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The Line Begins to Blur	By : VirusVescichetta Category: +A through F > Elder Scrolls - Skyrim Views: 61884 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Look at the URL. Now back to the disclaimer. Now the URL. Back to the disclaimer. Sadly, I don't own Skyrim or make money off it, but you can now read a story that's written as though I did. And yes, I just wasted a mod's valuable time.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
After over a week at the temple of High Hrothgar the air around Ivarstead felt downright tepid. I still had my cloak hugged tightly around my shoulders. The cold that had soaked into my very bones over the past ten days wasn't likely to vanish simply because I went someplace slightly less frigid.
The man I had delivered the Greybeards' food for was at the entrance of the town. He handed me a surprisingly heavy coin purse and thanked me for giving "his old bones a rest". It occurred to me as I headed into Ivarstead proper that I could have simply dropped the food in the snow on the way up and he would have never known the difference. Perhaps it was a good thing I was never so malicious.
"I wonder where Lydia is. Maybe she got sick of waiting and ditched me," I muttered. I somewhat hoped that she hadn't. It was nice having a female around who had little reservation about being nude in my presence. Having someone to talk to while wandering the roads was a nice change of pace from my usual, as well. A few years of walking around Tamriel alone had left me feeling rather lonesome sometimes. Not that I'd ever openly admit it, though.
I decided that the inn was the best place to check for her, considering it was where I had told her to stay. The innkeeper, an older Nord man by the name of Wilhelm, informed me that she had stepped out about an hour before I had showed up and didn't know when she'd be back, though the fact that she had left without our packs left me hopeful. After a quick explanation of myself as her Thane, Wilhelm quite happily showed me to her room and suggested I simply wait until her return. My cold and tired body agreed it was a sound plan.
I sat down on the bed with a relieved breath and shucked off my cloak. The room was kept surprisingly warm from the hearth in the inn's antechamber. The weight of exhaustion crashed down on me in what felt like an instant and I couldn't help but yawn. My training in High Hrothgar had been amazingly tiring.
I kicked my boots off and dropped back onto the bed. Unconsciously I drew in a long, deep breath and was surrounded by the smell of my housecarl. It was earthy, but undeniably feminine. I had gotten accustomed to the scent in the days we had been travelling together. It was hard not to when I spent nearly every moment in the woman's company. The breath caught in my nose as the slightest edge of something vaguely familiar hit me. It took me a few moments to register it as the same smell I had woken up to nearly two weeks beforehand with Ysolda.
After noticing it I found it was hard not to focus on the smell that suddenly seemed to permeate the room. It was also hard to ignore the effect it was trying to have on my body. Spending ten days on a frozen mountaintop had left me somewhat frustrated due to a lack of anyone to share more pleasant company with. I had gone far longer in the past, but I had also gotten used to finding some warm body to spend a night with on a semi-frequent basis in Skyrim. I chuckled tiredly at the thought that perhaps I had just been spoiled.
The feeling of someone sitting on the edge of the bed made me aware of the fact that I had fallen asleep. I shifted instinctively to make it look as though I were moving in my sleep as I touched a hand to the dagger at my hip. I opened my eyes and looked over at what turned out to be my housecarl. Her closeness and the way she flinched back slightly upon noticing my newly opened eyes made me somewhat curious but my sleepy mind brushed it off as nothing.
I grunted slightly as I sat up and rubbed at the stiffness in my neck. Horns were a pain, when it came to sleeping. "Were you watching me sleep?" I asked with a tired chuckle and a yawn.
"I was...no, my Thane," she answered hastily and shook her head. I swore I saw a light blush colour her cheeks but thought nothing of it.
"Good. That would be kinda weird," I said and stretched. "How late is it?"
"Mid afternoon," she said, clearly thankful for a change in subject.
"Damn. That's a bit late to be travelling anywhere," I sighed.
"Where would we be going, my Thane?" she asked. I smiled slightly at the "we", though I wasn't entirely sure why.
"I don't know. What's east of here? Anything good?"
"Riften lies in the southeastern corner of Skyrim. I'd wager it would take us about two days, if we were hasty. Windhelm is much farther north, though it would probably take us about as long to get there."
"North sounds cold. I don't like cold. I've had enough of cold the past few days," I unconsciously shivered.
"Riften has a...reputation," her voice had a warning edge. "I'm not certain we'd leave the city with much coin left."
