I am Lena Wolf, Lena's life as it happens Options

[Lena Wolf]

17 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Riverhold - Fort Seaplace - Dune

"Just what have you done?" - asked Hauk, having followed Lena as she was being escorted to the Castle of Riverhold for a thorough search and a fine. "We are all the way back in Riverhold!"

"Yeah, I noticed!" - Lena grimaced. "And our horses were left behind at Fort Seaplace. I suppose you couldn't bring them along?"

"No, I couldn't" - Hauk shook his head. "But really... you were only on your own for one night! What have you done?"

"I picked a lock" - Lena admitted without blushing. "In full view of various people. Yeah, I know, but I didn't think they'd charge me 1550 septims in fines for it!"

"Ok, which lock?" - Hauk looked at her with suspicion. He knew that Lena disliked thieving.

"When I went to the Feast Hall the first night... I missed the closing hour" - she shuffled with her foot, there must have been something very interesting on the ground. "And basically at 6 a.m. they lock the door while everyone carries on as before. I wonder if those people ever leave at all. But I wasn't going to spend the whole day there, and I asked around, and, well... There was nothing else for it but to pick the lock."

"Well, it's not so bad then" - Hauk smiled. "And now I understand why you insisted we should leave rather early last night. But surely 3 a.m. was too early?"

They went to the Feast Hall just as it opened at 10 p.m., but it was very quiet there at the time. By midnight the atmosphere was warming up, and by 3 a.m. Lena had the hardest time to get Hauk to leave with her.

"I wasn't sure I'd be able to convince you to leave after a few more skoomas" - she winked. "And I was even less sure I'd be willing to leave myself."

"At least the Mages Guild had an extra bed - it was very good of Y'grasa to arrange that so quickly. I think she likes you" - he grinned. "The inn would have been closed at that time of night."

"Y'grasa does smile a lot" - Lena nodded. "But there's something odd about a smiling cat... can't quite put my finger on it..."

They were jogging back to Fort Seaplace unhindered by goblins, wild animals or daedra pouring out of a collapsed Oblivion gate - they had cleared them all on their first pass. They saw their horses quietly grazing near Fort Seaplace, but before they could mount, the Legion guard stopped Lena again.

"You lawbreaker! There's a bounty on you - again!"

"What?!" - Lena couldn't believe it. "But we've literally just returned from the Castle..."

"And stopped along the way to pick up some illicit skooma, have you?" - the guard looked at her sternly. "Now we have to go back to the Castle so that you could pay your new fine. And I'll have to search you again, of course" - he grinned.

"Oh..."

There was nothing else for it.

...

A couple of hours later Lena and Hauk were once again approaching Fort Seaplace where their horses were still grazing peacefully on the lush grass.

"No more fines this time" - Hauk looked at Lena sternly. "And stay away from illicit skooma!"

"But how am I supposed to know which is which?" - Lena looked at him apologetically. "It was on that bandit that we killed - the bandit that attacked us first, I might add! And I think that 700 septims is way too hefty a fine for that, too."

"Possession of illicit skooma carries a fine of 25 septims" - the guard overheard their conversation. He was getting quite friendly towards Lena. "You must have done something else to get the rest of the fine!"

"I haven't!" - Lena protested. "Or at least I have no idea what that would have been!"

"Not knowing the law is no excuse" - the guard answered automatically, although Lena thought his face showed pity.

"Hrmph" - Lena snorted. "Come on, Hauk, let's go."

"All right, but which way?" - Hauk was looking over the savannah. "The road sign back at the crossing near Riverhold pointed this way saying 'Dune', but the road ends here at the fort."

They looked out over the savannah noticing a tower in the distance and what looked like a track between the hills.

"That way" - Lena pointed in the general direction of the track. "Let's go cross-country. And let's see if there's a settlement by that tower."

...

They reached the tower in an hour or two, only to find that there was no tower there at all. The sands stretched in all directions.

"That was a mirage" - said Hauk, looking a little lost. "I've seen this in the savannah of Antaloor. You see a landmark or a building in the distance, you approach and discover there's nothing there but hot sand..."

"That is confusing" - Lena agreed. "But look - there's a village of sorts just to the North and a lovely looking manor to the South. Unless both of them are mirages as well?"

There was only one way to find out, so they tried the village first. The round houses looked welcoming, but just as they approached the outer perimeter, several tribesmen with long bows and even longer spears ran out and attacked them. More villages were brandishing their weapons just inside the fence.

"Not very friendly, are they?" - Lena turned to Hauk, summoning a clannfear for distraction and signalling him to mount the horse and retreat. They did not plan on fighting the whole village.

The tribesmen pursued them for quite a distance, but fortunately they ran into a mountain lion (or was that an Alfiq Khajiit?) and then an elephant, they killed the lion but the elephant was having none of it, and finally the tribesmen gave up and retreated to their village.

Cautiously Lena and Hauk decided to try the manor.

It was a truly beautiful house, no aggressive tribesmen to greet them, but it was locked, and they weren't about to break in. They sat in the garden by the pond for a little while, the night had fallen already and the savannah was cooling off.

"I think it is better to travel at night" - said Hauk, removing his cuirass and wringing out his shirt dripping wet with sweat. "And I can't very well go without armour with all these aggressive tribesmen around."

"You can have bound armour though" - Lena suggested, knowing full well that it wasn't a replacement for the real stuff.

"Yeah, and have it dispelled just when I need it most?" - Hauk shot her a glance: don't you start. A Legion soldier would not relinquish his armour - even if the armour itself wasn't Legion issue. "I'm used to it. It doesn't feel right without."

They chatted for a while longer, sipping mead and eating fruit from their pack, all as warm and sweaty as themselves. Yet it was a welcome relief.

"Oh look - there's a tower set against that dune" - Lena pointed over the pond. "Not too far. Shall we have a look?"

The tower was the Two Moon Temple. The priestesses and the acolytes were friendly, bestowing a blessing on both Lena and Hauk that seemed to have cleansed them as well as refreshed. It was nearly midnight, time to try and find a place to sleep - even if it would be during the day.

"Especially if it is during the day" - pointed out Hauk. "You don't want to sleep outdoors and get baked in the sun like a loaf of bread in the oven."

They continued West towards something that looked like a track or a road. And yes, it was a road! An actual road, not just a mere path! Some noises were coming from the South, so they turned there to see what it was.

"I have water!" - a Khajiit supervising a strange animal working the pump beamed at them. "I am the water keeper. You can buy water by the barrel from me!"

"Ugh, we'd need an elephant to move it though!" - said Hauk, looking over the place.

"Suit yourself" - the Khajiit shrugged. "I can give you some to drink if you are thirsty."

It was a welcome proposition which they accepted with thanks, then set off North towards Dune.

"It's not far" - the Khajiit assured them. "Just on the top of the first hill."

...

They reached Dune within the hour. It was around 3 a.m., but there were still people out and about. Dune was a walled city set between the dunes...

"Obviously, that's why it's called Dune" - Lena smiled at the guard who was explaining it to her.

"Well, no, actually, the old name for this city is Ne-Quin-Al" - he grinned, baring his fangs. Lena could never get used to those toothy feline smiles. "But now it's what we call the desert. The Khajiit know however what they mean..." He looked at Hauk with significance as if Hauk would know what the Khajiit meant. Hauk nodded.

"I studied history, yes" - he answered rather cryptically, but the Khajiit's ever growing smile showed Lena that those two knew exactly what they were talking about. And neither was about to enlighten her.

"All right, keep your secrets" - she muttered and looked around for an inn.

"The caravanserai is just down the street" - the guard pointed it out. "It's always open."

...

"Welcome, welcome, friend!" - a green-eyed Imperial greeted them in the caravanserai tavern. "You look tired - a tough day on the road? I have huts for rent, if you are interested."

"Yes, please!" - Lena beamed at him, not noticing any traces of Khajiit accent in his Cyrodilic. "Have you been here long?"

"In Dune? Not that long" - admitted the Imperial. "Inherited it from some long lost uncle who died childless, bless his soul. They say life in Elsweyr is hard, but can it be any worse than in Cyrodiil at the moment?"

Lena wasn't sure what he meant exactly, but didn't pursue the topic. People moved around for all sorts of reasons. She picked up the key to their hut and bought some food and drinks, too.

"Here, this hut has two beds in it" - Farrus the Imperial nodded at Hauk. "There's no need to sleep on the floor. Although I do apologise that the beds might be a little too small for a Nord. And that the hut is rather cramped. Well, this isn't the Imperial City." He looked a bit wistful for a moment, then caught himself. "Sleep well."

Lena thanked him, and she and Hauk left the tavern.

"He's got a story and a half" - Hauk said softly into her ear as she was fiddling with the lock. "I bet we'll meet more people with stories here."

The hut was small - Farrus didn't lie - but it was cool and it had two beds, a table and a pair of stools in it, and Lena and Hauk couldn't be more grateful for a place to lie down and not be baked in the sun like a loaf of bread in the oven.

----------------------------------

The ridiculous fines and illicit skooma come from Tales from Elsweyr Anequina. We also had all of a sudden a notification that Lena allegedly stole something from the Mages Guild and was now suspended. She did no such thing. And really, a fine of 1550 septims for an unknown crime (no, it wasn't that lock - I checked), immediately followed by a fine of 25 septims for picking up the "wrong" skooma from a bandit, and that fine then magically magnifying to 700 septims within the next few seconds... This left a rather bitter taste in the mouth, so we removed those tales from existence. The distant views however remained, and I think I'll leave them in - mirages are a nice unexpected addition!

[Lena Wolf]

18 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Conversations in Dune

They woke up in late morning feeling refreshed after their long roadtrip the day before.

"Let's walk around, see what's going on" - Lena smiled at Hauk. "We both need information."

The market in Dune was in full swing. High city walls were casting a lot of shadow, and everyone was thankful for it. Lena had somehow expected to see mostly Khajiit around, similar to Riverhold, but here in Dune there were all sorts of people, in fact only the guard appeared to be all-Khajiit. Well, mostly, anyway.

The clothier was a Breton (selling local garb and feeling constantly grumpy), the pottery and book merchant an Altmer (not saying much about herself, and with that saying all the more), the drinks merchant a Dunmer (selling drinks from Morrowind, naturally), the camel merchant a Redguard (importing camels all the way from Hammerfell), the butcher an Imperial (from Caldew village, slicing a goat was no different to slicing cadavers... err...), the bard an Orc (and no, Lena didn't want her armour signed, thank you!), the fortune teller... oh, they missed that one. Oh wait - the grocer was a Khajiit! Finally! And of course the publican at the caravanserai was another Imperial. They also bumped into a Nord prospector, a blind creepy woman of an undefined race (human, elf - who knew!), an Argonian complaining about the dry weather (making his scales itch), and various passers by, a few of whom were even Khajiit. It was easy to spend half a day just talking to everyone, and Lena and Hauk did just that.

