Lucy woke from a surprisingly good night’s sleep and crawled out of her leather tent to see Nigel cooking something over the fire. He was still wearing the same black overcoat, white T-shirt and jean as last night. Lucy too had not changed her clothes either. San-Kai and Bjorn were still asleep; she only had to hear Bjorn’s snoring to confirm that. The sky looked as blue as ever and the grass was green, it looked insane because to her the only grass she’d seen was an irradiated waste. The city of Whiterun still stood and the well-built stone wall could be seen more clearly in the morning. What impressed her the most was the unbelievable structure that Bjorn had said was Dragonsreach, where the mayor lived – ‘They call them Jarls’ she corrected herself mentally. The world looked better than ever in the dawn light on the hill they’d camped on overlooking the Whiterun plains and Ritual stone.
“What are you cooking?” Lucy asked as she saw the tender meat turning. “Looks like Radstag”
“I’m fairly certain it is, but before the radiation” Nigel paused to turn it some more. “My targeting system couldn’t identify it perfectly but it matched it to a Deer, like a pre-war Radstag”
Lucy edged closer to him and changed the topic without a hint of subtlety, “Why do you want to leave? This place is so much better than the Wasteland”
“I have unfinished business there” Nigel replied vaguely
“I heard you yesterday, what business?” Lucy guessed it was something to do with the Institute – all she knew was that they had made Nigel what he is and that he hated them.
“I’ll tell you another day” Nigel plainly answered
Lucy sighed, that was what he always said every single time she asked – they’d been travelling for six months now and he still couldn’t tell her? She said none of this of course, and just asked “Fine, can I have some Radstag?”
Nigel tossed her some on a stick, “I believe it’s called Venison”
Lucy shrugged, “Whatever”
At this moment Bjorn got up, followed shortly after by San-Kai. The two were also wearing the same clothes as yesterday, although Bjorn had removed his armour for now and was only wearing a belted tunic .The two sat down and ate some venison, they ate in silence for a while around the fire until San-Kai piped up, “So Nigel, what’s this about you being a robot man?”
Lucy glanced over to Nigel, his cybernetic enhancements were usually a topic to steer clear of, but despite her expectations he answered San-Kai’s question.
“I’m a cyborg – Cybernetic Organism” Nigel took a bite of venison and continued. “I have a large amount of alterations in my body – bionic eyes, pain inhibitor, cognitive enhancement, metal endoskeleton, life extension, et cetera”
San-Kai nodded blankly, pretending to understand, “Life extension? How old are you?”
Nigel chuckled, “I’m only 31, but I’ll live to about 200 unless I get shot”
“So you’ll be one old Imperial!” He saw Nigel’s confusion and quickly amended it, “Wait, human – same thing”
The group finished their venison and packed up; heading down a short hill and past what San-Kai pointed out was the ritual stone – some kind of magic rock that let people raise the dead. Lucy considered it crazy as well as creepy and so they continued further along the dusty path, crossing over the raging white river and closer to Whiterun. Only a few wolves troubled them but Bjorn’s battleaxe quickly removed any threat that came close enough.
San-Kai tapped Nigel on the shoulder, “You may get some odd looks with those arms”
Of course! Nigel had completely forgotten the damage he’d sustained fighting the Gunners a few days ago, he doubted he’d be able to repair it here. He pulled the sleeves of his overcoat down so they covered the exposed wires on his wrists and they carried on walking, Whiterun drawing ever closer.
The architecture could be seen more clearly now, Nigel was correct in his observation that they looked similar to Viking architecture – he used to read books on them all the time when he was a child, but of course they’d all been destroyed. Still, his history lesson proved useful and the scientist side of him wondered if there was a connection between the worlds, the Vikings bared similarity to the Nords and things like magic were known as myths on Earth.
Lucy, however, was looking around in wonder at the plains around her, deer, wolves and other animals could be seen around for miles. It pleased her to see such a large amount of life, people living in cities that didn’t fear for the own life every time they went to bed. They walked past the stable and drew closer to the gate, then Lucy spotted the Khajiit Caravan at the entrance.
“Oh my gosh!” Lucy gasped. “Big cats! Hello, pussy! Who’s a pretty little cat!”
The caravan owner, Ma’dran, was dressed in blue merchants robe with a face akin to a tiger's, regarded her coldly then looked off at Bjorn, who he had met before in his travels. “This one is high on Skooma, no?
