something I want, you complain if it doesn't make 'perfect sense' or that it doesn't fit at this point in our 'chronology'. By the time most of the tales I want to share fit into your unmanageable plan, I've long lost the passion that motivated me to write about them!"

There was a long silence before Acadian dubiously remarked, "Are you proposing a book with neither plot nor timeline?"

"Exactly! I am not a plot. I am an elf who travels, adventures and explores - with you, of course." I spread my arms expansively and twirled all the way around once before seating myself on a corner of the desk. "What's hard to understand about that? And would you rather read a story that I wrote when passion moved me to do so, or one that I had to force myself to write in support of some silly timeline?" I softened my tone. "Look, Acadian, you and I can travel between worlds and even move through time together. Why do my stories have to be 'in order'? When a butterfly moves across a meadow visiting flowers, does she do so 'in order'?"

The old paladin chuckled. "Despite my years and experience, the ability to successfully argue with an impassioned woman continues to elude me. Your butterfly metaphor contains a simple logic that I cannot refute. I will never fully understand the. . . whimsy that drives your choices but, over the years, I have grown to at least appreciate it."

"Does that mean. . . ?"

"Yes," he replied. "You are the true source of our passion for writing. I shall constrain you with neither plot nor chronology considerations."

"Thank you, my paladin." I crossed my dangling legs, folded my hands in my lap and smiled. "I know that I can sometimes be a little, well, erratic or even elusive."

Acadian sighed. "Like a butterfly in a thunderstorm, my bowgirl."

"This will be fun!" I chirped.

[Acadian]

SubRosa- Thanks! You bring up the interesting prospect of Loviatar visiting Skyrim. . . I’m sure she’d get on well with Persephone and the Darryl brothers.

hazmick- Heh, it was Pantea’s ‘seal of approval’ that gave Buffy just that extra bit of confidence she needed. Thank you!

mirocu- Long may Lothran roam in Cyrodiil, my friend. Please forgive me when my Skythusiasm gets too pushy. Aww, thanks for your kind words to the new songbird.

ghastley- Thanks! Buffy and Mjoll do work well together. Of course it requires a mod addressing her motormouth and another to tweak her stealth. I did like the vid, but you’re right in that it was pretty busy and had lots of sound effects.

mALX- Thank you! Most of the supporting vids I had to choose from did not spare the gore. Thankfully, they showed quite a bit of Skyrim’s beauty as well.

Renee- Thanks! Buffy sometimes plays a song or two when she stays at some of the taverns.

Lopov- Buffy’s always been in awe of women who can do what she can never aspire to. In Cyrodiil, it was Sir Mazoga. In Skyrim it is Mjoll the Lioness who epitomize this. I’m sure if she ever met the Warrior Princess Xena, she’d feel the same about her. Thank you!

DE- Thanks for your warm support. Yes, I don’t think Buffy could have sang for either the red or blue coats without first taking the time to understand the passion they feel for their respective causes.

Grits- Beauty of Dawn had me right at the title since Buffy is literally a Child of Dawn. Buffy is inspired by Mjoll in much the same way she was by Mazoga. I confess the woman in that song also reminded me of your own Jensa, whose stories I quietly follow over on the other forum. Thank you!

*

Our next story finds Buffy in the Riften area of Fourth Era Skyrim. She takes on a relatively straightforward fictitious quest involving a dungeon crawl. The tale will require two episodes.

* * *

The Case of the Missing Court Mage – Part 1

“I was sent by the College of Winterhold in response to a message regarding Wylandriah. How’d you manage to lose your court mage?”

“Thank you for coming,” replied the Altmer who towered over me. “We’ve never been introduced, but I’ve seen you here in Mistveil Keep on several occasions conducting business with Wylandriah. I’m Anuriel, steward to Jarl Laila.”

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Buffy.” I accepted her offered hand in greeting. “Your message said the matter was urgent, but provided few details. I know Wylandriah can be. . . absent minded. Did she perhaps just wander off somewhere or get lost searching the nearby forest for spiders or ingredients?”

“That’s what we thought at first also,” Anuriel replied as she handed me a small scroll that was smudged with dirt, “until we got this.”