In late afternoon they finally moved on, discovering the upper level of Dune with larger and more elaborate houses and very few people in the street. The posh district. A sign of the Mages Guild attracted their attention, but the door was locked - alas! They would need to ask around to see what was the matter.

Right next to the Mages Guild was a house for sale.

"Oh this is nice" - sighed Lena. "I am tempted to buy it. Assuming I had any money, that is."

"The desert does have its charm" - nodded Hauk.

"What did you do with your house in Hatmandor when you left Antaloor?" - Lena remembered Hauk mentioning that he had bought the largest mansion in Hatmandor back then.

"Well, I still own it" - he smiled. "Not that it is of any use to me at the moment. I lent it to a friend - Salah, a herbalist. He needed room to set up a good laboratory, and that house had space. Enough also for other things" - he winked. "People in the desert do know how to relax."

"Other things like what?" - Lena looked at him with suspicion.

"Well, you know - music, dancing... private entertainment. Reesa wasn't the only hostess around."

Ah. Of course. She should have guessed.

Lena shot another sideways glance at Hauk and turned into a passage leading to the Royal Palace. Dune was currently without a king, as the old king had died and his twin sons were fighting between themselves for the throne. Many people joined either one prince or the other, and so they too were fighting, or at least that was the word in the street. Pushing the gate to the Palace Courtyard, Lena heard clashing steel - fighting seemed to be in full swing. Hauk joined in without hesitation, but Lena...

"Who is who and whom are you fighting?" - she called to Hauk. It looked like guardsmen were fighting against each other.

"I just hit whoever hits me!" - shouted Hauk, visibly enjoying himself.

"Umm... That's weird" - murmured Lena, summoning a clannfear just for fun and cloacking in invisibility.

A few minutes later the fight was over with everyone on the ground, dead or knocked out. Lena hoped knocked out, because even now she could not see any difference between the guardsmen that were so fiercely fighting each other.

By the time they returned to the city, it was already evening, and whatever shops or establishments existed in the posh district, were now closed. So Lena and Hauk strolled back to the caravanserai in the market district for an evening meal and a chat with the locals.

"You have remarkable markings" - a Khajiit with a handsome jaguar pattern pointed at Hauk's tattoos. "Khajiit did not know that smooth-skins used markings. Although Khajiit understands the need, of course."

"He's not just any smooth-skin" - the Nord prospector joined in. "He's a Nord! You can tell by the pattern. A true son of Skyrim!"

Hauk grinned and Lena stifled a giggle, seeing that Hauk was born and raised in Cyrodilic Heartlands.

"The pattern is of Skyrim, yes" - Hauk nodded. "But not all Nords have tattoos - markings, as you say" - he turned to the Khajiit. "Mine are earned."

"Indeed, Khajiit knows - one must earn his stripes" - he nodded with respect, paying close attention to the pattern. He did not say anything more, just looked closely, clearly committing the pattern to memory. Hauk was going to be known in Elsweyr.

"Have you been to the Den yet?" - the Nord prospector changed the topic. He didn't seem to have any tattoos of his own, earned or otherwise.

"No, not yet" - Hauk raised a toast. "Lead the way!"

The Den was on the other side of the market, and it was mostly filled with Khajiit. There was a lot of conversation, but nothing of any great interest, just the general rumours and the speculations as to which of the twin princes would finally gain the throne.

"And how would anyone know which prince it is? Aren't they twins?" - Lena asked, playing the uninformed foreigner card.

"Well, they are twins, but Khajiit knows which is which" - a Khajiit narrowed her eyes at her. "And Breton knows that too." The grin that followed was decidedly not a smile. Lena turned to her skooma pipe, and the Khajiit snorted and turned away. The uninformed foreigner card wasn't worth playing.

...

"Well, that wasn't very informative" - Lena said to Hauk in a hushed voice when they were walking back to their hut just before dawn. "Just general talk, nothing more."

"I wouldn't dismiss it just yet" - Hauk grinned. "They say things by omission."

Hmm. Well. If they did, they told volumes. Too bad Lena couldn't read between the lines. But perhaps they'd have better luck tomorrow.

[macole]

17 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Riverhold - Fort Seaplace - Dune

The ridiculous fines and illicit skooma come from Tales from Elsweyr Anequina. We also had all of a sudden a notification that Lena allegedly stole something from the Mages Guild and was now suspended. She did no such thing. And really, a fine of 1550 septims for an unknown crime (no, it wasn't that lock - I checked), immediately followed by a fine of 25 septims for picking up the "wrong" skooma from a bandit, and that fine then magically magnifying to 700 septims within the next few seconds... This left a rather bitter taste in the mouth, so we removed those tales from existence. The distant views however remained, and I think I'll leave them in - mirages are a nice unexpected addition!

Strange how that tower disappeared like that. It belongs to Sluuroomaan the White part of the Warlock’s Tower quest. I was able to walk right up to the door. I never ran into the pickpcket Muvranna to start the quest so I never went inside the tower.

[Renee]

68: Who is Yen? I think this is somebody from Witcher? Because she's addressing Geralt as she says this.

Cool, they are sussing out Shimmermist Cave. Pretty sure a couple of mine have been there. Same with Irkngthand. Is that the ruins near Nightgate Inn? Heck yeah, it sure is. My memory does not fail, for once.

Exactly, there is no door. Well, there is... but I think it is quest-related.

But it's so heavy!" - she complained. "Don't throw away my iron set - I'll see about padding it with fur later. And... can you carry it, please? I can't carry both..." Women

Ha ha...

It's snowing here in Maryland, man I wish I wasn't stuck at work! I expect to get out of here soon though, play some Skyrim myself. I'll also read more Lena Wolf now that I'm not writing for a few.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 3 2022, 05:04 PM

[Lena Wolf]

Macole - I had the Tales in my load order when I was generating the LOD, so the tower is seen in the distance. But then as I started playing, I didn't like the fines, so I disabled the mod, but didn't regenerate the LOD. So the tower is still visible in the distance, but as you come closer, there's nothing there. But then again, mirages are common in the desert.

Renee - Yen appeared a few times already, most notably she was the one who saved Lena from the Sloth deamon in the Fade. Yen, or Yennefer, is a prominent sorceress and Geralt's love of twenty years. There is history there, they are both too stubborn and too strong willed... yet they are a perfect match, I feel. Yen is now making her way to Skyrim, now that she's discovered where Geralt disappeared to, but it's a long way away, and can take months and months. So if, when she finally arrives, she finds no suitable accomodation, Geralt is going to be in a whole lot of hot trouble. Oh, and by the way, shock spells are her trademark.

[Lena Wolf]

19 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Goblins

"This is going to take forever to sort this out!" - Lena turned to Hauk as they were sitting by the fire in yet another goblin-infested dungeon. "We've been going through these dungeons for the last day, judging by how tired I am, and we still haven't found the key to the trapdoor!"

"Well, the note did say that this maze was an experiment in teleportation. Have you noticed how you can never tell where each door leads to?" - Hauk stretched, looking and feeling tired too. "There's no telling how long it will take us to even get to the right dungeon, which of course we will not know until we find that damned key!"

"At least that mage did put an exit back to the Mages Guild from each dungeon. Shall we just go back and try again another day?"

"Yeah, let's. I could use a proper meal and a bed to sleep on."

...

They had asked around town and were directed to Zayiq Cherim on the matter of the locked Mages Guild Hall in Dune. Zayiq had the key, and Lena got it from him. Upon entering, they found the Guild Hall overrun with goblins coming from a trapdoor leading into the catacombs of Dune. That trapdoor was normally locked, keeping the Guild Hall safe and quiet, but one of the resident mages had been experimenting with teleportation portals in the catacombs, and not wishing to be locked out, he set up exits from each of the dungeons back into the Mages Guild. Trouble was, the goblins could use them too. They got into the Guild Hall, causing all sorts of mayhem, and also stealing the key to the trapdoor, undoubtedly because they liked the shiny object rather than because they knew its significance. The key was enchanted not only to lock the trapdoor, but also to disable all exits while the trapdoor was locked.

And this is why the Guild Hall was now abandoned - the goblins rendered it uninhabitable. To make it safe again, Lena and Hauk had to delve into the dungeons, find that key and lock the trapdoor. And they were not having much luck with that.

"Have you heard that story about some adventurer looking for a Dwemer puzzle box in one of the ruins in Morrowind?" - Hauk asked as they were making their way towards an exit.

"It took them forever, I bet" - smirked Lena.

"Yes, but not because the ruin was so large. It was large enough, but could have been normally explored in a couple of days. Yet it took them over a week to find the box."

"Why, what happened?" - Lena looked surprised. "Self-replicating Dwemer automatons?"

"No such thing. The box was simply well hidden. In plain sight - you walked right past it without seeing it!" - Hauk shuddered. "I just hope the history isn't going to repeat itself here with this key!"

They reached the exit ladder and climbed it back into the Mages Guild Hall.

"What the---?" - Lena cursed as they emerged from the trapdoor. "Goblins!"

The Guild Hall was a mess. They didn't feel safe to sleep there until the key was found and the trapdoor securely locked. They returned to the caravanserai for the night, what was left of it.

--------------------------

Elsweyr Mysteries is now available on Nexus.

[macole]

Come to think of it, I never did give Dune a thorough walk about. I'm going to have to pay it a visit.

[Lena Wolf]

22 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Assassin

"What am I going to do now?" - Lena drank the last bottle of blood after her vampirism had relapsed again, for the third time in two days. "This was my last bottle."

"Perhaps we'll come across some more" - Hauk said hopefully, trying to repair the many new breaks on his armour, then giving up. "With this tin suit now broken, every wraith will slice me into strips, and you are welcome to the spoils" - he grinned.

"We need to return to town" - Lena nodded. "Wasn't this dungeon supposed to have a fixed exit in every section somewhere?"

"Yeah, and we've been trying to find one for the last two days" - Hauk pointed out. "The exits are not exactly clearly marked."

...

Having rested a bit longer, they resumed their search for an exit - they were no longer trying to find the key to the trapdoor in the Mages Guild. The catacombs also no longer housed goblins - did they cross into a different section somehow? They've been walking among the undead for the last day or more, it was hard to tell the passage of time in there.

"Wait, I remember these passages..." - Lena was walking ahead of Hauk, but now she turned around and ran back to him. "No, it can't be!"

"Can't be what?" - Hauk stopped, taking up his claymore.

"Oh, not the creatures" - Lena hurried to reassure him. "Nothing but rats ahead, that I can see. No, it's the dungeon. I feel I've been here before."

"I don't remember passing this one" - Hauk shook his head. "These catacombs are quite distinctive. Just like some passages under the Imperial City."

"Exactly!" - Lena looked at him with worry. "The architecture, the crumbling walls, even the zombies... Well, I can't be sure about the zombies, but still. Just like under the Imperial City!"