“It speaks too!” Lucy jumped around as her childhood love of cats shone through
Bjorn grabbed her by the shoulders and effortlessly carried her away, he answered Ma’dran’s question “Something like that, yeah”
They got to the gate and the guard let San-Kai through first then let Lucy and Nigel through, giving them an odd glance – but then he stuck out his hand to block Bjorn from entering. “You know the rules, murderer, you can’t enter”
‘Ysmir damn them!’ Bjorn thought. ‘I was hoping they’d forgotten’
The three looked back at Bjorn standing unhappily at the gate, he nodded to them and mouthed 'Go'
Lucy was the first to question what had just happened, “What’s that about Bjorn being a murderer?
San-Kai looked as stunned as the rest of them, “I honestly have no idea, he’s never mentioned it – but the why would anyone mention the worst moment of their lives?”
Lucy’s eyes instinctively shot to Nigel, he certainly didn’t share his worst moment – there wasn’t person alive who knew it, except whoever had done it.
As they walked into the market they paused for a while to look around. Nigel glanced quickly at the stalls around him, fruits and vegetables, jewellery, meat. The never-changing cries of discounts and new stock always remained, be it an old woman selling jewellery in Whiterun or a crazy lady selling junk in Diamond City.
Nigel smiled at the memory of when he’d first met Myrna,
‘You! I don’t’ serve synths here, go’
‘I can assure you I’m not a synth, I am a cyborg’
‘That’s exactly what a synth would say – you even had metal arms, I can see the wires!’
‘Those metal arms are replacements for the ones I lost fighting a Deathclaw bare-handed – any more questions or can I buy some stimpaks?’
‘Well…fine – but I’m watching you cyborg! It’s 48 caps per stimpak’
Nigel paused to go over and inspect the jewellery, despite his tough and ruthless appearance he had always had a fondness for jewellery – his mother had always enjoyed it...
Various rings littered the stand, silver bands with jewels embedded, necklaces that glowed with the magic of enchantments, earrings with gorgeous diamond studs. In an instant a tear fell from his bionic eyes, shutting off the circuits momentarily when his vision returned someone was talking to him.
“Are you okay, dear?”
Nigel looked up in surprise to see who had been talking, ah, the old woman who ran this stall. He wiped the tears from his eyes and said: “Yes ma’am – may I ask who crafted these?”
“Ah, they’re the work of my husband Eorland up at the forge, see the Eagle?” Fralia gestured at the eagle above the forge.
Nigel looked up at stone sculpture, it was an exquisite work of art and the detail was incredible. Smoke could also be seen rising up from it – Nigel assumed it was the smith, Eorland – he might pay him a visit later.
Lucy grabbed him by the arm, “Stop admiring jewellery, we’re here for a reason”
Nigel straightened himself up and wiped his eyes again, they then continued up the stone stairs to a great tree.
Lucy saw the great tree and felt a sense of familiarity, the tree was dead as it could be and it felt unsurprisingly normal – dead trees were the norm in the wastes. A kind but tired looking priestess with light brown robes came up to her and interrupted her chain of thought; “It’s a shame isn’t it?”
“Sure is, why’s it dead?”
‘It was hit by lightning quite recently, I imagine it will stay like that for a while until I can find doubt how to cure it – but by then the Dragons could have come again!”
The priestess must have seen her look of confusion and explained, “New to Skyrim, eh? The return of the dragons heralds the end of the world, so I’m saying it’ll take me forever to find how to cure it”
Lucy managed a half-hearted chuckle as the priestess left and said, “Kynareth guide you, traveller”
San-Kai appeared behind her, “Come on, first Nigel now you! Let’s get to Dragonsreach and talk to Farengar – the mage I spoke of”
Lucy nodded and the cyborg, the ex-farmer with a shotgun and the reptilian lizard climbed up the multitude of steps to Dragonsreach.
When they reached the door to the palace a guard questioned their business,
San-Kai replied “We seek answers from Farengar Secret-Fire, I am a colleague of his – he will know me”
The guard let them in and Nigel removed the hood from the cloak that was covering his exposed arm. San-Kai carried on to Farengar’s study but Nigel and Lucy remained at the entrance, gazing upon the interior. The hall was enormous, decorated beautifully with an inviting looking fire in the centre. The skull of a Dragon hung from above what they assumed was the Jarls throne. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling – it truly was magnificent.
Eventually, the two tore themselves away from the Architecture and joined San-Kai in the study. A man with absurd sideburns came out of his quarters dressed in a blue robe and fur shoes – he certainly looked like a mage.
“Ah, San-Kai, how long has it been my friend?” Farengar greeted him
“Too long, Farengar” San-kai replied as he shook his hand
“What bring you to Dragonsreach?” Farengar enquired
“Well,” San-Kai began and lowered his voice. “I have two people from a different world, I was wondering if you could shed some light on how they arrived here.”
