//------------------------------//
// Wanderings: On the Road Again 
// Story: Skyrim: The Faces of Death 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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The first thing Amaryllis did after walking out of Whiterun, and nodding to one of the guards that happened to tell her to stay safe while she was traveling the lands of Skyrim, almost if he knew she wouldn't be back for some time and wanted to wish her well in the way of the nords, if she was right about that away since it was a little hard to figure them out, was take a few moments to hide behind the house near the stables and switch back into her new khajiit form. There was something about this form that appealed to her, which might be the fact that it was sort of similar to her new base form, or maybe it was some other reason that she hadn't discovered yet, which she might figure out in due time as she explored the various lands of Skyrim, but for now she wasn't going to think about it as she emerged from her hiding spot and returned to the road, where she was pleased to see that no one had noticed her do that. This time around, instead of heading to the right, like she did to find Amren's sword, she turned to the left and headed back to the crossroads that had allowed her to reach White River Watch, where Hajvarr Iron-Hand and his crew had been hiding until recently, though this time around she had a different route in mind, since it would be boring to travel down the same roads and see the same things, something she could do once she had a better idea of the layout of Skyrim's provinces, which would be around the time she might start flying around to save herself some time. Her plan was to walk down the road that was in front of her until she got to the crossroads near the Honningbrew Meadery, a place that she had heard several guards talk about while she was leaving the city, as if recommending it to her, though once she reached the crossroads her plan was to head to the left and cross over the stone bridge that was over there, instead of heading to the right, which would take her back to Riverwood, or crossing over the other small stone bridge that would bring her to the former bandit camp, though her main reason for this decision was that it looked like heading to the north and then turning to the east at some point appeared to be one of the quickest routes to get to Windhelm.

It didn't take her long to reach the crossroad in question, nor did it take her more than a few seconds to pick out the path she wanted to follow, though as she headed to the north, which would eventually connect with crossroad that allowed the residents of this land to continue to the north and head to Dawnstar, or to the east and head to Windhelm, she nodded to one of the guards that was walking by and was a little surprised that the guard returned the gesture, meaning that there had to be people in this land that were willing to give the khajiit a chance, instead of believing them all to be thieves like the rest of the nords.

After seeing that guard Amaryllis focused on the area around her, where she found two farms to her left that, based on all that she could see, definitely didn't belong to the same family, as they were separated from each other, due to a fence that rested between them, and based on the fields that were near them it sure looked like the owners of both locations were trying to grow the same types of food, be it wheat, potatoes, or whatever else they were trying to grow. Another thing that seemed to confirm her thoughts was the fact that one of the owners walked out of their house and talked with the owner of the other farm, about what she had no idea since they were a good distance away from where she was walking, not that she really cared about their conversation, but judging from the looks on their faces, and the faces of those that were near them, it looked like a disagreement of some kind was unfolding. Considering what little she knew about the Companions, and what they did for all of Skyrim, there was a chance that this argument would be settled not by both owners coming to an understanding by just talking to each other, rather it might be settled by one of the two owners calling upon someone from the Companions to beat the other into submission, as one of the nords that was in The Bannered Mare the previous night made a comment about such a thing happening in the past. At the same time she also knew that the Companions would ask for some sort of price for such a deed, a few coins or something like that to head down to this location and beat some sense into the owner that needed to be taught a lesson, though since this wasn't something that Amaryllis wanted to get involved in, as it looked like things were starting to heat up between the two owners, she decided to continue down the road she had been following and wondered what else she would discover... even though it didn't take her long to spot a small rat creatures resting nearby, a skeever based on what she recalled being told in Helgen.

Once she noticed the skeever Amaryllis drew her sword for a moment, just in the off chance that it rushed at her and tried to bring her down, given that some creatures wanted to kill travelers for whatever food was on them, and waited for a few seconds to see if it would rush over to her, though that was when the critter charged at her location with the intention of biting into her legs and inflicting a poison or disease upon her, where she dodged the incoming bite and swung her blade downwards for a few seconds, allowing her to take the rat's head off.

While she might have questioned whether or not it was right to kill someone, like the bandit groups that plagued this land and set up their camps everywhere, camps that rested near the various roads that connected the Holds, she didn't have a problem with killing little rats like this, as she had learned that they were disease carriers and didn't want to catch one, to which she quickly wiped her blade in the grass, sheathed it, and then moved on. From there she found that the road was heading downwards, because it was a hill and she was on the downwards portion of it, which was fine with her, but not a few seconds later she spotted an interesting landmark, one that happened to be further down the road she was currently walking down and was a decent sized stone tower of some kind, one that was far smaller than the one she had spotted on the left of the road that lead to Fort Greymoor, though that was when she noticed that there happened to be a fight going on right outside the watchtower, three Whiterun guards facing off against three bandits, which seemed rather odd due to the fact that the bandits at White River Watch weren't like this. She would have helped them take down the bandits, even though it was three against three and some might think it was disrespectful to barge into someone else's fight, but as the first two bandits fell, being cut down by the highly trained guards, the third one dodged the next attack and then dropped his sword, where he started to run away from the guards, so he could save himself from being killed or captured for all of the crimes his group had committed, and he was heading right for the road that Amaryllis was walking on. In that instant she decided that, since he was going to involve her in this fight in some manner, she might as well do something to aid the guards, so she withdrew her dagger from its sheath and hurled it through the air for a few seconds, where it slammed into the chest of the fleeing bandit when he got close to her, stopping him in his tracks and knocking him to the ground, but he was alive and well, as she had aimed for an area that would knock the wind out of him and make it easier for someone to capture him, though to make sure he didn't get back up she placed her right foot on the bandit's chest and held her sword out, stopping the bandit from getting any funny ideas.

