Sombra visits Skyrim

by Blackdrag-rose

11: The Lone Blade

"Someone stole the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller."

As soon as the group entered the back room to the chamber Raika told them exactly what she had discovered, letting them know exactly why she was furious this time. They had wasted hours searching for the horn, hours that could have been spent hunting the dragon that leveled Helgen, only to come up empty in their search. Someone had beaten them to the punch and left them a calling card, one that Raika chose to interpret as a ransom, and exchange of something for the horn. She basically opened the large chest in the room, took out the curved orcish sword, and a large sack of gold before moving on to the tunnel that would lead them back to the surface.

"Whoever took the horn shall suffer my Thane," Lydia promised, brushing the cobwebs out of the way as they traveled back to the surface, "and if we don't outright kill them for this crime then we might consider time in the Dragonsreach Jail. No one steals from the Thane of Whiterun and gets away with it."

Sombra knew that, while being the Thane of Whiterun, Raika had no claim on the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, which had been resting in the province of Morthal for some unknown amount of time. If anything the people of Morthal had a claim to the Horn, followed closely by the Greybeards since it was their founder that it had belonged to. He knew Raika wanted the horn back and he was willing to help her out, but killing whoever had the horn was the wrong thing to do, not that he was going to tell Raika that now. Better to wait for her to calm down and see some sense before talking to her again.

When they finally got back to the surface Raika led them back to Morthal, coming across two wolves that dared to get on her bad side and growled at her. Raika, in no mood for games, drew her two swords and ran at the wolves, screaming at the top of her lungs as one wolf met his end at the end of her swords. The second, now concerned for its own safety, turned to flee before she got closer, but Raika slammed into it and put the beast out of its misery. Raika got up from the corpse and sheathed her blades, but even the rush of the fight wasn't enough to cool her anger just yet.

Despite having a few hours pass since they're arrival the carriage driver was still sitting where they had left him, so Celestia was quick to enlist his aid in delivering them to Whiterun. As they departed Raika stared at the gloomy town, her anger filling her eyes and causing her to grind her teeth as the buildings slowly disappeared into the distance. Luna, Celestia, and Sombra kept to themselves, choosing to enjoy the scenery and whatever animals they saw instead of being sour that they failed to acquire the horn. Lydia was still spouting the nonsense that whoever stood in Raika's way was going to suffer or be imprisoned in jail, but she was mostly ignored by the others.

A few hours passed before they were brought close to Whiterun and its massive walls, but as they drew closer they passed by a seemingly abandoned fortress. Or they would have thought it was abandoned, had there not been three armored warriors standing in front of the gates and firing upon whoever was inside the fortress. Moments later they were forced to move to the sides of the entrance as some stony creature barreled out of the fortress, passed by the warriors, and slammed right into the side of the carriage, causing the group to fall out of their seats as the horse, and the driver, disappeared into the distance.

Raika could not believe that some creature dared to interrupt their quest and quickly rose to meet it with both of her weapons drawn, only to find that the creature was a gargoyle. It roared in her face, but she held her ground and hacked both of its arms off before driving the points right into the core of its very being. As it crumpled into rumbled she turned and looked up at the fortress, looking for the vampire, as gargoyles only served the blood sucking fiends, that had summoned it. She marched right up to the entrance of the fortress, not even bothering to see if the others were alright, and leaned against the wall near the warriors.

"What's going on here?" Raika shouted, making it clear that the incident had only increased her anger.

"We're members of the Dawnguard," one of the warriors said, nocking a strange arrow into an even stranger bow, "and we received word that a group of vampires have made Fort Greymoor their home. We've been recruiting new members into our order and we were dispatched to deal with this particular group. Apparently they have been sneaking into Whiterun at night and are biting people every night, as if they're trying to turn the city into a place ruled by the dead."

"Look, I've been having a bad day so far and these guys summon a gargoyle that hit my carriage," Raika replied, "so, I'm going to go in there, find whoever summoned that creature, and I'm going to kill them and their friends until I'm sure I got them all."

"Yeah, about that," the second warrior, the one closer to the entrance, said, "I think your friends are more eager to get those vampire's then you might be. And that includes the one with the strange red horn."

