//------------------------------//
// 17: Return to Sender 
// Story: Sonata's Crazy and Wacky Adventure in Skyrim 
// by Sonata Blaze 
//------------------------------//

	Sonata moaned as she packed up what meager belongings she had with her, but it wasn't because she was physically in pain from the walking she was doing at the moment. She had overexerted herself when she had crushed that fiery rock creature that Aggronak had left behind, straining what small amount of magic she still had access to at the moment. Despite her necklace being broken, the one item that allowed her to fully harness and control her true powers, she still had the ability to tap into her true potential, which had only been restored to her when she had entered Skyrim and had been forced to face the truth of who she was once more.

She had hated being the most powerful Siren of them all before their banishment, because it had brought her to a level of boredom that was the heart of all her problems, and she hated having to remember what she was, all thanks to the fact that one orc knew something that he couldn't have possibly known.

"I see that your preparing to leave," a voice behind her said, to which she turned around and found Saerza standing at the entrance to the room she had been given.

"I don't have much choice in the matter," Sonata replied, returning her sword to her belt before turning and facing the Archmage, "The longer I stay in one place the more likely that more of Grul's minions will come seeking my head, so I'm already putting everyone in the College and the surrounding area at risk by being here. Saerza, I appreciate you letting me and my friends stay here for a day, but I have to leave before more orcs show up looking for me... or worse Lord Grul himself."

"I honestly don't think that Lord Grul would show himself just yet," Saerza commented, watching Sonata as she finished gathering her items, "It seems like he's preparing for a war against both the Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks... a war that might decide the fate of all of Tamriel in a single instant."

Sonata remained silent as she heard that statement, because she remembered the dream she had where she had seen Aria dressed in the mages robes that had brought her here. She had seen a massive portal, carved into the side of a mountain, that had an endless army of orcs pouring out of it, as if they had come to wage war in Grul's name. What Saerza would have made sense, but then Sonata recalled the figure that she couldn't make out, the one whose very presence set the sky on fire as if he was bringing an end to the world. She had no idea how to explain what she had seen to the Archmage, though she also suspected that if she told anyone about what she had seen they might consider that she was losing her mind.

With everything that was happening she sure felt like she was losing her mind, but she needed to get back on track and figure out what to do about the dragons that were attacking everyone.

"I must get back to Riverwood," Sonata eventually replied, heading out into the open area before slowly making her way to the entrance of the College, "I have too many enemies to deal with and not a lot to go on, so I must use every opportunity to make sure that Grul doesn't find me until I bring an end to his life."

"Then I shall join you in your quest to bring down Lord Grul," Saerza commented, pulling an epic looking staff from her robes and tapping it on the ground, "after all, I have a bone to pick with Aggronak for destroying part of the College and I have to figure out where he's taken the professors he took while I was away."

Sonata could feel the power of the staff that Saerza was holding, knowing that it had to be something ancient she had secured to save something from destruction. She was more concerned that the Archmage wanted to leave her College behind to deal with Lord Grul, especially after what had happened in the short time she had been gone. She actually considered telling Saerza no and leaving with her friends, but as the Archmage stood there she could feel the power resting inside her body radiate around them for a few seconds, as if she was actually trying to show her that she was determined to follow through.

Sonata sighed and nodded her head, knowing that there might very well be something that Saerza could aid her with... besides cutting down her enemies before they could reach her.

"Very well then, I accept your aid Archmage Saerza." Sonata replied, though she had the feeling that the Archmage would have followed her if she had declined, "I take it that your ready to go, considering that you are so determined to leave with us."

"That I am, Siren Queen." Saerza said, taking notice of the fact that Sonata disliked the use of the title she had tossed aside years ago, "My mistake then, I shall endeavor to stop using that title and start calling you by your actual title; that of the Dragonborn."

Sonata sighed once more as the two of them moved out into the entrance of the College, where she found Kree and Lydia waiting with their packs ready. They had noticed that she was going to depart soon, so they had gathered their own gear together and had prepared for when she was ready to leave. As the two of them approached Sonata's friends Kree looked at the Archmage for a moment, clearly wondering if there was something that neither she nor Lydia had been expecting.

"We've got another friend that wants to join us," Sonata said, basically summing up everything that had just happened, "Saerza wants to come along so she can get some much needed revenge on Lord Grul and his lieutenants."

"I imagine that many people across Skyrim are already thinking the same thing," Kree commented, knowing that there were people who had been wronged by Grul's forces and were likely wanting revenge on the person who had changed their lives, "the only thing we have to do is find a way to bring them all together so we can face our enemy. I take it that we are heading back to Riverwood to see what Delphine wants?"