"Good job catching him." one of the guards said, where Amaryllis waited for a few seconds and made sure that the guards were coming to collect the bandit, since there was a chance that they might just loose an arrow into him from afar, to put an end to this assault, though it looked like capturing him was what all three guards were thinking of and she aided them in their mission, hence why she heaved the wounded bandit onto his feet when she speaker approached her, while at the same time making sure to recover her blade as well, before she turned the bandit over to them, "This one will be taken to the Dragonsreach Dungeons, where he'll serve his sentence for the foreseeable future, though if he complies and tells us where the rest of his gang is we might be lenient and reduce his time, depending on the Jarl's mood when he feels like spilling the beans."

"Well, have fun with that." Amaryllis replied, where she made sure to clean her weapon, since some blood had gotten on it due to her actions, before she sheathed it and made sure that the guards didn't need any help with what was happening around their watchtower, but once she knew that they were just fine she turned back to the road and resumed following the path, leaving the guards to finish their job and ready the bandit for the journey back to Whiterun, where she was sure someone would likely heal him before extracting whatever information he had on the rest of his lawbreaking friends, if he had any to share in the first place.

She had to admit that she wasn't expecting bandits to attack that watchtower, after seeing the ones in the fort ignore the larger one down the road from where they were stationed, though the guards showed that they didn't need much help in protecting the area they had been stationed in, allowing her to turn her focus back to the road and the potential hazards that might be in her way, like wild animals, bandits, or other people that wanted to kill her for the sake of stealing her stuff and selling her gear in one of the cities. What was further down the route she was taking was a wagon that had a horse in front of it, meaning it was pulling the wagon and its owner to whatever location the driver happened to be heading to, but that was when she noticed that one of the wheels happened to be broken, as one happened to be resting off to the side of the wagon, on her left and the wagon's right, meaning that whoever the wagon belonged to had to be annoyed by the fact that they had been delayed by something like this. The owner, as she soon found out, was a man that was dressed up in a set of attire that looked like red jester's outfit with black in certain places, like the gloves, boots, and the collar around his neck, which meant that he was standing out among all the people of Skyrim, but, at the same time, she had to admit that there was something about this situation that made her want to stop and ask the man if he needed assistance, even if she had no experience in fixing wagons. The worst thing that could happen is that the man could tell her to buzz off and fix the problem on his own, meaning that she would lose out on a few seconds, but that didn't stop her from deciding that she might as well see if she could offer him some help, especially since it appeared that the guard that was patrolling the road seemed to be ignoring him, though the guard was wearing a uniform that wasn't the same yellow color that belonged to Whiterun's guards, which had to mean that she was close to an intersection between the borders of the Holds, which was good news for her when she recalled the route she was taking right now.

As Amaryllis approached the wagon, however, she found that the man was staring at the wheel that had broken off of the wagon itself, meaning that he likely didn't have the tools necessary to repair the damage, though what really caught her attention was the large crate that was being shipped to whatever destination the man was heading to, one that was large enough to be transporting a number of different things, even a coffin she suspected, before she focused on the man that was standing nearby.

"Agh! Bother and befuddle!" the man declared, where he finished looking at the damage and returned to his position near the edge of the crate, something that Amaryllis was sure had happened a few times before she even knew this man was in this area, though it didn't look like he even noticed her presence, indicating that he was so focused on the wagon that he didn't notice anything else in his immediate area, or rather he was so focused on the crate and whatever happened to be inside it, "Stuck here! Stuck! My mother, my poor mother. Unmoving. At rest, but too still!"

"What seems to be the problem?" Amaryllis asked, because while she knew that most people would declare the man to be insane and walk away, leaving him to deal with his problems on his own, she was going to see if she could assist him and get him on his way, due to the fact that his wagon was blocking part of the road and might annoy whoever came down the road in the near future, though she had seen a few insane ponies in the past, like Pinkie Pie, and they were all accepted by those that were around them, not that such a thing mattered right now as she focused on the man.

"Poor Cicero is stuck. Can't you see?" the man inquired in return, almost as if he was accusing someone of not seeing what the problem was with their own eyes, but, at the same time, he seemed to think of a better way to handle things, instead of being angry with her, and continued talking, with the same tone that he used a few seconds ago when he declared that the wagon was stuck, "I was transporting my dear, sweet mother... well, not her living body anyway. Its her corpse! She's quite dead. I'm taking mother to a new home, a new crypt, but... agh! Wagon wheel! Damnedest wagon wheel! It broke on me! Don't you see?"

