//------------------------------// // 13: Trek to Riverwood // Story: Sonata's Crazy and Wacky Adventure in Skyrim // by Sonata Blaze //------------------------------// Sonata and her friends stayed with Movarth's vampires for an hour, recovering from the ambush they had fought through in the marsh and giving Lydia time to make sure that her shoulder was just fine. Sonata was grateful that the vampires had a piece of armor, identical to the armor that her Housecarl was wearing, to replace the armor that one of the orcs had ruined. Kree had spent some time with the scouts that occasionally came to tell their master about what was happening in Morthal, looking out for mentions of the orc warriors that were following Lord Grul's orders. They wanted to be sure that they could easily get out of the area without their enemy discovering where they were located, because there was no telling where the warlock's spies were lurking. Sonata, on the other hand, remained near the chamber where she had spoken to the Council of Three, which she discovered meant the three master vampires that ruled over all of the remaining vampires in Skyrim... as the true master of the vampires, Lord Harkon, had no desire to rule until he finished whatever business had taken his full attention for the last thousand years. Her mind wasn't focused on Lord Grul and his invading horde of orcs, but rather on the fact that her sisters had mentioned the Siren Queen for the first time in ages. The three of them had agreed that, after they had been defeated by Starswirl the Bearded and banished to Earth, they wouldn't mention the Queen until the situation required it. She hadn't thought about the Queen for so long, but now that she was thinking of her again she recalled a memory that eventually led to their banishment and then their defeat at the hands of Sunset Shimmer and her friends. -------- The Queen laid on a massive stone slab near the sea and let the sunlight touch her scales, lazily resting from her day of doing absolutely nothing except stare at the forest that rested near where she currently lay. Ponies always emerged from the forest, either looking for the beach she sat on or searching for one of the three 'legendary' Sirens that called the area home. Aria and Adagio used their powers to make sure that most ponies stayed away from this area, but there were times where one or two earth ponies slipped through the spells and found their way to the beach. The Queen usually changed the memories of whoever they caught on the beach, because most ponies refused to believe the existence of the Sirens and almost always called the ponies, those that spread rumors of their existence, liars. "My Queen," a voice said, causing her to lift her head and find the other two Sirens waiting in front of her, to which the violet scaled Siren spoke again, "we have news about the nearby settlement the ponies have been constructing. They're building a few houses at the moment and what appears to be a town hall, though they have cut down a couple of the tress in the forest to aid them in constructing their village. We were about to leave and tell you of this development, but then we felt the magical presence of a powerful mage as he stepped out of thin air and landed in the middle of the village. He wears a robe over his white coat and has a hat with bells on his head, though he's sporting a small beard on his face... though we both heard one of the ponies in the village utter the name 'Starswirl the Bearded'." "More headaches," the Queen said with a sigh, before turning to the golden scaled Siren for a moment, "Adagio, as my advisor, it will be your duty to make sure that these newcomers don't discover our location or our existence, and to do whatever must be done to keep ourselves hidden from their eye. Aria, I want you to keep an eye on this 'Starswirl' and tell me whenever he gets too close to us, so we can plan on how to counter his magic." "As you wish, my Queen," the two Sirens replied, bowing their heads for a moment before going to fulfill their specific tasks to keep themselves hidden. -------- Sonata sighed as she recalled that moment, because she knew that if the Queen hadn't given Adagio the command to keep the ponies away at any cost, thus giving her the ability to make the terrible decisions that led to their banishment, then they might be back in Equus as allies or friends with the neighboring ponies. The powerful Queen had made a mistake in giving Adagio that ability, which was why Sonata had tried to forget about her for the last thousand years... until her sisters mentioned the Queen to complete strangers. She didn't want to think about the Queen at all, because it usually meant that she got headaches and started to remember too much about her time before she and her sisters were banished. She pulled out her shattered pendant and stared at the four pieces of the gemstone, her mind returning to the fact that both Adagio and Aria believed that it was possible to reforge their necklaces... something she had deemed impossible before she ventured into the portal. "Sonata, the scouts have come back with news that orcs are marking their way