//------------------------------// // 6: A Night in Whiterun // Story: Sombra visits Skyrim // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// "I can't believe it," one of the guardsmen excitedly said, as the entire group crowded around Raika, "your Dragonborn!" "Look, I don't know what your talking about," Raika finally said, pulling herself off the ground and dusting her armor off, "all I know is that we slew a dragon and all the magic it had just burst out in every direction." "Aye, that would have been it's soul." the guardsmen continued, nodding his head as if he understood her confusion, "Only the Dragonborn can slay a dragon and absorb its soul, which is what I wager you did just now. The only way you can tell if you absorbed some of its power is to Shout, just like the dragon had done." "Oh for the love of..." Raika growled, turning to the guard with a flash of annoyance in her eyes, "FUS!" Raika had no idea what she was doing or even why she was going along with what the guard had suggested she do, but when she had expected nothing to happen a gust of wind escaped from her lips and knocked the guard off his feet. The remaining guards oohed and aah-ed as they gathered together to speak about what the use of the 'Thu'um' and the return of the Dragonborn could mean for all of Skyrim. The guards even went so far as to invite Irileth to their conversation, to which she remained on the outside of their gathering and bluntly told them that she didn't need the help of a mythical Dragonborn to save Whiterun. During their conversation Raika bent over to help Tia carry a magically weakened Sombra and the three of them made their way back to Whiterun, leaving the guards and Irileth behind. None of them spoke even a word as they grew closer to the gates, not when some strange voice carried over the air and only mentioned the name 'Dragonborn' for all to hear. The guard ushered them into the city, through the marketplace, and up to the door of Dragonsreach before either Raika and Tia could even object. It was clear that the Jarl was to be told about the dragon, before they could treat Sombra for any more wounds he might have sustained from his fight with the dragon. "Good, you've returned." Proventus remarked as they entered the main chamber, "The Jarl will want to hear what happened at the watchtower and I know that Farengar will want to overhear every detail you can give him." Raika sighed at the mention of the court wizard, knowing that he had an obsession with anything and everything that had any relation to the dragons and what had happened to them. Now that so many people have seen a living dragon Raika had no doubt that Farengar would be spending the next few days asking around and taking down notes so he could complete his 'dragon research' as he called it. Once they were done with the Jarl Balgruuf Raika planned on being as far away as she could get from Whiterun, just so she could avoid Farengar and whatever questions he might have. She only hoped that Tia and Sombra had the same plan as her so they could avoid the wizard before he could corner them. "So what happened at the watchtower?" the Jarl asked, just as Raika approached the throne while Tia stood back and held Sombra up, "Was the dragon there?" "When we arrived the watchtower was destroyed," Raika promptly responded, her eyes moving about as she noticed Farengar appear by the stairs, "but Irileth, the guardsmen, my companions, and I killed the dragon. When we killed the dragon I somehow absorbed a fraction of its power and released some type of magic, causing all the guards to call me 'Dragonborn'." "So it's true." Balgruuf almost whispered in awe, "The Greybeards really were summoning you." "Didn't you hear the thundering sound as you returned to Whiterun?" one of the warriors standing near the throne asked, "That was the voice of the Greybeards, summoning you to High Hrothgar! This hasn't happened in...centuries, at least. Not since Tiber Septim himself was summoned." Raika, having grown up with the Stormcloaks, knew the stories that revolved around Tiber Septim before he became the Ninth Divine Talos better than most of the nords that lived in Skyrim. He had been one of the fabled Dragonborn's, able to fight dragons and tear their souls out if you believed some of the more insane stories, but he founded the Empire and started a dynasty of Septim Emperors. That line ended a little over two hundred years ago, when the last Septim Emperor gave his life to stop the Oblivion Crisis and saved all of Tamriel from complete destruction. So, with all this information already under her belt, Raika chose to ignore the entire conversation between Proventus and Hrongar, until the Jarl told the two of them to shut up so he could speak. "You have done a great service for me and my city, Raika." the Jarl said, bringing surprise to her face, "By my right as