"And to figure out why she thinks the Thalmor are behind the return of the dragons," Sonata confirmed, walking towards the bridge for a moment, "I just can't believe that there are dragons, cultists, and vampires that want me dead for all of their various reasons. There are too many enemies in Skyrim to deal with already... without taking Grul, his lieutenants and his army into account. We'll have to be careful as we return to Riverwood."





As it turned out there weren't any enemies that interrupted their trek back to Riverwood, giving Sonata time to pause every now and then to recover from her ordeal the previous day. She refused to believe that Lord Grul didn't have his spies watching her at every moment of the day, so they could accurately keep track of where she was and what she was doing for the people of Skryim. Every time she requested a break her friends, including Saerza, would make sure that there weren't any enemies in the surrounding area, to maximize the amount of time she could take before they had to get started again.

During their trek back to Riverwood Saerza told Sonata a little more about the time that she spent with Adagio and Aria, confessing her immense interest in their abilities and their undying loyalty to their sister. Sonata noticed that the Archmage went out of her way to make sure that she didn't refer to her as the title she wanted to bury, which showed that she respected her wishes.

Before they could reach their destination, however, Sonata spotted someone she wasn't expecting to see standing outside the small village; one of the vampires she had followed when she met with Movarth and his Council. She didn't know the vampire's name, they never had the chance to figure out what his name had been, but she was somewhat surprised to see him here anyway. This time he was dressed up in what Sonata assumed was glass armor, she had seen a piece of it in Movarth's lair in the form of a weapon, as if he was prepared for a fight of some kind. The instant he turned his head and spotted them he beckoned them over, though Sonata had to wonder if he had a message to deliver from the Council.

"Good, I was hoping to catch you before you entered the village," the vampire said, though it was clear that he didn't like being out in the sunlight, "I come bearing news from Lord Movarth; several of the vampires under Lady Vespula's command have betrayed her and joined with Lord Grul... and they're coming here with a force of orcs to burn the village to the ground."

"Great... just great," Sonata sighed, wondering why she couldn't seem to catch a break with Lord Grul's forces, "When are they supposed to arrive? I might have time to try and convince the villagers that they need to leave before the orcs arrive."

"I'm afraid that they'll be arriving in the next two hours..." the vampire said, causing Sonata to notice that the sun was slowly setting, indicating that night was reaching them and that the perfect time for a group of vampires to strike was coming, "For the foreseeable future I have been assigned to assist you in your endeavors, be they taking out the dragons or the orcs that are currently coming our way."

"Well, I'm glad to have you along for the ride as well, um..." Sonata replied, though she had to cut herself off because she had no idea what to call the vampire.

"I am Lorthan Bloodstrike," the vampire replied, bowing his head slightly as he took note of his new companions, "I see that you've also acquired the Archmage of the College of Winterhold as a companion... she'll be useful in the coming trials."

Sonata sighed and decided that, for the moment, that they had better set up camp further up the path that would take them to Bleak Falls Barrow, so that they might be able to figure out which direction their enemies were coming from. As they waited for night to fall upon them Lorthan introduced himself to the group and told them that he had been a vampire for about a hundred years, telling how he had been turned from a simple bosmer until his caravan had been attacked by vampires. He had fought them to the death, determined to take as many with them as he could before he died, but then he collapsed from exhaustion and awoke in the cave they had met Movarth. Despite his original disgust for what he had become, and all the evil deeds other vampires did, he grew to accept what he had become and had dedicated to riding the world of its true evils.

Sonata was glad to hear a little bit about their newest addition, because it gave her time to recover from the previous day and learn about who she was going to be traveling with. She even grinned when Lorthan expressed his opinion that Lady Vespula might not be totally loyal to the Council, because she had experienced the same thing when she was attacked by her underlings in Iverstead and then was they were proclaimed to be allies when the Council met in Movarth's cave.

When the sun finally set, and the shadow of night was upon them, Sonata immediately spotted several torches approaching the village, which had to be Grul's forces coming their way. She still couldn't believe that she was having to deal with the blasted orc again, not two days after her last encounter... leading her to believe that there was a motive behind everything that she wasn't seeing. She waited a few seconds for Lorthan to return to them, because the instant they spotted the direction the orcs were coming from he had gone to see how many of them there actually were. Sonata wanted to be prepared for their arrival, to which her friends all agreed that it was best to see exactly how many enemies they had to kill to save the village.