I unrolled then read the parchment. “Kidnapped! And the brigands want a large sum of gold for her return.”

Anuriel nodded. “Wylandriah’s abductors overestimate the depth of Riften’s coffers. More importantly, however, the Jarl is loath to meet their demands for concern that should we pay a ransom it would only encourage more kidnappings. Rather, she wants the fetchers’ heads on pikes outside our gates as warning to others. While our own guard force is doubtless capable of defeating them, recovering Wylandriah alive would likely prove problematic. Even more vexing is that we have no idea where she’s being held.” The Altmer looked hopefully at me.

“I have some experience in such matters,” I said. “I believe I can help.”

“The resources of Riften are at your disposal. How many soldiers and what supplies do you require?”

“For now,” I replied, “all I need is an item of Wylandriah’s to help me divine her location. Something she has recently held or worn and, ideally, of some significance to her.”

“Hmm.” Anuriel laid a pensive finger aside her cheek as her eyes studied the intricately carved ceiling art. After a moment, her gaze swept down to meet mine and she announced, “I think I know just the thing. Follow me.”

After leading me into Wylandriah’s quarters, Anuriel produced a gold and ruby amulet from the mage’s jewelry box. “I believe this was her mother’s. She often wears it to dinner here in the Keep.”

I closed my fingers around the pendant and my fist glowed briefly. “This should work fine. I’ve set Wylandriah’s essence to my clairvoyance spell.”

“Well cast it and tell me where she is,” instructed the steward anxiously.

“It doesn’t work that way.” I stepped back out into the great hall with Anuriel in tow, then filled one fist with magic. As I opened my fingers a pale blue cloud lazily swirled out from my palm, snaking a path to the main doors. I stopped the flow of magic, allowing the trail to fade. “That’s how it works. All it can tell us in here is that Wylandriah's not in Mistveil Keep, which I’m sure is no surprise. I may need to use the spell in town a couple times to determine if she’s beyond the city’s walls. Hopefully, the next time you see me, Wylandriah will be at my side.” Before I turned to leave, I added, “I’ll then be able to inform your guards where they may harvest her captors’ heads.”

*

My clairvoyance spell had led me to the kidnappers’ lair, less than half a day south of Riften. According to my doeskin map, it was called Broken Helm Hollow.

Perched on a boulder and relying on plenty of distance and overhanging branches to avoid detection, my eyes followed a mountain trail as it led up to a ledge. An arch-shaped opening among the rocks had been framed and closed off by a sturdy-looking door. A waterfall fell very close to the entrance as it sparkled, sprayed and plummeted from several hundred feet above to awaiting boulders an equal distance below. The area was guarded by a pair of brigands.

Releasing a fistful of magic, Slayer quickly materialized in my left hand. The bow’s quiver settled comfortably against my back. With an arrow nocked, my fingers addressed the silk bowstring. The large weapon provided the strength I lacked to manage its heavy draw as the staff relaxed its graceful recurve, bending until the arrow’s fletching rested against my cheek. With Slayer doing most of the work, I held full draw and focused on the target area until it snapped into greatly magnified view.

I could see now that one guard was clad in fur and armed with bow and dagger. His comrade wore tattered leathers and a mace rode at one hip. Patience, Buffy.

Sure enough, ‘mace’ stepped over to the nearby waterfall to fill a waterskin.

I loosed. A moment later, his archer companion was slammed into the wall of rock surrounding the cave’s door and crumpled to the ground.

‘Mace’ ran over and knelt by the body as I nocked my second arrow. After a cursory inspection, he stood, drew his weapon and began scanning my general direction for a sniper.

My arrow tore through his leather breast plate, pierced his heart and carried his corpse several feet back into the rocks behind him.

I slipped down from my perch, made my way to the cave’s entrance and searched the corpses. My efforts to ensure neither had been lost over the nearby ledge into the waterfall were in vain, for I found no clues that would help my quest to safely recover Wylandriah.

I quenched my thirst from the waterfall then crouched into stealth. Both feet gently blossomed with blue magic, surrounding me with a continuous subtle aura that would greatly subdue any light and noise I emitted – but only from those hostile to me.

I slipped through the cave’s door into the den of the kidnappers.