"Well, this isn't exactly surprising" - Hauk relaxed. "It was all built by the ancient Ayleids, and they have clearly reused some designs. I mean, how many ways are there to build an underground passage? There are bound to be similarities."

"May be" - Lena sighed. "Probably just my imagination."

They resumed walking and now emerged from a low sandy passage into a high ceiling structure just like under the Imperial City. The place was empty and strangely eerie.

"What, no zombies?" - Hauk took up his claymore again. "No wraiths, walking skeletons or liches? I am disappointed."

"No, there's worse" - Lena edged ahead again, her Nightingale sword at the ready. In close quarters this short sword, just a little longer than a dagger but just as light, was allowing her to manoeuvre better than a longsword would. "There's a spirit ahead" - she turned to Hauk. "I can hear him talk."

"...I go to my doom, but you..." - an echo reached them. "...the Apprentice will guide your step tonight!"

"...he gave you this?" - another voice echoed in the distance. "He trusted you with this?" - surprise and disbelief was obvious in that voice. "...Assassin!"

"...no, she will help us" - the first voice sounded again. It wasn't a conversation, although it seemed like one. "...you are the one from my dreams..."

"...they see more than average people..." - the second voice sounded incredibly sad now. "...we've failed..."

Lena stopped, rooted to the spot. The voices were echoing in the passages ahead, but not coming closer.

"What is this?" - Hauk came up behind her, speaking softly. "Who are they?"

"Emperor Uriel Septim and Baurus, his Blade bodyguard" - Lena whispered. "The last Emperor Uriel Septim."

"So the woman they are talking about..." - Hauk lowered his voice even further. "...is you?"

"Yes..." - Lena didn't move. "Over two centuries ago. Before the Crisis. Before the Brotherhood. Before vampirism. Before everything."

"Assassin? Was Baurus talking about you?"

"Yes. I was with the Emperor when the Mythic Dawn assassins sprang their trap, and although I fought them, they quickly led me away and got to the Emperor. Their skill was far superior to mine - their strategy too. Yet Baurus thought I was an assassin, judging by the way I moved, he said. It didn't make sense to me at all. I was sixteen years old, I had a rusty dagger and could throw a fireball. I was nothing. And the Emperor trusted me with the Amulet of Kings."

"Obviously, you were not nothing" - Hauk objected. "And it didn't take a Septim to see your potential - Baurus saw it too. The Blades are not just great fighters - they are trained to read people."

"Assassin..." - Lena repeated it the way Baurus spoke - without judgement. "I shuddered when he said it back then, you know. I hurried to reassure him..."

"...no, I am no assassin!" - a young woman's voice echoed ahead of them. "You are wrong! I am a... umm... anything but!"

"All right, have it your way, 'anything but'" - Baurus smiled. "We'll see. Mind the goblins now."

The echo fell silent. Lena waited a little, but the halls remained quiet. She looked at Hauk and he nodded - let's move.

A low luminous mist filled the halls of once white stone, making it impossible to see anything clearly. Hauk cast a spell, and Lena hurried to do the same - night eye.

"There's nothing here" - Hauk stood straight and spoke in his usual voice after they swept the area. "No ghosts or spirits of any kind, no undead. So where were the voices coming from? Because I heard them too."

"So it wasn't just my imagination" - nodded Lena. "And this isn't the dungeon under the Imperial City - it only looks similar. It isn't even exactly the same."

"Do you really remember it that well?" - Hauk was dubious. "It was a long time ago."

"Oh, I've been back on a few occasions" - Lena grinned. "To visit an old friend."

"An arrow through the neck, yes, I remember" - Hauk shook his head. "Not your most subtle work."

"Yeah, well, it did the trick. I lost my nerve" - Lena said defiantly. "I did better on the others."

"What others?"

"Exactly."

"But strange phenomena aside - shouldn't we try some of those doors? One of them might lead us out, you never know." Hauk had enough of this place and wanted a good meal and a proper rest out of the dungeons.

"Leave this place?" - Lena looked at him in disbelief. "Before we figured out where the voices were coming from? We may never find our way back here again!"

"And I wouldn't mind that one bit" - Hauk scowled. "I've had enough of dungeons."

"All right then, you go" - Lena turned to him, suddenly looking quite cold. "I need to stay and investigate."

"Are you sending me away?" - Hauk went pale, his eyes quite hard too.

"No, but I won't stand in your way if you wish to leave." Lena's glance wasn't hostile, it was indifferent. Hauk turned around and disappeared through the nearest door. Lena stood alone in an ancient structure of once white stone swallowed by luminous mist. "I am an assassin" - she said aloud.

[Lena Wolf]

22 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Assassin of old

"And do you adhere to the Creed?" - a voice with a strange accent spoke behind her. Lena spun around - there was nothing there, just the luminous mist filling the entire hall of the old underground structure beneath Dune. If that's where she still was.

"What creed?" - Lena cast around, looking for traces of a ghost, for what else could it have been? "Who are you? Show yourself!"

"I am an Assassin" - the voice replied. "Isn't it what you just said?"

"Yes. Dark Brotherhood. And you?"

"Your allegiance is unimportant as long as you follow the Creed" - the voice explained patiently. Was that a Redguard accent? No. It was no accent that Lena was familiar with. "Otherwise you are just a murderer."

"Which isn't the same thing" - Lena finished his sentence. "I know. But what creed do you speak of?"

"What Creed do you follow?" The unseen Assassin wasn't giving in. He sounded old, somehow.

"All right, I'll bite" - Lena smiled - it was a test of course, but she rather liked hearing the Assassin's voice. "Kill no one but the target. Remain unseen. Keep the Brotherhood's secrets." Lena went over the tenets in her head. "Oh, and a couple of things about not refusing contracts and obviously not harming other Brothers and Sisters."

"Spoken in a modern tongue, but still the same" - the Assassin replied with satisfaction. "Nothing is true; everything is permitted."

"We work in the shadows to serve the light" - Lena replied, not certain where the words came from. It wasn't something the Night Mother would say.

"Yes, very good, Assassin" - the voice sounded satisfied. "I am Altair, and you have my blade." An assassin in desert robes stepped forward from a dark passage and pointed at Lena's gauntlet. "And you are wearing my robes."[1]

"I..." - Lena gasped, looking him over. He was indeed wearing exactly the same attire as she, the Desert Robe and the other pieces of the Nightingale armour that Lucien gave her when Nocturnal made her a Nightingale. And he had the same weapons. But he was an old man, although his piercing blue eyes were still incredibly clear. "I've never heard of you..." - she said with some hesitation. "But then you are not from here. What brings you to these catacombs?"

"I am from here" - objected Altair. "Just not of this time." He stood calmly, watching Lena and waiting for her to react.

"What is this place?" - she looked at him intently. "First the Emperor, now you... Are we in the Fade?"

"The Fade? A realm between worlds? Perhaps" - Altair smiled. "The real question is however, why am I here?"

"And you are asking me?" - Lena exclaimed in surprise. "I never even knew you existed until you appeared!"

"A bit hot-headed, but the Creed doesn't prohibit that" - Altair smiled. "Indeed, you should have seen me in my youth..." - he chuckled. "It's better that you didn't. What are you doing here and where is your friend?"

"Hauk? He left" - Lena blushed. "We argued. I was stubborn. And cold" - she added with regret. "I hurt him." She sighed. "But I had to stay. Hearing my own voice from my youth... Knowing all that I know now..." - she smirked. "Baurus was right - I've been an assassin all along."

"And?" - Altair prompted her to continue.

"And what? Oh, why I stayed here..." - she looked at him, his clear blue eyes fixed on hers. "What is that phrase - We work in the shadows to serve to light - where did it come from? I've never heard it before. I am not so sure that the Dark Brotherhood really serves the light."

"Does it not?" - Altair smiled. "What is life's greatest illusion?"

"Innocence, my Brother" - Lena answered automatically.

"And therein lies your answer" - Altair smiled enigmatically. "And I could keep you busy with a few more similar phrases, and perhaps I should - Al'Mualim was right that some things you simply need to discover for yourself, not everything can be taught. But some things can be... Defend yourself, Assassin!" - suddenly he jumped with an agility of a twenty year old and nicked the skin on Lena's neck with the tip of his hidden blade, landing in a dark corner of the dungeon, well out of reach of Lena's short sword.

"What?!" - she spun around. The game was on.

Altair was fast and agile, he jumped and spun out of the way, and Lena couldn't get to him even after she switched to her longsword, while he landed a few more nicks on her skin, all armed just with his hidden blade. Then the lesson stopped as suddenly as it began.

"Not bad, you can handle a sword, I give you that" - he landed in front of Lena with his arms crossed over his chest, and she sheathed her sword. "But why do you not make use of that wonderful blade in your gauntlet? Does it not work? Oh, and you still have your finger!" - he took a closer look at it.

"It works, I just move my hand out of the way like so" - she demonstrated. "I don't know how to use it in battle" - she confessed. "I only use it out of stealth."

"Out of stealth!" - Altair snorted. "Any rusty dagger would do the job out of stealth!"

...

Professional discussions and lessons can take a long time, especially when both parties take it seriously. It must have been several hours before Lena realised that she was getting light-headed from hunger.

"I've got to eat something" - she said to Altair. "What about you? Are you corporeal or are you a ghost?"

He laughed heartily at that.

"If you had managed to get to me with your blade, you would have known" - he chuckled. "I am corporeal, and hungry, too. It's good to be alive again!"

"What?!" - Lena spun around, cheese in hand. "What do you mean - again?"

"Well, obviously I had already died long ago" - said Altair, taking the cheese from her and making a sandwich. "I am not of this time - didn't I say so? And yet here I am, in the flesh again. Remarkable, isn't it?"

"To say the least!" - Lena gasped, taking the opportunity to touch Altair's hand. It felt quite solid.

"No, I am not a ghost, and I would probably even bleed were you to cut me" - he grinned. "Which you never managed."

"Yes, I know, my footwork is all wrong and all that!" - Lena glared at him, remembering her brother's tutoring. She never took any proper lessons in swordplay in her life. Unwisely so, it seemed.

"So you know it, yet you haven't done anything to correct it" - Altair looked straight at her. "Why not?"

Lena froze. "Because as long as I don't master it properly, I am not a professional... assassin" - she swallowed. "Just an adventurer who... oh boy..." - she shook her head. "And now you are here."

"Yes."

"Who sent you?"

"You did. Sent for me" - Altair brushed the crumbs off his robes. "What did you say just before I appeared?"

"I am an assassin" - Lena thought of that moment. "I heard Baurus' words from my youth - he thought I was an assassin, but I disagreed... he didn't believe me, and he was right. But it took me this long to accept it."

Altair nodded. "And what does it mean to you?"