Amaryllis was a little surprised by that, as she would have assumed that the man, Cicero as he called himself, would have taken the time to bury the corpse of his mother where they lived, wherever that village, town, or city rested in the various provinces of this strange and odd world she had ended up in, instead of bringing her to Skyrim to be buried somewhere here, but decided that, since she really didn't detect any hint of him lying to her, that she might as well help him get on his way so he could reach the new crypt, before bandits came to bother him.

"Is there anything I can do to help you get moving again, so you can continue moving your mother?" Amaryllis asked, as it looked like anyone else that might have passed him recently had ignored his plight, due to his nature as a jester and the tone of his voice, even though she wasn't terribly bothered by what she was seeing at the moment, thanks to the fact that she got used to some ponies that he reminded her of, but she was hoping that he would give her some information to go on so she could help him get on his way.

"Oh! Oh yes! Yes, the kindly stranger can certainly help!" Cicero declared, where he broke into a little dance for some odd reason, though it wasn't as odd as everything she had seen during her short time in Ponyville, back when she investigated the town in question, before he stopped his routine and pointed up the nearby hill, where Amaryllis found a house resting only a few minutes from where they were standing, "Go to the farm, the Loreius Farm, which rests just a minute or two from the road. Talk to Loreius, as he has tools that he can help me me with! But he won't! He refuses to lift a finger to help me! Convince Loreius to fix my wheel! Do that, and poor Cicero will reward you... with coin! Gleamy, shiny coin!"

Amaryllis almost told him that she didn't want a reward for helping him, that she was doing this to help him transport his mother to her new crypt, but then decided that the people of Skyrim must really like giving out rewards when they were helped, regardless of what that help was, so she nodded her head and headed up the hill, knowing that Cicero was going to keep talking to the container that his mother's casket was in until she returned with news, as odd as that sounded the moment she thought about it... though what she found to be interesting was that Loreius, as she soon discovered, was an imperial and that the lady who was sitting in a chair nearby, who she assumed was his wife, was an altmer, but she didn't really pay that much attention to that fact, rather she turned towards the field, where the person she needed to talk to was working, so she could get this over with.

"Oh, for the love of Mara. What now?" Loreius demanded, showing that he wasn't in the mood to entertain visitors and that Amaryllis had a few moments to explain why she was here, before he likely attempted to force her off his property with the tools that he was using at the moment, while at the same time his wife glanced up from whatever she had been doing since they had left their house this morning and seemed a little annoyed that Loreius was getting angry at those who approached their residence.

"Sorry to interrupt your work, but I've come to ask if you would be willing to set aside a few moments of your time to help a man out." Amaryllis stated, to which she gestured towards the path she had walked up and made sure that Cicero was the one she was pointing at, including the wagon that really needed some help, something that caused Loreius to glance down at the road once more and seemed like he was utterly annoyed by everything, "He really needs some help fixing his wagon, so he can deliver his mother's casket to her new crypt."

"You mean that Cicero feller?" Loreius inquired, just to be sure that they were talking about the same person, which told Amaryllis that he didn't even pay attention to her when she was showing him the person that she was talking about, and that also gave her the impression that getting him to help Cicero might be harder than she originally thought, given just how annoyed he seemed to be, "Tell me something I don't know. Crazy fool's already asked me to go down there and help him about five times now... seems he's not satisfied with my answer. Why can't he just leave us alone?"

"Other than the fact that you're the only people around here he can get help from?" Amaryllis commented, because from what she had seen so far the only reason that Cicero was bothering Loreius and his wife was because they were the only people around here that could help him, which also meant that his mother had been very important to him while she was alive and that he didn't want to leave her casket alone, for fear of it being robbed or stolen if he went to Whiterun or the farms up the road to get some help, "Besides, I really don't see what the problem is, as I'm sure that he'll pay you for a few minutes of your time, which sounds like a bargain to me."

"PAY ME? You think this is about money?" Loreius snapped, showing Amaryllis that what she had said might not have been the best thing in the world, but, at the same time, she was having a hard time understanding why he didn't want to spend a few minutes to help someone in need, so he could return to his work without having constant interruptions all the time, because if she didn't get him to help Cicero she was sure that the jester would find someone else to help him out, before resorting to drastic measures, "Have you seen the man, or stared at the clothing he's wearing? He's completely out of his head. A jester, here, in Skyrim? There hasn't been a merryman in these parts for a hundred years, and he's transporting a giant box, which he claims has a coffin inside it, and he's going to bury his mother in a new crypt... mother my left eye, he could have anything in there, such as war contraband, armor and weapons, skooma... there's no way I'm getting involved in any of that."

"Look, he's a stranger is an unfamiliar land, and he doesn't feel comfortable leaving his mother's casket alone for more than a few moments," Amaryllis said, though she had no idea why she was trying so hard to get Loreius to see that he was being foolish and that he could accord to help Cicero for a few minutes, especially since the imperial wanted to focus on his work and helping Cicero move would allow him to do just that, but, since she had started this line of conversation, she figured she might as well reach the end of it, "Surely your gods would want you to do the right thing and help Cicero out with his problem."