Raika turned to see Sombra advancing towards the fort's entrance, the bow he had earlier floating behind him as he drew the blackened sword he carried. He wasn't bruised from the fall, but where Raika expected to find a look of fury on his face all she found was the same calm look that he seemed to wear half the time. Just seeing how calm he looked made Raika even more angry, wondering how he could even be calm after a bunch of vampires tried to kill them with a gargoyle. Then Sombra turned his gaze towards her and sighed, stopping in front of her as he pressed the blade's hilt against her left hand. A moment passed without anything happening, but then Raika felt her anger just bleed out into the blade and she eventually calmed down.

"What...what happened?" Raika asked, feeling as if a cloud had been removed from her vision.

"I took all your anger and added it to the sword," Sombra replied, turning to look at the fortress, "Your anger at having the horn stolen was blinding you to the fact that we were completely innocent when the gargoyle hit our carriage and drove the driver away. You were ready to risk everything, your quest and all of Skyrim, just to deal with a pack of vampires that unfortunately have taken our time from us. I decided to take what anger I could from you and the sword seemed to obey my silent command to take what I could, as long as it was touching. Now you can see properly again."

"And just what are you doing, my precious little morsel?"

Raika could tell that whoever spoke was not Celestia, because she had never called Sombra her 'precious little morsel' in all the time that they had been around each other. Sombra, who seemed to know that the voice was not Celestia's either, merely jerked his chin upward, causing Raika to look up and spot someone staring down at them. The person in question was another nord, but this one, clearly a female, was slightly shorter than all the other nords that Raika had met over the last few days. Then she realized that the nord wasn't fully grown and, with the blood red eyes, she figured out that the teenage nord was a vampire.

"Ah, I shall enjoy taking a bite out of your magic," the vampire continued, clearly unaware of Sombra pulling his bow into position as she daydreamed about what she was going to do, "then, once I master what I get from you, I'll conquer the vampire world and be heralded as the next Queen of the Vampires."

"Then eat this," Sombra calmly said, the arrow flying from his bow and knocking the vampire square in the chest hard enough to launch her into the air.

Before the vampire even landed Sombra grabbed the two strange bows that the warriors were carrying with his magic, bolted some sort of magical projectile into them, and advanced into the open fortress as two more vampires tried to rush him. The magic flew into their chests and sent them flying past the rest of their fellow vampires, who turned towards Sombra and bared their fangs at him. Sombra smiled as one of them leapt at him and tried to claw his eyes out, to which he responded by slashing the beast across the chest and causing it to crash against the ground. Two more charged at him, but they too fell as his blade moved with the grace that he had previously known and left him with just one more target.

This vampire took advantage of him fighting the others to score a claw wound across his chest, but Sombra had been expecting something sneaky like that. The moment the vampire sneered like he knew he was going to win Sombra called upon the magic around him, gathered the crackling dark energy around his left hand, and thrust it against the vampire's chest. At first the vampire thought that nothing bad could happen to him and showed Sombra a mouth full of fangs, but then the magic tore right through his body and crashed him against the stairs behind him. Sombra gave himself a smile and sheathed his weapons, watching the young vampire finally land on the ground in front of him, her eyes dimmed and still.

"What the?!" Raika asked, having witnessed the nord dispatch all the vampires like they had been nothing.

"You should have told us your friend was a mage," one of the warriors said, collecting their weapons that Sombra had used, "Had we known we might have come up with a strategy to deal with all of these vampires so we could have all had some glory."

"I wasn't sure he remembered all of that," Raika said, still stunned by what Sombra had done, "but at least we got rid of those pests."

What she didn't say was that until this morning Sombra couldn't lift a sword properly or even cast a simple fireball spell, but after Celestia helped him he was a different person. Now he was a formidable warrior and a powerful mage, which is somewhat along the lines of what Raika had thought he was and could not see. Despite the fact that he wasn't smiling very often Sombra seemed to have the air that he was former royalty and that his position had allowed him some training, which he used to fight her enemies. The only thing she was concerned about was when he uncovered the last bit of his memories and descended into the monster that both Celestia and Luna had mentioned in the past.

Despite the warriors claiming to want to share the reward with them, thus making them travel to someplace near Riften, meet the leader of the Dawnguard, and likely join the order, Raika declined their offer and watched them disappear into the distance. She and her friends continued on their quest, moving towards the same pathway that Raika and Sombra had taken to get to Bleak Falls Barrow. Seeing how they had traveled this particular path several times in the last two days there were no more creatures to bare their path, which pleased Raika to no end. It only made her wonder who in Riverwood could have snuck into Ustengrav, made it past the draugr, and had stolen the horn without getting themselves killed.