to Morthal from the west," Kree commented, causing Sonata to look up at her friend for a moment, grateful for the distraction from her own thoughts, "We've got maybe an hour before they arrive in Morthal and begin their search for whatever they are looking for... though I think they might be looking for us." Lord Movarth, who had been sitting at the table with his other heads and Sonata, immediately got up and started shouting orders at the assembled vampires, who got to work collecting weapons and armor. "We need to move out of here before they arrive," Movarth commented, to which the other two heads nodded their understanding as he turned to Sonata, "We'll find someplace else to hide ourselves and make our base of operations, so that we can combat the growing plague that is Lord Grul and his army of orcs. I'm curious as to how they knew which hold to visit if they wanted to find the Dragonborn, but I'm afraid that we'll have to save that question for another day." Sonata nodded and gathered her gear for a moment, before turning to her companions and heading out of the cave, though as she did so she noticed that one of the vampires stopped her from heading in the direction of Morthal. The vampire didn't say much, rather he pointed to the opposite direction of the one that she was about to go in and indicated that it might be faster for her to go that way. Sonata quickly thanked the vampire before she headed off in the direction he had pointed her in, her companions following behind her as they left Morthal behind. It didn't take them long to find the road once more, as the vampire had pointed them to it and gave them a head start on the orcs that had come for Sonata. "It seems that Lord Grul thinks that you know something about the Siren Queen," Kree commented, running alongside Sonata and Lydia as they followed the path that would take them back to Whiterun, "otherwise he would not have sent a detachment of orcs to Morthal, to search for something that may not actually be there." Sonata didn't say anything about the Siren Queen, being careful not to spill everything she knew about the subject every time that the name was mentioned by someone. Grul couldn't have know about the Queen at all, not unless either Adagio or Aria told him about her... and she knew that her sisters wouldn't tell their enemy about something like that. The only other people who knew about the Queen, save for Lydia and Kree, were the vampires she had just met, so she knew that one of them had to be a traitor. It was the only thing that made sense, unless one of the underling vampires decided to betray their kind and joined up with the orcs with the promise of providing them with information on certain people and places. She refused to believe that her sisters would tell their enemy about the Queen, so there was someone who called him or herself an ally that was, in reality, a traitor that was trying to bring an end to Nirn. "You do know something about her, don't you?" Kree asked, noticing how silent and focused Sonata was at the moment, "Why didn't you tell the Council of Three what you knew?" "Because I didn't trust them with the information," Sonata finally responded, sighing as they followed the path as quickly as possible, "and I won't be speaking of it while on the run... too many eyes and ears that might catch the wrong piece of information and give it to our enemy." Kree nodded her understanding and led the way as the three of them retraced their steps back to Whiterun, passing by Dawnstar and a group of khajiit merchants as they traveled. The khajiits were annoyed that many nords didn't want to buy from them or wouldn't allow them inside their cities, but they were also annoyed with the orc warriors that they met as well... those that worked for Lord Grul. They didn't stick around after that and quickly came to the fortress that they snuck around the last time they had taken this route, though the three of them moved into the mountain to avoid being seen by the sentries. Once they were passed the fortress, and no alarms had been raised, they returned to the road and continued onward, keeping an eye out for more dangers. They made it to where they found Cicero without anything jumping out to kill them, so they slowed down just a bit as they walked by the watchtower and nodded to the guards. A few minutes later they came to the crossroad that would take them to Riverwood, where they continued forward and retraced their steps on the mountain pass. Many of the animals they saw along the way were merely deer and the occasional rabbit, but Sonata was surprised when they weren't attacked by wolves or bears. With nothing to distract them they managed to reach the bridge leading into Riverwood without anything happening to them, but as they neared the small village Sonata found her hand touching her sword. "We had best be on our guard," Sonata commented, to which her companions nodded their heads as they passed through the checkpoint, "because there's no telling when those orcs will find us again." They quickly made their way into the Sleeping Giant Inn, where they were supposed to meet the person that took