"So it's a colder version of Bravil. Sounds like fun," I laughed. "Alright, it's settled. We're going to Riften tomorrow."
I didn't much feel like mentioning that the Greybeards had told me to find something called the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. I had never been one for doing what I was told, though, and I figured that if I put it off for a few days or months or whatever then there really wasn't much they could do to stop me. I much preferred the idea of continuing to explore the country with my housecarl. It had been entertaining so far, at the very least.
Lydia looked none too happy with the decision but still nodded her agreement. "Very well, my Thane."
"Fantastic. I knew you'd be on board," I said and grinned like a fool at her sceptical look. I slipped my boots back on and pushed myself from the bed, filled with new energy at the prospect of travelling again, even if it wouldn't be that day. That did leave me with a question of what exactly I was going to do that day, however.
I looked at Lydia and clenched my teeth at the multitude of ways I suddenly imagined spending the rest of the day. And night. And probably most of the next day, if I wanted to get carried away. Before I let the pent up sexual frustration that came with spending ten or so days on a mountaintop get the better of me, I walked out of the room without really realizing I'd need a reason to do so. My eyes locked on to the innkeeper and felt quite relieved at having an excuse.
We exchanged curt nods before I decided against useless small talk and cut to what little business I had. "Heard about any work around here?" I asked.
"Some men from up north were in here about a bounty on some bandits hiding out in the old Mistwatch fort," Wilhelm responded in his thick Nord accent. "There's also been some...unsettling happenings up at Shroud Hearth Barrow recently. Some folks say it's haunted."
That certainly sounded like an adventure. "Want me to go check it out?" I offered quickly.
"You certainly look like the adventuring type," he said with an approving nod. "I'd be indebted to you if you sorted this whole mess out. News of the dragon around is hurting morale enough on its own."
"Sounds like fun," I chuckled and turned to see my housecarl approaching. She looked fully equipped for whatever foolish venture I'd managed to cook up. I had to actually laugh aloud at how well she was becoming accustomed to my habits. "We've got a job to do. Looks like we're gonna go crawling around a hole with some old bones."
"I see it doesn't take you very long to have a truly romantic evening lined up for us," Lydia deadpanned.
"With a lovely lady like yourself? I should hope not," I chuckled and turned back to the somewhat perturbed looking innkeeper. "So where's this barrow, now?"
"Just on the northeast side of town," he answered, suddenly looking very sceptical. "...Are you two...?" he started with some trepidation.
"Of course," I smirked. I very decidedly ignored his obvious intent with the question.
"He is my Thane," Lydia answered quite stiffly. I looked back at her with a raised brow before simply shrugging.
"Yes, there's that, too," I said flippantly before heading out the door. "Afraid of a little judgement?" I shot her an amused smile.
"That's...we're not..." she seemed rather flustered considering how little I thought of the joke. "You are my Thane," she finally said.
"Are relationships forbidden between a Thane and his housecarl?" I asked. "Out of genuine curiosity."
"They are...a complicated matter," she mumbled.
"More complicated than a relationship between an Argonian and a human?" I laughed at the way my question made her cheeks flare a little brighter. For a Nord soldier, Lydia could certainly be quite...feminine. "That situation is only as complicated as people decide it should be, though. In Black Marsh they're...accepted, if uncommon. Actually, that's a bad example; pretty much everything is accepted in Black Marsh." I was suddenly filled with a great desire to talk about my past home but kept my mouth shut lest I deafen my housecarl with my incessant chatter.
"Have you ever been in a relationship with a human?" she asked somewhat suddenly. Or at least suddenly enough for me to almost stumble.
"...No," I answered after a moment. It wasn't truly a lie. I had never actually been in any sort of committed relationship with a human. I absently noted that there needed to be more words in Common Cyrodiilic for "relationship".
We came upon the barrow before I was forced to answer anymore awkward questions. I pushed the needlessly large iron door open and curled my nose at the unfortunately familiar smell. "It's awful musty in here," I said offhandedly as I walked in. "Dead people need to learn to bathe."
Lydia gave me a look that told me she didn't think I was quite as funny as I did. "What? It isn't inconceivable. Draugr are fully capable of bathing themselves."
"I'm not entirely sure that's terribly high on their list of priorities," she said in an almost thoughtful voice. I could tell she was having a hard time not simply rolling her eyes at me. I chuckled quietly under my breath and agreed with her.