The moment they entered Riverwood Raika immediately spotted Gerdur heading home from the lumber mill, to which she simply greeted her with a bow of the head that was repeated back to her. The Sleeping Giant Inn was mostly empty, save for the bard who sat in his chair and drank his ale, and the two owners who stood near the back of the inn. Raika wasted no time in drawing closer to the pair and asked them about the attic room, which she knew from previous experience didn't exist, and was offered the side room. Raika struck an agreement with the lady and had the others sit on the benches while she took to the room in case her mysterious 'friend' showed up. Not a few moments later the lady she had struck the deal with came marching up to the room, walking past the doorway and pulled out what looked like a horn.

"So, you're the Dragonborn I've heard so much about. I believe that your looking for this," the lady said, holding out the horn as Raika swiped it from her hands, "The two of us need to talk..."

"No," Raika replied, staring into the lady's eyes, "If you have anything to say to me then you might as well say it to my friends as well."

"Oh for the love of Talos," the lady said, sighing before beckoning for her to follow, "Fine, if it will make you follow me then I'll share my secrets with all of you."

The lady led Raika to her room, telling her partner to 'mind the fort' or something as they passed by him, but Raika beckoned for her friends to join her and they eventually gathered in her room. The moment that Sombra closed the door behind him the lady opened her wardrobe and revealed a hidden staircase that led below the inn. Once at the bottom they gathered around the wooden table that the lady had no doubt constructed sometime in the past.

"Let's keep the introductions brief so we can get to the matter at hand," the lady said, beckoning to herself, "I am Delphine, one of the few surviving members of the Blades. It is my duty to find the Dragonborn, if you are her, and help her stop the dragons from coming back to life."

"I am Raika," Raika replied, "I'm the Thane of Whiterun and the Dragonborn you've been seeking. This is Lydia, my housecarl assigned to me by the Jarl of Whiterun. These three are Princess Celestia, alicorn of the Sun, her sister Princess Luna, alicorn of the Moon, and King Sombra, the ruler of the Crystal Empire."

"I'm not a king," Sombra quickly amended, not wanting to give their new ally any strange thoughts, "The three of us are from another world, but we won't bore you with the details."

"Look, I don't care what allies you have gathered around you," Delphine countered, shaking her head ever so slightly, "be they other worldly or not. What I care about is that you are truly the Dragonborn and not some Thalmor spy sent to send me to my death in the river."

"But I am the Dragonborn," Raika argued, shaking a fist at the women, "Tell me what I would have to do, who I would have to kill, in order for you to believe that I am who I say I am."

"Simple," Delphine said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow, "I need you to kill a dragon and steal its soul."

Silence descended upon the room, making it clear that Raika had no interest in killing a second dragon that might not be the one that burned Helgen to the ground. She wanted to find that black dragon and rip his heart out, so that way all of Skyrim could know peace without something trying to burn them all.

"Look, I've had a tiring day," Raika groaned, looking back up at Delphine, "Just tell me where to go and we'll find out if there's a dragon to be slain there, that is if your staying here and expecting us to bring back something."

"No need for that," Delphine said, a small grin appearing on her face, "I'll be joining you once you decide to leave the inn and take down that dragon. We had best get some sleep before the night gets too old, as there's no telling what we could meet on the road tomorrow."

Raika moaned again and moved back to the stairs, clearly wishing to get some sleep that she desperately needed at the moment, but she wasn't alone. Celestia, Lydia, and Sombra joined her, heading back up the stairs so they could visit the rooms and get some sleep. Luna, on the other hand, stayed by Delphine for a moment and whispered something about talking about the Blades in the future. Raika didn't want to worry about anything else at the moment and once she got to the bed she was asleep in moments.

Comments

[joeyjumper94]

this is interesting.

p.s. first view.

[Sonata Blaze]

O.o Just how much of his memories does he have access to at this point? Those vampires didn't stand a chance.
What we need is for him to return to who he truly is, the master of shadows that Celestia was forced to imprison.
I must say though, he is certainly proving that he's a force to be reckoned with now.

[Vigilant of Stendarr]

So vampires get wrecked and Delphine is, of course, matching her nature in the game.