the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller and learn what the ransom for the artifact was. Sonata was sure that the person who took the horn would ask for the death of something, mainly because killing something seemed to be the answer to everything in Skyrim. As they entered the inn Lydia stood near the door, though both Kree and Sonata were expecting a repeat of the inn in Iverstead... where they had entered it and had been attacked. With her housecarl standing guard by the door Sonata and Kree approached the woman who was supposed to rent out the rooms to people for the night. "You're that visitor, been pokin' around." the woman said as they approached, though she turned serious a moment later, "So, what can I do for you?" "I'm here to rent the 'attic room'," Sonata replied, to which she saw something flash through the woman's eyes for a moment before it was gone. "Attic room, eh?" the woman said, a hand moving to the room that she normally rented out, "Well... we don't have an attic room, but you can have the one on the left. Make yourself at home." Sonata looked at Kree for a moment before they entered the room that the woman had pointed at, but as they entered the room the lady followed them in, "So you're the Dragonborn I've been hearing so much about. I think you're looking for this." the woman commented, tossing Sonata an ancient looking horn, which she knew had to be the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, "We need to talk. Follow me." Sonata and Kree shared another look with each other before they followed the woman across the inn and entered her personal room, to which she indicated that she wanted the door closed. Kree nodded and closed the door immediately, but as the woman opened a secret passage into what appeared to be a basement she decided to stay behind and watch for danger with Lydia. Sonata nodded and followed the woman down into the basement, where she discovered that the innkeeper had what appeared to be a meager armory going... almost as if she was preparing for trouble to come to her inn. "The Greybeards seem to think you're the Dragonborn. I hope they're right." the woman said as she looked down at the table, where Sonata spotted what she assumed as a map of Skyrim, "I'm Delphine by the way." "They are right," Sonata fired back, staring at Delphine for a moment, wondering if she was an ally or an enemy. "I hope so." Delphine said, turning her gaze to Sonata again, "But you'll forgive me if I don't assume that something's true just because the Greybeards say so. I just handed you the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. Does that make me Dragonborn, too?" "So, what exactly do you want with me?" Sonata asked, figuring that she might as well get to the point so she could return the horn to the Greybeards sooner. "I'm part of a group that's been looking for you... well, someone like you, for a very long time." Delphine explained, but before Sonata could say anything she could tell that the woman was thinking of adding something else, "If you really are Dragonborn, that is. Before I tell you any more, I need to make sure I can trust you." "And why are you looking for the Dragonborn?" Sonata asked, getting tired of the woman not actually answering any of her questions and just dodging them. "We remember what most don't - that the Dragonborn is the ultimate dragonslayer." Delphine said, with what Sonata assumed as a smile of sorts, "You're the only one that can kill a dragon permanently by devouring its soul. Can you do it? Can you devour a dragon's soul?" "That's how I discovered that I was the Dragonborn," Sonata answered, shivering as she remembered the feeling of absorbing the first dragon's soul. "Good. And you'll have a chance to prove it to me soon enough." Delphine said, point to the map for a moment, "Because I've figured out where the next one will come back to life. We're going to go there, and you're going to kill that dragon. If we succeed, I'll tell you anything you want to know. We're heading to Kynesgrove." Sonata sighed and decided to humor the woman, because by the way the map looked she could tell that Kynesgrove was somewhat in the same area that High Hrothgar was in. She knew that they could show Delphine that she was the Dragonborn and then, when they were done, she could head to the Greybeards and give them the horn. All they had to do was make sure that they didn't run into any of Lord Grul's soldiers and get to their destination without many seeing them... which would make it harder for the orcs to find them. It seemed simple in her mind, but Sonata knew that there had to be something that was going to mess up such a seemingly easy plan in some manner. "I also have to ask you this," Delphine commented, causing Sonata to look at the woman again, "but you wouldn't happen to know that the 'Siren Queen's is, would you? I intercepted a Thalmor courier not long ago and it appears that they're searching for that person... or artifact I guess, the letter didn't say which it meant." And at that point Sonata knew that her life in Skyrim was slowing going to get much worse than it already was, before it started getting better again.