"What? And just who in Mara's name are you, anyway?" Loreius asked, his tone showing that he might get hostile in the next few minutes, regardless if it was because of something Amaryllis said or if it was due to Cicero coming to ask if she had made progress asking Loreius for help, but she was committed to doing the right thing and wasn't about to back down now, "You come here, out of nowhere I might add, asking about the fool and telling me what to do with my tools and time. And for what? To help a... a... a fool!"

"You know it's the right thing to do, don't you?" Amaryllis inquired, though this time around she did something that wasn't normal for a changeling, she didn't use any of the tricks she had learned over the years and waited to see if simply talking to Loreius would convince him to do the right thing, without her interference anyway, though if it failed she was going to have to excuse herself and return to Cicero, to give him the bad news, before resuming her own journey and leaving this place behind.

"Look, I... I..." Loreius started to say, but in that moment he looked over to his wife, who must have been listening to the entire conversation, and the anger seemed to melt away almost instantly, where he sighed and focused on Amaryllis once more, only this time looking a little kinder than before, meaning he must have gotten tired of being angry and annoyed at everything that was happening around him, "You're right... you're absolutely right. Feller might be nutters, or he might be completely sane. But fact is that he needs help. If I turn him away, after all the times he's asked for help, what kind of man does that make me? Look, um... thanks for helping me see past his strange appearance and my fears of what he might be carrying inside the crate he's transporting. And... and I'm sorry for my unneighborly reaction when you showed up earlier. If you talk to Cicero again, you be sure to tell him that I'll be down to help him in the next few minutes."

Amaryllis was surprised that she got Loreius to change his mind and help Cicero, even if it was due to his wife giving her some help in that regard, to which she wished him and his wife a good day and headed back down the hill, where she did pause for a moment to see the man walking to where the tools were being kept, showing that he was staying true to what he had told her, before she smiled and resumed walking so she could share the good news with Cicero, who was pacing around the crate his mother's coffin rested inside.

"Poor mother... Her new home seems so very far..." Cicero commented, once more focusing on the fact that he was being forced to stop in this area, by a broken wheel of all things, and that he couldn't get to the location that the new crypt was located in, before seeing Amaryllis coming his way, to which he turned towards her the moment she came to a stop near him, where she could tell that he was debating whether to be happy that she was back or be saddened by the fact that she might not have good news for him, "Have... you spoken to Loreius yet?"

"I have, and he's agreed to fix your wagon." Amaryllis replied, as she knew that the news would do wonders for Cicero, especially since she had no idea how long he and the wagon had been sitting in this area, other than the fact that Loreius mentioned that Cicero had asked for help five times so far today, and it was only nine in the morning, making her assume he had been here all morning and hadn't given up on trying to convince the man to come help him with his problem, so he could leave and locate his mother's new crypt.

"You... you did!? He has!?" Cicero said, where she could see that the news stunned him for a few seconds, almost as if he had been worried that she would have been told no as well, before a wide smile appeared on his face as he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed for a moment, giving her a hug to show his appreciation, before he pulled himself away from her and started to dance once more, "Oh stranger! You have made Cicero so happy! So jubilant and ecstatic! But more! Even more! My mother thanks you! Here, here. For your troubles! Shiny, clinky gold! A few coins for a kind deed! And thank you! Thank you again."

Cicero didn't stop dancing as he picked up one of the sacks that rested near the rectangular container and presented it to Amaryllis, who took it and watched as the jester continued to dance to whatever tune he was following, something that he must have picked up in one of the taverns and inns that rested in the cities he passed through, but before she even looked at the amount of coins she had been she determined that trying to give any of it back would likely be taken as an insult, so she wished Cicero well and continued down the road. After a few moments she came to a stop near one of the small stone walls, putting some distance between her and Cicero for the time being, and opened the pouch, where her jaw dropped as she stared at the amount of coins that were in the sack that she had been given, as by her best estimates there were a fair number of coins inside it, way more than any amount she had gotten at any point during her previous travels, where her count came out to seven hundred to seven hundred and fifty coins, if her count was right anyway. For a moment she had to wonder what Cicero did for a living, if he was able to part with so much coin in a single instant and without a second to even think about what he was doing, but, at the same time, she decided that it wasn't her business to bother everyone she encountered in this land and tried to figure out what they're professions were, to which she put the pouch in her pack and continued walking down the road, even though she knew that she was going to have to store the coins at some point, as it might cause thieves to come after her if they knew how many coins were on her. As she departed from the area, however, she did turn around for a few moments to look back and found that she was in time to see Loreius walk down the path to where Cicero's wagon was resting, meaning that he was going to fulfill what he told her and help the jester get on his way, so he could get back to his own work without constantly being interrupted, to which she nodded her head and continued following the path that would eventually bring her to Windhelm.