"Twenty orcs are coming our way," Lorthan commented, pulling out the glass sword he carried, though his gaze turned to the direction that Falkreath rested in, "from where the Guardian Stones are located. I take it our plan is to attack them before they reach the village and take them out, thus ensuring that our enemy doesn't ruin the lives of anyone else?"

"Correct," Sonata replied, pulling out her sword as her magic swirled around her hand, leading her to wonder how many she could slay with her magic before she would need to rest again, "let's show these orcs that they aren't welcome in Skyrim."

Sonata and her friends moved down the side of the mountain, being careful not to alert their enemies that they were coming, but judging by the noises the soldiers were making it was clear that none of the orcs had heard anything different. Sonata used that to her advantage as she leapt out of the shadows and ran her sword through one of the soldiers, tearing through his heart as the other nineteen noticed that they were under attack. Several arrows flew over the small river that she had crossed, puncturing the armor of the orcs that were standing the closest to Sonata, dropping one or two while the others picked themselves back up.

Saerza stood beside Kree as she loosed arrows at the orcs, but the Archmage summoned lightning into her left hand and pointed at an orc that was standing in the middle of the small army, to which she blasted him into the hill behind them. Lorthan appeared behind Sonata and slammed his weapon into one of the orcs, though he had to pull back and defend when their enemies realized what was actually happening at the moment. What the orcs didn't expect was Lydia attacking them from behind, because she roared with all her might and charged into their backs, slicing one enemy in half with her battleaxe before moving onto the next target.

One orc got lucky and smacked Sonata in the face with his fist, but where he was expecting her to simply lay on the ground she got back onto her feet and glared at the orc, ignoring the pain or the cut she had been given. Shadows swirled around her hand as she extended her left hand towards the orc, to which she allowed the shadows to swirl around him before she closed her palm and crushed him, armor and all, in an instant. She then turned towards her friends and watched as they cleared up the rest of their enemies, leaving her to wonder why they had suddenly encountered a weak group of orcs, when the others had been tougher to deal with.

"It seems that our enemy is just testing the strength of his army," Lorthan commented, immediately seeing something odd with the carnage, "maybe these ones lost their Lord's favor and the only way to earn it back was to destroy someone that's helping you... though how he could have figured that out is starting to worry me."

Sonata shared her friend's worry, because Lord Grul seemed to be one step ahead of them at every turn, almost as if he knew where they were going before Sonata could even determine that herself. She sighed and left Lydia, Saerza, and Lorthan to collect the bodies, take off anything that they could use, and then burn them away from the village, while she returned to the inn. She needed to hear what Delphine had to tell her, so she could figure out where they were going next in their quest to discover where the dragons were coming from. When she and Kree entered the inn they found Delphine standing near the door that led to her room, though while Sonata moved forward Kree remained by the door in the off chance that there were more enemies coming that none of them knew about.

"I've figured out how we're going to get you into the Thalmor Embassy," Delphine commented, once she and Sonata had reached the table in her secret area, "The Thalmor ambassador, Elenwen, regularly throws parties where the rich and connected cozy up to the Thalmor. I can get you into one of those parties. Once you're inside the Embassy, you get away and find Elenwen's secret files. I have a contact inside the Embassy. He's not up for this kind of high-risk mission, but he can help you. His name's Malborn. Wood elf, plenty of reason to hate the Thalmor. You can trust him. I'll get word for him to meet you in Solitude, at the Winking Skeever --- you know it? While you're doing that, I'll work on getting you an invitation to Elenwen's little party. Meet me at the Solitude stables after you've arranged things with Malborn. Any questions?"

"I still think you are insane about believing the Thalmor are behind the dragons," Sonata replied, sighing as she looked at the map once more, "but while I do this I need you to use whatever contacts you have and figure out where Lord Grul's base of operations is, or where my sisters Adagio and Aria are. I need to make sure that they're safe before my enemy finds them... and Delphine, I'd suggest that you not argue with me and get started. Lord Grul is on the move with whatever he's planning, and I would like to finally get one step ahead of him."

She left Delphine standing there, not bothering to stay behind and speak with the woman because she knew that she would only be asked about the Siren Queen once more. She didn't trust Delphine enough to trust her with such important information, despite all the measures she went through to keep herself hidden from her own enemies. She also knew that she needed to focus on figuring out where the dragons were coming from before she could do anything else, but that didn't stop her from wanting to be prepared for when it came time to confront Grul.

Though as she walked back to where Kree was standing she had to wonder where Adagio and Aria had disappeared to, and why no one seemed to know anything else besides the fact that they had gone to the College some time ago. Something strange was going on at the moment, and she was determined to figure out what that something was... before someone ended up getting hurt.