We pushed deeper through the dust and cobwebs, moving past tombs and sarcophagi. The place was generally unnerving. There was a chill in the air that I didn't remember being in Bleak Falls Barrow. I supposed that, to be fair, Ivarstead was a much colder place in general than Riverwood had been.
Past my trepidation, though, I felt a strange pull to go deeper into the crypt. There was something deep within the barrow that I needed beyond the simple desire for some adventure. I felt it in my blood.
We came upon what amounted to a fork in the hallways. "Stay away!" a sudden shout pulled my attention to my right. I looked up to see what looked like some apparition standing behind an iron gate. "Leave this place!" it called out before retreating further into the barrow.
"That was...bizarre," I remarked rather blandly. "Think it's actually a ghost?"
"It certainly looked like one," she sounded marginally more impressed than I did.
"We're not gonna know if we don't find a way through that gate," I muttered to myself and looked around. I noticed a side room down a hallway and figured that if there were any way through it was as good a chance as any.
Shuffling footsteps alerted me to an attacking draugr. The fact that it was attacking from the way we had come made me realize that it was a poor decision to ignore the many corpses and tombs we were passing by. I spun and drew my sword, though my left hand was left pawing at a scabbard I had forgotten was empty. "Shit," I cursed under my breath and raised my sword to catch my attacker's.
I was about to call upon my housecarl's aid when I noticed she was having her own troubles with another draugr. This one had been standing quite motionless only a few moments beforehand in one of the many tiny alcoves tucked along the sides of the passages.
For a beast with little more than rags of skin holding it together I was surprised at the draugr's strength. Our blades ground against each other, the screech of steel on steel echoing through the twisting passageways around us. After a moment I managed to twist the draugr's blade to the side and expose its ribs to a hard slash. Splinters of bone and tatters of ancient rags sprayed from where my sword had cleft through its side. The creature stumbled back from the blow and gave my sword room to seek its neck and separate its head from its shoulders. It collapsed to the ground with a clatter.
I turned to see Lydia fending off her attacker, though its persistence left her with little opening to counter it. I came up behind it with stealth I hadn't realized I possessed and brought my blade slashing down across its back. The blow wasn't meant to end the thing, only to distract it for my housecarl to finish off. Instead the sharpened edge of my steel carved a path through the dried, decrepit flesh and bone and left the draugr nearly in half. I looked up at Lydia with a surprised look as it hit the stone floor. "Apparently my sword's better than I've been giving it credit for."
She chuckled lightly in response while we sheathed our blades. "It would seem we must be more vigilant," she said after a moment.
"Yeah," I agreed. "Still, it's a pain in the ass to stab every dried out sack of bones we come across. This kind of problem never happens in Black Marsh."
"Because you butcher your dead?"
"Because we butcher our dead and toss them in the swamps to feed the local fauna, yes. Respectable dead people get used as mulch for the Hist trees," I chuckled at Lydia's poor attempt to disguise her unease. "Once someone's dead they're just meat. No sense in letting good fertilizer go to waste in some graveyard."
"Your people...look forward to being used that way?" she asked. We began making our way down the hallway not blocked off by an iron gate.
"The pious ones that worship the Hist, yeah. I'm sure mother dearest would just love to end up feeding one of them someday," I said and snapped my mouth shut after realizing I had mentioned a family member. I wasn't much looking forward to the inevitable questions.
"What exactly are the Hist?" Lydia questioned after a moment. I breathed a silent sigh of relief at not having been asked about my mother. "I've heard you swear to them as though they were gods."
I laughed aloud at that. "Gods? No, not even close, but don't tell half of Black Marsh that. They're really smart trees, to put it simply. I'm sure there are more than a few who would call me a blasphemer for referring to them that way, though. Most of Argonian society involves them in some way."
She nodded, apparently satisfied with what little I was willing to divulge about home for the moment. For all I enjoyed her curiosity, there were times she wanted to know about things I wasn't a big fan of talking about. Speaking about the Hist for too long had too high a chance of eventually involving talks of my more faithful family members.
It wasn't long before we found ourselves in a room with little noteworthy features beyond a set of three levers. The one on the far left was turned upwards while the other two were facing down. I looked over at Lydia with an unimpressed look. "Why were your ancestors such fans of convoluted puzzles?"
"The dead are often buried with valuables that we wish to keep safe from grave-robbers," she explained far too cheerily. I was certain she did it on purpose.