As she walked down the road that was in front of her, and made sure to follow the few signposts that were along the way, Amaryllis did pause every now and then to take in the sights that were along the path, as in glancing at the trees that were around her, the various bushes that were resting near them, which were partly covered in snow, the odd number of short stone walls that had been constructed to help someone see the direction they were supposed to be moving in, which did form a road of sorts, and a couple of stone ruins that looked sort of like what she saw attached to Bleak Falls Barrow. Of course she didn't have a good view of that crypt, since she was looking at it from far away, but it appeared that the nords who called this land home, or at least the ancient nords, liked to build these large crypts to honor their dead, something she was going to have to learn about later, just to ensure no one thought that she had no idea what she was talking about, even though playing the visitor to a new land might work as well, which she could test out later. The other thing she had to watch out for were the wolves that liked to pounce on travelers that weren't paying attention, because one of them tried to ambush her with two more of it's friends when she stopped to look at a giant's camp that was off to her left, one that happened to rest under a large rock that served as a roof of sorts, and she had to cut them down with her sword before she could move forward again. That taught her that a number of the creatures that lived in this land wanted to kill her, for whatever their reasons were, which meant that she needed to be more careful as she traveled the lands and made sure she knew where all the major towns and cities were located, even though her current mission was what she was focusing on for the time being, as she knew there would be more time for her to go sightseeing once she figured out what that kid might be doing, trying to contact the Dark Brotherhood, and if she could convince him to stop and get on with his life, or see if his target was a bandit or someone who deserved what was coming to them.

After the wolves taught her that lesson she thought she was done with being interrupted by things that were around her, unless she wanted to stop and see what was around her, as about ten minutes later, when she was close to the fork in the road that had been her next destination, she was stopped by a dark elf that was wearing leather armor over most of her body, carried two daggers in his hands, steel ones to be exact, and had a hood over his head that made it look like he was trying to hide who he was.

"All right, hand over all of your valuables, or I'll gut you like a fish." the dark elf demanded, showing that he was a thief and that he wanted everything that Amaryllis had on her at the moment, which meant that he must have seen her count every coin that had been inside the sack that Cicero had given her for helping him with his problem and that he had marked her as someone to rob of everything she had, regardless of the value of her items, even if he had seen her from a distance and had rushed over to ambush her.

"I'd like to see you try." Amaryllis replied, because while she didn't have much on her, save for the coins that she had been gathering ever since she arrived in the southern part of Skyrim, she wasn't about to hand over everything that was on her to some random thief, especially when he was threatening to kill her if she didn't comply with his demands, which was why she pulled her sword out of it's sheath again, though this time, since her foe was planning on using two weapons against her, she made sure to level the playing field by drawing her dagger as well, so she could parry his attacks until she found an opening to deal with him.

The thief growled and charged at her, where he swung his arms and started attacking her, to which Amaryllis raised her weapons and parried the attacks that were coming at her, finding that this guy must have been a novice thief that wasn't very good at the skills that made a great thief, and at the same time she found that his attacks, despite having a good deal of speed, were easy to overpower. That meant that it would be rather easy for her to break his guard and cut him down in a matter of seconds, where she broke his defenses and pushed him backwards, but this did teach her that she had to be very careful with the gold she was carrying on her person, otherwise she would only bring more of his kind to her and then she would never be able to reach Windhelm, or any of the other cities that she could be visiting in this land, which would only get annoying after a time if such a thing were to happen. The thief, interestingly enough, didn't step down when she continued to parry his attacks, as if he was too focused on what he was doing, so she decided to end the fight and parried his attacks in such a way that allowed her to force his arms open, to move his weapons away from his body, before driving her blade into his chest, this time aiming for the heart, something that surprised him when it happened and was followed by him dropping both of his weapons so he could grip the sides of her sword. A few seconds later the thief went limp and she pulled her blade from his chest, where she cleaned it on his armor and then looked at what he had on him, where it appeared that he had a lockpick on him, five gold coins, and one of those weird gemstones that she had seen in Farengar's quarters, something that she would have to learn more about at some point in the future, when she found another mage to converse with, but after a few more moments she found nothing else that she could collect and possibly sell once she reached her destination, as she wasn't going to take the armor with her.

Once that was done, and she didn't see any other thieves in the area, she continued along the road that was in front of her as she sheathed her weapons once more, knowing that, at some point during her travels, she was going to need them to defend herself from the dangers that seemed to plague Skyrim, as in the random encounters that weren't in the caves or ancient fortifications that had been built all those years ago. It took her a few more minutes to reach the fork in the road that was her next destination, where heading to her left would take her to three different cities, Dawnstar, Morthal, and Solitude apparently, while the road on her right would take her to Winterhold, Windhelm, and Riften, or at least that was what the sign said as she glanced at the various pointed signs that showed her which direction each city was in, to which she withdrew her map for a second. Based on her map she knew that the signs were right in some way, despite the fact that Riften was to the southeast from where she was currently standing and Winterhold was to the northeast, but at the moment she wasn't going to question the signpost and continued moving along her chosen route, as it was getting closer to being the middle of the day and she'd rather be inside one of the cities. She figured that, based on what she heard from some of the patrons in The Bannered Mare and the Imperial soldiers, that she could spend half a way just walking from one city to another, and right now, when she looked at the sky for a moment, she could tell that it was getting closer and closer to being noon, meaning that the information had to be correct in some manner. She guessed that, between having to fight the pack of wolves, take down the thief, and stopping to help Cicero, it made sense she would lose an hour or two, which was combined with the time she spent walking on the road, but, at the same time, she was hoping to, at the very least, reach Windhelm before night fell, to find out where that Aventus boy was hiding so she could see what sort of help he needed, though if she found a town with an inn before such a thing happened she figured a night's stop would be a lot better than continuing through the darkness.