Jarl, I name you Thane of Whiterun. It is the greatest honor that's within my power to grant. I assign you Lydia as your personal Housecarl and this weapon from my armory to serve as your badge of office. I will also notify my guards of your new title, so you wont find getting past the gates to be much of a problem anymore." Raika had been expecting another steel battleaxe, exactly like the one she had used to kill the dragon that they had fought, but she was surprised by what he handed to her. The length of the weapon was the same as the weapon she currently carried, but the wicked curve of the blade and dark green coating revealed that it was truly an orcish battleaxe. The orcs prized all of their weapons and armor, so the fact that the jarl had even a single piece, one that he was giving to her, was something that she wasn't even expecting. "But where are my manners?" the Jarl asked, smiling as he signaled to one of the guards, "I can see that you and your friends have sustained some damage from the battle, so I insist that you stay the afternoon and night in Dragonsreach. You deserve some rest after everything you went through today and it looks like your friend might need it more than you do." Raika had completely forgotten that Sombra had been hit hard by the dragon's tail, but she had expected Tia's healing spells to patch him up long enough for them to truly treat his wounds when they were safe. She and Tia followed one of the guards up the stairs and around a corner, coming to one of the spare beds that the Jarl kept around in case anyone got hurt in Dragonsreach. Once Sombra was on the bed Raika pulled off the steel plate armor, for the second time in her life, and stared at the nord's bare chest, finding that he had broken several of his ribs during the fight. There were several bruises scattered about, no doubt from him hitting the stone wall of the watchtower. Just as Raika moved to pull over one of the healing bottles from her pack Tia placed a hand on her shoulder. "Allow me to heal him," Tia said, her left hand lighting up with a yellow haze around it, "Your potions might be able to relieve some of the pain that he's feeling at the moment, but I know several advanced healing spells that might be able to heal his bruises and maybe even mend the bones." "Fine, if your determined to waste your mana on him then be my guest," Raika sighed, dusting off her knees as she stood back up, "If you'll excuse me, I need to have a chat with this Lydia, find out what the quickest route to High Hrothgar is, and then maybe get a good nights sleep before we leave tomorrow morning. Besides, that dragon we slew wasn't the one that destroyed Helgen, which means our mission hasn't changed at all. I'll be back the moment I have everything I need, so don't bother waiting up for me." Tia sighed for a moment before reaching inside herself, seeking the powers that she had put away so she could walk amongst the people of Skyrim without drawing too much attention to herself. If she was to heal the bruises that Sombra had sustained, not to mention the broken ribs that Raika had pointed out to her, then she was going to have to resort to using a small fraction of that power. There were several times in the past that she had used the same power to heal several wounds she had sustained, but she was deeply worried that Sombra might remember the touch of her magic. She was running the risk of awakening his memories way too early, but there was no better way to heal him that was available to her at the moment and she didn't have time to waste searching for one. With a second sigh passing through her lips Tia closed her eyes and focused her attention to the wounds, hoping that she could heal most of them before Raika returned with their new addition. ----------------------------------------------------- Three hours passed before Tia, now drenched in her own sweat, finally cancelled her spell and pulled herself onto her feet, looking over Sombra and staring at what her magic had done to him. All of the bruises he had sustained had simply vanished, completely healed by the magic she had poured out, but she had been surprised when every single broken rib had been healed with no scarring leftover. Sombra might not remember her or her magic, but it seemed like his body had somehow known exactly who was healing him and had simply let her do what she wanted. Now that she was done all she had to do was wait until he woke up to see if anything had changed in him. "I don't believe it," Raika said, approaching the bed as she looked over the nord's now perfect form, "I simply cannot believe it. I don't know what spell you used, but I was not expecting you to completely heal his wounds. You even got rid of the small scars that were left over when I found him in a save not too long ago." "I admit that I may have gone a little overboard," Tia