"Humans are strange. You dig really big holes, stuff them with a bunch of corpses, gold and gems, and then get offended when people try to put them to good use," I snorted as I inspected the levers. "What good are dead people going to do with valuables? Seems like that stuff would be more useful in the hands of the living."
"It's how we show respect."
"Part of me severely doubts your dead ancestors are going to care about being rich," I muttered and moved the second lever to an upright position. An iron gate slammed down at the entrance of the room we were in. "Part of me also severely doubts your dead ancestors are willing to show you the same respect you show them."
Without bothering to move the lever back - I had learned its purpose, after all - I decided to flip the last lever upwards. A quiet click set off very loud warning bells inside my head as instincts told me to get down. I grabbed Lydia and pulled her to the ground with me. I covered her body with my own without truly thinking that her armour was probably more durable than mine. Just over a dozen darts went flying above us, clattering uselessly against the far wall. What harm they would have done to us I didn't know and wasn't particularly willing to find out.
After the trap had finished itself I sighed in exasperation and looked down to find myself face to face with Lydia. Only then did I truly realize our position. Our faces were scant inches from each other and our were bodies pressed together as intimately as our armour would allow. I could feel her breath against my neck and when she shifted I noticed that my leg was wedged tightly between hers.
We stared at each other and I noticed her cheeks bloom a rosy pink that looked horribly out of place on a soldier but perfectly in place on a woman. An interesting paradox, I noted very absently. Despite the dust and dirt and decay all around us I was hit with an overwhelming urge to press my lips to hers and see just where the sudden tension in the air would take us. Her head tilted back and her lips parted just slightly and she looked so terribly feminine. She also looked like she wanted me to kiss her more than I did.
"There was a trap." Instead I shattered the moment like a porcelain doll.
She blinked a few times, the glassy look slowly vanishing from her eyes to be replaced with some slight confusion. Her lips moved several times, trying to speak words with no voice. "I...I noticed," she eventually managed.
"Good," I said in a very clipped voice and hastily scrabbled to my feet. I wanted to say something else. Anything to explain myself would have been better than the utter silence that surrounded us as I flipped the first two levers and opened both gates. I didn't even hear the screeching of the iron grinding its way through stone, though I was sure it made some sort of noise. "Let's go find our ghost."
I did my best not to notice the flaming red blush beating from her cheeks and neck. Crushing, awkward silence stretched between us as we walked down the hallways of the barrow. I found myself hoping for a horde of draugr to show up and distract us from each other.
We instead got a distraction in the form of our earlier apparition as we came upon yet another branching road. "I told you to leave!" he yelled before charging. I reacted without thought, flicking my sword from its sheathe and carving a valley through his ribs while I sidestepped his attack. Blood splattered across the cracked, dusty floor of the hallway and confirmed my doubts.
"So much for that whole ghost idea," I muttered as the blue glow faded from his skin to reveal a Dunmer. Judging from the light emanating from the room down the hall ahead of us I assumed it would lead to his camp. The way to our right was dark and damp.
I almost laughed at the difficulty of deciding between the two but eventually picked the Dunmer's camp. After spending what had to have been a long time in the barrow he had to have collected something of value.
There wasn't much beyond some scraps of old food, a dirty bedroll and a journal. I picked up the latter and flipped through the pages. The journal recounted how the Dunmer, apparently named Wyndelius Gatharian, had found the barrow and went rather insane while trying to find his way deeper. It mentioned something about a claw and a door and I immediately sighed in exasperation. "Find something, my Thane?" Lydia asked as I snapped the book shut.
"A question," I paused to give her time to nod. "Why were your bloody ancestors such fans of convoluted puzzles?"

"...I'm not saying it isn't impressive. It's very impressive. It's an architectural and mechanical marvel," I shot back at my arguing housecarl as I spun one of the massive stone rings in the door before us. "So why is it wasted on protecting dead people that can get up and protect themselves? Seems like it'd be more use as a door on a fortress."
"I don't know. I'm more curious as to how you're so aware of how to open it," for once Lydia's voice held a somewhat accusing edge.
"One day I decided that if I was going to make most of my money robbing dead bodies, I should at least get good at it," I snickered at her unimpressed look as I moved the last stone circle into place.
Or at least according to the claw Wilhelm had given me, it was the correct order. I had laughed aloud when he had presented it to me for taking care of his "ghost" problem. The Dunmer had gone insane trying to find the stupid thing and it was right in town in the possession of the very people he had been keeping out. The irony of the whole matter was highly entertaining.