Lena paused, thinking. "It's a responsibility. Yes, we 'just' get contracts to fulfil, and I never stopped to think about the moral side of it, just did what was asked of me... Except that one time."

"So, you broke one of your tenets - tenets designed to keep the discipline, as I see it. Why did you disobey?"

"I had to... The contract was wrong... it was a fake... Of course I didn't know it at the time, but it just felt wrong..." - Lena blushed, remembering that whole dreadful business with failed Purification two hundred years ago.

"Fine, don't tell me" - Altair smiled. "I can see it's painful. Something to do with your Brotherhood, perhaps?" - he pierced Lena with his gaze and nodded with satisfaction. "And it turned out to be the right decision, didn't it? Well done."

"Nothing is true; everything is permitted" - Lena repeated Altair's phrase. "Is that what it means?"

"It means that you must always use your own judgement" - said Altair. "No matter where your orders come from, or where you think they come from. It isn't easy, and it has consequences, what would have happened if you didn't disobey that order?" - he looked at Lena and she shuddered. "Yes. But consider also that you could have been wrong. Imagine if you were to refuse one of the other contracts that you actually had accepted. What would have happened then? Did you always get it right?"

Lena looked at him with bewilderment. "I have no idea!" - she exclaimed. She thought of a few high profile cases that she had executed, what if those people were still alive, what would have been the consequence? "But I cannot know the answer to that!" She exclaimed again, looking at Altair with worry.

He smiled and poured her another drink. "Of course not" - he raised a toast. "You have to choose, but you rarely have the information needed to make a choice. Yet you always choose something - there is no other way. And may be sometimes you get it wrong. But in our profession it means you killed an innocent person. Innocent of that accusation, anyway, not necessarily innocent of all else..."

"Yes, life's greatest illusion..." - Lena drank the wine and the wisdom dissolved in it. "But, Altair... if I may" - she said with hesitation. "Who are you, really? Who were you when you still lived the first time?"

"My name is Altair Ibn-La'Ahad and I am an Assassin" - Altair smiled. "I am not of this time - how long ago have I lived? I cannot answer that, as all time lines are now confused. My world looked different to yours, yet the desert always remains the same... You are wearing the same robes as we did, so I know our Order continued, under whatever name. Your Creed is the same, even if the wording is different. Your God has a different name... Does it really matter? Still, we are the same. I lived to be an old man, and as you see me now, I was the Master of my Order, and it seems I have some wisdom to pass on to the new generations - I have been summoned like this before. Young assassins at a crossroads doubting themselves..." - he grinned, looking at Lena. "Or perhaps not so young after all..."

"How did you know?" - Lena's favourite question jumped at the fore.

"That you aren't in your early twenties?" - he grinned again. "I have known a lot of women in their early twenties to be able to tell the difference" - he winked. "I have watched my wife change with years, and I can see the same in you, despite your youthful appearance. Besides, you are pregnant, yet not fixated on it" - he smiled, glancing at her belly that was now showing more than usual, as Lena loosened the support straps to give herself a rest. "Shouldn't you be taking it easy in your condition?" - he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"What?! I am no invalid!!" - Lena replied hotly.

Altair laughed. "Maria all over again. What did I say?"

"Was she an assassin too?" - Lena asked, relaxing.

"As good as" - Altair nodded. "There was some... friction with my Order on that point." He looked sad and wistful somehow, and Lena didn't pursue the topic.

"So, what now?" - Lena sat back, propping herself on her elbows, visibly tired. "I am guessing you won't be coming with me?"

"Ah, no" - Altair shook his head. "I don't think I could, even if I wanted to. No, my life is done, and whatever magic allows me to appear here, is not going to carry any further. You will need to find your own way out." He gave her a long look, taking in her fatigued appearance and pale skin. "But you are in no condition to search for it, are you?" Lena shook her head. "Then we stay here a bit, rest, I am not in a hurry. In fact, I would not say no to another sandwich myself..."

They stayed in the old halls for a long while still, it must have been night time because Lena slept, and when she awoke, Altair was still there, greeting her with more food and fresh strong coffee that he brewed over the fire... "I still remember how to do that" - he smiled. But then it was time for Lena to go.

"Thank you, Altair, will I see you again?" - she asked him with hope in her voice.

"I have no idea!" - he smiled. "Take care of yourself, Assassin."

And with that he walked into the shadows and vanished.

Gathering her thoughts and trying not to panic, Lena was determined to find the one door that would lead her into the city sewers rather than into another dungeon, and after a few attempts, she found it. She was ready to kiss the sewer rat, but the rat had other ideas, and Lena had to kill it instead. She was out. But where was Hauk?

"Probably at the Caravanserai" - she thought. "He must have found a way out by now."

Hauk was drinking with the regulars, one of whom was a Nord. It seemed the two of them were entertaining the others with their Nordic humour. When Lena came in, the conversation abruptly stopped, but she did manage to catch a snap mentioning Breton women.

"Hello" - she stood right before Hauk, and he couldn't avoid looking at her. "Come with me, please" - she said softly. "To a more private place" - she added apologetically, trying to convey to Hauk that in fact she wanted to apologise, but not in front of everyone there.

"You see, what did I tell you?" - he said loudly, looking at everyone at the table in turn. "Breton women. You're never done with Breton women!" - he got up at the general laughter and applause and followed her out.

...

"I suppose I deserved that" - Lena said once they were inside the hut. "I am sorry, I hurt you back in that dungeon. I would never send you away!"

"Well, all right" - he smiled. "What happened back there?"

"I'll tell you" - she squeezed him in an embrace, and after a long kiss added: "Right after this. What was that about Breton women?"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[1] For those who don't know, Altair is from the Assassin's Creed, the first installment. His armour and weapon designs got imported into Cyrodiil, and so he was somewhat surprised to find Lena wearing the same style robes and carrying similar weapons.

This post has been edited by Lena Wolf: Apr 20 2025, 10:46 AM

[Lena Wolf]

24 Hearthfire, 4E202 - The road to Orcrest

Having spent several days in the catacombs under Dune, Lena and Hauk were eager to be on their way, and big open skies of the Elsweyr Anequina desert welcomed them and called them forth.

"Where to next?" - Hauk was enjoying the open space as they rode out of the gates of Dune. "Orcrest or straight to Corinthe? We spent too long in the catacombs, I think."

"Orcrest" - Lena was studying the map, leaving Roach to follow the road. "There doesn't seem to be a direct road to Corinthe anyway. Besides, don't you have business in Orcrest?" She winked at him, but Hauk was looking away and didn't notice.

"Whaaa--?" - he seemed a bit distracted. "Business in Orcrest? Oh, well, the anti-Imperial revolt, you mean? Yeah, I should look into that..." - he said absent-mindedly.

"Hauk!" - Lena tried to break the distraction. "What are you thinking about?"

"What? Oh, that..." - he turned to her, watching her straight posture and her rosy cheeks. "I am glad you fed before we left Dune."

"Ah... You noticed." - Lena turned to him, there was no guilt in her eyes. "I didn't relapse again, but since there was an opportunity... I took it."

"How did you do it? Without relapsing?" Hauk's eyes were probing, and Lena obliged by demonstrating that her fangs had in fact retreated. She showed her perfectly normal human teeth, and her eyes were amber, not red, she knew it.

"I nicked his vein with my dagger" - she smiled. "I cannot control my fangs, they don't come out unless I relapse. And yes, bottled blood does help, but it is no substitute for the real thing. And since the Chapel of Respite had a thrall... 'for everyone's convenience' as they put it... well... He is very well cared for, my feeding would not have harmed him!"

"Well, he's a thrall... he sleeps all the time, doesn't he? Not much of a life" - Hauk said with regret. "What is it, narcolepsy?"

"Yes. He only wakes up to eat, basically" - Lena nodded. "Did you see his tattoo?"

"The Order of Virtuous Blood. I thought they were vampire hunters?"

"They were. Or pretended to be. Some of them were, still are probably. In fact, they are still around. I wonder what they've been up to" - Lena smirked.

"You are not making any sense" - Hauk shook his head. "They are vampire hunters, and at the same time they supply thralls?"

"Yeah, funny, isn't it?" - Lena sat back in the saddle, preparing to tell a story. "It was a few months back... I was walking in the Imperial City, minding my own business, when suddenly this woman comes up to me and implores me to go to a certain address because her husband is in danger... or some such nonsense. Her husband is in danger and she stalks the first young woman she sees and implores her to help? Really, now. How much more obvious can you get? So I went to see what it was all about."

"In your usual head-first fashion, I see" - Hauk smirked.

"Well, no! I was armed" - Lena protested. "Besides, it's the Imperial City, the best guarded city in all Tamriel, the Imperial Watch stops any crime in its tracks before it is even committed, does it not?" They laughed at the well-known slogans, and Lena continued her story. "But in fact no one was trying to attack me. I was greeted by a well-fed vampire or ex-vampire who was so overfed that he didn't even realise I was an ex-vampire myself. He should have sensed it - Fenris sensed it straight away when we met in Leyawiin. But feeding too often dulls your senses. So, this fellow - Seridur was his name - welcomed me to their order of which he was the leader, stating that my reputation preceded me, and that they absolutely needed professional help with this one particularly notorious vampire, and hence they sought me out. They themselves were apparently too old and frail to fight, and all that."

"Some vampire hunters!" - Hauk laughed.

"And they weren't old and frail, either. Seridur was an Altmer, the others were a Dunmer and an Argonian, not vampires, actually, but they didn't seem to have any idea that Seridur was one. Not the brightest moths of the bunch, if you ask me."

"But what reputation of yours did he mean?" - Hauk looked at Lena with mischief. "Champion of Cyrodiil or something?"

"Well, I didn't tell him about that!" - Lena smacked his leg as she could not reach his ribs, even though in the heat of Elsweyr sun Hauk was not wearing armour. "I don't know what he was referring to, but I imagine it was my Dark Brotherhood affiliation, because he kept going on about needing professional help to kill this alleged vampire. And I kept saying that I agreed, he did need professional help... 'So you should better contact the Dark Brotherhood or Morag Tong for that, not the Mages Guild' - I said and watched the Dunmer wince. 'The Mages Guild?' - Seridur couldn't hide his astonishment. 'But you are..?' - 'Warlock of the Mages Guild, at your service' - I introduced myself, with a nice little bow too."

"Oh I wish I was there to see it!" - Hauk was howling with laughter. "The look on their faces! I can just picture that!"

"Well, if people need an assassin, they should be performing the Black Sacrament, not pulling unsuspecting young women off the street" - Lena winked. "So I said I'd look into it and left. The other two vampire hunters looked rather worried and disappointed at that point."

"Oh, I can imagine! They thought they were enlisting an assassin, but they got some snooty mage instead" - Hauk was still laughing. "So then what happened? You went to see that alleged vampire, I take it?"