replied, stretching her arms, "but this means that he'll be more than ready for our journey to High Hrothgar. This is, if we are actually heeding the summons of the Greybeards and traveling to wherever their sanctuary is." "I'll heed the summons," Raika said, casting a look behind her to her new housecarl, "Look, there's something I wanted to talk to you about and I was wondering if you'd follow me to Dragonsreach's Great Porch in a bit. I just need to have Lydia do something so I don't have a pair of watchful eyes on me all the time." "Why not have her watch over Sombra then?" Tia asked, painfully aware that the women was within earshot and noticed that she wasn't even looking their way, "I'm sure that I healed everything I could find on Sombra, but there's no way of knowing how long he'll be asleep this time. Last time he woke up he thought we had already left him behind, so maybe let him know that we're still here without telling him ourselves." Raika sighed and walked over to Lydia, who immediately snapped to attention the moment that she was spoken to, and a short discussion followed. Lydia looked at Sombra and sighed, clearly indicating that her first real assignment was not something that she was expecting it to be, but seemed to swallow her disappointment. Clearly she had no idea who Sombra was and what he had done, but the citizens of Skyrim were only seeing a different side to the nord that Tia knew quite well and that was enough for now. Raika motioned for Tia to join her and they passed through a rather large set of wood doors, walking into a large open area that served as the back room of the entire palace. They walked until they came up to the end of the porch, where they could overlook the entire open plain of Balgruuf's hold and gaze upon the night sky once again. "So, what's your deal with Sombra?" Raika suddenly asked, as she leaned on the side of the overlook, "I've seen the way that you look at him every now and then and I can tell that you have some connection to him. Furthermore, I know for a fact that there aren't any spells that could have healed those wounds as fast as you did, so spill the beans 'Tia'." "Fine, I guess since I'll be traveling with you I might as well tell you the truth," Tia sighed, leaning against a wall as she considered how to best tell her tale, "Well for starters my name isn't Tia, its Celestia, and I'm somewhat of a leader where I come from. Sombra and I are from a place called Equestria, a peaceful land that I'm sure that you've never heard of before. I came to Tamriel for two reasons; the first was to find the Dragonborn and help him or her put an end to the dragon menace. The second reason was more personal to myself...I came here because this was the only place that Sombra could have been blown to and I wanted to heal him." "What does he even mean to you?" Raika asked, still trying to understand her connection to the mysterious nord that had been following her for the last few days, "I know that you know something about him and I want to know it." "To know my connection to Sombra I would have to tell you our entire story from the beginning," Celestia replied, dodging the hardest question as best as she could, "About a thousand years ago, maybe a little more than that, Sombra had been the kind king of an empire, leading his citizens through a peaceful time in Equestria's history. My sister Luna and I noticed the empire after a few weeks, but while my sister chose to ignore them I drew closer to them and eventually met Sombra one cold winter night. He invited me into his castle, shared some of his countries food with me, and even went as far as to invite me to stay around for some time to get to know his citizens. Originally I planned on spending at least two days at the Crystal Empire, getting to know the king I had just met and understand the customs that his citizens had been building. In the end I ended up spending three months in the Crystal Empire and while I knew my place was at my sister's side in Canterlot I couldn't deny that I had fallen in love with Sombra. So I drafted a short letter that was to be delivered to my sister, telling her where I was, that I was okay, and that I might not come back to Canterlot for some amount of time. Luna was outraged that I was leaving her alone to spend some time with somepony I had just met, but how could I leave the Crystal Empire when I was learning about its history and fell in love with its ruler? I couldn't leave him, not when he had admitted his own feelings for me. Eventually I became accustomed to the way things were run in the empire, but I had never gotten around to truly leaving Canterlot behind and living with Sombra for the rest of my life. Another nine months passed before my sister came to the empire and I expected her to be absolutely furious with me, but when she arrived I found that she was slightly curious as