"Honestly, I ran into one of these things right after coming to Skyrim. Bleak Falls Barrow, down by Riverwood. You've probably been there or know of it or something," I explained and unlocked the door with the claw. The old, disused stone ground noisily as the rings spun around and the door sunk into the floor. "In retrospect, it was actually a pretty important place to be at the time.'
"How so?" she asked curiously, her former offence to my habits of pillaging the dead forgotten for now.
"If I hadn't gone to Riverwood when I did I never would've been hired to find the family heirloom that turned out to be one of these keys," I waved the claw around to show her. "And if I hadn't done that, I never would have learned of my status as Dragonborn. It was the first place I ever found a word of a Thu'um."
"Thu'um?" Lydia looked at me, clearly perplexed. It suddenly occurred to me that I'd never used my power around her. She'd had no idea why I was the Dragonborn or what that entailed. She'd simply been told that's what I was and she was to follow me.
"If the opportunity arises I'll be sure to demonstrate it for you," I chuckled.
Aside from the odd draugr or skeleton jumping at us from whatever shadows they liked to hide in our trip through the barrow was rather dull. More than once one of us triggered some trap or another, though the worst that led to was me falling into a pool of water when the floor gave out from below my feet. "How is this more than an inconvenience?" I shouted angrily through the barred gate that I had just been standing on. It didn't occur to me immediately that without Lydia there was a good chance I wouldn't have been able to get out.
She laughed far too much at my grumbling while I tried desperately to shake the water from myself. It soon became infectious, however, and before long I found myself chuckling quietly at my own misfortune. I was glad that the tension between us had vanished. Travelling with her didn't seem like it'd be much fun if we couldn't even look at each other.
Despite our lack of fortune finding much of any value we pressed on, though that likely had more to do with my determination than any desire to explore the barrow on Lydia's part. I still felt that inexorable pull towards whatever lay at the most secret depths of the dusty, dark crypt. I had no idea what it could be that drew me onward. I just hoped that whatever it was ended up being worth my time.
Our trip finally reached some level of excitement when we came upon a great chamber somewhere deep within the barrow. A stone walkway stretched the length of the room, culminating at a massive tiered dais. The walkway and platform beyond were dotted with stone caskets that doubtlessly contained bodies none too intent on staying dead. The excitement came when a huge iron gate came crashing down between Lydia and me.
"Oh, there is no way that's a good sign," I groused aloud. "Stay there. I'm gonna look for a lever or something to open this. No sense-"
I was cut off by the sound of stone crashing against stone. I knew what lay behind me simply from the look on my housecarl's face. I turned, already drawing my sword to prepare for the inevitable battle that awaited me.
The three skeletons charging against me took me by surprise. The two archers on podiums on either side of the walkway didn't do much to alleviate my concerns much, either. I swore out loud and quickly cut the first skeleton meet me down. I was always grateful at how easily the fragile constructs broke apart. A single solid crack from any good weapon was usually enough to bring them down.
The sound of more coffins opening alerted me to an increasingly large horde of draugr headed my way. A cursory glance numbered them about five, though at least three more were climbing out of their tombs as their brethren advanced on me. "This is gonna get worse long before it gets better," I muttered and ducked out of the way of a pair of arrows.
A second skeleton dropped as I hacked out its knees before leaping over the side of the walkway. I landed in what turned out to be knee-deep water and hastily made my way towards the nearest archer. If I could get to the podium I knew I could force the draugr to attack me at most two at a time, which suited me a lot better than the eight I had coming for me.
The skeleton archer's slow reflexes made it mercifully easy prey when I reached it. A sharp pain flaring in my shoulder made me realize how complacent my small victories had made me. I yanked the arrow stuck in my flesh out and looked up to see the other archer readying another. "Let's give this another shot," I mumbled to myself and picked up the first archer's fallen bow.
The bow was clearly old and awkwardly weighted but I figured it was my best chance of removing the problem of the skeleton before the other undead finally caught up with me. My first shot went wide, clattering off the stone wall behind it. I had to jump to avoid its returned shot and nearly fell off the platform doing so. My next shot smashed through its dried, brittle ribs and made it recoil enough for my third to catch it in the spine and finally reduce it back to a disembodied pile of bones.