"That I did, not believing for a moment that he was a vampire. So I just knocked on the door of his hut and we had a polite conversation. He accused Seridur of being a vampire, and told me some story how Seridur apparently sucked his girlfriend dry in a back alley in the Imperial City."

"He actually saw it happen?" - Hauk raised an eyebrow.

"No, he didn't. What he did see was his girlfriend in a passionate embrace with said Seridur in a back alley of the Imperial City. At which point our brave knight ran away, and his girlfriend's body was discovered later. And I don't believe for a moment that it was a vampire that killed her."

"Oh, come on. Vampires do suck dry their victims!" - Hauk protested.

"Yes, they do, on occasion. If they are exceptionally famished" - Lena confirmed. "But this is the Imperial City - it's filled with cattle! Err, mortals. Vampires there never need to go hungry and they will certainly not endanger their existence by sucking dry anyone and raising the alarm with the Imperial Watch!"

"I see your point" - Hauk nodded. "So, whether Seridur actually fed on the young lady or not, is irrelevant. And you think it was her boyfriend who killed her."

"In a fit of jealousy, yes" - Lena agreed. "Of course, I have no proof one way or the other, but I think that's what happened. Anyhow, he was no vampire, and I think Seridur wanted him dead because that fellow was walking around telling everyone that Seridur was a vampire. Remarkably, the other vampire hunters didn't believe it - the 'vampire' was accusing their illustrious leader of vampirism in order to point the finger away from himself, of course!"

"Of course" - Hauk smirked. "And it is a plausible explanation - it happens all the time. So you looked into Seridur's background then?"

"I did. With some persuasion that owner of the First Edition hinted that I should go check out the Memorial Cave."

"Now, how did he know that, I wonder?" - Hauk grinned.

"Yeah, he probably has a servant with a tattoo of the Order of Virtuous Blood in his basement somewhere" - Lena nodded. "I went to that cave, and of course it was filled with vampires. Seridur has been supplying them with everyday goods, food, and that sort of thing, and by the look of the place, they might have experimented with thralls - there were some dead bodies there, in different stages of decomposition. They looked more like necromancers than anything else."

"Necromancers?" - Hauk was surprised again. "Vampires don't usually turn to necromancy, being undead themselves and all. Sounds pretty dangerous, in case things go wrong."

"Well, may be they were necromancers before they turned? I don't know. Or may be they were trying to produce thralls that were conscious and willing, rather than sleeping all day? You know, like they have them in Skyrim" - Lena shrugged her shoulders.

"That's a different strain of vampirism though, isn't it?" - Hauk looked at her shrewdly. "And you cannot carry more than one. So unless they had Skyrim vampires among them, I don't see..." - he pondered that topic a bit, then looked at Lena again. "How do you make them sleep all day, anyway?"

"Narcolepsy? It's a disease, quite independent of vampirism" - she explained. "You can catch it without any help of vampires - some insects carry it. We just make use of it, that's all. There is no cure or treatment for it, and it prolongs the victim's life quite a bit. The only difference is that if you get it from insects, you will eventually starve, while vampires feed you, of course. It seems the insects use it for the same purpose - they feed off the blood of the narcoleptic until that person dies."

"Molag Bal really had his hand in everything!" - Hauk shuddered.

"Kynareth, I think you will find" - Lena answered with scorn. "The bugs are her creations!"

They rode in silence for a while, then Hauk prompted Lena to continue her story.

"So you found a cave full of vampires, and they were unfriendly, I take it. What about Seridur though?"

"Yes, the vampires attacked, even though I did try to talk to them..." - Lena sighed. "Some of them even sensed me, but I was not of their coven, and therefore I was a threat. Seridur apparently convinced them that being so close to the Imperial City was particularly dangerous, while of course the catacombs under the City are filled with vampires... but Seridur seemed to have omitted that fact. I feel he was using them, but I am not sure how."

"And now we'll never know" - Hauk nodded.

"Indeed. Seridur showed up as well, as hostile as can be, because obviously now I had to die..."

"You signed your death warrant already when you went to talk to that other fellow rather than kill him without question" - Hauk interjected. "Seridur was up against the wall by then."

"Yes, which is why I say again: had he not been so overfed to not sense me right from the start, none of it would have happened."

"Is that why you don't feed as often as you should?" - Hauk looked at her sideways.

"What do you mean - as often as I should?" - Lena turned red. "I am no vampire! Well, not usually, anyway."

"Oh come off it! It's me you are talking to!" - Hauk sounded slightly offended. "I've seen you in all states of dress and undress, wounded, healed, relapsed and everything! No vampire, indeed!"

"Well... you are right, of course" - Lena sighed. "I am sorry" - she smiled at him. "And I guess my last feeding makes your point - I wasn't relapsed, yet I fed. But to answer your question - I do not feed unless I absolutely have to for two reasons: first, I am still in denial, and second, I like to keep my senses. It's a habit I got into when I was a full-blown vampire: always stay a little hungry. Overfeeding makes you... mortal."

"Is that how you survived during Purification?" - Hauk asked cautiously.

"It helped. But what do you know of it?" - Lena looked suspiciously at Hauk.

"A bit more than the official version" - he admitted. "But no details. Your Brotherhood keeps its secrets well."

"We must. You already know more than most. The rest is between me and Lucien."

Hauk was a little disappointed that his fishing attempt failed, but not surprised. Lucien wouldn't tell him anything about that either. "You know I'm alive, and you know that the Brotherhood never fell. This is more than anyone should know already" - he would say and change the topic. So Hauk returned to the topic of the Order of Virtuous Blood.

"So what happened to the Order?" - he asked lightly. "After you killed Seridur?"

"The other fellow took his place" - Lena was glad to return to the story. "Pronounced me a Sister in their Order and offered me advice in vampire hunting, imagine that!" They laughed heartily at that. "Of course he has no clue that I have some experience with vampirism myself... But anyway, they pay good money for vampire dust - better than regular alchemists."

"And how many portions have you already delivered?" - Hauk asked with a grin.

"None, of course!" - Lena sounded surprised. "What do you think goes into those poisons that you like using so much?"

They kept on chatting until the towers of Orcrest came into view.

[Lena Wolf]

26 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Orcrest

"Are we done in Orcrest then?" - Lena turned to Hauk at breakfast.

"Are we?" - he smirked. "What time did you get back here last night? I was asleep, so it must have been pretty late - or was it in fact this morning?"

"This morning" - Lena nodded. "It was dawning already. But you were still asleep!" - she added defiantly, as if that defined night time.

"Do you want to leave today?" - Hauk squinted at her. "It's past midday, you know."

"I don't want to spend a day too long in this slum" - Lena kicked the rat that poked its nose through a hole in the wall of their rented room. "Rats everywhere!"

The look of disgust on her face made Hauk laugh.

"Well, it's the Orcs for you. Or rather, Orc soldiers. These are no nobles, their King included. And of course, the goblins feed the rats."

"Disgusting."

"Are you going to feed again before we leave?" - Hauk asked matter-of-factly.

"On whom?" - Lena grimaced. "I'm likely to catch something worse than Porphyric Hemophilia if I feed on this lot!" Hauk started to roll up his sleeve. "No!" - exclaimed Lena. "Don't even start! I am not feeding on you! Not unless I'm dying or something."

Hauk was going to object that it wasn't the first time, but in truth the situation was very different. Previously Lena was on the brink of death, but now... now it would be just additional nourishment. She drew the line at that.

"I am not a vampire" - she said defiantly. "Not a proper full-time vampire anyway. I do not need blood, not normally. I carry bottled blood for when I relapse. I only fed before we left Dune because I had relapsed several times within a short period when we were stuck in those dungeons with the undead. I was weakened by that, I could not regenerate fully even after my vampirism went back in remission. It was an exception, or I want to believe that it was. No, I am not a vampire." She repeated, sitting up straight and biting into another ham sandwich. "I just need to eat and sleep. All right, we stay here till tomorrow."

...

Orcrest was a city of Orc soldiers, and it showed. Corpses in different stages of decomposition were hanging from every tall structure, and skulls on spikes constituted the city decorations. Piles of smouldering rubble littered the place, and that was in the Oasis - the nicer part of town. Orcrest Township was where most people lived, and it was nothing short of the most disgusting slums you could imagine.

"And people say Bravil is ugly!" - Lena turned to Hauk during their first walkabout. "Bravil is nothing like this! Bah!" - she kicked another rat, sending it into a stinking pile of broken crates. The rat didn't seem to mind.

"Yeah, Bravil is squeaky clean compared to this" - Hauk flicked another rat away. "Literally and figuratively - all the drinking and pissing is hidden away, not happening right in front of you." He lifted up the hem of his robes, stepping over a puddle of vomit and turning up his nose at an Orc pissing against the wall. Right in front of them. "These robes will need to be laundered now" - he lifted up the hem a bit more. "And I can't trust anyone here not to ruin the enchantment."

"That's a good blade" - a passing Orc pointed at Lena's Nightingale sword. "Even though it isn't big enough. But I've got something bigger for you, sweetheart!" - he gave Lena a broad grin, looking her over, up and down.

"Another time perhaps" - Lena replied pleasantly, signalling Hauk to cool off. "But why that hungry look in your eyes? Is there not a whorehouse in town?"

"There is" - the Orc nodded. "Except that it's closed!" - he glared at Hauk as if it was Hauk's fault. "Locked up and all the whores gone!" - he glared again. "Admittedly, they were all pussies - the Khajiit, you know. Still, better than nothing!"

"But why did they leave?" - Lena thought it very strange that no one had taken over the brothel. After all, in a town filled with soldiers, that would have been a gold mine.

"Couldn't satisfy the demand" - the Orc grinned. "They needed a few Orc vixen there, that's what! But the vixen here would rather fight than spread their legs. And then they wonder why the Orcish race is in decline!" - he added hotly. Lena decided not to argue.

"So what does a brave fighter like yourself do for entertainment here?" - she asked sweetly. They had not spotted any obvious gambling dens or working arenas so far, the two arenas that they'd seen, just had some animals in them.

"Looking for some fun, eh?" - the Orc winked at Lena. "Well, if you don't want me bedding you, which is your loss, by the way, you could try gambling - there's a gambling den in one of these houses, I forget which one - just knock on doors, and you'll find it. Bring money - that game is rigged, I think. I always lose everything. Perhaps you can trade this Nord of yours as well - it's been a while since we had a Nord slave, although this one is a bit too old..." - he looked Hauk over, and Hauk scowled. "Yeah, forget that idea" - the Orc hastened to add. "Otherwise there isn't much to do. Beat someone up. Mind the guards though - they'll put down everyone, they don't care who started the fight."

"All right, see you around" - Lena smiled at the Orc.

"Find me any time you change your mind, sweetheart" - the Orc smiled back, baring his fangs. "I bet I've got a bigger one than your old Nord."