As she thought about that, however, she paused and glanced to her left for a moment, where she found one of the nordic ruins that dotted the land and found some bandits, two of them to be exact, guarding the entrance of the ruin that was embedded in the mountainside, though instead of wasting time and engaging them, like she did with most of the bandits she had seen in the past, she paid them no mind and continued walking, as she didn't want to draw them to her, like she did with the thief. One of the other things she noticed, and hadn't really paid much attention to thanks to all of the things that had been interrupting her train of thought, was the fact that she transitioned from a warm environment and entered a more snow filled area, which made sense because Skyrim was the province to the north, so seeing snow every now and then was a nice change of pace. Another thing she noticed while she walked was that there was a massive mountain, or at least two peaks that were pretty close to each other, off to her left and they stretched high into the sky, meaning that to see what was on the other side she would either have to find a route through the mountain or go all the way around it, a venture that would take time, energy, and a lot of provisions, which she might do later if she really cared about it, hence why she focused on the road once more. Some time later, likely ten or twenty minutes later by her estimates, she found what appeared to be a small building that resembled the Sleeping Giant Inn from Riverwood, meaning that someone had built a rest stop of sorts that happened to rest between Whiterun and Wildhelm, or Windhelm and Dawnstar, something that depended on which direction the traveler was coming from, though it also meant that whoever owned it might have a good number of customers come visit them, for room, food, or a place to rest. Despite her desire to get to Windhelm, and find that boy she heard about, she walked over to the inn and found that there was a small lake near it, with half a bridge on it so people could fish on it if they wanted, before heading inside the building so she could do something she should have done while she was in Whiterun.

From what she could tell she must have arrived in the inn at the time where there weren't many customers, given that it wasn't quite noon yet and there weren't many travelers on the road right now, so that allowed her to take a seat for some time and pull out the spell tome she had purchased, the one that would allow her to summon her own personal chest, and opened the tome. As she read the pages, and studied the words, she discovered something interesting, and that was the fact that the book was imparting the knowledge of the spell to her, like she was actually learning the spell without having to practice, which made her wonder if all of the spell tomes in Skyrim were like this and mentally cursed herself for selling the spell tome she had found in the mine earlier, as it would have been worth taking a few seconds to test her theory, but she would have practiced with any new spells anyway, just to be sure that she understood the instructions and knew what each spell could do. After a period of time, like five minutes, Amaryllis closed the book and stared at her right hand for a moment, wondering if she could actually cast the summon chest spell now, before she focused her mind for a second or two as a small purple sphere appeared in her hand, which happened after she formed an image of what she was trying to do in her mind, mostly so she could replicate what was inside the nearby spell tome, making her wonder if it was working or if she was going to blow something up, before she glanced down at the floor and aimed at an area that was near where she happened to be sitting, where she cast the spell and waited to see what happened as the magic vanished. Not even a few seconds later a rectangular chest, about the width of her sword, appeared in front of her with an interesting light blue color that made it look it like was something that had been created, rather than something that existed, but it wasn't like the other chests she had seen in this land, not that such a thing bothered her all that much since she was sure that there were more types of chests that she hadn't seen yet.

According to the tome she could put anything inside the chest, dismiss the chest, and then, when she summoned it again, be it here or somewhere else, that item would still be inside the chest, to which she opened the chest and watched as part of the top opened, where she unhooked her sword from her belt and placed it inside the container, which appeared to contain an infinite storage away of some kind, before closing it and banishing it with a wave of her hand... though a few seconds later, when she summoned it beside the innkeeper's bar, she found that the sword was still inside it, bringing a smile to her face.

"I'm so glad I bought this spell now," Amaryllis commented, where she retrieved her weapon and then, to make sure none of the thieves tried to bother her again, she pulled out her coin pouch and stored the vast majority of her gold inside the chest, the only difference was that it gave her the chance to indicate how much of her gold she could place inside it, just like the tome said, so she left herself with a hundred gold and then dismissed the chest after closing it, as this was a load off her mind and allowed her to focus on other things.