I turned back to the stairs leading up the platform just in time to see an oncoming draugr. I cracked it across the skull with the bow in my hands with enough force to send it tumbling back down the stairs, not that it did much to slow down the others behind it. It did, however, give me time to retrieve my sword and return to using a weapon I actually knew how to wield properly.
Between my blade and the flames I soon had leaping from my palm I destroyed four of the creatures and the last skeleton in short order. The first fell to a slash across the skull, as did the collected mass of bones immediately behind it. The next two were alight within seconds of my magical fire touching their dried, desiccated skin. I had to smirk at how easily their centuries-old flesh burned. It was like taking sparks to tinder. The draugr I had sent back down came at me again, but this time I was much more prepared for it and cleft it nearly in two with a double-handed swing of my blade.
The last three - clearly the ones I had seen exited their coffins last - were far tougher than their earlier cohorts. When I tried to burn one it countered with a quick blast of ice and biting cold wind that I was forced to avoid. A second came charging at me in my moment of weakness and had me backed up to the edge of the podium in seconds. I blocked and parried its surprisingly powerful blows until eventually there was a chance for me to remove its sword arm. Part of me should have known that my sword would bind in its bones when I slammed it into its side.
The last draugr attacked at my most vulnerable. I took the beast's slash across my gauntlets and fell off the platform. The stinging in my forearms told me that although the chain coated leather had saved me from grievous harm it still hadn't stopped the blade entirely. I landed with a great splash in the water and still hit the bottom hard enough to knock the air from my lungs. I scrambled to my feet and saw the first draugr already coming at me through the water. There was no way I could hope to turn an outrun it and I wasn't in any position to fight it unarmed.
Instead I turned and finally used what I had been repeatedly told was a gift from the gods. "Wuld," my Voice echoed through the cavernous hall and carried me to the stone walkway. Ten days on a frozen mountaintop surrounded by old people and biting wind had apparently paid off enough to save my life when I really needed it to. I stumbled and fell to the cobblestone as I came to a stop from my Shout. "Still needs some work," I chuckled humorlessly and snatched up the nearest fallen sword. It was terribly weighted and dull but any weapon was better than none at all at that point.
I hopped to my feet and turned with a swing at the draugr I knew would be there. It caught the blade against the haft of its axe but there was enough strength behind the blow to send it staggering back. The sight of the undead beast stumbling back set my body afire with renewed energy and I chased it down, raining blows upon it until it eventually broke under the assault and my sword carved a jagged path through its neck and out its armpit.
Battle lust rushed through my veins and I felt rational thought slip more and more from my mind. The pinnacle of my stupidity came when I looked at the two oncoming draugr with a fiendish grin and threw the sword in my hands with all my might at one of them. I somehow managed to surprise a walking corpse and what should have been an utter failure ended up shattering of their skulls into dust and shards of bone.
I picked up the axe from my previously fallen foe and waited for the last to come charging at me. A moment of clarity broke through the red haze of my blood lust and a relative stroke of genius gave me the bright idea to simply let loose my own torrent of ice. The soaking wet draugr froze in place, allowing me to quite leisurely walk down the stairs and smash it to pieces with the axe in my hands.
Just as I moved to brag to my housecarl about my unlikely success one last grinding of stone caught my attention. I looked up at the very top of the dais to behold the horrifying sight of one last draugr. This one, though, was clad in thick, heavy plate armour. A horned helmet sat atop its skeletal head and a massive two-handed sword hung from its hands. "Oh, fuck," I cursed as my eyes went wide.
It yelled something in some ancient tongue I couldn't understand but somehow sounded eerily familiar before shuffling down the steps towards me with surprising quickness. Hoping for the same dumb luck to strike twice in one night, I sent the axe in my hands hurtling towards the approaching monster. It knocked the improvised projectile aside without the slowing down in the slightest. I cursed again, scrambled to grab the last sword laying on the ground at my feet and jumped out of the way of the first swing of its great sword. Likewise, it showed remarkable agility for something without much in the way of muscle left as it ducked and dodged my hasty counter attack.
For several minutes the fight continued in much the same way. Each avoided the worst of the other's attacks, though each of us landed a few glancing blows here and there. Unfortunately my armour was deteriorating faster than its was. The fight took a terrible turn for the worse when I finally took a solid blow to my guarding sword and was sent falling back to land on the hard cobblestone.