Hauk glared at him again, but Lena thought it was wise to move on. She pulled Hauk into a house - the door wasn't locked.

"Don't take it personally" - she glared at him now. "I needed information!"

"And got us into a minotaur den?" - Hauk scowled, summoning a daedroth, as three angry minotaurs were getting up from the ground and picking up their warhammers. "Not every house offers a friendly welcome!"

The fight was fierce, with six large individuals and Lena swinging claws and heavy weapons in a small room. Lena hit Hauk a few times by accident, he ignored it at first, then complained quite loudly, which caused the guards to show up. They joined in the fight, knocked out everyone, and left.

"Ugh, that Orc was right - the guards don't care who started the fight" - Hauk was rubbing his head. "But at least the minotaurs are dead, I think, or knocked out for longer than you and me. What were you thinking hitting me with your sword all the time?" - he glared at Lena. "You dented my armour!"

"Minotaurs' warhammers dented your armour" - Lena glared back. "I didn't hit you on purpose! It was very cramped! I was aiming at the minotaur!"

"Well, your aim is rubbish and your footwork is all over the place - that's why you keep hitting the wrong target" - Hauk took another swig of the healing potion. "You need training." Now, where did Lena hear this before?

"All right, let's go before any of these minotaur wake up" - she got up resolutely. Their excursion of the Orcrest slums continued.

...

"Fancy that - a house for sale!" - Hauk grinned at the sign in front of one of the houses. "I wonder how much they want for it?"

"Are you serious?" - Lena looked at him in disbelief. "They should be paying anyone agreeing to live here, not the other way around!"

Every turn and every alley in Orcrest Town looked the same, except for the arrangement and variety of rubble along the walls. Every alley smelled the same too, and after a while Lena and Hauk had enough of it. They found a bustling tavern and sat down for a drink.

"Ugh, what is that?" - Hauk spit out a mouthful of something called "Mazte". "This is the worst mazte I've ever tasted!"

"Well, this isn't Morrowind" - Lena wrinkled her nose at the "Tamika West Weald" in her goblet. "This is no Tamika either."

"Anyshhhing the matter with your drrrinks?" - a hiccuping Altmer stood between them. "Iffff you don't want them, lllllet me helllllp..." - he grabbed Lena's goblet and emptied it in one gulp. "Seems perfffffectly fffine to me..."

"Well, you can have it" - Lena got up to leave, with the Altmer sinking into her seat immediately. Hauk was getting up too. "At least the provisions at the Broken Jaw were edible."

...

"I need to look into the gambling den--"

"I need to check out that closed brothel--"

Lena and Hauk said in unison after dinner at the Broken Jaw inn. They each had business to attend to.

"All right, we split up" - Lena smiled. "We keep the room for a few days, meet up back here. You don't think the brothel was a real brothel, do you?" - she looked sharply at Hauk.

"A real brothel would never go out of business here" - Hauk shook his head. "Perhaps there are still clues to be found. And something tells me you are not really interested in the gambling den, either."

"Well, we passed several houses that looked even less lived in than the rest" - Lena smiled. "I need to knock on some doors."

"Or windows" - Hauk winked. "See you later." He disappeared into their room, returning shortly without his robe, but with his sword clipped to his belt. The Orc vixen jumped up to him, clicking her tongue and running her fingers over his chest tattoos. No, this Nord wasn't too old. He smiled at her and left. Lena chuckled and went about her business too.

...

"Rats and goblins everywhere!" - Lena cursed, finding nothing else of interest in any of the unlocked houses that she entered. Some had locked doors, but then the windows were open invitations. She didn't actually pick any locks, and so technically wasn't trespassing... Or it seemed to work like that in Orcrest. Then suddenly she stood in a Dark Brotherhood office, or something that looked like it. It was yet another hut, but this one was empty inside, except for one small bed, one large desk and one ordinary chair, and half a dozen Black Hand tapestries covering the walls. Even Lucien's office didn't have quite as many of them. "Someone is making a point to advertise" - she thought. A woman was sitting at the desk, not saying anything, not protesting, just looking bored. Lena said hello, and the woman replied, but didn't have anything interesting to say besides common rumours. "Strange" - Lena thought. She spotted a trapdoor in the corner and opened it, completely unhindered by the woman. "Even stranger" - Lena wondered. "It could be a trap." But she went in, regardless.

An underground tunnel led her to a Black Door.

"Is it..?" - Lena wondered, placing her hand on it. She felt nothing. "Wait... no... it's an ordinary door! There is no enchantment!" She pushed the door, and it yielded, not issuing any challenges, not acting as a Black Door should, not protecting the Sanctuary within. If indeed there was one.

"Oh, you must be an assassin from Cyrodiil!" - a woman in black robes greeted Lena somewhere down the corridor. "I've got contracts for you! I'm the last one left after this Sanctuary was purified, and then the bridge collapsed, and so I'm stuck here for ever more!" - she babbled on cheerfully, and Lena didn't believe a word of it.

"You know of me?" - Lena asked cautiously.

"You are here! And you are not from here! So you must be an assassin from Cyrodiil!" - the woman continued to babble excitedly. Lena was getting tired of it.

"All right, what was it about a contract?" - she asked, wanting to know what was going on.

"Oh yes, you need to kill this Khajiit in Senchal, you see. A bit of breaking and entering job, that one, but not a problem for you, picking locks, is it?" - the woman beamed at Lena. A Khajiit in Senchal. Sure. There would be just the one there, of course. No mistake possible. Did that woman even care? It seemed not.

"A Khajiit in Senchal, you say?" - Lena squinted at her. "Why, I already killed that one!" - she lied.

"Ooh, you are so efficient!" - the woman was in awe. "But I don't know if you fulfilled the requirements for the bonus, see, so you just get the basic pay." She handed over the money. "Ready for your next contract?" - she beamed at Lena again.

"Umm, let me think about it" - Lena pretended to be thinking it over. "I'll be back for you." Of that she was sure, somehow. Wait until Lucien hears of this...

She walked up and down the tunnel a bit more, looking at the abyss below - the tunnel just ended abruptly. If there ever was a bridge there, it wasn't clear where it would lead - Lena could not see any further tunnels on the same level. "Looks like some very old mining tunnels or something similar" - Lena mused. It definitely didn't look like there had ever been a Sanctuary there, or any other structure for that matter. And of course the woman wasn't trapped there at all - she could just return to town the same way as Lena entered. "A local mercenary group posing as us?" - she thought. "But unlikely to be behind the attacks on the Dark Brotherhood. Time to move on."

She jumped into the abyss, to the horror of the woman in black robes. Altair's leap of faith - she had to try it. What made her do it? She couldn't say, but somehow she felt she wouldn't die... Not like in Kagrenzel in Skyrim, where were it not for Hauk, she would have never resurfaced. But here she emerged in another tunnel, surrounded by more rats. "Will it never stop?!" - she cursed, slicing through them.



-----------------------------
Dark Brotherhood contracts were added by Elsweyr Pelletine. The gambling den and the brothel were inaccessible in Elsweyr Anequina. I have opened up the gambling den - it will be open for business in the next release of Elsweyr Mysteries. The game is dice and you can and will lose everything you've got in it.

This post has been edited by Lena Wolf: Jan 17 2022, 02:04 PM

[Renee]

69:

Crossing the river, we see a spider, it picks a fight. Hauk zaps it. Spider spits venom. Hauk gets angry - "A true Nord never backs down!" This doesn't apply to true Nord spiders though because it tries to run away. Eight legs or not, but Hauk is angry and spider stands no chance. Note to self: avoid making Hauk angry.

They head toward Ivarstead in this post, and pass by that section with hot-springs and such. Note to self: Let's see if we can find a mod which adds actual geysers. There's gotta be one, by now.

Mistwatch - bandits. At least they have the decency to warn. Leave them be.

I love this feature of Skyrim. And it's something the naysayers never mention--the fact that not everybody in Skyrim attacks us.


70: Nice picture of the sleeping bear! Wow, they rode their horses right by the animal too. Interesting how Hauk keeps trying to prod Lena to go adventuring & looting, yet Lena wants to forego all the action.

"If you don't want to help people, you shouldn't be asking them about their problems"

Awesome! Hauk has a lot of funny one-liners lately.

Lena also drinks Nord Mead in this travel, which keeps off the cold (or gives that illusion at least). Yum. Always wondered why that brew is so much cheaper than Honningbrew or any of the other meads.

Candlehearth Hall is always welcoming, this is true. Especially since Windhelm is sooooo grey and grim.



This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 10 2022, 02:18 PM

[Lena Wolf]

Lena also drinks Nord Mead in this travel, which keeps off the cold (or gives that illusion at least). Yum. Always wondered why that brew is so much cheaper than Honningbrew or any of the other meads.

I was playing with Survival on, and I had some mod which changed the properties of various alcoholic drinks. Nord Mead was doing far better job in keeping out the cold than anything else, even those far more expensive drinks. Don't remember which mod it was though, something that changed a lot of things, I think, I lost it later (probably because I didn't like the other changes).

[Renee]

Cool, I am curious what mod that was. Doesn't sound like Frostfall (which is what I use).

5/87

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 23 2022, 01:29 PM

[macole]

Interesting adventure in Orcrest. Elsweyr Pellentine has features that fit your character to a tee.

It often amazes me how everyone that plays this game see the same environment yet interprets it differently. I am pointing to how you reacted to the Order of the Virtuous Blood quest. I hope you understand that when the Jandaga says,” May our paths never cross,” he wishes you well.

Have you perhaps looked into this one, Vampires and friendly Necromancers in Orcrest - Elsweyr.

Because of the requirements I am assuming that you are using TWMP Valenwood Elsweyr. I am hoping to see how it differs from Valenwood Improved.

[Lena Wolf]

Interesting adventure in Orcrest. Elsweyr Pellentine has features that fit your character to a tee.

It often amazes me how everyone that plays this game see the same environment yet interprets it differently. I am pointing to how you reacted to the Order of the Virtuous Blood quest. I hope you understand that when the Jandaga says,” May our paths never cross,” he wishes you well.

That quest bothered me from the very first time I played it. Now I'm just venting my frustrations.

Have you perhaps looked into this one, Vampires and friendly Necromancers in Orcrest - Elsweyr.

Good point, I should install it and see, since I am making some additions to those underground passages myself. I was initially going to play without Pelletine first, so didn't have any of those extra mods loaded. But I've enabled Pelletine now, so might as well.

Because of the requirements I am assuming that you are using TWMP Valenwood Elsweyr. I am hoping to see how it differs from Valenwood Improved.