to why I had chosen to spend so much time there. I took the first opportunity that presented itself to have Sombra and Luna meet, which was after his daily morning meetings with several of the ponies that helped organize his empire. The two of them really hit it off and I could tell that Sombra had somehow broken through my sister's stubbornness, so while they might never have the same connection Sombra and I had I could tell they would be best friends. We showed Luna around the Crystal Empire, let her meet the ponies that Sombra ruled, and even gave her a taste of what the empire could offer. By the end of the day Luna was beginning to see that Canterlot and the Crystal Empire had the potential to become great trading partners, despite the fact that Sombra and I were planning on eventually getting married..." Raika could sense the hesitation in Celestia's voice when she mentioned the plans that she and Sombra had planned and almost put in motion over a thousand years ago. From what she could tell the two of them had really hit it off and had planned on spending the rest of their days together, but she wondered what could have happened that tore the two of them apart. "Celestia," Raika said, putting a hand on her shoulder as she got used to using the new name, "what happened between the two of you?" "Discord, the Spirit of Disharmony, happened." Celestia sighed, painfully recalling what had happened so many centuries ago, "The mischievous spirit was, at one time, known for being extremely violent and prone to ruin whatever he touched. One day he came to the Crystal Empire and attacked without any warning, catching all of us off guard. Since the empire wasn't a military empowered place there wasn't any guards to fight him, so Sombra, Luna, and I gathered ourselves and met him on the battlefield. It would have been such an easy victory for us if we had the sense to bring the Elements of Harmony with us so we could have beaten Discord before he could have done any lasting damage, but we had left them in a secure hiding place. Discord wounded Luna during the fight, but being an alicorn meant that she could withstand a certain amount of pain before she had to pull herself back and leave us to fight the spirit. When Discord hurt me even worse than he had done to Luna, however, it proved too much for Sombra to bare and he lashed out with all the hate that he had for the creature, causing him to retreat from our fight. The use of such powerful dark magic caused the hate within him to overpower him, changing Sombra from a hind hearted stallion into an evil ruler who wanted nothing more than to conquer all of Equestria. Luna and I were eventually forced to seal him away so he couldn't harm anypony else, but midst all of the chaos I lost the stallion that I had fallen in love with. Over the last thousand years I spent every spare moment scouring the ancient tomes left behind from some of the greatest minds in all of Equestria's history, hoping that they might have left a clue as to how I could break the hold that Sombra's hate had on him. I considered using the Elements of Harmony on him whenever he returned, but I was concerned that the ancient energies might destroy him instead of heal him. When the Crystal Empire returned and Sombra was defeated I searched all over for him, but all I could find was the signature of magic that could have only pulled him out of our world and I knew immediately where he could have gone. So I left my sister in charge of Canterlot and came here, leaving behind my world so I could heal the one stallion who means the entire world to me and found him here, with you." "How long do you think it would take to heal his heart?" Raika asked, gazing upon the night sky once again, "And do you honestly believe that you can undo all that hate by yourself?" "Love conquers all Raika," Celestia smiled, gazing upon the night herself and finding a small moving dot coming their way, "and I suspect that I can get most of his memories healed in a few days now that my sister will be joining us." Raika noticed the speck in the night sky moments before something...or rather, someone...landed on the porch grounds behind her. The newcomer, another nord, looked similar to Celestia, but she looked like she was a few years younger than Celestia was, her horn and wings were dark blue colored instead of white, and she was dressed up in leather armor. While Celestia's hair was pink colored this nord's hair color was more blue colored and attached to her back was a steel greatsword, one that shimmered as the women stood up. "Raika, may I introduce my sister Luna," Celestia said, just as her sister folded up her wings and turned to look at them, "Luna, this is Raika. She's the Dragonborn." "Huzzah, the fun has been doubled," Luna replied, bowing her head to Raika before turning back to her sister, "Let's get the part started!"