"Fus Ro!" I Shouted without the thought to do ever really registering in my mind. The draugr lord fell just as I had, though I rose to my feet faster. A blast of fire from my palm engulfed the thing's body. I figured that if my flames could burn a troll to char this thing didn't stand a chance.
I was proven quite wrong when it stood up, looking all the more terrifying for being wreathed in flames. Time slowed to a crawl as it swung its blade in a great overhead arc, clearly intent to slice me from stem to gudgeon. I sidestepped the attack just in time and hacked its arms off at the elbow. I slashed the ancient blade across its chest and sent the draugr once more sprawling onto its back. The blade in my hands shattered from the impact of hitting its heavy plate armour.
I wasted no time in retrieving its former weapon. The sword was weighty and cumbersome, but I didn't much care. I still had enough strength in my body to swing it in an arc not unlike the one it had just tried to end me with. My swing proved more successful, burying the blade deeply enough into its neck and chest that it was quite unwilling to extricate itself from the draugr's thick breastplate.
My muscles finally gave up on trying to support me and gave out, causing me to drop to my hands and knees on the hard stone walkway. I sucked in great gulps of air and became suddenly aware of the injuries my body had suffered. Blood dripped from slashes in my armour at various points across my body, dotting the grey stone beneath me with red splashes.
"My Thane!" I heard Lydia shout from behind me. "Kai!" the use of my name drew my attention enough for me to push myself back to my feet and turn to face her.
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you," I called back and made my unfortunately slow way back to the iron gate she was locked behind. I found a chain next to the door hidden in a small crack in the rock wall and gave it a sharp tug. The gate slid back open with a loud whine. I winced slightly at the sound ringing in my ears.
My housecarl walked to me with surprising haste. She looked about ready to hug me but stopped herself just short, leaving her looking tense and uncertain. "I...I am glad you are alive, my Thane," she said after a brief silence.
"Yeah, same here," I chuckled with a slightly pained gasp.
I hopped off the walkway, long past caring how wet I was from the waist down. I made my way to the platform and retrieved my sword from its place in the draugr's ribs when I noticed what sounded like voices in the air. "You hear that?" I asked and looked around for the source. It sounded vaguely familiar, though I couldn't be too sure where I had heard it before.
"Hear what?" she sounded confused.
"Those voices. Sounds like someone's chanting," I said and started jogging down the walkway towards the other end of the room. My body was less than pleased with the idea but I was too fixated on the sound to pay much attention to either it or Lydia's response.
I passed by the draugr lord's tomb and couldn't help but shiver. It was large and ornate and for the first time I noticed it was made of metal, rather than stone. The lack of rust made me wonder if it had been gold or bronze in its day, as it was now too tarnished and dull to tell. Whatever it had been made of it wasn't enough to keep the dead locked away.
Behind the sarcophagus was an iron door fixed into the rock. It opened with surprising ease and I found myself staring at the source of the chants. It was another wall scribed in the runes I had learned were written in the dragon's language, similar to the one I had discovered in Bleak Falls Barrow. The runes etched into the rock here were different, though. I traced my fingers along the glowing set at the centre.
The rush of raw knowledge into my mind didn't catch me off guard as it had the first time. Words didn't touch my lips as they had before, however. Instead the runes just danced before my eyes for a moment until they faded away. "Guess I have to kill a dragon now," I frowned and spun to see my housecarl approach.
She looked concerned, or at least perplexed by my behaviour. "Sorry," I scratched the back of my neck nervously. "Part of the whole Dragonborn thing, I guess."
"Is this wall why we came down here?" she asked.
"Not originally, no," I shook my head. "Though I will admit that it's probably why I've been wanting to go deeper into this place since I got here. Guess you really can't fight fate," I said with a short sigh. I really didn't like that idea. Fighting fate was the main reason I had left home.

A/N: This chapter has been written and rewritten and revised more times than I care to count. Believe me, I'm as pissed as you are that it took this long to finally write the fucking thing. But at least it has been finished. The next one shouldn't take quite so long to write since I'm a lot less unsure of exactly what's going to be in it. As always, though, if you like (or hate) what you've read don't hesitate to leave me a review and if it demands a response I'll be sure to get back to you at my earliest convenience. Or if you just want to harass me (since responding to reviews on this site can take a very long time as it requires me to actually update) send an email to virus_vescichetta@hotmail.com . Cuz I actually need to put that address to some kind of use.
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The Line Begins to Blur