I have both TWMP_ValenwoodImproved and TWMP_Valenwood_Elsweyr in my load order, and it was supposed to make my game explode because they are vastly conflicting. Well, no disasters so far, but I haven't looked at Valenwood yet. TWMP_Valenwood_Elsweyr only defines land, it has no locations, people or quests. It is a very old mod from before Valenwood Improved. TWMP officially declared it deprecated, in favour of TWMP_ValenwoodImproved which is just Valenwood Improved made compatible with TWMP. But Pelletine is using this old land layout... They are working on a patch to blend it all, but it's not available yet. I was planning to get to Valenwood and look at the conflicts and see if I could make a rough patch to reconcile them, since it can be a long time before the proper patch is out.

If you look at the pictures in my map module mod, you'll see what I mean.

[Lena Wolf]

Have you perhaps looked into this one, Vampires and friendly Necromancers in Orcrest - Elsweyr.

Good point, I should install it and see, since I am making some additions to those underground passages myself. I was initially going to play without Pelletine first, so didn't have any of those extra mods loaded. But I've enabled Pelletine now, so might as well.

Vampires and Friendly Necromancers does not actually require Pelletine, but it needs cleaning with TES4Edit to remove the dependency. I installed it, it's just a dungeon beneath Orcrest with vampires and necromancers, but they are in no way friendly. Perhaps I didn't find the friendly ones. It doesn't interfere with Pelletine addition, and also not with mine (to be released later), but be warned that all the Khajiit in there have glitched tails - their skeleton meshes are wrong. Anyway, that area was meant for the Dark Brotherhood, even if it was unfinished in Anequina, so this dungeon doesn't fit with the story. I intend to carry on the DB line started by Pelletine, but taking a different twist.

I have now downloaded all the mods for Elsweyr by that author. He's got good ideas but the mods need cleaning and the various updates need merging with the originals, in my opinion (and I have merged them for my own use). But hey, we are all just stumbling in the dark here.

[Lena Wolf]

27 Hearthfire, 4E202 - On to Corinthe

"All right, let's get going" - Lena tried to be gentle waking up Hauk in the morning. They went to the gambling den the night before and Hauk got into a fight with the Orcs there, so now he was not only nursing bruises to his pride, but also bruises to his nose, although the Orcs didn't get off lightly either. Lena lost most of her money, that game must have been rigged.

"Whaaa--?" - Hauk turned over, wincing. "Is it morning already?"

"Come on" - Lena brought a mug of hot coffee under his nose. "There are no sweetrolls, but the cheese is passable."

...

"On to Corinthe!" - Lena nudged Roach to move, and Roach obliged. The horses seemed eager to leave too. "That's supposed to be the centre of Khajiit civilisation" - she turned to Hauk. "I wonder what it'll be like."

"Hopefully not as stormy as Orcrest" - Hauk moved uneasily. "Every day a sand storm! Bah."

"Well, it can't be any worse than Gransys" - Lena mused to herself.

"Gransys? What's that?" - Hauk caught her words.

"Oh, sorry... Some place I got to from the Shivering Isles... Sheogorath has portals, you know" - she added a bit wistfully. "Gransys is a duchy in some far away land. They had a slight dragon problem, and I got there for no reason at all. Just woke up on the beach with my heart ripped out." [1]

"What?!" - Hauk was finally awake. "Heart ripped out? What are you talking about?" He didn't believe her.

"No, really" - Lena nodded. "I had to get it back from the dragon. That was a story and a half."

"I bet!" - Hauk nudged Luna to level with Roach. "Well, I'm all ears."

"All right" - Lena grinned. "I don't know who shoved me into that portal, there was a party the day before... in Sheogorath's palace, well, my palace at the time. But the fact was that I woke up on an unfamiliar beach with a mighty headache and a hole in my chest."

"Too much felldew" - nodded Hauk.

"Or brandy" - Lena agreed. "But there I was. The head eventually cleared, but the hole remained. The people in that village seemed to know me, called me 'cousin', acted as if I was born and bred there... Strange. Well, I later figured out why that was, it had to do with the dragon. Err... with my missing heart. They told me that every fifty years or so a dragon came around, made a big splash in the sea, picked someone and ripped their heart out. That person however would not die, but would rise again, destined to fight the dragon in order to get their heart back. And so now it was me, and I became the 'arisen'."

"Did you take the place of one of the villagers who died?" - Hauk looked at her shrewdly.

"I think I fell through that portal just as the dragon was choosing his victim, but since I was not of that world, some magic must have put those false memories into everyone's heads" - Lena looked very contended with that explanation.

"That seems rather far-fetched - mass hypnosis" - Hauk looked sceptical.

"Well, what else could it be?" - Lena was defiant. "No one outside the village knew me or knew of me, and there was no trace of my previous life besides people's memories. What happened to my mother, for example? Who was she, even? No one seemed to remember."

"Yes, that is odd" - Hauk had to give in. "All right, never mind that. So you woke up with a hole in your chest, and then what?"

"Well... then the adventure started" - Lena winked. "When I was well enough to walk, a young mage stepped out of a portal and declared that he was there to follow me around and aid me in reclaiming my heart from the dragon. Well, I've heard better come-on lines than that, but I've given him extra points for making sense. He indeed stuck with me for quite a while."

"But what did he really want?" - Hauk didn't believe in the mage's intentions.

"What he said" - Lena looked surprised at it herself. "The elder of the village explained to me that these people - 'pawns', he called them - weren't really people but some sort of magical constructs destined to follow around the arisen, that is me. And indeed people in the village treated the mage with disdain, and he seemed to be used to it."

"Was he a ghost?" - Hauk was trying to get his head around it.

"No, not a ghost - he was just a man, as far as I could tell. He had a glowing mark on his hand, but other than that, he was completely human. I thought the villagers were wrong to treat him the way they did."

"Any special powers?" - Hauk wondered.

"No, nothing out of the ordinary" - Lena shook her head. "I met many others like him later, some mages, some warriors, archers, healers, all sorts - in a space between worlds called 'The Rift'".

"The Fade?" - Hauk was digesting this new information.

"I think so" - Lena nodded. "The Void, the Fade, the Rift - I think it is all one and the same thing, just called by different names."

"So then he was a spirit" - Hauk concluded.

"How many spirits do you know that have physical bodies?" - Lena grinned. "That have to eat to stay alive?"

"None" - admitted Hauk. "Draugr could be called spirits with bodies, but they definitely don't eat."

"Well, whatever they were... On the mortal plane they acted exactly the same as mortals, except that they couldn't die. Just like the daedra here - when their body was killed, the person himself was transported back to the Rift, and you could go there and fetch him again."

"That's it then - they were daedra" - decided Hauk. "All right, what happened next?"

"Next..." - Lena paused in thought. "How about lunch?" - she pointed at a campsite along the road that appeared to be unoccupied. "I could eat something fresher than the cheese that we had for breakfast."

...

"Well, now that you started that story, you have to continue" - Hauk complained once they were seated at the camp. "How did you get your heart back?"

"Oh, that's a very long story" - Lena smiled. "I spent a long time in Gransys... a few years at least, may be more."

"All right, you'll have to tell it bit by bit then" - Hauk conceded. "But skip straight to the end first - about the heart. I've not seen any scars on your chest."

"Magic" - Lena smiled. "I died."

"What?!"

"I died several times, it was completely bizarre" - Lena nodded. "I am not even sure it really happened, but I still lived through it. It was a cycle, seemingly impossible to break, yet at some point I woke up in Sheogorath's palace, with my heart back in my chest."

"So" - Hauk looked disappointed. "Then the whole thing was only a dream."

"How often do you bring things back from a dream?" - Lena smiled, playing with an amulet she used to wear under her clothes. It was shaped as a hand, and Hauk thought it stood for the Dark Brotherhood, although the shape wasn't quite right.

"You brought that with you?" - he asked with surprise. "So it isn't from the Brotherhood?"

"No" - Lena shook her head. "No, the shape is all wrong" - she looked at Hauk, and her glance said 'You should have known'. "This has the symbol the pawns in Gransys had glowing on their hand. Some said it was the same shape as the chest scar on the arisen to whom they were pledged, but that's just sheer nonsense - I met a lot of pawns and they all had the same symbol. Besides, my scar looked nothing like that."

"The amulet is shaped as a hand" - Hauk was examining the amulet closely. "With another hand in it, upside down" - he nodded. "So that's the symbol?"

"Yes, they would raise their hand in greeting, and that's when you'd see the glowing mark most clearly" - Lena placed the amulet back around her neck. "Every one the same."

"So how did you get it?" - Hauk thought there was more to it.

"It's..." - Lena blushed. "It's in memory of Scorpio" - she said pressing it to her chest. "He was my companion throughout that whole time."

"What happened to him?" - Hauk asked quietly.

"He is lost in the Rift" - Lena looked sad.

"Explain."

"Each arisen got a dedicated pawn - not the young mage who came to greet me. I had to pass a test first, then I could choose a pawn, and I picked Scorpio. If arisen were to die - which was possible, actually - his pawn would just wander the Rift on his own forever. He might get a summon from another arisen, but that would be just for a short time. They are basically discarded, but they don't die." She sat looking into the fire for a while. "We came across some of them in very sad and gloomy places, they just seemed lost.[2] I died several times - it was a cycle I spoke of - but each time that I woke up on the beach with a hole in my chest, I always managed to find Scorpio in the Rift again, and everything started all over. After some time, we already knew every step we were going to take. There didn't seem to be a way out."

"What a nightmare!" - Hauk shuddered.

"It was" - Lena nodded. "But at the same time..." - she sighed. "There was Scorpio. I could have gone forever like that."

"I see..." - Hauk said slowly, watching Lena look into the fire, shadows of memories crossing her face. "And one day you woke up on the beach but Scorpio was not to be found."

"Yeah..." - Lena nodded. "He broke the cycle for me. I took too long in the Rift looking for him, I had to leave and try again later. I tried several times, in vain. Then I had this amulet made, and when it was ready, I jumped off a cliff." She paused. "I woke up back in Sheogorath's palace. He must have known it would happen."

"Is that why you go into the Fade every time you get a chance?" - Hauk looked at her intently. "Hoping to find him?"

"Not specifically, no" - Lena looked up. "But the thought did cross my mind every time I entered the Fade. I cannot find him there, Hauk, not if he does not want to be found. The Fade is no place for mortals - we cannot navigate it. I would just perish."

"You've lived a lot longer than fifty years" - Hauk said quietly. "I imagine this wasn't your only time in another world. How many more?"

"A few more" - Lena nodded. "Time passes differently everywhere, I wouldn't know how to measure it."

They sat a while longer, looking into the fire, each lost in their respective thoughts. Thoughts about people they've loved and lost, wondering whether they'd ever meet them again after they finally die in Mundus and before their mortal souls dissolve forever in the Void.

Finally, Hauk got up and walked over to Lena, lifting her up from her seat as well.

"Come" - he said, holding her close. "Let's not get lost in the Rift while we are still standing in Mundus. We need to get to Corinthe before nightfall, if we can, I think another sand storm is coming."