Once the deed was done she headed outside, where she noticed that the innkeeper must have been busy elsewhere in the inn since she had no idea who owned this building, the Nightgate Inn according to the sign that was in front of the inn, but this gave her the chance to rest her legs a little, not that she needed to rest, and gave her the chance to learn a brand new spell, which she would definitely use multiple times in the future, though instead of staying inside the inn she walked over to the door so she could leave. The moment she was back outside she returned to the road and continued in the direction of Windhelm, though she quickly found something that would have stopped her, as there were a group of at least five or six wolves at the bottom of the hill that she would be walking down, only the wolves were taken care of by some chainmail wearing soldiers, the Stormcloaks if she was recalling things correctly since she recognized the blue coloration of the set of armor they were wearing, but, at the same time, these guys also served as the guards for the city she was heading to, so they were basically the guards and the soldiers of an army at the same time. One thing she noticed was that some of the guards didn't seem happy to see her walking on the road, which told her that some people might not like seeing a khajiit walking on the road and might have problems with allowing one to enter their cities, even though Whiterun seemed to be different, but as she walked passed them she decided that she could always change into another disguise when she finally reached her destination, like a nord disguise or something. There was also a cave off on her left, just a few more steps down the road from where the wolves had been, and she didn't see any creatures hanging outside the entrance, meaning that the wolves were likely the ones that had been calling the cave home and had come out to attack the Stormcloaks, which had been a terrible idea for them, but instead of drawing attention to herself she focused on what she was doing and less on what was going on around her.

As she continued to walk along the snow covered road, which apparently was either made visible by wagons or by the various travelers that wandered the lands, Amaryllis noticed that the road she was following turned back to dirt after five minutes, allowing her to see the direction she was heading in much more clearly, even though it was obvious that many used this road and that was why it was so clear, despite all the nearby snow. There was also a fork in the road that would let her reach one of the other Hold cities, Winterhold to be exact, even though she decided to put off heading up there to visit the College that was the centerpiece of the city, as she wanted to think about the answer that Farengar had given her for a few more days, before seeing if the mages at the College could tell her anything different about traveling to different worlds. She really didn't like the idea that she might be stuck in this land, forced to adapt to an entirely new lifestyle and give up on her quest to find her Queen, but right now it was looking like that was the reality of her situation, as much as she wished it wasn't, and hoped that, when she went to go visit the College, she could learn something that would tell her otherwise, but she didn't want to hear the same answer twice in a row, hence the wait between talking with Balgruuf's own Court Wizard and the mages in the College. Her thoughts were interrupted again when she spotted what appeared to be a circular burial mound of some kind, almost as if a large creature had been buried here at some point in the past, making her wonder if this was an area that a mammoth had been buried in, because if a dragon had been buried here than she was sure that bad things were going to happen to the people of Windhelm, especially when she considered what she had heard about Helgen. In the end she pushed that thought out of her mind and continued down the road again, where she spotted what appeared to be a lumber mill near the bottom of the river that had been to her right for some time, which also had a few areas that served as small waterfalls, and, as she headed towards the mill, she found someone camping between the two waterfalls, though she paid the imperial no mind as she continued down the road.

It only took her a few more minutes to reach the center of the area that the mill called home, with two houses resting near where the mill sat, no doubt where the workers and the owner of the area lived, but at the moment it appeared that the people who lived in this area were busy with their work, so she only stopped for a few seconds before continuing towards the bridge she had seen earlier, even though she did have to wonder if the imperial had been a worker of the mill or if he was just a traveler like she was right now. When she continued down the road, however, Amaryllis spotted a stone city that rested in the distance, with a grand stone bridge standing high above the water that connected the city, which was built on one side of the river, to the road that she was on, which happened to be on the other side of the river, though she had to admit that it was an impressive city from where she was standing. Fortunately it appeared that the road she was following was pretty straight forward and any wild animals had been taken care of, as she spotted two dead wolves resting near the next stone bridge, meaning either the guards were out clearing the roads or another traveler was taking care of them so someone else didn't get hurt. As such it didn't take her all that long to reach the stone bridge, which allowed her to walk up to the larger bridge that bring her to the gate that served as the entrance to Windhelm, though as she walked up to where the gate rested she focused on the guards that were outside it, because if they shooed her away that would mean khajiits weren't welcome inside the city, but, oddly enough, the pair just stared at her for a few seconds as she approached them, while doing nothing to stop her as she headed inside the city, meaning that not all of the guards hated khajiits. When she was on the other side of the gate, however, she quickly found two nords, males by their bodies and appearing to be a little drunk, standing nearby with a female dark elf, who looked annoyed over something, though it quickly became clear as to why she was upset, as the nords were upset that the dark elves in Windhelm weren't helping the Stormcloaks fight off the Imperials and free Skyrim from the Empire.