“Sit down; I’ll look further into this. “Nigel and Lucy were left surprised at his immediate acceptance of the situation; they’d assumed he would think it to be a joke.
Farengar arranged five chairs in his study and they all sat down and began talking.
“So,” Farengar began. ”Where are you from?”
Nigel answered, “Lucy and I are from The Commonwealth, on Earth”
“Earth…” Farengar began. “I can’t say I’ve heard of it but The Commonwealth definitely isn’t on Nirn”
Lucy piped up and described the place, “It’s a horrific place, we were hit with a nuke about 200 years ago and the entire place is irradiated – it’s a wasteland”
Farengar regarded her for a few seconds, “What’s a nuke?”
Nigel answered his question, “It’s like a big bomb.” This was met with blank looks, “Wow this place is different…it’s like a large explosion?”
Farengar acknowledged this and then went to get a book from his quarters, he came back with the book and sat down again, “This is a transcript from a Dwarven diary found in Ncuand-Zel – it mentions something about a device that travels between worlds, let me find it…” Farengar flipped through a few pages and settled on one. “Here we are, only some words are translated -'the architect…travel between worlds…golden orb…Heart of Lorkhan’. That’s all I have – it’s likely that this device may have been the one to send you two to Skyrim”
San-Kai smiled appreciatively and said, “Thank you Farengar, any advice on where to look next?”
Farengar thought for a moment and said, “I would ask the College, they may have some clue as to what this device is”
San-Kai thanked him, shook his hand and then they all left Dragonsreach. San-Kai suggested that they stay at The Bannered Mare for the night and set off for Winterhold in the morning, so they booked rooms at the Inn and then went off to do whatever they needed to do. San-Kai went to buy a few soul gems and Lucy looked around the city.
Meanwhile, Bjorn was still standing around outside the city, he had been chatting to the Khajiit and was thoroughly bored by the time Vilkas came outside the city to greet him.
“Bjorn! I heard you were here, great to see you again, my friend” Vilkas slapped him on the back harder than Bjorn expected
“Hello Vilkas, my friends are in the city for a bit – kind of you to come and see me”
“Listen, you know I think it’s stupid they made you leave The Companions and even stupider that you can’t enter the city, we should have made sure you were okay afterwards – it’s only because we had the victims on our backs that we had to let you go. It wasn’t your fault Bjorn, I hope you know that”
“I’ve had a few months to think about it, and I’m travelling with an Argonian mage right now to take my mind off it”
“A mage, eh?” Vilkas laughed. ”You’re not as Nordic as you were! What happened to ‘spellcasters are milk-drinkers’?”
“I’ve changed a lot Vilkas, I’m going to go buy some supplies from the caravan now, nice seeing you” Bjorn knew it was an obvious attempt to end the conversation but he couldn’t bear being seeing his old friend any longer – too many memories.
“Goodbye, shield-brother!” Vilkas called as Bjorn walked through the doors of Jorrvaskr making no reply, it pained him to be called a shield-brother - he didn't deserve it.
At that moment San-Kai walked through the gate, he spotted Bjorn and ran up to him.
“Bjorn, I have no interest in your past as you have no interest in mine – we’re staying the night, here're a few septims, the Khajiit should let you camp with them for the right price”
“Thank you San, see you tomorrow”
San-Kai waved goodbye and headed on back into the city for the night,
Meanwhile, Nigel was sat in his room at the Bannered Mare, it was a small room with a bed and a few tables and chairs. The inn itself was a lot calmer than the Dugout Inn, a fire burned in the centre while patrons stood drinking around the fire. A musician played the flute in the corner, it was the calmest he'd ever felt. He was settling down for his weekly sleep and he couldn’t help but think of everything that made him want to go back – the Institute, their coursers, Conrad, and the heartless man that was responsible for everything wrong in his life. He saw Lucy and San-Kai enter the door and gave them a small wave as they too went up to their rooms to sleep.
Bjorn had paid the Khajiit Caravans to let him sleep for a night in their tents. Now he sat around their fire with leather tents around it – similar to their camp on the hill above the Ritual stone. He was ready to go to and sleep in his tent as the Khajiit did the same.
“This one wishes you goodnight,” Ma’dran said as Bjorn crawled into the tent.
“Goodnight Ma’dran – thanks again” Bjorn replied
Then Bjorn, Nigel, Lucy and San-Kai slept,
And they dreamt…
Comments
I'm curious as to whether the Companions play a big part or not. With regards to the Companions...... I'm watching you...