They mounted their horses and rode to Corinthe without talking.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[1] Dragon's Dogma
[2] Dark Arisen DLC

[Lena Wolf]

27 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Another world

"You have been very quiet ever since you told me about Scorpio" - Hauk looked at Lena at dinner. "That brought up memories, didn't it?"

"Yes, but that's not what's been keeping me quiet" - she smiled at him. "I mentioned I've been to other worlds... Well, some were less pleasant than others. I've been to worlds that were just like ours."

"Parallel universes?" - Hauk looked up. "I've read of this concept - some mages claim there are many universes exactly like ours, but they each have different events in them. I didn't think it was possible!"

"I think that's what it was" - Lena nodded. "One of Sheogorath's portals led me to a barren place filled with more portals, and they all led me back home - or so I thought, until I looked closely. Cyrodiil was the same, towns and villages, and most houses everywhere, it all was pretty much the same in each of them. In the first one - I thought I was back home - I went to my house in Bravil, only to find it locked... I asked Daenlin, but he didn't recognise me, like he'd never seen me before, said that the owner of the house next door was out of town - and it was a man! So definitely not me. I went to the Mages Guild, and the same story - no one knew me."

"That's awful!" - exclaimed Hauk. "How did you get back?"

"I thought I was stuck there for sure... but I went to the Shivering Isles portal, and it returned me into that barren space with the other portals... Trouble was, I couldn't remember which one was the way home." She shuddered and poured herself some wine.

"So... how long did you spend drifting from world to world until you found ours?" - Hauk stopped eating.

"Years..." - Lena sighed, and her face cringed in pain. "I think it was years. Very long."

"Gosh..." - Hauk took her hand. "Don't do this again. What did you see?"

"Well, it's not so much what I saw, but what I didn't see" - she smiled at him. "After a few times I was used to being a stranger, although seeing those familiar faces and getting no response from them was rather unsettling and... painful. That made me realise just how much I value my friends." She squeezed his hand.

"Yes" - Hauk nodded. "Yes, I understand. But there was something else, wasn't there?" - he looked shrewdly at her.

"Yeah... Lucien" - Lena shot him a glance and blushed. "He was... different."

"Just Lucien? Or other people too?" - Hauk's eyes narrowed. "What about me?"

"I never met you" - Lena shook her head. "We hadn't met at the time, I think you weren't even born! It was a long time ago" - she smiled at him. "No, it wasn't just Lucien who was different, I think everyone was a bit different. But Lucien hurt the most."

"Ah. Another woman?" There was no hiding from Hauk, was there?

Lena nodded. "Another woman every time. I suppose he wasn't that different after all, he is not exactly celibate here either" - she smiled. "Yet I trust him."

"And you felt like he broke your trust" - Hauk nodded. "Even though it wasn't actually the same person."

"That's the trouble" - Lena agreed. "These worlds - they looked exactly the same, the people looked, moved, spoke in the same way everywhere, it absolutely gave the impression that it was one and the same person. But they were all different."

"This must have been a very disturbing time for you" - Hauk tried to calm her down, as tears started running down her face by now.

"Y-yes" - she sobbed. "And I wasn't with the Dark Brotherhood there, or with any of the Guilds, and no one knew me... I tried talking to some of the mages about parallel worlds, but they just looked at me as if I was mad" - she didn't bother to dry her tears, as there was no end to the stream. It would stop at some point, she hoped. She felt being thrown into the depth of despair, just as she felt back then, moving from world to world, and never getting home.

...

"Is that... Wolf?" - a Khajiit turned to her table companion at the back of the room. "That sobbing Breton? Is that Wolf?"

"What?" - the other Khajiit peered to see, flicking his fingers to make his eyes adapt to the gloom inside the caravanserai. "You know, I think it might be. She's got her Nord with her, too."

"But she's crying! Sobbing like a kit. Not what you'd expect from a ruthless killer" - the first Khajiit shook her head. "Or is it an act, you think?"

"No, I don't think it's an act" - he said slowly, not taking his eyes off Lena. "She's upset about something. May be her conscience finally caught up with her."

"Don't talk rubbish" - the first one snapped. "She's a Silencer, they have no conscience. Plus, she's a vampire."

"Well, if the stories are true, she's an ex-vampire" - the second Khajiit corrected his companion. "She went through all the trouble of getting everything together for the Witch's Potion. But I hear it didn't clear all the effects completely."

"Mmm, you're right about that" - the first one nodded. "J'rama took it too, and he's still clinging to every neck he can find."

"I wonder why she's here" - the second Khajiit mused.

"Are you going to send word to the Jandaga?" - the first one raised her eyes in question.

"Yes, I suppose I should" - the second one nodded. "The Jandaga will want to know."

"That old fae is too old to fight!" - the first Khajiit's ears went flat. "He has barely enough strength to wear his armour! It's those women he keeps with him, they are doing all the fighting."

"WHAT did you say about the Jandaga?" - a Dunmer from the neighbouring table glared at the first Khajiit. "He may be five hundred tomorrow, but he can knock you out in one strike! He's an Aelf! That age puts him in his prime!"

"Which explains all the ladies" - the second Khajiit grinned. "Well said, Adryn. If he finally decides to go after Wolf, she'll stand no chance, Nord or no Nord at her side."

"I don't think Wolf will accept a direct confrontation" - the first Khajiit flicked her fingers to have a better look at Lena, who was now calming down and regaining her composure. "She is an assassin. She'll use stealth."

"Stealth!" - the Dunmer spat. "There is no honour in stealth!"

"But it prevents you from getting killed" - the second Khajiit smiled. "Some find it useful."

The Dunmer glared again, but didn't argue.

"No, she won't allow the Jandaga - or his ladies - to assault her directly. And that Nord of hers isn't just an average battlemage. He's that Optio from the war." The first Khajiit was watching Lena and Hauk as she said this.

"Optio Serck-Hanssen?" - the second Khajiit and the Dunmer exclaimed together, making Hauk turn his head.

"Sshhh, he'll hear you!" - the first Khajiit glared at her companions. "Honestly, call yourselves agents?" - she bared her teeth in disdain. "...And he had a much bigger one than either of you!" - she added quite loudly. "So yeah, it was a good night out!"

She watched Hauk out of the corner of her eye, her cat eyes allowing her to see everything quite clearly. Hauk grinned, said something to Lena and turned away.

"Phew" - the Khajiit let out a sigh of relief. "Keep your voices down!"

"If that's Serck-Hanssen" - the second Khajiit said in a much quieter tone, - "then he must have been the one our other agent met in Dune. Which explains his tattoos."

"What tattoos?" - the Dunmer tried to make out Hauk's tattoos, but firstly, Dunmer eye sight was no good in the dark, and secondly, Hauk was wearing armour.

"You can't see them now" - the second Khajiit rolled his eyes. "They are on his body, and he's suited up now. But in Dune he wasn't wearing a shirt because of the heat - Nords are not good with heat."

"I'll have to follow him around town then, the sun is just as hot here as it is in Dune" - the Dunmer nodded, making a mental note. "But if that's really he... Why is he here, should be the real question."

"The Jandaga doesn't care for politics" - the second Khajiit cut off the Dunmer. "It'll be some Imperial Legion business - the revolt in Orcrest or some such nonsense. The Jandaga had had enough of that already in High Rock and in your precious Morrowind!" - he glared at the Dunmer.

"Leave Morrowind out of it!" - the Dunmer's eyes were glowing with rage. "I'll have you know that Morrowind..."

"Stop it!" - the first Khajiit hissed quite aggressively. "This isn't the place! The Khajiit knows all he needs to know about Morrowind!" - she glared at her companions. "If the Dunmer agent wants to inform whoever it is he is working for, he should do so without hesitation" - she said quite formally, shooting a sharp glance at the Dunmer. "I'm sure the Morag Tong would like to know" - she added, using the common speak.

"If he ever sets foot in Morrowind again, he'll be in a lot of hot water" - the Dunmer said much more calmly. "And Morag Tong will be the least of his worries. He's wanted by half of Morrowind houses for what he did to their daughters."

"What?!" - both Khajiits stifled an exclamation. "Daughters?"

"Well, and wives. Mostly wives, actually" - the Dunmer grinned. "'Thief of Virtue' is what they call him in Morrowind."

"You elves are no more virtuous than the Khajiit" - the second Khajiit grinned too. "Was there anything to steal at all?"

"I was speaking figuratively" - the Dunmer smirked.

"Riiiight" - the second Khajiit's ears spiked up in surprise, then flattened out - he was being sarcastic. "Anyway, I don't think he's here for those kinds of pleasures, and what he did during the war was of a completely different nature."

"That was work" - nodded the first Khajiit. "The Khajiit are glad to not have been involved in fighting in Skyrim."

"Oh come on, he was just one man, how bad could it be?" - the Dunmer rolled his eyes. "The Legion had plenty of other operatives, I'm sure!"

"True, but none quite like him. You know what they call him in Skyrim?" - he looked at the Dunmer flatly. "The Animal."

"Why?" - the Dunmer was looking perplexed. "Don't the Nords appreciate brutality?"

"It's not brutality as such that he's known for" - the Khajiit shook his head. "The Thalmor would engage the Dark Brotherhood to go after their agents in The Animal's 'care' - it was considered the merciful thing to do. He would keep them alive for months."

"So, what was his mission then?" - the Dunmer seemed to be slow to understand, or perhaps he only wished to appear that way.

"Isn't it obvious?" - the first Khajiit smirked. "Information gathering, of course. What else would an agent do behind the enemy lines during a war? That, and subterfuge."

"Charming" - the Dunmer rolled his eyes. "I don't expect he fights with honour either."

"Which is why he and Wolf are such friends" - the first Khajiit squinted, looking at Lena and Hauk again. "Birds of a feather and all that."

...

The conversation at the back of the caravanserai quieted down, with the Dunmer turning back to his own table and taking out a quill and a small piece of parchment. He was going to send word to Morrowind - the Spy Master would like to know just whom the Legion was sending his way. What Hauk didn't tell Lena, was that he knew that his mission in Elsweyr was a test - a test of his mettle as an agent during peace time, when none of his usual techniques could be used. He needed to go to Morrowind, and the Legion agreed, just after he'd finish that survey in Elsweyr. Hauk knew he'd be watched, he'd been with the Legion long enough to know how they operated. Was he qualified for peace time work? The Dunmer agent was going to watch and see. If this was The Animal, things were more serious than he had thought...

This post has been edited by Lena Wolf: Jan 25 2022, 01:49 PM

[macole]

This is great. So much fun to see an entry into other’s story. For me it makes the world seem more alive. I had hoped that others didn’t mind me mentioning their characters in my journal.

I can imagine coin being passed across the table as a bookie kept tally in the fantasy game called The Arena - A Battle of Heros.



This post has been edited by macole: Jan 25 2022, 06:54 PM