What really upset the dark elf was that the nords even accused her of being an Imperial spy, which infuriated her more as the words left the accuser's mouth, who even laughed at the idea before threatening her with a nightly visit, to teach her a lesson, or something like that, while the other seemed unsure of what they were doing, something he might pass off due to being drunk right now, before the nords walked away, either so they could find a drink or so they could bully someone else. Since it appeared that the dark elf didn't want to be bothered at the moment, not that Amaryllis could blame her, she let the lady wander off, where she may or may not talk with her before she left the city and resumed her exploration of the Holds of Skyrim, before she focused on the fact that she was here for a specific reason and set out to find the boy that she had heard about during her time in the Sleeping Giant Inn, even though she had no idea where she might find Aventus or his household. Fortunately it wasn't as hard as she thought it was to find the house that she was looking for, as she walked to the right of the main gate and found a nord child and another female dark elf standing near a building, down the street that was to her left, where she walked down the street and happened to be in time to hear the kid mention that the house he was standing near happened to be where Aventus Aretino lived, where he was in the middle of performing the Black Sacrament, or had done it and was trying again. Fortunately the dark elf convinced him to leave the house along and they walked away from it, which was perfect timing in Amaryliis' eyes, so she sneaked up to the front door, made sure no one was watching this area of the city, and then used one of her lockpicks to unlock the door, which was rather easy since she was able to unlock it within a matter of seconds, all without alerting someone as to what was going on. With that done she slipped into the building and found that she had to walk up some stairs to reach the area that Aventus was in, or at least she assumed he was up there, because she could hear a voice that sounded like a kid's, to which she carefully walked up the stairs and found a messy room, complete with a side chamber of sorts were a young boy was in the middle of stabbing a skeleton with a dagger, which rested in a circle that was made from candles.

"Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear." Aventus chanted, though his tone suggested that he was growing tired of this and that he was hoping for someone from the Dark Brotherhood to come and speak with him, so he could finally stop what he was doing and get back to a normal life, something that might have been stolen from him at some point in the past, and it looked like he had no idea that he had a guest inside his house.

"Are you all right?" Amaryllis asked, because now she was wondering what she was doing here, as it appeared that this young boy was doing this strange and profane looking ritual, calling out to a "Mother" of some kind to send one of her children to him, to do whatever it was that he wanted them to do, even though it did sound like he was planning on the death of someone that had wronged him in the past, which she guessed made sense when she considered the fact that the Dark Brotherhood was a group of assassins.

"Finally! My prayers have been answered!" Aventus declared, to which he instantly stopped what he was doing and got up so he could face Amaryllis, though his tone told her that he was clearly expecting her to be what he had been waiting for and that she was stuck doing his task, whatever that task happened to be, "It worked! I knew you'd come, I just knew it! I did the Black Sacrament, over and over. With the body and the... the things. And then you came! An assassin from the Dark Brotherhood."

"Yes... of course... the Black Sacrament..." Amaryllis replied, as she wasn't sure what she should make of the situation she had found herself in, because while she was an infiltrator for the Hive, which involved gathering information for the rest of the Hive and her Queen, she wasn't an assassin, in fact there was no one inside the Hive that had such a position since all of them preferred to bind their targets and take their places, even though Aventus seemed to think she was one and was currently acting on that piece of incorrect information.

"It took so long... so very long. But now that you're here, you can accept my contract." Aventus stated, showing that he might have disliked what he had been doing to the body, as Amaryllis wasn't even going to ask how he assembled all the parts to make this ritual work, especially since she was sure that it had to be hard for a boy like him to get his hands on a few of the pieces that were in front of her, including the heart that was inside i, but that he was also happy that she had come to talk with him.

"Contract?" Amaryllis inquired, though this time she didn't even bother to try and say anything in an attempt to make him see that she wasn't an assassin or a member of the group of assassins, rather she was going to listen to him and see who he wanted her to kill, because if it was a bandit leader, or one of their underlings, she would be okay with that, given that they wronged all sorts of people and the situation might be that his parents had been killed by such a bandit, meaning she could ease his pain in some manner.

"My mother, she... she died. I... I'm all alone now." Aventus explained, though at the same time Amaryllis felt a terrible rage build up inside the body, meaning that whoever he wanted dead must have done some incredibly terrible things to him, and anyone else that he might have been friends with, before he glanced at part of the room that was behind her, which meant something bad there might tell her more if she wanted to know everything, "So they, the Jarl and Steward of this city, sent me to that terrible orphanage in Riften, a place called Honorhall. The headmistress there is an evil, cruel woman. They call her Grelod the Kind, but she's not kind at all! She's terrible... not just to me, but to everyone there. So I ran away, and came home... and performed the Black Sacrament. Now you're here! And you can kill Grelod the Kind!"

Amaryllis was a little shocked that Aventus wanted the lady that was in charge of the orphanage he was sent to dead, due to how Grelod treated the orphans that were sent to her, but, since it appeared that Aventus was fully expecting her, as an 'assassin of the Dark Brotherhood', to fulfill the contract he had just told her about, to which she sighed and decided that this was something she would think about later, to which she headed outside and left the boy to whatever he did while he waited for something to happen. She had no idea that she would be getting into this sort of situation when she decided to come here and see what Aventus' problem was, and part of her was wishing that she had gone somewhere else, though for now all she could do was travel to Riften and see how terrible Grelod was with her own eyes, and whether or not she truly had to die for the crimes that Aventus was accusing her of committing on him and all of the other orphans in that orphanage, before continuing her journey to see more of Skyrim's Holds.